Basic Trope: The prophecy technically comes true, but not in the way expected.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz hears a prophecy that he will die when a sheep bites like a serpent and slaughters all the flocks in his kingdom to be safe. It turns out the prophecy was referring to an obedient, good-natured underling finally losing her temper and stabbing him with a poisoned fork.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz hears a variety of prophecies, including that he will not see his death and can only die when a sheep bites like a serpent, that Bob will die in battle with him, and that in the battle with the heroes, a mighty army shall crush all its adversaries. It turns out that he will be stabbed in the back with a poisoned fork by an obedient, good-natured underling who's finally fed up, that Bob's heart will stop but it will be restarted, and that the "mighty army" that would gain victory in the battle was that of the heroes.
- Downplayed: The underling who kills Emperor Evulz has magical powers and does kill him by biting like a serpent, but she's not literally a sheep.
- Justified:
- People who can see the future are known for making it difficult to figure out.
- The prophet was from a foreign culture, where "a sheep bites like a serpent" is a common idiom for being betrayed by an obedient underling.
- The prophecy was written down many years ago in a now-dead language, and the translation is somewhat imprecise.
- The prophet is unfamiliar with smeerps and calls them "sheep that bite like serpents" from what she could understand of what she saw.
- Inverted: Emperor Evulz hears a prophecy that he will die when a sheep bites like a serpent. He is bitten by a territorial rabid ram who bit from the underbrush. Evulz dies of rabies. The prophecy was technically wrong in the end (not even a translation issue or a cultural conflating of sheep and goat) but it played out as expected.
- Subverted: Emperor Evulz hears a prophecy that he will die when a sheep bites like a serpent. He starts thinking of all the possible meanings that could have, and then the person who gave him the news interrupts. She actually meant all along that he would be killed by a sheep with a poisonous bite.
- Double Subverted: ...However, the next prophecy she gives him, which says that Bob will die in battle with him, actually has the twist that Bob will "die" in the sense of having his heart temporarily stop.
- Parodied: The prophecy sounds all epic and ominous ... only for it turned to be predicting something utterly mundane and normal.
- Zig Zagged: The prophecy comes true in an unexpected way... then it comes it in the way everyone did expect much later.
- Averted:
- Emperor Evulz hears a prophecy that he will die when a sheep bites like a serpent. He dies when he is bitten by a magical snake/sheep hybrid.
- Emperor Evulz hears a prophecy that he will die when a sheep bites like a serpent. It just plain doesn't come true.
- Nobody hears a prophecy.
- Enforced: The author enjoys surprising people, so the prophecy will naturally be difficult to interpret.
- Lampshaded: "Prophecies are always so cryptic!"
- Invoked: Alice, who gave Evulz the prophecy, hates him and purposely gave him the message in such a way that he could misunderstand the true meaning.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Emperor Evulz doses the prophet with a potion that prevents the affected individual from stating anything but the plain, whole truth to prevent him/her from giving him a confusing prediction.
- Discussed: "I've had experiences with prophecies and they always come true, but not always in the way you'd expect.
- Conversed: "Prophecies in movies never give it to you straight."
- Implied: Emperor Evulz dies offscreen despite all the sheep being killed, but everybody talks/acts as though the prophecy came true.
Back to Prophecy Twist. (That never said it was the main page for the trope, did it?)
