#“don't rescue random refugees or your friend may die”

[covertblizzard]

So this guy, Kid Cameraman (Grady Dawes), their friend, went missing.

And apparently he is to the Teen Titans what fanon Tim Drake is to the Batfam (their stalker / photographer whom they adore)

So obviously, they're all real torn up and sad about it and they go out to try and rescue him from this fictional country.

They go off and apparently face off with the real four horsemen of the apocalypse and stuff, but the main point here is that at some point, they actually successfully stopped Death from killing a mother and child, BUT inadvertently caused their friend to die because of it!!!

THAT'S LIKE... LOWKEY REALLY MESSED UP?!?!?!

[thelandswemadeofpaper]

Fake Death/Not Quite Dead Tropes

You got injured and lost in a Strange Land and need to find a away to return home. You got trapped somewhere (an island? another realm?). Why are you so far away in first place?

You were defeated or at least your Faction was. Maybe you don't have the means of protecting yourself?

You body switched in the last minute? Some kind of transformation saving?

Your reputation, real identity and existence will cause you trouble and danger. By association? Lineage? Living McGuffin? Important Figure?

Start a New Life? New Name? After a Redemption? After a Mistake?

Missing in the middle of an battle, war, rescue, reveal, escape, betrayal or other type of conflict or chaos.

A civilian/non-fighter/more vulnerable member (child?) being send away after faking their death for safety.

What happened to them after that? Amnesia? Hidding? Under Another Identity? Imprisioned/Sealed? On a Run? Saved?

Decided to break away from your loved ones for their own safety.

To escape, to run away.

To frame someone.

A Test? Part of a Plan?

Dead Artists Are Better/Posthumous Popularity Potential Tropes

A dead friend (can be student, lover, mentor, sibling...) of the hero is revealed to be a villain (brainwashed, forced, manipulated or willing).

To become a villain and get revenge? After being wronged in some way? Like the Count of Monte Cristo? Can have Hidden Villain Reveal.

Or don't get revenge, just stay hidden or build a new (and probally very successful) life. You still may cross paths with your past.

You already have double lives and identities and have to pick one? You made a temporary false identity that needs to die? A invented individual?

Missing or Lost Child. When the character in question is a baby or a small child, its often more focused in their heritage, can be personal (the parents are know to the heroes) or just supposed dead bloodline, like an random member of an Fallen Clan or Long Lost Heir. (Dororo is more on the betrayal side, but still a Lost Child).

Escaped Punishment? Trial? Declared Traitor? Did a thing (or got a reveal about it) that would get you in trouble, but the Leader/Ruler/your Friends don't want to kill you, so they hide you.

If another person faked your death for you, maybe you are even unaware, they may be hidding you from another group/person, perhaps you are the villain's Lost Lenore or Dead Friend, related to the Antagonist in some way, or the member of an Special Group.

They are being hunted down. They can be taken by an person who saves and gives them an new identity, perhaps as an servant or ward/offpring. You still can interact with your former life (to help your friends?), but with a mask? Disguise? Glamour? Shapeshifting?

They could have discovered something, survived a attempt assassination or faked one, being labed a traitor...

Two friends went through something that made them think the other is dead.

The person ordered to kill you decided to spare and hide you instead. Maybe the character could be a child or the would-be-killer is a friend that decided to disobey evil orders?

Or the group finds out a person they belived to be dead was spared.

The character was an villain since the begin, they stay 'dead' for an while and then reveal themselves Evil all Along.

Not-Dead Saves the Day

The Legendary King Under the Mountain.

Find an Ancient Lost Tribe who is believed to have ended. Or an extinct race/species is reveled to have a few survivors (Hidding? Unware? Captured? 'Saved' by the Villain? Refugees?)

Last of their Kin x There is Another. Maybe even a Broken Pedestal into it or Adam and Eve Plot.

Escape a Conflit, wanting to be neutral, maybe a Retirement or a secret Defection?

A person is disowned/exiled and the group they used to belong decided to fake their death (for shame? to hide the fact from others? reputation?)

Due to a misunderstanding, a character is momentarily thought dead, causing consequences between his killers and allies.

The killer could regret it, maybe it was a accident

You can be your own murderer.

You did die, but someone (or something) brought you back (wrong?).

Did you fake it? Another person did? Its was just assumed? Misunderstanding? MIA?

You can or not leave. This also applies to Former Friend, Push Away, Disowed, Defector, Befriend the Enemy...

Related and Opposite to this trope: Dead All Along

Necromancy