Death Is Cheap: Difference between revisions

[[File:suporstupor_2127suporstupor 2127.jpg|link=Super Stupor|frame|[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|A real man never dies, even when he's killed!]]]]

'''Lynne:''' Yeah, well, this is the third time after all...|''[[Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective|Ghost Trick]]''}}

This is an old fighting [[ShonenShōnen Demographicmanga]] and comics trope. Important characters will have a terrible tendency to die dramatically, but will not, under any circumstances, ''stay'' dead. This of course requires a lot of supernatural involvement, but that's not so uncommon either. Viewers are often shocked when they are exposed to this for the first time, but it's just a variation of the [[Not Quite Dead]] tropes listed above, since it merely hinges on a rather different value of "dead". This separates it from the Western [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] in the respect that it's quite often planned, and not the result of just lazy writers (well, at least writers ''lazy in another way''), and requires less obvious plot hacking to enable. The character was not really [[Killed Off for Real]], the chance of him coming back was always there. However, this tends to cheapen the dramatic death of a character to the point of being little more than a flesh wound if overused. If you ever hear passing mention of any form of afterlife in a series, be warned that the value of "dead" has become a whole lot less all of a sudden. Similarly, if the entire supporting cast is being killed off left and right, expect a resurrection by the end of the current arc. This trope became so common in some series that most people are more likely to be shocked if a character does not come back from the dead than when it does.

{{quote| Nothing Ever Dies We'll Rise Again.}}

{{quote| [[Takamachi Nanoha of 2814|"I am going to die a virgin," Tuxedo Kamen said, then added conscientiously, "Again."]]}}

* ''[[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan|Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan]]'': Every time Dokuro violently kills Sakura, she resurrects him right on the spot a couple seconds later, none the worse for wear.

{{quote| '''Excel''': Please, Ha-chan, do something about your habit of dying!}}

** Gantz toys with this trope mercilessly. The eponymous entity in the black ball seems to effortlessly bring back the dead, {{spoiler|but it turns out to be recreating them from records in its data buffer. Kishimoto was "revived" by Gantz originally despite not actually dying, leaving her as a redundant clone until she was eventually killed off permanently. Furthermore, there are now two active copies of protagonist Kurono, and the second one was understandably pissed off when he found out.}} Life is cheap and disposable in the Gantzverse.

* ''[[Angel Beats!]]'' takes place in a world where everyone is immortal. So death is just a minor inconvenience.

* ''[[KaranoKara no Kyoukai:|Kara no Kyoukai]]'' has an interesting/bizarre example. In the fifth movie, Touko got her body torn apart and then had her head crushed into bits. Then, she makes comeback by rebooting her spare copy, a doll to finish the job.

* The ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' anime becomes this in the second season: Not only does no-one apart from [[Big Bad|Hideyoshi]] and [[The Dragon|Hanbei]] die, most of the cast killed off in the first season are alive and kicking for no real explained reason.

* ''Nobody'' believes in death any more, either. [[Marvel Comics]] and [[DC Comics]] spend most of their time assuring us over and over that the characters they killed off are dead FOR REALLY REAL THIS TIME YOU GUYS! [[Like You Would Really Do It|No one ever believes them]]. For example, no matter how many times the Marvel editors stated outright that [[Captain America (comics)]] wouldn't be coming back, most fans were just making wagers on how long it would take. [http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/06/15/captain.america/index.html Turns out it's about a year.]

* The skepticism has reached a point where comic writers need to keep it in mind when they really ''are'' faking a character's death, since they know that everybody will guess exactly right that they were just trying to fool the readers. In ''[[Fifty Two52]]'', [[Booster Gold]] is apparently killed in a grand display of heroism. This was not meant to be a permanent (or even semi-permanent) death, as it was an in-universe scheme to trick the villain, but the writers still wanted it to ''look'' like he was ''really'' dead, and they could think of no way to actually do this, since '''every''' reader would automatically know he was not dead. They went through several sketches of [[Chunky Salsa Rule|having his dismembered body fall to the ground in several different places]] (Since that way readers would say "Well, with that kind of damage he can't just be 'in a coma,' he might actually be dead"), but it ended up just looking ridiculous. Surprisingly, their eventual decision, to have his burned, blasted body fall to the ground, actually ''did'' fool the readers (in a way), since many of them thought he was at least out of this story completely, even if they expected him to come back sooner or later.

** It didn't help that ''[[Fifty Two52]]'' was a prequel to the [[One Year Later]] books, i.e. other stories taking place after it but released before it had already shown [[Booster Gold]].

* It's gotten to the point where, when Banshee apparently dies, his daughter, Siryn remains convinced that it's a trick, pointing out all the other [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] who have also been reported dead only to return. Her less [[Genre Savvy]] teammates believe she's in denial. Eventually, she accepts his death.

** The story behind this is amusing enough to note here. When Banshee died, Siryn was in a different comic, and nobody thought to tell those writers that Banshee had been killed off, so she never responded to his death. When the writers finally found out, they decided that since [[Death Is Cheap]], instead of trying to retcon her grieving in to have her just be in denial.

*** On that very same page, though, they observe that another character who had been presumed dead ([[Batman]]) probably wasn't. So DC superheroes will still have to deal with Comic Book Death in the form of deliberately faked deaths, [[Disney Villain Death|Disney Villain Deaths]]s, deaths of clones, deaths of [[Alternate Universe]] copies, death followed by being cloned with memory implants in the clone, being saved at the last second by [[Time Travel]]... just not ''true'' resurrection. Meaning they'll wait two or three months before they start bringing people back to life for real again.

*** The supposed "Dead Means Dead" rule was broken before ''Flashpoint'' even ended. The second-to-last ''[[Secret Six]]'' storyline featured the resurrection of the villainess Knockout.

* Once, when Spider-Man was asked if the villain of the day was dead, Spidey said "Probably. Half the guys I know have been dead once or twice. Usually did 'em a world of good."

* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', As'taris has one of the shortest deaths imaginable—about half a page later, he's been resurrected. Turns out resurrection is cheap 'n' easy in Baravada.

* Pick a [[Slasher Movie]]. Any of them. Once it becomes a [[Cash Cow Franchise]], there is no rest in peace for the wicked.

* In ''[[Discworld/The Light Fantastic|The Light Fantastic]]'', Death lampshades this when Rincewind and Twoflower escape from his house, saying, {{smallcapssmall-caps|That always annoys me. I might as well install a revolving door.}}

* The [[Biting the Sun]] books take this trope to extremes. Resurrection is a normal use of technology. Even the rare occasions when a character in those books does want to be [[Killed Off for Real]], their base personality will get transferred into a new body -- effectivelybody—effectively meaning mandatory artificial reincarnation.

** The general rule for character deaths in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is that unless you witness a character definitively die from ''someone else's'' point of view, that character is likely not dead for good. {{spoiler|Of the POV characters that have been killed, Ned's execution was from Arya's POV, whereas Catelyn got her throat slit in her own POV chapter. Ned's definitively dead whereas a resurrected Zombie Catelyn is wreaking havoc in the Riverlands. Arys Oakheart died from Arianne Martell's POV. Quentyn Martell may have sustained his fatal injuries in his own chapter, but his death was witnessed from the perspective of Barristan Selmy.}} Almost all of the [[Only a Flesh Wound]] reveals mentioned above came at the end of a POV character's own chapter. The exception to this overall rule is the Prologue and Epilogue characters--theycharacters—they ALWAYS die at the end of their lone chapters.

{{quote| I've crushed his head a few times,<br />

Memories like nursery rhymes.<br />

No one dies like my TV's Frank.<br />

No sweet blood to distill, no cute tummy to drill,<br />

{{quote| '''O'Neill:''' All we know for sure is that he's missing.<br />

'''Carter:''' Sooner or later --<br />

'''O'Neill:''' Forget it! I'm not fallin' for it this time.<br />

'''Carter:''' "Falling for it"?<br />

'''O'Neill:''' Yeah! How many times have you thought he was gone, and then he shows up, in one form or another? I'm sorry, but we're not having a memorial service for someone who is not dead. ''[to the room]'' You hear that? I'm not buyin' it! <br />

'''O'Neill:''' What? He's just waitin' for us to say a bunch of nice things about him. Next thing you know, he'll come waltzin' through that door, ''[gestures at the closed door]'' like, right now. ''[O'Neill and Carter both look at the door, O'Neill hopefully and Carter skeptically.]''<br />

'''O'Neill:''' Waltzing… now.<br />

** It should be noted that Daniel comes back by the end of that very episode.

* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. Started off as [[Anyone Can Die]], then [[Seasonal Rot|reverted to this]]. Characters [[Good Thing You Can Heal|who can heal]] get [[Made of Plasticine|routinely mangled]], [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|then it's revealed that their blood can resurrect anyone]]. This is later [[Forgotten Phlebotinum|completely forgotten about]]. Still later, characters come back without even a [[Hand Wave]] - Sylar in particular gets full-blown [[Joker Immunity]].

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'': it was getting hard keeping track of which Weyoun numbered clone was which. Subverted in the finale, when the Female Founder confirmed that Kira and Garak killed the last clone.

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'': Oh... my... GOD!!!

*** In "Threshold", Paris died and got better during his transwarp-induced hypermutation. (But this episode has since been [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned by the producers.)

** Has happened to most of the crew at some point. Rimmer, Kryten and the Cat all die in ''The Inquisitor'', but a clever [[Batman Gambit]] by Lister erases the titular Inquisitor and all resets all the work he's done, bringing them back. ''Out Of Time'' sees the crew attacked by their future selves, killing Lister, Kryten and The Cat and only stopped when Rimmer destroys the Time Drive.

* This trope is why [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined(2004 TV series)|Cylon]] prisoners are uncooperative under threats: killing them will result in their consciousness being downloaded into the nearest Resurrection Ship, where they immediately tell the others where their killers are. In the third season, one of the Threes does it for kicks; Baltar even lampshades it.

{{quote| '''D'Anna:''' Do you have any idea what you're accusing me of?<br />

'''Baltar:''' Yes... intentionally killing yourself over and over so you can download over and over. Death is just a revolving door, isn't it?<br />

* ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' uses this trope with Herrick, who dies in the series one finale and returns for series three, only to keep the mysterious method of his revival a secret.

{{quote| [[Lampshade Hanging|"Oh for crying out loud...he's not dead AGAIN, is he?"]]}}

* In Tabletop RPGs, such as ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'', high-level Divine casters are often so common that any dead hero can be resurrected if their party members have enough GP. So while death isn't ''literally'' cheap (on the contrary, it can be rather expensive), it's not difficult to get out of (since [[Player Character|PCs]] tend to accumulate vast amounts of GP.)

* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' has the Tyranids, who give a whole new meaning to [[Death Is Cheap]]. Any Tyranid that gets killed in an invasion is just digested and used to make more 'Nids.

* ''[[BattleTech]]'' had "Life is cheap. BattleMechs aren't." as its slogan -- givenslogan—given the shortage of giant robots, it was easier to find a replacement pilot than a replacement 'Mech.

{{quote| ''"Persistence or stupidity? It matters not. Let this be a lesson learned, mortal!"''}}

{{quote| How many times have she and her sisters brought you back from the grip of death itself? [[Ungrateful Bastard|You're just all kinds of inconsiderate, aren't you?]]}}

* Died in ''[[BioshockBioShock (series)]]''? Resurrection is just a shiny booth away.

** Claptrap's Robot Revolution shows that only the minor not as well known bosses have been registered to the New-U Station. The [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]s are brought back [[We Can Rebuild Him|cyborg parts]], not completely rebuilt of course

** Inverted, sort of, with a rich [[Sense Freak|Sensate]] lady, who wants to experience a murder but without obvious undesirable consequences. She offers you a pretty sum for a permission to stab you. So, in a way, this death turns out to be quite expensive.

* Ridley from the ''[[Metroid]]'' series is a recurring boss and has in fact been in all the ''Metroid'' games except ''Metroid 2: Return of Samus'' and ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2: Echoes''. It is understandable why they bring him back, since he is the presumed leader of the main antagonists - the Space Pirates, he killed Samus' parents when she was a kid, and finally he's just such a fun boss to fight. But considering what he's survived or been resurrected from, he should really be long gone by now. Blown to bits in the first game? OK, limited graphics, he might just have fallen over, and he was absent from the second. Returns as a cyborg in ''Prime'', loses his wings and gets blown off a really large cliff before he explodes. Sure, why not. More cybernetics at the beginning of ''Prime 3: Corruption'' where he gets shot up and dropped down a really, ''really'' high elevator shaft. Returns at the end of ''Prime 3'', hyped up on radioactive drugs, to get slaughtered once again and blown to molecules. Blown into tiny chunks ''again'' in ''Super Metroid''? OK, there might have been enough tissue left to-- ohto—oh, wait, the whole planet exploded thirty minutes later. We are really giving him the benefit of the doubt here if we say he escaped. Finally, ''Metroid Fusion'', the chronologically last game in the series. His now completely organic body is found frozen in a storage room, taken over and destroyed by shape-shifting parasites, which are then in turn blown up and ''absorbed'' by the heroine. And yet, we ''know'' he will return because he's ''Ridley'', for goodness sake! Death isn't worth a penny to him!

* Played with constantly in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. Three of the main characters in the series are clones of another main character, and they intentionally abuse this aspect of their identity. To put it simply, a man and his three clone-sons are ALL believed to have been dead at some point in the series, while still being alive in some form or another.

{{quote| '''Lynne''' (upon dying for the third time): ''Ha ha, I died again!''}}

* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'': Words cannot do justice to the eponymous Doctor's death and return (it begins [https://web.archive.org/web/20090201135258/http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=36&issue=4 here] and continues until the end of the issue). For that matter, another character returns from the dead not long after - though this has more consequences.

{{quote| '''Ben Franklin''': (Sitting in a restaurant in purgatory) It's alright. I've left this restaurant without paying my bill once before... And I have ensured that it will happen again.<br />

{{quote| '''Gigafyte:''' "I don't have to spend all eternity around you, do I?"<br />

* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' tends to do this a lot. Once a main character got kicked out of hell, another time a different character died 50 times in a row over the course of only 7 strips. Of course, when you've got a White Mage following you around who can cure death with just one spell, death isn't a problem. (Fair enough, since that's the way it worked in the video game the strip is based on.) However, when a certain well-loved character was [[Killed Off for Real]] the forums erupted with so much pleas to bring the character back, the author had to tell them that no, he's not coming back ''ever'', and the forum rules now say to stop talking about it.

** The Faceless Cult also does this - Black Mage slaughters them all in the ice caps, then they return for no explained reason in the undersea temple near Onrac, now worshippingworshiping a new god/goddess and subsequently getting slaughtered AGAIN.

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', if your brain is intact, any sufficiently-skilled [[Mad Scientist]] can bring you [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] - it is their purpose in doing so that may be the issue.

** If someone of royalty dies; they lose their status and [[Legally Dead|are considered 'dead']] in the line of succession.

** [[DeathSo Isof Cheap]] enough in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' thatcourse they ''have tropes for it'', too.

{{quote| '''Tarvek:''' The old "bring her family back from the '''grave'''" gambit? Have you no ''shame?''}}

** Supporting character Dr. Mittelmind has been killed so many times he trained his minion to revive him and has an externalimplant for this, with a power source to prevent memory loss.

** When VollVole brings the leader of defeated army to Dr. Sun for medical attention, he only brought his severed head. The doctor's response: "Yes. Well. Tricky. But I've seen worse."

** He even [https://web.archive.org/web/20100817121910/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2009-08-17 set a record].

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' mocked the idea of bringing back Oasis in [httphttps://betaarchives.sluggy.com/dailybook.php?datechapter=99121015#1999-12-10 this strip] before Death Is Cheap became a real trait of her character.

{{quote| Death is Expensive. ''Punchlines'' are Cheap.}}

* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150501024916/http://syx.dino-productions.net/comic/1/ Don't Look It Sucks]'' uses this frequently, to the point where even the characters expect this.

** A guest page filler gag is to have [https://web.archive.org/web/20150428180249/http://syx.dino-productions.net/comic/18/ Tero], the resident [[Cute Ghost Girl]], go back to life, only to have her killed again in the end of the same page, in the most careless way possible.

** Also very common in [https://web.archive.org/web/20150428180057/http://syx.dino-productions.net/comic/43/ Chapter 3], where the cast plays a game of ''[[Team Fortress 2]]''.

* In ''[[One Over Zero1/0]]'', every character gets one "ghost point" - they can die and come back as a ghost exactly once. They also have the option of removing themselves from the strip by "pulling a Ribby"; that is, imagining a perfect reality to live in and going there. In fact, ''none'' of the characters stay dead. Tailsteak resurrects them all as the strip is winding up, to send them to Oregon. He even brings back characters that pulled a Ribby.

* This is the case for dragon-marked individuals in ''[[The Law of Purple]]''. Unless the individual in question kills themself, their dragon can always revive them. Blue has already been revived from a fatal crash-landing on Earth and has admitted to reviving after being shot in the face at point-blank range.

{{quote| '''Gav''': [httphttps://www.schlockmercenary.com/2011-11-16 The word "killed" loses some of its punch when you build sentences like that.]}}

* Shelly Winters in ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' dies multiple times, which is [https://web.archive.org/web/20110624034637/http://www.scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20071115 lampshaded] by Gibbous Moon saying "Didn't you claim on your life insurance three times?"

* Parodied recently by [[Collegehumor]] in their short [https://web.archive.org/web/20101030130516/http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1942996 "Realistic Superhero Funeral"]

{{quote| [[Don't Try This At Home|"Now you try."]]}}