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.
- Chase sacrifices himself to save the world. The public's response was "It should have been every one but Chase", leading to mass murder, pandemics being made, and nukes hitting every single country all at once.
- Downplayed: Alice gets hospitalized from the car accident. Bob says Carol should have landed in the hospital instead.
- Justified:
- Carol was driving while texting, 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.
- Carol was suicidal but developed from that into someone who has manipulative tendencies and has injured others for minor infractions. Alice was a beam of sunshine who brightened everyone's day. Bob believes that if Carol had gone through with suicide, Alice would still be around.
- Bob is only emotionally attached to Alice, with no sympathy for anyone else.
- Bob hates Carol.
- Bob intentionally caused the accident in a failed attempt to kill Carol specifically.
- Inverted:
- Alice survives and is thankful that Bob and Carol are dead.
- Carol is wracked with Survivor's Guilt, and genuinely believes that she should have been the one to die instead of Alice, despite no one else ever saying or believing anything of the sort.
- Bob hates Alice because she died.
- 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.
- "Sorry, I meant you should have died too, Carol".
- 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.
- Zig Zagged: Bob says Carol should have been the one to die. Later he's seen saying he should have made Alice drive. Then he says Carol would have driven anyway and Alice would still die, but ends up agreeing that he couldn't have foreseen it.
- (Continued from Double Subverted) When Bob agrees, he's being sarcastic; "Yeah, like that would have been any better!"
- Averted: The "wrong person dying" thing is never brought up.
- Enforced: 'Can you say "Start of Darkness?"'
- Lampshaded: Title Drop
- Invoked: Derek is trying to turn Bob insane, and realizes that the car crash is a perfect way to make Bob unreasonably blame Carol.
- Exploited: Bob has an existing feud with Carol, and he uses this to purposely give her Survivor's Guilt.
- 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. Either that or he makes sure nobody dies in the first place.
- Discussed: "Why does Bob think I should have died instead? Why doesn't he wish nobody had died?"
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Carol can be heard deflecting the blame in an argument with Bob, but we don't hear the whole thing.
- 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, his.
- Bob murders Carol out of hatred and later gets arrested.
- 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.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Necromantic plot by way of Human Sacrifice.
- 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!" "Don't worry. You'll see her soon." [draws gun /knife]
- Alternatively: "Yes, I should have, but guess what? It wasn't fucking up to me!"
Back to You Should Have Died Instead
