History SacrificialLion / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Alias}}'': Another J.J. Abrams' show that does the same thing. Irony points, the character in ''Series/{{Alias}}'' who was replaced by an identical assassin was named Francie. Awfully similar to Francis, ain't it?

** Tommy Merlyn, the best friend of [[TheHero Oliver Queen]] and the son of [[BigBad Malcolm Merlyn]] is killed at the end of Season 1 as the result of the Undertaking. His death inspires Oliver to adopt his ThouShaltNotKill ideology, and even has Oliver saying how he's doing this to honor his deceased friend in the opening monologue of Season 2.

** Sara Lance is killed at the start of Season 3, as her character was meant to be a springboard for her sister, Laurel Lance, to becoming the Black Canary. However Sara was [[BreakoutCharacter so popular]] that she got brought BackFromTheDead and ended up as a lead role on a [[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow spin-off show]].
** Laurel Lance herself gets killed nearing the end of Season 4, mainly to show how overwhelmingly powerful Damien Darhk is, and out of spite for her father, Quentin Lance, betraying Darhk earlier in the season. It marks the point Darhk crosses the MoralEventHorizon, and all the characters go from wanting him captured to wanting him dead.

* In ''Series/TheBoys2019'', [[spoiler: Starlight's NiceGuy [[AmicableExes ex-boyfriend]] [[AdaptationalNiceGuy Supersonic]] is brought onto [[SuperTeam the Seven]] to replace [[ThoseWackyNazis Stormfront]], and spends half the season plotting with her to overthrow [[BigBad Homelander]]. He's then [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter betrayed by A-Train]] and brutally murdered by Homelander, who [[TargetedToHurtTheHero makes her look at his corpse and tells her that the same thing will happen to Hughie if she keeps sneaking around]].]]

** And then to Lincoln. A funny, friendly badass who adored Fauxlivia, won the hearts of the fangirls and survived getting blown up.

** Eddard Stark is a reasonable if flawed man who establishes in the first season that AnyoneCanDie. He is conclusive proof that decency, honesty and Westeros don't mix very well.

** Often an InvertedTrope to the villains, especially after Decade. They are usually offed by the end of the first quarter of the show, though there are some special cases....

** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' has Ryoji Hase/Kamen Rider Kurokage. At first, he is introduced as yet another rival for the heroes to defeat, but is soon reduced to being part of a GoldfishPoopGang with his friend Jounochi/Kamen Rider Gridon. But then the series has a case of CerebusSyndrome, resulting in Hase losing his powers, irreversibly mutating into a rabid monster and then killed by one of the new Yggdrasil Riders to show this faction is a legitimate threat who'll do whatever it takes to reach their goal.

** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' has Aoba, who was one the three Crows led by Kazumi/Grease, being the first unintended fatality at the hands of the hero's DeadlyUpgrade, with his death being a motivating factor for his captain. Imitations of him and his two fellow fallen comrades made by Evolto towards the end of the series that led to [[spoiler:Kazumi's death]], while Aoba himself comes back to life in the New World after the two worlds merged.
** ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'' has Ansatsu-chan/Dodo Magia, where unlike most Magias before him, can be remade and [[CameBackStrong come back stronger]] in the event that he is destroyed [[spoiler:(even though it turns out each version of him was made by four of the five Matsurida Z that was stolen and reincarnated).]] After Version 4's scrapping at the hands of the hero's first MidSeasonUpgrade, [[spoiler:with No. 5 ending up in Hiden's custody and the Dodo Key used for Raiden, Ansatsu-chan could not be remade again.]]

** In Season Two, the main cast manages to survive the entire run, but some of their allies and {{GuestStarPartyMember}}s do not, like Henry Heywood/Commander Steel, Doctor Mid-Nite and Rex Tyler/Hourman.

** Sadoc Burrows is killed by the the Ascetic, and Malva has to take over the leadership of the Harfoots in his place.

** Boone Carlyle receives a good deal of character development before being the first main character to die, restoring a AnyoneCanDie atmosphere to the show that it had lost after the first few episodes (thanks to the weird DisneyDeath of Charlie) and that it has maintained ever since.
** The deaths of Sayid, Jin and Sun in the final season, which happened to show the audience that The Man in Black was truly the BigBad.

** In the second episode, Pop is accidentally killed when Tone tries to shoot Chico. His death affects numerous characters in the show, and is what pushes Luke to use his powers to defend Harlem from the criminals who have been ravaging the community.

* ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem'': Libba is killed during the interception, when a piece of the truck breaks off and tears right through her chest.
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': Loves to point these out. Tom Servo once called out, "Ding-ding-ding--'''VICTIM'''!" at one blatantly obvious Sacrificial Lion in the ''Film/IWasATeenageWerewolf'' [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E09IWasATeenageWerewolf episode]]. It became a RunningGag as the teen walked through a desolated path.

** In the [[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower first season finale]], Nora Clayton. She had spent almost the entire season working with Team Matheson in rescuing Danny and subsequently fighting the Monroe Republic. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E5SoulTrain Episode 5]] and [[Recap/RevolutionS1E6SexAndDrugs Episode 6]] show her get stabbed non-fatally in the gut and almost die from an infection. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E8TiesThatBind Episode 8]] expanded on her backstory along with her sister Mia Clayton. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E16TheLoveBoat Episode 16]] had her rekindling her relationship with her ex Miles... which made her death very upsetting for him.
* ''Series/RobinHood'': Roughly 40% of the guest stars that featured on this show, in particular Carter and Legrand.

* ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'': While no HistoricalDomainCharacter may count among these, Varro, Barca and Mira certainly do.

** The seventh season episode "Heroes" fan-favorite character [[spoiler:Dr. Frasier]] is killed while treating a wounded airman during an offworld firefight, mostly to give us another reason to hate Anubis.

** Hemmer appears in a handful of episodes and strikes up something of a friendship with Cadet Uhura, who is DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife, not even sure if she’ll stay in Starfleet. He meets his end at the penultimate episode of Season One, urging Uhura to stick around and become the woman she’s destined to be before he pulls a HeroicSuicide to save the other crew mates from the Gorn.

* ''Series/TheTudors'': Cardinal Wolsey's banishment from court and subsequent execution could arguable be a drawn out version of this trope. The show had taken the time to build up Wolsey and establish him as a major force in the royal court and politics of Europe and billed the actor as a member of the main cast. His downfall helped establish Henry's fickle nature and demonstrate that in RealLife AnyoneCanDie. Though he [[SuicideNotMurder wasn't executed]].

** Tyreese's death happened at the time the group is still mourning and recovering from the previous character's death. The character's death is also an extension of his sister's CharacterDevelopment. In a meta sense, it's also proof that AnyoneCanDie at any time is still well and truly in effect, since the character's death suddenly came one episode after the previous one's, and that you don't have to wait for the season finales for a character to die.

** Jesus's sudden death finally makes the group realize that Eugene's warnings of "walkers who can talk" aren't just crazed hyperbole, and that there is indeed a dangerous new threat out there in the form of the Whisperers.
** The shocking heads-on-pikes deaths of Enid, Tara, Henry, Ozzy, Alek, D.J., Frankie, Tammy Rose, Rodney and Adeline make the communities sit up and realize that Alpha is absolutely not screwing around, and that she will not hesitate for one second to slaughter anyone she perceives as a threat or challenge to the Whisperers. Arguably, the deaths do more damage to the morale of the three communities than Negan ever did during the Savior War.

** Rodrik Cassel's death shows that Theon is ''really'' starting to lose his shit.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': Captain Jack seems like this at first in ''Series/DoctorWho''. [[AlwaysChaoticEvil The Daleks]] drive him and his army into a corner (Not to mention they also go to the lower floors of a space station just to [[KillEmAll wipe out the humans hidden away there]]). Everybody's dead, and his machine gun's running out of ammo. He pulls out a pistol and fires, quickly running out of bullets. He relents, and asks what the Daleks are going to do:

-->'''Daleks:''' ''EX-TER-MI-NATE!''
-->'''Jack:''' I kinda figured that.

** Kenny Wangler is killed off in the Season 4 premiere to make it abundantly clear that Adebisi is playing for keeps with his plan to take control of Em City.
** Augustus Hill, the show's narrator, is murdered in the fifth season finale to establish that now more than ever, AnyoneCanDie.

** ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'' has [[spoiler: Yujiro Wakabayashi, who is apparently the [['''BigGood BIG GOOD''']] of the series. The mere fact that he was killed by the MonsterOfTheWeek will remind you that Revice isn't pure light-hearted as other Kamen Rider shows before it.]]

* In season 2 of ''Series/DoomPatrol2019'', Baby Doll and Flaming Katy are killed off to demonstrate that even the denizens of Jane's Underground aren't safe from the reality-warping Candlemaker. This also sets up the return of Miranda, Jane's morally-ambiguous precursor, who kills off Scarlet Harlot and Lucy Fugue in order to create a pretext to depose Jane as the Primary. The season finale features yet another example, as Niles Caulder dies of old while the Doom Patrol just as the Candlemaker arrives, leaving the Doom Patrol to their own devices to fight him.

** Kenya Rosewater is shown as the proprietor of the local brothel, and was also Nolan's lover, and later becomes the Stahma's lover. In the finale, Stahma kills off Kenya to placate Stahma's husband. Kenya's death is used to demonstrate Stahma's loyalty to her husband [[spoiler:and according to WordOfGod also set up major plot points in Season 2]].

** Tommy Merlyn, the best friend of [[TheHero Oliver Queen]] and the son of [[BigBad Malcolm Merlyn]] is killed at the end of Season 1 as the result of the Undertaking. His death inspires Oliver to adopt his ThouShaltNotKill ideology, and even has Oliver saying how he's doing this to honor his deceased friend in the opening monologue of season 2.

** Season two brings the first of many examples in Jenny Calendar. She's specifically killed to convince the Scooby Gang that Angelus is an actual threat. And Puccini would never be the same again.

*** He finally got to do this in season 6 with Tara who, after being a regular supporting/main character since season 4, was added to the opening title sequence [[spoiler:in the same episode she was brutally killed]].

** In the Season One finale, Eddie Thawne commits a HeroicSuicide to [[RetGone erase the Reverse-Flash (his descendant) from existence]] before he can kill Barry.
** In the Season Two premiere, Professor Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond merged as Firestorm fly into the eye of the singularity above central city, and forcibly separate to close it. Only Stein makes it back, Ronnie doesn't. Later in the second to last episode, Zoom kills Henry Allen in front of Barry, in a particularly cruel YankTheDogsChain, after spending the entire past season trying to free him from prison for a crime he didn't commit.
** In Season Three, the major arc was preventing Iris from being this at the hands of Savitar. They succeed, by someone else taking her place with holographic technology: H.R. Wells.
* ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'' has Lou, by now a beloved character, dying in a second-season episode. In this case, it's not so much about the particular bad guy (who's already dead) as to set up the possibility that AnyoneCanDie, which hadn't been a part of the show previously; it puts an edge on the suspense in every future episode where a member of the team is in danger.

* ''Series/TheKilling'': Two back to back. Near the end of season 3, Bullet is shockingly murdered (off-screen) by the Pied Piper. The next episode, Ray Seward is executed in prison despite his innocence.

** In Season One, Carter Hall/Hawkman is the first member of the main cast to bite it at the hands of Vandal Savage, and on the ''second'' episode, no less (though a later incarnation joins them temporarily as an EleventhHourRanger). In the second to last episode, Leonard Snart/Captain Cold stays behind to ensure the self-destruct of the Time Masters' main computer, along with all of them (after preventing Mick from doing it, who in turn had prevented ''Ray'' from doing it before).

** Danny Matheson in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand episode 11]]. What really hits home about his death is that the protagonists spend the first half of the season trying to rescue him and this happens right after the [[Recap/RevolutionS1E10NobodysFaultButMine episode where he gets rescued]]. On the plus side, he saved a lot of lives as he died, and his death has inspired many younger people to join up with the rebels, such as Jason Neville in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E13TheSongRemainsTheSame episode 13]].
** In the [[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower first season finale]], Nora Clayton. She had spent almost the entire season working with Team Matheson in rescuing Danny and subsequently fighting the Monroe Republic. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E5SoulTrain Episode 5]] and [[Recap/RevolutionS1E6SexAndDrugs episode 6]] show her get stabbed non-fatally in the gut and almost die from an infection. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E8TiesThatBind Episode 8]] expanded on her backstory along with her sister Mia Clayton. [[Recap/RevolutionS1E16TheLoveBoat Episode 16]] had her rekindling her relationship with her ex Miles...which made her death very upsetting for him.

** The seventh-season episode "Heroes" fan-favorite character [[spoiler:Dr. Frasier]] is killed while treating a wounded airman during an offworld firefight, mostly to give us another reason to hate Anubis.

** An element of FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you remember that that's exactly what all the RedShirts died for in the Original Series--the only difference is that this time the audience ''knows'' the RedShirt in question.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Damn near everyone. In particular, Ash and the Roadhouse in "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One", John Winchester in "In My Time Of Dying" (all for the Yellow-Eyed Demon), Henriksen in "Jus In Bello" (for Lilith), and Jo and Ellen in "Abandon All Hope..." (for Lucifer). Another possible example is Kubrick in "Fresh Blood", who seemed to be getting set up as another recurring antagonist, only to be killed by Gordon in his second episode. Not to mention Bela in "Time Is On My Side" (to remind us of what's about to happen to Dean) and Anna in "The Song Remains The Same" (angels can stay dead and Heaven's torture is ''very'' bad news). Then we have [[CoolCar the]] [[CompanionCube Impala]], which doesn't ''die'', being a car, but does get hidden away for most of season seven after "Slash Fiction" to emphasize the Leviathan threat.

** The execution of Thomas More halfway through Season 2 also applies here. More is portrayed right from the start as King Henry VIII's closest advisor and personal friend--More is practically the only character who addresses the king as "Henry" or "Harry", rather than "Your Majesty". Until the second episode of Season 2, he is Henry's Chancellor. Henry then has him beheaded a few episodes later.

** Joe's death is the culmination of Rick's CharacterDevelopment throughout the entire series - he finally embraces both his humanity and brutality, turning him into a much more effective leader and father with no more doubts about his ability to lead or protect his family.

-->'''Jack:''' [[FamousLastWords I kinda figured that]].

** In an WebSite/SFDebris review of "The Adversary", Chuck references this trope, along with the ubiquitous RedShirt:
--->'''Eddington:''' You don't get to be a captain wearing a [[RedShirt gold uniform]].
--->'''Chuck:''' That's because [[GenreSavvy guys in the gold uniforms usually get their salt sucked out to prove the situation's serious]].

** Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon are both reasonable if flawed men who establish in the first season that AnyoneCanDie. Eddard is also conclusive proof that decency, honesty and Westeros don't mix very well.
** A nice guy like Renly serves to demonstrate the power of a new faction introduced in the second season.

** Robb is a major character in the first, second and third seasons. He rules the North and the Riverlands until he is murdered at the Red Wedding, alongside his pregnant wife, his mother, and many of his lords' bannermen, by Houses Frey and Bolton in Season 3.
** Stannis is a major character in the second, third, fourth and fifth seasons, but in Season 5, he marches on Winterfell, the weather slows his progress and he and his army are smashed by Bolton forces in the ensuing battle. In the aftermath, he is found and killed by Brienne of Tarth for his role in Renly's death.
** Jon Snow in Season 5. His decision to allow thousands of Free Folk safe passage through the Wall alienates many of his black brothers, culminating in a mutiny where Jon is killed. (He got better).
** Roose is a major character in the fifth and sixth seasons. However, in Season 6 is he betrayed and murdered by his own son.
** Blackfish is a recurring character in the third and sixth seasons but when he refuses to surrender his family home to the Freys, he is killed in a final stand when Jaime Lannister retakes the castle.
** Margaery was a major character in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons but in Season 6, she was killed when the Great Sept of Baelor was destroyed with wildfire as orchestrated by Cersei Lannister.

** [[spoiler:Sarina Sonoda/]]Scorpion Zodiarts from ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' gets defeated... yet still hangs around for a few more episodes before he goes back into the fray again and gets defeated by the SecondRider. Despite living through that, Virgo comes and sends him to the Dark Nebula where he/[[SamusIsAGirl she]] [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse will never be seen again]]. The Switch that he uses is kept though, and is used by both the BigBad and his second Dragon for different goals.

** Joe's death is the culmination of Rick's Character Development throughout the entire series - he finally embraces both his humanity and brutality, turning him into a much more effective leader and father with no more doubts about his ability to lead or protect his family.