Death Is Cheap: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Lynne:''' Ha ha! I died again!

'''Sissel:''' ... I thought you'd be a little more grave, under the circumstances.

 

So you had your big, important fight. The enemy is defeated, and wasn't even [[Left for Dead]]. They did, in fact [[Never Found the Body|find the body]]. [[No One Could Survive That]], and no, he didn't. He's not [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|pining for the fjords]] either - nor did he [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]. He's just ''dead''. Sure, because, as everybody knows, [[Anyone Can Die]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' and its sequels are notorious for playing this trope to death. Everybody and their grandmother dies and is resurrected at some point. Much of the show is in fact motivated by collecting the Dragonballs to be able to wish somebody back to life. By the time ''Dragon Ball Z'' ended, only Mr. Satan the [[Fake Ultimate Hero]] and a few gods ''hadn't'' died at least once. Counting ''GT'', [[Overshadowed by Awesome|Krillin]] died ''four times''.

* People from [[Heart no Kuni no Alice|Wonderland]] have clocks instead of hearts. When they die, they can be replaced. This knowledge leads to the place being so violent.

* ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' - but only the manga. A lot of people who die stay dead, but the ones who don't, do so so annoyingly that it definitely fits this trope. Specifically: Kurama, Bando, Kaede/Nyu/Lucy.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Jean Grey from [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]: [[The Phoenix|an endless cycle of Jean dying, coming back, and dying again.]]

 

* Deconstructed in ''[[Bleach]]'' fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4063172/6/Calm_After_the_Storm Calm After the Storm]. Orihimie managed to bring her friends back to life multiple times (Ichigo stopped counting after 5) but there are still people who couldn't be saved. Seeing friends dying, even if they come back later still traumatized the heroes. There is also a sense of guilt that always touches survivors.

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

** An example of this is Grover, who dies so many times that we've lost count.

* In the [[Pokémon]] fanfic [[Legend Has It]] the main character Justice dies a total of four times (the last time being permanent). The first time he died he gave his life to Arceus in order to fix everything that Cyrus had undone about the world. The second time, he was briefly brought back to life by a Celebi (which turned him into a White-Haired Pretty Boy in the process) only to die right after completing Celebi's task. Then Arceus resurrected him to stop the war going on between Teams Rocket and Plasma. During that time he is killed by Archer and his Giratina immediately tries to bring him back by using a bunch of Dusknoir. The process forces him into a kind of [[Heel Face Turn]] that makes him go absolutely crazy and has him attempt to destroy the world, only to be shot out of the sky by Arceus in a Curb Stomp Battle that kills him for good.

 

== Film ==

* Happens so often in the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' franchise that in ''At World's End'' Tia Dalma had to [[Hand Wave]] why a certain character ''couldn't'' come back.

** Of course, that all got started in the second movie. Which is part of the reason some [[Contested Sequel]] the [[First Installment Wins|Sequels.]]

 

== Literature ==

** In a similar fashion, {{spoiler|the discovery that Prince Aegon, previously thought to have been killed as an infant was alive and well}} makes the death of many other characters fall into question.

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

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Passions]]'', due to its status as a [[Supernatural Soap Opera]], abused the hell out of this one. Who knows how many times Sheridan's been involved in situations that would have been fatal to anyone else...in fact, she died at least once, only to have a storyline in [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]].

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

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

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

* Opus has had a few near-death experiences, meaning that either he can return from death or he's just incredibly resilient. From what we've seen of him, the former is a ''lot'' more plausible.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* [[The Undertaker]]'s whole gimmick revolves around threatening to steal his opponents' souls, kill them, and/or send them to Hell. It is unclear, however, what this has to do with winning wrestling matches. The one incident that stands out in particular was when he threatened to send [[Edge]] to Hell; at the end of the match, he apparently did just that, by chokeslamming him through the ring apron with flames shooting out, as both he and the announcers proclaimed that Edge had indeed gone to Hell. [[Edge]] returned a few months later without explanation. The Undertaker does not seem discouraged by this.

** Done for [[Rule of Cool]] mostly. [[The Undertaker]] himself has "died" and come back to life before, quite a few times in fact. There was the 1994 [[Royal Rumble]] incident, in which Yokozuna and a bunch of other heel wrestlers bombarded him, opened his urn which caused him to lose his powers, and rolled him into a casket. As [[Paul Bearer]] rolled the casket away he was shown on the titantron inside the casket and he gave a speech in which he promised "I will not rest in peace." He then "floated" out of the casket and up to the rafters of the arena, presumably crossing over into the afterlife, only to return again later that year. Then of course there was the 2003 [[Survivor Series]] in which [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] buried Undertaker alive, thus "killing" his Biker persona and leading to his return as the Deadman we all know and love at [[Wrestlemania]].

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Car Wars]]''. Death is expensive - you have to buy your clone for $5000 at Gold Cross.

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

 

== Video Games ==

* Played with in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]''. In the original campaign, this is averted: party members who lose all their HP simply suffer a [[Non-Lethal KO]] (unless the entire party is KO'd) and revive at the end of the fight. Despite being based on D&D rules (see [[Tabletop Games]], above), three friendly characters suffer [[Plotline Death]] and [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|can't be resurrected]]. Possibly justified by the setting requirements for resurrection: you have to be willing, and there can't be anything keeping you back.

** Played straight in the second expansion ''Storm of Zehir''. KO'd party members will bleed out and die if left unattended, but resurrecting them is as easy as traveling to the nearest temple and paying for a ''resurrection'' spell (or keeping a good stock of Coins of Life handy, consumable items that cast ''resurrection'').

 

== Web Animation ==

* ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'' picks this trope up, runs around with it and gleefully slams into sharp, heavy, incendiary, acerbic, cursed and furrycidal objects.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

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

'''[[Grim Reaper]]:''' You kidding me? You [[Superhero|costumed freaks]] come back from the dead so often I don't even get to count you towards my quota." }}

** On one occasion, Black Mage kills several characters in a fit of rage, only to discover one by one that they are all alive. He expects that Ranger is also alive somehow, but Cleric says no, he's dead. Then Cleric just resurrects him.

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

** Note ''intact''. Brain damage sets in quickly, so unless you die in a lab you're probably out of luck. Then there's the fact that most of them [[Came Back Wrong|come back mad]]...like really mad. [[Mad Scientist|Worse than when they started]].

'''Wonderella''': '''Superhero''' dead, guys.

'''crowd''': ''Ohhhhh.'' }}

 

== Web Original ==

* Villain Ghostfreak from ''[[Ben 10]]'' got killed ''twice'' in a [[Family-Unfriendly Death]] kind of way (burnt to ashes to be precise). Each time, he was able to come back, the first time by being resurrected by his henchmen and the second by an unknown process (though an explanation exists, since he can come back [[Enemy Without|as long as there is a sample of him in Ben's Omnitrix]])

** Similarly, in future episode "Ben 10000", [[Arch Enemy|Vilgax]] was ''torn to pieces'' by the future incarnation of Ben, but was still brought back to life by [[Mad Scientist|Dr Animo]].

 

== Real Life ==