Cosmic Plaything: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Most of us like to think that our decisions have some influence on our lives. That we have control, at least to a point. But sometimes, there's the sneaking suspicion that maybe an influence [[Finagle's Law|doesn't]] [[Butt Monkey|like us]] [[Chew Toy|very much]], or maybe [[The Woobie|likes us in a very abusive way]].

The nature of such a situation allows a certain flexibility to writers, as they don't have to think too hard about why this is happening, or even if the character's [[Genre Blindness|belief in their situation is correct]], allowing them to [[Hand Wave|focus on the immediate story]].

 

 

Compare [[Born Unlucky]], [[Weirdness Magnet]] and [[No Fourth Wall]]. May be caused by a [[Truman Show Plot]]. For a solely abusive version see [[The Chew Toy]]. For a more subjective version, see [[Designated Monkey]]. If the character arguably deserves mistreatment by the universe, they might be the victim of [[Call It Karma]], an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]], or a [[Jerkass Woobie]]. For when the [[Powers That Be]] treat the characters as pieces in a game see [[Cosmic Chess Game]]. May lead to [[God Is Evil]].

 

Opposite trope of [[Karma Houdini]] on the karmic scale.

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* While he does actually live in a painfully mundane world, it is the mental illness of the main character in ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' that he ''thinks'' he is the target of this type of cosmic conspiracy.

* Perhaps the most extreme example is the titular character of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', who causes this trope for her entire circle of friends. [[A God Am I|Though the truth is stranger yet...]]

** Mikuru Asahina. You know the universe hates you when getting groped by God is actually one of your lesser problems.

* Keiichi Morisato of ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' starts this way, having [[Unlucky Everydude|literally been born under an unlucky star]] (the Star of Misfortune). Even after getting a [[Magical Girlfriend|goddess for a girlfriend]], his luck is still remarkably poor; it's just that Belldandy is now around to smooth out the worst parts.

** This was even stretched into a plot point about a [[Plague of Good Fortune|thermodynamic-like Conservation of Happiness]], where any unnatural attempt to shift luck is dangerous because it has to go to or leave somewhere else.

** It is worth noting that "Urd", "Skuld" and ''"Verdandi"'' are the names of the Three Norse Goddesses of fate.

* Moroboshi Ataru of ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' is similarly marked, as he was born on the second unluckiest day in the Japanese calendar: The thirteen of April, the [[Four Is Death|fourth]] month of the year, as well as the day remembering the death of Bhudda. His name literally means "hit by a shooting star", which would take phenomenally bad luck.

** All of this is eventually [[Justified Trope|justified]]. Turns out the supernatural creatures are attracted to him because he's subconsciously suicidal for remarkably spoilerific reasons, which attracts them like a lightbulb attracts moths.

** Even worse, and not so justified is {{spoiler|Himawari}}, who turns everyone she touches, apart from her parents (or she couldn't have been born), or even looks at towards very bad luck; she's never directly affected, and she herself isn't supernatural. Being associated (or even seen) with her has caused: {{spoiler|a girl who liked her to commit suicide, a compulsive liar to get hit by a bus, her grandmother to die, her teacher to get stabbed, her neighbor's house to burn down, a kekkai to be broken during a ritual, a college student to discover {and eventually be killed by) a [[Be Careful What You Wish For|monkey paw]], and Watanuki to fall out of a window and require ''two'' [[Deal with the Devil|trades]] to save his life and he still loses movement in his finger.}} No one can say why she's like this, and wish-granting sorceress Yuuko tells Watanuki that the only thing that can take away her curse is by trading {{spoiler|all the happiness she will ever feel}}.

** Gaara has been hated since he was born because, just like Naruto, his father sealed a demon inside him and his uncle tried to kill him out of hate.

** Sasuke's entire life has been manipulated by Madara, Itachi and Orochimaru, starting with the massacre of his entire family. All three play upon his hatred and his determination to get revenge, though only Orochimaru makes it clear why (he wants a strong Sasuke so he can pull off an effective [[Grand Theft Me]]). Itachi seems to have been a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] who just wanted to make Sasuke strong to defend himself against Madara, who wants to use him for some unknown end. Sasuke is vaguely aware of this but since he's just underwent a '''hard''' [[Face Heel Turn]], he no longer cares and just wants Madara to give him power.

* How much does the universe hate [[Code Geass|Lelouch?]] So much that he has to {{spoiler|mind-control God}} just to get a [[Bittersweet Ending]]... {{spoiler|that he doesn't even live long enough to experience.}}

** The writing staff of ''[[Code Geass]]'' has often proclaimed their love for the show's protagonist Lelouch...and then they smack him with [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] after [[Diabolus Ex Machina]], causing everyone connected to him to suffer, including {{spoiler|Shirley (loses father, goes through severe emotional torment, dies), Euphemia (accidentally mind controlled, reputation destroyed, killed), and C.C. (loses powers and memories up to the age of 10)}}. They insist that they do this out of affection, wanting Lelouch to learn [[An Aesop]] about appreciating what you have in life; the Japanese fandom responded by coining the term "Lulu Quality" to refer to such treatment.

* Mitsuo in ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'', who eventually had all other [[Butt Monkey]]s' mishaps misattributed to him; even one of those "other [[Butt Monkey]]" sincerely believed it was Mitsuo, not him, who did it.

* Miyuki in ''[[Smile Pretty Cure]]'' for the entirety of episode 13.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In [[The DCU]], [[Animal Man]] is a combination of this and the [[Meta Guy]]; he realizes that he's a fictional character, at the whims of his writers. However, this awareness decreases and increases over time (naturally, due to the aforementioned whims).

* Charles Brigman from ''[[PS238]]'' has [http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/07162008/ officially] [http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/07302008/ become] a Cosmic Plaything. Paradox [http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/06172011/ is one too], but in the sense that he has "duties to perform" -- among the other things, he is sometimes used as a "wild card" doppelgänger of people who cannot be present (in certain unusual circumstances, like time travel), but their absence could cause, well, paradoxes.

 

== Film ==

* Inverted in ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'', in which the titular character treats everyone else this way after being given [[A God Am I|the power of God]]. Even if he likes you, he's still going to screw with you, albeit in ways that might be fun. And if you've made him mad...well, "God help you" doesn't exactly cover it.

* Larry Gopnik of ''[[A Serious Man]]''. It ''is'' based on the Book of Job after all.

* Subversion: Dolorous Edd in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' constantly complains that he is one, but compared to what's happened to the other characters in the story he's actually better off...

** Maybe that is a form of [[Genre Savvy]], as disaster tends to strike characters [[Yank the Dog's Chain|just when everything is going according to plan]].

* Ganoes Paran in the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]''. Luckily for him, the Malazan universe seems to have a sick sense of humor. The guy who was yanked around and killed multiple times by the gods ends up being the guy who makes the rules that they have to follow.

* The basic premise of the children's book ''Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day''.

* ''[[Labyrinths of Echo]]'' has many of these, in different ways. Max himself is one, rather obviously (in his case it's a part of immortality-via-being-repeatedly-created "deal", among the other things). Practitioners of the Invisible Magic usually slowly turn into these long before they "stop being human", due to playing with the powers of Multiverse and learning that the best ways to do it amount to "jump up, then just let the winds carry you along". Dopersts are sort of one-shot doppelgängers, driven to appear on someone's way in reality or dreams while looking like whoever will elicit a momentary emotional response -- typically by being "recognized" or momentarily mistaken for someone important to the victim, and/or enacting suppressed fears (including too many bicycle riders' fear of driving into a pedestrian, as it turned out).

 

* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'': Cory had an interesting take on why he couldn't get away with things.

* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]:'' While not a central premise, Drew once famously theorized on-show, "I always get screwed by the system. That's my place in the universe. I'm the system's bitch."

* [[Joan of Arcadia]]: This is precisely how [[Deadpan Snarker|Joan]] sees her relationship with God. She would be thrilled if He stopped popping in into her life for rarely-explained reasons. For proof, two of the six WMG spectulate that the 'God' of the show is some kind of trickster.

* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'': In later seasons, Sam theorizes strongly why he keeps appearing in situations he must correct for the better.

{{quote|'''Sam:''' I don't know who's runnin' this show. I don't know why I was chosen. I bounce around from place to place. I do everything I'm supposed to do, at least the best way I can, but I don't know how to do this one. I mean, you gotta help me. I figure you owe me, for a couple of times, anyway. You make it rain. You hear me? You make it rain!}}

*** The truly bizarre thing here is that if you stripped away the [[Wangst]], this is a remarkably standard (and recommended) form of prayer. Namely, (1) admission of helplessness and abandonment of control, (2) doing his part when he knows how (3) asking God for help. Yep, standard recommended form of prayer—at least if you're a sinner. Only thing missing is asking for forgiveness/salvation. Which, in context, is kinda obvious...

* ''[[Strange Luck]]'': The central character, named Chance, appears to be at the center of a vortex of extreme improbability both good and bad, beginning by being the sole survivor of a freak plane crash as a baby.

* ''[[Wonderfalls]]'' has "Heroine as a Cosmic Plaything" as a main theme. As Jaye whiningly describes her situation, "I don't have a choice. I'm a puppet. The universe sticks its hand up my butt, and if I don't dance, people get hurt."

* From ''[[Doctor Who]]'', Rory Williams definitely. It really seems like the universe just wants him to roll over and die. But it enjoys screwing with him too much to allow him to do that. First- his girlfriend/fiancée {{spoiler|and later wife}}, runs off with another man. Later, {{spoiler|he has died at least once, debatably twice, had his stag party ruined by the man with whom his fiancée ran off, was erased from existence, turned to plastic, had his fiancée forget him, shot his fiancée against his will, then guarded said fiancée for almost 2000 years. [[They Killed Kenny|He then dies another three times]]. Then his wife gets kidnapped. And then their daughter is stolen, and becomes a psychopath.}} On the other hand, all this cosmic torture turned him into a Grade A [[Badass]] capable of facing down and intimidating a battalion of cybermen without flinching.

** A casual viewer could be forgiven for assuming that the writers had some kind of deep-rooted sadistic hatred for the Tenth Doctor. [[The Woobie|And]] [[Break the Cutie|they]] [[Yank the Dog's Chain|might]] [[Cartwright Curse|be]] [[Tear Jerker|right.]]

 

== Music ==

* [[Sound Horizon]]'s ''Moira'' revolves around this concept. Thanatos, enraged at how Moira makes every human being her Cosmic Plaything, decides he's going to get his ''[[Start My Own|own]]'' Cosmic Plaything to turn into a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] and [[Rage Against the Heavens|pit him against Moira.]]

 

* ''Literally'' true in [[Classical Mythology|Greek mythology]]. If some mortal caught the eye of a [[Jerkass Gods|god]], he/she was seduced by them, or just flat out [[Rape as Drama|raped]]. Worse yet, if the god had a spouse, they could make life ''very'' bad for you, up to and including being chased by a giant snake across the continent of Europe. Or worse, if their talents outmatched the gods, or they gave a god an answer they didn't like or gave an award to someone else, they were screwed. And if there was more than one god involved...well, they were screwed either way (just look at [[The Trojan War]]). [[It Got Worse|How can it get worse you say?]] Well, remember the gods could take on any form, including that of any person.

** The worst thing about Greek mythology is that praying to a god wouldn't get you that god's favor. At best, you'd be ignored. At worst, another god might notice and be offended that you weren't asking ''him'' for help and dish out some petty vengeance.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', anyone who worships Tzeentch, the Chaos God of trickery, does so with the constant knowledge that despite his patronage they are nothing more than pawns in one of his elaborate schemes. Beyond that, the lousy state of the galaxy is often attributed to the sheer number of entities - the Chaos Gods, the C'Tan, Eldar farseers, and even the God-Emperor - playing at [[Chessmaster]] and [[Gambit Pileup|getting tangled in each others' plots]]. For more specific examples...

** The Lamenters chapter. The only Space Marine chapter formed during the so-called Cursed Founding to not display obvious mutations or other defects, they nevertheless suffered distrust and prejudice - to the extent that during their debut campaign protecting a world from the forces of Chaos, an allied chapter actually abandoned them, leaving the Lamenters to suffer 80% losses before being rescued by the [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] and [[White Scars]]. The surviving Lamenters were then lost in [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the Warp]] and presumed dead for two thousand years. After rebuilding their strength, the Lamenters were redeployed to the other side of the galaxy as part of a brotherhood of chapters guarding another warp storm. Unfortunately one of their allied chapters went renegade and dragged the Lamenters onto the wrong side of a civil war, where the Lamenters once again suffered crippling casualties. After the revolt was put down, it was decided that the Lamenters had acted out of misguided honor, and were given the chance to atone through a century-long penitent crusade... right into the oncoming [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Hive Fleet Kraken]]. Their last report before further contact was lost mentioned that they were down to three heavily-wounded companies.

* In ''[[Scion]]'', each character has a "Fateful Aura" that turns them into walking [[Weirdness Magnet]]s. Also, the more they use their awesome powers, the more likely they are to tie innocent bystanders into their growing legend. The stronger their Legend, the easier this happens and the more pronounced the effects, which is the main reason the Gods left the mortal world in the first place.

** It's somewhat more complex than that. Fate is in essence the human desire for things to operate based on rules of Narrative story. Being Fatebound offers benefits... one binds oneself to a particular role, and becomes more likely to succeed when acting in it... while becoming less likely when trying to defy it. The Gods gathered the power of being Fatebound as Heroes to the Mortals to defeat the Titans... then withdrew from the world to let those mortals die out so that they could be who they wanted instead of who the Mortals expected them to be.

{{quote|''I want it to go smooth. Why don't it ever go smooth?''}}

* [[Promethean: The Created|Prometheans]] were brought back to life with the Divine Fire. The catch? The Divine Fire is innately hostile to life... and living things ''know this''. Maybe not innately, but deep down, they know it. So a Promethean's life really, really sucks, seeing how every human it meets will eventually [[Hate Plague|flip out]].

 

== Video Games ==

* Maggey Byrde in ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' is convinced this is her lot in life, dating back to when she fell out of her family's ninth-story apartment at six months old. As she notes, her luck is bad to the point she's never even ''tied'' at tic-tac-toe. Being one of the three characters to be the defendant in two separate cases (the others being Maya Fey and Phoenix himself (who wins the Most Reoccurring Defendant award with three times in the hot seat)) goes a long way towards backing up that claim. She ''also'' gets accused murder in ''Ace Attorney Investigations''.

* The Great "Worrier" Susano from ''[[Okami]]'' becomes convinced over time that his feats of skill are a result of the gods toying with him. Given that the player ''is'' a god and assists him throughout the game, though, he's not too far off the mark.

* In a similar vein, the first two ''Fallout'' games have the "Jinxed" Trait, which increase the chance of a critical failure for the player and also for anyone nearby. While generally reviled, walkthrough writer Per Jorner has stated that Jinxed could be useful for a "pure (and weird) Hand-to-Hand build."

 

* [[Vexxarr]]. All ''he'' wants is a long, boring life full of cake and [[Halo]]. Instead, the [[The Empire|Bleen Empire]] (his own species) are trying to [[Disproportionate Retribution|kill]] [[You Have Failed Me...|him]], and [[Finagle's Law|everywhere he tries to hide]] has [[Aliens Are Bastards|territorial aliens]], [[A God Am I|Ascended Beings]], [[Insufficiently Advanced Alien|insufficiently advanced aliens]] and his own incompetence. [[Reckless Sidekick|And]] [[Bumbling Sidekick|his]] [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|crew]][[Dysfunction Junction|mates]].

* ''[[Something*Positive]]'''s Davan and Mike think God has it in for them. They're right; at one point He neglects the backlog of prayers concerning a war in favor of watching horror dawn on Davan's face after the man's latest disaster, and God was pissed that He accidentally let something good happen to Mike.

* In [[SSDD]] the [[Master Computer|Oracle]] ruins certain people's lives for fun. [[Space Marine|Tessa]] [[Action Girl|Edwards]] being a favorite.

* Bob from ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' is a ''proven'' weirdness magnet. He can attract monsters and such ''just by standing there.'' He has no idea why.

 

== Web Original ==

* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', [[Meaningful Name|The Guy Who The Gods Like To Pick On, Sr.]] has it pretty rough because for some weird reason the gods really ''do'' like to pick on him all the time. He ends up from one miserable situation into another and can't even kill himself because the gods like to keep him alive just to humiliate him even more in increasingly cruel yet morbidly hilarious ways. His children, Guy Jr. and Gal, are also suffering from this albeit to a slightly lesser extent.

* A common pastime of the [[Deus Est Machina|Archailects]] in [[Orion's Arm]], some think that the only reason they still allow "lower life forms" to exist is for entertainment.

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]]. [[Word of God]] said that he was pretty much created to always get the short end of the stick and be a victim - [[Jerkass Woobie|although he does a lot of crap to balance that out]] - and the Christmas Special proved that even [[Complete Monster|Ask That Guy]] would be nicer and better off without him.

 

== Western Animation ==

* {{[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]] Carl]] Just the things that happen to him.

* Prince Zuko of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has resigned himself to the fact that everything in the universe seems to be working against him and his pursuit of his goals. He copes with this by priding himself on [[Determinator|struggling and fighting for his victories]] with no help from cosmic luck.

** "The universe just loooves proving me wrong, doesn't it?"

{{quote|'''Sokka:''' ''(as it is raining and he is being heavily soaked)'' Look, I'm gonna make a prediction now. ''(Sarcastically)'' It's going to keep drizzling...''(Beat.)'' See? ''(Everything promptly becomes sunny and sparkly, the clouds vanish, the shine shines warmly and the land is happy again.)''

* [[The Amazing World of Gumball|Gumball Watterson]] in the episode "The Curse" where he finds himself under a plague of bad luck for no explained reason.

 

* Anyone who claims to have never had even a single day where it felt like this is lying.

** Even if they aren't (most likely due to young age), it is ''inevitable'' that they will someday experience just such a day.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Loser Archetype]]

[[Category:Transformation Causes]]

[[Category:Luck Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Characters]]

[[Category:Finagle's Law]]