Balking Summoned Spirit

"So we struck a deal. I gave him the power to make anything disappear, and he wastes it on chickens. I could have given him power, wealth, fame, but he wastes it, wastes me, on chickens!"

— Morganan, The Real Ghostbusters

Sometimes, people want something done that they cannot do for themselves. In fact, sometimes what they want done is something that no other human can do. To that end, they turn to the spirit world. Usually with Summon Magic.

Whether deliberately or accidentally, it is typically (though not necessarily) an evil, indeed diabolical spirit that comes to answer the call. When evil is coming to call, however, they may or may not be willing to offer a Deal with the Devil.

Demons, however, are typically not the sort to suffer fools gladly, and from their perspective, all humans are fools. No matter how great or small the request, the demon will balk at having to perform such a task, or indeed at having been summoned at all.

In some cases, this will result in them attacking the summoner. In other cases, they might fulfill the request, but only grudgingly, and often with the understanding of "Never call me again."

Evil entities rebelling against their summoners is a common case of Evil Is Not a Toy. Summon Binding might force the entity to do what the summoner wants, but it might not stop them from complaining about it — or from working against them in other ways. For example, such a being might seize on any ambiguity or slang in a request and act as a Literal Genie, delivering exactly what was asked for, but not necessarily what was desired.

Often overlaps with Servile Snarker. Overlaps with Frivolous Summoning and Inconvenient Summons. May overlap with Mundane Utility, if the spirit is balking at being asked to do something humorously minor.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ah! My Goddess:
  • Garm, a demonic wolf spirit, was not happy at having been summoned at all by a human medium but is positively outraged that he was not the spirit meant to be summoned, meaning he was disturbed for no reason at all. He attacks, and it takes the combined effort of Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld to banish him again.
  • Inverted by Peorth. Peorth is very surprised to discover that Keiichi did not intend to summon her from the Earth Relief Helpline, as Keiichi is a bit full up on goddesses at the moment. However, Peorth refuses to return to Heaven until Keiichi makes a wish from her, and she's fairly certain she knows what it is he wants. (As a clue she tells him to check a drawer in his desk). When Belldandy tells Keiichi she wants to eventually do those things with him, Keiichi says those words satisfy his wish, and it turns out it was a Batman Gambit by Heaven to accomplish just that.
• Blue Exorcist: While familiars tend to be loyal to the exorcist they are bound to, that loyalty can immediately vanish in the event that their master loses faith in themselves as shown when Izumo Kamiki summons her familiars while in emotional turmoil over her best friend dropping out only for her familiars to immediately turn against her out of anger for being summoned by somebody so weak in the mind. Once she manages to overcome her grievance, the next time she summons them almost has them immediately turn against her again until they realize she's regained her determination, upon which they go back to obeying her.
• Dropkick on My Devil: Effectively the premise of the series. Jashin-chan was summoned by Yurine with a ritual. However, Yurine didn't actually have a reason for summoning her and merely wanted to try the ritual out which agitates Jashin-chan. The only way Jashin-chan can leave is if Yurine dies as Yurine doesn't know how to dismiss her. Jashin's efforts to kill Yurine always end in failure.
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Denzel, a Holy Knight of Britannia, keeps one emergency ace in the hole as his personal Godzilla Threshold: a member of the Goddess Race resides in his sword; when backed into a corner, he intends to become its vessel at the cost of his own existence. Upon doing so when facing several powerful demons, the Goddess elects to flee in his body rather than face down the threat he gave his life to summon her to face.
• The Voynich Hotel: Snark was given three wishes by the devil Demona in exchange for her soul, two of which were spent prior to the start of the story. After killing a man who had confessed his love for her, and then realizing that she had feelings for him as well, she summons Demona and asks for him to be brought Back from the Dead as her last wish. Demona, however, becomes very agitated and balks at the request; the why isn't directly stated, but her reaction implies that it's either impossible or leads to very bad things if tried. Snark reluctantly accepts this...and asks to have her boobs made a lot bigger instead.

Comic Books

• Daredevil: During the "Guardian Devil" arc, someone is messing with Matt Murdock, telling him that a baby was the Messiah reborn, while others claim it is an Anti-Christ. Daredevil turns to Dr. Steven Strange for help, and Strange summons Mephisto to answer the question. Mephisto balks at having been summoned to "serve as a Sunday School Teacher", telling Strange to have his "friend" reread Scripture. Jesus would return as he left, a full-grown adult, not an infant. "How could he be so blind?"

Fan Works

• A Game of Cat and Cat: The first summoned demon we see, from the first chapter, has tons of objections to the tasks he's commanded to do.
  "Henceforth, let it be stated that the truth value of the first statement is equal in value to the statement Left-Parenthesis Left-Parenthesis True AND False Right-Parenthesis XOR Left-Parenthesis False AND False Right-Parenthesis Right-Parenthesis OR Left-Parenthesis Left-Parenthesis True OR False Right-Parenthesis AND Left-Parenthesis True XOR False Right Parenthesis Right Parenthesis STOP^note The result of this Boolean expression is True The truth va-"
  Kazuya raised his hands up in defeat. "All right, you win. I'm brute-forcing this. Can you perform the first item on the list?"
  "Yes."
  "Can you perform the second item on the list?"
  "Yes."
  "How many items can you not perform?"
  "The number of items that I cannot perform is equal to the second happy number."
  "…Can you perform the third item on the list?"
  This went on until Kazuya learned that he could not perform the fifth, seventh, eighth, twelfth, fifteenth, twenty-third, and twenty-seventh item on the list. "I assume you want your Magnetite now?" he said icily.

Films — Animated

• Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation: Z.E.R.O.: Father reawakens the ancient evil Grandfather in his latest plan to bring the Kids Next Door to his knees. He thanks his son for doing so... and then immediately casts him out knowing that he's only being summoned now because the villainous adults need a Godzilla Threshold. He then takes over his whole plan and nearly takes over the world.

Films — Live-Action

• Lords Of Magick: The heroes don't know where to go, so they summon a demon into a corpse to give them advice. The demon is insulted that he's been summoned for a quest so mundane as "saving a kidnapped princess."

Literature

• Harrow the Ninth: The spirit of the Knight Templar Silas Octakiseron quickly realizes that Harrow is subconsciously summoning him into her dreams with necromancy, reliving the events of Gideon the Ninth, and not only refuses to play along but jumps into the River to escape — possibly at the cost of his soul.
• Perdido Street Station: As a nest of slake-moths (insectoid Eldritch Abominations that eat minds) ravages New Crobuzon, Mayor Rudgutter attempts to make a deal with Hell for assistance, as sending regular living, thinking people against the moths would just be feeding them to their natural predator. However, the ambassador daemon he summons flatly refuses to help him, no matter what he offers. Rudgutter and his colleagues are left ruminating on the thought that slake-moths frighten even daemons from Hell.

Live-Action TV

• Supernatural: Death takes great offense to being summoned, bound, and used as a weapon by Lucifer, so he secretly gives the protagonists the tools they need to trap Lucifer in Hell.
  Death: I'm more powerful than you can process, and I'm enslaved to a bratty child having a tantrum.

Mythology & Religion

• The Bible: Zigzagged. While Samuel isn't a demon, his spirit certainly balks when King Saul has the Witch of Endor summon him from the grave to ask him to save him from God. Samuel, a prophet loyal to God, tells Saul that if he's lost the favor of God, there isn't a blessed thing that Samuel is going to be able to do about it.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Hutijin, ascended pit fiend and a powerful retainer to Mephistopheles, hates mortals, and especially hates being summoned away from his tasks and his master's court to fulfill whatever inane service they want him to do. As a result, he has worked hard to erase all knowledge of himself from mortal knowledge; if someone should summon him anyway, he just tortures them to death.
  • The planar ally spell line requests aid from an extradimensional entity but doesn't compel its obedience, so the entity is free to demand extra payment or outright refuse if the task conflicts with its nature.
  • Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: The spells conjure celestial and conjure fey summon a powerful magical creature that obeys the summoner by default, but refuses any instructions that conflict with its Character Alignmentinvoked.
• Fading Suns: A handful of nobles still participate in an underground ancestor worship with attached magical practice. A high-level practitioner may get to the point where they can summon a ghost of a great ancestral hero. The catch? It can mean a devoutly pious man who almost eradicated the practice from your house. Sure, he'll grudgingly lend you a hand since family is family, but you can expect a thorough scolding for taking part in this pagan nonsense.
• Pathfinder: Being Neutral Evilinvoked Omnicidal Maniacs, daemons despise being summoned and will take every opportunity to Eat the Summoner.
• Warhammer: As a rule, daemons intensely dislike being called from the Realm of Chaos to be made to serve a mortal's whims, and need to be somehow forced, bribed, or cajoled into going along with whatever the cult or mage that summoned them wants. One Lord of Change in Warhammer 40,000 hates being summoned so much that, if his name is so much as uttered, he will immediately manifest and murder everyone on the planet just to make sure that he doesn't get repeat incidents.

Video Games

• Baldur's Gate II: The Underdark questline culminates in your party accompanying a Drow priestess in summoning of a powerful demon. Your part in it was to deliver dragon eggs as part of a bargain with the demon. The priestess' daughter, who also participates, asks you to replace them with fakes and give the real eggs to her instead so that she could take over mommy dear's place once the offended demon kills her. Indeed, if you do it, the demon is pissed and kills her. But. You can give the daughter another set of fakes. At this point, the demon finds the entire business so ridiculous he leaves laughing. (After killing her too, of course.)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: In order to complete the "Conjuration Master" sidequest, the Dovahkiin is tasked with acquiring a sigil stone from the realm of Mehrunes Dagon. The only way to acquire the stone is to get one of Mehrunes' servants, the Dremora to steal it for you — and since the Dremora absolutely loathe being made to serve mortals, you have to kill the Dremora you summon and resummon it multiple times until it gives up and submits to your authority.
• Neverwinter Nights:
  • In the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, the Valsharess, a Drow empress, binds the Archdevil Mephistopheles to her service as a lackey. He despises being made to serve her and manipulates events so that he can free himself from her control via some Loophole Abuse, then usurps her position as the Big Bad of the module.
  • In one sidequest, you are given the option to summon a demon called Belial in order to have him give testimony during a trial. If you don't cast a "Protection from Evil" spell on yourself before completing the summoning ritual, he will attack you in response to being summoned.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Played With. Throughout the game, Mario finds four chests containing evil spirits that "curse" him with a new power without which he cannot proceed past the level. When the player reaches the fourth chest, the spirit is disheartened to learn that Mario is actively seeking to be cursed again and grumbles that the evil speech he had been working on is now useless.
• World of Warcraft: Most of the Warlock demons complain when you summon them and when you order them to attack. Imps are lazy and whine about the contents of their contracts, Voidwalkers beg you to unsummon them, and Felguards constantly threaten to kill you. The exceptions are Felhunters that can't talk, and Sayaads which just flirt with you.

Visual Novels

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: Played for Laughs. Mia is aghast when she learns that Maya had summoned her spirit in order to invoke Male Gaze from a witness that Phoenix was interrogating.
• Sucker for Love: When summoning Ln'eta, she's expecting you to use her to destroy reality. When you explain that you actually just want to kiss her, she freaks out and asks to be sent back, until she sees the survival guide in your hand and offers this smooch in return for doing everything she asks of you.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick:
  • One massive Pit Fiend is terribly embarrassed that Qarr, a lowly imp, can cash in a gambling debt to summon him up for help in a fight. Adding insult to injury, he gets hit with a crushing despair spell.
    Pit Fiend: What am I doing with my life?
  • In the prequel How the Paladin Got His Scar, The Paladin Gin-Jun requests aid from a celestial warrior who turns out to think very little of his Tautological Templar inclinations. She bluntly refuses his initial demand to kill a hobgoblin town, and later tells him his orders don't matter at all, since he's been expelled for gross misconduct.
    Celestial: Not slaughtering a bunch of mortals just because you asked. Try again.

Web Videos

• Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Shenron is frequently shown to get agitated by how often he is summoned by the Z-Fighters for wishes that don't exactly solve the issue they are currently having to the point that he outright questions why somebody else can't find the dragon balls. Whenever he attempts to reason with them by Stating the Simple Solution, they insist on the wish they had in mind. Notably, when somebody else does summon him, he is not nearly as agitated as it means something different. Kochin being the exception due to how absurd his wish is to the point that Shenron would rather be summoned by the Z-Fighters. After Dende becomes guardian though, he seems to have mellowed out.

Western Animation

• Aladdin: The Series: In "Strike Up the Sand", Sadira summons a sand demon to try and get Jasmine out of the way so she can have Aladdin to herself. While the demon initially goes along with her orders, Sadira's lack of a plan and general indecision ultimately annoys it enough that it swallows the amulet used to summon it and decides to smash everyone around it, including Sadira.
• Dragon Age: Absolution: Magister Rezaren Ammosine summons a wisdom spirit to ask about a magical artifact named the "Circulum Infinitus." The spirit says that if the person who seeks the artifact acquires it, all of Tevinter will burn. When Rezaren asks the spirit who that is, it refuses to answer, prompting him to attempt to coerce it into telling him; this causes it to transform into a pride demon and attack Rezaren and his bodyguard, Tassia.
• Justice League Action: Etrigan will frequently call on the spirit of Merlin to aid him in his work. Merlin acts like he's been horribly inconvenienced each and every time, and usually performs the task and departs with a "Trouble me no more."
• Miraculous Ladybug: In the Season 5 finale, Monarch manages to summon Gimmi, the Kwami of Reality. She immediately gripes about being summoned, noting that mortals always want something from her and it's always something big.
• The Real Ghostbusters: "Chicken, He Clucked" has a man named Cubby calling on a demon named Morganan, and demands Morganan get rid of all the chickens in the world (Cubby lives over a Chicken restaurant and is tormented by the smell). Morganan is embarrassed by the request and tries to talk Cubby into quite a few other ideas, but Cubby is firm. He wants to get rid of the chickens. Morganan offers to give him power to make things appear and disappear at will. Morganan ends up enlisting the help of the Ghostbusters after word of the deal spreads through the underworld and ruins Morganan's reputation.
• Young Justice (2010): In "Rescue and Search", Zatanna summons Klarion to try to force him to release Connor from the Phantom Zone. This immediately backfires as he disregards their request and attempts to kill them for daring to summon him. Zatanna then casts another spell, magically demanding Klarion honor his debt to her for helping him earlier in the season — which he reluctantly complies with by leaving without killing them.
  Klarion: Ugh, do I haaave to?

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