History Main / NeverSayDie

->''[talking to Ash about a very aged and weak Stoutland]''\\
''"Stoutland isn't hurt, and it doesn't have any serious illness. It's just that Stout--"'' ''[door slams shut before she can finish her sentence]''
-->-- '''Nurse Joy''', ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon'', "One Journey Ends, Another Begins..."

* In ''Film/{{Paddington}}'', when Aunt Lucy gets Paddington hidden a lifeboat on a ship to London, she said that she was going to stay at Home for Retired Bears. To first time viewers of this franchise, it seems like a comfortable lie she is telling Paddington when actually she more likely is going off some place to die. Only later, [[spoiler:is it shown that she is ''entirely serious'']].

* Toys/{{Tamagotchi}} do not die. They return to their homeworld after a time, and may leave sooner if they are not well cared for.[[note]]Licensed versions of Tamagotchi, including those based on ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', [[{{Averted}} say that the Tamagotchi dies in their instructions]].[[/note]]

Be sure to bear in mind that the above does ''not'' apply to the Western culture as a whole as not [[WeAllLiveInAmerica all of us really live in America]] or any other Anglo-Saxon country for that matter. In most of Europe, for instance, creators usually don't shy away from using words like "die" or "kill" (or those with religious connotations) as long as their shows are aimed at least at school-age kids.

* Averted to the 10th degree in ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'' where [[spoiler:Professor Rubert']] reveals himself to be the TRUE bad guy to both a captured Mr. Wolf and Diane Foxington:
-->'''Mr. Wolf:''' "[[spoiler:You little pouchy-cheaked RAT!]] I'LL KILL YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?! YOU'RE DEAD!"

* In ''Superman IV: The Quest for Peace'', Nuclear Man threatens Superman by saying he will hurt people if Superman doesn't tell him where Louis Lane is.

* The same thing happened with Hasbro's action figure line for the ''Film/GhostRider'' movie, which changed the name of the protagonist's motorcycle from the "Hell Cycle" to the "Flame Cycle."

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

* ''WebVideo/CasualGeographic'', due to the aforementioned 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".

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' is fond of various euphemisms. ''Terminated'' is the most common. The only group within the Foundation to avert this is the Ethics Committee, who never use euphemisms. The GOC, who deal with dangerous anomalies much more harshly, prefer to use "liquidated" instead, which makes them sound even colder.
* Similar restrictions on [=TikTok=] have caused the verb "[[DeadlyEuphemism unalive]]" to enter popular slang.

The most common example is euphemisms for death in children's shows, even in cases where a character is ''[[KilledOffForReal killed]]'' and they are thusly rendered '' dead'', the script will never use those two words. Almost always, the writers don't even get very creative with poetic descriptions, and will apply basic synonyms of "destroyed" to living things that we usually associate with inanimate objects, or have the characters unable to finish their sentences. ("Is he...?") ''Hell'' is also constantly neutered; when the plot absolutely needs something similar, they often resort to calling them "Nether-something" (of course, except for [[FreestateAmsterdam the Netherlands, aka Holland]]) or even "Another Dimension."

This isn't for complaining about scenes where a character was "killed off the show" in a way other than death, which is simply PutOnABus.

Usually a form of ExecutiveMeddling. Compare with: GoshDangItToHeck, UnusualEuphemism, FrothyMugsOfWater, TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed, ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding 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.

* Parodied and subverted in the Rema 1000 commercial "Doffen har daua" ("Doffen has died"). When a little boy finds his goldfish Doffen dead, his mother awkwardly tries to comfort him by saying that Doffen is "a little tired", so she has to get a cup and "take him to the country" where he can learn to "take care of himself". Then the boy's older sister asks what's up, and he just says "Doffen has died".

* In the ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'' comic book, the rather violent death of BigBad Nerissa is described as her being "destroyed".
* In ''ComicBook/MarvelAdventures Super Heroes'', Deadpool was never referred to by his code name. Instead he would be referred to as "Wade" or "Wade Wilson, better known as D--" before being interrupted by another character.

* 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]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', during the scene where [[spoiler:Gaston and Beast are fighting on the roof of the castle]], the line where Gaston says "Belle is mine!" originally said "Time to die!" but was changed to the former because Disney decided the latter was too dark. However, Gaston still can be seen mouthing the original line.

* This is used as a policy for the Latin American Spanish dubs produced by Disney Character Voices International. Disney censors "death" and its related words, "saint", "naked", "God", "holy", "sin", "heaven", "pray", "tragedy", "Christmas", "demon", "devil", "exorcism", "anointed water", "stupid", "idiot", "moron" and "fat". Examples include:
** In ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', [[spoiler:Hans']] line "[[spoiler:Princess Anna]] is... dead. (...) [[spoiler:She]] was killed by [[spoiler:Queen Elsa]]" is changed to "The [[spoiler:princess Anna]] has... left us. (...) [[spoiler:[She]]] was attacked by [[spoiler:the queen Elsa]]", however just a few lines later he notes that [[spoiler:she]] "died in [my] arms". His dramatic line "[[spoiler:Your sister]] is dead, because of you!" was changed to "[[spoiler:She]] no longer exists, because of you!"
** Averted with the Spanish dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', which is based on the Day of the Dead ("Día de Muertos"), and death is mentioned throughout the movie.
* 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 ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'', although the human characters are planning a mass slaughter of the chickens, they never, ever say they are going to kill them. The chickens, however, use not only "kill" but also "die," "death," and even "suicide." {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Rocky after he tries and fails to keep such words out of conversation to avoid panic. Even Ginger [[BrutalHonesty brutally]] tells every chicken they are being set up for slaughter, Rocky takes her to a private room and calls her out for using the word. Apparently Americans care more about this trope than British do.
--> '''Rocky:''' (to Ginger) Over in America, we have this rule, if you want to motivate someone: Don't mention ''Death.''

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'' with "Come with me if you want to not-die!".
** Played straight in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoBatmanMovie'' but [[BetterThanABareBulb lampshaded relentlessly]] as a running gag. A pilot thrown out of an airplane opens a heretofore-invisible parachute the ''moment'' he leaves the plane, the Joker's doomsday device threatens to blow Gotham into... an infinite bottomless pit that it's apparently built over, and the police snipers, well:
-->'''SWAT Leader:''' SWAT team, stun guns at the ready!\\
'''SWAT Team:''' Non-lethal! YEAH! ''[high-five]''
*** Weirdly, however, they manage to sneak the name "Suicide Squad" in. Though, it may have gone unnoticed because it was in a long list of teams Batman was listing off as he was asking who he was working with.
* In ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' when Stitch shows Lilo the family photo, she says to him, "That's us before it was rainy and they went for a drive." In other words, she lost her parents in a car crash when it was raining.
* Creator/{{Laika}} apparently has some kind of vendetta against this trope, out of any major Western animation company in the business, they're quite possibly the least shy about dropping in references to death and murder, both for [[BlackComedy comedy]] and as a plot point. About the only major time the word "kill" is avoided in a Laika movie is in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'', where the substituted euphemism ("ate up our lives") is quite possibly ''[[FateWorseThanDeath worse]]'' than using "killed".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife''. Funnily enough, for a film about the Day of the Dead. Manolo doesn't die and the arena bulls aren't (in most lines) killed; they 'pass away' and are 'finished' respectively. The oddest example: Joaquin's father "passed away" fighting against Chakal.
* 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 ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInThePinkShoes'', Kristyn's new footwear transports her into the stories of ''Theatre/{{Giselle}}'' and ''Theatre/SwanLake'' as the lead characters. Her more level-headed friend Hailey reminds her she needs to return to reality lest she succumb to Odette and Giselle's fates -- without cluing the kids in on the fact that both heroines typically [[DrivenToSuicide kill themselves]] in most stagings.
-->'''Hailey:''' If this is ''Giselle'', you know how this story ends. Mad scene, dance dance, sword in the heart. You've got some ghosts there... wooooo. And... grave!
-->'''Kristyn:''' [[{{Understatement}} It's doesn't end well, does it?]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'': It is never used when the good guys are referred to (Flik asked Dim to "squish" him after he found out about the truth of the circus bugs and the grasshoppers deciding to "squish" the Queen), but the words "kill" and "die" are used in humorous contexts.

* ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'' [[PlayingWithATrope plays with the trope]]: Billy Bones' death after getting the Black Spot (a) is totally overblown for comedic effect, and (b) gets a reaction of "He's dead!? [[BreakingTheFourthWall But this is supposed to be a kids' movie!]]" along with, "Guys... we are standing in a room with a dead guy!" There's also a "character" (a skeleton wearing a pirate hat) named Dead Tom, introduced in succession after Old Tom and Really Old Tom. Taken further when a pirate weeps over the recently shot Dead Tom until another pirate patiently explains he was already dead. That's why he's called Dead Tom. The bereaved pirate unceremoniously drops the skeleton and moves on.
* In ''Superman IV: The Quest for Peace'', Nuclear Man threatens Superman by saying he will hurt people if Superman doesn't tell him where Louis Lane is.
* Spoofed in ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'', where the villainous Acme Chairman orders one of his henchmen to "Destroy the duck! And when I say destroy the duck, I mean KILL HIM! Messily and painfully!"

* In ''Film/DropDeadGorgeous'', one of the brainless bimbos talks about her previous dog, a German Shepherd who went to 'live on a farm' after attacking her. Naturally, she doesn't get that it's a euphemism.

* In ''Film/BugsyMalone'', pie takes the place of guns and bullets. Characters who get pied are said to be "finished," and never show up again.
* In ''Film/TheWarriors'', "waste" or "wasted" are always used instead of "kill" or "dead." This was probably done to make the violence seem casual to the characters, rather than soften it for the audience.
* Censors forced ''Film/AnatomyOfAMurder'' to replace the word "penetration" with "violation". "Penetration" is the word actually used in Michigan state law's definition of rape.

* In ''Film/IntoTheWoods'', instead of saying [[spoiler:Jack's Mother]] died, the Baker says "she didn't make it." Though they also zig-zag it.
* In ''Film/{{Paddington}}'', when Aunt Lucy gets Paddington hidden a lifeboat on a ship to London, she said that she was going to stay at Home for Retired Bears. To first time viewers of this franchise, it seems like a comfortable lie she is telling Paddington when actually she more likely is going off some place to die. Only later, [[spoiler:is it shown that she is ''entirely serious'']].
* In ''The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima'', the kids are told the Lady will come "soon" for the two little ones. Lucia is stricken and says softly "You're going to take them -- you mean they're going to..." ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinta_and_Francisco_Marto And they did]].)
* In ''Film/IFrankenstein'', demons are not killed, they're "descended". Gargoyles are not killed, they're "ascended". Justified, since we're actually shown flames coming out of defeated demons which then head down somewhere, while defeated gargoyles turn into a bright light and lift up in a bright column towards the heavens.
* Lines in ''Film/MacAndMe'' were redubbed prior to release, though the Japanese cut uses the original uncensored film. The lines "He's dead?" and "He's dead, Mom, he's dead" became "He's gone?" and "They can't help him. They can't".

* The Hanzel und Gretyl track ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjs8Bnbcug4 SS Deathstar Supergalaktik ]]'' has this in its lyrics, probably as a reference to the lightheartedness of ''Franchise/StarWars''.
* The Gothic Archies song "Freakshow" has the lines "real people ask you why/with a face like you've got, won't you just lie down and..." with the obvious missing word being "die".
* The original "Baby Shark" campfire song ends with the shark eating a swimmer, who goes to heaven in some variations. Most recent renditions, including the most popular one by Creator/{{Pinkfong}}, has the sharks pursuing a school of fish who swim away and find safety.

* The heavy censorship for any lyrics relating to violence, drugs/alcohol, sex, etc. on Nickelodeon's music video channel [=NickMusic=] have led to some hilarious examples of this, including a refrain of Cloe Wilder's "I Wanna Be Alone With You" being left as "If looks could [[spoiler:kill]] then I'd [[spoiler:die]]".

* Kissing up to 1980s action cartoons, ''TabletopGame/CartoonActionHour'' follows this trope with a capital N--unless of course, you playing TheMovie.
* ''Lycee TCG'' has an interesting take on this trope. Characters that left the field due to losing battle or hit by certain effects is said to be 'discarded', as though they are merely cards in your hands or decks. There is no clear border between 'a character' and 'a character card', unlike ''Magic'' or similar competitive card games. Which helps the players in not imagining what logically happens: it doesn't matter if your [[VisualNovel/{{CLANNAD}} Ibuki Fuuko]] is knocked out by [[VisualNovel/SteinsGate Shiina Mayuri]], [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Serpent of Akasha]], or ''VisualNovel/{{Demonbane}}'', she's only "discarded" into your "dustbox'"
* In an odd outlier''Creator/GamesWorkshop'' is notorious for using the term "dice" instead of "die" in its Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, and all other games. However, they are fine with saying "die" in the context of death.
* TabletopGame/{{Chess}} could be the UrExample of this section: despite it being a strategy game with allusions to battle, your pieces (excluding, played properly, the king) are said to be "captured" but never "killed". ([[FridgeLogic Although since your pieces are only removed from the board to be played again next game]], it could be a case of NobodyCanDie, depending upon perspective.)
* The [[TarotMotifs Tarot de Marseille]] calls the number XIII (Death) "The nameless arcana".
* In the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' Card Game, any card with the word "Death" in its name has it changed to the deliberate transliteration of "Des." So we have Des Koala and Des Frog instead of Death Koala and Death Frog. Additionally, cards with the word "Demon" in their name got it changed to "Archfiend," so "Red Demon Dragon" is "Red Dragon Archfiend" now. Unfortunately, some "Demon" cards had been released with various other renames before those names actually became gameplay-relevant, so an ObviousRulePatch had to be put in play designating all those cards as "Archfiends" even though their names weren't changed. (Later, a type of rules text called an [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Archetype_condition archetype condition]] was added to the game, allowing the cards to specifically name themselves as Archfiends, rather than players having to [[GuideDangIt look up the list online to prove the cards were Archfiends]].) The word "Hell" in some card names was changed to "Chthonian", or "Stygian".

* At Ride/DisneyThemeParks, it's mentioned that "Ride/BigThunderMountainRailroad" is haunted because it's built on a "sacred place" to natives. Obviously, an IndianBurialGround.
* In [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland's]] stage show ''Snow White: An Enchanting Musical'', which ran at the Fantasyland Theatre from 2004 to 2006, the words "kill" and "death" were avoided as much as possible when the Queen's evil intention toward Snow White was described. Instead, terms such as "dispose of her" and "get rid of [her] once and for all" were used, in sharp contrast to [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the original 1937 film]], where "kill" and "death" are spoken freely. Only the term "sleeping death" for the poisoned apple's effect was retained.

* [=ToyBiz=]'s line of ''Comicbook/XMen'' action figures changed the Orphan-Maker's name to "The Protector," likely because of this trope. Likewise, Holocaust's name was changed to Dark Nemesis, which also carried over to the later TabletopGame/HeroClix and Marvel Legends lines.
* 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.

* The same thing happened with Hasbro's action figure line for the ''Film/GhostRider'' movie, which changed the name of the protagonist's motorcycle from the "Hell Cycle" to the "Flame Cycle."

* [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] in ''WebVideo/{{Phelous}}''‘s review of ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeastGolden1999'', which has an angry mob shouting “get the Beast” at the climax.
--> '''Phelous:''' (pretending to be from the perspective of the mob) Yeah, that’s right, we’ll ''get'' him. We wouldn’t want to kill him. Save that for [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast the hardcore Disney version.]]

* Similar restrictions on [=TikTok=] have caused the verb "[[DeadlyEuphemism unalive]]" to enter popular slang.
* ''WebVideo/CasualGeographic'', due to the aforementioned 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".

* Similar restrictions on [=TikTok=] have caused the verb "unalive" to enter popular slang. (Compare the way social media users will joke about committing some crime and then [[JustJokingJustification follow up the fantasy]] with "in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''.")

* Similar restrictions on [=TikTok=] have caused the verb "unalive" to enter popular slang.

* Averted to the 10th degree in ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'' where [[spoiler:Professor Rubert']] reveals himself to be the TRUE bad guy to both a captured Mr wolf and Diane foxington, the wolf says:

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' is fond of various euphemisms. ''Terminated'' is the most common. The only group within the Foundation to avert this is the Ethics Committee, who never use euphemisms. The GOC, who are deal with dangerous anomalies much more harshly, prefer to use "liquidated" instead, possibly because it sounds even more cold.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' is fond of various euphemisms. ''Terminated'' is the most common. The only group within the Foundation to avert this is the Ethics Committee, who never use euphemisms.

* "[[Film/TheGoonies Goonies never say die!]]"

* Mostly averted in ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'', especially in Bug-a-Boo stories, especially when Lady MacDeath appears. When "die" is not said, it is often for stylistically reasons, or when a more funny way to say it fits better the story. Sometimes even "kill" is said, when someone thinks a character caused the death of somebody after a catastrophic big bump or Monica hits somebody with a plush rabbit throw.

* Similar restrictions on TikTok have caused the verb "unalive" to enter popular slang.

-->-- '''Nurse Joy''', ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Sun and Moon'', "One Journey Ends, Another Begins..."

* In ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'', although the human characters are planning a mass slaughter of the chickens, they never, ever say they are going to kill them. The chickens, however, use not only "kill" but also "die," "death," and even "suicide." {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Rocky after he tries and fails to keep such words out of conversation to avoid panic. Apparently Americans care more about this trope than British do.

* In [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland's]] stage show ''Snow White: An Enchanting Musical'', which ran at the Fantasyland Theatre from 2004 to 2006, the words "kill" and "death" were avoided as much as possible when the Queen's evil intention toward Snow White was described. Instead, terms such as "dispose of her" and "get rid of [[her]] once and for all" were used, in sharp contrast to [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the original 1937 film]], where "kill" and "death" are spoken freely. Only the term "sleeping death" for the poisoned apple's effect was retained.

* In [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland's]] stage show ''Snow White: An Enchanting Musical'', which ran at the Fantasyland Theatre from 2004 to 2006, the Evil Queen ordered the Huntsman to "dispose of" Snow White, and Snow White later claimed that the Queen "tried to get rid of me once and for all." This was unlike [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the original 1937 film]], where the word "kill" is used in both scenes.