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Someone to Remember Him By: Difference between revisions
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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--or at all--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
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 sometimes both, as [[Changing of the Guard]] occurs.
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* [[
* 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 ''[[
* [[The Wise Prince|Emperor Hotohori]] in ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' can fall under this trope. Though he was officially married and the pregnancy wasn't necessarily discovered ''after'' his death, the whole point of '''having''' the child was to leave behind an heir '''in case he died''' in the battle {{spoiler|with Kutou.}}
** And the child looks ''remarkably'' like him as well!
* Possibly ''[[Inverted Trope|inverted]]'' in the backstory of ''[[
* {{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 ''[[Nanoha As]]''. Following the [[Heroic Sacrifice]]-slash-[[Suicide
* 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 ''[[
* 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 ''[[
== [[Comics]] ==
* The Wash one-shot "Float Out" of the ''[[
* 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...
** That's even the point - she wants his baby to remember him by, even though she knows (and he warns her) how terrible life is for an unwed mother.
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* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' badfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3739288/1/Lisa_is_Pregnant Lisa Is Pregnant]'', Bart dies while trying to keep Lisa from freezing to death by having sex with her. This results in her getting pregnant, and Marge opposes Lisa getting an abortion because the last living part of her child is inside Lisa, causing Lisa to change her mind and have the baby out of respect for Bart.
* The ''[[Titanic]]'' fandom uses this trope all the time, on the assumption that Jack ''could've'' gotten Rose pregnant when they [[Auto Erotica|made love in that Model T]].
* ''[[
** It's now canon.
*** '''''YES!!!!!!!!!'''''
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* ''[[Austin Powers]]'', the supposed reason why Scott was created. It would later turn out to be not totally true.
* ''[[Candyman Farewell to The Flesh]]''. Paul dies, but not before leaving Annie a parting gift.
** The [[
* ''[[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}}.
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* In ''Taking Lives'', after taking out the cereal 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 litterally as he finishes and he soon dies while escaping, after losing the box. It turns out {{spoiler|that he's the decendant 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 (
* 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 ''[[
* In ''[[Starman (
* ''[[The Painted Veil]]''. In the book, [[Your Cheating Heart|it isn't his]]. In the movie it's unclear.
* In ''[[Demonic Toys]]'', a cop tells her boyfriend (also a cop) about her pregnancy right before a drug bust. You can pretty much guess what happened right afterwards.
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* The 2009 remake of [[Children of the Corn]], the movie ends with a proclamation that the cult's "age of sacrifice" has been lowered from 19 to 18. [[The Dragon|Enforcer]] Malachai is clearly one of the people who is now too old to live and resigns himself to his fate, leaving behind a very upset wife with a bulging belly.
** Also Implied: The movie features an occult ceremony deemed ''"The time of fertilization"'' by the [[Creepy Child]] high priest leading it. The ceremony includes a very vocal sex scene between two non-speaking unnamed extras. It is strongly implied that the woman gets pregnant from this. Her ceremonial sperm donor mightn't have a name, but he is addressed in the credits as "The oldest boy". So if other members of the clan were past the age of sacrifice, obviously the oldest boy must be, too.
* In the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (
** 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.}}
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== Literature ==
* ''The Shadow in the North'' by [[Philip Pullman]]. Though this does address the "unwed mother in 1870s England" issue by making the custody of Sally's child a plot point in the next book.
* {{spoiler|Seren Pedac}} in ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen|Reaper's Gale]]'' after {{spoiler|Trull Sengar}} has a particularly random [[Dropped a Bridge
* ''The High Lord'' by Trudi Canavan
* In "Gone With the Wind", after Scarlett's first husband dies she has his son. Subverted in that Scarlett is actually annoyed at how people keep saying how lucky she is to have something to remember her husband by.
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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--it takes place during the American Civil War, prior to which [[You Don't Want to Die
* 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 (
* At the beginning of ''Private Wars'', Tara Chace learns she is pregnant by her lover Tom Wallace, who died at the end of ''A Gentleman's Game''.
* In ''The Rapture of Canaan'', {{spoiler|James commits suicide out of fear when he learns that he is the father of Ninah's unborn child.}}
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* ''[[A Thread of Grace]]'': Claudia and her fiance play this trope very straight at first. They get married, have sex (her first time), and he dies in an attempt to save the local townspeople. They even marry knowing that he's likely going to be dead by the end of the week. {{spoiler|Tragically subverted in that the child is born premature and dies two days later.}}
* Inverted in [[Douglas Coupland]]'s ''Girlfriend In A Coma'', as Karen, the titular girlfriend gives birth while in a coma, giving her boyfriend someone to remember her by.
* Played with in ''The [[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', in that Cimorene's pregnancy was revealed well before there was any hint that anything would happen to Mendanbar, and that he's not actually dead, simply [[Sealed Good in
* Anthony Trollope's ''Barchester Chronicles'' opens with Eleanor's husband having died between books, leaving Eleanor completely devestated. Until their baby was born. "And thus the widow's deep grief was softened, and a sweet balm was poured into the wound which she had thought nothing but death could heal."
* Malorie Blackman's ''[[Noughts and Crosses]]'' - a pretty big plot point towards the end, with a bit of a twist. {{spoiler|Callum gets Sephy pregnant, and soon after gets arrested for terrorism and raping Sephy (the latter is a lie, it was consensual) but Sephy's dad, a high-ranking government official, offers them a choice: he will free Callum if Sephy has an abortion, or if she keeps the baby, Callum will be hung. They choose the latter, resulting in this trope and a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of sorts from Callum.}}
* In [[The Witcher]] cycle, it appears at least some elves believe in it. Justified in that their numbers are limited, so those about to die make an attempt to remedy this. Possibly averted given low elven fertility, which could mean they see it as a variety of another trope, [[Last Dance]].
* ''[[
* In ''Beyond the Summerland'', the first book of L.B. Graham's ''The Binding of the Blade'' series, {{spoiler|Joraiem}} is murdered right after the end of his and {{spoiler|Wylla}}'s honeymoon; in the epilogue, when they are bringing his dead body home to his parents, we find out that {{spoiler|Wylla}} is pregnant with his baby.
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* Played straight in '''[[Skins]]'' with {{spoiler|Jal and Chris}} but then averted with {{spoiler|Jal getting an abortion}}
* Gender flipped at the end of ''[[MacGyver]]'', when {{spoiler|Mac discovers that the girl he loved and wanted to marry back in college had given birth to his son, and he now has someone to remember ''her'' by.}}
* Also gender flipped in ''[[Star Trek:
* Played straight at the end of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' with {{spoiler|Kasidy, who was revealed to be pregnant with Ben Sisko's child in an earlier episode}}
* 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 ''[[
* 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 ''[[
* ''[[
* Genderflipped in [[Angel]], where Darla dies giving birth to Connor.
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Mass Effect
** After the [[Time Skip]] in [[Mass Effect 2
* Played with in the ending of ''[[Overlord]]: Raising Hell''. After you complete the [[Bonus Level of Hell]] only to get stuck down there, the final cutscene shows [[The Dragon|Gnarl]] reminiscing on the sinister exploits of the [[Villain Protagonist]], and discovering that the Overlord's mistress is bearing the Overlord's child. "Evil always finds a way..."
* One of the more absurd examples occurs in ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius
** Possibly justified because {{spoiler|she's [[Our Dragons Are Different|a dragon]], and considering they live for thousands of years, gestation period could be really long.}}
*** The problem with that argument though {{spoiler|is that there is at least one other dragon that we know for sure had a child, and she definitely wasn't pregnant for over twenty years.}}
*** However, do note that {{spoiler|said dragon had lost her Laguz powers as a result of becoming pregnant.}}
*** {{spoiler|Her powers yes, but if Lehran is any indication, the biology of the laguz parent's non-shifted form doesn't change.}}
* The second campaign of ''[[
* Occurs in ''[[Ever 17]]''. {{spoiler|1=Tsugumi is pregnant with Takeshi's children after he dies on LeMU. However, subverted because [[Unexplained Recovery|he gets better]].}}
* Noh is implied to be pregnant in her ending for ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' 2, despite the fact that historically she never bore [[Oda Nobunaga]] any children.
* The ending of ''[[Muv
* In the "Severed" DLC for ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'' it is revealed {{spoiler|if you look near Harley's old outfit from the first game, there is a positive pregnancy test on the floor; [[The Joker]] dies at the end, making this a villainous example}}.
** Also, she can be heard briefly singing to {{spoiler|the baby}} during the credits at the end.
** However, the "Harley Quinn's Revenge" DLC heavily hints that {{spoiler|Harley is not actually pregnant, having instead gotten a false positive after many negative tests}}.
* [[Knights of the Old Republic]]: The canonical version is that LSM!Revan trucked off to the great unknown to fight the True Sith, never returning, and leaving Bastila knocked up (with the likely prospect of exile, among other consequences). Their descendant [[Identical Grandson|Satele Shan]] is a major NPC in [[Star
* After completing the bonus dungeon in [[
* [[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.}}
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