"Haruka, no matter what happens... Never run away. Because if you do... Your happiness will slip away, like mine. Got it? Running... isn't... the answer."
— Yumi Sawamura, Yakuza Kiwami
When one is faced with big, unexpected changes in life, one of the common reactions is fear of the change, or a want for things to be the way they were. In children (and sometimes adults), this fear manifests as the desire to run away... which they sometimes act upon.
This trope is about the aesop that trying to flee one's problems is not the way to solve them. How this is explored tends to vary (often depending on who the work is aimed at). For kids who literally try to run away from home when faced with problems, this trope is meant to show them that running away won't change things.
Because the reasons why a character wants to flee can vary, how they learn this lesson also varies. If someone ran away for selfish reasons (i.e. they felt they weren't getting attention), then they may receive a Cowardice Callout. If the runaway is a child who is experiencing Infant Sibling Jealousy, they will likely get a talk from their parents or another respected figure about how just because the baby needs more attention doesn't mean the parents love their first child any less.
Compare with The Runaway (for obvious reasons), The Call Knows Where You Live, and Anti-Escapism Aesop. Contrast with Ending the Abuse or Rescuing the Abused (as in those cases a character may actually solve a serious problem by running away) and Know When to Fold 'Em (more nuanced shows may have the characters learn to use either philosophy based on the situation). This can also serve as a sub trope for Simple Solution Won't Work when a character literally can’t run away from their problems because of an opposing force or events preventing them from fleeing. See also Tired of Running, when a character makes a decision to stop running away. This may occasionally cross over with Be Careful What You Wish For, as the runaway will often wish to run from their troubles only to realize that their desired escape wasn't what they thought it would be.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan is an installment of the Doraemon movies where the main characters — including Doraemon — decides collectively fleeing from home (mostly because of exams, parental pressure — but for Doraemon, it's because Nobita's parents are babysitting a pair of guinea pigs for the father's boss). And upon realizing there isn't any extra land in Japan for them, the gang decides fleeing to the Stone Age via Time Machine only to run into warring caveman tribes, savage prehistoric animals, and a time-travelling supervillain from the 23rd Century intending to reshaped the past and rule the future; by the movie's conclusion the gang returns learning the aesop of There's No Place Like Home, and set things right.
- The Lost Village defies this trope entirely. It starts with 30 members of a group of men and women who came together on a bus to visit a place called Nanaki Village, and it ends with most of them choosing to stay in the village, casting off their old life and starting a new one, showing that not everyone's personal issues can be fixed so easily, and everyone has different ways of coping with them. The series shows that running away from your problems can be as much of a valid solution to solve them as any other. It's not exactly a happy or uplifting message, but not invalid either.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji has a habit of running away during times of great stress (that is, throughout the entire series), but always returns to pilot his Eva.
- Sailor Moon: In the Stars Arc, Sailor Cosmos ran away from her battle with Sailor Chaos due to losing everyone she loved, so she went back in time in the form of Chibi-Chibi to convince Sailor Moon to destroy the Galaxy Cauldron, which would destroy Chaos but also end all life. Watching Sailor Moon's courage gave Sailor Cosmos the confidence to go back and fight Sailor Chaos.
Comic Books
- The Witches of Oz (2024): Glinda's Fatal Flaw is her tendency to run away from any mess she creates, usually leaving someone else to fix the problem. Her problems started when she ran out on her wife Gayelette, leaving her to become Queen of the Ruby Palace (a role that would have gone to Glinda). Her problems continue when she flees the Emerald City after the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion drive it into the ground, causing them to invade the Ruby Palace. She flees Oz entirely and ends up in Kansas, where she is pursued by Dorothy Gale's cousin Ginny, who believes she has something to do with Dorothy's disappearance. Ultimately, she realizes that Dorothy's disappearance was the result of one of her miscast spells, and decides that she should stay in Kansas and try and make amends to Dorothy's family instead of trying to run away from the consequences again.
Fan Works
- Destiny (Afterandalasia): Played for Horror; when Jim Dear and Darling have their baby, Lady fears that they won't love her anymore. She runs away, trusts the wrong man for help, and ends up worse off when he kills her.
- Zig-zagged in The Dragon and the Butterfly. Chapter Fifty reveals that Hiccup and Toothless were forced to flee Berk after the former was disowned (with the high possibility of him being banished or executed for his actions) while Toothless was about to be publicly executed. Upon escaping, they found the Encanto. However, when Stoick, Gobber, and the Viking teens eventually find him there, Astrid reveals that the Dragon Queen is the reason why the dragons have been attacking Berk for so long, and that Toothless is the only one who can destroy her. While Hiccup wants to just ignore the problem and stay in his idyllic new home, he can't ignore the fact that Vikings and dragons have been dying for centuries because of one selfish dragon, and he ends up choosing to go back to Berk and solve the problem.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Teen Series: In the chapter "My Ed For You", Marie runs away from home after being frustrated with Ursula and their poor living situation. She talks with Rachel, who reveals that Ursula once lived on the streets which made living tough, which was what she wanted Marie to avoid. However, before Marie can go back home, she gets kidnapped by her father.
- Family Loading... Please Wait: After a promised trip with just him, Tom, and Maddie gets canceled because Tails and Knuckles got the flu, Sonic (who has been dealing with jealousy of his siblings ever since they moved in) flips out and runs away, even briefly considering going to the Mushroom Planet. He ends up outside Crazy Carl's trailer. The man brings Sonic inside and gives him chili dogs before tells him about growing up with nearly a dozen siblings. He finishes his talk by telling Sonic how running away was selfish and pointless: all it did was scare his family. Thoroughly ashamed, Sonic agrees to call his parents, who come and get him.
- Future Is Bright (Danny Phantom): After an argument with Batman about Phantom patrolling (as Danny needs to protect people to feel stable but Bruce won't risk his safety), the halfa pushes himself faster than he's ever gone and ends up in the outer atmosphere. He contemplates running away, knowing that as a ghost he could survive in space. Superman eventually finds him, and tells Danny that Bruce cares about his kids far more than many people would think. This helps Danny see that running away from the least crazy parent he's ever had isn't a good idea, and he returns to Gotham. Alfred's reaction to what Danny did implies that all of the Bat kids had to learn this trope at least once, mentioning a Noodle Incident where Dick ran away to rejoin the circus.
- Infinity Train: Blossomverse frequently states this as one of its main aesops.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: The fic's events kick off when Chloe Cerise decides to run from home, feeling unappreciated by her family and community. At first, it goes swimmingly — she's picked up by a magical world where she gets to live out her heroism fantasies, her hometown begins to turn on her school bullies for their treatment of her, and her family swears to treat her better if she'll come back. The more time she spends away, however, and once it's realized she's fine, the more her actions are scrutinized. Eventually, she becomes even more of a pariah, seen by her hometown (and even her new friends, once they get the full picture of her) with much less sympathy as her absence starts changing things for the worse, forcing Chloe to grapple with whether running was the right choice.
- Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily: Gladion attempts to leave everyone behind now that the Nihilego crisis is over, only for his sister to point out that her problems with being unable to interact with Pokémon is his damn fault for running away instead of telling her all of this in the first place because he just wanted to play Knight in Shining Armornote . Gladion enters the Train in order to prove his sister wrong, only to find out that all he had to do was just promise to be there for his sister and tell her the truth and she would've had a better life.
- This often comes up in The Loud House fics:
- In Lincoln is Done, Lincoln runs away because his sisters teased him, nurtured him too much when he injured himself, one of them (Lola) got him wrongly grounded, and because he had nightmares about them abusing him and sending him to Hell. However, when he runs away to live with his friend Clyde, his sisters become inconsolable wrecks, and eventually, he has to learn to let go of his anger and move back in with them.
- The Loud Awakening: Played for Horror. The fic starts at the end of "No Such Luck", where Lincoln has run away from home after being banished to the backyard (despite the fact that his family has come to their senses by then and are extremely worried). This leads to him getting kidnapped by mercenaries hired by the Big Bad, who has sinister plans for the Loud siblings.
- Peeking Through the Fourth Wall: In Episode 5, the siblings MST a fanfic where Lincoln runs away because his sisters were mean to him. His real sisters warn him that he should never run away, since that creates more problems than it solves.
- Nymph and the Corrupted Miraculous: A rare version of a villain saying this to another villain. After Xue Ying, Lila, and Sabrina are finally defeated by Belle Aube, Lady Nymph, and Chat Noir (having their Miraculouses confiscated in the process), Xue Ying escapes while Lila and Sabrina are taken into custody. Pending an investigation (seeing as how mind control may or may not have been involved), the girls are placed under house arrest. While Sabrina knows that she did something wrong and is horrified, Lila is milking the "mind control" excuse for all that it's worth, trying to manipulate her mother into moving them out of France so she can start over someplace else. When Xue Ying comes to the Rossi home, however, she sets Lila straight: there is no starting over. She was a willing supervillainess, something that is bound to come out one way or another. No matter where she goes, it will follow her forever. As a final nail in the coffin, Xue Ying takes back the bracelet Lila stole from her, tells her she doesn't need her anymore, and runs off into the night. Lila's left sobbing with the fact that she can't escape the consequences. While never outright stated, it's implied that Belle Aube's statement to the police was enough to get Lila convicted of supervillainy and expedited back to Italy.
- Shards of a Memory: When he was a kid, Donatello got very curious about how Master Shard's record player worked, and took it apart. When he tried to put it back together, he couldn't figure it out. Fearing Shard's anger, Donnie ran away and hid in the sewers. When Shard finally found him, she admitted that while she is upset about the record player, she was far more worried about Donnie's safety. Upon taking him home and letting him calm down, they then work to try and put the record player back together.
- The Sun Will Come Up, and the Seasons Will Change: Much like the main characters in the canon series, the fic's main character learns this lesson. Mary is an autistic girl whose mother, Dana, is an ableist and has been trying to "cure" Mary for years. Mary later discovers that her mother runs an Autism Warrior Parent blog where she essentially blames Mary for everything wrong in her family's life, and admits she plans to have Mary sterilized when she turns eighteen. Finding the blog and becoming convinced her family doesn't love her, Mary packs her backpack and runs away. She's picked up by the Infinity Train shortly after, where she makes friends and slowly learns that by running away, all she's really done is worry her friends and the family members who do love and support her unconditionally (who are currently giving Dana one callout after another for her behavior towards Mary).
- Ultrasonic: After the death of Adrien/Chat Noir, Marinette (now an anthropomorphic white cat) ends up in Zootopia. She's found by the ZPD, who (due to her being a teenager with no legal records) is put into the foster system. She ends up constantly running away from her foster parents to the spot where she appeared in Zootopia, grasping for some way to try and get back to the world she knows. Officer Nick Wilde and Tikki keep telling her that this is pointless and she'd be better off trying to adjust to her new life. She eventually accepts this when she, as Ladybug, is able to save Zootopia from Butterfly (who also wound up trapped in Zootopia), ends up Happily Adopted by Clawhauser, and finally starts living her life again.
Film — Animated
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): Jasmine runs away from the palace because she thinks her father is overbearing in his insistence that she get married. She has no idea what she is running towards, though, and she quickly finds out the hard way that life on the streets of Agrabah is extremely dangerous. As Aladdin tells her later, "You do kind of stand out... You don't seem to know how dangerous Agrabah can be." She ends up going back to the palace after less than a day.
- All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: David runs away from home because he thinks his father and stepmother will care more about his soon-to-be-born sibling than they will about him. He ends up involved in danger as a result of Charlie and Itchy's attempt to retrieve the horn of Gabriel but survives and returns home, where he is assured that him having a new sibling won't mean his father and stepmother will love him any less.
- Frozen (2013): Elsa is taught by her parents to suppress her ice powers and to fear people's reactions if they learn about them. During her coronation, however, she and her sister Anna have an argument because the latter doesn't understand why Elsa has become a shut-in; exasperated, Elsa lashes out and creates ice spikes, revealing her powers for the world. Worse, the Duke of Weselton accuses her of witchcraft, confirming her parents' fears. Out of shame and fear, Elsa runs to the north mountain; having nothing else to lose, she feels finally free to be herself and builds an ice castle to live in. But as it turns out, running is not the solution: Anna comes after her, causing Elsa to hurt her accidentally, and afterwards, Hans sends guards to capture Elsa with the purpose of killing her to usurp the throne, and also to extinguish the snowstorm she unconsciously created. It's only when Anna stops Hans from killing Elsa and the two sisters reconcile that Elsa realizes that love is the key; with that, she stops the storm, and people of Arendelle accept her as she is.
- Home: Oh brags a few times that "Boov are best at running away", with several Boov (especially Smek) bragging about how good they are at running from danger. He explains to Tip that the Boov have been running from their enemy, the Gorg, for years. Every time they find a new planet to live on, he comes and tries to destroy them. Rather than try and make peace with the Gorg or even fight him, they instead choose to abandon whatever world they took over and flee (leaving said world to be destroyed). Oh learning this lesson (and discovering why the Gorg was after them in the first place) is what leads to him becoming the new leader of the Boov).
- Inside Out: Riley has been miserable in San Francisco, partly due to Moving Angst and partly because Joy and Sadness have gotten lost. To remedy this, Anger puts an Idea Bulb in her mind console so that she can steal her mother's credit card and take a bus back to Minnesota. Joy and Sadness manage to get back just in time and convince her to back out of leaving home.
- The Lion King (1994): Simba feels responsible for Mufasa's death and, at Scar's instruction, runs away from the Pridelands. Rafiki tells him that running away from his problems won't solve anything and that he needs to learn from his past instead.
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): Rudolph and Hermie have both experienced teasing at the North Pole: the former for his red, shiny nose, the latter due to his being more interested in dentistry than making toys. They decide to be misfits together, and (upon meeting Yukon Cornelius) decide to go off and find a place where they belong. Upon realizing that his nose attracts the Bumble, however, Rudolph goes off on his own so he won't put his friends in danger. After a long while, he realizes that running away didn't actually solve his problems, and he returns to the North Pole. After the two of them save Clarice, Donner, and Rudolph's mother from the monster, Rudolph and Hermie are given new respect (and a few apologies) by the denizens of the North Pole.
Film — Live-Action
- 10 Cloverfield Lane: At the beginning of the movie, Michelle (the protagonist) is shown to be someone who runs away from problems rather than dealing with them — she's simply ditching her fiancé rather than dealing with whatever problems her relationship had, when she gets into the car wreck that leads to her being imprisoned in Howard's bunker. After overcoming Howard and escaping from his bunker she discovers that, however unstable and dangerous Howard may have been, the alien invasion is real, and Michelle has to fight for her life again to defeat an alien ship. As she finally drives away, she hears a radio broadcast: humans are making a stand against the invaders in Houston. Instead of fleeing towards the comparative safety of Baton Rouge, she turns towards Houston to join the fight.
- Air Buddies (2006): When the owners of the titular puppies decide to give them away to some other kids after they've proven themselves to be problematic, the Buddies decide to sneak out of their home and run away out of fear of being separated. This sets off a chain of events that lead to their parents being kidnapped by a pair of dog-nappers and going on a whole journey to rescue them. By the end, the Buddies have come to terms with the fact that they should face their consequences/fears instead of running away.
- Several members of the Guardians of the Galaxy follow this trope throughout the MCU trilogy —
- Peter Quill was running away basically all his life. After his abduction, he essentially uses his adventures, image as a space crusader, and music to numb the pain of losing his mother or any other loved ones. He chooses to fly across the galaxy instead of visiting his real home to avoid the pain of confronting his trauma. Heck, he didn't even visit his living grandfather for at least moment when he ended up back on Earth by the end of Avengers: Endgame. By the trilogy's conclusion, he finally does return to Earth to start reconnecting with the family he left behind instead of becoming attached to the family he made.
- Rocket's origins, revealed in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, show how the cybernetically-enhanced raccoon ran away from his Dark and Troubled Past. After his friends were slaughtered by the High Evolutionary and his guards, he set off into the universe on his own, becoming cold and cynical about the idea of intimacy or camaraderie. Not only does he ignore any mention of Orgo Corp or the High Evolutionary's enterprises, but also the warmth of his brief friendships in Batch 89. He finally confronts his past when he sees future cadavers for the High Evolutionary's experiments, realizing his gifts could be used to give others the chance he didn't have rather than shunning his trauma.
- Mad Max: Fury Road: After rescuing Immortan Joe's wives, Furiosa seeks to take them all to the Green Place she grew up in, but finds that tragically it's been swallowed by the desert all around them. The heroes then start to make plans to cross the dried up sea in hopes of finding better land, but Max urges them against this, saying they'll never find anything before their supplies run out. Resolving to fix what they have rather than run away forever, the heroes choose to head back to the Citadel they fled from to take advantage of Immortan's forces having left and thus claim it for themselves.
- In Mermaids (1990), Charlotte is tired of her family having to pack up their belongings and relocating to a new state every time her promiscuous mother Rachel gets her heart broken. Rachel refuses to listen and insists that she doesn't "run away, she moves on" but Charlotte isn't having any of it. The mother-daughter pair being at odds with each other over this trope culminates in a big argument where Rachel wants to pack up and move again this time to avoid the gossipy humiliation about Charlotte losing her virginity in her statutory romance with the older Joe. Charlotte begs her mother to let them stay in one place for at least a year but it takes a while for Rachel to adjust.
- Mystery Men: After Captain Amazing is accidentally killed, the heroes consider running away before the Shoveler gives them a Rousing Speech telling them that they're the only ones who can stop Casanova Frankenstein's diabolical plans.
- Parenthood: After Tod is injured in a drag racing incident, his wife Julie can't handle the pressure and tries to run (it doesn't help that they're both teenagers who got married very impulsively), only for her mother Helen to stop her in her tracks and tell her that she has to stay. It's implied that Helen's own experience with this trope—her husband ran out on her and refuses to take any responsibility for their children—has made it something of a Berserk Button for her.
Julie: I can't! This is too intense! I—
Helen: This is marriage! - Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit: At the music competition, the student choir loses all hope when another school's choir sings the same song they were planning to sing. Dejected, they head back to the dressing room and get ready to leave, until Deloris finds them.
Maria: They sang our number, better.
Rita: We're going home.
Deloris: So because you think they sang it better, y'all are ready to leave 'cause you got scared.
Students: [murmuring various responses of agreement and denial]
Deloris: Oh, yeah. No, that's your M.O. See, that's how you all operate. "Ooh, somethin' new. Better run away." Forget about all the people who busted their butt to get you here 'cause they believed in ya. I'm gonna remind you of something, okay? If you wanna go somewhere, and you wanna be somebody, you better wake up and pay attention. Because if every time something scary comes up, you decide to run, y'all are gonna be running for the rest of your lives. - Song of the South: Johnny first encounters Uncle Remus when attempting to run away from the plantation. Taking the boy into his cabin, Uncle Remus gets him to change his mind by telling him a story of when Br'er Rabbit attempted to leave his troubles behind, only to hop right into new trouble when he gets trapped by Br'er Fox.
Uncle Remus: So Br'er Rabbit took his foot in his hand and put out for home, where he belonged. And jus' like I told him in the first place: you can't run away from trouble, and there ain't no place that far.
- Star Wars:
- In The Force Awakens, the ex-stormtrooper Finn seeks to get as far away from the First Order as he can, despite his companions urging him to help them fight in the Resistance. But ignoring them and trying to flee anyway leads to his friend Rey being captured, and Finn helps organize a rescue to save her. In The Last Jedi, he attempts to run away again, this time in hopes of saving Rey's life from what he views as a doomed last stand. But getting a closer look at the injustices across the galaxy caused by the First Order, as well as being confronted with the scummy traitor DJ who claims to share Finn's lack of loyalty to a cause, leads to Finn growing into a genuine Rebel.
- Then in The Last Jedi Luke reveals to Rey that after his failure to train his nephew and the massacre of his other Jedi students led him to come to Ahch-To to live out his life and that when he died the Jedi would die with him. After training Rey and a conversation with Yoda's Force ghost helps him come to realize that he had been mistaken to run away, and that failure was the best teacher of all. Luke then uses the Force to confront his nephew on Crait.
- In The Rise of Skywalker Rey then decides to run away from it all when she learns that she's Palpatine's granddaughter, and go into exile on Ahch-To. Luke tells her that he had been mistaken to run away and that Palpatine had to be confronted.
- In Top Gun, Maverick disengages during the climatic dogfight, leaving his squadron to fight the enemy jets alone. After a brief Heroic BSoD (and coaxing from the others), he confidently re-engages and turns the tide of the battle.
- Tremors 1: Val and Earl bicker constantly about what plans to make. At one point, Val suggests running away from the underground monsters they have encountered. Earl points out that Val never thinks ahead.
Earl: Running's not a plan. Running's what you do when your plan fails.
- In The Wizard of Oz (1939): When Dorothy tries to run away with her dog Toto because Miss Gulch threatened to have him put down for being a Troublesome Pet, she meets a fortune teller named Professor Marvel. He teaches her that she's too important to run away, but not in so many words; he claims that he sees a vision of Auntie Em with a heart disease. Thus, Dorothy runs home, and when she's in Oz, she worries that Em is dying.
Literature
- Adrian Mole: In Growing Pains, the teenage Adrian feels neglected and unloved by his parents, and runs away from home. He is away for several days, finds that sleeping rough is harder than he thought, and when he returns, his mother and grandmother are very haggard, and say "a great many things". Adrian pleads for mercy and goes to bed, where he stays in a very depressive state for a week, ignoring all efforts to stimulate him. A consultant psychologist eventually persuades him that his parents do love him, and that they did not sleep while he was away.
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Throughout the book (as Alexander has his titular bad day), he swears that he'll run away to Australia. However, at the end, his mother reveals to him that everyone has bad days now and then: even in Australia.
- The Book Thief: The novel starts when Liesel, her biological mother, and her baby brother are going to Molching so Liesel and her brother can go to their new foster parents (although the boy dies en route). Death notes during this part that many of their fellow travelers are the other poor people of Germany. Many of them are relocating in the hopes of escaping their poverty by finding new opportunities in new places. He notes that this "escape" is hardly effective: most of the time, they just end up running into the same problems they faced in their last home.
- Family Tree Series: In Home Is The Place, sixteen-year-old Georgie finally has it with her mother Francie's smothering, overparanoid parenting style after being forbidden to perform with a band merely because it's an overnight trip with seniors. So she runs away from Maine to her grandmother Dana's house in New York City, saying she wants to live with her and not go home. Not only does Dana not let Georgie stay, she immediately calls Francie—who is Dana's daughter—as well as her own mother Abby, insisting that they all meet up in Maine. She then makes all four generations sit down and talk their problems out—because she sees Georgie going down the same path with Francie that Dana herself went down with Abby that led to their long estrangement.
- Frances the Badger: In A Baby Sister for Frances, Frances grows extremely jealous of her baby sister hogging all of her parents' attention. Thus, she announces her plan to run away. Since she's only running away to the kitchen (specifically under the kitchen table), her parents don't make that big of a deal. They do, however, start talking about how much they miss Frances, and how the baby will miss having her for a sister. Their talking gets Frances to cave, and she decides running away wasn't worth the trouble.
- Fudge: In the second book, running away comes up three times. The first time is when Peter hears that his mother is pregnant again, and he worries the baby will be a carbon copy of Fudge. He's about to run away, but he realizes rather quickly that the baby will come whether he likes it or not (though thankfully, Tootsie is her own person and Peter gets used to her relatively quickly). The second time is when his parents reveal that the family's going to spend a year living in Princeton. His mother tells him that he can't simply decide to run away whenever something that he doesn't like happens, which he ends up unhappily accepting. The third time is when Fudge, angry that Peter wouldn't let him come on a picnic with him and his friend Alex, actually runs away with his friend Daniel. They don't go far (they just ride their bicycles to a deli and bakery downtown), but they do it to prove to their parents that they're old enough to do things big kids do. This backfires because it actually shows their parents that they aren't mature enough to be trusted with their bicycles, and thus they have them taken away for a month.
- To Kill a Mockingbird: After her Aunt Alexandra moves in and starts trying to pressure Scout into acting more ladylike, Scout feels she has no one left on her side and contemplates running away. However, the very night she starts planning her escape, the family discovers that Dill, a boy who often visits in the summer, had run away from home and made his way to the Finch house. As Dill explains to Scout, his mother and stepfather don't like spending time with him, and he ran away to another place he felt safe (which happened to be Maycomb). He also tells Scout that running away doesn't actually solve anything: while he got what he wanted, running away was a lot more trouble than it was worth. He then tells Scout she's lucky to have people who worry about her.
- Ralph S. Mouse: In the second book, Ralph (who has taken to living in the hotel lobby so he has more space to ride his motorcycle) feels smothered by his family when his mother insists he let his numerous siblings and cousins stay with him and give them rides on his motorcycle now and then. Thus, he decides to ride his motorcycle down the highway and see if he can find a place for himself. After making his way to a summer camp, Ralph is nearly eaten by a cat (twice), captured by campers, made a pet, and goes through a few more harrowing encounters, Ralph realizes he put himself in so much danger out of selfishness, and that he's better off living safely in the hotel with his family.
- In the Cynthia Kadohata YA novel Outside Beauty, the main character Shelby's mother, Helen, is a prostitute who has a habit of regularly taking her four daughters (Marilyn, Shelby, Lakey, and Maddie) and running away to old boyfriends to get away from her customers. The catalyst for the novel is when she tries this to get away from Maddie's, father, as he's trying to gain custody of her. When Helen is severely injured in a car accident, the girls are all sent to live with their fathers for a while. Maddie (who's father is an abusive Control Freak and trying to manipulate the situation so that he ends up with custody of Maddie) ends up the worst off. When Helen's health worsens, her daughters opt to do what their mother would and run away to Lakey's father's summer house so they won't be separated again. In the process, though, Shelby realizes that running away has never actually solved any of her mother's problems: new aggressive men replaced the old ones, and the biggest problems just followed her. When the police come for the girls and Marilyn suggests they run again, Shelby stands her ground and says its time they actually dealt with their problems.
- The Outsiders: The story starts when Ponyboy (having fallen asleep at the movies) comes home at two in the morning, which enrages his older brother Darry to the point that he slaps him. Feeling betrayed and angry, Ponyboy runs away from home. He's joined by Johnny, another young greaser with a troubled home life, and the two decide to run away together. However, things go From Bad to Worse when a Soc jumps the two and Johnny kills him in self-defense. Dally, a mutual friend, tells them that they have to run from the law, and helps them get out of the city. After spending several days hiding in an abandoned church just outside of town, Dally comes to check on them and reveals that the death of a Soc has turned the city into a ticking time bomb. Knowing things won't get better if he doesn't admit what he did, Johnny decides to go home (which also convinces Ponyboy to go back to his brothers).
- Lampshaded and played with in Paladin of Souls; Ista recalls the old childhood lesson "You can’t solve problems by running away from them" and concludes that some problems can only be solved by running away. The complication is that her problem is one to be solved by physically running away, but also by metaphorically ending her flight from the gods fueled by her Rage Against the Heavens.
- Ramona Quimby: In "Ramona and Her Mother", Ramona is sick of being the Butt-Monkey (having spent most of the book believing her mother sees her as more of a burden than the reliable Beezus) and decides to run away. Her mother tricks her into making her suitcase too heavy, then admits that she did so because she can't bear to live without Ramona.
Live-Action TV
- Full House: The series has covered this topic on two occasions.
- In "Honey I Broke the House", Stephanie plays around in Joey's prized car and ends up driving it into the kitchen. Terrified of getting in trouble, Stephanie packs a bag and decides to run to Mexico. She stops by Becky's apartment on the way, intending to say goodbye. Becky tries to talk Stephanie out of it, and fortunately is able to keep her in the apartment until Jesse drops by. The two adults tell Stephanie that while they are (understandably) upset about the car ending up in the kitchen, she's more irreplaceable than either and they wouldn't want her to disappear.
- In "The Devil Made Me Do It", Michelle plays with some of Jesse's sound mixing equipment after he told her not to. When he finds her messing with his stuff and tells Danny, Danny grounds her. Upset, Michelle decides to run away to "teach Uncle Tattletale a lesson" and goes to her friend Teddy's house. Teddy's parents call Danny, who goes with Jesse to Teddy's home. They trick Michelle into thinking they're okay with her not coming home, and then tell her that living in their house means following their rules, even if she doesn't like them. She agrees, and doesn't run away again.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Will's Disappeared Dad Lou walked out on him and his mother when Will was a little boy. When he comes back in "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse," he tries to bond with his son, who's ecstatic at the prospect of finally getting to know his father...only for Lou to once again get overwhelmed by the sense of responsibility and agree to take a job rather than keep his promises to Will. Uncle Phil goes full Papa Wolf on Lou, furiously telling him that running away from his problems will never solve them, which Lou refuses to accept.
- The Golden Girls: In "Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding," Dorothy is forced to invite her ex-husband Stan to their daughter Kate's wedding because Kate has always dreamed of her father walking her down the aisle. When Dorothy and Stan finally get a moment alone together, she absolutely tears into him—not just for divorcing her, but for running out after thirty-eight years of marriage and not even having the decency to tell her the news to her face (he had his lawyer call her instead).
- Kamen Rider Fourze: JK attempts to use Gentaro as a Human Shield to avoid the Monoceros Zodiarts (who was a former "friend" JK also used as a similar shield in the past), but only ends up being captured and forced to call his friends in a desperate attempt to not die...and no one replies. It's only when Gentaro decides to befriend JK despite nearly being killed does JK decide to no longer run away and then become a member of the Kamen Rider Club.
- The Muppet Show: In the Crystal Gayle episode, the show's version of "River Road" has Crystal "running away down River Road". An elderly homeless Muppet tells her during the interlude that she ran away when she was "her age" and is still running even as an old woman, resulting in Crystal returning home and swearing to never run away again.
Old Woman: You look like you're running away.
Crystal: Sure am.
Old Woman: Yeah. I ran away, in 1924.
Crystal: What happened?
Old Woman: Eh, I'm still running. I sleep on the hard ground every night. Haven't changed my socks since World War II. Last night, for dinner, I ate a fence post.
[Crystal turns around and starts back for home.] - Red Dwarf:
- When Starbug is accosted by a group of simulants, they deem the vessel and its crew as unworthy prey. After the ship is given a series of upgrades, the simulants declare that they will attack in two minutes. Rimmer (as usual) insists that they run for their lives, but Cat suggests that this is exactly what the simulants expect. Instead, he recommends attacking the much larger vessel. He is astonished when his crewmates agree with him and even more surprised when the assault is successful in disabling the simulant ship.
- Lister gives a slightly more practical reason for not running from your problems. When Starbug becomes locked on course to crash into a nearby moon, Rimmer's profound self-preservation instincts kick in. He insists that he is the most senior and valuable member of the crew and demands the keys to the one-man escape pod.
Lister: Rimmer, the escape pod is not an option.Rimmer: Why not?Lister: It escaped last Thursday. I was having a few beers, I couldn't be bothered moving, so I used the release mechanism as a bottle opener. - Torchwood: Unable to deal with his guilt over killing his own grandson - -and believing himself responsible for the deaths of his boyfriend Ianto and his team members at Torchwood — Jack decides to run from Earth and the responsibilities and remaining friends he still had there. It is shown that doing so strains his relationship with Gwen, who learns that she isn't enough for him to stay around and is left wondering if she will ever see him again. When she later asks him if it worked, Jack doesn't respond, indicating that his efforts didn't make him feel any better. Tragically, Jack doesn't really learn his lesson, alternating between staying on Earth and disappearing to parts unknown.
Platforms
- GoAnimate: In "Adultish Toddler Timmy Wants to Move Out
", a boy named Timmy is so frustrated with his baby brother Jeffrey (partly because of jealousy and partly because of his hatred for anything babyish) that he decides to move in with his aunt. She tells him that he should move back because his mother and stepfather miss him, they don't love him any less, and the babyish things surrounding Jeffrey are only because he is a baby.
- In this YouTube video, a young boy decides to run away from home with his best friends (who are all dressed as hobbits). While they have fun at first, when it gets dark they all decide it's too scary outside and run home.
Theatre
- Into the Woods: After his wife's death and the collapse of the Kingdom by an angry giantess, the Baker tries to abandon his newborn son and the three others he'd been trying to help out of shame and a feeling he's not good enough. He's stopped by the ghost of his own father, who'd abandoned him for similar reasons, who convinces him not to repeat the same mistake.
Running away, get to it.
Where did you have in mind?
You have to take care, unless there's a where,
You'll only be wandering blind.
Just more questions, different kind. - Newsies: When Jack and his friends' first attempt at striking ends with many of them getting hurt and Crutchie getting arrested, Jack contemplates running away to Santa Fe, a city he's always dreamed of going to (shown through the "I Want" Song "Santa Fe"). However, the climax has him realize that running away would mean abandoning the friends he's looked out for and relied on throughout his life, and he decides it isn't worth it.
Video Games
- The entire plot of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 happens because the Dessendre family can’t process their grief over losing Verso and retreat into themselves, either getting lost in the Canvas or throwing themselves fully into their war with the Writers. One of the endings has them finally begin to reconcile and face their feelings, albeit at the cost of the Canvas and everyone in it.
- In Devil Survivor, attempting to flee the lockdown before actually resolving the demon crisis inevitably ends in disaster.
- If you do so along with Honda on Day 6, the final option is triggered, killing everyone in the lockdown. Angels declare humanity has failed the ordeal and strip them of free will. This leads to a Non-Standard Game Over.
- If you do so along with Yuzu on Day 7, demons are unleashed on the world, the angels abandon humanity outright, and you are forced to spend the rest of your lives cleaning up your mess. Metatron sends you a final email berating you for running away. This is considered a legitimate ending required for 100% Completion.
- Flower Knight Girl: The "From Clan Faba With Love" story event focuses on Chickpea and her desire to get away from the sword-trading company Clan Faba. She initially left to become a Flower Knight just to get away from her overly doting babysitters/bodyguards, Bean and Pea, but following the sudden death of her father, which necessitated a successor — i.e., her — to take their place as leader, Chickpea proceeds to flee to multiple knight companies across Spring Garden in a fear-driven attempt to not have her freedom compromised, eventually settling in Blossom Hill's knight company. But with the growing amount of issues that follow Clan Faba dawning on Chickpea — the trading routes being destroyed by pests, and losing their market share to a competitor which is making better quality weapons — she comes to realize that the clan needs proper leadership to pull them through these trying times, and with Bean and Pea competing for the role with Chickpea's absence, she decides to willingly return to own the leadership role.
- FRLG.IPS: On the Abyss route, Nightmare in Lavender Tower is trying to break through into reality. The only way to advance the plot is to run, dooming the world and killing Bluenote . The Sailor calls the player out on this, saying they took shortcuts everywhere and ran away the moment they found something they couldn't instakill.
- This is a Central Theme of Hades. Zagreus is trying to escape out of the underworld because he wants to run away from his father and duties, despite how it gets the Olympians involved. Hades himself is running away from the fact that his own son has his own wants and needs, and does everything to stop Zagreus from escaping. And Persephone initially runs away from the fact her husband needs her as part of his life, afraid of how it will change hers. It’s only during the ending and post-game that these problems born of bad communication and fear are resolved, when everyone opening confronts their own issues and ensure the Olympians can continue to support them through telling the truth, at least about some things.
- Late in Suikoden II, the player can have the hero Riou go on the run from his own army, after getting convinced by his sister Nanami that it is too much responsibility for someone as young as him. They are chased by their allies, and when caught, Riou's Number Two Shu calls them out for their brash decision, saying that the Alliance leader turning tail at such a critical moment (when the army is fighting a horde of undead) is a reckless thing to do. To rub salt in the wound, Shu also reveals that their actions led to the death of one of the army's decorated officers Ridley. Players can choose to go back to the main story at this point, or have Riou and Nanami still continue going on the lam, leading to a Non-Standard Game Over kind of ending.
- Wild ARMs 1: This message is delivered to both its male protagonists.
- Jack pursues the Absolute Power so he can have revenge against the demons but in reality he's really running away from the fact he failed to protect his kingdom, his friends and the woman he loved from the demons when they attacked Arctica. When it's revealed said love interest was transformed into a demon, and is being forced to commit atrocities against her will, Jack realizes he cannot run away from his past anymore. He returns to Arctica to do battle with Lady Harken because it is the only way to protect Elmina and free her from the demons' grip.
- Rudy gets this lesson from Cecilia when she enters his Angst Coma dream after removed his left arm to escape from Zeikfried, and discovered he's made of the same metal as the demons. In his dream, he's confronted by Zeikfried in the middle of a burning town, and flees the scene. Cecilia states he's actually running from (how he perceives) himself, and urges him to face it, as running won't fix anything.
- Yakuza Kiwami: Soon after Kiryu went to jail for Nishikiyama's murder of Dojima following his attempt to kidnap and rape Yumi, she wholly disappeared from Kiryu's life. While this was initially because of her amnesia caused by her trauma, she stayed away from him due to being unable to confess her feelings for him, even interacting with him as "Mizuki". By the time she confessed her feelings for him, she was dying due to Taking the Bullet for him and Haruka; her final words to her daughter are her telling her to never run away.
Visual Novels
- Our Life: Beginnings & Always: The "Runaway" event depicts the 8-year-old Cove's attempt to reunite with his recently-divorced mother, assuming he can simply walk from his father's house in a coastal California town to Las Vegas with nothing but some supplies in a backpack. If the MC decides to go along with him, they can either go along willingly or try to convince him to turn back; either way, Cove realizes his mistake at the town line, uses it as an opportunity to finally vent his negative emotions about his life situation, and walks back in tears before the pair's parents discover them. Cove's dad feels so guilty that he doesn't punish him.
Websites
- Kids Health: The article on running away warns kids not to do so — it leads to risks like being homeless and penniless, turning to crime, alcohol or drugs, depression, or even becoming a prostitute. It also gives advice on ways to deal with stress that don't involve running away.
Western Animation
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In the Sonic Says skit for "Tails' New Home", Coconuts considers leaving Robotnik because the latter always abuses him, but Sonic talks him out of it on the grounds that it'll be too dangerous, like the fact that he might not have spare batteries.
- Adventure Time: Played with. One of the major antagonists, Martin Mertens, who is Finn the Human's birth father, continuously avoids his son whenever possible, only interacting with him whenever he finds it necessary. It eventually comes to a head in their last meeting in "The Comet", where Martin tells Finn that no answer he'll give him would be worth satisfying and that the only direction to move is forward after burning enough bridges. The Islands mini-series eventually reveals that Martin left the infant Finn behind by accident in an attempt to protect him, and his memories are likely jumbled up after a head injury. So it's safe to say that Martin refusing to reconcile with Finn and his birth mother, Minvera Campbell, can be seen as him believing that they're better off without him.
- Arthur: In "D.W.'s Baby", it's revealed through a Whole Episode Flashback that when Kate was a newborn, D.W. was jealous of her, at one point trying to run away and live with Grandma Thora. She tells D.W. that she shouldn't run away, as Kate needs her big sister.
- Archer: In Out Of Network, Archer is about to leave with his therapist Dr. Lacania so he can finally live a proper life and not deal with the stress of being a spy any longer. However, Lana convinces Archer to stay, telling him that running away is not the answer and will continue to haunt him.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: When Aang was still living in the Air Temples (shortly after learning he was the Avatar), he noticed that everything he knew was changing (his friends treated him differently, the monks became much stricter, etc). The only thing that didn't change was his relationship with his mentor and father figure, Monk Gyatso. But when he learned that the monks were going to send Aang to another Air Temple to continue his training (separating him from Gyatso), Aang instead chose to run away. This made everything worse: Aang and Appa wound up frozen in ice for a century while the war began, with the first victims being the Air Nomads. Upon waking up and learning this, Aang is filled with Survivor Guilt, wondering if he could've stopped the massacre had he been there. Arguably, it's a deconstruction of this trope, as Aang had not learned any bending besides airbending at that point (he was, after all, only 12 and most avatars didn't even begin avatar training until they reached 16) and there was no indication beyond his own thoughts that his presence would have changed anything beyond allowing the Fire Nation to kill him along with the rest of the monks.
- BoJack Horseman: In "Escape From LA", Bojack abandons his life in L.A. due to numerous problems in his life, and goes to the home of his crush, Charlotte. He moves in with her, thinking that L.A. is the problem due to a quote she said long ago where she described L.A. as a tar pit. However, Bojack's toxic behavior still resurfaces, and when talking with Charlotte again, she revises her quote where she believes that it's the person themselves that are the tar pit.
- The Dragon Prince: Ezran, when he first learns that the King's life is in danger, runs away and hides in the castle (which ends up protecting him as the Moonshadow assassins were also coming to kill the king's son. Later, when he learns that his father was killed in the attack, Ezran runs and hides in the forest rather than facing the truth. However, after a talk with Claudia about their shared fears of things changing, he understands that he can't hide from his new responsibilities. Thus, he spends the first half of season three back in Katolis, learning how to be the new king.
- Ewoks: In one episode, Wicket, a tween Ewok, runs away because he's sick of being told to do chores by his parents. He changes his mind, however, when he meets an alien named Larry who also ran away as a kid and is now very lonely due to his family forgetting about him.
- Infinity Train: One of the show's main themes is that running away doesn't solve ones problems: all it does is keep you from growing as a person. The train tries to help each passenger by having them slowly work through their problems, allowing them to leave when their number goes to zero. The characters' reasons for running away all vary, ranging from doing something that was genuinely an accident to grieving the loss of a loved one.
- The Jetsons: In "Elroy’s Mob", Elroy gets yelled at by his parents when his report card comes in and it appears he failed everything, and send him to his room when he tells them he didn't fail. A minute later, they get a call from the parent of another child at Elroy's school, revealing that Elroy was telling the truth: he actually got all A’s, and a jealous student swapped their report cards without him knowing. The Jetsons are horrified that they didn't believe their son, and run to apologize... only to find that Elroy ran away from home (and took the family dog, Astro, with him). Not long after running, Elroy quickly realizes that he misses his family and isn't sure what to do next. He would've gone straight home... if not for his getting abducted by criminals.
- Miraculous Ladybug: In "Daddycop", Sabrina contemplates running away from Paris after her ex-"bestie", Chloé, puts her on blast on social media. Zoé advises her against this, saying that it won't solve the problem because Sabrina will just be lonely somewhere else. The Stinger reveals that Zoé herself fled New York City in the hopes of getting away from her own Dark and Troubled Past, but her bully transferred to the same school and is now blackmailing her.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In "Rainbow Falls", Rainbow Dash's loyalty is put to the test when she has to choose between flying with her heroes The Wonderbolts and her much less talented friends in the qualification round for The Equestria Games. Unable to choose, Rainbow Dash fakes an injury and tells everypony that she can't fly at all. After some reflecting, Rainbow Dash comes clean with charade and chooses to fly with her Ponyville friends out of loyalty for her hometown.
Twilight Sparkle: You know, choosing not to choose, isn't really a decision.- In the "To Where and Back Again" two-parter, Starlight Glimmer receives an invitation to a festival her old town is throwing. Due to her Heel–Face Turn and Character Development, Starlight now knows that what she did to the town and its people was wrong. Thus, she debates going back there as she doubts any of her victims will want to forgive her, and wants to simply stay in Ponyville. Due to some help from Princess Luna, though, Starlight realizes that she'll never know if her old friends forgive her unless she goes and actually talks to them. At the end of the two-parter, she finally goes to see her old town. To her surprise and relief, they have come to forgive her, and welcome her to their festival.
- The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In "Home Is Where the Home Is", Christopher Robin accidentally breaks a bust that his mother warned him to be careful with. Fearing the consequences, he tries to run away to who-knows-where, but Eeyore is soon able to convince him that running would not fix any of it and that he should go back and accept what's coming to him.
Christopher Robin: I can't believe we're in this terrible mess just because I broke some dumb statue.
Eeyore: Yep, it was a mistake, all right. Everybody makes 'em. Made a few of my own. But there's no runnin' away from 'em. - The Owl House: At first, this trope gets Deconstructed because after Luz runs away from Earth and decides to stay on the Boiling Isles, her life quickly gets a lot better. She goes from being an awkward friendless oddball to being popular and accepted and having a wide circle of friends. She even gets to fulfill her lifelong dream of learning to be a witch. And then the trope gets Reconstructed because Luz eventually learns that she only traded one set of problems for another, while also giving up all the good things she had back on Earth such as her relationship with her mother. In the end, she realizes that all she really wanted was acceptance from both her mother and her peers. Once she gets that acceptance, she finds she wants to go home again.
- The Real Ghostbusters: In "The Man Who Never Reached Home", a man named Simon Quegg disappeared in the year 1887 while being chased by a ghostly horseman called the Dark Rider, and his ghost is still being chased by the Dark Rider in the present. When the Ghostbusters meet Simon, Ray convinces him that he can’t keep running forever and he must face the Rider. Simon facing the Rider causes the Rider to vanish, and Simon can finally move on to the afterlife.
- Rick and Morty: This trope is one of the series' central themes:
- The series slowly reveals that Rick, throughout his life, has abandoned entire dimensions whenever he felt things got too hard in them (or he gets drunk/high to pretend his problems don't exist). Ultimately, the audience learns that Rick started doing this when his original wife and daughter were killed by an alternate version of himself, which led to him becoming the portal-jumping Mad Scientist he is today. As the series goes on and he receives more Character Development, Rick starts trying to actually fix problems instead of ignoring them, something that slowly turns him into a better father, father-in-law, and grandfather.
- Morty, unlike his grandfather, learns this lesson relatively early in the series. In "Rixty Minutes", Summer learns via Jerry running his mouth that she was an unwanted pregnancy. Believing that her parents' marriage is so toxic simply because she exists, Summer plans to run away. Morty reveals to her that he's actually from a parallel dimension, and is able to tell her that simply running from every harsh truth won't change things.
Morty: On one of our adventures, Rick and I basically destroyed the whole world, so we bailed on that reality and we came to this one, because in this one, the world wasn't destroyed and in this one, we were dead. So we came here, a-a-and we buried ourselves and we took their place. And every morning, Summer, I eat breakfast twenty yards away from my own rotting corpse.
Summer: So... You're not my brother?
Morty: I'm better than your brother. I'm a version of your brother you can trust when he says "Don't run." Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV?
- South Park: Cartman's behavior is so bad that he scares off TV nannies, so as a last resort, his mother reaches out to the Dog Whisperer himself, Cesar Milan. Cesar's tactics enrage Cartman so much he runs away, but Cesar assures Liane that he'll be back. At first, Cartman tries staying with Stan, Kyle, Kenny, or Butters, but they all turn him down, as do Jimmy and Craig later on. Cartman is forced to sleep by a dumpster in the rain before he gives up and goes home.
- Steven Universe:
- The episode "On the Run" shows Steven obsessing over a book series called "The No-Home Boys" (an Expy of The Boxcar Children books). When the latest Gem mission strikes a nerve with Amethyst, she convinces Steven to go on the run with her (as she doesn't want to think about the latest mission). She ends up taking him to the Kindergarten where she was formed, and (when Pearl shows up) reveals why she hates thinking about her past. After she and Pearl have a talk (as Pearl never realized that Amethyst was so ashamed of where she came from), Amethyst and Steven return home.
- Pink Diamond's great trouble was that she never was treated with respect by the other Diamonds. When she begged the Diamonds to stop terraforming Earth because that would kill all of the life on the planet, they told her to keep working, and Blue gave her a human zoo as compensation. She created the Rose Quartz persona and started a war both to free the Earth and free the Gems from the oppressive caste system; eventually, she concluded that the Diamonds didn't care about her and faked her death to live happily on Earth with her friends as Rose. She was wrong: the Diamonds not only sent a blast that corrupted all the gems on Earth except Garnet, Pearl, and Rose herself (who were under Rose's shield), Amethyst (who was still incubating), and Bismuth (who was in a bubble in the Lion's dimension) but also grieved her for 6,000 years, and their resentment against Earth only increased, leading Yellow to plan to destroy the planet. Rose eventually fell for Greg and died giving birth to Steven, but the problems never ended; they were still there, and Steven had to solve everything his mother had left behind, which took a great toll on him.
- Thomas & Friends: Tale of the Brave: Percy falls out with his best friend after an incident where he's scared by a fake monster, and tries to leave Sodor on a ship to prove how brave he is. Gator gently explains to him that running away from your problems isn't brave at all.