Five Stages of Grief: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''There are five stages of grief. Try not to go through them all at once.''

 

Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a famed Swiss psychiatrist, noticed that many of her patients who had recently suffered a loss of some sort go through as many as five stages of grief. This became well-known in pop culture as the [[wikipedia:Kubler-Ross model|Kübler-Ross model]], and it contains the following stages:

 

{{examples}}

* In [[Wham! Episode|episodes 18 and 19]] of ''[[Code Geass]] R2'', Lelouch was going through this when {{spoiler|Nunnally was presumably killed during the FLEIJA explosion}}.

* Simon from ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' goes through all of these (except bargaining) after Kamina's death.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in [[K-On!]], when Mio goes through these stages as she is forced to play Romeo for the school festival.

* Momo Hinamori from [[Bleach]] goes ''hard'' through the first stage, Denial, after {{spoiler|Aizen stabs her to near death and betrays the Soul Society}}, [[Break the Cutie|which completely shatters the poor girl's view of her whole world]].

* Much like the ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' example above, it can be said that the three main characters of ''[[Berserk]]'' all represent some stage of grief and how they deal with it, since they've all been through a ridiculous [[Trauma Conga Line]] for us to deduce this:

{{quote|Guts: '''Anger''', Denial, Depression

** None of them have quite grappled with acceptance yet.

 

* ''Fallen Son'', a 5-issue limited series, dealt with the death of [[Captain America (comics)]] by going through each of the five stages with a different Marvel character. Wolverine experiences denial; the Avengers go through anger; Hawkeye attempts to bargain Cap back; Spider-Man falls into despair, and Iron Man leads all of the Marvel superheroes in accepting that he's really dead.

* Issues 2-6 of the ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' comics go through the stages in order.

* Given her job, [[The Sandman|Death of the Endless]] tries her best to get her charges to the "Acceptance" stage as easy as possible. In ''The Black Ring'' she tells [[Lex Luthor]] that the "Bargaining" part is the hardest, as there is truly ''nothing'' that mortals can offer her that she needs.

 

* The most recent{{when}} chapter of ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7292991/1/Xanatos Xanatos]'' does this with [[Death Note|Sayu]], who goes through at least four of the five {{spoiler|[[Break the Cutie|as she's being kidnapped]]}}

 

** This is also worked into a [[Shout-Out]] to Bob Fosse's previous film ''Lenny'', as Scheider (like Fosse) is the director of a movie about a [[Lenny Bruce]]-like comic who acts out the five stages.

* In ''The Rundown'', Beck (The Rock) mentions something similar to the five stages.

* Referenced (as "seven stages of grief") in ''[[Look Both Ways (film)|Look Both Ways]]'' by Meryl, who asks Nick, "What's the point in knowing where you're up to if you've still got to go through it anyway?"

 

* The sixth-season premiere of ''[[Frasier]]'' sees him going through the stages after being fired from his famed radio job, each one indicated by the show's signature title cards. The episode ends with Niles saying he thinks his divorce is going to go smoothly. Followed by the title card Denial.

* The 5th-season ''[[Scrubs]]'' episode "My Five Stages" has J.D. and Dr. Cox going through the stages over the death of Mrs. Wilk.

** In "The Family of Blood", John Smith learns that his life is a lie and must give up everything to become the Doctor again. Also a [[Tear Jerker]].

* On ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'', after Mike Logan's partner is murdered, his grief counseller Olivet tells him that he's going through the stages.

* The two-hour (or two-part, depending) 6th season premiere of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' is named after stage 3, a direct reference to dealing with Buffy's death in the previous season finale. Specifically, the gang offering the gods a dangerous, painful, [[Black Magic]] sacrifice in exchange for Buffy's life.

** [[Played for Laughs]] in "Intervention" when the Scoobies believe Buffy is dealing with her grief over her mother's death by boinking evil vampire Spike; actually he was screwing a [[Sex Bot]] that Spike has had built to resemble Buffy.

* In the ''[[That '70s Show]]'' episode "Grandma's Dead", when Red's mother dies, Kitty tells him about the five stages. Red says that he's got two stages: anger and drinking.

 

* In the [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]] novel ''I, Q'', the ''entire universe'' goes through these stages just prior to the supposed "Big Crunch". Subverted in that {{spoiler|Q's unwillingness to accept the end of the universe convinces its creator to keep it going.}}

** Also subverted because {{spoiler|None of it really happened; the realms representing each stage that the main characters pass through were set up by the Continuum to keep Q occupied, so he ''wouldn't'' try to stop it.}}

** However, he's stuck in Denial and Anger for much of Book Seven.

 

* Slightly averted in ''[[Doonesbury]]'' when B.D. lost his leg in Iraq and his doctor was explaining the five steps to his wife.

{{quote|'''Doctor:''' There are generally five stages. The first is denial...

'''B.D.:''' Son of a Bitch!

'''Doctor:''' Some skip straight to anger... }}

* When [[Peanuts|Charles Schulz]] died, [[Heart of the City]]'s title character displayed Shock, Denial, Anger, and Acceptance—with her responses for each being quotes from things ''Peanuts'' characters were well-known for saying, starting with "Aaughh!" and progressing to "*Sigh*" while sucking her thumb and holding a [[Security Blanket]].

 

* The five stages theme is used extensively in the [[Freeware Games|freeware]] [[Adventure Game]] ''[[Eternally Us]]''. Every scene in the game is based on one of the stages.

* The four stages of [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|rampancy]] in the ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' and ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' series (Melancholia, Anger, Jealousy, Metastability) bear a strong resemblance to this.

* [http://likewicked.tumblr.com/post/21393973353/the-five-stages-of-grief-clock-town-is-denial Here's]{{Dead link}} an interesting argument that the five main areas in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' match up to the five stages. [[The Hub]], Clock Town, is denial - everyone can see the moon is falling, but no-one can actually deal with it. The Deku Palace is anger (the royal family's search for a scapegoat), the Goron mountain is bargaining ([[Holding Out for a Hero]]), the Zoras are in depression and the Ikana Valley is acceptance...because almost everyone there is already dead anyway.

 

* ''[[Neglected Mario Characters]]'' [http://www.smbhq.com/nc/nsdos9.html did this] during the [[Super Smash Stadium]] crossover as Fred coped with his (mistaken) belief that he ate his best friend, Bill, with Donez rattling off the stages. He threw in "Flatulence" as stage four just to mess with Fred.

* Parodied in [http://www.terrorisland.net/strips/158.html this] ''Terror Island'' strip: "The stages of grief don't work when you're trying to rush them."

* ''Is It Canon?'' shows "[http://www.isitcanon.com/index.php?date=2018-08-10 The 5 Stages of Grief (for your dead D&D character)]"

 

* During [[Let's Play Sonic 2006|the Let's Play]] of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)||Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'', pokecapn and company can be heard [[Sanity Slippage|going through all five stages, in order]], over the two hours it took them to struggle through [[Scrappy Level|the game's worst level]], End Of The World. This wasn't lost on pokecapn, who divided the entire ordeal into five videos and subtitled each with one of the five stages. And [https://web.archive.org/web/20100820054915/http://www.viddler.com/explore/Daduzi/videos/1/ this video] summarizes the whole thing in two minutes.

* One [[That Guy With The Glasses|Little Miss Gamer]] video demonstrated these (in puppet form) when discovering that your favorite Xbox Live game has been canceled. {{spoiler|The fifth stage turns out to be "Obsession Brain Melt Gurrrrrr".}}

* The Five stage of Grief to anyone who can fight according to Killlyou: Punch it, kick it, stab it, shoot it, and kill it, preferably painfully.

 

* Parodied in a ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' sketch: A giraffe is stuck in a quicksand pit and experiences the stages in order. When he finally gets to acceptance, he hits bottom...with his head and neck still above ground.

{{quote|'''Hibbert:''' You can expect to go through five stages. The first is denial.

'''Homer:''' No way, because I'm not dying!

'''Homer:''' Well, we've all got to go sometime.

'''Hibbert:''' Mr. Simpson, your progress astounds me. }}

* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy]]'' TV Movie "Big Boogie Adventure" Grim also goes through the stages in about 10 seconds ... except he gets stuck on anger and never moves on to acceptance.

** Though in that one, she claims there are 7 Stages of Grief.