起きる vs. 起こる - "To occur"

Japanese Language Questions
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So, when I learned these two words back during my high school study/minor, I always distinguished them as being “to wake up” and “to occur,” respectively. These are also the primary definitions offered by Wanikani.

However, in practical reading, I’ve seen a few instances of 起きる being used in the “to occur” sense. I see most dictionaries also list it as having an alternate definition of “to occur,” usually in reference to unfavorable events.

What’s the nuance here? Is 起こる the go-to for occurrences while 起きる is generally favored to convey displeasure? Thank you to anyone who can help me sort this out!

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As I read some examples given, my impression is using 起きる for “to happen” seems to have a more dramatic flair. I’d say your impression is right.

「大地震が－・きた」 「奇跡が－・きる」 「火災が－・きる」

It seems like those are some pretty intense things happening, rather than any old mundane thing.

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There is a slight nuance and image difference, that’s about it. Keep 発生する in mind too, you’ll hear that a lot in the news when there was an accident or something like that but using that in normal conversation is quite stiff.

There’s good discussion about 起きる/起こる at 「起きる」、「起こる」、「発生する」 -　いつもお世話になっておりま- 日本語 | 教えて!goo
The first reply is a very good answer and goes in detail at the nuance/image differences.

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Thanks, all! Very detailed answers.

Thank you for the heads up on 発生する as well.

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