. . . . . . "The most common prophecy in fiction is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy--people's reactions to the prophecy, whether to try to prevent it or to aid the Chosen One, end up causing it to happen. But the inverse is also quite common: a prophecy that would be inevitable, were it not for the existence of the prophecy. Generally, a single person knows that something terrible will happen in the next 24 hours...unless that person can use her special knowledge to prevent it. More rarely, a person will accidentally thwart a good prophecy by trying to force it, or the prophecy will simply fail For Want of a Nail; the prophecy itself is the nail. In Real Life, predicting that something terrible will happen often allows you to prevent it. Intelligence is an awesome power. Compare Either/Or Prophecy, where the potential for thwarting is spelled out in the prophecy itself, and Set Right What Once Went Wrong, where the plot is nearly identical but the cause is Time Travel. Overlaps with Screw Destiny, where the prophecy is claimed to be inevitable but people hope it's self-defeating instead. Examples of Self-Defeating Prophecy include:"@en . . . . . "The most common prophecy in fiction is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy--people's reactions to the prophecy, whether to try to prevent it or to aid the Chosen One, end up causing it to happen. But the inverse is also quite common: a prophecy that would be inevitable, were it not for the existence of the prophecy. In Real Life, predicting that something terrible will happen often allows you to prevent it. Intelligence is an awesome power. Examples of Self-Defeating Prophecy include:"@en . . . . . "Self-Defeating Prophecy"@en . . . . . .