History Main / OutsourcingFate

* In the fourth ''{{Foundation}}'' book, the protagonist had to choose between a [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]], a [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas different Galactic Empire ]] ruled by TelepathicSpacemen, or {{Instrumentality}}. He was chosen because he was statistically proven to be the luckiest person in the Galaxy. [[spoiler:While the {{Instrumentality}} option could have been forced on humanity by the {{Hive Mind}} planet regardless of this choice, that planet is bound by [[ThreeLawsCompliant an altered version of the Three Laws of Robotics]], which they interpret as forbidding them from forcing {{Instrumentality}} on the rest of humanity without an unbiased human's permission.]]
** However, the prequel ''FoundationsTriumph'' throws this into question when [[spoiler:Hari Seldon deduces that R. Daneel Olivaw will hand-pick the most lucky man to avert a robot civil war]].
* TheNightsDawnTrilogy [[spoiler: ends in this way, with the hero being granted the power of a "Machine God" to solve the problems.]]

* One of a few major stories in KingdomCome

* There are several examples in GreekMythology. Typically, there's a SoreLoser and a {{Curse}}, with the standard moral "smart mortals don't get involved with godly disputes."

* The point of ''MiraiNikki''. Subverted in that God instead asks the opinion of some of the most mentally fucked-up individuals in the world.

** Paris was chosen to select the most beautiful goddess among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. We all know [[TheTrojanWar how well that ended]].

* In ''PS238'', the PowersThatBe, with the time-traveler Tom acting as its agent, needs to decide whether humans should continue to gain Metahuman Powers, or if superpowers should gradually fade and disappear into myth - until next time the choice has to be made. But Tom isn't the one who'll make the choice - he merely chooses WHO gets to choose, and he picks Tyler Marlocke, the only normal boy in the 'School for Metaprodigies'. In the end, while he gets to summon various acquaintances to get their opinion of the issue, it's up to Tyler to decide whether superpowers should continue to exist...

* [[spoiler:Mokona's]] modus operandi in ''MagicKnightRayearth''.

* Legion's loyalty mission in ''Videogame/MassEffect2'' revolves around this. The [[HiveMind geth]], a race of robots, have split into two groups - the main group just wants [[HeroicNeutral to be left alone to evolve and learn.]] A smaller group (aka 'the heretics') have taken up a deal with a race of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to recieve great power by becoming slaves. The main geth have a virus that can rewrite the heretics to conform to the main group's point of view - effectively brainwashing them - and give them the desire to return home. The moral conundrum is whether to brainwash the heretics, or simply destroy them. Legion, your orthodox geth teammate, can't decide - their MindHive is in an almost exact deadlock. They trust [[PlayerCharacter (Shepard)]] to make the decision for them, since they've fought the heretics personally and have a unique perspective.

* In ''[[HaruhiSuzumiya The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', [[spoiler: Nagato Yuki obtains a power that can completely rewrite the world, and she asks [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Kyon]] if she should use it or not]].

** Tiresias was asked by Zeus and Hera to judge whether the man or the woman receives more pleasure from sex, as he'd been both. He chose women, and Hera [[DisproportionateRetribution struck him blind]], for which Zeus compensated him by giving him prophetic powers.

* The Creator/IsaacAsimov short story, ''{{Franchise}}'', where elections were done, not by asking everyone one question ("who are you voting for?"), but by asking one person a whole bunch of questions (mostly unrelated to the election itself) then inputting all the answers into a computer and calculating the election results from it. Apparently the computer was so powerful that it could extrapolate national trends from a single person, but it needed that one "everyman"'s opinions to base its calculations on.

* This is how the world is supposed to work in ''ShinMegamiTenseiNocturne''. Humans with strong Reasons (principles, really) fights each others and the victor ascend to Kagutsuchi, which then remake the world according to the Human's wish. But then Lucifer had to come around and screwing the system by creating the Demi-Fiend (you, that is).

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[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Mythology ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In [[ZeroPunctuation Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's]] homemade adventure game "Adventures In The Galaxy Of Fantabulous Wonderment" [[spoiler: this happens at the end when the PowersThatBe, actually the spirits of everyone who ever died, ask the hero to choose whether they should raise everyone to the same state of existence as them and explore other universes, or whether they should just let humanity develop on its own.]]

The PowersThatBe can't decide what to do with the future of the universe, so they ask the opinion of TheEveryman protagonist.

[[AC: {{Anime}} & {{Manga}}]]

[[AC: ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: {{Mythology}}]]

[[AC: {{VideoGames}}]]

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* Legion's loyalty mission in ''Videogame/MassEffect2'' revolves around this. The [[HiveMind Geth]], a race of robots, have split into two groups - the main group, which just wants [[HeroicNeutral to be left alone to evolve and learn.]] A smaller group (aka 'the heretics') have taken up a deal with a race of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to recieve great power by becoming slaves. The main Geth have a virus that can rewrite the heretics to conform to the main group's point of view - effectively brainwashing them - and give them the desire to return home. The moral conundrum is whether to brainwash the heretics, or simply destroy them. Legion, your orthodox geth teammate, can't decide - their MindHive is in an almost exact deadlock. They trust [[PlayerCharacter (Shepard)]] to make the decision for them, since they've fought the heretics personally and have a unique perspective.
** In MassEffect3, [[spoiler: the Catalyst offers Shepard several choices to end the Reaper cycle: control the Reapers, destroy them and every other synthetic in the galaxy or, if your assets are high enough, [[TheSingularity Synthesis]], which involves changing the relations between synthetics and organics forever. The Catalyst acknowledges that by creating the Crucible and reaching it, Shepard has shown that the previous cycle was a flawed solution at best]].

* A notorious mission in ''Videogame/MassEffect2'' revolves around this. The [[HiveMind Geth]], a race of robots, have split into two groups - the main group, which just wants [[HeroicNeutral to be left alone to evolve and learn.]] A smaller group (aka 'the heretics') have taken up a deal with a race of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to recieve great power by becoming slaves. The main Geth have a virus that can rewrite the heretics to conform to the main group's point of view - effectively brainwashing them - and give them the desire to return home. The moral conundrum is whether to brainwash the heretics, or simply destroy them. The entire Geth race is divided almost exactly fifty-fifty over it, so they turn to the only organic they trust [[PlayerCharacter (Shepard)]] to make the decision for them.

* A notorious mission in ''Videogame/MassEffect2'' revolves around this. The [[HiveMind Geth]], a race of robots, have split into two groups - the main group, which just wants [[HeroicNeutral to be left alone to evolve and learn.]] A smaller group (aka 'the heretics') have taken up a deal with a race of EldritchAbominations to recieve great power by becoming slaves. The main Geth have a virus that can rewrite the heretics to conform to the main group's point of view - effectively brainwashing them - and give them the desire to return home. The moral conundrum is whether to brainwash the heretics, or simply destroy them. The entire Geth race is divided almost exactly fifty-fifty over it, so they turn to the only organic they trust [[PlayerCharacter (Shepard)]] to make the decision for them.

* XenobladeChronicles: At its climax, [[spoiler: Alvis gives Shulk the chance to become the god of the new world, but Shulk turns the offer down, reasoning that it's better to live without gods deciding peoples' fate, and to let everyone decide their own future.]]

* In the fourth ''{{Foundation}}'' book, the protagonist had to choose between a [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]], a [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas different Galactic Empire ]] ruled by TelepathicSpacemen, or {{Instrumentality}}. He was chosen because he was statistically proven to be the luckiest person in the Galaxy.

* In one of the ''HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' books, it turns out that the real President of the Galaxy is a little old man in a shed in the middle of nowhere. All he's interested in is feeding his cat, but occasionally people stop round and ask him what he thinks about certain things.

* XenobladeChronicles: At its climax, [[spoiler: Alvis gives Shulk the chance to become the god of the new world, but Shulk turns the offer down, telling reasoning that it's better to live without gods deciding peoples' fate, and to let everyone decide their own future.]]

The PowersThatBe can't decide what to do with the future of the universe, so they ask the opinion of TheEveryman protagonist.

TheHero is obviously not qualified for choosing the fate of mankind, at least by traditional standards, but the PowersThatBe have a good reason to trust him. Maybe he is TheChosenOne who is predestinated to have the correct choice, the RidiculouslyAverageGuy who somehow represents all of humanity's opinions, or maybe, a more personal PowersThatBe simply finds him sympathetic.

So TheHero has to use his best intuition, and make a choice that will influence ''everything''.

This whole situation is closer to [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism the idealistic side of the scale]], so usually the protagonist's choice will also be the more daring, fantastic, and optimistic option.

Compare to HumanityOnTrial, when the humans have to convince the PowersThatBe to accept their will, instead of themselves getting trusted with making the right decision.

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!!Examples:

[[AC: {{Anime}} & {{Manga}}]]
* In ''PlanetLadder'', the Ditz main character is responsible for deciding the survival of planets. Towards the beginning, her mentor tries futilely to pound that into her bubbly head.
* In ''ScrappedPrincess'', [[spoiler: the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens sufficiently advanced]] god-program-thing, Mauser, asked Pacifica if it was really such a good idea to trap mankind in MedievalStasis, because she started to doubt in it herself.]]
* In ''[[HaruhiSuzumiya The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', [[spoiler: Nagato Yuki obtains a power that can completely rewrite the world, and she asks [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Kyon]] if she should use it or not]].
** Subverted in the rest of the series, where the main characters, especially Koizumi and Kyon always try to guide Haruhi's reality warping instead of herself, but only because she is completely unaware of it.

* The point of ''MiraiNikki''. Subverted in that God instead asks the opinion of some of the most mentally fucked-up individuals in the world.

[[AC: ComicBooks]]
* In ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'', {{God}}, after exiting his creation without warning (thereby bringing about its slow decay), has Elaine Belloc and Lilith (both of whom started out human) plead their cases for and against preserving the cosmos.
* In ''PS238'', the PowersThatBe, with the time-traveler Tom acting as its agent, needs to decide whether humans should continue to gain Metahuman Powers, or if superpowers should gradually fade and disappear into myth - until next time the choice has to be made. But Tom isn't the one who'll make the choice - he merely chooses WHO gets to choose, and he picks Tyler Marlocke, the only normal boy in the 'School for Metaprodigies'. In the end, while he gets to summon various acquaintances to get their opinion of the issue, it's up to Tyler to decide whether superpowers should continue to exist...
* ''PresidentBill'' is about a man [[ShapedLikeItself named Bill]] who was picked at random to be the President of the United States.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]
* In the fourth ''{{Foundation}}'' book, the protagonist had to choose between a [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]], a [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas different Galactic Empire ]] ruled by TelepathicSpacemen, or {{Instrumentality}}. He was chosen because he was statistically proven to be the luckiest person in the Galaxy.

* TheNightsDawnTrilogy [[spoiler: ends in this way, with the hero being granted the power of a "Machine God" to solve the problems.]]
* In one of the ''HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' books, it turns out that the real President of the Galaxy is a little old man in a shed in the middle of nowhere. All he's interested in is feeding his cat, but occasionally people stop round and ask him what he thinks about certain things.
* The IsaacAsimov short story, ''{{Franchise}}'', where elections were done, not by asking everyone one question ("who are you voting for?"), but by asking one person a whole bunch of questions (mostly unrelated to the election itself) then inputting all the answers into a computer and calculating the election results from it. Apparently the computer was so powerful that it could extrapolate national trends from a single person, but it needed that one "everyman"'s opinions to base its calculations on.

[[AC: {{Mythology}}]]
* There are several examples in GreekMythology. Typically, there's a SoreLoser and a {{Curse}}, with the standard moral "smart mortals don't get involved with godly disputes."
** King Midas was asked to judge the music competition between Apollo and Pan. An angry Apollo gives him the ears of an ass when he rules for Pan.
** Tiresias was asked by Zeus and Hera to judge whether the man or the woman receives more pleasure from sex, as he'd been both. He chose women, and Hera [[DisproportionateRetribution struck him blind]], for which Zeus compensated him by giving him prophetic powers.

* A notorious mission in ''Videogame/MassEffect2'' revolves around this. The [[HiveMind Geth]], a race of robots, have split into two groups - the main group, which just wants [[HeroicNeutral to be left alone to evolve and learn.]] A smaller group (aka 'the heretics') have taken up a deal with a race of EldritchAbominations to recieve great power by becoming slaves. The main Geth have a virus that can rewrite the heretics to conform to the main group's point of view - effectively brainwashing them - and give them the desire to return home. The moral conundrum is whether to brainwash the heretics, or simply destroy them. The entire Geth race is divided almost exactly fifty-fifty over it, so they turn to the only organic they trust [[PlayerCharacter (Shepard)]] to make the decision for them.

** Tiresias was asked by Zeus and Hera to judge whether the man or the woman receives more pleasure from sex, as he'd been both. He chose women, and Hera [[DisproportionateRetribution truck him blind]], for which Zeus compensated him by giving him prophetic powers.

* In ''{{Lucifer}}'', {{God}}, after exiting his creation without warning (thereby bringing about its slow decay), has Elaine Belloc and Lilith (both of whom started out human) plead their cases for and against preserving the cosmos.

* A notorious mission in ''MassEffect2'' revolves around this. The [[HiveMind Geth]], a race of robots, have split into two groups - the main group, which just wants [[HeroicNeutral to be left alone to evolve and learn.]] A smaller group (aka 'the heretics') have taken up a deal with a race of EldritchAbominations to recieve great power by becoming slaves. The main Geth have a virus that can rewrite the heretics to conform to the main group's point of view - effectively brainwashing them - and give them the desire to return home. The moral conundrum is whether to brainwash the heretics, or simply destroy them. The entire Geth race is divided almost exactly fifty-fifty over it, so they turn to the only organic they trust [[PlayerCharacter (Shepard)]] to make the decision for them.