”Sure, you can ALL marry me!”
"We can supply anything
That your heart desires
But the consequences
Will surely be dire!"
That your heart desires
But the consequences
Will surely be dire!"
— "The Greatest Show Unearthed", Creature Feature
These bad guys trap you by preying upon your desires. They know what you want and are willing to offer it to you—or so it would seem. They 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 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 manipulating their victims' emotions. After all, it's much easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar note , and the victim often won't even be able to realize the danger until it's too late. Even if they realize it's not real, the power of the desire may entice them to remain "deceived." The Deal with the Devil also frequently runs on this trope, exacting a horrible price in exchange for one's heart's desire, frequently in a way that makes it not worth it in the end. This is why your parents always told you not to take candy from strangers.
Contrast I Know What You Fear, which is knowing what another creature fears.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, the Book of Darkness trapped Fate in a world where her Evil Matriarch of a mother loved her and the dead girl she was cloned from was her Cool Big Sis. Fate even admits that this is what she always wanted as she breaks down in tears. This was meant to be a case of Let Them Die Happy rather than any form of malice, but ended up being crueler than any torture could have been since Fate knew almost immediately that it wasn't real (and that it never would be). Although it does help Fate come to terms with being a separate person from Alicia and accept Lindy's offer to adopt her.
- In Nabari no Ou, the Shinrabanshou often tries to tempt Miharu into telling her his greatest desires, and then she will grant him her destructive power, regardless of whether his body can handle it.
- The Infinite Tsukuyomi from Naruto traps everyone on the planet in an endless dream while draining them of their personalities and defining features, transforming them into White Zetsu.
- Queen Millennia: Larela shows Hajime holographic replicas of his deceased parents and tells that her system can read his heart and recreate anything he thinks of.
Comic Books
- Captain America: Black Mamba of the Serpent Society and BAD Girls, Inc. can temporarily incapacitate people with an illusion of their ultimate fantasy. In Cable & Deadpool #22, this failed to work on Shen Kuei / the Cat, a Gentleman Thief and martial artist who already is living his ultimate fantasy.
- Legion of Super-Heroes: In Legion Of Super Heroes 1989, when Shrinking Violet was under the influence of the Emerald Eye (unbeknownst to her teammates), she started granting the Legionnaires their hearts' desires. It went fairly well until Leviathan got his, which was to die as a hero. Attempting to bring him back to life, Violet was taken over entirely by the Emerald Eye.
- New Mutants: Rare hero example: Danielle Moonstar, AKA Mirage, could create a mental illusion of your worst fear, or your heart's desire. She could choose which one, but even she couldn't know what her victim was seeing.
- Superman: 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.
- X-Men: The Uncanny X-Men (1963) annual #11, 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 "purity", it cut out step two and absorbed him.
- Tom Strong: Tom Strong and his wife Dhalua visit an enchanted cave that creates illusions of a person's deepest desires. After a while the two of them are overwhelmed by the conflicted wishes, but they are saved by their robot butler Pnuman, whose only wish was to serve his master.
Comic Strips
- Li'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 — communists and capitalists alike — saw the schmoos as an analogy critical of their beliefs. (The fact that "schmoos" rhymes with "schmooze" didn't help.) Schmoos were Explosive Breeders 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 here
.
Fan Works
- The Karma of Lies: Lila Rossi manipulates her marks by figuring out what they want most and claiming that she can help them achieve their dreams with her supposed connections. She then proceeds to not only string them along with her scams but directly sabotages their goals.
- Most of her classmates are tricked into donating to her Fake Charity drives; she also convinces many of them to trust her with their work/information that she then turns around and sells off, robbing them of the fruits of their labor. Others find themselves blacklisted as a result of her actions, getting blamed for the damage she caused.
- Adrien knows her true nature but still gets suckered in when she feigns remorse, pretending that his 'high road' approach helped her realize the error of her ways...exactly what he wants to hear. She then sets him up as an Unwitting Pawn and The Scapegoat while making it appear that he's the one trying to frame her, helping shred his reputation.
- In an example unrelated to Lila, this also comes into play during the Final Battle with Mayura: Rose/Pigella uses her Gift to manifest a vision of what the villain wants most: Emilie Agreste.
- Kwami Magi Homura Magica: Since Daizzi is the Kwami of Jubiliation, her powers naturally counteract despair; this makes Pigella a potent counter against the Incubator's despair-driven system. Not only can she purify Soul Gems, she can destroy Familiars on her own, including those created by Walpurgisnacht.
- A Loud Among Demons: During "Truth Seekers", Lincoln is exposed to a gas that renders him unable to lie to himself. One of the hallucinations he suffers in this state implies that his greatest desire is being able to keep both his human family and all of the demonic friends he's made in Hell.
- Magical Girls Unite Retransformed has the Dream Worlds; whenever a Puella Magi witches out, their soul manifests inside an personalized Lotus-Eater Machine, trapped in an idealistic, utopian fantasy catering to their greatest desires. This renders them unable to even think about trying to leave or return home.
- Manehattan's Lone Guardian: Illudere's most dangerous spell, the Luminous Cruelty, functions similarly to the Black Mercy in that it traps the target in a long-lasting dream world where the focus is on living an ideal life. The only ways to escape the dream before the target dies in reality is to either have someone like Luna disrupt it—which is not an option on account of her still being trapped on the moon at this point—or to somehow outlast the illusion by dying there first. When used on Leviathan, it's shown that Earth is gradually restored to the highest point it's been at in centuries, while Levi herself reconciles with and marries an estranged friend.
Illudere: "Riddle me this, little mustang. What do you give the mare who has everything?"
- The Numbershots: The Numbers are attracted towards people who deeply desire something, twisting their desires in order to corrupt and possess them. However, this doesn't work if their target's desire is truly selfless, or if there's not enough darkness already lurking in their hearts for the Numbers to work with.
- Ruby Haze: When Fiona Fox touches the Phantom Ruby embedded inside John's hand, it gives them a vision of this nature. This motivates them to start scheming how to steal it for themselves, hoping to use its powers to make their dreams come true.
- Swords and Sorcery has the Mirror of Erised, which shows anyone who looks into it their deepest desire.
- The first time she looks into the mirror, Iris sees a vision of the parents she'd never had a chance to know, depicting them as deeply loving and doting people. Later, the reflection shifts to show her parents surrounded by the other friends she's made at Hogwarts, sitting in the stands watching her dueling Shirou and managing to score a single hit against the Master Swordsman.
- Shirou sees a vision of his twenty-year-old self, who's smiling the same way that Kiritsugu smiled the day he saved him from the fire.
- Ten Versus Blight: The desire demoness Kitty attempts this during her fight with Neria, who had recently gone through a bad breakup with Alistair. Their relationship had ended since Alistair wouldn't be able to marry Neria if he became king; therefore, Kitty disguises herself as an elven, non-royal version of Alistair, removing that blockade.
- In the Hazbin Hotel Infection AU "The Happy Virus", the titular virus causes its victims to see their greatest desires — Charlie sees everyone living Happily Ever After in Heaven, Alastor sees his mother, Niffty sees everything as candy, etc. Husk is one of the few exceptions — instead of seeing something or someone else as his object of desire, he simply makes a beeline for his Love Interest Angel Dust, who is forced to shoot him when he tries to bite and infect him.
Angel: He tried to bite me... he said that he loved me... he said that he loved me...
Film — Animation
- In Coraline, this is the Big Bad's modus operandi. The Beldam, a monstrous spider-like fairy, preys on children by constructing a Pocket Dimension full of all their wildest dreams, complete with idealized versions of their families and neighbours. The Beldam herself is the pièce de résistance of the whole illusion, disguising her hideous true form by pretending to be the victim's "Other Mother". Once she has the child in her grasp, she offers to let them stay forever in exchange for letting her sew her trademark black buttons into their eyes. Those who accept the deal are eaten, and they have their souls taken by the Beldam for good measure.
- KPop Demon Hunters: In tandem with I Know What You Fear, this is how Gwi-Ma converts people — either as demons or as food. He lured Jinu in with promises of fame and fortune — by forcing him to leave his mother and little sister in even worse poverty. Now all Jinu wants is his memories erased to ease the guilt, and Gwi-Ma continuously preys on Jinu's guilt to do his bidding. Later, during the Darkest Hour, he enthralls at least Bobby, Mira, and Zoey — and possibly all of Seoul — by rubbing their failure in their face (in Zoey, Mira, and Bobby's case, that they failed to keep their Family of Choice together via their flaws) and offering them what they want (Mira wants to have a family, Zoey wants to belong somewhere with all her quirks, and Bobby doesn't want to be alone). Unfortunately, "what they want" is instead having their soul eaten by a demon king.
- In The Princess and the Frog, when Tiana steals the magical talisman that Dr. Facilier needs for his Evil Plan, he conjures up a vision where she's human again, in the dream restaurant that she's been working for years to open, and offers to give it all to her if she hands it back and lets him keep Naveen. At this point, however, she realizes that she needs her restaurant and Naveen to be happy, and tries to smash the talisman instead. Sadly for Tiana, Dr. Facilier's Living Shadow snags it before it hits the ground, but it isn't long before Tiana turns the tables and actually smashes it, causing Dr. Facilier and his shadow to be dragged to the Other Side.
Film — Live-Action
- The Christmas Chronicles: Non-villainous version. Santa knows exactly what everyone wants for Christmas, because he's, you know, Santa Claus. So, at several points, he whips out the Heart's Desire of someone he's talking to and just gives it to them. Highlights include a rare baseball card, gifts for the police chief for ages 6-9, and a whole rock band's worth of musical instruments for some down-on-their-luck musicians so they can do a big damn Christmas carol as part of the film's Saving Christmas (plus the relationship between the Pierce siblings) plot.
- Legend (1985). Jack's heart's desire is his girlfriend Lili. When the fairy Oona and Jack are trapped in the dungeon of the villain Darkness, Oona offers Jack his heart's desire by assuming Lili's appearance and trying to get him to kiss her.
- The female 'space vampire' in Lifeforce (1985) took her appearance (her natural form is a winged alien creature) from the subconscious desires of the astronaut who found her. This gives him an unhealthy obsession with her, even after he discovers she feeds on Life Energy and is entirely capable of destroying the world.
Carlson: What are you? Why are you so human, so perfect? What were the bird-creatures on the [space]ship?
Space Girl: Our bodies are unimportant. As you and your men approached in your ship, we changed them for you. We entered your minds, and found their new bodies. I took my shape from your mind. I took your language. I became the woman I found there, in your deepest thoughts, your deepest...needs. - Suicide Squad (2016). At the final confrontation, Enchantress offers each member of the Squad the chance to fulfill their deepest desires, but they slowly start rejecting it or at least in some cases, debating it.
Literature
- In The Dresden Files. Primary modus operandi of the Denarians. The Shadows of the Fallen Angels are just as powerful and knowledgeable as their original forms, but need a willing Host to allow the Fallen to fully enter the person. While it could be lies on the Fallen's side, one way to break their Host is to offer them this idea. One White Court vampire who genuinely loves a mortal woman and is loved in return is burned by that Love they feel towards each other as it is a poison to his incubus demon within. While he is originally feels he could resist the Shadow's offer, when told it could grant him a way to be with his beloved and not fear being hurt by her love, he goes silent, recognizing the effectiveness of this tactic. To be more specific, the Fallen can change the flesh and all perceptions of the body felt by the wearer. That includes such minor things like changing the cold water to feel as pleasantly warm as the wearer desires (after half an hour in the shower, the wearer's lips were blue!) or giving the taste of the food the wearer is currently eating as that of the tastiest meal they ever ate. The other side of the coin and the proverbial stick is being able to make them see and feel like there is a staircase when there is none, thus causing the wearer to fall to their doom and get hurt badly enough to need the Fallen's assistance to even walk, or giving them horrifying hallucinations that the wearer will beg the Fallen for mercy. Whatever is needed to break the wearer's will and make them take the full power of the coin.
- Ella Enchanted: The ogres know all your secrets just by looking at you and have the ability to convince you by the power of their voices that they're your friends... right up until they eat you. While Ella, Hattie, and Olive are on the way to finishing school, ogres pursue their carriage. The coachman whips up the horses, but one of the ogres calls, in the sweetest voice Ella has ever heard, "Why do you run from your friends? We bear gifts of your hearts' desires. Riches, love, eternal life..." Ella, on hearing this, believes the ogres can bring her mother back to life, who had died of an illness early in the book. The others fall victim to the ogres' charm as well, including the coachman, who reins in the horses. The bleating of a flock of sheep briefly breaks the spell, and Ella has the idea of telling everyone to drown out the voices by yelling until they've outrun the ogres.
- Harry Potter had the Mirror of 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 it can be highly addictive, however. Dumbledore hides the Philosopher's Stone "inside" the mirror as its final measure of protection—someone who wants to use its powers will just see themselves doing so, but someone who wants the stone for itself, without intent to use it, will magically obtain it.
- Neverwhere: The angel Islington can see into people’s hearts and offer them what they most desire.
- Larry Niven's Known Space series had a gadget called a tasp, which stimulated the pleasure centre of the brain directly. Users quickly became addicted and eventually starved to death, immobile in a puddle of their own wastes. Humanity had given up trying to treat the problem, regarding it as Darwinsim in action in a society which was, in any case, hugely over-populated so there was no value is trying to save people who would have nothing to contribute.
- Stanley G. Weinbaum's science fiction short story A Martian Odyssey has a carnivorous plant monster that reads the mind of its victim and creates a mental illusion of what the victim most desires to lure it into the plant's clutches.
- In Pact, Faysal Anwar, Gatekeeper of the Seventh Ring, offers Blake Thorburn a choice of either immortality (by giving him the ability to return from death indefinitely) or humanity (by restoring the pieces of Blake that were torn away when Blake fell through the cracks in the world), if he'll come work for Faysal's master Johannes. To Blake, who ultimately just wants to be free, both are incredibly tempting not for themselves but what they'd allow him to do.
- The short story "A Part of the Game" in Dragon magazine #51. A group of desert travelers find an oasis which appears to be a gate to a utopian other world. Most of the group enters the pool only to be eaten by its inhabitant, a monster that can create beautiful illusions.
- Two works by Ray Bradbury:
- The novel Something Wicked This Way Comes has a carnival that entices some boys by showing them exciting and marvelous things. Particularly vulnerable is Jim, who is fascinated by it, and who harbors a strong desire to become older.
- One of The Martian Chronicles is "The Lost City of Mars." It was built long before humans landed on Mars, and has lain empty and dormant for millennia. But when a tour party happens upon it, the city quietly awakens, and separates the party. The city then custom builds their most fervent desires, making their wildest dreams come true. Almost too late, Captain Wilder realizes the city is a Lotus-Eater Machine that needs living minds to sustain its purpose. Wilder escapes with the actress just before the city seals the exits, trapping the rest of the party in its innards.
- C'tlan in Technomagia i smoki, somewhat similarly to the A Martian Odyssey monster, hunts by inducing hallucinations in prey to lure it. It is, however, motile.
- In The Whispering Skull, those who are ensnared by a glimpse of the bone-glass hear a ghostly, whispering, wheedling voice urging them "Look. Look. I give you your heart's desire." Those who actually do look into it directly, either by their own choice or because they are forced to, die no more than a minute after.
Live-Action TV
- Battlestar Galactica (1978), episode "War of the Gods Part 1". The mysterious being known as Count Iblis can read the mind of anyone he talks to and determine their greatest desire.
- Blake's 7. In "Headhunter", Orac is taken over by the Monster of the Week.
Orac: Join us, Soolin. We can fulfill your every desire.
Soolin: [turning Orac off] You wouldn't know where to start. - Malachi from HEX turns students into incubi and succubi by offering them what they truly desire (unconsciously, so they aren't even aware of said desires). For Ella, this is a normal life, Thelma desires a lover, Leon desires to be Ella's equal in combat, Alex desires to be the Alpha Bitch. However, there are some desires Malachi cannot fulfil. He cannot make Leon fall in love with Tom due to Leon being straight. He also cannot grant Roxanne's wish for redemption and peace with God because he happens to be The Antichrist.
- The Greeed from Kamen Rider OOO are all about this. They are basically ancient homunculi who feed on humans' desire indirectly via their Yuumies.
- Lucifer (2016). This is a shtick of the title character, who can look into someone's eyes and compel them to reveal this trope. This can vary from wanting to commit murder to wanting a cheeseburger.
Lucifer: Tell me. What is it you truly desire?
- Raven has a rare heroic example: after becoming the champion of the first series, Lamar wins his heart's desire in the form of a boating holiday with his family.
- 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.
- The total-immersion video game BetterThanLife was pretty much this. Unfortunately Rimmer's subconscious can't accept a world where nice things are happening to him, so his worst nightmares start coming true instead.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Original Series:
- In the original pilot, the Talosians try to get Captain Pike to accept his captivity with various illusions. When he rejects them, it's pointed out that a man in his position would be more tempted by the things he can't have. Cue appearance of the first Green-Skinned Space Babe dancing erotically for Pike who's now a decadent Orion slave trader.
- In "The Man Trap", the Monster of the Week shapeshifts into the form of an attractive member of the opposite sex, either to get close to a victim or prevent themselves from being killed. When the scientist who's been protecting the creature (who's taken the appearance of his dead wife) tries to defend his actions, Captain Kirk is not impressed.
Kirk: You bleed too much, Crater. You're too pure and noble. Are you saving the Last of Its Kind or has this become Crater's private heaven, here on this planet? This thing becomes wife, lover, best friend, wise man, fool, idol, slave. It isn't a bad life to have everyone in the universe at your beck and call, and you win all the arguments. - Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "Hide And Q", Q grants Commander Riker his powers and encourages him to give his friends on the Enterprise what they most desire. Captain Picard tells him to go ahead. However Data rejects the opportunity to Become a Real Boy because it would be no more real to him than his android self. Wesley is made an adult, but he says he would prefer to grow up naturally. Geordi's blindness is cured, but even though he's smitten by the sight of Tasha Yar's beauty he doesn't want to owe Q any favors. And Worf is offered a Klingon mate whom he rejects as she's from a world that's now alien to him.
- Star Trek: Voyager: In the episode "Bliss", the space-borne equivalent of a pitcher plant tricked the crew of Voyager into entering it by making it appear to them as a wormhole they could use to return home and be reunited with their loved ones. The only people unaffected were the Doctor (a hologram, but the creature tricked the rest of the crew into shutting him off), Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman (who, only being familiar with life on Voyager, had no real desire to go to Earth), and a Captain Ahab-type alien captain who had been hunting the creature (and was thus familiar with the creature's tricks). It does briefly work on Seven at the end when the creature makes her imagine escaping from it, which she did genuinely desire at that point.
- Star Trek: The Original Series:
- Supernatural: The Djinn trap their prey by making their deepest wishes come true— by putting them in a hallucinogenic trance while the Djinn drains all their blood over the course of several days. Dean was once caught by a Djinn who made him experience an alternate world where the Winchesters' mother was never killed by a demon.
Mythology & Religion
- This goes all the way back to the Sirens of Classical Mythology. They would sing a song that made them irresistible to sailors, who would steer their ships toward the sound. Then the ships would hit the rocks surrounding the sirens and sink.
- In a great many stories Satan is said to know Your Heart's Desire in order to get you to sign a Deal with the Devil. Far too many stories to list, really.
- Several examples of Jackass Genie.
Tabletop Games
- Amazing Engine: Setting supplement Bughunters. Polyhedron magazine #106 has an article called "Bugging the Hunters" with dangers that UTPRF Marines could face. One is the device known as the Siren. It uses mechanical telepathy to summons humans to its location and makes them see whatever they desire most. When they approach the Siren, it strangles them with its tentacles.
- Chaosium's supplement All the Worlds' Monsters Volume III. The Dream Beast is a telepathic plant that can cause any creature looking at it to see whatever it wants most. Once the target gets close enough, the Dream Beast grabs it with its 5-10 Combat Tentacles and drags it in to be eaten.
- DragonQuest (1980): In the supplement The Enchanted Wood, the Player Characters encounter a living bog that can generate illusions of desirable things to lure them into itself. The bog tricks the characters by creating the illusion of a castle which appears to be a Rest-and-Resupply Stop. When the Player Characters touch it, it disappears and reveals that they are trapped in the bog.
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- 1st/2nd Edition:
- Adventure 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.
- Dark Sun/World of Athas campaign setting. The Red Silt Horror uses its telepathic/ESP abilities to determine what its target desires most, then uses its False Sensory Input power to create an image of the desired item. After its target moves close to it, it attacks.
- Forgotten Realms supplement FR4 The Magister. The Cloak of Delight can cause any creature that sees it to fall into an motionless and oblivious trance for 1-8 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.
- Dungeon magazine #50, adventure "The Object of Desire". Sultan Farouz al-Algarin has a magical mirror that shows him something that will fulfill his heart's desire..
- Adventure S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
- 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 Infinite Staircase, introduced in the Planescape setting, is a transitive plane that consists of an endless network of stairs hanging in space, whose landings contain Portal Doors to various places across the planes. It's a handy way to get around the Great Wheel if you know how to navigate it, but there's a chance for a character traversing the Infinite Staircase by themself to suddenly notice a new staircase leading to a door, which they instinctively realize leads to their heart's deepest desire. If that traveler resists the urge to step through, they'll never be able to find that door again, while those who succumb are never seen again... though as far as anyone else knows, they found what they wanted.
- 1st/2nd Edition:
- Earthdawn: In the supplement Earthdawn Companion, questors of the Mad Passion Vestrial have the ability to learn a target's greatest desire, allowing them to manipulate the target by granting their desire. They have another ability that allows them to implant a desire in a target that becomes the target's greatest desire.
- In Nomine: When a Lilim (a type of demon) looks into someone's eyes, she can see that person's greatest need. She can then use her demonic abilities and resources to meet that need and gain a geas (control) over that person.
- Shadowrun has an Awakened creature ability called "Desire Reflection". It allows the creature to know the greatest desire of another being and trick that being into believing that the creature is that thing. A number of creatures possess this ability, such as the Incubus, Blackberry Cat, Kludde, Quicksilver Mongoose, and Siberian Firebird.
- Space Patrol: Subverted. In an example of play, a man walking through a forest sees a beautiful nude woman. Believing that such coincidence is only possible in the movies, he decides that the woman is an illusion created by a man-hungry alien monster. He draws his blaster and fires at it, reducing it to its component atoms. The text reveals that the man was wrong: it was a real woman and he is now a murderer.
Video Games
- The 7th Guest: This is Henry Stauf's modus operandi. He invites six guests to his mansion on this very promise, on the condition that they solve the puzzles inside to find out what to do to achieve their desires. It turns out to be a means to an end, as all but one of the guests end up killing each other over the titular seventh guest, a boy named Tad that Stauf wants to sacrifice to some unseen higher power.
- The aptly-named Desire Demons from Dragon Age.
- Fallen London: The Masters of the Bazaar host an Absurdly High-Stakes Game called The Marvellous, a card tournament where the winner gets whatever reasonable desire they want from an ultra-powerful insanely rich corporation. The catch? Not only do you have to 'convince' the other five contestants in the game to play again, but during the final round, the losing player can bet something of great value, from their vast fortunes to an aspect of their soul, and it will be taken from them if they lose. Many players have been ruined or driven insane trying to obtain the ultimate prize; the potential winner, Beechwood, is one such player who went mad because he won the game, and seeks to win again — this time, wishing that the Bazaar ends the games. Sacrificing this chance yourself ensures you'll lose your heart's desire, but you'll obtain a supernatural deck that can help you win your daily battles, uncaged from said desire.
- Fate/Grand Order: During the first part of the sixth lostbelt "Avalon le Fae", the Player Character's party comes across Dracae: a river faerie that uses illusions of what people want to drag them into the water to breed with her. Hilariously, Dracae was unable to display the true wish of Oberon, displaying a "Sold Out" sign instead because he is secretly an Omnicidal Maniac.
- The PC horror game The Path can be interpreted this way, as it seems that each girl's wolf is something that appeals to them according to their personality, and thus they are lured in one by one.
- Persona 5 Royal has Takuto Maruki, after he gains Yaldabaoth's powers, granting the wishes of the Phantom Thieves. Unlike most examples, this is done out of misguided benevolence rather than malice. The Phantom Thieves still reject him because if everyone in the world got what they wanted, no one would strive to do anything else in life and ultimately life would die out with no drive.
- This is pretty much the reason why people enter into Twisted Metal.
- Twisted-Wonderland: This is how Malleus's spell works. It constructs a personalized dream for each dreamer - setting only the vague constraints of "keep dreaming happy dreams" and "no negative emotions like sadness or anger allowed". Thus, it is the dreamers themselves whose imaginations and memories construct the dreams. Like the example above, Malleus believes that he's doing something good.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Z refers to Mio's body as N's. Unlike the standard Moebius recruitment, he throws the bonus of resurrecting her as an immortal Moebius into N's Deal with the Devil.
Webcomics
- In The Order of the Stick, this is what the final illusion in Girard Draketooth's pyramid does, trapping anyone in a Lotus-Eater Machine so that Girard's clan can kill them. However, by this point, Girard's entire clan is dead, having fallen victim to V's Familicide spell. Interestingly, it is Elan who breaks the Order out of it by realizing his heart's desire (seeing his dysfunctional, broken family reunited) is too unrealistic to ever happen and wouldn't really be a good idea.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation:
- When viewed, SCP-071 ("Degenerative Metamorphic Entity") changes its form to match that of its observer's strongest sexual desire, even if that sexual desire is for dogs or corpses. If the observer has sex with it, they suffer significant temporary and permanent negative side effects.
- SCP-157 ("Mimetic Predator"). SCP-157 uses telepathy to project an illusion that it is something the target would want to eat, wear, or apply to its body.
- SCP-699 ("Mystery Box"). 90% of people who look at SCP-699 see that it holds "something they want to possess or to release...", such as "...precious metals, artwork, family members, pets, religious figures, and apparently useful technology..."
- SCP-978 ("Desire Camera") is a camera that produces photos of something the subject of the photo wants, whether it's a lifelong dream or a momentary desire. The photos can range from something as mundane as a guard dog and trainer wanting to play fetch together, to something as absurd as a spider wanting to build a web that fills up an entire hallway.
- SCP-1888 ("Terraforming Temple"). When a sapient creature looks inside the "Treasure Room", it sees some extremely valuable object(s) appropriate to its own knowledge. For example, a jewel thief would see precious stones and gems, a nuclear physicist would see a cold fusion reactor, and so on.
- When viewed, SCP-071 ("Degenerative Metamorphic Entity")
Western Animation
- Aladdin: The Series had a variant in one episode: a small, timid animal that can do this whenever scared, hoping to distract a perceived threat. Naturally, Iago and Abu continually frighten it just to get stuff. In the end, Iago used a mirror to make the critter scare itself so it would grant its own heart's desire: to go home.
- Fantastic Voyage. In "The Magic Crystal of Kabala", when the protagonists enter the title magic item they are each exposed to a fantasy that fulfills their heart's desire in an attempt to entrap them.
- The trope picture of the page is from Gravity Falls. In The Love God, while escaping the Love God, he uses a spell of "Visions of Past Loves" on Dipper and Mabel. While Dipper has already sorted out his crush issue with Wendy, it becomes hilariously effective on Mabel, who's had way too many crushes (even the "guy from the ten dollar bill") and hasn't clearly gotten over the ones we've seen so far.
- Mabel falls for this again when Blendin Blandin (possessed by Bill Cipher) offers to create a "time bubble" that will allow her summer in Gravity Falls to continue indefinitely. All she has to do is give him the cosmic rift that will allow Bill to enter the real world. (In fairness, she only had the rift by accident and had no idea what it was.)
- Bill then imprisons her in Mabelland, a magical land that grants her every whim. Wendy and Soos are also drawn in when they go to rescue her, but Dipper realizes it's Too Good to Be True. All of them escape only after Dipper convinces Mabel to reject the illusion.
- Justice League: The series adaptation of For The Man Who Has Everything sees Superman trapped in an illusion created by a psychic, parasitic plant called the "Black Mercy" which sedates its hosts with their deepest fantasies as it feeds on them, with Clark's being a life as a humble farmer on Krypton with a loving family. Realizing that it's in fact a lie and that his friends are in danger, Superman is forced to agonizingly say goodbye to his illusionary son, and come back to reality, furious at Mongul for subjecting him to such an impossible dream and reminding him of what he lost.
- In the same episode, Batman gets the Black Mercy latched onto him after freeing Superman. His fantasy shows Thomas Wayne fighting back against the mugger in Crime Alley that night with young Bruce cheering on. Though as Wonder Woman gets it off him, his dream ends when the mugger pushes Thomas off him and points the gun at him.
- Kid Cosmic: A Lotus-Eater Machine attempts to trap the cast into staying within it by offering them things they'd want, like having your diner become a global chain (Flo) or getting to ride a dinosaur princess (Rosa). Kid's greatest desire, however, is something more important than material things, as seen when the fantasy attempts to offer him a chance to reunite with his dead parents.
- Miraculous Ladybug has a rare heroic example. The Pig Miraculous, which grants the power of Jubilation, reveals what a person truly desires to help the target overcome their negativity and encourage them to pursue what makes them happy. Ladybug entrusts this Miraculous to Rose Lavillant, now the new superheroine Pigella, to save her best friend Juleka/Reflekta from her despair.
- Later used by the villain Darker Owl to immobilize Ladybug and Cat Noir so he can take their Miraculous. He nearly succeeds, but Ladybug's Lucky Charm takes the form of an alarm clock that convinces her to wake up from the dream.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: An accident more than a malicious act, but "Cutie Pox" features Apple Bloom misusing a plant that's outright called Heart's Desire in order to get her cutie mark. She got it, all right... dozens of them.
- The Regular Show Christmas Episode revolved around the group Saving Christmas from an enchanted box that grants the user whatever they want most, with the cost of the Black Magic used to create it turning them Brainwashed and Crazy.
- The VeggieTales episode "LarryBoy and the Bad Apple" dealt with the aesop of temptation and how difficult it is to fight it by revolving around a dangerous villain who literally trapped her victims inside their own obsessions.
- Cleopatra in Space has the episode Paradise Found in which the heroes find a sentient planet that does this. Cleopatra saw her father and Gozi. Kenshin saw an ex girlfriend of his. Brian got to see an inventor he admired. Akila got to see unicorns.
- Storm Hawks The episode of Siren's Song, where all the protagonists are trapped by their deepest wishes. Aerrow, to fight and beat his archenemy, Finn, to meet hot girls flirting with him, Junko, to get to eat a special brand of hamburgers he loves, Piper, to find an extremely rare and powerful crystal, and Stork, to acquire a new model of helmet that safeguards from mind control. Radarr's wish is not shown in detail, but a combination of pantomime and sound effects imply his wish is to fly a Skimmer, which is simple enough that nobody notices him take control of the Condor and fly it to safety.
- In one episode of Captain N: The Game Master, the N Team comes across a carnival which makes physical replications of things they like — for Kevin, an endless video game arcade, for Lana, a clothing shop, for Dr. Light, a lab, etc. They distract the heroes from their main quest, but with the help of Roll, Megaman breaks out of the spell, beats the Carnival's ringmaster, and forces the rest of the N Team out of there.