Removed - this isn't Life Is Cheap:
- BattleTech had "Life is cheap. BattleMechs aren't." as its slogan — given the shortage of giant robots, it was easier to find a replacement pilot than a replacement 'Mech.
Also removed - this isn't an example, but a simple retcon:
- Feeling that Sherlock Holmes was taking up time he should be spending in higher pursuits, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had Holmes and Moriarty plunge to their deaths down the Reichenback Falls. 10 years later, due to public outcry, he brought the character back explaining that he had faked his death to fool his many enemies. He was Back from the Dead and ready to keep doing his thing.
It's super effective.
- In the Harry Potter universe there's apparently several ways to resurrect oneself from the dead, and the Big Bad Voldemort is always using them to avoid dying or staying dead.
The only ones off the top of my head are the resurrection stone, along with the incident with Harry near the end of the seventh book, neither of which Voldemort uses to return. Avoiding death isn't this trope, is it?
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No I don't believe it is. Voldemort and Harry never actually died. And the Resurrection stone just brought back shades.
Edited by 12.31.156.98
Right off the top of my head, Voldemort possessed that professor who's name I can't remember right now to come back, using soul jars to keep coming back whenever he's killed, then of course there's the Sorcerer's Stone which can pretty much do anything, and probably a few more I'm forgetting. Also, Harry did die, he just got resurrected.
All these examples the character did DIE, just not stay dead, as per this trope. Besides, if we aren't counting every time a character dies and gets resurrected, then most of the examples on this page should be removed. There is nothing in the page's description that discounts resurrections, including those brought about by the person that's being resurrected. There's a big difference between making sure you don't die to begin with and dying and being brought back.
Edited by 50.171.249.35
Sorry, but no. Here's a quote I found on the Harry Potter wiki regarding the Horcruxes. It is NOT coming back from the dead if he never died to begin with.
"Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But, of course, existence in such a form...few would want it, Tom, very few."
That's not avoiding death, that would be to ensure that your body is never destroyed. With his soul jars Voldemort is dying over and over but constantly coming back to life. One's body being destroyed counts as death, and I doubt it's any more pleasant than death besides. Death is still death, whether it's permanent or not.
Again, there's nothing in the description that says this doesn't apply, in fact resurrections are mentioned specifically. If this doesn't count, then the description needs to change to reflect that.
Edited by 50.171.249.35
And in universe destroying the body is not death. The Soul Jars themselves are considered alive.
What happens is the body dies but Voldemort gets a new one and soldiers on, he is dying, he's just not staying dead. The Soul Jars are simply magical tools that make the perpetual resurrection possible, they are not alive themselves unless a living being is used to create them.
Besides, the soul jars are just one means, there are other ways to resurrect dead in the Harry Potter universe that have already been mentioned, even if they tend to have problems.
Edited by 50.171.249.35
Yeah, that's... not what's happening. The Horcruxes (Horcruces?) prevent him from dying as his soul never died. The narrative explicitly treated this as avoiding death, not dying and coming back.
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I think we just have different definitions as to what "death" is, especially in a fictional universe.
Edited by 50.171.249.35
That's true, but the books have a clear idea of what constitutes death and it doesn't fit with your definition.
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I just don't think it matters if in-universe it's not death, as long as it constitutes death according to our universe and the trope description, and it does.
Tell me, what other means of "resurrection" are ther in the Potterverse besides Horcruxes, followed by the creation of a creepy child body that requires unicorn blood and snake venom to survive and a "bone, flesh and blood" ritual?
The resurrection stone? All it does is bring shades back temporarily.
That thing Harry experienced towards the end of Deathly Hollows? Just a Near-Death Experience.
All of those count, especially the last. Harry DID die, otherwise he would still be a Horcrux and Voldermort would still be resurrecting from the dead, that was a plot point. Then of course there's the Sorcerer's stone which can do pretty much anything the user wants it to, including reviving the dead. Again, it doesn't matter how horrific the means, resurrection of any sort counts, including temporary ones.
When did it say that the Philosopher's Stone could revive the dead? Its powers were defined as making gold and an Immortality Inducer.
Spirits brought back with the Resurrection stone are still dead people.
And the Elder Wand was incapable of killing Harry because it considered him its master after defeating Draco, the only thing that was killed there was the fragment of Voldemort's soul in Harry.
Edited by 75.134.23.63
And people who die and resurrect constantly are still dying. Voldemort needed the Sorcerer's stone to be able to restore himself fully without consequences, and he possessed one of his followers to do it, it's resurrection powers are the entire reason he was after the thing.
Spirits brought back are still brought back, it is irrelevant whether they are brought back temporarily or not, they're still back.
Edited by 50.171.249.35
The Resurrection Stone doesn't count; not unless you want to count every spiritualist as resurrection. (It's expressly said that the stone does not really bring anybody back to life.) The same for 'priori incantatem'.
The Philosopher's Stone does not resurrect anybody, either; it has the power of healing. Voldemort needed it to heal his incomplete body back to full power.
Harry Potter... I imagine that he could have met Death from Discworld. He would ask him: "Am I dead?" And Death would respond: The answer is somewhere between yes and no. But Harry (just like Granny Weatherwax) decided to return, so he never really died. As zarpaulus correctly said, the only thing that truly died was the horcrux.
Finally, Voldemort. I think you might say that he died, for a given definition of "died" anyway. But as far as I remember, he only "died" and came back once; namely, when his 'avada kedavra' backfired when he tried to kill Harry Potter after having killed Harry's parents.
One somewhat questionable coming back to life and one very questionable one do not make Death Is Cheap.
Edited by 89.177.36.239 Long live Marxism-Lennonism!
Removed - it is not clear how this is an example:
- Warrior Cats has Starclan, which is basically cat Heaven, so basically, when you die, you go there and you basically watch the living forever. By the fourth series, death became so cheap that the authors had to create a second death.
Well, Starclan grants each of the Clan leaders nine lives allowing them to revive after being killed.
Just like Anyone Can Die is praised, this Trope is the opposite, it's full of bitter words.
I hate Genre Savvy fans, they force fiction creators to work with them and don't care that NOT EVERYONE picks apart the things that are supposed to be there to entertain them.
It's super effective.
- Once upon a time, a boy and his pet mouse were killed by a falling chandelier. They got better. Then the boy ran into a crossfire between two psychic demigods and was turned to stone. He got better. Then he was swallowed by several Eldritch Abominations. He got better. Then he drowned (twice). He got better. This can go on for a while.
- Darkrai is killed during The Rise of Darkrai, but he just shows up alive again at the end with no explanation whatsoever.
- This is arguable. The implication is that Darkrai was revived in the same way that the city was, since he disintegrated in the same way earlier in the movie.
- Darkrai is killed during The Rise of Darkrai, but he just shows up alive again at the end with no explanation whatsoever.
How many of these are actual Unexplained Recoveries? I'm not familiar with all the Pokémon movies, but I know in the first, tears brought him back from being a stone.
Edited by OldManHoOh
Shouldn't the quote be changed to reflect the page image more?
Edited by MikeRosoft
Removed (duplicate):
- Order Of The Stick lampshades the fact that the characters have no real fear of death or injury as long as a cleric is nearby. The trope then gets subverted; Everyone knows the character can be revived, but when the party is split up and the corpse is lost this process becomes much more difficult than they anticipated.
I was considering using this picture from Supor Stupor as the trope picture. It is the last panel from the comic found at http://www.superstupor.com/sust05192008.shtml
Text: Generic superhero: I don't have to spend all eternity around you, do I? Grim Reaper: You kidding?! You costumed freaks come back from the death so often I don't even get to count you towards my quota.
I think the last page by itself perfectly illustrates the trope, and is still quite funny on its own. Anyone disagrees?
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Let's see...two translucent figures, one of which is an obvious Grim Reaper, and they're clearly talking about the trope.
By contrast, the current picture is generic Anime faces discussing the trope indirectly through a meme whilst inaccurately giving the impression this is a Japan-only trope.
...Yeah, when you've got a comparison this obvious, there really shouldn't be any question who gets to be the page picture.
See you in the discussion pages.
If death is permanent, but easily faked so you're never fully sure who's really dead and who survived, and characters In-Universe are aware of this tendency, does it land here?