Neglectful Precursors: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Precursors]]; kindly ancient civilization or [[Parental Abandonment|deadbeat parents?]] You decide, on today's episode of '''''Judge Troper's Court!'''''

'''The plaintiff:''' The [[Adventurer Archaeologist]] claims that the Neglectful Precursor has left this galaxy and not provided a proper means of child support. He further alleges that the abundance of [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed evils]] [[Evil Is Not a Toy|with flimsy seals and easily found keys]], the leaving of outstanding debts with ancient enemies bent on collecting from humanity, and the presence of [[Zombie Apocalypse|civilization-shattering plagues]] are clear signs of neglect. The plaintiff demands that the ancients stop [[Pointless Doomsday Device|leaving dangerous weapons]] [[Lost Superweapon|lying about]] for villains to acquire, or else make access to them [[Empathic Weapon|morality-sensitive]], so only heroes can use them to pay off previous debts.

 

 

'''The Verdict? ''You'' decide!'''

See [[Abusive Precursors]] for [[Precursors]] that go beyond merely "guilty", or [[Benevolent Precursors]] for civilizations up for the "[[Precursors|Precursor]] of the Eon" award.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' (the first anime) is example when humans become Neglectful Precursors of much stronger beings than they are themselves. Because of bad initial appearance they dump their creations, which made them hate humanity or seek a very cruel ways to become humans, made worse when the [[Big Bad]] helps them survive and gain power by feeding them [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|Philosopher's Stones]].

* The Prosecution would like to present evidence in the case against the much-vaunted Protoculture from ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' for being irresponsible forebears:

* Your honor, I bring before the court the case of Al-Hazard from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. The defendant is charged with the creation of no less than ''twenty-one'' 'Jewel Seed' Lost Logia with a combined output capable of fracturing reality, with an ease of use even a ''child'' could use. They also stand accused of the creation of several blatantly destructive 'Tomes', 'Dividers', and a fully armed interdimensional warship complete with an army of drone weaponry.

* Your Honor, the people of ''[[Gall Force]]'' Earth would like to present their case against the Paranoids and Solenoids. They left humanity with no means to maintain civilization. We acknowledge the solenoids preserved data for human use, but rather than share it immediately, they chose to send it where it would not be found until after humans had reinvented space travel. Furthermore, they deliberately left out information that might have warned the humans of the dangers it presented! The discovery led to the conflict between humanity and the MME, which resulted in the loss of millions of lives and massive damage to Earth’s ecosystem.

* In the manga [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hotel/ ''Hotel'']. Humanity are precursors to the sentient computers, one (Louis) who's task is to ensure that the DNA of all Earth life is protected and a second who's task is to protect the DNA of humans in order to colonize another world in hopes of saving the species. While the creations of Louis may or may not be independent sentient robots separate from itself the creation of his counterpart in space certainly are ... we're assholes who did nothing but cause Earth to die and died in the process ourselves leaving Earth an unlivable wasteland.

 

* The Merk in ''Nexus'': when they [[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence|left]], they left behind one individual of their race, Drizripool, who inherited most of their power, with the mission of finding a race worthy of receiving the Merk's vision of justice through the eponymous nexus. The problem? Drizripool was insane! While the Merk did eventually send back another of their race, GQ, to stop Drizripool, why leave him behind in the first place?

** Objection! GQ, upon asked by the main characters about Drizripool's madness, first provides some technobabble meant to prove how his psyche has deviated from what amounts to sanity between Merk, then quips that he himself is uncertain for how long he may hold his mental health, risking to succumb to the same brand of insanity is currently afflicting Drizripool. Thus it can be safely inferred that Drizripool used to be sane, and since (by GQ admission) he was also the most powerful Fusionkaster and champion of justice of their race, he was left behind to provide the Nexus with the best and finest of the whole Merk. Eventually, his insanity just took the best out of him, forcing the Merk to settle for the less powerful but trustier GQ.

== Film ==

* To be tried in absentia: the unspecified race which dispatched a probe to Earth's humpback whales in ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]''. This species, alleged to have long been in peaceful contact with said whales, equipped their probe with the capacity to communicate with these creatures underwater ... and to ''decimate'' Earth's indigenous ecosystems, in the event that the whales failed to respond. Even if the probe's makers were unaware that whales were not Earth's only sentient residents, such environmental sabotage is reckless and unconscionable. Moreover, if the whales' language were to ''change'' in the millennia between one probe's visitation and the next, rendering them incapable of a coherent response, then the probe's "peaceful communication" might well have exterminated the humpback species long before humans could do so! Your Honor, I submit a charge of reckless endangerment on behalf of plaintiffs George and Gracie, and of negligent homicide on behalf of other Earth life forms killed by the probe's transmissions.

 

== Literature ==

* Your Honour, The Elder Gods of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] would like to plead guilty, [[Eldritch Abomination|except that they have no concept of guilt]]. ...also, they want permission to use the buffet, that being what they prefer to call the jury.

** A plea of no contest is entered. Permission to eat the jury is deniAAAAAAARrrrrggghhhh....

* The "Great Ones" of the ''[[Belisarius Series]]'' were aware of The "New Gods" tampering with the past, but simply encouraged the crystals to send a single individual back to counter them, and occasionally dropped by to gossip. They clearly had the power to eliminate the Malwa empire (they did destroy the New Gods homeworld) the whole time.

* The Prosecution would like to submit the Valar from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' as Neglectful Precursors before this court. Evidence is as follows:

** Objection, Your Honour. As demonstrated in the War of Wrath, when the Valar intervene, the amount of power thrown about sinks continents. Their non-intervention was their attempt to avoid becoming [[Abusive Precursors]]. Perhaps they could have chosen better Maiar to incarnate as wizards, but it's not their fault that Saruman turned evil, Radagast spent too much time talking to animals, and Alatar and Pallando vanished.

* Your honor, my clients, the Pak from ''[[Known Space]]'' would like to plead "not guilty", as they had no idea that the Tree-Of-Life root they need to maintain sentience wouldn't grow in soils like Earth's that lack thallium oxide.

** The Pak had only sublight drives, and the communication for help was garbled and broken from having to cross a significant portion of the galaxy at lightspeed. By the time the plea reached Pakhome, there were few that would have remembered the expedition, and only the Librarians would have been able to act. Even if they had been able to act immediately, the colony would have been out of contact and without Protectors for no less than 75 thousands of years, and would have taken at least another 10-20 thousand years to actually reach; few would expect breeders to last that long on their own, making it clearly a fools errand. Pakhome is resource-poor and could not afford that kind of cost, to say nothing of the Protectors' genetic inability to support enemy families.

** Further, when the Librarian Phssthpok rediscovered the plea far later, the Librarians DID create a relief ship immediately (Librarians, often lacking a clear Cause and in constant danger of suicide, found no issue with the fact that it was a fool's errand, as long as it gave them a Cause). This relief ship required so many resources that the Librarians absolutely wrecked Pakhome to get them, causing yet another globally catastrophic war. The fact that they arrived far too late to have stopped the mutation of the Pak form is not a sign of neglect, merely another tragic chapter in their race's history.

* Your honor, the prosecution respectfully wishes to indict the Xunca, of the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' universe. Having risen to a state of absolute galactic domination some billion years past, they discovered an [[Ultimate Evil|unstoppable galaxy-devouring horror]] approaching from across the universe. In attempting to deal with it, they constructed a super-superweapon concentrating the energy of millions of galaxies. However, prior to the activation of said weapon, they decided instead to flee to a different dimension... and ''forgot to leave behind a key'', thus effectively condemning our galaxy to annihilation unless some freak accident happened to replicate the precise conditions required to activate it. [[Theory of Narrative Causality|Naturally, this happened]], but the fact that they allowed the situation to come about in the first place can only be seen as the grossest evidence of neglect.

* Your honor, the prosecution would also bring suit against the [[Our Zombies Are Different|T'lan Imass]] from the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]''. Their ritual sealing of [[Our Orcs Are Different|captured Jaghut]] and Forkrul Assail proved ineffective in the long-term as any person with sufficient strength and interest could remove the rock and thus release the trapped being. In addition, their actions directly contributed to the destruction of magic at various locations around the world, which continues to this day.

* Your honor, the prosecution would like to bring suit agains the Heechee of the ''[[Heechee Saga]]'', who are responsible for leaving behind advanced technology when fleeing from the Assassins, which was bound to be found by a younger race and, without proper instructions on the use, would likely end up misusing it to disastrous ends. Furthermore, the continuous use of said technology is what attracted the attention of the Assassins toward the Heechee in the first place, which means that, by leaving such technology for anyone to use, the Heechee have doomed an unfortunate young race (namely, humanity) to extinction.

 

== Stargate Verse ==

* Your Honour, for unbelievable neglect, incredible incompetence, blinding hypocrisy, and a refusal to take any responsiblity at all for crimes, misdemeanours, or even basic sapient decency, the prosecution requests that The Ancients of the [[Stargate Verse]] be given the highest punishment the court will allow. A summary of their deeds and lack thereof is as follows:

* The defense would like to note that they did, in fact, attempt to stop the Wraith, starting a war that raged across a galaxy. They lost. Their complicity in the accidental creation of said space-vampires notwithstanding, they ''did'' do their level best to stop them until forced to retreat to the Milky Way. Similarly, they did almost destroy the Replicators, but unfortunately missed enough of them that the Replicators were able to subsequently rebuild. Although this was before they [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascended]], and they were still marginally benevolent at this point. It's only after they ascended that they became truly neglectful.

** The defense would also like to note that most of the "lower beings" of the Milky Way galaxy owe their very existence to the Ancients: the Ori plague which forced them to ascend also wiped out most life in our galaxy. The Ancients built the device on Dakara to repopulate the galaxy with life. The defense therefore suggests that their policy of non-interference probably has more to do them being afraid of playing god than simply apathy. (Please see the case of The Ark of Truth vs. The Ancients' Conscience).

* The State Of New Mexico wishes to bring charges against the Greys of ''[[The X-Files]]''. However, the evidence seems to have been destroyed by [[The Men in Black]].

* The people of Earth would like to bring charges against the Colonials and Cylons of the reimagined series of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' for {{spoiler|abandoning technology}} and sentencing their descendants to:

** If my clients are to be found guilty, then they refuse to go down alone on this. If they get thrown in the stockade, then at ''least'' God and the Head entities should go down with them if not replace them entirely. They've got far more cosmological level chops then my clients ever did, were interfering tremendously with their lives, and had ample opportunity to influence highly influential members of the community to say this is a bad idea (one of the greatest scientists of the era, and a heroine of the Cylon people). Instead, they seemed to have encouraged the whole abandonment of technology idea, manipulated their lives, and seemingly did not offer any advice to future generations despite the fact that unlike my clients, they were immortal and didn't have heaps of species-wide post traumatic stress disorder from years of multiple near-genocides, multiple ''actual'' genocides, being cramped up inside ships for years on end with the knowledge you may die at any moment, having to abandon the closest thing to a new home they got, getting betrayed by their siblings, having to deal with their first recognized intra-species conflict, and actually cleaning up Neglectful Precursor-esque messes like their malevolent child/grandchild/sibling robot races.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** According to the background, the reason that their gates failed was because said toad-like lizard creatures (the fourth generation of them, to be precise) were responsible for maintaining their magic portals. It wasn't actually their fault that the gates failed, and once they did, it was either escape or die. And in ''Warhammer'', escape is an infinitely more desirable alternative to death.

* The ''[[Scarred Lands]]'' franchise. The backstory to the series is a war against the amoral creators of the world, the Titans, and their rebellious children, the Gods. The Gods were unable to completely kill the Titans, so they just maimed and imprisioned them. Despite completely oblierating two of the Titans, the other Gods were left mostly whole and just imprisoned. Since then, the remains of the Titans has damaged the land and corrupted countless creatures, even the two who were almost destroyed. Despite the fact that the Gods now rule the world, they haven't shown themselves to be in any hurry to clean up their mess.

* The gods in ''[[Exalted]]''. Their creators, the Primordials, are not accountable due to being [[Cosmic Horror|dead]], [[Sealed Evil in a Can|imprisoned]], or fled for their lives. The gods, however, designed a race of superhumans (the eponymous Exalted) to defeat their masters, then left them to run reality. The gods are still around, but the most powerful of them refuse to do anything except play heavenly foozball. The rest have become thoroughly corrupt, as all of reality falls into chaos and madness.

** The defense appeals this ruling, on the grounds that it is implied that the gods were not entirely aware of just how addictive the Games of Divinity really were. If this is the case, they most likely had every intention of ruling wisely and well, and are guilty only of falling victim to [[Applied Phlebotinum]] of which they had little understanding. This is supported by the fact that the withdrawal of the Incarnae from mortal and Exalted affairs happened very gradually, over the course of millenia. Furthermore, the Great Curse and the Usurpation are responsible for much of the corruption in Heaven and Creation, and effectively removed the beings best equipped to clean up the situation. One of the functions of the Exalted is, after all, to keep the lesser gods (who have exceedingly narrow perspectives and tend to view everything through the lens of their spheres of influence) in line.

 

 

== Toys ==

* The Great Beings of ''[[Bionicle]]'' were scientist-rulers on their planet, until they created the Element Lords to take over the "ruling" part so they could focus on the "[[For Science!|science]]". This is perhaps the most damning display of negligence, creating proxies so that they can safely afford to neglect their subjects. (Though it could be argued that they did act responsibly in making sure there ''were'' proper replacements.) While things were all right for a while, [[Unobtainium]] was discovered and the Element Lords led their subjects in waging a [[No Blood for Phlebotinum]] war over it, one that only ended when said Unobtainium split the planet into pieces. The Great Beings tried nonviolent solutions, all of which failed. The eventually resorted to creating baterra robots, a last-ditch doomsday weapon programmed to end the war by killing all armed combatants. However, they were released too late to prevent the disaster, and later [[Override Command|overrode their shutdown commands]].

*** [[Ace Attorney|Objection!]]: ''Mata Nui'' created the Makuta, not the Great Beings. Mata Nui may have been destined to work together with Makuta, but the fact remains that Makuta's rebellion, ironically enough, was all Mata Nui's fault. Come to think of it, a case should probably be presented against Mata Nui...

** While the sheer number of safeguards ensuring Mata Nui's functioning, as well as the attempts to stop the war and the disaster, argue against negligence, the issue of the Element Lords still looms large. However, it occurs to the court that the Great Beings are only precursors to Mata Nui and his inhabitants, not to the other races that they passed off to the Element Lords. So they were precursors and may have been negligent, but not both at the same time.

 

== Video Games ==

** The defense enters into evidence ''Halo 3'', confirming that the Forerunners' entire extinction was due to a sudden and unexpected shift in the war with the Flood, which forced them to fire the Halo array. In fact, in that same game, it is revealed that the Forerunners were actively attempting to preserve the species of the galaxy by sheltering them on the Ark, well away from the Halo array's firing range. Only when this came under threat did they utilize the Halo array.

** The evidence is not simply misleading, it is largely untrue. The Forerunners did ''not'' conceal information regarding the Flood; that information is readily available if one simply ''asks'' the Monitors. The weapons in question were only operable by members of a single species which was supposed to serve as the Forerunners' successors, but due to cataclysmic damage they were not aware they could utilize the weapon. And while the Flood samples were contained on the rings instead of being destroyed, evidence indicates that the Flood are an extra-galactic entity (making extermination pointless and research on countering them important) and the Flood themselves were kept securely contained until the Covenant disregarded the warnings and forcibly released them.

* Your honor, the Hyrulians of ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' would like to bring forth a suit: the three Goddesses left behind the Triforce, which is their exit door and [[Cosmic Keystone]]. There were a few precautions against it getting nicked by a sociopathic man-bear-pig, but clearly they weren't enough. They let Link and Zelda clean up after them, giving them fairly useless "help" such as Light Spirits of Hyrule and the Sages, while in the interim innocents suffer and die before the Link of that time can get going.

** Defense brings up that failure of precautions does not indicate failure of the precursors. Any precaution can fail when against someone who is intelligent and resourceful enough. Contrary to plantiff's arguments the three Goddesses are active in Hyrule insuring the rise of a hero or other action whenever evil rises. The Light Spirits and Sages have proven to be instrumental in stopping said evils proving they are far from useless. Innocents suffering is unfortunelty part of the mortal world, but these are usually short periods of unrest followed by long periods of quiet as demonstrated by the nature of the Hylian army. Defense moves to dismiss suit based on the Goddesses constantly taking action and not being the universe's baby-sitters.

* In their exodus from this area of the galaxy, the Precursors of the ''[[Star Control]]'' series absent-mindedly left behind a ''humongous battleship armed with superweapons that can wipe out entire fleets with each shot''. Naturally, the enslaving Ur-Quan Kzer-Za stumble across it, naming it Sa-Matra. Among the numerous other artifacts the Precursors left behind are: [[Earthshattering Kaboom|bombs used as planeteering tools]] (one is used to put a hole in the outer layers of a star, causing it to flare like a supernova and sterilizing the entire inhabited system, and another is deemed powerful enough to destroy the Sa-Matra ''only after amplifying modifications are added by the Chmrr''), the Mycon (biological planeteering tools that evolved into a race of fungi who [[Planet Looters|terraform inhabited water worlds by force]] to their own scorching ideal conditions), and Inter-Dimensional-Fatigue-wave-generating devices (the study of which gets the Androsynth eaten by [[Eldritch Abomination|Lovecraftian extradimensional horrors]]).

** Arguably an act of self-defense. [[Word of God]] has stated that the sequel was always intended to explain what happened to the Precursors. Despite the fact that the original creators lost control over the IP before making said sequel; to some extent, the (non-canon) sequel Star Control 3 DID justify things. The Precursors had been searching for a way to survive a galaxy-wide genocidal sweep of sentient species from even more powerful space entities and FAILED to come up with a combative method of survival despite said superweapons.

** Your honor, in light of new evidence it appears that the Zerg's misbehaviour may have been due to the intercession of The Dark Voice, an entity the Xel'Naga imprisoned in the ancient past. This may be grounds for them to have any neglectful accusations dismissed.

* Suit brought on behalf of the people of Azeroth and related worlds of ''[[Warcraft]]'' against the the Titans, who ordered the universe, defeating evil where they found it. Crafting prisons to host creatures like demons, the Old Ones and their elemental servants, though their intentions were noble, it hasn't really worked out in the universes' favor. Also, the demons were released by a corrupted member of their race, and while they tried to ease his pain, it is unknown if they did anything to stop him after he turned.

** Defense raises the following points: 1. Destroying the Old Ones would have required destroying and remaking Azeroth as well. By imprisoning them the Titans gave the races a chance to grow instead of destroying them outright. 2. The Titans are well aware of the fall of one of their own and the demons and are fighting against it across the universe. Whereas other precursors often abandon the younger races, the Titans continue to fight these evils providing support for the world of Azeroth and countless others. Move to dismiss due to being active and not neglectful.

* In light of the recent testimony of Cmdr. Shepard, the [[Mass Effect|Citadel races]] would like to file charges against {{spoiler|the Catalyst, and its creators to be tried in absentia}}. These individuals are responsible for the creation of the Reapers, currently facing at least 740 counts of galactic genocide. Only their claimed rationale for allowing these acts, that {{spoiler|they believed a [[Robot War]] to be inevitable, and thus created the Reapers to prevent sufficiently advanced races from creating sufficently powerful synthetic races}}, prevents the plaintiffs from charging [[Abusive Precursors|abuse]] rather than neglect.

** The defense moves that charges against the {{spoiler|Catalyst's creators}} be dropped or postponed due to lack of evidence. As it stands, we have only the {{spoiler|Catalyst's}} word that he/she/it created the Reapers, that it set the Reapers on a never-ending cycle of destruction, and that it did so in spite of a better solution.

 

== Webcomics ==

** Finally, there is the arrival of the Vok themselves: intent on destroying the reality-breaking criminal Megaton, at a time when doing so would have created an equally damaging rift in time (i.e., the original Megatron's spark was still inside his body). Furthermore, their lack of willingness to cooperate, if not downright contempt for Optimus Primal's warning about these consequences resulted in him nearly being killed.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Neglectful Precursors]]