Cassandra Truth: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''A prophet that, Cassandra-like,

 

Sometimes people just won't believe you.

 

{{examples}}

* Pretty much any hero in the ''[[.hack]]'' franchise can't even get to telling their parents or the authorities; despite mass server failures, clear evidence of a conspiracy or two, people [[Trapped in Another World|trapped in the game]], [[Everything Is Online|machine problems everywhere]] and even ''comas'', who would believe that an MMORPG was [[Serious Business]]?

* [[Just a Kid|Kid]]-[[Older Than They Look|Conan]] in the ''[[Detective Conan]]'' series knows about this problem, and solves it using a tranquilizer watch and a voice-changing bowtie to make it seem like someone more trustworthy in the eyes of the police is making all the deductions.

* In ''[[Route 666]]'', the main character is named Cassandra (usually called "Cassie") and suddenly starts seeing [[The Masquerade|a world of ghosts and horrific monsters]] preying upon humanity. No one else can see this, and so, in her struggles against them, she is also pursued by the police as a psychopathic killer.

* Invoked by [[Neil Gaiman]] in a 1993 speech at the Diamond Retailers Seminar: "I'm not here to play Cassandra. I do not have the figure and I do not have the legs". In his speech, he predicted that [[The Great Comics Crash of 1996|the contemporary speculator boom in comics would result in the market crashing]].

 

 

 

== Literature ==

* Most books in the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' series by [[RL Stine]], in which the protagonists' supernatural claims are disbelieved by parents and authorities. This is turned around in "The Girl Who Cried Monster"; the girl's parents don't believe that her librarian is a monster, not because they don't think monsters exist, but {{spoiler|because they're monsters, and they thought they'd eliminated all nearby competitors long ago}}.

* In Anne S. Lindbergh's ''The People in Pineapple Place'' August's mother does not believe his stories of Pineapple Place, an alley only he can see, filled with families, all of whom only he can see. However, it turns out that his mother is a [[Reasonable Authority Figure]], and comes to believe him once she sees evidence of August's story (a child she (and August) can see, but no one else can, able to get away with considerable mischief, and a security guard, apparently making a fool out of himself in front of a large crowd of people, none of whom (except August) can see the girl he (truthfully) claims to have caught roller-skating in a museum).

* ''[[Kill Time or Die Trying]]'', Brad spends his entire first day at university trying to figure out where to go. The only reliable directions he's given come from a pair of stoners, who he ignores.

* In [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''This Immortal'', Conrad Nomikos' wife is [[Meaningful Name|actually named]] Cassandra, and when she says at the beginning that she has a feeling he's heading into danger, he tells her he doubts it. He '''is''', of course. At the end, {{spoiler|he tells her his new job is going to be an enormous headache, she replies that it won't, and he says she's too optimistic}}. He even acknowledges that she's been accurate in the past, but '''this''' time, he's sure, she's wrong....

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** In the first episode, Claire announces at the dinner table, "I walked through fire today, and I didn't get burned." However, her mother thinks she's just being metaphorical and profound. Although to be fair, her brother ''was'' fairly suspicious and her mother isn't the sharpest anymore {{spoiler|since the Haitian has been repeatedly wiping her memory which has resulted in the equivalent of punching her brain.}}

** Angela Petrelli explicitly references the Trope Namer when she talks about [[Dreaming of Things to Come|her ability]] in the episode "Into Asylum". She also states that trying to work around this skepticism is what turned her into the [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bitch]] that we all know and love today.

** From an early episode:

{{quote|'''Chief:''' How did you figure that out?

 

 

* The trope namer: Cassandra from [[Classical Mythology]], theater, and literature, as featured in ''[[The Iliad]]'',''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'', the [[Missing Episode|lost epics]] of the ''[[The Trojan Cycle|Trojan Cycle]]'', ''[[The Aeneid]]'', and many others!

** Some versions of the myth have Apollo putting a curse on her so that people would ''never'' believe her prophecies—because she [[I Lied|falsely promised]] to have sex with him to get her precognitive power! The [[An Aesop|moral of the story]] is: Don't lie to gods. The actual Aesop: get the sex first, ''then'' give her the power.

* In some versions of the [[King Arthur]] story, Merlin has this problem; see, for example, [http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0011.htm this] ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' strip.

* Numerous [[The Bible|Biblical]] prophets, most notably Jeremiah and Elijah, spent much of their lives trying to convince the public in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah that exile was imminent due to the people having strayed from the Torah's commandments, and the monarchy in particular having turned to idolatry. This was often met with hostility, particularly [[Shoot the Messenger|from the monarchy]].