You Are Worth Hell: Difference between revisions

Done well, this can be a [[Tear Jerker]] of epic proportions. The biggest difference between this trope and [[Together in Death]] is that the characters in question don't necessarily have to be dead for this. At least not ''yet'', and perhaps they won't ever die at all - just spend eternity trapped someplace together. If their fortunes change, expect a double serving of [[Like a Badass Out of Hell]], or at the very least, an [[Orphean Rescue]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* Axe body spray released an ad proclaiming that their product will cause sexy angel girls to shatter their halos to the ground and renounce heaven in order to have sex with you. ... That's a pretty powerful statement.

 

* ''[[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!

* 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]].

* This is pretty much the plot of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'' Episode 58. Carly ([[Not Himself|transformed into a Dark Signer]]) tries to convince Jack this would be a great future for them if it's the one they're destined for. Jack [[Deconstruction|disagrees]].

* Kallen of ''[[Code Geass]]'' is so devoted to Lelouch, that {{spoiler|when the rest of the Black Knights turn on him, she refuses to leave his side, even with dozens of soldiers ready to unceremoniously open fire on him. [[Break Her Heart to Save Her|He has to fool her into thinking he used her all along in order to get her to switch sides and survive]]}}.

** 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.}}

 

{{quote|'''Marge''': Oh, Homey, even though we're stuck forever in the worst of all possible places, being with you makes it all worthwhile.

* 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 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.

 

* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6751038/1/Until_I_Met_You this] ''[[Death Note]]'' fanfic, [[Genki Girl|Misa]] basically tells [[Slasher Smile|Beyond]] this.

{{quote|'''Misa:''' Listen. You being a killer doesn't bother me. I know that sounds horrible of me, but I honestly don't care about that. I want to get to know you, Beyond, and I can't do that if you won't let me.}}

* 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.

 

* ''[[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).

* 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.}}

* ''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.)}}

* The 1993 film ''Daybreak'' has Moira Kelly's character follow her lover into quarantine, even though she isn't infected herself.

* A variation in [[Apocalypto]]. One of the captured villagers loves his wife so much, that he'll embrace Hell with a smile as long as she's not there to share such a fate.

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'', vampirism is considered inevitably a [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. Which makes it a rather disquieting [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] when Jonathan Harker, faced with the possibility that his [[Vampire Refugee]] wife [[Darkest Hour|might not be saved]], resolves that, no matter what, she ''will not meet that fate alone''.

* In ''[[Job: A Comedy of Justice]]'' the hero is a devout Christian in love with a pagan. He vows to join her in Hell should they be separated after death. {{spoiler|Heinlein wonderfully deconstructs this, as hell turns out not to be such a bad place at all. It just has bad PR. Not to mention the fact that it turns out she's not even ''there''. Her own devotion to her gods pegged her for the paradise of Valhalla.}}

* The fifth ''[[Aubrey-Maturin]]'' novel, ''Desolation Island'' featured amoung other convicts being shipped to Australia, one Salubrity Boswell, whose husband had been sent there already, so she decided to follow him, first by getting his brother to get her pregnant so she wouldn't be hung, then by assaulting the judge who sentenced him. Stephen Maturin calls her "a female worthier of a nobler age."

* Referenced twice in the ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' series, once in a chapter [[Word of God|that didn't quite]] [[All There in the Manual|make it in]]: Emmet says that he believed he was in [[Hell]] while transforming into a vampire, but Rosalie—his angel—meant it wasn't so bad. The second did; Edward thinks he's dead and either in heaven, since Bella's there, or hell, since [[Forbidden Fruit|she smells the same.]] Upon thinking it's hell, but she's still there?

* 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.]]}}

 

* ''[[Brimstone]]''. The female half of an [[Outlaw Couple]] kills herself when she finds the protagonist sent her partner back to Hell, as it's the only way she can be with him.

 

== Music ==

and I'll love you still in hell. }}

 

* 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.

* [[The Bible|"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."]]

 

* 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."

* 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.

 

* [[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.

'''Link''': "..........." <ref>"[[Heroic Resolve|Yes. Yes you will. If you'll excuse me, I have a mask to destroy..."]]</ref> }}

* Something of this is there in ''[[Fatal Frame|Fatal Frame II]]'', specifically in the best ending. The protagonists, twin sisters Mio and Mayu, do get better, but only to a point, because Mayu was definitely worth hell for Mio, who faced the undead all alone and went down to even the very entrance to hell, and stared down to it to rescue her sister from falling into it, which left her blind forever. From there on, it would be Mayu who would look after Mio, instead of the other way around, like it had been for years.

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'':

** This trope is played to its full potential with Thane's romance, since his dossier in Shadow Broker database includes a [[Dead Man Writing|letter that is meant to be delivered to Shepard after his death.]] In it he proclaims that he'll rather die a slow and painful death from his disease, even if that dooms him to spend his last years connected to machines, than continue his [[Death Seeker]] ways if that means he can be longer together with the woman he loves.

* In the normal ending of ''[[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness]]'', {{spoiler|Laharl}} willingly sacrifices his own life (an act which he knows will [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|condemn him to Prinnydom]]) in order to bring back {{spoiler|Flonne}}.

 

* At the end of the ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' prequel ''Start of Darkness'', {{spoiler|the wizard Dorukan attacks Xykon for imprisoning the soul of his lover Lirian within a magic stone. Of course, [[Magnificent Bastard|Xykon ends up kicking his ass and imprisoning him within the very same stone]], where Dorukan's soul meets up with Lirian's.}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Lirian'''}}: {{spoiler|Dory}}? {{spoiler|Dory}}, is that you?

{{spoiler|'''Lirian'''}}: No, no... not a prison anymore. ''([[Tear Jerker|They Embrace]]).'' }}

** Interestingly, this is probably the nicest thing Xykon has ever done. And it involves imprisoning souls. Granted, it's pretty certain he didn't ''mean'' it to be nice.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[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."

 

== Real Life ==

* The trope appears in ''The Aquariums of Pyongyang,'' the autobiography of a North Korean defector who spent his childhood in a gulag. His paternal grandfather was denounced and the entire father's side of the family got taken down with them. The author's mother was the daughter of a national hero and was pardoned to spare her father embarrassment. The author would much later learn that his mother had repeatedly asked the authorities to sentence her to hard labor so she could join her husband and children. They never did.

** This is particularly notable as any women who followed their men to Siberia were thus just as banished as the men they went for. They weren't allowed back to civilisation.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Afterlife Tropes]]

[[Category:Diabolical Plots]]