History Main / DramaticIrony

* In Homestuck, Rose's house will soom be hit by meteors, and is relying on Dave to install his copy of Sburb and save her life. You then get to control Dave, but this is Dave earlier in the day, who thinks that Sburb is just some useless game, somewhat causing him to lose his copy nonchalantly.

* ''[[StarWarsTheCloneWars Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' (really, ''anything'' about the Prequel Trilogy) has this in spades. You know that everyone with the exception of Obi-Wan is (probably) going to be killed anyway (by their own clone forces!) and that Anakin is going to go evil, so you really have a hard time empathizing with Anakin. ''Or'' the clones.

*** One scene with Miles Edgeworth Manfred Von Karma in ''Investigations'' even doubles as DramaticIrony and {{Foreshadowing}}. Edgeworth says that no man is above the law. Von Karma disagrees, saying there are people like that. [[spoiler: To the player who knows Von Karma killed Edgeworth's father, the implication is that Von Karma is referring to himself. However, the very next case in ''Investigations'' deals with a criminal who has diplomatic immunity, making him "above the law".]]

** In ''Investigations'', the fourth case is a flashback to when Edgeworth was younger, and still apprenticed to Manfred Von Karma. It's a bit unsettling to watch Edgeworth being so obedient to Von Karma, if you've played the first game and therefore know that [[spoiler:Manfred Von Karma killed Edgeworth's father]]. And it manages to be before 3-4, mentioned above, which was Edgeworth's court debut, so the audience also knows that the case Edgeworth is preparing for at the start of it is never going to go to court.

** Its recently been revealed that the reason Merlot was sent to Castle Heterodyne was because he was working with some of the Baron's cryptographers to decode Doctor Beetle's notes, and discovered that Beetle knew that Agatha was a Heterodyne. Merlot realized that if the Baron ever found out, and realized that Merlot had expelled her, he would punish him, so Merlot tried to find Agatha to hand her over to the Baron. When he was unable, he destroyed all of the evidence and killed the cryptographers, which got him sent to the Castle anyway. The irony? The reason Merlot couldn't find Agatha was because ''she was already aboard Castle Wulfanbach'' and by the time Merlot started destroying evidence, the Baron probably had already discovered her identity.

Also known as "dramirony".

This trope is not to be confused with the popular HarryPotter [[{{Shipping}} ship]] Dramione, although that most certainly would turn out to be a case of irony, if it was canon.

** And then done to Naruto and Sasuke when, in a flashback, their mothers talk, figure out that Naruto and Sasuke will be in the same grade, and they hope that the boys will be friends.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by TheJoker in ''TheDarkKnight''. Harvey believes that the police and Batman chose to save him over Rachel, when in fact each one was at the location that the Joker said that the other would be at.
** Not really an example, as the audience is unaware that the locations had been switched until after it's too late.

A character's HiddenDepths are often a source of Dramatic Irony. A favorite trick of time-travel or historical works; see ItWillNeverCatchOn. ForegoneConclusion or DoomedByCanon often cranks it UpToEleven. May end with an InternalReveal.

A character's HiddenDepths are often a source of Dramatic Irony. A favorite trick of time-travel or historical works; see ItWillNeverCatchOn. ForegoneConclusion often cranks it UpToEleven. May end with an InternalReveal.

* Played up for all its worth on ''CodeGeass'', which came to its head in episode 16 (the one before all TheMasquerade started to unravel). That episode featured a conversation between Princesses Cornelia and Euphemia about how much Prince Clovis cared about his DeadLittleSister and brother and how capturing Zero would avenge the deaths of all three of their siblings Clovis, Lelouch, and Nunnally. Not only are the latter two still alive, but Lelouchi IS Zero. It also saw Kallen make discouraging comments and saying she has no interest whatsoever in him. But the highest amount of irony had to do with the interaction between Lelouch and Suzaku which saw the two of them teaming up to defeat Mao and save Nunnally, they said they trusted each other completely and agreed to help protect each other completely unaware of the others SecretIdentity

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Read a history book, they tend to be full of dramirony. The Germans have a brilliant plan to quickly defeat their enemies in 1914? The Great War ensues. The Allies victorious against the Central Powers, our Doughboys return to the US to enjoy their hard-earned peace? ''Fifty Million people'' die from the Spanish Flu in 1918 and 1919. Over ten million more people than who died in the Great War. How about references to WWI as "The Great War" or "The War To End All Wars"? [[WorldWarTwo We all]] [[TheColdWar know how]] [[TheWarOnTerror that went]]. And all that? Only a small slice of recorded history. Sometimes it almost seems as if the history of mankind is just one long HumiliationConga, but without us even realizing it.
** Of course, it goes the other way too. We know the [[ThoseWackyNazis Third Reich]] stays in power for less than two decades, destined to become the butt of jokes. We know the Black Plague doesn't wipe out humanity. Western civilization didn't end with the DarkAges. Dramatic Irony doesn't mean you only know when it will end badly.

* A bit of tragic irony ''StarTrek''s ''[[StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan II]]'' and ''[[StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock III]]'', for all the hope that the Genesis project would bring life from lifelessness, it actually caused the deaths of a great many people; and it didn't even work.
*** Not so much ''dramatic'' irony (which implies the audience knows something the characters don't) as plain ol' irony. The film example below is dramatic irony.
** In the 2009 ''[[Film/StarTrek Star Trek]]'' film, Kirk and [=McCoy=] meet Spock for the first time:

*** Above troper gets a MadeOfWin for such insight.

Brown: '''Reagan'''???! The actor??! HA! Who's the VP, JerryLewis???\\

--->1955 Doc Brown: So tell me, future boy. Who's President in 1985
Marty: RonaldReagan!
Brown: '''Reagan'''???! The actor??! HA! Who's the VP, JerryLewis???

* In ''MahouSenseiNegima'', Chisame tells Negi about how she doesn't believe a word of the [[http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/105/05/ "urban legends"]] around the school. Naturally, all of them are completely true, and Negi was directly involved in most of them (she does, however, note that he's a bad liar). There's an additional layer of irony in that Chisame herself eventually ends up dealing directly with just about everything she mentions.

** The real ironic part is that come the time Marty is incapable of doing this to Lorraine (she's his mother after all). But ''she'' has no problem pressing Marty of attention and flirting with him rather aggressively.

* TamoraPierce uses a very gentle, but rather sad, type of dramatic irony in ''[[TortallUniverse Protector of the Small]].'' The heroine, Keladry, develops a crush on her best friend Neal, that he remains totally oblivious to. ''He'' develops a crush on a noble lady...and anxiously asks Kel if she approves of the lady in question, since he values her opinion as a friend.

** In "The Song Remains the Same", the past version of John Winchester gives Sam quite an impressive Rant about how big of an asshole Sam's dad must have been to raise a child as a Hunter, and what an irresponsible, prick he was by doing so. Especially cringe-worthy, as John is Sam's father.

* During the Minbari civil war arch of ''BabylonFive'', Delenn is chastising the Warrior Caste for one of their own committing an attack on a high level Warrior Caste representative, while complimenting her own Caste. This is before a bunch of guys from her caste who not too long ago had poisoned the entire ship, and only Lennier acting quickly prevented it from killing them all.

* In a classic comedic case; when Morgan Grimes learns that their is a secret CIA base under their Buy More store AND that bad guys are preparing to blow it up, he gamely tries to convince ''{{Chuck}}'' Bartowski that they have to stop them. Chuck, who is the actual spy, who knows all of this beforehand, futilely tries to convince Morgan that they are in over their heads.