Deal With The Devil - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Soul" means the immortal and intangible portion of each Supplicant, which is assumed to belong, be owned by, be under the control of, be the toy of, be the snack food of, be disposable by, be absorbable by, and be all warm and snuggly to Our Dark Masters.

-The Pokéthulhu Adventure Game, End-User License Agreement

". . . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

The devil went down to Georgia
He was looking for a soul to steal
And he was in a bind
'Cause he was way behind
And was willin' to make a deal.

-The Charlie Daniels Band

You know how it works. Want to be a millionaire, or to get back at that obnoxious boss? Mr. S will guarantee your wildest dreams, if you just sign on the dotted line with your own blood. This trope is really old, not even requiring the Abrahamic devil; any roughly equivalent trickster or evil deity can be used. It reached its current version in the 16th-century legend of Faust selling his soul.

This trope includes both literal soul-for-gift deals with a literal devil, and crooked deals between any corrupt character (the Mephistopheles role) and a desperate sucker (the Faust role). The corrupter can be offering anything from some shiny new Applied Phlebotinum to making a high school nerd popular. Occasionally it has no practical value whatsoever. He then asks for something — often apparently innocent at first — that means the total ruin of the Faust if delivered: soul, first born, voice, horseshoe nail...

Note that literal devils always follow through with their end, even if their end is a sinister bastardization of the terms. We never see Mephistopheles take the soul and run.

As icing on the cake, the Mephistopheles sometimes makes sure that the Faust's gift is totally useless - especially if there's a chance at irony, where lacking their "soul", the element they gave up as payment, is the only thing that makes the gift worthless.

An alternate form is a deal where the Mephistopheles offers the Faust exactly what he wants, if not more, but to get it, he has to undergo an ordeal Mephistopheles obviously does not think the Faust can complete, with Faust's soul as the penalty if he fails. Alternately, the deal truly has no strings attached, as it's part of a Xanatos Gambit where the Faust's good fortune or success will deliver the soul of another to Mephistopheles.

Whether God or the equivalent would be interested in a soul that someone has gambled is the Elephant In The Living Room.

Most Deal With The Devil plots overlap with What An Idiot. Some writers try to defend the Faust by having the Mephistopheles make the offer when the victim has no time to think (i.e, offering to save him from the Death Trap in return for something nasty). It doesn't work. Anyone Genre Blind enough to make a deal with a devil is supposed to look like an idiot, and we're supposed to scream, What Were You Thinking?!

If you should find yourself suckered into a Deal With The Devil, The Power Of Love may be your best bet at defeating the infernal contract. Or you can try your luck (literally) with a Jury Of The Damned.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Satomi Yajima's deal with Damian in Variable Geo.
This is the whole premise of the fourth season of Yu-Gi-Oh and the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the "deal" being gain unstoppable dueling skill, power, and strength in exchange for your free will/soul and vow of service to the leader of the cult. In fact, GX developed quite a fondness for this trope with...
- Manjyome, with Saiou. (Who trusts a guy who approaches you in the forest in the dead of night, knows way too much about you, and makes it clear that he has inhuman powers?)
- Kaiser, with Saruyama.
- Professor Cobra, with demonic Judai-obsessed Duel Monster Yubel in Season 3.
- Borderline lampshaded in a Season 2 Filler episode, where the "devil" is the actual "Grim Reaper".
The anime Jigoku Shojo (Hell Girl) revolves around a demonic young girl who offers people the chance to instantly send one of their enemies to Hell — although the price for this "service" is that the sender's own soul will also be sent to Hell after their death.
The creation of the flame man in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch turned out to be from such a deal. He was originally a human that had fallen in love with a weak Panthalassa that had managed to escape the seal. Fuku-chan offered him a way to save his daughter, who had inherited the weakness in body after her mother died. Michal became Michel's mana battery, and her father became the flame pillar, the apparent authority actually ruled by Fuku.
In Naruto, Sasuke makes a deal with Orochimaru — in exchange for giving him the power to defeat his brother, Sasuke will allow Orochimaru to possess his body. However, he merely learns all Orochimaru has to teach him, at which point Sasuke kills him. Only, not really, as Orochimaru comes back as The Virus.
- Subverted in that Orochimaru didn't intend to honor the deal either and was going to possess him the moment he arived. The Hero's Five Man Band (well, The Smart Guy's Five Man Band) managed to delay the Quirky Miniboss Squad delivering him long enough that a substitute had to be used and bought everybody three years.
Witsarnemitea in the anime/Visual Novel Utawarerumono loves to grant 'wishes', particularly in the mysterious backstory. For instance, DO YOU WANT A STRONGER BODY? DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER? ENJOY BEING TURNED INTO A RED JELLY, ASSHOLE. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ME, PHILOSOPHER? HOW ABOUT I TAKE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER YOUR BODY FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY, LOL. Sometimes you have to swear your entire being away in a contract in order to get help, though.
- Rather subverted though, as Eruru makes the 'ALL YOUR BEING IS MINE' pledge in order to save her sister, but is never really held to it aside from being his companion. For a cosmic thing that offers wishes in exchange for their being, it's like he just uses that as an excuse to have friends. He even completely nullifies her debt to him once he figures out his identity, with no payment or repercussions. His other side, on the other hand...
This is a major part of how Yuko does her work in XXXholic. She plays the Mephisto totally straight, where she grants people any wish they desire as long as they can pay something of equal value to the wish. For example, when a woman wanted to have a cursed picture that showed her murdering her friend locked away, Yuko's price was that the woman could never have her picture taken or recorded again. Also, in keeping with the CLAMP mantra that the dead cannot be revived, Yuko cannot bring the dead back to life because no payment exists to make such a wish "fair".
The pacts between humans and Shinigami on Death Note work in this manner, as Death Note users gain the power to kill anyone using the book if they know their name and face, and in exchange, the shinigami takes the user's own lifeforce at the time of their death. The shinigami can also offer a second deal, exchanging half of the user's remaining natural lifespan in exchange for Shinigami eyes, allowing the user to know the true name of whomever they look upon.
In the Full Metal Alchemist manga, Ling agrees to let Greed possess him, effectively making him into a humonculus, if it means he'll be that much closer to obtaining a Philospher's Stone and thus the secret to immortality.
The Behelits from Berserk are a means to summon the Godhand, four evil demonic gods who offer their bearers the chance to become demonic Apostles (or in the case of those bearing a Crimson Behelit such as Griffith, a new member of the Godhand) in exchange for the sacrifice of those closest to them, who are transported to hell along with the one presented with the deal and marked with the Godhand's Brand of Sacrifice if the bearer should accept, at which point the monsters come out of the woodwork to eat them alive. They're particularly insidious because they are activated by their bearer reaching their lowest emotional point, making the bearer particularly receptive to the Godhand's offer.
In Chrono Crusade, demons need a type of spiritual energy called astral energy to use their powers and survive. Typically they use their horns to siphon the energy from their surroundings, but when a demon's horns are broken or for some other reason they need to augment their intake, demons can make a contract with a human. The demon serves the human they make the contract with, in exchange for the demon being able to drain their soul in place of astral energy, shortening the human's lifespan drastically. Most of the demons who make contracts in the series follow the typical archetype of being tricksters, but the title character subverts this. He makes a contract with Rosette, a nun, so that he is able to use his powers to help her save his brother, both of whom had befriended him. Throughout the series Chrono questions his decision to make the contract, causing quite a lot of his angstier moments.
Ciel Phantomhive from Kuroshitsuji has a literal deal with demon butler Sebastian; he'll help him in all his endeavors, and when Ciel's goals are accomplished, his soul belongs to Sebastian. While Sebastian has a slightly morbid sense of humor that he only shows to his enemies and Ciel; he has been rather honorable and faithful to even the spirit of his side of the bargain.

Comic Books

John Constantine, of The DCU and Vertigo Comics, has a reputation of usually being able to get the upper hand in Infernal Contracts, earning him the irritation of Heaven and Hell. Most notably, he sold his soul to all three archdemons, meaning he can't die until they've resolved who actually gets it. Being Archdemons, they aren't inclined to compromise, and the only alternative is open war between them - something they are very keen to avoid.
Literally the case of Ghost Rider of the Marvel Universe and Spawn. In the movie adaption of Ghost Rider, Mephistopheles plays a little hard and loose with the rules in order for the plot to portray Johnny Blaze more sympathetically. He pricks Johnny's finger while Johnny is just looking the contract over (and thus did not give clear, informed consent), and the splash of blood counts as a deal. He then cures Johnny's father's cancer, but kills said father the very same day via a motorcycle accident.
In The Sandman "Season of Mists" arc, Lucifer criticizes this trope:
"They talk of me going like a fishwife come market day, never stopping to ask themselves why. I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul? No. They belong to themselves... They just hate to have to face up to it."
Visual Novel Animamundi: Dark Alchemist has a nice variation on this, where the lead character sells his soul in exchange for his sister's life after she was attacked by a monster in the woods. Not only was Mephistopheles the one who attacked her in the first place, he did so because she had sold her soul to him a little while earlier in exchange for her brother's life. Naturally, Mephistopheles is quite pleased with himself for that one.
- There is also a subverison in that game. Dr. Bruno Glening wants a deal with Mephistopheles, but Mephisto finds Bruno so repulsive that he rejects every attempt, and it has gotten to the point where he even refuses to answer the man's summons.
Subverted by Thanos in Marvel's The Infinity Crusade. Mephisto offers a key piece of information in subduing the Goddess in exchange for one of her cosmic containment units. When Mephisto later returns after the conflict has concluded to collect his payment, he decides to test his new toy against Thanos, only to realize that it is powerless. Thanos then clarifies that, while he had honored their agreement by providing Mephisto with a unit, it was never specified that he wanted one that functioned.
In The DCU Crisis Crossover Underworld Unleashed lots of villains (and a few Anti Heroes) sell their souls to the demon Neron in exchange for additional powers. Many find that the gifts have nasty side effects The demon's ultimate plan was to corrupt, and then buy, the soul of Captain Marvel. When Cap selflessly offers his uncorrupted soul in exchange for nothing but the safety of his friends, Neron has no choice but to accept the deal, even though Captain Marvel had offered exactly what Trickster had told him, and so was safe: Neron could not collect if there was nothing in the bargain for the other person.
- Kid Devil, a former C-List sidekick, is offered super powers by Neron so that he can join the Teen Titans. He is allowed to keep his soul as long as his trust in his hero, Blue Devil, isn't broken, otherwise he loses his soul to Neron when he turns twenty. Naturally, things don't work out.
- Later, the Trickster himself offers Neron a bargain to protect his ex-girlfriend's son and the rest of the Rogues' Gallery. He asked for nothing for himself, for the same protection. Fortunately, he only later did the arithmetic for the son's age.
A light-hearted parody. In the Hong Kong comic The World of Lily Wong the hero worked for a deeply immoral advertising agency named Faust Associates whose logo was a devil.
The recent Spider-Man arc 'One More Day' involves Spider-Man allowing Mephisto, the Marvel Universe's version of Satan to save his Aunt May's life in exchange for undoing his marriage to the woman he loves, thus wiping away the last twenty years of his life. For numerous reasons, many Spider-Man fans consider this particular entry to be a Wall Banger, and not a small one at that.
The main character of Jack of Fables has been selling his soul to a series of devils since he was in his twenties, gaining another hundred years of life every time he does it. Unfortunately for him, Fables are immortal anyway, so he wasn't gaining anything from it.
Subverted in an early story arc of James Robinson's Starman for DC where a demonic poster stole the souls of whoever looked at it. The demon offered to return the souls of all he had taken if Starman, the Shade and Matt O'Dare gave up theirs. They agreed and the people were freed but they kept their souls because the demon stated that part of the rules in such bargains was that he couldn't keep a soul offered in a purely selfless act.
The XXXenophile story "Demonstration of Affection".
Sistah Spooky's backstory in Empowered is a subversion. The deal she cut when she was her high school's Butt Monkey was only for beauty, but her caseworker screwed up the paperwork and she got Fearsome Arcane Might as a bonus.
A variant occurs in the Sleepwalker comics, where the demonic genie Mr. Jyn manifests on Earth by pretending to serve a human "master" and get back at those who wronged him, only to manipulate him into letting Mr. Jyn cause more and more mayhem until the demon is released in the process.
Subverted (twice) in the novel Superman: Miracle Monday:
- After Lex Luthor accidentally releases a demon from Hell named Saturn on Earth, the demon offers him a bargain... except it turns out it was really Superman in disguise, tricking Luthor into revealing where the Hell portal was located.
- Saturn tries to get get Superman to break his no-killing vow (to morally break him down) by possessing an innocent girl, then telling the hero the only way to stop him from further ruining the World would be to kill her. However, Superman refuses, even if it means the two would be locked in eternal combat. It turns out that by refusing, Superman actually won a wish from the demon (the rules governing demons demanded it) and Superman uses it to return everything to normal.

Fairy Tales

In The Maiden Without Hands, a miller makes a deal with the devil for "what is standing behind thy mill". He thought it was an apple tree; it was his daughter. She kept herself too pure for the devil to carry off, though, even when the devil orders the miller to cut off her hands. So the miller ended up with the money; but as soon as that happened, the daughter left to seek her fortune.
In Bearskin, a soldier makes a Deal With The Devil, who will give him an ever-filled purse, but he must not pray, wash, cut his hair or nails, or change from a bearskin for seven years. He goes about distributing money to the poor, asking them to pray for him. One man he rescues from financial distress promises that he may marry one of his daughters. Only the youngest is willing. He succeeds in fulfilling the devil's terms and cleans up nicely, and the older sisters, reduced to envy, commit suicide. The Devil, pleased, informs the soldier that he got two souls, not one.
- Other variants of this type of fairy tale include Don Giovanni de la Fortuna, The Soldier and the Bad Man, The Road to Hell (where she actively cleans him up), The Reward of Kindness, ''The Devil As Partner'' and ''Never Wash''.

Film

The Star Wars prequels have this with Anakin and Palpatine.
The Coen Brothers film O Brother Where Art Thou pays homage to the Robert Johnson legend with the character of Tommy, a blues guitarist who makes a very similar deal at an unspecified crossroads.
Tenacious D's movie has Kage and Jables cutting a deal with Satan: if they win a rock off against him, he has to go back to Hell and pay their rent. If Satan wins, Kage has to go back to Hell with Satan and be his sex slave. They wind up beating him through a technicality: if Satan is ever "incomplete" (i.e. missing a part of himself, like a tooth or horn), a spell can be used to send him back automatically.
Both versions of the film Bedazzled — the original and the remake — concern a deal with the Devil in exchange for seven wishes. The main character is eventually freed from the contract by making an unselfish wish.
In the theatre/film musical Damn Yankees, an aging Washington Senators fan declares that he'd sell his soul to get his team to defeat the New York Yankees. Suddenly, a mysterious gentleman named Applegate appears to make him the living embodiment of his wish.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest features Davy Jones, a sort of Devil of the Sea. He makes deals with dead or dying sailors, offering them a 100 year postponement of death in return for serving on his crew. He also made a deal with Jack Sparrow, making him Captain of the Black Pearl for 13 years in return for his promise to serve. Sparrow, of course, manages to almost weasel his way out. "Not even Jack Sparrow can best the Devil!" Although, as the writers' commentary points out, Davy Jones doesn't exactly win by the end, either.
Little Shop of Horrors had Audrey II, who made a deal with Seymour to make him rich and famous in exchange for a steady supply of human blood.
"Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. Until that day accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day."

Folklore

It is sometimes said that legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his mastery of the instrument. The location where the meeting supposedly took place, the crossroads of US 49 and US 61 in Clarksdale, MS, is a Mecca of sorts to blues aficionados. The tale is something of a subtrope in its own right, and is referenced in several of these examples.
- Mozart and Paganini were rumored to have done the same for their musical skills.
A Chuck Norris Fact states that Chuck sold his soul for rugged good looks and unmatchable martial arts prowess. Upon completion of said deal, Chuck kicked the devil's ass who took it in stride because he should have seen it coming. They now play cards together.

Literature

If you see any story in any medium begin with "The Devil and...", it's almost certainly this trope. The originator of this convention is The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet, the story that first gave us the Jury Of The Damned.
- For example, a short story titled "The Devil and Simon Flagg" inverts the "ordeal" version by having the title character, a mathematician, challenge the devil to an ordeal: he must either prove or disprove Fermat's Last Theorem. The Devil doesn't make it, despite asking the best mathematicians in the universe. And despite the fact that humans found the solution meanwhile.
- And Benet's story was inspired by an earlier short story called The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving.
The alternate form can be seen in the old Fairy Tale Bearskin, where the Devil offers a man the ability to have all the money he wants in his pockets, but he must spend a year as a filthy vagabond wearing a bearskin. In all versions of the tale, he manages to survive the ordeal, become a wealthy man, and even gets the Girl, but at the same time, the Devil manages to get his hands on the Girl's two mean sisters in the process.
The Larry Niven short story "Convergent Series" deconstructs the Deal With The Devil by not only giving a purported reason why demon-summoning rarely works (and why you wouldn't hear about the successful cases), but also by ruling out each of the usual ways out of the deal one by one. The solution the protagonist chooses is unconventional, but successful: the demon had to re-appear wherever the pentagram he was bound in was drawn. The protagonist chose as his wish to stop time, and then redrew the pentagram on the demon's belly while time was frozen, causing the demon to keep endlessly re-appearing in a fruitless effort to appear inside the pentagram.
Every single book in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series involves one (or more) of these.
In the erotic story Demon Deals, Jon meets a girl whose previous boyfriend had made a deal with the devil, though it had backfired on him because the devil exploited a loophole in his contract and killed him. Jon decides to do the same, since he's a lawyer and knows how to write good contracts. He creates an airtight contract that protects him from the devil while he's alive, but the devil won't accept, it's too unfair to him. Jon then points out that since the devil can't return to hell until he destroys the pentagram, the devil is stuck on earth in one spot until Jon decides to release him... so he brings a TV over and leaves it on the local televangelist channel.
The Nathaniel Hawthorne story Young Goodman Brown concerns a Puritan man who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for the power to see the evil in men's hearts, thus allowing him to extort money and power from them. The Devil holds up his end of the deal... but Brown never enjoys life again because he no longer trusts anyone around him. (It's left up to the reader's imagination, however, whether or not the meeting was All Just A Dream.)
- In the version that this editor read, this is totally not what happens.
  - This troper also was prompted to read the story based on this entry, and his impression is that Brown was attempting to make a Deal With The Devil but not for that power, and the irony is that he saw his act as aberrant for a Puritan, but the story indicates that pretty much everyone in the town as well as Brown's ancestors had done so. Not so clear though if he was successful, although his experience does stop him from trusting anyone.
Another fairytale variant: Rumpelstiltskin. Though considering the number of escape clauses in that deal, Rumpelstiltskin made a less-than-competent Mephistopheles.
This is Older Than Feudalism, if you recall the three temptations of Jesus by the devil. Being Jesus of course he doesn't fall for any of Satan's tricks.
'Timm Thaler' sells his laughter to baron Lefuet (which is backwards for Teufel, German for devil) in exchange for winning any bet. Later he gets his laughter back - with a bet.
Beautifully deconstructed in the Tanith Lee's short story "Sold." A woman with serious medical and financial problems calls on the devil, asking if he would really give her health, wealth, beauty, and long life in exchange for her soul. When he replies in the affirmative, she calls off the deal: all she really wanted was proof that she had a soul and that it was worth something.
The Faust comes out the winner in one short story, in which an astronomer sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for one favor to be granted after he dies. When he dies, the Devil comes to grant the favor. (and then take him to Hell) The Devil is dismayed to find out that his wish is for the Devil to take him to the nearest star, where he will thoroughly observe and study it... and then do the same thing for every other star in the universe.
Played with in one of the ''Khaavren'' books. A young Morrolan agrees to serve the "Demon Goddess" Vera (although demon doesn't mean the same thing as it usually does) in both this life and the next in exchange for her favoritism. The played-with part is that he does this without a second thought, having no problem at all offering his soul for the future. Granted, this wouldn't mean eternal torment in the afterlife, but rather its implied something more like Valhalla, in which he will form part of an army of champions.
People, especially The Forsaken, from Wheel Of Time sell their Soul to Shai'tan, in exchange for immortality if Shai'tan would win. The bad thing is that Darkfriends are hunted by the good guys and the bad guys, while Shai'tan is said to actually destroy the entire world if he is set free, so Darkfriends are really screwed...

Live Action TV

Star Trek The Next Generation, "Hide and Q."
Almost every Very Special Episode about drugs is the Faust legend updated; either the drug dealer or the kid who turns Our Hero on to drugs is Mephistopheles. (For instance, the Ghostwriter episode "What's Up With Alex?")
Too many episodes of The Twilight Zone to count, sometimes involving a literal pact with Satan and sometimes not. Because the show was an anthology, this was one of the few shows where the Faust doesn't escape at the last minute due to Contractual Immortality. (To be fair, some 16th-century Faust stories have Faust avoid Hell.)
- In one episode, "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville", the standard trope is averted: The Devil (female, in this instance) offers to send an aging, bored, predatory business tycoon back in time with his memories intact so he can use his knowledge to get even richer. But not in exchange for his soul — the balance of that passed into Satan's hands some time ago; instead, she wants the bulk of his fortune.
On Degrassi The Next Generation, Jay's sole function is to corrupt the other characters.
- Degrassi subverted this plot beautifully in "Moonlight Desires". It's the climax of a Story Arc where Jay lures his latest Faust into committing worse and worse crimes — until the Faust spontaneously decides to do something that scares Jay.
- Degrassi also subverted it badly in "Queen of Hearts," where the Mephisto keeps her promise. This was supposed to be a moral about trust, undermined by the fact that only a total idiot would have believed the promise in the first place. (See Family Unfriendly Aesop for description.)
The entire premise of the series Good Versus Evil: our heroes try to persuade victims into exercising the escape clauses of aptly-named "Standard Faustian Contracts" to save their souls.
The short-lived 1977 series A Year At The Top was an allegedly comic look at a two-man garage band (played by Greg Evigan and David Letterman band leader Paul Shaffer) who sold their souls to the son of the Devil for a year of super-success as rock stars.
The premise of Friday The 13th The Series is based on a character's pact with the Devil.
The entire series Brimstone was about a dead cop who was offered a chance by the Devil to go to Heaven if he would locate and dispatch 113 Monsters Of the Week that had escaped from Hell.
- Someone subverted, however, as the cop was already IN Hell and therefore had absolutely nothing to lose.
The TV series The Collector involves nothing but deals with the Devil; every episode, the title character goes to another person who's made a deal with Satan, and tries to get the person to earn redemption. Sometimes, he succeeds.
The Supernatural episode "Crossroad Blues" concerns the main characters trying to save several people who have made deals with the Devil. Notably, the only one they succeed in saving is the one who made a deal to benefit someone else (to save the life of his terminally-ill wife), whereas all the characters who made wishes for success or talent end up being taken down to Hell as planned. Robert Johnson (mentioned above) even puts in an appearance.
It tends to run in the family in Supernatural, Mary gave permission for the YED to poison Sam with demon blood (in 1983, the year that she died) in exchange for John to be alive again, John makes a deal with the YED in the first episode of season two: his soul and a mystical gun made by Samuel Colt for Dean's life. When Sam dies in All Hell Breaks Loose, Dean summons a crossroads demon and trades his soul in order for Sam to live again and while he failed, Sam still tried to make any deal he could in order to save Dean from hell. God, that family is screwed up.
- Another surprisingly depressing example occurs for Bela in the most recent episode. She was fourteen, it's implied her father was abusing her sexually, the Crossroads Demon (in form of a child) killed them for her and the ending is her hearing the hellhounds coming to get her.
In Angel The Series, Angel accepts a deal from the demonic law firm Wolfram and Hart: They'll give his son Connor amnesia and set the boy up in a good life, and Angel and his team will take over the running of one branch of his law firm. While this move fits the trope itself, and has wide-ranging effects on the characters (even, it appears, destroying Angel's own conscience), it leads to a further Deal With The Devil with a heart-wrenching ending:
- Gunn, dissatisfied with his role as the muscle for the group, accepts a deal to make him into a superhumanly competent lawyer schooled in all areas of law (even demonic law). Later on, it appears that the upgrade wasn't permanent: He's losing his knowledge, and fast. When he desperately tries to bargain a more permanent solution, they're all too happy to grant his request — if he'll do them the petty favor of signing a form to bring an artifact through customs. The artifact ends up implanting his beloved teammate Fred with the soul of a tyrant god, who eventually takes the body over completely, in the process destroying Fred's soul.
- Years ago, Gunn had also traded his soul to a demon for a truck, not expecting to live long enough for the demon to collect. Angel managed to convince all the other people who owed something to the demon to gang up and kill him.
In Reaper, the protagonists' parents' Deal With The Devil before he was born forces him to work for Satan as the title character. Of course, Mr. S. regularly tries to make the title character's job easier by offering various forms of assistance. The main character has sagely declined thus far.
Tends to come up from time to time on Ugly Betty with Wilhelmina in the Mephistopheles role and either Betty or Christina in the Faust role.
In Babylon 5 this trope is played out with anyone who chooses to do dealings with the Shadows, especially Londo Mollari. "What do you want?", indeed.
An arc in Dharma & Greg had Greg quit his well-paying job as a lawyer to "find himself", leaving both of them with no money. Greg's mother, Kitty, graciously agrees to lend them money and take Dharma out to dinner. Of course, it turns out that Kitty is plotting to have Greg take a high-powered job at a prestigious law firm. Kitty even distracts Dharma by taking her to the opera which is, of course, performing Faust. Dharma soon realizes the scheme and tries to stop Greg just as he's signing an employment contract... with red ink.
In a WKRP in Cincinnati episode, the frustrated employees try to form a labor union. Carlson's mother, who owns the station (and only bought it for the tax writeoff), threatens to shut it down or sell it rather than negotiate. Station manager Andy Travis laments at one point, "I would make a deal with the Devil to keep this station open!" Finally everything is resolved, and we learn Travis has made a secret deal — with Mrs. Carlson.
There are far too many of these to list in American Gothic, but one of the earliest and most representative is Carter's deal with Buck in the episode "Damned If You Don't" (which could almost be an alternate title for this trope).
Lost's Michael makes a deal with the devil (in this case, the Others) to secure freedom for his son. He agrees to free "Henry" (which entails killing Ana-Lucia and Libby) and betray four of his friends. Eventually his guilt leads him to attempt suicide.
On Saturday Night Live a hair-dresser who sold her soul takes Satan (Jon Lovitz) to The Peoples Court for breach of contract, and the Prince of Darkness tries to defend himself by pointing out the obvious.
Satan: "It's more or less customary for me to cheat mortals in this way. By observing only the letter of the agreement. For example, I'll give someone eternal youth, then have them sentenced to life imprisonment. That sort of thing. It's pretty standard. I'm the Devil!"
- In a later episode, an aspiring musician considers selling his soul for a guaranteed hit, but decides against it when it becomes apparent that all the Devil's songs suck.

Music

A Deal With The Devil was made by the bass player of the virtual band Gorillaz, Murdoc Niccals, but with no lethal consequence. He changed his middle name to Faust, and got Satan's bass guitar, El Diablo in return. (It's worth noting that he was pretty much marked as a Satanist from the day he was born — his birthdate is 6 June 1966, which made his 40th birthday 06/06/06.)
- Actually, recent media has shown that there was quite a price to pay. Turns out the devil came back to pick up his payment, but wasn't too particular about who he took to Hell, snatching guitarist Noodle in lieu of Murdoc.
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra Rock Opera Beethoven's Last Night is based on a variation/inversion of this trope, as Mephistopheles offers to return a dying Ludwig van Beethoven's soul — in exchange for which, all of Beethoven's works would be forever erased from history, and his name would never be known to future generations. Of course, the soul wasn't Mephistopheles' to begin with...
In Jerry Springer The Opera, angels try to rescue Jerry from Hell, but the demons fight them off, shouting "He made a choice!"
The Devil Went Down To Georgia, as mentioned above (both on the top of this page and the entry for Guitar Hero III). The song could be considered an inversion of the trope as the "main character" (or as far as a song can have one) actually comes of better after a deal with the Devil and wins a Golden Fiddle in a fiddle contest.
- And that the Devil challenged him.

Tabletop Games

Used in Dungeons And Dragons, where demons and evils can be summoned, and make pacts with mortals. Notable in that they CAN, in fact, grab your soul and run if you mess up the pentagram, and if you forget 'Promise not to kill me when you're done' in the contract, you are in trouble.
- There's also a demon named Pazuzu who gives a wish in exchange for going one step closer to chaotic evil on the alignment chart.

Video Games

Subverted in Persona 3; the contract the main character signs with Pharos in the opening sequence practically screams Deal With The Devil — but despite granting the main character the services of the slightly creepy Trickster Mentor Igor, the contract in itself has no negative repercussions (it turns out to be implicitly vital in saving the world, in fact).
In Mask of the Betrayer, the expansion pack to Neverwinter Nights 2, at one point you have to free a wizard who struck a deal with the devil and 'just signed it'. This troper remembers fondly how the resulting conversation and comment options while you comb the fine print of the contract and question both the devil and the wizard about it are close to being the most hilarious in the game.
Used straight in Guitar Hero III, with your agent Lou.
- In both forms. Not only does the small print state that "Your soul is mine", but you can attempt an ordeal to recover it. The song used for that final battle? The Devil Went Down To Georgia, of course (quoted up top).
After failing a Demonic Possession of the main character in Soul Nomad And The World Eaters, Gig, who is now fused to your soul, offers the main character a Deal With The Devil: He'll lend you some of his divine powers in return for limited control of your body, allowing you to create your army. During certain points in the story, he'll offer you better access, granting you incredible powers that will allow you to grind whoever you're facing into fine powder... But once you're done with said grinding, you get a Non Standard Game Over as Gig uses that access to boot your soul out of your body and takes it for himself.
Riku, from Kingdom Hearts. Also, Cloud Strife, with Hades.
Subverted early on in Shadow Of Destiny: Eike assumes that the Homunculus is after his soul, but Homunculus isn't interested. One possible ending double subverts this, implying that the only reason Homunculus doesn't want Eike's soul is that he already owns it.
Lillet Blan ascends to Magnificent Bastardhood by making complete mockeries of Grim Grimoire's two Big Bads, both of which had only been sealed before since they were too powerful to defeat. She does this by abusing a very big loophole — on HER side — in a Deal With The Devil, a loophole which Hell's lawyers are probably going to need to add to the standard contract in the future...
- In case you didn't know, she just conned one Big Bad into killing the other Big Bad, then sold her soul to the surviving Big Bad for one wish, in a contract that is only breakable if the demon volunteers to be sucked back to Hell and tortured for eternity. Her wish? She asks the demon to embrace God.
  Grimlet: (realizing to his horror that he'd just been suckered by a little girl) Mephistopheles... is this your doing?
  Advocat: No. But, I so wish that it was.
Kazuya Mishima in Tekken survives being thrown to a cliff because he literally made a Deal With The Devil to give him strength so he can take revenge on his dad Heihachi.

Webcomics

Subverted / inverted in a storyline of Fans!: The villain, who had sold his soul to Satan for power and the chance to become a hero to humanity, manipulated Rikk into traveling to an otherworldly realm and also selling his soul to protect his friends and thus get Rikk under his power. However, the villain's plan was flawed in that he had not considered that (a) each individual person encountered the realm — and the entity within that realm — in a different way depending on who they were, and that (b) Satan was not the only celestial being interested in doing deals for souls; Rikk, being a genuinely selfless person interested only in protecting his loved ones, actually sold his soul to The Big Guy Upstairs, thus enabling him to defeat the villain.
See this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal strip
According to Something Positive Alan Moore gained his writing abilities from the Devil. The deal was Moore stopping beating the Devil up during school.
Ray Smuckles of Achewood gains his musical talent (and, arguably, a heap of his subsequent successes) through one of these, but the consequences don't come about until over a year later.
- The To Hell And Back sequence there also references the Robert Johnson folk-tale. Also, Ray falls ass backwards into money like a pig into mud, it ain't even a thing.
Used, abused, and put away wet on Sluggy Freelance.
- One of the earliest strips has Riff and Torg making a deal with the devil for beer and pocket change. Luckily, the devil is short on coins.
- Gwen, oh, Gwen, where do we even begin?
- Riff's deal with Hereti Corp fits.
- Spoofed during the Vampires arc when Torg suggests the vampires should stop sneaking around and just openly sell vampirism.
  Lysinda: "Foolish Mortal... do you really think humanity would give up its immortal soul forever just to look good?"
  Thinks about it
  Lysinda: "Slyvia..."
  Sylvia: "Informercials, next quarter, check."

Western Animation

Spoofed on The Simpsons in "The Devil And Homer Simpson", where Homer sells his soul for a doughnut, but gets it back through The Power Of Love; when he married Marge, he promised to be hers, body and soul, forever.
Sent up in the Futurama season 4 finale "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings":
Bender: You may have to metaphorically make a deal with the devil. by "devil", I mean the Robot Devil. And by "metaphorically" I mean get your coat.
- This troper hopes whoever wrote that line got a bonus.
- Also milked for laughs in "Hell is Other Robots", when the Robot Devil challenges Leela to the classic fiddle contest. While he delivers a vicious performance (using two bows, no less), Leela lets off a few screeching notes, then bangs him over the head with the violin and escapes.
The Robert Johnson story is parodied on Metalocalypse; the band meets with the "Blues Devil" for the purpose of selling their souls in exchange for mastery of the blues, but through their expertise in contract negotiation bargain him down to a $5 Hot Topic gift card.
In Disney's version of the Hercules story, Herc makes a deal with Hades that actually has negative effects on him, although it does save one of his companions.
The Disney version of The Little Mermaid is a classic example; Ariel is given legs with which to try to win the love of a prince, but at the cost of her voice, which was actually the thing he found most attractive about her to begin with.
- The original version of Wilde's comeback to this, The Fisherman and His Soul features a character who wants to marry a mermaid but can't because he has a soul and she doesn't. Now who could relieve him of this unwanted soul?
In the My Little Pony episode "Bright Lights", Erabus offered to make Knight Shade famous, in exchanged for "a little cooperation".

Other

Spoofed in the Chilean folk tale "El roto que engañó al diablo (The poor man who tricked the Devil)", where a young Unlucky Everydude seals one of these deals but, as a proof, he writes it down with his blood on a small paper... writing it such a tricky manner that, every time the Devil came to get him, the "tecnhicalities" wouldn't let him ensnare the man's soul and had to give up.

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