Basic Trope: A character takes a seemingly fatal amount of damage, yet survives.
- Straight:
- Alice beats Emperor Evulz, then throws him off a cliff and drowns him. He shows up a few episodes later, ready for revenge.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she's alive and well.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice beats Emperor Evulz, then throws him off a cliff, drowns him, and orders a tactical airstrike over that part of the sea. She then orders a giant fishing boat to fish those waters clean and freeze everything they catch. However, despite all this, Emperor Evulz still comes back.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she's alive and well, because it made her feel a lot better.
- Alice has a heart attack, comes down with brain cancer, develops gangrene in both arms and both legs, and gets a paper cut. In the next episode, she's alive and well.
- Logical Extreme: Alice erases Emperor Evulz from existence. Emperor Evulz comes back anyway.
- Downplayed:
- Only Mostly Dead or Almost Dead Guy
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she's alive and well, but she feels very wobbly...
- Justified:
- Emperor Evulz is very resilient. It takes a truly amazing amount of punishment to do him in.
- That's not really Emperor Evulz she killed. He just made a weak doppelganger to fool Alice.
- Emperor Evulz had a way of healing quickly, possibly Healing Factor or a device, and can only be killed if that's neutralized first.
- Alice is a videogame character.
- Alice didn't destroy Emperor Evulz' true being. As long as his soul phylactery remains intact he can regenerate his body with magic.
- Inverted:
- Emperor Evulz dies permanently as soon as Alice displays the slightest bit of force.
- Alice has a seizure in one episode, and never appears again.
- Subverted:
- Alice is uneasy, expecting him to return at any moment. After a while, it becomes clear that he's dead for real.
- The Emperor Evulz who reappears turns out to be an impostor.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, a Replacement Scrappy is in her place.
- Double Subverted:
- However, after a few months, he comes back, explaining that he only survived because he put himself into a temporary death state to survive her onslaught of attacks.
- ...An impostor hired by the real Emperor Evulz, who's still in intensive care from his not quite fatal wounds.
- ...which turns out to be Alice in disguise.
- Parodied:
- Emperor Evulz has an overly long "death" animation.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, a funeral is held for her, but the people who attend hear her scream "SURPRISE!" when she wakes up inside her coffin.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice is expecting Emperor Evulz to return at any moment. And after a while, he does. However, as soon as he appears and explains to Alice how he's still alive, she kicks his ass and kills him off for real.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she's alive and well, but in the episode after, she has another one and is never seen again.
- Averted:
- Emperor Evulz dies the first time.
- Alice has a heart attack and is never seen again.
- Enforced:
- "OK, so Emperor Evulz has a lot of fans who would get pissed if he died. But Alice is The Hero and she has to win. Wait, I've got it..".
- Alice is the protagonist of the series, so it's impossible to kill her off after a heart attack.
- Lampshaded:
- "I know you thought I was dead, but that's why pencils have erasers!"
- Bob: "How did you survive that heart attack?" Alice: "That's the way the cookie crumbles!"
- Invoked:
- Emperor Evulz decides to goad Alice into throwing him into the ocean so he can live to fight another day.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she wakes up in the coffin confused about what's going on.
- Exploited:
- Emperor Evulz can't afford Alice disrupting the operations in his stronghold, so he faces her at a different location and "dies" so she'll believe her quest is done. While he recovers, business continues as usual.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she feels better.
- Defied:
- Alice, not entirely sure that Evulz is dead, decides to go make sure.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. Bob pokes her with a stick. Alice, however, is not dead tells him to quit doing that and call for emergency services.
- Discussed:
- "I don't know...I know I just killed Evulz, but I have this incredibly odd feeling in the back of my mind that he's just going to show up again to fight me".
- "Alice? What about the heart attack?"
- Conversed:
- "Ah, I know how this thing ends. Right after they begin their celebration party for finally having killed the bad guy, he's gonna show up, ready and raring for Round Two".
- "Alice is ALIVE?!?! I thought she had a heart attack and died!!! No One Should Survive That!!!!"
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz' survival truly stymies Alice, which in turn makes her feel like her only option is to give up fighting - if she can't truly kill him, what good is she?
- Evulz' near-death experience deeply scars him, both physically and mentally. He develops an immense fear of Alice and falls into a deep depression.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she attends to her own funeral.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice, though frightened at her archenemy's return, realizes that she has to train and get stronger in order to kill him for real.
- Evulz trains himself to regain his lost strength and becomes even stronger than before, with the goal of crushing Alice and defeating his fear.
- Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, the vicar postpones her funeral, because she's alive and well.
- Played For Laughs: Alice has a heart attack in one episode. In the next, she's alive and well, because she said it was for a practical joke.
- Played For Drama: Alice has a heart attack in one episode. She throws up and another Alice comes out.
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