Personalized Pledge

"What would you swear it on? What's important enough that it will hold you to your word?"

— Denna, The Wise Man's Fear

Giving your word is all well and good, but everyone knows that people sometimes lie. If you really want someone to believe you, you might need to step it up. How? By swearing upon something that holds deep personal significance to you. This isn't just a vow, this is a customized vow tailored to fit you individually and thus to hold greater sway over you.

Although religion often has deep personal significance, swearing by that is usually Oh, My Gods! instead of this. It's only this trope if the specifics of the vow are so tailored to you that it couldn't equally be said by another member of your faith. Likewise, Blood Oaths are personal but they're their own separate trope.

This is a vow that would not carry the same weight if superimposed into a different character. If it's a common vow used by the masses in story's universe, it's not this, even if it's unfamiliar to viewers.

Family members (both alive and dead) are popular options, as are pets.

Even this, though, is not completely guaranteed. A popular subversion is a character swearing on something that sounds sentimental, but which is then revealed not to exist or not to actually be much valued. For example, "I swear on my mother's grave"—except the speaker's mother is still alive and has no grave, or the mother was abusive and the child has no regard for her. And even if the thing is real and held dearly, that still doesn't completely rule out lying. On the flip side, truthfulness can cause problems too, turning the individual in question into a Principles Zealot if they take the pledge too far.

Subtrope of I Gave My Word. Compare Magically-Binding Contract.

When adding examples, remember to include why this thing is personally significant to the character in question!

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood: Suspecting Dio to have poisoned his own father Dario and is currently poisoning Jonathan's father George, but lacking any sort of proof to back up his accusation, Jonathan sets up a Batman Gambit by asking Dio to swear on the honor of his deceased father. Dio, who is otherwise able to lie his way through anything, breaks for once, unable to pretend his abusive drunkard of a dad was a good man, and all but admits he killed him.
  Dio: How can I swear on the honor of a man who didn't have any? He deserved to die! How's that for the truth, JoJo?!
• In Chapter 55 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Kaguya swears on her honor as a member of the Shinomiya Family that she'll help Ishigami pass an upcoming test^note merged with an end of semester exam plotline in the anime as she feels that she owes him a favor for something that happened in the previous chapter. It's also play with since the two's relationship at the time means that Ishigami is initially convinced that she's actually trying to torture him and he doesn't realize that she just wants to help him until several study sessions in (though her admittedly harsh methods don't really help her in convincing him otherwise). And just when he starts to think that she might be a good person after he manages to scrape by with a passing grade, she gets angry at him because such a low score has besmirched her family's name. Notably, she doesn't bother making a vow the next time she helps him study, as by that point their relationship has improved to the point for him to trust her without it.
• Vinland Saga: Zig-zagged when Askeladd swears on anything or makes a promise. Askeladd is a clever, manipulative and unscrupulous figure, so he has no problem with making promises he doesn't intend to keep. If Askeladd swears or promises on something while mentioning his father Olaf (whom he absolutely hated), or one of the Norse gods, then he has no real intention of keeping it and will break his word as soon as it benefits him to do so. If, however, he invokes either his mother or his famous ancestor Artorius, then he intends to keep it and will make an honest effort to do so.

Comedy

• George Carlin shows disdain for the standard kid challenge of "Do you swear on your mother's grave?". He mentions his own personal invention to impress other kids and convince them he was being honest was to swear on his mother's tits. This had no more sway over him than any other oath.
  George Carlin: Sometimes a kid would think he was being slick with me and he'd say "Do you swear on your mother's grave?" I'd say yeah. Why not? First off my mother was alive, she didn't even have a grave. Second of all, even if she was dead, what was she going to do, rise from her grave and haunt me because I told a lie to an 8-year-old?! Get real, will ya? Sometimes I would say "I swear on my mother's tits." Kids are impressed with things like that. I mean, I didn't care about my mother's tits either, I didn't care if they fell off. Fuck her, not my problem. They're your tits, Mom, you keep an eye on them.

Comic Books

• During one of the Black Fox's many Karma Houdini moments in Spider-Man, Spidey agrees to let the elderly thief go when he swears on his mother's grave that he'll give up his life of crime. It's a Subverted Trope, as the Fox is later shown thinking that his mother will find this as funny as he does when he tells her.

Fairy Tales

• In many variants of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch" — which is the classification of Cupid And Psyche — after losing her supernatural husband, the heroine journeys until she finds her in-laws, which may be man-eating creatures.^note A teriel/tseriel in Kabylian/Berber tales, a dev in Iranian and Turkish tales, a generic ogress or orca in Italian, a drakaina in Modern Greek. Secretly advised by her husband (or some other helper), the heroine makes her mother-in-law promise on her son's name not to harm her daughter-in-law.

Fan Works

• The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Teacher," Penny insists her lab partner friend swear not to reveal the outcome of her Precocious Crush on the new Hot Teacher at school. She does so by swearing on her book of Edgar Allan Poe short stories, an author whose work she is especially fond of.
• The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf swears "by the skull of Torgald" (a rival Chaos champion whose skull he keeps on the pommel of his sword) that Missandei will remain unharmed for A Year and a Day, after which he'll throw her to his men if Grey Worm doesn't do what he wants.
• Transcendence:
  Tobar: Swear it by the great mother.
  Wanda: That would be pointless since I have no idea who that is. [Beat] I swear it on the love I have for my twin.
  Tobar: That is a good oath—I believe you.

Films — Animation

• The Flight of Dragons: The four wizards convene to determine their course after mankind starts to develop science and technology. Three of the wizards want to found an enclave where magic and fantasy beings can exist. The red wizard Ommadon refuses to go along with this "fool's paradise," and swears upon his red crown that he will oppose his colleagues with violence if necessary. Once Ommadon is defeated by The Hero, all that remains of the red wizard is his crown, which is brought back to the three remaining wizards.
• Wendell & Wild: As Ms. Hunter drops Kat, a troubled girl who has spent time in juvenile hall, off at Rust Bank Catholic Girls for rehabilitation, she tells her that "I'm betting my grandmother's frybread recipe on you."

Films — Live-Action

• Avengers: Infinity War: Gamora makes Peter swear on his mother that he'll kill her rather than let Thanos take her hostage. He would've followed through, if Thanos hadn't altered reality to take away his ability to do so.
• Heart of Dragon: When the autistic Manchild protagonist Dodo and a bunch of neighborhood kids accidentally witness a drug deal while playing hide-and-seek, they made a vow to keep silent... on their relatives' lives instead of their own. Dodo swears on his younger brother-slash-caretaker's.
  Dodo: I swear if I spill the beans, my brother will die.
• Towards the climax of Nine Months, when a going-into-labor Rebecca finds out that Sam briefly dated a woman while the two of them were broken up, Sam swears on the life of his child that they only had one date and did not sleep together.
• The Princess Bride: Inigo Montoya is getting bored while he waits for his Worthy Opponent to climb up a cliff and duel him. He offers to throw him a rope to hurry things along, but the man doesn't trust him. Then he swears on the soul of his father with such sincerity that it earns him the man's trust instantly.
  Inigo Montoya: But, I promise I will not kill you until you reach the top.
  Man in Black: That's very comforting, but I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.
  Inigo Montoya: I hate waiting. I could give you my word as a Spaniard.
  Man in Black: No good. I've known too many Spaniards.
  Inigo Montoya: Isn't there any way you trust me?
  Man in Black: Nothing comes to mind.
  Inigo Montoya: I swear on the soul of my father, Domingo Montoya, you will reach the top alive.
  Man in Black: [Beat] Throw me the rope.

Literature

• Adrian Mole book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole: when Adrian is in hospital, he gives his diary to his mother to look after, making her swear on the dog's life not to read it.
• Coraline: When she challenges the Other Mother to a game (with the stakes being her life, her parents, and the souls of the ghost children), she makes the Beldam swear on something that she'll play fair. The Beldam swears on her hand... the same hand she'd lose after cheating multiple times during their "game".
• The Kingkiller Chronicle contains many whimsical and original vows. It seems to be part of their culture to swear by features of the natural world, such as the moon, stone, or trees. Not all unique vows are deeply personal, but some are. The most important one in the series is this:
  Kvothe: I'll swear it, if that will set your mind at ease.
  Denna: What would you swear it on? What's important enough that it will hold you to your word?
  Kvothe: [...] I swear it on my name and my power. I swear it by my good left hand. I swear it by the ever-moving moon.

His name is pretty self-explanatory. His power refers to his abilities with magic as an arcanist. As for his hand, Kvote is a talented lute player; when a right-handed person plays a stringed instrument, the right hand does the comparatively simple task of strumming while the left hand does the more complicated job of forming notes. This oath is not explicitly stated to be a Magically-Binding Contract, but it's sure implied that it is, considering that the Framing Device is this story being told by an older Kvote — one without powers and going by a different name.

• The Lord of the Rings: At one point, Gollum makes a promise and wants to swear on "the precious" (the One Ring). Frodo allows him to swear by "the precious", but not on it.
• Nona the Ninth: To convince a suspicious party of his honesty in an emergency, Palamedes swears on the life of his Platonic Life-Partner, Camilla, who's acting as the Willing Channeler for his ghost. It works well enough in the moment.
• Like the film version, the original book of The Princess Bride sees Inigo swearing "on the soul of Domingo Montoya" that the Man in Black will reach the top of the Cliffs of Insanity unharmed. The difference here is that Inigo does not identify Domingo as his father. However, the sincerity with which he invokes Domingo's name impresses the Man in Black, and he concludes that this is a trustworthy oath.
• In The Stormlight Archive, the Knights Radiant strengthen their power by swearing specific oaths known as the Ideals. While each Order's Ideals will fit a general theme, they will often be personalized to the specific Radiant who swears them.
  • The Third Ideal of the Windrunners requires the Windrunner to remove limitations on who they are willing to protect. The most common form of this Ideal is "I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right", but other variants we've seen include "I will protect the one I hate, even if the one I most hate is myself" and (paraphrased) "I will protect others even from myself".
  • The Third Ideal of the Skybreakers requires the Skybreaker to bind himself to an external code of some kind. This can be the laws of a specific land, the will of a specific person, or even something like the Pirate's Code.
  • And an extra-personal case with the Lightweavers, who swear no oaths beyond the First Ideal (the oath that all Radiant orders swear). Instead, Lightweaver Ideals are specific and deeply personal truths, things the Lightweaver in question does not want to admit to or acknowledge.
• In the Warrior Cats book A Dangerous Path, Tallstar swears by StarClan (the Clans' religion/heaven) that his Clan hasn't stolen prey. Bluestar, who is going through a Rage Against the Heavens at the moment, feels that such an oath is worthless, so Tallstar replies with an alternative that she accepts.
  Tallstar: Then I will swear it by anything you hold sacred. By our kits, by our hopes for our Clans, by our honor as leaders. WindClan did not do what you accuse us of.

Live-Action TV

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Jake and Rosa went through the police academy together and have the "1000 push-ups" pact. Whenever one of them needs to get the other's trust on a hunch, no matter how crazy it seems, they invoke "1000 push-ups": a promise to do 1000 push-ups if they are wrong. In episode 1.12 "Pontiac Bandit", Jake invokes it to risk Rosa's perp who swears he can bring down the titular bandit, aka Doug Judy and Jake's Arch-Enemy who has eluded capture for years. It turns out that the perp is Doug Judy and uses the opportunity to escape. Rosa ultimately makes Jake do 2000 push-ups as punishment.
• California Dreams: Defied Trope. When Jake's friends want his solemn vow, they ask him to swear on his bike. He says "I never swear on my bike. I'll swear it on my mother."
• Crashing (UK): Anthony and Kate are engaged; Lulu is ostensibly Anthony's Just Friends but flirts with him too much for Kate's comfort. Kate accuses Anthony of telling Lulu some sensitive information about their sex life. He swears he didn't tell her.
  Kate: Promise me she doesn't know.
  Anthony: I promise.
  Kate: Swear on our future children.
  Anthony: I swear.

Later in the episode, it's revealed he lied.

• CSI: NY episode 5.05 "The Cost of Living": Stella doesn't believe a suspect who insists he had nothing to do with the murder of the week.
  Wolford Bessie: I swear on my sister's eyes!
  Stella: Your sister's blind, Wolford.
  Wolford Bessie: My other sister. Chantell.
• Derry Girls episode 1.03: When Erin talks about how she saw her dead dog resurrected and leading her to the chapel, her mom Mary makes her swear on a framed portrait of Dolly Parton that she's telling her the truth.
  Mary: If you are lying, Erin, so help me, Jesus...
  Erin: I'm not lying!
  Mary: Swear. Swear on Dolly.
• Doctor Who episode "The Impossible Astronaut": When Amy Pond asks the Doctor to blindly trust her, he asks her to first swear her honesty. She swears it on the meal she gave him at their fateful first meeting.
  The Doctor: Swear to me. Swear to me, on something that matters.
  [long pause]
  Amy: ...Fish fingers and custard.
  The Doctor: [Beat] My life in your hands, Amelia Pond.
• House of Anubis episode 1.03 "House of the Black Bird": Patricia accuses Alfie of being the person behind a prank that really scared her. He frantically insists he didn't do it by swearing on his dog's life.
  Patricia: You swear?
  Alfie: Yes, I swear! On Sprocket's life!
  Patricia: Who?
  Alfie: Sprocket, my dog! I swear on his life I didn't do it!

She begrudgingly accepts that it wasn't Alfie, and storms off. After she leaves, Alfie admits to Jerome that he lied — he doesn't have a dog — making it a Subverted Trope.

Jerome: I did not know you had a dog.
Alfie: Nope — allergic.

• House of the Dragon: Amidst allegations of sexual misconduct in the episode 1.04 "King of the Narrow Sea", Rhaenyra pulls this trope out to convince her friend Alicent that she's telling the truth when she claims to be chaste and untouched.
  Rhaenyra: Daemon never touched me. Okay, I swear this to you upon the memory of my mother!

This is made very dramatic by the fact that she's lying through her teeth. When Alicent later learns it was a lie, it's implied she's more angry because of the degree to which Rhaenyra swore otherwise.

• How I Met Your Mother
  • 1.21 "Milk": Lily Invokes this trope by asking Ted to swear on his future children. It becomes Played for Laughs when their names are a Star Wars Shout-Out.
    Lily: You can never tell Marshall.
    Ted: I won't.
    Lily: Ever. Swear. Swear on the lives of your unborn boy and girl.
    Ted: I swear on Luke and Leia.
  • 9.13 "Bass Player Wanted": Ted insists to an upset Barney that their friendship is important to them, swearing on his mother's grave, then to God, then to Hugh Hefner. To the final, Handsome Lech Barney exclaims, "Don't take that name in vain!"
• Kerching: The main character asks his sister not to tell their mum about his double life as a successful online businessman. She swears on her nails. This is later subverted when she decides to blackmail him, and removes her nails, pointing out that they're acrylic.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 1.04 "The Great Wave": When Durin demands a promise of silence, Elrond swears upon the memory of his father.
  Elrond: I swear on the memory of my father, Eärendil the Mariner. Anything you tell me here will end in my ears alone.
• Mind Your Language has one instance Played for Laughs, when Giovanni and Maxmillan arrives in class late. When Mr. Brown asks if they've been drinking at the local pub, Giovanni swears on Maxmillan's life (to the latter's chagrin) that they didn't step foot into any pub... moments before fellow student, Juan (a bartender) enters and tells Giovanni and Maxmillan they left their books in his pub.
• Trace episode "The Last Message": Karina swears on her unborn baby's health that she didn't kill her stepdaughter. It convinces her fiance of her innocence, and they quickly put their brains together and realize who the real culprit is.
• Wednesday episode 1.03 "Friend or Woe": When Wednesday gets accused of setting the statue of Joseph Crackstone on fire (which she had Thing do), she says:
  Wednesday: I swear on my late scorpion's soul, my hands are clean.
• Will & Grace episode 1.15 "Big Brother Is Coming (Part 2)": When Grace tells Karen to stay quiet about a secret, she realises this is someone who does not care for anyone she knows, friend or family, and finally makes her swear upon the one thing that matters to her: her jewellery.
• Worzel Gummidge episode "The Trial of Worzel Gummidge": Worzel accidentally throws a potato at the Crow Man (the guy who built him) and is put on trial to determine if he threw it on purpose. At one point, he swears on the life of his pet robin that he didn't do it on purpose.

Tabletop Games

• Changeling: The Lost: Changelings can swear a Pledge on a token of something meaningful to them — their True Name, their changeling Court, even a gym membership card if it's an important tie to their mortal life. However, if they break their word, Fate twists that element of their life against them.
• Magic: The Gathering: The Gatewatch is an order of Planeswalkers who protect the multiverse, each member having an "Oath of (Character)" card containing each member's variant of their "I will keep watch" pledge.
  Oath of Jace: For the sake of the Multiverse, I will keep watch.
  Oath of Nissa: For the life of every plane, I will keep watch.
  Oath of Liliana: I'll keep watch. Happy now?

Webcomics

• Ozzie the Vampire: In chapter 3, Kimmy wants to tag along with Ozzie and Austin on their outing, so she promises that she'll be nice. Ozzie makes her swear on pizza (her Trademark Favorite Food) and Jeff Mangum).

Web Videos

• Sanders Sides: In "Selfishness v. Selflessness", taking place in an imagined courtroom scenario, each of the Sides and Thomas must take an oath to tell the truth, but each gets a personalized item to swear upon:
  • Thomas swears on the standard Bible, as he is the Token Human and was raised Catholic.
  • Patton (Thomas' morality and inner child) swears on the youth edition of the Bible.
  • Logan (Thomas' logical side) swears on A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
  • Roman (Thomas' creative side who is the personification of his love of acting and Disney films) swears on a VHS of Pinocchio. He's also more willing to fudge the truth a bit to get his way, but has a clear sense of right and wrong in the end, as befits that film's theme and the pattern of the other items.
  • Virgil (Thomas' anxiety) is given a copy of Grimm's fairy tales to swear on since he gravitates towards grim cautionary tales and tends to take stories as truth (anxiety makes you believe things that aren't real). In addition, like the other examples, fairy tales have a clear sense of right and wrong. However, he never officially swears on it, because he can't guarantee 100% truthfulness.
  • Deceit (Thomas' dishonesty) fittingly avoids swearing on anything.

Western Animation

• The Legends of Treasure Island: Long John Silver has allegedly been cursed with an inability to lie, and Jane asks him if he'll go so far as to swear on his mother's grave not to betray Jim and friends. Silver promptly does so. At the end of the episode, Silver betrays them and is foiled by Jane, who reveals she knows his mother is still alive and thus was on to him the whole time.
• Scooby-Doo! and the WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon: The Scooby gang ends up involved in another mystery when a ghost called Inferno starts attacking the Muscle Moto X, an extreme racing event done by wrestling superstars. When inferno attacks the Celtic Cruiser, putting Sheamus behind, he yells in frustration and swears "on [his] sainted mother" that he's going to punish Inferno.
• SpongeBob SquarePants episode "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One": Mr. Krabs and the Flying Dutchman fight over the former's cash register, Cashy. Mr. Krabs promises to never soil his waters again if he lets him keep Cashy, swearing it on his Aunt Sally's false teeth. The Flying Dutchman calls him a liar because his Aunt Sally never wore false teeth, as they dated in high school, much to Mr. Krabs' horror.

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