Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' is built around one, as explained by Dumbledore in book six. Voldemort hears half of a prophecy about a boy about to be born who will be his nemesis. With two possible choices, he chooses Harry, but in the process of trying to kill him, gives him both the power to defy him and a reason to. What's the best way to turn an otherwise unimportant young wizard into your mortal enemy who's well-equipped to defeat you? Well, murdering his parents and spending the better part of a decade sticking him in convoluted death traps is not a bad start.

** What's more, Dumbledore hints that not all prophecies have to be fulfilled. The only reason Harry is going to fulfill the prophecy is because [[The Unchosen One|he would never rest until Voldemort was dead]], and the same goes for Voldemort. The only way to avoid it coming true is if they both stop, which certainly won't happen.

** Played for laughs with some of Trelawney's "predictions". The first time we see her, she asks Neville to use one of the blue cups for tea-leaves-reading after he breaks his first one. Neville, already nervous at the best of time, promptly breaks the first cup he uses. She ends the lesson by telling him he'll be late next time, "so mind you work extra hard to catch up". Hermione believes this is why people die when they see "the Grim".

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series Mat learns he would marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons. Much later, she comes across him trying to flee from a city and has to be tied up. When Mat finds out what she is, having already learned the hard way that [[You Can't Fight Fate]], he changes his mind about hiding her in the lofts and kidnaps her instead. And much later, {{spoiler|Tuon only completes the marriage ceremony Mat accidentally started because of the marriage prophecy ''she'' got}}.