History Main / CuriosityIsACrapshoot

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* As mentioned above, Rudyard Kipling's "The Elephant's Child" (from his ''Literature/JustSoStories'' and [[ConstantlyCurious its own trope]]). He was spanked repeatedly by his relatives for his "'satiable curiosity", and nearly killed when a crocodile sank his teeth into his nose. As the Elephant's Child pulled against the crocodile, he stretched his nose out. He then used his new nose to spank his relatives back, until they decided to get their noses stretched as well, which is why elephants have trunks.

* ''New Look Series'': Both Sonic and Young Link ended up in their respective predicaments because they couldn't resist exploring a girl's room.

* Psyche disobeyed her husband (who secretly was Eros, or Cupid as the Romans called him), who warned her not to try to [[ForbiddenFruit find out who he was]] by lighting a lamp while he was asleep to look at him. Punished for this with a quest and several tasks to complete for [[MyBelovedSmother his mother Aphrodite]] (who already didn't like her[[note]]Psyche was so beautiful that people were worshipping her as a goddess of beauty, which was Aphrodite's domain and naturally incurred her wrath, so Aphrodite had aleady made her SoBeautifulItsACurse by [[AttractivenessIsolation cursing her to never have anyone fall in love with her]]). Eros circumvented it as prior to this curse, Aphrodite had sent him to prick her with one of his arrows and cause her to fall in love with something ugly, but the sight of her caused him to forget his purpose until he accidentally pricked himself with one of his arrows and cemented a love for her[[/note]]), she didn't exactly learn better for her last task to bring back the beauty of the Queen of the Underworld in a box - peeking into it put her to sleep. Fortunately, Eros had gotten fed up with the situation, [[DeusExMachina showed up]], got her awake again, and [[HappilyEverAfter brought her to Olympus where they married and she was made a goddess]].

* In ''VisualNovel/DaiGyakutenSaibanNaruhodouRyuunosukeNoBouken'', [[spoiler:This plays in part of the bizarre circumstances of Case 4's assault case. The victim saw a book fall out of the sky and bent down to pick it up, only for a knife to fall soon after and [[DeathFromAbove stab her in the back]]. Both items were from a flat above after a fight between the occupants broke out over a misunderstanding.]]

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[[caption-width-right:310:[[Characters/ClassicalMythologyMinorDeities Psyche]] opens the box from the Underworld. Fortunately, Eros will show up to save her.]]

* In the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', curiosity is shown to be one of Izzy's best traits. He has it [[OurSoulsAreDifferent removed]] in one episode, which resulted in him acting like a zombie.

* Psyche disobeyed her husband (who secretly was Eros, or Cupid as the Romans called him), who warned her not to try to [[ForbiddenFruit find out who he was]] by lighting a lamp while he was asleep to look at him. Punished for this with a quest and several tasks to complete for [[MyBelovedSmother his mother Aphrodite]] (who already detested Psyche for being so beautiful that people were worshipping her as a goddess of beauty, which was Aphrodite's domain), she didn't exactly learn better, as her last task was to bring back the beauty of the Queen of the Underworld in a box. Peeking put her to sleep. Fortunately, Eros had gotten fed up with the situation, [[DeusExMachina showed up]], got her awake again, and [[HappilyEverAfter brought her to Olympus where they married and she was made a goddess]].

[[caption-width-right:310:Psyche opens the box from the Underworld. Fortunately, Eros will show up to save her.]]

* Psyche disobeyed her husband Eros (Cupid), who warned her not to try to [[ForbiddenFruit find out who he was]] by lighting a lamp while he was asleep to look at him. Punished for this with a quest and several tasks to complete for [[MyBelovedSmother his mother Aphrodite]], she didn't exactly learn better, as her last task was to bring back the beauty of the Queen of the Underworld in a box. Peeking put her to sleep. Fortunately, Eros had gotten fed up with the situation, [[DeusExMachina showed up]], got her awake again, and [[HappilyEverAfter brought her to Olympus where she was made a goddess]].

->''"Make your choice, adventurous stranger''
->''Strike the bell, and bide the danger''

* The Creator/StephenKing short story, ''[[Literature/SkeletonCrew The Jaunt]]'' is about a little boy who becomes curious as to what goes on during a [[TeleportersAndTransporters teleportation]] between Earth and Mars, during which everybody is supposed to be knocked out. He holds his breath to avoid the knockout gas... and [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace pops out the other side completely insane]]. Turns out that the physical journey is instantaneous, but the ''mental'' journey:

* The entire theme of ''Franchise/StarTrek''. ''To seek out new life, and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.'' Though [[RedShirt people die]], it always comes back to the idea that it is better to take the risk. Indeed, Q actually introduced Starfleet to the Borg, their absolute worst enemy from then on, more or less to make the point that exploration is as risky as it is rewarding [[spoiler: his actual reason was to give Starfleet a heads up to the danger so they could start preparing for the inevitable confrontation and wouldn't just be caught unaware and destroyed when the Borg decided to invade the Alpha Quadrant]].

** Technically, we never find out what the consequences would be for ''not'' ringing the bell in ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew''. Polly reckons it's just bait, but the verse does imply that NothingIsScarier...

* In ''Manga/KotouraSan'''s DownerBeginning, Haruka Kotoura is the quintessential CheerfulChild and a classic {{Moe}} heroine. The catch is that she's an [[PowerIncontinence inadverdent]] [[{{Telepathy}} telepath]] in a society where [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatemae Tatemae]] is a major concept. Worse, [[InnocentlyInsensitive she has no idea about any of this]] since speech and thought are one and the same to her, so she [[LivingLieDetector questions why everybody is lying]] and [[MindOverManners speaks their thoughts out loud]]. BreakTheCutie ensues [[TraumaCongaLine again and again]] so quickly and painfully, DullEyesOfUnhappiness becomes a ''default expression''.

* The main plot of Telltale's ''VideoGame/BackToTheFuture'' game starts out with Doc wanting to go back to 1931 due to wondering who was the infamous Speakeasy Arsonist. He winds up getting framed for the arson charges.

[[IThoughtItMeant It has nothing to do with]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_(rover) a certain Mars rover]], which has been operating fine since 2012 and is far from being a crapshoot.

[[IThougtItMeant It has nothing to do with]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_(rover) a certain Mars rover]], which has been operating fine since 2012 and is far from being a crapshoot.

[[IThougthItMeant It has nothing to do with]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_(rover) a certain Mars rover]], which has been operating fine since 2012 and is far from being a crapshoot.

* [[FanFic/NewLookSeries New Look Series]]: Both Sonic and Young Link ended up in their respective predicaments because they couldn't resist exploring a girl's room.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the leader of the Gray Council, Dukhat, chastises the isolationist council members for not wanting to open communications with humans for a plethora of reasons while a young acolyte, Delenn, wants to meet them for no other reason than simple curiosity. Turns out that may have been the wisest choice. [[spoiler:By not interacting with humans, they ended up meeting unexpectedly and a terrified human captain fired the Gray council's ship killing Dukhat and starting a 2-year genocidal war.]]
* The entire theme of ''Franchise/StarTrek''. ''To seek out new life, and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.'' Though [[RedShirt people die]], it always comes back to the idea that it is better to take the risk. Indeed, Q actually introduced Starfleet to the Borg, their absolute worst enemy from then on, more or less to make the point that exploration is as risky as it is rewarding.

* In the VideoGame/{{Mario}} fangame ''VideoGame/MarioTheMusicBox'', a recurring theme that is hammered into the heads of Mario and the player(s). In fact, the ArcWords are "Ever heard of 'Curiosity Killed the Cat'?"