History Main / LifeDeathJuxtaposition

* Most of ''Fanfic/HopeForTheHeartless'' has this dynamic between the [[VillainProtagonist Horned King]] and his MoralityPet [[AllLovingHeroine Avalina]]. The Horned King is TheDreaded centuries old lich and a WalkingWasteland who lives in a {{Mordor}}, while Avalina is a young peasant girl and a FriendToAllLivingThings who has an unusually strong [[FertileFeet aura of life]] which helps her to gradually turn said {{Mordor}} into a small paradise and turn the Horned King more humane (and even [[spoiler:resurrect his dormant heart]]. The Horned King's slow humanization eventually leaves his spot in this dynamic open to his SealedEvilInACan EvilMentor Arawn, the Death Lord of Annuvin.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' offers Moira who is a support hero who can heal her allies with her left hand and rip her enemies apart with her right. Both her hands are visually distinct, with her right hand appearing corrupted and necrotic with long, clawlike nails.[[/folder]]

As two very different concepts, life and death are stark contrasts in fiction. When a writer wants to form an immediately obvious contrast between ''two'' characters, places, or events, it can be particularly visually jarring to associate one with life and one with death--perhaps utilizing {{Light is|Good}} or [[LightIsNotGood is Not Good]] or {{Dark is|Evil}} or [[DarkIsNotEvil is Not Evil]]. The contrast may also draw on rejuvenation and disease, lively youth and chronically ill elders, or an orphanage and a graveyard.

* In ''Green Lantern: ComicBook/WrathOfTheFirstLantern'' [[spoiler:as Sinestro retrieves his yellow ring, Hal Jordan, in the Land of the Dead with the Black Lantern ring, leaps from a cliff in order to die so that he may wield the Black Lantern ring and escape]]. The panels welcoming them to their cores are even side by side.

* Creator/RalphBakshi's ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'' has twin sons born to the queen of the fairies. The narrator describes them as being diametric opposites. One baby is Avatar, a attractive baby and FriendToAllLivingThings who grows up looking kind of like one of Tolkien's dwarves. The other is Blackwolf, a [[UndeadChild repulsive living corpse of a baby]] who grows up to be a dour zombie-like wizard with an affinity for Nazi propaganda. Avatar lives in the verdant lands among the fairies and elves, while Blackwolf lives in a nuclear wasteland called [[{{Mordor}} Scortch]] among the wretched and shambling mutants.

Compare and contrast FireWaterJuxtaposition, when one of those elements has a creation motif and the other a destruction motif; LightningFireJuxtaposition, when the same happens between lightning and fire; ElementalRivalry, when "[[GreenThumb Life]]" and "[[{{Necromancer}} Death]]" are treated as elements in a work, and BirthDeathJuxtaposition, which is when the act of being born is juxtaposed with the act of dying. Compare InterplayOfSexAndViolence. Expect {{Symbolic Baptism}}s to play with this type of contrast.

Compare and contrast FireWaterJuxtaposition, when one of those elements has a creation motif and the other a destruction motif; LightningFireJuxtaposition, when the same happens between lightning and fire; ElementalRivalry, when "[[GreenThumb Life]]" and "[[{{Necromancer}} Death]]" are treated as elements in a work, and BirthDeathJuxtaposition, which is when the act of being born is juxtaposed with the act of dying. Compare InterplayOfSexAndViolence.

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' offers Moira, a Support Hero who can heal her allies with her left hand and rip her enemies apart with her right. The respective hands are even visually destinct, with Moira's right hand appearing corrupted, even necrotic, with long and clawlike nails.
** Downplayed with two other supports, Ana and Mercy.
*** Ana, like Moira, has abilities which both heal allies and harm enemies. It's implied, thanks to [[PurpleisPowerful in-game visuals]], that whatever she's using to damage enemies has the same origins as Moira's obviously corrupted hand beams.
*** Mercy is much subtler. It's implied she invented both the [[LightisGood life-giving energy]] that all healers in the game utilize as well as the more [[PurpleisPowerful sinister counterpart]] that Moira, Ana, and even Zenyatta fight with. Not to mention the parallel between her [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist in-game resurrection]] and her (implied) in-story [[CameBackWrong resurrection of Reaper]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* Myth/NorseMythology: The goddesses Hel and Idunna. Hel is a goddess of Death and is strongly associated with disease. Idunna is a goddess of rejuvenation and is best known as the orchardist of the apples that rejuvenate the god/desses in Asgard. Hel is said to have her own apple orchard, which means that both of these goddesses have their own apple orchards.
* Myth/GreekMythology: Hades, god of the Underworld, kidnaps and marries Persephone, a goddess of vegetation and fertility.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' cosmology and those derived from it (e.g. ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''), the positive energy plane is the origin of all life and provides energy for magical healing and resurrection while the negative energy plane is the origin of TheUndead and its energy weakens or outright destroys all living matter.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has two legendaries representing life and death respectively, the Fairy-type Xerneas, the mascot of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Pokémon X]]'', and the Dark/Flying-type Yveltal, the mascot of ''Y''. Xerneas is capable of granting everlasting life, while Yveltal absorbs the life force of every living creature in its immediate vicinity upon dying before reverting to its cocoon form.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the second season of ''Podcast/WithinTheWires'', Claudia Atieno's fictional painting "Still Life with Orchid" is meant to communicate the cyclical nature of existence by juxtaposing life and death. Specifically, the painting depicts a living orchid with dead leaves and some oranges with subtly rotting undersides.

As two very different concepts, life and death are very stark contrasts in fiction. When a writer wants to form an immediately obvious contrast between ''two'' characters, places, or events, it can be particularly visually jarring to associate one with life and one with death--perhaps utilizing {{Light is|Good}} or [[LightIsNotGood is Not Good]] or {{Dark is|Evil}} or [[DarkIsNotEvil is Not Evil]]. The contrast may also draw on rejuvenation and disease, lively youth and chronically ill elders, or an orphanage and a graveyard.

Virtually any {{Elemental Power|s}} can be construed to being related to either life or death (e.g. fire creating life-sustaining heat or death-inducing burns), but this trope applies to those life/death contrasts that are strongly associated with "life" and "death."

* In Creator/MarvelComics, the death figure is opposed by another CosmicEntity named Infinity. Both are meant as balance for each other.
* In Green Lantern: ComicBook/WrathOfTheFirstLantern [[spoiler: As Sinestro retrieves his yellow ring, Hal Jordan, in the LandOfTheDead Black lantern ring, he leaps from a cliff in order to die so he may weld the Black Lantern ring and escape]]. The panels welcoming them to their cores are even side by side.

* In Green Lantern: ComicBook/WrathoftheFirstLantern [[spoiler: As Sinestro retrieves his yellow ring, Hal Jordan, in the LandOfTheDead Black lantern ring, he leaps from a cliff in order to die so he may weld the Black Lantern ring and escape]]. The panels welcoming them to their cores are even side by side.

!!Examples

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Folklore and Mythology]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil in ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' is between that of the life-bringing, nature-loving forces of the forest and the decay-and-darkness-loving forces of rot.
[[/folder]]

* In MarvelComics, the death figure is opposed by another CosmicEntity named Infinity. Both are meant as balance for each other.

* Creator/RalphBakshi's ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'' has twin sons born to the queen of the fairies. The narrator describes them as being diametric opposites. One is Avatar, a FriendToAllLivingThings who grows up looking kind of like one of Tolkien's dwarves. The other is Blackwolf, who grows up to be a dour zombie-like wizard with an affinity for Nazi propaganda. Avatar lives in the verdant lands among the fairies and elves, while Blackwolf lives in a nuclear wasteland called [[{{Mordor}} Scortch]] among the wretched and shambling mutants.

* NorseMythology: The goddesses Hel and Idunna. Hel is a goddess of Death and is strongly associated with disease. Idunna is a goddess of rejuvenation and is best known as the orchardist of the apples that rejuvenate the god/desses in Asgard. Hel is said to have her own apple orchard, which means that both of these goddesses have their own apple orchards.