He's Just Hiding: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

But sometimes, the anticipated resurrection doesn't happen yet; the reaction to this forms this trope.

 

 

 

This trope is loathed by some, but thought of as perfectly normal [[Wish Fulfillment]] by others. Like most tropes, it's all in how it's handled.

* Hunter J and her crew from [[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]], by [[Never Found the Body]]. Then again, they probably won't, since they all blew up.

* Alto Saotome, the hero from [[Macross Frontier]]. Movie-verse only. It is unclear whether the person died or survived, but at the end of the movie Ranka told a comatose Sheryl that she will wake up when Alto comes back. At that moment, Sheryl's mouth twitched and her earrings glinted.

** Naturally, in many ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games he really ''is''.

* L Lawliet from ''[[Death Note]]''; also the point many consider where the series went downhill and never came back.

** And that's not to mention the [[Misaimed Fandom|deluded fangirls]] who are convinced that Light somehow made it. You know, despite having Ryuk write Light's name in his Death Note, just like he said he would in the VERY FIRST EPISODE, which is pretty damned final by the standards of pretty much everyone else.

* Fans of ''[[Naruto]]'''s Jiraiya deny that he died, despite the fact that he was impaled through the chest repeatedly, lost copious amounts of blood, had emotional flashbacks reflecting on his failures and accomplishments in life, transferred his knowledge of the enemy to a frog messenger for Naruto, and sunk to the bottom of a lake while his vision faded to blackness. The fan rationale? It was just one of his shadow clones (even though those would disappear after even ''one'' of those things happened).

** Also, Itachi's death was questioned, despite Madara implicitly stating that his body is lying around somewhere by saying Sasuke could have taken his eyes.

*** Madara, too.

*** Turns out Madara is actually dead, since Kabuto revived him via Impure World Resurrection as well. Tobi was lying.

** Of course, he was then replaced in the second season with his twin brother who takes on the same code name. Though he doesn't mirror his brothers motivations.

* ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' had the planned death of Mu la Fraga, at the end of a season. Anyway, since fans were revolting, he was decided to be brought back, with amnesia. Even his lone helmet in space which was originally shown, was removed, to make his survival possible. The fans did it! (In 00 it didn't work, though.)

** The writer would know better then anyone if Lelouch's death is supposed to be ambiguous...and he seems to think it's not, Hence the [[Really Dead Montage|5 minute long death scene]] and the Special Edition Zero Requiem DVD replacing the scene that sparked the ambiguity with a monologue from C.C. that hammers home the point of his death.

*** The director's [[Shrug of God]] about leaving the happy or sad nature of the ending up to the fans, ''however'', has been interpreted by some as a form of [[Word of Dante]] about Lelouch's end being left up to interpretation. And [[Death of the Author]] means that the [[Broken Base]] of CG fandom will just have to learn to agree to disagree with each other on this topic for the time being.

*** Considering he was stabbed through the chest with a sword is hard to imagine how he could be alive. The only way for that was for him to have bacame immortal in the deal with C.C. but, she would have died in the process and since she is show to be alive in the ending...

*** The biggest problem here is actually several episodes prior when Lelouch kills the immortal Emperor Charles. The question then becomes what happened to Charles' Code, either being lost forever or being transferred to Lelouch. This isn't helped by three hard facts: Charles showed that the Code could be forcibly taken, Lelouch had obtained Geass in both eyes which seems to be essential to having the Code, and Charles choking Lelouch with the same hand that held the Code. And since Charles had to die once for the Code to "activate" it all adds up to a lot of fans being confused about the internal mechanics of Geass which were never fully explained. So it's therefore also possible that he did die and and then got back up a while later and his price was the death of who he fundamentally was and his new immortality...or something. Oh, an there's also how his initials are L.L. and the other two immortals (sans Charles) were C.C. and V.V. just for extra confusion.

** Oda seems to counterbalance this by killing off people by the truckload in flashbacks. From heroic doctors to beloved mothers to whole pirate crews and the entire population of an island, flashbacks are infamous not only for their body counts, but for the deceased never ever coming back.

*** Despite this, Tashigi's resemblance to Zoro's deceased friend Kuina (including sharing the same birthday and the same views on swordswomen) raises the possibility that she may actually '''be''' Kuina, which is even discussed in the series, despite Zoro going to her wake and seeing her body in the manga. Given that Tashigi clearly has no memory of Zoro prior to their encounter in Loguetown (despite him having been Kuina's closet friend), however, fans generally assume Tashigi and Kuina are twins who were separated at birth. Despite this, ''One Piece'' is by nature an unpredictable fantasy story, so it's hard to say right now.

** Portgas D. Ace had most of his chest and stomach destroyed by Akainu's lava powers, and is stated to have died in universe and in a chapter title. Fans refuse to believe he's dead, because "No one dies in ''One Piece''!"

** The Alabasta arc has two egregious examples of this. First, Igaram is caught in a massive explosion that converts a galleon to scrap-wood, mourned over for the entire arc, and then wanders back in at the end to be supportive. Even worse, Pell carries a bomb with a reported blast radius of five kilometers, which was supposed to kill every living thing in the capital city, high enough into the sky that it doesn't even char the buildings; he's not only caught in the blast, he's actively carrying the thing (and doing nothing to defend himself). After that, he must have fallen the, oh, ''three miles'' to the ground. He walks back to the capital on crutches, apparently with no permanent injuries, and in fact wearing the same clothes, which are hardly dirty. Both cases ruin a perfectly good [[Heroic Sacrifice]].

* Perhaps the biggest example from ''[[Bleach]]'' is Ulquiorra. Fans saw his body disintegrate, but they still cling to the hope that he'll come back. The fact that his death was so [[Alas, Poor Villain|touching and poignant]] doesn't help matters. Other notable cases include Szayel (he is just that [[Crazy Prepared]]), Starrk ([[Never Found the Body]] + capacity for a [[Soul Jar]]). and Harribel (negates the [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|bridge drop]]). Some would be tempted to put Grimmjow on here as well, but [[Inferred Survival|he wasn't exactly dead the last time we saw him.]]

** Gin Ichimaru is theorized to be alive by some based on his fan-favorite status, the fact that he was still alive when he was last seen (his last words in his head were "great, now I know I can leave things to him," but it's not made clear if he means he can trust Ichigo to take down Aizen after his death or after he's no longer in any condition to fight), and the fact that Orihime showed up just a few chapters after his apparent death. There's also the fact that after the saga is over, Rangiku laments that Gin is gone, but never mentions if he's dead or if Orihime ''did'' heal him and he just took off somewhere.

** Szayel in a seperate chapter was shown to be in hell.

** And, of course, Maria Ross in the original series.

* [[Never Found the Body]] covers a multitude of sins. In the case of the ''[[D.Gray-man|D Gray Man]]'' fandom and General Cross, this includes disappearing from a room several stories above a lot of sharp rocks, leaving behind the cracked, bloody remains of his [[Cool Mask]], his [[Empathic Weapon]] (which is no longer attuned to him), and more blood than a human can lose and survive, all of which was confirmed to be his. That said, there's still one hell of a lot of mystery surrounding his death/disappearance, since, well, they [[Never Found the Body]].

* ''[[Guyver]]'' fans keep hoping very much that Purgstall will come back from the dead. He was a commonly suggested suspect of Appolyon's idenity.

* Akai Shuuichi from ''[[Detective Conan]]'' is an interesting example. Immediately after his death, people declared him to be alive, due to the numerous inconsistencies around his death, as well as some notable differences between two shots of the body. Even though that, due to this, there was never much of a doubt in the community that he wasn't dead at all, there are a lot of arguments on ''who'' he is - is he Scar Akai, who looks just like his mirror image, but seems to have lost his memory? Or is he in fact the scary Okiya, who displays a lot of [[Red Herring|non-obvious similarities]] to Akai? Or is he even someone else? Only time will tell.

 

== Comic Books ==

** [[Word of God]] says Ted is currently alive...or at least around in some capacity (and this is after his ''second'' death, after Booster rescued him from just before his first).

* Shadowcat in the ''X-Men'' books. Joss Whedon killed her off at the end of his run as writer on Astonishing X-Men by having her phase into a giant space-bullet that a distant alien race was shooting at the Earth in order to save everyone. She was, in fact, still alive, and, when a new creator wanted to use the character, they had Magneto tear apart the space bullet, and while she's spending sometime in incorporeal form, she's pretty well back.

** Characters treat this as a bad case of denial, and so far Banshee has not come back after several years (several years in [[Real Life]], [[Comic Book Time|not in-universe]]), but in Siryn's defense, ''someone else in the room with her when she got the news had been presumed dead and got better''.

* In ''[[Ultimate X-Men]]'', Beast is killed. Turns out he was just hiding underground. This after the architects of the Ultimate Universe promised none of these.

* Despite being a minor member of ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'''s supporting cast and a normal human who died from ''a shotgun blast at close range'' at the beginning of a story arc titled "The Death Of Jean DeWolff", fans ''still'' refused to believe DeWolff was dead, and came up with all sorts of loopy theories as to why she wasn't.

* Played with in ''[[Runaways]]'': Chase and his pet dinosaur, Old Lace, are on the top of a skyscraper when [[The Punisher]] pops up and blasts him with an RPG. While the rest of the team is convinced of his death, Molly refuses to accept it.

** Not much later, Chase returns and says that that is ''exactly what happened''. Molly points out that this was exactly what she said, and asks why the others aren't [[Malaproper|awesomed]] by her.

* ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'': Rorschach wasn't killed by Dr. Manhattan! Jon just teleported him somewhere, the blood was just a decoy to throw off Adrian! Also Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice. Hooded Justice's death is highly ambiguous, though it seems Nelly officially died in a car crash. However, a popular theory that the pair are in truth alive and together may be confirmed by [[Word of God]].

*** Well, there '''are''' characters in SW canon who survived similar situations, namely Darth Krayt and Rahm Kota.

** Similarly, some think Kit Fisto survived his gut-slash from Palpatine.

** Aayla Secura, a very minor ([[Ensemble Darkhorse|in the films, anyway]]) Jedi killed onscreen during the Order 66 sequence, has attracted speculation that she may have survived. This in spite of the fact that the film goes to fairly great lengths to show her being shot [[In the Back]], collapsing, then [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|continuing to be shot for some time]].

** Similarly, Shaak Ti, another minor Jedi, has a habit of surviving not only situations that ''should'' have killed her, but also two that actually '''did'''. She was filmed dying ''twice'' in ''Revenge Of The Sith'', at the hands of both General Greivous and Darth Vader, but both scenes were dropped. She was last seen falling into a Sarlacc pit in ''[[The Force Unleashed]]'', and we ''all'' know [[No One Could Survive That]]...

** ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'' fans have this attitude toward Revan. Which definitely isn't helped by the fact that his fate after around a year after the game is set was never revealed.

*** They were right this time around. [[Star Wars: The Old Republic|He's still alive and kicking 300 years later.]] Well, for [[And I Must Scream|certain defintions of "alive."]]

** [[Joss Whedon]] has said that this is what he fully intended the reaction to be, to an extent; he knew that the fandom would not react favourably to the death and in this way made the connection with the character all the stronger by proving that they were genuinely sad that he was gone.

* [http://www.bringbackkirk.com Many fans of] ''[[Star Trek]]'' didn't like the way [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|Captain Kirk was killed]] in ''[[Star Trek Generations|Generations]]''. And neither did [[William Shatner]], who co-wrote a series of non-[[Canon]] Trek novels set after ''Generations'' which resurrected Kirk. Fans call this series the "[[The Verse|Shatnerverse]]", though whether lovingly or derisively depends on the Trekkie.

**** ''[[Star Trek Online]]'' consider the event to be canon in the timeline leading up to the game, too.

***** And dont forget Dr McCoy in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]''

* Harvey Dent/Two-Face in ''[[The Dark Knight]]''. He wasn't moving after he hit the ground and there was a funeral, but some fans say that they "saw him breathing" after his fall. The fate of the character was addressed in a recent interview where Aaron Eckhart revealed that Harvey did in fact die and that he had to ask the director if the character was really, truly dead from the fall. This, of course, has led to fans pointing out the [[Exact Words|possible loophole]] that while ''Harvey'' might be dead, ''Two-Face'' might have survived.

** A lot of the speculation was likely also because Heath Ledger's death left a void in what would (presumably) have been the main villain of the next movie, leading some fans to believe that Two-Face's death might be retconned even if it had been intended as final.

* Also in ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'' it was widely speculated that Coulson survived being stabbed by Loki and Fury lied about him dying to motivate the Avengers.

* Prince Charming was speculated to have survived the events of Shrek the Third by the window falling on him after the huge realistic prop tower was knocked onto him by Dragon.

* People unhappy about [[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Irene Adler's]] [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|bridge dropping]] have proposed that she's still alive and is being held captive by Moriarty/Moran, and that her rescue (and Moran's survival) will drive the plot of the inevitable third movie.

** And, of course, Holmes himself, for some reason, actually is hiding.

* Wellsie's vicious murder in the [[Black Dagger Brotherhood]] series left fans not only [[Crowning Moment of Sadness|heartbroken]], but scrambling for this trope.

* When [[Sherlock Holmes]] went over the waterfall in "The Final Problem", Conan Doyle got scads of hate mail, apparently-sane young men wore mourning bands, and he was offered scads of money to bring him back. Of course, since they [[Never Found the Body]], it turned out that he was just hiding with the Dalai Lama, having somehow won his death-struggle by means of a mastery of "Baritsu, the Japanese system of wrestling".

** In fairness, if that were true there are signs that he would not be the only one...

** Two words: The Hound. There is even sufficient evidence that he ''is'' still alive, unless Martin is pulling a gigantic [[Fauxshadow|dick move]].

*** [[Word of God]]: The Hound is dead. Sandor Clegane is at rest. [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]?

* [[Stephen King]] [[Hangs a Lampshade]] on this trope in ''[[Misery]]''. When [[Loony Fan]] Annie Wilkes finds out that Paul Sheldon killed off her favorite character in his most recent novel, she forces him to write a sequel in which Misery is shown to be still alive. When she reads Paul's first draft, which revises the ending of the previous book, she accuses Paul of [[Retcon|cheating]].

* Many fans of ''[[The Underland Chronicles]]'' refuse to believe that Twitchtip is dead, mostly because Gregor (and the audience) only found out about her "off screen" death through a bit of intercepted information. Some say she faked her death and is out running in the Underland somewhere while others say the rats were just lying to each other.

** [[Fate of the Jedi]] has an inversion: Because of it being released either after or around the same time as the Legacy era comics (which has Luke Skywalker as a force ghost), several fans are speculating that Luke Skywalker might end up dying by the end of this book series.

* In [[Charles Dickens]]' last and incomplete novel, ''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]'', the title character Edwin disappears mid-novel and is assumed to be dead, a victim of murder, although no body is found. Because the author died before completing the book, the intended resolution is unknown, and subject to much speculation. One theory is that the character Dick Datchery is actually a disguised Edwin.

* Inverted in ''[[24]]'', in which a number of fans claim that the impending resurrection of popular character Tony Almeida in season seven may actually be a sign that the show is finally ready to [[Jump the Shark]], especially after the lackluster sixth season. Of course, much of this may be due to the fact that ''[[24]]'' is known for being a show where [[Anyone Can Die]], and fans believe that [[Death Is Cheap|cheapening the death]] of a character so high up on the [[Sorting Algorithm of Deadness]] (3.5) may limit the emotional intensity of future character deaths. Other fans just think they should bring back Jack's dad instead.

** Actually Tony's return was a bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]]. We never actually saw him declared dead in season five and, more importantly, there was no silent clock. Much lesser characters who died much less dramatic deaths got the silent clock so the fact that Tony didn't made many fans say right away that he wasn't dead and would surely be brought back.

* Richie from ''[[Highlander the Series]]''. Not only was he a rather popular character handed the [[Idiot Ball]] after being taught for over a season how to survive as a [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|Immortal]], he gets killed by [[Not Himself|Duncan, who was hallucinating at the time]]. Many fans, not just Richie fans disavow that this episode ever happened, and decided Richie [[Put on a Bus|just moved out]].

* Even though it wasn't a case of a truly major character, the death of Rousseau on ''[[Lost]]'' is an example. Even though she was shot, her corpse was later found in a shallow grave, ''and'' a guy who talks to dead people heard her voice there were still people on-line trying to come with survival scenarios.

** Michael and Jin were both on a boat when it exploded. The latter was shown to have survived in this explosion. The former's fate is still up in the air.

** In what may be a subversion, many fans of Lost took the close-shot of Ethan's corpse and the motion of him breathing (which appears to have been a goof) unnoticed by the Losties as a casual foreshadowing that the character would come back. While he featured frequently in flashbacks after the episode of his death, he never made his return in the "present day".

** Another example would be Rose who, in season one, refused to believe her husband had died in the crash. Come season two...

** And then there's the time the Smoke Monster punted Richard into the jungle with no mention of whether he was okay or not until the series finale.

* Archie Kennedy dies a [[Heroic Sacrifice|gloriously]] [[Death Is Dramatic|tragic on-screen death]] in ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]''... but there are so many fics about him surviving that post-Retribution fics usually feature either the label 'LKU', or 'DKU', as in Live Kennedy Universe and Dead Kennedy Universe.

* For the new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' the Time Lords were all killed, with the Doctor as the [[Last of His Kind]]. Then [[Evil Counterpart|the Master]] was revealed to have concealed himself by temporarily becoming human, leading fans to endlessly speculate about who else did this (the Rani being the most popular choice).

** Theories of surviving Time Lords are given a lot more weight by the sheer number of Daleks that have popped up in the revived series, Daleks supposedly having been wiped out along with the Time Lords at the end of the Time War.

 

== Theatre ==

 

 

* Sam's daughter in ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' literally.

* The original ''[[Grandia (video game)|Grandia]]'' tweaks the trope a bit by giving a female party member an unexpected case of traumatic stress disorder, forcing her to return to her village before the final battle begins.

** Notable in ''X 5'', which was meant to be the last in the series, according to creator Inafune. Alas, ''X6'' was created, in which Zero was literally hiding the entire time up until he returns from the dead.

** ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'' ended with Zero's death as he broke up a [[Colony Drop]] while re-entering Earth's orbit (although [[Word of God]] claims that he's MIA in the Mega Man Zero Official Complete Works). Fans were counting the months for his return. ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' has his Expy (who is killed within an hour or so) and you find a biometal that has his properties and attitude, but no, he's really dead.

** That's if you get the crappy bad ending. In the 'Good' Ending he achieves a Stable Time Loop and goes back to the beginning of the first game, where he intends to correct his mistakes and keep Alice from dying this time around. Probably.

* ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation'' fans came up with theories about bringing back Axel Almer and Mekibos after ''OG2'', and Lamia Loveless after ''2.5''. Given Banpresto's proud history of subverting the "[[Anyone Can Die]]" mentality, the only surprise in Axel and Lamia's return in ''OG Gaiden'' was the how of it. Also, given Mekibos's death and revival as a cyborg in the original timeline, it's only a matter of time before he comes out of hiding, too.

** SRW K gives you a literal 'just hiding' in form of ''[[Gun X Sword]]'''s Michael Garret and Fasalina. In the show, they're supposed to be never heard of again after [[Diabolus Ex Machina|a sudden]] collapsing ceiling from a destroyed base. In here, after all that happened, [[Guide Dang It|if proper actions were taken]], they immediately came out from hiding and ''[[Heel Face Turn|joins right after]]''.

* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', [[Memetic Mutation|Axel is not dead. He liberated himself to Hawaii. Totally. No doubt partying with Ansem the Wise, right? ...Right!?]]

*** And with one of [[Kingdom Hearts 3D]]'s trailers, Axel WILL be coming back as Lea, as well as Ienzo and Elaeus, and probably more members of the organization.

** Although Scar was killed in Kingdom Hearts, the fact that he became a Heartless shortly after his first death and retained his regular form, as well as the heavy implications that an equally strong Nobody would be formed in the process strongly implies that we haven't seen the last of Scar just yet, even after his Groundshaker form was destroyed.

** Except DMC 4 made it clear that wasn't Vergil's body that exploded. It's was either his soul or a false body that his soul was trapped in.

** Not just the case with Vergil; let's look at Sparda. The [[Word of God|narrator]] from the first game stated that he died, Arkham in the third game's manga stated that he died, but for some reason the fans insist that he's only "disappeared" (and is likely to return one day), basing it on a misinterpreted line in ''2'' or Modeus's musing in the [[Devil May Cry: The Animated Series|animated series]]. No one ever bothers to answer the question of just ''what'' Sparda might be doing if he did simply just vanish.

** And let's not even talk about the shitload of [[Epileptic Trees]] surrounding Ghost and how he survived being shot with a high-caliber pistol and then being set on fire.

** And as of MW3, Soap MacTavish is on the "just hiding!" list.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', the ending is just ambiguous enough to support both the theory that Ramza and Alma (at least, but may extend to the rest of the heroes) escaped the Necrohol of Mullonde and lived out their lives in hiding; as well as the theory that they never did.

** Bah, the chocobo Ramza was riding dropped a feather in the river, which subsequently left ripples. Unless it was a ghost chocobo dropping ghost feathers in a ghost river, they lived.

*** This is actually a rare '''[[Inverted Trope|inversion]]''' of this trope, as fans insist Ramza died despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The reasons to believe they are alive are numerous: No precedent for ghosts that look alive, never found the body, they are literally seen alive, Olan is not the narrator, etc. The reasons to believe they are dead...well...they were seen in a huge explosion[[Sarcasm Mode|(and of course no one has ever survived any of those)]] and it makes for a more touching ending.

** The lyrics for the song "Memories of You" at the end of the game pretty much confirmed his death before FES was even in development.

** Big Boss dies again in MGS4, along with his comrades Eva and Ocelot. However, given these characters massive popularity, fan theories have cropped up by the hundreds claiming that all three are still alive and well and their supposed 'deaths' were just a way of hiding themselves from the various militaries and governments who want to abuse them.

** Solid Snake himself has this trope in an odd way... The ending of MGS4 pretty much outright states Snake will die and very soon. But, he doesn't technically expire within the game itself, leading some to assume that Snake lives on in spite of his body's decline.

* In ''[[The World Ends With You]]'', Sho Minamimoto's body is found during the last day of the Game, ''just'' before you enter the final [[Boss Rush]]. As he is a [[Ensemble Darkhorse|fan-favorite]], and the standard death for Reapers involves [[Everything Fades|their body disappearing]], some believe that he is, in fact, still alive.

** There's even more evidence in the words of Joshua, the [[Big Bad|Composer]], who states he's been well aware of Minamimoto's [[The Starscream|Starscream]] status the whole time but keeps him around because he thinks Sho's crazy betrayal plots are [[Magnificent Bastard|amusing]]. This suggests he left Minamimoto alive on purpose.

*** Read this little tidbit of info: When asked if Midna would return for a future game or not in an interview with Game Informer, Eiji Aonuma stated: "Because of the way Twilight Princess ended, I don't see her making a reappearance, but who knows? If we hear enough voices for her to come back, how can we not?"

* ''[[Resident Evil]]'' fans have a hard time believing Albert Wesker has truly [[Killed Off for Real|died]] after ''Resident Evil 5''. Doubly-so due to his cheap death (lava didn't faze him, rockets didn't faze him, but lava + rockets did the trick? What is this, [[Pokémon]]?). [[Word of God|The series producer]] would have you believe otherwise, though.

* Joe in ''[[Mafia II]]'', possibly because it was never shown that he was killed (or the acts of killing him), only implied.

* Duncan from ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'' has met with this due to his death being, while strongly implied, not directly shown onscreen, and the player [[Never Found the Body|not finding his body]] in the Return to Ostagar DLC (despite them finding Cailan's, who would only have been a few meters away from Duncan, along with Duncan's weapons in the corpse of the last Darkspawn he killed). [[Word of God]] is that he is indeed dead.

* [[Team Fortress 2|The Spy]] can do this with his unlockable watch "The Dead Ringer". When he has it out, if anything damages him, instantly [[Invisibility|cloaks]], and drops a fake corpse. Its become customary for players to never assume the spy they just killed is actually dead.

 

 

== Webcomics ==

* When Gordon Frohman died in the final episode of ''[[Concerned]]'', you could see tons of messages full of grief, rage and hatred on the comic's forum, most of them written without any regard for spelling or, for that matter, the comic's subtitle: "The Half-Life and ''Death'' of Gordon Frohman". (Maybe that's because, in their opinion, he was [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|killed off anticlimactically]].)

** The reason for this is more that Frohman apparently went from living to dead ''without taking damage'', which can't happen in the game.

** It was so pervasive, that recently, a fan created a comic titled ''Concerned 2: A Concerned Ripoff-The Continuing Adventures of Gordon Frohman.'' In the first strip, Frohman was revived by ''[http://aconcernedrip-off.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=11205247 Reloading from the last checkpoint].''

* Miko Miyazaki in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'': The fandom for this webcomic is awash in speculation and rumors about Miko, despite her plot arc ending with her being cut in half, her soul being taken to 'her destination' personally by a ghost, and any possibility of her being brought back as an [[The Undead|undead abomination]] shot down in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0465.html this strip]. Before her death, the author had stated that she would remain in the story for most of its run, so while he could have changed his mind, there is at least that.

** In the same vein, Belkar's predicted death has plenty of people wondering if he'll become undead or some kind of sentient construct, despite the Oracle's ramblings and direct statements. So not so much He's Just Hiding, so much as He Will Be Hiding.

** Earlier in the comic, Dave was originally intended to die in his first encounter with [[Satan]], but fan outcry meant an [[Author's Saving Throw]] in the form of a holy shotgun.

* Fans of ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' spent ''years'' insisting that psychobear AI Petey was Just Hiding, to the point when the character came back the strip outright [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040829.html lampshaded it].

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' actually managed a kind of cruel subversion of this, even though it's an audience reaction trope. For years, the central cast was protected by [[Plot Armor]], so when it appeared that someone had finally very dramatically died for real, a large proportion of readers insisted that they were just hiding. However, when it was revealed that they were in fact alive, and further revealed just [[And I Must Scream|what state they were in]], some turned around and said it would be better if they ''were'' dead, even hoping for that to happen.

* Related to the [[Real Life]] section, ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' has Dracula keeping Bruce Lee, Tupac, the real Michael Jackson, the real Paul McCartney, Elvis, and Hitler in his moon base.

* ''[[Homestuck]]''. Bro is just faking it, right? ''Right?''

** A whole lot of people seemed to think that Jade's dreamself survived the destruction of Prospit, judging by fans' reactions to said event containing a whole lot of "ifs" in reference to her being dead. This was despite the fact that her dreambot was clearly shown being destroyed, and, you know, having ''a goddamn moon'' dropped on her. Thankfully, Andrew showed the corpse shortly after and clearly showed and referred to her as dead, putting an end to this. She came back anyway.

** During a [[Darkest Hour|period in the story where several characters died]], some fans speculated that the whole thing was an [[Alternate Timeline]] and it never really happened. In what may have been a [[Fandom Nod]], there was a scene where Karkat and Terezi were seemingly killed before it was revealed it was an [[Alternate Timeline]]. The same thing happened to Spades Slick.

** A recent as of this writing [[Word of God|Q&A session with Hussie]] included a question by a fan asking if Spades Slick is okay, after ''having his entire universe obliterated with him inside it''. Hussie responded in his [[Trolling Creator|usual style]]

*** ''He wasn't joking.''

* Fans of ''[[Slightly Damned]]'' thought this about Sakido so many often that the author went ahead and [http://www.sdamned.com/about/faq/ wrote on her FAQ page] that, yes, Sakido is dead for good.

** In v3 many handlers suspected that the characters killed off in the inactive clearing were still around Faking The Dead and plotting against the terrorists. However, this was actually proven to be canonical. In v4, some handlers have speculated that the STAR escape group did not die in a fiery boat explosion as the terrorists claim, but for now they're treated as dead by most people.

* This is the earlier depiction of a character death in ''[[San: Three Kingdoms Comic]]''. Dong Zhuo and Dian Wei goes to Hawaii after their novel death, and Lu Bu got sent to Alaska (while wearing a bikini). It looks like latter strips drop this concept, however.

 

 

*** Similar theories exist for the Sky Bison and Flying Lemurs. These were ultimately confirmed true by the [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'', and they've been repopulating.

*** This even applies in-character; when Aang is told that the Air Nomads were wiped out, he is initially insistent that the Fire Nation could never have accessed the Air Temples, and suggests that they've been in hiding for the last hundred years. It's only when he discovers the remains of several Fire Nation soldiers surrounding the skeleton of his closest friend and father figure that Aang accepts that he is [[Title Drop|the last airbender]].

** Prime's death in the ''G1'' movie had such a profound effect, it actually caused an aversion in another Hasbro toy based movie; protests over it caused the creators of the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' animated movie to turn Duke's death near the end into a coma.

*** Which is even more ironic when you find out that apparently, the idea to kill off the leader originally came from the guys writing the GI Joe movie. The Hasbro execs liked it so much [[Merchandise-Driven|as a way to clear old stock off of shelves]] that they suggested the Transformers movie do the same. Then the GI Joe movie got delayed, Optimus Prime died, and the rest is history.

** However, [[Word of God]] and [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PX0o2_aJqt0/ScBOx2tf34I/AAAAAAAAAOs/5kk5p2NIQYE/s1600-h/Squishy.jpg a rather insightful bit of released storyboard] say that this one might not be forever either...

** As of the end of the series, he's still not back. But the above image, plus the fact that existing Transformer sparks can be transfered into the bodies of healthy protoforms, makes hope spring eternal.

* ''[[Beast Wars]]'': Some fans speculate that Dinobot II did in fact survive the exploding ship he was trapped in during the series finale and continued to live on earth alone complete with his memories of being the original Dinobot. The evidence to support this comes from the fact that he had Protoform X's spark in its whole form, which could heal injuries and was already shown to be highly difficult to kill given his transmetal body.

* The first episode of the ''X-Men: Animated'' series introduced the character Morph, only to kill him off in the first episode. This was supposedly done to prove to the audience that this show had balls. Apparently, his brief appearance made him popular enough to bring back in the second season, where it was revealed Mr. Sinister resurrected and brainwashed him.

*** In MJ's case the sheer amount of dedicated [[Promoted Fanboy|impersonators]] would probably get people to [[Cloning Gambit|assume]] he's only just [[Actually a Doombot|a really good tribute artist]] if he went out in public.

** And a ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'' episode: "Wait till I tell Tupac about this! Oh- um..." (awkward silence) Jack: "I didn't hear anything."

** Hilariously carried on in ''[[Good Omens]]'' by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, when some bikers in a bar are playing a trivia game and come across the question of when Elvis died. It turns out the one with the control for the game is [[The Grim Reaper|Death himself]], one of the [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]], who states that he never laid a finger on him. Of course, he never gets any of the answers associated with deaths wrong. It turns out that Elvis is working in a [[Burger Fool|Burger Lord]] as a short-order cook.

** Let's not forget the answer provided by the ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' movie: "Elvis is not dead, [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|he just went home]]."

** Elvis is alive and well in ''[[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]]''. [[Our Vampires Are Different|Sort of...]]

** [[Stephen King]] has mentioned meeting Jim Morrison at a random gas station. When asked why he wasn't dead, Morrison replied "Don't believe everything that you read", before driving off. King put the unnerving story in the mouth of one of his characters in ''[[The Stand]]''.

** Some people believe McCartney ''faked his death''.

*** Then he needs to take lessons from Elvis.

*** Subverted, since said fellow has been stated explicitly as having died and been brought back to life. However, this trope is often offered as an alternative explanation for his return by those who reject his divinity or the supernatural in general.

** And the Twelfth Imam, who is believed to be in "occultation" until the day of Judgement.

* Some people thought that Amelia Earhart succeeded with her attempted world flight and assumed a different identity afterwards.

** There is a book of short stories in which one featured Amelia as an Orthodox Jewish girl who'd always longed to be a pilot. She eventually achieved her goal, but then realized how much she was missing out on, faked her death, and lived out the rest of her life in Bnei Brak or similar.

*** [[Futurama|Or putting his brain in a Great White Shark]].

* More serious theories concerned Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann, and the leader of Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, who both disappeared near the end of the war. Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal believed that Bormann escaped to South America, while others theorized that he was actually a Soviet agent. In 1998, it was confirmed that Bormann died in 1945. Probably so did Müller, but this is still not confirmed.

** Conversely, it also wouldn't be out of character for Kaufman to want people to ''think'' he had faked his own death when he did actually die.

** It didn't help that Kaufman himself stated that if he were to fake his own death, he would return 20 years later. His friends threw a "Welcome Home Andy" party on May 16, 2004 which Andy curiously did not show up to.