History Literature / Foundation

* BiggerBad: The Mule casts a long shadow over the later stories, even two centuries after his death, because his appearance on the Galactic stage so completely shattered the Seldon Plan, it becomes something of a question mark if the Plan is even still functional afterwards. [[spoiler: It is, thanks to the XanatosSpeedChess and GambitRoulette pulled off by the Second Foundation to get the Plan back on track, but that's not common knowledge.]]

** The Merchant Princes arc has Foundation politicians Sutt and Manlio, who are still clinging to the religious power that the Foundation had been using previously but is beginning to die off, so they try to weaken the blossoming Traders by sending an agent to undermine Master Trader Hower Mallow during his mission on Korell, a world staunchly against the Foundation's religion. During the last third of the arc, after Mallow has defeaten his political opponents and outmaneuvered Korell, he is faced by the planet of Korell itself, which has declared war on the Foundation. Mallow simply uses the power of money by declaring a nuclear embargo on Korell, and without even calling the Foundation's military force at all Korell is forced to surrender not long after.

** Notably, the character who mentions this has doubts that Sol may be where Humanity originated [[note]]It is, by the way. Sol is the name of our Sun[[/note]]

* EurekaMoment: Bayta has been thinking about the fact that she felt desperate both during the Time Vault event and in Neotrantor. When recently [[{{Brainwashed}} converted]] Han Pritcher reveals to them that the Mule was the one that caused the desperation in the Time Vault, she makes the connection that [[spoiler:Magnifico, the half-idiot jester she has been friends with, is actually the Mule]].

** An in-universe historian mentions the Sol system as a possible place of origin for humanity, but in a tone and context which makes it clear that it is just barely taken seriously, and that Arcturus is considered the low-odds bet.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Emperor Argis XIV, who later befriends Hari Seldon in ''Forward the Foundation.''

* MortonsFork: How the Empire is defeated. [[spoiler: The internal situation of the Empire is such, that any Emperor who will try to go against the Foundation himself will have to either return home or lose the throne to a rebel. Therefore, only an Imperial general can threaten the Foundation. However, if the general is strong enough to challenge the Foundation, yet didn't take over the Empire himself, that means the Emperor is one who knows how to remain in power... which includes removing any underling who might grow strong and popular enough to challenge him - like, for example, by becoming a conqueror.]]

* MultistageTeleport: In ''Foundation's Edge'', Foundation long-distance space travel is done one relatively short jump at a time, after which a ship must calculate the next jump. The calculations can take days. These "short" jumps are still hundreds of lightyears, but traveling all the way across the galaxy in one jump risks collisions with stars or other obstacles.

** Likewise the Foundation's religion of science was overtly this [[spoiler: But really a tool of the Mayor.]]

** Seldon has no bodyguard in "The Encyclopedists," nor is he a "laughingstock," as is established in ''Forward the Foundation''.
** There are no rebellions at the start of "The Encyclopedists," nor is there any mention of chaos and the idea of the Empire being in decay is still absurd, whereas the Empire's decay is clearly visible in ''Prelude to Foundation'' and ''Forward the Foundation''.

** The second half of ''Foundation and Empire'' and the first half ''Second Foundation'' deal with the Mule, a nearly unstoppable conqueror who successfully defeats Seldon and shatters the plan to near beyond saving. The Mule is miles above ''anything'' the Foundation has ever faced, not to mention ''Terminus falls for the first and only time ever in its history''. Yes, the ''Foundation losses to him''. He does this with relative ease, outsmarts Foundation's insurgents and starts his plan of tracking down the legendary Second Foundation, which is surrounded in myth and rumored to be able to defeat him. As a whole, the Mule is less of an ArcVillain and much more of the series all round BigBad, since his actions are so devastatingly severe that his influence is still extremely notable even 200 years after the Second Foundation just ''barely'' defeats him. As a matter of fact, ''every single following arc and story in the series'' clearly feels his actions and is deeply influenced by his mark on history.
** The second half of ''Second Foundation'' has a silent showdown between the First and Second Foundations, with the First being notably more antagonistic, since they have become extremely paranoid of any psychic since the Mule and thus want to destroy the Second, which is an entire nation of psychics. Simultaneously, the whole thing is happening at the same time an impeding war with the remnants of the Mule's empire and its current leader, Lord Stettin is about to blow up. [[spoiler: The Second Foundation manages to masterfully trick and outmaneuver the First into thinking they have been defeaten, while Lord Stettin is a mere cover up who has been manipulated from the beginning by a Second Foundationer, the whole war being a simple set up farce.]]

** The first half of ''Foundation and Empire'' has the last grand general of the empire, Bel Riose as a massive threat, so far completely unrivaled, who is fully immune to the Foundation's previous tactics, as political maneuvers are useless on him, the Foundation's religion is long dead and nuclear embargo can do nothing to him as he has empire tech. On top of this, he manages to severely weaken the Foundation's hold on the outer sector, taking several world systems and even managing to siege the Foundation's doorstep by taking some of its inner core worlds. Notably, hes also the VillainProtagonist and surprisingly likable, being fairly noble and philosophical, not to mention his main concern is reigniting the glory of the Empire, with no ulterior motives whatsoever,[[spoiler: which makes his pathetic and inevitable at the hands of inner Empire politics defeat rather heartbreaking]]

* CanonWelding: The Foundation, Empire, and Robot series were originally three different universes that were later merged into one.

* ConflictKiller: Right in the middle of the Empire's final collapse, when the Second Foundation isn't expecting it, The Mule arises out of nowhere.

** The ''Empire'' novels suggest that Terminus was settled before the events of ''Foundation'', while it is established in ''Foundation'' that it was previously unsettled.

** The original trilogy makes much mention of nuclear weapons being the mainstay of space fighting. When discussing [[spoiler:how Earth came to be radioactive]], Pelorat makes mention of an officer who once suggested using nuclear weapons and was lynched for the suggestion.

* SillyReasonForWar

* WorthlessYellowRocks: Played with. A Foundation trader is captured by a tech-hostile neobarbarian ruler, who demands a large quantity of gold for his release. The trader's associates question the ruler's demand for gold (why would he want something that useless, and why would someone base currency on it?), but sell him a machine which can transmute base metals into gold on the sly. Then they film him using it and use the footage to blackmail him into releasing the trader, loosening the restrictions on technology, and buying up the traders' stock of technological knick-knacks (mostly kitchen appliances and jewelry) at a hideous mark-up. They accept payment in iron and tin, and leave laughing over how grossly inefficient matter transmutation is.

** The first half of''Foundation and Empire'' has the last grand general of the empire, Bel Riose as the biggest threat. Notably, hes also the VillainProtagonist and surprisingly likable, since his main concern is reigniting the glory of the Empire, with no ulterior motives,[[spoiler: which makes his pathetic and inevitable defeat rather sad]]
** The second half of ''Foundation and Empire'' and ''Second Foundation'' deal with the Mule, a nearly unstoppable conqueror who shatters the Seldon Plan.

** The very first story arc in ''Foundation'', with Seldon in
** The first half of''Foundation and Empire'' has the last grand general of the empire, Bel Riose as the biggest threat. Notably, hes also the VillianProtagonist and surpringly likable, since his main concern is reigniting the glory of the Empire, with no ulterior motives,((spoiler: which makes his rather pathetic and inevitable defeat rather sad]]

* HiddenVillain: The Mule.

* ContrivedCoincidence: in "The Merchants", when Hober Mallow visits Korell, he is in a out-of-the-way spaceport, with the nearest city 150 kilometers away, when a priest appears, immediately followed by a mob. This fact clues Mallow in the fact that [[spoiler:it is a ruse played by the Korell leaders to prevent the religion of science from spreading to their world.]]

* CrimeConcealingHobby: Magnifico has playing a Visi-Sonor as a hobby, giving numerous concerts to the Foundation elite. In the end, it turned out he is the BigBad, and the instrument served as an AmplifierArtifact for his EmotionControl powers, allowing him to demoralize the Foundation leaders.

* MortonsFork: How the Empire is defeated. [[spoiler: A weak general of the Empire could never conquer the Foundation. If a general was strong, but the Emperor was weak, then the general wouldn't be targeting the Foundation, he'd be going after the hot seat at home, and if he succeeded, he'd be too busy running the Empire to worry about conquest. So only a strong general under a strong Emperor could be a threat to the Foundation. But as is made clear, a strong Emperor is only strong because he makes sure that he has no strong subjects. The Empire is doomed.]]

As the decades pass and their power grows, the leaders of "the" Foundation time and again find themselves facing a major crisis, usually having to do with their relationships with the semi-barbarous star systems which surround them, the political rubble left behind by the Empire's ongoing collapse. Seldon's "Plan" dictates that each crisis will force events down one inevitable path, which will invariably cause a drastic change in both the Foundation itself and its relationship with the nations surrounding it. During these Crises, the long-dead Seldon always steps in with a [[DeadManWriting recorded message]] telling the current generation of Foundationers what they need to hear (or a summary of the recent past), as he has predicted it decades previously. All goes well, at least as far the Foundation is concerned, until a very singular individual nicknamed "The Mule" suddenly appears on the galactic scene...

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: It turns out that [[spoiler: Magnifico was The Mule]].

* AveMachine: At one point, the Foundation creates its own techno-religion to manipulate the populace of its neighbors. It's noted that the Foundation didn't ''mean'' to make a religion, that just turned out to be the best way to get their extremely backwards, unscientific neighbors to accept modern technology again. You can almost see the anonymous Foundationer creating the religion off-screen when he finally slaps his forehead and cries AWizardDidIt. It turns out to be a great way to distribute the technology while maintaining control of the actual knowledge base and science that makes it work.

* CargoCult: At one point, the Foundation creates its own techno-religion to manipulate the populace of its neighbors. It's noted that the Foundation didn't ''mean'' to make a religion, that just turned out to be the best way to get their extremely backwards, unscientific neighbors to accept modern technology again. You can almost see the anonymous Foundationer creating the religion off-screen when he finally slaps his forehead and cries AWizardDidIt. It turns out to be a great way to distribute the technology while maintaining control of the actual knowledge base and science that makes it work.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: At one point, the Foundation creates its own techno-religion to manipulate the populace of its neighbors. It's noted that the Foundation didn't ''mean'' to make a religion, that just turned out to be the best way to get their extremely backwards, unscientific neighbors to accept modern technology again. You can almost see the anonymous Foundationer creating the religion off-screen when he finally slaps his forehead and cries AWizardDidIt. It turns out to be a great way to distribute the technology while maintaining control of the actual knowledge base and science that makes it work.