Someone to Remember Him By: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"When every private widow well may keep<br />
''By children's eyes her husband's shape in mind."''|'''[[William Shakespeare]]''', "Sonnet 9"}}
|'''[[William Shakespeare]]''', "Sonnet 9"}}
 
Just before the [[Big Damn Heroes]] scene, or just after the hero's done his [[Heroic Sacrifice]], the girl he left behind discovers that she's pregnant. He's gone, but not forgotten. Subtrope of [[New Child Left Behind]].
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Bonus points are awarded if this is the result of them having sex exactly once. Double Bonus [[My Girl Is Not a Slut|if it was the girl's first time, too]], or [[Fridge Logic|if the reaction to her pregnancy later on is "Well thanks for leaving me with a child to raise by myself."]]
 
It's generally considered ''very'' romantic, even in historical settings where a single mother can be expected to have a hard time of it (especially during wartime; even if he didn't die in the war itself--oritself—or at all--sheall—she can say he did), on top of all her other problems. Unsurprisingly, it is assumed in these circumstances that [[Babies Make Everything Better]].
 
The intersection of [[Her Heart Will Go On]] with [[Babies Ever After]]. May involve a [[Birth-Death Juxtaposition]], or result in [[Dead Guy, Junior]]. This trope seems to be a recurring theme in horror films, sort of an extension of the puritanical belief that [[Death by Sex|sex equals death]]. When the aforementioned "Someone" starts questioning the "Him", see [[Tell Me About My Father]].
 
Usually an [[Ending Trope]], so there will inevitably be spoilers in the examples section. Sometimes a [[Beginning Tropes|Beginning Trope]], to introduce [[Turn Out Like His Father]] -- and—and sometimes both, as [[Changing of the Guard]] occurs.
 
If the trope is ever gender -flipped, the baby will be found somewhere around the female's corpse.
{{examples}}
 
{{endingtrope}}
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Dragon Ball|Goku]]'': onesGoku upone-ups the other examples by not only leaving behind a kid after his ([[Death Is Cheap|second]]) [[Heroic Sacrifice]], but leaving behind a kid that's ''[[Strong Family Resemblance|completely]] [[Expy|identical]]'' to him.
* After {{spoiler|Asuma}} dies in ''[[Naruto]]'', {{spoiler|Kurenai}}, hinted to be having a relationship with, is revealed as very, ''very'' pregnant.
* Happens at the end of ''[[Narutaru]]''. There's a bit of [[Art Major Biology]] in there, since the father concieved the kid while dying of radiation sickness from having a tac-nuke dropped on him.
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* Possibly ''[[Inverted Trope|inverted]]'' in the backstory of ''[[AIR]]'' when {{spoiler|Ryuuya finds out he is slowly dying of a curse. Uraha suggests that the only way he can work to save the soul of their beloved Kanna is for him to leave a line of descendants to do it for him and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|offers herself to be the mother of his child]]. He dies when she is heavily pregnant and their child becomes the ancestor of the series' main character Yukito.}}
* {{spoiler|Mine Kujyou}} discovers she is pregnant by {{spoiler|Shuro (a.k.a. Akiba)}} at the very end of ''[[Eternal Sabbath]]'', after {{spoiler|Shuro has died in the final battle with Isaac}}.
* ''Kinda'' what happens to Hayate after ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha AsA's]]''. Following the [[Heroic Sacrifice]]-slash-[[Suicide by Cop]] of {{spoiler|Reinforce (a magical [[Robot Girl]])}}, she creates {{spoiler|Reinforce Zwei (a smaller magical [[Robot Girl]] who looks a lot like the original)}}. The thing is, she ostensibly refers to the latter being "born" from her Linker Core (magical heart of sorts) after it merged with the former's Linker Core, in order to live the life the former wished for. In other words, we have here an example of [[Science Babies|technological]] [[Homosexual Reproduction|lesbian procreation]] for [[Invoked Trope|the sake of this trope]]. Yes, it's weird like that.
* Happens in the little-known anime movie ''Like The Clouds, Like the Wind''. It's an especially sad example since the male member of the couple kills himself soon after having sex with his wife for the first time.
* {{spoiler|Marbette}} from ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam]]'', {{spoiler|who goes from [[Action Girl]] to [[Pregnant Badass]]... and we find out about this a while after the baby's father, [[Team Dad]] Oliver, has perished in an [[Heroic Sacrifice]].}}
* Happens a couple of times in ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]''.:
** One memorable episode was about the vengeful girlfriend of a criminal Leon killed in the line of duty. D manages to break the cycle of revenge by appealing to her that she did not want her unborn child's mother to be a murderer.
** A second, much darker version occurs in ''Pet Shop Of Horrors: Tokyo''. A woman's dead boyfriend is temporarily brought back to spend O-bon with her on the one-year anniversary of his death. At the end, he prepares to return to the land of the dead, but she is unwilling to let him go. She is found a week later in her apartment with the rotting corpse of her boyfriend... and now pregnant.
* Gender-flipped in ''[[Nicoichi]]'', when the main protagonist adopted the son of his single mother girlfriend, who had passed away after being involved in a traffic accident. This act became the [[Plot-Triggering Death|trigger for the plot]] of the series.
 
 
== [[ComicsComic Books]] ==
* The Wash one-shot "Float Out" of the ''[[Serenity]]'' comic features a memorial of sorts for Wash that takes place after his death in the film. The last page reveals a ''very'' pregnant Zoe.
* Crossing over with [[Real Life]], in Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical comic ''[[Persepolis]]'', she tells the story of one of her relatives who was in jail about to be executed by the government. His wife bribed a guard so they could have one last night together, the result being...
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** This puts a whole new spin on Seymour not wanting his mother to know about his research. It's not that she's unauthorized to know. It's that she knows this life got her husband killed and doesn't want to lose her son.
** This contradicts with the ''Ghosts of Yesterday'' novel, which states that Seymour's father is named Walter, and he is alive and well in the late 60s. In the comic, William dies in 1954.
* [[Ultimate Marvel|Ultimate]] [[Captain America (comics)|Captain Marvel]] slept with his girlfriend just before his fateful mission. The child ended up being raised practically from birth by the US Government, trying to create a new Cap. [[Gone Horribly Wrong|What they got was]] the [[Complete Monster|Ultimate Red Skull]].
** Mainstream Cap also got Sharon Carter pregnant before he his death ([[Unexplained Recovery|He got better.]]).
 
 
== [[Fan FictionWorks]] ==
* The whole reason {{spoiler|why everyone is going after C.C}} in a ''[[Code Geass]]'' continuation, ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6969408/1/In_the_End In the End]''.
* Toward the end of ''[[A Sad Story]]'', {{spoiler|Harry's}} girlfriend Maria tells him that he's going to be a father, and thus can't die yet.
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** It's now canon.
*** '''''YES!!!!!!!!!'''''
* In the ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' AU ''[[Nineteen Eighty Three1983 Doomsday Stories]],'' it's revealed that Sopron is this for Austria, considering that {{spoiler|he's the father, with Hungary being her mother}}.
* This is one of the reasons Rei and Asuka give to Ranma to convince him to make love to them in male form for the first time in chapter 17 of the ''[[Ranma ½]]/[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' crossover ''[[The Wild Horse Thesis]]'' -- that if he does get one or both of them pregnant, and they survive SEELE's upcoming attack only for him to be returned to his original timeline, they'll still have "a little piece" of him with them.
 
* In the ''[[RWBY]]'' fic ''[[Relic of the Future]]'', Winter Schnee arranges a [[Three-Way Sex|three-way assignation]] between Raven Branwen, herself, and her fiancé Jaune Arc in the last weeks of Jaune's life for this very reason
 
== Film ==
* During the credits of the 2010 [[Live Action Adaptation]] of ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato|Space Battleship Yamato]]'' {{spoiler|Yuki is seen with her son from Kodai who died destroying the last Meteor Bomb}}. This is during the ending credits no less.
* A variation occurs in ''[[CarlitosCarlito's Way]]''. Carlito finds out Gail is pregnant before he dies, but the effect is still the same.
* ''[[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street|A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child]]''. Incidentally, the pregnancy (which allows Kruger to attack through the unborn child's dreams) is indirectly responsible for Dan's death.
* ''[[Austin Powers]]'', the supposed reason why Scott was created. It would later turn out to be not totally true.
* ''[[Candyman|Candyman: Farewell to The Flesh]]''. Paul dies, but not before leaving Annie a parting gift.
** The [[Candyman]] himself, whose death (after impregnating the daughter of a wealthy landowner) qualifies as [[Nightmare Fuel]].
* ''[[The Terminator]]''; Kyle Reese dies after impregnating Sarah Connor, enabling her to give birth to John Connor.
* ''[[Cold Mountain]]''; {{spoiler|the main character, after reuniting with his wife}}.
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]|Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End]]'', although it doesn't ''quite'' follow the usual pattern...since {{spoiler|Will gets to come back after ten years}}
* ''[[Planet Terror]]'' ("I told you, I never miss.")
* ''[[Premonition]]'': Apparently this is supposed to make the film's ending uplifting rather than horribly depressing.
* ''[[Inside]]''. As depressing as it is, it only begins this way and gets much, much worse.
* In ''[[Taking Lives]]'', after taking out the cerealserial killer, lead detective Anjelina Jolie and star witness Ethan Hawke decide to resolve the sexual tension that been burning between them for the whole friggin' movie. Of course, the next morning, Jolie discovers that the real killer is the guy she'd just been sweating all night long. The killer goes on the run, leaving Det. Jolie in the family way from their one night stand. Of course, {{spoiler|it turns out the pregnancy was really faked with a prosthetic belly, to lure the killer into a trap.}}
* ''[[Revelation]]'' sees our hero and heroine searching for an ancient box containing the nails that held Jesus on the cross, while trying to evade an evil cabal. Upon finding the box, the cute but bookish heroine notices it has a male/female symbol on the front and has a sudden urge to "love thine neighbor", of course the guy, whom she's known for all of 12 hours, has no problem in putting off their escape from the baddies for a couple minutes while he takes care of business. The goons show up litterallyliterally as he finishes and he soon dies while escaping, after losing the box. It turns out {{spoiler|that he's the decendantdescendant of Jesus and his last act was to put the second coming (get it?) in the heroine's belly.}} Meanwhile, {{spoiler|an evil bishop finds the nails and uses the residual Jesus DNA to create a clone which turns out to be the antichrist.}} Yeah, it's messed up.
* ''[[Rumpelstiltskin (film)|Rumpelstiltskin]]''. Partially subverted in that {{spoiler|the father is temporarily brought back via a wish made by his grieving wife, however, whether this wish was real or an illusion is not made clear (although, given the demonic nature of the wish-granting title character, it is probably the latter).}}
* The ending of ''[[An American Werewolf in London]]'' is set up so that, {{spoiler|while David is killed,}} his relationship with Alex ensures the possibility of a bouncing baby sequel. Although not explicitly stated, the character played by Julie Delpy in the ''[[An American Werewolf in Paris]]'' was, in fact, intended to be David's daughter.
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* In the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' film this is used as a beginning trope.
** Although, not ''completely'' true to form. Baby Jim Kirk was born moments before dad died, and Dad got to name him, instead of being conceived without soon-to-heroic-sacrifice dad knowing as is typical with this trope.
* Subverted in ''[[My Life]]'' in which Michael Keaton's character {{spoiler|isn't expected to live long enough to see his child. He does anyway.}}
* Forms the plot of the 2009 tearjerker ''[[The Greatest]]''. In this case, parents of a dead teen take in his pregnant girlfriend.
* Happens in the epilogue of Dario Argento's ''[[The Card Player]]''.
* ''[[Pearl Harbor]]'' leaves Our Heroine and Our Hero together with the [[Murder the Hypotenuse|Dead Hypotenuse's]] baby.
* In the third ''[[Hellraiser|Hellraiser III: Hell Onon Earth]]'' film, the Protagonistprotagonist's father died in [[WW 2]]WW2, before her birth. Her (apparently psychic) dreams of his death are used by Captain Elliot Spencer as a means of convincing her to help him stop his evil alter-ego, Pinhead.
* ''[[A Mighty Heart]]''{{context}}
* ''[[Braveheart]]''
* In the 2009 film ''Grace'', the father-to-be dies in a car accident. {{spoiler|The unborn child dies as well, but she gets better...sort of.}}
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* This is the surprise twist at the end of ''Crush'': Kate is revealed to be pregnant with Jed's baby. It is the only reason the movie avoids an unbelievably [[Downer Ending]].
* ''People Will Talk'', this is the basis for the plot with the added complication that they never married. When the doctor tells her about her pregnancy, she is so distraught about having to break her father's heart and admit to premarital sex that she attempts suicide. The doctor tells her that there was a mix-up with the tests and she wasn't pregnant, then proposes so that when she does have the baby, there will be nothing shameful (except the fact that she will give birth about seven months after the wedding, which no one seems to notice.)
 
 
== Literature ==
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* In the [[Backstory]] to [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|Gods of Mars]]'', Deijah Thoris was consoled for losing John Carter with his son, Cathoris. It was when Cathoris vanished as well that she did something foolish.
* ''[[Cold Mountain]]'': {{spoiler|between Inman and Ada}}. Apparently this is [[Truth in Television|based off of the real conception of the author's great-great aunt, but still.]]
** This book contains multiple examples of this trope. Again, its use is somewhat justified--itjustified—it takes place during the American Civil War, prior to which [[You Don't Want to Die a Virgin, Do You?|many]] [[Now or Never Kiss|couples were married]]--and—and then, of course, many of the guys didn't come back...
* Similar to the midpoint of ''The Thorn Birds'', where Meggie becomes pregnant by {{spoiler|Father Ralph just before he leaves her and returns to the Church}} and specifically says that this baby will be a part of him that she can keep. The child becomes one of the two major protagonists of the second half of the novel, and is a prime example of the "[[Turn Out Like His Father]]" trope.
* After Claire leaves Jamie in the 1700s, their daughter Brianna fills this role at the end of the second book in the ''[[Outlander (novel)|Outlander]]'' series.
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* Subverted at the end of ''[[Mirai Sentai Timeranger]]'', where Honami Moriyama gives birth to the child of Domon/TimeYellow. Why is it a subversion? {{spoiler|Because Domon doesn't really die, he just goes back to his time.}}
* In the ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "Taking the Stone", one of the young hedonists, Das, leaves behind a pregnant girlfriend after committing ritual suicide. It isn't considered a tragedy (at least, by the hedonists), since their society demanded it, and the alternative was becoming an outcast and slowly dying of radiation poisoning. The girlfriend isn't affected at first, though, despite being heavily pregnant, later tries to get drunk.
* Invoked in-universe in ''[[Flash Forward 2009|FlashForward]]'': Demetri Noh, having seen nothing in his flashforward, fears he's doomed to die. Janis, his lesbian coworker, laments that she won't conceive a child in time to have the sonogram/pregnancy she sees in her flashforward. Demetri proposes sleeping together so that he can have a kid before he dies, and she will get her baby.
* Played with in an episode of ''[[Chicago Hope]]''. A woman suffers a miscarriage and her husband dies of a heart attack on the same day. She convinces the doctors to artificially inseminate her with her husband's sperm before they too die off and she successfully becomes pregnant.
* ''[[The Shadow Line]]'' has {{spoiler|Jonah Gabriel's wife, who gives birth to his son after he's been shot dead.}}
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* After completing the bonus dungeon in [[Dragon Quest VIII]], {{spoiler|the origins of [[The Hero]] are revealed: a girl from the Dragovian Tribe visited the human world and fell in love with a human prince. The girl's father disapproved of their courting, and took his daughter away, back to the Dragovian Village. The prince searched all over the world for his lost love, eventually dying just before he could reach the village. The girl was heartbroken, but soon after she received word of his demise, she discovered she was pregnant with [[The Hero|his child]]...}}
* [[Metal Gear Solid]]: While it has been known that {{spoiler|Solid Snake is a clone of Big Boss}} very early on in the series, it's revealed near the end of the series that {{spoiler|he wasn't grown in a test tube but inside an actual woman. The clones were created by the Patriots when Big Boss appeared to be mortally wounded and the woman who volunteered was his occasional girlfriend EVA.}}
* ''[[Honkai Impact 3rd]]'' has a gender-flipped take from the supplementary comics: {{spoiler|Dr MEI dies from Honkai exposure before Kevin can return from the failed battle against the Herrscher of the End on the Moon, but not before creating a baby from their genes. This child, who Kevin names Adam, follows him and the other survivors into cryosleep and later becomes the progenitor of the Kaslana [[Heroic Lineage]].}}
 
 
== Web Comics ==
* A decidedly skewed version occurs at the end of ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky]]'': After Walky's heroic sacrifice, Joe mentions that they may be able to resurrect him using [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]], but only if they can find a complete genetic sample. Cut to Walky's deeply religious (and canonically virginal) girlfriend Joyce looking ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20121030165530/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20041017.html extremely]'' embarrassed.
* In the [[Backstory]] of ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', for the black dragon and his mother.
* ''[[Fans]]!'' has a two-in-one: the time-travelling Joseph Oberf was born after both his father (Rikk) and his genetic mother (Rumy) were killed, since he was implanted as a fetus in his birth mother (Ally).
* Suspecting he might die if he goes off to war, Candi invokes this trope by trying to get herself pregnant with Donte's child in the [[Ciem Webcomic Series]]. In the books, she attempts the same ploy ''twice.'' The world needs an Emeraldon. And if the last one dies without having children, she fears the worst for everyone's future. Both times she attempts it, the attempt fails. When he accidentally knocks her up some time later, it nearly leads to disaster.
* It was hinted in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' from the moment the "fairy" Immortal calling herself Pandora used "Raven" as a part of her assumed name, that not only Raven is her son, but she didn't "reset" into the next life for too long mainly because she still didn't make peace with the idea of her time with Blaike becoming a distant memory akin to "reading a memoir". Later, she explicitly confirmed this. Adrian wasn't newborn, but still about 10 when his father was killed, which is why she had to stay around and care for him, which contributed to her excessive protectiveness, and the whole mess of mistakes and attempts to fix them.
 
 
== Web Original ==
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== Western Animation ==
* An episode of ''[[Clone High]]'' uses this trope at the end of a film Abe Lincoln made.
{{quote| '''Girl''': I have your baby in me, Giraffe!}}
* In both versions of ''He-Man'', this is the origin of the Sorceress's daughter (who is revealed to be Teela).
 
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* Singer [[Roza Rymbaeva]] was seven months pregnant with her second child when her husband suddenly died of a heart attack.
* Broadway actress and singer [[La Chanze]] was eight months pregnant when her husband was killed in the 9/11 attacks.
** Speaking of 9/11, People Magazine recently did an article on [https://web.archive.org/web/20130928025417/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20524377,00.html children born after their fathers had perished in the attacks.]
* Ethel Kennedy had her 11th child six months after RFK's assassination.
* Buddy Holly's wife was pregnant with their first child in 1959, when an airplane carrying Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper crashed in Iowa and killed everyone onboard. In a sad subversion of the trope, she miscarried soon after his death.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Big Valley]]
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Romance Arc]]
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[[Category:Romantic Resolutions]]
[[Category:Women Are Delicate]]
[[Category:Son of Trope Daughter of Index]]
[[Category:Ending Tropes]]
[[Category:Someone to Remember Him By{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Son of Trope, Daughter of Index]]