Disney Death / Western Animation

• Amphibia:
  • A really harsh example with Marcy Wu; when she defies against King Andrias' dimensional conquest to open the portal to Earth so Anne and the Plantars will escape, he fatally stabs her with her sword. He revives her much later with the Moss Man's magic combined with the Shadowfish, so she can become a human host for his master, The Core.
  • In the Grand Finale, Anne dies after she channels the power of all three Calamity Gems through her body to destroy the Core. She is soon after revived by the Cosmic Entity that created the gems.
• In the short film Animal Behaviour, the patients worry for Dr. Clement's life when Victor's outburst leads him to jump out a window, and they hear the sounds of a car accident. Then Clement climbs back in the window and awkwardly tries to resume the therapy session.
• In the last episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender book 2, "The Crossroads of Destiny", Aang is struck by Azula's lightning. Luckily, Katara has some spirit water that she uses to heal him, but it doesn't work right away and we don't learn that he survived until the first episode of the next season. Also, the public believes that Aang died in the Avatar State (meaning the Avatar will never be reincarnated) and that the Fire Nation has won for the first half of the third season.
• In Ben 10: Alien Force, Grandpa Max pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Highbreed and was believed to be dead. A season later it was revealed that he survived and was just trapped in the Null Void.
• In the Ben 10: Omniverse "Showdown" two-parter, Malware inflicts one of these on the entire Galvanic Mechamorph species when he destroys Galvan B. They all come back at the end of the episode to help bring him down and the planet is repaired.
• Bump in the Night:
  • In the episode "Journey to the Center of the Lungfish" Captain Jetlag appears to sacrifice himself to let Mr. Bumpy, Squishington, and Molly Coddle escape the lungfish. After the three make it out of the lungfish, Bumpy gets the lungfish to cough up Jetlag completely unharmed by blowing raspberries at it.
  • The Christmas Episode "Twas the Night Before Bumpy" has the earthworm Juaquin Gusanito Sin Manos appear to be crushed by Stonehenge, but the end of the special shows that he survived by ducking into the earth right when the stone structure collapsed.
• Code Lyoko uses this trope a lot.
  • Yumi gets thrown into the Digital Sea in the Season 1 episode "Cruel Dilemma". Fortunately, at the beginning of the episode, falling candy just so happens to complete the materialization code Jérémie'd been working one since forever for Aelita. Loop Hole: He can use it once since he doesn't know what to press. He actually has to think about it before deciding to use the one-shot on Yumi and not Aelita. As such, Yumi becomes un-deleted and can be rematerialized.
  • Same thing with Aelita in "Just in Time". She does a Heroic Sacrifice, but thanks to a hair Jérémie managed to materialize at the beginning, he can bring her back (without her memories of the episode, though).
  • In "The Key", XANA takes the keys of Lyoko from Aelita's memory, and in turn kills her lifeforce. She dies, until, oh wait, her father (who was supposed to have been killed by XANA already) appears from the abyss of Lyoko and savez her!
  • Speaking of Franz Hopper, all evidence gathered (and Jérémie's rude remarks to Aelita) says that Franz killed himself saving Aelita in said incident above, until Season 4, when he suddenly lives again as a ball of glittery purple and pink energy. Apparently he can't stay out of the Digital Sea for too long (even though the Digital Sea is supposed to delete everything thrown into it), or else he'll get attacked by XANA real fast. He eventually dies in the Series Finale.
• Danny Phantom had the main character's destabilized Opposite-Sex Clone die by turning into goo even after he used the antidote to cure her. Cue hero mourning over the bucket of goo, then her head pops out and eventually her whole self — now stabilized.
• One episode of Dragon Tales did this with a caterpillar. It wasn't even dead, just metamorphosing into a butterfly.
• Duck Dodgers uses it, and then subverts it. Dodgers' Robot Buddy performs a Heroic Sacrifice by hurling itself against a comet and knocking itself to pieces. Dr. I.Q. High is confident that the robot can be rebuilt. But Dodgers really didn't like his Robot Buddy in the first place and "accidentally" breaks the remaining parts. Somehow he comes back later, gathers all the other one-shot villains from previous episodes, and plots Dodgers' demise, only to end up going through the same thing again.
• Princess Elena of Elena of Avalor experiences this twice with Shuriki. Prior to the series after she received the amulet from her parents whom Shuriki murdered, Shuriki tried to murder Elena as well but the amulet spared her life by pulling her inside. Then during their final confrontation in "Song of the Sirenas", Shuriki once again tries to kill Elena with the Scepter of Night but she was spared last minute by casting a vanish spell from the Scepter of Light. She disappears just before the hit, and with that, she survives the attack and destroys Shuriki in her place.
• Alec Deleon in Exo Squad actually does die, but his Super Prototype Humongous Mecha happens to contain his personality and memories up to the moment of his death, so his friends simply clone him a new body and download his memories into it, effectively bringing him back to life. (This was actually a result of Executive Meddling.)
• The Fairly OddParents!: When Timmy, Chester, and AJ are trapped in The Most Dangerous Video Game, Timmy pulls an Heroic Sacrifice in order to save his friends from the Final Boss. However, pulling this off gives him enough points for an extra life.
• Fantastic Four: The Animated Series:
  • Lady Dorma gets stabbed in the chest in "Now Comes the Sub-Mariner", but Reed Richards manages to revive her using his molecular resuscitator.
  • The Thing turns out to survive his beating at the hands of the Hulk in the episode "Nightmare in Green".
  • Doctor Doom appears to die in the Grand Finale "Doomsday", but The Incredible Hulk (1996), which takes place in the same continuity as the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon, reveals that he's still alive in the episode "Doomed".
• Garfield and Friends: In the U.S. Acres segment "No Laughing Matter", the aliens from Clarion get killed by laughing at Roy slipping on a banana. In the Quickie before "Much Ado About Lanolin" (a later episode), Orson, Booker, and Shelldon watch a show about the Clarion aliens, whom are revealed to (still) exist at the end of the Quickie by coming out of the TV.
• A good example of a Robot Disney Death in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) episode "The Roboto Gambit", where the episode's title character sacrifices himself to foil an evil plan, complete with a death scene. Later, Teela mourns that she should have appreciated Roboto's courage and resourcefulness when she had the chance. However, Man-At-Arms immediately states that she will have that opportunity, as he presents the good-as-new Roboto, whom he just repaired.
• Invader Zim:
  • In the episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", Zim throws rubber piggies into the past to ruin Dib's life. Replacing the defibrillator with pigs appears to seal Dib's fate, complete with a flat line. Cue Professor Membrane fixing him, not only keeping him alive but provoking a We Can Rebuild Him moment where Zim's plan backfires.
  • Iggins was supposed to die in an elevator crash in the episode "Game Slave 2". Nickelodeon said "nope." What we got was IGGINS!!!
• Justice League:
  • Teased towards the end of "The Brave and the Bold" when the League tries to stop nuclear missiles from hitting Gorilla City. Wonder Woman stops a missile from exploding but she appears to be crushed under some rubble. Somber music plays, the League and gorillas look on sadly, and Batman frantically searches for her while shouting her name. She emerges a minute later with the guidance system.
  • "Hereafter" is a particularly prominent example; all of part 1 deals with Superman's apparent death and the reactions to it, and then part 2 explains how he survived.
  • The Unlimited episode "Divided We Fall" has the apparent death of the Flash after he singlehandedly takes down "Brainthor", but overtaxes his powers and ends up vanishing into the Speed Force. He stays dead just long enough for us to resolve the whole "is Superman gonna turn into his Justice Lord counterpart and bring about an apocalypse?" plotline that's been foreshadowed all season. Only then does J'onn reveal that Wally is not dead yet and the League say Screw Destiny and drag him back from the brink.
• Legion of Super Heroes (2006) does this in its first season, with Brainiac 5 handing Superman a little piece of himself before running off on a suicide mission. Clark can't both do his part to free the rest of the team and save Brainiac, and when they find him, he's mourning Brainy's lifeless body. The Legionnaires promptly ask who has the back-up disc.
• The immortal Looney Tunes short What's Opera, Doc?, in which we see Elmer Fudd actually kill Bugs Bunny (in a particularly malevolent fashion), at which point he laments the foolishness of his actions, carrying Bugs away. Bugs looks to the audience and asks "What did ya expect from an Opera? A happy ending?"
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "Over a Barrel", the settler ponies and a tribe of buffalo are feuding over land, eventually leading to the two groups fighting it out. The fighting then ends when both sides are horrified at the buffalo chief is taken out, but he then turns out to be just fine. Of course, it's not too surprising considering the thing that took him out was an apple pie to the face.
  • In "A Bird in the Hoof", Celestia's allegedly "sick" pet bird Philomena burns to ashes in front of a shocked Fluttershy... shortly before it is revealed^note after the fact that she is actually a phoenix that was just about to rise from her own ashes. There is absolutely no clue to this whatsoever.
  • In "Magical Mystery Cure", Twilight is "vaporized" after casting Starswirl's completed spell, ascends to the astral plane, where she has a life review with Celestia, and returns to the physical world as an alicorn princess.
  • In "Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2", Twilight, thinking that Luna has turned back into Nightmare Moon, sobs over the body of Princess Celestia, after she is struck by Nightmare Moon. It is only after Celestia recovers and activates the Elements of Harmony does Twilight realize that she is witnessing the night Nightmare Moon was banished.
• In the Oh Yeah! Cartoons short "The Feelers", Mitzi Moth gets sprayed by bug spray and appears to die in Mo Skito's arms. She turns out to be alive after Crusty starts playing the Feelers' recorded song and the song is praised by Mr. Katzeneisner, as she comes to as soon as Mo Skito's tears fall on her.
• Oscar's Orchestra: In the episode “Star Crossed”, Tobias (Thadius Vent’s nephew) appears to drown after falling off a ladder into the water. He didn’t; he just swam underwater to where the orchestra was rehearsing, hoping to warn them that they were in danger.
• In Phantom 2040, Rebecca Madison blows up Dijkstra Station, apparently killing Sean One and everyone else on board... except it later turns out they all managed to get to escape pods in time. Sean One then exploits this to prompt a vote among the Orbital Nation to formally declare independence and cut all ties with Earth.
• Nightcrawler appears to die near the end of Pryde of the X-Men, but subsequently turns out to have survived his fall to Earth by teleporting into a closet at the last second.
• The Real Ghostbusters has given Slimer at least two fake-out deaths.
  • In "Big Trouble with Little Slimer", Walter Peck appears to succeed in blowing Slimer to pieces, but Slimer manages to reassemble himself shortly afterward.
  • Slimer ends up one of the ghosts vaporized by the titular ghost-hunting robot in "Robo-Buster", but it later turns out that all of the ghosts Robo-Buster blasted weren't destroyed, but simply fused into a giant ectoplasmic amalgamation. The Ghostbusters manage to separate Slimer from this fusion while trapping the other ghosts that make up this enormous entity.
• The Owl House: During the Grand Finale, Luz prevents The Collector from being attacked by Belos, and instead she gets disintegrated in his place, dying temporarily. Luz's spirit then goes to the In-Between Realm, where she mets the Titan, who gives her the last of his power to revive her and defeat Belos.
• In the first of the two animated specials based on the short-lived Rose Petal Place toyline of The '80s, Rose-Petal is hit with a double whammy by the villainess Nastina: First she's tricked into consuming a potion that ruins her magical singing voice, and then imprisoned in a virtually lightless room — being a flower-woman, this proves fatal. Her friends manage to recover her body and as they weep, their tears fall upon the tear-shaped crystal on her leaf-and-blossom headdress. She and they were originally borne of a little human girl's tears falling upon flowers, so this is sufficient to bring her back to life and full health.
• The Rupert episode "Rupert and Billy Blizzard" had Rupert Bear's snowman sacrifice himself to defeat Billy Blizzard, but the young bear is fortunately able to rebuild him later.
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated:
  • Happens twice to Nova. First as a Shout-Out to The Lion King (1994) then when she appears to have flatlined in the hospital, it turns out she's being possessed.
  • In "The House of the Nightmare Witch" Shaggy appears to have fallen to his death. Scooby barely has a few seconds to start crying before Shaggy quickly opens his eyes.
  • In "Gates of Gloom" Fred, Velma, and Daphne all apparently perish inside the Mystery Machine when they blow it up to destroy Pericles' robots. Fortunately, Fred was actually piloting it with remote control so they're all okay. Though the fact that the gang's iconic van is gone still manages to be a pretty big gut punch in itself.
• In The Simpsons episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" Homer eats fugu which is poisonous if cut incorrectly. When Dr. Hibbert is unable to determine for sure whether Homer indeed ate toxic portions of the fish – he merely accepts the word of the sushi chef – he tells Homer that he has 22 hours to live (24, minus the two hours it took to perform tests and contact the chef). Homer is left to make a list of things to do before he dies. That night, Homer falls asleep in an armchair while listening to the Bible-on-tape ... although with his head suddenly drooping and arms falling limp, plus a dark music cue to underscore the moment, the viewer is led to believe that he possibly did succumb to the poison. The next morning, Marge finds Homer and fears the worst when she sees him lying still in the armchair; she begins to cry and caress him ... only to touch his drool, which is still warm, making her realize her husband is still very much alive. Homer realizes this too when he is awakened by his wife holding him.
• The Smurfs (1981): At least two examples:
  • "Stop and Smurf the Roses": Chlohydrous, annoyed at the Smurf's beautiful woodelf (and mute) friend, Laconia, sets out to kill Laconia by destroying her very life source: flowers. Indeed, Laconia does "die" after Chlohydrous casts a spell, growing sick as the flowers die off in groups. The other Smurfs do come to rescue Laconia (along with Papa and Natural), but even after they defeat Chlohydrous, it may be too late for Laconia. The other Smurfs prepare for Laconia's funeral, laying her on a lilypad ... but then, she is revived after Papa Smurf reverses Chlohydrous' spell.
  • "Smurfquest": As the Smurfs rapidly age in their quest to restore the Long Life Stone, Grandpa Smurf (introduced in this episode) dies just as the elements are being placed in the Stone's box. While the other (now elderly) Smurfs mourn Grandpa's death, the stone goes through its restoration cycle, and it isn't long before the other Smurfs' youths are restored ... and Grandpa is brought back to life.
• In the episode of South Park with the hippie music festival, the mayor shoots herself in the head when she finally realizes the gravity of her folly. She later reappears when they're using the giant drill with a bandage on her head, ready to take command at mission control. For some reason headshots are often non-fatal in South Park: see also Bill Gates (shot in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, reappears with a Band-Aid on his head in "The Entity"), Britney Spears, the scientist in "Night of the Living Homeless", and Kenny. Could it be because the characters have no brains?
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Ditchin'", SpongeBob falls into a tar pit and drowns, but the thought of Mrs. Puff's bathroom key (which he never returned) causes him to miraculously escape.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • In "Altar of Mortis", Ahsoka, who was possessed by the Son of Mortis, was killed after she gives him the Dagger of Mortis, but she doesn't remain dead, as she is brought back to life when the Daughter (who was stabbed by the Son when taking the stab intended for the Father) transfers her remaining life force into Ahsoka, using Anakin as medium.
  • In "Point of No Return", R2-D2 stays aboard a Republic cruiser that the Separatists have hijacked and converted into what is essentially a fleet-destroying missile. To stop the ship from destroying its intended target, Artoo detonates the explosives prematurely. Artoo is torn apart and rendered inoperable in the explosion, but Anakin has him salvaged and rebuilt not long after. However, given that it's already been established that Artoo survives the Clone Wars, this is also a case of Saved by Canon.
• Star Wars Resistance: In "Descent", astromech droid Bucket is shot by a stormtrooper and falls into the ocean while Yeager, Kaz, Neeku and CB-23 are escaping the repair shop, to Yeager's horror. When they eventually make it to safety in engineering, they discover that the Chelidae maintenance workers snagged Bucket in their fishing nets and repaired him.
• Steven Universe: In "Off Colors", Lars makes a Heroic Sacrifice to protect the Off Color Gems from one of Homeworld's Robonoid probes. Steven cries over the dying Lars, and his tears (when Steven had only been able to use his spit to channel his mother's healing powers) miraculously bring Lars back to life... though not without a few changes. Though I guess we'll give that one a pass because Lars technically DID die and was revived as an immortal zombie.
• In the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! Season 2 finale, Antauri dies, much to Chiro's sorrow. By the time we start Season 3, he comes back as the silver monkey.
• Happens to Ilana in "The Demon Within" episode of Sym-Bionic Titan. Technically also happens to Octus later on, only it takes two episodes for the character to be revived.
• Tangled: The Series:
  • In the climax of "Queen For a Day", Pascal pulls this as he jumps right into the gears of the Demanitus Device to dislodge a stone from the gears, allowing it to activate and end the deadly blizzard bestowed by Zhan Tiri. He emerges not long later alive, but badly injured from the fall.
  • In the Grand Finale, Cassandra nearly dies when using up all her energy to help Rapunzel destroy Zhan Tiri, until Rapunzel revives her with one last Healing Incantation.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) LOVES this. Done with Michelangelo in season 3, Leonardo at the end of season 3 (The Tonight, Someone Dies commercial didn't hurt matters either), done with April, Casey, and Mikey's cat in season 4 (this one a case of All Just a Dream), done with Leo's entire family during a two-parter in season 4 (both the audience and Leo learns of their surprisingly logical survivals in pt 2 through flashbacks), and Casey and April again in season 7 (complete with ominous commercial promising "a Very Special Episode"). A number of supporting characters stay dead for multiple episodes.
• Zigzagged with Thunder Cats 2011 Jaga. The Court Mage of Thundera, initially performs a You Shall Not Pass!, seemingly dying in the attempt, allowing Thundera's young king Lion-O and his allies to flee as the city is invaded by the forces of Big Bad Mumm-Ra. Jaga is soon revealed to instead be Mumm-Ra's prisoner, tortured for information on a mystical Great Big Book of Everything's location. Mumm-Ra eventually forces the issue by performing a Your Soul Is Mine!, imprisoning The Disembodied Jaga in a Soul Jar that will lead them to the book. In a last-ditch effort to prevent Mumm-Ra from getting it, Jaga performs a magical Heroic Sacrifice that shatters his soul jar, dissipates him, and sends Mumm-Ra fleeing, leaving Jaga's allies to grieve his loss again. Soon after, when Lion-O closely examines the book, it is revealed as Magitek that draws Lion-O's soul inside, where he meets Jaga, now serving as a Spirit Advisor/Virtual Ghost. When Lion-O asks if he's alive, Jaga gives an opaque non-answer.
• Time Warp Trio:
  • In "Wushu Were Here", Joe and Anna thought Fred got killed by a monk, but it turned out that Fred wasn't dead, and in fact a monk never kills.
  • In "Dude, Where's My Karma?", the kids thought Fred ate something poisonous, but turns out he was only sleeping.
  • In "The Good, the Bad and the Goofy", Joe thought Sam and Fred drowned in a rapid river turns out they were alive.
• In the Tom and Jerry episode "Heavenly Puss", Tom gets hit by a piano and dies, ending up in heaven, but he won't be able to pass through the gates without Jerry's forgiveness. Tom is given a set amount of time to receive Jerry's signature on a certificate of forgiveness, but gets it seconds too late, and falls down to Hell. Turns out to be All Just a Dream and Tom suddenly hugs a bewildered Jerry.
• The Transformers: The Movie: Ultra Magnus is dismembered by the Sweeps, but reassembled by the Junkions shortly after.
  • Transformers: Armada: Optimus is blasted into dust by the Hydra Cannon, but is resurrected 3 episodes later. Earlier, Smokescreen sacrifices himself, but is rebuilt as Hoist.
  • Happens to Optimus at least once in most films and series.
• Happened a couple of times to Underdog, such as being electrocuted, chained up, and thrown into a lake in "A New Villain". Then again...
• Twice in Winx Club (not in the 4Kids dub).
  • Season two: During the witches' break-in at Red Fountain to get the Codex, Icy kills Sky. The giveaway? His heart stops. But Bloom suddenly discovers her healing magic and brings him back from the dead.
  • Season three: To earn their Enchantix powers, fairies have to sacrifice themselves for someone from their realms. While trying to retrieve the time-turning tears of the Black Willow, Flora dives into tainted water to save her little sister. She gets caught in the vines at the bottom and presumably drowns. Then the Willow "cries" into the river; Flora is returned to the moment before she died and obtains her Enchantix.
  • Stella had a similar treatment when her father is in peril by a dragon and she used up all energy she could to defeat the dragon and protect him. She ends up nearly dying from a result of exhausting so much energy to send the dragon away, and because of her bravery and great sacrifice to save her father, she earns her Enchantix and is restored back to full health.
  • There was another one in season 3, when Tecna was believed to have died after closing up the Omega portal. She managed to survive thanks to her new Enchantix powers.
  • The aversion: In season four, Nabu sacrifices himself to close a dark abyss the Wizards have created to suck up the fairies of Earth, and Aisha is about to use the Black Gift to revive him, but Ogron steals it and uses it on a wilting flower instead. Aside from a couple animation goofs, Nabu doesn't return at the end of the season, so it looks like he is dead for real. This hasn't sat well with the fans. And it also created some Fridge Logic, since Bloom seems to have forgotten her healing powers.
• Woody Woodpecker pulls this on purpose on the classic short The Loan Stranger. Specifically, he tricks the Loan Shark into thinking he smashed Woody's skull with a single punch, killing him right there, in order to get the Loan Shark to tear up the loan he had been trying to get Woody to pay back the whole time.
• Mixels: Near the end of "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", it seems that Booger is killed off when trapped in King Nixel's missile. Luckily, he survives the explosion, parachuting down.
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: In "I Am Madam President", Berby eventually runs out of gas, and when the gang goes to meet Sally Ride, she dies and drifts off into space. Luckily she comes back to life when Yadina saves her.

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