History Main / OmniscientHero

* In ''The Wars of Light and Shadow'', Arithon s'Ffallen, Master of Shadows, has inherited the foresight powers of his s'Ahelas mother and the empathy of his s'Ffallen father, which means that he sees the implications of all his actions, and feels the suffering they cause. The only reason why the WarsOfLightAndShadow haven't ended with his suicide is because he has sworn an oath to survive at all costs, as his survival is critical to returning the Paravians to Athera.

Essentially, a beings who possesses enough relevant information to make the events less interesting or less believable. Such a being who makes [[ThePlan any kind of deceptive plan]] useless by seeing through them all is likely to fall into this trope.

* Ia in the ''Literature/TheirsNotToReasonWhy'' series is a somewhat unusual example. She can't "just" see her ''own'' timeline, she can see ''all'' of them. This also makes her an interesting case because while she could theoretically prepare for every single way events can play out, she doesn't actually have time to A) look through all potential outcomes of a situation and B) set up contingency plans for all of them. This leaves her insanely powerful, but NotSoOmniscientAfterAll because she can never be sure which of the many possible futures will actually happen in her part of the multiverse.

Basically, a character who possesses enough relevant information to make the plot less interesting or less believable. A character who makes [[ThePlan any kind of deceptive plan]] useless by seeing through them all is likely to fall into this trope.

Such a villain is likely to take their delusion one step further and also believe himself or or herself to have a OmniscientMoralityLicense, thus making it easier to convince themselves that UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. Either that, or one turns out to having been a StrawHypocrite all along.

When an Omniscient Hero is faced with a MoralDilemma, the problem is made much less complicated by the fact that he somehow...

Theoretical moral philosophy is full of thought-experiments based on these three premises. For the protagonist of such a theoretical thought experiment to become an Omniscient Hero, the MoralDilemma has to be transformed into a story and played straight. However, a StrawmanPolitical or StrawVulcan is very likely to [[NotSoOmniscientAfterAll mistake himself]] for an Omniscient Hero, and then be [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone very surprised]] or go into denial when it turns out that there was at least one of those three premises that he did not live up to.

Such a villain is likely to take his delusion one step further and also believe himself to have a OmniscientMoralityLicense, thus making it easier to convince himself that UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. Either that, or he turns out to having been a StrawHypocrite all along.

Contrast TheOmniscient, an omniscient character that isn't the protagonist and thus far less problematic.

* In ''StateOfFear'', Professor Kenner already knows or suspects the entire plot of the bad guys at the start of the book.

* In the Swedish comic ''{{Bamse}}'', the [[TheLancer Lancer]]/[[TheProfessor Professor]] character Skalman often fit this trope. This is done intentionally, since the target audience is rather young and the use of a BOH lets the writers introduce relatively complex concepts without making the plot overly complicated.

** [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt]] fits this trope. He has everything so well figured out that the morality issue is reduced to whether or not the goals he achieved was worth all the lives he sacrificed. However, two of the last few scenes make the whole thing ambiguous, leaving it to the reader/viewer to decide if the trope is played straight or subverted.

** [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt]] fits this trope. He has everything so well figured out that the morality issue is reduced to whether or not the goals he achieved was worth all the lives he sacrificed. However, two of the last few scenes make the whole thing ambigous, leaving it to the reader/viewer to decide if the trope is played straight or subverted.

* In the swedish comic ''{{Bamse}}'', the [[TheLancer Lancer]]/[[TheProfessor Professor]] character Skalman often fit this trope. This is done intentionally, since the target audience is rather young and the use of a BOH lets the writers itroduce relatively complex concepts without making the plot overly complicated.

* ComicBook/CaptainMarVell's son acquired "Cosmic Awareness" like his father, but to a much greater degree- he literally knew ''everything'' that happened or could happen. It drove him mad.

Contrast TheOmniscient, a omniscient character that isn't the protagonist and thus far less problematic.

* The Kwisatz Haderachs, Paul Atreides and his son Leto II in ''Franchise/{{Dune}}''.

* ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'''s Nagato Yuki is one of these.

* DominicDeegan decayed/developped into one of these by the time of the Snowsong arc.

* The Kwisatz Haderachs, Paul Atreides and his son Leto II in ''Literature/{{Dune}}''.

* Nemo, the titular ''MrNobody'', is a rare sympathetic example. He can remember and envision all his possible futures, and it is explored quite well what this means for him.

* {{Captain Mar-Vell}}'s son acquired "Cosmic Awareness" like his father, but to a much greater degree- he literally knew ''everything'' that happened or could happen. It drove him mad.

** In the same story, Dr. Manhattan himself WOULD fit the trope perfectly if it wasn't for a certain loophole [[spoiler:that effectively make him lose his omniscience halfway through the story]]. Before that point, he is so omniscient that it bores himself, but the readers/audience is spared sharing that boredom since he's a side character rather then the protagonist.

* Theresa from the ''Fable'' series has the ability to see into the future. In ''{{Fable II}}'' and ''{{Fable III}}'', if she hadn't been there to guide the hero towards their destiny, then there wouldn't have even been a plot.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Doctor has elements of this DependingOnTheWriter. He is easily the smartest person in the room, and can work his way out of just about any situation, up to and including [[spoiler:the Universe falling apart at the seams]]. With certain [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight exceptions]]. Notably, several episodes have the Doctor working out how to kill the enemy of the week within a few seconds, but either [[SpannerInTheWorks something happens which he didn't plan for]], and he has to play a game of XanatosSpeedChess, such as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks "Remembrance of the Daleks"]], or he's desperately searching for a non-lethal or more peaceful solution, which he sometime finds ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow "The Beast Below"]]), but often doesn't ([[Recap/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsOfTheDeep "Warriors of the Deep"]]).

** [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt]] fits this trope. He has everything so well figured out that the morality issue is reduced to whether or not the goals he achieved was worth all the lives he sacrificed. However, two of the last few scenes make the whole thing ambigous, leaving it to the reader/viewer do decide if the trope is played straight or subverted.

* In the swedish comic {{Bamse}}, the [[TheLancer Lancer]]/[[TheProfessor Professor]] character Skalman often fit this trope. This is done intentionally, since the target audience is rather young and the use of a BOH lets the writers itroduce relatively complex concepts without making the plot overly complicated.

* [[SuzumiyaHaruhi Nagato Yuki]] is one of these.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Doctor]] has elements of this DependingOnTheWriter. He is easily the smartest person in the room, and can work his way out of just about any situation, up to and including [[spoiler:the Universe falling apart at the seams]]. With certain [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight exceptions]]. Notably, several episodes have the Doctor working out how to kill the enemy of the week within a few seconds, but either [[SpannerInTheWorks something happens which he didn't plan for]], and he has to play a game of XanatosSpeedChess, such as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks "Remembrance of the Daleks"]], or he's desperately searching for a non-lethal or more peaceful solution, which he sometime finds ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow "The Beast Below"]]), but often doesn't ([[Recap/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsOfTheDeep "Warriors of the Deep"]]).

* [[Series/DoctorWho The Doctor]] has elements of this DependingOnTheWriter. He is easily the smartest person in the room, and can work his way out of just about any situation, up to and including [[spoiler:the Universe falling apart at the seams]].
** With certain [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E10Midnight exceptions]].
** Notably, several episodes have the Doctor working out how to kill the enemy of the week within a few seconds, but either [[SpannerInTheWorks something happens which he didn't plan for]], and he has to play a game of XanatosSpeedChess, such as [[Recap/{{Doctor Who S 25 E 1 Remembrance Of The Daleks}} Rememberance of the Daleks]], or he's desperately searching for a non-lethal or more peaceful solution, which he sometime finds [[spoiler: [[Recap/{{Doctor Who S 31 E 02 The Beast Below}} The Beast Below]]]], but often doesn't [[spoiler: [[Recap/{{Doctor Who S 21 E 1 Warriors Of The Deep}} Warriors of the Deep]]]]

* In ''{{Literature/Horns}}'', by JoeHill, the main character has horns growing out of his head that not only cause the characters around him to reveal their darkest thoughts to him, but also give him the power to see their entire pasts simply by touching them.

* In ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'', during the Chaos War storyline Hercules was granted omniscience. Turned out to be practically worthless because Hercules either didn't bother to use it or purposely ignored it constantly making things worse. Only changed when all of his allies called him out on his crap and even then he had to be guided by others to victory.

* {{Batman}} in many modern interpretations is so CrazyPrepared that he occasionally falls into this category. (The man has backup plans for the contingency plans of his backup plans!)

* In ''{{Horns}}'' by JoeHill the main character has horns growing out of his head that not only cause the characters around him to reveal their darkest thoughts to him, but also give him the power to see their entire pasts simply by touching them.