History Main / GenreRefugee

* Gai Daigouji from ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' is the inverse: A HotBlooded SuperRobot hero stuck in a RealRobot setting.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Gunha Sogiita thinks and behaves like a goofy, stereotypical superhero from a Saturday morning cartoon or a {{Sentai}} series. He has the superpowers to match and is pretty good at dealing with mundane crime, but this series is a GambitRoulette of MagicVersusScience, and he's completely oblivious to the conflicts and struggles the real main characters have to deal with.
* The basic premise of ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'' is to lean fully into the [[LightNovel/FullMetalPanic main series]]'s FishOutOfWater elements by taking its [[ShellShockedVeteran shell-shocked]] mech pilot protagonist, Sōsuke Sagara, and throwing him into a full-on ScrewballComedy. Kaname even has to explain to him OnTheNext episode preview that he's no longer in a [[RealRobotGenre Real Robot Show]], a turn of events which he has no idea how to handle.

* Xenk from ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsHonorAmongThieves'' is a completely sincere example of ThePaladin: kind, dignified, a powerful fighter, and a wise source of inspiration. However, ''Honor Among Thieves'' — while not a parody — is much more breezy and lighthearted of a fantasy film than whatever serious one Xenk fell out of, consequently turning him into a ParodySue where the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits ragtag heroes]] quickly get annoyed by his holiness.

* Cyborg in ''Series/DoomPatrol'' is basically a conventional superhero who wants to run out and fight crime, in a dark postmodern MindScrew where most of the cast are unstable and dysfunctional.

** ComicBook/MillieTheModel, the heroine of a girl comedy series that last from the 1950s to the 1970s, who never became a superhero like Patsy.

* The ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' series: The plot of the [[Film/{{Predator}} first one]] is "the soldiers from ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' find themselves up against an alien invader". The plot of the [[Film/Predator2 second one]] is "the cops from your favorite action-packed BuddyCopShow go up against an alien from the same species". The effect actually works rather well: watching musclebound, macho action stars [[WorfEffect confronted with something beyond their comprehension]] really helps sell the horror.

* Nanosec, the Angry Archer, Professor Princess, and Slo-Mo are all supervillains who wouldn't be out of place of a lighthearted superhero cartoon, and they are indeed in one... except their series is ''WesternAniation/TransformersAnimated'', where they play supporting roles to the giant robotic Cybertronians once they show up.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinja Turtles2003'' introduced Bishop (and he's since become semi-regular in other TMNT media). One of TheMenInBlack, his sci-fi elements were dramatically darker and more conspiratorial than the campy stuff usually featured on the series.

** Most of the black market characters in the Malta sequence of ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' would fit in a ''Film/JamesBond'' movie (just with the addition of dinosaurs), especially their leader, Santos, who's a perfect match for your average ''James Bond'' villain and/or FemmeFatale.

* ''WesternAnimation/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles2003'' introduced Bishop (and he's since become semi-regular in other TMNT media). One of TheMenInBlack, his sci-fi elements were dramatically darker and more conspiratorial than the campy stuff usually featured on the series.

* The [[DualBoss Brothers]], who have cartoonish features and talk and dress like stereotypical outlaws from the Old West, would've been far more fitting for ''VideoGame/RedDeadRevolver'' than a futuristic {{Cyberpunk}} setting like ''VideoGame/PerfectDarkZero''.
* Captain Martin Walker from ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' starts off as a standard issue ActionGenreHeroGuy who seems to think he's in a ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' or ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' style straightforward military shooter, when he's actually in a DarkerAndEdgier WarIsHell deconstruction of such. [[spoiler: This results in him making numerous stupid decisions due to assuming ItsUpToYou is in play and getting everyone in the story killed.]]
* Starky from ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' is an alien straight out of a fifties B-Movie, whose spaceship inexplicably crashed in an JRPG.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mafia|TheCityOfLostHeaven}}'':
** ''VideoGame/MafiaII'' is like a gangster film done by Creator/MartinScorsese, showing a gritty ex-soldier in a sordid neighborhood being lured into a life of crime by the promise of wealth, status, and glamor. Then in Act II, Vito and Joe meet some GreaserDelinquents straight out of 50s Teensploitation. To underscore it, Joe seems baffled upon meeting them, and they in turn clearly [[WrongGenreSavvy did not understand how far out of their league they were]] when they damaged Joe's car.
** Vito also doesn't quite seem to fit in ''VideoGame/MafiaIII'', which is more about 1960s stick-it-to-the-man Blaxploitation. Justified in that case; he's not only significantly older than most of the main cast, he's a FishOutOfWater who refuses to tone down his Big Apple mannerisms to match the Deep South environment.
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'': In a series all about mythology and gods, Mimir stands out as he's heavily implied to be [[spoiler:Puck from ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', a Shakespeare play.]]
** The Travellers, large and tough enemies who each constitute a MiniBoss, armored in medival steel armor, who are never explained and come across as mid-level enemies from a [[Creator/FromSoftware Soulsborne]] game.
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesGardenWarfare'': While the [=PvZ=] franchise (a light-hearted HorrorComedy for the most part) had explored various settings through TimeTravel (TheWildWest, the Dark Ages, TheFuture, etc.) a few characters stick out by not being from any previously established setting:
** Agent Pea, who's a TuxedoAndMartini spy in the form of a Peashooter.
** [[PlantAliens Alien Flower]], who is the first alien seen in the franchise. While the series had delved into light sci-fi before, aliens and outer space were rarely a factor.
** [[SupermanSubstitute Super Brainz]], who was an oddity as the only costumed superhero in his debut game, ''Garden Warfare 2'', but fits like a glove in ''[[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesHeroes Heroes]]'', a SpinOff dedicated to the superhero genre.

* Nagisa's father Akio in ''VisualNovel/{{CLANNAD}}'' is basically a HotBlooded SuperRobot protagonist who grew old and had a kid in a SliceOfLife DatingSim setting. He's even a ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' fan.
* ''VideoGame/{{Smite}}'': The bulk of the playable cast are entities from real world ancient mythologies and religions. Then the developers added the Great Old Ones of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos to the game, which originated from a bunch of horror books written in the early 20th century.
* ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' has LoveFreak Flonne, who's a hopeless optimist and firm believer in ThePowerOfLove, while in a PowerTrio with two scheming {{Villain Protagonist}}s who revel in their own villainy in the middle of a Netherworld power struggle [[spoiler: though she can eventually teach Laharl mercy and compassion.]] Also, partway through the story, the anachronistic fantasy setting full of angels and demons collides with a sci-fi pastiche setting led by ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon'' {{Expy}} '''[[CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth CAPTAIN GORDON, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH!]]'''.
* You can find one or two unexpected people in the post-apocalyptic, radioactive, WeirdScience ScavengerWorld of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** The Mechanist and Antagonizer in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' (superheroes, to the embarrassment of the people of Canterbury Commons)
** Desmond Lockhart, a TuxedoAndMartini superspy from Pre-War days, who has kept up his last assignment (killing DiabolicalMastermind Dr. Calvert) despite becoming an immortal mutated ghoul (and his government no longer existing).
** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' had Nick Valentine (a robot programmed with the personality of a pre-war HardboiledDetective).
** Cito, a TarzanBoy [[RaisedByWolves Raised By Mutated Animals]] in the petting zoo of an amusement park currently being taken over by [[TheApunkalypse Raiders]].
* The Coven from ''VisualNovel/MonsterProm''. They're in the background constantly saving the day, fighting villains and retrieving [=MacGuffins=], acting very much like they're in an UrbanFantasy teen drama like ''Series/Charmed1998'' or ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Every other character is more interested in the absurdist black comedy dating sim already in progress.
** Aaravi/The Slayer as well, only ''she's'' in the middle of an old-school, hack-and-slash, RPG, trying to min-max her stats and equipment.
* Kazuma Kiryu from ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}''. Kiryu is essentially the poster boy for the [[FriendlyNeighborhoodGangster romantic ideal of a Yakuza]]; basically a modern-day rogue samurai who "keeps crime clean" and stands outside the law in order to protect the innocent from those who would use their power to prey on them. Unfortunately for Kiryu, the Yakuza games have a far more realistic and cynical take on the Yakuza. It's actually this clash between Kiryu's ideals and the harsh reality of what a Yakuza is that fuels a lot of the conflict in the franchise, and also the reason that Kiryu spends the vast majority of the games not in the Yakuza.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'': Out of all the characters in the game, [[FallenHero Jin]] sticks out the most because he's effectively a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' protagonist in the role of [[BigBad a villain]], in terms of his physical design (by Creator/TetsuyaNomura, no less), temperament, backstory, and personality. Simply put, he wouldn't look out of place next to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]], [[VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus Vincent]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Squall]], or even [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Lightning]]. This shouldn't be surprising, however, given that Creator/TetsuyaNomura handled the character designs.
* Maria Renard, from the original PC-Engine version of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood'', looks and acts like an {{Animesque}} CuteWitch in a setting that's ostensibly GothicHorror, with a moveset more akin to a CuteEmUp than anything related to Castlevania. Later games backtrack on this, with ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles'' giving her more grounded redesigns.

* ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera'': [[TagalongKid Rhin]] is a protagonist from a children's adventure book that has wandered into a {{HeroicFantasy}} world. A runaway from another world, she breaks several of the game's rules. Her [[FantasyCharacterClasses Type]] is listed as child, giving her abysmal stats and no real combat abilities. If she leaves the party she can't be found again, and presumably dies. And at higher levels she enters {{GameBreaker}} territory, since she can spam [[AppliedPhlebotinum Cyphers]] , incredibly powerful {{LostTechnology}} that is single use for everyone else in the setting.
* [[Franchise/{{Rambo}} John Rambo]] in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' sticks out among the [[GuestFighter Guest Fighters]] in the series in that he's from an ordinary Earth from a series with no supernatural or sci-fi elements to speak of, rendering him a pure BadassNormal. A lot of his quotes express how visibly confused he is at the MK world.

* Captain Black in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' belongs in a typical spy thriller, but when the poor guy calls in his old AdventurerArchaeologist friend from school to help track down some art smugglers, he's swept up in a martial arts fantasy full of wizards and demons. Jackie gets the tables turned on him when he has to sub for Black's best agent, "Tag Stone".

* The 2003 ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}'' series introduced Bishop (and he's since become semi-regular in other TMNT media). Basically one of TheMenInBlack, his sci-fi elements were dramatically darker and more conspiratorial than the campy stuff usually featured on the series.

* Rossiu from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is essentially a character in the RealRobotGenre stuck in a universe in the SuperRobotGenre. He's cool-headed, pragmatic and smart, which makes him stand-out from his hot-blooded comrades. He's still capable of piloting Gunmen powered by willpower as good as the rest of them though and they all respect him well enough, if not just lightly tease him every now and then. This is explored a fair bit in the second half of the show. On the one hand, this makes him one of the few competent members in actually ruling and managing their new civilization and he is pretty much TheReliableOne to Simon. On the other hand, [[spoiler: his pragmatic choices lead him to oust Simon from power to quell a riot (which he is beating himself over) and his tactics are predicted by the Anti-Spiral and only stopped by Simon and the others' own style. Furthermore, they all don't blame him and understand his reasoning (including Simon), meaning the only person that blames him...is himself. Simon eventually snaps sense back into him after stopping him from suicide.]]
* Gai Daigouji from ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' is the inverse: A HotBlooded SuperRobot hero stuck in a RealRobot setting.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''
** Isidro thinks himself a KidHero from a shonen manga. [[DarkFantasy He is]] ''[[CrapsackWorld very much]]'' WrongGenreSavvy.
** Puck, the PluckyComicRelief elf, feels like a character that belongs to a completely different series, making cultural references and SuperDeformed faces which wouldn't be out of place in a Shonen series, but causes a major MoodWhiplash in a grimdark setting like ''Berserk''.
** Adon Corbolwitz is a [[LargeHam larger-than-life]] yet [[HarmlessVillain thoroughly incompetent]] Tudor general who eventually became a [[ClingyComedyVillain persistent annoyance]] to the Band of the Hawk, more so in the [[Anime/Berserk1997 first anime]] where his role was expanded. He would be at home in a fantasy comedy series like ''Literature/{{Slayers}}''. In a gritty DarkFantasy work such as this one, he sticks out like a sore thumb.
* ''Anime/JewelpetKiraDeco'': Retsu Akagi would be right at home as a SuperRobot protagonist, or in any sufficiently HotBlooded shonen series... but he's a character in a little girls' magical fantasy.
* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Gunha Sogiita thinks and behaves like a goofy, stereotypical superhero from a Saturday morning cartoon or a {{Sentai}} series. He has the superpowers to match and is pretty good at dealing with mundane crime, but this series is a GambitRoulette of MagicVersusScience, and he's completely oblivious to the conflicts and struggles the real main characters have to deal with.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** During the especially hyper-saccharine (yet very much CrapsaccharineWorld) Whole Cake Island, which has a lot of weirdness even by One Piece standards, we get Charlotte Katakuri, who looks like he would be at home in ''Fist of the North Star'' or ''Berserk'' and doesn't quite mesh with the demented wonderland feel of the rest of the arc, which features mirror worlds, biscuit soldiers, and talking cannonballs. [[spoiler:He does eventually display the quirkiness mandatory for ''One Piece'' characters but it's a side of him he keeps deeply private.]]
** The Hito-Hito/Human Human Fruit: Model Nika grants the user the powers and properties of a classical cartoon character. Even by One Piece standards, the fruit's user can inflict ToonPhysics on enemies to BodyHorror levels, a power set that can even wreck the peak powerhouses of the One Piece world. [[spoiler: This power is the true power of Luffy's Devil Fruit, with his rubber abilities only being the unawakened powers. Kaido finds this out the hard way when he triggers the full power awakening during his final battle with Luffy]].
* Goemon Ishikawa XIII in ''Franchise/LupinIII'' is a traditionally-minded samurai who lives and dies by the way of the sword, so he'd fit right in a JidaiGeki drama. The problem is, he's from a [[TheCaper caper series]] set in modern times. Fortunately, he and the rest of the Lupin gang occasionally come up against rivals that also share his mindset of old-time Edo values, so it's justified a bit.
* In ''Manga/TheRedRangerBecomesAnAdventurerInAnotherWorld'', Red's non-magical abilities baffle and bewilder Idola, and Red still acts like he's on a {{Toku}} show, completely lacking any kind of subtlety and approaching everything with his HotBlooded candor. This has its ups and downs, as while his perpetual optimism and ChronicHeroSyndrome brings out the best in others, his lack of decorum and his overly destructive powers can create as many problems as he solves if Idola doesn't rein him in.
* The basic premise of ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'' is to lean fully into the [[LightNovel/FullMetalPanic main series]]'s FishOutOfWater elements by taking its [[ShellShockedVeteran shell-shocked]] mech pilot protagonist, Sōsuke Sagara, and throwing him into a full-on ScrewballComedy. Kaname even has to explain to him OnTheNext episode preview that he's no longer in a [[RealRobotGenre Real Robot Show]], a turn of events which he has no idea how to handle.
* The title character of ''Manga/TakopisOriginalSin'' is a tiny octopus alien that wouldn't be out of place in a {{Kodomomuke}} series, supplying ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}''-style gadgets to kids to help them be happy. The world he landed in, however, is a cynical drama where the children's problems extend far beyond what Takopi can assist with his gadgets.

* The premise of the ''Creator/{{Elseworlds}}'' imprint is that characters are placed in random stories or settings. As a result many of these superhero characters can be considered Genre Refugees due to the rest of their world being in a different genre.
* The page image provider is ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'', which features three {{Cartoon Creature}}s (think along the lines as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and his friends) stumbling into a HighFantasy story.

* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'':
** Volume I looks a lot like a superhero story [[note]] (in fact, the "master spy recruits a band of misfit heroes and monsters to save day" formula makes it sound suspiciously like ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''... which it predates by over a decade) [[/note]]... but with the twist that the heroes are all public domain characters from Victorian-era GothicHorror and adventure fiction. This is mostly done to show how these characters influenced more modern fiction.
** What's more, since ''all'' fiction is true in this universe, you can't count out meeting someone from children's fiction or parody porno.

* The titular protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' is a goofy HalfDressedCartoonAnimal who finds himself unexpectedly thrust into a Western (that just so happens to be populated by other cartoon animals). Unlike most examples of this trope, Rango quickly becomes aware of what kind of story he's in and uses his {{Genre Savv|y}}iness to start blending in and give everyone an impression that he's a larger-than-life cowboy hero.

* Tommy Frigo in ''Film/{{Adventureland}}'' has wandered in from a raunchy teen movie as opposed to the much more realistic, grounded film he's in.

* The ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' series: The plot of the [[Film/{{Predator}} first one]] is "the soldiers from ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' find themselves up against an alien invader". The plot of the [[Film/Predator2 second one]] is "the cops from your favorite action-packed BuddyCopShow go up against an alien from the same species". The effect actually works rather well: watching musclebound, macho action stars [[WorfEffect confronted with something beyond their comprehension]] really helps sell the horror.

* Williams from ''Film/EnterTheDragon'' is a {{Blaxploitation}} character in a martial arts film.
* ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'' has ComicBook/XMen member [[GentleGiant Colossus]] show up and act like a traditional superhero, delivering uplifting speeches and morals and suggest that Deadpool is better than he thinks he is. In, say, a ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' or ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}''-style movie, he would probably be TheHero, but since he is trapped in a ''Deadpool'' movie, he is forced to merely act as a foil to all the insanity around him.
* ''Film/{{Hidalgo}}'' has a more serious rendering of this trope. The main character is the half-Indian sidekick of [[TheWestern a Western film]], but he's in ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' (without the war). While this does lead to some [[HilarityEnsues funny moments]], it's mostly used to set up the protagonist as the underdog.

* The ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise is normally a dinosaur-based DisasterMovie franchise.
** This makes it all the more surprising when the ''[[FlawedPrototype Indoraptor]]'' from ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' basically turns out to be the dinosaur equivalent of a ''GothicHorror monster'', complete with a scene in the film's climax where he howls on a rooftop against the Moon like a werewolf and his tragic origin story as an abused genetic experiment calling to mind mind SciFiHorror stories in the vein of Creator/MaryShelley's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}''. He's also stated by the designers to be based on Nosferatu, with the prominent fangs, gangly proportions and red eyes, and overall is basically a slasher-film villain in dinosaur form.
** Most of the black market characters in the Malta sequence of ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' would fit in a ''Film/JamesBond'' movie (just with the addition of dinosaurs), especially their leader, Santos, who's a perfect match for your average ''James Bond'' villain and/or FemmeFatale.
* The Gecko brothers in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' are characters from a gangster movie who suddenly find themselves in a vampire splatterhouse. Another way to put it is saying they're Creator/QuentinTarantino characters in a Creator/RobertRodriguez film; perhaps not surprisingly, those two filmmakers collaborated on this film.

* ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'': The characters of Three-Fingered Jack and Captain Harrison Love belong more in a SpaghettiWestern than in a Spanish California {{swashbuckler}} story, although the setting and time of the film (1841) are kind of closer to the era of TheWildWest (1860s-1900).
* Zelda in ''Film/TheDeadDontDie'' feels more like a quirky character from a campy martial arts flick who inadvertently wandered into a more down-to-earth ZombieApocalypse film, and demonstrates a remarkable ability to kill zombies by the score in ridiculously over-the-top ways. [[spoiler:The ending reveals she's actually an ''alien'' who inadvertently wandered into a zombie film.]]
* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' has what might well be an inversion of this trope with Johnny, who is the only character in the film aware that he's in a wacky comedy: he spends most of his scenes goofing off, capering around, and cracking bad jokes. Meanwhile, every other character treats the events of the film as if it's a serious disaster flick, refusing to crack a smile while saying lines like "You ever seen a grown man naked?" or "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley." Reportedly, Johnny's meant to come across as the PluckyComicRelief and how, especially in disaster films, they could often feel bizarrely out-of-place.
* ''Film/{{Stripes}}'' is a ScrewballComedy set in a US Army training camp. However, Sergeant Hulka is a DrillSergeantNasty (in the vein of [[Film/FullMetalJacket Gunnery Sgt. Hartman]], and so makes him the only character who's played completely seriously. [[OutOfGenreExperience His scene where he privately chews out Winger feels pretty of place among the slapstick humor]]. Mind you, he's still a DeadpanSnarker like the rest of the film's characters.
* ''Film/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1990}}'' is fairly family-friendly, but Casey Jones wouldn't look out of place in an R-rated vigilante action movie.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' dares to set its stories in a StandardFantasySetting but focus on characters like cynical, coping-with-addiction policeman Sam Vimes, IntrepidReporter William de Worde, and aspiring film star Victor Tugelbend. It's not uncommon for them to drop lines associated with their home genre, only to wonder where they got that from.

* This is basically the point of Creator/TheBBC TV film ''Reichenbach Falls'' -- the central character is a DefectiveDetective placed into a much less noir-ish setting. A MindScrew plot with much LeaningOnTheFourthWall ensues in which he gradually escapes from his WrongGenreSavvy.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'':
** Recurring villain Maldis is an EvilSorcerer straight out of a GothicHorror tale in the middle of a SpaceOpera. Other characters even acknowledge that he makes no sense by the series's rules, and Maldis himself finds himself to be intrigued at how armed spaceships like Peacekeeper Command Carriers can advance his power and allow him to just wipe out any opponents with the press of a button.
** Zhaan herself felt like part of the main cast of an idealistic, ''Franchise/StarTrek''-esque sci-fi show, and tends to believe the best in people and that all conflicts can be resolved at least somewhat peacefully. Of course, in ''Farscape'', ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer.
** Crichton himself held a similar attitude in the first few episodes of Season One, acting like a Captain Kirk-esque figure who lived in an idealistic universe where most aliens were essentially good, and that the ethical option was always the correct one. After many learning experiences, including a bout of torture by the Peacekeepers, he dropped this attitude and quickly became far more pragmatic (and mentally unstable).
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' usually hews very close to {{Fairy Tale}}s and HeroicFantasy, but season 2 includes Literature/{{Frankenstein}} (and his monster) and season 6 includes [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Jekyll and Hyde]]. They were both dragged out of their ScienceFiction universes quite literally by Rumplestiltskin's magic. Dr. Whale, Frankenstein's Storybrooke persona, is very confused and conflicted when the curse breaks and he realizes who he actually is, but ends up integrating happily into Storybrooke. Hyde ([[spoiler: as well as Jekyll]]) on the other hand acts as an OutsideContextVillain, being able to make plots that people aren't prepared for.

* The Jovian Republic in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' are a traditional military sci-fi faction in an anarcho-transhumanist PostCyberpunk setting. They take this about as well as can be expected, to the point where they refuse to associate with the rest of the setting if at all possible because they believe everyone else is a soulless thing using the memories of a dead person. [[StrawmanHasAPoint They may be right.]]

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has the Tau Empire, a young, dynamic, and technologically adept alien race on the rise in a universe where every other faction, [[HumanitysWake humanity included]], is sharply on the decline, no longer understands their best technology, and is currently fighting all the others bitterly in an endless HopelessWar. This difference is also reflected in military doctrine. For most factions, warfare has regressed heavily and so close combat and "historical" ways of war are the order of the day; the Tau eschew close combat in favour of laser-precise firepower at extreme range and lots of well-equipped mechanized infantry, i.e. the modern day UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks. In early iterations, they were even an actually "good"-aligned faction in the extremely {{Grimdark}} setting. The Imperium of Man and the Eldar, probably the two most "good" factions previously, are still very xenophobic and awful, while the Tau were willing to incorporate other alien species and generally work together towards the "Greater Good". Of course, eventually it was decided this wasn't [[BlackAndGrayMorality nearly dark enough]], and their lore was expanded to include mind control, brainwashing, forced sterilization, and genocide to put them more in line with other factions, taking them from the idealistic United Federation of Planets from ''Franchise/StarTrek'' to something more like the imperialistic Union of Allied Planets from ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.

* The ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise is normally a dinosaur-based DisasterMovie franchise. This makes it all the more surprising when the ''[[FlawedPrototype Indoraptor]]'' from ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' basically turns out to be the dinosaur equivalent of a ''GothicHorror monster'', complete with a scene in the film's climax where he howls on a rooftop against the Moon like a werewolf and his tragic origin story as an abused genetic experiment calling to mind mind SciFiHorror stories in the vein of Creator/MaryShelley's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}''. He's also stated by the designers to be based on Nosferatu, with the prominent fangs, gangly proportions and red eyes, and overall is basically a slasher-film villain in dinosaur form.

** Rose Tyler is clearly a character from a 00s SoapOpera who gets sucked into the Doctor's universe. This helped the revival serve as a GatewaySeries to TV family science fiction at a time when the genre was said to be [[DeadHorseGenre dead]] — and had something of a meta concept to it, seeing as the popular family viewing of that era was Soap Opera, {{Game Show}}s and {{Reality Show}}s (which later Ninth Doctor episodes also explore).

* This is done in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E26Execution Execution]]", which mixed two of the series' most frequently-used genres: in it, an outlaw from a [[TheWestern Western]]-themed ''Twilight Zone'' episode is saved from his own hanging by getting [[FishOutOfTemporalWater pulled into]] a ScienceFiction-themed ''Twilight Zone'' episode by a scientist with a time machine. [[spoiler:He's murdered by a crook planning on robbing the scientist's lab, only to bungle the time machine and be put in the noose the outlaw narrowly escaped.]]

* ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Charlie is basically a Franchise/DisneyPrincess in Hell. She's idealistic, she's perky, she treats her day to day life like she's in a musical. The problem is instead of being the ruler of an idyllic medieval kingdom, she's the ruler of an urban cesspool of crime and sin. Not helping is how the denizens of Hell only give her the bare minimum of respect and attention at best.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Gunha Sogiita thinks and behaves like a goofy, stereotypical superhero from a Saturday morning cartoon or a {{Sentai}} series. He has the superpowers to match and is pretty good at dealing with mundane crime, but this series is a GambitRoulette of MagicVersusScience, and he's completely oblivious to the conflicts and struggles the real main characters have to deal with.

** Adon Corbolwitz is a [[LargeHam larger-than-life]] yet [[HarmlessVillain thorously incompentent]] Tudor general who evetuanlly became a [[ClingyComedyVillain persistent annoyance]] to the Band of the Hawk, more so in the [[Anime/Berserk1997 first anime]] where his role was expanded. He would be at home in a fantasy comedy series like ''Literature/{{Slayers}}''. In a gritty DarkFantasy work such as this one, he sticks out like a sore thumb.

a * ''Mafia'':

** The Travellers, large and tought enemies who each constitute a MiniBoss, armored in medival steel armor, who are never explained and come across as mid-level enemies from a [[Creator/FromSoftware Soulsborne]] game.

** [[OmnicidalManiac With a high death toll exceeding at least septillions]] and being an EldritchAbomination, [[spoiler: THE END]] would fit in more mature/seinen-geared games like ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' or ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei''. Unfortunately it's stuck in the optimistic ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers''.

** [[OmnicidalManiac With a high death toll exceeding at least septillions]] and being an EldritchAbomination, [[spoiler: THE END]] would fit in more mature/seinen-geared games like ''VideoGame/Bayonetta'' or ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei''. Unfortunately it's stuck in the optimistic ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers''.

* ''Mafia'':

** [[ComicBook/HowardTheDuck Howard]], a walking, talking anthropomorphic duck "Trapped in a World He Never Made".

* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' has been this from the very beginning. They don't quite belong in gritty martial arts or campy bizarre sci-fi, but often step into both. And meet still more characters in other genres, like the Silver Age superhero team Justice Force, or the funny-animal-samurai-action-drama character ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo.

* ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'' has ComicBook/XMen member [[GentleGiant Colossus]] show up and act like a traditional Superhero, delivering uplifting speeches and morals and suggest that Deadpool is better than he thinks he is. In, say, a ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' or ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}''-style movie he would probably be TheHero, but since he is trapped in a ''Deadpool'' movie, he is forced to merely act as a foil to all the insanity around him.

* In ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' Eddie Brock and Venom count as a downplayed example of this, since while both are based on comic book characters from the superhero genre their own film series was a SuperheroHorror which is not a genre the MCU had explored at the time the film was released.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}'' introduced Bishop (and he's since become semi-regular in other TMNT media). Basically one of TheMenInBlack, his sci-fi elements were dramatically darker and more conspiratorial than the campy stuff usually featured on the series.

** Adon Corbolwitz is a [[LargeHam larger-than-life]] yet [[HarmlessVillain thorously incompentent]] Tudor general who evetuanlly became a [[ClingyComedyVillain persistent annoyance]] to the Band of the Hawk, more so in the [[Anime/Berserk1997 first anime]] where his role was expanded. He would be at home in a fantasy comedy series like ''Manga/{{Slayers}}''. In a gritty DarkFantasy work such as this one? He sticks like a sore thumb.