Neglectful Precursors: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Precursors]]; kindly ancient civilization or [[Parental Abandonment|deadbeat parents?]] You decide, on today's episode of '''''Judge Troper's Court!'''''

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' (the first anime) is example when humans become Neglectful Precursors of much stronger beings than they are themselves. Because of bad initial appearance they dump their creations, which made them hate humanity or seek a very cruel ways to become humans, made worse when the [[Big Bad]] helps them survive and gain power by feeding them [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|Philosopher's Stones]].

* In the manga [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hotel/ ''Hotel'']. Humanity are precursors to the sentient computers, one (Louis) who's task is to ensure that the DNA of all Earth life is protected and a second who's task is to protect the DNA of humans in order to colonize another world in hopes of saving the species. While the creations of Louis may or may not be independent sentient robots separate from itself the creation of his counterpart in space certainly are ... we're assholes who did nothing but cause Earth to die and died in the process ourselves leaving Earth an unlivable wasteland.

 

* The Merk in ''Nexus'': when they [[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence|left]], they left behind one individual of their race, Drizripool, who inherited most of their power, with the mission of finding a race worthy of receiving the Merk's vision of justice through the eponymous nexus. The problem? Drizripool was insane! While the Merk did eventually send back another of their race, GQ, to stop Drizripool, why leave him behind in the first place?

** Objection! GQ, upon asked by the main characters about Drizripool's madness, first provides some technobabble meant to prove how his psyche has deviated from what amounts to sanity between Merk, then quips that he himself is uncertain for how long he may hold his mental health, risking to succumb to the same brand of insanity is currently afflicting Drizripool. Thus it can be safely inferred that Drizripool used to be sane, and since (by GQ admission) he was also the most powerful Fusionkaster and champion of justice of their race, he was left behind to provide the Nexus with the best and finest of the whole Merk. Eventually, his insanity just took the best out of him, forcing the Merk to settle for the less powerful but trustier GQ.

== Film ==

* To be tried in absentia: the unspecified race which dispatched a probe to Earth's humpback whales in ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]''. This species, alleged to have long been in peaceful contact with said whales, equipped their probe with the capacity to communicate with these creatures underwater ... and to ''decimate'' Earth's indigenous ecosystems, in the event that the whales failed to respond. Even if the probe's makers were unaware that whales were not Earth's only sentient residents, such environmental sabotage is reckless and unconscionable. Moreover, if the whales' language were to ''change'' in the millennia between one probe's visitation and the next, rendering them incapable of a coherent response, then the probe's "peaceful communication" might well have exterminated the humpback species long before humans could do so! Your Honor, I submit a charge of reckless endangerment on behalf of plaintiffs George and Gracie, and of negligent homicide on behalf of other Earth life forms killed by the probe's transmissions.

 

== Literature ==

* Your honor, the Hyrulians of ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' would like to bring forth a suit: the three Goddesses left behind the Triforce, which is their exit door and [[Cosmic Keystone]]. There were a few precautions against it getting nicked by a sociopathic man-bear-pig, but clearly they weren't enough. They let Link and Zelda clean up after them, giving them fairly useless "help" such as Light Spirits of Hyrule and the Sages, while in the interim innocents suffer and die before the Link of that time can get going.

** Defense brings up that failure of precautions does not indicate failure of the precursors. Any precaution can fail when against someone who is intelligent and resourceful enough. Contrary to plantiff's arguments the three Goddesses are active in Hyrule insuring the rise of a hero or other action whenever evil rises. The Light Spirits and Sages have proven to be instrumental in stopping said evils proving they are far from useless. Innocents suffering is unfortunelty part of the mortal world, but these are usually short periods of unrest followed by long periods of quiet as demonstrated by the nature of the Hylian army. Defense moves to dismiss suit based on the Goddesses constantly taking action and not being the universe's baby-sitters.

* In their exodus from this area of the galaxy, the Precursors of the ''[[Star Control]]'' series absent-mindedly left behind a ''humongous battleship armed with superweapons that can wipe out entire fleets with each shot''. Naturally, the enslaving Ur-Quan Kzer-Za stumble across it, naming it Sa-Matra. Among the numerous other artifacts the Precursors left behind are: [[Earthshattering Kaboom|bombs used as planeteering tools]] (one is used to put a hole in the outer layers of a star, causing it to flare like a supernova and sterilizing the entire inhabited system, and another is deemed powerful enough to destroy the Sa-Matra ''only after amplifying modifications are added by the Chmrr''), the Mycon (biological planeteering tools that evolved into a race of fungi who [[Planet Looters|terraform inhabited water worlds by force]] to their own scorching ideal conditions), and Inter-Dimensional-Fatigue-wave-generating devices (the study of which gets the Androsynth eaten by [[Eldritch Abomination|Lovecraftian extradimensional horrors]]).

** Arguably an act of self-defense. [[Word of God]] has stated that the sequel was always intended to explain what happened to the Precursors. Despite the fact that the original creators lost control over the IP before making said sequel; to some extent, the (non-canon) sequel Star Control 3 DID justify things. The Precursors had been searching for a way to survive a galaxy-wide genocidal sweep of sentient species from even more powerful space entities and FAILED to come up with a combative method of survival despite said superweapons.

* In light of the recent testimony of Cmdr. Shepard, the [[Mass Effect|Citadel races]] would like to file charges against {{spoiler|the Catalyst, and its creators to be tried in absentia}}. These individuals are responsible for the creation of the Reapers, currently facing at least 740 counts of galactic genocide. Only their claimed rationale for allowing these acts, that {{spoiler|they believed a [[Robot War]] to be inevitable, and thus created the Reapers to prevent sufficiently advanced races from creating sufficently powerful synthetic races}}, prevents the plaintiffs from charging [[Abusive Precursors|abuse]] rather than neglect.

** The defense moves that charges against the {{spoiler|Catalyst's creators}} be dropped or postponed due to lack of evidence. As it stands, we have only the {{spoiler|Catalyst's}} word that he/she/it created the Reapers, that it set the Reapers on a never-ending cycle of destruction, and that it did so in spite of a better solution.

 

== Webcomics ==