Fake Treasure

''Once again, life has lied to you. Aren't you feeling a bit betrayed?''

The thing that initially seems very appealing until it's discovered to not be that good. Fake Treasure can appear in adventurous or familiar franchises and may or may not be actual treasure of some kind. It sometimes reeks of being an Overly-Great Thing that the audience knows isn't as worth the hunt as the protagonists perceive it to be. Its suspiciously alluring luster is the calling card of a product straight from 2Gud4U.net. Less obvious Fake Treasure requires digging into for its true nature to be revealed to both the cast and viewers. Once it is, the protagonists realize how the Fake Treasure wasn't what they were after, which fills them with disappointment. In the presence of the True Treasure, the starring characters come to acknowledge what secretly made it so valuable.

The form Fake Treasure takes can range between a trinket, location, person, experience, or permission. When this UnTrash is played, it's most often about an item somebody desires. Maybe it's a weapon with promises of great strength, or it might be an accessory said to boost its wearer's charisma. Old Dirty Lies have been spread about the Fake Treasure's place on the Epic Scale, suggesting it sits somewhere around Epic. The reality, as the Hero later learns, is that it's more at home on Whatever. The Fake Treasure's glory is only a fraction of what the Hero heard it was fabled to be. If the Hero had to go through Hell and back, the Total Ripoff they're rewarded with might be the Back-Breaking Straw that leads to a Kill Me Moment.