History Main / FirstLawOfResurrection

** ''ComicBook/KravensLastHand'' ends with villain Kraven The Hunter being DrivenToSuicide and serves as a definite ending to his arc and his desire to hunt down and kill Spider-Man. But due to the fact that this storyline ends up being very popular and in fact [[BreakoutVillain popularized Kraven who was more of a B-List villain before]], he was brought back 1999 in the ''ComicBook/GrimHunt'' storyline. [[UnwantedRevival Kraven himself wasn't happy about it]].

* Ian Malcolm in the original ''Literature/JurassicPark'' novel. He is implied to die while other characters watch near the end of the novel, but in [[Literature/TheLostWorld1995 the second]] he's back, and says in a lecture that reports of his death were "exaggerated". The real circumstances are left ambiguous at best: When they are escaping with the helicopters, Muldoon tells Grant that there is another heli which will collect the other survivors. When Grant asks him about Malcolm, Muldoon just shakes his head. Muldoon could have been wrong; the evacuation ''was'' pretty hectic, and there was also a lot of stress with some roaming raptors. The epilogue, in which a funeral for Hammond and Malcolm is mentioned, is clearly written in Grant's point of view, so he may have received wrong information from Muldoon--or others--or Malcolm was revived after Muldoon left.

* ''ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula'': When Marvel killed off their version of {{Dracula}} several years ago, they included a death certificate signed by the writer and editor guaranteeing he'd never be brought back. Guess what happened? Anyone who seriously thinks they can get away with killing off Dracula for good is oblivious to his ContractualImmortality clause -- being a PublicDomainCharacter and all.

* While [[BigBad Bowser]] in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series has JokerImmunity, he does occasionally (confirmed at least three times) die in the Mario games; once he is mentioned in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' to have previously been defeated by Mario ("defeated" apparently meaning "destroyed", as it is theorized that King Boo revived him), once in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' Bowser falls into lava and is reduced to a skeleton and in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' [[spoiler:Bowser is killed by Dimentio along with Mario and Peach]]. However, Bowser cannot permanently exit the series, and is resurrected on all three occasions; He appears in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' without any mention of him previously being dead, and is resurrected onscreen by Bowser Jr. in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'', and in the case of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', [[spoiler: Dimentio's attack wasn't intended to permanently kill him, so that when he appeared in the land of ended games, he was still considered "alive", and returned with Mario, Peach, and Luigi through a dimensional door]]. ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' lampshades this in the levels you control him. [[spoiler:His life count is the infinity sign.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'': Anyone who gets "erased" is DeaderThanDead. The First Law of Resurrection is in use, though; if the author wants anyone to come back, it's possible. The secret reports detail the nature and rules of the game.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' (and supplementary material) has brought back many characters once thought dead. [[spoiler: Muradin]] lost his memory and remained in Northrend, the dreadlords [[spoiler: Balnazzar]] and [[spoiler: Mal'Ganis]] returned to corrupt the [[spoiler: Scarlet Crusade]], the Alliance expedition to Outland "returned" in the Burning Crusade (although Turalyon and Alleria are still missing), Magtheridon turned out to be just imprisoned, [[spoiler: Xavius]] became the Nightmare Lord, [[spoiler:Cho'gall]] returned ''twice'', and even Deathwing was presumed dead by some before being confirmed to be alive. [[spoiler: and now both his children (albeit as undead) and his mate are returning for Cataclysm]]. [[spoiler: The latest is Illidan Stormrage, who reveals in the demon hunter starting questline that he's akin to the player character in that his soul waits in the Twisting Nether until he can return to his body.]]
** The Alliance expedition is not a proper example -- last we saw them they were in a position to survive for a while longer (Burning Crusade just retconned them to not leaving Draenor after all), it's just that they were presumed dead ''in-universe'' (since no-one on Azeroth knew what had happened to them). Of course, the place the expedition was ''to'' might be an example -- as presented in ''Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal'', Draenor was about to be destroyed. Come ''Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne'', and the place (while shattered and renamed Outland) is still habitable, more-or-less.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** At the end of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', we see Shadow the Hedgehog plummet through the atmosphere. Initially this was meant to kill him, just case he wasn't popular enough to join the franchise. But he ''was'' popular and they brought him back. Nobody's quite clear on how he survived a fall through the atmosphere; at one point he was implied to be a clone, then Eggman saved him and built an android army, sometimes it's Chaos Control, sometimes it's just that you can't assume the Ultimate Lifeform is dead just because he fell from space.
** Via a throwaway set of quotes in the [[TrueFinalBoss final battle]] of ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', it's revealed nine minutes in that [[spoiler:the Shadow you're playing as is indeed the real one, as Eggman's robots saved and recovered him from the orbital freefall.]] Even so, it's a compulsive liar telling you this in a pep-talk to save the planet.

* In ''VideoGame/WitchesLegacy'' it doesn't matter what happens to Elisabeth or Morgana, because by the next game at least one of them will be back to cause havoc in the lives of Lynn and Carrie.
* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'', Naru dies of starvation due to the "blinding" of the eponymous forest and ensuing famine, then the eponymous protagonist himself runs out of energy and dies after setting off into the forest alone. The latter is immediately revived by the Spirit Tree's residual power, while Gumo brings the former BackFromTheDead with the Light Vessel at the start of the game's last act.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' brought back from the dead Yone, Yasuo's half-brother, to be the game's 150th champion in the tenth season of the game. Yone was previously killed by Yasuo when the former pursued the latter after Yasuo was blamed for murdering their sword school's master (which Yasuo didn't do), and while there's some justification for his revival (a demon who was hunting him in life followed him to the spirit realm and tried to consume him, but Yone defeated him and is now hunting other demons in both realms), '''how''' he came back is left intentionally vague.
** Also, while they weren't "truly" dead, both Kai'sa and Senna were previously lore characters related to already-existing champions (Kai'sa is Kassadin's daughter and Senna is Lucian's wife) who were described as being lost (Senna "merely" had her soul trapped in Thresh's lantern, while Kai'sa was thrown into a void rift by Malzahar when she was a child) but eventually came back to [[PromotedToPlayable become champions themselves]] in the game's ninth season. Also, all three champions mentioned are notable for '''not''' [[CameBackWrong coming back wrong]]; sure, they're changed (Kai'sa is bonded to a void creature, Yone has a demon mask that he can't remove, and Senna has dark powers), but all of them are still sane and all on the good side.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'': Wakestones are in-universe resurrection stones that can work on any ''intact'' body, including the Arisen. There's even a sidequest to resurrect a commoner for his grieving father. For obvious reasons, they are extremely expensive; a Wakestone costs 30,000G.

* TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering has plenty of ways to bring back dead creatures. Mostly in [[{{Necromancer}} black]], but green and white can also do so.

* In ''Videogame/WitchesLegacy'' it doesn't matter what happens to Elisabeth or Morgana, because by the next game at least one of them will be back to cause havoc in the lives of Lynn and Carrie.

* ''Videogame/LeagueOfLegends'' brought back from the dead Yone, Yasuo's half-brother, to be the game's 150th champion in the tenth season of the game. Yone was previously killed by Yasuo when the former pursued the latter after Yasuo was blamed for murdering their sword school's master (which Yasuo didn't do), and while there's some justification for his revival (a demon who was hunting him in life followed him to the spirit realm and tried to consume him, but Yone defeated him and is now hunting other demons in both realms), '''how''' he came back is left intentionally vague.

* William Afton of ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' won't stay dead. While his first death doesn't count, everything else does: Fazbear's Fright from ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' [[spoiler:burns down]]? Yeah, guess what, he survived. [[spoiler:He gets burned alive ''again'']] in ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator'' and ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight'' is implied to be his {{Hell}}? He comes BackFromTheDead, and forget about the whole "it's his {{Hell}}" thing: It was actually his [[spoiler:repeating nightmare]]. At the end of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysVrHelpWanted'' he seemingly [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets reduced to a plushie]]? That's not what happened: He actually [[spoiler:entered the mind of the PlayerCharacter and is ordering them to kill kids]]. Every time it seems like he was KilledOffForReal, he just comes back.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The mermaid in ''WebComic/AxeCop'' whom Axe Cop mistook for a bad guy [[BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad because a friendly mermaid face looks like a human scowl]] and [[MurderByMistake accidentally murdered]] was revived in this way. [[CheerfulChild The author of the comic, Malachai]] called up [[CoolBigBro the illustrator, Ethan]], and told him that [[WhatHaveIDone he didn't want the mermaid to die any more]]. Ethan assured Malachai that since it was his story, they could bring him back, so they planned out a story where Axe Cop wished the mermaid back to life after finding out she was the daughter of the King of the Mermaids.

** Ironically, this is pretty much the only example of this trope in the entire series, despite the fact that D&D characters can be resurrected as many times as their player wishes, so long as the party has the materials to. The Order of the Stick, meanwhile, struggles to find the resources to resurrect [[spoiler:Roy]] even once, to the point that they have to steal the necessary diamond from [[Main/BreakingTheFourthWall the website's character page]]. No other character is ever resurrected (excluding the undead and immortal Xykon), with the exception of the Oracle (who can predict his own death and makes arrangements to be resurrected afterwards).

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' did this when Lieutenant Shaxs was killed in [[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E10NoSmallParts No Small Parts]] while battling the Pakleds, and was then brought back to life inexplicably in [[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS2E03WellAlwaysHaveTomParis We'll Always Have Tom Paris]]. That episode really lampshades how dying and being brought back to life has become so common place in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' by now that it is now considered normal.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'', repeatedly. [[spoiler:Mao and Cornelia]] both get filled with bullets and survive anyway (if only for another episode in the former's case), [[spoiler:Ohgi]] gets [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment three knives in his chest and then falls off a cliff onto some pointy rocks]] and [[UnexplainedRecovery comes back anyway]] (ditto [[spoiler:Viletta]] less the knives), and then there's [[spoiler:the nuke that only killed unseen civilians]].
** [[spoiler:Jeremiah]] was supposed to die in the first season, but became so popular that he was brought back [[spoiler:as a cyborg]].

* While [[BigBad Bowser]] in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series has JokerImmunity, he does occasionally (confirmed at least three times) die in the Mario games; once he is mentioned in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion1'' to have previously been defeated by Mario ("defeated" apparently meaning "destroyed", as it is theorized that King Boo revived him), once in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' [[spoiler: Bowser falls into lava and is reduced to a skeleton]] and in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' [[spoiler: Bowser is killed by Dimentio along with Mario and Peach]]. However, Bowser cannot permanently exit the series, and is resurrected on all three occasions; He appears in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' without any mention of him previously being dead, and is resurrected onscreen by Bowser Jr. in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'', and in the case of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', [[spoiler: Dimentio's attack wasn't intended to permanently kill him, so that when he appeared in the land of ended games, he was still considered "alive", and returned with Mario, Peach, and Luigi through a dimensional door]].
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' lampshades this in the levels you control him. [[spoiler:His life count is the infinity sign.]]

* At the end of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', we see Shadow the Hedgehog plummet through the atmosphere. Initially this was meant to kill him, just case he wasn't popular enough to join the franchise. But he ''was'' popular and they brought him back. Nobody's quite clear on how he survived a fall through the atmosphere; at one point he was implied to be a clone, then Eggman saved him and built an android army, sometimes it's Chaos Control, sometimes it's just that you can't assume the Ultimate Lifeform is dead just because he fell from space.
** Via a throwaway set of quotes in the [[TrueFinalBoss final battle]] of [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog Shadow's own game]], it's revealed nine minutes in that [[spoiler:the Shadow you're playing as is indeed the real one, as Eggman's robots saved and recovered him from the orbital freefall.]] Even so, it's a compulsive liar telling you this in a pep-talk to save the planet.

* William Afton of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' won't stay dead. While his first death doesn't count, everything else does: Fazbear's Fright from ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' [[spoiler:burns down]]? Yeah, guess what, he survived. [[spoiler:He gets burned alive ''again'']] in ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator'' and ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight'' is implied to be his {{Hell}}? He comes BackFromTheDead, and forget about the whole "it's his {{Hell}}" thing: It was actually his [[spoiler:repeating nightmare]]. At the end of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysVrHelpWanted'' he seemingly [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets reduced to a plushie]]? That's not what happened: He actually [[spoiler:entered the mind of the PlayerCharacter and is ordering them to kill kids]]. Every time it seems like he was KilledOffForReal, he just comes back.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** Batman ''never'' angsts about the Joker's many supposed deaths (not even in Mad Love when he knocked him into a smokestack) since he knows he'll always come back thanks to JokerImmunity.
** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'', which takes place in the far future, the Joker "returns" after having met his definite end during an encounter long ago. Terry floats theories as to whether Joker is a clone, robot or just reawakened from [[HarmlessFreezing cryogenic sleep]].[[spoiler: He's a clone, sort of, via implanting his [=DNA=] in Tim Drake (Robin). The real Joker really is dead. Eventually, he's purged from Tim Drake, making for the Joker's absolute final end... probably.]]
* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] and [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]] both seemingly die, thanks to Lex making a HeroicSacrifice to kill them both with the Anti-Life Equation. Batman muses that neither of them are likely dead and both of them will probably come back. Unusually, this was the GrandFinale of the show, and for all intents and purposes the entire DCAU came to an end with this, so as far as anyone knows they ''don't'' come back. Even more unusually, the whole thing was so ambiguous that it's not even clear that Lex was even using the Equation to kill the two of them in the first place, and both of them might not even have died at all. (According to WordOfGod, they didn't: They ended up trapped in the Source Wall, which still means they're not coming back.)

* It used to be that the four comic characters who would actually stay dead were [[Characters/TheFlashBarryAllen Barry Allen]], [[Characters/BatmanJasonTodd Jason Todd]], [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Uncle Ben]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes Bucky Barnes]]. Guess which one's still dead? [[DeathByOriginStory The one whose death is required for the origin story.]] [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Thomas and Martha Wayne]] also consistently stayed dead, though like Uncle Ben, their deaths are necessary for the origin story. Unless you count ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint|DCComics}}'', but the less said about that the better.

%%** ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman''. He got better... Of course, it might not be an example since DC fully intended to bring him BackFromTheDead--this is Superman, not Jason Todd.
** Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}} was famously killed off in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' as part of a general overhaul to make Superman the only Kryptonian again. It took her nearly 20 years, but of ''course'' she came back. There were three Supergirls in the interim, but none of them was Kara Zor-El.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The franchise is the poster-child for this trope. The tendency of dead X-Men coming back to life is hilariously mocked in [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/218160 this flash cartoon parody.]] The fact of the matter is that there are 20+ main characters, and a writer is likely to have any one of them as a favorite. And various members are constantly being killed off for the sake of either drama or to try to thin out the herd. The result is that the average length of death for any mutant in the Marvel universe is 1 to 2 years.

* Literature/SherlockHolmes is probably the TropeCodifier, if not the UrExample, and retconned death is often named Sherlockian Death after him. Arthur Conan Doyle didn't actually want to bring him back. But ''everyone else did'', and they pestered him about it until he gave in.

* [[Creator/SeanConnery Ramírez]] dies very convincingly in ''Film/{{Highlander}}'', in ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'', Connor summons him back to life. Despite this never happening anywhere else in the ''Highlander'' continuity. But then, ''Highlander II'' [[CanonDiscontinuity isn't actually part of the continuity]].

[[quoteright:255:[[Franchise/XMen https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jgreyres1_6741.jpg]]]]

* It used to be that the four comic characters who would actually stay dead were [[Characters/TheFlashBarryAllen Barry Allen]], [[Characters/BatmanJasonTodd Jason Todd]], [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Uncle Ben]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes Bucky|Barnes]]. Guess which one's still dead? [[DeathByOriginStory The one whose death is required for the origin story.]] [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Thomas and Martha Wayne]] also consistently stayed dead, though like Uncle Ben, their deaths are necessary for the origin story. Unless you count ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint|DCComics}}'', but the less said about that the better.