History Main / WiseTree

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/{{Pocahontas}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grandmother_willow.png]]]]

* Grandmother Willow from ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'' is a wise tree, who acts as a spiritual guide to Pocahontas throughout the film.

* Kabu from ''Anime/KirbyOfTheStars''. Kabu appears as an enemy in most of the games, but in the anime, he's much bigger and serves as an oracle and guardian to the Cappies (like the Deku Tree). He also houses the warp star when it's not in use. He may technically be a wooden statue, although he appears to be a tree.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** The Great Deku Tree and the Deku Sprout from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. Another Deku Tree, implied to be the grown-up Sprout itself, appears in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'', and the original tree or an ancestor may be in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', though it doesn't speak.
** The Maku Tree from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames''. The ''Ages'' Maku Tree hilariously subverts this by becoming a ClingyJealousGirl for Link after he goes back in time to rescue her younger sprout self from Veran's forces.
** Implied to a more downplayed extent with the Koroks in ''The Wind Waker'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', where the larger and presumably older individuals such as Hestu have more tree-like growths on their bodies.
* The Grand Oak from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is a tree possessed by a demon from a different plane, which talks in couplets. Being Dragon Age you can beat it up instead. It's definitely more of the neutral variety though it will trade you for a neat magical staff.
* The Wood Spirit in ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'''s prologue.
* The Dryad in ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryI'' protects the forest and gives the hero advise on how to make a dispel potion.
* The Green Man, a forest spirit who appears as an ancient, large oak in ''VideoGame/ConquestsOfTheLongbow'' will help Robin if he will provide the answers to his riddles.
* The Tree of Wisdom in ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' gives the player tips, cheat codes that have very little effect on gameplay, and plant puns. It doesn't have a face, though.

** ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' had Yggdrasil the great tree of wisdom, who was also a Master in the game and could teach you various spells and stat changes. It's implied that party member Peco is one of its seedlings.

* VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'s Harold, to an extent.
* Wise Wisterwood of ''VideoGame/PaperMario''. You could go to the door either to go back to Toad Town or to get a hint as to what you should be doing next.
* Jurak in both ''VideoGame/DarkCloud'' games. Also, Father Yggdra in White Knight Chronicles II.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/GoldenSun''. You meet a giant tree, but then discover he's [[WhenTreesAttack not the]] nicest fellow. At least, not until you defeat the anger in his heart.
** Laurel in ''Dark Dawn'' also counts. Upon meeting her, [[TheWisePrince Amiti's]] immediate reaction is to bow in worship, then scold the others for not doing the same. "We're in the presence of an enlightened being. Bow your heads!"
*** And Laurel promptly rebukes him for doing so, since she doesn't really see herself as special. She's just like any other sapient, psychic tree spirit who's lived for hundreds of years...
* Nyarlim [[spoiler:and Akara]] from ''VideoGame/KingdomsOfAmalurReckoning''. They are part of a group of twelve such trees which are all the offspring of the original WorldTree of the setting.

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has spirit trees, which are capable of speech, can transport others between spirit trees and have protective properties.

* Treant is a talking tree from ''Videogame/DarkCloud'' who gives Toan a sword to defeat the Killer Snake guarding the way in a local dungeon.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuest'', a giant tree in the Alive Forest blocks the way to the town of Windia. When Benjamin first enters the forest with the thief/ninja Tristam, they can't get past it. Later, when Benjamin returns with Kaeli, she is able to talk to the tree, who promises to grant them passage if they can cleanse it of monsters.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=87opru0g5bilu8gv946bf993

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deku_tree.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Giant [[NonMammalianHair wooden mustache]] optional.]]

-->--''Website/TheGrandListOfConsoleRolePlayingGameCliches''

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}''. The dad tucks his son in, but the son is worried about the scary tree outside. Dad tells him a story about it being an old, wise tree. After the dad leaves, the tree comes to life, crashes through the window, grabs the kid and tries to eat him. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qweaPhmWqo Take a look]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wisw_2490.jpg]]]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]

* The Wisdom Tree in the Demon Square challenge on the kids game show ''{{Raven}}''.

* There's the Wisdom Tree in the Demon Square challenge on the kids game show ''{{Raven}}''.

* The animals in ''ComicStrip/OverTheHedge'' often consult [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Tree That Knows Stuff]].

* ''TheWiseMansFear'' has an ''evil'' Wise Tree called the Cthaeh, though it might be a being sealed within the tree, not the tree itself. It possesses [[TheOmniscient perfect knowledge of possible futures]] and absolute malice toward everything. While all the advice it gives to heroes is absolutely true, it will always steer the listener toward disaster. Could be considered an inversion in that the knowledge is non beneficial. Or at least a subversion of the common benevolent trees.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'': To try and understand Inuyasha's recently manifested SuperpoweredEvilSide, Sesshoumaru visits an old {{youkai}} that had served his father: a two-thousand year old magnolia tree-spirit. Bokusenou not only guesses what Sesshoumaru has come to see him about, but was expecting it.

* In some variations of the Cinderella fairytale, including the version recorded by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm, instead of a fairy godmother there's a tree that was planted at Cinderella's dead mother's grave and Cinderella's dead mother's spirit lives in the tree and grants her wishes.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}''. The dad tucks his son in, but the son is worried about the scary tree outside. Dad tells him a story about that being an old, wise tree. After the dad leaves, the tree comes to life, crashes through the window, grabs the kid and tries to eat him. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qweaPhmWqo Take a look]].

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', the [[LizardFolk Argonians]] worship the Hist, an [[TimeAbyss ancient]][[note]]"ancient" as in "they have existed on the planet before linear time was ''conceived of''"[[/note]] and possibly {{omniscient}} spore-reproducing trees. The can communicate with each other via deep, interconnected root systems and can communicate with the Argonians via visions transmitted in their sap, which the Argonians drink to learn and grow. Through an unknown means, they are able to see into the future. Sensing the upcoming [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion Crisis]] and [[Literature/TheElderScrolls the trials]] that [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim would follow]], they recalled most of the Argonians in Tamriel to the Black Marsh to combat these threats and, through their sap, changed the Argonians physically to [[TookALevelInBadass better prepare them as weapons of war]]. Following the [[ColonyDrop Red]] [[ChekhovsVolcano Year]] destruction of much of Morrowind, homeland of the Dunmer who kept many Argonians as [[SlaveRace slaves]] for countless generations, the Argonians [[TheDogBitesBack invaded and took over]] the parts that remained habitable. In the 4th Era, due to their increased strength, the leadership of the Hist, and the valuable [[FantasyMetals ebony]] deposits in Morrowind, the Argonians are one of only two forces of Tamriel believed to be capable of defeating an invasion by the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Aldmeri]] [[AntiHumanAlliance Dominion]]. (The other being [[ProudWarriorRace Hammerfell]].)

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', the [[LizardFolk Argonians]] worship the Hist, an ancient[[note]]ancient as in they were around on the planet since before there were any living beings on the planet[[/note]] species of sentient spore-reproducing trees. While they don't talk to people per se, they can communicate to a select few individuals through visions if they drink their sap. [[TheTheocracy The An-Xileel]] are a chamber of the government in Argonia who hold almost absolute power simply because they consult with the Hist; through the visions of the Hist, they managed to recall almost all Argonians in Tamriel because the Hist foresaw [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion the events of the Oblivion Crisis]], and managed to force [[GodOfEvil Mehrunes Dagon]] into a retreat from Black Marsh, and then to entirely wipe out the Empire's presence in the province. And then they invaded Morrowind just before the eruption of the Red Mountain. Just because some trees told them to.

* The weirwoods of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' are believed by the Northmen and the Wildlings to be the physical representations of their gods, although it is strongly suggested that that belief is the heavily altered memory of a time when human Greenseers could possess trees and see and hear through them, and in any case, the trees do not talk, although the more religious among the Northmen and Wildlings do believe that their gods do commune with them indirectly through the weirwoods. In any case, this example at least plays with the trope.
** Later it is revealed that weirwoods store the souls of dead greenseers, and at least one living greenseer can communicate with people through the trees. Which is much closer to playing the trope straight.
* The Ellcrys in ''Literature/TheSwordOfShannaraTrilogy'' was a sapient tree, although she rarely communicated with others; she seemed pretty wise.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'''s NPC with the highest given level (level 20 druid) is a talking tree, not a "treant," but an ''animated tree''.

* There was one of these in ''BreathOfFireII'', though it was suffering from LaserGuidedAmnesia, and getting the information you needed from him required a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to defeat the monster responsible for said amnesia.
** BreathOfFireIII had Yggdrasil the great tree of wisdom, who was also a Master in the game and could teach you various spells and stat changes. It's implied that party member Peco is one of its seedlings.

* Nowhere had a Wise Tree on ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. It gave Courage wise advice, but Eustace was jealous of it. Courage was forced to stop defending it to help Muriel, and it was cut down. It planned this however, and the cure for Muriel's sickness was in its branches.

* ''Videogame/Ys'' has the Roda trees.

* ''Videogame/YsMemoriesOfCelceta'' has the Roda tree, which can only talk to animals(thankfully a member of that species can also talk to humans).

-->--''TheGrandListOfConsoleRolePlayingGameCliches''

* The father trees of the Pequeninos turn out to be this in the sequel novels to Orson Scott Card's ''EndersGame'', or at least some of them do. Human is pretty wise, but maybe not all of them are, and one of them turns out to be a murderer--not at all a stupid murderer, mind you, but not exactly wise.
* The weirwoods of ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' are believed by the Northmen and the Wildlings to be the physical representations of their gods, although it is strongly suggested that that belief is the heavily altered memory of a time when human Greenseers could possess trees and see and hear through them, and in any case, the trees do not talk, although the more religious among the Northmen and Wildlings do believe that their gods do commune with them indirectly through the weirwoods. In any case, this example at least plays with the trope.

* The Green Man, a forest spirit who appears as an ancient, large oak in ConquestsOfTheLongbow will help Robin if he will provide the answers to his riddles.

* Jureimon (Cherrymon) is this in ''Anime/DigimonSavers'' and ''DigimonWorld''. He also played a sinister version of this in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', serving as a villainous advisor for Pinocchimon (Puppetmon), who kills him when he says something (entirely true) that [[PsychopathicManchild Pinocchimon]] doesn't want to hear.