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There is the tendency for every magic spell (usually [[Curse|Curses]]) to have a condition that negates the effect. Maybe the curser is trying to teach the cursee a lesson, maybe they're making it the most unlikely thing imaginable, or maybe there's [[Equivalent Exchange|something in the magic]] that [[Fantastic Fragility|requires the escape clause]] in [[Magic Prerequisite|order to function.]]
 
Compare [[No Man of Woman Born]], which is a prophecy that acts as an If/Then Statement. Like that trope, the No Escape Clause is usually something [[Impossible Task|ludicrously unlikely]] (of course, we all know how [[Million -to -One Chance|statistics play out]] in stories). [[No Man of Woman Born|Playing with the language]] of the escape clause is common; sometimes the words are twisted around to use puns or less obvious meanings but this is so old that taking it literally has become more common.
 
Alas, forbidding someone to do something because such abstinence is needed to break the curse tends to be [[Forbidden Fruit]].
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=== Warning: By its nature, this is a '''spoiler trope'''. ===
 
{{examples|Examples}}
 
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* One ''[[XX XenophileXXXenophile]]'' story had a genie and his mortal lover, who (before the story began) had gained her freedom when her oppressor changed her name, thus qualifying her for three additional standard wishes. She wants to set the genie free, but can only do so by making a wish he truly cannot grant. She wishes for him to make love to her until he's exhausted, which he does. Then she wishes for him... to do it again. Which he's too tired to do, thus freeing him. (He promises to make good on it once he's rested up, though.) Another story featured the warrior Blue Opal who, in a homage to [[Red Sonja]], was prohibited from indulging sexually unless defeated in combat first. A traveler tries to take her mind off things by teaching her a strategy game... and upon winning the first time, accidentally breaks the prohibition. Turns out the game was called, in the traveler's native language, "Combat"...
* During one [[Incredible Hulk]] story arc, the Hulk reverted to a mindless brute and was sent to "the Crossroads" by [[Doctor Strange]]. From this nexus he could go to almost any world (except straight back to Earth), with the caveat that, if he were truly unhappy in a given world, he would be sent back to the Crossroads to choose again.
 
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* Disney's ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and The Beast]]'' had the enchantress give the stipulation that if the Beast could learn to love someone selflessly, and have his love returned by the time the petals fall off a magical rose, the spell would be broken. Possibly to Teach Him A Lesson but her motives aren't revealed.
* Disney's adaptation of ''[[Hercules (Disney)|Hercules]]'' involved a deal made between Hercules and Hades where Hercules would give his powers up for 24 hours in exchange for the safety of his [[Love Interest]] Megara. After a fight between Hercules and the Cyclops, a pillar was knocked onto Meg, killing her. As a result, Hercules' powers were restored.
* In ''[[Shrek]],'' Princess Fiona is cursed from a young age to transform into an ogre at sunset and return to her human form at sunrise. It can only be undone by [[True LovesLove's Kiss]] -- but when this kiss comes from the titular male ogre, she finds herself permanently stuck in her night form, for better or for worse.
** Fun trivia? In the original storyboards, the "night" form was her NATURAL form! She was actually under an enchantment to be beautiful during the day. This makes sense, in light of her father being a frog.
** In ''Shrek Forever After'', Rumpelstiltskin's [[Magically Binding Contract]] with Shrek is rendered null and void by... wait for it... [[True LovesLove's Kiss]].
*** ''Shrek Forever After'' further [[Playing With a Trope|plays with it]] by noting that Rumpelstiltskin is obligated to provide an escape clause in his contracts, and he's had to resort to alternate forms of trickery to hide it. In Shrek's case, {{spoiler|the words are scattered willy-nilly about the page}} and it requires {{spoiler|origami}} to put it together.
* In ''[[The Swan Princess]]'', the curse that turns Odette into a swan and back ostensibly can only be broken by Rothbart himself if she marries him. It's later revealed that if her sweetheart Derek makes a vow of love to her that he then proves to the world, that will be enough to break it.
* In ''[[The Princess and The Frog]]'' only the kiss from a ''princess'' can break the spell, {{spoiler|all others need not apply.}}
** {{spoiler|Even a princess of [[ItsIt's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans|the Mardi Gras parade]]. Or a princess by marriage.}}
* The spell Queen Grimhilde of ''[[Disney/Snow White A The Seven Dwarfs|Snow White A The Seven Dwarfs]]'' places on the apple. It stipulates that one who suffers from the sleeping death can be cured only by love's first kiss. Grimhilde dismisses the loophole since Snow White will be taken for dead and buried alive. Grimhilde obviously didn't read a lot of fairy tales as a child.
 
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** The curse is later deliberately broken when they need to ask Angelus some things Angel doesn't know, by hiring someone to feed him into a magic [[Lotus Eater Machine]].
** It was a bit subverted (not sure if that'd be the right word for this) when Wesley tells Angel to stop using the curse as an excuse not to go after a relationship opportunity with an interested woman (who Angel met because she was bitten by a werewolf). After all, as Wes puts it, "Most of us have to settle for ''adequate'' happiness."
* [[Once Upon a Time (TV)|Once Upon a Time]] is all over this trope. The entire town of Storybrooke is cursed with [[Laser -Guided Amnesia]], but Snow White and Prince {{spoiler|James's}} daughter was smuggled out and is slated to break that curse [[Because Destiny Says So]].
** In-universe, True Love's Kiss acts as a universal cure for all manner of curses.
 
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[City of Villains]]'' characters can be cursed by the Circle of Thorns with a particularly nasty curse that will cause them to undergo the same horrible end that the Circle's enemies, the descendants of the Mu, are planned to face. It's not clear exactly what the result of the curse itself would be, but the Circle were going to slowly torture and kill each Mu, then rip out and then send to a special corner of Hell their souls to be the feed of a demon named Lilitu. As there's roughly 1 billion descendants of Mu on the planet, and the player character would have that done roughly a billion times simultaneously to him or her, mystically inclined contacts tend to assume the term blast radius is apt. Destroying and trapping Lilitu prevents the curse from working.
* Presented in the ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series introduces the concept of a counter-curse that can, well, undo the original curse. [[All There in the Manual|The manual]] for the original game (Hero's Quest) stated that the more powerful the curse used, the less stringent the counter-curse would be. In other words, if a curse was overly powerful, then undoing it would be child's play, but if the curse is minor, countering it would require very specific conditions to occur. And all curses and counter-curses are in rhyming verse, which necessarily results in ambiguity. The player character naturally undoes the curse (though, strangely enough, it's ''not required'' to fulfill all the objectives of the counter-curse to win the game, resulting in the game telling you [[What the Hell, Hero?]].) The counter curse is a follows:
{{quote| ''Come a hero from the East'' {{spoiler|You arrive from the eastern pass into Spielburg during the intro}}<br />
''Free the man within the beast'' {{spoiler|The Baron's son has been turned into a bear, you need to change him back to a human.}}<br />
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' loved this one. The original "permanent statue" spell had the Gargoyles as statues until their castle "rose above the clouds." (The magi's flowery way of saying "for all eternity".) When too-bored, too-smart, and too-rich David Xanatos moved their castle onto his skyscraper, it did just that. He wanted to see if it would work.
** Happens again in the "City of Stone" arc when David Xanatos again [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|screws The Rules with money]] in order to "Make the sky burn."
*** [[Word of God]] says that adding an escape clause [[Justified Trope|makes spells much easier to cast]], no matter how unlikely the clause may seem.
*** This only applies to ''human'' magic. Fae magic is a bit more relaxed for the user and as such, they don't usually have escape clauses... they are more commands.
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