Dedication

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Oh The Driller Killer, you Video Nasty you!

For Jane, Charlotte, Georgette and Dorothy -- Long may they rule.

—Lois McMaster Bujold, dedication at the beginning of A Civil Campaign

When a writer or show writer want to thank someone in particular, they can dedicate their work to them. Very frequent in Literature, where it's a tradition; literary dedications usually appear at the beginning of the work.

A specific subtrope is In Memoriam, where a movie or television episode is dedicated to someone connected to the show who recently died, usually in a notice at the end of the show.

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Examples of Dedication include:

Film

  • Disney's Beauty and the Beast has an especially lovely one to the memory of lyricist Howard Ashman, who died prior to the film's completion:

To our friend Howard,
who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul,
we will be forever grateful.

  • The Great Escape‍'‍s dedication simply reads 'For the Fifty.' Cue the sobbing before the movie even begins.
  • Kevin Smith has one of these in every film he makes. He always thanks God first.
  • A Muppet Christmas Carol is dedicated to Muppet creator Jim Henson and Muppeteer Richard Hunt.
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was dedicated to the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
    • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was dedicated to Gene Roddenberry, who passed away shortly before the film's release.
    • Also dedicated to Gene Roddenberry, the TNG 2-part episode "Unification", the first to air after his death.
    • And Star Trek 2009 was dedicated to Gene and Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the latter of whom had just passed on after completing her final role - the voice of the Enterprise‍'‍s computer.
  • Help!!, the 1965 Beatles film, is dedicated to Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine. It's an idiosyncratic film.
  • The Libertine was dedicated to Marlon Brando and Hunter S. Thompson, both of whom Johnny Depp (the film's lead actor) had worked with and known well.
  • The Great Dictator was dedicated to "The Jews of the world."
  • This beauty from the opening of the 1966 Adam West Batman film? "ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: We wish to express our gratitude to the enemies of crime and crusaders against crime throughout the world for their inspirational example. To them, and to lovers of adventure, lovers of pure escapism, lovers of unadulterated entertainment, lovers of the ridiculous and the bizarre--- To funlovers everywhere--- This picture is respectfully dedicated. If we have overlooked any sizable groups of lovers, we apologize. ---THE PRODUCERS"
  • The Dark Knight was dedicated to Heath Ledger who died shortly after the film was completed and to special effects technician Conway Wickliffe, who died while working on the film.
  • Ridley Scott dedicated Black Hawk Down to his mother who died while he was on location shooting the film in Morocco. Similarly the book it was based on was dedicated to Mark Bowden's parents.
  • The Great Race is dedicated to Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy.

Literature

They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the Patrol. Whatever the name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they wanted to. This book is dedicated to those fine men.

    • One of the Witches books (possibly Witches Abroad)[please verify] is dedicated to 'all those who showered the author with their own versions of 'The Hedgehog Song.' Deary, deary me...'
  • Frederick Forsyth's The Dogs of War has what's thought to be a reference to his time in Biafra.

For Giorgio, and Christian and Schlee
And Big Marc and Black Johnny,
And the others in the unmarked graves.
At least we tried.

  • Chris Claremont's First Flight bore two dedications—the first a standard dedication to a friend or loved one, the second, just under it dedicating the book to the X-Men by name. As in "To Scott, Ororo, Kurt, Kitty, Peter, Rogue..."
  • Kathy Reich dedicated her book Bare Bones "to all those fighting to protect our precious wildlife, especially:" followed by a list of a few specific organizations.
  • On a more humorous note, Dave Barry dedicated his Money Secrets book to everyone in the world, with the logic that people will respond by thinking "Wow! A book dedicated to me. I should buy a copy."
    • Mark Twain used similar logic to explain a dedication to John Smith.
  • House of Leaves (what else?) simply states that "This is not for you."
  • One of Ray Loriga's (a Spanish writer) books has a rather cryptic dedication to his (now ex)wife Christina Rosenvinge: "Para Christina, ella sabe porqué" ("To Christina, she knows why"). She, being a songwriter, retorted with her own dedication in one of her discs: "Para Ray, él sabe porqué" ("To Ray, he knows why").
  • Tad Williams, author of Otherland, dedicated the books to his father. His father does not read sci-fi. Each dedication pokes fun at the fact that he still hasn't figured it out.
  • Al Jaffee parodied this, dedicating one of his Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions book to "myself, without whose inspired and tireless efforts this book would not have been possible".
  • The High King, the last book of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, is dedicated "To the boys who have always been Taran and the girls who will always be Eilonwy."
  • Colas Breugnon opens with a dedication to st. Martin of Gaul, the patron saint of the author's hometown of Clamecy (which is also where the plot takes place.)
  • PG Wodehouse opens his Jeeves and Wooster novel Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (AKA Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) with a lengthy dedication to his editor at the time, Peter Schwed, which doubles as a snarky discussion about various types of dedications, including the use of bald flattery and pretentious and/or obscure quotes.
  • Grand Central Arena by Ryk E. Spoor is dedicated to the memory of E. E. "Doc" Smith, the founding father of space opera, and writer of the Skylark Series, from which one of the main characters, Marc C. Du Quesne, is drawn.
  • Historia Regum Britanniae is dedicated to Robert, First Earl of Gloucester.

Music

  • Roza Rymbaeva dedicated the song "Alia" to Great Patriotic War Kazakh sniper Alia Moldagulova.
  • Rush dedicated one of their albums "To the loving memory of Jackie and Selena". Jackie was the wife of drummer Neil Peart, and Selena was his daughter; they passed away within two years of each other, Jackie from cancer and Selena in a car accident.
  • Lawrence Gowan's song Dedication is effectively dedicated to all of his fans, be they living or dead.
  • Heart's song "These Dreams" is dedicated to Nancy Wilson's friend Sharon Hess on the album liner notes who died of leukemia shortly before the album's release.

Video Games

  • If any survivors in Left 4 Dead don't make it to the rescue vehicle during a Campaign Finale, or are unlucky enough to be incapacitated on the way to it while at least one other is in the vehicle, the credits begin with "In Loving Memory of: (insert player name here)".
  • Snatcher opens with a dedication to "all those cyberpunks who fight against injustice and corruption every day of their lives"
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days has a dedication to the voice actor of Mickey Mouse, Wayne Allwine, who'd died just prior to the game being released.
  • WWF Attitude on the Nintendo64 and Playstation was dedicated to Owen Hart, who died before the game was released (Owen was left in the game, as well).
  • Call of Duty 3:

Dedicated to the brave men and women who fought and died in the Normandy Breakout. Your courage and sacrifice paved the road for freedom in Europe.

Western Animation

  • Freakazoid! parodied these with one normal dedication "to all those who have ever been in love", one to a group of scientists, and one to Amanda Huggbees for having a funny last name.
  • Avatar has a dedication to Mako, the then recently-deceased voice of Iroh, in "Tales of Ba Sing Se".
  • Similar to the Avatar example above, the Green Lantern: The Animated Series episode "Regime Change" was dedicated to Ian Abercrombie, the voice of Ganthet, who passed away before the episode was aired.
  • Justice League Doom is dedicated to it's writer, Dwayne McDuffie, who died shortly after completing the adaptation from the source comic.

Other Media

  • Pretty much every single sci-fi media released in 2003 was dedicated to the astronauts who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
  • The program for Cirque Du Soleil's Alegria has a sarcastic dedication to all those who oppress others; scroll to the bottom of this page to read it.
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