Thread: Question concerning bringing a character back to life

Usually in my fanfics, there will be times when Arceus brings a character back to life after that character has been dead for a long time. Now how would I do a ressurection scene when Arceus brings someone back to life from the dead. And what about when with the remains that Arceus restores. Also, what about the characters reaction of being back to the world of the living especially if he or she has been dead long before the events of the story or has been dead for a months. How would I do this?

Well, since the people to be brought back to life have been dead a long time, it would make sense that their bodies have decayed quite a bit. So, one idea is to pull an FE8 (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones) and have them appear zombie-like and basically be living, empty shells. They either would speak gibberish or not be able to speak at all, but they could easily be trained to obey whomever revived them, in this case, Arceus.

There is one revived character in FE8 who could speak perfectly well (Grado's king, Vigarde, to be precise), but he was revived not long after he died, so yeah.

If you want the revived people to be able to speak normally, though, you could have Arceus be powerful enough to grant that. He is a Pokegod, after all.

Originally Posted by Kelleo

Well, since the people to be brought back to life have been dead a long time, it would make sense that their bodies have decayed quite a bit. So, one idea is to pull an FE8 (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones) and have them appear zombie-like and basically be living, empty shells. They either would speak gibberish or not be able to speak at all, but they could easily be trained to obey whomever revived them, in this case, Arceus.

There is one revived character in FE8 who could speak perfectly well (Grado's king, Vigarde, to be precise), but he was revived not long after he died, so yeah.

If you want the revived people to be able to speak normally, though, you could have Arceus be powerful enough to grant that. He is a Pokegod, after all.

Actually, during the ressurection process, Arceus restores them to before death and when revived they are fully consious like a living being and are able to speak and have full control of themselves. I have read Harry Potter fanfics where Lily and James were brought back and are fully in control.

Oh. Well then, I'm not really sure how to go about it. xP

I'm sorry.

I'd imagine reversing the decaying process for all to see :D

but onwards to the important stuff, I figure it'd depend on a few things, mainly what happens to dead people in your fic's universe. Do they simply stop existing? Do they go somewhere? I'd imagine if they just stop existing upon death, it'd be like waking up from a nap so little shock from them but more from everyone else. The real shock would come with finding out they died. If they go somewhere, I figure they'd have developed and even changed as characters after those experiences. Will they now want to destroy those whom killed them, try to save someone, or simply enjoy living once again?

Final thing is, try not to do it too often, if you revive people all the time it sorta loses its effect on the reader. It could also raise the question of "Why don't you just bring back all them dead allies?" unless certain conditions must be met in order to bring them back.

well the thing is, reviving a character and making them able to speak and full-fleshed despite the rot and decay they've been through for being dead for a long time, it's a bit cliche and just not interesting in my opinion. maybe you can make them not rotten, but full-fleshed and yet skinny and brittle and delicate. i imagine them acting like they've woken up from a long coma. make them confused and wondering what date it is and thinking they're still in the past. maybe they won't have full control of their bodies for a while and will have to learn to walk again. they've probably forgotten how to do certain tasks, but only know of the people they know, or maybe they'll have complete amnesia, and this is where arceus could take control and do whatever it wants with them. just a couple theories.

Well, you definitely have to capture the reaction of the person who's been brought back. How does he feel? Is there any culture shock after spending all those years dead? Did he even WANT to come back? Maybe being dead was peaceful. Maybe his lover was dead as well, and now he's away from her again.

Stuff like that. That's important.

If htey've been dead for any length of time, they'll have decayed beyond the ability to function. They'll need to be regenerated enough to once again have a functional larynx, so why not regenerate them all the way?

Previous posters Chaosj2 and Kodizzle had good ideas. Reversing the decaying process and being quite happy being dead are fairly interesting concepts to work with.

I usually define being dead as some sort of neverending, dreamless sleep, meaning you have no awareness... permanently. Thus waking up from the dead would be, in my head, like waking up from a dreamless sleep.

Or maybe being dead means being in a state of limbo, where you are simply aware (because of your soul?), but unable to do anything, forever? Another alternative is that they are simply brought back in a new body. Their soul is conserved, but their body can never be brought back from the dead - had it been a humorous fic you could go with genderswapping. FOR THE WIN... err, I mean... ahem. Yes, that would be interesting as well. Technically you can make death out to be just about anything. If there is indeed a heaven, maybe they would prefer staying in that heaven? or maybe, even in heaven, they had regrets about something they couldn't do in life? Maybe they wandered earth as ghosts and could not move on because of just that? Maybe they'd been in the afterlife for so long they'd forgotten what this world was like?

Apart from the undead's personal reflections about being dead, the other characters will naturally feel an impact from this, if they know this character in question. Imagine someone close to you being dead, and then they were suddenly brought back to life, after a great long time. How would you react to something like that?

Originally Posted by ArceusAlpha493

Usually in my fanfics, there will be times when Arceus brings a character back to life after that character has been dead for a long time. Now how would I do a ressurection scene when Arceus brings someone back to life from the dead. And what about when with the remains that Arceus restores. Also, what about the characters reaction of being back to the world of the living especially if he or she has been dead long before the events of the story or has been dead for a months. How would I do this?

This sounds an awful lot like the post you took down, regarding your Holocaust Time Travel story. I'm going to assume (hope) that this isn't apart of the same story. To start off with, if you killed off the character and are now bringing them back, it would make whatever sacrifice they made trite, emotionally cruel, very much sue-ish. And much like the Holocaust-thread, it looks like you are once again asking people to write your ideas for you. We can't write your story for you, only you can do that. We can't make your story well written and interesting - that Herculean task falls to you. The many people on Bulbagarden can aid in your ideas, but you can't seriously expect us to write the entire thing for you. Why don't you think about how the characters would react to these situations? Why don't you think about how a resurrection scene would go?

Actually, during the ressurection process, Arceus restores them to before death and when revived they are fully consious like a living being and are able to speak and have full control of themselves. I have read Harry Potter fanfics where Lily and James were brought back and are fully in control.

I'm sorry, but if you're shooting down people's ideas because you already have a pre-set goal in mind, what was the point in asking other people how you should do it?

All of your ideas are great and thank you. I got it taken care of now. This thread can be closed now. Thank you all ;)