Enigmatic Empowering Entity: Difference between revisions

There is a saying that "Behind every great man there's a great woman", and this trope often follows this theme: The receiver tends to be a man, usually a mortal [[Muggles|muggle]], while the [[Enigmatic Empowering Entity]] tends to be female -- often a divine/supernatural female of mysterious origin and identity.

 

 

In [[The Hero's Journey]], an Entity often shows up as the one providing [[Supernatural Aid]]. In completely different kinds of stories, however, it might turn out that [[The Presents Were Never From Santa]]. If the Entity is [[God]] Himself, it's a type of [[Divine Intervention]]. See also [[The Chooser of the One]]. May also be a [[Mysterious Backer]].

 

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[The Mists of Avalon]]'', The Lady of the Lake is a Machiavellian politician who supports King Arthur because she believes that it will save her people... much to the sorrow of our poor protagonist, Morgana Le Fay.

 

== Fan Works ==

** The Fans themselves both avert this trope and play it straight. They play it straight from the viewpoint of the four, who always see them as Enigmatic Empowering Entities (though they get a bit chummy with them at the end), and avert it because the reader always knows they're just a trio of alien college undergraduates, and everything they do is made very clear in the story.

 

== [[Film]] ==

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Dumbledore and other living characters sometimes fill a bit of this role for Harry. However, they are all overshadowed by the one who truly gave Harry special powers (beyond being a wizard) and made him [[The Chosen One]]... His mother, Lily Potter. {{spoiler|Much of his powers actually come from a part of Voldemort's soul trapped inside him, but all he is including that is because of Lily's sacrifice.}}

* Sephrenia, in the ''[[Elenium]]'' trilogy by [[David Eddings]], turns out to be one of these. A side story (presented as a prologue to one of the three novels) gives the entwined history of the royal house of Elenia and the house of Sparhawk. Both the Elenian monarch and the current generation of Sparhawk wear a special diamond ring, which this story reveals was given to their ancestors by Sephrenia, who most likely was acting on the orders of the delightfully meddlesome Child-Goddess Aphrael. Notably, this revelation is provided for the reader only -- not to the characters.

* Dr. Halsey from [[Halo]] could technically count, as she was the one who started the SPARTAN II project, making the test subjects super-soldiers, though most did not survive the process. It is also unique in that the way she gives you "powers" is done mostly through drugs and machines rather then magic.

 

* Well written questgivers in computer RPGs and MMORPGs often fill this role: Their purpose is to give the character some [[MacGuffin]] or similar, but they have a good in-universe reason to do so.

* The Water Dragon from ''[[Jade Empire]]'' is a good example of this. She frequently gives the player character new powers, but is doing so so that the PC can help her in return.

* ''[[.hack]]'': Do you know why Kite, a level 1 [[Noob]] gets to become [[The Hero]]? Because [[Mysterious Waif|Aura]] gave him a Bracelet that gives him hax powers. To be fair, the real Chosen One [[Missed the Call]], and he had to pick up the slack.

* Kuryuu Tokio in ''LINK''. If it wasn't for Amagi Saika giving him the black device, he won't be [[The Hero]] in it.

* This is what ultimately composes {{spoiler|Cosmos'}} [[Thanatos Gambit]] in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]''; {{spoiler|by siphoning out what remained of her power into the [[Mineral MacGuffin|crstals]] that her warriors had been collecting for their Destiny Odyssey storylines, she weakened herself enough for Chaos to take her down, but empowered her warriors enough to defeat him, too, and finally break the cycle... Unfortunately, it didn't quite work.}}

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

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