History Main / CassandraTruth

A common staple of Disney and children's films, where the KidHero stumbles upon an [[AncientConspiracy evil conspiracy]] or a criminal ring and [[NotNowKiddo their parents and the police refuse to listen]]. Nothing left to do but save the day yourself.

Subtropes are IgnoredExpert and TheCassandra, where the character in question is in a position where they really ''should'' be believed, due to [[IgnoredExpert authority on the subject]] or a track record of accuracy, but still isn't. CassandraDidIt is when people believe the seer's visions (usually after they come true), but then blame the seer for making it happen. Another subtrope is the ContagiousCassandraTruth, which is when TheCassandra manages to convince one, maybe two other people, including an expert, but the community at large, and the expert's peers, will think that they're delusional liars. See also TheDissenterIsAlwaysRight, PoliceAreUseless. Contrast SarcasticConfession, where the character tells the truth but expects to not be believed.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', when the Huns emerge from the snow, Mulan is the only one who sees it. She returns to the city to inform Shang of this, but he doesn't believe her because she had earlier lied and posed as a man. The ordinary folk refuse to listen because she's a woman. In a twist of fate, Shan Yu and his army show up at that exact moment and take the Emperor hostage right in front of everybody.

** ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy'':
*** Played for drama. Xavier agrees that the vision of the aliens dying (that he got in a dream, as well as Jean) was not a made-up montage, but thought that it was just a visual metaphor of loneliness and abuse from some new mutant. It turns out that the visions were completely what they appeared to be.

* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Cassandra, as featured in ''Literature/TheIliad'', ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', the [[MissingEpisode lost epics]] of ''Literature/TheTrojanCycle'', ''Literature/TheAeneid'', and many others. Cassandra is portrayed as someone driven half-mad, tormented by visions of disasters she not only can't prevent, but can't even get anyone to take seriously. Despite being cursed by Apollo, she later became a priestess of Athena and was considered a pious and dedicated follower of the gods. When she died she was granted a worthy place in the afterlife.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** Jor-El in nearly every version of Superman's origin. The classic story is that he tells the Kryptonian High Council (or something like that) that Krypton is doomed and they must evacuate, but nobody believes him, so he's forced to send his infant son to Earth in a small rocket.
** Averted in the origin of Superboy-Prime from ''ComicBook/DCComicsPresents'' #87, where the Jor-El of the Prime Universe tells colleagues that Krypton is doomed, and everyone believes him, but bureaucracy gets in the way.
** ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'': Several millennia before the birth of Superman, Rao's prophet Jaf-El foretold that Kryptonians would have to be ready to leave Krypton eventually because their planet would be destroyed in the distant future. Unfortunately, his warnings would go unheeded.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron''. After stealthily X-Raying Lana Lang, Thara Ak-Var tries to warn Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}} there is something foul about her surrogate aunt, but [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] dismisses her former friend's words as a nutjob's nonsense (even though Thara clarifies she did not mean Lana was evil or sinful). Later, after they have made up, Kara finally listens to Thara and confronts Lana about her unknown malady.
** In ''Superman (Volume 2)'' #2, a computer programmer working for Lex Luthor ran extensive data on both Superman and Clark Kent into the system, in order to find a perceived connection between them. When the computer responds, "Clark Kent Is Superman", Lex promptly fires the programmer, [[EvilCannotComprehendGood refusing to believe that someone with Superman's powers would be satisfied with a "normal" life]].
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
** In a classic early issue, Spider-Man fights Doctor Octopus, is soundly defeated and unmasked...and no one believes Peter Parker can be Spider-Man. It helps that Peter was suffering from a bad flu and at nowhere near his strength, so folks think this was just him trying to be a hero.
** When he thinks he's lost his powers, Peter confesses the truth to his friends, who don't believe it. It turns out, it was just another flu and Peter brushes off the "confession" as him suffering a high fever.
** Debra Whitman is convinced Peter is Spider-Man, risking her life to prove it. Spider-Man finally comes to her, unmasks...and Debra laughs at how ridiculous this idea was and thanks Peter for putting on that "cheap costume" to shock her out of this.
** When Peter reveals his identity to the world in 2006, Flash Thompson refuses to accept "puny Parker" could be Spider-Man and this is some sort of ruse. He changes his tune when Peter lays him out in a dodgeball game.
* In ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'', Miguel point-blank tells his mother he's Spider-Man, showing the costume and "claws" and she still won't believe it.
* The first volume of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' has the superpowered main characters struggling with the fact that no one will believe that their parents are supervillains, resulting in them having to bring them down personally. Conversely, after the Pride are dead, their activities exposed, ''still'' few are willing to trust the Runaways, because of who their parents were.
* In ''ComicBook/Route666'', the main character is named Cassandra (usually called "Cassie") and suddenly starts seeing [[{{Masquerade}} a world of ghosts and horrific monsters]] preying upon humanity. No one else can see this, and so, in her struggles against them, she is also pursued by the police as a psychopathic killer.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
** Extremely minor character Harvey Who was portrayed as this. A member of the Royal Secret Service, he warned King Max Acorn over not trusting certain characters, including the original Robotnik. However, Max ignored those warnings as he had trusted the mystical Source of All for his guidance. Years later, when Max's son Elias had lost the throne, Harvey decided to help him as he realized he was in a better position to be king than his father ever was because he never used the Source.
* ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'': In the classic issue #181, before Murdock's SecretIdentity became public, even before Kingpin knew who he was, Bullseye figured out that Murdock was Daredevil, and even guessed that the chemical accident had given him his powers. When he tries to tell Kingpin, Fisk dismisses him as insane.
* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel:
** ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy'':
*** Played for drama. Xavier agrees that the vision of the aliens dying (that he got in a dream, as well as Jean) was not a made-up montage, but thought that it was just a visual metaphor of loneliness and abuse from some new mutant. It turns out that the visions were completely what they appeared to be.
* For many of the first few arcs of Volume 2 of ''[[Comicbook/XForce2008 X-Force]]'', [[Characters/X23LauraKinney X-23]] is constantly warning Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} that Angel is a liability they can't trust because of his SuperPoweredEvilSide. However Logan downplays her concerns, and insists Warren is under control. Sure enough, Archangel proves to be an uncontrollable wildcard that derails a couple of their operations. Logan immediately warns her not to even ''think'' of saying "I told you so," when she's proven correct.
* Characters/{{Deadpool|WadeWilson}} will loudly and repeatedly tell anyone who will listen about how they're all in a comic book, complete with critiques about either the plot or art style, but nobody listens. Granted, it doesn't help that he's genuinely insane otherwise.

* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates2015:'' Connor Sims, the Anti-Man, managed to attain a state of hyper-awareness when he gained his powers, [[spoiler:and learnt all reality was in a "cage."]] Unfortunately, his attempts to explain this to people never work, partly because Connor [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went insane because of what he saw]], and also because [[spoiler:something is making sure no one hears his explanations]]. Then, come ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'', ''someone'' does start listening. [[spoiler:It's Thanos.]]
* ''ComicBook/TheRedTen'' has twisted mass-murdering villain Oxymoron telling long-time nemesis crimefighter Red that [[spoiler: her super-team, the Alliance, is made up of monsters with some responsible for crimes even worse than Oxymoron's.]] This sets Red to find the truth.

* The [[CanonDiscontinuity dubiously canon]] events of ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'' were eventually explained away as the main antagonists, [[MegaCorp the Beyond Corporation]], abducting the protagonists to a slightly more absurd AlternateUniverse for a year -- [[CerebusRetcon with the added baggage]] that after they got back, shell-shocked and deeply affected by the FakeMemories and [[DenserAndWackier bizarre situations]] they had to deal with, no one would believe that what they went through actually happened.
* In the ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' story "The Tarnished Angel", former supervillian Steeljack tries to warn the heroic Honor Guard about the BigBad's plan to attack the city, but they refuse to believe him. At least at first.

[[quoteright:190:[[Webcomic/BugMartini https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bug_martini_cops_n_zombies_9185.png]]]]

** Kaito isn't believed when he proclaims that neither he nor Mai committed the murder on trial based on a hunch, but he is correct; neither of them did.[[spoiler: It was Kirumi]].

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Creator/JimSterling in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQsc14gDPbk Turning Players Into Players]];;. Given how many predictions they've made about the video game industry that had come true despite people pooh-poohing them, they started referring to themselves as the Cassandra of video games.

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--> '''Quackity:''' I've been telling everyone that he's bad all fucking along and no one goddamn believed me!

* : In ''[[http://www.starharbornights.com/ Star Harbor Nights]]'''s Toymakers arc, fully half the conflict could have been avoided if everyone had just believed Claire's observations and her resulting conclusions.
* WebVideo/ShortsWars: Riggy, the character that Danno used in his shorts, is unable to tell him about the glitches before it's too late, as he thinks that it's another one of Riggy's pranks.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Creator/JimSterling in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQsc14gDPbk Turning Players Into Players]]. Given how many predictions they've made about the video game industry that had come true despite people pooh-poohing them, they started referring to themselves as the Cassandra of video games.
* The Rageaholic/Razorfist stated, on the topic of ''Film/RogueOne'' and ''Franchise/StarWars'' as a whole (at least regarding the Sequel Trilogy), that the franchise was likely to be going down hill in both quality and profitability after seeing the box office results of it (and being put off by what he saw as poor quality), infamously saying 'You will BEG for Creator/GeorgeLucas in the end', to much criticism of fans of ''Rogue One'' and ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' (which he also panned). Then the [[ContestedSequel incredibly divisive at best]] ''Film/TheLastJedi'' came out, which suffered a heavy box office drop-off a week after the movie played, [[AcclaimedFlop despite lavish praise from mainstream critics]], and was hammered with criticism by much of the fandom ([[BrokenBase with some strident defenders]]).

* In ''WebOriginal/TheCrawlspace'', no one believes the narrator about [[spoiler:the crawlspace creature]] and her roommates seem to think she's having [[MistakenForInsane some sort of breakdown]]. [[spoiler:She's the [[SoleSurvivor only one]] who escapes in the end.]]