Screw Destiny: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Can I say something about destiny? '''[[Trope Namers|Screw destiny!]]''' If this evil thing comes [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|we'll fight it, and we'll keep fighting it until we whoop it.]] 'Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable and nothing's inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say [[Buffy
|'''Fred''', ''[[Angel]]''}}
There are those characters who are mere [[Cosmic Plaything
▲{{quote|''"Can I say something about destiny? '''[[Trope Namers|Screw destiny!]]''' If this evil thing comes [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu|we'll fight it, and we'll keep fighting it until we whoop it.]] 'Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable and nothing's inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say [[Buffy Speak|'You're evitable!']]"''|'''Fred''', ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]''}}
Note that it's only a true Screw Destiny if the characters actually succeed in evading fate. If they fail or [[Prophecy Twist|succeed but fulfill the prophecy anyway]], it becomes [[You Can't Fight Fate]] and a strike against faith in individuality. If they set out to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] via time travel, and end up making it happen, it becomes [[You Already Changed the Past]]. Occurs frequently when rival seers engage in [[Scry vs. Scry]]. A hero who screws destiny by pressing on regardless of, or even against, a prophecy, becomes [[The Unchosen One]]. If one particular character has the ability to
▲There are those characters who are mere [[Cosmic Plaything|Cosmic Playthings]] in the scheme of an [[You Can't Fight Fate|implacable Fate]] [[Because Destiny Says So]]. And then there are those who don't care about that philosophical mumbo-jumbo and believe that as strong, free-willed individuals, there's no reason why ''[[The Unchosen One|they]]'' [[The Unchosen One|shouldn't decide their own futures]]. [[Screw Destiny]] and all the others who try to [[The Fatalist|discourage]] [[Nietzsche Wannabe|them]]; they're ''not'' going to fulfill the prophecy of [[The End of the World As We Know It|world destruction]] because they're the [[Big Bad]]'s [[In the Blood|descendant]], or become a [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrificial magician]]. They're going to become who they ''want'' to be.
Villains often try to
▲Note that it's only a true Screw Destiny if the characters actually succeed in evading fate. If they fail or [[Prophecy Twist|succeed but fulfill the prophecy anyway]], it becomes [[You Can't Fight Fate]] and a strike against faith in individuality. If they set out to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] via time travel, and end up making it happen, it becomes [[You Already Changed the Past]]. Occurs frequently when rival seers engage in [[Scry vs. Scry]]. A hero who screws destiny by pressing on regardless of, or even against, a prophecy, becomes [[The Unchosen One]]. If one particular character has the ability to [[Screw Destiny]] while everyone else is helpless against it, then they would be [[Immune to Fate]]. If they get ahold of the [[Tomes of Prophecy and Fate]], they might ''literally'' [[Rewriting Reality|rewrite their fate.]]
On the [[Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate]], stories where it is possible to
▲Villains often try to [[Screw Destiny]] as well, particularly in regards to prophecies concerning their downfall. [[Self Fulfilling Prophecies|This never works]], as often, the means they employ to try to do this (which often involve [[Nice Job Breaking It Herod|attempts to stop the hero from being born or kill him when he is still a child]]) will [[Genocide Backfire|come back to]] [[Nice Job Fixing It Villain|bite him hard]], and will only serve to ''ensure'' their ultimate downfall in the end.
▲On the [[Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate]], stories where it is possible to [[Screw Destiny]] are Types 2 through 5 on the scale, with Type 2 being by far the most difficult.
The [[Aesop]] delivered in shows based around this trope is that what ultimately determines the worth of a human's life is not some [[God Is Evil|sadistic deity]] or [[Powers That Be|vague cosmic assembly]], but the choices of the human himself.
When someone is pushed dangerously close to the [[Despair Event Horizon]], they may prefer this trope's opposite: [[Resigned to
Likewise, sometimes a
[[Winds of Destiny Change]] and [[Immune to Fate]] are about having the ability to screw destiny as a superpower; the former is changing the odds to favor you instead while the latter is just being flat out [[Exactly What It Says
Compare [[Off the Rails]].
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
* Midori Sugiura in ''[[Mai-HiME (
* In the second season of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (
** Likewise, Ishizu Ishtar in the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (
** Yugi's Millennium Puzzle gives him the power to alter fate. By the final duel, he's mastered it enough to be able to draw whatever card he wants without fail.
*** This may actually be a subversion if you look at it from a perspective. Their ability for the "destiny draw" means that they are actively controlling the cards that they pull, but are still under the control of their cards. A running theme that they have is that Destiny has a habit of catching up no matter how you fight it and the ability to pull whatever card you want out of your deck only facilitates it because these players are literally playing into the hands of destiny. This is especially apparent in the Duelist Kingdom arc where the Destiny draw would actually work in Pegasus' favor while just playing blindly actually got results.
** In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
* In ''[[
** And lets not forget that Neji's whole character development is about learning that fate is something we make.
** It's a major theme of the entire show. At least in the first series, with Naruto, Hinata and Rock Lee pretty much all saying "screw destiny" and fighting on.
*** It has been noted this has become somewhat ironic with recent revelations. Naruto is prophesied to bring either order or destruction to the world, which he fully intends to do, and has even admitted he plans to face the fate seen in the Toad Sage's latest vision. It's just that nobody ''knew'' this was his destiny before.
** In a recent development, {{spoiler|it's been revealed that Sasuke and Naruto are destined to hate each other and eventually fight to the death.}} Considering the major
* In [[
* In ''[[
** Interestingly, basically everything that happens, however, is the consequence of one of the heros trying to fight Fate by going back in time, borking the entire space-time continuum. So, you ''can'' fight fate, it just screws things up really, really, really badly.
** Played straight with the villain, however. His entire plan was to save someone's life from a predicted death. His plan to save her prompted her to pull a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save one of the victims of his plan.
* The theme of the second season of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** They had a strong motivation for this, as in this context, "a better world" means "one where they don't [[Kill
*** An even better example is Keiichi, who first encourages {{spoiler|Rika}} to
* Subverted in ''[[
** The first is that Escaflowne itself is forged to ''alter'' destiny to suit its use. Controlling it becomes the [[Big Bad]]'s goal simply so his advanced [[Gambit Roulette|plans for controlling events]] through his precognitive visions won't be disrupted.
** The [[Big Bad]]'s final goal, however, is sort of a [[Family
* In the beginning of ''[[
** Gets an entire song in the [[Musical Episode]] of ''[[Princess Tutu Abridged]]''.
* In episode 12 of ''[[
* The Brand of Sacrifice on Guts's neck in ''[[
** This one's perhaps best expressed in Guts's declaration of war on the demons from the manga, which can be found in the Quotes Wiki part of this page and which ranks as perhaps the most badass speech in the entire series.
*** Hell, probably the most [[Badass]] speech in telling destiny to go screw itself.
* The protagonists in ''[[
** Considering that the intro for about half of part 2 basically went "Simon got screwed over by fate and wants to beat the shit out of it until it {{spoiler|gives his fiancee back}}. It's really not surprising they don't respond well to claims that [[You Can't Fight Fate]].
** [[Hot
{{quote|
** And another...
{{quote|
'''Simon:''' Of course we do! The tomorrow we're trying to grab for ourselves... Is not the tomorrow that you've set out for us! It's the tomorrow that we choose for ourselves--a tomorrow that we choose out of all of the infinite universes! We'll fight our way through! We'll keep fighting and {{spoiler|protect the universe! We'll stop the Spiral Nemesis, too!}} }}
* Orihime from ''[[
** What she does, as Aizen ably described, is rejection of events through her Shun Shun Rikka, of which at least the Santen Kesshun (which repels attacks) and the Souten Kisshun (which "rewinds" wounds to a healing point, like she did to an one-armed Grimmjow, for example) are known to do this (not quite the case with the Koten Zanshun, which is an attacking technique). So, by stopping an enemy from hitting her or undoing potentially deadly wounds, she's basically giving destiny a "screw you".
** It doesn't really have to be wounds either. Theoretically, it could be anything, including birth, aging and [[Shonen Upgrade|shonen upgrades]].
* Late in ''[[
* Screwing Destiny is the core plot of ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[X
* In ''[[
** It can also be argued (if one tries to piece together the premise and plot of ''End of Evangelion'') that Shinji [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|willfully sabotaged]] the [[Ascend to
* Rakan from ''[[
{{quote|
** It is worth noting that [[The Dragon]] he is fighting is ''[[Meaningful Name|named Fate]]''.
* This is Garrod Ran's attitude in ''[[After War Gundam X
* [[
* The titular [[A Mech
* ''[[
** Note that the [[Big Bad]] is also desperate to prevent the end of the universe. {{spoiler|They do this by [[Powered
** And the biggest
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* The destiny of the Lunar and Solar [[Miko
* The entire plot of ''[[
* In ''[[
* Deconstructed in ''[[
* The final story arc of ''[[Risky☆Safety]]'' is about a life-changing "Moment of Destiny" - and how the two titular characters act against it.
* In ''[[A Certain Scientific Railgun]] T'', the Treasure Hunter App allows users to earn prizes by taking pictures at accident sites in Academy City. It also has a high success rate in predicting disasters {{Spoiler|due to using an esper's ability}} - no force in three dimensions, not even the abilities of the near-godlike Level 5 espers, can change the predictions. However, {{Spoiler|Kuroko Shirai's teleportation uses eleven dimensions, and she saves dozens of lives}}.
== Comic Books ==
* [[Anti
** At one point, he even interrupts Hecate's lecture on his destiny by shouting, ''"Screw you!"''
** In [[Hellboy (
{{quote|
'''Grigori Rasputin:''' No you don't! }}
*** It's noted several times that the fact that Hellboy is capable of screwing destiny is the reason the Fae {{spoiler|and aliens}} have neglected to nuke him, and gives them hope that the coming Apocalypse may be averted.
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* The six-issue comic book series ''[[The Chronicles of Wormwood]]'' stars Danny Wormwood, who happens to be the Antichrist. He's not interested in ushering in the end of the world, though, and he's not shy about telling [[Satan|his father]] to get stuffed.
* In a non-Beast of the Apocalypse example, The Challengers of the Unknown at DC, after not dying in a plane crash, became the only people who weren't in Destiny's book. That meant they were unpredictable, and saved the universe at least once due to this.
* In the ''[[
* Used a little oddly, but nonetheless awesomely, in ''[[
** Supposedly cats can do this, too. Then again, the whole thing was a story told by cats... it's hard to pick out what is real and what isn't in the Sandman. Though, by implication at least, Destiny's book is never wrong, and would probably include such a dream. And even that gets called into question near the end of the series. Delirium at one point tells Destiny that his book doesn't cover ''everything''.
* Used a lot in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', with several issues being about them averting some "pre-destined" tragedy. Certain mutants can see the future, however, Destiny being one of them. Mystique does [[Incredibly Lame Pun|screw Destiny]] to "father" Rogue.
* In ''[[Watchmen (
* Cade Skywalker in ''[[
* In ''[[
* The reason that [[Adam Warlock]] can fight [[Thanos]] during the [[Infinity Gauntlet]] saga is because he stands outside the loop of destiny, and can therefore do things that no one else could.
* A sci-fi example in ''[[Paperinik New Adventures]]'': A time traveller warns about a major disaster that will destroy a large part of Duckburg, killing thousands - but the resident [[Time Police]] (supposedly the good guys) are doing everything in their power to make sure it goes down 'like it's supposed to'. After all, in their time, it's already happened. Obviously, Paperinik (Donald Duck's superhero alter ego) isn't going to take that lying down.
* The entire point of the series ''[[Lucifer (
* [[Exactly What It Says
== Fan
* This trope, along with other tropes about [[Fate and Prophecy Tropes]], is one of the [[Central Theme|central themes]] of the [[Redwall]] fanfic [[The Urthblood Saga]], where the titular character receives a prophecy foretelling of a dark crisis that will sweep over the world, and gathers a huge army with the goal of uniting the lands under his power in order to prevent it. At the same time, he does often slip into the [[You Can't Fight Fate]] mindset over other details about the future, and since the story is [[Dead Fic|not yet finished]] it's still unclear whether this trope or the more fatalistic one will come true in the end.
* In ''[[
{{quote|
“That,” said John darkly, “is the best reason in the ''world'' for me to give it to him. Nobody's gonna ''mean'' anythin' for us except ''us''.” }}
== Film ==
* This is one of the major themes of the ''[[
** Which is the exact opposite of what happened IRL where the Oracle specifically told King Leonidas that either a Spartan King must die or a Persian King would rule in Sparta.
* In ''[[Prince of Persia:
* Subverted very strongly in ''[[The
* ''[[Terminator (
** But it's
*** Also, they completely overlooked the fact that the US government likely had records on Dyson's research, and simply had a team working on it in secrecy beyond what could be researched by the likes of Sarah and John Connor.
** ''Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines'', of course, [[Ass Pull|completely ignored the message]] and went right back to [[You Can't Fight Fate]] (though John Connor does try to invoke this trope by name at least once).
*** To be fair ''Terminator 2'' was ''itself'' an instance of ignoring the [[You Can't Fight Fate]] message of the first film. The huge popularity of T2 has resulted in a certain amount of [[Sequel Displacement]], so T3 (which in several respects is thematically closer to the first movie) gets a lot of flak over this issue.
** Played to the hilt in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', where the finale for the second season ends with the series tossing out the most basic, fundamental caveat of the entire ''[[Terminator (
** Played straight with the cyborg in ''Terminator 4''. {{spoiler|Skynet miscalculated and allowed him to have an all-too-human mind. This backfired on Skynet, as he was able to subvert his own programming and fight against Skynet.}}
* Subverted in ''[[
**
** The Oracle also comments that "no-one can see beyond a choice they don't understand." meaning she can tell people something that
** When Agent Smith asks Neo why he continues to fight in the face of inevitable defeat, his reply is: [[Badass Boast|"Because I choose to."]]
* The premise of ''[[Minority Report]]''. At first, it seems that [[You Can't Fight Fate]], but by the end, knowing your destiny is enough to give you the choice to change it.
Line 143 ⟶ 142:
* In ''Next'', [[Nicolas Cage]]'s character, Cris Johnson, is able to break through the common science fiction cliche that, even with the power to tell the future, destiny is unchangeable. In fact, the whole movie's tagline is that "If you can see the future, you can save it."
** Curiously, ''[[Knowing]]'' also stars [[Nicolas Cage]] and seems to have a similar premise, only for Cage's character to [[You Can't Fight Fate|fail to save anyone]].
* ''[[Gattaca]]'' is basically a biological take on
* ''[[Outlander (
* Reversed in ''[[Back to
** {{spoiler|It's not so much that he believes that subverting ''destiny'' is catastrophic (as a scientist, it's doubtful he even believes in it), and more that he has no idea what the consequences of a temporal paradox might be, and is thus extremely eager to avoid creating one. However, when he figures out how to [[Tricked
*** Although his explanation to Marty is "I figured 'what the hell,'" so it's not totally clear that he put that much thought into it.
**** At the end of the third movie Doc figures out that it doesn't matter how much of your "destiny" you find out ahead of time because the future is not written. It's whatever you decide to make it, so make it a good one.
* In ''[[The Scorpion King]]'', the titular Scorpion King asks his sorceress wife about his fate as the new king. She tells him it will be short lived. He replies with "I make my own destiny." This is a line he also uses earlier when someone mentions fate or destiny. This being a [[Foregone Conclusion|prequel]], [[Doomed
** Although [[Word of God]] claimed he's an [[Identical Grandson]] who inherited the title of "[[Legacy Character|Scorpion King]]". Its possible Mathyus did have indeed have a long a prosperous reign, with the Sorceress referring to it to going downhill with his descendants. Given how she also got a prophecy ''wrong'' earlier in the film, its also possible she might have mistaken the grandson from him as well.
* In ''[[Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior]]'' {{spoiler|this is how the evil spirit Yan-Lo is destroyed. Shen was supposed to die during the battle [[Because Destiny Says So]], but Wendy refuses to let that happen and uses her powers to save him. After the two of them defeat Yan-Lo, they learn that by changing destiny, Yan-Lo has been destroyed forever.}}
* ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'' has an interesting example. Instead of the main character changing his fate, he manages to convince the person who controls it to change it for him.
* The basic point of ''[[
* Barbossa makes several statements along these lines in the third and fourth ''[[
* Emperor Palpatine tries to do this in ''[[
* The entire point of ''[[
== Literature ==
* This is a common recurring theme in the ''[[
** Captain Carrot of the Ankh-Morpork Watch lives out this motto, although he probably wouldn't use quite that verb.
*** Although it might be argued he's often more a living [[Prophecy Twist]]. It did say the rightful king would be law and order to the town. Didn't say anything about him taking the role of king...
** Inverted in ''[[
*** In forcing what wasn't destined to occur into happening anyway, Moist is, in fact, following Weatherwax's philosophy to the hilt. It's a double inversion.
** An interesting use is found in the form of the Omniscope from ''The Last Hero''. Its settings can be fiddled with to view anything, anywhere, anywhen - but as Ponder Stibbons explains to the Patrician, it's best not to look into the future. If you don't know what will happen, anything can happen. But whatever potential future the device shows you will inevitably happen, and it might not be the future you like...
** The Discworld pantheon includes [[You Can't Fight Fate|Fate]] and his eternal opponent (and personification of this trope), the Lady (i.e. Lady Luck).
** The History Monks are introduced in ''[[
* In the novel ''[[
* This is Richard's attitude in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, despite half the supporting cast in the early books trying to railroad him down prophecy's past. The
* In the novel ''[[Un Lun Dun]]'' by [[China Mieville]], two schoolgirls, Zanna and Deeba, are transported to a fantasy world. Zaana is told that she is the [[The Chosen One|Shwazzi]], the one who will save this world from Smog, the [[Evil Overlord]]. There is a book of prophecies that spells out in great detail how the Shwazzi is supposed to win. But suddenly Zanna is injured and returns to normal reality. With Zanna gone, her friend Deeba realizes that [[The Unchosen One|she has to defeat Smog, since no one else will.]] The book of prophecies is next-to-useless, since it says Deeba is supposed to be the [[Plucky Comic Relief]], not the hero.
** Even the book of prophecies admits that "Destiny's bunk."
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** Eddings' other big work, the ''[[Belgariad]]'' and ''[[Belgariad|Malloreon]]'' actually manages to play this both ways. On the one hand, you ''can'' decide to screw both of the competing destinies. On the other hand, nobody dares do so because [[Unpredictable Results|the result would be unpredictable]], so both sides stay in the comfort zone of trying to make "their" prophecy happen at the detriment of the other (and the prequels show Belgarath and Polgara going out of their way to make sure things happen as predicted).
* Done in the ''[[Ea Cycle]]''. It turns out that it's possible to fight fate simply by ''wishing really hard'', so that the individual's will becomes the will of the universe.
* This is the major theme of Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune
* In [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]'', the protagonist is trapped by a spell into following a particular destiny based on a particular narrative; specifically, that of James Bond. {{spoiler|He eventually manages to break the destiny trap by doing something that [[Did Not Do the Research|Bond would never do]]... [[On Her Majesty's Secret Service|he proposes marriage to his girlfriend]], who accepts.}}
** Methinks you missed a fairly important plot twist, boyo. {{spoiler|Bob's not the hero, he's the maiden in distress. While Bond might propose marriage, the Good Bond Girl never would.}}
* In the ''[[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms]]'' series by [[
** Lackey seems to like this trope. In the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series, there are characters who have Destinies, or find that [[There Are No Coincidences]], and scurry for a way to assert their agency, yelling "Screw destiny!" at the tops of their lungs. Nevertheless, things tend to turn out as they should.
* This trope is arguably the entire reason for Alice Cullen's appearances in the ''[[Twilight (
* Played with in ''[[Harry Potter (
** Of course, it's convincing when Voldemort doesn't want either of them to
** "Neither can live while the other survives." In the final analysis, the trope is completely beside the point as neither Voldemort nor Harry have any interest in averting the prophecy in the end. Voldemort knows Harry has the power to defeat him eventually, but there's no certainty he'll actually do it, and Harry (as aforementioned) takes it upon himself to fulfill this thing that's been hanging over his head. Dumbledore had said years before that the choices a person makes are what is important, so Harry chooses himself and lets whether Fate chose him or not hang.
*** Exactly. The oracle pretty much predicted the choices they would make. If both of them decided to screw destiny, they would, [[Self
* In a rare {{spoiler|villainous}} example, Markus the Ineluctable from ''[[Spellsinger|The Paths of the Perambulator]]'' had been destined by circumstance to remain {{spoiler|a hack stage magician, scraping by on carnival sideshows and kids' birthday parties}}. Instead, he rose to power over an entire city.
* Happens in [[Michael Moorcock]]'s ''[[The Elric Saga|Elric saga]]''. {{spoiler|After spending six books struggling with destiny Elric gets fed up with being a pawn in the gods' battles, so he [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|destroys the world to create a new one]] where the gods won't be able to keep meddling.}}
** Moorcock hits the theme again both ways, subverting it by having the core persona that becomes all these heroes go back and begin the seminal events that create the backstories for places like Melnibone, while [[The Hawkmoon Saga|Hawkmoon's quest]] leads him to Tanelorn and the final destruction of not only the Cosmic Balance but also the Law and Chaos aspects the first part of this entry unleashed on the multiverse.
* Completely subverted in [[
* In one of the novels of [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[Night Watch (
* In ''[[
* In [[
* ''[[
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer
* ''[[Lois Duncan|I've Been Waiting for You]]'' looks at this by way of [[Reincarnation]], as the events of the Salem witch trials play out again in the present, but one of the girls whose accusations started the trial refuses to play her part. {{spoiler|This time around, she manages to redeem herself and [[Everybody Lives|keep everyone alive]].}}
* Someone—it may have been [[Fred Saberhagen]]{{verify}}—wrote a short story based on [[Norse Mythology]] in which Odin's ravens Huginn and Muninn reopen a cold case, the murder of Baldur. They come to the conclusion that Loki was framed, and the killing was actually by the giants ... as part of hiding the fact that ''the prophecy of Ragnarok is false'', made up by the gods' enemies to demoralize them. The giants still plan to invade, and are building up their strength, but it is ''NOT'' truly certain that the gods will be wiped out in the "prophesied" manner. As the story's last line states, they're very, very heartened to learn that "now they need not die!"
* Subverted in ''[[Lexx]]'': When Kai finds out that His Divine Shadow is going to wipe out the Brunnen G, he tries to rally his people into fighting him. This isn't him trying to say
▲== Live Action TV ==
** Doubly subverted,
▲* Subverted in ''[[Lexx]]'': When Kai finds out that His Divine Shadow is going to wipe out the Brunnen G, he tries to rally his people into fighting him. This isn't him trying to say [[Screw Destiny]], though; he just believes that going out fighting like the race of [[Warrior Poet|warrior poets]] they used to be is much better than just [[Dying Like Animals]].
▲** Doubly subverted, actually--His Divine Shadow was bothering as he had found out a Brunnen G was destined to get him killed. Thus, His Divine Shadow exterminated the race, save for Kai, who he reworked into a technologically undead servant. {{spoiler|This, of course, eventually got His Divine Shadow killed.}}
* ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'' seems to have this trope as a major thematic element; its opening theme is called "Break the Chain" and contains lyrics about "breaking the rules of fate", and the "next time" blurb contains the phrase "Break the chains of destiny (albeit in Japanese)."
** For that matter, pretty much every Showa-era KR series had some variation on "[[Phlebotinum Rebel|hero gets cybered-up by evil organization and winds up fighting them]]" as the setup.
* In ''[[
** Later, the episode 'The Girl Who Waited' is all about this trope. When Amy is accidentally forced to wait for 36 in solitary confinement, the time stream seems to suggest that Rory and the Doctor will never save her younger self. The Doctor says the above page quote as encouragement, basically saying "if you want to, you can do whatever you like with destiny", probably referencing not only Amy's life but also {{spoiler|his death at Lake Silenco.}}
* Despite her [[Trope Namers]] talk in ''[[
** Worth noting is that Destiny ''could'' have been screwed, but only by essentially killing everyone between California and England {{spoiler|as the ancient evil in question tried to possess anyone and everyone it could fighting the pull back to its [[Sealed Evil in
*** Actually, while Illyria's rebirth was apparently pre-ordained, that Fred would become her vessel wasn't actually her fate. Which makes it all the more tragic.
* As
{{quote|
'''Starbuck:''' (facial expressions and body language indicates "yes")
'''Adama:''' '''''Wrong'''''. I've had it up to '''HERE''' with destiny, prophecy, with God or the Gods. Look where it's left us. {{spoiler|The ass end of nowhere; nearly half of our people are gone; Earth, a worthless cinder; and I can't even walk down the halls of my ship without wondering if I'm gonna catch a bullet for getting us into this mess.}} }}
* Attempted in ''[[
** Played straight in ''[[
* People all over the world start believing that [[You Can't Fight Fate]] in ''[[
* The whole point of the fight [[The X-Files
* Subverted in ''[[
* ''[[
{{quote|
* In the 1998 ''[[Merlin
* Season Five of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is devoted entirely to the Winchesters trying desperately to
** Hence the nickname "Team Free Will".
** It's left very unclear whether the destiny-pushers were just mistaken about the prophecy, or what, but Dean manages to get out of his part and they manage to save the world, so if Zachariah actually knew what destiny was, they successfully screwed it.
*** Of course, it took a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]...and the sacrifice of one poor schmuck with the bad luck to be [[Crusading Widower|John Winchester's]] [[The Unfavourite|third]] [[In the Blood|son]]. Of course, if he'd been able to [[Heroic Willpower|resist Michael]], it wouldn't have been [[I Did What I Had to Do|necessary]] to drag him down to stop Michael from [[Insane Troll Logic|saving his brother so he could kill him]]...yeah.
** Series 6 confirms that they utterly screwed ''everyone's'' destiny with that stunt. The Fates were ''[[Understatement|pissed]]''.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'', Venus, Luna, and Artemis were obsessed about keeping Mamoru and Usagi apart because their love doomed the world. Mamoru and Usagi? They didn't quite agree. Sailor Mars had her "Screw Destiny" moments too.
* The ''[[Roswell]]'' main characters, who decide to stay on Earth and be happy instead of accepting their destiny as royalty of their planet.
* In ''[[
== Music ==
* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRQEdYf3rd8 Die With Your Boots On]" by [[
* [[
* Christopher Tin's "Rassemblons-Nous" from the album ''Calling All Dawns'' is, according to [[Word of God]], about this.
* Gordon Bok's "Tails and Trotters" focuses heavily on this. A mother tries to convince her son that his future has already been decided, he... does not take this well and flees to a nearby village. He pretends to be a rich and important person and is accepted into the upper crust of society. Eventually, [[Becoming the Mask|he becomes what he pretended to be in every way]]. {{spoiler|He's a pig, and his prescribed fate was to be butchered and eaten}}.
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[
== Theatre ==
* [[Older Than Steam]]: Pedro Calderon de la Barca's play ''[[Life Is A Dream]]'' contains a stunning [[Double Subversion]] of this. Segismund, Prince of Poland, is prophesied to [[Oedipus the King
== Video Games ==
* Zero from ''[[
* In ''[[Quest for Glory V:
** Although sacrificing himself ''is'' still an option. And a successful one, except for the whole "death" thing...
*** If you make it through the fight without losing anyone, an ally suggests a possibly [[Prophecy Twist]]: that the dragon committing suicide after you beat it badly enough counts as the necessary sacrifice.
* ''[[
** Speaking of ''Suikoden'', ''[[Suikoden Tierkreis|Tierkreis]]'' screws one destiny (that predicted by the [[Religion of Evil|Order of the One True Way]]) while fulfilling another (''something'' seems to have chosen the protagonists to fight the Order.) Of course, [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|the whole thing becomes moot if you get the bad ending]] . . .
* Pretty much the whole point of ''[[
** Although it tends not to work when {{spoiler|attempting to do so ends up [[Because Destiny Says So|creating the Sands of Time and said monster anyway]].}}
*** Played straight if you get the [[Multiple Endings|Perfect Ending]] by getting all the life containers and snag the Water Sword. {{spoiler|Instead of fighting Kaileena, you fight the Dahaka with Kaileena at your side, eventually dropping the bastard in the water and finishing him. Of course, this comes back to bite the Prince in the ass in The Two Thrones, enough so that he decides he's had enough of screwing with destiny to leave things as is.}}
* Almost every single character of ''[[
** At the same time, also slightly ''subverted'' by the villain: {{spoiler|The Score of Destruction predicted that Auldrant would ultimately be destroyed. The exact words were "Turned to dust". Wasn't one of the side-effects of large-scale fomicry the disintegration of the original? In which case, Van's attempt to 'destroy' the planet's memory and 'defy' the score (by replacing it with an exact replica) was, in fact, ''fulfilling'' the score}}. So is this screw destiny, or just a [[Mind Screw|mindscrew]]?
*** The ending seems to support this theory, as, {{spoiler|after defeating Van, Lorelei congratulates Luke on averting the destruction It had seen in Auldrant's future.}}
* In ''[[
{{quote|
*
** Destiny gets to say Screw You in turn {{spoiler|by killing off Tidus. You only get to see him come back if you [[Guide Dang It|meet very specific conditions]] in the sequel.}}
* Every player character in ''[[City of Heroes
** And, of course, the player character gets to screw this destiny in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|very spectacular way]].
* Raziel in the ''[[
{{quote|
'''Moebius:''' And neither can you. }}
{{quote|
'''Raziel:''' You said it yourself, Kain - there are only two sides to your coin.
'''Kain:''' Apparently so. But suppose you throw a coin enough times... ...suppose one day, it lands on its ''edge''. }}
* Subverted or played straight depending on which way you go in ''[[The
* Played straight in ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' with the characters all trying to avert the prophecy of end of the world. {{spoiler|Then it's subverted when they find the [[You Can't Fight Fate|world collapsing into chaos anyway]], but fulfilling the prophecy at least leaves ''some'' alive.}}
* Subverted in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]''. Badass freakin' overlord Zetta gets a prophecy from an oracle that says that his netherworld will be destroyed. In an attempt to Screw it, Zetta tracks down and consults the Sacred Tome, a [[Cosmic Keystone]] that contains the record of the Netherworld's reality, including (presumably) what would destroy it. When he discovers that the final page contains the sentence "Lord Zetta is stupid. His stupidity has doomed the netherworld to extinction", he burns the book in a fit of rage, [[Self
* This forms the plot and underlying theme of ''[[
** Though if hints in ''[[
*** Fortunately, ''[[
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls III
** There is a possible aversion. Although it is not explored in the game, it is entirely possible that the Daedric Prince Azura, who worded the original prophecy, was also controlling pivotal events from behind the scenes.
** It is also worth noting that ''Morrowind'' is completely open-ended and contains more factions and sidequests than actual main plot, leaving the PC to walk off and Screw Destiny whenever he wants and still get perfectly good enjoyment out of the game.
* ''[[Syphon Filter]]: Dark Mirror'' starts off as standard espionage stuff, until about three-quarters into the game when Gabe makes it clear he's going to, in no uncertain terms, **** fate.
* ''[[Sailor Moon
** [[Broken Aesop|Warped]] in the best ending, where {{spoiler|even after the [[Big Bad]] is killed, the Senshi get to keep the effects of her meddling that they like.}} Uhhh...
* ''[[Clive
* Played straight at the end of ''[[
* UBW route in ''[[Fate/stay
* The ''entire'' point of ''[[
* Played straight in ''[[
* A major theme in ''[[
* The endgame of ''[[
* ''[[
** Made much more terrifying when you realize that, by screwing destiny in ''Dissidia'', the heroes are quite possibly instigating the 2000 year Time Loop in ''[[
* The ''entire point'' of {{spoiler|Kreia's}} game of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
* According to [[Word of God]], this is the [[Fridge Brilliance|underlying reason]] as to why every ''[[
* The party in ''[[
* The Reapers of ''[[
* The framework for magic in ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles|Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates]]'' makes it so that if you're strong enough, you can change fate. Played to a massive scale in the end of the game where {{spoiler|Chelinka doubles her power in order to make it so that the source of evil never existed, in order for the Twins to be happy with their parents... before the timeskip... keeping their memories of everything... and this also happened at the very beginning of the game...it's slightly confusing.}}
* Raul and Fiona Greydon of ''[[Super Robot Wars
** How bad is everything altered? How about the fact that the Nadesico crew get the Aestivalis Customs, Super Aestivalis, Black Salena and Nadesico C three years before they should! And when you return to the present you find either Char isn't a humongous dick or that Akito and Yurika are still normal (especially Akito!)
* This is the primary motivation of the ''[[
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
* [[
* [[Umineko no Naku Koro
* In the [[New Game
* The goal of Raiden in ''[[
* ''[[God of War (
** {{spoiler|But it's ultimately subverted, because it was Kratos' fate to bring down Olympus.}}
* This is pretty much the whole point of ''[[Ghost Trick:
* ''[[
* Kurow of ''[[
* A villainous example appears in ''[[
* ''[[
** {{spoiler|
** In the sequel ''Xenoblade X'' the player works for the organization [[Fun with Acronyms|BLADE]]: '''B'''eyond the '''L'''ogos '''A'''rtifical '''D'''estiny '''E'''mancipator. In simpler terms this amounts to something like "[[Rage Against the Heavens| Outside the rules/influence of reality/God]]. Screw Destiny". [[Blind Idiot Translation|The translators failed to realize what this meant]], despite being a ''Xeno'' series theme, and made it '''B'''uilders of the [sic] '''L'''egacy '''A'''fter the '''D'''estruction of '''E'''arth, making BLADE look like a mere construction company instead of badasses who remove obstacles for the actual rebuilders. [[Artifact Title|It also means BLADE is not outside of reality ("Xeno")]].
* ''[[
* During the extraordinarily long "The Sign" quest in ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' you're given a choice of how you would spend your last day alive if you knew the world would end tomorrow. The correct answer is 'What else? Save the world!'.
* In ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur
** {{spoiler|The [[Big Bad]] ''created'' the Fateless One in her own attempt to
* In ''[[MapleStory]]'' {{spoiler|this trope is an essential part of the plot. There are a multitude of possible paths the future may take at any given time; the Black Mage (whose goal is to obliterate reality and remake it into a “perfect” one) viewed every last possible path, with precision only a Transcendent like himself could manage, and then manipulated events so that ''every choice'' made by ''every citizen'' of Maple World, Grandis and Masteria led towards the future he desired. Every hero’s action, every villain’s action, every defeat of every villain by the heroes (''including'' his defeat and imprisonment by the Five Legendary Heroes), and even the Alliance eventually realizing what his plan is - ''all'' of it was part of [[Batman Gambit|his millennia-long Grand Design]] in order to ensure [[You Can't Fight Fate|no one could literally fight Fate]]... all except the Adversary, also known as ''the player''. The Adversary is able to stray from “the path”,<ref>Exactly ''how'' is a long story.</ref> and while they only do so ''once'' by sparing Tana’s life in the Esfera storyline (something that seemed insignificant at the time), it became possible for them and them alone to Screw Destiny and defeat the Black Mage. The Achievement gained from defeating him in Story Mode is "Defying Destiny".}}
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
** Notably, however, Saves-A-Fox carries around the tail of the fox she killed... in other words, saving it. This may or may not be an intended [[Prophecy Twist]].
*** {{spoiler|Turns out Saves-A-Fox did save a fox... From dying a horrible, agonizing death from a disease it had contracted.}}
Line 330 ⟶ 328:
** Also played with in that some goblins that are ''supposed'' to get prophetic names... aren't. Chief wasn't supposed to be the chief, he was only chief because his father was and there would have been a violent outcry if he hadn't taken the job. Complains' father, on the other hand, ''was'' supposed to be the new chief. So... the village's fortune teller deliberately screwed destiny to prevent a war... while at the same time weakening their tribe by having the wrong leader.
*** Mocked thoroughly, though, once we meet some of the goblin slaves, who have such names as "Piss off I have a Headache," named by the same fortune teller that also named another goblin "Stop the Ceremony I Swallowed a Bug." This is less of a "Screw Destiny," and more of "Our fortune teller sucks."
* In ''[[
* ''[[
{{quote|
* In ''[[
** Dominic actually screws destiny on a regular basis; one of the advantages of being a seer who can see into the future. The only time he lost was when he suffered a "Fated Fatal": a sign that someone a seer knows is about to die, and there is ''nothing'' that can be done to stop it. In this case, that someone was {{spoiler|Lord Siegfried}}.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
{{quote|
** Which she does by {{spoiler|1=lifting landmarks from the ground with black magic and [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004629 cracking them open] to find clues inside.}}
** Because [[Prescience Is Predictable]], this seems to be one of the powers of the [[Psychic Block Defense|Heroes of Void]].
* In ''[[
** Actually the soothsayers inform him he can't fight destiny. He then comes back with several smart alec responses which result in the aforementioned stabbing.
* ''[[
== Web Originals ==
* [[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
== Western Animation ==
* Probably the most important component of ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[Justice League (
** Pulled again throughout most of the first season of JLU, with constant foreshadows being thrown towards the existence of the Justice Lords universe. [[The Question]], upon discovering the existence of the Lords'verse, goes, for want of a better word, a bit (more) mental and concocts the whole scenario that would be required for the League to go the same way as their Lords counterparts - most significantly, the death of [[The Flash]] and [[
* Inverted in ''Transformers: [[
{{quote|
* ''[[
** It is shown also on a grander scale when Aang, {{spoiler|despite being told by almost everyone that he has to kill the fire lord, merely takes away his powers.}}
** {{spoiler|Not to mention he took away his leadership and put Zuko in charge. The Fire Lord had powerful firebending abilities, yes, but the main reason he was a threat was his army. Take away that and his powers and he's just a fairly crazy regular person. Oh and killing him might not have helped anyway. Aang would probably have to kill Azula, too, considering her ambition...}}
* ''[[
** Well be honest, would you mind becoming an all-powerful ruler if it didn't involve mass murder?
** Interestingly, the show actually doesn't make it clear if he can
* Subverted and played straight in ''[[
** Fry staying a delivery boy makes sense, as being a delivery boy in the future is a hell of a lot more awesome than being a delivery boy in the past.
** Career chips though were quickly forgotten about and through the years they've taken on any number of wacky jobs from selling poplers, to playing in Blernsball, to serving as emperor of Tri-Sol... in fact, the a later episode lampshades the forgotten rules of the first episode by having Leela say to Fry "You know, our ''career chips''"? as he just stares blankly.
*** The chips weren't forgotten about - Fry was never implanted, Leela took hers out in the pilot, and Bender never had one to begin with.
*** Actually, At the end, when they go to work for Professor Farnsworth, he implants them with a new batch of career chips: Leela, the Captain and Fry, the delivery boy.
* ''[[Teen Titans (
** "How Long is Forever": Time-travelling villain Warp arrives in the present to steal a clock because history says it disappeared. In his fight with the Titans, he accidentally brings Starfire to a [[Bad Future]] where the team has broken up [[Gone to
{{quote|
'''Nightwing''': So - it's impossible? Good! If memory serves, we've done the impossible before. }}
* Not a genuine example, but Batman tells the Riddler straight his views on the subject in the ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' episode "If You're So Smart Why Aren't You Rich?":
{{quote|'''Riddler:''' That is grand-scale cheating, Batman! You are not allowed to tamper with the Hand of Fate!
'''Batman:''' [[Shut UP, Hannibal|I don't believe in Fate]].}}
== Real Life ==
Line 379:
* Civilizations are a good example of "screw destiny" shouted by thousands of generation of humanity: "So what? we are weak primates destined to herbivory and to stay at the lowest part of the food chain?" Billions of "screw that" have given us cities, TV Tropes, advanced medicine, the internet, space exploration, TV Tropes, the absolute rule over the food chain (find one carnivorous animal which not hunted and/or endangered), the quasi-certainty that whatever brings us down will be ourselves, and [[Rule of Three|TV Tropes]]
** To be fair, herbivory is more typical of monkeys, not apes. Even chimps eat ants, and humans need vitamin B12 throughout our lives. Just take a look at our teeth, and you will know that we were destined for omnivory.
* [[Hollywood Atheist|Any non-religious person]] finds themselves [[Cosmic Horror Story|in a cold uncaring universe, so incredibly massive that they are little more than a speck on a speck on a speck. Humanity is an insignificant anomaly on a small part of the surface of a small planet, and the universe won't even notice when we vanish.]] [[I Take Offense to That Last One|(in Kelvin it's a very warm uncaring universe)]] [[Shut UP, Hannibal|Like we care what the universe thinks!]]
* Arguably, ''life itself'' is matter that decided to stop being fate's plaything. Before bacteria manifested, stone was constantly scoured and dissolved by water fluxes, water was constantly ionized (i.e. split apart on a molecular level) by electricity, and all manner of
* In 4-5 billion years, the sun will expand to encompass the Earth. By that point, our species hopes to have invented interstellar travel and terraformed other planets.
** Way before then (some 400 million years from now) the Sun (which steadily heats up as it goes on) will have become hot enough to make life on Earth difficult. We'll have to get cracking...
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]
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[[Category:Fate and Prophecy Tropes]]
[[Category:Motivation Index]]
[[Category:Screw This Index, I Have Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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