Prophecies Rhyme All the Time: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Most of the prophets of the past millennium were more concerned with scansion than accuracy. You know, '[[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe|And thee Worlde Unto An Ende Shall Come, in tumpty-tumpty-tumpty One.]]' Or Two, or Three, or whatever. There aren't many good rhymes for Six, so it's probably a good year to be in."''
|'''Aziraphale''', ''[[Good Omens]]''}}
{{quote|'''Fates:''' In eighteen years, precisely, the planets will align ever so nicely...
'''Hades:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|Oy, verse.]]
|''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]''}}
Whenever characters are reading from an ancient prophecy or magical spell, it will rhyme, as if every ancient scroll and tome was written by Dr. Seuss. Even funnier, the translation makes it rhyme ''in English'', regardless of what culture it came from. It's like an attempt at [[Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter]], running headlong into [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]].
That foreign-language
Mind you, the translators of the classical poets like Homer, Virgil, the author of Beowulf, or Dante often find it worth the effort to make their translations rhyme. But the harder you work at something like this, the more you sacrifice things like keeping the actual meaning of the prophecy intact. And surely most prophecies are vague enough already without translating them in a way that carries their meaning even farther away from the exact events that fulfill the prophecy. In that sense, if you hear a translated prophecy that rhymes, you should be worried that it was an especially ''In''conveniently ''Im''precise translation. Remember, a poem is a toy, but a prophecy is a tool.
Possibly justifiable, as rhyming when translated into the language spoken by the people who have to do something about it, and not in any language existing at the time the prophecy was written, is a clever way to prove that it's a real prophecy. But that only works if it's a sufficiently straightforward translation to show that the prophet did it rather than the translator.
As if to enforce the trope, some characters [[Rhymes on a Dime|break out in rhyme]] when they receive prophetic visions.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' is an [[Egregious]] user of this trope; all of the prophecies rhyme, even if they're translated from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
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** Amusingly, this is just what [[Doctor Strange]] does when casting spells.
* [[Pokémon: The Movie 2000|"Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice, or lightning]], lest these titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they '''clash'''. Though the water's great guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone his song will fail; thus the Earth shall turn to '''ash'''." Et cetera.
== Comic Books ==
* Lampshaded in Issue 1 of [[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]], where one character translates an ancient message in rhyme, and is called on it.
== Film ==
* Lampshaded in ''[[Hercules (
* The prophecy in ''[[The Dark Crystal]]''.
* From ''Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny'': "From where you came you shall remain \ until you are complete again". It was originally in Latin too.
* Played straight, subverted, ''and'' lampshaded in the film version of ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]: [[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]''.
{{quote|'''Mr. Beaver:''' When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone/Sits at Cair Paravel in throne/The evil time will be over and done.
'''[[Deadpan Snarker|Susan]]:''' You know, that doesn't really rhyme...
'''Mr. Beaver:''' You're kinda missin' the point. }}
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** It twisted the history of and etymology of the English language so that it would rhyme.
* Spoofed in ''[[Good Omens]]'', as seen in the page quote.
* Not only does the prophecy in ''[[The Darkangel Trilogy]]'' rhyme, but it is also revealed a couple of stanzas at a time in each volume.
* The two prophecies central to ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'', each of which are some twenty lines long, read like this.
* The inscription of the One Ring in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': ''Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul,'' which rhymes "find them" with "bind them," and (depending on your definition of "rhyme") "them all" with itself. "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." Considering that Tolkien was explicitly invoking the [[Translation Convention]] for his work, this suggests that it's a rhyme in at least ''three'' languages (our English, the Black Tongue, and the Westron language the notional "real" text was translated from).
** Also, ''All that is gold does not glitter'', about the return of the King (though that was more of a hopeful poem than a prophecy as such).
* Ithlinne's Prophecy in Andrzej Sapkowski's ''[[The Witcher]] Cycle'' is, in its pure form, a partial example, consisting of both non-rhyming and rhyming parts. However, it is subverted and lampshaded when another character gives a concise, non-rhyming summary of this prophecy to the eponymous Witcher, who then [[Deadpan Snarker|expresses sarcastic disbelief]], because all the prophecies worth the name rhyme.
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* Shows up in ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' as Goombella spouts off lines from the legend of the titular door.
{{quote|To find the treasure of yore
take the [[Mineral MacGuffin|seven Crystal Stars]] to the Thousand-Year Door.
Hold the Magical Map aloft before
the entrance to the Thousand-Year Door.
Then the stars will light the way
that leads to the stones of yesterday. }}
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': "The Gem was born of evil's fire;/the Gem shall be His portal./He comes to claim, He comes to sire/The end of all things mortal."
* It also happens in one episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' when Kim is trying to protect a young prince from the descendants of the Royal Families treacherous knights: "Awaiting the light of a full harvest moon;/Rodigahn's foe will soon face his doom/In the shadow of the palace we will not be deterred;/the monarchy ends with Wallace The Third."
* The [[Lighter and Fluffier|toned-down]] children's TV series of ''[[Watership Down]]'' turned [[Waif Prophet]] Fiver into an [[Oracular Urchin]] whose every prophecy [[Rhymes on a Dime]].
* Parodied in a live-action segment in the ''[[Super Mario Bros Super Show]]''. Luigi made his brother disappear. The spell to bring him back (according to the [[Guest Star]]) was something like "Ping-ping pear...wing-wing wear...make old Mario...Re-a-pear!"
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[[Category:Fate and Prophecy Tropes]]
[[Category:Sublime Rhyme]]
[[Category:
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