Trope Corner: Be Careful What You Wish For
Time for my second Trope Corner post! In case you didn’t know, Trope Corner is where I pick a trope and talk about it, if I’ve used it, and any books, shows or movies that are good examples for it. This is mostly just a place for me to gush and hopefully hear from you all about your thoughts on the trope!
The trope today is “Be Careful What You Wish For” which is such a great trope! It’s defined by TV Tropes as: “A character makes a wish and actually gets what they wished for, only to find that the reality does not live up to their fantasy.”
There is a lot to this trope, like, a lot. This trope can go in lots of different directions, for example, the wish could be granted by a magical being or it could happen through a non-magical series of events, either way, they get what they want. Sometimes, they learn their lesson by seeing the effects an alternate timeline, rather than dealing with the consequences in their reality, I believe sit-coms can get away with this more than other types of media though. There are also lots of different reasons why the wish can go wrong, which I love!
If you’re curious, there’s also lots of sub-tropes to this one that are more specific in detail and execution.
One of the reasons I really like this trope is because it works really well in fairy tale retellings. It’s a common trope in the original fairy tales, so it’s really useful to include to maintain the fairy tale aura.
In fact, I’m using this trope in my current project, Stalks of Gold. It’s a huge part of the plot and resolving the conflict, so I won’t say too much!
But, there are lots of other examples we can talk about. For example, if you’ve read Coraline by Neil Gaiman or seen the movie, this trope is used as the basis of the plot. The movie even used the saying as the tagline. Coraline wants a more interesting life, but when she gets it, she realizes it’s not what she thought it would be.
The Phantom of the Opera is another good example of this! Christine wishes for the Angel of Music her father talked about and in a way, she gets it. The Phantom uses this to his advantage, creating the whole conflict.
In Disney’s Aladdin, this is how the heroes are able to defeat Jafar. He gets his wish to become a genie and access such vast amounts of power but loses his freedom in the process.
Honestly, there are so many examples of this trope, so I won’t bore you going into even more. I’m sure you get the gist. I think there’s just so much versatility in this trope, and it’s a great way to explore character growth and inspire change. Realizing that the thing you wanted isn’t what you thought it would be is such a powerful moment in a character’s journey. A core part of a character is what they want. Throughout the book, or movie, or show, or whatever, they’re pursuing what they want, so turning that on its head causes a point of no return for the character. Plus, there are so many clever ways to use the trope, you really can mold it to fit the story regardless of where you start.
I just love this trope, and I’m so excited to use it in such a big way in Stalks of Gold.
Do you love this trope? Do you hate it? Let me know! Give me your favorite example of this trope below or, if you’ve got a favorite trope you want to hear me talk about, put it below!
If you’re interested in learning more about this trope, here’s the TV Tropes page.