Outsourcing Fate: Difference between revisions

The [[Powers That Be]] can't decide what to do with the future of the universe, so they ask the opinion of [[The Everyman]] protagonist.

[[The Hero]] is obviously not qualified for choosing the fate of mankind, at least by traditional standards, but the [[Powers That Be]] have a good reason to trust him. Maybe he is [[The Chosen One]] who is predestinated to have the correct choice, the [[Ridiculously Average Guy]] who somehow represents all of humanity's opinions, or maybe, a more personal [[Powers That Be]] simply finds him sympathetic.

So [[The Hero]] has to use his best intuition, and make a choice that will influence ''everything''.

This whole situation is closer to [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|the idealistic side of the scale]], so usually the protagonist's choice will also be the more daring, fantastic, and optimistic option.

Compare to [[Humanity Onon Trial]], when the humans have to convince the [[Powers That Be]] to accept their will, instead of themselves getting trusted with making the right decision.

== [[Anime]] &and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Planet Ladder]]'', the Ditz main character is responsible for deciding the survival of planets. Towards the beginning, her mentor tries futilely to pound that into her bubbly head.

* In ''[[Scrapped Princess]]'', {{spoiler|the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|sufficiently advanced]] god-program-thing, Mauser, asked Pacifica if it was really such a good idea to trap mankind in [[Medieval Stasis]], because she started to doubt in it herself.}}

* In ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya|The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', {{spoiler|Nagato Yuki obtains a power that can completely rewrite the world, and she asks [[Ordinary High School Student|Kyon]] if she should use it or not}}.

** Subverted in the rest of the series, where the main characters, especially Koizumi and Kyon always try to guide Haruhi's reality warping instead of herself, but only because she is completely unaware of it.

* The point of ''[[Mirai Nikki]]''. Subverted in that God instead asks the opinion of some of the most mentally fucked-up individuals in the world.

* In ''[[Lucifer (Comic Bookcomics)|Lucifer]]'', [[God]], after exiting his creation without warning (thereby bringing about its slow decay), has Elaine Belloc and Lilith (both of whom started out human) plead their cases for and against preserving the cosmos.

* In ''[[PS 238PS238]]'', the [[Powers That Be]], with the time-traveler Tom acting as its agent, needs to decide whether humans should continue to gain Metahuman Powers, or if superpowers should gradually fade and disappear into myth - until next time the choice has to be made. But Tom isn't the one who'll make the choice - he merely chooses WHO gets to choose, and he picks Tyler Marlocke, the only normal boy in the 'School for Metaprodigies'. In the end, while he gets to summon various acquaintances to get their opinion of the issue, it's up to Tyler to decide whether superpowers should continue to exist...

* ''[[President Bill]]'' is about a man [[Shaped Like Itself|named Bill]] who was picked at random to be the President of the United States.

* In the fourth ''[[Foundation]]'' book, the protagonist had to choose between a [[The Empire|Galactic Empire]], a [[Crystal Spires and Togas|different Galactic Empire ]] ruled by [[Telepathic Spacemen]], or [[Instrumentality]]. He was chosen because he was statistically proven to be the luckiest person in the Galaxy.

* [[The NightsNight's Dawn Trilogy]] {{spoiler|ends in this way, with the hero being granted the power of a "Machine God" to solve the problems.}}

* In one of the ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' books, it turns out that the real President of the Galaxy is a little old man in a shed in the middle of nowhere. All he's interested in is feeding his cat, but occasionally people stop round and ask him what he thinks about certain things.

* The [[Isaac Asimov]] short story, ''[[Franchise]]'', where elections were done, not by asking everyone one question ("who are you voting for?"), but by asking one person a whole bunch of questions (mostly unrelated to the election itself) then inputting all the answers into a computer and calculating the election results from it. Apparently the computer was so powerful that it could extrapolate national trends from a single person, but it needed that one "everyman"'s opinions to base its calculations on.

* There are several examples in [[Greek Mythology]]. Typically, there's a [[Sore Loser]] and a [[Curse]], with the standard moral "smart mortals don't get involved with godly disputes."

** King Midas was asked to judge the music competition between Apollo and Pan. An angry Apollo gives him the ears of an ass when he rules for Pan.

** Tiresias was asked by Zeus and Hera to judge whether the man or the woman receives more pleasure from sex, as he'd been both. He chose women, and Hera [[Disproportionate Retribution|struck him blind]], for which Zeus compensated him by giving him prophetic powers.

* A notorious mission in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' revolves around this. The [[Hive Mind|Geth]], a race of robots, have split into two groups - the main group, which just wants [[Heroic Neutral|to be left alone to evolve and learn.]] A smaller group (aka 'the heretics') have taken up a deal with a race of [[Eldritch AbominationsAbomination]]s to recieve great power by becoming slaves. The main Geth have a virus that can rewrite the heretics to conform to the main group's point of view - effectively brainwashing them - and give them the desire to return home. The moral conundrum is whether to brainwash the heretics, or simply destroy them. The entire Geth race is divided almost exactly fifty-fifty over it, so they turn to the only organic they trust [[Player Character|(Shepard)]] to make the decision for them.

* This is how the world is supposed to work in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]''. Humans with strong Reasons (principles, really) fights each others and the victor ascend to Kagutsuchi, which then remake the world according to the Human's wish. But then Lucifer had to come around and screwingscrewed the system by creating the Demi-Fiend (you, that is).