History Main / NotSoOmniscientAfterAll

* In ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'', the Fates brag early on that they know everything... but at the end, are caught off-guard when Hercules [[spoiler:gains immortality just as they were about to cut his thread of life]].

* [[MagnificentBastard Vetinari]] of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fame definitely fits the bill, if rarely. He occasionally [[ObfuscatingStupidity plays dumb or ignorant]], but he is almost always already aware of everything and gently steering it into an ideal outcome, which makes moments in which he is ''genuinely'' clueless entirely surprising to those that know him. See ''Discworld/{{Thud}}!'' and his reaction to [[Awesome/{{Discworld}} what A.E. Pessimal did during the riot]].

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Goku is surprised that [[TheWatcher King Kai]] with his antennae [[MySignificanceSenseIsTingling can observe events of significance]] in the Milky Way, and telepathically contact anyone in that range; doesn't know where the new homeworld of the Namekians even is, much less be bothered to keep tabs on them, because he assumed that he "knew everything." He was also somewhat alarmed by him knowing nothing of the Cell situation on Earth. King Kai basically retorted that he has a lot of "important godly things" that occupy his time. [[TheGodsMustBeLazy Goku found him napping in a lawnchair when he met him again]].

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Sauron ''can'' see anything in the world, but can't see everything at once. Much like a person, he has to focus on one particular thing at a time. Therefore while he can see anywhere in the world, this doesn't help him if he doesn't know where to look. The heroes use this to their advantage by distracting his attention from Mordor, allowing Frodo and Sam to pass through unnoticed. There are also a few creatures in Middle Earth who are capable of blocking his site from certain areas, but in such cases he knows he is being blocked. He's also capable of misinterpreting what he sees.

** Doctor Strange, however, outshines them all, to the point where pretty much everyone thinks that he actually is omniscient (a belief he has carefully cultivated). His one-time apprentice Wanda Maximoff claims that to her knowledge, his predictions have never failed to come true ([[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments except for when he was claiming she would clean her room]]). As it is, he's implied to be a combination of {{Seer}} and time traveller with the ability to see possible futures. His reputation mostly comes from his habit of knowing what's going on, always being where he needs to be and dropping cryptic hints about what people should do next - which [[ManipulativeBastard inevitably means that they end up doing what he wants them to do, whether they know it or not, or want to or not]]. While this doesn't usually seem to do much, since he's planning on a multi-millennia scale, the finale of Book I reveals what it looks like when he gets all of his ducks in a row.

* ''Fanfic/LinkedInLifeAndLove'': [[spoiler:Roman Torchwick]] was only go through with Cinder's plan to destroy Vale because he assumed Ozpin knew about it. Cinder wasn't exactly subtle; she was even running trains down the old subway tunnels, and how could Ozpin miss ''that?'' [[spoiler:Roman]] figured the cops and the Huntsmen would show up right before the end, giving him a chance to escape while stealing as much as he could in the process, with no real harm done. He is horrified when he realizes Ozpin knew ''none'' of this, meaning Cinder's plan had a much higher chance of succeeding than expected.

* ''Roleplay/{{Communication}}'' has Consensus: the representative of the players of this questline, meaning that this enity knows every single canon event that occured or will occur in the world and character that they find themselves inserted...the keyword being ''canon''. Because these quests [[AlternateUniverse take place in a world that can differ ever-so slightly in the stories they know]], Consensus has more than once found themselves [[DidntSeeThatComing blind-sighted when something unexpected happened.]]

* Xiaomei from ''Manga/EdensZero'' is this entirely by her own choice. Although she is rumored to know everything across all of time, she really only knows the past and present with absolute certainty. Her knowledge of the future, on the other hand, is restricted to [[MultipleChoiceFuture various probabilities]] that (bizarrely enough) all hinge on the outcomes of battles, because a.) knowing everything that will ever happen would be boring, and b.) [[SexIsViolence she gets off on watching people fight]].

* Xiaomei from ''Manga/EdensZero'' is this entirely by her own choice. Although she is rumored to know everything across all of time, she really only knows the past and present with absolute certainty. Her knowledge of the future, on the other hand, is restricted to [[MultipleChoiceFuture various probabilities]] that, bizarrely enough, all hinge on the outcomes of battles, because a.) knowing everything that will ever happen would be boring, and b.) [[SexIsViolence she gets off on watching people fight]].

* ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany'''s heroes ask [[RandomNumberGod Phred]], why he can't just kill [[AGodIAm Kree]][[EvilOverlord dor]]. Phred gives 3 reasons: Kreedor is the [[DavidVersusGoliath better]] fighter, the other gods don't trust [[ChaoticNeutral Phred]], and manipulating the [[OddJobGods odds]] of success is [[BlueAndOrangeMorality just wrong]].

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* In ''Disney/{{Hercules}},'' the Fates brag early on that they know everything... but at the end, are caught off-guard when Hercules [[spoiler:gains immortality just as they were about to cut his thread of life]].
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* Happens on and off with the First Evil in Season 7 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. There are plenty of instances that show the First Evil is both omniscient and omnipresent, as it seems to be constantly lurking in the background watching the protagonists (even multiple places at once), and knows exactly how to mess with each character with great success. Yet at other times, the protagonists seem to surprise it with their plans, such as Andrew wearing a wire to reveal the First Evil's plans, and the Slayers and Potentials opening up the Hellmouth to lead an offense. Really, whether or not the First Evil is omniscient is entirely up the writer and seems to be turned on and off like a switch depending upon the needs of the plot.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The Doctor can often be perceived as omniscient; he's one of the most intelligent beings in all of the universe, with an excellent knowledge of culture, science, history and language, and manipulative enough to initiate many a {{plan}}. To many, he appears like a God figure, with titles such as 'The Lonely God' and 'the Oncoming Storm' (or if you're a Dalek, ''[[TheDreaded the Destroyer of Worlds]]''). But he ''can'' make mistakes, and he makes them hard.
** In the episode "Midnight", he is constantly expected by the human characters to know exactly what is going on, but as he insistently tells him time and time again, the [[NothingIsScarier entity]] they encounter is something he literally knows nothing about.
** The episode "The Satan Pit" demonstrates that even some of the Doctor's assumptions about the fundamental nature of the universe can be entirely wrong when he encounters something that makes an excellent play at being Satan, which uses script so old that even the TARDIS can't translate it.

* Despite being able to see the future and being established as both a ManipulativeBastard and TheChessmaster, Rumpelstiltskin from ''Series/OnceUponATime'' is continually blindsided by various foreign-factors that continue to catch him by surprise, including [[spoiler:falling in love with Cora and Belle (and the various hurdles and complications that come from it)]], meeting [[spoiler:Zelena]], [[spoiler:the prophecies boy that is his undoing being his own grandson]], etc. Justified, considering [[spoiler: the Seer that granted him his prophetic abilities explained that he sees multiple probable futures and is forced to cherry pick the most likely of them to make any sense of it]].

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* From the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode "Godfellas," when Bender meets a being who may or may not be {{God}} (it isn't sure itself):

* An interesting variation happens in Webcomic/Magellan. Goanna went to a psychic for info on a symbol and she told her to take an airplane overseas. Goanna does so and the plane nearly crashes but is saved by the hero Epoch. When Goanna returns to her (quite angry) the psychic repeatedly screams "You should be dead!". A later story revealed she ''was'' right. Goanna should've died on that flight and she did, in an AlternateTimeline.

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* Doc Scratch in of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' is ''functionally'' omniscient. He still has gaps in his knowledge. Though due to his enormous intellect he's often able to fill those gaps in with near-perfect deductions, so he doesn't mind so much... usually. His gaps are mostly caused by the PowerOfTheVoid and {{Alternate Timeline}}s. He also has some trouble with Spades Slick and [[spoiler: the author]].

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* ''Roleplay/{{Communication}}'', has Consensus: the representative of the players of this questline, meaning that this enity knows every single canon event that occured or will occur in the world and character that they find themselves inserted...the keyword being ''canon''. Because these quests [[AlternateUniverse take place in a world that can differ ever-so slightly in the stories they know]], Consensus has more than once found themselves [[DidntSeeThatComing blind-sighted when something unexpected happened.]]

* ''Roleplay/Communication'', has Consensus: the representative of the players of this questline, meaning that this enity knows every single canon event that occured or will occur in the world and character that they find themselves inserted...the keyword being ''canon''. Because these quests [[AlternateUniverse take place in a world that can differ ever-so slightly in the stories they know]], Consensus has more than once found themselves [[DidntSeeThatComing blind-sighted when something unexpected happened.]]

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Goku is surprised that [[TheWatcher King Kai]] with his antennae [[MySignificanceSenseIsTingling can observe events of significance]] in the Milky Way, and telepathically contact anyone in that range; doesn't know where the new homeworld of the Namekians even is, much less be bothered to keep tabs on them, because he assumed that he "knew everything". He was also somewhat alarmed by him knowing nothing of the Cell situation on Earth. King Kai basically retorted that he has a lot of "important godly things" that occupy his time. [[TheGodsMustBeLazy Goku found him napping in a lawnchair when he met him again]].

* There are a few verses in TheBible that imply God isn't really omniscient as is commonly thought. For example: Hosea 8:4 talks about how the Israelites set up Princes and without God knowing about it. There's also a few verses throughout where he asks the human characters things like where someone is. That said, these are in the Old Testament, as it wasn't until the advent of Christianity that the whole idea of God being Omnipotent and Omniscient (as opposed to just really powerful and smart) became the official doctrine.

** Evil versions occur with the Goa'uld and the Ori. The best, and therefore most recurring, way to convince the Goa'uld's or Ori's followers that their gods are false gods? Show they're not omniscient, usually by figuring out a way to kill the former or kill the Priors of the latter.

* Happens on and off with the First Evil in Season 7 of ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. There are plenty of instances that show the First Evil is both omniscient and omnipresent, as it seems to be constantly lurking in the background watching the protagonists (even multiple places at once), and knows exactly how to mess with each character with great success. Yet at other times, the protagonists seem to surprise it with their plans, such as Andrew wearing a wire to reveal the First Evil's plans, and the Slayers and Potentials opening up the Hellmouth to lead an offense. Really, whether or not the First Evil is omniscient is entirely up the writer and seems to be turned on and off like a switch depending upon the needs of the plot.

* [[MagnificentBastard Vetinari]] of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fame definitely fits the bill, if rarely. See ''Discworld/{{Thud}}!'' and his reaction to [[Awesome/{{Discworld}} what A.E. Pessimal did during the riot]].

*** Fortunately, he gets back on the ball afterwards, the above incident being due to a rare blind spot in his Sight. Proof of this comes when he gives Harry a book called ''[[TropesForDummies Blood Magic for Morons]]'' to express his opinion of how Harry [[spoiler: told Ron and Hermione about the Dark Phoenix]]...well before Harry had actually done the deed.

-->"Excuse me, are we talking about ''the same'' [[ObstructiveBureaucrat A.E. Pessimal]]? [[NonActionGuy Little man, very clean shoes]]?"

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', the Force can give its practitioners, both Light and Dark side, visions of the past, present, and future. Canonically, the future is "always in motion" and difficult to predict with any kind of accuracy. Still, Emperor Palpatine loves to crow about how "everything has proceeded according to my design," right up until his right-hand man throws him down a shaft to his death, which he presumably did ''not'' foresee.

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* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has the canonical example of Albus Dumbledore, while the likes of Loki and Nick Fury can also make an excellent stab at it.
** Doctor Strange, however, outshines them all, to the point where pretty much everyone thinks that he actually is omniscient (a belief he has implied is carefully cultivated). As it is, he's implied to be a combination of {{Seer}} and time traveller with the ability to see possible futures. His reputation mostly comes from his habit of knowing what's going on, always being where he needs to be and dropping cryptic hints about what people should do next - which [[ManipulativeBastard inevitably means that they end up doing what he wants them to do, whether they know it or not, or want to or not]]. While this doesn't usually seem to do much, since he's planning on a multi-millennia scale, the finale of Book I reveals what it looks like when he gets all of his ducks in a row.
** And chapter 8 through 15 of the sequel, ''Ghosts of the Past'', show what it looks like when he's flying blind... it's not pretty.
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* This is the plot twist in William Shakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. Macbeth uses the advice three oracles give him to conquer a nation. He was given a warning that "No man born of woman" will be able to kill him. He is later killed by MacDuff, who "was untimely ripped" from his mother's womb.