You Can't Fight Fate - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): You Cant Fight Fate

"Those things had to happen to me. That was my destiny. But you'll understand soon enough that there are consequences to being chosen...because, destiny, John, is a fickle bitch."

- Ben Linus, Lost

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

Often happens with an obvious (or not so obvious) Prophecy Twist on the language used in the prophecy. As old as Oedipus Rex, used by Shakespeare and Tolkien, and still fresh at least as recently as the mid-80s sitcom!

Depending on the mood of the series, the final fulfillment of the prophecy may or may not be a Downer Ending. Sometimes, the heroes still manage to put right the wrong the prophecy promises. In such situations, they usually conclude that fate only said something bad would happen, not that they couldn't eventually right it. An Aesop usually follows about free will being stronger than destiny.

One technical term for the Time Travel version of this trope is the predestination paradox. See also Stable Time Loop.

If the prophecy comes true because of being made (in the most common scenario, because of everyone's attempts to prevent it), it's a case of Self Fulfilling Prophecies.

Compare with Because Destiny Says So, You Already Changed The Past. Contrast with Screw Destiny.

Examples:

The movie Twelve Monkeys is an excellent, typical example of You Cant Fight Fate.
- This troper's sister got a strange feeling from the ending, thinking that the main characters constant flashbacks are caused by the timeloop slowly breaking until the main character would understand the situation directly at the asylum, either breaking the circle or dooming the universe. Which might hint a "you can fight" destiny situation.
The Fairly Odd Parents, "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker"
The Powerpuff Girls: After some Time Travel, Mojo Jojo chucks a young Utonium into the town volcano. However, the PPGs have travelled as well, and not only do they save Utonium, it turns out that this incident is what got him into science... and eventually led to the PPGs' creation.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Help": A teenager has had premonitions about her own untimely death. Buffy saves her from homicidal maniacs, a demon, and a Death Trap, but she has a heart condition and dies anyway.
Similarly (only with Time Travel), the Heroes ep "Six Months Ago" has Hiro finding out that the waitress that he's been trying to save from Sylar is already dying from a blood clot on her brain.
Partially subverted and partially played straight in Angel: a dark and seemingly inevitable prophecy forming one of the major plots of Season Three was ultimately revealed to be an elaborate Xanatos Roulette on the part of time-traveling Big Bad Sajjhan, who wanted Connor killed off before he could fulfill the true prophecy: causing the death of Sajjhan. Ultimately, however, the true prophecy comes to pass.
- Oddly enough, in the above example, the fake prophecy also comes true. Angel is ultimately forced to kill Connor to save the people he took hostage after yet another psychotic episode. Connor got better.
Teen Titans spent several episodes dealing with Raven's prophesied role as the instrument by which humanity would be destroyed. Despite any tones of fighting your destiny, she /does/ become the portal for humanity's destruction... they just fix it afterwards.
Comes up several times in Gargoyles, thanks to the Phoenix Gate's ability of time travel:
- During his first experience with time travel Goliath ends up in his own past and implores the past version of Demona not to make the same bad decisions that led to her becoming his enemy. When he returns to the present, Demona taunts him with the knowledge that she remembers that confrontation and that his efforts changed nothing.
- Later, Goliath attempts to use the time-travelling Phoenix Gate to save Griff from being killed during the Blitz in WWII London, after being accused of abandoning or murdering Griff by his companions. With incident after increasingly improbable incident occurring that indicates the universe has decided Griff is its new Chew Toy, Goliath ultimately concludes that fate will not allow Griff to get home and uses the Phoenix Gate to bring Griff back with him to the present, thus causing his original disappearance.
- By the end of the Avalon arc, Goliath has learned his lesson enough that, faced with a dystopian future vision of things that will happen to his friends and allies and asked by Elisa to give her the Phoenix Gate in order to fix things, he refuses, stating that time and fate are immutable and cannot be changed. As it turns out the whole experience was staged by Puck as a gambit to obtain the Phoenix Gate for himself, so Goliath is presented as making the right choice.
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, this is embodied in the sympathetic Dark Magical Girl who is actually named "Fate." She feels that she has no choice in her life and in her actions, and thus no hope. Ironically, this is her power at first, as her ruthlessness (as there are no other options to her) gives her the edge. The Heroine contemplates a few times on how she, on the other hand, chose to be a Magical Girl, because it's something she wants to be. (Rather rare; most Magical Girls are that way Because Destiny Says So.) Thus, Fate and Nanoha's battle in the first season is symbolic of Fate vs. Free Will.
- Which means that with enough firepower, you can not only Fight Fate, but you can also befriend Fate. Befriend her right into the hospital.
In the most famous Star Trek The Original Series episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever", Edith Keeler must die so that Germany doesn't win World War II and wipe the Federation from existence. (Had she lived, she would have founded a peace movement that would have delayed the United States' entry into the European front of WWII, allowing Nazi Germany sufficient time to develop the atomic bomb and thus win the war.)
In the Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch manga, Lucia is prophesied to go through great hardship, so she is raised as a civilian. It happens anyway, but it could be argued that because she didn't know she was a princess, she met Kaito, gave away her pearl, and caused everything to happen that gave her a Nakama to get through it. The anime, however, has all this happen while she does know.
The Sandra Bullock Film Premonition mixes this trope with a partial Temporal Paradox. In the future Linda sees, her husband Jim dies, she goes crazy, is suspected of hurting her daughter, and gets committed to an insane asylum. Her efforts to prevent Jim's death Self Fulfilling Prophecies, but everything else changes for the better.
The Terminator films, as a whole, are an example of this. In the first movie, Sarah Connor learns that the fate of her unborn child, John, is to lead the remaining humans against the machines After The End; the second movie is all about Sarah and John trying to stop the end from happening, and seemingly succeeding. However, both continuities which Alternate Continuity explain that Sarah's actions did not prevent, but only delayed the rise of Skynet and the nuclear holocaust, from 1997 when it was originally supposed to happen, until 2004 (in the Rise of the Machines continuity) or 2011 (in The Sarah Connor Chronicles continuity). Of course, the series makes a hash of fate in general; compare that with what Kyle told Sarah in the first film, which gets repeated by John in the second: "The future is not set in stone. There is no fate but what we make." And then compare that with the fact that Kyle, John's father, only met Sarah because John sent him back in time to save her from the killer cyborgs bent on stopping John's birth.
As mentioned earlier, Oedipus and his story is very much a tale that exemplifies this trope. He was prophesied to slay his father and wed his mother. Despite the great lengths his parents have taken to avert this, naturally it comes true.
- Subverted in Calderon's Life is a Dream, where Segismund is prophecied to kill his father, King Basil of Poland, and become an Evil Overlord. Because of this, Basil locks Segismund away in a tower in the mountains, which gets him angry. For a while, the play really, really looks like it's going to end with Segismund killing Basil. It doesn't. Although he does actually kill his mother, but that was an accident.
The ancient Greeks loved these types of stories. Two especially famous ones involve the Oracle at Delphi; in the first, a man prophesied to die in the sea spends his life avoiding the ocean, only to die in a forest the locals call "The Sea"; in another, King Croesus is told that a great empire will fall if he goes to war, wrongly assuming it will be his enemy's.
The Red Dwarf episode Casandra featured a computer that could tell the future. In a perfect example of You Cant Fight Fate, after it had foretold that certain characters would leave alive, a gun was pointed in their face and the trigger pulled. Naturally, it jammed. When pointed at another character who she foretold would die, it worked perfectly. This trope was then used almost word for word to seduce another character, since the computer had foretold he'd die while having sex with her. (When her boyfriend caught them in the act) But in the end, it turned out she was lying to cause jealousy. She foresaw that the boyfriend would kill her. He realized this and tried to avoid it, saying he wasn't going to kill her, but through a Rube Goldberg series of events ends up killing her anyway.
- Note: Lister, who was fortold would kill Cassandra, wasn't dating Kochanski but it was fortold that he would kill Arnold with a harpoon gun as 'Rimmer' died of a heart attack after being told he would, but it was actually the captain of the squad wearing Rimmers jacket with Rimmer's name on it. This was Rimmer's attempt at screwing destiny, being the weasly little bugger he is. This was all part of Cassandra's sceme as she knew she would die and rather sees 'visions' of the future rather than actual predictions as some of her 'predictions' are unclear even to her and thus attempts to take down whoever she can before she dies. Homicidal bitch.
Cersei Lannister in A Song Of Ice And Fire is haunted by a childhood prophecy that has successfully predicted several events of her life; this prophecy also predicts that she will outlive all her children, that she will be supplanted by a younger and more beautiful queen, and that her little brother will strangle her. All of her attempts to prevent these things from happening only serve to alienate those around her.
- Running tally: Joffrey is dead, Tommen's fate is largely dependent on her own (outlook not good), and Myrcella is surrounded by people who, while they don't wish her harm, will use her to gain power. Sansa Stark is being groomed for rulership by Littlefinger and Margaery Tyrell isn't dead yet. And she has begun to alienate Jaime—also her younger brother, if only by minutes—while Tyrion yet lives.
In the Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Seer No Evil", a gypsy moth named Cassandra gives a series of unlikely predictions to everyone but Zipper. All come true in unexpected ways, including a prediction that seems to forecast Chip's death... but she never actually says he dies, so the prediction, as dire as it sounded, doesn't quite turn out as expected...
The Monty Python episode "The Cycling Tour" plays with this trope for comic effect. Mr. Pither accepts a lift from Mr. Gulliver, whose company has been developing food that can predict accidents and avoid them ("Even if it's in your stomach, and it senses an accident it will come up your throat and out of the window"). While Gulliver is explaining this one of his experimental tomatoes ejects itself from the car. Gulliver is so excited that it works that he loses control of the car, causing the very accident that the tomato had predicted.
The Tim Powers book 'Three Days to Never has an interesting twist on this: one character, a Mossad agent, keeps having premonitions of things he will never do again (e.g. he hears a ringing phone and realizes that's the last time he will ever hear a ringing phone). When this first happened, he resolved to go against it, but since You Cant Fight Fate, his hand was horribly disfigured instead. In the end, we're never actually shown why he has these premonitions, but they all come right when he dies.
The plot of Philip K Dick's novel The World Jones Made is driven by the titular Floyd Jones, who has the power to see one year into the future. Unfortunately, after he sees the future, he loses the ability to change the decisions he makes in that future - possibly because he's actually sending his memories back through time to his younger self.
Older Than Feudalism - remember the ancient Arab legend about a man who saw Death staring at him and fled to faraway Samarkand to avoid him. When somebody asked Death why he'd been staring at the man he said, "I was surprised to see him here because I'm appointed to meet him in Samarkand next week."
Its the main plot of the videogame Summoner. The evil emperor Murod is told that his reign will be brought to an end by a summoner. So he spends his life finding the summoner, causing the destruction of his village, and later of the kingdom the summoner is from. This causes the summoner to fight and eventually kill Murod. Ironically, had he not done a thing about it, said Summoner would have lived a happy life as a mere farmer.
The film Minority Report exemplifies this trope.
On seasons 3 & 4 of Lost many characters are unable to be killed or die (Michael, Locke, Jack) because "the island needs them". Similarly, many characters are fated to die and any attempts to save them only postpone the inevitable.
Mabus recalls a short science-fiction story (possibly by Harlan Ellison) in which a character eats an alien fruit that causes him to be continually aware of his entire life—even retroactively, from the time of his birth. The experience drives him insane, because he cannot change any of the events he experiences. However, it's unclear how he could have made it into the space program if he emerged (as he claims) from the womb talking about future events, as opposed to spending the rest of his life being studied by doctors. Guess you really can't fight fate.
Every Deal With The Devil on Supernatural ends with hell, no matter if you're a guest star or one of the leads.
- Well, they did save the one guy who only made the deal to save his wife...but no one since.
- Of course, as the fourth season opener reveals, you can still get out with a little help from above.
In The Belgariad, Ce'Nedra stubbornly refuses to accept the truth: that she is in love with Garion, whether she likes it or not, and that she has to go to Riva. It takes a god with a stare to die for to change her mind. The series makes a point of driving this home with a large hammer. Numerous times Polgara and Belgareth say that "Everything has already been decided." Which turns out to be true. Even minor, never to be seen again characters were born just for one particular purpose. (Such as the soldier heckling Ce'Nedra.)
- Possible lampshading in the related books "Belgarath the Sorceror" and "Polgara the Sorceress." In those books, the titular characters spend thousands of years having to run around on assorted errands to make sure that the prophecy will be fulfilled. For example, Belgarath and Polgara practically dictated a major treaty to a sovereign power at swordpoint to make sure that, 500 years later, Ce'Nedra would be sent to Riva.
Neji Hyuuga in Naruto used to be a firm believer in this, until Naruto Defeat Means Friendship.
Present throughout the new Booster Gold comic book, but particularly in the issue where he tries to keep Barbara Gordon (the first Batgirl) from getting shot by the Joker. He tries and fails to stop the event from happening multiple times before accepting that there are some things he isn't capable of changing. Unless Superboy Prime punches something really hard or the realities are shifted around again or . . . It's a Broken Aesop and a Fantastic Aesop in one!
This is a major plot point in The Time Travelers Wife. Henry realizes there is absolutely nothing he can do to change the past, when he tried (and failed) numerous times to warn a mother that her child is about to be in an accident, and when he had to witness his mother's death over 50 times without being able to prevent it. The story doesn't delve into what would happen if any of the characters ever did try to change their fate - they simply accepted the fact that they couldn't.
Played with in the Sonic X anime with the character Cosmo, whose actual destiny i.e. turn into a tree, die, save the universe, in that order is not revealed until the final two episodes of the series in what feels like a bit of an Ass Pull on the writers parts: the spirit of her mother reveals to her that the stone she wears around her neck, similar to that worn by all species is in fact a Magical Amulet which, when activated, will accelerate her grown into maturity, allowing her to become a tree, attach herself to the Big Bad and weaken it to the point at which it can be destroyed. Because she had spent most of the series struggling with survivor’s guilt, abject terror and low self esteem, Cosmo saw this sudden revelation of her destiny as her redemption –she no longer felt like she had to stand by and watch their enemies destroy everything and actually has a purpose at last. As such, she follows her newfound destiny quite willingly.
Parodied in Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, when Church uses a time travel device to try and prevent many of the events that occured in (or before) the first and second seasons, only to find out that either his plan fails, or actually causes the event he was trying to prevent, including his own death. His seems to selectively forget his mistakes though, as he still blames Caboose for the tank incident.
The Armageddon in Odin Sphere. You can't stop it, but you can make it even worse if you don't fulfill the prophecy exactly.
This trope was done in The Ned Zone, one of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes where Ned has a vision about killing Homer.
Half of the Legacy Of Kain series revolves around this trope. The other half revolves around Screw Destiny. It's complicated.
In episode 26 of Zettai Karen Children, an Esper dolphin whose visions have always been 100% accurate is introduced. He has two particularly dire predictions: the first being his death by several gunshots; and the second one, where a war erupts between Normals and Espers, and a grown Kaoru has become the Queen of Catastrophe leading the Espers. Minamoto ends up gunning her down. Needless to say, Minamoto is determined to Screw Destiny. He actually manages to subvert the first vision; his interference causes the dolphin to die from only ONE bullet, proving that just maybe the visions aren't infallible.
In the Sonic The Hedgehog fanfic A Rose And A Thorn 4, Mirage goes back in time to try and stop Ashura from causing the fall of the ARK. It turns out that BECAUSE she did this and knew what was going to happen, she made Sonic blue, and gave birth to Knuckles. The experiment she mated with caused the rampage of the Artifical Chaos because she told him it was going to happen. She still couldn't save Maria even though she knew about it and was right there. But she did manage to kill Ashura so that A Rose And A Thorn 3 didn't happen, and because it didn't happen, A Rose And A Thorn 5 happened instead.
Kratos finds you can not only fight Fate, you can kill them too.
Sartorius (Takuma Saiou) was always talking about this in Yu Gi Oh GX when he was the Big Bad. Aster (Edo) Phoenix did a bit, too, although this is more in the dub (where his catchphrase is "You can't fight destiny").
Craig Tucker from South Park episode "the startling"
In Mahou Sensei Negima, it's totally possible to fight Fate. But look out, he can turn people to stone and his power level is around 3,000, so... what? Wrong Fate? Oh. Um... never mind, then.

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