History Main / ADeathInTheLimelight

* ''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'' ([[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.

* ''TheSopranos'' does this with Gene Pontecorvo, a DiMeo-Soprano soldier who spends a solid three seasons providing background filler before having the season six premiere episode ("Members Only") focus on him, his hopes and dreams, his family life... and his suicide.
** Subverted with Hesh Rabkin. He's a recurring character since the pilot episode, but never has an episode properly center on him until "Chasing It", nearing the series finale. It focuses on Tony owning him money and reluctantly paying his points while close associates discuss Hesh's demise. Hesh himself fears for his life throughout the episode as tensions rise. In the end, it's his girlfriend who suddenly dies, and Tony swings by to pay his respects/debt in full, though remaining estranged with him for the rest of the series.

** Danzo, whose only significant onscreen involvement in the plot until then was to get Sai enrolled into Kakashi's team, takes centre stage in the midst of the Pain invasion arc, plotting to overthrow Tsunade by ''not'' intervening to protect the village, kills the messenger frog to prevent Naruto from returning, gets himself appointed as the Sixth Hokage with a HannibalLecture, promptly orders Sasuke's execution, attends the Five Kage meeting, reveals what was underneath his bandages, attempts to take control of the ninja alliance, and is promptly disposed off by Sasuke with some help from Madara. All in the space of about 20 chapters or so (if you would exclude the lengthy flashbacks and discussions that Naruto and Nagato have).

* Nabu was introduced in Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' as Aisha's love interest [[ShallowLoveInterest ...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.

** Galactica has had a few others as well. Cally got an entire episode devoted to her just to wind up getting airlocked at the end. Dee was a prominent supporting character in the first three seasons, but was mostly a background character in the fourth season. She got a lot more attention in the Season 4.5 "premiere" only to off herself halfway through. There was also Simon, arguably the least developed of the Cylons throughout the series. ''The Plan'' puts a Simon copy in a starring role and makes him a sympathetic figure with a family. He kills himself with no chance of resurrection to avoid having to kill his family.

** Of course, it also did this to genuine-major-character Kanaya (and to a lesser extent Tavros) around the same time, though only one of those stuck, and to Rose's waking-self. In fact it's safer just to say that Andrew Hussie likes this trope in general.

* Series/DoctorWho: Father's Day.

* Nabu was introduced in Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' as Layla's love interest [[ShallowLoveInterest ...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.

* This has become a way for ''TheAmazingRace'' fans to determine who will be eliminated at the end of the episode.

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' devotes the plot of an episode to Kaworu Nagisa, the only person to ever explicitly show Shinji Ikari [[HoYay 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.

** ''{{Survivor}}'' has a bad habit of doing this to its more under-the-radar players, particularly in later seasons.

* ''MacrossFrontier'' devotes an episode to Ozma Lee and deliberately drew [[FundamentallyFunnyFruit outrageous parallels]] between him and [[SuperDimensionFortressMacross Roy Focker]] to hint at his upcoming death/[[HeroicSacrifice self-sacrifice]]. In the end, [[SubvertedTrope he survives]], and the other characters [[LampshadeHanging comment on how the drama was lost]].

* In ''BlackButler'', Angelina Durless appears to be an important major character, [[spoiler: only to be murdered by her own butler (who also happened to be a Shinigami), complete with a half-chapter montage of her story.]]

*** In the manga he gets two whole volumes to himself, with Vash only appearing right at the end. Needless to say, following the full reveal of his tragic backstory and the resolution of said backstory, he winds up dying after overdosing on the same chemicals that aged him and gave him his enhanced skills.
*** Legato also gets one of these in the manga, focusing on his traumatic past as a sex slave in a town of criminals and cowards, where he was rescued by Millions Knives and pledged himself to his service. Shortly after this spotlight story, Legato winds up dead.

* The ''entirety'' of ''{{Bokurano}}''. You can tell a pilot's the next one to go once he/she gets focused on. Although it was subverted for a little bit. [[spoiler: The next chapter after Kana's death is Jun's, so everybody figures, okay, he's gonna die next. Then Yoko makes the contract, something she wasn't supposed to be able to do, and the next few chapters after that are her DayInTheLimelight - [[WhamEpisode then she gets shot in the head.]] After that the focus goes straight back to Jun.]]

* Episodes Twelve and Thirteen of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' R2, with Episode Twelve acting as a breather; and contrast, to [[spoiler: Shirley's death.]]
* ''FafnerInTheAzure'' does this as well [[spoiler: several times, in conjunction with DyingMomentOfAwesome. Shouko's and Mamoru's HeroicSacrifice, Kouyou's and Sakura's assimilation, and Michio's suicide attack. Subverted with both Kouyou and Sakura in that both [[UnexplainedRecovery recover.]] Double subverted in that Kouyou ends up becoming a Master-Type Festum anyway to protect the island. Triple subverted in that he [[BackForTheFinale comes back in Meir form for the movie,]] piloting the Fafner Mark Vier, the Fafner he originally used. [[OverlyLongGag QUADRUPLE]] subverted in that his Fafner is immediately trashed and his Meir core promptly vanishes.]]
* ''PandoraHearts'' does this with a ''lot'' of characters, most notably [[spoiler:[[HeroicSacrifice Elliot]] [[TomatoInTheMirror Nightray]]]]. Subverted for [[spoiler:Leo, who was impaled in the middle of his fight with Oz, and lives [[HealingFactor thanks to being a Baskerville]].]]
** Also subverted [[spoiler:Reim Lunettes and Lily Baskerville, who, after getting a chapter's worth of attention with each other, [[FauxDeath put himself in a death-like state]] after being non-fatally wounded and got shot in the head then recovers respectively.]]

* ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' has a few chapters like this. One notable one is [[spoiler:Mizuho]]'s, which is only ''three pages long'' and ends in her getting gunned down by [[spoiler:Kazuo]].

* ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Battlestar Galactica]]'': "The Passage", with Kat, who had at least made a few appearances prior; "Razor", with Kendra Shaw, who within the span of a double-length episode is introduced, made one of the most important figures in the fleet, and killed off, never to be mentioned again; and "Sacrifice" with Billy Kekeiya, who had been an important secondary character since the beginning. Lastly, Gaeta [[spoiler:and Zarek start a mutiny]], during which Gaeta, who is normally a significant background character, took the spotlight. [[spoiler:He was executed at the end]].

** As of season 5, it seems that he's still in here, as evidenced by "My Bloody Valentine"...but then again, Cas was [[spoiler:exploded, AGAIN, in the finale, so now who knows.]]

* In ''FlashForward2009'', the character of [[spoiler: Al Gough]] receives this as his send-off episode. In fact, it is the first time that [[spoiler: more than a few moments is devoted to his flash-forward and the mental turmoil he is experiencing]] although it is hinted at every so often in the previous episodes.

* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' did this to [[spoiler: the Alternate Lincoln]] after giving us a much wanted episode with the two [[spoiler: Lincoln's]] trying to figure out how they ended up so different from each other. [[spoiler: The obvious guess would probably be Altlivia's influence in his life.]]

* 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.]]

* Chapter 11 of ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' includes [[spoiler: Isara's]] CrowningMomentOfAwesome of inventing smoke bombs to get the squad past a narrow field without being gunned down by the enemy... and then ends with [[spoiler: her]] being KilledOffForReal.

* In ''{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}}'', Cordelia dies about halfway through her first DayInTheLimelight. She got better, though.

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

* Chapter 11 of ValkyriaChronicles includes [[spoiler: Isara's]] CrowningMomentOfAwesome of inventing smoke bombs to get the squad past a narrow field without being gunned down by the enemy...and then ends with [[spoiler: her]] being KilledOffForReal.
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* ''BattleRoyale'', in which most characters die within a chapter or two of the point where the story starts to focus on them. Practically guaranteed if it starts talking about their past.
** In all fairness, [[KillEmAll we ARE talking about]] ''BattleRoyale''.

* ''BattleRoyale'' has a few chapters like this. One notable one is [[spoiler:Mizuho]]'s, which is only ''three pages long'' and ends in her getting gunned down by [[spoiler:Kazuo]].

* Nabu was introduced in Season 3 of ''WinxClub'' as Layla's love interest [[ShallowLoveInterest ...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.

* ''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 ''TheLionKing'' ([[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 Invisibles'' features an issue dedicated to the life, good and bad, of one of the nameless henchmen gunned down by the heroes in a previous issue.

* In ''Series/BurnNotice'', Victor died almost as soon as we found out what his deal was.

** Ace is a bit of an odd example, as he gets his BelatedBackstory immediately 'after' dying.