History Main / ClingyMacGuffin

* The One Ring from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' could perhaps be considered one of these: there's a moment, for example, in the first chapter of ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', when, as Bilbo is preparing to leave the Shire, Gandalf persuades him to "stop possessing it, give it to Frodo", and Bilbo agrees, but as he walks out, Gandalf stops him: "You have still got the ring in your pocket." The Ring also attempts to compel its wearer to put it on when a Ringwraith gets near. However, at other points the trope is inverted, as it also has a tendency to slip off the bearer's finger unexpectedly, often when it is most needed; this is how it came to Bilbo after slipping off Gollum's finger. It also slipped off of Isildur's finger, revealing him to a band of orcs, thereby betraying him to his death.\\\
In the book it is noted that ''even if thrown into the sea'' it would eventually find its way back to civilization by compelling some fish to eat it, and if ''buried under a mountain'' it would gnaw on the minds of the person who knew its whereabouts. (And imagine having the willpower to throw even an ordinarily priceless item such as the diamond in ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'' into the sea.) Anyone sufficiently powerful to safeguard it would be tempted to claim it and become the new Ring lord, and it would try to slip away from anyone sufficiently weak to avoid temptation or ability to wield it -- and slip into the hands of someone who could.\\\
The film explained this fairly concisely. The ring cannot be destroyed, except for within Mount Doom. The Ring cannot be guarded, buried or lost again; it will always call out to the nearest person to possess it, and cannot be resisted for long. The Fellowship could not be avoided. However, its ultimate goal is always to return to its creator. Though no characters bring up the issue in advance, this all begs the question of why its psychic influence would allow someone to intentionally carry it to the volcano and throw it in, and in the end it turns out [[spoiler:destroying it on purpose is impossible, but it ''can'' be destroyed by accident. Frodo and Sam reach the necessary lava pit but cannot bring themselves to throw it in, despite their racial resistance to its power. Gollum shows up, steals the ring and, while celebrating his success, trips and falls into the lava. In the movie version he falls in when Frodo attacks him to take the ring back (for himself, not to destroy it).]]

If the MacGuffin is a piece of clothing, it's a ClingyCostume. If it's a living thing, it falls into TheCatCameBack. Compare LoyalPhlebotinum, which can be physically separated from the owner [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield but still only works]] for its [[TheChosenOne Chosen One]]. If the MacGuffin physically can be removed, but magically ensures that the owner won't ''want'' to, it's an ArtifactOfAttraction. Contrast SlipperyMacGuffin.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E126LivingDoll Living Doll]]", Erich Streator cannot rid himself of the doll Talky Tina no matter what he tries. He throws it in the trash and it reappears in his stepdaughter Christie's bed. He then attempts to destroy it using a vise, a blowtorch and a circular saw but [[MadeOfIndestructium it is completely undamaged]]. [[spoiler:Erich later trips over Tina on the stairs and falls to his death.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter The Encounter]]", Fenton tells Arthur Takamori that he took the samurai sword from a Japanese officer whom he was forced to kill on Okinawa in order to save his own life. He claims that it keeps turning up in spite of his numerous attempts to get rid of it over the years. It bears the inscription "The sword will avenge me." As soon as he picks it up, Arthur experiences a strange sensation and says "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him. Why?" He later appears to be come under the supernatural influence of the sword and attacks Fenton with it. From this experience, Arthur realizes that Fenton killed the Japanese officer and took the sword after he had already surrendered. The former owner of the sword eventually has his vengeance when Fenton falls on it and is [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled]].

* Similarly to the blinker stones below, the amulets from ''Webcomic/AgentsOfTheRealm'' always return to the MagicalGirl of their choosing, even if she gives it away. Good thing for Norah, [[BearsAreBadNews seeing what she got herself into]]...

* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'':

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14073644/1/ The Echo Ranger]]'': The Echo Morpher seems to be one. Izuku goes to bed with the Echo Power Coin under his pillow. He wakes up wearing a watch he doesn't recognize. A watch with no clip, snaps, or other means to attach or detach it. So for in the story he has not tried (onscreen) to take it off, but has mentioned he couldn't revert it to Coin form.

* In ''Videogame/GodOfWarPS4'' [[spoiler:the Blades of Chaos are this for Kratos. Kratos has tried to get rid of them many times, but they always find their way back to him one way or another. Even tossing them into the ocean didn't work for long. This is why he has settled on keeping them hidden under his house. Like the ashes of his family grafted to his skin and the burn marks on his arms from the Blades' chains, the Blades themselves are a permanent reminder of his bloody past that he can never truly erase.]]

* In ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'', Lewis has a cursed 20-sided die that is every gamer's nightmare; it always rolls a 1. The gamers give is a burial, [[http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=125 but it returns]]. They bury it again, this time under a statue of the Virgin Mary, with a bunch of garlic. It returns again. The characters decide to de-curse it by mixing it with some dice that are extra lucky -- they rolled every die in their gaming store and bought the ones that came up as 20 three consecutive times. But after doing this, ''all'' the dice start rolling 1s. ("[[TheVirus It's like we tried to cure a zombie by locking it in a room with normal people!]]") Then the other cursed dice vanish, and the number 1 starts appearing world wide -- sports all end up with a score of 1, clocks stop at 1:11, etc. The gamers decide that the only way to break the curse is to make rolling a 1 ''good''. Fortunately, Nelson had the foresight to buy a lottery ticket with all 1s, and won $1,111. They use this money to bribe Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast to temporarily change the rules of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' so that 1s are good (version 1.1.1 -- their word processor was cursed too). Lewis rolls the die in the hopes of getting a 1 and lightning strikes, destroying it.

* The Creator/JohnBellairs novel ''Literature/TheSpellOfTheSorcerersSkull'' features a miniature skull that can fit in a pants pocket... and returns there after the protagonist drops it into a lake.

* The title character of ''LightNovel/{{Gokudo}}'' planned to abuse his magic sword in a similar manner as in ''Series/DeadLast'', though his genie stops him before he can even try.

* In ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' the Legendary Weapons must always be on the Hero's person. Luckily for them, the Weapon's size and location on their body can be adjusted, so it's possible to use both hands for bathing and eating. They are also clingy in another way, as they will punish any Cardinal Hero for trying to use a Weapon that does not match their Weapon's nature.

* In a ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' OVA, Naga, on pure impulse, puts on a valuable bracelet made out of rare {{Orichalcum}}. Unfortunately, she discovers that she can't take it off. And what's more, a powerful superweapon became attracted to the bracelet and Naga and Lina got chased all over by this creature.

If the MacGuffin is a piece of clothing, it's a ClingyCostume. If it's a living thing, it falls into TheCatCameBack. Compare LoyalPhlebotinum, which can be physically separated from the owner [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield but still only works]] for its [[TheChosenOne Chosen One]]. Contrast SlipperyMacGuffin.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "The Gun", a gun dealer named Donald Finley (who is really an alien in disguise) sells a strange gun to Matthew Logan for $300. As soon as Matthew uses it to kill his wife Sandra for having him sent to prison for abusing her, the gun became fused to Matthew's hand and all attempts to remove it failed. The fusion process intensified every time that he used the gun as he was [[SlowTransformation slowly transforming]] into the ultimate killing machine. His father-in-law Cord van Owen is given an identical gun by Finley which likewise fuses itself to his skin after he fires it. However, it detaches itself when he refuses to kill Matthew in front of his son Ty, much to Finley's disappointment.

* Manjyome's Ojama spirit monsters in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX''.

* A benign example of this, similar to the Ring of Polycrates story, can be found in the miniseries ''Series/TheTenthKingdom''. Wolf purchases an engagement ring for Virginia, and after being rejected, he throws it into the lake. At the end of the story, Virginia ends up ordering the fish that ate the ring [[spoiler:and Wolf takes this chance to propose again, with greater success]].

** The English fairy tale "The Fish and the Ring" [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/fishring.html]] is named for its use of this trope: the baron is trying to forestall a SelfFulfillingProphecy by refusing to let his son live with his wife, a peasant girl, until [[EngagementChallenge she presents him with a ring]] he threw into the sea. She takes a job as a cook. He is served a dish containing fish -- and the ring. The girl had cooked it. He ceases to resist fate.

* In Creator/WinsorMccay 's "A Pilgrim's Progress by Mr. Bunion", a parody of Literature/PilgrimsProgress , the main character always tries to get rid of a suitcase (labeled 'Dull Care') only to get it returned to him in the last panel.

* One ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' short was actually about MickeyMouse having a hard time sleeping because of his new alarm clock's ticking noise. He always tries to get rid of it, but no matter how hard he tries, the clock will inevitably make its way back to his house.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':