Basic Trope: Theft of items from a dead person.
- Straight: Bob dies. Alice steals the Sword of Plot Advancement from his corpse to kill Charlie.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice steals everything on Bob's person, even things that she doesn't need to fight Charlie.
- Alice steals Bob’s suit.
- Alice steals everything on Bob's person, even Bob's corpse itself.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is found passed out on the street. Alice takes some money out of his wallet before bringing him to safety as "payment". She later uses every single coin she has, including what she stole, to buy the Sword.
- Alice takes Bob's luggage, wallet, and apparently significant personal effects along with the sword. She specifically takes a complete inventory, and the location of his grave, and while she uses the money, sword, and anything useful on the journey she repairs them best she can, replaces any consumables or money she used before Bob's survivors as a matter of deep personal honor.
- Justified:
- Bob probably would have wanted Alice to (and may have said in his Last Words to) kill Charlie with the sword.
- Alice is an Anti-Hero who doesn't care if Bob wanted to be buried with the sword — she wants it, and it's not like he's around to complain anyway.
- Alice hates Bob and doesn’t care about disrespecting him.
- Alice is naked and needs to cover herself up with Bob’s suit before she is found and arrested for public indecency.
- Inverted:
- Alice dies, and Bob buries her with his sword.
- Alice refuses to accept Bob's sword despite it being willed to her, and buries it with him instead.
- Bob’s reanimated corpse steals Alice’s stuff.
- Subverted: Bob dies. Alice buries him with the Sword.
- Double Subverted: ... and then comes back for it when she realizes she still needs it.
- Parodied: Alice steals everything on Bob's person, leaving behind a stark naked corpse. Meanwhile, Bob's ghost is panicking, as souls in this universe are sent to the afterlife in what they are wearing ten minutes after their death.
- Zig Zagged: Alice buries Bob with the Sword. Then she realizes that she needs it to defeat Charlie. Then she decides to return it after having killed Charlie. Then she decides he would be better honored by putting it in the new museum dedicated to him.
- Averted: Bob doesn't die, or his corpse is left unlooted.
- Enforced:
- The writers want to have An Aesop about abandoning sentimentality in favor of practicality.
- The game is an RPG, how else is the Player Character supposed to get new weapons, armor, and/or Shop Fodder?
- Lampshaded:Claire: "Bob dies, and the first thing you do is rob him?! What the Hell, Hero?"
Alice: "*winces* I don't like doing this either, but it's what I have to do right now." - Invoked: Bob tells Alice before he dies that she may need to rob his grave to get the sword.
- Exploited: Charlie sets up an ambush around Bob's grave.
- Defied: Alice refuses to rob Bob's grave, and finds a way to defeat Charlie without the sword.
- Discussed:Bob: "Alice... If I died, you'd let my body be left in peace, right?"
- Conversed: "What does Alice think she is, an MMORPG character?"
- Implied: Bob's culture traditionally buries a favored weapon with the dead. After Bob's death, Alice is shown wielding his sword.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice nearly dies of an infection of Death by Materialism after grabbing his sword from his rotting corpse.
- Stealing from Bob's body makes Alice the prime suspect for murdering him.
- Reconstructed: The sword was meant to be used for good — taking it up is considered the highest honour. When she recovers, she gains an immunity to the strain, allowing her to survive against Plaguemaster Charlie when better warriors could not.
- Played For Drama: Alice spends an entire episode deciding whether Bob's memory would be defiled by robbing his grave or honored by seeking his old goal.
- Played For Horror: Alice steals the sword from Bob's grave. This triggers a curse and gets her haunted by Bob's ghost...
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