There's a sub-trope, which should either go on this page or get its own: all myths are true except mainstream religion. This turns up surprisingly often because comic books, TV, etc. don't want to be "controversial" by depicting modern-day religions, but are perfectly safe with pagan myths. The resulting taboo means that in fiction, all myths are true — except the ones believed by more than half the people on Earth right now.
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You're right about most fiction, however, some works(American Gods and The Iron Druid Chronicles) do include modern religion. They do this by saying that if enough people believe in something, like a god, it becomes real.
There seems to be two variations of this, one where it's all myths in that universe which are true, and the other is all myths in our universe in true, making a cultural hodgepodge. Are these really the same trope?
Her Majesty
Since this often gets confused with Fantasy Kitchen Sink, how about changing the name to something more like Myths Are Always True? It's a subtle difference, but could add much-needed clarity.
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There was a long Trope Repair Shop a while ago here
, but it didn't come to conclusion.
Well, it is almost 2015 now and the trope is still being misused (thankfully, it appears to be only in the trope article itself, it seems everywhere else Fantasy Kitchen Sink and this one are linked to appropriately). Is there any way it can be fixed? The description could be worded so much simpler to simply state "if the characters know about a myth, legend, old story, etc in a work, at some point they will discover it is in fact true in their universe". The page image, specially with its caption, still makes it seem like a case of Fantasy Kitchen Sink which makes everything so much more confusing.
I would not be disinclined to start a new topic, but a Wick Check would be good first.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
We should probably change the page image, but I don't know how to start an Image Pickin' Discussion.
Though I love Stargate SG 1, and think that we should still use that series as an example with whatever image we pick, the current page pic is essentially meaningless. All we see is a bunch of people standing before a Sword In The Stone, relying on the caption to explain where the "All Myths" part comes from. There's nothing in the image to even imply anything beyond Arthurian Mythology, and even that's not explicit, since the image doesn't even show it being true, just that the legend exists.
We need an image that somehow displays multiple myths so that you don't need to know the SG 1 series to understand it.
Perhaps a screen-cap from "Summit" or "Last Stand"? There was a meeting of System Lords in those episodes, and we can probably get an image of all the Goa'uld together, giving us Ba'al (Semitic), Kali (Hindu), Morrigan (Irish), Olokun (Yoruba) and Yu (China) together at once.
Edited by JBK405 Hide / Show Replies
http://www.gocomics.com/heavenly-nostrils/2013/10/29?
There is also a game "Pirates of the Caribbean", where main mission(story) line uses some pirate myths. Also, typical pirate stuff: skeletons in the dungeons and jungle, haunted ship(Black Pearl). Oh, I see you spotted the movies...
Please remove the Real Life examples because it's stupid to have them. I'm tired of atheist comedians telling me how stupid and evil I am because I believe any myth is true. If all myths are true in Real Life, why does James Randi still have his check? If I show this page to James Randi, is he going to give me that check? I don't think so. Why are there debates on if God exists? Simple, THIS IS NOT TRUTH IN TELEVISION.
Since it's mentioned that the exceptions are more notable in this trope, it might be interesting to note that World of Warcraft subverts this. There's a lot of varying myths of the gods in the games, many of which are mutually exclusive. The one that comes to mind is the myth of the druids. While the night elves have a story of how they were the first druids, and the Tauren have a story of how they are the first druids. I'm pretty sure the night elves are the ones that have it right, but in either case, one story does have to be incorrect.
Is this trope being horribly misued or am I just misunderstanding it? The description sounds like "Anything that's described as a myth in-story will turn out to be real", whereas you mostly see it used to mean "Ra and Loki are good buddies, they splay snooker with Cu Chulainn", which is more like Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
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The introduction for Fantasy Kitchen Sink explicitly points out that they are the same trope, just different intensity (FKS is described as All Myths Are True Up To Eleven). I can't explain where the exact divide lies, but they do cover the same basics.
No Dragon Power
Atlas and World turtles. There Myths so if there both true would atlas be standing on a turtle or holding up a world turtle?
With the power of a dragon I can make up for my inability to spill. Hide / Show Replies
Atlas holds up the sky. And spookily enough, the Atlas mountains are in Morocco, fairly central if you look at a standard world map, and a pretty good place to balance the sky on if the world is flat.
A more disturbing question is whether the Giant Scarab, the chariot of Helios and all the others are fighting each other for custody of the Sun...
Edited by johnnye
Harry Potter should be added to this because of the Deathly Hallows.
Wait a minute, the gods of different mythologies do exist in Marvel, they're just extradimensional aliens.