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There Are No Coincidences: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day. But I don't'' trust ''coincidences."''|'''Garak''', ''[[Star Trek]]: [[Deep Space Nine]]'' }}
As any student of cause and effect can tell you, a coincidence is when two or more events happen either simultaneously or in sequence, without any sort of obvious (and in most cases, inobvious) causal connection. Generally coincidences surprise us because, naturally enough given their nature, we just weren't expecting them. Most people know that sometimes things just happen at the same time. But some people just refuse to believe it. There are, after all, reasons people say "where there's smoke there's fire." They also often say "
Interestingly, this line can be made by both the [[Agent Scully]] and the [[Agent Mulder]]. One believes that the improbable has a simpler explanation and one believes that is has a fantastic one. Both are [[Genre Savvy]] in that [[Contrived Coincidence]] is something that should usually be avoided in serious plots.
Usually used either to motivate investigation into possible reasons why an apparent coincidence actually sprung from a common
This belief is, of course, Rule One of [[Wild Mass Guessing]]. The [[Genre Savvy]] are particularly prone to it, because fictionally, the [[Law of Conservation of Detail]] militiates against its falsity.
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== Anime & Manga ==
* Yuuko from ''[[
** The phrase came before in an older work, ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' and even before the idea of fate had come before in most of clamp works, since the begining.
** This was also prominent in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' which was the sister series to ''[[
==
* [[Batman]] has a hard time accepting that coincidence is the reason for anything happening.
** To be fair, Batman is right most of the time.
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** Later in that movie, V tells another character, "There are no coincidences, Delia. Only the illusion of coincidence."
* In ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'', Master Oogway tells Master Shifu, "There are no accidents," in relation to Po being chosen as the Dragon Warrior. Master Shifu later repeats this to Po.
* In ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy Returns]]'', Rick tries to shrug everything off as a coincidence and Ardeth tells him "There's a fine line between coincidence and fate."
* ''[[The 51st State]]'' has this conversation on coincidence...
{{quote|'''Felix DeSouza''': ''Yeah, well, Shit Happens!''
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* Robyn from ''[[The Tomorrow Series]]'' believes that "coincidences are God's way of telling you to wake up".
* This is repeated several times in the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series.
* In [[David Brin]]'s ''The Uplift War'', an alien is annoyed with the human word "accident," which is muddy in meaning, and the humans even say, "There are no accidents." At the end, contemplating the events that led to their defeat and thinking that if some of them hadn't happened, victory might have been
* [[Tony Hillerman]]'s detective Joe Leaphorn explicitly gives "There are no coincidences" as his philosophy in solving mysteries, as stated in ''The First Eagle'' for instance.
* In ''[[Goldfinger]]'', [[James Bond]] tries to convince Goldfinger that their third meeting is a coincidence. He fails.
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer
* In C. S. Goto's ''[[Blood Ravens]]'' trilogy, "Coincidences are for the weak-minded and the ignorant."
* In Kate Seredy's ''The Singing Tree'', when arguing that they should take {{spoiler|Marton Nagy}} home despite {{spoiler|his lack of papers}}, one argument is that it was obviously Destiny that brought them there to recognize him and jog his memory
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene|The Golden Age]]'', Phaethon ponders whether a meeting is coincidence or arranged by the Earthmind, an AI with a trillion times the brain power of a human such as himself.
* In [[Jasper Fforde]]'s ''[[Thursday Next|The Eyre Affair]]'', when Thursday meets the activists who want her to speak against the war, they declare it can't be a coincidence.
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* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm|Up Jim River]]'', when she hears of a murder of a woman she spoke with, the harper thinks it can't be a coincidence. She tells Donovan, and he agrees.
* In the [[Liaden Universe]] series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, fate often seems to be an active agent with a will of its own. Characters refer to it as "event" or "the Luck," and it is said to move in strange ways around those of Clan Korval and Line yos'Phelium in particular, making them the ultimate [[Weirdness Magnet]]. Individuals who are [[Genre Savvy]] enough to recognize it (including those of Korval themselves) make allowances for it in their plans—{{spoiler|Bechimo's builders who warned him to steer clear of Clan yos'Phelium}} in ''Ghost Ship'', and {{spoiler|Zaneth Katrina who wishes nothing to do with Clan Korval at the present time because the Luck is too unsettled}} in ''Dragon Ship''. Those who don't believe in the Luck or the powers of the ''dramliza'' end up puzzled by the way Korval is always at the nexus of extraordinary happenstance and often assign human intentions to utter coincidence. (Or what ''would'' be utter coincidence if it weren't for the Luck causing it.)
** For example: what are the odds that a half-brainwashed Agent of Change disengaging from a mission would meet, become companions with, and eventually {{spoiler|lifemate}} a woman who happens to be {{spoiler|the granddaughter of a missing member of a long-lost clan with whom his is allied—a woman who grew up on the planet that his cousin is shortly going to civilize so Clan Korval can move to? And that this woman's own clan's world is about to be invaded by
* This is a major plot point in ''[[Bridge of Birds]]'', with Master Li slowly realizing that all the unlikely events and reappearances of characters and side stories that keep happening to him and Number Ten Ox are the work of a god doing his best to clue them in on their [[Fetch Quest]] being part of a much bigger quest without breaking the rule of gods not being allowed to intervene ''directly'' in mortals' affairs. The chapter where he explains all this to Ten Ox is even titled "There Are No Coincidences in the Great Way of Tao".
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* Michael Garibaldi, from ''[[Babylon 5]]'' prefers to make his own luck rather than just relying on chance.
* Gibbs, from ''[[NCIS]]''.
**
{{quote|'''Anthony DiNozzo''': "In the immortal words of Leroy Jethro Gibbs [puts on a deep voice] 'I don't believe in coincidences'."}}
**
{{quote|'''Gibbs''': "You know how I feel about coincidences, Abs."
'''Abby''': "Equatorial pygmies know how you feel about coincidences, Gibbs." }}
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** Then JD's narration comments on how this is subverted at the end of the same episode when {{spoiler|Laverne is left in a coma by a random car accident}}
*** Then played straight in the next episode, {{spoiler|Laverne holds on to life just long enough for her best friend Carla to get past denial of the situation and say goodbye}}
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':
{{quote|"Giles, there are two things that I don't believe in: coincidence and leprechauns."}}
** By the end of the series, [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|just about the only mythical creature we haven't seen is a leprechaun]]. This is even lampshaded on ''[[Angel]]'' when Cordelia sarcastically asks a group of demon if she's going to see a leprechaun next and the demons point out that no-one believes in leprechauns.
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* [[Doctor Who|The Doctor]] has a tendency to say this, usually while figuring out the plot. It's almost like he knows he's in a universe that has people writing the script. Or he's just had nine hundred years of experience in [[Genre Savvy|how these things work]].
** He didn't used to. The First Doctor was more likely to call things that were obviously enemy action coincidence than to call a coincidence fate. So the experience explanation seems likely.
* In the ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S2
* One episode of ''[[El Chapulin Colorado]]'' featured the hero at an area where it's usual to have falling rocks from space. Not believing it, Chapulin [[Sarcasm Mode|sarcastically]] announced the arrival of one that made stops in Jupiter and Saturn. Then a rock falls and hits someone nearby. Chapulin dismissed it as a coincidence that could happen anywhere on the world and [[Tempting Fate|challenged another one to appear]]. It did, hitting the same someone. "Two coincidences", the hero said and then challenged again. A third rock fell and Chapulin decided to hide just in case a "fourth coincidence" appeared. Several rocks fell later, and the hero weakly dismissed them as coincidences.
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* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''
{{quote|'''Solid Snake''': Well, I don't believe in coincidences.}}
* ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'' averts this trope by using a twist on the Einstein quote:
{{quote|Einstein would turn in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded.
Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, ''Looking God in the Eye'' }}
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* In the bonus chapter of ''[[The World Ends With You]]'', one NPC talks about this. [[Gambit Pileup|Given the way the story goes]], he is probably right.
* While not a complete rejection of coincidences, Kreia in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' believed that true coincidences were rare and that events usually chalked up to coincidence actually happened because of the Force.
** Bastila also lampshades it in the first game, saying such things are so commonplace to those who are active Force Users that they simply "get used to" it.
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* ''[[Pibgorn]]'':
{{quote|[http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2004/02/28/ "I have every confidence in magic, but I don't for a second believe in coincidence."]}}
* ''[[Freefall]]'' - Florence ended up on Jean as the result of a "[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff100/fv00005.htm clerical error]". One of many, that together look "[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff800/fv00711.htm as accidental as eight brothers of a lottery commissioner winning the grand prize on eight consecutive weeks]". As such she notices when there are "[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2000/fc01982.htm too many coincidences to be coincidence]".
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:Stock Aesops]]
[[Category:Fate and Prophecy Tropes]]
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