You Are Worth Hell



""I'm ready to turn my back on Heaven for you! I'm willing to follow you to Hell!""

- Stocking, Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt

You find yourself facing the pearly gates after having fought valiantly against the forces of evil. St. Peter says you have earned eternal happiness, and lets the gates swing free to allow you to collect. You begin to walk forward, but something stops you. You look around. Something is missing, or rather, someone. "Someone was fighting beside me," you say to the saint. "Someone who means everything to me. Where are they?" St. Peter hesitates momentarily then says "They were not worthy as you are, and have gone to... the other place. Forget them and receive eternal bliss." Your response is "Go to hell! No, wait... Send me there".

The specifics aren't actually important; it's the sentiment that counts. True love and loyalty in its purest form, where the only actual "Fate Worse Than Death" is being separated from the ones you care about, and everything else is worth it as long as they are there with you.

It could be Hell, Purgatory, The Nothing After Death, And I Must Scream, or just a Siberian prison--if it's a choice between enduring such a fate with them or being alone and free, you will choose the terrible fate every time. To sum up, somehow or another two or more people will also join facing what is quite likely the end of everything, thus expressing the message that You Are Not Alone.

Although sometimes it isn't actually a choice -- it's a Downer Ending where everyone is doomed anyway, and they are simply affirming their acceptance and love for each other by agreeing that even oblivion is not such a terrible thing, so long as they're together.

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.

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 * 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.

Anime & Manga

 * Inuyasha: Sango refuses to leave a poisoned Miroku and save herself from Youkai chasing them inside Mount Hakurei.
 * 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!
 * In Yu Yu Hakusho, the ending for Sensui and his lover.
 * Sara and Gaito's fate in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is totally an example of this trope, not to mention a complete Tear Jerker. In the anime, they're shown embracing as Gaito's castle collapses around them.
 * The manga version of Kannazuki no Miko has
 * Uzumaki ends with this. Which, to some, makes it a Bittersweet Ending.
 * Sailor Moon: Sailors Neptune and Uranus risk damnation in the last season, as long as they're together. Then there's Neptune's line about the world not being worth saving if Uranus isn't in it...
 * This is pretty much the plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Episode 58. Carly (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 disagrees.
 * Kallen of Code Geass is so devoted to Lelouch, that.
 * In Fullmetal Alchemist, when Mustang asks Hawkeye to be his bodyguard/conscience, meaning to both watch his back and to shoot him in it if he deviates from what they've agreed is the righteous path, he asks if she's willing to follow him. She tells him that she'll follow him into Hell itself if that's what he asked of her. Throughout the course of the story, they proceed to prove it repeatedly. In both directions.
 * As seen in the quote at the top of the page, in Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt, Stocking tells  that she will give up heaven for him.
 * In Puella Magi Madoka Magica,
 * During the Magic World arc of Mahou Sensei Negima,  enthusiastically tells Negi "I'd go to the depths of hell to drag you out."
 * Esther Blanchett in Trinity Blood is more than willing to go wherever her friend Shahrazad does. Even if it includes . Of course Shahrazad spares her
 * Special A: almost said word for word from Kei to Hikari in the helicopter as he remebers a film in which the character say the same thing.
 * A reoccurring theme in One Piece. The Straw Hats refuse to move on unless all their friends are well and happy. Big examples would be Enies Lobby and Impel Down.
 * 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
 * In episode 1 of To Aru Majutsu no Index, Index asks Touma if he would follow her all the way to Hell, but he refuses. In episode 2, as Index is dying, Touma declares that he's not going to follow her to Hell, he going to pull her out, and saves her.

Comicbooks
"Marge: Oh, Homey, even though we're stuck forever in the worst of all possible places, being with you makes it all worthwhile.
 * One The Simpsons comic, which gave us "Springfield In Hell" (in which everyone in Springfield ends up in hell) plays this for laughs.

Homer: Everything but the groin beetles."


 * The original Sin City story has 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 brutally straight in Hellblazer. The First of the Fallen offers a virtuous soul a chance to escape Hell for free, but points out that her husband's just committed suicide after killing her in the first place. The First freely admits that she, too, will be tortured for eternity if she stays. She does.
 * In Elf Quest, when Rayek makes himself into a living prison for Winnowill' soul, Savah immediately follows him so that they can Walk the Earth together for all eternity. Rayek is moved, but tells her she has no place in his new life. His mentor Ekuar follows him instead. It's also somewhat implied that Rayek trapping Winnowill inside him is not just to save the world, but also because he doesn't want to live without her -- even as her living prison, he loves her, and would rather suffer a living hell for all eternity than be without her.
 * Played with by Kid Devil in 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.

Fan Fiction
"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."
 * In this Death Note fanfic, Misa basically tells Beyond this.


 * In this fanfic, which is quite similar to the above writer's work, Misa proves this literally to Beyond by  And why?
 * This should not be believable, but kind of is, because canon Misa is some kind of hystrionic psychopath who has no capacity for empathy and whose delusional romantic attachments have the capacity to completely overwhelm her sense of self-preservation.
 * In this Naruto story, Deidara dies and is headed into hell, but Naruto refuses to let his big brother go alone.
 * MANY fixfics have been written about One More Day and feature the plot of either Peter or MJ fighting Mesphito to save the other. You'd think Marvel would take the hint...
 * In this rather depressing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic, after, Xander actively tries to damn himself so that
 * 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.

Films
"So take my hand, and have no fear.
 * 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).
 * She was scarier as an Iron Maiden incarnating the goddess Hecate.
 * HellBoy II: The Golden Army does something similar, when the fallen angel insists that Hellboy will bring about The End of the World as We Know It, and his girlfriend decides to resurrect him anyway. Not sure if it qualifies, though. The angel did warn that she will the suffer the most for her decision.
 * Hellboy himself inverts this in the first film, warning the afterlife that if they don't release his girl from death, he'll cross over with her ... and then kick ass on everyone there until they regret not letting her return to him.
 * Given he has not managed to effectively abdicate his destiny as Anung Un Rama, the leader of Hell's armies and bringer of the Apocalypse, they're right to worry.
 * This effect happens towards the end of What Dreams May Come, when Chris
 * And
 * At the end of the 1988 movie Miracle Mile,
 * 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
 * At the end of Rodan, the military manages to kill the first Rodan by triggering a volcanic eruption. Unable to live without its mate, the second flies into the volcano and dies along with it.
 * Of course in Muppet Treasure Island, Kermit and Miss Piggy sing "Love Led Us Here" as they are hanging off a cliff and about to fall to their death.

We'll be alright.

Love led us here."


 * 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
""Love seeketh not itself to please,
 * Played straight and inverted in William Blake's The Clod and the Pebble.

"Nor for itself hath any care,

"But for another gives its ease,

"And builds a heaven in hell's despair.

So sung a little Clod of Clay,

Trodden with the cattle's feet,

But a Pebble of the brook

Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only Self to please,

"To bind another to its delight,

"Joys in another's loss of ease,

"And builds a hell in heaven's despite.""

"Edward: I'll take it."
 * Subverted in Dante's Inferno, in which souls punished for sins of lust are bound forever to their Star-Crossed Lovers, yet this only adds to their torment by serving as a perpetual reminder of their sins.
 * Possibly the oldest rendition of this is found in the tale of Tristan And Isolde, particularly Isolde, who willingly commits adultery, a mortal sin at the time, accepting eternal damnation for in exchange for even temporary enjoyment of her love for Tristan. This story and the idea of love being able to overcome even eternal torment is credited by many as being possibly the origin of the concept of romantic love in the Western world.
 * In His Dark Materials,.
 * In 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 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.
 * Also from Robert Heinlein, in I Will Fear No Evil, the spirits of two main characters desperately cling to the mind of a third, still living, person.
 * 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 series, once in a chapter that didn't quite 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 she smells the same. Upon thinking it's hell, but she's still there?
 * Referenced twice in the Twilight series, once in a chapter that didn't quite 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 she smells the same. Upon thinking it's hell, but she's still there?

"Buttercup: My preference would be to spend eternity at his side on a cloud, but Hell would also be a lark if Westley were there."
 * What Dreams May Come, the book that The Movie (see its entry for the details) was based on.
 * In The Princess Bride, there's a scene in the novel that didn't go into the movie because it deals in Buttercup's internal monologue. She's essentially praying, mentally begging Westley to come and claim her rather than having her marry the Prince (she's unaware that )


 * In a variation on this trope, Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn believes that if he doesn't turn in his pal Jim, who is escaping from slavery, he (Huck) will be damned. Huck decides: "All right then, I'll go to Hell!"
 * At the end of Count and Countess, when Elizabeth Bathory has been arrested on murder charges and sentenced to death, Vlad Dracula surrenders himself to the Holy Roman Emperor of his time period in a Suicide by Cop move. He states outright that he is following her into Hell. And he spent the entirety of the preceding novel being a fierce, God-fearing Christian.
 * In Dean Koontz's The Bad Place,

Live Action TV

 * 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
"I'd walk through hell for you, let it burn right through my shoes;
 * The chorus to "A Walk Through Hell" by Say Anything invokes this trope quite literally:

these soles are useless without you.

Through hell for you, let the torturing ensue;

my soul is useless without you."

"The time for sleep is now
 * The song, "I Will Follow You Into The Dark," by Death Cab for Cutie can be interpreted as dealing with something like this:

It's nothing to cry about

'cause we'll hold each other soon

In the blackest of rooms"

"Give your soul to me
 * "Inside the Fire" by Disturbed is about the subject being convinced by his recently suicided girlfriend (might have been The Devil -- it's left ambiguous) to take his life as well so they can spend eternity together "inside the fire."

For eternity

Release your life

To begin another time with her

End your grief with me

There's another way

Release your life

Take your place inside the fire with her"

""I remember how you told me,
 * "Deathaura" by Sonata Arctica is about a girl who is accused of witchcraft and is burnt at the stake. The boy finally names himself (you know why) as being the one who is really responsible for the misfortunes that she had supposedly brought upon the village.

Your kin's different, on that sunny day?"

"You made me smile,

'cause I was just about to say the same thing..."

So deeply entwined, love of a lifetime...

But they paid someone to say their torment has a name

And after all these years we get to be together for all eternity..."

"The Captain found out 'bout us
 * "Two Women" by Angels Of Light from their album How I Loved You (2001) is a particularly harrowing reading of this trope.
 * "Gay Pirates" by Cosmo Jarvis, a cute sad little song about two pirates in love.

and ordered them to throw

us both over board tonight

together we will go

but I'm yours you know,

and I'll love you still in hell."

Mythology & Religion

 * 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.
 * In Greek Mythology, twin brothers Castor and Pollux believe themselves to be half-god, half-human...until they die, and one goes to Mount Olympus, and the other to Hades. Turns out only Pollux was the child of Zeus, while Castor was completely mortal, thanks to complications involving shapeshifting and infidelity. (And Ancient Greek beliefs about twins, though theoretically it's perfectly possible for this to happen to fraternal twins.) With Zeus's help, Pollux donates half of his godhood to Castor so that the two can be together, even though they'll have to spend half their time in Hades. Hades isn't so bad, though, if you're virtuous. The Elysian Fields are there, as well as a possibility of reincarnation.
 * Less 'virtuous' than 'just that awesome.' The Elysian Fields are more thinly populated than a Calvinist's Heaven.
 * In Norse mythology, we have the bright god Baldur, son of Odin and Frigg, husband of Nanna, father of Forseti. Most everyone knows the story of Baldur's death (Loki tricks blind god Hod into launching mistletoe at Baldur, killing him instantly, giving him a one-way ticket to Helheim). Not many people realize, however, that in certain tellings of the story, Nanna joins her husband, after dying from a broken heart. It's okay, though; after Ragnarok, they get better.
 * I thought they got better just in time for the fight?
 * Loki's wife Sigyn also spends the entire time from Loki's imprisonment to his escape at Ragnarok in his prison with him where he's bound with his sons' entrails, catching the venom meant to fall in his eyes in a bowl, except when she has to go dump it out. He is not at all gracious about it. She stays by him the whole while.
 * "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."

Theatre

 * 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,
 * 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."
 * Mark Twain's quip about choosing "Heaven for the climate, and Hell for the society" could perhaps fit as a page quote.
 * 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 Die Walkure, Siegmund rejects eternal glory in Valhalla rather than be separated from wife/sister Sieglinde.
 * Although technically Together in Death, Verdi's opera, Aida invokes elements of this trope. Instead of escaping slavery and returning to her homeland, Aida chooses to be entombed alive with her lover Radames (without his knowledge until it's too late). The staging is very suggestive of heaven and hell (at least to this troper), with the lower portion of the stage representing the vault, and the upper portion representing an aboveground temple.
 * Shakespeare's Hamlet almost ends up with no survivors at all, when Horatio attempts to poison himself and die with Hamlet. It's only Hamlet's intervention that stops it.

Videogames
"Anju: "Go ahead. We'll stay here and greet the dawn...together."
 * Legend of Mana takes a turn this direction with the culmination of story.
 * 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.
 * The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - In the very long and optional Kafei and Anju sidequest, actually completing the quest will lead to reuniting the lovers during the last two hours of the third day. They choose to stay together, in the middle of an abandoned town with the moon less than 2 hours from impact, fully aware they will probably not live to see the morning. Because it deserves quoting yet again, from the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming page:

Link: "...........""


 * Something of this is there in 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.

This is also present in the first game, where Mafuyu is willing to stay with Kirie at the Hell Gate for all eternity, just so that she won't have to be lonely anymore.
 * Mass Effect 2:
 * This trope is played to its full potential with Thane's romance, since his dossier in Shadow Broker database includes a 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.
 * After Kasumi's mission, she is asked to destroy her lover's memories, by her lover's memories. She can choose to keep them although she will be relentlessly hunted for it, since the memories include data that could get the Alliance in major trouble if the Council finds out about it.
 * At the end of the Witch Hunt DLC for Dragon Age Origins, the Warden can respond to Morrigan's insistence that he shouldn't follow her without knowing anything about where she's going that he doesn't care where they end up, so long as they're together.
 * Used partly in the finale of Planescape: Torment. Having  the main hero must face the consequences of his actions he'd been avoiding for so long and join the never-ending Blood War raging in Hell. His Love Interest Fall-from-Grace promises to find him there.
 * Odin Sphere has Gwendolyn, who storms into the land of the dead and defeats its queen to get her husband back.
 * Final Fantasy XIII has this happen to
 * Quite similar to Himiko and Chikane above, in Aoi Shiro Syouko can.
 * Given something of a dark twist in Soul Nomad and The World Eaters: In one of the endings, the main villain manages to conquer most of the world, and nearly destroys it. Danette and the main character are both killed and their souls are imprisoned together in the Onyx Blade for all eternity, with the implication that this means that things won't be that bad for them. As for the twist...
 * Kingdom Hearts 2 - After kicking the final boss's ass, and a wounded  are left alone on a beach in the World of Darkness. Cue the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming as they accept their fate, willing to be the dark side of the world's coin to protect the light from any further threats.
 * During the ending of Umineko no Naku Koro ni,  does this in order to stay with . This is the clip of it, but be warned that it contains enormous spoilers for the entire game, not just the ending.
 * Radiata Stories inverted it. The Ancient Elf King fell in love with a human woman and had a child with her. As a result, he died a Fate Worse Than Death because of the Algandars. This fate was spending eternity trapped in a cuccon and despite knowing this, he never regretted loving his queen.
 * In Knights of the Old Republic, if the player character is Dark Side female, Carth meets her at the final dungeon (a space factory under heavy Republic bombardment) in a last-chance effort to redeem her. She slaughters him. But there was another option that was Dummied Out where she can renounce the Dark Side and remain with him in the doomed station.
 * This is a huge part of the plot in Dantes Inferno. To save Beatrice, whom he loves, Dante descends into Hell, fights his way through its nine circles, and even offers his own life and soul for her safety, on numerous occasions.
 * In the normal ending of Disgaea Hour of Darkness, willingly sacrifices his own life (an act which he knows will condemn him to Prinnydom) in order to bring back.

Webcomics
": ?, is that you?
 * At the end of the The Order of the Stick prequel Start of Darkness,


 * Yes, my love. I've failed. It looks as if I am to share your prison forever now...


 * No, no... not a prison anymore. (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.
 * Sinfest does this as literally as is possible. And lampshaded. And confided to Fucshia in an After-Action Patchup.

Western Animation

 * Spider-Man: The Animated Series had Dr. Ohnn's lover, the scientist who had worked with him (a plant by the Kingpin but made a Heel Face Turn), choose to join him when he was forced to close the portal that was threatening New York from within, being trapped forever.
 * 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 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.
 * Decembrists' Wives. The Decembrists were an early XIX century rebellious movement in Russia, they tried to fight tsarism, abolish serfdom and (some of them) even to make Russia a democracy. They were all arrested and sent to katorga. Many of their wives followed them voluntarily, some even abandoning nobility.
 * 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.
 * One of Joan of Arc's liuetenants, La Hire, once stated that he would have been prepared to follow her to the gates of Hell if she asked it of him.