History Main / EggMacGuffin

* An episode of BatmanBeyond involves Terry keeping track of an egg that he needs to take care of for a grade.

* In ''{{Digimon}},'' digi-eggs are the beginning ''and'' end of a Digimon's life cycle, with a Digimon reverting to egg form after "[[DeathIsCheap death]]." (There are exceptions to this, such as [[Anime/DigimonTamers season three]], which began the trend of new seasons being AU and thus had different rules, and [[spoiler:[[Anime/DigimonSavers season five]], in which rebirth was automatic again... making it all the more horrible when the villainous Kurata creates a means of corrupting a Digimon's data so it can't ever be reborn.]] Once, Seraphimon, a ''god/king'' to the [[Anime/DigimonFrontier season four]] version of the Digital World, had to be toted around by Bokomon, who had it strapped to his stomach and ''acted pregnant for well over ten episodes'' until Seraphimon hatched as Patamon. And then proceeds to refer to Bokomon as his "[[{{Pun}} papa-mon]]". No reference or mention is made of the fact that Bokomon could, if he wanted to, become TheManBehindTheMan ruling 1/3 of the digital world.

* A ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode had Peter growing a beard, which a bird nested in. Due to the bird's endangered status, Peter had to keep the beard until the eggs hatched.

* In ''Videogame/ShiningForceIII'' there is a hidden character that requires you to go through a lot of work to get, probably falls under GuideDamnIt territory. You first have to find a couple boiling an egg, buy the egg for 1000 gold. Much later in the game you'll find a chicken sitting in your HQ, place the egg under the chicken an it'll instantly hatch. The creature will run off and then right near the end of the game you'll find the character "Pen Pen" who turns out to be a JokeCharacter as he starts at level 1, unpromoted, when all your other characters are promoted at level ~15.

* Subverted in ''{{Film/Shrek}},'' when Princess Fiona accidentally causes a mama bird to expire, leaving a nest of orphan eggs. Her solution? [[spoiler:Fry them for breakfast]].

* [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel John Hurt's character]] is this to the crew of the ''Nostromo'' in ''{{Film/Alien}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Bart Simpson has to do this, after accidentally killing the mommy bird. Except that when they hatched they turned out to be lizards. [[NightmareFuel Apparently the female lizard eats the bird eggs and lays its own eggs in their place. The baby lizards then eat the bird.]]

* ''Film/IceAge III: Dawn of the Dinosaurs''.

* In ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone]]'', Hagrid gets ahold of a dragon egg, which hatches, producing a Norwegian Ridgeback which Hagrid dubs Norbert. Little Norbert, with his vicious, fire-breathing ways, quickly becomes a liability (especially as keeping dragons is illegal), and he is dispatched to Romania, much to Hagrid's distress.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', a Quest Chain in the Badlands results in you stealing a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Black Dragon]] Egg. You end up purifying it, creating the only known uncorrupted Black Dragon Egg in the entire World. Naturally, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Deathwing]] wants it destroyed [[spoiler:and he thinks he has succeeded when he kills Rhea. She was GenreSavvy enough to have a Fake with her instead of the real thing, ensuring her sacrifice wasn't in vain. The Egg itself has never been mentioned again, but Cataclysm is still relatively new.]]

[[quoteright:291:[[Literature/{{Leviathan}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Big_egg_8072.jpg]]]]

* [[ShugoChara Shugo Chara:]] The Embryo, and heck, the Heart's Eggs them - selves, are there within order towards creating Dreams.

* In the Diamond is Unbreakable story arc of ''JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Koichi's stand Echoes actually takes the form of an egg when he first gains it. Later, when he needs its power, it hatches into its first effective form.
* In the opening arc of ''YuYuHakusho'', Yusuke is given an egg that will feed off his spirit energy and hatch when he can come back to life. It is [[ChekhovsGun ignored completely]] when Yusuke is brought back to life for a different reason, and seems to be forgotten for another few arcs -- until the Dark Tournament, when Koenma reveals that it's ''finally'' ready to hatch. Instead of the huge, horrible beast the characters feared, it hatches into a little blue penguin-y thing. Keiko dubs it "Puu" and it becomes her pet.
** Then in the next arc, [[spoiler:Yusuke dies and reincarnates as a demon. Cue Puu growing into a huge demonic version of itself.]]
* ''NatsumeYuujinchou'': Natsume takes care of a small egg found in a nest - which hatches into a "dragon". At first, however, it appears to take the form of an extremely ''tiny'' version of whatever creature it sees first - namely natsume. It is possibly the [[http://media.photobucket.com/image/natsume%20yuujin%20chou%20tama-chan/looniekat/Natsume%20Yuujin-cho/snapshot20090128191748.jpg cutest thing to ever exist in anime.]]
* Played with in the [[KirbyOfTheStars Kirby anime]], where the giant steel bird Dynablade lays an egg that later disappears, with fragments of its shell around. The other characters suspect that Kirby has eaten the egg, and [[MamaBear Dynablade ain't happy...]]
* In ''{{Digimon}},'' digi-eggs are the beginning ''and'' end of a Digimon's life cycle, with a Digimon reverting to egg form after "[[DeathIsCheap death]]." (There are exceptions to this, such as [[DigimonTamers season three]], which began the trend of new seasons being AU and thus had different rules, and [[spoiler: [[DigimonSavers season five]], in which rebirth was automatic again... making it all the more horrible when the villainous Kurata creates a means of corrupting a Digimon's data so it can't ever be reborn.]] Once, Seraphimon, a ''god/king'' to the [[DigimonFrontier season four]] version of the Digital World, had to be toted around by Bokomon, who had it strapped to his stomach and ''acted pregnant for well over ten episodes'' until Seraphimon hatched as Patamon. And then proceeds to refer to Bokomon as his "[[{{Pun}} papa-mon]]". No reference or mention is made of the fact that Bokomon could, if he wanted to, become TheManBehindTheMan ruling 1/3 of the digital world.
* In the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' anime, Ash and his friends found and looked after an egg for a while which eventually hatched into a Togepi (that became the TeamPet for a while). This Togepi saw Misty as its mother. Perhaps slightly spoofed in that Ash was the one who found the egg, and is pissed that the Togepi didn't therefore attach to him.
** Most of the cast members have received a Pokémon through this fashion. Ash received an egg with hatched into a Phanpy, May received one that hatched into an Eevee, Brock received one that hatched into a Happiny, and Dawn received one that hatched into a Cyndaquil.
** This happens in the games quite a lot as well.
** In the ''PokemonSpecial'' manga, Gold receives the Togepi egg, which at one point nearly gets eaten by a wild Gligar. Thankfully, it hatched into a KillerRabbit with a gambling problem and took the Gligar down itself.
* Subverted in ''MaisonIkkoku'', where Yotsuya gives an egg to Godai with no explanation before leaving on a trip. The entire episode revolves around the rest of the cast dealing with the fallout resulting, some helpful, others not so much. In the end, [[spoiler:it is revealed Yotsuya had just found the egg that morning.]]
* The entire plot of ''SeireiNoMoribito'' occurs because Prince Chagum is carrying the egg of a water spirit within his body, at first leading many people to believe that he's [[DemonicPossession possessed by a demon]]. The entire cast becomes very concerned both with making sure the egg hatches successfully (since there will be a horrific drought if it doesn't) and with making sure that Chagum isn't killed in the process, with much of the drama of the latter half of the series coming from the fact that the two goals may be mutually exclusive.
* in XXXHolic, Watanuki is once given a magical egg as payment for a job. He is told that he just has to sleep with it and anything he wishes will come out. He uses it to hatch a little bird, Tampopo, that is immune to Himawari's bad luck curse to make her happy.
* ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' had an aptly-titled episode - "Nanami's Egg" - in which Nanami believes she's laid an egg in her sleep and no one (except Utena) has the heart to tell her that it doesn't make sense. Nanami was already considered a character that straddled the CerebusSyndrome, with both serious duel episodes and comic relief episodes based around her haughtiness and animals abusing her, but the 27th episode manages to marry both comedy of the absurd and very touching character development. It's InsertSong is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSDSFaIvJwM "Hello, Baby."]].
* The Behelits of the [[{{Berserk}} Berserkerverse]] take on the shape of an egg with human facial features strewn all over it. There are two egg-grades of Behelits: the normal brown-grade Behelits that give you [[EldritchAbominations average evil nutrition]], and then the red-grade Behelits that give you ''humongous'' [[DemonLordsAndArchDevils God-like evil nutrition]] (and hence, this grade is also known as, "The Egg of the Conqueror/King"). And don't forget, these are also [[ClingyMacGuffin Clingy MacGuffins]], as they always find their way back to their master when the time is right. So, [[LamePun they ain't going rotten anytime soon.]]

* ''IceAge III: Dawn of the Dinosaurs''.
* Subverted in ''{{Shrek}},'' when Princess Fiona accidentally causes a mama bird to expire, leaving a nest of orphan eggs. Her solution? [[spoiler:Fry them for breakfast]].
** [[FridgeBrilliance It probably wasn't all that accidental.]]
* ''AngelsEgg''

* [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel John Hurt's character]] is this to the crew of the ''Nostromo'' in ''{{Alien}}''.

* ''TheInheritanceCycle'' starts with Eragon finding a dragon egg and looking after it.

* The Daenerys subplot in ''[[{{ASongOfIceAndFire}} A Game of Thrones]]'' features three ''fossilized'' dragon eggs. [[spoiler: Once Dany figures out the meaning of her family's motto and its origins in Valyrian sorcery, it turns out her eggs are not so much dead as dormant -- which is why in the subsequent books she's called Daenerys the Unburnt, Mother of Dragons.]]
* In ''[[HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone]]'', Hagrid gets ahold of a dragon egg, which hatches, producing a Norwegian Ridgeback which Hagrid dubs Norbert. Little Norbert, with his vicious, fire-breathing ways, quickly becomes a liability (especially as keeping dragons is illegal), and he is dispatched to Romania, much to Hagrid's distress.
* In the ''Leviathan'' trilogy, there is a veeeeeeery mysterious EggMacGuffin in the first book. [[spoiler:In Behemoth, the sequel, the egg hatches, and a SmallAnnoyingCreature is introduced in the form of Bovril. Bovril latches onto Alek and they become [[{{ABoyAndHisX}} A Boy and His Rapidly Learning Skunk Thing.]]]]

* In ''Nomads of {{Gor}}'' Tarl is tasked by the Priest-Kings to retrive the last egg of the Priest-Kings, the only female, to start their cycle anew.

* In the ''StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Parturition" Neelix and Paris find a nest of repto-humanoids, one of which hatches, leading them to care for it until the mother returns.
* In the ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Bad Eggs", the students are given an egg to take care of to show them the responsibilities of parenthood. The eggs hatch into some kind of prehistoric mind-controlling parasites. (Discovered when Xander cooks and tries to eat his.)

* In ''{{Series/Merlin}}'', Merlin and company go looking for a dragon egg in 'Aithusa'.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''USAcres'', Orson the Pig took care of two abandoned eggs, from which hatched Booker and Sheldon.
[[/folder]]

* The Time Egg from ''ChronoTrigger''. Or, more accurately, the Time Egg '''[[TitleDrop is]]''' the Chrono Trigger.
** In ''ChronoCross'', one of the first key items Serge can obtain in Another World is a Draconian Egg. Near the endgame, he can take it to an incubator in Fort Dragonia, where it will hatch into Draggy, a [[LethalJokeCharacter rainbow-colored infant dragon]].
* She may be the most hardboiled and {{Badass}} of Nintendo's protagonists, but in the closing of ''Metroid II'' even Samus Aran couldn't bring herself to exterminate the last Metroid, a mere baby that mistook her for its mother. She instead turned it over to scientists, proving to be both a good thing and bad thing when the Space Pirates steal it in the beginning of ''SuperMetroid''.
* In a weird example, there's the Hummingbird Egg / Egg of Light from ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', which appears to be more of a Fabergé egg than a real one. Apparently it's so important that Wess would implement a trap that would drop thieves into a watery pit just to protect it. [[spoiler: The egg doesn't actually do anything in the story, [[MemoryGambit but it's plot-important because it has all of the original memories of everyone who came from Earth]]. Since life on the islands turned out to be a true utopia, it might have been made when there were doubts about how well the plan was going to work.]]

* Kinda subverted in ''AnUntitledStory'', as ''your character'' is an egg that runs around and does stuff (until [[spoiler:you hatch it]]).
* The whole plot of ''{{Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg}}'' revolves around hatching an egg by feeding it fruit. And then there's the eponymous Giant Egg, [[spoiler:which ''does'' get hatched by [[BigBad Dark Raven]]]].

* In ''SuperSmashBros Melee'' there was a mission where you had to keep an egg from breaking.

* The [[spoiler:Sphere of Light]] in ''DragonQuestIII'' is actually the [[spoiler:Dragon Queen's final]] egg.

* The entire point of ''TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' is to collect the eight instruments and play them ''in front of a giant egg'' (belonging to the Wind Fish).

* The plot of ''[[SpyroTheDragon Spyro: The Year Of The Dragon]]'' revolves around the fact that the 150 dragon eggs have been stolen, and [[GottaCatchEmAll it's up to Spyro to recover them.]] Each of them hatches upon discovery, with many of the babies having their own unique animation.
* Two of them in Bastion; they're minor, and don't really have much to do with the plot on their own, but they're largely unimportant aside from spawning a couple of pets at your home base (which are themselves largely cosmetic) and your companions will have remarks to make about them.

* ''RockosModernLife'' has a relationship with a Cat and a Turtle which resulted in an egg that contained three children: One of them looking like Heifer (a Steer).

* An episode of ''{{The Wubbulous World of Dr Seuss}}'' involves a girl named Megan and her friend Horton the Elephant trying to retrieve the priceless Zubble-Wump egg which was stolen by the Grinch.

* ''AmericanDragonJakeLong'', "The Egg": Jake has to take care of a griffin egg ready to hatch -- and loses it in a factory full of candied eggs.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', [[spoiler:Princess Katherine and her friends]] have to take care of ''thirty-six'' Gargoyle eggs because their parents are all either dead or unavailable. [[spoiler:They do a good job in protecting them, though.]]

* The Dofus in ''{{Wakfu}}''. These dragon eggs are extremely valuable due to the incredible amount of Wakfu contained in them.

* The Phoenix egg in the ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Dragon Quest". It plays a pivotal role in the climax of the episode [[spoiler:when Spike decides to stand up to the teenage dragons rather than smash the helpless egg and decides that Twilight and the other ponies are his real family.]] In the last minute of the episode [[spoiler:it hatches. Spike adopts the phoenix chick as his pet and names it Pee Wee.]]

* In the ''Leviathan'' trilogy, there is a veeeeeeery mysterious EggMacGuffin in the first book. [[spoiler:In Behemoth, the sequel, the egg hatches, and a SmallAnnoyingCreature is introduced in the form of Bovril. Bovril latches onto Alek and they become [[{{ABoyAndHisX}} A Boy and His Rapidly Learning Skunk Thing.]]

* The egg that Skuld's angel Noble Scarlet hatches from in ''AhMyGoddess''.

* In a weird example, there's the Hummingbird Egg / Egg of Light from ''{{Mother 3}}'', which appears to be more of a Fabergé egg than a real one. Apparently it's so important that Wess would implement a trap that would drop thieves into a watery pit just to protect it. [[spoiler: The egg doesn't actually do anything in the story, [[MemoryGambit but it's plot-important because it has all of the original memories of everyone who came from Earth]]. Since life on the islands turned out to be a true utopia, it might have been made when there were doubts about how well the plan was going to work.]]

* In the ''Leviathan'' trilogy, there is a veeeeeeery mysterious EggMacGuffin in the first book. [[spoiler:In Behemoth, the sequel, the egg hatches, and what is arguably a SmallAnnoyingCreature is introduced in the form of Bovril, a skunk-like beastie.]]

* In ''Game/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Chariots of the Dogs'', the chicken was the McGuffin to answer an old mariachi's philosophical obsession. A rooster to be specific, who was left at the beginning of time where he promptly laid an egg. No one was more surprised about that than the rooster. This left forever unanswerable the question of "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

* [[ShugoChara Shugo Chara:]] The Embryo, and heck, the Heart's Eggs them - selves, are there within order towards creating Dreams

* [[ShugoChara Shugo Chara:]] The Embryo, and heck, the Heart's Eggs them - selves, are there within order towards empowering Dreams.

* The egg that Skuld's angel Noble Scarlet hatches from in ''AhMyGoddess''.

* [[spoiler:Twinken]] the dream maker in ''[[BarneyAndFriends Barney's Great Adventure]]''.