Dropped a Bridge on Him: Difference between revisions

When done off-screen (like the Sorenson example), it's known as a [[Bus Crash]]. See also [[McLeaned]], [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome]], [[Distracted From Death]] and [[Not So Invincible After All]]. Not to be confused with [[Unsettling Gender Reveal]], which was once called "Dropped a Bridget on Him". If this is done to a character repeatedly with the aid of [[Negative Continuity]], see [[They Killed Kenny]].

{{deathtrope}}

{{examples}}

== Media in General ==

** Alice Hardy, the heroine of ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]'', who is quickly killed off in the opening scene of ''Friday the 13th Part II''.

** Paxton, hero of ''[[Hostel]]'', who is quickly dispatched in ''Hostel: Part II'''s opening.

* Although a major side-villain and somewhat expected to die at some time during the series run, ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'''s Seina quite literally does have one dropped on her. By her own brother. The Behemoth's activation causes the structural supports for the warehouse to collapse around the main cast during their escape, including the water-filled room Seina is hanging onto a rail in. But we don't get to see that right then. Instead we see her about to shoot Andrey Kalinin despite the fact he came back for her. We see the gun go off as a cliffhanger to episode 11. In episode 12, we see Kalinin alive and Seina mortally wounded. In a flashback we then see her hit by a large girder which caused the gun to go off. That was pretty darned random.

** If you consider the fact that Seina was a nihilistic bitch who had no one left to care for her in any way, and that Mithril would have probably have her killed (or at least locked up for life) for her acts of terrorism, her trying to save Kalinin and then literally dying in the arms of the only man she half-cared for was actually the best ending she could have received under the circumstances.

* In the final episode of ''[[The Big O]]'', a side-villain named Vera gets into a Megadeus bigger than any other in the series, and gives a big, dramatic speech about how she will unleash a curse upon the city. Then, a beam breaks off of the mysterious giant stage lights over the city and falls on them. It is not acknowledged by the characters who witnessed it. The show must go on.

** This scene made about as much sense as anything else that happened in the course of that episode, which was either a [[Gecko Ending]], a [[Gainax Ending]] or a bit of both depending who you ask.

* In the movie version of ''[[Akira]]'', Kaori suddenly meets her end when a mutating Testuo accidentally pulls her in and she's crushed by his insides. Her death in the manga [[Sacrificial Lion|was more plot-relevant]], as she's shot to death by Tetsuo's unnamed liutenant and perishes in Tetsuo's arms.

* In ''[[Queen's Blade]]'', Shizuka is brutally [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|fridged]] in a [[Family-Unfriendly Death|cruel, drawn out manner]], literally for no other reason than for Tomoe to get even ''more'' powerful than she already was.

** On one hand, it turned out that wasn't really the Wasp's body in that dimension. On the other, it seems her real body has been reanimated as a [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|cyborg zombie]].

* Furthermore in ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', Gwen Stacey does what she does best- dies. But whereas her death in the classic continuity was a major series turning point and one of the most shocking and unexpected events in the history of comics, forever solidifying Norman Osborn as Peter's greatest nemesis, in the Ultimate universe she's jumped in Peter's backyard by mindless monster Carnage and sucked dry. That's it.

* [[Crisis Crossover]] series, especially at DC, are notorious for killing off characters who've been around a long time in awkward, [[Red Shirt]] like ways, just to show how bad the [[Big Bad]] is. These characters are lucky if they get more than one or two lines of dialogue. Some examples include the Losers, Dove of Hawk and Dove, and the original Mirror Master in ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'', Justice Society members Atom (Al Pratt) and Dr. Mid-Nite in ''Zero Hour'' (Hourman also died, but he got better), and most of the Freedom Fighters (Phantom Lady, Human Bomb, Doll Man) in ''Infinite Crisis''.

** And in ''[[Final Crisis]]'', Batman and [[Darkseid]] pull one '''on each other at the same time''' with a gun and eye beams respectively. Yes, a double bridge drop in a single scene. And while Darkseid is killed in that scene, Bats is now [[Fate Worse Than Death|lost in time and cursed with multiple lives]]. It does take Darkseid most of the next issue to completely die, though. And Batman's since come back.

* Marvel's ''Ultimatum'' is infamous for this trope, as it kills off over half the cast of Marvel's Ultimate Universe in brutal, violent, pointless ways similiar to many of the above DC examples. The most infamous is the Blob's gruesome murder of the Wasp.

* Due to [[Executive Meddling]], this was the fate of all of the Dead Universe Transformers in Simon Furman's [[Transformers Generation 1|Transformers]] comics for IDW. Grindcore, Straxus, Cyclonus, Bludgeon, Thunderwing, and Monstructor were all destroyed (or presumed to be destroyed/deactivated) offscreen after the Autobots managed to deactivate the machines keeping them from disintegrating in the Live Universe. While this was probably going to be the case anyway, it felt like a Bridge Dropping because these characters had all of ''four issues'' to terrorize the Autobots, and it was left unclear whether the mind-controlled Decepticons died or were defeated offscreen.

* The ''[[Wild CATS]]''/''[[Alien|Aliens]]'' crossover from 1998 had most of the members of the [[Wildstorm]] team ''[[Stormwatch]]'' killed off this way. [[Word of God]] from writer [[Warren Ellis]] is that he only took the job so he could get rid of the artifact characters to pave the way for a new title with the characters he created during his ''Stormwatch'' run (''[[The Authority]]'').

* A few years ago, Harbinger, one of the heroes of ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'', was abruptly killed offscreen by Apocalpytican forces in the pages of Superman/Batman when she tried to prevent them from kidnapping Supergirl from Themiscyra, a role that could have easily been filled by any generic Amazon. Can't ''anybody'' from that story get a happy ending?

* ''[[Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash|Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors]]'' kills off a number of surviving characters from both the ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13th]]'' and ''[[Nightmare On Elm Street|A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' series. Casualties include - Jessica Kimble and Stephen Freeman of ''Jason Goes to Hell'', former died of illness before the events of the comic, latter gets his head crushed shortly after he first appears; Rennie Wickham of ''Jason Takes Manhattan'' gets gutted before she can do anything even remotely noteworthy; Alice Johnson of ''The Dream Master'' and ''The Dream Child'' is, near the end, randomly revealed to be dying of some sickness, so she just lets Freddy kill her, and Maggie Burroughs of ''Freddy's Dead'', after inexplicably turning evil, is crushed by a tank, before her [[Face Heel Turn]] is ever explained, and before she can even confront the protagonists.

* A villain example occured in the [[Spider-Man]] miniseries, ''The Hobgoblin Lives''. Jason Macendale, the second Hobgoblin and major villain for nearly two decades, was quickly shot and killed in one page in order to make way for the original Hobgoblin to return. The writer was Roger Stern, the creator of the original Hobby. He was disappointed that his original version of the character had a bridge dropped on him as well (not to mention that Stern left [[Marvel Comics]] before he could reveal who the Hobgoblin really was). Despite this, Jason Macendale was still a popular villain and should have been powerful enough to avoid his death or at least survive it.

** The original Hobgoblin later had a bridge dropped on him as well. After being bugged to bring him back for 12 years, the writers brought him back for one issue, at which point he was promptly beheaded so that his gear could be stolen and his killer could turn into the new Hobgoblin. This is the subject of quite a bit of [[Fanon Discontinuity]].

== Films -- Live Action ==

** Kirk's death scene was actually ''worse'' in the original cut - Soran simply shot him in the back. [[Focus Group Ending|Audiences demanded a more heroic death, so at least Kirk sacrificed his life to uncloak the missile]].

** Also in ''Generations'', the ''Enterprise-D'' is basically a random victim of a lucky shot. After ''winning'' a space battle, the warp core gets a coolant leak, and when Riker asks why they can't just [[Failsafe Failure|eject the Warp Core]], Geordi says they can't but doesn't explain why. They let the main section explode, causing the saucer section to crash on a nearby planet (compare to the way the original ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Enterprise]]'' is destroyed in ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock]]''). This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in one of the books.

** This doesn't get as much attention or complaints because it involves two characters who appeared in only one episode, but the offscreen deaths in a fire of Picard's brother and nephew definitely qualifies. The sheer randomness of it, the complete lack of concern over how this would affect their surviving widow and mother Marie, and especially the way it ''[[Funny Aneurysm Moment|ruined]]'' the final scene of that one episode they were all in, all just to make [[The Woobie|Picard]] [[Deus Angst Machina|properly sad at the start of the film]].

** In perhaps a callback to this movie/scene, William Shatner gets [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O92ZbSAftuI dropped off a bridge] this time around in what could be his last [http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/20/technology/priceline_companies/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3 Priceline commercial].

** Many Jedi die quite abruptly, but [[Canon Immigrant]] Aayla Secura is executed particularly brutally, being shot over and over as if to assure us that she's really dead. Amazingly, some people still [[He's Just Hiding|insisted that she wasn't]].

** Averted with Mace Windu. Samuel Jackson explicity refused to participate in the movie if a bridge was to be dropped on his character. That said, his death scene was one of the most memorable of the film.

* The character of Fox in ''[[The Warriors (film)|The Warriors]]'' was originally meant to be a more substantial presence in the film, particularly in that Mercy, the girl the gang picks up during their escape back to Coney Island, was originally meant to be his love interest. Since the two actors playing Fox and Mercy had no chemistry together, the script was rewritten so that Mercy hooked up with gang leader Swan instead. The actor who played Fox actually left the film over this, so he was written out of the script by being run over by a subway train during a scuffle with a cop.

* ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'''s Llewellyn Moss is killed offscreen. And NOT by Anton Chigurh, the guy chasing him almost the entire movie. Possible subversion in that it was more than likely that this was a deliberate move - it's not the only moment in NCFOM where audience expectations are completely turned on their heads.

* Notoriously, the third ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' film, ''The Last Stand'' eliminated several franchise regulars, with arguably the most controversial example being that of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops. Despite acting as the team's field leader and, within the regular comic series, their linchpin since inception, he's quickly killed off-screen within the first 30 minutes of the film by his newly resurrected fiancee, Jean Grey. As though that wasn't bad enough, his death barely registers with the rest of the cast later on in the film, with only a brief mention by Professor X who doesn't seem overly perturbed by the loss of his surrogate son.

** To some of the general public, Cyclops' anti-climactic death might not have been that big of an issue as his screentime got shafted in the previous 2 films in favor of Wolverine, who acted as the series' cinematic alpha hero. However, for fans of the comics, the death was also a slap in the face of sorts since the film's plot was heavily influenced by the comics' extremely well-regarded "Dark Phoenix" storyline that focuses on Jean and Scott. Within the context of ''X-Men 3'', that story became a secondary plot thread, and Wolverine was substituted in as the romantic/heroic lead in light of Scott's less than stellar death.

** Also, Professor X is killed off midway through the film. Coupled with the fact that Rogue and Mystique were both [[Put on a Bus]] and Jean had basically removed herself from the X-Men/Brotherhood fray, you have a climax that barely features any of the characters from the previous two movies.

* [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'' had a bridge dropping so egregious we didn't even get to ''see it!'' In the original script towards the ending, one character, Nauls, was supposed to hear The Thing making noises in an underground basement area and wander off until he saw the legs of a dead character...and then get attacked by the title monster. We would then see him partially assimilated begging Kurt Russell's character, MacReady, for help before being split in half. The scene started with Nauls wandering down the hallway and then...that's it, he's gone. It immediately cuts to MacReady asking how things are coming along and notices the alien noises, and after the alien appears, Nauls is nowhere to be found... No gruesome horrible death for Nauls, he just drops off the face of the Earth. The scene was partially filmed, but because the staff ran out of budget, it couldn't be completed. In the novelization, we get to read the death of the character, although the whole last part of the story plays out completely different.

* The character of Tank was killed between the first and second ''[[The Matrix]]'' films after the actor, Marcus Chong, was involved in an especially messy contract dispute. An alternate interpretation averts this trope if one chooses to believe that Tank died from the injuries he sustained during the first movie, thus turning his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] into a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].

** Not to mention, his death comes as especially shocking, because it's a well-known trope that the "stupid but well-meaning goofball" almost NEVER dies.

* The Kraken in the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' movies. It's an incredibly dangerous menace in the second film, and is still around when the second film ends. Did you think the third film will have our protagonists engage the Kraken in an epic final battle? Well, if you were expecting that, you were probably very disappointed when the Kraken only appears in the third film ... as a corpse. It's implied that Cutler Beckett ordered Davy Jones to kill it despite its obvious usefulness to both of them in keeping control of the sea.

** Also, debatably, Sao Feng. [[Advertised Extra|The posters, trailers and promotional material would have you believe he was on par with Jack, Will and Barbossa in importance]], but he gets killed rather anticlimactically by a stray cannonball half way through ''At World's End''.

** Sometime between ''At World's End'' and ''On Stranger Tides'', the Black Pearl is attacked and sunk by Blackbeard, with Barbossa as the only known survivor. It's not clear whether the rest of the crew is dead or merely trapped in the magic bottle Blackbeard put the Black Pearl in, however, [[He's Just Hiding|so they could still potentially be alive]].

* In the final book of ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, several main characters die suddenly and anticlimactically, but the one that angered fans the most was actually a villain: The Man in Black (aka Randall Flagg, who has appeared several of King's novels). After being built up as a character of incredible intelligence, cunning and mysterious power for seven books straight (not to mention being Roland's nemesis), he makes a random appearance in the last book and is killed off quickly and suddenly by Mordred.

** Also, Sheemie Ruiz. Several mentions are made of how one more teleport would kill him by brain aneurysm, the reader is led to expect some [[Heroic Sacrifice]] on his part... and what happens to him? He cuts his foot on a piece of glass and dies of blood poisoning on his way to safety.

* In [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''The Bear and the Dragon'', Robby Jackson has become Jack Ryan's Vice President, and therefore the first black VP of the United States. Either this was [[Harsher in Hindsight|too controversial]] or Clancy needed an excuse to bring [[Strawman Political|Strawman Liberal]] Ed Kealty back, because in ''Teeth of the Tiger'', Jackson has been assassinated by white supremacists completely offscreen and with no more than a passing mention in the novel itself.

* Inverted in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|The Last Battle]]''. The (previously major) character of Susan does not appear, and is abruptly dismissed within a couple of paragraphs as having had an offscreen change of character, causing a lot of fan resentment. The inversion comes when it turns out that she's the only major character who ''isn't'' dead, everyone else having died in a train crash and therefore being eligible to enter the Narnian afterlife.

** There's also Max Greevey, who died ''offscreen'' in the cold opening for the 2nd season premiere after George Dzundza left the show.

** Total inversion with Claire Kincaid, in an episode without any investigation, but following the actions of the four leads after having witnessed an execution, Kincaid offers a ride home to a very drunk Detective Brisco (Jerry Orbach). On the way there, her car is struck by a drunk driver and she's killed. Brisco survives, and the shock of the event is enough to get him sober and in AA.

* NBC's ''[[Las Vegas]]'' had a tendency to kill off the Montecito's owners at a rate of about one per season, but none quite so bizarrely as when Monica Mancuso was carried off of the roof of the casino by a strong gust of wind.

* A literal bridge dropping happens to Shane in ''[[Degrassi Junior High]]'' - while a bridge fell on Kirk, Shane falls off of it while tripping on LSD. Shane survives but is brain-damaged, his parents pull him from the school, and the kid who gave him the drugs (and watched him fall off the bridge, doing nothing) [[Karma Houdini|suffers no consequences]]. Shane is basically ignored and forgotten by the rest of the cast, and the show implies that this is poetic justice for how he (mostly) ignored and forgot a girl who he got pregnant. In ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', his daughter tracks him down, and it turns out that he spent the rest of his life in a wretched [[Bedlam House|sanitarium for the mentally retarded]], abandoned by his family, and weeping over the girlfriend and child he never did enough for and never got to see.

* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'': If Carson Beckett's untimely demise doesn't count then nothing does. Some random Alien device that causes anyone affected by it to grow a rather malignant exploding tumor was found and activated by two unfortunate no-names. He died ''after'' removing and passing it to someone else, mostly because he couldn't walk away fast enough.

** Something similar happened to Janet Fraiser in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', but it was meant to be a subversion. That season was supposed to be the last one, the writers thought they were writing her out of 2 episodes (the 2-part season finale) and giving the character a respectful death, instead of 3 seasons and 2 episodes and a seemingly insignificant death. Also even though the death seems random it was actually a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in order to save the life of a wounded airmen; the episode was even called "Heroes".

** Then Carson (actually, his clone) is brought back, and the explosion incident is almost never mentioned again. Also, this Carson is somehow better at using the control chair than the original (he's engaged in a space battle in the series finale between Atlantis and a super-hive).

* In ''[[Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps]]'', Jonny is killed off-screen by being eaten by a shark in Hawaii, after trying to jump it (in an entire episode that parodies the concept of "[[Jump the Shark|jumping the shark]]"). This was due to Ralf Little wanting to leave the show to concentrate on his movie career.

* On ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' Kutner was found [[Killed Off for Real]] because Kal Penn joined the White House staff and asked to quit the show. While the characters death is presumed to be suicide, House has [[Never Suicide|his doubts]] and the producers are planning to craft a [[Story Arc]] out of this until the end of season 5.

** Later in the season, House starts having hallucinations of Amber. In the season finale, he hallucinates Kutner as well.

* Similarly, Tippi was [[Killed Off for Real]] in ''[[Satisfaction]]'' as the actor was going overseas to pursue other opportunities. This is not the first time this character had faced death; she was nearly killed by a tranquilizer administered by a mortician with a fetish for dead people.

* On ''[[Reno 911]]'', they play this for laughs. The deputies are riding on the side of a police car that has been converted into a float, but they are late and speeding so they crash into a building. On the next season opener, Deputies Johnson, Garcia, and Kimball apparently died as a result from "burning up in the fire," but none of the other characters have a scratch on them and Dangle can't even remember their names.

* The remake of ''[[The Prisoner]]'' had a little girl and Number Six's love interest fall down bottomless pits.

* ''[[Choujin Sentai Jetman]]''. Gai Yuuki/Black Condor survived the whole ordeal against the Vyram and made it out of the final battle. Then 3 years later, he's stabbed by a mugger, managed to attend his friend's wedding enough to give them his blessings, then dies. No one, not even his friends, seemed to notice. Many Sentai fans argued how his death's handled, some say it's a refreshing change of how Toku heroes can die out of normal circumstances; some say it's badly handled for the sake of tributing [[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman|Joe the Condor]] (who also dies in his series).

* After Karl Mayer in ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' was killed by a crashing plane the next episode had Susan ''and'' Bree have 'what if he lived fantasies' in which he ended cheating on each of them without remorse. As if to make sure the got across the message that it was a good thing he died the show avoided showing his presumably devastated daughter reacting to his death by having her make only a blink and you'll miss it appearance at the end of the episode.

* Jesse Cardoza on ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' only lasted 25 episodes before being the lone casualty of the gas attack against the lab.

* On ''[[Neighbours]]'' the three members of the Bishop family were the '''only''' casualties of a crashed plane, which they only boarded at the last minute. Their family and friends took about three days to get over the loss.

** Bridget Parker's death fills the 'awkward' part of this trope: She died as the result of a mysterious rampaging white horse running out in front of her car and causing it to crash. The horse is never seen, heard of or mentioned again. (Considering her family were in the car, you'd think they would have looked into that; possibly even sue the owner of the horse for negligence causing death?)

*** Speaking of horses, they killed off Libby Kennedy's husband Drew Kirk by having him fall off a horse shortly after her marriage. They also had Toadie's first wife Drew Bliss die in a car crash shortly after their marriage - Neighbours writers don't seen to like people living happily ever after...

** Avoided in the season 5 finale. Lucifer explodes Castiel with a click of his fingers and then breaks Bobby's neck, but they were resurrected. For a moment though, it looks like the show has just killed off two of its most popular characters in the blink of an eye.

** Season 7 has seen this trope rather brutally applied to Castiel - after his big [[A God Am I]] moment in the Season 6 finale seemed to set him up as the [[Big Bad]] for Season 7, he spends one single episode going kill crazy, starts to worry about his own rapidly deteriorating mental state, releases all the extra power he absorbed, and just when you think he's going to be okay, he promptly gets possessed by the actual [[Big Bad]] who then informs Sam and Dean that Castiel is dead. And since this happened, his name has barely come up, despite the fact that he was pretty much the closest and most loyal friend the Winchesters had after Bobby. Of course, fans [[He's Just Hiding|are adamantly clinging to the belief that he's not really gone]] and since he's died twice in the past and got better the possibility is there.

* Between seasons 1 and 2 on ''[[Fringe]]'', Charlie is killed only to be replaced by a shapeshifting imposter.

* In the finale of season 1 of ''[[Primeval]]'', Claudia Brown is erased from history, replaced in season 2 by the [[Identical Stranger|identical Jenny Lewis]].

** Though in later versions, certain enemies, like demons, are actually immune to the drawbridge effect, causing the bridges to break.

** Literally, if the player wants to get rid of a dwarf.

* Aldo Trapani, the protagonist of the EA adaptation of ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]'', gets abruptly sniped dead in the opening level to allow for new player character Dominic to take his place.

* In ''[[Starcraft]]'', the Zerg cerebrates were stated to have died out in between Brood Wars and Starcraft II by [[Word of God|Chris Metzen]] due to the death of the [[Hive Mind|Overmind]]. But that was because most of the cerebrates had merged into that Overmind, including Daggoth.

** Given the trap was arranged as a [[Taking You with Me]] by the Fiend of Water Cagnazzo, breaking the doors would probably not be a possibility.

** Now, if you want a ''real'' example of this Trope in action in the Final Fantasy, take a look at ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'' which can and will drop bridges on characters in the fourth slot and whole cyclones on a number of towns, usually with as little warning as possible.

* Cid in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' dies from eating bad fish. Which you, the player character, fed him, you jerk. What makes this especially infuriating is that there is a way to ensure he ''doesn't'' die, but [[Guide Dang It|you're unlikely to figure it out without a guide]] the first time around. Granted, [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|letting him die]] actually leads to a much more touching and emotional scene, but it's still a pretty random way to go out.<ref>Only catch the fast-moving fish; leave the slow ones alone entirely.</ref>

** Shadow's death is similarly done. If you don't wait long enough as the floating continent is destroyed, Shadow dies. This changes the ending.

*** On fact, if you're a player character in a ''Modern Warfare'' title who isn't Soap or Price, you'd better call home and say your goodbyes while you can, because there's a rickety ridge overhead with your name on it.

*** Ramirez survives. Dunno about Mw1 characters.

* ''[[Soldier of Fortune]] II'': Madeline Taylor. By a [[Faceless Goons|faceless]] [[Mook]], to boot.

** Hawk suffers a similar fate in the first game, albeit at the hands of the [[Big Bad]].

* ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' had one where Ronyx, a character in the last Star Ocean game who had survived many confrontations in the first game is killed off suddenly in the second by a laser beam meant as a demonstration of power by the Big Bads.

** That also sounds like a [[Sacrificial Lion]] situation. Along with [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome]].

** More like [[Stuffed in The Fridge]], since it's done to fill Heather with hatred and give her a motive for revenge.

* Some may consider Johnson's death near the end of ''[[Halo 3]]'' this.

*** We knew all of Noble Team was going to die going in. But Kat's was probably the most emotionally effective because it was the sudden, out of nowhere kind of death that could have happened to anyone.

** Pre-''[[First Strike]]'' retcon, Johnson's death in ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'' counts as well. The fact that it was so easy to retcon him back into a series shows just how little his original death was even touched on.

** [[It Got Worse]]. It's been revealed that Red Mountain ''erupted'' sometime after the events of ''Oblivion''. Oh, and remember how Vivec was kidnapped? It turns out that his presence was the only thing keeping [[That's No Moon|the Ministry of Truth]] in the air, and it crashed into Vvardenfall. Literally the ''entire island'' was destroyed. Yeah, things aren't going very well throughout the empire right now, but Morrowind definitely has it worse then anyone else.

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' ''opens'' with the Normandy being completely destroyed, killing Shepard (although s/he gets over it), Navigator Pressly and at least 19 other crewmen.

** This pretty much happens with Shepard in the ending of ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', unless you get pretty much the maximum level of War Assets and then choose the "Destroy" ending.

** Played with at an earlier point in the third game -- assuming that Kasumi was one of your squad members in the second game, she pops up in an early sidequest where she seems to suffer a very abrupt and unsatisfying death. Seconds later however (and after the Spectre who was on her case has left), Shepard successfully calls her out of her hiding spot, knowing full well that she wouldn't let herself be killed so easily.

* Many people feel this is true for the death of Corporal Hart at the end of ''[[Time Splitters]] 2''. After the splitters break into the control room, she's killed in one shot by one of the lightning bolts the splitters fire, an attack that, in gameplay, does no more damage than a mildly powerful bullet.

* In ''[[The Longest Journey]]'', after going through utter hell, seeing all her friends brutally murdered, and learning that she was nothing more than an [[Unwitting Pawn]] all along, April is randomely attacked, impaled and left to drown in a swamp in literally ''the last few seconds of the game''.

== Web Comics ==

== Web Original ==

* In the ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' story "Prom: It's To Die For", Gina Hart was shot by Edward Salinas, so that he could be promoted to Elder. Then, a week later in "Hangman's Noose", Salinas was killed off.

* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', as of the miniseries ''Relocated'', This would seem to be Sister's fate. Lopez casually mentions that he killed her. [[Genre Savvy|Grif, having once seen her spend three hours in freezing water and come out not only alive but ''pregnant'', doesn't believe it.]]

* In ''[[Bunny Kill]]'', Snowball's partners have a tendency to get cheaply killed by the [[Big Bad]]. Then again, [[Death Is Cheap|death doesn't seem to slow down the characters of this series much.]]

* As of Episode 38 of the [[Yogscast Minecraft Series]] "Shadow of Israphel", {{spoiler|Knight_Peculier}} has seemingly gone this way, having fallen into a pool of radioactive waste. One reckons the writers did this deliberately, as opposed to the accidental death of Um_Bongo (who has had an [[Unexplained Recovery]] for the survival maps and mod spotlights).