History Main / DeathIsASadThing

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* The ''WesternAnimation/BobbysWorld'' episode, "The Music", has the titular character dealing with the death of his friend, Abe the crossing guard. Howard helps Bobby understand that those who die are never truly gone as long as you remember them, as well as the things they taught us. Bobby remembers how Abe taught him about his shapes after he had failed a test, and uses this knowledge to retake it.

* The death of Littlefoot's mother in ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' is a famous (in infamous, depending on who you ask) example of this, and Littlefoot spends the next several scenes mourning her loss and trying to come to terms with it while he tries to survive on his own. It's strongly implied, if not outright stated, that it took him a while for her death to fully cement itself in his mind, despite his seeming understanding of it right after the fact. It's downright heartbreaking.
** Supposedly there was talk of possibly cutting the death scene from the movie for fear of it being too sad for children, but ultimately it was kept in because learning to accept a parent's death is something that, unfortunately, some children are going to have to do.

* ''{{Film/Avatar}}'': Princess Neytiri and Dr. Grace Augustine have a good relationship, for Neytiri was one of Grace's many students to learn English. When Grace passed away, Neytiri felt a great sense of loss.

* ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' has an episode in which the Sevilles adopt a cat, Cookie Chomper III, which is subsequently run over on the road and killed. The episode shows how Alvin, Simon and Theodore cope with their loss and how Dave eventually encourages them to remember the happy times they had with Cookie. In the end, Dave persuades the Chipmunks that they can learn to love another pet just as much as they did Cookie, leading to them adopting a dog, Lilly, from the animal shelter.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' had the death of a raccoon that Calvin found. Watterson classified the two-week arc as C&H's GrowingTheBeard moment.

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* ''VideoGame/{{Horace}}'': The titular [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot robot]] first experiences the concept of death when the Old Man, his creator/father, dies of a heart attack. Horace is so shocked that he shuts down for years. For the rest of the game, thanks to the effects of the RobotWar, he winds up seeing death a lot, and says quite a few times that “death is really sad”.

* Similar to the ''Rugrats'' example, its SpiritualSuccessor ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' had a similar case where the class hamster, Speedy, dies, and the kids decide to hold a funeral for him on the playground during recess. Then things get confusing when many people show up for the funeral, including high schoolers, college-aged people, adults, and even the town mayor. Especially when the natural lifespan of a hamster is only 2 to 3 years, and the Speedy they knew had wildly different appearances. It turns out that [[LegacyCharacter there's been many, many, grade 4 class hamsters named "Speedy"]].

* This plot is parodied in the ''Series/WandaVision'' episode "On A Very Special Episode...". Wanda's sons find a dog and ask to keep him, but the dog ends up dying after chewing on Agnes' azalea bushes. The boys ask Wanda to use her powers to resurrect him, but Wanda teaches them that death is a natural part of life and helps them deal with it (the [[ParentalHypocrisy irony]] being that Wanda recently brought ''Vision'' back to life somehow after she couldn't deal with his death in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'').

* In ''Manga/SweetnessAndLightning'', five-year-old Tsumugi doesn't seem to understand that her mother is dead at first, most notably when she asks her father Kouhei to write her mother a letter so she can cook for them again. Eventually, [[RealityEnsues she realizes that her mother is never coming back]], and it's not only heartbreaking for her, but it weighs on her mind for a while afterwards. In chapter 33 of the manga, she even wonders about heaven and hell.

* ''Literature/AndYourNameIsJonah'': After Jonah's grandfather dies of a heart attack, Jonah doesn't understand that he's gone forever until Woody uses a turtle shell to teach him the sign for "dead."

** Mr. Hooper death in ''Sesame Street''. It's not quite the same, as Mr. Hooper ''was'' a major character and Will Lee's death (from prostate cancer) was a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot for the episode in which [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim his death]] was addressed. It was also a case of EnforcedMethodActing as the tears you see on camera are ''real'' -- something the single take bears out very clearly. That being said, it did teach little kids that it was okay to miss the deceased, and that adults also feel sad, cry and miss loved ones when they die.

* The death of Littlefoot's mother in ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' is a famous (in infamous, depending on who you ask) example of this, and Littlefoot spends the next several scenes mourning her loss and trying to come to terms with it while he tries to survive on his own. The narration even implies that it took him a while for her loss to fully cement itself in his mind, despite his seeming understanding of it right after the fact. It's downright heartbreaking.

* In ''Theatre/Beetlejuice'', this is one of the driving conflicts in the show. A young Lydia Deetz is attempting to cope with the death of her mother to no avail, while her father only seems to be ignoring the problem. If it hadn't been for BJ, [[DrivenToSuicide she would have taken the easy way out...]]

* The second chapter of Fanfic/AllTheWorldsAStage show [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Roger Rabbit]] having trouble understanding Eddie's death.

* In an early episode of ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'' titled "Never Love a Duck" this happened (partially offscreen). Rob brought home two baby ducks that were used in an [[ShowWithinAShow "Alan Brady Show"]] sketch and Richie raised them. Cut to a few months later - one is dead and the other is dying. Rob explains to Richie that no matter how much he loves it, it's not enough for it to survive. They have to release it into the wild. ([[FridgeLogic How a duck raised by humans will cope in the wild isn't discussed.]])

* Near the end of the Obon Festival in ''Manga/SangatsuNoLion'', Hina, after making up an excuse to leave the house, runs off to an isolated area in the neighborhood to cry by herself over her deceased mother, save for Rei who follows her and chooses to stay by her side as she cries.

* An upcoming episode of ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'', "Daniel's Goldfish Dies" (already released in book form as ''Remembering Blue Fish''), based on the episode of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' described above, is about Daniel learning to deal with his feelings after his favorite fish in the family fish tank, Blue Fish, dies. In the episode's second half, "Daniel's Strawberry Seeds," Daniel and Katerina Kittycat visit the Enchanted Garden to pick strawberries, only to find that the strawberry plants have died.