History Main / ResurrectionDeathLoop

* In ''VideoGame/Portal2'', the [[spoiler: AI Chell killed in the first game, [=GLaDOS=], comes back to life and talks about her "black box quick save feature", which forced her to relive the last two minutes before her destruction.]] The time between the first game and the second game is never specified exactly but it is made clear that it is a very long time, so [[spoiler:GLaDOS could have been forced to relive her death from anywhere between decades to centuries.]]

* In ''ComicBook/EmperorJoker'', ComicBook/TheJoker acquires the reality warping powers of Mr. Mxyzptlk. What does Joker choose to do with them? Why kill Batman, [[ArchEnemy of course]]! But why kill him just once, when you can kill him [[TheyKilledKennyAgain over and over and over]]? Every time Joker ends the Dark Knight's life, he [[BackFromTheDead brings him back to life]] just so he can kill him in a different way.

See also: ImmortalityHurts, WhoWantsToLiveForever, TheManyDeathsOfYou, and AFateWorseThanDeath.

* The Devils of ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' are born in Hell. When they are killed in Hell, they spawn on Earth, and when they're killed there, they return to Hell with no memory of their time on Earth. The Primal Fear Devils are the only Devils to not be part of this cycle, simply because they are far too powerful to be killed by any Devil or human. There is only one way to truly kill a Devil, and that is to be [[spoiler:consumed by Pochita, the Chainsaw Devil]], in which case the Devil--and the concept they embody--are [[RetGone retroactively erased from existence]].
* Kurou Sakuragawa from ''Literature/InSpectre'' possesses the prophetic power of a Kudan, which allows him to see the ebb and flow of the future whenever he is near death. He can then latch onto a specific path of the future from his vision, creating an odd version of a SelfFulfillingProphecy where that path becomes the one true future. He also possesses the nigh immortality of a mermaid, meaning that whenever he is killed, he will just get right back up and live in the future he just created. In the Nanase story, he and the main character Kotoko make the most use out of this to find a way to defeat the Steel Girder Nanase phantom, by having Kurou fight the phantom bare-handed and using each of his deaths to create a future where the phantom is finally destroyed. Unfortunately for them, the phantom itself was created by Rikka Sakuragawa, Kurou's cousin who possesses the same prophetic powers as he does, and who goes so far as to kill herself multiple times to create a future where the Nanase phantom lives.

* The main concept of ''Literature/ReZero'' is all based around this. The main character, Subaru, is cursed with going back in time whenever he dies, keeping his memories. And, being a completely mundane human with no special talents in fighting or magic, he dies quite often. While this does take its toll on him and wears his sanity down, he does put it to good use in order to overcome the problems, trying again and again and trying till he does succeed in his intentions, badly mentally scarred as it leaves him.

->''Live. Die. Repeat.''

* The Devils of ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' are born in Hell. When they are killed in Hell, they spawn on Earth, and when they're killed there, they return to Hell with no memory of their time on Earth. The Primal Fear Devils are the only Devils to not be part of this cycle, simply because they are far too powerful to be killed by any Devil or human. There is only one way to truly kill a Devil, and that is to be [[spoiler:consumed by Pochita, the Chainsaw Devil]], in which case the Devil--and the concept they embody--are retroactively erased from existence.

* Inverted in ''Film/DoctorStrange'': To defeat the EldritchAbomination Dormammu, Strange creates a TimeLoopTrap in which Dormammu repeatedly kills him in various ways, only for him to rewind time and come back immediately. However, the purpose of this is to make ''Dormammu'' suffer, stuck trying to kill his enemy and becoming so frustrated he agrees to Strange's demands.

* In the prose continuity of ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', there's a character called Agrajag who is repeatedly reincarnated all over time and space, but gets killed by Arthur Dent each time. He isn't happy about it.

* ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}'s most dreaded ability is the Omega Beams that he fires from his eyes. Aside from being [[AlwaysAccurateAttack nigh-undodgeable even for a speedster]] and able to disintegrate anything they hit, they can also send anyone hit by them to the Omega Sanction, the "Death That Is Life" where they will be forced into an endless series of lives, each life more insufferable and each death more painful and humiliating than the last. Most people subjected to the Omega Sanction aren't aware of the hell they've been trapped in, and it usually takes a few hundred life cycles before their deaths become horrifying painful, gruesome, and torturous.

* ''Literature/WellWorld'': In ''Midnight at the Well of Souls'', one of the villains ends up being placed into the body of a deer-like animal on the home planet of a species of humanoid which hunts said animal in packs and [[EatenAlive eats it alive]]. Wanting to avoid such a grisly fate, he hurls himself off a cliff... only to wake up in the body of ''another'' such creature. Brazil made sure that he will experience death repeatedly, once for every person whose death he is responsible for -- and he has a fair body count to his credit. However, the villain in question ''doesn't know'' that this will, eventually, end, and is thus made to think that he will be forced to experience this forever.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has a good example of this in the form of [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1922 SCP-1922]]: he's somehow gained the power of ResurrectiveImmortality... but because he's an old man in very poor health, deaths are constantly guaranteed no matter how far he stays out of trouble. Worse still, because of his medical condition, 1922's had to have parts of his legs amputated. As such, the poor old man is openly suicidal and spends the last couple of interviews pleading for the Foundation scientists to just cremate him this time, [[FireKeepsItDead hoping that this will be enough to put him down for good]]. Unfortunately, they don't oblige him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' DarkFic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12301914/1/All-The-World-s-A-Toybox All The World's A Toybox]],'' Bill Cipher celebrates his victory in conquering Earth by making the heroes participants in his planet-wide "games." In the case of Soos, he ends up being dumped on a seemingly endless road and told that his friends are imprisoned at the other end of it, forcing him to run along the road until something ends up killing him; then he's brought back to life and [[AndIMustScream made to do it all over again]]. Suffice to say, Soos is left decidedly freaked out by this, and is eventually reduced to virtual automaton status in a desperate attempt to ignore [[DiscoveringYourOwnDeadBody the succession of former bodies he keeps tripping over]].

* The main concept of ''Anime/ReZero'' is all based around this. The main character, Subaru, is cursed with going back in time whenever he dies, keeping his memories. And, being a completely mundane human with no special talents in fighting or magic, he dies quite often. While this does take its toll on him and wears his sanity down, he does put it to good use in order to overcome the problems, trying again and again and trying till he does succeed in his intentions, badly mentally scarred as it leaves him.

* ''Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'': In "Wario Tries To Stop Himself From Dying", Wario finds himself living the same day over and over again. Not only that, but every time involves him dying in some way. After dying so many times, he makes it a goal to go the whole day without dying. [[spoiler:The reason he suffers this is because he bought the last of an ice cream that Death wanted, so [[DisproportionateRetribution Death cursed him to die endlessly]].]]

*** In Episode 3, [[spoiler:EVA-Beatrice forces Rosa (and Maria) to experience all of her childhood fantasies, which are all deadly: having mountains of cake and jelly (each GiantFood crushes them to death), [[BalefulPolymorph flying as butterflies]] (and being eaten by a spider), and flying as humans (they fall [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice onto a spiked fence]])]].

* A goddess in ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'' was cursed to spend eternity being repeatedly resurrected as a human. Every time she regains her memories, she dies within three days and is reborn immediately as a new infant. [[spoiler: Elizabeth is her 107th reincarnation.]]

* ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}'s most dreaded ability is the Omega Beams that he fires from his eyes. Aside from being [[AlwaysAccurateAttack nigh-undodgeable even for a speedster]] and able to disintegrate anything they hit, they can also send anyone hit by them to the Omega Sanction, the "Death That Is Life" where they will be forced into an endless series of lives, each life more insufferable and each death more painful and humiliating than the last. Most people subjected to the Omega Sanction aren't aware of the hell they've been trapped in, and it usually takes a few hundred life cycles before their deaths become horrifying painful, gruesome, and torturous.

* In the 2019 ''Future Foundation'' series, it's revealed that Rikki Barnes is resurrected into a near-identical life on a parallel earth every time she dies. This is by the design of her creator, Franklin Richards, who wants her to be TheConstant of each reality he creates, and thus was originally limited to his Counter-Earth creations before the 2015 Secret Wars. Since he recreated the entire multiverse, Rikki now has lives that will span them all.

* Enforced in ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow''. When William Cage kills a unique Mimic, its blood sprays all over him and dissolves him, and he awakens the day before the battle. From that point on, no matter when he dies, he starts at the same point again, accumulating the necessary skills and strategies he's learned from each "life" in an attempt to completely destroy the Mimics. However, why this trope is enforced is that any time he gets injured and ''doesn't'' die, he risks losing this ability. [[spoiler: Which is exactly what happens before the climax, and how Rita lost it sometime before the film's events began. Even worse, the Omega ''also'' has it, and is implied to have used it countless times before to ensure every victory the Mimics ever had against humanity.]]

* In ''Literature/WingsOfFire'', [[spoiler:Queen Diamond]] punishes [[spoiler:Foeslayer]] by killing her over and over with an enchanted spear that will freeze her when she dies and then revive her whenever the user wants.She ends up tying her there for thousands of years so new dragons can come to kill her [[spoiler:during their Diamond Trials.]]

* The crux of ''Series/RussianDoll.'' Essentially, main character Nadia has been trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop that can only be reset by her death. Worse still, her merest presence seems to turn even the most innocuous scenario into a guaranteed fatality, to the point that Nadia starts avoiding the apartment staircase after tripping and breaking her neck ''[[DeathMontage four times in a row]].'' Needless to say, she ends up suffering from some seriously traumatizing experiences, like dying of exposure on the streets or drowning - not helped by the fact that she begins the next loop puking up river water. After spending a large chunk of time worrying that she's suffering from a mental illness, she meets someone else trapped in the same loop, and he's been so worn down by all the deaths that [[DissonantSerenity he can barely react to his next fatal accident]].

* ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'': Since AnyoneCanDie in an {{Object Show|s}} and can be recovered over and over again without repercussions, [[ThePrankster Blocky]] has a pranking company called "Blocky's Funny Doings International" ([[FunWithAcronyms BFDI for short]]) dedicated to exploiting the trope [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] with the season one contestants. A total of four of such pranks were made which are essentially rigging a contestant's personal recovery center in such a way that they're repeatedly and continuously kill the moment they are revived.

* WebVideo/{{Phelous}} used to have this as an OnceAnEpisode gag, where something from the movie he'd review would kill him. This was completely PlayedForLaughs until the review of ''Film/JacobsLadder'', in which his repeated deaths turned out to be [[spoiler:the result of the ''real'' Phelan dying in his first review and being unable to move on, turning his death into a gag to deny reality. This episode ends with him finally dying for real.]] [[UnexplainedRecovery He got better.]]

* [[spoiler:[[TheDon Diavolo]]]] from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'' is struck by this in the final fight. After receiving a thorough CurbStompBattle by Giorno's newly awakened [[spoiler:[[EleventhHourSuperpower Gold Experience Requiem]]]] he begins to endlessly be affected by Requiem's 'back to zero' effect, which in his case means he constantly dies over and over, always in a different way. He's fully aware of it, and he can't ever escape from it, making it both this and AFateWorseThanDeath.

* In ''VideoGame/Portal2'', the [[spoiler: AI Chell killed in the first game, [=GLaDOS=],]] comes back to life and talks about her "black box quick save feature", which forced her to relive the last two minutes before her destruction.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' DarkFic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12301914/1/All-The-World-s-A-Toybox All The World's A Toybox]],'' Bill Cipher celebrates his victory in conquering Earth by making the heroes participants in his planet-wide "games." In the case of Soos, he ends up being dumped on a seemingly endless road and told that his friends are imprisoned at the other end of it, forcing him to run along the road until something ends up killing him; then he's brought back to life and [[AndIMustScream made to do it all over again]]. Suffice to say, Soos is left decidedly freaked out by this, and is eventually reduced to virtual automaton status in a desperate attempt to ignore [[DiscoveringYourOwnDeadBody the succession of former bodies he keeps tripping over]].

* PlayedForLaughs: ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'' has an InUniverse pranking company, ''[[FunWithAcronyms Blocky's Funny Doings International]]'', that loved to do this to contestants in season one. [[spoiler:4 of these pranks were made total.]]

* Kurou Sakuragawa from ''Anime/InSpectre'' possesses the prophetic power of a Kudan, which allows him to see the ebb and flow of the future whenever he is near death. He can then latch onto a specific path of the future from his vision, creating an odd version of a SelfFulfillingProphecy where that path becomes the one true future. He also possesses the nigh immortality of a mermaid, meaning that whenever he is killed, he will just get right back up and live in the future he just created. In the Nanase story, he and the main character Kotoko make the most use out of this to find a way to defeat the Steel Girder Nanase phantom, by having Kurou fight the phantom bare-handed and using each of his deaths to create a future where the phantom is finally destroyed. Unfortunately for them, the phantom itself was created by Rikka Sakuragawa, Kurou's cousin who possesses the same prophetic powers as he does, and who goes so far as to kill herself multiple times to create a future where the Nanase phantom lives.

* Kurou Sakuragawa from ''Anime/InSpectre'' possesses the prophetic power of a Kudan, which allows him to see the ebb and flow of the future whenever he is near death. He can then latch onto a specific path of the future from his vision, creating an odd version of a SelfFulfillingProphecy where that path becomes the one true future. He also possesses the nigh immortality of a mermaid, meaning that whenever he is killed, he will just get right back up and live in the future he just created. In the Nanase story, he and main character Kotoko make the most use out of this to find a way to defeat the Steel Girder Nanase phantom, by having Kurou fight the phantom bare-handed and using each of his deaths to create a future where the phantom is finally destroyed. Unfortunately for them, the phantom iteself was created by Rikka Sakuragawa, Kurou's cousin who possesses the same prophetic powers as he does, and who goes so far as to kill herself multiple times to create a future where the Nanase phantom lives.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Yami's battle against the Egyptian God Card Slifer the Sky Dragon sees his opponent exploit this via a weak slime monster that keeps resurrecting itself when it dies, a card that lets him draw three cards for every killed monster, and another that removes the limit for cards in his hand. The PurposefullyOverpowered dragon's powers lets it instakill all weaker monsters (including the slime) and gain attack and defense points for every card in the player's hand, with the slime resurrecting afterwards. Yami gets around the CycleOfHurting by using a mind-control card that puts the slime monster on his side, creating an infinite loop where the slime is killed and reborn constantly, meaning the dragon's player is forced to keep drawing cards until he runs out, which is an automatic loss despite having a monster of quasi-infinite attack and defense power.

* In the 2019 ''Future Foundation'' series, it's revealed that Rikki Barnes is resurrected into a near identical life on a parallel earth every time she dies. This is by design of her creator, Franklin Richards, who wants her to be TheConstant of each reality he creates, and thus was originally limited to his Counter-Earth creations before the 2015 Secret Wars. Since he recreated the entire multiverse, Rikki now has lives that will span them all.

* Kurou Sakuragawa from ''Literature/InSpectre'' possesses the prophetic power of a Kudan, which allows him to see the ebb and flow of the future whenever he is near death. He can then latch onto a specific path of the future from his vision, creating an odd version of a SelfFulfillingProphecy where that path becomes the one true future. He also possesses the nigh immortality of a mermaid, meaning that whenever he is killed, he will just get right back up and live in the future he just created. In the Nanase story, he and main character Kotoko make the most use out of this to find a way to defeat the Steel Girder Nanase phantom, by having Kurou fight the phantom bare-handed and using each of his deaths to create a future where the phantom is finally destroyed. Unfortunately for them, the phantom iteself was created by Rikka Sakuragawa, Kurou's cousin who possesses the same prophetic powers as he does, and who goes so far as to kill herself multiple times to create a future where the Nanase phantom lives.
* [[spoiler:[[ArcVillain Diavolo]]]] from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' is struck by this in the final fight of Part 5. After receiving a thorough CurbStompBattle by the newly awakened [[spoiler:[[EleventhHourSuperpower Gold Experience Requiem]]]] he also begins to be constantly affected by Requiem's 'back to zero' effect, which in his case means he constantly dies over and over, always in a different way. Nobody else notices it, and he can't ever escape from it, making it both this and AFateWorseThanDeath.

* ''Manga/YuGiOh'': Yami's battle against the Egyptian God Card Slifer the Sky Dragon sees his opponent exploit this via a weak slime monster that keeps resurrecting itself when it dies, a card that lets him draw three cards for every killed monster, and another that removes the limit for cards in his hand. The PurposefullyOverpowered dragon's powers lets it instakill all weaker monsters (including the slime) and gain attack and defense points for every card in the player's hand, with the slime resurrecting afterwards. Yami gets around the CycleOfHurting by using a mind-control card that puts the slime monster on his side, creating an infinite loop where the slime is killed and reborn constantly, meaning the dragon's player is forced to keep drawing cards until he runs out, which is an automatic loss despite having a monster of quasi-infinite attack and defense power.

* ''{{Series/Highlander}}'' had an episode with an immortal who went through this as he repeatedly starved to death on a desert island.

%%* Arkane Studios' upcoming game, appropriately titled "Deathloop", is about an assassin caught in a time loop. Every day, one of eight administrators flips the switch to test the giant 'time windmill', which malfunctions completely, causing the world to rewind back to the day before and wiping the memories of almost everyone. The assassin's goal is to find a way to kill all eight in a single iteration, by manipulating remembered events to get them all together for one big family shootout. The catch is, there's another assassin aware of the endless loops, [[LivingForeverIsAwesome and she doesn't want to leave]].

** It's eventually revealed that this has been the unfortunate fate of Lorraine Maillard. Following the events of ''VideoGame/ThePark'', Lorraine is forcibly implanted with one of the Bees, and unlike the player characters, the experience is anything but pleasant: quite apart from the MindRape of having an unwilling Bee bonded to her, the process of being killed and resurrected "chips away at you," until Lorraine believes that the process is taking something vital from her. Worse still, given that she's in the same line of work as the players, she is doomed to spend most of her time dying horribly. Already having hit the DespairEventHorizon post-''The Park'', the resurrections leave her even ''worse'' off - to the point that she embarks on a thirty-year quest to disable her Bee and stay dead. Then, of course, [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption you screw the whole thing up]] and reactivate her Bee, [[UnwantedRevival bringing her back to life against her will]]... and [[FridgeHorror given that this is a repeatable mission]]...

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In a ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "Treehouse of Horror" special, Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart, and becomes a university professor afterwards. However, he soon finds killing Bart was the only thing that ever gave him satisfaction and finds a way to bring him back. Sideshow Bob then uses it to continuously revive and kill the boy over and over again to relive the happiest moment of his life.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', the "4d Pyramid" event has the [[PlayerCharacter TheHero]] being put through one that overlaps with a StableTimeLoop. Due to the strange nature of the EldritchLocation, it is possible for people to encounter versions of themselves from the recent future or past. "Future You" acts as the QuestGiver for the present Hero based on what they were told by the previous future version of themselves. This allows them to slowly progress through the EldritchLocation to collect an item called "Eye of the Gods", one million times. However going through each cycle, it results in you getting exposed to a deadly plague which kills you. Fortunately, the sarcophagus you woke up in at the start of the event conveniently [[BackFromTheDead revives anything put into it]]. So the Hero of the past, under the instruction of their future self, will put continue putting their future remains in the sarcophagus that will bring them back to life and allow them to continue the cycle again.

* In ''VideoGame/Portal2'', the [[spoiler: AI Chell killed in the first game, GLaDOS,]] comes back to life and talks about her "black box quick save feature", which forced her to relive the last two minutes before her destruction.

* PlayedForLaughs: ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'' has an InUniverse pranking company, ''[[FunWithAcronyms Blocky's Funny Doings International]]'', that loves to do this to contestants in season one.

* PlayedForLaughs: ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland has an InUniverse pranking company, ''[[FunWithAcronyms Blocky's Funny Doings International]]'', that loves to do this to contestants in season one.