letting go of the past theme

A character struggles with accepting and adjusting to their new reality after something adverse and irreversible has happened to it. Typically this theme is used when someone has trouble moving on after a, to them, important person has passed away.

Examples

In tz1985e3x05 "Dream Me a Life", both Roger and Laurel were miserable because they had difficulty letting go of their late lovers and moving on. In the end they finally did so and became acquainted with each other, possibly as intimates.

11 total · 3 choice · 7 major · 1 minor

Story	Level	Motivation
as1985e2x19	choice	When his wife died, George was told by Diana that he must let her go. One gathers that neither he nor Kathryn had quite let go of Diana after she disappeared in the forest some 40 years earlier.
gdtcoc2022e08	choice	Nancy had to let go of Ava on order to move on and mend her relationship with Edgar. Similarly, the ghost boy had to somehow let go of the conflicted attachment he had to his mother that had murdered him, in order to "step into the light" and move on. The mother moved on in the opposite direction, one assumes.
tz1959e2x09	choice	After he had been rejected by his past old friends, Mr. Templeton found himself back in the present and realized that he should make the most of the time he has, or something along those lines.
blackmirror7x02	major	No matter what Verity did, including becoming empress of the universe, she was unable to overcome the trauma of having been bullied in high school.
rbt1985e5x06	major	Doug was unable to let go of the past. He was tormented by memories of being bullied as a child, and plotted revenge even five decades later.
rbt1985e5x08	major	Anna had trouble moving on from Tom's death. This made her susceptible to believe that the alien masquerading as Tom was in fact the real article.
tz1985e3x05	major	Both Roger and Laurel had difficulty mentally letting go of their late lovers.
tz2002e1x08	major	Becca entreated Laurel to leave her murdered husband and all the emotional baggage that came along with it behind her.
tz2002e1x39	major	In the end, and after much struggle, Edie felt at peace with her fiancée death, and agreed to have tea with a new romantic interest.
tz2019e2x08	major	Nichelle told Jason he must move on from his wife's death. Jason leaving his giant gold wedding band to the town was perhaps a sign of him moving on from his dearly departed wife. There might have been an idea that the town must similarly move on (the mayor spoke of moving forwards).