History Main / DeadAlternateCounterpart

** Inverted with Trade Minister Tagomi, who visits an alternate universe (from his perspective) where the Axis Powers lost World War II and his wife and son are both still alive and living in San Francisco. He spends considerable time there with them. [[spoiler:His counterpart in our timeline is implied to have jumped off a bridge.]]

[[caption-width-right:349:"What about the reality where Hitler cured cancer, Morty? The answer is don't think about it."]]

* In ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' the Green Arrow died standing up to Superman making for some awkward moments with the Green Arrow from the main universe. The alternate universe's Joker also died, [[TheBadGuyWins at Superman's hand]], after drugging Superman to make him think that [[HappilyMarried Lois]] is [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman Doomsday]].

* Book II of ''Fanfic/IfWishesWerePonies'' has [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Sunset Shimmer]] shows us that ''Literature/HarryPotter'' exists as stories in her world, which she ends up sharing with the Cohort during the '92 Winter Hols [[spoiler:including Fred Weasley learning exactly how he had died [[ForWantOfANail in a timeline where Harry never went to Equestria.]]]]

** At the end, Miles [[spoiler:accidentally transports himself to the universe where the radioactive spider that bit him came from. [[ForWantOfANail Because there was no Spider-Man there]], it's a CrapsackWorld where his father died in the line of duty (while his uncle is still alive).]]

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'' involves fractured dimensions. Fractured dimensions have [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fractured]] off of the prime dimension and revolve around the fact that [[ForWantOfANail something small]] is different in this dimension.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTimeFionnaAndCake'': As Simon, Fionna, and Cake travel across the multiverse, they encounter alternate versions of characters in usually grim settings [[ForWantOfANail due to some pivotal event occurring]].

** ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E12BraveNewMetropolis Brave New Metropolis]]", Lois Lane is thrown into an alternate universe where her counterpart was killed in an Intergang attack that she survived in the "proper" timeline. [[ForWantOfANail In this timeline, Superman was too late to save her]], [[KnightTemplar and afterwards, he aligned with Lex Luthor and started taking a more authoritarian approach to fighting crime]].

** Thanks to all the events that have unfolded in the Cell Saga, when Future Trunks returns to his timeline to finally face his evil versions of the Android twins, it ends up becoming a complete CurbStompBattle in Trunk's favor that ends with the Androids dead, unlike the main counterparts whom survived thanks to (ironically) actions taken by the Z Fighters (namely Gohan having made Cell spit 18 out by accident, while 17 was wished back to life by Shenron).

* ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' has a BadFuture where Hana's death served as the BigBad's StartOfDarkness, which made him set on proving the that future brings nothing but pain and misery and seeks to stop the flow of time at all costs. Meanwhile, the main timeline's Hana has no idea of her future self's fate, and thus LockedOutOfTheLoop in regards to understanding the main villain's motivations or why he's so creepily obsessed with her.

** Then there's ''Burial at Sea'', where Booker's daughter wasn't kidnapped like in the main game, but died gruesomely because of him. He is mentally worse than his counterpart. [[spoiler:He didn't hold onto her as tightly when he was kidnapping her, and she was decapitated by the tear, with the other Booker presumably cradling his headless child. This broke his faith in God and he went to Rapture for another fresh start, which also ends badly]].

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' novels, anyone from Phaze or Proton can't travel between these two realities unless their counterpart on the other world is dead. Immigrants to Proton don't have this problem, as only people ''born'' on Proton have a duplicate on Phaze.[[note]]And those that (still) ''have'' duplicates live in similar situations: One may be a unicorn (or werewolf) that was multiple forms, while the other is a shape shifting amorphous alien blob monster; one is a robot while the other is a golem; one is a serf that is one of the best at playing in the Games, while the other is a an Adept, which means he's a magical prodigy and at the top of society....[[/note]]

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Q-Squared'', Trelane causes several parallel universes to come together: the Prime 'verse, the "Klingon war" 'verse (nearly identical to the one shown in "Yesterday's Enterprise"), and a 'verse where Jack Crusher is alive and is in command of the ''Enterprise''. While Jack is alive in the third 'verse, Wesley died as a toddler, resulting in Jack and Beverly's divorce. As a matter of fact, Trelane notes that Jack is dead in ''every other universe'' but that one. [[spoiler:He [[AteHisGun eats his phaser]] at the end, after accidentally killing Beverly for sleeping with Picard, his NumberTwo]].

* When Cole altered reality in another bid to get Phoebe to love him in ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', Paige (who was unaffected by the changes) discovers her counterpart in this new world is dead ("This universe sucks").
* Inverted in Season 2 of ''Series/DarkMatter2015'', when the ''Raza'' crew end up in an alternate universe through a glitch in their Blink Drive and find that the crew of the alternate ''Raza'' includes not only Two and Three's evil counterparts but also alternate selves of their old enemies Wexler, Tash and Jace Corso, who are all dead in the main universe. This is used to re-introduce their characters after they were killed off. The alternate crew manage to sneak their way into the main universe at the end of the episode and reappear in several episodes of Season 3.
** It's also played straight in the case of Six, since his counterpart was killed by Two's counterpart in the alternate universe months before our crew were transported there. And possibly Five, whose counterpart may have met a grimmer fate in the other universe than our Five did when she was discovered as a LittleStowaway; at least Five is implied to fear this was the case when she declines to research her counterpart, though it's also quite plausible that she simply never met the ''Raza'' crew.

* Inverted in the alternate universe featured in season 28 of ''Series/DoctorWho'', where Rose's dad and Mickey's gran are both still alive. The Doctor and Rose don't have counterparts at all (apparently the Time Lords don't exist in that universe, and Rose's parents never had kids, though they do have a dog named Rose); Mickey's counterpart... well, he ''starts out'' alive...
** At the end of the season, Rose, her mom (whose counterpart was turned into a Cyberman) and Mickey are trapped in the alternate universe. And the surviving versions of Rose's parents hook up and decide to have (another?) kid. In a later season the universes cross over again and Mickey decides to return to his home universe as his gran's counterpart has died of old age (rather than tripping on a carpet like his own gran).
* Several episodes of ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'' deal with the consequences of Liam and Augur accidentally traveling to an alternate universe where humanity never built cities and is in the process of being conquered by the Taelons. By the end of the episode, the leader of LaResistance in this 'verse, Jason (Ronald Sandoval's double) is killed. However, his girlfriend Maya travels with Liam and Augur back to the prime universe and, eventually, meets her double Isabel. However, both start suffering the effects of two of them occupying the same universe. Eventually, they merge, but only the one from the alternate universe survives bodily.

* ZigZagged in ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' MirrorUniverse episodes, where they established a rule that if your alternate universe counterpart dies, you also die. Which didn't stop them from breaking that rule with Iolaus. The rule can be avoided if you happen in be "in-between" universes when your double dies. Prime!Iolaus was killed by Dahak, while Mirror!Iolaus was trapped between the worlds. After Hercules brings Mirror!Iolaus back with him, and he loses his cowardice, everyone pretty much forgets that there ever was another Iolaus. Additionally, when Prime!Ares kills the Sovereign (Herc's double with a BeardOfEvil) in-between worlds, Hercules is fine.

* Happens a few times on ''Series/{{Sliders}}'':

* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': The second time Booker and Elizabeth enter a new Columbia through a tear, it is one where Booker and Slate, together as members of the Vox Populi, helped to get them much more power over Columbia, but that Booker had a HeroicSacrifice. Unfortunately, this version of Daisy Fitzroy, unlike earlier ones, is much more AxCrazy, and, upon learning that Booker is alive suddenly, immediately believes that Booker is either an imposter or a ghost, and tries to have him killed anyway, turning the group who had been following him against him.

* This trope is played with in the ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'' story ''Slight Hope''. Through [[MentalTimeTravel Cauldron timefuckery]], Makoto finds herself pulled into a parallel world where ''she'' in fact exists... but her close friend Noel Vermillion ''never did''. She only figures this out in one of two instances, from different sources each time: either from [[spoiler:Relius Clover after a bout of prolonged and precision-guided {{mindrape}}]], or from [[spoiler:Rachel Alucard after being saved from an [[BerserkButton exceedingly]] [[PrepareToDie irate]] Hazama.]] Interestingly, [[spoiler:Hakumen is also from a timeline where Noel never existed,]] but neither he nor Makoto ever met to verify if they experienced the same one.

* The death of [[spoiler:Maya Amano]] led to the creation of an alternate timeline in ''VideoGame/Persona2''.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse'', Max dies and it is impossible to revive him. Fortunately, a Max from a parallel universe shows up to befriend Sam, explaining that his Sam had died in a similar manner. Interestingly, in ''VideoGame/PokerNight2'', when Sam tells this story, Max confirms it, even though it would be reversed for him.

* A few instances of this are used in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'':

* The Warlords of Draenor expansion for ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is set in an alternate timeline some 30 years before the "present day" of the Prime timeline, with a whole bunch of AU versions of both major lore characters and minor [=NPCs=]. Granted, the titular warlords are all dead in the present day of the prime timeline, but the trope still sort of applies as the AU versions keep dying ''earlier'' than they're supposed to. For example, [[spoiler:Orgrim Doomhammer]], who dies during the Talador questline, lived to be a good twenty years older in the Prime timeline.
** In a more straightforward example, the AU counterpart of [[spoiler:Prophet Velen]] dies in a HeroicSacrifice early in the expansion's storyline, while our own version is still alive.

* Episode 7 of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' revolves around a new character named Lion discovering [[AmbiguousGender his/her]] alternate self [[spoiler:Yasu, also known as Shannon, Kanon and Beatrice]] who dies tragically in every single timeline other than his/her own.
* This happens at one point in ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' [[spoiler:when Sigma and Diana transport themselves to another timeline where they were killed. They even find the dead bodies of their alternate selves]].

* {{Alternate Universe}}s play a big role in the "Maze of Many" arc in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'', and several universes have different characters being alive/dead when compared to the prime universe. Alternate Universe #114 is probably the best example; Forgath, Complains and Big-Ears were killed during the battle at the goblin warcamp, while One-Eye (a minor character who died in the same battle in the main universe) survived and became an adventurer working alongside Minmax.
* Inverted in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''; we find out that in Lord Tedd's dimension [[spoiler:the original, non-hybrid Grace lived.]]

* Inverted with Retrope in ''JustForFun/TVTropesTheWebcomic'': she was killed in all known alternate universes but resurrected later in the Prime (and only in the Prime).

** It is revealed that in this timeline Reichsmarshall Herman Goering and his family were executed on Hitler's orders because Goering tried to usurp power from his boss after he fell into a brief coma several years prior to 1962. This [[AllohistoricalAllusion mirrors]] Goering's similar real life attempt at a coup when the Third Reich collapsed in 1945.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', Serge finds himself transported to an alternate universe where he died ten years ago. Being the [[CrapsackWorld cheery game]] that it is, Another World is shown to be the better timeline for anyone not named Serge. [[spoiler: In an unusual twist, it is revealed at the game that Another World is the "true" reality, while Home World is an alternate timeline created by Kid from the future traveling back to save Serge's life.]]

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', Serge finds himself transported to an alternate universe where he died ten years ago. Being the [[CrapsackWorld cheery game]] that it is, Another World is shown to be the better timeline for anyone not named Serge.

** At one point, they end up in a world where the Ice King (calling himself the Winter King) is the sane and charismatic leader of a thriving kingdom, while the Princess Bubblegum equivalent (calling herself the Candy Queen) is a deranged kidnapper. At the end, Fionna accidentally kills the Winter King by taking the magic of the crown away, which induces death by RapidAging. At which point [[spoiler:the Candy Queen turns into Princess Bubblegum, revealing that the Winter King was only sane because he transferred the crown to her without consent]]. It's also heavily implied that the equivalent of Marceline died in this universe (of unknown causes), and the Winter King [[ReplacementGoldfish made a replacement out of ice]].

* {{Exploited| Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. Rick takes advantage of this at the end of "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS1E6RickPotionNumber9 Rick Potion #9]]"; [[spoiler:when he accidentally releases a plague that causes a [[ZombieApocalypse Cronenberg Apocalypse]], he and Morty escape to a very particular universe where their counterparts cured the Cronenberg plague ''and'' were killed almost immediately afterwards by an unrelated incident, and take their place after burying them in the backyard. Notably, while Morty is rightfully deeply disturbed by the whole thing, Rick takes it all in stride and resumes with business as usual immediately afterwards, implying that it isn't the first time he has pulled this trick]]. "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E8MortysMindBlowers Morty's Mind Blowers]]" shows that they ended up using it again some time later, when Morty [[ItMakesSenseInContext accidentally compromised himself to the Squirrel Collective]], with Rick complaining that they can only do this a limited number of times.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

** Something similar happens in Spider-Verse when ComicBook/SpiderGwen find out that her mainstream counterpart is dead.

* ''Fanfic/EquestriaGirlsFriendshipSouls'', a FusionFic with ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has a play on this idea with Sunset telling Princess Twilight that she found out her human counterpart died in a fire years ago raising the question if she got sent to Soul Society or became a Hollow. [[spoiler:As it turns not, neither, because not only is she alive, but a ''Fullbringer in Hueco Mundo'']].

* The ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' universe as a whole is almost ''filled'' with dead versions of characters still alive in the regular Marvel Universe now, mostly thanks to ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'' killing off a large number of characters as well as the Ultimate continuity mostly avoiding DeathIsCheap by having the deaths of even recognizable characters stick for the most part.

* The ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' universe as a whole is almost ''filled'' with dead versions of characters still alive in the regular Marvel Universe now, mostly thanks to ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'' and the Ultimate continuity mostly avoiding DeathIsCheap.

* In ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' issue 3, the Marvel and DC worlds have become combined, turning it into a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] utopia. When the characters learn how their realities are ''supposed'' to be, the character who argues for the restoration the most is Hal Jordan -- who is "supposed to" be dead. Barry Allen is there too, but he's not quite so eager to restore the realities.

* ''ComicBook/BatmanBeyond'': The Justice Lords arc of ''Batman Beyond 2.0'' and ''Justice League Beyond 2.0'' (which serves as a follow-up of sorts to the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episod "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E11And12ABetterWorld A Better World]]") establishes that when the effects of the device Lex Luthor used to disable the Justice Lords' powers wore off, their world's version of Batman was killed when he opposed his teammates' methods after being shown the error of his ways by his main universe counterpart. The death of Justice Lord Batman comes off as an unpleasant surprise towards Terry [=McGinnis=] when he finds himself in the Justice Lords universe. It's also explained that Wonder Woman [[KillingYourAlternateSelf strangled her own Justice Lords counterpart to death]] with her magic lasso after [[WidowedAtTheWedding the latter married Lord Superman]].

** The Peter Parker of the film's primary universe dies about 30 minutes in. Though Peter B. Parker, Noir Peter, Penni Parker, and Peter Porker are pulled into the universe via the same chain of events.