Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,807
edits
Just Eat the MacGuffin: Difference between revisions
m
removed Category:Just Eat The Mac Guffin using HotCat
(Actually, so long as the Confundus Charm exists its hilariously easy to beat the mirror. A security precaution that depends on a given state of mind is useless when magic exists to adjust state of mind.) |
m (removed Category:Just Eat The Mac Guffin using HotCat) |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Shadi''': And so, with the help of gypsy woman Ishizu, Pegasus hid the [[Artifact of Doom|Egyptian God Cards]] where even the craftiest of Jews would not be able to find them.<br />▼
'''Yugi''': Yeah, because obviously he couldn't have just ''destroyed them'' or anything.<br />▼
'''Shadi''': The power of the cards was too great for them to be simply destroyed.<br />▼
'''Yugi''': Riiiight, so the power of the Egyptian Gods prevented a guy from tearing up a few pieces of paper that he painted himself. Sure. Okay.<br />▼
'''Shadi''': As I was saying—<br />▼
'''Yugi''': ''[coughs]'' Bullcrap! ''[coughs]''|'''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'''}}▼
▲{{quote|'''Shadi''': And so, with the help of gypsy woman Ishizu, Pegasus hid the [[Artifact of Doom|Egyptian God Cards]] where even the craftiest of Jews would not be able to find them.
▲[[File:JustEattheMacGuffin2_7904.png|link=Dragon Ball GT|frame|[[Don't Try This At Home|Warning: Choking hazard]]]]
So, the [[Big Bad]] plans on grabbing the [[MacGuffin]] to take over the world, and [[Blah Blah Blah]], whatever. Sheesh. You can't help but wonder just what the deal is here. If it weren't for the MacGuffin, [[Status Quo Is God|status quo would reign]] and most of the conflict in the plot would vanish. Everyone would be happy. In light of the inconvenience the MacGuffin is causing the universe, you really have to wonder why nobody decides to go ahead and [[Just Eat the MacGuffin]].▼
▲'''Yugi''': Riiiight, so the power of the Egyptian Gods prevented a guy from tearing up a few pieces of paper that he painted himself. Sure. Okay.
|'''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'''}}
▲So, the [[Big Bad]] plans on grabbing the [[MacGuffin]] to take over the world, and [[Blah Blah Blah]], whatever. Sheesh. You can't help but wonder just what the deal is here. If it weren't for the MacGuffin, [[Status Quo Is God|status quo would reign]] and most of the conflict in the plot would vanish. Everyone would be happy. In light of the inconvenience the MacGuffin is causing the universe, you really have to wonder why nobody decides to go ahead and
Well, there are [[Justified Trope|reasons]]. A common one is to make the MacGuffin completely indestructible, and thus a major inconvenience for anyone to try to effectively get rid of. It could regenerate. There could be so many of them that simply getting rid of them all in this way isn't an option. The MacGuffin might [[Cosmic Keystone|serve some essential purpose that would screw everything up if it was obliterated]]. And even then destroying the MacGuffin is floated as a possible last resort should it get in enemy hands. Or it could turn out to be [[MacGuffin Girl|a person]] and the only way to get rid of it is to kill her...AndThatWouldBeWrong.▼
▲Well, there are [[Justified Trope|reasons]]. A common one is to make the MacGuffin completely indestructible, and thus a major inconvenience for anyone to try to effectively get rid of. It could regenerate. There could be so many of them that simply getting rid of them all in this way isn't an option. The MacGuffin might [[Cosmic Keystone|serve some essential purpose that would screw everything up if it was obliterated]]. And even then destroying the MacGuffin is floated as a possible last resort should it get in enemy hands. Or it could turn out to be [[MacGuffin Girl|a person]] and the only way to get rid of it is to kill her...
At worst this trope can manifest itself at the last minute with no attempts at justification. It's a bit of a cheat, after all, to [[No MacGuffin, No Winner|resolve the plot with MacGuffin destruction]] when the MacGuffin could have been destroyed at just about any previous point in the story.
Another excuse is to [[Just Think of the Potential]]. Also compare [[We Win Because You Did Not]] and [[No MacGuffin, No Winner]].
For when the problem is a character rather than a MacGuffin, see [[Just Eat Gilligan]].
If there are sound reasons given within the work for why the "single simple action" can't be taken, or won't work, ''it's not this trope. Don't add it as an example.'' If the characters do try the single simple solution and it doesn't work, it's ''also not this trope. Again, don't add it as an example.'' This trope is not just eating the [[MacGuffin]] in the literal sense; this trope is asking the question why not just destroy the damn [[MacGuffin]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime and Manga]] ==
* Goku literally attempts to do this to one of the Dragon Balls in an effort to stop Syn Shenron from becoming Omega Shenron (again) in ''[[Dragon Ball GT]]''. The results are: a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] watching him nearly choke to death in the attempt to swallow it, a W-T-F moment when the ball APPEARS IN HIS FOREHEAD for no discernible reason, and eventually failure when Syn Shenron manages to re-absorb it anyway.
* In the original ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' manga and anime, [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Piccolo]] [[Card-Carrying Villain|Daimao]] actually swallows two of the titular [[MacGuffin|Mac Guffins]] to prevent the heroes for stealing them, though he's able to spit them back up with ease.
Line 28 ⟶ 29:
* In ''[[Kyou Kara Maou]]'', there are four keys needed to unlock the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]], which can bring about [[The End of the World as We Know It|the end of the worlds as we know them]]. Four easily destroyed keys. Of course, there are [[MacGuffin Girl|several]] good reasons not to...
==
* The Infinity Gauntlet
== [[Film]] ==
* One of the complaints of the second ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]]'' movie was that they destroyed the crown pieces at the end, when they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by doing it as soon as they found them.
* In the live-action ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers]]'' film, Optimus Prime says that if there's no other way to keep the Allspark out of Megatron's hands, he'll shove it into his own [[Our Souls Are Different|spark]] to destroy it. This option is a last resort because it would also kill Optimus. {{spoiler|In the end, Sam shoves it into ''Megatron's'' instead}}. But as the sequel shows, turns out that doesn't ''quite'' work.
* The ending to ''[[Titanic]]'' involves this. Not for any reason, mind you. [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|She just destroys it for the symbolism.]] And she doesn't really "destroy" it so much as "put it in a place where absolutely no one will find it and didn't tell anyone." [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Or maybe she wanted the guy who had spent his life sifting through stuff to find something interesting in the Titanic wreck, and gave what she could.]]
* [[Double Subversion|Double Subverted]] in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' when Indy threatens to destroy the Ark, but Belloq calls his bluff.
* In the movie ''[[For Your Eyes Only (film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] is ordered to obtain the MacGuffin if he can and destroy it if he must. He has to do the second.
** By throwing said MacGuffin off the top of a giant cliff. Good work, Bond.
* In the first ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' movie, the Illuminati want to assemble the MacGuffin to take over the world. Lara just happens to find a part and, despite knowing what he wants with it, ''assists'' the [[Big Bad]] in finding the other. All because she wanted to use it herself, just to get closure on the fate of her father. That's right, she risked ''the entire world'' on a personal issue that was resolved in half a minute, and then destroyed the MacGuffin anyway.
* ''[[Under Siege]] 2: Dark Territory'': Steven Seagal spends half the movie keeping the specially encoded CD the villain needs to carry out his evil plot out of the evil villain's hands. He should have just broken the darn thing.
Line 45 ⟶ 46:
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', destruction of the Ring is explicitly addressed as the only means of
** The film hilariously averts this. Gimli just decides to deal with the One Ring right ''now'' and takes his axe to it. His ''axe'' is the one to get shattered to bitty pieces.
* It's not exactly a world-threatening example, and happens before the start of the book, but the 'Gonne' (gun) in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[
** Heavily lampshaded, of course
* The whole plot of ''[[Harry Potter and
** Said stone was {{spoiler|keeping Flamel alive}}, though. It was only at the end that {{spoiler|Flamel decided to die}}.
** Also, it can be argued that much of what occurred was actually set up by Dumbledore as part of Harry's [[Training
** There's even an interesting theory proposing that the Mirror of Erised was actually a trap for Voldemort. If true, justified because the [[MacGuffin]] was actually a bait. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190928094639/http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=94246
* The ending of the [[Forgotten Realms]] trilogy of books ''Shadowdale'', ''Tantras'', and ''Waterdeep'' is the presentation of the
** Has it ever been stated just how important the Tablets were in and of themselves? Not having read the actual novels, I was always operating under the assumption that Ao ''intended'' them to be [[Plot Coupons]] and that it was their return that was important, not the objects themselves.
*** The Tablets of Fate listed each of the gods and their duties. They didn't have any signifigance in and of themselves, being true MacGuffins, and their theft was merely a large scale act of [[Cool People Rebel Against Authority|rebellion]] by {{spoiler|Myrkul and Bane}} and their return was a condition of ending the [[Disproportionate Retribution|Time of Troubles]] by Ao. Basically, the Godly equivalent of clean your room or no supper.
Line 70 ⟶ 71:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'', the characters all live in a world of [[Floating Continent
** Even after the protagonists learn [[The Empire]] actually has technology that allows them to reach the the planet surface beneath the clouds, leaving them to search the entire world's worth of muddy sea floor equivalent would still mean the [[Big Bad]] would die of old age long before finding them.
** At one point during the game, {{spoiler|Enrique}} even mentions that he considered destroying the crystals (exactly how is never explained, other than dropping them into Deep Sky), but decided to give them back to our heroes for sake of the plot. [[Plot Twist|If only he had know what would happen later]], he probably should have.
Line 81 ⟶ 82:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "A Knight of Shadows" has the heroes trying to keep [[Public Domain Artifact|the Philosopher's Stone]] away from Morgan Le Fay. When they acquire it, they lock it in the
** Similarly in "Paradise Lost", where the League are forced to retrieve three artifacts that combine into the key that can free the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]. In this case, the League can't destroy the key before the end of the episode, because [[Hostage for Macguffin|there are lives at stake]], but why didn't the people who locked him up in the first place destroy the key instead of just breaking it into three easily-recombinable pieces?
** Also in the ''[[Static Shock]]'' JL crossover, with the League keeping the last piece of Brainiac in the Watchtower. Batman even lampshades the fact that they'd be better off with it destroyed, but why it's kept intact goes unexplained. Naturally, it gets loose mere minutes later.
*** They're [[Technical Pacifist
* In ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' after Master Fung's demonstration, Omi opts to "destroy" the Golden Tiger Claws in order to keep it away from the villains. A bit of a [[Senseless Sacrifice]], since he could have just used said Golden Tiger Claws to teleport away.
** Entirely a [[Senseless Sacrifice]], as he doesn't destroy it, he just warps it to the center of the Earth where it's easily retrieved with the [[Intangible Man|Serpent's Tail]].
Line 94 ⟶ 95:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:MacGuffin]]
[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
| |||