Sam: All right. We don't have that much left. We have to be careful or we're going to run out. You go ahead and eat that, Mister Frodo. I've rationed it. There should be enough.
Frodo: For what?
Sam: ...the journey home.
Frodo: For what?
Sam: ...the journey home.
Most characters in the thick of danger are living in the moment. What's happening now has got their full attention, and they don't dare think about what might happen next (either because the hope might distract them or the dread might break them).
So it's jarring to hear one of the band speak up and declare that, when this is all over, they'd better come to her birthday party next week. 'Poor sweet wretch!' the audience may think. 'She's doomed herself. She's far too fresh and innocent for the hard situation she's in.'
This trope has several different shades of meaning, but the major one is that it reveals the optimism — perhaps even the heroic spirit — of one of the band. Perhaps no one else dares hope, but she does. Depending on where the work falls on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, she may be proven entirely right. Her hope might even sustain her — she may be outnumbered 10-1 in the dark, but by gum, she is going to make it out just so she can go to that theme park or eat sundaes with her friends. On the other hand, her words can be the voice of ironic doom, either for herself or for any character she mentions who is a) recognizable as a character and b) not so major that their death would totally alter things. This use of the trope is entirely to twist the emotional knife — see how the situation has destroyed the one person who thought she could get out of it.
See also Retirony, a major development a random Red Shirt will never get to see, as well as Deadly Deferred Conversation and Fatal Family Photo. A kind of Tempting Fate. Compare Planning for the Future Before the End for cases where the imminent death of one of the characters is apparent. It's comedic throwaway counterpart is If We Survive This.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Akame ga Kill!: Lubbock tells Tatsumi that once the rebellion is over, he'll try expanding his book shop and marry Najenda. Unfortunately, he will never get that opportunity.
- In Attack on Titan, before the trainees' first mission in Trost, Sasha managed to get her hands on a big slab of meat (a luxury since much land was lost to Titans). All the recruits decided they would share the meat once their duties were finished. Unfortunately for many of them, they never got the chance.
- Berserk: Played to a similar effect when the Hawks are about to depart on their Griffith rescue operation. Rickert is unable to go with the healthy Hawks because of his broken arm, but Judeau reassures the young lad that once they come back with Griffith, he would be the first one to hug him. Little did either party know that it would be the last time they would see each other.
- In Betterman, during a particularly dangerous situation, Keita asks his partner and Childhood Friend Hinoki on a date if they get out alive. And they do.
- A scene from Blood+ has one of these, mentioning a walk in Paris.
- At the beginning of episode 23 of Fate/Apocrypha, Mordred and her Master make plans to celebrate their victory by going to a bar and demanding their best wines lest King Mordred wreck the joint... halfway through the episode, they're both dead.
- In Gintama, Tsukuyo gives Gintoki her pipe and tells him not to lose it, and if he does, he needs to buy her another one "on the surface" in the Hosen arc.
- Inuyasha: It takes most of the manga for Kohaku to stop thinking that his only right is to die for the crimes he's committed in Naraku's name. It's lampshaded towards the end of the manga (shortly before the Final Battle begins) by Kohaku himself when he asks his sister if, when this is all over, he has the right to keep living, after all. Just as he asks his sister this, a hidden trap by Naraku is sprung, slicing through his neck to obtain the last shard needed to complete the Shikon no Tama... and incidentally removing the one single thing that was keeping Kohaku alive. He gets better.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Stardust Crusaders: Inverted by Polnareff, who initializes this speech by telling Avdol once things are settled, they'll have dinner at a fine establishment. Not long after this, Avdol performs a Heroic Sacrifice by saving Polnareff from a Portal Cut.
- Golden Wind: Played straight with Narancia. In the climax, he briefly talks about everything he wants to do when he gets back to Naples, as well see Fugo, who parted ways with the group in Venice, again. Minutes later, Diavolo suddenly attacks the group and kills him.
- Stone Ocean: Anasui tells Jotaro that he'll be marrying Jolyne after the last battle. Like Narancia, he gets killed by the Big Bad before that will even happen.
- In the final episode of Kill la Kill, right before the final battle, Satsuki stops her team from carrying out their tradition of breaking their teacups before a major battlenote , telling them that they will all be having tea again after the fight. This pretty much jinxes the whole thing. We get a false alarm when Gamagori gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice, but survives thanks to wearing a titanium undershirt. It's Senketsu who ends up dying, thanks to a Phlebotinum Overdose, which causes him to start falling apart. He uses the last of his strength to keep Ryuko from burning up in re-entry while having a moving last chat with her.
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes has a number of these, occasionally woven in with other death flags.
- Poplan and Konev talk about how whoever shoots down less enemy fighters owes the other a drink afterward. While Konev solves a crossword item with the answer "Funeral". He doesn't make it back.
- While on the way to launch for the next battle, Vice Admiral Fischer informs Yang that he'll probably write a book after the war. His flagship goes down in the next episode.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, during Norea's attack on Asticassia, Petra tells Suletta that if they survive, she'll make Lauda go on a date with her. When she asks what Suletta intends to do if she survives, Suletta doesn't answer. Guess which one of them doesn't make it. Actually subverted: not only does Petra survive her injuries, but the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue reveals that she managed to get into a relationship with Lauda just as she'd promised.
- Invoked and parodied in Monster Musume. After Lala convinces the harem that Kimihito is doomed to die, Kimihito bravely stands up and declares to Miia, "If I make it home alive, I'm getting married!" Miia lampshades the fact this is a death flag, only for Kimihito to walk towards a road, spouting even more death flags, and then get hit by a truck... which is a remote-control toy that's barely knee-high. Turns out he knew Lala's death omens were a bunch of baloney and he specifically invoked such a well-known death flag in order to prove it. (Strangely, Miia doesn't hold him to his promise.)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion uses an extremely dark variant of this: during The Movie, in an attempt at Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! mixed with Cooldown Hug, Misato French-kisses Shinji and promises to "do the rest" when he gets back... knowing full well that she has been mortally injured and is moments away from death.
- Happens tragically in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. They will never have the cake for augury celebration. Well, technically, they did. It's just that they got to it in what's effectively the afterlife.
- In RahXephon, one of TERRA's fighter pilots reveals that he wants to ask out his superior officer if he makes it through the next mission alive. Naturally, he doesn't.
- In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, this is done immediately after the legendary "kiss of doom."
- Parodied to hell and back in the first episode of The Tower of Druaga, like everything else about the fantasy genre and anime:
- When first meeting the crimson knight, Black Knight:
Utu: Hey, Jil...
Jil: What is it, Utu?
Utu: You see... when this battle is over, I am going back to my hometown to get married.
Jil: I see... Why are you telling me this now?
(Utu charges and is instantly killed) - Later Black Knight returns and saves Jil from a dragon because he is The Only One Allowed To Defeat Him.
Black Knight: And Jil, there is something else I must tell you.
Jil: What?
Black Knight: When this battle is over, I am going to return to my hometown and marry.
(Black Knight is instantly killed by the dragon) - And finally the dark god in the final battle.
"Jil... I am your father. And one more thing, once this battle is over, I plan to get remarried in my hometown."
- When first meeting the crimson knight, Black Knight:
- Vividred Operation: Akane motivates her team by promising the fact that Momo has a dinner waiting on the table, and that a quick victory would result in a quick return home. However, the newly-resurrected Alone manages a hit and decommissions Akane.
Comic Books
- Proves as fatal as a family photo, and incredibly fast, in Arrowsmith.
- In the Postboot Legion of Super-Heroes story "Widening Rifts," Saturn Girl tells Live Wire that if they get through this, she'll marry him. They end up as two of a group of twelve Legionnaires who are trapped on the team's satellite when it's sucked into a spatial rift, sending them who knows where and leaving them presumed dead by the teammates who stayed behind. The next story, however, focuses on this "Legion Lost," and gives the readers another whole year with them, alive, together, before they return home. Live Wire, however, doesn't come back with them. He does reappear later, though, in a very different shape.
Fan Works
- Winter War:
- Lisa declares that she's going to wear her Hueco Mundo uniform boots to every club in Roppongi before burning them and every other article of white clothing she owns. She also offers to go partying with Ikkaku and Yumichika, while suggesting she's open to other kinds of activities with them. Ikkaku and Yumichika are killed while taking down Yammi; Lisa then promises that she'll drink on their behalf.
- Kaede, Hinamori and Shirogane promise that they'll team up and get proper revenge on Iba and Rikichi for how the two tried to spy on them before. Shirogane dies fighting Gin.
- Serves as a Brick Joke in Fairy Tales and Hokum. Since Jonathan and his Old Friend Tom were going to the Sultan's Casbah before the Big Bad's mooks showed up and kickstarted the plot, Jonathan promises Tom that if they make it alive they will go there and he'll buy the rounds. They meet in a London pub in the epilogue and Jonathan does buy the rounds.
- Son of the Sannin:
- During the Konoha invasion, Jiraiya promises Fukasaku and Shima that he'll complete his Sage training if he makes it through alive. And he does.
- During the Fourth Ninja War arc, Kiba and Tamaki realize how precarious their situation is after witnessing so many of their comrades falling in battle and losing loved ones, so they promise that they'll sort things out between them once everything is over. Fortunately they survive the war and are able to share a Big Damn Kiss in the second-to-last chapter.
- The Sanctuary Telepath, John and Janine and their world tour in case they finally defeat the elemental. They manage it, but things don't go exactly as planned.
Films — Animated
- Anastasia has a literal example in dialogue.
Dimitri: If we live through this, remind me to thank you.
[which Anastasia repeats in the ending sequence before Dimitri cuts her off]
Anastasia: If we live through this, remind me-
Dimitri: You can thank me later.
Films — Live-Action
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid discuss moving to Australia in the final moments of their Bolivian Army Ending.
- In Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve and Peggy make plans to go dancing together as Steve struggles to land the plane he's on safely. The plane crashes, and Steve misses his date by about 70 years.
- In Das Boot, the Captain tells the crew that "it's half a bottle of beer for each" if they can make it safely back to La Rochelle. They do, but they're hit with an Allied air raid almost immediately after docking.
- In Get Smart, Max told 99 that if they got through this one he'd ask her to marry him. Cue 99's utter annihilation of all the Mooks.
- Subverted in The Guns of Navarone. When the team is about to leave the seriously wounded Major Franklin behind with the Germans, Corporal Miller says "When this is over, you'll buy me lunch." Major Franklin survives. Subverted in the film as Andrea has stated his intention to kill Mallory after the war ends. Fortunately he decides to forgo his revenge.
- In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius tells Harry that "When all this is over, we'll be a proper family. You'll see." No, they won't. For anyone who read the book before seeing the film, this doubles as Dramatic Irony.
- Logan: Xavier's line "And then we buy the Sunseeker." destined him for not making it to the end.
- In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Sam announces apropos of nothing that he'd have liked to marry Rosie Cotton. Which, naturally, he later does.
- In Morning Departure, Armstrong was planning to the eponymous morning departure his final patrol, as he was planning to resign his commission and take up a lucrative job offer from his father-in-law. Needless to say, things to do not go as planned.
- In Rest Stop, the policeman who has his legs broken says he wants to get home to his kid so he can apologize for the one time he yelled at him.
"What a fucking stupid thing to think as I'm dying."
He then realizes that the girl's life is more important than his own and orders her to kill him before they both get burnt alive. He gives her a gun and tells her to shoot him in the head. She misses. - Used to good effect in Serenity, as they're gearing up for a last desperate stand and Simon finally tells Kaylee that he regrets never acting on her obvious desire to hook up. Kaylee takes this as fuel for her determination, but to the viewer, this (coupled with the recent realization that Anyone Can Die) creates more genuine fear for the characters' fate than most action movies produce. Of course it ends up being a subversion.
- Played for Laughs in Tango & Cash. Cash tells Tango that if he gets out of this alive... he's going to date Tango's sister Katherine. Tango is not pleased.
Literature
- In Animorphs Jake does this in the next to last book, asking Cassie to marry him "when this is all over". Ends up a subversion, since they don't get married.
- In addition to The Lord of the Rings example above, Legolas and Gimli make plans to go traveling together if they both survive the events ahead of them.
- In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress Mike asks Mannie if, "when this is over", he'll have time to discuss humor again (this being Mike's favorite pastime). Mannie promises he will. Of course, Mike doesn't make it. Possibly only a semi-example, because the exchange happens when no one's in immediate mortal peril (and in fact at the moment things are looking more optimistic for the good guys than they have in months).
- In Solo Leveling, Jin-woo intends to sacrifice himself so Ju-hee and Chi-yeol can escape the double dungeon, he places a magic core he found in Ju-hee's hand, asking her to go buy dinner with it, referring to his earlier promise to treat her to dinner as thanks for taking care of him.
- Irisis in The Three Worlds Cycle: Well Of Echoes is the only character who has any definite plans for what she wants to do when the war is over (become a jeweller), a fact which is casually mentioned a couple of times a book. After they finally managed to end the war - including finding a morally acceptable third option – she finally manages to reveal her love to Nish and have him agree to marry her. Just after that, Nish’s nightmare father turns up, everything goes to hell, and – on the second last page of the quartet – she is beheaded.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: During the Earth Alliance Civil War to remove the tyrannical Morgan Clark from the Presidency, during a lull in the action Marcus Cole and Susan Ivanova talk about what they'll do after the war is over, Susan tells Marcus that she plans to return to Earth and among other things visit her father's grave for the first time.
- Parodied in Blackadder Goes Forth, in which Wide-Eyed Idealist George states that he would like them all to come together once the war is over and reminisce about the good old times. Blackadder comments that the best way for George to 'reminiscence' back to the war would be to dig holes in his back yard for them to stand in and have his gardener hide in the hedge and occasionally shoot at them.
- Parodied in Bottom, while trapped atop a Ferris wheel, Richie remarks (in a vaguely American accent) that if he gets through the ordeal, he'll settle down with a good woman in the country, and raise a couple of kids. Eddie tells him they won't survive, and Richie replies by telling him to "hold on to the dream!" Eddie then asks Richie why they're talking such complete and utter BOLLOCKS!!
- A non-action example in Boy Meets World: Shawn's father, in the hospital after a heart attack, promises his sons that he will stay with them this time. He promptly dies.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- The Grand Finale has an odd example, when Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles get together and discuss going to the mall after the First's defeat (mimicking a similar conversation from the second episode of this series). Which member of this conversation doesn't make it through the battle? The mall—it and the rest of Sunnydale are destroyed when the Hellmouth collapses in on itself.
- Xander also proposes to Anya right before the battle with Glory. They both survive, but the wedding doesn't work out.
- In Community episode "Modern Warfare": "What are you guys gonna do if you win priority registration?" As soon as Shirley mentions her kids, you know she's out of the game.
- In Daredevil (2015), the season 2 finale has Daredevil declaring his love for Elektra and her talking about traveling abroad. Of course, since Status Quo Is God, viewers saw her death coming from a mile away.
- Doctor Who:
- Throughout the revived series, the Doctor has doomed many good mauve shirts by promising them their survival or inviting them, or letting them invite themselves, onto the TARDIS before the danger has passed. They really should learn to stop doing that.
- An exchange between two Mauve Shirts in "The Parting of the Ways". She sarcastically asks if she's supposed to say "If we get through this, maybe we could go for a drink?" When he admits that'd be nice, she first says "Tough" but then winks at him. Unfortunately for them both, they're up against the Daleks.
- On Haven, Duke leaves Jennifer under protection to help Nathan and Audrey with the Big Bad. To ease his worry about leaving her behind, Jennifer reassures him that tomorrow, they'll wake up, have breakfast, and do the crossword. Duke teases her about her plan for a "flavored coffee commercial" morning.
- In How I Met Your Mother, back in 1996, when College-Ted and Marshall got trapped in a blizzard while driving to Minnesota and were in danger of freezing or starving to death, Marshall, who had been previously boasting that he couldn't be tied down by a woman and Lily was just one of a long string of girlfriends he was planning on having, confessed to Ted that he just realized he was in love with Lily and if he got through this alive, he was going to marry her. Ten years later, he did.
- Loki and Sylvie agree that there is no time for idle conversation when so much is at stake, but Loki tentatively suggests that once it is over they can figure out what to do next together, and Sylvie concurs.
- In NCIS: Los Angeles when Deeks is trapped in a room with a bomb, and his partner/love interest Kensi refuses to leave him, the pair decide if they survive they will make babies and live in a van, homeschooling. Since this would be quite a departure from status quo on the show, it is a bit disconcerting. They survive and do continue their relationship, getting married and trying for kids in later episodes - although as far as we know they are not homeschooling in a van yet.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Averted Trope in "Change of Heart". Jadzia, bleeding out, tells her husband he should smile more. He replies that when the mission is finished, he will smile as much as she wants. The episode also averts Fatal Family Photo and I Will Only Slow You Down.
- Stranger Things: In the first season finale, Mike promises Eleven (who has been a human experiment her whole life, hence her name) that when the Demogorgon is defeated and Will is found, they'll have a normal life together with her as a member of his family (though Mike doesn't want to be Like Brother and Sister with Eleven, far from it), and also invites her as his date to the Snow Ball next month. Eleven disappears while saving Mike, Dustin, and Lucas from the Demogorgon. Mike learned she survived nearly a year later, but since she was taken in by Chief Hopper during that time, she doesn't move in with the Wheelers. Mike and Eleven do get to go to that year's Snow Ball, and do get their Relationship Upgrade, though.
Radio
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), when Zaphod, Trillian, and Marvin are being eaten by the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal:
Trillian: If I ever survive this, I'll get a job as Moby-Dick's dentist!
Theatre
- A Cut Song from Little Shop of Horrors, "We'll Have Tomorrow", was Seymour and Audrey singing about the wonderful life they were going to start tomorrow. "We'll have tomorrow/If we/Make it through tonight". They don't.
- In South Pacific, Lieutenant Joe Cable ultimately resolves that, if he makes it through the war, he will stay in the South Pacific with his girlfriend rather than returning to the United States. Of course, he dies.
Video Games
- If the player pairs Eagle and Sami in the final battle of Advance Wars: Dual Strike.
Eagle: I want you to promise me something, Sami. Promise that if we both return from this battle alive...
Sami: Oh no you don't! Stop it right there! If two people make a promise like that, one of them is going to end up dead! You might as well tell me that you're two days away from retirement! Save the promises for later, OK? We'll talk when we get back in one piece. - Assassin's Creed III has an exchange late in the game between the modern Assassins, in which they discuss their plans for vacations and other forms of recreation once they've averted the impending destruction of all life on Earth. This turns out to be a tad optimistic.
- In the last level of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Gaz and Griggs talk about going out and getting drunk after the mission. Both of them die in the final showdown against the Big Bad and his henchmen.
- In Cyberpunk 2077, as the crew leaves for The Heist at the start of the game, The Cracker T-Bug expresses a desire to leave the cyberpunk life behind and become a Retired Outlaw. After things inevitably went tits-up, Arasaka fried her whole nervous system.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair:
- In Fuyuhiko's Free Time Events, he says that if he manages to escape, he plans on holding funerals for his sister, for Peko and for Mahiru, since he's responsible for the latter two's deaths. Fuyuhiko ultimately survives.
- A somewhat shorter-term example in the fourth class trial, in which the lives of the innocent students depend on finding and uncovering the murderer. Hajime says that if they get through, he plans on revealing something he recently learned- that he does not, in fact, have a talent- since it's part of the reason why Nagito's acting even more oddly than usual, but they have more expressing concerns at the moment. Hajime and the other students, with the exception of the culprit, survive.
- In Defense Grid: The Awakening, the general will sometimes say during a battle, "if we get through this, I'd buy you a drink, if I could," since he's an uploaded brain with no physical body.
- Final Fantasy:
- Aeris in Final Fantasy VII does this on a near-constant basis. "One day, we'll look back on all this and laugh."
- In Final Fantasy X, Tidus in retrospect sounded like this to the rest of the cast, talking about seeing places oblivious to that in theory, their journey should be Yuna's last. This is practically meta irony, given the late-game backtracking, retreading, and level grinding typical to the franchise, he does get to see all places again. Then it becomes clearer that it'll be the last time he will get to see them. Until the sequel, that is.
- Fire Emblem:
- Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War does this so much in chapter 5. All the lover convos are about going home, seeing their kids, Sigurd talks about getting compensation for everyone who helped him out in the war...And then come the flaming rocks. Whoever doesn't die at the Battle of Belhalla either vanishes or dies by some other means later, with the exceptions of Edain and Brigid.
- In Fire Emblem Heroes, during Chapter 11 of Book VI, the Order of Heroes is working with Bruno(a.k.a. Alfonse and Sharena's old friend Zacharias) to defeat the evil god Embla. Sharena asks Bruno to give her lance training if they survive the battle. As one might expect, the plan fails and Zacharias dies.
- In HetaOni, the countries all discuss how, after they escape from the mansion, they're going to have a huge party, and what they're going to do there.
- In Ib, at one point Garry says that if he and Ib make it out of the art gallery alive, he'll treat her to macarons. He then revises his statement by saying they will go out for macarons because they will get out alive.
- In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, If Alisa is romanced, a conversation in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon has her talk to Rean about wanting to make their relationship official to her mother and Gwyn with Rean agreeing.
- Averted in Persona. The party promises two side characters that they'll go to Dreamland. The epilogue shows the five meeting up in Peace Diner.
- Mass Effect:
- In the first game, a romanced Kaidan says he's "looking forward to some shore leave" with Shepard in their dialogue. You can either subvert this trope or play it straight by sparing him or leaving him to die on Virmire.
- In a similar thread, Ashley will suggest taking her sisters around the nicer parts of the Citadel after everything's over. Like Kaiden, this depends on her survival.
- In the Citadel DLC of Mass Effect 3, Shepard's love interest will promise them some time off once they're done with the CAT6 crisis. Unlike most examples, they get to make good on it - the majority of the DLC consists of character interaction during shore leave.
- In the final mission of 3, most of the party can do this. A romanced Garrus suggests settling down and having kids. Javik's depends on how the player's interacted with him; either re-joining his fellow Protheans in the grave, living like a king with the hanar, or helping Liara write a book about his species.
- In the first game, a romanced Kaidan says he's "looking forward to some shore leave" with Shepard in their dialogue. You can either subvert this trope or play it straight by sparing him or leaving him to die on Virmire.
- Metal Gear Solid has this exchange between Otacon and Snake after Sniper Wolf's death.
Otacon: SNAKE! What was she fighting for? What are you fighting for? What am I fighting for?
Solid Snake: If we make it through this, I'll tell you.
Otacon: ...Ok. I'll be searching too. - Radiant Historia: Stocke promises to lay down his sword and live with Raynie in peace, which she accepts to settle down after saving the world.
- Inverted in Resident Evil 4 after Leon receives some backup in the form of some guy named Mike, who's piloting a helicopter, in that it's done after the danger has passed and it's the protagonist who invokes it;
Leon: When we get back, drinks are on me.
Mike: Yeah? I know a good bar.
(Zealot shoots down the helicopter with a rocket launcher)
Leon: Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike! - In State of Decay 2, a random survivor will occasionally muse that, when this is all over and society is restored, how weird it will be to have to go to work and clip coupons again.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna The Golden Country, different characters make plans on what to do after they've succeeded in defeating Malos. Addam plans to take up farming, settling down with his wife and child, while Lora plans to set up an orphanage for children orphaned by the wars.
Web Comics
- Subverted by Kazumi and Daigo in The Order of the Stick — one more notch on their belt for screwing with mortality tropes.
- In Something*Positive, one minor character proposes to another during a horror-themed attack by psychopathic, cannibal Cat Girls. She instantly yells at him for dooming them. (In the end, they survive. No word if they get married, though).
- In Tower of God, Endorsi tells Anaak that she'd love to go eating with her as Ren is trying to make her kill Anaak and it seems like she is really going to do it.
Web Original
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged: After Krillin rescues Android 18, she thinks to herself "If we make it through this, I'm going to rock his four-foot world".
Western Animation
- Danny Phantom does this in the Grand Finale; "Phantom Planet".
Danny: If we make it through this —
Sam: When we make it through this.
Danny: Right. When we make it through this, there's something I'd like to talk to you about. - Peg to Pete in Goof Troop when a Zany Scheme results in falling really really far: "If by some chance we don't die... I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" (All involved wind up in Bandage Mummy status in the end, so she doesn't get to throttle him later.)
- Donkey Kong Country: When DK and Diddy are about to sneak into King K. Rool's lair.
Diddy: Oh boy. If we get out of this, we'll be the two luckiest apes alive.
DK: And if we don't, we'll be the two unluckiest apes-
Diddy: Don't say it, DK, Don't say it! - The fourth season of Winx Club gives this impression when Nabu proposes to Aisha in episode 11. Later, at the beginning of episode 24, Aisha tells Nabu that once everything is over, they can finally begin their lives together... shortly before Nabu sacrifices himself to stop the Wizards of the Black Circle.
Real Life
- Before crashing their heavily crippled jet, two pilots aboard United Airlines Flight 232
had this conversation:
Fitch: I'll tell you what, we'll have a beer when this is all done.
Haynes: Well I don't drink, but I'll sure as shit have one.note - Subverted by Marshal Ney to General Drouet d'Erlon in the rout following the Battle of Waterloo:
Ney: If we survive this, you and I will be hanged! note
