You Can't Fight Fate: Difference between revisions

* Subverted in the crossover [[Spawn]]/[[Wild CATS]], where future versions of Grifter and Zealoth (the former being the original's future self, but the latter being a new Zealoth) are sent into the past to slay Spawn, and as such prevent a future where Spawn became a ruthless dictator known as the Ipsissim. When they fail to kill him, the present Wildcats and Spawn agree to join them in the future to defeat the Ipsissim, but it turns out this was part of a predestination paradox, as the Ispissim uses the opportunity to give Spawn the medals that corrupted him and caused him to turn evil to begin with. Once back in the present, the influence starts, and Spawn starts [[Evil Gloating]]... until the future Wildcats realize their mistake and make a last attempt to modify a minor action in the past. This cause Spawn to recognize future Zealoth as an adult version of his beloved wife's daughter Cyan, come back to his senses, and hand over the medals to her, preventing his transformation into the Ipsissim and erasing this alternate future.

* The villain [[Darkseid]] has the goal of ''imposing'' such a thing on the universe as a whole, eliminating the concept of free will and making every sentient being's destiny immutable. As in, he seeks to convince mortals that concepts like hope and freedom are pointless. His pursuit of the Anti Life Equation is his means to accomplish this.

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* In the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' fanfic ''A Rose and A Thorn 4'', Project: Mirage goes back in time to try and stop Ashura from causing the fall of the ARK. It turns out that ''because'' she did this while knowing what was going to happen, she made Sonic blue, and gave birth to {{spoiler|Knuckles}}. The experiment she mated with caused the rampage of the Artificial Chaos because she told him it was going to happen. She still couldn't save Maria even though she knew about it and was right there. But then, she had just been shot...

** But she did manage to kill Ashura so that A Rose And A Thorn 3 didn't happen, breaking a time loop that may have been going around for centuries, and because it ''didn't'' happen, A Rose And A Thorn 5 happened instead. So there was a point to it after all.

* The [[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007]]'' uses a highly meta version of this and [[Because Destiny Says So]]. The characters are aware of their fictionality, the stories they are from AND the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]] so the destiny that says so and/or the fate they can't fight. More directly: [[Labyrinth|Jareth]] desperatelly tries to be a hero but [[Running Gag|always fails]] and even got [[Super-Powered Evil Side|villainous]] [[Paranoia Fuel|backlash]] because of it. [[Zombieland|Tallahassee]] tried to escape his [[Canon]] to bring back his son...[[Tear Jerker|and failed]].

* ''[[How Can It This Be]]'' had Raphael explained, despite wanting to bring the women their lives back, their wounds they suffered were too grave. He was kind enough to explain why.

 

== [[Film]] ==

** {{spoiler|Adam decides that it doesn't matter what is Written, [[Screw Destiny|because you can always cross it out]]}}.

** It reaches the point that two main characters realize they can pick any part of the book of prophecy at random and be assured that it'll be one relevant to their situation.

* Norman Spinrad's short story "The Weed of Time". The victim - er, narrator - remembered the entirety of his 110-year life from the moment of his birth. An expedition to another planet brought back the weed which caused the precognition effect and it had been released accidentally and grew wild. The experience drives him insane, because he cannot change any of the events he experiences.

* Kurt Vonnegut's ''[[Slaughterhouse 5]]'' takes this to the extreme, with the protagonist hallucinating himself a theory about the non-existence of free will, involving [[Mental Time Travel]] and aliens. He does this in to make sense of what he saw during [[World War II]].

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Iluvatar (God) acts mostly through fate: Gandalf tells Frodo that "there are other forces at work in the world...one could say Bilbo was ''meant'' to find the Ring, in which case you were also ''meant'' to have it." Being a demi-god, he has seen a vision of the history of the universe before it was made, and therefore is able to predict that [[It Was His Sled|Gollum]] would destroy the Ring.

** The basic plot point of the story of Túrin Turambar, thanks to Morgoth's curse on Húrin's family.

** Also the point of the Doom of Mandos, which states that the Feanorians will never complete their oath.

* Jane Yolen's ''[[Great Alta Saga]]''. Jenna, destined to be [[The Messiah]] for her people, eventually accepts that she is "the Anna for this Turning".

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[Literature/The Slithering|The Slithering]] hadow", Thalis urges this on [[Conan the Barbarian]] about the [[Living Shadow]] Thog.

* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' played with this. In each episode, Sam's goal was to fight a particular piece of fate, and he invariably won. However, when he and Al occasionally tried to change other things in their own personal interest, they were unable to do so. For example, in ''MIA'', {{spoiler|Al lied to Sam about what his goal was, and had him try to stop Al's own wife Beth from remarrying while he was a prisoner of war. Whatever Sam did to keep Beth away from her future second husband, they kept bumping into each other in unlikely places. Sam was actually there to stop a cop getting shot.}} In ''The Leap Home, Part 1'', {{spoiler|Sam could not convince his father to take up a healthier lifestyle and live longer, or stop his brother from going to Vietnam and getting killed, because his only goal for the episode was to ''win a basketball game''.}} It seems the Unknown Force only unlocked little bits of fate at a time. {{spoiler|Sam did save both his brother's life and Al's marriage in later episodes, though.}}

 

* The ancient Greeks loved these types of stories:

** [[Classical Mythology|Gaia and Ouranos]] prophesied that Kronos would be overthrown by one of his sons, so he ate each son as it was born. His wife kept their last son, Zeus, hidden, so that Zeus could eventually fulfill the prophesy (as told in ''[[Theogony]]'' by [[Hesiod]]).

* Duke Rowan Darkwood in ''[[Planescape]]'' gets screwed over by this ''in spades'', {{spoiler|becoming destined to be the person who instigates (as the ancient wizard rumored to have crafted a spell that can destroy the Lady of Pain), starts (as Rowan Darkwood), and ''ends'' (as Gifad, who coaxes the party to help him cast the Sigil Spell) the Faction War all in one go. And all this time, the Lady of Pain had controlled ''everything''...}}

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has samsara, the concept that if you look upon Fate for absolute knowledge, then you must go with the results without any chance of deviating. That's why the Five Maidens are loath to look on samsara for knowledge. It's also why everyone wants to keep the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Yozi]] Sacheverell asleep; whether he looks upon the present or the future with utter clarity depends on whether he's asleep or awake, and as long as he's asleep, free will is an option.

 

== [[Theatre]] ==