# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/41 "2015-03-23T21:17:28Z")
The one that always breaks suspension of disbelief for me is the behavior of predators. Hero is trudging through the jungle, oblivious. Suddenly he hears a loud roar. He turns around slowly, and there’s a lion/thanator/grizzly/killbot. The predator does another threat display. The hero turns and runs, the predator waits for a second and then takes off chasing the hero. Why did the lion roar? In real life, if a lion was behind you and about to pounce, it wouldn’t roar. It would pounce on you from behind. Lions don’t believe in fair fights. Neither do killbots or Denebian Slime Devils. Or patrolling soldiers. I don’t know how many soldiers sneak up just behind the hero, have their gun pointed at the hero’s head, yell “Freeze!”, at which the hero whips around, pulls out his gun, and shoots the soldier dead. For some reason they always shoot human minions who do this, but always run away from predators who do this. ---
**Author:** ![Clawdio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Clawdio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clawdio)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/42 "2015-03-23T21:23:16Z")
In most epic fantasy: Our heroes have had a long grueling day, either traveling from one end of the fantastical world to the other or fighting baddies and when they need refreshment they almost always reach for the wine. Mostly empty stomach, long strenuous day? everyone would be smashed or napping in less than 30 mins… Edited to add: and almost never hungover… unless its a plot point. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/43 "2015-03-23T21:42:36Z")
When two guys are fighting (unless it’s a martial arts film), the combatants will make no noises except for the smack of fist (or what-have-you) on face (or what-have-you). If two women are fighting, it will sound like Monica Seles playing herself in a tennis match: grunting, yelling, and most of it coming from the one throwing the punch at the time, not the one getting smacked. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2015, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/44 "2015-03-23T22:02:31Z")
> [@Clawdio](#): > > In most epic fantasy: > > Our heroes have had a long grueling day, either traveling from one end of the fantastical world to the other or fighting baddies and when they need refreshment they almost always reach for the wine. > > Mostly empty stomach, long strenuous day? everyone would be smashed or napping in less than 30 mins… I don’t know about this. If most epic fantasy is anything like actual world history, this doesn’t sound too unrealistic. In the ancient world, wine was pretty ubiquitous (or other kinds of alcoholic beverages, depending on location). Note that the wine would usually be cut heavily with water, so I suppose that you could assume this to be the case in a fantasy setting as well. A wine-water mix would often be safer to drink than the local water taken straight. Alcohol kills germs and prevents you from getting the runs or worse (of course, in the olden days people didn’t know about the bacteria, but they did know this from experience). Only a barbarian would drink their wine straight (or, famously, a Macedonian… see the biography of Alexander the Great for how well that would sometimes work out). Wine was also tangled up in all kinds of cultural and religious rituals and practices. And, yes, pretty good for simply getting smashed, if that was your goal. There was no shortage of that going on. As I said, the wine was usually cut with water, so people didn’t spend all their time drunk as skunks. In fairness, though, considering how much of it was still consumed on a daily basis, a lot of ancient history was most likely played out by people who were at least walking around with a buzz, or a hangover. Which might explain a few things… ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/45 "2015-03-23T22:07:11Z")
**Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter** (which I did enjoy and do not consider a bad movie) Vampires existed: Okay, I accepted that in the context of the movie Abe Lincoln was a badass axeman: Accepted Abe Lincoln could do stunning acrobatic wire-fu: Accepted Abe Lincoln un-retired and did his ninja axe fighting as president, in beard and stovepipe hat: Accepted So, fantastic unrealistic setting accepted. BUT: SPOILER: Vampires were helping the Confederacy. The US was losing because they could only by killed by silver. So the government melted down all the silver in DC the night before Gettysburg. Chalices, trays, candelabras, all melted an forged into bullets. It was already nighttime when they started doing this. Then transported from DC to Gettysburg (80 miles away). By railroad… but with a twist: by foot on the “Underground Railroad”. Then distributed to the soldiers to turn back the vampires’ Picketts Charge in the morning!! OH COME ON!! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/46 "2015-03-23T22:09:55Z")
**burpo the wonder mutt** : delightful point about women grunting heartily when in combat. On the doofus old show Cleopatra 2525, the women made grunting noises…when firing handguns! ---
**Author:** ![scoots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@scoots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scoots)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/47 "2015-03-23T22:19:07Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Riddick used an Earth idiom because Earth explictly exists in the Riddick movies: Ok, then why does Riddick have an American accent? ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/48 "2015-03-23T22:22:24Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Because the _phrase_ has an origin you can pinpoint here in our very specific and genuine history of Earth, not on the fantastical World of Erania. So basically fantasy authors can’t use any words of phrases invented since the printing press or you’ll be annoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/49 "2015-03-23T22:37:24Z")
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?_ ---
**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:** [March 23, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/50 "2015-03-23T22:41:23Z")
War films: A bomb goes off and a half dozen men jump off their trampolines, like Cirque du Soleil, instead of vaporizing in mid-air or flying apart in a nauseating spray of gore (they have been getting better at this in movies lately, though). ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/51 "2015-03-23T22:41:23Z")
> [@scoots](#): > > Ok, then why does Riddick have an American accent? Because after being found as a baby in a trash dumpster by a liquor store with an umbilical cord around his neck, he was raised in a crappy orphanage where the only caregivers were very old models androids whose speech had been programmed decades or centuries before to approximate old Earth American English. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/52 "2015-03-23T22:51:06Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > **Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter** (which I did enjoy and do not consider a bad movie) \ Where does Lincoln find time to run the country when he’s tackling vampires and [walkers](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2246549/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/53 "2015-03-23T23:01:11Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > So basically fantasy authors can’t use any words of phrases invented since the printing press or you’ll be annoyed. Well, the point of the thread IS stuff that irrationally pushes you over when already suspending your disbelief. If it made logical sense that that’s the thing to put you off, there wouldn’t be any reason to talk about it. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/54 "2015-03-23T23:16:56Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > So basically fantasy authors can’t use any words of phrases invented since the printing press or you’ll be annoyed. Words I am fine with, otherwise it would be impossible to read. Phrases stick out. I don’t know why I have to justify this, it’s just what happens while I read. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/55 "2015-03-24T00:02:46Z")
I have a minor nitpick about **Shaun of the Dead** ; they specifically follow Romero’s zombie rules about removing the head or destroying the brain (& pretty much everything else), yet the first zombie Shaun & Ed manages to stand upright and come after them despite being impaled and having a huge hole obviously severing her spinal column. :dubious: > [@erysichthon](#): > > …Oh, and I also get irritated by the “sports almanac” that turns up in BTTF2. It supposedly lists the outcome of every sporting event for decades, but it’s as thin as a comic book. Don’t forgot the almanac apparently stays accurate for decades despite all the ripple effects from Biff’s bets. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/56 "2015-03-24T00:46:46Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Don’t forgot the almanac apparently stays accurate for decades despite all the ripple effects from Biff’s bets. Why wouldn’t it? It’s well established in the movies that changes to the timeline propagate forward and eventually change objects brought back from the future. Any changes Biff causes will show up in the results in the Almanac. It should catch up to even really big changes within a week or two, given the expected propagation rate of the changewaves. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/57 "2015-03-24T00:49:06Z")
> [@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?_ Didn’t Saruman cast swords in the Lord of the Rings movies? Ultimately, why not? If you’re making really crappy swords…but tens of thousands of them…to arm your hordes of mindless minions…wouldn’t it be a viable strategy? ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/58 "2015-03-24T01:17:21Z")
I just finished Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Halfway through the final book: > [@](#): > > _Susannah leaped to her feet_ It took me right out of the story because I couldn’t stop laughing. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/59 "2015-03-24T02:01:44Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I just finished Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Halfway through the final book: > > It took me right out of the story because I couldn’t stop laughing. 😕😕:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/60 "2015-03-24T02:36:21Z")
> [@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. For what it’s worth, the writers in the DVD commentary did admit that scene was totally inaccurate; but in their words, “It looked really cool.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=4)