I Will Wait for You: Difference between revisions

...Even though most of the time, he really is dead. This still will often not stop her. She said she'll wait forever for him, and she ''meant'' it. Hundreds of years later, a woman-shaped rock can be seen in that spot, waiting for her love to return to her. If she knows that he is dead, [[The Mourning After]] may ensue. Or even if she believes it -- sometimes other characters think that claiming it will shake her resolve.

 

 

If she is coerced into marrying, it's [[You Have Waited Long Enough]] -- whereupon her true love will show up in time to [[Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace|save her from the wedding]]. If this trope follows a breakup, you have [[Love Will Lead You Back]]. If he does return, and she realizes she no longer loved him, it turns to [[Old Flame Fizzle]].

 

The person waiting, incidentally, is almost [[Always Female]]... or [[Hachiko|a dog]]. See also [[My Girl Is Not a Slut]], [[The Slow Path]]. Compare [[I Will Find You]] for when the speaker plans to take a more proactive stance. Contrast [[Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder]].

 

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

* [[LM 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 (Literature)|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.

** Also parodied in ''Reaper Man'', where Miss Flitworth tells [[The Grim Reaper|Bill Door]] that after the death of her fiancee, she'd thought to herself "What life expects me to do now is moon around the place in the wedding dress for years and go completely doolally", and [[Screw Destiny|just to spite]] [[Theory of Narrative Causality|narrative convention]], she instead buckled down and got on with her life. Intriguingly, {{spoiler|when she dies near the end, Death brings her to where her fiancee died so they can move on together. Then, "getting on with her life" had not included "finding someone else."}}

*** Miss Flitworth's comment is a reference to Miss Haversham in Dickens' ''Great Expectations''.

* In ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|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]].

** During Marian and Robin's {{spoiler|[[Together in Death]]}} scene, Marian tells Robin: "I have waited for you."

** Captain Jack, who waits around in Cardiff for a hundred-odd years for the Doctor to come back.

** Jackie Tyler, who, a year after her daughter's disappearance, still had stacks of missing posters on her kitchen table.

* Both Millenia and Elena from ''[[Grandia II]]'' {{spoiler|at the end}} are shown waiting for Ryudo to return to them.

* In ''[[Legend of Legaia (Video Game)|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.

* In [[Tales of Phantasia (Video Game)|Tales of Phantasia]] Klarth's assistant Mirald promises to wait as long as necessary for his return. Up until that point it had been implied that he wasn't fully aware she loved him (or even that he loved her, depending on how you interpret the character). Made all the more poignant because {{spoiler|he learns this in a vision after the party has traveled to the future to confront the [[Big Bad]]. Meaning that in this timeline, she is long dead, having presumably waited her whole life for him.}} If you beat the game, he does indeed return. In a different variant, Arche makes this promise {{spoiler|to Chester, when she returns to the past. Particularly unfair, as she has to wait a hundred years to see him again, but since time travel is involved, he only has to wait until she shows up looking for him, or until he finds her.}}

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

== [[Real Life]] ==

* The dog examples were probably based on stories of several real-life dogs who have done the same: for instance, [[Hachiko]].

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

* Under traditional Jewish law, this can happen involuntarily to wives who are abandoned by their husbands (or whose husbands simply vanish). A divorce is only valid if the husband signs it, and there's no "legally dead" clause--a woman is not a widow unless there are ''witnesses'' to her husband's death. If a husband simply vanished, his wife would be considered legally married to him, and unable to marry anyone else.<ref>The same applies if the husband doesn't vanish, but simply moves out and refuses to support or divorce her. The descriptive term for such a woman is "agunah", meaning "chained".</ref> The custom was that if a man went into a dangerous situation where he might vanish without a trace--for example, fighting in war or sailing the sea--he would leave behind a signed certificate of divorce, which could be delivered to his wife if he were lost for a long enough period. Presumably these sailors [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|wanted their beloved to be happy]].

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:I Will Wait For You]]