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A Death in the Limelight: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''If you start learning a lot of information about a member of your team you barely knew, get your funeral attire ready.''|''[http://fudoushin.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/rules.jpg The Laws of Super Robot Anime]''}}
Briefly, an episode or issue that [[A Day in
Usually this is a relatively minor recurring character, or someone who technically is in the main cast but never had a [[Backstory]] or much in the way of characterization. The episode/issue may be honest about what's going to happen, or try to make it appear that the character is finally going to be promoted to a main character. Episodes about the death of a major character who already got plenty of exposure and a fairly full [[Backstory]] don't quite fit this trope, since it's not as obviously different from the character's normal treatment.
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Sometimes obviously the result of the writer realizing that they need a dramatic death, can't sacrifice the main cast, and the chosen character just hasn't been given enough to do that the audience might care. In other cases, the understandable result of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]] when the actor has to leave the series and the writer wants to give them something to be remembered by.
Related to [[Back for
The big clue to many of these is [[Belated Backstory]] suddenly popping up when normally the character gets two or three lines an episode.
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In Reality Television, it's marked by one contestant getting more "confessionals" (individual solo interviews) than they usually do, or by footage of them talking to other contestants about a) how much they want to win or how much the win will mean to them / their family / their future; b) how good they are at some particular aspect of the competition (in this case, it will almost certainly be that aspect that proves to be their undoing); c) that they've realized that one particular aspect is their weak spot and that they are going to be especially careful to do that thing correctly from here on out (in this case, they most likely will be eliminated for making exactly the mistake they said they were going to avoid); or d) how much they are controlling the game.
A subtrope is [[Death
{{deathtrope}}
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
* ''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
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' devotes the plot of an entire episode to Kaworu Nagisa, the only person to ever explicitly show Shinji Ikari [[Ho Yay|love]], who only appears in this very episode. Yet this person's relevance to the plot is that he is the last Angel, meaning that Shinji has to kill his new best friend.
* Asuma Sarutobi in ''[[Naruto]]'' has little to do until after the time skip. Even then, he doesn't get much "screen" time in the manga until a chapter or so before he's killed. It was lengthy and dramatic too. The anime's giving him a role in the Temple of Fire filler arc seems to have been an attempt to defuse this trope.
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*** 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.
*** Legato also gets one of these in the manga, focusing on his traumatic past as a sex slave in a town of criminals and cowards, where he was rescued by Millions Knives and pledged himself to his service. Shortly after this spotlight story, Legato winds up dead.
* Although L is a major character in ''[[
* Used ''very'' frequently in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]''. If a minor character is given his/her own episode, chances are they'll die ''very, very'' soon.
* ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' devotes an entire episode to Ozma Lee and deliberately drew [[Fundamentally Funny Fruit|outrageous parallels]] between him and [[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Roy Focker]] to hint at his upcoming death/[[Heroic Sacrifice|self-sacrifice]]. In the end, [[Subverted Trope|he survives]], and the other characters [[Lampshade Hanging|comment on how the drama was lost]].
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* The ''entirety'' of ''[[Bokurano]]''. You can tell a pilot's the next one to go once he/she gets focused on.
** Although it was subverted for a little bit. {{spoiler|The next chapter after Kana's death is Jun's, so everybody figures, okay, he's gonna die next. Then Yoko makes the contract, something she wasn't supposed to be able to do, and the next few chapters after that are her [[Day in The Limelight]] - [[Wham! Episode|then she gets shot in the head.]] After that the focus goes straight back to Jun.}}
* Maes Hughes in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* How do we not mention Nuriko of ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' fame? The infamous Episode 33 (or manga volume 8). And Episode 34, which was mostly spent eulogizing Nuriko.
* ''[[Sailor Moon]] R'' has Sapphire. He never mounts any attacks against the Sailor Scouts at all, unlike Rubeus and Emerald before him. He is only seen talking to Emerald and Diamond. In the episode "Brotherly Love", he discovers Wiseman's plans, is injured by Wiseman, and revealed to have been in love with Prizma, and essentially does a [[Heel Face Turn]], before he attempts to warn his brother about Wiseman's treachery and is killed by Wiseman.
* Episodes Twelve and Thirteen of ''[[
* ''[[Fafner in
== Comic Books ==
* ''Countdown to [[Infinite Crisis]]'': The Ted Kord [[Blue Beetle]], who'd undergone [[Flanderization]] to the point he was a [[Flat Character]] and then barely seen for a few years, is suddenly brought back in a story that highlights his positive character traits and strengths as a hero, specifically to make his death at the end actually mean something (as opposed to the characters who were [[C
* ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' #62: [[
* ''The Invisibles'' features an entire issue dedicated to the life, good and bad, of one of the nameless henchmen gunned down by the heroes in a previous issue.
== Literature ==
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[
* The ''[[
* Goes all the way back to ''[[Homer|The Iliad]]'', though technically inverted: Many characters (most relatively minor) are sometimes given some rather detailed obituaries in the narrative right after someone kills them.
* The twenty-second ''[[
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', the POV character of every prologue and epilogue dies at the end of it. Granted, the series tends to practice [[Anyone Can Die]] in general.
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* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'': "The Passage", with Kat, who had at least made a few appearances prior; "Razor", with Kendra Shaw, who within the span of a double-length episode is introduced, made one of the most important figures in the fleet, and killed off, never to be mentioned again; and "Sacrifice" with Billy Kekeiya, who had been an important secondary character since the beginning. Lastly, Gaeta {{spoiler|and Zarek start a mutiny}}, during which Gaeta, who is normally a significant background character, took the spotlight. {{spoiler|He was executed at the end}}.
* ''[[Primeval]]'': Episode 4 did this for Tom, to a degree.
* Doyle in ''[[
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Cordelia dies about halfway through her first [[Day in The Limelight]]. She got better, though.
** The episode in which Tara dies isn't centered around her, but she finally gets her name added to the main cast in the opening credits.
** Joyce's death could count in a sort of drawn-out way. Having previously been mostly "Buffy's mom," in season five she gets a subplot where she has to undergo surgery to remove a brain tumor. Then we finally have an episode where she's well again, gotten out of bed, and even begins dating a nice (though never-seen) man. The episode ends when Buffy gets home, [[Mood Whiplash|smiles at the bouquet of flowers said guy has sent, walks into the living room... and finds Joyce's pale,]] [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|unmoving body on the couch]], leading into the [[Crowning Moment of Sadness]] episode "[[Something Completely Different|The Body]]."
* Lt. Joe Carey on ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' was a recurring character in the first ten or so episodes, but then he fell off the radar. Near the end, they brought him back for a spotlight episode just to provide [[Wangst]] when they killed him off.
** The extreme [[Belated Backstory]] version is also seen in ''Voyager:'' two episodes had [[Red Shirt|Redshirts]] created ''just'' to be brought [[Back From the Dead]] in that episode. You gotta wonder why they did this instead of bringing back redshirts we'd ''actually seen die.''
* In the ''[[Star Trek:
** 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 series)|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.
** ''[[America'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.
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** And Earthshock.
* ''[[Oz]]'' did this in the very first episode, relating almost every plotline to Dino Ortolani only to have him burned to death at the end.
* Ianto Jones in ''[[
* ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band Of Brothers]]''. The third episode, largely focusing on an otherwise unknown character named Pvt. Blithe, concludes with him being shot in the neck and effectively dying (he leaves permanently and is said to have died from this wound years later). Unfortunately for this miniseries that prides itself on [[Truth in Television]], Blithe didn't die from this wound, and continued serving in the military for most of the rest of his life until he died in 1967.
* ''[[The Pacific]]''. The eight episode, which focuses on John Basilone's time as a Drill Sergeant later in the war and meeting his future wife. He's killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima at the end.
* In ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', possibly Jimmy Novak, the guy whose body [[Our Angels Are Different|Castiel]] was borrowing. It's not totally clear at the end of his episode if Cas saved him soon enough to keep him in his body, or if he got sent on and Castiel just kept the shell. Given the sort of stuff Castiel has been through right from the start of season five, [[And I Must Scream|death might be the better option for the poor guy.]]
** As of season five, it seems that he's still in here, as evidenced by "My Bloody Valentine"...but then again, Cas was {{spoiler|exploded, AGAIN, in the finale, so now who knows.}}
** "Abandon All Hope" counts for Ellen and Jo Harvelle. They haven't been seen for quite a while and then they come back after their appearance in the beginning of season 5 only for Jo to be wounded by a hellhound, and her and Ellen volunteering to stay behind and blow up a store to help the Winchesters escape. There's also "Hammer of the Gods" for Gabriel/The Trickster who had a big reveal about him in "Changing Channels", but then was murdered by his brother while doing exactly what the aforementioned duo had done.
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* Claude on ''[[Degrassi High]]'' plays this trope completely straight; he had appeared in a couple episodes in the first season (though he did have a significant amount of screen time in them) before [[Driven to Suicide|committing suicide]] near the end of Season 2.
* An episode of ''[[The Mentalist]]'' had the minor character of a medical examiner take an active part in an investigation which is something the character never did before. He intentionally put himself into the limelight because he needs Jayne to help him. He is dying of cancer and wants to kill himself but needs a law enforcement officer to witness the suicide so there is no need for an autopsy.
* When Waruzu Giru from ''[[
** [[The Dragon]] Damaras as well, getting offed at the end of the two-parter when he finally steps into the battlefield.
* [[Fringe]] did this to {{spoiler|the Alternate Lincoln}} after giving us a much wanted episode with the two {{spoiler|Lincoln's}} trying to figure out how they ended up so different from each other. {{spoiler|The obvious guess would probably be Altlivia's influence in his life.}}
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Call of Duty]] Modern Warfare'' series does this at least once in each game. In the first one, it's the just-got-ousted President of the generic Arab Country, whom you get to play as during the moments leading up to his execution. In the second, it's {{spoiler|1=SatCom 1, who you use to watch Price's plan unfold. When it does, the resultant [[Fridge Logic|space-shockwave]] destroys the station you're on, killing you in the process.}}
* Happens multiple times in the Story Mode of ''[[
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* Mosp from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' died almost immediately after she was given her own week-long arc detailing her backstory.
* A brief story arc in ''[[Something Positive]]'' focused on Faye and Fred, with Fred planning to tell Faye about his Alzheimer's diagnosis at the end of a day they spent together but losing his nerve. The next morning, he woke up - and Faye did not.
* ''[[
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[
** Seeing as season two of ''Beast Wars'' had 12 episodes, those three episodes do form 1/4 of the entire season, so it may not be a negligible amount of time.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
* 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.
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