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• W.I.T.C.H. killed off quite a few of the lesser villains, such as Tridart and Ember being disposed of by Nerissa when they were no longer needed. In the finale, Tracker is also subsequently impaled and killed.
• Thanks to media watchdogs and the cultural osmosis of a certain comic book trope, being Killed Off for Real in American children's programming is so rare, it's hard for some to grasp. Jet's fate on Avatar The Last Airbender, despite being tragically obvious, was surrounded by speculation that he somehow survived. They just don't do that in kids' shows! A SciFi.com interview with the program's creators, however, has confirmed the character was indeed Killed Off for Real.
  • In the third season, Combustion Man is also Killed Off For Real.
  • Yue in the first season finale. An odd one, as the excuse for Jet's death not being shown was that the network wouldn't let them show a kid die onscreen - but Yue's death was onscreen, and she was the same age. It might be because Jet's was a violent death, while Yue's looked more like she fell asleep, and she was shown becoming the Moon Spirit immediately after, while Jet was just dead.
    • Actually somewhat arguable, as she pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to replace the moon spirit Zhao killed, and thus lives on in a way as said spirit. But she really is gone for good.
    • What we're looking at is a case of death via Heroic Sacrifice (Yue) vs. being murdered by the Big Bad. There's only so much crap you can get past the radar, and considering the intensity of Jet's death-scene, it's no surprise the writers handled it the way they did.
  • Also, Zhao and Hahn from the first season.
  • Jet's ambiguous fate is actually lampshaded by Sokka in one of the last episodes, where the gang was watching a play about themselves and saw Jet die. Zuko asks if he really died, and Sokka casually remarks "You know, that was really unclear.".
• In Avatar's sequel series The Legend Of Korra: Noatak (AKA Amon) and his brother Tarrlok are killed in a murder-suicide committed by the latter.
• Parodied in an episode of The Simpsons. Moe gets a facelift and becomes handsome, and is awarded a role on a Soap Opera. After reading a new script that says he dies, he retaliates by revealing all of the major plot twists in the show for the next year on air (the show was filmed live, apparently). The director than angrily informs him that his character wasn't being killed off and that that page of the script was a dream sequence.
  • And not parodied with the very "real" (at least in animation terms) deaths of Bleeding Gums Murphy and Maude Flanders. Dr. Marvin Monroe was also apparently dead enough to have a hospital named in his memory (but he got better...) and Hans Moleman has technically died multiple times (due to explosion, motor accident, fire, a pack of hungry wolves, etc.) but has yet to have been killed off for real.
  • Maude Flanders counts as this, and in a Tonight Someone Dies fashion no less.
    • Dr. Nick Riviera was killed off in The Movie, but he got better and resurfaced later on the TV show.
  • When the hated Poochie is killed off, Krusty signs a legal document swearing that he will never, ever come back. And then he came back in a later Itchy and Scratchy episode as a cameo guest to one of Scratchy's funerals.
  • This trope finally caught up with Mona Simpson, Homer's mother. What makes this death particularly impacting is her successive Not Quite Dead track record in previous episodes.
  • Mob boss Fat Tony dies of a heart attack, but in a Subverted Trope, he was replaced by his identical cousin who also got fat.
  • Frank "Grimey" Grimes is dead and his son confirmed it.
  • Also possibly averted with Lionel Hutz's habit of repeatedly running over Judge Snyder's son. Being repeatedly run over might be enough to kill the Judge's son, but like Mr. Burns in "Who Shot Mr. Burns Part 2", his conditions must have been upgraded to alive at the "better" Springfield General Hospital everytime. Because Lionel Hutz, like Troy McClure, was retired when voice actor Phil Hartman was killed off for real by his wife in a murder-suicide, it is not known of Hutz's habit has continued and the Judge's son is always killed, then revived.
  • Minor character Mrs. Alice Glick is the most recent victim (though she has since been seen as a background character, so it might not be for real).
• In Jonny Quest The Real Adventures, while the show's other main villains tended to get the No One Could Survive That treatment in their last episodes — and since the show didn't get a third season, it's probably safe to say that they're gone for real — Ezekiel Rage had an established tendency to cheat death. Therefore, just to be sure, he got sent back to prehistoric times and blown up by a nuclear bomb, leaving a skull behind for good measure. Deader Than Dead? Deader than dead.
• The Venture Brothers has quite a few, most heartbreakingly 24's death by exploding muscle car.
• In King of the Hill, quite a few recurring or main characters have been killed off over the years including Luann's first boyfriend Buckley, Buck Strickland's mistress Debbie, Pops Poppaseto, Cotton's war buddy Topsy, and most recently Hank Hill's father Cotton Hill.
• Transformers as a whole has never shyed away from this.
  • Beast Wars continually killed its cast, despite the fact that Beast Wars characters are a bit hard to kill, as robots they have survived deadly attacks and being blown to bits (in which case they can easily be repaired). Some simply died, in one case to make room for new characters. A surprising number died, were brought back, and died again. Two of them died, were brought back as a fused form of the two, and then died. And two of them died with the possibility that they might return, but didn't.
    • Major characters to permanently die are (in order of death) Terrorsaur, Scorponok, Dinobot, Tarantulas, Rampage, Depthcharge, Tigatron, Airazor (both as Tigerhawk), Inferno, Quickstrike, and Dinobot II. Major characters to survive to the end of the final episode are Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor, Rhinox, Blackarachnia, Silverbolt, Megatron, and Waspinator.
    • If you count the comics, the list of permanently dead characters is reduced to both Dinobots, Rampage, Tigerhawk, Inferno and Quickstrike.
    • And the in the sequel series, Beast Machines, Optimus, Megatron, and Rhinox are killed as well.
  • In Transformers Animated Blurr is killed, pretty graphically, for a machine. Namely he was crushed into a cube and dumped down a trash chute.
    • The finale also killed off Prowl and Starscream. Prowl sacrificed his Spark to save the city, and Starscream's Allspark fragment, the only thing keeping him alive after he was killed by Megatron in "Megatron Rising", was pulled out of his head. To hammer the point home, their bodies turned completely grey, the telltale sign in this series that a Transformer is really dead barring interference from the Allspark itself.
  • Jazz was killed by Megatron in the final battle of the first live-action movie. The Fallen was killed by Optimus at the end of the sequel and every Decepticon (who isn't Megatron) that has been killed has stayed dead so far.
  • The Movie killed off a good chunk of the G1 roster. This didn't stop some of them (Prowl and Wheeljack, most notably) from reappearing in the later Japanese-exclusive Transformers Headmasters and Transformers Victory seasons.
  • Transformers Prime killed off Cliffjumper in the first episode, then brought him back as a zombie in the second episode only to die again. Skyquake and Makeshift were also killed in their debut episodes, the former became another zombie while the latter is staying dead, because he was too powerful to stay alive. Word Of God is that "when we kill a character, we kill a character."
    • Crossfire has added Breakdown to the scrap heap.
    • Hurt added Hardshell.
    • Dreadwing in Regeneration - killed by Megatron after refusing to follow orders to not execute the guy who zombified his deceased brother Skyquake. Lovely.
    • And now Optimus is looking a little worse for wear as of the second season finale. We'll have to wait for the third season to see if he bucks the trend, but it's not promising.
• In Family Guy a few recurring characters such as Mr. Weed, Paddy Tanniger, Vern and Johnny, and Francis Griffin have been killed off. Despite Negative Continuity, any returns are made by their ghosts.
  • Joan Quagmire died on a technicality, having tried to grab Death's hand. As she was married to the "deceased" Glenn Quagmire and having taken his last name, he agreed to take her instead. Being a bit off didn't hurt, either....
  • It was revealed in a Season 6 episode that Joe's son Kevin had died in Iraq. This was done because the writers thought he was boring. However, he came back in the recent Thanksgiving episode (it turned out he had faked his death).
  • Stewie killed his half-brother Bertram in 15th-century Italy, which creates a very odd temporal paradox.
  • In fact, Meg and Peter are the only characters to die and come back to life.
  • In the season 9 premiere, the trailers advertised that someone would die. As it turns out, Muriel Goldman, Derek, Diane Simmons, and onetime characters Stephanie and Priscilla were killed off.
  • Jeff in "Screams of Silence".
  • Horace dies in "Save the Clam".
• In a subversion of the very trope named after him, the Joker eventually got this treatment in the DCAU. Yes, having proven himself as much of a survivor as his counterpart in the comics, every bit the "no one" in No One Could Survive That, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker took the big leap and put him down once and for all - killing him twice in the same movie just to make sure. (In just a bit of a cheat, the event occurs at the far end of the universe-at-large's history, allowing him to show up in stories taking place earlier; Justice League took advantage of this.)
• Justice League Unlimited killed off most of the Legion of Doom via an exploding spaceship in "Alive", the second-to-last episode of the series. While a small number were explicitly shown to survive, a number of minor villains like the Shade, Silver Banshee, Rampage, Neutron, and many others were presumed dead. Lex Luthor and Darkseid are apparently killed in the finale, "Destroyer", but Superman doubts that Lex is truly gone.
• In The Animals Of Farthing Wood quite a few of the main characters were killed off like the Hedgehogs, Badger, Mole, Bold, The Great White Stag, Sinuous and quite a few others.
• South Park
  • Unless Isaac Hayes is somehow reanimated in real life, Chef is likely gone for good, despite his "Darth Chef" remaking.
  • Inverted with Kenny. He was killed off for real but they decided to randomly bring him back in "Red Sleigh Down", one season after his death.
  • Other recurring characters to have died over the years include Ms. Choksondik, Ms. Crabtree, the mayor's aide named Ted, and most recently Pip.
• B'wana Beast, Ted Kord, the original Black Canary, and the entire Doom Patrol are all killed off during the three season run of Batman The Brave And The Bold. The deceased heroes do appear in the show's Grand Finale, but only as part of a Fourth Wall-breaking wrap party that shows the entire cast together one last time before everything fades to black.
• In Winx Club they have killed off the main villains of season 2, 3 and 4 at the end of those seasons. In addition to this, we lost Nabu in season 4.
• At the end of the Superman The Animated Series two-parter "Apokolips Now", after Darkseid's invasion of Earth is thwarted and just before he leaves he murders Superman's friend Metropolis Police Inspector Dan Turpin with his Omega Beams in front of Superman and a crowd of onlookers. Some fans hoped Turpin was just teleported to Apokolips like Kalibak had been after he got apparently zapped, but it seems he's gone for good.
• The Boondocks Season 1: "Granddad's Fight." The karmic fate of life-long, Five-Star Magnificent Bastard Colonel H. Stinkmeaner, who effectively gets his ass handed to him by Robert Freeman in an ironic Curb-Stomp Battle: Stinkmeaner had beaten up Freeman in an argument over a parking spot, and the entire episode revolves around Huey making him out to be a version of a blind assassin, and Robert training for a rematch. It turns out Stinkmeaner was just a crotchety old man who got lucky. Unfortunately, he's such a temporal Jerk Ass, absolutely nobody realizes this until Robert pulverizes him. The beating is so bad, Stinkmeaner ends up stone-cold dead with a solid punch to the face. Feeling remorseful at his grave, Robert prays to God for forgiveness the end of the episode.
  • Although dead, Stinkmeaner makes one hell of a return in Season 2: "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back"- literally. Stinkmeaner has been sent to hell after death, but now proves he can seriously fight back- by pummeling his way through every demon who steps up to challenge him. Satan himself is so marveled at Stinkmeaner's badass exposition, he sends him back to Earth to spread ignorance and chaos among the black community, also giving him the opportunity to seek revenge against the Freeman family. As a ghost, he posesses Tom Dubois and trashes most of his house. After Uncle Ruckus and Riley fail miserably at exorcising Stinkmeaner, Ghostface Killah's spirit shows up and clues Huey in to the solution: put Stinkmeaner at peace by having Ruckus spout off about how he hates black people, a hate Stinkmeaner firmly shares with him. Moments later, he's exorcised and sent right back to hell.
  • In yet another Stinkmeaner-related episode, death strikes again, this time nailing Bushido Brown, via on-screen decapitation during his fight in Season 3: Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy". The Colonel apparently palled around with a group of disgruntled elderly, nigh-crazy jerkasses who formed the Hateocracy, a gang that wreaked havoc within the walls of a nursing home. The members of the gang show up to curb stomp the Freeman family in what looks like a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, so the Freemans hire Bushido as their equally jerkass bodyguard, who actually holds off the Hateocracy- until he catches a spinning disk of doom to the neck. The Freeman family's reaction? A group "OH, SHIIIIT!".
    • It gets more bizarre when Stinkmeaner's name comes up. Robert tries to reason with the Hateocracy to leave them alone and forget revenge, and they reveal they couldn't care less about the deceased Colonel- they're just ruining lives for the hell of it. Luckily, an army of cops shows up in the nick of time to cart off the unruly trio. Taking a jab of his own at his ungrateful cohorts, Stinkmeaner's ghost, who has been narrating on and off throughout the episode, hangs a cynical lampshade on his fate over his old pals: He thinks death and hell are better than being in jail!
• Warhok and Warmonga from Kim Possible were confirmed by Word Of God to be dead for real after Ron used his Mystical Monkey Powers to throw them into their own ship after they threatened to kill Kim, after which the ship exploded. They're about the only villains in the series to be killed for real... Except perhaps for Monkey Fist.
• In The Powerpuff Girls, this possibility arises with Dick Hardly, a one-episode villain of "Knock It Off", who, within the episode, cemented himself as probably one of the most evil villains on the show, may actually have been the only human villain to die, considering that, after his episode, him and his various PPG knockoffs (which were the ones that did him in) were never seen again.
  • Bunny in "Twisted Sister." The girls attempt to create a fourth Powerpuff girl using substitutes for sugar and spice, and their subjective forms of everything nice, as well as an "accidental" dose of Chemical X. The product is an apparently mentally disabled sibling with a black and white sense of right and wrong, which causes her to not quite get the hang of crime fighting. The girls, once they find out what trouble she has been up to, tell her she did bad and cause her to flee in tears. The criminals that Bunny released as a result of viewing the police as bad in her black and white view of the world, attack and overwhelm the girls, and Bunny hears their cries and comes back to save them. The ensuing battle causes her already unstable form to reach it's maximum capacity, and she explodes after proudly proclaiming that she finally did good. The narrator confirms she's not coming back.
  Narrator: -tearfully- And for the first, and final time, the day is saved thanks to Powerpuff Bunny.
• The series Darkwing Duck has two villains who die (on screen): Splatter Phoenix, who melts while she gives a rambling speech as she's erased from existence, and Mayor Synapse who turns into a powerful almost indestructible being until the main heroes get him to blast and explode "graphically".
• In the Futurama episode "The Thief of Baghead", Calculon kills himself after ingesting food coloring (which is toxic to robots). He was reenacting the climax of Romeo and Juliet and tried to put on the best possible on-stage death by actually killing himself, meaning he basically hammed himself to death.
  • This seems to have just happened to Roberto as well, first by being killed by the state and then his new body and remaining brain melting into gray goop. There's also the Patton Oswald voiced giant nerd from the previous season, killed off by Bender and his many clones.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars mostly plays it straight. Of course, due to being Doomed by Canon, none of the characters who appeared in Revenge of the Sith or the other movies taking place after it can be Killed Off for Real in the show, but no one else is a hundred percent safe.
• Season three of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic began this with King Sombra, who, in contrast to Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Queen Chrysalis, was vaporized by the protagonists. The fandom now speculates that this won't be the last time a character is killed off.
  • G1 also had Lavan, who died in similar way to Sombra (although a little less graphically), after his magic beam ricocheted from the princess ponies' magic wands back at him.
  • And before that, the G1 TV special Rescue at Midnight Castle that kicked off the original show ended with Tirek's defeat via a giant rainbow-colored tornado, much like how Luna was stripped of her Nightmare Moon persona in the second episode of the current show. Except that Tirek wasn't redeemed by it, but killed outright.
    • Actually, with Tirek it's not so clear, since we never see him die on screen. He does get sucked into the big vortex in the clouds before it explodes, which would imply that most likely he did die, but it's never confirmed. Especially that unlike with Lavan, where Megan explicitly states "He's gone!", the ponies never mention a word about what happened.
• The title character from The Snowman; the boy finds that he has melted, and then the cartoon ends. He never comes back.
• Malware on Ben 10 Omniverse is permanently done away with in the episode "Showdown Part 2" when Ben regains Feedback after a talk with his past self, then Azmuth helps to increase his power to take Malware down.
• In the last episode of Young Justice, Kid Flash is disintegrated when he absorbs too much energy helping The Flash and Impulse get rid of an energy field that threatened to envelop the Earth. To honor his memory Impulse takes up his mantle.