History Main / RememberTheDead

* ''VideoGame/CoffeeTalk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly'': When fairies die, so does their memories, so they rely on other beings to remember them [[ImmortalityThroughMemory to continue their existence after death.]] [[spoiler:This is why the fairies running Gnome Noms vandalized the cars parked near the spot where the dead hawthorn tree used to be. The tree, which was the "body" of their friend who was killed by a drunk driver in 1959, was uprooted in January 2023, breaking the promise of the previous mayor to keep it in remembrance.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', people go to the permanent party that is the Land of the Remembered after they die. Once they're forgotten, they're transferred to the much gloomier Land of the Forgotten.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' the dead are only allowed to visit the land of the living on the Day of the Dead if someone has left their photo in an ''ofrenda'', family shrine. And if they are completely forgotten by the living, they die the [[DeaderThanDead Final Death]] and fade away, like what happened to Chicharron. It's unknown what happens afterwards but it's implied they cease to exist. The film particularly contrasts the luxurious afterlife of Ernesto, who was a famous singer and actor and is still the idol of many, with the desperate circumstances of Hector, who is remembered clearly only by his daughter, now a very old woman whose memory is failing.

Sister trope to ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, where things or beings stop existing when there's no one left who believes in them. Compare to GodNeedsPrayerBadly where a deity only exists as long as they have followers, and ImmortalityThroughMemory, which is the more metaphorical case of this trope.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Film -- Animation]]

[[folder: Fairy Tales]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Mythology & Religion]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece,'' shortly before his HeroicSacrifice, Hiruluk gives a speech declaring that a man doesn't truly die until he is forgotten.

* One of the companion books to ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'' featured the Hodrians, who believe that as long as a person's name is still out there, they endure. So they create "memory spheres", basically glass capsules with the name written on a slip of paper inside. Much of their activity consists of finding new places to stash the things; their original planet is buried in them.

* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''') often claims he's a complete DirtyCoward who'll happily throw all the men under his command between him and danger so he can run away. He also expresses guilt that he ''can't remember'' the face of a man who died under his command. [[{{Hypocrite}} Yeah.]]
* A recurring line in ''Literature/GoingPostal'' is 'A man's not dead while his name is still spoken'.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Westworld}}:'' Alluded to by one of the hosts in Season 2:
-->'''Akecheta''': You live only as long as the last person who remembers you.

[[folder: Mythology & Religion]]
* The Ancient [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Egyptians]] believed that a person's name, or "Ren", was one of the six [[AnatomyOfTheSoul components of the soul]]. A large part of the reason for their infamous monuments was to ensure that one's name would be remembered.
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* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' on the fortress world of Cadia the mortality rate is so high that if the name on one's tombstone becomes illegible from wear they dig up the remains and inhume a fresh corpse in the grave. Figuring that it's not worth wasting a gravesite on the forgotten.

* Alluded to in one of the loading screen quotes in ''[[Videogame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]''
-->''"A thing lives only as long as the last thing that remembers it".''

Sister trope to ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, where things or beings stop existing when there's no one left who believes in them. Compare to GodNeedsPrayerBadly where a deity only exists as long as they have followers.

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', cats that live in Clans (feral colonies) join [=StarClan=] after they die if they lived a honorable life. If they didn't follow the warrior code, then they end up in the Dark Forest. Spirits stay in [=StarClan=] until they become completely forgotten by all other cats (dead or alive). Once they're forgotten, they fade. What happens when they fade [[ShrugOfGod is uncertain]]. They either turn into stars and live peacefully by themselves from thereon, become part of a second [=StarClan=], or they stop existing period.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'', the Hodrians believe that as long as a person's name is still out there, they endure. So they create "memory spheres", basically glass capsules with the name written on a slip of paper inside. Much of their activity consists of finding new places to stash the things; their original planet is buried in them.

* A recurring line in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' is 'A man's not dead while his name is still spoken'.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' the dead are only allowed to visit the land of the living on the Day of the Dead if someone has left their photo in an ''ofrenda'', family shrine. And if they are completely forgotten by the living, they die the [[DeaderThanDead Final Death]] and fade away. It's unknown what happens afterwards but it's implied they cease to exist.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', people go to permanent party that is the Land of the Remembered after they die. Once they're forgotten, they're transferred to the much gloomier Land of the Forgotten.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' the dead are only allowed to visit the land of the living on the Day of the Dead if someone has left their photo in an ''ofrenda'', family shrine. And if they are completely forgotten by the living, they die the [[DeaderThanDead Final Death]] and fade away.

[[folder: Mythology & Religion]]
* The Ancient [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Egyptians]] believed that a person's name, or "Ren", was one of the six [[AnatomyOfTheSoul components of the soul]]. A large part of the reason for their infamous monuments was to ensure that one's name would be remembered.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' anime episode #3. After her brother Sora dies, Orihime Inoue regularly prays for him, which gives him peace in the afterlife. After a year she starts to pray for him less and less and begins to forget about him. After she enters high school, she stops praying for him altogether. His sadness and loneliness causes him to not pass on to the Soul Society, which leaves him vulnerable to being converted into a Hollow.

Sister trope to ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, where things or beings stop existing when there's no one left who believes in them. Compare to GodNeedsPrayerBadly where a deity only exists as long as they have followers
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* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' anime episode #3. After her brother Sora dies, Orihime Inoue regularly prays for him, which gives him peace in the afterlife. After a year she started to pray for him less and less and began to forget about him. After she entered high school she stopped praying for him altogether. His sadness and loneliness causes him to not pass on to the Soul Society, which leaves him vulnerable to being converted into a Hollow.

* ''Franchise/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' on the fortress world of Cadia the mortality rate is so high that if the name on one's tombstone becomes illegible from wear they dig up the remains and inhume a fresh corpse in the grave. Figuring that it's not worth wasting a gravesite on the forgotten.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Film - Animation ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', cats that live in Clans (feral colonies) join [=StarClan=] after they die if they lived a honorable life. If they didn't follow the warrior code, then they end up in the Dark Forest. Spirits stay in Star Clan until they become completely forgotten by all other cats (dead or alive). Once they're forgotten, they fade. What happens when they fade [[ShrugOfGod is uncertain]]. They either turn into stars and live peacefully by themselves from thereon, become part of a second [=StarClan=], or they stop existing period.

[[folder: Mythology & Religion ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC: {{Film}} - Animation]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]
* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', cats that live in Clans (feral colonies) join [=StarClan=] after they die if they lived a honorable life. If they didn't follow the warrior code, then they end up in the Dark Forest. Spirits stay in Star Clan until they become completely forgotten by all other cats (dead or alive). Once they're forgotten, they fade. What happens when they fade [[ShrugOfGod is uncertain]]. They either turn into stars and live peacefully by themselves from thereon, become part of a second [=StarClan=], or they stop existing period.

[[AC: {{Mythology}} & {{Religion}}]]

[[AC: TabletopGames]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

-->''To speak the name of the dead is to make them live again.''
--->Inscribed on an Ancient Egyptian tomb.

* In the ''ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'', this is particularly a plot point in ''Bound in Blood''.

-->"A thing lives only as long as the last thing that remembers it".
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. There's a special location called the Farplane where the local spirits can bring back an image of the dead, people usually do this to clear out any bad feelings "face-to-face".