History Main / NecRomantic

* In Series 9 of ''Series/DoctorWho'', the entire universe is threatened with destruction in the finale "Hell Bent" -- all because [[spoiler: the Doctor, unable to accept Clara Oswald's death]] has become an AntiVillain example of this and [[spoiler: pulls her out of time at the moment of her death, violating a fixed point in time]].

* Dr. Whale [[spoiler:(aka Dr. Victor Frankenstein) wants to revive his brother, and does so with tragic effects]], and Regina [[spoiler:wants to revive her lost love, and Dr. Frankenstein does so, with tragic effects]] in
''Series/OnceUponATime''.

** While attempting human transmutation causes you to [[spoiler:''merely'' lose a body part (and find out later that bringing back the dead is flat-out ''impossible'')]], in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]], things are somewhat different: [[spoiler:human transmutation causes you to lose part of your body, ''and'' the corpse becomes a nigh-immortal monster]].
** The 2003 anime version also hints that [[spoiler:the homunculus ''is'' the person who was supposed to be brought back]]. By the end, Lust is thoroughly convinced of this while Sloth is scared to death of the possibility; [[spoiler:it's why she wants to kill the Elrics so much: no mother would do such a thing, thus differentiating herself from Trisha]].

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', at first it appears that the entire plot [[MindScrew apparently]] revolves around Kinzo Ushiromiya trying to revive his dead mistress... who also happens to be a 1000-year-old SealedEvilInACan. KillEmAll ensues. [[spoiler:But then it's revealed that Kinzo has been dead for almost two years before the story begins, meaning he wasn't involved in any of the murders. And although he did have a dead mistress whom he loved dearly, she was not 1000 years old nor was she SealedEvilInACan.]]

[[folder:Machinima]]
* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' this wasn't the ''intended'' goal of Project Freelancer, but the end result ended up coming close. [[spoiler:The Director of the project needed AIs to work with to create {{Super Soldier}}s, and so made a copy of his own mind to serve as a starting point. In the process, his memories of and obsessions with his departed lover emerged as a separate AI entity whom the Director then recruited for his project, keeping her ignorant of both her origins and her status as an AI in a robotic body. When Project Freelancer went down in the flames the Director went into hiding, trying to replicate this success. "I just need to watch this, I think I have a way, a way to bring her back right this time..."]]
[[/folder]]

* Lucifer of the Divine Design arc of ''Manga/GetBackers''. He kidnapped and brainwashed children, played sick mind games with everyone, and seemed to enjoy doing it, but in the end, it was revealed that he really just wanted to bring his daughter back from the dead.

* Gendo Ikari of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' was willing to initiate TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ''twice'' to get his dead wife back.
* Pegasus' motivation in ''Anime/YuGiOh'' was to resurrect his dead fiancée/wife through a combination of ancient magic and the "Solid Vision" holographic technology.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Professor Cobra made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal]] with the SealedEvilInACan to resurrect his dead son.

*** The 2003 anime version also hints that [[spoiler:the homunculus ''is'' the person who was supposed to be brought back]]. By the end, Lust is thoroughly convinced of this while Sloth is scared to death of the possibility; [[spoiler:it's why she wants to kill the Elrics so much: no mother would do such a thing, thus differentiating herself from Trisha]].

* Featured in ''Manga/ChronoCrusade''. Azmaria's foster father adopted her in the hope that he could use her [[HealingHands Healing]] [[MagicMusic Voice]] to bring his wife's soul back to a body he reconstructed for her after she died in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* Precia Testarossa of the first season of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' was attempting to resurrect [[spoiler:her daughter. She tried creating a clone named Fate, but Fate having her own personality enraged her.]]
* Lucifer of the Divine Design arc of ''Manga/GetBackers''. He kidnapped and brainwashed children, played sick mind games with everyone, and seemed to enjoy doing it, but in the end, it was revealed that he really just wanted to bring his daughter back from the dead.

*** In the anime, [[spoiler:he did get her back. But Anna resurrected her, not him.]]
* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', the Millennium Earl gets people who are grieving for the recent death of a loved one to allow him to resurrect the dead person. Although the mourner is not the necromantic per se, the person nevertheless allows the dead loved person to be twisted into a demon-servant just so they can live again.
* This is the motivation of antagonist Fei Wong Reed in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' and ''Manga/XxxHolic''.
* In ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', the guy who made Mewtwo was a Necromantic. In order for Giovanni to fund his efforts to clone his dead daughter, he had to make him a SuperSoldier as well.
* After Yuki's [[spoiler:parents]] die in ''Manga/FutureDiary'', he decides to win the power of God in the survival game and bring them back to life.
** It should be noted that, unlike most examples, [[spoiler: he is told this is perfectly possible, and what's more is that he also intends to bring ''everyone'' back to life, not just his parents. Well, everyone who died in the Survival Game at least.]]
*** Oh, and [[spoiler: it turns out Murmur and Yuno were lying, it isn't possible to bring someone back to life, only their body. Though if you are dead set on it, you can always go back in time and try to save them.]]
* Subverted in ''Franchise/OnePiece'' with Doctor Hogback. After going through something of a motive rant that looks like he's using this as an excuse for his start of darkness, he reveals he doesn't actually ''care'' about Cindry's personality and just liked her pretty face anyway. He prefers her in her new zombie form, completely subservient to his every command.
* Though not for the same romantic overtones, Mikado of ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' was hinted at wanting the Power of the Gods to bring back the daughter he loved. [[spoiler: except that, when he'd first made the attempt, she was alive.]]
* [[BigBad Zeref]] of ''Manga/FairyTail'' is a deconstruction. He originally studied forbidden magic, specifically, [[spoiler: trying to bring back his baby brother [[TheHero Natsu]]]]. Unlike most examples of this trope, he [[GoneHorriblyRight succeeded]]; in fact, his [[WalkingWasteland curse]] was divine punishment for daring to delve into and come so close to understanding ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. [[spoiler:He gave Natsu an [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Etherious]] body, hence E.N.D., and equipped him with the potential of someday [[DeathSeeker killing him]]]].

* ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger foe Professor Nathan Seine was a scientist who studied magic in an attempt to cure his wife's fatal illness. When his wife is killed by his own magic during a battle with the Stranger, Seine becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the stranger, and find a way to return his wife to life.

* Gillian's insistence on trying to resurrect her accidentally poisoned boyfriend in the 1998 film ''Film/PracticalMagic'' is the catalyst for a ''lot'' of later trouble for both her and her sister Sally. This is less about wanting her beloved back and more about trying to avoid a murder charge; Sally accidentally killed him by giving him a dose of belladonna to keep him from trying to kill Gillian.
* The plot of ''Film/{{The Mummy|1999}}'' revolves around the BigBad trying to resurrect his lover, an ancient Egyptian queen. Interestingly, his own resurrection was a lot easier than hers. For the simple fact that he didn't die and go to the afterlife like her, he was cursed with undeath. Meaning his soul remained in that dried-up piece of jerky that passed for a body, bound to protect the Book of the Dead. Which those Americans stole. Also, he was eaten alive by scarabs. You try to rest in peace with that going on.
* The trope is touched upon in the 1994 adaptation of ''Film/MaryShelleysFrankenstein''. Frankenstein resurrects his dead bride, to horrific effect, as she is a stumbling, barely-aware reanimated corpse. ''And'' about the only thing she ''does'' notice is that she's an abomination and so sets the place on fire.
* The eponymous Biollante from ''Film/GodzillaVsBiollante'' is an interesting variant on the end result, as the Necromantic character was ''intentionally'' trying to resurrect his loved one as a strange creature. By combining his daughter's DNA with that of a rose with psychic abilities and Godzilla, he was hoping to create a plant that contained her spirit and protected it with Godzilla's super-regeneration and near-indestructibility, making the new her virtually impossible to kill. It ''still'' ended up not being quite what he intended, though, as the Godzilla DNA made it a giant monster rather than merely [[NighInvulnerability Nigh Invulnerable]].
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Anakin Skywalker turns to the TheDarkSide so he can learn how to bring his wife back from the dead. Before she's actually dead since he had been having dreams about it. [[SelfFulfillingProphecy And then he kills her because he's evil now]].
* The film of ''Film/PetSematary1989''. See Literature, below.

* The plot of the Frankenstein retread ''Film/{{Frankenhooker}}''.
* One of the earlier film examples is probably ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', in which the prototypical MadScientist Dr. Rotwang tries to bring his dead wife back in the form of a machine-woman (said wife also cheated on him while she was alive and died giving birth to another man's son, doubling the tragedy). Unfortunately, the end result turned out a tad more evil than he probably hoped. This motivation is explained in far more detail in the novel and is cut out in most versions of the film, leaving the viewer to assume he just likes to build evil-lady robots because EVIL.
* Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' was a semi-naturalistic {{Deconstruction}} of this trope, with the nominally heroic Scottie Ferguson (Creator/JamesStewart) seeking to transform his ReplacementGoldfish girlfriend Judy into a replica of TheLostLenore by making her dye her hair and wear the same clothes that Madeleine wore. [[spoiler:It turns out that they are both the same girl and he was LovingAShadow]].
* ''Film/TheVoid'': The leader of the cult is driven to pursue life after death because of the loss of his beloved daughter. He then makes a DealWithTheDevil with otherworldly forces to bring people back from the dead but [[CameBackWrong they turn into tortured mutants]] as a result.

* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': In Book the Eighth, Lemony wishes.
* In Literature/TheKingKillerChronicle, the BigBad Haliax went from hero and king to an immortal who can't sleep, forget, go mad or die, all because he wanted to bring his wife back to life.

* An interesting twist occurs in the Creator/EdgarAllanPoe story ''Ligeia,'' in which a morose nobleman is pining over the loss of his first wife. [[spoiler:The twist is that he does nothing, while the spirit of his first wife poisons and takes over the body of his still-living ''second'' wife.]]
* In the original ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' book, it's strongly suggested that Victor Frankenstein was doing all his research in the hopes of bringing back his dead mother. Instead, of course, he makes a monster who ends up killing off most of the rest of his family.
* King Elias from ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'' just wants to be reunited with his dead wife. Problem is, he's GenreBlind enough to hire EvilSorcerer Pryrates to find a way to do it, and the spirit they end up summoning is not the wife at all, but [[BigBad the Storm]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast King]]. Pryrates, taking this in stride, makes a DealWithTheDevil, and poor Elias is left a massive UnwittingPawn caught in his own trap for the remainder of the series.
* ''The Last Incantation'' by Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith plays with this: the ancient necromancer ''thinks'' the lover he resurrected was brought back wrong somehow, as she's somehow less beautiful than he remembers, but as it turns out, the spell went off without a hitch. ''He'' has just grown too old and twisted to love her the way he did when he was young.

* In the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel ''Interference'', [[spoiler:the Doctor discovers that after he misplaced Fitz, he ended up falling in with a group of people who are cloned after their deaths. CloneDegeneration is an intentional part of the process -- the people basically become increasingly [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]], which is supposed to make them more their true selves, etc. -- sort of like how WesternAnimation/BugsBunny hasn't got an awful lot of depth, but everyone knows who he is. The Doctor is not terribly keen on this whole thing and thinks that Fitz has pretty much been boiled down to his worst traits plus a couple of brand new flaws, so he turns the copy (named Kode) back into the Fitz he knew with the help of the [=TARDIS=].]]
* In ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer'', [[spoiler:this is the primary motivation of the title character]].
* Hurwood's attempts to bring back his dead wife with voodoo magic kicks off the plot of Creator/TimPowers' ''Literature/OnStrangerTides''.
* In ''Isis'', by Douglas Clegg, the titular character, (Real name: Iris Claviger Villiers), loses her beloved brother Harvey in a fall. Eventually, she slowly goes mad, and raises Harvey from the dead, only to find that he would rather stay dead. Parallels between her and Harvey, and Isis and Osiris are drawn frequently, leading her to take the name Isis.
* In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: City of the Dead'', Zak Arranda is consumed with regret and SurvivorsGuilt over his parents, obsessing over the fact that he NeverGotToSayGoodbye and feeling like he abandoned them to die. When visiting Necropolis, he's told the legend of a dead {{Necromancer}} named [[ShoutOutToShakespeare Sycorax]] who some locals prayed to in the hopes that she would bring back their loved ones; even though Sycorax is also believed to be very strict about the respect DueToTheDead and doesn't want people messing around in her graveyard lest something bad happen, he goes in to try to ask for the spirit's help. He doesn't get a response from a spirit; instead he finds zombies. Necropolitans blame the hapless Zak, saying his disrespect triggered Sycorax's curse. [[spoiler: Really it's a MadScientist [[NightOfTheLivingMooks raising a zombie army]]. No biggie.]]
* Shows up in the backstory of the Resurrection Stone in the last ''Literature/{{Harry Potter|and the Deathly Hallows}}'' book.
* In ''Literature/DeathTrance'', Dr. Amara desperately tries to make contact with his dead wife and lead her back to the plane of the living. What he actually ''gets'' is a leyak [[note]] An Indonesian vampire/zombie[[/note]] disguised as his wife.

* A story arc in ''[[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Slayers NEXT]]'' features a wizard making a pact with mazoku in order to resurrect his lover. He succeeds, but she awakens in a zombie-like state [[MercyKill begging to be sent back]]. Needless to say, things do not end well.
* Sinner, an antagonist from the first ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'' [[LightNovels light novel]], carried around the long-past-decayed corpse of his daughter Lynthia in hopes that he would be able to bring her back to life after she succumbed to a curse. Unfortunately, he's also AxCrazy and refuses to believe that she's even dead (until Shannon beats seven shades of hell out of him).

* [[spoiler: Karl Kreutzfeld]] in ''Series/TheLostRoom'' wasn't out to destroy the world and didn't think it would actually happen as a result of his plan. Nevertheless, he might have unmade all of reality in his attempt [[spoiler: to bring back his dead son]] had not the protagonist intervened.

* Shows up in a season 2 episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' by way of an ancient Greek resurrection spell.
** Sam and Dean can also fall into this at times when it comes to each other.

* The main character of ''Series/PushingDaisies'' disconnected himself from normal social interaction partly for fear of becoming this trope - he was worried that if someone he loved were to die, he would, in his grief, bring them back at the cost of [[EquivalentExchange taking someone else's life]], so he largely avoided forming relationships for most of his life.
** Nevertheless, it's happened more than once- as a child, Ned brought back his mother, at the cost of the father of Chuck, his true love. Years later, when Chuck was murdered, Ned brought her back, knowing, and accepting, someone would die in her place. Then, [[spoiler: Chuck tricks Ned into bringing back her father permanently.]]
* Inverted in ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}''. There's a dead Necromancer who wants to bring ''himself'' back to life to be with the woman he loves.

* Dr. Whale [[spoiler:(aka Dr. Victor Frankenstein) wants to revive his brother, and does so with tragic effects]], and Regina [[spoiler:wants to revive her lost love, and Dr. Frankenstein does so, with tragic effects]] in ''Series/OnceUponATime''.
* In Series 9 of ''Series/DoctorWho'', the entire universe is threatened with destruction in the finale "Hell Bent" -- all because [[spoiler: the Doctor, unable to accept Clara Oswald's death]] has become an AntiVillain example of this and [[spoiler: pulls her out of time at the moment of her death, violating a fixed point in time]].

* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' absolutely ''loves'' this trope. One scenario, ''Dead Man Stomp'', involves a musician who finds out his trumpet, given to him by [[DealWithTheDevil Nyarlathotep]] [[DevilInDisguise masquerading as a famous Jazz musician]], can raise the dead. Said man has recently lost his girlfriend. Guess what he tries to do the second [[InsanityMakesYouEvil he goes mad...]]

* Joseph Desaulniers, the Photographer of ''VideoGame/IdentityV'', wasted his life in studies of dark magic trying to resurrect his twin brother. He appears in the game as a Hunter, but his story is never explored further than that in the game. In the [[Theatre/IdentityV Stage Play]], however, he is brought together with Survivor Aesop Carl, the Embalmer, the opposite of Joseph in that he treats death too lightly, and ''wants'' to die. Joseph is so shocked by Aesop's attitude that he takes drastic action, causing the plot. And yet, meeting Aesop has caused Joseph to see his own life and decisions in a new light...

* Ironically subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' where the villain eventually succeeds...but in the process had become non-human. His resurrected mother runs away from him in horror and dies.
* The ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' series uses this trope in just about every game, thanks to the recurring plot element known as the Emigre Manuscript, a book with instructions for raising the dead.
** The main plot of the first game, ''VideoGame/{{Koudelka}}'', revolved around the game's villain trying to resurrect a loved one. It does not turn out well.
** Jack in ''Shadow Hearts'' was trying to resurrect his mother... and conducted experiments on orphans to work out how. The end result: a vicious monster with her face, which killed him. In many ways, his section of the game is a ShoutOut to ''Koudelka''.
** The ''hero'' tries this in ''Shadow Hearts: Covenant'', despite being well aware of the above two examples. The best thing you can say about the result is that it doesn't try to kill him at least.
** In ''Shadow Hearts: From The New World'', the entire plot turns out to have been set in motion by someone attempting this [[spoiler: and actually ''succeeding'' for once, if only partially]].
* In the path for the second ending in ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', the character Inuart becomes [[WellIntentionedExtremist obsessed with bringing the dead Furiae back to life]], vowing that he'll use one of the million Seeds of Resurrection scattered across the land now that the seals holding them back have been broken. Since all throughout the game the Seeds of Resurrection have only been hinted at as being very bad ([[ApocalypseHow no one seems to know why]]), the protagonist attempts to stop him. If Inuart succeeds, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt it's the end of the world as we know it]] with [[NightmareFuel a gruesome twist]].

* The [[spoiler:Second Chapter]] of ''VideoGame/LaPucelle: Tactics'' involves [[spoiler:a man-turned-monster who is that he can bring his dead wife if he finds a heart just like hers... by ripping out those of the living]].
* This is the protagonist's motivation for slaying the Colossi in ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus''. In the process, he [[spoiler:nearly unleashes a surprisingly honest ancient evil being on the world in a DealWithTheDevil (said "Devil" more or less keeps Their word, and even warned the protagonist of the consequences several times), and is turned into an infant.]]
** ''Shadow of the Colossus'' is pretty gray, really. Dormin (the aforementioned [[spoiler:ancient evil]]) is really more bitter than actually evil, whereas [[spoiler:the knights who reseal Them at the end are implied to have caused this whole mess in the first place by killing the woman the protagonist spends the game trying to resurrect]].
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'' has two, [[spoiler:Lyon and Orson]]. [[spoiler:Lyon]] becomes possessed by SealedEvilInACan when he attempts to use said can to revive his late father, who is revived as a soulless zombie. He promises [[spoiler:Orson]] that he'll revive his wife if he does a FaceHeelTurn. By the time he gets his "wife" back, he's too crazy to [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable notice she's just a reanimated corpse.]]
* [[spoiler:Mithos Yggdrasil]] from ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' spent '''four thousand years''' trying to revive [[spoiler:his dead sister Martel. He succeeded. Only to have her reject his actions for the past four millennia and be sent back to the dead five minutes later. He didn't take that well.]]
** At the end of the sequel, ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'', Richter [[spoiler:tries to bring his old friend Aster back from the dead by making a deal with the demons of Niflheim.]]
** The tradition continued in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. [[spoiler:As a child, Jade accidentally killed his beloved schoolteacher, Professor Nebilim. He tried to revive her by making a perfect copy of her body, but the Replica Nebilim ended up as [[CameBackWrong an insane, bloodthirsty monster]].]] Subverted in that this particular Necromantic is a ''good'' guy, even if his loyalty to the party can be ambiguous sometimes. [[spoiler:[[MadScientist Dist]], on the other hand...]]
** Again in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheTempest'': [[spoiler: Lukius and the Pope want to bring Queen Melissa, their mother and wife respectively, back to life.]] [[spoiler: Lukius]] gets talked out of it with a near-death experience, [[spoiler: The Pope dies before he can.]]

* Lezard Valeth of ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' is one of the more demented villains out there even before he discovers that Valkyries are only active when the humans serving as their SoulJar are killed. So he kills a few dozen female humans and elves to make homunculi for Lenneth Valkyrie to be incarnated into (it's never made clear how many, but at least a dozen homunculi are shown, and it's suggested it takes a few of both species to make just one), all so he can woo her. [[KarmaHoudini By the end of the game, he gets away with it, too.]]
** This comes up a bit differently in the prequel, ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile2Silmeria''. In this one, [[spoiler:a [[TimeyWimeyBall time-travelling]] Lezard, who had abandoned his body by the end of the first game, reincarnates ''himself'' to attempt a GambitRoulette to get Lenneth to travel back in time and basically attempt the same thing again.]] This time, though, [[SmugSnake the perpetrator gets his comeuppance]].
* This happens in one of the endings to ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' to [[spoiler:James, who, throughout, the game gathers several artifacts as part of a ritual to return his wife, Mary, back to life.]]
** The antagonist to ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' isn't so much attempting to resurrect a loved one, as [[spoiler:transform an apartment into what he thinks of as his mother]].
* ''VideoGame/FableII's'' BigBad, Lord Lucien, begins researching the Spire to bring back his dead wife and daughter, but over the ten-year time skip after the introduction, he becomes much more power-hungry. The game also features a side-quest where a man is tracking down the body parts of Lady Grey (from the last Fable game) in order to resurrect her because he's fallen in love with her.
* In the ''Lego Battles'' game for Nintendo DS, one of the story modes involves playing as an Evil Wizard in control of an army of [[DemBones skeletal mooks]]... who turns out to be just after the pieces to a magic staff that can resurrect his dead girlfriend. In a partial subversion, he actually manages it at the end, although she CameBackWrong repeatedly, including coming back as a crab, a robot and an angry pirate.
* This is the main motivation of [[spoiler:the BigBad, Infel]], in ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica''. Typically, it's a failure because her loved one was resuscitated as just a shadow of her former self that's focused on the realization of her own desires at the expense of all her other feelings and facets. And even if it hadn't been a failure [[spoiler: what remained of Nenesha's soul was annihilated after expending all her energies in the final battle.]]
* This is the reason why the Dark Presence takes on Barbara Jagger's form in ''VideoGame/AlanWake'', coupled with a case of CameBackWrong. Partially subverted as Thomas Zane wasn't evil.
* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} 7''. The goal of [[CuteGhostGirl Yuyuko]] [[{{Necromancer}} Saigyouji]] is to resurrect the one sealed under Saigyou Ayakashi, believing that it's someone dear to her. [[spoiler:[[IdentityAmnesia It's actually her very own self, and she briefly resurrected]]]]. However, the one who enabled Yuyuko to pull her [[SpringIsLate crazy scheme]] was Yukari, to bring back Yuyuko's memory of her. Neither Yuyuko nor Yukari got away unscathed.

* ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'': Nybbas "Love is eternal" Obderhode.
* Lady Vayle, the Necromantress of ''VideoGame/DragonFable'' and ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', was into necromancy to try to bring her brother BackFromTheDead. [[spoiler:It didn't end well, in no small part because of Noxus, her master at the time, and because Artix destroyed the crystal containing his Spirit Orb. She's still not happy with him on that score]].
* Rue (a heroic example) in ''VideoGame/ThreadsOfFate'' spends his path looking for a legendary artifact which may have the power to bring his dead guardian back to life. In his route, [[spoiler:he succeeds with ''no'' negative effects ([[EarnYourHappyEnding Though it wasn't easy)]]]].

* Liara T'Soni of ''Franchise/MassEffect'' is (if you romanced her) a rare heroic example; she goes to great lengths to recover her dead lover's corpse and give him/her to an NGOSuperpower with the technology (and absurdly extensive funding) to bring him/her back as a cyborg.
* ''VideoGame/MoonCrystal'' subtly implies that [[spoiler: Count Crimson became obsessed with putting the Moon Crystal into a permanent "on" mode as a result of his desire to revitalize his long-dead daughter Rosina. Unfortunately, it basically became a quest to wipe death off the face of the map...no matter what [[CameBackWrong happened to life]] [[OneWingedAngel in the process]].]]
* ''VideoGame/ChaosRingsIII'' features a particularly twisted subversion. SerialKiller Drei 6 wants to bring a woman back to life and has been abducting and harvesting people to create a Gene capable of resurrecting her. During the HopelessBossFight after TheReveal, he confesses that the only reason he's doing this is that [[spoiler:he ''really'' enjoyed killing her. He wants to be able to resurrect her so he can kill her over and over again.]] To twist the knife further, said woman was [[spoiler:party member Al's wife.]] Double-subverted at the very end, when [[spoiler:his sister the mod engineer]] claims that Drei is compelled to kill that which he loves, meaning he may have really loved the woman he wants to revive in his own warped way.
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecrodancer''. Cadence sets out on her quest in order to resurrect Melody, [[spoiler: who in turn does the same for Aria.]]
* ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'': [[spoiler:Nathan Dawkins]] slowly becomes obsessed with bringing his wife and daughter back from the dead after he lost them in a tragic car accident. He eventually found a way to partially phase them back into the mortal world, which clearly left them in a state of constant agony, but he's too delusional to admit this to himself even after Jody uses her powers to let him talk to them. [[spoiler:He then decides to shut off the containment field on the Condenser, which would cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt by merging the realm of the dead with that of the living.]]
* The commonly accepted theory about the backstory of the boss Pinwheel from ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' is that he siphoned some of [[TheGrimReaper Gravelord Nito's]] power to bring back his dead wife and child using necromancy. However it [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]] and resulted in the three of them being fused together into a monstrous abomination, hence the three heads (wearing the Mask of the Father, Mask of the Mother, and Mask of the Child) and many arms that Pinwheel possesses, and why Gravelord Nito, who has power over death itself, can actually be killed simply by smacking him with a sword enough times (he's been weakened due to Pinwheel siphoning his power).
* Played with in the [[spoiler:Alchemist]] storyline in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. [[spoiler:The Guildmaster is a driven man who hands you various tasks because he's too busy with his greatest project. Eventually, he gets you directly involved, during which you learn that he is attempting to revive his wife, who died in the Calamity. Just as he's got everything together, his sister-in-law busts in to try to stop him. Subverted totally in that it ''works!'' Sorta. His wife revives for only about a minute or so before she goes away again, [[DisappearsIntoLight taking her body with her]]. But in those precious seconds, they get to tell each other all the things they wanted to say. Turns out, those moments of closure were all he really wanted, and now he can move on with his life.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', [[WoobieDestroyerofWorlds Charmcaster]] tries to do this [[spoiler:to resurrect her father. Unfortunately, the only way she knows of to bring back the dead is to [[DealWithTheDevil buy his life from a]] GodOfEvil. And the price is ''all 600,000 souls in her home dimension''. [[UnwantedRevival It doesn't end well.]]]]

** Odin himself is a necromantic, being able to resurrect the dead, usually to consult them for their wisdom. Considering what revenants are like in Norse Mythology (read the entry on ''[[OurVampiresAreDifferent draugr]]'' on Wiki/TheOtherWiki) you can tell why he did not do that to Baldr.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', the guy who made Mewtwo was a Necromantic. In order for Giovanni to fund his efforts to clone his dead daughter, he had to make him a SuperSoldier as well.

* Played with in the [[spoiler:Alchemist]] storyline in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. [[spoiler:The Guildmaster is a driven man who hands you various tasks because he's too busy with his greatest project. Eventually, he gets you directly involved, during which you learn that he is attempting to revive his wife. Just as he's got everything together, his sister-in-law busts in to try to stop him. Subverted totally in that it ''works!'' Sorta. His wife revives for only a few seconds before she goes away again, [[DisappearsIntoLight taking her body with her]]. But in those precious seconds, they get to tell each other all the things they wanted to say. Turns out, those moments of closure were all he really wanted, and now he can move on with his life.]]

* In Literature/TheKingKillerChronicles, the BigBad Haliax went from hero and king to an immortal who can't sleep, forget, go mad or die, all because he wanted to bring his wife back to life.

* Okay, bear with me. Can HeterosexualLifePartners count? I'll grant you, Necroplatonic hasn't got the same ring to it. And are you sitting comfortably? But, anyway, in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel ''Interference'', [[spoiler:the Doctor discovers that after he misplaced Fitz, he ended up falling in with a group of people who are cloned after their deaths. CloneDegeneration is an intentional part of the process -- the people basically become increasingly [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]], which is supposed to make them more their true selves, etc. -- sort of like how WesternAnimation/BugsBunny hasn't got an awful lot of depth, but everyone knows who he is. The Doctor is not terribly keen on this whole thing and thinks that Fitz has pretty much been boiled down to his worst traits plus a couple of brand new flaws, so he turns the copy (named Kode) back into the Fitz he knew with the help of the [=TARDIS=]. Basically, this means he tells an eighteen-year-old boy, which is what Fitz has been turned into, that he's pretty awful and should just die so he can turn into someone more worthwhile, and, for added creepiness, Sam leaves shortly before the Doctor carries this out, and he [[FromACertainPointOfView all but lies]] to her, as he evidently knows he's doing something wrong. Of course, from a {{Doylist}} perspective, it's hard to disapprove of this plot development, as it brought back an EnsembleDarkHorse and gave him [[LossOfIdentity more reason]] to be TheWoobie, but... honestly, Doctor. You killed a guy because you liked someone else better. We all agreed with your preference, yes, but you killed a ''kid''.]]

* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} 7''. The goal of [[CuteGhostGirl Yuyuko]] [[TheNecromancer Saigyouji]] is to resurrect the one sealed under Saigyou Ayakashi, believing that it's someone dear to her. [[spoiler:[[IdentityAmnesia It's actually her very own self, and she briefly resurrected]]]]. However, the one who enabled Yuyuko to pull her [[SpringIsLate crazy scheme]] was Yukari, to bring back Yuyuko's memory of her. Neither Yuyuko nor Yukari got away unscathed.

* In ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes'', the title character is trying to avenge his wife's death. In ''Dr. Phibes Rises Again'', he's done that and is now trying to bring her back using Ancient Egyptian magic (with the added bonus of getting eternal life for the pair of them). At the end of the film, he [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech explains to his nemesis]] why they're not only NotSoDifferent, but Phibes actually holds the moral high ground.

* Played with in the [[spoiler:Alchemist]] storyline in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. [[spoiler:The Guildmaster is a driven man who hands you various tasks because he's too busy with his greatest project. Eventually, he gets you directly involved, during which you learn that he is attempting to revive his wife. Just as he's got everything together, his sister-in-law busts in to try to stop him. Subverted totally in that it ''works!'' Sorta. His wife revives for only a few seconds before she goes away again, [[DisappearsIntoLight taking her body with her]]. But in those precious seconds, they get to tell each other all the things they wanted to say. Turns out, those moments of closure were all he really wanted.]]

* Music/AkatsukiRecords has a song ''literally titled'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtTYQuO1j6w Necromantic]], which is indeed about having raised a loved one. It's a remix of "Desire Drive", the stage 4 theme of ''VideoGame/TouhouShinreibyouTenDesires'', where the player character is pitted against the {{Necromancer}} Seiga Kaku and her {{Jiangshi}} servant Yoshika Miyako. While any relationship between these two is not canon, {{fanon}} '''loves''' to ship Seiga with her undead minion.
-->''My heart throbs, stay be my side, even in death!''

* Music/AkatsukiRecords has a song ''literally titled'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtTYQuO1j6w Necromantic]], which is indeed about having raised a loved one.
-->''My heart throns, stay be my side, even in death!''

* A story arc in ''[[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Slayers NEXT]]'' features a wizard making a pact with mazoku in order to resurrect his lover. He succeeds, but she awakens in a zombie-like state [[MercyKill begging to be sent back]]. Needless to say, things do not end well.

* Sinner, an antagonist from the first ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'' [[LightNovels light novel]], carried around the long-past-decayed corpse of his daughter Lynthia in hopes that he would be able to bring her back to life after she succumbed to a curse. Unfortunately, he's also AxCrazy and refuses to believe that she's even dead (until Shannon beats seven shades of hell out of him).

* Malistaire, the former teacher of the death school of magic from ''VideoGame/{{Wizard 101}}'' plays this to a T. After his wife, the former teacher of the life school, dies from a sudden illness, he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope goes off the deep end]]. He goes on a rampage across the worlds of the Spiral, collecting materials to summon the Dragon Titan, who apparently has the ability to resurrect the dead, completely disregarding the way that these worlds are left in total anarchy and violence in his wake. Even when you manage to summon her ghost and she begs him to move on, he just calls your bluff and insists that what's standing in front of him is an illusion. [[spoiler: After you kill him in battle, he apologizes to her, and [[TogetherInDeath the two of them go to rest in peace together.]]]]

* Malistaire, the former teacher of the death school, from ''VideoGame/{{Wizard 101}}'' plays this to a T. After his wife dies he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope leaps off the slope]]. Even when the ghost of his wife begs him to let her go, he believes she's just an illusion. He also takes the nice step of that his way of resurrecting her has the possible side effect of ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroying the goddamn world]]''. [[spoiler: After he dies he apologizes to her and the two of them go to rest in peace together.]]

* Played with in the [[spoiler:Alchemist]] storyline in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. [[spoiler:The Guildmaster is a driven man who hands you various tasks because he's too busy with his greatest project. Eventually, he gets you directly involved, during which you learn that his is attempting to revive his wife. Just as he's got everything together, his sister-in-law busts in to try to stop him. Subverted totally in that it ''works!'' Sorta. His wife revives for only a few seconds before she goes away again, [[DisappearsIntoLight taking her body with her]], But in those precious seconds, they get to tell each other all the things they wanted to say. Turns out, those moments of closure were all he really wanted.]]

* One of the ultimate goals of comic book {{supervillain}} SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom, along with the destruction of nemesis Reed Richards and the conquest of Earth, was the resurrection of his beloved mother (or at least, saving her from hell). Ultimately, he was able to do so, but only by forcing his mother to renounce her love for him. No wonder he's always so pissed.

* ''WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': In "Why a Gorilla?", a young Dr. [=McNinja=] is sent to investigate vampire attacks in a jungle city inhabited by especially intelligent gorillas. It turned out that [[spoiler: the gorilla vampire had been destroyed long ago, and the bodies supposed to have risen as vampires have been stolen by a gorilla doctor whose wife had died and who was keeping her from being all dead in a way that required attaching parts of other gorillas to her body, creating a gorilla FrankensteinMonster. Dr. [=McNinja=] later reflected that even though he was supposedly keeping her alive via a variation of LightningCanDoAnything, it was probably really because of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve. Anyway, she was [[TorturedAbomination quite angry]] when she woke up.]]

* Trace's backstory in ''Webcomic/TwoKinds''. he goes insane from the BlackMagic required to even try the spell and begins to slaughter people left, right, and down the middle. He gets so evil that it [[DeusExMachina takes a god to stop him]] (the beastman god, incidentally. trace going mad was all part of the human god's plan).

* Count Bleck from ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' almost has this as his motivation. However, even with all his power, he can't bring his lover back so he just decides to do the next best thing: [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum Destroy all worlds.]] Sadly, he doesn't know until it's far too late that [[spoiler: she came back already, and is helping Mario defeat him]].