Be Careful What You Wish For / Fan Works

...for some reason, he felt a very strong impulse to stick it to her.
...By doing exactly what she wanted.
It was an odd impulse.

— The Dragon and the Butterfly, "Chapter 17: Break-up Breakdown"

Examples of Be Careful What You Wish For in Fan Works.

---

Crossovers

• In Abyssal Plain, the titular Abyss will give you visions on how to escape its grasp, but it often comes at a cost to your humanity.
• All For Luz: As Luz starts to break down into tears in chapter 23, she laments how in just a single month her life has turned to hell. She once thought that the Mass Super-Empowering Event was a dream come true that would vindicate her worldview to those who looked down on her, only for her dream to turn into a nightmare as she suffers a long Trauma Conga Line, as her life keeps getting worse no thanks to the Fantastic Racism and having All For One residing in her head.
  Life didn’t get better, it got worse! Because of it, she lost her mother, lost her faith in humanity as a whole, and lost her innocence! She had to kill to survive because people kept trying to kill her, and it robbed her of her chance at a normal childhood! Anger, mixed with pain, mixed with regret, mixed with sadness flowed all through her body as she clasped her forehead, weeping. Her life had taken a turn for the absolute worst, and it was all thanks to this stupid power!
• The Amazing Spider-Luz in: Across the Owl-Verse!: Odalia encouraged Amity to make friends with Luz and study more advanced forms of magic to allow the Blights to grow more powerful. When Amity grows powerful enough to completely throw off her mother's own Oracle Magic and refuses to follow her whims anymore, Amity, Edric, and Emira all point out that this is exactly what Odalia wanted.
• The Boys: Real Justice:
  • After repeatedly being shown up by the Justice League (and their own actions getting them into hot water), the Seven want to prove themselves. So they jump at the chance to face some of the Justice League's villains...leading to them getting curb-stomped by the Legion of Doom (leaving a few of them with permanent injuries).
  • The Boys want to prove themselves effective crime fighters, and thus decide to take on some of Gotham's rogues. They are captured several times, almost killed a few more, and probably would have died if Batman hadn't captured them and gotten them arrested. They can't even prove themselves good detectives, as when they try to out Bruce Wayne as Batman, they see Batman and Bruce Wayne in the same place at the same time ^note  Martian Manhunter is a fantastic actor .
• Child of the Storm: In the sequel, Ghosts of the Past, Harry gets hit with this hard when he darkly remarks that he hopes the then unknown telepath who intervened to keep him at Privet Drive to study him comes around and has a go, doubtless planning to wreak horrors on his person. Then he does. Cue the Forever Red arc, in which Harry is kidnapped, tortured, his Blank Slate body is reprogrammed into the Red Son, the Winter Soldier's heir apparent, hundreds of deaths, countless cases of Mind Rape to varying degrees, the geopolitical map of the mortal and spirit worlds being turned upside down, and worst of all, the rise of the Dark Phoenix, an event which leads to more than a few mortals and gods concluding that Harry is an Apocalypse Maiden and too dangerous to live, while Harry is a slowly recovering traumatised wreck from the memories of 6 months of black ops horror. All in all, it's fair to say that that particular wish backfired.
• Children of an Elder God: Shinji wishes to be a god during a dream, thinking it was just a silly dream. Later on, he gets godly power, but he doesn't like it because it corrupts him and gradually turns him into a Humanoid Abomination.
• Constants and Variables: When she realizes that Elizabeth is much more complex and mysterious than she seems, Narcissa invites her to tea to talk politics. When Elizabeth finds out that she drugged her with veritaserum, she decides to tell her the whole truth, sending them into an alternate world where Voldemort wins. Narcissa seeing the calamity her family’s loyalties will bring certainly puts things into perspective for her.
• A Crown of Stars:
  • When Shinji says he can not forgive his father and he can go to Hell, Daniel warns him about being careful about what he wishes for since he can make it happen:
    Daniel: Be careful what you wish for around here, Shinji. If that’s what you want, I can make it happen. I maintain and operate my own Hell, for those truly unworthy or unwilling to seek penance and redemption. And I know of even worse places than that.
  • Kensuke wished he had a girlfriend, just like his friends. Then he met one girl who was interested in him. Then another girl came along. Then both girls argued. Then they agreed to share him. And he has absolutely no idea of how to handle the situation.
• Cursed Blood: After the USJ incident, many of the students in Class 1-B get jealous of 1-A being thrust into the spotlight, claiming that they were just as skilled and could prove it if given the chance. Naturally, that opportunity arises when one of their training sessions is interrupted by villains who put 1-B into a Deadly Game in an effort to lure All Might out. Unfortunately for 1-B, these villains swiftly prove to be much more competent and better prepared than Shigaraki's group. Fortunately, this was the training session, the teachers springing on them a surprise exercise very similar to the USJ events to make them realize that neither they nor Class 1-A was actually ready to face actual Villains and Class 1-A had just been lucky.
• Cycles Upon Cycles: After Joker's boast that he could make the Normandy dance, Shepard tells him to be careful about saying such things as he just may need to do that someday.
• In The Devil is in the Detail, after an extremely weird situation happens, Nick Fury demands an update from an agent who was on the scene. The agent is still processing and deflects, but Nick insists. So the agent rambles an accurate but baffling explanation, starting with how the Devil ate Dan Espinoza's pudding. Nick decides to wait.
• The Dragon and the Butterfly Saga:
  • The Dragon and the Butterfly: Knowing that placating Isabela's request will only end badly, Hiccup decides to help her break up with Mariano because she won't learn otherwise.
  • The Dragon and the Butterfly: Whiteout: Dagur is elated when he finds out that they have Hiccup and Mirabel's kids as hostages. Or he was, until Drago makes him into Peep's glorified babysitter.
• Finger in the Eye of Fate: The Powers That Be snatch Champions from other dimensions in order to make them fight demons. When they decide to abduct and forcefully reincarnate Kanzeon Bosatsu's favorite nephew and his friends as their latest pawns, the infuriated bodhisattva gives Sanzo and the other slayers their memories and abilities back, fully aware of their utter refusal to bow to any authority and their Spanner in the Works tendencies.
  Kanzeon: The Powers wanted my guys? They're going to get my guys. Right in the teeth.
• to forget is unforgivable: Katsuki wanted to be the only one from Aldera Middle School to make it into U.A.'s Hero Course. Technically speaking, he got what he wanted when Izuku was Driven to Suicide. The police even chose not to press any charges against him since they figured it'd be a shame if somebody with a quirk as powerful as his couldn't go pro. And Izuku's ghost is following him around, mocking his newfound status as a social pariah and making clear that he wants him to live with the consequences of his actions.
• Gospel of the Lost Gods: Weaver wanted Romp to make sure that King Robert Baratheon didn't walk over the Wards who were sent to visit him. Romp, naturally, takes it way too far and made the Wards sound unhinged and uncontrollable.
• Every chapter of Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters closes with a narrative quote from a character, usually reflecting some theme from that chapter. In the case of Chapter 20, which is the one where Cedric finally tells Elyon the truth of her identity and takes her to Meridian, the quote is Elyon reflecting on how she used to dream of someone coming to tell her that she's really a long lost princess, as that would mean she's special... and how the worst thing that ever happened to her was that dream coming true.
• The Halloween Unspectacular anthology series has a few examples:
  • In "Wolf", from the fourth edition, Timmy accidentally comments on how cool it would be to be a werewolf where his fairies can hear, turning him into one.
  • In "Timmy Turner's House of Terror", from the seventh edition, Timmy wishes for the ghost of a famous person he can interview for a history project. But because he wasn't specific about who he wanted, he got stuck with Lizzie Borden.
  • In "Come and See" from the eighth edition, the Devil tempts Gaz with a pocket watch that grants seven wishes, with just two catches. First, every wish cast unlocks one of the seals of the Apocalypse, but with the caveat that Gaz herself won't be directly affected, which she's fine with. Secondly, which she's not aware of until it's too late, is that upon all seven wishes being granted, the Devil claims Gaz's soul.
• Played for laughs in If Wishes Were Ponies. Seeing as how he was bullied by the Dursleys and Dudley's friends as a child, Harry always wondered what it would be like to be popular. He regrets this when Sweetie Belle's latest Potions mishap caused the entire class to be exposed to a Love Potion...and become completely infatuated with him. Even the boys. The entire debacle ends with Harry hiding in a closet for several hours while all of the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years are confined to the hospital wing. Fred and George give him a lot of respect for this.
  • As Castor Searle finds himself caught up in the goings-on of Ponies and Wizards, he can't help but think of the Three Chinese Curses; May you live in interesting times. May people in power notice you. May all your wishes come true.
• In Incarnation of Legends, Bell wished for years to come to Orario and become an adventurer and a hero. But upon arriving in the city, he finds himself riddled with frustration, self-doubt, and feelings of inferiority while watching Kojiro blow him out of the water in his growth as an adventurer. He laments that he probably would have been happier in any of the cities than he is in the present, to the point that his pure soul has been muddied by these self-flagellating thoughts.
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
  • Thoroughly sick of all the pressure to love Pokémon despite the way that their existence has strained her relationships with her father and Goh, Chloe wishes that she could go somewhere that they don't exist. Cue the Train coming along, providing her with just what she wants. Pity, though; Pokémon sure could come in handy against creatures like the soul-sucking Ghoms...
  • Goh wished that Chloe had a dream of her own to chase after like his pursuit of Mew. Now Chloe is on the Infinity Train, having the time of her life on a grand journey of self-discovery... leaving them all behind in the process.
  • In the short story Chloe writes during her time in the Library of Flying Books Car, the protagonist is chasing after a wish-granting creature. When he finally catches it, it twists his wish to see his childhood friend again by briefly shapeshifting into her form. When he protests, the creature mocks him for not being more specific.
  • Sara, Yeardley, and the bulk of Chloe's classmates envied her for being the daughter of the local Pokémon Professor, wishing they could have her life. After the extent of their bullying and utter lack of remorse is publicly exposed, the two ringleaders get their chance to get a taste of how she was treated: they're forced to start working as his 'assistants'. Meaning that, just like Chloe, they have to head straight to the lab after school and spend hours there doing practically nothing, as she wasn't qualified to help with any of the actual work and didn't accompany Ash and Goh on any of their travels.
  • Chloe writes in an email that she will not return nor forgive unless everybody in Vermillion City makes an effort to change themselves. This poor wording is what spurs her younger brother Parker to unleash the Unown and create a "UN" version of Chloe to help him inflict painful and tortuous retributions on any and all those who hurt his sister.
• In Blossoming Trail's prequel Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily, Gladion wishes he could prove to Lillie that he is a hero and knight in shining armor. Just as he muses that, the Train comes to whisk him away.
• J-WITCH Series: Alchemy offhandedly mentions in "The Knights of Vengeance" about wanting to have her own transformation like her friends, only to get possessed by the Wind Demon's Chi in the very next chapter.
• Joffrey from Game of Thrones Is Replaced with Octavian from Rome: Tywin wanted more than anything to have a member of his family who would live up to his standards. He gets far more than he bargained for with Octavian, who proceeds to run circles around him in the political theater.
• The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: When Kalibak in After the Dates: Danny and Barbara finds out Only the Chosen May Wield Mjolnir, he tries to test his luck by demanding the hammer come to him. It does... because Thor tossed it at his face.
• Metal Gear: Green: Mina and Toru have been fans of the Heart Star-Freezer Boy ship for years. So upon seeing Freezer Boy on UA campus working with the MSF, she brings Toru and Momo along (the latter able to speak English) to find out if Freezer Boy did love Heart Star. She gets her wish and finds out that the shipping nonsense was a cover story from Heart Star and her legion of fans to cover up Heart Star's money laundering scheme that he was trying to expose.
• In Miraculous Ladybug vs. the Forces of Evil, Marinette and Adrien wish they could have something new and exciting in their "routine" lives. Well, they get it when Star Butterfly and her enemies come to town, and all the consequences that spring from this lead to some dark places for the two.
• Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!:
  • Overlapping with Gone Horribly Right. Bakugou constantly berates Izuku for his hypocrisy due to his refusal to be a hero and wishes he'd apply for the U.A. so they can properly settle their score. A series of events eventually get Izuku to reclaim his dreams, and when he does, Bakugou demands that he train for the entry exam because there's no way he's getting in after a whole decade of inaction. Izuku ends up taking that advice to the point he walks away with the highest entry score ever in the history of the UA, surpassing even All Might himself. Worse, he quickly becomes The Paragon and inspires other students to help each other, knocking Bakugou down to the bottom of the Top 10 ranking. As a result, on the first day, Izuku quickly becomes the Big Man on Campus while everybody takes a dislike to Bakugou and some even make fun of him for his score, as well as the Sludge Villain incident.
  • Izuku and the premise itself are an example of this. Izuku wanted nothing more than an amazing Quirk so he could be like All Might and was devastated when he was declared Quirkless. He got his wish when his Kryptonian Super-Strength and Nigh-Invulnerability manifested not long after he got home. Unfortunately, he's a four-year-old with powers he doesn't understand. So when he gets into a fight with Bakugou, he accidentally throws Bakugou into a building across the street, which nearly kills Bakugou and leaves him grievously scarred for life. Then Izuku slowly starts developing more powers than he knows how to deal with, including Super-Hearing that's so intense that he passes out after listening to every bad thing happening around the world at once. Then he learns that the reason why he has his powers is because he's an alien. His Earth happens to be plagued with anti-alien hysteria. He certainly hit the Superpower Lottery, but it came with a boatload of angst he wasn't prepared for.
• In Never wish in rage, Naru loudly wishes that she never met Keitaro. Mara overhears this wish and grants it, traveling back in time with Hild's permission to cure Naru of her childhood illness. Since her parents only took her to the Hinata Inn since its location near the sea meant the air helped her breathe easier, she never met Keitaro or made a Childhood Marriage Promise with him. As a result, the Hinata Inn was never converted to a girl-exclusive boarding house, remaining a regular, Keitaro wound up marrying Mutsumi, Mokoto was arrested for assaulting Aoshima and is stuck in prison while Su got deported after her hobby of making weapons was discovered. Though she's also pen pals with Sarah. As for Naru herself, she wound up as a shut-in at another girls' dormitory, with Mitsune as her Only Friend. Eventually, memories of the original reality start bleeding in, and Naru swiftly regrets her wish.
• The Night Unfurls: Due to his belief that both are not so different in the sense that both had seen the Eldritch Truth, Shamuhaza looks forward to fighting Kyril, whom he sees as a Worthy Opponent. His inability to comprehend Kyril's decision to limit himself by retaining his humanity implies he wants to witness his "unrestrained" side. His wish is granted eventually when he faces off against Kyril, Sanakan, and Hugh as an Eldritch Abomination, and he ends up getting curb-stomped after Kyril decides to release a bit of his eldritch might. To top it off, he suffers a Fate Worse than Death.
• Point Me at the Skyrim: Back when Scion started nuking the planet, Victoria Dallon bemoaned the fact that she couldn't go out and help people as destruction was raining from the skies. Two years later she's been dumped in a strange land, and a dragon decides to nuke the area where she and other people are standing.
  In any case, I ended one day anxious on how my world could possibly be over with a botched surgery... and woke up to the world ending by a botched attempt at saving it.
  No, that wasn't fair.
  That was misplaced anger at being helpless while news and radio were alight with how the tallest buildings were crumbling down onto innocent people, bemoaning the fact I couldn't be with my family during this ultimate betrayal. To rescue those in dire straights.
  To be a hero once more.
  Balls of fire rained down from the sky like falling stars, streaking through air that seemed to have been made dimmer.
  Not through the smoke and ash of the burning debris, but by the fact that the world itself seemed to have been overlaid by a cosmic filter. Trees shattered into a shower of splinters, the ground exploded into craters larger than myself, and the people below cried out in fear and pain.
  Wish fucking granted Victoria.
• In Chapter 26 of The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor, whenever someone in their empire expresses desire to not be ruled by Naruto and Xanna, the two offer them the chance. They can take all their personal belongings and be sent to a planet the two don't control. Most back down when they realize not having their rule also means not having any protection from the Goa'uld. At least one group who took them up on the offer later was attacked by the Goa'uld.
• Rick and The Loud House: Lucy is a lover of all things dark and macabre, and that especially includes vampires. So in Chapter 20, her desire to actually be a vampire comes true when her Mad Scientist grandfather turns her into one. Unfortunately, Lucy soon realizes it's not as great as she hoped. For one, Lucy has no clue how to fly when turned into a bat. Secondly, Lucy's taste buds were warped to where only blood tastes good to her; this means she can't eat chocolate anymore. Lastly and most importantly, if Lucy doesn't consume an adequate amount of blood, she risks losing her humanity altogether.
• The Secret Collocation Of Alex Mack kicks off with Danielle Atron summoning a demon and sending it after a thorn in her side, demanding that it, "Bring me the heart of Alexandra Louise Mack!" The demon stares at her, breaks into laughter, then summons half a dozen different versions of Alex Mack from alternate universes and drops them off in her world, with powers ranging from Alex's canon telekinesis/electrokinesis/morphing, to Harry Potter magic, to bionic Super-Strength and Super-Speed, to a Slayer of the Undead. It doesn't end well for Ms Atron.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Just after Bitsy insults the Kingpin's dead family, he asks her if she wants her funeral to be open or closed-casket. Bitsy responds that she wants to have a closed-casket funeral so no one will ruin her big day, completely oblivious to why he asked that in the first place. The Kingpin beats her to death, ensuring that nobody will get to ruin her funeral, not even herself.
• This And That: While mulling over her past at Stillwater Prison, Vi prays that her little sister Powder sends any sign that she's alive and where to get to her. Cue the Library arriving on the bridge that connects Piltover and Zaun.
• Thousand Shinji: Keel and the rest of Seele sought reaching Instrumentality to create a new god and become one with it. When Third Impact happened, it turned Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Misato — the four persons in the whole world who had suffered the most at the Seele's hands — into gods. And they were pissed off. Cue the Seele members receiving horrible, horrible punishments.
  "You and the other members of SEELE wanted to shed your bodies and become one with a new god... well, no one ever said that God would be nice or particularly like you and your cronies for your involvement in its birth. I hope you prepared for the eventuality of an eternity being horrifically tortured by your worst nightmares."
• With Pearl and Ruby Glowing at the beginning of Coraline's short story about her traumatic experience, she only spent so much time with her abuser (The Beldam, now here a pedophilic serial killer) because she felt neglected at home and just wanted some attention. After being rescued by emergency crew and Other Mother's crimes revealed, her parents hover over her all the time. But sadly due to Coraline's trauma, it just hurts her.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

• When All Your Dreams Come True is an AU in which Zuko's dream of catching the Avatar and being reinstated as his father's heir comes true... and promptly turns into a scene so nightmarish that he eventually loses himself in increasingly desperate daydreams trying to wish the new reality away.

Beetlejuice

• In the story Cinderjuice, in order to go with Lydia to her prom, Beetlejuice allows himself to be turned into an age-appropriate powerless mortal. Unfortunately, turning back is the real problem...

Bolt

• The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Wind", it's revealed that the group of dogs who rescue Bolt after his dogfight experience escaped from their kennel by digging a tunnel after several unsuccessful attempts. Given their negative experience on the outside for the most part, they can't wait to return.
  Pit Bull: Ugh. We've been out of the kennel for a week, and I've hated every minute. I say we go back.
  Husky: (moaning) But we spent six months digging that tunnel! What're you saying — we crawl back in and refill the hole?
  Schnauzer: Beats all the vermin and hunger we've encountered. I'm with you, my friend...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• The Price of the Wish: Advice Cordelia might have benefited from. She wishes for vengeance against Xander and Willow but a great evil seems to have taken advantage of her wish to plunge the world into darkness.
  • With the additional irony that Cordelia was more careful than with her canon wish to far, far worse results.

ChalkZone

• You Belong to Me: In a rage, Rudy tells Mint that he deserves whatever Skrawl does to him. Later, this bites him back hard when Skrawl uses this as an excuse to try to rip Mint's arm off. The effect is worsened when Skrawl chops off part of Mint's left leg, thus completing Rudy's 'wish'.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

• Early in Rhyme and Reason, Chip is disappointed with the cases the Rangers have had to solve so far. They're nothing compared to what his idol Sureluck Jones has to deal with in his novels. Since his birthday is coming up soon, he wishes for a really big and challenging case to solve. What he gets — before his birthday already — really stretches his "no case too big" rule. And he can't even turn the case down because it's up to solely him to find and rescue his teammates from certain death (and stay alive himself despite the perfectly timed attacks against him) until sundown.

Danny Phantom

• In the Facing the Future Series, much like in the cartoon, Desiree works with this trope until she finds love with Sidney Poindexter.
• You Just Might Get It: Sam, jealous of Danny and Paulina's blossoming relationship, spitefully wishes that the latter would get fucked by one of the people she called a loser. Overhearing the wish, Desiree decides to twist it by making the "loser" in question Danny.

The DCU

• Hellsister Trilogy: During his wedding, Clark Kent surreptitiously makes Lois' bouquet land on Supergirl's hands; a subtle way to wish her good luck in finding a steady boyfriend. Next time he saw her, Kara had hooked up with Dev-Em, a former pain-in-the-ass bully whom he loathes.
• A key theme in Injustice: One Bad Day, an AU of the Injustice series, is Batman taunting Superman about how he has spent the last few years basically criticising Batman for not killing the Joker before the destruction of Metropolis, but now Superman and the rest of the Regime are terrified facing the reality of a Batman who kills after the Joker's posthumous final weapon corrupts Batman into a variation of The Batman Who Laughs.
• one day at a time (Nyame): Jason Todd's greatest wish is to see his family again and apologize for his initial poor treatment of them. His soul then travels back in time after his death and merges with his younger body, allowing Jason to reunite with a family that barely knows him. Jason, understandably, does not take this well.
• With This Ring: In "Contingency" OL complains endlessly over the sloppiness of Martian Manhunter's training scenario, he complains that it's uncreative and unrealistic because the Justice League in it act very uncharacteristically. He definitely gets his wish for realism when Miss Martian has a breakdown and makes everyone forget it's a telepathic simulation.^note And when he crosses the Godzilla Threshold and uses a Dangerous Forbidden Technique to win the scenario, the consequences persist into the real world.

Deltarune

• What if Noelle Lost Herself?: After finally figuring out the Awful Truth behind Berdly's mysterious disappearance, Undyne punches the wall and berates herself for having previously wished that something would happen in their sleepy little Hometown and give her the chance to prove herself.

Digimon

• In Digimon: Hikari wish foundation, Kari is given the power to bring her wishes to reality, with a few set rules^note She can't destroy or create anything, only change them. She also has to see the object in question when wishing However, she soon finds out her wishes have more consequences than she anticipated, especially since they work by changing reality so they always were.
  • During a dodgeball game in school, Kari tries to wish the girl's team a better chance at winning by turning Davis into a girl. The wish ended up changing reality so Davis was always a girl named Dorika, who in an attempt to impress her crush Tai, tried to take down some control spires on her own with just Veemon, only to get attacked by a Tortomon, which shattered her knee. The resulting injury still leaves her with a limp, and she can no longer play soccer because of it.
  • After getting knocked to the ground by a rude teen, Kari wishes that she wouldn't have been Delicate and Sickly as a child and instead had a perfectly healthy body, only to later run into Tai who treats her rudely instead of the kind big brother she remembers. It turns out that in the new reality, Kari's better health allowed her to outperform Tai in both school and sports, causing him to develop a lot of jealousy towards her, which only grew during their adventures after she became a Digidestined.
  • After seeing Tai's new cold nature, Kari wishes she knew what was going on. Not only does she see the events that made Tai a jerk in the new timeline through dream visions, but she also learns what made him so protective of her in the first place: the incident from when he took her out to play soccer when they were children and she collapsed from her sickness worsening into severe pneumonia that almost killed her and believing that her apology to him for not kicking the ball right was her hiding her hatred of him for endangering her life. Kari ends up horrified by both revelations.
  • The nightmare causes Kari to see the face of both Tais on every boy she sees at school. Out of stress, she ends up wishing that everyone in her school was a girl. That ended up turning everyone, students, teachers, and staff alike, into young girls like her. She can't simply wish for everything back to normal because the altered world is the new normal, and she has to go to each transformed girl and try to remember who they used to be. In the end, she ended up missing some since she couldn't remember who they used to be, and for the teachers and staff, she had to wish them into legal adults with degrees and happy families^note The only intended exception being a janitor named Ichigo, who before was a lonely old man. Kari instead wishes Ichigo would find and follow her dreams as a young girl instead.
  • On a Downplayed example while fixing everything, Kari tries to help Davis out by wishing, along with making Jun his twin so they would get along, that the girl he loves (who she thought was herself) would love him back and be with him. It turns out that Davis only believed he loved Kari because she was his Only Friend besides Tai before becoming a Digidestined. The wish instead causes the girl he truly loved, a Digimon nicknamed Nat-chan, to become a human girl with a family so they can be together.

Devil May Cry

• After Nero in Five Times Patty Got Someone to Take Her on a Campus Tour And the One Time She Was Smart Enough to Not Ask Any of Those Psychos starts Digging Himself Deeper in front of her College Tour Guide, Patty starts to inwardly muse that a demon attack would probably make the situation a lot less embarrassing. So of course, a demon attacks.
  Patty: ...Okay, is there a freaking mind reader?

Dragon Age

• With the Breach sealed in All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird, Cassandra remarks that the Inquisition will need new focus. Less than a moment later, incoming catastrophe prompts Mahanon to think this exact phrase.

Dragon Ball

• Discussed in Chaos Theory Z. When the self-insert Kayos reveals to the Z-Fighters that he knows about the Dragon Balls, he makes it clear that he doesn't want a wish because he's well aware of how they can backfire, either due to being poorly thought out or because of a Jackass Genie.
• Dragon Ball Abridged:
  • Gohan points out this trope in his nerdish way after he and Krillin realize the recently-revived Piccolo was brought back to Namek... on the other side of the planet from where they are standing.
    Gohan: Oh, so it's a sort of monkey's paw. You have to be careful with the hubris in your wishes.
    Piccolo: (in the distance) NEEEEEEEERRRRDDD!
  • Krillin wished for the perfect Christmas tree. Shenron delivered. Thanks for the special, you two!
    Reject Mall Santa: Turles, sir! Our ship has mysteriously changed course for a new planet: Earth!
    Turles: Does it contain the sufficient amount of joy?
    Reject Mall Santa: According to our sensors... yes!
    Turles: Well, then... merry Christmas!
  • Shenron snarks this trope again when Garlic Jr. wishes for immortality. It's almost as if he knows how badly this will end.
    Garlic Jr.: Dragon! Make me immortal!
    Shenron: Oh? R-really? Wow! Can't remember the last time someone nutted up and asked for that! Congrats! Can't wait to hear how you f**k this up.
    Garlic Jr.: What's that supposed to mean?
    Shenron: It means YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED!
• In A Jealous Wish, Goku, after seeing Oopa's joy at having his father back, wishes to Shenron to have his own father back. An Affably Evil Saiyan who could destroy all life on Earth in a matter of hours if given reason (assuming he doesn't just blow up the planet) and has no idea of what's going on beyond the fact the son that in his visions would defeat Frieza has wished him back to life and isn't anywhere near strong enough to take on the monster that will come to try and murder him. Surprisingly, the only victim so far is a doctor whose mutterings gave Bardock the impression he was too incompetent to be allowed to live.
• In A Simple Wish, Chi-Chi carelessly wishes herself out of existence. After seeing how the world has drastically changed without her, she comes to regret the wish.
• What If Krillin Became a Saiyan?: When Krillin tells Shenron that he wants to be more like Goku, the dragon interprets his request literally, transforming him into a Saiyan... several years before Raditz arrives and informs the heroes of just what a Saiyan is. On top of having to adjust to all the changes this makes to his physique and psyche, Krillin faces judgment and scorn from many for 'taking a cheap shortcut' by wishing for a power-up instead of earning it through hard work and training.

Family Guy

• Meg's Family Series has the chapter Time Stew. Stewie, after having a dream that Maddie will stop his plans of world domination, goes back in time to prevent Maddie from being born by making it so that Meg and Zack never met. Of course, Stewie realizes just how much he cared about Maddie and tries to get her born again. This goes to hell when after getting Meg and Zack (who's married to Nikki in this timeline) together, Zack ends up murdered and Meg kills herself afterward. Brian even says this trope word for word.

Fire Emblem

• In Golden Threads Tie Us, Morgan sets out to find her disappeared father in the belief that he must be alive but he can't return home for some reason. Morgan manages to find her father and finds out he's become the Fell Dragon Grima.

Game of Thrones

• An Empire of Ice and Fire: Viserys spends most of his time in the story crowing about how he'll eventually return to King's Landing in triumph. He does eventually travel to the city... as a prisoner, about to be executed for his crimes.
• In Morghulis/Dohaeris, Queen Sansa demands the independence of the North as repayment for "helping" Daenerys become Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, even though Daenerys took King's Landing with no help from them. Daenerys, already furious at everything else she has suffered because of Sansa and the North, gives her what she wants. Then she declares that no goods from Westeros will be allowed to be exported to the North—a region that has been recently devastated by winter and the White Walkers.
  Daenerys: Take the North from the Neck and be gone. Two witnesses, to make it official. You take your frozen hell and you be gone from my sights until the end of your days. And make no mistake, independent you shall be. No grain nor wood nor any other trade shall come to your ports from my kingdoms, not even from the Bay of Dragons. I have my own people to serve and to feed and to clothe—I have no time to waste on those who have proven themselves to be untrustworthy.
  Sansa: (gasps) You would starve innocent people because of your—your pride!
  Daenerys: You have what you've came here for. Now starve.
• The Raven's Plan: After the return to the past, Arya misses the respect she'd earned in the old timeline and wishes that all the people at Winterfell who don't Remember enough (or at all) would stop treating her like Arya Underfoot again. Then the Riverlanders arrive and start singing her praises for what she did to the Freys. So now, people are no longer treating Arya like a nuisance — because they're bloody terrified of her.
• In What If...? Catelyn Tully, Catelyn, after a big argument with Ned over Jon, impulsively wishes on a shooting star that Robert's Rebellion never happened and Brandon didn't die. When she wakes up to find herself as a younger woman again and events changed in such a way that the rebellion won't come to be (namely, the Mad King Aerys died at an earlier point in time, allowing Rhaegar to be crowned king), she's initially ecstatic. But it's not long before she realizes that Brandon is a very different person from all her fantasies about him (and very different from Ned for that matter) and she had been Loving a Shadow the whole time, with Brandon only marrying her out of duty and refusing to go along with her desire to construct a sept in Winterfell or raise their children in the Faith of the Seven. And then Catelyn sees Lyanna with her own husband (Jaime Lannister, who was relieved of his Kingsguard duties by Rhaegar) and their newborn son, a baby boy that looks just like Lyanna named Jon, causing her to put two and two together and realize Jon was actually her and Ned's nephew through Lyanna and Rhaegar, meaning all her ire at Jon was completely misaimed. And to add insult to injury, while she and Brandon are miserable in their marriage (with the latter even stating their children will Marry for Love to Northerners of their choice), everyone else is generally happy and thriving. The story ends with her wishing she could take back her old wish.
• In Segment 17 of the drabble collection Winter Is Coming Along With Ideas, this happens twice over.
  • Rhaegar gets the second daughter for the "three heads of the dragon" part of the Prince That Was Promised prophecy that he wanted from his love, Lyanna Stark. Unfortunately, while Rhaegar survives to become king and put down the rebellion, Lyanna dies in childbirth and his wife Elia and son Aegon are killed, so he's now effectively a single father left with his two surviving daughters, a Spared by the Adaptation Rhaenys and a Gender Flipped Jon (renamed Joanna).
  • Since Elia and Lyanna are both dead, Rhaegar has to remarry and Cersei Lannister is the only bachelorette around who is age-appropriate for him. While she gets to marry the man she always wanted, unfortunately for her, Rhaegar hates her because her father was responsible for Elia and Aegon's deaths and is only getting married to her due to obligation. She also has no Jaime to take comfort in because Jaime has been banished to the Wall.

The Ghost and Molly McGee

• An Unpleasant Surprise: When Molly's phone rings, Scratch hopes whomever is calling will get Molly's mind off her "Birthday party two months early" idea. Afterwards when she ends the call and friendship with Ashley, a depressed Molly cancels the party and even calls it stupid due to it being two months before the actual birthday, making the ghost worried about her emotional well-being.

Godzilla

• Abraxas: Empty Fullness: When the three beings who would later become Ghidorah were young and small, Ichi and Ni looked forward to growing too big and strong for any of their original species' predators on their homeworld to pose a threat to anymore. Their wish came true in a very horrifying way: technologically advanced aliens came for Ichi, Ni, and San, captured them, and inhumanely experimented on them, transforming them into a gigantic, three-headed, nigh-unstoppable Planet Destroyer (once which even Ghidorah's makers themselves couldn't stop when Ghidorah turned against and eradicated them in the near future). And to force Ghidorah to destroy what these aliens wanted it to once they set it loose, they hardwired an excruciating mental signal into the heads which screamed at them to "kill them all" and could only be temporarily sated by wiping out entire planets (an atrocity which traumatized the newborn Ghidorah even further).

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi

• By Any Other Name (2020) has Lan Xichen wishing for his brother to finally let go of Wei Wuxian's memory and find another love. Then Lan Wangji meets Wu Yingtai and quickly grows infatuated with her — but everything points at her being already engaged to Jiang Chen, and quite happily so. Needless to say, nobody in the Cloud Recesses approves of the Second Jade lusting after another man's fiancée.
• In A Game for the Fool, Jiang Cheng takes Wei Wuxian's entrance into his family with hostility and locks Wei Wuxian out of their shared room in rejection. Wei Wuxian just shrugs his shoulders and sleeps in the stables, whereas Jiang Cheng ends up freaking out crying when he sees Wei Wuxian gone.
• In Impenetrable Walls, Lan Wangji dreamed for Wei Wuxian to come with him to Cloud Recesses to live in safety and comfort. Four years later, the other man becomes his concubine at the Emperor's command... and is now bound to act according his new status. So Lan Wangji's beloved finally is safe and living with him, but their interactions are utterly devoid of emotional intimacy and trust because of the huge imbalance in their relationship.

Harry Potter

• Bad Education: It's established in the books that Voldemort really wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position. In this fanfiction, getting that position doesn't go the way he planned.
• In Ever After Ginny sneaks out of the castle because she wants adventure and excitement. Several hours after her escape, she comes across a caravan train being attacked by bandits. If she helps them, then she loses precious time; but if she doesn't help them, then she can't live with herself.
• Spoken word for word in Harry Potter and the Power of Paranoia. Rufus Scrimgeour is finally the Minister of Magic, a position he has coveted for years, but it just so happens to be during the rise of Voldemort. Furthermore, due to the Ministry building being unavailable (due to a prank by Sirius Black), the Ministry of Magic is temporarily housed in a run-down building in Diagon Alley.
• No Competition: Bigoted pureblood wizards and biased, high-ranking ministry personnel wanted nothing more than the removal from Wizarding society of 'unwanted' elements such as werewolves, vampires, hags, other assorted dark creatures, and muggleborns. Well, they got their wish, but the exodus caused tax revenue to fall sharply to the point Fudge is afraid that eventually, they will be unable to pay the people working at the Ministry of Magic.
• In The Serpent That Devours Us Tom Riddle performs a ritual intended to give him a guaranteed thousand-year lifespan. It attempts this by turning him into a basilisk.
• The whole premise of Wish Carefully boils down to this. In this Alternate Universe Fic, after Dumbledore dies, Harry decides to let the Death Eaters get what they want (no more Muggleborns, no contact with the Muggles, full control over Magical England, all of their enemies out of the way), but instead of being able to revel in their apparent victory, Lucius Malfoy eventually realizes that their wishes have actually condemned them to a slow and painful death. He actually mentions the trope and calls it trite.
• In The World As We Knew It, this trope is basically the core theme, when Harry, Lupin and Snape trigger an ancient magic whereby a wish will be granted if three separate people, without intending it, make the same wish at the same time. As a result, when the three wish that the prophecy about Harry and Voldemort had never been made, they find themselves in a parallel universe where the Potters are alive and Harry has a sister, but Voldemort has basically taken over the wizarding world, the Order of the Phoenix have essentially given up, Muggle-borns are prosecuted (Lily is only allowed to remain as fake paperwork was created for her and Hermione had to relocate to France before she was old enough to go to Hogwarts) and Ginny has been in Azkaban since she was accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets on her own.

How to Train Your Dragon

• In The Boy Behind The Mask, Snotlout wanted to be chief and the people of Berk wanted an heir that exemplified good old viking machismo. Unfortunately, Snotlout had no idea how boring and hard it would be to be the next chief and the people of Berk don't like the fact that their future chief is a self-righteous idiot, the current Chief and Elders having little to no faith in him.
• Prodigal Son: When the parents of the village try to retract their children from training because Astrid sided with Hiccup (then under the name Prometheus), viewing her as a traitor, Astrid makes a point by having the incompetent and narcissistic Snotlout to take over for her. What follows is Snotlout trying to bully the students into a total offense attack on a monstrous nightmare all the while the terrified parents try and salvage the situation, Astrid's training advice being the only thing keeping them alive.
• In What Lies Beneath, Stoick and Gobber constantly tell Hiccup that he should stop being like himself and start being less talkative and in the way. What results is Hiccup becoming reclusive, giving up on his hobbies, and doing nothing but his scheduled tasks. This does not go unnoticed by Gobber and Stoick, and it isn't until years later does it really hit Stoick just how badly he hurt his son.
  "You can't have it both ways." He said in an unnervingly steady, yet firm voice. However, tears started to run down his cheeks as he spoke, "You told me to stop being me. Everyone told me to change. Now that I have?"
  Without warning Hiccup swept his arm across a table, sending tools flying everywhere in his sudden rage. Stoick and Gobber remained still, shocked by Hiccup's behavior.
  "You're telling me you prefer the screw-up of Berk over this?! I'm still not good enough." He pushed past the shocked men toward the entrance, then turned for one final word before leaving. "Make up your damn minds! I don't know how much more of this I can take..."

Invader Zim

• Gaz Dreams of Genie:
  • Gaz gets hit with this after accidentally freeing the genie Azie from her bottle and being granted Three Wishes in exchange. She wastes her first wish with a Freudian Slip (expressing her annoyance with Dib by saying she sometimes wishes he'd never been born), leading to a Villain World where Zim rules and she's a slave; she then has to use her second wish to hit the Reset Button. Left with only one wish, and specifically being told she can't wish for more, Gaz spends time contemplating every wish she can think of and realizes that every single one could theoretically backfire on her. She tries to employ some Loophole Abuse by wishing for the power to grant her own wishes (thus allowing her to tailor things her way), but this just leads to her and Azie switching lives, leaving Gaz trapped in the bottle.
  • Invoked and discussed by Gaz when she's trying to be smart with her last wish during the above-mentioned contemplation, and she lists all the ways her wishes could be turned against her. Ruler of the country? Invaded and conquered. Ruler of the world? Either overthrown in a coup or Alien Invasion. Riches? Gained through crime and she's about to go to jail. Inherit her father's company? Professor Membrane broke multiple laws and the company's on the verge of bankruptcy. The best at all video games? She's trapped in a video game as the player character. It's at this point that she snaps in frustration, which leads to her failed attempt at Loophole Abuse to try and bypass this trope.
• Mad World: Dib gets hit with this twice. First of all, he always wanted someone to believe him and treat him with kindness, and he finds that with Nny, who unknown to him is the homicidal maniac Serial Killer he was looking for. Later, he also gets his wish to see something horrible happen to Zim, and is disgusted by it.
• Monkey's Paw of Doom is about Gaz getting a hold of a mystical monkey's paw and making wishes with it, despite it coming with a warning to not use it except in an emergency. Naturally, things go horribly wrong for her:
  • First, she wishes to speed up development of a VR gaming system she wants, causing Professor Membrane to make a breakthrough on a new power source which speeds up technological development by centuries, getting the system in Gaz's hands in days... and then an error the Professor made in his calculations leads to a massive power surge that fries all the technology connected to the power source (electrocuting Gaz as she tries to use the game, rendering her bald in the process). The Professor also gets arrested for criminal negligence and his assets seized to pay for damages, leaving Dib and Gaz living in a cheap flophouse.
  • Gaz wishes for a new home and ends up winning a mansion in a housing lottery... which turns out to be a scam, and when she goes to collect it, she gets drugged and has a kidney stolen, while the new "house" is a shack that collapses on her after a few minutes.
  • After Tak mocks her for her current situation, Gaz wishes for someone to "take care of her". She ends up badly injured after being hit by a flying moose, allowing Dib to capture her... leading to them bonding and falling in love while he tends her to injuries in the process of trying to interrogate her, leaving him literally taking care of her as he nurses her back to health, to Gaz's disgust.
  • When Dib tries to justify the above, Gaz wishes for him to shut up. He promptly loses his voice... and therefore can't warn Gaz about a speeding car that hits her as she's crossing the street. He also can't speak up for her in court during the resulting lawsuit, leaving the judge to rule in the driver's favor and arrest and imprison Gaz instead.

Jackie Chan Adventures

• Jade Dragon:
  • Jackie decides that this trope is a very wise proverb while creeping towards Fei's palace, considering his job is to reconstruct the past, and it had come to life before him... at the behest of a demonic dragon hellbent on conquering the world.
  • Jade's narration lampshades this, with how her life switch with Shendu occurred right after her wishing that her adventures will continue.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

• Cupid Missed, Keicho Didn't: This story, taking place before the events Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable, has Yukako Yamagishi wishing she was hit by Cupid's Arrow so she can confess to her crush and hopefully get control over her Hair-Trigger Temper. She's instead shoot by an arrow by Keicho Nijimura, doing so because he thought her furious nature would produce a Stand that can Mercy Kill his father. When he leaves her behind and she recovers, Yukako thinks the whole thing was a dream takes this as a sign that she should act onto her feelings, special towards Koichi Hirose. And as many readers know, she starts out very aggressive when it comes to making him hers.

Kill la Kill

• Kill la Kill AU: In Comic 41, we have Ryuuko, in light of Satsuki's illness, and she wishes to be the "sick one" instead of her then ill sister. Unfortunately, this comes true and the comic ends with her in the hospital as her illness gets worse. In the second part of that arc, Satsuki wishes to be the sick one, too, so Ryuuko won't be alone.
• The Outside seems to imply this, as Ryuuko wanted little more than to go outside. She does get to but, unfortunately, this costs her the life she had before, as her getting injured is the reason she's removed from Satsuki's care altogether.

Love Hina

• In Love Hina: Like It Could Have Been, Naru and Makoto successfully drive Keitaro away from the Hinata Inn, meaning they don't have to deal with a male manager. Instead, they have to cope with the fallout, as a coldly furious Haruka promptly declares the girls will have to split all the chores he would have taken over.

Miraculous Ladybug

• Couturiere: Lila wanted to break Marinette. She succeeded - and Marinette became an akuma that proceeded to ruin her life by revealing her lies and traumatizing her so thoroughly that she's left permanently mute. Couturiere also invokes this by declaring that everyone wanted her to be the bad guy, so now she is.
• Dad Villain AU:
  • Chloé set out to ruin Marinette's life and bully her out of attending Francoise Dupont. When she scales back her attendance after Sabine passes away, Chloé gloats over her victory... only for Tom to threaten a lawsuit, revealing that he's got plenty of evidence of all the years she's spent tormenting his daughter. Including everything Chloé herself posted online. On top of this, Marinette isn't afraid of her anymore, and she finds herself having to contend with Lila on her own.
  • Gabriel brings this up during his first encounter with Viceroy, wrongly assuming that the new Butterfly user also wants to Make a Wish and bragging about his victory in the original universe. Played With in that while Gabriel believes he avoided all the potential pitfalls, his selfish, petty Wish is directly responsible for Viceroy's bitter vendetta against him.
• Dodged a Beetle: Upon seeing Ladybug and Chat Noir's debut on TV, Lila is instantly envious, wondering why she couldn't be out there being praised and admired by everyone. Marinette then secretly passes her the Earrings, giving her a chance to replace her as Bella Stella...and Lila immediately discovers just how stressful and chaotic a superhero's life is.
• Everything You Deserve: Adrien makes a series of poorly-phrased Wishes on the combined Earrings and Ring, creating a new reality where his Karma Houdini Warranty no longer applies. He doesn't enjoy it.
  • He gets to transform whenever he wants and have fun, but it's because he's now an infamous villain.
  • He wants Ladybug to be his loving, devoted girlfriend. His selfish and spoiled childhood friend, Chloé, becomes Ladybug and attaches herself to him like a barnacle. The previous Ladybug and his real crush, Marinette, is now the Black Cat, and she hates him.
  • He wants his mother back and for her and his father to be the perfect parents. Their appearance of being Happily Married is a facade, Emilie is cheating on Gabriel with Nathalie, and they're only staying together for Adrien's sake and plan to divorce as soon as he's done with school.
  • He doesn't have to do photoshoots and modeling anymore, but now he doesn't get the privileges that come with being famous.
  • And when he finally defeats Chat du Lune in hopes of getting her Miraculous back and making another Wish, he finds out the Miraculi were destroyed, meaning there's no way for him to change things back the way they were, and he's stuck in this reality for good.
• the high road:
  • Adrien wanted Marinette to "take the high road" by letting Lila continue to deceive everyone, claiming it didn't really matter because she wasn't hurting anyone. Marinette seemingly takes his advice to heart a little too well, going out of her way to accommodate her every claim and cater to her every whim... including in ways that wind up inconveniencing him.
  • Similarly, Alya and the rest of her classmates/friends wanted her to "get along" with Lila. They find themselves reconsidering this once they're the ones being pressured to go along with Lila's every whim, regardless of what it entails. As they start to figure out that the girl who was Too Good to Be True is really a Manipulative Bitch, their attempts to convince Marinette of this fail.
  • Lila wanted to be constantly catered to and have the world revolve around her. Marinette gives her exactly what she desired, using this to undermine her standing with the whole class, as they gradually grow resentful of being forced to bend over backwards for her.
• The Karma of Lies: Adrien tells Marinette that she should just let Lila keep deceiving everyone, as it's "not hurting anyone" — or more accurately, it's not hurting him, and for all his pretending to be a Nice Guy, he doesn't really care about how much Marinette or their classmates are being hurt. Marinette listens: she stops caring about trying to expose the Con Artist. Instead, she distances herself from him and the rest of the class, even transferring to another homeroom. When Adrien himself finally gets hurt by Lila, he finds that Marinette still isn't willing to get involved. After all, as she reminds him, he didn't lose anything he couldn't ''afford'' to lose, right?
• The Lament Series (ChaoticNeutral): The Bad Guy Wins, and they make a Wish with the Miraculous to warp reality to get what they want, but they are not prepared for the domino effects the changes cause.
  • In Gabriel's Lament, Gabriel Wishes to bring back Emilie. As a result, the timeline changes so that her Miraculous was never damaged, and she never falls into a coma. However, another person becomes Hawkmoth and is much better at the job than Gabriel was. And since Hawkmoth isn't his father and thus had no reason to spare him from his wrath, Adrien's loneliness and resentment towards his father was used to akumatize him into Chat Blanc, whom Emilie is always having to fight as the Peacock heroine, since his akuma form has actually lasted months, meaning Gabriel has only exchanged one piece of his family for the other, in addition to being powerless to help his wife when she is in danger.
  • In Chloé's Lament, Chloé finds her victory as Miracle Queen to be unsatisfying, so she Wishes to swap lives with Marinette, believing that this will ensure that Marinette ends up Hated by All while she'll get to be the new Ladybug. However, she swiftly discovers that Marinette is still regarded as the Class Princess — while their positions have changed, with Marinette's parents becoming the Mayor and owner of the Le Grand Paris hotel and Chloé's father being a simple baker, their personalities remained the same. So Marinette is Spoiled Sweet and doesn't abuse her parents' positions like Chloé did... and André can't protect Chloé from the consequences of her actions anymore. On top of that, she's completely friendless — Sabrina isn't her Beta Bitch in this world, and Adrien was Childhood Friends with her and Marinette, meaning he only tolerates her out of pity. And since Chloé failed Fu's Secret Test of Character without ever realizing it was a factor, the Earrings went to somebody else.
• Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots: In A Price to Pay, Adrien betrays Marinette, helping his father get his hands on the Ladybug Earrings and Black Cat Ring and Wish for Emilie's life to be fully restored. Both expect to escape all consequences for this, since reality will be rewritten, only to be caught off-guard by how the Wish is granted:
  • In exchange for Emilie, Tom Dupain-Cheng is killed in a car accident... caused by Gabriel. While he bribes his way out of immediate legal consequences, Emilie is so disgusted by her husband's blatant disregard for human life that she divorces him... and since Adrien shows the same Lack of Empathy as his father, she effectively disowns him as well. As Marinette points out, the Wish only brought her back to life; Gabriel didn't Wish for her to stay with him, having arrogantly taken her presence for granted.
  • Neither Gabriel nor Adrien winds up with any Miraculouses in the new reality; there's a different Hawkmoth, a different Peacock, and different heroes, meaning the Agrestes have no way of attempting to "magically fix" their mistakes.
  • Marinette also retains her memories of the original timeline...though as she bluntly points out to Adrien, she would've disliked him regardless since his father killed hers in the accident.
• One step backwards and Three forwards opens with Hawkmoth winning, and generously allowing those who supported him to make Wishes of their own. None of them consider the fact that these Wishes are being granted by a pair of coldly furious kwami, despite how Plagg and Tikki cheerfully note that they WILL regret it.
• Rate This (Trust is Hard to Come By): Lila gets the fame and attention she'd so desperately craved...when the akuma Gardener uses a power that reveals just how much (or how little) Ladybug trusts everyone in Paris. Aside from Hawkmoth and Mayura, she's the only one who gets a negative number, a whopping -51. As Chloé gleefully points out during the climax, she's currently trending; everyone wants to know all about Lila Rossi and how she managed to earn the superheroine's ire.
• Scarlet Lady: When Chloé locks Juleka in the bathroom, she hopes the latter gets akumatized so she can show off as Scarlet Lady. Juleka's akumatized form shows up when she's trying to prevent Marinette from erasing the photo where she appears next to Adrien.
  Chloé: Why does an akuma have to come now?!
• Smart Adversaries AU:
  • In On Reflection, Chat Noir combines the power of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to get a wish. He wishes for Scarlet Moth to be gone. While this frees Marinette and the other akuma victims from Scarlet Moth, the open-ended wish allows a balancing consequence, and Emilie Agreste revives to become Madame Papillon.
  • In Puppeteer Too, Marinette's pretend wish to be a wax statue in the embrace of Adrien's statue comes true when The Puppeteer takes control of the figures of Chat Noir and Ladybug, swapping their places with the real people.
  • In Riposte Lets Rip, Gabriel's carelessly worded wish turns his wife's curse back on himself.
  • In Robustus Triumphant, the wish of Robustus to become a real boy costs Max his humanity, and he becomes the robot.
  • In The Turning Of A Page, Adrien gets a wish with unintended consequences. Lampshaded with a reference to "The Monkey's Paw".
• In Spellbound (Lilafly), Plagg explains that his usual solution to greedy and unworthy holders is to offer them a portion of his magic. When they accept, the magic overload changes them into beings that aren't human enough to wield a Miraculous anymore.
• Lila and Alya both get hit by this in Truth is Subjective:
  • Lila gets the attention she always desired...after Ladybug publicly accuses her of stalking her (and technically, she's not wrong). Following the fallout of the broadcast, Max suggests that she's likely to be remembered as the most infamous stalker in recent history.
  • Alya wanted her blog to become famous; after the disastrous livestream, she laments that it's gotten the attention and traffic she always wanted, but in the worst possible way. Thanks to her posting various interviews with Lila without ever bothering to fact-check any of her claims, she and her blog have lost all credibility.
• A Running Theme in Two Letters, which explores a world where Marinette quit being Ladybug, passing on the Earrings to a Sketchy Successor who technically fulfills many of the things various Parisians wished for:
  • Mayor Bourgeois wanted a Ladybug whom he could bribe to endorse him, as well as one who wouldn't bother him with unwanted proposals about ways to improve Paris' ability to deal with akumas. He got exactly what he wanted with the new Ladybug - only problem is, now he has to keep the money flowing in order to keep her happy. As he has several political rivals who are also willing to pay for her endorsement. And thanks to Bob Roth, he got to see firsthand just what happens when somebody stops paying for her favor...
  • Theo wanted Ladybug's attention and got upset when she wasn't able to attend the unveiling of a statue he'd made in the heroes' honor. The new Ladybug takes an interest in him after he's hired to create a series of statues... after she disapproved of how the first sculptor was handling the project and casually destroyed his career. This leaves him terrified of meeting the same fate.
  • Nadja wanted to exploit Ladybug for ratings, harassing her with invasive questions demanding details about her personal life and supposed romance with Chat Noir. The new Ladybug is more than happy to gossip about herself to her heart's content — in fact, Nadja's gotten a whole new talk show out of the deal, "All Things Ladybug!", where she gets to interview the heroine every day and gossip about her exploits and latest boyfriend. Too bad the show's nothing more than a glorified Propaganda Machine letting Ladybug shill herself and various products, leaving Nadja regarded as somebody who can't be trusted with real stories.
  • Veronique got akumatized when Mayor Bourgeois shut down her dream exhibit showcasing various Ladybugs. She's gotten the chance to host one such exhibit now, but it wasn't her design — the creator has mysteriously disappeared, and she's been brought in as a substitute. What's more, the new Ladybug has already proposed her own changes to it, rubbing in how she's got no creative control.
  • Luka was hoping that the exhibit showcasing various historical Ladybugs would offer some insight into their own circumstances. To his horror, Marinette uncovers a common thread linking all of the heroes in the exhibit together: all of them were betrayed, and all of them died as a direct result of their service, hammering home Marinette's fears that if she's forced back into the role, she'll die as well.
  • The successor herself claims that many Parisians resented the original Ladybug for being too good a person — while some, like Luka, were inspired to better themselves and tried finding ways to resist Hawkmoth, others just wanted her to handle everything herself so that they wouldn't have to worry about it. The new Ladybug, by contrast, never suggests that they should take care of themselves; she encourages their dependence upon her, forming a Cult of Personality around herself.
• Villain Of Your Own Story plays with this when Alya steals the Ladybug and Black Cat Miracli to make a reality-altering Wish:
  • Firstly, it's played straight with her Wish to know Hawkmoth's Secret Identity. In the new reality, she was always Hawkmoth, having found the Butterfly Brooch and started 'pretending' to be a villain in hopes of luring out heroes whose Miraculi had more direct powers so she could steal them and become a 'real superhero' herself.
  • The other part of her Wish, that Marinette would be happier, comes true... just not in the form Alya expected. Rather than pairing her off with Adrien, she's happily dating Luka and Nino, and no longer has to deal with the pressures of being Ladybug. Alya insists that the Wish must have gone horribly wrong because she refuses to accept the notion that the magic knew more about what would make her happy than she did as her 'best friend'.
• Weight Off Your Shoulder: Tikki wanted Marinette to be an Ideal Heroine who never got distracted by any of the issues she was having with her civilian life as she juggled being a superhero with being a teenaged girl. Marinette became convinced that she was a complete failure as Ladybug and passed on her Earrings to another holder, who proves to be exactly what Tikki thought she wanted: so singularly devoted to being a hero that she doesn't have any life beyond Ladybug. Tikki realizes that she was too hard on Marinette, and resolves to make up for her mistakes as best she can.
• What Goes Around Comes Around: Adrien takes for granted the idea that Marinette will become his girlfriend once she's revealed as Ladybug. He further believes that as his girlfriend, she'll have to bend over backward to ensure his happiness by supporting his every desire, regardless of how she personally feels on the matter. To his utter horror, his parents agree, revealing that they intend to make a Wish to ensure that she marries into their family — while also reshaping Adrien into their 'ideal son' by forcibly merging him with Felix.
• In Your Wish is my Command, Lila gains the Miraculi and wishes to have Adrien's life, expecting to gain his fame and fortune. She wakes up in a reality where her own mother married Gabriel instead of Emilie. However, being Gabriel's daughter, she finds she no longer has the power over him that she had before, nor does she have the same power at school with him controlling her social life and academics. Plus, her classmates don’t fight for her the way they fought for Adrien. When Adrien does show up, he is no longer the Extreme Doormat from his previous life without Gabriel for a father and has no problems telling Lila off when she gets clingy and petty. On top of all that, now she has the Missing Mom.
• This what-if scenario has Adrien stubbornly insist that Marinette needs to stop trying to expose Lila because her Blatant Lies "aren't hurting anyone". When Chat Noir proceeds to vent about the situation to Ladybug, she realizes his Secret Identity and decides to give him exactly what he thought he wanted by confessing that she had a crush of her own...on Adrien. But she's giving up on that since he's clearly dating Lila Rossi. And she has no interest in investigating or challenging Lila's claims about their relationship.
  • In this follow-up, Adrien wants to keep covering for Lila without explicitly vouching for her, as he doesn't want his classmates to realize he's been letting her string them along unchallenged. When he attempts to Take a Third Option, he technically gets what he wanted — Alya and the others continue to believe that Lila's on the level. But that's only because Lila convinced them that HE lied to Marinette in order to manipulate her into doing what he wanted.

Monster Rancher

• Phoenix's Tear: Reignition: Early on in Eigangrau, Suezo pesters Hare about using the Tear to warm up the air around them so that he won't have to deal with snowflakes landing in his eye. Hare refuses but later does just that, after they're nearly killed by an avalanche.

My Hero Academia

• AfO's Guide To A Peaceful Retirement: Veritas demands Present Mic tell him the truth regarding his feelings for Hitoshi. He gets an hours-long rant from Mic about how his beloved adorable wonderful son Hitoshi makes life better simply by existing, and all of Mic's evidence to prove it. Mic continues this even after Veritas' Quirk wears off because he's delighted someone is finally listening to him. Apparently this was very predictable to all of Mic's friends, as he also gives this rant when drunk.
• Cain:
  • After witnessing All Might offering to help Izuku become a hero, Katsuki immediately wants a chance to prove himself. He manages to get what he wants...by threatening to expose Toshinori's secret if he doesn't let him join, without considering what a horrible first impression he's making. On top of that, their training consists of cleaning up the beach without letting him use his Quirk.
  • Katsuki repeatedly insists that All Might has to give him a chance and hear out his side of things. Indeed, Toshinori tries his hardest to understand Katsuki's point of view...but the more he observes, the worse Katsuki makes things for himself, due to his incredibly self-centered and short-sighted behavior. Toshinori eventually Lampshades this after Katsuki tries to force his way into the Midoriyas' home.
    Toshinori: You wanted a chance? Here it is: tell me what would have happened if you got in that door back there.
  • Early on, Katsuki smugly thinks that it'd be a dream come true if Izuku dropped out of Aldera since he wouldn't have to deal with him anymore. When Izuku actually does leave Aldera, Katsuki immediately realizes that this means he can't keep tabs on his favorite victim anymore. He doesn't take it well.
• Aldera wanted Bakugou to become famous in order to raise their own profile as his alma mater. In the "Ground Zero" AU from DeusVerve, Katsuki indeed rockets to infamy after accidentally killing Izuku during the Heroes vs. Villains exercise, with Aldera being recognized for the role they played in creating him.
• Emerald Furnace - Path Of Storms: Bakugou claimed that Izuku's Quirk made him villainous and that it was his future to be a villain. Well, he gets his wish, but it's very likely in the "Bakugou Katsuki Faces Consequences" tag, that he will regret making Izuku a Villain.
• Played for Laughs in Heaven's Eye. Inko inwardly muses that she always wished for a daughter so that she could do mother/daughter bonding activities (like braiding hair, doing nails, and trying on cute outfits) with her, only to find out that Eri, the daughter she recently adopted, doesn't enjoy those kinds of activities.
• In Horizon: Star Driven, Katsuki gets his wish of making Izuku stop wanting to become a hero - and becomes shocked while trying to understand why it happened.
• Peace's Apprentice:
  • Shinso used to think that he'd rather be Quirkless than have a "villain's quirk". After the attack on the USJ, his throat is so badly damaged that he can't use his Quirk (or speak at all) without causing severe internal bleeding, rendering him functionally Quirkless. He lampshades the irony.
  • Aizawa always made it clear how little he actually wanted to teach his students, putting in as close to zero effort as he could get away with. Because of his gross negligence, he's fired from UA.
• Three Guys Go to a Bar(and then they Beat You With It): For final exams, Aizawa assigns Bakugou, Shinsou, and Tokoyami to play the villains against all of their classmates, giving them two months to divvy their classmates up into teams and come up with a different scenario for each test. He dramatically underestimates just how far spite and pettiness will drive them to ensure that they give their classmates hell, rendering said exams practically useless because everybody else fails, forcing U.A. to redo them.
• The Turn: Shouto despised his half-brother Izuku for being living proof of how Endeavor cheated on his wife, wishing that he'd just 'go away' and stop trying to be his sibling. He gets his wish after All Might adopts Izuku, creating a cover story that lets the Midoriyas escape the iron control of the Todoroki family. This comes coupled with a Jerkass Realization on Shouto's end; sadly for him, after years of rejection and Misplaced Retribution, Izuku is no longer interested in treating Shouto as a brother.
• Words May Hurt: Katsuki assumed that he'd be much happier if others would just leave him alone and stop pestering him all the time. Especially that stupid Deku. After he seriously injures Tenya during their first training exercise together, he gets his wish; the whole class starts avoiding him, even Kirishima, putting an end to any overtures and offers of friendship. In fact, all the students in U.A. are giving him a wide berth...and he finds it's not so wonderful being left alone after all.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• Played for pure Nightmare Fuel in The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum side story The Last Train From Oblivion, where Rio Deneter, a member of the PER, wanted nothing more than to be rid of her Dark and Troubled Past and she was convinced ponification would solve all of her problems and take the pain away. Rio does get her wish to become a pony granted, but given the nature of how the conversion process goes, she quickly regrets her decision but it's already too late for her. What happens next is a Mind Rape so thorough that even when Rio tries to fight it, she just loses more and more of herself until she's nothing but a hollow mockery of a pony with no free will or sentience.
• In A Crazed Gleam, Starlight has always dreamed of a world where everyone can be valued equally while still being happy and contributing to society. Discord gives her exactly that, in the form of a timeline where, because she stopped the Sonic Rainboom from happening, the changelings conquered Equestria and converted the ponies into "love generators": mass-produced, genetically identical, barely sentient creatures just aware enough to feel love while being used as living food sources and batteries...and Starlight gets to be one of them.
• The Curse of Beauty involves a story within a story about six pony princesses, each named for a fairy tale heroine, who each recklessly used a spell from a magic tome called "The Excess Magic of Wishes", with disastrous and ironic results: Princess Snow White wishes she weren't so tall and shrinks to a tiny size; Princess Goldilocks wishes to be more "sensitive", and suddenly everything feels too hard or too soft, too cold or too hot, etc.; Princess Rapunzel wishes for a longer mane, and ends up with enough hair to swamp a tower; and so on. Princess Cinderella "merely" gets trapped in a giant pumpkin after losing her concentration while casting a powerful spell.
• A Future of Friendship, a History of Hate: Episode 5 is built on this trope — Scootaloo, tired of the downsides of being a kid, accepts Miserain's aid in becoming an adult... only to figure out pretty fast that she has no idea how to be one, getting her into all kinds of trouble, eventually leaving her completely depressed. Which is what Miserain wanted, as Scootaloo's despair fed the woebeghoul sealed in the Tear of Covet. Once everything is over and done with, Scootaloo learns the episode's Aesop about waiting to grow up.
• No Maturity Here, a short comic, shows Fluttershy getting upset by Discord's pranks and demanding of him, "Act your age!" As it happens, saying this to a Reality Warper that is millennia old isn't a wise thing: Discord takes an undead form as starts terrorizing Ponyville.
• Pony POV Series:
  • This is the origin story of General-Admiral Makarov. The Hooviet Empire was struggling to stay afloat after the Dragon-Hooviet War (which ended with the Dragon's leader Queen Tiamat Curbstomping their entire military and leaving half the empire blazing ruin) and sought to create the Ultimate Lifeform to enable them to lead them back to greatness. The resulting Super-Soldier experiment created Makarov. The good news? He's doing exactly what they wanted him to do. The bad news? He's playing his leaders for pawns and has his own goals of world domination. Made more literal by the fact he's actually a Equinoid Abomination called the Shadow of Chernobull created by Pandora and imprisoned in her box. A Hooviet experiment with an imagination engine ended up releasing him from his prison, after which he fed off their desires and wishes to become Makarov, in the process eating the existences of countless deer and threatening the entire world.
  • Chrysalis desires to complete herself and become an Alicorn (due to being the original Cadenza's Shadow of Existence), she eventually succeeds, but the Elements of Harmony, which did the completing also gave her a heart to truly complete her, which more or less drives her insane.
  • In the Empress Trixie timeline, Trixie makes a Deal with the Devil with Lady Babylon for an unbreakable spell that will make everypony in the world love her. It works perfectly, and she is made Empress of Equestria with ultimate power. After a few years, it starts driving her insane because having everything she wants makes her life meaningless, and she can't have a meaningful relationship with anypony because they've all been brainwashed into loving her unconditionally. It's impossible to break the spell, and she even tries to commit suicide multiple times, but her loyal subjects save her life every time and are even working on ways to extend her lifespan or make her immortal.
• Quiververse: This trope proves to be a harsh lesson for one of the central characters, Quiver Quill. Fed up and frustrated with his low-functioning autistic younger sibling, he briefly wished that his brother was 'gone'. Said younger brother tragically died within days of this, and between his grandparents continuing to dote on said sibling and his father descending into emotional abuse, Quiver developed a terrible guilt complex over it.
• RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: In the non-canonical story "Nightmares Yet to Come", a group of ponies try creating an alicorn in a magic ritual involving Trixie and Twilight. They succeed... in creating an entirely new alicorn, which quite clearly wasn't what they were going for. Later on, the foal's caregiver discusses the trope, but the foal is too young and naïve to catch on to the verbal irony or just how her "sister" even knows that's what they were trying to do...
• The Reading Rainbowverse has Bonbon being a bit annoyed that Lyra isn't taking their relationship seriously... and then Lyra finds out how Bonbon feels and breaks up with her, thinking that she can't return the affections.
• In The Witch of Canterlot this trope is the reason Saddle Arabia went from the richest country in the world to a poor desert: in the older days the land hosted a large number of djinn who'd grant any wish to the letter, no matter what kind of wishes they were or who made them, resulting in the land first becoming incredibly rich and then being devastated by horrors conjured by people thinking out loud while a djinni passed by, children making poorly considered wishes (the example given is a child wishing a mountain of ice cream: not only he'd grow sick of in minutes, and the ice cream would quickly become inedible and attract vermin while it melts and ruins crops and the land it grows on), and wishes of revenge being made by irresponsible people, eventually resulting in the government hunting the djinn into extinction and very carefully administering what little remaining wish power there is.
• One episode has Twilight cast a spell on the parasprites, little creatures who are eating all of the food in Ponyville, to stop them from eating the food... which then leads to the creatures eating inanimate objects such as buildings. In one fanfic based on this, Twilight thinks the spell through and casts a spell to stop the parasprites from eating food and inanimate objects. Unfortunately, this leads to the parasprites now developing an appetite for the ponies!
  • In the same fanfic, when Twilight stops to think about the spell, she remembers that she cast the spell on a roommate of hers (back in Canterlot) to stop her from eating desserts to assist with a diet. While the friend did stop eating desserts, she then started eating lots of spinach instead, which led to her passing lots of gas.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

• Through The Looking Glass is about a runestone that allows counterparts from the isekai canon world and the Fortune Lover world to swap places upon asking for a wish. However, the wishes don't end up as the speaker intended.
  • Canon Keith wishes for a world in which Katarina doesn't think of him as her brother so that he can express his feelings for her. Instead, he finds himself in a world where his beloved sister treats him like scum and his family is equally cold.
  • Prince Gerald from the Isekai world wishes that his fiance Katarina would love him as he loves her. While initially pleased that game Katarina loves him, he is horrified at how spoiled and wicked he is.
  • Prince Geord from the Game world wanted Katarina to not be so in love with him so he can end their engagement. When he arrives in the Isekai world, he is easily able to do so and is now open to dating Maria... only to find that her game counterpart is in love with Katarina.
  • The only one that initially gets what he wanted is Keith from the game world, who finally has the caring and loving Claes family that he wanted. Of course, his fantasy comes to an end once he and Geord are exposed from coming from another world, leading to his arrest.

Naruto

• In Glass Marionette, Obito becomes curious about how much Kankuro seems to know about the Akatsuki and sends him a threatening letter 'requesting' that the puppeteer meet them alone for a 'private showing' of the Rabbit Princess play. Kankuro complies, giving them exactly what they want: a special rendition of the play wherein he reveals that he knows how Madara orchestrated Rin's death.
• Son of the Sannin:
  • Played for Laughs in Chapter 59. Since Zabuza wants to become Mizukage after Mei, she's letting him handle the job in her absence so he gets used to it... along with the meetings and paperwork he has to handle.
  • In the same chapter, Fu is shown wishing for an excuse to go visit her boyfriend and considers asking the village leader for a mission that will take her to the Land of Fire. Cue Akatsuki invading the village and her being sent to get help from Konoha.
    Little did she know that her wishes were going to come true, and the price she had to pay for them.
  • Kurenai in Chapter 81 confides to Shizune that after Rin came Back from the Dead, part of her wished that the same happened to her former student, Yakumo Kurama. And she did come back, as one of Danzo's minions.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Advice and Trust: Asuka wanted to show everybody that she was the best pilot, and she wished that Shinji got her blatant hints. At last, Shinji got her hints and because she became more psychologically stable -thanks Shinji- she became the Number One, and she and Shinji defeated an enemy together... but because they did not win as Gendo wanted, he fired them, rendering her accomplishments irrelevant.
• Evangelion 303:
  • Asuka wanted to get the B-1C assignment. After doing a bit of soul-searching and bonding with Shinji she managed to become the chief test pilot for the experimental jet... and she was not happy because Shinji got to leave for one week as she got to stay to take part in the program. And during the assignment, she had to put up with a harsh (albeit well-meaning) drill instructor while wearing an embarrassing suit.
  • After a crash sends Asuka into a coma for several months Shinji spent the entire time desperately praying for her to wake up. She did eventually recover, but was an absolute mental and emotional wreck due to the trauma; becoming angry, spiteful, and lashing out at him constantly. For Shinji, this was like going from one hell to another, and sometimes made him wonder if this was what he had been wishing for. Fortunately, she got better.
• HERZ: Kensuke wished to be an Humongous Mecha pilot. He managed to become a jet fighter pilot, which is almost so good in his opinion… but it entails that Asuka is his superior officer, and they never got along well.
• In The Second Try, Shinji and Asuka were sent back in time because of an offhanded wish they made one night. They got their wish, but it came with a heavy cost. They wished that they could do something to allow their 3-year-old daughter a normal life; a life where she could have friends. By going back in time they got their chance to make such a world, but it also erased their daughter from existence. Shinji doesn't take this very well when he learns of it. Ultimately averted when it turns out she was sent back as well, but to a later date than her parents.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, Misato wishes her ward Asuka had enough free time to recover from her latest physical and mental wounds. Then her Humongous Mecha went berserker, hurt another pilot, and Ritsuko considered firing her.
  Ritsuko: However she sees it is not really relevant. I do find it ironic that you were so concerned for her having some time off and now it bothers you that after next week she won't be required to pilot again. In essence, you have gotten just what you set out to get.
  Misato: Be careful what you wish for, right?

Odd Squad

• In Opalescent, Oscar wishes for some time together with Opal. He gets time with her during the events of "Jinx", but he quickly regrets it when Olive and Otto send the pair on a mission to fight a laser chicken, something that's completely outside of their skillset.

One Piece

• This Bites!:
  • Vice Admiral Jonathan wonders why he thought it was a good idea to let the Straw Hats stress test Navarone.
  • Fleet Admiral Sengoku wishes for the Strawhats to engage in 'traditional piracy' over the SBS and even plans on saying prayers for those who'll end up losing their homes. Then he recognizes the voices/names on the broadcast and realizes exactly which island they're destroying— The Judicial Island, Enies Lobby, which is one of the Marines' three greatest strongholds. It's also lampshaded by Cross during the broadcast almost immediately afterwards.
    Cross: We're going to take a leaf out of the pages of the big black book of piracy! Only... It's not the edition you were hoping for. We're tearing this straight out of the Four Emperors' personal playbook: you touch one of ours? We fuck you up.
  • Jabra taunts Luffy in hopes of getting the best possible fight. Unfortunately for him, he did so by not only pressing Luffy's Berserk Button but slamming it with a sledgehammer. No-Holds-Barred Beatdown ensues.
  • One of the things Cross had been looking forward to since arriving in the One Piece world was when he would get his own bounty. Unfortunately, after a run-in with Garp at Water 7, the vindictive Vice Admiral made sure Cross got what he wanted...by putting the highest bounty in Paradise on him, one which would fit among the crews of the Four Emperors.

Persona Franchise

• Hours 'Verse:
  • Hamuko wishes she wasn't separated from Minato. She gets her wish when her entire timeline is destroyed and only she and Shinjiro survive.
  • In The Other 25th Hours, which takes place on Innocent Sin's Other Side, Nanjo succeeds in becoming the world's #1 man. Too bad the world is now a pile of rubble and one surviving city.
  • Ren believes his argument with Tatsuya is this, having told him to "go back to That Side" the night before he and Jun disappear. Discussed by several characters, despite Ren's outburst being entirely unrelated to the going-ons of That Side.

Pokémon: The Series

• Borne of Caution: In Act 2, Interlude 5, a POV for Sylveon states that she had been cold and numb ever since the human she fell in love with abandoned her, and more than once she'd considered throwing herself in the fireplace just to feel something again. The next chapter, when Lee finally tells his companions everything, Sylveon surreptitiously maintains her empathetic contact with Lee when he orders her not to, and vomits at the memory of Lee burning to death.
• Pokemon: Shadow of Time: Pikachu falls victim to a weird version of this. After he has expressed a wish for 'Ashlings' to play with him, Ash technically acquires a 'daughter' in the form of Sabrina, who was purged of a psychic parasite and has now mentally regressed to a twelve-year-old girl who thinks of Ash and Misty as her parents and likes playing with Pikachu because he's cute even though she's physically a grown woman.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

• In The Hitomi Who Leapt Through Time, when Homura Akemi made her wish to save Madoka from her death in the first timeline, she worded it in a way that implied she wanted to be as close to Madoka as she was with her Childhood Friend Hitomi Shizuki. This leads Homura to become a spirit bound to a past version of Hitomi. Luckily for her, Hitomi is just as willing as she is to become a magical girl despite the risks so they can save Madoka from her destined death.

Ragnarok Online

• The Big Bad in Warriors of the World: Soldiers of Fortune fully possesses someone who asked to become the strongest because the villain is the strongest there is. The poor victim gets consumed for his troubles.

Ranma ½

• Account Transfer has Ryoga wishing that he had Ranma's problems instead of his own. He gets Ranma's Jusenkyo curse, Akari and Ukyo both get engaged to him, Shampoo starts chasing him after he defeats her in a fight (earning Mousse's enmity in the process), he accidentally learns the Nekoken, subsequently getting a phobia of cats, has to go to a school where Principal Kuno and Hinako work, and finally gets the same relationship with the Kuno siblings Ranma had. To add insult to injury, Akane gives Akari her Hyperspace Mallet, and Happosai vows to give Ryoga's female form all his attentions.

Reborn! (2004)

• In More Than No Good, instead of Tsuna being the heir of the mafia, his twin OC brother is. When Gokudera challenges the brother and ends up being defeated, the brother rejects him and refuses to make him his right-hand man. In an effort to make the brother reconsider and show how effective the bomber could be, Reborn has Gokudera guard Tsuna. Obviously, Gokudera is not happy about this and spends most of the time with Tsuna calling him names and wishing he could be his brother's right-hand man. In Chapter 12, he gets his wish, only to realize it isn't as good as he thought it would be. the brother is a petulant, cowardly asshole, who treats everyone around him (especially Gokudera) like shit. Instead of protecting people, or doing anything remotely worthwhile, his new boss uses his followers to belittle and make fun of others. Worse, his boss doesn't even bother treating him like a person, referring to him as a dog more than once. Gokudera realizes too late that he left Tsuna, a person who honestly cared for him and treated him like a friend, for someone who treats him no better than a pet.

Rosario + Vampire

• Averted and played straight on separate occasions in Irresistible when Yukari Sendo manages to purchase a Monkey's Paw with two wishes left on it. Yukari, having researched the magical artifact and knowing its potential for backfiring, wished to be "Tsukune's dream woman" and is turned into an older version of herself who knows exactly how to become Tsukune's woman. Gin, knowing nothing about the artifact except that it can grant wishes, wishes for there to be more girls at Yokai Academy. Since the Monkey's Paw lacks the power to create life, it simply turns all the boys at the academy into girls (barring Tsukune whose heritage makes him immune).

RWBY

• In In the Kingdom's Service:
  • Blake spends some time wanting to figure out why Jaune is acting so suspiciously. Ever since learning he's an agent in Vale Secret Service and, despite her fears, wasn't investigating her at all, she's wished she had just minded her own business since now she has another secret to keep and this one might get her killed.
  • Played for Laughs with Weiss who desperately doesn't want Ruby as a partner. Instead she gets Nora.
• In Leader Change, Ruby snaps after Weiss complains about her perceived lack of competence one too many times and gives her the chance to switch places and become the leader of Team RWBY like she originally wanted to. It isn't too long before Weiss experiences the burdens of leadership and starts to feel bad for complaining to Ruby after realizing what she had to go through.

Sailor Moon

• In Fist of the Moon, Rei Hino is very bossy and tends to snipe at Usagi's leadership skills. Then they have to split the team, and Usagi leaves Rei in charge. The fiery girl is panicking about potential attacks and catastrophes less than an hour after Usagi leaves because she can't bear the thought of disappointing her leader...it's lampshaded by another character that while Rei likes to be in charge and opinionated, the responsibility of leading is too much for her.

The Smurfs

• A variation of this trope appears in this discussion in the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story Under The Cat's Paw.
  Brainy: You honestly think your praying is going to change the nature of the beast, Tapper?
  Tapper: I only know that the Almighty is capable of anything, Brainy, including changing your heart and your mind so that you will believe He is real.
  Hefty: Well, that's one thing that I would like to see this imaginary God of yours do.
  Tapper: Be careful of what you ask for, Hefty Smurf. It might just make you a believer someday.

Sonic the Hedgehog

• Sonic X: Dark Chaos has some particularly disturbing examples, most of them combined with a Deal with the Devil. Venus the Seedrian wished for the power to kill Tsali and prevent the destruction of her race. Not only did she fail to save her people, but her wish doomed her to slowly turn into a robot and damn her soul forever. Tsali made a similar wish for the power to get revenge on the Seedrian race for what they did to him. He got what he wanted - at the cost of his soul, sanity, and the utter destruction of most of the galaxy.

Spyro the Dragon

• In The Portal, Blizzard (formerly known as Thomas Smith before his transformation into a dragon) says to himself that he wishes that his best friend Alex could see him now. Just a few seconds later, Alex does appear in the Dragon Realms, now transformed into a dragon just like him.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

• In The Royal Protector, both Marco and Brittney get hit by this hard. Marco wished for more fun and excitement in his life and Brittney wished for him to get sucked into a dark abyss in a fit of anger, cue Star casting a Summon Everyman Hero spell at that moment and everyone blaming Brittney for Marco's disappearance.

Steven Universe

• In Opal, Sapphire, Ruby, and STEVEN!, Steven and Connie use Rose's Room to reenact Connie's favorite mystery novel, "The Blank Tombstone". The two have so much fun with it that Steven wishes they could do it forever, and Rose's Room, being Rose's Room, tries to make it happen, despite the fact that it can't handle it.

Super Smash Bros.

• An example both in and out of universe came from Super Smash Stadium. The SP Metal Man spent quite a while trying to be named head of the site. He did achieve his goal after every other person running it had moved on to different goals. In-universe, this left him with a Stadium so badly wrecked that he had to move to another dimension and run that one. Out of universe, Metal and his new staff were not as good as they thought they were, leading to Dead Fic status.

To Love Ru

• In To-Love-DEATH, When the alien Gruello kills Princess Lala, Rito freaks out and immediately regrets wishing his life away. Although his panic attack is cut off short when Gruello enters his chest cavity.

Total Drama

• From The Legend of Total Drama Island:
  • During the dodgeball match, after the hard-throwing but very wild Tyler hits the referee with his first throw, Eva says, "Not bad. Now let's see if you can hit an actual player." When Tyler, throwing from the back line, hits a teammate with his next throw, Eva invokes this trope.
    Eva: I should have been more specific.
  • D.J. invokes this trope by name after Ezekiel, against whom D.J. bears a grudge, has apparently fallen to his death.
    D.J.: Be careful what you wish for. I swore he’d go down for what he did to Bunny. I should have been more specific.

Touhou Project

• In Gensokyo 20XX, this happens to Chen when she tells Yume Ni that she wishes for her to suffer and she does,... through long-term illness, from which she dies. Chen notes she wishes that weren't the last thing she said to her.

Transformers

• Transformers Mosaic: The Final Lesson, a continuation from the Marvel story Aspects of evil. The Autobot student wanted to know what true evil was and sought out Unicron. He demands the Fallen to take him to Unicron, and the Fallen does so, teleporting him to a seemingly endless glassy wasteland. The Student is trapped there for months until he finally realizes his mistake.
  "In the eyes of Gods we are all just motes of dust."
• Riding a Sunset: Charlie had hoped that she could spend more time with Bumblebee and the Autobots. She gets her wish... because it turns out that the En-Radiation from Cybertronians can be absorbed by humans, and Charlie has enough on her that she registers as Cybertronian on Decepticon scanners. Meaning that the Autobots will stay to protect the Earth, but she'll serve as a homing beacon for nearby Decepticons for the rest of her life.

The Twelve Months

• Sky Blossom: The villagers wish for the spring to come quickly. It means that they get all the January frosts and February blizzards in the space of several days.

The Twilight Saga

• Right in the title of Careful What You Wish For; having previously expressed a joking wish to be adopted by Carlisle in his role as foster parent/matchmaker, Angela Weber is taken in by the Cullens after the events of A Different Kind of Moon, where she was abducted by Victoria and a vamped Mike Newton as bait for Victoria's attempt to trap Bella, Mike and Victoria leaving her so injured that Edward had to turn Angela to save her life.
• Tough Love: Bella impulsively threatens to move out when she doesn't get her way for the umpteenth time. After her father outlines the ramifications of doing so in full detail, she no longer wants to, but the decision is already made for her.

Vocaloid

• A Little More Like Me: Kaito and Len start the story, particularly Len, saying they wish they could see the world through one another's eyes, Len saying that he wished he had Kaito's life. This happens quite literally to both of them.

Warhammer 40,000

• Frequently occurs in the All Guardsmen Party. Arguably the result of Sarge's promotion - sure, their superiors are no longer insane, but they have worse assignments now.
  It was the complete opposite of all the horribly complex ops we'd suffered through since joining the Inquisition: it was the ultimate simple, straightforward plan. If it wasn't for the fact that we'd be outnumbered thousands to one, we'd have loved it. As it was though, there's no word for how much we hated that plan.

When They Cry

• Sillyhat Productions: While taking tea with Virgilia before beginning the main scenario of "Trial of the Black Witch", Battler declares that he'll do whatever it takes to win. Virgilia takes note of this. Later, frustrated by Lord Goldsmith's antics, he wishes for him to stop treating the game 'like one giant circus' and get serious. Virgilia complies, presenting him with a Sadistic Choice and reminding him of his earlier claims.

Worm

• At the end of Hive Daughter, Eidolon laments how he's now stuck on an uninhabited world (along with Doctor Mother, Contessa, and Alexandria) with nothing to actually do anymore, specifically that he'd have no epic final battle or desperate last stand. Less than a month later, a new Endbringer arrives on his world.
• In Just A Phase, one of the reasons Emma bullied Taylor for was that she wanted her to become "strong". Taylor proceeded to Trigger after Sophia and Emma pushed her into a locker full of rotting used sanitary products, and learned afterwards that both Emma and Sophia were Wards. Taylor proceeded to out them both as the ones who nearly killed her, and when that wasn't enough to get justice, she began to use the Protectorate's bureaucracy to do her best to ruin them both, as well as blocking Emma's genuine attempts to atone for her actions because she thinks Emma only seeks to continue her bullying.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

• In a What If? Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic called Isn't It Grand What I've Managed to Do?, Pegasus beats Yugi during their duel, claims Yugi's Millenium Puzzle, and then uses the Millenium Items to bring Cyndia back to life, just as he wanted. However, before he brings her back, he is warned both by Shadi and by the pharaoh's spirit that although he will find what he seeks, it will end badly for him. He doesn't care and resurrects Cyndia anyway. No, it's not a monkey's paw twist; she doesn't come back as a zombie or anything. In fact, at first, everything goes smoothly. Pegasus has Cyndia back the way she was before, and they make the most of their happy reunion. So why does "be careful what you wish for" come into play? Because as we know, Pegasus had to steal people's souls in order to pull off the resurrection...which Cyndia discovers. She then becomes absolutely furious that Pegasus would murder people to bring her back to life and tells Pegasus to his face that she barely recognizes him, that she hates him, and she doubts he really loves her at all if he would treat her like a lost possession to be brought back at any price. This causes Pegasus to wish he had never brought Cyndia back to life; he would rather have her dead and loving him than alive and hating him, and he has a humongous My God, What Have I Done? moment. They do eventually reconcile when Cyndia, recalling Pegasus' childhood refusals to follow the rules, manages to forgive Pegasus...but Pegasus has to fake his own death in order for him and Cyndia to be able to live happily together.

Yuri!!! on Ice

• In Rivals Series Viktor wished to have Yuuri's attention and to have some sort of relationship with him. Viktor gets what he wants when Yuuri chooses to sleep with him but is very hurt when Yuuri admits to hating him and seems to only want sex from him.

---