The Omniscient: Difference between revisions

# They are [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] thanks to being [[Medium Awareness|Medium Aware]].

Typically a background character, The Omniscient usually functions as oracle ([[Mad Oracle|mad]] or [[Seers|otherwise]]), [[The Obi-Wan|mentor]], [[Deus Ex Machina]], [[Man Behind the Man]] and/or leader of [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]. Often reluctant to help the protagonists even if he is benevolent without being terribly busy.

== Anime and Manga ==

* The First President of the [[Genshiken]] seems to know everything that goes on around the school. He implies that he may have set up cameras around the school, but he never explicitly confirms it.

* Destiny in ''[[The Sandman (Comic Book)|The Sandman]]''. Note that he can't put this knowledge to any use because he doesn't have free will (thus he is symbolically chained to the book). At one point he calls a meeting for no apparent reason and when people ask why he did it Destiny explains that the book said he was going to.

** The [[Lucifer (Comic Book)|Lucifer]] spinoff has Michael show up in Destiny's realm to ask about the oncoming apocalypse only to find that Destiny had invited the title character and {{spoiler|Michael's daughter}} over to discuss the exact same thing. When he asks Destiny why he wasn't invited, Destiny responds that it didn't seem necessary, since he was already coming.

* The Watcher in [[Marvel Universe]].

* In ''[[X-Factor (Comic Book)|X-Factor]]: Investigations'' Layla Miller's catch phrase is "I know stuff." While she's not totally omniscient, she does tend to know just about everything about many of the situations they get themselves into. Often to the detriment of the team or their trust in her. It later turns out {{spoiler|that "knowing stuff" is not actually her ability, but a result of his future self downloading all her knowledge into her brain}}

== Literature ==

* Errand/Eriond from [[David Eddings]]' ''Malloreorn'' series. (He was in The Belgariad too, but didn't start displaying omniscience until the beginning of The Malloreorn.)

** He generally acts like an ordinary, if somewhat [[Cloudcuckoolander|naive]], young boy, but when he feels it is 'appropriate', he reveals insight into things that neither he, nor anybody else, could possibly know. His first real display of this ability is when he quotes, word-for-word, a letter that was lost at sea in a shipwreck that left no survivors. And, when further questioned, it turned out that he also knew the exact circumstances BEHIND the sending of said letter, even though it all happened several hundred miles away. He never really loses this ability, but the ever-present 'Prophecy of Light' rather cleverly diverts the thoughts of the people around him, preventing them from trying to take advantage of it.

** At the end of the series, it is revealed that his ability was due to {{spoiler|him being, essentially, a sort of proto-god, who wielded a fairly impressive array of divine powers even prior to his ascension.}}

** Both the Prophecy of Light and Prophecy of Dark fit this, as they seem to have their hands in a bit of darn near everything to ensure their goals come to pass.

** A select few ancient, powerful beings possess an ability called ''intellectus'', which lets them know the answer to any question just by asking it. The catch being they have to ask the right question. They do not actually know everything and every moment so they can be caught off guard. A few possess a limited form of it. For instance, {{spoiler|the Skinwalker knows what will hurt someone the most, without knowing why. The island of Demonreach knows everything that happens on it.}}

** [[Big Bad|Sauron]] has a variant of this ability; he can ''see'' (though not extend any of his other senses) anywhere in the world, so long as he isn't being blocked (and only the bearers of the Three Rings are shown to have the power to do this), but he isn't aware of everything at once and has to actively look for something to see it. This becomes a plot point in ''Return of the King'', when Aragorn deliberately manipulates Sauron into focusing on him to the point that he becomes blind to everything else (most importantly, Frodo).

* Rock from ''[[Warrior Cats]]''. He knows everything about the clans and the tribe, and is able to explain it all to some kits in the [[Expanded Universe]] book ''Cats of the Clans''.

== Live-Action TV ==

** And of course, if we failed to mention '''[[Large Ham|DRAAL]]''', [[Incoming Ham|He would be certain to let us know.]]

** [[Death]] appears to be this, although there are limits to his knowledge (such as ''assuming'' instead of already ''knowing'' what Sam, Dean, and Bobby summoned him for in episode 7x01, and surprise at being informed that they want him to kill "God" — i.e. {{spoiler|Castiel}}). If not absolutely, he is at least functionally omniscient.

** [[God]] presumably also possesses this trait.

** He does not, however, know his own personal future and actively avoids finding out about it, even with the presence of River Song (and to a lesser extent Amy and Rory), who know at least some of his future, including {{spoiler|how he dies}}.

* The ascended Ancients in the ''[[Stargate Verse]]''. Upon [[Ascending to A Higher Plane of Existence]], they become omniscient but [[Obstructive Code of Conduct|can't share this knowledge with mortals]] nor can they keep it if they decide to be [[Brought Down to Normal]].

* The title character of ''[[John Doe]]'' knows everything there is to know about everything, except his own identity.

== Mythology, Religion, and Folklore ==

** Prescience is thought to conflict with human free will on the basis that a choice foreseen might as well be preordained. This depends on the view of just what free will means, though, which is more complicated than one might think. Among those who think there is a contradiction, some theologians/philosophers have let God maintain omniscience and compromised on human free will. Others have stated that since God is wholly outside time, he doesn't know things ''before'' they happen, so that's not a problem. Some have come to the conclusion that God's omniscience is limited so that he can't see the future past indeterministic events such as choices, though this can be accompanied by stating that just this is what omniscience ''really'' means, because you shouldn't ask for the impossible.

** According to one interpretation, while God has complete knowledge of the past and present, he selectively uses his ability to see the future, and thus can be surprised or caught unprepared (by [[Satan]]'s [[Face Heel Turn]], for instance). So, while he does know much more than humans, he doesn't technically know ''everything''.

** People in general are not very good at applying such complicated concepts in their thinking even while theoretically accepting them, so a believer in God who states God to be omniscient might not actually think accordingly.

== Webcomics ==

** Though he usually pieces together what's happening [[Xanatos Speed Chess|pretty quickly]].

{{quote| Occasionally I discover there are things I have not always known. It gives me the opportunity to make deductions, which are practically always flawless. [[Smug Super|It's gratifying.]] }}

* [[wikipedia:Laplacechr(27)s demon|LaPlace's Demon]] appears briefly in the [http://dresdencodak.com/2009/01/27/advanced-dungeons-and-discourse/ "Advanced Dungeons and Discourse"] strip of ''[[Dresden Codak]]''. When ordered to attack an [[Invincible Villain]], it immediately leaves, prompting another character to observe, "Guess he knew something we didn't."

== Western Animation ==

* Clockwork in ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. Since he's the ghost of Time, he knows everything that has happened, is happening, or can happen.

** Also Bender in 'Overclockwise'. He managed to calculate the reason we exist, which ceiling-fans will fall and Fry's and Leela's ultimate fate as a couple and possibly a lot more.

{{quote| '''Hades''': '''''I KNOW!''''' ''You'' know, ''I'' know, I get it! I get the concept.}}

{{quote| '''Slade''': "What you fail to understand is that Trigon is all-seeing. His mind can be at any place, at any time."}}