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Theory of Narrative Causality: Difference between revisions
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''Due to the omnipresence of this trope, please limit examples to ''in-universe'' references or [[Lampshade Hanging]]s of the principle.''
== Anime
* A discussion of this idea bookended a two-part episode of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]''. Just because you're in a setting that's perfect for a murder mystery, [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|doesn't mean one is going to happen,]] [[Tempting Fate|right?]]
** Played straight in the rest of the series too, [[Epileptic Trees|possibly]]. Haruhi thinks life is like an [[Anime]]. If she thinks she's the good guy and she's facing bad guys, she's going to win, because the good guys always defeat the bad guys.
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** Zenkichi's new Skill "Devil-style" {{spoiler|''nullifies'' Narrative Causality. Things like [[Contrived Coincidence]], [[Plot Armor]], [[Crash Into Hello]], etc. won't happen to him.}}
== Comic Books ==
== Comics ==▼
* Briefly discussed in the first issue of the [[DCU]] [[Crisis Crossover]] ''[[Final Crisis]].'' One Monitor says to another, "Behold: we monitors who were faceless once... We all have names now, and stories. There are heroes and villains... secrets and lovers." Translation: Nothing happened to us as long as they didn't write us into the stories. Now we're in them, and all hell is breaking loose.
* In JLA: Earth-2, [[Grant Morrison]]'s [[Post-Crisis]] reimagining of the [[The DCU|DC Universe]]'s [[Mirror Universe]] (Earth-3), the twist was that even narrative causality was inverted, so that all good deeds were doomed to failure in the mirror universe (just as evil was doomed to ultimate failure in the regular DCU).
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* In Monica's series Smudge (Cascão), the title character asks why he's been kidnapped and the answer is "Because of the hero of this comic book. If I kidnapped Robertinho or other, there would be no fun.".
* In ''Harry Kipling (Deceased)'', the return of the gods has turned science into a mere suggestion; the ''mythic'' ideas are the ones that actually work.
== Fan Works ==
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* Kyon, in [[The Emiya Clan]], can basically contrive this on the spot. His EX ranked Common Sense give him full knowledge of ''all'' possible outcomes for a certain situation. If he Lampshades a certain one, chances are almost exact that it will happen.
== Film ==
* This is subverted in ''[[Galaxy Quest]]'', where one of the characters was a guest star who played a [[Red Shirt]] in the original program. He repeatedly insists that he's "expendable", and could get killed at any moment (his character [[Nominal Importance|never even had a last name]]). Ironically, he provides a role of [[Plucky Comic Relief]] (another character even suggests to him this might be the case), and in the epilogue, is added to the show's revival as a full-time character.
** Near the end of the film, {{spoiler|when a shapeshifting alien goes on a shooting spree, this character is the only one that ''doesn't'' get shot.}}
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* In ''[[Enchanted]]'', the way Giselle seems to teleport from place to place during her musical numbers (not to mention the [[That Reminds Me of a Song|infectious singing]] or [[Spontaneous Choreography]] of said numbers); makes elaborate and beautiful dresses in no time at all, out of curtains and blankets; and somehow manages to {{spoiler|climb up the side of a skyscraper and onto the roof to save Robert from Narissa, when there is no apparent way for her to have climbed up there}}. Really, anything that Giselle does that makes little sense outside of an animated feature.
* [[Austin Powers]]' father irritatedly lectures a [[Mook]] about to attack him that he's an obvious [[Red Shirt]] who doesn't even have a name tag, and should just lie down right now. He complies.
* ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights]]'': After losing an archery contest against a master archer, Robin double-checks the script, confirming he's "not supposed to lose."
* ''[[The Cabin in the Woods]]'' is basically an explanation for ''why'' Narrative Causality exists, at least in horror movies: {{spoiler|all the tropes and cliches of horror movies are actually part of an elaborate ritual needed to keep some [[Eldritch Abomination]]s happy, and there's a massive conspiracy manipulating people into fulfilling those ritual cliches}}.
== Literature ==
* Naturally, the ''[[Discworld]]'' series is full of examples of how the theory manifests:
** If three brothers set out on a quest individually, and it claims the lives of the first two brothers, [[Youngest Child Wins|it is impossible for the third brother to fail]].
** A [[Million-to-One Chance|one-in-a-million chance]] crops up nine times out of ten. (There's a point in one of the video games where to complete a task, you have to determine, and then implement, the right set of circumstances that will give you ''exactly'' a one-in-a-million chance of success. Based on the ''[[Guards! Guards!]]'' example below.)
** In
** [[Double Subversion|Doubly subverted]] in ''[[
*** Since the reveal of the real reason they failed is still some way off, it also mentions that since they were just a bunch of random guys trying to figure out what circumstances would make Fred's chances exactly a million to one by blindly guessing, they missed the mark somewhat and got a million-and-pocket-change chance, which, not being exactly a million to one, had only about a million-and-pocket-change to one chance of actually happening.
** Still in ''[[
** Lady Lilith de Tempscire, the [[Big Bad]] from ''[[
** For exploiting Narrative Causality, no one tops the Silver Horde, Cohen the Barbarian's [[Badass Grandpa|well-armed, battle-experienced (if geriatric) warriors]], who simply live by "The Code". It culminates with ''[[
** Then there's [[
** [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[
{{quote|'''Twoflower:''' "When seven men go out to fight an army 180,000 times bigger there's only one way it can end."
'''Rincewind:''' "Right. I'm glad you see sense."
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* Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'': The three main characters are said to be ''ta'veren'', which indeed [[Fictionary|roughly translates]] as "Main Character". This is (part of) the in-[[The Verse|universe]] reason given for all the [[Contrived Coincidence]]s that keep happening to them.
** It's at least someone [[Justified Trope|Justified]] because the coincidences aren't just contrived for story purposes, the ''ta'veren'' are also followed around everywhere they go by bizarre random chance, which often has nothing to do with the story. Sometimes it's a [[Contrived Coincidence]] in a plot-furthering way, like a very unlikely reunion with an old acquaintance, but then again sometimes it's important to other characters in-universe but completely unimportant to the main plot, like an [[Innocent Bystander]] tripping over a tiny rock and breaking his neck, and sometimes it's not important to anyone at all, like a sandbag breaking and the sand just happening to fall in the shape of something with great symbolic importance.
*** In RPG terms
*** In-universe philosophers actually theorize that things balance each other, so there would rather be only sixes ''and'' ones in equal proportion until the character leaves.
* The world in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms]]'' series is governed by this trope (named "The Tradition" in this instance). The characters are aware of this and spend a great deal of time trying to manipulate/subvert/redirect this force for their own goals.
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* Timothy Findley's [[Headhunter]] is set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], where hardly anyone reads novels. One of the few readers left is a schizophrenic woman who believes she has set Kurtz free from Joseph Conrad's ''[[Heart of Darkness]]''. Throughout the novel, characters' lives are destroyed by their tendency to conform to novels they've never read - ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'', ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', ''[[Madame Bovary]]'', ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' - with the suggestion that if they'd read more, they'd be less [[Genre Blindness|genre blind]] and more likely to [[Genre Savvy|avoid the inevitable tragedy]].
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In the ''[[Buffy]]'' episode "This Year's Girl", Faith taunts Joyce while holding her prisoner in Buffy's room, saying "do you think Buffy's going to just leap through that window?". She continues to monologue, with Buffy a no-show, until Buffy eventually does leap through the window later than expected.
* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', Marcus knows exactly the right time to hide and set up an ambush before some guards appear. When asked how he knew, he says it would have been the most inconvenient time to be discovered, so of course that's when it would happen.
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', The season five finale ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E13 The Big Bang|The Big Bang]]'' The Doctor, upon {{spoiler|facing annihilation and erasure from time itself}}, a surprisingly common situation for him, says to Amy:
{{quote|"I'll be a story in your head. That's okay, we're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one 'aye."}}
== Tabletop Games ==
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** Dungeon Masters trying to prod the players into taking a certain track is such a common behavior it has a nickname. It's called "[[Railroading]]."
== Theatre ==
▲== Theater ==
* The famous line from ''[[As You Like It]]'': "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players".
== Video Games ==
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* Balthier of ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' [[Wrong Genre Savvy|believes that he is the leading man of the story]], and invokes this on several occasions. Once, he warns Vaan to take care of his ship in the case that something "untoward" should happen to him because he "might have to do something heroic." He also assures Ashe that because of this trope, he can never die. {{spoiler|He is eventually shown to right on both counts, despite his lack of leading man status}}.
▲== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[8-
▲* In ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'', Thief [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/02/19/episode-957-bargain-bin/ tries using this trope] to blackmail a dragon.
* Explicitly referred to [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1817.html in this] ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'', by a character who presumably is himself familiar with the concept from Pratchett (being a present-day fantasy and science fiction fan).
* Most of ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' works this way, and the characters [[Genre Savvy|know it]]. And more often than not, try to exploit it.
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** One villain has also demonstrated the same level of awareness as Elan, if not higher; he rationalizes that if a hero always rises to oppose the [[Evil Empire]], that means there's always going to be an Evil Empire to oppose, so why not be the one running it? He uses his trope-awareness to secretly control most of a continent and keep it firmly under his boot with an aim to keep expanding his influence. He even gloats about how his eventual and inevitable defeat will be meaningless because he gets to live the good life for years if not decades until that happens and then his story will live on forever, inspiring generations of new villains.
*** {{spoiler|Which is appropriate, since the villain in question is Elan's father. Being [[Genre Savvy]] is genetic, apparently.}}
*
* In [[The Way of the Metagamer]], narrativium not only exists, but can be manipulated through use of a literal [[Plot Hole]].
* ''[[Fuzzy Knights]]'', like ''Discworld'', has The Story as a tangible force - it's originally introduced in the context of the tabetop RPGs that the fuzzies play (and frequently run [[Off the Rails]]) but it becomes important in the Tournament War storyline with Mossfoot and HamaEstra fighting to influence and control it. When plot-convenient coincidences start happening a lot, it's best to pay attention.
* Get ready for this, the ''villains'' in [[Mixed Myth]] use a filmic version of this. The elves worship a power called "Cynamatik" and use it to fuel their magic. As the name suggests, the elves have a limited ability to control this force, because it will always cause the most dramatically appropriate circumstances—so the elves are only on top for as long as it's dramatically appropriate, and the instant the story calls for their defeat, it's impossible that they ''won't'' lose the battle.
== Real Life ==
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Probability Tropes]]
[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
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