History Main / CantRefuseTheCallAnymore

[[DarkestHour It may not be entirely pleasant]] — there's a reason SymbolicHeroRebirth, which throws death and rebirth symbolism into the mix, is a related concept. It is often the moment of greatest ''personal'' danger for the hero. TheHero can move forward by defeating the ThresholdGuardians, but also by being destroyed by them. TheHero can move forward by defeating the ThresholdGuardians, but also by being destroyed by them.

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16832524900.72723400 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

This, as denoted in ''Literature/TheHeroWithAThousandFaces'', is the conclusion of the Separation, the first phase of TheHerosJourney: "The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating [[ThresholdGuardians the power of the threshold]], is swallowed into the unknown, and would appear to have died." There is no [[RefusalOfTheCall turning back]] from this point. This is TheHero's point of no return where he resigns himself to the difficult task ahead. Forward march to the Road of Trials!

[[DarkestHour It may not be entirely pleasant]] — there's a reason Campbell compares it with dying. It is often the moment of greatest ''personal'' danger for the hero. TheHero can move forward by defeating the ThresholdGuardians, but also by being destroyed by them.

->''"Tell me, who gives a good goddamn?\\
You'll never get out alive!\\
Don't go dreaming, don't go scheming\\
A man must test his mettle\\
In a crooked ol' world\\
Starving in the belly, starving in the belly\\
Starving in the belly of a whale!"''
-->-- '''Music/TomWaits''', ''Starving in the Belly of a Whale''

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' when [[spoiler:Eren gets nommed by a titan on his first mission. While he's inside its stomach, he discovers his titan shifting powers which not only help him survive being eaten, but prove to be a game changer for humanity's side]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' has an accidental example: Marlin and Dory are swallowed by a whale, which marks their final step in the journey to Australia (and a variant: instead of preceding the Road of Trials, it's the end of it, though not of Marlin's privations).

* ''Film/TheMatrix'': After Neo swallows the red pill and awakes in his battery pod outside the matrix. The whole sequence is a very literal "rebirth" into his new world, with a naked, bald Neo covered in goop, breaking out of a translucent sac and being dumped down a chute, only to wake up disoriented and helpless in a hospital bed.

* Halfway through ''Literature/{{Pact}}'', Blake Thorburn, the viewpoint character, has his connections to the outside world eaten by a demon, causing him to become an {{Unperson}} and trapping him in [[EldritchLocation the Drains]], where he's forced to confront hard truths about himself and [[TomatoInTheMirror his life]], ultimately emerging more supernatural creature than human.

* ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury'': In the TV cut of movie pilot, there is a epilogue where Buck is clearly still coming to terms with losing everythng he knew due to being a 500 year old HumanPopsicle. Dr. Huer and Wilma offers Buck a position at the Earth Defense Directorate. Buck, feeling that he is hopelessly out of date, is reluctant to join and continues to mope around during the first part of the first episode of the TV series proper. Buck is curious about Earth's latest BigBad threat but he is politely denied any details, of course, since it's ClassifiedInformation. As this was coming from Dr. Huer and Wilma (RedPillBluePill and the fact that they even bothered to inform him at all), it was made to sound much more like a second CallToAdventure, however, since Buck was still DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife. At that point, Buck realizes that he must join if he's to have any real purpose.

* The [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] story of [[Literature/BookOfJonah Jonah]] in the belly of the whale, where Jonah had no choice but to accept God's plans for him (although the Hebrew word used in the Old Testament is fish "דג" NOT whale "לִוְיָתָן").

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' is this for Desmond Miles. He has fallen into a comatose state after being forced to kill Lucy Stillman, and the only way for him to ever wake up is to relive Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore's memories until there's nothing left for him to relive, as well as coming to terms with his troubled past, the fact he is an Assassin and the role he has to play.

* The initiation ritual for a Liir joining the Black Swimmers in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' fits this to a tee. First, he goes through what is basically a funeral, where his loved ones circle him, sing to him, and touch him one last time. After he is handed over to the Black Swimmers, his lungs are filled with the oxygenated fluid that Liir warships use instead of atmosphere. To the recruit, this is very much like drowning, and indeed the first day of training is called "Drowning Day". After he has been reborn, not as a Liir, but as a Black Swimmer, he will undergo his military training.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration OG]]'', Campbellian Hero archetype Ryusei Date's symbolic death and rebirth comes when he and the rest of the SRX team are forced to use their dangerous, untested CombiningMecha in the middle of battle and re-emerge as the gigantic Super Robot X.

* In ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'', the secret plot of Headon and Yu Hansung requires [[TheWoobie Twenty-Fifth]] [[WideEyedIdealist Bam]] to disappear from the face of the earth and the eyes of King Jahad. Apparently, it was most effective when he was killed by the person he was looking up to and searching for just when everybody thought it would be just fine. Not only is this a staged death, it is the final sladgehammer stroke that destroys Bam's innocence and replaces it with emotional emptiness.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Anselm of Aosta, a Catholic cleric, became a favorite of Duke William II of Normandy (the eventual [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy William the Conqueror]]), using his position to build a major seminary school at Bec Abbey. After the Norman conquest of England, Anselm was seen as a potential successor to the first post-Conquest Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc. But as time went on, and Anselm grew older, he decided he no longer wished to rise to that level. After Lanfranc's death in 1089, the archbishopric sat vacant for four years, primarily because the next King of England, William Rufus, was in conflict with it. But in 1092, after Anselm advised William Rufus during a serious illness, William Rufus insisted that Anselm become the next Archbishop of Canterbury. On 6 March 1093, Anselm was ''literally dragged kicking and screaming'' into a church, and finally agreed to become Archbishop on 25 September 1093. He would hold position for the last 16 years of his life (though that included exile by William Rufus from 1097-1100, returning after his brother, King Henry I, took the throne).
[[/folder]]

* Anselm of Aosta, a Catholic cleric, became a favorite of Duke William II of Normandy (the eventual [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy WilliamTheConqueror]]), using his position to build a major seminary school at Bec Abbey. After the Norman conquest of England, Anselm was seen as a potential successor to the first post-Conquest Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc. But as time went on, and Anselm grew older, he decided he no longer wished to rise to that level. After Lanfranc's death in 1089, the archbishopric sat vacant for four years, primarily because the next King of England, William Rufus, was in conflict with it. But in 1092, after Anselm advised William Rufus during a serious illness, William Rufus insisted that Anselm become the next Archbishop of Canterbury. On 6 March 1093, Anselm was ''literally dragged kicking and screaming'' into a church, and finally agreed to become Archbishop on 25 September 1093. He would hold position for the last 16 years of his life (though that included exile by William Rufus from 1097-1100, returning after his brother, King Henry I, took the throne).

* Anselm of Aosta, a Catholic cleric, became a favorite of UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror, using his position to build a major seminary school at Bec Abbey in Normandy. After the Norman conquest of England, Anselm was seen as a potential successor to the first post-Conquest Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc. But as time went on, and Anselm grew older, he decided he no longer wished to rise to that level. After Lanfranc's death in 1089, the archbishopric sat vacant for four years, primarily because the next King of England, William Rufus, was in conflict with it. But in 1092, after Anselm advised William Rufus during a serious illness, William Rufus insisted that Anselm become the next Archbishop of Canterbury. On 6 March 1093, Anselm was ''literally dragged kicking and screaming'' into a church, and finally agreed to become Archbishop on 25 September 1093. He would hold position for the last 16 years of his life (though that included exile by William Rufus from 1097-1100, returning after his brother, King Henry I, took the throne).

* Anselm of Aosta, a Catholic cleric, became a favorite of UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror, using his position to build a major seminary school at Bec Abbey in Normandy. After the Norman conquest of England, Anselm was seen as a potential successor to the first post-Conquest Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc. But as time went on, and Anselm grew older, he decided he no longer wished to rise to that level. After Lanfranc's death in 1089, the archbishopric sat vacant for three years, primarily because the next King of England, William Rufus, was in conflict with it. But in 1092, after Anselm advised William Rufus during a serious illness, William Rufus insisted that Anselm become the next Archbishop of Canterbury. On 6 March 1093, Anselm was ''literally dragged kicking and screaming'' into a church, and finally agreed to become Archbishop on 25 September 1093. He would hold position for the last 16 years of his life (though that included exile by William Rufus from 1097-1100, returning after his brother, King Henry I, took the throne).

* ComicBook/SpiderMan: When Peter Parker first got his powers, his first response is to use them for personal gain. However, a criminal he allowed to escape due to his hubris would later murder his Uncle Ben. Upon realizing his TragicMistake and that WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility, Peter begins his bumpy journey as the superhero Spider-Man.

** 70 years later in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Aang's successor Korra manages to escape some ThresholdGuardians (the Order of the White Lotus) and conciliate others (Lin Bei Fong and Tenzin) and finds herself firmly set in Republic CityOfAdventure.