I Will Find You: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A quite common variant of [[The Quest]], this plot has two people who have become separated by fate or circumstance, and thus cannot be together. One or both will try to search for the other, promising that they will never stop until they have reunited with their loved one.

 

See also [[Rescue Arc]] and [[Save the Princess]], which this frequently overlaps with. The protagonist of this trope is often [[The Determinator]].

 

== Advertising ==

* A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqO7LgyjIfM Duracell Bunny commercial] has the toy bunny and his duck companion being left out in a picnic. They seek out to find the owner, but the duck's battery runs out halfway. Bunny drags his friend along, and one fine morning they are at the gate of their little owner's home. Cue [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]].

 

 

* This is the main plot after the time skip in ''[[Naruto]]''. Naruto has sworn to save Sasuke from darkness and Sakura loves him to the point where she will kill him to save his soul.

* Kenshiro's search for Yuria, his kidnapped girlfriend, in the first [[Rescue Arc]] of ''[[Fist of the North Star]].''

* Spike Spiegel's search for Julia which makes up the [[Myth Arc]] of [[Cowboy Bebop]].

* Used in ''[[Project ARMS]]'', when Ryo and his allies spend most of the series trying to find and rescue Katsumi.

* Seiya and his sister Seika in ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' should have been a very fine example of this, if not for the author seemingly forgetting about it and had to make a huge [[Ass Pull]] to tie this loose plot in the last manga arc. Though, cheers go to said sister for going in a forbidden ground in Greece all the way from Japan.

* In ''[[Millennium Actress]]'', Chiyoko (the titular actress) spends most of her life searching for a man she briefly knew (and fell in love with) as a girl. She doesn't find him {{spoiler|as he died not long after they parted company, a fact which she never learns. In the end, she decides she doesn't much mind not finding him, since chasing after him is what she really loves}}.

* The basic plot of the two ''[[Eden of the East]]'' movies is Saki searching for Akira, finding him, and then almost immediately losing him again. Rinse and repeat.

* After [[Walking the Earth|wandering for two years]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|on his quest for revenge]], Guts returns to his safe haven to find his lover Casca gone. When Guts gets his bearings straight, he sets out [[Rescue Arc|on his quest to find her]].

* The very beginning plot of [[Eureka Seven]] movie. Eureka gets kidnapped, Renton sets out to find her for 8 years.

* [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]] in ''[[Black Butler]]'' where it begins with the standards boy-searching-for-girl plot where spoiled prince Soma traveled to England to rescue the girl he loves, Meena, who was taken away from him by an Englishman. He eventually found her... but it turned out that she was perfectly happy with said Englishman, having taken great lengths to sneak out of India with her lover... and that not she never wanted to be with Souma, but she ''hated'' him for being a [[Royal Brat]]. Having gone through [[Character Development]], Soma accepts this and [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|parts ways with her]].

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Also several of ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' films.

* ''[[Finding Nemo]]'': Marlin the clownfish searches for his son.

* ''[[An American Tail]]'', and the first sequel to a lesser degree. The others, not so much. The song "Somewhere Out There" from the first movie is absolutely made of this trope.

* ''[[Ladyhawke]]''. Doubles as a [[Badass Boast]].

* ''[[The Adventures of Milo and Otis]]'' is about two friends, a dog and cat, who go on a journey to find each other after becoming separated.

* [[The City of Lost Children]] might count, and this trope is pretty much the entire plot of ''A Very Long Engagement''.

* The John Wayne movie ''[[The Searchers]]''.

** And on that token, the movie ''Hardcore'' as well.

* ''The Vanishing'' (US version). Sandra Bullock goes missing; her boyfriend <s>Jack Bauer</s> Kiefer Sutherland looks for her for years.

** Ditto for the original Dutch version. A slight variant, in that after three years of searching, Rex doesn't believe Saskia will turn up ''alive''. He's still consumed by his desire to find out what happened to her.

* ''Frantic''. Guy's wife gets kidnapped, he spends the rest of the film searching for her.

'''Westley:''' This is true love - you think this happens every day? }}

** And near the end:

'''Westley:''' There will never be a need. }}

** In ''Tribulation'', Tom Canboro is separated from his wife Susan when he was in a coma from the automobile accident and spends much of the movie looking for her. He does find her among a group of persecuted Christians, thankfully.

* In ''[[Jumanji]]'', when Alan tries to find his family, he finds out that his father abandoned his business and devoted the rest of his life trying to find his missing son to no avail.

 

 

* In ''Ranger's Apprentice'', Halt swears this when his apprentice Will is kidnapped by Skandian slavers.

* The narrative poem ''Evangeline'' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is about a woman searching for her lost lover.

* One of the Kesh stories in Ursula Le Guin's novel ''Always Coming Home'' is about a young woman who goes missing. Her boyfriend is desperate to find her again, but it's only a fragment, so we never learn if he does.

* Henri Tod tries to find his [[Dead Little Sister]] in [[Blackford Oakes Series|The Story of Henri Tod]]. Unfortunately he is betrayed and killed in the process.

* Used as a threat in ''[[Morgaine Cycle|Exile's Gate]]''. Vanye tells Chei, who's not ''quite'' a prisoner, where he can clean himself up, and adds, "I will find you down by the water. I ''will'' find you down by the water--or I will ''find'' you. Do you hear me?"

* In [[His Dark Materials|'Northern Lights']] Lyra's quest begins when her friend Roger goes missing and she determines to find him. She takes a while to fully shoulder this responsibility or, debatably, realise it's there to shoulder, but when she does it's with a vengeance; she throws rescuing her imprisoned uncle into the mix, just in case one globe-trotting rescue mission wasn't enough, and at some point her plan to save Roger turns into plans to save all the children that have been taken. This becomes a running theme of the trilogy; Lyra's quest to reunite with Roger {{spoiler|turns into a plan to reunite and reconcile with his ghost, after her initial quest fails}}, Will spends a good amount of time in 'The Amber Spyglass' hunting for the kidnapped Lyra etc etc.

 

 

** Penny also has been searching for Desmond for the years that he's been on the island, and {{spoiler|eventually sends a rescue boat and does find him}}.

** And of course, we can't forget Michael and his search for '''[[Say My Name|WAAAAAAALLLLLTTTTT]]''' after he's kidnapped off a raft by The Others in Season 2.

* ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'': Justin says this to his Vampire girlfriend when the only option for her survival is for her to surrender to a Mummy's control. He does eventually find her again, but it doesn't end well.

 

 

* Within Temptation's "Somewhere."

The truth will free my soul }}

* Also, the Moody Blues' song "I Know You're Out There Somewhere."

* Orpheus to Eurydice in [[Hadestown]]

I'm coming soon }}

* [[The Temptations]]: "Since I Lost My Baby."

* In ''[[Sound Horizon|Moira]]'', Elefseus travels across the land for years looking for Artemisia, the twin sister he was separated from long ago. {{spoiler|He does eventually find her -- dead in the water.}}

 

* Benjamin Britten's "church parable" ''Curlew River'': nameless Mad Woman wanders far and wide for her missing young son. She eventually comes upon the child's grave, where an apparition of the child appears and consoles his mother, assuring her that they will [[Bittersweet Ending|meet in heaven]].

* Aida (the musical, not the opera): As they are buried alive together, Radames swears he and Aida will find each other again, even if it takes a thousand lifetimes. Also example of the power of love.

 

 

** Ditto the Exile in the sequel.

* A big chunk of the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series revolves around Sora traveling across different worlds, looking for the friends he was separated from at the start of the first game.

** Axel: "Go on, you just keep running. But I'll always be there to bring you back!"

** In ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', {{spoiler|Leliana does it for the mysteriously-disappeared Warden.}}

* Forms the basis of the plot for ''[[Silent Hill 1]]''.

* ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' is about Ethan's determination to do anything to find his son.

* [[Ecco the Dolphin]]'s motive in his first game is to find his family, who have been stolen by a storm. The trope's even mentioned in the only official vocal song about the series.

''They must realise that it is impossible to succeed, yet at the same time be capable of enduring patiently.''

** Luckily, both Shirou and Saber are so completely in love with each other that the small facts of being in completely [[Love Transcends Spacetime|different timelines]], and Saber being [[Together in Death|technically dead]] do nothing to stop the pair [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|reuniting]] in what passes for [[Nasuverse]]'s heaven in Fate's [[Distant Finale]].

 

 

* ''[[The Beast Legion]]'' [http://www.thebeastlegion.com/issue04page52-infuriated-dragon/ In Issue 4] Dragos swears he'll find Xeus one day & kill him.

 

 

* Spoofed in the opening of every ''[[Bounty Hamster]]'' episode where we see Casey's Dad shouting "I'll come back for you!" as she drifts off in the escape pod. A [[Gilligan Cut]] then has Cassie saying "But he didn't...so I went looking."

 

* Avita Sharanski, wife of dissident Natan Sharanski, led a worldwide campaign to urge the Soviet Union to release him from [[The Gulag]].

* A really touching case of this trope in [[Imperial China]] involved a high official whose concubine mother was sold away from the family when he was only two. Fifty years later he resigns all his offices and informs his family that he will not return until he finds his mother - and then he does! The lady proves to be alive and well at seventy-plus and her now important and wealthy son proudly brings her home along with his half siblings, nephews and nieces from her later marriage in a true happy ending.

 

[[Category:Motivation Index]]

[[Category:Plots]]