History TemptingFate / Literature

* CiaphasCain, '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM]]''', often says something along these lines. Is GenreSavvy enough to know he really should know better.

* ''Literature/OnHerMajestysSecretService'': Literature/JamesBond says to his new wife on their honeymoon, "We have all the time in the world." [[spoiler:And then Blofeld shoots her in the head.]]

* An early example is in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' by HGWells, courtesy of the astronomer Ogilvy.

* In ''[[LordPeterWimsey Busman's Honeymoon]]'', the detective Lord Peter has reconstructed the trap that he believed killed the murder victim. His wife is dubious, thinking that it might have been noticed. This is followed by someone walking in and setting off the trap.

* In NightOfTheLivingTrekkies, the group of survivors has organized and formulate a plan to eescape Houston before it is bombed; all they have to do is make it to the USS Stockard (an RV). Jim Pike's Sister Rayna, says, "could be worse." Then the Hotel's power fails. then when they make it to the stairwell, they can't hear anything and think the coast is clear. Rayna Says, "This should be easy", then they hear a whole mob of Zombies burst into the bottom of the stairwell. Finally, Jim snaps: "I order you to quit saying optomistic things."

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Changes'', Harry is in a magical garden fighting a giant VideoGame/{{Centipede}}. He uses a focused beam of fire to cut it in half, and makes a wisecrack about Atari. Naturally, the two halves regenerate into [[AsteroidsMonster new centipedes]].
** Quoth Mort, in Ghost Story, "It's one hour. Just one little hour. What could happen in one hour?" Lampshaded by Dresden: Mort couldn't possibly be a hero, because "heroes know better than to hand the universe lines like that".

Before the night is out, he finds that actually, [[BreakTheHaughty there is.]]

* ''BelisariusSeries'': In ''The Tide of Victory'', the allied fleet attacks a Malwa harbor with their new cannon-armed warships. When the Malwa siege gun guarding the harbor finally fires, John of Rhodes assures a companion that they couldn't possibly hit anything on their first shot, in a night engagement. A moment later, the companion finds themself knocked on their back by the cannonball striking the ship, killing John as well with a direct hit where he was standing.

** Similarly, going into the roughest bar in Ankh-Morpork and identifying yourself as "The Invincible" has on at least one occasion [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch been legally ruled as a suicide.]]

* An early example is in ''TheWarOfTheWorlds'' by HGWells, courtesy of the astronomer Ogilvy.

* ''OnHerMajestysSecretService'': JamesBond says to his new wife on their honeymoon, "We have all the time in the world." [[spoiler:And then Blofeld shoots her in the head.]]

* In James Alan Gardner's ''[[TheLeagueOfPeoplesVerse League of Peoples]]'' books (starting with ''Hunted''), there is a higher echelon alien known as the Balrog that looks like a glowing red moss. It is insanely powerful and has a bit of a snarky side, as it can't help itself but attack when somebody says something to the effect of, "Well, it can't get much worse."

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrizonerOfAzkaban'', Oliver Wood, Gryffindor's Quidditch team captain mentions that Harry hasn't failed to win them a game as of yet. The next chapter, Harry is overcome by the effects of a dementor and, by no fault to himself, failed to catch the Snitch and lost the game.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the second ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' book: villain Briar Cudgeon says that nobody can get to him in order to stop him. The paragraph right after that says, "Of course, you should never say something tlike that, especially when you're an arch villain. It's just asking for trouble."

--> "I'll put in a map of the trail." Emma leaned forward and patted my arm. "But I promise you, you won't get lost this time. Honestly, it's a simple, straightforward route. There's only one turning, and," she sailed on, blithely uttering the curse that had doomed travellers for centuries, "you can't miss it."

* In ''[[HumanxCommonwealth Midworld]]'', after an encounter with a camouflaged predator that mimics a gap in the forest canopy, one of the skypeople makes a snide remark about how, at this rate, they'll run into something that "imitates ''nothing''" next. Three days later, they encounter something called the palinglass...

* In NightOfTheLivingTrekkies, the group of survivors has organized and formulate a plan to eescape Houston before it is bombed; all they have to do is make it to the USS Stockard (an RV). Jim Pike's Sister Rayna, says, "could be worse." Then the Hotel's power fails. then when they make it to the stairwell, they can't hear anything and think the coast is clear. Rayna Says, "This should be easy", then they hear a whole mob of Zombies burst into the bottom of the stairwell. Finally, Jim snaps: "I order you to quit saying optomistic things."

* This is part of the setting in TerryPratchett's ''{{Discworld}}'' novels. One-in-a-million chances are known to come up nine times out of ten. BUT, if you try to stack the odds against you to make it one-in-a-million, you'll usually end up with a one-in-999,874 chance instead, which pointedly does ''not'' come up nine times out of ten. Likewise, a not-quite-goddess figure called The Lady has the tendency of rewarding her favorites through unlikely happenstances, BUT will instantly abandon you should you deliberately call upon her. Temples to her tend to get struck by lightning.

* In ''{{Romance of the Three Kingdoms}}'', Sun Jian swears an oath that if he's hiding the Imperial Seal (recovered after the sacking of the capital), may he meet a violent end. You can guess what happened. Ditto for Cao Cao's ''[[WhatAnIdiot three]]'' lines to the effect of "If Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang had been smart enough to place an ambush here, we'd be doomed." By the second time, his companions have already become GenreSavvy... for all the good it does them, since he's not.

* CiaphasCain, '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM]]''', often says something along these lines. Is GenreSavvy enough to know he really should know better.

** Quoth Mort, in Ghost Story, "It's one hour. Just one little hour. What could happen in one hour?" Lampshaded by Dresden: Mort couldn't possibly be a hero, because "heroes know better than to hand the universe lines like that".

* In the ''{{Gotrek and Felix}}'' books, dwarf inventor Malakai Makaisson built the biggest steamship ever, naming it ''Unsinkable''. It sank with all hands (except Malakai) on its first voyage. He built an airship, ''Indestructible'', which crashed, killing everyone aboard, except Makaisson. When he built a second airship, he wanted to name it ''Unstoppable''. For some reason, dwarf elder Borek, who was backing the project, wouldn't permit that.

* In James Alan Gardner's ''League of Peoples'' books (starting with ''Hunted''), there is a higher echelon alien known as the Balrog that looks like a glowing red moss. It is insanely powerful and has a bit of a snarky side, as it can't help itself but attack when somebody says something to the effect of, "Well, it can't get much worse."

* In ''WarriorCats'', while training with Lionblaze, Rosepetal actually says, "What could possibly go wrong?" in response to Lionblaze saying that Toadstep shouldn't be so loud when he trains. Immediately after she says this, Bumblestripe appears and says that a dog is attacking his crippled sister, Briarlight.

* In ''[[HumanxCommonwealth Midworld]]'', after an encounter with a camouflaged predator that mimics a gap in the forest canopy, one of the skypeople makes a snide remark about how, at this rate, they'll run into something that "imitates ''nothing''" next. On the following day, they encounter something called the palinglass...

* In ''[[HumanxCommonwealth Midworld]]'', after an encounter with a predator that imitates a gap in the forest canopy, one of the skypeople makes a snide remark about how, at this rate, they'll run into something that "mimics ''nothing''" next. On the following day, they encounter something called the isinglas...

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the second ''ArtemisFowl'' book: villain Briar Cudgeon says that nobody can get to him in order to stop him. The paragraph right after that says, "Of course, you should never say something tlike that, especially when you're an arch villain. It's just asking for trouble."

Before the night is out, he finds that actually, [[BreakTheHaughty there is.]]