Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,396
edits
No Man of Woman Born: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary Tag: Disambiguation links |
||
| (24 intermediate revisions by 10 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"...when it is prophesied that no man can defeat me, I will keep in mind the increasing number of non-traditional gender roles."''
|[[Evil Overlord List]] #153}}
▲{{quote|''"...when it is prophesied that no man can defeat me, I will keep in mind the increasing number of non-traditional gender roles."''|[[Evil Overlord List]] #153}}
|''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''}}
▲{{quote|'''The Witch-King''': ''[[You Fool|Thou fool!]] No living man can kill me.''<br />
▲'''Eowyn''': ''But no living man am I. You look upon a woman!''|''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''}}
A character receives a prophecy or curse of the form "X cannot happen until Y," where Y is seemingly impossible. X is frequently (but not always) the character's death or defeat.
Line 15 ⟶ 16:
A subtrope of [[Prophecy Twist]] and [[Double Meaning]]; compare [[Prophetic Fallacy]]. For some other instances of impossible conditions being met, see [[Impossible Task]] and [[Engagement Challenge]]. For when condition Y isn't really fulfilled but a half-assed excuse is used to justify X happening anyway, see [[From a Certain Point of View]].
{{examples}}
== Comic Books ==
* Mr. Negative, a [[Spider-Man]]/[[The Punisher|Punisher]] villain introduced in the "[[One More Day]]" storyline is regularly quoted saying "Mr. Negative was never born, so he is ever living!" He loves saying things like that. The truth of the matter is that Mr. Negative ''wasn't'' born, he was ''made''. The human smuggler who took on the identity of Martin Li is the one who was born, but that's besides the point.
Line 22 ⟶ 23:
* In one of the episodes Thrud the Barbarian meets a beast that "cannot be defeated by the hand of a mortal man" and promptly kills it with a kick.
* In ''Thessaly: Witch for Hire'', Thessaly is told that "no one and nothing" can defeat the monster coming after her... so she sends Fetch, a ghostly being who is quite literally no one and nothing.
* In the comic book version of ''[[Batman:
* Used by a Villain in [[Les Legendaires
** Ironically, the Legendaries later end up defeating him through the same trope: during their final fight, Anathos states they can't defeat him because only a God can kill another God, thus him committing suicide would be the only option (as at this point no other God is around). He ends up being stabbed by Jadina with Danael's sword, which was forged with Danael's blood and as such count as part of his body.
* In the ''[[Daria]]'' fanfic ''The Thirteenth Man'' Mack develops godlike powers and is forced to fight another godlike being. When informed that his opponent cannot be defeated by any weapon made on Earth, Mack beats him to death with rocks from the moon.▼
* The ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' [[Peggy Sue]] fic ''[[I Am What I Am (fanfic)|I Am What I Am]]'' handles the Judge (see below) with "Unity", a battle-ax of light that creates itself out of a pair of enchanted tomahawks.
* The May 27, 2010 strip of ''[[Hagar the Horrible]]''▼
* ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]'' fic, ''[[Final Stand of Death]]'', [[Marilyn Manson]], the undisputed champion, knows he could only be mortally wounded by a foreign-born female Capricorn who was also born in January among his fallen victims of said deathmatch. In other words, {{spoiler|[[Spice Girls| Melanie C]]}} is the only one who can do the deed given she's a British National born in January under the sign of Capricorn, who became one of Manson's fallen victims at Deathbowl '98 thanks to Manson's chainsaw. [["Stone Cold" Steve Austin]], Debbie Matenopoulos, and even [[KISS|Gene Simmons]] all know this before even {{spoiler|Melanie C}} finds out herself.
{{quote| '''Hagar: I'm the rough and tough Hagar the Horrible, and I don't take any grief from any man!'''<br />▼
'''Helga:''' How about taking out the garbage for your wife? }}▼
▲== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
▲* In the [[Daria]] fanfic ''The Thirteenth Man'' Mack develops godlike powers and is forced to fight another godlike being. When informed that his opponent cannot be defeated by any weapon made on Earth, Mack beats him to death with rocks from the moon.
== Film ==
* Disney's ''[[The Princess and
* In ''[[Ladyhawke]]'', a curse can be lifted only if the characters confront the bad guy when "a day without a night; a night without a day" comes. {{spoiler|This is [[Convenient Eclipse|conveniently solved by a solar eclipse]].}}
* ''[[
* In ''[[Excalibur (
** Mother Nature would like to add that a large icicle, rock, tree branch or angry boar passes the test, so this prophecy is less difficult to get around than one would think (however, all of these aren't exactly an advantage when fighting a good swordsman). Additionally, there's also poison, slings, non-metal arrows, garrote wires, fire, fisticuffs, starvation...
*** Not to mention simple clubs and staves. Wood isn't forged, its ''grown'' (and cut, and polished).
* Not fully impossible, but close. In a German film ''Haunted Mill'', said mill is haunted by evil ghosts who can only be destroyed by "snow in the summer". The heroes spend half of the film figuring how to lure the ghosts onto a REALLY HIGH mountain, only to discover that {{spoiler|a fire extinguisher also works.}}
* In ''[[Rock and Rule|Rock & Rule]]'', the villainous Mok's computer predicts that the demon can only be turned back by "the magic of ''one'' voice, ''one'' heart, ''one'' soul," but then adds there is "no one" who can stop his plan. {{spoiler|Mok doesn't count on Omar and Angel singing ''together'' as one voice, one heart and one soul.}}
* ''[[Drive Angry]]'' has:
{{quote|
'''Milton''': {{spoiler|I'm not of this earth!}} }}
* The 2008 Adam Sandler movie ''[[Bedtime Stories (film)|Bedtime Stories]]'', which revolves around Sandler's character telling seemingly-prophetic stories, has a couple examples. One story he tells involves Abraham Lincoln suddenly appearing out of nowhere, which is later fulfilled by a Lincoln penny dropping off of a bridge he's standing under. Another, which involves him being set on fire, comes true when he is "fired" from his job.
== Literature ==
* The sorcerer Nevyn, from the ''[[Deverry]]'' novels, did some selfish things which resulted in his fiancee killing herself. When he learns that she will be reincarnated, he rashly swears "never to rest" until he has made restitution. It takes him 450 years to fulfill his promise, during which time she is reincarnated seven times.
** Nevyn's name literally translates to "no one" and this is played on several times. Including once when a guard tells Nevyn his lord will see no one. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"Well then tell him No One is here to see him!"]]
Line 57 ⟶ 53:
*** After it was discovered that the leader of the warband coming after Corbyn was (unknowingly) a half-elf, the sorcerer Nevyn pointed out that he would have qualified as well - but he'd never have succeeded unless he knew that he qualified. (It's implied that there is a psychological component to the protection).
** The real key is that his father took away his original name, and said he would be "No one" which in turn shows up in more than a few prophecies and omens - significant, because he was actually a prince of the realm and a son of the king, although he was a younger son which makes this a bitter play on his position as a useless son (neither heir to the throne nor the back-up to the heir to the throne) even before he became a literal no-one.
* Given the overwhelming influence of [[William Shakespeare
** There's ''several'' in ''Moby-Dick'', all by Fedallah, but the one that stick out most poignantly is "I go before thee, my captain." No, Ahab, that doesn't mean you're invincible while Fedallah's alive, it just means he'll die before you.
* The ''[[
* In ''[[Stardust (
** To clarify: Yvaine, being in love, gives herself entirely to Tristran; from then on, she belongs to him and no one else.
* Due to an accident of [[Time Travel]], Arthur Dent in ''[[The
** Except in the [[Radio Drama]], where he gets better. And, naturally, in the sequel penned by [[Eoin Colfer]] from Adams' notes.
* In ''[[
** Note also how nicely Tolkien covers his bases here: Eowyn is a member of the race called Men, but is female, while Merry is a man of his own race but is a Hobbit, not a Man. And killing the Witch-king takes both of them.
** The trick to this prophecy is that what it was saying was misunderstood. The prophecy wasn't talking about what ''can't'' kill the Witch-king, but what ''wasn't going to''. It's neatly hidden in the phrasing: "not by the hand of man will he fall", that is, "no man ''will'' kill him".
* Tolkien has a similar prophecy theme in ''[[
* In ''The Light Bearer'', a novel about the Roman Empire's conquest of Germania, an evil Germanic warrior is told "you shall not die by the sword." He is killed in the Coliseum by the female protagonist, who strangles him with her own hair.
* One of the ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'' books does a variation on the old "No man can defeat you" one: "No man or woman" can defeat the [[Big Bad]], but one member of the Excalibur crew is a hermaphrodite.
* In [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms'', the [[Genre Savvy]] Godmother Elena and her army of Champions know at least three ways to get around a "No Man Shall Enter"
* From ''[[Discworld]]'':
** The Unseen University has [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|books]] filled with [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]]. But since the Librarian is an orangutan, he has no problem with them. Specifically:
{{quote|
** Upon his oath,
* In ''The Curse of [[Chalion]]'' by [[Lois McMaster Bujold]], the titular curse can be broken only by someone who would lay down his life three times for the royal family. When Cazaril breaks the curse, there turn out to be two distinct twists involved. More obviously, he doesn't have to {{spoiler|die as the result of laying down his life}}, just to expect that he will. More subtly, it's sufficient if the person he lays down his life for {{spoiler|eventually becomes a member of the royal family: the first time he lays down his life, it's for the princess's future husband, before they even meet}}. And most interestingly, it's not just a prophecy for prophecy's sake: it's necessary. As Cazaril realizes, this {{spoiler|has to happen "for the ''practice''," so that when the important events occur, he's not freaking out about dying.}}
* In the final book of [[Lloyd Alexander]]'s ''[[Chronicles of Prydain]]'', a prophecy states that the [[Big Bad]] will be vanquished only when such things as "rivers burn with frozen fire", "night turn to noon", and "mute stone and voiceless rock to speak" occur. {{spoiler|Some characters set a natural dam on fire to melt a frozen waterfall, another uses magic to light up an entire valley in the middle of the night, and they are clued to the location of the lost [[Empathic Weapon]] needed to do the deed by the sounds of the wind blowing through hollowed-out rocks}}.
* In ''Empire of the East'' by [[Fred Saberhagen]], one character threatens to slay another "not by day or night, neither with the staff nor with the bow, neither with the palm of the hand nor with the fist, neither with the wet nor with the dry." This is said to be a repeat of an old prophecy in which the god Indra slew the demon Namuci "in the morning twilight, by sprinkling over him the foam of the sea." The repeat comes true when its target is {{spoiler|asphyxiated by the foam of a fire extinguisher at sunset}}.
* In [[Diana Wynne Jones]]'s ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (
* The [[Big Bad]] of K.A. Applegate's ''[[Everworld]]'' series, {{spoiler|Senna,}} never heard the prophecy that claimed that "no man's sword or arrow" would kill her, but it still worked out when she {{spoiler|was killed by her half sister with an upgraded Swiss Army Knife.}}
* This is quite literally the plot of ''Moonsword'' by Diana Hignutt. A druidic prophecy states that "no man and no born woman" can wield the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] which will kill a demon, so the druids turn [[The Messiah]] into [[Gender Bender|a woman]] much to his chagrin. [[Les Yay]] ensues.
* In [[
* In Kate Eliott's ''[[Crown of Stars]]'' series, Sanglant cannot be killed by 'any creature, male or female'. {{spoiler|He ends up getting run over and killed by an out of control wagon being driven by a hermaphrodite. He got better.}}
* Inverted in [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Memory,
* In the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series, there are two seemingly contradictory prophecies surrounding The Stone of Tear, a massive fortress that has never been breached. The first says the Stone will never fall until the People of the Dragon come to it, while the second says the it will never fall until the Dragon Reborn wields Callandor, a "sword that is not a sword" which is housed within the Heart of the Stone. So why would the Dragon ever be allowed inside the Stone if it is destined to fall after his people come, but how can the Dragon gets his hands on Callandor without the fortress it's inside falling to people under his command? {{spoiler|By sneaking in. The Aiel, known historically as the People of the Dragon even though almost no one remembers that, raid it on the same night. Both prophecies are fulfilled at the same time: Rand takes Callandor, proving that he is the true Dragon Reborn, and the Aiel are able to capture the Stone, revealing them to be the People of the Dragon.}}
* In the ''[[Diablo]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''Demonsbane'', the [[Big Bad]] has a glyph on itself that makes it invincible to all living creatures. The twist, then, is that {{spoiler|the hero of the novel turns out to have been [[Dead All Along]].}}
* [[Simon R. Green]] has used this trope at least twice, in ''Winner Take All'' and ''Shadows Fall''. Both times it's invoked [[Recycled Script|with the same loophole]], in that an entity foretold to be unstoppable by any foe, living or dead, {{spoiler|gets its ass handed to it by an undead hero}}.
* The mages who sealed the portal that contains Takhisis in the Dragonlance world mandated the a white (good) robed magic user, and black (evil) robed magic user and a kender had to work together for it to open, assuming good can't work with evil, evil with good, and nobody works well with kender.
* A story within a story, set in Megan Whalen Turner's ''[[Kingof Attolia]]'' tells of a deal a man made with the moon to allow the area to become prosperous, and in return, he'd cover the hills with silver. She agrees on the condition he never lies by moonlight. The silver is olive trees, which have silvery leaves, which then feed the starving people in the area, directly and indirectly. The man becomes famous for his honesty. {{spoiler|When he is about to tell a lie in the moon's light, a friend bashes him on the head. The king accepts that the trees will die, but the moon says he told no lie.}}
* [[In the Net of Dreams]] has a villain who is protected from "stone and steel, iron and incantation", and "any poison administered by the hand of man". He is killed when a ''female'' dancer ejects a poisoned ruby from her umbilicus into his wine glass. She specifically uses this method so that even if the 'man' part of the protection applies to all humans, she did not use her hand to deliver the poison.
* The [[Roger Zelazny]] story ''The Bells of Shoredan'' features a prophecy to the effect that "eyes will never see the weapon" that will kill a particular character. He is killed by an assassin with an invisible sword.
* Amusingly played with Mary Gentle's ''[[Grunts!]]'':
{{quote|'''Orc Sergeant-Major:''' (after trying and failing to sort out a disorganized group of stragglers by TO&E) Right, let's keep this simple! ''Live'' orcs stand on the left! ''Dead'' orcs piled on the right!
(the dead ones are piled up on the right, and then move left -- leaving several squads of orcs standing in the original spot)
'''Sergeant-Major:''' WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? CAN'T MAKE UP YOUR MINDS WHETHER YOU'RE ALIVE OR DEAD, THEN? IF YOU'RE NOT ALIVE AND YOU'RE NOT DEAD, WHAT ARE YOU?'
'''Orc:''' ''Undead'' orcs, sergeant-major! Animated after last night's battle by a necromancer of unknown provenance, sergeant-major!
'''Sergeant-Major:''' ([[Face Palm]]) Live orcs on the left. Dead ones on the right. (sighs) Undead ones in the center.}}
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''Revelations'': When a mystically empowered villain boasts that he "shall not age a day, miss a target or receive a wound until a dozen angels sheer their wings into the sea and it weeps tears of gold back up to heaven," Damien sneers and throws him into a vat of wet concrete. "Guess you better hope that happens, then," is all Damien bothers to say about the prophecy as [[Sealed Evil in
** Interesting, particularly, in that this is a typical way of causing a Prophecy Twist, but unexpected once another "escape clause" has been mentioned.
* In season 3 of ''[[Angel]]'', a prophecy states that Darla's baby will not be born. {{spoiler|The prophecy comes true when she stakes herself to dust, leaving the baby behind.}} The trope namer is even mentioned in the following episode -- "Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped."
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' subverts this one. Of the Judge, it's said that "No Weapon Forged Can Defeat Him". But that was descriptive, not prescriptive, [[More Dakka|and predates hundreds of years of weapons development]].
{{quote|
'''Buffy''': That was then.
Buffy shoulders
'''Buffy''': This is now.
'''The Judge''': [confused] What's that do? }}
** The Judge's vampire companions, Angelus and Drusilla, know full well what that does. They flee very quickly before Buffy even fires. The Judge, on the other hand, just stands there and gets blasted into hundreds of small pieces.
*** [[Exact Words|Technically a rocket launcher is not forged, it is machined.]]
* A very ''[[Macbeth]]'' like example in ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' at the climax of the "Secrets of the Stars" story. The villain is using ancient astrological magic to mind-control everyone in the world one star-sign of birth at a time. Pity that {{spoiler|Luke is an artificial human being who was never "born" in the usual way.}}
* In the ''[[Merlin (
* One ''[[
* Discussed in one episode of ''[[Bones]]'', when Bones and Booth discuss whether they could catch each other if one of them committed a murder. Booth boasts "I always get my man," and Bones replies smugly, "I am a ''woman''."
== Music ==
Line 124 ⟶ 125:
* Agamemnon couldn't be killed in his house or out of it, naked or clothed, feasting or fasting. He was killed in his bath house, covered with a net, while eating an apple. The name for such a condition is "liminality", being between two different or contradictory states.
* In Hinduism, the Asura Hiranyakashipu, who was granted a boon by Brahma that made him unkillable by human, deva, or animal, during night and day, by anything animate or inanimate, on earth or space, inside or outside. He was slain by Vishnu's avatar Narasimha, a demigod with a lion's head (the avatar's name means "Man-lion"), at twilight (neither night nor day) by being disemboweled with Narasimha's claws (neither animate nor inaminate) and having his guts spilled into Narasimha's lap (neither earth nor space) on the threshold of a courtyard (neither indoors nor out). Vishnu also surprised the Asura by hiding in a pillar and bursting out of it. That was not part of the prophecy; Vishnu is just that [[Badass]].
** Also, in ''Ramayana'', the rakshasa king Ravana asked Brahma for invulnerability to gods, spirits and
** Perhaps the oldest version of "It is fated that no man can kill me so I got killed by a woman" (older than the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' version) is the Hindu myth of Mahishasura and Durga. Mahishasura received a boon from Brahma that stated that he could not be defeated by any man or god, including Brahma himself. After defeating the great trinity (Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu), it would seem that no one could defeat him until, of course, the three of them sent their "divine feminine force" to Shiva's wife, Parvati, transforming her into the [[Badass]] [[Action Mom]] and [[Hot Amazon]] (it is stated that she is very beautiful) Durga. Needless to say, being a woman and being so [[Badass]], she easily defeats Mahishasura.
*** Also involving her is the Hindu myth of the battle with the asura Raktabija, who received a boon that any blood spilled by him would become another copy of himself. After defeating the trinity (again), he fought Durga. When she was unable to kill him, her rage spawned her into becoming Kali, the even more [[Badass]] version of herself. After drinking all of Raktabija's blood, therefore spilling none, she went into a [[Ax Crazy|crazy frenzy]], and began a dance so powerful it threatened to split the earth itself apart. She calmed down only when she accidentally stepped on her husband, Shiva, and wounded him. Realizing what she had done to her love, Kali bit her tongue in shame and quelled her fury.
* A Polish legend tells of a nobleman called Twardowski, who made a deal with the devil to gain magical skills. In exchange, the devil had agreed for Twardowski to give over his soul when he visits Rome. Of course, for many years afterwards, Twardowski didn't even get close to Rome. His career ended, though, when he visited a certain inn: the devil then popped up and pointed out that the inn was called... guess what.
Line 142 ⟶ 143:
* In [[Celtic Mythology]], Cú Chulainn is immune to a curse that renders all fighting men of Ulster crippled for nine days and nights when needed most, owing to the fact that he is not an Ulsterman, and is technically still a boy, anyway. Thus, when Medb invades, he remains as Ulster's defender.
▲* The May 27, 2010 strip of ''[[Hagar the Horrible]]''
▲{{quote|
▲'''Helga:''' How about taking out the garbage for your wife? }}
== Professional Wrestling ==
* In [[WWE]], there is a sure fire to get your ass kicked: Go to the ring, and at any point in your speech say the words "no living man can beat me"
** [[The Undertaker|*dong*]]
== Radio ==
* [[Playing
** "flying horses made of rock" (Connie's soft rock album by the group Pegasus)
** "from a pit that can swallow a man, comes a pit that a man can swallow" (Whit's End receives a large delivery of cherries, which contain pits that a man can swallow and grow from a tree in a pit big enough for a man to fall into)
Line 155 ⟶ 159:
** "forest comes to building" (Nathan Forest, a radio station manager, comes to Whit's End)
== Tabletop Games ==
* In one Tabletop RPG, it was foretold that "No hostile man would ever invade the empire's borders." What the PCs did not realize that there was an Amazon tribe that used
==
* [[Trope Namer]]: In [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]'', the witches tell Macbeth he can only be defeated when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill, and also that none of woman born can harm him (hence the name of the trope). He ends up being defeated by an army that chops down the wood and carries it with them to conceal their numbers, and killed by Macduff, who was born by Caesarean (which meant that, in Elizabethan times, he would not have been considered to have been "born" in the same sense as most men.) Apocryphally, a young Tolkien decided that this was cheating. In the modern-day adaptation, different things are used.
** In the recent BBC adaptation, the quote is "pigs will fly"; Macbeth is stabbed after the police land on the building in a helicopter.
** Oddly, the original quote is hardly translatable into French. So the French version actually says "''no man'' of woman born". Tolkien shows you how many possibilities you have then.
* Staying with Shakespeare, a minor plot point in ''2 [[Henry IV]]'' is a prophecy saying King Henry "should not die but in Jerusalem", which he takes to mean he will die on Crusade. He falls ill before he gets the chance, and dies peacefully in his bed ... in the Jerusalem Chamber at his palace.
* ''Once Upon a Mattress'': The musical comedy is set in a land ruled by Queen Aggravain and her husband King Sextimus the
* In Pushkin's ''Scenes from a time of Knights'', the main hero, after an unsuccessful rebellion against evil knights is condemned to imprisonment "until the wall of this castle will go in the air and blow away." Then his friend, a monk, invents gunpowder...
* In [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''Ruddigore'', the Baronets of Ruddigore have been cursed since time immemorial to commit a crime every day, or else die in frightful agony. The latest Baronet [[Logic Bomb
== [[Video Games]] ==
Line 173 ⟶ 179:
** "Though blades and arrows are unleashed, the flooding fire cannot be stopped. It can only be chained." {{spoiler|This refers to the chain Psypher, Graveryl, and its wielder, Velvet. She managed to use Titrel to shut down the Cauldron and avert Armageddon; clearly, it is best if she finishes the job.}}
** "The Lord of Snakes consumes all left behind. Born in chaos and fire, sleep in mother's arms, life disappears from the land, all comes to an end." {{spoiler|There are three women in the party, but two are already indisposed with other tragedies. The mother in this case refers to Eve, the mother of humanity - and since Velvet is cursed and Mercedes slain, it falls on Gwendolyn to repeat her victory against the Lord of Snakes - Leventhan.}}
* Yves the Tale-Chaser in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' can tell a story of a man who received a terrifying blessing from his hag mother: anyone who struck him would die instantly. For a long time he reveled in his invincibility, picking fights and goading people into attacking him, until the Mercykillers captured him (with nets) and sentenced him to death. Of course he scoffed at that, because there was no one who would try to execute him. They lowered him into a pit where he couldn't fight anyone and gave him a cup of poison, but he refused to take it, and laughed that they couldn't kill him that easily. Then he realized they weren't feeding him anymore...
* One of the books in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] [[Morrowind]]'' tells the story of a Dark Elven noble named Andas, of whom it was prophesied that "his blood shall never be spilled", and that he cannot be killed by magic, illness, or poison. Indeed, the prophecy seems to come true, leading people to call Andas "The Hope Of The Redoran," in accordance with the wording of the prophecy. When he grows up, he lords this over his friends and peers as a sign of his superiority in combat, and it gives him the arrogance to challenge his cousin Athyn to a duel for an important political position. It ends with Athyn beating Andas to death with a quarterstaff, after Athyn's combat instructor gave him the idea. (Up until then, Athyn had been despairing.)
* In the text game of ''[[The
* At the beginning of the Microprose adventure game ''[[Dragonsphere]]'' the protagonist receives an amulet that can only be invoked by a man already dead. The presenter even points out that this makes it pretty useless and that it's just meant as an Symbol of "Wish you luck!".
** When {{spoiler|the King's treacherous brother}} confronts the Hero for the finale, he helpfully taunts: "You don't even know how to hold a sword. You are already dead!"
* In an event leading up to the ''Cataclysm'' expansion for ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the Darkspear trolls and their allies try to liberate the Echo Isles from the control of the witch doctor Zalazane. When he's finally run to ground, Zalazane boasts that the magical barrier around him can't be breached by any living thing. Cue the laughter of <s>Baron Samedi</s> [http://www.wowpedia.com/Bwonsamdi Bwonsamdi], a powerful spirit of the dead...
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[The Heroes of Middlecenter]]'', the evil Lord Baltimore parodies the Witch King as such:
{{quote|
'''Kiki and Darklight''','' female mages'' ''':''' Ahem!
'''Baltimore:''' -- or woman... can strike me down! }}
** And after a [[Hopeless Boss Fight]], he's promptly taken out by the elf of the group.
* In ''[[Nodwick]]'', a scroll is known as "That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know", because reading it [[Your Head Asplode|makes one's head explode]]. However, [http://comic.nodwick
* Subverted & lampshaded in ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'', where
* ''[http://johnsu.deviantart.com/art/Man-eating-Turnip-61731596 Man-eating Turnip]'' one-shot comic by JohnSu on DeviantArt.
* Played with and lampshaded in ''[[xkcd]]'' [https://xkcd.com/1704/ #1704]. "I an Gnome Ann!"
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Most of the spells used in ''[[Gargoyles]]'' have escape clauses like this. However, the first example in the series is actually a subversion: the spell that traps the gargoyles in stone stasis will not end "until the castle rises above the clouds," which seems primed for a
** Nor is this the only time that he uses the application of modern technology and a lot of money to create a literal solution to a figurative problem. In "City of Stone" he enlists the gargoyles to help him lace the sky above Manhattan with flammable gas and set it on fire in order to break Demona's spell of petrification, which can only end "when the sky burns."
** Meanwhile, "The Price" presents a straight use of the trope when Xanatos obtains a magic cauldron with the power to make the person who bathes in it live "as long as the mountain stones." Which is true, [[From a Certain Point of View|for a certain value of "live"]]. However, Xanatos and company were [[Genre Savvy]] enough to suspect a twist. They wanted to test it on Hudson, but he escapes, so Owen tests it with his arm. It emerges from the cauldron solid stone.
** Due to magical meddling, neither Macbeth (a human) nor Demona (a gargoyle) can die unless they perform a [[Mutual Kill]] on each other. While the correlation is never made explicit, this means that Macbeth cannot be killed by "one of woman born" because gargoyles hatch from eggs. Weisman has stated that this was the original reason for the pair's immortality, but was scrapped for some reason (if memory serves, it was one of those "one more things that needs to be explained").
* In the ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (
* In one episode of ''[[Biker Mice From Mars]]'', a reality-shifting experiment resulted in a ''[[Macbeth]]'' spoof:
{{quote|
"My mother was a mouse!" }}
* In the animated version of ''[[The Mummy
* In Disney's ''Ariel'', a curse of a werefish can be healed by "living silver." It turns out that silverfishes qualify.
* An episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series
* On ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', Heinrich's kidnapper Black John Licorice declares, "No man has ever out-sugared Black John Licorice!" Stickybeard smirks, "Now, who said anything about a man?" before revealing his challenger as Numbuh 5. It proves true anyways though; she doesn't out-sugar him, she just keeps the contest going long enough for the sun to rise and activate their curse.
* On ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'':
** [[Straw Feminist]] bank robber Femme Fatale robs the Townsville Bank of all its Susan B. Anthony coins. As she leaves, she boasts there is "not a man alive who can stop [her]." This cues the Powerpuff ''Girls'' arrival, and she [[Genre Savvy|clearly realizes]] she's [[Oh Crap|in trouble]].
Line 211 ⟶ 217:
== Other Media ==
* There is a Russian story about some lad who is stuck in a foreign land until his new boots (received at entrance) are gone, but they cannot be worn out, burned, or thrown away. The lad gets rid of them by feeding them to the host.
** I wonder why he didn't just cut them up.
*** Or sell them -- he is, after all, only prevented from ''giving'' them away.
* French folklore is full of tales about canny peasants outwitting [[Satan]] at his own game,
** For example, one story tells of a peasant who, in the middle of the worst famine the country's ever seen, asked the Devil to make his lands rich and fertile for one year. The Devil agrees, on the condition that he gets everything that's above the ground, but the peasant plants carrots. Furious, the Devil comes back and says he'll make the land fertile for one more year, on the condition that he gets everything grown below the ground. Of course, this time the peasant plants corn. Fed up, the devil agrees to a final deal: he'll make things grow miraculously, but at the end of the year he gets everything above the ground AND everything under it. So the peasant plants trees, and hunts in the forest...
*** The animals he's hunting are above the ground.
**** The animals aren't ''anywhere'' on the day that the Devil comes to collect the year's rent, because they're already cooked and eaten. And he can take all the trees he wants, they've already served their purpose.
** In Quebec, a similar tale involves a bet between the [[Archangel Michael]] and Satan, where the farmers of Quebec and their crops are the object of the bet.
** Another example has the devil appearing in a town and challenging the inhabitants to bring him a clock he cannot fix. No matter the state of the clocks they bring, the devil is able to fix them, even making missing parts appear out of thin air. Finally, one person brings him a clock that works perfectly, which means there is nothing for the devil to fix.
Line 228 ⟶ 236:
* The ancient Aztecs had a prophecy stating that their greatest capital would be built at a place where an eagle was sitting on a cactus and holding a snake in its mouth - possible things, but looking for it would be like a needle in a haystack. Eventually, they finally found it, and it became the site of Tenochtitlan. The Mexican flag has a picture of this on it. One tiny snag though - ''it happened on a rock in the middle of a lake.'' So they built the city on the lake.
* There is a legend that Seleucus I Nicator was warned by the oracle to avoid Argos. He avoided all cities with that name. However, he failed to avoid every single ''altar'' with that name...
▲* In one Tabletop RPG, it was foretold that "No hostile man would ever invade the empire's borders." What the PCs did not realize that there was an Amazon tribe that used WOMEN as warriors.
▲** Similarly in ''Warhammer40000'' the church was forbidden "Men under arms" which lead to them adopting the Sisters of Battle as their official military arm.
* The Roman Emperor Dommitian believed a prophecy that said he would die at noon on a certain day. On that day, he locked himself in his room with a servant and allowed no one to enter. He asked the servant several times what time it was (Roman hours depended on sunrise and sunset, so it could be difficult to tell), but the servant lied and said it was past the hour he was fated to die. Relieved, Domitian allowed other people in the room. One of them was the assassin who killed him, almost precisely at noon.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Double Meaning Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]
[[Category:Truth and Lies]]
[[Category:Fate and Prophecy Tropes]]
| |||