Your Heart's Desire: Difference between revisions

{{quote|We can supply anything <br />

That your heart desires <br />

But the consequences <br />

Some monsters ensnare you by taking the shape of [[Primal Fear|your worst fears]], knowing your deepest nightmares and using them against you. These can be some of the most terrifying enemies, attacking you where you are most vulnerable in the dark recesses of your heart. But sometimes the thing that's the most scary isn't the monster that attacks you with fear.

It's these guys.

These badguys trap you by preying upon your desires. They know what you want and are willing to offer it to you - [[Deal Withwith the Devil|or so it would seem]]. They [[Schmuck Bait|show you things]] you've always dreamed of, presenting you with the very thing that your heart yearns for. However, [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]. Temptation can be a [[Forbidden Fruit|powerful and dangerous]] thing, and is sometimes harder to resist than any overt danger.

This is a favorite technique of the [[Master of Illusion]], who may use it to trap others in a [[Lotus Eater Machine]], or the kinds of monsters that get satisfaction out of [[Emotion Eater|manipulating their victims' emotions]]. After all, it's much easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar, and the victim often won't even be able to realize the danger until it's [[Death Byby Irony|too late]]. This is why your parents always told you not to take candy from strangers.

* In ''[[For the Man Who Has Everything]]'' a [[Lotus Eater Machine]] of this sort is used on [[Superman]], who hallucinates that he's back on Krypton.

* The [[X-Men]] annual ''Lost in the Funhouse'' revolved around this - Horde, the villain of the issue, sent the team to a Citadel to retrieve a [[MacGuffin]] on pain of destroying their world if they refused. The citadel's defence mechanism was offering intruders a vision of their heart's desire one-by-one. When it couldn't find Longshot's desire due to his "[[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|purity]]", it cut out step two and absorbed him.

* In the novel ''[[Something Wicked This Way Comes (Literature)|Something Wicked This Way Comes]]'' by Ray Bradbury, the carnival tries to entice the boys by showing them exciting and marvelous things. Particularly Jim, who is fascinated by it, and who also has a desire to become older.

* Stanley G. Weinbaum's science fiction short story [[A Martian Odyssey|"A Martian Odyssey"]] had a carnivorous plant monster that read the mind of its victim and created a mental illusion of what the victim most desired to lure it into the plant's clutches.

* ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' had the Mirror of [[Sdrawkcab Name|Erised]], which shows the viewer whatever their greatest desire is. Ron, who feels overshadowed by his siblings, sees himself outdoing them all. Harry, who never knew his real family, sees himself with his parents and relatives. Dumbledore mentions that [[Lotus Eater Machine|it can be highly addictive]], however. {{spoiler|In the climax, Dumbledore hides the Philosopher's Stone "inside" the mirror, with the proviso that only someone who wants to find the stone but not use its power can reach it. The villain sees himself with the stone, but Harry's reflection slips it into his pocket.}}

* [[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]: Back to Earth has a joy squid (opposite of the despair squid in earlier episodes.) Both had the same effect of trapping you in a hallucination until you die.

* In a great many stories [[Satan]] is said to know Your Heart's Desire in order to get you to sign a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]]. Far too many stories to list, really.

* ''[[LilLi'l Abner]]'': On August 31, 1948, cartoonist Al Capp introduced the schmoo, a bewhiskered white blob of a creature that looked like a bowling pin with legs. Schmoos seemed to exist only to provide humanity with its every need. Capp said he came up with the idea of the schmoo when he was driving through the New England countryside and saw the abundance that the earth provided. People of all political stripes -- communistsstripes—communists and capitalists alike -- sawalike—saw the schmoos as an analogy critical of their beliefs. (The fact that "schmoos" rhymes with "schmooze" didn't help.) Schmoos were [[Explosive Breeder|Explosive Breeders]]s that laid eggs and could give milk. If they really loved you, they'd could lay a cheesecake. And if you expressed a desire to eat a schmoo, one of them would die of ecstasy just to provide you with the opportunity. Naturally, a schmoo [[Tastes Like Chicken]]. Fed up with all the controversy over a character he claimed was nothing more than a commentary on the abundance of nature, Capp carried out a [[Writer Revolt]] by slaughtering the entire species in December. [[The Other Wiki]] has a more detailed analysis of the schmoos [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Shmoo |here]].

* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]''

*** Adventure ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Caverns_of_Tsojcanth:Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth|S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth]]''. A group of dao (similar to djinn) create an illusion of a desirable setting to lure the party into a cave. When the party enters, the dao attack.

*** [[Forgotten Realms]] supplement FR4 ''The Magister''. The Cloak of Delight as an activated power can cause any creature that sees it to fall into an motionless and oblivious trance for 1-81–8 minutes by showing the creature its ultimate pleasure and goal. The creature will maniacally attack any creature or thing that blocks its view of the Cloak. If its view is blocked by something without solid form (e.g. darkness or smoke) the trance ends.

** 3rd Edition. ''Creature Collection'' supplement. The Dweller at the Crossroads is a sinister figure that knows its victim's greatest wish and can grant it - for a price. Every gift the dweller gives is cursed in some way to bring corruption and misery to the person receiving it.

* The PC horror game ''The Path'' can be interpreted this way, as it seems that {{spoiler|each girl's wolf}} is something that appeals to them according to their personality, and thus they are lured in one by one.

* [[The Series]] of ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' had a variant in one episode: a small, timid animal that can do this whenever scared, hoping to distract a perceived threat. Naturally, [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold|Iago]] and [[Everything's Better Withwith Monkeys|Abu]] continually frighten it just to get stuff.

[[Category:Your Hearts Desire{{PAGENAME}}]]