'''Basic Trope''': There is a huge difference between "on the brink of death" and "dead"
* '''Straight''': Alice suffers major injuries during a battle. Bob stabilizes her wounds and then use healing magic to bring her back.
* '''Exaggerated''': All that was left of Alice was a head. After having healing magic used on her, Alice recovers completely in minutes.
* '''Downplayed''': Alice was badly wounded, but might have survived even without help.
* '''Justified''': The magic accelerates natural healing. A dead person has no natural healing to work on.
* '''Inverted''': Alice dies, and Bob resurrects her. If she had been only mostly dead he would have had to wait for her to die before doing so.
* '''Subverted''': Bob recovers Alice after she suffers major injuries. He then admits that he isn't powerful enough to bring her back from that close to death.
* '''Double Subverted''': He then fetches Charlie, who specializes more heavily in healing magic. He brings her back with no problem.
* '''Parodied''': Bob brings Alice back, only for Alice to suffer an entirely different, more permanent death shortly afterwards.
* '''Zig Zagged''': The difference is part theoretical and part practical. A fossil could be restored to life, but that would require having enough ambient healing magic that [[YourHeadASplode most people's heads would spontaneously explode]]. Given an earthlike planet optimized for peak healing power it would be possible to restore someone FromASingleCell. In practice most professionals need at least breathing or the heart beating. The especially cunning and powerful may effectively use CPR on the body and then heal them. No amount of magic could revive somebody whose body was cremated or completely dissolved by a strong base or acid however.
* '''Averted''':
** Characters who are "on the brink of death" are likely to die.
** NobodyCanDie
* '''Enforced''':
** The writers need to show that Alice was in serious danger but don't want her injured and out of the story for a long time.
** The setting had previously been established as AllDeathsFinal, and the writers can't resort to killing off Alice for suspense/drama since she isn't a SacrificialLamb or [[SacrificialLion Lion]].
* '''Lampshaded''': "She's not dead yet! We can still save her."
* '''Invoked''': Bob develops strong healing magic, but [[MagicAIsMagicA it can't be used to resurrect the dead]].
* '''Exploited''': Don deliberately injures Alice to the brink of death during his getaway, knowing that Bob will have to stop to heal her before she dies.
* '''Defied''': Bob develops resurrection magic so that he can bring people back even if they do die.
* '''Discussed''': ???
* '''Conversed''': ???
* '''Deconstructed''': Bob attempts to revive Alice, but fails as his abilities do not work that way.
* '''Reconstructed''': ...then someone else tries a new approach and succeeds.
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%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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%%* '''Implied''': ???
%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???
%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???
%%* '''Played For Drama''': ???