Seeing the future isn't all it's cracked up to be when you have little-to-no control over when or what the visions are.
Production Code: 110
Jake is assigned to protecting Sara and Kara—the Oracle Twins—from goblin crime boss Herbert, who wants to use their seer abilities to make money off of a magical sport's game. In the meantime, Jake can't help but use the twins' prophecies to cheat on an important test of Professor Rotwood's and to woo Rose.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Physics: Even if the boulder flying towards Jake was going one mile slower than Jake, it would still hit him harder than a mere tap on the tail.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Sara first sees Rose, she staggers from a vision of her and remarks "That girl...!" For a split second, it looks like she's about to unwittingly reveal that Rose is the Huntsgirl. Instead, she simply foresees that someone is about to take the last pudding from her.
- Becoming the Mask: Two of the goblin minions disguised themselves as ordinary middle school girls in order to blend in and capture the oracle twins. By the end, one of the goblins still believes he's a schoolgirl.
- Bittersweet Ending: On one hand, Sara reveals to the audience that she's foreseen Jake learning Rose's secret identity as the huntsgirl. However, Jake has saved the Oracle Twins and he's come out of the experience learning the importance of optimism and taking chances.
- Blessed with Suck: Kara is revealed to feel this way about her constantly positive visions.Kara: When you only see good things, nothing's special anymore. All the pleasant surprises are taken out of life.
- Brick Joke:
- Sara has a vision that someone will take the last cup of pudding before a nerdy boy. Several scenes later, Jake is the one to take the cup of pudding he was reaching for.
- Sara warns Jake not to eat some bad meatloaf in the cafeteria. Later, when Jake has to leave Rotwood's classroom in the middle of a test, Rotwood assumes it's because he ate the meatloaf and it made him sick. It turns out that everyone else ate the meatloaf and got sick in the middle of the test for real, causing the test to be rescheduled.
- Cursed with Awesome: Subverted with Sara. Her ability to only have negative visions is pretty sad, but her glass-half-full attitude helps her take it in stride.Sara: When you see only bad stuff, even the smallest bit of good news makes you happy!
- Exact Words: All of Kara and Sara's visions are true, but not always exactly how they expected it.
- Freudian Excuse: Jake learns from the oracle twins why they are cheery and gloomy despite seeing the bad and the good future, respectively. Kara is moody and glum because she's pretty bitter that her good visions serve to take all the surprises and fun out of life. Sara is all sunny and sweet because despite her bad visions, she has an optimistic view that they highlight the happy moments in life.
- Innocuously Important Episode: For the most part, this is a standalone episode. However, with Jake using the Oracle Twins' powers to help out Rose, the two get several small bonding moments that subtly develop their relationship for the overall Myth Arc. Not to mention the hint towards the ending that Sara has foreseen Jake learning that Rose is the Huntsgirl...
- Makes Sense In Context: Despite being distressed at hearing the prophecy that they will "tie the knot", Trixie and Spud are happy they 'tied the knot' when it does come true.
- Metaphorgotten: Lao-Shi attempts to use a proverb to explain why Jake shouldn't use magic to study for Rotwood's test, but eventually even he can't think of a good way to phrase it and just flat-out tells Jake to not question him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Sara tells Jake he'll need his optimistic viewpoint in order to cope with "the dark, terrible truth about Rose", she drops her usual cheery disposition (for a moment). This strongly implies to the audience that she's seriously talking about Jake learning about the Huntsgirl's secret identity.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The two goblins that went undercover in the middle school only wear wigs and standard teen clothing without even trying to change their flesh color, ear shape, or tails. The other kids only notice something's off about them when they hear their real voices. But when the goblins start talking like stereotypical Valley Girls, the kids think nothing of it.
- Prophecy Twist: Several, including the below Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
- Near the beginning, Kara predicts that Spud and Trixie will "tie the knot". Trixie initially fears that it means that they're going to become a couple. However, at the end of the episode, the prediction turns out to be literal, as Trixie ends up "tying the knot" of Spud's shoelaces.
- Sara predicts that the last pudding will be taken before Rose gets to it. Rose actually does wind up with the pudding, but that's only because Jake took it from the counter and gave it to her.
- Spud is predicted to spill chocolate milk, so he leaves the cafeteria in order to defy the prediction. However, his yo-yo ends up toppling an entire truck of chocolate milk, spilling its contents on everyone.
- Jake gets a prediction that he'll be hit by an Ogreball boulder going at 180 miles per hour. Despite knowing this, Jake takes a risk and pursues the villain into an active Ogreball arena. Sure enough, Jake does get hit by a boulder going that exact speed...however, it hit him from behind while Jake was flying at 179 miles per hour. Thus, relative velocity kicks in and the boulder only hits him with a force of 1 mile per hour. He still gets knocked out because he was so afraid of the boulder he didn't notice the wall ahead of him.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Sara is really optimistic and cheerful while Kara is incredibly negative and dour.
- Relatively Flimsy Excuse: As a cover up for his duty protecting Sara and Kara, Jake introduces them as his cousins.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Jake tries to avert Sara's prophecy that someone was going to take the last pudding before Rose did. At first, it seems her vision didn't come true, but it did: technically, Jake took the last pudding trying to fetch it for Rose. Additionally, Jake took the last pudding before a nerdy kid would, the same kid Sara warned earlier, further confusing Trixie and Spud.Sara: Our visions always come true, just not always in the way you expect.
- Spit Take: Trixie spits her soda when she hears the vision about she and Spud "tying the knot". Sara had actually forgive her beforehand since she already knew that would happen.
- Stepford Smiler: Reconstructed. Sara is nonetheless putting on a smile to cope with how she can see nothing but bad visions she can't change or stop. However, her cheery attitude is nonetheless what gets her through the bad times.
- Wham Line: After Jake tells Sara he's learned his lesson about not letting bad news prevent him from living life, Sara, for the first time, turns serious as she says this:Sara: You should keep that in mind when you find out the dark, terrible truth about Rose. Well... Night! (slams the door)
Jake: What? What... What... What truth?! (bangs on the door) Hey, guys!? Guys!?! - You Can't Fight Fate: The twins visions always come true no matter what. When Spud tried to defy one about spilling chocolate milk, he went out of the school, but tripped and caused a truck to crash and spill its cargo of chocolate milk, further convincing them.
