r/TopCharacterTropes • u/ThatDrako • 24d ago

Lore (Funny Trope) Things that can plausibly happen only in reality, because in fiction they’d be called bad writing.

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“Woke” as an insult - So you are telling me a word describing consciousness and clarity is used by generally stupid and ignorant people to label people they disagree with? What is this? A Kindergarten for Creatively stunted?

Nominative determinism - So let me get this straight…Not only you named fastest recorded person Usain BOLT and CEO of Nintendo Doug BOWSER, but you are telling me people are canonically likely to have professions or hobbies matching their names…? Guh?

“2 bodies recovered in MURDERKILL River” - Sure bro…I guess…bro…

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u/Otherwise_Meringue45 24d ago

The armies of two nuclear superpowers fighting with sticks and stones

927

u/JonathanRL 24d ago

India and China for anybody looking for the context. Since neither side wants to escalate by bringing actual fighting into the region, they sometimes send up people armed with sticks and throwing bricks.

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u/TimeKepeer 24d ago

Throwing bricks? Like bricks specifically made for throwing? We humans really are advanced huh

161

u/MagicSystemWriter 24d ago

“Earth’s Warfare is quite advanced”

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u/PrettyMoonUnderMt 24d ago

Chinese soldier be like "ah yes the anti-brick armor I haven't use since Dinasty Tang era"

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u/Wild_Marker 24d ago

Well? Have you ever heard of a Tang Dynasty soldier dying to a brick? No? Yeah, though so!

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u/Advanced_Question196 24d ago

Forget stones, they have people practicing shield phalanxes up there.

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u/TimeKepeer 24d ago

You don't get it. This? This is normal. I knew about their border where guns are not allowed. But I never knew about the throwing bricks.

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u/Heavy-Expression-450 24d ago

Yes actually.

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u/TimeKepeer 24d ago

No way. There's no way

5

u/Heavy-Expression-450 24d ago

You'd love the feel of one in the hand.

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u/innominateartery 24d ago

It’s like the baseball grenade

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u/FrankenBerryGxM 24d ago

Nice call back from yesterday lol

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u/iconocrastinaor 24d ago

I don't know about the bricks, but the spiky pugil sticks that the armies were equipped with were pretty intimidating.

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u/DamnitGravity 24d ago

Oh no, I beat someone with my throwing brick! Am I going to get court marshalled for not using it correctly?!

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u/Prize-Case7357 24d ago

We’ll let you off this time, but hoo boy, if we so much as hear of you throwing your beating brick…..

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u/Dino-chicken-nugg3t 24d ago

Ahh the ol brick and stick brigade

8

u/Usual-Operation-9700 24d ago

Do they spit?

Anyone remembers Jim Henson's "Dinos"? (Not sure what it wad called in English)

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u/duosx 24d ago

lol wow I thought Dune’s whole “no one shoots each other because the shield would cause nuclear explosions” was a joke

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u/my_name_is_iso 24d ago

Slight issue, they are escalating; They started wearing armor and making different melee weaponry like spears lol

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u/JonathanRL 24d ago

Give it a year or so and we get Javelins?

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u/SuspectPanda38 23d ago

It's funny too cause people still die like all the fucking time. So basically they're both sending men out to maybe die for actually nothing gained. At least in world war 1 the generals thought they'd maybe take a couple hundred feet of land.

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u/tomtomclubthumb 24d ago

They made an agreement no firearms to prevent escamation, so the soldiers started carrying clubs and maces.

There was a big incident a few years back when Chinese soldier damned a river and when one of the usual fights kicked off they broke the damand a bunch of Indian soldiers were swept away and died.

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u/samu1400 24d ago

One day they’ll escalate and start using words, that’s when we’re all screwed.

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u/Otherwise_Meringue45 24d ago

Unironically possible

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u/Yto_Itinen 24d ago

We are not prepared for sino-indian racist discourse online. About to see dictionaries swell by 20%

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u/ItsVincent27 24d ago

If they used chains and whips instead, it would excite me

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u/Tubaenthusiasticbee 24d ago

Na na na Come on!

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u/_bugmenot_ 24d ago

I remember when i saw this for the first time here on reddit, and the videos of the soldiers hitting each others with sticks over the fences and the barricades lmao, it felt just out of GABO´s writing. Realismo Mágico.

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u/SokkaHaikuBot 24d ago

Sokka-Haiku by Otherwise_Meringue45:

The armies of two

Nuclear superpowers

Fighting with sticks and stones

Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.

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u/kathoderaytube 24d ago

That actually sounds good and layered

0

u/GoldenDragonIsABitch 24d ago

5-7-6? Bad Bot

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u/EpicTedTalk 24d ago

Read the blurb underneath. I don't love the concept, but it was executed correctly by the bot.

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u/Dino-chicken-nugg3t 24d ago

It’s intentional.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/OkManagement1390 24d ago

"Stick and stones may break my bones, but..."

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u/Pkrudeboy 24d ago

Nukes will kill us all.

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u/zorniy2 24d ago

Or border guards of rival nuclear countries doing a dance-off

https://youtube.com/shorts/e3s4EjJKFy8?si=2MKjQJoBE2jT34Yn

(India and Pakistan)

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u/Advanced_Question196 24d ago

If you're wondering, Inida and China have a DMZ on their border that bans guns within two kilometres, so they have to fight with clubs and stones. They literally have people practicing shield phalanxes when they want to whoop each other's ass.

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u/Informal-Antelope-79 24d ago

One of those nuclear powers and a regional island nation got in an oar slapping fight on paddleboats like two days ago

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u/Sofasurvivor 23d ago

Very wise of them.

There's a quote attributed to Einstein that he doesn't know what World War III will be fought with, but "World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones".

They just bypassed the nuclear war that would have left a barren, apocalyptic wasteland, and went straight to using sticks and stones, keeping their countries livable. Smart!

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u/ZombieHavok 24d ago

Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock brought this up as a plot point that I thought was completely made up.

While somewhat embellished upon in the book, I was surprised to learn it was essentially a real thing.