History Main / SchmuckBanquet

* The Korean folk tale "The Pheasant and the Gong": a woodcutter on a long journey gets lost in the forest. Tired and hungry, he stumbles upon a mansion, whose only occupant [[SchmuckBait is a beautiful, charming, helpful young woman]]. It turns out she is the spirit of a [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent snake]] he'd killed earlier in the story who now wants revenge for having killed her.

Time and again while wandering deep through {{Mordor}}, the heroes come upon a strangely well appointed city/mansion/hotel/derelict/etcetera with nobody there. They will often discover [[FoodChains an elaborate banquet laid out on a table]], [[FanService saunas to bathe in]], clothing to dress in, and rooms to sleep in. [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight Without any curiosity as to what it is and who owns it]] or the slightest hesitation, our heroes will then stay the night there like the original {{Goldilocks}} (while it often does turn out to be a booby trap set by the villain, if it isn't, the heroes will [[ApathyKilledTheCat leave the next day and think absolutely nothing of it]]).

Not to be confused with the quite similar LotusEaterMachine. Has nothing to do with EatMe. (Or ''[[AliceInWonderland "Drink Me"]]'', which is a separate trope) and no specific requirement to involve food or eating at all, title aside; compare SchmuckBait.

* The original "{{Goldilocks}}" tale is an UnbuiltTrope, since [[ContinuitySnarl versions differ]] as to Goldilocks' motivations, although [[{{Grimmification}} it didn't end well]] in most versions. While the food wasn't specifically put out for passing humans, the bears were quite distressed when they returned home to find her testing out beds in the house.

* Persephone in Greek mythology. Kidnapped by Hades, she eats a few pomegranate seeds and bam -- we've got winter. She has to stay down there for a few months every year and her mother angsts.

* One ''DungeonsAndDragons''-based ChooseYourOwnAdventure novel features a table filled with self-serving food in an otherwise abandoned castle. [[spoiler: It's a trap, HaveANiceDeath!]]
* RoberEHoward's ''Literature/XuthalOfTheDusk'' starts off like this, after ConanTheBarbarian and his GirlOfTheWeek are attacked by what seems to be a dead man. Natala fears this trope when she sees a meal laid out. Conan tells her she's a fool since they are starving, but once he has eaten it does occur to him that it could be poisoned.

* Happens in III, iii of ''TheTempest''. Prospero's magic lays out a beautiful banquet, which the shipwrecked King and attendants find, then when they try to eat, Ariel shows up as a giant harpy and scares the crap out of them. This is most likely based on King Phineas' banquet in ''[[GreekMythology The Argonautica]]''.

* At least two old ''DungeonsAndDragons'' modules had inviting feasts laid out: ''I6 {{Ravenloft}}'' and ''X2 Castle Amber''. The ''Ravenloft'' meal was perfectly safe, but the ''Castle Amber'' one was dangerous: some items were beneficial, some baneful and some had mixed effects. The rub was that the courses were served in order by ghostly servants and the effects only became apparent after each player had decided whether or not their character would eat the particular course, it had been consumed by the brave/foolish adventurers or spurned by the wise/cowardly characters, and the dishes taken away to prepare for the next course!\\

* CSLewis subverts this in ''TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', with a banquet that appears to have put several people to sleep for ''years''. Despite ''seeing the victims'' still sitting at the table, some of the crew are tempted to dig in, though the more GenreSavvy among them shoot that idea down. Later it turns out that the banquet is perfectly all right -- the victims fell asleep because during a heated argument, one of them grabbed the stone knife the White Witch used to kill Aslan, and they all dropped asleep as soon as he touched it.

* In '''Literature/WarriorCats'', the cats try to invoke this: they leave out some freshly-killed prey stuffed with highly poisonous berries in the hope that the local mountain lion will eat it and die of the poison. It doesn't work; he merely swipes it aside and continues into the cave to attack the cats.

* ''ConanTheBarbarian''
** ''Xuthal of the Dusk'' starts off like this, after Conan and his GirlOfTheWeek are attacked by what seems to be a dead man.
** One story has Conan and his companion finding a feast after traveling for a long time without supplies. Conan's companion protests that the feast is probably poisoned, while Conan says if that's the case, he'd rather die from poison than starvation and digs in.
* In ''The Slithering Shadow'', Natala fears this trope when she sees a meal laid out. Conan tells her she's a fool since they are starving, but once he has eaten it does occur to him that it could be poisoned.

* Averted in ''InuYasha'', the Kitsune Inn is marked with a sign, so anyone entering understands that it is the annual kitsune magic test, and outsiders are going to be test subjects for kitsune illusions. Kagome proves to be very hard to ruffle, but consider what she's been through, besides traveling with Shippo for months.
* In ''{{Gintama}}'', an alien sets a trap for Gintoki, Kagura and Shinpachi of a sumptuous banquet, then drops a cage on them to lock them in. Shinpachi, ever the straight man, provides the requisite banter with the villain while Gintoki and Kagura chow down.

* ''PrincessTutu'' references ''HanselAndGretel'' in the third episode, when Mytho and Ahiru stumble upon a restaurant in a wooded area and are immediately ushered in by a woman and fed huge amount of (chillingly cold) dishes, even though they were only looking for some water. Ahiru [[GenreSavvy immediately recognizes the similarities to Hansel and Gretel]] and tells Mytho the fairytale to try to subtly warn him, but he completely misses the point. [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out the woman wasn't fattening them up to eat, but was actually possessed by Mytho's heartshard of Loneliness and desperate to keep people in her restaurant, which had fallen on hard times after her husband's death.]]

* ''HanselAndGretel'': A classic example is the fairytale, in which two children lost in the woods stumble upon a [[GingerbreadHouse house made of gingerbread]] and begin to eat on it. It belongs to a witch that eats children. Oops.
* The original ''{{Goldilocks}}'' tale is an UnbuiltTrope, since [[ContinuitySnarl versions differ]] as to Goldilocks' motivations, although [[{{Grimmification}} it didn't end well]] in most versions. While the food wasn't specifically put out for passing humans, the bears were quite distressed when they returned home to find her testing out beds in the house.
* The Korean folk tale ''The Pheasant and the Gong'': a woodcutter on a long journey gets lost in the forest. Tired and hungry, he stumbles upon a mansion, whose only occupant [[SchmuckBait is a beautiful, charming, helpful young woman]]. It turns out she is the spirit of a [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent snake]] he'd killed earlier in the story who now wants revenge for having killed her.
* In the novelization of the ballad ''Thomas the Rhymer'' the Fairy Queen makes a point of only serving Thomas food made in human world, always specifying where it's from, since she intends to release him after several years of service, and if he ate the native food of the Fairyland he would be stuck there for good, and even she would have no power to help him.
* [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/index.html Beauty's Father]] stumbles into one of these when he takes shelter in the Beast's castle. In the original fairy tale it wasn't accepting the offered hospitality that caused the problem, though -- it was picking a rose as he left in the morning.

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

* ''{{Digimon}}'' features many examples, like an abandoned mansion in the middle of a dark forest in episode 8, and a cruise ship plowing through the middle of a desert in episode 17. Needless to say, both were traps.
** The kids also found a refrigerator filled to the brim with eggs. This trope ''can'' be subverted. But the real reason that they didn't question the fridge, the boat, or the mansion was because they had long since established that they are ''not'' [[Film/TheWizardOfOz in Kansas anymore]].
** For example, they found the random refrigerator full of perfectly safe and delicious eggs ''long'' before falling into any of the traps.

** Very similar is an episode of DragonballZ wherein Goku finds a hot spring halfway across Snake Way, which proves to be illusory; it's really a giant snake's gullet.
* Happens near the start of ''SpiritedAway'', with tragic results.
** Which is kind of not fair. It certainly looked like a restaurant (and it was, just not for humans, which they couldn't have been expected to guess) and as the father pointed out, he had cash and credit cards on hand. It definitely wasn't perfectly kosher, they could have been setting up for a private party for example, but its hardly as bad as many of the examples here.
* Used a great many times in ''{{Negima}}'', as well as Akamatsu's earlier ''LoveHina''. The gang, unless undergoing TrainingFromHell, will almost certainly encounter conveniences while trapped for an extended period of time in some deserted island or underground cavern or magically-sealed area.
** Its generally quite obvious which [[AWizardDidIt wizard]] did it once that particular arc is over, however.
* ''Anime/TheTowerOfDruaga'' has one of these in the form of a mansion that gives the visitors cherished things they have lost in the past, from childhood toys to bringing back their lost {{Nakama}} from the dead. The goal being to trap the heroes in the illusion so they do not continue on with their quest.
** Unlike most examples the "inhabitants" admit it isn't real.
** As a matter of fact, at least one of the illusionary dead people prove enormously helpful.

* Wasn't a trap, but in {{Dragonball}}, Goku finds a huge fish roasting over a fire and eats it, completely oblivious to the idea that it could belong to someone. Yajirobe returns, [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out on his stupidity and rudeness]], then attacks him.
* In ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'', the [[{{Kimodameshi}} Cave of Lost Love]] is filled with ghosts, ghouls, apparitions and aberrations bent on splitting apart happy couples. But it just so happens that, halfway through the cave, there's a huge, luxurious and beautiful bath for the women to relax and soothe their anxieties in. And it's perfectly safe, too: they come out feeling wonderful while they wait for their boyfriends to come out of the ''men's'' bathroom... the trick being that this one is a hellish pit (literally; it's a giant iron pot on a big-ass fire in a dank cavern) that makes them ''resent'' their lucky girlfriends.
** The reason this is a trap is because, beforehand, they had to cross a long, cold river in rickety boats. They were told to get in one boat per couple, but the boats were sabotaged to only be able to carry one; invariably, either one of them got pushed out of the boat or they both sank and swam for it.
** There is also the huge sumptuous banquet at the Amazon village that the starving Ranma and Genma tuck into. Turns out it is a prize for the best fighter in the village and the pair are in a lot of trouble.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''[[PansLabyrinth Pan's Labyrinth]]'', Ophelia comes across a banquet table, with the catch that eating anything will awaken the nearby [[EyesDoNotBelongThere monster]]. She had been warned not to touch any of the food, but she just can't resist grabbing the [[IdiotBall Idiot Grape]].

[[AC:Folk Tales]]
* A classic example is the fairytale ''HanselAndGretel'', in which two children lost in the woods stumble upon a [[GingerbreadHouse house made of gingerbread]] and begin to eat on it. It belongs to a witch that eats children. Oops.

* Any dinner table set by TheFairFolk is canonically this. [[FoodChains If you eat Fairy Food]], you're gonna be stuck there for a long time.
** Indeed, in the novelization of the ballad ''Thomas the Rhymer'' the Fairy Queen makes a point of only serving Thomas food made in human world, always specifying where it's from, since she intends to release him after several years of service, and if he ate the native food of the Fairyland he would be stuck there for good, and even she would have no power to help him.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* One D&D-based ChooseYourOwnAdventure novel features a table filled with self-serving food in an otherwise abandoned castle. [[spoiler: It's a trap, HaveANiceDeath!]]
* The ConanTheBarbarian story ''Xuthal of the Dusk'' starts off like this, after Conan and his GirlOfTheWeek are attacked by what seems to be a dead man.

* A disturbing example in ''TheDarkTower'' where Susannah's demon counterpart (it's a long story) wakes up in an abandoned castle on the edge of the mountains between [[{{Mordor}} Thunderclap]] and [[{{EldritchLocation}} End-World]], and encounters a lavish banquet table in an otherwise deserted castle full of rumbling machinery and torture chambers. The food is ''not'' what it looks like in her dream.
* In RobertEHoward's "The Slithering Shadow", Natala fears this trope when she sees a meal laid out. ConanTheBarbarian tells her she's a fool since they are starving, but once he has eaten it does occur to him that it could be poisoned. Then, they could die of thirst and hunger, too.

[[AC:Theatre]]
* Happens in III, iii of ''TheTempest''. Prospero's magic lays out a beautiful banquet, which the shipwrecked King and attendants find, then when they try to eat, Ariel shows up as a giant harpy and scares the crap out of them.
** This is, of course, most likely based on King Phineas' banquet in ''[[GreekMythology The Argonautica]]''.

[[AC:Traditional Games]]
* At least two old ''DungeonsAndDragons'' modules had inviting feasts laid out: ''I6 {{Ravenloft}}'' and ''X2 Castle Amber''. The ''Ravenloft'' meal was perfectly safe, but the ''Castle Amber'' one was dangerous: some items were beneficial, some baneful and some had mixed effects. The rub was that the courses were served in order by ghostly servants and the effects only became apparent after each player had decided whether or not their character would eat the particular course, it had been consumed by the brave/foolish adventurers or spurned by the wise/cowardly characters, and the dishes taken away to prepare for the next course!
** The feast in Castle Ravenloft is specifically set out for adventurers. Strahd von Zarovich doesn't want his "guests" to [[EvenEvilHasStandards die on an empty stomach]].

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* The [[AfterlifeExpress phantom train]] with EverythingTryingToKillYou in ''FinalFantasyVI'' has a dining car. Don't listen to that whiner Cyan, eat up, it's good for you!

* Tenpenny Tower from ''{{Fallout}} 3'' is somewhat like this, and turns into a textbook example if the player decides to [[ZombieApocalypse cry havoc and unleash the Ghouls of war]].

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* [[Film/BeautyAndTheBeast The Beast]]'s palace, especially for Belle's father.
----

** [[JustifiedTrope Possibly justified]] [[IdiotBall Idiot Grape]] in that Ophelia is a ''child'' and the previous scene has her being sent to bed without supper. This movie is a bit slippery with establishing time passage, it's possibly been a ''couple days'' since she's eaten. Certainly wouldn't be an out of character punishment from her [[CompleteMonster stepfather]].

* Persephone in Greek mythology. Kidnapped (well, it depends who you ask. . .) by Hades, she eats a few pomegranate seeds and bam -- we've got winter. She has to stay down there for a few months every year and her mother angsts.

** Subverted in that it really is good for you. It's the only way to restore your HP/MP/status without resorting to a SavePoint, and there's no trap attached, either!
*** Not ''everything'' was trying to kill you anyways; about a third of the local ghosts just wanted to help you out or [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts sell you stuff]]. [[FanWank Maybe Sabin was the one who was being]] GenreSavvy [[FanWank here]].

** While this was still an element in it, the [[BeautyAndTheBeast original tale]] made it pretty clear that the feast and bed prepared for Belle's father was perfectly safe and a sign of hospitality. The Beast only gets angry when the father then goes and steals a rose from the garden, which is seen as abuse of hospitality.

* The feast in Castle Ravenloft is specifically set out for adventurers. Strahd von Zarovich doesn't want his "guests" to [[EvenEvilHasStandards die on an empty stomach]].

* As ''[[ChangelingTheLost Changeling: the Lost]]'' is about fairy tales from Hell, you'd imagine there'd be a few places in [[TheLostWoods the Hedge]] that take advantage of this. One such place is a sumptuous underground manse, accessible only by ladder, filled with beautiful decor and giant marionette handservants that offer you the finest refreshments. And then you try to leave, and find that the ladder's disappeared, and the walls up are covered with an extremely slippery substance. And if you stay in that manse, you'll slowly ''become'' one of those genderless automatons, dedicated only to pleasing your "guests."

* ''TheTowerOfDruaga'' has one of these in the form of a mansion that gives the visitors cherished things they have lost in the past, from childhood toys to bringing back their lost {{Nakama}} from the dead. The goal being to trap the heroes in the illusion so they do not continue on with their quest.

** The kids also found a refrigerator filled to the brim with eggs. This trope ''can'' be subverted. But the real reason that they didn't question the fridge, the boat, or the mansion was because they had long since established that they are ''not'' [[WizardOfOz in Kansas anymore.]]

* The [[SoulTrain phantom train]] with EverythingTryingToKillYou in ''FinalFantasyVI'' has a dining car. Don't listen to that whiner Cyan, eat up, it's good for you!

[[caption-width-right:327:A blood red banquet in the lair of a child-eating monster, who sits immobile at the end of the table? [[TooDumbToLive Maybe just a quick bite.]]]]

* The original ''{{Goldilocks}}'' tale is a bit of an UnbuiltTrope, since [[ContinuitySnarl versions differ]] as to Goldilocks' motivations, although [[{{Grimmification}} it didn't end well]] in many versions of the tale. While the food wasn't specifically put out for passing humans, the bears were quite distressed when they returned home to find her testing out beds in the house.
* ''PrincessTutu'' references ''HanselAndGretel'' in the third episode, when Mytho and Ahiru stumble upon a restaurant in a wooded area and are immediately ushered in by a woman and fed huge amount of (chillingly cold) dishes, even though they were only looking for some water. Ahiru [[GenreSavvy immediately recognizes the similarities to Hansel and Gretel]] and tells Mytho the fairytale to try to subtly warn him, but he completely misses the point. [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out the woman wasn't fattening them up to eat, but was actually possessed by Mytho's heartshard of Loneliness and desperate to keep people in her restaurant, which had fallen on hard times after her husband's death.]]

* The original ''{{Goldilocks}}'' tale is a bit of an UnbuiltTrope, since [[ContinuitySnarl versions differ]] as to Goldilocks' motivations, although [[{{Grimmification}} it didn't end well]] in some versions. While the food wasn't specifically put out for passing humans, the bears were quite distressed when they returned home to find her testing out beds in the house.

* The original ''{{Goldilocks}}'' tale is a bit of an UnbuiltTrope, since many versions differ as to Goldilocks' motivations and the outcome, although [[{{Grimmification}} it didn't end well]] in a lot of versions. While the food wasn't specifically put out for passing humans, the bears were quite distressed when they returned home to find her testing out beds in the house.

** ''PrincessTutu'' references ''HanselAndGretel'' in the third episode, when Mytho and Ahiru stumble upon a restaurant in a wooded area and are immediately ushered in by a woman and fed huge amount of (chillingly cold) dishes, even though they were only looking for some water. Ahiru [[GenreSavvy immediately recognizes the similarities to Hansel and Gretel]] and tells Mytho the fairytale to try to subtly warn him, but he completely misses the point. [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out the woman wasn't fattening them up to eat, but was actually possessed by Mytho's heartshard of Loneliness and desperate to keep people in her restaurant, which had fallen on hard times after her husband's death.]]

* Any dinner table set by TheFairFolk is canonically this. If you eat Fairy Food, you're gonna be stuck there for a long time.

* The original ''{{Goldilocks}}'' tale is a bit of an UnbuiltTrope, since interpretations differ as to Goldilocks' motivations and the outcome, although [[{{Grimmification}} it didn't end well]] in a lot of versions. While the food wasn't specifically put out for passing humans, the bears were quite distressed when they returned home to find her testing out beds in the house.

See also FoodChains, EldritchLocation, ExploringTheEvilLair, NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine. If the hero tarries a ''really'' long time, compare YearOutsideHourInside. If the actual owner is on [[color:grey:his]] ''[[EverythingsWorseWithBears its]]'' way home, compare CuriosityKilledTheCast.

See also FoodChains, EldritchLocation, ExploringTheEvilLair, NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine. If the hero tarries a ''really'' long time, compare YearOutsideHourInside. If the actual owner is on [[strike:his]] ''[[EverythingsWorseWithBears its]]'' way home, compare CuriosityKilledTheCast.

* CSLewis subverts this in ''TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', with a banquet that appears to have put several people to sleep for ''years''. Despite ''seeing the victims'' still sitting at the table, some of the Heroes are tempted to dig in. Later it turns out that the banquet is perfectly all right -- the victims fell asleep because one of them grabbed a cursed stone knife that had once belonged to the White Witch, and they all dropped asleep as soon as he touched it.

Not to be confused with the quite similar LotusEaterMachine. Has nothing to do with EatMe. (Or ''[[AliceInWonderland "Drink Me"]]'', which is a separate trope); compare SchmuckBait.