Proof of Commitment - TV Tropes

Captain Styles: Kirk, you do this, you'll never sit in the Captain's chair again.
Admiral Kirk: Warp speed.

• Chihayafuru:
  • Sumire had been asked several times to trim her fingernails, lest she hurt herself or someone else during a match, but she was more interested in making eyes at Taichi than in playing. But after embarrassing herself with her Anguished Declaration of Love for Taichi, she commits to the club, sitting at a table to actually memorize the poems of the Hyakkunin Isshu. And the others note with smiles that she picks up a nail trimmer and cuts her fingernails, showing she's ready to actually participate in the game.
  • Chihaya injured her finger during team matches the night before, and her right hand is bandaged, so she has been playing the individual matches with her left hand, declaring that she would only use her right hand in a match against Arata. However, she is then paired against current Queen Shinobu Wakamiya, who had beaten Chihaya handily last year. Chihaya knows she has to win or be eliminated at that point, and determines to give the match her all, unbandaging her right hand to face Shinobu with her right hand. (She still loses, but does thank Shinobu for not going easy on her for her injury.)
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, before setting out on their journey to become state alchemists, obtain a Philosopher's Stone, and regain their bodies, the Elric brothers invoke You Can't Go Home Again and burn down their childhood home as a show of their commitment—once they leave, they won't be able to return even if they want to.
• My Hero Academia: Passing on the One For All Quirk is one of these on the part of both the inheritor and the previous Wielder; it simply involves the transfer of genetic material (Izuku eats a strand of All-Might's hair to achieve this) but while the inheritor gradually gains the power of One For All, the previous wielder will gradually lose the Super-Strength that came with it. Worse, if the new wielder already has a Quirk, One For All will add to the burden and burn through their body; the fourth Wielder essentially died of old age before he hit fifty because of this.
• My-HiME: Nagi warns each of the HiME, Mai in episode 2, Natsuki in the prequel novel Natsuki's Prelude, and the others off-screen, that if they chose to fight, they would have to risk "what is most precious" to them. This is later revealed to be not their own lives, but that of whoever they love most in the world, but by the time they learn this, there's no way to back out.
• One Piece: At the climax of the Enies Lobby arc, the Straw Hats are confronted with the reality that to save their unlikely friend and crewmate Nico Robin from execution, they will have to declare war on the entire World Government. Without a moment of hesitation, The Captain Luffy orders Sogeking (actually Usopp in disguise) to shoot the World Government's flag flying over the Lobby and set it on fire, dramatically committing the whole crew to a full-blown insurrection.

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Taking a Keeper's payment to work for them, imposes a magical bond on the servant to their master.
• Duran and Kiyohime's Omake Theater:
  • In Ch. 10, after Natsuki begins to feel like she's become a case of All Take and No Give in her relationship with Shizuru. At this stage in the story, their relationship was of a casual type but Natsuki decides to change that and commit wholly to being Shizuru's girlfriend properly, wordlessly making the promise with a Big Damn Kiss.
  • In a later chapter, serving as a prequel to the story, Natsuki and Shizuru have just had Their First Time together (well, consensual and with everyone conscious), and Natsuki is preparing to head back to her apartment for the night. She tells Shizuru she doesn't want to do the "walk of shame" past Shizuru's dormmates in the morning and has tasks she has to take care of. However, while Shizuru understands Natsuki's use of the phrase, the term "walk of shame" only reminds Shizuru of the unsavory acts she had committed in the past. Sensing Shizuru's unease, Natsuki declares that she'll stay the night after all. She doesn't want to treat it like a one-night-stand, and she'll get more sleep than if she had to head to Tsukimori right away. She does, to Shizuru's amusement and mild consternation, steal the covers in her sleep.
• In The Elements Of Discord, when joining Callisto's anti-cutie mark cult, Tagalong is dragged into a ritual that involves peeling her cutie mark off with a knife and throwing the flap of skin into a bonfire. After Callisto asks the other cult members and then her co-leaders if they accept their new member, Tagalong is then branded with the cult's symbol on her flanks.
• Windows of the Soul: Natsuki has been trying to repair her friendship with Shizuru after the events of My-HiME, and is running hard up against the fact that Shizuru considers herself unforgivable. But after debating whether it was sensible or not to start a relationship with someone who had raped her, Natsuki decides that Shizuru is not just that night, and informs Shizuru of her decision, then gives her a Big Damn Kiss.

• Coraline: To stay in the Other World forever with all its delights and wonders, Coraline has to let the Other Mother remove her eyes and sew buttons onto the sockets. When the three ghost children were alive, they took up the offer, which allowed the Other Mother to suck out their souls.

  Other Mother: Black is traditional. But if you'd prefer pink, or vermilion, or chartreuse... well, you might make me jealous!
  Coraline: [shoves the gift box away] No WAY! You're not sewing buttons in my eyes!
  Other Mother: Oh, but we need a yes. If you want to stay here.
  Other Father: [holds up the sewing needle] So sharp, you won't feel a thing... [the Other Mother kicks him] Ow!

• The Secret of NIMH: Mrs. Brisby is standing outside the lair of the Great Owl, wondering if she should go in or not, especially since, as she has already noted a few times, owls are known to eat mice like herself. The Great Owl has called her into his lair, and she hesitates, then draws a breath, saying, "Timothy. Remember Timothy." and steps across the threshold into the Great Owl's tree.
• In The Simpsons Movie, Marge tapes over her and Homer's wedding video in her goodbye message to him, to prove—to herself as much as Homer—that she really is leaving him for good. Subverted since the resulting Jerkass Realization prompts Homer to race back to Springfield, save it himself, and restore the status quo.

• Kingsman: The Secret Service: The final test for Kingsmen candidates involves then having to raise a puppy, and then, to prove their loyalty to the organization, literally Shoot the Dog. Subverted in that, this being a Secret Test of Character, the guns the candidates are given are loaded with blanks.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: Kirk, having been denied permission to go to the Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body, has enacted a plan to steal the Enterprise because "The answer is 'no'. I am therefore going anyway." As Enterprise clears the Space Dock doors and is now free to navigate, Excelsior, under the command of Capt. Styles, is given orders to pursue. Styles tries to reason with Kirk, telling him that if he commits to his act, he'll never sit in the Captain's chair again. Kirk gives the order for his crew to go to warp.
  • Star Trek: First Contact: Data has been offered everything he's sought by the Borg Queen, such as an ability to unite flesh and machine as one, and experience physical sensation as a human would. But he demonstrates his commitment to Starfleet when he surreptitiously places himself by the plasma coolant conduits by the warp core, showing that he was a Fake Defector all along by smashing the conduit open, exposing the Borg to plasma coolant that would liquefy their organic components, as well as Data's own newly acquired flesh.

• Animorphs: Nothlit refers to a form of Shapeshifter Mode Lock that results if a creature with morphing abilities exceeds to two-hour morphing timer. Tobias undergoes this by complete accident, trapping him as a red-tailed hawk as his default morph, but several other characters do this on purpose over the course of the series; for instance, Cassie temporarily becomes a caterpillar nothlit in order to appease a Yeerk, but the clock is reset by her metamorphosis into a butterfly.
• The Clique: In Bratfest at Tiffany's, Massie decides that none of the Pretty Committee will have crushes or boyfriends because failed relationships will turn them into losers, and buys them all Tiffany's bracelets, each with five charms marked with the initials of the girls. If any of the girls falls in love with a boy, she'll be ejected from the Pretty Committee. After Alicia is caught wearing Josh's baseball cap, Massie makes her hand over her bracelet, then orders everyone to remove the "A" charms from their bracelets and throw them into the fireplace.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Played for Laughs in The Ugly Truth. Uncle Gary goes through a lot of romantic partners and gets a tattoo of his third wife's name, Lydia, on his arm. After they get a divorce, he gets a new girlfriend named Sonja. She asks him to remove the tattoo of Lydia's name, but since tattoo removal is expensive, he adds some words so it says, "I am not in love with Lydia anymore."
• The Dresden Files: In Changes, after Harry reaches his Darkest Hour, he has to do two things to take up the mantle of the Winter Knight: firstly, he has to kill the previous Knight, for whom death is a mercy after almost a decade of torture at the hands of the Queen of Air and Darkness. Secondly, he has to have sex with Queen Mab... an event that is apparently broadcast to the entirety of the Nevernever through magical means.
• Harry Potter:
  • The Unbreakable Vow is a ritual wherein two wizards hold hands with a third (the "Bonder") putting the tip of their wand on them. For each request made of the person making the vow, a thin ribbon of fire wraps itself around their hands. Once the ritual is complete, the wizard who made the vow must carry it out or die. When Ron was little, his older brothers Fred and George almost got him to make an Unbreakable Vow, but their father caught them in the middle of it. They'd never seen him so angry, and Fred reckons his left buttock has never been the same since.
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Wormtail is working to restore Voldemort to power, but his master knows Wormtail is not truly loyal to him and is only helping him because he wants protection from the good guys, who know he framed Sirius and betrayed the Potters. He makes Wormtail prove his commitment to the Death Eaters' cause by having him chop off his own hand in a ritual to recreate Voldemort's physical body. As a reward, Voldemort creates a magical silver hand for him that's enchanted to turn on him and strangle him to death if he ever shows the slightest amount of disloyalty to his master, which he eventually does.

    Voldemort: May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail.

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Voldemort is angry with the Malfoys for Lucius' failure to retrieve the prophecy in the previous book. As punishment, he has ordered Draco to carry out an extremely difficult, dangerous mission to assassinate Dumbledore and will kill him and his family if he fails at it. Draco's mother Narcissa asks Snape to make the Unbreakable Vow to watch over Draco as he tries to perform the task, protect him from harm, and carry out the mission if Draco cannot do it.
• The Heroes of Olympus: After Percy is recruited into Camp Jupiter, a Tattoo of a trident alongside the SPQR initialism appears on his arm, marking that he's a son of "Neptune" (actually the Greek Poseidon) and a member of the Legion of New Rome.
• The Locked Tomb: Lyctorhood involves a cavalier being sacrificed, or sacrificing themselves, and having their soul grafted onto that of their necromancer. Gideon willingly performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Harrowhark's life at the climax of Gideon the Ninth, while Nabereus is murdered by Ianthe Tridentarius in order to make her a lyctor. This process causes necromancers-turned-lyctors to inherit the eye color of their cavalier... except that in Harrow the Ninth, Harrowhark gets her brain poked around in order to partition Gideon's soul away from her own in an effort to save her only friend and gets her memories scrambled in the process. When Gideon does take over Harrow's body at the climax of the second book, her distinctive eye color reveals that Gideon is none other than the daughter of The God-Emperor Of The Nine Houses.
• The Rise of Kyoshi: Kyoshi's mother Jesa was an Air Nun, and had arrow tattoos to mark her as a master Airbender; however, after she left the Air Nation in order to become an outlaw along with her husband, she covered those tattoos with ones of snakes.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Tywin Lannister stayed neutral for most of Robert's Rebellion, but once it became clear Robert Baratheon was winning, he needed to do something big that would not only prove his commitment to the cause, but sever all ties with Robert's enemies, House Targaryen. So he sacked King's Landing and had his soldiers kill Prince Rhaegar Targaryen's toddler daughter and infant son, then presented the bodies of the children wrapped in crimson Lannister cloaks to Robert as a show of fealty.
  • The legendary warrior princess Nymeria set sail and fled the Rhoyne with her people after it was attacked by the Valyrians. They traveled long and far searching for refuge and eventually settled in Dorne. After marrying Lord Mors Martell, Nymeria burned all ten thousand ships of the Rhoynish fleet so her people would never again wander the sea in search of a home.
• Warrior Cats: In Into the Wild, when Rusty the housecat is presented to ThunderClan as a potential new member, Longtail taunts him that a kittypet could never become a Clan cat, and challenges him to a fight. During the resulting scrap, Rusty's collar ends up being torn off, and Bluestar declares this a sign that he has been freed from his Twoleg owners and is worthy to join the Clan.

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: In "The Asset", Ward invokes this trope while putting Skye through strength training, telling her that every agent has a moment where they can either commit to being an agent, or turn and run. Skye has her moment in this episode, where she not only outsmarts Quinn, but defends SHIELD, single-handedly disarms him, and escapes him via a High-Dive Escape.
• Babylon 5: In "The Exercise Of Vital Powers", Security Chief Garibaldi has handed in his resignation and taken a job with William Edgars, a secretive billionaire with a mysterious agenda. Edgars refuses to let Garibaldi know exactly what's going on until he's proved his loyalty by arranging the capture of Captain Sheridan, his former commanding officer.
• Doctor Who: Some companions stumble into the TARDIS accident (Tegan). Some run in to save them during times of danger (Rose, Clara). But some companions are told who and what the Doctor and the TARDIS are and what they represent, the chance to travel the universe and history, often while facing grave danger, and they make the choice to climb aboard, forever changing their lives (Amy).
• Fallout (2024): In the Brotherhood of Steel, when a newly promoted squire is assigned to a knight, they go through a ceremony where the knight holds the monogrammed gauntlet of their Powered Armor in a fire before using it to brand their initial on the back of their squire's neck.

• The Bible: Several times in The Bible people are called to show their level of commitment to, or in some cases, against God. The Mark of the Beast is an example of a negative commitment, as once you take the mark, there is no redemption for those who did so.

• Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown: In the final SP Mission, Matias Torres demonstrates how determined he is to carry out his mission by faking a surrender, forcing Trigger to almost disobey orders and fire upon the Alicorn’s railgun. Fortunately, Torres plays his hand just seconds before Trigger was about to fire. This causes the LRSSG to realize that Torres is not worth negotiating with, and they sink him to the bottom of the ocean.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • Prior to the time of Altaïr, members of the assassin order have their ring finger cut off for a pair of reasons: firstly, to mark them as Assassins, and secondly, so that their signature Hidden Blades can be used stealthily.
  • Assassin's Creed II averts this particular self-mutilation from that point on, as improvements to the design made by Altaïr and implemented by none other than Leonardo da Vinci in order to allow future Assassins to keep all of their fingers while not sacrificing the Hidden Blade's stealth-kill capabilities. However, upon a proper induction into the order, Ezio's ring finger is branded as a symbolic severance of the digit.
  • Assassin's Creed Origins implies there might be a ritualistic aspect to the finger removal as well, beyond simply showing membership to the Brotherhood; the act might be in tribute to Bayek, an Assassin during the late Ptolemic dynasty in Egypt who accidentally lost his ring finger during a Desperation Attack, where he was forced to send his blade through his closed fist.
• Baldur's Gate III: Players who don't immediately turn hostile towards the goblins in the first act will have an opportunity to receive the Mark of the Absolute from High Priestess Gut. After she brands your palm, your character will forever have the mark for the rest of the game. There's actually no particular downside to doing this, as it'll be beneficial in the long run by allowing access to unique equipment from certain characters and avoiding conflicts by convincing other cultists that you're one of them.
• Dishonored 2: In the first game, Corvo was railroaded into accepting the Outsider's mark, which was permanently branded on the back of his left hand, granting him a variety of Void powers; in this game, Corvo or Emily can choose to accept the mark and the power that comes with it, or refuse it and commit to a run sans supernatural abilities.
• Elden Ring: A questline to access the Moghwyn Palace early in the game involves the Tarnished needing to have one of their fingers cut off by White Mask Varre after retrieving the blood of a Finger Maiden; this item, the Bloody Finger, can be used to summon oneself into other worlds for PVP battles but has no effect on how well the Tarnished can use their weapons.
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: After each new Sage reaches the Zonai Secret Stone that will officially grant them the title, they all make a solemn oath to accept the Stone, which permanently bonds to them and grants them new abilities. The Sages then do something similar with Link, swearing that they will fight by his side until the bitter end (Riju, Prince Sidon, Mineru, and Tulin all grasp Link's Zonai-given hand to seal the promise, while Yunobo, being much larger, instead touches their fists together); these vows manifests as glowing energy sigils on Link's fingers as proof of their commitment to the battle against evil.
• Persona 5 depicts the act of awakening a Persona as physically painful in a variety of ways; characters clutch their heads as if in the midst of the worst migraine of their lives, writhing in pain, while their Persona encourages them to break the chains that bind them and embrace rebellion. When they accept, a Mask of Power manifests on their face, and they rip it off, accompanied by a spray of blood as it's torn off along with some of their skin. The exceptions to this are Futaba, who willingly accepts her Shadow Self as her Persona and therefore doesn't have to go through the aforementioned pain, and Kasumi, whose initial awakening of Cendrillon in Persona 5 Royal didn't have any blood as a clue that it wasn't a true awakening; it's not until she remembers her life as Sumire that she's able to call on Cendrillon's true strength.

• SCP Foundation: SCP-2140 is allegedly a series of sigils that can only be viewed by loyal Foundation personnel, but the wording implies a combination of Mind Rape and a Cosmic Retcon to retroactively turn someone into a member of the Foundation.

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In the season 2 premiere, Zuko and Iroh both remove their topknots after escaping from Azula, marking them as fugitives from the Fire Nation. The novel The Shadow of Kyoshi reveals that there's a deeper symbolic meaning to this, as hair is very important to Fire Nation culture, and a character in said novel is described as cutting off their topknot in a manner that invokes ritual suicide to atone for dishonor.
• The Dragon Prince: Before undertaking an assassination, Moonshadow Elf assassins wrap a magical ribbon around their arms to represent the life they are assigned to end, which becomes tighter and tighter the longer the task goes unfulfilled. The one Rayla wears is only removed when Zym, the titular prince who she supposed to end Ezran's life in retaliation for, bites it loose, symbolically and literally relieving her of it.
• In Tales of the Jedi, Jedi Master Yaddle discovers fellow Master Dooku secretly meeting with Darth Sidious (aka Sheev Palpatine). Sidious then orders Dooku to kill Yaddle, both to silence her and to prove his allegiance to the Sith.
• Total Drama: In "Brunch of Disgustingness", the teams are dissolved and the girls' cabin now consists of the remaining Screaming Gopher girls, with Leshawna and Gwen on one side, and Heather and Lindsay on the other. Bridgette is the last of the Killer Bass girls and moves into the girls' cabin, but the two groups are pressuring her to pick a side. While standing in the middle of the cabin, she steps over to Leshawna and Gwen's side. They smile, but Heather says coldly, "You just dug your own grave."

• In the Yakuza, one of the things that a member must do in order to show their loyalty and commitment to the organization in the face of dishonor is to perform Yubitsume, which means to cut off one of their pinky fingers.
• It is popular for couples to get matching or coordinated tattoos that represent their relationship. However, this is widely considered inadvisable, because if the relationship ends, you are left with a permanent (or at the very least, hard to remove) reminder on your body of someone you no longer want to be associated with.
• Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon River with his army. He had been summoned to Rome to answer for a number of charges to a hostile Senate stacked with political enemies after having previously enjoyed immunity as Governor. With his term expired and his immunity gone, he could either go in peace and receive an unfair trial, not go at all and be branded an enemy of the people, making him damned if he does or damned if he doesn't, or he could go with his army for protection. He chooses to go with his army. The Rubicon River marked the northern border of the Roman province of Italia, and it was forbidden by law for a Roman army to enter the province unless Italia itself was threatened. Thus, crossing the Rubicon with his army marked Caesar's point of no return and commitment to his cause from that point on. When he did this Caesar is said to have quipped "Alea iacta est," or "Let's roll the dice."
• Allegedly, as part of hazing at some rich fraternities and sororities, new pledges have to buy a ticket to Hong Kong (for boys) or a Tiffany necklace (for girls) and throw it in the river to prove how rich they are.
• A "love lock" is a padlock that a couple writes their initials and/or names on and locks to a metal fence/bridge/other public structure to symbolize unbreakable love, complete with throwing away the key, often into a nearby river.