History Main / EnemiesWithDeath

-->-- '''Thomas Marshall'''

---> '''Death:''' Rather cramped in here, isn't it?

Interestingly, [[LogicBomb when our hero kills Death]] (s/he's a hero armed with a SavePoint, s/he'll [[SaveScumming succeed eventually]]) it is not a case of ImmortalityImmorality, and it won't result in DeathTakesAHoliday. Usually. It may have something to do with the fact that an actively malicious Death is somehow going AWOL and not doing its "duties" with impartiality. Or, the hero may discover too late that YouKillItYouBoughtIt. Or perhaps [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Death just can't be killed permanently]].

Oddly (especially when it's Death) he/she/it won't just kill the protagonist with a snap of the fingers. There may or may not be some form of cosmic rulebook obliging Death not to outright kill the hero, or it may be merely a {{Psychopomp}} with no power to directly cause people to die, but likely it's an authorial fiat to give the hero a chance to survive. Death has two ways to make the hero's life difficult: fight the hero physically (usually as a BossBattle), or mess with the people and events around the hero, making the her/him either a WeirdnessMagnet or a DoomMagnet chased by the ButterflyOfDoom. If Death is particularly gentlemanly, it could offer to resolve the whole thing with [[ChessWithDeath a nice game of chess]]. If instead Death [[TheProblemWithFightingDeath is a right bastard]], it may well [[WhoWantsToLiveForever do "nothing"]] [[AgeWithoutYouth to the hero]].

* By the time of ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII'', the [[CombatSadomasochist Flagellant]] has attracted the ire of [[SamusIsAGirl Death herself]] thanks to his constant self-abuse, to the point [[BodyHorror he’s little more than a walking corpse]] that tainted his BloodMagic thanks [[PoisonousPerson to his body rotting away]], and [[spoiler: he outright fights her off as death would put an end to his suffering]]. Thus, any party with him in it [[VictoryFakeout has a chance for Death to spawn in at the end of a Resistance encounter to claim him and any other poor sods in your party]].

* Slovak fairytale "Frau Holle". Our hero Jakob is the godchild of Frau Holle (in one word, Life) and can see her sister "Frau Hippe". (She wiped out Jakob's whole family with an avalanche, only Jakob being saved by Frau Holle.) Maybe she should have explained to him she is a necessary part of the universe. But when the evil stepmother and her daughter always try to kill his love interest, he blames her instead and constantly hands her ass to her since she's a withered crone and he a handsome lad, making her an outright ButtMonkey of the film. (Her only [[WouldntHitAGirl defense]], sort of, is that she is the Slavic Death and can take the form of a beautiful maiden. Too bad her crooked teeth kinda ruin the effect.) It culminates when Jakob is hanged for "murdering his love interest". Luckily she comes back just in time to refute the false claims. In the ensuing chaos, Death tries to finish the job herself, while Jakob desperately holds up the noose with one hand. But with that she finally overstepped her boundaries and her sister is so pissed off she makes Jakob immortal. Poor Death, one can be actually sorry for her. Her only [[ThrowTheDogABone consolation]] (written in, it's nowhere in the [[Creator/BrothersGrimm original]]) is that she can claim the evil stepmother and her daughter (she cheats again and drowns them in a pitch pool - merry sleep, kids).
* In ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'', Puss’s greatest adversary ends up being TheGrimReaper himself in the form of the Wolf, who he’s been unknowingly pissing off for years due to arrogantly wasting the extra lives he gets as a cat and claiming himself an immortal legend who “laughs in the face of death” — thus, Death decided to test that notion and take his last life personally. This conflict ends amicably, however; Puss shows Death he’s undergone CharacterDevelopment and humbly accepts his mortality, the latter in turn giving into his honor and sparing Puss, wishing him well with his life until they inevitably meet again.

* Slovak fairytale "Frau Holle". Our hero Jakob is the godchild of Frau Holle (in one word, Life) and can see her sister "Frau Hippe". (She wiped out Jakobs whole family with an avalanche, only Jakob being saved by Frau Holle.) Maybe she should have explained to him she is a necessary part of the universe. But when the evil stepmother and her daughter always try to kill his love interest, he blames her instead and constantly hands her ass to her since she's a withered crone and he a handsome lad, making her an outright ButtMonkey of the film. (Her only [[WouldntHitAGirl defense]], sort of, is that she is the Slavic Death and can take the form of a beautiful maiden. Too bad her [[GoldTooth crooked teeth]] kinda ruin the effect.) It culminates when Jakob is hanged for "murdering his love interest". Luckily she comes back just in time to refute the false claims. In the ensuing chaos, Death tries to finish the job herself, while Jakob desperately holds up the noose with one hand. But with that she finally overstepped her boundaries and her sister is so pissed off she makes Jakob immortal. Poor Death, one can be actually sorry for her. Her only [[ThrowTheDogABone consolation]] (written in, it's nowhere in the [[Creator/BrothersGrimm original]]) is that she can claim the evil stepmother and her daughter (she cheats again and drowns them in a pitch pool - merry sleep, kids).

* In the first ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' game, the God of Death embodied as Fox Face doggedly hunts Yuri through half the game, apparently having a major grudge against him that is never spelled out, beyond wanting to help the monsters killed by Yuri take their revenge. Implied to be one of the innumerable lesser death gods as common in Japanese mythology, as opposed to the ultimate personification of Death as in Western mythology.

---> '''Death:''' [[AC:Rather cramped in here, isn't it?]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The Series 8 finale of ''Series/RedDwarf'' has Rimmer escape from Death by hitting him with a GroinAttack. Made even funnier if you flash back to Series I, when Lister picked up a length of pipe to ward off his inevitable demise:
-->'''Rimmer''': You can't just whack Death on the head!\\
'''Lister''': If he comes near me, I'm gonna rip his nipples off.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In the episode "White Light Fever", Harlan Hawkes is a billionaire centenarian with an abject fear of death due to his extremely traumatic childhood experiences, and uses his wealth to reserve revolutionary medical treatments for himself. The Grim Reaper concludes that he's outstayed his welcome, and starts to hunt Hawkes ''Film/FinalDestination''-style.

* In ''Literature/{{Legend}}'' by Creator/DavidGemmell, RetiredBadass Druss the Legend has visions of Death taunting him; rather than convince him to lie down and die, they just seem to goad him to even mightier feats.

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* Wiki/{{SCP| Foundation}}-[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1440 1440]] is a man who won immortality from the {{grim reaper}}s at cards. The reapers take revenge by destroying everything human-related wherever he goes.

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

Oddly (especially when it's Death) he/she/it won't just kill the protagonist with a snap of the fingers. There may or may not be some form of cosmic rulebook obliging Death not to outright kill the hero, or it may be merely a {{Psychopomp}} with no power to directly cause people to die, but likely it's [[NecessaryWeasel an authorial fiat to give the hero a chance to survive.]] Death has two ways to make the hero's life difficult: fight the hero physically (usually as a BossBattle), or mess with the people and events around the hero, making the her/him either a WeirdnessMagnet or a DoomMagnet chased by the ButterflyOfDoom. If Death is particularly gentlemanly, it could offer to resolve the whole thing with [[ChessWithDeath a nice game of chess]]. If instead Death [[TheProblemWithFightingDeath is a right bastard]], it may well [[WhoWantsToLiveForever do "nothing"]] [[AgeWithoutYouth to the hero]].