Normally I Would Be Dead Now: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~zabuza_dead_2258~~.jpg|link=Naruto|frame|"...Okay, let's try a ''fifteenth'' stab wound. Is he dead yet? ...''[[Why Won't You Die?|Dammit!]]''"]]

[[File:zabuza dead 2258.jpg|link=Naruto|frame|"...Okay, let's try a ''fifteenth'' stab wound. Is he dead yet? ...''[[Why Won't You Die?|Dammit!]]''"]]

{{quote|'''Travis Touchdown''': Pain in MY ass. ''Why aren't you dead yet?''

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Killing the character after their display of [[Heroic Willpower]] for extra dramatic effect, or to show that the the wounds [[Living on Borrowed Time|were fatal after all, just not right away]], is optional.

Note that [[Normally I Would Be Dead Now]] applies only to things that would have killed a normal character even by Hollywood rules. If it is "merely" something like severe bleeding from the shoulder or leg, that is [[Only a Flesh Wound]]. Surprisingly, this is actually a case of [[Truth in Television]]. There are many real life examples of people who had things rammed through their chests and heads and still lived due to the foreign material miraculously missing vital organs. This means there is a fine line between this and mere [[Aversion]] of [[Instant Death Bullet]]. However, it is far more common in fiction than in [[Real Life]] and all of them were left incapacitated or unable to move, so [[Don't Try This At Home]].

Note that '''Normally I Would Be Dead Now''' applies only to things that would have killed a normal character even by Hollywood rules. If it is "merely" something like severe bleeding from the shoulder or leg, that is [[Only a Flesh Wound]]. Surprisingly, this is actually a case of [[Truth in Television]]. There are many real life examples of people who had things rammed through their chests and heads and still lived due to the foreign material miraculously missing vital organs. This means there is a fine line between this and mere [[Aversion]] of [[Instant Death Bullet]]. However, it is far more common in fiction than in [[Real Life]] and all of them were left incapacitated or unable to move, so [[Don't Try This At Home]].

May overlap with [[I Can Still Fight]].

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* Negi of the ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]!'' manga puts up an admirable fight despite being ''impaled in the chest'' by a thick piece of stone, pulling out and gripping the stone in one hand and [[Mahou Sensei Negima/Awesome|sucker-punching his opponent with it]]. You do ''not'' [[Badass Teacher|mess with his students]]. In a later incident, an enemy cuts off Negi's right arm. Negi's response? "I still have my left!"

** Slightly subverted for Negi. {{spoiler|As it's later revealed that his use of Magica Erebea has turned him into a vampire - like his master Evangeline. She did say her path had its price...}}

* Yuki Nagato of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' takes four massive spear-like projectiles through the torso, then proceeds to kill the ~~culprit -- her~~ [[Uncanny Valley Girl|understudy]] ~~-- without~~ so much as a cry of pain or raised voice. Like Vita above, though, she's a [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Ridiculously Human Network Terminal]], but as she still bleeds and breathes, this had to have been pretty significant damage. She collapses afterward. Well, first she takes [http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9526/yukispeard.jpg several iron spears to the chest] (and pulls one out of her and ''turns it into a desk''). Then she gets hit with [[Combat Tentacles|Ryoko's giant energy tentacles]], either through the upper torso or ''[[HSQ|through her]] [[Boom! Headshot!|head]]''.

* Yuki Nagato of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' takes four massive spear-like projectiles through the torso, then proceeds to kill the culprit—her [[Uncanny Valley Girl|understudy]]—without so much as a cry of pain or raised voice. Like Vita above, though, she's a [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Ridiculously Human Network Terminal]], but as she still bleeds and breathes, this had to have been pretty significant damage. She collapses afterward. Well, first she takes [http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9526/yukispeard.jpg several iron spears to the chest] (and pulls one out of her and ''turns it into a desk''). Then she gets hit with [[Combat Tentacles|Ryoko's giant energy tentacles]], either through the upper torso or ''[[HSQ|through her]] [[Boom! Headshot!|head]]''.

* Kazuki of ''[[Busou Renkin]]'' uses this to his advantage to defend against his opponent, a kendo genius whose signature (and vaguely illegal) move involves a devastating wide strike to the ribs. When Kazuki fights him, he's using a katana, and to avoid being {{spoiler|sliced in half, Kazuki returns his weapon to it's passive state where it functions as his heart, actually blocking}} the strike.

* In ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'', Jonathan Joestar's {{spoiler|final}} battle with Dio Brando incorporates this trope, as it starts out with him {{spoiler|getting two dime-sized holes blasted through his neck, including one right in the jugular}}. Additionally, this occurs several times during the battle between Jotaro and Dio in Stardust Crusaders, most notably when Dio famously drops a steamroller on Jotaro, whose Stand frantically attempts to keep it off of him while Dio's stand (which is faster and stronger) presses it down on him, pummeling the steam roller so hard that Jotaro ''can feel his blows though the steam roller itself as if it weren't there''. To complicate things, Dio ''stops time'' before dropping the steam roller, and Jotaro can only move for two seconds, whereas Dio pounds on him for a solid nine. After the steam roller is completely crushed, Dio gloats over his assumed victory, knowing that not even Jotaro could have survived the assault. When he finishes his evil monologue, he notices that {{spoiler|he cannot move, because Jotaro stopped time himself at the nine second mark, escaping from under the steam roller while Dio was gloating and assuming that the extended time stop duration was proof of his increasing power}}. Jotaro then proceeds to beat the carp (yes, the carp) out of him.

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** Perhaps the greatest example is when Bartholomew Kuma, a designated [[Psycho for Hire]] (known to do psycho things, but now calm and now loyal to [[The Government]]) pushed all the pain and fatigue away from Monkey D. Luffy's body from his battle with the [[Big Bad]], and Zoro who himself took some punishment from the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|zombie giant]] Oz, and Kuma's shockwave, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|took all the pain in]] ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|and survived]]''. When asked by Sanji what happened to him, he replied [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"Nothing. Nothing at all."]]

** Some [[Lampshade Hanging]] on Zoro's case when [[A God Am I|self-proclaimed god]], [[Psycho Electro|Eneru]] blasted [[Lightning Can Do Anything|a large column of lightning]] through an upper level of Giant Jack and Zoro, Wiper, Chopper and the giant snake came crashing with massive debris, no less. As he crashed on the ground, he pushed a giant rock away from his body and yelled "Damn rock! I could have died!" Nico Robin [[Genre Savvy|agreed]].

** Even Luffy falls into this trope. His match duel with [[The Chessmaster]] / [[Big Bad]] Crocodile who is fond of giving [[~~Plan|plans~~]] and more so of [[Gambit Roulette~~|Gambit Roulettes~~]], ended with the former being impaled by the latter's pirate hook. And even then, he didn't die and had enough strength to grab his arm, so Crocodile threw him in quicksand to [[Left for Dead|leave him for dead]]. Luffy ''still'' had enough strength to pop his head out of the sand. With help from [[Reverse Mole|Nico Robin]], who helped him out of the sand, and Pell who fed him, Luffy returned to fight Crocodile who sucked the water out of him. And in their next confrontation ([[Determinator|Luffy just doesn't give up, does he?]]), even Crocodile gave some [[Lampshade Hanging]] on what he went through. And even after being poisoned, he still managed to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|knock Crocodile through pure bedrock in the underground chamber, launching him above Alubarna flying in the air until he landed in the town centre.]]

** Even Luffy falls into this trope. His match duel with [[The Chessmaster]] / [[Big Bad]] Crocodile who is fond of giving [[plan]]s and more so of [[Gambit Roulette]]s, ended with the former being impaled by the latter's pirate hook. And even then, he didn't die and had enough strength to grab his arm, so Crocodile threw him in quicksand to [[Left for Dead|leave him for dead]]. Luffy ''still'' had enough strength to pop his head out of the sand. With help from [[Reverse Mole|Nico Robin]], who helped him out of the sand, and Pell who fed him, Luffy returned to fight Crocodile who sucked the water out of him. And in their next confrontation ([[Determinator|Luffy just doesn't give up, does he?]]), even Crocodile gave some [[Lampshade Hanging]] on what he went through. And even after being poisoned, he still managed to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|knock Crocodile through pure bedrock in the underground chamber, launching him above Alubarna flying in the air until he landed in the town centre.]]

** Oda seems to adore this trope, because at least one character per arc seems to fit this trope. The first I can remember is Dolton from the Drum arc, who was hit by arrows and then frozen over. To be fair, he got medical attention really fast. Kohza from the Alabasta arc got it even worse when he got shot in the chest a grand total of five times, and he still was totally fine a few days later. However, the character who takes the cake for this trope, by far, is Wiper from Skypeia. He got stabbed in the shoulder, Axe Dialed to the back, and electrocuted at least twice. If that weren't enough already, he uses a kamikaze move, his Reject Dial, three times, even though every time someone tells him that he'll die if he uses it! The bones in his arm were pretty much shattered. After all this, you would think he'd be down for the count, but no! He can still get up later that evening! All he needed was a bunch of bandages.

** If this example isn't first for [[One Piece]], then it's a pretty close second. During the Whitebeard War Arc, {{spoiler|Whitebeard}} took a grand total of 267 slashes and stabs, 152 bullets, 46 cannonballs, and {{spoiler|half his goddamned face being melted off}}. And this is after laying down a well deserved beat down on {{spoiler|Blackbeard}}.

* Hiro Mashima ''loves'' this trope. Honestly, after reading a few volumes of ''[[Rave Master]]'' you'll realize that you can never be ~~sure--no~~ matter how much pounding, shooting, blasting, or [[Explosive Overclocking]] a character ~~gets--whether~~ they're seriously dead/about to die or [[Only Mostly Dead]]. Plue can stop bleeding and pain. But it does not explain Shuda surviving the loss of a limb and a 1000 foot fall, or Lucia being up and murderous after his beating from Haru, or the numerous times Sieg is kicking ass again after having a vital organ severely damaged.

* Hiro Mashima ''loves'' this trope. Honestly, after reading a few volumes of ''[[Rave Master]]'' you'll realize that you can never be sure—no matter how much pounding, shooting, blasting, or [[Explosive Overclocking]] a character gets—whether they're seriously dead/about to die or [[Only Mostly Dead]]. Plue can stop bleeding and pain. But it does not explain Shuda surviving the loss of a limb and a 1000 foot fall, or Lucia being up and murderous after his beating from Haru, or the numerous times Sieg is kicking ass again after having a vital organ severely damaged.

* Hiro Mashima's ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' - There's also no explanation for how Gray took ''[[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|being impaled]]'' '''[http://www.mangareader.net/135-7154-20/fairy-tail/chapter-39.html through his stomach]''' without even slowing down while fighting {{spoiler|Leon}}. In fact all he apparently did to treat the wound was ''sealing it with ice'' (a seal which broke before the end of the fight), leaving no explanation for why he did not lose two or three vital organs. Just to makes this even more ridiculous, he then fights better against his opponent than he ever did uninjured and starts by beating the hell out of him with just his fists.

* ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'' - Poor Tsukune suffers from this pretty badly, especially after he gets {{spoiler|his vampire powers.}} At one point he's hit in the head so hard it ''bounces off the pavement'', yet he's none the worse for wear. He does have a keepsake of his abuse; two big scars that reach across his chest, forming an X.

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== Comics ==

* [[Iron Man]]'s origin story involved a deadly shrapnel wound that would eventually penetrate his heart; to quote the movie, "I should be dead already." Instead of resigning himself to fate, he put his inventive genius to ~~work -- rigging~~ up an electromagnetic pacemaker to keep his heart beating and keep the shrapnel out. And since the power source was putting out so much juice, he figured he [[Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids|might as well hook up some armor and guns to it.]]

* [[Iron Man]]'s origin story involved a deadly shrapnel wound that would eventually penetrate his heart; to quote the movie, "I should be dead already." Instead of resigning himself to fate, he put his inventive genius to work—rigging up an electromagnetic pacemaker to keep his heart beating and keep the shrapnel out. And since the power source was putting out so much juice, he figured he [[Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids|might as well hook up some armor and guns to it.]]

* Cutter in ''[[Elf Quest]]'' is determined to keep fighting even after being speared through the gut. Not surprisingly this puts his continued survival in doubt.

* In ''[[Scud the Disposable Assassin]]'', the titular robot was shot with a laser beam through the torso. He then kept talking about how much it hurt in spite of his being a robot, implying that the wound was rather severe, then drove a semi truck off of a ''twelve-mile-high cliff'' - and he and the truck ''survived''. In fact, he drove the truck ''several miles'' through the desert after hitting the ground. Given that the main premise of the comics is that he's avoiding self-destruction (his model self-destructs after killing its intended target, so he instead incapacitates it and puts it in stasis, becoming a hit man to pay its hospital bills), it's strange such a thing would even be possible.

* ''[[The Punisher]]'' is a good example of this. Particularly in the Max Comics series, Frank Castle takes an insane amount of damage over the course of the series. In the "Punisher: Born" miniseries, Captain Frank Castle survives the obliteration of Firebase Valley Forge by attacking Viet Cong, surviving being shot ''seven times.'' It freaked the hell out of the reinforcements that came to see who survived. At one point, he gets shot in the side of his chest, point-blank, with a shotgun. After acknowledging that one of his ribs is "...gone. Not broken, gone.", he gets into an extended fistfight with the man who shot him, tosses him out of a window, and carries on. It seems like you can't finish an story arc without Castle experiencing some near-fatal damage. The Punisher's Nemesis Barracuda is the same. Shortly after meeting the Punisher, 'Cuda gets the fingers on his right hand chopped off, his eye stabbed out, and his teeth broken, not to mention later shot in the chest and hurled off a boat into ''shark-infested waters.'' Barracuda survives (he [[Lampshade Hanging|explains]] this by claiming he grabbed onto the back of the boat and got towed to shore), and comes after the Punisher again, and {{spoiler|later tortured by having his nutsack clipped to a car battery, shot several times, blown up, his ''nose ripped off,'' before the Punisher finally kills him by chopping his hands off with an axe and shooting his head to bits with an AK-47.}} As Punisher had noted, [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|"Barracuda was dead when you shot him to bits and shot the bits and burned them. Anything less just left that nagging doubt."]] The Punisher's durability is justified by him {{spoiler|making a deal with Death at the end of Punisher: Born, at the cost of his family.}}

* ''[[The Punisher]]'' is a good example of this. Particularly in the Max Comics series, Frank Castle takes an insane amount of damage over the course of the series. In the "Punisher: Born" miniseries, Captain Frank Castle survives the obliteration of Firebase Valley Forge by attacking Viet Cong, surviving being shot ''seven times.'' It freaked the hell out of the reinforcements that came to see who survived. At one point, he gets shot in the side of his chest, point-blank, with a shotgun. After acknowledging that one of his ribs is "...gone. Not broken, gone.", he gets into an extended fistfight with the man who shot him, tosses him out of a window, and carries on. It seems like you can't finish an story arc without Castle experiencing some near-fatal damage.

The Punisher's Nemesis Barracuda is the same. Shortly after meeting the Punisher, 'Cuda gets the fingers on his right hand chopped off, his eye stabbed out, and his teeth broken, not to mention later shot in the chest and hurled off a boat into ''shark-infested waters.'' Barracuda survives (he [[Lampshade Hanging|explains]] this by claiming he grabbed onto the back of the boat and got towed to shore), and comes after the Punisher again, and {{spoiler|later tortured by having his nutsack clipped to a car battery, shot several times, blown up, his ''nose ripped off,'' before the Punisher finally kills him by chopping his hands off with an axe and shooting his head to bits with an AK-47.}} As Punisher had noted, [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|"Barracuda was dead when you shot him to bits and shot the bits and burned them. Anything less just left that nagging doubt."]]

The Punisher's durability is justified by him {{spoiler|making a deal with Death at the end of Punisher: Born, at the cost of his family.}}

* '[[G.I. Joe]]' comics. Scarlett is pretending to be a double-agent, so in order to maintain her cover, Snake-Eyes the ninja is forced to give her a survivable stab in the chest. Nobody counted on the Cobra ninja Slice, who realized if Snake-Eyes really wanted to kill, Scarlett would be dead instantly. So the whole thing is a load of B.S. Then [[Transformers Generation Two|Megatron]] shows up. No, really.

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* Edgar Freemantle and Wiseman in [[Stephen King|Stephen King's]] ''[[Duma Key]]'' both fit the example, and this condition is what opens them up to the key's... let's say environmental hazards.

* In ''[[The Girl Who Played With Fire]]'', [[Action Girl|Lisbeth Salander]] {{spoiler|is shot in the hip, in the back and in the head (the last bullet getting lodged in her brain), then [[Buried Alive|buried (barely) alive]],}} yet she still manages to not only {{spoiler|dig her way out and take axe revenge, but also survive all the way into and through the sequel}}.

* In the ''[[BattleTech]]'' novel ''Grave Covenant'', during a fight with a trio of ninja, protagonist Prince Victor Steiner-Davion ends up ''nailed to the floor'' by a katana through the chest. [[Heroic Willpower]], [[The Power of Love|fear for the woman he loves]], and arguably a lot of dumb luck let him pull the thing back out inch by bloody inch and kill his attacker with it instead. He passes out shortly afterwards and very nearly does ~~die -- thankfully~~, he's right in the capital city of the Draconis Combine as a guest of state and gets rushed to the hospital just in time. Played with in that for a little while he really does believe that he died then and there. While in the hospital he hallucinates his dead father appearing to him, telling him that he's dead, and offering to take Victor with him to the afterlife. His love's dead grandfather also appears and says that because he died heroically defending her, he's there to offer to take Victor to their afterlife (a different one, as the two families [[Feuding Families|were traditional enemies]] until the Clans forced an [[Enemy Mine]] between them). The two of them ask him to choose who to go with. As both options involve dying for good, he decides to [[Take a Third Option|take a third.]]

* In the ''[[BattleTech]]'' novel ''Grave Covenant'', during a fight with a trio of ninja, protagonist Prince Victor Steiner-Davion ends up ''nailed to the floor'' by a katana through the chest. [[Heroic Willpower]], [[The Power of Love|fear for the woman he loves]], and arguably a lot of dumb luck let him pull the thing back out inch by bloody inch and kill his attacker with it instead. He passes out shortly afterwards and very nearly does die—thankfully, he's right in the capital city of the Draconis Combine as a guest of state and gets rushed to the hospital just in time.

Played with in that for a little while he really does believe that he died then and there. While in the hospital he hallucinates his dead father appearing to him, telling him that he's dead, and offering to take Victor with him to the afterlife. His love's dead grandfather also appears and says that because he died heroically defending her, he's there to offer to take Victor to their afterlife (a different one, as the two families [[Feuding Families|were traditional enemies]] until the Clans forced an [[Enemy Mine]] between them). The two of them ask him to choose who to go with. As both options involve dying for good, he decides to [[Take a Third Option|take a third.]]

* In ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'', (film also available) Sir Gawain of Arthur's Knights is challenged to a duel by the eponymous Green Knight. Given first blow Gawain decides to take advantage by chopping his opponent's head off and is somewhat put out when the headless body merely picks it up and slaps it back on again.

* In ''[[The Inkworld Trilogy|Inkspell]]'' {{spoiler|Mo}} survives having been {{spoiler|shot in the chest by The Magpie}} after he was transported to {{spoiler|the Inkworld}}.

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* ''[[Without a Trace]]'' sorta does this when FBI Head of Missing Persons is kidnapped himself by a somewhat unbalanced woman who thinks he's an assassin. She ''nailguns'' his hand to a chair and then in the chest. He even rips his hand out of the nail from the other end. End of the episode has him rescued, and all the paramedics do is bandage him up and he ''walks out of there'', commenting that he'll work on the paperwork. Not as [[Badass]] as other portrayals as he is weak and hurt by this, but no ''way'' the paramedics in real life wouldn't do their best to convince him to let them rush him to the hospital via stretcher at the very least.

* During [[Stephen Colbert]]'s appearance on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', his statements about Rosa Parks enrage Conan so much that he pulls a pistol and shoots him in the chest. Colbert falls back, apparently dead - then slowly sits up after a few seconds and continues his argument, completely unfazed. Conan complains, exasperated, "I shot you very near the heart!"

* On ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy receives a severe electric shock intended to kill her. She manages to escape without severe harm thanks to Slayer toughness, but Giles implies that a normal human would have been killed by the shock. In the series finale: "Mommy, this mortal wound itches." Then again, being impaled through the midsection is demonstrably not always fatal in the Buffyverse. Still, the First Evil seemed to think it would do her in, and the First is probably an expert in fatalities. We see that that impaling a Slayer does little to stop them~~. There is also Xander, who survived being smacked around with a hammer that injures dieties~~.

* On ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy receives a severe electric shock intended to kill her. She manages to escape without severe harm thanks to Slayer toughness, but Giles implies that a normal human would have been killed by the shock. In the series finale: "Mommy, this mortal wound itches." Then again, being impaled through the midsection is demonstrably not always fatal in the Buffyverse. Still, the First Evil seemed to think it would do her in, and the First is probably an expert in fatalities. We see that that impaling a Slayer does little to stop them.

There is also Xander, who survived being smacked around with a hammer that injures dieties.

* On the first episode of ''[[Deadwood]]'', a prostitute named Trixie shoots a customer in the head. The Doctor is summoned, and observes in fascination as the customer continues to babble half-coherently despite the bullet going straight through his head (demonstrated after he dies by sticking a metal probe straight through the wound channel.) The customer does die after some minutes, but even the Doctor seemed to think he should be dead, or at least not babbling.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]''; That second heart time-lords have comes in handy. How many times have the villains managed to stop one of them, not to realise he's got a second?

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* Any videogame. Just got machine-gunned in the chest from ten feet away? [[Hyperactive Metabolism|Take some painkillers and a herb you found in the flower garden in the lobby.]] You'll be fine.

* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', particularly the later games where you could have a sword lodged in your chest or forehead [[I Can Still Fight|yet still be able to fight!]]

* ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' absolutely loves this trope, taking the [[Hollywood Healing]] approach to [[Action Hero~~|Action Heroes~~]]. By the end of the second game he has been shot through the chest and head, fallen twenty feet onto hard concrete and had the building he was in blown up, none of which slow him down much. Lampshaded in ''Max Payne 2''. When he is brought into the hospital after {{spoiler|Winters shoots him in the back}}. The doctors and nurses reference 'multiple gunshot wounds' 'severe head trauma' and use the phrase 'this guy is a trainwreck.'

* ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' absolutely loves this trope, taking the [[Hollywood Healing]] approach to [[Action Hero]]es. By the end of the second game he has been shot through the chest and head, fallen twenty feet onto hard concrete and had the building he was in blown up, none of which slow him down much. Lampshaded in ''Max Payne 2''. When he is brought into the hospital after {{spoiler|Winters shoots him in the back}}. The doctors and nurses reference 'multiple gunshot wounds' 'severe head trauma' and use the phrase 'this guy is a trainwreck.'

* Several times in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''. Most notably, Cid leaps from the airship, presumably falling several ''miles'' onto either rocks or lava, ''with enough explosives strapped to his chest to seal off the route to the underworld to stop a pursuing fleet of airships'', which he sets off on-screen. And lives. Yang also survives the destruction of the robotic Giant of Babil, which he himself caused by ''jamming himself into its world-sundering laser cannon'' so it misfired. He shows up at the end of the game without a scratch.

* Several times in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''. Most notably, Cid leaps from the airship, presumably falling several ''miles'' onto either rocks or lava, ''with enough explosives strapped to his chest to seal off the route to the underworld to stop a pursuing fleet of airships'', which he sets off on-screen. And lives.

Yang also survives the destruction of the robotic Giant of Babil, which he himself caused by ''jamming himself into its world-sundering laser cannon'' so it misfired. He shows up at the end of the game without a scratch.

* In a cutscene in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' where Sephiroth stabs Cloud with his extremely long sword, whereupon Cloud pulls himself down the blade until he has enough leverage to shake Sephiroth off.

* [[Fallout: New Vegas]] begins with the player character getting shot in the head. However, after a few days (with help from a friendly robot that thinks he's a cowboy and a local doctor) you're back on your feet and good to go. Naturally, the people who shot you are [[Oh Crap|extremely freaked out when you catch up to them.]]

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* Zaeed Massani from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', when talking about his former colleague Vido Santiago, mentions that, twenty years ago, Vido paid six of Zaeed's men to restrain him while Vido held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger (which explains how Zaeed got the [[Badass]] [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|scar]]). When Commander Shepard acts surprised that he survived, Zaeed casually responds, "Yeah. And you survived {{spoiler|your ship getting disintegrated.<ref>Not technically true, because Shepard did, in fact, die. [[Back From the Dead|(S)he just recovered.]]</ref>}} A stubborn enough person can survive just about anything. Rage is a hell of an anesthetic."

* In ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', [[Badass Grandpa|Galuf]] gets put down to '''0 HP''' by Ex-Death but stands his ground and keeps fighting anyways. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, as soon as the battle is over, he keels over and [[Deader Than Dead|dies for real.]]}}

* In ''[[Mabinogi Fantasy Life]]'' the deadly status is this as a gameplay element. The player character has 0 hp or less (in theory there is no lower limit, just try getting hit by a dragon) and somehow they're still standing. Should they get hit one more time in this state they die no matter how much damage it was. This mainly happens when you get hit for something that should kill you when you have more than half health, and for bonus points the chance of this actually happening is governed partially by [[Heroic Willpower|the character's will stat.]]

* In ''[[Mabinogi Fantasy Life]]'' the deadly status is this as a gameplay element. The player character has 0 hp or less (in theory there is no lower limit, just try getting hit by a dragon) and somehow they're still standing. Should they get hit one more time in this state they die no matter how much damage it was. This mainly happens when you get hit for something that should kill you when you have more than half health, and for bonus points the chance of this actually happening is governed partially by [[Heroic Willpower|the character's will stat.]]

* In ''[[No More Heroes]]'', quoted above, several characters survive impalement and massive blood loss before deciding its time to die. One boss in the first game refuses to die until she's won.

* In ''[[Tales of Maj Eyal]]'', Berserkers can unlock the Unstoppable talent that prevents any effect at all from reducing them to less than 1 HP for a time, while Necromancers have the Blurred Mortality talent that changes their threshold for death from 0 HP to -50, or even less - at maximum talent level you have to get to -250 HP to die.

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* In ''[[Transformers Armada]]'', Smokescreen takes an almost point-blank hit from the Requiem Blaster that blasts a hole clear through his abdomen. He still manages to stagger upright as molten metal drips down his torso and stagger towards Megatron for another attack, and winds up surviving after having his body rebuilt. While they ''are'' robots, other Transformers in the series have died from lesser wounds. Laws of Fatality are not consistent in Transformers. Same person can be unharmed by some attack at one point and next dying after being hit by same attack.

* In [[The Movie]] of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' Shego is kicked from the roof of a building that is several stories high, into an electrical signal tower, which not only electrocutes her but also collapses right on top of her. And she comes out of the incident with slightly torn clothes and frazzled hair...

* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Silver Sable is hit twice in the course of one episode by a limo but still gets up and continues fighting as if nothing's wrong. This also applies to Spidey himself in nearly every single episode, he can be beaten, scratched, smashed, burned, and hit with explosives from every villain he encounters, and he can still shake it off and fight normally. Most notably is one episode where he defeats the Sinister Six while sleepwalking. [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Granted, it was the symbiote doing all the work for him, but the fact that Peter still had all of his bones in the right place the next day is nothing short of a miracle.]]

* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Silver Sable is hit twice in the course of one episode by a limo but still gets up and continues fighting as if nothing's wrong.

This also applies to Spidey himself in nearly every single episode, he can be beaten, scratched, smashed, burned, and hit with explosives from every villain he encounters, and he can still shake it off and fight normally. Most notably is one episode where he defeats the Sinister Six while sleepwalking. [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Granted, it was the symbiote doing all the work for him, but the fact that Peter still had all of his bones in the right place the next day is nothing short of a miracle.]]

* ''[[Ace Lightning]]'': Chuck Mugel is hit by Ace's lightning bolt attack ''twice''. The first time (a "deflected shot") it ''gave him'' temporary superpowers. The second time just knocked him out for a few minutes, though granted, it freaked the main characters out a bit anyway.

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* Phineas Gage got a tamping rod shot through his skull and survived.

* [[Rasputinian Death|Rasputin]], who according to legend was poisoned with about five times the usually fatal dose of <s>arsenic</s> cyanide in some food, then was shot four times, bludgeoned, hanged, by some accounts castrated,<ref>a museum claims to have his genitals</ref> and tossed into an icy river, and still managed to survive long enough to try and claw his way out from under the ice. The final cause of death? Hypothermia. After the February Revolution, the new government dug up his body and burned it, just to be sure he was ''really'' gone.

** He even sat up during the burning <ref>Though this was likely caused by failure to sever his tendons before burning... the heat made them shrink and pull him into a sitting position</ref>.

** He even sat up during the burning.<ref>Though this was likely caused by failure to sever his tendons before burning... the heat made them shrink and pull him into a sitting position</ref>

** Incidentally, the reason Rasputin didn't eat sweets was because of a condition stemming from a previous assassination attempt, in which he had his belly slit open so that his ''entrails hung out'' (a.k.a disembowellment). Also a working girl was hired to try to take some overzealous nibbles while working down below.

** Rasputin purportedly practiced Mithridatism, which is the practice of taking small non-lethal amounts of a poison in order to build an immunity to that poison over time, which might be the reason why Rasputin supposedly ingested five times the minimum amount of cyanide required to kill a normal man. Since his assassins did not know of his Mithriditism, this might explain their impatience with him not dying and going loud after a while.

** A good deal of the story was likely made up by the assassins to demonize Rasputin further and make themselves appear vindicated. An unpublished autopsy performed in 1916 and reviewed in 1993 and 2004/5 found no poison in his stomach but determined that the third bullet wound (directly to the forehead) killed him instantly. The culprit? Lt. Oswald Rayner, an Englishman. The bullet was the only unjacketed round found in Rasputin's body, and the only gun that fired unjacketed rounds and was present at Rasputin's murder was a Webley .445 inch revolver, owned (and most likely fired) by Lt. Rayner. That said, three rounds and numerous bladed weapon wounds is still a lot to kill a man.

*** Although there is a possibility that the poison was destroyed when the food was baked <ref> It was supposedly a cake</ref>.

*** Although there is a possibility that the poison was destroyed when the food was baked.<ref>It was supposedly a cake</ref>

** And to cap it all off, the autopsy showed that there was air in his lungs at the time of death, meaning ''he was still alive when he was thrown under the frozen surface of the water.'' Tenacious isn't the word.

* Blackbeard the pirate, whose [[Last Stand]] involved a half dozen pistol wounds and over a dozen saber cuts. The bit where his headless corpse kept swimming around the ship until they riddled it with musket-balls is a myth, though.

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** Pretty much everyone on [http://www.cracked.com/article_16497_7-people-who-cheated-death-then-kicked-it-in-balls.html this list] but especially Alexis Goggins, who took six bullets (apparently including a couple to the head) and survived, which would be pretty impressive for a trained Marine, but crosses into I Am Not Making This Up territory when you find out she was a six-year-old girl.

** [http://www.cracked.com/article_16822_7-historical-figures-who-were-absurdly-hard-kill.html another article] about historical people who were hard to kill (which started with Blackbeard and ended with Rasputin.) My personal favorite was Leon Trotsky. You know him. The guy who took an ice axe to the head and still lived to make it to the hospital after spitting in the face of the assassin sent to kill him and wrestling the guy.

* Anyone on [http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffallers.html this page], but Lt. Chisov in particular. He survived a fall of 22,000 ft without a parachute after bailing out of his crippled bomber.

* Anyone on [http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffallers.html this page], but Lt. Chisov in particular. He survived a fall of 22,000 ft without a parachute after bailing out of his crippled bomber.

* Similar to the Marine story mentioned above, a man was robbing a small town bank when, through pure coincidence, one of the tellers happened to be a former classmate who recognized him. Now needing to eliminate the witnesses, the crook took them to a back room and executed them each with a shot in the back of the head with a large-calibre handgun. Except, again coincidentally, for the woman who knew him: the bullet traveled around her skull and out the forehead, knocking her unconscious and (like all head wounds) causing so much blood that he assumed she was dead. She testified at his trial. Getting shot in the head and having the bullet not penetrate is surprisingly common, even with modern firearms. Given the strength and roundness of a skull, bullets can skip off or pull the "run under the scalp" thing described above. Of course more powerful rounds are less likely to fail to penetrate.

* Similar to the Marine story mentioned above, a man was robbing a small town bank when, through pure coincidence, one of the tellers happened to be a former classmate who recognized him. Now needing to eliminate the witnesses, the crook took them to a back room and executed them each with a shot in the back of the head with a large-calibre handgun. Except, again coincidentally, for the woman who knew him: the bullet traveled around her skull and out the forehead, knocking her unconscious and (like all head wounds) causing so much blood that he assumed she was dead. She testified at his trial.

Getting shot in the head and having the bullet not penetrate is surprisingly common, even with modern firearms. Given the strength and roundness of a skull, bullets can skip off or pull the "run under the scalp" thing described above. Of course more powerful rounds are less likely to fail to penetrate.

* [[Mötley Crüe]] Bassist Nikki Sixx has been pronounced clinically dead ''on three separate occasions'' after overdosing on heroin. The first time, after being revived by ''two'' adrenaline shots to the heart and taken to hospital, he got up, checked himself out of hospital, and hitchhiked back to his house wearing only his leather pants. He did this ''again'' in London where he was dumped inside a dumpster after the dealer he OD'd in front of tried to ''beat him back to life with a baseball bat''.

* Army dentist Dr. AnnaLee Kruyer came back from Iraq with the story of an anonymous sergeant who was shot in the face in the exact right spot for all of the bullet's energy to be tranferred to one of his teeth, ejecting it from its socket and stopping the bullet there. He initially assumed the shot missed and kept coming, scaring the living hell out of the guy who hit him, who surrendered immediately. ''[[Snopes]]'' confirms it [http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/teeth.asp here].

* Merriweather Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame) tried to kill himself by shooting himself in the head. This seems pretty foolproof, but a couple bullets in his brain (yes, ''two'') didn't quite get the job done. He wrote a short letter explaining the circumstances, slit his wrists, and finally bled to death.

* As though Simo Häyhä's being a [[One-Man Army]] [[Cold Sniper]] with [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] isn't enough to make him seem more unbelievable than most fictional [[Action Hero~~|Action Heroes~~]], he survived getting half his face blown off by an exploding bullet near the end of the Winter War. He shot and killed his attacker, passed out, and would live on to a ripe old age of 96 as a successful moose hunter.

* As though Simo Häyhä's being a [[One-Man Army]] [[Cold Sniper]] with [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] isn't enough to make him seem more unbelievable than most fictional [[Action Hero]]es, he survived getting half his face blown off by an exploding bullet near the end of the Winter War. He shot and killed his attacker, passed out, and would live on to a ripe old age of 96 as a successful moose hunter.

* In the real-life [[Determinator]] category, it's well-known that there's a reason for the crossbar on a boar ~~spear -- without~~ that, an enraged boar impaled on a spear can charge right up the entire length and savage its wielder (sometimes to death) before it dies. Hunters claim this for many large, aggressive species, including brown or grizzly bears.

* In the real-life [[Determinator]] category, it's well-known that there's a reason for the crossbar on a boar spear—without that, an enraged boar impaled on a spear can charge right up the entire length and savage its wielder (sometimes to death) before it dies. Hunters claim this for many large, aggressive species, including brown or grizzly bears.

** Though even if a boar would be instantly killed, 150 kg of pure musscle crashing into a human body at 50 km/h can still easily be fatal.

** Though even if a boar would be instantly killed, 150 kg of pure musscle crashing into a human body at 50 km/h can still easily be fatal.

* Then there's the well-known case of Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, who in the early 2000's was shot a total of nine times in the chest, hand, arm, hip, and both legs, but survived to become a multi-million dollar rapper.

* Notorious Depression-era bank robber George "[[Berserk Button|Baby Face]]" Nelson, who was cornered by a couple of FBI agents wielding a shotgun and a Tommy gun. Instead of retreating, Nelson advanced on them across an open field, emptying his bolt-action rifle into them as he went, and being hit nine times. The G-men died at the scene. Nelson got back into his car and drove off, dying several hours later.

* Sonny Barger(of Hell's Angels fame)'s autobiography tells of a biker nicknamed "Zorro" who was shot several times (I don't remember, and don't have the book on hand ,either seven or nine) with a .45 during what is described as a "friendly altercation'" Not only did he survive, but went on to have rings tatooed around the bulletholes, one of which notably inscribed with the words ".45 don't mean shit."

* Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by an assassin and took the time to finish his speech before he sought medical attention. He was helped a bit by the bullet being partially stopped by his glasses and the thick, folded speech being held in his breast pocket, preventing the round from piercing his lung~~. He also willed himself to live through a near-fatal case of malaria which ate fifty pounds off his body weight~~.

* Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by an assassin and took the time to finish his speech before he sought medical attention. He was helped a bit by the bullet being partially stopped by his glasses and the thick, folded speech being held in his breast pocket, preventing the round from piercing his lung.

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* On January ~~8th~~, 2011; Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head by a deranged attempted assassin. Unfortunately, six other people, including a nine-year-old child and a federal judge, were killed in the attempt, but Congresswoman Giffords survived. Her doctors have called her recovery nothing short of miraculous and at the time of this writing, it's been just under two weeks since being shot and she has left the hospital to enter rehab for her injuries.

He also willed himself to live through a near-fatal case of malaria which ate fifty pounds off his body weight.

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* On January 8, 2011; Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head by a deranged attempted assassin. Unfortunately, six other people, including a nine-year-old child and a federal judge, were killed in the attempt, but Congresswoman Giffords survived. Her doctors have called her recovery nothing short of miraculous and at the time of this writing, it's been just under two weeks since being shot and she has left the hospital to enter rehab for her injuries.

** Three months after and she's doing very well, while a bullet wound like her own would kill a normal man, she has no memory loss, and is expected to be up and around, completely rehabilitated, in under a year.

*** Congresswoman Giffords returned to office on August ~~1st~~, 2011, met with a standing ovation.

*** Congresswoman Giffords returned to office on August 1, 2011, met with a standing ovation.