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Treacherous Spirit Chase: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Maybe the protagonist is nearing their lowest mental ebb, maybe it's his turn to hold the [[Idiot Ball]], or maybe [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|things are going just a little too well]]. Suddenly, they're confronted by the person they last expected to see: a friend or loved one who logic dictates should be very far away right now or—just to underscore how unlikely this sudden reappearance is—dead. [[Dramatic Irony|It's clear to the audience]] that the vision is some sort of trap and that he isn't really [[Back
This "visitation," however, is not about to stick around and explain itself, lest its masquerade be uncovered. It might urge the protagonist to follow them with a siren song or a [[Cryptic Conversation|cryptic comment]], but whatever happens, it'll turn on their heel and flee. The protagonist, overwhelmed with curiosity and emotion, abandons any sense of self-preservation and tears after it ... right into the kind of trouble that they'd have seen coming a mile away if they were thinking clearly.
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Contrast with [[Spirit Advisor]], both in helpfulness and in duration. Often uses a [[Woman in White]] or similarly mysterious figure to really grab the target's attention. A common way to weed out the guy who's [[Too Dumb to Live]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' has several examples.
** "Abra and the Psychic Showdown" has our characters lost in the forest, where they are visited by Sabrina's "doll" persona. Attempting to find out who she is and how they can reach Saffron City, Ash pursues her through the fog-laden woods ... only to be led straight off of a cliff. Fortunately, his Pokémon are on hand to rescue him.
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* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': Inuyasha nearly gets killed by a youkai disguised as his mother {{spoiler|who has been dead since he was ''very'' young}}. If Kagome hadn't seen through the illusion and managed to convince Inuyasha that things weren't what they seemed to be, he ''would'' have died.
==
* At several points in ''[[Silent Hill (film)|Silent Hill]]'', Rose is spurred further into the obviously treacherous town by fleeting sightings of {{spoiler|Alessa, who looks identical to her missing daughter Sharon}}. Somewhat averted near the end in that Rose is forced to cross a pile of fallen masonry over a very long drop into a burning coal fire—or something worse burning down below—but makes it across safely.
* ''[[Ghost Ship]]'' is full of these, the most infamous being a scene where one of the mercenaries is exploring the ship's ballroom, only to lured away by a seductive visage of the ship's lounge singer. {{spoiler|Straight into an elevator shaft}}.
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* In ''[[Don't Look Now]]'', a father thinks he is seeing the spirit of his dead daughter and tries to track her down throughout the film. {{spoiler|When he finally tracks down the hooded figure it turns out to be the serial killer mentioned on the radio earlier.}}
* Played for laughs in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[
* Gorlim in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' refuses to believe that his wife Eilinel, who went missing during Gorlim's absence in the war against Morgoth, is dead. Sauron uses this belief against Gorlim by {{spoiler|creating a vision of Eilinel as bait inside Gorlim's house. Gorlim enters and is immediately captured by Sauron's orcs, and eventually tortured into revealing the location of Barahir}}.▼
* ''[[Deltora Quest]]'' has one extended over three books, and on the other end of a magic crystal for long-distance communication. An illusion created by the [[Big Bad]] pretends to be Jasmine's (nonexistent) sister, enslaved in [[Mordor|the Shadow Land]]. It persuades Jasmine to break from the other heroes to go to the Shadow Land on her own to rescue it.▼
* This is the basic principle by which a '''Darke Domaine''' in ''[[Septimus Heap]]'' works: By creating an illusion that one of your loved ones is there, inside the Domaine.▼
== [[Live-Action
* The will-o'the-wisp, in Celtic folklore, is a ghost which supposedly drowns people walking in swamps at night by walking over deep water so people think it's shallow.▼
* Russian folklore tells of a fairy which lures people away from paths in the forest by sounding like a person.▼
* The main plot of the ''[[Outer Limits]]'' episode "If These Walls Could Talk" concerns a house "infected" by an alien substance. Not only does the house absorb people into its structure, it's able to regurgitate [[Doppelganger]]s of those people to lure in their friends and loved ones when they come searching for answers.
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Lodger" features random passers-by lured into a two-flat by various poorly-lit characters, with much screaming and electrocuting as the result. {{spoiler|The flat is a space ship searching for a compatible pilot, using images of humans in distress to lure people in and compel them to take control of the craft, usually with grisly consequences.}}
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* * In ''[[Rose Red]]'', the ghost of Sukeena lures the professor into the woods, where he's killed by his insane intern.
== [[Oral Tradition]], Folklore, Myths and Legends ==
▲== Literature ==
▲* The will-o'the-wisp, in Celtic folklore, is a ghost which supposedly drowns people walking in swamps at night by walking over deep water so people think it's shallow.
▲* Russian folklore tells of a fairy which lures people away from paths in the forest by sounding like a person.
▲* Played for laughs in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/Going Postal|Going Postal]]''. The Ankh-Morpork Post Office wraps unsuspecting postmasters entirely in a beguiling vision of the building's opulent past. Unfortunately for them, this includes images of floors and walkways that have long since rotted away. Moist von Lipvig nearly takes a very long tumble stepping onto a balcony that had long ago ceased to be.
▲* Gorlim in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' refuses to believe that his wife Eilinel, who went missing during Gorlim's absence in the war against Morgoth, is dead. Sauron uses this belief against Gorlim by {{spoiler|creating a vision of Eilinel as bait inside Gorlim's house. Gorlim enters and is immediately captured by Sauron's orcs, and eventually tortured into revealing the location of Barahir}}.
▲* ''[[Deltora Quest]]'' has one extended over three books, and on the other end of a magic crystal for long-distance communication. An illusion created by the [[Big Bad]] pretends to be Jasmine's (nonexistent) sister, enslaved in [[Mordor|the Shadow Land]]. It persuades Jasmine to break from the other heroes to go to the Shadow Land on her own to rescue it.
▲* This is the basic principle by which a '''Darke Domaine''' in ''[[Septimus Heap]]'' works: By creating an illusion that one of your loved ones is there, inside the Domaine.
== Tabletop Games ==▼
* The [[Dungeons and Dragons]] 3.5E free adventure [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20021026a "Test of the Demonweb"] features an elf child being webbed up by three [[Giant Spider|giant spiders]]. The child is an illusion; the spiders are ''not''.▼
==
▲* The [[Dungeons
* In the final chapter of ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'', this is parodied, as the shapeshifter Mimi appears before you disguised as Merlon and Merlee, both of which are so ridiculously obvious that if you keep talking to her, she'll lampshade the [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]] of this situation, as Mario falling for her extremely obvious trap is the only way to progress.
* In the Circle Tower quest of [[Dragon Age Origins]], each companion who you bring with you is {{spoiler|trapped in a personalised dream.}} It's only because {{spoiler|you break out of yours, by killing a dream-Duncan}} that you're able to rescue them. They wouldn't leave otherwise.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
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