Came Back Strong: Difference between revisions
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[[File:gandalf 1019.jpg|frame|Indeed, you might say I am Saruman. Saruman [[You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good|as he should have been]].]]
{{quote|''"You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."''
|'''Obi-Wan Kenobi''', before his [[Obi-Wan Moment]], ''[[Star Wars]]: [[A New Hope]]''}}
[[The Hero]] is fighting [[The Dragon]], or the [[Big Bad]], and finds out he is [[Hopeless Boss Fight|hopelessly outmatched]]. The villain decides to go ahead and [[Just Shoot Him|kill him off]], and it's over. The hero is dead.
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Congratulations, he just '''Came Back Strong'''. It's not a [[Desperation Attack]], [[Heroic Resolve]], or [[One-Winged Angel]], but a permanent increase in one's [[Power Level]]. It could be that dying has opened his mind to new possibilities, he literally [[Training from Hell|trained]] [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|in hell]], he was granted access to new spirit powers, a [[MacGuffin]] is used to help him return and he gains special abilities from it, or maybe his [[Dragon Ball|race just makes him stronger from death]].
Contrast [[Came Back Wrong]], although it's [[Cursed with Awesome| possible for the two to overlap.]] Compare [[Heroic Second Wind]], which is similar to this without the nasty implications of death.
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}
== Anime
* In ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', Saiyans are stated to grow stronger when they are beaten to near death, and [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|Vegeta]] uses this to his advantage on Namek by having Dende heal him after intentionally letting Krillin almost kill him.
** Later, Cell self destructs and reforms, causing this to happen due to the fact that he has Saiyan cells. This is the last time this Saiyan trait is specifically mentioned.
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** [[Yakuza|Kagetora]] got his PSI powered up after he nearly got killed a few times, got tortured, had a house dropped on him, and had to dig some people by a mad man and his lackeys.
** [[Intimate Healing|Oboro Mochizuki]] greatly enhances his PSY after he gets a big hole punched into his chest and thrown half dead into an old [[MacGuffin|Tavoo core factory]] [[Emergency Transformation|where he fuses with them]].
== Comic Books ==
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* In the ''[[Star Wars Legacy]]'' comics, {{spoiler|[[Big Bad]] Darth Krayt comes back from the dead and is no longer bothered by the crippling Yuuzhan Vong implants while also becoming more formidable and [[Drunk on the Dark Side]] than ever. He then attempts to invoke this trope on Cade Skywalker, hoping Cade will have the same reaction with [[The Dark Side]] and finally be his disciple, but it just encourages Cade to embrace the Light Side and kill Krayt}}.
* [[Doctor Strange]], as part of his trials to become Sorcerer Supreme, had to meet Death in combat. When he realized he couldn't defeat or escape Death, he surrendered entirely to it, died, and was restored to life—now [[The Ageless|functionally immortal]].
* ''Every'' superhuman being in Marvel whose powers derive from gamma radiation (including [[The Hulk]], [[She-Hulk]], Doc Samson, the Abomination, the Leader, and General Ross) had to die to gain their powers, though most of them do not know it. When a human dies from gamma radiation, their soul is drawn through a metaphysical portal called the Green Door into [[Hell|the Below Place]]. Should they manage to find a second Green Door, they are reincarnated with a stronger body, the trip seemingly instantaneous to those in the mortal world, the recipient having no memory of how it happened. [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|The One Below All]] has tried to manipulate this process to use gamma mutates as his [[Unwitting Pawn]]s, with limited success.
== Film ==
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* {{spoiler|Neo}} of ''[[The Matrix]]'' only gets to awake his spoon-bending powers after being killed by {{spoiler|Agent Smith}} in the first movie.
* [[RoboCop]]
== Literature ==
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* There's a short story where colonists on an alien planet deal with escalating threats from local fauna, starting with pests that feed on their crops and working up to large predators. Eventually someone works out that it's the ''same'' lifeform, coming back stronger each time they wipe it out. He realises this just in time to stop them from killing an alien that looks basically human:
{{quote|"I think we can deal with this one. What I don't want to face is '''what comes next'''."}}
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
** Although that last part is actually due to {{spoiler|Voldemort's use of the Elder Wand, which refused to harm Harry, its true master.}}
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': When Xander resurrects Buffy from her death at the Master's hands, she comes back stronger, knows instinctively where he's going, and is no longer vulnerable to his hypnosis.
* This is basically what happens in ''[[Kamen Rider 555]]'' when someone is killed and revived as an Orphnoch.
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* In ''[[Charmed]],'' when Cole arrives in the underworld, he finds that the souls of demons have their powers eaten by the creatures that live there. He decides to get in on that action, and collects enough powers to return to the land of the living, and with almost ''every'' demonic power there is. Unfortunately, it eventually drove him crazy, and he wanted to die, but couldn't.
== [[Oral Tradition]] ==
* In [[Norse Mythology]], Odin sacrificed himself on Yggdrasil and after he came back to life, he knew magic.
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: Jesus in [[The Bible|the New Testament]].
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* In Yoruban mythology and Santeria, Shango. He was an ordinary king until he hanged himself and became one of the most powerful (and popular) Orisha. His salute means "the king is not hanged".
* In ''[[Conquering the Horizon]]'' [[Murder by Mistake|Evelyn killed Hsthressis because she didn't realize Hsthressis was a person]] (Hsthressis's species look nothing like humans). Evelyn was able to [[Dead Person Conversation|simulate Hsthressis's mind and talk to it]] because Evelyn has [[Cannibalism Superpower]]. Evelyn then made a new body for Hsthressis, and using the link between Evelyn's [[Hive Mind]] and the new body, she put the Hsthressis simulation in the driver's seat of that body (including linking up the body's sense's to the simulation of Hsthressis's mind), which functionally resurrected Hsthressis. The new Hsthressis almost certainly doesn't have a soul, but there is little to no indication that souls exist anyways. Hsthressis's new body is stronger, has bigger claws, and is capable of sight and bioluminescence. There are a few drawbacks though: Evelyn can take over the body with trivial ease, even doing so by accident on multiple occasions; Evelyn will always have at least some vague awareness of what is going on around Hsthressis; and Hsthressis's new body requires more calories each day to keep running than her old one did; Also in order for Evelyn to sleep Hsthressis needs to sleep too.
== [[
* Human bones get denser when they recover from certain types of injury. It is for this reason that students of the Okinawa school of Karate routinely hit themselves with bricks.▼
** A little more explanation: hitting bones repeatedly causes microfractures, which then heal to form a stronger, denser lattice, resulting in stronger bones. (It also helps to desensitize the nerve endings.) Many systems of martial arts do something similar: special mention to Cimande Pencak Silak where the whole system is about overpowering wrist or forearm strikes, and the practitioners would originally train against trees to get the conditioning. '''Bear in mind though there is a lot of controversy about this topic''' - some say it works, some say it works but isn't useful, some say it works but will give you problems in later life, and some say it just doesn't work.▼
* This is how muscles and bones improve. When you strain them the cells die, but they get repaired to be stronger than before. Overtraining is possible, though, where you break down cells faster than you grow them. As with induced microfractures, many bodybuilders and strength athletes ''deliberately'' overtrain when they need a large amount of development over a short time or when they expect to miss several exercise sessions.▼
▲== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
* In [[wikipedia:Brave New World (role-playing game)|Brave New World]] characters gain super powers by undergoing a near-death experience while in mortal danger.
* In the ''[[Pathfinder]]'' tabletop game, being born dead and then coming back to life is one of the possible origins of a sorcerers powers.
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* In order to become an [[Walking Wasteland|Abyssal]] [[Exalted]], you have to be on the exact verge of death at the time.
* In ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', this is how the Risen Martyr [[Prestige Class]] works. A saintly character is temporarily resurrected after their martyrdom and given extra powers to complete their unfinished task... in theory. In practice the class is terrible,<ref>The "Iron Chef" competition, centered around making builds that allow even the worst classes to playable, refuses to run it because is THAT bad</ref> doesn't give you the choice to pick levels in anything else and the final ability ''kills you again''. Even in the worlds without resurrection it is intend for, its more practical to just make a new character.
* The
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku|Zettai Hero Project: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman]]'' has this as one of the core mechanics. Every time you get killed, you lose the items you're carrying and get sent back to level 1, but your basic stats increased depending on your "total level earned", and stats boost you get from level up depends on your basic stats. As [[Spirit Guide|Pirohiko]] says, a hero always comes back from the brink of defeat to save the day!
* ''[[Mega Man X]]'s'' Zero died the first game, was rebuilt in the interim, and came back with upgraded armor and weapons in the second game. A lesser version occurred with X5 and X6. {{spoiler|He didn't get new armor, and the offensive boost was basically a tweaked [[Arm Cannon]], but he did gain a [[Double Jump]] as a standard ability.}}
* Used in the ''[[Disgaea]]'' games. You level up, then you reincarnate into a new body that starts with better stats. The game more plays with this trope.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)
* ''[[BlazBlue]]'': Ragna nearly bled to death after ''[[Big Bad|s]][[Complete Monster|o]][[Magnificent Bastard|m]][[For the Evulz|e]][[Memetic Badass|o]][[Troll|n]][[Faux Affably Evil|e]]'' cut off his arm and burned down his home. Then he was bitten by a vampire {{spoiler|and fused with the corpse of an [[Eldritch Abomination]]}}. This gave him the [[Artifact of Doom|Azure Grimoire]] and Soul Eater powers which turned him into a [[One-Man Army]]. The bad news is that {{spoiler|if he uses them too much, he will ''turn into'' the aforementioned [[Eldritch Abomination]].}}
* Happens in ''[[Jade Empire]]'' when your Spirit Monk is killed by the main villain, then finds the last piece of the [[Amulet of Concentrated Awesome|Dragon Amulet]] while fighting his/her way back from the spirit world.
* Death Knights from the ''[[Warcraft]]'' series combine this trope with a bit of [[Came Back Wrong]]. Most Death Knights are already powerful Warriors or Paladins to begin with, but when they are raised they are imbued with powers over necromancy and disease, making them the Scourge's most powerful soldiers. This is less evident in [[World of Warcraft]] due to the obvious balance issues making Death Knights more powerful than the other classes would cause, but from a [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|lore standpoint]] it remains true, even though it only translates into a higher starting level.
** In ''[[World of Warcraft]]''{{'}}s ''Cataclysm's Rage of the Firelands'' patch, you confront Alysra and defeat her single-handedly in a quest. After you do so, some Druids of the Flame arrive, and revive her as a fire hawk, resulting in her flying off to the Firelands and becoming a much more difficult raid boss that requires 10-25 players to defeat.
** Ingvar the Plunderer in Utgarde Keep combines this with [[Trick Boss]]. After he's reanimated as an undead, his abilities become more powerful. Similarly, the Black Knight goes from being defeated alone in a quest to being a 5-man dungeon boss in Trial of the Champion. The Scourge had a habit of handing out this type of upgrade during their heyday.
** Also, Magni Bronzebeard. During ''Cataclysm'', he selflessly underwent a mystic titan ritual to commune with the earth by activating the Ulduar tablet, hoping it would quell the freak natural disasters plaguing Azeroth. At first, it seemed to fail and [[Taken for Granite| turned him into a statue of diamond]]. At the time, most - including Magni, most likely - believed it had been a Heroic Sacrifice to halt the Cataclysm; Magni spent four years in this state, literally used as his own tombstone in Old Ironforge. But he wasn’t truly dead, his still-active mind communing with the living spirit of Azeroth itself. Eventually, he regained mobility, with a living body of diamond, able to communicate directly with Azeroth and becoming her emissary in the mortal world.
* Happens to the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Final Fantasy II]]''. The Emperor comes back to life as a lich king, having taken control of Hell and its legions. In ''Soul of Rebirth'', his good side took over Heaven.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' this happens to a few bosses. When you kill {{spoiler|the Earth Fiend Scarmiglione, he comes back as a zombie, attacking from behind}} or {{spoiler|Dr. Lugae, he comes back as a cyborg}}.
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* In an ending from [[Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of the Superheroes|Marvel Vs. Capcom]], [[Cyberbots|Jin]] proceeds to destroy Onslaught's soul {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|in a sacrificial attack]]. Suddenly, Ryu wonders when Jin will be coming back.}}
* In ''[[Arcanum]]'' this is the result of sacrificing yourself to [[Top God|Velorien, the All-Father]], after figuring out the riddle of the old gods.
* Hilla in ''[[Maple Story]]'', sort of. It's not clear just how she perished, as she was alive at the end of the "Heroes" blockbuster, which takes place (chronologically) after she's fought as a Boss. However, before fighting her in the Labyrinth of Suffering, she is specifically said to have been "resurrected via the might of the Black Mage", and she is ''much'' more powerful than before. And possibly not even human anymore.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[The
** Sort of. It doesn't actually count until he takes the feat to actually be able to use the move. And since he probably didn't earn any experience points in heaven, and the resurrection spell results in the loss of a level, he actually came back weaker, but has the potential to become stronger, with a special move to one-shot a level 9+ Cleric.
* In ''[[Freak Angels]]'', all the titular characters have regenerative immortality and sustaining normally fatal injuries expands their already formidable [[Psychic Powers]].
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* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', the very first antagonist, the Goo, came back as the Omega Goo in the second arc complete with abilities related to the way it was defeated the first time.
* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', Jane came back to help her friends as a ghost. Her ghost powers included some nifty new attacks.
== [[Web Original]] ==
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{{quote|'''Vegeta''': Unlike the runt [Gohan] and I, you don't get a power boost from it.
'''Krillin''': HAX!!! I CALL HAX!!! }}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** Helps that he could see this time, and he was possessing a young man.
* In the fifth season of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', the Scotsman is now a very old man who needs a wheelchair, which is pushed by one of his daughters. The first episode (of that season) where he appears, he is effortlessly crushed by Aku, but due to the '''[[Memetic Mutation|MYSTIC RUNES!!]]''' on his sword, he quickly returns as a ghost with potent magical powers, and later leads his family into the [[Final Battle]] with Aku.
== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* Human bones get denser when they recover from certain types of injury. It is for this reason that students of the Okinawa school of Karate routinely hit themselves with bricks.
▲** A little more explanation: hitting bones repeatedly causes microfractures, which then heal to form a stronger, denser lattice, resulting in stronger bones. (It also helps to desensitize the nerve endings.) Many systems of martial arts do something similar: special mention to Cimande Pencak Silak where the whole system is about overpowering wrist or forearm strikes, and the practitioners would originally train against trees to get the conditioning. '''Bear in mind though there is a lot of controversy about this topic''' - some say it works, some say it works but isn't useful, some say it works but will give you problems in later life, and some say it just doesn't work.
▲* This is how muscles and bones improve. When you strain them the cells die, but they get repaired to be stronger than before. Overtraining is possible, though, where you break down cells faster than you grow them. As with induced microfractures, many bodybuilders and strength athletes ''deliberately'' overtrain when they need a large amount of development over a short time or when they expect to miss several exercise sessions.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Rebirth and Reincarnation Tropes]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
▲[[Category:Came Back Strong]]
[[Category:Resurrection Tropes]]
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