History Main / ThePromise

* In ASongOfIceAndFire Eddard Stark promised something ''very'' important to his dying sister Lyanna. What is said promise it's currently [[WildMassGuessing unknown]].

* In ''Anime/{{Noir}}'', much drama is derived from Mireille's ill-considered promise to kill Kirika once the two of them learn the nature of their past connection--by the time that occurs, the emotional bond between the two of them is so strong, Mireille finds herself unable to pull the trigger, even though [[spoiler:Kirika turns to have been single-handedly responsible for everything bad that has ever happened in Mireille's life and actually ''begs'' Mireille to kill her, unable to live with the guilt]].

* ''{{Madlax}}'' has Madlax and Vanessa promising each other to survive. [[spoiler:It looks like Vanessa fails, but along comes [[RealityWarper Margaret]] ex machina...]]

* ''{{Naruto}}'' is full of "promises of a lifetime"... some more successfully fulfilled than others. The most notable case is Naruto's promise to Sakura to return with Sasuke. [[spoiler:The episode after the mission to do this was actually called "The Promise That Could Not Be Kept." Though, he renews his promise and it's still his most important reason to fight, alongside protecting his friends.]]

*** Kakashi promised Obito that he would look after Rin. It would seem he failed. [[spoiler: The NotQuiteDead Obito witnesses Kakashi actually killing Rin, contributing to his change into Tobi]]

* Rapunzel from ''{{Tangled}}'' takes promises very seriously and says that she never breaks them. This comes into play later when [[spoiler: she promises Mother Gothel that she will be her prisoner forever if she lets her heal the fatally injured Flynn]].

* In ''Film/ThePledge'' a police detective, on the day of his retirement, promises a grieving mother that he will find her daughter's killer. This promise grows to become an obsession with him.

* ''Film/ThePledge'' a police detective, on the day of his retirement, promises a grieving mother that he will find her daughter's killer. This promise grows to become an obsession with him.

* In the ChildBallad "Literature/TheLordOfLornAndTheFalseSteward",

* In Creator/GeorgeMacDonald's ''Literature/ThePrincessAndTheGoblin'', when Curdie helped her and the nurse get home safely despite the goblins, Princess Irene promised to kiss him. Leading to the complications in the page quote.

A dramatically-made promise that operates like a verbal ChekhovsGun. ThePromise will eventually be called in -- sometimes at the climax and sometimes as the catalyst for a whole arc or series -- and [[BeCarefulWhatYouSay the promiser will be required to act.]]

Whether they [[IGaveMyWord succeed]], [[FailureKnight fail]] or [[TheOathBreaker refuse]] to keep their promise depends almost entirely on the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism idealism-level]] of the show. Though other factors, such as whether they were told what they had to do, or if it was a LeonineContract, may come into play. Even ReleasingFromThePromise is usually a scene of high drama.

Not to be confused with the [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise comic]] in the ''[[Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar]]'' franchise.

->''"Lootie, I promised him a kiss."\\\
"Your Royal Highness," said Lootie, suddenly grown very respectful, "must come in directly."\\\
"Nurse, [[IGaveMyWord a princess must not break her word]]," said Irene, drawing herself up and standing stock-still. . . . \\\
"Never mind, Princess Irene," he said. "You mustn't kiss me tonight. But you shan't [[TheOathBreaker break your word]]. I will come another time. You may be sure I will."''
--> -- '''Creator/GeorgeMacDonald''', ''The Princess and the Goblin''

* In Creator/DanAbnett's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', Priad pledges to the farmers that he will protect them. [[spoiler:Since it is from a cult, and they turn out to be TheCult, he ends up "revoking the pledge" and slaughtering them.]]

* In Creator/GeorgeMacDonald's ''The [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses Princess]] and the [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent Goblin]]'', when Curdie helped her and the nurse get home safely despite the goblins, Princess Irene promised to kiss him. Leading to the complications in the page quote.

* ''SuperRobotWars'' has this: Kyosuke made a promise to Lamia that he'd kill her if she ever loses her mind ("If you ever lose your mind, don't worry. I'll destroy you myself"). He did get his time to try and fulfill it when he rescued her from the Bartoll. He succeeded in the OAV, but horribly failed in OG Gaiden, and later has to leave it to [[spoiler:Axel]] to actually rescue her and restore her mind.

* If Shepard enters into a romantic relationship with Liara in ''MassEffect'', at the conclusion of ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' in ''MassEffect2'', Liara asks Shepard to promise her that s/he's always coming back. He does. Both she and Tali beg you to come back after the final battle in VideoGame/MassEffect3. Since it's currently assumed that [=ME3=] is the end of the series (for Shepard), in one out of three endings, with a high enough EMS score, you can assume he keeps his promise. Who knows what'll happen now that Bioware has broadly hinted that Mass Effect 4 might be worth keeping your saves for though.

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Literature/TheMonsterMen'', Professor Maxon promises that von Horn can marry Virginia if he rescues her, in the heat of the moment. Afterward, he realizes that this was a problem since he had not gotten Virginia's consent.

* In OnePiece, a band of pirates left a baby whale they adopted named Laboon at the beginning of the Grand Line, promising to return after they've made the round-world voyage. Unfortunately, those pirates were wiped out, half becoming ill and having to leave the ship to save the rest, and those that remained were wiped out in a battle. Of those pirates, only Brook remains, having been brought [[CameBackWrong back to life as a skeleton]] by his Devil Fruit. And now he has promised to his dead crewmates to deliver the final message of the Rumbar Pirates to Laboon, even after fifty years.

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', Feanor and his sons swore a terrible oath to recover the Silmarils at any cost. These Silmarils were three hallowed jewels which Feanor made, and which [[BigBad Morgoth]] stole. Centuries later the oath destroyed them thoroughly, and resulted in them slaughtering many innocents. Even after the last two surviving sons [[TragicVillain thoroughly hated the oath and wished to stop killing people]] over the jewels, they felt (or thought they were) somehow compelled to continue.

* In ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'', these promises cropping up out of nowhere are common plot elements - Ukyo has at least two with Ranma, Kodachi has one with her rival Asuka, and Ranma has several that he doesn't even know about until they're called.