Benevolent Precursors: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
The exact opposite of [[Abusive Precursors]]: The [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]] is clearly locked and labeled in every language they could think of, complete with handy pictures showing stupid mortals getting killed by said Sealed Evil, just to make sure the message gets through. And even if you DO manage to get through the five thousand doors locked with [[The Power of Love]] and release the demon god, don't worry--they had a fail-safe in place where the seals on the one weapon capable of destroying it would be unlocked at the same time. Sure, these guys died out millennia ago, but at least they did their best to keep us from following them to the grave.
 
Obviously, these [[Benevolent Precursors]] probably fail in the end; if your [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]] stays sealed, you don't have much of a plot. If they come back with their super-tech to help the heroes later, it is [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant]].
 
Compare [[Neglectful Precursors]] and [[Abusive Precursors]].
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== Comics ==
 
* All of Earth's [[Pre Crisis]] superheroes to the current DC Universe especially the Monitor. They fought and defeated the Anti Monitor and sealed a single universe inside the essence of the Monitor. Then the universe was restarted twice with big bangs. None of the [[Post-Crisis]] stories would have happened without the [[Pre Crisis]] heroes. [[Infinite Crisis]] then turns this into a strange case of the [[Benevolent Precursors]] ''becoming'' the [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]].
 
== Film ==
 
* The Mondoshawans ("Monduchivans" in the language originally spoken by Leeloo) from ''[[The Fifth Element]]''. They set up a [[Ancient Tradition|secret order]] on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when [[World War One]] threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down by Mangalore warriors flying illegal starfighters supplied by Mr. Zorg.
* Zi Yuan from ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor]]''. She is a sorceress who [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|seals]] the [[Big Bad]] [[Evil Sorcerer|sorcerer]]-[[The Emperor|emperor]] Han and his [[Badass Army]], then gains [[Immortality]], creates a weapon to kill the [[Big Bad]] if he is ever unsealed, makes friends with Yeti to protect the one place [[Immortality]] can be gained, and is still around to summon her own army conveniently sealed near Han's own. If this doesn't sound impressive, then compare it to the [[Neglectful Precursors|ancient Egyptians]] in the first two movies whose sealing of [[Big Bad|Imhotep]] gives him powers and [[Immortality]] despite being perfectly capable of killing him normally.
 
== Literature ==
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== Live Action TV ==
 
* In the new ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' two-parter "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", the [[Monster of the Week]], who's implied heavily to be Satan is {{spoiler|[[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|chained far, far underground]] on a planet orbiting a black hole (hence 'The ''Impossible'' Planet'. Should he ever be released, the planet will go spiraling into a black hole, killing The Beast.}}
** They also get credit for successfully {{spoiler|lobotomising Satan by taking its mind out and putting it in two jars, leaving the Beast as just an animal.}}
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'': As seen in the ''Peacekeeper Wars'' post-series finale, the [[Sealed Good in A Can|Sealed Good in a Can]] Eidolons. They can [[Charm Person|lull any other species into]] a receptive state, and [[The Empath|read their minds]], to construct a good arguments, and help factions co-exist. Besides being basically Super-diplomats, they are the ones that {{spoiler|transplanted and genetically engineered early-Hominids, thus creating The Peacekeepers.}} They came back to the galaxy thanks to a [[Inverted Trope|reversal of their]] [[Critical Existence Failure]].
* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]''
** The unnamed ancient humanoids from "The Chase" who seeded planets with their DNA, thus being responsible for all humanoid life. They also encoded a map in this DNA that led not to a superweapon, or a species of [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]], but to a recorded message expressing the hope that their "descendants" would cooperate with each other to discover the message. Leads to a rather epic guilt trip for Picard and (apparently) the Romulan commander.
** The Preservers, who transported endangered cultures to pristine worlds.
** In ''[[Star Trek Online (Video Game)|Star Trek Online]]'', the Preservers are {{spoiler|the same, and after the Breen/Deferi story arc, back out and mingling}} with their descendants.
 
== Video Games ==
 
* The Jjaro of ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|Marathon]]''. After the Jjaro's disappearance, {{spoiler|they either returned from hiding to help, or left an automated system to help the player defeat an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and save the universe.}}
* The Forerunners from ''[[Halo]]''. Yes, they used galaxy-wide superweapons to destroy all life in the galaxy, but they really did try ''everything'' else first (getting to the point where obliterating Flood-infested worlds from orbit was a ''first'' resort, and their tactics got progressively ''more'' destructive from there) they just failed. They also clearly labeled the Flood and the Halos as dangerous--the Covenant just ignored them. After they fired the Halo Array, they even repopulated the galaxy with all the lifeforms they had indexed so that the galaxy wouldn't be devoid of sentient life.
** In truth, their benevolence has also been blamed as a form of [[Neglectful Precursors|negligence]]. By preventing wars and encouraging disarmament, the Forerunners left both themselves and their protected races unprepared for the Flood.
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* The Masari count towards this in ''[[Universe At War]]'', guiding humanity's development and watching over them. When Earth is attacked by the game's Big Bad several alarms are tripped and the Masari begin coming out of hibernation [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant|The results were predictable.]]
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', when some cosmic force gave the Cetra the Black Materia, a magical stone capable of destroying the entire Planet, they transmuted it into a form in which it could not be used: a giant pyramid-shaped temple. [[Bellisario's Maxim|(Just go with it.)]] The temple cannot be entered without a Keystone, which was supposedly hidden after the temple was finished. The temple itself is populated with bloodthirsty monsters and avatars of the Cetra to deal with trespassers. The room containing the device for un-transforming the temple has a sequential mural depicting the shit that's gonna go down if it gets used. As a last resort, if the Temple is changed back into the Black Materia, it crushes anybody inside, including the person that activates the device.
* The Orions in ''[[Master of Orion]]''. They [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|sealed away]] the [[Omnicidal Maniac|Antarans]] in a pocket dimension and left their own homeworld protected by the Guardian, in order to keep away races that [[You Are Not Ready|weren't ready]] to handle their super-powerful technology.
* Those Who Came Before in the ''[[Assassin's Creed (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed]]'' series started out pretty abusive what with creating and enslaving humanity with their Pieces of Eden. The combination of a slave revolt and a solar flare that nearly destroyed all life on Earth changed that. Before dying off, Those Who Came Before worked together with humanity to rebuild the world, and they left behind tools and knowledge (in the form of the Pieces of Eden) to give humanity a fighting chance when the next solar flare hits Earth.
* Played with in the ''[[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X-Universe]]''. The Ancients theoretically do have good goals, such as preventing the heat death of the universe, and they consider the [[Portal Network]] they built a gift to the younger races. Unfortunately they have a tendency to think of the younger races as a single group (not true), making them frighteningly willing to toy with other species (see [[Abusive Precursors]]).
 
== Real Life ==
 
* [[Truth in Television]]: Us, hopefully, with regard to our own [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]], nuclear waste. There are numerous people planning how to store the waste (which will be harmful for hundreds of thousands of years) in a way that will protect and warn our successors of its dangers no matter what.
** Further explanation: A site in Nevada called Yucca Mountain was studied as a possible tomb for the US supply of radioactive waste. The government researched how exactly one could build a clear "Do Not Open" monument that would last for thousands of years and still be understood. For numerous reasons including Nevada's objection, disputes over nuclear policy, and questions about geological stability, the project seems likely to be abandoned. At least it shows we care.
*** Some scientists have joked about hiding the nuclear waste behind multiple layers with multiple signs to remind the person trespassing to not go any further. They joke that if one of our descendants are dumb enough to go past that many signs then it will just be natural selection doing its job to rid the world of that idiot. Hopefully that won't happen as funny as it may sound now. Nuclear waste lasts for millions of years. We might well have died of plague, global warming, war or anything else. Whatever comes AFTER us wouldn't necessarily understand any language spoken today. Even if you include the idea that perhaps a circle with a slash through it universal the creature might be sufficiently non-human to view those warnings as not applying to whatever it is.
*** Ironically, one of the more popular solutions is to simply bury it deep underground in the middle of nowhere, shielded extensively by sturdy, radiation blocking material. By the time some future civilization finds it and is actually capable of reaching it through the sturdy shielding, they're probably capable of understanding that it's dangerous stuff with no practical purpose beyond "killing everyone who comes into contact with it"--likely via some kind of radiation detection. This whole setup has merit because any future civilization might completely misinterpret the warnings--designed to be clearly visible and obviously artificial--as something glorious, powerful, [[Lost Technology]], or something else, due to a combination of ignorance, stupidity, cultural differences, desperation, etc. Or they just might ignore the warnings altogether. Thus, obscurity may just be better than any explicit and overt warning. Granted, if it were something like [[The Virus]] or [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]] (in the living being sense, not a "useless radioactive waste" sense), we'd likely outright obliterate the damn thing or hurl it into the sun. And provide [[Ragnarok Proofing|Ragnarok proofed instructions on how to counteract it should it somehow appear anyway]].
 
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