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| - Karma is a complex spiritual concept whose disambiguation is perhaps best left not to TV Tropes or Wikipedia, but to actual religious study. Originally, the term Karma was a Sanskrit word for a rather specific spiritual concept, but over the centuries the word has been borrowed by countless languages, cultures, subcultures, religions, works of fiction, and even video games. Over time the word has evolved to such an extent that many who consider it to be part of their everyday vocabulary are unfamiliar with its original definition. In everyday terms, Karma has often been simplified as a direct cause-effect Equivalent Exchange reaction to a characters actions, both good and bad.
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| abstract
| - Karma is a complex spiritual concept whose disambiguation is perhaps best left not to TV Tropes or Wikipedia, but to actual religious study. Originally, the term Karma was a Sanskrit word for a rather specific spiritual concept, but over the centuries the word has been borrowed by countless languages, cultures, subcultures, religions, works of fiction, and even video games. Over time the word has evolved to such an extent that many who consider it to be part of their everyday vocabulary are unfamiliar with its original definition. In everyday terms, Karma has often been simplified as a direct cause-effect Equivalent Exchange reaction to a characters actions, both good and bad. More generally, much like a sufficiently clever Ice Cream Koan can seem like a perfectly executed Koan, the use of the word "karma" to describe something that isn't really karma as understood by spiritual teachings outside a work can look and seem like actual in-universe Karma, especially if done subtly rather than Anviliciously. While this may sometimes be a case of oversimplification because Viewers are Morons or the author simply Did Not Do the Research, it can also be the result of the author looking for a term to borrow to use for their own concept, much as the authors of this site, seeing phenomena in fiction, seek to provide a terminology for it. To illustrate, Call It Karma will have a beautifully poetic ironic death where a killer dies at the hands of a "victim" wielding his own knife... while capital K Karma would have him look around and notice that the few things he cared about have been destroyed by his own actions, both directly and indirectly, ala classic Greek Tragedy. Therein lies the problem, the former is easier to be inserted in a narrative, but the latter needs longer narratives for it to be pulled off (thus taking time). For examples of the latter, see Pyrrhic Villainy. On this very wiki, the term "karma" is used for several tropes of this nature:
* Karma Meter: The use of a simple scale to track a Player Character's morality.
* Karmic Death: Evil acts will bring about a character's certain and Irony-laden death.
* Karma Houdini: An evil character shrugs off any bad karma he has and gets away mostly scott free with all the bastardly deeds he's done.
* Karma Houdini Warranty: An evil character (or lovable rogue) tries to go good, but has all their bad karma catch up to them because they want to change.
* Karmic Jackpot: One tiny good deed creates a cascade of overwhelming good fortune.
* Karmic Protection: Not being overtly evil means the universe can't be overly bad to you.
* Karmic Transformation: Detesting a group or species means you will turn into one of them.
* Laser-Guided Karma: Doing a bad thing will get you promptly and neatly whacked by celestial forces.
* Sexual Karma: When being good gets you goodies, and being bad gets you... boned. Examples of Call It Karma include:
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