...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Balancing Death's Books
- 411 statements
- 78 feature instances
- 88 referencing feature instances
| Balancing Death's Books | type |
FeatureClass | |
| Balancing Death's Books | label |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books | page |
balancingdeathsbooks | |
| Balancing Death's Books | comment |
So, time is up, the Grim Reaper has arrived to collect the soul of you or your loved one, and he's not interested in a game of chess. It looks like all hope is lost. But wait... all Death needs is a soul, right? Surely there's someone around here whose life is less valuable than the person Death has come to collect. Maybe he'll take their soul instead. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_3'); })Essentially, this is getting the Grim Reaper (or some other soul collecting entity), to accept one life in exchange for another. It can be done through an offer or some kind of trick. If a person volunteers to be the replacement soul, it could be a Heroic Sacrifice, but it doesn't have to be. There is often some kind of Equivalent Exchange involved, if the reason one life has to be traded for another is to preserve some kind of balance. When characters find themselves in this situation, it is almost always the case that Someone Has to Die. If an exception is made, it's generally at the whim of the soul collector. It's rarely explained why Death has to maintain this kind of balance. Presumably, if his books don't add up, the Celestial Bureaucracy will be down on him like a ton of rectangular building things. Or he's anal-retentive, either explanation is good. It's also rare that anyone questions whether one soul is really equal to another in value. (For example, is the soul of an Ax-Crazy sociopath a fitting replacement for the soul of a person who volunteers at animal shelters and donates every spare dime they have to charity?) It's generally accepted that any soul can replace any other and still maintain the balance. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_2'); })As the examples show, this trope is Older Than Dirt, with many variations. Compare Chess with Death, Sacrificial Revival Spell and Take Me Instead. As a Death Trope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware. Examples: |
|
| Balancing Death's Books | fetched |
2018-10-15T01:19:59Z | |
| Balancing Death's Books | parsed |
2020-06-25T17:24:15Z | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to CreepyTwins: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to DealWithTheDevil: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to GrimReaper: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to Hellraiser: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to HeroicSacrifice: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to MadScientist: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to MoreExpendableThanYou: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to OlderThanDirt: Not an Item - CAT | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to ResetButton: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to RulesLawyer: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to ScrewDestiny: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheGrimReaper: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheLivesOfChristopherChant: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
| Balancing Death's Books | processingUnknown |
TheLivesOfChristopherChant | |
| Balancing Death's Books | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_11b7db91 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_11b7db91 | comment |
In Adventure Time, Abraham Lincoln, as King of Mars (don't ask), accidentally executed Jake thinking he was the Magic Man. He travels to the Eighth Dead World to bring him back, where he meets with Death. When Death refuses the payment of one penny, the King offers his immortality instead, killing him and turning him to stone (an exact replica of the Lincoln Memorial, in fact). | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_11b7db91 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_11b7db91 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Adventure Time | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_11b7db91 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_191b34f3 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_191b34f3 | comment |
A mundane example occurs in Fort Apache. The colonel (Henry Fonda) is dead set on fighting it out to the death against Cochise's forces, but sends back Major York (John Wayne) to the supply wagons, telling him to take O'Rourke with him, meaning Sergeant-Major O'Rourke (Ward Bond), not his son, the junior officer of the regiment. York tells the Sergeant O'Rourke, who like himself can see that there will be no survivors in the battle, that he is to take O'Rourke with him, and the Sergeant tells him: "Ye will find lieutenant O'Rourke further along," thus indicating that he is to save his son's life. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_191b34f3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_191b34f3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Fort Apache | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_191b34f3 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_1cc09117 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_1cc09117 | comment |
Bleach: When a human dies their soul passes on to Soul Society, and when they die in Soul Society, they eventually reincarnate back into the Living World. This process is called the cycle of reincarnation. Maintaining the Balance of Souls is the primary function of the Gotei 13, wherein the approximate amount of souls in the Living World and in Soul Society must always be the same. Not doing so and allowing the number of souls in, say, Soul Society to exceed the number in the Living World will cause Soul Society to flow into the Living World, destroying all of existence. It's because of this reason that the Gotei 13 was forced to exterminate the Quincy; their attacks did not purify hollows and allow them to pass on to Soul Society, but instead caused them to cease to exist, removing them from the cycle of reincarnation and tampering with the Balance. The shinigami tried to reason with them but they refused to listen, forcing their extermination. When the Vandenreich started messing with the Balance once more, Mayuri Kurotsuchi was forced to kill 28,000 Rukongai citizens in order to even it out. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_1cc09117 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_1cc09117 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Bleach (Manga) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_1cc09117 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_22a69b0b | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_22a69b0b | comment |
A MADtv sketch takes place at a funeral, with a woman mourning her husband, screaming "Take me, Jesus! Take me instead!" Sure enough, Jesus shows up, brings the woman's husband back to life, and then asks the woman to go with him. Naturally, the woman wasn't expecting her wish to be granted, and Hilarity Ensues. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_22a69b0b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_22a69b0b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| MadTV | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_22a69b0b | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_261c8d3f | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_261c8d3f | comment |
In one The Simpsons Halloween special, Homer becomes Death, and receives an order to kill Marge. He manages to trick God into taking her sister Patty instead. God actually finds out and chases Homer with a beam of light. He eventually gives up and stops caring because He's "too rich for this." | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_261c8d3f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_261c8d3f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Simpsons | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_261c8d3f | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_28c35f6b | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_28c35f6b | comment |
Between Terra and Max in 1/0. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_28c35f6b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_28c35f6b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| OneOverZero | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_28c35f6b | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_2d1537ff | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_2d1537ff | comment |
An episode of Home and Away featured Sally Fletcher in purgatory after being stabbed. She was met by the ghost of her foster father, (who somehow looked 18 years older than he was when he died), who offered her the chance to return to Earth, and showed her flashes of what would happen to her friends if she didn't. After she had made the decision, he told her that someone else would die in her place, "to balance the books." A few days after she'd woken up, Dan Baker, the husband of Sally's best friend Leah, was killed in a rock-climbing accident, and Sally blamed herself. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_2d1537ff | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_2d1537ff | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Home and Away | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_2d1537ff | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_32c541e6 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_32c541e6 | comment |
Although there's no actual bargaining with Death involved, the homunculi of Fullmetal Alchemist are preemptively packed with the life energy of dozens (or hundreds) of victims. Whenever they sustain what should be a lethal blow, someone else's life is used up and the homunculi quickly recovers. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_32c541e6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_32c541e6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_32c541e6 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_343cde5e | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_343cde5e | comment |
Merlin The show uses this as the balance in the old religion, as Nimueh tries to make him exchange his mother's life for Arthur's. Eventually he realizes that killing Nimueh would work too. This is also why Igraine died - her life in exchange for Arthur being born. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_343cde5e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_343cde5e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Merlin | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_343cde5e | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_34d050c6 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_34d050c6 | comment |
An episode of Darkwing Duck has Darkwing die, and spend part of the episode trying to avoid Death. At one point, he inadvertently tricks Death into taking his neighbor instead. In this case, after some debate ("After all, the world needs Darkwing Duck, while Herb Muddlefoot serves no particular purpose."), Darkwing decides not to let Death take someone else. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_34d050c6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_34d050c6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Darkwing Duck | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_34d050c6 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_359e9958 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_359e9958 | comment |
A Matter of Life and Death has this as part of a supernatural trial, the hero's love interest is told by that someone has to die to keep things even and does she love him enough to give him up? Leads to a mutual exchange of Take Me Instead. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_359e9958 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_359e9958 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Matter of Life and Death | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_359e9958 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_3a1f98d3 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_3a1f98d3 | comment |
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold: It's possible to perform a "death magic" ritual that will cause a demon to kill anyone you name. The catch is, the demon has buckets for two souls, and can't return to the netherworld until both are full—so performing the ritual is thought to be inevitably fatal. The protagonist ends up surviving performing the ritual; through a miracle, the demon as well as the soul of the man he wanted dead are trapped inside his stomach tumor; when he gets stabbed through the tumor, the demon takes the soul of the person stabbing him. It's also mentioned that the only prayers of this kind that are granted are the ones in which the victim really was a nasty piece of work. In essence, the demon god dispenses miracles of justice. Praying for the death of someone who doesn't deserve it won't get you anything but sore knees—well, and the possibility of hanging, because attempting death magic is a capital crime. (Succeeding at death magic is not illegal, because the result was a god-granted miracle, but the fact that no one survives succeeding at death magic makes the whole issue kind of academic.) |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_3a1f98d3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_3a1f98d3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| TheCurseOfChalion | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_3a1f98d3 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43576f5 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43576f5 | comment |
Supernatural: An episode had a woman manipulate a reaper into saving some lives at the expense of others—basically she was killing people she viewed as immoral (including atheists and homosexuals) in order to heal people who were dying. Dean also does this when he exchanges his own soul to bring his brother back from the dead. And then Sam tries to do the same thing to save Dean. And earlier John did it to save Dean. The Winchesters have a... thing about this trope. It turns out that the disruption of the natural order caused by someone not dying when they're supposed to automatically leads to the death of someone else, then another someone else, over and over again until they actually die. The brothers' tendency to repeatedly come back from the dead annoys Death quite a lot. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43576f5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43576f5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Supernatural | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_43576f5 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43f52aa9 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43f52aa9 | comment |
The assassin's guild in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which offers its victims' souls to a being called the Night Mother, were willing to help a man fake his death in exchange for his mother's life. The man's ancestors, however, aren't happy with his Rules Lawyering and lack of filial piety, and rise from the dead to try to kill him (and the player) after he's revived. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43f52aa9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_43f52aa9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_43f52aa9 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_468bebb0 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_468bebb0 | comment |
Discworld: In the novel Maskerade, Granny Weatherwax plays Poker With Death in order to gain the right to make this kind of trade. Not only did she try to cheat, Death let her win: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents features Maurice, the Intellectual Animal cat, doing this to save one of those Educated Rodents. It manages to be almost as touching as a real Heroic Sacrifice even though, as a cat, he has several of his original nine lives left even after giving up an extra. This is actually explicitly stated in a few places as being "the way things work" for the Discworld. Death occasionally mentions others who have challenged him, but it's extremely rare that they ever win, even when playing games that Death isn't very good at- mostly because Death cannot lose by mortal means. In fact, when he becomes temporarily mortal in Reaper Man, he has to learn how to lose to fit in with humans. He even mentions that losing is much harder for him to do then winning.note Part of the problem being Death can win at most games without really trying; if he 'loses' some to avoid offending anyone it becomes obvious he's throwing the games. The trick then becomes how to 'lose' in an entertaining way. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_468bebb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_468bebb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Discworld | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_468bebb0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_46925faf | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_46925faf | comment |
Happens quite often in Charmed: The episode "Death Takes a Halliwell" revolved around Prue having to accept that death is not an enemy to be fought against. The episode "Styx Feet Under" had the sisters cast a spell to prevent an old man from being killed by his nephew which ended up preventing others from dying. Piper was turned into the Angel of Death briefly and Phoebe was marked to die, but they were able to change the circumstances so she was allowed to live. Leo was written out of the series on the basis that there was a battle to be fought with the Ultimate Power and Leo was destined to die in the crossfire. The Angel of Destiny froze him in time until the battle was over. He was released once Phoebe, Paige and Christy died at the end of "Kill Billie: Vol. 2" but taken away once they changed the past. He was brought back once Christy, Dumain and the Triad were killed. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_46925faf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_46925faf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Charmed | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_46925faf | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_49ad83ee | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_49ad83ee | comment |
A particular quest line in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria involves a Night Elf asking you to investigate a springs, the waters of which are rumored to grant immortality. You bring a vial of water back to him, where he discovers that, while technically true, it only grants life at the cost of the life force of another. When his daughter is gravely wounded later in the quest line, he uses the vial to use the remainder of his own life to save his daughter's. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_49ad83ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_49ad83ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| World of Warcraft (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_49ad83ee | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_51355bc9 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_51355bc9 | comment |
In "Godfather Death", Death allows his mortal godson to know whether a sick person is destined to die or not, and gives him a magical cure that saves anyone not yet scheduled for death. The godson becomes a famous physician and eventually uses his knowledge to cheat Death and cure a king and then the king's daughter against Death's wishes. Death then leads the godson into a cave where many candles representing human lives are burning, and shows him his own life candle is almost burned out. When the physician asks Death to set up a new candle for him before the old one can go out, Death answers this is not possible, because for every fresh candle that begins to burn, an old one has to go out. This revelation also points to the possibility that the disease of the princess was the price for the physician saving the life of the king, and that the reason the physician has to die is because he saved the princess' life; in some variants this is said explicitly. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_51355bc9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_51355bc9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Godfather Death | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_51355bc9 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_53a0bd32 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_53a0bd32 | comment |
The Twilight Zone episode "One For The Angels" has Lou Bookman bargain with Death for the right to live long enough to make one final, ultra-successful pitch ("one for the angels"). Upon being granted this right by a sympathetic Death, he promptly retires from his sales job and plans to live forever. After a few (denied) attempts to talk Mr. Bookman into changing his mind, Death finally reveals that this trope is in play, at which point Maggie, one of the children Mr. Bookman is friends with, gets hit by a car, and Bookman's attempts to change his mind are subject to the same Exact Words that he'd used on Death. To collect her soul, Death has to be in her room at midnight; the salesman waits at the stoop outside the apartment building, stalling Death and giving a pitch so enthralling that he misses his deadline - something Death stated was "unheard of". That pitch, of course, was "one for the angels," and so the salesman leaves willingly with Death, who reassures him that his selflessness earned him a place "up there". | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_53a0bd32 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_53a0bd32 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Twilight Zone (1959) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_53a0bd32 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_60381be1 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_60381be1 | comment |
The old folk song "Lonesome Valley, and its many variants (one of which was featured in O Brother, Where Art Thou?), defy this trope: | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_60381be1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_60381be1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| O Brother, Where Art Thou? | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_60381be1 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_606e56fc | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_606e56fc | comment |
Sin-Eaters are somewhat defined by having come back from the dead once, but their geists can ensure they come back many more times. Problem is, to fuel the resurrection, someone else somewhere has to die... and when the Sin-Eater wakes up again, there will be a caul over their face depicting just how the person died. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_606e56fc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_606e56fc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Geist: The Sin-Eaters (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_606e56fc | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_691be369 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_691be369 | comment |
In The X-Files, "Tithonus", Scully meets a man who is hundreds of years old. He was dying during a yellow fever epidemic, was afraid when he saw Death coming, and managed to look away and get Death to take the nurse instead. Now he's trying to catch Death's eye again so he can finally die. At the end of the episode, it's heavily implied that he gets Death to take him instead of Scully after Scully is injured, and now Scully is immortal. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_691be369 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_691be369 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The X-Files | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_691be369 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e471035 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e471035 | comment |
In Robb Returns, to compensate for Robb's return, the Old Gods arrange Ramsay's particularly brutal death to a raven and a wolf. Patchface commits suicide so the Old Gods will heal Shireen Baratheon of her greyscale. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e471035 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e471035 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Robb Returns / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_6e471035 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e907c1 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e907c1 | comment |
In Death: The Time of Your Life, Death's lingering fondness for the protagonists leads her to agree to bring their baby back but, she warns, she'll be back, and someone will be leaving with her. Her return 5 years later is the catalyst that starts the story. In an unusual variation on this trope, Death says she isn't interested in someone else dying to balance the scale. She needs something else. She points out that every living thing will die eventually, so someone else "dying so their beloved will live" just hastens the schedule, and she isn't in a hurry. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e907c1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6e907c1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| TheSandman | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_6e907c1 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f2db686 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f2db686 | comment |
A slight variation happens at the end of The Halloween Tree: the protagonists each give a year of their lives to Moundshroud in exchange for the life of their friend. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f2db686 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f2db686 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Halloween Tree | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_6f2db686 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f734712 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f734712 | comment |
Smallville: Though the guy with the scythe doesn't appear in person, things worked out this way in one episode, in which Clark going back in time to save Lana, after Jor-El had told him that someone close to him would die in exchange for the restoration of his powers, resulted in Jonathan's sudden heart attack later. Lois almost died a second time. Her death would also have prevented the other two's, since they'd be too busy being shocked to go die in a car crash and have a heart attack after a heated discussion, respectively. In a rather roundabout fashion in Infamous. Clark reveals his secret to Lois, and Chloe ends up being ripped to shreds by Doomsday. Clark hits the Reset Button, going back in time, and this time Linda Lake dies instead, but since she is such an Asshole Victim, who cares? In Hex, Zatanna intends to bring her father back to life in exchange for her own life. However, Chloe accidentally gets trapped into the spell - as her life is drained while Zatanna's father starts to materialize, Zatanna decides an innocent life is too much and severs the spell. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f734712 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_6f734712 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Smallville | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_6f734712 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7356ce7d | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7356ce7d | comment |
In the original Hellraiser Kirsty unknowingly solves the Lament Configuration and summons the Cenobites, who plan to take her to their realm, being unable to leave without someone after being summoned. In her place Kirsty offers her Evil Uncle Frank, who had earlier escaped the Cenobites' dimension (they take Frank, but then turn on Kirsty, who forces them back). | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7356ce7d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7356ce7d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hellraiser | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_7356ce7d | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_78146d21 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_78146d21 | comment |
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, it is revealed that Jack had previously made a deal with Davy Jones - and Davy Jones is now coming to collect his soul as payment. Jack offers Will as payment instead, but Davy Jones refuses, because "one soul is not equal to another" — a chance Jack immediately exploits to negotiate a "price" for his soul. Specifically, he seizes on Jones' objection to the rate of exchange and not the principle itself, and strikes a bargain to deliver 100 souls in three days in exchange for his own. Both know this is an impossible task — it's implied that Jack agrees to it so he can get Jones off his back long enough to find the Dead Man's Chest. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_78146d21 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_78146d21 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_78146d21 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_79776c32 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_79776c32 | comment |
The driving force behind the entire series is the characters having missed their exit due to visions of the future, and Death correcting this error in increasingly complex and implausible ways. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_79776c32 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_79776c32 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Final Destination | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_79776c32 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7c31fdd7 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7c31fdd7 | comment |
The 'Ritual of Soul Transfer', appears in several places in the Valkyrie Profile series of games, and allows anyone to sacrifice their own life to resurrect a recently deceased. You get a couple of... 'recruits' that way. In somewhat of a subversion, a person tries to sacrifice his life in order to save someone else who sacrificed their life in this manner. Lenneth tells him this cannot be done, and he dies for nothing. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7c31fdd7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_7c31fdd7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Valkyrie Profile (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_7c31fdd7 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_817acecf | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_817acecf | comment |
The Sword of Regret in Fables kind of does this pre-emptively. It can revive half the people slain with it if the wielder regrets killing them, but every time the wielder willingly kills with it the sword compels them to slay the nearest living thing as well. Only one of each "pair" of deaths can come back, wielder's choice. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_817acecf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_817acecf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Fables (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_817acecf | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_869b1049 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_869b1049 | comment |
A non-supernatural variant occurs in the Hostel series. The organization that arranges for rich clients to torture and kill victims has a policy that no one may leave without committing a murder, In the second film, one of the victims buys her way out, and kills her tormentor to satisfy the requirement. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_869b1049 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_869b1049 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hostel | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_869b1049 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_8adae002 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_8adae002 | comment |
Invoked by Caligula in I, Claudius. During an illness that would end up with Caligula believing he was transformed into a god, a sycophantic senator announced to all who would listen that he begged to the gods to take his life if it would spare Caligula's. Caligula got better, and then made sure the senator kept his vow. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_8adae002 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_8adae002 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| I, Claudius | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_8adae002 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_915b480c | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_915b480c | comment |
The same incident was depicted in The Caesars, although several senators were said to have made similar vows rather than just one. Caligula decreed that they should all accordingly take their own lives. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_915b480c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_915b480c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Caesars | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_915b480c | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_928a8b2b | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_928a8b2b | comment |
In The Death Gate Cycle, any magic which brings a dead corpse to life (as a zombie-like being) causes the untimely death of another member of that race, resulting in the eventually decline and near-extinction of the Sartan. Inverted in the same series with the character Hugh, who is resurrected completely and made immortal to boot- but to keep things balanced, he can never kill another living thing again, even by accident. As he's a professional assassin, he's not happy about this development and spends several books trying to track down the guy who did it to get him to lift the magic. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_928a8b2b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_928a8b2b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| TheDeathGateCycle | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_928a8b2b | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_966798bc | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_966798bc | comment |
In The KA Mics Gertrude or Brunhilda might have died if not for taking advantage of this trope | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_966798bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_966798bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The KAMics (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_966798bc | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_993bf7f3 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_993bf7f3 | comment |
In The Night Angel Trilogy, black ka'kari confers Resurrective Immortality to its holder. Only later does the cost become apparent: for each resurection, someone the holder cares about soon dies. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_993bf7f3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_993bf7f3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Night Angel Trilogy | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_993bf7f3 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9a02d243 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9a02d243 | comment |
The second game in the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trilogy, Warrior Within, starts off when the Prince escapes the death that was assigned to him in The Sands of Time, which forces the Guardians of the Timeline to sic their monster, the Dahaka, to claim it back. He spends seven years on the run from the beast and eventually manages to sacrifice himself to the monster in order to appease it by taking advantage of a mask that lets him invoke the Timey-Wimey Ball. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9a02d243 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9a02d243 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_9a02d243 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9acdda28 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9acdda28 | comment |
In Watership Down, in the last legend of Prince El-ahrairah, the Prince of Rabbits is playing Chess with Death for the fate of his people. After he loses several games betting (among other things) his ears and tail, he decides to die in their place by carrying back a disease to his enemies. He tries to enforce the decision by jumping into one of the Black Rabbit's pits full of plagues. Then Death informs him that the pit he jumped into holds a plague (Myxamatosis) that is transmitted by fleas biting the ears—and he no longer has ears. However, Death spares his people because of the attempt. Presumably because the Black Rabbit enforces Frith's (the rabbit God) promise that rabbitkind won't be wiped out despite their many enemies. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9acdda28 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9acdda28 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Watership Down | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_9acdda28 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d1c3cff | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d1c3cff | comment |
Happens again in the sixth entry Hellraiser: Hellseeker, where Kirsty is manipulated into opening the Lament Configuration again. This time she offers five souls in exchange for her own, murdering the five people herself. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d1c3cff | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d1c3cff | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hellraiser: Hellseeker | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_9d1c3cff | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d47a2a2 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d47a2a2 | comment |
A Song of Ice and Fire: A variant occurs in A Clash of Kings that may not directly involve dealing with a supernatural entity, but operates on the same principle: After Arya saves the lives of "Jaqen H'ghar" and two other prisoners, he subsequently informs her that, due to her interference, the Red God is now due three lives. Not to worry though, she can but name three names and he'll happily help balance the books. However, after the first two murders Arya threatens him with having his name be the third forcing him to either kill himself, abandon his honor, or help Arya kill a lot more people. He chooses the third option. Mirri Maz Duur's "Only death pays for life" in the first book A Game of Thrones. Of course, she's not very clear about whose death, or her definition of life. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d47a2a2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9d47a2a2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Song of Ice and Fire | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_9d47a2a2 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9e7ed97a | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9e7ed97a | comment |
Dead Like Me: During the episode "Reapercussions", George decides to prevent the death of one of the souls she is assigned to reap. Although it's presented as a direct result deal, where George prevents one death and causes a lot more, it's never properly established that this will happen every time. However, the implication is that by preventing the death of one, someone else will die. Roxy does get away with just gremlins trying to make her life miserable after saving someone's life, suggesting that it's more of a Screw Destiny get one Butterfly of Doom free thing. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9e7ed97a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9e7ed97a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dead Like Me | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_9e7ed97a | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f22267f | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f22267f | comment |
In Thorgal - Beyond the Shadows, Thorgal travels to the underworld to bargain for his wife's life, and Death decides to be a dick. Death takes him and his guide to an enormous black cavern filled with tiny golden strings that a blind beast constantly cuts off at seemingly random. Death gives Thorgal a bow and arrow and tells him that he will repair his wifes life-string if Thorgal fires off an arrow in any direction, knowing full well that the arrow will sever one life-string at random. Thorgal, being the hero and all can't go through with it, but his companion (who was in love with Thorgal) grabbed the bow and let loose the arrow. In a twist that should surprise absolutely no one, it turned out that the life-string she struck "just happened" to be her own. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f22267f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f22267f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Thorgal (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_9f22267f | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f5a225e | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f5a225e | comment |
In the film Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Darby uses his third wish to go in his sick daughter's place when Death comes to claim her. Ultimately averted, as Darby is tricked into making a fourth wish, invalidating the first three. But by this time his daughter has already recovered, and Death does leave empty handed. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f5a225e | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_9f5a225e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Darby O'Gill and the Little People | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_9f5a225e | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a09090f0 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a09090f0 | comment |
Dustfinger exchanges himself for Farid in Inkspell of The Inkworld Trilogy. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a09090f0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a09090f0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Inkworld Trilogy | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a09090f0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a2c37f38 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a2c37f38 | comment |
In Planescape: Torment, this is the crux of The Nameless One's power. He cannot die, so another random person on The Great Wheel dies in his place every time he's supposed to. Those who die in his place become mindless tormented shadows and spend the rest of their eternal un-lives trying to track him down and getting payback, unaware (or uncaring) that it will only make more people suffer their fate. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a2c37f38 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a2c37f38 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Planescape: Torment (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a2c37f38 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a39e370e | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a39e370e | comment |
In the original Toe Jam And Earl, if you are playing a two-player game and one of you loses all your lives, you can bum one off of the other player, reducing their number of extra lives, but allowing you to stay in the game. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a39e370e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a39e370e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| ToeJam & Earl (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a39e370e | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a44ac02e | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a44ac02e | comment |
Jack, The Reaper, doesn't play chess. As "The Case of the Traveling Corpse" demonstrates, though, once he goes to Earth, he's not going back to hell until someone dies. Like Death of the Discworld, though, he's shown to fudge things whenever possible. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a44ac02e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a44ac02e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Jack (David Hopkins) (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a44ac02e | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a5d64c3b | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a5d64c3b | comment |
Final Destination: The driving force behind the entire series is the characters having missed their exit due to visions of the future, and Death correcting this error in increasingly complex and implausible ways. Expanded upon in the fifth movie, where the characters can prevent their inevitable death by killing another, getting to live that person's remaining lifespan. Death fails to mention there's no handy way to gauge how long that person may have had left, however, so the protagonists only get a few days out of it. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a5d64c3b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a5d64c3b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Final Destination (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a5d64c3b | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a6cc2dfa | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a6cc2dfa | comment |
In Death Note, any Shinigami that uses their Death Note to extend a human's life (for example, by using it to kill the human's would-be murderer) will immediately die. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a6cc2dfa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a6cc2dfa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| DeathNote | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a6cc2dfa | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a825da3e | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a825da3e | comment |
This is the concept behind a handful of resurrection spells in Magic: The Gathering, such as Hell's Caretaker | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a825da3e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a825da3e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| MagicTheGathering | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a825da3e | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a873240c | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a873240c | comment |
A variant occurs in A Clash of Kings that may not directly involve dealing with a supernatural entity, but operates on the same principle: After Arya saves the lives of "Jaqen H'ghar" and two other prisoners, he subsequently informs her that, due to her interference, the Red God is now due three lives. Not to worry though, she can but name three names and he'll happily help balance the books. However, after the first two murders Arya threatens him with having his name be the third forcing him to either kill himself, abandon his honor, or help Arya kill a lot more people. He chooses the third option. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a873240c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_a873240c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Clash of Kings | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_a873240c | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_aa0908ec | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_aa0908ec | comment |
Lord of Illusions. After Nix is revived, he notes that he has to give something back to the grave in return. He sacrifices his own minions as a gift to the world of the dead. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_aa0908ec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_aa0908ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Lord of Illusions | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_aa0908ec | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b30ae4db | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b30ae4db | comment |
In Game of Thrones, as per the Song of Ice and Fire entry in Literature above, Arya Stark releases three prisoners that would have otherwise died during a fire, and one of them later invokes the trope to seque to his offer to kill whatever three persons Arya nominates... and as in the book she threatens him with his name being the third to force him to go over that limit. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b30ae4db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b30ae4db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Game of Thrones | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_b30ae4db | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b5761a43 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b5761a43 | comment |
Expanded upon in the fifth movie, where the characters can prevent their inevitable death by killing another, getting to live that person's remaining lifespan. Death fails to mention there's no handy way to gauge how long that person may have had left, however, so the protagonists only get a few days out of it. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b5761a43 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b5761a43 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Final Destination 5 | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_b5761a43 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b7b5e290 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b7b5e290 | comment |
In order to release Camber's soul from stasis in The Harrowing of Gwynedd, his daughter Evaine voluntarily gives her life in a ritual. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b7b5e290 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_b7b5e290 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Deryni | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_b7b5e290 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bbb5167d | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bbb5167d | comment |
Extra lives are common in many platformers that still used the life system, but King's Quest VII is quite possibly the only game in which one serves as a collectible item, relevant to the story. Rosella saves a cat from a coffin midway through, and the cat tells her that "since you saved one of my lives, I'll give it to you." This extra life, of course, is needed to get the best ending. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bbb5167d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bbb5167d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| KingsQuestVII | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_bbb5167d | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bc1dc95a | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bc1dc95a | comment |
Pirates of the Caribbean: In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, it is revealed that Jack had previously made a deal with Davy Jones - and Davy Jones is now coming to collect his soul as payment. Jack offers Will as payment instead, but Davy Jones refuses, because "one soul is not equal to another" — a chance Jack immediately exploits to negotiate a "price" for his soul. Specifically, he seizes on Jones' objection to the rate of exchange and not the principle itself, and strikes a bargain to deliver 100 souls in three days in exchange for his own. Both know this is an impossible task — it's implied that Jack agrees to it so he can get Jones off his back long enough to find the Dead Man's Chest. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the Fountain of Youth functions this way - in order to extend one person's life, another must lose theirs. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bc1dc95a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bc1dc95a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pirates of the Caribbean (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_bc1dc95a | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bcadd7cb | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bcadd7cb | comment |
Dark Eldar in Warhammer 40,000 have made it their raison d'etre to stave off their inevitable deaths by regularly throwing the figurative Reaper (the chaos god Slaanesh) fresh souls to keep it from taking theirs instead. Pretty much any sentient being's soul will do and the older the Dark Eldar is the more often will souls have to be sacrificed in their place; this has much the expected result on the species' moral compass. Not that they had much of a moral compass in the first place — the entire reason they need to do this while other Eldar do not is because the Dark Eldar refuse to stop indulging in the depraved hedonism that spawned Slaanesh. The Thirst gradually fades if a Dark Eldar rejects that lifestyle. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bcadd7cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bcadd7cb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Warhammer 40,000 (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_bcadd7cb | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_be677f0e | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_be677f0e | comment |
Mirri Maz Duur's "Only death pays for life" in the first book A Game of Thrones. Of course, she's not very clear about whose death, or her definition of life. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_be677f0e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_be677f0e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Game of Thrones | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_be677f0e | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bf0710c5 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bf0710c5 | comment |
In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the Fountain of Youth functions this way - in order to extend one person's life, another must lose theirs. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bf0710c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bf0710c5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_bf0710c5 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bff01809 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bff01809 | comment |
Subverted in Warhammer. Prince Apophas of Khemri made a deal along these lines with the personification of death: he could avoid his horrible death curse and enter into paradise if he provided the god of death with a soul of equal value to his own. To find one, he runs around as an undead creature killing people. The subversion is that all souls are unique; he's never going to find one of equal value to his own! He's basically set himself up as the personal harvester of the God of the Dead, only without knowing it. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bff01809 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_bff01809 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Warhammer (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_bff01809 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c03c34b2 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c03c34b2 | comment |
In the Neomorphs series, on the rare occasions that Azmaveth, the lord of the afterlife, lets someone come Back from the Dead, he always insists on another life being given in exchange — for Rachel's resurrection, Jake performs a Heroic Sacrifice, and when he's later given a chance at coming back himself, he's given a set period of time in which to kill Mersa in order to secure his place among the living. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c03c34b2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c03c34b2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Neomorphs / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_c03c34b2 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
In the Doctor Who/Firefly fic "The Man with No Name", the Big Bad, while not exactly Death himself, can revive the dead if someone else gives up their life willingly in exchange. When Mal is killed, the Doctor decides to do this to save him. Because he greatly regrets his actions, though, the Big Bad instead sacrifices his own life, saving Mal and the Doctor. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_c43df4d8 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c4d37e84 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c4d37e84 | comment |
At the end of 11/22/63 we find out the cost for stopping JFK's assassination. Since the country never entered the Vietnam War, thousands of people are killed in a natural disaster. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c4d37e84 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c4d37e84 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| 11/22/63 | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_c4d37e84 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c61f3112 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c61f3112 | comment |
In a Justice Society of America story, Atom-Smasher knows that an exact number of people must die in a plane crash to avoid damaging the time stream and so, at the last moment, swaps his mother for the villain who caused the crash in the first place. (Saves the mother and replaces her with the villain, that is. For those who were confused.) | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c61f3112 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c61f3112 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Justice Society of America (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_c61f3112 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c7cca04f | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c7cca04f | comment |
In Pushing Daisies, Ned's ability to revive the dead has a one-minute grace period; after that, another life of approximately equal value (a human being's life for another human's, an animal's for an animal's, a plant's for a plant's) is taken in exchange. Unlike most other examples of the trope, the choice isn't Ned's, he can't influence it, and the only rule the exchange seems to obey is that the sacrifice must be physically nearby. Also unlike other examples of the trope, Ned still can't touch the re-animated even after the one-minute period. If he does, they return to being dead—and forever this time. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c7cca04f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_c7cca04f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pushing Daisies | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_c7cca04f | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cb6abea3 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cb6abea3 | comment |
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, during the Waking the Dragons arc, the loser of a game in the Seal of Orichalcos has their soul taken away to be used to fuel the Great Leviathan. At one point, Yami loses a duel and Little Yugi heroically sacrifices himself, taking Yami's place and resulting in a Heroic B.S.O.D. for the latter. They both get better. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cb6abea3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cb6abea3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_cb6abea3 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cd81de4 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cd81de4 | comment |
In Quest for Glory IV, there is a spell that enables someone to trade their own life for that of someone they love. Toby ultimately uses it to resurrect Tanya. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cd81de4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_cd81de4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Quest for Glory IV (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_cd81de4 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_d2a29e65 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_d2a29e65 | comment |
In Firewing dead bats can come back to life by absorbing the life force of a living bat who somehow ends up in the afterlife before dying. Goth kills Griffin to steal his life force and return to life. While Shade gives up his own life for Griffin, and turns out to have enough for Luna too. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_d2a29e65 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_d2a29e65 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Silverwing | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_d2a29e65 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e4257e14 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e4257e14 | comment |
The Demons & Wizards song "Fiddler on the Green" provides a variant on this trope: The song turns out to be about the Grim Reaper taking a young boy "too early" and, feeling remorseful for his error, 'balances it out' by taking a young girl so the boy can gain a companion when he goes to the afterlife. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e4257e14 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e4257e14 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Demons & Wizards (Music) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_e4257e14 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e580d929 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e580d929 | comment |
A couple of episodes of Big Wolf on Campus feature this, all started when Tommy rescues an old man from a "mugger" he later learns was the Grim Reaper. The Reaper now comes after Tommy claiming that "he is owed one soul" and seeks to take Tommy's as a replacement. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e580d929 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_e580d929 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Big Wolf on Campus | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_e580d929 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ea4f62db | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ea4f62db | comment |
Glen Quagmire of Family Guy once faked his death to escape his new wife, who had turned out to be clingy enough to consider homicide and/or suicide an appropriate response to divorce. However, as is often the case when somebody on the show lies about being dead, Death showed up to collect Quagmire's soul. When Quagmire's wife tried to interfere, she touched Death and abruptly dropped dead. Quagmire's friends manage to convince Death to take her soul instead, since her last name was also Quagmire and she had alluded to being suicidal. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ea4f62db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ea4f62db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Family Guy | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_ea4f62db | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ebffc81f | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ebffc81f | comment |
The mages may have powers over life and death, but even they are unable to resurrect anyone. There is one exception, however — the Legacy known as the Tamers of the Cave. One of the spells the Tamers have special knowledge of allows them to raise someone from the dead, and the odds are good that the person will Awaken sometime after that. The downside? The Tamer dies in their stead. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ebffc81f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_ebffc81f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mage: The Awakening (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_ebffc81f | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f00d733b | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f00d733b | comment |
New World of Darkness examples: Sin-Eaters are somewhat defined by having come back from the dead once, but their geists can ensure they come back many more times. Problem is, to fuel the resurrection, someone else somewhere has to die... and when the Sin-Eater wakes up again, there will be a caul over their face depicting just how the person died. The mages may have powers over life and death, but even they are unable to resurrect anyone. There is one exception, however — the Legacy known as the Tamers of the Cave. One of the spells the Tamers have special knowledge of allows them to raise someone from the dead, and the odds are good that the person will Awaken sometime after that. The downside? The Tamer dies in their stead. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f00d733b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f00d733b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_f00d733b | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f74b5f80 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
In Babylon 5 there is a machine which can heal someone—by taking the life-force from someone else. Marcus uses this to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save Ivanova because the person was mortally wounded. The machine was originally intended to perform executions. Another episode features an immortality serum developed by the Mad Scientist Jha'Dur aka the Deathwalker. Its manufacture also requires the death of another person, and Jha'Dur gleefuly expected the entire galaxy to tear itself apart in pursuit of eternal life. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f74b5f80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Babylon 5 | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_f74b5f80 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f8956ef3 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f8956ef3 | comment |
YuYu Hakusho: Early on, when Yusuke is still dead, Keiko gets trapped in a fire. Yusuke is told that the only way to save her is to use the magic egg that is the only chance he has at coming back to life. Yusuke does, and as a reward for his sacrifice, he gets another shot at returning to life. Only shortly after that, they seem to be building up to another such life-for-life scenario when Kurama uses a magic mirror to offer his life in exchange for his mother's. However, Yusuke also manages to resolve this without anyone dying by offering his life instead. In honor of his selflessness, the mirror spares all three of them, only taking a piece of life from Yusuke and Kurama to fuel the recovery of the mother. The mirror even says that if everyone was like Yusuke it wouldn't have such a bad reputation. |
|
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f8956ef3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_f8956ef3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| YuYu Hakusho (Manga) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_f8956ef3 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_fe85bfc8 | type |
Balancing Death's Books | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_fe85bfc8 | comment |
This is also possible in the Super Smash Bros. games, the original Contra, Super Mario World, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II. | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_fe85bfc8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Balancing Death's Books / int_fe85bfc8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Super Smash Bros. (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Balancing Death's Books / int_fe85bfc8 |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.