History Main / IWillWaitForYou

* Fry's dog Seymour Asses does this in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E7JurassicBark Jurassic Bark]]". Using the TropeNamer song [[TearJerker makes it so much worse]]. The dog waited all his life...
** [[spoiler:However, they rectified this in ''[[TheMovie Bender's Big Score]]'', where history was changed so that he didn't need to wait at all. This was mainly because the original ending crushed souls with its sadness.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Spliced}}'': The episode "Compu-Peri" Peri a pet bat-puppy (or buppy) named Pistachio, who suddenly disappears during a game of fetch. After waiting a whole week in the same spot for him to come back and eventually coming to terms that Pistachio may never return after trying to remove his emotions to avoid dealing with the pain of being abandoned, Compu-Horse comforts him by claiming that Pistachio is likely off making someone else very happy. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it's revealed immediately after that Pistachio was actually eaten by the Wunny Sharbit]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Played for laughs in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E24Homerpalooza Homerpalooza]]". When Homer is having stomach issues, he's sent to [[RuleOfFunny a veternarian]], who warns him if he takes another hit from a cannonball, he will die, he shrugs it off and asks "Got any messages for Music/JimiHendrix?", [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder to which the vet unironically answers: "Yes: 'Pick up your puppy.'"]], and we pan to a dog named Rover Hendrix sitting on a bed (as a StealthPun about the Hendrix song "Fire" and its line "Move over, Rover, and let Jimmy take over.").
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Spliced}}'': The episode "Compu-Peri" Peri a pet bat-puppy (or buppy) named Pistachio, who suddenly disappears during a game of fetch. After waiting a whole week in the same spot for him to come back and eventually comes to terms that Pistachio may never return after trying to remove his emotions to avoid dealing with the pain of being abandoned, Compu-Horse comforts him by claiming that Pistachio is likely off making someone else very happy. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it's revealed immediately after that Pistachio was actually eaten by the Wunny Sharbit]].

-->-- The English lyrics for Music/MichelLegrand's "I Will Wait For You", the TropeNamer.

* Connie Francis' Song, Circa 1965. Quite literally titled I will wait for you. This version was used in the described ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode.

-->-- '''Music/AndyWilliams''', "I Will Wait For You"

* Music/{{Love}}'s "Alone Again Or" from ''Music/ForeverChanges'' is kind of ambiguous on the matter?

* "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" by Music/TheScript is about a narrator waiting for his lover to come back to her in "the corner they first saw her" and, of course, never moving from it. Said girl being discussed [[DownerEnding never comes back]], or at least such is implied.

* Invoked in ''[[Franchise/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' vol. 2 #45 during the separation of Peter and Mary Jane Parker. Peter goes to Hollywood to ask MJ to return to him, but she still finds it too hard dealing with sharing her life with Spider-Man:

* ComicBook/LoisLane in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'', insisting Franchise/{{Superman}} will come back - he's just fixing the Sun.
* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'': Stargirl basically promises this publically (to a reporter questioning her) about Atom Smasher when he goes to prison for war crimes. "I'll be there for him, no matter how long it takes".
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', Lana Lang waited almost a millennium to marry Superman, while he went and married Lois Lane, had children through her, watched them die, saw his grandson gain powers and have children. Given that Lana had Merlin's staff and was messing around with magic, the wait was worth it, as Lana through gaining immortality [[HotWitch still looked as beautiful as the day Superboy first saw her]].

* Defied in ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent: After Faye and Marten have TheTalk (regarding why she puts out such drastically mixed signals towards), she agrees to seek help for her mental issues. But only on the condition that Marten ''won't'' try and wait for her. She has no idea when or even if she'll be ready for any sort of real relationship and doesn't want him to put his life on hold indefinitely. [[spoiler:They both end up in committed relationships with other people.]]

* In the {{Chivalric Romance}}s ''King Horn'', ''Beves of Hampton'', and ''Guy of Warwick'', the heroes all win the hand of a princess by their feats. Unfortunately, Horn is in exile from the court of his true love because of [[MaliciousSlander a false accusation]], and Beves and Guy are both seeking to win renown so that the princess he is in love with will find him worthy, despite his low birth. All of them wriggle out of the marriage and (in due time) win their first loves.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** The "turned to stone" variant is featured as a local legend in "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak." The stone girl's spirit is also said to haunt the area.

** Downplayed in another episode with a Ninetales (kitsune Pokemon who can reach 1000 years of age); as per the trope, she waited a long time for her master. But once 100 years passed without his return, she realized he'd died and attempted to leave the house where he'd lived, only to be unable to since her Pokeball was still in there.
** Another example happened in a Battle Frontier episode, where May meets an old woman at a run-down train station waiting for her husband to return. The woman's granddaughter reveals that her husband wanted to leave to become a Pokemon Doctor, but she didn't want to leave because she was pregnant. She wanted to tell him before he left but was unable to catch up to him. Her husband died in an accident a year later, but she [[SelectiveObliviousness didn't believe it]] and continued to wait for him at the train station every day for many years.

* ''VideoGame/ArTonelico2'' has an interesting variant. Croix makes what amounts to a ChildhoodMarriagePromise with Luca who agrees to wait until he's a full-fledged knight and he comes to take her to Pastalia. However [[spoiler:if the player chooses the default ending, Croix says ''he'' will wait for Coccona to return from her journey to the third tower.]]

* In the first ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' movie, we have [[spoiler:Clow Reed's girlfriend and disciple, only referred to as Mahoudoushi aka "the Sorceress", and the BigBad of the film. They got into a huge fight when she started practising BlackMagic despite his warnings, so he sealed her away in a PocketDimension. Sorceress broke free many years later... when Clow was already dead; she then proceeded to unleash her magic against Syaoran's family as well as against Sakura, and as she did so, a lot of her dialogue parts are summed up as her asking "Where. Is. Clow Reed?". When Sakura finally managed to tell her that he's dead, she suffered a VillainousBSOD, saying [[MadnessMantra "But... I... waited...!"]] all over.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'': Said verbatim by Link's [[ChildhoodFriends childhood friend]]/[[ImpliedLoveInterest implied love interest]], [[DoesNotLikeShoes Ilia]], at the conclusion of the [[SidequestSideStory sidequest]] to restore her memories. After Cor Goron and the others have [[LeaveTheTwoLovebirdsAlone given them their privacy]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4UYayCJM5U that is.]]

* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', this is given a bit of a twist. Deionarra's CatchPhrase for The Nameless One is "I shall wait for you in death's halls, my love." Since he is immortal and she is already dead, what she is waiting for [[TogetherInDeath is for him to finally find a way to die]]. [[spoiler:Sadly, even if The Nameless One ''were'' to recover all his memories of Deionarra upon death, all he would realize is that he never loved her in the first place.]]

** [[spoiler:In the new timeline, when Yomiel isn't killed by the Temsik meteorite, Sissel (the fiancee, not the cat) waits ten years for him to get out of jail.]]

* La Oreja de Van Gogh's song ''La Playa'' is about an isolated boy living in a beach house that fells in love with a girl, but it's just a summer love for said girl. The boy promises to always wait for her, but the girl never comes. In the end, the boy is already an old man and he is still waiting.

->''"If it takes forever, I will wait for you \\
For a thousand summers, I will wait for you \\
'Til you're back beside me, 'til I'm holding you \\

* In ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'', Sakura's relationship with Sasuke boils down to this. At first, he was a rogue ninja, but [[SingleTargetSexuality she still kept chasing after him]]. After [[spoiler:his HeelFaceTurn]], he leaves once again to [[spoiler:[[WalkingTheEarth wander the world]] and [[TheAtoner atone for his crimes]]]], promising that one day he'll come back to her. In ''[[LightNovel/NarutoHiden Sakura Hiden]]'', set two years after that, he still hasn't come back, making her wonder how much longer she can wait for him. In ''Manga/NarutoGaiden'', this extends even to [[spoiler:their marriage.]]

* In an early episode of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Revolution'', when Lina is almost arrested for "the crime of being Lina Inverse", Gourry tearfully promises to wait for her until she gets out of prison, no matter how many years it takes. Lina, of course, responds with violence.

People often assume this character will have to be a female ([[Literature/TheOdyssey or]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Hachiko}} a loyal]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} dog]]), but this is not true: one of the most famous in cinema history is [[Creator/HumphreyBogart a man]] who is [[Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941 willing to wait decades]]. See also MyGirlIsNotASlut, TheSlowPath. When the waiting is forced (either by an individual or a social custom), it may overlap with PropertyOfLove. Compare IWillFindYou for when the speaker plans to take a more proactive stance. Also see ReunionVow. Contrast AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder and TakingTheVeil, a common historical alternative.

* Played for laughs in the "Moon Over Minerva" skit from ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}''. Minerva is at first turned off by the stereotypically nerdy wolf Wilford, but when she finds out that he is actually a [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent werewolf who turns into a gorgeous hunk when the moon is full]], she tells him she's willing to wait thirty days until it's full again.

* In ''Faithful Jenny Dove'', the titular Jenny promises to wait for her lover, naturally he dies and she wastes away herself but keeps on waiting as a ghost. Things get complicated when Jenny falls for another local ghost, a young gentleman who is doomed to walk until he meets a faithful woman. Eek. Then her true love comes home alive and blows Jenny's cover. To keep her dead love she has to somehow make her grieving living lover betray her...

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Floris and Blanchefleur'', the lovers are forcibly separated to prevent a mesalliance. Neither of them is shaken by that -- even when Floris believes that she is dead.

* In ''[[Creator/DouglasCoupland Girlfriend In A Coma]]'', Richard continues to visit Karen for ''seventeen years'' after she goes into a coma, never once even considering breaking off the relationship.

* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "Empath's Honeymoon", Willow the Weeping Ghost recalled waiting for his beloved Mulberry to return so that he could marry her. She never did, and he ended up dying of a broken heart, only imagining what sharing any intimacy with her would have been like.

* The Lord's SecondComing in ''Literature/TheBible'' is likened to this trope, particularly in the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew chapter 25, who all waited at night for the Bridegroom to come to take them to the wedding feast, but only five of them were wise enough to bring oil with their lamps while the other five had to go and buy oil for themselves, thus costing them their opportunity to be part of the wedding feast.