As a Death Trope, contains many spoilers. Tread with care.
Times where Anyone Can Die in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Crossover series Both Syllables has so far killed off three fairly major characters. Two of these were solely because the author is irritated by the amount of Disney Deaths in the source material.
- Pretty much anyone, including the protagonists from Hetalia, can die in the Brutal Series. Justified in that it is a crossover with The Hunger Games.
- Children of an Elder God: The only main characters survived the war were Shinji, Asuka, Touji, Hikari and Misato. Everyone else died... but Ritsuko and Maya, although it is revealed in the last scene.
- Child of the Storm is a milder example of this, since while it killed off Sif and Harry Dresden after pulling a Tonight, Someone Dies, both were pulled back from the brink with the 'I never said it would stick'. Then, suddenly, major character Baron Von Strucker is killed off in chapter 51, and in chapter 72, Arthur Weasley and Luna Lovegood are both killed off. In the latter case it's a particular kick in the teeth, as their lives were getting better - Arthur's set to get a high paying job at Stark Industries and Luna's been taken under Harry's protective wing. Instead, Arthur gets a Neck Snap Mercy Kill from the Winter Soldier and Luna chokes on her own blood thanks to a stray bullet from HYDRA's assault on Hogwarts - though she winds up becoming the new Delirium.
- Also killed off on-screen are James Bond though he's later resurrected by Wisdom as a sort of techno-zombie; a number of unnamed homeless people; a young family who Gravemoss decided to test the veidrdraugar on; King T'Chaka of Wakanda; most senior members of the Ministry of Magic, including Rufus Scrimgeour and possibly Madame Bones; the Griffin; the entirety of HYDRA's Hogwarts assault team (excepting Daken); and Mulciber.
- Also killed off-screen are most of MI6 and MI13.
- A significant proportion of the Winter Guard meet a sticky end at the hands of Magneto in the sequel, Ghosts of the Past, and the Beast a.k.a. the Blob a.k.a. Dudley Dursley ends up meeting his at the hands of Dracula, who turns him into a vampire, and then Harry, who dismembers him.
- The fanfic series A Dance of Shadow and Light by Ocadioan
plays this trope to a T after the third story, where the author gives no thought to killing off characters (both minor and major) left and right, like the time when a sister-in-law and mother to a main character's niece dies off screen and for no apparent reason or purpose, as opposed to the first story where only a reluctant Dragon dies near the end, and the second story where only the male main character's established love interest was killed by his own hands, though that was more a case of I Did What I Had to Do.- Then came the fourth story, in which Word of God states that all characters (canon and OC's) have been checked off a list one way or the other... By the end of it, most named canon characters are dea. (as is more than a quarter of Alagaësia's population), and the only two OC's to make it out alive are later informed to have committed suicide some time afterwards. And just to make it all the more depressing, the only character that wanted to die is sort of revealed to have been given an And I Must Scream ending.
- Then came the fourth story
- Code Prime: The author has said that this is a war story, which means casualties can happen on both sides, except for those the author has said that he intends to spare, notably Shirley and Euphemia.
- One such instance is Claudio Darlton of the Glaston Knights. In canon, he was the Sole Survivor of the group, but in this fic, he dies alongside Alfred and Bart during the Battle of Narita in R1.
- At the end of R1, a few characters end up biting it during the Black Rebellion, including Cliffjumper, Dreadwing, Hardshell, Breakdown, and even Charles zi Britannia.
- In R2, a number of Britannia's elite are killed off in the first chapter, including some of whom only appear for one scene before dying. Then in the third chapter, Toru Yoshida, who survived the story's events of the Black Rebellion, is offhandedly killed by Springload. And in the fifth chapter, Skywarp and Frenzy, who were a part of the story from the beginning, join the kill count, along with Headlock, Quake, and Groundpounder, who only appeared in three chapters.
- In The Fires of Rage, Rolo is killed in only his second appearance in the story.
- Siege of Castle Wiesswolf sees Airachnid finally be killed off.
- The Iacon Relics arc, which stretches for eight chapters, sees the body count go up with Air Raid, Zi Dien, Urabe, and Tink for the heroes, and Springload, Mao, Glowstrike, Blackout and Overload for the villains.
- V.V. finally dies when the Geass Order is destroyed, his Code taken by Megatron.
- Damocles Rises and The Demon and Dragon Cometh combined have the biggest body count so far in the story: For the Autobots and Black Knights, there's Prowl, Silverbolt, Chromia, Hot Shot, Leonhardt, Marika, Asahina, Hong Gu, Inoue, Sugiyama, Minami, and the Asura Strike Force's remaining members, and for the Decepticons, there's Starscream, Schneizel, Kanon, Anticlea, Guinevere, Barricade, Lugnut, Blitzwing, Scorponok, the Combaticons, the Constructicons, Underbite, Thunderhoof, Demolisher, and Saberhorn.
- The Battle of Horai Island sees Fracture and Rumble die, and as per the norm with Transformers, Optimus dies, but is revived moments later with a new body.
- The final battle has Megatron finally die for good, along with Shockwave, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak, and Shin Hyuga Shaing. There's also Trypticon, who was in stasis lock as the Nemesis, which is destroyed by Smokescreen. On the heroes' side there's Oiagros/Wizard, who dies protecting Akito, and Marianne, who allows her soul to be erased as a way to help the Primes revive Lelouch, who was killed himself by Megatron.
- Several fics by draconichero21 have this trope in play:
- Dueling Trigger Finger, which is unsurprising since it's a crossover with Danganronpa. So far, the body count has included Weevil, Odion, Shadi, and Zigfried von Shroder.
- Fairy Without Wings has both official and original characters being killed off. Ren Akatsuki of Blue Pegasus is the first non-OC to be killed off. Also killed off include Marianne, Charles (who died before the story began), Ivan Dreyar and everyone from Raven Tail (except Flare and Marika), Uosuke of the Garou Knights, and Rufus from Sabertooth. The Emissary of the Future arc sees Blue Pegasus' master Bob die, along with minor Fairy Tail members Reedus, Nab, and Vijeeter. V.V., a main antagonist, dies in the Guild War arc, along with most of his guild Philosopher's Stone, which included Bismarck and Mao. Then the Tartaros arc comes along with casualties including Babasama, Toby, and Yuka from Lamia Scale, all of Quatro Cerberus, and a savage and eye-opening example of this trope: Minerva Orlando.
- The Bad Future shown in the Emissary of the Future arc shows the deceased including all Dragon Slayers except Natsu and Lelouch (who caused all the deaths as Mordred), Olga, Kallen, Shirley, Erza, the Thunder Legion, Happy, and Levy. Mirajane later dies when she travels from the future with Natsu and other guilds to stop Lelouch/Mordred, who also dies at the end of the arc.
- Soul Chess has a huge number of characters getting the axe. These include Aizen, Ohgi, Villeta, Nina, Guilford, Mayuri, Miyako, Baraggan and his Fraccion, Ikkaku, Nanao, Shuhei, Ulquiorra, Chojiro Sasakibe, Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryusai, Guinevere, Yhwach, and many others.
- Try not to get too attached to the characters in Fate of the Clans. Masters and Servants tend to drop like flies in Holy Grail Wars.
- In the Star Wars/Mass Effect crossover fic Fractured (SovereignGFC), ten characters (some Mauve Shirts, some major) end up dead. Then its sequel Origins comes along...49 / 212 named (excluding those already dead from Fractured) bite it so far.
- Game Of Mass Destruction has a large cast of characters - many of them get killed off.
- In I Against I, Me Against You, most of the Original Characters featured wind up dead regardless of prominence, and Simmons, Tex, and Agent Washington all die in the final chapters.
- Given the setup for Mirai SMP's plot revolves around a Deadly Game, it only makes sense that this would be the case. This is hammered in pretty early on when Cooper is killed by an explosive trap set by Taylor and Jordan in their garage, after several chapters of us seeing him, Travis and Techno bond, drilling it into the reader early into the story that not even the characters that get significant development are safe from suddenly meeting their demise.
- Mortal Kombat vs. The Owl House does not shy away from killing major characters in both franchises in random chapters when it seems like they would be important, including:
- The Demon Hunter trio: Two are killed off by Noob before the third is killed off by Scorpion two chapters later.
- Willow Park: Gets killed by Quan Chi in her chapter, which is her first appearance, despite being a major character in The Owl House.
- Drahmin & Moloch: Who are murdered by Belos in Chapter 10 despite being set up as important recurring villains.
- Boscha: Who is first set up as Shang Tsung’s partner before being betrayed and killed by Shang Tsung in the middle.
- Emperor Belos and Shao Kahn: Who are initially set up as the Big Bad Duumvirate of the story before being killed by Shang Tsung, and Shang Tsung and Quan Chi taking over as the true Big Bad Duumvirate. They both are resurrected by Quan Chi though and used as revenants.
- Sonya Blade: Who is killed by Sektor to make a point to Raiden.
- In the Armored Core + Muv-Luv Alternative cross over fic, Project Ignition, this holds true. Notably, For Answer Ensemble Dark Horse May Greenfield is brutally killed shortly after she appears, and that's only the second day of the FIRST chapter.
- Remnant and Runeterra: A Tale of Two Worlds:
- While poor Nora isn't dead, being trapped in Thresh's lantern is actually worse.
- Neptune died when Pyke stabbed through his guts and dragged him to the bottom of the sea.
- Thousand Shinji: For the end of the fic, the only canon characters left alive are Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Misato, Toji, Kensuke and Hikari. Everyone else is dead. The body count is even greater than it looks, since Asuka, Misato and Hikari got murdered and were brought back from the dead.
- Zombies, a videogame crossover where a Zombie Apocalypse is corrupting the world of video games. Anyone who gets bitten or infected will become a zombie, will gain superhuman strength, and a relentless urge to kill and devour the living. And the best place to do this is in the idyllic Mushroom Kingdom where even turtles can pose a significant threat. Almost anyone who might seem important is on the author's hitlist.
- Mocked in Cool Cat and the Beauty of War and Destruction.
- Law Plus Chaos has many characters killed off, most of them in VERY brutal ways, such as one person being cooked into pies.
- Arrow: Rebirth: Basically, if you aren't the counterpart to a major comics hero (or a decomposite of one, in the case of Laurel and Sara), you're free game. The author hasn't even made it to the equivalent of the mid-season finale and already he's killed off at least four major characters. At one point, he jokes that he's the George R. R. Martin of the Arrow fan community.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender Revised firmly established itself as possessing Anyone Can Die from the beginning, with the passing of Sai's friend Xin Fu, Sakodi's friend Enri, and numerous Kyoshi warriors, among others, in the first book alone. By the end, Ain, Hakoda, Teo, Azul and Aizo are dead, and Zotu is Faking the Dead.
- Downfall takes a sharp turn from the original source, where deaths are unheard of; or at least, don't stick. Though several characters start out alive and kicking, when in canon they were dead and buried long before the series started, the second major engagement in Unohana's war sees Rukia dead.
- Bataille pour l'espoir quickly shows no one is safe when William is tortured to death half-way through the fanfic. The rest of the main cast (and then some) quickly follow suit, with Jim being shot dead, Ulrich taking a bullet meant for Jérémie, Yumi and X.A.N.A. falling to their deaths after jumping off the Eiffel Tower, General Hussinger killing the Golden Phoenix at at the cost of his own life, Odd being killed by the brainwashed Anthéa and Jérémie, Aélita and a repentant Anthéa sacrificing themselves to save the planet from a Colony Drop. By the end of the fanfic, amongst the Lyoko-warriors, Leopold Le Couls is the Sole Survivor.
- The fan-novelization Tiberium Wars makes it a point to often, suddenly, and repeatedly kill off well-developed characters. Some characters get less than a scene to their names before they get slaughtered, and you've really got no idea if a character is going to survive until they bite it.
- Danganronpa: Darkened Hope: Par for the course in a Danganronpa fanfic. Characters drop like flies after the first drop of blood is shed. Not even the protagonist's best friends (and implied Love Interest) are safe from a heartbreaking demise.
- Danganronpa: Hushed Whispers hits viewpoint character Hisoka with a case of Uncertain Doom at the climax of its prologue, as a fireball from the Monodeer's tower of flames bears down upon him as he screams in agony.
- Played with a little in Digimon: Children of Time. While none of the human characters or main Digimon partners have been killed off, other Digimon from any of the franchises have not been so lucky. So far:
- Tagiru's MetalTyrannomon is killed and has his data loaded by Dorbickmon, effectively making him a part of Dorbickmon now.
- All of the Royal Knights from Savers are killed off by the Demon Lords, with Omnimon, Magnamon, and Kentaurosmon being the only surviving members. The fallen Knights are then revived and can only be saved by a Mercy Kill, as any Digimon deleted by a Demon Lord is Killed Off for Real, unable to reformat/be reborn.
- All of the Deva (except the still living Antylamon/Lopmon) are also killed and remade into slaves by the Demon Lords, and when Yuu try to hunt them, there's too little data to be truly hunted.
- City is attacked by the Demon Lords few survivors were left, including killing all of Koh and Sayo's Digimon partners aside from Koh's Apollomon and Marsmon, and Sayo's Dianamon and Venusmon.
- Played with in Series Five of The Lion King Adventures. Tojo and Tama die in grisly ways, but – unlike some others who are brought back – their deaths remain permanent.
- Word of God establishes Necrophobia as one, as it follows a guild of Villain Protagonists on their bloody adventures.
- The discontinued flash series Final Fighting Fantasy has so far featured thirty-nine heroes. Eight of them are still alive. Enough said.
- A Brighter Dark: Being a retelling of Fates, this might have been expected... except Plot Armor no longer applies here. Disney Death is nonexistent, the protagonists are absolutely devoid of anything resembling a Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, and given the nature of the conflict, there's hardly even a 'good' side that's destined to win in the end.
- Another Journey kills off quite a few characters. In addition to canonical deaths like Hughes, Nina, Hohenheim, Fu and Buccaneer, the story also kills off Alex Armstrong, Izumi, Denny Brosh, Scar, and Heymans Breda among others.
- In Enemy of My Enemy, a fair number of major good-guy characters die throughout the story, to provide and maintain Emotional Torque. Of course, there are a choice few Disney Deaths; one guy has two.
- Dangerverse. By the end of the series, the body count exceeds the original series, including Quirrell, Lockhart, Siss, Andromeda, Cedric, Marcus, Umbridge, Frank Longbottom, Penelope Clearwater, a little girl not even in Hogwarts yet, Hagrid, Graham Pritchard, Fred and George, most Death Eaters, though the deaths during the Battle of Hogwarts are glossed over, and Lucius Malfoy
- In Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness, in the Battle of Hogwarts, the brutal deaths of Dennis, Michael, Cho, Parvati and too many others come as shocks. Continued with alarming enthusiasm in the sequels. Basically, anyone who did not get an explicit name check as being alive and well in Rowling's epilogue can be presumed to be dead by the time the trilogy has run its course. And even that is no guarantee, because "Epilogue? What Epilogue?"
- The Blood Bond, Blood Omen Series kills off familiar characters with reckless abandon. Among the casualties are Dr. Director, Monkey Fist, Gemini, Sensei, Frederick, Hirotaka and Adrena Lynn's face.
- Future Tense opens with three characters dying within the first few paragraphs. It only goes downhill from there.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The author of Bad Future Crusaders, although promising she won't just kill characters left and right for the heck of it, has made a point of claiming that no character is safe since it makes for a far more interesting read. Seemingly to hammer this point home, this was said right after Twist who was built up as a major character, was killed very unceremoniously by Merrilay.
- In Envy and Arrogance, this is expressed in three stages. First, most of the population of Equestria dies off-screen, including several minor characters. Then, the stakes are taken higher with a Tear Jerker death of Apple Bloom. More deaths follow. Finally, we learn that the original Elements of Harmony managed to save the world despite losing several members (either to death or mental breakdown) - that means even the mane six's Plot Armor can no longer be depended upon.
- Hinterlands opens by characterizing a likable hermit, then having Amanita kill her in cold blood to establish the stakes. By the time the fic is over, half the main cast has died, with another one heavily implied to be heading for death in the near future.
- Happy Families Are All Alike features the Third Hokage dying in the very first chapter. Later, we find out that Jiraiya and Tsunade were killed off by Orochimaru, who has also successfully possessed Sasuke.
- The Scorned Son sees Kakashi killed off by Zabuza, while Neji and Lee both die at Gaara's hands.
- Pedestal: Human or Pokemon, Original or Canon Character. Anyone could be next.
- It is confirmed by Word of God that anyone in Poké Wars can die.Cornova: Keep in mind that any of the characters in this fic can die. Even if they're main characters. I think I already proved that with Sabrina.
- The Sun Soul: The author spares no pains in developing a character, making the audience identify with them, then ripping the character away in a brutal, often jarring, manner.
- For The JWL, the Ur-Example was "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, who debuted on Episode 6 and was memorialized on Episode 9, and the Trope Codifier was JWL World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit.
- Murderer's Row: Word of God has confirmed that none of the characters are safe from being killed off.
- The prison riot midway through Volume 2 sees Simmons, Wyoming, and the Red Zealot all get killed off.
- Volume 3 has O'Malley, the de facto Big Bad up to this point, be killed off early on.
- What Lies Beyond the Walls killed off the main "hero" before the first chapter was even halfway over. From that point on, dozens of minor and recurring characters have been slain—often without warning. Even named characters are treated like Red Shirts, and some of them are lucky to survive more than three chapters. The only characters who seem like they're safe from death are Urthquake and Kurwin the Flayer.
- Played with in Demigod Power: Character deaths have been few and far between thus far, but this trope remains in effect because there is nothing stopping the writers from killing off any of their characters. Judging by the last two lines in the next Great Prophecy, this trope is going to be played straight HARD.
- In the Kingdom's Service kills off a shocking number of its main characters. Over the course of the story, Velvet, Cardin, Oobleck, Ciel, Coco, Mercury, Adam, Winter, and Cinder are all killed. The first three were all members of the Vale Secret Service and Jaune's mentors, and Coco, Velvet, and Ciel all die offscreen.
- Ruby and Nora has already killed many significant characters before the Fall of Beacon. When that tragedy happened, even characters that survived that event were killed.
- In By the Fire's Light, any character can die at any time... And eventually pretty much everyone does.
- Most ASOIAF fanfics are this due to the base material but the Self-Insert Fic Wearing Robert's Crown made it clear that no one was safe at the end of Book Four. The Author Avatar is killed off.
- Queens of Mewni: As the fic both spans centuries and takes a lot of influence from Game of Thrones, many deaths of the main characters and a lot of minor ones are revealed. Notably, the fic starts years after the canon series ended and reveals that Star and Marco cleaving Earth and Mewni together caused a war between both worlds, which killed off a significant amount of major and minor canon characters, including Moon, Eclipsa, Globgor, and Meteora. And everyone blames Star for it.
- In spite of being a Fix Fic, Dominoes is unafraid of having major characters die. Attie is abruptly shot in the head during a firefight, and the Battle of Kamino sees the deaths of Coric, Nax, and General Grievous.
- With Big Shells and Wings, for the most part, was a light-hearted action/comedy story that had most of the deaths Played for Laughs. Then came chapter 24, which changed the tone of the story entirely with the death of Yellow. The bodies slowly but steadily begin to pile up, until chaos ensues in the last chunk of the story, resulting in the deaths of several major characters.
- Since the story of Sodor Fallout Since the story is being told through notes on a journal that have already been written, the final state of the characters could be anything. If the deaths of Percy and Toby are anything to go by, literally anyone could die.
- With the Gensokyo 20XX series being a series of primarily Dark Fics and Death Fics, it comes with this trope and even immortals and children are no exception, seeing as Eirin, being one of the aforementioned, was Driven to Suicide and succeeded and the fact that the series has a rather high body count.
- The Transformers Trilogy by Kilo Whiskey Oscar, which is a reimagining of the movie and Season 3 from Generation 1, racks up a body count that's possibly even bigger than the one from the movie. The final chapter of Return of the Primes, the third part of the trilogy, has a memorial for all of the Autobots that died throughout, with names including Ironhide, Ratchet, Kup, Springer, Omega Supreme, Chromia, Prowl, the Protectobots, and all of the Aerialbots except Silverbolt.
- Days We've Lost: Just like in the source material from the comics and games, nobody is safe. Anyone can die at anytime, with some like Carol and Glenn dying much sooner than canon, and even if someone lives passed an event where they died in the original, they could always die later. Even characters that canonically survived to the very end of the series can die, such as Maggie and Michonne.
- The Walking Dead: Real Monsters: Given the original material, it's no surprise that by the end, nearly everyone is either dead or written out of the story. Except for Nate, of course.
- Aside from the campaign's...interesting character creation session, the All Guardsmen Party has had at least three different deaths, not counting other team members they've been assigned to.
- Secret War kills off so many main characters that it reaches the point where two out of three of the main characters who are introduced right at the start, wind up dead. And one of them is Attelus Kaltos, the character whose perspective it's from.
- A fair number of the characters encountered by the narrator in Travels Through Azeroth and Outland end up getting killed.
- X Com The Hades Contingency: True to the source material, each and every one of XCOM's soldiers is at risk of dying over the course of their struggle against the aliens. Even POV characters aren't safe, as Paige, Shawn, Liam, Luke and Mira all die over the course of the story.
- The sequels are no better: Atlas Protocol features the deaths of original and canon characters, like Galia, Cerian, Hermann, Van Doorn, Annette and even Bradford, and Advent Directive adds Jamali, Roman, Jaylin, Nuan, Oliver and Shen to the list of casualties.
