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To life! To life, I'll bring them
I'll bring all these dead men to life!
A major character, possibly even a popularly nasty Big Bad, has been Killed Off For Real, pronounced dead and buried. However, the established laws of the universe allow for Functional Magic, a Sufficiently Advanced Alien, Applied Phlebotinum, Deus Ex Machina or similar agency to intervene and subvert what naturally follows dying. Namely, staying dead. (In some cases, an explanation isn't even bothered with.)
Maybe the writers were running short of new ideas and decided to rehash some old ones. Maybe the actor has recently acquired some indecent photographs of the producers. Maybe the new writer was devastated his predecessor killed the character. Who knows? He is now Back From The Dead.
The form of afterlife can vary pretty widely. They may "simply" be resurrected or reincarnated (usually as a sentient pet animal), physical or mental alterations optional; or we may now have a ghost, or vampire... zombie, angel, godling, demon... haunted car... okay, that last one will be hard to top (except with a Love-matic Grandpa!).
If a character cannot come back from the dead entirely, they may show up as a Spirit Advisor or The Obi Wan, letting them be literally dead, but allowing them to interact with the living.
In the Star Trek Voyager episode "Mortal Coil", Neelix actually dies for real but is (some would argue unfortunately) brought back to life some 18 hours later. This is an example of Contractual Immortality. In order to qualify for being brought Back From The Dead, a character in a TV show would have to be still dead at the end of one episode and resurrected, by whatever means, in a later episode (2-parters don't count).
See Death Is Cheap for when this becomes a regular feature of a 'verse, Sorting Algorithm Of Deadness for the odds a particular death will stick, and the accompanying betting pool for which modern Lazarus is due back next.
A general rule of thumb is that if you Never Found The Body, the character is Not Quite Dead in the first place (and therefore not a candidate for this trope). One of the most common examples of this is that if a character falls off of a cliff or other high structure, especially into water, he or she is almost guaranteed to still be alive. An explosion gives more reasonable odds. Of course, even if Deader Than Dead, even if you see the body and you've atomized it so finely that each individual molecule is a galaxy apart... there's always Time Travel. Removing the entire thing from existence can be done, and equally undone by a similar Deus Ex Machina.
Faking The Dead has its own trope.
The character's resurrection from the dead could result in a situation of Unwanted Revival.
Examples
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Anime
- Rozen Maiden Suigintou pulls a Back From The Dead after getting killed in the last episode of Season One and several are revived in Traumend. And damaged "normal" animated doll brought back by Jun (almost accidentally).
- Fushigi Yuugi: The Killed Off For Real members of Team Suzaku are brought back as Spirit Advisors in the final episode, possessing volunteers so they can contribute to the fight. The OVAs have their ghosts show up a few more times before finally using Reincarnation to bring them back for good.
- On Gekiganger 3, the Show Within A Show of Martian Successor Nadesico, Joe Umitsubame comes back from the dead, piloting the original Gekiganger 3 robot, to help the rest of the team defeat the show's Big Bad. A character watching this episode comments on the fact that people in real life (like the Killed Off For Real Gai Daigouji and Tsukomo Shiratori) don't come back from the dead, another example of the show's contrast of Gekiganger's idealistic worldview and the "reality" of Nadesico. Ironically, in that very same episode, the apparently-dead Admiral turned out to be Not Quite Dead.
- Kotomine Kirei is still around in Fate Stay Night, even though he 'died' at the end of Fate Zero (a prequel). Shirou also dies a couple times during the story and is revived during the course of the episode.
- Muhammed Avdol of the third part of Jojos Bizarre Adventure was shot in the head by Hol Horse (giving Polnareff a lesson about not being a selfish prick, and working together), but came back in a later chapter (where it was revealed that the bullet bounced off his skull). The kicker here is that he's killed off only a few chapters later by Dio's Dragon, Vanilla Ice.
- Before him, in the second part, Stroheim blows himself up with a grenade in an attempt to kill Santana, who is possessing him. Some twenty chapters later, he returns as a cyborg.
- Everyone in Sailor Moon is expected to die near or at the end of each arc, usually for the sake of being Team Cannon Fodder, but sometimes for an actual reason.
- Tokyo Mew Mew takes a page from Sailor Moon and kills off the whole cast in the Grand Finale, only to bring them back with a single Mew Aqua and True Loves Kiss. (The latter was only for one person, otherwise, it would get really silly.)
- The Bronze Saints in Saint Seiya seem to suffer from this, considering they "die" (or at least, they're dealt fatal blows) by the end of each saga. The series Hand Waves this by claiming that Athena can bring them back from the brink of death; however, Hades himself can reanimate the dead and turn them into Specters for his army.
- Dragonball. Started with Bora after he was killed by Tao Pai Pai, and then "wishing someone (or a group of someones) back to life" became the standard use for the Dragon Balls. Became downright silly when the limitations to this (no wishing back someone twice, or someone who had died more than a year ago) were removed, as every single casualty in the series could be undone easily.
- ...yet somehow, it still managed to be a Tear Jerker in some cases. Toriyama was still far better at writing joy than grief, however.
- The Book of Darkness, the Wolkenritter, and the corrupted self-defense program from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha are able to perform this repeatedly thanks to the Book's Rejuvenation Program. You can rip off their very life force and even obliterate them without a trace using a weapon that distorts the very fabric of time and space, but as long as the Rejuvenation Program is active, they will eventually be revived.
- And thus, the only known method to actually stop the Book of Darkness for good is to freeze it. No direct destruction will ever keep it from reappearing.
- Mahoro, of Mahoromatic, isn't so much brought back from the dead as reincarnated by her connection to Matthew, the collective subconscious of Saint. Unlike most examples of the trope, it doesn't happen until 20 years later. This allows Suguru to finally stop torturing himself, and Mahoro to live the life she's wanted without that pesky death clock hanging over her head.
- Problem is, it's both foreshadowed early in the first season (episode 5, to be exact) AND by the imagery used after the Flashback, that neither Mahoro nor Suguru is actually alive at the end of the episode. Generally, entering a glowing white doorway equals death and a entry to the afterlife, not to mention Mahoro using the EXACT words and gesture from episode 5. It's this troper's opinion that Mahoro was incarnated as a ghost. Ghosts in Mahoroimatic can be carried by those alive, as shown again in episode 5.
- Ayanami Rei of Neon Genesis Evangelion. "I guess...I'm the third one."
- Kikyou, from Inuyasha, was brought back from the dead early on, while still staying dead. She just had her soul transferred into a clay doll body, instead.
- Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds
Rex Godwin: Dark Signers are the souls of the dead who have awakened to their abilities. In other words, they are no longer of this world.
- Happens in the anime movie, Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back. Mewtwo and Mew are duking it out and prepare to use their ultimate attacks when Ash steps in between them to stop the fight, only be hit by the attacks at the same time. He collapses and his body turns colorless. Pikachu tries to revive Ash with his electricity several times, but then realizes that Ash is dead. Pikachu begins to cry and then all the Pokemon and the clones begin to cry as well. The power of the Pokemon tears is what brings Ash back to life.
- Much of the cast of Gantz usually die before their involvement in the story. If they die during a hunt, then someone could spend 100 points to bring them back.
- In 07Ghost the main character's Heterosexual Life Partner Mikage Is killed by the Big Bad to prove a point and is reincarnated as a baby dragon, apparently solely to alleviate the pain of his death. He has done nothing in the plot so far but sit on Teito's shoulder and look cute. And bite a couple of people.
- Konoha village in Naruto recently.
- Rosette Christopher from Chrono Crusade, using sheer willpower and a little help from Maria Magadalena, and probably guided by the Apostles to return to her body, just in time to give Aion a powerful shot that shattters his prized sword.
- Yu Yu Hakusho is rife with examples of this trope. Talking about how many times Yuusuke comes back from the dead wouldn't even be that full of spoilers (we're talking first episode here).
Comic Books
- Common in American Super Hero comic books, to the point that whenever a popular character dies, it's a given that they'll be back on their feet five to ten years later. At most. Villains especially. At one time, it was said that "Nobody ever stays dead in comics, except Bucky, Uncle Ben, and Jason Todd." Naturally, since that phrase was coined, all three have at least shown up, though not all of these returns were truly Back From The Dead.
- Meaning that only Uncle Ben stayed dead. But that was because the timeline got changed temporarily. Then back. Bucky and Jason are ALIVE AND KICKING. With various degrees of quality.
- Lampshaded in X-Factor, where Siryn gets the news that her father, Banshee, one of the X-Men, is dead. She simply doesn't believe it; the X-Men come Back From The Dead more than anyone else in the Marvel Universe (once the entire current team sacrificed themselves only to be resurrected at the end of the issue), so she's sure he's just pretending to be dead as part of some plan.
- Also Lampshaded once in Excalibur, when Magneto muses that they all seem to have a "survive anything" power.
- And, of course, Mags himself has had several "final" encounters with the heroes (and with worse villains.) His most recent appearance ends with a Never Found The Body situation.
- And although it hasn't happened yet, virtually every discussion among the comic-knowledgeable (as opposed to the general media) about the death of Captain America includes some guess as to the circumstances where/when he'll come back. He's done it before, after all.
- Lampshaded in Astonishing X-Men. After Kitty finds out that Colossus isn't really dead, she warns him that if he's a clone, robot, ghost, or from an alternate universe, she's okay with that, but if he's a shapeshifter or an illusionist, she'll kill him. Obviously, this happens a lot.
- A few issues later, Cyclops comes up with a cunning plan in which the first two steps are 1) Kill myself. 2) Get resurrected. If it wasn't for the fact that it worked more or less perfectly, this would almost be a case of being too Genre Savvy.
- In The All-New Atom, when Jason Todd, Donna Troy and Ryan Choi go to a (most likely fake) Heaven, they meet Ted Kord, who comments, "The recidivism here is shocking. Sometimes I think me and Bruce Wayne's parents are the only ones with a permanent parking space." He also comments "And Jason Todd, too? Didn't you just get parole, like, the day before yesterday?"
- A storyarc of Fantastic Four doesn't even bother with the pretense. A few pages before the end of an issue, the Thing is killed; the cliffhanger of the issue is Sue receiving a call from Reed about how he intends to bring him back to life. Naturally, a few issues later, the Thing is back as usual.
- The creators of Ultimate Marvel had promised that this ‘verse would be free of the "revolving door or death" policy and who died there, would stay dead. After they said that, both Professor X and Beast were killed but "got better". Both fall more under Not Quite Dead than this trope, though. In particular, Professor X's death was revealed to have been fake in the issue after it happened.
- Sort of justified with Thanos of Titan, with Death being his lover, and all. A fact he often lampshades to other characters:
Thanos: Death, Thunder God, is akin to lovemaking. It gets better every time.
- This reached its apex in the recent cosmic crossover Annihilation, when Thanos is seemingly Killed Off For Real by Drax The Destroyer, then officially becomes Death's consort.
- Mr. Immortal's power is a parody of this; his only major power is that he will always come back to life a few seconds after dying.
- Similarly, DC's Multi-Man resurrects after he dies and has a new super power each time. He's a nice guy whose life pretty much involves being taken advantage of by both villains and heroes who kill him over and over and over until he has a power useful to them.
- Same thing with Resurrection Man. Thanks to nanotech experiments (which are suggested to have unlocked something deeper), he'll not only return from the dead shortly after being killed, but with a superpower that allows him to counteract said means of death. Hit him with a shotgun? He can harden air into a forcefield. Blow him up? He's pyrokinetic and immune to flame.
- And who can forget the classic storyline and graphic novel The Death of Superman? After "dying" in battle with the mindless monster Doomsday, four Doppelgängers appear! Which one could be the real Superman?
- Is it the mysterious black-and-blue colored Superman with the thick shades? Nope! Hyper-advanced clone/golem made from marble, controlled by the Eradicator, and powered by Superman's "corpse".
- Is the half-Terminator Cyborg Superman the real deal? Nope! He's Hank Henshaw, the DCU equivalent of Reed Richards, using stolen genetic material and kryptonian alloy stolen from Superman's birthing matrix. I mean rocket ship. Also, the only one who's actually evil.
- Is the Metropolis Marvel Superboy who claims to be a clone the real deal? Nope! He's a... well, he's a clone. And half his genetic material came, not from Superman, but from
Paul Westfield Lex Luthor. Weirdest parents ever.
- Is the mysterious armored Steel the new Superman? Nope! He's John Henry Irons, the DCU equivalent of Iron Man, and never really claims to be the new Superman, though some reporters think he's the only one deserving of it.
- So, in the end, Superman was actually resuscitated soon after his "death", spent some time in a coma, and eventually was woken up by androids. So nobody was Superman, Back From The Dead! Don't you love happy endings?
- However, this trope might actually be hugely subverted in the Marvel Universe. For the upcoming Secret Invasion story arc, Earth's superhero community has been infiltrated by shapeshifting Skrulls. Marvel has implied that some or all of the heroes who have returned from the dead have a good chance of actually being Skrull infiltrators. This was quickly proven when Elektra turned out to be a Skrull; so far, Captain Marvel's return has also been revealed to fall under this.
- Later played totally straight, as it turns out Skrulls apparently never kill the people they replace. A mass variety of characters, from Dugan to Mockingbird to Jarvis, to Spiderwoman to Hank Pym, have all been revealed to be perfectly fine, save some psychological trauma.
- The writers of Amazing Spider-Man attempted to be edgy when they devoted a 12-part series that ran across multiple Spider-Man titles and ended with Peter Parker getting his eye ripped out by a vampiric villain before getting killed. Of course, no matter how much the creators of the arc attempted to convince the readers that Peter was truly dead, he ended up coming back with more organic powers, as well as a new suit built for him by Tony Stark.
- Completely subverted (not to say stomped on) by ElfQuest. After One-Eye of the Wolfriders is killed in battle, Leetah the healer succeeds in reanimating him, but he is effectively brain-dead because his spirit has left his body. His lifemate Clearbrook has his body preserved in suspended animation in the hope of someday reviving him, but eventually decides to free his spirit completely by letting his body finally die.
- Justified in Iron Man, if the Iron Man armor is destroyed but Tony Stark, the man actually wearing the armor, manages to escape intact. On occasion, Iron Man's foes will defeat him, and think they have destroyed Iron Man...until Stark comes back with a new and improved suit.
- The Iron Man: Hypervelocity mini-series goes further and has an armor that copies his mind in the event that he is killed. This occurs when he is attacked by rogue robots. He lives, since this takes place in the gap between Avengers Disassembled and Extremis, and the armor sacrifices itself.
- In Journey Into Mystery (Thor after Thor had died at Onslaught's hands), the Norse gods discover they are targeted by Set, the Egyptian God of the Dead. They travel to his country and are attacked by two people Set's mooks had killed. They bring one, Red Norvell, back to the land of the living by the expedient of grabbing him and dragging him back with them.
- Parodied in Peter David's Incredible Hulk. Rick Jones' fiancee Marlo is dead. He goes to Doctor Strange and points out that everyone in the room has returned from the dead.
Rick: Wong, have you returned from the dead?
Wong: Well, yes.
Rick: And Doc, have you come back from the dead?
Doctor Strange: Yes, but I AM a professional.
- Eventually he asks the Leader to bring her back from the dead. He does.
- In X-Men Jean Grey only came back once despite what some writers who Did Not Do The Research think. And once those Running The Asylum get their heads out of you-know-where, she'll have come back only twice. So she belongs in this trope, not Death Is Cheap.
- Half the cast of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen were supposedly killed in the original novels.
- The current DC Crisis Crossover The Blackest Night sees the return of many currently deceased DC characters as part of the Black Lantern corps; essentially a legion of evil zombie superheroes.
- Interesting development alert: while the Black Lantern rings were attempting to bring back the original Sensitve Guy And Manly Man Hawk and Dove team, only Hank Hall came back; the rings trying to revive his brother Don find that their attempt was in vain, saying that "Don Hall [is] at peace" and apparently destroying themselves. Chekhov's (Dead) Gunman, perhaps?
- In Preacher, Jesse's girlfriend, Tulip, is brutally murdered in front of him. God brings her back to life as a sort of a bribe, because He's scared of Genesis, which has taken up residence inside Jesse. God figures if He gives Jesse back his girlfriend, maybe he'll leave Him alone.
- The comic Star Trek: Countdown, which ties into The Film Of The Series Star Trek (2009) but is set many years after Star Trek Nemesis, has the Enterprise commanded by Captain Data. Apparently, the scene at the end of Nemesis where B4 whistles Gershwin wasn't just an indication he'd picked up some of Data's personality traits, it was the first step of a complete Grand Theft Me.
- Parodied in Too Much Coffee Man, where the eponymous character appears to be killed and resurrected so many in the span of a few minutes that his friends stop caring.
- In The Warlord the villain Deimos kept coming back, but each time worse than before: first time he had the sword scar across his face; second time, his body was fused with the dog that killed him; third time he was a head on a hand; final time he was a skull in a magical golem body.
Fairy Tales
- In The Death of Koshchei The Deathless
 , after Koshchei chops the hero into little pieces, throws them into a barrel, and throws the barrel into the sea, his brothers-in-law retrieve the barrel, use the Water of Death to put him back to together, and the Water of life to bring him back to life.
- In Grimms' Faithful John, John is turned to stone for explaining his apparently senseless behavior. The king and queen learn they can restore him by cutting the throats of their twin children and using the blood. After they do so, the revived Faithful John puts the children's head back and restores them to life.
- In Grimms' Brother And Sister, the Wicked Stepmother suffocates her (married) stepdaughter in a bathhouse and substitutes her own daughter. The stepdaughter comes back as a ghost and is magically restored.
- In Grimms' Fitcher's Bird, the heroine restores her sisters after they have been hacked to pieces.
- In Grimms' The Juniper Tree, after the stepson has been killed and cooked by his Wicked Stepmother, eaten by his father, and had his bones buried by his half-sister, he comes back as a bird. After killing his stepmother, he comes back to life as a boy.
- In The Three Citrons, after a slave murders the heroine with a hairpin, she returns as a dove; when the slave has her killed and cooked, she returns again in human form.
- In The Golden Mermaid, after the envious older brothers beat their younger brother to death, the golden mermaid revives him with the advice of a talking fox.
Film
- Pirates Of The Caribbean: Captain Barbossa and Jack Sparrow both return from the dead, with help from other characters. The characters comment on it in At World's End: "There's never a guarantee of coming back. But passing on, that's dead certain."
- If you count going to Davey Jone's Locker and coming back as coming back from the dead, the amount of characters who don't die and come back in some form can be counted on one hand. Some characters do it more than once!
- Spock was Killed Off For Real in Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan, but came Back From The Dead two years later in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.
- Parodied in The Truman Show, in which Truman's "father" — who was long ago written out of Truman's "life" — has become such a pest in trying to get himself back onto the show in that he's even managed to get Truman questioning the nature of his reality, thus forcing the producers to write him back into the show. When questioned as to how the heck they intend to explain away the fact that he is now back the dead, the director — obviously winging it — blurts out "Amnesia."
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen offers a double whammy of this, although one is only suggested, presumably as a setup for a sequel that never got made. spoiler
First, the villain of the movie turns out to be [[spoiler:Professor Moriarty, nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, who everybody thought got killed at Reichenbach Falls a few years before the time of the film. Then, at the absolute end of the movie, a witch doctor is performing a ritual at the grave of Allan Quatermain, the League's leader, and the skies darken and the ground trembles. This was the supposed sequel set-up.
- Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (Again!)
- Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss drowns in a mini-sub, but is subsequently revived with no ill effects due to the very cold temperatures.
- A scene staged to have somewhat more emotion on camera than is strictly logical. She was going to drown and they knew it. Bud Brigman could have begun towing her to rescue sooner, increasing her odds for survival. But then she would go unconscious off camera.
- The revival scene also provides the only Fanservice in the film.
- In addition to the title undead, The Mummy Trilogy gives us an instance of a character, Evie, being brought Back From The Dead thanks to her son's ability to read ancient Egyptian.
- Played hilariously straight (though unintentionally) by Space Mutiny. A woman is dragged to the Big Bad by Random Mooks and shot dead. The next scene shows our heroes discovering the body and tailing the bad guys in...um...a golf-kart. The next scene shows the same woman typing in the background as an extra.
- The film Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack has the original 1954 Godzilla resurrected by the vengeful spirits of the forgotten soldiers who died in WWII.
- Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen has it happen thrice in the same movie. First with Megatron, who died at the end of the first movie. Then with Optimus Prime, who is killed after fighting Megatron, Starscream and Grindor and Megatron stabs (and blasts) him from behind. He is resurrected later so he can go kick The Fallen's ass. Then Sam, who temporarily goes to robot heaven, so he can save Optimus.
Literature
- The Bible: Jesus and a whole bunch of people.
- Neil Gaiman examples:
- American Gods: Laura is revived by a magical coin placed in her grave, but you wouldn't call her exactly alive. Also, part of Wednesday's plan involves this.
- Neverwhere: The Marquis de Carabas was Killed Off For Real but had the foresight to arrange his resurrection in advance, letting him come back with useful information because people talk in front of the dead.
- William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Westley comes back from the dead not once, but twice. Sure, the first time he was only presumed dead, but the second...
- In Kay Hooper's Hiding in the Shadows, Faith comes out of her coma with what everyone thinks is Trauma Induced Amnesia, a few weeks after her friend Dinah disappears. Both of them have Psychic Powers. Turns out that Faith was Dead All Along within her coma, and the reason why she doesn't remember her former life is because dead Dinah took over her empty body, and it just takes her awhile to realize who she is now. This smacks of trying to make the romance between Faith and Dinah's boyfriend Kane less creepy, but...yeah.
- Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, because it deals with a reincarnation mythos, has an interesting variation on this trope: people who die don't stay dead (if they serve the Dark One), but return to life in entirely new bodies. So not only does the reader get to engage in the guessing game of "who did this new character used to be", and in at least one case a fun Gender Bender takes place, this also means that none of the other characters will recognize the resurrected Forsaken. A side example is the case of balefire, which instead of literally resurrecting a dead character, changes the timeline so that they never died in the first place. This becomes an important plot point later.
- In Julie Kenner's Kate Connor, Demon Hunter books, Kate's first husband Eric (another demon hunter) has died before the start of the series...but he manages to bring himself back in another guy's body. This is awkward for Kate because she adores/adored Eric, but has remarried and had another kid in the time it took him to come back.
- In William King's Warhammer 40000 Space Wolf novel Grey Hunters, the point of the Chaos ritual at the climax was to bring back all the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines, including their primarch.
- George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire has had a few characters engaging in post-demise activity. Interestingly, the ones whose resurrection is most straightforward return in whatever state they were in when they died, to the point that one resurrected character, Catelyn Stark, is referred to by fans as unCat since her resurrection.
- Vampires on Terry Pratchett's Discworld are very good at this. A drop of blood will bring them back from dust, a fact a vampire photographer whose (flash) photos often kill him takes advantage of by wearing a glass vial of blood that immediately breaks and brings him back (see The Truth). The elder Count de Magpyre is mentioned as coming "back from the dead so many times he had a revolving lid".
- Wulfgar, in RA Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden novels. ...which was kind of all right, because it makes cosmological sense in D&D, but he was forced into it.
- That said, he was in the Abyss, and returned a much more tormented character, so his death has quite a few (unpleasant) ramifications.
- The Lord Of The Rings: Gandalf certainly fits this, along with certain other death tropes. He even falls into an abyssal pit and everything, so nobody actually sees what happened next. And not only does he get sent back to the living world, he's sent back superpowered. Well, more superpowered. Of course, being a lesser god means that maybe he cannot be Killed Off For Real to begin with.
- Also, there's a obscure Word Of God strongly implying that the elf named Glorfindel present at the Council of Elrond is the same character as the Glorfindel in The Silmarillion who died fighting a Balrog in the Fall of Gondolin.
- This last example is highly debated, however, because it also contradicts some other statements regarding elves and death. It all depends on whether you believe that the eponymous Mandos (the Keeper of the Dead Elves) lets them out of his Halls in a (for elves) timely fashion or not. Considering that several thousand years have passed, this may be the case. But then again, maybe not.
- While D&D has its share of resurrections, Manshoon of Forgotten Realms invented new one. His unique Stasis Clone spell ensured his continuous existence despite insufficient caution. That is, as long as he cared to steer clear of few people who has power to strip him of this convenience.
- At the end of the most recent book in The Pendragon Adventure series, this happens to every single traveler that has died over the course of the series, including a few that had died just a few chapters before.
- Both Tasslehoff Burrfoot and Raistlin Majere in Dragonlance. spoiler
being literally crushed under the heel of a Cosmic Horror isn't enough to put the kender down for good, and as for Raistlin, being killed by the goddess Takhisis and eternally tormented, only to first come back temporarily to chat to his nephew, to, after returning to that afterlife, coming back again sans magic to save the world and then to die again, this time promising that he will move on to the afterlife and never come back, and then to come back a third time to lead the gods back to Krynn, and promise, once more, that this time he's not coming back. We can only hope.
- Also in Dragonlance are: Riverwind, Goldmoon, Palin, Dalamar, Galan Dracos, Tasslehoff, and probably more.
- Emperor Palpatine, arising once again via spirit transfer, clone bodies, and other such things. It was a controversial bit of the EU, but this is the man who arranged his rise into power via a long, convoluted Xanatos Roulette.
- This never actually happens in the X Wing Series, but characters often seem to die/are declared dead and come back triumphant. Sometimes they're Faking The Dead, sometimes they survived and escaped. Lampshaded by a clueless Imperial character who assumes that the Rogues have all been killed before and the New Republic just keeps bringing new clones out to replace them.
- In the Hand Of Thrawn duology, three Imperials conspire to make it look like Thrawn has done this. They do pretty well, too. It's just that Pellaeon is better. While characters quite understandably fooled by the Dead Person Impersonation speculate, the idea that this Thrawn is a clone comes up and is dismissed, since in nearly every case, despite flash-memories transferring over, the clone isn't really the same as the original. Palpatine might get a free pass for that because his mind was Body Surfing, but others don't. Zahn has said that if he ever does bring back a clone of Thrawn, the clone will know full well that he isn't really Thrawn.
- Voltaire's Candide uses this trope out the wazoo. Almost the entire cast is killed off and brought back to life at least once.
- David Zindell's Silver Sword. Alphanderry comes back as an amorphous energy being after his Heroic Sacrifice and gradually returns to just like he used to be. On the other hand, Valashu dies and is brought back on the next page good as ever.
Live Action TV
Music
- Basically the entire premise of the Schoolyard Heroes song "Cat Killer"
"Well I don't know what you think
I think I know how this ends
I saw this in a movie once
While hanging with sofa friends
A pet dies and comes back to life
He gets gross as he kills everything in sight"
Mythology
- Bacchus from Classical Mythology pulls this one off as a baby. Hera in a subversion of Infant Immortality sends the Titans to kill Bacchus as a baby, which they do, eating all but his heart. And Zeus, in a bit of unusual childbirth puts the heart in his thigh until it regrows into Bacchus.
Radio
Tabletop Games
- In Tabletop Games, forms of resurrection are often a dime a dozen. Not so in Deadlands. While rare, especially pious individuals or wise shamans can rarely pull a spirit back into a body. It is slightly more common for a dead character to have their soul drug back into their mortal coil, kicking and screaming, for a shot at unlife as the Harrowed.
- The World Of Darkness is a notable exception to the dime a dozen rule, due to the creators desire to keep death dramatically significant, but even then, there are exceptions. In Promethean The Created, it's possible for the titular Prometheans to come back from the dead once if their Azoth is high enough. The Osirans actually have the special ability to come back multiple times (but they have to buy the ability up again with experience points once it's used).
- Also, in the old world of Darkness had "Mummy: The Resurrection" where you played as in agents of Egyptian deities (the mummies) and the gimmick was that while you might be killed, and in fact had before the start of the game, you would eventually resurrect. The drawback? If you hadn't put enough points into the ability, it could take years, and the resurrection also applied to the, super powerful, evil mummies.
Theatre
- A fallen knight returning to life is a common feature of Mummers plays, usually with the aid of a miraculous cure-all.
Video Games
- The epitome of Back From The Dead would be Dracula, who has been killed continuously in movies, novels, and shows. In the Castlevania video games, Dracula has been resurrected over 20 times!
- Speaking of vampires, the Count of Groundsoaking Blood in Boktai and a similar counterpart, Shade Man.EXE in Mega Man Battle Network 4 just refuse to die. Both have been victims to a Pile Driver (which is supposed to utterly wipe all trace of a vampire's existence) at least twice, once in their own game, once in the other (and the Count even gets a third one in the JP-only Boktai 3), and both were blasted into oblivion via Mega Man.EXE Megabuster. It's assumed that even that didn't kill Shade Man.EXE, only the utter obliteration of all Dark Chips.
- Bowser, while he rarely truly 'dies' in a game, played this trope straight in New Super Mario Brothers. spoiler
Mario/Luigi drops him into lava, and watches his flesh burn and melt off of him in an uncharacteristically gruesome manner. He appears again later, resurrected as a skeleton by his son, who eventually also completely restores him to a bigger, badder form .
- In the Quest For Glory series, the final confrontation with Ad Avis in the second game has him plummeting off the railing. Good news is that the fall kills him. Bad news is that he rises from the grave a vampire Hellbent on revenge.
- The Lucasarts Adventure Game The Dig features a ruined alien civilization so advanced that they could even bring the dead back to life using 'life crystals', which becomes a central point of the story, as it turns out there's more to the crystals than just resurrection...
- When sentient beings die in Final Fantasy X, their souls must be Sent to the Farplane (by a Summoner or a Yevon priest with similar spiritual abilities) lest they become Fiends. However, those with sufficient strength of will can resist either fate, and roam the world as Unsent: "people" that are, for all intents and purposes, dead, but retain a physical shape and can interact with others as though they were alive. Such is the case with Seymour, after being killed at Macalania Temple, Auron, who was killed by Yunalesca ten years prior, the Yevon High Clergy, and Belgemine. Ostensibly, Yunalesca is also an Unsent.
- The protagonist of Gungrave was murdered by his best friend thirteen years prior to the beginning of the game. He was revived as a product of necrolization—technology that resurrects the dead as immortal and nearly unstoppable super soldiers. Returning from "Beyond the Grave" (which is also now his new name), he was brought back to exact revenge on his former friend and the organization that betrayed him.
- Final Fantasy IV seems to kill and resurrect its characters more often (and more improbably) than the novel Candide. In particular, one character jumps out of an airship with a nuke strapped to his chest and detonating it in mid-air in order to seal up a giant hole in the ground, replacing it with a mountain range. You'd think he'd be killed by 1) the fall, 2) being crushed by thousands of tons of rock, or 3) being right at the center of a nuclear explosion, but later on your party visits the underground realm of the dwarves, and guess who they find lying in a hospital bed (the explanation being something along the lines of "the dwarves nursed me back to health!")?
- Happens with Liane in Jeanne d'Arc. spoiler
Jeanne must fight an illusion of Liane within Roger's heart. She's joined in this battle by the ghost of the real Liane. After finishing the game once, Jeanne can win Liane's charred pendant at the Colosseum, and ask Liane's ghost to rejoin the party permanently. The ending doesn't change, however, implying that she remains dead afterwards.
- Jerkass Scrappy Algus/Argath came Back From The Dead in the PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, but he did not change his personality, and thus pretty much only came back so Ramza can kick his ass again, now straight to hell. Considering how much hated Algus is, him coming Back From The Dead to get his ass kicked again can be considered a non-sexual Fanservice
- Also, at the end of Chapter 3, Marach takes a bullet for his sister Rapha. The character dies and stays dead for a while afterwards, until the Zodiac Stone/Auracite channels power from... somewhere and resurrects him, proving that the auracite itself isn't evil, it's just the Lucavi using it for evil purposes.
- In Planescape Torment, not unlike Mr. Immortal (see Comics, above), this is the main character's whole power. You're actually trying to find out how to stop doing it in a way that is spiritually satisfying. (If you want, you can get a Nonstandard Game Over by pissing off the Lady of Pain or other being of deific might.)
- Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2. Technically, it's back from the non-existant, seeing as the main character fixed the timeline, thus wiping him out of existance.
- Resident Evil 2: In Leon's first scenario, Ada gets shot by Annette and falls off a ledge, in which case it's a Never Found The Body, so she would be Not Quite Dead. In Leon's second scenario, she is clearly Killed Off For Real in front of him, blood loss and all. In both scenarios, however, she apparently comes back in a Deus Ex Machina moment during the penultimate battle with Mr. X, to throw a rocket launcher to the player character. Either way, she comes in Resident Evil 4.
- Throughout the series as a whole, Albert Wesker keeps managing to find a way to survive his death.
- Really, how could you have forgotten Zero? This editor won't bother counting the number of times he has managed to die and come back.
- You forget Sigma, who comes second only to Dracula when it comes to Back From The Dead, and he has a damn good excuse, being The Virus and all.
- Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2 comes back from the dead by possessing Revolver Ocelot. However, by the fourth installment, it's all a ruse. That is, he apparently really did possess Ocelot in 2, but Ocelot removed the possessing limb and then brainwashed himself to appear possessed to fool his enemies from then on.
- In Grand Theft Auto IV, if you accidentally kill a girlfriend or other character important to the plot, they will later come Back From The Dead and tell you to pick them up from the hospital. However, this troper has heard that it is possible with some of the lesser girlfriends to kill them off permanently if done a certain way, as in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
- Pretty much applies to the playable character in any GTA game. You can drown or be shot to death but you'd always wake back up in the nearest hospital.
- The Shining Force Gaiden games do this with the Big Bad from the first returning as a vengeful ghost near the end of the second.
- Being a homage to Superheroes, it's not surprising that the most used and coveted inspiration in City Of Heroes is those in the Awakening family, which bring you back from
death defeat. In some missions, going in without a good number of these dooms you to failure.
- It being an MMO, it's hardly surprising that a lot of NP Cs end up Not Quite Dead, though there are a few on record who have Come Back From The Dead. In roleplaying though, this, rather unsurprisingly, happens so much that one of this troper's characters maintains a list of who, without intevention, won't come back from the dead, because it's shorter.
- Even though Link and Zelda of The Legend Of Zelda are legacy characters, Ganondorf is the same guy in each of the games. He has died five times in various branches of the timeline, with no clear explanation as to how he comes back each time, although both The Adventure of Link and the Oracle games suggest that his resurrection involves some kind of human sacrifice; alternatively, it could be because of the Triforce of Power. The plot of the Oracle series revolving around the witches Twinrova attempting to kidnap Zelda in order to use her in the ritual. These games have Ganon come back just so you can kill him in the final battle, while Adventure of Link has him show up on the Game Over screen, because the manual explains that he can be resurrected by spreading Link's blood over his ashes.
- Occurs in the ending of Ninja Gaiden II for the NES. Irene gets killed by stray lighting before the final boss appears. After the fight is over, Ryu regrets not being able to save Irene. The Dragon Sword suddenly turns into a ball of light and enters Irene's body, bringing her back to life.
- Samus's archnemesis Ridley has to be getting up in the ranks of continuously resurrected villains. He explodes in Zero Mission but is rebuilt for Metroid Prime. He fall of a cliff and blows up again, and comes back in Metroid Prime 3 as if nothing ever happened. He vaporizes this time, but Ridley reappears anyway in Super Metroid. Samus blows him up again and the planet his remains are on explodes too. He (or a very similar being) appears again in Fusion and is promptly infected by an X Parasite and dies. For now.
- Occurs in Okami, where it's a major part of the plot, having Amaterasu as the resurrected/reincarnated form of Shiranui.
- A boss in Fire Emblem: The Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light (and its remakes), Camus who was victim of Honor Before Reason and My Country Right Or Wrong, appears as Sirius, who can be recruited to your side in Mystery of the Emblem (curiously, the player doesn't really need to kill him in the Super Famicom version to complete the level, its possible to just distract him and seize the gate)
- Over the course of Kagetsu Tohya Shiki can end up in a number of what would normally be bad ends, some of which are death such as being eaten by a jaguar that comes out of Arcueid's underwear drawer. Yes, really. However, the next day, he's always okay again because Len is constantly reviving him. Possibly a subversion though as of course these 'deaths' are not actually the real death of his body, though some scenarios seem as though they would genuinely end with Shiki dead, dream or no.
- In the NES version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Marian, who was murdered in the opening sequence of the game, is brought back to life as a result of a vague prophecy mentioned by the True Final Boss during his dying breath. Averted in the original arcade version, since the final boss in the NES version was a character created for that version and the game ended with Marian still dead.
- Used in Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden. Alfimi dies in OG 2, but comes back by merging with Axel Almer, who is mortally wounded and dying. This causes them to both come back as half human, and half Einst. Axel also had a Heel Face Turn during this.
- Near the end of Syphon Filter 2, Teresa is gunned down by Chance, The Mole. It appears this was supposed to be a Final Death, as Logan says "I'm sorry" to her dead body and they even hold a funeral, but in the sequel Syphon Filter 3 she is Retconned back from the dead, revealing that she faked her death to expose the conspiracy.
- Don't know if she''ll come back after what happened in Dark Mirror.
- A staple scenario in Tekken. After being thrown to the ravine and thought to be dead, Heihachi Mishima turned out to survive, climbed back up, beat the one who did this to him (his son Kazuya), and threw him to the volcano. But Kazuya still manages to come back to life, because some researches retrieved his remains and gave him a new body. And finally, the fifth game, Heihachi was thought to be killed after he was nuked... (Heihachi Mishima is dead, or so Tekken 5's prologue states) but he still came back! Even the resident ninja Raven lampshaded this.
- Touhou: Fujiwara no Moou and Kaguya Houraisan are immortals who simply can't die, age, or get ill forever because they drank the Elixir of Eternal Life, and it's irreversible so they're stuck that way forever. If they are destroyed, they will come Back From The Dead.
- Krista and Mr. Whittlebone in Twisted Metal: Head-On reappear from the second games as ghosts.
- In the indie RPG series Vacant Sky, the main character dies in the first half hour of the game. But then she got better. It's implied that dying is in fact the prerequisite to becoming a badass.
- Joshua of The World Ends With You seemingly comes Back From The Dead (another of his many What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic moments), but it's subverted when we discover that he didn't actually die—he simply teleported to the Alternate Universe Bonus Chapter to avoid the deadly attack of Minamimoto.
- And let's not forget Minamimoto's Taboo refinery sigil, which he used to come Back From The Dead after his failed kamikaze attempt. He has Hanekoma to thank for fixing it, though.
- Of course, the entire game is about a group of dead people competing for a chance at reincarnation.
- Though death and resurrection are nothing more than game mechanics for players in World Of Warcraft, for story characters death is usually more permanent. Nevertheless, there are many exceptions. Typically it's done with major villains, such as Kael'thas, Mal'Ganis, Balnazzar, Teron Gorefiend, Anub'arak, and all of Naxxramas, who are brought back to serve as loot pinatas again. However, in a rare heroic example, Muradin Bronzebeard, who was thought killed in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, is revealed to be alive and well in Northrend, though initially amnesiac.
Webcomics
Web Original
- Oddly, considering it is predominantly realistic, but this happens on two separate occasions in Survival Of The Fittest. One (at the end of the first game) involves a character who has just been fatally shot (and described dying) managing to somehow come back to distract his nemisis before being shot in the head and being killed for good.
- Another example, in a more technical sense, is the case of Burton Harris. He appeared in the second game, and died, he then however showed up in V3, with the Ret Conned explanation that the Burton in V2 was actually a lookalike called Ken Lawson. Both characters played in exactly the same way, making it more of a resurrection than two different people.
- The Mad Scientist Wars Hoo, boy. Let's see, Andrew Tinker pulls this way back in the Redneck war, So It Begins, thanks to a series of backup personality copies and god cloning, pulled this off a LOT, and David was not just killed, but *erased* from his own body by his evil sentient mechanical Arm. He ends up making a case for his own existence, and makes it back. Also, Erik Tinker makes a deal with the devil. Sadly, the man he died killing, one of the most dangerous men ever, may well be back too....
- Subverted with Sayasuke, aka 'the Saya demon', who was never technically *alive* before he died. Sill won an award for it, 'tho. Head hurt yet?
- Doctor What from AH Dot Com The Series has supposedly come Back From The Dead many, many times, although we've only seen two or three on-screen. Most of the others involved fatal cunnilingus - which, bizarrely, was Based On A True Story.
- In the Epic Tales 'verse David Wilson died in the first Shadow Hawk story only to become the Astral Controller.
- In Spoony Experiment, The Spoony One was killed by Dr. Insano who had hired Squall. The house was blown up and everyone died. Linkara cloned The Spoony One back to life and he is like the original except He believes that Revolutions of the Mask is the greatest comic ever.. Anyway, then someone used the Black Lantern ring on the original Spoony's corpse turning him into a murderous zombie. Linkara used a Phoenix Down to turn Zombie Spoony into a normal man again with no side effects except he didn't remember anything after his house exploded. Unfortunately, the Original Spoony got killed again and the Black Lantern ring was put back on him. Yeah, it's complicated.
Western Animation
- Darkseid in the DCAU was killed by Brainiac's exploding asteroid Super Villain Lair, but gets brought back when Luthor uses Tala against her will in an attempt to restore Brainiac. According to the DVD commentary, Tala did it on purpose just to spite Luthor. Hell hath no fury, indeed.
- In Duckman, Duckman's two teddy bear secretaries Fluffy and Uranus are often killed in nearly every episode they appear in (usually by Duckman himself) only to be brought back in the next episode.
- In the two-part Grand Finale of Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law, Phil Ken Sebben claws his way up from the grill of the bus that struck him dead the previous season, and says "Hah ha! Final episode stunt casting!" He then spends the entire episode driving the bus in reverse back to the city, just in time to arrive in the final scene and run Harvey over, killing him off for real. Odd thing is that in the episode where he is hit by the bus, he apparently gets cremated.
- Sylvester the cat from the classic era of Looney Tunes died 16 times in 7 different cartoons, one episode ("Satan's Waitin'" (1954)) features him slowly losing all nine of his lives].
- The cast of Drawn Together have died many times with Ling Ling and Toot having the largest death count, only for them to come back either in the next episode or later on in the same episode.
- Hans Moleman from The Simpsons is arguably a repeated Back From The Dead character, as he is often casually thrown into situations which offer little hope of survival. Somewhat subverted in that we never actually see his death, although many websites offering Moleman Death-o-meters and the like suggest viewers have caught on to what's really going on...
- Dr. Marvin Monroe came back from implied death (one episode featured the Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital) without any real explanation.
- "I was sick" was his only explanation.
- Who can forget this moment from the Who Shot Mr. Burns episodes?:
Kent Brockman: At 3 p.m. Friday, local autocrat C. Montgomery Burns was shot following a tense confrontation at town hall. Burns was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was then transferred to a better hospital where doctors upgraded his condition to "alive".
- Or this exchange from a tv show seen on an early episode:
"Father Mc Grath! I thought you were dead!"
"I was!"
- In the first five seasons of South Park, Kenny dies in nearly every episode and appears again in the next as if nothing had ever happened. In fact, there was a two-parter where, after dying in the previous episode, he reappears out of thin air next to his friends. He, of course, goes on to die at the end.
- It is indicated in one episode that his mother is producing new Kennys at an incredible rate, but how they all end up with the same name, friends, and rotten luck must be an example for this trope.
- Scooter the light purple surfer fish from Spongebob Squarepants has died three times to date: first when Spongebob asked him to move from his seat he was killed by his smelly breath, drowned after Bubble Buddy buried him in the sand, and exploded after being kicked off a cliff by Mystery the seahorse.
- Although Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) Big Bad The Shredder had already become infamous for turning out to be Not Quite Dead, one of these occasions later turned out to actually be a Back From The Dead situation. Given the character, the elaboration was sort of unnecessary, except for the fact that a) said occasion involved being at ground zero of an explosion that atomized a building, and b) it allowed the writers to bring the character back yet again. Also played straight with a couple of other characters, one of which included a nifty sequence in which flesh returns to his skeleton as he is resurrected.
- Teen Titans: The Story Arc for the fourth season involves Slade, the Big Bad from the first two seasons, coming Back From The Dead to serve as The Dragon to the new Big Bad, Trigon. This example is especially notable because with comic books (and therefore their adaptations) the usual resurrection is a retcon saying that the character was not truly dead. Slade's death was a Never Found The Body, and Robin's hallucinations of Slade in a later episode proved to be poisoning by someone heavily hinted to be Slade, so the stage was set for it to prove to have been a Not Quite Dead or one of his many robot duplicates... and then we find that he was very much dead when he appeared to die, and had been revived by the series' version of Satan as a messenger!
- In Thundercats, Jaga (The Obi Wan of the series) dies of old age while guiding the Thundercats' ship towards Third Earth, but he returns as a Spirit Advisor to team leader Lion-O (and eventually the rest of the team as well). Besides that Mumm-ra is supposedly killed on at least three occasions, but of course, as long as evil exists Mumm-ra lives! The Berzerkers were also killed (by Panthro sinking their ship) in their first appearance. This is confirmed when the ghost of the Captain Hammerhand shows up a few episodes later. Then he comes back with a new look and a new crew in the second season. And of course, there's Grune the Destroyer, who dies then harasses the Thundercats as a ghost.
- Tom of Tom and Jerry had died 6 times in 6 cartoons, (one of them turned out to be a dream though).
- This happens to Transformers a lot. Especially in the Expanded Universe. Then again, an even greater number tend to get Killed Off For Real to make room for new characters/product, so it generally evens out.
- In The Transformers: The Movie, among the many Transformers killed off include Optimus Prime and Starscream. In subsequent episodes of the TV series, both come back. Optimus Prime initially appears as a Spirit Advisor when his successor, Rodimus Prime, journeys into the Matrix of Leadership. In "Dark Awakening", Optimus is brought back to life as a zombie, only to sacrifice himself again to save his fellow Autobots. In "The Return of Optimus Prime", he is completely revived and restored, and survives the end of the series (only to be Killed Off For Real in a Heroic Sacrifice in the Japanese series Headmasters, although resurrected in the Expanded Universe story Battlestars: The Return of Convoy). Starscream returns as a ghost in two episodes, "Starscream's Ghost" and "Ghost in the Machine"; in the latter, Starscream receives a new body from Unicron, returning to life, only to get blasted off into space. Starscream's spark makes a return appearance in the Beast Wars episode "Possession".
- Speaking of Beast Wars, Optimus Primal died saving the planet in the first-season cliffhanger, but was revived a few episodes into the second season. The writers left him dead for as long as Hasbro would let them, and his return was at least with guns blazing.
- Also done by Optimus Prime in Armada, and Megatron several times over the course of the Unicron trilogy.
- Overall, Optimus' combination of Heroic Sacrifice and Back From The Dead in the Sorting Algorithm Of Deadness has become a running gag in the fandom, to the point where a Word Filter on the site 7chan replaced 'Jesus Christ' with 'Optimus Prime.'
- In Transformers Animated he sets a new record when he dies in the three-part-pilot episode and comes back 65 seconds later. This makes the whole affair touching to some and knee-slappingly hilarious to others.
- The Venture Brothers: In the last episode of Season 1 the boys are killed. In the first episode of Season 2 their clones are reactivated and filled with their stored memories. Dr. Venture explains that this is the thirteen time it has happened - and shows all previous deaths.
- In Metalocalypse, Dethklok's manager Charles Ofdensen has come back from being dead in the second episode of third season.
Others
- The Flash animation series Madness Combat has three characters who can never truly die: Hank, Jeebus, and Tricky. No matter the cause of their death in the previous cartoon, they resurrect (with appropriate bandages, stitches, or scars) and resume battle in the next one. The creator of the series has declared that the three are doomed to fight each other for all eternity.
- Pretty much anybody who happens to die on Red Vs Blue. All the dead characters seem to always find ways of returning, either via ghosts, extensive organ transplants, or cybernetic implants. There was even an entire army comprised of soldiers who do nothing but kill each other, respawn after a short time, and then kill each other some more.
- Then along comes Recovery One ...
- Why hasn't anyone mentioned Happy Tree Friends? They come back from a very violent death every episode!
- That's because it could be a case of Negative Continuity instead.
- And then there's the episode "Remains to Be Seen", in which a lot of them return from the dead in the same episode they die, as zombies, to haunt poor Lumpy.
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