Basic Trope: A character (usually a child) notices another character (usually an adult/parent), who is dead, and thinks that the latter is asleep.
- Straight: Alice is fatally shot in the head by Emperor Evulz. Her little son, Bobby, walks up to her and says, "Wake up, Mommy, wake up!"
- Exaggerated:
- Bobby sees Alice with her eyes gouged out and her limbs ripped off. He still asks Alice to wake up so "she can put herself back together again".
- Bobby asks every dead person he sees to wake up.
- Downplayed:
- Alice is knocked unconscious but Bobby thinks she's just taking a nap.
- Bobby knows there's something wrong with Alice but doesn't know she's dead.
- Alice suffers some form of Death of Personality and Bobby unsuccessfully tries to get her to go back to normal.
- Justified:
- Bobby is very young and doesn't know what death is.
- Bobby is aware that Alice is dead—he's asking her to wake up out of denial.
- Alice has undergone a Disney Death before, and Bobby thinks this is another one without knowing the context that she's been Killed Off for Real.
- Alice really does look like she's just sleeping (e.g. little/no visible injuries, lying down with her eyes closed, etc)
- Inverted:
- Bobby sees Alice sleeping on her bed. He then cries and says, "No! Mommy is dead!"
- Bobby sees Alice walking in the house, and, for some reason, tells her, "Please sleep!"
- Subverted:
- Bobby then realizes Alice really is dead.
- Charles, Bobby's dad, then says, "Your mommy's dead, Bobby."
- It turns out that Alice really is still alive, and she wakes up.
- Double Subverted:
- He considers the possibility that Alice might be dead, but then brushes it off as ridiculous.
- Bobby doesn't believe Charles and still asks Alice to wake up.
- Which turns out to just be a Hope Spot, and she dies in Bobby's arms a few minutes later as Bobby begs her to not “fall asleep again” and wake up.
- Alice wakes up as a Revenant Zombie.
- Parodied: Alice clearly is just sleeping but everyone else holds the Idiot Ball and acts as though she's dead, except for Bobby.
- Zig-Zagged: Bobby can't make up his mind over whether Alice is asleep or dead.
- Averted:
- Everyone Lives in the story.
- Bobby knows Alice is dead.
- Lampshaded: "She's dead, not asleep... I wish she was asleep."
- Invoked: Bobby's brother, Danny, tells that Alice is sleeping. Danny knows that she is dead.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz kills Alice knowing that Bobby will come to her body doing exactly this - then, all Emperor Evulz has to do is kidnap Bobby for himself.
- Defied: Alice teaches Bobby from an early age how to tell if someone's asleep or unconscious or dead.
- Discussed: "What if, like, I die or whatever and he thinks I'm asleep?"
- Conversed: "Oh no, not the wake up, mommy scene! I'm a huge sucker for that scene!".
- Implied: Bobby is seen touching Alice in ways that suggest he's trying to wake her.
- Played for Laughs: Bobby attempts to wake Alice up in absurd ways, like slapping her face.
- Played for Drama: Bobby continues to deny that Alice is dead as he spends a while trying to get her to wake up, only to suffer a Heroic BSoD when he realizes that Alice really is gone.
- Played for Horror: Bobby begs a dead Alice to wake up, and she does… because Evulz has casted a curse onto Bobby that turns everything he says into a horrifying reality. Bobby watches in horror as his mother gains a Slasher Smile and moves towards him in a Zombie Gait…
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