History Main / WindsofDestinyChange

* Judai of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' proves to be capable of [[ScrewDestiny defying the predictions]] of Saiou, an otherwise omniscient seer.

** Weaponized by [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-7000 SCP-7000]], [[CosmicPlaything "The Loser"]]. He spent his entire life believing himself to be TheJinx, when it turns out he was actually an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]; rather than inflicting bad luck on himself and those around him, in actuality he acts as a sponge absorbing it from other people. The Foundation exploited this by having him tag along on operations to ensure that things would always go right for their task forces.

* A member of the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'''s [[CannonFodder D-class personnel]] kept surviving experiments with Keter-class anomalies by seemingly impossible coincidences. Further experiments confirmed that he could influence probability, and he was designated [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-181 SCP-181]]. Then it was found that his influence could cause [DATA EXPUNGED], so now he's in solitary confinement.

* The [[TheChosenOne Ta'veren]] from ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series have this to varying degrees (which also varies arbitrarily over time), but they have absolutely no control over it and no way to turn it off. Things can get ''really'' weird across an entire city around them at times.
** Moreover, the same power in fact pushes them (and those around them) ''towards'' their destinies, for better or worse. Not so much ScrewDestiny as a superpower as YouCantFightFate.
*** The power seems to have specific effects for each of the ta'veren. Mat's power seems to directly tweak probability, one time actually [[spoiler:rolling a perfect roll with a set of dice ''weighted'' to land slightly lower than a perfect roll]]. Perrin's seems to tweak people, making them say or do things they wouldn't normally do. Rand just causes everything in a very wide area to go haywire just by being there long enough.
** Late in the series, there are signs that ''ta'veren'' can have some control of their power and literally twist the Pattern of Ages to their will. Rand starts threatening to ''will people to death'', and though he doesn't actually do it, it's treated as a real possibility. It may also counter the Dark One's taint on the land itself. For example - [[spoiler:it appears that all the foodstuffs in a ship's hold are rotten. Until Rand shows up and the bags opened from there on out are fine. They just ''happened'' to check only the rotten ones before]].
*** This seems to have something to do with the ''ta'veren'''s intent. When Rand is despairing and verging on destroying the world himself, he stops causing any good events, only bad ones. After he gets some EpiphanyTherapy, the opposite seems to happen.
* Aornis Hades from the ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' series had the latent ability to cause ''extremely'' unlikely misfortunes: being struck by lightning, or being crushed by a car jettisoned from a {{zeppelin|sFromAnotherWorld}}. This is explained as some sort of entropy manipulation. It causes all manner of bizarre coincidences beforehand that can tip off the intended victim, but that's only useful if you know about it.
** It can even be used in your favor: Thursday at one point tries to find a certain person's telephone number, but the phone book lists more than 50 people with that name. She just pierces the page with a pencil right before leaping out of the way of a car - and, of course the pencil hit the right one.

* The magic in C. J. Cherryh's ''Sword of Knowledge'' books consists entirely of causing the target to have good or bad luck.
* Literature/{{Beowulf}} himself says, "Fate often saves an undoomed man, if his courage is good." Implying that most anyone can alter their own fate by their actions... but if you're doomed you're doomed.
** It should be noted that this is actually an aversion; in the context of the poem, 'doom' means 'unchangeable destiny'. So you can change your fate, unless that fate has been specifically written.
* The main character, Bink, in the first ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' book ''A Spell for Chameleon" had a magical ability never to be harmed by magic; he had no control of this power and the power always managed to make it look like his survival was purely by chance so for a long time everyone assumed Bink had no magic ability at all. The rationale for this subtlety seemed to be that if Bink's enemies knew he was invulnerable to magic they would use non-magical means to harm him, so his own magic talent kept itself hidden. But considering that any method of discovering his talent would be magical, and therefore influenced by his talent, this may be a slight PlotHole (or not - not all means of finding things out are magical, just the most convenient ones).
** Later books seemed to indicate that Bink's power grew from just protecting him from magic, to making him the luckiest person to ever live. Some characters speculate that his powers actually managed to manipulate the TrueNeutral EldritchAbomination that serves as Xanth's God and source of all magic, and that his luck also partially protects his many descendants as well. Essentially, Bink's power is unconsciously causing the universe to play GambitRoulette in his favor.
** Magician Murphy's magical talent also in the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series: "[[MurphysLaw Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.]]" Unfortunately, while he can control the end result he is seeking, he cannot control [[DeathOfTheHypotenuse what will go wrong]] in order to make that happen. Initially he uses it for himself, but later uses it on another's behalf (causing the other person's enemies to suffer). [[spoiler: His HeelFaceTurn basically came when he had to invoke his talent on behalf of ''his son'', Grey, who was drawn to Xanth on his own and about to be forced to serve the morally-ambiguous Com Pewter—the curse worked when Grey became an apprentice under Good Magician Humphrey, whose obligations trump anyone else's.]]
* In ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' novels by Lukyanenko curses on people result in an attraction of bad luck to that person. Cursing is an ability even normal people can do - and is why the Light Others are so careful about swearing about someone doing something.

* {{Justified|Trope}} the ''hell'' out of in Creator/GregEgan's novel ''Literature/{{Quarantine}}''. Something involving quantum mechanics, wavefunction collapse, and an "eigenstate mod." I could try to explain it more, but we'd just both end up confused. Unfortunately, since this particular gift is distributed as a body modification, chaos breaks out when a city's inhabitants receive the mod: almost every single citizen temporarily becomes a RealityWarper, and though the rest of the world is apparently unaffected, [[RealityIsOutToLunch Reality Is Still Out To Lunch]] in that particular city.
* The Lazy Guns from Creator/IainBanks' ''Literature/AgainstADarkBackground'' worked by causing a unlikely event when you pulled the trigger on someone: instead of simply being shot, an anchor might fall on them and kill them. If shot at a ship, a tidal wave could destroy it.
* In Creator/TanyaHuff's ''Literature/KeepersChronicles'' series, the Keepers have the ability to alter reality by changing the probability that certain actions can or will occur. For example, the heroine can take her familiar, a talking cat, into a restaurant to eat by changing the probabilities that anyone inside the restaurant will notice anything out of the ordinary. Or, she can get a noisome person to vacate her presence by increasing the probability that they need to get to the nearest toilet, immediately.
* Fitz, from Creator/RobinHobb's ''[[Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings Farseer]]'' and ''Tawny Man'' trilogies, is a Catalyst. A Catalyst is periodically born in conjunction with a White Prophet who can see possible futures. The Catalyst alters circumstances just by existing, causing the possible futures the Prophet can see to multiply and better enable him to guide the world down the right path. It's rarely a [[BlessedWithSuck pleasant experience for the Catalyst.]]

* In RealLife quantum mechanics, they have done tests that show that the very results of a test are dependent on the ''presence or absence of someone or some instrument '''watching''' the test.'' That is, a combination of YourMindMakesItReal and this trope on a very visible level.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Tottemo! Luckyman'', the eponymous character takes this UpToEleven, his only ability is luck, and has the body stats of little kids, his punches are so slow that it takes half a minute to fully extend his arm, but that is all that he needs to be the most powerful SuperHero in the entire universe and the other 10 universes and the larger universe and stopped an invasion from the Inner Larger universe by pure luck. He can even save billions of dead people and recreate an entire universe(the 4th) when at "Infinitely Lucky Mode", that is when he combined with his home star, the Lucky Star. Problem is, if he is not under the light of the star, his bad luck can kill him without him doing anything at all.

* In ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'', Becky Sharpe (AKA Hazard) develops this ability, which is, at first, unintentional. Basically, being unlucky all her life, she is suddenly incredibly lucky. Unfortunately, the quantum field she's generating is affecting everyone else around her, making them unlucky. The effect gets worse the more she uses her luck, and the field is expanding. Things turn UpToEleven, when she visits a casino and goes on a winning streak, resulting in the city nearly suffering another particle accelerator explosion. Barry's attempts to stop her invariably end up being thwarted by increasingly improbable events, such as him slipping on marbles at superspeed or a sign falling on him, causing him to accidentally put the power-dampening handcuffs on himself. She's eventually stopped and put in Iron Heights and is actually glad that she's no longer hurting anyone. Later, after Barry helps the bus metas break, out, the others turn on Barry. Becky blocks him. When the others try to attack her, she tells them "good ''luck'' with that". She then proves capable of controlling her power, causing a series of DisasterDominoes that disables the others, while causing Amunet to kill all of [[spoiler:Warden Wolfe]]'s men.

* ''{{TabletopGame/GURPS}}'': Luck and its upgrades: Extraordinary Luck, Ludicrous Luck, and [[UpToEleven Super Luck]]. Serendipity is closer to BornLucky than this trope, and a beneficial Destiny is closer to BecauseDestinySaysSo, but either ''could'' fall under this trope depending on the GM's interpretation.

* Nell (and to a lesser extend, her little sister Rachel) has this as her power in ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]''; her units are naturally more likely to score extra damage, and her CO power takes it UpToEleven, allowing such impossible feats as infantry taking out a platoon of Megatanks.

* ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'''s Milfeulle Sakuraba has what could be considered an unconscious version of this trope, only turned UpToEleven. When her luck is good, it's insanely good (for example, her EstablishingCharacterMoment in the first game has her winning the grand prize in a convenience store lottery ''five times in a row''); however, when her luck is bad, it's horribly bad (a picnic being ruined due to a fire alarm being tripped, followed by the CoolShip she and her crewmates serve aboard [[FTLTravel warping out]] in the middle of an enemy fleet, followed still by her personal starfighter's engine crapping out on her). Her luck is also apparently finite, since it is said that she used all her life's worth of good luck to alter the outcome of the first game's FinalBattle. Of course, the release of the sequels seemingly retcon that piece of information.

** His powers go [[BornUnlucky both]] [[BornLucky ways]] too. During one of his Free Time Events, he recounts how [[spoiler: he and his parents boarded a plane, which was then hijacked. Luckily, a fist-sized meteorite hit and killed the hijacker [[MoodWhiplash and Nagito's parents]], leading to Nagito inheriting all of his parent's sizable fortune]]. His desensitization to his Talent leads him to to view it in an "all's well that ends well" light, much to the confusion of those around him. [[spoiler: It's also stated his luck comes in waves, huge amounts of good, followed by huge amounts of bad. The reason his good luck is consistent throughout the game? It's because it's balancing out the "bad luck" from the fact that he has [[UpToEleven both stage 3 cancer and dementia, and a year to live at most]].]]

* In ''Literature/SuperPowereds'', Nick has this power. During [[spoiler: the attack on Lander]] at the end of Year 3, [[spoiler: Nick's powers get taken UpToEleven and he can control individual strings of fate]]. Before going through the procedure that turned him into a Super, his power was random and could be either good or bad. For example, just prior to being recruited, he won a lottery, got hit by a truck while celebrating, landed in a bouncy castle, and the air compressor exploded. The owner sued him, but his lottery winnings were just enough to cover the lawsuit and the hospital bills. Also, during the climactic fight in Year 1, he uses his power to [[spoiler:cause the bad guy's truck to have every conceivable malfunction ''at the same time'', turning into a mangled wreck in the space of a few seconds]]. During his one-on-one fight with Chad, the strongest fighter in the class, Nick simply closes his eyes and guesses on when he should dodge, as Chad tries to attack him. Amazingly, it works for a few minutes, until it finally doesn't. But Nick has robbed Chad of a CurbStompBattle and the resulting psychological effect. From then on, Chad views Nick as a serious opponent.

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', Ichiryuu's main ability, Negative World, is a passive and simple version of probability manipulation: He inverts chance. He uses it in combination with techniques with a MillionToOneChance--under Negative World's effect, it becomes an almost guaranteed outcome. This backfires on him spectacularly when his opponent catches on and [[spoiler: not only tries unlikely moves of his own, but because Ichiryuu almost guaranteed death on his opponent--under normal circumstances--Negative World allowed him to keep living long enough to kill Ichiryuu.]]

** Hazard (apparently a common name for these types of characters) also senses when unlikely events are about to happen, which is usually a sign to get the heck out of the area. Kismet has magical abilities and the ability to teleport short distances. When she teleports, local probability goes haywire: an opposing fighter is either going to slip on something or score an easy one-punch knockout. Risk likes to use his ability to play pranks and cheat at games like pinball. [[ParodySue Murphy]] has this power, in theory, but doesn't have much control over it yet; she's as likely to get dumped on by her powers as anyone (hence her [[MurphysLaw codename]]). Jinx causes weirdness all around her, but has no conscious control of it at all yet. That is to say nothing of the cute little disaster that is Clover of the Three Little Witches (she's a wizard in the making all right, she just has this power ''on top'' of that).

* The Korean fan game ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaAnother'' gives Utsuro, whose fortune surpasses even Nagito's. Called ''Divine Luck,'' it grants him borderline RealityWarping abilities that always benefit him and those around him. However, this not only left him with [[VictoryIsBoring no sense of satisfaction or accomplishment, since he's always guaranteed to succeed]], but everyone he knew- including his own parents- got greedy and tried to exploit his Divine Luck for their own benefit, eventually forcing him to live alone on the streets.

** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'' has 2 stands weaponizing this trope: [[spoiler: [[TrickedOutTime King Crimson]] and [[NoSell Gold Experience Requiem.]] King Crimson can alter the future in the form of a RequiredSecondaryPower called Epitaph, while GER reverses the alterations done by King Crimson.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': The protagonist [[spoiler: Zayne Carrick]] has this "special relationship" with TheForce as explicit power, although he only learns about it [[spoiler: in the final arc.]]

* This is one of the ways TheForce can manifest itself in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe. Sometimes directly, as in the example above from the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' comic, with a character who warps chance. Sometimes indirectly, as with Anakin in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', who appeared to be a much better pod-racer than he actually was because he could see the future. Sometimes ''very'' indirectly as the Force takes you toward your destiny, [[YouCantFightFate willing or no]]. In a very meta way, this is what the Dark Side of the Force is. The Force is [[CrystalDragonJesus Space Daoism]], and the Light Side means living in harmony with the Force, following its plan for the galaxy. The Dark Side means living ''out'' of harmony, opposing the will of the Force and instead forcing it to your own will. So, by the Lucas definition, every Sith lord is actively using this trope.

Essentially, ScrewDestiny as a superpower.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan's'' ally/enemy/would-be LoveInterest [[ComicBook/BlackCatMarvel Black Cat]] invoked this ability in her debut, although it turned out she had actually visisted the scene beforehand and boobytrapped it to stage that she had superpowers. Then, after she decided that the BadassNormal routine wasn't going to cut it, she sought a favor from the Kingpin behind Spidey's back and he imbued her with the ability to negatively affect probability around her, in the first of her [[DiscardAndDraw on-again off-again relationship with superpowers]]. Spidey eventually had her {{Depower}}ed because she suffered PowerIncontinence with these abilities and so endangered him. This made her very angry with him, because he both failed to ask her beforehand and also stripped her of her powers when she was in the middle of a life-and-death struggle. In the early 2020s, she had cybernetic implants installed to give her back her bad luck powers. Alternative continuities have instead presented Felicia as a latent or unrealized mutant who can afflict others with bad luck, but may not yet have control over it.

* The {{Trope Namer|s}} ]comes from the signature chant in ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersUnitedTheyStand'' of Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch. It may seem like a pointless power, but [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower she's the only person who can consistently beat Ultron]].

* {{Trope Namer|s}} which comes from the signature chant in ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersUnitedTheyStand'' of Wanda Maximoff - aka the Scarlet Witch. It may seem like a pointless power, but [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower she's the only person who can consistently beat Ultron]].
* Jinx of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has this as a power, although she's only capable of creating bad luck. Of course, this usually involves wanton spontaneous destruction.

* Judai of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' proves to be capable of [[ScrewDestiny defying the predictions]] of Sartorious, an otherwise omniscient seer.

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Moe Shishigawara has a luck-based Fullbring. He boosts up his own luck, while bringing bad luck to others.

* In ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'', one of the Jedi abilities is "fate manipulation", which, in game mechanics terms, allows a player to reroll a die. The characters use this to varying effectiveness throughout the games.
** Although it takes a while for the ability to show up; it's first brought up as both a TakeThat and an JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant when Qui-Gon uses this ability while convincing Watto to help with his [[ASimplePlan simple plan]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', one type of caster is a Luckamancer. At one point a Luckamancer explains his magic by comparing units to dice. When one receives his boost, it only rolls max for the next combat it's in. [[spoiler: But that luck [[EquivalentExchange comes from somewhere]] and he posits that it's from other nearby units. Even friendly ones.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Vriska (after attaining [[spoiler:god-tier]]) gains [[RunningGag all of the luck. All of it.]] She literally has the ability to [[LiquidAssets steal luck]] and cause misfortunes (such as a floor collapsing underneath her opponent), or to manipulate random events like coin flips in her favor. She's convinced that this makes her more powerful than any of her teammates and even the BigBad of the comic, because it is [[TemptingFate impossible]] [[NothingCanStopUsNow for]] [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong her]] [[YouJustHadToSayIt to lose]].
** She can also weaponize this directly thanks to her weapon of choice being a set of enchanted d8 dice.
** Clover of The Felt, a rival gang to The Midnight Crew, has luck that in theory makes him very difficult to hurt (he states that a gun pointed at him would jam). Diamonds Droog gets around this by swatting Clover with a newspaper -- on the basis that you don't have to be that unlucky to be hit by a newspaper, it's kind of a grey area. (Although Cans, whose power is to be able to literally punch people into ''next week'', bursts in immediately.)
** Of course, [[spoiler: John]] gets in on the mix, gaining the ability to go back and change any unfavorable events or destines that may or may not occur.
** In fact, a good deal of the philosophy of the webcomic could be summarized as a conflict between this and YouCantFightFate.

* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/13p9/ Christina]] can cause "miracles" to happen, defined as [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane mundane events with a low posibility of occurance]].
** One of the [[ItMakesSenseInContext ghost wizards]] appears to be able to do this. He threatens to cast a spell that would stop the billions of coincidences required for someone to stay alive and well for years: [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/29p49/ "You will be cursed. The universe will turn its back on you."]] It's never made clear what exactly would happen, as he's thwarted at the last second, and it produces no obvious or explained effect even after he successfully casts it. [[spoiler: Dr. McNinja ''does'' ultimately end up "dead" as a result of the effect, with literally the entire world turning against him (including his parents, his brother and Gordito), but the final page makes it clear that while Dr. McNinja is dead, [[SecretIdentity Patrick Goodrich]] is alive and well.]]
* Fluke of ''Webcomic/TheYoungProtectors'' is able to give other people good luck, [[EquivalentExchange but he has to suffer some bad luck first]]. As an example, [[WatchThePaintJob totaling the car he just paid off]] gave him enough juice to save some bystanders from falling rubble.
* The aptly named ''Plot Twist'' from Webcomic/{{Acrobat}} has inhuman luckiness and an appropriately devil-may-care attitude as a result.
* Andrew Smith from ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' subconsciously creates order around him - for instance, if he throws a deck of cards behind him, they will land in a perfect deck in the right order. He's been known to abuse this in order to do things others can't do. When Annie and Kat can't throw their blinker stone so that it lands on a shore instead of in the river, they get Andrew to throw it. It hits a bird and falls directly downwards.
* This is the personal attribute of the eponymous ''Webcomic/HardcoreLevelingWarrior''

* Bernkastel, the [[MeaningfulName Witch of Miracles]], in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. Flexing her full powers (as she does for [[spoiler:Erika]] from the first Core Arc onwards) favors game pieces with lucky "coincidences" worthy of any MarySue. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for Battler, Bernkastel falls into the category of GoodPowersBadPeople.]]

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan's'' ComicBook/BlackCat had the (latent) mutant ability to cause "bad luck" to anyone who threatened her or her friends, with the unfortunate side effect of giving her friends rotten luck, as well.
** Also, when initially introduced, part of her schtick during a robbery was setting things up beforehand so that it would seem that those who chased her were falling prey to completely random acts of God.