Fuck or Die

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Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)Mate or Die
Related tropes/genresdub-con, heat fic, knotting, Aliens Made Them Do It, Alpha/Beta/Omega
See alsoForced Marriage, Mates (trope), Pon Farr
Related articles on Fanlore.

Fuck or Die is a fanfiction trope in which the author puts two (or more) characters into a situation that forces sexual intimacy between them, or risk death. Fuck or die is often combined with Sex Pollen to create a physiological reason why someone will die without sex, though it can also be combined with tropes such as Aliens Made Them Do It or Virginity Sacrifice to create external motivations for fucking.

Fuck or Die is often used to resolve sexual tension between two characters that have been pining after each other, forcing them to acknowledge their feelings for each other. It is very rare for fics with Fuck or Die scenarios to actually result with character death, with less than 1% of Fuck or Die fics on AO3 also being tagged with Major Character Death.

Original Fannish Source

Although Fuck or Die has been used as a plot device in many fandoms since, its starting place was a canon source: the Pon Farr endured by Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series. In the episode, "Amok Time", Spock enters Plak Tow and must return home to fight, fuck or die. Many K/S stories started with Spock going into pon farr, and as Trek fans moved on to other fandoms, they took the trope with them.

Many fans ignore that Spock's explanation emphasized that pon farr makes you go home. This would rule out his being able to consummate with anyone away from Vulcan. But it makes a good story.

The concept was revisited in the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (between Saavik and a reborn Spock), the Star Trek: Voyager episodes, "Blood Fever" (with Vorik) and "Body and Soul" (with Tuvok), and the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, "Bounty" (with T'Pol).

Meta

Consent Issues

Fuck or Die is inherently a dub-con trope, as neither character can freely consent to having sex when risking death. This fact can be explored or subverted in different ways, such as:

  • creating a list of people that it's acceptable to have sex with, in case of a fuck-or-die scenario
  • certifying that a character would rather die than fuck
    • Grey (restricted to AO3 users) in MCU -- asexual Bucky

Examples

Gen Works

Supernatural

X-Files

External Links

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