this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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[Dormant, move to [email protected]] Shows and TV

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Increasing use of respawn as a plot device in media? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I am watching Severance and playing Hades 2 lately, and I noticed that 'respawn' as a plot device has really increased in last few years.

It's not just respawn, but it's the mechanism where each spawn helps push the narrative further.

The Good Place was similar. Mickey 17 seems to be doing the same thing from what I can tell in the trailer.

Am I just cherry picking or is this a real trend? And does this reflect some other underlying phenomenon?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes but even in most video games, when you respawn you don't have to start from the beginning each time. You start from where you die or a save point.

I guess what I am noticing in these shows is that you die or go out and then come back again and do the same things again. And it loops ad finitum.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yes but even in most video games, when you respawn you don't have to start from the beginning each time. You start from where you die or a save point.

You're right; most games are like that. But that is one of the defining features of the roguelike genre. And even a lot of those don't use "respawning" the way others do. They are intended to convey that you are an entirely new adventurer because your last one died. Hell, a lot of 'em even allow you to encounter the corpses of your previously fallen characters. Like Pixel Dungeons or Project Zomboid.

I'd like to see some shows that do it. I hadn't heard of Severance, so I'll probably check it out just because I do find it an interesting concept.