She Will Come for Me

A Rescue Trope with the Distressed Damsel/Dude invoking the likelihood of rescue by a specific person or small group. She Will Come for Me is the most basic version, followed by variations. The Distressed Damsel/Dude has usually been kidnapped, but that's not required — they can fall down a well, be waiting for the Hero at a rendezvous point, whatever, and the principle is the same.

She Will Come for Me: Bob the Distressed Dude is kidnapped by the Big Bad, who gloats that Bob's rescue is impossible since Nothing Can Stop Us Now!. But Bob has faith in Alice and says that "She Will Come For Me" in the face of danger. Sure enough, Alice shows up Just in Time for a Big Damn Heroes rescue, vindicating Bob's faith. Cue a heartwarming moment and Bob likely declaring "I knew you'd come back!" or "It took you long enough!"

She Won't Come for Me: Bob the Distressed Dude is kidnapped by the Big Bad, who plans to lure Alice into a trap by telling her I Have Your Bob. But maybe Alice is a Jerkass Designated Hero who's made it clear she thinks Bob is The Load. Or maybe Bob is The Atoner who's spun the Heel–Face Revolving Door so many times he doesn't think that he deserves to be saved. Either way, Bob declares that he's useless as a hostage since She Won't Come For Me. Cue a double heartwarming moment and Bob's shock when Alice shows up anyway for a Big Damn Heroes rescue, proving that Alice is really a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and that Bob does have people who care about him.

She Will Come For Me often indicates a character is sure the hero will show up Just in Time. She Won't Come For Me is a subtrope of Nothing Can Save Us Now in which the character despairs of rescue by a specific person (or small group of people), rather than despairing of being saved in general by rocks falling from the sky, thinking up a daring escape plan, and such. However, She Will/Won't Come For Me are not subversions or inversions of each other; they are equal facets of the same trope.

Like Conscience Makes You Go Back must contain the rescuer characters "stopping on their way and realizing they have to (go back to the rescue)," She Will/Won't Come For Me must contain the Distressed characters invoking the likelihood of rescue by someone specific: they will argue about it with the Bad Guy, discuss it with their fellow Distressed Designees, or even just think about it in their internal monologue. She Will/Won't Come For Me can overlap with Changed My Mind, Kid when it focuses on the Kid's expectation of whether the Changing Of Mind will occur.

A guaranteed Tear Jerker is to subvert this trope: a Distressed Designee believing that They Will Come For Me when The Hero doesn't come or arrives much too late, turning the whole thing into a cruel Hope Spot with the Distressed Designee often Dying Alone. There may be versions where The Hero doesn't come and the Distressed Designee didn't expect them to, but expect that variation to be pointless and depressing.

Compare I Will Find You for The Hero's perspective. See also Big Damn Heroes, Changed My Mind, Kid, Conscience Makes You Go Back. Not to be confused with Holding Out for a Hero.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• In Fullmetal Alchemist, after Alphonse uses his alchemy to restore Ed's arm in exchange for his own life, Al tells the Truth that he knows that his brother will come for him. And he does.
• Samurai Champloo: In the finale, Fuu is kidnapped by thugs using her as bait against Mugen. Fuu tells them that He Won't Come For Me, you idiots, since she believes Mugen won't risk his life for her. Cue CMOH and Fuu's shock when Mugen shows up and tosses away his weapons to save her.
• Togari: The first time Itsuki is held hostage to threaten Tobe, Tobe couldn't care less about her. The second time, the now-cynical Itsuki◊ is openly scornful◊ of her kidnapper since of course Tobe Won't Come For Her. And of course Tobe comes to the rescue, thanks to Character Development. An excellent example of this trope, and explicitly a Call-Back.
• In the second-to-last chapter of Inuyasha, Kagome thinks this pretty much verbatim when she is trapped inside the Shikon no Tama and hears Inuyasha's voice.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Both times Nia Teppelin finds herself captured, she is adamant that Simon will come for her. And he does.
• Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]: When Rin gets kidnapped, she says that Shirou is definitely going to come for her, which her kidnapper should know because he's actually Shirou's future self. In fact, Rin points out that Shirou is such a stubborn idiot that he would have confronted the person who kidnapped her even without the kidnapping at all, so even as a method to draw Shirou out the whole thing is pointless.

Fanfiction

• Sweet dreams are made of this has a retroactive example: after Harry's death and resurrection, Molly says this.
  "I always knew you’d come find me," she mumbled, already half asleep, and clinging to me. "I always knew."
• When the Lord Inquisitor is kidnapped in All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird, the first thing he says when he sees Cassandra again is that "I knew you would find me."
• In Missing Linc, there is a platonic example with the Loud siblings; Lincoln repeatedly told Dirk his sisters would come for him and was proven very right.
• In lost beneath the turning wheel, five years in slavery couldn't break Terror's unbreakable faith that Ehsun — the mother of his children — would rescue him as soon as she could. And he's very much vindicated.

Films — Animated

• Megamind: Roxanne has been saved by Metro Man so many times she doesn't even feign concern when Megamind kidnaps her. She is shocked (and Megamind is too) when Metro Man appears to be killed by one of Megamind's Death Traps. He isn't.
• Disney's Peter Pan: Wendy assures the boys that "Peter Pan will save us" from Captain Hook, who then explains to her his plan to kill him with a Time Bomb. It should probably come as no surprise that Pan survives the blast (thanks to Tinkerbell, who was tricked into helping him in this evil scheme, saving his life at the near cost of her own) and comes to the rescue.
• Occurs twice in Joseph: King of Dreams. Firstly, when Joseph tells the Ishmaelite slavers who pull him out of the well “My brothers will come for me!” (and subsequently subverted when they do show up, but it isn’t to rescue him). Secondly, in an Ironic Echo when an imprisoned Simeon throws out the same line after being imprisoned by Joseph.
• Superman: Red Son. Superman discovers a gulag hidden from him in a lead-shielded Underground City. In there is his childhood friend Svetlana who was sent there simply because she knew him as a mortal child instead of a Soviet icon. She ends up dying in his arms, after saying that she would have died long ago, but she held on knowing her childhood friend would one day turn up to liberate them. Superman is too late however to save the parents of a bitter young boy who gives Superman a What the Hell, Hero? while a colony of bats take flight behind him...

Films — Live-Action

• The Dark Knight: Used to great effect when Rachel and Harvey are kidnapped. It turns into a Hope Spot by playing straight Rachel's faith to the last second that Batman Will Come For Us, but subverting the Big Damn Heroes moment expected to follow. That juxtaposition is what makes it so sad. Even better, Rachel knows that Batman is coming to save her, but he's not because the Joker, being savvy enough to know that Batman will save Rachel instead of Harvey, switches up the addresses. So Batman saves Harvey instead.
• Pitch Black: Jack says "He's not coming back, is he?" when Riddick leaves Jack and Imam in the cave. Zigzagged when Riddick was going to leave them to die, but Fry convinces him otherwise. Their return prompts Jack to say, "Never had a doubt!"
• The Princess Bride has three Will Come For Me moments.
  • A variation while Buttercup is held prisoner by the Man in Black.
    Buttercup: No matter where you take me, there's no greater hunter than Prince Humperdinck. He could track a falcon on a cloudy day. He can find you.
  • While Buttercup is waiting for Westley to come take her away.
    Buttercup: Any word from Westley?
    Humperdinck: Too soon, my angel. Patience.
    Buttercup: He will come for me.
  • A third variation, at the wedding.
    Buttercup: [hearing the sounds of fighting] Here comes my Westley now.
  • Of course in the end, Westley doesn't show up on time, causing Buttercup to almost have a Heroic BSoD: "He didn't come…" Then he shows up after all, late for the wedding but Just in Time to face Humperdinck in the bedroom.
• Chase Meridian makes a comment about Batman coming to save her in Batman Forever. Riddler replies (rather hammishly) that he's counting on it.
• Lampshaded in Superman Returns:
  Lex: No, not that, the other thing. C’mon, I know it’s just dangling off the tip of your tongue. Let me hear it just once, please?
  Lois: Superman will stop y—
  Lex: WRONG!
• Waterworld: Enola is kidnapped by evil smokers, who taunt her that the surly Mariner won't rescue her: "He's not here. And he ain't coming. And no one's gonna save you." Enola retorts that "He'll Come For Me, he will," and gives a speech about the Mariner being a Memetic Badass who will kill them all in their sleep. Of course, the Mariner shows up and blows the smokers' base sky-high to save Enola, because "She's my friend."
• Mortal Kombat: The Movie: Sonya Blade shows that she has learned to overcome her reluctance to rely on others when she refuses Shang Tsung's challenge to the final battle (it's a Morton's Fork: if she refuses, Earth forfeits and loses, but she has no hope of defeating Shang Tsung, so if she accepts, Earth loses anyway), instead holding out for her friends (including Liu Kang, who does have a chance against Shang Tsung) to come for her.

Literature

• In A Brother's Price, Jerin Whistler has nearly thirty sisters, and is married to five adult wives. When he is kidnapped, he is very certain that at the very least a couple of them will come to his rescue. His only angst is about being Defiled Forever before this happens.
• In The Bible, the Children of Israel are certain that The Messiah Will Come For Them.
• In The Golem's Eye, the second part of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Nathaniel has Kitty's childhood friend Jacob as hostage in order to lure and arrest her. Jacob informs him she would never come to save him, as they were inseparable as children but they've not seen each other for years. She comes.
• In the second book of Protector of the Small, Lalasa is abducted to either disgrace Kel or keep her away from the final page exams, whichever Kel picks. Kel chooses to rescue her, and Lalasa says that she kept herself from going completely mad with fear with the knowledge that Kel would come.
• Subverted in the BattleTech novel Bred for War. Not only does the "hero" of the Zurich subplot not come for his girlfriend, who honestly believed he would, it turns out that he never intended to and instead purposefully sacrificed her to distract his enemies' attention long enough for him to take them out as he'd planned to all along.
• As in the film, Buttercup in The Princess Bride is very confident that Westley will come to stop her wedding.
• Sparhawk, the Queen's Champion, spends the first two and third books of the Elenium searching for what's needed to save Queen Ehlana from a fatal poisoning; she's being sustained by magic. The first thing she says, when she's finally able to speak to him, is that she knew he would come. They haven't seen each other since she was eight, making her faith in him rather impressive.
• Zig-zagged in City of Bones by Martha Wells:
  • Khat assumes Elen will bail him out when he's arrested by trade inspectors, but after a night of torture, he begins to assume she's abandoned him. He's then shocked when he's released, and a haggard Elen tells him she spent all night arguing to get him out of custody.
  • Inverted when Khat is abducted by Lushan's thugs — he is rescued (sort of) by Sagai, whom he had explicitly told not to come after him.
  • Later still, when he is in the custody of the Elector, Khat assumes Elen will try to help him, but that she won't have any real power to do so. Heartwarmingly, he is correct on the first count and wrong on the second, thanks to her recent Rank Up.
• A Game of Thrones: While Sansa is being held hostage in King's Landing, her brother Robb raises a rebellion against the throne with the intent of rescuing her. When Joffrey declares he'll kill Robb and give her his head, Sansa retorts "Maybe my brother will give me your head." Sadly, Robb never even comes close to King's Landing before he's murdered in A Storm of Swords, although Sansa is later smuggled out of the city by Littlefinger.

Live-Action TV

• Angel: When Cordelia is trapped in the Pylea dimension.
  "I have friends back in LA. They're gonna come rescue me. Any time now."
• The A-Team:
  • "Pros and Cons": B.A. tries to reassure Jase after they're dragged off to fight each other to the death, saying that the rest of the team will come for them and they just have to survive long enough for the others to find them. Jase doesn't believe they're getting out of this, but sure enough, the rest of the team arrives to rescue the two of them and put a stop to the warden's schemes.
  • "Bounty": An example that involves the hero talking to another hero and not to the villain. While at Kelly's, Murdock keeps fiddling with the radio, trying to find the transmission the others will probably use to locate him. Kelly says that he should relax and that they'll find him, and Murdock replies that he knows.
  • "Hot Styles": Face, having been captured by the antagonists of the week and waiting to be dumped into the ocean, tells fellow victim Rina that they just have to wait until Hannibal comes up with a plan. Sure enough, not that long thereafter, Hannibal and Murdock storm the boat to rescue the two of them.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Spike says it repeatedly over the Season 7 episodes "Bring on the Night" and "Showtime".
  Spike: [whispering] She will come for me... She will come for me... She will come for me...
  The First Evil (taking the form of Buffy): ... No I won't.
  • When held captive by Glory, Dawn insists repeatedly that Buffy is going to save her. As Dawn is an Apocalypse Maiden, Glory says Buffy may indeed turn up...to kill her before she can cause the destruction of all reality.
• The Adventures of Superman: "Don't worry. Superman will save us!" OK, not a direct quote, but c'mon, they did it at least once every other episode. Jimmy, Lois, Perry, or Inspector Henderson would be in a trap or some kind of predicament but be confident that Supes would rescue them.
• Doctor Who:
  • Amy Pond gives a speech to her newborn daughter about how Rory will come for her. He does.
  • When they're about to kill him, the Silence taunt Rory by telling him Amy will let him die alone. She saves him with a machine gun.
  • Subverted in "World Enough and Time"
    Cyberman!Bill: i. waited. for. you.
• Princess Aurora of Once Upon a Time tells Season 2 Big Bad Cora the "won't come for me" version when Cora announces her plan to trade the captive Aurora for the magic compass her companions possess.
• Batman (1966): Catwoman once held Batgirl captive to lure Batman out of the way. Batgirl said he'd not save her because stopping Catwoman would be a priority. Batman sent somebody else to rescue Batgirl.
• Teen Wolf has a non-romantic variant. When Stiles is captured by the werewolf hunters, he tells them that Scott will come for him.
  "He knows my scent. It's pungent."
• Subverted in Battlestar Galactica (2003) episode "Hero". Bulldog escapes from a Cylon basestar where he's been held prisoner since before the war, after taking part in an illegal mission into Cylon space that ended with Bill Adama destroying his spacecraft to prevent his capture. When Bulldog finds out about the latter, he beats Adama with a pipe.
  Bulldog: All those years... You know what I kept telling myself? What stupid, frakked-up dream I held onto? I kept thinking: Just hang in there, Bulldog. Bill Adama's coming. He won't leave you to rot in here, not him. He won't leave a man behind. Just hold on. But you weren't coming. You didn't think I was alive. You weren't even hoping I was alive!
• In the season three finale of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries the villain kidnaps Miss Fisher's father, planning to kill her in front of him when she comes to the rescue. This one is a sort of balance between the two variations: Baron Fisher says she won't come because he's always been a lousy father, but it seems like he's more hoping this is true and is worried that she might come for him after all. Naturally, Phryne and Jack pull off a Big Damn Heroes moment and rescue him in the nick of time without getting hurt themselves.
• The Punisher (2017). Agent Madani tries to convince Dr. Dumont, who is paralyzed in a hospital bed, that her boyfriend Billy Russo abandoned her and will soon be dead anyway. Dumont is confident that Russo is strong enough to survive anything, and when he does he'll come back for her. Unfortunately for her, Frank Castle catches up with a dying Russo shortly afterwards and finishes him off for good.

Theatre

• The Mrs. Hawking series: In part V: Mrs. Frost, when Nathaniel is taken captive, he insists that Mrs. Hawking will rescue him. He works hard to keep faith as Mrs. Frost chips away at his insecurities in interrogation.

Video Games

• In Fatal Frame II, a flashback to Sae and Yae's attempted escape from the village shows Sae thinking this while she is in captivity.
  Sae: Yae will come back for me... she will...
• In Solatorobo, The Kurvaz capture Elh to use as bait to make Red turn over the medallion, but Elh says that won't work because she betrayed him, tried to sacrifice him in the Rite of Forfeit, and he won't come. He does, though.
• In Dragon Age: Origins, when the Warden (with or without Alistair) gets captured by Ser Cauthrien and taken to Fort Drakon, you get the option to either break out yourself or wait for help. You can even specify which two party members (except for Shale) come to break you out, even if they don't like each other... or you.
• Towards the end of Bioshock Infinite, Elizabeth ends up getting re-captured by the Songbird and taken back to her father. Booker immediately gives chase, intent on rescuing her... only for trans-dimensional hijinks to transport him to a reality where the Bad Future results of Elizabeth's capture play out: this version of Elizabeth spent months, possibly even years, insisting that Booker would eventually come for her and enduring every possible torture Comstock could devise for her in the meantime. Unknown to her, this version of Booker was killed by Songbird before he could reach her; because of this, she eventually came to believe that Booker had abandoned her and gave in to her father's demands, becoming his successor and Apocalypse Maiden. Worse still, it turns out that this sequence of events keeps playing out across dimensions — and the very reason why the Player Character edition of Booker ended up getting transported to this reality in the first place was so that Bad Future!Elizabeth could give him a means of stopping Songbird.
• During the Cliffhanger ending to Wind Child Black, Alexia is imprisoned by Commander Set for aiding the Black Knight (all she did was survive his attack on a fortress), she defiantly says that her friends will break her out. She's crushed when Set informs her that her friends were all killed when the Black Knight attacked their airship. Luckily, they all survived, but they're stranded with no way of getting to her until the sequel gets released.
• In Assassin's Creed Syndicate Jack the Ripper DLC, when Jacob realizes he can't stop Jack and that he's Jack's target, he writes to his sister Evie and summons her back from India to save not only him, but the London Assassins and London itself.

Webcomics

• In Dubious Company, as Sal is being hauled off for execution, she begins fretting. Sue tells her to cut the act, saying she knows Sal is expecting the pirates to save her. Sue is partially right. Sal knows the pirates will try, but she calculated the odds of their success. It was 0%. She's fretting because she made a deal with General Izor to spare them.
• In L's Empire, Timpani is confident that her husband will come rescue her after she's kidnapped by the Pixl Queen's army, saying that they have no idea how far he'd go for her (for those not in the know, the last time she disappeared, he went on a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum when he couldn't find her). Subverted since Indx didn't let him come along and demanded he get some therapy after having another Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum. Timpani is rescued, but it was Daisy (who had also been kidnapped) that rescued her.

Web Original

• Dr. Horrible: "Don't worry, Billy. Captain Hammer will save us..."

Western Animation

• In a Aladdin: The Series/Hercules crossover, the kidnapped Icarus and Abu tell Hades and Jafar that Herc and Aladdin will come to save them. Unfortunately, their respective heroes attempting a rescue was what the villains had in mind.
• A hero-to-hero example occurs in the DuckTales (1987) episode "Hero for Hire". The first thing Doofus says to Launchpad after being saved from the Beagle Boys is that he knew Launchpad would come to rescue him.

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