Wanting Is Better Than Having/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character doggedly pursues a goal, only to realize after achieving it that the pursuit was better than the result.

• Straight: After ten years of effort, Bob finally wins the glittery "Troper of the Year" award, only to be disappointed when he discovers the trophy is a cheap plastic toy.
• Exaggerated: After discovering the trophy is a cheap plastic toy, Bob goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Or, after Bob travels 500 miles for the award ceremony, he doesn't attend. The journey was its own reward.
• Justified: Bob has previously only seen the trophy in a faded photograph, and misidentified its make and quality.
• Inverted: Previous "Troper of the Year" trophies have been cheap plastic toys, but the year Bob wins happens to be when it gets upgraded to a massive gold-plated prize.
• Subverted: After discovering the trophy is actually a cheap plastic toy, Bob realizes how shallow his pursuit of material worth was, and grows as a person.
  • After discovering the trophy is a cheap plastic toy, Bob becomes ecstatic.
• Double Subverted: Bob's "emotional growth" was actually a facade and the first step of his mental breakdown.
• Parodied: ???
• Deconstructed: After discovering the trophy is actually a cheap plastic toy, Bob falls into a depressed funk when he thinks about all the time and effort he wasted trying to win it.
• Reconstructed: Alice proceeds to snap Bob out of the funk by informing him that even if the trophy's just a cheap plastic toy, he's also won the respect of many other tropers by winning it, and that that respect is worth more than any golden trophy.
• Zig Zagged: ???
• Averted: There is no "Troper of the Year" award or trophy.
• Enforced: Bob is the Butt Monkey in the show, and deflating his unrealistic expectations is a normal occurrence.
• Lampshaded: Alice comments to Bob that none of the awards she's won ever lived up to her expectations.
• Invoked: Alice, a previous award winner, deliberately overexaggerates the prize to give Bob unrealistic expectations.
• Defied: Alice warns Bob ahead of time that the "Troper of the Year" award is no big deal.
• Discussed: "Bob, your expectations for that award are so ridiculously high, you're bound to be disappointed when you finally win it."
• Conversed: "It's always fun watching Bob's expectations get deflated on this show."

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