History Main / TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled

* ''VideoGame/FableI'': Narrowly {{defied|Trope}} with the Archaeologist thanks to his study of the BigBad, Jack of Blades. Your first quest to "[[UnwantedRescue help]]" him only blows his cover; your second is a TimedMission to rescue him from Jack's forces. He gives you some vital information in thanks, then [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere moves far away]] and becomes a glove merchant.

* Robert Holloway from ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' is a rather poignant deconstruction and exploration of this archetype. He's a legitimately amazing survivalist and hunter who has explored all the world's most famously dangerous places, but the growing lack of challenge has made him become listless and desperate for stimulation to soothe his [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex secretly insecure ego]] and establish his place in the history books. He becomes obsessed with trying to conquer [[EldritchLocation the House]] because of this, unwilling to accept that it's nothing like the natural environments he's used to dealing with and that he's not actually an expert this time. [[spoiler:He ends up being driven insane by the House and ultimately commits suicide while trapped within it's walls as he finally realizes what a mistake he's made.]]

They know more about the threat than anyone. Can tell the hero/heroine everything they want to know. They're a cop who's been hunting the SerialKiller for their entire career or the GreatWhiteHunter who knows more about dangerous animals than anyone. Perhaps [[HauntedHouseHistorian they're an expert on ancient curses]], or are schooled in the ways of killer robots. Whoever they are, they're the good guy's best and most reliable source of information regarding {{The Threat}}, its plans, its motivations, its patterns, its strengths, and its weaknesses.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

They know more about the threat than anyone. Can tell the hero/heroine everything they want to know. They're a cop who's been hunting the SerialKiller for their entire career or the GreatWhiteHunter who knows more about dangerous animals than anyone. Perhaps [[HauntedHouseHistorian they're an expert on ancient curses]], or are schooled in the ways of killer robots. Whoever they are, they're the good guy's best and most reliable source of information regarding The Threat, its plans, its motivations, its patterns, its strengths, and its weaknesses.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' has Rantaro Amami, who earned the title of Ultimate Survivor for surviving a past Killing Game, only to be the first person murdered in the current Killing Game. In a twist, it's only revealed that he was the World's Expert on Getting Killed long after his death.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': The entire order of Grey Wardens in Ferelden, many of them with decades of experience of fighting darkspawn, goes to Ostagar to stop the Blight. They are all killed off in the prologue, among them the mentor, leaving just the two newest recruits to succeed where they failed. Though to be fair, the Wardens were betrayed by an ally, who took it on himself to withdraw his forces from the battle rather than uphold his part in it, leading to the annihilation of ''the entire army'' (including the King, who was also his ''son-in-law'') that was fighting alongside them.

** Robert Muldoon from ''Film/JurassicPark1993'' "knows more about Raptors than anyone" ... but is pretty quickly and easily dispatched by the raptors once they're loose when they use their standard attack pattern. In [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]], it's Hammond instead, and Muldoon survives the experience after shooting the ''T. rex'' with a giant tranquilizer dart, blowing at least one raptor in half with a rocket launcher and still continuing to be an untouchable badass even after he finally gets so drunk he can barely stand.

* In ''Film/EscapeRoom2019'', Danny, one of the nerds of the group, brags about being a puzzle room expert who cleared over 90 live puzzles, including all the popular ones. During the movie, he refuses to believe him, and the other members of the group are in danger, despite growing evidence that they are, until he falls through a sheet of ice during the second puzzle room and becomes the group's first casualty.

** Quint from the first ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' movie talked a good game but didn't last very long once he actually met the shark. However, both he and Hooper imply that they had never seen a shark like this before. Also, in all fairness, they'd been waiting and drinking for hours, so it's also clear that Quint is pretty hammered by the time the shark shows up.

** Averted with Lev Andropov who is a career Russian cosmonaut and not only survives but saves the entire mission on no less then three seperate occasions.

* ''Film/TheRageCarrie2'' combines this with SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome in killing off Sue Snell, a ZenSurvivor turned guidance counselor who tried to prevent the slaughter this time around.

* ''Literature/GuardiansOfTheFlame'': At the start of the series, history major Jason Parker is clearly the most skilled roleplayer of the group. He led the last campaign, has a sharp appreciation for tactics and party balance, and even has one of the higher-level characters in the party, a master thief. So naturally, when the players find themselves in a fantasy world for real, Jason's the first one killed off ... ironically because he literally couldn't separate player knowledge from character knowledge.

* Surprisingly subverted in ''Film/KillerCrocodile'' when the resident [[Film/{{Jaws}} Quint]] {{Expy}} survives his apparent death and shows up at the climax to help the protagonists kill the mutant crocodile.

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** Robert Muldoon from ''Film/JurassicPark1993'' "knows more about Raptors than anyone" ... but is pretty quickly and easily dispatched by the raptors once they're loose when they use their standard attack pattern. In [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]], it's Hammond instead, and Muldoon survives the experience after shooting the T-Rex with a giant tranquilizer dart, blowing at least one raptor in half with a rocket launcher and still continuing to be an untouchable badass even after he finally gets so drunk he can barely stand.
** ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' with Dr. Sarah Harding. She's supposedly an animal behavior expert yet makes mistakes that endanger her life and get others around her killed. Most egregious is when she walks through the jungle wearing a jacket stained with blood from the injured baby T-rex she helped mend. Not only does this lead the parents right to her group, but she only realizes her error when she sees the jacket hanging in her tent... right before one of the rexes pokes it head in. The fact that the rex lifts its head up toward the jacket with the tent covering its eyes is the only reason she isn't instantly killed, and this leads to the hunters with her being killed instead.[[note]]For whatever reason, someone decided to combine her character with [[Literature/TheLostWorld1995 the novel]]'s resident [[TheLoad useless team member]] Richard Levine. Novel Sarah Harding is a complete 180 from her film incarnation, being a competent badass who managed to get the villain into the T-rex's jaws as revenge for trying to kill her by throwing her off the ship.[[/note]] Also, there's the paleontologist of Ludlow's team, who gets scared by a harmless little snake behind the waterfall and flees in a panic, only to get eaten by the adult T-rex.

* In ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'' everyone is warned that Canaan House is incredibly haunted and its ghosts pose a serious risk to their lives. Abigail Pent is the first casualty, despite her reputation as a highly capable necromancer whose house specializes in spirit calling. [[spoiler: Subverted in that she was targeted first by a non-ghost murderer because she posed the biggest risk of identifying them. In the second book her spirit gets to demonstrate her true skill when dealing with her area of expertise.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', the Metal Gear RAY, which was specifically built as a counter to the Metal Gear REX models being built by the other countries, is destroyed by none other than the (half-demolished but operational) original Metal Gear REX.