Artifact of Attraction: Difference between revisions
→Live Action TV: replaced: [[Lord of the Rings → [[The Lord of the Rings
(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.ArtifactOfAttraction 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.ArtifactOfAttraction, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
(→Live Action TV: replaced: [[Lord of the Rings → [[The Lord of the Rings) |
||
(11 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''My precious...''
The Artifact of Attraction is a [[MacGuffin]] that goes beyond being merely desirable for its own sake and is supernaturally super desirable. It can cause a group of friends to [[Gold Fever|become paranoid and distrustful]], making them [[A House Divided|stop working together]] or even [[Apple of Discord|come to blows]] over ownership. Unsurprisingly for an object that can bring about a veritable [[Hate Plague]] on those who set eyes on it (or even just ''know of its existence)'', the Artifact Of Attraction tends to be a powerful [[Curse
▲{{quote|''My precious...''|'''Gollum / Smeagol''', ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''}}
▲The Artifact of Attraction is a [[MacGuffin]] that goes beyond being merely desirable for its own sake and is supernaturally super desirable. It can cause a group of friends to [[Gold Fever|become paranoid and distrustful]], making them [[A House Divided|stop working together]] or even [[Apple of Discord|come to blows]] over ownership. Unsurprisingly for an object that can bring about a veritable [[Hate Plague]] on those who set eyes on it (or even just ''know of its existence)'', the Artifact Of Attraction tends to be a powerful [[Curse|Cursed]] item, though a few uncursed ones can get this kind of reputation.
Any object can serve as an Artifact of Attraction, but they tend to have a certain ''[[Gratuitous French|je ne sais quoi]]''. They may be a luxury item like a fashionable pair of red shoes and ring, or a perfectly mundane red stapler and warm blanket.
Line 16:
Compare [[Hypno Trinket]] and [[Glamour]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Comic Books ==
* [[Nodwick]] had 'This One Ring' as a parody of The One Ring, from [[The Lord of the Rings|you know where]]. It didn't do anything and was eventually replaced by 'This One Rock'. Which also did nothing. Everyone still wanted both of them.
* There's an inversion in ''[[
== Comedy Newspaper ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100219035916/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/45795 This story] from ''[[The Onion]]'' about a wool blanket.
==
* The Slytherin Horcrux ring has this effect on {{spoiler|Sirius}} in ''[[Oh God, Not Again
== Film ==
Line 39:
== Literature ==
* The titular Silmarils in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' are a prime example of Artifacts of Attraction. They don't have any special powers and possessing them provides the owner with no benefits whatsoever. But when Finwë (the creator Fëanor's father) is murdered and his murderer Morgoth (the local Devil stand-in) takes them with him just because they looked interesting, Fëanor swears revenge and makes an oath that he, his sons, and their people will not rest until the murder is avenged and the three jewels returned to their rightful owners. 500 years and no less than seven battles of epic proportions later, almost the entire High Elven nobility has been wiped out one after another, thousands if not millions of elves have been killed by orcs or other elves, and the entire region of Beleriand has been swallowed by the ocean, just because <s>one elf</s> eight elves did not [[Know When to Fold
** And all of the Silmarils end up where mortals (and immortals alike) can no longer reach them, [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|by the way]]. One was sunk into the depths of the sea, one was thrown into a fissure into the core of the Earth, and the final became the planet ''Venus''. Though that might have been the only way to end the whole mess.
* The Zahir from Jorge Luis Borge's 1949 short story ''El Zahir'' is the most fascinating object in the world. It doesn't matter what it is - but there's always one Zahir in the world at any one time. ''Zahir'' is an Arabic word meaning "the obvious meaning," "the conspicuous" or "something that cannot be ignored."
* [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The
* Red gold from the ''[[Belgariad]]''.
* The Sword of Tears from ''[[Dragonlance|The Legend of Huma]]''.
* In [[E. Nesbit]]'s ''[[
* ''[[
** Also [[The Sword That Speaks|Nightblood]] from the same author's ''[[Warbreaker]]''; not its primary purpose, but deliberately built in because it was created to destroy evil and needs a mechanism to detect such (since a sword has no innate sense of right and wrong). Essentially, anyone who is exposed to Nightblood ''and'' is someone who would want to wield such a powerful weapon for destructive purposes will be compelled to take it and draw it, at which point [[Artifact of Death|another of the sword's powers kicks in]]. Those who do ''not'' want to use it for destructive purposes can wield it safely, though it makes them uneasy to touch it. This isn't, however, a perfect test- [[The Dragon]] is able to resist the effect because even though he's a bad guy, he ''doesn't'' want to use Nightblood.
* The Apple of Discord from ''The [[Illuminatus]]-trilogy'' has the power to appear as the most desirable object or concept that whoever viewing it holds in their mind. It's used unexpectedly for benign purposes, preventing a small army of Nazi zombies from slaughtering thousands of festival goers.
* The Elder Wand in ''[[Harry Potter (
== Live Action TV ==
* The Sword of Kahless in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]].'' Kor starts seeing it as a way to reclaim his glory days in the Empire and Worf nearly lets Kor fall to his death (he claimed there was a ledge that Kor could reach below, but Kor couldn't see one and Dax saw it and could tell it wouldn't support Kor's weight) in an attempt to keep the sword for himself. Eventually, Dax has enough of Klingon posturing and [[No
** In this case, simple lust for power is a likely culprit, as both Klingons contend that ownership of the sword would give the holder a solid claim to leadership of the Klingon Empire. Considering the holy status of Kahless, this is a pretty reasonable argument.
* An episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' parodied the attractiveness of [[The Lord of the Rings|The One Ring]] by having the geek protagonists pool their money to buy a prop from the movie, then going to ridiculous lengths to make sure it was shared fairly, then fighting over who should get to keep it.
* One episode of ''[[
* An episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', "Him", had an enchanted letterman jacket which transformed the wearer into one of these, supernaturally irresistable to women, causing friction.
* ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' has magical shoes that make the wearer invisible, but the longer you have/wear them, the more you want to keep wearing them...
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
* The episode "Crystal Canyon" of ''[[
* In ''[[The Simpsons (
* The key and the treasure itself, in the episode, "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel" of ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]''.
* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
== Video Games ==
* The {{spoiler|Red Marker and the Black Marker}} in ''[[Dead Space (
* The "World's Most Interesting Bomb" in [[MDK]]. Dropping it causes every enemy to drop what they're doing and run up to ogle the bomb. [[Captain Obvious|Which then explodes.]]
Line 79:
* Many expensive luxury goods have this effect, which is part of the reason that older rich folk go without them. A shiny new Porsche is considerably more likely than a low end Toyota to 'disappear' if you leave the key in the ignition.
* The legendary Hope Diamond; started out as the biggest blue diamond in the world and even after being cut down a few times is still [[American Dad
** Though the actual story of the Hope diamond is quite the opposite. The supposedly cursed jewel has been owned by various people like Catherine the Great; very few of the supposed 'mysterious deaths' attributed to the diamond were those of people to have ever actually owned it.
*** Doesn't that mean the current owner is the [[Fridge Horror|U.S. Government?]]
* Gold has been
{{reflist}}
Line 90:
[[Category:MacGuffin]]
[[Category:This Index Is Cursed]]
[[Category:Ancient Artifact]]
[[Category:Artifact
[[Category:
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
|