# The mundane unrealistic details that take you out of the batshit fantastically unrealistic setting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755 "2015-03-23T02:44:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/201 "2015-04-02T17:39:04Z")
The lack of blood. In _Legend of the Seeker,_ Kahlan Amnell is a priestess who goes on long treks across the country dressed in a white robe, skilled not only in the use of knives but the ability to kill multiple people with said knives without a drop of blood being spilled. Side note: I just figured out that Bridget Regan, who played Kahlan, is now playing the Russian assassin in Agent Carter. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/202 "2015-04-02T17:55:55Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > To be fair, it was actually a 60’s era computer. And really, it’s no less realistic than an Iron Man suit, or a Helicarrier. You just have to accept that comic book movies feature comic book technologies. IMHO, it’s one of the advantages of the genre - it sets side any scientific nitpicking and allows them to tell the story they want to tell. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/203 "2015-04-02T18:26:52Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > At the beginning of the book she is a 24yo lawyer in a posh law firm in Manhattan, and she’s heading legal teams in court. The match of age and job would be hard to believe in Spain (where law school is undergrad) but in the US, I find it even more so. Templar rings that give their bearer dreams of the Siege of Jerusalem, ok, it’s a premise of the book. But 24yo heading litigation teams, I have problems with. Never play the Ace Attorney games - Phoenix Wright, the main character, at age 22, is the lead defense attorney on a capital murder case in his _very first trial_, and he’s one of the older rookie lawyers introduced in the series - a prosecutor he tangles with later got her first man sentenced to death at _12_. (Granted, this is an anime-ish series where ghosts can legally testify in court, a prosecutor can oversee his own son’s trial and nobody has a problem with it, and you can be sentenced to death by default if your attorney takes too long, so they’re not really going for real-world accuracy in the first place.) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/204 "2015-04-02T23:59:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > And really, it’s no less realistic than an Iron Man suit, or a Helicarrier. You just have to accept that comic book movies feature comic book technologies. IMHO, it’s one of the advantages of the genre - it sets side any scientific nitpicking and allows them to tell the story they want to tell. Right, this is a world where Howard Stark invented impossible things fifty years before we still haven’t invented them yet. If you see what I mean. So if it’s a “Stark” PC, it will be quite capable of containing Zola’s conscience. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2015, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/205 "2015-04-03T04:18:33Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Right, this is a world where Howard Stark invented impossible things fifty years before we still haven’t invented them yet. If you see what I mean. So if it’s a “Stark” PC, it will be quite capable of containing Zola’s conscience. So I was the one that mentioned the nazi computer in Captain America 2, and I only did so because we were talking about outdated looking computers in films – I just gave it as an example and said in that case I didn’t mind it, I found it funny. Still though I want to respond to some of the points being made. Firstly, even if we’re just in the comic book essentially magic world, it still jars to see the tapes whirring for the same reason the fantastical steam-based machines in a number of films (for some reason only wild wild west comes to mind) seem wrong. It’s better to just show no mechanism than one we know has been superceded and has known limitations. Secondly Captain America is in the marvel universe, but IIRC his own films have at tried for a different level of plausibility and “realism” (scare quotes because obviously I’m just speaking relatively here). I think those films can be judged as separate entities. If the defence of “It’s the same universe as Iron Man” works for how the nazis can make such outdated technology achieve something the best supercomputers in the world today can’t even do 1% of, then we can raise lots of questions such as why none of the avengers helped Captain America trivially solve the problems he encountered in the second movie. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/206 "2015-04-04T04:15:16Z")
I’m reading **No Doors, No Windows** by Joe Schreiber right now, and I guess it’s okay though nothing particularly scary has happened yet. But I got yanked completely out of the story when the main character took his nephew to a Sunday church service, and then stopped at the Millburn public library on the way home to do some research while the kid was in the children’s room. I know that Millburn, New Hampshire is a fictional town but I doubt there’s a town in NH that has a (non-university) library with Sunday hours. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/207 "2015-04-04T07:23:19Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Secondly Captain America is in the marvel universe, but IIRC his own films have at tried for a different level of plausibility and “realism” (scare quotes because obviously I’m just speaking relatively here). That realism has always included WWI era magic potions, Nazi rocket ships, people falling into glaciers and living for 70 years, flying aircraft carriers, indestructible boomerang shields and a whole lot of other magic technology that is only ever used by the supers and never released to the public. If it was meant to be more realistic, it was by a fine margin. Personally I think that a Nazi super-genius surviving as a one-off in an experimental computer is no more unrealistic than a GI super soldier surviving as a one-off in a glacier. Neither event is meant to be replicable by the average Joe. > [@](#): > > If the defence of “It’s the same universe as Iron Man” works for how the nazis can make such outdated technology achieve something the best supercomputers in the world today can’t even do 1% of… It’s only outdated in the same sense that Caps shield and the WWII Nazi rocket ship are outdated. IOW it’s outdated within the movie world but it’s incredibly futuristic compared to this reality. > [@](#): > > … then we can raise lots of questions such as why none of the avengers helped Captain America trivially solve the problems he encountered in the second movie. This was explained within the movie: Cap had been framed and was a fugitive. he had no way of securely contacting the other heroes, and even if he did, they were all SHIELD affiliated. He had no way of knowing they would believe him. Bad enough facing ordinary mooks, but the chance of Iron Man siding against you is a hell of gamble. Of course they could always explain it exactly the same way the comics always do: the other heroes were on their own missions. IOW Captain America 2 takes place simulatenously with Iron Man 3 and Thor 2. That’s the reason why Superman and Zatanna never use their abilities to trivially solve Batman’s problems, even when his failure will result in the Joker killing millions of people. Top tier heroes have top tier problems that only they can deal with. They don’t always have time to help out street level heroes with street level problems, even if they are literally on the same team. And of course all the occasions where they fdo help out are never shown because they are boring. Superman catches the Joker in 3.7 seconds isn’t a good story. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/208 "2015-04-04T10:25:08Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > That realism has always included WWI era magic potions, Nazi rocket ships, people falling into glaciers and living for 70 years, flying aircraft carriers, indestructible boomerang shields and a whole lot of other magic technology that is only ever used by the supers and never released to the public. If it was meant to be more realistic, it was by a fine margin. **Personally I think that a Nazi super-genius surviving as a one-off in an experimental computer is no more unrealistic than a GI super soldier surviving as a one-off in a glacier.** Neither event is meant to be replicable by the average Joe. Everyone knows the only thing that can survive being frozen in a glacier is a [giant prehistoric praying mantis.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deadly_Mantis) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/209 "2015-04-04T19:55:53Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Of course they could always explain it exactly the same way the comics always do: the other heroes were on their own missions. IOW Captain America 2 takes place simulatenously with Iron Man 3 and Thor 2. That’s the reason why Superman and Zatanna never use their abilities to trivially solve Batman’s problems, even when his failure will result in the Joker killing millions of people. Top tier heroes have top tier problems that only they can deal with. They don’t always have time to help out street level heroes with street level problems, even if they are literally on the same team. And of course all the occasions where they fdo help out are never shown because they are boring. Superman catches the Joker in 3.7 seconds isn’t a good story. One reason why I liked the Justice league Unlimited cartoons: every so often they spent 3 seconds explaining Supes or someone was busy. Ya think a movie could do the same? ---
**Author:** ![BrianJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@BrianJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrianJ)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/210 "2015-04-05T15:40:23Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > The accents in Mass Effect are all over the map (both literally and figuratively) > > Between you’re example of the Pesudo-Russian-except-for-one-guy Quarians you have a Japenese character with ZERO accent and about 3 others WITH accents. > > And the weird kinda-British accents are just…weird That’s true, but I’m more forgiving, for some reason, of earth accents from 200 years in the future, than I am for aliens. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/211 "2015-04-05T20:22:53Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > In the recent _I Am Legend_ with Will Smith, the Brazilians that he rescues have never heard of Bob Marley. > > Assuming this occurs in the 2000-2020s… And even more so in later years… This is ridiculous. Bob Marley is one of the best known, if not the best, reggae players. There are numerous Brazilian reggae bands that cover his songs. Not only that, one of Brazil’s most popular singers, Gilberto Gil, covers Bob Marley songs (translated and original English). Lastly, Bob Marley is an icon, his face is plastered in all types of stuff. I’ve seen his face plastered in some towel that was being used as a curtain in a favela in Brazil. > > Yea yea, I can accept the mutant things… I can’t accept that a well-educated Brazilian would’ve been so sheltered as to not recognize such a popular icon as Bob Marley. Even if she didn’t know that particular song, if he mentioned “Bob Marley”, she could’ve said “Ah, I know other songs by him!”. This is a script artifact from an earlier version supposed to star Ahhhnold where he is obsessed with the song Gimme Shelter and The Rolling Stones, they changed it to Bob Marley and it doesn’t really make sense anymore you’re right. I could see someone not being able to name a BM song(even this strains) but to go who is Bob Marley? Nah no way, unless they are really isolated from western culture. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/212 "2015-04-06T01:16:00Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > I can’t get over the way Tywin Lannister’s very special Valerian steel blacksmith melted and \*cast \*swords at the beginning of season four. > > Really? > > I mean, _really?_ Could you explain this to a non-swordsmith please? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/213 "2015-04-06T01:45:20Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > Could you explain this to a non-swordsmith please? I assume that it’s a problem with “casting” instead of “forging.” To cast something, you pour a liquid into a mold. That isn’t how you make a steel sword. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/214 "2015-05-17T01:10:30Z")
Game of Thrones, in an episode of Season 4 they had graffiti written in English and they later showed that the books in Kings Landing are also written in English _(they never showed the interior of the books closely enough before to tell what language they were in)_. Took me right out of the story that did, sure I can accept them speaking English in a ‘Hunt for Red October’ sense _(that they’re really speaking some other languages but we’re hearing it in English)_. But while I can suspend my disbelief for the spoken word I can’t achieve it for the written word apparently. Oh and Man of Steel, an ungodly strong nigh-invulnerable human-looking alien who flies around wearing his underwear on the outside? Yeah, OK, whatever… But a ‘fifth-generation’ farmer running into the path of a tornado to save a _dog_? I think not, I grew up on a farm and while my family certainly never mistreated our dogs it was made clear from the start that they were working animals and _not_ pets. Farms can be dangerous places and as children we were told that no matter what happens you don’t put yourself into harms way to save an animal. I can’t imagine it being different for anybody else from a farming background. I didn’t particularly like the movie anyway, but that scene moved it from ‘meh’ to ‘ludicrous’ for me, ‘fifth-generation farmer’? If that’s the way he and his forebears behaved they must have been very short generations. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/215 "2015-05-17T02:09:18Z")
The Westerosi books being writing in English didn’t bother me (after all if spoken English can stand in for spoken Andalish it might as well be the same for writing). My problem was why are Meereenese slaves writing graffiti in Andalish instead of Meereenese or Ghiscari. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/216 "2015-05-17T02:35:27Z")
This bugs me about ANY movie: someone gets conked on the noggin (gun-butt, frying pan, what have you) and just goes unconscious for a short while, when s/he wakes up, they scratch their head and go merrily on their way–no concussion, no swelling, no blood running off the back of the head, no staggering, no crushed cheek-bones, no bashed-in noses, no skull fractures; occasionally, someone will acknowledge a boo-boo on the back of the head. I’ve had a near fatal concussion, so this probably makes me cringe worse than other people might. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/217 "2015-05-17T03:10:12Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Game of Thrones, in an episode of Season 4 they had graffiti written in English and they later showed that the books in Kings Landing are also written in English _(they never showed the interior of the books closely enough before to tell what language they were in)_. Took me right out of the story that did, sure I can accept them speaking English in a ‘Hunt for Red October’ sense _(that they’re really speaking some other languages but we’re hearing it in English)_. But while I can suspend my disbelief for the spoken word I can’t achieve it for the written word apparently. I think I have the same problem. This made me think of HBO’s _Rome_\*, where the graffiti scribbled on walls, in the intro sequence and sprinkled through the show, is in Latin. And, yeah, you’re right, it would really have bothered if it had been in English. Although I don’t have a problem with all the Romans walking around speaking English. That is a strange thing indeed. (\*Which, BTW, is a show that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with, since it goes out of its way to get things right and do things intelligently, only to turn around and go just as far out of its way to get other things wrong and do things stupidly. But that’s for another thread…) ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/218 "2015-05-17T04:09:07Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Much the same vein: bad snow. Snow that is obviously shredded plastic. > > I don’t worry about Doctor Manhattan and Rohrschach and Adrian Veidt – but bad snow really cheeses me. James Bond can chase nuclear warheads all over the Alps – but bad snow makes me stop caring. Young Spock can go into Pon Farr over and over, and that’s fine – but that stupid Styrofoam snow got my goat. The Genesis planet had complex hydrocarbon chains in its upper atmosphere as a result of the terraforming, so what you saw was actually intended to be wind-blown Styrofoam. Yes. I made that up. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/219 "2015-05-17T04:23:39Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > This bugs me about ANY movie: someone gets conked on the noggin (gun-butt, frying pan, what have you) and just goes unconscious for a short while, when s/he wakes up, they scratch their head and go merrily on their way–no concussion, no swelling, no blood running off the back of the head, no staggering, no crushed cheek-bones, no bashed-in noses, no skull fractures; occasionally, someone will acknowledge a boo-boo on the back of the head. I’ve had a near fatal concussion, so this probably makes me cringe worse than other people might. Agreement. (And it’s often followed by the “Ow! Antiseptic spray stings!” farce. A guy can get pounded to meatloaf, but when his sweetie gently cleans his wounds, he winces and hisses.) > [@Lobohan](#): > > The Genesis planet had complex hydrocarbon chains in its upper atmosphere as a result of the terraforming, so what you saw was actually intended to be wind-blown Styrofoam. . . . Oh, well…yeah, that makes perfect sense. (Grin!) ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/220 "2015-05-17T12:44:14Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Everybody speaks English. Foreign country? English. Different planet? English. Different galaxy or dimension? English. Distant past, before English came to be as a language? English. > > Stargate, I’m lookin’ at you… Or how 1000 years of Frenchmen all have English accents(_The Musketeers_ ,Captain Picard) > [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > A clip from World War Z irked me. > > In the commercials, they ran the hell out of this one scene where the zombies are literally swarming up these huge concrete walls in Israel, thousands of zombies making these enormous piles and eventually swarming over the hundred foot walls. > > I had no trouble at all with the walking dead… hell, even the RUNNING dead… but upon seeing that scene, my first thought was that the bottom three layers of zombies are going to be squished to grease, which is going to make the upper part of the pile a lot less stable… and because new zombies are swarming, the bottom few layers are going to KEEP getting liquefied… in fact, this whole thing just wouldn’t work… > > Although it was certainly impressive to look at. What really bothered me was the airplane lavatory zombie. If they turn in under 30 seconds, how the hell did he get bit, board an airplane, stow his luggage in the overhead bin, then go to the bathroom without anyone noticing? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=12)