Basic Trope: When a character almost dies, they see a light in darkness (sometimes a tunnel and sometimes just a dark void) and if they go into it, they're a goner.
- Straight: Alice is knocked unconscious and nearly dies. While unconscious, she sees darkness but with a bright light and is tempted to go towards the light but wakes up before she gets a chance to.
- Exaggerated: If Alice so much as lets the light illuminate her, she's dead as a doornail.
- Downplayed:
- Alice does see a light in darkness, but she still survives despite going into it.
- Alice sees a badly-lit area with one well-lit corner that's the danger zone.
- Justified:
- Alice's injury was causing hallucinations.
- The dark area is the Afterlife Antechamber.
- Inverted:
- Alice is born and sees the light of the room outside Betty's uterus.
- Alice is a ghost and goes Back from the Dead by walking into a light.
- Alice sees a white room with a dark spot, and going into the dark is what would kill her.
- Subverted: It turns out that Alice really is in a dark tunnel and the light is a train.
- Double Subverted: She then gets hit by the train and has this experience for real.
- Parodied: This idea makes Alice afraid of lights in darkness even if it's just her cell phone charging at night.
- Zigzagged: Alice sees a light in darkness, which turns out to be a train, which hits her and she blacks out, but there's no light. She then sees a light... but it's just a surgeon's tool.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't have a brush with death.
- Alice does almost die but doesn't see a light in darkness.
- Enforced: "Let's show what Alice is experiencing during her brush with death, but religion is taboo and a coma dream is too trippy. Let's just go for the old standby of a light in darkness."
- Lampshaded: "C'mon! A light? What a cliche! Who would be stupid enough to go into that glowing death trap?!"
- Invoked: Angels deliberately design the area between afterlives to look like a dark area with a light.Gabriel: "It's traditional."
- Exploited: Alice knows how to keep herself alive. Just stay away from the light!
- Defied:
- Discussed: "I had a near-death experience a few years ago and I actually saw a light!"
- Conversed: "Do people really see lights when they die?"
- Implied: Alice is seen mumbling, "Ow, too bright!" in her coma.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: Alice goes into the light and dies.
- Played for Horror: A demon creates the light to tempt unconscious people into dying.
Back to Go into the Light.
