Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

''[[Trope Namer|And miles to go before I sleep.]]''|'''Robert Frost''', "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"}}

 

 

* After seeing his wife and child crucified and losing his freedom, Maximus of ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]'' seems to view his quest for vengeance against Commodus this way:

'''Juba:''' "You will meet them again. But not yet. Not yet." }}

* Frodo and Sam in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' - see under [[Literature]]. Somewhat less explicit in the movie, but the commentary points out that a scene in which a vision of Galadriel pulls Frodo to his feet after he collapses and tells him that he must continue seems hopeful, but is also cruel because the exhausted Frodo "can't even die."

* The ''[[Bolo]]'' short story ''Miles To Go''. Bolo Nike has had her beloved commander murdered, and has had an unstoppable virus destroying her computer core activated by the renegade officer who killed him. Quoting the poem listed at the top of the page, she turns upon the army trying to conquer the planet she is based on. By the time the virus destroys her main processor, she has done so much damage to the invading army that the severely understrength planetary militia can finish the job.

* In [[Zeroth Law|Shakespeare's]] [[Hamlet]], Horatio tries to finish off the poison and die beside Hamlet. Hamlet stops him, asking him by the love he has for Hamlet to live to tell the story of what happened.

To tell my story. . . }}

* The House of Responsible Life from the [[Liavek]] anthologies is a religion built around this trope. The members of the religion (popularly known as [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|the Green Priests]]) are sworn to kill themselves, but only after discharging all worldly obligations. Very few of them get around to it, and at least one eventually decides that living is worth it after all.

* Towards the end of season five of ''[[Supernatural]]'' Dean is sick and tired of fighting, and just wants to die...but the angels have made it clear they'd just bring him back. His only out is to agree to {{spoiler|participate in the apocalypse}}, which he won't do because of the collateral damage. {{spoiler|Lucifer}} makes much the same threat to Sam.

* The ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode "Comes the Inquisitor", Sheridan and Delenn are tested by an inquisitor sent by the Vorlons, eventually revealed to be {{spoiler|Jack the Ripper.}} He is depicted as having acted in part out of moral judgementalism, and as a result was picked up by the Vorlons in a random act of poetic justice, and forced to sort out the truly righteous from the simply self-righteous.

 

== Manhwa ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM0sTNtWDiI But I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more, just to be the man who walked 1000 miles to fall down at your door.]

* ''Stay Close Sit Tight'' by Malcolm Middleton:

Start with the kitchen, the bedroom, then my family }}

 

* ''[[Warhammer]]'' gives us Baragor, the so-called [[Death Seeker|Slayer King.]] Rather than going to seek his glorious death in battle like the rest of the Slayers, he's forced to run his city-state. His solution is to turn his city into a home for Slayers. [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|Warhammer Dwarves being what they are,]] ''all of Baragor's sons for five generations'' have become [[Death Seeker|Slayers]] themselves.

* In the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons supplement ''The Book of Erotic Fantasy'' (a 3rd party supplement dealing expressly with sex and all its aspects in the terms of the d20 system), there is a spell called ''Shadow Life''. It is distinctly separate from the theme of the rest of the book, as on its own it has no sexual connotations. It grants the target ( a recently-dead character) one extra day of life for every level the caster has. The flavor text is especially poignant.

 

== Video Games ==