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Selfless Wish: Difference between revisions
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* A variant in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'': Kurama, a demon who masquerades as a human, turns out to have stolen one of the three treasures of Spirit World so he can wish for it to save his human foster mother's life at the cost of his own. Yusuke, being a good-intentioned [[Idiot Hero]], leaps in and tells the mirror to take his life instead. The wish is granted, and ''neither'' one dies: it turns out that two people trying to sacrifice themselves for the same wish nullifies the cost of making one.
** It ends up doing that because the force behind the mirror makes it so. Presumably he could have taken either or both of their lives. Said force was just so impressed with them it spared both.
* [[Be Careful What You Wish For|Deconstructed]] in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. It's something of a theme in the series that there is ''no such thing as a selfless wish''. Everyone who makes a wish for someone else's happiness is also unconsciously hoping that it will also benefit themselves, even if only
* Quite a few times on ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', Sailor Moon uses the Silver Imperium Crystal to make selfless wishes. She wishes Fiore could understand love. She wishes Luna could be human for one night. Her first wish was that all her friends were alive again and that they could all just be normal schoolgirls. She had to take back the second part of that wish when she realized it wasn't completely selfless, since it left the world open to attacks by outer forces, so Luna had to undo Usagi's [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] and later the other girls's.
* In ''[[Anatolia Story]]'', Yuri is taken by the Black Prince as a prisoner of war, along with a good many other Hatusu soldiers. The Black Prince makes a deal with Yuri: if she can defeat a lion in combat, he will grant any request. If she succeeded, he expected her to request her freedom, with the plan that he would send soldiers to kill her in the desert as she was returning to Prince Kail. Instead, Yuri guesses his plan and instead requests that he treat the prisoners of war humanely.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20111228181423/http://www.spiritworldfiles.com/xovers/c/cj-batman-wish.html A Wish for Batman]'' had [[Batman]] receive a wish in a crossover with ''[[Ah!
== [[Film]] ==
* The 2000 remake of ''[[Bedazzled]]'' had Brendan Fraser's character using his last wish on [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]. This ends up {{spoiler|saving his soul, since the fine print of his [[Deal
* In Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', Aladdin [[Freeing the Genie|uses his third wish to liberate Genie]]. This turns out to be the show of character that proves to Jasmine and the Sultan that Aladdin would indeed make a worthy husband.
* This is a major theme in ''[[The Forbidden Door]]''. The old dragon that grants wishes tells the children that when you wish for something for yourself, someone else must pay the price, but if you wish for something for others, you must pay the price. [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|Nimian]] asks to keep his country safe. His price is {{spoiler|dying in defense of it.}} The children originally plan to ask for a bicycle and a trip to Venice, but realize how shallow they are. Later, they ask to repair their parents' relationship, and their price is {{spoiler|leaving Dragonland forever.}}
* This provides the [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] in ''[[Bruce Almighty]]''. When God asks Bruce what he wants {{spoiler|after Bruce is hit by a truck}}, Bruce replies that he wishes [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|Grace find a man who may make her truly happy and see her through God's eyes, even if it is not Bruce.]] {{spoiler|Grace chooses Bruce anyway, after the truck hit makes her realize how much she loves him.}}
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== Folklore ==
* An old folktale has a guy who wants to ask one question, going to see a wise something-or-other who will answer three. On the way, he comes across three people in trouble, and ends up asking their questions instead of his own. As a result, he ends up fabulously wealthy and gets a girl.
* In Irish folklore, there's a character named Kitty O'Shea who supposedly made a [[Deal
* An old story has the Devil walking the earth, granting a nobody of a man a wish, with the perpetual underlying fear that this will be the one who, with an utterly selfless wish, will send him back to captivity in Hell. The little man wishes that, with no change whatever to himself, he would become the most spiteful, mean, self-centered man on earth. The Devil screams.
** ...I don't get it, what's so selfless about that?
*** It's because he was a good person who wanted the world to be better. The only way to make him the most spiteful, mean and self-centered man on earth without changing him is to make everyone ''else'' less spiteful, mean, and self-centered than a man who was willing to give up a wish to make the world a better place for everyone. That would make a much nicer world, meaning the Devil not only has to go back to hell, but also has to contend with a much purer planet Earth.
*** Or the Devil could grant his wish by [[Fridge Horror|killing everyone more spiteful, mean and self-centered than him.]]
**** In most variations of that story, the Devil is able to subvert any wish that is selfish, but must follow the intent of any selfless wish. So he has to make the world better.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[The Master and Margarita]]'', Margarita badly wants to find her vanished lover, but when the Devil offers to grant one request to thank her for having played hostess at his ball, she instead asks for mercy for one of the damned souls she met at said ball. It is then revealed that it was a [[Secret Test of Character]], and, satisfied, Woland gives her the chance to formulate her real wish, which she does.
* In [[Diana Wynne Jones]]' ''[[Deep Secret]]'', Maree loses {{spoiler|half of her soul}} and she and her cousin Nick have to undergo a dangerous journey in order to gain one wish each (so she can ask for it back). Instead, she wishes that her father be cured of cancer, so Nick, in turn, has to give up what ''he'' was going to wish for and use his wish to help Maree.
* In Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's ''[[
* [[Susan Cooper]]'s ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' series novel ''Greenwitch'': Jane and her companions are trying to retrieve an artifact of vital importance to the Light, which was lost in the first novel. When she first meets the Greenwitch in its inactive form, Jane is offered the chance to make a wish. Her wish is that the Greenwitch could be happy. At the end of the novel, the Greenwitch rewards Jane by returning the artifact to her.
* Played with in [[The Sword of Truth|Wizard's First Rule]]. A witch holds Richard's friends captive, and says she will grant him one wish. He '''must''' learn the location of a [[Cosmic Keystone]] from her. What does he do? He asks his friends to be released... aware that the witch needs him to know the answer.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Waku Waku 7]]'': the profile of [[Robot Maid]] Tesse states that she wants to use the power of the Waku Waku Balls [[To Become Human]], but her ending has her making a wish to heal the scientist who created her from his illnesses.
* Deconstructed in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]''. In what is considered either the saddest or [[Narm
* In ''[[Puzzle Booble]] Galaxy/Space Bust A Move'', Bub and Bob's fairy assistant Snown performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to stop the [[Big Bad]]. Having used up most of her magic to save the day, she starts to fade away in exhaustion though grants Bub and Bob one final wish of their choice in her dying breath. As they think, she notices she's stopped fading away. Bub and Bob take pride in their wish as the fully recovered Snown dances happily.
== [[Visual Novels]] ==
* ''[[Fate/stay
** {{spoiler|Archer}} made one such wish {{spoiler|in his backstory}} by making a [[Bargain
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* In ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', there was a wishing well guarded by three extremely powerful masked archers. After Jack defeats them, and is about to wish to return home, the archers tell him that the well is cursed: they wished to become great warriors and the well forced them to become its guardians. Jack then wishes for the well to destroy itself and not endanger anyone again.
** In another episode Jack attempts to rescue a trapped fairy that can grant any one wish ''(Including sending him home).'' When he is unable to free her ''(and himself as well)'' he says "I wish we were free".
* Parodied in [[The Simpsons]]:
{{quote|
'''Homer''' Lisa! That was very selfish of you! }}
* In ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'', Jake makes the selfless wish of saving the day rather than seeing [[Love Interest|Rose]] again when given a magical transportation device. ''Really'' driven home when two portals
* A version of this also features as a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]. A short called "Seven wishes" features a girl named Jenny being given a magic flower that grants seven wishes, and each wish takes up one of its seven petals. Throughout the short, she teases a kid named Victor who is sitting on a bench reading a book instead of running around and playing. After several small wish-related adventures, she finally is reduced to just one wish and taunts Victor one time. Victor gets tired of her teasing, finally closes his book, then pulls out a pair of crutches from under the bench and starts to walk home. Jenny then uses her last wish for Victor to be healthy again.
* ''[[Rick and Morty]]'': In one episode, Summer goes to the back room of Mr. Needful store to show him that the one artifact they were, ironically, unable to give away was the Mokey's Paw, only to find, to her horror, that he's hung himself. She first tries pushing his desk over so she can climb up to him to cut him down, but it's too heavy; then she remembers what the Paw does, so she wishes the desk was lighter. Then she can't untie the knot, so she wishes it would come undone. Mr. Needful is now unconscious and not breathing; Summer does ''not'' know CPR, so she uses the final wish to wish she did. She revives him, and he sadly says that was a waste of a good Monkey's Paw. (And he's right, as this quickly becomes a case of [[The Farmer and the Viper]], seeing as [[Save the Villain| he's, well, the Devil]].)
* In a [[Valentine's Day Episodes|Valentines Day Special]] starring ''[[The Smurfs]]'', a selfless wish was used to prevent a rather catastrophic selfish one. The [[Wicked Witch]] Chlorhydris wanted to use a special wishing well to purge the world of love (and yes, [[Woman Scorned| she did have a motive for this]] [[Runaway Fiance| which was explained in a later episode]]). The well could only be used [[When the Planets Align| when there was a full moon on Valentines Day]], which only happened once every thousand years, and she needed to offer it a cat. Not just any cat would do, and apparently, Gargamel's cat Azrael was perfect (for some odd reason). Of course, taking Azrael from Gargamel caused him to find out about it, and naturally he wanted to use the well's powers for himself (to catch the Smurfs, of course). The Smurfs themselves got involved, and after the well's power was activated, the two villains got into a struggle to use its power. While they were doing that, Smurfette briefly considered using the well to find true love, but after realizing how crazy all this had become, she told it, "I wish we were all back where we belong!" sending Gargamel to his hovel, Chlorhydris to her observatory, and the Smurfs to their village. And as a bonus, preventing the well from being used again for another thousand years.
{{reflist}}
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