History Main / ADeathInTheLimelight

* The twenty-second ''WarriorCats'' book ''Night Whispers'' focused on EnsembleDarkhorse's attempts to unravel a mysterious prophecy. At the end, he drowns.

* In "DesperateHousewives", the episode where Martha Hoover dies begins with saying how much she wanted her life to be exciting and to be famous, and at the end, she was famous for her horrific murder.

*** Even before these, ''Naruto'' has had a long, proud tradition of only revealing a character's backstory just before something truly awful happens to them. Generally speaking, if a character is in a fight and starts having a flashback to their childhood, there's about a 90% chance they're going to, at least, lose that battle.
**** A tradition it proudly shares with ''{{Bleach}}''. Of course, [[MemeticMutation nobody]] [[BoringImmortalHero dies in]] [[BoringInvincibleVillain Bleach]].

* The belief/meme in the {{Homestuck}} fandom that "Flash Page Means Death" is partially the result of the author doing this for several deaths in a row, giving characters lots of screentime in a flash page right before killing them. First [[spoiler:"Kanaya: Return to the core" gave Kanaya, Eridian and Feferi a lot more screentime than they're used to and dove into developing Eridian's character for pretty much the first time ever]], just before [[spoiler:Eridian murdered Feferi and Kanaya]]. Not much later, [[spoiler:"Equius: Seek the highb100d." was nothing but Equius and Nepeta getting the most screentime and character development either had ever had]], and was shortly followed by [[spoiler:both of their deaths]].

** There was a story planned for DS9 that would have involved her turning up alive in a Cardassian prisoner camp, but obviously, said story never made it to the air. As far as canon's concerned, she's dead.

** Seeing as season two of ''Beast Wars'' had 12 episode, those three episodes do form 1/4 of the entire season, so it's not a negligible amount of time.
*** Considering it's an entire character arc highlighting a lot of subtle development we should have noticed over the first season? Yes. It is.

* The ''CallOfDuty Modern Warfare'' series does this at least once in each game. In the first one, it's the just-got-ousted President of the generic Arab Country, whom you get to play as during the moments leading up to his execution. In the second, it's [[spoiler:SatCom 1, who you use to watch Price's plan unfold. When it does, the resultant [[FridgeLogic space-shockwave]] destroys the station you're on, killing you in the process.]]

* ''TeenTitans'' #62: [[{{Superfriends}} Wendy and Marvin]], teen geniuses who came on during the One Year Later plotline to repair Cyborg and maintain the Titans Tower gear, generally treated like background characters until needed for hostages. In this issue, they discuss their dissatisfaction with their minor roles, [[MythologyGag adopt a dog]], and are repeatedly assured by other characters that they're vital to the team's functioning. Then the dog turns into a monster that [[RevengeFic mauls Marvin to death]] and puts Wendy in a coma when none of the heroes are looking. It also double as an AlasPoorScrappy moment, as before this issue [[TheScrappy fans HATED Marvin and Wendy]], but after this horrific and depressing issue, [[UnpleasableFanbase people immediately started complaining]] about the characters' fates and hoping Wendy recovered. DC has decided to make use of this this sentiment and focused on Wendy's [[CharacterDevelopment struggle to adapt to being a paraplegic once she leaves her coma]] and has reinvented herself as the superhero-in-training [[PlayfulHacker Proxy]]. She is currently featured as a supporting character in the ongoing ''{{Batgirl}}'' series under the tutelage of Barbara Gordon, the original [[BirdsOfPrey crippled hero turned cyber-warare specialist]].

[[Comicbook/TeenTitans http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TeenTitansDeath.jpg]]
[[caption-width:260:Don't let the smiles fool you, [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel the dog mauls the boy to death]] [[DownerEnding at the end]]...]]

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** Joyce's death could count in a sort of drawn-out way. Having previously been mostly "Buffy's mom," in season five she gets a subplot where she has to undergo surgery to remove a brain tumor. Then we finally have an episode where she's well again, gotten out of bed, and even begins dating a nice (though never-seen) man. The episode ends when Buffy gets home, [[MoodWhiplash smiles at the bouquet of flowers said guy has sent, walks into the living room... and finds Joyce's pale,]] [[ReverseFunnyAneurysm unmoving body on the couch]], leading into the CrowningMomentOfSadness episode "[[SomethingCompletelyDifferent The Body]]."

** Joyce's death could count in a sort of drawn-out way. Having previously been mostly "Buffy's mom," in season five she gets a subplot where she has to undergo surgery to remove a brain tumor. Then we finally have an episode where she's well again, gotten out of bed, and even begins dating a nice (though never-seen) man. The episode ends when Buffy gets home, smiles at the bouquet of flowers said guy has sent, walks into the living room...[[MoodWhiplash and finds Joyce's pale, unmoving body on the couch]], leading into the CrowningMomentOfSadness episode "[[SomethingCompletelyDifferent The Body]]."

* In ''SouthPark'', Kenny, although always part of the main cast, barely had any effect on the plot up until "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Kenny Dies]]", after which he is killed for a season.

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' devotes the plot of an entire episode to Kaworu Nagisa, the only person to ever show Shinji Ikari [[HoYay real love]], who only appears in this very episode. Yet this person's relevance to the plot is that he is the last Angel, meaning that Shinji has to kill his new best friend.

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' devotes the plot of an entire episode to Kaworu Nagisa, the only person to ever show Shinji Ikari [[HoYay true loving]], who only appears in this very episode. Yet this person's relevance to the plot is that he is the last Angel, meaning that Shinji has to kill his new best friend.

* ''TeenTitans'' #62: [[{{Superfriends}} Wendy and Marvin]], teen geniuses who came on during the One Year Later plotline to repair Cyborg and maintain the Titans Tower gear, generally treated like background characters until needed for hostages. In this issue, they discuss their dissatisfaction with their minor roles, [[MythologyGag adopt a dog]], and are repeatedly assured by other characters that they're vital to the team's functioning. Then the dog turns into a monster that [[RevengeFic mauls Marvin to death]] and puts Wendy in a coma when none of the heroes are looking.
** May also double as an AlasPoorScrappy moment, as before this issue [[TheScrappy fans HATED Marvin and Wendy]]. But after this horrific and depressing issue, [[UnpleasableFanbase people immediately started complaining]] about the characters' fates and hoping Wendy recovered.
*** The tonal shift was likely also a source of complaints. ''TeenTitans'' has a reputation as being one of the most grimdark of the team books, and after all the drama, here's a "breather" issue where the two tech guys adopt a dog. Surprise! It's an evil dog that eats people!

* ''DoctorWho'': Father's Day.