Basic Trope: A perfect land in which there is nothing but goodness for the characters. Getting there is usually a driving force for the characters.
- Straight: Somewhere, there is a land in which the land is fertile, the water is clean, the skies are clear, and anyone can be successful.
- Exaggerated: Candy, dollar bills, and unicorns fall from the sky, the streets are paved with gold and precious jewels grow on trees.
- Downplayed: The characters want to move to a new land, but it's not their main goal, and the land in question is really only moderately better than their current country.
- Justified: Compared to the old world, this really is a Promised Land.
- Inverted: The characters leave the Promised Land to the bad lands.
- Subverted: The Promised Land doesn't really exist, or is not as good as people make it out to be.
- Double Subverted: But it turns out the Promised Land is actually a good place, or there is an even better one out there.
- Parodied: The Promised Land is extremely perfect, with nothing but sunshine and rainbows.
- Zig Zagged: Is The Promised Land really a good place? Or is it a Crapsaccharine World in disguise? Or is the Promised Land even real?
- Averted: There is only the Crapsack World. There is no Promised Land. Or, in a less negative version, the world that the characters live in is alright, and doesn't need a Promised Land.
- Enforced: The producers wanted a happy ending or a hope-filled story.
- Lampshaded: Characters question the reality of such a place, or cynically mention how no one can get there through normal means. Another variant is when the characters refer to it as The Promised Land.
- Invoked: The world that the characters live in is horrible. Then they hear of a possibly better place and the better life it could bring, causing them to name it as their Promised Land.
- Exploited: Bob sets up a very profitable ship passage service knowing that the idea of a Promised Land is drawing thousands of people to seek transport.
- Defied: Emperor Evulz cannot afford to let his people leave, so he closes the borders and sets his Propaganda Machine to work to dissuade would-be emigrants. In the extreme, he may even just nuke it to make it undesirable to live in.
- Discussed: The characters talk about what they heard about The Promised Land, and/or you have some characters that doubt if it is real or not.
- Conversed: Characters talk about how characters in a certain work reached The Promised Land, usually to help boost morale.
- Deconstructed:
- The Promised Land doesn't really exist. It is either a myth or legend that really wasn't true that was told to bring hope to people, or it is created by corrupt leaders in order to control the populace. It can also exist in all of its glory, but is only available to the very rich and/or powerful, and/or can only be accessed at a great cost.
- Unicorns fall, everyone dies.
- So many people move into the previously-lush Promised Land that the qualities that attracted them in the first place like acres and acres of rich soil just waiting to be tilled are lost via overcrowding and over-farming leading to Dust Bowl conditions.
- The Promised Land was made possible by terrible means or comes with a terrible price which puts its utopian nature or reputation in question.
- Reconstructed: The Promised Land is not what people made it out to be, but compared to the world the characters came from, it is a much better place and provides hope for a better life, or another previously unknown location can serve as The Promised Land.
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