Deal with the Devil: Difference between revisions

** However that was more of [[Moral Event Horizon|giving them what they]] [[Karmic Death|deserved]].

** Rather subverted by his sane half though, as {{spoiler|Eruru makes the 'ALL YOUR BEING IS MINE' pledge in order to save her sister, but is never really held to it aside from being his companion.}} For a cosmic ''thing'' that offers wishes in exchange for their being, it's like he just uses that as an excuse to have friends. He even {{spoiler|completely nullifies her debt to him once he figures out his identity, with no payment or repercussions.}} His other side, on the other hand...

** It isn't always the case, though. Although sometimes the results of wishes ''are'' quite nasty, sometimes the Faustian parts simply learn a lesson the hard way and move on with their lives, and there are even quite a lot of times where there are no tricks whatsoever and the whole thing is treated as a simple transsaction where both parts get what they want and happily go their own ways. In one case, an internet addict asked for Yuuko to help her break her habit - Yukko asked for an ordinary baby's chair, then destroyed her computer. When called on this, Yukko says that all she did was destroy her computer - the addict can always get a new one. Yukko hopes that seeing her computer destroyed would cause her to rethink her addiction and get help. And since destroying a computer isn't exactly all that hard to do, she didn't have to pay that high a price.

** Also, in keeping with the CLAMP mantra that the dead cannot be revived, Yuko cannot bring the dead back to life because no payment exists to make such a wish "fair".

* The ''[[Pony POV Series]]'' has {{spoiler|Diamond Tiara agreeing to free [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Discord]] in exchange for him curing her mother's insanity (though to be fair, she didn't know who she was dealing with until the very end). Surprisingly, Discord actually keeps up his end of the bargain, but it seems that since he swore on [[Eldritch Abomination|His Parents]], he didn't have much choice in the matter -- and in any case, he managed to completely corrupt Diamond and break her to his will in the process, so he still screwed her over.}}

* Twilight's soul isn't the only thing traded away in the deal in the story [http://www.fimfiction.net/story/98797/my-name-is-twilight-sparkle My Name Is Twilight Sparkle].

 

* In [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's version]] of the ''[[Hercules (1997 film)||Hercules]]'' story, Herc makes a deal with Hades that actually has negative effects on him, although it does save one of his companions.

** In the movie Meg sold her soul to Hades to save the life of her old boyfriend, who then runs off with another girl.

* In ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]] 2'', Carface makes a deal with the [[Big Bad]] demon cat Red, a collar allowing him to be physical on Earth in exchange for his soul (though in his defense, he didn't know what Red meant by soul at the time). {{spoiler|When Red is finally defeated in the end, he is sucked into Hell and decides to cash in on the deal, having his minions drag Carface into Hell with him.}}

* In ''[[Shrek]]: Forever After'', Shrek makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to have a day for himself in exchange for a random day that he wouldn't remember after a mid-life crisis. Unfortunately, Rumpel took the day that Shrek was ''born'', [[It's a Wonderful Plot|leading to things]] [[It Got Worse|getting worse.]]

* The second half of ''[[Insomnia (film)|Insomnia]]'' revolves mainly around this.

* The ''[[Spawn]]'' movie is about a bargain with the devil which ends in the nearly total devastation of the former when the protagonist successfully uses newly acquired powers against the one who gave them.

 

== Folklore and Fairy Tales ==

* Another fairytale variant: "[[Rumpelstiltskin]]". Though considering the number of escape clauses in that deal, Rumpelstiltskin made a less-than-competent Mephistopheles.

* A Polish legend tells of the nobleman Twardowski who gained magical powers thanks to such a deal. The clause was that the devil would get Twardowski's soul when Twardowski goes to Rome. Twardowski gleefully stayed away from Italy. The devil eventually captured him when he wandered into a tavern called "Rome".

* In [[Fredric Brown]]'s short story "Naturally", the main character is about to flunk out of college, so he summons a demon to help him pass his Geometry final. But because he's bad at Geometry, he puts the wrong number of points on the pentagram and the demon simply steps out of it and carts him off to Hell. Sometimes Satan has it easy.

* In [[H.P. Lovecraft|HP Lovecraft]]'s "Dreams in the Witch House", Nyarlathotep appears to the protagnists, offering him complete control over the ability to travel outside the angled space (effectively being able make a personal wormhole between any two locations) in exchange for signing the book of Azathoth with his blood. The protagonist refuses, but judging from what [[Eldritch Abomination|kind of beings]] we're dealing with, it's probably better not to know what would've happened had he accepted the deal.

* [[Isaac Asimov]] helped edit two collections of fantasy/science-fiction "short short" stories that included a few examples of this trope:

** A [[Complete Monster]] makes a deal to be reincarnated, and is brought back as his own horrifically-abused daughter. (''Give Her Hell'' by Donald Wollheim.)

** {{spoiler|He then runs a combined [[Memory Gambit|Memory]] and [[Thanatos Gambit]] against Mab (who is the Winter Queen and ruler of a species that lives for legalese), by arranging to be assassinated and wiping his memory of the incident so that he wouldn't accidentally slip and reveal it to her. It doesn't work and she revives him but when she does, he essentially makes her back down and accept him as Winter Knight on his terms.}}

* Averted in ''[[Ars Goetia|The Lesser Key of Solomon]]''. The conjurer uses the fact that they are human (thus made in the image of God and under his protection) to get the demons to do what they want, rather than trade their soul.

* In [[Faction Paradox]] stories, there is a rather odd group of [[Energy Beings]] called the Celestis. They appear to be gods and demons of myth, and live in a fortress of pure meaning called Mictlan. They are not actually gods or demons. {{spoiler|They are Homeworld agents who have undergone a process that transforms their physical bodies into [[Memetic Mutation]]s, making them indestructible but dependent upon mortals continually thinking about said memes so they won't drift into oblivion.}} They work rather simply: they visit low-level planets where people are less likely to come up with some ingenious stratagem to overcome them, and there they will offer their services: they will grant you your heart's desire, with certain limitations (no godhood for ya, sorry) and upon death they have complete rights to seize your soul, drag it to Mictlan's dungeons, and set it into their [[Cold-Blooded Torture|wonderful machines]] so you have absolutely no choice but to continually think of the Celestis, [[Fate Worse Than Death|until the End of Time itself.]] Have fun.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "A Witch Shall Be Born", the [[Curse]] stems from one of these.

They chewed the whole agreement o'er in yonder barren field

Whose state affirms the contract's terms in jimson weed were sealed}}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** There's also a demon named Pazuzu who gives a wish in exchange for going one step closer to [[Chaotic Evil]] on the alignment chart.

** The book "Fiendish Codex 2: Lords of the Nine Hells" actually deals a lot with how devils do those Faustian deals. Devils have rules they must follow for contracts (they can't directly force someone into making a deal, for example) and hell even has its own appeal court run by a pit fiend for souls who believe their contracts were not fulfilled lawfully. And yes, while very hard-assed (you better know infernal law real well to win there), said court ''actually works'', meaning that if you are right and can plead better than the devil who made a deal with you, you ''can'' win your soul back. Because devils get your soul if you are [[Lawful Evil]] when you die, not all contracts require your soul as payment; quite a few contracts will simply require the mortal to do a series of actions that will eventually make him [[Lawful Evil]]. This method has the advantage of not giving the mortal a chance to go to court for his soul once in hell (since he's there not because of the deal, but because of his alignment).

** Fourth Edition brings us the warlock class, who make pacts with extradimensional entities for magical knowledge. One of the possible pacts they can enter into is with a demon. Strangely, [[Dark Is Not Evil|this does not automatically mean that they're evil]].

*** The 3.5 supplement ''Complete Arcane'' introduced the warlock, and they got their powers in the same manner. [[Dark Is Not Evil|They also didn't have to be of a evil alignment,]] but were limited to chaotic or evil.

* This [https://web.archive.org/web/20131203084654/http://www.theonion.com/video/witch-who-granted-beyonce-beauty-and-fame-takes-si,27002/ news story] from [[The Onion]] suggests that [[Beyoncé]] made a deal with a witch for talent and fame in exchange for her first child. And as soon as Blue Ivy Carter was born...

* In ''[[Fate By Blades]]'' there is a devil-esque figure who makes deals with mortals, often with the condition that someone involved with said deal take a [[Horny Devil]] consort. The opening antagonist, Gilliam, does this but later breaks his end of the deal, causing his whole rebellion to fail, while Lucas makes a similar deal to acquire a demonic consort to tempt Kona over to his side. Lucas is more successful as Kona ends up joining him.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Native American Mythology]]

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:A Slave to the Index]]

[[Category:Diabolical Plots]]

[[Category:Power Source]]