Wait Here: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|“If the Hero says ‘wait here,’ it really doesn't matter whether you obey him or not. If you stay, you will be captured by the Evil Overlord's henchmen as soon as the Hero is out of earshot. If you tag along, you will be caught by the Evil Overlord's henchmen as you stumble along. Don't agonize over your decision.”|[http://web.archive.org/web/20080224002204/www.geocities.com/evilsnack/sidekick.htm The Things I Will Do if I Am Ever the Sidekick]}}

 

Whenever our hero has to go off and do something important, they first decide to dump off any

 

 

If they actually listen to the hero, they'll get [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|captured]] or [[Trapped by Mountain Lions]] the moment he's out of earshot. Half the time, though, they'll ignore the hero's advice and go off to do something incredibly stupid (and inevitably [[Distress Ball|end up in hot water]]). You'd think they could take five minutes to call the relevant authorities, or failing that get one of the hero's peers to come help before doing something incredibly stupid, [[Too Dumb to Live|but noooo]].

 

Not to be confused with [[Fine, You Can Just Wait Here Alone]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', this is toyed with when Roy tells Riza to wait for him, but only a day. After that, she is to leave him essentially for dead. Of course, she refuses, and stays at her post. However, at the moment Roy returns, he finds {{spoiler|Major Armstrong instead! It freaks him out, but then he realizes that he's been a LONG time, so it wouldn't be too surprising if Riza had gone. She was just at the restroom at the moment though, and returns shortly after}}.

* In ''[[Bleach]]'' Ichigo tells Orihime and Uryu to wait for him during the Ulquiorra fight, {{spoiler|she doesn't, the resulting crossfire probably saves Ichigo's life… And causes his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] to give Uryu a nearly mortal wound}}.

* Lampshaded in the [[Gag Dub]] of ''[[Ghost Stories]]''.

“Okay. God bless him. Leaving me here alone and defenseless in a cemetery. What a guy.” - Momoko }}

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' goes into this at length, but Jack provides a very pragmatic solution: ''a gun'' in the glove compartment. Unfortunately, it also gives Daniel enough leverage to follow him… and get captured.

* Spoofed in ''[[Serenity]]'' when Mal goes to meet Inara, knowing it's a trap:

'''Mal''': “I mean it. It's cold out there. I don't wanna get left.” }}

* ''[[Beverly Hills Cop]]'' uses the sidekick rescue variant when Axel Foley (lead Eddie Murphy) goes into a warehouse, telling Billy (Judge Reinhold) to stay put, because he doesn't have probable cause. The strictly by-the-book Billy gets increasingly nervous as the [[Big Bad]] and his thugs show up then leave with the [[Love Interest]] in tow, and finally gets up the nerve to go in. The resulting [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment sets up his [[Character Development]] arc for the rest of the movie and the sequel.

* ''[[Buckaroo Banzai]]''. When the Red Lectroids break into Buckaroo's mansion, he tells Penny Priddy to stay in his room. Of course she wanders off looking for him, which is both good and bad. Professor Hikita manages to pass the Oscillation Overthruster to her so the Red Lectroids can't get it from him, but then she's captured by them and used as a [[Hostage for Macguffin]].

* [[Ace Ventura]] tells a character that if he doesn't come back in 5 minutes, just wait longer.

** She doesn't do any actual damage to Parallax, but she does provide the necessary distraction that allows Hal to retrieve his Green Lantern ring. Without her distraction, Parallax [[Curb Stomp Battle|would have killed Hal without a fight]] and the rest of the human race would be easy pickings.

* In ''[[The Smurfs (film)|The Smurfs]]'', the rest of the Smurfs tell this to Clumsy twice while in modern-day New York City. The second time, he actually does stay behind, {{spoiler|which allows him to initiate the [[No One Gets Left Behind]], as Papa had made them all promise not to go back for him — but Clumsy, who wasn't there at the time, never promised anything.}}

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' TOS episode ''Still Valley''. A Confederate scout gives orders to his partner.

* Dawn in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' often fell into this. (“Dawn's in trouble; [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|must be Tuesday…]]”) Although to be fair, Xander had this happen to him occasionally (at least twice a season.)

** As indicated by the page quote, the Doctor has been facing this problem for forty years.

*** [[Timey-Wimey Ball|His time, their time, or our time?]]

** He points this out at the beginning of the season 2 premiere.

** It's gotten to the point where Chuck heavily lampshades this.

* At every crime scene, Detective Beckett orders [[Castle]] to wait in the car... and he ''never fails'' to get mixed up in the final confrontation of the perp. Subverted in "Home is Where the Heart Stops," when he actually ''does'' wait in the car... and the perp lands on his windshield and drags him out anyway.

'''Castle''': “[[Sarcasm Mode|Yes, we've seen how well that works out.]]” }}

* In ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'''s prequel movie, Shotaro's boss Sokichi tells him “don't move a damn step from here” during a dangerous mission. Being an impulsive kid, Shotaro moves, and unintentionally causes Sokichi's death, which becomes [[My Greatest Failure|his greatest failure]].

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Although they don't listen to him, they actually don't get into any trouble and make themselves quite useful. Peach manages to recruit Fox, and they both help out in the fight against Duon, after which Peach adds yet ''another'' useful member into the team; Mr. Game & Watch.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] and promptly played straight in [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09042002/ this] ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' strip.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Yoda to Padme in ''[[Clone Wars]]''. To her credit, Padme does get out of the situation herself by taking out a couple of invisible mooks.

* April O'Neil does this in the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, but is at least slightly justified, in that if she listened to the turtles and stayed put, she wouldn't get a story. This was lampshaded in one episode when she trailed some thugs to a warehouse and she calls the turtles for reinforcements.

'''April''': “Okay. I won't wait.” }}

* Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''. While the title character and his monkey Abu are exploring the caves full of treasure, Aladdin tells Abu to “wait here” while he goes to get the lamp. As you'd expect, Abu sees a huge gem and goes to grab it, ignoring the warning they received to "[[Forbidden Fruit|touch nothing but the lamp]]" and setting off a lava flow apocalypse.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]