History YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness / WesternAnimation

** Chris [=McLean=] says the stock phrase verbatim to Owen in Season 4 (''Total Drama [[NewSeasonNewName Revenge of the Island]]'') when the latter asks why he and the cast of the first three seasons aren't competing this time. Chris then sticks an explosive charge on Owen's face and detonates it.[[note]]Being a toon in a comedy, Owen survives none the worse.[[/note]]

'''Warning: Often serves as a DeathTrope, and frequently involves spoilers.'''

* In the one-hour special of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', the Metal-Masked Assassin does this to [[spoiler:Magnus Hammersmith after the latter [[EvenEvilHasStandards objects to the former's murder of the innocent Ishneafus Meaddle]]. Unusually, Magnus actually survives the attempt on his life, but swiftly [[HeelRealization realizes how horrible his complicity in the Assassin's other evil deeds was]] [[RedemptionEqualsDeath and commits suicide]]]].

** In the first season, Heather does pulls this trope on Lindsay when the latter is eliminated after being the last contestant to get to the finish line in the bike race. Heather was the only one that could save her supposed friend from elimination and she chose to not do it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', this is standard practice of Emperor Belos.

* Professor Pericles on ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' stoops this low in episode 50 when he [[spoiler:orders the death of all the citizens in Crystal Cove once they have found the door to the Nibiru Entity's tomb]] [[KarmicDeath He's on the receiving end]] shortly there after after freeing the Nibiru Entity from [[SealedEvilInACan its prison]]. The Entity replies by possessing and killing him to take his body as its own. It then follows up by eating the rest of the the original Mystery Inc. alive]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd'' cartoon "A Mutt in a Rut", Elmer Fudd -- in a rare cartoon where he stars as the hero, not the sympathetic villain -- loves his dog, Rover, and has no plans to kill him. However, Rover – having just watched "The Dog-Lover's Hour" and host Carlton Canine speak about how some dog-owners shoot and kill their dogs once they've grown old, becomes paranoid after hearing Canine ominously editorialize, "Two go out ... but only one comes back!" Rover, annoyed at not always getting his way, is convinced Elmer has him marked for death but -- since he is a dog -- is unable to tell Elmer specifically what is bothering him, and is set off when Elmer suggests a good hunting trip will do him good. Rover, thinking he's saving himself, decides to kill Elmer off himself and makes several attempts to off his unwary master; however, Rover gets the worst end of things. Only at the end of the cartoon, when he sees Rover somehow limp to the studio to attack the host of "The Dog-Lover's Hour" does Elmer even start to get an idea of what is bothering his beloved pet; Rover had finally become convinced that his place in the Fudd household was secure after his last attempt went awry, and was now determined to make Canine pay for needlessly stressing him out.

* Subverted in the pilot episode "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''. The BigBad is getting some acupuncture when his {{mook}} comes in and tells him that Doctor Venture is unveiling a new invention. Having received this information, the BigBad grabs some acupuncture needles out of his body and throws them at the mook, seemingly killing him. As the BigBad is reading the newspaper article about Doctor Venture, the mook speaks up and the BigBad looks up from the paper to see the mook thanking him for curing his shoulder pain and also his smoking habit.

** From Season 1 of the SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[BigBad Amon]] tells his flunky [[TheDragon The Lieutenant]] this when the latter discovers his boss's secret -- [[spoiler: Amon himself is actually a bloodbender]].

** In the tie-in novel, ''Literature/TheRiseOfKyoshi'', the previous Avatar Kuruk died at only 33 so his friends are left to find the new Avatar in the Earth Kingdom. Since the Earth Kingdom is the biggest and most populous, the search drags on and on and they ultimately pick the wrong kid, Yun. Kyoshi works in the compound where they’re training Yun and ultimately they figure out that she is the Avatar. The master who’s been teaching him earth bending, Jianzhu, feeds Yun to a spirit once they prove that he’s not the Avatar to protect Kyoshi from said spirit.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Disappearing Inque", Inque, a powerful shapeshifter whose body was falling apart, was freed from prison, given a place to hide out and helped to have her body's cohesion restored by Aaron Herbst, a slightly stalkerish guy who had worked at the prison. While he WAS annoying and probably creepy to be around it still doesn't forgive Inque taking his request to be given powers similar to hers and twisting it by only giving him half the abilities. In a rather nasty case of BodyHorror, [[AndIMustScream the guy now has a body similar to Inque in that its formless and malleable, but he lacks the ability to control it]].
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' has the Joker do this to Lex Luthor -- granted, Luthor tried to kill him, but it's implied that Joker knew that would happen and had been planning this: this being stealing Luthor's prototype flying wing and blow up half of Metropolis.
** CorruptCorporateExecutive Roland Daggett invokes this trope by name after deciding that Matt Hagen [[YouHaveFailedMe failed him for the last time]], setting up a series of events that ends up turning Hagen into Clayface.

** In "The Everywhere Man", Batman defeats the titular Everywhere Man by pointing out to his hundreds of clones that they would all be deleted from existence once they win, causing them to turn against Everywhere Man himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales|1987}}'': "Your usefulness is at an end!", said by El Capitan to Flinheart Glomgold at the end of "Wrongway in Ronguay", threatening him with a cannon. An unfazed Glomgold reverses the cannon back onto him however...with El Capitan doing likewise...and Glomgold again... leading to a "{{No|You}}, '''''[[NoYou You]]''''' Have Outlived Your Usefulness" argument until the cannon fires and thwarts them both.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'':
** Doomsday manipulates an [[SanitySlippage increasingly disgruntled and unstable]] Professor Milo into releasing him from his bonds in [[CapeBusters Cadmus]] HQ. The very first thing he does upon being freed is summarily kill Milo because he's useless now.
** Tala, following her failed revolt against ComicBook/LexLuthor, realizes Lex was planning on [[LivingBattery using her to revive]] ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} all along, even though it would kill her. When it finally happens, [[WomanScorned Tala]] tampers with the process in a final act of defiance by reviving ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} instead. The evil alien invokes this trope by killing almost all of the remaining rogues for their efforts, with the caveat that, being a God of cruelty and tyranny, he genuinely considers a quick death a great reward.
-->'''Darkseid:''' It would appear that I have you to thank for my resurrection. Though your planet will suffer slowly, I grant you the mercy of a quick death.

* WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes and WesternAnimation/MerrieMelodies:
** "A Mutt in a Rut": Elmer Fudd-- in a rare cartoon where he stars as the hero, not the sympathetic villain-- loves his dog, Rover, and has no plans to kill him. However, Rover – having just watched "The Dog-Lover's Hour" and host Carlton Canine speak about how some dog-owners shoot and kill their dogs once they've grown old-- becomes paranoid after hearing Canine ominously editorialize, "Two go out ... but only one comes back!" Rover, annoyed at not always getting his way, is convinced Elmer has him marked for death but-- since he is a dog-- is unable to tell Elmer specifically what is bothering him, and is set off when Elmer suggests a good hunting trip will do him good. Rover, thinking he's saving himself, decides to kill Elmer off himself and makes several attempts to off his unwary master; however, Rover gets the worst end of things. Only at the end of the cartoon, when he sees Rover somehow limp to the studio to attack the host of "The Dog-Lover's Hour" does Elmer even start to get an idea of what is bothering his beloved pet; Rover had finally become convinced that his place in the Fudd household was secure after his last attempt went awry, and was now determined to make Canine pay for needlessly stressing him out.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' Standard practice of Emperor Belos
** He resorts to this two times in "Hollow Mind" [[spoiler:when he tries to kill Luz, since the StableTimeLoop he needed her alive for has already been completed, and when he buries Hunter in his mind once he starts questioning Belos. He has also done this to every [[ArtificialHuman Golden Guard]] before Hunter, which Belos sees as [[ExpendableClone Expendable Clones]], and its implied that part of the reason he makes them is [[{{Sadist}} his enjoyment]] at getting to kill them once they aren't usable for him.]]
** New heights are reached in "King's Tide" [[spoiler:where Belos not only betrays the Collector and attempts to leave him to rot in his prison, but he tries to pull this on every single person in the Boiling Isles who has ever served him, willingly or not, as an effect of the draining spell. When Kikimora asks what she could possibly do to gain his favour, he coldly tells her to "go find a hole to wither away in".]] This backfires ''hard'' when [[spoiler:the Collector [[DoNotTauntCthulhu gets loose anyways]] thanks to making a deal with [[SpannerInTheWorks King]], and then proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle turn him into a literal smear on the wall]].]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "Aspirations", Sedusa ditches the Gangreen Gang after they steal for her the Egyptian artifacts that transformed her into a giant with snakes for hair (making her even closer to her mythological name {{Medusa}}) admitting that she never loved them. Naturally, [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal this leads to her downfall.]]
* Hack and Slash of ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'' get this treatment during Season 3, despite never having been useful in the first place. Megabyte is sick of their incompetence and sends them to the front lines [[UriahGambit solely to get rid of them]].
* Professor Pericles on ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' stoops this low in episode 50, where he [[spoiler:orders the death of all the citizens in Crystal Cove once they have found the door to the Nibiru Entity's tomb]].
** [[spoiler:[[KarmicDeath He's on the receiving end]] shortly there after after freeing the Nibiru Entity from [[SealedEvilInACan its prison]]. The Entity replies by possessing and killing him to take his body as its own. It then follows up by eating the rest of the the original Mystery Inc. alive.]]
* Implied in the ''WesternAnimation/SilverHawks'' pilot, where [[BigBad Mon*Star]] begs the prison guards to release him, promising them "wealth beyond wealth" in return. They simply state that they remember what happened to the last guy who fell for that.
* Zig-zagged with Toffee from ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil''. He doesn’t kill his henchmen, but he immediately stops caring about them once they cease to be relevant to his plans and is perfectly fine with letting them be killed by others at that point; when he finally [[spoiler:gets Star to break her wand]], he lets all of Ludo’s underlings die in the massive explosion that ensues because he won’t be needing them afterwards. Later, when he [[spoiler:[[DemonicPossession possesses Ludo himself]], he tosses his avatar aside the second he’s able to regenerate his real body and just barely acknowledges Ludo’s existence.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E2KnightTime Knight Time]]", Bruce Wayne narrowly avoids this trope with Brainiac thanks to [[ItMakesSenseInContext Superman disguised as Batman]]. Bruno Mannheim didn't turn out so lucky with Darkseid.
-->'''Mannheim:''' You promised you'd [[WeCanRuleTogether make me a king]]!\\

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': this happens a few times, mostly by the Separatists. A good example occurs at the end of the Onderon arc, in which the Jedi covertly help a group of rebels overthrow the Separatist puppet king, Sanjay Rash, to install the rightful one back to his throne. After the climax of the whole conflict, super tactical droid and Separatist advisor to Rash, General Kalani, informs Count Dooku that they ''could'' defeat the rebels, but it would take a lot of time, effort, and resources to do so. Dooku decides to cut his losses and has the Separatists pull out, considering Onderon to not be worth it. Rash is in the middle of asking what's going to happen to him, now that the rebels will be taking over, when Kalani shoots him dead.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E20TwilightOfTheApprenticePartII Twilight of the Apprentice]]" Maul makes clear that he'll only let the ''Ghost'' crew live as long as he needs them, and orders them killed the second he has Ezra and the holocrons.

-->'''Mannheim:''' You promised you'd [[WeCanRuleTogether make me a king!]]\\
'''Darkseid:''' And so you are: [[ILied King of Fools.]]

* In ''Franchise/{{Transformers}},'' Megatron's character uses this trope on a regular basis -- the 'cons all know it and he has said it word for word on more than one occasion. He is so notorious for this that in G1, the Insecticons once rationalised he can't have been the one to betray them because he still had a use for them -- they added right to his face that they wouldn't be surprised if he did so later, and he didn't bother to deny it.
* This sums up Megatron's working relationship with Starscream in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' from Season 3 onward. For most of the season he was the only few individuals Megatron had at his disposal. However, as soon as he completes his plan to create living superweapons, he terminates their alliance.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', when Silas is critically injured, a team of MECH scientists saves him by [[spoiler:connecting him to Breakdown's lifeless body]]. He thanks them for their dedication and service... then kills them and leaves to [[spoiler:join with the Decepticons.]] Which makes it all the more ironic and satisfying, when in the same episode, the tactical advantage which Silas offered [[spoiler:to Megatron]] goes up in smoke, and he is handed over [[spoiler:to Knock-Out's dissection table for further study.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' episode, "Bored of Education", a group of kids from Petropolis Elementary School decide to join the Chameleon in raiding a bunch of stores, but the second they play with all the stuff they raided, he sees them as deceiving him since all the stuff is only for him, thus he denounces them as his friends and decides to eat them.

** Azula herself is subject to a non-fatal but still exceptionally cruel one of these in the finale, by her own father no less. He rewards her for all her loyalty by naming her his successor as Fire Lord, and then immediately crowns himself [[GodEmperor Phoenix King]] of the entire planet, rendering her new position [[KickedUpstairs totally powerless]].

* This is [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Alvin the Treacherous]] favourite line to use when his subordinates fail In ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk''.

* Typhonus lays it out fairly openly in ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'' when asked about Barca, a traitor Pirate helping the Neosapiens in return for Pirate dominion over Venus: "All of Venus Barca will ever see is a six-foot hole in the ground."
** Ironically, Typhonus himself had been on the receiving end of such earlier (He got better because of CloningBlues).

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' Season 2: Once Darkar has the four pieces of [[ArtifactOfDoom the codex]] and Dark Bloom at his side, he makes clear that he doesn't need the Trix anymore by tossing them into a black hole. That decision bites him in the ass not much later...

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode ''Aspirations'', Sedusa ditches the Gangreen Gang after they steal for her the Egyptian artifacts that transformed her into a giant with snakes for hair (making her even closer to her mythological name {{Medusa}}) admitting that she never loved them. Naturally, [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal this leads to her downfall.]]

* Trigon does this to Slade during the fourth season finale of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''. [[spoiler:Slade saw it coming, acquired a magical artifact that protected him from the worst of Trigon's wrath, and managed to survive. He spends the rest of the finale [[EnemyMine helping the Titans]] take Trigon down]].

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'':

* ''Young Samson & Goliath'' episode "Moon Rendezvous". After Kunev Khan delivers the Graviton ship to the Moon Leader, the Leader tells Khan that he is no longer necessary to his plans and pulls out a weapon with the intent of murdering him. Luckily for Khan, Samson and Goliath show up to interfere.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': this happens a few times, mostly by the Separatists. A good example occurs at the end of the Onderon arc, in which the Jedi covertly help a group of rebels overthrow the Separatist puppet king, Sanjay Rash, to install the rightful one back to his throne. After the climax of the whole conflict, super tactical droid and Separatist advisor to Rash, General Kalani, informs Count Dooku that they ''could'' defeat the rebels, but it would take alot of time, effort, and resources to do so. Dooku decides to cut his losses and has the Separatists pull out, considering Onderon to not be worth it. Rash is in the middle of asking what's going to happen to him, now that the rebels will be taking over, when Kalani shoots him dead.