History Main / ChainOfDeals

* The ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' PeggySue fic ''Fanfic/AshesOfThePast'' features this. After being stuck in the Kalos region and unable to help Ash and friends with both [[Anime/Pokemon2000 Shamouti]] and [[Anime/Pokemon3 Greenfield]], Gary Oak resolves to reteach his Alakazam Teleport to avoid missing out on being able to help again, resulting in this trope. The full chain is thus: he needs to borrow Professor Oak's Dragonite, because a man in Geosenge City will give him a fossil for seeing a fully evolved Dragon-type. That fossil can be regenerated into an Anorith, which can be traded for a Liepard, that for a Swoobat, that for a Clefairy, and that for a Gyarados. Showing a Gyarados to Marie in Camphrier Town will get him a letter that he can give to Jacques in Parfum Palace, earning him a Farfetch'd, which he can trade for a Beartic, which he can trade for a Furfrou -- and a shiny one, at that. He can then eventually convince a stylist in Luminose City to give the Furfrou a stylish haircut, which he can show to the Gym Leader, Valerie, to get a Focus Sash, which he can trade in Anistar City for a Silk Sash, which he can give to a girl in Luminose for a Pokémon that can dance, which he can then show to someone in Courmarine City for a Heart Scale, which he can then give the Move Relearner to reteach Alakazam Teleport. Got all that? Now, listen to this: when he talks to Professor Oak to get the Dragonite, he learns that he could have borrowed Misty's Gyarados or Ash's Totodile (who can dance), and the professor not only knows someone who has a Clefairy, but has in his possession a Focus Sash, a Silk Sash, ''twenty'' Heart Scales, and a ''TM'' for Teleport. Gary is understandably frustrated, but since he went through the trouble of building the list, he borrows Dragonite and Gyarados, leaving him with an Anorith, a shiny Furfrou, and a Teleporting Alakazam.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'': In "It's the Great Pumpkin, Juniper Lee", June manages to successfully complete a Chain to un-spell a few monsters. The last of those "deals" involved winning a wrestling match.

* One secret task in Season 5 of the ''WebVideo/LifeSMP'' was to make a series of at least four trades starting with seeds and ending with a golden apple. Scar got this task, and traded four seeds for a camel, a camel for a zombie spawn egg, a zombie spawn egg for five diamonds, and finally five diamonds for a golden apple. Being someone who often puts on a businessman persona, he notes how appropriate this task is for him.

** Similar side-quests also happen in the first two games, both of them involving the aforementioned "secret DVD" (originally a tape). My, what lazy censors.

* The old game ''{{Hacker}}'' required you to send a robot around the world trading items to obtain pieces of a secret document, while figuring out how to avoid the security checks on the system you were "connected to".

* One secret task in season five of the ''WebVideo/LifeSMP'' was to make a series of at least four trades starting with seeds and ending with a golden apple. Scar got this task, and traded four seeds for a camel, a camel for a zombie spawn egg, a zombie spawn egg for five diamonds, and finally five diamonds for a golden apple.

* The ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "Who, What, Where, Ed!" featured a chain that started with Eddy trying to get a chicken egg from Rolf, who wanted sawdust they had to borrow from Kevin, who wanted paint they had to borrow from Jimmy, who wanted clams they had to borrow from Johnny, and so on, driving Eddy closer and closer to insanity (as well as LampshadeHanging) with every turn. The chain goes to Jimmy ''twice'', they're forced to get something different from Johnny than he first asked because they couldn't get it from the Kankers, and eventually stretches back to Rolf. And while the Eds finally resolve the chain by trading Rolf Ed's yo-yo, [[TheDitz Ed breaks the egg the second they get it]] because he thought he needed to set the chicken inside free. As a result, this whole fetch-quest was {{All For Nothing}}.

** This was also the basis for the short ''Leghorn Swoggled'', with Henry Hawk making a long string of deals in order to catch Foghorn Leghorn. After making a bunch of deals (dog wants a bone, cat knows where to get a bone but wants a fish, mouse knows where to get fish but wants cheese) he remarks [[LampshadeHanging "I wonder what the cheese will want?"]]
** Also happens in ''WesternAnimation/DimeToRetire'', where Daffy runs a scam in the hotel Porky is staying at. First, he let a mouse into Porky's room, which drove Porky nuts by eating a piece of celery, prompting him to have Daffy bring in a cat to chase it off for a mere $5, only for the cat to refuse to let him sleep on his bed, thus Daffy brought a dog to scare it away for $10, only for the boxer (after hearing a bell, courtesy of Daffy) to start punching Porky, after which Daffy charged $26 to bring in a lion to get rid of it, which naturally tried to eat Porky, then for another $72, Daffy used an elephant to drive out the lion, however, the elephant then took up most of the room, so for $666, Daffy released the mouse back into Porky's room to scare it off, leaving Porky with the celery-eating mouse all over again.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'', "It's the Great Pumpkin, Juniper Lee": June manages to successfully complete a Chain to un-spell a few monsters. The last of those "deals" involved winning a wrestling match.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' the gang arrange a Chain to enable Mikey to achieve his dream of becoming a crossing guard. The chain works perfectly and Mikey is able to enjoy his new job. The next day, he announced to his friends that he quit due to the number of problems he suffered as a guard.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', the [[AffablyEvil Robot Devil]] accidentally trades his awesome robotic hands for [[IdiotHero Fry]]'s stupid human ones, allowing Fry to become a musician and impress [[LoveInterest Leela]]. Since Fry won't trade back, the Devil goes through a chain of deals[[note]]trading Bender an air horn for his crotch plate(which the Devil throws away), causing Bender to deafen Leela with the air horn, making her unable to hear Fry's opera unless the Robot Devil gives her robot ears[[/note]] until he gets Leela's hand [[spoiler:in marriage]], which Fry ''is'' willing to trade for.
--> '''Robot Devil''': Ah! My [[ComplexityAddiction ridiculously circuitous plan]] is a quarter of the way complete!
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Tri-State Treasure: Boot of Secrets", while at a swap-meet Candace tries to get an extremely rare Ducky Momo antique which is very expensive. The seller will only trade for another antique found at the swap-meet and what follows is Candace doing an extremely long chain of trading with very bizarre sounding items. Despite her efforts, [[YankTheDogsChain she still doesn't get the antique due to Doofenshmirtz's De-Age-Inator making the antique she was going to trade for it look too new.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' episode, "Operation: Good Deed", Mason's back gets injured by a bucket and he needs a massage. King Julien will let the Penguins borrow Maurice, who gives excellent massages, if they can get him a flamingo feather for his crown, Pinky will give them one of her feathers in exchange for some peanuts, Burt will give them his peanuts in exchange for some hay, Roy will give them his hay if they can get Bada and Bing to stop throwing their banana peels into his habitat, and Bada and Bing will stop throwing their banana peels if they can get them a pizza.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' games use these in spades, with later entries having a few of them required to progress in the game. Many of them are pretty comedic in nature; for example, at one point in ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'', to continue the main story, you need to find a Light Shard. There's a wizard hiding away in Mermaid Falls that has one, but he won't give it to you unless you give him candy. How do we get candy? First you have to go Tassel Town and use your Elephant Stomp ability to dig up ancient remains for a "geneology guy" at the bottom of the tower. Once you give him the remains, he... sneezes on you and gets you sick, complete with ItemGet jingle. Now you need to head back to Scuttle Town and see a doctor for a quick check-up. And naturally, for being a good patient, he gives you a lollipop.

* The desert monkey cave in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' is basically a Puzzle Chain of Deals. With some lampshading thrown in ("amongst all these doors..."). Thankfully it's [[RuleOfFunny funny]]. Some players still consider it the most frustrating part of the game, mostly because ''every room looks like every other room'' and one item turns into something else (thus rendering it useless) after too much time passes. Fortunately, the player's guide (which was originally packaged with the game) eliminated most of the frustration by providing maps.

** With the introduction of Steam Trading, you can now potentially trade up from a lowly, common crate all the way up to a $60 dollar game like Deus Ex, provided you get lucky enough and find the right buyers.

* A episode of ''Manga/TheDisastrousLifeOfSaikiK'' has Saiki forget his wallet, leaving him unable to pay a 980 yen bill. Since his Apport Power has a 10% leeway in what he can receive from a trade, he uses it multiple times to exchange his 500 yen socks for a 1000 yen note...which leads him with more problems that he needs to solve as he inadvertently gets Kaido and his dad in trouble, making him comment he should have just washed dishes.

* The 1980s children's novel ''The Seventeenth Swap'' is about a boy who wants to buy a special pair of boots for his crippled friend, but can't afford them. What he does have is a rare stamp that he trades to a stamp collector, and sixteen swaps later, he's able to get the boots.

* Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/DaveMcKean[='=]s children's book ''The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish'' has the protagonist trade his father for two goldfish, then have to unravel the chain that resulted afterwards to get his dad back.

* In ''Henry Reed's Big Show'', Henry goes to visit an auction, and starting out with some fireplace tools that turn out to be valuable to another bidder who missed them, he parlays the two dollar bid on the tools through to another item and another, until he ends up getting an item and two dollars for his item, finally ending up with two items that the owner bid $40 apiece, a lot of money to Henry. By the time he's finished he's essentially traded things so that he ends up getting something worth $100, which cost him nothing because he got the original $2 back during one of the trades.
* ''One Fine Day'', an old children's book in which a fox gets his tail hacked off for trying to steal a woman's goods; in order to get it back he has to give her a sewing needle, leading to a chain of deals.

* Creator/GordonKorman's book ''The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom'' has Jeremy do this in one of his poems, trading away his telescope, but then winding up trading his new prize for something else, over and over, until he finally learns the guy he'd originally traded the telescope to had swapped ''it'' for something, and the telescope's new owner is willing to trade it for Jeremy's latest possession. So in the end, Jeremy gets his telescope back and everyone's happy.

* ''The Seven Geases'' by Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith is about the magical version of this.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has one in the Level 30 Arcanist quest, set up by your guildmate K'lyhia to get you onto a slaver's ship without arousing the captain's suspicion. Fortunately, all the people involved are in Eastern La Noscea, specifically the Costa del Sol half of the zone. You deliver a message to a fisherman, who gives you a herring to give to a cook. The cook gives you an eel pie, which you can give to Costa del Sol's owner Gegeruju for a hefty purse of gil. His handmaid gives you another note instructing you to give the purse to a dancer, who happily gives you her used undergarment, along with a satchel full of K'lyhia's arcanist gear. The undergarment is given to a trader for a bottle of wine, which you pour for the sailors on shore; the drink is good enough that they drag you back to the ship thinking you can provide them with more to sell for good coin - and coming along on the same rowboat is K'lyhia, who has gotten the sailors' attention by performing as a dancer. While you're getting rowed out, K'lyhia takes the satchel and gears up so she can start flinging spells as soon as she hits the deck.

** The first quest is started when you speak to Tara at the Crocasino, and she'll ask you to get some birth records from the library for her. You go to the library and are told you must get an overdue book from Lynn in exchange for the records, and from there, you'll be directed to another NPC, and another, until finally someone doesn't ask for something in return. Then you have to go back through everyone again. The reward at the end is [[spoiler:only 10 Gold... and a pair of boots [[SprintShoes that let you move faster]]]].

*** You need to unify the main Council races against the Reapers. The turians aren't able to come unless the krogan can be brought to the vicious fighting on the turian homeworld, since the krogan are the most powerful ground-fighting force the galaxy has ever seen. The problem is that the krogan hate the turians and the salarians for hitting them with a sterility plague 1500 years ago, and have their own problems with the Reapers, although less of one; they refuse to come unless they get the genophage cured and ideally the Reaper scouts are dealt with. Thankfully, the salarians can be coerced into handing over the closest thing to a cure they have, although unless you sabotage the dispersal they'll sulk and refuse to commit to the mutual defence pact [[spoiler:unless one of your friends saves their Councillor from assassins]] - and if you ''do'' sabotage the dispersal, you risk losing a lot of krogan support if the truth comes out.
*** The sidequest to recruit the Blue Suns falls into this if you choose to take the Paragon route. The Blue Suns would be willing to join Shepard in the Reaper War, but they're currently being hassled by Citadel fleet patrols, led by turian general Oraka. Oraka is hassling them because the Suns are raiding trade shipments carrying high-end weapons needed for Citadel defense. He'll agree to leave the Suns alone if he can get weapons from an alternative source. You can find that source in a black-market dealer, but he won't deal in credits -- he expects the economy to fall back to a barter system if the Reaper War is lost, and wants an advantage by acquring valuable artifacts to trade with, which you can only find in Reaper-occupied space. The Renegade option is much quicker: [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim kill]] [[CuttingTheKnot Oraka.]]

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron Spirit]]'' game, ''[[LongTitle Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron: Forever Free]]'' features one near the end. In exchange for a horse's freedom, someone wants a wheel to fix their cart, the blacksmith who has a wheel wants a blanket from Little Creek, Little Creek in turn wants an axe to chop wood with...and said axe can then be [[strike:stolen]] taken from Snakefinger.

* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'' [[http://www.sdamned.com/2008/04/04262008/ provides its take on these.]]

*** The trading sequence from the future is more traditional in terms of gameplay. It starts with a Chicken Egg used to wake up a long-dormant Talon once it hatches, and continues through most of Hyrule by trading items one after another. Some of the deliveries are timed (for example, the Odd Mushroom must be given away in three minutes or else it will spoil), and in particular, the penultimate one is impossible to do without Epona (even with her, it's very difficult if you forgot to plant a Magic Bean near the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern in the past). The final reward is the powerful Biggoron's Sword.

* The ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' PeggySue fic ''Fanfic/AshesOfThePast'' features this. After being stuck in the Kalos region and unable to help Ash and friends with both [[Anime/Pokemon2000 Shamouti]] and [[Anime/Pokemon3 Greenfield]], Gary Oak resolves to reteach his Alakazam Teleport to avoid missing out on being able to help again, resulting in this trope. The full chain is thus: he needs to borrow Professor Oak's Dragonite, because a man in Geosenge City will give him a fossil for seeing a fully evolved Dragon-type. That fossil can be regenerated into an Anorith, which can be traded for a Liepard, that for a Swoobat, that for a Clefairy, and that for a Gyarados. Showing a Gyarados to Marie in Camphrier Town will get him a letter that he can give to Jacques in Parfum Palace, earning him a Farfetch'd, which he can trade for a Beartic, which he can trade for a Furfrou -- and a shiny one, at that. He can then eventually convince a stylist in Luminose City to give the Furfrou a stylish haircut, which he can show to the Gym Leader, Valerie, to get a Focus Sash, which he can trade in Anistar City for a Silk Sash, which he can give to a girl in Luminose for a Pokémon that can dance, which he can then show to someone in Courmarine City for a Heart Scale, which he can then give the Move Relearner to reteach Alakazam Teleport. Got all that? Now, listen to this: when he talks to Professor Oak to get the Dragonite, he learns that he could have borrowed Misty's Gyarados or Ash's Totodile (who can dance), and the professor not only knows someone who has a Clefairy, but has in his possession a Focus Sash, a Silk Sash, ''twenty'' Heart Scales, and a ''TM'' for Teleport. Gary is understandably frustrated, but since he went through the trouble of building the list, he borrows Dragonite and Gyarados, leaving him with an Anorith, a shiny Furfrou, and a Teleporting Alakazam.