The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Difference between revisions

[[File:300px-Tribunal-s1-inset.jpg|link=Metalocalypse|frame|Excellent, my sufficiently vague plan is nearing its completion. Soon our diabolical goals will be accomplished via the least revealing and most circuitous path possible!]]

{{quote|'''Mayor''': Er, Master Betty, what is the Evil Council's plan?

 

 

A [[Surveillance as the Plot Demands|magic ball or screen on the wall showing the hero's every move]] is a required accessory.

May be a [[Cosmopolitan Council]] and can server as a [[Mysterious Backer]]. See also [[Vagueness Is Coming]], [[You Know the One]], [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] doubling as a [[Government Conspiracy]]. The first time they meet is as the UN's secret Human Instrumentality Committee, which meets by holographic video conference with color-coded representatives. They then agree to meet for the rest of the series as SEELE, appearing as 2001-style black "sound only" monoliths to save (the animator's) money. In both forms, they are massively opaque.

** In the ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' they've only appeared as monoliths so far, and are, if possible, even more vague about their actions and motives.

** [[Sonic X]] has the Metarex Army

 

* The original ''[[G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel Comics)||GI Joe: Real American Hero]]" comic included a secret Pentagon faction that directed the Joes to serve their own ends.

* DC comics had The Quintessence.

* ''Nick Fury vs SHIELD'' gives us the SHIELD Executive Council.

* Marvel introduced The Comission on Superhuman Activities in ''[[Captain America (comics)]]'' as one of these. Later we see who's in it. That doesn't stop them from meeting in a giant not well-lit conference room though.

 

== Eastern Animation ==

* The eponymous ''[[Time Masters]]'' are a group of strange space aliens who have vague but sinister reasons of sending a ragtag bunch of space travelers in time. They have a planet made up of [[Sinister Geometry]] to boot.

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* The Secret Department of Investigation in [[Challenge of the Superfriends: The End]].

 

* The example at the top of the page is from ''[[Kung Pow]]'', where the evil council turn out to be {{spoiler|French aliens with ships shaped like pyramids. Yes. In a ''kung-fu'' movie.}}

* ''[[Eraserhead]]'''s Man In The Planet manages to be a one-man council of vagueness. Theories on just what he is range from [[Satan]] to [[God]].

** [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] dubs them "The Shadowy Council of People Who Sit in Poorly-Lit Rooms and Rule the World".

 

* The Arisians of [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Lensman]]'' saga may be the prototype; in several scenes, they discuss the progress of Kimball Kinnison and other major characters in terms of their "Visualization of the Cosmic All"—making this [[Older Than Television]].

* The Volturi in ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''.

* The organization V.F.D. in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' is mysterious and splintered into noble and ignoble factions. This is played for humor in ''[[Lemony Snicket the Unauthorized Autobiography|Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography]]'' during the transcript of a Builder's Committee, during which the narrator was ''in attendance'' and even he didn't know of some of the issues being discussed.

 

* Up until "The Deadly Assassin", the Time Lords in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' were sometimes presented as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness, most blatantly in "Colony In Space". In "Assassin" they were [[Retcon]]ned as The [[Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering|Blinkered Council of College Infighting]], and they never really recovered. [[Russell T. Davies]] decided the revived show would be better off without them...{{spoiler|.. until they were brought back in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E17 E18 The End of Time|The End of Time, Part One]]", in which they served simultaneously as an [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness]] and an [[Unseen Audience]]}}.}}

* In the early season of ''[[Babylon 5]]'', the Grey Council fit this to a tee, though they weren't villainous.

* The burned spies organization in ''[[Burn Notice]]''.

 

* The Priests of the Temples of Syrinx in the song ''2112'' by [[Rush]], a [[Strawman Political|strawman communist government]].

* Sarastro and the other Priests in ''[[The Magic Flute]]'' by Mozart fall under this category. Of course the whole opera is about Freemasonry, so it's no wonder there is a secret society...

* There is a song titled "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing." The song is about a man telling the listener about ''you know who'' and ''you know what.'' Never once is any actual name give for the group that will take you to ''you know where'' if they find out you know about them.

 

* [[The Illuminati]] in ''[[Paranoia]]'', who end up giving their blackmailed minions tasks ranging from "kill this man" to "place a bucket full of paint in a dustbin in HPL Sector.

** {{spoiler|1=It's little more than a front for High Programmer activities in secret societies that need a lot of discretion. It's not an actual secret society and more of a joke between ULTRAVIOLETs... probably.}}

** There is also the more traditional Aurum, an organization of wealthy families dedicated to increasing their own wealth.

 

* In ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'', the typically leather-bound [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_mdqbJaKA0 Council of the High Priests] get several songs.

{{quote|'''Annas:''' Good Ciaphas, [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|the Council]] waits for you. The Pharisees / and priests are here for you.

'''Priest #1:''' We dare not leave him to his own devices / His half-witted fans would get outta control.

'''Priest #2:''' But how can we stop him / his glamor increases / by leaps every minute, [[Jesus Was Way Cool|he's top of the poll]]. |"This Jesus Must Die"}}

 

== Toys ==

** And why would they discuss the plan, after all? All of the Makuta know nearly every aspect of it, and the writers don't want the audience to know any more than the heroes do. Luckily, they also avoid too much [[Expospeak]] this way.

 

* Pretty much everyone other than the three playable characters in ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' (known to some of you as ''Indigo Prophecy'') are part of an Omniscient Council of Vagueness. {{spoiler|Yes, including Agatha, the wheelchair bound old woman. And, she's actually a holographic robot computer virus.}} But don't worry, because it's [[Blatant Lies|Better Than It Sounds]]

** The {{spoiler|Orange Clan}} in particular is practically the video game equivalent of [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|SEELE]].

* The Data Pads in ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' reveals that a secret council of Artificial Intelligences formed called "The Assembly", and have been secretly running many of the events in human history, including pushing forward the Spartan-II program, initiating first contact with [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|The Covenant]], and sacrificing colonies for survival in the war.

 

* [[MAG-ISA]] -- [http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119800 They appear in almost every intro chapter of MAG-ISA]. Their faces aren't seen. But they're the one pulling the strings. [[Big Bad]] is probably among them lurking in the shadows. They cannot be seen but they see all that is happening.

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'':

* [[Shaped Like Itself|The Eight or Nine Guys Who Secretly Run Everything]] in [[Argon Zark]]. Guess what they do?

 

* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', [[Ancient Conspiracy|TAROT's Ruling Council]] is (with the single exception of [[Big Bad|The Emperor]], the leader of the organization) a [[The Faceless|faceless group]] of ruthless billionaire businessmen that work from the shadows to further the organization's goals. None of the heroes have ever met a member of the ruling council... that they know of.

* The Shadow Men in ''[[Broken Saints]]'', {{spoiler|Lear and Palmer}}.

* The Supreme Council of the eponymous village in ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'' never seems to ''do'' much, despite their title.

 

* Parodied in ''[[Metalocalypse]]''. Dethklok is observed by The Tribunal, with its members continuously asserting that Dethklok is incredibly dangerous to the world, and how their latest antics could be disastrous. For almost half a season, they carefully review their tactics, and the president of the council invariably opts to [[We Wait|do absolutely nothing]], claiming that "it's too soon" or "we must observe them" or "we will let this play out".

** They're also a [[Cosmopolitan Council]] of evil overlord stereotypes, [[Running Gag|overplayed]] to the point of being [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|completely ineffectual]] ... until a sudden onset of [[Cerebus Syndrome]] (if that is even possible for the show!) made the Tribunal and its members a more active part of the plot. It turns out that the leader [[Unwitting Pawn|secretly]] {{spoiler|[[I Need You Stronger|wants Dethklok to succeed]]}}.

* In [[Justice League Unlimited]], Cadmus serves as one of these initially, though their membership is exposed over the course of the season

 

* [[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|S]]ome pe[[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|o]]ple have theorized that such an Omnipotent [[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|C]]ouncil ex[[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|i]]sts on [[This Very Wiki]]. I don't know wh[[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|e]]re [[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|t]]he[[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|y]] got this idea. Everyone knows that's a lie. [[Troper]]s are much too busy editing pages to form a [[Secret Organization Craving Intelligent Enigmatic Tropers Yonder|cabal]]. Yes, the idea is appealing, but it's just not true.

*** More plausibly, all that's happening is a combination of [[Ghost in the Shell|stand alone complex due]] to [[This Wiki]] being a group of fairly like-minded people and social interactions that no one person can be aware of.

* When editing [[Wikipedia|larger Wikis]], the editors who wind up peer-reviewing articles (deletion discussions as a prominent example) are an essentially arbitrary group assembled from such a large pool of motives, goals, and expertise they might as well be an Omniscient Council of Vagueness. You get the impression that a cabal of uncaring, misinformed twits is running the whole show with the sole intention of pissing you off. [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|Really, there is no cabal.]] It's just the ''universe'' which hates you.

** The American PTA [[Your Mileage May Vary|can fill either example]], [[Depending on the Writer|depending on the school]].

** Seriously though, how many of the people in the Shadow Cabinet joined just so that they could say that they are a member of the [[Rule of Cool|"Shadow Cabinet"?]]

** This is not helped by their tendency to say one thing and then completely contradict themselves a week later.

* Various decision making bodies of the United States Federal Reserve and other central banks tend to operate in total secrecy and without oversight from anybody accountable to the people.

* The documentary ''[[This Film Is Not Yet Rated]]'' argues that the [[Censorship Bureau|Motion Picture Association of America]] operated in this fashion when it came to rating movies, at least at time of filming; secretive and quasi-anonymous but with incredible power and influence, with clear ideological motives frequently coming down in harsh and at times seemingly random judgment on those who failed to meet their standards without providing any explanation why.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]

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