39,327
edits
Prescience Is Predictable: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.PrescienceIsPredictable 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.PrescienceIsPredictable, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 6:
It's actually worse if someone is capable of any kind of action. You know everything about the future? That means you already know if you will attempt to avert the future. You already know how this attempt will turn out. You already know what you will think when you make the attempt. In fact, it will be utterly impossible for you to even think of doing something different. You will think what you will think, and you will do what you will do, and you already know what they are. [[And I Must Scream|And you will scream what you will scream]].
And so it goes for some [[Fate and Prophecy Tropes|oracles]] and [[Deus Est Machina|superpowerful intellects]]. They often go [[Mad Oracle|mad]] [[Go Mad From the Revelation|from the knowledge]], their [[You Cannot Change the Future|inability to affect the future]], and the sheer monotony of it all, and thus turn into [[The Fatalist|fatalistic]] [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzsche Wannabes]] who have [[Nothing Left to Do But Die]]; If the future [[Temporal Mutability|is at all malleable]], they will become obsessed with unpredictability, living a life of [[Screw Destiny|screwing destiny]] to its most extreme and setting greatly chaotic events in motion just so that the outcome can become unpredictable even to them. Even sane oracles will quickly don [[Jade
Compare how the [[Living Lie Detector]] is often fascinated by the [[Consummate Liar]]. Contrast [[Scry Versus Scry]] and [[Xanatos Speed Chess]], which have oracles who are anything ''but'' bored.
{{examples
== Anime ==
* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]'' has a notable example. {{spoiler|Ronnie, the demon with the immortality elixir,}} has this power, noted its drawbacks, and ''turns it off''.
* [[Knight Templar]] slash [[Well
* This is what Eriol claims was Clow Reed's motivation for setting events in motion to pass his powers on to ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Cardcaptor Sakura]]''. ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' and ''[[XXX Holic]]'', however, present an [[Reality Warper|altogether]] [[Power Incontinence|different]] [[Undead|reason]].
* Narumi Kiyotaka from the ''[[Spiral]]'' manga, even more obviously ''bored'' in the prequel Spiral: Alive. It is hinted that the events of the manga happen because he was just too bored, and stated to be the reason he acts like an idiot and does ridiculous things such as dressing up in furry costumes: to spice things up in his boring life. Although his ability to predict ''everything'' is presented more as a form of incredibly high intellect than a supernatural ability to see the future, he is still considered a "god" by everybody else. {{spoiler|Ayumu eventually outwits and defeats him}}, but Kiyotaka is so enigmatic it can be argued he ''knew'' and in fact ''arranged'' this outcome. There's no way to know for sure.
Line 35:
== Literature ==
* Most notable literature example is probably the [[God
** Even before that, Leto's father Paul discovers the terrible truth of being an Oracle - the more a prophetic vision is fulfilled, the harder it is to avoid the rest of the vision, effectively being locked into it. It becomes worse after he becomes blind, and deals with the handicap by moving lock-step with his vision without any deviations. Eventually he realizes that the vision he had at first accepted wasn't such a great idea after all, and in the end he sacrifices his powers rather than see his vision out to its ultimate conclusion. It takes his son Leto II to work his way around this by merging his father's already in progress vision with several new ones played out for a few thousand years.
** A slightly different take involves a weakness of the Spacing Guild. Because they us [[FTL]] travel, but don't have FTL sensors, navigators use prescience to choose a safe course. This leads them to use their other applications of prescience in the same way, choosing the safe course and not realizing others would choose the riskier way.
Line 59:
== Radio ==
* Played with in an episode of ''[[Old
== Tabletop RPG ==
Line 72:
== Videogames ==
* Trenia from ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' is basically the soul of the Sacred Tome that happens to be a [[Cosmic Keystone]] that records the netherword's history... in advance. Sure you can [[Reality Warper|write a wish in the thing and alter reality]], but [[Sorry, Billy,
* Fateweavers in ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning (Video Game)|Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning]]'' don't actually weave Fate as their title might suggest. They can only see a person's fate, [[You Can't Fight Fate|which cannot be changed.]] The first Fateweaver you meet, Argath, was originally a famed adventurer and hero who thought becoming a Fateweaver was an honor. Then he read his own Fate and saw his own inescapable death: as the main ingredient of an ettin's stewpot. He started drinking pretty heavily after that.
Line 80:
* In ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', this appears to be the main motivation of the shape-shifting Immortal entity dubbed 'Chaos' - she(?) hates predictability and influences events only to make them more chaotic and unpredictable. She helped the good-guys on several occasions, simply because she knew they'd lose otherwise - and she refuses to help the bad-or-not guy escape from his prison, since the only thing she really cares about is NOT knowing when, and if, he'll be able to escape. She only provides occasional hints, to keep him from giving up ('cuz that would be boring...)
** She broke this rule of hers recently, but that was as part of her [[Berserk Button]]. FYI: Don't fuck with her son. It will end...[[The End of the World As We Know It|poorly]].
* Sarda of ''[[
* Aradia Megido from ''[[Homestuck]]'' has this in spades, thanks to her communion with the dead and later time powers. She is convinced they are all doomed and nothing they do can change this. She at one point considers killing Karkat just to create a divergent timeline that won't save them either. (Karkat is not amused.)
* Played with in ''[[Girl Genius]]'', from Othar's Twitter account. A girl from Paris volunteered for an experiment, but was basically stuck in mental time travel. For everyone outside, it was maybe an hour, but for her and the others inside the experiment, it was a thousand years. During that time, the girl predicted every event that would happen if she tried a heist, and was correct, until [[Spanner in The Works|Othar got massively drunk.]]
| |||