Basic Trope: A life motif is juxtaposed with a death motif in some way.
- Straight:
- Alice can heal with her hands and her brother, Bob, has the Touch of Death.
- Life-land and Shadowland are in conflict and this is significant to the story.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is a living Yin-Yang Bomb of life and death magic.
- Alice can make the land flourish with life in an instant while Bob can do the opposite.
- Downplayed: Alice is good at tending to plants and keeping them alive while Bob is inept at keeping things alive.
- Justified: In Alice and Bob's family, every woman has Healing Hands and every man has the Touch of Death.
- Inverted: Every force of nature but life and death are juxtaposed.
- Subverted:
- Alice can't actually heal anyone, and Bob doesn't actually kill anyone with his touch. Everyone just thinks they have these abilities, though Alice and Bob keep trying to convince them otherwise.
- Our hero only thought or expected Life-land and Shadowland to be in conflict because of the obvious contrast between them. The actual conflict happens to concern two rival groups from these countries.
- It turns out that Alice can also kill with a touch, and Bob can also heal. They both choose healing, and the symbolism collapses upon itself.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice can heal with her touch, and Bob can kill with his, but they don't realize it because of how isolated they are. Everyone else was right.
- The respective leaders of Life-land and Shadowland are covertly supporting the conflict, and when the hero inadvertently reveals their plots, the nations actively wage war against each other.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Either life and death aren't motifs in the work or only one is present.
- The motifs of life and death are present with motifs of other Elemental Powers.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: Someone points out how unlikely it is that Alice and Bob have these specific abilities.
- Invoked: A ritual Alice arranges to demonstrate the cycle of nature is represented through the growth of one flower and death of another.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Life/Death Juxtaposition
