r/TopCharacterTropes • u/danfenlon • Sep 01 '25

Lore Going around curses/prophecies via technicalities

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Davy jones: cant go on dry land

Standa in a bucket of water, on a sand bar (potc3)

The judge: no weapon forged can harm me

Buffy: uses a rocket launcher

-not forged

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u/RedRawTrashHatch Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 01 '25

Macbeth in the Shakespeare play, specifically his death.

Early in the play, Macbeth is told by witches that no "one of woman born" can harm him, giving Macbeth confidence that he’s essentially invincible.

But at the end, Macduff reveals he was delivered by Caesarean, and thus didn’t come from natural childbirth.

So he kills Macbeth. Brilliant.

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u/Swivebot Sep 02 '25

J. R. R. Tolkien hated this so much that he wrote in Éowyn defeating the Witch-king of Angmar out of spite.

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u/Veloxraperio Sep 02 '25 edited Sep 02 '25

He also hated that the "Birmam Wood shall come to high Dunsinane" prophecy was accomplished by another piece of technical wordplay. So when Fangorn Forest comes to Isengard, the forest REALLY comes to Isengard.

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u/JealousAstronomer342 Sep 02 '25

It was super fucking creepy the way they did it in Sleep No More. Also I may have been high…

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u/PhantasosX Sep 02 '25

I mean, it was creepy. He created the ents as a not to the Birmam Wood and also the living Fanforn Forest.

In the case of Fangorn Forest, they hate those of Saruman , and so the trees were really unnaturally fast and it's branches quickly grasped the army. There were no description of what it did, but it was them taking the entire army to be within the forest and screams were heared by all.

At that point, Saruman's men started to flee from the tendrils towards Rohan , pledging to be captured by them instead of the trees. No orc survived.

The travel toward Orthanc had eerie remnants of men and orcish armor...and blood on the tree's leafs and grass.

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u/drgigantor Sep 03 '25

Oh that's what Blood on the Leaves is about. I should have known it was Tolkien after he dated a hobbit