History Main / HesJustHiding

*** Despite this, Tashigi's resemblance to Zoro's deceased friend Kuina (including sharing the same birthday and the same views on swordswomen) raises the possibility that she may actually '''be''' Kuina, which is even discussed in the series, despite Zoro going to her wake and seeing her body in the manga. Given that Tashigi clearly has no memory of Zoro prior to their encounter in Loguetown (despite him having been Kuina's closet friend), however, fans generally assume Tashigi and Kuina are twins who were separated at birth. Unfortunately for the fans, however, [[WordOfGod Oda already stated that the two don't share any history and that the resemblance is just a coincidence]].
** Sabo. Though other characters reported him as dead, the only evidence we've seen of it is a floating hat. Subverted in this case, however, as WordOfGod confirmed that he died.

* Since hardly anyone ever dies in ''Manga/OnePiece'', any apparent death is generally assumed to be a case of this. Any other fandom would declare them dead. The ''One Piece'' fandom insists that no named character has ever died (except for in flashbacks). You can't really blame them, though, because other characters - even fairly minor ones - ''have'' come back from worse; you can count the number of named people that are confirmed to have actually died in the main storyline (aside from anime filler characters) on one hand.[[labelnote:Namely...]]Mr. 11, a very minor antagonist from the Alabasta arc; the Straw Hat Pirates' first ship, the Going Merry, in a scene that's so much of a TearJerker that Oda himself cried while drawing it; Portgas D. Ace, killed by Akainu to save Luffy's life; and Edward Newgate, a.k.a. Whitebeard, who died after sustaining a crazy amount of injuries even by One Piece standards. As for Pudding Pudding, Monet, and Vergo, (one was sucked into a maelstrom onboard a sinking ship, one had their disembodied yet functional heart stabbed, and one was non-lethally bisected and then blown up), while fans actually believe that they're dead, WordOfGod hasn't said so yet.[[/labelnote]]

* Since hardly anyone ever dies in ''Manga/OnePiece'', any apparent death is generally assumed to be a case of this. Any other fandom would declare them dead. The ''One Piece'' fandom insists that no named character has ever died (except for in flashbacks). You can't really blame them, though, because other characters - even fairly minor ones - ''have'' come back from worse; you can count the number of named people that are confirmed to have actually died in the main storyline (aside from anime filler characters) on one hand.[[labelnote:Namely...]]Mr. 11, a very minor antagonist from the Alabasta arc; the Straw Hat Pirates' first ship, the Going Merry, in a scene that's so much of a TearJerker that Oda himself cried while drawing it; Portgas D. Ace, killed by Akainu to save Luffy's life; and Edward Newgate, a.k.a. Whitebeard, who died after sustaining a crazy amount of injuries even by One Piece standards. As for Pudding Pudding, Monet, and Vergo, (one was sucked into a maelstrom onboard a sinking ship, one had their disembodied yet functional heart stabbed, and one was non-lethally bisected and blown up), while fans actually believe that they're dead, WordOfGod hasn't said so yet.[[/labelnote]]

* Since hardly anyone ever dies in ''Manga/OnePiece'', any apparent death is generally assumed to be a case of this. Any other fandom would declare them dead. The ''One Piece'' fandom insists that no named character has ever died (except for in flashbacks). You can't really blame them, though, because other characters - even fairly minor ones - ''have'' come back from worse; you can count the number of people who played a significant role in the story that are confirmed to have actually died in the main storyline (aside from anime filler characters) on one hand.[[labelnote:Namely...]]The Straw Hat Pirates' first ship, the Going Merry, in a scene that's so much of a TearJerker that Oda himself cried while drawing it; Portgas D. Ace, killed by Akainu to save Luffy's life; Edward Newgate, a.k.a. Whitebeard, who died after sustaining a crazy amount of injuries even by One Piece standards; and Monet and Vergo, CoDragons of the Punk Hazard arc: one had their heart stabbed and the other was bisected and blown up. But, while fans actually believe that those last two are dead, WordOfGod hasn't said so yet...[[/labelnote]] And even for insignificant characters, the only one who's confirmed to have died is Mr. 11.

** Gin seems to be fatally poisoned when he's last seen, but he is never shown dying, leading some to believe that he may have survived (although neither he nor any of Krieg's pirates have been seen since the East Blue saga).
** Bellamy from the start of the Skypiea saga, seemingly a throwaway villain with too much pride and not enough power. He gets on Luffy's bad side, and gets taken out with one punch. At the end of that saga, we see him getting a YouHaveFailedMe treatment from his boss, Donquixote Doflamingo, an absurdly powerful pirate who can be considered One Piece's rendition of TheJoker. Fast forward about five hundred chapters, and we see him alive and well, with only a scar to hint at his punishment.
** Another particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example is Nero, a very minor character who had just enough screentime to get his butt kicked by Franky. He was thrown off a speeding train. Into the ocean. In the middle of the biggest, most powerful storm in the world. And he was unconscious at the time. And also horribly wounded. Fans assume he survived. They're probably right.

** The Alabasta arc has two egregious examples of this. First, Igaram is caught in a massive explosion that converts a galleon to scrap-wood, mourned over for the entire arc, and then wanders back in at the end to be supportive. Even worse, Pell carries a bomb with a reported blast radius of five kilometers, which was supposed to kill every living thing in the capital city, high enough into the sky that it doesn't even char the buildings; he's not only caught in the blast, he's actively carrying the thing (and doing nothing to defend himself). After that, he must have fallen the, oh, ''three miles'' to the ground. He walks back to the capital on crutches, apparently with no permanent injuries, and in fact wearing the same clothes, which are hardly dirty. Both cases ruin a perfectly good HeroicSacrifice.

* Since hardly anyone ever dies in ''Manga/OnePiece'', any apparent death is generally assumed to be a case of this. Any other fandom would declare them dead. The ''One Piece'' fandom insists that no named character has ever died (except for in flashbacks). You can't really blame them, though, because other characters - even fairly minor ones - ''have'' come back from worse; you can count the number of people who played a significant role in the story are confirmed to have actually died in the main storyline (aside from anime filler characters) on one hand.[[labelnote:Namely...]]The Straw Hat Pirates' first ship, the Going Merry, in a scene that's so much of a TearJerker that Oda himself cried while drawing it; Portgas D. Ace, killed by Akainu to save Luffy's life; Edward Newgate, a.k.a. Whitebeard, who died after sustaining a crazy amount of injuries even by One Piece standards; and Monet and Vergo, CoDragons of the Punk Hazard arc: one had their heart stabbed and the other was bisected and blown up. But, while fans actually believe that those last two are dead, WordOfGod hasn't said so yet...[[/labelnote]]

* Since hardly anyone ever dies in ''Manga/OnePiece'', any apparent death is generally assumed to be a case of this. For instance, Miss Monday and Mr. 9 were last seen making a HeroicSacrifice and getting blown up, and have failed to show up in any context for ''years''. Any other fandom would declare them dead. The ''One Piece'' fandom insists that no named character has ever died (except for in flashbacks). You can't really blame them, though, because other characters - even fairly minor ones - ''have'' come back from worse. Whitebeard's has not been doubted (at least not widely), however.
** Miss Monday and Mr. 9 are both later to be revealed to be alive in Chapter 632 cover story. Not only that, they had a kid together.
** Note that almost all of these "deaths" were cases of NeverFoundTheBody. The one major character who really has died outside of flashbacks did, in fact, leave a "body" which was then burned for good measure. MEEEERRRRRYYYYY!

** Portgas D. Ace had most of his chest and stomach destroyed by Akainu's lava powers, and is stated to have died in universe and in a chapter title. Fans refuse to believe he's dead, because "No one dies in ''One Piece''!"
** And Sabo. Though other characters reported him as dead, the only evidence we've seen of it is a floating hat. Subverted in this case, however, as WordOfGod confirmed that he died.

*** Despite this, Tashigi's resemblance to Zoro's deceased friend Kuina (including sharing the same birthday and the same views on swordswomen) raises the possibility that she may actually '''be''' Kuina, which is even discussed in the series, despite Zoro going to her wake and seeing her body in the manga. Given that Tashigi clearly has no memory of Zoro prior to their encounter in Loguetown (despite him having been Kuina's closet friend), however, fans generally assume Tashigi and Kuina are twins who were separated at birth. Despite this, ''One Piece'' is by nature an unpredictable fantasy story, so it's hard to say right now.
*** [[WordOfGod Oda already stated that the two don't share any history and that the resemblance is just a coincidence]]; both the twins/family relation theory and the BackFromTheDead theory have been blown out of the water for a while now as far as official word is concerned, and the fans need to accept that.

** And Sabo. Though other characters reported him as dead, the only evidence we've seen of it is a floating hat. No body, no proof of death, as far as Oda's verse is concerned.
*** WordOfGod confirmed he died.

** ''http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlipFlopOfGod The Main Character's death just got disproved'' with the release of ''http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Persona4Arena Persona 4: Arena'' as it explicitly states that he is in a deep sleep.

** Speaking of that kinda hiding, you can't forget how [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsReversal Fiona Gureden]] got thought to be dead EARLIER in OGs. She got sucked into a dimensional hole, and beforehand still gives out the feel that "I'm gonna die, so don't miss me, Raul...". Then POOF! She comes out from hiding in that dimensional hole in OGG. [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil Damn trailers]].

* ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'': Any Joe not seen killed on screen during the big massacre who was a character in [[Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra the original]] might be presumably still alive, out there somewhere. Candidates include Scarlett, Ripcord, Breaker, and pretty much anyone else still alive at the end of Rise that didn't make it to screen in Retaliation.

** Speaking of dinosaurs, ''AllStarSuperman'' features a race of humanoid dinosaurs that are evolved descendants of the dinosaurs of the past who turned out to have gone literally underground instead of getting totally wiped out. Why would [[Creator/GrantMorrison the author]] make such a concept? Because [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs they're too cool to just be extinct, of course]]!

!!Examples:

!Examples:

!!'''Warning: This is part of DeathTropes, so {{Spoiler}}s abound. Don't come crying to us. We repeat SPOILERS AHOY!'''

* [[strike:Jiro Yamada]] Gai Daigouji from ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico''; lampshaded with both an IdenticalStranger and a subversion of BackFromTheDead. Naturally, in many ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games he really ''is''.

* Though not dead, SilverSurfer is constantly losing his true love Shalla-bal and regaining her to the point where him losing her has lost all impact. Even her dying in Earth X seems trite and cliched.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* This trope is one of the most common when dealing with monarchs linked to an old lost cause. From KingArthur sleeping in Avalon till the motherland needs him again to the [[strike:Princess]] ''[[ArtisticLicenseHistory Grand Duchess]]'' Anastasia and other members of the Russian royal family, the examples are countless.

----

* Alto Saotome, the hero from ''Anime/MacrossFrontier''. Movie-verse only. It is unclear whether the person died or survived, but at the end of the movie Ranka told a comatose Sheryl that she will wake up when Alto comes back. At that moment, Sheryl's mouth twitched and her earrings glinted.
** WordOfGod has stated that this is indeed the case.
* [[strike:Jiro Yamada]] Gai Daigouji from ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico''; lampshaded with both an IdenticalStranger and a subversion of BackFromTheDead.
** Naturally, in many ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games he really ''is''.

*** Laughing Bull's description of the warrior who died could just as well refer to Vicious as Spike. Every part of of the show's ending is supposed to be heavily ambiguous.
* ''CodeGeass''

* There was a lot of this surrounding the 2004 death of Ted "the BlueBeetle" Kord and the faked death of his [[HeterosexualLifePartners partner]], BoosterGold, in 2006, albeit most of it tongue-in-cheek. It helped the situation that Ted had been getting more panel-time via flashbacks since his death than he had in the entire decade before it.
** There was a RedHerring that strongly hinted that Ted was alive, but he then showed up as a Black Lantern in ''Comicbook/BlackestNight'', confirming his demise.

* A rare in-character one happens in ''Comicbook/{{X-Factor}}''. Siryn is informed her father, Banshee, has died, and she just sort of blinks and goes on with her day, convinced he's not really dead because X-Men die and come back ''all the time''.
** Characters treat this as a bad case of denial, and so far Banshee has not come back after several years (several years in RealLife, [[ComicBookTime not in-universe]]), but in Siryn's defense, ''someone else in the room with her when she got the news had been presumed dead and got better''.
* In ''{{Ultimate X-Men}}'', Beast is killed. Turns out he was just hiding underground. This after the architects of the Ultimate Universe promised none of these.
** There's also Gambit, who was KilledOffForReal but nobody wants to believe it, because he's [[BadAss GAMBIT]].

** When it was revealed that Marvel was planning a crossover involving [[AffirmativeActionLegacy Miles Morales]] titled ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Men}}'', there was rampant speculation that the series would reveal that [[UltimateMarvel Ultimate]] Peter Parker survived his recent death. It then turned out the Peter teaming up with Miles was simply the adult version from the main MarvelUniverse.

* Despite being a minor member of ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'''s supporting cast and a normal human who died from ''a shotgun blast at close range'' at the beginning of a story arc titled "The Death Of Jean [=DeWolff=]", fans ''still'' refused to believe [=DeWolff=] was dead, and came up with all sorts of loopy theories as to why she wasn't.

* Following the death of Ryan Choi, Comicbook/TheAtom in the ''Titans'' relaunch, it became a minor meme to draw him, as a black marker stick figure, in totally unrelated books, celebrating his survival and/or swearing to turn the tables on the villains responsible. [[http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=322341 Endorsed by Gail Simone herself, no less!]]
** And the resulting InternetBackdraft surrounding Choi's death was enough to get him brought back in the ''{{New 52}}'' reboot.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fandom, who desperately, '''desperately''', wanted [[TheScrappy Jar-Jar Binks]] to be hiding... on Alderaan. (Or better yet, accidentally shot by a passing clonetrooper. In slow-mo.)
** The fans who believe Mace Windu survived the electrocution and several hundred story fall in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' and has been hiding on Coruscant ever since. It doesn't help that official sources seem to intentionally avoid saying the word "death" here.
*** Well, there '''are''' characters in SW canon who survived similar situations, namely Darth Krayt and Rahm Kota.

** The ''Franchise/StarWars'' fandom in general loved Boba Fett so much, {{retcon}}s occurred to keep him alive in the ExpandedUniverse after he was thrown into the Saarlac pit. Creator/GeorgeLucas himself says (in the commentary track on the ''Return of the Jedi'' DVD) that he regrets killing off Boba Fett, and that he seriously considered adding a scene to the DVD showing him escaping from the pit. According to Lucas, the only reason he didn't add the scene was that it didn't seem necessary when most of the fans already believed he survived anyway.

** Similarly, Shaak Ti, another minor Jedi, has a habit of surviving not only situations that ''should'' have killed her, but also two that actually '''did'''. She was filmed dying ''twice'' in ''Revenge Of The Sith'', at the hands of both General Greivous and Darth Vader, but both scenes were dropped. She was last seen falling into a Sarlacc pit in ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'', and we ''all'' know NoOneCouldSurviveThat...
*** She was also supposed to die during [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars the first animated Clone Wars series]], making it '''3''' times she's cheated death.

** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' fans have this attitude toward Revan. Which definitely isn't helped by the fact that his fate after around a year after the game is set was never revealed.
*** They were right this time around. [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic He's still alive and kicking 300 years later.]] Well, for [[AndIMustScream certain definitions of "alive."]]

***** And dont forget Dr [=McCoy=] in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''

* Also in ''Film/TheAvengers'', it was widely speculated that [[PhilCoulson Coulson]] survived being stabbed by Loki and NickFury lied about him dying to motivate the Avengers. We know that Fury was lying to the team anyway - Maria Hill pointed out that Coulson wasn't actually carrying the bloodstained TragicKeepsake that Fury showed the team afterward; and while we saw the medics arrive we only heard their verdict secondhand... through Fury.

* When SherlockHolmes went over the waterfall in "The Final Problem", Conan Doyle got scads of hate mail, apparently-sane young men wore mourning bands, and he was offered scads of money to bring him back. Of course, since they NeverFoundTheBody, it turned out that he was just hiding with the Dalai Lama, having somehow won his death-struggle by means of a mastery of "Baritsu, the Japanese system of wrestling".
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is an excellent source of HesJustHiding theories. There are people out there who still think Eddard Stark is alive... Somehow... Without his head...

* Quite a few old-school fans of the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse refuse to believe that [[TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]] was killed at Bilbringi, to the point that it's a FandomSpecificPlot that he survived his BodyguardBetrayal due to armor embedded under his skin/nanites[=/=]BizarreAlienBiology, despite the fact that all media set past that point makes no sense if Thrawn lived. This plot featured in some of the "[[FixFic Zahn fixes]]" that came up in reaction to some of the events in the EU. TimothyZahn semi-addressed this in the ''HandOfThrawn'' duology and ''[[Literature/OutboundFlight Survivor's Quest]]''; Hand of Thrawn has a clone, the [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]] creating the illusion that he was BackFromTheDead, ''and'' [[HomosexualReproduction Grodin Tierce]]. ''Survivor's Quest'' just hints rather strongly and has Luke and Mara speculate that there was another clone.

* An in-universe case. Fans were unhappy when Zilpha Keatley Snyder killed off Raamo in the GreenSkyTrilogy. Snyder herself came to regret the decision as well...leading to her allowing for a {{Canon}} sequel to her work in the form of a video game. The game's quest is to gather information, strength, and tools in order to rescue the poor fellow.

* Even though it wasn't a case of a truly major character, the death of Rousseau on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' is an example. Even though she was shot, her corpse was later found in a shallow grave, ''and'' a guy who talks to dead people heard her voice there were still people on-line trying to come with survival scenarios.

* With the second season opener of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', many people are suspecting/hoping this about Charlie. Some have several reasonable reasons for how it's improbable for the shape-shifter to have killed, body-copied, hid the body and clothes-swapped in the confined time. Wither this remains as a plot hole, red herring or foreshadowing is up in the air.
** it doesn't help that one of the first series episodes, heavily featuring Charlie, was held back and became part of the second series. Leading to him turning up again with no explanation.
* In ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', there's quite a bit of "Kate is not dead" fanfic, despite her death being caused by sniping. To the ''head.'' There are some crazy theories, like some are suggesting a body double. The reason for the body double? So that Kate and Ari can run off and elope.

* Professor Maximillian Arturo was shot near the end of Season 3 of ''{{Sliders}}'', and his body was apparently obliterated by a [[ItMakesSenseInContext pulsar]]. But, since there was an episode in Season 2 where the Professor fought his double, many fans speculated that the "real" Professor was still alive, and the evil Professor had travelled with the heroes for a year before being killed off. It also seemed possible that Jonathan Rhys-Davies would reappear as another version of the Professor.
** IIRC, many years post-cancellation WordOfGod finally stated that it was the evil Professor who slid (and died). Not that it matters now.
* Some fans of ''ChoujinSentaiJetman'' believed that Black Condor/Gai Yuki merely passed out in the final episode after he was stabbed by a mugger, even though he was officially declared dead by writer [[WordOfGod Toshiki Inoue]] in ensuing interviews. In Episode 28 of ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'', which Inoue specifically wrote, any doubts of Gai Yuki's death was cleared up when his spirit escaped from the afterlife to help the Gokaigers unlock Jetman's greater power.
* In the [[Series/{{Sherlock}} BBC series Sherlock]] episode "The Reichenbach Fall" Sherlock jumps to his death from the top of St Bart's, but is almost immediately revealed to be alive as we see him at his own grave.[[NoOneCouldSurviveThat How he has survived this]] we still do not know.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam Winchester is just hiding. Specifically, he is just [[StalkingIsLove hiding across the street from the house where Dean is currently living with the girl with whom Sam insisted he settle down]].

** Castiel and Bobby both got this after their respective deaths in season 7. Of course, since DeathIsCheap in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and Castiel was also a case of NeverFoundTheBody, this was not entirely without merit. Castiel does indeed show up alive and (mostly) well near the end of the season. Bobby returns as a ghost but is still technically dead.

* In-story example - in the tv-movie ''DarkNightOfTheScarecrow'', mentally-challenged Bubba is gunned down. His mother later has to tell his young playmate Marylee that he's dead; she laughs and says "He's just being silly...he's playing the Hiding Game!" and [[spoiler: she's right.]]

*** Now an AscendedMeme, in ''WreckItRalph'', with this [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mba5u0HI3A1retqmfo1_r1_1280.png graffiti.]]

* An extremely similar plot twist could be found in ''PhantasyStarII'', released eight years before ''FinalFantasyVII''. Female lead Nei dies halfway through the game and cannot be revived.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars Original Generation'' fans came up with theories about bringing back Axel Almer and Mekibos after ''[=OG2=]'', and Lamia Loveless after ''2.5''. Given Banpresto's proud history of subverting the "AnyoneCanDie" mentality, the only surprise in Axel and Lamia's return in ''OG Gaiden'' was the how of it. Also, given Mekibos's death and revival as a cyborg in the original timeline, it's only a matter of time before he comes out of hiding, too.

** It is theoretically possible everyone survived. For Gaz, one only needs to remember the story of Sgt. Chuck Grant, who was shot in the brain by a drunken GI shortly after WorldWarII ended. He was operated on and saved, and lived a good many more years. As for Griggs, people have been shot in the neck before and lived.

* A significant portion of the ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' fandom still believe Alister Fletcher did not die and is somewhere in Avalon, due to his {{Famous Last Words}} being "I'll see you in Avalon". There is plenty of fanfiction involving Lara travelling to Avalon/Helheim to find him - despite the fact that one cannot choose to go to Avalon in death, and people who are there are turned into soulless thralls. Other than this, in a similar way to Archie from Hornblower, fans just choose to write post-Underworld fics and state that Alister didn't die.
** Kurtis Trent from Angel of Darkness gets this as well, however it is justified in that the game ended on a cliffhanger and the fate of Kurtis was never revealed.

* When Gordon Frohman died in the final episode of ''{{Concerned}}'', you could see tons of messages full of grief, rage and hatred on the comic's forum, most of them written without any regard for spelling or, for that matter, the comic's subtitle: "The Half-Life and ''Death'' of Gordon Frohman". (Maybe that's because, in their opinion, he was [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off anticlimactically]].)

** Played straight with Homer's mother, in her second appearance. She flies off a cliff in a prison van, and explodes. Homer then tries to find a hidden message from her in the newspapers a la Film/ABeautifulMind, but he doesn't find any. Although, he did find something he thought was a message (I M OK), it just wasn't the lengthy and detailed one she'd really left. She's actually alive.
*** Averted by his Mother's actual death in her next appearance. She later appears in an Inception style dream delving session, where she's confirmed to be really dead, but alive in Homer's memories.

* Starting with Optimus Prime and Starscream's deaths in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'', the weeping of thousands of small children over the former, and their returns in the later stages of the cartoon's third season, it's gotten to the point where nobody's surprised when dead Franchise/{{Transformers}} don't stay that way. [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Optimus Primal]] came BackFromTheDead ''three times''. Had young fans come to terms with the death of their hero somehow, the world of the Transformers might have been a very different place.
** Prime's death in the ''G1'' movie had such a profound effect, it actually caused an aversion in another Hasbro toy based movie; protests over it caused the creators of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeTheMovie'' to turn Duke's death near the end into a coma.
*** Which is even more ironic when you find out that apparently, the idea to kill off the leader originally came from the guys writing the GI Joe movie. The Hasbro execs liked it so much [[MerchandiseDriven as a way to clear old stock off of shelves]] that they suggested the Transformers movie do the same. Then the GI Joe movie got delayed, Optimus Prime died, and the rest is history.
*** This is also an in-canon rumor about the single, unnamed SAW Viper who notoriously killed four Joes before being hunted down by Snake Eyes in revenge.

* Thanks to his death occurring in a GoryDiscretionShot, fans of ''Disney/TheLionKing'' believe the villain Scar to have survived and is in hiding somewhere far, far away from the pride. The fact that he's a DracoInLeatherPants ''and'' he makes several cameos in the questionably-canonical animated series doesn't help matters any.
** Scar also had the trope similarly invoked on him in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. Despite his being dead, there were a few hints that Scar, even after his Heartless was defeated, still lived on as a ghost hive and later the Earthshaker, and he might have even created a Nobody of himself as the result of his transforming into a Heartless, going by several heavy implications of what happens to people when they become heartless. Plus, if what is implied to have happened to Master Xehanort/Terranort after Kingdom Hearts II is anything to go by, destroying both his heartless and nobody would most likely bring Scar back to life.

* The first ''WesternAnimation/{{X-Men}}'' episode introduced the character Morph, only to kill him off in the first episode. This was supposedly done to prove to the audience that this show had balls. Apparently, his brief appearance made him popular enough to bring back in the second season, where it was revealed Mr. Sinister resurrected and brainwashed him.

* Batman seems to be the in-universe version of this trope in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. After Superman's is apparently vaporized by a massive energy blast, Batman is the only member of the League that seems openly resistant to the conclusion that Superman's dead. He searches for evidence to disprove it and even forgoes the funeral "because he's not dead." However, it's later shown that he was apparently just in denial, and in a heartwrenching scene, he finally comes to accept it. Of course, it turns out he had it right the first time.
** Batman (Terry [=McGinnis=]) also invoked the trope twice in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' in regards to various villains "deaths," especially towards their treacherous relatives. The first time was in "Ascension". Shortly after Paxton is nominated to succeed his father after Derek Powers tried to sink the submarine with Paxton Powers, Batman, and himself still inside, Batman tells Paxton that he "made a really big enemy" that day, in reference to Derek Powers. Powers bluntly says that his father died. After Batman responds, "Sure he did," and walks away, a news report comes up that has the news crew revealing that they never found Derek Power's body in the sunken submarine. The second time was in ''Inqueling'', where Inque's daughter stabs her in the back by giving her a solvent-laced cure to dissolve Inque. Batman then meets up with the daughter, and she mentions that Inque's dead, and Batman merely replies that "[Inque's] been dead before" prior to leaving. The shadows shift and become heavily inked as she draws her knees to her chest and hugs her legs. [[spoiler: Inque]] is seen again in Justice League, but [[spoiler: Powers]] only appears in unrelated comics. No word on what happened to their children.

* Wally in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' thinks this after Artemis and the rest of the team's supposed deaths in 'Failsafe', until it's revealed [[AllJustADream it was just a training exercise to prep them for failure.]]
** [[spoiler: Wally's]] death in the season 2 finale had this reaction from fans within hours of the episode airing. Sadly, we'll never know as the series was ScrewedByTheNetwork and will be LeftHanging.

** Elvis is alive and well in ''TheSookieStackhouseMysteries''. [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Sort of...]]

* Similar to this are the rumors of Creator/WaltDisney being cryogenically frozen.
** Or [[WesternAnimation/RobotChicken being installed onto a spider mech that hungers for Cuban children.]]

* Many, perhaps mostly Nazis, have believed AdolfHitler to have been alive long after 1945. Whether anyone ''still'' believes it is a mystery.
** If he is alive then he's the oldest man alive, and was 120 last April. I think we're safe.
*** All depends on how long [[Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic a human brain can keep in a jar]].
*** [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Or putting his brain in a Great White Shark]].

* As with many other famous people, there are theories about how Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper are alive.
** This was parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' where a flashback hints that two members of the Council of 13 of the [[WeirdTradeUnion Guild of Calamitous Intent]] are actually The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly and the plane crash that "killed" them both was faked.

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** This was parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' where it has been shown that The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly are part of the [[WeirdTradeUnion Guild of Calamitous Intent]].

** Szayel in a separate chapter was shown to be in hell.
** And it turns out that Harribel really ''was'' Just Hiding - Orihime healed her (and her Fraccion) off-screen, and she's mentioned after the TimeSkip. Guess Creator/TiteKubo realised how stupid killing her off so anti-climactically was...

* Maria Ross in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''

** There are rumors on the Internet that Joss Whedon intended to bring Tara back, but Amber Benson wasn't available. These rumors might be true. Amber Benson herself has stated that she wanted her character to stay dead.
*** The story goes that Whedon's idea for the return of Tara was that she would be one of the "ghosts" in "Conversations With Dead People", and would in fact turn out to be The First. After hearing the idea, Benson decided not to come back on the grounds that she felt it was a bit disrespectful to both the character and the Willow/Tara relationship.

*** This is actually a rare '''{{inver|tedTrope}}sion''' of this trope, as fans insist Ramza died despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The reasons to believe they are alive are numerous: No precedent for ghosts that look alive, never found the body, they are literally seen alive, Olan is not the narrator, etc. The reasons to believe they are dead...well...they were seen in a huge explosion[[SarcasmMode (and of course no one has ever survived any of those)]] and it makes for a more touching ending.

** Batman (Terry [=McGinnis=]) also invoked the trope twice in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' in regards to various villains "deaths," especially towards their treacherous relatives. The first time was in "Ascension", where Batman, shortly after Paxton is nominated to succeed his father after Derek Powers tried to sink the submarine with Paxton Powers, Batman, and himself still inside, tells Paxton that he "made a really big enemy" that day, in reference to Derek Powers, and then a news report comes up that has the news crew revealing that they never found Derek Power's body in the sunken submarine. The second time was in ''Inqueling'', where Inque's daughter stabs her in the back by giving her a solvent-laced cure to dissolve Inque. Batman then meets up with the daughter, and she mentions that Inque's dead, and Batman merely replies that "[Inque's] been dead before" prior to leaving.

* D.B. Cooper, who stole more than $250,000, before leaping off an airplane, with a parachute. The FBI are still uncertain if he's alive. Apparently, Agent Cooper of ''Series/TwinPeaks'' is based on him and is partly this trope.

*** ''He wasn't joking.''

*** In the demo for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidGroundZeroes'' they specifically reference Chico and Paz, two characters from ''Peace Walker'' and since the game stars and elderly big boss, Paz defiantly survived.

** And a Series/{{SHIELD}} TV series, currently in production, [[spoiler:has confirmed that Coulson is indeed alive, seeing as how he'll be the central character in that series, which is set after the ''Avengers'' film, and Clark Gregg has already been contracted to play him]].

*** Once the anime reached this arc, it became extremely apparent that not even the producers believe Sabo died; adding a certain filler scene after Dragon returns to his crew to heal "someones" major injuries. Many believe that it's an anime added {{Foreshadowing}} in case Oda decides to have Sabo return later on.

** To be fair, [[WordOfGod the directors' commentary]] made it clear that the makers never intended to reveal Tai Lung's actual fate. [[ObfuscatingStupidity Whether this was a canny move on their part]] to prevent it being obvious he'd appear in a sequel will only be revealed in time. But with the exact words being 'Nobody knows what happened to him, it's just a mystery', they clearly don't mind if some fans believe he's only hiding, and may even be encouraging it.