Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Difference between revisions
replaced: [[Lord of the Rings → [[The Lord of the Rings
No edit summary |
(replaced: [[Lord of the Rings → [[The Lord of the Rings) |
||
Line 2:
[[File:CreedvTzeentch.png|link=Warhammer 40,000|frame|Mortal, [[You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With|do you not know who I am?]] Let me tell you. I am Tzeentch. [[The Chessmaster|The Changer of Ways.]] [[Xanatos Gambit|The Master of Fate.]] [[Eldritch Abomination|The Lord of Change.]] [[I Have Many Names|The Controller of Destinies]]. [[Time Abyss|I have existed before the stars]], [[Try to Fit That on A Business Card|and I will exist long after they have died]]! [[Badass Normal|No mere mortal could possibly]]--[[Oh Crap|what is that]] [[Chess with Death|pawn]] [[Oh Crap|doing there]]?!]]
{{quote|''Even devils should beware when bargaining with Thanos of Titan.''
|'''[[Thanos]]''', [[The Infinity Gauntlet|Infinity Crusade]]}}
So, you've got this [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]], [[Magnificent Bastard]] or what have you. People are his playthings in any scheme he concocts. But now it seems that he's up against a deity or other supernatural entity... whats this? Did this mere mortal just turn the god into ''another'' chess piece to manipulate?
That is the essence of '''Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?''' - a [[Xanatos Gambit]], [[Gambit Roulette]], [[Batman Gambit]] or other scheme concocted by the resident [[Magnificent Bastard]] ends up involving the manipulation of a supernatural entity, deity, etc. by a mortal. Such a plan may include the deity from the outset, [[Xanatos Speed Chess|or the deity may be integrated into the plan along the way.]]
Line 66 ⟶ 67:
* In the ''[[Uplift]]'' series, every scam Earth clan tries to pull on the ancient, [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] backfires, until the very end of the series when they manage a doozy... accidentally, with a lie so ridiculous they never expected it to do more than buy them a few seconds.
** Even more impressively, what actually clinched the deal wasn't a deception at all, but the enemy misinterpreting a genuine offer of {{spoiler|surrender}}.
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': Sauron the [[The Chessmaster|chess GRANDmaster]] of Middle Earth was outwitted by the [[Xanatos Gambit]] directing him away from Frodo. It helped that [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]].
* Happens to an extent in [[The Silmarillion]]- specifically, the story of the Downfall of Numenor, where [[Magnificent Bastard|Sauron]] essentially manipulates [[God|Eru Iluvatar]] into destroying the Numenorean empire for him. Also subverted in that Sauron only intended for [[Council of Angels|the Valar]] to get involved, and the amount of power Iluvatar was packing was enough to kill Sauron as well. Of course as anyone who's read [[The Lord of the Rings]] could tell you, Sauron came [[Back from the Dead]], and at any rate it's impressive to set up a situation where God wipes out your enemies for you in a 'verse where God is both competent and good.
* In the second book of the [[Xanth]] series, Bink wonders if his magical talent of {{spoiler|[[You Can't Fight Fate|bizarre luck]] preventing him from ever being hurt by magic}} actually manipulated events so that the Source of All Magic {{spoiler|the demon Xanth}} decided to play nice in the end and not destroy everything.
| |||