History Main / DeathbyOriginStory

** In his previous life, Grey was given up to an orphanage run by Vera Willbeck, who quickly became his ParentalSubstitute. One day, he came back to the orphanage to find out that she had been murdered by agents from a foreign nation. When he became king, he waged war against that nation out of vengeance, an action he comes to regret for both the rest of his old life and his new life.
** Grey had two childhood friends named Nico and Cecilia, [[spoiler:the latter being sought out by other nations due to being the Legacy. He was eventually forced to duel Cecilia in the tournament that would have decided who would become king, and Cecilia took the opportunity to end her suffering by [[SuicideByCop throwing herself on his blade]]. Her death was the major factor for Nico turning against Grey, as she was his fiancee. As it turns out, [[MaouTheDemonKing Agrona]] was also seeking the power of the Legacy for himself, as he would reincarnate the three of them to serve his ends and would give the latter two FakeMemories that would not only make them more compliant to him but also easier to turn them against Grey/Arthur]].

* Denji in ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' started off as an amateur private [[DemonSlaying Devil Hunter]] with the aid of his chainsaw {{hellhound}} Pochi. After Denji and Pochi are brutally murdered by a Devil controlling his {{yakuza}} bosses, Pochi's remains fuse with Denji's and resurrect him as the titular Chainsaw Man.

** The main premise of ''Literature/KonoSuba'' is that main character Kazuma dies from the shock of ''possibly'' being run over by a tractor, and is resurrected in a fantasy world.

** In ''Literature/ReZero'', Subaru gets hit by a truck while trying to cross the street. Unfortunately for him, the deaths he experiences don't stop there.

** ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'': T'Challa became the Black Panther after his father was killed by Ulysses Klaw.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Franchise/{{Batman}} Some legends can only be born in tragedy.]]]]

There are, however, some characters who ''stay'' dead. These are the [[FriendlyTarget loved ones]] who suffered [[TitleDrop Death by Origin Story]], and play a vital role in the motivations of the hero. Their death might be (in)directly the hero's fault (ComicBook/SpiderMan, Uncle Ben), not their fault but still a huge motivation (Franchise/{{Batman}}, Thomas and Martha Wayne) or simply there to add some drama (Franchise/{{Superman}}, Pa Kent). Similarly, ScarsAreForever when they represent an important event for a character (for instance, [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon's]] lower body paralysis. [[note]]Except in ''Series/BirdsOfPrey2002'', where she got some spinal implant or something that allowed her to walk again to a limited extent, and again in ''Comicbook/TheNew52''.[[/note]])

* ''ComicBook/AllFallDown'' has the 642 casualties inadvertently killed by Sophie's ascendance in The Fall.
* Parodied in the first issue of ''ComicBook/TheAwesomeSlapstick''. The Scientist Supreme of Dimension X conveniently falls dead after telling protagonist Steve Harmon everything he needs to know to control his powers and stop the Overlord of Dimension X. After Steve leaves, he springs back up with a grin and remarks "Gets them every time".
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

** In the continuity of the ''ComicBook/New52'', it was intitally established in ''Comicbook/HuntressAndPowerGirlWorldsFinest'' that Helena Bertinelli, the previous continuity's ComicBook/{{Huntress}}, was killed as a young woman and had her identity usurped by Helena Wayne, her Comicbook/Earth2 counterpart. However, in ''Comicbook/{{Grayson}}'' it was retconned that the real Bertinelli faked her death in order to join Spyral, and her Huntress career was restored to continuity in ''Comicbook/DCRebirth''.
* In ''ComicBook/BigBangComics'', the Knight Watchman is a CaptainErsatz version of Batman. Instead of losing his parents as a child, however, Reid Randall lost his brother as an adult -- he was killed by gangsters who wanted to scare the Randalls into handing over the family business. Reid became the Knight Watchman to put his brother's killers behind bars, and soon took in his orphaned nephew Jerry as his sidekick, Kid Galahad.
* ComicBook/{{Blade}}'s mother was attacked while pregnant by a vampire. And while she died in labor, Blade was tainted at birth by the vampire bite, but not fully turned, turning him into a {{Dhampyr}}. This pretty much shaped his grudge against the supernatural.
* Several members of ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' are motivated by at least one loved one being taken away from them because of the actions of the supes and/or Vought-American.

* ''ComicBook/CaptainAtom'' had two examples. The experiment that turned Nathaniel Adam into Captain Atom also hurled him eighteen years into the future, where he discovered that his wife, Angela had, in the intervening years, died of cancer. Coming to terms with her loss was a big part of Cap's character arc.
** Cap himself was also an example, of course, since the experiment that made him Captain Atom also atomized his body (he got better, obviously). This was true in the Charlton version as well.

* ComicBook/DoctorStrange inherited the title and artifacts of "Sorcerer Supreme" after killing his master and tutor, the Ancient One (at his request). Whether this means the role is a YouKillItYouBoughtIt deal is yet unresolved.
* ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'': It is established in the tenth issue of John Byrne's run that Nudge ran away from home after her father died of a heart attack during a heated argument.
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'': Barry Allen stayed dead while his former KidSidekick Wally West came into his own as his successor. ''ComicBook/TheReturnOfBarryAllen'' played with this by having Barry seem to return leaving Wally happy about Barry's return but conflicted about being back in his shadow (particularly since his speed had been reduced at the same point when Barry died leaving him the slower and less competent Flash). He had to deal with these issues in order to defeat Barry when he turned out to be Professor Zoom.
* ''ComicBook/GIJoeReloaded'' has Rock 'n' Roll motivated to fight against Cobra because Firefly's destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge killed his girlfriend Minh.
* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'':

* Particularly nasty variation in ''ComicBook/HackSlash'', in which Cassie Hack's origin story involves having to kill her own psychotic and undead mother.
* ''ComicBook/TheIntimates'' only offhandedly mentions it, but Punchy first donned his costume shortly after his older sister was murdered.

* This is mentioned by the second Jailbait in ''[[ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}} Incorruptible]]''.

* Parodied in ''Kill All Parents'', where a scientist discovers that dead parents somehow directly guarantees their kid will become an awesome superhero. This leads to a government project dedicated to randomly murdering couples with children (and in one case an entire alien planet) to ensure that a generation of heroes will exist to save them from a foretold catastrophe.
* ComicBook/MartianManhunter has what is arguably the most extreme example of this ever. Most of his ''species'', including his ''wife and daughter'', spontaneously combusted after contracting a psychic plague engineered by his ''own brother''. J'onn only survived by severing his own psychic connection to the rest of his people, meaning he had to watch his family die in front of him while he was mentally cut off from them. The worst thing is that he could have stopped all of this. He knew his brother was up to no good, but J'onn still had misplaced trust in him and underestimated the depths of his evil. The loss of his people and his family in particular are a huge part of his character, which might be why attempts to revive his race always turn out to be fakeouts. While there is another (evil) Green Martian out there, his family is still dead.
* The backstory of Marvel's ''ComicBook/{{Micronauts|MarvelComics}}'' comic book involves Micronauts leader Arcturus Rann's parents being murdered by Baron Karza during his 1,000-year astral projection journey through the Microverse and Marionette being motivated to join the heroes because Karza killed her parents as well.
* Creator/MilestoneComics
** ''ComicBook/Hardware1993'': Deathwish's origin involves his wife and son being raped and killed in front of him before their rapist proceeded to violate him as well and leave him to die.
** ''ComicBook/{{Xombi}}'': David Kim's backstory involves the death of his assistant Kelly Sandbourne.
** Issue 4 of ''Heroes'' has Iota reveal that the accident that gave her the power to shrink also killed her husband. [[spoiler:Subverted in that the next issue reveals he's still alive as ruler of the Inniverse.]]
* ''ComicBook/MicronautsImage'' begins with the demise of future Micronauts leader Ryan Archer's father.
* Both ComicBook/MisterTerrific's older brother and wife die, leading to him taking up the mantle of the original.
* Comedically subverted in the second issue of the ''Toys/MonsterInMyPocket'' comic book by Harvey Comics, where the Exterminator, an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'', mentions that his obsession with wiping out all insects happened when a bunch of fire ants came on a day where he had a picnic with his family. It's initially assumed that the fire ants killed his wife and kids, but he clarifies that he's just pissed that the ants ruined his family's picnic.
* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': ''Mister Miracle'' begins with Scott Free becoming the successor to Thaddeus Brown after the latter was killed by Steel Hand.
* Eve Eden was driven to master her powers and become the hero Nightshade by her mother's murder and brother's abduction.
* James-Michael's parents in ''ComicBook/OmegaTheUnknown'', combined with a RoboticReveal.
* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': In ''ComicBook/ThePowerOfShazam'' Annual #1, [=CeCe=] Beck's parents are killed by the Aberrant terrorist Dash Noir. In the confusion, a magic weapon sends Beck to the Rock of Eternity where she meets Captain Marvel and becomes his successor.
* ComicBook/ThePunisher watched his whole family get caught in a mafia cross-fire, leading him to kill as many criminals as he could find.

* ''ComicBook/RelativeHeroes'' parodied this; the main characters, who recently discovered their superpowers, decide that the death of their parents means they're destined to be superheroes.

* Played with in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', where Victor's mother was killed by his father as a punishment for failing to prevent Victor's powers from emerging ahead of schedule. While this drives him to join the Runaways and become a hero, he is supposedly fated to eventually become the supervillain Victorious.

* Played with in ''ComicBook/StarmanDCComics''. David Knight dies in the first issue after doing nothing of note (apart from fighting the Will Payton Starman), but Jack takes an entire story arc before taking up the mantle. David becomes more interesting after his death, popping up in the annual "Talking With David" stories and even getting his own story arc at the close of the series.

* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' member ComicBook/{{Cyborg}}'s mother was killed in the same accident that injured him to the point that his father had to fit him with bionics to save his life. In addition, Beast Boy's biological parents were killed shortly after he gained his green skin and hair and power to transform into animals.
* Subverted and played straight with Rorschach in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. When his mother died all he said was "Good". But it was the event when Kitty Genovese was killed and despite multiple people hearing and seeing this event did nothing did he decide to become a vigilante.
* "The Wombat" in ''10th Muse'' murdered her ''own'' parents outside a movie theater after arranging for them to see a showing of ''The Mark of Zorro'' in an attempt to invoke the trope and make her a stronger hero. This storyline was later remade with a few major alterations in ''Insane Jane'' - Jane kills everyone she knows so she can have a proper "origin", but she's schizophrenic and doesn't actually know she's doing it.
* A few other Marvel stories that involved this trope, for example:
** ComicBook/TheWasp's debut and origin story involved the murders of Hank Pym's first wife Maria and of Janet Van Dyne's father as motivations for Hank's attraction for Janet and Janet's decision to become a superhero. Before you ask, yes a separate story does exist about Hank Pym's decision of becoming a superhero to find/save Maria. And as of 2016 yet another story about Maria giving birth before being murdered which resulted in [[ComicBook/TheUnstoppableWasp Nadia Pym]], who became a superhero in her memory and to find her lost family. This must be some kind of a record.
*** This gets spoofed during ComicBook/MarvelAdventures, when the Avengers meet Janet's still-very-much-alive father, who begins explaining Janet's origins, and the Avengers interrupt, assuming she did it to avenge the death of her mother. A flustered Dr. Van Dyne informs them his wife is actually still alive at that very moment.
** T'Challa became the ComicBook/BlackPanther after his father was killed by Ulysses Klaw.
** ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' #1 introduced Matt Murdock as a half-orphan, then his father was murdered on the orders of the Fixer. Frank Miller's retcon later revealed that Matt Murdock's mother had not died but become a nun, while the origin of Miller's new character, the [[MeaningfulName aptly named Elektra]] also entailed the death of her father.
** Professor X of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' was shown as having lost his biological parents as well as his step-father in his origin story. Cyclops was introduced as an orphan (although it was later revealed that at least his father survived long enough to meet his children again).

** Loki's ''Tales of Asgard'' origin story showed him as the orphaned son of one of Odin's late enemies.
*** In a roundabout way, Loki manages to be his ''own'' death by origin story. See, during ''ComicBook/{{Siege}}'', Loki gets torn in half by The Void. Having figured he would die at some point, Loki had already prepared a resurrection scheme, only it goes a little wrong, and a new Loki is born with absolutely none of the old Loki's memories (and more importantly, none of the evil), considered by the universe to be his own individual.

** Another ''X-Men'' example with ComicBook/{{X 23}}, who's actually the DecoyProtagonist of her own origin book, which focuses instead on her mother and creator, Sarah Kinney, her attempts to clone ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, and her subsequent HeelRealization and HeelFaceTurn to save the girl. And then she's killed at the end as a final posthumous KickTheDog by Zander Rice, just as she helps X-23 escape.
** ComicBook/JeanGrey's mutant power first awakened when her best friend Annie Robinson got hit by a car one day. Jean peered into Annie's mind during her dying moments, and the experience left her traumatized. She became withdrawn from constantly hearing other people's thoughts, and it took the teachings of Professor X to find her true calling.
** ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'' revealed an untold chapter of ComicBook/NickFury's life: during his CIA days, he was on the losing edge of a battle against invading aliens in Kansas when Woody [=McCord=] turned the tide against them, dying from a fatal injury afterwards. Howard Stark, who had been [=McCord=]'s partner, told Fury about how [=McCord=] had been defending the planet from anyone and anything that threatens it, and Fury agreed to continue his legacy in secret.

* ComicStrip/DickTracy decided to join the police force after the murder of his fiancée's father.

* Briar Harvestar/The Hooded One in ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'', though she is not the main protagonist.
* The same thing applies to everyone resurrected by ''Franchise/TheCrow'', and they usually have dead loved ones to avenge as well.
* Boston Brand, aka Deadman, gained his abilities by, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin getting killed]]. His body is even resurrected by the [[ComicBook/BlackestNight Black Lanterns]] but his attempt to repossess his old shell and return to the ranks of the living fails. Then the [[ComicBook/BrightestDay White Lanterns]] bring him back... [[StatusQuoIsGod for a while, anyway]].
* Parodied in another way in the ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers' Mr. Immortal. It's something of a misnomer, since he's perfectly capable of being killed; "Mr. Resurrection" might be better... for him the Grim Portal is more of a revolving door.

* Parodied in ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable''; Bob's first attempt at being a GameMaster involved all the characters being killed, and then the main bulk of the adventure took place in Hell. For some reason, though, he never explained this and let them roll up new characters, who ''also'' had to die before the adventure could begin. This went on for hours, until the group, as he put it, "gave up during the prologue".
* ''ComicBook/MoonKnight'' took the cowl when he was beaten to death by Raoul Bushman and was resurrected to serve as Khonshu's fist of justice. He also hunts Werewolves by the side, we're not really sure why.
* ComicBook/ResurrectionMan's power involves him dying and then being resurrected by nanotechnology with a new super power, usually related to the manner of his death.
* Secret agent/assassin Al Simmons is set up and murdered by his boss. After striking a DealWithTheDevil he is returned to Earth as ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' with a new body and supernatural powers.
* Typically, this is what happens to ComicBook/TheSpectre's hosts; almost all of them were murder victims who found themselves bonded to the Vengeance of God incarnate.
* ComicBook/TheSpirit 'dies' in every version of his origin story, which is why he calls himself the Spirit in the first place. If you want to get technical, he is exposed to chemicals that put him into a death like coma and is buried. He awakes and takes advantage of his new found death status to become a vigilante. Alvarro Mortez AKA 'El Morte' in the DC reboot actually dies though. He is unfortunate enough to die TWICE.
* Ditto ComicBook/SwampThing. ...Sort of. It gets... complicated when Creator/AlanMoore comes on board.
** And, while on the subject of Swamp Thing, it's also true for Garbage Man, a very similar character.
* Physicist Jon Osterman from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' is atomized in a nuclear experiment, but returns as "Dr. Manhattan", an immortal indestructible [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended godlike entity]].

* Parodied in an issue of ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'', when a nascent superhero is subjected to so many different methods of acquiring superpowers simultaneously that he is reduced to ashes.
* Hilariously invoked in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'', when Superman is on a world that spits out opposite clones of his world (such as Bizarro Superman having flame breath instead of Superman's trademark ice breath), Superman asks about Bizarro Batman, and is told that his parents shot him, he's dead.
* Every member of the ''ComicBook/DeathVigil'' had to die in order to be resurrected by TheGrimReaper to fight the forces of darkness.

* ''Series/{{Tracker}}'': Cole became a prison guard to guard Rhee, the Vardian who killed his wife and daughter. And then he follows Rhee to Earth after the escape. Although he's charged with rounding up all the escapees, Rhee is his first and primary objective.

* ''ComicBook/CaptainVictoryAndTheGalacticRangers'': The two-part OriginsEpisode near the end establishes that Captain Victory's right of passage was marked by his mentor Captain Flane encouraging him to enlist in the Galactic Corps while staying behind to engage in a fight to the death with his enemies.

** Likewise the massacre of the Uchiha clan at the hands of his older brother Itachi leads to Sasuke changing his personality and focusing almost entirely on vengeance.

** Gaara's mother and uncle died, his mother due to complications during birth and his uncle trying to kill him. The Kazekage's attempted manipulations of the facts led to Gaara being [[BloodKnight less than well-adjusted]].

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': The reason why Beckett is a detective rather than a lawyer is because of her mother's murder that went unsolved. Castle starts digging into that, against her wishes, but eventually digs up enough dirt to cause trouble for them. It's the main arc of the series, and it finally ends near the end of Season 7 when [[spoiler:Beckett arrests the man responsible for giving the order to kill her mother, Senator Bracken, when she finally got enough evidence to do so.]]

* Doomsday is shown to be a version of the trope in the minseries ''Hunter/Prey''. He started off as an experiment in "evolution". Whenever he gets killed, he comes back in an "evolved" form with improved resistance to whatever killed him. Over time this builds up to the point that he was capable of going toe-to-toe with Big Blue in the "Doomsday/Death of Superman" arc. In which he and Superman killed each other. ''Hunter/Prey'' takes place ''after'' that; you do the math.

* Mufasa in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', who dies in a HeroicSacrifice and gives Scar an excuse to scare Simba into exile.

* The main character(s) of ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast'' are dead before the game starts, and thus you need to [[MemeticMutation WISE FWOM YORW GWAVE!]]

** ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' has LoveInterest Kayla. Being Logan, a character who in the comics collects dead lovers and was unattached in the first three movies, it seemed she was doomed to die, and the film doesn't disappoint... ''at first.'' But when it's revealed he death was faked and their affair false, the trope seemed [[AvertedTrope averted.]] But then it turns out she [[BecomingTheMask really loved him]]... so she was dead as a doornail by the end, and the now amnesiac Wolverine didn't even know to cry over her corpse. Tragic in all the wrong ways.

* Hilariously subverted in ''WebVideo/KamenRiderExAidAbridged''. Nico’s parents are initially mentioned as dead, [[spoiler: but are later revealed to be alive. They merely kicked her out for freeloading]].

* In ''Film/{{Twister}}'', Jo's motivation for chasing and developing a way to track and predict tornadoes is established at the very beginning of the movie where her father dies while protecting her and her mother from a tornado.

* The first book of ''Literature/ThePosterChildren'' opens with the funeral of Mal's father.
** Despite being about superheroes and comic books having a tendency to bring people back to life, Kitty Burroughs has lamented that Corbin Underwood is "the Uncle Ben" of the Posterverse.
* In ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'', according to Helena, Livia first got hooked up with Marian as to run away from accusations of having killed her wife, thus making her the woman she is today.
* In ''Literature/AnotherNote'', all the audience is told of A is that he [[note]]Actually, A isn't even [[AmbiguousGender given a gender]] in the original Japanese, though given the relative lack of prominent female characters at Wammy's House, it's likely that A was a boy.[[/note]] was being groomed as a successor to [[GreatDetective L]], was good at math, and was eventually DrivenToSuicide due to the pressure he was under. It can be inferred, too, that he meant ''something'' to [[VillainProtagonist B]], [[MoralityChain since A's suicide spurs B on a]] RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Other than that, we know nothing about A.

* ''{{VideoGame/Overwatch}}'': Gérard Lacroix was an Overwatch agent who spearheaded operations against terrorist organization Talon, and was the husband of Amélie Lacroix. The civilian wife was then kidnapped and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] by Talon into killing him as a [[ManchurianAgent sleeper agent]], and then became their top assassin as TheDreaded sniper Widowmaker. While other characters have been "supposedly dead" before turning up alive and coming back, he has been confirmed to be dead for good, because bringing him back would undermine her tragic backstory.
* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'': Simon Jarrett, the protagonist, and her intimate friend Ashley Hall, in the introduction incur in a car accident caused by a SUV whose driver was distracted by her children. Ashley died from suffocation due to blood filling her lungs, while Simon reported brain damage that is pivotal in the sequence of events leading to the start of the dramatic story. Later, while unconscious, Simon has a dream with Ashley asking if he doesn't want her anymore. [[spoiler:It's just an hallucination induced by the [[AIIsACrapshoot twisted AI]] causing most of the troubles around Simon, who is not really him but a brain-scan copy that was put in an advanced neural chip 100 years later]].
* Dana Strange, the protagonist of the ''Strange Investigations'' series from Creator/ElephantGames, lost her younger sister Ursula to a psychotic kidnapper on Ursula's tenth birthday. This drove Dana to become a police detective so she could personally bring the guilty party to justice. Ursula was later murdered right in front of Dana, who had just found her, and in the present day she continues to be haunted by [[PastExperienceNightmare nightmares]] about it.

* In ''Webcomic/PowerpuffGirlsDoujinshi'', this winds up happening to ''[[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory Dee Dee]]'' of all characters, a fact that's revealed early into the first major story arc.

%% * Maria and Pachacamac from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''.

* In ''Literature/MythAdventures'', the death of Skeeve's first teacher Garkin.

** Spider-Man's defining tragedy was the very preventable death of his Uncle Ben, who died at the hands of a man whom Peter purposefully refused to help the police stop earlier that day.

* Played with in ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}''. David Knight dies in the first issue after doing nothing of note (apart from fighting the Will Payton Starman), but Jack takes an entire story arc before taking up the mantle. David becomes more interesting after his death, popping up in the annual "Talking With David" stories and even getting his own story arc at the close of the series.

** Spider-Man's defining tragedy was the very preventable death of his Uncle Ben, who died at the hands of a man who Peter purposefully refused to help the police stop earlier that day.

** In the alternate universe of ''ComicBook/SpiderGwen'', Gwen Stacy got spider powers instead of her best friend and neighbor Peter Parker, becoming Spider-Woman. Like main universe Peter Parker, she initially begins her career by fooling around with her powers. Meanwhile Peter, finally fed up with being bullied and admiring Spider-Woman, ends up turning himself into the Lizard and goes on an uncontrollable rampage. Gwen, not knowing that her best friend was the monster, not only fought the beast but purposely prolonged the fight for fun, only for Peter to revert to normal and [[ILetGwenStacyDie die in her arms from the injuries]]. This causes her to take her role as a superhero more seriously.

Sure, bringing them BackFromTheDead is always possible, and it could potentially take the story in exciting new directions, deeply changing the FallenHero when his dead little sister or [[LostLenore girlfriend]] comes back... or it just might be in bad taste, get poorly handled, nullify [[CrusadingWidow their motivation]], and lead to a speedy {{Retcon}} or AuthorsSavingThrow revealing that "[[OpeningACanOfClones they were really]] a [[CloningBlues clone]] (or [[ReplicantSnatching robot]], or [[ShapeShifting shapeshifter]], or [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot ninja]])" and promptly getting them killed or forgotten again. This is why StatusQuoIsGod.

* Eve Eden was driven to master her powers and become the hero ComicBook/{{Nightshade}} by her mother's murder and brother's abduction.

* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': Despite Grey/Arthur himself being an example of Death by Own Origin Story, there are a few individuals both before and after his [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld reincarnation]] whose deaths shaped him into the man he is now.
** In his previous life, Grey was given up to an orphanage run by Vera Willbeck, who quickly became his ParentalSubstitute. One day, he came back to the orphanage to find out that she had been murdered by agents from a foreign nation. When he became king, he waged war against that nation out of vengeance, an action he comes to regret.

** After being reincarnated, he encounters the dragon Sylvia when she saves him from a bandit ambush and takes him in while he recovers, becoming another ParentalSubstitute. However, his time with her is cut short when an agent of Agrona discovers her hiding place and mortally wounds her, forcing her to send him off to safety. In spite of his short time with her, she is responsible for setting Arthur on the path to end the DivineConflict that has been going on in the setting.

** It was revealed several years later in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Epilogue", that this was subverted once when Terry was just a boy. Government agency Cadmus had decided that Batman would always be needed, but Bruce Wayne was getting on in years, so they started Project Batman Beyond. Terry's father's DNA was modified to match that of Wayne, essentially making Terry the latter's son rather than the former's. For the project to truly work, however, they planned to kill both Mr. and Mrs. [=McGinnis=], theorizing that the tragedy of parental loss was just as important to a Batman's origin as genetics. However, the assassin couldn't bring herself to go through with the hit when the time came, so Terry's dad lived another decade. [[BlackBossLady Amanda Waller]], who orchestrated the whole thing (and reluctantly agreed with the assassin's refusal), comments that Mr. [=McGinnis=] dying regardless of her interference seems to be a sign that ''the universe itself'' [[BecauseDestinySaysSo demands that Batman exist.]]

** ''Literature/WiseMansGrandchild'' begins with {{Salaryman}} Shin Walford also getting hit by a truck, leading to his own reincarnation.

** ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'' opens up with King Grey mysteriously dying on his bed, followed by him being reincarnated in a fantasy world as a boy named Arthur Leywin. It is eventually revealed that [[spoiler:his death and reincarnation was caused by [[MaouTheDemonKing Agrona]], who took his soul as he slept to fulfill his own ends. However, the latter part did not go according to his plan, as his own daughter and Arthur's future bond Sylvie (by way of a StableTimeLoop) managed to steal Grey's soul and take it to be reincarnated into Arthur]].