Enemies with Death/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: For some reason The Grim Reaper, or an Anthropomorphic Personification of some other concept intrinsic to existence (or the ending thereof), takes a serious dislike to The Hero and has it in for them.

  • Straight:
    • Bob is an enemy of Death.
    • Bob is an enemy of the Shinigami.
  • Exaggerated:
  • Justified:
    • Bob upset The Plan Death made for something or someone.
    • Death dislikes Bob for making his/her job harder or even impossible (like saving lives, cheating death or becoming immortal).
    • Death's boss orders him/her to antagonize Bob.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted:
    • Turns out that Death antagonizes everyone, and Bob just has an inflated sense of self-importance.
    • Bob and Death are Vitriolic Best Buds
  • Double Subverted: But Death especially hates Bob.
  • Parodied: Death offer to settle the whole thing with a game of... Dissidia. And then it turns out that Death is one of those "Stop Having Fun!" Guys (pun intended).
  • Deconstructed: The Problem with Fighting Death.
  • Reconstructed: Bob goes with one (or more) of the suggested solution in the above trope page. And it/they works!
  • Zig Zagged: Sometimes Bob fight Death like there is no tomorrow (possibly literal, shall Bob ever lose), the other day they went to watch football match together.
  • Averted:
  • Enforced: It's one of those feel-good stories where The Hero spits on Death's face and wins. Unlike in, you know, Real Life.
  • Lampshaded: "Hope your insurance policy is up to date!"
  • Invoked: Bob bluffs his way out of a room full of assassins by noting that they'd have to be pretty stupid to "steal" a kill from Death itself.
  • Exploited: Emperor Evulz set up a deal with the devil Death to destroy Bob. Or with Bob to destroy Death, whichever is more profitable for him.
  • Defied: Death's boss has a "stay away from this guy" policy regarding Bob.
  • Discussed: "Death won't kill ya, oh no, it likes to toy with you. No "sweet release", just oodles of agony before the curtain call."
  • Conversed: "Y'know, if Death is explicitly out to kill this character, why don't they just appeal to some 'Life' entity or even God to even things out? It's hardly fair."

Are you sure you want to go back to being Enemies with Death? It might not be worth the trouble, you know.