History Main / WantingIsBetterThanHaving

* WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}: In "Doug's Big Catch", Doug helps Mr. Dink catch Chester, the fish that took his old wallet 30 years ago. Mr. Dink then gets upset because he will no longer have a reason to fish or buy more equipment. Doug tells him he can just throw the fish back, so he does. [[spoiler:In the end, Mr. Dink discovers that three dollars were missing from his old wallet, and so [[HereWeGoAgain the hunt is back on]].]]

* WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} helps Mr. Dink catch Chester, the fish that took his old wallet 30 years ago. Mr. Dink then gets upset because he will no longer have a reason to fish or buy more equipment. Doug tells him he can just throw the fish back, so he does.

---> '''Sandman:''' He didn't understand - mortals never do: ''the price of getting what you want is having what once you wanted.''

--> "Sometimes, it's better to reach for a goal rather than achieve it."

--> "Now where can I go? I am at the pinnacle to wait for another to push me off? Where is the triumph in that? Where is the journey? There is nothing at the top. World's Strongest. That's what I am. But what will I ''be''?"

---> ''"And bear in mind, my son, that a good hope is better than a bad holding, and a good grievance better than a bad compensation."''

-->''This is how Samantha knew she was growing up: She didn't cry. She didn't accuse her parents of torturing her or abandoning her. She simply said. "All right. I'll make my own dinner." ... ... When Edison and Trillium returned two hours later, they found a clean house, the dishwasher humming, and Samantha finishing her homework while Penelope dozed on her perch.''

--> "After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical... but it is often true."

-->''So I'll wait''
-->''Come in late''
-->''It'd be great''
-->''If you transferred out of state!''

-->''Now at last I fall before''
-->''The Fountain of Lamneth''
-->''I thought I would be singing''
-->''But I'm tired, out of breath''
-->''Many journeys end here''
-->''But the secret's told the same:''
-->''Life is just a candle, and a dream''
-->''Must give it flame''

--> I wanted it til I got it
--> Believed in it til I saw it
--> I needed it til I had it
--> Then I wanted something else

--->'''Hobbes''': [[DeadpanSnarker I feel like I'm in some stockholder's dream.]]
--->'''Calvin''': Waste and want, that's my motto!

--> '''Cinderella's Prince:''' I shall always love the maiden who ran away.\\

--> '''Man 1:''' WHY WON'T ANYONE PERSECUTE ME?!

-->'''Darby''': But that's what makes reading so great. You can imagine anything you want. And that's what I like: imagining having a pony, not really having one.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has a CutawayGag where Peter and Chris do the shopping like Lois keeps telling them to, only for her to beat them up and say she likes complaining about them never doing it better than having them actually do it.

** [[Characters/GravityFallsGrunkleStan Grunkle Stan]] used to have a crush on a waitress named Lazy Susan. After Mabel helped him to get a date with her, he decided that she looked "weird up close," and bailed half-way through.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': While initially Megamind enjoys the ability to do anything he wants after defeating Metro Man (most of his "rampaging" being PokeThePoodle level antics), he gradually becomes bored and depressed over the pointlessness of his life.

** This is lampshaded by Lisa when Bart is trying to take her glue simply because she has it. Bart denies it, but to prove her point she hands him the glue, which he then says he doesn't want and hands it back to her.

** Grunkle Stan used to have a crush on a waitress named Lazy Susan. After Mabel helped him to get a date with her, he decided that she looked "weird up close," and bailed half-way through.
** A far more tragic example occurs in season two: [[spoiler:After spending thirty years trying to bring back his twin brother Ford from another dimension, Stan finally succeeds, only to be painfully reminded of how strained their relationship was, and still is]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "[[Recap/SpongebobSquarepantsS2E6GrandmasKissesSquidville Squidville]]", Squidward finally moves away from Conch Street into the titular neighborhood. At first, he enjoys himself immensely, but then he finds himself [[BoredomMontage doing the same stuff over and over, day by day]] and realizes it's not really that great.

A WishFulfillment trope and a milder, non-magical form of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor. Also see AllThatGlitters. May overlap with LonelyAtTheTop, PopularityCycle, VengeanceFeelsEmpty, AndThenWhat, VictoryIsBoring. A work-specific subtrope of this is DisappointingPromotion.

* In a Season 1 episode of ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' called "A Nice Place to Visit", Henry "Rocky" Valentine is a crook who gets killed by cops in a shootout. In the afterlife, he never has to deal with any failure or frustration, leading him to believe he's gone to Heaven. Eventually, however, he gets bored with having everything he wants handed to him without any struggle, so he expresses a desire to leave Heaven and go to Hell, [[spoiler:only to be told that [[ThisIsntHeaven he was in Hell all along]].]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* In one ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' episode, [[AlphaBitch Bonnie,]] [[TitleCharacter Kim's]] [[SitcomArchNemesis long time rival]] finally achieves her ambition of being their high school's cheerleading captain, [[HiddenDepths after proving herself to be surprisingly competent at the job.]] However, Bonnie starts having second thoughts after Kim explains to her that [[DidntThinkThisThrough with being the cheerleading captain now, she's going to have to]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough continue]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough doing the hard work she had done to]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough gain]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough the position.]] The next time we see the cheer squad, [[StatusQuoIsGod Kim's back in charge]].

* ''Emperor Doom'': This trope is the basic plotline of the graphic novel. [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]] takes over the world through a worldwide psionic broadcast that brainwashes the whole world into obeying Doom, but found the mundane duties of ruling tedious and was [[VictoryIsBoring bored by the lack of opposition]]. When ComicBook/TheAvengers finally broke free and challenged him, Doom practically let them win.

** The cure for children who want to stay up all night is just to ''let them''. The children end up discovering that it's annoying to be tired all the time during the day, and then when they fall asleep at a movie première they'd been looking forward to for ages, that's the last straw.

** ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'': {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by the Sandman himself in the issue. He alludes to the deal he made with Creator/WilliamShakespeare, and how {{Shakespeare|InFiction}} misunderstood it:

* Terry Sloane, the original Mister Terrific, had a backstory like this: He'd succeeded at everything he ever wanted to do, and with no more goals to strive for, his life was meaningless. He was contemplating suicide when he met a woman who was also suicidal for different reasons who convinced him to become a superhero.

* Music/{{Motorhead}} : "The Chase Is Better Than The Catch."

* [[Comicbook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck Uncle Scrooge]] ends up subverting this in Creator/DonRosa's "Life and Times" series. When young Scrooge realizes that his mining sluice may have just uncovered a goose-egg sized nugget of gold, he pauses for a second and wonders if what he really wanted was the adventures and experience of his years pursuing wealth. Does he really want to be rich? After considering it, Scrooge shouts ''YES!'' and, once confirming his find, celebrates like the happiest duck in the world.

* ''[[Fanfic/TwoTwentyOneB 221B]]'': "Breathed" starts with Holmes grumbling about how no criminal has taken advantage of the fog to do anything interesting. He comes back from a trip to the tobacconist to find one of the crooks he sent to jail on the verge of shooting Watson, and says that he'll never gripe about the fog again.
* ''Fanfic/AgreementAndDisputation'': Holmes rues complaining so much about his boredom when the next day, Mrs. Hudson makes a sauce with some poisonous mushrooms he forgot to label as such.

* ''Comicbook/TheSandman''

--> '''Sandman:''' He didn't understand - mortals never do: ''the price of getting what you want is having what once you wanted.''

* ''Emperor Doom'': This trope is the basic plotline of the graphic novel. ComicBook/DoctorDoom takes over the world through a worldwide psionic broadcast that brainwashes the whole world into obeying Doom, but found the mundane duties of ruling tedious and was [[VictoryIsBoring bored by the lack of opposition]]. When ComicBook/TheAvengers finally broke free and challenged him, Doom practically let them win.

* Subverted in the end of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie''. When [=SpongeBob=] is offered the position of manager, he politely begins to say something first. Squidward suggests he didn't want the position at all and the journey to Shell City was the real reward. [=SpongeBob=] denies that, what he really wanted to say is "Your fly is down," and happily accepts the job.

* In ''Film/SupermanII'', three Kryptonian criminals violently take over Earth, only to be seen later all sitting around, bored. When Ursa tries to be encouraging by saying, "You're master of all you survey," General Zod sort of shrugs and replies (in a very bored tone), "So I was yesterday. And the day before..." It's only the thought of fighting Franchise/{{Superman}} that finally puts a spark back in the villain's eyes.

* ''Literature/MrsPiggleWiggle''

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': For a long time, Faith is so envious of Buffy's "perfect life" (loving family, lots of friends, perfect boyfriend, lots of popular and praise, etc) that she can hardly stand it. When she finally gets a chance to swap bodies with her and live Buffy's life in "Who Are You?", however, she is clearly uncomfortable with the amount of love, trust, and kindness she receives from everyone, and has a minor FreakOut after having slow and loving sex with Buffy's boyfriend. It clearly dawns on her that even if she had the "perfect" life and family she always wanted, she's too damaged to know what to do with it. Notably, when Buffy-in-Faith's-body comes back for her own body, Faith doesn't put up as much of a fight as one would expect, and after Buffy manages the switcharoo Faith runs off, and Buffy rightly guesses that they won't have to worry about her for a while. From then on, Faith is noticeably less consumed with envy over Buffy.

* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Jack is the character most dead-set on getting off the island, no matter what. The Season 3 finale [[spoiler: reveals that after he does leave the island, his life falls apart. On the island, he was a leader and could save others, but once he leaves that behind, he deteriorates into a broken, alcoholic mess. He realizes too late that Locke, who told him not to leave the island, was right all along, and ends up flying nonstop, hoping that he'll crash.]]

* In a Season 1 episode of ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' called "A Nice Place to Visit", Henry "Rocky" Valentine is a crook who gets killed by cops in a shootout. In the afterlife, he never has to deal with any failure or frustration, leading him to believe he's gone to Heaven. Eventually, however, he gets bored with having everything he wants handed to him without any struggle, so he expresses a desire to leave Heaven and go to Hell, [[spoiler:only to be told that [[ThisAintHeaven he was in Hell all along]].]]

* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'': [[spoiler:When the main characters finally get to the real Good Place, they discover that it's not quite as awesome as it's made out to be. Having had all of their needs and desires met for centuries, if not millennia, the residents have been reduced to listless near-zombies just going through the motions.]]

* Music/BarenakedLadies have a song called "Conventioneers", in which a man describes finally attaining the woman he's been pining for, but once the two have consummated their affair, he realizes their flirtations were the fun part: "Before all the fireworks exploded/our conversations were so loaded (ennuendo flying)/Now what can we say?/Have a nice day?/Looks like rain today?" So he leaves, revealing that his wish to never see her again can't come true as the two work together...

* In ''WebVideo/TheDomReviews'' Dominic does an episode of his series ''Lost in Adaptation'', which is where he critiques the changes that might and tend to occur when going from a print medium to a visual, about Roald Dahl's ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. When deciding on whether to use the Mel Stuart ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' or Tim Burton ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', the episode splits into two versions where he reviews that respective movie against the book only. When he reviews ''Willy Wonka'' he notes they omitted a scene from the book about Wonka building an Indian prince a castle out of chocolate and then it melted the next day. The Dom felt this could have been a cool scene and wishes to have witnessed it in the movie. When the review splits to the alternate review of ''Charlie'', the Dom notes they do include this scene and he finds it stupid, a waste of time, and potentially racist for playing some Indian stereotypes with how the prince acts.

* ''WebAnimation/DarkMatter2525'': In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmzrHqbDJFo&t=263s The War on Christmas]]", a man is [[ComicalOverreacting gravely wounded by the heinous attack of being told "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" by a cashier]]. Years later, the First Amendment had been removed so that this "tyranny" (as Pat Robertson calls it) ended, and that same man is not celebrating Christmas that year because the victim complex the "war" gave him was all that gave his life meaning.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'':

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* In a BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' the Turtles land in a world where they didn't exist, and Krang had no body because Shredder conquered Earth without needing to give Krang a body. The Turtles find Shredder having to deal with the paperwork and responsibilities of managing Earth, and him realizing it was too much for him. When Shredder finds there is an Earth he hadn't conquered, he wants to go there and avoid this one (and possibly warn his counterpart it's not worth fulfilling the ambitions of world conquest). It technically counts for the Turtles as well, who ended up in that reality in the first place because they felt that the world would be better off without them. [[ItsAWonderfulPlot They change their tone when they see how bad things actually would have been if they never existed.]]

* The last movement of "The Fountain of Lamneth" by Music/{{Rush}}, when the narrator finally finds the titular fountain:

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': For a long time, Faith is so envious of Buffy's "perfect life" (loving family, lots of friends, perfect boyfriend, lots of popular and praise, etc) that she can hardly stand it. When she finally gets a chance to swap bodies with her and live Buffy's life in "Who Are You?", however, she is clearly uncomfortable with the amount of love, trust, and kindness she receives from everyone, and has a minor FreakOut after having [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex slow and loving sex]] with Buffy's boyfriend. It clearly dawns on her that even if she had the "perfect" life and family she always wanted, she's too damaged to know what to do with it. Notably, when Buffy-in-Faith's-body comes back for her own body, Faith doesn't put up as much of a fight as one would expect, and after Buffy manages the switcharoo Faith runs off, and Buffy rightly guesses that they won't have to worry about her for a while. From then on, Faith is noticeably less consumed with envy over Buffy.

** Mayuri is hit with his own lecture when Nemu is killed by Pernida. A hallucination of Szayelaporro appears before him and calls him a hypocrite for hating perfection yet considered Nemu to be his perfect creation. Mayuri realizes what a fool he had been and decides to do what he does best and make a new Nemu using the old Nemu's data.

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' Mayuri Kurotsuchi has this view on the concept of perfection. In the aftermath of his duel with Szayelaporro, who had repeatedly boasted about his "perfection", Mayuri provides his own perspective on what being perfect means. In Mayuri's perspective being perfect is boring because once you've reached that pinnacle of perfection -- that's it -- there's no where you can go from there. He notes that people have an infatuation with perfection, but how hellish it would be to actually reach that state of existence since you would have no room for improvement, growth, or imagination; that life effectively has no purpose in continuing since you've reached the finish line of life where there is nothing more worth doing. Basically wanting perfection is OK, but having it is not an amiable situation.

* JD in ''{{Series/Scrubs}}'' is usually only interested in Elliot when she's not in a relationship with him. The fact that he never learns that he only wants what he can't have is frequently pointed out to him.