Everybody Lives

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Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)Nobody Dies, They All Live, Happy Ending
Related tropes/genresFix-it, Denialfic, She's Not Dead
See alsoCanon Divergence AU
Related articles on Fanlore.

Everybody Lives is the fannish term for a specific genre of fix-it AU in fandom where, as the name implies, all the characters who died in canon don't die. This is especially prominent in closed canons where the death of a character is set in stone, rather than open canons where they might come back. There are several variations on the term from "Nobody Dies" to "They All Live," depending on the specific canon circumstances that are being undone, but "Everybody Lives" is the most common. The popularity of this term over others likely comes from Doctor Who, specifically the episode where Nine tells Rose Tyler: “Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!”[1]

AO3 has several canonical tags for this trope including Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives / Nobody Dies, Everybody Lives, and Everyone Is Alive. TV Tropes has an EverybodyLives page for works in which it seems as though there will be some characters killed, but they all survive.

A short 2015 survey finds the most frequent fandoms with these tags are The Hobbit, Teen Wolf, Pacific Rim, Supernatural, Lord of the Rings, Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan, Harry Potter, and Les Misérables.[citation needed]

Non-Fannish Examples

As evidenced by the Doctor Who quote, this trope isn't limited to fanworks. A 1681 revision of King Lear changes the ending so Lear, Cordelia and Edgar end the play alive and happy[2] and "Hamlet 2" is a 2008 film about a teacher adding a musical sequel to Hamlet[3]

Fannish Examples

External Links

References

  1. ^ "Everybody Lives!" | The Doctor Dances | Doctor Who | BBC. Posted 21 Sept 2013. Accessed 11 Nov 2019.
  2. ^ The History of King Lear. Accessed 11 Nov 2019.
  3. ^ High School Drama Teacher Creates Musical Theatre Sensation in "Hamlet 2". Posted 22 Aug 2008. Accessed 11 Nov 2019.