History Main / NeverSayDie

It should be noted that one likely reason for this trope is because the writers and producers seem to think that their target demographic is too immature to grasp the concept of somebody dying, or alternatively will be horribly traumatised - rationales that in fact ''cancel each other out''. Some people reason that the ''belief'' that since children may not be able to understand death they should be subjected to a villain who plans to ''destroy'' them, insults and desensitizes everybody. Another point is that if death is too sensitive for children of a certain age, they probably ought not to be watching a show or movie in which people, you know, ''die''. If you as a writer are aiming specifically at children that age, maybe write stories in which [[EverybodyLives no one dies]] or is in danger of dying. This trope could be seen as the writers trying to have it both ways.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' series, whenever someone mentions Tai Lung after Po uses the "Wuxi Finger Hold" on him, which seemingly causes him to blow up in a golden burst of chi, all we hear is that Po "defeated" him. During the [[ChristmasSpecial holiday special]], however, Tai Lung shows up in a dream and Po states, "I thought you were d--" before he gets clobbered, unable to finish his sentence; then again, the one having this dream didn't even witness Tai Lung's fate. Other than that, they aren't shy talking about death, especially in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', which outright states whenever characters are KilledOffForReal. Of course, there's not much of an excuse to use this trope when you have ''genocide'' as a major plot point.

* In the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/Encanto'', as Alma tells little Mirabel how the family was granted a miracle, she states that Pedro was "lost" rather than "killed". This is justified as Mirabel is five years old when her grandmother first tells her. In the climax, when Alma finds 15-year-old Mirabel at the river where Pedro lost his life and tells her that this is where the family was granted the miracle, Mirabel says "where Abuelo Pedro..." She doesn't say whether her grandfather was lost or killed or anything like that.

* Though the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon generally averts this trope, ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' is one of their few films to (mostly) play it straight. However, it's [[PlayingWithATrope played with]]; "Dead" and "die" are used once, but the rest of the time everyone uses "gone" to describe [[spoiler: Tadashi's death]], showing how uncomfortable everyone is about the subject. Hiro tells Baymax to [[spoiler: '''destroy''' Callaghan after he callously denounced Tadashi's death as Tadashi's fault, a nice CallBack to his earlier bot fight to ruthlessly destroy his opponent.]] In the aftermath, the rest of the team repeatedly said that they "never signed on" or "wasn't part of the plan" to [[spoiler: kill Callaghan]].

For one reason or another, children's shows also shy away from using "God." Whenever religion comes into play, it is generally replaced with [[NotUsingTheZWord something along the lines of "the big guy."]] Similarly to the die and kill examples below, if a situation is serious enough in cartoons aimed at slightly older children, God's name may be used as a suitably f-bomb level expression of shock or horror. If a character is actually discussing religion in a cartoon, God's name is used with a similar level of gravitas, but may be much more frequent, or used in a genuinely cheerful context.

It should be noted that one likely reason for this trope is because the writers and producers seem to think that their target demographic is too immature to grasp the concept of somebody dying, or alternatively will be horribly traumatised - rationales that in fact ''cancel each other out''. Some people reason that the ''belief'' that since children may not be able to understand death they should be subjected to a villain who plans to ''destroy'' them, insults and desensitizes everybody. Another point is that if death is too sensitive for children of a certain age, they probably ought not to be watching a show or movie in which people, you know, ''die''. If you as a writer are aiming specifically at children that age, maybe write stories in which no one dies or is in danger of dying. This trope could be seen as the writers trying to have it both ways.

Also note that just because a character didn't mention any variation of "dead," "die" or "death," that doesn't automatically make it an example of this trope. Saying something like "It's time to smash you into pieces!" isn't this trope. Saying "It's time to defeat you!" is, because "defeat" is directly used in replacement of "kill." "Smash you into pieces" is used for specific wording emphasis. ''This is not a trope for every single examples where a villain uses wording to do with something other than death when confronting the hero, or vice-versa.''

Please note as well, that this also isn't for complaining about examples where a disaster of some kind resulted in no deaths. If said disaster is something where it's insane to think that no one got injured at all, then it's an example. If it's a disaster in which no one getting killed isn't an unreasonable occurrence, then it is not.

Usually a form of ExecutiveMeddling. Compare with: GoshDangItToHeck, UnusualEuphemism, FrothyMugsOfWater, TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed, ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding, TheBodyPartsThatMustNotBeNamed, NippleAndDimed, NobodyPoops, NoPeriodsPeriod, and NoEndorHolocaust. Coming closer and closer to becoming a DiscreditedTrope. When used as an actual in-world element, it's DoubleSpeak or a DeadlyEuphemism. Contrast TryNotToDie. Often, but not always, foisted on the {{Badbutt}}, who will instead use words like "toast" or "beat." If they're allowed to ''say'' "kill" and "die" but aren't allowed to ''actually'' kill characters, then it's NobodyCanDie. If you're looking for a character who never says die -- who never quits and won't back down even in the face of death -- then it's {{Determinator}}. If it involves outright LiesToChildren about what really happened to Tropey, that's DogGotSentToAFarm.

* In ''Anime/TheWizardOfOz'', the Wizard tells Dorothy to "get rid of" and "destroy" the Wicked Witch of the West. Despite this, Dorothy is told that she "killed the Wicked Witch of the East", probably because it's accidental.

* In ''Fanfic/AGreenChristmas'': Implied with the Professor's unseen father, because he forgets to add a head hole to Buttercup's sweater.

Another frequent method is to hastily add dialogue that suggests the people we've just indirectly seen killed [[HesOkay didn't really die]], e.g. showing a city being destroyed, and having a character note: [[NoEndorHolocaust "Good thing everyone in that city evacuated at the last minute!"]]

'''Deadpool:''' Yeah... yeah, here's the thing. I can't really say the K-word out loud. It's a weird mental tic. (laughs) But we're going to destroy them, make them disappear, sleep with the fishes, WE'LL K-WORD THEM!

* The word slipped through a couple of times, but the early years of ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' mostly used "destroy" and "defeat". This changed later years, however. Its replacement, ''Toys/HeroFactory'', being much LighterAndSofter, seems to play the trope straight again, though even it seems to be veering away from this slowly. The German release of the third ''BIONICLE'' [[DirectToVideo Direct-To-DVD]] movie cut the bit when Roodaka expresses her need for the corpses of the Toa, even though it's the whole point of the rest of the scene, and the first movie's German said die.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''
** ''ComicBook/Superboy1994'': The series itself has no problem saying "killed" or "die" but ComicBook/{{Superboy}} usually says "hearsed" instead, especially early on. He slowly grows out of this aversion but still tends to use "hearsed" when the situation isn't serious.

* ''ComicStrip/USAcres'': [[https://www.gocomics.com/us-acres/2013/02/09 These worms said "go".]]

* Initially played straight in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' as Syndrome's computer lists his test subjects as "TERMINATED". Powerfully subverted when Helen makes it very clear to her children that the bad guys will kill them if given a chance.

* Radio/RushLimbaugh often referred to the recently deceased as having "assumed room temperature".

* Speaking of which, the first ''Film/XMen1'' movie has a scene where Comicbook/{{Sabretooth}} sneaks up on a security guard and kills him from behind. [=ToyBiz=] did an action figure of Sabretooth that included the unfortunate victim, who was referred to as "knocked-out security guard" on the packaging.

* ''WebVideo/CasualGeographic'', due to site restrictions, makes use of a wide variety of {{Deadly Euphemism}}s. Highlights include "getting a 404 on your birth certificate", "canceling your life subscription", "becoming past tense", "co-sign your obituary", "take off the census", "soul filing for divorce", "connecting to God's WiFi", and "going to the cookout in the clouds".

* [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] in ''WebVideo/{{Phelous}}''‘s review of ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeastGolden1999'', which has an angry mob shouting, “get the Beast” at the climax.

->'''Deadpool: '''"We go into that compound, find Agent [=McGuffin=], snag the list, then unalive Taskmaster and his acolytes. Capice?"
->'''Spider-Man: '''"Wait... "unalive" them?"
->'''Deadpool: '''"Yeah... yeah here's the thing. I can't really say the K-word out loud. It's a weird mental tic. (laughs) But we're going to destroy them, make them disappear, sleep with the fishes, WE'LL K-WORD THEM!"