History Main / TragicKeepsake

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/LawAbidingCitizen https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fd12c874_e5ed_4568_9c22_552a85c1b74e.png]]]]

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': Mako wears [[ScarfOfAsskicking a red scarf]], which is a common fashion statement for firebenders in Republic City, but he is unusually attached to it. When he goes to an upscale restaurant with Asami Sato, he wears it with his tuxedo. Later on, she buys him a silk scarf, which he does not wear, so she asks why. Mako tells Asami that the scarf is all he has left of his murdered father. Later, Mako gives the scarf to his paternal grandmother, Yin.

* Many relics exist from the faithful night of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic sinking, some of them being items that survivors kept from the night, like their lifejackets or articles of clothing, but there are the more tragic items like one survivor had both her and her late husband's wedding. Also, there are those belongings from the bodies that were recovered like the violin of Wallace Hartley and the watch from one of the stewards frozen in time from the moment he fell in the waters.

* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', although it's [[GameplayAndStorySegregation not seen on her skin]], Niki always wears Wilbur's BadassLongcoat wherever she goes in remembrance of him. [[spoiler:When she finds out Wilbur later gets brought back to life, she's infuriated but continues to wear his coat in defiance towards him.]]

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'': Cinderella has her late mother's ball gown, which she alters to make it a bit more fashionable to wear to the royal ball, still keeping the pink and white color palate. Unfortunately, Lady Tremaine encourages her daughters to tear the gown to shreds by pointing out their beads and sash were used on it, which the girls had ''thrown away'' earlier.

* In ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', Glinda keeps Elphaba's hat and her green bottle when she believes Elphaba is dead.

See also OrphansPlotTrinket, TakeUpMySword, DeathNotification, ItWasAGift, MementoMacGuffin, and SentimentalHomemadeToy. Contrast ItsAllJunk. When Bob is feeling particularly sad over Alice, he may hold the keepsake in a CradleOfLoneliness. If the Keepsake is a body-part of an entity being remembered, then it is this trope being combined with CreepySouvenir. If the Keepsake is a music box, then this will most likely overlap with NostalgicMusicBox. If the Keepsake is a piece of someone's hair, it's usually a HairMemento.

* Several religions keep a whole collection and record of these things. The most famous ones are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relic#Christian_relics the Catholic relics]] - the most poignant and tragic (and sometimes, creepy) are those that belonged to martyrs, but any inspirational beloved will do. Relics come in three flavors: body parts of the actual saint (can vary from drops of blood in a bottle or tiny pieces of bone to an entire body, bonus points if it's uncorrupted), items that were worn in a regular basis by the saint (e.g.: Saint Pio of Pietrelcina's gloves which he used to cover his stigmata), and items that were merely touched or blessed by that saint (such as a robe, a piece of the Holy Cross, a favorite shepherd's crook, etc.) Several miracles are credited to relics, no matter what flavor they are: e.g., in Italy the vial that contains the blood of Saint Gennaro is said to have its contents miraculously liquefied during the saint's feast. During the medieval ages there was a ''black market'' of relics, where diverse Catholic groups would steal them and either sell or smuggle them to other places. An example would be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Sienna#Veneration Saint Catherine of Sienna's head]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'', Harumi has a photo of herself as a child with her birth parents, which is the only thing she has left to remember them after their deaths. After the Emperor and Empress are killed she also kept a photo of herself as a child with them.

* WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower: Hordak keeps the armor and the First Ones crystal that powers it up as a memento of Entrapta, even believing she betrayed him - and even after the crystal turns out to be an AchillesHeel that puts him into Catra's claws. [[spoiler: During Season 4, Catra rips off the crystal when Hordak tries to kill her after learning she sent Entrapta to die on Beast Island. Fortunately, Entrapta was rescued by Adora and Bow, and finds the crystal later (off-screen). In the Season 5, she mistakes another clone for Hordak and shows him the crystal at hopes of making remember her, but the clone slaps it away. [[ContrivedCoincidence Luckily, a mind-wiped Hordak finds it]], and the small piece gets back some of his memories of Entrapta.]]

* Several religions keep a whole collection and record of these things. The most famous ones are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relic#Christian_relics the Catholic relics]] - the most poignant and tragic (and sometimes, creepy) are those that belonged to martyrs, but any inspirational beloved will do. Relics come in three flavors: body parts of the actual saint (can vary from drops of blood in a bottle or tiny pieces of bone to an entire body, bonus points if it's uncorrupted), items that were worn in a regular basis by the saint (i.e.: Saint Pio of Pietrelcina's gloves which he used to cover his stigmata), and items that were merely touched or blessed by that saint (such as a robe, a piece of the Holy Cross, a favorite shepherd's crook, etc.) Several miracles are credited to relics, no matter what flavor they are: i.e., in Italy the vial that contains the blood of Saint Gennaro is said to have its contents miraculously liquefied during the saint's feast. During the medieval ages there was a ''black market'' of relics, where diverse Catholic groups would steal them and either sell or smuggle them to other places. An example would be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Sienna#Veneration Saint Catherine of Sienna's head]].

See also OrphansPlotTrinket, TakeUpMySword, DeathNotification, ItWasAGift, MementoMacGuffin, and SentimentalHomemadeToy. Contrast ItsAllJunk. When Bob is feeling particularly sad over Alice, he may hold the keepsake in a CradleOfLoneliness. If the Keepsake is a body-part of an entity being remembered, then it is this trope being combined with CreepySouvenir. If the Keepsake is a music box, then this will most likely overlap with NostalgicMusicBox.

* ''WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2015'':
** Peter Quill has his walkman and a present his mother gave him minutes before she died. After his walkman is destroyed, Kraglin gives him a zune that the late Yondu Udonta, Quill former boss and adoptive father, bought after Quill left the Ravagers with the intention of giving it to Quill if he decided to come back to them and Quill listens to a song about a father and son relationship during Yondu's funeral. Quill algo gives Kraglin, who was also close to Yondu albeit to a lesser extent, Yondu's Yaka arrow.
** It is said that Drax the Destroyer sleeps with a doll named Mr. Rhinopuss, who used to belong to his daughter before she was murdered by Ronan the Accuser.

Since this qualifies as a DeathTrope, beware of spoilers.

** Luz is obsessed with the book series ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Good Witch Azura]]'', and often carries the first book around with her. "Thanks to Them" reveals that [[spoiler:the book was a gift from her father before he died of an unspecified illness, and one of the few things she has to remember him by]].

** [[spoiler:While separated from Eda and King in "Thanks to Them", Luz constantly wears Eda's old varsity jacket.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': When Luz and Lilith meet him, Philip Wittebane is wearing a blue coat with the emblem of his hometown of Gravesfield emblazoned on the chest. [[spoiler:He changes into this same blue coat while preparing to return to the human realm in "King's Tide", and when Luz insults his 400 years out of date fashion sense, he becomes so enraged that he flings her across the room and into a table. "Thanks to Them" reveals that the blue coat belonged to his late brother Caleb, who Philip tried to rescue by entering the Demon Realm, and later murdered when he discovered that Caleb had married a witch.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}: There's a good reason Megamind carries his dehydration gun everywhere, even in his pajamas. Part of it is actually his binky, which is the last thing his parents gave to him before their death, along with the death of the rest of their people and home planet.