History Main / BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor

* The story of the Monkey's Paw is an often-cited example of this trope. The story goes that a man, woman, and their adult son were very poor. One day, the man came home with something he'd bought, called the Monkey's Paw. It would grant three wishes to it's owners. The wife, not believing it was real, wished for a large sum of money. That night, someone from the factory her son worked for knocked on the door. He told them that their son had been killed in an accident, and that the factory would cover his funeral expenses. He then handed them exactly the sum of money the woman had wished for.

** Jaune Arc's original goal was to become a hero, a veritable KnightInShiningArmor. Over time, he comes to learn that heroism isn't all it's cracked up to be, leaving him a KnightInSourArmor. [[spoiler:Being trapped in the Ever After alone for years transformed him into the Rusted Knight, a fairy tale hero from one of Remnant's most beloved children's stories. However, he learns the truth behind the fairy tale is deeply unpleasant; Alyx is a selfish person who becomes increasingly paranoid and cruel over time, betraying both Jaune's attempts to help her and her own brother in her quest to get back home. Bitter, jaded and burned out, Jaune is now a KnightInSourArmor who believes he can't even make it as a make-believe hero, never mind a real one.]]

* The {{Jerkass}} protagonist of ''YandereILoveYouSoIWantToKillYou'' wants to have sex with as many girls as possible. He gets his wish, but, as the title suggests, he gets a few {{Yandere}} girls who may try to kill him if he makes the wrong choice.

* The {{Jerkass}} protagonist of ''VisualNovel/YandereILoveYouSoIWantToKillYou'' wants to have sex with as many girls as possible. He gets his wish, but, as the title suggests, he gets a few {{Yandere}} girls who may try to kill him if he makes the wrong choice.

** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1978-08-06 In a very early strip]], Garfield is shown hanging onto the screen door simply because he's bored, complaining of his boredom. He wishes for something to happen. A very '''mundane''' yet apparently painful something occurs [[TheDoorSlamsYou when Jon announces it's lunchtime]].

** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2013-12-08 When Jon and Liz were about to take their Christmas card photo,]] Jon called for Garfield and Odie, claiming they wanted ''everyone'' in it. Garfield then brought [[ExactWords several characters,]] including the pizza delivery guy ("He's like family," according to Garfield).

** [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1988/08/16 Roy encounters Bo while carrying a heavy sack. He then tells Bo to step aside so he gets to walk by. Bo obliges... except Bo happens to be standing in front of a cliff, and the strip ends with Roy about to walk right off it.]]

** [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1987/03/15 Booker and Sheldon ask Orson to read them a story]], with [[TemptingFate Booker asking Orson to "make it scary"]]. The problem is that Orson is MrImagination, which causes the scary scenes Orson reads to come to life, prompting Booker (alongside Bo and Wade, who join in for the storytelling session) to shout for Orson to get them out of the scary story. Luckily for them, Orson manages to fulfill their request with "and they all lived happily ever after".
** [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1987/08/30 Booker encourages Wade to jump into a pool]], [[TemptingFate claiming Wade will stay afloat via his inner tube]]. Wade does so... and promptly slips out of his inner tube and sinks. Luckily, Wade manages to save himself.
** [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1986/09/18 Orson asks Roy to teach Sheldon how to fly.]] He turns around JustInTime to stop Roy from launching Sheldon in a slingshot.

** [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1989/04/23 Roy uses a vending machine to get corn, but the yielded return is less than he desired.]] He then inserts over a dozen more coins into the machine -- this time, the sheer amount of corn floods and buries Roy all the way to the mouth.

SubTrope of BeCarefulWhatYouSay. SuperTrope of ItsAWonderfulPlot, IWishItWereReal, IWishedYouWereDead, PleaseDumpMe, and RhetoricalRequestBlunder. Often overlaps with FullCircleRevolution — "So you want new leadership? MeetTheNewBoss, [[Music/WhosNext same as the old boss]]."

* One of the supplements for the ''TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness'' series, ''Mysterious Places'', has the Swimmin' Hole, which occasionally grants wishes to those who spill blood in it. One such example of the end result is a man named Eddie Lansdale, whose last wish was that his ex-girlfriend, Edith, would come back to him. She did, but the power behind the Swimmin' Hole had turned her into an undead abusive {{Yandere}}.

* This trope is a staple of fantasy roleplaying when wishes are available to players, often spurring almost comic efforts to avoid {{loophole|Abuse}}s, [[ExactWords poor wording]], or [[GoneHorriblyRight ill-conceived]] wishes. In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', Wishes are most often obtained from literal {{Jerkass Genie}}s and [[DealWithTheDevil demons]], which ''[[SchmuckBait should]]'' be a pretty clear warning. The most powerful arcane spellcasters in 3rd edition can make wishes safely within certain parameters; beyond those, [=GMs=] are encouraged to get [[KillerGameMaster creative]] with unexpected side effects. Particularly if a player is trying to make a game-breaking wish.
* You can ask a higher power to directly intervene in battle in ''[[{{TabletopGame/FateOfTheNornsRagnarok}} Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok]]'', but if the runes are not with you, they might very well appear on the battlefield and kick the crap out of your party instead of helping you.

* Combining this trope with an EvilLawyerJoke; a man who has lost a case in court and now has his wages garnished, finds a lamp and lets the genie out. The genie gives him three wishes, upon which the man says, “For my first wish, I want all lawyers to disappear.” Genie grants him his wish and Poof! All the lawyers in the world are gone. The man says, “For my second wish …” The genie interrupts him and proclaims, “No more wishes!” The man complains, “But you promises me three wishes! You have to keep your word.” Genie retorts, “What are you going to do? Sue me?”

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Team RWBY desperately wants [[BigGood Ozpin]] to be honest with them, especially when they realise that some of his secrets carry the consequence of endangering lives. Although he tries to warn them that people who learn his secrets [[ProperlyParanoid inevitably turn against him]], they believe that they will be different and ignore his frustrated observation that he's heard that one before, too. When Oscar tells them how they can learn what Ozpin's hiding, they jump at the chance to finally understand what the SecretWar with [[BigBad Salem]] is really about. [[spoiler:By asking the Relic of Knowledge, they learn about the history of Ozpin and Salem, how their war began and the fact that the fate of humanity is at stake. However, the only thing they can focus on is the revelation that Salem is [[CompleteImmortality impossible to kill]] and that Ozpin doesn't know how to defeat her. This [[AwfulTruth truth is so awful]] for them that they do exactly what Ozpin predicted: they turn on him in anger and his [[UndyingLoyalty most loyal supporter]], Qrow, wants [[BrokenPedestal nothing more to do with him]].]]

Compare GoneHorriblyRight (when science or logic is involved rather than wishes), WantingIsBetterThanHaving (when getting your wish ends with more disappointment than satisfaction), TemptingFate (which does not specifically require a wish) and OriginalPositionFallacy (when someone wants something they know will be bad for some, but wrongfully assume they will benefit from it).

** For the third and final wish, Doctor H. and Miss Peach are of course still married, but are now 100 years old just as the doctor wanted. The only problem here is that Doctor H. finds the senior citizen Miss Peach to be less attractive than her younger self... at which point he gives up on the wish entirely and begs for everything to go back to normal.

** One strip has Garfield [[CatUpATree stranded up a tree]]. Garfield says to it "Stupid tree... may all your stupid branches fall off!" Needless to say, all the tree's branches broke off and fell to the ground. Including the one he was on.

** Even God could be harsh in granting wishes when the wishers were being too whiny. In response to the Israelites complaining about all manna and no meat, he gave them meat for a month "until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you" (KJV).

** During the time of the Judges, Israel had no king (except for God himself). The Israelites decided they didn't like this situation and wanted a human king like all the surrounding nations. So God tells them, "Alright, I'll give you your king, but [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%208:10-18&version=NIV you won't like him very much]]". In no fewer than four kings (Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam), Israelites got so tired of all the work imposed by the king (particularly Solomon, who built the temple and many other great works) that 10 tribes chose to follow a different fellow named Jeroboam, instead of Rehoboam, son of Solomon, splitting the nation into the northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah. As if this wasn't bad enough, most of the time (starting especially with Jeroboam), the kings (and their foreign-born queens) led the nation into idolatry, until the northern kingdom of Israel was wiped out by Assyrians and the southern kingdom of Judah underwent a long period of captivity in Babylon.

** Horus' greatest wish was to be remembered. [[Literature/HorusHeresy Now no one will forget his name]].

** Ikki was in elementary school and tended to be ignored by the girls. He saw a shooting star and wished to become popular with girls... and he was given [[HypnoticEyes the power to make any woman fall in love with him that looked him in the eye]]. Now he cannot go out in public without getting accosted by girls and women, and even wearing sunglasses only has limited success in keeping them away.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Team RWBY desperately wants [[BigGood Ozpin]] to be honest with them, especially when they realise that some of his secrets carry the consequence of endangering lives. Although he tries to warn them that people who learn his secrets [[ProperlyParanoid inevitably turn against him]], they believe that they will be different and ignore his frustrated observation that he's heard that one before, too. When Oscar tells them how they can learn what Ozpin's hiding, they jump at the chance to finally understand what the SecretWar with [[BigBad Salem]] is really about. [[spoiler:By asking the Relic of Knowledge, they learn about the history of Ozpin and Salem, how their war began and the fact that the fate of humanity is at stake. However, the only thing they can focus on is the revelation that Salem is [[CompleteImmortality impossible to kill]] and that Ozpin doesn't know how to defeat her. This [[AwfulTruth truth is so awful]] for them that they do exactly what Ozpin predicted: they turn on him in anger and even his [[UndyingLoyalty most loyal supporter]], Qrow, wants [[BrokenPedestal nothing more to do with him]].]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor/RealLife

* Meta Example in the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' game. In the 2015 Forbidden/Limited List, several cards that had been Forbidden for years after becoming [[TierInducedScrappy Tier Induced Scrappies]] (including Dark Magician of Chaos, Sinister Serpent, Ring of Destruction, and Crush Card Virus) that many of their former users would have loved to use again were upgraded to Limited -- with a catch. These cards were given new errata that give them serious {{nerf}}s, making the powerful strategies they were outlawed for completely unusable, even in Traditional Format.

** Later, in ''Justice for All, [[spoiler: Matt Engarde]] wants to be found Not Guilty to the point where he hires an assassin to blackmail Phoenix with the threat of Maya being killed. When all's said and done, he can absolutely get that Not Guilty verdict... ''after'' Phoenix has told the assassin he hired that [[spoiler: Matt]] intended to [[BlackmailBackfire blackmail him]]. The assassin is furious and states outright that if he ever sees his employer outside of prison, he ''will'' kill him. The guy eventually confesses to avoid getting a Not Guilty verdict and being put in the assassin's sights.

* In [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/2myrtle1911.html "The Myrtle"]], a woman [[WonderChild wishes for a child, even a sprig of myrtle]].

-->'''Jason:''' Bad news, Mom. My ninja stars punctured the hot water heater.\\

* Played with in one fairy tale about a girl who lies dying during the early spring from [[IllGirl a malady winter has afflicted her with]] who wishes that she could at least get to live for as long as the beautiful spring flowers in her garden still bloom so she can meet with her boyfiend who is set to return to her before summer. She near instantly becomes healthy and, unusually for [[TimeDelayedDeath the way these kinds of tales tend to work out]], seems fully aware of the fact that [[LivingOnBorrowedTime her life is now]] [[ExactWords tied to her garden flowers]] and starts taking good care of them to ensure her own survival. She never regrets her wish or angsts about how [[YourDaysAreNumbered her days are numbered]] but is simply thankful for the additional time she has been given and is [[LikeYouWereDying even more loving and kind to her family than usual]]... Cue her unknowing boyfriend returning while she's napping in the garden: he plucks the flowers, braids them into a crown and wakes her up by placing it upon her head. The girl quickly realizes what the boy has done and hurriedly sets the flowers in water but over the following days. As the flowers wither away, so does the girl. The story ends with the last petals of the flowers falling as the girl peacefully passes away with her family and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone devastated]] boyfriend at her side while the hushed laughs of TheFairFolk are heard from the garden.

** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2022/09/04 the September 4, 2022 strip]], Jon once wrote a report when he was a child, where he stated his wish to be a cartoonist as an adult, have a cat and a dog that would live with him in a big house and love him and, in his own words, "do everything I say because they will be my pets and I will be their master". He certainly got his wish -- that is, everything ''except'' the part about his pets being obedient.

-->'''Jon''': What happened to you?
-->'''Garfield''': (in badly beat-up shape) I hate cute...

* Discussed in detail in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', but for the most part averted. Except for Archer. [[spoiler:I want to save everyone! I know, how about I make a contract with the world? Guardian Spirits gets to save people all the time! Oh wait, they actually kill people en masse indiscriminately to ''prevent'' them from killing even ''more'' people. Woops.]] Other than that little mistake, it seems the idea is 'do what you can with your own ability, and accept your own failures if it doesn't work.

** And played straight: [[spoiler:Angra Mainyu/Avenger was an ordinary villager whose compatriots chose him to be the embodiment of all mankind's sins and sacrificed him. In doing this they wished for there to be an external embodiment of evil they could dispose of in order to purify themselves. The Grail, when it absorbed Avenger, attempted to grant that wish, and as a result there now exists a being made up of every sin mankind has ever or will ever commit, an [[GodOfEvil Embodiment of Evil]], and it is not pleased at all with humanity for having created it. Nice going, ancient villagers.]]

* Gallus Herodicus, Chapter Master of the Seekers of Truth Space Marine chapter, hated having to carry out mass executions for [[StateSec the Inquisition]] and prayed each night for a way to know when a man was lying, so that [[NeverHurtAnInnocent his warriors could know to only kill the guilty]]. Unfortunately, [[JackassGenie Tzeentch]] answered his prayer by giving the Chapter the ability to [[HearingVoices hear]] ''every'' lie spoken by mankind. The Seekers of Truth [[GoMadFromTheRevelation promptly went insane at the realisation how corrupt the Imperium was]] and went rogue in a matter of days, becoming a warband of [[FallenHero Chaos Space Marines]] known as "The Scourged".