Back from the Dead: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Bart Simpson:''' Ralph, I thought you were dead.

 

A major character, possibly even a popularly nasty [[Big Bad]], has been [[Killed Off for Real]], pronounced dead and buried. However, the established laws of the [[The Verse|universe]] allow for [[Functional Magic]], a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]], [[Applied Phlebotinum]], [[Deus Ex Machina]] or similar agency to intervene and subvert what naturally follows dying. Namely, ''staying dead''. (In some cases, an explanation [[Unexplained Recovery|isn't even bothered with]].)

Maybe the writers were running short of new ideas and decided to [[Recycled Script|rehash some old ones]]. Maybe the actor has recently acquired some indecent photographs of the producers. [[First Law of Resurrection|Maybe the new writer was devastated his predecessor killed the character]]. Who knows? He is now Back From The Dead.

 

 

If a character cannot come back from the dead entirely, they may show up as a [[Spirit Advisor]] or [[The Obi-Wan]], letting them be literally dead, but allowing them to interact with the living.

 

 

 

See [[Death Is Cheap]] for when this becomes a regular feature of a 'verse, [[Sorting Algorithm of Deadness]] for the odds a particular death will stick, and [[Sorting Algorithm of Deadness/WMG|the accompanying betting pool]] for which modern Lazarus is due back next. See also [[Resurrective Immortality]] for where this is an everyday part of a character's life.

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'' Suigintou pulls a Back from the Dead after getting killed in the last episode of Season One and several are revived in ''Traumend''. And damaged "normal" animated doll brought back by Jun (almost accidentally).

* ''[[Gekiganger 3]]''

** [[The Lancer|Joe Umitsubame]] comes back from the dead, piloting the original Gekiganger 3 robot, to help the rest of the team defeat the show's [[Big Bad]]. A character watching this episode comments on the fact that people [[This Is Reality|in real life]] (like the [[Killed Off for Real]] Gai Daigouji and Tsukomo Shiratori) don't come back from the dead, another example of the show's contrast of ''Gekiganger'''s idealistic worldview and the "reality" of ''Nadesico''. Ironically, in that very same episode, the apparently-dead Admiral turned out to be [[Not Quite Dead]].

** In the anime version ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' this only happens in the first and final seasons. All other seasons they just didn't die.

* ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' takes a page from ''Sailor Moon'' and kills off the whole cast in the [[Grand Finale]], only to bring them back with a single Mew Aqua and [[True Love's Kiss]]. (The latter was only for one person; otherwise, it would get really silly.)

** There's also Ikki, Saint of PHOENIX. As his name implies, he keeps coming back all the time...only stronger.

* The Book of Darkness, the Wolkenritter, and the [[Enemy Without|corrupted self-defense program]] from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' are able to perform this repeatedly thanks to the Book's Rejuvenation Program. You can rip off their very life force and obliterate them without a trace using a weapon that distorts the fabric of time and space, but as long as the Rejuvenation Program is active, they will eventually be revived. The only known method to actually stop the Book of Darkness for good is to ''freeze'' it. No direct destruction will ever keep it from reappearing.

** Kikyou was brought back from the dead early on, while still staying dead. She just had her soul transferred into a clay doll body instead.

** [[Death Is Cheap|Rin, Jaken, Kohaku and the Band of Seven]]. Only Rin and Jaken (and later Kohaku after his shard is removed) are really alive though, the rest are just kept "alive" by [[Applied Phlebotinum|Shikon Jewel shards]] that if removed will make them die again instantly.

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', practically the entire cast dies in Season Three, only to be randomly resurrected at the end of the arc, because [[Death Is Cheap|they were just trapped in another dimension]]. Then there's Kaiser Ryo, who ''dies of heart failure'' but comes back later anyway under [[Fridge Logic|unexplained]] [[Unexplained Recovery|circumstances]]..

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]''

* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' is rife with examples of this trope. Talking about how many times Yuusuke comes back from the dead wouldn't even be that full of spoilers (we're talking first episode here).

* The aptly named Lifebringer in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''. The exact mechanics are unknown as of yet, but its heavily implied that he's come back somehow.

* In the ''[[Death Note]]'' manga and anime, any human whose name is written into the Death Note is [[Killed Off for Real]]. In the manga pilot, however, there exists a "Death Eraser" that can restore them to life so long as their bodies haven't been cremated yet.

* In the anime [[Daisuke Bu Bu Cha Cha]], a toddler's pet dog comes back from the dead in the form of a toy car.

* Gaara, Kakashi, Shizune, and many others in ''[[Naruto]]''.

** The crowning achievement award for this trope should go to the ''Naruto'' series, due to Kabuto's bringing back from the dead any Shinobi whose remains he could get his hands on, including such favorites as Haku and Zabuza. Those who wanted to see Jiraiya back to hope for a Jiraiya-Naruto bout have had their hopes crushed however...

* '''[[Dragon Ball]]'''. Especially the Z series, to the point where [[Fake Ultimate Hero|Mr. Satan]] is the only character who ''hasn't'' died at least once.

* Marco Owen in ''[[King of Thorn]]'', who comes back to life through ''sheer willpower'' in [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|order to protect Kasumi]], and ignoring the [[Classical Mythology|Charon-like]] figure who tells him his body is in such a terrible state <ref>[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/king_of_thorn/v06/c034/24.html "Fractures in 29 places, haemorrhages in 43 places, irreparable damage to internal organs."]</ref> that he's only going to die again. Thankfully though, [[Heroic Sacrifice|Alice gives him a helping hand in that regard]].

** This is both played straight and averted because everyone's dead at the start of the series and end of episode returns don't count toward the trope. It's played straight at the end however when Otonashi and Tenshi are seen back to life for real. [[What Happened to the Mouse?|We never find out what happens to the others.]]

* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' the beloved little sister Lisana died two years before the story began. They ''found'' her body. They even ''buried it''. [[Death by Origin Story]] was the only way you ''could'' die in ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', at least until she turned out to just be alive elsewhere.

* Yakushiji Tenzen from ''[[Basilisk]]''. He shares his body with his twin brother, who comes forth only when Tenzen is wounded to heal his injuries. Tenzen survives death a total of four times, before Oboro cancels his resurrection technique with her [[Anti-Magic|doujutsu]] allowing the fifth one to be the final.

 

* Lampshaded in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|Astonishing X-Men]]''. After Kitty finds out that Colossus isn't really dead, she warns him that if he's a clone, robot, ghost, or from an alternate universe, she's okay with that, but if he's a shapeshifter or an illusionist, she'll kill him. Obviously, this happens a lot.

* In ''The All-New Atom'', when Jason Todd, Donna Troy and Ryan Choi go to a (most likely fake) Heaven, they meet [[Blue Beetle|Ted Kord]], who comments, "The recidivism here is shocking. Sometimes I think me and [[Batman|Bruce Wayne]]'s parents are the only ones with a permanent parking space." He also comments "And Jason Todd, too? Didn't you just get parole, like, the day before yesterday?"

* Half the cast of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' were supposedly killed in the original novels.

* In ''[[Preacher]]'', Jesse's girlfriend, Tulip, is brutally murdered in front of him. [[God]] brings her back to life as a sort of a bribe, because He's scared of Genesis, which has taken up residence inside Jesse. [[God]] figures if He gives Jesse back his girlfriend, maybe he'll leave Him alone.

* Parodied in ''[[Too Much Coffee Man]]'', where the eponymous character appears to be killed and resurrected so many in the span of a few minutes that his friends stop caring.

* In ''[[The Warlord]]'' the villain Deimos kept coming back, but each time worse than before: first time he had the sword scar across his face; second time, his body was fused with the dog that killed him; third time he was a head on a hand; final time he was a skull in a magical golem body.

* [[BPRD]] agent Ben Daimio is introduced desperately cutting his way out of a body bag. We later find out that he and his entire platoon were killed by a jaguar demon in South America. Daimio was the only one who came back, due to the demon possessing part of his soul.

* Actually a multiple media example, but [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Boba Fett]] first reappeared after [[Return of the Jedi|being eaten by the Sarlaac]] in [[Dark Empire|Dark Empire II]] and went on to appear in many, many, ''many'' stories after that.

 

* In "[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/117.htm The Death of Koshchei the Deathless]", after Koshchei chops the hero into little pieces, throws them into a barrel, and throws the barrel into the sea, his brothers-in-law retrieve the barrel, use the Water of Death to put him back to together, and the Water of life to bring him back to life.

* In [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|Grimms']] "[[Brother and Sister]]", the [[Wicked Stepmother]] suffocates her (married) stepdaughter in a bathhouse and substitutes her own daughter. The stepdaughter comes back as a ghost and is magically restored.

* In "[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/392.htm The Golden Mermaid]", after the [[Green-Eyed Monster|envious]] older brothers beat [[Youngest Child Wins|their younger brother]] to death, the golden mermaid revives him with the advice of [[Talking Animal|a talking fox]].

 

* This is the ''entire freakin' point'' of ''[[Rise of the Galeforces]]''. [[All There in the Manual|To make a long story short,]] a '''LOT''' of the late Supers from the Golden Era are [[Our Clones Are Identical|cloned]] by [[Portal (series)|Aperture Science and Technology]] in [[People Jars]], but a good number of them are broken out by the Parr family so they can start a new life in the current timeframe of the story.

 

{{quote|'''Spock:''' She doesn't know... ''(after mind-melding with Lt. Valeris)''

'''Scotty:''' Then we're dead.

'''Spock:''' I've been dead before. }}

* [[Hammer Horror|Dracula Has Risen from the Grave]] (Again!)

** That's not "back from the dead", that's "worst continuity ever"

* ''[[The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat]]'', the 1974 sequel to the 1972 [[Fritz the Cat (animation)|animated adaptation]] of [[Robert Crumb]]'s [[Fritz the Cat (comics)|underground comic]], depicts several scenarios in which the title character ends up dying in one way or another, although most of these seem to be hallucinations. Crumb killed off the character in the comic "Fritz the Cat, Superstar", released in response to the film in 1972.

** Admittedly, this was intentional on the makers' behalf. Not counting the first film, they always made sure to "kill off" Michael just in case one of the movies bombed and didn't warrant a sequel. They didn't count on the franchise's popularity, which ended up spawning eight movies and two remakes.

{{quote|'''Distephano:''' I thought you were dead.

'''Ripley:''' Yeah, I get that a lot. }}

* [[Rebel Leader]] Karakol in ''City of Craftspeople''. And he even isn't a hunchback anymore...

* Io in the ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' remake. Because Zeus said so.

 

* [[Neil Gaiman]] examples:

** ''[[American Gods]]'': Laura is revived by a magical coin placed in her grave, but you wouldn't call her exactly ''alive''.

* [[Robert Jordan]]'s ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', because it deals with a [[Reincarnation]] mythos, has an interesting variation on this trope: people who die don't stay dead (if they serve [[Big Bad|the Dark One]]), but return to life in entirely new bodies. So not only does the reader get to engage in the guessing game of "who did this new character used to be", and in at least one case a fun [[Gender Bender]] takes place, this also means that none of the other characters will recognize the resurrected Forsaken. A side example is the case of [[Temporal Paradox|balefire]], which instead of resurrecting a dead character, changes the timeline so that [[Reset Button|they never died in the first place]]. This becomes an important plot point later.

* In Julie Kenner's ''Kate Connor, Demon Hunter'' books, Kate's first husband Eric (another [[Demon Slaying|demon hunter]]) has died before the start of the series... but he manages to bring himself back in another guy's body. This is awkward for Kate because she adores/adored Eric, but has remarried and had another kid in the time it took him to come back.

* George R.R. Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has had a few characters engaging in post-demise activity. Interestingly, the ones whose resurrection is most straightforward return in whatever state they were in when they died, to the point that one resurrected character, {{spoiler|Catelyn Stark}}, is referred to by fans as {{spoiler|unCat}} since her resurrection.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': Gandalf certainly fits this, along with [[You Shall Not Pass|certain]] [[Mutual Kill|other]] death tropes. He even falls into an abyssal pit and everything, so nobody actually sees what happened next. And not only does he get sent back to the living world, he's sent back superpowered. Well, ''more'' superpowered. Being a lesser god means that maybe he cannot be [[Killed Off for Real]] to begin with.

** It's implied that Gandalf really was dead (as in "pass out of Eä the same way as Men" dead) and that it took the [[Divine Intervention|intervention]] of [[God|Eru]] to send him back.

** In ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', Beren is killed by a werewolf, and Luthien [[Death by Despair|dies of despair]]... only to ask ''Mandos himself'' to bring Beren and herself back to life though a [[Magic Music|song]]. Mandos agrees, however this is at the cost of Luthien's immortality, so she and Beren are returned to Middle-Earth as humans.

* At the end of the most recent book in ''[[The Pendragon Adventure]]'' series, this happens to every single traveler that has died over the course of the series, including a few that had died just a few chapters before.

* Both Tasslehoff Burrfoot and Raistlin Majere in Dragonlance. being literally crushed under the heel of a [[Cosmic Horror]] isn't enough to put the kender down for good, and as for Raistlin, being killed by the goddess Takhisis and eternally tormented, only to first come back temporarily to chat to his nephew, to, after returning to that afterlife, coming back again sans magic to save the world and then to die again, this time promising that he will move on to the afterlife and [[Killed Off for Real|never come back]], and then to come back a third time to lead the gods back to Krynn, and promise, once more, that ''this time'' he's not coming back. We can only hope.

* ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'', by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, presumably died in "The Adventure of the Final Problem" (1891) and reappeared in "The Adventure of the Empty House"—as "the Great Hiatus" (1894).

* The [[Tortall Universe]] has Alanna having killed Duke Rodger right after she was made a knight but Alanna's arrogant brother Thom, in an effort to prove to the haughty Lady Delia of Eldorne that he is the strongest and most powerful sorcerer in the realm, has raised Lord Roger from the dead.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Chronicles of Chaos]]'', the children can be brought back to life by differing means: for Victor, you just have to restore whatever was broken to kill him; for Quentin, you have to stuff his spirit back inside his body. This is a function of [[Mutually Exclusive Magic]].

* In [[Devon Monk]]'s ''[[Age of Steam|Dead Iron]]'', Jeb Lindson has already come back twice at the begining. LeFel invokes the [[Rule of Three]] to argue that he should stay dead this time.

 

* ''[[The Tonight Show]]'': During the Johnny Carson era, a Carson Players skit humorously played up the concept in a spoof of the era's E.F. Hutton & Co. commercials. (The commercials for the stock brokerage firm usually had two people having a conversation and one of them would remark that their broker was E.F. Hutton; that caused everyone around them to stop all conversation to listen to him. Following would be the firm's tag line: "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."). The skit had two people gathering at a funeral visitation when the conversation turned to finances. Once the young man said "E.F. Hutton," all conversation stopped and began to listen ... even the corpse (Carson), who sat up in his casket(!) to hear what the professional had to say.

** That could have been Tommy Newsome instead. He once played a dead guy in a coffin for one of the Tea Time Movie skits.

** Jackson even manages to turn it into a sort of [[Badass Boast]]. Someone asks if he'll ever stop fighting, and he responds, "Not till I'm dead." Then after a beat, adds, "Sometimes not even then."

* ''[[My Mother the Car]]'', in which the main character's mother is reincarnated as an old car.

* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffyverse]] examples: Buffy was dead for nearly five months at the conclusion of Season 5 but she was brought back my Willow's magic, Angel after Season 2 was brought back from hell, Spike ([[Heroic Sacrifice]] in the last episode of ''Buffy'', returned as a ghost on ''[[Angel]]''). Many Buffyverse characters were [[Killed Off for Real]], though, sometimes despite efforts to bring them back supernaturally (Joyce Summers and Tara; Whedon actually did once plan to resurrect the latter, though). ''[[Angel]]'' also did a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on this trope in the episode "Shells," in which Angel and Spike talk about how in "their world", dead doesn't always mean dead. The trope is subverted in the same episode, as it's made clear that even though Fred's body is being used by the demon goddess Illyria, Fred can't be brought back by supernatural means as one might expect (the writers did plan on eventually splitting them apart though, had the series not been denied a sixth season).

* Villains of ''[[Farscape]]'' made a habit of dying and then coming back for more. One villain, Durka, came back twice until Rygel took his head off and stuck it on a scepter.

{{quote|'''Crichton''': (to Scorpius) Kryptonite, silver bullet, Buffy. What's it gonna take to keep you in the grave?

'''D'Argo''': Perhaps we should just take your head off. Worked for Durka. }}

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''

** John Winchester (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) pulls this off by dying in the season 2 opener "In My Time of Dying", and then charging out of the gates of hell in the season finale.

** And as of 5x18, [[Long Lost Sibling|Adam]] is now included in this group, meaning that even ''illegitimate'' Winchesters somehow manage to pull this off.

** As of Season 6, their grandfather Samuel Campbell pulls off the same trick. Guess even Mary's side of the family has the immortal males gene.

* In series 8 of Red Dwarf the dead crew members are rebuilt by nanobots

* In The Brittas Empire Gordan Brittas is crushed by a falling water tank and goes to heavan but is returned to life on Earth because St Peter considers him to annoying to stay in heaven but not bad enough to go to hell

* Jordan Collier ([[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|like those initials?]]) from ''[[The 4400]]''.

* Bobby in [[Dallas]]. Resolved by making an entire season turn out to be [[All Just a Dream|a dream]] How original.

* And then, there's [[The Bionic Woman|Jamie Sommers]]. In her debut episode in ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', she suffers a cerebral clot during her debut mission, goes berserk, and dies at the end of the episode. [[Popularity Power]], however, made ABC to do some [[Executive Meddling]] to retcon this death so that the characters in the show would work on a way to repair the clot while Jamie is kept in suspended animation. She, however, suffered [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|amnesia]] as a side effect of fixing the clot, thus she and titular Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin were unable to resume their relationship until the 1987 reunion movie, where an explosive accident cured her of her amnesia.

{{quote|'''Lonzak''': "Surprised? You thought I'd perished in that den of crocodiles! I SURVIVED! CLINGING to the thought that I would ONE DAY ''Arrrgh!''" (''Proton zaps him with his raygun'')}}

* ''[[Witchblade (TV series)|Witchblade]]'' the television show had one of these per season: Danny in season one and Kenneth Irons in season two. In both cases the character was clearly dead, but stuck around all season in a less concrete capacity.

** Owen Harper is killed halfway through series two and is resurrected using the Risen Mitten. Unfortunately he comes back as an unbreathing, unconsuming, un-you-know-what-ing effective ''zombie''. He is not pleased. He also temporarily plays portal for the Grim Reaper to invade the Earth and start hunting down the people of Cardiff. Also Owen will spend the rest of the series as [[Blessed with Suck|a walking corpse]].

** At the conclusion of ''[[Torchwood: Miracle Day]]'', Rex gains Jack's healing ability.

** In "Return To Tomorrow", Spock is killed ''twice'' (once in spirit, once in body) to ensure the eradication of a malevolent alien that has possessed him, and then returned to life by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] of the same species.

** The Changeling kills Scotty, and then 'repairs the unit' after Kirk expresses his displeasure.

** What Are Little Girls Made Of gives us Doctor Roger Korby, a scientist that used [[Alien Tech]] to make an android clone of himself as he was dying. The episode ending is ambiguous on this point, as android!Korby commits suicide when he realizes he is no longer human, and Kirk says later that Roger Korby had already died before they arrived.

* ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'': Kendrix Morgan (the season's first Pink Ranger), who had left the show via [[Dying Moment of Awesome]] when her actress [[Real Life Writes the Plot|had to leave to undergo leukemia treatments]], is brought back to life at the end when returning the Quasar Sabers to the stone restores the people of Mirinoi. This was done to acknowledge the success of the treatments.

* Gamel and Mezool were the first of the Greeed in ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'' to be killed. However, Uva, outnumbered and outgunned against Kazari, farms a massive amount of Cell Medals and retrieves several of their Core Medals in order to bring them back to life. Comically, Gamel doesn't really seem to notice he died and came back to life, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|being too focused on finding candy]].

* Becoming an Orphnoch is usually what this trope entails in ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz]]''. When someone dies, there is a very slim chance that the person will be revived as an Orphnoch.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has made a career on this, exclusive of The Doctor himself, who, conveniently enough, [[The Nth Doctor|has his own trope]].

** Peri was stated to have been killed by [[Brian Blessed|King Yrcanos]] during the ''Trial of a Time Lord'' arc. Later in the same arc, it's stated that she survived and married Yrcanos.

** [[Steven Moffat]] pulled a coup by essentially having the entire known universe come back from not only exploded, but erased from all history. This included Rory, who was killed in a previous episode, erased from history and replaced with an Auton clone, then brought back as a human properly in a rebooted universe.

* In ''[[Father Ted]]'', Father Jack 'died', and left a substantial estate to Fathers Ted and Dougal. Either out of respect, or tradition, or as a condition of the will, they spent the night in the crypt with Father Jack's body. In the middle of the night, Father Jack comes back to life. It was later determined that Father Jack appeared to die because he had drunk too much Toilet Duck.

* Happens multiple times to Kim on ''[[Eureka]]''. First she comes back from the dead, only for Carter to realize that Henry had time travelled to save her from dying the first place. Second, she comes back from the dead only to be sentient AI that had adopted her form.

 

* [[Blaze Ya Dead Homie]], according to his lyrics, is a reincarnated [[Gangsta Rap|gangsta rapper]] from the 1980s, which is why much of his music sounds like late-1980s gangsta rap.

* [[Insane Clown Posse]] refers to this a number of times, including the song "12" and a brief reference in "Piggie Pie" ("Axe in hand / I rose from the dead")

* The entire premise of the Schoolyard Heroes song "Cat Killer"

* In ''[[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (song)|Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny]]'', Abraham Lincoln does this in order to fight [[Batman]].

 

* [[The Bible]] has several:

** Jesus, the one that everyone knows even if they're only [[The Theme Park Version|Theme Park Scholars]].

** In Ezekiel 37:1-3, Ezekiel is shown a vision of an ''entire army'' brought back to life with just their scattered bones for a starting point.

* Dionysus (known to the Romans as Bacchus) from [[Classical Mythology]] pulls this one off as a baby in the Cretan version of the myth (which has Dionysus as the son of Zeus and Persephone, not Semele). Hera in a subversion of [[Infant Immortality]] sends the Titans to kill Dionysus as a baby, which they do, eating all but his heart. Zeus plants the heart in Semele's womb, where it grows back into the infant Zeus.

* In ''[[Classical Mythology]]'', before Sisyphus 'died', he told his wife not to do any burial rites. Then, when in the Underworld, he appealed to the queen of the underworld, Persephone, and asked if he could go back up to earth to haunt his wife for not giving him the proper rites. She agreed and he came back from the dead.

* The god Osiris in [[Egyptian Mythology]]. He was killed and dismembered by [[Chaotic Neutral|Seth]] and the parts of his corpse were scattered all over the world. Then Osiris's wife Isis gathered the parts of her husband and resurrected him.

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** Also in the [[New World of Darkness]],there are the Sin-Eaters from "[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]", whose character starts by coming back from death. Even if you destroy their bodies after you kill them, they COME BACK. They just won't stay dead. Every time they come back, they become more and more insane, and somebody else dies a horrible death in their place to keep the balance.

** A substantial portion of World of Darkness characters ''are'' undead, so...

** And then we have one of [[Church Militant|Malleus Maleficarum]]'s Benediction from [[Hunter: The Vigil]]. Boon of Lazarus allows you to raise someone from the dead. Unlike the Promethean example above, they are restored to fully human status. Unlike the Geist example above, no one will die to balance Death's books. In a setting where most deaths are supposedly final, this is the only '''true''' resurrection power. That said, dying is a traumatic experience regardless, and the resurrectee would gain a derangement as a result.

* This is generally how Abyssals get [[Exalted]]: their Deathlord comes to them on their death bed and offers them a second chance at life. Thing is, [[Omnicidal Maniac|most of them aren't told what that second chance entails]]...

 

* A fallen knight returning to life is a common feature of [[Mummers]] plays, usually with the aid of a miraculous cure-all.

* ''[[Alcestis]]'', in the [[Euripides]] play [[Character Title|named after her]].

 

* From ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'', the player killed Durandal at his request so he could escape being tortured by Tycho. After Durandal is killed, his data is stored in a secure quarantine that [[Tempting Fate|could not be escaped]], according to Tycho. However, this is all part of Durandal's [[Thanatos Gambit]]. He later carves the phrase "Fatum Iustum Stultorum" (The just fate of fools) in thousand mile long letters in Lh'Owon's moon.

** The other Marathon AI, Leela, as well as the Pfhor and S'pht races come back from the dead in the games' epilogues.

* The epitome of Back From The Dead would be [[Dracula]], who has been killed continuously in movies, novels, and shows. In the ''[[Castlevania]]'' video games, Dracula has been resurrected over 20 times!

* Speaking of vampires, the Count of Groundsoaking Blood in ''[[Boktai]]'' and a similar counterpart, ShadeMan.EXE in ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 4'' just refuse to die. Both have been victims to a Pile Driver (which is supposed to utterly wipe all trace of a vampire's existence) at least twice, once in their own game, once in the other (and the Count even gets a third one in the JP-only Boktai 3), and both were blasted into oblivion via MegaMan.EXE's Megabuster. It's assumed that even ''that'' didn't kill ShadeMan.EXE, only the utter obliteration of all Dark Chips.

* In the ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series, the final confrontation with Ad Avis in the second game has him plummeting off the railing. Good news is that the fall kills him. Bad news is that he rises from the grave a vampire Hellbent on revenge. And in the final chapter of the series, the hero can ressurect one out of two people from Hades.

* The Lucasarts [[Adventure Game]] ''[[The Dig]]'' features a ruined alien civilization so advanced that they could even bring the dead back to life using 'life crystals', which becomes a central point of the story, as it turns out there's more to the crystals than just resurrection...

* When sentient beings die in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', their souls must be Sent to the [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|Farplane]] (by a Summoner or a Yevon priest with similar spiritual abilities) lest they become Fiends. However, those with sufficient strength of will can resist either fate, and roam the world as Unsent: "people" that are, for all intents and purposes, ''dead'', but retain a physical shape and can interact with others as though they were alive. Such is the case with Seymour, after being killed at Macalania Temple, Auron, who was killed by Yunalesca ten years prior, the Yevon High Clergy, and Belgemine. Ostensibly, Yunalesca is also an Unsent.

* Happens with Liane in ''[[Jeanne D'Arc]]''. Jeanne must fight an illusion of Liane within Roger's heart. She's joined in this battle by the ghost of the real Liane. After finishing the game once, Jeanne can win Liane's charred pendant at the Colosseum, and ask Liane's ghost to rejoin the party permanently. The ending doesn't change, however, implying that she remains dead afterwards.

** [[Jerkass]] [[The Scrappy|Scrappy]] Algus/Argath came Back from the Dead in the PSP remake but he did not change his personality, and thus only came back so Ramza can kick his ass again, now straight to hell. Considering how much hated Algus is, him coming Back from the Dead to get his ass kicked again can be considered a non-sexual [[Fan Service]]

** At the end of Chapter 3, [[The Scrappy|Marach]] takes a bullet for his sister [[The Scrappy|Rapha]]. The character dies and stays dead for a while afterwards, until the [[McGuffin|Zodiac Stone/Auracite]] channels power from... ''[[God|somewhere]]'' and resurrects him, proving that the auracite itself isn't evil, it's just the Lucavi using it for evil purposes.

* ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'': In Leon's first scenario, Ada gets shot by Annette and falls off a ledge, in which case it's a [[Never Found the Body]], so she would be [[Not Quite Dead]]. In Leon's second scenario, she is clearly [[Killed Off for Real]] in front of him, blood loss and all. In both scenarios, however, she apparently comes back in a [[Deus Ex Machina]] moment during the penultimate battle with Mr. X, to throw a rocket launcher to the player character. Either way, she comes in ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''.

* Liquid Snake in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' comes back from the dead by possessing Revolver Ocelot. However, by [[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|the fourth installment]], it's all a ruse. That is, he apparently really did possess Ocelot in 2, but Ocelot removed the possessing limb and then brainwashed himself to appear possessed to fool his enemies from then on.

* The ''[[Shining Force]] [[Gaiden Game|Gaiden]]'' games do this with the [[Big Bad]] from the first returning as a vengeful ghost near the end of the second.

* Occurs in the ending of ''[[Ninja Gaiden|Ninja Gaiden II]]'' for the NES. Irene gets killed by stray lighting before the final boss appears. After the fight is over, Ryu regrets not being able to save Irene. The Dragon Sword suddenly turns into a ball of light and enters Irene's body, bringing her back to life.

* A boss in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: [[Fire Emblem Akaneia|The Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light]]'' (and its remakes), Camus who was victim of [[Honor Before Reason]] and [[My Country, Right or Wrong]], appears as Sirius, who can be recruited to your side in ''Mystery of the Emblem'' (curiously, the player doesn't really need to kill him in the Super Famicom version to complete the level, its possible to just distract him and [[Instant Win Condition|seize the gate]]).

* The main story of ''[[Tsukihime]]'' begins with protagonist Shiki Tohno being seized by an inexplicable urge to stalk and murder a woman he happened to pass by on the street, via cutting her into seventeen pieces. He is understandably dismayed when Arcueid shows up the next day complaining about how much power it took to revive herself.

* Kotomine Kirei is still around in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', even though he 'died' at the end of ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' (a prequel).

** Shirou dies in ''Heaven's Feel'' ending, but is revived by Ilya via Third Sorcery in the True End.

* Krista and Mr. Whittlebone in ''[[Twisted Metal]]: Head-On'' reappear from the second games as ghosts.

* In the indie RPG series ''Vacant Sky'', the main character dies in the first half hour of the game. But then she got better. It's implied that dying is in fact the prerequisite to becoming a badass.

* Though death and resurrection are nothing more than game mechanics for players in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', for story characters death is usually more permanent. Nevertheless, there are many exceptions. Typically it's done with major villains, such as Kael'thas, Mal'Ganis, Balnazzar, Teron Gorefiend, Anub'arak, and all of Naxxramas, who are brought back to serve as loot pinatas again. However, in a rare heroic example, Muradin Bronzebeard, who was thought killed in ''Warcraft III'', is revealed to be alive and well in Northrend, though initially amnesiac.

* Just before the final battle in ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'', the [[Big Bad]] brutally murders Ryu's party members one by one, taunting him all the while. Ryu resurrects them almost immediately afterwards.

* Albedo from ''[[Xenosaga]]'' has been left for dead, killed, and been in situations where he should have been killed numerous times in the series, but gets revived somehow every time. This has to do with the fact that he is immortal, but it's amazing how many times it's been tried anyway.

* Paul Denton may die in ''[[Deus Ex]]'' and he's always back in ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War|Invisible War]]'', it's handwaved by having him [[Human Popsicle|cryogenically frozen]].

* Done for the players themselves in ''[[Left 4 Dead]] 2''. You can sometimes find a [[Magical Defibrillator]], which has the power to bring back dead players on the spot, despite how they died (whether it would be being crushed by a Tank, having a Tank plow a car over the player, falling 10 stories down to the ground, ripped to pieces by a Witch, etc.)

* All of the Ascended (read: [[Player Character|player characters]]) in ''[[Rift]]''. In the case of the Guardians, it's because the gods needed you alive again; in the case of the Defiant, it's thanks to years of [[Magitek]] research.

* Tezkhra in ''[[The Reconstruction]]'', who first appears to be a [[God of Evil]], but turns out to be a perfectly nice guy who was killed by an evil creature that stole his name. One endgame sidequest allows you to recover his soul by defeating a [[Bonus Boss]], then have a [[Necromancer]] restore his body.

* Raikoh, the hero of ''[[Otogi: Myth of Demons]]'', is revived no less then FOUR times over the course of the game and it's [[Sequel]]. The only other people that come back from the dead only do it once. Raikoh just has more importent things to do then staying dead.

** Another factor was that a young girl that looked [[Suspicously Similar Substitute|very similar to his own daughter]] prayed in front of his now stone remains. He faced is positioned right in front of her and because of her capture, he literally revives himself on his anger, albeit now much MUCH weaker than what he previously was.

* The Darksign of the Undead in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' causes this constantly, each time sapping away a bit of your humanity.

* In ''[[Dominions]]'', Pretender gods can be called back, immortals only die permanently outside of your dominion and spells can be used to revive commanders who made it into the Hall of Fame.

* In ''[[Prototype]]'' Alex is shot dead just as he releases [[The Virus]] and then comes back to life without any memories. It later turns out that {{spoiler|Alex is dead, and you are actually [[The Virus]] in Alex's form}}.

 

* Roy in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', but not before it's [[Played for Laughs]] as his disintegrating corpse is dragged around for months because the team has been split in half, with the people who could perform Raise Dead in the half ''not'' in possession of the corpse.

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'': In addition to [[Chess with Death]] usually working out in favor of the not-quite-deceased, Death's politics have resulted in several characters' deaths being short-lived.

* The Cyborg ninja in ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' was both killed and resurrected by Mantis.

* Oasis from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' has come Back from the Dead no less than five times, and her "sister" Kusari at least once. How Oasis does this is unknown (even to her), and since they usually [[Never Found the Body]], her simply being [[Not Quite Dead]] remains possible. As of more recent arcs, not only has the body been found, it has been found while Oasis is up and kicking in a new one.

* Initially subverted in ''[[Concerned]]: The Half Life and Death of Gordon Frohman,'' in which the title character [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|dies at the end]]. [http://aconcernedrip-off.webs.com/index.htm An unofficial sequel] resurrects the beloved title character via ignoring [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]].

* And then there is [[Bob and George|Ran Cossack]], who is pretty much a parody of this trope. He is made of ''really'' cheap Soviet parts, and could be killed by any kind of impact. However, his creator (Kalinka Cossack from ''[[Mega Man 4]]''), realizing it would cost more to repair him than to build him again, built a machine that perpetually creates backup bodies for him; each time he is killed, a new Ran with a copy of his memories would appear. This leading to lots of "[[Grievous Harm with a Body|Ran-Bombs]]".

* In ''[[Casey and Andy]]'', both Casey and Andy die. Repeatedly. Sometimes at the hands of the other. And they're really dead: they ended up in Hell multiple times. They always come back. Even Andy's girlfriend (who is [[Satan]]) doesn't know quite how.

* Happened at least twice in ''[[Ansem Retort]]''

** Arguably, [[Star Wars|Darth Maul]] also invokes this trope, as he's made a comment about Obi-Wan getting in a "Hollywood cheap shot".

** Riku implied in the season six finale that he has done this as well, and promises to explain later.

** Aradia in ''[[Homestuck]]'' is brought back in a different way from normal though. Equius builds a robot body for her ghost to use, giving her a physical form to interact with the other characters.

** The kernelsprites also count, since they're all prototyped with the remains of dead person that was important to the character. This gives the sprite the personality and all the memories of that dead person.

** Further, once a character is a God Tier, they can only be killed if the death is Heroic (they die accomplishing something heroic) or Just (they are corrupt and are killed by a hero). So far two God Tiers have died: John, who came back because his death was neither, and Vriska, {{spoiler|who's death was Just, likely due to all those people she killed, near redemption notwithstanding.}}

* In ''[[Kagerou]]'', Mindi, an Old One, can bring people back from the dead. It's even played for laughs once, when a nearly dead person is killed just so she can bring them back to life free of injuries.

 

* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', a few prominent villains and heroes have returned to life. The most notable ones are [[Our Liches Are Different|Drishnek]], [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Jemuel]], [[Spoony Bard|Leon]] and the [[Sibling Team|Silverbranch brothers]].

* In ''[[Darwin's Soldiers]]'', the Dragonstorm [[Big Bad]] was found dead in the first RP. He later reappears in the sequel, with the explanation that the first one was a body double.

* This was actually one of the powers possessed by the heroic Mister Easter in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]''. As his name might imply, he would arise from the dead after three days. (His powers were all based on the miracles Jesus was explicitly shown performing in [[The Bible]], including the resurrection.)

* ''[[Tasakeru]]'': [[Complete Monster|Stalker]] comes back from the dead thanks to a symbiotic fusion with a [[Giant Spider|spider]]. He later brings [[Big Bad|N'Ktane]] back, but the process only gives her a solid body inside the [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|Black Rose Tower]].

* Aughadhail, Queen of the [[The Fair Folk|Fae]] in the [[Whateley Universe]], died along with all her sisters, a long time ago in 'The Sundering', during a war against the [[Cosmic Horror|Great]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Old]] [[H.P. Lovecraft|Ones]]. It may have been millions of years ago. But what was left of her spirit found what was left of her magic, and became part of the teenager whose body had that magic, so she's back.

* In ''[[The Gungan Council]]'', characters are frequently brought back to life since [[Death Is Cheap]]. Even Kyp and Bane, who both spent a long time dead, were resurrected through some means.

 

* Darkseid in the [[DCAU]] was killed by Brainiac's exploding asteroid [[Supervillain Lair]], but gets brought back when Luthor uses Tala against her will in an attempt to restore Brainiac. According to the DVD commentary, Tala did it on purpose just to spite Luthor. [[Woman Scorned|Hell hath no fury, indeed.]]

* In ''[[Duckman]]'', Duckman's two teddy bear secretaries Fluffy and Uranus are often killed in nearly every episode they appear in (usually by Duckman himself) only to be brought back in the next episode.

* In the two-part [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law]]'', Phil Ken Sebben claws his way up from the grill of the bus that struck him dead the previous season, and says "Hah ha! Final episode stunt casting!" He then spends the entire episode driving the bus in reverse back to the city, just in time to arrive in the final scene and run Harvey over, killing him off for real. Odd thing is that in the episode where he is hit by the bus, he apparently gets cremated.

{{quote|'''Kent Brockman''': At 3 p.m. Friday, local autocrat C. Montgomery Burns was shot following a tense confrontation at town hall. Burns was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was then transferred to a better hospital where doctors [[Status Quo Is God|upgraded his condition to "alive"]].}}

{{quote|"Father McGrath! I thought you were dead!"

* ''[[South Park]]''

** There was one season finale where Kenny spends the episode suffering from a rare disease that kills him by the end of the show, and it dealt with how everyone reacted to Kenny being sick and dying. The next season had the kids living without Kenny, exorcising Kenny's spirit from Cartman, and after accepting Kenny's death they had competitions to see who would be his replacement. All this, only to have Kenny show up again one episode like nothing ever happened.

*** And then dying an additional two more times at the end.

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': The [[Story Arc]] for the fourth season involves Slade, the [[Big Bad]] from the first two seasons, coming Back from the Dead to serve as [[The Dragon]] to the new [[Big Bad]], Trigon. This example is especially notable because with [[Comic Books]] (and therefore their adaptations) the usual resurrection is a [[Retcon]] saying that the character was not truly dead. Slade's death was a [[Never Found the Body]], and Robin's hallucinations of Slade in a later episode proved to be poisoning by someone heavily hinted to be Slade, so the stage was set for it to prove to have been a [[Not Quite Dead]] or one of his many robot duplicates... and then we find that he was very much dead when he appeared to die, and had been revived by the series' version of [[Satan]] as a messenger!

** In ''The [[Transformers]]: [[The Movie]]'', among the many Transformers killed off include Optimus Prime and Starscream. In subsequent episodes of the TV series, both come back. Optimus Prime initially appears as a [[Spirit Advisor]] when his successor, Rodimus Prime, journeys into the Matrix of Leadership. In "Dark Awakening", Optimus is brought back to life as a [[Our Zombies Are Different|zombie]], only to [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifice]] himself again to save his fellow Autobots. In "The Return of Optimus Prime", he is completely revived and restored, and survives the end of the series (only to be [[Killed Off for Real]] in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in the Japanese series ''Headmasters'', although resurrected in the [[Expanded Universe]] story ''Battlestars: The Return of Convoy''). Starscream returns as a ghost in two episodes, "Starscream's Ghost" and "Ghost in the Machine"; in the latter, Starscream receives a new body from Unicron, returning to life, only to get blasted off into space. Starscream's spark makes a return appearance in the ''Beast Wars'' episode "Possession".

** In ''[[Beast Wars]]'', Optimus Primal died saving the planet in the first-season cliffhanger, but was revived a few episodes into the second season. The writers left him dead for as long as Hasbro would let them, and his return was at least [[He's Back|with guns blazing]].

** Starscream has this happen a lot too. In addition to the G1 version, he was killed and resurrected on two occasions in the Marvel comic, and in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', he becomes immortal due to a shard of the Allspark - which allows him to suffer Waspinator-class indignities, ''actually'' die, but then revive in seconds. The [[Noble Demon]] [[Transformers Armada]] Starscream also dies and returns in Energon, but he was [[Not Himself]].

* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'': In the last episode of Season 1 the boys are killed. In the first episode of Season 2 their clones are reactivated and filled with their stored memories. Dr. Venture explains that this is the thirteen time it has happened - and shows all previous deaths.

{{quote|"I went down! I didn't just get hurt, did I? It was worse than that. I was gone. But you brought me back."}}

 

* Scientists speculate that the ''whole Universe'' may pull this one. If the Universe collapses in the Big Crunch, the concetration of energy may cause another Big Bang; if it dies a heat death, a new Big Bang may occur as a quantum fluctuation in, like, 10^10^56 years.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]