Born Lucky: Difference between revisions

[[File:oolated-vert-2 9235.jpg|link=Carl Barks|frame|Such a bad day. Usually a squirrel will just vomit it on the table.]]

A character so mind-bogglingly lucky that it defies all chance. They'll win every contest or lottery they enter (in especially extreme cases, they don't even need to, the winning ticket will somehow come to them). Usually a weak explanation is given for this luck, attributing it to some kind of supernatural force but not going into any kind of detail. Despite the trope title, this luck does not necessarily begin at birth.

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Millefeuille Sakuraba of ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'' has this as her defining trait. In the second episode, a ''meteor'' smashed the casino she was playing in to give her the win. That's just one of many instances of her extreme luck. This was later balanced by a recurring and plot-convenient Conservation of Luck.

'''Nodoka:''' Isn't that wonderful?

'''Akane:''' Oh, I'm usually lucky at these things. }}

** Inverted in a [[Don Rosa]] comic. Due to being struck by lightning on his birthday while in front of a magic symbol in his youth, Gladstone is always phenominally ''unlucky'' on his birthdays. He spends the entire comic trying to get away from attending, but circumstances bring him to his own party, where he admits the truth. When a lightning storm suddenly shows up he manages to undo the curse, and prevent Donald from gaining luck powers of his own.

** And on top of that, his luck occasionally got him into more trouble than he would have been in without it. One story involved a treasure in the Amazon, and he decided he needed a helicopter to get to it before Donald could. He got there, but he didn't know that the tribe native to the area attached negative superstitions to helicopters. (Yes, they played with this character a ''lot''. As a general rule, Gladstone's luck works at its best when he just let it flow. When Gladstone asks for something specific, most of the time it come back to bite him. Lazing around is his most profit activity.)

* This is the sum of the [[Marvel Universe]] character Longshot's powers. After appearing in a miniseries of his own, he was grabbed by Chris Claremont for a stint in the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', despite not being a mutant (he's a genetically engineered alien and his luck powers are magical, but the X-Men were never picky about members). Longshot's luck was extremely strong but limited: it could only be used for altruistic purposes.

** Actually, later on he was revealed to be, in fact, a mutant. Despite his powers being genetically engineered, his free will is an unexpected engineering error. Despite that not being a regular genetic mutation, in a race of genetically engineered beings an unexpected error is nothing else then a mutation.

*** She doesn't actively trigger her powers in the sense that she can turn the luck on or off, it's more like she has to be aware of what she is affecting the probability of. From TOW, "if debris falling from the sky was about to hit her in the head, she would still be hurt if she stood still. However, if she tried to avoid it, she would move perfectly to avoid each and every piece about to hit her."

** Same thing was used in a ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' story, when a [[Psychic Powers|psyker]] in a [[Circus of Fear]] manipulated the odds so that her boss, seeing the six misfires, angrily tried the same on himself. Bang.

* A largely defunct American manga, ''[[Pantheon High]]'', had a character with this kind of luck because he was the son of the Japanese goddess of luck, Benten. (Un)fortunately he had no guarantee whatsoever of getting lucky in ways that are actually useful to his situation. When he and two girls are threatened by the World Snake, one of the girls remarks that he might end up beating the snake, or he might end up making out with both of them at once.

* It could be argued that ''[[Groo the Wanderer]]'' fits this trope - all the bad things happen around him, afflicting everybody else, never Groo himself.

* Spawny Get (Geordie English for [[Lucky Bastard]]) from [[Viz]] embodies this trope, typically having a piece of moderate bad luck that causes a piece of very, very good luck. In one strip, he is carrying a ten-pound note into a bookmaker's to place a bet when he slips on a turd; he lets go of the money and yells "Oh bugger, I've skidded on a dog dirt!" The ten-pound note flies into the hand of the bookmaker, who assumes Spawny Get is placing a bet on a horse called "Oh bugger, I've skidded on a dog dirt". Which wins. At odds of 1,000-1.

* This was explicitly the only power of Johnny Thunder, a [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Gag Series]] character best known for his membership in the [[Justice Society of America]]. He was the seventh son of a seventh son, born on July 7, 1917, and this gave him uncanny luck. It later turned out that the circumstances of his birth had given him control over a genie called the Thunderbolt, and it was the T-bolt who pulled him out of so many jams.

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' has Clover of the Felt and Vriska Serket. Though, we don't know if Clover was born lucky, or just received the power from his master, and Vriska actually steals luck from other people.

* The 'probability Warpers' of the [[Whateley Universe]] have this. Currently there are so many of them at [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]] that the administration has problems spreading them out among different dorms. Kismet also has magical powers. Hazard also has some kind of precognitive gift. Clover is trying to become a powerful wizard too. Then there's Murphy whose luck is usually bad.