The Promised Land/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A perfect land in which there is nothing but goodness for the characters. Getting there is usually a driving force the characters.

  • Straight: Somewhere, there is a land in which the land is fertile, the water is clean, the skies are clear, and anyone can be successful.
  • Exaggerated: Candy, dollar bills, and unicorns fall from the sky.
  • Justified: Compared to the old world, this really is a Promised Land.
  • Inverted: The characters leave The Promised Land to the bad lands.
  • Subverted: The Promised Land doesn't really exist, or is not as good as people make it out to be.
  • Double Subverted: But it turns out the Promised Land is actually a good place, or there is a even better one out there.
  • Parodied: The Promised Land is extremely perfect, with nothing but sunshine and rainbows.
  • Deconstructed: The Promised Land doesn't really exist. It is either a myth or legend that really wasn't true that was told to bring hope to people, or it is created by corrupt leaders in order to control the populace. It can also exist in all of its glory, but is only available to the very rich and/or powerful, and/or can only be accessed at a great cost.
    • Unicorns fall, everyone dies.
  • Reconstructed: The Promised Land is not what people made it out to be, but compared to the world the characters came from, it is a much better place and provides hope for a better life, or another previously unknown location can serve as The Promised Land.
  • Zig Zagged: Is The Promised Land really a good place? Or is a Crap Saccharine World in disguise? Or is the The Promised Land even real?
  • Averted: There is only the Crapsack World. There is no Promised Land. Or, in a less negative version, the world that the characters live in is alright, and doesn't need a Promised Land.
  • Enforced: The producers wanted a happy ending or a hope-filled story.
  • Lampshaded: Characters question the reality of such a place, or cynically mention how no one can get there through normal means. Another variant is when the characters refer to it as The Promised Land.
  • Invoked: The world that the characters live in is horrible. Then they hear of a possibly better place and the better life it could bring, causing them to name it as their Promised Land.
  • Exploited: This trope occurs, and a Genre Savvy Character takes advantage of that fact.
  • Defied: A Genre Savvy Character sets up a situation where the trope cannot occur.
  • Discussed: The characters talk about what they heard about The Promised Land, and/or you have some characters that doubt if it is real or not.
  • Conversed: Characters talk about how characters in a certain work reached The Promised Land, usually to help boost morale.
  • Played For Laughs: The paradise of The Promised Land is too cute and nice to the point of sickness.
  • Played For Drama: See Deconstructed.
  • Plotted A Good Waste: ???
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