7,851
edits
Curiosity Killed the Cast: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
HLIAA14YOG (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
[[File:Curiousity.jpg|frame| "Perfectly safe you say? Well, I've never known a seal to lie to me before, so..."]]
{{quote|'''Antimony:''' Hmm, an ominous passage that plunges into an inky blackness, sealed behind lock and chain.
'''Kat:''' You know what this means?
'''Antimony:''' We must see where it leads!
'''Kat:''' Damn straight!
|''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''}}
Just like Pandora should have known better than to open her box, characters in fiction should know better than to ask questions, explore [[Haunted Castle
If these characters are in a horror flick, anyone showing the ''slightest bit'' of curiosity in [[Slasher
Outside of the slasher horror genre, the death rate of this trope drops considerably, even if it still stirs up a hornet's nest of trouble. Since curiosity is often the driving force that starts a plot, it can be used to get heroes into and out of several precarious situations. For example, considering the tone of her [[Web Comic]] is goofy and mysterious, odds are Kat and Antimony aren't going to be dead at the end of that particular story... though you can bet your second shadow something interesting will happen!
Line 20 ⟶ 21:
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Spoofed in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' when Emperor Pilaf lures the cast into a trap by simply painting arrows on the floor leading to it, and ends up entirely amazed when it actually ''works''. ("I had no idea that heroes could be so ''[[Idiot Hero|stupid]]''. Must be one of those mail-order types.")
* The first arc of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' manages to both subvert this and play it straight at the same time. Throughout the arc, you are led to believe that Rena and Mion are targetting Keiichi because he's asking questions about the curse of Oyashiro-sama. As you might imagine, that's subverted, but the truth was that Rena and Mion had nothing to do with the murders, but Keiichi's panic about it fueled his paranoia about it until he kills not only them, but himself too, making this one played straight as well.
** But subverted in Nekogoroshi-hen, the aptly-named "Cat-Killing Chapter". Interesting mystery, possible explanations, slight indication that it ties back to the main plot... but everyone decides it's not worth getting involved in.
* In the episode of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' involving the retrovirus ''Monkey Business'', the protagonists stumble across a box containing a receptacle of the virus and are told not to open it. Faye is intrigued and opens it anyway, and Spike's use of brute force and firearms to separate the receptacle from its
** Possible subversion, as this inspires Spike to plant said retrovirus ON the hostage!
* In ''[[Trigun]]'' (the manga, not anime) Vash and Knives follow a girl who appears on the ship into a closed-off medical room. Things go downhill from there.
Line 30 ⟶ 31:
* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' plays with this trope a bit. Kazu and Kenta, who are less mature and act more like their age than the other characters in the series, nearly get themselves killed multiple times {{spoiler|when they go to the Digital World}} because of their curiosity and lack of understanding on how that place worked. On the other hand, it was curiosity and childlike belief that enabled another character to become a [[Sixth Ranger]] to the main team. The message seems be that that there's a line between healthy curiosity, which is what the latter had, and [[Too Stupid to Live]], which is what Kazu and Kenta can be sometimes.
== Comic
* Combine this with [[Idiot Ball]], and you get a cage (made out of Kryptonite bars) that was used to capture [[Superman|Superboy]], with a sign reading "LUTHOR'S TRAP TO CAPTURE SUPERBOY" written on it in giant letters... And Superboy, naturally, falling for it, and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120502195000/http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=30%3Aframes-and-panels-index&id=793%3Asuperboy-is-a-colossal-dumbass&Itemid=24 getting captured.] His logic may have been that "no one would actually put a sign like that on a real trap". Although a trap should've been expected, the one with the big sign on it would normally be the decoy, a written version of [[Sarcastic Confession]]. However, even if it isn't a "real" trap, it's still a ''cage'', with no obvious reason to fly into it- there's nothing in there. And the bars are made out of Kryptonite. Fortunately for him, this was [[All Just a Dream]].▼
▲* Combine this with [[Idiot Ball]], and you get a cage (made out of Kryptonite bars) that was used to capture [[Superman|Superboy]], with a sign reading "LUTHOR'S TRAP TO CAPTURE SUPERBOY" written on it in giant letters... And Superboy, naturally, falling for it, and [http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=30%3Aframes-and-panels-index&id=793%3Asuperboy-is-a-colossal-dumbass&Itemid=24 getting captured.] His logic may have been that "no one would actually put a sign like that on a real trap". Although a trap should've been expected, the one with the big sign on it would normally be the decoy, a written version of [[Sarcastic Confession]]. However, even if it isn't a "real" trap, it's still a ''cage'', with no obvious reason to fly into it- there's nothing in there. And the bars are made out of Kryptonite. Fortunately for him, this was [[All Just a Dream]].
* In ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'', Shade traps a Celestial in a statue of the mythical Pandora (with box), and she comes to life. Kathy and Lenny find "Pandora's" box and give in to temptation by opening it. {{spoiler|The box is empty, but it turns "Pandora" into dust.}}
* Narrowly averted in [http://stuartngbooks.com/images/detailed/18/quino_dejenme_2.jpg this] ''[[Quino]]'' strip.
* In the [[Iron Man]] fic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4540557/1/Huge_Success Huge Success], Tony decided to peek at the pym particles sent to his lab for examination before Dr. Pym showed up. He ended up being six inches tall.▼
== Film ==
* ''[[Hocus Pocus (film)|Hocus Pocus]]'': A non-lethal example. When snooping in a house where witches used to live, and informed that a virgin lighting the candle will return them to life, the clueless teen protagonist does just that, incidentally subverting [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]].
{{quote|
* Shane Acker's ''[[9]]'' is made of this trope. In the feature film version, it's because of 9's combination of being both very naive and very curious that over half the cast of the movie is killed before it's all over. Admittedly, 1's death was heroic suicide, but it was 9's curiosity that lead him to jam the talisman in the machine and wake it up in the first place.
* ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy]]'' (Stephen Sommers version): "You must not read from the book!" Too late...
Line 51 ⟶ 53:
* The main character of ''[[The Spiderwick Chronicles]]'' just can't help but read the book, <s>even</s> especially after a note tells him not to. Considering he's a teenaged boy, this is understandable.
* The Umbrella Corporation people at the beginning of ''[[Resident Evil]]: Apocalypse''. The crack team of commandos they sent into The Hive never came back, and one of the two survivors who ''did'' barely make it out alive was infected with the T-Virus. What's the smartest move? Re-open the facility and send a second ''even less well-equipped'' team in [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|to investigate]]!
* Arguably the leading cause of death in [[Slasher
* The first victim in ''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]'' walks, unprovoked, ''directly into Leatherface's kitchen''. Each successive victim heads in looking for the others. Easiest massacre ever!
* [[The Nightmare Before Christmas|Curiosity killed the cat, you know!]]
{{quote|
* Just barely averted in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.
* Occurs in the film ''[[Godzilla]] 2000''. Long story short, some curious scientists come across an ancient spaceship in the middle of the ocean. And, well, not surprisingly, it wakes up after 65 million years of dormancy and now wants to create a "new body" (The Millennian aliens inside somehow turned into pure energy after crashing) to become the dominant species on the planet.
** Likewise, there's ''Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla II''. "Hey, guys! I found this huge egg! I wonder what's inside. Let's take it back to the lab and...Wait, why is Godzilla attacking us?" {{spoiler|The egg contains Godzilla Jr.}}
Line 62 ⟶ 63:
== Literature ==
* In ''[[Narnia|The Magician's Nephew]]'', a young man cannot resist the temptation to ring a bell which is marked with a warning (and [[Schmuck Bait|tantalizing]]) poem. It turns out that this bell awakens the witch Jadis, who later becomes the first evil force in Narnia. In his defense, the poem concludes by saying, in effect, "If you ''don't'' ring the bell, you'll ''never'' know what would've happened. [[Nothing Is Scarier|You'll always wonder what would've happened, and it might drive you insane]]".
** Although when confronting Aslan about that, he eventually admits that it was merely his curiosity, an not the influence of the poem, to bring him to ring it.
* Pretty much the moral of half of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s stories. The roleplayer jokes are that the only worthy treasure in a Lovecraft game are untranslatable crusty old books that permanently removes your character from play if you accidentally look at the pictures; reading any of it aloud may doom the reader, the group, humanity, the universe, all universes, or all that and beyond; that there are entire hierarchies of threats beyond that who will wipe out the merely-universe-killing threats without even noticing them, only to do the ultimate everybody dies (as soon as the stars are right). While the players have 1920's guns and would probably all die if they were against a single baby shoggoth, with the survivors going permanently insane.
* Slight subversion in [[Tamora Pierce]]'s book ''[[Tortall Universe|Trickster's Choice]]''. The main character is warned about the dangers of curiosity with this phrase. In response, she tells the other character 'and satisfaction brought it back,' with a short complaint that no one seems to ever remember the second part of the saying.
* In ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'', [[The Professor|Ogilvy]], [[We Hardly Knew Ye|Stent]], and [[Red Shirt Reporter|Henderson]] were all minor characters who were interested in the Martians and tried to talk to them. Needless to say, their plan [[Death Ray|didn't]] [[Violence Is the Only Option|work out]] [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life|very well]].
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' remake ''[[Tin Man (TV series)|Tin Man]]'' has the young D.G. set off the film's events; she insists on following a singing voice into a dark cave with ominous writing about evil darkness, a creepy, exploding rock face, and then on going in deeper to help a "little girl" crying for help. Her older sister Azkadelia rightly guesses the little girl wasn't what she seemed, and was in fact a (or perhaps "THE") Wicked Witch who was [[Sealed Evil in a Can|trapped there]]. She gets [[Sharing a Body|possessed]] for her foresight, and gets (rightly) more than a little peeved at her younger sister, setting her on a wicked rampage.
== Recorded and Stand Up Comedy ==▼
* Lampshaded in [[Eddie Izzard|Eddie Izzard's]] stand-up comedy routine ''Unrepeatable''.▼
{{quote|
* [[Dave Chappelle]] invoked this as a response to being told not to visit a strip bar:▼
{{quote|
== Tabletop Games ==
* Pick an RPG. Any RPG and any medium. Sooner or later a party will wander where they aren't supposed to, as often as not resulting in Total Party Kill.
** Survival in ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' boils down to a few simple rules: Don't ''touch'' anything, don't ''read'' anything, don't ''look'' at anything, just keep your head down and ''keep walking''. And that's assuming you even left your house in the first place, ya shmuck.
** It's such a well known thing within the horror or mystery genres of [[Tabletop Games]] that it's progressed to the point where several games, such as ''Trail Of Cthulhu'' or mystery/horror variants of FATE, have mechanics to encourage/push [[Genre Savvy]] players away from averting this trope. It makes a dull game if everybody does the "smart" thing and decides that they don't want to leave the house after all.
▲== Stand Up Comedy ==
▲* Lampshaded in [[Eddie Izzard|Eddie Izzard's]] stand-up comedy routine ''Unrepeatable''.
▲{{quote| <small>'''Izzard:''' " 'Oh look! Something's moving in the forest about eight miles away! I'll go check'... don't check. ''Please'' don't check; that's what curtains are for."</small>}}
▲* [[Dave Chappelle]] invoked this as a response to being told not to visit a strip bar:
▲{{quote| "Naked women inside? I'd be like a white guy in a horror movie: 'I've got to investigate'".}}
== Web Animation ==
* ''[[The Spider Cliff Mysteries]]'': ''The Wednesday That Wasn't'': The lead's investigation releases a nasty force and after he uses amnesia potion to reseal it, he does it again.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Freefall]]'': A robot reads a [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1900/fc01807.png note] about an aggressive neural pruning program and instead of steering clear he looks it up. The program starts downloading into his head when he goes looking for it, threatening him with a mind wipe.
* ''[[Cyanide
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Marble Hornets]]'': A few years ago, a guy named Alex Kralie was shooting a student film of the same name. As he was filming, he started to notice a [[The Slender Man Mythos|really tall guy in a suit]] occasionally lurking in the distance. {{spoiler|As of now, Alex is on the run after a failed attempt to rebuild his life, his friend Tim has gone insane and started stalking people while wearing a mask, and we have no idea what happened to anyone besides Jay and Tim.}}
* ''[[Ben Drowned]]'': If only Jadusable's curiosity hadn't prompted him to accept the shady game cartridge from the old man, or posted anything to the internet, then the [[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You|reader's]] curiousity wouldn't have led them to open "The Truth.rtf", thus releasing Ben to the whole of the internet, and things might have gone a bit better for everyone involved.
* The protagonists of [[Sevenshot Kid]] both refuse to let go of the mysteries they encounter even though they know how dangerous it is getting.
* Shows up in the [[Fan Film]] of ''[[Left 4 Dead]]''. It's a particularly facepalm-worthy moment as the character in question is an [[Action Survivor]] with experience shooting the infected and has a very conspicuous assault rifle. Which she puts down before [[Let's Split Up, Gang!|going upstairs]] and being lured in by the [[Hell Is That Noise|curious noise]].
== Video Games ==
Line 108 ⟶ 101:
** There's also the surprise end near the start; the first time the player passes the bathroom, a shadow is shown moving behind the fogged glass door (which happens to be locked). Guess what happens if you continually try to open it?
* ''[[Cry of Fear]]'' has a pedophile who wrote a short poem about three children. Two of them went home, but the third one stayed, and was tricked into going close up to a bush. The final line concludes that, indeed, Curiosity killed the cat.
▲== Fan Fiction ==
▲* In the [[Iron Man]] fic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4540557/1/Huge_Success Huge Success], Tony decided to peek at the pym particles sent to his lab for examination before Dr. Pym showed up. He ended up being six inches tall.
== Real Life ==
Line 119 ⟶ 107:
* Inverted as curiosity is also the reason behind many great scientific discoveries and technological advancements.
* Currently scientists and psychologists are engaged a project to create a warning sign for our nuclear waste that ''will not'' merely inspire our distant descendants to go on digging, so far without much success.
* If you're curious about quantum duality, you may attempt the [[
* Chernobyl: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2988/is-nuclear-power-safe
** As a quick summary, the linked article describes the catastrophic meltdown as not only stemming from shoddy design, but from its workers deciding to see what happened if [[Too Stupid to Live|they turned its few safety systems off]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Drama Tropes]]
Line 131 ⟶ 120:
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
| |||