History Main / BenevolentGenie

* The Gangreen Gang in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' story "I Green Of Genie" gets superpowers from a girl genie (from a magic lamp they find in a dump) which they use to overcome the girls. It looks like the girls are finished until Big Billy, who was sad because his power was being overly stinky, wishes things were back to normal.

*** In ''Anime/DragonBallZFusionReborn'', when the dead start escaping Hell, the heroes try to wish them back into Hell, but Shenron warns that while he could do that, they would simply escape again immediately, and suggests a different wish since he's not powerful enough to fix what allowed them to escape. Considering how this was the powerful demon Janemba, who was strong enough to stand up to Super Saiyan 3 Goku, he’s very definitely right.
*** The Japanese version merely states that this wish exceeds his authority by a wide margin.

This is the Benevolent Genie, the generally lesser-used character type of the three. This is because the very existence of such a genie is a ''major'' story-breaker if the genie is so powerful they can just magic problems away. One common way of adding conflict is to make the genie so ditzy that their usefulness can end up screwing things up, ultimately providing the wisher UnwantedAssistance, by limiting the number of wishes that can be made, or at least giving the genie some sort of exploitable weakness. In other cases, the source of conflict can come from the wish-maker demanding an [[DidntThinkThisThrough impulsive and short-sighted wish]] [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor and failing to think through the ramifications that no amount of benevolence can prevent]]. Additionally, a Benevolent Genie does not actually have to be '''good''', as long as the wish itself is fulfilled to the spirit of the wish - this does not stop the genie from being a jackass in other ways, and thus another common trope is to have the wish granted [[PowerAtAPrice at a hefty cost to the wisher]].

This is the Benevolent Genie, the generally lesser-used character type of the three. This is because the very existence of such a genie is a ''major'' story-breaker if the genie is so powerful they can just magic problems away. One common way of adding conflict is to make the genie so ditzy that their usefulness can end up screwing things up, ultimately providing the wisher UnwantedAssistance, by limiting the number of wishes that can be made, or at least giving the genie some sort of exploitable weakness. Additionally, a Benevolent Genie does not actually have to be '''good''', as long as the wish itself is fulfilled to the spirit of the wish - this does not stop the genie from being a jackass in other ways, and thus another common trope is to have the wish granted [[PowerAtAPrice at a hefty cost to the wisher]].

This is the Benevolent Genie, the generally lesser-used character type of the three. This is because the very existence of such a genie is a ''major'' story-breaker if the genie is so powerful they can just magic problems away, becoming a SidekickExMachina. One common way of adding conflict is to make the genie so ditzy that their usefulness can end up screwing things up, ultimately providing the wisher UnwantedAssistance, by limiting the number of wishes that can be made, or at least giving the genie some sort of exploitable weakness. Additionally, a Benevolent Genie does not actually have to be '''good''', as long as the wish itself is fulfilled to the spirit of the wish - this does not stop the genie from being a jackass in other ways, and thus another common trope is to have the wish granted [[PowerAtAPrice at a hefty cost to the wisher]].

** Pazuzu's an odd case of this. While he is a demon prince and his wishes are the result of a DealWithTheDevil, the wishes themselves are usually granted happily, with no attempt made to twist or mess with the wish (at least, at first). This is because Pazuzu's wishes [[TheCorruption corrupt]] the person who makes them, slowly turning them ChaoticEvil - he expects the person to call on his aid repeatedly until they're dependent on him, and [[PragmaticVillainy they won't do that if he overtly screws them over at the first hurdle.]]

* Fakrash al-Amash (Burl Ives) in 1964's ''The Brass Bottle'' is a djinn who is so grateful to architect Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall) for freeing him from his bottle, that he is continually making extravagant gifts to him -- all of which only complicate Ventimore's life and make him miserable. [[Series/IDreamOfJeannie Barbara Eden]] is featured in this film, though not as a djinniyah.
* Josephus in ''Bernard and the Genie'' befriends the much-harassed former art dealer Bernard and grants him ''unlimited'' wishes. Although they as expected mess things up at first (Bernard gets arrested for having the Mona Lisa on his wall, and stabbing a policeman with a sword), Josephus later reveals that he can just turn back the clock, and they set everything straight. They then decide that since it's Christmas, they should make a few Christmas miracles and spread good cheer. (This includes getting back at Bernard's cheating ex-girlfriend and ex-best friend, as well as his ex-boss, who is played by Rowan Atkinson.) Josephus only became one after the wish "I wish you would stop trying to kill me", however. Before that he was more "pissed-off former thief with a large scimitar who had been trapped in a bottle for thousands of years."

** The Genie is the Trope Posterboy for this, even interpreting an unconscious head bob in the best possible way (as "Genie, I wish for you to save my life"). In fact, he's nice to a fault -- when Jafar takes control of him late in the film, it doesn't even occur to him to try to use some LiteralGenie interpretations to screw Jafar out of his wishes (for example, simply teleporting Jafar to a DeathWorld when he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, or making Jafar the "sultan" of an oasis). Fortunately, Aladdin himself thinks of a loophole and tricks Jafar into using it. The Genie doesn't even realize what Aladdin's plan is until after he already granted the wish. (Compare Eden from TheSeries under "Western Animation", who is smart enough to play this as a ZigzaggingTrope.)
** The sequel ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' shows that Genies are not required to be benevolent -Jafar is very promptly a real jerk. Genie chose to be friendly to Aladdin, showing when Aladdin was drowning he really liked Aladdin and actively ''wanted'' to save his life, but was limited by his own previous statements ("no more freebies), so he took what he could get.

* The ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9759619/1/Gaz-Dreams-of-Genie Gaz Dreams of Genie]]'' has the titular genie, Azie, who grants Gaz three wishes after Gaz breaks her bottle, freeing her. While she's a little condescending to Gaz and trolls her a bit, she's mostly pretty helpful in granting Gaz's first two wishes, and tries to give her honest advice when she's carefully contemplating her last one. [[spoiler: Though when this final wish results in her and Gaz [[BecomingTheGenie switching lives]], she smugly gives Gaz a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, informing her that it would have happened anyway because Gaz broke the bottle, but that this curse could have been avoided if she'd only made a SelflessWish, then leaves Gaz trapped in the restored bottle.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9759619/1/Gaz-Dreams-of-Genie Gaz Dreams of Genie]]'' has the titular genie, Azie, who grants Gaz three wishes after Gaz breaks her lamp, freeing her. While she's a little condescending to Gaz and trolls her a bit, she's mostly pretty helpful in granting Gaz's first two wishes, and tries to give her honest advice when she's carefully contemplating her last one. [[spoiler: Though when this final wish results in her and Gaz [[BecomingTheGenie switching lives]], she smugly gives Gaz a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, informing her that it would have happened anyway because Gaz broke the lamp, but that this curse could have been avoided if she'd only made a SelflessWish, then leaves Gaz trapped in the the restored lamp.]]

* ''Fanfic/CodexEquus'': Princess Jiniri, G3 Razzaroo ascended to godhood, is the Goddess of Wishes and Miracles and Mother Goddess of the modern incarnation of genies. As such, she's this trope and wants her children to be such, and she imprisons the one who are malevolent or JerkassGenies in their lamps with the requirement they must grant an equal number of benevolent wishes to the evil ones they did to be free.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13139211/1/Lady-Lucks-Favor Lady Luck's Favor]]'' WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom meets Desiree and wishes that she could choose which wishes she wants to grant, thus turning her from one of his villains into a kind, caring ally who's always willing to help him out when he needs it.

* The eponymous MagicalGirlfriend of ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' tries to be as useful as she could, although her attempts rarely go particularly well, partly because she's a bit [[TheDitz scatterbrained]], and partly because she's from a time and place so [[FishOutOfTemporalWater different than the 20th century US]], she might just as well be an alien.
** It doesn't help that she is ridiculously jealous, either.

** The sequel ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' shows that Genies are not required to be benevolent -Jafar is very promptly a real jerk. And the only reason he counted that head nod as a wish is because Aladdin tricked him into a free one before. Had Aladdin not done that, it probably wouldn't have been counted as one. That and he really liked Aladdin and actively ''wanted'' to save his life, but was limited by his own previous statements, so he took what he could get.

** The sequel ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' shows that Genies are not required to be benevolent. And the only reason he counted that head nod as a wish is because Aladdin tricked him into a free one before. Had Aladdin not done that, it probably wouldn't have been counted as one. That and he really liked Aladdin and actively ''wanted'' to save his life, but was limited by his own previous statements, so he took what he could get.

** The Genie in [[Film/Aladdin2019 the live-action remake]] takes it even further: he explicitly shows Aladdin how vague wording could cause problems ("Make me a prince" could be interpreted as "create a prince for me"), then goes out of his way to coach Aladdin on how to woo Jasmine (although part of this is so Genie can end up with [[BetaCouple Dahlia]]).

* The d'jinni Anhikiahl in ''ComicBook/PoisonElves'' acts as a (somewhat) Benevolent Genie for Lusiphur, but only because she feels guilty for attacking him after being freed. When Lusiphur tries the old "wishing for more wishes" trick she points out that she can be a JackassGenie too if he doesn't keep his wishes reasonable. (It later turns out that the wishes she ended up granting weren't that problem-free either, due to certain "mandatory bylaws".)

* Jinn of ''WebAnimation/RWBY'' is an omniscient question-answerer rather than an omnipotent wish-granter, but as a genie summoned from a lamp she fits the spirit of this trope. When Ruby asks her the question "What is Ozpin hiding from us?", Jinn goes into great detail about his and [[spoiler:Salem]]'s backstory and the past of Remnant and how these have shaped them into the figures they are today.

*** Shenron also appears to have omnipotent knowledge he's more than willing share to help grant a wish with the intended effect. When the heroes are discussing whether they should just wish to kill the Saiyans before they arrive, he interrupts to say he can't do it as they exceed his power. The Saiyans were arriving from space and Shenron had never left Earth or even heard of them, yet he instinctively knows that this wish won't work.

*** In the Buu Saga, when Bulma tries to revive all the people killed by [[FaceHeelTurn Majin Vegeta]], Shenron asks if she really wants ''all'' the people back, which makes Yamcha hastily amend the wish to revive only ''good'' people.
*** In ''Anime/DragonBallZFusionReborn'', when the dead start escaping Hell, the heroes try to wish them back into Hell, but Shenron warns that while he could do that, they would simply escape again immediately, and suggests a different wish since he's not powerful enough to fix what allowed them to escape. Considering how this was the powerful demon Janemba, who was strong enough to stand up to Super Saiyan 3 Goku, he’s probably right.