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Point is, she's gone in a very real sense from this physical plane, but in a way that doesn't preclude recovery.
 
So Bob and his allies decide to rescue Susan by going on an [[Orphean Rescue Mission]]. Much like [[Greek Mythology|Orpheus]] and his trip to the Underworld, the heroes will travel into a strange, otherworldy realm. It may be a [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]], Susan's soul, a [[Time Travel|different era]], another planet, a [[Down the Rabbit Hole|rabbit hole]], the [[Spirit World]], Purgatory, [[Limbo]], [[Hell]], the Underworld (again) or even ''[[Heaven]]'' ([[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|or a reasonable facsimile]]).
 
On their quest, they probably have to fight [[Threshold Guardians]] appropriate to Susan's subconscious/DarkAndTroubledPast (trust us, no matter how happy go lucky Susan [honestly] is, she's going to have at least ''some'' skeletons in her closet) or whoever/whatever is holding her captive. Freeing her may require that she help in the process, with a rather more literal use of an [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]], or helping her see the door in her [[Epiphanic Prison]].
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** Later on in the manga, Sesshoumaru takes the full trip [[To Hell and Back]] in order to save his [[Morality Pet]] Rin.
* One of the many, many MANY subplots of [[Angel Sanctuary]] is about Setsuna trying to get back the soul of his [[Brother-Sister Incest|beloved sister]] Sara. Cue travel to the Hades, learning she already left... and we have not even covered 25% of the series.
* In ''[[Jack and Thethe Witch]]'' the titular boy hero descends into a frigid cave full of growing and shifting ice to rescue the banished witch Allegra, who'd been sent there by the Harpy Queen to freeze to death. The Ice Cave and its subsequent shift into a magical battleground seem to be tied to the Queen's magic, as they fade out once her crystal ball is smashed.
 
 
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== Literature ==
* ''[[Charlie and Thethe Great Glass Elevator]]'' has Willy Wonka and Charlie go deep down to rescue Grandma Georgina from Minus Land, where she went after having reduced her age to below zero.
* ''[[Overdrawn Atat the Memory Bank]]'' has this trope, though in this case, Apallonia knows exactly where Fingal's ''mind'' is; it's his ''body'' she's having trouble finding.
* In ''[[Circle of Magic|Briar's Book]]'', Briar follows his teacher into death to convince her to come back.
* ''Full Tilt'' by Neil Schusterman involves a boy going to rescue his brother from some kind of hell, appearing as an [[Amusement Park of Doom]], after he was lured in.
* In ''[[Earthsea|A Wizard of Earthsea]]'', Ged tries to save a dying child, following her soul on the way to the land of the dead; but he doesn't manage to keep her from entering it and being lost.
* There's a medieval narrative poem, ''Sir Orfeo'', loosely inspired by Orpheus, where King Orfeo successfully wins back his wife held captive by [[The Fair Folk]]. He plays his harp so beautifully that the king of the fairies promises him any reward he wants.
* ''[[The Friendship Song (Literature)|The Friendship Song]]'' by Nancy Springer has this with Harper and Rawnie venturing to the underworld to rescue the soul of a rock singer. It's then played with as he has to choose to come back on his own.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* Seamus Zelazny Harper did this a time or two on ''[[Andromeda]]'' for the AI of the ship. It included a combo [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]] that happened to be [[Cyberspace]].
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' two-parter "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead".
* Most of the plot of ''[[The Lost Room]]'' is the lead character recovering his daughter from this situation.
* The third season of the UK ''[[Being Human (TV)|Being Human]]'' included one of these early on. It's not without larger consequences.
 
 
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* [[Greek Mythology|Orpheus]], [[Trope Namer|duh]]. When Orpheus's wife died, he entered the underworld and convinced Hades to let her return to the world of the living. However, Hades allowed it on the condition that Orpheus lead his wife back without looking at her until they're on the other side. Unlike the majority of the examples on this page, though, he ultimately failed in his quest.
* Similar to Orpheus is Izanagi, creator-god in [[Japanese Mythology]]. His wife Izanami died giving birth to the fire-god Kagutsuchi and fell to [[The Underworld]], The Yomotsu. Izanagi traveled down the cavernous realm of the dead, [[Values Dissonance|only to be repulsed by his wife who is]] [[Body Horror|now an eternally decaying, maggot-ridden corpse]]. He fled the underworld as fast as he can while being chased by the local demons and Izanami throwing lightning at him. Eventually, he made it to the surface, and closed the way to the underworld with a huge boulder.
* Similar to both of the above (this ''is'' an archetypal trope, after all) Ishtar's Descent Into The Underworld is one of the most well-known stories of Babylonian Mythology. In it, she [[Captain Obvious|descends into]] [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|the underworld]] but [[Enemies Withwith Death|angers its queen, Erseshkigal]], and is trapped there. As the goddess of fertility, this is bad for the living <ref>This also makes it similar to the Greek story of Persephone, but unlike Ishtar, she is not rescued exactly</ref>, so Ea creates a servant and sends it to retrieve her, commanding Ereshkigal to let her go.
* In the ''[[Heirs of Alexandria]]'' series, {{spoiler|Maria}} assumes a Persephone like role to become Queen of the Underworld and use her powers to save everyone. Upset that she was tricked into this; {{spoiler|Benito}} travels to the Underworld and Hades gives him a very Orphean-task. Return to the living world without looking back. {{spoiler|Benito}} cheats by having one of their companions, a knight; walk in front of him on the way back, so he can {{spoiler|look in the reflection of the knight's armor and thus not have to succumb to temptation.}}
 
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== Tabletop RPG ==
* ''[[Champions]]'' Organization Book 1 ''The Circle and M.E.T.E.'': One of the adventure seeds for the Circle is having Oeramm attack the Circle, capture Aureole or a [[PC]] and take them back to his home plane, from which they will have to be rescued.
* You can actually bring back dead people from [[The Underworld]] in ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters (Tabletop Game)|Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'', but not without paying some (very terrible) price to the Kerberoi.
** While not going to the realm of the dead ''per se'', some [[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|Changelings]] make it their mission to raid Arcadia to free the humans kidnapped by [[The Fair Folk|True Fae]], themselves being victims of True Fae in the past. It's only more admirable when you consider [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|just what kind of place Arcadia is]], and what [[Mind Screw|effect it has upon the fragile psyche of the Changelings]].
** Some [[Werewolf: The Forsaken (Tabletop Game)|werewolves]] also make it their mission to eject humans who are trapped in the Spirit World, although it's more having to do with keeping orders in their territories than altruism for the poor humans.
 
 
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* ''[[Fatal Frame]] 2'': Mio shoots her way ([[First-Person Snapshooter|with a camera!]]) through a village worth of hordes of vengeful ghosts to save her [[Video Game Caring Potential|little sister Mayu]]. Bonus point for (in Best Ending route) [[To Hell and Back|going down into Abyss]] to retrieve her back. She didn't come out unscathed from the whole ordeal, but at least she's now closer to Mayu than ever.
* Happens in some route in the [[Yuri Genre]] [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Aoi Shiro]]''. {{spoiler|These are the bad ends.}}
* [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] HARD in ''[[Persona 3 (Video Game)|Persona 3: FES]]''. The desire to bring back {{spoiler|the main character}} cause the SEES to splinters and fights each other in [[Groundhog Day Loop]]. {{spoiler|Even when they actually get back to their senses and work together to reach the place where the MC's soul is, the find out that they CAN'T bring him back without undoing his sacrifice.}} Moral of the story: It's better to let go of deceased loved ones.
** Note that the MC's initial persona ''is'' Orpheus.
* However, this is basically the entire plot of ''[[Persona 4 (Video Game)|Persona 4]]'' in a nutshell.
** And THAT MC's initial persona is Izanagi. Persona loves this trope doesn't it?
* Gwendolyn rescues Oswald from the underworld in ''[[Odin Sphere]]''. {{spoiler|Odin rescues her when she has problems leaving again.}}
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Sinfest]]'' [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3667 seemed] to be going in this direction after [[Hollywood Nerd|Criminy]] started digging his way to hell in search of [[Reluctant Monster|Fuchsia]], but it led to a [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3675 subversion].
* ''[[Red vs. Blue (Machinima)|Red vs. Blue]]'' has something like this for Church following Tex {{spoiler|into the capture unit}} at the end of Season 8 and into Season 9, followed by the rest of the squad trying to save him as well throughout the present timeline of Nine. {{spoiler|Church is eventually saved... after he [[Wham! Line|comes to peace with Tex's death and erases his memory of her.]]}}
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' has Robin do this for Raven in the Season Four finale.
* In Disney's ''[[Hercules (Disney film)|Hercules]]'', {{spoiler|the main character travels to the Underworld in order to rescue Meg's spirit and reunite it with her body, thus getting his godhood back.}}
 
{{reflist}}
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