Fuck or Die
| Tropes and genres | |
|---|---|
| Synonym(s) | Mate or Die |
| Related tropes/genres | dub-con, heat fic, knotting, Aliens Made Them Do It, Alpha/Beta/Omega |
| See also | Forced 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
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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
- Triple Lines of Grey (restricted to AO3 users) in a Hockey RPF Omegaverse fic
- snug it to me in MCU
- Send to All a rollicking email chain fic about consent forms between Batman and his extended Gotham vigilante family
- certifying that a character would rather die than fuck
Examples
Gen Works
- A Sentinel story by Arianna is Boundaries of the Soul.
Supernatural
- astolat's Supernatural classic Bad Blood, in which in a fuck-or-die scenario in a remote location Dean initially attempts to fuck a horse rather than his brother.
- notably subverted in Supernatural story The Operative Word by road_rhythm, occasioning some controversy about Choose Not to Warn.
X-Files
- The Sound of Wind Chimes by Sarah Stegall caused a lot of controversy back in the day in X-Files fandom
External Links
- list of fuck or die stories on the Archive Of Our Own here
- list of Starsky & Hutch fuck or die stories here
- list of Supernatural fandom "sex pollen & fuck or die" Sam/Dean stories at sd_recs