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"Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water."
Our character - be it a hero, a villain, or somewhere in between - has a dream. An overarching Goal in Life that motivates him to get up in the morning and drive the plot forward.
However, it's nothing as ambitious as world domination, the creation of a utopia, or true love. It's something like a twinkie, a tuna sandwich, or a rug.
Played correctly, it can be a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming if he gets his wish, or a Tragic Dream if they don't.
Not to be confused with Mundane Wish; in a Mundane Wish, the character is offered anything he wants by a person of power, and chooses something simple. The Humble Goal is an aspiration internalized by the character, but he has to make it happen by himself.
A Super Trope of Call to Agriculture, where a powerful character only wants to be a farmer. Often the goal of an Action Survivor whose main goal is surviving so he can get back to his ordinary life. Compare Mundane Luxury, which is often the motivation behind this. Particularly common in stories where the characters or characters are stranded somewhere, and just want to get home.
Examples
Advertising
- Many commercials, especially cereal commercials, feature characters and mascots whose sole goal in life is to get whatever product is being advertised. These characters are often willing to go to ridiculous lengths to get these products. Most of the time, it comes off cheesy, but when done right, as in this Coca-Cola ad
 , it works.
Anime & Manga
Film - Animated
- Scrat from the Ice Age movies wants nothing more than to enjoy his acorn in peace.
Film - Live Action
- Tallahassee's twinkie obsession in Zombieland. Though it's revealed that he's obsessing with this in order to distract himself from the grief of his son dying.
- In the original The Santa Clause movie, the reason Neil, Scott Calvin's ex-wife's new husband, says he stopped believing in Santa Claus at age 3: He wanted an Oscar Meyer Weenie Whistle in his stocking, and never got it. At the end, when Claus is flying overhead, Scott/Santa gives him gift... A Weenie Whistle.
- In Fanboys, the main characters' goal is to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace before it hits theaters. Only one of them does.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain Barbossa may have many goals, but what he really wants is to taste an apple again.
- The Big Lebowski: "All The Dude wanted was his rug back."
- Memoirs Of An Invisible Man (1992) tagline: "Women want him for his wit. The C.I.A. wants him for his body. All Nick wants is his molecules back."
- Dude Wheres My Car: All Jesse and Chester want is to find their car and get the birthday presents for their girlfriends inside.
- Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle. Of course, the way to White Castle is not as straightforward as that.
- Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China. All he really wants is to get his truck back.
- Ice Cold In Alex: The title of the WWII drama comes from Captain Anson's yearning for a cold beer. To get it, he and his party have survive an arduous journey across the North African desert after being separated from their unit and reach Alexandria alive.
- The Terminal - Tom Hanks' character just wants to get into New York to complete the autograph set of his father's favorite jazz musicians.
- In Payback, Porter takes on the city's entire underworld to retrieve his $70,000 cut of stolen heist money. Everyone keeps assuming that he wants the whole $140,000, but he constantly insists that he only wants his original share. Everyone reacts with surprise at the low sum, and one mobster complains that he's got suits worth more than $70,000. In the director's cut, the head of the Outfit says she wouldn't get out of bed for that much money.
- In Carry On Admiral (1957) (no relation to the Carry On films) all the nameless man wanted was his clothes back.
- Hudson Hawk just got out of jail and wants a cup of coffee. And an honest job.
- Similarly Lucas from French comedy Les Fugitifs and its remake Three Fugitives just got out of jail and wants to pawn his gold watch and become an honest locksmith. He succeeds by the middle of the movie, only to abandon his quiet life to save Jeanne/Meg.
- Jackie Chan's character in City Hunter movie is hungry.*
He came home after a busy day, when he had no time to eat, then he had to chase Kaori, stow on a cruise ship, fight some terrorists... To the point of beating senseless the terrorist who stepped on a piece of bread. His last wish before the execution is to eat.* Don't worry, he survives.
Literature
- In Night Watch, the revolutionaries want a slogan that encapsulates what they're fighting for. After asking each of their members what they want, the result is "Truth, Justice,
Free Reasonably-Priced Love and A Hard Boiled Egg".
- Poldarn from The Scavenger Trilogy wants to stay dry and not have people try to kill him. He doesn't generally achieve even this goal.
- In Les Misérables, Little Cosette thinks that there would be nothing better in the world than to have a doll of her very own. Of course, Jean Valjean brings her the doll she's wanted — she at once clasps it and names it "Catherine."
- The Bear's only goal in I Want My Hat Back is to get his hat back. Murdering the thief who stole it is secondary and only happened after he realises it was stolen, not lost.
Live-Action TV
- In Kung Fu, the reason Caine is on the run from the Chinese authorities: Master Po had one ambition: to visit a specific city. It's a small ambition but he still admonishes himself for having it — as a Shaolin Master, he shouldn't have any ambitions. Sometime after Caine graduates from Monk School he encounters his old master in that city — he finally got his wish. At that moment the emperor's nephew comes by on his palanquin, shoving Master Po off the road and (eventually) killing him. Caine kills the emperor's nephew in a fit of rage, and then must flee China.
- In Glee, Quinn is the head cheerleader and one of the more popular girls in school but her goals in life are to marry Finn, become a real estate agent and settle to a quiet family life. In contrast Rachel wants fame and stardom.
- Baldrick's life goals in Blackadder The Third revolve entirely around the acquisition of turnips. If he had a million pounds, he would buy a large turnip in the country and raise a family of little turnips.
Newspaper Comics
- In Calvin And Hobbes, Hobbes's wish is to have a sandwich. He achieves it. This is contrasted with Calvin, whose more extravagant wish for "a trillion billion dollars, my own space shuttle, and a private continent'' goes unfullfilled.
Theater
Video Games
- In The Sims 2, it's possible to change a Sim's Lifetime Aspiration (instead of "Money", "Family", "Romance", etc.) to "Grilled Cheese".
- Played for Laughs in Portal. If GLaDOS is to be believed, all Chell wants is cake.*
And grief counseling, but mainly cake. It's never revealed what she really wants, but since the game leads her to (temporarily) kill GLaDOS and escape Aperture's testing chambers, we'll assume it's that.
- In Final Fantasy IX, Quina joins your party just to travel the world and sample new foods.
- In Hakuouki, where the other Shinsengumi captains are occupied with grand ambitions and high ideals which prove unattainable, Harada Sanosuke admits in his route that his dream is to marry a woman he loves and live a peaceful life with her. This simple and humble dream is one of the reasons that Sanosuke has the most unequivocally happy ending in the game, where the others' endings are more bittersweet.
Web Original
- Freeman's Mind postulates that all Gordon Freeman really wants during his haphazard trek through Black Mesa is to go home and get stoned. He really could care less about the whole alien invasion and marine retaliation if they would only stop shooting and/or biting him.
Western Animation
- The plot to many South Park episodes involves the kids wanting something relatively mundane - say, getting the latest gaming system, or returning a rented video on time - but getting waylaid by assorted weirdness. In the case of Cartman, the means to getting to that goal might get a little intense.
- In Megas XLR, many of what Coop wants to do with his giant robot is to cruise around, pick up chicks, and have fun smashing stuff. However one episode has him craving a Mega Slush, but an annoying evil robot keeps destroying the places that serve them.
- In The Flintstones, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were only going out for some groceries; they weren't expecting to have to help the enigmatic superspy Madame Yes defeat the sinister Doctor Sinister.
- In the Duck Dodgers episode "A Lame Duck Mind" when they go into Dodgers' mind, they discover his greatest desire is to own a bait shop. Specifically a failing bait shop. He does have a hot trophy wife randomly there, but he doesn't seem interested in her.
- * At the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, retired General Iroh is at the head of the army that conquers Ba Sing Se, the largest and best-defended city in the world. He is, rather unexpectedly, reconquering it from his own people. What are his plans once the job is done? He's going to re-conquer his tea shop, and play pai sho every day.
Real Life
- One of "Bubble Boy"'s greatest wishes in life was to have a bottle of Coca-Cola. He never got it.
- Harriet Richard Ames wanted a Bachelor's degree. A few weeks after she turned 100, and the day before her death, she received her diploma at her hospice bedside.
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