History AnyoneCanDie / WesternAnimation

!!As a DeathTrope, contains many spoilers. Tread with care.

* Much like [[ComicBook/WhatIf the comic it's based on]], ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'' showcases alternate timelines from the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse and rips away all the PlotArmor protecting the heroes in the original timeline. While some episodes have relatively few causalities, others can be downright brutal and show that no one is safe [[ForWantOfANail all because of a single change]]. These can range from [[spoiler: Hank Pym killing the Avengers, to the Earth succumbing to a zombie plague, to Doctor Strange accidentally destroying the entire universe]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar'': Most of the heroes are killed off ''in the opening'', and many more fall over the course of the movie itself two years later. The survivors at the end can be counted with both hands, and even fewer are left (physically) unmarred.

* The [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity Arkham series inspired]] ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAssaultOnArkham'' features the Suicide Squad as the lead characters, with Batman and the Joker taking a backseat this time around. The story takes place after the prequel, Origins, but before Arkham Asylum, and considering that out of the entire squad, Harley Quinn and Deadshot are the only two you see in later games, the last 10 to 15 minutes of the film becomes this.
** Something puzzling is that Arkham Origins and Arkham Origins: Blackgate took care to hint at a Suicide Squad feature in the near future, with Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, Bronze Tiger and Captain Boomerang all receiving clipboards that seemed to hint at their inclusion. Of them all, Boomerang and Quinn show up on the team, and ironically are among those who don't die, compared to the newly introduced villains for the Squad specifically for the film, [[WildMassGuessing which may or may not be a clue towards a future Suicide Squad game.]]

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' in form of the junior ants. First, they make a painting of the good warrior bugs and bad grasshoppers battling, and they painted one of the good guys dead because their teacher said it would be more realistic that way. Then, they perform a play of the battle, in which apparently, EVERYONE dies.

* In ''Felidae'', it doesn't matter if you're the BigBad, TheDragon, a pregnant female or the most sympathetic character in the film. You're going down.

* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', when Helen reminds her children that this is not a cartoon and Syndrome's men [[WouldHurtAChild will kill them without hesitation]], given a chance. Although only one major character dies (Syndrome), the rest of the film racks up a high enough body count in ''minor'' characters to make Creator/GeorgeRRMartin cringe. Syndrome is revealed to have killed dozens, if not ''hundreds'' of supers offscreen, the number of evil henchmen whose deaths the heroes cause is well into the double digits, and Edna Mode even has a montage (which is PlayedForLaughs, no less) entirely devoted to supers who died in the line of duty, some of them in [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath very unpleasant ways.]] And that's not even counting the people who can be assumed to have [[InferredHolocaust died in the Omnidroid's rampage through the city.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' (1986) was famous principally for introducing this phenomenon to millions of Saturday-morning TV fans, when Optimus Prime dies, along with Megatron (well, he got reformatted as Galvatron, but ''still''), Starscream, almost all the Autobots and an entire planet of {{Red Shirt}}s in the first ten minutes, followed by the pointless on-screen maiming of several more robots including the last survivor of aforementioned planet for good measure, just to impress upon young'uns that FictionIsNotFair.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' was also pretty brutal. In the first season finale Megatron kills Starscream with the Allspark key, although he gets better a few episodes later. In the third season it got worse.

* ''Animation/VukTheLittleFox'': The beginning of this children's cartoon seems to imply that it will be something cuddly and cute. Besides maintaining a level of cuteness, over a dozen characters (including those with names, personalities and spoken lines) die, either killed by other animals or by human hunters. There is no CarnivoreConfusion or at least the main characters don't feel confused, as the main ''hero'' kills and eats equally sapient prey on-screen without any trouble.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', after pointing on at great length in the "Lepidopterists" episode how 21 and 24's GenreSavvy made them indestructible, went on to brutally kill 24 in the Season 3 final episode. His burning severed head lands right in 21's hands, making sure everyone knows he's dead for good.
** And let's not forget the titular brothers themselves, who were killed at the end of Season 1. For awhile, this seemed to be final, until they got better when the second season finally started, two years later.

* Characters in ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' die nearly OnePerEpisode. Most of the time, it's innocent civilians or the MonsterOfTheWeek who end up dying, but the main characters often have a tendency to be killed, even if they inevitably get better. It's been calculated that, on-screen, 1,077 characters have died over the course of the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': Being an adult animated series with a DenserAndWackier tone as well as exploring a more realistic look at the trappings and consequences of superhero tropes, the show has demonstrated a willingness to kill off characters no matter how important they are in other continuities. For instance, the first season finale has Scarecrow die, Harley kills the Penguin in the premiere of the second season and even ''Nightwing'' dies partway through season four.

* They started to show death in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' series films, from the gruesome end of Rod "Torque" Redline to the offscreen death of [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim Doc Hudson.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeast'' becomes shockingly liberal with CharacterDeath after [[KnightOfCerebus Dr. Emilia]] introduces the Mute cure: a permanent DeathOfPersonality which regresses the Mutes to normal animals. A number of secondary characters from prior episodes are KilledOffForReal through this method in the third season. While Dr. Emilia herself survives to an ambiguous FateWorseThanDeath, she manages to kill Hugo/Scarlemagne, the series' initial ([[HeelFaceTurn and redeemed]]) BigBad, first.