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A Red Shirt in his natural state.

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: Ah, crap.

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/frozen/desalinated, and give William Shatner or DeForest Kelley a corpse to 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 "Hes Dead Jim", lament this "valued crewmembers senseless death", and then promptly forget him.

In mass quantities, they make up the Redshirt Army.

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.


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