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You Are Worth Hell: Difference between revisions
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You find yourself facing the pearly gates after having fought valiantly against the forces of evil. St. Peter says you have earned eternal happiness, and lets the gates swing free to allow you to collect. You begin to walk forward, but something stops you. You look around. Something is missing, or rather, someone. "Someone was fighting beside me," you say to the saint. "Someone who means everything to me. Where are they?" St. Peter hesitates momentarily then says "They were not worthy as you are, and have gone to... [[Hell|the other place]]. Forget them and receive eternal bliss." Your response is "Go to hell! No, wait... Send me there".
The specifics aren't actually important; it's the sentiment that counts. True love and loyalty in its purest form, where the only actual "[[Fate Worse Than Death]]" is being separated from the ones you care about, and everything else is worth it as long as they are there with you.
It could be Hell, Purgatory, [[The Nothing After Death]], [[And I Must Scream]], or just a Siberian prison--if it's a choice between enduring such a fate with them or being alone and free, you will choose the terrible fate every time. To sum up, somehow or another two [[True Companions|or more]] people will also join facing what is quite likely the end of everything, thus expressing the message that [[You Are Not Alone]].
Although sometimes it isn't actually a choice -- it's a [[Downer Ending]] where everyone is doomed anyway, and they are simply affirming their acceptance and love for each other by agreeing that even oblivion is not such a terrible thing, so long as they're together.
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{{examples}}
== Advertisements ==
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== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': Sango refuses to leave a poisoned Miroku and save herself from [[Youkai]] chasing them inside Mount Hakurei. {{spoiler|Near the end of the manga, when it seems that Miroku's curse will finally kill him, Sango says "Take me with you."}}
* At the end of the ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' anime, the [[Big Bad]] arrives in hell - along with his mistress, and his main organizer. And decide that, hey, since they're all there, they might as well take over the joint!
* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', the ending for Sensui and his lover.
* Sara and Gaito's fate in ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' is totally an example of this trope, not to mention a complete Tear Jerker. In the anime, they're shown embracing as Gaito's castle collapses around them.
* The manga version of ''[[Kannazuki no Miko]]'' has {{spoiler|Himeko joining Chikane in the shrine on the moon where the latter was supposed to be imprisoned in alone.}}
* ''[[Uzumaki]]'' ends with this. Which, [[Nightmare Fetishist|to some]], makes it a [[Bittersweet Ending]].
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** In the former, Robin trades her life to let the rest of the crew continue on their adventure, keeping a promise she had made. This strains the crew, but they all pull together and finally call out to her, right to the point of declaring ''war'' on the World Government for her sake.
** In the latter, Luffy finds out {{spoiler|Ace has been captured, and is about to be executed. He goes through every level of the hell-like prison, fighting opponents that put him to the brink of death, and barely slips past dying at the cost of many years of his life - just to barely miss Ace as he's sent to Marineford. After causing a huge break out in the prison and losing valuable allies who sacrificed themselves, Luffy winds up in the middle of the war between Whitebeard and the marines, where ultimately, Ace sacrifices himself to save Luffy.}}
* In episode 1 of ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'', Index asks Touma if he would follow her all the way to Hell, but he refuses. In episode 2, as Index is dying, Touma declares that he's not going to follow her to Hell, he going to pull her out, and saves her.
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'''Homer''': [[Subverted Trope|Everything but the groin beetles]]. }}
* The original ''[[Sin City]]'' story has [[Badass|Marv]] respond to a taunt by declaring that someone is "Worth killing for. Worth dying for. Worth going to Hell for."
* In ''[[Spider-Man]]: [[One More Day]],'' Mephisto laments on how he will often have someone sell their soul to him for a righteous cause, only for them to spend eternity in Hell, suffering nobly because the result of their bargain gives them strength enough to persevere. Which is the half-assed justification for why Mephisto wants Peter Parker's marriage, not his immortal soul.
* Played brutally straight in ''[[Hellblazer]]''. The First of the Fallen offers a virtuous soul a chance to escape Hell for free, but points out that her husband's just committed suicide after killing her in the first place. The First freely admits that she, too, will be tortured for eternity if she stays. She does.
* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', when Rayek makes himself into a living prison for Winnowill' soul, Savah ''immediately'' follows him so that they can [[Walk the Earth]] together for all eternity. Rayek is moved, but tells her she has no place in his new life. His mentor Ekuar follows him instead. It's also somewhat implied that Rayek trapping Winnowill inside him is not just to save the world, but also because he doesn't want to live without her -- even as her living prison, he loves her, and would rather suffer a living hell for all eternity than be without her.
* Played with by Kid Devil in ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]''. He made a [[Deal with the Devil]] Neron in order to get superpowers, and at the time thought that he would keep his soul, as long as he trusted [[Blue Devil]]. When he lost that trust, he was devastated since now he ''would'' lose his soul when he turned twenty. However, after losing his powers, Eddie almost made the same deal again with the demoness Blaze, this time with no strings attached. Kid Devil ''was willing to damn his soul to Hell to be a superhero.'' The soul of his dead Aunt Marla managed to convince him otherwise.
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** This should not be believable, but kind of is, because canon Misa is some kind of hystrionic psychopath who has no capacity for empathy and whose delusional romantic attachments have the capacity to completely overwhelm her sense of self-preservation.
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4975814/1/My_Wish_Order_Brother this] [[Naruto]] story, [[Mad Bomber|Dei]][[Mad Artist|dara]] dies and is headed into hell, but Naruto refuses to let his big brother go{{spoiler|, at first trying to drag him free but eventually deciding to go with him so he won't be}} alone.
* MANY fixfics have been written about [[One More Day]] and feature the plot of either Peter or MJ fighting Mesphito to save the other. You'd think Marvel would take the hint...
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6901411/1/The_agent this] rather depressing ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' fic, after {{spoiler|he loses all the girls he loved}}, Xander actively tries to damn himself so that {{spoiler|Anya, who killed without remorse for a thousand years, will not be alone in Hell.}}
* Several ''[[Supernatural]]'' fanfics have Sam taking on the role of Boy King of Hell because he cannot bear to be parted from his brother and because he wants to make Dean's experience less horrific.
== Films ==
* ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]]'' series.
** Occurred creepily with the villains at the end of the first movie. Ilsa tells her lover Rasputin that even hell itself will hold no surprises for them moments before they're crushed into oblivion. (The scariest thing is, you believe her).
*** [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|She was scarier as]] [[Fan Wank|an Iron Maiden incarnating the goddess Hecate]].
** ''[[Hellboy II|HellBoy II: The Golden Army]]'' does something similar, when the fallen angel insists that Hellboy will bring about [[The End of the World as We Know It]], and his girlfriend decides to resurrect him anyway. Not sure if it qualifies, though. The angel did warn that she will the suffer the most for her decision.
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*** Given he has not managed to [[Anti-Anti-Christ|effectively abdicate]] his destiny as Anung Un Rama, the leader of Hell's armies and bringer of the Apocalypse, they're right to worry.
* This effect happens towards the end of ''[[What Dreams May Come]]'', when Chris {{spoiler|finds the spirit of his dead wife locked in her own personal hell. He is unable to coax her out of it, so he decides to stay with her for eternity because he loves her that much.}}
** And {{spoiler|the sight of him sacrificing himself rouses his wife out of her fugue state sufficiently to free him in return.}}
* At the end of the 1988 movie ''Miracle Mile,'' {{spoiler|as Harry and Julie sink into the tar pits amid a nuclear holocaust he might have escaped if he hadn't gone back to save her, she suggests that maybe they'll be metamorphosized (sic) into diamonds by the heat and pressure. "Diamonds...You and me, Harry." To which he responds (the last line of the film), "You and me. Diamonds."}}
* ''Dark Angel: The Ascent'': If a demoness and her love are separated he promises that he would do something so terrible that judgment will have no choice but to let them be together in hell.
* This sort of happens in ''[[Constantine]]''. The title character {{spoiler|kills himself, aware that suicide would condemn him to hell even if he weren't already guaranteed to end up there, in order to contact Satan so as to save Angela from being used as a vessel for the anti-Christ to come to earth. This is as much to prevent the apocalypse as to save Angela specifically: what tips it into this trope is that when Lucifer offers Constantine a favor in return for tipping him off to his son's unauthorized shenanigans, Constantine asks for Angela's sister's soul to be released from hell instead of for anything that would benefit him personally. (As it turns out, the selflessness of these acts earns Constantine a ticket to heaven - and Lucifer, not willing to lose the chance to claim Constantine's soul, prolongs his life to give him another chance to damn himself later - but Constantine wasn't expecting either of these things to happen when he opened up his wrists, so it still counts.)}}
* At the end of ''[[Rodan]]'', the military manages to kill the first Rodan by triggering a volcanic eruption. Unable to live without its mate, the second flies into the volcano and dies along with it.
* Of course in [[Muppet Treasure Island]], Kermit and Miss Piggy sing "Love Led Us Here" as they are hanging off a cliff and about to fall to their death.
{{quote|So take my hand, and have no fear.
We'll be alright.
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"Joys in another's loss of ease,
"And builds a hell in heaven's despite." }}
* Subverted in Dante's ''[[Divine Comedy|Inferno]]'', in which souls punished for sins of lust are bound forever to their [[Star-Crossed Lovers]], yet this only adds to their torment by serving as a perpetual reminder of their sins.
* Possibly the oldest rendition of this is found in the tale of ''Tristan And Isolde'', particularly Isolde, who willingly commits adultery, a mortal sin at the time, accepting eternal damnation for in exchange for even temporary enjoyment of her love for Tristan. This story and the idea of [[The Power of Love|love being able to overcome even eternal torment]] is credited by many as being possibly the origin of the concept of romantic love in the Western world.
* In ''[[His Dark Materials]]'', {{spoiler|Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter. ''Falling for all eternity'' into the Abyss, without even a chance for their ghosts to reach the afterlife, because they're already ''in'' the Land of the Dead. There is hope, though - Xaphania implies that the angels will seal up the Abyss, and presumably free Asriel and Coulter to die properly}}.
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{{quote|'''Buttercup:''' My preference would be to spend eternity at his side [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|on a cloud]], but Hell would also be a lark if Westley were there.}}
* In a variation on this trope, Huck in ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' believes that if he doesn't turn in his pal Jim, who is escaping from slavery, he (Huck) will be damned. Huck decides: "All right then, I'll ''go'' to Hell!"
* At the end of ''[[Count and Countess]]'', when Elizabeth Bathory has been arrested on murder charges and sentenced to death, Vlad Dracula surrenders himself to the Holy Roman Emperor of his time period in a [[Suicide by Cop]] move. He states outright that he is following her into Hell. And he spent the entirety of the preceding novel being a [[Church Militant|fierce, God-fearing Christian]].
* In Dean Koontz's ''[[The Bad Place]]'', {{spoiler|Clint shoots himself on the bed where he laid his now-deceased wife, right in front of [[Big Bad|Candy]], who killed her. [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|Candy, naturally, doesn't get why he did that.]]}}
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== Mythology & Religion ==
* In the ''Mahabharata'', after a long series of tests, Yudishthira is admitted to heaven to find that his enemies are there, while his brothers and friends are suffering in hell. He declines heaven, deciding that it is better to remain with his companions, even in hell. This turns out to be a [[Secret Test of Character]], and everyone receives heaven. The possibility that his "friends" could have been evil spirits trying to tempt him away from goodness is apparently not addressed.
** Hindu demons have nothing to gain by trying to trick a virtuous soul into going to Hell. They don't run it. The just and righteous god Yama does. While Yama might be willing to admit someone who, for whatever reason, comes to Hell willingly, he would surely refuse to accept someone there on false pretenses.
* In Greek Mythology, twin brothers Castor and Pollux believe themselves to be [[Divine Parentage|half-god, half-human]]...until they die, and one goes to Mount Olympus, and the other to Hades. Turns out only Pollux was the child of Zeus, while Castor was completely mortal, thanks to complications involving shapeshifting and infidelity. (And Ancient Greek beliefs about twins, though theoretically it's perfectly possible for this to happen to fraternal twins.) With Zeus's help, Pollux donates half of his godhood to Castor so that the two can be together, even though they'll have to spend half their time in Hades. Hades isn't so bad, though, if you're virtuous. The Elysian Fields are there, as well as a possibility of reincarnation.
** Less 'virtuous' than 'just that awesome.' The Elysian Fields are more thinly populated than a Calvinist's Heaven.
* In Norse mythology, we have the bright god Baldur, son of Odin and Frigg, husband of Nanna, father of Forseti. Most everyone knows the story of Baldur's death (Loki tricks blind god Hod into launching mistletoe at Baldur, killing him instantly, giving him a one-way ticket to Helheim). Not many people realize, however, that in certain tellings of the story, Nanna joins her husband, after dying from a broken heart. It's okay, though; after Ragnarok, they get better.
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* In stage productions of ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]'' this trope is slightly used along with the traditional [[Together in Death]]. In the musical number at the finale, {{spoiler|the four main characters' faces appear in pods on the side of the plant; still alive. They don't seem to mind it all that much, singing a one-line reprise of the [[Cut Song]] We'll Have Tomorrow.}}
* Inverted in Sartre's ''No Exit'': "Hell" consists simply of eternity in a room with three incompatible people. Anytime two of them start to get along, the odd one out will sabotage it. "Hell is other people."
* [[Mark Twain|Mark Twain's]] quip about choosing "Heaven for the climate, and Hell for the society" could perhaps fit as a page quote.
* In Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', when Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned, Lear (who admittedly was losing his mind by this point) is happy enough about the idea of prison because it means he and his daughter will be together: "let's away to prison ; We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage"
* In [[Richard Wagner]]'s opera ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen|Die Walkure]]'', Siegmund rejects eternal glory in Valhalla rather than be separated from wife/sister Sieglinde.
* Although technically [[Together in Death]], Verdi's opera, ''Aida'' invokes elements of this trope. Instead of escaping slavery and returning to her homeland, Aida chooses to be entombed alive with her lover Radames (without his knowledge until it's too late). The staging is very suggestive of heaven and hell (at least to this troper), with the lower portion of the stage representing the vault, and the upper portion representing an aboveground temple.
* Shakespeare's [[Hamlet]] almost ends up with no survivors at all, when Horatio attempts to poison himself and die with Hamlet. It's only Hamlet's intervention that stops it.
== Videogames ==
* [[Legend of Mana]] takes a turn this direction with the culmination of {{spoiler|Irwin and Matilda's}} story. {{spoiler|However, when she greets him in the underworld, he simply leaves her alone without a word, averting it at the last moment.}}
* This is, basically, the "Normal" ending of ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]''. If you failed to collect the Mask of the Betrayer, you can choose to bind the Soul Eater to yourself... And in return be forced to remain within the Fugue Plane forever. If you completed the [[Romance Sidequest]] your beloved will stay with you.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' - In the very long and optional Kafei and Anju sidequest, actually completing the quest will lead to reuniting the lovers [[Just Before the End|during the last two hours of the third day]]. They choose to stay [[Tear Jerker|together]], in the middle of an abandoned town with the [[Colony Drop|moon]] less than 2 hours from [[Earthshattering Kaboom|impact]], fully aware they will probably not live to see the morning. Because it deserves quoting yet again, from the [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] page:
{{quote|'''Anju''': "Go ahead. We'll stay here and greet the dawn...together."
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** After Kasumi's mission, she is asked to destroy her lover's memories, [[Dead Man Writing|by her lover's memories]]. She can choose to keep them although she will be relentlessly hunted for it, since the memories include data that could get the Alliance in major trouble if the Council finds out about it.
* At the end of the Witch Hunt DLC for ''[[Dragon Age|Dragon Age Origins]]'', the Warden can respond to Morrigan's insistence that he shouldn't follow her without knowing anything about where she's going that he doesn't care where they end up, so long as they're together.
* Used partly in the finale of ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''. Having {{spoiler|regained his mortality}} the main hero must face the consequences of his actions he'd been avoiding for so long and join the never-ending Blood War raging in Hell. His [[Love Interest]] Fall-from-Grace promises to find him there.
* ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' has Gwendolyn, who storms into the land of the dead and defeats its queen to get her husband back.
* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has this happen to {{spoiler|Fang and Vanille, becoming crystals holding up Cocoon.}}
* [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|Quite similar]] to [[Kannazuki no Miko|Himiko and Chikane]] above, in ''[[Aoi Shiro]]'' Syouko can {{spoiler|follow Yasumi who is taking the [[Artifact of Doom|<<Sword>>]] to the bottom of the ocean and into the titular Blue Castle, a place where there is a chaos so powerful it's enough to unravel souls}}.
* Given something of a dark twist in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'': In one of the endings, the main villain manages to conquer most of the world, and nearly destroys it. Danette and the main character are both killed and their souls are imprisoned together in the Onyx Blade for all eternity, with the implication that this means that things won't be ''that'' bad for them. As for the twist... {{spoiler|The ending in question is the good ending of the Demon Path, and said villain, who killed Danette, was ''you''. After your defeat, the victorious heroes who opposed you seal your soul inside of the Onyx Blade as punishment for your misdeeds. Danette, who still cares for you in spite of all you've done, volunteers to have her disembodied soul imprisoned inside the blade with you, so you won't have to be all alone in there and possibly get better. Awwwww...}}
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts|Kingdom Hearts 2]]'' - After kicking the final boss's ass, {{spoiler|Sora}} and a wounded {{spoiler|Riku}} are left alone on a beach in the World of Darkness. Cue the [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] as they accept their fate, willing to be the dark side of the world's coin to protect the light from any further threats. {{spoiler|They come back, though.}}
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]'' had Dr. Ohnn's lover, the scientist who had worked with him (a plant by the Kingpin but made a [[Heel Face Turn]]), choose to join him when he was forced to close the portal that was threatening New York from within, being trapped forever.
* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Galaxy Rangers]]'' - The plotline of "Psychocrypt". Zach ''knows'' it's a suicide mission. He knows the result will likely be joining Eliza in the [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. The alternative is letting himself and his wife endure [[Mind Rape]] on a nightly basis until she's dead. The fact his [[True Companions]] are willing to destroy their careers (and, in Shane's case, throw away his life) to help him on this [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|makes it all the more poignant]].
* In Disney's ''[[Pocahontas]]'', "I would rather die tomorrow, than live a hundred years without knowing you."
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[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Love Tropes]]
[[Category:Infernal Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Tear Jerker]]
[[Category:Afterlife Tropes]]
[[Category:You Are Worth Hell]]
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