Undying Loyalty / Real Life

• Dogs to mankind. This dog, for example, refused to leave the casket of his Navy Seal master.
  • This dog Fido was the Canine Companion to Jason Ellis, a police officer killed in the line of duty. Fido put his paw on Jason's casket at the funeral, to show respect for his fallen friend.
  • There are multiple stories of dogs that have stood guard over the bodies of their masters, including a man who disappeared during the winter in the Welsh mountains, here a man who went missing while skiing in Colorado, and an artist who fell to his death in the Lake District.
  • Wiley crying at Gladys Eisenstadt's grave.
  • Hachikō would accompany his master to the train station every morning, then return later to await his return and accompany him home. Even after his master died at work, Hachiko would continue to come to the train station to wait for him. His undying loyalty made him an international legend and helped to characterize loyalty as one of the traits of the Akita breed of dog.
  • Britain's ultimate example of this is the legend of "Greyfriars Bobby", a Victorian terrier who allegedly guarded the grave of his owner in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh for fourteen years until he himself died. Not unnaturally, some attempts to debunk the story have been made, with the most recent one arguing that Bobby was simply a stray who made his home in the Kirkyard and was mistakenly assumed to be attached to a specific grave, and even that the original dog died and was secretly replaced by a second one to continue to attract free-spending sightseers.
  • In general, it says a lot that The Other Wiki has a list of dogs who were faithful to their masters.
• Marriage vows are often some form of a declaration of the trope:
  "[Name], will you have this wo/man to be your husband/wife; to live together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love him/her, comfort him/her, honor and keep him/her, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him/her as long as you both shall live?"
  • They answer:
    "I will/I do."
• The RCA logo is an example of this. Painter Francis Barraud inherited from his brother a cylinder phonograph player, a cylinder of his brother talking, and his brother's dog. Francis noticed that whenever he played the cylinder, the dog would instinctively go to it and listen intently. He painted the scene, and RCA used it as their logo.
• Among the leading figures of Nazi Germany, there was Joseph Goebbels, in contrast to Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring, who, respectively, fled (got caught) and surrendered to the Allies in the closing days of World War II in Europe. Goebbels remained at Adolf Hitler's side until the last minutes of the battle of Berlin in April-May 1945 and committed suicide one day after Hitler did.
  • Ditto for his wife, Magda. And for that matter, Eva Braun, who committed suicide together with Hitler (they married minutes before offing themselves).
  • In general, Hitler prioritized absolute loyalty in his subordinates more than anything else. This ended up backfiring in the later days of the war, as he was left with a bunch of Yes-Men who did whatever he told them, no matter how increasingly inane his orders got.
• One German officer told a story from World War II when he was attached to a unit of Finns. The Russians abducted a wounded Finn and subjected him to Cold-Blooded Torture to lure his comrades to come to his aid and walk into an ambush. The Finns instinctively grabbed their weapons and walked into the forest knowing perfectly well what the Russians were up to.
• At the beginning of The Winter War, a party of Finnish soldiers went to the house of an old peasant woman and told her that the Russians were coming and they had to be deprived of shelter. She went into her hut, solemnly cleaned and swept it, and then lit the fire herself. She said, "This is my gift to Finland."
• During Stalingrad, a squad of Soviet troops were pinned down by German fire and tanks, with only one belt of ammo for their turret left. One of them gets captured by the Germans. The captured Soviet then lies to the Germans and tells them his squad is completely out of ammo and leads them to the one place where he knows his squad will be able to mow down the Germans with what little firepower they have. The captured Soviet soldier was later executed in front of his still-pinned down comrades, who were eventually killed when the Germans called in tanks to run them out.
• Similar to the above — during the siege of Malta a knight was captured in the opening skirmishes and was tortured for information on which part of the wall was the weakest and least defended. He instead directed them to the strongest section in the wall resulting in heavy Ottoman casualties. He was executed in front of his comrades in a very drawn-out and painful manner.
• During the Sengoku Jidai, an ashigaru (non-samurai peasant foot soldier) named Torii Suneemon volunteered to go for help when the garrison at Nagashino, held by Tokugawa Ieyasu's forces, came under siege by Takeda Katsuyori. He successfully navigated his way through the Takeda defensive line and warned Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga about the siege, then volunteered to go back to report to the garrison ahead of the combined Oda-Tokugawa relief force. He was captured during his return, strung up on a cross in front of Nagashino castle, and was told to shout to the garrison that no help was coming and that they should surrender instead. Instead, when the Takeda expected him to demoralize the garrison with such tidings, Suneemon instead loudly proclaimed that relief was coming and for the garrison to hold the castle. He was promptly executed by the Takeda, but after winning the battle for Nagashino, Ieyasu was so moved by reports of Suneemon's bravery and unflinching loyalty, even in the face of painful execution, that he elevated Suneemon's family from peasants to the ranks of the samurai.
• Admiral Yi Sun-sin, arguably one of the most gifted naval strategists the world has ever seen, was repeatedly betrayed and brought down by a corrupt, Decadent Court and political infighting in a time when they could ill afford it: the Japanese invasion of Korea under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He is renowned for setting very high standards for naval combat — namely, utter Curb Stomp Battles, costing the Japanese dozens of ships while suffering no losses among his own fleet. None of his court-appointed predecessors or replacements accomplished anything remotely close, instead suffering devastating losses. In a time where other men would've simply thrown in the towel and abandoned any further efforts to work to save a government that was effectively shooting itself in both feet with every decision, Admiral Yi continued to fight to save Korea even when he was demoted or accused of treason repeatedly by jealous individuals. He likely did not do so out of loyalty to the court, but instead did so out of loyalty to his nation and its people. Yi was loyal even unto death, his sheer charisma motivating his fleet to win the day after he had been killed by a Japanese rifle shot in the middle of his final battle. His posthumous moniker? The Martial Lord of Loyalty.
• Some species of animal will remain faithful to their breeding partner for all its life. For example, the Shingleback has been known to even stay by the side of their partner if they die for days on end.
  • Pretty much all monogamous birds also qualify. Ravens have been known to sink into depression when their mates die, sometimes to the point of intentionally starving themselves to death.
• The 47 Ronin, as the example of this trope in Japanese culture.
• This is basically what the term "Ride or die" means, usually when referring to another person.
• At the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II, her lead lined (and thus very heavy) coffin was carried carefully and lovingly by members of the Queen’s Company, Grenadier Guards, who had never known a Sovereign other than Her Majesty. Not a slip was made. Then, the Company gave the camp colour (the standard identifying the company commander) to the King who placed it on her coffin to be entombed for eternity in the vault of Windsor Castle. It was also announced that the company would retain the name ‘The Queen’s Company’ in honour of Elizabeth II, meaning that forever, the Queen’s Guards would be under their commander, whom they guarded unto her final rest.
• In 786, King Cynewulf of Wessex was set upon and murdered by the nobleman Cyneheard who was the brother of the previously deposed king. Cynewulf's men who were present arrived on the scene upon hearing the commotion but were too late to protect their lord. In an attempt to placate them, Cyneheard attempted to bribe the king's men with both money and safe conduct, which they promptly refused and instead attacked and fought Cyneheard until nearly all were slain. However the rest of the king's retainers who weren't present immediately heard of what happened and marched to confront Cyneheard. Again Cyneheard attempted to bribe the royal army with riches and when that failed told them that a number of his men are relatives of the soldiers besieging them. The army however replied by stating that "no relative is closer to them than their lord" and proceed to assault the fort, with the ensuing battle seeing Cyneheard and nearly all of his men slain.