Dwindling Party: Difference between revisions

Usually it works pretty well, though there are a few risks to using this trope. Namely, killing characters off too quickly or without [[Mauve Shirt|proper]] [[Characterization Tropes|characterization]] will not elicit the audience's [[Rule of Empathy|empathy]] at the deaths. Also, playing the [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality]] too straight will allow moderately [[Genre Savvy]] viewers to pick off the [[Trope Telegraphing|obvious]] [[Red Shirt|Red Shirts]]s and avoid feeling urgency or attachment.

This trope is usually used only in the [[Action Adventure]] and [[Survival Horror]] [[Genre|Genres]]s because, lets face it, it's kinda hard to write a [[Love Dodecahedron]] when [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]. There are a few common set-ups to each, but they usually boil down to:

* '''[[Suicide Mission]]:''' The heroes know [[You Have No Chance to Survive|they have no chance to survive]], but give it their all [[Hero Secret Service|to ensure that the Hero makes it]]. Expect to see a conga-line of [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]]s.

* ''[[Berserk]]'' does this with the Eclipse that ends the Golden Age arc (and the anime) with Griffith's [[Face Heel Turn]] leaving the entire Band of the Hawk<ref>with the exception of Rickert, who was not with the Band when it all went down and thus was the only other survivor</ref> branded for sacrifice. The Hawks' Raiders pretty much get slaughtered ''en masse'' by the monsters from hell, but as the horror continues, each of the important members of the Hawks go down one by one until only Guts and Casca are left. And then it all goes to hell.<br />This sequence also has an aspect of a [[Suicide Mission]] about it, in that two of the Hawks die trying to get Casca away; Pippin gets eaten holding off a bunch of monsters and Judeau takes a spike through the chest for Casca. They succeed insofar that Casca doesn't ''die'', [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|but...]]

* ''[[Angel Beats!]]''

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]:'' The cast starts getting picked off rather rapidly as the series draws near the end. First {{spoiler|Kaji, then Toji, then Asuka gets her [[Mind Rape|mind destroyed]], Rei [[Cloning Blues|gets her body destroyed]], Shinji gets his [[Heroic BSOD|soul destroyed]], most of NERV is killed, Misato is shot, Ritsuko is shot, [[Cruel and Unusual Death|Asuka is eaten]], [[Apocalypse How|Humanity is destroyed]].}} No so much [[Dwindling Party]] as much as [[Dwindling Party|Dwindling Race]] by the end of ''[[End of Evangelion]]''. By the end of the series only two children: {{spoiler|Asuka and Shinji}} are left on Earth.

* ''[[Simoun]]'' spends the first seven episodes gathering up [[The Squad|Chor Tempest]], then proceeds to decimate them via [[Heroic BSOD|Heroic BSODs]]s, other personal traumas, accidental {{spoiler|[[Time Travel]]}}, and bad cases of death. By the time {{spoiler|Chor Tempest is finally disbanded}} in the last episodes, only half of its members are still there. This is even lampshaded in the mid-season episode title "One by One."

== Fan FanfictionWorks ==

* ''[[Dawn of the Dead (film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' in the original only two characters got out alive, [[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)||in the 2004 film]] only four out the dozen characters made it out in a boat, but after the make it to land {{spoiler|they are attacked by another horde of zombies with their fates left unknown.}}

* This happens in the fourth [[Lone Wolf]] book, among others -- overothers—over the course of a simple mission to investigate a cult trying to bring back an evil god, your entire squad is slowly killed off, bit by bit. By the time you arrive there, you're alone.

* In the ''[[Community]]'' [[Community/Recap/S2 /E11 AbedsAbed's Uncontrollable Christmas|animated Christmas episode]], Shirley, Jeff, and Britta are evicted from Planet Abed. Troy and Annie stay behind to [[Heroic Sacrifice|hold off Duncan]] and only Pierce makes it to the end with Abed.

* In murder mystery ''[[HarpersHarper's Island]]'', we go from a cast of 25 main characters plus a dozen extras to four survivors out of the main cast: {{spoiler|the [[Final Girl]] Abby, her [[Shallow Love Interest]] Jimmy, the little girl Madison with [[Infant Immortality]] and by extension her mother Shea.}}

* [[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]] has always killed off a lot of characters--onecharacters—one of the leads, Dean, is a leader in the television dying field all on his own--andown—and any single ghost episode sometimes does this. The zombie virus episode, 'Croatoan,' also did it, in proper tropey fashion. Since the end of season six, the whole show has been doing it, killing off or otherwise removing recurring cast members without replacing them with new players<ref> Lisa and Ben were mindwiped out, Balthazar murdered by Cas, Campbells massacred, Cas eaten, Bobby shot; everyone else had already bitten it, but they weren't ''replaced'', which makes the difference</ref> and paring things down until, as of December 2011, the main cast has been completely reduced to Ackles and Padalecki, just like at the start of season one. Almost the only other even recurring character still in play is the demon Crowley.

** In ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Philosopher's Stone (novel)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' (or "Sorcerer's Stone" if you're in the US), while they don't die the trio does indeed get whittled down to just one over the course of running the gauntlet to the mirror.

* ''Eternity Road'' is [[Playing with a Trope|kind of weird about this]]. At first, it looks like it's heading for an [[Everybody Lives]] ending, especially since the first death is a case of [[Never Found the Body]]. The first and second deaths both come out of nowhere, but after the second it sets itself up for a [[Dwindling Party]] scenario. {{spoiler|After the third death, the main character goes through a [[Heroic BSOD]] and resolves to keep everyone else alive--and they all make it out, even the whiny merchant who couldn't be lower on the [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality]] if he were wearing a red shirt.}}

* The assault on the Shadowlord's castle in ''[[Nie RNieR]]'' leaves only Nier and Kaine alive in endings A and B. Then in endings C and D, only Nier OR Kaine will survive till the very end.

** The [[Dragon Age|original game]] also included it, but only in [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] and only from the enemy POV: in ''The Darkspawn Chronicles'', the Warden has died at Ostagar and Alistair leads their remaining party into the [[Final Battle]], leaving a member to defend every major point in the city. Then you, as a Hurlock Vanguard, come along and kill them all, one by one.

* Recently, {{spoiler|the trolls}} in ''[[Homestuck]]''. At the beginning, there were 12. Then, {{spoiler|they started killing each other off. There were 6 kills and one spontaneous self-destruction, but two were revived, leaving 7 alive. Then, all of them except two were killed, but that was in an alternate timeline which was averted with the death of a sixth troll, bringing it down to 6. Then, one sacrificed himself, bringing it down to 5. He came back 'half-dead'. However, he and another troll stayed behind, leaving 4 remaining trolls to carry on. Technically, if you count the two humans, carapace and a firefly that have joined them, it's now up to 8, but there are only 4 remaining members of the original party.}}<br />

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