Duty That Transcends Death

"Even in death, I still serve!"

— Dreadnought, Dawn of War^note Ironically, Dreadnoughts are not an example of this trope, since the Space Marines piloting them are not biologically dead yet when they are entombed within — just mortally injured with no hope of recovery.

When a character or a group of characters are so committed to their duty, oath, or obligation that not even death can prevent them from carrying it out. This can take multiple forms, from becoming a Revenant Zombie to Reincarnation, but all of them ultimately boil down to a character's sense of duty overcoming death itself.

Subtrope of Determinator. If the character is an undead, this also becomes a subtrope of Unfinished Business and may overlap with Backup from Otherworld. See also Ghostly Goals and Murder Into Malevolence. Compare Afterlife of Service and Purpose-Driven Immortality.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Attack on Titan, Ymir Fritz continues to serve the first King Fritz long after her death in the Paths. Despite allowing herself to die after saving the king when she could have healed herself, she continues to build Titans for his descendants. Only after 2,000 years, when Eren encourages her to take charge of her own life, does she break free of Fritz's control. And then, by observing Mikasa, who was able to bring herself to kill Eren despite her feelings for him, Ymir gains the strength to sever her own toxic bond with Fritz, putting an end to the Titans and 2,000 years of servitude.
• In Bleach, Ulquiorra kills Ichigo during their second fight by blasting a Cero Oscuras right through his chest at point-blank range. While Orihime is watching, no less. She desperately attempts to heal Ichigo as she fights off a mental breakdown, but between Ichigo's wounds not healing and Ulquiorra mopping the floor with Ishida, Orihime falls back on her default response and cries out for Ichigo to help her. Somehow, Ichigo is able to hear her, and completely gives in to his Inner Hollow, which has the side effect of resuscitating his body. The ensuing onslaught against Ulquiorra leaves Orihime terrified, as a Hollowfied Ichigo repeatedly mutters that he will protect her.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, Bruno Bucciarati is killed when Diavolo has King Crimson punch his fist through Bucciarati's chest. However, thanks to a combination of Giorno's Stand Gold Experience and his own desire to protect Trish, his spirit is able to return to his body and keep going. However, his body slowly continues to decay as the days pass, to the point that Bucciarati can't even feel his own accumulating injuries anymore. He ultimately sacrifices himself to undo a "Freaky Friday" Flip during the climactic fight against Diavolo, keeping the Stand Arrow out of Diavolo's grasp in the process. Because his original body has died by this point, Bucciarati's soul passes on after thanking Giorno for giving him a second chance at life.
• Naruto: Following a Heel–Face Turn, Obito sacrifices his own life to protect Team 7 from Kaguya, after which his body crumbles to ash. However, after meeting Rin in the afterlife, he decides that there is still one more thing he can do, and uses Kamui to warp his soul back to the world of the living and lend his chakra to Kakashi, temporarily granting him his Mangekyo Sharingan and allowing him to use a fully-powered Kamui to assist Team 7 against Kaguya.
• Brook from One Piece. He and his original crew died, but he had the power of the Revive-Revive Fruit which gave him the ability to return to life. Unfortunately, it took his soul a year to find his body which had become a skeleton by then. He was then left to drift aimlessly on his ship for fifty years until he was found by the Strawhat Pirates. Why didn't he give up? It was for a baby whale his crew had befriended, Laboon. They had to leave him behind for his own safety, but promised to return to him. Brook does not consider death a good enough excuse for breaking a promise. It goes as far as him protecting his afro-styled hair as that is the only thing still recognizable about him. Laboon is still alive. The Straw Hats met him not long after reaching the Grand Line; in the same place he was told to wait. To say Brook was grateful to be told this would be an understatement.

Comic Books

• Deconstructed in DIE, in which one of the characters in a humorous mood magically enforced an ex-boyfriend's vow that he would not rest until he saw her again. When they finally meet again, he is a Revenant Zombie and not happy about it.

Literature

• This notion is central to the narrative of the traditional Albanian poem The Dead Brother's Song or Costantine and Doruntine (and its many variations throughout the Balkans). Therein, a man takes responsibility for his sister when she marries someone in a foreign land. When he and all his brothers die of disease, their mother calls on him to keep his vow. He then rises from the grave and brings his sister back home.
• In Deltora Quest, Gorl the Jalis Knight became so overcome with greed at the prospect of immortality that he killed his brothers for the Lilies of Life. However, he missed out on the chance for them to bloom, so he stood guard by them for eons, killing anyone who approached him and feeding their blood to the lilies. Even after his body had crumbled to dust and all that was left of him was a suit of golden armor, his willpower remained to continue his damned duty until the end of his existence.
• In The Saga of Darren Shan, Mr. Des Tiny wants to find a soul to resurrect to take on the duty of protecting Darren, but he needs to choose someone who was devoted to that in life as well. He finds the perfect soul, one who has his own sins to atone for...
• In The Elenium, the ghosts/spirits of at least two of the knights who've sacrificed their life force to keep Queen Ehlana alive in a magical crystal appear to defend the protagonists during a skirmish with the bad guys. A character is profoundly shaken by their oath of loyalty permitting them to return from the Halls of the Dead to do this which is not normally possible.
• Even death didn't prevent Professor Binns from teaching history as a ghost at Hogwarts in Harry Potter. However, it's implied Binns simply didn't realize he was dead at the time (nowadays, his entering class by phasing through the blackboard implies he eventually caught on, likely thanks to someone outright telling him).
• In the metaphysical reality of Reflections of Eterna, dead people first go into the Labyrinth, from where they can enter either the Sunrise ("heaven", according to The Church) or Sunset ("hell"). However, individuals with a particularly strong sense of honor (like Cesare Marichiare, who came back as the future Saint Adrian and Roque Alva in the final books of the cycle) escape the Labyrinth back into the mortal world, effectively coming Back from the Dead to fulfill their duties. The tradeoff being that when they die for the second time, there is no afterlife, just Cessation of Existence.

Live-Action TV

• On Angel, attorneys working for the evil lawyer firm Wolfram & Hart continue to be on the job as spirits well after they die.
• In Due South, Robert Fraser, the father of the main character, dies and becomes a ghost. Aside from being seen by his son Benton, he helps his son out. He captures a criminal who escaped from prison, telling him "A Mountie will hunt you to the grave, hunt you from beyond the grave."
• Toyed with in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath". A group of Klingons is willing to let Jadzia Dax out of a pact they made with her past host Curzon, seeing her as a different person than Curzon and thus not bound by Curzon's oath, but Dax herself feels compelled to follow through on the pact anyway.
• The Twilight Zone (1985): In "Devil's Alphabet", Grant suggests that he and the other six members of the Devil's Alphabet Society meet every year on November 2 whether they are alive or dead. Although he is entirely serious, the others agree to it without much thought as they don't take it seriously. In 1896, the society discovers that they are being held to the occult bargain that they made 20 years earlier. Shortly after committing suicide, the unseen ghost of Deaver makes his presence at the meeting known by signing his name on the register and drinking the wine poured for him. Over the next two years, five of the other members die from various causes until Frederick is the Sole Survivor. Frederick proposes to dissolve the society so that the dead may rest. Although Grant initially objects, the motion is passed unanimously.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons
  • In the 1st Edition Advanced D&D supplement Monster Manual II, a haunt is the spirit of a person who died leaving a very important task unfinished. They attack people who pass near their death site, draining their Dexterity until it reaches zero and they can possess the victim. They use the victim's body to carry out whatever mission they were pursuing when they died. If they succeed, they will pass onto their eternal reward and the victim will regain control of their body. In later editions, the haunt concept was expanded to include Murder Into Malevolence.
  • Ravenloft setting, adventure I6 Ravenloft. Every night at midnight, the spirits of all of the adventurers who died in Ravenloft while trying to defeat Strahd rise from the town cemetery in an attempt to fulfill their quest. Each night, they fail: they march toward Strahd's castle, enter it and just disappear.
• Played for Horror in Mummy: The Curse. The Arisen are bound by duty, through the Rite of Return, and bestowed of might and durability of Biblical proportion to serve the Judges of Duat. But the bottom line? They are nothing more than tired old slaves to the whims of their gods, and they can't disobey. As the Nightmare Fuel page puts it, they have outlived everything and everyone they ever cared for, to serve otherworldly entities who were their taskmasters in life and demand their servitude for all eternity.

Video Games

• Asura from Asura's Wrath found his Emperor assassinated, his wife fatally wounded, his daughter kidnapped to be used as a mantra-amplifier and himself used as a scapegoat for all of it by his fellow demigod generals in a long-term plan to rid Gaia of the Gohma. Before he can even take revenge and save his daughter, Deus singlehandedly kills him. He wakes up in Naraka — an Afterlife Antechamber that proceeds Reincarnation — clinging onto a pillar. He is goaded by a mysterious Golden Spider to embrace his rage and use it to accomplish the task, leading to him escaping Naraka back to Gaia. He later dies a second time and even that doesn't take.
• The player characters of Divinity: Original Sin are Source Hunters: members of an order dedicated to eradicating the Source (a form of Blood Magic) and its adepts. Later in the game, both are revealed to be reincarnations of two ancient generals who fought the Source corruption and were tasked with keeping it imprisoned after defeating it. It is strongly implied that each one of their reincarnations since has dedicated themselves to fighting the Source even without remembering their past lives.
• Played With in the Dragon Age series: All Deaths Final, but occasionally, an individual's actions in life impress the spirits of the Fade so much, they cross the Veil and possess the dead body, taking on the dead person's identity to carry out their duties. This happens, for instance, to the Grey Warden Kristoff in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, who dies fighting the Darkspawn but has his corpse taken over by a spirit of justice who carries on the fight.
• Final Fantasy X: Auron. When he found out the Big Lie about the Summoners' Pilgrimage, the Church of Yevon, and the nature of the Sin creature, he flipped out and attacked Lady Yunalesca, getting mortally wounded in the process. It took him over a week to die, but he refused to pass on. He is determined to avenge his companions, Brasca and Jecht, and to prevent Tidus and Yuna from dying for nothing as their fathers did.
• Ghost Trick: Missile is so dedicated to his owner that a little thing like death doesn't stop him. In fact, he chooses to stay dead because he is more useful that way. This goes to the point of spending years of his non-life waiting to motivate Sissel as Ray.
• In King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride, all residents of Ooga Booga are undead (think The Nightmare Before Christmas), but one instance stands out. When the Boogeyman burned down the count's house, the count's dog (named Black Valiant) was killed and his master became the Headless Horseman. The dog is still guarding the estate and will fend off any intruders.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: It's stated in other texts that the protagonist of Ocarina of Time was filled with regret because, in his own timeline, no one knew him as a "Hero" and so his legend, his skills, and the other valuable lessons he learned were never passed on to anyone else. He was so committed to the need to pass on his heroic legacy that he wandered the world as the restless "Hero's Spirit", not able to move on until meeting the Hero of Twilight (his direct successor) and passing his teachings to him.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Link himself doesn't count, since he was brought back by the Shrine of Resurrection, rather than his own willpower. However, the four other champions, who died a hundred years ago fighting aspects of Calamity Ganon over the control of their respective Divine Beasts, do linger as ghosts in order to fulfill their duty of defeating Ganon.
• In Pillars of Eternity, Death Guards are created when someone devoted to a cause dies with it left unresolved. In the first game, the Starter Villain comes back to reclaim his land after the player characters kill him, and the sequel features two Death Guards, one of whom has been driven insane by the impossibility of her goal.
• In Planescape: Torment, Vhailor — an armor-clad, axe-wielding member of the mercy killers, a faction devoted to delivering brutal justice — is so obsessed with his task of bringing justice to the Multiverse that he somehow cheats death and remains alive as a walking armor many years later. He can actually be talked out of this, resulting in him finally finding peace and in his equipment promptly turning to dust.
• One of the potential crewmates in Pirate101 is Dead Mike, a zombie who served with the parents of the Player Character when he was alive. He died during the mutiny that killed them as well, but came back as a Revenant Zombie to keep the two promises he made to them; to look after their child and take Revenge on the mutineers.
• Functions as a game mechanic in Among Us. Even if Imposters or Crewmates are killed, they remain behind as ghosts which can continue fulfilling tasks (if they're Crewmates) or sabotaging (if they're Imposters), and therefore can still help their side win after death. However, they can only communicate with other ghosts, are Invisible to Normals, and (in the case of Crewmate ghosts) cannot fix sabotages.
• In the prologue of Phantom Brave, Ash died on The Island of Evil along with his friends, but was made a phantom to protect their daughter
• The source of the Barony of Loth's undead troops in Songs of Conquest: anyone who swore an oath to Queen Aurelia can be raised as troops for her undead army. It's uncertain whether they knew that when they took the oath.

Webcomics

• The Sapphire Guard in The Order of the Stick are an order of paladins sworn to defend the Soon's Gate of the Azure City. Devoted to this purpose their entire lives, the paladins continue their vigil even after death — as a host of ghostly warrior spirits.

Websites

• RPC Authority: RPC-049 is the ghost of former Site-002 Human Resources archivist Janet Neuman, who continues to do her job even after her death in 1957. She has been nominated for the Site-002 Employee of the Month award every month since 1957, often with significant majority votes. A permanent "Honourary Employee of the Month" plaque has been dedicated to her since 1962.

Western Animation

• The Avatar exists in a cycle of Reincarnation, always duty-bound to protect the balance of the world.
• Played With in DuckTales (2017): Duckworth was Scrooge McDuck's butler, very much dead prior to the show's start, and seemed content to stay that way. This changed when a Stage Magician hired for Scrooge's birthday party accidentally performed a real summoning ritual; Duckworth found himself amongst the living once more, albeit as a ghost capable of interacting with the real world — and his first instinct is to immediately resume his job as Scrooge's butler, using his ghostly powers to aid in that job.
• In Mummies Alive!, Pharaoh Amenhotep assigned four guardians to protect his son, Prince Rapses. Because the Big Bad from that time was still a threat in the modern day, these guardians re-awaken from mummification to protect Rapses' immortal spirit, currently reincarnated into Presley Carnovan.

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