History Main / BenevolentPrecursors

* The Ancients in the Franchise/StargateVerse are the poster boys for NeglectfulPrecursors, but season nine of ''Series/StargateSG1'' reveals they've been active on their own plane of existence hiding the humans of the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies from their {{evil counterpart}}s the Ori. At least until the SGC [[NiceJobBreakingItHero goes and screws that up]]. Meanwhile the Asgard, while unable to wipe out the Goa'uld due to their ForeverWar with the Replicators, place a couple dozen planets in the Milky Way under military protection, and soon ally with the Tau'ri and gradually introduce their technology to them.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' two-parter "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", the MonsterOfTheWeek--heavily implied to be Satan--is [[spoiler: [[SealedEvilInACan chained far, far underground]] on a planet orbiting a black hole. Should he ever be released, the planet will go spiraling into the black hole, killing The Beast.]]

The exact opposite of AbusivePrecursors: The SealedEvilInACan is clearly locked and labeled in every language they could think of, complete with handy pictures showing stupid mortals getting killed by said Sealed Evil, just to make sure the message gets through. And even if you DO manage to get through the five thousand doors locked with ThePowerOfLove and release the demon god, don't worry--they had a fail-safe in place where the seals on the one weapon capable of destroying it would be unlocked at the same time. Sure, these guys died out millennia ago, but at least they did their best to keep us from following them to the grave.

* All of Earth's PreCrisis superheroes to the current DC Universe especially the Monitor. They fought and defeated the Anti Monitor and sealed a single universe inside the essence of the Monitor. Then the universe was restarted twice with big bangs. None of the PostCrisis stories would have happened without the PreCrisis heroes. InfiniteCrisis then turns this into a strange case of the BenevolentPrecursors ''becoming'' the SealedEvilInACan.
* Urk's alternate universe in ''PaperinikNewAdventures'' has the local counterpart of the [[spoiler: Evrons]] teach medicine and science to the inhabitants of the Americas, leading to a confederation of hi-tech Indian tribes living in accord with nature while still capable of kicking the ass of the Viking invaders (whose technology is similar to the one of our XXI-century Earth).

* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' has the Grey Folk, a vanished race of magicians that lived in Alagaesia before the Elves arrived. They were powerful magicians but couldn't fully control sorcery because it was entirely nonspoken---a stray thought could cause a disaster. After a magical cataclysm that they had caused devastated Alagaesia, they sacrificed nearly all of their power to create the Ancient Language. According to Paolini, there are no pure Grey Folk left, but it would seem likely that [[spoiler: Angela and Tenga]] are HalfHumanHybrids descended from them due to their longevity and propensity for unspoken magic.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''

** In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', the Preservers are [[spoiler: the same, and after the Breen/Deferi story arc, back out and mingling]] with their descendants.

* The Forerunners from ''{{Halo}}''. Yes, they used galaxy-wide superweapons to destroy all life in the galaxy, but they really did try ''everything'' else first (getting to the point where obliterating Flood-infested worlds from orbit was a ''first'' resort, and their tactics got progressively ''more'' destructive from there) they just failed. They also clearly labeled the Flood and the Halos as dangerous--the Covenant just ignored them. After they fired the Halo Array, they even repopulated the galaxy with all the lifeforms they had indexed so that the galaxy wouldn't be devoid of sentient life.

** If the only evidence you have is the first and part of the second ''{{Halo}}'' games, they do appear either neglectful or outright abusive. Once you learn more, it brings their actions into a fresh light.
** ''TheForerunnerSaga'' makes it clear that they were [[spoiler: downright abusive. They displaced hundreds of native alien species just so that they could have better inhabitable systems to live in, wiped out ancient humanity's empire (though to be fair, humans did strike first and were possibly just as bad), were TooDumbToLive about the Flood and committed genocide against the Precursors.]] To be fair, the second book implies that [[spoiler:the Precursors [[AbusivePrecursors struck first]]]].
* In ''MassEffect'' the Protheans [[spoiler: attempt to leave behind warnings about the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]] to future organic races. [[AbusivePrecursors The Reapers]] destroy most of them, but a few survive. Those survivors also subverted the Reapers' primary way to activate the Citadel relay, forcing Sovereign to use a plan the current races have a chance to stop. It is also implied their actions spared several fledgling species from being wiped out with them (humanity being among them), when they destroyed records of certain locations.]]

* The Masari count towards this in ''UniverseAtWar'', guiding humanity's development and watching over them. When Earth is attacked by the game's Big Bad several alarms are tripped and the Masari begin coming out of hibernation [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant The results were predictable.]]

* The "Firstborn" featured in Sir ArthurCClarke's ''[[TheSpaceOdysseySeries Space Odyssey]]'' and ''Time Odyssey'' books are pretty much [[UrExample Ur examples]] for both this trope ''and'' AbusivePrecursors respectively. In ''Space Odyssey'' they are super-advanced aliens that made it their purpose to promote the development of intelligent life throughout the Galaxy. After they [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence moved on]], they left their Monoliths to continue their work in their stead.

* In the new ''Series/DoctorWho'' two-parter "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", the MonsterOfTheWeek, who's implied heavily to be Satan is [[spoiler: [[SealedEvilInACan chained far, far underground]] on a planet orbiting a black hole (hence 'The ''Impossible'' Planet'. Should he ever be released, the planet will go spiraling into a black hole, killing The Beast.]]
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': As seen in the ''Peacekeeper Wars'' post-series finale, the [[SealedGoodInaCan Sealed Good in a Can]] Eidolons. They can [[CharmPerson lull any other species into]] a receptive state, and [[TheEmpath read their minds]], to construct a good arguments, and help factions co-exist. Besides being basically Super-diplomats, they are the ones that [[spoiler: transplanted and genetically engineered early-Hominids, thus creating The Peacekeepers.]] They came back to the galaxy thanks to a [[InvertedTrope reversal of their]] CriticalExistenceFailure.

* The Jjaro of ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''. After the Jjaro's disappearance, [[spoiler: they either returned from hiding to help, or left an automated system to help the player defeat an {{Eldritch Abomination}} and save the universe.]]

* The Sosiqui created the Legacy of Time in ''JourneymanProject 3'' did their best to educate their chosen successors, humanity, in how to care for their gift. Even with the interference of other aliens, humanity managed to keep their legacy to the universe intact until a time would come when all races could utilize it in harmony.

* In ''FinalFantasyVII'', when some cosmic force gave the Cetra the Black Materia, a magical stone capable of destroying the entire Planet, they transmuted it into a form in which it could not be used: a giant pyramid-shaped temple. [[BellisariosMaxim (Just go with it.)]] The temple cannot be entered without a Keystone, which was supposedly hidden after the temple was finished. The temple itself is populated with bloodthirsty monsters and avatars of the Cetra to deal with trespassers. The room containing the device for un-transforming the temple has a sequential mural depicting the shit that's gonna go down if it gets used. As a last resort, if the Temple is changed back into the Black Materia, it crushes anybody inside, including the person that activates the device.
* The Orions in ''MasterOfOrion''. They [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away]] the [[OmnicidalManiac Antarans]] in a pocket dimension and left their own homeworld protected by the Guardian, in order to keep away races that [[YouAreNotReady weren't ready]] to handle their super-powerful technology.

* TruthInTelevision: Us, hopefully, with regard to our own SealedEvilInACan, nuclear waste. There are numerous people planning how to store the waste (which will be harmful for hundreds of thousands of years) in a way that will protect and warn our successors of its dangers no matter what.
** Further explanation: A site in Nevada called Yucca Mountain was studied as a possible tomb for the US supply of radioactive waste. The government researched how exactly one could build a clear "Do Not Open" monument that would last for thousands of years and still be understood. For numerous reasons including Nevada's objection, disputes over nuclear policy, and questions about geological stability, the project seems likely to be abandoned. At least it shows we care.
*** Some scientists have joked about hiding the nuclear waste behind multiple layers with multiple signs to remind the person trespassing to not go any further. They joke that if one of our descendants are dumb enough to go past that many signs then it will just be natural selection doing its job to rid the world of that idiot. Hopefully that won't happen as funny as it may sound now. Nuclear waste lasts for millions of years. We might well have died of plague, global warming, war or anything else. Whatever comes AFTER us wouldn't necessarily understand any language spoken today. Even if you include the idea that perhaps a circle with a slash through it universal the creature might be sufficiently non-human to view those warnings as not applying to whatever it is.
*** Ironically, one of the more popular solutions is to simply bury it deep underground in the middle of nowhere, shielded extensively by sturdy, radiation blocking material. By the time some future civilization finds it and is actually capable of reaching it through the sturdy shielding, they're probably capable of understanding that it's dangerous stuff with no practical purpose beyond "killing everyone who comes into contact with it"--likely via some kind of radiation detection. This whole setup has merit because any future civilization might completely misinterpret the warnings--designed to be clearly visible and obviously artificial--as something glorious, powerful, LostTechnology, or something else, due to a combination of ignorance, stupidity, cultural differences, desperation, etc. Or they just might ignore the warnings altogether. Thus, obscurity may just be better than any explicit and overt warning. Granted, if it were something like TheVirus or SealedEvilInACan (in the living being sense, not a "useless radioactive waste" sense), we'd likely outright obliterate the damn thing or hurl it into the sun. And provide [[RagnarokProofing Ragnarok proofed instructions on how to counteract it should it somehow appear anyway]].

* Most of the upgrades in ''{{Metroid}}'' Samus Aran finds during her adventures have been left there by the Chozo, who foresaw that she would be needing them in the future. With Samus's [[ParentalSubstitute relationship with the Chozo]] taken into account, this could almost count as an inversion of AbusiveParents.

** [[spoiler: However, come Assassin's Creed III, this is put to severe questioning. There's at least one precursor alive, Juno, and she has apparently passively manipulated the war between Templars and Assassins so she could be freed by Desmond Miles and rule anew after saving the world(Not to mention she made him kill Lucy, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking sends some really offensive emails all the game). Minerva appears and tries convincing Desmond to let the disaster happen, which would lead to another eternal cycle of humanity destroying itself over legends, myths and dogmas. It's unclear whether Juno is the last precursor alive, but if there are more and on her side, they most likely rate under AbusivePrecursors.]]

* The Precursors in ''StarControlII'', with some things. That bomb of theirs is labeled clearly enough for both the Utwig and the human scientists to figure out what it is. Their starship factory is user-friendly, and a certain other artifact is well-shielded.

* ''{{Lensman}}'' has the Arisians, who effectively countered the Eddorian meddling with pre-spaceflight Earth, provided the predecessor of the Galactic Patrol with a better FTL drive, created the Lens, which provided the Patrol with the means to effectively fight the Boskone drug-dealers, instituted a secret breeding program which eventually culminated with the Children of the Lens. And they did all this in the full knowledge that the Children would surpass them in mental power.

* The Mondoshawans ("Monduchivans" in the language originally spoken by Leeloo) from ''TheFifthElement''. They set up a [[AncientTradition secret order]] on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when WorldWarOne threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down by Mangalore warriors flying illegal starfighters supplied by Mr. Zorg. But even then, they had been clever enough to anticipate it, and hid [[spoiler:four out of five of]] the Elements somewhere else instead.

** They also get credit for successfully [[spoiler:lobotomising Satan by taking its mind out and putting it in two jars, leaving the Beast as just an animal.]]

* In the novelization of the film ''{{Alien}}'', [[spoiler:Science Officer Ash]] ''explicitly'' states that the Space Jockey aliens (in whose ship the alien eggs are first found) set up the transmission the ''Nostromo'' received as a warning to other ships to stay away (a fact that [[spoiler:Ripley]] discovered only too late to avoid disaster), and calls them "a noble people" for leaving said warning. Given what we have seen of those bastards in ''{{Prometheus}}'', it is safe to say that he was ''[[AbusivePrecursors dead wrong]]''.

** Slightly subverted in ''MassEffect3''. [[spoiler:The Prothean party member]] reveals that the Protheans were actually a ProudWarriorRace that dominated the galaxy before the Reapers arrived, and they were mainly trying to preserve their empire.
** This subversion is debatable, given that this understanding is based on a ProudWarriorRaceGuy born 50 years into the war with [[AbusivePrecursors aforementioned Reapers]] and admitted to being a product of his time. Depending on what AlternativeCharacterInterpretation you buy into about the Protheans, given the new information on them [[spoiler:it could easily be argued that the Protheans were AbusivePrecursors themselves, and that their conflict with the Reapers was EvilVersusOblivion.]]

* The Ancients in the Franchise/StargateVerse are the poster boys for NeglectfulPrecursors, but season nine of ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' reveals they've been active on their own plane of existence hiding the humans of the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies from their {{evil counterpart}}s the Ori. At least until the SGC [[NiceJobBreakingItHero goes and screws that up]]. Meanwhile the Asgard, while unable to wipe out the Goa'uld due to their ForeverWar with the Replicators, place a couple dozen planets in the Milky Way under military protection, and soon ally with the Tau'ri and gradually introduce their technology to them.

* TheInheritanceCycle has the Grey Folk, a vanished race of magicians that lived in Alagaesia before the Elves arrived. They were powerful magicians but couldn't fully control sorcery because it was entirely nonspoken---a stray thought could cause a disaster. After a magical cataclysm that they had caused devastated Alagaesia, they sacrificed nearly all of their power to create the Ancient Language. According to Paolini, there are no pure Grey Folk left, but it would seem likely that [[spoiler: Angela and Tenga]] are HalfHumanHybrids descended from them due to their longevity and propensity for unspoken magic.

* Those Who Came Before in the ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'' series started out pretty abusive what with creating and enslaving humanity with their Pieces of Eden. The combination of a slave revolt and a solar flare that nearly destroyed all life on Earth changed that. Before dying off, Those Who Came Before worked together with humanity to rebuild the world, and they left behind tools and knowledge (in the form of the Pieces of Eden) to give humanity a fighting chance when the next solar flare hits Earth.

* The Mondoshawans ("Monduchivans" in the language originally spoken by Leeloo) from ''TheFifthElement''. They set up a [[AncientTradition secret order]] on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when WorldWarOne threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down by Mangalore warriors flying illegal starfighters supplied by Mr. Zorg.

** TheForerunnerTrilogy makes it clear that they were [[spoiler: downright abusive. They displaced hundreds of native alien species just so that they could have better inhabitable systems to live in, wiped out ancient humanity's empire (though to be fair, humans did strike first and were possibly just as bad), were TooDumbToLive about the Flood and committed genocide against the Precursors.]] To be fair, the second book implies that [[spoiler:the Precursors [[AbusivePrecursors struck first]]]].

* In the novelization of the film ''{{Alien}}'', [[spoiler:Science Officer Ash]] ''explicitly'' states that the Space Jockey aliens (in whose ship the alien eggs are first found) set up the transmission the ''Nostromo'' received as a warning to other ships to stay away (a fact that [[spoiler:Ripley]] discovered only too late to avoid disaster), and calls them "a noble people" for leaving said warning. Given what we have seen of the trailers for ''Prometheus'', it is possible (even probable) that this 'canon' statement could end up being {{Jossed}}.

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** They also get credit for successfully [[spoiler:lobotomising Satan by taking its mind out and putting it in two jars, leaving the Beast as just an animal.]]

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** Slightly subverted in ''MassEffect3''. [[spoiler:The Prothean party member]] reveals that the Protheans were actually a ProudWarriorRace that dominated the galaxy before the Reapers arrived, and they were mainly trying to preserve their empire.

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* In the novelization of the film ''Alien'', [[spoiler:Science Officer Ash]] ''explicitly'' states that the Space Jockey aliens (in whose ship the alien eggs are first found) set up the transmission the ''Nostromo'' received as a warning to other ships to stay away (a fact that [[spoiler:Ripley]] discovered only too late to avoid disaster), and calls them "a noble people" for leaving said warning. Given what we have seen of the trailers for ''Prometheus'', it is possible (even probable) that this 'canon' statement could end up being {{Jossed}}.

* ''StarTrek''

** In ''StarTrekOnline'', the Preservers are [[spoiler: the same, and after the Breen/Deferi story arc, back out and mingling]] with their descendants.

** Slightly subverted in ''MassEffect3''. [[spoiler:The Prothean party member]] reveals that the Protheans were actually a ProudWarriorRace that dominated the galaxy before the Reapers arrived, and they were mainly trying to preserve their empire. To a lesser extent, it also shows [[spoiler:the Protheans didn't save

*** Ironically, one of the more popular solutions is to simply bury it deep underground in the middle of nowhere, shielded extensively by sturdy, radiation blocking material. By the time some future civilization finds it and is actually capable of reaching it through the sturdy shielding, they're probably capable of understanding that it's dangerous stuff with no practical purpose beyond "killing everyone who comes into contact with it"--likely via some kind of radiation detection. This whole setup has merit because any future civilization might completely misinterpret the warnings--designed to be clearly visible and obviously artificial--as something glorious, powerful, LostTechnology, or something else, due to a combination of ignorance, stupidity, cultural differences, desperation, etc. Or they just might ignore the warnings altogether. Thus, obscurity may just be better than any explicit and overt warning.