History Main / WalkingTheEarth

* Deconstructed in ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey''. The protagonist, Kaim, is an immortal wanderer who works as a mercenary to support himself throughout his endless travels. However, in the [[ShowWithinAShow One Thousand Years of Dreams]] short stories it is revealed that this is far from a glorious or romantic existence for him. As an immortal, he has to watch those he meets, befriends, or falls in love with age and die while he remains the same. He desires a place to settle down and call home, yet this is the one thing he can never have, so he just wanders endlessly alone and has become so acquainted with death, sorrow, and the worst that humanity has to offer that he becomes bitter and apathetic to almost everything around him. It's little wonder that he comes off as such a JerkAss in the beginning. Fortunately, he gets better.

* [[http://cimarronline.blogspot.com This guy]] walked around America for several years as a faith pilgrimage, depending on God (through the means of whoever he ran into) to provide food and shelter without his asking for anything more than water or permission to sleep on church porches. It worked.

* RedDog's journey across a quarter of Australia in the search for John, not knowing he is dead and buried in his home town.

** ''{{Pokemon X and Y}}'' gives a darker take on this with [[spoiler:AZ, the former king of the Kalos region. As a result of using the Ultimate Weapon and sacrificing the lives of numerous Pokemon to revive his deceased Floette, AZ was granted immortality and began Walking the Earth in penance for his sins. He's been doing this for '''3000 years''']].

* Franchise/{{Superman}} did this just before the {{New 52}}. After feeling he was out of touch with the American people, he decides to remedy the situation by handing in his US citizenship and literally walking all over America looking for people to help. Amazingly, no-one seemed to notice that Clark Kent was doing the exact same thing at the exact same time in the exact same places, but if anybody did, then Clark could simply claim that he was following Superman, as many other reporters were surely doing.

* This is ThePhantomStranger's hat (well, his other hat, he also wears a tasteful fedora). He sums it up thusly - "I have walked hundreds of billions of miles across this Earth... across time and space... through the blinding light of the Elysian Fields... and the darkest depths of Pandemonium... where the stench and despair of the chaoplasm is always a potent reminder of how far man can fall. I am the Phantom Stranger. And the stranger comes... when the stranger is needed."

* ''FeastingOnAsphalt'' is a travelogue show about road food starring [[GoodEats Alton Brown]].

* Webcomic/QuestionDuck and the guy are apparently doing this. Certainly it takes place in a lot of traveling settings.

It's much easier when you have a valuable skill... but this is [[KnightErrant a different trope]]. You can get away with just WalkingTheEarth in settings with sufficiently strong traditions of SacredHospitality, though -- like Homeric Greece (obviously), the Muslim world (where hospitality is a religious obligation), the Balkans if you're not from next door, and [[SweetHomeAlabama the American South]] or [[TheWildWest Old West]]. Some Walkers, however, have some skills like craftsmanship that they utilize to make a trade/earn a living while traveling, like {{hobo}}s.

** [[{{Mons}} While carrying around superpowered monsters capable of breathing fire, flying, generating enough electricity to power a small town, et cetera]]. When there's a free TraumaInn in nearly every town. And remember that [[FantasyCounterpartCulture just about every region is analogous to a part of Japan.]] ([[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite except the one based off]] [[BigApplesauce Manhattan]]) Note: the exception is Pallet Town.

* In the original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'', killing Ganon and saving Hyrule was framed as one of Link's many adventures; he was a wanderer already, and was going to wander off with the Triforce once he was done. He hung around to help the kingdom rebuild itself in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink''. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'' are similar wanderings (by different incarnations of Link), outside the Hyrule story. ''Majora's Mask'' occurred when Link was looking for Navi, his companion in ''Ocarina of Time''.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Magician}}'' Edermask and his companions wander the continent in search of the secret to his immortality. It doesn't help that he's is hunted by [[ImmortalitySeeker Immortality Seekers]] and his EvilTwin Janus preventing him from settling down.

* European comic ''Aria'' features a rare solo female example and an {{Anvilicious}} one at that who chose this lifestyle because she wanted to remain [[ChildfreeIsNotAllowed childfree]] and, most of all, [[DoesNotLikeMen man-free]].

* BrandonSanderson's ''{{Warbreaker}}'' book finishes with two characters (or arguably three) departing for this kind of life, with one warning the other that it won't be easy.

* TravelogueShow as a genre in general is arguably a nonfiction version of this trope.

* [[http://sailingsimplicity.com/ Teresa Carey]] is a blog written by a female solo sailor who gave up her home, her job, and most of her possessions to simply... sail around. She's been doing this for years by herself on a minuscule 27 foot long sailboat, taking up odd jobs here and there (if you look carefully in her blog, it's quite a list.) She even has has a scrappy but lovable animal sidekick, Dory her cat. Because she's technically not ''walking'' the Earth, one could argue she's the LadyOfAdventure minus the tea.

* The cast of RPG-trope specific ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' also engaged in WalkingTheEarth, as especially pointed out via the amazing GhibliHills landscapes in the ending credits of the first movie. If the game is any indication, it's a-okay to wander the world alone at the age of ten!
** [[{{Mons}} While carrying around superpowered monsters capable of breathing fire, flying, generating enough electricity to power a small town, et cetera]]. When there's a free TraumaInn in nearly every town. And remember that [[FantasyCounterpartCulture just about every region is analogous to a part of Japan.]] ([[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite except the one based off]] [[BigApplesauce Manhattan]])

* [[TheNameless The Man With No Name]] in Spaghetti Westerns, who rides into town, kills the bad guys... and leaves again, presumably on his way to some other town to do the same thing over again. This derives from the Creator/AkiraKurosawa movie ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', where the ''yojimbo'' of the title is pictured wandering aimlessly around rural Japan before he comes into the village where the events of the film take place. In fact, he finds his way there by following the direction pointed out by a stick he tossed in the air.

* Chris [=McCandless=], as documented in Jon Krakauer's book ''Into the Wild'', and the subsequent movie adaptation.

* ''{{Scooby-Doo}}'', in all its incarnations, is centered around this trope, as the teenage heroes roam the country solving mysteries for local townspeople, without getting paid, without having any recurring family or friends, and without ever worrying about school or jobs. Later spin-offs, adaptations and supplemental material refer to them as "Mystery, Inc.," though it's only in the more recent entries that they're generally recognized as investigators, and even then there never seems to be any payment involved. Their wanderings are [[ParentalBonus subtly]] parodied in some spin-offs: at one point, the Mystery Machine drives through a snowfield to a scientific outpost, and a character cheerfully announces, "here we are gang, Antarctica!". As revealed in ''Mystery Inc'', all the mysteries the gang solved in previous incarnations of the show actually happened in their hometown of Crystal Cove, which has made it famous as a supernatural hotspot, and most local business is based chiefly on tourism. So much so, that Velma and her tendency to bitterly point out that every last one was a hoax pose a significant danger to the local economy all by herself.

* ''IntoTheWild'' (biopic about a real person).

* Played straight with Vianne and Anouk in the novel ''{{Chocolat}}''. Played with to [[ParanoiaFuel chilling effect]] in the sequel ''The Lollipop Shoes'' in which [[spoiler:Zozie manages to live this way using a combination of fraud, identity theft, murder, magic and spiking people's food and drink.]]

* ''{{Blame}}'' jumps several steps ahead and has a protagonist '''''walk the Solar System!''''' Not that the journey is [[CrapsackWorld particularly romantic,]] [[SeriousBusiness carefree,]] or easy.
** not to mention that it's nigh impossible to accomplish too. Getting from one level of the superstructure to another involves penetrating nigh indestructible wall/ceiling/floor, it also involves fighting endless hordes of mindless robots and nigh indestructible endlessly regenerating super cyborg agents with weapons of mass destruction. It's no wonder people stare in disbelief when he claims that he has traveled over 3000 levels or possibly more. They find it hardly believable that someone is from just the next level.

* The setting of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}''

** [[SchizoTech In what looks like ancient China.]]
* This makes up most of the plot of ''ScrappedPrincess''...but they do a lot more running, so to speak.

* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] this trope, showing what happens when a swordsman who'd been wandering around Japan for 10 years actually settles down in one place for a while. Kenshin does leave Tokyo occasionally, but it's always for a specific place and a specific goal, and he always returns to the Kamiya dojo in the end.
** It's also played straight: [[spoiler: Soujirou, Shishio's [[TheDragon Dragon]] ends up Walking The Earth after the Kyoto arc.]]
** Kenshin’s mentor, Hiko was a wandering master swordsman, before he took Kenshin in.

** And some fans believe that [[spoiler: [[HesJustHiding Lelouch is doing it too.]]]]

** Although, Claymores aren't necessarily ''welcome'' wherever they go. It's more like: "Uh, great. Can you kill the shape-shifting demon really quick and go away? Oh, and don't become a demon yourself and eat us. Thanks..."

* Remi from the ''IenakikoRemi'' anime series. Both one from the early 80's and the {{Gender Flip}}ped one from the nineties. In both of them, the travelling musician Remi travels through France either on his/her own or with their master, their best friend, and/or their animals.
** And both are based in a French novel where the (male) lead character does the same.

* Allelujah and [[FanNickname SoMarie]] after the events of Gundam00, wandering the Earth to find the true meaning of their existence...until [[Film/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer the movie]] rolls around.

* Doctor Bruce Banner in ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk''.
** And David Banner in [[Series/TheIncredibleHulk the TV series]].

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's [[spoiler: first ''{{Superman}}'' arc, "Grounded," has Supes walking across America in order to re-connect with humanity after his sojourn on New Krypton. [[WeAllLiveInAmerica Because apparently humanity is American.]]]]
** Or because Americans are human, he's based in America, or part of the deal is that he's not flying on his journey and it's rather hard to walk to other continents[[note]] and Mexico, Canada, and all of South America apparently don't count[[/note]].

* [[spoiler:Implied to be Tom's fate in the end of Film/TheWay]]
* ''IntoTheWild'' (biopic about a real person)

* [[TheNameless The Man With No Name]] in Spaghetti Westerns, who rides into town, kills the bad guys... and leaves again, presumably on his way to some other town to do the same thing over again.
** This derives from the Creator/AkiraKurosawa movie ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', where the ''yojimbo'' of the title is pictured wandering aimlessly around rural Japan before he comes into the village where the events of the film take place. In fact, he finds his way there by following the direction pointed out by a stick he tossed in the air.

** That said, as fates go it's still a step up from [[CampingACrapper Vincent's.]]

''Life to the lees:''
** Note that Dante, at least formally believing the ''Aeniad'''s conceit that the Trojans founded Rome and became the national ancestors of the Italians, has it in for Odysseus, hence his position among the False Counselors in the Eighth Circle of Hell.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's blind singer Rhysling, composer of the song "Literature/TheGreenHillsOfEarth" in the short story of the same name. Until the accident that blinded him, he had been a spaceship engineer; after the accident, he took advantage of the informal custom that a spacer could have one free trip home, using it to wander at will all over the solar system.
** His most famous character, Lazarus Long, spends centuries wandering the galaxy. His wanderings are fueled both by boredom, and by needing to move on from a community before the locals start to suspect his immortality.

* Randall "The Walking Dude" Flagg, BigBad of Stephen King's ''TheStand'' and TheDragon of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', is the rare villainous version of Walking the Earth. And Walking Alternate Universes.
** In ''Franchise/TheDarkTower V: Literature/WolvesOfTheCalla'', Father Callahan reveals that he had spent the time between the events of ''Literature/SalemsLot'' and his arrival at Calla bryn Sturgis wandering the Earth.

* In the ''EarthsChildren'' series, Jondolar & Thonolan spend the first half of ''The Valley of Horses'' walking from (modern-day) France to the Ukraine, where Thonolan dies and Jondolar meets Ayla. In ''The Plains of Passage'' Jondolar & Ayla walk back to France, albeit this time with the assistance of two horses. Other characters in the series have walked from the Ukraine to Africa & back, and from France (or Germany) to '''China'''.
** Also Ayla herself at age 5 wandered the earth not knowing what to do or even what to eat, until she was picked up half-dead by the Clan.

** A Tardis food replicator, several bedrooms, and a large costume wardrobe have all been shown, but he still makes runs to Earth when he wants milk, and the source of his money is a mystery.
*** The Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to get cash out of ATMs in "The Long Game" and "The Runaway Bride."

* ''Series/KnightRider'' has Michael Knight driving [[strike: the Earth]] the United States and [[TheyFightCrime fighting crime]] with his [[CoolCar cool AI car/buddy, KITT]].
** The 2008 revival series has Michael Knight (Jr.) also driving [[strike: the USA]] California and fighting crime with the new incarnation of KITT, after its mid-season retool.

* Arguably [[InvertedTrope inverted]] in ''TheRiches'' in which the premise is that of a family of [[UsefulNotes/IrishTravellers travellers]] that ''stops'' walking the earth.

* Too many ''DungeonsAndDragons'' [[WeHelpTheHelpless adventuring parties]] to count. (Although all those dungeons mean that they have ''some'' means of support, at least...)
* Eldar in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' who feel too confined by their society's rigid structure are allowed to pursue the Path of the Exile and become Rangers, though they usually respond to requests from their craftworld to return and offer their skills (and sniper rifles) in defense of their race.
** The Orks have their own inversion- Ork society is based on any boy doing whatever he wants, as long as it doesn't get him krump'd by da Boss. For some younger, 'rebellious' Orks, the pressure is too much, and so they decide the best option is to enlist with the Stormboyz, whose training includes un-Orky training like marching and regimented training drills.
* Dwarf Slayers in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' are [[FlyingDutchman banished from Dwarf society]] and doomed to [[DeathSeeker seek out battles]] so they can [[ForgivenessRequiresDeath meet an honourable death]].
** It's AllThereInTheManual - Dwarves who have been disgraced must seek out their own death, and cannot commit suicide due to moral code (their gods would deny them a peaceful rest). They have 2 choices: Join the side of Chaos, or become a Troll Slayer. If they don't die as a troll Slayer, they try to become a Giant Slayer. If they still survive after that, they become Daemon Slayers. Its hinted at that there's a class beyond even Daemon Slayer (Dragon Slayer), but in-verse such a thing would be impossible as Daemon Princes would pose the bigger challenge.
*** Dragon Slayers [[ExpansionPackPast were apparently around for the]] [[strike:War of the Beard]] [[InsistentTerminology War of Vengeance]], which was centuries ago [[HereThereWereDragons when there were a lot more Dragons]] and [[WorldSundering a lot less Chaos]], so perhaps the most powerful ones were tougher than their contemporary Daemons. [[EvilPoacher Hell, maybe the Slayers are why they're all gone]].
* ''PrometheanTheCreated'' sets this up in the very metaphysics of the titular characters -- stay in any one place too long, [[TorchesAndPitchforks the locals get restless]] and [[WalkingWasteland the land blights beneath your feet]]. That, and the more you explore the world, [[ToBecomeHuman the more of a chance you have of getting all that to]] ''[[ToBecomeHuman stop]]''.

* Trent in ''{{Freelancer}}'' is a young pilot who ''flies the space''. The game provides quite enough missions to give him cash not only to keep himself well-fed and groomed, but also to outfit his ship with enough firepower to destroy ''entire space stations'' (if only the game would actually let the player destroy space stations, which are indestructible by the player. Still, the player can eventually destroy any ship in known space. Or 10).
** Of course, Trent doesn't ''want'' to fly the space. The backstory sets up that he was just looking to make a quick buck and had it within his grasp before being sent back to well before square one, setting up the main game's plot.

* Most, if not all of the ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' games. They're called "[[TheDrifter Drifters]]" for a reason, you know.
** Of course, in Wild ARMs mythology, Drifters are less about walking the earth and more about living day to day, doing odd jobs (which tend to be monster hunting) to earn a living. They don't wander because they want to either: more than a few characters have become drifters by necessity rather than by choice, such that in the first four games, only ''two'' people have actively chosen to become Drifters (Cecilia in the first game, and Virginia in the third).
* Subverted in Orstead's Ending of the Final Chapter in LiveALive [[spoiler: He does wander the earth but with nobody around]]
** Actually [[spoiler: Sundown Kid is a wanderer, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02hLTRPDOo0 even his theme is named Wanderer.]]]]

* This trope is what you do in more or less every [[ConsoleRPGCliches1To24 Console RPG]]. When you can get money simply by killing monsters ([[MoneySpider they somehow drop it or have it in their blood or something]]), freeing you from having to have any kind of steady employment, and there's an [[WeBuyAnything Item Store]] in every town that conveniently sells everything you might need to survive and an [[TraumaInn Inn]] in each of those same towns that can constantly keep you in perfect health, it seems like a lot more viable of an option than it does in RealLife.
** Especially if you can use magic. Conjuring your own food and water helps, as does being able to teleport in case of emergencies. Obviously, this means that this trope can be perfectly ''reasonable'' in fantasy settings.

* It is only implied, but this supposedly happens to [[spoiler:Vayne and Pamela]] in their ending in ''ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis''. This is probably because [[spoiler:Pamela is a ''ghost'', and she hasn't grown out of her habit of scaring people.]]

* Bartz (and his chocobo!) in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''. He starts the game as a wanderer, [[spoiler:following his father's dying wish that he carry out this trope]]. It's so much a part of who he is that he's given the essence of wind, Journey, as a Light Warrior. He returns to this after saving the world.

* This is pretty much the MO for SonicTheHedgehog - every time he trounces Eggman and saves the world, he's off looking for the next big adventure.
* This is essentially what you do in ''{{Pokemon}}''. You do generally have a goal in mind, beating the Gyms and the Elite Four, but beyond that you're just traveling around the region, occasionally helping out and saving the world.

* Allowing for the 'walking' to be done by horse, boat or teleportation magic, Franchise/TheElderScrolls protagonists tends to do this, as a side-effect of the WideOpenSandbox. Why rush to finishing the main quest when you can travel around Tamriel/the Iliac Bay/Vvardenfell/Cyrodil/Skyrim finding random stuff to do/take/buy?

* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Oasis started doing this after the "Dangerous Days" arc (though so far we've only seen one of the AdventureTowns she's visited).
** Turns out she did it until she found Podunkton, then stopped. So there wasn't much wandering after all.

* In ''DarthsAndDroids'', it was revealed that Ben (who had played [[StarWars Obi-Wan Kenobi]] through the [[ThePhantomMenace first]] [[AttackOfTheClones three]] [[RevengeOfTheSith Episodes]] ended up doing this in the interim between Episode III and [[ANewHope Episode IV]]. Turns out he forgot to write or call and everyone had thought the worse, especially his sister Sally.

* Even Cartoon Network has done this kind of series, twice: ''SamuraiJack'', and then ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}''.
** Samurai Jack does have a purpose to his wandering, however: he's looking for a way back into the past. A journey without a specific destination, but with a very specific goal.
** ''Ben 10'' is a borderline case. Because of ComicBookTime, the entire series happens over such a single summer vacation--a short enough period of time that the characters won't even miss school. Even the Christmas episode actually takes place during the summer.

* ''{{Scooby-Doo}}'', in all its incarnations, is centered around this trope, as the teenage heroes roam the country solving mysteries for local townspeople, without getting paid, without having any recurring family or friends, and without ever worrying about school or jobs. Later spin-offs, adaptations and supplemental material refer to them as "Mystery, Inc.," though it's only in the more recent entries that they're generally recognized as investigators, and even then there never seems to be any payment involved. Their wanderings are [[ParentalBonus subtly]] parodied in some spin-offs: at one point, the Mystery Machine drives through a snowfield to a scientific outpost, and a character cheerfully announces, "here we are gang, Antarctica!"
** SuspensionOfDisbelief however, states that they probably have some kind of (short-term) employment when they aren't solving mysteries.
** It was suggested by fans for many years that the whole reason Daphne was along for the ride, despite being 'danger prone', was because her dad was loaded, and paid for everything.
*** The most recent show retcons the whole shenanigan - all the mysteries the gang solved in previous incarnations of the show actually happened in their hometown of Crystal Cove, which has made it famous as a supernatural hotspot, and most local business is based chiefly on tourism. So much so, that Velma and her tendency to bitterly point out that every last one was a hoax pose a significant danger to the local economy all by herself.
* Creator/AdultSwim's ''XavierRenegadeAngel''

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' it's Wheeljack who does this with the galaxy.
** It's later revealed that a fellow Wrecker of his, Seaspray, did the same until Dreadwing killed him. Wheeljack then pursued him to Earth and has since given up the whole galaxy wandering- but now he wanders the Earth instead.

* It's a tradition of the old guilds, once one passes ''apprenticeship'' to become a ''journeyman'' and walk the Earth plying one's trade to accumulate knowledge enough to add to the craft.
** Although journeymen did often travel around, the name comes from the fact that they were paid by the day (French ''journée'').
** There are RealLife trades that not only allow, but ''make'' people walk (or drive, or sail) the Earth with their job and change often their employer: sailor, diver, oil rig worker, truck driver, miner, geologist...

* On May 1st, 2011, Laura Milkins set out from her home in Tucson, Arizona to walk to her mother's house...
** ...in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2000 miles away. She [[http://www.walkinghomestories.com/ arrived]] there on October 3rd at noon.

* In the original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'', killing Ganon and saving Hyrule was framed as one of Link's many adventures; he was a wanderer already, and was going to wander off with the Triforce once he was done. He hung around to help the kingdom rebuild itself in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink''.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'' are similar wanderings (presumably of different Links), outside the Hyrule story. ''Majora's Mask'' occurred when Link was looking for an unspecified friend. Hopefully not [[TheScrappy Navi]], but perhaps Saria, or Nabooru, [[WildMassGuessing or the Skull Kid, or...?]]