This is where a character is shown visiting the grave of a loved one (or fallen comrades/brothers-in-arms in Military and Warfare Works), or possibly the spot where they died or some other Shrine to the Fallen, as a periodic ritual. May involve Libation for the Dead and Talking to the Dead. Often a Tear Jerker.
Not to be confused with messing with someone's grave by "marking" it with urine or otherwise vandalizing it, which would be Desecrating the Dead.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Maison Ikkoku uses the yearly visits to Soichiro's grave as a convenient way to show the passing of time.
- Darker than Black has this with April and July following November 11's death. Belying the fact that Contractors and Dolls are supposedly emotionless, they mark his site of death with beer bottles.
- Rurouni Kenshin:
- Kenshin and Kaoru visit the grave of his first wife Tomoe and are surprised to find someone has cleaned the headstone and left a tribute.
- In the anime, Kenshin goes there alone and then Seijuuro Hiko shows up to talk to him.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- While it's not shown if this occurs regularly, Roy Mustang leaves flowers at Hughes' grave on at least one occasion after his death.
- Trisha Elric's grave also appears periodically, most notably in the chapter 'The Father Before the Grave,' when Edward goes to the cemetery to visit his mother's tombstone and meets Hohenheim again for the first time in over ten years. (Hohenheim then makes some observations that lead to Ed digging up the 'grave' where Pinako buried the monstrosity that the boys got trying to resurrect Trisha.)
- It turns up again at the very end, when Hohenheim apparently survived the battle-damage just long enough to get there and die smiling. An omake shows his and Trisha's souls near the grave, Together in Death.
- The animated 4-Koma Theater parodies this, with Pinako pointing out that Hohenheim is at the wrong grave.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Subverted with both Gendo and Shinji Ikari visiting Yui's grave, which is just a marker as they Never Found the Body of Yui after her accident.
- Gunslinger Girl: Jerkass handler Jean is shown visiting the grave of his dead little sister Enrica who was killed by terrorists, sparking off his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. He gets into a confrontation with another relative who gives him a What the Hell, Hero? speech about not avenging her (not knowing of his work with the Agency). Jean in turn is upset to see he's become a member of a radical organization opposed to the terrorists who killed Enrica.
- In Monster, one of the epilogue scenes is of Lunge leaving a bottle of liquor at Grimmer's grave, in reference to the promise they'd made to share a drink after everything was over.
- In another scene, Reichwein visits the grave of recovering alcoholic Richard Braun and brings a bottle of scotch, saying that it was okay to have it now.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Lyle Dylandy and Tieria Erde are seen visiting the the (symbolic) grave of Lyle's twin older brother/Tieria's best friend (and for some, The Lost Lenore) Neil "Lockon Stratos" Dylandy. This ends up being VERY plot important, as Lyle is recruited into Celestial Being during one of them. This happens again at the end of the series where Lyle once again visits his families grave, now with the grave of Anew beside them.
- The Captain Tsubasa manga plays this straight and subverts it:
- It's played straight with Brian Cruyfford and the Ajax team visiting the grave of their dead coach.
- It's subverted with Stefan Levin visiting the spot where his girlfriend Karen was praying to a statue before she was ran over by a truck... and destroying said statue with a soccer shoot.
- Filipino anime Barangay 143 opens with two instances of these. In the Philippines, Coach B visits the grave of his dead son Baste (captain of the local basketball team who was shot dead by a riding-in-tandem gang) in the pilot; and in South Korea, in the next episode, Bren T. Park (hitherto captain of his own basketball team) visits the graves of his entire family—father, mother, and little sister—who all perished in a frozen lake en route to his last game.
- Twice in Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]:
- In Episode 12, a new scene shows Taiga visiting Kiritsugu's grave right before Caster takes her hostage.
- In Episode 17, one scene shows Shirou and Rin talking in front of Illya's grave that they just dug.
- At the end, Shirou and Rin visit Saber's grave at King Arthur's supposed resting place in Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset, England.
- At the start of Kaiji, the titular character is taken to a cemetery by Kazuya to visit his own grave - telling Kaiji that this gamble will end with him rich or dead.
- Lyrical Nanoha:
- Lindy mentions to Letty in the final episode of A's that she's planning on taking Chrono and Fate to visit her husband's grave (something which is actually shown in the epilogue of the movie adaptation, with Amy and Arf also in attendence).
- Teana and Subaru both go to visit their dead loved ones (parents and older brother for the former, and mother for the latter) in the fourth StrikerS Sound Stage, who all happen to be buried in the same cemetary.
- Genya and Signum visit a grave together in the final episode of StrikerS. Presumably, it's the original Zest's grave, though it's also possible that it was Quint's. When they arrive, they find Auris nearby, who had already left behind a bouquet of flowers.
- The ending montage for the final episode of ViVid Strike! has Rinne and Fuka visiting Rinne's grandfather's grave.
- Shortly before the school play in Bloom Into You, Touko, who has been trying to live up to what she sees as her deceased sister's legacy, visits her grave and talks about how she will finish what her sister could not seven years previously. Even then, though, she's not sure what comes after.
- In Kokoro, Sensei visits the grave of his friend K every month. It's eventually revealed that he feels guilty over K's death, because the pair were both in love with the woman Sensei is now married to, and K was Driven to Suicide after Sensei tricked him into not pursuing her.
- In Bleach, the "Memories in the Rain" story arc has Ichigo, his sisters and their father visit Ichigo's mother's grave. During that arc, it is revealed how Ichigo lost his mother to a Hollow known as Grand Fisher (although the truth behind Masaki's death later turns out to be somewhat more complicated), and Ichigo fights Grand Fisher, forcing him to retreat.
Comic Books
- Spider-Man:
- Peter Parker is often shown visiting Uncle Ben's grave.
- Spider-Man: Blue has Peter Parker visit the top of the bridge where Gwen Stacy was murdered, once a year, on Valentines Day, and leave a single red rose.
- Batman:
- Bruce Wayne often visits the graves of his parents (although since they're buried on the grounds of Wayne Manor, this is not a huge effort for him).
- Some stories have him visiting the spot in Crime Alley where his parents were murdered, a somewhat more difficult and dangerous (admittedly not so much for him as for most people) trip:
[a mugger draws a gun on Batman as he visits the murder scene]
Batman: You dare... pull a gun on me... pull a gun on me here? DO YOU? - Robin (1993): While it's not made out to be a clear ritual like it is with his adoptive father Tim Drake is shown visiting his parents' joint grave and talking to them at least twice.
- Examples found in the Superman franchise:
- Pre-Crisis Superman visited Pa and Ma's graves every so often.
- War World: Before entering the command console, Mongul pays a visit to the grave of the last Warzoon.
- During Superman: Up, Up and Away!, Superman visits the graves of Superboy and Earth-2 Superman and Lois Lane.
- In the beginning of Superman (Rebirth), Superman visits the grave of his counterpart.
- Several times in New Krypton story arc. At the beginning, Clark Kent and his mother visit Jonathan Kent's grave and Lois visits her father's (and has an argument with her sister Lucy). At the end of the story, Supergirl builds a grave for all Kryptonians who perished during the War and Lois visits her father's grave for the last time.
- The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): After being rescued from Darkseid, Supergirl visits Harbinger’s grave.
- Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl: It happens twice. After exposing Lex Luthor's crimes, Kara visits her cousin's grave. Also, a flashback shows Barbara Gordon visiting her parents' grave before becoming Batgirl.
- In 2008 story arc Way of the World, Supergirl visits the graves of the parents of a little child she was unable to save.
- At the end of Supergirl: Being Super, Kara visits her friend Jennifer's grave to say her goodbyes before leaving Midvale.
- Subverted in Starfire's Revenge. As Starfire is feeding her minion Rodney lies about how his brother Derek died, a flashback panel shows her standing beside Derek's grave; before long, it is revealed she was also lying about that, and Derek's body was thrown away in a forest.
- In Day of the Dollmaker: On Christmas Eve, Catherine Grant visits her son Adam's grave. She brushes snow off the tombstone and wishes Adam happy Christmas.
- Empowered: The titular heroine visits the grave of her daddy, whom she lost early in her life.
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: Upon returning to the McDuck ancestral castle with his father and sisters, Scrooge takes a quiet moment to visit his mother's grave.
- Thanos Rising: Thanos visits his mother's grave on Titan in the opening. Not because he had any real affection for her (being the one responsible for her death), more for ritualistic reasons and to understand his own destiny.
- At the beginning of Days of Future Past, Kitty Pryde walks by the concentration camp graveyard and regards the graves of many people dead years ago: Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Kurt Wagner, Susan Richards, Reed Richards, Lorna Dane, Henry McCoy, etc.
- The New Teen Titans: Who Is Donna Troy? ends with Dick taking Donna to her biological mother's grave after finally tracking down Dorthy's name and fate which Donna had been curious about for years. Donna left her mother flowers and a note thanking her for her love and trying to do what she could for her infant while terminally ill.
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1942): In the Huntress backup in issue 295 Alfred visits Bruce and Selina's graves and talks to their headstones about how their daughter Helena is doing.
- In Greg Rucka's first run on Wonder Woman, before departing to the Underworld Diana stops and pays tribute to the grave-marker of Diana Rockwell Trevor. note .
- Wonder Woman: Black and Gold:
- In "I'm Ageless", Diana visits the grave of an American G.I. she knew back during World War II.
- The ending of "We Built A Better World" has Diana and Hippolyta paying tribute to the memorial of Steve Trevor on Themyscira.
- JSA Classified: In "Fight Game" Wildcat finally goes to see his father's grave years after the man's death to let go of his resentment of his father for killing his mother in a car accident and abandoning him to escape his own gambling debts.
- In the first issue of Way of X, Nightcrawler goes to the grave of Ruth Aldin/Blindfold, who committed suicide a few years before. He goes there because he knows that's where Legion will be.
Fan Works
- Ashes of the Past:
- Upon his arrival to Pacifidlog Town, Ash finally visits the memorial of the man who broke a tidal wave over the town at the cost of his life: the lost Mr. Ketchum.
- During his second arrival to the Rota Kingdom, Ash makes a pilgrimage to the Tree of Beginning to pay his respects to Sir Aaron's resting place.
- The Bolt Chronicles: Mittens regularly visits the gravesites of Bolt and Rhino in “The Gift,” leaving a single wildflower in front of their tombstones when she does.
- Doing It Right This Time: Shinji and Gendo run into one another at Yui's grave at the end of Chapter 3, where the two of them clear the air somewhat. This is a weekly ritual on Gendo's part, despite the fact that her body was not recoverable and he believes -rightly- that she's Not Quite Dead; after all, he can hardly monologue to the Evangelion her soul resides in.
- Evangelion 303: In chapter 13 Asuka visited Jessika's grave and spent a long while talking to her and getting all that was hurting her off her chest. In the last scene, while Shinji and Asuka were leaving the graveyard, she said goodbye to her friend.
- HERZ: The Ikari family (Shinji, Asuka, their daughter Akiko and even Shinji's father Gendo) visit Shinji's mother Yui's grave every year on her death's anniversary. They visited it in chapter 4.
- Last Child of Krypton: In both versions of the story Shinji and Gendo visit Yui's grave together and have an argument where Shinji tries -and fails- to convince his father to work together against the Angels and SEELE.
- Once More with Feeling: In chapter 4 Shinji wakes up after his battle against Sachiel and he goes to the graveyard to visit his mother's grave and talk to her, even though he knows her body is not buried there and her soul is somewhere else.
- It happened several times in The Second Try:
- In the After the End chapters, Shinji and Asuka visited the Red Sea –humanity’s collective grave- periodically.
- In "Repeat", Shinji and Gendo visited Yui’s grave. Shinji thought about dissuading his father from proceeding with his plans, but he realized right away that he’d be wasting his time, so he called his father out on abandoning him.
- In Ambience: A Fleet Symphony chapter 31, Damon visits his mother's grave and offers Libation for the Dead. It's said to be a regular occurrence, and indeed isn't the last time he does this onscreen.
- In the penultimate chapter of the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf novel, Empath visits the grave of his mother Lillithina to pay his respects and to forgive her of anything she has done to him.
- In Fall of the Black Canary, return of the Arrow
, Sara visits Laurel's grave almost immediately after she's told of her death. She's joined by Oliver and Nyssa, who say they've come every day since the funeral. The story ends with Oliver visiting her grave one last time, much like in canon (see below).
- In the sequel, Sara comments she was visiting Laurel's grave, and bumped into Ray who was visiting his fiancee's grave. Visiting both graves together became a ritual for them, and how their romance eventually started.
- In the sequel
- A much more somber case in How the Light Gets In, where Dean took his daughter, Mary, to her mother's grave. Mary wanted to plant flowers there, and Dean comments that getting your hands covered in the dirt covering your dead wife is an awful feeling. Watching your daughter kiss the picture of her mother on the tombstone is even worse.
- It's later revealed that once a week, Thea visited the grave's of her parents, Tommy, and Laurel, spending time with each of them. Dean finds it really worrying.
- It happens at least twice in Marvel Universe fanfiction A Prize for Three Empires:
- Carol Danvers -and Rogue after absorbing her memories- sometimes visited Carol's brother Steve's grave.
- Carol visits her friend Mar-Vell's grave after learning about his death.
She called the X-Men, as little as she liked it, and learned from them the location of the world where Mar-Vell had breathed his last. Then she went there, and saw his memorial stone, and embraced it.
- The Mountain and the Wolf: During a trip to the Chaos Dwarf fortress of Dronangkul, Wulfrik visits the site of his friend Sigvatr's pyre. The first time he burns a dragonglass weapon there, and later ritually murders three Dark Elf women in the (possibly entirely justified) belief that that they will serve him in the afterlife.
- In Nobody's Hero, Ai takes Yusaku to the heart of the fortress where his version of Yusaku's body is buried. Yusaku is understandably unnerved that Ai kept his body close for years while isolating himself from everyone else.
Films — Live-Action
- In Tim Burton's Batman (1989), Bruce Wayne regularly deposits a pair of roses at the site of his parents' murder.
- James Bond:
- For Your Eyes Only opens with Bond (Roger Moore) visiting the grave of his deceased wife Tracy, who was killed in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The local priest then comes at him to lure him into a remote-controlled helicopter-based trap.
- Skyfall: Upon arriving at Skyfall, the eponymous home of his parents Andrew Bond and Monique Delacroix in Scotland, James (Daniel Craig) sees their grave; however in this case he hasn't visited his ancestorial home in years.
- No Time to Die: Bond's Second Love Madeleine Swann brings him to the grave of Vesper Lynd in Matera, Southern Italy, so he can turn the page once and for all. On reaching the grave, Bond burns a paper with a "Forgive me" message on it, as per a local tradition. Sadly, this is the moment and place Spectre chose to ambush him by detonating a bomb in the grave, also Desecrating the Dead by doing so.
- Rocky:
- In Rocky Balboa, Rocky is shown regularly visiting and "talking" to his dead wife Adrian at her grave.
- Creed, set several years later, sees Rocky making another visit but now Adrian's grave is accompanied by one for her brother Paulie. Rocky leaves a rose for Adrian and a bottle of booze for his brother-in-law.
- In Grosse Pointe Blank, Martin at one point visits the grave of his father, pouring a bottle of whiskey on top of it with a stone-faced expression, before dumping the bottle by the gravestone and wandering off. It's less about respect, and more about the implication that his dad was an abusive drunk.
- Virginia in Happy Birthday to Me visits her mother's grave periodically.
- The Phantom of the Opera
- Christine in the 1989 film brings roses to her father's grave after her first big role in the opera as Carlotta's replacement.
- In 2004 version, Raoul visits Christine's grave at end of the film. When he gets there, he notices that Eric has been there too.
- Lionel attempts to visit his mother's grave after she is buried in Braindead. Ass-kicking for the lord ensues.
- The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day: Connor and Murphy McManus visit the grave of their friend and partner, Rocco, only to discover that the photo on his grave is his embarrassing mugshot, complete with a whited-out police arm holding his hair out of his face. Hilarity Ensues.
- Major plot point in The Crossing Guard is Freddy finally visiting his daughter's grave and accepting that she is gone.
- Near the end of Forrest Gump, Forrest breaks down at the graveside of Jenny.
- What Happened to Santiago: Santiago goes to visit the grave of his wife, who has been dead several years. This is apparently a regular thing, as he's irritated when his daughter Nereida says she's busy and can't make it.
- Martin Riggs is shown visiting his deceased wife's grave periodically throughout the Lethal Weapon series.
- In Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger VS Super Sentai, Yuusuke/Red Falcon is seen visiting the graves of his former friends (don't worry, they were on the enemy side; his teammates are still alive).
- Francis Hummel visits his wife's grave at the start of The Rock and addresses her as explains why he must do what he's about to do.
- In Shenandoah, Charlie Anderson (James Stewart) visits his wife's grave and delivers an emotional speech to her headstone - "I don't even know what to say to you any more, Martha. There's not much I can tell you about this war. It's like all wars, I guess. The undertakers are winning..." The speech was actually released as a single due to popular demand.
- Sinners and Saints (2010). The Cowboy Cop is unable to visit the grave of his son who died at six of leukemia; at one point he's shown sleeping in his car outside the cemetery. He's even taunted over this by the villains, who got hold of his psych report. But at the end of the movie, he's shown walking into the cemetery.
- Used as a framing device for Saving Private Ryan. The movie opens with an old soldier visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial to pay respect to the men he fought with in World War II. Of course, it's only at the end of the movie that the audience discovers who the old soldier actually is ( the titular character, Private James Francis Ryan), and to whom he's paying respect ( Captain John H. Miller).
- Subverted in Alien: Covenant. David 8 is shown laying flowers on a tombstone he's made for Elizabeth Shaw, and weeping Manly Tears over her death, showing that for all his contempt for humanity, the android has at least come to love one of them. This makes the later revelation that David killed Shaw as part of his experiments to develop the ultimate lifeform even more shocking. He never even buried her body, which is later shown vivisected in his Mad Scientist Laboratory.
- Captain Nathan Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon regularly visits his family's graves with flowers, sits on a stool and talks to his wife. This somewhat sad as he's due to retire and they are buried on the post, so if it hadn't turned into a 10-Minute Retirement at the last minute, he likely would never have been able to do so again. Upon returning, his friends hand him the flowers and stool, so he may continue his ritual.
- East/West: While on 24 hours' leave, Sasha goes back to his grandmother's grave and tells her how much she meant to him. They live in Commie Land 1940s Russia, and his grandma died after she was arrested by the Secret Police.
- Man of Iron: Tomczyk's father Mateusz was an anti-communist activist in Poland, shot down on a bridge in 1970 as he led a protest march. Tomczyk, denied a grave for his father after the authorities disposed of the body to parts unknown, puts up a cross at the spot where his father was killed. The film ends with him visiting the spot again and promising that the workers will win.
- Big Tits Zombie: Rena and Ginko share a moment over Nene's grave, where Rena places plastic flowers on the grave as that was all she could find. Rena and Ginko then head back to the theatre to open a can of whoop-ass on the zombies.
- In The Deserter, Kaleb stops to visit his wife's grave after he makes the first two kills of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- In The Gravedancers, After the wake, Sid (who missed the funeral) insists on breaking into the cemetery to say his farewells to Devon personally. Harris and Kira follow to keep him out of trouble.
- In Accident, The Brain visits the road near the airport where his wife died in a car crash.
- A Score to Settle: After getting out of prison, Frankie visits his wife Lorraine's grave to lay a flower and apologise for the mess he made of their lives. It is in this scene that it is also revealed that Frankie's son Joey is also dead.
- Schindler's List concludes with the surviving Schindler Jews, as well as the actors that played them in the film, placing stones upon the gravestone of Oskar Schindler in a show of respect. It ends with Liam Neeson, Schindler's actor, laying a rose in the center.
- The final scene of Hooded Angels has the Widow laying a single on the grave of Hannah's son Tommy—which has a new grave marker—before she departs to start a new life. As she leaves, the camera pans to show the fresh graves of Hannah and Ellie next to Tommy's.
- A Quiet Place. There's a cross set up on the bridge where Beau was killed in the opening scene. Regan visits the cross and places the toy that got him killed on the cross, modified so it won't make a noise (Regan blames herself for giving Beau the toy in the first place). This also serves to split the party as she slips away from her mother to do this. In A Quiet Place Part II, Evelyn takes off her wedding ring and leaves in on top of the cross to mourn her husband, killed in the first movie.
Literature
- Discworld:
- Lord Vetinari places bones on the grave of his beloved dog, Wuffles.
- In Night Watch, Reg Shoe buries himself with the others that died during the revolution for a few hours every anniversary, out of solidarity (and because, technically, he died that night too).
- In the last book of The Emigrants series Karl Oskar regularly visits Kristina's grave.
- The Lord of Bembibre concludes with Nuño, Millán and Martina visiting their master's grave, remembering Don Álvaro and mourning his death.
- X-Wing Series: People who were not on Alderaan have a tradition called the "Return", where they visit the ruins of their homeworld and say ritualistic things and leave grave goods for their friends and kin who died there.
- Old Man's War begins with John Perry visiting his wife's grave.
- The end of the Telepath Trilogy, a series of books in the Babylon 5 Expanded Universe, depicts Michael Garibaldi visiting the grave of Alfred Bester, and hammering a wooden stake into it.
- In Captain Vorpatril's Alliance we learn that Ivan's birthday starts off with burning an offering for his father in the middle of a Vorbarr Sultana street, where his mother watched her husband shot in front of her as she went into labor.
- The title character of A Man Called Ove frequently visits his wife's grave. After a while he starts getting company by a cat and various neighbours.
- John Rain: In Hard Rain, John is shown walking to the cemetery where his father is buried, but refusing to enter as he doesn't believe in an afterlife and the memory of his father's death is still painful. After an emotionally-tense confrontation with a former Love Interest, Rain does enter and ends up angsting about his life over his father's grave.
- Animorphs:
- Marco and his dad visit his mother's grave at the end of Book #5. This is awkward, since it's right after Marco discovered that she's still alive, but infested, and can't tell his dad.
- In the final book, we hear that Jake visits Rachel's grave regularly. Unfortunately, said character is also blaming themselves for said death.
- Harry Potter: During the final book Harry and Hermione travel to Godric's Hollow, the small town the Potter family were hiding in when Voldemort found them. While there Harry and Hermione visit James and Lily Potter's graves where Hermione conjures a wreath of roses for Harry to leave as a marker. The duo also discover that the wizarding community have left several memorials around the town which are invisible to Muggles. A statue in the middle of town disguises one of James, Lily and baby Harry while their ruined house has a magical sign covered with messages of support from well-meaning visitors.
Live-Action TV
- A Jack Bauer Fact states, "Every year, Jack Bauer lays flowers on Teri's grave, and then empties a full clip of bullets into Nina's."
- Andor: When Cassian returns to his hometown on Ferrix for what he realizes will be the final time, he stops at his adoptive father's local equivalent of a gravestone for a moment while planning his rescue of Bix.
- Bones does this often, and sometimes runs into her father, or at least finds that her father visited recently.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- The Season 7 episode "Help" has Willow visit Tara's grave and placing a couple of stones on top of the tombstone.
- Subverted in "Lie to Me" when Buffy places flowers on the grave of a New Old Flame, then cold-bloodedly stakes him when he bursts out of the grave as a vampire.
- Angel not having a grave, Buffy returns to the place where she stabbed her One True Love and sent him to a hell dimension, places the claddagh ring he gave her on the floor, says goodbye and leaves. It's a sign that Buffy is finally moving on from his tragic death, but next moment Angel appears in the place where the ring was, so Buffy never does move on.
- Sun and Hurley visit Jin's grave on Lost as a way of letting the audience know he's dead. Except of course that He's Just Hiding!
- Parodied in Mongrels. A guide dog explains to Destiny that since his owner can't see, he is free to lead him anywhere he likes. Cue the owner placing a bouquet of flowers next to a trashcan and saying "Hello Mother".
- Adrian Monk frequently visited both his wife's grave and the parking garage where she was killed.
- The loved ones of Michael Scofield gather around his grave at the end of the season finale of Prison Break.
- Smallville: In "Crusade", Lois and Clark visit Chloe's supposed grave in the final scene, leading Clark to discover her coffin is empty when he uses his X-Ray Vision on it.
- An episode of Suits shows that Harvey takes a day off work once a year to visit his father's grave and share a whiskey with him.
- Supernatural:
- In Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (S02, Ep04), Sam and Dean travel to Greenville, Illinois, to bury their father's dog tags at their mother's grave.
- In "What Is And What Should Never Be" (S02, Ep20), Dean visits the grave of his father, as in the Wishverse his father was not a hunter who had a hunter's funeral.
- In the series finale of The Killing, Holder visits Bullet's grave, and leaves her necklace on the tombstone.
- On The Mentalist, Patrick Jane and his brother-in-law visit the graves of Jane's wife and daughter at the end of one episode. Jane admits he hasn't been there since the funeral, years ago. And when pressed, he says it's because he believes "...they aren't there. They're gone"
- In the last season of Downton Abbey, Mary visits Matthew's grave about four years after his death. She tells him she's going to remarry, and promises that she'll always love him no matter how much she loves her second husband. Then Matthew's mother shows up and tells her, "I don't know if you have his forgiveness, but you don't have to ask for mine."
- Arrow
- Subverted in that when Oliver Queen and Sara Lance were Lost at Sea, headstones were put up for them. When they turn out to be Not Quite Dead we have scenes of both characters visiting their own graves. After Sara is killed she's buried in her previously empty grave, whereupon it's played straight by those mourning her.
- In Season One, Thea Queen tells Oliver of how she would visit Oliver's headstone to pour out her troubles, and laments how she felt closer to him then than to the emotionally-distant brother who returned to her. The flashback scenes in "The Return" show a teenaged Thea visiting Oliver's grave, but now only as a means of rendezvousing with her drug dealer. After Tommy Merlyn catches them and reprimands her, Thea is later shown bringing flowers like she used to.
- Season 4, the flash-forwards show Oliver standing over someone's (eventually revealed as Laurel Lance's) grave openly weeping and vowing to kill the one responsible. However, these turn out to be immediately after the funeral, and thus not truly this trope. Played straight in the Season Finale, where he visits it again and acknowledges Laurel would not have approved of the things he's done, "But you were always better than me. It's what I loved most about you."
- As part of The Reveal that she is Robert Queen's illegitimate daughter, Emiko Queen is shown visiting his grave. However she's later revealed to be a terrorist intent on destroying the Queen legacy out of revenge for being disowned by her father, so this may well have been Evil Gloating, or repressed guilt (she found out about the bombs planted on the Queen's Gambit, but didn't tell her father).
- Averted in Cracker where the soon-to-be-killer-of-the-week tries to visit his brother's grave (killed as a soldier in Northern Ireland), only to find the cemetery closed at that particular time due to government budget cuts.
- In Iron Fist (2017), while Danny struggles to adapt back to society and prove that he really is the long presumed dead Danny Rand, he visits his and his family's makeshift grave. He discovers that someone had visited their graves recently due to the fresh bouquet of flowers there (in fact, they're regularly replenished there) and he's able to trace this back to a family friend, Jeri Hogarth, who, due to being a lawyer, is instrumental in getting Danny's title of his father's company back from the Meachums.
- Subverted in The Boys. Billy Butcher finds the family of his wife Becca—missing and presumed dead by everyone but him—have made a gravestone so they can mourn her, so he smashes it up with a sledgehammer.
- Sense8: In "Death Doesn't Let You Say Goodbye", Riley visits the grave of her husband and infant daughter for the first time. She was too traumatised to attend their funeral and left Iceland shortly afterwards because of her overwhelming grief. Sven, a family friend, tells Riley that her father has been visiting the grave in her place while she was away.
- Exploited to cover for a covert meeting in Burn Notice. Michael's mom insists that he go visit his dad's grave at least once (he was overseas when his dad died), and while he does, it's so he can inconspicuously get a document from a spy who owed him a big favor, as father and son were on very bad terms before the former died.
- Young Sheldon: In "Contracts, Rules and a Little Bit of Pig Brains", Connie visits her husband's grave to talk about her feelings for Dr. Sturgis and Dale.
Radio
- Parodied in The Goon Show episode "Dishonoured" (remade as "Dishonoured Again"):
"How that battle raged — I saw the whole thing on television, you know. Seagoon fought like a madman — how else? But alas... On that spot is now a little white stone. Once a year Min lays flowers on it. The stone bears a simple inscription in Hindustani. I haven't the heart to tell her that roughly translated it says 'Bombay 49 Miles'. Goodnight."
Theatre
- The widows' visits to their dead husbands' graves are a regular element of The Cemetery Club. (And the chance meeting with a widower visiting his dead wife's grave sets off the plot.)
- At the end of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Harry reveals to his son Al that he regularly visits Cedric Diggory's grave.
- The Phantom of the Opera. Seeking solace from all the turmoil she's been experiencing, Christine visits her father's grave. Unfortunately, the Phantom, who's either followed her there or knew that she would come, seizes the opportunity to try and kidnap her again.
Video Games
- Parodied in Postal 2, where one of the protagonist's errands is to visit his father's grave...and pee on it.
- In inFAMOUS Cole visits the grave of his deceased girlfriend. When he has nowhere else to go, he sleeps beside it.
- In Chrono Trigger you can visit Toma's grave in 1000 AD, and then go talk to him in 600 AD. He gives you his favorite booze to pour on his headstone.
- In Red Dead Redemption, Jack does this at the grave of his father John Marston, who had been killed by Edgar Ross 3 years earlier, and his mother Abigail, who had died recently of disease, in depressingly sad rain to set the mood.
- In the end credits of the prequel, Red Dead Redemption II, Mary Linton visits the grave of her fallen Love Interest Arthur Morgan (which has a Celtic cross headstone signifying his Welsh heritage), and demonstrates that despite everything that happened between them, she still cares for him. If he was played honorably through to the very end, then his grave is also adorned with a bunch of flowers to add a bit of cheerfulness to this otherwise bittersweet scene. John Marston can also visit the graves of his fallen comrades, including Arthur, for the "Paying Respects" achievement. If the player reaches 100% Completion, John also visits said grave and writes on Arthur's journal as "Crash of Worlds" (a reprise version of "Unshaken") plays in the background, and says, "Guess we're just about done, my friend." If you check the journal, you'll see that unlike most of the mediocre-to-average drawings of John, it's actually a very beautiful drawing of Arthur's grave with what he said written on it.
- At the end of No One Lives Forever, the player character Cate Archer visits her mentor Bruno's grave. So does Bruno.
- In Batman: Arkham City, Batman can visit the spot in Crime Alley where his parents were gunned down, and pay his respects (it's even a Steam achievement). Hugo Strange has even left a taunting message there for him.
- In The Dog Island Dr.Potan visits The Grave of his friend whom he failed to treat quickly enough.
- A rather literal example, but at the end of a fight against Aganos in Killer Instinct, the Golem will bury its opponent in a tomb of rocks, then top it off with a flower.
- Street Fighter
- II has Chun-Li's original ending, in which she visits her father's tombstone.
- In an extended ending scene for II and in Street Fighter IV (and its Super version), Guile is seen visiting his best friend Charlie's (symbolic) grave. Ironically, Charlie Came Back Wrong in Street Fighter V. Only to die AGAIN.
- Fire Emblem
- In Fire Emblem Fates, if Niles and Beruka reach an A support, she tells him that she's found the grave of both of their long-lost mothers. If one more support talk is obtained, they decide to do this and have a Relationship Upgrade.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses,
- An early quest has the Player Character search for their father Jeralt, finding him visiting his wife's grave. Jeralt is buried beside his wife after he dies in Chapter 9, and before the Final Battle, the player visits his grave to choose someone to give his ring.
- In the Paralogue "An Ocean View," Seteth goes to where his wife is buried, not for a visit but to kill some Western Church extremists occupying the land. He and Flayn do make time for a grave visit after the battle, though.
- In Fire Emblem Engage, in the ending slideshow, Hortensia, second princess of Elusia, visits her father's grave if she survives until the end of the game.
- Overwatch's Christmas Episode comic "Reflections" features several appearances of various characters spending their holidays. One of the most memorable shows Widowmaker visiting the grave of Gérard Lacroix, her late loving husband who she was brainwashed to assassinate. Considering she's presently become one of Talon's deadliest weapons, conditioned to only feel "alive" from killing targets, the fact she pays him any posthumous respects implies a ton about a lingering sense of regret.
- One ending of Completing the Mission ends in the death of Charles. The final scene has Henry saluting his grave.
Visual Novels
- At the start of Spirit Hunter: NG, a memorial is set up for Yuri at the point where she was run over in the underpass. One of the game's first tasks is getting fresh flowers for the memorial, with it being said that Yuri's friends Kaoru and Ami visit the place frequently. More generally, the spirits of ghosts manifest in the place they died, thus the characters must visit those places often to pacify them.
- The Forever ending of School Days involves Makoto visiting the grave of Kotonoha, a year after she was Spurned into Suicide.
- Happens twice in Dies Irae:
- The first one occurs during the closing shots of Marie's route where Ren travels to France to visit Marie's grave while also having a final discussion with Mercurius. Although he had been interacting with her ghost for the entirety of the novel, this was the first time he had actually visited her "in the flesh" so to speak.
- The second happens at the end of Rea's route where she visits and prays next to the grave of her great grandmother, Liza Brenner.
Web Animation
- The very first trailer for RWBY opened with Ruby visiting a gravestone on a cliff-side (later confirmed to be her mother's grave). She's also seen visiting it at the beginning and end of Volume 3.
- A variation of this occurs in Power Star 4.5, in which Luigi visits his older brother Mario's grave, laughing disrespectfully for quite a while. While the epilogue initially hints at Luigi changing his mind about the way he mocked Mario and trying to make amends, it turns out he was only returning a kitchen knife to the local Wal-Mart, citing that it wasn't able to slice mushrooms.
Web Comics
- Bad Moon Rising shows Chloe visiting a crudely made grave stone.
- Sandra is shown to visit her mother's grave on several occasions in Sandra and Woo. In fact, a flashback reveals that she first met her best friend Larisa during one such visit.
- Sleepless Domain: Tessa is shown to visit the graves of Gwen, Sally, and Sylvia, the fallen members of Team Alchemical, throughout the course of the comic, and is implied that she visits them every day, to the point where she keeps comes home from school late. The first time we see her at their graves, she begins Talking to the Dead, and expresses her sorrow and her Survivor Guilt that she was unable to save the other members of Team Alchemical, save for one second survivor. Later on, as her mental health deteriorates, she comes home later and later, and it becomes one of the only places where she can (temporarily) regain her sanity.
- Said second survivor, Undine, also twice visits the scene of the event that killed her teammates; the first time to try and piece together what happened, and the second after a fight with Cassidy, who falsely accuses Undine of being behind the deaths.
Web Original
- The Perfect Castlevania Timeline: Chapter VII: The Heroic Morris Clan closes with a scene depicting Jonathan Morris visiting the grave of his deceased father John.
- Chapter 21.2 of Worm has Taylor, the protagonist, visit her mother's grave to talk to her about what she's done in costume as Skitter. It's strongly implied that she visited regularly before the events of the series.
Western Animation
- In Batman: The Animated Series, Bruce Wayne visits the place where his parents were killed once a year, on the anniversary of their death, even as a very old man in Batman Beyond.
- Parodied in Spongebob Squarepants where Mr. Krabs witnesses Squidward sadly leaving flowers at a grave. After he leaves, Mr. Krabs walks up to tombstone and reads off it. It says "Here Lies Squidward's Hopes and Dreams."
- ..."What a baby."
- At the end of "SpongeBob Versus the Patty Gadget", SpongeBob collapses after the fight and we're shown a close-up of the spatula dropping from his hand. It immediately cuts to Squidward placing flowers on the grave, which SpongeBob then dances on, celebrating the titular Gadget's demise.
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Iroh spends the day running some errands around town, along the way sharing some wisdom with lost souls and even cheering up a child with a song he used to sing for his son. Then he visits a small hill with a lone tree, uses the items he was picking up to put together a shrine for his dead son, and starts crying as he softly repeats the song again to himself. One of the saddest scenes in the series (and dedicated to the former Voice Actor for Iroh, who had recently died).
- On Gargoyles, Matt Bluestone identifies a gangster he believes is connected to The Illuminati, but who disappeared years ago, abandoning his wife and stepson. His first clue is a photograph of the wife's funeral where a man who looks like the gangster can be seen sitting in the back; he later finds out he's left a rose at her grave every week since.
- In the Steven Universe episode "Steven's Dream,'' Blue Diamond pays a visit to the Palanquin, where Pink Diamond was allegedly killed. She still believes that the Earth is going to be destroyed any day now, and wanted to take one last chance to say goodbye.
- At the end of season seven of Voltron: Legendary Defender, Keith takes Krolia to visit his father's grave.
- While Rugrats was determined to Never Say "Die", it did confirm the fate of Chuckie's mom by having Chas take him to visit her grave.
- Two in Kubo and the Two Strings:
- Near the beginning of the movie, the Bon festival happens, which allows the villagers to see their loved ones at the graveyard. Kubo attempts to see his presumed deceased father, Hanzo, but he does not appear. Kubo spending too long at the graveyard kicks off the story, as it leads to his Evil Aunts finding him.
- As a Book Ends, at the epilogue of the movie, Kubo returns to the graveyard to bid farewell to his now deceased parents, who he had reunited with during the story.
- The Owl House:
- It's mentioned in "Reaching Out" that Luz and her mother have a yearly tradition of visiting her father's grave on the anniversary of his death and leaving freshly picked flowers. The fact that Luz isn't able to do so this year (due to being trapped in the Demon Realm) leaves her off balance all day despite her attempts to pretend otherwise.
- There's a brief scene in the Distant Finale, where Hunter and Willow visit Flapjack's grave, with Willow using her magic to cover it in flowers.
Real Life
- Someone, probably two someones, spent a good sixty years or so making annual surreptitious visits to Edgar Allan Poe's grave on Poe's birthday, January 19. The Poe Toaster always left three roses and a note, before making a toast with cognac and leaving the bottle behind. He made his first visit no later than 1949; the 1999 note indicated that the original toaster had died and the tradition had been taken up by a son. The second toaster made his final visit in 2009, on Poe's 200th birthday. The identities of the toasters have never been revealed.
- Throughout Prince Harry's memoir Spare, he describes several scenes of him and his brother William visiting their mother's grave. The epilogue has him bringing his wife Meghan to mark the 25th anniversary of her death.
