History Main / DramaticIrony

* In the climactic battle at the end of ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', there are two main forces: the gypsies, and Frollo's men. They're both after Esmeralda[[note]]hope I'm remembering this right; if not, please correct[[/note]]. Frollo's men want to take her and kill her; the gypsies want to free her. Quasimodo, unfortunately, has their roles exactly backwards in his head, so he's busy "protecting" his beloved Esmeralda by ''helping'' the bad guys and ''hindering'' the good guys. And, of course, we all know this isn't the Disney version, [[DownerEnding so]]...

* ''Literature/NotNowBernard'' runs on this trope: a boy named Bernard is EatenAlive by a monster, and when the monster tries to talk to the monster, they [[MistakenIdentity think he's Bernard]] and tell him, "Not now, Bernard, I'm busy."

* This forms a big part of the plot for the Nemesis route of ''VisualNovel/FullMetalDaemonMuramasa''. The main character Kageaki Minato is someone who deals with the mother of all [[GuiltComplex Guilt Complexes]] and only wants to face punishment for his actions when others refuse to give him it. This makes him swear fealty to Kanae Otori when she promises to to punish him as revenge for the murder of Yuhi Nitta once he has accomplished his more pressing goals. At one point however, Kageaki witnesses his father be murdered by a silver knight and swears a revenge of his own. What he doesn't know is that Kanae was the knight, forcing her into an award situation as she knows that if she reveals that she was the killer then Kageaki will just blame himself for it and stop fighting, something that goes against her own morals of never killing someone that doesn't wish to fight. [[spoiler:In the end they both engage in a final battle with Kageaki being none the wiser as to the identity of his foe with it ending in a MutualKill. Even after everything is said and done he still tries to press on in spite of being mortally wounded, all to face punishment, not knowing that Kanae had kept her promise]].

** The narration while Kanaya reads a walkthrough she found in the Furthest Ring. She grew up idolizing the writer and has no doubt that due to her leadership, they succeeded with flying colors. [[spoiler: It was written by Rose, in the session coming directly after Kanaya's, which they accidentally screw up so badly that it broke the trolls' game as well.]]

* ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'': An astute reader may figure out the meaning of the possible [[ThePlague Rash]] cure and a never-seen-before type of ghost making their first appearance in the exact same place as early as Chapter 9 or 10. The characters, on the other hand, had no idea of what had caused the ghosts to appear until they investigated the place that made the cure in Chapter 12. In Chapter 19, they are shown to have sufficently connected the dots off-panel to expect the strange ghosts in a place turning out to be a cure testing facility.
* ''Webcomic/Trevor2020'': It seems lost on Dr. Maddison that he wants to stop the [[spoiler: military experiments aimed at weaponizing]] Trevor’s condition . . . by effectively [[spoiler: weaponizing Trevor to wipe out]] the rest of the medical team.

* ''Literature/TheWindDoneGone'': Scarlett and her wet nurse Pallas keep their canonical mother-daughter dynamic, tinted darker because of Pallas' neglect of her own daughter Cynara. Meanwhile, Scarlett's mother Ellen and Cynara bond over their shared jealousy of the aforementioned relationship. Furthermore, Ellen would sometimes breastfeed Cynara.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'', given the dual identity of Bruce Wayne and Batman, this occurs a lot. Harvey Dent is Bruce's best friend, but he despises Batman [[spoiler: if Batman abandons him to save Catwoman in Episode 2]]. Renee Montoya shows support for Bruce but doesn't like Batman. Penguin hates Bruce for [[spoiler: what Thomas Wayne did to his family]] but sees Batman as a kindred spirit.

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', Weiss Schnee repeatedly refuses [[CasanovaWannabe Jaune Arc's]] advances, and later remarks that he's just like every other boy who wants to date her solely because she's a rich heiress of a company. However, Jaune later confides to his friends that Weiss is the most incredible girl he has ever met, lists all her positive qualities like her intelligence and singing ability, and honestly doesn't understand why she won't return his feelings. Pyrrha comments he should have just told Weiss that amazing speech instead of swaggering and using corny pickup lines. For extra irony, Jaune doesn't notice Pyrrha has feelings for ''him'', and thinks such a famous person like her has several dates, when it's actually [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon the opposite]].

* ''ComicBook/MyFriendDahmer'' is full of this, being a documentary on the high school years of the notorious killer. In particular, the author lampshades this after the community discovers a dissected dog carcass by having his own AuthorInsert (who knew Dahmer closely at this time) suggest it was cult activity, because 'who else could it be?'

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': Those who have read ''Literature/ShardsOfHonor'' (and ''Literature/{{Barrayar}}'', but that one's optional), before starting in on ''Literature/TheWarriorsApprentice'' know full well that unless Miles Vorkosigan's quixotic quest to help his [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend childhood friend/crush]] Elena Bothari locate her MissingMom meets with complete failure the best that can be hoped for is [[DaddysGirl disillusionment]], [[DarkAndTroubledPast recrimination]], and [[ChildByRape tears]]. Things go poorly.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':

* ''LightNovel/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma'':

* ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'':
** Mikihiko anxiously warns his friend Tatsuya that the students who were talking to him minutes ago are rumored to be members of the shadowy Yotsuba clan. The rumor is correct, but what Mikihiko doesn't know is that Tatsuya is ''also'' a Yotsuba, and that the only reason anyone suspects anything is that the clan ''let'' them see deliberately leaked information about what Fumiya and Ayako are capable of. [[BadassFamily That is how good the Yotsuba are at infiltration.]]

* At the start of the tenth volume of ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'', it's revealed (somewhat indirectly) that Rosa is being ForcedIntoEvil and her aide Calensia is the true villain. For the majority of the rest of the volume, the main characters don't have any idea about this, trusting Calensia to a cringe-inducing extent.
* ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'': Throughout the series, Kyousuke repeatedly emphasizes that the [[BigBad White Queen]] isn't really in love with him, but with an idealised image of him. He claims that if they did get together, she'd be disappointed by the truth and kill him. [[spoiler:The ending of the fifth volume confirms that she actually does love him for who he is]].

* In the Cocoon Academy arc of ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'', [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Professor Dragmire]] tells his students that with his help, every one of them will become a hero. A reverse shot then shows that his class consists of [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Dedede]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Bowser]], [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Jessie]], VideoGame/{{Wario|Land}}, and [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry K. Rool]].

* ''VideoGame/Fallout1'': When you find the audio diaries of a man named Richard Grey at the Mariposa Military Base from several decades before the present after his exposure to the virus within, he says that he assumes his companion, Harold, must be dead because he would have tried to help him. However, Harold is still alive by the game's time, and his inability to help Richard was because he passed out after being knocked unconscious. Likewise, Harold believes Richard dead since the last time he saw him was when he got thrown into a vat of an unknown substance. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to Harold, Richard Grey was mutated instead of killed at Mariposa, and he became the dreaded [[BigBad Master]] who tried to take over the wasteland with an army of mutants. Even over a century later in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', Harold never found out what happened to his old friend, with no option at any point in the series for the player to tell him the truth, nor is there any way to tell the Master what happened to him.]]

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

** [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20061129 This page]] is a truly shining example. No, Klaus, noooo! (Context: "Agatha" is [[spoiler:being possessed by her FamilialBodySnatcher mother]].) [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20061208 Four pages later]], it manages to get FromBadToWorse. (Context: [[spoiler:Agatha's mom just attacked Klaus and stole her daughter's locket off him to complete her disguise, accidentally [[TrappedInTheHost handing control back to Agatha]]]].)

** [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20061129 This page]] is a truly shining example. No, Klaus, noooo! [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20061208 Four pages later]], it manages to get FromBadToWorse.

** [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20061129 This page]] is a truly shining example. No, Klaus, noooo!

* ''Literature/LittlePrincess'': In "I Want My Light On", a ghost says to her son that [[FaeriesDontBelieveInHumansEither little girls don't exist]]. The readers, some of whom might be girls or women themselves, know better.

* Creator/HarryTurtledove’s "Literature/TrantorFalls": The end of the story have the Second Foundation characters remarking how unlikely it would be for someone else to discover [[PsychicPowers the mind-touch]], which is exactly what happens in "Literature/TheMule".

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': {{Subverted}} in ''Literature/BloodRites''. Harry constructs a counterspell spanning the whole building he's in, and when one of the villains confronts him, he and the reader are feeling pretty smug, because the other villains are about to launch the spell, and get it sent back in their faces. Then he's told the counterspell has already been dismantled. [[OhCrap Crap]].

* This crops up in the [[Literature/HonorHarrington Honorverse]] a bit.

* A major plot device throughout William Golding's novel, ''Rites of Passage''. Said novel features passages from Reverend Colley's diary, who believes that he has made a great friend out of Talbot and the crewmen. In reality, we are made aware from the beginning that Talbot can't stand him. Furthermore, it is fairly obvious to the readers that Colley is a closet homosexual, yet poor Colley lacks the self-awareness to realise this before it [[KickTheDog gets him]] [[HeroicBSOD into serious trouble]].

*** Rose meets [[spoiler:what's left of the Warweary Villein's army; as we already know at this point, WV lost his entire army except these particular survivors and decided to exile himself because he felt like a failure. When we meet the survivors of his army, however, they reveal that they idolize and admire WV (a couple of them even [[{{Fangirl}} have crushes on him]]) and wait for him to return to lead them to victory. And then, to add insult to injury, [[BigBad Jack]] shows up and [[KillEmAll slaughters them all]]]].

* ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' implies through the pause menus for [[BigBad President Haltmann]] 2.0 and [[spoiler: Star Dream Soul OS]] that he created Star Dream [[spoiler: to grant his wish to see his daughter again, unaware that Star Dream sent her off to another dimension.]] However it's been confirmed that the Susie we see is the real deal, something that Haltmann isn't aware of [[spoiler: due to his bond with Star Dream screwing up his mind.]] By the time Haltmann realizes that [[spoiler: Star Dream wasn't going to bring Susie back, his soul gets purged by the mad computer.]]

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' features a conversation between [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Olivia]] and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Xander]]. They end up talking about Xander's retainer [[CasanovaWannabe Laslow]] and Olivia's potential child. Anyone who played ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'' will know that [[spoiler:Laslow ''is'' Olivia's KidFromtheFuture, Inigo, under a pseudonym]].

* In ''Videogame/PokemonLegendsArceus'', the "Almighty Sinnoh" plotline is essentially about people warring (literally so, though they've calmed down in the present day) over something the player has known for a long time. Both the Pearl and Diamond clans worship the deity that created their land, but the Diamond people are convinced it was a god with powers over time while the Pearl clan are set in their idea that their guardian deity ruled over space; and thus, religious conflicts ensued. There's even a NPC or two entertaining the idea that both might be real and how that would make a lot of their messy history retroactively pointless. Of course, anyone who's played Diamond and Pearl knows they're both right and wrong, as both time and space deities exist and the true almighty deity is Arceus. [[spoiler:At the end of the game, after finding out that Dialga and Palkia both exist, Adaman and Irida themselves acknowledge that their whole rivalry was mostly pointless in the end because neither clan had the whole idea. For extra irony, Cogita reveals to the player character that the founders of the Diamond and Pearl clans traveled to settle in Hisui because they truly wanted to worship Arceus (who they knew as Almighty Sinnoh), only for one clan to encounter Dialga and the other Palkia respectively and to mistake the dragon they saw for Arceus]].

** Joshua Stephenson [[spoiler: was a death row inmate who had a HeelFaithTurn and wanted to become an InspirationalMartyr using a PassionPlay SnuffFilm. Since he's going to be put to death anyway he can't be talked out of it, but everyone in his life tells him he's going about it the wrong way; the woman who set him down this path in the first place tells him that he's hyperfocusing on Christ's death and not His message, V points out that he's just being used by [[EvilInc corpos who want to capitalize on his faith to market it]], and if pressed enough even the production company agent assigned to him reveals herself to be the "spiritual but not religious type" and [[{{hypocrite}} berates him for making a spectacle]] of his private relationship with God.]]

** Jarl Laila Law-Giver ''assures you'' that her associate, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Maven Black-Briar,]] is cracking down on the {{Thieves Guild}}'s presence in Riften. It doesn't take you three seconds of playing the Thieves' Guild questline for you to realize that Maven is the single biggest sponsor of the Thieves' Guild's activities.

* ''{{VideoGame/Cyberpunk 2077}}'': V encounters an old fan of "Samurai", Johnny Silverhand's band, who runs a memorabilia shop. He rather scornfully gives V a PretenderDiss and claims that no-one who "wasn't there" could ever understand the greatness of "Samurai". Meanwhile, the copy of Johnny Silverhand's consciousness residing in V's brain is screaming at the old man for having become a part of the megacorporate status quo "Samurai" was founded to rebel against, and throws up his hands in despair at the one man still alive who knows all of "Samurai"'s lyrics not having managed to understand or internalize any of it.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': In [[Machinima/RedVsBlueTheShisnoTrilogy season 15]] episode 13, Carolina says to the Director, "With all due respect, I doubt I'll ever be fighting a war alongside Red and Blue idiots, sir." Of course, since this is a flashback episode, the audience knows that that is exactly what she will end up doing in the future.