Omniscient Morality License/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Somebody who can do anything they wish to the heroes and/or the world without getting called on it, thanks to their vast powers.

  • Straight: The prophet Lumina manipulates Sol and his party via misleadingly cryptic prophecies and twisted truths into fulfilling their destinies... just as she has foreseen in her visions.
  • Exaggerated: From the moment she met him, Lumina has constantly been manipulating, tricking, and practically torturing Sol and the others, deliberately sending them into dangerous situations with the wrong ideas or information, putting their lives at risk -- but it's okay because she 'knew' they'd survive those trials! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right...?
  • Justified: Lumina actually does have a direct connection to her patron Goddess, and everything she puts Sol and the others through is destined to make them strong enough to save the world.
  • Inverted: Lumina tells Sol and company to avoid going on a dangerous mission despite knowing they'll come out alive.
  • Subverted: Sol calls Lumina out on her nearly getting his party killed by being so damn cryptic all the time.
  • Double Subverted: However, Lumina justifies this by pointing out how much stronger they became after that trial, and he lets her off the hook.
  • Parodied: Lumina has an actual Omniscient Morality License. And a framed Trickster Mentor degree that hangs clearly in her shrine, that Sol somehow never notices.
  • Deconstructed: Lumina becomes so convinced that everything she does is justified by her abilities that she begins to stray into A God Am I territory. This angers her Goddess, who punishes her by cutting off her powers.
  • Reconstructed: Lumina is given her powers of foresight on the grounds that she can not explicitly share her visions with anyone, and so in order to help out the protagonists, she gives them friendly, cryptic advice, which they will later come to see is very helpful.
  • Zig Zagged: Lumina is generally straight with Sol, but misleads him about a few key elements of his destiny, not wanting to let him know certain unpleasant details before he's ready for it. When some of these details surface, Sol lets it slide, because he trusts her and figures that she knows what she's doing... but some of his companions aren't so trusting or willing to give her a free pass. Then one Fetch Quest goes particularly bad, leaving Artemis and Hoshi seriously wounded, and Sol snaps into full-on Rage Against the Mentor mode. Stellar, however, takes Lumina's side, arguing she has an Omniscient Morality License. Sol doesn't buy it.
  • Averted: Lumina is humbled by her Goddess' blessing of prophecy and strives to avoid misusing it.
  • Enforced: Lumina is the Author Avatar, and the author is a bit full of herself.
  • Lampshaded: "Instead of telling us of the grim misfortune that will befall us on our journey, why don't you draw us a map, with said misfortunes clearly pointed out, as well as methods to avoid and/or defeat them?"
  • Invoked: Lumina's patron is actually a demon masquerading as a goddess, misleading Lumina into believing she is a blessed prophet and therefore justified in sending Sol and his companions into danger "for the greater good".
  • Defied: Lumina, aware that she might grow too prideful and come to view herself as infallible due to her gift, sets up a council of trusted, level-headed confidants with whom she can discuss her visions and decide the most prudent course of action.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Lumina blatantly has Sol and his friends run pointless errands for her, brushing it all off as "more important than you realize". They buy it, hook, line and sinker.
  • Played For Drama: Lumina's visions reveal to her that one of Sol's friends will make a Heroic Sacrifice at the next dungeon she's supposed to send them to. She decides not to warn them about this, as she's already witnessed their demise and assumes it's all part of the plan.

Back to Omniscient Morality License.