"Friend or Idol?" Decision: Difference between revisions

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* Terry Pratchett subverts this in his ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'', where Lu-Tze, after injuring himself, yells at his apprentice Lobsang to choose the Idol (stopping the "perfect clock" that will cause all of time to come to a halt) over the Friend (the injured Lu-Tze). The fact he even hesitates in saving the world for Lu-Tze's sake prompts Susan Sto Helit to call him a "hero"... in a tone that implies it's synonymous with "idiot".

* In the first book in ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, the Man in Black forces Roland to either save Jake from certain death, and never again catch up to him, or let Jake die, and gain the information he needs to continue his quest for the Dark Tower. Roland chooses to {{spoiler|let Jake fall}}, establishing his character for the rest of the series.

** The same scenario is [[~~Anvilicious|anviliciously~~]] repeated again in the third book, this time with {{spoiler|Jake, who has come [[Back From the Dead]] (sort of), and his pet billy-bumbler ([[Mix-and-Match Critters]]), Oy.}} He chooses to {{spoiler|go back and save Oy, but this time he manages to succeed anyway.}}

** The same scenario is [[anvilicious]]ly repeated again in the third book, this time with {{spoiler|Jake, who has come [[Back From the Dead]] (sort of), and his pet billy-bumbler ([[Mix-and-Match Critters]]), Oy.}} He chooses to {{spoiler|go back and save Oy, but this time he manages to succeed anyway.}}

* In the short story ''If You Can Fill the Unforgiving Minute'' by David Andreissen (David Poyer), an teenage human is representing the Earth in a marathon race against an alien teen. When the alien is injured during the race, the human must make a choice: continue running and win the race, or help the alien and lose. He decides to help the alien and loses. Afterwards, he is told that the aliens consider honor to be more important than winning and that as far as they're concerned, he won the race.

** ... thereby proving that they are an alien race, utterly different from humanity.

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** Clarification: a Goa'uld is an alien whose human host body is being controlled against his or her will. The exit contains a device that kills this symbiote, freeing the host. The team intends to free several of their friends that are now Goa'uld hosts in this way. Unforunately Teal'c has a different relationship with his symbiote and needs it to survive, so SG-1 must either destroy the device to save one of their own, or abandon him so they can use it free unwilling hosts. {{spoiler|They destroy the device, and when we next see that planet, it's been conquered by a Goa'uld and his army. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]. Fortunately they're able to contact the creator of the device, who promptly wipes out the invading army.}}

* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Choices" the gang is faced with just such a decision. Buffy and Xander immediately and very vocally choose to trade the Big Bad's evil artifact back to him in exchange for Willow, while Wesley wants to continue with the plan to destroy it. While they're arguing, Willow's boyfriend smashes the mystic urn that was necessary for the artifact's destruction.

* ''[[Herman's Head]]'': Herman is out to set a world record for continuous working at one sitting. He discovers that one of his colleagues is planning to sing at a night club, and leaving work to watch her would preclude him breaking the record. He watches her anyway. The next day, the record book authorities come in, and Herman wonders why. Turns out that he broke a record: eating the most sunflower seeds in one ~~sitting-- he~~'d been eating them the entire time.

* ''[[Herman's Head]]'': Herman is out to set a world record for continuous working at one sitting. He discovers that one of his colleagues is planning to sing at a night club, and leaving work to watch her would preclude him breaking the record. He watches her anyway. The next day, the record book authorities come in, and Herman wonders why. Turns out that he broke a record: eating the most sunflower seeds in one sitting—he'd been eating them the entire time.

* ''[[Heartbeat]]'', Constable Rowan is chasing a trio of crooks and when their car stalls, the one male criminal runs away on foot. Rowan catches up to the two female accomplices who note that he can take in them, or let them go to catch the ringleader. Unfortunately, at that moment, a police K-9 unit arrives to have the police dog continue the chase and Rowan, with some satisfaction, notes in so many words that he can now do both.

* On ''[[Land of the Lost 1991]]'' (1991), the Porters had the chance to drive through a portal back to their 20th-century home, but Tasha and Stink needed help evading Scarface. Unlike in most of the examples on this page, they expected to retain some chance of accomplishing both. But the portal closed a second before they would've made it.

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* It wasn't something he had been ''looking'' for, per se, but in ''[[Freakazoid]]'', Cosgrove's girlfriend Mary Beth offers to share immortality with him, which, the secret being drinking the essence of a superhero, means Freakazoid will die. A chorus sings 'What will Cosgrove do?' as he ponders the decision, before he tells them to cut it out and turns Mary Beth down.

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'': Finn, Jake, and four Hot Dog Knights go into a labyrinth searching for wishes, the first two hoping to get [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|a psychic double-head war elephant]]. Jake stretches his body to have a lifeline back to the start and by the time they get a chance for a wish each two of the hot dogs had died and Jake was dying from overstretching himself. Finn was hoping to use his wish to bring Jake back to life while Jake wished for the elephant, but then the two hot dogs and Jake [[Wasteful Wishing|wished for a box, to blow up (he meant to get big but that didn't matter), and for a sandwich, respectively.]]<br />Faced with deciding whether to save his friend or get what they came for, Finn {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|wishes for the elephant]], by Jake's suggestion, [[Take a Third Option|then convinces the elephant to use ITS wish to revive everyone then fly out of there]] to the [[Jackass Genie|Labyrinth guardian's great frustration.]]}}

* A rather odd variation was used in [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'s season, ''Back to the Sewers''. As the goal of that season was to {{spoiler|save Splinter from being lost in cyberspace}} the [[MacGuffin]] actually ''was'' {{spoiler|a friend (to say the least)}}. The episode "Hacking Stockman" featured a [["Friend or Idol?" Decision]] in the sense that Donatello was forced to choose between the data bits he'd been tracking for the entirety of the episode and saving his brothers... which, naturally, made it a difficult decision. {{spoiler|Hint: everyone's still alive and well at the end of the episode}}

* A rather odd variation was used in [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'s season, ''Back to the Sewers''. As the goal of that season was to {{spoiler|save Splinter from being lost in cyberspace}} the [[MacGuffin]] actually ''was'' {{spoiler|a friend (to say the least)}}. The episode "Hacking Stockman" featured a "Friend or Idol?" Decision in the sense that Donatello was forced to choose between the data bits he'd been tracking for the entirety of the episode and saving his brothers... which, naturally, made it a difficult decision. {{spoiler|Hint: everyone's still alive and well at the end of the episode}}

* In the second part of the two part pilot for ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', [[Big Bad|Nightmare Moon]] tempts Rainbow Dash to abandon her friends for the chance to live her dream and lead the Shadow Bolts (dark versions of her idols, the Wonderbolts, but the idol part still plays in). Rainbow Dash quickly refuses and sides with her friends.

** In the ninth episode of the second season, Rarity gets put in this position, being forced to choose between maintaining some rather important upper-class connections, and hanging out with her lower-class friends. {{spoiler|She ends up [[Take a Third Option|splitting the difference]].}}