Basic Trope: Showing how serious a threat the villain is by having them kill someone the audience cares about.
- Straight: Alice has been the antagonist for half a season, but she's only seen as a problem that needs to be solved. However, she then kills a supporting character named Bob.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob was one of the, if not the, protagonist(s).
- Alice was initially seen as a Hero Antagonist. However, when she kills Bob, she's crossed the line and is now a straight-up villain.
- Downplayed:
- We don't know much about Bob, but he seemed important because we knew his name and he appeared in two episodes.
- Alice was already a pretty intimidating villain; killing Bob just makes her even more scary.
- Bob is down but not out.
- Justified:
- Alice is a psychopath and doesn't see anything wrong with killing Bob and she also believes killing Bob is the most efficient course of action.
- Alice was conditioned to see people who work for the organisation Bob works for as deserving death.
- Inverted:
- Alice was supposed to be one of the good guys, but we never see her do anything good until she uses her powers to bring Bob Back from the Dead.
- Alice is established as a serious threat by bringing the already-dead Bob back as a zombie.
- Alice is established as a good guy by delivering Bob.
- Subverted:
- As it turns out, Bob isn't really dead.
- Bob's dead, but it wasn't Alice who killed him.
- Double Subverted:
- When Alice kills Carol, on the other hand...
- It was Dave who killed Bob. People are sure going to take Dave more seriously now.
- Parodied:
- Zigzagged:
- It's a mystery how Bob died.
- It's a mystery if Bob died.
- Averted:
- Everybody Lives
- Only the nameless characters and/or bad guys die.
- Enforced:
- "We don't want Alice to come off as a Harmless Villain! Quick, have her kill somebody!"
- "The defeats of our Worf no longer sell the danger anymore!" "I GOT IT! Let's up the ante by killing him."
- Lampshaded: "Oh no! Bob died! I'll never take Alice for granted again!"
- Invoked:
- Exploited: With Bob out of the way, Alice can cause more chaos.
- Defied:
- Alice is not evil enough to kill Bob.
- Killing Bob would be inconvenient for Alice.
- Discussed: "What if Alice suddenly killed Bob?"
- Conversed: "I'll never underestimate that villain again!"
- Implied: Alice strikes Bob down and he's never seen again, but it's unknown if he did die.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: The others grieve Bob terribly.
Back to Dead Serious.
