A Light in the Distance: Difference between revisions

 

Can easily overlap with [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]. See also [[Survivalist Stash]] for a similar place of hope and danger.

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In an episode of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Edward remarks that their mother would light a lantern to help guide her sons home after dark. This idea is repeated at the end of the episode when Winry shines a lantern off of the balcony of her house, symbolizing that the boys do indeed have a home there.

*** It's implied however that these are not real spirits of the dead, but evil spirits summoned by Sauron to guard this border of his realm, luring travellers to their doom. The undead in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' generally seem to have nothing to do with the actual people who died, with the exception of the ghosts of Dunharg.

* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'': Upon first entering Narnia, Lucy sees a light in the distance, which she finds to be a gas lamp post. In the middle of a forest. It is at tis lamppost that Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus. Its presence is explained in ''The Magician's Nephew''.

* In the second Bahzell novel the titular hero and his companions are stuck out in a huge storm not far from shelter, but it's so bad that they have no idea where to go. However Wencit of Rum arrives to save them, and Bahzell, cynical [[Deadpan Snarker]] that he is cracks wise about the timely arrival.

* At one point in ''[[Jules Verne|The Mysterious Island]]'', the castaways have built a small ship and some of them sail to another island some two hundred miles away. On the way back, a squall blows them off course, but then they see a powerful light (visible at twenty miles) on the shore of their island that guides them home. They're rather disconcerted to learn, later, that their friends on the island '''didn't''' make that light. At least, not any friends they '''knew'''....

* Not a light, but close, in Mann's ''The Magic Mountain'', the protagonist Hans Castorp has gotten lost skiing during a storm. He spots a distant house off in the snow, heads to it hoping to find people and warmth, only to discover it's just an old storage shed he'd noticed earlier that morning.

 

* In the season one finale of ''[[Lost]]'', Sawyer, Jin, Michael, and his son Walt have successfully escaped the island on a raft. Night falls, and they receive a signal on the radar emitter [[Mr. Fixit|Sayid]] salvaged for them. They send up a flare, and are rewarded with the sudden beam of a fishing boat's floodlight. {{spoiler|Things start to go downhill when the captain of the boat tells Michael, "The thing is, we're going to have to take the boy."}}

* In ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'', when Arthur was lost in a dark cave, trying to find a flower that would cure Merlin, Merlin sent a light to help him on his way.

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:A Light in the Distance]]