History Main / AllDeathsFinal

* ''Literature/WildCards": Wild Cards is a darker superhero universe that avoids the DeathIsCheap elements that plague comic book superhero universes. Creator Creator/GeorgeRRMartin notoriously hates DeathIsCheap and all other superhero tropes that overwrite former stories, such as the CosmicRetcon, and has pleaded to never use them in Wild Cards. When characters die in Wild Cards they stay dead. However, there are examples of characters being assumed dead, but the readers are aware that this isn't actually the case (or are made aware after a relatively short time). There are also rare cases of characters with extreme regenerative powers or android bodies coming back, but this is also telegraphed in advance.

** Joseph Joestar in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' subverts this. Although it uses a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology, he is able to be revived by Jotaro courtesy of the doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation and Dio's body being used to transfuse back the blood that was stolen from him. Although his soul had departed his body, it was in a good enough condition that the wounds could be treated. He had also only been dead for four minutes by the time he was carted into the ambulance. Because Jotaro was able to use Star Platinum as a sort of heart massage to make the blood flow, this allowed his soul to return to his body now that was sustainable for life.

** Joseph Joestar in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' subverts this. Although it uses a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology, he is able to be revived by Jotaro courtesy of the doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation and Dio's body being used to transfuse back the blood that was stolen from him. Although his soul had departed his body, it was in a good enough condition that the wounds could be treated. He had also only been dead for four minutes by the time he was carted into the ambulance. Because Jotaro was able to use Star Platinum as a sort of heart massage to make the blood flow, this allowed his soul to return to his body now that it is sustainable for life.

** Joseph Joestar in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' subverts this. Although it uses a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology, he is able to be revived by Jotaro courtesy of the doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation and Dio's body being used to transfuse back the blood that was stolen from him. Although his soul had departed his body, it was in good condition for the wounds to be treated. He had also only been dead for four minutes by the time he was carted into the ambulance. Because Jotaro was able to use Star Platinum as a sort of heart massage to make the blood flow, this allowed his soul to return to his body now that it is sustainable for life.

** Oddly, that limitation doesn't seem to apply to the doctors at the Speedwagon Foundation, who manage to revive a very much dead Joseph in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' (his soul departed and everything) using a blood transfusion. This is kind of a PlotHole and an egregious case of ArtisticLicenseBiology, but it may have something to do with his blood being taken out of a vampire.
*** What helps in Joseph's case was that he was only recently deceased, having only been dead for 4 minutes by the time he was carted into the ambulance, his wounds also easily treated by the medical staff. It wasn't so much the blood transfusion but that and a combo of jumpstarting his heart with Star Platinum to make the blood flow. Sort of a heart massage without using a rib spreader. Thus allowing his soul to return to his body now that it is sustainable for life.

* An indie game on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, called ''RussianRoulette: One Life'', allowed the user to virtually play the titular game with the twist that, if you lose, you will ''never be able to play again.'' As in the game in real life, you get exactly one death and it's for keeps![[note]]There was a DownloadableContent option offered to pay $5 and attempt the game more than once-- as a ghost, with your score on a separate leaderboard from the main game.[[/note]]

* ''Manga/DeathNote''

* [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Characters can be and occasionally are brought back from the dead, but death is the only thing which cannot be reversed by NegativeContinuity. The only characters to have come back from the dead are James Woods (who got transfused with someone else's life force), Brian (whose death was erased via TimeTravel), Peter (due to being [[PalsWithJesus friends with the Grim Reaper]]), and Meg, the only character to have come back via UnexplainedRecovery.

* [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Characters can be and occasionally are brought back from the dead, but death is the only thing which cannot be reversed by NegativeContinuity. The only characters to have come back from the dead are James Woods (who got transfused with someone else's life force), Brian (whose death was erased via TimeTravel), Peter (due to being [[PalsWithJesus friends with the Grim Reaper]]), and Meg, the only character to have come back via UnexplainedRecovery. Despite the show's NegativeContinuity, all other characters who've died have stayed dead.

The fact that it can't (or shouldn't) be done also makes it an [[ForbiddenFruit excellent]] MacGuffin: It's pretty common for an idealistic hero grieving over the death of a friend or loved one to search out ways to bring them back -- and usually give up after deciding that [[FantasticAesop the dead are not meant to be resurrected]]; if they don't, something usually [[CameBackWrong goes wrong]], like [[MonsterFromBeyondTheVeil something else coming back instead]]. Much like ReedRichardsIsUseless, this is usually an AuthorsSavingThrow against trivializing death in a world where it would otherwise be a minor inconvenience. Reincarnation may or may not be possible, but if it is then it's closer to the Buddhist conception of the idea: the previous and future lives are functionally different people who are linked by a metaphysical process, not the same person in a different body.

The fact that it can't (or shouldn't) be done also makes it an [[ForbiddenFruit excellent]] MacGuffin: It's pretty common for an idealistic hero grieving over the death of a friend or loved one to search out ways to bring them back -- and usually give up after deciding that [[FantasticAesop the dead are not meant to be resurrected]]; if they don't, something usually [[CameBackWrong goes wrong]], like [[MonsterFromBeyondTheVeil something else coming back instead]]. Much like ReedRichardsIsUseless, this is usually an AuthorsSavingThrow against trivializing death in a world where it would otherwise be a minor inconvenience.

* ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'' has several abilities related to life and death, but none of them can actually revive someone who has already died. Yosano can heal anyone close to death, and Odasaku can forsee his own death and avert it, but so far there has not been any way to revive someone who has previously died. [[spoiler: The Book makes it appear like the dead can be revived, but what it is actually doing is creating an alternate timeline where that person never died in the first place. This is actually the plot to one of the novels, BEAST. At first it looks like it's an AU novel, but it's actually a part of the main canon because of how The Book was used to make it.]]

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': For humans. Demons reincarnate in hell after they are killed [[spoiler: unless they are [[DeaderThanDead eaten by the Chainsaw Devil]]]], though the new Devil is essentially a new personality with the memories of the original. Both Demons and Hybrids have [[NighInvulnerability incredible regenerative powers]]. But human characters are completely mortal, underpinned by the incredible mortality rate of Devil Hunters. The closest the series comes to an aversion is when Pochita revives a dismembered Denji by fusing with him, though since this happened immediately post-mortem it's unclear if hybridization is possible after complete brain necrosis since 'something' of the human has to remain in order to make the [[MagicallyBindingContract contract]].

** This is one of the rules of the Death Note. In the end of the manga, while Light is begging Ryuk to save him from death, Ryuk says that there is no way to do it. The last page (as a follow-up to a previous statement) says, "Once they are dead, they can never come back to life." [[spoiler:This is because it's hard to come back once [[CessationOfExistence you stop existing.]]]]

** In the first two series, Digimon could return to Primary Village upon their death to be reconfigured, but there was a time where this village was inactive, and so any Digimon killed during this time were unable to be reborn until the village was restored. ''However'', any Digimon that died in the real world died for good. Part of the motivation of [[FallenHero Maki]] in ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' was to try to reverse this. [[spoiler: It took ''rebooting the entire Digital World'' to do so, and it didn't matter anyway because her partner Digimon doesn't remember her.]]

** The BigBad of the original anime, ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' seeks to defy this trope. [[spoiler:Whether she actually had any chance of success is unclear, but the method she was trying to use was something the heroes had to stop because it ran the risk of causing severe multiversal damage just to ''maybe'' bring back ''one person''. [[BigBad Precia]] was too crazy to care about the risk.]]

* This is why [[spoiler:Esmeralda]] stays dead at the end of ''WebVideo/AnastasiaQuasimodoWeHitAWall''. Anastasia and Quasimodo's FairyGodmother can't bring dead people back. Magic doesn't work that way.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', you can morph or demorph to heal any injury and most illnesses you may get. But a dead morph is a dead Animorph (unless it's turned off temporarily by a powerful being). [[spoiler:This happens to Racheal in the final book.]]

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', despite all the magic running around, Death has thus far been basically final. In fact magic doesn't even seem to be particularly good at healing, with Wizards often still relying on muggle methods. Ghosts and various similar beings exist, but it's explicitly stated that these are left behind by the persons memories and do not contain the persons actual soul. Necromancers (and powerful beings in general) can skirt the rules, like when a Necromancer is able to keep someone alive long enough for them to get medical attention, but when Necromancers actually revive people [[CameBackWrong it's just as mindless zombies.]] The closest to a full subversion is when [[spoiler:Harry]] seems to be dead during ''Literature/GhostStory'', but it turned out to be a DoubleSubversion, his body never actually dies, and his consciousness is eventually able to return to it.
* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' universe, only one method has ever been able to do anything even close to bring back the dead: [[spoiler:the resurrection stone, one of the three Deathly Hallows.]] Even then, it only brought back their souls, and the first guy to discover it is said to have been DrivenToSuicide when he realized it couldn't actually resurrect his [[TheLostLenore dead fiancée]]. More conventional magic can regenerate bones from scratch, reshape bodies, or undo petrification, but cannot resurrect anyone. Also [[SoulJar Horcruxes]] can prevent someone from dying, despite them appearing to have been killed, but must be created proactively to prevent death in the first place.

* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': {{Discussed}} in volume 8. Resurrecting the dead is explicitly impossible, [[JustifiedTrope a natural law]] set down by [[GodIsDead the world's long-deceased god]]. The most magic can do is stave death off for a while: should a mage manage to reach the age of 200, TheGrimReaper will come for them without fail. [[spoiler:Cyrus Rivermoore's family kept the ghosts of several past master necromancers in sealed coffins, hoping to craft a [[PocketDimension Grand Aria]] that would hold the Reapers at bay long enough for them to pass on their lost knowledge. By the time of this book, several attempts have failed and only one remains; resurrecting her in an artificial body [[AntiVillain drives his actions]] in volumes 7 and 8.]]

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', raising the dead is the one thing that magic can't do. As Rumplestiltskin says several times, "Dead is dead". [[spoiler:[[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Doctor Frankenstein]]]] is able to raise two people by combining magic and science, or at least [[Film/HammerHorror his world's]] version of [[LightningCanDoAnything science]], but only as tortured, undead monstrosities.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Continuum}}'', this is not an inherent law of the setting, but it ''is'' enforced by the Continuum. If your death has been revealed to you, you are expected to willingly go to your death (though you can put this off nearly indefinitely), and any situation in which a spanner dies twice [[TemporalParadox frags the spanner to hell and back]]. [[spoiler: However, it's entirely possible to use temporal shenanigans to create another explanation for a death, such as using a clone body or a parallel-universe self. It's illegal for Continuum spanners, but Narcissists do it all the time.]]

* An enforced policy in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', to make death means something[[note]][[GamePlayAndStorySegregation In spite of the fact that the game itself has plenty of resurrection spells]].[[/note]]. This is why characters like Yawgmoth and Urza aren't running around, and why each death in the modern era is all the more tragic. There is one possible exception in [[spoiler:Elspeth]], given the unique circumstances she is in, but even then Creative tells to hold no breath,

The fact that it can't (or shouldn't) be done also makes it an [[ForbiddenFruit excellent]] MacGuffin: It's pretty common for an idealistic hero grieving over the death of a friend or loved one to search out ways to bring them back -- and usually give up after deciding that [[FantasticAesop the dead are not meant to be resurrected]]; if they don't, something usually [[CameBackWrong goes wrong]], like [[MonsterFromBeyondTheVeil something else coming back instead]]. Alternatively, perhaps bringing someone BackFromTheDead is possible, but due to [[EquivalentExchange the nature of the power at work]] (whether or not it's actually forbidden) it almost never happens anyway. (Meaning that if there are multiple instances of people being resurrected in this kind of world, the mechanism for doing so will almost certainly become a/the focal point of the story.) Much like ReedRichardsIsUseless, this is usually an AuthorsSavingThrow against trivializing death in a world where it would otherwise be a minor inconvenience.

Compare HealingMagicIsTheHardest, contrast DeathIsCheap. See KilledOffForReal for when this is applied to ''individual'' deaths (where resurrection in general could otherwise happen). Possible subtrope of EquivalentExchange. Contrast DeaderThanDead where only certain types of death are final, and OpeningACanOfClones for when significant events, such as death, can be easily undone. See FinalDeathMode, {{Permadeath}}, and SingleAttemptGame for the video game versions. Not to be confused with EveryoneDiesEnding.

Needless to say, this trope is TruthInTelevision, and works set in mundane worlds without magic or "sufficiently advanced" technology [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted needn't be mentioned]].

* ''ComicBook/Invincible'' has super-powered characters with insane durability, and a character called the Immortal who lives up to his title. But if anyone else dies, that's that.

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': For humans. Demons reincarnate in hell after they are killed [[spoiler: unless they are [[DeaderThanDead eaten by the Chainsaw Devil]]]], though the new Devil is essentially a new personality with the memories of the original. Both Demons and Hybrids have [[NighInvulnerability incredible regenerative powers]]. But human characters are completely mortal, underpinned by the incredible mortality rate of Devil Hunters. The closest the series comes to an aversion is when Pochita revives a dismembered Denji by fusing with him, though since this happened immediately post-mortem it's unclear if hybridization is possible after complete brain necrosis.

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': For humans. Demons reincarnate in hell after they are killed [[spoiler: unless they are [[DeaderThanDead eaten by the Chainsaw Devil]]]], though the new Devil is essentially a new personality with the memories of the original. Both Demons and Hybrids have [[NighInvulnerability incredible regenerative powers]]. But human characters are completely mortal, underpinned by the incredible mortality rate of Devil Hunters.

Needless to say, this trope is ''usually'' TruthInTelevision (although some scientists are hoping to change that), and works set in mundane worlds without magic or "sufficiently advanced" technology [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted needn't be mentioned]].

%% The examples on this page are listed alphabetically. Please add examples accordingly.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* ''Manga/RaveMaster'': Unlike Creator/HiroMashima's [[Manga/FairyTail following series]], everyone who dies in Rave Master remains dead. There are death fakeouts, but no one ever comes back to life.

* An indie game on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, called "RussianRoulette: One Life", allowed the user to virtually play the titular game with the twist that, if you lose, you will ''never be able to play again.'' As in the game in real life, you get exactly one death and it's for keeps![[note]]There was a DownloadableContent option offered to pay $5 and attempt the game more than once-- as a ghost, with your score on a separate leaderboard from the main game.[[/note]]

* Downplayed in a bizarre way on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Characters can be and occasionally are brought back from the dead, but death is the only thing which cannot be reversed by NegativeContinuity. The only characters to have come back from the dead are James Woods (who got transfused with someone else's life force), Brian (whose death was erased via TimeTravel), Peter (due to being [[PalsWithJesus friends with the Grim Reaper]]), and Meg, the only character to have come back via UnexplainedRecovery. Despite the show's NegativeContinuity, all other characters who've died have stayed dead.

* ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' followed this trope, until it brought an OnlyMostlyDead character back to life. Canonically, the extremely rare ability to restore the dead marks someone as a "Messiah"-class healer, which causes all kinds of ethical problems.

* This is what Creator/ChrisClaremont intends for his book ''ComicBook/XMenForever''.

* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpelllades'': {{Discussed}} in volume 8. Resurrecting the dead is explicitly impossible, [[JustifiedTrope a natural law]] set down by [[GodIsDead the world's long-deceased god]]. The most magic can do is stave death off for a while: should a mage manage to reach the age of 200, TheGrimReaper will come for them without fail. [[spoiler:Cyrus Rivermoore's family kept the ghosts of several past master necromancers in sealed coffins, hoping to craft a [[PocketDimension Grand Aria]] that would hold the Reapers at bay long enough for them to pass on their lost knowledge. By the time of this book, several attempts have failed and only one remains; resurrecting her in an artificial body [[AntiVillain drives his actions]] in volumes 7 and 8.]]