Sorting Algorithm of Deadness
Using the scientifically Infallible power of the Sorting Algorithm of Deadness, who do you think is the next in line for being brought back from the great Bus in the sky?
To use the Algorithm, simply add the Column's "Death Value", and divide by the number of applicable rows.
If the character hasn't died yet (but seems likely to), see Sorting Algorithm of Mortality. All of this is trumped by the First Law of Resurrection.
Currently, The real Caulder from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the only character to have scored 4, the highest possible. And is notable for having 4 in every category. At one point, Shirley from Code Geass and also scored 4, thanks in part to a special CLAMP bonus that became harder to defend as the series went on. No characters have got the lowest possible score of 1 yet, but Davros and The Master are joint leaders in the death defying derby at 1.75, even beating South Park's Kenny.
Baseline Example: The death of Superman.
Cause: Heroic Sacrifice, so he's not coming back from that too quickly, or the sacrifice will be cheapened. 3.
Average: So add it up... we get a pretty high score, 19! Since it's not a videogame, divide by 7, and we get... 19/7 = 2.7, meaning supes isn't coming back for at least a few months, maybe even years. In actuality the Death Of Superman happened in January 1993 and he came back some time before May 1994.
Now let's make a prediction with the recent death of Batman in Final Crisis.
Average: 21.5/8= 2.7. A semi-high score, and DC seems to be sticking to this one for a while. Still, he'll definitely be back, likely before the end of 2010 at the latest.[[supersecretspoiler: CORRECT!]]
Body: Well we never see it die as such. It sort of just vanishes. So either a 1 or NA.
Reaction: Seeing visions of her, meh. Difficult to say. I'll put down NA, as the main character doesn't seem to care.
Characterization: Protagonist. 4
How long ago: Over 5, so 4.
Died and came back: I've lost count. 1. (to be fair, she did have a cloning system, but at the end she was at the power of a living god, so I'd put it as the same)
14/5 = 2.8. Deadish.
Actually got a different result for Evangelion.
Cause Of Death: depends on the character. On the whole, more Redemption Equals Death than anything else.
Body: It's right there,alive, just melted down into orange drink. Left for Dead.
Reaction: not really applicable.
Characterisation: everyone on the planet. That strikes me as fairly regular. And the archvillain. And most of the protagonists. I'll give this one a 2.
Average: 4 + 3.5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2.5 + 4 = 23/6 = 3.3 If he does come back, in the manga or anime, think Homunculus. However the anime's over and that's not what homunculi are in the manga, so he's pretty much screwed.
Maria Ross, from the manga
Cause of death: Burnt to death by Col. Mustang while trying to escape from prison. Classic Dropped A Bridge On Her. 4
Genre: Going with the Hughes algorithm, Anyone Can Die... although with alchemy... 3.5
Body: Here's where it gets weird. If you're looking at it from the point where she dies, it's a Deader Then Dead barely recognizable corpse. After she's revealed not dead, it's a fake corpse. Let's split it into 2 and 4, averaging it just doesn't make sense.
Average:4+3.5+4+3+3+2+4/7= about 3.4, which is worse then Hughes. After she's already not dead it becomes 4+3.5+2+3+3+2+4/7 and exactly 3. Better, but it still doesn't look good, which leads me to believe the Sorting Algorithmof Deadness is wroMMPH.
I think it's just that the algorithm doesn't work when we already know it's a case of Faking the Dead.
Two problems with that: One, why is Faking the Dead listed as a 2 then, and two, before we knew she was Faking the Dead she was deader then Hughes.
Lust, same.
Cause of death: Lit on fire. That's the traditional punishment for lust in Hell, so Death by Irony. 4
Cause of death: In a ship underwater that has been flooded, then explodes: Overkill Bridge Drop for sure and shew is pretty much the only person on the show who tries to flat out kill people so death is fitting, 4
Genre: Pokemon is pretty light on the deaths, I can't recall anyone (else) that died in the anime (excluding characters who first appear as ghosts and die in their backstory). 1.5
Body: Her glasses float to the surface, so never found, but they are oddly intact for, you know, being in an explosion. 2.5
Last Words: Don't think there were any
Reaction: No one notes it.
Characterization: Recurring villain. 2
Death: Same year: 2
Died yet: nope 4:
total 16 with 6 applied categories: 2.6. She deserves a few more points for being the only person on the show to to actually try to kill Ash and co. Most she would ever get is a Pokemon hunter K.
Cause of Death: No One Could Survive That, albeit with considerable detail spent describing the injuries inflicted by the "that" in question, and some shades of a Heroic Sacrifice - 2.5
Average (spoiler tagged to avoid revealing the character via math): 25.5/8 = 3.18. Only dying in sight and being Light's main enemy prevents him from matching the Code Geass character who scored a 4.
Something to twist the algorithm a bit, because it's funny. Let's test Sousuke Aizen's first death, avaliating the circumstances presented at the moment:
Sousuke Aizen
Cause of Death: No One Could Survive That - 2
Genre: At the time, Killed Off For Real (it developed to Death Is Cheap in the Hueco Mundo Arc) - 3
Reaction: He's Dead Jim (his deadness was diagnosed) - 3
Body: Technically not buried, but surely dead, according to all diagnosis and the HUGE SPLATTER OF BLOOD - 4
Characterization Protagonist - He wasn't revealed to be a villain until then; he was just a C-List by then, for sure. 3.
Died: Same arc – 1
Previous Death - Technically, he's already dead... 3.
Average: 19/7 = 2.71. Pretty high for someone that clearly faked his death, that's how so many people were surprised when he returned and made The Reveal.
And let's see how one of his later deaths match up. Specifically, when he was blown up by Urahara's little trick.
Sousuke Aizen
Cause of Death: No One Could Survive That - 2
Genre: Death Is Cheap - 1
Reaction: Oh Crap - 4
Body: Left for Dead - 1
Characterization: Archvillain - 1
Died: Same arc - 1
Previous Death - So. Many. Times - 1
Average: 12/7 = 1.71, unless I'm sorely mistaken. Would have been less if he didn't react to something he knew wouldn't kill him with an 'oh crap'.
So did Grimmjow really die?
Grimmjow
Cause of Death: Bridge drop (suddenly attacked and struck down by Nnoitra)- 4
Genre: Death is Cheap - 1
Reaction: Ichigo is angered - 2
Body: Left for Dead (hasn't been seen since the start of Ichigo vs. Nnoitra) - 1
Characterization: Recurring antagonist, almost a regular - 2.5
Died: Same arc -1
Previous death: None, except the one that made him a hollow - 4
Average: 15.5/7 = 2.20. He'll be back before Ichigo and his friends are done in Las Noches.
Here's an analysis for Harribel, since a lot of people have a hard time accepting her defeat (considering her opponent)
Unless, of course, Oda deliberately wrote it so that it's only what he WANTS us to think. Considering the series' ever-growing Holy Shit Quotient...until he reveals what the deal with Tashigi is, it's impossible to really know what exactly is going on.
Now here's a comparsion between Bellemere's death in 4kids and the original
Average: 3.73 in the original, which all but precludes her coming back. In the 4kids version, she gets a 3, which is fairly tall odds against her return.
Genre: Killed Off for Real or Death Is Cheap - This is the main thing. Brook died in a flashback, but he ate a Devil's Fruit that brought him back to life. - 3/1
Characterization: Protagonist - He's a Straw Hat now. - 1
Reaction: Montage or Waking Up - He died in a flashback, but he pretty much woke back up where his body was left. - 4/1
Died: Last Year - A year had gone by the time his soul got back to his body. - 2
Previous Death: Once, but got better- Devil's Fruit brught him back. - 3
Average: Brook's score is a bit of a doozy, depending on how you're working the score. If you count the fact that the man died in a flashback with a montage and that he's deader than dead, you're going to get '2.71'. If you go by the fact that death is cheap and he woke up on the boat where he had been left, you get '1.57'. This would probably best handled by averaging those scores and putting it at '2.14'. Being that he's currently alive, it make this moot, but you gotta wonder.
And more recently, Mr. 2, comparing his most recent "death" and his previous one
Cause of Death: Heroic Sacrifice ( Both times, stayed behind to help Luffy and his allies escape) 3
Both survived despite being thought dead for long periods of time, but partly as a result of being Left for Dead, their odds were better than any of the recently "killed" characters except Hinata, who scored a 2.75 at first, and a 2.5 after her "body" score was factored in. She was the only one of the four characters who were seemingly killed in Pain's invasion who wasn't really dead.
Retrospective examination of Hinata
Body found: Yup. The protagonist watched her die. 4
Reaction: No actual montage so we have to keep it at He's Dead, Jim. 3
Characterisation: Just got bumped up to full-fledged Loved One. 4
When: Arc changed, so 2 at least. 4 if you count the series ending without her comming back as equivalent to her death having occured in the series finale.
Average... 23/6 = 3.8. Yup, we ain't seeing her again.
Additionally, given that this series had character designs by CLAMP, some have suggested to add a CLAMP Really Dead Factor for an additional 4. In this case, she scored 4 on average (just to justify the intro text).
Genre: Going by the Shirley example, 4, though if you count Jeremiah, Charles, and marianne, you could make a case for Killed Off for Real. I'll go with that, 3
When: Same Arc - 1, though the arc changed since then with a month timeskip, so I'll go with 2.
Died and come back: No. Kidnapped once, but they never claimed her to be dead. 4
Add them together, 21. All right, divide by the number of applicable rows, which is 7. It ends up as 3. All things considered, her return was a surprise, although pretty much everyone expected it, it was still a Holy Shit moment.
Genre: I'm going to have to go with 2, considering how much sleight of hand there was with nuked people, among others (how did Suzaku survive his fight with Kallen, again? Also, Mao, Charles, Marianne). Plus, C's World and Geass offer enough loopholes for a technically-dead guy to still have a major role.
Body found: While we, as viewers, don't see a burial or anything, considering the circumstances (with literally the entire world watching and, later on, sure that he's dead) it's likely a 4, though the fact that the most likely scenario of him surviving would leave a body behind until he Back from the Dead gives a bit of wiggle room between 3 and 4.
Reaction: Montage, although in this case that's kind of watering the Epileptic Trees, but I'll still call that a 4. For a more lenient interpretation, giving the aforementioned WMG, there's also wiggle room here between 3 and 4.
Characterization: "Protagonist or Archvillain"? Yes. 1.
When did they die: Died in the series finale, so 4. In the case of a hypothetical third season, the postlogue has a two month timeskip, so, same year. 2 at most.
Died and come back: IIRC, never. 4
Total: Given that it was the series finale, 22/7 = 3.14, ie, probably dead. If you figure based on a hypothetical third season or the wiggle room given by the most likely scenario of his return, 20/7 = 2.86 or 19/7 = 2.71, or even 18/7 if you count both, leading to a 2.57, and a solid maybe, ignoring the Word Of God. might. If you figure without including "time since death:" 18/6 = 3 (...exactly the same as the previous entry. Who came back. I swear I didn't do that on purpose).
So everyone who says CC was talking to him in the last episode has a leg to stand on, though I'm ambivalent over whether or not I like this.
Precia Testarossa of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
Body found: Hard to say. We see her soul gem break, and apparently it wasn't what we thought her soul gem was, but all we see after that is a massive explosion. Let's say 2.5
Cause of Death: No One Could Survive That, The YF-29 was found wrecked without its pilot, there was a catastrophic explosion mid-fold, so at best he ejected into the fold, wherever that went... - 2
Died and come back: Not yet, in fact this almost never happens in the franchise (It's possible to consider that he has already come back once, but that was in the series) - 4
Result: 20/8 = 2.5. Wow. Well played, Kawamori, well played indeed.
For comparison, Alto Saotome (Series version) At the end of Episode 24
Cause of Death: No One Could Survive That, Brera drills a hole straight through Alto's VF-171EX, which spins out of control on fire, then explodes - 2
Result: 18/8 = 2.25. He got better, beginning of Episode 25 shows that he ejected right before Brera shot his plane down, so in the movies he's only slightly more dead than he was in the series where he came back the next episode. Almost exactly as dead if you count him coming back in the series continuity.
Cause of Death: Technically, No Ontological Inertia. There is some aspects of Mortal Wound Revealsince it was revealed during the final battle she would die if the Anti-Spiral died; however, it comes out as a Bridge Drop to some fans. Guess I'll make it 3.
Genre: Anyone Can Die - 4. At this point Kamina, [Kittan and all the secondary mecha pilots aside from Yoko and Viral have already died.
Body Found: Disintegrated - 4
Reaction: This is a hard one. I guess it is closest to He's Dead, Jim, giving it a 3.
