Basic Trope: Previously-incapacitated characters are brought back into action for a final battle
- Straight: Bob is killed but then returns to fight Charlie one last time.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob was tortured and violently murdered with a chainsaw to make sure he's Deader than Dead, before burning his broken pieces. He comes back anyway looking perfectly fine and wields the chainsaw that was used to kill him.
- Bob comes back to save the world from Charlie, as the apocalypse begins.
- Bob returns from the grave with an entire army at his disposal, ready to fight Charlie and his forces.
- Downplayed: Bob comes back to fight Charlie but it's just another skirmish between the two instead of the final battle.
- Justified:
- The character in question is a Messiah or the big guy himself. And said character returned to fight the Big Bad or even the source of all evil.
- Inverted: Charlie returns to fight Bob.
- Subverted:
- Bob comes back, and willingly joins Charlie in the final battle to the horror of the heroes.
- Bob can't come back because All Death Is Final.
- Bob never died at all and joins the heroes for the final battle.
- Bob dies AGAIN after getting killed by Charlie mid-fight, and God only gave him a second chance. Emphasis on second.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob only joined Charlie so he could trick him into lowering his guard, and promptly betrays him to save the heroes.
- Bob threatens to destroy the universe by returning from the dead.
- Bob died off-screen but nobody noticed and he comes back for the final battle.
- Parodied: Charlie won't let the final battle begin until Bob is Back from the Dead, telling the heroes to come back later.
- Alice returns with a fake mannequin shaped to look like Bob, and Charlie gets mad at Alice for trying to trick him before destroying said mannequin.
- Zig Zagged: Everyone expects Bob to come back for the final battle, but doesn't appear until the climax of the final battle, but then Bob turns to the dark side and the heroes have to kill him, only for Charlie to return redeemed and help the heroes fight Bob and the cycle continues from that point forward.
- Averted:
- Enforced:
- Bob is The Chosen One and The Prophecy states that he will return for the final battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil.
- God brings back Bob and tells him that he must join the heroes and fight them at the turn of the tide.
- Lampshaded: "So, The Chosen One returns to challenge me at the Final Battle."
- Invoked: Alice makes a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure that Bob can return for the final showdown.
- Exploited: The heroes search for the Philosopher's Stone so that they can summon Bob for the final battle.
- Defied: "If I died once, I'll likely just die again. You have to beat Charlie on your own."
- Discussed: "If Bob doesn't come back, Charlie doesn't get to fight the ultimate hero for the end game."
- Conversed: "How come they always expect Bob to come in and save the day?"
- Implied:
- Alice notices that Bob has returned to help the heroes but continues to fight uninterrupted.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob comes back to life, but instead of trying to fight Charlie instead decides to talk to him much to Charlie's anger as he just wants Bob to fight and be done with it. Bob explains that he is doing this because he doesn't want to continue a cycle of coming back from the dead just to fight over and over again.
- Bob kills Charlie from the afterlife and the two fight each other as spirits instead of fighting in the mortal plane. Their final battle will determine who returns back to life and therefore which army will win.
- Charlie only became evil because Bob died which led to the series of conflicts leading up to the final battle. Now that Bob has returned, Charlie is left confused and horrified as he recognizes how far he has fallen. When Bob decides to punish Charlie for his actions, Charlie pleads forgiveness as he is now forced to defend himself.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob realizes that Charlie has crossed the Moral Event Horizon and that there is no way to avoid fighting one another, and Bob ensures that if Charlie dies he dies for good.
- The heroes realize that Bob is battling Charlie in the afterlife and that they have to wait to see who wins, ensuring they make no attempts at ressurection.
- Charlie recognizes that he has fallen but resigns to continue the final battle simply due to pride, arrogance, a misguided belief that it's all worth it or some combination as Bob's return nullifies his evil ambitions.
- Bob came back from the dead to help the heroes, but the heroes have to make some sort of sacrifice toward amending Balancing Death's Books.
- Played For Laughs: Bob tries to make a dramatic entrance from the great beyond only for it to be an Epic Fail which prompts laughter, leading Bob to abandon the world to its fate.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob comes back from the dead for the final battle, but not in the way he was supposed to and has to be killed again.
- Charlie is so overwhelmed that Bob came back that he forgets about everything else and decides to fight just him.
Now's your chance! You'll have a Climactic Battle Resurrection!
