History Main / RelievingTheReaper

* This is what starts the mess in ''VideoGame/{{Have A Nice Death|Video Game}}''. Death hires the Sorrows and generally founds Death Inc. in order to take up his slack (because reaping every soul personally gets ''tiring''). But the Sorrows waste no time in making a mess of things and overloading the poor Reaper with paperwork when he really just [[DeathTakesAHoliday wants to take a vacation]], to the point that Death [[RageBreakingPoint goes ballistic]] and decides that it's time to take back his company.

[[AnyoneCanDie People die]]. A lot. At any given time, many souls need shepherding to the afterlife and it falls to TheGrimReaper to get them there, which is a full time job. Occasionally though, Death might need some help taking up the slack.

* This is what starts the mess in ''VideoGame/HaveANiceDeath''. Death hires the Sorrows and generally founds Death Inc. in order to take up his slack (because reaping every soul personally gets ''tiring''). But the Sorrows waste no time in making a mess of things and overloading the poor Reaper with paperwork when he really just [[DeathTakesAHoliday wants to take a vacation]], to the point that Death [[RageBreakingPoint goes ballistic]] and decides that it's time to take back his company.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Eldest ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' One, Piper Halliwell was given reaping powers by the Angel of Death once, in order to help him clean up the mess Paige made.
* ''Series/DeadLikeMe'' is all about this trope. "Reapers" are people who have died in some way, and each Reaper has a quota to fill. Once they've taken their last soul, they're free to move on to whatever lies beyond, and that person takes their spot as a new Reaper. It's strongly implied, if not outright stated, that each Reaper has their own specific area of death to deal with, and it's the manner of their own death (the characters from the series all deal in accidental death, typically involving hilariously over-the-top accidents that claim people's lives in almost Looney-Tunes fashion).
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Death gives Dean his powers and responsibilities for a day as part of some big important lesson about the value of life or something. Basically, Dean and Sam repeatedly coming BackFromTheDead has adverse consequences on the natural order, so he wanted to have him experience the burden of BalancingDeathsBooks.
* ''Series/{{Reaper}}'': Sam learns on his 21st birthday that his parents sold his soul to the Devil; Sam must serve him by reaping the souls of the damned, or go to Hell himself.
* Series/{{Chilling Adventures of Sabrina}}: Sabrina must guide souls to the afterlife to show she can deal with her position as "Ruler of Hell" after imprisioning the previous ruler (and also her father), Lucifer.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Film/TheLifeOfDeath'' [[SimilarlyNamedWorks not the web cartoon]], Death is born from regular human parents, and sires a pair of little reapers. He also gets run over by a car and its implied that his kids will be starting shortly.

* In ''The Life of Death'' [[SimilarlyNamedWorks not the web cartoon]], Death is born from regular human parents, and sires a pair of little reapers. He also gets run over by a car and its implied that his kids will be starting shortly.

* Series/{{Chilling Adventures of Sabrina}}'': Sabrina must guide souls to the afterlife to show she can deal with her position as "Ruler of Hell" after imprisioning the previous ruler (and also her father), Lucifer.

** In ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'', Death sends Scrofula to collect Rincewind's soul when he falls off the edge of the Disc, as he has a plague to deal with on another part of the Disc.
** In ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'' Death decides to do some soul-searching and hire an apprentice to fill in for him, and keep his adopted daughter Ysabel company. He ends up with a gangly teenager named Mort.
** Death goes missing in ''Discworld/SoulMusic'' and Susan, daughter of Mort and Death's adopted daughter Ysabel, ends up needing to sub for her grandpa.
** Inverted in ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' where Death subs for the Disc's Santa-equivalent.

* Eldest ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' One, Piper Halliwell was given reaping powers by the Angel of Death once, in order to help him clean up the mess Paige made.

-->'''Grim Reaper''' to the protagonist: "Ye spirit that left thy body [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve at the stroke of midnight]], thou wilt relieve me of my office. For a year thou wilt reap souls.

[[folder: Radio]]

* ''VideoGame/RetroCityRampage'': When Player was murdered by his girlfriend, he'll meet Death. When Player asked if he can be resurrected, Death offers him to cover his shift out of mutual respect. Doing so will not only resurrect player, but also unlock Death as a power-up.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Death appoints Peter as the Grim Reaper while staying at his house to recuperate from an injury early in the episode ''Death is a Bitch''.

** Death goes missing in ''Discworld/SoulMusic'' and Susan, Mort and Ysabel's daughter, ends up needing to sub for her grandpa.

The GrimReaper has a full time job, and occasionally might want [[DeathTakesAHoliday some R&R]]. But given that people won't stop dying while Death takes a lunch break, [[SomeoneHasToDoIt there needs to be someone who can pick up the slack]]. Alternatively, perhaps Death is attempting to teach some wisdom to a naive human about value of life or balancing the scales of life and death or whatever. In any case, the result is the same: someone else takes a shift doing Death's job of helping souls get from A to B.

* In ''Film/ThePhantomCarriage'', the last soul to die each year is destined to become the GrimReaper during the next year.

[[AnyoneCanDie People die]]. A lot. At any given time, many souls need shepherding to the afterlife and it falls to the GrimReaper to get them there, which is a full time job. Occasionally though, Death might need some help taking up the slack.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Death gives Dean his powers and responsibilities for a day as part of some big important lesson about the value of life or something.

This is a sub-trope of SubbingForSanta, which describes any situation where a normal person temporarily takes on the role of a mythological figure. That also leads us to Relieving the Reaper's divine sister tropes, GodForADay. This trope also has similar consequences to DeathTakesAHoliday, where something happens that stops Death from causing..well, death.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** In ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'', Death sends Scrofula to collect Rincewind's soul when he falls off the edge of the Disc, as he has a plague to deal with on another part of the Disc.