Genre Savvy vs Get Out of Jail Free

A lot of the time authors want to make their heroes/heroines look smart. Because, apparently, being badass often includes having a brain in the ol' noggin. So often times our heroes will create elaborate, and often tedious, plans to get out of situations. Sometimes these plans seem a bit too contrived, like the author just wanted everything to fall into place like a rigged game of poker. And just like in poker the reader often feels cheated out of time and money, but mostly the latter since that doesn't grow on trees. However I notice some people will complain about characters that seem to recognize too much around them and will quickly find ways to avoid these situations, or exploit the situation to their advantage. Whelp, that's not a get out of jail free card, that character is simply genre savvy. Now, according to TV Tropes, genre savvy is basically when a character is well endowed with a bit of common sense and wit. They will have seen a situation that is standard in a certain genre, and they will react to it in a way they see fit. Does that mean they know they're in a story? Maybe not, but they've seen the situations in other stories and aren't about to fall into the same trap.

But now you're probably wondering. "How can we tell the difference? It all seems like an overly smart character to me. I think you just wanted an excuse to send me to TV Tropes."

No, not necessarily...On both fronts.

When you make a genre savvy character, it's up to you to figure out if they're going to be annoying 'perfect' characters. Even though a character can be genre savvy, they're still human so they will make mistakes. On top of that you have to figure out what their role in the story is. If they're just the comic relief who has no skills outside being genre savvy, chances are no one else in the party will listen to him, making his genre savviness useless to everyone except the reader. Also, the genre savvy person will probably have consequences. Unlike a 'get out of jail free' set up, the road isn't mapped out just for the character to get out of. The character simply recognizes the road and then acts accordingly. Basically there is no dues ex machina for these characters, reality continues to role and they're just gonna try and dodge the 'Obviously Gonna Be In This Ruin Indiana Jones Boulders'.  Because every ruin has Indiana Jones Boulders.

So I'm gonna go get lost on TV Tropes now...