History ADeathInTheLimelight / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' used this trope in Season Six's episode "'Round Springfield". Bleeding Gums Murphy, the jazz musician who Lisa met in an early episode in the first season, faded into the background quickly (showing up here and there in crowd scenes for a while) and was almost forgotten until he appeared in the hospital in this episode. There, he tells Lisa his whole previously unrevealed back story, about how he was a successful jazz musician who made a guest appearance on ''Series/TheCosbyShow'', and doing a saxophone duet with Lisa. Lisa goes off to school and wins a talent competition, and then returns to the hospital to be told Bleeding Gums has passed away. This occurs in the middle of the episode, and the rest of it revolves around Lisa's quest to arrange a tribute to him. After she succeeds, Bleeding Gums Murphy's ghost appears in the clouds in a parody of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' ([[Creator/JamesEarlJones Mufasa, Darth Vader, and the CNN announcer briefly interrupt]]), and they have one last saxophone duet over the end credits before Bleeding Gums heads off for his afterlife date with Billie Holiday.

* Used in Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' with Jet in the episode "Lake Laogai", who receives some backstory as he goes from brainwashed to friendly over and over again. He also ends up being one of the only characters ever KilledOffForReal in a show that generally stayed away from that, despite its themes of war.+

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' used this trope in Season Six's episode "'Round Springfield". Bleeding Gums Murphy, the jazz musician who Lisa met in an early episode in the first season, faded into the background quickly (showing up here and there in crowd scenes for a while) and was almost forgotten until he appeared in the hospital in this episode. There, he tells Lisa his whole [[BelatedBackStory previously unrevealed back story]], about how he was a successful jazz musician who made a guest appearance on ''Series/TheCosbyShow'', and doing a saxophone duet with Lisa. Lisa goes off to school and wins a talent competition, and then returns to the hospital to be told Bleeding Gums has passed away. This occurs in the middle of the episode, and the rest of it revolves around Lisa's quest to arrange a tribute to him. After she succeeds, Bleeding Gums Murphy's ghost appears in the clouds in a parody of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' ([[Creator/JamesEarlJones Mufasa, Darth Vader, and the CNN announcer briefly interrupt]]), and they have one last saxophone duet over the end credits before Bleeding Gums heads off for his afterlife date with Billie Holiday.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'': [spoiler: Bombur, a minor character in the book is one of the only dwarves who is pushed into the background. He also [[TookALevelInKindness takes a level in kindness]] and acts as a mentor to Bilbo when it's not Gandalf...and is killed off.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'': [spoiler: Bombur, a minor character in the book is one of the only dwarves who is pushed into the background. He also TakesALevelInKindness and acts as a mentor to Bilbo when it's not Gandalf...and is killed off.]]

** This also happens to Chef in Season 10's "The Return of Chef." Chef's role in the show had been increasingly demolishing every season by that point. Unlike Kenny, Chef stayed dead.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', the very first episode, "The Last Son of Krypton: Part 1" focuses on Kal El's fatehr, Jor El. Jor El is seen trying, and failing, to convince the Kryptonian planetary council that something is very wrong, and that he has been building a ship to go to earth, and enact his rescue plan (extract everyone from the Phantom Zone when he's reached safety). [[AIIsACrapshoot Braniac]] has Jor El labeled a criminal, to hide the fact that he is right, Krypton's core will blow up soon, and Jor El is hunted down by the authorities. However thanks to his father in law leading the authorities on a wild goose chase, Jor El is able to launch his infant son, Kal El, in the rocket ship, [[TogetherInDeath while he and his wife, Lara]], [[LastKiss share one last kiss]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermantheAnimatedSeries'', the very first episode, "The Last Son of Krypton: Part 1" focuses on Jor El, as he tries, to convince the Kryptonian planetary council that something is very wrong, and that he has been building a ship to go to earth, and enact his rescue plan (extract everyone from the Phantom Zone when he's reached safety). [[AIIsACrapshoot Braniac]] has Jor El labeled a criminal, to hide the fact that Jor El is right, Krypton's core will blow up soon, and Jor El is hunted by the authorities. However thanks to his father in law leading the authorities on a wild goose chase, Jor El is able to launch his infant son, Kal El in the rocket ship, while he and his wife, Lara, [[TogetherInDeath share one last kiss]].

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' has Tuba, who was actually billed as one of the main characters for the third season alongside Simon, Grace, and Hazel. After a single mention of her deceased children, the episode "The Color Clock Car", halfway through the season, has her elaborate more on one of them before explaining that raising Hazel helped her heal from that loss. So naturally, Simon murders her at the end of the episode as soon as Hazel and Grace aren't around to see.

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain has Tuba, who was actually billed as one of the main characters for the third season alongside Simon, Grace, and Hazel. After a single mention of her deceased children, the episode "The Color Clock Car" has her elaborate more on one of them before explaining that raising Hazel, a human child that she's become a surrogate mother to, helped her heal from that lost. So naturally, Simon murders her at the end of the episode as soon as Hazel and Grace aren't around to see.

* The ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "The Terror Beyond". Beforehand, Solomon Grundy was TheBrute and DumbMuscle 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. One of his powers is the ability to come BackFromTheDead, which was the whole reason he agreed to come along, as a HumanSacrifice 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 ''Unlimited'' but has CameBackWrong and devolved into TheBerserker and has to be killed by AntiMagic, again PlayedForDrama. Given the manner of his death, its not clear if he will again return from the grave or was finally KilledOffForReal, but regardless he does not reappear in the series again.
* Nabu was introduced in Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' as Aisha's love interest [[SatelliteLoveInterest ...and that's all]]. However, the final episodes of season 4 focused on him a lot, showing his sheer badassery, to the point of beating one of the four {{Big Bad}}s all by himself. Shortly after that, he performed an HeroicSacrifice.

* Arguably used in Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' with Jet in the episode "Lake Laogai", who goes from brainwashed to friendly over and over again, and it is here that some backstory comes out. So guess so who is the one to be KilledOffForReal in a show that has generally stayed away from that, despite [[DarkerAndEdgier more mature]] themes compared to other shows at the time.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' used this trope in Season Six's episode "'Round Springfield". Bleeding Gums Murphy, the jazz musician who Lisa met in an early episode in the first season, faded into the background quickly (showing up here and there in crowd scenes for a while) and was almost forgotten until he appeared in the hospital in this episode. There, he tells Lisa his whole [[BelatedBackStory previously unrevealed back story]], about how he was a successful jazz musician who made a guest appearance on ''Series/TheCosbyShow'', and doing a saxophone duet with Lisa. Lisa goes off to school and wins a talent competition, and then returns to the hospital to be told Bleeding Gums has passed away. This occurs in the middle of the episode, and the rest of it revolves around Lisa's quest to arrange a tribute to him. After she succeeds, Bleeding Gums Murphy's ghost appears in the clouds in a parody of ''Disney/TheLionKing'' ([[Creator/JamesEarlJones Mufasa, Darth Vader, and the CNN announcer briefly interrupt]]), and they have one last saxophone duet over the end credits before Bleeding Gums heads off for his afterlife date with Billie Holiday.

* The ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "The Terror Beyond". Beforehand, Solomon Grundy was TheBrute and DumbMuscle 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. One of his powers is the ability to come BackFromTheDead, which was the whole reason he agreed to come along, as a HumanSacrifice 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 ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' but has CameBackWrong and devolved into TheBerserker and has to be killed by AntiMagic, again PlayedForDrama. Given the manner of his death, its not clear if he will again return from the grave or was finally KilledOffForReal, but regardless he does not reappear in the series again.

* The ''JusticeLeague'' episode "The Terror Beyond". Beforehand, Solomon Grundy was TheBrute and DumbMuscle 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. One of his powers is the ability to come BackFromTheDead, which was the whole reason he agreed to come along, as a HumanSacrifice 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 ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' but has CameBackWrong and devolved into TheBerserker and has to be killed by AntiMagic, again PlayedForDrama. Given the manner of his death, its not clear if he will again return from the grave or was finally KilledOffForReal, but regardless he does not reappear in the series again.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' used this trope in Season Six's episode "'Round Springfield". Bleeding Gums Murphy, the jazz musician who Lisa met in an early episode in the first season, faded into the background quickly (showing up here and there in crowd scenes for a while) and was almost forgotten until he appeared in the hospital in this episode. There, he tells Lisa his whole [[BelatedBackStory previously unrevealed back story]], about how he was a successful jazz musician who made a guest appearance on the Cosby show, and doing a saxophone duet with Lisa. Lisa goes off to school and wins a talent competition, and then returns to the hospital to be told Bleeding Gums has passed away. This occurs in the middle of the episode, and the rest of it revolves around Lisa's quest to arrange a tribute to him. After she succeeds, Bleeding Gums Murphy's ghost appears in the clouds in a parody of ''Disney/TheLionKing'' ([[Creator/JamesEarlJones Mufasa, Darth Vader, and the CNN announcer briefly interrupt]]), and they have one last saxophone duet over the end credits before Bleeding Gums heads off for his afterlife date with Billie Holiday.

* ''MassEffect3'' does this with several missions that involve former members of your squad from the second game: they receive some notable focus and then wind up dying by the time it's over. For some such as Miranda, Grunt, and Samara it can be optionally subverted, since you can save them from dying.