"You've touched so many lives, saved so many people, did you think when your time came you'd really have to do more than just ask?"
—River Song, from Doctor Who S32 E13 "The Wedding of River Song"
A working person has done so much for others. They've toiled, done back-breaking work, given their heart and soul for their occupation. Now they've hit a pothole, they're down on their luck, they've lost everything, or they're just in their twilight years with no other outlook on their future.
But what's this? A stroke of luck! All of these people remember this one person, and they want to help them! They have skills they didn't have before, probably from their tutoring with this person, or they became a better individual because of this person, or their influence (maybe they sang at a place they frequent, or their business did good things for these people) changed them in some way, and wish to give back as thanks, or as payment in gratitude.
Compare Now, Let Me Carry You for one specific person helping out. Also compare Character Witness, We Really Do Care, You Are Not Alone, The Power of Friendship, Because You Were Nice to Me. See also Caretaker Reversal. Sometimes an inversion of The Needs of the Many. Can overlap with the "good karma" variant of Laser-Guided Karma.
Examples
open/close all folders
Comic Books
- One issue of Astro City has the Honor Guard celebrating an annual holiday where a whole load of pastries suddenly materializes in their fortress. After many years of receiving this bounty with no explanation, they finally meet their benefactors - a race of alien farmers who have been donating all those treats to Honor Guard as a way of repaying them after their late member Stormhawk died when the aliens sent an invader to Earth in order to spare their own world.
Film - Live Action
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: The partial Trope Namer; When Spock's mind and body are discovered to both be alive and intact, the crew of the Enterprise go through so much trouble to reunite them to bring their friend back to life on Vulcan, including self-destructing the now 20-year-old original Enterprise, and the death of Kirk's son, David Marcus. In a heartwarming reversal of Spock's axiom from the previous film, in this case:
Spock: Why would you do this [to bring me back to life]?Kirk: Because the needs of the One outweighed the needs of the Many.
- Mr. Holland's Opus: Glenn Holland is a talented composer, and to try to find an outlet and spend more time with his wife, he accepts a teaching job at a local school. But more time is spent with his students and his titular magnum opus. His family relationships suffer, life-related tragedies occur, and his son is born deaf, meaning he will never get to hear his father's work. He's also constantly delayed from completing his music, which by the time he does, it's too late to find funding or support to perform. Holland is forced to retire, due to the now-reduced school budget removing the Arts from the curriculum. On his final day at 60 years old, when it seems Holland's work will never be performed, he is surprised in the auditorium, where all of his former students through the years have gathered, with an audience, to honor him and his efforts and finally perform his long sought-after opus, "An American Symphony".
- It's a Wonderful Life: After the years George has spent keeping people in homes, and pretty much single-handedly keeping Old Man Potter from buying out the entire town, when his uncle misplaces eight thousand dollars (over one hundred thousand dollars adjusted for inflation
) everyone he's helped over the years band together and takes up a collection to bail him out of the hole he suddenly finds himself in.
Live-Action TV
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: in possibly their only moment of true kindness with no ulterior motives, the Gang decide to reward Charlie with various gifts in "Charlie Kelly: King Of The Rats," after they realize all his hard work at the bar is making him depressed. They spend the whole episode fighting their natural urges to be cynical and greedy, and even give him the gifts after learning they didn't have to (Frank had tricked them into thinking it was Charlie's birthday).
- 9-1-1: In the Season 2 finale, when the crew is targeted by a rogue bomber with a grudge against Bobby, one bomb goes off on the truck while headed out on a call. The others are mostly unharmed, but Buck ends up with his leg pinned under the flipped-over fire truck. The team can't lift the truck off Buck themselves, there's no sign of backup arriving, and it seems like their Darkest Hour, when dozens of civilians break through the police barricade to help lift the truck. The firefighters have saved so many people across the city, and now they're paying them back.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Body Parts", Quark learns that he's dying, and tries to clear his debts by selling off his later-dessicated remains (as is tradition on his planet, Ferenginar), but it's later revealed he was misdiagnosed by his doctor. One particularly nasty Ferengi, Brunt, gets word of Quark's impending death, and decides to buy his remains. Brunt won't back down when he hears about the "good" news, throwing Quark into a catch-22: break the contract and forfeit one's business possessions, or find a way to die within six days. When Quark dreams about standing his ground, he finally meets up with Brunt and intimidates him. Being an official of the Ferengi Commerce Authority (The Ferengi version of the Federal Trade Commission), Brunt responds by shutting down Quark's bar, seizing his bar's assets anyways, and banning him from ever conducting business again. At the end of the episode, though, when it seems he will never be able to run a business, the community of Deep Space Nine come together to pool some of their unwanted possessions to start Quark's bar up again, getting around Brunt's legal ban. (Because how can Brunt enforce his jurisdiction to Non-Ferengi?)
- The Season Three The Twilight Zone (1959) episode The Changing of the Guard features Professor Fowler, a long tenured teacher at a boys boarding school forced into retirement. Feeling he has made no mark on the world, he decides to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. He is visited by the ghosts of seven of his students, whose deaths were premature but heroic ( e.g. saving others during World War II, contracting cancer while improving X-Ray technology). Their bravery came from his teaching. Realizing he did make a difference in the world, Fowler decides to live and enjoy the rest of his life.
- In the penultimate final showdown of Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes, the Ultramen warriors, consisting of Ultramen Ginga and Victory, Ultraman X, Ultraman Orb, Ultraman Geed, and Ultramen Rosso and Blu dedicates their final victories to their mutual friend and long time comrade, the captured Ultraman Zero (who had mentored or befriended all of them at some point previously in the franchise), allowing them to turn the tide of battle around with a much-needed Heroic Second Wind as they work together to save Zero's life.
Video Games
- In Persona 5, Joker's Confidants have him helping people resolve their personal issues and make their lives better, like helping Chihaya overcome her fatalism or restoring Toranosuke confidence in himself to help him run a successful political campaign. At the end of the story, all of his Confidants pitch in to clear his name after they learn he's going to be sent to juvenile hall.
- At the end of Conquests of the Longbow, Robin Hood is put on trial and a number of NPCs are called in to act as Character Witnesses. If you've been protecting the innocent and generally been kind to the people you met over the course of the game, they'll extol your virtues on the witness stand. If you've been cruel, they'll give a What the Hell, Hero? instead. Their testimony is a huge factor in whether Robin is pardoned of his cimes or hanged for them.
- Part of the Pacifist run of Undertale, where sparing, or not fighting, any of the various monsters in the Underground results in them coming back to meet up with you at the end, and save you from Flowey as he attempts to kill you.
- Although it does not matter in the grand scheme of the plot, Chapter 1 of Deltarune uses this trope: if you do not attack any of the characters in the game enough for them to flee a battle, Lancer will come in with a battalion of Rudinns, save your party from the Spade King, and overthrow him. (As opposed to Ralsei pacifying him and putting him to sleep.)
Western Animation
- Amphibia: In the episode “Scavenger Hunt”, Anne and Marcy are tasked with solving several riddles for the King, but Anne repeatedly winds up getting distracted talking to and helping the citizens of Newtopia. Later, when she and Marcy get trapped in the sewer, all the people Anne befriended come to save them.
- Samurai Jack: The series finale sees practically everyone who was helped by Jack, from the ravers and dog archeologists to Scotsman and his army to even the Spartans, coming to save him from being executed by Aku.
- In The Simpsons episode "When Flanders Failed", Ned Flanders (who's generally a Good Samaritan and helps around the neighbourhood) goes broke and it seems like he's going to have to leave town. However, the townsfolk pitch in and save his business.
- In The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, SpongeBob is about to be executed by Poseidon. His friends defend him by sharing stories of how SpongeBob improved their lives: he encouraged Sandy to pursue her dreams of being a scientist, helped Squidward win a talent show, was Patrick's first friend, and led to Mr. Krabs opening his own restaurant.
