History AnyoneCanDie / WesternAnimation

** Early on in Season 4 [[StarWarsThePhantomMenace General Tarpals]] [[HeroicSacrifice died]] [[DoomedByCanon to capture]] [[SenselessSacrifice General Grievous.]] [[PlayingWithATrope They even]] had Obi-Wan pull a [[FakingTheDead fake death]] later the same season.

* ''WesternAnimation/RoswellConspiracies'' killed off characters with surprising aplomb for a cartoon in the early nineties; ''many'' one-shots, named or not -- such as the old leader of the Conduit, Kao Lin, and Ti-Yet's old enemy, Su-Ak -- bit the dust, but the casualty rate also encompassed several recurring antagonists (like Hanek, Kahn Mort, and Baron Samedi) but several of the good guys as well, most of them towards the end of the series; Mrs. Smith-Heisen is coldly killed by the series' BigBad, Spot gives its life to contain a nuclear explosion, and Jerich, Ruck ([[RedemptionEqualsDeath a redeemed baddie]]), and Logan's adoptive father all sacrifice their own lives battling the Shadoen fleet. Even main characters weren't exempt from this; Trueblood, part of the main cast roster since the first episode, is torn apart by Rinaker (revealed as the Shadoen agent Wraith and the ultimate main villain of the series), and Wraith in turn is conclusively killed off for real at the end of the series alongside the entire Shadoen fleet. Unlike many instances of this trope, [[KilledOffForReal when a character dies, they stayed dead]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RoswellConspiracies'' killed off characters with surprising aplomb for a cartoon in the early nineties; ''many'' one-shots, named or not -- such as the old leader of the Conduit, Kao Lin, and Ti-Yet's old enemy, Su-Ak -- bit the dust, but the casualty rate also encompassed several recurring antagonists (like Hanek, Kahn Mort, and Baron Samedi) but several of the good guys as well, most of them towards the end of the series; Mrs. Smith-Heisen is coldly killed by the series' BigBad, Spot gives its life to contain a nuclear explosion, and Jerich, Ruck ([[RedemptionEqualsDeath a redeemed baddie]], and Logan's adoptive father all sacrifice their own lives battling the Shadoen fleet. Even main characters weren't exempt from this; Trueblood, part of the main cast roster since the first episode, is torn apart by Rinaker (revealed as the Shadoen agent Wraith and the ultimate main villain of the series), and Wraith in turn is conclusively killed off for real at the end of the series alongside the entire Shadoen fleet. Unlike many instances of this trope, [[KilledOffForReal when a character dies, they stayed dead]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has this to the point where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUxNQlvzuL8 someone made a compilation]].

* The entire message of ''WatershipDown'' being ''"Small Furry Animals Will Eventually Die Anyway, so get used to it,"'' so it includes all variants of on-screen cute rabbit death in order to drive home the message. It was felt that too many rabbits actually survived the book (Show, Don't Tell!) due to author's [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt reluctance]] to pull the trigger. So additional [[MauveShirt doomed]] characters are introduced and a particularly sympathetic {{Woobie}} who played a big part in the novel is highlighted in order to be gruesomely StuffedIntoTheFridge near the climax.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has so many deaths that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUxNQlvzuL8 somebody made a compilation]].

* Since the series ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' starts in the year 3000, everyone Fry ever knew (excluding his girlfriend who froze herself) is dead. Also, the crew die at various points of the series, either getting better or just a WhatIf question, including when all the crew, excluding the Professor, died in the very first episode of the return onto Comedy Central.

* Since the series ''WesternAnimation/Futurama'' starts in the year 3000, everyone Fry ever knew (excluding his girlfriend who froze herself) is dead. Also, the crew die at various points of the series, either getting better or just a What if question, including when all the crew, excluding the Professor, died in the very first episode of the return onto Comedy Central.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' doesn't touch any of the characters from the films, but they are not afraid of introducing an original character and then kill them in the same episode. Jedi and well as clone troopers. Sometimes any original, named character surviving past an episode is a surprise. Sometimes. Each season killed off at least one major recurring character, as listed below.

* This is major gimmick of the ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Total Drama series]]''. Well, technically, not die, but be eliminated, and can return to the show (and will - in the end of the season, to try to come into the next). Still, the number of active characters is rapidly decreasing and no one is safe, even the most popular and beloved by writers characters.

* This is major gimmick of the ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Total Drama series]]''. Well, technically, not die, but be elliminated, and can return to the show (and will - in the end of the season, to try to come into the next). Still, the number of active characters is rapidly decreasing and no one is safe, even the most popular and beloved by writers characters.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' doesn't touch any of the characters from the films, but they are not afraid of introducing an original character and then kill them in the same episode. Jedi and well as clone troopers. Sometimes any original, named character surviving past an episode is a surprise. Sometimes.
** Near the end of Season 3 they [[InternetBackDraft killed]] Even Piel, a back-ground Jedi master.
** Early on in Season4 [[StarWarsThePhantomMenace General Tarpals]] [[HeroicSacrifice died]] [[DoomedByCanon to capture]] [[SenselessSacrifice General Grievous.]]
** [[PlayingWithATrope They even]] had Obi-Wan pull a [[FakingTheDead fake death]] later the same season.

* The [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity Arkham series inspired]] Assault on Arkham features the Suicide Squad as the lead characters, with Batman and the Joker taking a backseat this time around. The game 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.

** Near the end of the season, Dinobot sacrifices himself with quite a bit more fanfare to save a tribe of proto-humans.
** Tigertron and Airazor die, come back, and then almost immediately die ''again'', this time for good.

* ''ScoobyDooMysteryInc'' goes in this direction toward the end of the show [[spoiler: although all the deaths [[TitleDrop come undone]] in the end]].

* ''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, as the main hero kills and eats prey on-screen without any trouble.

* ''FriskyDingo'' is one of the few Creator/AdultSwim original cartoons in which death is permanent, which it makes liberal use of by killing off both major and minor characters left and right during the second season.
* ''StarWarsTheCloneWars'' doesn't touch any of the characters from the films, but they are not afraid of introducing an original character and then kill them in the same episode. Jedi and well as clone troopers. Sometimes any original, named character surviving past an episode is a surprise. Sometimes.
** Near the end of Season3 they [[InternetBackDraft killed]] Even Piel a back-ground Jedi master, and early on in Season4 [[StarWarsThePhantomMenace General Tarpals]] [[HeroicSacrifice died]] [[DoomedByCanon to capture]] [[SenselessSacrifice General Grievous.]] [[PlayingWithATrope They even]] had Obi-Wan pull a [[FakingTheDead fake death]] later the same season.

* ''{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' probably had one of the highest Saturday-morning cartoon mortality rates out there. In the first episode of the second season, Terrorsaur and Scorponok fall in lava and die with relatively little fanfare. Near the end of the season, Dinobot sacrifices himself with quite a bit more fanfare to save a tribe of proto-humans. Tigertron and Airazor die, come back, and then almost immediately die ''again'', this time for good. Inferno and Quickstrike get toasted by their own boss. Depth Charge and Rampage go up in an immense explosion. Tarantulus gets hoisted by his own petard. And this is only counting deaths [[DeathIsCheap that lasted]].
** It's easier just to say that 22 characters were introduced (Including a fusion of two previous characters and a clone of another previous character) and that only 8 of them survive to the end of the series (Optimus, Rattrap, Rhinox, Cheetor, Waspinator, Megatron, Blackarachnia and Silverbolt).
** When we add ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', we must trim Rhinox, Megatron, and Optimus from that list. The death count of its new arrivals is harder to calculate; it depends on whether or not taking a character created by the extensive reprogramming of an old one and reverting him to factory settings counts as death. The new character definitely permanently ceases to be, but you may not consider that to be "dead." If we do, the death toll of ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' new arrivals just tops 50%.

** 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.]]
* ''TransformersTheMovie'' (1986) was famous principally for introducing this phenomenon to millions of Saturday-morning TV fans, when Optimus Prime dies, along with Megatron, 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.

* No ''FamilyGuy'' viewer really saw [[spoiler:Brian]] dying.