History Main / DeathIsCheap

* One of the features of the world of ''Literature/ArcOfAScythe'' is that natural death is almost eradicated; all injuries except for ones which irrevocably change the form of one or more vital organs (e.g: if fire burns your brain, or if you are eaten) are healable. Due to this, behaviour seen as wrong in our universe, such as killing yourself, laughing out loud at road incidents, or even killing somebody because they annoyed you, are seen as normal, because the consequences aren't permanent death here; the consequences are a few wasted hours at a revival center at least or a few months there at most.

'''[[Characters/BatmanAndBatFamily Duke]]:''' Wait, ''all'' of you have been dead? Am ''I'' going to be dead?

** ''Film/DoctorStrange2016:'' Strange dies [[UpToEleven countless times]] by an EldritchAbomination, but keeps coming back due to him using the power of the Time Stone to create an endless TimeLoop, [[SealedEvilInADuel thus also trapping his killer.]]

* ''WebAnimation/BionicleAdventures'' takes this UpToEleven; by the end of each individual episode, between 85-99% of the cast are dead, with that 1% being Monkeydude every time. Of course, they return for the next episode...only to be killed by Monkeydude again.

* Altough character do indeed die in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'' very few characters, especially heroes, actually stay dead. Sensei Wu in particular has "died" at least three times by now, for starters. Of note is Zane's HeroicSacrifice in the climax of the third season, which is undone just a few minutes later with the reveal that he somehow survived and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot built a new body for himself]] off-screen. A similar situation occurs with Lord Garmadon's post-HeelFaceTurn self-sacrifice in the fourth season, though his resurrection didn't come until several seasons later and wasn't without consequence as it [[CameBackWrong only brought back his evil side]].

* Very few characters who die in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'' actually stay dead. Sensei Wu in particular has "died" at least three times by now, for starters. Of note is Zane's HeroicSacrifice in the climax of the third season, which is undone just a few episodes later with the reveal that he somehow survived and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot built a new body for himself]] off-screen. A similar situation occurs with Lord Garmadon's post-HeelFaceTurn self-sacrifice in the fourth season, though his resurrection didn't come until several seasons later and wasn't without consequence as it [[CameBackWrong only brought back his evil side]].

For some fiction fans--particularly those who enjoy tension and tragedy, this trope nearly always results in OpeningACanOfClones: many viewers will simply lose ''all'' interest in a series if there is no guarantee that a given character death will be permanent, as it can strip them of any reason to ''care'' whenever a character's life is threatened.

* The rules for ''Roleplay/MarvelsRPG'' allows characters to be resurrected, if the staff approves of the way of resurrection. So far, it has become a running joke of who will kill {{ComicBook/Daken}} next.

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* {{Zigzagged}}. For players, if they're not invincible they have ResurrectiveImmortality, playing this straight almost all the time. For the rare instances when that fails, or for entities, however... [[SubvertedTrope Oh no it is not.]] Ignoring how almost every entity death is [[KilledOffForReal final]], The [[DimensionLord Council]] [[AncientTradition of Nine]] have taken every measure to make sure Limbo (where they usually go) [[DefiedTrope defies this trope]], and it shows. [[DamageSpongeBoss The Limbo Gatekeeper alone is nigh-invincible]] [[TheAssimilator and any soul who fails to defeat it is absorbed into it to fuel its might]]; staying in Limbo causes one to slowly lose memory until they become [[EmptyShell empty shells]] and thus do nothing; [[spoiler:and in the case of the [[EldritchAbomination Red Dragon]], even after he had been defeated and was inactive, they took the extra measure and had made sure to impose an additional [[SealedEvilInACan Seal]] on it. There are only two recorded [[EscapedFromHell break-outs]] of Limbo; one is little-known but was perpetrated by the [[EnemyMime Mimes]], while the other was directly caused by the Players, which subsequently caused almost every dead Godmodder (and [[VideoGame/OneNightAtFlumptys Flumpty Bumpty]]) to come back to life.]]
[[/folder]]

* This is ironically averted in ''Fanfic/{{Raise}}, which is about Jaune Arc having the ability to raise the recently deceased. A running theme throughout the fic is how much people fear the death of themselves or loved ones. The fact that the way to cheat death is itself finite and limited means that people's behavior deteriorates, as they feel they must fight and claw for what they want or else risk being passed over. The result is the worst of humanity's selfishness and stupidity comes out to the forefront, bringing more chaos to Ansel than ever before and leading to even more deaths than would have happened if people had just stayed away. Furthermore, major world governments treat Jaune as the priceless resource he is, with Atlas paying a fortune to acquire him, thus averting the cheap aspect very literally.

Important characters will have a terrible tendency to die dramatically, but will not, under any circumstances, ''stay'' dead. This tends to cheapen the dramatic death of a character to the point of being [[OnlyAFleshWound little more than a flesh wound]] if overused. If you ever hear passing mention of any form of afterlife in a series, be warned that the value of "dead" has become a whole lot less all of a sudden. Similarly, if the entire supporting cast is being killed off left and right, expect a resurrection by the end of the current arc. This trope became so common in some series that most people are more likely to be shocked if a character does not come back from the dead than when they do. This trope's best friend is the ResetButton. Downplayed examples will have a few important characters return once but also have a very specific set of rules that applied to allow it and will make it clear that its a one-trick horse and perhaps even go as far as treat it as an anomaly that only happens once in a millennium. Extremely cheap examples will have death happen so often to the same characters that it will be more of an extended vacation rather than a permanent departure.

Since villains tend to do this often, it is usually necessary to kill them DeaderThanDead to ensure they don't just come back eventually. Because normal death means little, this "advanced form" is usually permanent. [[FirstLawOfResurrection If it works as planned]]. This trope also has an interesting side effect, in the sense that [[KilledOffForReal permanent death]], because it is rarer, carries a much greater degree of dramatic weight as a result. Gwen Stacy from Spider-Man is a good example of that effect. For those really iconic vilains that help ''make'' a franchise, some overlap with JokerImmunity may occur, especially if writers enjoy using them enough that they'll resurrect those villains after their apparent deaths to continue plaguing the heroes.

For some fiction fans--particularly those who enjoy tension and drama, this trope nearly always results in OpeningACanOfClones: many viewers will simply lose ''all'' interest in a series if there is no guarantee that a given character death will be permanent, as it can strip them of any reason to ''care'' when a given character's life is threatened.

Historically, most comic books have run on indefinite storylines (where individual arcs may end but the overall narrative is meant to go on forever). Comic books are also generally owned by big corporations who will gladly hand off the writing duties to anyone who can promise a boost in sales. Finally, {{superhero}} comics have [[JustForFun/HowToCheatDeath many means]] to undo death, often involving OpeningACanOfClones.

Thus, this trope is so common in superhero comics that many other sources refer to it as Comic Book Death, to the point where Wiki/TheOtherWiki even has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_death a page]] on the subject. Usually the only characters in comics to stay dead are those involved in a DeathByOriginStory. Returning from death or critical injury may happen with [[UnexplainedRecovery no explanation]].

->'''[[Characters/BatmanJasonTodd Jason]]:''' First, Damian ''you're'' dead. Again. [...]\\
'''[[Characters/{{Robin}} Damian]]:''' No. First, ''Jason'', ''you're'' dead. Again. [...]\\
'''[[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick]]:''' And I like that in all of it, at least ''I'm'' not dead. ''Again.''\\

** ''Avengers:'' Coulson dies, but [[Series/AgentsOfSHIELD comes back in a spin-off series.]]
** ''Iron Man 3:'' Pepper dies, but comes back.

** ''Doctor Strange:'' Strange dies [[UpToEleven countless times]], but keeps coming back.

If returning from death is abused repeatedly, then TheyKilledKennyAgain. Compare DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist. Contrast with ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated. See also DisneyDeath.

Since villains tend to do this often, it is usually necessary to kill them DeaderThanDead to ensure they don't just come back eventually. Because normal death means little, this "advanced form" is usually permanent. [[FirstLawOfResurrection If it works as planned]]. This trope also has an interesting side effect, in the sense that [[KilledOffForReal permanent death]], because it is rarer, carries a much greater degree of dramatic weight as a result. Gwen Stacy from Spider-Man is a good example of that effect.

This trope is much more common in stories that are meant to continue indefinitely than in stories with a pre-planned conclusion. In indefinite stories, the loss of important characters can leave the writer without narrative resources to draw on, so it's always tempting to bring back dead characters so they can start off some new plotlines. This is especially true if the writing duties are repeatedly passed from one person to the next, as the new writer might not be happy with the previous writer's choices.

So common is this trope in {{superhero}} comics that many other sources refer to it as Comic Book Death, to the point where Wiki/TheOtherWiki even has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_death a page]] on the subject. Comics have [[JustForFun/HowToCheatDeath many means]] to undo death, often involving OpeningACanOfClones. Usually the only characters in comics to stay dead are those involved in a DeathByOriginStory. Returning from death or critical injury may happen with [[UnexplainedRecovery no explanation]]. If returning from death is abused repeatedly, then TheyKilledKennyAgain. Compare DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist. Contrast with ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated. See also DisneyDeath.

->'''[[Characters/BatmanJasonTodd Jason]]:''' First, Damian ''you're'' dead. Again. [...]
->'''[[Characters/{{Robin}} Damian]]:''' No. First, ''Jason'', ''you're'' dead. Again. [...]
->'''[[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick]]:''' And I like that in all of it, at least ''I'm'' not dead. ''Again.''
->'''[[Characters/BatmanAndBatFamily Duke]]:''' Wait, ''all'' of you have been dead? Am ''I'' going to be dead?

* Very few characters who die in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'' actually stay dead. Sensei Wu in particular has "died" at least three times by now, for starters. Of note is Zane's HeroicSacrifice in the climax of the third season, which is undone just a few episodes later with the reveal that he somehow survived and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot built a new body for himself]] off-screen. A similar situation occurs with Lord Garmadon's post-HeelFaceTurn self-sacrifice in the fourth season, though his resurrection didn't come until several seasons later and wasn't without consequence as it [[CameBackWrong only brought back his evil side]]

* Slade in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' fell into a pit of lava via Terra and shows up two seasons later [[DemBones semi-alive and well]] thanks to Raven's dad [[ResurrectedForAJob needing a henchman to help destroy the world]].

** In fact, the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' franchise in general has no shame in pulling this every so often. As robots, being repaired or rebuilt isn't that far fetched. The only series to really avert this trope is ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', which would often revive a character as a mindless zombie and then kill them off again just to get the point across, with Megatron's revival coming at a [[DemonicPossession cost]] that he [[FateWorseThanDeath didn't care for]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'' had a unique take on this that managed to combine this, AllDeathsFinal, ''and'' GodzillaThreshold. For the binomes and sprites being deleted is treated with all the gravity and permanence of a real life death, but to [[DeityOfHumanOrigin The User]] death is as cheap as typing "[[TitleDrop Reboot System: Y]]" to restore everything and everyone from a system backup. Unfortunately to make The User do this they need to intentionally crash the system, knowing there's no guarantee The User will even bother to do it. It also has the side-effect of cloning Enzo, as his current adult form is in game sprite mode, causing the system scan to believe he was deleted and restore ''young Enzo'' from the backup, who would come to look up to Matrix like an older brother.
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Rick Sanchez having spent decades seeing the infinite expanse of the multiverse, Rick's belief in the value of an individual life (if it ever existed) has been ground down to almost nothing: after all, there's always more copies of people out there somewhere.
* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice Outsiders'', Halo has the ability to regenerate if she's killed by using her purple aura, fully healing any injuries she's sustained in the process. In fact, it's the first power she displays. She can also heal nonlethal damage this way, as well. Naturally, this results in her dying a lot over the course of the season.

-->-- Various Robins and former Robins discussing whether or not they are going to die, ''[[ComicBook/BatmanRebirth Batman]]'' #16