Omniscient Morality License: Difference between revisions
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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>
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]].
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* {{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
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* 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 [[S. M. Stirling]]'s and [[David Drake]]'s series ''[[The General]]'', an ancient computer called center (always lower-case) establishes a telepathic link with General Raj Whitehall and drafts him into reuniting the human colony-world of Bellevue in order to restore the lost high-tech civilization of the long-collapsed interstellar Federation. Whitehall is a volunteer in this enterprise and retains his free
* 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."
* 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]].
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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.}}
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*** 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 engaged in an out-matched war with the {{spoiler|dark matter entities from Andromeda}}, and [[God's Hands Are Tied|lost an option]] to play [[Deus Ex Machina]] by throwing excessive energy at the problem - previously he broke through teraport denial just to deliver a birthday present, now using an "easy fix" like this to save a single ship could cost a star system in the larger conflict. Petey increasingly sticks to behind-the-scenes work to conserve resources.
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