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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Jason:''' You're not gonna die on the planet, Guy.
'''[[Plucky Comic Relief|Guy:]]''' [[Genre Savvy|I'm not? Then what's my last name?]] ... Nobody knows! Do you know why? [[Wrong Genre Savvy|Because my character isn't important enough for a last name!]] [[Red Shirt|Because I'm gonna die five minutes in!]]
|''[[Galaxy Quest]]''}}
''Only people that are relevant to the plot or a [[Sidequest]] will be blessed with names. Everyone else will be [[Nameless Narrative|nameless]] or be referred to with [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|generic or descriptive titles]].''
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This is the naming equivalent of [[You All Look Familiar]], and it is caused by [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]. If the names are given posthumously, it is [[The Dead Have Names]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', if anyone has a name, s/he will get involved in a plot in some way or another. If anyone has a full name, watch that character, because without exception, they will have a supernatural power. Of note is that we never learn the narrator's name--"Kyon" is [[Only Known by Their Nickname|just a nickname that everyone uses]].
* ''[[Simoun]]'' averts the voiceover corollary in its first episode, which is narrated by a nameless [[Red Shirt]] pilot who dies (playing the main trope straight) in the episode's climax.
* ''[[Project A-ko]]'' parodies this by naming the three main characters like extras (at least, if you ignore their surnames).
* One of the things that made ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' really stand out is that they played with this trope a lot, to often heartbreaking effect. Many enemy pilots got names and a bit of characterization, despite the fact they usually just ended up getting wasted by the Gundam in the end, anyway.
* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', Akito gets replaced by an unnamed female pilot about halfway into the series. No prizes for guessing what happens to her in her first fight.
== Film ==
* In ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'', Jenner's henchman {{spoiler|who has a [[Heel Face Turn]] at the last minute}} is named Sullivan, although it's only visible in the credits. This is the name of director [[Don Bluth]]'s business partner in making the film.
** Brutus, however, doesn't actually serve much plot purpose, and fades into obscurity almost immediately after being given a name, save for a single shout-out towards the end that you will barely notice due to it being a muffled background noise.
* Subverted in ''[[That Thing You Do]]'': the bass player in the Wonders is a plot-important character who remained unnamed through the movie, eventually listed in the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]] as [[Meaningful Name|"T. B. Player"]].
* Played for laughs in ''[[Austin Powers]] in Goldmember'':
{{quote|'''Nigel Powers''': ''Have you any idea how many anonymous henchmen I've killed? Look at you! You don't even have a name tag! You've got no chance. Why don't you just fall down?''
(The henchman falls down.) }}
== Literature ==
* In a Russian pulp-fiction novel, the villain holds the hero at a blank point. He's not a cold blooded killer though and even confesses how relieved he is to know almost nothing about his victim, as killing someone you know even slightly is so much harder. The hero hastens to provide his comprehensive credentials, much to the villain's chagrin from such selfish indiscretion.
* Count Olaf's henchmen in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' are usually referred to with descriptive terms like "the white-faced women" and "the bald man"(they sometimes use pseudonyms derived from [[Significant Anagram|anagrams of "Count Olaf"]], though). However, at the time the hook-handed man gets some [[Character Development]] and a backstory in Book the Eleventh, we learn that his name is Fernald.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Inverted in ''[[Small Gods]]''. At one point, a nameless [[Red Shirt]] is killed off, only for his name to be immediately revealed. He's still unimportant to the story though.
** This is invoked in ''[[Discworld]]'', as it runs on the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]. In ''[[Interesting Times]]'', Ponder Stibbons notices that the magical supercomputer Hex is starting to think for itself, and reflects "We should never have named you. A thing with a name is a bit more than a thing".
* [[David Drake]] likes to subvert this and made extensive use of [[Tuckerization]] in one of his [[RCN Series]] books for this purpose (as well as to salute his friends). He explained this in the acknowledgements to the book and noted he was using the ''names'' but not the ''personalities'' and this was, in many cases, "a Good Thing" — because [[Don't Explain the Joke|(he didn't spell this part out)]] some of the people he named after his friends were total wastes of skin.
* Oh so ''very'' [[Averted Trope]] in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]''. [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], a large chunk are not important to the plot at all, others are relevant only to their connections to a more plot-important character, and everyone else is a [[Chekhov's Gunman]] waiting to fire.
* Very averted in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series. Weber has been known to introduce a character, [[Mauve Shirt|give them a name and cursory]] [[Backstory]], then kill them off at the end of the chapter, if not the end of the page. This is done mostly (but not only) to make the war feel real; Honor and other major characters can only be so many places at once (and are not likely to be on the losing sides of absolute massacres off in the boonies, but then again...), so giving a name to, say, the LAC pilot who will be killed shortly helps to make the reader realize the human implications.
* Played with in the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) novels, which usually take care to name every member of every [[Redshirt Army]] Cain brings with him in the climax. Their survival rate appears to be somewhere in the lower thirties overall. Most people who die during the battle sequences do so unnamed, however, to say nothing of the [[Mooks]] Cain, Jurgen and said [[Redshirt Army]] mow down by the dozens each book compared to the longer-lived named villains.
== Live-Action TV ==
* The [[Fridge Brilliance]] section has a reference to the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Midnight"—where a monster controls people by forcibly repeating their dialogue and mentally turning them against one another. Nobody ''believes'' the Doctor when he tells them his usually fake name "John Smith". In the end the person who actually beats the villain of the week is the Hostess of the trio - and the cast realise, in the aftermath, that they never ''knew'' her name.
** ''[[Doctor Who]]'' writer and ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' creator Toby Whitehouse has said in a ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' interview that he always gives the [[Red Shirt]]s and minor characters names, simply because it looks better on the actors' CVs.
** There're a handful of Doctor Who characters who actually have names but they're never mentioned in the story itself for various reasons (short screen time, situation means it never comes up, etc.). They're named in the credits though.
* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' abuses this like crazy, though not the way you'd think. Most anyone with a line is given a name of some sort, generally because they're relevant to the plot of the episode. However, the show will occasionally bring back old characters as main characters.
* Somewhat subverted in ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' in which almost all major and minor characters have first and last names that may be known by greater fans of the show. However, given that the large arcs of the show tended to included a large number of characters, this may not be surprising.
* Played around with in the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]''. Lots of one-shot characters without much importance have names, but (more importantly) several characters—most notably Diana Seelix—were promoted from near-extras to significant recurring characters simply because someone on the cast (usually Aaron Douglas) gave them names and the writers decided to [[Throw It In]].
* Played around with in ''[[Star Trek]]''. Many unimportant characters, even the [[Red Shirts]], are given names, while sometimes the [[Monster of the Week]] will kill unnamed ensigns and lieutenants throughout the ship or on the planet.
** Although, even when red shirts were given names, they were rarely given both first and last names.
* Played with in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' with "Thirteen", number 13 out of however many potential people were in the pool to take over the assistant jobs with house, and who continues to be called "Thirteen" for the entire run of the series except in very rare circumstance. Her real name is Remy Hadley.
* The ''[[Animal Planet]]'' series ''[[Too Cute]]'' follows various litters of kittens and puppies through the early stages of their lives. In the larger litters, only a couple are actually named and focused upon; the others' names simply aren't mentioned.
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Feng Shui]]'', this is an explicit game mechanic—important characters have names, while others are labeled [[Mooks]] and use different combat rules to enforce their scrub status.
* In the RPG of ''[[The Dresden Files (game)|The Dresden Files]]'', the section on creating NPC's references this, sparking a margin discussion between Dresden and Billy. Dresden comments that the random people do, in fact, have a name, to which Billy asks why Harry never writes them down in his case files. Dresden answers that he usually doesn't have time to ask, on account of many of them trying to kill him at the time.
== Theatre ==
* This is a common trope, where typically a character is only named if they're important to the plot, or if their name is spoken at some point.
** This is averted in ''[[Urinetown]]'' the musical, where every single member character has a name, even though only 10 of the names are actually spoken (the rest are [[All There in the Manual|only written in the program]]).
** Classically averted in the opera ''[[Tosca]]'' with the executioner Roberti. Not only is Roberti a very minor character (he appears in only two scenes), he doesn't sing, not even in chorus.
** Largely averted in [[Gilbert and Sullivan]], in which every character gets a name (even some extremely minor ones, eg Fleta and Salata) - except for "First Yeomen", "Second Yeomen", "First Citizen", and "Second Citizen" in Yeomen of the Guard. Also, the chorus never get names, because they have no solo work (though some directors change that).
== Toys ==
* Played straight in ''[[Bionicle]]''. In-universe, only the Elite- and Leader-Class Skrall are allowed to have names, whereas the Warrior class Skrall are nameless.
** A real-world example: if a character gets named, it ''has'' to be an important player, considering clearing names through legal is a pretttty pricey deal. Which means every name that makes it through the process has to be put to good use.
== [[Video Games]] ==
=== Action Adventure ===
* Averted in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker]]'' and some of the ''Tales'' games, where almost every single character in the game has a name, even random, minor [[NPC]]s.
** Taken a step further in ''[[Breath of Fire]] 2'', where the endgame sequence gives every character a name, first and last (and a few middle) on the other hand, the credits are obtained through a [[Guide Dang It]].
** ''Wind Waker'' might still be an example, if you consider taking a pictograph of every NPC and enemy and taking them to be made into figurines to be a sidequest.
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=== Adventure ===
* Even in the character-based ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series, there are some characters who do have sprites, but no known names, most obviously the Judge. Of course, any character with a sprite will end up being relevant to a case eventually - even the unnamed Bellboy in the series' second case. There are also characters who are rarely referred to by their names, but have them nonetheless (such as Penny Nichols from the first game's third case), but even they tend to have a piece of information you'll need to know.
* ''[[Hype The Time Quest]]'' averts this by going out of its way to name almost all the [[NPC
* When talking to one of the characters in the flash game ''Nicholas' Weird Adventure 2'', his character portrait doesn't show a picture; he just gets text from the author claiming the character is not important enough to take the time to make a portrait of him. As the discussion goes on, the author changes his mind and adds one.
=== Fighting ===
* Averted in ''[[Soul Series|Soul Calibur 3]]'''s "Chronicles of the Sword" mode. A lot of [[Elite Mooks]] on the field are named, but all that comes of the names is a strength boost. Regular soldiers just go by the name of their banner.
=== First Person Shooter ===
* In the expansion to ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]] [[Star Trek Elite Force|Elite Force]]'' the player expands his/her arsenal with a tricorder, which can, among other things, be used to scan various [[NPC
* Every single friendly soldier in the ''[[Call of Duty]]'' series has a name. Characters [[Redshirt Army|not important to the plot]] have randomly generated names, but they're names nonetheless.
* Regular enemies in the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series are identified on the HUD simply with their aircraft model names. However, the rare ace pilots additionally have their callsigns appended to the plane model, marking them as priority targets, since they are usually much more dangerous than regular [[
* Averted in ''[[Riddick|The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay]]'', where every inmate has a unique name, even if you can't interact with them.
=== MMORPG ===
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' manages to avert this trope with most [[NPC
** There's extra aversion in the ''Wrath of the Lich King'' expansion. In Dalaran, the Town Guards placed specifically to tell people where the Inn/Flightmaster/Trainers are are replaced by named archmages.
** Of course, most [[Mooks|trash mobs]] still don't have names for practical reasons.
* Averted in the Hobopolis clan dungeon in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' - all hobos have [[Procedural Content|randomly generated names]], and as most of them have one or more nicknames in addition to a first and last name, there are millions of possible combinations. This does result in occasionally fighting [[The Beatles|John Lennon]].
* Played straight in ''[[
* ''[[Star Wars Galaxies]]'' initially averted this trope, in a sense, by having every single NPC in the game given a randomly generated name, for example, names would be like "Luke Skywalker (a farmboy)". However, not long after release, this feature was disabled as it made server start up after maintenance take too long.
* Averted in ''[[Guild Wars]]'': Although there are a few exceptions, almost all NPCs have names, even if they're simply merchants or there to provide services.
* Partially averted by ''[[City of Heroes]]'' -- every random passerby has a name (albeit usually just a given name and no surname), which can be seen by clicking on them. On the other hand, most villains are only identified by generic terms. A villain with a name is usually trouble. Usually.
=== Real Time Strategy ===
* ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' gives each creature an unique random name.
* ''Myth: The Fallen Lords'' and its sequels likewise avert this to give every living creature (i.e. excluding the undead and such who you wouldn't expect to have names at all) a unique name, and even allows you to rename the units under your command yourself; e.g. that warrior Malory with the 300 kills may just deserve to be called Malory the Great, a title he will carry down the levels for as long as he lives.
==
* In ''[[ADOM]]'', if you meet an otherwise normal monster or [[NPC]] with a name,they're either important to your quest, or a stronger-than-normal artifact guardian. Have fun figuring out which is which.
* Averted in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]''. All the dwarves have names, as do any visiting humans and elves. Even the monsters have names, provided they slaughter enough dwarves to become important.
** Not averted completely, though. As creatures which start out with names (dwarves, goblins, humans, etc.) rack up kills, they eventually gain an extension of their original name. Because of this, one can often tell who the local [[
=== Role Playing Game ===
* Most games in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' was especially bad, as the naming screen for every character you eventually got was distinct, meaning there were a couple characters you encountered early on, but didn't use till a while later, [[Interface Spoiler|that you nonetheless knew would eventually be team members]].
*** The same thing happened with ''[[Wild
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' totally averts this. With the exception of some random thieves and brigands, ''everyone'' with a speaking part in the many cutscenes gets not only a name, individual character portrait and sprite, but also a ''several-page-long biography'' detailing their lives and connections to the plot. Not only you never get to actually meet the grand majority of these people, most of them are thoroughly unimportant, die in their introductory scene or just plain don't ever show up at all and are just referred to.
*** Also every single generic mook you meet throughout the game has a name, even the monsters. They don't get personal portraits though, so you can tell they're expendable.
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** Heck, virtually all [[BioWare]] games (including the recent ''[[Mass Effect]]'' series) have this.
** In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', several mercenaries on side-missions have names and faces, [[Elite Mooks|usually the tougher ones]]. In the ''Arrival'' [[Downloadable Content]], this is played with by having [[Enemy Chatter]] about how you're massacring their friends.
* ''[[Morrowind]]'' goes the opposite
** ''[[Oblivion]]'' and ''[[Skyrim]]'' partially avert this - most NPCs have unique names. There's still a lot of genreric "Fire Mage"s & "Bandit Hedge Wizard"s.
* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' averts this -- ''everyone'' has a name which is also a capsule description of them. Not an actual name from the game, but an example of what this means would be "Nervous Man Monterey".
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* As in most RPGs, ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II'' has lots of unimportant characters without names, but provides something of a [[Lampshade Hanging]] when the following dialogue option pops up: "You are just a nameless observer. Of what use can you be to me?"
* As mentioned above, ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' character portraits: with a note to the strange case of the Element shop owner in Termina who has a portrait and name but no real significance. In addition, Lena's portraited sister Una isn't important to the plot.
* Averted in ''[[Last Scenario]]''
* This editor figured out that Ms. Toriumi, your homeroom teacher in ''[[Persona 3]]'', {{spoiler|is actually Maya, the Hermit Social Link}} by virtue of the fact that she's the only female teacher with a character portrait.
** In ''Persona 3 Portable'' you can have a strange conversation with a man who, while lacking a name (he's called "Man Drinking Alone", has his own [[Character Portrait]]. It was immediately assumed this man was an [[Early-Bird Cameo]] for an upcoming Atlus title. Cue cries of [[I Knew It!]] when the game ''[[Catherine]]'' was revealed, starring the aforementioned man (whose real name is Vincent).
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* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' partially averts this at early stages of the game, as several NPCs in the Hive with generic descriptive names have nongeneric dialogue. For example, one gives you a ring she promised you for killing her husband, while another gives you a minor quest. However, they still have no bearing on the plot, for understandable reasons. There are also a few named ones that still don't do anything - no quests, no information, can't get anything from them.
** And, of course, the most important character, i.e. the protagonist, does not have a name {{spoiler|at least, until the very end.}}
* All the ''[[Wild
** Also played with in ''[[Wild
* Averted to some extent in ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins''. The best example is with temporary party members - many people you can get in your party only for about ten minutes in one of the [[Backstory]]/tutorial quests have tons of unique dialogue, their own battlecries/snarky lines they say when killing things, and in some cases well-developed backstories and personalities, making it impossible for you to tell who is in line for a [[Plotline Death]]. Of particular note are the other trainee Grey Wardens - there really is nothing that will give away the fact that Daveth and Ser Jory are {{spoiler|[[Sacrificial Lamb|sacrificial lambs]]}} while Alistair will probably be around for the entire rest of the game, if you provoke him into leaving. Also Jowan, who you can very briefly have in your party, comes with not only his own battlecry, but several, many of which are funny. He's also one of the most three dimensional characters in the game. You can have him in your party for ten minutes, tops. There was an [[Aborted Arc]] in which he could join you, so that's probably why.
** However, ''[[Dragon Age]]'' still has generic NPCs -- 'Bandit', 'King's Guard' etc.
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==
* ''[[Touhou]]'' has several midboss characters who are never named in-game. They tend to be "named" by fans whatever their race is. The most famous [[Ensemble Darkhorse|and popular]] of these are "Koakuma" (literally "little demon"), and "Daiyousei" (literally "big fairy"). Koakuma, presumably a familiar of the wizard Patchouli, was seized upon as a [[Dojikko]] [[Moe Moe]] character who fawned over Patchouli by fans, while the [[Word of God]], once it finally got around to [[Ascended Extra|acknowledging her existence]] wrote her as a mischievous imp, instead. The end result was a blend of dojikko love with a slight mischievous, sadistic streak in the eyes of the fans. The fan-given names eventually became the apparent [[Sure Why Not|official names]].
** Another example is Daiyousei ("Great Fairy") who is Cirno's stage [[Mini Boss|midboss]] in ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil''. No name until ZUN was pressed. For the longest time she was considered just Cirno's tag-along who often provided good contrast for her "the strongest" partner; in recent years, the Fandom has begun fleshing out her character in one or two ways. Unlike Koakuma, she's had stealth cameos since her first appearance.
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=== Turn
* In the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series, any named character appearing on the battle field is either an ally, a boss, recruitable, or vital to the plot in some other way. Everyone else is generic.
** Then again, this is the only way the games ever attempt to avoid a [[Guide Dang It]], which is a good thing.
*** Also well done. Given that '''all''' bosses have portraits and names, some can be recruited, most can't. Also, some characters have appeared with portraits despite being un-recruitable (to more or less screw with the player) such as Khosen the manekete and Heimler, both from FE1 and FE11.
* Subverted in ''[[Disgaea]]'' with a Sassy Demon named The Dark Adonis Vyers, er... Mid-Boss, dubbed such by Laharl because he deems him unimportant. His name even shows up as that on his text boxes. {{spoiler|He's still important to the plot in the long run.}}
** Subverted in ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]''. Adell's mother is only referred to as "Mom", but is given full body-art and voiceovers like the rest of the main cast. She is also the one responsible for summoning the Overlord so that Adell can kick his ass.
=== Wide Open Sandbox ===
* ''[[STALKER]]'' averts this as well, thanks to the fact that just about everyone in the game- friend or foe, and even dead bodies you come across that were planted specifically by the developers, rather than being killed by rival factions or hostile mutants- have first and last names. Most of these names in the U.S. version at least follow a strange convention, however- while the first name is usually something common to the region, such as Sergei or Vasilya, the last names are usually straight from the dictionary. Which is why it's always hilarious to see a guy named [[Awesome McCoolname|Max Dinosaur]].
** It is because stalkers are given the first name and a nickname, not the last name. This is most likely a reference to the custom of organized criminals in Russia. On the other hand, soldiers in the Zone are referred to by their rank and last name.
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=== Miscellaneous Games ===
* In the PC game ''[[Pathologic]]'', all of the main characters and important side characters are given names, while minor characters are named [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|by their description]]. In addition, when you talk to any of the characters, an icon with a black-and-white photo appears in the corner of the screen. With storyline characters, it's a person resembling the model. With random people, [[Lampshade Hanging|it's a creepy ragdoll]].
* ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'': Even though it's easy to miss her name, as the [[Player Character]] Chell survives (and beats) GLaDOS twice, has several depictions of her appearance and has the [[Canon]] character traits of being [[Determinator|insanely tenacious]] and a [[Heroic Mime]] by choice. At the end of the co-operative campaign, Atlas and P-Body discover {{spoiler|a vault containing ten thousand more human subjects in suspended animation}}. But in the "Peer Review" DLC {{spoiler|[[
* An odd variation appears in ''Enemy 585'' (by [[Nitrome]]). The only "named" character is Enemy 585, who was just another [[Mook]] in a platformer than finished before the real game started (which was to rescue Enemy 585 after he was trapped in the boss' castle after the "game").
== Web Comics ==
* Lampshaded in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', where two grunts laugh about it, but are careful to give their names.
* [[Lampshade Hanging]] in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0472.html this] episode of ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', where the [[Genre Savvy]] Elan explains that not having a name means you're just a [[Red Shirt]] whose sole purpose is to say "[[You Shall Not Pass|I'll hold them off]]!" and then get killed. As if to demonstrate, two [[Red Shirt|red shirts]] manage to survive a battle by revealing that they ''do'' have names, with one surviving a near-fatal injury by revealing his first name, and stating that he is saving his last name just in case he gets injured again. {{spoiler|This particular [[Chekhov's Gun]] is later subverted. He attempts to [[Invoked Trope]]
** Subverted in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0539.html this] episode, where [[Heroic Sociopath|Belkar]] kills a random gnome for no particular reason (other than that he could). When his companions are horrified by this, he says the gnome was unimportant and "probably didn't even have a name"...even though the gnome had told the group his name 7 panels earlier.
** He did it even earlier to the [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0021.html Chimera] as it was cursing the Order. Haley even complained about Belkar killing it mid-speech.
** Subverted several times in the prequel ''Start of Darkness'': when Ekdysdioksosiirwo, Viridian Lord
*** More played with than subverted in Right-Eye and Redcloak's cases, since {{spoiler|the reason they use those aliases is because Xykon is apt to kill any minion with a name too long or complicated to remember easily, just to save himself the effort.}}
*** Lampshaded yet again, when Hobgoblin Cleric #2 complains that he could've become someone important too, if his mother hadn't named him Hobgoblin Cleric #2.
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* Used during the "That Which Redeems" arc from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. Of the hundreds of [[Demonic Invaders]], about a dozen are given names. Of these, only {{spoiler|Bubbamonicus and Mospinispinosp}} are killed. Demons without names are torn apart like wet tissue paper.
* Averted in ''[[RPG World]]''. Galgarion fires one of his random guards, Evil Soldier #347, and he becomes a regular character set out to get revenge. His name remains Evil Soldier #347 throughout the entire comic.
* ''[
* [[DMFA]]: 'Don't you get it? I'm a nameless henchman! [[Genre Savvy|It means that once I say three lines, I'll be killed off!']]
* [[Darths and Droids]] does this with Anakin, the GM clearly not having named this minor NPC. This is an inversion since Anakin will become the central character as time goes on.
== Western Animation ==
* Inverted in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' with the Monarch's henchmen. #21 and #24 are recurring characters, while the two henchmen who receive names, Speedy and Scott Hall (Henchman #1), are killed in their first episode.
** We ''do'' eventually learn that 21's name is Gary. {{spoiler|24 however dies without us ever learning his, although his reappearance as a ghost means there is still hope}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]
[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:
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