Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

Custom Search

A Red Shirt in his natural state.

Boone: You ever watch Star Trek?
Locke: Not really.
Boone: The crew guys that would go down to the planet with the main guys — the captain and the guy with the pointy ears? They always wore red shirts and they always got killed.
Locke: Yeah?
Boone: Yeah.
Locke: Sounds like a piss-poor captain.
Lost, "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"

Kirk: All right, men, this is a dangerous mission. And it's likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Ensign Ricky.
Ensign Ricky: Aw, crap.
Family Guy

Wade: This is the part of the show where they pick series regulars to go on a mission. Just make sure you're not wearing a...
Kim: Red shirt?
Kim Possible

The color of shirt worn by the nameless security personnel on the original Star Trek series. Their only job was to get eaten/shot/stabbed/disrupted/sped-up-and-killed/frozen/desalinated/turned-into-a-cube-and-crushed, and give William Shatner and DeForest Kelley a corpse to emote over, and Leonard Nimoy a corpse to, well, not emote over.

A Red Shirt is the good cousin of Evil Minions — set filler for our heroes' side. Their purpose is almost exclusively to give the writers someone to kill who isn't a main character, although they can also serve as a Spear Carrier. They are used to show how the monster works, and demonstrate that it is indeed a deadly menace, without having to lose anyone important. Expect someone to say "He's dead, Jim.", lament this "valued crewmembers senseless death", and then promptly forget him. In mass quantities, they make up the Redshirt Army. Frequently overlaps with The Black Dude Dies First.

Anyone Can Die is the polar opposite of this trope.

Compare to The Worf Effect where, once again, a character is brutalized to show the enemy's power, with the notable difference that it is a main character, and they don't die.

See also Retirony, Mauve Shirt, Sacrificial Lamb. Lowest of the low on the Super Weight scale.

Also, whatever you do, do not confuse a red shirt with a red jacket. See also Little Dead Riding Hood.


    open/close all folders 

Examples

    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 

    Comics 

    Fan Works 

    Films 

    Literature 

    Live Action TV 

    Music 

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 

    Web Animation 

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation