History Main / OnlyKillableAtHome

* {{Inverted|trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''. Video game characters cannot die in their home game (where, being part of that game, they will simply respawn). If they die in ''any other game'', on the other hand, they're KilledOffForReal.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' [[DownplayedTrope downplays]] this: The fact that [[ArtifactOfDoom The One Ring]] can only be destroyed by dropping it into the volcano where it was forged is central to the story, as said volcano is in the middle of {{Mordor}}. However, it is also ''technically'' destructible by a power greater than the forger, Sauron -- but such power [[TheMagicGoesAway no longer exists]] in Middle-earth, [[DistinctionWithoutADifference leaving this caveat moot]].

* ''Literature/TheStrain'' Trilogy: The Master topples all other breeds of vampire by destroying their "black sites," the geographical location where each came into being (all original vampires being pieces of a fallen angel scattered over the earth). He also guards the secret of his own black site, knowing that he and his strain will vanish if the heroes find it. The heroes, in turn, search for the black site in the last novel, planning to obliterate it with a suitcase nuke.

* [[Music/ShiaLaBeoufLive "Shia LaBeouf" Live]] tells the story of a couple of fights between the aforementioned Shia [=LaBeouf=] and [[SecondPersonNarration you]], but you only manage to kill him once he retreats to his cottage.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

*** This was true in ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' for Devils and Yugoloths, but for demons the reverse was true: they could only be permanently slain when they ''weren't'' in the Abyss.
*** In 3.5 Edition, Outsiders native to the material plane (mainly [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Mortal Hybrids]] of many different sorts) {{avert|edTrope}} this trope as they do have souls, and this soul prevents their entrance to the plane they are otherwise associated with. As such, once killed, they remain dead, and the normal rules of resurrection apply.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': {{inverted|trope}} for the fey, who will die permanently if slain anywhere ''except'' their plane of origin, the First World. The First World, as a prototype of creation that was abandoned by the gods, exists outside of the normal cycles of existence, including those of life and death. While in the First World, fey -- and non-native beings who become acclimated to it -- will gradually reform if killed, although not without some loss of power. This is one of the primary reasons behind the fey's bizarre behavior -- they genuinely aren't used to thinking of death, whether their own or others', as anything more than a temporary inconvenience, and its permanency in other worlds tends to catch them somewhat flat-footed.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' with the realm of the Daedric Prince [[BigBad Mehrunes Dagon.]] Nothing in the Deadlands, his personal Plane of Oblivion, can be killed permanently--any Daedra or Dremora that are slain there automatically resurrect after a certain period of time. It's actually something of an AndIMustScream situation for Mehrunes: he's the Daedric Prince of Destruction, but as long as he's in Oblivion, ''he can't actually destroy anything.'' This is his whole motivation for invading Nirn, the physical plane; once he's there, he can start causing lasting damage.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' with the voidsent. Outside of the void, they can be struck down as they're most frequently inhabiting mortal vessels. But in the void, they will simply regenerate over time since [[spoiler:the Thirteenth is so astrally-charged that life can't return to the Lifestream. As a result, the only ways to permanently kill a voidsent in the void are to either absorb their essence into oneself or to be a Memoriate capable of sealing them in inert crystals.]]

* ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'': The BigBad Gongora can only be destroyed in his native dimension, (as he's [[spoiler:mortal there]]) which is why [[spoiler:he wants to use the Grand Staff to destroy the Tower of Mirrors and seal off said dimension from the Mortal Realm]].
* PlayedWith in ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'': The FinalBoss' home is only place The Nameless One ''and'' the FinalBoss can permanently die, meaning going there to face them is equally potentially fatal to your both. [[spoiler:The Transcendent One is The Nameless One's mortality, and since The Nameless One can't die, his mortality can't die either. The only loophole to this (barring getting a NonStandardGameOver by pissing off a deity or soul-imprisoning necromancer) is for The Nameless One to specifically kill himself inside the Fortress of Regrets and end them both.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' series:
** The only way to finish off the outer menace in ''VideoGame/{{Quake|I}}'' is by putting Shub-Niggurath, the game's FinalBoss, to a permanent end. And that is done in her home location.

* The [[{{Precursors}} Xel'Naga]] of ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' are multiversal travellers, seeding one universe with life, and then resting in the [[AnotherDimension Void between universes]] until the seeded universe, by means of evolution, produces two species who will provide viable FusionDance material to [[DeityOfHumanOrigin birth a new Xel'Naga]], then repeating the process in a TimeAbyss analogue to reproduction. Should they be rendered without form outside the Void (which they are perfectly capable of doing by themselves), they will return to the Void and reform there, but if slain in the Void, they will remain dead.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is home to many different [[OtherDimension planes of existence]] aside from the normal one. Beings either closely attuned to such a plane, or born from it/bound to it, are -- aside a few exceptions that prove the rule -- [[BarredFromTheAfterlife Barred from the Shadowlands]], with their home plane pulling their soul back to it (or the [[{{Psychopomp}} Kyrian]] guiding it to it if it somehow doesn't get pulled) [[RespawnPoint whereafter the body is reconstituted]]. If slain in their home plane, the plane simply absorbs the soul, making the being suffer CessationOfExistence.
** The ''Legion'' expansion reveals that [[TheLegionsOfHell the demons of The Burning Legion]], who normally reside in the Twisting Nether, have managed to redirect a [[PhysicalGod Titan]]'s power to ensure that the 'Demons can be permanently killed in the Twisting Nether' rule is ''nulled'', meaning that as long as the Titan exists, the demons cannot be permanently killed ''anywhere''.

[[folder:Web Video]]
* Hotis from ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' is a fiend who is reborn in {{Hell}} whenever he is killed and slowly grows back to his original strength. After the heroes assassinate him on the mortal plane once, he becomes a recurring villain seeking vengeance against them, forcing them to go to {{Hell}} if they want peace. This is all in keeping with lore for fiends like Hotis (called rakshasas) in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

* ''WesternAnimation/ArgaiTheProphecy'' works on this principle in regards to TimeTravel: You can go back and forth in time by multiple means, whether magical or technological, but if you die in a timeline that's not your own, you get transported back to your own timeline to the point where you left it -- though, if you used a TimeMachine to get to wherever you died, that TimeMachine isn't coming with you.

* {{Inverted|trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''. Video game characters cannot die in their home game (where, being part of that game, they will simply re-spawn). If they die in ''any other game'', on the other hand...

Whether by magic, by the nature of their being, by the simple reason of spending most of their life there, or some other metaphysical reason, for some [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible beings]][[labelnote:*]][[SentientPhlebotinum we]] [[EmpathicWeapon don't]] [[MechanicalLifeforms discriminate]] [[AndroidsArePeopleToo what]] [[ClonesArePeopleToo constitutes]] a '[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman being]]'[[/labelnote]] the home address/[[AnotherDimension dimension]]/[[AlternateTimeline timeline]]/planet/lair or place of origin/birth/creation truly is an anchor beyond the mundane. It is where they start, and it is, apparently, the only point where they can ''[[KilledOffForReal truly]]'' [[WhereItAllBegan end]], as if something InUniverse is demanding that their story is {{Book End|s}}ed.

*** Outsiders native to the material plane (mainly [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Mortal Hybrids]] of many different sorts) {{avert|edTrope}} this trope as they do have souls, and this soul prevents their entrance to the plane they are otherwise associated with. As such, once killed, they remain dead, and the normal rules of resurrection apply.
** Vampires slain outside their coffin will turn to mist and return to it to regenerate. Only inside their coffins can they be slain (barring rare and extreme measures such as a Sphere of Annihilation).

** Vampires slain outside their coffin will turn to mist and return to it to regenerate. Only inside their coffins can they be slain.