Line #99 Main/StartsWithASuicide


1	[[quoteright:321:[[Anime/SerialExperimentsLain https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d5de9d98ff6cafc32382488563f9dcaa.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:321:[[WeHardlyKnewYe We Hardly Knew Ye]].]]
3
4	A story starts off with someone attempting or committing {{suicide\|IsPainless}}. And the rest of the story goes from there. If it's the main character, expect a DeadToBeginWith story, often with an IronicHell or MundaneAfterlife. If it's a [[{{Whodunnit}} mystery story]], such opener often implies the character was DrivenToSuicide. Another possibility is a HowWeGotHere story.
5
6	In comedies, an InterruptedSuicide is often used to set up a MeetCute between the suicidal character and their rescuer.
7
8	'''See Also''':
9	* DownerBeginning
10	* TheEndOfTheBeginning
11	* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning
12	* PlotTriggeringDeath
13	* PosthumousCharacter
14	* StartToCorpse
15	----
16	!Examples
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
21	* ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys''. Sort of. We don't actually see the suicide in question but the plot begins when the protagonist is informed of it.
22	* The ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'' short "Kid's Story" bookends with the same (apparent) suicide, from there it's a HowWeGotHere story.
23	* ''Manga/{{Arisa}}'' begins with the titular character inviting her [[PolarOppositeTwins twin sister Tsubasa]] to her house (their parents are divorced), having Tsubasa play her for a day and attend school in her place, and then falling backwards out the window after mysteriously alluding to her "secret." She doesn't die, but she doesn't wake up from her coma for a long time.
24	* The anime of ''Literature/BeyondTheBoundary'' even starts with the word "suicide" and begins with Mirai standing at the edge of the school roof and Akihito trying to talk her out of suicide. Subverted when it turns out a minute later that that weren't her actual plans.
25	* ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'' starts with [[TheProtagonist Atsushi]] saving someone from [[InterruptedSuicide drowning himself]].
26	* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
27	** The NonSerialMovie ''Anime/DetectiveConanFilm06ThePhantomOfBakerStreet'' starts with the suicide of [[spoiler:[[ChildProdigy Hiroki]]]].
28	** More than one case in the series begins with someone commiting suicide, and the reader/watcher just ''knows'' that said death was caused when someone ruined that person's life. And obviously, whoever is to blame will become the AssholeVictim. A good example is the death of [[spoiler: Sakurako]] in a {{filler}} episode: she climbs to a tower from her college, stares sadly at the skies, closes her eyes [[GoryDiscretionShot and throws herself off]]...
29	* The first ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'' movie starts with the latest of several suicides.
30	* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'':
31	** One episode starts with a montage of gynoids killing themselves.
32	** The 'Complex' part of the Second Season begins proper with the mass suicide of an Individual Eleven cell, who [[spoiler:mutually decapitate each other on the roof of a skyscraper. Hideo Kuze, the initial protagonist, doesn't go through with it.]]
33	* ''Manga/HalfAndHalf'' begins when Yuuki commits suicide by jumping off a roof and landing on Shinichi. [[spoiler: A later chapter reveals that she was pushed.]]
34	* ''Manga/TheHeartOfThomas'' opens with the titular character jumping from a bridge, after leaving a single letter at the post office for the boy he loves.
35	* One case in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' shows someone found dead hanging, presumably from suicide (said victim's fate is not elaborated further) to establish the setting as a cursed place where people are driven to suicide by being there, the serial murder's gimmick in the case.
36	* The ''Manga/KiriNoMoriHotel'' manga begins with Shouko Shimura ''attempting'' suicide, before being interrupted by a cat that brings her to the titular hotel.
37	* ''Anime/PatlaborTheMovie'' begins with a scientist committing suicide, which is eventually revealed to be the final step to set his plans in motion.
38	* In ''Manga/PsychometrerEiji'', there is a case beginning with a girl jumping into a moving train. Said girl is a victim of gang rape committed by 5 teenagers who become the case's list of potential victims.
39	* ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei''. At least, he ''tries'' to. Until one of his students saves him.
40	* Pictured above: ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' kicks off when middle schooler Chisa Yomoda jumps off a building. It then follows up with an email conversation a few days later.
41	-->"How does it feel to die?"\
42	"[[NightmareFuel It really hurts :-)]]"
43	* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Spiral}}: Suiri no Kizuna''. It's [[spoiler:a murder staged as a suicide--or, in the anime, attempted murder staged as attempted suicide]].
44	* ''Literature/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'' opens on a bleak note with a woman jumping to her death as she knows she is carrying an Evil child in her womb as this is a world where BlackAndWhiteInsanity is the norm. And in the end it didn't matter as moments before she hits the ground, the fetus thanks her for being its first murder and would then go on to devour her from inside the womb and become one of the seven Archdemons.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Books]]
48	* ''[[ComicBook/SinCity Hell and Back (A Sin City Love Story)]]'' starts with an attempted suicide.
49	* Played with in ''ComicBook/TheLoners'': The first issue opens with Julie Power's friends begging her not to jump, but it turns out that their worry isn't that she'll kill herself, but that she'll use her powers to fly; Julie and her friends are all members of a TropaholicsAnonymous for former teen superheroes who've all made a vow not to use their powers anymore.
50	* In the third issue of ComicBook/TheMultiversity, ''The Just'', [[SpinoffSpring the daughter of Metamorpho]] kills herself [[spoiler:due to falling prey to the cursed comicbook of the previous issues]].
51	* ''ComicBook/XFactor'' opens up with Rictor on the roof about to jump. Madrox sends one of his dupes to convince him not to, with a little help from Wolfsbane yelling from the street, but [[spoiler:the dupe pushes him off anyway. At this point in the series, the dupes took on different facets of Madrox's personality, and that one was the "asshole" facet. Don't worry. He's saved by Monet St. Croix.]]
52	* One of the first ComicBook/XMen stories after the end of John Byrne's run on the book involved the father of a supporting character. Bonus points in this case for being [[DrivenToSuicide driven to it]] by "D'Spayre," the AnthropomorphicPersonification of...well...[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin take a wild guess.]]
53	* ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy'': The story starts with a video of dying aliens, so horrible that it causes mass suicides.
54	* ''ComicBook/MisterMiracle2017'' begins with a cartoon showing Scott Free's origins and the New Gods' origins as well. Immediately after, we see Scott having slit his wrists in his bathroom. He ends up surviving, and later during an interview claims that it was part of his latest super-EscapeArtist stunt of "escaping death", but as the series goes on, it becomes clear that there's way more to it than what he's willing to admit.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Fan Works]]
58	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' fanfic ''FanFic/{{Pretender}}'' opens with Robin attempting suicide over [[spoiler: failing to stop Emmeryn's HeroicSuicide]]. Frederick [[InterruptedSuicide intervenes]] by cutting the noose and revives him before he succeeds.
59	* ''Fanfic/TimeOutOfMind'' is set off by John Laurens' attempted suicide.
60	* ''Fanfic/UnNatural'' is a fanfic of ''The Children's Hour'' where Karen stops Martha from killing herself. She grabs a knife and [[InterruptedSuicide breaks the rope]] before Martha dies.
61	* Thanks to Bakugou's iconic SuicideDare of Izuku in the first episode/chapter of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', it's a FandomSpecificPlot with Izuku taking Bakugou's advice:
62	** ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Nutricula}}'' starts with Izuku taking Katsuki's 'advice' to 'take a swan dive off the roof', triggering his DeathActivatedSuperpower for the first time.
63	** ''Fanfic/InASkyOfAMillionStars'' also starts with Izuku attempting suicide, though the actual attempt isn't shown, just the direct aftermath. The actual story is about how it affects his friends and family (mostly Katsuki, his mother, and All Might) and how they try to help him recover from it.
64	** The story of ''Fanfic/TheVigilanteBossAndHisFailedRetirementPlan'' begins with Izuku listening to Bakugou's Suicide Dare and attempting a fake suicide out of spite only accidentally fall off the roof.
65	** ''Fanfic/NumberFourteenMHA'' begins after Izuku commits suicide, traumatising Bakugou as a result.
66	* ''Fanfic/MoralOfTheStoryNyame'': The story begins with Laurel's suicide via fatal and deliberate overdose. Thanks to the Lazarus Pit, the death doesn't stick, but the act in itself is enough to cause shockwaves throughout the plot.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
70	* ''[[ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier Justice League: The New Frontier]]'' opens with the writer of a children's book, whose sensitivity picks up on the emergence of the Centre. He tries to put everything down in a story, then, overwhelmed by despair at the coming catastrophe, picks up a gun and aims it straight at the viewer, since we see everything from his perspective. He then pulls the trigger, and the opening credits start to roll.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
74	* ''Film/ThirteenAssassins'' begins with a {{seppuku}}.
75	* ''Film/TwoThirtySeven'' begins with the suicide of an unidentified character in the school lavatory at 2:37 p.m., and then shows HowWeGotHere from the perspectives of six different troubled students.
76	* ''Film/{{AboutAlex}}'' starts off like this. Alex dresses, sits in his bathtub, and slits his wrists in the opening scene.[[spoiler: He survives.]]
77	* In the film inspired by Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''Theatre/{{Alegria}}'', the story starts with street performer Frac attempting suicide by lying down on train tracks. He's only stopped from going through with it when his [[InnocentFlowerGirl abused urchin friend]] Momo lies down beside him with the ''same intent''.
78	%%* ''Film/{{Amadeus}}''
79	* ''Film/Ariel1988'' begins with Taisto's father shooting himself after the mine where they both worked is closed.
80	* ''Film/{{Begotten}}'' begins with God disembowelling himself, upon which Mother Earth emerges from his body.
81	%%* ''Film/TheBigChill''
82	* The first shot of ''Film/TheBigHeat'' is Tom Duncan putting a bullet in his head. The plot unspools from there.
83	* ''Film/Constantine2005'' starts with the apparent suicide of Angela's twin sister.
84	* ''Film/{{Devil}}'' [[InvokedTrope invokes this]] right off the bat with the opening narration. As the below quote is being delivered, a man graphically crashes down onto the ground, seemingly from the top of the building [[TenLittleMurderVictims where people end up trapped in and slowly killed off for the duration of the film.]]
85	-->'''Ramirez''': My mother's story would always begin the same way, with a suicide paving the way for the Devil's arrival.
86	* ''Film/DevilInMissJones'' -- An otherwise saintly woman commits suicide and is therefore damned, but gets one last wish before she goes to hell for all eternity. It's a porno movie, so guess what that wish is.
87	* The documentary, ''Film/EnronTheSmartestGuysInTheRoom,'' begins by recounting the death of Cliff Baxter after he shoots himself in his car shortly after the company filed for bankruptcy.
88	* ''Film/TheFirstWivesClub'' opens with Cynthia Swan suiciding after her husband leaves her for a woman several decades younger than she is. When three of her college friends meet at her funeral and find that they're all in similar situations, they form the titular club.
89	* ''Film/GirlOnTheBridge'' starts with a woman about to jump off said bridge. A knife thrower looking for an assistant stops her...
90	* ''Film/HaroldAndMaude'' opens with death enthusiast Harold fake-hanging himself.
91	* ''Film/{{Head}}'' starts off [[BookEnds (and ENDS)]] with Music/TheMonkees' Micky Dolenz jumping off a bridge...which makes the whole film arguably his near-death hallucination.
92	* ''Film/TheHours'' begins with Creator/VirginiaWoolf's suicide.
93	* In ''Film/TheHousemaid2010'', Eun-yi is inspired to leave her job at a restaurant and become a housemaid when she and her friend witness a suicide.
94	* ''Film/TheHudsuckerProxy'': Mr. Hudsucker leaves the building through an upper-storey window just as Tim Robbins's character is walking in.
95	* ''Film/IRobot'' : The plot is kicked off by the apparent suicide of Doctor Lanning, the world's foremost expert on robotics. Detective Spooner, a friend of Lanning, believes Lanning's death was actually a murder committed by a robot, which most other characters [[ThreeLawsCompliant insist is impossible]]. [[spoiler: It turns out Spooner was RightForTheWrongReasons. Lanning's robotic "son" Sonny did kill him, but only because the doctor asked him to do it in the hopes that Spooner would investigate and discover the plans of the BigBad, making it an Assisted Suicide, and this example an InvokedTrope]].
96	* ''Film/KenPark'' begins with the suicide of Ken Park.
97	* ''Film/TheLastEmperor'' begins with Pu-Yi attempting to cut open his wrists, triggering the flashback to his childhood.
98	* The Thai film ''Film/TheLastLifeInTheUniverse'' begins with a suicide attempt by Creator/TadanobuAsano's character.
99	* ''Film/LethalWeapon1987'' opens with a woman on cocaine jumping from a high-rise suite. The plot begins when heroes [[CowboyCop Riggs]] and [[ByTheBookCop Murtaugh]] are assigned to investigate the circumstances of her death.
100	%%* ''Film/LittleMissSunshine'' starts with an attempted suicide.
101	* ''Film/TheNinthGate'' begins with Andrew Telfer's suicide
102	%%* ''Film/TheOmen1976''
103	* 1988's ''Permanent Record'' is about a young man who commits suicide at the biggest party of the year. Keanu Reeves plays his best friend, who's left to pick up the pieces.
104	* Creator/JackieChan's ''Police Story 2013'' opens with his character shooting himself in the head with a gun, and the movie shows the events that lead up to it. [[spoiler: In the scene where he does it, however, the gun jams.]]
105	* The plot of the Japanese mystery film ''Film/SchoolDayOfTheDead'' kicks off when a high school girl commits suicide.
106	%%* ''Film/SevenPounds''
107	* ''Film/SuicideClub'' opens with 54 schoolgirls committing mass suicide by jumping in front of an oncoming subway train. As you may have guessed from the movie's title, other people soon follow suit.
108	* ''Film/{{Suspect}}'': The Supreme Court Justice kills himself with a shotgun at the end of the very first scene, setting the plot in motion after he gave a file clerk mysterious messages to deliver.
109	* The horror movie ''Film/{{They}}'' begins with the public suicide of the protagonist's childhood friend.
110	* ''Film/{{Unfriended}}'' opens with Blaire watching a [=LiveLeak=] video of Laura Barnes killing herself.
111	* ''Literature/TheVirginSuicides'': A big family full of sisters commit mass suicide, starting with the youngest, and a group of boys become obsessed with them.
112	* ''Film/WristcuttersALoveStory''
113	* ''Film/TheWorldOfKanako'': After about ten minutes in we see the suicide of Ogata (Kanako's first boyfriend), who jumps from the roof after he has been bullied for a long time by the Matsunaga Gang. Nobody seems to take much notice of this.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Literature]]
117	* ''Literature/ThePrincessWeiYang'' starts with Wei Yang being forced to commit suicide.
118	* Creator/AgathaChristie
119	** ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'' starts off with Mrs. Ferrars' suspicious Veronal overdose. It is eventually confirmed to be a suicide.
120	** In ''Literature/TowardsZero'', the second chapter revolves around the aftermath of the attempted suicide of Angus [=MacWhirter=]. He doesn't have a proper role in the story [[ChekhovsGunman until the final act]], where he [[spoiler:interrupts a despairing Audrey from jumping off the same cliff. He then solves the mystery she was accused of, and shortly afterwards they get married.]]
121	* ''Literature/AngelStation'' opens with Pasco, the father figure of Ubu Roy and Beautiful Maria, committing suicide, having realized that his kids don't really need him anymore. This leaves the kids forced to contend with the considerable debt he's left behind, setting off the events of the novel.
122	* Stephen King's ''Literature/{{IT}}'': The first chapter features the suicide of one character who was too terrified to face the titular monster a second time.
123	* Creator/DickFrancis does this several times.
124	** ''Nerve'' opens with a blackballed jockey who was WrongfullyAccused of incompetence shooting himself in front of the man he blames for ruining his career.
125	** ''Forfeit'' has a GuiltRiddenAccomplice to the race-fixing conspiracy giving a cryptic warning to the narrator (his coworker) not to make the same mistakes, then walking out a window to his death.
126	** ''The Edge'' starts with one potential witness dying of natural causes, but a little bit later it's mentioned that a second one killed himself due to having to give away his livelihood as a result of blackmail.
127	** In ''Come to Grief'' the mother of the villain kills herself out of disgrace in the first chapter.
128	* ''Literature/OnAPaleHorse'' begins with the protagonist having a bad day that's the final straw driving him to attempt suicide. Just as his finger tightens on the trigger, TheGrimReaper arrives to collect him, and he instinctively turns the gun toward the perceived threat. Result: a dead Death, and a living protagonist whose troubles are just beginning.
129	* ''Literature/ThePerksOfBeingAWallflower'' begins with the protagonist's best friend having killed himself.
130	* ''Literature/SkippyDies'' begins with a boy named Skippy dying suddenly on the floor of a doughnut shop. The rest of the book is a HowWeGotHere plot exploring why he died. [[spoiler: He turns out to have overdosed on drugs in what is widely assumed in-universe to be a suicide.]]
131	%%* ''Literature/SongofSolomon''
132	* ''Tunnel Vision'', a YA problem novel by Fran Arrick.
133	%%* ''Literature/TheVirginSuicides''
134	* ''Literature/TheWinterQueen '' by Boris Akunin. Although the young man who shoots himself in the first chapter did in fact shoot himself, detective Erast Fandorin still discovers a criminal conspiracy perpetrated by a secret society that wanted the young man's vast fortune.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
138	* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|2003}}'' has, near the beginning of "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I," Gaius Baltar persuading Boomer to kill herself. She doesn't succeed, but it's the beginning of BreakTheCutie for Boomer.
139	* The plot of ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' is set off by a suicide bombing in the first few minutes that starts off the entire plot.
140	* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'' starts with Valery Legasov completing his audio memoir of the events at Chernobyl and then hanging himself at 1:23:45 in the morning. The series then jumps back to the same time two years earlier, just after the explosion, and unfolds why it would drive Legasov to take his own life.
141	* ''Series/Dark2017'' begins with Michael Kahnwald committing suicide by hanging.
142	* The narrator of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' commits suicide at the start of the series.
143	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]] starts off with ''many'' suicides, thanks to someone leaking the translation of a book called ''The Veritas'' online, a book that makes anyone who reads it kill themselves.
144	* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' has an episode that starts with a woman walking on a bridge and then shooting herself in the head in an elaborate posthumous revenge plot.
145	* ''Series/FellowTravelers'': "Your Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire" starts as a gay employee reels out of the State Department's M Unit (which investigated gays since they were viewed as security risks) then walks right into traffic to kill himself, as being outed in the early 1950s was generally a social death sentence.
146	* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' opens with Blaine singing "Cough Syrup" over [[spoiler: Karofsky preparing to hang himself. He survives.]]
147	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' seems to open this way, with a person later revealed to be Peter Petrelli letting himself fall from a roof ([[FauxlosophicNarration all while Mohinder Suresh's voice waxes philosophical the entire time]]). {{Subverted\|trope}}, as he was doing it because he believed he could fly. [[spoiler:He couldn't. His brother, who ''could'', had to rescue him.]]
148	* An episode in Season 5 of ''Series/{{House}}'' starts out with [[spoiler: Kutner]] doing this for ''no apparent reason''; Thirteen and Foreman go to his apartment because he didn't show up to work and find that he's shot himself in the head; they try to revive him to no avail. In all the time that we knew him he never showed any signs of mental illness, let alone suicidality, and several members of the team spend the episode trying to figure out why he did it and if they could have done anything to help. His death haunts House just as much as [[spoiler: Amber's]] does. (It was actually because his actor decided to quit the show and the writers needed a way to explain away his sudden departure -- why not with his death?)
149	* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': "The Martin Baker Fan Club" starts with a former naval aviator jumping out of a window at a VA hospital.
150	* ''Series/LawAndOrder'':
151	** An early episode has a cop's suicide start an investigation that eventually leads to uncovering the cop and many of his childhood friends had been sexually abused by the neighborhood priest. [[spoiler:One of the victims was Detective Mike Logan.]]
152	** The 2009 episode "Illegitimate" begins with the perplexing case of a cop committing SuicideByCop. The rest of the episode deals with the detectives tracing down why he did it.
153	* ''Series/AMillionLittleThings'' focuses on a group of friends’ personal lives and relationships with each other after one of their friends, and the person who brought them all together, commits suicide off his office balcony.
154	* The ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Leap of Faith" starts with a naval officer about to commit suicide, which Gibbs [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal steps in to prevent]]--and then the officer is sniped.
155	* The ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' episode "Chinatown" starts with a naval officer killing himself [[spoiler: so he can't be used to commit treason]].
156	* ''Series/OrphanBlack'' starts with Beth Childs jumping in front of a subway train - right before the eyes of her clone, Sarah Manning.
157	* In ''Series/PleaseLikeMe'', the main character's mother attempts suicide in the first episode, leading him to move in with her.
158	* ''{{Series/Sense8}}'': Angelica's suicide occurs at the beginning of the first episode, which sets off the plot.
159	* The fourth season of ''Series/{{Skins}}'' begins this way. We see the main characters partying in a club through the eyes of a new character, Sophia, as she climbs the floors of the club. She then proceeds to jump off the top one.
160	* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E17EyeOfTheBeholder Eye of the Beholder]]" starts with a Starfleet lieutenant jumping into a plasma stream.
161	* The entire premise of ''Series/ThenCameBronson'' is the title character riding around the country on the motorcycle purchased from the widow of his friend who killed himself.
162	* The first episode of ''Series/{{Trust}}'' opens at a lavish party in LA where George Getty kills himself as a group of horrified partygoers look on helplessly through a locked door.
163	* ''Series/{{Wilfred}}'' begins with the main character [[BungledSuicide attempting to kill himself.]] After he fails, [[SanitySlippage things start getting a little weird...]]
164	[[/folder]]
165
166	[[folder:Music]]
167	* Music/SaveFace: ''Another Kill for the Highlight Reel'' opens with "The Funeral You've Been Asking For," in which the singer addresses a woman who had killed herself. Some of the lines imply she did it on purpose ("is it everything you wanted and more?", "did it turn out the way you planned?"). While there's a layer of sarcasm to the song, with him pointing out the pain she caused him, he's also partially distressed because he didn't think she would go that far.
168	[[/folder]]
169
170	[[folder:Theatre]]
171	* ''Theatre/CactusFlower'' begins with Toni trying and failing to kill herself by leaving the gas on overnight in her apartment. TheFilmOfThePlay takes the opportunity to run the opening credits over shots of Toni lying in bed waiting to die.
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Video Games]]
175	* ''Videogame/BlackKnightSword'' begins with the protagonist preparing to hang himself before getting dragged into the strange adventure as Hellebore's Black Knight. [[spoiler:It ends with him finishing the attempt after the adventure is over.]]
176	* ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' begins [[spoiler: and ends]] with the protagonist in an asylum attempting to hang himself in his cell. [[spoiler: While it's not completely confirmed, apparently he succeeds.]]
177	* The eponymous protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheCatLady'' starts the game off by swallowing "a whole bunch of pills" – thirty-four, to be exact.
178	* VideoGame/CriminalCase: Specifically in the [[VideoGame/CriminalCaseTheConspiracy 5th game of the saga]], on their 52nd case, the beginning of the Additional investigation of the case, starts with what we were left off at the end of the 3rd chapter: our partner David Jones, Attempting suicide by a benzodiasepine overdose, since he wasn't able to cope with the death of his recently murdered girlfriend.
179	* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarI'' starts off with Kratos stepping off of a cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea... which for some reason is also "the highest mountain in all of Greece." [[spoiler:In fact, this is a scene of the ''end'' of the game, after Kratos has defeated Ares. The gods will not let him die, though.]]
180	* ''Videogame/TheLastDoor'' begins with Anthony hanging himself in his house. The mysterious letter he sent beforehand to his childhood friend, Jeremiah Devitt, leads him to investigate what happened... And sets the plot in motion.
181	* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'':
182	** ''VideoGame/Persona3'' apparently begins with Yukari attempting to commit suicide with a gun... but it doesn't take long for it to become clear that she's only trying to gather the courage needed to summon her [[FightingSpirit Persona]]. The gun isn't even an actual firearm, but a summoning tool known as an Evoker.
183	** ''VideoGame/Persona5'': While the game proper begins before, it's Shiho's attempted suicide early in the story that leads to the formation of the Phantom Thieves (with the last founding member, Ann, awakening her Persona that same day) and their decision to take down Kamoshida, their first target.
184	* In ''VideoGame/{{Majotori}}'' the story of Tsubasa begins with her wanting to jump off the rooftop, then Lariat helps her [[spoiler: giving her wings to fly towards a free and immense sky with no more sadness (In the best case)]]
185	* The prologue of VideoGame/YomawariMidnightShadows ends with [[spoiler: Yui]] committing suicide by hanging after burying one of her dogs. [[spoiler: The rest of the game follows her best friend Haru's attempts to reunite with her, not knowing that Yui has since killed herself and become a spirit.]]
186
187
188	[[/folder]]
189
190	[[folder:Web Comics]]
191	* ''Webcomic/{{Demon}}'': Jimmy hangs himself on the very first page. The fact that it doesn't stick kick-starts the entire plot.
192	* At the beginning of ''Webcomic/GetSchooled'', a student named Daeseok jumps off the school roof after being relentlessly bullied. When his death is investigated, everyone claims the stress of studying got to him. Before Kyeongmin, another bully victim, can follow suit in despair, Warden Hwajin Na intervenes and sets the bullies straight.
193	[[/folder]]
194

Context Main / StartsWithASuicide