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For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. — The Bible, Ephesians 6:12
These unnamed, unseen forces are pulling the strings. They can be good, evil, or ambiguous.
This trope can be thought of as a character similar to the Big Bad. This entry refers to the thing that is represented by a character, rather than the character itself. Not all Big Bads are mysterious enough to be Powers That Be, and not all Powers That Be are threatening enough to be Big Bads.
This term and its abbreviation are often seen in TV show fandoms to refer to the producers. When Vince Russo took over as head writer of WCW, Time Warner's management became a character on the show. They were literally referred to as the Powers That Be, and were represented by the back of Russo's head and his voice from off-camera, for the most part.
Even good Powers That Be tend to rub the heroes the wrong way, as they tend to be too distant to understand the heroes' concerns and protectorate.
One variety of the Powers That Be is the Ancient Conspiracy, another is The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness. Contrast Pals With Jesus, where the relationship is entirely personal and personable.
Often referred to as the PTB. Not to be confused with The Powers That Be (TPTB).
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- Morganna the AI from .hack//SIGN was only depicted as a voice from the sky that can smite the main character and sends out monsters. In fact, it never even states her name in this particular anime series.
- The Data Overmind in Suzumiya Haruhi is the actual power behind the humanoid interfaces (Who are basically just mouthpieces, or better, agents). The Overmind is mainly neutral, wishing only to observe. There is however, another such entity called the "Sky Canopy Domain" which is more hostile.
Comics
Films
- The People In Charge (or PIC) in Wristcutters: a Love Story, and presumably, The Book as well.
Literature
- The god(ess)/angel equivalents in the Young Wizards series. They're actually called "the Powers" in the series, and the universe's version of Satan is called "The Lone Power".
- Well, really, when they say "the Powers" that's an abbreviation for "The Powers That Be" - they do occasionally use the full term. Occasionally there are references to an even greater Power That Is. If the Powers are the angels (and Satan) of Christian faith, then this greater Power is most certainly God. (If this series wasn't the trope namer, it certainly could've fooled me.)
- Above Discworld gods there are eight mysterious beings called the Old High Ones. Only one is known: Azrael, the Death of Universes.
- Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones uses this up to the pommel. The "Magids" (magicians who keep the worlds running) are supervised by the Upper Table (who are rarely seen) who are in turn supervised by Them Up There. There is also known to be more above Them Up There but they are so secretive no one even knows what they're called (or something like that, I'm not entirely certain).
- In the Anne Mc Caffrey /Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Petaybee book series, the Big Bad of the Powers Trilogy, the Intergal company, are called the Powers That Be, or PTB for short, by the native inhabitants of the world, named Petaybee, a play on PTB, as they were settled there when their ancestral lands on Earth were too valuable for them to be left there.
- The Lord Of The Rings (and Tolkien's legendarium in general) has the Valar, who are essentially angels. A variation in that they are bound in the world. However, above and beyond them is Eru Ilúvatar (who is implied to intervene at 'the end of all hope' when Frodo's will fails in The Return of the King, and is described thusly in The Book of Lost Tales:
Eriol: Who was Ilúvatar? Was he of the Gods?
Rúmil:' Nay, that he was not, for he made them. Ilúvatar is the Lord for Always who dwells beyond the world; who made it and is not of it nor in it, but loves it.
- In S. M. Stirling's Emberverse the Change turns out to have been caused by what's best described as the Universal Mind having an argument with itself and coming up with the least awful option. Mind you this least awful option resulted in the worldwide collapse of civilization and the deaths of billions.
Live Action TV
- The eponymous force in Angel.
- Lampshaded at one point where a character asks, "The powers that be what?" At another point, a character calls them "The Powers That Sit on Their Be-hinds".
- The various cabals in The X Files.
- The Elders in Charmed.
- Twin Peaks had the Little Man, the FBI, possible alien abductors, "BOB", and the woods in general. The entire series was one big, creepy Battle of the Network Powers That Be, all-nefarious, all the time.
- And how can we forget the lodges?
- The owls are not what they seem.
- "Management" in Carnivale.
Theater
- In Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the plot is dominated by Keikobad, the King of the Spirits. The character never appears in person but it his [[leitmotif]] with which the opera opens.
Tabletop Games
- The Dark Powers of the Ravenloft Campaign Setting. They are mysterious and incredibly powerful. (Powerful enough to, through sheer power or some kind of deal, shut the Gods themselves out of Ravenloft.) The 2E version of the Campaign Setting actually had separate arguments printed for them being Good, Evil or Neutral. Although most information leads towards Evil. Their MO is mostly to punish evil... by giving someone exactly what they wish for and precisely what they do not want. Attention-seeking manipulative child? Gets mind control powers that don't work on anyone he loves AND a corresponding curse that makes anyone he loves see him as repulsive. Wizard-King seeking to live forever to master every aspect of magic? Turning into a lich, but as a side-effect cannot learn any new spells. And so forth.
Video Games
- God of War takes this trope a step further by having the main protagonist kill the forces that be by essentially becoming one by the time the plot ties up.
- The "entity", referenced only obliquely in Chrono Trigger, oddly enough plays no role at all in the story. In the sequel, the all-seeing FATE plays a much larger role.
- While they leave it vague, the "entity" is actually the planet. It's what opened the time gates, leading the heroes to eventually defeat Lavos. The main conflict in the game is essentially "the planet vs Lavos." The "entity" reprises its role in Chrono Cross by summoning Dinopolis to defend itself against FATE, only this time it fails.
- Silent Hill, where it is never clear what's causing all strange events.
- Nexus War originally did this with the nine Elder Powers, but in later versions they became less mysterious to the point of becoming prone to Level Grinding.
Web Comics
- In Demonology 101 those that control Hell are referred to as "The Powers That Be" or as simply "The Powers."
Western Animation
- XANA the AI from Code Lyoko is similar, although having a more direct influence on the real world.
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