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The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at the Trope Launch Pad.

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Chariset Since: Jan, 2001
2011-10-03 01:05:46

Could be. It's more like the medium and everyone involved treat what looks like a lethal situation as no big deal — as if 'getting captured' is the worst that can happen to you, and when someone disappears they will always turn up later, maybe tied up but not hurt. Non-Lethal K.O. applied to other media.

Here's what brought it to my mind. At the :24 mark in this video, Namor the Sub-Mariner falls into a burning pool of alcohol (he'd thought it was water, improbably) and disappears into the flames. No one acts like they'd witnessed a death... and in fact Namor is perfectly fine later.

Same video, 2:30 mark, Captain America sinks into a pool of quicksand. No one even tries to go in after him — they just fly off and leave him to what the viewer would assume is a miserable death. Sure enough, before the episode is over, he's fine. He's just been captured and imprisoned by the villain of the day.

It doesn't help that both incidents look like deaths, and pretty nasty ones too.

Edited by Chariset
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010
2011-10-03 02:05:18

That sounds a bit like the above crossed with a form of Functional Genre Savvy. I remember seeing something similar on here the other day, and that's what they concluded it was.

Freezer Since: Jan, 2001
2011-10-03 10:33:39

Sounds like a sped-up version of Disney Death.

Slava Ukraini
Chariset Since: Jan, 2001
2011-10-03 11:21:03

It's not Disney Death because that's treated as a death in-universe. This isn't.

I agree that Nobody Can Die seems closest. It was just jarring.

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010
2011-10-03 19:21:23

Like I said, Functional Genre Savvy (character's assumptions about their situation relate to their genre) for Nobody Can Die. No one worries about either character because they "know" that they're in no real danger of death.

Edited by nrjxll
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