Friendly Target

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"I will exercise caution when participating in the Hero's plans. Neither the depth of the Hero's anguish over my death nor the heat of his fury to avenge me makes any difference. I'll still be dead."
—The Normal Innocent Bystander's Survival Guide

The character most likely to die in any major series, regardless of genre, is the hero's best friend, girlfriend or most beloved relative, as he or she is a prime target for the bad guys.

Speaking both literally and metaphorically, the most dangerous place that one can be is also the place that seems the safest: right next to the hero. It's not just spatial, but emotional; the best friend, significant other, little sister and sidekick of the hero are all deeply at risk because that leaves them as prime targets for the villains, and their deaths act as fuel for Heroic Resolve, Unstoppable Rage or simply the sadness of losing such a beloved character. You die, the hero gets mad, kills the baddie, and everyone wins... except you. And that's assuming that he even remembers you next episode.

In any case, the death of such a character is meant to sadden the audience more than any other act of evil - either a standard Kick the Dog moment or a full-on crossing of the Moral Event Horizon—that the villain does. If not to make a Heroic Resolve, then the point is usually to encourage character development.

These friends are usually universally likable, and always there for the hero. They will never betray the hero, always know what to say, and basically help the hero in any way they can, the more eagerly the better. Basically, the closer to the hero the character is shown or implied to be, and the more the audience connects with the character, the lower his life expectancy. Whether it be a Heroic Sacrifice, or simply being caught in the crossfire, these characters are easily brought down by their determination in helping their friend. Bonus points if the character, while being the hero's best friend, is also The Rival.

Note that this is a character type similar to The Obi-Wan, though a friend rather than mentor. For the act of actually killing the friend, see Stuffed Into the Fridge. Similar to Obi-Wan Moment and Retirony. Often uses Sacrificial Lion. It's Not You, It's My Enemies is when the hero gets Genre Savvy and decides to cut a relationship short to avoid this.

As a Death Trope, Spoilers ahead may be unmarked. Beware.

Examples of Friendly Target include:

Anime

  • Yamagata in Akira, who is killed by Tetsuo in the full throes of psychic megalomania, and which serves to get Kaneda good and mad at him.
  • Krillin in Dragon Ball and both of its extensions the hero's best friend and his son's close friend, who also has the misfortune of living in a universe where Death Is Cheap, and thus is killed anywhere from four to six times, depending on what all you consider to be canon:
    • He was killed by a henchman of Piccolo Daimaoh, when Dragon Ball was first becoming something other than slapstick comedy, thus motivating the plot action until the end of the arc.
    • He was blown up by Big Bad Freeza, an act which gave Goku the Heroic Resolve that depopulating entire planets hadn't, and finally allowed him to go Super Saiyan.
    • He committed a Heroic Sacrifice when yet another Big Bad, Buu, was destroying the Earth - it didn't work, and all of humanity had to be brought back after Gohan avenged his death.
    • Then, in the second Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo, he was killed by his wife's brother. Yeah - Krillin gets killed by the personal nemeses of three more powerful loved ones.
    • In the Bad Future, Krillin was one of the first to be killed.
    • ... And the Distant Finale featuring Goku's granddaughter and great-great-grandson pretty much confirms he eventually dies of old age. One can only assume that a future OAV will focus on Goku powering up and destroying death in response.
    • Android Sixteen is also subject to this in a subverted manner, as he originally appears to be a Friendly Enemy, later has a Heel Face Turn by attempting to destroy Cell, and ultimately becomes a Friendly Target when Cell destroys him at his leisure, prompting Son Gohan's Super Saiyajin 2 Transformation
  • Kuwabara fakes one of these against Toguro in Yu Yu Hakusho to get Yusuke mad.
    • Later it features an inversion, followed by two subversions. Yusuke, the main character plans to pull this to activate the heroic resolve in his side kicks, so that they can finish off Sensui. The first subversion comes in the fact that even with this power up, it doesn't really help them much. The second is that Yusuke gets better.
  • Usopp of One Piece hasn't died (yet), but he does get pretty damn close to it on several occasions. And he shares the same voice actor as Krillin after FUNimation began dubbing.
    • Lately, Hachi has been getting this. First, he gets kidnapped while trying to rescue Camie. Then, he was shot by a World Noble. During the Time Skip, he was getting beaten up by several people trying to get Thousand Sunny. And recently, when he tried to dissuade Hodi from destroying Fishman Island and overthrowing King Neptune, Van Der Decken impaled him with a hail of arrows.
  • Maes Hughes, Roy Mustang's friend from Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • Nicol and Tolle for Athrun and Kira, respectively, in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.

Comic Books

  • Is the entire point of the Identity Crisis arc of the JLA, which features a mysterious character attacking those close to superheroes, who is ultimately revealed to be intentionally invoking this trope so that all heroes will spend more time with their loved ones. It spoils some without spoiling all!
  • Inverted by John Constantine in Hellblazer. His most dangerous enemies are from out of town, or from another world entirely. Someone who's reaching godlike levels of power will still give up if you put a gun to their mother's head. Also played straight; being a friend of Constantine's is basically a death sentence.

Film

Live Action TV

  • In 24, Kim's best friend dies partway through the first season. Saddening, yes... it could have been Kim!
    • In fact, 24 is full of these. Most notably, Jack Bauer's pregnant wife Teri gets killed at the end of Season One. Season five even did this twice in its first episode.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: despite most of the Scoobies fitting the archetype, only Tara ever really fulfilled her destiny and died of it. Willow, her girlfriend, didn't exactly get "heroic" resolve, though.
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Sura, Spartacus' wife, is killed because she would remind him about his previous free life. Varro, his best friend, is then targeted by Illythia and killed for the sole reason to make him suffer.
  • An Apri 2012 episode of Castle has the writer out on a case with another cop. Both the cop and Beckett's team warn him that 3 of his partners died because of the cop's actions/attitude/craziness.

Tabletop Games

  • Apparently, at least half of bad GMs on Earth already have pulled this one.

- If you really want him to hate the BBEG you should kidnap and murder his sister first so the fictional sister is all he has left of her.
- "Vengeance" sounds cool and all, but it's a dead end motivation. Baddie kills NPC, PC kills Baddie, and then all you have is TWO FEWER PLOT HOOKS. This sort of GMing is inherently self-destructive to the campaign - the world is being reduced, rather than enriched by this sort of NPC mulching.
- You say "Lord Raperus, in a surprising twist, ate Annie alive, aren't you mad?" They're like "Fine, let's kill that asshole." But what is actually going on in their head is "Oh look, the DM killed off my NPC. What a surprise. My interest in this character has now plummeted because he's been forced into a generic revenge arc."
And eventually, you get bitter fucks on /tg/ who insist that their characters literally hatched from "Adventurer Eggs" filled with lust for blood and gold, so as to avoid the annoyance
- With all these reactions this is the perfect example of why people play murder hobos
- I WANT to make char[ac]ters with back story, especially while playing games that are roleplay heavy but I know that If [I] play anything other than "bastard orphan who joined army was discharged and is now a mercenary" I will be faced with nothing but dead children and dumbass vengeance plots.

Lewis: I take no interest in NPCs because that gets them murdered by DM O'Dramatics.

  • In the game Hong Kong Action Theatre!, one of the Signature Moves you can pick for your character is "Sacrificial Buddy." The films of a character with this signature always have an Extra who is a friend or relative of the role that the character plays, who is doomed to die at some point in the movie. The character must play one scene with the Extra to establish the relationship, and after the Buddy dies (usually at the hands of the Big Bad or his Dragon), the character can either completely replenish his Chi pool or get a +5 to hit whoever killed the Buddy for the rest of the movie. This is known as the "You killed my (insert relationship here), Prepare to Die" motivation.
  • HERO books, allegedly[please verify], warn against killing/mutilation of NPCs to whom PC are attached.

Video Games

  • Due to the magic of Relationship Values, you get to choose who gets to be this in Mana Khemia. Isn't that great. No worries, they do get better, because it'd be downright cruel to kill off the character you spent most of the game getting to like you and probably have an attachment to at this point.
  • Exit Fate has a variation. Every playable character (there are 75 of them) has up to three "relationships" with other characters (becomes available when they become playable) classified as A (significant friend or love), B (close friend), C (respected ally) and F (hates the person!). If (assuming both are in the party) the second person is knocked out, the first gets a boost. For example, if Vanrushal (a vampire) goes down, Luther (an exorcist) gets an uplifting morale boost from seeing his hated enemy go down. If Daniel is knocked out, Ayara is spurred to take revenge. Of course, being knocked out is only temporary unless the whole party is defeated.
  • In Mass Effect 2, Thane Krios' wife was killed by the associates of one of his targets as revenge. Being the best assassin in the galaxy, Thane was very effective at tracking them down and exacting vengeance.
  • Dragon Age II is one hell of a bad time if your name is Hawke. One sibling dies less than ten minutes into the introduction; the other one is killed, enlisted by the Grey Wardens, or forced into the mage/templar conflict; and the matriarch of the family becomes the target of a serial killer that commits gruesome Body Horror on her. It's a wonder that Player Character Hawke doesn't completely break down by the end of the game.

Web Comics

  • Kid Radd plays this toward the end, where Bogey forces Radd to kill him, so that Radd can get the power-up inside his body.
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