Nothing says “epic destiny” like a huge prophecy. When a hero hears a
mystical-ish person intoning that he or she is destined to set everything
right, that’s when adventure comes a-calling. But sometimes these things don’t
quite work out. Here are 10 heroic prophecies that weren’t quite what people
had hoped.
Warning: Spoilers for old stories ahead…
10) Wakusei no
Samidare
In this 2006 romance manga, Yuuhi
is an ordinary student when a talking lizard comes to him and tells him that
he’s actually a knight, and he’s destined to rescue a princess, and to save the
entire world from an evil wizard. Too bad Yuuhi kind
of hates the world and isn’t interested in saving it — and it’s even
worse, when it turns out that the princess, too, hates everything. They end up
teaming up to destroy the world, instead of saving it.
9) Mistborn by
Brandon Sanderson
In this fantasy trilogy, there’s a huge prophecy about the
Hero of Ages, who will defeat the Deepness. The Hero of Ages supposed to take
power from the Well of Ascension and then give it up again. Hero after hero
tries to fulfill these prophecies — but it turns out they’re actually
completely falsified, and the real Big Bad has used them to manipulate people
to its own ends.
8) Kai in Lexx
There’s much ado about the prophecy that Kai will destroy His Divine Shadow, but in
the end this is accomplished by a cluster lizard larva named Squish instead,
although at least Kai is present when this happens.
7) Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine
To be honest, I’m still unclear on how Benjamin Sisko, the
Emissary, stopped the Pah-Wraiths and saved the Prophets — but it’s pretty
clear his prophesied role isn’t as clear-cut as it first appears. For one
thing, he’s not someone who was just chosen to fulfill this prophecy, because
we eventually find out his mom was actually hijacked by a Prophet when he was
conceived. But also, one thing Sisko doesn’t
do is bring about the Reckoning, the great battle between the Prophets and the
Pah-Wraiths — in which his son, Jake, is supposed to die for the cause. The
main prophecy about Sisko seems to be that he’ll make this happen, but
thenthe Reckoning gets borked and he
still gets to defeat the Pah-Wraiths a different way.
6) The Judge Child Saga
in Judge Dredd
In this classic arc, the precog judges predict that
Mega-City One will be destroyed, unless Judge Dredd can find a certain special
mutant child with an eagle on his forehead, who will save everybody. Too bad
the Judge Child is kind of a psycho, huh? It turns out that the Judge Child
will actually destroy everybody, not save everybody. Oops.
5) The DragonCrown
War by Michael Stackpole
Will Norrington, a cunning thief, is prophesied to be the
hero who will save everybody — until he dies halfway through the trilogy.
Oops.
4) Greek Mythology
As Greg Pak points
out, Metis prophesies that one of Zeus’ children will overthrow him, and this
is probably Athena. And usually in Greek mythology, prophecies are ironclad,
and will come to pass no matter what you do. But this time around, Zeus
completely escapes this prophecy, which never comes to pass — at least not in
Greek mythology. In both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, Zeus has gotten
overthrown, including in Pak’s own Incredible
Hercules. Although maybe comics aren’t canon as far as mythology goes?
3) Neo
In the Matrix
movies, Neo is The One, who’s supposed to defeat the machines and save everyone
— except that the Oracle who tells him this prophecy is actually a program,
and the prophecy is sort of a fake. He’s actually supposed to reboot the
Matrix, as the previous iterations of The One have done before him. At least,
that’s what Colonel Sanders seems to be saying in that one lengthy scene with
the video screens. In the end, Neo does sort of save people, but he doesn’t
free everyone from the Matrix and both he and Trinity have to die.
2) Angel
Angel has this prophecy that he (or maybe Spike) would save
the world and either die or become human as a reward. Instead, Angel becomes an
evil law firm’s middle-manager, brings the apocalypse to LA (but only LA),
turns into a masked serial killer, has such terrible sex with Buffy that he
creates a whole universe and then kills poor Giles.
1) Anakin Skywalker
Anakin is prophesied to “bring balance to the
Force” — and he actually does this, by killing all the Jedi including a
ton of kids. And causing the death of his wife. And blowing up Alderaan. And
killing countless others. Although, is a situation where Luke is the only
Force-user in the galaxy really “balance”?
Additional reporting
by Emily Stamm. Thanks also to Emma C. Moore, Greg Pak, Tarin Towers,
Nicholas Slayton, June Weiss, Tim Carmody, Jamie Wyman, and everybody else who
helped. Sources: Giant in the
Playground Forums, NaNoWriMo,
AbsoluteWrite,
The
Escapist
