"The wheel of fate acts the opposite of how mortals think. Those who resist the wheel, and try to defy or subdue fate, are only entangled in its spokes. Those who embrace fate are the ones who can recognize it and grasp the reins to steer the wheel in a new direction."
— Rota Fortuna, Pony POV Series
Sometime in the distant past, the seers looked into the future and recorded what would come to pass. In their foresight they clearly predicted an outcome that the subjects do not want to come true (after all, prophecies predicting terrible dooms, be it upon a land, a people, or even a single individual, have a habit of being disproportionately popular in these scenarios); and unfortunately the deadline is now rapidly approaching.
If Prophecies Are Always Right and You Can't Fight Fate, one thing you can do is turn it in your favour—by invoking Prophecy Twist.
Coming to realise this important detail can sometimes allow the participants to figure out a way they can arrange events so that the prophecy comes true to the letter, and yet still manages to avoid the unwanted fate.
This trope often relies heavily on exploiting Exact Words or Loophole Abuse. For example, say the Prophecy predicts a meteor will destroy the town of Dale. Then the character's solution is to simply switch the town's name with that of a decrepit abandoned hamlet called Hale. Thus, "Dale" is eventually destroyed by the falling meteor, saving "Hale" from catastrophe with no casualties.
If practical time travel exists in the setting, expect a Time Travel Escape to at least be discussed.
Sub-Trope of Prophecy Twist, when the prophecy comes true in an unexpected manner without any deliberate actions to secure this outcome. Compare and contrast Screw Destiny, when the Prophecy is flat out defied, and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, when it's one's actions taken to avoid fate that cause the prophecy to come true. Contrast Thread of Prophecy, Severed when a prophecy outright fails to come to pass or is made not to. May result in a Hijacked Destiny.
Note: Due to the often ambiguous nature over what is the right interpretation of a prophecy, this trope requires the characters to both know the details of the prophecy and to actively set up the events so that a more desired outcome occurs in situations where an undesirable one seems inevitable.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Aquila: Locusta's prophecy predicts that a new god will rise to power in Rome, something the tyrannical emperor Nero takes to mean himself, his goal to become an immortal God-Emperor and "carve my name across the bones of this Earth". Ficus tries to stop the prophecy from coming to pass, before residing that there is no way to prevent it. However, he realises the Prophecy doesn't specify it has to be Nero, and instead engineers it so it's the benevolent carpenter god worshiped by that new religious group with a thing for fish.
- Marvel 2099: In Conan 2099, Conan the Barbarian was cursed by a witch named Morgana to live forever, have his kingdom collapse, and the sun burn the ground beneath his feet. The first two parts go exactly as she planned, but Conan finds a way to twist the third; come 2099, he steals a helmet from the Nova Corps (which would allow him to survive in space), hijacks a spaceship, and lets the sunburn that. Now he's as free as a bird.
- Fantastic Four: When the Overmind was introduced in Fantastic Four issue #113, he was fond of quoting a prophecy about himself: "From out of the heavens shall come the Overmind, and he shall crush the universe." Indeed, none of the heroes can make a dent in him, even with the Teeth-Clenched Teamwork of Doctor Doom. It took the Deus ex Machina of The Stranger showing up, and summarily shrinking the Overmind to particulate size, taunting: "Now the Overmind has his universe to crush, on a nameless mote of dust."
- The Mighty Thor: For one storyline Odin set up stage-dressing Ragnarok to save Asgard from its prophesied destruction.
Fan Works
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Both Dumbledore and Voldemort hear prophecies regarding Harry, and try to have those prophecies fulfilled on their own terms.
- Dumbledore has seen a string of prophecies about individuals who would have the potential to destroy Earth, and has acted to remove those people. However, since it was only prophesied that Harry would be "the end of the world", not that he would kill everyone, Dumbledore decides to let him live and bring about sweeping changes that will figuratively be the end of the world.
- Voldemort hears that he and Harry are incompatible and cannot survive in the same world, so he decides to alter Harry's mind to be more like his own, thus making them compatible and giving him a Worthy Opponent to keep him from boredom, all at once. Unfortunately for him, during the process, their similarity created a magical resonance between them, which incinerated his own body when he tried to seize control and stop it.
- Paradoxus: Daphne the nymph gets a vision from an alternate timeline where all of the heroines die and the Burning Legion is successful at conquering Magix. She checks with the nymph of time which events of that timeline are set in stone and which ones can be changed. Stella and Bloom's deaths are inevitable as it's the entrance of the Burning Legion. However, since the rest of the Winx and their daughter's deaths are preventable if they are prompted to prepare —elevating their fairy forms to the Etherix for the former and enduring Training from Hell in Azeroth for the latter—, then the chances of kicking out the Burning Legion increase exponentially. It's also crucial to protect Solaria's population because elemental light magic trumps the Fel magic used by the Legion's demons. This results in the aforementioned character allying with Galadwen and Flora as well as indirectly setting up the main characters to travel back to the past. She carefully engineers what events are changed and when the important people are informed so the current timeline ends up as way less tragic.
- Pony POV Series: Rota Fortuna, the goddess and Anthropomorphic Personification of fate and free will, gives a speech of this kind to Nightmare Eclipse during her defeat. The way she puts it, those who try to actively fight against fate shall inevitably fail, while those who become obsessed with controlling fate shall become controlled by it instead, but only those who recognize and understand their circumstances, and work with what they have, can change their fate to a more favorable one. Nightmare Eclipse, at first, intended to use time magic to put the world back the way it was before Discord won, but became "tangled" in the spokes of fate's wheel by keeping the Dark World timeline in an endless 1,000-year loop for the sole purpose of torturing and punishing Discord, with no intention of ever stopping. The present Twilight and her friends understand that magically undoing Discord's initial victory 1,000 years ago would erase from existence all the ponies and other creatures who are currently alive. They have accepted that they cannot (and should not) attempt to undo their past actions or bring back the past Equestria, and instead their goal is to save the world they live in right now, for a better future.
Film — Animation
- Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions: The Big Bad Grings Kodai has the power to see the future, an ability he gained by siphoning off Celebei's time ripple, and uses it to become the successful businessman he is today. When he plans to absorb the time ripple again to replenish his power, he sees a vision of his success and remains smug and confident throughout the film. The heroes manage to exploit this by having Zoroark conjure an illusion of the time ripple for him to absorb, all so they can catch his confession and gloating on camera.
Film — Live-Action
- The Scorpion King: Subverted. Agamemnon's soothsayer says that the captured Mathayus "dies not by [Agamemnon's] nor his men's hand". He takes it as a good riddle and then the next morning he orders his men to bury Mathayus and his friend neck-deep in the sand, and then release desert ants on them to slowly eat them to death. However, Mathayus and the others still manage to escape the ants.
Literature
- Empire of the East: Prince Duncan and three of his top wizards conduct a divination ritual which reveals that if Duncan takes his army east, it will be defeated and sent into headlong retreat and that an enemy of terrible power will appear and destroy Ardneh. Ardneh whispers into Duncan's mind that he should take his army east anyway. Duncan realizes that Ardneh can see this future as well as his wizards can, so Ardneh must have a prophecy twist in mind — even if Duncan has no idea what that twist might be. The Empire releases the demon Orcus to destroy Ardneh, and he does — but when Ardneh dies, he transforms Orcus back into a detonating nuclear warhead, taking out most of the forces of the Empire in the process. Duncan's army survives because it retreated away from Ground Zero.
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Sea of Monsters, before departing on her quest to find the Golden Fleece, Clarissa Le Rue receives a prophecy from the Oracle telling her she will "fail without friends, and fly home alone" seeming to spell her failure, leaving her terrified of disappointing her father Ares. Sure enough, despite making it to the island, it's Percy who captures the Fleece. However, Percy declares it still her victory as she brought them as friends, gives her the Fleece, and buys her a plane ticket so she can fly back to Camp Half-blood alone.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: 300 years ago, a mage theorized that one cannot observe the future with precision because the act of prophecy itself changes the future: "What we call 'prophecy' is merely the act of guiding events towards one potential outcome." This became the underlying principle of the Fourth Spellblade, "Angustavia — the thread that crosses the abyss", which selects a desired possible near-term future and forces it to come to pass. Main character Oliver Horn uses to defeat Darius Grenville in a Single-Stroke Battle at the end of volume 1.
- Shakespeare's Spy: Widge and his friends meet a fortune teller who tells them prophecies about their lives, all of which become true in ways they didn't expect. In the end, Widge decides to visit her one last time, but becomes aghast when his fortune is that he "will tell a great many lies". Noticing his despair, the fortune teller urges him to not take the prophecy so literally, and Widge ultimately resolves to tell countless "lies", by becoming a playwright.
- The Silmarillion: From the "Tale of Beren and Luthien" has an example that overlaps this and Prophecy Twist. When trying to free Beren from a prison run by Sauron, Luthien is aided by Huan, a wolfhound with semi-divine powers, about whom there is a prophecy that he will not be killed except by "the mightiest wolf that would ever walk the world". After Huan has killed all of Sauron's werewolves, it occurs to Sauron (who is aware of the prophecy) to transform himself into a giant werewolf larger than any other werewolf before him and fight Huan in this shape. Sauron is shamefully defeated; when Sauron's superior Morgoth hears about this, he correctly deduces that the "mightiest wolf that would ever walk the world" is yet to come and raises another wolf whom he causes to grow to an even greater size than the transformed Sauron. It is this wolf, Carcharoth, who eventually kills Huan.
- The Song of Achilles: Thetis was prophesied to bear a son greater than his father. In order to ensure that she wouldn't give birth to a monstrously powerful being who would overthrow them, the Greek gods forcibly married her to the mortal Peleus, who raped her, resulting in the exceedingly powerful but very mortal demigod Achilles.
- The Year of Rogue Dragons: Big Bad Sammaster's goal is to force the outcome of a prophecy that — so he insists — predicts undead dragons ruling the world. Most of the other wizards who have studied the prophecy in question think he translated it wrong and is trying to force an outcome quite different from what the prophet predicted, and in any case, they're all rather baffled that anyone could possibly want undead dragons to rule the world.
Live-Action TV
- Arrowverse: In the crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, Barry is already aware of the fact that he disappears into the timestream after trying to stop the crisis. However, the Barry Allen from Earth-90 realizes that it only states that Barry Allen dies, not which one, and sacrifices himself in our Barry's place.
- Carnival Row: The primary villain of season 1, Piety Breakspear, is obsessed with a prophecy that Chancellor Absalom Breakspear's son will be a great man; unfortunately, they've learned that Absalom had a child out of wedlock, namely male lead Rycroft Philostrate. They kill several people over the course of the season in an effort to identify him so they can kill him in hopes the prophesied outcome will pass to Absalom's known son Jonah, even though he was born to Piety by an extramarital affair with Absalom's rival Ritter Longerbane.
- Doctor Who:
- In the Silence arc, the Eleventh Doctor is informed that he is prophesied to die permanently at Lake Silencio at the hands of the Impossible Astronaut. However, it's later revealed the Doctor managed to pull a case of Exact Words, as he manages to avert his death by hiding himself in the shapeshifting Teselecta disguised as himself. Whereby a "Doctor in a Doctor suit" meets the conditions and still allows the Doctor to survive.
- In "The Day of the Doctor", history states that Gallifrey disappeared in the Great Time War, presumably destroyed along with the Daleks firing at it. So the (three) Doctors (along with every Doctor regeneration) instead seal Gallifrey in a pocket dimension and keep it in stasis. To the rest of the universe, it looks like Gallifrey disintegrated, so history is kept intact.
- Red Dwarf: Cassandra, a sentient computer that is advanced enough she calculate the future with 100% accuracy, predicts that Rimmer will die in a short while. After thinking it over, Rimmer realises that as they've never met Cassandra and she has no idea what he looks like, he successfully averts this by giving his jacket to another crewman — since Cassandra could only have identified him from the name on his jacket, it's the other crewman who dies.
- Xena: Warrior Princess: In "Cradle of Hope", a king reluctantly orders the deaths of all newborn baby boys, fearing a prophecy that a boy born during that period would replace him as king. Xena eventually convinces the king to raise the kid prophesied to replace him as his son, so that when he does replace him, it will be as his heir, not as his conqueror.
Myths & Religion
- Classical Mythology: Zeus did this twice.
- Once, he heard his current paramour, Metis, pregnant with a girl at the time, would have a child stronger than the father if she was ever pregnant with a boy, so he turned her, or tricked her into turning herself, into a fly and swallowed her. The daughter Metis carried became Athena later.
- The second time, the gods heard Thetis, a beautiful water nymph, would have a son (again) much stronger than his father, so they had her marry a mortal: the child thus would be a demigod, by definition stronger than a mortal.
- Subverted or played straight depending on the version according to legendary accounts of the Sumerian king Enlil-bani
. Looking to avoid the gods' wrath the old king temporally appointed Enlil-bani as king so that he could be his scapegoat. However, the old king ended up dying anyway meaning he stayed monarch (in some versions of the tale Enlil-bani deliberately poisoned him to ensure the right king would die).
Podcasts
- Malevolent: In episode 20 it's suggested much of Arthur and The Entity/John's journey is predestined, or at the very least the end result of his encounter with The King in Yellow is already set in stone. However, Arthur asks for something to "change the pattern" and is given a knife by an enigmatic entity he knows as Kayne, who tells him to "use it when the time is right. Daniel told you.", before disappearing. As Arthur is brought before the King and it seems John will sacrifice himself to save Arthur, Arthur remembers what Daniel said to him. That he doesn't have to let them win. So he takes the knife and stabs himself in the throat, in an attempt to keep The King from getting John. He ultimately misses his jugular and John and Arthur say their goodbyes. Then in Coda, after dragging his broken bleeding body through a blizzard and to a remote cabin, Kayne appears before Arthur again and makes him a deal to bring John back to him, without his memories. Ultimately defying the 'predestined' end.
Video Games
- Eric the Unready: It is prophesied that Old King Fudd will die in seven days. When the time arrives Fudd faints, but later awakes and declares that he's free of the villain's mind control and thus it's his old self that died, not his true himself.
- Genshin Impact: In Chapter 4 that centers on Fontaine, the Nation of Water, there's a prophecy that states that all Fontainians are born with "original sin", and for this, the Fontaine waters will rise and dissolve all Fontainians into water, leaving the local Archon, Furina, weeping on her throne alone; only then their "sin" will be pardoned. This prophecy has slowly but surely shown signs to be true (especially when "Primordial Seawater" bursts forth from one of the country's towns, dissolving several people living there), and Furina is taking this seriously - thing is, she doesn't appear to have any concrete plan, and her subordinates, as well as the Traveler, thought she's hiding something, leading them to trick her into attending trial in the court, in order to make her confess about anything she knows regarding the prophecy. After the local Computerized Judicial System declares the "Hydro Archon" guilty and punishable with death sentence (and a certain interdimensional monster suddenly enters to prey on the Fontainians and the Primordial Seawater), said system, the Oratrice, reveals the "truth" to the Traveler and Chief Justice Neuvillette: the Oratrice contains Furina's "divine half", God of Justice, Focalors, who is gathering enough energy from the people's "belief in justice" for 5 centuries in order to create a "weapon" that will "execute" not just her, but the "Throne of Hydro Archon", which contains the stolen Hydro authority of the Hydro Dragon's reincarnation, Neuvillette; with his power restored to full, he becomes the key to twisting the prophecy, by using the Hydro authority of "life-giving" to turn Fontainians into "true humans" and make them immune to Primordial Seawater's effects. While Fontaine ends up flooded later and Furina, out of her depression, is reduced to a sobbing mess on her throne, most Fontainians survive the waters, thanks to Neuvillette "pardoning their sins".
- God of War Ragnarök: This is what Odin literally lives for. He's aware of his grisly demise in Ragnarök and he took extreme measures (including genocide, theft, and treachery) to postpone the apocalypse and prepare Asgard for the inevitable. A noteworthy example of his cunning is his exploitation of the celestial wolves Hati and Sköll as personal clocks. Since Groa's prophecy tells them they would eventually swallow the Sun and the Moon, he deliberately let them loose to set a deadline on his plans and have a more precise estimate of when Ragnarok will begin, so that he won't be caught off guard. He also appointed Heimdall as the keeper of Gjällarhorn, the horn which, once blown, will kickstart Ragnarök. It's eventually revealed that Odin was on the wrong track all the time, because Groa's prophecy was a lie and the real Ragnarök would have played out differently, but he still manages to find out the truth while passing off as his son Tyr. The Norns also reveal that his inability to change his ways set the very path that he sought to avoid, which ultimately leads to not only to the complete defeat of Asgard but also to his death in the arms of Atreus, a fate that was originally meant for Kratos, who survives Ragnarök through Character Development.
- Tales of the Abyss: Trying to accomplish this on a worldwide scale is the Evil Plan of Big Bad Van Grants. The Score is an ancient prophecy that has always proven true, but what most people do not know is that the end of The Score also predicts the end of the world. Thus, the villain's plan is to bring about the end of the world himself but use Fomicry (a dangerous technique that can copy any matter — including people) to create a new world populated by clones right as the old one dies. The problem is, the villain's role in the apocalypse, and the clones themselves, are also accounted for in The Score — thus, it's arguable that his actions are exactly what was predicted in the first place, which is why the heroes try to stop him and opt for a hard Screw Destiny solution, which the villain himself is convinced won't work. And so, though both sides want the same goal, one has to kill the other.
Webcomics
- Erfworld: Fate is a Sentient Cosmic Force that enforces prophecies like a Game Master in a RPG Mechanicsverse. Fate can be caught off-guard or overpowered by overwhelming odds, but that just forces Fate to try again, and Fate is a lot bigger and stronger than any single side. Even if you manage to kill someone fated to bring about a prophecy you do not like, Fate will just pick someone else. The best way to deal with a prophecy is to "cheat" it, resolving Fate's exact requirements in a way you would prefer. For example, a city fated to come under air attack can potentially fulfill the prophecy by arranging the air attack themselves under controlled circumstances rather than wait for Fate to manipulate an actual enemy into doing it. Even Carnymancers, who specialize in the magic of rigging the game, cannot defeat Fate, but they are the best at cheating it.
- Swords and Sausages: Played for Laughs. Chapter 10 has Tor and Silver visit a theme park littered with swords embedded in stones. While Tor can't extract any of these swords, he does succeed in plucking off their jeweled grips. Then Tor tries a sword guarded by a huge stone dragon; he can't budge it. While Tor is busy with a basilisk, Silver takes a tug on this sword, and surprise! She frees it on page 20. The sword exults at being freed by its rightful master as prophesied, which unnerves Silver. She sticks the sword back in its rock and abandons it. Nothing in the rule book says she has to take it with her.
Western Animation
- All Hail King Julien: Attempting this kicks off the entire series, in the first episode "King Me" King Julien XII is given a prophecy by Masikura that the king of the lemurs will be eaten by the Fossa at sundown tomorrow. Realising the prophecy only states the "one who wears the crown" will be eaten, he decides to make his nephew Julien king so he'll die instead, then afterwards he'll just take his kingdom back. It backfires on him as Julien survives with Fossa only succeeding in taking a small bite out of him, as the prophecy never stated the king would die.
- Gargoyles: Macbeth attempts this on King Arthur himself in the episode "Pendragon". It's pointed out to him that the prophecy concerning a once and future King returning in a time of turmoil applies to Macbeth as well, and he resolves to seek out Excalibur in Arthur's place. For a brief time, he seems to succeed, but Arthur ultimately figures out the last riddle, securing his place in Destiny's plan.
