# Oh, THAT'S what that prophecy meant! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 23, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527 "2013-09-23T17:32:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/41 "2013-09-24T13:50:31Z")
Every D&D module ever. The PCs are given a prophecy or whatever and think they have some useful knowledge and it turns out to be totally different that what they guessed. I ignore them now. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/42 "2013-09-24T14:13:07Z")
Speaking of inheritance with unexpected consequences: _The Monkey’s Paw_. Come to think of it, weaselly wish granting is the inverse of weaselly prophesy. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/43 "2013-09-24T14:24:58Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Not to mention _Kung Fu Panda_. > > I’d be interested to know if there were _any_ prophecies mentioned in stories that don’t come true (the Bible not included, to keep things simple). This only seems to work in “unreliable narrator” territory; otherwise you just end up annoying the reader/viewer. There’s a truly amazing sequence in season 3 (or maybe late season 2) of ANGEL, where it is revealed that one of the bad guys managed to travel back through time to plant a fake prophecy and thereby convince one of Angel’s friends to betray him ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/44 "2013-09-24T17:45:18Z")
Rudyard Kipling’s \*\*\*Kim \*\*\*has a prophecy that comes true in an unexpected way, but there’s no “oh, crap!” moment, and I think it’s supposed to be funny: > [@Kim's father](#): > > ‘Nine hundred first-class devils, whose God was a Red Bull on a green field, would attend to Kim.’ It turns out to be an army regiment, and the red bull on a green field is their flag. I hated that book. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/45 "2013-09-24T18:09:15Z")
> [@](#): > > I dreamed that in the fields one day, > the corn gave me a sign: > Your eleven sheaves of corn > all turned and bowed to mine. > I dreamed I saw eleven stars, > the Sun and Moon and sky > bowing down before my star And now I realize WHY! –Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/46 "2013-09-24T20:27:02Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > There’s a truly amazing sequence in season 3 (or maybe late season 2) of ANGEL… Speaking of which, Angel did have a great line in the first season finale, saying, “Don’t believe everything you’re foretold. :D” ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/47 "2013-09-24T22:45:48Z")
I was thinking of _The Dark Crystal_, but it’s the audience that gets an OH CRAP moment. When single shines the triple sun what was sundered and undone shall be whole, the two made one by Gelfling hand, or else by none. It’s not just the Crystal that is made one. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I should become a mod. Then I could post cool warnings like “If you continue to act this way, no one will ban you.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/48 "2013-09-25T10:18:44Z")
Doctor Who : the “death” of David Tennant’s Doctor was prophesied “he will knock four times.” Turned out to be different “he” than people expected. The current Doctor’s end has also been foretold “The fall of the eleventh.” That episode will be broadcast this coming Christmas, and I’m expecting some sort of switcheroo. In [OOTS](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0015.html): “When the goat turns Red strikes true” ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/49 "2013-09-25T13:15:51Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > In what way? As I recall the prophecy was that he’d kill his father and marry his mother. The fact that he was confused about who his true parents were doesn’t make it a twisty prophecy in my opinion. yeah, but oedipus’s dad brought it about by trying to avoid it. He ditched the kid when he heard the prophecy, and that was how Oedipus came to not know his own father, ultimately bringing about the fulfillment of the prophecy. That’s a bit of a twist. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/50 "2013-09-25T15:26:32Z")
Speaking of “I am no man!”, are there any such prophecies which are taken to refer to women but actually are found to refer to men? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/51 "2013-09-25T15:38:59Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Speaking of “I am no man!”, are there any such prophecies which are taken to refer to women but actually are found to refer to men? I haven’t seen the movie in years, but in the original version of _ **The Wicker Man** _, Edward Woodward played a devout Christian British policeman investigating a possible murder on an island. He finds that a pagan cult is active on this island, and hears some sort of prophecy that a virgin is going to be slain. He tries to find and save the missing girl, who (he assumes) is the virgin who’s going to be killed. But… as many of you already know… The policeman himself is the virgin who’s going to be slain as an offering to the pagan gods ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/52 "2013-09-25T16:52:30Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I was thinking of _The Dark Crystal_, but it’s the audience that gets an OH CRAP moment. \ It’s not just the Crystal that is made one. I don’t recall that coming as a surprise. It was pretty obvious well before the end, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/53 "2013-09-25T17:25:21Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Speaking of “I am no man!”, are there any such prophecies which are taken to refer to women but actually are found to refer to men? Not a prophecy, but in _Intolerable Cruelty_, divorce lawyer George Clooney belongs to the National Organization of Matrimonial Attornies Nationwide, who’s slogan is, “What God has joined together, let N.O.M.A.N. put asunder.” ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/54 "2013-09-25T17:43:03Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > yeah, but oedipus’s dad brought it about by trying to avoid it. He ditched the kid when he heard the prophecy, and that was how Oedipus came to not know his own father, ultimately bringing about the fulfillment of the prophecy. That’s a bit of a twist. I would call that ironic or tragic, though. The prophecy itself is Exactly What It Says On The Tin. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/55 "2013-09-25T18:26:25Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Speaking of “I am no man!”, are there any such prophecies which are taken to refer to women but actually are found to refer to men? In the Disney Halloween movie _Hocus Pocus_, there’s a spell that will allow the witches to return to life if a virgin lights a special candle on Halloween. An adolescent boy fulfills the necessary requirements. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527/56 "2013-09-26T02:37:55Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I’d be interested to know if there were _any_ prophecies mentioned in stories that don’t come true (the Bible not included, to keep things simple). This only seems to work in “unreliable narrator” territory; otherwise you just end up annoying the reader/viewer. Posting these necessarily involves spoilers, so I figure folks don’t mind: China Mieville’s first young-adult novel, _Un Lun Dun_, plays heavily with this trope. There’s a Chosen One who’s foretold to save the fantasy world from evil forces, and she and her best-friend sidekick go out on a mission with guidance from the wise Book of Prophecy or something. Except that the Chosen One gets knocked into a coma in like the third chapter and is out of action for the rest of the book, and so her sidekick decides to continue on the mission despite the Book of Prophecy warning her that she stands no chance. Eventually she discovers that the Book of Prophecy is full of shit and has made up all the prophecies as a way to control people and get power for itself, and she triumphs by ignoring all the prophecies and omens that she encounters. Yes, Mieville is an angry atheist, why do you ask? 🙂 I also vaguely recall prophecies in His Dark Materials, and if they weren’t outright wrong, they were so far off as to be useless. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-what-that-prophecy-meant/669527.md?page=2)