Entertainingly Wrong / Fan Works

People being Entertainingly Wrong in Fan Works.

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Crossovers

Crossovers

• Alchemical Solutions shows many people confused about Taylor's new nature as a Robot Girl. The general opinion decided she was the very first traceable Case 53 (capes known for being very much inhuman and unnatural in their structure and appearance). When she confesses to a few selected people she was actually "remade" by an extradimensional helper, it leads some to conclude a Tinker stuck in a dimension pocket managed to create an AI based on "Taylor Hebert" to seek help.
• Amazing Fantasy:
  • After realizing that he has gotten spider-powers from the spider bite, Izuku wonders if the spider was radioactive and comes to a reasonable (but wrong) conclusion.
    Izuku: B-But how could a spider bite do this!? N-No wait, there was something wrong with that spider! Was the reason Prowler was tracking it because her employer was doing experiments on it?! Oh god... was it actually radioactive like the one from Spider-Man?! [eyes widen] Do I have cancer now?!
  • Izuku is too shaken by all of the revelations dropped into his lap by Peter to accept Peter's offer to mentor him right off the bat. He then places money on the table for their meal and for Peter to go get a bath before running out the door. When he finally stops, he wonders what Peter, who is homeless and lonely, must be thinking of Izuku for ditching him. The answer?
    Peter: Kid's smarter than I was at his age.
• The Amazing Spider-Luz in: Across the Owl-Verse!: After the battle with Ingrimaxus and seeing Luz's contribution to it, Belos comes to the conclusion that Luz is in fact a human-witch hybrid and Eda's daughter, believing her to be a unique being that could potentially come about by the mating of witches and humans. Lilith, who knows enough about Luz to know that's not even remotely true, is noticeably dumbstruck as to how he could have possibly come to this conclusion and takes it as further confirmation that Belos is full of shit.
• Avenger of Steel:
  • At one point Karen speculated that Clark was the Masked Man, but she soon dismisses that idea.
  • When Clark hears Jameson ranting about how Ao Shun was an Asgardian attack to make Earth "dependent" on them, he muses that the sheer ridiculousness of the notion is actually entertaining in its own way.
  • After Rogue inadvertently absorbs some of Clark's powers, she and Kitty assume that he's just a really powerful mutant.
• Sunset Shimmer in The Bridge speculates her new friend, Irys, and their associate aren't native to the human world like she was. After seeing them head towards the school statue and disappear, she thinks they are Equestrians like her. What is actually the case is Irys and her friend, Monster X, were from the other half of the crossover.
• Wrong Context Magic being in effect in Constellations, the Protectorate doesn't believe Taylor when she tells them the big white dog with superpowers is not a manifestation of her own parahuman power - they have seen capes denying their abilities or not exercising conscious control over them. It doesn't help when Taylor admits she met Sunny after losing her path in a dark forest - something which would naturally be extremely scary for a eight-year-old girl.
• In A Courage's Flame, the firebender Daisuke, who can't remember anything but her old name, is believed by Katara to be a girl from the Fire Nation that lived before the 100-year-war just like Aang, since she and Sokka found the two in the remains of the same iceberg. Daisuke, or rather Daisuke Motomiya, is from modern-day Earth, having lost her memories and acquired Firebending when she was sent to the Avatar world.
• In The Death God Alliance, after examination of an unconscious Nico, Carter concludes he's from a wealthy family who freaked out when he developed some affinity for necromancy and started to neglect the crap out of him, because what other reason could explain the obvious signs of malnutrition and the fact Nico was wandering in a park at the dead of the night? Certainly not the kid's addiction to junk food and his desire to escape his stepmother going stir-crazy. Carter and Sadie also have no context at this point that his abilities come from being the son of Hades, a god from an entirely different pantheon than their own.
• A Divine (Romantic) Comedy: To the point where it may as well be a Running Gag how everyone (both from the Boiling Isles and from Hell) comes to logical conclusions based on what they know and the worlds they live in yet are so off the mark that it becomes hilarious.
  • When Bee smells Camila's perfume on Lucifer after he returns to Hell, she, the rest of the Sins, and Charlie all initially assume that he hooked up with Lilith again.
  • Despite the rampant theorizing, no one in Hell even really considers the idea that Lucifer's new paramour is a living human, with the closest that anyone gets being when Velvette of the Vees briefly suggests that she's a human witch wanting to birth the Antichrist. While Camila is the mother of Human Witch Luz, and has also dabbled in Glyph Magic herself, she has no intention of birthing any sort of Antichrist and is currently unaware of her new paramour's true identity. Even Ozzie and Fizz, who Lucifer goes to for dating advice, and thus get more information than most of Hell, assume that things like Camila not having access to Hell's news or internet, and Lucifer's reluctance to bring her to Ozzie's, is because she's an Imp from Wrath or Sloth, not a human.
  • Lucifer senses that Vaggie is an angel almost immediately due to the heavenly energy emanating from her and assumes Charlie knows that she's an angel as well, when canon shows that she most certainly does not.
  • Luz and Vee believe that Lucifer is a vampire or a witch from another Titan corpse that escaped the Demon Realm, using magic to cheat the system on Earth to get rich.
• In DoofQuest, after investigating Alonso Hawk's murder DEI comes to the conclusion that Judge Doom has a murderous toon that he uses to frame other toons while killing his enemies. A reasonable but wrong deduction given they have no way of knowing that Doom is a killer toon.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami: The forces of Good manage to keep reasonably well-informed on Mercury's actions, but they tend to misinterpret things because Good Cannot Comprehend That in this rare case, Dark Is Not Evil.
• Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship: The Rainbooms, while witnessing Timmy use his fairies' magic, conclude he is wielding some Equestrian artifact that left uncheck will eventually corrupt him. Unaware that his magic comes from magical guardians who work under several rules set to prevent him from hurting himself and others.
• In Fate/Black Reflection:
  • Both Lancer and Gilgamesh come to the perfectly logical conclusion that Ichigo's power must come from a lost Noble Phantasm he somehow came into possession of, which makes sense from their perspective since no modern magus could ever hope to even come close to matching a Servant without one. Of course, neither of them are aware that Ichigo isn't a magus, nor do they have any idea what a Soul Reaper or Zanpakutou is.
  • The entire story as a whole pretty much revolves around this trope, with the other Master and Servant pairs making wildly wrong assumptions about Ichigo and his friends, from their morality, to the nature of their abilities.
• FateBuild: The Mechanical Magus: Rin, Illya, and Caster all operate under the assumption that Shirou's Build Driver and Fullbottles are Mystic Codes he created to amplify his lacking magic abilities. Not that far off an assumption, but also completely wrong.
• Fate Revelation Online: Since the death game uses real magic, the few real magi stuck in the game look absolutely bizarrely competent to everyone else, and all sorts of theories pop up around them.
  • Illya has an encyclopedic knowledge of the magic system, stupidly overpowered magic circuits, and is collecting players with Rare Elements. Several people theorize that she is working with Kayaba and received some benefits from that. She is working with Kayaba, but that's unrelated to everything else. As a homunculus purpose-built for the Holy Grail War, she's one of the strongest and most knowledgable combat mages in the world. People also notice that sometimes her childish mask slips, and theorize that the "magic mirror" that revealed everyone's true appearances didn't work right on her because Kayaba programmed in an exception. She is Older Than They Look, but again, it has nothing to do with Kayaba.
  • Shirou has a knowledge of the magic system almost as good as Illya, and he has ridiculous skills and reflexes far beyond any other player, and perhaps beyond the human limit. There are two competing theories: That he was an "alpha tester" who played the magic system before launch, or that he's a player who died early on and received Brain Uploading. The truth, of course, is that he's a low-tier mage who has managed to put all of his pitiful magical power into combat, combined with an impossible will to save everyone.
  • Combining the two, Diabel is careful about using Shirou to control Illya because he doesn't know their exact relationship. At worst, Shirou might be an AI programmed to help Illya while seemingly disagreeing with her, and pushing too hard will just reveal the lie. At best, their relationship is too complex for Diabel to understand. He considers using Shirou in any way to be a last resort, even though Shirou is unfailingly helpful.
• Friendly Foreign Exchange Student Spider-Man! has two people at least thinking All Might is grooming Peter Parker as his successor because both are American, The Ace and gifted with similar powersets. Needless to say, Toshinari doesn't get their insinuations since he barely talks with Parker and mainly focuses on his true protégé, Izuku Midoriya.
• Trying to guess Berserker's identity in Holding Back the Sea, Kayneth concludes that the godly powers over water and the invulnerability means the warrior is actually Achilles. Percy is actually a very modern demigod, being born only two years before the Fourth Grail War and invoked in his adult form only because of the Throne of Heroes' arcane working's ability to pull a hero from the future.
• How I Learned to Love the Wild Horse:
  • All over the place in regards to WOOHP's conclusions concerning Ranma Saotome. They believe he's the leader of a terrorist organization known as the Nerima Wrecking Crew and has come to America for some nefarious purpose, as opposed to the reality that he's in California trying to escape the shenanigans in Nerima. It doesn't hurt that it turns out that Britney intentionally lied to WOOHP by declaring him the NWC's leader because she figured it would make them give him long-term surveilance in case any of his crazy rivals or would-be girlfriends chased after him.
  • Of course, Ranma makes several false assumptions as well, partially due to thinking his violent Unwanted Harem, Hilariously Abusive Childhood, and terrible friends are the norm. For example, when Ranma first meets Alex whilst disguised as "Ranko", "she" talks about how hearing that Clover has had boyfriends before Ranma made Ranko worried for "her brother" — Alex immediately assumes that Ranko is judging Clover for having an active sexual history, when Ranko was actually referring to the possibility that Ranma dating Clover might attract the ire of a Stalker with a Crush. Ranko is skeptical (to put it mildly) when Alex assures her that none of Clover's exes were the type, but can't figure out why Clover's friend Sam would be so disapproving of Ranma and Clover's relationship if Sam wasn't afraid that Ranma was a Bastard Boyfriend type — having no idea that Sam, at that point, is convinced Ranma is a terrorist.
  • After getting to third base with him, Clover is convinced that Kodachi is Ranma's psychotic ex-girlfriend who made him go down on her but told him he sucked so she didn't have to return the favor. In reality, Ranma just experimented in his girl form.
  • Later, because they don't know Ranma and Ranko are the same person, Sam takes Ranko's slip ups while talking about Akane to mean she's a lesbian who had a thing for Akane but got violently rejected.
• I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For:
  • After learning how he came to the galaxy, Shaak Ti realizes that Harry Potter's long list of aliases on his Bounty Hunter Guild application was a way to let anyone else from his world potentially find him. Harry tells her he actually just did it to amuse himself.
  • Later, Jedi Master Fay wonders if Harry left so abruptly after saving her life because he not only didn't expect a reward but didn't want any recognition for it. To her dismay, Harry reveals that the event in question was so unmemorable that he doesn't even recall saving her until she mentions it was on a volcanic planet and that's only because he spent several hours fishing a gold coin out of a lava flow.
• In If Wishes Were Ponies, Headmaster Dumbledore thinks that the Equestrians are in fact an insular society of witches and wizards on Earth, Atlantis, rather than being from another world (and, in fact, another dimension) as they claim. This is supported by a great number of observations which are woefully several decades — or centuries — out of date by that time. Discord doesn't help correct that when he briefly appears to Dumbledore in the form of Poseidon.
• Lost in Camelot:
  • Morgana can barely hold in her laughter when she realizes that Uther honestly believes that Arthur and Merlin are sleeping together (particularly since Merlin is actually involved with Morgana and another woman).
  Uther: You've seen the way they banter, tease and flirt all over the castle. They hardly make any effort to hide their affection at all!
  • While it's less amusing and more of a tragic misunderstanding, it's still funny to see Arthur and Gwen assume that Bo's manipulating Merlin and Morgana into separate arrangements rather than the three sharing one relationship.
  • When told there's another Fae around, Arthur naturally assumes it's Kenzi, mostly for how she dresses.
  • When Morgana gets a message from Morgause, she, Gwen and Kenzi assume from the context that Morgause intends to proposition Morgana, the three Camelot natives all unaware of Morgause's real connection to Morgana.
  • In the sequel, The Lost Kingdom, Uther is still convinced that Arthur and Merlin had a sexual relationship, to the extent that he assumes that Arthur had at least a brief fling with Gwaine.
• In Manehattan's Lone Guardian, Trifecta theorizes that the S.M.I.L.E. agent that broke into Mocha Corp. HQ was going rogue, on account of Celestia disbanding the organization. In reality, Gray fully understood what Contingency Ultimus was all about and had the Princess's backing. The whole thing implies that while Trifecta may have been part of S.M.I.L.E., he did not understand Celestia's mind as well as he thought.
• A Man of Iron:
  • Iron Man and Centurion being Shrouded in Myth lead many to speculate about their identity: Catelyn Stark thinks they are Benjen Stark and Jory Cassel while Tyrion Lannister is convinced Brynden and Edmure Tully are wearing the armors. Both of them dismisse Anthony Stark - a Upper-Class Twit who faithfully serves Lord Tywin - and his ward Jon - Just a Kid who couldn't keep his mouth shut if he was a vigilante.
  • When a grown-up woman is introduced to him as "Sansa Stark", Tyrion immediately wonders who was dumb enough to hire some whore to impersonate a freshly-dead, teenage girl, and is infuriated by the Small Council insisting Sansa actually came back from the grave. He's not wrong per se, the woman isn't really Sansa... but she's much worse than a mere whore.
  • The Night Queen's answer to the "who does the sellsword kill?" riddle is that all four men die, because none of them thought that the woman in the room with them may have been the real threat. Yet the first person to peg her as both dangerous and not human was Bronn, a sellsword, who came to this conclusion after meeting her once.
• Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower:
  • For the first twenty or so chapters, Maria is convinced that Katarina's figurative harem is a literal harem, and that she is an unscrupulous mastermind and sex fiend who is trying to draw Maria into her web. During the big accusation scene, even the people who have been brainwashed into accusing Katarina of bullying are completely flabbergasted by this mistake.
  • After Maria realizes that Katarina is just that stupid, she comes to the conclusion that she is actually brain-damaged, and dedicates much of her time to looking after Katarina as you would a lost child; in fact, when Maria ends up with custody of actual children, she throws Katarina into the group with no trouble. This also further reduces her opinion of the harem, since she sees them as little better than pedophiles for trying to seduce a woman with the mind of a child.
  • Due to coming from a world with much worse nobles, Maria assumes that she really is a Royal Bastard or even a Child by Rape (in canon, it's implied it was just a sad case of Mistaken for Cheating). Furthermore, she theorizes that Duke Claes might be her father, making Katarina her half-sister. While at first she admits she's just making assumptions based on circumstantial evidence, she never gets around to revising this theory, so she goes to a lot of unnecessary effort to keep her mother away from Duke Claes in order to prevent a potential scandal.
• After being sent to a reflection of the world in Mirror, Mirror and warned not to eat or drink anything but water and to be at his shop at noon the next day, Ethan Rayne assumes he's dealing with the Fey, as the Fey World can only be accessed at certain times and you can't eat their food or you'll be trapped. In reality, Xander just needs to know where he is at a specific time to bring him back and because everything is reversed in a reflection world, you have to worry about having an allergic reaction to the food.
• In Mysterious Hunter, Ichigo is mistaken for Qrow's bastard son because of his claims to have grown up with no father and giving a coincidentally accurate description of Qrow for his deadbeat father. Later, his immense power, unusual abilities, lack of a paper trail, and dislike of attention lead Ozpin and Glynda to believe he is a Maiden who underwent gender reassignment surgery to go into hiding.
• Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!:
  • Jor-El assumes that Izuku has some knowledge of Kryptonian culture after learning that he knows what dogs are. Izuku is quick to inform him that dogs, cats, and monkeys all exist on Earth just as they did on Krypton, leading to an awkward silence between the two.
  • Jor-El also assumes that Earth's technology is so far behind Krypton's that he takes the time to explain what a video montage is to Izuku, who just rolls with it to be polite.
  • In Chapter 9, Bakugou is quick to assume that his 77 Villain Points on the entry exam secured him first place on the UA's entry exam ranking. Little does he know that Izuku blew him out of the water by scoring 175 points by spending more time helping others, which in turn inspired them to do the same. That coupled with his complete lack of Rescue Points knocked him down to 10th place.
  • Like in canon, Shoto belives that Izuku is All Might's son. While in actuality he is an alien. The rumor then spreads across the school and evolves to the point that Izuku is a homunculus of all earth's greatest heroes.
• In A New World in my View, when Xander/Karen Starr is accidentally exposed to sunlight by Surge, she starts moaning in a rather... interesting way. As a result, Surge believes Xander/Karen's power is to have orgasms when exposed to sunlight.
• In Ninja Wizard Book 1 eight-year-old Harry Potter, after having dreams about Naruto's reality and watching The Manchurian Candidate, decides that he's being secretly trained as a sleeper agent, his babysitter, Mrs. Figg, is his handler and his late parents were actually ninjas.
• The premise of No Place Like Eureka, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Eureka crossover fanfic, is that Dawn gets embodied in Eureka rather than Sunnydale, using Carter and Stark's DNA instead of Buffy's. When the Eureka residents realize that something is strange about Dawn, they come to the perfectly logical — and entirely wrong — conclusion that she was born in the future and sent back in time for some inscrutable reason. Hellgods and mystical Keys aren't really on their radar...
• The Phoenix Wright Defends videos have this going on.
  • In the first video, Phoenix defends Hank of Madness Combat, for the massacre he committed in the first installment. Phoenix points out that there's no signs of blood in the video despite the rather brutal action, and a double-barreled shotgun is seen firing three times: combined with the fact that there's footage of the whole scene from an unmoving camera angle, Phoenix proclaims that what's really going on is that they were filming a movie. This turns out to be wrong, as later on, Hank follows up with a second massacre.
  • His defense of a post-Genocide Frisk from Undertale has him pointing out that, between the presence of hidden cameras, Frisk's apparent muteness and lack of name, the conveniently placed weapons, and the fact that all the people to enter the underworld are also children, it suggests that Frisk is actually part of a series of Tyke Bombs set up by the government to exterminate monsters. Once again, this seems to be untrue.
• SCP-136: The Cheese Gremlin is about the SCP Foundation encounting Plagg the kwami from Miraculous Ladybug after he ate a cargo truck worth of cheese. At one point, Plagg tries to refer to a close companion but it always comes out as bubbles. Since the Foundation knows he is a God of Destruction, they believe that he is speaking about an Eldritch Abomination with the bubbles being its actual name. He's actually trying to refer to his wielder Adrien, but he is under a spell keeping him from exposing his identity to strangers.
• A team of Skrulls in Scrap Value believe there're dozens of Black Widows because they arrived at a location with several of them. It's later explained that they arrived at a convention and those Black Widows were all cosplayers.
• Shadows over Meridian: When the Guardians learn that "Kage" is Queen of Another Dimension, they question why she ended up on Meridian in shambles, and come to the conclusion that she must have been chased by something more powerful, a prospect which terrifies them. Of course, the readers know that Jade ended up on Meridian by accident after Drago banished her from her own universe, and nothing is chasing her.
• Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Thanks to Kaji walking into Shinji and Asuka right when they were about to kiss, Shinji becomes annoyed at the older man and how he got together with Misato. Because of this, Misato comes to the logical but incorrect conclusion that he's annoyed because he has a crush on her.
• Spy X Son:
  • After seeing Goku teleport with Goten and Trunks, Yor Forger believes that the fighter might be a magician, not knowing that he's an alien.
  • When he hears from Yor about how Goten honestly told her his father died before he was born only for said father to pick him up, Loid suggests that a traumatic event made it seem that Goku was dead during Goten's childhood. He doesn't know that Goku did die and came back from the dead. Twice, actually.
• Stargate: Spartan Siege: When Hammond here's that John-117's rank is MCPO, he assumes that the latter is from the US Navy, as the UNSC ranks in Halo are based upon those used by the United States Armed Forces.
• A Subtle Knife:
  • When Green Arrow - a blonde archer quite infamous for being The Casanova - introduces Artemis - a blonde archer teenage girl - as his "niece" in spite of his total lack of brothers, Edge immediately concludes they want to hide their true relation but tries to discreetly convey to Artemis his support and assurance she will become just as great as her "dad". She thought he was mocking her and is genuinely left flat-footed to learn his theory - as she doesn't consider herself a good person, she didn't see how someone could think her related this way to a hero.
  • Edge suffers from amnesia and psychic blocks were installed into his mind. Some in the League naturally think him The Mole, but he's genuinely trying to rebuild his life and do something good with it. When they later realize he comes from another universe, they correct their conclusions, but still don't know he's not from the universe his powerset sprang from.
• Tales of Kitty-Whiskers and Ladybug
  • Trucy Wright believes that her birth father Zak Gramayre was the one who gave her (and indirectly Apollo) their Miraculous, as he was the last person with access to the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. She finds out in chapter 10 that her father was already dead on that day.
  • Kristoph Gavin, between his own paranoia and grudge, plus seeing Phoenix as the only who had access to the Gramayre legacy through Zak, thinks that Phoenix Wright is the hero Ladybug and is actively trying to defeat him. He's unaware that Ladybug is actually his own employee and student, Apollo Justice.
• In Twice Blessed Shinobi, Shikaku concludes that the young Haruo is actually from Nara stock after seeing the kid snuggling one of the clan's deer - which would be impossible for a non-Nara - and checking the mission records, which establishes that one of his cousins was in the right town at the right moment for the boy's conception. As Shikaku is unaware of Haruo's status as a Trueborn Sage - giving him a potent affinity with animals - and true age - he's actually two years younger than recorded but was aged to enroll in the Academy - the misunderstanding is clarified only when the Nara demands clarification from the Secret Ops Captain about "his lost clansman".
• Naruto is quick to spot that Queen Amidala is actually Padme in A Village Hidden in Hope but believes she's the queen's body double rather than being the queen herself.
• In We Can Be Heroes, the remaining Scoobies learn that Xander and Cordelia are in the DC universe and there are in fact comics, cartoons, and even a television series about them. Notably, the pilot movie for the series had to base all of the Buffy characters except Xander and Cordelia off descriptions by the two. As a result, Willow is portrayed as a tall flirtatious woman and Oz is depicted as a Motor Mouth.
• In What Was Created By God, Percy assumes his new companion is one of Athena's demigod children or human lovers because he's obviously blessed by the goddess and has shown great intelligence. Odysseus — who's entirely human and very faithful to his human wife — finds the mistake amusing.
• In the Supernatural/NCIS crossover When Worlds Collide, the NCIS team analyse some of the Winchesters' past cases, such as their confrontations with shapeshifters and the Leviathans, and assume that the Winchesters discovered a terrorist conspiracy using an elaborate disguise-making machine. When DiNozzo first explains this theory to Dean, Dean starts laughing so much at just how wrong they are that Tony expresses concern that Dean might crack a rib.
• In The Wizard of Gotham, Batman comes to the conclusion that Poison Ivy's young new henchkid is his child by Pam during the missing time in his memories when she drugged and seduced him. To be fair, Batman's biases are showing: a boy named 'potter', an aunt named Petunia, who lives on Privet (A kind of hedge) Drive, and the lies about his parents the Dursleys fed to Harry, while believable to a young child, ring incredibly false to Batman's suspicious mind. It doesn't help that Ivy has a fragment of Lily's school-time memories Dumbledore was storing implanted in her head, and she's going by the name 'Lily Evans', which just screams assumed name.
• In The Second Age of Heroes, Percy can talk to sea life — a power of the Atlantis royal bloodline — and manipulate water — a power of the Xebel royal bloodline — leading both kingdoms to assume he's the product of an affair between two royals and a potential threat to their thrones.

Ah! My Goddess

• Hilariously in The Vain Rose's Garden, Yoshida gives Belldandy some wildflowers as "a beautiful gift for a beautiful woman". When Belldandy informs him she's not really a woman but gets distracted by a bee, he flees thinking she's a man. After all, who would expect someone to be a goddess?

Amphibia

• Medicated is about Anne, Sasha, and Marcy arriving to Amphibia as infants; then given potions to turn them into a frog, a toad, and a newt respectively. When Anne Plantar grows up and stops using her potion, she and her adoptive family study her human form to better understand her new body.
  • They correctly deduce that she's a mammal, but most of their other conclusions are just slightly off, though still based on logical evidence. Since she's warm-blooded, they think she's native to colder climates^note Humans live all over the planet, but thrive in temperate climates, and are native to sub-Saharan Africa. Anne herself was born in southern California and ethnically Thai, her species is arboreal (tree-dwelling) due to her natural climbing skills^note Humans are not arboreal, but primates usually are, so it wasn't too far off, and that she's primarily a herbivore since she prefers fruits to insects.^note Humans are omnivores that can survive on any diet, fruit is simply more easily digestible than insects
  • Like in the show, Anne can gain superhuman powers from her connection to the Calamity gem. However, since she first does this in human form, she assumes it's a common trait of her species.

Animorphs

• All Assorted Animorphs AUs:
  • In "What if all the yeerks suddenly died?", Eva kidnaps Marco because she thinks he's a Controller; the last time they saw each other, Marco was pretending to be a Controller to talk to Visser One.
  • In "What if Tom and Melissa escaped together?", the titular characters see the Pool Ship landing in front of the Washington Mall on the news and assume that the Yeerks won, when really they surrendered.
  • In "What if Elfangor and Loren raised Tobias?", the Animorphs begin to suspect that Tobias' parents are rebel Controllers after they shoot Visser Three in the head, using the fact that Loren's workplace is right next to the car wash with a Yeerk Pool entrance as a piece of "evidence". Of course, anyone who's read The Andalite Chronicles knows that they have past experience fighting against Yeerks. Also, Elfangor immediately assumes that Ax is an Andalite war-prince who recruited children when he overhears him telling Tobias about the military academy, when he's really a young cadet.
• In City of Lost Children, Jean berates Jake for being incredibly secretive about why he keeps skipping school. Tom and Essa both come to the conclusion that he's been doing drugs. In reality, Jake's been fighting in a secret war.
• Sporadic Phantoms is about a trio of environmentalists trying to uncover the secrets of The Sharing, and they understandably don't realise that it's a front for mind-controlling aliens. From the information they do have, they come to the conclusion that they're either some kind of cult (based on a recording of a Be You Now meeting where Elizabeth probes a girl about her problems until she breaks down in tears) or an animal trafficking ring (based on Kyle hearing a tiger roar coming from the basement).
• What Tomorrow Brings:
  • When Tobias introduces himself as Elfangor's son, Tom- under Temrash's control- assumes that Tobias is a real Andalite who's been living on Earth in secret and was the actual leader of the Animorphs.
  • Ax and Cassie hear about a blonde girl who fought Controllers with her bare hands, and an "Andalite bandit" in raptor morph who was captured by Yeerks, and immediately assume they were Rachel and Tobias. In reality, they were Loren and Jake. A few chapters later, when Visser Three realises there's a morpher (Jake) on the Pool Ship, he immediately assumes it's Elfangor because he figured out the latter's death was faked and just kidnapped his wife.
• In The Word of Your Body, Ax assumes that breasts are sex organs when he first meets the Animorphs.

Arrow

• Blackbird (Arrow): When Thea freeloads onto Oliver's plane trip to the Himalayas and sees Sara there with him, she initially believes they're trying to hook up again. At this point, the last person Oliver wants to be in a relationship with is Sara.
• What It Takes: Quentin thinks that Sara's grave was disturbed for Laurel, and was in retaliation for his actions. It was actually done for him, as a ploy to resurrect Sara and get him to stop what he's doing.
  • When Nyssa and Laurel learn of it, they think Darhk dug her up as a possible power source.

Attack on Titan

• In Ein Riese, der Fliegen Wollte, a young Titan who's human-watching theorizes that little humans (children) are of higher status than big humans, because the former were evacuated first. Also, the leader of the human army is about the same height as a child.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

• In Jet's Troubling Obsession of the The Stalking Zuko Series, Jet realizes that "Lee" is probably not a firebender since he never finds any proof of him firebending but his "uncle" Mushi is. He believes the reason Lee only reacts to Jet's accusation with annoyance because Lee is a nonbender and he attracted Jet's attention to distract him from paying attention to his uncle.

Bleach

• Upon first meeting Yoruichi in Game and Bleach, Ichigo quickly realizes she's a shinigami. But because he met her in a training dungeon and knows the odds of him randomly meeting a high level shinigami are incredibly low, he initially assumes she's an NPC meant to train him in shinigami related skills.
• In Swinging Pendulum, in a discussion about Ichigo's age, which he has not disclosed, Kaien assumes that Ichigo has to be two-hundred and fifty by the way he acts, at the least be one-hundred years old. Ichigo is actually twenty years old, which would disturb Kaien greatly if he finds out since children in Soul Society are around 40 years old.
  • Kaien notes that considering Ichigo has said "Uncle Isshin" and Ichigo's father are/were worse than him, he must be nowhere near the top of Ichigo's shit-list. Ichigo is amused by the incorrect assumption that Isshin and Ichigo's father are different people.
  • At one point, Kaien tries to tell Ichigo that there's nothing to be ashamed of for growing up in the Rukongai—a natural assumption to make, given that he almost certainly didn't grow up in Seiretei, and that he's clearly a Shiba. Ichigo doesn't bother to correct him that he grew up in the Human World, and one-hundred years in the future, at that.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Worlds Apart
  • When Angel and Wesley start talking during his time in the Council’s dungeon, Angel is unaware that as far as everyone on Earth is concerned, he’s only been in Hell for a few months, and Wesley is unaware that Angel thinks it’s around 2098, as neither of them ever bring up the exact date.
  • When Buffy and Wesley initially meet, they are hostile to each other because Wesley believes Buffy killed Angel and Buffy thinks Wesley is just another standard Watcher who would have no problem killing Angel just because he’s a vampire; it takes them meeting in the Bronze and both automatically trying to protect Angel from the other to realise they’re wrong.

The Camp Half-Blood Series

• In The Varangian Guard, Frederick Chase realizes from his dying sister's carefully sentenced demand about him taking care of her son that the boy is a demigod, just like Frederick's daughter Annabeth. His mistake is to assume that just because Annabeth is a Greek demigod, Magnus must be one of these too — when his divine father is the Norse Frey.

A Certain Magical Index

• Definitely not played for laughs in A Certain Unknown Level 0. After Touma defeats Accelerator, several Level 0s and low-level espers hear about this and are inspired. Unfortunately, they think that the Unknown Level 0 who beat Accelerator was sending a message to rise up and destroy the high-level espers and those who associate with them, forming a highly-organized and murderous gang called "MINUS" in the process. Actually, Touma beat Accelerator because he is a hero who helps and protects people. When Touma explains this, the MINUS members refuse to listen to him and accuse him of being an impostor, as he is completely different from the image they created in their minds of the Unknown Level 0.

Code Geass

• Carine ne Britannia in Darwin comes to the conclusion that Zero is getting his Knightmare Frames from the same supplier as the JLF. as the two are the only terrorists to have any, and decides to wipe them out so she can find their source and use it to find Zero. In reality, Zero gets his Knightmares directly from the Ashfords.

Danganronpa

• Haunted has all the students who were killed and executed in the first game become ghosts at the moment of their deaths with their memories of their school life and the Tragedy restored. Upon realizing that Mukuro is missing, they initially assume that she was the subject of Monokuma's Motive Video for Junko and are more confused as to why Junko's ghost seems to be missing. It's not until Hifumi's killed that they realize that Junko's the mastermind behind the Killing Game and the Tragedy.

Danny Phantom

• Played for Laughs in Bloodsucker. During a biology class experiment, Star discovers Danny's abnormally low vitals. Then he inadvertently shows off his Super-Strength during a gym class. The Casper High student body, shocked by all this, correctly conclude that Danny is one of the supernatural undead. Of course, since only a handful of people outside the Ghost Zone even know it is possible for someone to be half-ghost, they specifically think that Danny is a vampire. Danny, amused, goes with the flow by saying he's a dhampir.

DC Comics

• Bat-Wolf: After seeing a huge wolf in the park under the full moon and being unable to find Bruce in the house, an eight-year-old Dick Grayson starts to believe his guardian is actually a werewolf. He considers this "totally cool", but Bruce is horrified when he sees his ward nearing a beast able to maul him under the assumption it won't hurt him.
• In Supergirl fic Hellsister Trilogy, Linda Danvers' landlady, Mrs. Berkowitz believes Linda's new boyfriend is a shady, random guy who twenty-nine-year-old Linda has just met and clung to because she's afraid of becoming a "Christmas Cake". A sensible conclusion, furthered by the couple's secretive attitude and their unwillingness to answer simple questions like "Where does he come from?" or "Where does he work?". She's still wrong because they can't just tell her "He's a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes who I met and fell in love with several weeks ago in the 31st century".
• I Saw Grayson Kissing Santa Claus:
  • The premise of the story is that Damian Wayne believes Santa Claus is a master criminal that has evaded capture for decades and is going to kidnap his older brother Dick Grayson to his dungeon in the North Pole and molest him (as Dick is the closest the Waynes have to a mother figure). Not helping the issue is that he went to his older brother Jason Todd for help, who decides to feed into his delusions for kicks.
  • Damian later informs his best friend Colin Wilkes of his suspicions, who, having been raised in the spirit of Christmas, doesn't believe him — initially. Then he hears a couple of carols at the orphanage he lives at and is thoroughly convinced, going as far as to attack "Santa" on Christmas Eve.
  • Midway through the story, Dick notices Damian is down and, thanks to some Selective Obliviousness and Vicariously Ambitious motives, comes to believe that Damian is being bullied for still believing in Santa Claus. He then tells Damian that Santa is real. Needless to say, that doesn't help. At all.
• I'm Freaking Out, And I Feel Fine is about Terry McGinnis being abducted and falling through a portal into a parallel dimension - in which the local Bat-clan promptly believes he's actually a time-displaced teenage Bruce Wayne, because of the reaaally uncanny resemblance.
• In chapter 15 of Inviolate,^note For those who care, it's an AU set just after Luthor is impeached in the DCU continuity Lex Luthor concludes that Bruce Wayne is backing Batman... but thinks that Batman is Matches Malone (sort of true, since both are really Wayne), and that Harvey Dent wore the cowl before him (completely false, but sensible — Jim Gordon thought much the same thing at one point).
• Kara of Rokyn: After hearing about Clark Kent’s strange habit of going to the restroom just before a newscast, a detective investigating his disappearance wonders if Kent might be doing drugs. Understandable mistake, since he ignores Clark needs to change into Superman.
• Ten Centuries Apart: In a Fusion Fic of Justice League and Legion of Super Heroes, Green Lantern and Green Arrow fear telling Superman that his cousin Kara choose to stay in the 31st century with Brainiac 5, given Superman's volatile history with the present-day Brainiac but unaware that Superman had met Brainiac 5 and the other Legionnaires as a teenager. Meanwhile, Clark can tell they are deliberately hiding the identity of the boy Kara meet, and he narrows down the only option as Lightning Lad's Reformed, but Not Tamed brother Lightning Lord. It's not until both he and Oliver blurt out their guesses that Clark can sigh in relief, especially knowing that Brainiac would treat Kara well.

Dexter

• For a given value of ‘entertaining’, in Even though I'm broken, will you accept me?, it is revealed that a recent serial killer was trying to draw out the Bay Harbor Butcher as he became convinced that the killer was still alive, but he actually captures Debra when she goes to follow up on her lead rather than Dexter.

Digimon

• In the Digimon Adventure/Digimon V-Tamer 01 crossover The Teacher of All Things, Tai thinks Piedmon of the Dark Masters is Sigma's Piedmon from the original manga reborn and Brainwashed and Crazy due to the fact that he recognizes Tai. Sigma's Piedmon was actually reborn as Wizardmon, and the Dark Masters' Piedmon was Tai's Demi Devimon friend Pul from his first adventure.

Dishonored

• In A Whaler's Lament, Daud refuses to hand Emily over to the conspirators, instead keeping her at his base where she quickly becomes at home. When Lizzy Stride notices the children's drawings covering the walls in Daud's office and the little girl painting in the next room over, she reasonably concludes that Daud has had a daughter since she last visited. Emily is rather offended at the idea that Daud would be her father

Dragon Ball

• In Life With You, Goku and Chi-Chi come to the conclusion that Goku saw the "Full Moon Monster" at a very young age and was so horribly traumatized by the event that the sight of the full moon has triggered blackouts ever since. Of course, they have no way of knowing that Goku was the Full Moon Monster and the Blutz Waves emitted by the Moon still affect him even after he lost his tail.

Fairy Tail

• In Alternate Tail Series:
  • Because Fairy Tail meet Lily in Earthland first, they thought his smaller form was his normal state, while his battle form was a transformation like Take-Over. It wasn't until the Edolas Arc that he clarifies the matter.
  • Lyon believed that Azuma was going to ignite to the Tenrou Tree to destroy Fairy Tail. Of course, Lyon was unware of the Tenrou Tree's true power, which Azuma learned from Hades, AKA Precht.
  • In this series, weaker Letter Mages need a medium to channel their magic, like Levy was at the start. One of Gajeel's opponent was against a Letter Mage named Alexis, who fights using a pair of lances that can add adjectives to his targets. Gajeel knocks away his opponent's lances, thinking it will keep him from using his powers. That is, until Alexis reveals he only uses the lances to increase his reach, before trapping Gajeel in his own iron scales with "rusty."
• In DNA, which takes place years before the series, a DNA ancestry test Erza takes with the rest of the guild reveals she's not only related to the ancient Queen Irene from 400 years ago, but that she's her biological daughter, something Erza finds hard to believe even after the data was retested almost a hundred times and came back with the same result. The visiting King Toma suggests that Irene used time travel magic, a forbidden but known magic in modern Fiore,to send Erza to the future to escape a great war devastating the country at the time. With the known information at the time, it is an easier conclusion to come to than what really happened in canon^note That Erza was in gestation for 400 years after Irene turned into a dragon.
• The premise of Fairytale of Doom is that some of the wizards of Fairy Tail, their ally Jellal, and their enemy Zeref are pulled into a world of blended fairy taes based on the Disney Animated Canon. In chapter 2, Levy suspects that she's been cast as Belle from Beauty and the Beast since she enjoyed the fairy tale as a kid and both of them are bookworms and Erza is casted as Mulan as both of them are powerful warrior women. She also suspects that Gajeel is the Beast based on transitive properties. It's only at the war camp that Erza finds out Gajeel is Li Shuang and that Levy was meant to be Mulan. Meanwhile, when Levy arrives at the castle she finds out that Jellal is actually the Beast and realizes that Erza was meant to be Belle instead.
• Natsu in The Scars That Make You Whole enters Lucy's apartment to find her missing without her journalist equipment. When he picks up Zeref's scent, he fears that Zeref had kidnapped Lucy by using his magic to knock her out without trouble, which isn't unfounded given that Zeref threatened to make his despair grow one year earlier. In truth, Lucy had reluctantly gone with Zeref to reunite the other Fairy Tail wizards, to avoid any deaths by Zeref's less subtle methods.
  • When Lucy asks Zeref where Cana, a notorious drinker, is, he takes her to Pinewoods Residental, a rehabilitation facility for alcohol and drug abuse. Naturally, Lucy concludes that Cana is in rehab and tries to break her out, only to find out that Cana is the head of security for the facility. Lucy then realized that Zeref never confirmed or deny that Cana was in rehab.
  • Later, Lucy is told that Crime Sorcerie has a spy in the cult Avatar, and when she meets Gray, who tells her he's a spy, she thinks he's working with Crime Sorcerie (not unfounded, because one of the guild's member is Erza, their mutual teammate). But when Lucy meets with Crime Sorcerie, Jellal informs her that their spy was Levy.
• When Lucy and Yukino are sent back 400 years in the past to kill Zeref in Time for a Change, they meet a young Zeref Dragneel, which makes Lucy believe that he's a distant ancestor of her teammate Natsu Dragneel, which is helped when Zeref mentions that his dead brother's name is Natsu. This is proven wrong when Zeref follows the two girls back to the present, then glomps Natsu and calls him his little brother, figuring out he succeeded in bringing him back to life.
• In chapter 51 of To Become a Father, Cana, in a drunken states, laments that she can't die^note She misunderstands Levy's statement that drinking too much alcohol could kill her and that her father, a member of Fairy Tail, wouldn't even notice or care that she dies. Her female guildmates come to the conclusion that Cana's father (who they find out is Gildarts through Cana's birthmark in the guild's records) is a deadbeat that intentionally abandoned his daughter, without knowing that Cana never told Gildarts that he is her father.

The Familiar of Zero

• Siesta and the other commoners working at Tristain Academy of Magic in Enslaved take Saito speaking their language but not being able to read or write it along with being unfamiliar with the continent's geography to mean he grew up in an isolated village, probably in the mountains, where he'd never need to learn such things. Of course, Saito's actually from another world entirely.

Final Fantasy VII

• In The Fifth Act when Angeal finds out that Cloud is a Sephiroth clone due to his large number of S-Cells, he concludes that Cloud's desire to kill Sephiroth was a journey for self-identity and to prove himself better than the original. He couldn't be more wrong.
• In Seventh Endmost Vision, Rufus is this for most of his first chapter. He is being escorted through the Bombing Mission by Tifa Lockheart, but he knows that can't be right; Tifa died five years ago in Nibelheim alongside her fellow 1st Class SOLDIER, Aerith. Nonetheless, Cloud- who insists he knew Tifa- claims it's her, and the Tifa accompanying him both has the SOLDIER eyes and is a very competent martial artist. He ends up reaching a totally logical conclusion based on what his knowledge and his beliefs: Tifa trained a lot of fellow SOLDIERs in the Zangan-style martial arts, and he thinks Cloud is too trusting. Thus, he concludes that the "Tifa" he hired as a mercenary is, in fact, a 3rd Class SOLDIER who happened to look like Tifa, who was trained by her, and is working both to prey on Cloud's gullibility by pretending to be Tifa. He's completely wrong, as later events prove, but it's a rational thought to have given what he's seeing.

Fullmetal Alchemist

• In My Master Ed, based on how much and how freely Edward spends money, the way he talks brashly to everyone regardless of class, and the fact no one knows him lead Hohenheim and a vendor to wonder if he’s a member of the royal family.
  • When he finds out Edward's father is still alive, Hohenheim assumes he abandoned Ed and traveled far away.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed

• In The Beast Of Gusu, Jiang Cheng, being aware that Wei Wuxian is in love with someone he met at Cloud Recesses and spends most of his time with Lan Wangji, comes to the conclusion that Lan Wangji barely tolerates Wei Wuxian at best and that Wei Wuxian is in love with Lan Fan, after seeing them having a conversation one time. Most of the disciples at Cloud Recesses also assume that Lan Wangji dislikes Wei Wuxian and that the latter is constantly undergoing some form of punishment or another.
• In The Concubine Mo Chronicles, at least two people — Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen — worry about Lan Wangji taking Mo Xuanyu as his concubine in order to mold him into a substitute for Wei Wuxian.
  • As Prince-Concubine Mo is officially introduced to the Palace, people quickly decide he's far too fragile, obedient and airheaded to be a serious threat. His servants start to lose said impression as Wei Wuxian reveals more of his true character.
  • The viewpoint of a-Xu, one of Wei Wuxian's maids, reveals the servants are under the impression that the Imperial Brother and his brand-new concubine are going at it like rabbits.
  • Because no one is supposed to know about Lan Sizhui being adopted in the Imperial family, Wei Wuxian wonders if Lan Wangji has been briefly married while he was dead. Obviously he didn't do the math and realized Sizhui was far too old for having been conceived in the timeskip.
  • Qin Su and Zhao Lingling were supposed to marry Jin Guangyao and Lan Wangji respectively prior to being claimed as the Emperor's Concubines. Wei Wuxian is under the impression that Lan Xichen is a lecherous fiancee stealing menace when the emperor is actually asexual and only took the concubines to spare his friend and his brother the pain of unwanted spouses.

Harry Potter

• In The Awakening of a Magus, after Fudge is shown evidence that he had compulsion spells on him, including one that made him trust Malfoy, he considers it an obvious frame-up attempt... after all, he trusts Malfoy anyway, so why would such a compulsion be used except as deception?
• In Dark Memories, Dumbledore comes to the conclusion that Harry is in contact with Mage and HAS been in contact with him through a common link: Hagrid.
• Dodging Prison & Stealing Witches:
  • Harry Potter's brother John suffers from this twofold. First, when he's given a second chance to defeat Voldemort, John believes he's in a "Groundhog Day" Loop so when he can't win, willingly walks to his death, not knowing he was only given one second chance. Next, when John "awakens" to the timeline, he has memories of the first timeline and thinks he's in the second. In reality, he failed and is in the third timeline where Harry was sent back. He learns something's wrong when Ginny hates him and his parents talk about a mysterious Lord Slytherin.
  • Having observed Harry all year, Voldemort realizes that Harry has his memories. Since long distance time travel is thought to be impossible, he comes to the reasonable conclusion that Harry somehow absorbed the soul fragment in his scar. Likewise Lucius Malfoy, whose time as a professional duelist has given him the ability to tell a lot about a person by analyzing their casting and dueling techniques, figures out that both Lord Slytherin and Harry Potter duel like Voldemort does and assumes they're new incarnations of him from other horcruxes.
• In Faery Heroes there's a vigilante known as Mr. Fox going around robbing and killing Death Eaters. Amelia Bones manages to question Mr. Fox when she almost captures him after he sacks Azkaban. His comments about the Unforgivables and the spell to cast the Dark Mark being "burned into his mind" and his disgust at Death Eaters going free after the war, lead Amelia to suspect he's a muggleborn who was Obliviated improperly during the last war after his family was killed. In reality, Mr. Fox and his unknown associates are Harry, Hermione, and Luna who've been sent back in time to prevent the extinction of the Fae and kill Voldemort.
• Practically everybody gets the wrong end of the stick at least once in Harry Potter and the Power of Paranoia, from Harry believing that Remus is in league with Death Eaters to Voldemort deciding that he and his minions have been stealth-obliviated after Harry hides his identity as the Boy-Who-Lived via a Fidelius Charm.
• How Friendship Accidentally Saved Magical Britain: Sirius Black is convinced his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange made a trio of Horcruxes after two are discovered in places significant to her, being the Black family's home and her personal bank vault. As per canon, Bellatrix didn't make any Horcruxes and they both belong to Voldemort; the fact that more than one Horcrux ended up in a location connected to the Black family was unintended on their owner's part.
• In Moratorium, Harry thinks Professor Quirrell is a pedophile. She's wrong.
• Seventh Horcrux: Thanks to a combination of Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, misinformation, and sheer insanity, Voldemort (as both Harry and himself) often makes widely off-mark conclusions.
  • He never sees Gilderoy Lockhart as the fraud that he is, instead interpreting his incompetency as Obfuscating Stupidity, and resorts to setting a deadly Acromantula on the man to stop him from staying on as the DADA teacher.
  • Welcomes Sirius Black into his inner circle, since the Wizarding World claims that Sirius is his right-hand man and Voldemort assumes that it's true. He rationalizes the fact that he can't remember Sirius ever being one of his followers due to his first defeat and old age, and believes that he never gave Sirius the Dark Mark because he trusted him so much that such a test of loyalty was unnecessary. Sirius lets him believe it because it allows him sabotage the Death Eaters from the inside.
  • Thought Draco and Hermione had a thing going on, and sees the same "UST" between Sirius and Snape (who, despite being on the same side, are Arch-Enemies). As a consequence, he is completely oblivious to the obvious attraction between Ron and Hermione.
  • Thinks Dumbledore went to Durmstrang after learning about his former friendship with Gellert Grindelwald, who Voldemort believes Dumbledore killed to take out competition for taking over the world. Dumbledore attended and graduated from Hogwarts (obviously) and didn't meet and befriend Grindelwald until after he was expelled from Durmstrang. Not to mention, Grindelwald is alive and currently incarcerated in his personal prison Nurmengard (though it's entirely possible that information has been kept quiet to dissuade people from trying to break him out).
• Harry Potter's grandfather in Wind Shear listens to him explain fairly vaguely as to where he came from, including that everyone he knows are "gone, as if they never existed" because of some horrible magic someone was attempting. Charlus, knowing Harry is a Potter, concludes that an entire branch of the family was wiped out and Harry is the only one who remembers them due to interfering with the ritual that did the deed.
• This AU speculates what might happen if Harry had learned that Professor Snape and his aunt Petunia had known each other early on, leading to him concluding that Snape hates him because he's madly in love with her. He keeps this "knowledge" as his secret weapon against Snape until his fifth year, where he drops the bombshell in front of the professor and several others. The result? Snape goes into cardiac arrest from pure rage (leading Harry to assume he was right), Remus, Sirius, and the Weasleys are howling with laughter, and everyone else is just horribly confused.

Haruhi Suzumiya

• Sasaki in Kyon: Big Damn Hero tends to get hit by this trope fairly often due to her rational nature and not believing in the supernatural (having never been presented conclusive proof of time travel, aliens, etc.). For example, after witnessing Kyon's proficiency as a martial artist^note obtained by training a few decades during the last weeks Sasaki accurately deduces that he must have trained for years to reach that level of skill, but she makes the reasonable yet incorrect assumption he knew how to fight when they met in middle school and remained quiet about it because he's not the type to brag.

House of the Dragon

• The Fate of the Dowager Queen: A combination of her sheltered and pious upbringing and sexual repression due to an unhappy marriage means that Alicent is completely blind to the truth of Rhaenyra and Laenor's marriage in the previous timeline — namely, that it was a sham and that Laenor was gay. Instead, she believes that Laenor was madly in love with Rhaenyra and that was the reason why he was okay with her having bastard children and passing them off as his. Even after Rhaenyra tries to subtly tell her the truth, she still doesn't get it, and it takes Lucerys openly and bluntly stating that Laenor has a "husband" at Joffrey's birth for it to finally sink in. The realization is, hilariously, earth-shattering to her.

Infinity Train

• In Lake's New Normal, Jesse's father believes that Lake (the Mirror Self of a teenage girl named Tulip) is omitting some information from her backstory, which is absolutely correct. However, he believes that the main thing she's hiding is that she forced Tulip to swap places with her, and the human is now trapped in the Mirror World serving as Lake's reflection. Lake angrily corrects him on this, saying she's probably safe back in Minnesota and that she'll give him the means to check that information. The real thing she's hiding is the fact that she killed two people during her journey on the train, but she does mentally admit that his accusation was her original plan for entering the real world. It just didn't work.

Jem

• In A Song of Grumbling & Cotton Candy, when Pizzazz sees some of Jem's clothes in Jerrica's closet, she immediately jumps to the conclusion that Jem and Jerrica are a couple, not knowing that Jerrica is Jem.

The Legend of Zelda

• Early attempts to figure out the series' chronology led to most fans subscribing to the split timeline explanation. When Nintendo finally revealed the official timeline for the franchise's 25th anniversary, fans were corrected that the timeline split in Ocarina of Time, due to the adventures of child and adult Link. However, fans failed to predict that Nintendo had also constructed a third split wherein the Hero of Time fails.
• In Tangled In Time Link attempts to find his father after being separated from him for seven years. His neighbors tell him that his father, Mr. Dragmire hasn't been seen since Ganondorf's takeover and that many of the men surrounding Castle Town were captured and are Ganondorf's prisoners. The last time Link saw his father was outside of Castle Town and knows that Mr.Dragmire was searching for him when they were forcibly separated. So Link and his neighbors conclude that Mr.Dragmire is one of Ganondorf's prisoners, not knowing that Mr.Dragmire is Ganondorf.

The Loud House

• In The Nightmare House, each chapter sees the Loud siblings having a nightmare. When it comes to Lily's chapter, due to not understanding what a mortgage is but being able to comprehend that having a new baby around (i.e. her) makes it more difficult for her parents to pay it based on a conversation she overheard, her nightmare has Mor-Gaj the monster come to devour all her parents belongings before going on to eat her.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• The Devil's in the details: When it becomes public knowledge that Peter is Stark's secret heir, people naturally conclude that he is his secret son, forcing him and Matt to do a paternity test and publicly prove that Matt is his actual father.
• Iron Maiden: Days of Future Past: Tony and his daughter are going over his future suit designs when they come across the Iron Spider suit. Since neither of them knows about Spider-man (Morgan is only vaguely aware of him and knows he wears spandex), they look over the specs^note Designed for high flexibility and mobility rather than heavy armor, melee weapons only, instant-kill mode, darker than Tony's usual stuff, and obvious spider theme along with the fact it was last online in 2023 and come to the conclusion that it must have been made for Black Widow.
• In Peter Parker's Field Trip (Of course it's to Stark Industries), while Peter does work for Tony Stark, the fact that Stark Industries has a policy that forbids high school students under 18 for liability reasons means that his school immediately assumes that he's lying about it and the contracts they were given as proof are forgeries. However, rather than even attempting to verify the information, they threw the papers out, so Tony threatens to sue them for contract violation.
• A somewhat darker example than most in Spider-Who, an AU that introduces Mary Jane Watson to the MCU (Michelle Jones still exists as a separate character); at one point Mary Jane tells Spider-Man (still unaware of his true identity) that she has feelings for him and for someone else, and Peter assumes that the other person is Harry Osborn as Harry is rich, successful and confident in himself, when in reality the other person Mary Jane has feelings for is Peter Parker.

Miraculous Ladybug

• Hawkmoth Gets A Reference: After the Sentimonster Reality Check completes his mission of helping Marinette and Adrien communicate, his creator Azur Royal decides to let him live as the the Agreste family's new son, a stark contrast from Hawkmoth or Mayura who dispelled their sentimonsters like Sentibug when they are no longer needed or turn against them. In the tie-in chat fic, this leads to Alya to conclude that Azur Royal is an Anti-Hero that stole the Peacock Miraculous from Hawkmoth and is skirting around the law. She's unaware that Azur Royal is Gabriel Agreste AKA Hawkmoth, his decision to spar and adopt Reality Check the result of noticeable character growth as he improves his connection with the Butterfly Miraculous.
• Leave for Mendeleiev: Miss Bustier worries that transferring into Ms. Mendeleiev's class has been hard on Marinette, as she can tell that Marinette's tense when she visits her classroom to help her father give a baking lesson. What she doesn't realize is that Marinette has been thriving in her new class, having gotten away from her long-time bully and being protected from her by Mendeleiev — unlike Bustier herself, who pressured Marinette to 'take the high road' and 'set a good example' by enduring Chloé's cruelty. She's not tense because of anything her new teacher did, but because she's returned to a tense environment... one that's gained a reputation for being 'the Akuma Classroom' due to how many akuma have been born from Chloé's unchecked antics.
• In Outfoxed, Alya is testing her glamour-breaking powers with Ladybug and says "Marinette", which causes Ladybug to nearly stumble over and respond in panic. This causes Alya to guess that not only is Marinette a contact of Ladybug (hence why Ladybug knows when Alya needs to talk to her) but that she also has a crush on her. Ladybug's blushing at her statement only helps her case.
• In Scarlet Lady, Hawkmoth sees how she hangs back and avoids engaging "The Bubbler" and praises her strategy, believing that she was protecting her Miraculous. In reality, Scarlet just... didn't care about the Bubbler threatening to send all the guests into the atmosphere.
• In Seducing the Enemy, Adrien notices that Marinette's behaviour is quite suspect, and realizes her purse is just the right size for holding a kwami — which leads him to the belief that she's Hawkmoth. Meanwhile, Gabriel (who is Hawkmoth) hears his son speak of seducing Hawkmoth away from evil and believes Adrien has a crush on his villainous identity.
• In A Small but Stubborn Fire,
  • Marinette tells her mother that Gabriel and Nathalie must be having some secret fling as they disappear to dark corners, not knowing that Gabriel is Hawk Moth and Nathalie is his loyal follower.
  • When Sabine decides she wants to talk to Nathalie about Marinette's situation, Tom is hesitant on a number of reasons, one being Nathalie's coldness. Sabine just tells him she isn't a villain.
  • Though her anger over Marinette sneaking a boy into her room is understandable, the whole moment Sabine accusing Cat Noir of getting cozy with her daughter and asking Marinette if she is trying to get pregnant, all the while Marinette and Cat are getting increasingly embarrassed. Cat rather meekly decides he needs to leave. Sabine gets upset that he runs to avoid her wrath.
• There's More Magic Out There:
  • After overhearing Alix complain about the full moon and torn clothes, as well as realizing she's starting to smell like wet dog, Juleka becomes convinced that she's also a supernatural being and is a werewolf, and tells the others so that they can spy on her. While correct that she's part of the magical world, Alix is actually a witch. It's Chloé, who happened to be around during those moments, that's the werewolf. Alix was the one complaining because she's the one Chloé entrusts to make sure she doesn't cause any damage when in a feral full moon state.
  • Ladybug is initially convinced that the Akuma Wicked Witch is Chloé, due to the latter's volatile nature and having been just been publicly humiliated and effectively disowned by her mother Audrey. When she and Chat Noir find Chloé, they discover that she was akumatized into Little Red, a skittish Broken Bird that sees the Witch as her sole protector. The Wicked Witch is actually Alix, who became akumatized out of anger upon learning what happened to Chloé: Ladybug is at a loss as to why Alix would care so much about the school Alpha Bitch's feelings, unaware that the two are close friends on the cusp of dating, much less that Alix and Chloé are actually witch and familiar.
• In this story, Marinette reveals to the rest of their class that Adrien had previously told her that he knew Lila was deceiving everyone, but insisted that "So long as both you and I know the truth, does it really matter?" Alya, Nino and the others swiftly draw the conclusion that Adrien pretended he was on her side in order to manipulate her... because he knew Lila wasn't actually a liar. So, they're Right for the Wrong Reasons, and Adrien finds himself condemned for being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing while Lila gets to continue Playing the Victim Card.

Mulan

• In the one-shot know your place, Shang observes Mulan's general softness and awkwardness compared to the other recruits and concludes that "Ping" is not a man...but an underage boy. He's just a little off target.

My Hero Academia

• In Are you my dad?, All for One matches what little Inko would tell Izuku about his father: Tall, light hair (when he still had it), and it would be dangerous to be a family with him. Izuku himself notes that the similarity of their Quirks is the most convincing factor. All for One agrees with the assessment and explains he can't be sure because of the brain damage caused by his fight with All Might.
• Changing Gears: Aizawa knows that Shoto is only using half of his Quirk but the boy's burn scar causes him to assume the boy has to be careful not to burn himself or others when using the fire half. In reality, Shoto was burned by his mother when she had a psychotic break and he refuses to use his fire to spite his abusive father.
• Toward A Bright Future: Class 1-B has noticed a new student hanging around Class 1-A more often, not wearing the school uniform. Vlad King, when asked, tells them to find out for themselves to teach them about information gathering, but when Monoma declares that, as a Class 1-A student, she'd be too haughty to answer any questions, he suggests kidnapping and interrogating her instead. However, when they finally get the young woman in front of them, they find out to their horror that she is Y/N, Class 1-A's teaching assistant - as in, a faculty member.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• In Friendship is Witchcraft, when Fluttershy's attempt to free the demon Smooze fails, she starts to doubt Smooze's existence. In truth, Smooze is already free.
• In Hail to the King (Qwapdo), the human in King Sombra's body makes several assumptions based on the idea that he's actually in a coma and is dreaming everything around him. His idea that Shining Armor (who identified himself as prince of the Crystal Empire) is his son makes Cadence facepalm.
• In Heart of the Forest (a species swap AU), Applejack knows what ponies look like, but hadn't seen one before, so she assumes Discord is a pony when she meets him. She's half-right: he's a hinny.^note That's the offspring of a jenny and a stallion, the opposite of a mule.
• Over the Edge and Through the Wood:
  • Troy is a human who finds himself in Equestria. Due to a Language Barrier, he only has limited communication with the ponies and can only make educated guesses on their society and behavior.
  • When he witnesses the Apple family at the dinner table, while he correctly pegs Granny Smith as Apple Bloom's grandmother, he assumes Applejack and Big MacIntosh are her parents instead of her siblings. He also thinks Rarity is Sweetie Belle's mother instead of her sister.
  • A cockatrice petrifies a deer and then targets Troy. Thanks to his (at the time unknown) Anti-Magic ability, the creature's stare only renders him temporarily blind instead of turning him to stone. Despite this, he manages to kill it, which then causes the deer to revert to normal. As he has no idea what a cockatrice is, he assumes it sprayed venom into his eyes, and that the deer has the ability to turn itself to stone as a defense mechanism.
• "Rarity's Case", a fanart of "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)", has Twilight misunderstanding Rarity's scream of "How did I get all these crabs?!"
• Solitary Pinion:
  • A 14-year-old girl is brought into Equestria and transformed into a pony. Her inability to use her new body is seen by doctors to be the result of a lifetime of abuse, and she can't tell the truth because she can't even use her own tongue.
  • Also, the pony doctors specifically discard transformation magic because Victoria is showing signs of sustaining massive internal injuries and then having them healed, which Equestrian transformation magic wouldn't produce. Whatever magic transformed Victoria evidently follows different rules.
• Sunset Shimmer Has Crabs has Sunset call her friends to tell them that she won't be attending that day because she has crabs, the news of which quickly spreads throughout the entire school. When her friends show up after class to give her emotional support, assuming that she has the STI, the punchline is naturally that her home has somehow become infested with various species of the crustacean and she's struggling to get rid of them.
• The Writing on the Wall:
  • Adventurer Archaeologist Daring Do assumes that the ancient, well-defended, intimidating structure built to last forever in the middle of the desert is a tomb, and that the writing inside in multiple unknown languages is a curse meant to scare away tomb robbers. Entirely reasonable assumptions for the Adventurer Archaeologist which would serve her well otherwise, but unfortunately, the building isn't a tomb, and the writing isn't a curse. It is a containment facility for radioactive nuclear waste, and the writing is a warning concerning its contents.
  • When the expedition members start falling sick, they follow standard operating procedure for mysterious, unknown illness; Quarantine everyone that might be afflicted, and burn the dead. With the reveal that the sickness is actually radiation poisoning, those decisions become the worst things they could've done. Radiation sickness is not contagious, so they should've gone far away to prevent further exposure. Radiation is not a virus or bacteria, and can't be killed by fire, so burning the corpse will just result in radioactive ash spreading with the wind.

Naruto

• Blackkat's Reverse:
  • An extrapolating Hiruzen assumes that Uzumaki Kurama is Naruto's maternal uncle by way of Kumo, having fled the Cloud for Uzushio right before its destruction. Kurama does his best to maintain the illusion, as he fears the consequences if it were known he's actually a time-travelling Tailed Beast stuck in a human body.
  • Being familiar with the Kyuubi's chakra, Kushina isn't fooled by her "brother's" act, but thinks him an embodiment of the beast's unsealed chakra.
• In A Blond and a Redhead Walk Into a Chunin Exam, Naruto and Karin get into an argument about whether or not Naruto is an Uzumaki due to his blond hair. Kakashi vaguely explains to them that Naruto does have Uzumaki lineage going back generations on his mother's side, and that the reason he has blond hair is because his father's genes were more dominant. After Sakura tells her mother this, she comes to the conclusion that Naruto is actually a descendant of Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage ^note Her theory is that Naruto is the grandson of Nawaki Senju, grandson of Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki, who was rumored to have had sexual intercourse with a women a few years older than him. But since he was about 12 years old at the time and he died shortly afterwards, it was hushed up so as to not drag the poor boy's name into the dirt.
• Escape From The Hokage's Hat: During his mission report to Mei on Tsunade's team, Ao has most of his conclusions end up as this. Tsunade is training Naruto since he is a Jinchuuriki who spent years being mistreated and Konoha needs ace in the hole after the invasion crippled them? The first half isn't wrong, but the training is purely for Naruto's sake, as it would incentive to village not to banish him (and if they do anyway, he'll be strong enough to care for himself). Naruto and Hinata are too close to be teammates? Correct. So, Hinata is seducing Naruto to increase his loyalty to Konoha! No, it's normal teenage romance. Tsunade leaving the village and her rather random traveling path is a confusion strategy to help protect Konoha. Yes, it is a confusion strategy.... but to confuse anyone working with Konoha, not other villages.
• Because she doesn't know about Shadow Clones (and has never seen more than one Naruto at a time), Sakura in The Escapologist thinks that every time she pops one of Naruto's clones, she's sending him to some far off location with a new bloodline ability.
• I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again!!: The Hyuuga Clan believes "The Hinata Massacre" was a result of Hinata finally snapping from all the pressure put on her, scaring the shit out everybody, especially those who know they are partly to blame. In reality, Hinata, having woken up without husband Naruto in her bed and reasonably horny, rampaged her way through the Hyuuga Clan to his location, putting a tenth of the clan in the hospital in the process. She hadn't realized where she was or the fact that she had time traveled until she caught up to Naruto. Hinata finds the whole thing hilarious, and plays along with a very innocent smile on her face.
• In LATE Naruto, Sasuke puzzles through Naruto's suddenly more impressive skills, his unrealistic knowledge of others, and the teachers dislike of him and comes to the conclusion Naruto is a full-fledged shinobi sent by the Hokage to keep an eye on the class that's full of clan heirs. His knowledge and skills are due to having several years of being a shinobi under his belt. The teachers' dislike of him is because they don't want a shinobi infiltrating their class. Even Naruto's poor grades and frequent absences can be explained as being bored with classes he's already taken. In reality, Naruto's from a year in the future and everything else comes from being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki.
• For a brief time in Orochimama, Kakashi believed the woman who resembles a female Orochimaru is someone trying to frame the Sannin somehow, thinking that Orochimaru could easily pass himself off as a woman and wouldn't make such an amateur mistake as to just look like himself genderswapped.
  • Everyone assumes "Orochitama's" apparently more benevolent nature is actually part of some long term plot to manipulate others into seeing her as a benevolent ruler, such as Kabuto noting that making the change after turning into a woman allows her to more easily portray herself as an "innocent, overly busy woman". In reality, a fan of the series possessed Orochimaru right as he changed bodies for the first time and is trying to remake Sound into an actual hidden village.
• A Teacher's Glory:
  • Team 7 realizes they are Being Watched and counter-spy to find Hinata and Kabuto watching them. It's amusing but sensible that Sasuke believes Kabuto to be working for Itachi, but hilarious that they assume Hinata to be another of Sasuke's fangirls.
  • Later on, Team 7 goes to Ino's flower shop and requests something for new mothers. Ino first assumes that Sasuke knocked up a girl, and then guesses he got as many as three girls pregnant. In actuality, he has three cats expecting litters of kittens.
  • Ino's subject to this quite a bit. When she sees Sakura giving Haku an assessing glance she wonders if Sakura is secretly gay, and then Sakura takes offense at this and spends the next chapter freaking Ino out with blatant advances.
• In Time and Again, Naruto's errant behavior tips Kakashi off that something's wrong with him. He eventually confronts Naruto when he thinks he's worked out Naruto's secret — he can see the future. Naruto finds the idea hilarious, probably because of how Kakashi was so near and yet so far.
• In Unbiased, Sasuke learns that Naruto is a jinchuuriki and puzzles out that Madara controlled the Kyuubi via the sharingan after obtaining his brother's eyes. Between that and knowing Itachi is after Naruto, he thinks Itachi wants Sasuke to obtain Mangekyo so he can steal his eyes and control the Kyuubi
• What You Knead: After meeting Kakashi and Naruto telling them he owned a bakery and had been in the reserves for the last few years (which usually doesn’t happen until shinobi are in their forties), Sasuke and Sakura assume their new teacher is half blind, pushing fifty, and out of shape. Kakashi notes that they’ll need to work on what they assume, since in the field it could have gotten them killed.
• A Wrinkle in Time has many people assume numerous, logical reasons as to why Naruto, Shikamaru, and Lee are so skilled. The three, obviously unwilling to divulge that they're actually from ten years in the future, end up running with most of it.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• A Crown of Stars: After finding out that Misato was leading the troops captured his fleet under the orders of Shinji and Asuka, Jinnai concludes that the Nerv crew returned from Instrumentality several years ago and have spent the whole time plotting against him. It is not an illogical conclusion but it is still completely wrong because he does not know about the God-Emperor of an alternate dimension brought Shinji and Asuka's families back two months ago and lent both pilots an army to overthrow Jinnai.
• In Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88), Misato believes Kaji is peering at her cleavage when he's merely checking if she's still wearing her cross necklace. Kaji humorously notes she predictably leapt "to the wrong -but perfectly understandable- conclusion".
• In The Second Try, when Asuka's synchro ratio drops, Ritsuko blames it on Asuka getting upset after Zeruel defeated her. A reasonable conclusion, since she doesn't know that Asuka "went through a hell that led to the destruction of the world, recently lost her child, then for some time her lover as well, now probably another close person, and is about to face that aforementioned hell once again."
• In Thousand Shinji, when the plans of SEELE have been destroyed, Keel Lorenz thinks that Ikari is the culprit. It was true that an Ikari had destroyed their plans, but he was thinking of the wrong Ikari. It was Shinji, not Gendo, who ruined them, but he had no way to know that.

One Piece

• In Coby's Choice, the World Government thinks Nami's ability to control the weather is from a Devil Fruit. It's not, but Coby has no intention of correcting them.
• Though a Bird Can't Fly, That Doesn't Mean It Never Will features a universe where Kuina ended up blind instead of dead, and Zoro helps her become a talented swordsmen nonetheless. That's the backstory/prologue. The real story is Kuina misunderstanding Zoro's loyalty to Luffy as a forced slavery. Hilarity Ensues when we're shown outrageous Imagine Spots revolving around "murderous, chessmaster, Manipulative Bastard" Luffy. Kuina is understandably shocked when she finally figures out Luffy's a kind, Idiot Hero, and that Zoro (and "Prince Sanji's") loyalty is genuine.

The Owl House

• In A Hero Forged, Lilith and most of the people at Hexside all assume that Luz is Eda's half-human daughter and ignore all claims to the contrary.
• In Learning How to Be a Princess, Edric and Emira theorize that Luz is the half-witch daughter of the human who was sighted on the Boiling Isles around fourteen years prior, and conclude that she's the civilian identity of the Golden Guard. They're correct on the former, but while the later is a reasonable assumption based on the magical prowess she's displayed, Luz isn't the Golden Guard. Amity does point this out herself, but uses timing as a reason why this isn't the case (the Golden Guard very publicly left the Isles for a mission months prior) rather than reveal Luz's actual secret (she's the daughter of Emperor Belos).
• Legend of the Gravesfield Witch has people from outside the Hex Squad try to figure out what's going on with Luz. One initial assumption is that, due to Reality-check being near a Indian Reservation, that the completely different Luz who returned was a skinwalker who replaced her, and that when later a more 'normal' Luz comes back with bruises and a scar with a bunch of visiting friends and her mom took in a relative that Luz and her friends escaped from the Skinwalkers and that the 'relative' was a good skinwalker. While Luz was replaced, it was by a Basilisk from another world, and her friends came from that same other world. She was in that world, not kidnapped or anything.
• Moonshadow: In chapter 36 when The Collector uses Luz’s portal door to visit Camila’s workplace in the human realm, two vet workers believe their skin and clothes to be part of a costume.
• In Of A Sleep-Deprived Witch And A Crush, Luz assumes Amity has a crush on Willow, but was afraid to ask her to Grom because she didn't want to risk ruining their healing friendship. While it's not an unreasonable conclusion to draw from the information available to her, in reality, it's Luz herself Amity is falling for.

Persona 5

• * To Foil Haru Okumura's Evil Scheme: Ren, after meeting Akechi Goro and suspecting he is the mysterious Black Mask, is suspicious of anyone that might be hiding their real selves under a polite facade, which leads him to distrust Haru when she first joins, and thinks that she is getting close to Ryuji because she thinks he's the weakest link. It turns out that Haru and Ryuji have been developing feelings for each other, and Haru had trying to get to know him as a friend at first like she did with everyone. Although Ann and Makoto thought that Ren was being an idiot for not noticing the signs (like Haru sitting on Ryuji's lap when they were traversing Mementos after Ren inadvertently help them confess their feelings) when he confide with them about his earlier suspicions.

Pokémon

• Hyphen:
  • Twice at the end of Chapter 18. First crosses with Dramatic Irony, wherein Astra and May dismiss Team Aqua as a potential threat. The second is invoked, as they launch into crazy conspiracy theories about the important papers that the Devon worker was carrying.
  • In Chapter 28, after her class ends, Roxanne attempts to talk to Astra about her Telepathy. But due to being in a lecture hall, she decides to be circuitous for the sake of subtlety. This has the unfortunate side effect of Astra mistakenly believing that Roxanne is talking about her supposed albinism.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Lost Tracks of Time: Several characters note how caring Sneasler is towards rescuer newcomers Ingo and Emmet. She goes out of her way to help them, understands their train lingo, and even mimics their pointing habits and speeches. On top of this, Ingo and Emmet are both Sneasels, and Ingo is even the same variant that can evolve into a Sneasler. The common assumption is that Ingo and Emmet are her younger brothers. Sneasler denies the claim, but neither Ingo nor Emmet do at any point.
  • And the reason Sneasler acts so familiar with Ingo and Emmet? Noble pokemon retain memories from previous nobles, and she remembers Warden Ingo. Since reincarnation exists in this world, she assumes that Ingo the Sneasel is the reincarnation of Warden Ingo, and he thinks he's human because he retained some Past-Life Memories. The truth is that Warden Ingo was transformed into a Sneasel and time travelled to her time period.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: Several examples.
  • Misty assumes Ash to be a Fighting-Heart bloodliner after seeing him use Counter. This turns out to be wrong, but given the limited knowledge she had at the time, it was a logical conclusion to draw.
  • Ash assumes Team Rocket is still after Pikachu in this timeline, because he has no way of knowing about their real mission. They, of course, are only too happy to keep him in the dark.
  • After Squirtle has his memories restored, he assumes the Charmander travelling with Ash is Charizard's offspring. Of course, he had no way of guessing the truth.
  • When Iris sees Team Rocket stalking Ash, she thinks they're planning to eat him. Considering she grew up in the wild, it's understandable why she assumed that.
  • A possibly invoked example in the Gladion Interlude: Gladion's Umbreon tries to point his trainer to a group of girls in swimsuits playing at a beach. Gladion then comments that Umbreon would prefer him to peek on them rather than reading his Alphanegan Chronicles. Umbreon was actually trying to tell him that his sister Lillie was one of them, but he slips up and nods, and then realizes what Gladion said. Cue Face Palm.
  • When Serena sees Ash and Red side by side, she assumes they're cousins, and dismissed the possibility of Ash having siblings, given that such a thing never came up when she was with Ash before the series. This is assumed by Paul as well, due to them not sharing a last name.
  • Jessie and Meowth assume in the 2018 April Fools day chapter that Coprophilia means being attracted to Officer Jenny.
  • Later, they ask Giovanni if Ash is his son. Giovanni amusingly denies it, while also revealing that he does have a red-haired son somewhere else.
  • When he spots Red's Clefairy trying to approach Iris' Fraxure, Pikachu assumes the worst and tries to do a preemptive attack. They're left dumbfounded when it turns out Clefairy just wanted to apologize for his previous behavior.
  • During the adaption of movie 1, Ash doesn't have any memories of the incident, but he assumes it went perfectly well because no one died. Anyone whose seen the movies know that someone did in fact die: Ash himself.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

• Heartstrings (Registered users only):
  • Due to a wish carrying over from a previous timeline that allows Madoka to see bonds as literal strings binding people together, she can see Homura's bond with her when they meet in class that is unfathomably large, complicated, and tragic. Naturally shocked, Madoka comes to the most logical conclusion she can: that Homura is her Guardian Angel. Homura is stunned when Madoka asks her if she's this, and is quick to clarify it after school.
  • When this Homura later meets up with Mami under different circumstances and demonstrates her skill level to her and makes mention of her years of experience as a magical girl while leaving out that she's a time traveler, Mami, who craves companionship and sees things that she doesn't know in Homura's skills, assumes that Homura is older than her. This is then followed by Mami asking Homura to be her sempai, which flummoxes Homura and leads to an ongoing joke after it is clarified about 'Homura-Sensei'.
• In Les Fleurs du Mal, this provides Oriko's main motivation: having experienced the all-forgiving kindness and bliss of the Law of the Cycle, such that it even washed away her own horrible actions, she knows that it represents a great good in the universe and should be restored. However, it's this same impression of the Law that causes her to come to a horribly inaccurate conclusion regarding its current human state as Madoka Kaname: that being, she believes that Madoka may well be merely an ordinary person, or a fabrication of Homura's deluded omnipotence, or any manner of other things. This is because her mental idea of what the Law of the Cycle must be like doesn't match up with her knowledge of Madoka; she can't conceive of the idea that the Law of the Cycle's human form would be anything less than perfect.
• Plan 47: Madoka and Sayaka, while reading into Homura's strange mixture of warnings, hesitations, and odd reaction to affection that comes as a result of her Time Loop Fatigue and come to the completely logical conclusion..that Homura is being mind controlled and her abrupt adjustments, as a result of the aforementioned plan 47's reactions being unexpected are a result of her trying to fight off the mind control and warn them.
• In Resonance Days, the heroes are all wracking their brains trying to figure out why Oblivion is so interested in capturing Kyoko Sakura, since Kyoko is a fairly average magical girl who just arrived in the afterlife and hasn't done anything worthy of notice, while Oblivion is the millenia-old leader of a continent-spanning cult. The best they can figure out is that someone Kyoko offended in her first life has somehow gained Oblivion's favour and is gunning for revenge. What no-one knows is that Oblivion is actually a Puppet Queen for her Dragon-in-Chief, Reibey, and has been regularily replaced over the centuries. The latest Oblivion is someone who used to be close to Kyoko in life, and Reibey is hoping to use her to keep Oblivion more under his control.
• The Soulmate Timeline:
  • When trying to figure out the nature of a Shared Dream she had with Homura which featured the aftermath of a battle with Walpurgisnacht, Madoka and Mami come to the conclusion that Homura has battled a Walpurgisnacht multiple times... because she is incredibly unlucky and that her odd behavior comes from having lived through two Walpurgisnacht battles where she was the sole survivor. Being a time traveler fighting the same Walpurgisnacht again and again doesn't cross either of their minds.
  • When Kyoko demands that Suzumebachi tell her why she's kidnapped so many young girls, Suzumebachi shoots back that it's the same thing Kyoko does. Kyoko takes this to mean she captures young girls to directly feed to Familiars in order to grow new Witches for Grief Seeds, which causes Kyoko to swear off Familiar farming entirely just so she can stop any such comparisons in her mind. What Suzumebachi actually meant is that she's cultivating new Witches directly by manipulating vulnerable young girls into becoming Magical Girls, then forcing them to Witch Out and harvest their Grief Seeds, but Kyoko doesn't even consider this possibility because she doesn't know the true nature of the link between Magical Girls and Witches.
  • Meiyui thinks that some Magical Girls she once knew were likely killed by newly appearing Witches, as shortly after their disappearances, there was a flare of curse energy and new Witches were in the area after. A logical conclusion if you don’t know that Magical Girls can turn into Witches.

Reborn! (2004)

• Vigilante Tendency practically runs on this. A series of events leads to the vigilante group known as the Peaceful Namimori Committee taking a vacation at Mafia Land. There, they get into conflict with the Difo Family, the most powerful crime family in Asia, who, believing them to be associates of the Yakuza family Momokyokai (which they technically are, seeing as they took over their base, converted them to vigilantism, and then made them a branch of their group), demands that they give them 50% of their profits as regular tribute lest they be wiped out, and hands them their financial information. Tsuna promptly gives said information to Shoichi, who financially cripples them within a week. Since Tsuna never gave out the name of the Peaceful Namimori Committee nor did he specify what their actual occupation was, this leads to rumors of a new, unknown power in Asia — and assassins in Namimori.

The Rising of the Shield Hero

• Appears everywhere in Ambition of the Red Princess. Malty regularly makes decent but inaccurate guesses about Naofumi's world such as assuming he was a Cinderella type character due to being used to sleeping on the floor, not knowing about futons. Or hearing that Naofumi learned of her world through a book and assumes he read a heretical version of the legend of the four cardinal heroes and that wars are fought over such things in his world. Meanwhile, Naofumi determines that the king and queen of Melromarc are a pair of Magnificent Bastards who summoned all four heroes to stave off an invasion by Stiltvelt and functionally hold the world hostage to keep the other kingdom off their backs. Even Malty, who's certain she knows otherwise starts wondering if he's right.

RWBY

• An Arc for every season: During the fic's one-chapter take on the "Jaundice" arc, Cardin and his team are confused that Jaune doesn't show any reaction to their bullying unless another member of Team RWBY-J is present, at which point he plays everything off as "guys being guys". Cardin eventually reasons that Jaune is doing this so he can maintain some level of masculinity and respect in order to impress the girls, which prompts him to go out of his way to make sure that one of them manages to witness Team CRDL's actions to embarrass Jaune. The real reason Jaune is acting this way is because all the girls are highly-powerful Maidens who would absolutely engage in Disproportionate Retribution just short of murder if they learn he's being bullied; Jaune himself tries to explain this, but Cardin doesn't take it seriously until it's too late.
• Fanfics by Coeur Al'Aran tend to run on this:
  • Professor Arc and its sequel Headmaster Arc: The story is the result of Jaune becoming a professor at Beacon as his falsified credentials have made him seem too experienced to be a student. Much of the humor and plot is drawn from people making wrong assumptions based off his supposed expertise. Even Cinder, one of the few to realize that Jaune's credentials are falsified, draws the conclusion that he's likewise a criminal with an agenda. She is technically correct in that his falsified credentials are illegal, and he has an agenda — it's just that it's nowhere near what she thinks it is.
  • White Sheep:
    • A significant chunk of the humor comes from... pretty much everyone running headlong into this trope. Everything from missed social cues, to characters' motivations, to their parentage is open to the wildest, most outlandish theories as each person struggles to make sense of what is going on. Such as the Running Gag of Jaune complementing people's knees (after taking Ruby's comment about her "normal knees" to mean something) or the fact that he ended up in a relationship with Yang due to assuming her joking "It's a date!" was serious.
    • The second time Ozpin reveals to Jaune the truth behind Salem, he and his associates believe that thanks to their tireless work, the last twenty-five years have seen the Grimm barely beaten back, only for Salem to launch a diabolical new plan to target children to deprive Remnant of the next generation of Huntsmen and women while seeking info on fairy tales to keep ahead of her foes. What Jaune and the audience know is that Salem has done nothing to the people of Remnant during the last twenty-five years because she's been raising kids, the "children targeting" was an attempt to get baby supplies (since stores that sell diapers are not common in the Grimmlands), and the search for fairy tales was because her kids wanted things to read.
    • Ozpin thinks that the Grimm-like humanoid "Hentacle" is hunting Jaune Arc based on how many other Grimm are going after Jaune Arc, how many other students escaped from Hentacle unharmed, and how Hentacle himself said he wasn't after Ruby during the incident where he held her hostage. But Hentacle is Jaune's Game Face, Jaune is unwilling to hurt his friends, and the Grimm after him so far were either drawn to him because of his half-Grimm nature or sent by his mother Salem to retrieve him.
  • A Rabbit Among Wolves: Jaune is mistakenly believed to have overpowered and defeated Adam, making him a certifiable Badass, when all he did was get supremely lucky due to a fluke. Yet anyone who knows of him post-victory know of him as the supremely brilliant mastermind of the White Fang, with all of his plans to make them a legitimate, peaceful organization part of some subtle plot to prepare for a destructive revolution.
  • More Played for Drama here, but in Relic Of The Future Jaune is believed to be a descendant of the Ashari instead of a time traveler, by both Salem and Ozpin. They still think he's an invaluable asset to their respective sides of the Forever War, but they could not be more wrong about his origins.
• at least it was here: When Jaune walks into the kitchen without a shirt on, everyone sees that he has a long line of hickies along his chest. Since everyone (except Jaune) knows that Pyrrha is in love with him, they angrily order him to put a shirt on, hoping Pyrrha won't notice. They are unaware that Pyrrha was the one who gave him the hickies. As an extension of this, both Jaune and Pyrrha are convinced that the other isn't interested in dating and refuse to even bring up the idea out of fear of ruining their friendship, while everyone else (especially Nora) wonder when they'll get their act together.
• In A Monster's Marriage, Roman Torchwick believes that Jaune Arc is a crime boss who has managed to become the major player in the criminal underworld when he wasn't paying attention, since Jaune has managed to be connected to and well-liked by almost every other high-ranking criminal in the city. In reality, Jaune is an oblivious Nice Guy who befriended these criminals through rather mundane means or through his wife Cinder, who is technically a crime boss. In fact, Jaune is unaware that most of his friends and acquaintances are villains for most of the story.

Sherlock Holmes

• In Absurdly Simple, Watson learns that a client of Holmes is being blackmailed about something that would cause a great scandal, and concludes that said client who he knows to be male, a prominent public figure, and extremely averse to Watson figuring out his true identity must be Inspector Lestrade who fits the aforementioned criteria and knows Watson personally. To which Holmes delivers this drier-than-the-Sahara gem of a line:
  Holmes: Capital, Watson. You have made a number of useful basic inferences from the facts at your disposal. The only drawback—and it is a great pity—is that every conclusion you have drawn from them is manifestly wrong.

A Song of Ice and Fire

• In Greyjoy Alla Breve, Tywin is murdered by someone using Petyr Baelish's own knife - which he had lost a few moments before the murder took place. Given his enmity with Varys the Spider, several comments made and Tyrion's (who has been taken prisoner by the North and has a legendary hatred of his father) friendship with Varys and dislike of Baelish, the latter comes up to the logically sound conclusion that Varys and Tyrion have made an alliance to kill Tywin Lannister and frame him, thus getting rid of an enemy and allowing Tyrion to claim Casterly Rock. Unfortunately, the real killer is Arya Stark, who was Tywin's cupbearer without Tywin knowing her real identity: she stole Baelish's knife without him noticing and then took advantage of being alone with Tywin to kill the man - and then Sandor Clegane helped her to erase the few existing clues so she is not found out.

Star Wars

• An Open Secret:
  • Mace Windu takes the odd goings on at the Jedi Temple and a holonet broadcast of Anakin's and Padme's marriage to be part of a zany scheme of Anakin's and Obi-wan's to root out potential traitors. In reality, the broadcast is real and several Jedi are jockeying for position to be the godparent of their unborn child. Obi-wan wonders what it says about them that Mace easily believes they'd pull off such a stunt.
  • Later Riyu ChuChi believes Ahsoka and Obi-wan are also in a relationship with Padme and Anakin because in her culture, couples take an additional lover of each gender to both raise offspring and prevent infidelity.
• In Padawan's Return, when Ahsoka Tano from the time of the Empire finds herself in the past during the events of The Phantom Menace, she immediately becomes concerned at anything that might lead to Palpatine become interested in Anakin's potential in the Force even before events lead to her becoming Anakin's new Master. However, this is because she believes that Palpatine killed Anakin in her future, as she was sent back before becoming aware that Anakin survived to become Darth Vader.

Stargate SG-1

• In None So Blind, when SG-1 arrive at their latest destination, they inadvertently take part in a mass marriage ceremony where Daniel Jackson is married to Samantha Carter and Cameron Mitchell to Vala Mal Doran. While the event organisers were somehow correct about who was involved with who, when Daniel hears one of the men say "Blessings to you as well for guiding these men and women to the joys of love" to Teal'c, Daniel is amused to realise that these people believe Teal'c is basically the matchmaker who brought them all together, with even General Landry and Jack O'Neill unable to hide their amused incredulity at the idea of Teal'c in such a role.

Steven Universe

• The Eye of the Storm: To keep Clancy from taking Kay's gem back to the government, Barb asks Greg to pick up the box the gem was in to hide it. Greg, however, had no idea what was in the box or that Barb and Clancy had any involvement with the Gems, so he assumed it was a gift for Sadie's birthday, and figured the safest place to hide it would be in Barb's closet; he also had no idea that as he was walking into the Miller residence, Steven, Connie, Amethyst, and Sadie were ransacking Barb's room to figure out what she was hiding.

Trollhunters

• While Jim is a troll disguising himself as a human in Son of the Black, Draal thinks he could be a changeling when he finds Jim's work desk covered in notes written in trollish and his various magic concoctions.

Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-

• When Sakura eavesdrops on Fai and Kurogane have a discussion on Kurogane's romantic feelings for someone in Shatterheart, she draws the logical but wrong conclusion that Kurogane was in love with Fai, when they were talking about Kurogane's feelings for Syaoran.

Worm

• In Deputy Taylor correctly deduces that Amy is gay and then incorrectly deduces Carol is a homophobe who mistakenly thinks Taylor is trying to seduce Amy. Amy finds this very amusing as Carol actually thinks Taylor will seduce Amy into villainy. Much later Danny, based on a conversation with Carol, comes to a very similar conclusion as Taylor.

Xenoblade Chronicles

• Where We Don't Belong: Mórag is quick to pick up on various oddities in Mio's and Taion's personalities and fighting styles, correctly surmising that they've had military training, likely worked closely together before they abandoned their organization, and have developed a personal dislike of military service due to their likely unpleasant experiences. However, unknowing of Aionios and the events thereof, she instead believes they were involved in some remnant of White Chair or some internal power play within Mor Ardain's anti-imperial faction that they escaped from.

X-Men

• Pound the Table: J. Jonah Jameson has long since clued into the fact that the teenage freelancer Peter Parker doesn't just happen to be able to get good pictures of Spider-Man when no one else can. After all, his staff has experience reporting and photographing in everything from natural disasters to active warzones, and they can't get a single good picture of him, so there's no way a random teenager can without there being something more to it. The conclusion he comes to, however, is that Spider-Man is blackmailing a desperate teenager into being his personal photographer to better aid in his Glory Seeker ways. Consequently, Jonah has been quietly stowing away all the royalties Peter has been unknowingly earning for his photography into a trust fund to be paid out when he turns eighteen, so he can "get away from that menace".

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