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Dice Roll Death
- 120 statements
- 22 feature instances
- 24 referencing feature instances
| Dice Roll Death | type |
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| Dice Roll Death | label |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death | page |
DiceRollDeath | |
| Dice Roll Death | comment |
A normal, average day in the life of a character. They go about their business as usual... but then they turn a corner and get taken out by a bus, or stop to tie their shoe, which delays them long enough that they're in perfect position to get squashed by the proverbial falling piano. The point is, the reason they die is simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time by sheer bad luck. A big (but not foolproof) way to tell if this trope is in play is if a character dies because of some change they made in their daily routine; they took a different route to work just to change things up and die in a car crash, or decide to try a new restaurant and get killed in a robbery. Another possibility is that the character didn't go out, but was instead killed by some calamity that hit their house, such as a plane crash (bonus points if said calamity only hit their house). The critical element is that the only reason the victim dies is because random happenstance dictated they would be in the line of fire, so to speak. It's not this trope if an outside force (be it God, Fate, Death, another character, or anything else), actively and knowingly maneuvers the victim toward their demise. This doesn't mean the death has to be due to an accident; if a character takes a wrong turn, ends up in a bad part of town, and gets murdered in a carjacking, that's this trope, but if they were lured there and then killed by the same people who did the luring, it's not. A literal version of this trope (such as a serial killer who decides to kill or spare his victims based on a dice toss) could be another way for non-accidental deaths to be involved. This trope is also not about metaphorical deaths, like a character "dying" in a video game due to bad luck. Only actual deaths are allowed here. Note that the person who gets killed does not necessarily have to be the only victim. Inverse of Serendipitous Survival, where luck or chance means a character survives by avoiding a dangerous location. A possible form of Diabolus ex Machina and You Can't Fight Fate, though neither has to be present for this trope to work. May also be a component of Dropped a Bridge on Him and Life Will Kill You. Closely related to but distinct from Necro Non Sequitur, since this trope doesn't require a series of convoluted events. These usually aren't Surprisingly Sudden Deaths, since those tend to have an element of intent about them. A character who is Born Unlucky would likely die in this fashion. As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware. |
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| Dice Roll Death | fetched |
2024-04-10T22:17:48Z | |
| Dice Roll Death | parsed |
2024-04-10T22:17:48Z | |
| Dice Roll Death | processingComment |
Dropped link to PlayerCharacters: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dice Roll Death | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheChessmaster: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dice Roll Death | processingComment |
Dropped link to shutuphannibal: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dice Roll Death | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_1543f8a | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_1543f8a | comment |
The guiding premise of Zero Time Dilemma, and by extension the entire Zero Escape series. A woman who normally took a certain route on her morning jog went a different direction because there was a snail in her normal path, and became the first victim of an eventual serial killer. A suspect was arrested as he was getting in a taxi, and the driver instead took a surgeon as his passenger, killing both of them when the taxi got into an accident, also resulting in the death of a young boy who was awaiting surgery. The suspect was wrongfully found guilty and executed, and his wife took her own life in despair, orphaning their two children. This indirectly led to pretty much everything that happened in the series, all because of a snail. A literal dice roll death happens after solving the puzzles in the casino. Before you're allowed to leave, you are presented with three dice and told to roll them. If the result is three ones, you can leave. If it's anything else, you get Swiss cheesed by Gatling guns. Fortunately the game is rigged so that you always succeed on the third attempt (provided you watch the cutscene of said Swiss cheesing all the way through each time for the game to actually count your attempts). |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_1543f8a | featureApplicability |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_1543f8a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Zero Time Dilemma (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_1543f8a | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_2566ca3d | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_2566ca3d | comment |
No Country for Old Men: Anton Chigurh lets certain people call a coin toss to determine whether he'll kill them. Carla Jean gives him a Shut Up, Hannibal! on the subject: When Chigurh escapes the police station, he stops a driver on a highway to kill him and steal his car. The poor guy just happened to be the only one on the road. Llewellyn flags down a motorist on an otherwise deserted street while running from Chigurh; the driver dies when Chigurh shoots at them. |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_2566ca3d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_2566ca3d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| No Country for Old Men | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_2566ca3d | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_261c8d3f | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_261c8d3f | comment |
Maude Flanders of The Simpsons was abruptly knocked over the guardrail and plummeted to her death at a sports race by T-shirts shot out of a cannon meant aimed at Homer... who ducked to pick up a bobby pin and missed them right as Maude just happened to come back to her place right behind him. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_261c8d3f | featureApplicability |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_261c8d3f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Simpsons | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_261c8d3f | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_38ce5997 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_38ce5997 | comment |
The Boys has Robin Ward's Plot-Triggering Death: while talking to her boyfriend, Hughie, she steps off the sidewalk to tell him that she's planning on buying a house for them to move in together. Then they kiss, and their conversation is abruptly interrupted by A-Train, a superhero with Super-Speed, running through Robin, reducing her to Ludicrous Gibs. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_38ce5997 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_38ce5997 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Boys (2019) | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_38ce5997 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_3defe34c | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_3defe34c | comment |
This trope gets discussed in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, as a major element of the novel is the question of whether the people who were killed in the collapse of the titular bridge were there by chance or by providence. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_3defe34c | featureApplicability |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_3defe34c | featureConfidence |
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| Discussed Trope | hasFeature |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_3f10d191 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_3f10d191 | comment |
A literal version in Jackbox Party Pack 3's Trivia Murder Party. The host first rolls three dice, then a selected player decides whether the at-risk parties must roll higher or lower to not die. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_3f10d191 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_3f10d191 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Jackbox Party Pack (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_3f10d191 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5375bd65 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5375bd65 | comment |
In Year Five #18 of Injustice: Gods Among Us, Bizarro is flying while carrying Trickster. All of a sudden, Bizarro sneezes... and uses both hands to cover his mouth, causing him to drop Trickster, who lands on a mountain and dies. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5375bd65 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5375bd65 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Injustice: Gods Among Us (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_5375bd65 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5afbc0cb | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5afbc0cb | comment |
During his playthrough of a multiplayer mod of Undertale, Alpharad decides to let Smith make the choice to kill or spare the two knights in Hotland. His choice is decided via heads or tails. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5afbc0cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5afbc0cb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Undertale (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_5afbc0cb | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5db577ba | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5db577ba | comment |
Harvey Dent/Two-Face in The Dark Knight, in two different capacities: As Harvey, he frequently flips his "lucky coin" to decide things, while joking that he "makes his own luck", the punchline being that the coin is two-headed. He later uses his coin toss to intimidate a man he's interrogating (see the page quote); Harvey asks a question, and if he doesn't get the answer he wants, he flips a coin. He does this multiple times, which eventually makes the man crack, never realizing that he was never in any real danger due to both sides of the coin being heads. As Two-Face he plays the trope straighter, since his two-sided coin has been disfigured same as him; One side is unharmed, but the other side is scorched and scarred. After a pep talk from The Joker about random chance being the only "true" justice in the world, he sets out to avenge himself on the people responsible for his disfigurement and Rachel's death, only now it's possible to tell the two sides of his coin apart and if that burned side comes up, you're dead. |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_5db577ba | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_5db577ba | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Dark Knight | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_5db577ba | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_6ac55ec7 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_6ac55ec7 | comment |
Dungeons & Dragons: This was pretty common in pre-4E for first-level Player Characters, since their meager Hit Points and saving throw bonuses meant that any unlucky dice roll during play could be potentially lethal before they ever had enough resources to even contemplate resurrection. Post-4E has literal "death saving throws", basically determining whether or not an unconscious character lives or dies. Three successful throws, you're stabilized. Three failures... you get the idea. |
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| Dice Roll Death / int_6ac55ec7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_6ac55ec7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_6ac55ec7 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_6ce0d19c | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_6ce0d19c | comment |
Sam on Quantum Leap once leaped into a piano player at a lounge. Shortly after he leaped in, a waiter asks him for his car keys so he can drive a drunken patron home. Sam readily hands them over, a move the waiter claims is unlike the piano player. After the waiter goes out to the car, Al appears and tells Sam who he's leaped into. Just after Al informs Sam he was supposed to die around that time, there's an explosion from the parking lot. This trope applies to the waiter and patron; Sam gets Serendipitous Survival instead here. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_6ce0d19c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_6ce0d19c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Quantum Leap | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_6ce0d19c | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_740887d3 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_740887d3 | comment |
Boyfriend To Death begins with our protagonist deciding to go head out to a bar. Regardless of where they go, they end up, by chance, meeting and getting targeted by an Ax-Crazy individual, and things go downhill from there, with most endings resulting in the protagonist's death. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_740887d3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_740887d3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Boyfriend to Death / Visualnovel | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_740887d3 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_7884ec15 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_7884ec15 | comment |
In Seinfeld, Susan dies from being poisoned after licking too many stamps, specifically because those particular stamps were cheap. Had the stamps been higher quality or had Susan not licked them all (and had instead used, say, a sponge), she would've lived. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_7884ec15 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_7884ec15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Seinfeld | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_7884ec15 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_90552223 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_90552223 | comment |
In Stranger Than Fiction, the main character, Harold Crick, hears a narration in his head claiming that his imminent death will be caused by a seemingly innocuous act, but doesn't give him enough information to avoid it. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_90552223 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_90552223 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Stranger Than Fiction | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_90552223 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_911abba4 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_911abba4 | comment |
While most of the deceased on 1000 Ways to Die are portrayed as Too Dumb to Live or complete assholes/criminals on the receiving end of Laser-Guided Karma, there's also the occasional victim of wrong-place-at-wrong-time syndrome, such as the guy who stepped outside and got hit by a meteorite. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_911abba4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_911abba4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| 1000 Ways to Die | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_911abba4 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_c7cca04f | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_c7cca04f | comment |
In Pushing Daisies, a caveat of Ned's resurrection power is that if he brings someone back for more than one minute, another life must be exchanged for the one brought back. This only affects the immediate area and appears to be completely random. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_c7cca04f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_c7cca04f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pushing Daisies | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_c7cca04f | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_cac1f772 | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_cac1f772 | comment |
One episode of CSI involved a woman who died by gunshot. During the course of the investigation, the team discovers that on the complete other side of town, a man had been target shooting in his backyard at the time of the death. It turns out that he had fired into the air, and the bullet had arced all the way into the victim's backyard, where she just happened to be at the time. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_cac1f772 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_cac1f772 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| CSI | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_cac1f772 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_d31cdea | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_d31cdea | comment |
Foxface in The Hunger Games dies not at the hand of another Tribute, but because she just happened to eat poisonous berries. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_d31cdea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_d31cdea | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Hunger Games | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_d31cdea | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_debe30cd | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_debe30cd | comment |
Double-subverted in Ghost Town. Frank dodges out of the way of a falling air conditioner... by unknowingly jumping into the street, where he promptly gets hit by a bus. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_debe30cd | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_debe30cd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ghost Town (2008) | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_debe30cd | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ea4f62db | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ea4f62db | comment |
In the early Family Guy episode "Mr. Saturday Knight", Peter has dinner with his boss, Mr. Weed, and right as he's given a promotion, Brian begins choking on a dinner roll. He's given the Heimlich maneuver and violently spits it out... directly into Mr. Weed's throat, where he dies in seconds. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ea4f62db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ea4f62db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Family Guy | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_ea4f62db | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_eb46e06a | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_eb46e06a | comment |
In Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, residents of Bartertown must "face the wheel" if they "bust a deal", i.e. break a vow. The wheel is divided into ten unequal sections (Death, Hard Labour, Acquittal, Gulag, Aunty's Choice, Spin Again, Forfeit Goods, Underworld, Amputation, Life Imprisonment) and is spun to determine the person's fate. Max faces the wheel after he refuses to kill his opponent in the titular Thunderdome, receiving Gulag, a fatal sentence (banned to the desert without water). Subverted, however, since Max is subsequently rescued. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_eb46e06a | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_eb46e06a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_eb46e06a | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ec2c79df | type |
Dice Roll Death | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ec2c79df | comment |
The entire plot of Soul starts with the protagonist's Dice-Roll Death. | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ec2c79df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dice Roll Death / int_ec2c79df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Soul | hasFeature |
Dice Roll Death / int_ec2c79df |
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