History AnyoneCanDie / WesternAnimation

** Season 1 introduced the Domino Squad in the fifth episode. [[KillEmAll Then killed them all, with the exception of Echo and Fives]].

* Played a lot in ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', where numerous characters have perished onscreen, a first for a Disney animated film.
** Kida's mother (the Queen of Atlantis) died after being fused into the Heart of Atlantis during the sinking of Atlantis that killed thousands of people who were trapped outside the crystal barrier.
** Milo stated that his parents died of unknown causes when he was a young boy, and he was taken in by his grandfather Thaddeus, who later died of a broken heart after being ridiculed and jeered by the Smithsonian Board for his claims about Atlantis. Even Thaddeus's old partner Preston Whitmore sympathizes over Thaddeus's loss and vows to carry on his legacy, which was the main reason why he was willing to help Milo prove the existence of Atlantis.
** The case can be said during the expedition, when almost all of the crewmembers were killed after the Leviathan destroyed the Ulysses, with the exception of the main characters and several dozens who escaped on an escape pod and subpod, and Rourke stated out that there were 200 people on board. Of course, they weren't the only ones who perished by the Leviathan's wrath as numerous sunken ships were seen surrounding the Leviathan's resting grounds, along with underground murals showing people from other civilizations perishing during their attempts to invade Atlantis. This implies that many people throughout the ages have died searching and trying to pillage Atlantis; this was shown in a deleted scene when a group of Vikings tried to search for Atlantis in their ship, only to end up being killed by the Leviathan itself.
** During the fireflies' attack, two of the explorers' trucks exploded, killing the two poor drivers in the process.
** The most tragic case is for Kida's father King Kashekim Nedakh, who was brutally punched in the chest by Rourke and suffered internal bleeding. He eventually succumbed to his injuries, but not before he passed his crystal to Milo so that he can stop Rourke from taking away the Heart of Atlantis. Also, during his death throes, he admitted that he wanted to use the Heart of Atlantis as a weapon of war, but his arrogance is what led his empire to crumble during the tidal wave that cost thousands of his people's lives (including his wife), an act that left him wracked with complete remorse; he even refused to be cured with his crystal's healing energy as he is more concerned about the well-being of Kida and their remaining people.
** During the battle inside the volcano, Milo, the crew and Atlanteans suffered few casualties as several Atlantean warriors were killed by Rourke's men using gunfire. However, the tides were turned when the heroes used the powers of the fish-mobiles to kill all of Rourke's men, one-by-one. And after sending Helga to fall to her death, Rourke ends up being crystallized by Milo and shredded to pieces by his blimp's propellers.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons: Since the ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' {{Halloween episode}}s are [[NegativeContinuity not part of the show's canon]], the writers frequently end up [[DeathAsComedy killing off lots and lots of characters for black comedy]]; not even the Simpson family themselves are safe.

* This is major gimmick of the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' 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 of the characters.

* The entire message of ''WesternAnimation/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 killed off near the climax.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* In a rarity for a children's programme, ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood'' had a fairly high mortality rate, with a lot of the major characters being killed off as the series went on. By the end of the show only a few of the original animals still survived.

* ''WesternAnimation/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.

* Since ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons: WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' {{Halloween episode}}s are [[NegativeContinuity not part of the show's canon]], the writers frequently end up [[DeathAsComedy killing off lots and lots of characters for black comedy]]; not even the Simpson family themselves are safe.

* ''WesternAnimation/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.

* The entire message of ''WesternAnimation/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/RoswellConspiracies'' killed off characters with surprising aplomb for a cartoon in the late 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 stay dead]].

* Chuck Jones spoofed opera in "What's Opera, Doc?". Saith Bugs Bunny, "What did you expect? A happy ending?" just before he died in Elmer Fudd's arms

** Season 3 has a truly ''massive'' amount of casualties. AVA is killed during the confrontation with a Titan in the first episode, Fox is killed by Invictus and has his corpse puppeteered, Clarence and recurring antagonist Todd H. Watkins are both fatally wounded in a shoot-out, Kevin Van Newton pulls a HeroicSacrifice to activate the KVN Net, [[BigGood Bolo]] is murdered by the Lord Commander[[note]]Who had been brought BackFromTheDead and been transformed into a Titan, [[ItMakesSenseInContext it's a long story.]][[/note]].

** One of the best examples happens in Episode 11, where Governor Tarkin calls the resident two [[ThoseTwoBadGuys comic relief bumbling bad guys]] into his office, and promptly has the Grand Inquisitor ''[[MoodWhiplash behead them both for their failure]]''. Said Inquisitor himself would perish in the Season 1 Finale, when he [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled chooses to fall to his death rather than face the Emperor's wrath]], to the surprise of many people who expected him to be a long-running recurring villain.

* 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.
* 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.]]

* [[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, 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.

* ''Franchise/{{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 [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]] with [[DyingMomentOfAwesome quite a bit more fanfare]] to save a tribe of proto-humans.
** Tigatron and Airazor die, come back as Tigerhawk, 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 eight of them survive to the end of the series (Optimus, Rattrap, Rhinox, Cheetor, Waspinator, Megatron, Blackarachnia and Silverbolt).
* ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', the sequel series to ''Beast Wars'', trims Rhinox, Megatron, and Optimus from the surviving eight. 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 it is counted, the death toll of ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' new arrivals just tops 50%.
* ''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.
** Blurr is crushed into a cube by Shockwave in Transwarped, Master Yoketron is left to die in Prowl's arms by Lockdown, Prowl sacrifices his life to stop the Lugnut Supremes from blowing up, and Starscream dies after the Allspark fragment keeping him alive is sucked out of his head. Since this was the final episode of the show, he probably didn't get better, though the comics show Blurr having survived.
** There's also the sorta-deaths. Ultra Magnus is beaten nearly to death by Shockwave and we never do see him wake up from his coma (WordOfGod: Had they gotten a season four, Magnus would have bought it and Sentinel would have taken his place, and the dangerous acts he commits in his hubris would have only escalated.) and the Constructicons are blown up, with only Scrapper seen to survive. There's also the business with the gathering of the Allspark fragments. Since many of them had brought other Transformers to life and removing Starscream's fragment killed him, he may not have been the only casualty. WordOfGod says Wreck-Gar survived, but hasn't specified the fates of anyone else brought to life by an Allspark fragment. We're given hope in the fact that all the Allspark fragments were ''clearly'' not collected (Prowl's sacrifice was necessitated by the fact that not enough were gathered, and the reconstituted Allspark looks barely even half-complete, in fact - they left enough fragments out there to make the hoped-for comic continuation able to still use them as a plot point.)
* The makers of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' have said that "when we kill a character, [[KilledOffForReal we kill a character]]", but in practice, ended up downplaying this trope. Of the small number of named characters to die, most (such as Cliffjumper, Skyquake, Tailgate, and Makeshift) died in the same episode they were introduced, with only flashbacks to flesh them out a bit more. Dreadwing, Breakdown, Optimus, and Megatron were the only exceptions, and the latter two came back from the dead.
* This is major gimmick of the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' 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 of the characters.
* In a rarity for a children's programme, ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood'' had a fairly high mortality rate, with a lot of the major characters being killed off as the series went on. By the end of the show only a few of the original animals still survived.

* The entire message of ''WesternAnimation/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/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.

* Since ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons: WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' {{Halloween episode}}s are [[NegativeContinuity not part of the show's canon]], the writers frequently end up [[DeathAsComedy killing off lots and lots of characters for black comedy]]; not even the Simpson family themselves are safe.
* 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' goes in this direction by the end of season one, and especially in the finale, [[spoiler: although all the deaths [[TitleDrop come undone]] in the end]].
* Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. So far, the only main or central characters to die have been [[spoiler:Stewie]] (who died in an episode that was AllJustADream) and [[spoiler:Brian]] (who was brought back to life ''[[DeathIsCheap not even three episodes later]]''). Nevertheless, several minor and recurring characters, such as Francis Griffin and Diane Simmons, have been KilledOffForReal.
* 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.]]
* ''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.
* 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. Fry has also passed through space and time several times.
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has this to the point where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUxNQlvzuL8 someone made a compilation]], and that video didn't even include deaths from Season 3.
* ''WesternAnimation/RoswellConspiracies'' killed off characters with surprising aplomb for a cartoon in the late 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 stay dead]].

* The makers of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' have said that "when we kill a character, [[KilledOffForReal we kill a character]]," and a few surprising deaths have happened. However, no main characters yet as of the season one finale.
** Season two has Airachnid tearing Breakdown apart piece by piece. MECH then used parts of his body to build Nemesis Prime. He's Dead Jim.
** And near the end of season two, Megatron blows a hole in Dreadwing's torso rather than let him kill Starscream. There's more hole than torso, and just like that, a fairly dynamic and important character is gone, and never mentioned again.
** By the end of the series, this trope is [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]]. Out of all the Autobots that appeared in more than one episode, only two get killed off (if you include Zombie!Cliffjumper and his flashback episode). Out of all the Decepticons that appeared in more than one episode, only five get killed off (if you include Zombie!Skyquake, and if you believe that the Predacons mauled Starscream to death [[KilledOffScreen off-screen]]).

** The case can be said during the expedition, when almost all of the crewmembers were killed after the Leviathan destroyed the Ulysses, with the exception of the main characters who escaped on an escape pod and subpod, and Rourke stated out that there were 200 people on board. Of course, they weren't the only ones who perished by the Leviathan's wrath as numerous sunken ships were seen surrounding the Leviathan's resting grounds, along with underground murals showing people from other civilizations perishing during their attempts to invade Atlantis. This implies that many people throughout the ages have died searching and trying to pillage Atlantis; this was shown in a deleted scene when a group of Vikings tried to search for Atlantis in their ship, only to end up being killed by the Leviathan itself.

* ''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 stay dead]].

* 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 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.

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

** Ziro the Hutt is killed almost halfway into Season 3, with the death of the Toydarian King Katuunko coming shortly afterwards. Near the end of the same season, they killed Even Piel, a background Jedi master. This happened just ''after'' the viewers were getting past the death of [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Echo]].

** Season 4 really [[SerialEscalation upped the ante]] in this regard by killing off Imperial officers Slavin and Titus [[BackForTheDead the moment they return]]. Following that, [[TheBartender Old Jho]] was [[BusCrash executed]] [[KilledOffscreen offscreen]], and the final episodes of the series would kill off [[AcePilot Vult Skerris]],[[MentorOccupationalHazard Kanan Jarrus]], [[WeHardlyKnewYe Hydan]], [[OldSoldier Gregor]], [[DeathByAdaptation Rukh]], and [[FaceDeathWithDignity Pryce.]]

** Ziro the Hutt is killed almost halfway into Season 3, with the death of the Toydarian King Katuunko coming shortly afterwards. Near the end of the same season, they [[InternetBackDraft killed]] Even Piel, a background Jedi master. This happened just ''after'' the viewers were getting past the death of [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Echo]].

* Since ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' Halloween episodes aren't part of the show's canon, the writers frequently end up killing off lots and lots of characters (not even the Simpsons themselves are safe.)

** Ziro the Hutt is killed almost halfway into Season 3. Near the end of the same season, they [[InternetBackDraft killed]] Even Piel, a background Jedi master. This happened just ''after'' the viewers were getting past the death of [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Echo]].

* 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 of the characters.

** Recurring Mandalorian bad guy would die in Season 3 in only his second appearance, Darth Maul would perish in a SingleStrokeBattle with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and recurring Rebel commander Jun Sato would kill off both Admiral Konstantine and [[HeroicSacrifice himself]] by crashing their flagships into each other.