Just Eat the MacGuffin: Difference between revisions

'''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 />

 

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]].

 

 

== [[Anime and Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'', the characters spend several episodes in a futile effort to keep the [[Big Bad]] from getting access to a sealed vault full of energy needed to implement his plans. Since the entire purpose of the nation guarding the vault is to ensure that nobody ever opens it, one has to wonder why they didn't just destroy the key centuries ago.

 

== Comics ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

* 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.]]

** 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.

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', destruction of the Ring is explicitly addressed as the only means of victory -- and there's only one place where it can possibly be destroyed. So in this instant, eating the MacGuffin is actually the whole purpose of it in the first place.

** 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.

** Heavily lampshaded, of course -- Vetinari asks the assassins why they didn't destroy it; their response is to ask him why he gave it to them to destroy, instead of doing it himself. Ultimately, the fact that {{spoiler|Carrot ''can'' destroy it in cold blood}} is a major character point. It has an effect on people.

* The whole plot of ''[[Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone]]'' wouldn't have happened if Dumbledore had just destroyed the stone in the first place ''like he did at the end''.

 

== [[Television]] ==

* Played with (lampshaded, averted, subverted, or any combination of the above) in the first season finale of ''[[Krod Mandoon and The Flaming Sword of Fire]]'', when Krod attempts to swallow the [[MacGuffin]], which is a vial of pagan tears (just go with it), rather than hand it over to the [[Big Bad]]. He then proceeds to choke on it and eventually cough it up. His cohorts mock him and offer alternative solutions: he could have crushed the vial, or opened it and swallowed just the tears. The Big Bad then laments that he was rather looking forward to dissecting Krod to get the vial.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** 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.

* ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'' ''actually'' demonstrates the [[Genre Savvy]] use of this trope. In the Quarry, Grey/Ashe have an encounter with Aile/Vent, and the two get in a fight over what to do with the Model W in its depths. The former finds the Model W fused to a Spidrill and are forced to destroy both. It turns out that destroying the Quarry's Model W ''was the whole reason Aile/Vent were there in the first place''! Unfortunately, just its destruction wasn't enough to keep Ouroboros from forming, but you have to give the gang credit for trying.

* In the third ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' game, nearing the end of the first case, Phoenix attempts this with a crucial piece of evidence... That piece of evidence being a glass vial that was once ''full of poison.''

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[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 Watchtower--and it ends up being stolen. The story concludes with the stone being crushed to dust--which raises the question of why they bothered to lock it in the watchtower in the first place.

** 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|Technical Pacifists]] who don't consider machine life to be a non-human.

** 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]].

*** Considering that said Macguffin and any of the wu are simply stolen by the villains every few episodes or so, this may be somewhat justified. Plus at the time Omi had no knowledge of such a shen gong wu.

* In the Garfield special ''Garfield's Feline Fantasies'', Garfield's main dream involves the Banana of Bombay as the [[MacGuffin]]. After recovering the banana, he eats it and explains to Odie "it's just a fantasy".