This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Ms Mac Guffin: From YKTTW
Wait, that other trope says that the MacGuffin is defined as an "interchangable plot device" which is only important because everyone wants it, not because it does anything in particular. But a MacGuffin Girl in any fiction isn't very likely to be just an "interchangable" object. They're usually, say, a weapon, or a key of some kind - they usually have a very specific purpose in the plot, and their possession CHANGES the plot. That in mind, maybe MacGuffin Girl is the wrong choice of name for this?
Freezair For A Limited Time: Lots of MacGuffins do do something important, which is why they're desirable. The "interchangable" is for the purposes of the plot, not so much literally. If the Big Bad wants to use the MacGuffin to take over the world, it doesn't matter if the MacGuffin is a huge bomb fit for an Omnicidal Maniac or something that can stop time.
gamer9190: How about the Keymaker from The Matrix: Reloaded? He's basically a sentient key. There's even Genre Savvy on the Merovingian's part: he points out that the Keymaker is merely a means to an end.
Fencedude: Removed the central spoiler tag on the Bleach entry, it was completely redundant.
arromdee: I don't think the Fifth Element and Men in Black examples really count. They don't fit, after all; the girl isn't an object.
arromdee: Sorry, people, I took that section out. There are far more tropes where a person is being sought after for other reasons than where they're sought after because they're actually a transformed object. The section, if left in, would soon grow to take over the page. Besides, it really wasn't what I had meant for the trope to be about. I would suggest making a second, more generalized, trope, and putting the examples in there. (I'm not even sure we don't already have one.)
The Defenestrator: The problem is that "McGuffin" is the more general term. Some names for either trope that I've thought up: Feminine Plot Coupon, Object Of Attention, The Treasure Is A Girl, Chekhovs Girl.
Noaqiyeum: Not All Treasure Is Silver And Gold? (From Pot C: Black Pearl.) (Doesn't flow very well, though.)
arromdee: Took out the Xena example because, well, it isn't an example, since a king is not an object.
Does Aura in Alastair Reynolds's Absolution Gap count? The MacGuffin in question is a massive dump of information from an ancient alien living computer (the Hades matrix), implanted in her's brain not long after she was conceived. —Document N
Does The Kalach-Cha count. (Not born a MacGuffin, but become one by having a piece of it stuck in you.)
arromdee: I never heard of either of those. Do people in the show keep describing the thing they're seeking as an object? Do they angst about not being human? Does someone else angst about having to turn them back into objects to save the world? (Or is there a plot "even though she was an object, she's human now and I refuse to treat her as a component")?
Devon_v: What's the intent with "If you've ever played Chrono Trigger, then you'll understand how the fact that Serge is the Chrono Trigger counts as an example of this."? Serge is from Cross, not Trigger. I'm not sure if the Troper meant Crono, though I'd argue that Nadia/Marle is in fact the first game's Chrono Trigger, considering that she's the driving force of most of the plot, and she's the one to whom the Time Egg is given, and she's the one who alters Crono's fate.
I was thinking of a character in the 8th Xanth novel. The main character was tasked with chasing after an unknown object that was bit of a MacGuffin in its own right, as a means of deciding the winner in a contest between two Magicians, who were trying to decide who would become the next king. Suffice to say, it turned out to be the King's daughter, who was sought after as an engagement with her would increase legitimacy in the eyes of Xanth commoners.
Masami Phoenix: Okay I removed the following, because Nobodies are clearly not MacGuffin Girls as they are trying to kill you and Organization XIII is your active enemy the entire 2nd and 3rd game. The elements it points out are a combination of What Measure Is a Non-Human? and Complaining About Plot Elements You Don't Like and has nothing to do with Mac Guffins at all.
- The Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts are a version of this; they are sentient beings created from a part of someone that wasn't sentient. Some fans consider it a Wall Banger that the issue of whether it's okay to destroy them as independent entities is glossed over.
Why does the entry for "Dargon Torque" Haruka, of Noein, keep getting deleted from the Female Examples Anime folder? It's even reverse-linked from the Noein page.
Xelloss08: I agree, Haruka definitely fits this trope. She starts off not knowing what she is, Yuu/Karasu know/knew her before learning she was the Dragon Torque, the Dragon Knights divide over whether she deserves to live, et cetera. She's a perfect example.
Some Sort Of Troper: Is there a reason this page has an arbitrary gender split?
macroscopic: I agree, there's really no point to it.
Cameoflage: I think the name MacGuffin Girl should move over to the trope currently located at The President's Daughter, because that trope seems to be what everyone thinks "Mac Guffin Girl" means: any girl who's sought after by various factions in the manner of a MacGuffin. We should get a less ambiguous name for "normally inanimate/nonhumanoid MacGuffin transformed into a girl".
