The last word worth it

Officer: Well kid, you made an entire town panic, you lost all your friends, and now you’re going to Juvenile Hall for a week! Heh, was it worth it?
Cartman: Totally.

• An ad for Cici’s Pizza had a man stuck in line between a slow woman at the buffet and considered jumping ahead of her in line. He asks himself «What’s the worst that could happen?» He imagines the woman and everyone else in the restaurant, including his grandmother, attacking him for being a «line jumper.» The ad ends with him going ahead while the narrator says, «Totally worth it.»
• In one old Got Milk? commercial, a man is about to drink all of the milk left in the fridge. He imagines what will happen when his family finds out he drank all the milk. Various horrible scenarios, including divorce and being sent to prison fill his head. Then he goes «Meh» and drinks the milk anyway.

• Once in Inuyasha Kagome and Sango screamed as they were bathing in a onsen. Inuyasha and Miroku rush to their aid… and see them naked. The girls smack them around for that and it ends with Miroku smiling and noting that «It was worth the pain.»
• Outlaw Star ep. 23, «The Hot Spring Planet Tenrei»: Gene get a tape of the female wizard to the old wizards, in return for caster shells. They watch the tape, where the woman strips (with a countdown on the screen). As the countdown runs out, the woman remarks «you must be the dumbest people alive», and the tape explodes. But Dirty Old Man Hadul happily said that it was worth it: «Now I can die content!»
• On Sgt. Frog this seems to be Kururu’s attitude whenever one of his pranks leads him to get beat up by the victim of said prank. In the Funimation dub version of episode 22, he actually says «Totally worth it!» after a recently-promoted, power-addled Tamama drops him down a trapdoor into a dungeon for sticking Keroro and Angol Moa in the same cell.
• Quatre from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing has a tragically dramatic version of this in his backstory. In this setting, spaceborn humans tend to be test-tube babies due to the genetic engineering required to acclimate them to space life. Quatre’s mother insisted upon giving birth to her only son naturally — and she ended up dying in childbirth. When Quatre’s father asked her if it was worth it, this was her response.
• In episode 10 of Heaven’s Lost Property, the gang takes on a bunch of rich snobs in a music contest. The snobs perform an elegant, classical piece. When it is their turn, before they can perform the song they picked, Tomoki suddenly sings an incredibly perverted song that disgusts everybody and nearly gets them disqualified. Sohara angrily beats him up, but Tomoki declares it was worth it. They then perform the real song, «Falling Down», and win.
• Maken-ki!: Usui’s got it so bad for Himegami that, during chapter 56, he willingly walked into a punch from the main antagonist (Yamato Takeru) just so he could cover her with his shirt!

  Usui: (smiling as he’s about to be hit) «I have no regrets… It’s for the sake of you being nude underneath my shirt.»

• One Piece:
  • One island’s group of Marines is saluting Luffy, a pirate, as he leaves the island as thanks for defeating Captain «Axe Hand» Morgan. The acting leader says that they’ll all have to go without food for three days afterwards as punishment. Given the enthusiastic «Yes, sir!» given in response, it’s clear everyone present felt it was worth it.
  • Nami causes Lulu, Tilestone, and Zambai to Nosebleed in episode 258 by changing clothes in front of them. All three of them indirectly invoke the trope when they give the thumbs up and go, «Shame is overrated!» before fainting.

• Norman Rockwell’s painting «The Shiner» depicts a young girl sitting outside the principal’s office, disheveled and sporting the eponymous black eye.. and grinning ear to ear.

• In an early arc of Birds of Prey, which chronicled the first meeting of Black Canary and the Huntress, Oracle summed up the adventure thusly:

  Oracle: «You traveled five thousand miles. You hooked up with a loose cannon—possibly psychotic—vigilante who doesn’t place much value on life…and a world-class felon. You stressed my network to the max. You faced the world’s deadliest martial artist. All to get back at a guy who didn’t call you the next day. Was it worth it?»
  Black Canary: «Yeah, it was.»

• In ’90s X-Men this was Gambit�s entire attitude to the danger of getting physical with Power Parasite Rogue.

  Rogue: Gambit, please! Ya know the slightest physical contact means ah�d absorb ya�mind and powers.

  Gambit: Worse fates spring t�mind chere.

• In the Supergirl story arc Red Daughter of Krypton, after Supergirl bashes him, alien Zilius Zox gets his spherical shape back (he looked like a punctured balloon due to an earlier battle). He says: «Worth It».
• A dark example from Marvel Zombies: Colonel America is fighting the Red Skull, who takes advantage of the Colonel’s missing skull portion (both are zombies) and tears out his brain, killing him. Spider-Man blows the Red Skull’s head off of his neck with the Power Cosmic, at which point the Skull chortles, «So worth it… all of it… just for this…» before being crushed underfoot by a zombie Henry Pym.
• In one Scrooge McDuck story, Scrooge and his rival Glomgold get into a race to find El Dorado (actually an old lake bed in Peru filled with gold artifacts), thanks to the paper records for an ancient bank. When the lake bed seems to be empty, Glomgold stumbles across the real former lake, which is some distance away, while the spot Scrooge had been digging at was a replacement. Glomgold seemingly tricks Scrooge into signing over ownership of the bank minutes before the truth is revealed, only for Scrooge to point out that while Glomgold now owns the bank itself, Scrooge removed all the assets of the account as soon as he got it, and Glomgold now owes him roughly 200 years worth of interest on his deposit, which, considering the amount of gold, would amount to roughly all the money in the world. Unfortunately, two representatives of Peru’s government then show up, explaining that no one’s paid any taxes on the property since the original owner died centuries ago, meaning that it was rescinded to the government decades before Scrooge was even born. While Scrooge is miserable at first, he decides that seeing Glomgolds reaction to thinking he was that impossibly in debt to Scrooge made the whole ordeal worth it.

• The newspaper comic Baby Blues features a Sunday strip where little brother Hammie has a garden hose trained on unaware older sister Zoe. Their dad is standing right behind Hammie and warns him that if he does what he’s thinking he’s in for some major time-out. Hammie contemplates this then declares «Totally worth it.»
• A Calvin and Hobbes strip showed Calvin refusing to scratch an itch, only to be tortured by it until he finally gives in and scratches furiously. Euphoria! «Oh man, it was worth it!» Except… his skin now burns from all the scratching.
  • Another strip had Calvin make a snowball and set his sights on hitting Suzie with it. She gives him fair warning not to and after contemplating his choices, throws it at her anyway, yelling that it was worth it right before Suzie chases Calvin down and throttles him.
  • And a third time in an early strip where he and Hobbes go splashing through a puddle. Calvin’s payment is soaked underwear to ride up his butt. Hobbes merely responds, «That’s why I never wear the stuff.»
  • In a fourth strip Calvin sneaks up on a sleeping Hobbes, awakening him by blowing into his belly. In the last panel, Calvin stumbles away, scratched and roughed up, remarking «It’s a high price to pay, but nuzzling tiger tummies is one of the great pleasures of life.»
  • And when Moe is threatening Calvin for his lunch money, Calvin states that he sees some simian countenance in Moe’s face. Moe is confused, and Calvin happily gives up the quarter while saying «That was worth 25 cents».
• In Peanuts, when Lucy’s wondering out loud whether to have her ears pierced, Linus helpfully suggests «Instead, why don’t you have your mouth boarded up?» Of course, she slugs him one, and the last panel has him on the floor grinning in his dazed state with:

  Linus: That was worth one hit! Two hits, no! But that was definitely worth one hit!

• Garfield
  • In an early strip, Jon buys a rubber hamburger, and lets Garfield try to eat it, then laughs hysterically at the results… Until he realizes Garfield has caught on and is angry at him. In the last panel, Jon’s clothes are torn and his face is bruised — Garfield clearly having beaten him up — and he says, «It was worth it.»
  • In a later strip, Garfield asked an alarm clock what time it was and it said it couldn’t know because it wasn’t wearing a watch. Garfield broke it and it said «It was worth it».
• In a Cathy comic, the titular character is at a boutique trying on a swimsuit. Disgusted with how unflattering it makes her look, Cathy quickly changes out of it, then slams it several times with her purse, and literally rips the swimsuit to shreds in a rage. She mutters «It was worth it» in the final panel, as she pays for a pile of torn fabric at a register.
• The Outbursts of Everett True: One strip has Mr. True being fined $50 by the police (which was a lot of money in the early 20th century, hundreds of dollars at least in today’s money) for assaulting an officer. As he leaves the station, he says to himself «It was worth the money! Any officer that gets abusive with newsboys and peddlers ain’t fit for the force.»

• (LINK MISSING) In a Buffy the Vampire Slayer one-shot, Xander saves a pair of very thankful Succubi from the Initiative. He proudly declares that the grey hairs he’ll have tomorrow, since Succubi feed on life force, will be worth their gratitude.
• A Chance Meeting of Two Moons: Solaris reminds himself to make very irritating sunbeams for Steel Barricade’s days off in retaliation for her taking pleasure in making sure he sticks to his diet and thinks that having to deal with her afterward will be this.
• Child of the Storm:
  • Clark teases at Harry in the sequel about getting caught in a compromising position while making out with his girlfriend (Carol), having masterfully Rules Lawyered the rule about at least one layer of clothing (no one ever said that it had to be one layer each… the end result was «a shirt, a pair of shorts, and two-thirds of the expected underwear») — and not just that, but getting caught and lectured by Captain America. Harry just drawls, «so speaks the voice of inexperience.»
  • In the second book’s spinoff, Unfinished Business, Deadpool states that the time in Jacksonville before he got his powers had him get a close look at Alison Carter (specifically, her ass) in a SHIELD Spy Catsuit. While this meant that he lingered a little too close to the explosives, putting him in a coma and a full body-cast, his response is the trope, word for word.
• In Decommission Harry tries every way possible to destroy Sirius’ mother’s portrait at Grimmauld Place, to the point where he and his friends almost burn down the house. When nothing works, they decide that it has to be a Horcrux and Harry stabs it with a basilisk fang, after which it finally falls off the wall.

  Harry: Worth it.

• For a darker take on this trope, in Despair Arc: Execution Failed?, Junko admits that her plans failing is worth it because she finally broke Makoto.
• A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 2 of the sequel Diplomat at Large, Twilight manages to get herself banned from ever setting hoof in Byzantion again after «invading» it and solving the griffons’ debt issues. She considers it well worth it.
• In the Discworld of A.A. Pessimal, Air Witch Irena Politek realises she has to keep her patrician best friend Olga Romanoff fully grounded in reality, lest cackling starts to happen. She also derives amusement from, for instance, demonstrations of her revolutionary sentiments, such as wearing a red scarf on Air Police duties, or encouraging new pilots and ground crews to address Lady Olga Romanoff as «Comrade Captain». Irena even uses the phrase «totally worth it» after one prank which was designed to put The «Fun» in «Funeral».
• Doing It Right This Time:
  • Despite the fight against the Angel Sachiel playing out rather differently thanks to a multiple Peggy Sue event, Sakura Suzuhara still ended up getting hurt, albeit nowhere near as badly. But she got to see a Humongous Mecha pull a Suplex Finisher on a Kaiju; in her own words, «Totally worth it!»
  • This later turned out to be Toji’s verdict on the original fight against the 13th Angel, on the grounds that it was directly responsible for his and Hikari’s Relationship Upgrade. Among other things.
• Evangelion 303: Shinji and Asuka got together in chapter 5. In chapter 6 Shinji reflects about the undefined and ambiguous status of their relationship and how sometimes he gets exasperated and fed up with Asuka’s bossy, temperamental attitude… and he concludes it is more than worth and he would not trade it for anything in the world.
• In Fragments of Chaldea, Blackbeard gets caught peeping in the women’s bath. When Francis Drake angrily confronts him, he calmly grabs her breasts, and right before she beats the crap out of him, he says to himself it was worth it.
• Fate/Long Night: When Robert Baratheon is summoned as Illya’s Servant, he eventually says that he was in a loveless marriage to Cersei Lannister and had to put up with his evil little shit of a son Joffrey. After he died, he learned that all of his children were actually born from an affair Cersei had with her own brother Jaime. Robert says he does not regret his life and will not change it with a wish because he truly loved his other children Tommen and Myrcella.
• Joker declares seeing Benezia in her «emergency dress» in Getting Too Old For This to be worth the broken foot when he dropped some drinks onto said foot.
  • Apparently fifty years before the story, Harry Potter had sex with a triathlete which, due to the numerous dangerous chemicals in his body, gave her a heart attack and minor neurological damage. After waking up in the hospital, she insisted it was worth it.
• In Ghosts of Evangelion Asuka says her daughter that she is worth of the stress:

  Asuka: Sort of. But don’t worry about it. You’re a good kid, so you’re worth the trouble.

• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hormones Fred and George clown around in the Great Hall.

  McGonagall: FRED! GEORGE! DETENTION!
  Fred/George: Worth it.
• In Harry Potter and the Pink-Haired Auror Susan beats Draco up in the Great Hall after Hannah is killed by his aunt Bellatrix.

  McGonagall: You will be serving detention with me for the next three weeks for the unprovoked attack on another student.
  Susan: It was worth it.

• In Here In My Arms, Kurumu bets Kokoa twenty bucks that she’d pass out from one of Tsukune’s bites after the latter insults the others for reacting so much to it. Just before blacking out, Kokoa decides it was the «best twenty dollars [she] ever spent».
• Midoriya in how he live forever but ain’t got time for his kids? feels that approaching a potentially dangerous enemy just to get his hands on some rare All-Might merchandise is worth it.

  Aizawa: You�re not rushing at a potentially dangerous enemy for some merchandise.

  Midoriya: Sensei. Sensei, some things are worth dying for!

• In Bad Faith:

  Harry: Yeah, well, I still got [Iana Malfoy] good with that Buzzing Boils Hex last year.
  Neville: How did that work out for you? What was it, two weeks of being locked inside?
  Harry: Worth it.

• A Moon and World Apart: After being told that her actions have likely permanently cost her any chance at joining the Wonderbolts, since she’s lost one wing and a mechanical replacement would count as an unfair advantage, Rainbow Dash says it was worth it if it meant saving lives.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In the fic Circle of Friends, Immortal!Twilight talks with her apprentice about the many ponies she’s seen grow up and pass on, and concludes that the friendship she shared with them was worth the pain of mourning.

    «Soon, my most faithful student, the time will come when I send you out into the world to learn its ways. In that time, I believe, you will discover many great and wonderful truths about friendship. But allow me to give you the first lesson now.»
    «It is this: that all things pass in the course of time, that forever does not exist. That every Hello contains within itself the echoes of its own Goodbye. That for every person you come to know in your journey through life, no matter how long you know them, there will always come a day when you will see them for the last time. And yet…»
    «And yet… it is all worth it.» The princess looked back up at the stars, the light from the moon reflecting in her eyes. «The time between Hello and Goodbye, if you fill it properly, will sustain you through all your days. Every shared moment, every laugh, every precious sliver of time spent with someone you care for is a treasure, to be kept safe forever.»

  • Pops up as «Totally worth it» at the end of the Enemy Mine comic by Silver Quill. Long story short: on Hearts and Hooves Day, Discord visits Celestia, and starts talking about the connection they have. She mellows only when he reveals he’s brought a cake for her, only to have it splat in her face the moment he leaves. Cut to Discord petrified in the castle gardens, grinning and holding a sign reading «Totally Worth It!».
• In A New Dawn after Dawn tells one of her knights to think positive and it remarks that it’s positive she’s screwed, she deliberately moves it to a position where it’ll be destroyed by Ron’s queen.

  Knight: I hate you.
  Dawn: I know. If it helps, I plan to resign next move.
  Knight: So why… It’s cause I did the positive joke, isn’t it? It was totally worth it though!

• A couple of non-comedic examples in The Night Unfurls.
  • Chapter 3, original version: Celestine muses how she and Olga came into blows over the fate of humanity long ago, which resulted in a centuries-old war, plus the shattering of their friendship. At present, the war is finally over, and a new one would begin soon courtesy of the Black Dogs, but Olga is by her side now — it is ultimately worth it in the end^note .
  • Chapter 2, remastered version: Kyril recalls the time where he defeated Ludwig, a Knight In Shining Armour who went through a Face�Monster Turn, and is bequeathed by him the Holy Moonlight Sword. He believes that lying to him during his last moments was worth it.
• In Once More with Feeling (not that one), Lelouch gets smacked for seeing Kallen naked and declares the sight to be «totally worth it.»
• In One Eye, Full of Wisdom, Kakashi has no problem with being thrown through a window, chased around town, and billed for the damages at a bar because after 12 long years, he finally got to get someone to see what was under his second mask. ^note 
• In The One Where Harry Is In Trouble Ginny asks Harry to go to Slughorn’s party with her.

  Harry: Ginny, I…
  Ron: NO! No, Ginny. That’s what he wants to say. Seriously, don’t you get it? He. Is. OVER. YOU! So back off, little sister.
  [Ginny leaves]
  Harry: Ron, you know she’ll maim you?
  Ron: I am so dead, but it was worth it.

• Ranma �: The Abridged Chronicles: In canon Ranma �, after Ranma gets his shirt torn open and transforms into a girl, Ryōga gets a pretty clear view of her chest before getting kicked in the face. Here, he calls out «Totally worth it!» while taking the hit.
• Rise of the Minisukas: Fuyutsuki lets Gendo know he has seen the video feed where he asks his son how his puberty is going, and he is not erasing it. He knows Gendo will make him pay for it, but he considers it a small price to pay. The opportunity was simply too good to pass up.
• RWBY: Epic of Remnant: No matter how much the others beat him up over it, Angra Mainyu thinks it is worth it to piss people off because it is funny.
• Springaling: Springtrap discusses having approved of a script for a tie-in cartoon to Freddy’s with absurd content, like the written-off Gold Bonnie having bear cub triplets since her disappearance. He then says that while kids asked him about Gold Bonnie’s bear children whenever he wore the Fredbear costume for months afterward, he felt that getting to throw the writers of the cartoon a bone in exchange was worth it.
• In Suzumiya Haruhi No Index, while the SOS Brigade is working in a restaurant, Taniguchi orders cup after cup of coffee, trying to get Kanzaki or Asahina, who are waitresses, to come to his table. Haruhi foils his attempts by having Kyon take and deliver his orders. After his 97th cup, Kyon takes pity on him and asks Kanzaki to finally serve him. Taniguchi is ecstatic and says it was worth losing almost all his money.
• This Bites!:
  • Cross’s opinion of the scary story prank he pulled on the rest of the crew and their guests, even if it got him mobbed and beaten up afterward. Just like he wanted.
  • Cross and Soundbite say this as they hang out of Rocketman’s window, in response to Nami’s criticism that they’ll die.
• In Turnabout Storm, Phoenix Wright had a horrible time in Equestria, he didn’t get paid with money he could use, and nobody believes him when he was returned to Earth. He decides the adventure was worth it when he finds Trixie gave him a magician’s hat like he had wanted as a child, and he finds the group photo he took with the ponies, which Trixie autographed and wrote «Thank you» on.

  Phoenix: You know… maybe I did get something out of this after all…

• In The Twisted Path Daphne taunts Draco about his being magically unable to reveal Harry and Hermione’s rooming situation within Slytherin House.

  Daphne’s mother: I just had a conversation with Narcissa Malfoy. You have some explaining to do.
  Daphne: Worth it.

• WolfChild:

  Fred/George: We got detention, but seeing Snape’s expression after we swapped all his stuff for food was worth it!
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, when Melvin summons the Winged Dragon of Ra, Joey calls hax, saying that Melvin couldn’t have captured a Moltres without going to the Kanto region.

  Melvin: (beat) You realize of course that you deserve to die for that joke alone.
  Joey: Totally worth it.

• When the Comic-Book Guy is faced with the prospect of certain death in The Simpsons Movie, and looks back upon his life of comic book collecting, tabletop gaming, and other solitary/geeky interests, he smiles and triumphantly concludes «life well spent!» Which is interesting, since in a Halloween episode of the series, moments before he gets blasted away by a nuclear weapon, he claims that he wasted his life.
• In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox:
  • Zoom is perfectly happy to let the world get destroyed, as long as Flash suffers and dies. He doesn’t even care that he would die as well.
  • Thomas Wayne agrees to help restore the timeline, even though he and his wife are dead in the original timeline because their son Bruce will live^note .
• The film Chicken Little has the titular character send the town into a panic because the sky fell. After everyone thought it was an acorn, the town treats him badly, despite him being young. The film ends with this trope since, while the sky didn’t actually fall, a piece of alien spacecraft did, which looked like the sky, and in so doing he helped stop an invasion and restore his reputation.

• A major theme in Inglourious Basterds . The Bastards all know that they will almost certainly die in their pursuit of killing Nazis. However they deem their cause to be worth the sacrifice of their lives. This is lampshaded a few times in the film most notably at the end when 2 of the Bastards lock themselves in a burning building with explosives tied to their ankels just to ensure that before they die they can kill as many Nazis as they can. And can personally kill Hitler themselves.
• Star Trek: Generations. Kirk dies, and referring to the adventure (and all of the adventures he had in general), he says, «It was… fun.»
• In the 2005 film version of Casanova, Giacamo Casanova seduced a novice (essentially a nun in training). When other members of the church come in to try and find him, he’s escaped, but they find a man’s shoe under the novice’s bed. They turn to her and say, «Eternal damnation for one night with Casanova.» The novice turns around and mutters to herself, «Seems fair.»
• A variation occurs in Men in Black when Kay offers Officer Edwards the opportunity to join the eponymous organization, fight alien threats, and protect humanity. The catch is that Edwards must sever every human contact, and nobody can know that he even exists, ever. He asks if it’s worth it, and, without hesitation, Kay replies, «Oh yeah, it’s worth it. If you’re strong enough.» (Seeing as Edwards took him up on the offer, he apparently figured it was worth it.)
• In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Former Agent Simmons says this after being threatened with arrest after snogging his (politically very powerful) ex-girlfriend in the post-victory elation.

  Arrest me, cuff me. So worth it.

• In Land of the Lost, Will sacrifices himself by ordering Rick and Holly to jump through the portal to Earth while he pins down the Big Bad until the portal closes. At first, Will regrets that he will most likely never get back to Earth and never see his friends again, but then he finds that Cha-ka has a harem of incredibly beautiful, nearly nude women, who crowd around Will and rub up on him. Will then declares he made the right choice.
• In Oblivion, Beech confidently states that he would gladly accept a one-way trip if it meant getting to see the look on Tet’s face moments before it’s destroyed, and he gets his wish.
• Deadpool (2016): Deadpool ambushes a group of thugs, but only has 12 bullets to spare («Some of you are going to have to share!»). He manages to headshot a good portion of the baddies while counting down the number of bullets left… until one lucky thug manages to shoot him in the ass. Deadpool kills him, then wastes two more bullets shooting his corpse.

  Deadpool: Stupid!… Worth It.

• The Longest Yard has this, both in the original and in the remake.

  Paul Crewe: When you popped the warden, was it worth it? Was it worth spending the rest of your life in here?
  Skitchy: «Was it worth it?» It was worth every goddamn second.

• In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, after Finn and Roses’s mission to find a master code-breaker on Canto Bight goes badly south, they are locked up and then escape on creatures called Fathiers, leading the First Order on a mad-cap chase and wrecking much of Canto Bight and its casinos in the process. They end up at the edge of the cliff, seemingly having failed, but Finn says it was worth it to wreck this city, which owes its wealth to the First Order’s war-profiteering. Then Rose un-saddles the fathier, setting it free, and says that now it’s worth it.
• The League of Gentlemen. To maintain discipline, Hyde says he will deduct 100 pounds for minor infractions and 500 for major ones from the offender’s cut of the loot. The only person fined is Lexy, who slips out the night before The Caper to see his girlfriend, only to be busted trying to sneak back into the house by Hyde and Race. When Race asks how much of a fine she’s worth, Lexy smirks. «Oh, I’d settle for the full five hundred, sir.»

• Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys: The infamous «Substitute Mummy Filled With Live Weasels» prank leads to the end of the Egyptian Empire. All parties involved agreed it was worth it.
• Merlin gives Empress Sharleyan a bit of a shock early in the fourth Safehold book, A Mighty Fortress, when he flies his recon skimmer through a hidden hatch without first warning Sharleyan it was there. It looked to her like he was about to fly right into the mountain. Despite her ire, and full intention to make Merlin pay, he proclaims it was, indeed, Worth It.
• In the Discworld, the witch Nanny Ogg pulls this sort of thing frequently on her old friend Esmerelda Weatherwax. Mainly for the laughs, but also because she knows that without the grounding presented by frequent irritation and things to get annoyed with, Granny Weatherwax is such a potent witch that she is liable to lose all touch with reality and start cackling. «The Sea And Little Fishes» is a short story about such a «that was totally worth it» that Nanny pulls on Granny.
• Harry Dresden has a pretty damn good one in The Dresden Files novel Grave Peril. Red Court vampire Bianca has Harry’s girlfriend hostage, and she’s gloating that he can’t do anything because it would spark a war between vampires and mages. Harry states, rather matter-of-factly, that he can’t think of a better reason for war than saving the woman he loves. He proceeds to call up the spirits of the dead and light pretty much everything on fire, taking the villain and house with him.
  • Although, unlike most of these examples, Harry eventually questions whether he made the right decisions, because the Red Court wasn’t kidding about that war.
    • Ultimately, Harry wins the war. By killing the Red Court. All of them.
  • Mab gloats that her new Winter Knight is this after he attempts to commit suicide to prevent himself from becoming a monster, and then after she heals him for six months, uses it as a bargaining chip. He later holds a gun to her head and threatens her, at a time where he physically could kill her.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has an in-universe example with the song «The Dornishman’s Wife»:

  Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done
  The Dornishman’s taken my life
  But what does it matter, for all men must die
  And I’ve tasted the Dornishman’s wife

• An absolutely hilarious one appears in Neverwhere. After Door gets kidnapped, and taken into the labyrinth, Hunter mentions that they would have to be mad to go in without the Angel’s Token, as there would be nothing to protect them from the Beast of London. The Marquis pulls out an Angel’s Token that he had taken from Door’s father’s study much earlier in the book, and coyly asks «You mean like this one?»

  The Marquis felt, then, that much of what he had gone through in the previous week was made up for by the expression on Hunter’s face.

• In Codex Alera, at one point a pompous Jerkass attempts to bar an important ally of the protagonists from a meeting due to Fantastic Racism against him, Amara proceeds to punch the guy so hard and fast she breaks her arm in the process and later proclaims it totally Worth It.
• In The Wise Man’s Fear (part of the The Kingkiller Chronicle series), main character Kvothe returns to the University after a half-year absence. During his readmission interview, his most hated teacher declares that he had heard Kvothe was dead (in tones that implied he wished it was true). Kvothe responds by saying he heard the teacher wears a racy red corset as proof that one shouldn’t believe everything they hear. He’s immediately charged with Improper Address of a Master and fined for his insolence. He declares it money well spent.
• In Domes of Fire, Styric priestess Sephrenia gets tired of the stonewalling of another Styric. The last straw comes when he insults her goddess, and she resorts to the «barbaric» Elene tactic of bullying: smacking him to the floor and even threatening to cast a death spell on him (he finally cooperates at that point). She later realizes she sprained her wrist in so doing, but she later admits to everyone else that she doesn’t regret it, and she sees how bullying can, at times, be so satisfying.
• In The Final Problem during an early meeting (the scene also appears in the movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), Moriarty warns Holmes, «If you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do the same to you.» Holmes’ reply indicates that he feels his death would be Worth It to bring down the Napoleon of Crime:

  ‘You have paid me several compliments, Mr. Moriarty…Let me pay you one in return when I say that if I were assured of the former eventuality I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept the latter.’
• In The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, a prequel book to the The Mysterious Benedict Society series, this is Nicholas Benedict’s reason for humiliating the orphanage Gang of Bullies who try to subject him to an «initiation» likely involving a Swirlie at the beginning of the book. He knows it’s likely just going to make him their enemy for however long they all might remain at the orphanage, but after being the butt of bullies for so long at his past orphanages, he decides that this one victory is worth it.
• In The Irregular at Magic High School, Mayumi retaliates against a minor insult ^note  that wasn’t even intentional by hand-crafting a block of chokingly bitter chocolate to give to Tatsuya, knowing that etiquette will force him to eat it. It requires litres of ingredients, hours of preparation, and Tatsuya consumes only a tiny piece of the end result. But this◊ is Mayumi’s expression as her power move succeeds.
• In Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel, two of the protagonists’ group of True Companions rush at Dracula’s coffin in the climax in a risky bid to finish him off before he has a chance to regroup. They succeed, but Dracula’s hired goons fight back before scattering, mortally wounding one of them. His last words were declaring that it was worth dying to see that killing Dracula successfully removed a vampiric curse on one of his friends.

• The Twilight Zone (1959): «Uncle Simon:» This is the reason the Batman Gambit on which the will was based was a success. His niece still believes she can get the inheritance (specifically his money). If she’d decided it wasn’t worth the perpetual misery of having to tend to his inventions, the state university would have ended up with much less than it’s going to get.
• Cheers:
  • Cliff tricks Carla into being nice to him by making her think he’s a judge in a waitressing contest and humiliating her by having her give him foot massages. She naturally finds out and Norm states that Cliff is dead meat. Cliff invokes the trope.
  • Implied when the freezer at Melville’s broke and John Allen Hill offered the possibly spoiled seafood to the Cheers barflies at all-you-can-eat for $2. He openly admitted that if the food had gone bad they could experience symptoms ranging from nausea to death.

    Norm: I’m gonna see if Melville’s is having another all-you-can-eat fish fry.

    Paul: You should take it easy with those fish fries. You were lucky last night that you didn’t get really sick.

    Norm: Who says I didn’t get sick?

• Mystery Science Theater 3000: While experiencing Reality Warping going through a wormhole during the Prince of Space experiment, Mike is at one point turned into a small robot puppet with antennae sticking out of his head. Despite Mike trying to save the day with Applied Phlebotinum, the robots can’t help but laugh.

  Mike Robot: But you’re going to be annihilated!
  Crow: Oh, I don’t care! It was all worth it to see you like this!

• In Scrubs:
  • Dr. Miller tells The Todd he can assist her in surgery if he promises not to make a Double Entendre during the entire operation. He promises. Then Dr. Miller says something like «Okay, in order to do this we need to go in from behind.» Todd looks up. The scene cuts to him walking out the OR, taking off his surgical mask, and saying «Worth it!»
  • Another episode featured Dr. Cox deliberately «passing out» and falling backwards after hearing half of the first sentence of a «boring» story:

    J.D.: I hope that hurt.
    Dr. Cox: Totally worth it!

  • Cox also says this while he’s dreaming about being married to Elliot, and being arrested after murdering her. He also has a big Slasher Smile in the Imagine Spot that emotes the same thing.
  • Then there’s the episode where the Janitor eats a piece of his laxative-laced pie in order to convince J.D. to do the same. As they sit in adjacent bathroom stalls, the Janitor says, «Totally worth it.»
  • J.D. has a fantasy sequence of faking his death in order to get a hug from Dr. Cox. Cox murders J.D. in anger; J.D. judges the risk worth it.
  • To get revenge on Turk for throwing his gum on the floor, the Janitor once chewed up several dozen pieces of gum and stuck them on the window of Turk’s car to spell out «GUM GOES IN THE TRASH!» As he works the ache out of his jaw he says «Worth it!»
  • Cox agrees to apologize to JD and to let JD yell at him in front of his (JD’s) interns in order to regain the respect JD lost when Cox screamed at him in front of them (in one of Cox’s more Jerkass moments, he was taking his anger at someone else out on JD and even if not, ragging on him for something that wasn’t his fault). When the moment comes, JD takes it much further than necessary, prompting Cox to warn him, «The next minute you find yourself alone, I’m gonna kill you.» JD’s response is, of course, «It was worth it».
• Friends:
  • In «The One with All the Haste», Joey and Chandler give up the big apartment to Monica and Rachel in exchange for watching them make out. They stride into their old apartment, with Chandler shouting «Totally worth it!» They then quickly proceed to their respective bedrooms with a hasty «good night» to each other, so as not to let the imagery go to waste.
  • In «The One with the Birth Mother», Joey’s at dinner with a woman who specifically tells him not to touch her dessert while she’s in the bathroom. When she comes out, he finishes the last bite with a smile and says «I’m not even sorry.»
  • Subverted in «The One with All the Rugby». Ross is very sore after playing Rugby and winces when Emily hugs him. She pulls back but he tells her «It’s worth the pain.» When she hugs him again he pushes her away and says, «You know what, it’s not.»
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike knows if he hits Xander the chip in his head (that causes him pain when he’s violent toward humans) will activate. However, in the episode «Weight of the World» when he keeps having to explain the same information to him again and again due to magical amnesia, he decides it’s worth the pain to slap him in the back of the head. The look on his face afterwards suggests that it was indeed worth it to do it.
• In Diff’rent Strokes, Arnold gets into a fight with the bullying son of the landlord’s brother who is subbing for a short time. This leads to a loud confrontation where the brother confronts Mr. Drummond, threatens to evict the family, and provokes Drummond to punch the blowhard out. This gives the landlord the excuse to exploit a lease violation that the brother found to raise the rent on the Drummonds, with a veiled threat of eviction to convince them to give in. The punchline is this: after the Drummonds cave in to this threat, the father tells the kids that this is the result of his act of violence. However, when asked if it was worth it, Mr. Drummond immediately remarks it was, for having the pleasure of shutting a bully up.
• House of the Dragon: Both Aemond Targaryen and Otto Hightower note that claiming the largest known dragon was worth getting one of Aemond’s eyes blinded (in a fight with the Velaryon children).
• On Malcolm in the Middle Francis says this after a fireworks display that literally turns night into day for a few seconds, but robs him and his brothers of their sight for about two days.
• One episode of Drake & Josh has the duo talking about a bet between them. It ended with Josh vomiting a lot and Drake having to pay Josh his entire allowance. Both of them agreed it was worth it.
• A rather heartwarming example in Hannah Montana. Miley finally gets her grandma and Aunt Dolly to reconcile and the three of them group hug. Miley tells them, «You’re squishing the pop star» and they break the hug saying sorry. But Miley adds «I didn’t say I didn’t like it» and they hug again.
• Nurse Jackie has one in early season 2. In an operating room, Thor is blasted by Dr. Cooper for not paying attention. Later, Jackie confronts him, explaining that Thor is diabetic. Thor stands awkwardly while Dr. Cooper hugs him in apology. As the doctor walks off, Thor chimes happily in with «Totally worth it!»
• In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, this is what Quark says while being patched up in sick bay after a date with a Klingon.
  • Quark has an uncharacteristically selfless version when he does business with an arms dealer, but double-crosses him when he learns that their newest client is planning a genocide. He’s warned that he’ll likely be killed for what he’s done but decides it was worth it.

    «One life for twenty-eight million. Best deal I ever made.»

    • Then, when Sisko hands him the bill for the damages his scheme caused, he invokes the trope again obliquely by asking if Sisko would take it in installments (indicating he’s actually willing to pay rather than try to weasel out of it).
  • «Trials and Tribble-ations» uses a framing device where Sisko, having returned from traveling into the past to prevent Captain Kirk from being assassinated, is describing his actions to Starfleet agents who investigate time travel incidents. Sisko defends the actions of himself and his crew until the end, where he admits that he took the opportunity to talk to Kirk and get his autograph, and says that he understands if they file a reprimand for his unprofessional behavior but has no regrets. One of the agents shrugs and admits that, given the chance, he’d have done it too.
  • A more serious example is the acclaimed «In The Pale Moonlight».

  Benjamin Sisko: So…I lied…I cheated…I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men…I am an accessory to murder…But the most damning thing of all is… I think I can live with it. And if I’d have to do it all over again… I would.

  • Another serious example is «The Ship» in which Sisko and the others successfully capture a Jem’Hadar warship but at the loss of five Redshirts (one of whom suffers a particularly Cruel and Unusual Death). Afterwards, Jadzia Dax tells a grieving Sisko that as cruel as it sounds, it was worth it if it saves more lives down the road. Sisko even admits that he’d make that sacrifice again if he had to, but that doesn’t make it any easier to live with.
• Invoked in the Highlander TV series when the evil Kalas taunts Duncan with knowledge of a computer set up to email out the entire Watcher database to every news agency in the world unless Duncan lets himself be killed. Ultimately a Deus ex Machina preserves the status quo: Duncan and Kalas fight on the observatory platform of the Eiffel Tower, and the tower’s radio antenna amplifies the lightning of the Quickening when Duncan kills Kalas. The lightning causes power outages all over Paris, and shorts out Kalas’ computer.

  Kalas: Remember, if you do kill me, you’re finished, too.
  Duncan: Maybe it’s worth it if it rids the world of you.

• How I Met Your Mother:
  • During Ted and Robin’s Falling-in-Love Montage, Ted is seen taking care of Robin who is sick in bed. He leans in to kiss her, but Robin warns him that he’ll get sick. Ted kisses her anyway and the scene cuts to Robin taking care of a sick Ted in bed, and Ted says that it’s «totally worth it».
  • Barney accidentally gets run over by a bus on the way to see Ted in the hospital. Barney survives, but every bone in his body is broken and he ends up in the hospital. Despite his injured state, he makes a joke and then asks Marshall for a high five. Marshall slaps Barney’s hand causing Barney to scream in pain.

    Barney: OWWWWWW!!!!!….Worth it!
• Doctor Who, «Silver Nemesis»: The Doctor double-crosses the villainess and when informed that that will cost him his life answers «Worth it.» Ace saves him.
• The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode «Spectacle» featured a criminal who deliberately invoked Missing White Woman Syndrome by having a girl kidnapped and raped so that the police would be forced to pay attention to him and his demands. Namely, he wanted to force them to investigate what happened to his little brother, who had been kidnapped years ago. After the police comply they learn the kidnapping and rape was all a ruse, and the girl playing the victim was in on it from the start. When confronted on this, he simply states that he doesn’t care what the consequences are because he got what he wanted: his brother found and rescued.
  • In the episode «Users,» Huang treats a druggie with an illegal drug to make him lucid enough to testify against his dealer. When the dealer threatens to report Huang, he said he already reported himself, got a one-month suspension, and that it was worth it.
• In the original Law & Order, Chris Noth’s character was written out by having him slug a City Council member on the courthouse steps. When next seen, years later, the character — a homicide detective — is working Traffic on Staten Island.
• In an episode of CSI, the investigation of a corpse stuffed in a chimney leads to the discovery of another corpse, belonging to a missing teenager whom the owner was suspected of murdering but was let go due to lack of evidence. Turns out that the corpse was stolen from the hospital by the teenager’s father and planted in the chimney so that the house would be investigated. Catherine points out that the man committed a crime but he’s willing to take the consequences since his daughter is finally getting a funeral and her killer is finally being brought to justice.
• In an episode of Crownies, Richard gets Steve Coburn, a prominent climate change professor, found guilty of assaulting James Watt, a skeptic who had been harassing him for months, showing up at all of his lectures and repeating the same fallacious arguments against global warming. Dr. Coburn gets a fine and declares that it was worth the satisfaction.
• Carla says this in the Death Valley episode «Assault on Precinct UTF» after shooting a smoke detector that’s been driving her crazy. She does this right after being warned not to waste bullets, as the vampires attacking the precinct had stolen all the spare ammo.
• Criminal Minds, from the episode «Elephant’s Memory»:

  Reid: (enters the room) Sorry, I’m late.

  Rossi: I hope she was worth it.

  Morgan: I hope it was a she.

• In a Castle chapter, Beckett and Castle find a witness breaking all the things that belong to her ex-husband, whom she has just divorced. When the ex arrives, he starts breaking her things. Beckett tells them that, if any of them breaks another thing, she will arrest them. Gilligan Cut to the couple arrested, and the woman proclaiming it was worth it.
• Once Upon a Time: Late in the Neverland arc, Emma, Snow, and Regina are captured by a tree that feeds on regret. Regina reveals that it can’t hold her because, despite making a curse that ruined the lives of thousands of people and murdering hundreds more, it led to her getting her son and she doesn’t regret it at all.
  • In the end of the Arendelle arc, when Anna and Elsa recall how Anna bruised her knuckles punching out Hans after his latest attempt to usurp the throne (a Call-Back to a similar scene in Frozen (2013)), Anna admits that it was «Definitely worth it.»
• In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., episode «Providence,» Garrett lies his way into an enemy base and then almost immediately blows his cover, by effectively bragging to the enemy’s face about how he did it. When called out on it, he says, «It was too good a line.»
• QI: Quite often said by the panelists, in response to the forfeits. For those not in the know, QI is a panel/quiz/comedy-show, in which obvious jokes are frequently given forfeits, but sometimes the panelists consider the joke too good to pass up. An example:

  Stephen Fry: What has large teeth and one facial expression?
  Bill Bailey: [buzzes in] Janet Street-Porter.
  [klaxon]
  Bill Bailey: I took a fall, but it was worth it.

• Subversion: Monty Python’s Flying Circus‘ «Cheese Shop» sketch had Mr Mousebender rattling off varieties of cheese he hopes to buy at Mr Wensleydale’s shop only to discover the shop hasn’t got a scrap. Mr Mousebender asks if it’s worth it to ask if there’s any limburger, only to find it wasn’t.

  Mr Mousebender: Predictable really, I suppose. It was an act of purest optimism to pose the question in the first place.

• As a guest appearance, Edgar Bergen played a fortune teller reading Charlie McCarthy’s fortune. As Bergen gazes into his crystal ball, an attractive female assistant walks by, leaving Charlie leering and panting in delight. The punchline:

  Bergen: I’m afraid I see you getting in a lot of trouble, Charlie.

  Charlie: Yeah, but it’s worth it!

• In «Alien Dinner Party» from Resident Alien, Deputy Liv Baker serves deviled eggs from a recipe that she stole from her grandmother when she was 10, who has hated her ever since for it and says she wants to die soon so that she can steal her soul. D’Arcy Bloom tells her that it’s horrible to love lost her grandmother’s love, but worth it, given the taste of the eggs.

• The Lonely Island’s «I Just Had Sex»:

  She kept looking at her watch. (Doesn’t matter, had sex!)
  But I cried the whole time. (Doesn’t matter, had sex!)
  I think she mighta been a racist. (Doesn’t matter, had sex!)
  She put a bag on my head. (Still counts!)

• «Bargain» by The Who is largely based on this trope:

  «I’d gladly lose me to find you,
  I’d gladly give up all I had
  To find you, I’d suffer any pain and be glad…
  I’d call that a bargain,
  The best I ever had.»
• From Carmina Burana (translated from Old High German) ^note :

  «Were the world all mine
  From the ocean to the Rhine,
  I would forego its charms
  If the Queen of England
  should lie in my arms.»

• «Float On» by Modest Mouse features this:

  A fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam
  It was worth it just to learn some sleight of hand

• Eddie Cochran’s «C’mon Everybody»:

  Well, we’ll really have a party, but we gotta put a guard outside
  If my folks come a-home, I’m afraid they’re gonna have my hide
  There’ll be no more movies for a week or two
  No more runnin’ round with the usual crew
  Who cares? C’mon, everybody!

• In in title track of The Fiery Furnaces‘ Blueberry Boat, the Captain considers protecting her cargo from pirates to be worth her life:

  Well it’s cold and it’s wet at the bottom of the sea

  But at least I’ve got my blueberries with me

• «Thrash Unreal» by Against Me! is about a middle aged ex-junkie who is stuck in a dead end minimum wage job, has a daughter who hates her and is likely going to be a repeat of her mistakes, and is desperately trying to get boys half her age to sleep with her. The closing lines of the song?

  And if she had to live it all over again you know she wouldn’t change anything for the world

• In Afroman’s «Crazy Rap», he tells the story of how he got caught banging the local KKK leader’s daughter, and got nearly beaten to death as a result. However, he claims it was worth it, because it was «the best damn pussy [he] ever had».

• In the The Last Podcast on the Left series on Casey Anthony, the hosts tell the story of a man chosen to be a juror in Anthony’s trial and, wanting no part of it, deliberately spoke to reporters as soon as he could, knowing full well he was forbidden from doing so. This got him thrown off the jury and slapped with Contempt of Court charges. He proclaimed he had no regrets about this action.

• According to The Bible, Jesus will consider his torture and murder this, because it was necessary not only to save billions of repentant souls (including those of his friends and earthly family), but to convince them- in the most honest, serious way possible- that they were saved, by a God who understands their pain.

• A Chorus Line: In «What I Did For Love», the final 8 dancers are asked what they would do if they could no longer dance. Diana Morales leads her fellow dancers into deciding that their journeys, despite so much strife and struggle, was well worth it.

• In Mass Effect 2, Shepard can have a relationship with Tali’Zorah, the ship’s engineer. Tali’s species, the quarians, have almost no immune system whatsoever — exposure to a normal environment for mere seconds can be fatal. As a result, sexual intercourse is something they take very seriously, and in ideal circumstances, it takes place in special safe rooms (and both partners still end up with various minor ailments). In her case, she ends up taking several powerful supplements for her system. The morning after the «encounter» between Shepard and Tali, she says the following:

  «Just so you know, I’m running a fever, I’ve got a nasty cough, and my sinuses are filled with something I can’t even describe. And it was totally worth it.»

  • Reprised in Mass Effect 3 if Shepard sticks with her.

    «And Shepard?»
    «Yeah?»
    «Still totally worth it.»

  • Admiral Shala’Raan, a friend of Tali’s mother and honorary aunt to Tali, synced suits with Tali’s mother when Tali was born to be with her in the same room. Raan says she «was sick for a week, but it was worth it.»
  • Another one that is repeatedly experienced by the quarians as a whole: due to the fact that they can only eat dextro-amino proteins, and space in the fleet being at a premium, the quarian fleet is a Veganopia by necessity. As a result, when quarians do manage to get their hands on dextro-meat, they will literally gorge themselves until they are sick, even before they start suffering the reactions from their lack of immune systems. The resultant fevers and stomachaches are racially regarded as «worth it» for the chance to finally get some meat in their diet. The game’s Codex entry specifically compares the aftermath of quarian meat-binging to that of human hangovers: «painful, but part of the overall experience of excess.»
  • In the third game, Javik has this as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner when facing off against Kai Leng.

    «If I kill no one else but him, it will be worth it!»

  • In Mass Effect: Andromeda, should the player chose Nakmor Morda to be the Initiative ambassador, the next time Ryder meets with Foster Addison she’ll complain about the headaches that come from having a violent, temperamental person like that as an ambassador… before noting it’s worth it to see the look on Director Tann’s face every time Morda starts Flipping the Table at him.
• In Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!, Larry can be part of an exercise program with Cavaricci Vuarnet. If Larry keeps grabbing at her shirt, she’ll eventually give Larry «just a quick peek» underneath it, then proceed to uppercut him into the pipes above the room, killing him instantly. The Narrator lets you know Larry thought it was worth it.
• In Portal 2, it comes up much later — naturally, from GLaDOS. Though she’s trying to help Chell out against Wheatley, and she admits that her actions probably are bringing them closer to destruction, it was still worth seeing him getting electrocuted.

  GLaDOS: I know we’re in a lot of trouble and probably about to die… but that was worth it.

• In League of Legends Champion Spotlight videos, Riot Games staff member Phreak is rather notorious for using the phrase «worth it», specifically whenever he gets killed in exchange for landing a kill of his own.
• This is the name of the Halo: Reach Noble Pack achievement for earning a Double Kill from the Grave (two quick kills after you’ve died).
• During the Horde Hillsbrade Foothills quests in World of Warcraft, you fight alongside Kingslayer Orkus, who says, among other things:

  Did I ever tell you about the time I met Varok Saurfang? I asked him to sign my massive pectoral muscles. He backhanded me instead, which is why I sometimes forget things now. It was totally worth it.

• The last words of The Devourlord in the demon path’s bad ending in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters‘ after having unmade Haephnes and Drazil and thus the basis for its own existence.
• Reyson from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, normally a Non-Action Guy to the nth degree, once punched Duke Oliver of Begnion in the face. Oliver was only slightly bruised by the strike, while Reyson broke every bone in his hand.

  Ike: «…But it felt good, didn’t it?»
  Reyson: «Oh yeah.»

• Varric considers it to have been worth the trouble in Dragon Age: Inquisition when, upon finishing the next book in his Old Shame Swords and Shields romance serial, he sees Cassandra’s reaction to being given a sneak peek pre-editing copy.

  «Ah. Completely worth it.»

• You can kill off an enemy in Verdun even when you’re dead, normally by priming a grenade and the enemy walking over it unwittingly, or by artillery, or even by chemical warfare. The achievement, amusingly enough, is titled Worth It. And it absolutely is.
• In The Sexy Brutale‘s backstory, a casino guard caught Trinity cheating at cards. That was how she met Clay, the guy she would fall in love with and marry.
• Mega Man X4: Magma Dragoon, a Blood Knight Maverick Hunter turned traitor destroyed the Sky Lagoon (and thus started the mess of plot events) under Sigma’s suggestion so that it would goad X into fighting him. If the player as X defeats him and damages him fatally, his last words are that it was worth doing that for a final battle.

  Magma Dragoon: «… was worth it… for a final duel…»

• Parodied in Henry Stickmin Series when Henry is asked to destroy a SAM turret targeting his partner Charles. Henry can ignore Charles in order to chow down on a cupcake. The failure screen simply says «Worth.»
• In Genshin Impact, Klee has a habit of using her bombs to fish, which often results in the Knights of Favonius putting her in solitary confinement. In one of her idle lines, she says that it’s worth it because the fish gathered through that method just taste that good.

• Red vs. Blue:
  • Happens in episode 59. The team approaches the alien, whom they assume kills and eats people.

    Tex: Alright screw it. You guys get behind me, and stay tight.
    Tucker: Bow Chika Bow Wow.
    Tex: Never mind, Tucker’s in front.
    Tucker: Meh, it was worth it.
  • Sarge apparently says this at the end of anything that involves Grif almost dying, including spying on the Blues and cleaning up the base.
• In TOME, during the Gemini Tournament, Saturn-Diva gets continuously annoyed at Foreva making random references during the fights. When she had enough of it, she decides to take Foreva out of the fighting area along with her, yelling «totally worth it!» as they both fall out of the arena.
• Mastermind: One of the Mastermind’s minions dooms his last chance of not being blown up in Finland. Judging by the looks on his colleagues’ faces, they seem to agree it was Worth It.

  Minion: I-I-I thought your speech was good, sir.
  [Beat]
  Mastermind: Really? You thought it was—
  Minion: BALLS!
  [Mastermind vaporizes Finland]

• How It Should Have Ended:
  • In an episode for season 1 of Game of Thrones, rather than being stopped by the Hound, Sansa kicks Joffrey in the groin then knocks him off the bridge Mortal Kombat style. Of course, Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs and the end of the episode shows her head stuck on a spike next to her father’s. The disembodied head manages to whisper «Totally worth it» as the episode comes to a close. Link.
  • In the episode dealing with X-Men: Days of Future Past, the general Mystique would impersonate in the movie proper uttered «It was worth it» as his last line before slipping into unconsciousness after saying he still thought Mystique was hot in her true mode, and she entered Pervert Revenge Mode and kicked his ass.
• In Bonus Stage, upon meeting Cassidy, Joel comments «No wonder you’re so butch«. He’s promptly flung into a wall and flattened but claims «the inevitable t-shirt sales will have made that worth it».
• The Father Tucker short «Come Let Us Adore Him» ends with Father Tucker going straight to Hell for molesting Baby Jesus. He simply sniffs his thumb and states that it was all worth it.
• An episode of Helluva Boss has Blitzo say this word for word after burning down a theme park linked to his Dark and Troubled Past.

• The front image is from League of Super Redundant Heroes with the Buckaress working in a Hooters’ style restaurant.◊ The funny part about it is that it happened earlier.
• When Marten slaps Faye’s ass in Questionable Content. Gasping up from the floor afterwards: «I may have a fractured skull, but my point is proven! Also, did you see how her butt jiggled? Totally worth it.»
• The Order of the Stick
• Girl Genius: This is Agatha’s attitude in the Cinderella play to being grounded. Of course, she was grounded after tricking Mamma Gkika’s character into putting her fist through a hive of specially-bred quilting bees.
  • Klaus after having himself dragged from his near-death bed to watch Gil take down an army of battle-clanks, single-handed:

    Dr. Sun: I hope it was worth it.
    Klaus: Anything — being paralyzed for life — would be an acceptable price for seeing what I have seen my son do today. Oh yes.

  • More Played for Laughs, but Gil finds out that Tarvek helped arrange a meeting between one of Gil’s heroes growing up and himself… timed such that Gil was naked at the time. Gil plans on giving Tarvek to Bang for the «naked» part. Tarvek responds with this trope.
• In Ansem Retort, after it’s shown that Aerith totally has Axel whipped, Axel turns to the group, and warns them that if a single one of them makes the whip noise, he will figure out a way to kill them with a flower necklace. Riku makes the noise. Axel hangs him. With the necklace. Apparently, Riku thinks that it was worth it.
• Black Mage says this or something similar nearly every time he apparently succeeds in killing one of his «teammates» in 8-Bit Theater. Since he is the universe’s Butt-Monkey, though, it never sticks.

  Black Mage: What’s with this we business? Last time I checked, watching Elf Land and everyone in it rot away had nothing but positive effects on my life.

  Thief: [Snip] Elf Land would only be the first to be affected by the earth rot. All lands would soon befall the same fate.

  Black Mage: Long as Elf Land goes first, I win.

• One VG Cats strip brings up some helpful hints for playing X-Men Legends II, and recommends silencing Gambit’s annoying distress call by sacrificing yourself as Nightcrawler.
• In I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space!!!, two of the Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space voice this opinion while running from a god’s harem where their companions are all being killed for being naughty with the sun god’s girlfriends.
• The Whiteboard:
• Awkward Zombie has a Kingdom Hearts strip in which Sora built the Gummi ship entirely out of guns, making it totally unsuitable as a ship.
• In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, when the strip returns after a decade-long hiatus, Jean punches Voluptua, something she’d been dying to do ever since the last panel of the previous version of the strip. Jean: «That was worth waiting a decade for!»
• A Blade Bunny guest strip discusses other animal/ninja hybrids. The praying mantis ninja girl is rejected due to a headless man holding a sign saying Worth It.
• If you happen to be one of the Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, sometimes the severe injuries you get to achieve that awesome Unflinching Walk shot are totally worth it.
• Deconstructed in Gunnerkrigg Court. When Kat accidentally destroys some robot parts while trying to impress her girlfriend, it’s initially presented as a wacky shenanigan that turns out for the best. It’s later revealed that this mistake (and even Kat saying that it was all Worth It) has much darker consequences.
• In one of the D&D sessions in Weregeek the party has been captured by elves. They are forced to march for so long that the more frail party members are beginning to collapse from exhaustion. When one of the elven guards began acting like a stereotypical smug elf at their apparent weakness Dustin’s paladin tries to resist exploding in anger by remembering his paladin vows in which he must respect other races. When Sarah reminds him that his vows don’t actually mean he has to respect other races, in the very next panel the elf has a black eye and Dustin is in stocks. It was worth it.
• In Random Encounter, after Claw gets her throat slit — fatally but for her Resurrective Immortality — to protect Paige, her response to seeing the scar left for the first time is «totally worth it.»
• In Narbonic, Dave has this attitude towards dating Helen.

  Dave: (smiling) «I expect to be dead within the week and I don’t care.»

• Zebra Girl: Approached by a Giant Mook, Sandra fights back by throwing hot coffee at his crotch, he then throws her off a roof. Sandra says it was worth it.
• Casey and Andy Andy angers Mary by repeatedly making jokes about her having a big ass. The last panel is him upside down over a large fire.

  Casey: Was it worth it?

  Andy: Yep!

• Freefall Sam Starfall, a scavenger and petty thief, arrives at this conclusion following some headache-inducing logic here.
• Nefarious stages a raid on the castle to save his niece from Child Protection Services and her abusive birth parents, only to lose his giant robot and gain an undesired arranged marriage with a psychotic princess. His brother then has a delayed Cuteness Proximity reuniting with his stepdaughter.

  Crow: Worth.
• Twisted Tropes: Jon makes Garfield a lasagna, only to discover ALF visibly eating him and calls services. Alf thinks the taste was worth the cost.

• When the Freelance Astronauts did their Let’s Play of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, actions that resulted in another player dying at the cost of the perpetrator’s own are met with this reaction. Usually by pipes!.
• Two Best Friends Play has this in their Captain America video,

  Matt: So Pat, you’ve woken up after being frozen for 70 years in the Arctic Circle, and everyone that you gave a shit about and everyone who gave a shit about you is dead, would you be filled with despair?
  Pat: I don’t know, are you dead?
  Matt: Well, I-
  Pat: Totally worth it!

• In Retsupurae‘s Dark Seed II Wrongpurae, slowbeef (who knows the game) and Diabetus (who doesn’t) are getting increasingly frustrated with the longplayer’s needless backtracking and repetition and general boredom. Then this happens Mike’s mother’s head explodes for no reason. slowbeef’s initial reaction: «I’ve been waiting six fucking hours! I’ve been waiting six fuckin’ hours for that to happen!» He then said the entire point of the wrongpurae was to see Diabetus’ reaction to that scene, and that it was all Worth It.
• Way back in the third episode of Achievement Hunter’s Let’s Play Minecraft series, Geoff and Gavin created the entirety of Achievement City, spending twenty hours building the entire thing from the ground up (mind, this was before Creative Mode was available for the Xbox 360 Edition) for the sole purpose of tricking Jack’s character into getting hit with lava in his house. They think it was Worth It.
• In the Honest Trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, they loudly proclaim that the DLC Dragonborn, which allows your character to ride dragons, is WORTH IT!
• In a game of Worms 2: Armageddon between four of the Sidemen, Ethan, Simon and Josh decide to airstrike Vik’s worm Dora at the top of the map away from a cluster of worms that were also at the top. When it was Josh’s turn to deliver the final blow, he contemplated on attacking either the cluster or one of Simon’s close-by worms Eric instead. Simon made a deal with Josh saying that if his worm fucks Dora with one last airstrike, then Simon will deliberately cause Eric to jump into the water below and drown on his next turn. Josh does so and Simon holds up his end of the deal, saying that it was so Worth It.
• The Mighty Jingles often says this if he destroys an opponent at the cost of himself, especially if it’s by ramming them.

• Futurama:
  • All over the place in the episode «Amazon Women in the Mood». Fry, Kif, and Zapp Brannigan are sentenced to «death by snu-snu» with giant Amazon women. We see three skeletons of former victims with crushed pelvises and extremely satisfied expressions. Kif is the only one to object.
  • Afterward, with his and Zapp Brannigan’s lower halves in full casts, Fry declares that incident their Best Adventure Ever.

    Zapp: (contently) I had snu-snu.

• During Family Guy, when Bertram travels through time to murder Leonardo Da Vinci, Stewie and Brian warn him that doing so would result in the destruction of the universe and Bertram would be destroyed as well. For a moment, Bertram thinks about it and decides it’s worth it and kills Leonardo.
• The Simpsons:
  • A fairly sweet example occurred in a flashback episode where Marge and Homer were describing how they met. They had detention together, and Homer kept on introducing himself to Marge despite Principal Dondalinger giving him more detention with every word he spoke. Finally he got to the last word of his sentence, and then bellowed at Dondalinger «It was worth it!»
  • In a later episode, Nelson had the same sentiment when laughing at Bart subsequently led to him crashing his bike into a tree.
  • Another example involving Nelson was where he messed Bart’s science project — a model of the human digestive system — causing the entire school bus to overflow with goo.
  • Played straight and cynically lampshaded in «Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy», which features this exchange when Lisa sees only one girl has bought the new Lisa Lionheart doll.

    Lisa: Y’know, if we get through to just that one little girl, it’ll all be worth it.
    Stacy Lovell: Yes. Particularly if that little girl happens to pay $46,000 for that doll.
    Lisa: What?
    Stacy: Oh, nothing. Kudos to you, Lisa! Kudos.

• South Park
  • In «Casa Bonita», where Cartman is told by the police he «caused a whole town to panic, alienated his friends, and is now going to juvenile hall for a week», all in the name of going to the eponymous establishment. When asked if it was all worth it, Cartman simply replies «…totally.»
  • Also, in «Super Fun Time», with the professional thieves.
• Sealab 2021. «Stormy» Waters in the episode «The Policy»:

  Debbie: Stormy, not another word out of you. Period.
  Stormy: (Dramatic Pause) …Speaking of period…

  (Jump Cut to Stormy hanging in chains in a dungeon.)

  Stormy: It was totally worth it!

• Subverted in an episode of Squidbillies. After getting computers (yes, full-sized computers) implanted in his head for a free satin tote (for the nausea!) Early gets a brief stinger after the credits, vomiting and declaring «Not worth it!»
• In the Tom and Jerry short «The Million-Dollar Cat» Tom inherits a million dollars^note — on the condition that he does not harm another creature, «not even a mouse», for as long as he lives. Cue Jerry taking advantage of this clause to make sure Tom can’t enjoy his new fortune. At the end of the cartoon, Tom finally hits his Rage-Breaking Point and attacks Jerry, Breaking the Fourth Wall to actually speak:
• The Penguins of Madagascar: one episode ended with the world buried in ice after Skipper told Kowalski to make something less dangerous like a snow cone machine. We see Skipper yelling with despair about how Kowalski «finally did it», and Kowalski then shows up and says «but you’ve gotta admit, these are good snow cones» after scraping some ice off the ground. Skipper’s response? «right, totally worth it».
• Regular Show:
  • In «Don», when Benson asks if someone knows an accountant. He then threatens to fire Muscle Man if he mentions his mom. He does anyway.

    Muscle Man: I know someone who can help.
    Benson: If you say «your mom,» you’re fired.
    Muscle Man: My Mom!!
    Benson: GET OUT!
    Muscle Man: It was worth it!

  • Done in «One Pull Up» where Eileen helps Rigby, who overgrew his muscles with a machine (long story), reach the chin-up bar so he can perform one to keep his job. Afterward, he’s being wheeled to the hospital and thanks her, offering to hug her though she doesn’t wish to accidentally crush her spine. She lets him do it anyway, citing it was «worth it».
• ThunderCats (2011) has this in the episode «Between Brothers», where General Grune’s personal philosophy (as explained by Panthro) is «To defeat the enemy, any sacrifice is worth it.» Grune gets this thrown right in his face at the end of the episode when Panthro sacrifices his own arms in order to trap Grune in the Astral Plane; afterwards, Panthro mutters «Worth It» before passing out.
• In the first episode of The Legend of Zelda (1989), Link asks himself why he gave up the exciting life of an adventurer to live in a boring castle. Then, he looks out the window and sees Princess Zelda in a revealing nightgown. «Well, there is one reason…»
• One American Dad! episode has Stan (a CIA agent) meeting with his boss in Japan, where they both dress up as geishas. When Stan asks why they’re meeting under such weird circumstances, his boss says, «Because I thought we could be secret Asians.»

  Stan: A 16-hour flight for a bad pun? (Beat) Yes. Yes.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Doctor Doofenschmirtz claims the machine he made to make a game of golf go by faster has a chance of destroying the Universe. He says, «But a game of golf? Totally worth it».
  • In the episode «Act Your Age», after basically spending her whole life wishing for it, Isabella comments that finally being kissed by Phineas was worth the wait.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Squidward in «Little Yellow Book» when he read SpongeBob’s «personal» diary, even though he’s being shackled and pelted with tomatoes for doing so.
  • «Mermaid Man And Barnacle Boy III» had Man Ray being tortured with a tickle belt every time he misbehaved. While beating up Patrick he says, «It tickles, but it’s worth it!».
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • This is zig-zagged in one episode when Grim and Billy get the devious idea of putting the Mask of the Beast on Mandy; the mask sticks to the wearer and turns into a hideous monster each time they are rude and malicious (and by being civil and polite reversing). Grim tells Billy beforehand that he knows they’re going to pay dearly for this, but it’s going to be worth it. Turns out to be true enough; at the end of the episode, after the two of them have only made it worse by mocking her, she’s become a demonic donkey-like creature, and has tied them up, and is kicking them both in the behinds. Grim still says it was probably worth it, but says he just hopes they both «don’t have to sit down for a couple of weeks.»
  • Mandy herself in that same episode also counts. She’s told up front by Grim that she’ll only change if she continues to be cruel and mean. She tries to not be mean for a while but soon reaches her limit and attacks the two. She’s last shown fully transformed, but clearly prefers it to serving Billy and Grim.
• The final scene for «Honey’s Money». Apparently, unlike Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam has no problem at all being a henpecked house-husband for five million.
  • Which makes the ending of «Hare Trimmed,» in which a «Local Widow Inherits $50 Million Dollars» all the funnier. Not knowing Bugs is portraying the «widow,» he promptly runs off without looking back. Averted, in other words.
  • Another Looney Tunes example: in the Pepe Le Pew cartoon «Wild Over You», Pepe mistakes a painted wildcat for a female skunk. After being mauled repeatedly, Pepe invokes this trope:

    «I ask myself, Pepe, is it worth it? And I answer myself, Yes, Yes, Pepe, IT IS WORTH IT! VIVE L’AMOUR!»

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): During the third season finale, the Foot Clan and the Turtles form an Enemy Mine to stop the Triceratons from destroying the Earth. At a crucial moment, however, Shredder literally stabs Splinter In the Back, killing him and dooming the world. While Tiger Claw is horrified, Shredder takes the time to gloat over finally beating Splinter:

  Shredder: Hamato Yoshi is finished! The Earth can be destroyed for all I care! I have finally won!

• In the Donald Duck short «Bellboy Donald», Donald has to put up with a sadistic little kid while being threatened with termination if he lays so much as one finger on him. Once he has been pushed way beyond the brink of tolerance, Donald accepts his firing with manic glee and begins spanking the living hell out of the brat.

  Donald: Am I fired?
  Manager: Yes, you’re fired!
  Donald: That’s all I needed to know!

• A classic Woody Woodpecker cartoon featured Woody as babysitter to a full-grown toddler gorilla. After enduring some humiliating punishment from the gorilla, Woody moans «Is this worth fifty bucks? (brightening suddenly) YEAH!!»
• In «Traditions» from Rugrats (2021), Angelica scares Chuckie with a tale of giant flying zombie deers, causing him to go hide in a closet. She then comments to her Cynthia doll that if Santa is watching, they may as well kiss the Glitterglamper Van goodbye. «But it was totally worth it.»
• Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race: In «A Tisket A Gasket Im Gonna Blow A Gadget», Crimson says this when she and Innui get a time penalty for switching places during the coffin challenge.