History Main / ContrivedCoincidence

* ''[[Film/{{Spider-Man Trilogy}} Spider-Man 3]]'': The Venom symbiote just happens to fall out of the sky and land near Peter Parker, and the Sandman just happens to be the guy who killed Uncle Ben.
** ''Spider-Man 2'' was worse in this respect. '''Much worse.'''

*** He and Aunt May just happen to be at the same bank that Octavius decides to rob to get money for his eenhanced tritium experiment.

** All of the passengers of flight 815 have unknowingly crossed paths before meeting on the plane, to the extent that the series also falls into the OneDegreeOfSeparation trope. For instance, only in season 3 we find out that [[spoiler:Claire and Jack are half siblings; this remains unbeknownst to Claire until her supposed death, while Jack finds out only in S4.]] These past connections eventually end up looking slightly less contrived now that it's clearly stated that one of the main themes of the show is "destiny". The trope in this case would be subverted. At first it seemed like the writers were just throwing in little connections to please fans, but as of season six it is pretty obvious the fact they have all crossed paths is an important aspect of the show, and it may not be fate that brought them to the island in the first place.

* Done especially badly in ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} 2''. In order to acquire the MacGuffin you need a Precursor Dreadnought - a very powerful, very well hidden and ostensibly unique spaceship. It takes the aid [[spoiler: and self-sacrifice]] of the last remnant of an ancient alien race to liberate the thing from the GoddamnBats and put it back into shape. Just as you wipe your forehead, you receive an out-of-the-blue message in a casual, nonchalant tone: "There is another Dreadnought...and [[BigBad Makaan]] has it." Well, isn't that a surprise, I ask you?!

** The plot of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' kicks off because 1) The Weasley's win the wizard lottery, 2) This gets them a large front-page picture, 3) Ron's pet rat is in said picture, and 4) Cornelius Fudge just happens to be carrying this exact issue when he goes to visit Sirius Black. The only reason the series doesn't end with that novel is that the climax happens to take place on a night with a full moon.
** In ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'', Harry, Ron, and Hermione save a group of people kidnapped by Snatchers. There just happens to be a goblin in that group (the same goblin Harry met on his first day at Gringotts, no less), which makes it very convenient when they need to figure out how to break into Gringotts.

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': This trope is completely ''averted''. The ClockKing is deconstructed into a CosmicPlaything: Whenever he does something disciplined, the Universe concedes him the GambitRoulette. Whenever he does something harmonian, the Universe enforces FinaglesLaw. So, Batman has a UtilityBelt that is practically a HyperspaceArsenal that surely will have a gas mask? CrazyPrepared ClockKing gets Batman [[LockedInAFreezer Locked in a Bank Vault ]]and makes it a GasChamber with a vacuum sucking all the air out. The opening of Gotham Central Station is exactly seven years later that the {{ClockKing}}’s StartOfDarkness in a [[SubwaysSuck desolated subway?]] [[FridgeBrilliance The ClockKing manipulated the events to make the anniversary happen]] Is there a CoincidentalBroadcast that let’s Batman save the day? ThereAreNoCoincidences, [[{{Franchise/DCAU}} the Universe]] itself is punishing ClockKing with another [[DisasterDominoes domino]]. Did we mention that this episode is the GenreDeconstruction of ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''?

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': This trope is completely ''averted''. The ClockKing is deconstructed into a CosmicPlaything: Whenever he does something disciplined, the Universe concedes him the GambitRoulette. Whenever he does something harmonian, the Universe enforces FinaglesLaw. So, Batman has a UtilityBelt that is practically a HyperspaceArsenal that surely will have a gas mask? CrazyPrepared ClockKing gets Batman [[LockedInAFreezer Locked in a Bank Vault ]]and makes it a GasChamber with a vacuum sucking all the air out. The opening of Gotham Central Station is exactly seven years later that the {{ClockKing}}’s StartOfDarkness in a [[SubwaysSuck desolated subway?]] [[FridgeBrilliance The ClockKing manipulated the events to make the anniversary happen]] Is there a CoincidentalBroadcast that let’s Batman save the day? ThereAreNoCoincidences, [[{{Franchise/DCAU}} the Universe]] itself is punishing ClockKing with another [[DisasterDominoes domino]]. Did we mention that this episode is the GenreDeconstruction of 'BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''?

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': This trope is completely ''averted''. The ClockKing is deconstructed into a CosmicPlaything: Whenever he does something disciplined, the Universe concedes him the GambitRoulette. Whenever he does something harmonian, the Universe enforces FinaglesLaw. So, Batman has a UtilityBelt that is practically a HyperspaceArsenal that surely will have a gas mask? CrazyPrepared ClockKing gets Batman [[LockedInAFreezer Locked in a Bank Vault ]]and makes it a GasChamber with a vacuum sucking all the air out. The opening of Gotham Central Station is exactly seven years later that the {{ClockKing}}’s StartOfDarkness in a [[SubwaysSuck desolated subway?]] [[FridgeBrilliance The ClockKing manipulated the events to make the anniversary happen]] Is there a CoincidentalBroadcast that let’s Batman save the day? ThereAreNoCoincidences, [[{{Franchise/DCAU}} the Universe]] itself is punishing ClockKing with another [[DisasterDominoes domino]].

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': This trope is completely ''averted''. The ClockKing is deconstructed into a CosmicPlaything: Whenever he does something disciplined, the Universe concedes him the GambitRoulette. Whenever he does something harmonian, the Universe enforces FinaglesLaw. So, Batman has a UtilityBelt that is practically a HyperspaceArsenal that surely will have a gas mask? CrazyPrepared ClockKing gets Batman [[LockedInAFreezer Locked in a Bank Vault ]]and makes it a GasChamber with a vacuum sucking all the air out. The opening of Gotham Central Station is exactly seven years later that the {{ClockKing}}’s StartOfDarkness in a [[SubwaySuck desolated subway?]] [[FridgeBrilliance The ClockKing manipulated the events to make the anniversary happen]] Is there a CoincidentalBroadcast that let’s Batman save the day? ThereAreNoCoincidences, [[{{Franchise/DCAU}} the Universe]] itself is punishing ClockKing with another [[DisasterDominoes domino]].

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': This trope is completely ''averted''. The ClockKing is deconstructed into a CosmicPlaything: Whenever he does something disciplined, the Universe concedes him the GambitRoulette. Whenever he does something harmonian, the Universe enforces FinaglesLaw. So, Batman has a UtilityBelt that is practically a HyperspaceArsenal that surely will have a gas mask? CrazyPrepared ClockKing gets Batman [[LockedInAFreezer Locked in a Bank Vault ]]and makes it a GasChamber with a vacuum sucking all the air out. The opening of Gotham Central Station is exactly seven years later that the {{ClockKing}}’s StartOfDarkness in a [[SubwaySucks desolated subway?]] [[FridgeBrilliance The ClockKing manipulated the events to make the anniversary happen]] Is there a CoincidentalBroadcast that let’s Batman save the day? ThereAreNoCoincidences, [[{{Franchise/DCAU}} the Universe]] itself is punishing ClockKing with another [[DisasterDominoes domino]].

** To be fair, that's usually because they were foreseen by their ancestors. However, where they got these powers of foresight is never explained.

** Possibly justified; the Imagin (as the monsters are called) take every aspect of their new bodies from the mind of the person they bind themselves to. It's possible they found thoughts of the Den-O belt and simply used the colors of the buttons to determine the main colors for their bodies.
*** This does not explain Kintaros, whose body is primarily yellow, as he first possessed a different man, one who's desire was to be a karate champion.
**** That was ''really'' unexpected coincidence, but the other three's colors could be decided specifically in the belt in the same time they possessed Ryoutaro.
**** [[FanWank Ryou's predecessor was merely a yellow belt and wanted to be a champion.]]

** Maria is supposed to be playing in an opera just near the party's current location. (Though to be fair, it is the ''only'' Opera house in the world).

** Justified in at least one case (Theseus serves the Fates, so would be around most of the time), and possibly justified in the others if you think of the Fates as being sort of "outside of time."
** Or it could be the Fates are throwing people into his path to stop him.
*** It was actively stated that The Fates freed the Barbarian King from Hades to stop Kratos, Perseus had been trapped in that small room for an indefinite amount of time, and the last Spartan would have set off roughly the same time as Kratos. The only real coincidence is Icarus, and he looks like he spent so long on that ledge he went mad.
*** So you could say.. They were [[IncrediblyLamePun FATED]] to be there! ...[[Music/TheWho YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]].

*** Could be chalked up to BecauseDestinySaysSo instead.

* ValkyriaChronicles. After Alicia [[spoiler: is awakened to her Valkyria powers]], she's understandably overwhelmed and afraid of what [[InternalizedCategorism she thinks that means for her.]] She's the most popular girl in her squad, in a game where ThePowerOfFriendship is more effective than bullets. That doesn't stop the whole RagtagBunchOfMisfits from completely overlooking her descent into suicidal self-loathing to set up the [[spoiler: SuicideAttack interrupted by a CooldownHug]]. [[spoiler: Welkin, who's [[InformedAbility supposed to be a genius]], just waves it off when Alicia comes to him on the verge of a nervous breakdown just to shove the last act of the romance plot along.]]

* There are several in JaneAusten's ''Literature/LoveAndFreindship'', such as the meeting of the grandfather and his four grandchildren, but one when Laura can't talk without remindind Sophia of her troubles, and when Sophia begs to talk to distract her, and a carriage overturns, is enough for Laura to remark on it.

* A lot of ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'': [[spoiler: Scott Shelby just happens to be across the street to witness Ethan and Jason's car accident. The contrived part is that Ethan develops blackouts as a result of this crash that coincide with Shelby's kidnappings. Since the blackouts begin before media coverage of the kidnappings, this is unbelievable coincidence. What's worse, he always comes to at a specific intersection which '''just happens''' to be emotionally significant to Shelby, even though nobody knows this at the time so he couldn't have picked it up from the news. Later, Shelby goes to Manfred's Clock Shop to get his typewriter repair invoices, but Lauren insists on coming along. While there, Manfred steps into the back file room and Lauren gets entranced by a music box '''exactly''' at the top of the hour, allowing the cacophony of all the chiming clocks to cover the sound of Manfred's murder.]]
** Interestingly, most of the explanation for the above originally existed in the game but was cut for various reasons.

* In ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', a servant of Voldemort looking for his master just so happens to meet with the only person in the world who can give the location of another, much more capable servant.
** The plot of ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' kicks off because 1) The Weasley's win the wizard lottery, 2) This gets them a large front-page picture, 3) Ron's pet rat is in said picture, and 4) Cornelius Fudge just happens to be carrying this exact issue when he goes to visit Sirius Black. The only reason the series doesn't end with that novel is that the climax happens to take place on a night with a full moon.

** Maria is supposed to be playing in an opera just near the party's current location.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[NoKillLikeOverkill There's a gas leak, too.]]]]

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' and its sequels run on these. Almost all the cases would be unwinnable if it weren't for at least one witness being in the right place at the right time. Any specific example would be woefully spoileriffic, though.
** Still, here's a particularly {{egregious}} one: [[spoiler:a ringmaster goes to meet with someone, instead of his daughter. He just so happens to borrow your defendant's cloak. The murder drops what just so happens to be a golden bust of your client on the ringmaster, killing him. The bust just so happens to snag on the cloak when he pulls it up, and to a witness from exactly the right spot, it looks like your client is flying away from the corpse.]]
*** Everyone realizes just how much of a Contrived Coincidence each act is, and when the evidence supports the ''theory'', actively rebel against anyone accepting it as the truth. In the case of the above spoiler, ''Phoenix himself'' acknowledges that it's incredibly unlikely and near impossible, and, in his words, "But that's exactly what happened." ''This happens all the time.''
** The plot arcs of each game have a few coincidences, but are usually explained as the long-term plans of people involved with the cases. Not so with the events of ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]''. It seems that when Edgeworth was first starting out as a prosecutor several years ago, he got involved in an incident involving [[spoiler:a smuggling ring]]. Cut to the present day, where he ends up investigating three crimes that are all in some way related to the group. None of them are directly related to each other. His presence for all three is pure coincidence. And this happens over a period of two days.

* The scene early in ''VisualNovel/KiraKira'' where Tonoya gives concert tickets to Kirari and Shika, thereby putting the plot in motion. When Shika is being interviewed later on in the game, both he and the interviewer [[BetterThanABareBulb lambaste the event, claiming that things like that just don't happen in real life]].

* The Nasuverse is full of this. Take ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''. [[spoiler: Most of the Masters in the war attend the same school. Caster just happens to find someone in a forest, at night, in the rain, who will [[DeusSexMachina form a contract]] for no reason. The unwanted girl Zouken adopts (Sakura) just happens to have an elemental affinity that allows her to channel Angra Mainyu's power and be corrupted by it (plus the extreme mental strength necessary not to have broken ''long'' ago). The child Kiritsugu adopts happens to have an awesome Reality Marble that allows him to fight against servants.]]
** Or ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}''. [[spoiler: Shiki has amnesia, and doesn't remember he's a from a line of people specializing in killing the supernatural. He was adopted by people who are, go figure, supernatural. He happens to run into (and kill) a True Ancestor. His classmate (who loves him) is turned into a vampire by his forgotten brother, SHIKI]]. Possibly a JustifiedTrope; in that in one [[AllThereInTheManual side-story]], [[ThoseTwoGuys That One Guy]] comments on how Shiki gives off this "vibe" that repels normal people who are afraid of death.
** Though some of Contrived Coincidences in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' are justified. [[spoiler: Shirou is capable of using his reality marble as an after-effect of surviving that fire and having gotten Avalon implanted inside of him (so it's Kiritsugu's fault; it's also worth saying that it's specifically because of the trauma of that day). And it's not completely by chance that Kiritsugu had found him, because he was looking for survivors, and pretty desperately at that. Granted, he had a number of magic circuits above average humans, but that's not that unlikely to happen. Medea had found a master because she was searching for one, and it's merely unlikely, and not near impossible, to find one for any servant if he/she really wishes to do it (though it's worth noting that the fact she had met a person as unique as Kuzuki is a Contrived Coincidence in itself). Sakura wasn't as much "adopted" by Zouken, but bought by him, and her original affinity really didn't matter that much in controlling the grail. The affinity that did help her with that was one that Zouken artificially changed her body to, in a rather painful way, and specifically because he wanted her to bear that role. The one with them going to the same school (4 of them, anyway; 5 if you also count Sakura) is a little more difficult to justify, since we know nothing about Fuyuki, but it's possible that all magi families live on the same side of the city, and there is only one school on that side.]]
* Subverted in ''VisualNovel/{{Canvas 2}}''; it's implied that Kiri started working at Nadesico precisely ''because'' Hiroki worked there and she wanted to see him again.

** {{Averted}} in the [[ShowWithinAShow Book Within A Book]] ''Misery's Return'' in {{Misery}}: Paul is well aware that it would come off as too much of a coincidence for two women in the same town to have been BuriedAlive, so he comes up with a way to link the two events.
** “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”: It just so happens that Tommy Williams shared a cell at Thomaston with Elwood Blatch, the man who ''really'' killed Andy Dufresne's wife (a fact Tommy happens to be privy to because Blatch bragged about the crime). It just so happens that Tommy ends up at Shawshank, where Andy is incarcerated.
** In the “Notes” section of ''Literature/SkeletonCrew'', King describes an outlandish coincidence he claims actually happened to him. When he was an undergraduate, he submitted a story called “The Float” (an earlier version of “The Raft”) to a men's magazine, which would pay only upon publication of the story. Later that year, while driving around late at night in the town of Orono, a traffic cone which road workers had failed to remove knocked his car's muffler loose from its tailpipe. Angered, King decided to drive around town picking up other traffic cones which had also been left out. He had picked up a good number of them when he was pulled over by an Orono cop, who took him into custody. The judge levied a fine against King of $250 – which he didn't have. Looking at 30 days in jail if he couldn't come up with the money, King saw no way out – until a check for $250 came in the mail from the men's magazine to which he'd submitted “The Float.”
* In TheHobbit, the party arrive at Rivendell and get Elrond to read their map on Midsummer's Eve — which ''just happens'' to be the right day (the first in several years, '''''and''''' the last for who-knows-how-many more years) in which some secret Moon Runes hidden on the map can be seen and read; they are only visible on a Midsummer's Eve on which a moon of the ''exact'' same phase as the one on the date they were written, shines through them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Even though it is unquestionably a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, Azula's conquest of Ba Sing Se [[GambitRoulette has elements of this.]] It's an amazing coincidence that everyone who knows who she is just so happens to be conveniently absent the moment she sets foot in Ba Sing Se. Sokka especially could have waited a mere hour before leaving to greet the [[DressingAsTheEnemy Kyoshi Warriors]] when they arrived, which would have derailed everything. It all makes sense in context, and TropesAreNotBad.