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To Absent Friends: Difference between revisions
"fanfiction" -> "fan works", italics on work names, potholes, moved "web original" example to "music", replaced dead link, deleted example which was a false global assertion about all roleplayers
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''Too many ghosts on the stairs.
''[[Grim Reaper|Charon]], here's to you as man against man,
''I wish I could pick 'em the way you can!''
|'''Grantland Rice'''}}
Two or more characters gather to grieve for a dead comrade, without a formalized structure. They reminiscence about the fallen, how much he will be missed—or has been missed.
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{{examples}}
== Anime
* In ''[[Death Note]]'' when {{spoiler|the real L, the [[Hero Antagonist]]}} dies, Light laughs on his grave, subverting this trope.
* Raizen's old comrades-in-arms gather at his grave with lots of sake and flowers in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]].''
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* {{spoiler|Maes Hughes'}} grave in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]''.
** There is a scene in [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime adaptation]] where his widow comes to visit the grave, only to discover that someone else has already left flowers. Yes, {{spoiler|Roy Mustang}}, we're looking at you.
* When {{spoiler|Wolfwood}} dies in the ''[[Trigun]]'' manga, he and Vash share a final drink while he goes in what effectively ''is'' his wake. Then, when Livio wakes up from healing the fight damage, Vash has made a vast quantity of spaghetti, and their spaghetti-eating is several symbolic things, including an affirmation of life, a signal of Vash's willingness to accept Livio, and a meal in honor of {{spoiler|Wolfwood}}. It is the saddest spaghetti ever.
** Vash also pours a bottle of whiskey off an observation platform in the anime version of Inepril. Not even clear just who he's honoring, but it's probably the dead in general. He has a lot of them.
* The end of ''[[Guilty Crown]]'' has this for {{spoiler|Hare,}} who died seven episodes earlier. The final episode features the surviving cast sitting together at a table with a cake that says "Happy Birthday {{spoiler|Hare}}" with an empty seat in front of it.
== Comic Books ==
* The focus of the first half of volume ten (appropriately titled the Wake) of ''[[The Sandman]]''.
** Also invoked in "Season of Mists".
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* In ''[[The Mighty Thor]]'', after Skurge the Executioner [[More Hero Than Thou|settles whether he or Thor]] will say [[You Shall Not Pass]] (by knocking out Thor), Skurge asks them to remember him at Asgard. Later, when Thor and Skurge meet in Hel, Skurge asks, and Thor is grieved to have to tell him that crises have kept them too busy to do so.
* This trope is the title to Chapter II in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', showing the funeral of the Comedian and how his attending colleagues remember him.
* ''[[The Flash
* At the end of ''Nexus: Alien Justice'', Horatio, Sundra, and Judah toast: "To absent friends and those still here. To justice, and home-brewed beer!" Something of a subversion, in that at least two of the friends they're toasting, Dave and GQ, are alive and well, just absent, and then GQ pops right back in just at that moment anyway.
== Fan
* In the ''[[
▲* In [[Chronicles Of The Crusade]], Sheridan, Garibaldi, Ivanova, Delenn, Vir and Franklin play this trope in the prologue.
== Film ==
* Played straight in ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock]]''.
** Not totally for Spock, as Bones was unable to attend the get-together due to his apparent breakdown a couple scenes before.
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== Literature ==
* Nearly universal in any sort of military fiction
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Only In Death'' after Gaunt's {{spoiler|apparent}} death, Larkin barges into Rawne's office although Rawne is the commander. They reminesce about their Founding and how few of them are left, whom Gaunt took off Tanith. Larkin proposes toast to "Old Ghosts"; Rawne, to "Staying alive"; and then, in unison, they toast "Ibram Gaunt."
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* [[John Ringo]] and [[David Weber]] have this as pretty much the toast whenever characters drink. Often the reason why people drink in the first place. Their joint series, [[Prince Roger]] has this in spades.
** Weber manages a particularly vicious subversion of this in [[Honor Harrington|''Echoes of Honor'']], when Honor's Mother's pregnancy has been announced and that therefore Honor's sibling will secede her as Steadholder Harrington. Admiral Yanakov asks to make a toast. One expects this trope to be invoked, and is instead given: {{spoiler|''"Your Grace, My Lords and Ladies, Ladies and Gentlemen all, I give you Steadholder Harrington....''and damnation to the Peeps!''"''}}
* In [[Jim Butcher]]'s ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Turn Coat'', {{spoiler|Morgan}} is officially denied a [[Meaningful Funeral]] as part of the coverup. They resort to an impromptu wake instead.
* [[Gentleman Bastard Sequence|Locke Lamora]] practices the Camorri tradition of "pouring a glass to air," setting out a drink for a friend who's gone—whether that means dead, or simply long absent.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[Beyond the Black River]]", [[Conan the Barbarian]] and the sole survivor of the fort discuss the deaths at the end, particularly Valannus and Balthus.
* The first book of the Invasion cycle in the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' books ends with this. The united forces of Dominaria have dealt a mighty defeat to the invading Phyrexians, and there's a massive celebration. But three men sit apart: Urza, {{spoiler|who lost longtime friend Barrin}}, Gerrard, {{spoiler|who lost his love Hanna}}, and Agnate, {{spoiler|who dealt a mercy kill to his 'brother' and comrade Thaddeus}}.
* In a few of
* In one episode of ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
▲* In one episode of ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'', Colonel Potter acts oddly. At the end, he reveals that he and some comrades had found some cognac in an abandoned French chateau during [[World War I]], saved the last bottle, and declared that the last survivor would drink a toast to the rest. Potter is now the last survivor, and draws in the MASH staff to hear his story and share the bottle.
▲* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' has this trope, like many others, to an art form. It's played quite frequently in the Viper rec room, especially. Apollo's retirement toast is an awesome example of the trope. (involving five shots of a potent drink—quite possibly [[Military Moonshiner|eau de flight deck]]):
{{quote|"To Galactica!" (Apollo takes a first shot amidst cheers)
"To the men and women of ''Galactica''!" (Apollo takes a second shot, amidst more cheers)
"To the Admiral..." (murmurs of approval) "who commands the men and women of Galactica!" (Apollo takes the third shot, with cheers of approval)
"To our sweethearts, husbands, and wives!" (Apollo downs the fourth shot, amidst the cheers of the previous toast. He then waits for the room to settle before delivering the final toast)
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** I just got goosebumps from reading that... ''and I've never even seen the show''.
** There's a great one in the season two episode "Scar," where Starbuck tries to toast all the deceased pilots by name/callsign. This one is especially moving given that she had earlier claimed that she didn't remember any of their names and didn't care to because they were dead and gone so who cares…
{{quote|'''Starbuck:''' To BB, Jo-Jo, Reilly, Beano, Dipper, Flat Top, Chuckles, Jolly, Crashdown, Sheppard, Dash, Flyboy, Stepchild, Puppet, Fireball...(stops, crying)
'''Apollo:''' To all of 'em.
'''Admiral Adama:''' So say we all.
'''Crew:''' So say we all.
'''Starbuck:''' So say we all. }}
* ''[[News Radio]]'' had one of these episodes for Phil Hartman's character [[The Character Died with Him|after Phil's real-life death]]. Despite the attempts of the writers to inject some humor into the scene it fell painfully flat as the cast was barely holding it together.
* ''[[Sesame Street]]''. Mister Hooper. That is all.
* ''[[Rescue Me]]'' does this fairly frequently (particularly the transition from [[Drowning My Sorrows]]), especially with respect to the firemen lost on 9/11 (a recurring theme, if not the central one of the show).
* At the end of ''[[Torchwood]]'' episode "Captain Jack Harkness", Jack and Tosh have a toast "To Captain Jack" in honor of the war hero whose identity Jack appropriated.
* In the final episode of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' Sheridan invites his surviving friends to have [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|dinner with him one last time]]. He then invokes the trope by name, and they name absent friends to toast to. Garibaldi names G'Kar, Vir names Londo, Delenn names Lennier, and Dr. Franklin and Ivanova name Marcus.
* ''[[The West Wing]]'' episode "Requiem" combines this with the [[Meaningful Funeral]] to provide a heartfelt (and [[Tear Jerker]]) send-off to Leo McGarry and, by extension, his actor John Spencer. Combined very effectively with the [[Meaningful Funeral]] at the beginning of the episode; the funeral is presented so as to mourn Leo's death (and Spencer's), whereas the wake is about celebrating his life and how much his friends loved him.
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' has an episode in which they find Scotty persevered in a transporter beam for over seventy years. As the events of the episode wear down on Scotty, he takes a private moment alone in a holodeck simulation of the original Enterprise where he toasts to his now gone comrades.
* In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space 9]]'' episode 'The Sound of Her Voice', the crew of the Defiant holds a wake for {{spoiler|Lisa Cusak}} which ends with Miles O'Brien making a speech that brings this troper close to tears. Made even more moving by the fact that this is {{spoiler|the very end of the episode before Jadzia's death, arguably the first true main cast kill outside of the films.}}
{{quote|''The war changed us... pulled us apart... I want my friends in my life, because someday we're going to wake up and we're going to find that someone is missing from this circle. On that day, we're going to mourn, and we shouldn't have to mourn alone.''}}
** Done more lightheartedly when Julian and O'Brien come off the holodeck dressed as Spitfire pilots, and raise a pint of bitter "To Clive!"
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== Music ==
* [[Country Music]] has many tributes to American veterans; "The Eighth of November" describes the life of a [[Sole Survivor]] from a horrific battle in the [[Vietnam War]]. The last verse deals with [[Shell Shocked Senior|themes of PTSD]] and describes the character's yearly ritual:
{{quote|''He puts on a suit over his Airborne tatoo''
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* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6kAjM4fGTE Kak zdorovo]" ("How great it is"; often referred to by its entire refrain - "How great it is that we have all gathered here today") by Oleg Mityaev is probably the most popular campfire song in the former USSR. Its third verse is a dedication to the memory of absent friends, perhaps deliberately invoking the third toast tradition mentioned in the Real Life section below.
* [[Turisas]] - "One More"
* [[Lunasa]] has a song called "Absent Friends", and it invokes the feeling of this trope rather well. It begins slow and mournful, as a gathering of friends remembering their fallen would be. Midway through, however, the tempo picks up notably, perhaps as a way of saying "Our absent friends wouldn't want us to mourn forever, so lets knock one back, for them!"
* Saxon, a Heavy Metal band, has a song named "To Absent Friends", written in honour of a deceased friend.
* ''Another Irish Drinking Song'' by [[Da Vinci's Notebook]] is about remembering people who died as an excuse to get drunk.
*
== Radio ==
* Garrison Keillor describes one of these on his show, ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]''. The old coots go out for the opening day of duck hunting season. There they are in the blind, and they have a toast for fallen comrades. The guy only gets a few names into the list before he breaks down. The unspoken sentiment is that there are now so many names, and it'd be disrespectful to forget any, so maybe it's time to give up on listing them all.
== Theater ==
* The meal scene in ''[[Journey's End]]'' after {{spoiler|Osbourne dies}}. Possibly a subversion in that they're trying to forget about it rather than remember him.▼
▲* The meal scene in [[Journey's End]] after {{spoiler|Osbourne dies}}. Possibly a subversion in that they're trying to forget about it rather than remember him.
* The songs "Drink With Me" and "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" in ''[[Les Misérables (theatre)|Les Misérables]]'' fall into this trope. In the first, the students at the barricade are toasting each other's impending fate the night before the penultimate battle; in the second, Marius is reminiscing about those who fell at the barricade.
* In Shakespeare's ''[[Macbeth]]'', this trope is subverted as in [[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]. Macbeth proposes a toast to everyone's "general joy" and "to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; Would he were here!" Unbeknownst to the guests, Banquo has been murdered and his ghost has returned to haunt Macbeth.
== Video Games ==
* At the end of ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak II]]'', Samos toasts to the members of the Underground who died in order to help save the city.
* Both named and unnamed characters will participate in a small but significant battle in ''[[Dragon Age
* Commander Shepard can do this in ''[[Mass Effect
** Weirdly Tali does so even if she does survive.
* After the quest "All that Remains" {{spoiler|in which Leandra dies}} in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', Aveline will ask how Hawke is feeling in her office. After recounting how her own father died, Aveline will offer a drink to Hawke. Hawke can propose a toast to those they have lost.
* The ending cinematic for ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' shows Dart placing a mug next to a picture of Lavitz.
▲* Look up Sitting Up With the Dead by Ray Stevens, on You Tube.
== Western Animation ==
* Seen on the ''[[Justice League]]'' animated series, "Hereafter", when {{spoiler|Superman apparently}} died. After the [[Meaningful Funeral]], the League gathers on the Watchtower, laughing and drinking, uh, [[Frothy Mugs of Water|orange juice]], while wearing black armbands and sharing stories. [[Random Events Plot|Then Lobo shows up.]]
* "[[Futurama|Leela]], we may not have much time left so let's spend all of it reminiscing about Bender. He was like a big computer that ran on magic."
* Snap and Crackle on ''[[Family Guy]]'' toast Pop who fell in the [[It Makes Sense in Context|Keebler Elves attack.]]
== Real Life ==
* "To Absent Friends" [http://www.history.navy.mil/library/special/mess_night.htm is a real toast offered at military banquets.] In particular, it is the traditional toast for Sunday night in Commonwealth navies. (And the US Navy, I think.). At some banquets, it is illustrated literally by [http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforce/a/powmiatable.htm having an empty table set aside and specially decorated in memory of POW/MIA's.]
** At least the Golden Corral restaurant nearest me (don't know if they all do) keeps one small table always decorated thusly, with an explanation posted of each symbolic part of the table. It's touching and refreshing, oddly, all at once, to see such a memorial setting put out in the eye of the general public.
* In Russia, the obligatory third toast, as long as the company drinking contains at least a substantial minority of Army/Navy/Airforce men, both active and retired.
*
== Other ==
* Subverted in an old joke about an Irishman (or other stereotypical hard drinker) who goes to a bar every week and orders a round of three drinks—one for himself and two for his brothers, who are alive but live far away. Each brother does this as a sort of long-distance show of kinship. One day he shows up and orders only two drinks—the bartender, fearing the worst, offers his sympathies but it turns out one of the brothers had just given up drinking.
** In some versions it was ''him'' who decided to quit drinking.
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