History Main / YouCantFightFate

Sometimes this can turn out to be odd in certain {{Freaky Friday|Flip}} type TimeTravel stories. There can be a gazillion outcomes for everyone...except the one thing that the Time Traveller wants to change (saving one particular loved one, hometown, etc.) So everyone else in the cast may have good or bad results in different Alternate Timelines; but Fate is saving all of its energy to prevent a positive outcome for ''just one person,'' because [[JerkassGenie Fate don't take kindly to having it's hand forced.]]

* Miyuki Tezuka/Kamen Rider Raia from ''KamenRiderRyuki'', a psychic who claims his visions are always accurate, believes this. [[spoiler:When he foresees the death of his friend Shinji Kido/Ryuki, however, he lies and tells Shinji that he foresaw his own death. During a later battle, Miyuki [[TakingTheBullet takes the metaphorical bullet]] for Shinji, averting his own prediction but turning his lie into a SelfFulfillingProphecy.]]

*** Another variant for another Sentai is another Sixth Ranger of ''MiraiSentaiTimeranger'' [=TimeFire=] who is also destined to die. Here it's not as specific. [=TimeFire=] will die, but as the ranger and not the person, meaning anybody could fulfill this destiny as [=TimeFire=]. The original [=TimeFire=] found this out and did his best to make sure somebody else took over for him ASAP. Sure enough the new [=TimeFire=] dies in the battle he was destined to die in, but the original's selfish scheme is discovered by the other Rangers, who promptly kill him anyway.

[[folder:Films]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', the antagonist peacock Shen ordered the massacre of the entire panda population in China because of the prophecy that he will be brought down by a warrior in "Black and white". In the end, his efforts to change his fate became the very beginning of his downfall (Shen's parents banished him out for it) and sets up the chain of events that will fulfill this prophecy.
** "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."
** The Soothsayer does acknowledge that this will only happen if Shen continues on his current path. So he ''could'' fight fate, he just tried to fight the wrong part of it.
** Extra irony points because Po, the one destined to defeat him, doesn't even know that Shen EXISTS until a week before he fights him. Shen assumes that Po is looking for revenge for the deaths of his parents and his entire people, when as far as Po knows, he's only there because Shen stole a bunch of pots and took over a city on the other end of China and has no external reasons for vengeance.

* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'', Hades is given a prophecy by the Fates that Hercules will defeat Hades' rule over Mt. Olympus in 18 years. You can guess how THAT went down!
** And yet, when Hades had Hercules trade away his strength for 24 hours, he also broke his spirit, so he almost succeeded in removing him from the game as a fighter. And THEN he had the bright idea of sending the Cyclops to eliminate Hercules for good, thus prompting Meg to go get Phil, thus leading to Hercules's victory, thus leading to Meg getting hurt, Hercules gets his strength back, and the Titans are thrown for a loop. (So close, and then you had to kill him right then!)

* An ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' episode has the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Chaos convinced that Fate is on Aladdin's side after hearing about his many victories against impossible odds. This upsets him, to say the least, and that's when the episode gets a little more serious.

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', it's totally possible to fight Fate. But look out, he can turn people to stone and his {{power level|s}} is around 3,000, so...what? [[IThoughtItMeant Wrong Fate? Oh. Um...never mind, then]].
** Of course, recent events show that [[spoiler: even [[CrazyAwesome Jack]] [[BadAss Rakan]] has a hard time, given Fate's [[RealityWarper abilities]].]]
** And in the most recent chapter, it turns out [[spoiler: ''there are six of him'', two of which are unaccounted for. And they can be brought back from the dead due to their nature as constructs]]. Unless your last name is Springfield, it seems, you really ''can't'' fight Fate. And even then...

*** They're both wrong, because their positions were absolute. [[TakeAThirdOption Messy reality sits somewhere in between.]] And that was the whole point. At the time of their fight, both of them were living subversions of their own position. Neji masters the main branch's secret forbidden technique which he was not supposed to be allowed to learn, on his own. He beats up Hinata, where a properly dutiful side branch believer in the inevitability of fate would have forfeited match to let the main branch candidate advance. And Naruto of course had the source of his power implanted into him when he was baby...

* Present throughout ''BoosterGold'', but particularly in the issue where he tries to keep Barbara Gordon (Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}) [[Comicbook/TheKillingJoke from getting shot by]] SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker. He tries and fails to stop the event from happening multiple times before accepting that there are some things he isn't capable of changing because of solidified time (i.e. changing the past purposely, already extremely dangerous in "normal" cases, becomes impossible because certain events are literally too important to change, such as preventing Barbra Gordon from being crippled, thus preventing her from becoming Oracle, or saving BlueBeetle, preventing the Max Lord / Checkmate conspiracy from being revealed).

** Of course, in ''Revolutions'', Neo tells the Oracle about the Architect's warnings, and she [[spoiler:responds that the Architect is full of crap and can't predict the future worth a damn. Guess what? Zion is not destroyed, and the war comes to a permanent end.]]

*** Actually, in the first Terminator film, it was Skynet that was trying and failing at fighting fate. Reese's plan was pretty much keeping the status quo. In his own words, "We'd won." That's why Skynet sent Arnie back in the first place.

* The ''Film/FinalDestination'' series is a variation, which basically says "If you're supposed to die, you will".

* [[{{Satan}} The Devil]] in the form of the Antichrist Franco Maccalusso in the ''Film/{{Apocalypse}}'' series pretty much knows he's doomed for the Lake Of Fire, and so decides to [[TakingYouWithMe take as many souls with him]] in the Tribulation through the MarkOfTheBeast.

** And it's pretty much the premise of Literature/LeftBehind and all Christian-related end-times fictional stories.

*** Definite lampshading in the former. The Prophecy's method of revealing information (concealing it in cryptic words until the right moment) is pretty much a necessary ploy to keep Belgarath (who hates the implications this trope) from doing things he's not supposed to.

* This is one of the two overriding themes in all of Creator/ThomasHardy's work, the other being FromBadToWorse. Of course, Hardy did believe in a philosophy called "fatalism", in which this trope is ''the'' central tenet.

** Running tally: [[spoiler:Joffrey is dead, Tommen's fate is largely dependent on her own (outlook not good), and Myrcella is surrounded by people who, while they don't wish her harm, will use her to gain power. Sansa Stark is being groomed for rulership by Littlefinger, Margaery Tyrell isn't dead yet, and let's not forget Dany Targaryen. ''And'' she has begun to alienate Jaime--also her younger brother, if only by minutes--while Tyrion yet lives]].
** On the other hand, The Stallion That Mounts the World, a prophesied warrior destined to become the greatest of kings and lead the Dothraki across the sea died, stillborn. Unless of course, the prophecy actually referred to Dany and the ones speaking got it wrong. Given that this is apparently the case with Stannis and Melisandre, it's quite possible.

** Note: Lister, who was foretold would kill Cassandra, wasn't dating Kochanski but it was foretold that he would kill Arnold with a harpoon gun as 'Rimmer' died of a heart attack after being told he would, but it was actually the captain of the squad wearing Rimmer's jacket with Rimmer's name on it. This was Rimmer's attempt at screwing destiny. This was all part of Cassandra's scheme as she knew she would die and rather sees 'visions' of the future rather than actual predictions as some of her 'predictions' are unclear even to her and thus attempts to take down whoever she can before she dies.
** Future Echoes. Basically each character sees "future echoes" which are events happening in the future, which will happen to the characters at some point as the ship is going past light speed. As they go faster past it, the echoes are in the more distant future. At one point, Lister sees the Cat with a broken tooth. Lister runs off to find the Cat to prevent it, and just as the Cat is about to eat the robotic fish inside the tank (which would of course, break his tooth), the two struggle, with Lister trying to stop the Cat eating the fish. In this struggle, the Cat knocks his tooth off a corner of the ledge where the tank is, thereby breaking his tooth anyway.

** ''Every'' DealWithTheDevil ends with hell, no matter if you're a guest star or one of the leads. Well, they did save the one guy who only made the deal to save his wife...but no one since. Of course, as the fourth season opener reveals, [[spoiler: you can still get out with a little help from above.]]

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' features a variant across several series- you ''can'' change the future, but it makes things worse. [[FromBadToWorse Much worse.]] In ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'', a robot goes back in time to prevent a war that was to happen two years later. It happened the next year instead. To say that [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace the war]] ended well is [[BittersweetEnding pretty much lying]].
** For a Sentai example, the original Sixth Ranger Burai of ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' is told shortly after his introduction that he will die in 40 hours. This can be halted for awhile so long as he doesn't try to fight the bad guys but he needs to save the others often and whenever he does more of his remaining time ticks away. Just about every moment he appears in has somebody trying to find a way to prevent this, but they eventually find out that no, not even the gods can save him, his time has come. Sure enough he dies shortly before the finale, although he managed to make peace with himself and his impending death and dies with no regrets.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', [[spoiler: you ''literally'' fight fate, or rather, FATE.]] Of course, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero things don't exactly go smoothly afterwards...]]
** You get several opportunities (and multiple playthroughs) to try and avoid [[spoiler:the stabbing scene]] which was foreshadowed in the opening sequences. It doesn't work, of course.

* In ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' the Scroll of Fate dictates the fate of everything in existence. The only ones who can fight fate are the Nephalem (the player characters) since the Scroll of Fate doesn't mention them. Their fate is literally unwritten. [[spoiler:This is good news for Heaven, since the Angels are otherwise destined to fall to the Prime Evil.]]

* Even if Ange from ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' [[ScrewDestiny changes the past and helps Battler come home]], [[spoiler:Battler still won't have come home, because [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble it already didn't happen that way]]]].
** Though in the canonical ending, [[spoiler: Battler is one of the only two survivors of the incident on the island, and the whole series is basically how he tries to figure out what happened during those two days on Rokkenjima. The whole scenario is flipped around: No matter what happens, everyone but Battler and Eva are going to die on the island since that's simply how it happened.]]

* Happens all the time in ''Webcomic/HitmenForDestiny'' for example [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/thorsby/destiny/series.php?view=archive&chapter=39639 here]]. Characters who have prophecies predicting their death tend to die right on time ([[spoiler:though sometimes they die earlier than predicted, destiny being fallible and even damageable]]).

* The MegaCrossover FanWebcomic ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' uses a highly meta version of this and BecauseDestinySaysSo. The characters are aware of their fictionality, the stories they are from AND the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality so the destiny that says so and/or the fate they can't fight. More directly: [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} Jareth]] desperately tries to be a hero but [[RunningGag always fails]] and even got [[SuperPoweredEvilSide villainous]] [[ParanoiaFuel backlash]] because of it. [[Film/{{Zombieland}} Tallahassee]] tried to escape his {{canon}} to bring back his son...[[TearJerker and failed]].
* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' has [[spoiler: Sarda]] espouse this philosophy. This is due to [[spoiler:his failures at TimeTravel]], thinking that something that happened cannot be avoided. [[spoiler: Of course, Chaos turns that on its head.]]

** And yet, it should be noted that when Hades had Hercules trade away his strength for 24 hours, he also broke his spirit, so he almost succeeded in removing him from the game as a fighter. And THEN he had the bright idea of sending the Cyclops to eliminate Hercules for good, thus prompting Meg to go get Phil, thus leading to Hercules's victory, thus leading to Meg getting hurt, Hercules gets his strength back, and the Titans are thrown for a loop. (So close, and then you had to kill him right then!)

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]": Temple Fugate is a man with LackOfEmpathy that confides counselor Hill he fears that he will lose an appeal that will ruin his company. Hill notices that Fugate is a disciplinarian in the HarmonyVersusDiscipline conflict and that he is tense and haggard, and that could raise suspicions on the judge, so Hill advises Fugate to loosen up and relax by getting out of his routine for a few minutes. Unfortunately, Fugate is also a CosmicPlaything: Whenever he does AllAccordingToPlan, he gets NoDelaysForTheWicked, and whenever he tries the IndyPloy, the Universe enforces DisasterDominoes. Fugate is so desperate he takes Hill's advice and DisasterDominoes made him be late to the judge and be ruined. Fugate becomes the ClockKing and goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on Hill, refusing responsibility about his own actions, conveniently forgetting, as TheFundamentalist ScheduleFanatic he is, that he believed since the beginning he was going to be ruined no matter what.

* In the ending of ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny 2'', [[spoiler:Kyle STILL ends up meeting Reala in the very same place they did before despite what happened after the final battle. Coincidence?]]

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* Creator/JaneYolen's ''Literature/GreatAltaSaga''. Jenna, destined to be TheMessiah for her people, eventually accepts that she is "the Anna for this Turning".

If the prophecy comes true because of being made (in the most common scenario, because of everyone's attempts to prevent it), it's a case of a SelfFulfillingProphecy. If the universe appears to self-correct any attempt at change, then OntologicalInertia is in play. In any case, on the SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate, stories where YouCantFightFate register as Type 1 on the scale.

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', it's totally possible to fight Fate. But look out, he can turn people to stone and his [[PowerLevels power level]] is around 3,000, so...what? [[IThoughtItMeant Wrong Fate? Oh. Um...never mind, then]].

** The original series, at least in the dub, had a lot of YouCantFightFate with talk about things being fated to happen, but 2nd season ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' went with ScrewDestiny with Jaden (Judai) having the power to defy fate. Somewhat similar deal with talk between Goodwin and Yusei in 5Ds.

* Subverted in the crossover Comicbook/{{Spawn}} / {{Wildcats}}, where future versions of Grifter and Zealoth (the former being the original's future self but the latter being a new Zealoth) are sent in the past to slay Spawn, and as such prevent a future where Spawn became a ruthless dictator known as the Ipsissim. When they fail to kill him, the present Wildcats and Spawn agree to join them in the future to defeat the Ipsissim, but it turns out this was part of a predestination paradox, as the Ispissim uses the opportunity to give Spawn the medals that corrupted him and caused him to turn evil to begin with. When back to the present, the influence stats, and Spawn starts EvilGloating... until the future Wildcats realize their mistake and make a last attempt to modify a minor action in the past. This causes Spawn to recognize future Zealoth as an adult version of his beloved wife's daughter Cyan, come back to his senses and handle over the medals to her, such preventing his transformation into the Ipsissim and erasing this alternate future.
* In one ''StarWars'' comicbook, Boba Fett was hired by Darth Vader to capture an Imperial officer who went rogue after killing his superior. He later learns the true reason ''Darth Vader'' was so interested in this case: the rogue officer had in his possession the severed (but still alive) head of an alien seer. Every prediction she makes comes true, no matter what. She predicted that Boba Fett would kill the rogue officer, and despite his attempts to avert his death, it comes to pass. Boba Fett is GenreSavvy enough to refuse to listen to anything she has to say, claiming that he would make his own future. The only plans he has for her is to auction her off. Boba Fett eventually loses the seer to Vader. The seer warns Vader against trying to exploit her power by first showing him two false visions. The first depicted Vader being brought to Palpatine in chains, accused of treachery, and casually shocked to death with Force Lightning. The second depicted Vader triumphantly slicing Palpatine in half. The seer explained that she spared Vader the truth because she hoped he would kill her. In the end, he does kill her to keep her away from Palpatine...just as she predicted.
* In a ''Tharg's Future Shocks'' story in ''TwoThousandAD'' an American actor sees a vision of his death: Being hit on the street by a characteristic yellow New York taxi cab. In an effort to avoid this fate, the actor moves to Great Britain and manages to continue his successful acting career there. Some time later he's acting in a movie which takes place in New York but is filmed locally, so the studio has built a reproduction of a New York street, and the production also involves a yellow taxi cab. I'm sure you can guess what happens next.

* Played rather frustratingly in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland'', in that every character tells Alice she can't fight fate, and despite her numerous attempts to ScrewDestiny, the White Queen, who has the power but refuses to slay the Jabberwocky on principle, passive-aggressively guilt trips Alice into doing it for her.
** Ironically, being railroaded into [[TookALevelInBadass taking a level in badass]] like this ultimately gives her the self-confidence to ScrewDestiny back in the "real" world.

* The 2002 adaptation of ''[[Film/TheTimeMachine2002 The Time Machine]]''. Dr. Alexander Hartdegen creates a time machine to try to prevent his girlfriend from getting killed. She was mugged in Central Park, so they stop by a flower stand instead. But while Alexander is buying her flowers, she gets run over by a carriage. No matter how many times he travels back and does things differently, she always dies. This is later revealed to be because if she doesn't die, he'll never build the time machine in the first place, which would be a TemporalParadox.
* This is the whole plot of ''TheButterflyEffect''.

* In HBeamPiper's short story ''The Edge of the Knife'', a history professor remembers flashes of the future as well as the past; what he doesn't always remember is "the edge of the knife" - the knife-blade moment of the present separating the two - and so he gets into trouble for things like looking for books in the university library that won't be written for several hundred years, because he wants to draw analogies between two different historical situations. He copes with all this by thinking of events being just as much historical facts if they happened yesterday or will happen in the future.

* Creator/KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' takes this to the extreme, with the protagonist hallucinating himself a theory about the non-existence of free will, involving MentalTimeTravel and aliens. He does this in to make sense of what he saw during WorldWarII.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's "[[Literature/XuthalOfTheDusk The Slithering Shadow]]", Thalis urges this on ConanTheBarbarian about the LivingShadow Thog.

* The ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode Cassandra featured a computer that could tell the future. In a perfect example of YouCantFightFate, after it had foretold that certain characters would leave alive, a gun was pointed in their face and the trigger pulled. Naturally, it jammed. When pointed at another character who she foretold would die, it worked perfectly. This trope was then used almost word for word to seduce another character, since the computer had foretold he'd die while having sex with her. (When her boyfriend caught them in the act) But in the end, it turned out she was lying to cause jealousy. She foresaw that the boyfriend would kill her. He realized this and tried to avoid it, saying he wasn't going to kill her, but through a Rube Goldberg series of events ends up killing her anyway.

* The entire point of ''{{Flash Forward|2009}}'''s plot, where everyone on earth blacks out and, if they survived, sees a FlashForward of themselves six months into the future (except for Film/{{Harold and Kumar|GoToWhiteCastle}}). For instance, Joseph Fienne's character sees that he's on a taskforce to find the source of the blackouts, and when he wakes up his investigations land him on...a taskforce to discover the source of the blackouts.

* The grim and [[TearJerker sad]] conclusion that Ted and Lily in ''HowIMetYourMother'' come to in "Band or DJ" when they admit to each other that [[spoiler: there are times when Lily wished she wasn't a mother and Ted wished Robin was marrying him instead of Barney.]]

* This trope is also all over NorseMythology. If anything, this was the real [[HornyVikings Norse]] [[PlanetOfHats hat]], having four different words meaning inescapable fate, one of them being "{{do|omyDoomsOfDoom}}m". Even the gods cant fight their fate, when [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Ragnarok]] hits the fan.

* The concept of {{predestination}}, which is prevalent in Western Christianity, especially in Calvinist denominations, lesser in Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism, but also in Islam. The concept of predestination states that God and God only will decide the final repository of each individual human soul, and that final repository has already been decided before anyone has even been born. So whether you will end up in Heaven or Hell is not affected by your faith, your prayers, your deeds, your choices, your lifestyle or anything which is under your own decision or choice. Whether or not you end up in Heaven or Hell is pure lottery on human point of view, and [[YouCantFightFate there is absolutely nothing you can do for your eventual fate.]]

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX 5'' has three different scenarios (two for X, one of which is non-canon, and one for Zero), depending on the LuckBasedMission of the game. However, whichever scenario is played out, the BossBattle in the penultimate stage will ''always'' be [[spoiler:X vs. Zero, their prophecy finally being carried out]].

* Even if Ange from ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' [[ScrewDestiny changes the past and helps Battler come home]], [[spoiler:[[YouCantFightFate Battler still won't have come home]], because [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble it already didn't happen that way]]]].

* This trope was done in ''The Ned Zone'', one of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Treehouse of Horror'' episodes where Ned can foretell people's deaths, and has a vision showing himself killing Homer. [[spoiler: He believes he's managed to avert the vision, but then has another vision of Homer causing an explosion at the nuclear power plant that destroys the town. In the course of stopping Homer from causing the explosion, he ends up fulfilling the original prediction, but Homer manages to cause the explosion anyway.]]

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* ChronoTrigger (pictured above) has the bad ending where [[spoiler:you fail to defeat Lavos, followed by a cutscene where he destroys the earth.]] [[SarcasmMode Sleep tight, kiddies.]]

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A prophecy (or in TimeTravel, something that is known to have happened in the past) comes true despite all attempts to prevent it ([[SelfFulfillingProphecy and often because of those attempts]]).

* True, had any ''one'' thing changed, the ''[[RMSTitanic Titanic]]'' would have not hit the iceberg. However, due to the nature of the Passenger Trade in the early 20th century (speeding while in ice fields [[StartXToStopX in order to avoid the danger]], non-mandatory wireless coverage, fixed number of lifeboats based on tonnage and not on capacity, etc), a disaster ''like'' the Titanic's, [[UpToEleven if not worse]], ''wasn't''. It all depended on When it would happen, Where it would happen, Which ship would sink, and How many people were going to die. In another world, [[Film/{{Titanic}} Jack and Rose]] may have struggled to survive the tragic sinking of the RMS ''Queen May'', and ''Titanic'' being just another footnote like her sisters.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Iluvatar (God) acts mostly through fate: Gandalf tells Frodo that "there are other forces at work in the world...one could say Bilbo was ''meant'' to find the Ring, in which case you were also ''meant'' to have it." Being a demi-god, he has seen a vision of the history of the universe before it was made, and therefore is able to predict that [[ItWasHisSled Gollum]] would destroy the Ring.

* In a ''Tharg's Future Shocks'' story in ''TwoThousandAD'' an American actor sees a vision of his death: Being hit by a characteristic yellow New York taxi cab on a street. In an effort to avoid this fate, the actor moves to Great Britain and manages to continue his successful acting career there. Some time later he's acting in a movie which takes place in New York but is filmed locally, so the studio has built a reproduction of a New York street, and the production also involves a yellow taxi cab. I'm sure you can guess what happens next.

** The Lord of the Nazgul not only fits this trope but proves that Fate has backup plans. The prophecy that no man could harm him proved insufficient in the face of [[spoiler: being opposed by the woman Eowyn and the Hobbit Merry, one of whom is not a man by gender while the other is not a Man by race]]. However, it can be argued that Fate originally meant for the Nazgul Lord to face Gandalf [[spoiler: who is also not a Man, but an immortal Maia]] and had to go to [[TimeForPlanB Plan B]] after [[spoiler: Denethor's attempt to kill himself and his son forced Gandalf away from the battle at the crucial moment]]. If so, then [[spoiler:it's a Plan B that was thought out well in advance, because many months earlier Merry just happened to acquire a knife that was engraved with spells to defeat the Witch-King of Angmar, who just happened to be the selfsame Lord of the Nazgul, without which his stroke might not have weakened the Nazgul's power sufficiently for Eowyn to deliver the final coup]]. But that bit's not in the movie.

* In the ''StationeryVoyagers'' episode "Essentials of Nativity," Joe learns from Gabon that Minshus ''must'' be born and ''cannot'' die until some time after he is born. However, attempts to kill him before he is at least ten years old will result in [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill entire nations being obliterated in a nuclear holocaust]]. So they must still defy King Hernald and save Minshus from the king's murder-happy ways; even if Hernald slaughters an entire village looking for the child.
** And if Maria is stoned to death and Minshus ''is'' allowed to die before his appointed time, [[ApocalypseHow the universe will implode]]. And not suddenly either. It will happen slowly over the course of thousands of years.
*** Joe witnesses in his dream the Voyagers and their friends at war with an ''[[UpToEleven even more]]'' AxCrazy [[ReligionOfEvil Yehtzig Pirate League]]. As loved ones begin [[RetGone fading out of existence]], Katrina and Garret engage a futile resistance against bazooka-happy mass murderers.
** As much as Joe fears for his reputation and fears destroying that of his family if he marries a pregnant teenager, [[BlackAndGrayMorality there is literally no other course of action he can take]] [[ButterflyOfDoom without making things]] ''[[UpToEleven biblically]]'' worse.
** Minshus with pretty much all of Outer Reality and the [[SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate Web of Destiny]] is very talented at course-correction when other characters' attempts to ScrewDestiny prove [[TooCleverByHalf profoundly stupid]], and to [[InSpiteOfANail make the greater plan happen anyway]] no matter how much the free will of others [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill changes the environment and endangers or voids lesser aspects of the original plan]].

** Even earlier, both Mata Nui and Makuta tried to exploit this at the same time. Mata Nui determined which Matoran would become the Toa Metru, and a prophecy of their identities leaked out. The prophecy was quickly surpressed, but not before Makuta learned of it. He then tricked Toa Lhikan into deciding that the prophecized Matoran were not the ones truly destined to be Toa and picked six others who he thought would do the job. The twist? Makuta planted the thoughts in his head, along with the names of six Matoran who would never be able to work together and therefor fail. These six became the Toa and Makuta seemingly won. Future averted, right? [[spoiler: Nope. The prophecy was a lie created by Mata Nui for just such an occasion. The six Matoran Makuta planted in Lhikan's mind were in turn planted into HIS mind by Mata Nui, thus allowing those truly destined to take the power.]] Not bad for a guy who was asleep most of the series.