Times where the idea that You Can't Fight Fate comes up in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- The first season finale of Children of Time takes this trope and runs with it, built on a Whole-Plot Reference to "The Wedding of River Song". The three-parter shows what happens when Fixed Points in Time are broken: Time Stands Still. To cap it off, even when things are set right, one married couple has to be separated, because the wife has a destiny in her own time, two centuries in the future for the husband. There appears to be Foreshadowing for this theme in the fourth episode, when the heroes meet a woman from their future who has a brief but charged conversation with the Doctor in this vein.
- Invoked in Evil Be Thou My Good
, when Pinhead notes that he spared Harry when Harry accidentally opened the Lament Configuration as a child because he recognised that Harry had been marked by Fate and Destiny, Pinhead explicitly stating that Fate and Destiny will sweep aside all who try to stand against them. - Existence Is the Most Exciting Thing of All: After hearing a prophecy that he's destined to betray Night Vale, Carlos sets out to Screw Destiny, taking every precaution he can think of to avert it. Unfortunately for him, the prophesied event has already happened.
- Fist of the Moon averts this repeatedly.
- The bad guys' entire plan is based on going back in time and changing the past. Unfortunately, while you can fight fate, it is a massively bad idea, because the universe protects itself by making the fighter massively unlucky.
- Also, Mamoru's (incorrect) feelings about this are a part of why he breaks up with Usagi.
- In Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters, this is why Miss Kimber lets Tarakudo take the Oni mask in her possession — she's already foreseen that he's going to end up with it, so there's no point in trying to prevent the inevitable.
- In How To Drill Your Way Through Your Problems a crossover between Worm and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Lagann cleans out Taylor's locker over the winter break. She still triggers the first day back, and if anything, it's worse. Averted in the long run, since Owl/Taylor joined Team Neo-Gurren, rather than the Undersiders.
- The Infinite Loops: Belief that this is true is a possible cause of Setsuna Syndrome (named for Sailor Pluto, who believed this in canon as time happened to be her area of expertise), wherein the person attempts to Railroad canon events into place. This usually places them at odds with most other loopers, who tend to cause severe timeline changes out of boredom. They often get rather annoyed with usual looper antics that cause their loop to go Off the Rails, believing something bad will happen if they diverge from the baseline. Some loopers suffering from it can get rather...forceful about staying consistent with baseline, causing them to be rather disliked by the other loopers.
- Discussed in Lost in Camelot, as Bo encourages Merlin to consider the idea that just because he’s been told it’s his destiny to serve Arthur doesn’t mean he has to do so, without suggesting that he actually turn against Camelot.
- In the Peggy Sue-flavored fanfic Paradoxus, there are some events no amount of time traveling will be able to correct, with the first arc revolving around the main characters finding this the angsty, harsh way.
- Namely, the assassinations of the main trio's mothers (Bloom and Stella) and the invasion of Magix by the Burning Legion (one key, unavoidable event is the extinction-by-Fel of Isis, Erphem, and Solaria's colony Edelyn). The runes say so and, well, Domino's ancient rune magic hasn't ever lied, which is shown when Trisha consults her own chapter in the Book of Fate only to find the pages about her visit to the past were blank. In all fairness, this result might be similar to what happened to her mother when she tried the same. In Bloom's case, it's because of an unfulfilled prophecy at play whereas Trisha's might be because she never got her mandatory rune reading at birth thus rendering her a Wild Card destiny-wise. However, it's later revealed not even magic-fueled time travel can set right what once went wrong (scientific time travel was employed first).
- Talking about the Book of Fate, the blank pages are followed by depictions of a bloody, vicious battle between Trisha and her Aloof Big Sister Altalune as well as of Trisha succumbing to her dark side. Both events turned out to be accurate predictions despite Trisha's skepticism — she and her sister are stranged since their mother's demise but their spars never escalated that much and, while her mental health is far from optimal, she reassures herself she will never become a fallen keeper of the Dragon's Flame.
- In The Three Kings: Hunt the Thief King comes back from the dead despite the Department's attempts to prevent this from happening.
- In Disney's War — A Crossover Story, the Magic Mirror's prophecy ends up coming true in the form of Pete learning about the Black Cauldron's existence after tricking Goofy into letting him inside the castle. As a result, the Horned King returns from the dead and gathers the forces of evil to usher in a reign of darkness.
- Traveling the Multiverse has a rule that keeps the main multiverse-traveling Natsu from breaking up certain romantic pairings. The one specifically mentioned is one of the partners of his counterpart in universe 934417-J. Why this one in particular? The one partner specifically named is Grace Fullbuster - essentially a female version of Gray.
- Backward With Purpose: Albus Potter learns the hard way that Fate will enforce certain rules, causing those who attempt to circumvent them Pain Unto Death.
- The Chosen Six has the revelation that centaurs believe it's impossible to even try to fight destiny, but Firenze privately agrees with Harry's observation that such absolute thinking is unhealthy.
- Discussed in Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived, where Daphne discovers that she has some potential as a Seer, leading to her having a vision of Harry walking to confront Voldemort in a forest and being subsequently killed. Talking with another Seer, Daphne is informed that it is possible to change the future seen in a vision, but the visions seen in a crystal ball (the most accurate form of prophecy) are always of the most likely future, so simply deciding not to visit a certain location can't guarantee that the future will be changed that much.
- In Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past, Harry manages to come back in time, with the idea of preventing his future from happening. However, there are still things that happen no matter what he does - Voldemort trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, Ginny falling under the control of Tom Riddle's Diary, Sirius escaping Azkaban, Dementors posted at Hogwarts...which makes him despair that maybe he can't fight fate, and worries that everything may end as it did in his past. However, there seems to be someone that is trying to force things to happen as they did during the books.
- In Princess of the Blacks, Dumbledore insists that the prophecy has to be true and thus, Jen Black (formerly Jennifer Potter, the female equivalent of Harry in this world) was always destined to be evil.
- The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild is novelized adaptation of the original game and both of its DLCs. However, Impa gets her own arc centering on obtaining the Frog Spirit of Kindness, a fourth heroic spirit. During this time, Tutsuwa Nima reveals to her that the Great Calamity was inevitable because it was part of a Long Game by the Goddesses meant to destroy Demise's curse once and for all.
- Downplayed in Dread String of Fate. The Snake Miraculous allows its users to choose their own fate, untethered by the threads of destiny. They can also try to help others who are tangled in Fate's design; however, they cannot completely Screw Destiny for them. Whether or not they slip the net is ultimately up to the individual in question.
- LadyBugOut:
- Adrien unintentionally gets Marinette to realize she was Loving a Shadow when he declares that Ladybug 'owed' Chat Noir the kiss she gave him while they were both missing their memories. This sense of entitlement towards his partner culminates in him delivering an angry, blistering rant blaming her for all their problems:Chat: "Why are you trying to ruin what we have together?! We're meant to be! The ladybug and the cat! Ladybug and Chat Noir! What do you have against destiny?! We're partners; special partners! We were chosen! We're soulmates! What's so hard about that?"
- This sparks off "The Reason You Suck" Speech where Ladybug calls out his It's All About Me attitude, and is also what leads to him losing the Black Cat Miraculous.
- Adrien unintentionally gets Marinette to realize she was Loving a Shadow when he declares that Ladybug 'owed' Chat Noir the kiss she gave him while they were both missing their memories. This sense of entitlement towards his partner culminates in him delivering an angry, blistering rant blaming her for all their problems:
- Leave for Mendeleiev: Adrien/Chat Noir takes the idea that he and Ladybug are 'meant to be together' completely for granted; as far as he's concerned, it's only a matter of time before they become lovers. When she gets enraged by him lying and spreading rumors that they're dating, he refuses to apologize, declaring that there's no point in her denying it — they are going to be together someday. So why does she bother resisting...?
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Defied in Pony POV Series: fate isn't rigid, and in fact Rota Fortuna, the Concept of Fate, is also the Concept of Free Will and outright says she doesn't force any fate on anyone: whatever fate one meets is the result of their actions and those of others. She makes the roads, but there are lots of them and everyone decides which one they will take. Ironically enough, those who think fate has to be fought against and resisted often play this trope straight because they're so preoccupied trying to avoid fate they lock themselves into their path, as opposed to someone who just lives their life and continues making choices normally. Nightmare Eclipse falls victim to this, locking herself and every single one of her alternate selves into one fate (as she merged with every Twilight to become her at the moment of their transformation, meaning she effectively tied every last one to herself), so when she's defeated all her alternates are likewise doomed to be defeated as well. The irony is, Rota herself plays this trope straightest of all: she will always lose one of her wings that becomes the Blank Wolf in some way, be it by Discord during the war of the gods (prime Rota), to intentionally create the Blank Wolf (her EG self), or countless other ways.
- A Crown of Stars: Discussed and defied. During a conversation Shinji asks Asuka if she has ever wondered what would happen if they had the chance to travel back in time and avert all what had gone wrong with their lives, including Third Impact. Asuka automatically replies that they would be incapable to avert the end of the world, not matter what. Shortly after they met Asuka's future self who told Asuka that they CAN fix things and if her younger self thinks otherwise is because she is so thoroughly broken and burned-out that she is afraid to try to.
- The Second Try: Shinji wonders if this is the case when he's forced to be absorbed into EVA-01 to defeat Zeruel. It's ultimately averted since events start to majorly deviate from canon after that battle.
- Persona 5 Adult Confidant AU: Fortune Teller Chihaya Mifune was initially a believer of this. After stopping Sojiro and the other Phantom Thieves from heading down to the train station before a train crashes into it when its conductor receives a mental shutdown, she felt that all she did was delay their inevitable deaths, whether by the disaster or by a Shadow that has captured her. Sojiro snaps her out of it, telling her that the Phantom Thieves will steal their future from fate by rescuing her and fighting for their beliefs.
- In The Phantom Thieves of New Game+, Akira, after being forced to relive the events of his year in Shujin, manages to stop Shiho from committing suicide after being raped by Kamoshida, and offer her a chance to bring down their common enemy. Unfortunately, a greater power refuses to accept this change, forcing Akira back to the start of another loop.
Protectors of the Plot Continuum
- Fledglings, or: Everything's Better With Penguins: Although Anis and Mal warn the agent about his intended fate and make a duplicate of him to take his place in the narrative, they are ultimately unable to prevent Nicholas Duval from dying in 2008. The most their mission changes is his time and cause of death; instead of being murdered by a mirror universe version of another agent in January, he perishes in either the Marcrovirus Epidemic or Mary Sue Invasion a few months later.
- The Gaikohima Invasion has a variation of this in Chapter 3, where Kurumu and Mizore, while having accepted that Tsukune ended up with Moka, decide to ask Yukari and Ruby if there was ever a possibility that one of them could have ended up with him instead. They're given looks at various alternate universes and timelines, but regardless of which one they see, only one of two outcomes happens, that Tsukune either ends up with Moka, or with no one. Basically, if Tsukune falls in love, it's always with Moka.
- In By the Fire's Light, Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinsky try to fight against the Slender Man's snowballing ascent to power, being the first protagonists to truly offer any resistance to it. Ultimately, though, their attempts to use the Slender Man's meta nature against it end up backfiring and giving it the last power boost it needs to win.
- In A Rose and a Thorn 4, Project: 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 while knowing what was going to happen, she made Sonic blue, and gave birth to Knuckles. The experiment she mated with fell in love with her because she was so determined to change things, and then released the Artificial Chaos because he'd been told it would happen (assuming that it would happen with or without him). She still couldn't save Maria even though she knew about it, but kept Shadow from being shot, and heard Maria's last words (as named in Sonic Battle).
- But she did manage to kill Ashura so that A Rose And A Thorn 3 didn't happen, breaking a time loop that may have been going around for centuries, and because it didn't happen, A Rose And A Thorn 5 happened instead. So there was a point to it after all.
- The Star Trek (2009) fanfic Written in the Stars is about Fem!Kirk trying to follow her own path instead of falling in love with Spock like her counterpart did. But when she starts falling for him herself, and discovers that two other versions of herself fell for him, she eventually decides to just go with it instead of fighting back and making herself unhappy.
- It Gets Worse: Jack's power gives him a strong urge to avoid Brockton Bay. Unfortunately, the Slaughterhouse Nine steals a van with a faulty GPS, leading to them ending up in Brockton and him meeting his fate.
- Played with in Young Justice: Darkness Falls. Bart left his future 40 years in the future to stop the Reach from taking over. When he goes 5 years into the future, he finds almost the same conditions as before, only now it's Darkseid who's taken over. The only difference is that he can still go back and give it one more try first.
