Basic Trope: A character dies but then comes back to life.
- Straight: Bob is killed but then is resurrected by Applied Phlebotinum.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob lost vital organs, got poisoned, parasitised, left in a storm, exploded internally or through Stuff Blowing Up, frozen, burned, catapulted, starved, force-fed, stabbed, shocked, shot, gutted, crushed, hanged, drawn and quartered, left to atrophy, irradiated, exposed to incurable diseases, beaten, drowned, dehydrated, dropped from a high altitude, depressurized, Buried Alive, Fed to Pigs, decapitated, thrown into the trash, and then his soul was sealed to make sure he was Deader than Dead. He comes back anyway, not as a zombie or otherwise undead, but a completely normal, fresh human being, all while he remembers in vivid detail exactly what happened to him.
- Bob was one of the first humans. He died after living an average lifespan for his time, but millions of years later, he got revived.
- Death Is Cheap
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist
- Bob comes back from a Cessation of Existence or a Ret-Gone.
- They Killed Kenny Again
- Bob, an unremarkable person in every way, is killed and returns as a badass Master of All.
- Alice and Bob are two of thousands of people to come back from the dead.
- Downplayed: Bob is technically brought back from the dead but requires ongoing major medical attention to stay alive. Even then he'll probably be crippled for his whole second life.
- Bos is technically brought back from the dead but only as ghostly entity.
- Justified:
- The character is a Messiah or the big guy himself. Do you really expect him to stay dead?
- Applied Phlebotinum exists that can get people's souls back/regenerate the body. Associates of the character just have to find it.
- Bob is a member of a species with Resurrective Immortality.
- Inverted: Everyone is a zombie. Bob gets revived but then dies again.
- Subverted:
- Everyone expects Bob to come back, nothing can kill him, right? Nope, he's really dead.
- Bob comes back as a ghost. He's definitely dead, and he's staying dead.
- Bob comes back as a zombie possessed by Emperor Evulz's Dragon, Neko the Necromancer, so the others have to give him a Mercy Kill.
- It's not the original Bob, but a clone.
- Back for the Dead
- Bob has been Faking the Dead.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated.
- Double Subverted:
- Everyone expects Bob to come back to life, and are severely disheartened when he doesn't, only to be overjoyed when he suddenly appears alive and well in the third act.
- The next few hours of the story are devoted to getting a new body for Bob and bringing him back to life.
- After pounding Neko repeatedly, it leaves her with no choice but to resurrect Bob properly; this time he is truly alive again.
- Zombie-Bob is stabbed with the Healing Shiv, also healing him from the process that made him a zombie.
- Bob's clone remembers who he is through Genetic Memory.
- The original Bob is as alive as the clone.
- Bob is apparently Killed Off for Real at his reappearance, but then does come back.
- Parodied:
- Bob has been killed and come back so many times killing him loses all meaning. The villains don't even bother anymore.
- Alice, Bob's friend, makes a papier-mâché Bob and acts emotionally joyful in his return.
- Zig-Zagged: All Bob's allies expect him to come back and are disheartened when he doesn't. They're overjoyed when he shows up alive and well in the third act, but he Came Back Wrong and is under the villain's Mind Control. The rest of the heroes are forced to fight against him, killing him for good this time. However, killing Brainwashed Zombie-Bob causes Bob to come back to life as his normal self, restoring the status quo in full.
- Averted:
- Bob isn't coming back.
- Bob is not killed.
- Lampshaded: "How many times do I have to kill these people?"
- Invoked: Bob makes a Heroic Sacrifice and invokes the power of the Applied Phlebotinum to bring him back.
- Exploited: The Five-Man Band needs a member to take a message to the afterlife and return with an answer. Bob is chosen to be killed for this task for his likelihood to return from the dead.
- Defied:
- "Let's not try to revive him. He had a good life."
- "We'll burn his body and bury his ashes deep underground so he stays dead!"
- Discussed: "You can't die, Bob! This is only the first act."
- Conversed: "Do you notice how the heroes never stay dead?"
- Implied:
- Bob survives that.
- Bob appears to die but then has an Unexplained Recovery.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob comes back to life, but remembers the pain associated with dying and suffers PTSD.
- Bob's resurrected, and people are understandably horrified at seeing a dead man walking the earth.
- Bob died thousands of years ago; resurrection makes him a Fish out of Temporal Water.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob comes back to life, but remembers the pain associated with dying and suffers PTSD. This makes him no different than his buddies who have fought but haven't died and they all help each other.
- Bob's resurrected, patched up, and soon looks no different from having just been injured. His friends, teammates, etc. are glad that he's back.
- Bob came back from the dead, but he has to pay some price for the resurrection to satisfy Balancing Death's Books.
- Bob is a quick study and catches on to the norms of his future (it's not even a Next Sunday A.D. future!).
- Played for Laughs:
- Bob gets killed horribly, including having his legs ripped off. He gets back up sometime later and continues on his way, seemingly not bothered that he's missing half his body.
- Bob is Naked on Revival and, even if he doesn't necessarily look right, it's still the case that Naked People Are Funny.
- Bob's many deaths are played for Black Comedy.
- Played for Drama:
- Bob comes back from the dead, but not as he was supposed to.
- Bob comes back from the dead about 70 years after he originally died and angsts that (almost) nobody he knew is still alive.
- Played for Horror: Bob comes back from the dead as a remorseless Person of Mass Destruction and soon he is the most wanted criminal on Earth.
Play Lazarus and come Back from the Dead at the link.
