A Death in the Limelight: Difference between revisions

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'''As a [[Death Trope]], all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''
 
{{examples|Examples}}
 
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' built an entire arc on Luffy and Whitebeard trying to rescue Ace. In the end though, [[Not Quite Saved Enough|they were unsuccessful,]] with both Ace and Whitebeard dying in the ensuing battle against the Marines.
* ''Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex'' has this for the cute and quirky Tatchkoma's. The robots have their brief day in the limelight, before dying their tragic demise. [[What Measure Is a Non -Human?|Poor Robots]].
** It won't be the last time they die, either.
* Admiral Sadaako Munetake in ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' spends most of the series between [[Butt Monkey]] and [[Jerkass]]. When he gets his own episode, the effect of both roles crashes on him, and he commits [[Suicide By Cop|suicide by Jovians]].
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*** To the annoyance of many fans, averted with Hidan and Kakuzu, and less controversially the Sound 4.
* ''[[Battle Royale]]'', in which most characters die within a chapter or two of the point where the story starts to focus on them. Practically guaranteed if it starts talking about their past.
** In all fairness, [[Kill 'Em All|we ARE talking about]] ''[[Battle Royale]]''.
* The ''[[Trigun]]'' episode "Paradise" focuses on Nicholas D. Wolfwood and ends with his death.
*** In the manga he gets two whole volumes to himself, with Vash only appearing right at the end. Needless to say, following the full reveal of his tragic backstory and the resolution of said backstory, he winds up dying after overdosing on the same chemicals that aged him and gave him his enhanced skills.
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** There was a story planned for ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' that would have involved her turning up alive in a Cardassian prisoner camp, but obviously, said story never made it to the air. As far as canon's concerned, she's dead.
* Inverted in the ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Who Mourns for Morn" in which Morn, a minor character who NEVER SPOKE is presumed dead by the station crew. However, he only turns out to have been hiding in fear of his life.
* ''[[House (TV)|House]]'': the season 4 two-part finale starts features House knowing ''someone'' is going to die, but having been hit with a dose of [[Laser -Guided Amnesia]]. It turns out to be ''holy shit Amber''. So ''that's'' what the sudden focus on her character in the previous few episodes had been leading up to...
* [[Reality TV]] does this often. If an episode is focusing on a contestant, chances are they are [[Catch Phrase|auf'd]] that episode. This is particularly true if their confessionals emphasize 1) How much winning the competition would mean to them; 2) How much they have come to appreciate their teammate/showmance partner; 3) How much they have learned / grown / matured because of their participation; 4) How wonderful the experience has been or how many new friends they've made; and 5) How much better / stronger / more skillful / better-liked / more in control of the game they are than one or more of their fellow competitors.
** ''[[AmericasAmerica's Next Top Model]]'' is an [[Egregious]] offender. Whenever a girl shows up who isn't one of the handful of prominently featured girls in each cycle, she's either getting called first that week or being sent home. Expect her to be suddenly struggling with the judges' critiques, even though she's never been shown doing so before that point.
** ''[[Survivor]]'' has a bad habit of doing this to its more under-the-radar players, particularly in later seasons.
*** Once a contestant is revealed to the audience to be a homosexual in the same episode he is voted out. One of the most famous examples would be the episode of Tocantins where Coach is voted out, after being sent to Exile Island, finding a "Dragon Slayer Cane", and (presumably) faking a back injury when losing the immunity challenge to JT.
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* ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' used this trope in Season Six's episode "'Round Springfield". Bleeding Gums Murphy, the jazz musician who Lisa met in an early episode in the first season, faded into the background quickly (showing up here and there in crowd scenes for a while) and was almost forgotten until he appeared in the hospital in this episode. There, he tells Lisa his whole [[Belated Backstory|previously unrevealed back story]], about how he was a successful jazz musician who made a guest appearance on the Cosby show, and doing a saxophone duet with Lisa. Lisa goes off to school and wins a talent competition, and then returns to the hospital to be told Bleeding Gums has passed away. This occurs in the middle of the episode, and the rest of it revolves around Lisa's quest to arrange a tribute to him. After she succeeds, Bleeding Gums Murphy's ghost appears in the clouds in a parody of ''[[The Lion King]]'' ([[James Earl Jones|Mufasa, Darth Vader, and the CNN announcer briefly interrupt]]), and they have one last saxophone duet over the end credits before Bleeding Gums heads off for his afterlife date with Billie Holiday.
* The ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "The Terror Beyond". Beforehand, Solomon Grundy was [[The Brute]] and [[Dumb Muscle]] with no motivation beyond greed. In this episode, Grundy's backstory is revealed, and he's given a very sympathetic motivation to fight alongside the good guys. Naturally, he dies fighting Icthultu and many tears are shed over him.
** Then again, one of his powers is the ability to come [[Back From the Dead]]...which was the whole reason he agreed to come along, as a [[Human Sacrifice]] was needed to defeat Ichthultu and someone like Grundy was going to present less of a moral dilemma to that end. He returns for an episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''...but has [[Came Back Wrong]] and devolved into [[The Berserker]] and has to be killed by [[Anti -Magic]], again [[Played for Drama]]. Given the manner of his death, its not clear if he will again return from the grave or was finally [[Killed Off for Real]], but regardless he does not reappear in the series again.
* Nabu was introduced in Season 3 of ''[[Winx Club]]'' as Layla's love interest [[Shallow Love Interest|...and that's all]]. However, the final episodes of season 4 focused on him a lot, showing his sheer badassery, to the point of beating one of the four [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] all by himself. Shortly after that, he performed an [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
* In ''[[South Park]]'', Kenny, although always part of the main cast, barely had any effect on the plot up until "Kenny Dies", after which he is killed off ([[Death Is Cheap|for a season]]).