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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players,<ref>
|'''''[[Good Omens]]'''''}}
A character with an '''Omniscient Morality License''' is usually one of the [[Powers That Be]] or very close to it. Basically, they can do ''anything'' to the hero and still be considered one of the good guys, because they just ''know'' it will turn out okay, [[Gambit Roulette|regardless of the seeming randomness of chance and choices made]]. Sometimes this is attributed to [[A Wizard Did It|supernatural rules]] (like the [[Balance Between Good and Evil]]) or [[Time Travel]].
If the heroes were to attempt anything resembling these actions, they would be [[What the Hell, Hero?|called on it]] by their manipulated "friends" and [[Laser-Guided Karma|punished]] by the plot for their [[Pride|arrogance]]. [[Karma Houdini|Usually]].
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Compare to [[In Mysterious Ways]] where the acts tend to be a lot more low key and often not unethical of themselves. May overlap with [[The Extremist Was Right]] where the actions genuinely work out for the good of most/all. Related to [[Designated Hero]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* [[CLAMP]] has been guilty of this in several series, thanks to Clow Reed, {{spoiler|his [[Reincarnation]] Eriol}}, and his old partner-in-crime, Yuuko. In ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' Clow and Eriol frequently manipulated the cast, threatened Sakura's friends and family, and even risked erasing everyone's feelings of love, and yet are still considered good because it was "necessary" for Sakura to be subjected to these things. (Sakura didn't even want to be a mage at first, and in the anime it's not necessarily clear what the pressing reason was for her to become one. Clow's even responsible for the cards escaping when they did. In the manga, it's made clearer: if he didn't do what he did, the magic of the Clow Cards would fade, and two of her friends would die.)
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* Sailor Pluto from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', particularly in [[Fanon]]. Fanon also tends to have Pluto called on this, frequently in the form of losing her powers ([[Funny Aneurysm Moment|oh]], [[Pluto Is Expendable|the irony]]).
* There's an entire manga about this trope, a shoujo/josei series named ''[[Seigi no Mikata]]'' (Ally of Justice). The protagonist's sister is a loud, lazy, gluttonous, extremely manipulative cow, but somehow all the selfish, self-centered things she does work out great for her and everyone else. Apart form the protagonist, everyone in the series adores her. [[Villain Sue]], much?
* Kage Houshi from ''[[Flame of Recca]]''.{{context}}
* Debatable in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', where protagonist Shinn Asuka and [[Older and Wiser]] hero Kira Yamato ended up on opposite sides of the conflict, which obviously lead to trouble and [[Flame War|flame wars]] (which still continue years after the series' conclusion). Some fans claim the [[Word of God|director insisted in interviews]] that Shinn was always the hero, and that Kira had "strayed from the path of justice", other fans of Kira and his allies insist that they were in the right and that Shinn was the "true villain". (That Shinn spends the climactic battle sidelined after being defeated and humbled by Kira's best friend Athrun, and had up to that point been fighting for the side that Kira and company were trying to stop from using a [[Wave Motion Gun]], probably had a lot to do with that perception.)
** The [[Flame War|flame wars]] have gotten so bad amongst Gundam fans, that even after all these years that [[Word of God]] has changed his initial position, and now posits that Athrun was the main character. It hasn't helped.
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* Averted in ''[[Dragonball Z]]'': after Trunks' first time travel and after he has warned the heroes about the incoming threat of the Androids, Bulma suggests seeking out Dr. Gero, the Androids' creator, and kill him before he can enact his plan, which they ''know for sure'' he will enact. Goku refuses, partly because he wants to fight the Androids, and partly because he doesn't think it's right to kill someone who still hasn't done anything bad (forgetting that Gero was the lead scientist of the Red Ribbon Army, and so most of their tech was probably built by him).
* Aeolia Schenberg from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' is revealed to be one of these when its revealed that his plan was that if mankind did not change than he would force them to change using Celestial Being. While his plan is hijacked a couple of times it's put back on track by the heroes.
* In ''[[Goshuushou
* From ''[[Naruto]]'', there's {{spoiler|[[Fake Defector|Itachi Uchiha]].}} Notably, his plan so far ''[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|didn't]]'' work, but it remains to be seen if his [[Crazy Prepared|contingency plan]] (i.e. {{spoiler|Naruto}}) will. Be prepared for an enormous [[Internet Backdraft]] if you discuss this online.
** {{spoiler|After being revived, Itachi pretty much gets his revoked and admits that in the end his attempts to fix everything himself failed and just created a giant mess. He warns Naruto not to make the same mistake.}}
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*** Minato had another, better reason to do what he did. {{spoiler|If Kushina sacrificed the last few minutes of her life to temporarily kill the Kyuubi with her, the Kyuubi would have been resurrected at an unspecified time and place. Given who they were up against and the power of the Kyuubi (and his ability to control the Kyuubi), sealing it in Naruto at the cost of his life may have been the only guaranteed way to prevent another, more successful attack on Konoha.}}
* All of the ruling Elites in ''[[Ai no Kusabi]]'' for keeping slaves and how they treat the everyone beneath them. It's their right as the [[Powers That Be]] to do as they please with those below them within their society. Iason Mink really takes the cake however as the most powerful Elite with his treatment of his [[Sex Slave]], Riki.
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' villain Mystique had a psychic lover for most of [[Chris Claremont]]'s run, who, according to his own [[Retcon]], drove Mystique's [[Necessarily Evil|apparently evil]] actions until driving her insane by dying.
* [[Iron Man
* Reed Richards of the ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' is also an example. He saved the life of Galactus, the devourer of worlds. When a group of aliens put him on trial for crimes against the universe, it's [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] that Galactus is somehow necessary to the survival of the universe (it later turns out that Galactus is the can for a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] named Abraxas). How, or even whether, Reed knew this when he saved Galactus is debatable, though it should be mentioned that what brings the decision in favor of Galactus is the embodiment of the Universe itself showing up to testify in Galactus' favor.
** This was more [[Honor Before Reason]], though.
** He could have been extrapolating from nature. Remove a predator from an environment and often the environment will become overrun with its prey. Its still hard to justify since Galactus and his victims are often sapient and free-willed.
** Reed Richard exemplifies the trope again during the [[Marvel Civil War]] with a sort of Marvel universe variant on the central concept of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s Foundation series', the fictional mathematical science of [[wikipedia:Psychohistory (fictional)|psychohistory]] (wherein one can, with enough time and mathematical expertise, predict the generalized "future history" of mankind through mathematical formulae.
***
**** Later on subverted when Reed is reminded (by the original inventor of the psychohistoric mathematics he was using, the Thinker) of something Reed had unaccountably forgotten -- notably, that psychohistory is of doubtful accuracy in any situation involving superhumans because superhumans are all walking statistical anomalies. That 'X-factor' being how the Fantastic Four had previously beaten the Thinker ''every single time''.
* In another comic example, an early [[Golden Age]] superhero known as [http://home.comcast.net/~wanolan/28one1.html Stardust] the [http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/26/i-shall-destroy-all.html Super Wizard] is virtually all-powerful and, from the readers' perspective, quite insane. Yet he always winds up being treated as a hero in the story.
** A text feature in ''1910'', the most recent chapter of [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', reveals that a number of other heroes finally took Stardust down, imprisoning him in a super-dense ice block.
* Cable generally acts like this, thanks to coming from the future and already knowing how everything turns out.
** Curiously, although he's also from the future and is accompanied by a floating repository of 21st century history, Booster Gold doesn't.
*** Booster Gold's historical records are notably less accurate or complete than Cable's, and in addition the differing time travel physics between the Marvel and DC universes makes the effects of temporal change harder to predict.
* [[Knight Templar|Lucien Draay]] in the ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' comics thinks he has one of these, and acts accordingly (to be fair to Lucien, his mother and closest friends are all absurdly powerful seers, so he has reason to believe this). Unfortunately, he interpreted everything they said through the lens of his [[Treacherous Advisor]], who {{spoiler|was really a Sith Acolyte working to bring it down from within and used Lucien as a convenient pawn to accomplish this. Lucien's response to learning he's been had could basically be described as: [[Villainous Breakdown]], [[Villainous BSOD]], [[Heel Face Turn]].}}
* Marvel's Odin pulls this a lot. He repeatedly screws with ''[[Thor]]'' in every way he can come up with, usually as a pretense to teaching Thor some greater lesson. The entire reason Thor is on Earth in the first place is because Odin thought it would build character. Probably his worst offense is the massacre of an entire sentient species to create the creature Mangog. His only defense is the fact that he is Odin the All-Father, creator of humanity, and therefore answers to no one. (Except for when he does, because ''Thor'' comics suffer the same continuity problems as everything else)
** In respect for Mangog' the race in question invaded Asgard after brutally conquering numerous galaxies. Odin's actions were in defense of his realm and punishment of a a vile race. Odin eventually restored the race to life after the entire species reformed.
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* {{spoiler|The god-emperor of mankind}}, in his ''[[Thousand Shinji]]'' role, persuades {{spoiler|the other canon!40k gods}} to send back [[Complete Monster|a sadistic Keeper of Secrets]] rather than [[The Chessmaster|a Lord of Change]] on the basis that Shinji had to learn that {{spoiler|"when the gods are assholes, mortals suffer"}}. Somewhat understandably, Shinji gets enraged and punches him.
** Made even worse in that by [[The Open Door|the sequel]], they seem to have forgotten this lesson entirely, rendering it a [[Broken Aesop]].
* The Fans in ''[[With Strings Attached]]''. Even though she loves the four, Shag thinks nothing of dropping them into a dangerous environment, completely unprepared and ignorant of everything. Jeft {{spoiler|is one of the [[Big Bad
== Film ==
* ''[[Drop Dead Fred]]''. The title character does random, chaotic, highly disruptive, and seemingly pointless things, but said actions unfailingly serve to benefit
* Although not explicitly stated in ''[[Star Wars]]'', Obi-Wan and Yoda used Luke [[From a Certain Point of View]] as what they felt was the best way to get him to stop Vader and the Emperor. In the end it's subverted, as Luke wins by NOT heeding their advice. If he had killed Vader like they asked, the Emperor would have won.
* ''[[Mary Poppins]]''. Those nannies waiting in line in the beginning did ''not'' deserve to get blown away in a windstorm, no matter how stuffy they were. Her presence also seems to spread a magical flying hysteria that kills the Bank President, but hey, he "was his happiest in years."
* Invoked via the Job argument in
* After a certain point, the entire plot of ''[[Paycheck]]'' is the main character, Michael Jennings, doing this to himself. He was hired to build a future-viewing machine, with the contract stipulating that his memories would be wiped afterward so he couldn't reveal how it worked. When he goes to collect his payment, he finds that he waived it before the memory wipe. Instead, he is given a large envelope full of seemingly random objects. It is eventually revealed that when testing the machine, he saw a horrific future, possibly caused by the existence of the machine. So, using the machine, he worked out a collection of objects to leave for himself that would result in him blundering his way through saving the world. {{spoiler|He worked it out so that he would get a happy ending, but of course he no longer knows this when the time comes and he finds himself facing seemingly imminent and completely unavoidable death.}}
* The eponymous ''[[The Pagemaster|Pagemaster]]'' takes a cowardly child and subjects him to all sorts of deadly situations. To all appearances, there was a real chance that the kid would either die or develop severe mental trauma as a result of this. But instead he learns to be courageous, and the Pagemaster gets off the hook because apparently he's just so darn wise that he knew it would work out like this from the beginning.
* A lot of people complain how, in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'', Glinda the Good Witch of the North basically manipulated Dorothy by not telling her how her Ruby Slippers she got when she first arrived in Oz could send her home. In [[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|the original novel]], this is because it ''wasn't'' Glinda (who's the witch of the South) Dorothy met in the beginning, but the other Good Witch, who didn't know how the shoes worked. Presumably, the movie didn't want to use more actors than it had to. The 1978 adaption ''[[The Wiz]]'' corrects this by having an older witch meet Dorothy.
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* Most of the characters' issues with god emperor Leto II in ''[[Dune|God Emperor of Dune]]'' revolves around his near-omniscience and the resulting path he leads humanity down because of it. Duncan Idaho in particular takes issue with it, as well as Leto's [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|transformation into a nigh-immortal sandworm/human hybrid]]. When queried, Leto argues that the higher morality conferred by his gift of prescience compels him to act in ways that seem unimaginably cruel when the alternative is the complete extinction of humanity.
* Dumbledore's relationship with [[Harry Potter]] in the later books begins to resemble this. In the final book, the characters openly question if Dumbledore knew what he was doing. {{spoiler|He did, and even correctly predicted that Harry would be willing to [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifice himself]] for the greater good. He even knew, or at least guessed, that Harry could survive as long as it was Voldemort that delivered the Killing Curse, but by letting Harry think he would die, enabled Harry to grant his friends the same protection his mother had given him by her sacrifice. He also sincerely loved Harry, and honestly regretted the hell the poor kid would have to go through.}}
** Subverted, however, in that Dumbledore admits at the end that he was not ''certain'' these things would happen but that he was just willing to gamble that they ''would'' happen.
* Annalina Aldurren from the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series often invokes this trope, believing that she has a right to steer the protagonist's life because she's spent hers studying prophecies about him. She is quite often called out on this by the other characters (most notably said protagonist's wife), is more often than not wrong in her interpretations of the prophecies, and on several occasions suggests doing things such as erasing the protagonist's memory and having another character seduce him in order to have him do what she thinks he should. In fact, it's outright stated that, had she not meddled in the protagonist's life in the first place, many of the events of the series would never have taken place. Interestingly, Anna is called on this and finally broken of the habit, only for the villains to mess with the timeline/people's memories and her to revert to form.
** In the same series, Nathan Rahl occasionally delves into this territory, but is more successful as he's an actual prophet, and gets the total experience and meaning of his prophecies. A more or less straight example: When he's introduced, it's mentioned that while entertaining a young woman, something he whispers to her makes her run screaming from his room, and eventually leads to riots and tens of thousands dead. Much later, he remarks that in that war, a young child died who otherwise would have grown into a horrible dictator who would have killed far, far more.
* The Arisians of [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Lensman]]'' universe use this extensively over a period of two billion years, gradually shaping the evolution of intelligent species and specific bloodlines within those species until their descendant civilizations can defeat their ancient and truly foul enemy, Eddore. They manage all this without ever letting on that they are, in fact, [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] to do virtually everything their descendant cultures do, and easily.
** They are, however, fair about it. Their plan includes provisions for their own retirement from being in charge the instant the situation has evolved enough to make their predictions start being invalid, and they also work very hard to prepare and train successors capable of taking over their duties in the event they are no longer able to perform them. Also, while they don't hesitate to sacrifice other lives as the plan demands, they are equally as unhesitating about sacrificing ''their own'' once the plan allows.
* ''[[Xanth]]'''s Good Magician Humfry will send the story's protagonists to face life - and occasionally world - threatening peril with nothing more than an objective and a general path to follow. Justified (albeit by Humfry himself) in that if he gives his supplicants the full story, they'd get things wrong and go straight for the end goal, instead of going through the experience and ally gaining journey actually needed to succeed. (That, and most Xanthians expect to be given the runaround, trusting that things will work out in the end)
* Polgara from the ''[[Belgariad]]/Malloreon'' universe demonstrates this tendency a lot. Admittedly, it goes with the job - Belgarath describes how he often has acted as Aldur's holy hatchet man - but Polgara has the biggest attitude about it.
* In ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'', Liu Bei and his companions (most notably Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang) can do no wrong, even when this means killing hundreds of thousands in various ways over the decades in the name of Liu Bei's vision of supporting the crumbling Han Dynasty, while Cao Cao is the big-time villain despite all the good works, major successes (against others who are ''not'' Liu Bei) and personal niceties that he's acknowledged to have.
* In book 9 of the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series, the {{spoiler|Crocaryx}} were created by Kai solely to guard a Lorestone. Once that Lorestone is no longer in their possession, the narration announces that this is the beginning of their race's demise. Makes one wonder when [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|humans]] will [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|fulfill their reason for existing]].
* In
** Averted in that Center can only predict with certainty for ''some'' situations. In pretty much every major conflict of the series, Center's win/loss calculations boil down to 'There is a slightly better than even chance this might work'. The Fridge Brilliance here is that this is of course why Center had to wait centuries for one of the most brilliant military geniuses in history to come along before working on a plan to make him conquer/unite the planet... if it could reliably predict ''any'' battle then it oculd have executed its plans with a talking monkey, just by feeding it the correct cue every time. Instead, the entire plot is driven by the part where Center can only ''mostly'' know everything, and its up to the hero to find a path to victory in the situations where Center can't.
* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''Protector,'' the Pak Protector Phssthpok feeds the Tree-of-Life fruit to human Jack Brennan, causing Brennan to metamorphose into a superintelligent Protector himself, and then immediately starts laying down instructions about what Brennan has to do to save the human race from a Pak invasion. At one point, as Brennan recounts it later, he is about to protest, "Don't I have any choice?" And then, before he can even get the words out, immediately realizes, "No, I don't have any choice. I'm too intelligent."
** Specifically, a Pak protector is of so high an order of an intelligence that it can reliably see the one optimum course of action for any given set of facts. Therefore, their plans change only when their knowledge of the situation changes.<ref>If you're wondering why they don't all agree on everything -- for one, as a Pak protector's primary drive is to ensure the success and dominance of ''his'' genetic line, they're all competing in a zero-sum game. And two, since they don't all know everything, each one starts out working from a slightly difrerent data set.</ref> At no point in any step of this process do ''they'' get a decision, except for the initial decision of 'what goal will I work towards?'... and even there they have a very limited menu of choices due to genetic programming.
* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', the Aes Sedai all act like this, to the extreme annoyance of both characters and readers. To be fair, some of them are smart enough that things do kind of work out. Others, [[Too Dumb to Live|not so much]].
* In ''[[Dragonlance]]'', Fizban's way of helping people is by being a nuisance and hindering the progress of the heroes, even when it endangers their lives. It turns out his hindrances end up helping them in the end, and that is his unique way of helping them out. He can do this because {{spoiler|his secret identity is none other than Paladine, the chief god of light.}}
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* Played with in [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[The Mysterious Stranger]]'', in which Satan explains exactly why his seemingly immoral actions, including causing deaths and madness, are [[Crapsack World|in fact for the best]].
* Matthew Sobol in [[Daemon]] or at least his posthumous actions through the Daemon itself.
* The [[Spirit Advisor|Companions]] in the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series have a tendency to succumb to this temptation from time to time, which is a major reason for their [[Obstructive Code of Conduct]] not to interfere with human affairs unless asked. A particular example occurs in the ''Mage Winds'' trilogy, when Elspeth's companion Gwena manipulates her toward her [[Because Destiny Says So|Glorious Destiny]] in an [[Anvilicious
** In ''Mage Storms'', the Gods themselves are revealed to have been playing this game for millennia; nearly every single one of the myriad disasters and near-disasters that have occurred since the first Cataclysm was engineered for the specific purpose of putting in place all the pieces necessary to avert the second Cataclysm.
* ''[[Dragaera]]'': Vlad Taltos is often subjected to this excuse from his patron goddess, Verra, but he objects rather vehemently to it. After one of her plans blows up ''spectacularly'', he comments to a friend (with whom he had been discussing the concept of the
* {{spoiler|Callum}} of ''Raised by Wolves'' has one thanks to his {{spoiler|precognitive powers}}, and he uses it to justify {{spoiler|putting the heroine through an absolutely ''hellish'' couple of months, including her being beaten to within an inch of her life by an angry werewolf.}} In fairness to him, {{spoiler|nearly everyone involved ''does'' come out of it having lost nothing and gained something.}} The only casualties are {{spoiler|Ali and Casey's marriage}} and the [[Big Bad]], who [[Complete Monster|totally deserved it.]]
** It's not so easy to take his side in the sequel, {{spoiler|which ends up as a heartbreaking [[Shaggy Dog Story]] due to the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Evil Plan]].}} He sees it all coming, but does absolutely nothing about it except for sending Bryn a [[It May Help You on Your Quest|cryptic gift]] with the implied message to [[Figure It Out For Yourself]]. {{spoiler|She doesn't, and later [[Calling the Old Man Out|Calls The Old Man Out]] for not warning her in more direct terms.}}
* ''[[The Silmarillion]]'': Subverted with the Valar. [[God|Eru]] gave them almost absolute authority (their authority over Elves and Men, particularly the latter, is a bit of a grey area) over the world, but they lack the "omniscient" part. The Valar can and do make mistakes in pursuit of a greater good, despite (and sometimes ''because'') of their good intentions. The narrative implies that many of their actions (such as bringing the Elves to Aman, or giving Númenor and extended life to the Edain) were entirely the wrong thing to do, even if they were motivated by the best intentions. Some of their other actions (such as releasing Melkor, or sending the Istari to Middle Earth) also had bad results due to lack of foresight ([[Good Cannot Comprehend Evil|or an inability to understand how good things can become evil]]). Arguably played straight with Eru himself for giving the Valar authority over Eä even while withholding certain information from them.
** There is also the implication that Eru WANTED these mistakes to be made because the whole point of the world he made was to inspire the next great song and conflict somehow just makes things more interesting (never mind that its also bloody miserable)
* The title character in the ''[[Realm of the Elderlings]]'' book ''Golden Fool'' argues that, despite their obvious threat and fickle behavior, dragons must be saved from extinction. He/She makes the case that without another powerful influence to counterbalance them, [[And Man Grew Proud|Humanity will become uncontrollable and destroy itself]].
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Q, primarily from ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]].'' He tests the Enterprise crew in various ways, which at times even appear life threatening, but in retrospect it is reasonably obvious that his goal is to assist in the characters' development; albeit in a [[Zen Survivor]] kind of way.
** Beautifully subverted in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "True Q", in which the [[The Omnipotent|nigh-omnipotent]] Q, in one of his rare straight-faced moments, tries to claim this license as the Continuum's right to judge and possibly execute the half-Q, half-human Amanda for being too potentially dangerous to live. When he responds to Picard's questioning that right with the simple, terse words "superior morality", Picard nearly chokes: "superior ''morality''? I haven't seen any evidence of any morality at all!".
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== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Warhammer
* There's an interesting case in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' : The [[Lizard Folk|Lizardmen]] tend to lay claim to possess such a morality license, but not because they see themselves as almighty, all-knowing rulers - instead they see themselves as the chosen instruments of the [[Precursors|Old Ones]] (who are essentially the creators of the world) and therefore any discovery of a sacred plaque means that the instructions are to be carried out to the letter. [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Whether this means helping to save your army at a specific place and time or shifting entire continents and dooming entire species/races is up to the instructions on the plaque in question.]]
* Some interpretations of the [[Ravenloft]] setting's Dark Powers invoke this trope, depicting them as harsh but well-intentioned judges who consign the multiverse's foulest villains to [[
* Urza, in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', had this regarding the Phyrexian invasion. The results of this ranged from creating an entire race [[Not So Different|who were basically nicer-looking versions of the Phyrexians]] to recruiting a treacherous murderer onto a strike team so the guy would shank some of his allies and Urza could justify using his life energy to arm the mission's bomb payload.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Half-Life]]'s mysterious G-Man.
* In the ''[[Golden Sun]]'' games, {{spoiler|the Wise One does this to the entire group at the end of The Lost Age by sending a three-headed dragon to stop them, and only after they defeat it do they learn that said dragon was actually Isaac's father and Felix and Jenna's parents, and are on the verge of dying as a result. But upon restoring the powers of Alchemy with the last Elemental Star, the three adults are healed miraculously. It's later revealed that the Wise One did this to test their virtue and dedication, so as to make sure that the power of Alchemy would not be misused (like they had been in the past) if they were revived.}}
** The Wise One kind of dropped the ball there, since {{spoiler|committing patricide}} probably tests as much for sociopathy as it does for virtue or dedication. If not more.
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== Web Comics ==
* [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_591.php This strip] from ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures|DMFA]]'' explains it well.
{{quote|
'''Fa'lina:''' Well that too! But that comes with semi-omnipotence also! }}
* Despite being [[The Hero]] (or, some would argue, the [[Designated Hero]]), ''[[Dominic Deegan]]: Oracle for Hire'''s eponymous main character has often invoked this trope to justify his morally questionable or just plain ridiculous methods of defeating the villain, especially after his [[Power Creep, Power Seep|Power Creep]] starts setting in after the Storm of Souls arc.
** He got called out on it after the Snowsong arc with the Supergreg silliness, and made to do community service, for solving a problem by manipulating everybody. He could have solved it conventionally, but that would have damaged his ability to [[Save the Villain]].
*** Most of the time he's actually pretty straightforward about his moving-people-around-the-board ploys; given his ability to confront problems that exist anywhere besides the psychoplanes almost always consists of 'knowing more than anyone else' and 'communicating with people,' he ''has'' to do his part by networking.
** Rillian the Necromancer has it much worse. The part where he followed Dominic and Luna around on their vacation in disguise, putting them through tests and ready to kill Dominic if he 'failed' and his mind broke stands out particularly: worked out great, possibly necessary, appalling in principle.
* ''[[Bob and George]]'' one of the earliest noted sprite comics, frequently invokes this. [[Author Avatar|The Author]] at times either personally deals with (or at the very least addresses to the cast and audience) problems that he created for the sake of the series. Needless to say at various points in the comic, this pisses off the heroes but is played for laughs. Sprite Comics that were directly inspired by B&G tend to either follow this example or allude to it, especially earlier comics, or those made by "[[Noob
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' features a super-intelligent AI which epitomizes this trope. He could probably solve the universe's problems if he didn't think it was better for everyone to "work things out themselves" and rarely meddles in problems of less consequence than impending genocide.
** Later Petey
* One of the students at ''[[PS238]]'' has an ability that can best be described as hypercognition, an ability to form connections and make deductions that completely ignore quantum uncertainty and chaos theory. This leads to doing no small amount of questionable acts.
** Tom Davidson, who can [[Time Travel]], has much the same deal going on.
* Sarda the Sage from ''[[8-Bit Theater
* The Great Bird Conspiracy of [[Kevin and Kell]], in addition to manipulating the inner workings of government and other institutions, carried out a long-running plan to prevent society from destroying itself by establishing computers to run it. In order to accomplish it, they abduct Vin, Fenton and Ray and have them work for Microtalon when they find out too much about it, and cause Lindesfarne to believe that her boyfriend Fenton is dead. While the people in question are eventually returned [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|with their memories of their time at Microtalon wiped]] this caused a considerable amount of anguish for the cast. Not to mention the fact that the birds [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|were responsible for making all these species intelligent in the first place]].
* ''[[Misfile]]'' features a clever subversion with [[God]] himself, who is all-knowing and yet apparently allows his angelic underlings to get away with errors. However, the twist (which is implied) is that God knows that these errors, such as the titular misfile, result in more actual good than harm, making him one hell of a [[The Chessmaster|chessmaster]]...
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* [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/cpam/felicia/series.php Felicia, The Sorceress of Katara], is one of those "heroic" examples who got called out for it. {{spoiler|Though she might not know all the details she still used her own apprentices to draw out the [[Religion of Evil|Sons of the Black Flame]], and she crushed those cultists [[Curb Stomp Battle|surprisingly easily]] for someone supposedly unprepared for them.}}
* Doc Scratch of ''[[Homestuck]]'', who actually is just about as close to omniscient as it's possible to get in his universe, certainly sees himself has having this. His response to being called out on it by Rose is as follows:
{{quote|
* Chris the producer from ''[[Sailor Sun]]'': Turning his lead actor into an actress with an illegal transformation device just to lend his [[Gender Bender]] story authenticity? check. Deliberately getting her knocked up just so he can steal her [[Kid From the Future]]? Check. Stealing another alternate version of the Kid from another future when she proves unable to support the first one? check. Using a time portal to further screw with her life, either for the drama or just for the lulz?
== Web Original ==
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* The [[All Powerful Bystander|Dungeon Master]] from the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' animated series.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Everyone seems to think the Avatar gets an Omniscient Morality License... everyone except Aang.
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'''Sokka''': Sure you can. You're the Avatar! }}
** However, some of his [[Reincarnation|past selves]] had this attitude. Ironically, the most prominent of these was Yangchen, the last Airbender Avatar, who was raised with the same tenets that make Aang a [[Friend to All Living Things]].
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** Justified both times this happens because they happen to be only ones who ''can'' do the job. Celestia can't use the artifacts that defeated said abominations in the past anymore.
** Princess Celestia acts [[In Mysterious Ways]] rather than uses an omniscient morality licence. She manipulated her student by saying she needs to get out and make some friends, and by asking her to perform some light official duties. Both were well within her rights as a teacher / monarch and neither are unethical in of themselves.
** However, since [[Word of God]] is that Celestia has at least limited prophetic abilities, she actually is using this trope as well -- her ability to make otherwise absurd gambits work out right is because she is using future knowledge.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
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