History Main / EnemiesWithDeath

* Subverted in ''{{Discworld}}'', as Death is actually "on our side". (He doesn't kill anyone; he just picks you up after you die.) Some people still try to escape from him, but the Auditors and Teatime are the only ones to make a real attempt at getting ''rid'' of him.

** The Auditors of Reality, on the other hand, are antagonistic towards all life, especially intelligent beings. They have it in for Death, too, particularly as he takes the side of life against them; this results, especially in ''ReaperMan'' where he's a protagonist, in the odd situation that ''Death'' is "EnemiesWithDeath".

[[quoteright:330:[[{{Castlevania}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sotnDeath.jpeg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:330:He's not kidding, he [[BagOfSpilling steals]] all your [[TasteOfPower stuff!]]]]

[[{{Castlevania}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sotnDeath.jpeg]]
[[caption-width:330:He's not kidding, he [[BagOfSpilling steals]] all your [[TasteOfPower stuff!]]]]

->''[[MemeticBadass Death had to take him sleeping]], for if [[TheodoreRoosevelt Roosevelt]] had been awake, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu there would have been a fight]].''
--> -- '''Thomas Marshall'''

Oddly (especially when it's Death) he/she/it [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim won't just snap their fingers and kill the protagonist]]. There may or may not be some form of cosmic rulebook obliging them not to outright kill the hero, 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 him, either making her a WeirdnessMagnet or a DoomMagnet chased by the ButterflyOfDoom. If Death is particularly gentlepersonly, they 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 them.]]

* Chakan is based on this. A Swordsman brags so much about his skills that he declares not even Death could better him. Accepting the challenge with a condition: If Chakan could defeat him, he'd be granted eternal life. If Chakan was defeated, he'd become Death's eternal servant. Chakan wins, but turns out he was [[BlessedWithSuck]] since he cannot rest until all Evil in the world is eliminated

** The Auditors of Reality, on the other hand, are antagonistic towards all life, and especially intelligent beings. They have it in for Death, too, especially as he takes the side of life against them; this results, especially in ''ReaperMan'', in the odd situation that ''Death'' is "EnemiesWithDeath".

** The Auditors of Reality, on the other hand, are antagonistic towards all life and especially intelligent beings. They have it in for Death, too, especially as he takes the side of life against them; this results, especially in ''ReaperMan'', in the odd situation that ''Death'' is "EnemiesWithDeath".

** [[spoiler:By the end it's pretty much proven]]
** [[spoiler:Not really since Dumbledore speculates that three brothers were merely powerful wizards who created those gifts themselves. In addition, all three of them are not as strong as they are said to be: the Elder wand does NOT make its owner invincible as Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in a straight duel to gain mastery of it and Dumbledore could not defeat Voldemort with it in their duel in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic, the Resurrection Stone only brings back dead people as some form of phantoms, and the Invisibility cloak can be detected through many means such as Moody's magic eye and Marauder's Map.]]
** [[spoiler:Actually, Dumbledore wasn't trying to actually kill Voldemort. He was likely trying to stall him just long enough for the Ministry to show up and notice that "ZOMG! He's BACK!"]]

* ''HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' has a fable that takes this form: three brothers use magic to cheat death, and Death himself shows up to congratulate them and give them gifts out of respect. Two of the brothers die soon after because they chose or used their gifts poorly, but the third uses his gift to hide from Death, and decades later, as an old man, he decides he's lived long enough and passes the gift down to his son. It's suggested that this gift is [[spoiler:Harry's invisibility cloak]].

** [[spoiler: Also, as point of fact, Death didn't give them the gifts as respectful congratulations, that's just what he wanted them to think. He's just pissed off and expects them to screw up and get themselves killed with epically the epically powerful magic.]]

** [[spoiler: Grindewald stole the Elder Wand- it only works if you beat the guy wielding it in a duel. Dumbeldore was thus able to use it properly after beating Grindewald but for Grindewald is was just a regular wand, maybe slightly better than normal. It does'nt work for Voldemort because he was simply given it by Snape, and he kills him to attain mastery. That does'nt work either because though Snape killed Dumbledore, it was actually Draco who disarmed him. Thus if Draco wielded the Elder Wand after that he would have been very powerful indeed.]]

** Death also has a particular, but not necessarily malevolent, interest in Rincewind the Wizzard. Interestingly enough, the first two books portrayed Death as somewhat... ''nasty'' about this (being annoyed at how it's impossible to tell ''when'' he was going to die, stopping a shopkeeper's heart out of annoyance), but [[CharacterizationMarchesOn Characterization Marched On]] and made him the more neutral figure of later literature. He stopped actively going after Rincewind was early as the second book, and basically took the view of [[AC:I'll get him eventually. I get ''everyone'', eventually.]]

** Death also has a particular, but not necessarily malevolent, interest in Rincewind the Wizzard. Interestingly enough, the first two of books portrayed Death as somewhat... ''nasty'' about this (being annoyed at how it's impossible to tell ''when'' he was going to die), but [[CharacterizationMarchesOn Characterization Marched On]] and made him the more neutral figure of later literature.
*** CharacterizationMarchesOn started to set in in the second book; by midway through, Death has stopped actively hunting Rincewind, and basically took the view of [[AC:I'll get him eventually. I get ''everyone'', eventually.]]
**** Especially that it was stated that he stopped the hearth of shopkeeper (sorry if it was someone else - I haven't read this in original version) in first book 'but it didn't cheer him up'.
***** In the TV adaptation of ''TheColourOfMagic'' Death mutters at one point, "Oh, dear, I'm having another near-Rincewind experience".

** [[spoiler: Also, as point of fact, Death didn't give them the gifts as respectful congratulations, that's just what he wanted them to think. He's just pissed off and expects them to screw up and get themselves killed with epically the epically powerful magic.

--> -- Thomas Marshall

-->--Thomas Marshall

[[{{Castlevania}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sotnDeath.jpeg]]
[[caption-width:330:He's not kidding, he [[BagOfSpilling steals]] all your [[TasteOfPower stuff!]]]]

Oddly (especially when it's Death) he/she/it [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim won't just snap their fingers and kill the protagonist]]. There may or may not be some form of cosmic rulebook obliging them not to outright kill the hero, 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 him, either making her a WeirdnessMagnet or a DoomMagnet chased by the ButterflyOfDoom. If Death is particularly gentlepersonly, they could offer to resolve the whole thing with [[ChessWithDeath a nice game of chess.]] If instead Death is a right bastard, it may well [[WhoWantsToLiveForever do nothing]] [[AgeWithoutYouth to them.]]

For some reason TheGrimReaper, or an AnthropomorphicPersonification of some other concept intrinsic to existence, takes a serious dislike to our hero and has it in for them. Maybe the hero has upset their XanatosGambit, they dislike her for doing things counter to their nature (like saving lives, cheating death or becoming immortal) or they have a boss who orders them to antagonize the hero.

Oddly (especially when it's Death) he/she/it [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim won't just snap their fingers and kill the protagonist]]. There may or may not be some form of cosmic rulebook obliging them not to outright kill the hero, 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 her, either making her a WeirdnessMagnet or a DoomMagnet chased by the ButterflyOfDoom. If Death is particularly gentlepersonly, they could offer to resolve the whole thing with [[ChessWithDeath a nice game of chess.]] If instead Death is a right bastard, it may well [[WhoWantsToLiveForever do nothing]] [[AgeWithoutYouth to them.]]

Interestingly, [[LogicBomb when our hero kills Death]] (she's a hero armed with a SavePoint, she'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 [[{{Castlevania}} Death just can't be killed permanently]].