Times where somebody is Right for the Wrong Reasons in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Avenger of Steel:
- Jessica Jones calls for Clark's assistance when she believes that a gang war is about to break out; she's correct, but incorrectly identifies the catalyst as the Masked Man killing a leader of the Russian mafia when in reality the vigilante has been framed.
- When Karen Page learns that the Russian mafia was attacked by Superman the night before, she assumes that Clark is responsible, but only because she believes that he told Superman about their talk rather than realising that he actually is Superman.
- Kitty and Rogue are correct that Clark Kent has powers when he comes in contact with Rogue and isn't visibly affected by her powers; they just assume that he's a mutant rather than Superman.
- In BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, Jin's loathing of Noel (and later Penny) is rooted in her resemblance to Saya and how it's too perfect to be a coincidence. While his reasoning is heavily flawed, he is technically correct in that it really isn't coincidental, since Noel is a clone of Saya.
- Blood Sisters:
- When Lauren rejects Bo's offer to run away from the Ash with her, Bo correctly realises that there is something Lauren is more loyal to than any relationship with her, but assumes it's her loyalty to the Ash rather than Lauren's determination to find a way to save Nadia.
- Seeing Bella's continued injury causes Bo to wonder if this is an example of the birth defect second-born succubi can suffer from, but is assured when she learns that it's just because Bella didn't know what she was so didn't know what she could do to heal.
- Come Together
opens with Tom Riddle (Harry Potter) accidentally apparating to Austria after confronting Morfin Gaunt and being captured by Hydra (Captain America: The First Avenger). When Dumbledore realises Riddle is missing at the start of term, he speculates that Riddle is being kept from returning to Hogwarts by Grindlewald’s forces, but while Dumbledore is correct that Grindlewald’s allies in the Nazis are responsible for Riddle’s absence, he assumed that was because Riddle had joined them rather than that they were keeping him prisoner. - In The Confectionary Chronicles, Loki was correct to suspect the involvement of the supernatural when he found a case where crimes were being committed and the obvious suspects protested their innocence; he just realises too late that he was dealing with a demon possessing the suspects rather than a shapeshifter posing as them.
- Buffy realizes that Xander's new girlfriend Karen has "Hercules level strength" in Crush after Karen admitting to being Argosian makes her think Karen is descended from Jason and the Argonauts. In reality, Karen is Karen Starr aka Powergirl.
- The dark never consumes all, for the light remains within its core: When Lord Garmadon states that he learned critical information from the Ladyblog, Alya immediately accuses Marinette of betraying the heroes. If Ladybug consented to the rather harmless Mind Rape Garmadon subjected her to in order to view her memories, then Alya would be right on a technicality.
- A Dovahkiin Spreads His Wings:
- Catelyn Stark's paranoia and insecurity are encouraged by her husband taking Jon Snow to Winterfell instead of sending him away and raising the boy as a trueborn child, something that she perceives as Ned still loving Jon's mother. Tragically, she's unaware that Ned's love for said woman was brotherly and as such not threatening her as a wife.
- Jaime Lannister actually correctly pegs Jon as Ned Stark's nephew by reminiscing just how much the Warden of the North is tightlaced and honourable, not at all the kind of man who would have an affair while being married. Jaime came to this conclusion because Jon's swordplay reminded him of his idol ser Arthur Dayne, and the timeline allowed for Arthur's sister Ashara sleeping with Ned's brother Brandon. As the reader is aware, he's pointing at the wrong Stark sibling.
- Enchanting Heist:
- Lilith notes a time she saw Belos conversing with a shadowy figure that he apparently summoned for knowledge and power. She just thinks that it's a Persona, rather than the Collector.
- Luz guesses that she, Amity, and King ended up on Earth because some of the Titan's blood accidentally supercharged the ritual. It was Titan's blood, just from King instead of the glove.
- In A Girl and Her Bike, two Atlesian soldiers harass Yang believing her motorcycle to be the Mantlite bomb/Bumblebee. They were actually correct in that her bike was exactly who they were looking for, but they had no evidence to support this and were just looking for an easy promotion.
- In Harry Potter and the Ice Princess, when Elsa attends Hogwarts, various students refer to her as the 'Ravenclaw Princess' just because of her manner, with very few aware that she actually is a princess by birth.
- In Harry Potter in the City of Angels, Harry is abandoned in Los Angeles and is taken in by Mazikeen (Lucifer (2016)), who assumes that he is some kind of demon as his bite hurts her, even speculating that he is related to the naga due to his ability to speak parseltongue. Maze, Lucifer and others eventually learn of Harry's wizard status when he is offered a place at Ilvermorey, but by that point Harry's new family are all comfortable with his presence in their lives and Harry freely sees Maze as his new mother.
- Jedi Master Sinube in The Havoc Side of the Force comes to the entirely correct conclusion that Harry Potter is from the future. Since he knows nothing of the current time period, he can't be from the present, and due to his ability to violate thermodynamics with ease and being able to fly far better than someone from a more primitive civilization should, he can't be from the past. In reality, Harry is from the future, but his civilization is far more primitive than the galactic standard. He can do what he can due to magic and for piloting, it's a combination of his experience on a broom and a LOT of advice from HK-47.
- Ranma correctly figures out in How I Learned to Love the Wild Horse that despite his initial thoughts, Mandy and her posse aren't his handlers because they don't know the truth about Ranko. While they aren't his handlers, Sam, Clover, and Alex don't know the truth either because Britney gave them bad intel.
- In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, Goh Fujihachi and Professor Cerise assume that Chloe Cerise was kidnapped (after she ran away from the Cerise Lab thoroughly pissed at them for ignoring her in favor of Pokémon) when all that's left is her hair scrunchie. Thing is, she has been kidnapped but the two assumed that it was a person and not a supernatural therapy train.
- Lelouch of the Wings of Rebellion: The Black King is right in thinking that a photo of Euphemia with Lelouch in her arms is prime Blackmail material, but he's wrong about the reason why that's the case. The Don thinks he's sitting on a paparazzi shot suggesting a scandalous affair between the Third Princess and a handsome commoner, plus the legal problems the two minors will get from entering a nightclub, but the real value (and danger) of the picture is that it proves that the "late" 11th Prince is in fact very much alive.
- In The Lightning Strike, this is the best description of the Black Order's observation of the Avengers' battle against Hela; they see no evidence that the Avengers have the Mind Stone, but they're still coming to Earth because they are aware that Earth is the location of the Time Stone.
- Lost in Camelot:
- When Arthur realises that Bo has been using supernatural methods to protect Camelot, he initially assumes that she is a sorceress, but Bo soon clarifies that she's 'just' a succubus and Merlin is the real magic-user.
- When Arthur and Gwen learn of Bo's relationships with Merlin and Morgana (Arthur is explicitly told that Bo and Merlin are involved and Gwen walks in on Bo and Morgana kissing while naked in bed), Bo initially assumes that their subsequent hostility towards her is because of the lesbian aspect, but the triad later realise that Arthur and Gwen actually assume that Bo's cheating on Merlin with Morgana.
- After Bo, Merlin and Morgana explain their relationship and powers to Arthur and Gwen, when they explain that there's only one other magical individual in Camelot, Arthur assumes they're referring to Kenzi due to her threat to make him a "meme". Arthur was at least correct that Kenzi isn't normal, but Bo clarifies that the other fae is Dyson.
- The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Dipper rightly suspects Danny of being supernatural, but he is only suspicious because he hopes to make Danny look bad in front of Wendy, who Danny is taking on a blind date.
- A New Angel, a New Fate has the Eighth Doctor (Doctor Who) observe that while Gaius Baltar (Battlestar Galactica (2003)) makes some valid points in his book, he is basically doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, as he ultimately doubts that Baltar is bringing up these points for any reason other than to make sure he stays relevant.
- Invoked in Once Upon a Supernatural Time when, after the curse on Storeybrooke has been broken and the residents' memories restored, Dean Winchester refers to Leroy as 'Grumpy' based on his current mood before he learns that the man actually is Grumpy.
- In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, the Trans-Galactic Republic may mostly avert Ragnarök Proofing and thus not accurately recall events from millions of years ago — but they do remember the Yuuzhan Vong were bad news. So yes, that organic-looking spacefaring thing should be treated with caution. The Flood is a LOT worse than the Vong were...
- Persona EG: ZIT believes early on that Sunset Shimmer has something to do with with Zodiac because they don't like her, due to her being The Bully, instead of having any proof. Though they are wrong with some of their accusations, such as thinking she is the dark persona user Eris, they are eventually proven right that she is involved with Zodiac when Eris reveals that her boss, Mephistopheles, is in fact Sunset Shimmer.
- In A Possible Encounter for a Phantom, While Danny recognizes he has no shot with Shego, he says it's because she's evil. Sam and Jazz point out that, while that is a good reason, it's not the reason. Tucker thinks it's because their kids won't know which parent's footsteps to follow.
- An unusual variant happens in the He-Man/She-Ra and the Princesses of Power crossover Power and Honor in that the Sorceress calls Adora's desire to upgrade her She-Ra form this trope. The Sorceress concedes that Adora's request for a power-up is pretty valid, despite the fact that the sole reason she's making the request is simply to get a cooler outfit for She-Ra, which the Sorceress calls "Selfish and Unnecessary".
- In Soul Hunter, Yang says Ichigo has been holding out on them when it comes to his battle skills once she finds out that he's capable of using Kido. While she's correct that he's been holding back (only ever going one tier up at most when he's got several), his Kido skills are abysmal.
- Star Wars Vs Warhammer 40 K:
- Obi-Wan and Mace's decision to withdraw from Anaxes was due to the Imperials gaining control of Trench's planet-cracking bomb. However, we see that the Imperials had no intention of using it and in fact once a Techmarine discovers the bomb, he immediately moves to disarm it. Despite this, the decision to withdraw was certainly the correct one as the Republic was facing an entire chapter of Space Marines in addition to a very large force of Imperial Guard. Had they remained, the battle would have almost certainly consisted of a one-sided slaughter of the Jedi and clone troopers.
- While dueling Sister Rajulia, Jedi Master Shaak Ti denounces the Sister of Battle's faith in the God-Emperor of Mankind as a false religion. Shaak Ti likely only said that to insult her opponent and probably came to that conclusion simply on account of the Imperial Cult being a different religion from the Jedi Order. Neither she nor her opponent have any way of knowing that the Imperial Cult began as an Unwanted False Faith and that the Emperor himself was adamant about not being a god back when he was still alive, making her remark about the Imperials following a false religion technically accurate.
- Clone Commander 65 comes to the conclusion that the Imperium's Space Marines are Not So Invincible After All. While he's not wrong to think this (as later episodes would demonstrate that Space Marines can indeed still be killed by Jedi, Sith, and even sufficiently skilled clone troopers), he only comes to this conclusion because he managed to kill a group of Ogryn shock troops (which he mistook for Space Marines) by using explosive charges to collapse the bridge they were marching across.
- A Starstruck, Phantasmic Romance: The mall guard is right for siding against Dash and Paulina but he does so because he doesn't believe a skinny girl like Starfire can hurt Dash.
- In Sunrider Mask Of Zero, Cosette declines an invitation from a group of notorious pirates hunting for Zero. She knows it will result in an Epic Fail, but under the belief that the rival groups are using a Uriah Gambit clusterfuck that'll leave Zero on top. She doesn't think that Zero will personally wipe out all the pirates single-handedly.
- A Supe of a Man depicts a world where Clark Kent has been sponsored by Vought (The Boys (2019)) after the Kents needed the help of Martha's sister Mary Clark to legalize his adoption. Madelyn Stillwell, Homelander's legal contact with Vought, believes that Clark is "just" Homelander 2.0, assuming that he was a deliberately created superhuman intended to be a more stable Homelander. However, she is right in that Clark is already proving himself to be a better hero than Homelander, to the point where Stan Edgar, the CEO of Vought, sees Clark as a more put together alternative to Homelander, even when he's still in his teens while Homelander has decades of experience.
- In Suzumiya Haruhi No Index, Haruhi correctly deduces that the comatose nuns are suffering from oxygen deprivation when she notices the room isn't properly ventilated, but the real source is God's Divine Punishment.
- In The Turn, after the Mighty Ducks (apart from Tanya) are taken as hosts by the Yeerks (Animorphs), the Ducks’ police associate Captain Klegghorn overhears Nosedive talking to an owl (really Tanya in morph) and correctly deduces that the Ducks have all been ‘compromised’ by another alien invasion save for Tanya. Klegghorn’s only mistake is that he assumes Nosedive and the other Ducks have been replaced by alien impostors, rather than realise that the Ducks have been directly taken over by Puppeteer Parasite aliens
- The Vasto of White: Yhwach thinks that Shirou is his brother because of his advanced powers. He correctly guesses that like him, Shirou started out as an Empty Shell who slowly gained reason and emotions from the people around him. While this is true, this was because he was traumatized by the Fuyuki Fire, not because he was born the way Yhwach was.
- Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse:
- Within the first three or so chapters, the displaced refugees from Nerima decide they might as well turn to piracy, since they figure the World Government to be a corruption-riddled tyranny based on their first encounter with its Navy. They're absolutely correct, but they've barely even seen any evidence for this.
- Ranma declares they don't need to take down their Jolly Roger when they arrive at Loguetown, arguing that, as Loguetown is the last island in the East Blue before Reverse Mountain, it must be indifferent to pirates so long as they don't break any laws. While he's right that the Marines ignore them, it's only because the Kamikaze Pirates at that point are considered a rookie, no-name crew of little importance and Captain Smoker has been replaced by the overworked, apathetic Captain Chaser, who is instead focused on ensuring the smooth transfer of the captured Buggy Pirates to begin the trip to Impel Down.
- When Worlds Collide sees the NCIS team led by Jethro Gibbs investigating the crimes committed by the Winchester brothers, but while they soon deduce that the Winchesters aren't the serial killers other investigators believe them to be, evidence such as the Winchesters' confrontations with shapeshifters and the Leviathans leads McGee and DiNozzo in particular to assume that the Winchesters have discovered a group of terrorists using a sophisticated disguise-making machine rather than realize that they were dealing with independent supernatural shapeshifters.
- In Dirty Sympathy, the Judge denies Klavier's request to be prosecutor of trial for Shadi Enigmar's murder stating that cases will not be assigned according to personal whim and thinks Klavier has a personal stake, such as putting away Phoenix Wright for good. Unbeknownst to the judge, Klavier did have a personal stake in the trial: he helped kill Shadi Enigmar and wanted to make sure his brother was framed for it. Which is lampshaded by Apollo.Apollo: You sound all indignant about that. But your boss did the wrong math and got the right answer anyway.
- In Queen of Diamonds, after Jafar takes over Agrabah, Prince Achmed remains to try and help Jasmine escape to mount a counter-attack because he recognizes the dangers of Jafar as a ruler, although Jasmine in turn recognizes that Achmed is hoping to use this situation to boost his own standing.
- In The Day the Earth Stood Still, Tom thinks about how Saddler miraculously recovered from a coma and then disappeared two days later and assumes that aliens were involved somehow. He's close: it was caused by a human using alien technology.
- In Sporadic Phantoms, Kyle is convinced after hearing a tiger roar in the basement of a Sharing community center that animals are a major part of Sharing activities and that it's possibly a front for either animal smuggling or genetic manipulation. Robin and Stevie aren't so sure especially after animal services investigate said basement and find it empty. However, the viewer knows that Kyle is 100% correct about animals being involved with the sharing, he's just wrong on why they are involved.
- In Birds of a Feather, Oliver correctly deduces Laurel is lying about how she got her injuries and concludes "someone's hurting her", seemingly thinking of some kind of Domestic Abuse. The injuries are actually from her being the Black Canary, so he's right in that people are intentionally hurting her, but he's way off as to how/why.
- The Cutting Edge:
- Oliver correctly deduces that while Laurel is still in love with him, she believes that he does not love her, but incorrectly attributes this to his affair with Sara. She's actually forgiven him for that, but her knowledge of the future has lead her to believe that Felicity is his true love, a thought helped by Oliver's poor treatment of her in the previous timeline.
- Quentin Lance decides that he needs to work on his drinking because he feels that Black Canary tracking him down to talk is a sign that he's getting sloppy and losing focus if he missed the signs that he was being "stalked" by a vigilante, rather than realise that Black Canary knows his habits for a more personal reason.
- Applies in two different examples in Not Set in Stone:
- A chance comment by Laurel sets Thea thinking about the implication that Laurel believes she doesn't have a future. When thinking on recent events like Laurel planning to sell her car and putting Thea's name on the lease of their apartment, Thea becomes worried that Laurel has been diagnosed with some terminal disease and is trying to tie up loose ends before she dies. In reality, while Laurel is effectively getting her affairs in order and thinks she might die soon, it's because Cisco witnessed a vision of her being killed with a green arrow at some future date, and she is later able to assure Thea that they've averted the events that would lead to that prediction coming to pass.
- Oliver is horrified when he realizes that Laurel is afraid of him; and muses that while she has every reason to doubt him she has always put aside her pain to believe in him, so something must be seriously wrong if she's openly doubting him now. He thinks she knows about William (his son born out of infidelity), and that was "just one hurt too far". In reality, Cisco told her that he had a vision of her dying with a green arrow in her side, and that knowledge is understandably weighing her down. She has absolutely no knowledge of William until Oliver brings him up.note
- In What It Takes, when Thea returns to Star City from Nanda Parbat, Lance is quick to confront her and guess that she has his daughter in her currently-locked bedroom; he was just wrong about which daughter was in that room, for the understandable reason that he still thought Sara was dead.
- Wrong Road to the Right Place basically uses this trope as its title; Laurel starts paying close attention to Oliver after he returns to Starling City because she investigates one of his tattoos and realizes that it signifies him as a captain in the Bratva, but initially assumed that he was still an active member before she learns that Oliver is actually the Hood (which she vastly prefers).
- The premise for the prequel Jet's Troubling Obsession in The Stalking Zuko Series, with Jet constantly trying to prove that "Lee" is a firebender and Lee reacting in annoyance. in the final chapter when Jet realizes that while he never found proof for "Lee" being a firebender, he saw many instances where Lee's uncle Mushi was firebending. He realizes that Mushi was able to stay warm in their poorly insulated apartment naked in early spring and is making large quantities of tea without firewood. When Lee gets angry after Jet threatens to turn Mushi in for it, he ends up proving his point.
- Kissed by a Rose involves Belle having been raped and impregnated by Gaston before she comes to the castle. When Belle returns to help her father, Gaston assumes that she 'betrayed' him with the Beast to the extent that he assumes the Beast is the father of Belle's child as he doesn't realise how far along Belle is in the pregnancy. Obviously, Gaston is wrong that the Beast is the biological father of Belle's child, but he's right in that Belle chose the Beast over him.
- In On Life On Death On Everything Inbetween, Rukia correctly figures out that Ichigo was traumatized, but thinks it's due to a Hollow attack from when they'd met about a week ago. He's actually having nightmares because he had spent a decade fighting in a war so bad that it included him losing an eye and having his throat slit while being held captive.
- Zangetsu is suspicious of Aizen in The Snow Has Stopped The Rain because of his unusual interest in Ichigo, but then he asks if he's a child molester, one of the very few crimes Aizen isn't guilty of.
- In Extreme Measures, Cam, Angela, Hodgins and Sweets are aware that Booth is seeing someone and are concerned about how this will impact him and Brennan getting their relationship back on track after Booth left for a few weeks following his brain tumour. The only thing these four are unaware of is that the woman Booth is seeing is Brennan herself, the two having sorted out their issues in private and keeping it secret to teach the others a lesson.
- In Taaroko's Season 8, Angel and Wesley use Wolfram & Hart's resources to set up the Summers Academy for Girls in Cleveland as a cover for training the new Slayers, which from Wolfram & Hart's perspective is basically doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. As Wesley observes, the rest of W&H aren't going to complain about their money being used to set up a school as it's basically a massive tax dodge that makes the firm look charitable, while the former Angel Investigations have the pleasure of depriving Wolfram & Hart of a significant amount of money.
- In Shadow of the Dragon, Renji is able to tell right away that Sakura isn't the one sleeping around with everyone, and assumes it's Reiko's spirit possessing Sakura. While he's right that it's not Sakura, he's wrong about the cause: Sakura's attacker actually used Sympathetic Magic to transform Reiko into a corporeal Doppelgänger of Sakura as part of his campaign against her. Syaoran and the others decide to just go with his assumption to protect Sakura's secret.
- In Charmed Alternate, when Paige is present when the Halliwells originally cast the spells to unbind their powers, after Paige manifests her own magic Phoebe assumes that the spell that activated their powers gave Paige her powers because she was in the house with them at the same time. This is admittedly correct, but Phoebe just assumes that Paige is a random girl who just happens to have a witch parent, rather than realising that Paige is their currently-unknown sister.
- The Candygirl: In a way, Cree is correct that the people who abandoned her following the explosion aren't heroes because the people who abandoned her were the Delightful Children, not Sector Z as she mistakenly believed.
- Mosaic is an Alternate Universe Fic where Britannian's policy of expansion involves political marriage instead of conquest, with one of them being between Emperor Suzaku of Japan and Princess Euphemia of Britannia as tribute to Britannia aiding Japan against China in the past. Though he does fall in love with Euphie, he initially suspects that she is part of her homeland's policy through political maneuvering, just like her half-brother and his best friend Lelouch. While he is right about their marriage being a step of Britannia's expansion into Japan, he is incorrect about the means as Euphie was trained solely to be a doting wife and mother. The truth is that the Britannian Royal Family consists of individuals capable of swaying the subconscious of any nation they marry into thanks to experimentation and breeding through the World of C over the course of centuries. Lelouch had worked with his father to push for this marriage as the alternative was a brutal conquest of Japan like in canon.
- In Photo, Ken finds a photograph of his teammates before he joined them. His other teammates feel awkward and guilty about the photo, especially trying to avoid revealing that the photo was them celebrating a victory against the Digimon Emperor, Ken's villainous past self. Ken realizes that the issue with the photo involves him, and suspects that the others feel guilty about their past feelings of triumph. However, Hikari corrects him in that the issue wasn't that Ken was an enemy at the time, but that he wasn't their friend back then, making the photo feeling incomplete.
- Basically features in Fear and Freedom when the Sixth Doctor and Susan end up in the same prison camp; Susan correctly recognises that her grandfather has regenerated, but initially assumes that the Sixth Doctor is the Second before he prompts her to take a more careful look with her other senses and she realises that he’s from further in the future.
- in this chat fic, Huey and Violet are working on Family Trees. Huey mentions that Theodore Roosevelt is a family friend of Scrooge and he even helped deliver his son Kermit. Dewey bursts in the room and asks if this means Kermit the Frog is related to them. Huey tells him he is, but that it's a long story.
- In the Alternate Tail Series, Lyon figures out that Azuma is planning to use the massive tree in Tenrou Island to defeat Fairy Tail in a single swoop. However, because he saw him igniting a branch using his Arc of Tree, he believed Azuma was going to do the same to the entire tree and create an explosion to scorch the island, rather than use its power to drain the Fairy Tail wizards of their magic.
- An Unpleasant Surprise: When Scratch informs Libby that Molly could really use her help right now, Libby guesses that Molly spent all night obsessing about what to get her for her birthday, despite it being two months away. Scratch admits she did do that but she's much more upset with something else completely unrelated.
- In Dodging Prison & Stealing Witches, once it's revealed that Harry is the 'true' Potter Heir, Virgo Malfoy (one of Voldemort's horcruxes possessing a new host) correctly deduces that this is due to him also having been sent back through time, but assumes that he came back after joining Voldemort and willingly merging with the horcrux within him rather than going back through a deal with Fate to oppose Voldemort.
- For The Greater Goof: Thanks to observing the behavior of the Marauder's Map, undertaking some additional research, and making some inferences, Fred and George arrive at the conclusion that Quirrell has a Dark wizard attached to him and decide to expose this to the Hogwarts staff. However, as the Map does not display any aliases a person may have and the two being the same person isn't public knowledge, they just know the Dark wizard is named Tom Riddle and have no idea they're unmasking Voldemort until after the fact.
- Furious Angels sets up a chain of events where Harry and Ginny are legally married before Ginny's first year at Hogwarts. Some of the more pragmatic Slytherins, such as Daphne Greengrass, observe that basically the only thing Ginny could offer such a relationship is the prospect of magically powerful children to justify Harry choosing a poor Weasley as a spouse, but while Ginny is powerful, there are various other factors behind Harry 'choosing' Ginny.
- A few people make these in The Power of Seven:
- Suggested when Pansy tries to taunt Harry about his relationships and Susan observes that Pansy is known to be involved with Draco and teases that Draco is very ‘small’; Pansy later reflects that this assumption is actually true, but she believes that Susan found that information out from a specific source rather than realising that Susan was just teasing her.
- Used on a more practical note in chapter 34; while Fleur's Veela senses make her aware that Harry is having sex with multiple girls, she initially assumes that he is cheating on Ginny rather than consider alternative explanations, although Ginny soon clarifies the truth of Harry's current sexual activities in chapter 36.
- A lesser example in chapter 35, when Cho assumes that Harry never considered her for his new relationships because she 'didn't put out'; Cho is correct that Harry didn't consider her as one of his new partners, but that was actually because Harry didn't like the way Cho treated Luna rather than because she didn't want to have sex.
- Princess of the Blacks:
- A muggleborn policeman believes the Blacks own a child brothel and reasons they must be doing it for the gold, not realizing that Jen runs the brothel and used to work there, and that the Blacks (aside from Narcissa, who still visits) have nothing to do with the business at all.
- Cornelius Fudge thinks Dumbledore is senile and a danger to those around him because he believes Voldemort is back, and therefore should be removed from power. While Voldemort is back, Dumbledore is also shown to have broken several laws to keep the goings on at Hogwarts secret.
- Lily deduces that Jen deliberately set their meeting during a Quidditch match at Hogwarts, believing Jen did it so Lily would have to choose between supporting her son or meeting her daughter as a Secret Test of Character. Jen admits that she actually did it because it was easier to sneak away during the match but if she had thought of that, she would have done so.
- Moody believes Draco Malfoy is a spy because of a planned raid that turned out to be a trap. While Draco is a spy, he had nothing to do with the raid as it wasn't his assigned task.
- Seventh Horcrux often has its protagonist (Voldemort in Harry's body) making wildly off-base assumptions that turn out to be roundaboutly correct. For instance, he assumes that Moody is trying to kill him because Moody told him to try a broomstick during the First Task, when Harry (unlike in canon) is hopeless at flying. He's right that Moody wants him dead, but he's wrong about the timing; the broomstick was genuine advice.
- In Just the Usual Antics, America figures Liechtenstein has a crush on England when he sees her staring at him. While she was actually looking at the fairies that were flying near England, America wasn't wrong about them liking each other and getting along well.
- Black As Night: Discussed when Astrid is faced with being put on trial for blinding Hiccup. The actual blinding was an accident (Astrid's axe was partially melted during dragon training and she waved it in Hiccup's face before realising what had happened), and by this point Hiccup, Gobber and Stoick have all acknowledged that it was an accident and are just going through the trial as a formality. However, Mildew uses the trial to argue that Astrid should be forgiven as her actions were divine judgement on Hiccup's shortcomings; the others can agree with his declared intention not to punish Astrid, but disagree with why he was doing this.
- A variation occurs in the Modern AU fic If, when Hiccup's ex-girlfriend Camicazi tries to get him in trouble with new partner Astrid by claiming that she's pregnant with Hiccup's child. Not only does Hiccup tell Astrid about Camicazi's claim, but when he accompanies her to the sonogram (which Cami assumed he wouldn't), it's revealed that Cami actually is pregnant... and in a time frame that prevents Hiccup being the father as the baby is barely two weeks along and she and Hiccup last slept together over a month ago.
- Collated Accounts of the Infinity Train: A summary: The person interviewing Lake assumes that her metal skin is a result of the train. While this can certainly be said to be the case, it's because she originated from a literal Mirror World on the vehicle, rather than be a normal human somehow transformed by the train. The author even notes that Lake avoiding the subject means she was probably hiding something, but quickly decides that theorizing about it would be off-topic.
- From The Outside, Satsuki is agoraphobic and, so, considers going outside dangerous, however, to her understanding, it's because of an asthma attack and Soichiro's death, instead of realizing that those events happened because of other reasons and not just because they went outside.
- In Equal Romance 02: Obscure Ways to Devotion, after Kim breaks off her friendship with Ron because she misinterprets recent events and believes Ron was trying to manipulate her into having sex, Ron assumes that his subsequent lethargic state and other events such as vomiting in the toilets are purely because he's feeling depressed about Kim's treatment of him. In reality, Ron contracted malaria during a recent fight in South America, and he is ultimately left in a coma because the malaria went untreated for so long.
- Burning Secret:
- Luna is correct that the fire is deeply troubling Lincoln, but she thinks he has PTSD, when really it’s extreme guilt. Later, the same thing happens with Sylvia the shrink.
- Lisa correctly concludes that Lincoln is lying when he claims he was assigned an essay on guilt, and she surmises that he’s actually feeling guilty, and that it involves the fire. However, what actually happened was that he started the fire (by accident) but what she thinks happened was that he knows who started the fire, and either they’re threatening him, or it was his friend. She later turns out to be right that whoever was truly responsible was threatening him, since he was being blackmailed, and the blackmailer turns out to have deliberately spilled the fire starter that led to Lincoln starting the fire.
- Later on, she wonders if he did start the fire, but thinks he might have done it on purpose.
- Heavy Meddle - Epilogue addresses the matter of how Lincoln's sisters came to the conclusion that Ronnie Anne had a crush on him. Specifically, they assumed that she was a Loving Bully, entirely because she happened to be a girl. They may have been right, but it was still sexist, and could have made matters significantly worse.
- In Mystery of the Self-Loathing Loud, Lincoln finds a suicide note and this causes him to wonder if, among other things, Luna has been dumped (since she'd been acting sad ever since writing a letter to Sam) and Leni is in shock (since she's been crying and acting oddly violent). It turns out that Luna has been dumped and Leni is in shock, but neither of them wrote the suicide note.
- In Chapter 15 of No Such Luck, No Such Love, Lynn realizes that she was wrong to blame Lincoln for her team losing the softball game... because the other team was discovered to have cheated, failing to consider that, regardless of whether or not the opposing team played fair, labeling her brother as bad luck is terrible in its own right.
- Peeking Through the Fourth Wall: In After Dark: 3, Lori correctly guesses that Benny is Jewish. However, she says that it's because he "looks Jewish", and he points out that there's no one way for a Jew to look.
- In Truth or Dairy, Leni notes that sports balls are always harder when Lynn inflates them with her mouth, and wonders if the air she breathes out is somehow harder. While she's right about the balls being harder, it's because Lynn blows too much air into them.
- An Alternate Keitaro Urashima: After Motoko loses to Keitaro in a duel and subsequently suffers a major Humiliation Conga, Naru has No Sympathy for her, declaring that she deserves it. While Naru's reasons for saying so are entirely self-centered — she bet on her winning and was subsequently forced to apologize to Keitaro for attacking him over her own mistake — she is correct; Motoko was Hoist by Her Own Petard, having repeatedly ignored warnings to stay away from Keitaro, and pulling out her sword to threaten him in front of a police officer. Furthermore, it's stated that Keitaro is not the first person she's attacked like this; he's simply the first one to press charges.
- In the Alternate Universe Fic Soldier Wars, Yuuki Anju's bodyguard Erena Toudou noticed how upset Anju is when she sees her ex Umi Sonada, especially when Umi is with her current fiance Kotori Minami. Erena had figured out that it has something to do with the death of Anju's father and that Umi had committed a grave act. However, Erene's reasoning is that Umi is actually a Gold Digger that left Anju in her grief, and Anju is upset that it's happening again with Kotori. The truth was that Umi was part of a team of assassins that killed Anju's father, who was a Corrupt Corporate Executive... and that Anju had found out the truth after digging for it and now wants to kill Umi to avenge him.
- Alloparent opens with Lucifer meeting Trixie when she's two years old and forming a strong bond with her, to the extent that when Dan Espinoza first sees Lucifer and Trixie interact he accuses Lucifer of being Trixie's biological father as Dan has recently learnt he's sterile and could never have children. This is later revealed to be correct when Lucifer agrees to a DNA test with Chloe and Trixie, but Lucifer is only Trixie's father because God arranged it rather than because he and Chloe actually slept together.
- In The Amazing Spider-Man: True Purpose, when Peter's enhanced spider-sense gives him a vision of him being attacked by Wolverine, Red Hulk, Luke Cage and Thor, he correctly deduces the Avengers are about to face a foe that can possess people. He’s just wrong that this foe was possessing his attackers, as the spirit of Daniel Drumm was actually possessing Spider-Man himself.
- 3 Steps Back depicts a version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe where Peter Parker is sent back in time to a 2015 where his younger self doesn't exist. Retaining his powers, he sets out to make contact with the Avengers and prevent the future he experienced, but when Natasha explores his room and finds his list of future events, which includes reference to the Accords, knowledge of the Starks' deaths, and the future deaths of the Vision, Tony, and Natasha herself, Natasha assumes that Peter is making plans regarding the Avengers' deaths because he's affiliated with HYDRA and is trying to destroy the team from within (this leads to her mistakenly assuming that reference to John Walker means that Peter has identified Walker as a future replacement for Steve).
- In A Colder War fic Arctic Front, Steve realises that the Winter Soldier is on board a Russian ship, but incorrectly assumes that the Soldier is there to kill him when the assassin’s actual target is Viper.
- The Third Life of Steve Rogers:
- Howard Stark accuses Peggy Carter of not wanting him to recreate the super-soldier serum because she's already working on it herself, after he witnessed what he believes to be her successful 'test subject' save him from a group trying to steal the Tesseract. Peggy denies that she is trying to recreate the serum, but that's because she doesn't need it, as she's married to Steve and their children thus inherited traits of it themselves (the man who saved Howard was Steve and Peggy son's Mike).
- Shortly after Howard's death, Steve and Peggy's daughter, Doctor Sarah Capecci, is confronted by a Hydra strike team led by Frank Rumlow, who have determined that Sarah took Howard's notes on the super-soldier serum. When Sarah manages to fight back against Rumlow's team, he naturally assumes that she took the serum herself, but in reality Sarah was born with elements of it in her blood inherited from her father.
- Alya and the Harem Reality: Kim is right that Marinette is a good influence on Chloé because of magic. He is wrong, however, to suggest that Marinette is using black magic to influence Chloé into behaving. A Kwami wish instead created the circumstances for it.
- Played With in Avoidance, where Gabriel is charged with violating child labor restriction laws. While the police are correct that he overworked Adrien, including forcing him to work unrecorded hours at 9 and 10 PM, their primary evidence — and the whole reason they investigated in the first place — is that Adrien is currently hospitalized after collapsing from sleep deprivation. Which wasn't caused by Gabriel directly overworking him; he ended up that way because he spent several months looping back in time to rescue Ladybug with the Snake Miraculous without any sleep and minimal rest. Something which is technically also Gabriel's fault, given how he's Hawkmoth.
- The Babysitting Fiasco: After they get into serious trouble, Nino reassures Alya that there's no way anyone "ratted them out" to their parents. Which is technically true; Marinette didn't know that Alya and Nino had been lying to their parents for ages, and that Marlena wasn't aware of how they'd been making Marinette babysit their siblings while they snuck around behind their backs.
- Cheshire:
- Chloé thinks that Marinette stole her bracelet, despite the fact that Marinette wasn't in the room. Marinette ended up with the bracelet after she freed Xuppu - who was the one that really took the bracelet - from it with the help of pepper.
- Seeing Bixi, King Monkey concluded that Cheshire had the Turtle Miraculous and prepared to attack her. Misterbug had to explain that Bixi is a temporary hero that he recruited for the fight... except that Bixi is Marinette who is Cheshire.
- Feralnette AU: When Lila witnesses the nonbinary Felix coming out of the girl's bathroom, she immediately threatens to report them to the school unless they tell her what club they're in. This proves to be too much for Alya, who angrily shoves her down and calls her out. However, instead of confronting her for being a Manipulative Bitch planning to use transphobia to get what she wanted, she mistakenly assumes that Lila was harassing them due to being a Stalker with a Crush.
- In the Shredder (Communication) arc of Hawkmoth Gets A Reference, Gabriel figures out that both Marinette and Adrien felt that they had cheated on each other and that if they don't talk about that it could end their relationship. Though due to people hiding certain secret identities, he concludes that the "cheating" was because Marinette had impulsively kissed Chat Noir and she's upset that she enjoyed it while she's dating Adrien, and Adrien was kissed by his superhero crush Ladybug and he feels guilty because he enjoyed it while he's dating Marinette. What he thought were two separate incidents was one singular event when Ladybug kissed Chat Noir at the end of the previous arc.
- In Hero Chat, Chloé brings up that nearly everyone in their class has had a crush on Marinette at some point, and those that don't are either not into girls (like Max and Mylene) or don't have a soul, putting Lila in the latter category. It's later implied and even later confirmed that Chloé was right about Lila not having a crush on Marinette, but that's because Lila is aromantic, meaning she can't have a crush on anyone.
- Hop to It: After Praying Mantis was unable to save a mountain climber, his grieving wife accused the hero of doing nothing to save him. While this was far from true, Praying Mantis never bothered contesting her claims; to his mind, the fact that he tried and failed meant that he hadn't tried hard enough.
- I See What You Do Behind Closed Doors: After Adrien and Marinette start dating, he reveals to her that he's Chat Noir. When he keeps making unwanted advances towards her alter ego Ladybug, Marinette concludes that he wants to date them both. In reality, Adrien only started dating Marinette in the first place after noticing her strong resemblance to the superheroine, unaware that they're the same person — their relationship was just a placeholder for his personal fantasies.
- Lady Luck: When Cheng's soup is sabotaged, Marinette accuses Chloé of being responsible. In order to prove her innocence, Chloé pulls up the security tapes... and is just as surprised as everyone else to see that she was responsible, as she accidentally swatted an Akuma Butterfly out of the air and into the soup. (She'd felt the impact, but assumed she hit a pot.) Cheng apologizes to Chloé, as while she did technically sabotage the soup, it was clearly accidental.
- A Lady's Scout (and the Salt within her Soul): After Rena Rouge is replaced by Fennec, Lila suggests to Alya that Marinette was responsible, claiming that she might have convinced Ladybug to dump her. Unbeknownst to her, Marinette did decide to replace Alya... because she IS Ladybug. She also takes advantage of Lila's Malicious Slander to convince her classmates that she's secretly working as a 'hero scout' for Ladybug, as part of a long-term plan to expose the Manipulative Bitch.
- Le Papillon Rising: In Chapter 21, when Gabriel deduces the akuma must be Adrien, Chloé, Mylene, or Ivan, Marinette rules out Adrien because "he didn't have much reason to be upset". The real reason is that Adrien is this fic's Hawk Moth.
- Scarlet Lady:
- Chloé attempts to hide her Secret Identity while still claiming credit by claiming to be 'close friends' with Scarlet Lady, and that she was calling the heroine in. One of her classmates calls that a blatant lie; however, their protest is rooted in the idea that no hero would ever hang out with somebody like Chloé.
- While Chloé is blatantly biased in favor of Adrien, she actually isn't wrong about him winning his duel with Kagami in "Riposte". As Marinette points out, Kagami brazenly broke the rules, disqualifying herself.
- During a sleepover, Lila wonders if there might actually be some merit to Chloé's claims to be friends with Scarlet Lady, since the superheroine hasn't gone out of her way to humiliate Chloé like she did when Lila made the same claim. The girls ultimately decide that they still can't be best friends, since if they were, Chloé would've posted selfies of them together.
- When Marinette sees Chloé toting around a sickly Tikki, she assumes that this must have been because Scarlet Lady was irresponsible enough to lose her kwami. Scarlet Lady is incredibly irresponsible; Marinette simply doesn't realize that she is Chloé.
- Adrien tells Kagami that he can't date Marinette due to "a big, tall, annoying, dumb obstacle with bad fashion sense and who's so selfish". She assumes that he's ranting about his father; Adrien is actually referring to Hawkmoth... who is Gabriel.
- When Nadja's interview with the heroic trio turns sour, Scarlet Lady throws a fit, calling her out for focusing on Chat Noir and Marigold over her. However, she's not entirely wrong: Nadja is effectively harassing her teammates, trying to tease out a Love Confession for the sake of ratings at the expense of their comfort. Scarlet Lady and her teammates have every right to end the interview then and there, calling her out on her unprofessional behavior.
- A Small but Stubborn Fire:
- Sabine correctly suspects that Gabriel has traumatized her daughter; however, she's wrong about the cause, as she's unaware of either one's secret identities, or that Marinette is gradually cracking under the pressure of trying to protect all of Paris from his villainous schemes. Instead, she fears that Gabriel has been sexually assaulting Marinette.
- When Marinette has a panic attack during a therapy session and mentions "Kitty" hurting her, Sabine assumes this means that Chat Noir attacked her daughter. She's technically correct; however, it was his akumatized counterpart from the Bad Future who assaulted her, not the present-day Chat Noir.
- In Son Histoire, Quel Étrange!, Alya and later Nino notice that Adrien has been gaining injuries that he tries to avoid talking about, which lead them to fear that Gabriel is physically hurting him. They bring up their concerns to the school counselor, which leads to a police investigation that reveals Gabriel is Hawkmoth and leads to his arrest. Afterwards, Adrien confirms to them that while his father didn't hurt him as civilians, they were right indirectly as the various injuries he had were from when he got hurt as Chat Noir fighting Hawkmoth.
- The Time I Got Reincarnated as an Evil Version of Myself: Zoé sees that her Spoiled Brat half-sister Chloé has been acting weird all day (asking Zoe about the kwami Pollen even after the latter was taken by Monarch, offering hero-themed coffees to the former Miraculous wielders despite the group hating her, and outing herself as gay and claiming to be Kagami's girlfriend) despite seeing her reject an akuma and thus can't be under the influence of one. In horror, Zoé accuses that she's not her Chloé but actually a Sentimonster sent by Monarch. Zoé is techincally right about the other blonde not being her Chloé because she's from an Alternate Timeline where she properly reformed and continues to wield the Bee Miraculous as Honeybee. She's also right that Chloé is a Sentimonster, or rather both Chloés are Sentimonsters created for their own Audrey's uses before being tossed aside, with the heroic Chloé having already reclaimed her amok before ending up in the other world.
- Two Letters:
- Alya is immediately suspicious of the new Ladybug. However, said suspicions stem primarily from her inability to accept Marinette's abrupt retirement, being so far out of touch with her 'bestie' that she completely missed all the signs that she was breaking down under the weight of all her responsibilities. She also blames the new Ladybug for how Marinette avoids her afterwards, ignoring all the evidence that her former friend was deliberately avoiding her of her own volition.
- After she overheard Marinette referring to her as 'Reflekta', Juleka worries that the reason why their friendship fell apart is that she did something while akumatized that she doesn't remember. While she's right that Marinette hasn't forgiven her for becoming Reflekta, she isn't aware that she used to be Ladybug before she retired, or that her resentment extends to practically everyone who was akumatized.
- While explaining that the first Chat Noir was The Millstone, Luka points out how many battles he missed, specifically citing the long stretch of fights before Cat Walker briefly took up the Ring where he wasn't involved in any fights at all. However, Luka thinks that Ladybug was intentionally leaving him out; in reality, Adrien kept skipping fights because he was angry that she treated the other heroes as equals rather than singling him out as special.
- Unexpected Surprise:
- Gabriel, in order to ensure Marinette has no Gold Digger intentions, asks that she tells him the name of Emma's father. When she refuses, he assumes that she is trying to protect Adrien, and is convinced she has no such plans. It is true that she doesn't, but the main reason she refuses is that she simply has no name to give.
- Emily dreams all the time that she will meet her daddy on the roof. So when during one of the attempts, when she almost falls, Adrien grabs her and gets them both to the roof, she starts calling him daddy. He is, but canon doesn't seem to have had any prophetic dreams so far.
- In Unmasker Unleashed, after seeing Marinette’s old behavior come out as Unmasker, Cat Noir suspects that all the pressure in her projects has dampened Marinette. He’s right that Marinette is under pressure but it’s from being Ladybug.
- When Her Heart Skipped a Sweet: After their plans to meet up for ice cream fall through, Marinette reflects upon the Contrived Coincidence and concludes that Adrien is intentionally avoiding her. While she's off on his motivations, the fact is that Adrien did lie to her and the others, falsely claiming that his father was forcing him into a shoot so that he could ditch them for his "date" with Ladybug... despite how Ladybug had warned him she probably wouldn't be able to make it. This underscores how Adrien wants a relationship with Ladybug, not Marinette, regardless of her feelings on the matter in either identity.
- This story has Alya and the rest of the class (sans Chloé) learn about how Adrien "reassured" Marinette that he knew Lila was a liar and that "As long as both you and I know the truth, does it matter?" This leaves them collectively furious... as Lila twists his Exact Words around to convince them that he was manipulating Marinette by slandering her. So while they're still unaware of his Betrayal by Inaction and that Lila really is a liar, they're still upset at him for being a manipulative Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
- Through The Looking Glass: Having known Katarina the longest, Gerald thinks the reason the two from the different worlds are so different was primarily because of the head injury his Katarina received as a kid, since before she was as spoiled and cruel as the current Fortune Lover Katarina, and afterwards she became kind and free-spirited as she is now. But that theory is dismissed when Game!Alan informed him that his world's Katarina also had the same injury. Of course, none of them are aware that the injury Isekai!Katarina had led to her regaining the memories of her former life and thus her new personality.
- Accidental Successor: After Izuku abruptly manifests a Quirk, both he and Katsuki conclude that he's a late bloomer who needs to focus on strength training in order to control his newfound ability. In reality, Izuku's new Quirk is One For All, which secretly chose him as a new host without him realizing it... but he definitely needs the strength training.
- This happens twice in Conversations with a Cryptid.
- Bakugou warns Izuku that he's probably being targeted by a villain, since all the other kids he knew in elementary and middle school had mysteriously disappeared (with one being used for All for One's Noumu project). Izuku was being specifically targeted by a villain, but this one had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to Izuku's childhood bullies.
- Izuku pretty quickly realizes that his Disappeared Dad Hisashi is a criminal, and connects his disappearance to All for One's operation coming under attack by All Might. This is entirely accurate. He then concludes that Hisashi is a member of All for One's inner circle, panicking when his boss looked to be losing. This is not accurate. Hisashi is All for One himself.
- In chapter/snippet 9 of Quantity of Quirks, Toshinori and Nezu eventually agree that Izuku's powers couldn't come from All For One because they're far too powerful for the man to willingly part with. While Izuku's abilities don't have anything to do with All For One, the villain does have a method of duplicating Quirks, allowing him to give powerful Quirks to his minions without losing access to them himself.
- In Ripples on Deep Water, Bakugou acknowledges to himself that he shouldn't have suicide baited Izuku. However, this doesn't stem from a Heel Realization; he's just upset because it seemingly caused Izuku to grow a spine, and he doesn't like his favorite victim standing up to him.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The Flash Sentry Chronicles:
- Flash figured out that Twilight was jealous of Trixie and assured her she has nothing to be worry about. But he assumes she is jealous because Trixie is getting better with magic and is endangering Twilight's status as the princess's number one student, and assures her she is still great at magic and is now simply tied with Trixie. Twilight was actually jealous of Trixie getting close with Flash and was afraid what might happen if they started a relationship, and Flash's cluelessness to this angers not only her but Trixie as well.
- When Pinkie's boyfriend Wild Smile sees how strange she suddenly starts acting, he puts two and two together to realize that she is keeping some kind of secret that involves a baby. Though he mistakenly believes that the secret is that she is pregnant and he is the father of their "unborn foal". He is relieved when he learns that Princess Cadance is the one who is actually pregnant and Pinkie was just trying to keep the secret for the surprise, but embarrassed to admit the misunderstanding to Pinkie.
- Integration: After Sci-Twi almost gets kidnapped by the Changelings, she reveals to her friends that they knew about the magical incidents at Canterlot High. Pinkie Pie immediately guesses that the assailants are, like pre-Heel–Face Turn Sunset and the Sirens, exiles from Equestria who seek to use magic in another Take Over the World scheme. It turns out that the assailants are actually from the Human world, but they're interested in replicating the magical abilities that the Rainbooms have because it'll allow them to easily dominate the criminal underworld.
- In Destiny is a Hazy Thing, Anko insists that being granted nobility won't affect Naruto's loyalty to Konoha. Unbeknownst to her, that's because Naruto isn't loyal to Konoha; he just needs the benefits working for them provides.
- When Naruto goes AWOL to save a falsely-accused Gaara from execution in Eroninja, the Royal Guard presiding over the execution demands Temari write up a list of everyone who might aid Naruto. Once Temari hands back a page completely full of names, the Royal Guard assumes Temari made most of them up to make them waste time checking each name on the list. In reality, every person named on that list would aid Naruto (most of them unconditionally), but Temari knows Naruto is smart enough to avoid any of his known allies and would thus avoid everyone on that list.
- Escape From The Hokage's Hat: During a mission report to Mei, Aoi manages to get a lot right about Tsunade's team. Some of the info isn't accurate, but it at least make sense given what he knows. He correctly surmises Hinata and Naruto are close, but thinks it's because Hinata is a Honey Pot. He correctly guesses the team moves from place to place not to get tracked but thinks it's to gain allies, manipulate Naruto and pull a Kansas City Shuffle on the other villages... instead of Tsunade just trying to maintain a low profile despite the team being a Doom Magnet.
- in dreams you follow (but I dream in the dark): Kiba needs to get Akatsuki's attention by establishing himself as a missing-nin. He picks Danzo as his Asshole Victim, figuring that killing a high-ranking member of Konoha will do the job, and wanting to avenge how Danzo kidnapped Shino's cousin Torune into ROOT, then killed him when the unit was disbanded. What he doesn't know is that the leaders of Akatsuki utterly despise Danzo for screwing them over, so they're thrilled by the news that the council member bit the big one and eagerly welcome him into their ranks.
- Orochimama: Jiraiya assumes that the entire fair Orochitama is holding is meant to distract him, figuring that she'll spring her trap during the final play. He eventually realizes that he was only partially correct; the fair was meant to distract him... but also to convince him not to try too hard to kill her once she was revealed.
- In Reaching for a Dream, Naruto makes a crack that Madara's Assimilation Plot is probably because Hashirama got the girl he himself wanted. While Madara's reaction shows Naruto was right, he made the claim because of how much of a walking cliche the man is, and is both shocked to realize he was right on the money and Disappointed by the Motive.
- In Swapping The Cage, both Sarutobi and Inoichi realize that the new Naruto isn't really Naruto but the Kyuubi (who goes by Kuushou) who has a false mindscape. However, they think Inoichi's counterpart brainwashed the Kyuubi by inserting a fake personality called Naruto. In reality, Kuushou knows full well he's the Kyuubi and he created his false mindscape with the help of his world's Ino (who's his adopted big sister).
- Three's A Crowd: Played With when Kurenai assumes that Team Seven has been struggling due to sexism and Kakashi not managing his students properly. Both are true, but not in the way she thinks:
- Kurenai believes that Kakashi has been neglecting and completely ignoring Sakura's potential because she's a girl from a civilian background. In reality, Kakashi picked up on her potential from the start and considers her his favorite; unfortunately, he also expects her to act as The Heart of Team Seven and pull their group together the same way that Rin kept him and Obito in line.
- While Kakashi doesn't underestimate or undervalue Sakura's skills due to her gender, Sasuke and Uo very much DO, something Kakashi has dismissed as "boys being boys" and unintentionally fostered into deep resentment by pointing out places where she excelled over them. Kakashi's failure to address their blatant sexism and disrespect has only widened the gulf between his students, along with Sakura resenting Kakashi's blatant double standards and unfair expectations of her.
- True Potential: An invoked trope. After the Kiri invasion, Yagura's survival is kept as an S-class secret. However, gossip is already spreading that Naruto helped to kill him, and Hiruzen is well aware that Naruto won't be able to entirely keep in his discomfort at maintaining the lie. Instead, he suggests that Naruto admit discomfort due to "killing" a fellow jinchūriki. This seems to work so far.
- Crocodile in Blood Man Luffy correctly guesses that Luffy would refuse the World Government's offer to become a Shichibukai on the basis that Luffy's not a dog nor is he smart enough to play them for fools, citing that Luffy wants to be Pirate King and "Kings don't bow down to the world, the world bows down to kings." Luffy corrects him that he wants to be Pirate King because it means being the freest person in the world, something he can't do if he's following the government's orders.
- In An Odd Little Family, Lilith assumes that Luz must be Eda's biological daughter after hearing her refer to her as her kid. Camila and Eda correct her about this, only to later learn that Luz actually is biologically related to her, as Camila unknowingly had a one-night stand with Eda during one of the latter's visits to the human realm.
- The Disappearance of Makoto Niijima: The story focuses on a police investigation for the disappearance of the titular character. Due to an inconsistent testimony, notable frustration at being Promoted to Parent, and Makoto's odd behavior like hiding her friends and problems from Sae or stocking up on medical equipment, the police conclude that Sae was much more abusive to Makoto and had a part in her disappearance. The Phantom Teams go to Sae's Palace to find out what happened to their missing teammate, and realize that Sae was responsible... or rather Sae's Shadow was, having captured and locked up Makoto when the latter infiltrated her sister's Palace on her own.
- In the Pokemon: Shadow of Time spin-off Rising Tide, during a confrontation with a ship carrying Kyoji (Ash's new friend) and Sabrina (the Saffron City Gym Leader and now essentially Ash's adopted daughter), the captain of an enemy ship correctly deduces that his ship is being sabotaged, but he believed he had traitors on board when in reality it was Sabrina using her psychic abilities under the guidance of Kyoji's Gible.
- Villain: Redux: After Buttercup was left badly scarred by an incident on Monster Island, her family hid the truth of what happened from the public, claiming it happened in a 'training room accident'. Most don't believe the official explanation, and speculate wildly about what actually occurred. The most common theories hold that Buttercup either became or is becoming evil... and technically speaking, the latter is true. It's just that she's Slowly Slipping Into Evil due to all the injustice and other frustrations she's dealing with, including the isolating treatment she's getting due to her scars.
- Children of Remnant: Weiss thinks Salem is lying when Salem says that Weiss is her favorite daughter. She's right; Salem tells all of them that they're her favorite in order to manipulate them. But the reason Weiss thinks that is because she believes that everyone secretly hates her.
- White Sheep:
- Ozpin quickly realizes that Salem is after Jaune Arc, and deduces that he must have some power that Salem either fears or wants for herself. The truth is that Jaune is Salem's son, and Salem just wants him to come home.
- Ruby thinks that Cinder is a ruthless manipulator who will do anything to gain power. This is true, but Ruby just jumped to that conclusion because Cinder is too pretty (and because Neo thought it would be funny to tell Ruby and the others that Cinder is a Gold Digger).
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong
- In Roulette Wheel Of Fate, both Liu Qingge and Yue Qingyuan assume that a qi deviation gave Shen Qingqiu a precognitive gift, since he's far too well-informed about events and people in spite of how unlikely it is. "Shen Qingqiu" actually is a transmigrator who read about the world as a novel, and is now trying to use the information for everyone's benefit.
- Bequeathed from Pale Estates: After learning about Joffrey's "tongues" incident via reading Sansa's letter from her sister Lyarra, Septa Mordane claims Lyarra is lying because there is no way a member of the Baratheon bloodline could act in such a manner since they were anointed by the High Septon. While she's wrong about Lyarra lying, she is correct about her claim about the Baratheons. It's unlikely a normal Baratheon would act like Joffrey did; Joffrey, however, is not Robert Baratheon's trueborn son. He's Jaime Lannister's incestuous bastard
- In Sonic X: Dark Chaos, Tsali eventually surmises that Maledict isn't actually interested in fighting Sonic the Hedgehog at all, and guesses that it's because he's gonna replace Tsali with them. It's actually because Sonic, Shadow, and Eric are his cloned sons.
- In Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo, Shmi assumes the time-displaced Darth Vader cares for Anakin because the boy reminds Vader of a younger version of himself, unaware that Anakin is a younger version of Vader.
- In Our Future is Now, Rose realises from Jack's reaction when she states her plan to go with him when the ship docks that he has some secret relating to them getting off the ship that he hasn't mentioned yet. However, after discarding the idea that he is some kind of criminal, she comes to the (admittedly more logical) assumption that he has another girl waiting in America, rather than the truth that Jack is part of a group of time-travelers from the future and he therefore knows that Titanic won't dock at all.
- Lugnut in TFA Kaleidoscope is correct when he insists to the other Decepticons that Megatron is still alive, but he has no evidence to back this up and his reasoning is rooted in his zeal and Undying Loyalty.
- In Before The Dawn, after Bella runs into the Cullens when she's already been turned into a vampire, Edward spends some time trying to stay distant from Bella because she talks about missing Alexander, answering Edward's questions about Alexander's identity by saying that she loves him. For obvious reasons Edward thus assumes that Alexander is Bella's mate, before she is able to bring herself to explain that Alexander is actually her son (she was raped by a vampire and Alexander turned her as he was being born).
- Applies to a degree in Bonne Foi, when Jacob speculates that Edward may be the campus serial killer who's been stalking Bella's college; Jacob is right that Edward was the campus killer, but he’s only making that accusation based on the fact that Edward's a vampire rather than any real evidence, and Edward stopped killing humans at least a few weeks before he and Jacob met.
- In Gone but not forgotten, after Tori left before graduation to become a major pop star, Jade realises that Tori has discreetly become her and Beck's landlord, purchasing their building and offering them various discounts on everything from replacing damaged property to keeping their insurance at a fixed rate. Jade correctly guesses that Tori is doing this because she's in love with someone, but assumes that Beck is the one Tori's interested in rather than Jade herself.
- In Memory (set after the characters have graduated), after an amnesiac Jade finds a photo of Tori wearing sexy underwear that was clearly taken in her house, she assumes that the photo indicates that Tori was having an affair with Jade's fiancé Beck. It's only when Jade tries to recreate the photo with a pillow that she observes the shadow in the photo of the person taking the picture isn't tall enough to be Beck, leading to Jade realising that she was the one having an affair with Tori.
- Redaction of the Golden Witch:
- Karl and Hiro's respective favorite theories about what happened during the Rokkenjima Incident each touch briefly upon the One Truth. However, the rest of the details of their pet theories veer wildly off base.
- Walter Absalom believes that the Forgery is connected to the 1996 incident — specifically, that it was written by the one responsible for those deaths, disguising a murder confession as a fictional account of what happened in 1986. As it turns out, he's right about it being connected, and the author did consider themselves responsible... because they believe they could have prevented their friends from dying if they hadn't allowed them to go to Rokkenjima themselves.
- Camera Shy (Worm): Sowilo is trying to get her hands on one of Exorcist's cross pendants, which in addition to protecting against mind-affecting powers also suppress things like homosexual attraction and transgender identification, to get rid of her unwanted feelings towards Taylor. What she almost certainly doesn't know is that those feelings are genuinely unnatural, imposed by her Shard as part of the Kiss/Kill dynamic.
