Line #1 Main/InHarmsWay


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6	->''"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not go fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."''
7	-->-- '''John Paul Jones''' (The [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen naval commander]], not the Music/LedZeppelin member)
8
9	Sometimes TheHero doesn't get a HappyEnding because [[VictoryIsBoring no ending could conceivably be happy]]. It would mean the end of the adventures, and nothing could be duller than the lack of adrenaline. They don't really feel ''alive'' out of danger.
10
11	Sometimes the hero is depicted as a StrangerInAFamiliarLand trapped in a dull job or situation, fondly recalling his GloryDays; when [[CallToAdventure a new chance at adventure arises]], they invariably [[JumpedAtTheCall jump on it]]. Sometimes the hero at the beginning already sets out in search of new adventures. Sometimes, in the middle of the story, the hero has a chance to [[RedPillBluePill leave]], and this is one motive for rejecting it. And sometimes it is an ending trope; the hero resolves not to return to mundane life, AndTheAdventureContinues. This is the common ending of AdrenalineMakeover.
12
13	Some heroes who make a fortune and promptly lose it foolishly may fall under this trope, because it means that they can return to the fun of making money, and the NonIdleRich may trample familial objections to stick to a dangerous occupation when they don't need the money, to avoid RichBoredom. And sometimes the love of being In Harm's Way is merely implied, when the hero never seems to find anything worth [[WalkingTheEarth stopping for]]. TheDulcineaEffect may not be so much by the desire to help as the chance to get into the thick of things.
14
15	This can be an intermittent condition in some heroes; they adventure, get tired of it, settle down, get tired of ''it'', adventure -- etc. At other times, it may propel a hero to adventure for years on end before realizing, finally, that he has burned out and wants to settle down. Sometimes, being forced by circumstance to stay in one place grows on him until he realizes that he really does love HomeSweetHome after all.
16
17	While LeaveYourQuestTest is no peril to these characters, the inverted version, where they should give up heroics for less dangerous but more beneficial work, is extremely tough and often failed.
18
19	Characters who enjoy putting themselves In Harm's Way include these:
20	[[index]]
21	* The BloodKnight is always looking for a good fight.
22	* The ChallengeSeeker refuses to accept anything less than the best kind of challenge to test their ability.
23	* The CombatSadomasochist enjoys fighting for the feeling of pain, theirs and their enemies'.
24	* The DeathSeeker, simply not content with sitting on his butt waiting for time to take its toll on his body, instead actively pursuing an honorable death in combat.
25	* The EgomaniacHunter travels the most exotic and dangerous locations in search of spectacular quarry.
26	* The GlorySeeker will always look for new ways to win glory (except the SubTrope GloryHound, who doesn't risk ''himself'' to get the glory).
27	* The IntrepidReporter is ''always'' GoingForTheBigScoop.
28	* The KnightErrant will ''never'' turn from his duty.
29	* The PsychoForHire is a psychotic sadist who gleefully charges to the battlefield to kill as many people as they can.
30	* The SeekerArchetype is driven to uncover the truth no matter what danger they might face.
31	* The SpiritedCompetitor is always looking for a WorthyOpponent.
32	* The ThrillSeeker seeks out adventures and danger specifically because of the excitement.
33	* And as for the GentlemanAdventurer? After each adventure, when someone asks him SoWhatDoWeDoNow, he will simply shrug and continue WalkingTheEarth. His DistaffCounterpart, the LadyOfAdventure, will react in much the same way, even though she's more likely to come home every now and then.
34	[[/index]]
35
36	... and probably more.
37
38	Related to ChronicHeroSyndrome and ChronicVillainy. One of the more [[JustifiedTrope reasonable]] ways to [[StatusQuoIsGod maintain status quo]]. Many HeroicFantasy heroes keep going in unending series because they are in love with being In Harm's Way. Inverse of HomeSweetHome. Can lead to UnknowinglyInLove if the character is consequently too distracted by escaping death to consider deeper feelings. Someone seeking an HonorableWarriorsDeath is likely to invoke this. See also NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction.
39
40	Frequently found with a love of FamedInStory. See also GladToBeAliveSex.
41
42	For the Creator/JohnWayne film of the same name, [[Film/InHarmsWay go here.]] Nor is this related to the ''WebVideo/StarTrekNewVoyages'' episode of the same name.
43	----
44	!!Examples:
45	[[index]]
46	* InHarmsWay/AnimeAndManga
47	* InHarmsWay/ComicBooks
48	* InHarmsWay/FanWorks
49	* InHarmsWay/{{Literature}}
50	* InHarmsWay/LiveActionTV
51	* InHarmsWay/VideoGames
52	[[/index]]
53
54	[[foldercontrol]]
55
56	[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
57	* In ''Literature/{{Schippeitaro}}'', the young man is seeking this, for the fame.[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
60	* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'': Bob's dissatisfaction with his life is heavily driven by the dullness next to the adventure of super-heroing. Bob loves the superhero life so much that even after being forced to retire, he buys a police scanner and lies to his wife so he can look for opportunities to save people. Helen held to this trope when they were superheroing; it was Bob who considered HomeSweetHome an interesting future.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'': [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Cub Simba]] would certainly count, as his primary goal in life at that point is to go on dangerous adventures with his girlfriend [[ActionGirl Nala]].
62	-->'''Simba:''' Danger? Ha! I walk on the wild side. I laugh in the face of danger. Ha ha ha ha!
63	* ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'': Jim has a bad case of it, getting him into trouble in the opening.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
67	* Westerns that feature TheDrifter as the main hero ''usually'' end like this ([[TheHeroDies unless he dies]], that is).
68	* In ''Film/{{Heat}}'', one of [=McCauley's crew=] is given the choice to back out of an extremely high-risk job in order to settle with his family, considering he already has a lot of money tucked away from previous heists. The guy declines the advice, claiming that the ''thrill'' of the job, not the money in itself, is what he considers the payoff.
69	* Creator/JeremyRenner's character in ''Film/TheHurtLocker'', especially emphasized in the ending.
70	* At the end of all the ''Film/MadMax'' movies, Max has a chance to rejoin civilization, but through choice or circumstances, he ends up going back out in the desert where further conflict is inevitable.
71	* In ''Film/TheMummy1999'', Rick finds an old pilot who was a hero in his GloryDays and a recent widower. With nothing left to lose he jumps at the chance to take them into incredible danger and die doing it (which he does).
72	* [[Film/TheThirdMan Holly Martins]] is sort of like this, having some traits of IntrepidReporter by investigating the death of his friend [[ItsPersonal for himself.]]
73	%%* Jack Sparrow in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd''.
74	* Kirk is in this situation at the beginning of ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' (even more so if you read the novel).
75	** And again at the beginning of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.
76	** And finally, yet again, in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''. [[spoiler:Twice.]]
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Poetry]]
80	* The complaint in Creator/RudyardKipling's "Harp Song of the Dane Women"
81	-->''What is a woman that you forsake her,\
82	And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,\
83	To go with the old grey Widow-maker?''
84	* Creator/RobertEHoward's " Literature/SolomonKane's Homecoming"
85	-->''Hands held him hard, but the vagrant gleam in his eyes grew blind and bright,\
86	And Solomon Kane put by the folk and went into the night.\
87	A wild moon rode in the wild white clouds, the waves their white crests showed\
88	When Solomon Kane went forth again, and no man knew his road.''
89	** And "The Road of Kings", originally published as chapter breaks in the Conan story "Literature/ThePhoenixOnTheSword":
90	-->''What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?\
91	I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.\
92	The subtle tongue, the sophist's guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;\
93	Rush in and die, dogs -- I was a man before I was a king!''
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
97	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has an ability used by Red mana (mostly) that forces something to attack if they are able to do so. Sometimes certain creatures have this limitation on them to justify stronger physical abilities on said creature.
98	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
99	** Space Marines love this trope...
100	** ...but not half as much as orks do.
101	** Some Eldar intentionally get themselves banished so they can go off wandering as Corsairs or Rangers.
102	** Commissar Yarrick isn't going to stop until he has Gazhkull's head on his desk. ([[ComicallyMissingThePoint That's going to have to be one hell of a desk!]])
103	** See also Khorne's daemons and the Dark Eldar who fight in the arenas.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Webcomics]]
107	* In ''{{Webcomic/Freefall}}'', one of Sam's major motivations after getting rich is to have some excitement. The hurting afterward, however, is another issue entirely.
108	* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
109	** Othar is quite certain that Agatha doesn't really want a normal life.
110	** And the [[SuperSoldier Jägers]] really don't want to. [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120102 Gkika hasn't seen any decent trouble in ages.]]
111	* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'':
112	** Matt is TheCasanova (and a bit of a {{Jerkass}} about it), but it becomes clear that his kinks, infidelities, and tendency to have sex with the door unlocked are the result of him almost ''wanting'' to get caught; he's a ThrillSeeker at heart. Then he encounters comedy psychotic Yuki. At first, he actually refuses sex with her, out of a reasonable fear of being maimed for life, but after he succumbs, he becomes increasingly smitten with her violent outbursts, and they end the comic's run as a couple.
113	** Also, by the end of the story, Sonya has realised that her StalkerWithACrush behavior towards Zii is motivated by the fact that Zii is the most exciting thing she knows -- and Sonya is a hopeless ThrillSeeker. Fortunately, Sonya then encounters the lesbian professional spy and ActionGirl Bianca, and they run off to Europe together. Sonya is last seen in the middle of a fight scene with dynamite being thrown around, and clearly loving every moment of it.
114	* ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'', like all rangers, was screened for being unable to settle down. Relativistic effects mean YouCantGoHomeAgain, but he likes the trade-off. HomeSweetHome is for his retirement.
115	* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', the eponymous sergeant is easily rich enough to retire from the Toughs, but stays on because he enjoys the excitement and camaraderie he gets working for the Toughs.
116	* ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'' back in Magazine/DragonMagazine times [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20070422 proposed]] a good theory:
117	--> You go down into a dungeon, fight for your life, amass a vast fortune, and escape, and then--you risk your neck all over again! ''Why?!''\
118	Well, if you've ever wondered what drives your character to this suicidal lifestyle, then the newest module for ''D&D'' and ''AD&D'' is for you! It's called '''''"Home & Hearth"'''''.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Web Original]]
122	* Kranz and Voller from ''WebVideo/HumanCentipedeTheMusical''. If the town isn't in immediate danger, they're rather ennui-stricken.
123	* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', it's revealed that this is [[CoolBigSis Yang]]'s reason for becoming a Huntress - she just wants to travel around the world, get wrapped up in crazy adventures and [[BloodKnight hopefully]] kick some ass and save some lives along the way. [[spoiler: Well, it later turns out that's [[ParentalAbandonment only partly the reason...]]]]
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Western Animation]]
127	* [[Characters/Ben10BenTennyson Ben Tennyson]] from the ''Franchise/Ben10'' franchise is this, occasionally doing heroic deeds because they give him a thrill and makes him popular, rather than because it's the right thing to do. This is especially the case in installments where he's a child. In fact, ''WesternAnimation/Ben10SecretOfTheOmnitrix'' has one of the characters actually hide [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 the true ramifications]] of Omnitrix's self-destruct protocol going off not because he feared Ben would panic, but because he thought ''[[ItsAllAboutMe he wouldn't care]]''.
128	* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' was given a chance to return home at the end of the first episode. Hearing his mother's voice through the portal harping on him for not finishing his chores helped his decision to stay.
129	* Enforced in the ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983'' cartoon by the setup: the kids couldn't settle down in the realms, they had to continue to look for a way to get back home (that didn't lead to dire consequences.) That being said, almost every one of them were tempted to stay at times.
130	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraAvatarKorra Korra]] herself and [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraAsamiSato Asami Sato]] are both this trope, which is one of the ways they get along, at first as friends and then as a couple.
131	* Almost the entire Smurf Village gets reckless when Gargamel sprinkles Daredevil Dust on them in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "Reckless Smurfs".
132	* [[AmnesiacHero Captain Sam Sweetmilk]] from ''WebAnimation/StarshipGoldfish'', it's implied to be a combination of the memory erasure making him TooDumbToLive and subconsciously remembering his DarkAndTroubledPast and [[DeathSeeker wanting to kill himself over it]].
133	* The human girl Miko from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' is a bit of a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this ideology. She often rushes onto a battlefield just to watch the Autobots fight. She often gets in the way when trying to ''help'', and seems to have zero regard for her own safety and well-being.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Real Life]]
137	* [[ProfessionalWrestling Pro wrestler]] Wrestling/TerryFunk. The man has had more retirement matches and retirement tours than one can count and has yet to actually stay retired despite being in his mid-sixties with knees that look like they were drawn on by a cartoonist. He introduced a moonsault to his repertoire in 1994, at the age of ''fifty''.
138	* Along the same lines, Wrestling/RicFlair. Still going today at the age of 73.
139	* Ditto Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher. Still jabbing forks in people's heads at the age of 69 and with no intention of ever retiring.
140	* Brett Favre.
141	** Albeit many consider this to be a case of not wanting to give up the limelight.
142	* John Paul Jones, who uttered the quotation at the top of the page, falls under this trope. His desire for naval adventure drove him to sail his lone ship into the home waters of the Royal Navy, at the time ''the most powerful Navy on the planet,'' and go so far as to actually ''raid the British Isles''. After doing so more than once, winning several battles against British frigates and surviving, when the Revolutionary War ended and America wasn't at war enough and wouldn't promote him, he served as an Admiral for the Mexican and Russian navies, so he could keep fighting at sea. [[{{Irony}} Ironically enough]], the page quote is actually Administrivia/NotAnExample; he had been captain of a slow ship for a while and was justifying in a letter why he wanted a faster one, though it ''is'' representative of his whole attitude.
143	* Sir Thomas Cochrane, who upon being thrown out of the Royal Navy after being involved in a financial scam (though he may genuinely have been stitched up), promptly went to South America and masterminded the creation of several revolutionary navies, running on a strategy reliant on the RefugeInAudacity and falling out with every government involved (he left the service of the Brazilian Empire on a stolen Brazilian ship, a great deal of public money and that raided from merchants taken in lieu of prize payments he claimed he was owed, and, presumably, two fingers stick firmly in the air)... after eventually being exonerated by the British government and promoted to one of the most senior roles in the Admiralty, he still didn't keep quiet. He agitated for a fleet command in the Crimean War ''in his eighties''. And the reason he was denied had less to do with his capabilities, more genuine worries as to what he might do with it. It should therefore be no surprise that he was the inspiration, via Literature/HoratioHornblower, for [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries James T. Kirk]], [[Literature/AubreyMaturin Jack Aubrey]], [[Literature/HonorHarrington Honor Harrington]], and [[Literature/{{RCN}} Daniel Leary]].
144	* As seen in the documentary ''Film/ManOnWire'', Philippe Petit. How mind-bogglingly reckless do you have to be to ''hang a wire between the Twin Towers and walk on it?''
145	* Music/OzzyOsbourne temporarily retired in the 1990s, but within a few years returned to performing live music. In his autobiography, he states that the reason he returned was that he found retirement to be terribly boring and missed the excitement of performing in front of an audience. He now says that he intends to keep performing and making new music until he is physically unable.
146	* Fighting Jack Churchill. When World War Two was over, he was furious with the Americans for dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- not because of any moral qualms, but because they had robbed him of any chance of getting over to the Pacific so he could do unto the Japanese what he had done unto the Germans, complaining that the war could have carried on for at least another few years.
147	** This is the same guy who became a commando because it 'sounded dangerous', escaped from POW camps, and captured 42 Germans with his claybeg. Did we forget to mention? This man led his commandos into war (the shooty kind) carrying a claybeg, bow and arrows, and a fucking set of bagpipes.
148	** This is also the guy who jumped on top of a '''tank''' proceeded to ''break open the lock on the lid with his sword'' and then ''kill everyone inside with said sword''. Alone. Naturally, by the end of the war, he had made [[ColonelBadass Lieutenant Colonel]].
149	** He is also credited with one of the last known kills with a longbow in a major modern war, having apparently taken out a German Sergeant, whose last thought was presumably along the lines of "you have got to be fucking ''kidding'' me."
150	* This can be a common sentiment amongst military veterans for a variety of reasons, ranging from missing the [[FireForgedFriends experience of fighting alongside their comrades]] to [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand finding the battlefield a more familiar place than the civilian world]]. People are very adaptive, and as it turns out, it may be just as possible for a warzone to become "normal" to a person as it is for a crowded city or a rural farm or a new school.
151	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Zumbach Jan Zumbach]], who tried to settle down a couple of times but just wasn't happy without the adrenaline and the [[AcePilot flying]]. When he was young, his mother wouldn't let him become a pilot on the grounds that they're all crazy drunkards, and in Jan's autobiography, he himself admits mum might have been on to something. But he just couldn't stay on the ground.
152	[[/folder]]
153

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