"Note that it's only a true Screw Destiny if the characters actually succeed in evading fate. If they fail or succeed but fulfill the prophecy anyway, it becomes You Can't Fight Fate and a strike against faith in individuality."
I very much don't agree with this way of defining the trope. The way I see it, one common subtrope is the character who says Screw Destiny and is rewarded by a Prophecy Twist. In these cases, there's no strike against faith in individuality, but rather, fate rewards such faith when defied. Two examples that come to mind:
- Buffy's deaths at the hands of the Master, the regular universe and the Wishverse versions. In the Wishverse, Buffy confronts the Master without knowing the prophecy, and he simply kills her. In the regular universe, she knows and confronts the Master despite the prophecy, and she is rewarded by the twist where Xander revives her.
- In Lord Of The Rings, the One Ring is too powerful and corrupting, and nobody is actually capable of throwing it willingly into the Chasm of Doom. Frodo undertakes the mission and proves to be no exception; but fate rewards him by having Gollum accidentally destroy the Ring.
The LotR example isn't really about fighting destiny - it's about a race to get the Ringbearer to the Cracks of Doom before the Ring's power can corrupt him. Not only that, but several characters actually say that the Ring was destined to be Frodo's to bear. And way back in the Shire, Gandalf even says (of Gollum) "My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many".
If anything's happening here, it's Frodo repeatedly answering the call...
Edited by rmsgrey
Cleft this mass of natter and conter natter from the Mega Man example: [[Spoiler
- But Zero does fight and kill Copy X and is rebelling against the only bastion of civilization in Mega Man Zero.
- Yet again, that is not the real X, so it does not count.
- Zero may not only be created just to fight X. Because of The Virus originally coming from him, his creator the Big Bad Dr. Wily may have other malevolent plans for Zero.
- Dr. Wily likely created Zero and the Zero/Maverick Virus to ruin Dr. Light's dream of humans and robots living in harmony. Given the constant warfare of the X, Zero, and ZX series, he pretty much succeeded.
- Well, he succeeded right up until the end of the Zero series. After that, it was a period of true peace between humans and reploid, despite by Serpent and Albert trying to reset the world a couple of centuries later, as humans and reploids had by then achieved harmony between each other.
- And there's the irony that, with the statement given above, Zero was the one who gave the world a true period of peace at the end of the Zero series.
- As long as Zero lived, Dr. Light's dream never came true. so after Zero dies, there is nothing left by Dr. Wily to ruin Lights dream. Not that Zero ever tried, but...
- It's not really Zero's fault, since the MMZ world was pretty much going to hell on its own even with Zero still in stasis. The world didn't get peace because Zero died, but because he ended the conflict; he just happened to die in the process.
- And, for the sake of adding another trope example...Mega Man ZX has Vent, Aile, Ashe and Grey all end up giving a big fat middle finger to the "Game of Destiny" and its instigators. So do Prometheus and Pandora, actually. Large Ham "What a SHAM!" indeed.
- All this talk of Zero ignoring his destiny and no specific mention of the very blatant messages at the ends of X2-X4, where the game clearly states t
- But Zero does fight and kill Copy X and is rebelling against the only bastion of civilization in Mega Man Zero.
I fail to see what super sonic has to do with this. Considering the image is potholed to Terminator, might there have been an error in adding the image?
Edited by Cydrius
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Is used for two definitions
, started by Ghilz on Jan 20th 2012 at 7:29:14 AM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman