History Main / FaintingSeer

** Before that, his prophetic abilities are suggested when he tells Ralph repeatedly: "I just think you'll get back all right." (Notice that he says "you", not "we".)

* In ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'', Simon is introduced as the one who's "always throwing a faint". This the first indication of his abnormalities, which culminate when he hallucintes the Lord of the Flies. It tells him about the true nature of the beast and the children's innate evil, so he's the first one to realise: "Maybe there is no beast. Maybe it's only us." After having this vision, he gets a nosebleed and faints.

* The title character in Helen Cresswell's ''Ordinary Jack'' was pretending to be a prophet as an attention-getting gambit due to feeling unappreciated by his far less ordinary family. His Uncle Parker, who came up with the scheme, instructed him to swoon after every "vision" he managed to pull off.

[[quoteright:319:[[ComicBook/SpiderMan https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seer_8.jpg]]]]

Historically, this was an InvokedTrope in many ancient traditions due to the common view that narcolepsy or epilepsy (both commonly referred to as "the falling/sleeping sickness") were signs that one was gifted with prophesy.

{{Fortune Teller}}s, palm-readers, fire-readers, insect-entrails-on-windshield-readers and other assorted diviners are canaries in the mineshaft of adventure. They pick up approaching trouble and reveal it in the form of ominous, inconclusive forebodings [[SkepticismFailure even when they shouldn't be able to]].

A Fainting Seer clearly has some actual power: fakes value customer satisfaction. Nothing spoils a date at the fair like a fortune-teller who starts screaming about ''death, DEATH, oblivion shrouding the land with its brimstone veil, yea, the very HEAVENS dripping with human gore, aaaiiiigh...'' etc.

* MysteriousWaif Tiffa Addil from ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'' often collapses when she uses her Newtype powers to see the future. In the second episode, when she uses them to give Garrod access to the Gundam X's Satellite System, poor Tiffa has an horrible HeroicBSOD and almost ''dies'' of pain.

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', a fortune teller asked his crystal ball about [[ExtremeOmnivore Zebra]] - the ball, instead, chose to self-destruct.

-->"I'd even pee in my trousers sometimes, for emphasis. Only during childhood, naturally. I'd long since purged my repertroire of that device by the time I was ninteen and first introduced to Her Majesty."
* The ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer'' suffered a brief bout of paralyzing psychic horror upon encountering [[{{Kaiju}} Terminus]] for the first time, since Terminus destroys planets much the way Galactus does, but has none of the "keeping the cosmic balance" justifications for it that Galactus does. Terminus destroys planets for ''money.'' This scene was rather [[{{Narm}} Narmy,]] since even as bad as Terminus is, the Surfer gets into fights with far worse opponents on a pretty regular basis.

* ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' features a group of party-goers trying out a Ouija board. Clarke, being a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness hard science fiction writer]], explains the Ouija board's mysterious powers by way of subconscious personal knowledge from at least one of the planchette-holders. One of the members asks what planet the [[BenevolentAlienInvasion Alien Overloads]] come from. When the Ouija gives out an answer (which turns out to have been 100% accurate), one of the women faints (who turns out to have been the person who subconsciously knew the answer).

* In ''The Taggerung'', the renowned seer Grissoul dies after proclaiming ([[PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime in verse]]) that Ruggan Bor must beware of Redwall. This is exactly why Bor does not listen to her, and consequently gets his ass kicked several chapters later.

* ''Literature/TimeScout'''s Ianira Cassondra is sometime overwhelmed by her prophetic trances.

** A more literal example would be one of Lorne's earlier appearances, "Happy Anniversary". Using his power to [[ItMakesSenseInContext read peoples futures through karaoke]], Lorne reads a shy guy who comes into his karaoke bar one night. He receives a vision that tells him that the world is going to end because of this man in just a night's time (or rather specifically that there is "nothing" after a certain point in time). The vision knocks Lorne out, and he doesn't come to until after the guy leaves.

* Built in the game mechanics of ''TabletopGame/{{Earthdawn}}'', sort of : whenever a mage (or windling) uses his astral sight in a place where an horror dwells, he takes damage.

* Elayna from ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'' faints after having an apocalyptic vision of the future. It's a wonder that our heroes actually come to her aid when she does, as she spent the previous 20 minutes trash talking and verbally abusing them. She makes up for it later, however.

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', two FortuneTeller sisters have set up shop in Harapa. The younger offers Matthew and friends a free reading from her crystal ball, and has a vision of them bringing disaster upon the world. This frightens her into a fit, and she refuses to ever tell fortunes for "those accursed warriors" again. Her sister completely averts this trope by remaining calm, upbeat, and giving some advice that's actually pretty helpful [[spoiler: even in the middle of the aforementioned disaster]].
** Much later in the game, our heroes arrive in [[{{Wutai}} Yamatai]] and learn that the princess has been having fainting fits and visions of terrible danger. [[spoiler: A strange stone they've acquired enables her to stay conscious and coherent through her visions, and in repayment [[EleventhHourRanger she joins them to find a way to end the Eclipse.]] ]]

* ''Literature/HeroesSaveTheWorld'': When Simon Martin gets a vision of someone's future death, it unfolds in real time and he passes out for the duration. On the bright side, he only passes out for ten seconds, but on the down side, this severely limits how much information he can get.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', when Aang has his fortune read by the fortuneteller throwing a bone into a fire in order to read the cracks that form. The bone ''explodes'', signifying the great battle between Good and Evil that Aang is going to be in the middle of. Aang, of course, already knows about that, and is much more interested in seeing if he will ever marry Katara.

* This happened in the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' when Second Sight, perhaps the most powerful precog in the setting, got flashes of the upcoming apocalypse when Dagon began his plot to unleash the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]] from their interdimensional prison. The shock of the visions knocked her unconscious for nearly an hour.

* Pippin in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King]]'', after getting his hands on the Isengard palantir and facing down Sauron.

* ''Manga/Overlord2012'': The Slane Theocracy was using a seer to spy on Ainz' involvement with the Empire's yearly battle with the Kingdom. They still don't know how it went down because [[spoiler:on seeing Ainz cast a spell that killed a third of the enemy army and then summoned {{Eldritch Abominations}}s to take out even more of them]], the seer locked herself up in her tower and hasn't come out since.

* ''Manga/Overlord2012'': The Slane Theocracy was using a seer to spy on Ainz' involvement with the Empire's yearly battle with the Kingdom. They still don't know how it went down because [[spoiler:on seeing Ainz cast a spell that killed a third of the enemy army and then summoned EldritchAbominations to take out even more of them]], the seer locked herself up in her tower and hasn't come out since.

Sometimes the interruption means that the prophecy in question is incomplete -- in some cases when the seer dies or the props are destroyed, it's because an interested third party is trying to hide the outcome. What all this amounts to is a psychic version of TheWorfEffect, and is equally popular with {{telepath|y}}s and [[TheEmpath empaths]]. You know shit's serious when the team psi keels over in the middle of a scan.

A variation on MySignificanceSenseIsTingling. Frequently paired with TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne and PokeInTheThirdEye. Can be related to or cause even be the cause of MadOracle. Can overlap with PowerStrainBlackout. If trouble happens a lot -- compare TheOphelia.

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* ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'': Zhegorz Fiavrus, from ''Cold Fire'' and ''The Will of the Empress'', can't see the future, but can see distant images on the wind. This has slowly driven him mad, and he gets very agitated when he sees anything important: "Game pieces, game pieces! See the pretty game pieces, the ladies and the mages, two in one, a nice long game of capture the pieces!"

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* Pippin in [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King]], after getting his hands on the Isengard palantir and facing down Sauron.

* This happened in the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' when Second Sight, perhaps the most powerful precog in the setting, got flashes of the upcoming apocalypse when Dagon began his plot to unleash the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]] from their interdimensional prison. The shock of the visions knocked her unconscious for nearly an hour.

** Omitted from TheMovie, probably to save time.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': [[spoiler:Serah and Yuel]] both have visions (albeit involuntarily) when the [[spoiler:timeline is altered (ie when paradoxes are created or destroyed)]]. At first, they experience mild headaches during their visions, but each time it [[PowerDegeneration gets a little bit worse]] (until they get to the point where they faint each time), [[spoiler:and they [[MySkullRunnethOver eventually die]].]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Noel:''' You're not having visions, are you?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Serah:''' [[BlatantLies N...no. I'm fine]].]]

* Phoebe from ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' never has a premonition without the standard gasping, shuddering, staggering, but when she has a particularly scary one (e.g. Herself being burned at the stake in Morality Bites) it's usually accompanied by her falling over, crying, screaming, and generally freaking out other people.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Callisto has a nasty vision of Diana's wounds and grief after the duel with Medusa that causes her go faint on the stairs, though she is caught by Io before she can hit the ground. It's generally a sign that something's serious if seeing if causes Callisto to faint, since she takes most visions in stride.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', being set in the fairly magic-saturated ForgottenRealms, has plenty of [=NPCs=] who comment on sensing a great destiny is in store for the PC. However, anyone you meet who claims to be an ''actual'' Seer or Fortune-Teller will have a massive freakout on being asked to see your future. Then there's ''"[[Literature/GoodOmens The Nice and Ominous Prophecies of Alaundo the Wise]], [[strike: Witch]] Seer"'', which give the distinct impression their original rendition wasn't ''quite'' as calm as their current recitations in Candlekeep.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', this is probably the best thing that can happen to a psyker that's overwhelmed by the Warp, with the worst being [[YourHeadASplode their head bursting]] and/or [[NegativeSpaceWedgie turning into a Warp portal]]. The main culprits are usually incoming Tyranid Hive Fleets or Warp Storms.

-->'''Zatanna:''' ''!lleH fo enorht eht no stis tsuaF''

See PostVictoryCollapse when the hero breaks down due to physical or mental exhaustion.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Jojen Reed frequently faints or has seizures during his visions.

* Rather than drawing Death repeatedly, in the WhateleyUniverse, Gypsy (a precog with a long family history and an ancestral Tarot deck) does a reading for Carmilla (who is literally more than half-demon). The first card is 'the Devil'. So is each successive card. When someone else turns over ''the same card'', he gets the Three of Wands. Because the deck is alive and magical too.

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' opens with Grampa having a convulsive fit in church as he gives a dire warning: "Twisted tail! A thousand eyes! Trapped forever! Eepa! EEEEEPAAAA!"

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* In Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/TheMerlinConspiracy'', when a new Merlin is introduced to give a prophecy, he begins weeping and faints. The audience is unimpressed, and complain that they wound up with one of the 'weepy' kinds of seer.

* Another example, where the interruption is due to enemy action - in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' urban fantasy/detective stories, a prophecy has been given that if Harry the protagonist gets involved in the pursuit of a group of powerful demons, he will die. Harry discovers that the leader of the villains blocked the second part of the prophecy - that if Harry didn't get involved, the whole ''city'' would die. [[spoiler:And, in the end, prophecy in this series isn't completely inevitable -- an ally with terminal cancer takes Harry's place at the last minute, in an HeroicSacrifice.]]
* Hen Wen (a clairvoyant ''pig'') in ''[[Literature/PrydainChronicles The High King]]'', including a combination of terrified refusal to pass on her visions, and bizarre, nonsensical prophecies before the oracular sticks shatter and she goes into HeroicBSOD.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series, Gitara Moroso dies from the shock of a Foretelling that the Dragon is at that very moment being reincarnated on the nearby slopes of Dragonmount.

* Zhegorz Fiavrus, from Creator/TamoraPierce's ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic Cold Fire]]'' and ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic The Will of the Empress]]'', can't see the future, but can see distant images on the wind. This has slowly driven him mad, and he gets very agitated when he sees anything important: "Game pieces, game pieces! See the pretty game pieces, the ladies and the mages, two in one, a nice long game of capture the pieces!"

* ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' features a group of party-goers trying out a ouija board. Clarke, being a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness hard science fiction writer]], explains the ouija board's mysterious powers by way of subconscious personal knowledge from at least one of the planchette-holders. One of the members asks what planet the [[BenevolentAlienInvasion Alien Overloads]] come from. When the ouija gives out an answer (which turns out to have been 100% accurate), one of the women faints (who turns out to have been the person who subconsciously knew the answer).
* ''Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet'' describes a few of these from a first-person perspective. It turns out that when the titular prophet foresees a death by gunfire, he actually feels the bullets. Ouch.
* ''Literature/TimeScout'''s Ianira Cassondra is sometime overwhelmed by her prophetic trances.
* In the ''Literature/AgeOfFire'' Series, Wistala plays this part first as an act when traveling with a circus, then later in order to infiltrate the dwarvish Wheel Of Fire empire. She's actually very successful on acount of being a rare dragon seer and one of her wild predictions coming true rather publicly.
** After she leaves the circus, she's replaced by the human girl Iatella, who appears to be the genuine article, given how she accurately foretells Wistala reuniting with her brothers and hinting at the events that follow, before passing out in shock.
* Lots in the Literature/TalesOfTheBranionRealm series, to the point where it's standard practice for an acolyte to physically hold the Seer steady while he prophesies. They tend to hit their heads otherwise.
* Vincent Demabrien collapses in a shivering fit during a seance with the ghost of Grendille Moran in ''[[Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths The Mirador]]''. Even when he isn't deliberately engaging with the dead, their presence makes him tired and nervous.
* In ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'', Aphrodite's visions leave her extremely faint and jittery. She becomes a CassandraTruth when she falls from Neferet's good graces.
* The title character in Helen Cresswell's ''Ordinary Jack'' was pretending to be a prophet as an attention-getting gambit due to feeling unappreciated by his far less ordinary family. His Uncle Parker, who came up with the scheme, instructed him to swoon after every "vision" he managed to pull off.
* In ''Literature/RachelGriffin'', Nastasia sees visions of certain people when she touches them. When she shakes hands with someone she's been warned (by a girl named Cassandra, no less) not to touch, she [[PokeInTheThirdEye passes out.]]
* This occurs in "The Message," the fourth book in the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series. Both Cassie and Tobias receive psychic messages from a distance; when they do, they pass out simultaneously. It turns out that these messages are the thought-speak of Ax, who's trapped in the Andalite's crashed Dome Ship.
* In "Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus" The Lost Hero, Rachel passes out after speaking in someone else's voice and issuing a prophetic message. Piper notes that the other campers appear to be used to this, as they calmly pull up a chair and wait for her to wake up.
* In ''The Taggerung'', the renowned seer Grissoul dies after proclaiming ([[PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime in verse]]) that Ruggan Bor must beware of Redwall. This is exactly why Bor does not listen to her, and consequently gets his ass kicked several chapters later.
-->"She was old. Foxes die when they get too old."
* ''Literature/OneNationUnderJupiter'': The oracle at the Temple of Apollo, who delivers a foreboding prediction to Diagoras before collapsing.
* In the ''Literature/ChaletSchool'' series, [[spoiler:Fiona [=Mc=]Donald]] turns out to be one. She uses her psychic powers to tell Joey in ''Highland Twins'' that [[spoiler:Joey's husband Jack, who was thought to have drowned, is actually alive and well, albeit injured.]] She falls into a long sleep afterwards.

* Phoebe from ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' never has a premonition without the standard gasping, shuddering, staggering, but when she has a particularly scary one (e.g. Herself being burned at the stake in Morality Bites) it's usually accompanied by her falling over, crying, screaming, and generally freaking out other people.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Jojen Reed frequently faints or has seizures during his visions.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' had a blind seer who looked into Lex Luthor's future, and she ''died''. The audience got to watch her vision, and it wasn't pretty.

*** Well, she's really more of a "Crippling Migraine Seer."

*** That, if she hadn't become half-demon, would have been "Blow the back of your skull off Seer."
** A more literal example would be one of Lorne's earlier appearances, "Happy Anniversary." Using his power to [[ItMakesSenseInContext read peoples futures through karaoke]], Lorne reads a shy guy who comes into his karaoke bar one night. He receives a vision that tells him that the world is going to end because of this man in just a night's time (or rather specifically that there is "nothing" after a certain point in time). The vision knocks Lorne out, and he doesn't come to until after the guy leaves.
** Another example, in "Hell Bound," a medium suffers a PsychicNosebleed while being murdered by a dark spirit, mid-seance.
* The seers in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Fires of Pompeii" ''aren't'' seeing the volcano erupt, but one of them still faints when she is able to see that the Doctor is "a Lord, sir...a Lord of Time."
* Justified in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', where Isaac Mendez uses heroin to get his visions of the future.
* In season four of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the boys go to a psychic to try to find out what raised Dean from Hell. When she manages to trace the thing's true form (which turns out to be an angel), her ''eyes burn out''. We see her in a later episode, and she's mostly fine, with [[ProphetEyes glass eyes with milky pupils]] that she says sells the "seer" look.

* ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'' has Liz seeing what becomes of Garth's old friend([[spoiler: He explodes]]) in a horrifying vision, crushing Sanchez's hand in the process.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'': Niko can usually handle whatever she senses through her PsychicPowers. There have been a few occasions where it sucker-punches her, though. The best example was in "New Frontier" where she tries to find Eliza. As she's reaching out to find Eliza's presence, she runs straight into the [[BigBad Queen]]...who is ''much'' more powerful and forcefully ejects her. It causes Niko to briefly black out and fall over the console, freaking Zachary out.

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---> [[spoiler:'''Noel:''' You're not having visions, are you?]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Serah:''' [[BlatantLies N..no. I'm fine]].]]

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* Whenever Cheetara uses her Sixth Sense in ''WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats}}'', it leaves her drained and weakened.