Basic Trope: After spending time in another world, a character chooses to stay.
- Straight:
- Alice and Bob are transported from Earth to the mystical land of Troperia. After months of adventures, they finally find a portal back to Earth. Alice chooses to stay.
- Alice and Bob are stranded with a Native American tribe for a few weeks. When rescue comes, Bob chooses to remain with the tribe.
- Exaggerated: Alice, Bob, Charles, Diana, Edward, Fred and Gina all decide to stay in various mystical lands.
- Downplayed: The portal activates once every decade, so Alice still has a chance to return eventually.
- Justified:
- The portal only has enough power to take one person but Alice decides it might as well be Bob.
- Alice is despised and abandoned by everyone on Earth. In Troperia, she has friends, a spouse, adoptive family and people who like and respect her.
- Alice is a wanted criminal back on Earth.
- Alice is The Chosen One.
- Inverted: When they learn that Alice and Bob are stuck in Troperia, Alice and Bob's families.
- Subverted: Alice says she'll rather stay, but goes with Bob after deciding.
- Double Subverted: When Bob is back on Earth, he is alone and realises Alice changed her mind again.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob returns to Troperia to fight Evulz. Later on, he, Alice and their friend Gork go back on Earth. When a portal back to Troperia appears, Gork chooses to stay on Earth while Alice and Bob return.
- Parodied:
- Bob ditches Alice in Troperia and tells his friends on Earth that Alice chose to stay. Gilligan Cut to Alice cursing out Bob and saying she hates Troperia.
- Alice gives a speech about why she loves Troperia and why she chooses to stay only for Bob to leave through the portal.
- Alice chooses to stay in Troperia despite it being an inhabitable Crapsack World.
- Alice chooses to stay in Troperia simply because they have her new Trademark Favourite Food.
- Averted: Alice and Bob go through the portal without a second thought.
- Enforced: .
- Lampshaded:
- "You can go back, Bob. But I Choose to Stay. This is my real home now. Goodbye, my friend."
- "You're staying?"
- Invoked: .
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Bob drags Alice with him into the portal.
- Gork, Alice's Troperian friend, tells her to go into the portal with Bob.
- Discussed: "."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Back on Earth, Bob muses over Alice's Tragic Keepsake and mutters "I hope you're happy there, Alice"
- Deconstructed: Bob is infuriated that Alice refuses to go back with him and they depart on hostile terms. This leads to Parting-Words Regret as they don't see each other in a very long time, perhaps never.
- Reconstructed: Bob eventually finds contact with Alice and they apologise and communicate with each other regularly.
- Played for Laughs: ???
- Played for Drama:
- Alice asks Bob to take care of her little sister Beatrice, the only one she ever loved back home, before Bob goes through the portal. Bob goes to Beatrice and doesn't know how to break the news to her.
- Bob begs Alice to go back home with him to no avail and she pushes him through the portal. Once he's back home, he breaks down in tears.
- A few months after staying, Alice grows to miss home and bitterly regret her decision. She pulls a Face–Heel Turn and joins Evulz's forces in order to get the portal to Earth working again.
- Bob, deeply missing and worried sick about Alice, resorts to extreme measures to create the portal, find her and bring her back.
- Played for Horror:
- Alice chose to stay because she's being possessed by Emperor Evulz.
- Alice chose to stay because she's become a power-hungry tyrantess who wants to rule over Troperia.
- Alice kills Bob and destroys the portal so she can never return.
A link to the main page? No, this is my home now. I Choose to Stay.
