Neglectful Precursors - Television Tropes & Idioms

Full Metal Alchemist is example when humans become Neglectful Precursors of much stronger beings than they are themselves [Because of bad initial appearance they dump their creations. which of course maked them hate humanity or seek a very cruel ways to become humans. ]
This Troper would like to present evidence in the case against the much-vaunted Protoculture for being irresponsible forebears:
1. Created the Zentradi race solely for the reason of waging war, to the point the Zentradi don't know how to do anything else.
2. They involved themselves in Escalating Wars that led to the development of Weapons Of Mass Destruction capable of wiping out entire solar systems.
3. Their creations were possessed by beings from Another Dimension that nearly annihilated the Protoculture itself. Instead of destroying them, they merely imprisoned them and left them there for further generations to deal with.
4. They seeded Earth with life, but left behind an overseer in case things got too nasty just so it could put Humanity On Trial and trigger the destruction of life on Earth if it found mankind lacking.
5. They left behind pockets of ancient technology in various worlds, which invariably is turned into weapons (if it's not a weapon itself) by either the Zentradi or humanity.
- Further, let the record state that these so-called Protocultures did, throught their segregation of males and females into two dissenting factions, sow the seeds for a massive, 50,000-year war between them, which resulted in the extinguishing of large pockets of life in the galaxy.
  - Objection! The defense insists that the above "evidence" be stricken from the record as invalid Show Within A Show Alternate Continuity.
This Troper would present the case of Humanity in Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind. It engineered a vast, vast number of Weapon Of Mass Destruction, which include the titanic cyborg-like God Warriors, destroyed the entire ecosystem of the whole world, and finally all but perished in the Seven Days Of Fire. But its greatest sin was to create the Heart of Shuwa, a biological computer which contains a human-like consciousness, and which, when found by the few surviving humans, dispensed just enough scientific knowledge to enthrall them. Additionally, war technology pre-Seven Days Of Fire is still scattered across the planet, including the aforementioned God Warriors.
1. If that's not all, the Heart deliberately created the Sea of Corruption and the Ohmu to cleanse the planet, so its creators could live again in a purified world —after willingly destroying the current mankind, of course. This makes Mankind not just Neglectful, but downright Evil.
Your Honour, the humanity, the court of angels and the demons of the nine nether planes would like to drag God before the court.
1. He created all about everything for a fancy experiment. And when it didn't work out he left it to itself to start a new one.
2. He imprisoned the only being that could have threatened him and further used it for his experiments to screw the world over some more.
3. If he interfered then to place some new horrors (which were parts of failed experiments) in our world.
4. When he finally realizes things didn't work out as planned he sends his latest creation, winged baby mutants, to remove EVERYONE and start all over again.
- Objection: He just leaves us alone for a few thousand years and is still pulling the strings.
  - Objection sustained. As the manga itself asserts, the God of Angel Sanctuary is not negligent but actively abusive towards His creations, and is thus outside the jurisdiction of this court.
Your honour, the prosecution would like to present evidence that not only did the ancient people of Bardos create mechanical monsters measuring several tens of meters in height and had so much firepower that they were claimed as gods, but they also left instructions on how to build MORE of them for future generations. Its only because of a teenager wearing an oddly shaped helmet in a giant robot we've lasted this long.
- Objection, Your Honor. The Mycene Empire was clearly lying in wait for the time of their own invasion. This case needs to be transferred to Abusive Precursors.
Your Honor, the prosecution wishes to bring up the Precursors from Neon Genesis Evangelion on charges of neglect. They seeded worlds with Black and White Egg lifeforms but screwed up badly by allowing Earth to get both Eggs. True, they did leave behind a safeguard in the form of an anti-AT field weapon, the Lance of Longinus, but they never sent anyone to check up on Earth who would actually use it.

Close Anime

If one takes the director's commentary as Canon, the Space Jockeys from the Alien series were running around using xenomorphs - swift and powerful predators with a parasitic reproductive cycle that are nearly impossible to wipe out once they've gained a foothold on a world - as bioweapons, without considering the consequences if they should get loose. (Verdict: Is there a worse verdict than "Guilty, guilty scumbags"?)
- Yes, there is. This prosecutor would like to point out that the Space Jockeys may very well have intended the Xenomorphs to be nigh-impossible to remove once they got a foothold, as a persistent planetary-scale biological weapon. Which would mean they were innocent of negligence... and guilty of the worse crime of deliberate malice.
  - OBJECTION! There is no evidence of said space jockeys having created, bred or even used Xenomorphs. In fact, the only known case (outside from hearsay, read: expanded continuity) of these two species ever sharing a connection concernes a derelict Space Jockey vessel, crashed on a completely lifeless planetoid, emmiting a broadcast frequency explicitly warning others to STAY AWAY; a plea that was unfortunately ignored by the plaintiffs. (NOT GUILTY, due to lack of evidence)
  - Counter-Objection: The derelict craft contains an improbable number of egg sacs for them not to have been using them in some way, unless one considers the deleted scenes in the original film which propose an alternate life cycle for the creatures... but these scenes were never part of the canon, and were contradicted by what would become the canon in the later films and Expanded Universe material. Additionally, both Cameron and Scott state that the Space Jockey craft was intentionally using the eggs for something — Scott, who actually directed the film the Derelict figures in primarily, and should thus be considered a more authoritative source, describes the Derelict as a "bomber", designed to drop alien egg sacs onto hostile worlds to wipe out the populace. The alternative to this interpretation is that they were merely carrying the eggs as cargo — hazardous cargo that could render a planet a deathtrap for millenia if the ship were to crash, with obviously inadequate safety measures containing them during transport and nothing more than a signal that would not necessarily be understood by anyone else that came along to warn people away. So... we're back to Abusive Precursors or Neglectful Precursors. Take your pick. Not to mention that the very idea that it was a warning signal comes from the non-canon film novelization: it was interpreted as a distress call by the humans who intercepted it, and for all we know, its actual content was "Free Candy: Come in and enjoy."
  - Counter-Counter-Objection: The defence would like to refer to the following conversation, taken from the Nostromo flight recorder: Warrant Officer Ripley: "Ash, that transmission - Mother's deciphered part of it. It doesn't look like an S.O.S." Science Officer Ash: "What is it, then?" Warrant Officer Ripley: "Well, I, it looks like a warning. I'm gonna go out after them." Science Officer Ash: "What's the point? I mean by the, the time it takes to get there, you'll, they'll know if it's a warning or not, yes?". From this conversation it becomes apparent that the transmission in question could not be interpreted as an emergency transmission, but can be interpreted as a warning to keep away from the moon in question. The defence would also like to point out the following observations: 1. the moon, LV-426, has been shown to be incapable of sustaining life without intelligent intervention (I.E. terraforming), 2. as of 200 years after the LV-426 incident, humanity, despite having had faster than light capability for centuries, has yet to encounter xenomorphs not descended from the LV-426 batch and 3. despite the lack of living host bodies, the derelict craft on LV-426 still contained intact, living eggs once discovered by the crew of Nostromo, and later, during the Hadley's Hope expedition. The last statement implies that xenomorph eggs can survive for centuries, perhaps even millennia, with no ill effect. But if that is true, and if the prosecution's claim that the defendant's have been deliberately leaving worlds infested with xenomorphs without cleaning up after them, then surely humanity should find the galaxy crawling with the creatures. Yet the only xenomorphs yet encountered by humanity are all descended from a single egg cache, in a derelict spacecraft on a lifeless moon. This would imply that the defendants either a: had the means to kill off the xenomorphs upon use, preventing their spread or b: eventually embarked upon an extermination campaign to cleanse the galaxy of their creations. Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury: are these the actions of Neglectful Precursors? I think not! In fact, that the only known remnant of the xenomorph race can be found at the scene of an obvious accident, and that those involved in said accident took measures to prevent their cargo from spreading by landing on a moon devoid of life and establishing a warning signal shows the defendant's determination to prevent the spread of the xenomorph race. I rest my case.
  - The prosecution would like to point out that the fact we haven't encountered other infestations yet may be a consequence of space being huge.
- Word Of God says they are bioweapons...
- Although they're still around, and thus not true Precursors, the Predators also seem to be neglectful about where they leave their Xenomorphs, leading to the destruction of an early Earth civilisation (AvP movie) and the overrunning of Ryushi (original AvP comics) as well as the death of many of their own kind (AvP:R and the Primal Hunt game). At least the occasional hunter takes up the task of cleaning up the mess, but still... this troper wonders how many infested planets are the Predators' fault and not the Space Jockeys.
  - This Court does not have jurisdiction, as the Petitioner admitted the Predators are not precursors. In addition, deliberately infecting humans with Xenomorphs for some twisted rite-of-passage hunt makes the Predators more a Proud Warrior Race. To be less generous, they're just a bunch of murdering asshats.

Close Film

The plaintiff brings the precursors of the Morgain cycle to court, having created a system of Star gates that slowly tore the fabric of reality apart (This is not known until several hundred years After the network is finished). Eventually they discover this, after which they then proceed to cause a energy cascade that wipes out their entire race, just to destroy the incredibly dangerous gates. Unfortunately, one survives and is copied to create another network by a second precursor race who Then get wiped out (Almost, I'll get to it in a moment,) warring with each other over whether the gates are dangerous or not. The last member of said race is the titular Morgain, who embarks on a million-year journey to close all the gates. [[Note that some others remain trapped on worlds as Evil-in-a-can types, and these fall under Abusive precursors, as they typically run slave empires.]] Verdict: not guilty for reason of having wiped out their own race to destroy dangerous tech.
My client, who prefers to go by the name Adam to differentiate him from all the other frankensteinian monsters would like to bring charges against Victor Frankenstein, citing abandoment at creation, purposefull monster cruelty, and neglect of ensuring the survival of his species by failing to create a compainion for him despite his pleas, even going so far as agreeing to do it then breach of contract.
Your Honour, The Elder Gods would like to plead guilty, except that they have no concept of guilt. ...also, they want permission to use the buffet, that being what they prefer to call the jury.
- A plea of no contest is entered. Permission to eat the jury is deniAAAAAAARrrrrggghhhh....
The Uplift Institute would like to find the lost patrons of humanity and prosecute them extensively for their abandonment of a semi-uplifted species. Such reckless behaviour cannot be tolerated, and an example must be set. Humanity is now a wolfling species and will likely die out within the next few thousand years, given galactic dogma against such species.
- Humanity protests, as we managed to uplift ourselves.
  - Shut up blasphemer.
- The defense would like to point out that the lost patrons of humanity might very well not have wanted to leave. We won't know until we find them (presuming they still exist) and ask them.
  - They still would have conducted uplift experiments behind the backs of the galaxies at large, and the Uplift Institute in particular.
The "Great Ones" of the Belisarius series were aware of The "New Gods" tampering with the past, but simply encouraged the crystals to send a single individual back to counter them, and occasionally dropped by to gossip. They clearly had the power to eliminate the Malwa empire (they did destroy the New Gods homeworld) the whole time.
- The defense points out that they did it in order to grant the crystals freedom, which they had failed to do by other means. Also, the counter worked, and had it failed, they would have been in a position to step in. Finally, they did destroy the surviving New Gods.
  - The prosecution rebuts that the counter only worked after hundreds of thousands of innocent people had been tortured to death. All who live must die, but not like that.
  - The defense further wants the charges removed on the technicality that the Great Ones are the descendants of humanity, and thus cannot be considered Precursors.
- The defense would further like to note that the New Gods consumed their homeworld for energy generation in order to send their computers back in time. Failure to exert a similar amount of effort, or possibly more, to send back the weaponry needed to destroy the Malwa empire cannot reasonably be considered "neglect".
  - Irrelevant. While the New Gods require extraordinary measures to travel through time, the Great Ones routinely drop by the distant past just to chat.
  - Factually incorrect. The Great Ones never travel to the past. They are communicating information to the past in the form of full-surround virtual reality experiences for Belisarius, communicated through his neural interface with Aide. They would have been able to exert no actual destructive force via these means.
This troper would like to submit the Valar from Lord Of The Rings as Neglectful Precursors before this court. Evidence is as follows:
1. When Morgoth fled from Valinor with the Silmarils and the Elves under Feanor pursued him they cursed the Elves for rebelling against their decree to remain in Valinor and refused to send any aid.
2. After fighting several bloody wars that probably pushed the Elves in Middle-earth to the brink of extinction the Valar ONLY intervened when a half-elf, Earendil, begged for forgiveness and in the process completely wrecked the continent the Elves and Morgoth had fought over.
3. Did nothing to really stop Sauron from amassing power in the first place taking him at his word when he submitted to the Valar, the latter being especially egregious as Sauron was one of Morgoth's most malicious and trusted lieutenants.
4. Took no action when Númenor was corrupted by Sauron and again nothing during the war of the Last Alliance.
  - Nothing save 'curing' the corruption with the complete destruction of the Land of Gift promised them. Add to the record genocide and oath-breaking.
  - OBJECTION! Eru Illuvatar himself destroyed the Last of Gift, not the Valar.
5. Only sent the five Wizards to check in on things after Sauron was beaten the first time and did NOTHING else against a being who was easily outside of everyone's weight class later on trusting that the peoples of Middle-earth would fix the problem of Sauron without help.
- Objection, Your Honour. As demonstrated in the War of Wrath, when the Valar intervene, the amount of power thrown about sinks continents. Their non-intervention was their attempt to avoid becoming Abusive Precursors. Perhaps they could have chosen better Maiar to incarnate as wizards, but it's not their fault that Saruman turned evil, Radagast spent too much time talking to animals, and Alatar and Pallando vanished. Given Gandalf's ability to single-handedly orchestrate Saruman's defeat, sending five wizards looks more like overkill than neglect.
  - As our rebuttal your Honor to the good counselor's argument, the War of Wrath could have been avoided entirely if the Valar had acted shortly after Morgoth fled for Middle-earth, in the previous war before the awakening of Elves they easily bested him without any level of mass destruction beyond destroying Morgoth's two main strongholds. Furthermore they should have been able to determine which Maiar would have been able to do their job or be susceptible to what led to Sauruman's downfall. The Maiar also were sent to take care of Sauron, Gandalf was simply cleaning up the Valar's mess in bringing down Sauruman and his entire plan hinged on three halflings which very nearly didn't work, if Gollum had been five minutes slower than Sauron would have gotten the ring back very easily. The honorable counsel for the defense also neglects to mention how their clients petitioned Ilúvatar to give up their rule over Arda when the Númenóreans, who were mere men and not even in the same city of power as Morgoth, landed in force in Valinor instead of dealing with the problem themselves.
  - Objection, Your Honor, and motion to strike. The pre-elven wars reshaped the world entirely. Whole mounains and seas were made and ceased to exist. This hardly qualifies as "without any level of mass destruction." Furthermore, since "nowhere" was the world formed as the Valar intended, the inference can be drawn that the war was not as easily won as the honorable opposing counsel implies. The Valar's reluctance to act against Melkor Morgoth may reasonably be deemed caution drawn from experience.
  - To build on the rebuttal above, Your Honour, it must be pointed out that of the five Wizards sent, three were incompetant, and a fourth actively turned against his original purpose. Because of this, it would likely have been more productive to send Gandalf alone, demonstrating the atrociously bad judgement of the Valar. To make matters worse, the most corruptible of the five Wizards was placed in charge.
  - Objection: Recent evidence suggests the two Blue Wizards far from failed, they instigated numerous rebellions in the East against Sauron and weakened his power base there.
- For supporting character example, please see exhibit Cuivienen, the birthplace of the Elves. When the light of the Trees were raised in the West, not every tribe made it to Valinor, but each of them received the patronage of a Varda or Maia. All except the Avari, who preferred to remain under the light of Elentari, but instead of her acknowledgement, their land was sunk beneath the ground by Manwe. Little trigger happy with the smiting, isn't he?
  - Objection, Your Honor, assumes facts not in evidence. There have been at least six recorded ages since the Great Westward March of the Elves (threee in which Melkor was imprisoned in Valinor and three in which he was not) and ample time for Cuivienen to have been destroyed in unrelated incidents.
- Motion to dismiss both for want of jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. Jurisdiction, on the grounds that the Valar did not create either Elves or Men and cannot legally be termed 'precursors'. Failure to state a claim, because the Valar had seen the unspooling of history until shortly before the end of the Third Age "as with sight" and knew exactly what would happen; they were not capable of intervening before they actually did.
  - Further, Melkor began as at least a match for all the other Valar combined, and only dissipated his power later. The Valar didn't defeat him before the Elves awakened because they couldn't.
  - The legal definition of "Precursor" does not officially include having created the younger races.
Your honor, my clients, the Pak would like to plead "not guilty", as they had no idea that the Tree-Of-Life root they need to maintain sentience wouldn't grow in soils like Earth's that lack thallium oxide.
- Objection, your honor. While they are indeed innocent in that regard, even after the message asking for aid reached the homeworld, it took several million years for the Pak to get around to deciding to send a care package of Tree-Of-Life root and thallium oxide, by which point the abandoned breeder-stage Pak had mutated into horrific monstrosities calling themselves "humans"- a tragedy that could have been averted if they had sent a ship with help immediately.
The Consu from the Old Man's War Universe have created the sentient race Obin without a sense of consciousness. Even though it turns out the Consu considers lacking consciousness to be an ideal state of being, the fact that they never told the Obin this little fact, and treated the Obin like a bunch of irritating insects who should stop asking questions definitely qualifies them as neglectful.
Your honor, the prosecution respectfully wishes to indict the Xunca, of the Humanx Commonwealth universe. Having risen to a state of absolute galactic domination some billion years past, they discovered an unstoppable galaxy-devouring horror approaching from across the universe. In attempting to deal with it, they constructed a super-superweapon concentrating the energy of millions of galaxies. However, prior to the activation of said weapon, they decided instead to flee to an entirely different dimension... and forgot to leave behind a key, thus effectively condemning our galaxy to annihilation unless some freak accident happened to replicate the precise conditions required to activate it. Naturally, this happened, but the fact that they allowed the situation to come about in the first place can only be seen as the grossest evidence of neglect.

The Ancients in Stargate SG-1 epitomize this trope. Those that don't die off from an incredibly deadly plague evolve into Energy Beings, who refuse to help normal humans ascend save on their own merits. Fair enough, but it turns out they won't allow anyone who ascends to help humanity. In the "outstanding debts" department, they have a "kill any one species inside this galaxy" weapon they never used to kill off their enemies: the Goa'uld, the Wraith, two species of killer nanite robots, and a group of evil Energy Being cousins. Though they know rule by any one of these races means either the death or enslavement of all humanity, they won't lift a finger to help it. (Verdict: Guilty!)
- This Troper wish to object to this ruling. Because of the way they handled the Anubis business he believes that a "Guilty" verdict isn't enough, but rather something like: "Guilty, guilty scumbag Energy Beings".
- MegaTroopX concurs, with an additional charge of violating their own edict. They not only wouldn't clean up their messes (namely Anubis), they wouldn't let any other Ascended being do it either (call the witness: Daniel Jackson).
- William Wide Web would like to note that in addition to Anubis, they let supremely powerful Ori battleships and nearly-ascended humans just waltz into our galaxy on a technicality. This evidence seems to place the Ancients into "They like torturing us" territory. This is especially bad, because if the galaxy falls to the Ori, it is implied that the Ori will then attack the Ancients.
- Roxana agrees wholeheartedly with Bob. The more I learned about the Ancients, the more ashamed I was to be related to them in any way shape or form. Warts and all, humanity (AKA Stargate Command) has done more towards solving the universe's problems in a mere ten years than the Ancients did in millions.
  - All in the name of a Prime Directive which they would rather uphold than survive. The term "Lawful Stupid" from Dungeons And Dragons fandom comes to mind. Would "Guilty, guilty, Lawful Stupid Energy Being scumbags" be a good verdict?
  - Carcinos would like to object to the assertion that they would rather uphold their own prime directive than survive. After all, when Merlin descended to our plane to create a device capable of killing ascended beings, he had to hide it in a parallel dimension for fear of the Others stopping him. Despite this, the Others DID interfere, sending Morgan Le Fay to stop him. Remember, he was descended at this point- everything he did should have been perfectly allowed. In other words, they will break their own Prime Directive- when it's their asses on the line. The rest of us can just go ahead and die.
  - Which is not the only time they have intervened. For instance, when Orlin is introduced in season five. Let's just say the Ancients don't like it too much when you give monkeys advanced toys. And, to make matters worse, they were proven right.
- One must also remember the cases of Orlin and Morgan Le Fay. Orlin retook human form to assist humans with the fight against an Ori plague and was punished by suffering severe brain damage that destroyed his memory and left him with the mind of a small child. This pales in comparison to Morgan Le Fay, who very carefully leaked information to the humans, while the rest of the Ancients watched her. The moment she tried to do anything but be vague, she was dragged away, never to be seen again. This behavior moves them past arrogant neglect and into sheer jerkass territory.
  - I would remind my esteemed colleague that Orlin's condition is an unavoidable side effect of attempting to hold on to more knowledge than his human mind can safely contain and not due to malice on the part of the defendants. The evidence against them is damning enough without concocting additional charges, let's not let them Off On A Technicality.
  - Orlon started as an Ancient, who have demonstrated the ability to hold onto such data. Logically, the only reason he'd incarnate as a human is if he was forced to by the Ancient's rules. Defense does not hold. (Either Merlin did it more cleverly, Merlin had enough support to be excused (possible), or the writers just forgot about Merlin, as Merlin clearly did incarnate as an Ancient.)
  - Morgan Le Fay later returned in Stargate: The Ark of Truth to help SG-1 stop the Ori menace once and for all, personally fighting Adria to the (apparent) death in the process.
- Let us not forget that the primary aspect of the Ancients non-interference pact? As long as there are no ascended powers being used. That seems reasonable. Which is why this troper thought that when Adria fully ascended, and later came down to our lowly plane of existence and acted to her full powers, that the Ancients would finally stand up and say, "No". He felt it would be a fitting end to the series, because the sheer awesomeness of the Ancients FINALLY doing something would completely balance out the somewhat literal Deus Ex Machina. Indeed, he felt it would even have made up for the mediocre 9th and 10th seasons. But alas, such was not the case. The Ancients seem to only be interested in stopping good people from interfering with the lower planes, leading another one of their ascended friends who has had enough to make a Heroic Sacrifice. So, I vote we extend the verdict to Guilty, guilty, hypocritical Lawful Stupid Energy Being scumbags.
  - This troper agrees on principal, but would point out that Adria returned to the Ori galaxy after her ascension and that she never returned to the Milky Way during the events of Ark of Truth. Therefore, the Ancients were still playing by their (pompous, overblown, immoral) rules.
- Not only that, but they also left behind in the Pegasus Galaxy so many incomplete (and dangerous) pieces of technology that one wonders how the Atlantis Expedition wasn't wiped out yet... oh yeah, McKay. It includes, but it is not limited to: An energy generator not unlike the ZPMs that instead of draining energy from an artificial universe, does so from our own universe, and creates physic-defying particles in the process, destroying an (thankfully uninhabited) entire star system; an "ascend-o-matic" machine that, if not used by a nearly ascended Ancient, its aggressive mutations end up killing the subject; at least one dangerous trapped being in a prison that not only would eventually lose power to keep it imprisoned, but also had a big "release" button with no failsafe measures; a machine whose purpose is making everyone in the vicinity develop exploding tumors (); viral nanites whose purpose is to kill everything that doesn't have the "Ancient Gene" stored merrily in an Atlantean lab. The list goes on. Verdict: Guilty, Guilty reckless bastards.
- As much as this troper hates to defend those guilty, hypocritical, Lawful Stupid reckless Energy Being scumbags, he feels the need to play Devil's Advocate. During Atlantis' run, at least 3 groups of never-ascended Ancients were encountered. They behaved as normal, if slightly arrogant, people. Given that they are indeed very advanced, and the circumstances under which they are encountered they are more than reasonably polite. Given that they were perfectly reasonable before ascension, it may well be that their actions are very justified due to reasoning beyond our comprehension. While some Ancients may have disagreed with this, they were VERY much in the minority. This does not excuse them in the case of Adria (who did indeed break the exact rules Daniel was guilty of breaking), but may excuse their behavior in all other cases. How do you propose to challenge the logic of gods?
  - This is pretty much the truth. No one can deny that the Ancients behave wrong in terms of human morals, nor their hypocrisy. But no human can either imagine the consciousness of an ascended being, nor how small the lives of this existence are in comparison to that of the Ancients. After all, would you stop 2 ant colonies from fighting? Imagine this to an even bigger extreme, as they monitor not just one planet but the entire universe. This is no justification, just a comparison to what humans do.
  - The analogy of two ant colonies fighting works to justify why the Ascended Ancients never interfered in the affairs of the Goa'uld and even the Wraith. Even Daniel seemed to accept the reasoning, to a point. Where Daniel, and also this troper, got pissed off was when the Ancients refused to fight battles that were taking place in part on their own plane of existence. At this point it became less about two ant colonies fighting and more about telling the bratty neighbor kid to stop using a magnifying glass to burn the ants alive.
  - However, Daniel Jackson managed to Ascend and gain the omnipotence of the Ancients, and even he was pissed off at how the Ancients handled things. And this is Daniel Jackson we're talking about, one of the most understanding and logical team members of SG-1 who would rather solve problems through diplomacy rather than force. If you can't even get Daniel on board with your agenda, then you utterly fail at life (or what constitutes as one in a higher realm of existence).
  - This Troper would like to point out that (in his opinion) the reason the Ancients didn't fight the Ori or Adria was that they were in fact more powerful than the Ancients. It is stated that any human who believes in the Ori makes them more powerful on the ascended plane. As the series went on the population of the ENTIRE Ori galaxy and a large portion of the Milky Way was helping the Ori, and all that power switches from being split by a whole race to concentrated in one. single. being. It would've been frankly suicidal for the ancients to directly intervene, but letting SG-1 fight in their own way kept the focus away from themselves. Verdict: Guilty by acting in self-preservation.
  - It should be pointed out that it was mentioned by Orlin that Ascended beings gain power from worship. In that light, the Ancients' refusal to interfere makes sense: They interfere, they run the risk of people starting to treat them as gods, and that brings with it the possibility of them becoming more power hungry, and ultimately to them becoming as bad as, if not worse than, the Ori. Therefore, that refusal to interfere could possibly be justified: They don't want to run the risk of becoming Abusive Precursors. Still doesn't justify the Anubis situation, though.
  - "Slightly Arrogant"? The Ancient crew of an Orion class Battleship who were trying to get back to the Milky Way close to the speed of light (it would take a while, they were at it for roughly 10000 years, and that's less than 1% of the way they were going to cross) was rescued and given a simpler alternative by the Daedalus, go back to Atlantis. Their thanks? Kicking out the entire Atlantis Expedition and, assuming the Asurans wouldn't pose a threat, lost the city to the Asurans in roughly the time it takes to make a sandwich. After the Atlantis Expedition had held it for two and a half years.
  - To be fair - try to imagine the situation yourself. You come back home after 10 years abroad and you find out your house was occupied by some people caring for it. They did help you in a way - but would you let them live there anymore? And losing the "battle" with the Asurans was not a fault of the Ancients - it was the fault of the human expedition, who with no concerns about the side effects of their actions removed the very control mechanism the Ancients had over the Asurans! Did they even warn them? Or does it seem more likely they just held to that thought because they knew they'll get "their" precious city back? The Ancients were happy to cooperate with mankind, but that wasn't enough for your glorious humans! It was just another example of human fiddling with technology far beyond their comprehension. Can you really blame Ancients for being neglectful on the grounds that ONCE YOU REMOVE THE SAFETY MEASURES FROM ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY, IT HURTS YOU?! The Ancients may not be the best parents - and who's to blame them! - but they did a lot to prevent wrong use of their technology. If a cavemen put his hand on your hot stove and burnt his hand, does it mean we were neglectful when leaving behind advanced technology that isn't safe? Or does it mean that the caveman was carelesly exploring something he couldn't possibly comprehend? How is this different from the Ancients who treated every single piece of technology like it was a nuclear bomb? Does that seem neglectful to you? This is not a one-button-ruins-it-all scenario - it's more like the Chernobyl disaster - the station itself had lots of countermeasures and security protocols to avoid any kind of disaster. It only blew up after they turned those countermeasures off! Doesn't that remind you of something?
- Objection circa 10 000 years had passed since the Ancients had abandonded the great city ship ofAtlantis, they were well aware of relativity and how much time had passed since they lost their war against the wratth. Also all indications are that the only gate capable of dialing Atlantis was the Earth gate and the very first message played indicated that as they abandondend Ataltis they hope was that at some point in their future that their descendants would return.
- If the thought of reading the above gives you an aneurysm, Judge Trope's ruling is thus: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Jumping Jack Flash, you boys are guilty! If there were such a verdict of "Super-Guilty", you boys would have that stamped on your forehead right now!
- This troper wishes to point out that when the rest of humanity that has the ATA gene finally ascends, they are going to remember all the times the Ancients DIDN'T help them when they should have, and there will be a reckoning. The best part? They probably won't even fight back, expecting someone else will come and save them.
- The Ancients were not only Neglectful Precursors, but at times their own intelligence seems to be suspect. In "Window of Opportunity," SG-1 discovers an Ancient time machine on P 4 X-639 that was built in attempt to save their civilization from a cataclysm but was ultimately flawed in some way or other (it seemed to work properly, ignoring the time other planets were caught in the loop as well). Meanwhile, their greatest achievement - the Stargate system - was already capable of creating a time wormhole (using solar activity, similar to how the P 4 X-639 machine functioned, and even hinted by the unfortunate 14-planet side-effect of the P 4 X-639 machine). It seems impossible that the Ancients could have never discovered this coincidental function of Stargate travel, especially on a planet with such solar activity as P 4 X-639, and, moreover, if they did know about it, their decision to not limit operation of appropriate gates during such solar flare activity and risk causing terrible temporal disasters can only be attributed to neglect. Again.
  - It should be noted however, that the Ancients actually did make it so that the Stargates would not function when there is heavy solar flare activity; it's just that they put that information into the DHD. It is hardly the Ancients' fault that SGC jerry-rigged a Stargate to override safety features as they did; saying that that is the Ancients' fault is like saying that it is Sony's fault that you dumped a glass of water in your TV.
- Omega Metroid: I can't believe that nobody mentioned it before, but THEY'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE WRAITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As a matter of fact, Carson says that they made the Wraith by accident, to which McKay responds, "Or negligence." Guilty, guilty, horrible bastards, and then some. They're not just guilty, they're Mega-Guilty. I sentence them to... um... becoming the main characters of a horrible Stargate SG-1 parody, or something even worse.
- Oh, and they're responsible for the human-form "Asuran" Replicators, too. So, what's to become of them? Burn their guilt away... literally.
If it please the court I would also like to bring up the as yet unmentioned death of the Asgard race, the Ancients' allies. They let an entire race of their own allies die out rather than help them ascend for no apparent reason. Anubis himself said that if someone was worthy of ascension then the "Others" could collectively do so. Who's more worthy than their long allies? The legacy of the Ancients seems less that of enlightenment and knowledge than of neglect and apathy.
- OBJECTION! The Asgard's method of propagation had caused their physiology to deteriorate to the point where ascension was no longer an option. Call to witness: Daniel Jackson.
- Counter Objection! As Dr. Jackson can attest, natural evolution towards ascension and ascension induced by another being are two different things. While the former is no longer possible for the Asgard, there is insufficient evidence concerning the latter.
- Counter Objection Mk.II! This troper would like to point out that the Asgard are, given their case history in SG-1, far too benevolent to be allowed to ascend by the Ancients. They would be forcibly descended even sooner than Daniel Jackson was.
- Verdict: (consults long list of SI prefixes) they're up to about "teraguilty" by now.
- OBJECTION! It is not unlikely that the "others" can only assist in ascending races that are 'already able' to ascend. Otherwise, wouldn't Weir and her little band of merry Asuran ex-pats find an easier way of Ascension... other than floating through the galaxy for eons as the cosmic equivalent of computer herpes?
Spartan_0214 would like to point out that as an ascended race, the Ancients probably don't care about our verdict and are sniggering at us this very moment.
- If it please the court, This Troper would like to point out humanity in the Stargate universe is advancing at a simply astonishing rate. Give us a few generations. Let's see how they snigger with our boots on their throats.
This Troper would like to point out that the Ancients are the ones who built the starship ~~Deathtrap~~ Destiny which was left without repair for thousands of years leading to the death of at least one person and they Altered/built/made a planet which explodes if shot at.
- Objection! This will take a bit. The planet was a naturally-occuring body in space. Its stability, or lack thereof, is no one fault. Furthermore, it was the humans that found the planet, not because the Ancients had set up a base there, but because they needed something capable of generating lots of power very quickly. Common sense dictates when you start shoving cables into the core of an already unstable planet, you're bound to make it worse. It's their own fault it blew up. On the subject of the ship, the Ancients can only be blamed for not leaving adequate records of what the address is for (like they did with the Replicator planet!), not its condition. They would have gotten to it sooner, fully prepared to repair it, and most importantly before it even needed significant repair. The SGU team heading through to an unknown location to find a ship ready to fall apart from neglect is unfortunate, but you can blame Rush for that, not the Ancients.

Close Due to lengthy and extremely detailed proceedings, the case against the Ancients of the Stargate Verse has been placed in a folder

Humanity themselves, in Red Dwarf. They left a huge number of maladjusted sentient beings ranging from genetically engineered bioweapons to homicidal cybernetic war machines with indefinite lifespans to overpossessive gestalt entities to mind and emotion sucking parasites. The only saving grace seems to be that they all want to kill all humans (virtually to the exclusion of everything else), which, three million years into the future, consisted mainly of Lister. (Verdict: Despite the cliche of putting Humanity On Trial, guilty!)
- OBJECTION: As it has been clearly established that there is no "everything else" in the Dwarf-iverse, save for the creations of humans, the defense demands the prosecution supply testimony of a living, non-human witness. If this is impossible, the defense moves for the dropping of all charges, save the lesser offense of "Having Your Own Race Destroyed by Your Foolish Frankenstein-esque Creations."
  - The Prosecution calls forward The Cat. He and his people were not the end result of any genetic engineering or design, but rather eons of inbreeding and mutation (and as descendants of a domestic house cat, have no trace of human DNA in them). He was targeted for destruction by Kryten's replacement, had his emotions sucked TWICE, was subjected to the horrible effects of the Despair Squid, had been threatened by Simulants on multiple occasions, been trapped in the psyche of a dangerously neurotic individual on a psychically sensitive artificial moon, been kept prisoner by a gestalt entity, been captured by sentient wax figurines depicting the worst humanity had to offer, been captured by an entire race of Arnold Rimmer Clones (which in and of itself should be more than enough to convict humanity a dozen times over), and in an unaired but storyboarded episode (which was replaced by the cheaper "Duct Soup"), had the few remaining members of his race imprisoned by GELFS who used them alternatively as slaves and a food source. This probably does not cover everything that happened over the course of the series, not to mention offscreen events like the attack of the pan-dimensional liquid beast on Christmas of 3'00x'xxx.
  - (He's really got me against the ropes... there has to be a contradiction in the court record that I can use to turn things around!)
  - HOLD IT! I have here the sworn Holy Book for the entirety of the Cat people, wherein it states the utmost love and reverence for Cloister the Stupid, a human whom they credit as the father of the race, willingly frozen in time so that they might survive. As near as we can tell, this refers to the actions of David Lister, who is indeed (if barely) human. Not only does this prove that Felis Sapiens's very existence is due to human influence, but the willing sacrifice of Lister to protect the holy mother, Frankenstein, hardly seems "Neglectful," your honor! (Cue Pursuit-Cornered!)
  - Your Honour, David Lister could not have foreseen the creation of the Cat Race and nor the events that surrounded it (Red Dwarf's Reactor Meltdown, which kept the mutations high enough that inbreeding would not have destroyed the population). Meanwhile, the one who could have predicted it wrote the incident off as a drug-induced hallucination. Furthermore, the inadvertent development of a single semi-stable population (which the Prosecution adds, nearly wiped itself out in holy wars because Lister was not sufficiently clear on the colouring of the hats) can not offset the multitudes of humanity's intentionally created monstrosities that managed to escape them. This court has already convicted other Negligent Precursors who left behind beneficent populations in addition to their multitudes of doomsdays artifacts and deranged sentient creations (see Tropers V. Star Control Precursors as precedent), and the Prosecution does not see why humanity should be given leniency here either.
  - Counselor, your argument is faulty. "Intentionally-created monstrosities that managed to escape them" is another way of saying Turned Against Their Masters, or, to quote the defense, "Having Your Own Race Destroyed by Your Foolish Frankenstein-esque Creations." As yet, there are still no examples of humanity acting as a precursor race regarding another species (or even a related race which developed from a seeding program), which it then left in the lurch. This court will grant a continuance to gather further evidence, but unless you can present evidence of your claims, this court will grant the defense's motion and dismiss this case.
  - Thank you, your honor. Also, the defense would like to call attention to the lower court decision Justice Field V. David Lister, a ruling that has exonerated David Lister of all crimes (save some unrelated Hotel Theft), and thus proving himself not liable to the Cat Race... TAKE THAT!
  - Objection! The Justice Field works by detecting guilt therefore its verdict only proves that Dave Lister feels no guilt regarding the creation of the cat race.
  - If Ridiculously Human Robots may be counted as a "species", the prosecution brings forward the remains of the Wax Droids of the episode Meltdown. After being abandoned for millions of years, they broke their programming, whereupon the Villain Wax Droids attacked the Hero Wax Droids and almost wiped them out (so the "good" wax droids were indeed left in the lurch). We are even forced to overhear the execution of Winnie the Pooh. It wasn't until Arnold Rimmer arrived and used his military "genius" to wipe out the entire planet.
  - Though it may be argued that Rimmer's actions had the main effect of sending them to their eternal happy reward in Silicon Heaven, the defense accepts the prosecution's logic, and therefore moves for an indefinite suspension of the proceedings until a higher court rules on What Measure Is A Non Human: a decision that will clearly only come at the same time that Silcon Hell has been reasonably determined to freeze over.
  - This court finds the motion in order, and now, before we sock everyone with a felony Thread Mode fine, we shall adjourn to the Bad Guy Bar across the street for Beer Milkshakes and the pre-requisite Schiff One Liner. Gavel Pound... Roll Credits.

Close The Case: Tropers v. The Humans of Red Dwarf, sealed for 3,000, 000 years until levels of Cadmium II reached a safe level, resides within this folder

This troper wishes to bring charges against the Vorlons and Shadows of Babylon Five for being manipulative, deceitful, and neglectful of the various telepathic superweapons, gates to alternative dimensions containing eldritch horrors, planet killers, and other dangerous phlebotinum they carelessly left when they Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence (read: We forced them out of this one). Not to mention the servant races who carry on their goals.
- Sir... getting kicked out of the Galaxy was their punishment for being Abusive Precursors. In fact, gates to alternate dimensions aside (which, given that the thing was chucked into Hyperspace and therefore probably lost forever), all these problems can be attributed to them being abusive. I mean seriously, raising your children to fight one another? Bioengineering them to serve as weapons? Blowing up planets on crappy pretenses? And the "planet killers" weren't left around. They were put in the possession of the servitor races! This attitude goes well beyond neglect your honour.
- Arguably, the dangerous phlebotinum was not neutralized by the Shadows and Vorlons after they Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence specifically in an act of abusive revenge rather than neglect. Throw us out, will you? Then deal with the Drakh for the next thousand years instead.
  - The Shadows are guilty of that. The Vorlons left defenses specifically to keep people out. Their improper disposal of the Thirdspace portal does deserve some reprimanding, but considering the artifact could mindwarp the Vorlons themselves, maybe avoiding all contact with it was for the best.
  - Defense would like to note that the Thirdspace portal was NOT placed into hyperspace by the Vorlon's but by those poor sod's who had been brainwashed by the Thridspace Aliens. Furthermore it should be noted that ont only did the Vorlon's and the Thirdspace Alien's supposedly create more then one gate but that Vorlon's DID spend close to half-million years scouring the rest of the galaxy for any trace of still working gate.
- This troper wishes to bring charges against Lorien, who was clearly neglectful throughout the Vorlon-Shadow war, especially given that he could politely ask all the first ones to leave, and be obeyed.
- Objection, your Honor. Lorien could not 'ask' the Vorlons and Shadows to leave until and unless they were actively shown by the 'children' races that they were no longer needed nor, indeed, desired. To paraphrase Marcus himself, you can get a lot more done with a kind word and a massive battle fleet than with just a kind word.
This troper also wishes to bring charges against the Greys of The X Files. However, the evidence seems to have been destroyed by Men In Black.
We would like to bring to the attention of the Grand Court of the Torchwood Foundation the remaining fragments retrieved of the proceedings of The Trial of a Time Lord. The defendant, only refereed to as The Doctor states in his arguments against charges of genocide and interference on galactic case that:
In all my travelings throughout the universe, I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilisation, decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen - they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power - that's what it takes to be really corrupt!
- Objection: This is just foolishness. Everyone knows that the Time Lords are just a myth that the greater beings circulate to scare the lesser species.
  - Counter-Objection: There is clear evidence from The Shadow Proclamation that Time Lord influence was involved at the incident that occurred at the Medusa Cascade, the unauthorized peacekeeping operations of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet near Sol 3, the seven generation war of planet Messaline, and the reactor containment loss at the Weapons Factories of Villengard.
  - Any evidence produced from records stored at The Library planet are inadmissible since they cannot be verified.
- The prosecution is unsure of how to deal with this unprecedented admission of guilt, especially since records indicate that at least ten different individuals claim to be this Doctor.
- Your honor, the defense argues that the Time Lords cannot be deemed as Neglectful on the basis that they have not actually done anything. Other elder species accused of this have either had sprawling empires, or widespread technology, that should have been their responsibility to oversee but did not for some reason. The Time Lords, for their part, have remained on a single planet for their entire existence, not interfering in the affairs of the younger races on account of their Prime Directive. The most they can be accused of is not reigning in renegade Time Lords bent on destruction.
  - Surely, your honor, this very refusal to act, this wasted potential, this ability to prevent disaster that was known to them to be occurring, this blatant disconcern and arrogance of a race that thought itself "higher" is a pure and shining example of true neglect? Proving malevolence is not this courts intention - it is failure to act which interests us.
  - Agreed. When one possesses godlike power, to refuse to act in any situation not directly threatening yourselves clearly constitutes neglect. Their failure to terminate or imprison the Master even after he destroyed several galaxies, even with their TARDISes, is at the very least ridiculously neglectful.
  - Objection to all charges of neglect, as the Time Lords have indeed made efforts to right the wrongs of the universe. Back when travel between universes was possible who kept the walls stable for such a thing to occur without it destroying reality? They did. Who kept the power of time travel - which was accessible to many life forms - from being abused to change history, create paradoxes, and unleashing creatures that have been designated as 'reapers'? They did. They even attempted to save the universe from devastation by the Daleks when such a species posed them no such aggression. Admittedly they failed the first time, but they eventually declared all out war on the Daleks which led to the Time Lords being all but extinct. You call such sacrifice neglect?!
This Troper would like to open the case of The Five for examination.
- Denied. The Five are contemporaries of the Twelve Colonies and therefore do not qualify as Precursors. Furthermore, there is no significant evidence that they are responsible for the actions of John Cavil beyond providing him with a Freudian Excuse. Cases against the Lords of Kobol, Cylon God, and Lee Adama, however, may still be considered valid.
  - Are not the Vorlons and Time Lords also contemporaries of their plaintiffs? The Five are the only survivors of a civilization older than the Twelve Colonies and possess technical know-how beyond the Colonials' ken. Furthermore, their responsibility in the matter of John Cavil is quite clear: they designed and programmed him. Or rather, them. The fact that self-loathing anti-human viewpoints are found throughout the Cavil model line points to serious flaws in its makeup. No confusion intended with the Glamour Failure trope.
  - Then there's the creation of the other models, who, while deceived by the Cavils on a number of points, were willing participants in the genocide of the Colonies, the Simon and Doral models continuing to be so even after all was put out into the open. The distribution of resurrection technology, which allowed both humanoid Cylons and Cylon Raiders to carry out devastating attacks without fear for their own lives and learn from the experience of death to improve their strategy. The passing on of a monotheistic religion whose language and concepts, like "children are born to replace their parents", were easily turned to fanaticism (and breeding farms). And very likely, the creation of Raiders in the first place.
  - The defence would like to point out that the new Cylons led a coup against their creators and banished them without their memories. Furthermore, when finally awoken, at least one tried to convince her creations against the destruction of humanity (with the rest being in no reasonable position to do so for most of the time), but could not make them see reason and some even manipulated her while she acted in good faith. This suggests a lack of neglect since most of the surviving 13th Tribe Cylons did actually try to get involved (though the actions of Tory Foster would put her either as an Abusive Precusor, or just a horrible person). The fact that they got into this mess and could not fix it suggests substantial amounts of incompetence, but here we at least give credit for trying. Therefore the plea is Not Guilty.
  - Plea accepted in the absence of further evidence.

Close Live Action TV

Warhammer 40000: The Craftworld Eldar. The very literal Defectors From Decadence saw what the debauchery of their civilization would result in and tried to stop it. They failed, and in a last resort to survive they constructed small artificial planets to escape the downfall of their species. That they seem to regard the failure to prevent the heart of their empire turning into The Eye of terror as "Neglectful" and they are now actively trying to fix the damage they've done, the Court finds that they have already plead Guilty and have sentenced themselves to an eternity of Community Service. (Verdict: The Court accepts the plea and sentence.)
- The Old Ones left around a number of sentient species, like the Eldar who Squick-ed a Chaos God into existence and the Orks whose entire culture and existence revolves around killing everything that "isn't orky enough" (which includes other Orks), and by doing so, inadvertently turned the Immaterium into the hellhole that it was. On the other hand, they died off millions of years before either culture got to the point that it did, and if the backstory is to be believed, were too busy dealing with other, bigger problems. (Verdict Pending. The evidence which the court has access to at this moment is to inconclusive to cast judgment.)
  - Said "other, bigger problems" would be the Enslavers. Creatures from the Immaterium, they were supposedly responsible for mass extinctions all across the galaxy when they entered real-space in massive numbers in the event known as the Enslaver Plague. (Verdict: Not Guilty! The so-called "Enslaver Plague" is obviously malicious propaganda. Or the galaxy had it coming. Whatever happened or didn't happen, we can all be sure that there was absolutely no mindcontrol involved)
  - Your honor, this troper would like to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of self-defense for the Old Ones. The Eldar and Orks were created as weapons for the War In Heaven against the C'Tan and Necrons, gifted with immense psychic ability because the C'Tan/Necrons were specifically vulnerable to Warp-based attacks and defenses. The Old Ones were defeated, and the Necrons were in the process of properly disposing of the Old Ones' remaining weapon stocks when circumstances beyond their control, namely the Enslavers, forced the Necrons and C'Tan to enter stasis hibernation with disposal incomplete.
  - On that matter, this troper wishes to bring charges against the Necrons. Not just for the millennia of neglect, but open abuse of the younger races of the galaxy upon their return.
  - Given that the extermination of all other forms of life has always been one of their stated goals, please take it to Abusive Precursors.
The Scarred Lands franchise. The backstory to the series is a war against the amoral creators of the world, the Titans, and their rebellious children, the Gods. The Gods were unable to completely kill the Titans, so they just maimed and imprisioned them. Despite completely oblierating two of the Titans, the other Gods were left mostly whole and just imprisoned. Since then, the remains of the Titans has damaged the land and corrupted countless creatures, even the two who were almost totally destroyed. Despite the fact that the Gods now rule the world, they haven't shown themselves to be in any hurry to clean up their mess.
- Perhaps the most noticeable screw up is what they did to the Titan Kadum, the Father of Monsters. They ripped out his heart, chained him to a rock and threw him into the ocean. Unable to die, his blood continually seeps out of his chest, corrupting a large part of the ocean and all of the creatures inhabiting it.
The gods in Exalted. Their creators, the Primordials, are not accountable due to being dead, imprisoned, or fled for their lives. The gods, however, designed a race of superhumans (the titular Exalted) to defeat their masters, then left them to run reality. The gods are still around, but the most powerful of them refuse to do anything except play heavenly foozball. The rest have become thoroughly corrupt, as all of reality falls into chaos and madness.
- Objection! The gods of Exalted are not precursors, as they were created after humanity. Their shortcomings are therefore outside the jurisdiction of this court.
  - Objection denied. They're still the precursors of the Exalted. And on that count, GUILTY!
  - The defense appeals this ruling, on the grounds that it is implied that the gods were not entirely aware of just how addictive the Games of Divinity really were. If this is the case, they most likely had every intention of ruling wisely and well, and are guilty only of falling victim to Applied Phlebotinum of which they had little understanding. This is supported by the fact that the withdrawal of the Incarnae from mortal and Exalted affairs happened very gradually, over the course of millenia. Further, the true nature of the Games of Divinity remains unknown. It is possible that the Games are, in fact, a means of influencing events in creation far more effectively than they could by appearing directly or acting through the Celestial Bureaucracy, and becoming absorbed in the Games is thus not a sign of negligence, but rather of extreme dedication. Furthermore, the Great Curse and the Usurpation are responsible for much of the corruption in Heaven and Creation, and effectively removed the beings best equipped to clean up the situation. One of the functions of the Exalted is, after all, to keep the lesser gods (who have exceedingly narrow perspectives and tend to view everything through the lens of their spheres of influence) in line.
  - The prosecution objects, your Honour...Wild Mass Guessing entries cannot be considered evidence, for the same reason that in murder trials people cannot speculate that the murders were in fact committed by a wizard with a grudge against the defendant.

Close Tabletop Games

The Great Beings of Bionicle are an interesting variation. They bugger off shortly after creating the universe (it's implied that they go to build others), but, realizing that said universe may not run exactly how they want it to, implement a contingency plan. Said plan is a powerful, sentient (though not particularly intelligent) mask that will drain all the life out of the universe if everything's not going to plan. It's not exactly negligence, since it's completely deliberate... but maaaaaaaaan, is it ever cold-blooded.
- Objection: That use of the Mask of Life is a last-ditch plan in case everything else fails. The Great Beings left a Great Spirit named Mata Nui to look after things, and multiple contingencies in case Mata Nui was incapacitated (for instance, the Mask of Life's main use is to keep Mata Nui from dying if he's badly injured - and the Beings left behind several guards and tests to keep the mask from being abused).
- However, the Great Beings' actions run far deeper and demand consideration. Here is what we know:
  - The Beings were scientist-rulers on their planet, until they created the Element Lords to take over the "ruling" part so they could focus on the "science". This is perhaps the most damning display of negligence; creating proxies so that they can safely afford to neglect their subjects. (Though it could be argued that they did act responsibly in making sure there were proper replacements.)
  - While things were all right for a while, Unobtainium was discovered and the Element Lords led their subjects in waging a No Blood For Phlebotinum war over it; one that only ended when said Unobtainium split the planet into pieces. The Great Beings tried nonviolent solutions, all of which failed. The eventually resorted to creating baterra robots, a last-ditch doomsday weapon programmed to end the war by killing all armed combatants. However, they were released too late to prevent the disaster, and later overrode their shutdown commands.
  - Also built in response to the impending cataclysm was Mata Nui, a living forty-million foot Humongous Mecha, who was launched into space on a fact-finding mission (the details of which are unknown). His body is the "universe" mentioned above; large enough to house an entire biosphere and inhabited and maintained by man-sized "nanotech". These beings are sentient, perhaps not by the Great Beings' design. One race, the Makuta, eventually turned evil due to a design flaw (the Great Beings gave them elemental Shadow powers, unaware that Shadow is The Dark Side). One Makuta has recently taken over Mata Nui's body and sent his consciousness into exile in a Soul Jar. Also, Word Of God has suggested that the Beings always intended this Makuta to be yet another backup if Mata Nui failed, and he just took over in the worst way at the worst time.
- While the sheer number of safeguards ensuring Mata Nui's functioning, as well as the attempts to stop the war and the disaster, argue against negligence, the issue of the Element Lords still looms large. However, it occurs to the court that the Great Beings are only precursors to Mata Nui and his inhabitants, not to the other races that they passed off to the Element Lords. So they were precursors and may have been negligent, but not both at the same time. (Verdict: Not guilty!)
This Troper stands before the court to give Primus the recognition he rightfully deserves. Afterall, not only did he wage war to fight his brother Unicron and prevent him from consuming all of existence; but he also upon defeating his brother created an entire race of mechanical lifeforms in order to prevent Unicron's return. Should his creations fail to uphold their duty however, he also took it upon himself to make his own mechanical body in which he would survive throughtout history. Then he made sure that to try and stop Unicron from ever waking up by sealing himself, as only his presence would cause the dark one's resurrection. It is only by the occasional ricochet laser fire that this has ever occured, but it was soon revealed he'd kept much of his power in the Matrix thus allowing unicron to be defeated once more. He made so many contingencies and backups that it cannot be denied that he was trying his best to maintain peace throughout the universe.
- Judge Troper's Court is about dealing with Precursors that can be considered neglectful with little Alternative Character Interpretation, not a forum to Gush About Precursors You Like. Bring charges that can make him out to be neglectful, or send it to Precursors.
  - Your Honor, charges have been found and filed against the being known as Primus: the defendant failed to properly expunge a deadly form of reproduction from the early Transformer ancestors, leading to the creation of the Swarm, an Omnicidal Maniac Eldritch Abomination that nearly destroyed several civilizations across the galaxy, including the modern-day Transformers. The defendant also created the Fallen, a creature that oversaw the universal element of entropy, an element that the defendant's brother and eternal enemy Unicron is the embodiment of, essentially handing the Chaos Bringer his very own avatar to do his bidding with. In short, thanks to the defendant's absentmindedness, he had an indirect hand in creating two of the Transformers' worst enemies, of whom only one had been "neutralized" (although the Swarm's "purified" form of the Vok could arguably be considered just as nasty as their previous selves), while the other is still at large and continues to plague the defendant's creations, on occasion. The defendant also is highly reluctant to wake himself unless there is a significant and direct threat either from Unicron himself, or against the defendant's person, and even then, he uses proxies to do the dirty work, for him; for instance, he allowed the Transformers to wage a civil war that lasted aeons and devastated and drained their home planet - the defendant's body - almost to destruction, with very little repercussions, but when Unicron began actively hunting down and consuming the sparks of the Transformers, thus weakening the defendant's power, the defendant hired one of the remaining Transformers to form an army against Unicron, and allowed him to choose a scant 2 soldiers from time and space to fill that army with. The evidence is clear; as was proven in the case against Mortal Kombat's Elder Gods, filed below, the defendant seems much more concern with saving his own hide than he is with the safety of the universe; his creation of the Matrix does not in any way offset his crimes.
  - The defense would like to rebut that to perform direct combat with Unicron, Primus would be forced to effectively kill all Transformers to re-assemble himself, resulting in billions of counts of infanticide. As previous battles in times older than comprehension caused the destruction of large swaths of the multiverse, one can see why Primus is so hesitant to battle his counterpart. As stated before, Primus did make extensive efforts to minimize risk to existence by ensuring that only the smallest pieces of himself are active at any given moment to ensure that Unicron could not find him and remain in his less threatening state. While one could argue that a more permanant solution would be preferable, he clearly did make the effort.

Close Toys

The plaintiff brings the Masari of Universe At War to the stand, for creating a race of sneaky, manipulative, arrogant, elitists, then running away to an ancient stronghold, teaching a fledgling descendant race just enough to get them to have hope, than retreating into stasis at the bottom of the ocean FOR TEN MILLION YEARS, only rising again to deal with thier mess AFTER their little City-Ark IS HIT WITH MISSLE FIRE. ~~Verdict: Guilty.~~
- This court issues a censure to the prosecution for issuing a ruling on it's own. That is the court's job, thank you very much. Would the defense like to make a statement?
How about the Forerunners of Halo? The evidence: They knowingly concealed the existence of an extremely dangerous and parasitic organism capable of annihilating all sentient life in the Galaxy. They defeated this organism via the use of superweapons which did, in fact, annihilate all sentient life in the Galaxy. They leave the superweapons in an operable state capable of another Galactic genocide. AND they don't even bother to destroy the last remnants of the parasite, which they left in stasis on board the superweapons!
- To be fair, the Halo superweapons were an absolute last resort, and just before the rings were activated it appeared there was a good chance that they would be able to defeat the Flood without using them. Given the presence of the Ark and the ineffectiveness of the rings against the smaller forms of the Flood, it was not unreasonable to make the weapons multi-use. At least the Forerunners tried to keep anyone but themselves from firing the rings. Also, the Flood may have been left to them by an even older species, the Precursors, turning this into a case of doubly-neglectful precursors!
- Additionally, the information offered in Halo 3 confirms that the Forerunners' entire extinction was due to a sudden and unexpected shift in the war with the Flood, which forced them to fire the Halo array. In fact, in that same game, it is revealed that the Forerunners were actively attempting to preserve the species of the galaxy by sheltering them on the Ark, well away from the Halo array's firing range. Only when this came under threat did they utilize the Halo array.
- Having considered the evidence and the mitigating circumstances, this Court finds that the Forerunners did the best that they reasonably could have done under circumstances that were not of their creation. Verdict: Not Guilty.
  - This troper motions that they should still be tried in civil court of law, as said "sudden and unexpected shift" was due to one of the AI's they created not only pulling a face-heel turn that cost them any chance of winning the war outright, but then manipulating the Prophets into waging a genocidal war against the only race handy that could reactivate the rings. That the AI pulled a heel-face turn later indicates that the whole mess could have been avoided if they gave the AI a decent therapist.
  - The defense motions against this. The actions of Mendicant Bias were clear acts of treason, and logs recovered from that time indicate the AI acted with full awareness of his actions and the consequences. The idea that "therapy" might have averted treason when we have clear evidence that the actions were taken with full awareness of their consequences is preposterous, especially when Mendicant's subsequent actions indicate his awareness of the wrongness of his actions at the time.
  - The defense also objects to the assertion that Mendicant Bias was responsible for turning the Prophets against the humans. Evidence recovered from Contact Harvest indicates that Bias remained inert for the majority of his time while in possession of the Covenant, and the only actions he undertook when reactivated was to attempt to protect the humans. The Prophets' subsequent genocidal war with the humans was done to protect their hold on power once they learned of the connection between humans and the Forerunner.
  - The court upholds this motion, and civil charges are dismissed. (Verdict: Not Guilty!)
The mysterious and ancient Sages of the Legend Of Zelda series constantly underestimate Ganondorf and seal him in an incredibly flimsy prison, then put all of the tools needed to re-seal him in incredibly out of the way dungeons filled with monsters and hazardous traps. It's almost like they want everyone to be enslaved. At the very least, they do apologize for the whole thing in Twilight Princess. Still, one apology isn't going to cut it for a couple thousand years of monster plagues every century. (Note that the sages aren't Precursors in every Zelda game.) (Verdict: ~~Guilty!~~)
- OBJECTION! While the measures taken by the Sages are often insufficient to properly seal away Ganondorf, these are usually not their fault. One must keep in mind that, being in possession of the Triforce of Power, Ganondorf's powers with magic are far beyond what the Sages themselves may be capable of. Indeed, in Twilight Princess, the Sages threw Ganondorf into the Twilight Realm not because they had planned to, but because they were unaware that he possessed the Triforce of Power and he broke free after they had attempted to execute him.
  - Motion granted. Even though Ganondorf is never properly defeated by them, The Sages oppose his influence every time he show up and are thus innocent of the charges of neglect. (Verdict: Not Guilty!)
Your honor, the Hyrulians would like to bring forth a second suit: the three Goddesses left behind the Triforce, which is basically their exit door and Cosmic Keystone. There were a few precautions against it getting nicked by a sociopathic man-bear-pig, but clearly they weren't enough. They let Link and Zelda clean up after them.
- The defense would like to respond to this by pointing out that "letting Link and Zelda clean up after them" is a gross misrepresentation, and that the Godesses clearly left behind a means to counter the rise of one who would abuse the Triforce. Examples include the various Sages and the Light Spirits, who were intended to help the Hero who acquired the Triforce of Courage fight evil. Having "Link and Zelda clean up" is the goddesses' intended counter to attempts to abuse the Triforce, and thus far, it seems to have worked pretty well. The defense moves that charges of neglect be dropped, because of this clear intent by the Godesses to maintain balance and ensure their power cannot be abused.
- This troper wishes to remind the court of that the so-called "Light Spirits" of Hyrule and the "Sages" mentioned by the defense are useless as a defense against Ganon ultimately. Add to that the events leading up to the "Wind Waker" incident in which Ganon reappears and Link and Zelda are nowhere to be found. The enslavement/deaths of the citizens of Hyrule is precisely what the Goddesses should be stopping since it is their fault. Allowing Ganon to return and not having their "defenses" in place is neglectful. And their subsequent flooding of the whole kingdom of Hyrule and the murder of most of the population. All this to avoid just killing Ganon themselves. Due to hundreds (possibly thousands) of counts of murder of innocent Hyrule citizens I request a sentence of death for the defendants.
- In what may be either a stroke of genius or idiocy, the Goddesses designed the Triforce pieces in such a way as they are bound to their spiritual owners (Link, Link's descendant, reincarnation or spiritual successor will always have the Triforce of Courage or the ability to control the Triforce of Courage). However, it is apparently only the Triforce of Power which grants its owner immortality, and it appears at least to be much more powerful than the other two pieces (though this may be merely because Ganondorf himself is much more powerful than either Link or Zelda). Seeing as the Goddesses had the foresight to create the Master Sword to cover their asses, you'd think they would have included something along the lines of "the evil one can't get the immortality piece," or at least not put immortality into the piece most likely to go to someone evil (likely genre blindness; the evil guy always wants Power more than anything else)
  - Objection! The cause of Ganon's immortality is pure conjecture. It's possible that Link and Zelda could become immortal with their pieces of the Triforce, but either don't know how or don't want to. It is also possible that being Sealed Evil In A Can has a Year Inside Hour Outside effect, retarding Ganon's aging, or that immortality cost him his humanity (his "man-bear-pig" forms appear primarily in chronologically-later games, while those set earlier feature his human form). We simply do not have enough information to know for certain. Further, the goddesses did leave a guard against evil gaining absolute power - if one wants power more than anything else, then the Triforce of Power is all he'll get; the pieces of Wisdom and Courage will go to others who will invariably be against him.
- Counter-Objection to all of this your honor! It does not matter how many safeguards the Goddesses left in case the Triforce was used for evil. They are the ones who created the Triforce and left it vulnerable in the first place. And for what, "balance"? Talk the average Hylian being harassed by hordes of Moblins and see if he cares about balance. They didn't even try to potect it, their safeguards were circumvented by a child.
- Objection!-While the creation of an artifact capable of giving it's bearer almost unlimited power with no direct means of determining morality is questionable at best, one must remember that the original safeguards (as shown in OOT)were designed so that only someone pure of heart and strong enough to fight off evil would get anywhere near the thing. Even then, they'd have to have the support of all the major races of Hyrule to gain the keys. The only flaw was that Link, as a child, simply wasn't strong enough to fight Ganondorf and had to be hidden until he grew old enough to do so. The Goddesses obviously learned their lesson prior to Windwaker, and had Hyrle itself sealed away so that nothing like Ganondorf would ever happen again.
- (Verdict: This court finds that the Goddesses implemented numerous safeguards against one of their creations falling into the wrong hands. That these safeguards turned out to be woefully insufficient is beyond doubt; however, the court is unwilling to condemn the Goddesses for making bad safeguards when they so obviously did try. They were, perhaps, Incompetent Precursors, but the case before this court is Neglect. Not Guilty!)
The Cetra in Final Fantasy VII, defeated Jenova but did not truly kill or hide her; of course, she did fight them to extinction. And she regenerates from cellular matter. What's strange is that they had but did not use either the Black Materia, a doomsday weapon, or White Materia, it's antithesis, to try and stop her. They did, however, properly seal the Black Materia from being randomly stolen. Note that some theories state that they DID, in fact, use Meteor...which was as close to killing Jenova as they could get, and what finished off the rest of 'em! (Verdict: Not Guilty!)
In their exodus from this area of the galaxy, the Precursors of the Star Control series absent-mindedly left behind a humongous battleship armed with superweapons that can wipe out entire fleets with each shot. Naturally, the enslaving Ur-Quan Kzer-Za stumble across it, naming it Sa-Matra. Among the numerous other artifacts the Precursors left behind are: bombs used as planeteering tools (one is used to put a hole in the outer layers of a star, causing it to flare like a supernova and sterilizing the entire inhabited system, and another is deemed powerful enough to destroy the Sa-Matra only after amplifying modifications are added by the Chmrr), the Mycon (biological planeteering tools that evolved into a race of fungi who terraform inhabited water worlds by force to their own scorching ideal conditions), and Inter-Dimensional-Fatigue-wave-generating devices (the study of which gets the Androsynth eaten by Lovecraftian extradimensional horrors). (Verdict: Guilty!)
- Your Honor, the defense appeals this ruling, on the grounds that in order to avoid an enemy more powerful than themselves, the Precursors turned themselves into cattle.
  - The appeal is denied, as this occurred in Star Control 3... Which never happened..
- The Precursors were in a hurry; according to the Slylandro, "the Shaggy Ones were described as being... worried. They were always hurrying from place to place, seeking knowledge, as though they were in a desperate search for some important secret, some answer to a question that they never shared with us." They didn't have time to clean after themselves.
  - Appeal denied. Lack of planning is not a valid defense.
- The Precursors did leave behind a sentient race of robots who fused with the Chenjesu to form the Chmmr, so they weren't all bad. Unless the mind controlling evil crabs were their fault, in which case they need to be burned at the stake.
  - Irrelevant. It is virtually impossible that the Precursors could have foreseen the viability of crystalline-robotic cross-species fusion. Even if they had foreseen it, they should have performed the joining themselves and saved the Alliance the trouble.
- Also in this series, the Slylandro, who created an infinite supply of probes that will zap everything in sight (specifically chasing down the protagonist) and can even absorb asteroids for energy. It took a direct appeal to the Slylandro to stop the probes. However, do they count as Precursors?
  - Not really. The Slylandro probes were around for only a few years (if months). Furthermore, this technology wasn't even invented by them, but rather they bought it from the Melnorme. They do deserve a reprimanding for not reading the manual properly, but this is cosmological family court, not galactic small claims court. Therefore we do not have jurisdiction.
- How about the Arilou? They had been conducting experiments on humanity for thousands of years, held back advanced propulsion technology, and retreated from the war to their own secure homeworld. Answer: They were protecting humanity from Cosmic Horror, they only retreated after they were satisfied that humanity was safe, and were happy to help when the protaganist tracked them down. Being reclusive is not the same as being neglectful. (Verdict: Not Guilty!)
The Chozo in the Metroid series created the titular creatures to hold off the Body Horror X Parasites. However, they did not think to adjust their creations so that they could not suck the Life Energy from other living things, making them hideously powerful biological weapons. While this could fall into "not a bug but a feature" status, as the X can perfectly mimic other life forms (possibly a defense mechanism against Metroids?), one could imagine a form of "filter sense" that would cause Metroids not to target non-X-infected life.
- The defense offers the following counterarguments: 1) They could not have anticipated the Space Pirates. 2) They had other things to take care of, like holding off the evil on Tallon IV (as seen in Metroid Prime). 3) It may not have been possible to create a creature that can see through an X's flawless disguise, making "attack anything" the safest bet. 4) They did raise and equip Samus Aran to fight back against them.
- Furthermore, the defense also presents that the Chozo built SR-388 with doors which the Metroids could not open, thus locking the entire ecosystem in. In fact, these doors are literally unopenable unless someone should shoot them with energy weapons, a clear all-languages keep out sign and security device rolled into one which is in turn staggered by levels of security requiring ever more powerful weapons to open, thus clearly showing an intent for those looking at it to stay out. All this even while fighting off the Phazon madness on Tallon IV, looking for the source of Phazon from Skytown, advising the Bryyo natives as to how best balance magic and technology, and helping the Luminoth of Aether achieve intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. The worst that can be laid at their feet is that their blast doors were reverse engineered by everyone from the Federation to the Space Pirates, increasing the number of people carrying firearms to open such doors and thus the number of tragic firearm related incidents. Hardly neglect on their part, but rather the younger races using their technology for something other than its intended purpose.
  - This court agrees with the defense's arguments. In the end, the space pirates are to blame for screwing around on SR-388. (Verdict: Not Guilty!)
  - As evidenced in the manga series, Samus was not raised to combat the Metroids but was actually raised as part of an intergalactic police force! She was taken from her home planet after her parents died fighting off space pilots, while the metroids were still in development. Clearly, someone here is lying! On the other hand, as evidenced by the manga, Mother Brain is guiding the Chozo at this time, so it's quite possibly just a Xanatos Gambit or something. I don't know, look into it people, I never played the games, just read the manga. Only up through Chapter 3 though...
  - Whether they trained her or not, they knew she was coming- the Tallon IV Chozo, who didn't have Mother Brain influence, were aware of "The Hatchling" at least 50 years before the story began, and prepared accordingly.
  - On a related note, they did scatter lots and lots of technology all around space in alcoves, ncihes and plain view. Whether they knew their Power Suit, whilst having decent armor and firepower and aersome comaptibility, wasn't cutscene proof, or actively wnated to stimulate reverse engineering isn't clear. This Troper, however, tends to the former, making them less Neglectful Precursors then The Chessmaster. Oh, and whilst Metroid Prime 3 doesn't make it clear — could it be that the Aurora Units are reverse engineered from Mother Brain? There was, to this troper's knowledge, a concept art gallery that showed a "planned Aurora station" that looked like an un-Zeerusted Mother Brain room.
  - Its also worth noting that the Chozo don't have access to the kind of power that most precursors have, with non-precursors like the space pirates were able to cause major damage to them. They also did a better job than many of their precursor buddies like the Luminoth, who didn't seem to do much of anything.
The Xel'Naga of the Starcraft series created the Zerg, which promptly killed them, then spread like a plague of locusts and started consuming other species wholesale. The Zerg Overmind's rebellion shouldn't have been entirely unforeseen; the Protoss, their prior creations, similarly rebelled and chased their creators off. As of the end of the Brood Wars, it seems that the Zerg are the single most powerful force lurking in space, making things all the worse. If the kooks spent a little of their supposedly-vast resources building some defenses for their worldships instead of mucking with genetics, this mess wouldn't have happened. ~~(Verdict: Guilty!)~~
- The prosecution would like to call to the stand Samir Duran, whose actions in a bonus mission in Brood War suggest that the Xel'Naga may still be alive, and trying to create Zerg/Protoss hybrids despite the fact that both races rebelled against them previously. Furthermore, the testimony of the Zerg Overmind itself supports this case, implying that it was in fact premeditated. The final verdict is pending trial from a higher court in the upcoming Starcraft II.
  - In defence of the Xel'Naga maybe the Zerg are their chosen people? In which case they were actually not neglectful at all? Did the prosecution think that maybe the Xel'Naga willingly gave themselves up to be the first to be killed and absorbed so that the Zerg might grow? Your Honour I must say that not only are the Xel'Naga excellent parents, they gave everything they had to their children!
  - The prosecution would like to note that raising your children to be horrifying genetic monstrosities who devour all before them and crush every living thing in existence, no matter if that was your intention or not, is really quite damn neglectful.
  - No, it isn't. Raising your children to be expansionist cannibalistic rapacious murderers is not neglectful, but actively malicious. However, we have yet to confirm this theory, and they likely just screwed up and didn't learn from their mistakes.
  - We would like to point out that the Zerg are NOT the sole children of the Xel'naga, nor are the Protoss their only siblings. As the Zerg stole the locations of other child-races and went about eating them before they finally found the Protoss, and this clearly is clearly neglectful as we consider it. We do not yet have clear evidence of them being outright abusive or having planned for the Zerg to eat them and the rest of the Galaxy, only rumors, so we will assume them neglectful until proven abusive.
- A second charge has been filed against the Xel'Naga for abandoning the Protoss. First, they dabbled with the Protoss' development in an effort to create the perfect psionic race. When the Protoss protested their treatment, the Xel'Naga swiftly abandoned their experiment and left the Protoss to engage in a bloody civil war that took thousands of years to resolve and recover from.
  - OBJECTION! Your honor, this is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. The Xel'Naga did not "abandon" the Protoss; they were attacked by them. Thousands of Xel'Naga were slaughtered by the Protoss, whose civil war was entirely of their own making. After suffering an unprovoked assault, the Xel'Naga, a relatively pacifist species, withdrew, having neither the capacity nor the remaining influence to stop an out-of-control civil war.
  - Objection sustained. The court rules that withdrawal from an unprovoked assault does not count as abandonment. (Verdict: Not Guilty!)
Mankind itself in Xenogears: tapped into an otherdimensional, omnipotent existence with limitless energy, created a sentient superweapon, and hooked up one to the other. When Deus naturally went rampant and annihilated the crew of the spaceship ferrying it about, it became a problem for posterior generations.
- Objection! As described in Xenogears itself, the "posterior generations" in the prosecution's argument are humans. Humanity screwed itself over something royal, that point is valid, but that's not the essence of Neglectful Precursors. Had Deus run rampant on another species, especially one humanity had been mentoring, we'd be in business. Lacking that, this appears to be another case of Turned Against Their Masters.
  - The Prosecution would like to note the world Xenogears takes place on that was savaged repeatedly due to humanity and Deus's actions had a pre-existing sentient species, that of Team Pet Chu-chu, which was rendered near-extinct.
  - This troper wishes to file an amicus curiae brief which details the various biological and physiological differences between the follow-on generations of humans grown by Deus as compared to the ancient/contemporary humans which would have been found throughout the rest of the galaxy. As it is proven that Deus uses these post-crash humans as replacement parts/energy/flesh, something which should have come up during his initial beta testing, I submit that these offshoot humans constitute a legally separate race, the original spacefaring humans were neglectful in installing a cannibalizing AI onboard their ship as well as leaving said AI alone for thousands of years to compound the damage already done.
  - This troper objects that the differences in the humans of Xenogears were engineered by Deus' children after Deus' rebellion, and the Captain destroyed the Eldridge to protect billions of human lives from the renegade machine. Given that the humanity of the Eldridge did the best they could to clean up their mess, I must respectfully ask the Court to find them Not Guilty.
  - It's true that humanity attempted to limit the destruction that Deus could cause, but I must ask why, in the hundreds of years following the destruction of the Eldridge, no one ever located the wreckage and made an attempt to destroy Deus once and for all. I am afraid I must make my ruling. (Verdict: Guilty)
  - OBJECTION! It has already been established that the post-crash humans are not the same species as the humans of the Eldridge, instead being a mutation of the Sufal species that was created to be Soylent Green raw material for Deus. Being dead, the Eldridge humans were clearly unable to do anything.
  - But the people who SENT the Eldridge could still have done something. Nothing implies that the people aboard the Eldridge were the last of humanity. Why didn't they send any backup or post investigative teams?
The Protheans of Mass Effect left behind useful technology such as faster-than-light travel, a giant and elaborate space station where all races can meet in harmony, and a race of docile creatures to perform the upkeep on the Lost Technology so that it'll stay in tip-top shape. Unfortunately, it's all just a ploy by an extra-galactic race of robotic Big Bads who enjoy nothing more than snuffing out sentient life and want to make sure said sentient life is dependent on the technology they control, so that when they come back for the harvest they'll have easy pickings and there won't be anywhere to hide. In fact, it turns out that the Protheans didn't make any of that stuff. They found it just like we did, and used it just like we did, and got burned by the trap and driven to extinction. Before they went, though, they managed to defuse one of the traps so that future species in the cycle wouldn't have to deal with it and went to great lengths to pass on what they had learned. They succeeded, albeit just in time, and have given the current species in the galaxy the fighting chance that the Protheans themselves never had. (Verdict: Not Guilty, and a pretty good candidate for the Precursor of the Year award.)
The Eloh, the ancient precursors of Tabula Rasa, created a superscience capable of manipulating energy and matter by acts of will. They then went through interstellar space handing this stuff out randomly. When this didn't end well - surprise, surprise - they annihilated the entire military of the first race to rise against them, the Thrax, firmly cementing xenophobia. Then a small faction called the Neph went and enslaved the Thrax and went on a war against the rest of the universe to make sure no one would ever be their equals again, starting with the mainstream Eloh. Rather than actually fighting back or enlisting (or even warning) the sentient races across the universe, the Eloh just tossed various pieces of Applied Phlebotinum on random populated and unpopulated worlds. At least the Sages of the Legend Of Zelda series bothered to seal away the evil in a can.
Suit brought on behalf of the people of Azeroth and related worlds against the the Titans, who ordered the universe, defeating evil where they found it. Instead of destroying the evil, they always opted for life imprisonment, crafting prisons to host creatures like demons, the Old Ones and their elemental servants. Though their intention was noble, it hasn't really worked out in the universes' favor. Also, the demons were released by a corrupted member of their race, and while they tried to ease his pain, it is unknown if they did anything to stop him after he turned.
- According to published lore it seems the Titans went on and never looked back, so the last time they saw Sargeras he was merely moping around acting depressed.
  - The Shadows & Light RPG book mentions that Sargeras' successor knows he's not powerful enough to face him, and wants to reunite Sargeras' sword, which split in half when he went bad. So assuming that's still canon, they at least KNEW about him, but whether they DID anything is still unclear.
- OBJECTION: Recent revelations in the latest expansion say the Titans sealed the Old Gods rather than destroying them because they were integrated into the life-force of the planet. Destroying them would have reduced the world to a lifeless husk. So sealing them is an act of responsibility, not neglect. They even left fail-safes in case something happened. They cannot be held accountable for millennia-old equipment malfunctioning.
  - They can, actually. They did not arrange for the equipment to be maintained, not even by the time-travelling demi-deity servant they left behind. In addition, they seem never to have checked whether the guards left to watch over the sealed Cosmic Horrors have been subverted, despite the prisoners' strong corrupting powers. Titan creations becoming part of the problem was not only foreseeable, but inevitable.
- The prosecution requests for evidence from the recent Algalon Affair to be brought to the court. The willingness to destroy and recreate a planet on a whim at the signs of "corruption", without regard for any intelligent life on it, cannot be called benevolent or humane by any definition.
  - OBJECTION! Due to the primitive level of technology exhibited by the native species of Azeroth the Defendent known as Algalon only presumed that the lifeforms present on Azeroth were just as capable of being corrupted as anything else, thus leading him to ease the suffering. Would your honor enjoy being the puppet to some abomination? Also, in the count of not maintaining the containment system, the Titans are a very busy people and had a series of redundant systems. They had no reason to fear thier creations had failed.
Your Honour, we would like to know your opinion on prosecuting The Nameless One as a Neglectful Precursor to himself.
- Thanks to multiple cases of Easy Amnesia, almost every Precursor never figured out about the whole immortality loop. One of the few incarnations that figured it out took extreme measures to make sure that his next incarnation (the player) could fix the problem, although he was an extremely evil Jerkass. (Verdict: Not Guilty)
Potentially the player in Spore. One of the achievements in the game requires you to uplift a certain number of creatures. The easiest way to do this is to just randomly drop monoliths on every planet you encounter without sentient life and then forget about it. If you want to be really neglectful you could then come back, wipe out the newly sentient species and drop a new monolith to uplift a new species.
- That wouldn't be neglectful so much as extremely abusive.
  - The court agrees, as such actions, while malicious, are not neglectful due to their extremely premeditated nature. Charges dismissed. (Verdict: Not Guilty on charges of neglect. Charges on being a complete and utter bastard, however, are pending)
Your Honour, I would like to submit another case: The Elder Gods from the Mortal Kombat series. They seem to be perfectly willing to allow the realms to be endangered by either a renegade Elder (Shinnok), a Knight Templar protector (Raiden) or other entity (Blaze). Even the times they do pay attention, the go back on their word, as Scorpion will attest.
- The court finds the Elder Gods Guilty on all counts except for Scropion, whose case is relagated to another court.
The Shee in the Creatures series created the Norns, fuzzy adorable little critters with rudimentary intelligence that they claimed to love as pets. But when they decided it was time to move on to a bigger, round world, they left most of the creatures they had created to die on their home planet.
- OBJECTION! They took some Norns and Ettins with them on the Ark spaceship.
  - And then left them on the ship when they beamed down to the surface. Verdict: Guilty?
Your Honour, we would like to state the case against the Precursors from Jak And Daxter on the following grounds: they did knowingly position the world's supply of Dark Eco in easily accessible silos that simply require one of their seemingly thousands of Humongous Mecha left lying around; they did position the Precursor Stone, the last egg of their own species. within a dungeon without taking any precautions to prevent its theft after the door was opened by their chosen hero; and moreover that the rupture of said stone would destroy the entire universe. However, there is a mitigating factor in their near-extermination by a Horde Of Alien Locusts; what is the verdict, your honour?
Your Honour, we would also like to bring up the event that happened 1000 years before the events of Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, in which four heroes could seal the Shadow Queen only for 1000 years, leaving it to Mario to clean up their mess. What is your verdict; is it guilty or not guilty, your honour?
- Objection: It's likely that this was just the best they could do at the time, given that the Evil inflicted a horrible curse on them. They're not exactly neglectful either, they used the loopholes in their curse to give Mario his useful folding-based powers. In doing so, they are continuing to oppose the Evil they sealed away by helping the new guy.
  - Verdict: Not Guilty. Like the Protheans, may deserve some type of honour.
Sir, I would like to submit the case of Golden Age Morrigi, although their modern-day desendants are complaining loudly about it.
- Item 1: Despite having highly advanced technology that could survive to the presnt era, they chose to abscond with as much as they could carry, knowing that their enemies at the time could only be fought using it in all likelyhood.
  - Objection! The Morrigi were being butchered by the Suul'ka.
- Item 2: Due to having survived, if only with mostly girls, they could have brodcasted a warning to the other races about said enemies.
  - Objection! The Morrigi/Suul'ka war seems to have come before even the Tarka achieved spaceflight.
- Item 3: Still acting incredibly arrogant despite all this. Ok, that was more of having to deal with a Morrigi lawyer, but really guys, could you let up on the whole "we're better than you beacuse we're older" thing?
  - While they are arrogant racists, the ancient Morrigi did give us math and helped found Athens and the Aztec civilizations.
  - While modern Morrigi are arrogant jerks, and the ancient Morrigi frequently posed as gods and dragons, they cannot be blamed for the enslavement of the Liir or the release of the Zuul. Verdict: Jerks, but not guilty.
The prosecution would like to bring charges against "those who came before" in Assassins Creed. These entities left a number of ancient artifacts on Earth that were unguarded and unprotected, and each item can potentially be used to enslave and control vast numbers of human beings. The act of leaving such devices unprotected is a clear sign of neglect.
- Unless the defense can provide evidence that "those who came before" left actual safeguards to protect their technology, this court finds the defendants guilty as charged. (Verdict: Guilty!)
This plaintiff would like to bring charges against "the Progenitors" from Homeworld2. Deliberately leaving their Mover drones and spaceships around the galaxy for people to find and (in the case of the Movers) re-create as weapons. Fortunately the Designated Hero Hiigarans got their Lost Super Weapon Sajuuk, but the Vaygr warlord Makaan did manage to get a Progenitor dreadnought. Were it not for Karan S'jet, the death toll could have been catastrophic!
- The defense would like to point out that Sajuuk was locked away in a place that wasn't readily accessible, that the Movers were defending the keys, and that the keys themselves were located in free-floating debris clouds. Without direct evidence, it's reasonable to assume that the Progenitors were trying the best they could to lock up their stuff but were destroyed by an unknown force before they could finish.
- The defense also objects to the prosecution's unfair characterization of the Hiigarans. In their first campaign they were acting first out of curiosity over their lost past, then revenge for the destruction of their planet, and ultimately were vindicated by the other galactic races. They then joined a peaceful confederation, until they were attacked and put under siege by the remenants of the genocidal race they defeated who was trying to wipe out their new planet. The conduct of the Hiigarans is above reproach and they are certainly worthy heirs to the Lost Technology they find.
- The plaintiff wishes to plead incompetence in light of the facts, and must note he was hired by a surviving Vaygr housewife to pull this charge. Verdict: Not Guilty.

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The Dragons from The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob left behind one of the deadly Iridium Bombs from their ancient war that wiped out the dinosaurs. The government found it and human civilization almost got blown up in the ensuing scuffle!
- Objection! If the Men In Black had just handed the box over when the gigantic firebreathing dragon asked them nicely, there wouldn't have been a scuffle.
- Sustained! Verdict: Not Guilty!
The Titans of Ark that created Erfworld filled their world with fully sentient people and then inflicted on them a system of natural magic that made constant war inevitable. Furthermore, they instituted the principle of "duty", which effectively enslaved 99.9% of the populace.
- Objection! That natural magic has also made a working, enforced rules of war, provides full meals daily to the inhabitants of Erfworld, heals them daily as well. As for duty it has nearly killed off domestic crime and is a very, shall we shall, maleble stat. All this could be argued as showing more care then the average percusor. Finally, the Titans look like Elvis, the Elvis Act very clearly states that no Elvis lookalike is responsible for their own actions.
  - Most creatures need to pay schmuckers for upkeep. While they may get cleaned and healed, failure to pay likely involves disbanding.
  - Your Honor, the Ripple Effect Proof Memory system of the court has noted a recent change in Erfworld brought about presumably via the Titans' ability of "Retconjuration" that suggests the Titans are still active, and therefore may not be considered "Precursors". Therefor, the defense moves to see the charges dismissed on the basis that Judge Troper's Court does not have jurisdiction.

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This troper would like to name pretty much every alien species in Ben 10. They all seem to know about the Omnitrix and where it is, but only the psycho evil ones come after it. No one seems to care that if any of them gets their hands on it they'll use it to conquer and enslave the whole galaxy. Also none of them seems to care to help Ben to fix its design flaw of not turning him into what he wants, when not doing so might kill him, thus giving the villains the Omnitrix without a fight. For example, it might turn Ben into the alien that need lots of water, in a desert.
- I move for the verdict to be guilty, and to extend to all those knowing alien species for blatant neglect for the galaxy's safety. I mean, one of them sent it to Earth, where it was found by a young, irresponsible, selfish boy and only every so often come to Earth to either demand he do something or to rip off his arm, and all still unwilling to teach Ben of anything about the Omnitrix. Hell, he had to learn it all by himself and from his future self.
- The defence would like to point out that the alien beings under trial are not a precursor species, but co-inhabit the universe at the same time as humanity.
- Verdict: Not Guilty due to the loophole stated above. They are, however, idiot jerks.
  - The Defense would like to appeal on the grounds that the aliens that left the omnitrix on Earth were under attack and did anything to prolong their enemy from obtaining it, as destroying it would have created more problems.

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