It’s Tuesday! Which means it’s time to dive back into that wonderful time sink full of literary themes and devices, TV Tropes. On the docket this week: Fate Worse than Death

Think death is the cruelest fate? Think again. There are several things much worse: torture, taxes, and tofu, to name but a few. And more often than not, some unlucky soul will experience it. Originally, this phrase meant rape; that’s still one possible meaning. And now there’seven worse than that.

This phrase is usually used in a Just Between You and Me moment by the Evil Overlord as he boasts about the agony-inducing Death Trap that awaits the hero for delaying his plans. It’s also fairly commonly used as a warning to the hero against seeking forbidden power or knowledge, and consequently to foreshadow the particular Karmic Death the villain will suffer because of meddling with the universe’s Cosmic Keystone.

The Galaxy Far, Far Away is practically filled with fates infinitely worse than death. I mean, there’s being digested over the course of a thousand years by a Sarlacc. Forcing to merge and become one with some sort of Eldritch Abomination. Getting frozen alive. Carnal relations with giant bugs. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather take a blaster bolt between the eyes than face down the other horrors the Galaxy seems to have in store for people.