History Main / CosmicPlaything

* Frankly, all superheroes are this to some extent. You exist at the whims of capricious gods (writers) who will constantly throw you into mortal danger or screw up your personal life; any happiness or triumph you find is [[StatusQuoIsGod doomed to be fleeting]] because your misery is considered [[TrueArtIsAngsty more interesting]] than your joy, or just because the supreme being that controls your reality [[CreatorsPest hates you personally]]; your friends, family and loved ones will inevitably die, leave you or [[WeUsedToBeFriends turn on you]]; even death itself [[DeathIsCheap provides no release]]; and there’s a very good chance that all your struggles will be ultimately meaningless as your entire universe is [[CosmicRetcon completely torn down and rebuilt]] around you.

So, when the wizards bring him back and make him comfortable, it scares him more than anything. Because things only stop going wrong when Fate is lining up an even bigger punch. But this seems to have come to an end as of ''The Last Hero'' where [[spoiler:he accepts the fact he will be on the mission to save the world but clearly states he doesn't wish to volunteer. He simply knows by some machination of him hiding he would end up on the ship, or someone would remember his relationship with the people dooming the world and would be forced to join the mission. So he is just cutting out the middle part and volunteering for the mission even though he doesn't want to.]]

* Miyuki in ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' for the entirety of episode 13.

* ''Every single character'' in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is this - twice over, in fact! Before the game even starts, the universe has spent a very long time under the control of [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Flowey the flower]]]], who has the ability to manipulate time and has RippleEffectProofMemory. Towards the end of the games KillEmAll route, he tells you that, [[spoiler:in an increasingly more desperate attempt to keep himself entertained in the face of [[WhoWantsToLiveForever nigh-immortality]], he's reset the timeline a truly [[TimeAbyss staggering]] amount of times, [[OneHundredPercentCompletion doing everything from helping solve each and every character's problems to killing everybody in cold blood]].]] He tells you that, after a certain point, he's basically stopped seeing people as real people anymore - at best, they're now actors, with scripted lines and motions to go through, and he's long grown tired of the act. As soon as you show up, however, things suddenly get a lot more interesting for him, because [[spoiler:you, the [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall protagonist/player]], are the new god of this world]], and your abilities now override his own. [[AddressingThePlayer So, what will you do]]? Will you be merciful and lead the suffering cast of characters into the promised land, or will you descend into nihilistic madness like [[spoiler:Flowey]] in your attempts to see everything this game has to offer? Or will you skip over the descent entirely and just JumpOffTheSlipperySlope, killing everything in your path just because you can? Amazingly, this whole thing is done with exceedingly little actual breakage of the fourth wall, since [[DevelopersForesight practically everything the player is capable of doing is integrated into the canonical universe somehow]].
** This whole mess comes to an important head during the final battle of the KillEmAll route, where you face off against the game's FourthWallObserver, [[spoiler:Sans]]. Though we never find out exactly how, he is the only character in the game who ''knows'' he's a Cosmic Plaything and uses this to his advantage in several ways. Notably, [[spoiler:he attempts to have an IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight with the ''player'', reminding them of the previous games they've most likely played (who does the KillEmAll route on the first go, right?) and pulling a number of scathing WhatTheHellPlayer moments.]] The creator of the game seems to be using [[spoiler:Sans]] to make the following argument: in a meta sense, being a video game character in and of itself makes you a Cosmic Plaything, and VideoGameCrueltyPotential is how the "cosmos" indulges in this.

** In the episode "Ebb Tide" Sophia rents out a room, while Dorothy goes with Blanche to her Big Daddy's funeral, so she could by a big screen TV. The renters accidentally breaks Blanche's plate and is force to pay for a new plate. Blanche comes home and breaks the plate.

* Leonard Church from ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' is a subject to so much trauma, humiliation and bad luck that listing it here would be quite hard. He gets accidentaly killed by his teammate, his body is left to rot away and [[spoiler:his ex-girlfriend]] takes his spot on the team. And that's not even the whole first season. Each subsequent one, be it a sequel or a prequel, ads up to his misery until [[spoiler:he makes a one final HeroicSacrifice in Season 13. The only bright side is that it more or less worked... though obviously he would never know it did, much to his dismay.]]

* ''DiaryOfAWimpyKid'':

[[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease This trope is obvsiouly impossible in real life,]] even though it sometimes seems like it isn't.

* Inverted by the titular main character in ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer''. [[spoiler:Considering the whole thing is based on a tabletop gaming session]], everyone's fate is determined by chance. But Goblin Slayer is too meticulous to leave anything to chance; he always has contingency plans, and as the Tagline puts it, "He does not let anyone roll the dice." He's just an unremarkable NPC in the grand scheme of things, but his tendency to defy bad dice rolls and turn the table in one fell swoop makes the gods extremely fond of his antics, as not even they can predict where his adventure might end.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place, but due to the [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and everyone else in town finding ways to take advantage of Tom, sabotage his ideas, and screw him over (sometimes going to absurd lengths to do so and sometimes by pure accident), combined with Tom's own ExtremeDoormat attitude, circumstances beyond his control, and just plain bad luck, anything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that on top of Jefferton being a mishmash of every real-life shithole town they've ever been to, it's also actually Tom's own personal hell; a WorldOfJerkass where everything bad always happens to him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters; he genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due the [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and everyone else in town finding ways to take advantage of Tom, sabotage his ideas, and screw him over (sometimes going to absurd lengths to do so and sometimes by pure accident), circumstances beyond his control, his own ExtremeDoormat attitude, and just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that on top of Jefferton being a mishmash of every real-life shithole town they've ever been to, it's also actually Tom's own personal hell; a WorldOfJerkass where everything bad always happens to him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters; he genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to a combination of [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and everyone else in town finding ways to sabotage Tom's ideas and screw him over (sometimes going to absurd lengths to do so and sometimes by pure accident), circumstances beyond his control, his own ExtremeDoormat attitude, and just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that on top of Jefferton being a mishmash of every real-life shithole town they've ever been to, it's also actually Tom's own personal hell; a WorldOfJerkass where everything bad always happens to him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to a combination of [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and everyone else in town finding ways to sabotage Tom's ideas and screw him over (sometimes going to absurd lengths to do so and sometimes by pure accident), his own ExtremeDoormat attitude, circumstances beyond his control, and just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that on top of Jefferton being a mishmash of every real-life shithole town they've ever been to, it's also actually Tom's own personal hell; a WorldOfJerkass where everything bad always to him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and [[WorldOfJerkass everyone else in town]] often going to absurd lengths to sabotage his ideas and screw him over (sometimes unintentionally), circumstances beyond his control, and/or just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that on top of Jefferton being a mishmash of every real-life shithole town they've ever been to, it's also actually Tom's own personal hell.

** Chef Pee Pee gets constantly tortured by Bowser and his son Bowser Junior, especially the latter. However, his ButtMonkey status is taken UpToEleven in the ''Chef Pee Pee Quits'' series.

** Gumball Watterson in the entire series, honestly. Half the time he does bring it on himself due to his crazy schemes but other times it seems like the universe just wants to mess with him for no good reason. Case in point, in the episode "The Vegging" when he just wants to not go on any adventures and spend a day doing nothing, the universe [[UpToEleven goes out of it's way]] to make sure that doesn't happen. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen He was once going to be a black cat to reflect how unlucky he is.]]

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' is an interesting case. For him, he's only a Cosmic Plaything [[RunningGag on Mondays]], [[HatingOnMonday hence his hatred]].

* WebVideo/MemeHouse:
** [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Joel's]] goal in life is to see Johnny Zest suffer. Johnny has had his house broken into multiple times and has been abused and humiliated by virtually every other character in the series, including ''the grim reaper''. He's also unable to do anything about it as, in one of the most literal examples of the 'plaything' aspect of this trope, he's just a character in a heavily modded copy VideoGame/TheSims4, and Joel is the one playing the game, so Johnny can do nothing to stop the train of abuse that comes his way constantly.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and [[WorldOfJerkass everyone else in town]] finding ways to sabotage his ideas and screw him over (sometimes unintentionally), circumstances beyond his control, and/or just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that on top of Jefferton being a mishmash of every real-life shithole town they've ever been to, it's also actually Tom's own personal hell.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and [[WorldOfJerkass everyone else in town]] finding ways to sabotage his ideas and screw him over (sometimes unintentionally), circumstances beyond his control, and/or just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that not only is Jefferton a mishmash of every real-life craphole town they've ever been to, but it's also actually Tom's own personal Hell.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and everyone else going to absurd lengths to find ways to sabotage his ideas and screw him over, circumstances beyond his control, or just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that not only is Jefferton an amalgamation of every real-life craphole town they've ever been to, it's actually Tom's own personal Hell.

* Inverted by the titular main character in ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer''. [[spoiler:Considering the whole thing is based on a tabletop gaming session]], everyone's fate is determined by chance. But Goblin Slayer is too meticulous to leave anything to chance, he always has contingency plans, and as the Tagline puts it, "He does not let anyone roll the dice." He's just an unremarkable NPC in the grand scheme of things, but his tendency to defy bad dice rolls and turn the table in one fell swoop makes the gods extremely fond of his antics - as not even them can predict where his adventure would end.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and everyone else going to absurd lengths to find ways to sabotage his plans and screw him over, circumstances beyond his control, or just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that not only is Jefferton an amalgamation of every real-life craphole town they've ever been to, it's actually Tom's own personal Hell.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'': The universe just seems to ''hate'' Tom Peters. He genuinely means well with his ideas and only wants to help make Jefferton a better place. But due to [[MayorPain the Mayor]] and everyone else going to absurd lengths to find ways to sabotage his plans and screw him over, circumstances beyond his control, or just plain bad luck, everything that can go wrong for Tom does go wrong. It helps that [[Creator/TimAndEric Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim]] [[WordOfGod have confirmed]] that not only is Jefferton an amalgamation of every real-life craphole town they've ever been to, it's also Tom's own personal Hell.

** The majority of the villains qualify too. Most are are people who started out good until various unfortunate events drove them past their DespairEventHorizon.

* ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm:'' The world just seems to have it out for Creator/LarryDavid, even if he's just minding his own business, In nearly every episode, Larry's either being insulted, betrayed, pummeled, attacked, and even '''hunted down by the Islamic government.'''

*** The Aeneid was written between 29 and 19 BC, and is as much a political publication as an entertainment one (Aeneas founding Rome was an attempt to justify the invasion of Greece). Romans were good at these sorts of stories.

** Oedipus wasn't the only member of the House of Thebes to be fate's plaything. When the founder of the House Cadmus slew Ares' pet dragon, he was later honored by the gods and married Ares' daughter Harmonia. One of the wedding gifts was a necklace that granted eternal beauty to the wearer but also carried a curse. Said necklace was passed down through the family and brought tragedy to Cadmus' descendants. Nearly every member of the family suffered unfortunate ends. This includes Actaeon, turned into a stag by Artemis and torn apart by his dogs for accidently peeping at her, Semele, mother of Dioynsus who burst into flames from seeing Zeus' true form, Pentheus, who banned the worship of Dioynsus in town but was torn to shreds by his worshippers including his mother and aunts in a fit of madness caused by the worship, Creon (Oedipus' uncle)'s son Haemon, either killed by the Sphinx or killed himself after Antigone killed herself, and Oedipus' four children, his two sons killed each other in battle over rule of the city, the aforementioned Antigone, who defied the law by trying to bury her traitor brother, and was put in jail then committed suicide, and Ismene, either just forgotten about or killed by a warrior.
** The house of Atreus was pretty bad as well in the The Oresteia. Tantalus killed and cooked his own son, Pelops, to please the gods and might have stolen some of their property. He was sentenced to Tartarus. His son, when put back together, was missing his shoulder blade, so had to be replaced with ivory. Pelops got his wife in a chariot race, with the help of a servant sabotaging the chariot of his master. Pelops didn't fufill his end of the bargin and killed the servant. The servant then laid the curse on the family. Pelop's sister, Niobe, bragged of her 14 children, and all of them were killed by Artemis and Apollo, since she insulted their mother Leto. Niobe was then turned into a rock. Atreus and Thyestes are sons of Pelops. They killed their half-brother in an attempt to get the throne, but were banished for it. Atreus' wife was cheating on him with Thyestes, and they had a struggle for the throne until Atreus found out the infidelity. Atreus killed his nephews and cooked and served them to his brother as revenge. Thysestes then, on advice from the oracle, had sex with his daughter to produce another male heir. The son/grandson Aegisthus was abandoned by his mother and was raised by Atreus. The truth was revealed later, and Aegisthus killed Atreus. Atreus had children before he died, including Agememnon and Menelaus. Menelaus was the husband of Helen of Troy, and her kidnapping by Paris caused UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar. Agememnon's wife cheated on him with Aegisthus and she killed Agmemnon on his return from war, and their son, Orestes, killed her with help of Elektra, his sister.

* ''Theatre/OedipusRex'' makes this OlderThanFeudalism. In fact, the gods seem to have randomly picked him out specifically to be their toy: after hearing Apollo's Oracle prophesy that Oedipus would kill him, his father Laius nails his baby son's feet together and leaves him to die on a mountain. Luckily (?) for Oedipus, he's found and brought up in Corinth, where rumours begin to spread that he's a bastard. He goes to the Oracle for proof and hears that he'll kill his father and marry his mother. Not knowing he's adopted, he decides to do the decent thing and run as far as possible in the other direction...whereupon he unwittingly kills Laius and marries the Queen, Jocasta. And just when everything seems to be going well for him, a plague starts up in Thebes. He tries to fix it...by going to the Oracle, who tell him to find Laius's murderer. To cut a long story short, he does. Jocasta hangs herself, Oedipus stabs his own eyes out with the pins from her brooches, then becomes a beggar. The reason usually given for Oedipus' downfall is that by running away after hearing the prophecy, he was "defying the gods" and had to be punished. But a more likely reason is that Oedipus's father captured a prince who then [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself rather then be a slave]]. (And he wasn't just any old slave to Laius; read "underage gay sex object".) The prince's father then cursed Laius to be killed by his own son. The "marry his mother" part is entirely the result of gods' jerkassness though.

* ''Theatre/OedipusRex'' makes this OlderThanFeudalism. In fact, the gods seem to have randomly picked him out specifically to be their toy: after hearing Apollo's Oracle prophesy that Oedipus would kill him, his father Laius nails his baby son's feet together and leaves him to die on a mountain. Luckily (?) for Oedipus, he's found and brought up in Corinth, where rumours begin to spread that he's a bastard. He goes to the Oracle for proof and hears that he'll kill his father and marry his mother. Not knowing he's adopted, he decides to do the decent thing and run as far as possible in the other direction...whereupon he unwittingly kills Laius and marries the Queen, Jocasta. And just when everything seems to be going well for him, a plague starts up in Thebes. He tries to fix it...by going to the Oracle, who tell him to find Laius's murderer. To cut a long story short, he does. Jocasta hangs herself, Oedipus stabs his own eyes out with the pins from her brooches, then becomes a beggar. And all apparently because the gods were bored. To be fair, the reason usually given for Oedipus' downfall is that by running away after hearing the prophecy, he was "defying the gods" and had to be punished. It's a requirement for tragedies that the "TragicHero" deserves it, which often leads to rather extreme punishments for their perceived crimes, such as Oedipus' case.
** Actually it was because Oedipus's father captured a prince who then [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself rather then be a slave]]. (And he wasn't just any old slave to Laius; read "underage gay sex object".) The prince's father then cursed Laius to be killed by his own son. The "marry his mother" part is entirely the result of gods' jerkassness though.