To Hell and Back: Difference between revisions

[[Orphean Rescue]] is a subtrope.

== Fanfic ==

* Chance Encounter II: Pirate Kingdom of Troy, features one of these, with the designated [[Iron Woobie]] and [[Butt Monkey]] Balian getting the crap beaten out of him in a subversion of [[Power of Love]] after it had been played straight as he charged straight through hell to rescue his wife by divine dispensation. The get out after the recently deceased and sainted Prince Hector gets involved, using this line:

* The protagonist of A Careless Wish traded a decade of his life to undo the eponymous wish God had granted the left-behind [[Love Interest]]. When a rent is torn between Earth and Hell for the explicit purpose of getting him back, after killing the demon that followed him to Earth, he opts to return to Hell before anything ''else'' can cross over. He does allude to his lack of interest in remaining there for much longer, and it seems that his deal with the Devil was to '[[Exact Words|remain in Hell until he got bored]]'.

* The whole main cast of ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' goes on a trip to Hades to save Athena. Phoenix Ikki in particular comes and goes frequently.

** Also seen in [[Saint Seiya the Lost Canvas]], the entire time. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Cancer]] [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold|Manigoldo]] states that the underworld is his playground, and [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Virgo]] [[Mind Rape|Asmita's]] first appearance is in Hell. Whilst the main characters are in Hell too, of course.

** This Hell has pretty much everything a typical Underworld tourist would want. It's a perfect example of the trope.

* According to their [[Badass Creed]], the ultimate goal of the [[Psycho Supporter|Iscariots]] in ''[[Hellsing]]'' is to perform a mass suicide and assault Hell itself.

* The latter half of ''[[Monster Soul]]'' takes place in Hell, which for some odd reason, can be accessed rather easily.

* ''Formerly Known As The [[Justice League]]'' had the ironic punishments and the Orpheus trip -- Guy Gardner and Fire had to keep from looking at Ice, Guy's girlfriend and Fire's best friend, who had died some time previously. In the end, Fire looked, and they lost her.

* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Swamp Thing]]'' featured this in one annual, wherein the eponymous plant elemental journeyed through the afterlife--visiting Purgatory, Heaven and Hell--in order to find and bring back the soul of his human love interest which had been cast into hell at the end of the previous arc. In addition to the similarity to the Orpheus myth, the issue also functioned as a retelling of the [[Divine Comedy]], with Dante's supernatural guides being replaced by their closest DCU equivalents--Deadman, [[The Phantom Stranger]], The Spectre and [[Etrigan]] (who, thanks to Moore's gift for poetry, doesn't sound retarded for once).

* ''[[Hellblazer (Comic Book)|Hellblazer]]'''s John Constantine has been to Hell so many times it's in the comic's name.

* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[The Sandman]]'', where Morpheus travels to Hell to retrieve his helmet, and again to free Nada, though the latter [[It Got Worse|didn't turn out so well]].

*** In Greek stories, Heracles also helps save the queen Alcestis who has taken the place of the ill King Admetus in the Underworld.

** Odysseus descends to Hades at one point in ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]'', where he meets [[Blind Seer|Tiresias]] to tell him his next step, and even has a talk with Achylles (who had died in ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'').

** Aeneas visited Hades in order to hear a prophesy from his deceased father.

** Pirithous and Theseus descended so that Pirithous could [[Too Dumb to Live|take the married Persephone as his wife]]. They end up captured by Hades. Theseus, with the help of Heracles, eventually escaped. Pirithous didn't.

** ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' [sic]: They fight a [[Shinigami]] and her boss, the Judge of Hell, while on the banks of the Buddhist equivalent of River Styx.

** ''Subterranean Animism'': The final stage is ''former'' hell.

* Both games in the ''[[Diablo]]'' series have the player character fighting through Hell to kill Diablo in the last Act. Considering that a third game is in development, killing Diablo doesn't seem to do much.

** Its more killing his host in the first game.