History Main / FirstEpisodeResurrection

* Kazuki Muto of ''Manga/BusoRenkin'' sacrifices his life to protect a girl he's just met when she is attacked by a monster. Embarassingly enough, Tokiko happens to be an ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl who was just playing helpless to bait out the monster, but fortunately, she feels badly enough about his death that she uses her Arms Alchemy to resurrect him. Now he's got an alchemical stone for a heart. Would you be surprised if I told you it gave him superhuman powers?

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The first issue which presents the changes made to the Amazon's origins ComicBook/PostCrisis shows the murder of a pregnant woman and then her and all the other Amazon's resurrection as they were reimagined as all, including Diana, being women killed by men who were then resurrected with new bodies made of clay by a group of Olympian goddesses.

* ''Fanfic/{{Quicken}}'': In the first episode, [[AntiHero Emma]] died after a brutal fight against several thugs. However she triggered (in-universe speak for "gained powers due to a traumatic experience) right before dying, and her powers brought her back to life.

* The Abyssal Exalted in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' flirt with this trope. While no actual resurrection occurs, they are brought back to vitality from the brink of death by virtue of Exaltation, without which they would succumb. It is possible for a character to play a prologue for their Exaltation scene, and all Abyssal prologues inevitably involve this.

* ''Literature/SandmanSlim''. While he wasn't ''technically'' dead, the series kicks off with missing-presumed-dead James Stark [[EscapedFromHell crawling out of a cemetery after being in hell]] a good eleven years.

* ''Literature/{{Lamb}}'' begins with Biff being raised from the grave to write his own version of the Gospel.

!!Examples

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* More like Eighth Episode Resurrection, but Church's death in the first season of Machinima/RedVsBlue kicks off the entire plot by [[spoiler:revealing, if those around him had paid any attention, that he's actually an AI]], and more directly by being the catalyst that led to Tex coming to Blood Gulch. It also gives him the only remotely useful ability he has (aside from taking responsibility when Tucker doesn't want to, which is always), the ability to possess people.
* The first Carmilla story of the Literature/WhateleyUniverse begins with famed horror writer Michael Waite dying of cancer. And then waking up in the morgue and completing a horrific transformation into something which may not be human at all. Carmilla then has to deal with supervillains, [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]], and the fact that Michael Waite's best-selling horror fiction ''Incongruity'' is not fiction.
* It only takes poor [[ThePaladin Carrow]] two episodes in ''WebVideo/JourneyQuest'' to get shot full of arrows and then be incompetently raised from the dead by [[IneptMage Perf]]. Unfortunately for Carrow, the God of light and purity doesn't exactly like zombies...

* Kazuki Muto of ''Manga/BusouRenkin'' sacrifices his life to protect a girl he's just met when she is attacked by a monster. Embarassingly enough, Tokiko happens to be an ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl who was just playing helpless to bait out the monster, but fortunately, she feels badly enough about his death that she uses her Arms Alchemy to resurrect him. Now he's got an alchemical stone for a heart. Would you be surprised if I told you it gave him superhuman powers?

[[quoteright:261:[[Webcomic/SchoolBites https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SchoolBites000.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:261:Hmm, start of the comic and the protagonist is dead. There, now she's undead. Problem solved... sorta.]]

* The first chapter of ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'' begins with the protagonist Rhea being murdered by an unknown assassin and being sentenced to The Ring of the Slightly Damned, a part of the afterlife on the edge of Hell where people who failed to qualify for Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory are sent. The first chapter ends with her escaping back to the world of the living and bringing Buwaro, the innocent demon child who was assigned to punish her for her sins with her. In between, she also [[TheyKilledKennyAgain gets killed and revived a few times]] while in the afterlife since mortal souls who die again while already dead come back the next morning.

* In the opening of ‘’Webcomic/SuicideNoun’’, the main character Ethan kills himself, though its not revealed until chapter 2 that he was ressurected.

Based on ancient archetypes about death and transformation; usually a hero has to go through his darkest hour to get a powerup, but in some series, they cut to this moment right away. Compare SacrificialLamb, DeathByOriginStory. See FirstEpisodeSpoiler for when it is supposed to be a surprise. Can overlap with DeadToBeginWith.

* DC's 1990's series ''Artemis: Requiem'' had a non-standard version. Artemis had been dead and in the underworld for a while. But at the end of the first issue, she clawed her way out of hell and back to Earth in the process of rescuing her [[WonderWoman naïve, reckless, superhero sister]], who had come to the underworld looking for her.

** The Demon Hunter starting zone gives you the option of sacrificing yourself or an NPC to power a portal. If you choose to sacrifice yourself you get resurrected shortly after, being given an explanation of how being a Demon Hunter gives you the immortal soul of a Demon.

* [[CaptainObvious Can happen in any game where resurrection is possible.]] In fact, Dragon magazine once had one background option for a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' character be exactly this.
** In 3rd edition and 3.5, at least, this is a ''prerequisite'' for certain prestige classes.
* [[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters Sin-Eaters]] are touched by weirdness in their early life (ranging from sensing the supernatural to knowing when someone's about to die), but it's not until they die that they come into power, as they end up at the front gates of the Underworld and a [[OurGhostsAreDifferent geist]] offers to bring them back to life... if they get to tag along, that is.
* Likewise [[TabletopGame/MummyTheResurrection Mummies]] have to die before becoming immortal and gaining their powers. [[TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen Demons]] don't always have to work this way (so long as the soul is basically withered and/or absent, the body can be possessed) but this is one of the common ways it happens.

** ''Literature/MoDaoZuShi'' opens with the protagonist Wei Wuxian's resurrection.

All you have to do is die in front of a supernatural protagonist (often of the opposite sex) by the end of the pilot episode of your series. [[HeroicSacrifice Sacrificing]] yourself is a huge bonus. Chances are good that you will be resurrected in short order. Most of the time, you will be granted some form of {{immortality}} -- and, if you're lucky, you may even get [[JustForFun/HowToGiveACharacterSuperpowers other]] [[ViralTransformation powers]] [[CameBackStrong to go along with it.]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Except for the fact that he dies and is resurrected in the last episode of a season, Captain Jack Harkness of ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' fits this trope perfectly. His resurrection makes him immortal, which is a plot point in almost every subsequent ''Doctor Who'' episode he appears in, and several times a season in ''Torchwood''.
** Of course, though his resurrection was at the end of a series, the fact that he's immortal isn't revealed until the the première of ''Torchwood'', when he's shot in the head... and gets back up a few seconds later.
* Liz in ''Series/{{Roswell}}'' gets shot dead in the first episode and is healed by alien-disguised-as-shy-high-school-student Max. The (useful) powers that come along with it [[spoiler: don't show up until the third season, though]].
* From the opening narration to the first episode of ''{{Series/Lexx}}'':
--> '''Kai:''' The Time Prophet predicted that I would be the one to destroy the Divine Order and the League of 20,000 Planets. Someday, that will happen -- but not today. As today is my day of death. The day our story begins.
* The main character in ''Series/NowAndAgain'' starts as John Goodman - until he gets hit by a train and has his brain placed in an artificial body. Too bad his family doesn't recognize him now.
* Chuck in ''Series/PushingDaisies'', though her new life doesn't come with immortality or cool powers.
** On the contrary, it's heavily implied that she is immortal. Digby, Ned's golden retriever, is past twenty and as spry as a puppy. This probably applies to Chuck too.
*** WordOfGod confirms that Chuck will not age. No word on death by other causes.
*** Ned thinks she can die again: in the second season premiere, he says that just because he brought her back once doesn't mean she can't die from other things, and that there's a reason he doesn't let Digby play in traffic.

* Subverted in the pilot episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Jesse, Xander's ''other'' bestest ever friend is captured, killed and turned into a vampire, setting him up as something of a recurring villain character. But then he is (somewhat accidentally) staked by Xander before the end of the opening two parter. He's [[ForgottenFallenFriend promptly never mentioned again.]] [[WeHardlyKnewYe Sorry, Jesse.]]

* Trance Gemini dies in the pilot of ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', and comes back with no problem. No one can even figure out how it happened.

* The first episode of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' shows that Claire is very resilient, being able to quickly heal from rather traumatic injuries. She finally gets killed due to having a tree branch jammed in her head, only to wake up on the autopsy table after the branch is removed. She reacts about how [[PrecisionFStrike you'd expect her to.]]
** Claire's a special case. She's got a HealingFactor she'd discovered pre-series as well as a masochistic streak a mile long. We first meet her jumping off of an oil tower over and over and ''painfully shoving her bones back into place'' while her friend videotapes it.
* ''{{Series/LesRevenants}}'' features five of them in the pilot. [[spoiler: Actually there are even more. It turns out that dozens resurrected in the same episode though they remained in hiding for the entirety of the first season. The five others didn't find the rest of the group in time.]]
* Agent Coulson is revealed to have been resurrected in the ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' pilot. The circumstances of his resurrection are a mystery even to him early on.
* Sort-of in ''Series/{{iZombie}}''. Liv narrates her rising medical career and dreamy engagement until she goes to a boat party, which turns into a zombie outbreak. We then see her unzip a body bag and sit up, all pale and white-haired. Since she's no longer alive, it's not technically a resurrection, but it can still apply.
* The entire premise of ''{{Series/Glitch}}'' is about a few people coming BackFromTheDead, so naturally this trope applies.
* This is the entire reason ''why'' the show's called ''Series/KamenRiderGhost''. The hero is killed in the first episode and he is handed a TransformationTrinket to allow him to fight ghosts [[ShapedLikeItself as a ghost]].

* Drax the Destroyer was raised from death by Cronos and Mentor in order to defeat Thanos, in Creator/MarvelComics. Possibly a subversion, in that almost nothing of Mr. Douglas's personality remains--Drax is a giant green humanoid with energy powers and about the same level of intelligence as that [[TheHulk other giant green humanoid]] from Marvel.

* ''Comicbook/TheCrow''
* ''ComicBook/TheSpirit''

* The main character of the original ''VideoGame/{{Onimusha}}'', Samanosuke Akechi, starts out the game as an ordinary samurai... then he gets (apparently) killed by a demon, and is resurrected by the Clan Ogres, granted superhuman powers, and proceeds to clean house, ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil''-style.

* Pretty much everyone who has ever combined with an incarnation of [[Franchise/UltraSeries Ultraman]] did so in this manner back in the Showa series, though it's less common in the Heisei series.

** {{Subverted}} in the first chronological episode of [[Series/UltraSeven UltraSeven]]. Agent 340 witnesses a mountain climber named Jiro Satsuma nearly falling to his death and saves his life but doesn't merge life forces with him, instead modelling his human identity's appearance on Earth after Satsuma.
** A unusual variant for the franchise occurs in [[Series/UltramanTiga Ultraman Tiga]], when Daigo Madoka gets shot down while attempting to protect the ancient statue of Ultraman Tiga. Due to Tiga being the ancient ancestor of Daigo, they end up merging into a single identity, which simultaneously revives Daigo and allows him to transform into the restored Tiga.