Quibble (plot Device) - Prophecies and Spells

Prophecies and Spells

Exploiting loopholes in prophecies and spells is also sometimes called quibble.

When Croesus was told by the Pythia that going to war with Cyrus the Great would destroy a great empire. Croesus assumed that the seer meant that the Persian Empire would be destroyed and Croesus would triumph. He proceeded to attack the Persians, believing victory was assured. In the end, however, the Persians were victorious, and the empire destroyed was not Cyrus's but Croesus's.

In Macbeth, Macduff was able to kill Macbeth, who was unable to be harmed by anyone of woman born, because Macduff was "from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd" — born via a Caesarean section. In a second prophecy, Macbeth is told that he has nothing to fear until Great Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill. He feels safe since he knows that forests cannot move, but is overcome when the English army, shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood, advances on his stronghold at Dunsinane.

In The Lord of the Rings, Glorfindel's prophecy states that "not by the hand of man will the Witch-king of Angmar fall." The Witch-king is slain by Éowyn, a woman, during the battle of the Pelennor Fields. She is aided by Merry, a hobbit who distracted him by stabbing him with his Elvish blade as the Ring Wraiths are harmed by such swords.

In Ruddigore, the baronets are cursed to die if they do not commit a horrible crime every day, but failing to commit such a crime is committing suicide, a horrible crime (a realization that brings one of them back to life).

In Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures, a book is said to inflict terrible fates on any man opening it, but causes only mild annoyance to the Librarian, who is in fact an orangutan.

In Disney's Aladdin, the main villain Jafar, after becoming a genie, is unable to use his powers to directly kill living beings. However, he is able to use his powers to create situations that could kill or harm his enemies, including possibly torture as Jafar darkly suggests, "you would be surprised what you can live through."

Jack Sparrow (from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) promised to be Davy Jones' slave for 100 years in exchange for receiving the Black Pearl (a ship) and being made captain of that ship, for thirteen years. When Jones reminds Sparrow of his debt, Jack argues that he wasn't captain during those thirteen years, for a mutiny quickly occurred and he was abandoned on an island by his crew. To that, Davy Jones replies that regardless of this, he still owes him his soul, for he has been introducing himself as Captain Jack Sparrow during those thirteen years (and indeed, it is a running gag in the movies that each time he is called "Jack Sparrow", Jack will correct the other by saying "Captain Jack Sparrow").

In Death Note, the Shinigami Ryuk warns the protagonist Light Yagami to "Don't think that a human who's used the Death Note can go to heaven or hell". At the end of the series it is revealed that there's no heaven or hell and that all humans, no matter what they did in life, are equal in death. When a human dies, the human goes to "Mu" (Nothingness), or rather ceases to exist. What Ryuk tried to say to Light at the beginning of the series was that not even a human who's used the Death Note can go to heaven or hell, like all other humans, when that human dies, it will cease to exist.