I Will Wait for You: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

So someone's love has gone off on a long and dangerous journey: to sea, to war, [[But Now I Must Go|to find their meaning]], something along those lines. She promises to wait for him, right where she is, until he returns. How long could it be, right? Soon they'll be reunited and all will be well.

Only not so much. Years pass and he doesn't return. Most people would have given up by this point, assuming that something has happened to their loved one and he's never going to come back. But not this woman. She's going to wait right here for the rest of her life, if necessary, because she really believes he's coming back for her someday.

 

 

When the hero is being faithful, the [[Standard Hero Reward]] can lead to some very difficult to wiggle out of scenes -- [[But Thou Must!]]!

 

 

 

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

* The "turned to stone" variant is featured as a local legend in an episode of ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' called "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak." The stone girl's spirit is also said to haunt the area.

** Done again in another episode with a Ninetales (kitsune Pokemon who can reach 1000 years of age) who spent hundreds of years waiting for its master to return.

* Alpha in ''[[Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou]]'' is ''still'' waiting for her owner to return at the end of the series {{spoiler|when humanity goes extinct.}}

* Trisha Elric of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Not only does she agree to wait for Hohenheim while she's still alive, {{spoiler|it's revealed in an omake at the end of the series that she is still waiting for him, despite being dead for 10 years. [[Together in Death|They're finally reunited]] when Hohenheim dies in the [[Grand Finale]]... in front of Trisha's grave.}}

** Also see ''[[5 Centimeters Per Second]]''. [[Makoto Shinkai]] likes this trope.

** It might be worth noting that Mizu Sahara did the manga adaptation of ''[[Voices of a Distant Star]]''

* Shion Sonozaki, of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', does this with Satoshi. At the end of ''Matsuribayashi-hen'', she finds that {{spoiler|Satoshi has been kept in the research facilities underneath the Irie Clinic for years. His Hinamizawa Syndrome has reached such a level that he feels immense paranoia to anything he sees, and will claw out his throat if unbound. Thus, he's been kept asleep until Irie could find a cure for the disease.}}

*** {{spoiler|"Can I... come down here sometimes and read to him?"}} AWWWWW.

* A variant of this trope occurs in the [[CLAMP]] manga ''Shirahime Shyo''. A couple makes their goodbyes over a frozen lake as he is going to war, and she promises that when he comes back she will be waiting for him in the same spot. Guy returns many years later in the middle of winter thinking she probably didn't wait for him, until he looks down at the frozen river...and there she is, youthful and beautiful as ever, but dead and frozen in the lake. When she said she would wait in the same spot...[[Exact Words|she meant it]].

** How Himawari reacts to this drastic decision is left to be seen... but one thing is for sure: Doumeki is ''pissed'' that {{spoiler|Watanuki}} pretty much took this vow of celibacy for... possibly the next hundred years.

* An non-dog animal variant of this is Laboon from ''[[One Piece]]'', who's been waiting over 50 years for the pirate crew he made friends with to get back from their trip around the world.

** And in keeping with the trope, it turns out all members of the crew are dead. Good news Brook's Devil Fruit powers aren't going to let that get in the way.

* Role reversal in ''[[Seirei no Moribito]]''. Tanda has been waiting for years for Balsa to fulfill her vow to save the lives of eight people so they can settle down and get married. Then at the end she decides to return to her hometown for a while, and he ends up waiting again. Tanda is a very patient guy.

** He does express some frustration with Balsa's wandering ways, noting that she seems to thrive on life-or-death situations. When Balsa admits that this is true and jokingly asks him if he has a cure for it, he painedly replies that if he himself isn't enough of a cure, then there's no point in going on waiting. But he goes on waiting all the same.

* In an early episode of ''[[Slayers]] Revolution'', when Lina is almost arrested for "the crime of being Lina Inverse", Gourry tearfully promises to wait for her until she gets out of prison, no matter how many years it takes. Lina, of course, responds with violence.

* In the ending of the manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'', {{spoiler|Chrono}} promises {{spoiler|Rosette}} that he'll return to her because the place he belongs is "wherever you are" before {{spoiler|going off to fight Aion in their final battle.}} For a reason that is never explained, he disappears for ''years'', leaving her to wait for him even though {{spoiler|[[Deal with the Devil|their contract]] means that [[Your Days Are Numbered|she doesn't have very long to live]]}}. After eight years he eventually ''does'' make it back to her {{spoiler|right in time for her to [[Tear Jerker|die in his arms]]}}.

** Isn't it just that {{spoiler|he '''died''' in the final battle, and it's his '''ghost''' that came for her as she was dying}}, a la ''[[The Ghost and Mrs. Muir]]''?

* In the finale of ''[[Gun X Sword]]'', Wendy parts from the man she loves. {{spoiler|(It's unclear whether Van returns her romantic feelings).}} The series ends with a few minutes of [[Distant Finale]] in which Wendy reveals that she's learned to cook food he would like, so that she can give him a good meal when he shows up. Though she never explicitly promised to wait for him, it seems to be what she's doing, and she insists that she will see him again some day. {{spoiler|Cue Van walking in the door not five seconds later.}}

* In the manga ending of ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', Renton refuses to acknowledge that his lover Eureka is dead and will continue to wait upon the day she returns back. The final page indicates they might have finally reunited after 2 years.

** In the movie version, Eureka waited patiently and hoped for the moment she could be reunited with Renton, considering she thought of suicide throughout the 8 years of imprisonment.

* Misato tries to invoke this trope in ''[[End of Evangelion]]'' when she sends Shinji off to fight the [[Final Battle]]... only to collapse and die moments after his departure, having lied about the severity of her gunshot wound and [[Cruel and Unusual Death|her dying monologue quickly getting interrupted by]] [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|a demolition charge turning her into]] [[Ludicrous Gibs]]. And not only is it implied that she was only trying to get the boy motivation and didn't really mean what she said, her death was a [[Senseless Sacrifice]] as well.

* This was {{spoiler|Chiaki and Makoto}}'s promise at the end of ''[[The Girl Who Leapt Through Time]]''.

{{spoiler|Makoto}}: "Okay. I won't be long. I'll come running." }}

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

** This film is sort of indirectly the [[Trope Namer]] - the main musical theme was also adapted into an English song with this title.

* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'', {{spoiler|Elizabeth}} apparently decides to wait for {{spoiler|Will... and he ''does'' comes back. This is helped by the fact that he expressly told her when he would return, so all she had to do was stay loyal and show up at the appointed time.}}

* The main character in ''Harrison's Flowers'' decides to go after her husband in war-torn Yugoslavia after receiving news that he is probably dead.

* When they finally release the film version of [[Hachiko]] (see below)...Yeah....

* Arwen does this for Aragorn in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' once he goes off on the quest to destroy the One Ring, which eventually escalates into a war. Although this time they are only parted for half a year.

* At the end of ''[[The Maltese Falcon]]'', Sam Spade promises to wait for the woman he's sending to prison to get out!

* In the Mexican short story ''La piedra y el rio'', a woman waits for her husband (who went off to try to start a life in America) in one place for so long that her body turns to stones and water.

* In part of the backstory to ''[[The Fionavar Tapestry]]'', a wood nymph marries a human mage. He then sets off across the sea to seek out a fable. She goes into a high tower on the shore to wait for him to return. And wait. And wait. And wait. Eventually she sees a ghost ship passing carrying his spirit, realizes he is dead, and throws herself of the tower to drown in despair.

* [[L. M. Montgomery]] really liked this one and featured it in several stories, usually with a man coming back to meet a woman he knew years ago and finding her still there. The story just about always had a happy ending. Most notable example: in one of the later ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' books, Anne's oldest son, Jem, leaves to fight in [[World War I]], and his dog waits at the train station and meets every train just in case Jem is on it. In the end, he does come back.

** In the same book, Rilla Blythe waits for her childhood sweetheart to come back. It's a striking example because of her young age: she was only about 14 when the war began; by the time the book ends, she's an adult.

* Bizarre version in Arthur Miller's ''All My Sons'': son went missing in WWII and is probably dead. His mother assumes that the fact that his fiancee, Ann, hasn't married somebody else means she's waiting for him and uses this to validate her belief that he's alive. In fact, the fiancee is waiting for his brother to own up to his affection for her. The mother is furious that she's not waiting for her (probably dead) son, until Ann shows her a letter showing that {{spoiler|he committed suicide}}.

* Herman Melville apparently once wrote a manuscript that told the story of a woman who waited years for the return of her sailor husband after he disappeared at sea. Meanwhile, he'd gone off and started another family elsewhere. The manuscript was never published and is now lost, but records of it exist in Melville's letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne.

* In Joe Haldeman's ''[[The Forever War]]'', William and Marygay, who have stuck with each other through firefights, injuries, and the loss of everyone and everything they've ever known, are separated by being given different military assignments. The death toll in the war is horribly high, and [[Time Dilation]] caused by near-lightspeed travel means they can never expect to see each other again. William mourns for her as if she's dead, but doesn't take up with anyone else because in the future that he's been thrust into by the time dilation, everyone else is gay. Marygay, on the other hand, leaves a note for him to find if he survives, assuring him that she will wait forever, tells him where she's going, and {{spoiler|buys a ship which spends the next two hundred years going backwards and forwards at near-lightspeed, stopping every five years, during which time she has aged about a month... leaving her still in her late twenties when William, aged thirtysomething, catches up with her. Now that's an optimistic lady!}}

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Master Mind of Mars]]'', Dar Tarus was assasinated in order to clear the way for the rival. (Fortunately for him, his body was sold to the [[Mad Scientist]] and he got better.) His love, Kara, fled as soon as her father was assassinated, and returned to be reunited with him.

* In Jan Guillou's ''Knight Templar'' series Cecilia patiently waits for Arn for more than twenty years while he's off making penance as a knight templar. Slightly subverted since she too has been sentenced to make penance and spends twenty years at a convent, but it kicks in for real once she's done her time and has to wait to see if he will ever return home.

* Deliberately induced in the [[Sherlock Holmes]] story ''A Case of Identity''. The client's stepfather courts the client under an assumed identity, then has that persona disappear on their wedding day. Because of this, the man knows his stepdaughter will wait for years for her beloved to return before she will consider accepting another suitor, during which time he can continue to supplement his income with his stepdaughter's trust fund dividends.

* One of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer's "Legends", "The Promise", has a both heartbreaking and creepy version of this. A count seduces a farm girl named Margarita right before going to war, hiding his social standing to her and giving her a ring as a proof of love and future marriage... {{spoiler|When he returns, he's confronted by a local singer who sings a song about a girl who was first seduced by a powerful man and then killed by her irate older brother, and whose ringed hand simply can't be buried under Earth since he promised to marry her before leaving. That woman is, of course, poor Margarita, who is still waiting for him ''even after dying''. The Count accepts to "marry" Margarita's hand to fulfill the promise, and once this is done her hand quietly slides under Earth so she can rest in peace.}}

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[So Weird]]'': "Widow's Walk" features an old woman who has waited decades for her husband, lost at sea, to return. She learns an important life lesson about something or other, then goes right back to waiting. The ghost of her husband seems to approve of this.

* In the ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' episode "Queen of Hearts", Guinevere (who is only a servant girl in this version) promises to wait for Arthur to become king so that he can change the customs that keep them apart and finally let them be together.

* In ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', the titular character is intrigued when he comes back from five years fighting abroad to discover that Maid Marian is still unmarried - not that ''she's'' going to admit that ''he'' has [[Slap Slap Kiss|anything to do with that]].

* The Alaskan folk song ''Susitna'' is another one where the waiting woman turns to stone.

* The song ''Naturaleza Muerta'' by the Spanish band Mecano, later covered by Sarah Brightman (lyrics can be found [http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb409.html here]).

* [[The Decemberists]]' folk-inspired ballad ''From My Own True Love, Lost at Sea'' starts out: "Fourscore years / Living down in this rain swept town / Sea salt tears / Swimming round as the rain comes down / Mr Postman, do you have a letter for me? ... From my own true love / Lost at sea"...

** Also "Yankee Bayonet". "Look for me when the sun-bright swallow sings upon the birch-bough high" / "But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils all a-chew on your bones so dry ..."

* ''Dear Friend'' by [[Charlie Peacock]], where the bride has been waiting for many years for her groom to return, and people around her laugh at her for it. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2kzSCC44E Video]

* The rock opera ''She'' (based on the novel of the same name). The titular character, seeing her lover fall for another woman, kills him in a fit of rage and jealousy. After realising what she has done, she nearly commits suicide - until learning of a magical fire that can grant her eternal life, which she uses to wait for him to return, reincarnated. Two thousand years later, he arrives in the form of an English explorer. {{spoiler|In the end, when She dies by bathing in the magical flame a second time, her reincarnated lover decides that it is his turn to wait, and bathes in the flames to become immortal and wait for her to return...}}

Wait beyond eternity for me... }}

* [[Scissor Sisters]]' Other Side is about waiting for someone [[Together in Death|from beyond the veil]]:

* ''In The Hills of Shiloh'' is a haunting ballad of a woman waiting in her bridal gown for her beloved to return to her, running up and down the hills, written by [[Shel Silverstein]].

* [[Insane Clown Posse]]'s "Under the Moon" subverts this: the girl promised the song's character (when he went to prison for killing her attempted rapist) that she would wait for him. He knows she made herself into a liar. He is not happy.

* All of the events in the rock Opera The Who's Tommy are set in motion when Tommy's father returns from war to find his wife ''didn't'' in fact wait for him.

* The Oak Ridge Boys song I'll Be True To You and also the Conway Twitty song Don't Cry Joni, the latter of which ends with [[You Have Waited Long Enough|Joni not waiting for]] [[Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder|the narrator to return]].

* Although the promise is never made, "Travelin' Soldier" by the Dixie Chicks hardily applied this trope. He meets her the day he's shipped off for the military, ends up sending her letters. She breaks down crying when she hears his name on a list of Vietnam dead at a high school game.

* The [[Vocaloid]] song "[http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8719573 Machibito Umi]" (roughly "Waiting Person, Ocean") is about... well, with a title like that, what do you think?

* Nastily subverted in the folk song "House Carpenter" (aka "The Demon Lover"). A woman promises to wait for her love, but when he comes back after seven years at sea, she's married with two kids. He convinces her to abscond with him (he's rich now), but after a few weeks of sailing her darling turns into a demon and sinks the ship. They both go to hell.

* [[Kamelot]]'s ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFKF4ghwrUc 'A Sailorman's Hymn'.]''

* Voltaire's ''To the Bottom of the Sea'' is a concept album set at the turn of the industrial revolution. One song has a man going off to sea to become a merchant trading in imported goods, and his wife waiting for him. Other songs imply he has had other partners while at sea, but that she is his true love, in a kind of "that was just sex, you own my heart" kind of way.

* "Penelope's Song" by [[Loreena McKennitt]], inspired by ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'' (see below under Mythology).

* Averted in [[The Magnetic Fields]]' folk pastiche "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan" where the soldier specifically [[Genre Savvy|asks]] the girl to [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|not do this]].

 

== Mythology ==

* Interesting exception: According to Plutarch, King Leonidas told his wife before he left to fight the Battle of Thermopylae that she should "[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|marry a good man that will treat you well, bear him children, and live a good life.]]"

* The Greek story of Clytie is a notable variation: Clytie loved Helios, the sun god, but he did not return her affection, though fully aware of it. No one else made her feel the way he did, so she spent the rest of her life waiting under a tree for him to descend to her. He never came, and she eventually turned into a heliotrope flower, turning her face to him at all times. Depressingly, [[Truth in Television|this story is a metaphor for a common real-life occurrence]].

* There's a big rock above Shatin in the New Territories of Hong Kong called Amah Rock which is supposed to be such a woman. Either she's grown since petrification or she was a giantess, it's about twenty feet tall. It has a silhouette resembling a woman with a baby on her back. [[Fridge Logic|How come the baby didn't grow up during the wait?]]

 

* Julia in ''[[Two Gentlemen of Verona]]'', to Proteus. Until she gets sick of waiting, [[Sweet Polly Oliver|disguises herself as a boy]], and goes after him.

* Penelope in ''[[The Golden Apple]]'', much as in ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'' except her waiting period is reduced to ten years.

* ''[[Peer Gynt]]'' has Solvei sing, "Though winter may pass, and spring after that, and the next summer also and then year after year; I will hold you, I will keep watch, and I will wait for you."

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Legend of Legaia|Legaia II: Duel Saga]]'', Maya and Sharon are shown {{spoiler|at the end}} to be waiting for Lang, as he goes off on more adventures.

* Ciel, at the end of ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'', still believes that Zero is out there somewhere and that she needs to help the world for him. ''Freesia'', the slow "I miss you" vocal version of the game's theme, plays over the ending credits, presumably expressing the thoughts of Ciel herself (especially as [[Rie Tanaka]] [[Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune|is the singer]]). After the credits, {{spoiler|we see [[Dead Hat Shot|Zero's shattered helmet]] [[Tear Jerker|lying in the ruins of Ragnarok.]]}}

* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]:'' "Come home! You have to come home... you have to! I'll be waiting... always..."

** "Time is not your enemy. Forever is."

** "I shall wait for you in death's halls, my love."

* [[Persona 3]] has Koromaru, who went for walks at Naginaki Shrine after his master died. Eventually, he moves into the dorm with S.E.E.S. but the player can still take him on walks there.

* In ''[[Romancing SaGa]]'', this happens at the end of one hero's scenario: {{spoiler|Farah is shown arguing with [[You Have Waited Long Enough|her mother]] over her decision to wait for Jamil to return from the final battle. Thankfully, it's implied that she didn't have to wait ''too'' long.}}

* A variation of this is used in ''[[The World Ends With You]]''. {{spoiler|Shiki (having been allowed to come back to life) promises to wait everyday for Neku by Hachiko until he comes back, and holding Mr. Mew so that he'll regocnise her. Shiki never gets to do this though, because she's then (unknowingly to her) made Neku's entry fee for the next week.}}

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'', for three of the four possible choices for the first game's ending (Light Side PC or Dark Side male PC), it's established that the first game's PC left their [[Love Interest]] behind when they left. With either Light Side choice, a scene near the end shows that the [[Love Interest]] is waiting for any news of the PC's return. For the Dark Side male, Bastila got tired of waiting and went off to find him.

** And then there's the amazing {{spoiler|[[Hachiko]] Missile/Ray pulls, waiting ''ten years'' just for a chance at convincing Sissel (the cat, not the fiancee) to rescue his mistress, while dead. If that's not a Crowning Moment of [[Undying Loyalty]], what is?}}

* Aribeth's dialogue near the end of [[Neverwinter Nights]] if you saved her when you talk to her before going down to face Morag.

* Also in the ''Zelda'' games ''[[Oracle of Ages]]'' and ''[[Oracle of Seasons]]''. That horrible tower Ambi was building in Ages was originally planned so she'd have a place to wait for her lover, who's out at sea somewhere. The skeleton captain in Seasons is frantically searching for a bell given to him by his girlfriend, "the queen of some country".

** Eventually the two of them do meet each other again if you play a linked game between both versions. They happily thank Link for reuniting the two of them.

* In ''[[Sharin no Kuni]]'', the first thing the main character Kenichi learns about Natsumi is that she's doing this for ''someone''. {{spoiler|She was waiting for him. She either doesn't recognize him, or is in denial because she didn't want him to see her as the [[Break the Cutie|broken shell of a person she'd been reduced to while they were separated.]] }}

* In ''[[Radiant Historia]]'', {{spoiler|the [[True Companions]] express this to Stocke, before he prepares to sacrifice himself. The [[Tear Jerker]] part is his love interest Raynie, who wished to give up fighting to elope with him, but instead accepted his promise to settle down after [[Saving the World]]. However the [[Golden Ending]] implies [[He's Back]].}}

* In ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'', part of Oshare Bones' backstory is this. Before he died, he had a significant other who suddenly disappeared one day. He continues to wait for his lover even in undeath, and in ''Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary'', he makes a wish that they will someday be reunited. The wish is technically granted, but due to a slip-up with how Oshare words his wish, he has no idea when that day will come.

 

 

** Probably subverted, since {{spoiler|she knows they're not coming back}}.

* The Normal ending of the ''Heaven's Feel'' scenario in the ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' game involves the invocation of this trope, when {{spoiler|Sakura promises to wait for Shirou after his [[Heroic Sacrifice]], though it eventually becomes clear that he never returns to her. The True ending has him getting an artificial body and living happily with her.}}

* Akiha's True End in ''[[Tsukihime]]''. The maids thing she's given up {{spoiler|after Shiki stabbed his own point of death}} but in truth, she has more confidence that he'll return than they do. She just sees no reason to keep going to his school if he isn't there. {{spoiler|One of the side stories in Kagetsu Tohya reveals that he did live and Ciel was rehabilitating him over the last year.}}

* Done significantly darker in Ryuukishi's other work, ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]''. {{spoiler|Sayo aka Shannon, a young maid in the Rokkenjima island's mansion, falls in love with Battler when they were both 12. However he only visits the island where she works once or twice a year. He promises to come and rescue her on a white horse the next year, but due to problems in his family (his mother's death and his distancement from his dad), he doesn't return for six years. Trying to cope, Shannon responds by forming two other personalities. She forces her love for Battler onto Beatrice, one of her personalities, after two years. She then gets into a relationship with George, Battler's cousin, while her other split personality, Kanon (a boy) gets into a relationship with Battler's ''other'' cousin, Jessica (who ''lives'' on the island). So after six years, 'Shannon' has three personalities with separate relationships: her Shannon part is with George, her Kanon part is with Jessica, and her Beatrice one is ''still'' waiting for Battler. After six years, Battler returns... but unable to decide between the three, and hurt that Battler doesn't remember anything about her anymore, Shannon does the logical thing and slaughters his entire extended family.}}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

 

** The Disneyland Paris version Phantom Manor pretty much makes the Bride's story the entire focus. When her father finds out that her groom plans to take her away from the town, he is instantly against it. An earthquake occurs and in the chaos, the father dies, though he murders the groom from beyond the grave and continues to haunt his daughter until her death.

* A non-romantic and non-animal invocation of this was a cartoon by Herblock that ran when the Pathfinder and Sojourner robot probes stopped reporting from Mars. The cartoon shows Sojourner holding up a sign toward Earth, reading, "I'll wait for you."

 

 

** And [[wikipedia:Shep (American dog)|Shep]].

** And recently, [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/loyal-dog-refuses-leave_n_1107561.html?ref=impact this dog in China].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Romance Arc]]

[[Category:Drama Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]