History Main / WantingIsBetterThanHaving

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'': In "Tender Engines", Henry is jealous of a visiting engine with two tenders (the two that No. 4472 Flying Scotsman carried while on tour in the '60s). Duck and Donald overhear and [[LiteralGenie tell Henry they have six tenders for him to take]]. [[HumiliationConga Once everyone has gathered to see him, Henry finds out the tenders are all old, grimy, and sludge-filled]].

* Music/MeatLoaf: "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights" is about a teenager who is so desperate to have sex with his girlfriend that he vows to love her until the end of time. The end of the song reveals that, years later, he's desperately praying for the end of time because he can't stand her any more but doesn't want to break his promise. He's left wondering what he could have achieved with his lives if he hadn't ended up stuck with her.

* Music/MeatLoaf: "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights" is about a pair of teenagers who promise to love each other until the end of time just before having sex for the first time. The end of the song reveals that, years later, they're desperately praying for the end of time because they can't stand each other any more, but don't want to break their promise. They're left wondering what they could have achieved with their lives if they hadn't ended up stuck with each other.

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

** Mayuri his 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 ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Jasper risks his life multiple times to get Agnes out of Deadland, only for them to realize [[spoiler:that the Living World was worse to them than Deadland]].

--> '''Cinderella's Prince:''' I shall always love the maiden who ran away.
--> '''Cinderella:''' And I, the faraway prince.
* There is a sequence in ''Theatre/InheritTheWind'' wherein defense attorney Henry Drummond discusses the difference between having and wanting, and how the former rarely lives up to the latter. The story is an event from Drummond's childhood, in which as a young boy he asked his parents for an expensive, finely painted hobby-horse he saw in a shop window. His parents, poor farmers barely able to make ends meet, scratched and saved for an entire year to get him the rocking horse... only to see it fall apart from dry rot the first time the boy tried to ride it. Drummond tells the story cheerfully, and points out that its important to preserve your dreams, but its clear that experiencing this trope was Drummond's first step on the road of skeptical cynicism.

* In ''WebVideo/TheDomReviews'' the Dom 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.

* Creator/JamesBranchCabell's novels are full of this trope, but the eponymous protagonist of ''Jurgen'' learns it so hard that he walks up to his true love's bed, lifts the cover, and leaves her sleeping. He is, after all, a Monstrous Clever Fellow.

** This is averted when the Crusades finally earn their cutie marks in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark." They end up sharing the same special talent, which is helping other ponies discover their true talents. They embrace this wholeheartedly, and decide to continue on being Cutie Mark Crusaders.

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

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

Wanting Is Better Than Having is one of the StockAesops, which teaches that one's desire and anticipation for something is often better than the actual result. After all, desires and expectations are infinitely boundless, whereas the reality is limited by various flaws and limitations -- which were overlooked during the daydreaming in expectation.

Usually appears in fictional works after a character has been wildly pursuing something. When he or she eventually gets the object of their desire, it seems it fails to live up to the unrealistic demands they've built up in their mind.

* Shows up in one of the (non-canon) arcade mode endings in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'': When series regular and unrepentant sadistic thug Kano [[TimeMaster gains control of the Hourglass of Time]] he initially creates a timeline where he gets everything he wants. He quickly becomes bored and realises that it is was working to obtain things that he actually enjoys rather than the possessions themselves and reboots the timeline to one where he ''mostly'' gets what he wants but not always so he will always have something to strive for.

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* The moral of [[https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2021/01/24 this]] ''ComicStrip/PhoebeAndHerUnicorn'' strip.
-->'''Marigold:''' And often, the anticipation of a thing is much sweeter than having the thing itself. The sweetest carrot is the one that is just out of reach.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'': In "Tender Engines", Henry is jealous of a visiting engine with two tenders (the two that No. 4472 Flying Scotsman carried while on tour in the '60s). Duck and Donald overhear and [[LiteralGenie tell Henry they have six tenders for him to take]]. [[HumiliationConga Once everyone has gathered to see him, Henry finds out the tenders are all old, grimy, and sludge-filled]].

* Shows up in one of the (non-canon) arcade mode endings in VideoGame/MortalKombat11: When series regular and unrepentant sadistic thug Kano [[TimeMaster gains control of the Hourglass of Time]] he initially creates a timeline where he gets everything he wants. He quickly becomes bored and realises that it is was working to obtain things that he actually enjoys rather than the possessions themselves and reboots the timeline to one where he ''mostly'' gets what he wants but not always so he will always have something to strive for.

* 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 and finds out that he can have anything he wants so he [[spoiler: thinks he's in {{Heaven}} but he's actually in {{Hell}}]].

A WishFulfillment trope and a milder, non-magical form of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor. Also see AllThatGlitters. May overlap with LonelyAtTheTop, VengeanceFeelsEmpty, AndThenWhat and VictoryIsBoring.

* In ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', Charlie has been [[StalkerWithACrush aggressively pursuing]] the Waitress throughout the first twelve seasons. [[spoiler:When they sleep together at the end of season 12, Charlie realizes it's not everything he had hoped for and goes to Dee's apartment to get away from the waitress.]]

* 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 that convinced him to become a superhero.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' this is a defining trait of Prince Charming (ex-husband to Literature/SnowWhite, Literature/SleepingBeauty and Literature/{{Cinderella}}); he can genuinely love a woman while courting her, but can't actually ''maintain'' a relationship (best exemplified with [[Literature/SleepingBeauty his second wife]]; he woke her with "true love's kiss" and married her, but before long he cheated on her and they divorced fairly quickly). While he seems to have learned his lesson with long-term relationships (he doesn't even attempt them any more, and keeps his dalliances short) this trope rears its head again when he becomes Fabletown's mayor; he is able to charm the electorate into a landslide without much difficulty, but gets hit ''hard'' with TheChainsOfCommanding, piles of paperwork and unfulfillable election promises and he bitterly regrets his decision to run for office.

* ''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 gave his life meaning.

* Shows up in one of the (non-canon) arcade mode endings in VideoGame/MortalKombat11: When series regular and unrepentant sadistic thug Kano gains control of the Hourglass of Time he initially creates a timeline where he gets everything he wants. He quickly becomes bored and realises that it is was working to aqquire things that he actually likes and reboots the timeline to one where he ''mostly'' gets what he wants but not always so he will always have something to strive for.

* Shows up in one of the (non-canon) arcade mode endings in VideoGame/MortalKombat11: When series regular and unrepentant sadistic thug Kano gains control of the Hourglass of Time he initially creates a timeline where he gets everything he wants. He quickly becomes bored a realises that is was working to aquire things that he actually likes and reboots the timeline to one where he ''mostly'' gets what he wants but not always so he will always have something to strive for.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' this is a defining trait of Prince Charming (ex-husband to Literature/{{Snow White|AndTheSevenDwarfs}}, Literature/SleepingBeauty and Literature/{{Cinderella}}); he can genuinely love a woman while courting her, but can't actually ''maintain'' a relationship (best exemplified with [[Literature/SleepingBeauty his second wife]]; he woke her with "true love's kiss" and married her, but before long he cheated on her and they divorced fairly quickly). While he seems to have learned his lesson with long-term relationships (he doesn't even attempt them any more, and keeps his dalliances short) this trope rears its head again when he becomes Fabletown's mayor; he is able to charm the electorate into a landslide without much difficulty, but gets hit ''hard'' with TheChainsOfCommanding, piles of paperwork and unfulfillable election promises and he bitterly regrets his decision to run for office.

* 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 to say it better than having them do it.