History Main / TheLostLenore

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/42198018/ Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory]]'': The titular ritual allows its caster to send a single memory back in time to their younger self, creating a parallel timeline -- but it can't be used arbitrarily. It must be used by someone who has lost the love of their life, with the intent of allowing their younger self "the chance to find their love sooner and enjoy more time together." Used judiciously, it might also be able to alter the course of history and avert great tragedies, but the core of it must be the yearning for a lost love, or else the ritual will backfire spectacularly. Harry uses it in a BadFuture, several years after Voldemort won and most of his friends died; he has built a new life in Tenochtitlán, with the few survivors, but while Luna and George have been able to move on, he's still mourning Ginny.

* In the direct-to-video prequel of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIIArielsBeginning'', [[MissingMom Ariel's mother Queen Athena is killed]] when she is run over by a pirate ship. Her husband King Triton is so distraught at her death that he bans music from the kingdom because it reminds him of his late wife, and develops [[FantasticRacism a severe distrust of humans]] that will be in full force by the time the first movie starts.

* Nakbin of ''Manhwa/TheBrideOfTheWaterGod'' whose death and anticipated resurrection was the basis of the whole plot. When she died, the water god Habaek started to require sacrifices from the humans hoping that one of them will be her reincarnation in order to reunite and have the curse lifted. However, while being in grief, constant longing and waiting for his lost love, Habaek met and fell in love with Soah. Unfortunately, even though Habaek is already completely in love with his current bride, he still continues to long for Nakbin that when he reunited with her resurrected form, he reaffirmed his desire to be with her even if she was not the person to whom he was connected with the red string. After Nakbin's "second death", Habaek also promised not to love anyone the same way he loved her by telling Soah that his one eye will be used to look only at her, instead of looking at her with both which were used to look only at Nakbin. Though Soah had accepted the fact of being a replacement wife to Habaek, Nakbin's significance which was never denied by the god continue to bring troubles to the couple.

* Kye Wol Hyang from ''Manhwa/ShinAngyoOnshi'', who died before the start of the series, but her death was the main reason Munsu was able to fight the big bad or had the motivation to endure months and years of travel alone, plotting his revenge against Aji Tae. While he didn't stay chaste after her death (A couple of encounters and just at the beginning of the series), he never took another lover [[spoiler:and in the end, he reunited with her in the afterlife]].

* Wakaba in ''Manga/CrossGame''. [[spoiler:(She dies in the first episode)]]. The rest of the manga is about Kou and the other characters trying to get over her.

* ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'': Les' first wife Lisa is this. After her death, he continued his work as a writer and set up donation causes in her name. There are some deconstructive elements here as it's implied that while Les is able to find love again, the fact that he can never truly keep Lisa out of his life to some degree implies he's unwilling or unable to move on from her death even decades later.

** [[spoiler:Shizuka becomes this for Kazumi]] after their execution in Chapter 3. She's torn up by it throughout Chapter 4, but she tries to hide it. Starting in Chapter 5, [[spioiler:she wears Shizuka's scarf to respect her memory]].

* [[spoiler:Godot]] from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney - Trials & Tribulations'' wakes up from a five-year-long coma caused by [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne's poison]] only to learn that [[spoiler:Mia Fey has died. He then immediately sets his sights on Phoenix Wright, blaming him for "not protecting" Mia, and switches sides of the law, from defense attorney to prosecutor, just to take Phoenix down as punishment. He spends much of the game berating and insulting Phoenix, giving him the nickname "Trite", and even frequently throws boiling hot coffee at him. During the final case of the game, the true nature of his hatred slowly comes to light--as Phoenix gets closer and closer to uncovering Godot as the real killer, Godot almost goads him on and gives him hints, showing that he knows deep down that he knows he's wrong about Phoenix and actually just blames himself for Mia's death. Finally, when Phoenix is about to prove he's the killer, Godot suddenly sees Mia's spirit alongside Phoenix and realizes that she's been "living on through him" all this time. He acquiesces, confesses to the crime, and apologizes to Phoenix and Maya for letting his own misplaced anger cause so much short-sighted, self-centered violence]].

Related tropes include: CynicismCatalyst, DeathByOriginStory, ILetGwenStacyDie, DeathByChildbirth, CollateralAngst, CrusadingWidow, TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth, TheMourningAfter, VictorianNovelDisease.

* Mary Magdalene from ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' is The Lost Lenore of not just [[FailureKnight Chrono]] (of whom she's also the Gwen Stacy), but also Father Remington. Nearly every twist and turn of this trope is played out in the manga--Chrono meets Rosette and he can't help but be reminded of Mary (and she's hinted to even be a reincarnation of her in the anime), it ends up playing out as a sort of love triangle (in the anime he tells Mary's ghost mournfully that "Rosette's covering your place in my heart"), she's a major driving force behind Chrono's character development, and at one point in the manga Chrono and Remington even end up in a duel where Remington seems to take out his anger over Mary's death on Chrono.

* In ''Fanfic/DeathNoteIITheHiddenNote'', Near's wife, [[spoiler:Rebecca Stoodley River]], gets killed by multiple bullets in the back and bleeding to death. In front of her daughter.