Greed: Difference between revisions

For the less sophisticated, there's [[Giant Food]]. Compare [[Love Hungry]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* Lawrence from [[Spice and Wolf]] suffers in episode 10 because of this trope. He ended up trying to buy too much armor on credit, only to find out that the value of armor in the city he was going to sell it in crashed. None of his merchant associates want to help him repay the debt as well because he got greedy.

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[My Hero Academia]]'' is {{spoiler|a foul creature named All for One. Of course, the "One" refers to him, a stark contrast to his heroic nemesis [[Big Good| All-Might]], who embodies selflessness and generosity through his One-for-All quirk.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* Jack Horner of ''[[Fables]]'' shows how much greed can stab you in the back. After losing a fortune several times in his series, he resigns to never spend the gold he gained from El Dorado, just to ensure he can't lose it. {{spoiler|He consequently becomes a dragon as a result of his greed. He spends at least a few years (if not decades) in this state before the last issue. [[Kill'Em All|Everyone Dies]] }}.

* A rare heroic example is ''[[Luke Cage]]: Hero for Hire''. Infamously he chased down Dr. Doom, one of the most feared antagonists in the Marvel universe, for 200 dollars. "What's my '''money''' honey?" has become one of his most famous lines from this.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

* In "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130921113251/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/47junipertree.html The Juniper Tree]", the [[Wicked Stepmother]] murders her stepson so that her daughter will inherit everything.

* [[Hansel and Gretel]]'s [[Wicked Stepmother]] begrudges her stepchildren their food and has them abandoned so they will not have to feed them. Although sometimes she has the excuse that there is a famine, in some variants, she just resents spending anything on them.

 

== Film ==

{{quote|"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works."}}

* Greed is the motivating factor in the lives of all three protagonists in ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]''. They want the Civil War gold, and they don't care what they have to do to get it. [[Complete Monster|Angel Eyes]], [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|The Bad]], is by far the worst about it. [[Only in It For the Money|He's basically this vice in a coat and a cowboy hat]].

 

== Literature ==

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Let's see...the Monarch HMO from ''Payback''. The Barristers from ''The Jury''. Rosemary Hershey in ''Sweet Revenge''. Arden Gillespie and Roland Sullivan in ''Lethal Justice''. Maxwell Zenowicz in ''Fast Track''. Baron Bell in ''Deadly Deals''. Owen Orzell and Jason Parker in ''Home Free''. In at least 7 books out of 20, you have Greed as the motive for their terrible actions!

 

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', this is the [[Planet of Hats|hat]] of the Ferengi, who have built an entire ''society'' out of greed and avarice. While they even have a codified system of rules governing this behavior, going around said rules if it's for a profitable goal isn't considered a bad thing. Thus, things like theft or piracy are only considered bad ''if you get caught''.

** On the bright side, the Ferengi don't practice racism, slavery, or genocide because they consider it bad for business (fewer customers->lower demand->[[Fate Worse Than Death|LESS PROFITS]])

** It's almost a case of [[Blue and Orange Morality]] for them, as any action which is not profit-seeking is seen as disgraceful (whether it was acting out of Charity or Revenge, if there's no profit to be made, it's just WRONG).

** Illustrated by Liquidator Brunt (Ferengi Commerce Authority) when he accuses Quark of being a "phil-AN-thro-pist!" in much the same tone a human might accuse someone of eating their own children.

** The Ferengi (see above) would disagree vehemently. While "Peace is good for business" is one of the most important Rules of Acquisition, the very next rule is "War is good for business", and [[Planet of Hats|they would know]]

* Parker on [[Leverage]]. From the episode "The Nigerian Job": "My money is not in my account. That makes my cry inside... in my special angry place." From "The Homecoming Job": "I don't like stuff.. I like MONEY."

* The villains of ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'', the Greeed (sic), are literally made out of desire. The hero Eiji has no desires due to [[Survivor Guilt]], which allows him to use their powers easily. Interestingly, it slowly becomes apparent that having no desires is a ''bad'' thing, with the [[Big Good]] believing that desire is necessary for life and encouraging his workers to be ambitious as long as they are not [[pride]]ful.

* One of the primary vices of the mercenary Jayne Cobb of ''[[Firefly]]'', though he's usually smart enough not to let this drive him to do stupid things. Unless the money's ''too'' good...

 

== Music ==

* In ''[[Vocaloid]]'''s [[Seven Deadly Sins]] series, Kaito, a judge, accepts bribes from customers to make them "innocent". The reason he needs this money is to help his "daughter" Miku and to collect the [[Seven Deadly Sins]] in order to restore her condition. Later, he is bribed by a general for mass murder and lets him walk free. This eventually causes a civil war and he is killed in a fire. He is then faced with "the master of this hellish yard" who tells him he can be saved if he gives up his money. He refuses to give his fortune to anyone and is sent to Hell, where he hopes to make the place a utopia for himself and his "daughter" after he collects the sins.

 

== Opera ==

'''Pish-Tush''': ''And the salaries attached to them? You did.'' }}

* Fafnir from ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen]]''. His greed was so great that he transformed himself into a dragon to protect his hoard. Possibly the inspiration for Smaug from ''[[The Hobbit]]''.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In [[In Nomine]], Mammon is the [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Demon Prince of Greed]], though lately he's lost a lot of his power and influence, particularly to Haggenti, the [[Villainous Glutton|Demon Prince of Gluttony]]. The game describes the difference between the two as while Gluttony wants to consume, Greed just wants to ''have''. Mammon's demons aren't allowed to give away anything...even the time of day.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Sector Carina in ''[[Strange Journey]]''. A massive shopping mall, warped by a demonic viewpoint on Humanity's excesses and obscene desire for more possessions. Fittingly, the resident Tyrant, Horkos, is a demon obsessed with devouring ''everything'' - food, energy, inanimate objects, ''people'', '''''his own servants'''''... And the worse thing is, when finally confronted, [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|he calls out Humanity]] on being even more greedy and materialistic than he.

* Laethys, the Dragon of Earth, in ''[[Rift]]''.

 

== Web Comics ==