History Main / DeathOfTheHypotenuse

* ''Literature/{{Lolita}}''. Charlotte wants Humbert; Humbert wants Lolita. Charlotte dies in a freak accident.

* As one such example, ''Film/PearlHarbor''. [[spoiler: Danny dies, letting Rafe get Evelyn...as well as letting them raise [[DeadGuyJunior Danny and Evelyn's chid]].]]

* Inverted in ''Anime/Danganronpa3'': the hypotenuse ([[spoiler:Munakata]]) is the last one standing. [[spoiler:Chisa killed herself thanks to her despair addiction, and Juzo bled out due to injuries Munakata inflicted out of paranoia.]]

* ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'': It happens to [[spoiler:the wolf Gavin, who dies heroically]]. Implied that narrativium was working heavily in favour of the suitor that survived, or that [[spoiler: Carrot was deliberately taking advantage of narrativium, and made sure it was Gavin that made the HeroicSacrifice. Whether this was done [[ManipulativeBastard consciously]] or [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality unconsciously]] is impossible to tell through Carrot's constant ObfuscatingStupidity.]]

** Has [[spoiler:Lavinia]] die suddenly of Spanish Flu at the end of series two to make way for [[spoiler:Matthew/Mary]].

** It happens the ones involved in the [[spoiler: Saki/Shun/Satoru]] LoveTriangle. It has the twist that the hypotenuse who dies is the member of the LoveTriangle, that ''the other two are interested in'', aka [[spoiler: Shun]].

* In ''Anime/SamuraiFlamenco'', Goto has two main love interests: his partner Masayoshi, and his off-screen girlfriend who texts him often.[[note]]Mari ''tries'' being Goto's love interest, but he isn't having any of it and she's already basically in a threesome with the Flamenco Girls.[[/note]] The story not only bumps [[spoiler:Goto's girlfriend]] off, but flat out says [[spoiler: she hasn't been alive for years -- the bus she got on when she and Goto were young had everyone on it disappear, and he's been delusionally texting as her using her phone to cope. She even "dies" a second time when Sawada deletes the last message Goto got from her. The finale subverts it, as Goto ends up lapsing back into his old habit to allow her to "check up" on him and Masayoshi one last time.]]

* In LightNovel/No6 this happens to [[spoiler: Safu]]. Though it's really more of a case of [[spoiler:merging her with a goddess-like entity, thus destroying a huge chunk of her personality, THEN blowing up the building she's in.]]

* ''Anime/AnoHanaTheFlowerWeSawThatDay'' ''[[DeconstructedTrope smashes this to pieces]]''. Back when they were children, [[LoveDodecahedron Anaru liked Jintan and Tsuruko liked Yukiatsu, but both boys liked Menma]] and the girls, despite caring for Menma, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter felt that they couldn't compete with her]]. Menma's untimely death only made things worse for all of them (and their uninvolved friend Poppo), since such a tragedy [[BreakTheCutie tore the group apart]] and showed that, [[RealityEnsues in reality]], the demise of "the person who gets in-between" does NOT equal to the others getting together: the guys got so broken (and Jintan already had his own issues) that [[TheLostLenore no girl in their eyes could match the very high standard that Menma had left]], with Jintan becoming a {{hikkikomori}} and Yukiatsu both considering Anaru as a prospect "back-up girlfriend" (and neither she nor Tsuruko, understandably, are happy with that) [[spoiler: and wearing dresses similar to those Menma used to wear.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Touch}}'', twin brothers Tatsuya and Kazuya love Minami, but Tatsuya doesn't want to get in his sibling's way. Too bad it's Tatsuya the one Minami loves, and Kazuya actually wants his brother to fight him over Minami so he can say he won her heart fairly. Kazuya getting hit by a speeding car ends the love triangle.

Note that not everybody uses "hypotenuse" in the way it appears here, as a triangle only has one hypotenuse, but two other sides (unless it is equilateral), so it would be logical to call Alice the hypotenuse in the above example. See for instance Music/TomLehrer's "[[Music/SongsByTomLehrer Lobachevsky]]", which mentions Metro-Goldwyn-[[UsefulNotes/MnogoNukesOtherNavalNukes Moskva]]'s production of ''The Eternal Triangle'', "starring Ingrid Bergman as the hypotenuse."

* Death By UnrequitedLove in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd''.

Note that not everybody uses "hypotenuse" in the way it appears here, as a triangle only has one hypotenuse, but two other sides (unless it is equilateral), so it would be logical to call Alice the hypotenuse in the above example. See for instance Music/TomLehrer's "[[Music/SongsByTomLehrer Lobachevsky]]", which mentions Metro-Goldwyn-Moskva's production of ''The Eternal Triangle'', "starring Ingrid Bergman as the hypotenuse."

Alice, Bob, and Charlie are in a LoveTriangle. Alice loves Bob, but also has feelings for Charlie--or maybe she doesn't, but can't or doesn't want to turn him down. Maybe she's even in a relationship with, or married to Charlie, while pining after Bob. However will she resolve this dilemma? Well, fortunately, she doesn't have to--Charlie meets with a convenient illness, accident, or other such fatal situation, freeing Alice up to go after Bob without guilt. If Charlie is aware of Alice's feelings for Bob, he may tell her with his dying breath that she shouldn't mourn him too much, because he [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy wants his beloved to be happy]].

* In ''Manga/LoveHina'', described in volume 9 of the manga, Haruka, Seta and Sarah's mother were a LoveTriangle. Seta had promised to choose by the time he turned 30, but Sarah's mother died; Haruka refused to accept victory by default, and rejected Seta for years afterwards. [[spoiler:She got over it eventually and they got married.]]

* ''Manga/HighschoolOfTheDead'': This actually makes things worse for the hero since Rei's now focused on Takashi, but way too often she ends up comparing him to her dead boyfriend Hisashi, or berating him in a way that makes Takashi think she is. She eventually gets over it and admits that she'd dated Hisashi more because it hurt too much to be with him, but now she's all his.

* More than one ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' case has a person killed for being one of the corners of a LoveTriangle or getting in between a potential couple. Much more common if there's an ArrangedMarriage (like [[spoiler: a DrJerk killing his ex-girlfriend so she won't stand in between him and the daughter of his boss whom he's marrying for the prestige]] or {{blackmail}} (like [[spoiler: a policeman shooting his ex girlfriend dead when she attempts to go the HoneyTrap way right as he's actually about to move on with another woman]]) involved.
* ''Anime/AnoHanaTheFlowerWeSawThatDay'' ''[[DeconstructedTrope smashes this to pieces]]''. Back when they were children, [[LoveDodecahedron Anaru liked Jintan and Tsuruko liked Yukiatsu, but both boys liked Menma]] and the girls, despite caring for Menma, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter felt that they couldn't compete with her]]. Menma's untimely death only made things worse for all of them (and their uninvolved friend Poppo), since such a tragedy [[BreakTheCutie tore the group apart]] and showed that, [[RealityEnsues in reality]], the demise of "the person who gets in between" does NOT equal to the others getting together: the guys got so broken (and Jintan already had his own issues) that [[TheLostLenore no girl in their eyes could match the very high standard that Menma had left]], with Jintan becoming a {{hikkikomori}} and Yukiatsu both considering Anaru as a prospect "back-up girlfriend" (and neither she nor Tsuruko, understandably, are happy with that) [[spoiler: and wearing dresses similar to those Menma used to wear.]]

* ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'': Scarlett has had a crush on Ashley for years, of which he once reciprocated to but then turned her away after he married Melanie. Her crush made her ungrateful for her own doting Rhett. Eventually Melanie dies and her last words seem to be giving Scarlett permission to marry Ashley. By then Rhett has had enough and leaves so she can have Ashley, but she no longer wants him to go. No word after if she marries Ashley.
* In ''Film/Oblivion2013'' [[spoiler: Victoria is killed less than a day after Julia comes back into the picture. Bonus points comes from it being her own fault, as she inadvertently sics the Drone on herself as well as Jack.]]

* In ''Film/CatPeople'', the dilemma of the LoveTriangle is being resolved be the death of the heroine.

* In the novel ''Mary of Marion Isle'' by Creator/HRiderHaggard, the wicked accidental wife accidentally drowns allowing the hero to marry to marry the heroine who is his soul mate.

* Happens to Literature/HoratioHornblower three times over the course of the novels. Hornblower is initially married to Maria, and his LoveInterest, the Lady Barbara Wellesy, goes on to marry Admiral Percy Leighton after being spurned by Hornblower. Hownblower is naturally placed under Leighton's command, and is taken prisoner after his ship is disabled in combat. He escapes captivity, and meets Marie, a French widow who helps shelter him, and they start an affair. Hornblower returns to England to learn that Leighton died in battle, and Maria died in childbirth, putting both Hornblower and Barbara in position to marry. A few books later, Marie turns up again, and is killed [[LaResistance fighting Napoleon's troops]] after his return to France.

** ''Literature/TarzanOfTheApes'' ends with Jane, uncertain of her emotions, accepting a proposal from the [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense buffoonish]] RomanticFalseLead, William Clayton and Tarzan, accepting that she's honor bound, [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy choosing not to make an issue of it]] and going off alone. In the sequel, ''The Return of Tarzan'', Jane and her fiancé go on a cruise and are shipwrecked, coincidentally very near Tarzan's latest adventure. The fianc&eacute dips a bit into selfish jerk territory by finding out Tarzan's identity as his missing cousin, John Clayton, and thus true heir to the Clayton estate, but not telling anyone about it so as to stay with Jane. Later in the novel, William gets a fatal case of malaria after being left for dead by the novel's BigBad, when the now reunited Jane and Tarzan find him, the dying William [[RedemptionEqualsDeath redeems himself]] by revealing Tarzan's true identity, releasing Jane from the engagement and then giving the two his blessing to marry.

* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Simmons ends up entering a relationship with a stranded astronaut named Will in the interregnum between seasons 2 and 3, much to the discomfort of Fitz, who had asked her out moments before she got sucked into a portal that transported her to the world Will was living on, and only finds out about this after risking his life to bring Simmons back to Earth. After a while Fitz comes to terms with this and decides to pull IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy, but then the winter finale reveals that Will was killed by Hive shortly after Simmons was rescued.

** Dualla has some UST with Lee (which is mostly built up in deleted scenes), but is in a relationship with Billy. He asks her to marry him and she refuses because of her feelings for Lee, then Billy is conveniently killed off by the villain of the week.

* ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'': Played with: after a series-long love triangle between Ryu, Kaori and Gai, the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue shows that [[spoiler:Gai]] is fatally knifed by a bandit on his way to [[spoiler:Ryu]] and Kaori's wedding. However, by this time he had come to accept them as a couple, and makes it to the wedding to congratulate them before he dies. [[spoiler:Maria/Rie]] would also count as this, since [[spoiler:her]] death gives [[spoiler:Ryu]] the closure he needs to finally begin a relationship with Kaori.
* ''Series/DegrassiHigh'': Has a baroque (and rather creepy) example. In the first season, Caitlin dumps Joey because he's rather immature, and because the new kid Claude seems so much more her type. But Claude turns out to be an ass and she dumps him too. In the second season, Claude is thinking of suicide (due to unrelated problems that Caitlin doesn't know about). Desperate for any hope, he asks Caitlin out again, and she tells him to get lost. When she gets home, she finds Claude has sent her flowers and his suicide note. As she's screaming with rage and guilt, her science teacher orders her to tutor her old ex-boyfriend Joey. He's had a lot of Character Development over the course of this season, and comforts her during the tutoring. Soon, they're back together again.

** Series 8 establishes Danny Pink as a love interest for Clara Oswald after the Twelfth Doctor, having regenerated into an older form, basically pushes her away and puts and end to the romance that had been brewing with the Eleventh (acknowledging that the Eleventh thought of himself as her boyfriend). This evolves into a somewhat bizarre LoveTriangle scenario as the season progresses and it becomes clear that the Doctor and Clara's feelings for each other remain in place — yet Clara is simultaneously also in love with Danny. Ultimately, it's not the Doctor who gets killed off, it's Danny. Followed by an IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy moment in which a dream construct of Danny (created by Clara's mind — long story — but implied to possibly be the spirit of the real Danny) tells Clara to move on with her life; this almost immediately leads to an implied form of RelationshipUpgrade between the Doctor and Clara in Series 9.

* ''Tayong Dalawa'' (lit. ''The Two of Us''): Filipino prime time drama, where this is rather overdone. The show's title is ambiguous title. It could either mean the two half-brothers, or one of them and the girl. It gets hyped up in a TonightSomeoneDies preview, [[spoiler: and is nicely (in a narrative sense) subverted when the girl dies. This underscores the point of the series, which is about the two brothers putting aside their differences becoming family.]]

* Throughout the ''[[Franchise/PrinceOfPersia Prince of Persia: Sands of Time]]'' trilogy, the titular hero has two love interests: the Indian princess Farah from the first game and the Empress of Time Kaileena from the second one. He leaves the former after saving her life, and hooks up with the latter in ''Warrior Within'''s canonical ending. However, in ''Two Thrones'', Kaileena is murdered by the BigBad early into the game and the Prince is reunited with Farah, making a case of FirstGirlWins.

** An earlier hypotenuse, an actor named Lars, did die, but neither of Agatha's primary love interests were ever aware of his existence, much less his removal from the equation.

->''Even death has a soft place in his heart for such a paragon, and remedies all mistakes for her just at the right moment. The vicious baronet is sure to be killed in a duel, and the tedious husband dies in his bed requesting his wife, as a particular favour to him, to marry the man she loves best.''

* In LightNovel/{{No 6}} this happens to [[spoiler: Safu]]. Though it's really more of a case of [[spoiler:merging her with a goddess-like entity, thus destroying a huge chunk of her personality, THEN blowing up the building she's in.]]

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* As one such example, ''Film/PearlHarbor''. [[spoiler: Danny dies, letting Rafe get Evelyn...as well as letting them raise [[DeadGuyJunior Danny and Evelyn's chid.]]]]

* In ''Film/{{Oblivion 2013}}'' [[spoiler: Victoria is killed less than a day after Julia comes back into the picture. Bonus points comes from it being her own fault, as she inadvertently sics the Drone on herself as well as Jack.]]
* In ''Film/{{Underworld 1927}}'', Rolls Royce is InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl. In the end, the gangster dies which clears the way for the lovers to resolve their {{UST}} and be happy ever after.

* In [[http://www.salmineo.com/newstand/inter_hadleigh.html a 1972 interview]], when discussing ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'', Sal Mineo observed that his character Plato's death is this trope as well as BuryYourGays, although given the film's era, it's only [[HoYay subtext.]]

** Four ways, [[HeterosexualLifePartners if you count]] [[spoiler: Lieutenant Bush, [[AnyoneCanDie who dies in the same book as Marie.]]]]

* If you happen to be a female in ''[[Franchise/MetalGearSolid Metal Gear]]'' and [[CartwrightCurse Otacon]] loves you, expect to [[StuffedIntoTheFridge die in a cruel, yet beautiful way]]. The tendency for every girl that Otacon falls in love with to die is a big contributor to his HoYay-addled relationship with Snake.

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': Boyd Crowder has liked Ava for quite some time but she was married to his brother Bowman. However, Bowman was an AbusiveSpouse and Ava ends up shooting him dead. When he hears what happened, Boyd is quite thrilled that Ava is single once again (he did not really care much for his brother or the way he treated Ava).

This trope is where ThePlotReaper meets CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds. If Charlie's death is not so accidental, it's MurderTheHypotenuse or TheUriahGambit, depending on whether it's done directly or set up indirectly. See ComfortingTheWidow. Compare to ShipSinking.

** ''Literature/TarzanOfTheApes'' ends with Jane, uncertain of her emotions, accepting a proposal from the RomanticFalseLead, and Tarzan, accepting that she's honor bound, choosing not to make an issue of it and going off alone. In the sequel, ''The Return of Tarzan'', Jane and her fiancé go on a cruise and are shipwrecked, coincidentally very near Tarzan's latest adventure. The fiancé, who by this time has turned out to be a selfish jerk, dies, and Jane and Tarzan are reunited.

*** This also means that Snape couldn't have cared less that Lily's son Harry was the target of the entire assassination attempt, maybe even seeing the infant as just another part of the hypotenuse. That's just ''cold''. Dumbledore is ''infuriated'' at this.
*** In Snape's defense (at least on this point), it's not like Voldemort would have granted a request by Snape or anyone else to not kill the Chosen One prophesied to kill him. He'd have been more likely to kill Snape immediately for disloyalty just for asking.

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* In ''Series/AgentsOfShield'', Simmons ends up entering a relationship with a stranded astronaut named Will in the interregnum between seasons 2 and 3, much to the discomfort of Fitz, who had asked her out moments before she got sucked into a portal that transported her to the world Will was living on, and only finds out about this after risking his life to bring Simmons back to Earth. After a while Fitz comes to terms with this and decides to pull IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy, but then the winter finale reveals that Will was killed by Hive shortly after Simmons was rescued.

* In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', there is a LoveTriangle between Oliver, Laurel (his ex-girlfriend), and Tommy (his best friend who dated Laurel for a while). At the end of Season 1, [[spoiler: Tommy is killed coming to Laurel's rescue while her office building collapses.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf "Bad Wolf"]], the Doctor invites a sweet young woman by the name of Lynda aboard the TARDIS. His regular companion, Rose, who's been in love with him for most of the series, isn't at all impressed by this development. Fortunately for Rose's peace of mind, Lynda doesn't make it to the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays the following episode]].
** Series 8 establishes Danny Pink as a love interest for Clara Oswald after the Twelfth Doctor, having regenerated into an older form, basically pushes her away and puts and end to the romance that had been brewing with the Eleventh (acknowledging that the Eleventh thought of himself as her boyfriend). This evolves into a somewhat bizarre LoveTriangle scenario as the season progresses and it becomes clear that the Doctor and Clara's feelings for each other remain in place - yet Clara is simultaneously also in love with Danny. Ultimately, it's not the Doctor who gets killed off, it's Danny. Followed by an IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy moment in which a dream construct of Danny (created by Clara's mind - long story - but implied to possibly be the spirit of the real Danny) tells Clara to move on with her life; this almost immediately leads to an implied form of RelationshipUpgrade between the Doctor and Clara in Series 9.
* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': Mellie loves Paul. Mellie leaves. Paul loves Echo. Echo loves Paul. Mellie returns - Paul loves Mellie too. Mellie dies. Paul and Echo can be together! [[spoiler: Well, until ''he'' dies.]]

* ''Series/HomeAndAway'': Belle was killed off, apparently paving the way for Aden and Nicole.

*** Even better, [[spoiler: he had a hand in killing both of them]]

* ''Series/AsTheWorldTurns'': The love triangle between Luke, Noah, and Reid. Reid is killed off and Noah decides to move to LA, leaving Luke/Noah with a MaybeEverAfter at best.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' had this with Robin/Ted/The Mother in the series finale. Robin stopped hanging out with the gang not only because she’s busy with her job but she couldn’t stand Ted and The Mother enjoying themselves and that her ex-husband is there. [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out the Mother died and Ted got the permission from his kids to date Robin again]].
* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'': All of Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke's love interests except for [[spoiler:Jack Porter]] were KilledOffForReal. [[spoiler:Aiden Mathis was killed by Victoria Grayson right after Emily finally got her revenge and cleared her father's name. Daniel Grayson died protecting Emily, and this was long after the Daniel/Emily ship had been sunk to the bottom of the ocean (though Daniel had redeemed himself before his death). Ben Hunter, a fourth option introduced in Season Four and one who was never really a serious contender, even compared to Daniel, was killed in one of the last episodes by an assassin. That left ChildhoodFriend Jack as Emily's final and true love interest]].
* On ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'', Jane is in a LoveTriangle for the first few seasons between Rafael and Michael, and eventually marries Michael. [[spoiler: Until Michael dies that is, and after a TimeSkip Jane falls for Rafael again. This is further complicated by the reveal in the season 4 finale that Michael is alive.]]

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** An earlier hypotenuse, an actor named Lars, did die, but neither of Agatha's primary love interest were ever aware of his existence, much less his removal from the equation.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': The main love triangle between Shinji, Asuka and Rei ceases to exist when [[spoiler: Rei]] pulls a HeroicSacrifice to save Shinji, shortly after arriving at the realization that she "wants to be one with him". As a sort-of deconstruction, [[spoiler: Asuka]] ends up doubting the sincerity of Shinji's feelings, accusing him of comming to her because she's basically the only one left, since [[spoiler: everyone else (including [[CameBackWrong the clone replacing the Rei everyone used to know]]) either scares Shinji or has kicked the bucket]] at this point.

** And later works and materials tried to present it as Emma being there for Scott after Jean died, which is contradicted by the above moment, since he supposedly lost the feelings he needed comforting over.

* In ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', [[spoiler: Superman doesn't want to hurt Lana by officially making a RelationshipUpgrade with Lois, and has decided to never make his feelings known, but Lightning Lord frying Lana in the battle later on conveniently removes the problem, allowing for Superman's HappilyEverAfter ending]].

* [[spoiler: Gordon]] in ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve''.
* [[spoiler: Tsu'tey]] in ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. Even though Neytiri only ended up having feelings for Jake, she was technically supposed to have been betrothed to him from the beginning, so to free her from any possible obligation to or conflict with him, the triangle was predictably resolved by redeeming his character and subsequently killing him off.

* ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'': It happens to [[spoiler:the wolf Gavin, who dies heroically]]. Implied that narrativium was working heavily in favour of the suitor that survived.
** [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Another interpretation]] is that [[spoiler: Carrot was deliberately taking advantage of narrativium, and made sure it was Gavin that made the HeroicSacrifice. Whether this was done [[ManipulativeBastard consciously]] or [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality unconsciously]] is impossible to tell through Carrot's constant ObfuscatingStupidity.]]