You Should Have Died Instead/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: When X dies, Y thinks Z should have died instead of X.

  • Straight: Alice, Bob and Carol get into a car accident. Alice dies from her injuries. Bob, grief-stricken, wishes that Carol had been the one killed instead of Alice.
  • Exaggerated: Chase sacrifices himself so that Hiro can escape the Blood Knight. Practically everyone who hears about this incident thinks that Hiro should have died instead.
  • Justified: Carol was driving, and her distraction caused the accident; Bob finds it unfair that she survived despite it being her fault, while Alice was killed for her negligence.
    • Chase was an experienced warrior and respected general, and losing him comes as a serious blow to their defenses. Meanwhile, Hiro is an Idiot Hero who rushed into the very situation that Chase died to bail him out of.
  • Inverted: Alice survives and is thankful that Bob and Carol are dead.
  • Subverted: Though Bob is upset by losing Alice, he reassures Carol and tries to help her with her Survivor Guilt rather than blaming her.
    • Carol blames herself and thinks that everyone else blames her, but they don't really.
  • Double Subverted: Though he comforts Carol at first, when she cries "I should have died instead!", he agrees.
  • Parodied: Carol stubs her toe. Alice is informed it should have been her toe.
  • Deconstructed: The constant reminders from Bob informing her that she should have died instead eventually pushes Carol too far, and causes her to take her own life. or, y'know, theirs.
  • Reconstructed: However, Alice and Carol faked their own deaths, to teach Bob that he shouldn't resent others for things that can't be changed.
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: No-one is more shook up than Alice. The "wrong person dying" thing is never brought up.
  • Enforced: 'Can you say "Start of Darkness?"'
  • Lampshaded: Title Drop
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: Bob is able to control time and see the future. He stops time a split second before the accident and switches Alice's and Carol's positions in the car so that Carol dies instead of Alice.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: When Mary's favorite plush rabbit Flopsy bursts a seam, she tells Mr. Stuffington "It should have been YOU!" and throws the poor teddy against the wall.
  • Played For Drama: "It should have been you! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU!"
    • As a riposte to any of the above scenarios: "Don't worry. You'll see him/ her soon." [draws gun /knife]
    • Alternatively: "Yes, I should have, but guess what? It wasn't exactly up to me!"
  • Plotted a good waste: Necromantic by way of Human Sacrifice.

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