[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=5v12ll2e&trope=MauveShirt From YKTTW]]

The quote at the top is attributed to Red Dwarf. I didn't know the Red Dwarf was capable of speaking. Its computer can speak, but not the ship. Nor can stars speak, unless we're in the wrong universe. If it's attributed to a show, I didn't know a show could speak, either.

{{Rothul}}: Quote attribution fixed (the episode is "Dimension Jump" incidentally). No need to be passive-aggressive here.

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{{KJMackley}}: I took out ''a lot'' of stuff because people were listing minor characters as a Mauve Shirt even though they didn't die. The whole point of the Mauve shirt is "A RedShirt with more personality." I only left in the GalaxyQuest example because it parodies the whole RedShirt, PluckyComicRelief and main character evolution of a character. To see what I took out, just look below.
* This troper feels dirty mentioning StarWars in a ''StarTrek'' inspired trope, but Wedge Antilles fits the bill, since he is the only X-Wing pilot to survive both assaults on the Death Star. He's George Lucas's "dedicated survivor."
** Wedge qualifies for full AscendedExtra status in the ExpandedUniverse: he and Rogue Squadron star in a series of [[XWingSeries books, comics, AND video games]]. He will likely be one of the next long-established characters to be killed to show that the next threat is Even Bigger And Seriouser than all the ones before it, but he's managed not only to last a long time but also to recurr, unlike many characters of his stripe who get phased out or outright forgotten.
*** It's doubtful that the ExpandedUniverse authors will kill off Wedge. By this point he's got enough PlotArmor to wade through anything and he's a big enough draw for the fans that killing him off would be a bad idea. More likely, he's going to get hit with the HeroicBSOD when they kill off Janson, Hobbie, or Tycho.
* In ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Chief O'Brien started off at the beginning of the series as an unnamed CONN Officer (incidentally in a red shirt) and over the course of the series became the Transporter Chief with a wife and eventually a child (and a new gold uniform). This all led to him even becoming a main cast member of the next ''Star Trek'' spin-off series, ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', earning himself even more screen time (and another child!). A word on color, however: in ''[[StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'', the ''gold'' shirt was worn by security personnel, and the ''red'' was worn by command staff, in a direct inversion of ''[[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS]]''.
** In fact, the ''original'' {{Red Shirt}}s from ''StarTrek'' got this treatment at first, usually getting a name and some {{Backstory}} before being either horribly killed by the MonsterOfTheWeek or driven to insanity by the NegativeSpaceWedgie. They stopped doing this around the end of the first season, when they realized they weren't fooling anyone. Yeoman Rand is arguably a special case, since her job description appears to be the two words "get kidnapped," yet she's always safe in her bunk by the end of the episode.
*** And Ensign Harry Kim from ''StarTrekVoyager'', who's probably worse off than a RedShirt, since he dies multiple times, a la [[{{StargateSG1}} Daniel Jackson]].
** Steven Caldwell, captain of the ''Daedalus'' in ''{{Stargate Atlantis}}'' also seems to be bucking the trend, still being alive and kicking after the better part of three seasons and numerous appearance as well as more ship-to-ship combat and encounters with freaky alien technology then most of the rest of the SGC fleet combined (Hell, he was even host of a Goa'uld at one point, which is usually a death sentence, or at least a PutOnABus sentence), but never quite graduating into the ranks of the main cast.
** Don't forget Major Lorne. He has been around for forever and is still hanging on.
* ''StarTrek'', in addition to being the TropeNamer for the RedShirt concept, also gave us what could be considered the original MauveShirt in the form of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. His shirt is just as red as the [[RedShirtArmy random expendable nobodies]], but he survives the entire series plus all six movies, and even goes on to guest star in a ''[[StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' episode a century after the end of ''[[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]]''.
**[[spoiler:He did die once. He got better.]]
**Well, it ''is'' a side-effect of the engineering personnel having red shirts just like the security personnel. What it comes down to is that it was the ''security'' personnel who were always getting killed because they went on the away teams as protection. Their shirts just so happened to be red. Scotty was chief of engineering rather than security, so he had fewer opportunities to die. He was also part of the main cast. If anything, he's an example of why the concept of RedShirt is more about a set of characters who always get killed off than the color of their shirts. So Scotty obviously isn't part of the RedShirtArmy and since he's pretty much part of the main cast, he's arguably more ''gold'' shirt than ''mauve''.
**A better example might be Mister Leslie, a red-shirted security guard who appeared in almost 60 episodes (including several where he spoke) without dying.
*** Leslie did die. He got better thanks to the continuity editor not being particularly careful.
* ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' franchise has its Red Coats, the nameless hordes of collateral Navy damage, from which -- over the course of three movies -- Murtogg and Mullroy defect into the ranks of the pirates, and Lieutenant Groves (recognizable by his increasingly dreamy-eyed admiration for Jack Sparrow) manages to survive the dual-sinking of the Endeavour.
* The stuttering soldier in PansLabyrinth is one of the only members of LaResistance with any memorable charcteristics (namely, his stuttering). [[spoiler: Later in the movie, he's taken prisoner and tortured by the [[BigBad Captain Vidal]].]]
* Zack, from ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'', more or less starts as a Mauve Shirt, then moves up to main cast around season four.
** Don't forget about David Corwin!
**Johnny Sasaki (and his father as a Russian soldier in MGS3) has made an appearance in all 4 MGS games. He is recognized as the mook that always [[NobodyPoops has diarrhea]]. In MGS4, where he actually becomes a main character, the explanation given was that because of his fear of needles, he refused to have the nanomachines implanted that are standardly given to the supersoldier units. The nanomachines have antiviral and antibacterial powers, so the implanted never get sick. Based on how many times he's contracted the rotovirus, [[WillingSuspensionofDisbelief one might be surprised that he never naturally developed an immunity]].