History Main / ChainOfDeals

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

* An episode of ''Series/{{Zoey101}}'' titled "The Favor Chain" centers around this. Zoey wants a ride to the book store to meet her favorite author, and when she asks her dorm advisor, Coco, to do it, Coco agrees if Zoey can get Micheal to cook his grandmother's ravioli recipe. Micheal will do it if Stacey will finish their school project by herself while he cooks. Zoey convinces Stacey to finish the project if Zoey can get her a date with Logan. Logan (reluctantly) agrees to go on a date with Stacey if Zoey gets back his class ring he lost in a bet with Dustin. Dustin will give the ring back if Zoey convinces Lola to be his assistant in his magic show. Lola, who's looking after a teacher's baby, agrees to do it if Zoey can find someone else to look after the baby. Zoey gets Chase to do it if Zoey can get a group of comic book nerds to stop trying to befriend him. The nerds agree to leave Chase alone if they can have a computer software that Quinn invented. But when Quinn can't hold her end of the deal, the whole chain of favors falls apart.

** In the tale of "Mr Vinegar", the titular character's house is destroyed and he and his wife are left with nothing but the door. By chance, Mr Vinegar is able to recover forty guineas when he drives off a group of thieves by chance, but when he goes to market the next day, while he initially succeeds in buying a cow, he then trades the cow for bagpipes that he can't play, the bagpipes for gloves because his hands are cold, and then the gloves for a stick because he's tired. As Mr Vinegar returns to his wife, a parrot mocks him for making a series of bad deals, and when he tosses the stick at the bird he is forced to return with nothing, earning a serious beating from his wife.

** The legend is referenced and inverted in ''LightNovel/SaiunkokuMonogatari'', where a character starts off with money for dinner ingredients, but ends up going through a chain ending in a single piece of straw.

*** 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 ''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 ''Half-Genie Hero'', 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.

* 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. 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 Inator ruining the antique she was going to trade for it.]]

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Occurs in a couple of Creator/CarlBarks comics, in particular when WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's nephews are involved, who seem to be quite good at this. ''Maharajah Donald'' starts out as the nephews start with an old stub of a pencil, they end up with a holiday for them and Donald to India. In the end, Donald is captured and will be thrown into a tiger pit. The nephews find another old stub of a pencil, exclaiming they've found the thing that can save their uncle. Cut to "sometime later", when they trade something very valuable for a truckload of raw meat. They throw it over the wall of the tiger pit, feeding the tigers, thus making them not hungry anymore when Donald gets thrown in.

* The last four of the Friendly Monsters in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' would request the gem that a previous FM had rewarded to the player[[note]] Jabberwock gives a Moonstone which is requested by the Feather Circle, who yields a Lapis Lazuli sought after by the Garuda who in turn gives a Diamond for the Yan, ending the chain[[/note]]. However, these gems can still be obtained through other methods.

* The first ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'' storyline featured an increasingly absurd chain as main character Tip tried to deal with an increasingly bizarre string of escaped/lost sentient lab experiments. It proved to have some consequences, since he [[spoiler: ended up screwing up the whole chain of deals his boss was ''used'' to dealing with - which resulted in her having to find out if the new leadership down in the basement is amenable to talking with the folks upstairs.]] Lampshaded at several points during the whole chain.

* In the movie ''The Comrades of Summer'', the Russian baseball team needs a new backstop. One of the players steals the coaches Walkman and goes through a series of trades in this style. In the final trade he gets a new backstop and two new Walkmans.

* Creator/SchaffrillasProductions' BigDamnMovie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q8GLJyUYN4 Why Tamatoa is My Favorite Character Ever]] has a long string of this involving cameos from various [=YouTubers=]. [[spoiler:It ends up a CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot when William reveals he had the Mort plushie that WebVideo/IHateEverything was looking for.]]

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' has this, too. In fact, it's needed for one of Ryu's Dragon forms.

* The impracticality of this in large-scale societies is one of the major reasons (the others being transportability and storability -- if one item in the chain is a fifty-pound sack of grain, getting it to the next person in the chain could be difficult) for introducing currency,[[labelnote:*]]Or currency spontaneously arising in the form of a good accepted as such by custom, like precious metals or salt[[/labelnote]] as opposed to relying on barter for trade. With barter, you have to find someone who both has something you want and wants something you have in order to make a trade (for example, the shovel-maker may need a new pair of shoes, but the shoemaker doesn't need a shovel), while with currency you only have to do the former because you know almost everyone will want currency. And even if you do find the proper chain, this can also take a great deal of time -- a chain of deals with X people in it takes 2X-1 steps to perform (X-1 arrangements for future trades plus X trades), while just paying for something is a one step transaction. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' reviewer Website/SFDebris went into this topic at some length while reviewing a [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]] episode about a Chain of Deals. He pointed out that although the Federation claims to have eliminated money and the need for it, clearly people still have needs or desires that cannot be met except through exchange of goods and services, and that the absence of an accepted currency just makes the whole thing wastefully inefficient and even comical. He also points out an AccidentalAesop: Since Jake has never used money, he has no comprehension of its value, which is why he thoughtlessly badgers his best friend into trading away ''several years' worth of savings'' on a baseball card.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', one sidequest has both Shamir and Catherine asking for a two-toned whetstone. In order to obtain said whetstone, you'll need to pick up the tone of Crestological Mysteries and give it to Hanneman, who will give you the Tome of Comely Saints, which Manuela needs. Several exchanges later, you get the whetstone.

* As documented on [[http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ One Red Paperclip]], in the course of one year (July 2005 to July 2006) Kyle [=MacDonald=] negotiated a chain that started with a single red paperclip and ended up with a house -- in only ''fourteen'' trades! And now he's putting the house up for trade. Someone get this man the InfinityPlusOneSword. Incidentally, he borrowed the paperclip back. To bend into an engagement ring to propose to his wife. For the compressed summary of his deals, he traded the paperclip for a fish pen for a doorknob for a barbecue for a generator for an 'instant party' package for a snowmobile for a trip to Yahk for a cube van for a recording contract for a year in Phoenix for an afternoon with Alice Cooper for a Music/{{KISS}} snow globe for a movie role for a house.
** The KISS snow globe for a movie role only occurred because the director, Creator/CorbinBernsen, is a serious snow globe collector.

*** In the past, it starts right after Link shows Zelda's letter to the Kakariko guard protecting the entrance to Death Mountain. After the guard is convinced that Link is allowed by the Royal Family to go to the mountains, he asks him to bring a Keaton Mask to him as a present for his son. From there, Link has to receive a mask from the Happy Mask Shop in Market, sell it to someone and then give payment to the Mask Salesman so he can receive the following mask and repeat the process. After four successful sales, you'll receive the Mask of Truth, which allows you to receive hints from the Gossip Statues. You'll be able to access three other masks, too, but they're purely cosmetic.

** The one from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' doubles as ChekhovsBoomerang. In your first three days, you must get the Moon's Tear and give it to the Deku salesman in South Clock Town so you can use his flower to reach Clock Tower. You can do this again in the next 3-day cycles, but instead of using the flower, you can give the town flower deed to another Deku salesman at the swamp to get the swamp flower's deed. And then you can trade that for another deed on the mountains. And that one for another deed at the ocean. And finally, that one gets you a flower deed at Ikana Canyon. Each of the five flowers lets you grab a Piece of Heart to increase your health, and at the end of the chain, you also obtain 200 rupees from the last salesman.
** The ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle]]'' games have one each to get the Level-2 sword (or Level-3 sword if you already have the Level-2 sword in a linked game). Unlike ''Link's Awakening'', this quest is totally optional. It's also possible to avoid it entirely in ''Seasons''. In ''Ages'' the chain of deals is to get the broken sword so it can be repaired, but in ''Seasons'' the final deal gets you a phonograph that encourages a Deku scrub to tell you how to find the sword in TheLostWoods. Thus you can look the trick up on-line and avoid having to trade anything. Also in ''Ages'' you have to complete another (short) chain to acquire the two keys for the sixth dungeon on rolling ridge.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'', the resident trading sequence is a bit different, in that you're not only trading items but selling them as well, as the characters involved are merchants. Finishing it nets you a Piece of Heart, and completing at least part of it grants you the Magic Armor.

* ''VideoGame/SuikodenI'' has a classic example, where recruiting a particular member of the 108 Stars of Destiny requires you to run through a long chain in order to get soap for a washing-woman who's run out. When you actually succeed, it turns out that she'd just discovered that she wasn't out of soap after all, but in acknowledgement of the trouble you went through to get her soap, she joins you anyway.

* A short gag on ''Series/SportsNight''.

* Example from a forgotten story in a magazine: The protagonist was named Scipio (after the Roman general) and he lived in a small town. His goal for the story required him to trade things with different people in succession with the end result of allowing a collector to complete his prized set of Napoleonic silver plates if the collector did what Scipio wanted him to do. This story of Scipio trading things to accomplish something apparently a regular feature in this magazine.

* There is a children's story about a woman who wants her son to go to school on time. He refuses, so she tells a cane to beat the boy up. The cane doesn't want to, so she tells a fire to burn the cane. When the fire refuses, she orders a puddle of water to put out the fire, then orders a cow to drink the water when refuses too, tells a butcher to kill the cow, orders a rope to hang the butcher, tells a mouse to gnaw on the rope, and finally tells a cat to eat the mouse, which it agrees to in return for a saucer of milk, and in the end the boy goes off to school. One has to wonder what the moral of the tale is, given that the sociopathic main character callously attempts to orchestrate the deaths of several people, animals and curiously sentient objects just because they refuse to carry out her murderous intents.

* An episode of ''Westernanimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'' has Phil's island sunk once Poseidon is annoyed at [[WildTeenParty the loud Bacchanal being thrown there]]. Herc and Hermes go to Poseidon hoping he can restore the island before Phil comes back from a convention. Poseidon's condition is getting eye lotion from the monster Argus. Who wants a love arrow from Cupid. Who wants some water from the Pool of Forgetfulness to get one of Aphrodite's songs [[EarWorm out of his head]]. Pain and Panic can give the water in return for fireproof shorts, who Hermes knows that Hephaestus can forge as he owes him a favor. And Hephaestus is...giving a lecture at Phil's convention! Herc is found, and flies back with Phil as Hermes goes through the chain, and thankfully he ends just as Herc arrives, preventing him from finding sea instead of an island.

* The impracticality of this in large-scale societies is one of the major reasons (the others being transportability and storability - if one item in the chain is a fifty-pound sack of grain, getting it to the next person in the chain could be difficult) for introducing currency[[labelnote:*]]Or currency spontaneously arising in the form of a good accepted as such by custom, like precious metals or salt[[/labelnote]], as opposed to relying on barter for trade. With barter, you have to find someone who both has something you want and wants something you have in order to make a trade (for example, the shovel-maker may need a new pair of shoes, but the shoemaker doesn't need a shovel), while with currency you only have to do the former because you know almost everyone will want currency. And even if you do find the proper chain, this can also take a great deal of time - a chain of deals with X people in it takes 2X-1 steps to perform (X-1 arrangements for future trades plus X trades), while just paying for something is a one step transaction. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' reviewer Website/SFDebris went into this topic at some length while reviewing a [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]] episode about a Chain of Deals. He pointed out that although the Federation claims to have eliminated money and the need for it, clearly people still have needs or desires that cannot be met except through exchange of goods and services, and that the absence of an accepted currency just makes the whole thing wastefully inefficient and even comical. He also points out an AccidentalAesop: Since Jake has never used money, he has no comprehension of its value, which is why he thoughtlessly badgers his best friend into trading away ''several years' worth of savings'' on a baseball card.
* In the residential housing market, many sale contracts are conditional on the buyer's current home being sold. This means a situation can arise where the sale of a home is dependent on the sale of another home, which is dependent on the sale of another home, etc. making for a very long chain of held up contracts. When the last seller finds a buyer who is not tied to selling a current home, the entire chain of contracts goes through very quickly thereafter.

* Thanks in no small part to the {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s in Washington DC, some units the US Military often has to go through such a thing to just get supplies they need, but the bean counters won't let them have directly. This involves one unit contacting another about a part they need for a vehicle or other piece of equipment that broke down, and this ends up with the Quartermaster having to go through a long chain from one unit to another to get the part. On the plus side, this does give the logistians a lot of practice of moving equipment where it's needed. However, this means that units are sometimes illprepared for when they actually go into combat, and the casualties that result. If it weren't for chains like this, many more soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan could've been killed due to a lack body armor for the troops and armor kits for the vehicles.

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