Just For Fun / How to Cheat Death

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Need to protect a character from dying? It's easy! Just:

1. Make them a main character.
   1. Especially applies if their actor is still hired.
2. Make them more popular than the main character.
   1. Unless the main character is particularly beloved by the writers, in which case make yours slightly less popular to avoid complications.
3. Make them the main character's love interest or best friend (with plenty of Character Development to keep them from being a Friendly Target).
4. Train them in Super Not-Drowning Skills.
5. Refer to them to indicate that they're alive off-screen without appearing on-screen.
6. Give them the superpower of biological invincibility.
7. Send them on a trip longer than their life-span.
8. Give them a Pocket Protector.
9. Put them in an elaborate killing-machine, unsupervised.
10. Put them in the Plot Device Witness Protection Program.
11. Inflict lethal injuries when the plot doesn't call for death.
12. Have rules against upsetting the Balance Between Good and Evil.
13. Ensure that the opposing sides never actually come to blows.
14. Make the other characters perfectly satisfied they're dead.
15. Honorably discharge them from the cast with a possibility they could return.
16. Allow the villain to indulge at having the perfect opportunity to kill them.
17. Rewrite the show to make it safer/ lower the target audience age.
18. Have their true love kiss them.
19. Make them a baby or a dog.
    1. Unless the latter is in a work after the Newbery Medal.
    2. If they're a baby, make sure they never get sick and that they have a healthy appetite.
20. Put them through a situation that would surely kill them without showing them dead.
21. Make them a talented or popular villain.
22. Invite their arch rival to their battle with someone else.
23. Comply with censors.
24. Don't let anyone find their body.
25. Wound them during a critical, dramatic, action-packed fight scene.
26. Freeze them.
27. Make them an incredibly cool hero with injuries that should be fatal.
28. Make them too powerful to be killed.
29. Have them get captured by an egotistical villain with a flair for the dramatic.
30. Remind The Hero that If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!.
31. Imprison whoever makes people die.
32. Cast them in a Disney movie. (So long as you don't make them one of the parents of the very young protagonist.)
33. Diagnose them with a fatal illness.
    1. Just make sure the diagnosis isn't correct.
34. Give them artificial respiration.
35. Make The Hero defeat them in a duel, preferably on top of a building.
36. Have them ask any killer to Get It Over With.
37. Take the body to the morgue.
38. Leave behind a decoy and escape.
39. Make it very clear no one could have survived that.
40. Use Time Travel to go back in time and make it look like they died, but really didn't.
41. Literally cheat: Knock over one of His playing pieces, then reset the board while He isn't looking.
42. Have Death take someone more expendable instead.
43. Have them make a few "friends" on the writing staff despite the fanbase wishing to see the character stabbed to death with numerous sharp pointies.
44. Make a new toy for them.
45. Do not give them any stats.
46. But, really, if you ever feel like it, just bring them back from the dead. However you like.
47. Most importantly, make sure no one important in making the show wants you dead for no good reason.
48. And if you can't follow this list, take everyone else down with you.
49. Remember unless it is directly before the credits Never Ever have sex.
50. Simply curse them with immortality.
51. In certain circumstances, why not try having sex with it? It worked with a giant demoness in Damned (2011) too...
52. Make them immune to poison.
53. Make them an animated character in a show full of slapsticky violence.
    1. Make them a frequent victim of slapsticky violence in general, everyone loves having a Butt-Monkey around for stress relief and/or comedy.
54. Have him play a game with Death incarnate, and/or have them literally cheat death.
55. If they're at Death's door, never tell them to Please Wake Up or to "come back".
56. If they receive medical attention, tell the doctor to never use the phrases "I did all I could" or "Sorry".
57. If she's a woman, make sure she never gets pregnant to avoid Death by Childbirth, Tragic Stillbirth, or Convenient Miscarriage.
    1. For that matter, avoid giving them kids in general, no matter what their gender (but especially for women). This goes double if they're very nice.
    2. If a female character already is a mother, make sure she never comes down with anything. Fictional moms are prone to dying of cancer or pneumonia or a Soap Opera Disease.
58. If they seem dead, avoid showing a funeral or memorial or cutting to a church.
59. Don't make them gay, black, or disabled, or if you do, get enough people concerned about avoiding Unfortunate Implications on the writing team.
    1. If you DO get enough people concerned about avoiding the Unfortunate Implications on the writing team, then feel free to make them gay.
    2. For that matter, avoid giving them asthma or a potentially fatal allergy, and if you must give them one of those conditions, make sure they have an inhaler or epipen on them at all times.
60. Give them a personality so that they're no longer a Red Shirt or Mook.
61. Make them star in three or more episodes, especially if they're a pet, especially especially if they're a goldfish, bird, or small mammal such as a hamster.
62. If The Hero Dies, just simply summon a copy or an identical Alternate Self of the hero from the past, or identical Alternate Universe.
63. Let Coco Martin play them.
64. Never hook them up to an electrocardiogram.
65. Don't give their car a horn.
66. Give them a task that will take longer than their lifespan to accomplish.
67. Have them form an alliance with Death.
68. Solve any drama between them and their children, grandchildren, or siblings, to avoid an I Wished You Were Dead scenario.
    1. If there is drama going on, make sure they don't do something dangerous or take a walk alone.
69. Avoid Tempting Fate by having other characters mention how important this one is.
70. Don't make them cheerful, naive, cute, meek, friendly, or otherwise "innocent".
71. Make sure they always follow safety advice and never enter the Forbidden Zone, especially if there are other people around who might feel guilty if they died.
72. Keep them away from guns, dangerous animals, or large bodies of water.
73. If they live in a place at high risk for extreme weather, have them move.