Plot-Triggering Death

Uneasy lies the crown that no head wears.

"I am Doctor Edward Roivas. I am a clinical Psychologist. I am also dead. [...] Their attention turns to my grand-daughter. For she is the last of my line, and the last hope of humanity."

— Eternal Darkness, introduction (abridged)

Between the many ways death can be used in media, there's its use as a trigger for the start of the story itself. It could start a Roaring Rampage of Revenge from part of the protagonists and pull them into something even greater, maybe looking for the truth behind the death could make the protagonist know about something he wasn't supposed to know, the protagonist could suddenly see himself having to continue where the deceased left off, or the execution of a baddie may bring forth something even worse, etc.

In order for a death to be covered by this trope, it has to satisfy some conditions:

• The death has to either occur before the story begins or during the first moments of it.
• The death must either:
  1. Make the plot start moving (without needing to affect the protagonists directly at first), or
  2. Make the protagonists start taking some kind of action that later pulls them into the big plot (which must not be necessarily related to the death).
• In cases of TV series or long runners with clear continuity, the death must have affected the big picture of the series. For example, the deaths occurring on every episode of a murder mystery series do not count; but the death of a close one that made the protagonist take the decision to become a detective so he could investigate the mystery behind that murder does count. Deaths in these kind of works that trigger new mystery arcs also count.
• On some occasions, the death is self-triggered: if My Death Is Just the Beginning, then the protagonist obviously can't force the antagonist to stop... antagonizing.

Can sometimes overlap with Starts with a Suicide, Posthumous Character, Death by Origin Story, The Lost Lenore, I Let Gwen Stacy Die, Crusading Widow, Doomed Hometown (can be a greater scale of this trope), Starts with Their Funeral, Unexpected Inheritance, and the list goes on and on.

As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Akame ga Kill!: The deaths of Tatsumi's two friends from his village motivate him to join the Assassin Group Night Raid, a group devoted to taking down targets in the Evil Empire.
• In Assassination Classroom, the death of Aguri Yukimura, Class 3-E's original teacher, is revealed to be what kickstarted the plot. Koro-sensei, formerly a human and the world's most feared assassin, was captured and experimented on. During his months in captivity, he befriends Aguri, a part-time intern there, and for the first time learns compassion and empathy from her. When he eventually escapes after learning he has only a year to live, Aguri is killed by a projectile intended for him. Her Last Request is for him to watch over her students. After a Belated Love Epiphany, Koro-sensei decides to carry on her legacy and guide the weak and lost by becoming a teacher. Aguri's death also inspires her little sister Akari to seek revenge when she falsely concludes that Koro-sensei killed her sister.
• Attack on Titan has several significant deaths that set the events of the story in motion:
  • The death of her parents set Mikasa neatly onto the path of becoming The Ace and Eren's protector.
  • The death of Carla Yeager not only provides Eren with the desire to destroy all Titans but leads her husband to take drastic action before disappearing.
  • The death of Marcel, a childhood friend of Reiner and Bertolt has unseen and far-reaching consequences. It not only returns Ymir to human form and sets her back on the board as a major player, but is the clue needed for Hange to discover that Titans possess a Cannibalism Superpower.
  • The murder of her mother resulted in bastard princess Historia Reiss being forced into the identity of Krista Lenz. Her presence in the Survey Corps helps expose the Government Conspiracy and makes her vital to their plans to overthrow the government.
  • The deaths of Farlan and Isabel resulted in Levi abandoning his life of crime and laying the framework for his Undying Loyalty to Erwin.
    • Adding to Levi's story, his mother died when he was a very young child, leading to him being raised by serial killer Kenny Ackerman. Kenny is responsible for most of Levi's character traits: his clean freak behaviour, many of his combat skills (specifically with knives and guns), and his habit of telling poop jokes.
  • Erwin's father was murdered after Erwin went around saying that his father believed that humanity wasn't really extinct, as having such opinions is forbidden (turns out he was right, however). This fuelled Erwin's desire to know the truth about humanity and the titans.
  • Had Grisha not taken his sister Faye beyond the walls of the Eldian ghetto and unknowingly gotten her killed by Marley officers, he would have never joined the Eldia Restoration Movement and eventually end up on Paradis Island, the setting of the story. He also never would've met Kruger, the officer responsible for saving Grisha from becoming a mindless titan and giving him the Attack Titan's powers. And he would've never met his first wife Dina, with whom he had his son Zeke - the Beast Titan.
• Bleach:
  • The deaths of Masaki Kurosaki, Souken Ishida, Kaien Shiba, and Hisana Kuchiki all combine to create the reason why the first 181 chapters of the manga unfold as they do. Even after those chapters have passed, Masaki's death continues to be the motivation for Ichigo's resolve to protect as many people as he can, Souken's death remains the primary motivation for Uryuu's determination to stand by Ichigo and work with the shinigami despite quincies and shinigami being traditional enemies, Kaien's demise is the reason why Rukia opened up the path to power for Ichigo in the first place (and continues to guide her decisions after she replaces him as 13th division lieutenant), and the death of Hisana is the reason why Byakuya adopted Rukia and why Ichigo and Byakuya now possess a bond so unbreakable it can even defy brainwashing. Without those four deaths, this story would have been completely different, or perhaps even non-existent.
  • Plot-triggering deaths have been confirmed to have impacted the final arc as well. Both Masaki and Kanae's deaths are tied into the events of the final arc having been caused by Yhwach performing The Purge on impure quincies six years before the beginning of the story. The impact of these two deaths on the behaviour and decisions of their husbands (Isshin and Ryuuken) over the intervening years, and subsequently on their sons (Ichigo and Uryuu), are hugely important to the development of the final arc.
• Bloom Into You is truly kicked off by the death of Touko's older sister, Mio. Touko had started out as a relatively ordinary girl, but after Mio died, Touko sought to become the person Mio had once been.
• Code Geass: C.C. "dies" but not before granting Lelouch a Geass. With his new superpower, he investigates the murder of his mother Marianne, whose own death initiated the plot as it led to Lelouch and Nunnally being exiled to Japan.
• Deadman Wonderland employs this in true gory fashion: an entire classroom of junior high students gets outright blended to bits by the Red Man (A.K.A. "Wretched Egg"), save for Ganta Igarashi- implanted with a Branch of Sin, turned into a Deadman, and tactically framed for the killings so he's sent to the titular Hellhole Prison. The Red Egg, who is revealed to be Shiro’s Superpowered Evil Side, is faces as the Final Boss after Rinchiro Hagire is dealt with.
• Death Parade takes place in the afterlife, where human souls are judged after death. The episodes that stick to this formula are like this by default. It goes deeper, however, as the Myth Arc unfolds. Later episodes reveal that the dark-haired woman was a human who died by suicide and was intentionally brought to Decim as a catalyst for helping him develop human emotions.
• Delicious in Dungeon: After a dive into the dungeon ends with the party starving and on the verge of being killed by the Red Dragon, Falin Touden uses her magic to get them out of the dungeon, but ends up being devoured by the dragon. Her brother Laios, as well as fellow party members Marcille and Chilchuck, decide to go right back in the dungeon to find and resurrect her, saving time and staving off starvation by hunting and eating the various monsters that inhabit the dungeon with the help of Senshi, who has a lot of experience cooking monsters.
• The plot of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is kicked off when Tanjiro comes home from selling charcoal to find that most of his family has been slaughtered by a demon. The sole survivor is his sister Nezuko, who has become a demon herself, thus starting Tanjiro's journey to avenge his family and restore Nezuko's humanity.
• Manga/Dorohedoro: The plot was kickstarted by the death of the sorcerer Matsumura at the hands of Kaiman and Nikaido, which alerted En to their existence and put them on his hit list.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Almost every single major event in the story is the result of the death of one person. That person is the main protagonist himself, Natsu Dragneel. Four hundred years before the current storyline, a young Natsu died in a dragon attack with his parents. His older brother Zeref, desperate to revive him, immersed himself in the study of forbidden and taboo magic. He was cursed for his willingness to bypass the boundary between the living and the dead by the Jerkass God Ankhselam, and would come to be known as the strongest and most evil mage in history. Zeref would create several demons to kill him that would later wreak havoc on the world (such as Deloria, who would kill Gray's parents and his mentor Ur), and many antagonists throughout the series are dark wizards who (mistakenly) seek to revive/summon him in hopes of attaining his power. Ironically, it seems the only thing Zeref was not responsible for in some way was Acnologia — many in the series are convinced that he turned Acnologia into a dragon, but in reality, Acnologia's transformation was a consequence of Dragon Slaying magic, which was created by Irene Belserion. In fact, some of the major events for which Zeref is responsible were the result of his plan to stop Acnologia.
  • The death of Fairy Tail's first guild master, Mavis Vermillion, has a significant impact on the plot, though minor in comparison to the above example. Especially considering the fact that Mavis is technically still alive as an Astral Projection. Precht/Hades, in his attempts to revive her, turned her body into the eternal magic "Fairy Heart", a.k.a. Lumen Histoire. His failure to achieve his original goal is implied to what have driven him to villainy and create the dark guild Grimoire Heart. Ivan Dreyar is implied to have tried to use Fairy Heart for his own ends, which led to him being expelled from the guild, and spread the information around, eventually attracting the attention of the Alvarez Empire. Finally, there is Zeref, her "killer", who was in love with her. Losing Mavis the way he did, after he allowed himself to believe there was someone out there he could care for and be happy with, was his true Start of Darkness and led to him becoming the evil wizard the rest of the world feared so much.
• In Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger, Shogo and Yuko initially have no real plans in the Final Fantasy-like world they find themselves in, merely enjoying it while trying to find a way home. After Yuko dies saving a little girl, Shogo becomes obsessed with rediscovering the lost magic Raise to bring her back to life, convincing his new companions to help him on his quest.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: Himmel's death. After spending fifty years apart, Frieren returns to find that her human friend has aged considerably since their time adventuring together, and soon after they see a meteor shower together, he dies. This makes Frieren finally realize how truly ephemeral is human life since she is an elf over 1000 years old, and she sets off on a journey to try to understand humans and how they use their limited time better.
• In Fruits Basket, the death of Tohru's mother Kyoko a few months prior is what kicks off the plot, as many of the story's events would never have happened otherwise; her death makes it so Tohru goes to live with her grandfather, then her grandfather's house renovations prompt Tohru to move out and live in a tent that turns out to be on Sohma family property, and the rest is history. Much later, it turns out that it's also the source of Kyo's insecurities about falling in love with Tohru, since he knew Kyoko when she was still alive, and he still feels guilty over not being able to save her before she was hit by a car.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The death of Ed and Al's mother pushes them to perform human transmutation to try to bring her back; their attempt goes horribly wrong and they end up losing (parts of) their bodies, thus prompting Ed to join the military to find a way to restore themselves, and the rest is history. Her death is what ultimately causes their involvement in the whole story, and ironically, it's also one of the only two non-Big Bad-related deaths in the whole series.
  • Later, the death of Maes Hughes prompts Roy Mustang to take a greater role in the plot than he had already done. His need to learn the truth about what happened is one of the things that begins making life very difficult for him and those serving under him.
• Ga-Rei -Zero-: The death of Kagura's mother a few days before the series starts up results in Kagura meeting Yomi, and played a significant role in Kagura starting her career as a Vanquisher so early.
• Haru and Midori begins with Midori's old friend Tsugumi dying in a motorcycle accident, which is the first Midori has heard about her in 14 years. At the funeral, Midori meets Tsugumi's teenage daughter Haru and takes her in.
• Hello! Sandybell:
  • Leslie. He raised Sandybell as his own child until he was diagnosed with a fatal illness. Feeling like she deserved to know the truth, he confessed to Sandybell that she wasn't of his blood and he had found her in a shipwreck when she was a baby. Before he died, he managed to give Sandybell the daffodil earring found at the scene of the wreck. The rest of the anime is about Sandybell searching for her long-lost mother.
  • Mark's mother, the Countess of Wellington, dies in a car accident (some speculate it wasn't a car accident, but an act of suicide since the Wellingtons have become Impoverished Patricians in spite of their Blue Blood). Full of grief, Mark runs away from home (abandoning his Arranged Marriage to Kitty, which was a last-ditch attempt by the Wellingtons to salvage the family name) and tries to pursue his dream of being a great painter.
• Episode 1 of Highschool DXD, shows the main character dying before the show even begins.
• Inuyasha:
  • Kikyou's death was the trigger for almost everything that occurs in the story. It's why Inuyasha and Naraku are enemies, it's why Kagome was dragged back in time, it's why the Shikon no Tama is released back into the world, and it's why Kagome is the only one who can decide the jewel's ultimate fate.
  • Also, the reason Miroku becomes a part of the group in the fight against Naraku is because his grandfather was such a significant enemy of Naraku's that Naraku cursed Miroku's entire lineage: the deaths of Miroku's grandfather and father are the reason he encounters Inuyasha's group and joins it, which is what enables Inuyasha to learn the identity of Kikyou's killer in the first place.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • The deaths of Mary Joestar, Jonathan's mother, and Dio's mother prior to the events of Phantom Blood are the triggers for the events of the entire series. Mary's death allows Dario to flawlessly lie about "saving" George, leading to Dario ending up in favors with George and George's eventual adoption of Dio, while it's Dio's mother's death that causes Dio to become the vicious monster he is now.
  • The deaths of Sorbet and Gelato on orders of the boss of Passione prior to the events of Golden Wind are what ultimately lead to La Squadra turning against Passione, kicking off the events of the Part.
• In Keyman: The Hand of Judgement the brutal murder of Lockville City's champion, the titular Keyman, starts the plot.
• The death of Ryuko's and Satsuki's father sets off the plot off Kill la Kill, with Ryuko searching to find out who killed her father.
• ''Maria no Danzai': Kiritaka's death and the circumstances leading to it leave his mother consumed with a hunger for vengeance.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Zabis came to power and eventually started the One Year War as a result of the death of Zeon Deikun, Char's father. That they allegedly (it was never officially confirmed to be a murder at all, much less by the Zabis) caused Zeon's death so they could take power is what sets in motion Char's character arc.
• Naruto: The title character is the person-shaped can for a monster the city's previous leader (who is also the titular character's father) died sealing in him when he was a baby. Much, much later, we learn that in a technical way, Rin's death of all things is what started the plot. Why? Because her death in the backstory directly motivated Obito into becoming Tobi...who unleashed the monster on the city in the first place, prompting the leader to seal it away inside the title character.
  • It goes much deeper than that — it's ultimately the reason why Obito took up Madara's offer, leading to the creation of the Akatsuki, the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Uchiha Clan Massacre, and eventually, the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Had she not died, the entire plot of Naruto would have been avoided almost entirely, and chances are that both Naruto and Sasuke would have had much happier lives.
  • Going back even further, it was the death of Princess Kaguya that laid the foundations for current events due to Black Zetsu manipulating events in an attempt to revive her.
  • Izuna was his brother Madara's entire world. Madara is the man he is today because of Izuna's death, which allowed him to be susceptible to Black Zetsu's manipulations.
• In One Piece, the public execution of Pirate King Gold Roger, at which he made his Final Speech about his treasure (the titular One Piece), launches the Golden Age of Piracy. This is the setting of the story; nearly every pirate, including the protagonists, are searching for the treasure and with it the right to call themselves the new Pirate King.
  • His Friendly Enemy Whitebeard similarly launched a new era of piracy with his own death, with his own last words confirming One Piece is real where doubt had begun setting in.
  • The death of Corazon (aka Donquixote Rocinante, Donquixote Doflamingo's younger brother and Trafalgar Law's idol) is the primary driving force of the Pirate Alliance Saga. His death earned Doflamingo Law's hatred, causing him to spend the next thirteen years of his life plotting revenge. If Corazon had never died, it's highly doubtful Law would've been a pirate, let alone one of Luffy's allies. Seeing as the Dressrosa arc involved practically every major power in the world, you could easily argue that his death is an integral part of how the new era of piracy will be shaped — which is ironic considering that Corazon was a Marine spy sent to infiltrate his brother's pirate crew.
• In Oshi no Ko, the murder of Ai Hoshino caused Aqua, her son and reincarnation of deceased doctor Gorou Amamiya to wonder who can be so callous to trick a fan in killing her, if it's connected to his own death as Gorou and goes on a dark path to find and kill him.
• In PandoraHearts, Lacie’s death caused Jack to form a contract with Oz, the B-rabbit, which caused the Tragedy of Sablier, in order to bring the world to Lacie in the depths of the abyss. The contract forced Oz to be brought 100 years later along with Jack, although Oz remembers nothing about it, causing him to seek the truth about his own existence, which is why the story happens.
• Zig-zagged in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Homura tries to save Madoka from her deadly fate by preventing her from getting a Magical Girl. She does this because in Homura's first timeline Madoka saved her by sacrificing herself.
  • Because of some time travel weirdness, this trope is played neither straight nor inverted. For Homura, Madoka's death lies in her own past and it is the reason for her actions right at the beginning of the show. But in the timeline of the show, Madoka is still alive and all moments, which possibly leads to her contract with Kyubey and finally her death, lies in the future.
• The Secret Garden takes place after Mary Lennox's parents die of cholera and she has to move to England to live with her uncle.
• Serial Experiments Lain: The suicide of Chisa Yomoda and subsequent e-mails claiming to be from her are what kick off the story.
• The SoulTaker
  • Mio's actions just prior to death are what awakened Kyōsuke's mutant powers, and his realization that she did so out of love is why he chooses to protect humanity.
  • Maya also qualifies. Her death is what inspires Kyōsuke to find and protect the other Flickers, rather than just saving his sister.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; although not at the start of the plot, the death of Kamina (a quarter of the way in) was the key trigger to the character development of Simon throughout the rest of the series.
• Tokyo Ravens: The death of Hakuto prompts Harutora to become an onmyoji to fulfill her wish.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The first and second seasons are motivated by the death of Pegasus's wife. In the manga, said plot ended in Pegasus’s own death, which in turn kickstarted the plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! R.
• YuYu Hakusho kicks off with main protagonist Yusuke's death. This leads to pretty much everything that comes afterward.
• Zombie Land Saga: Sakura, the central protagonist, dies barely a minute into the beginning of the first episode after being hit by a truck. She then wakes up again only to soon realize she's now a zombie.

Comic Books

• All-Star Comics #38 starts with the murders of The Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Johnny Thunder, which paves the way for Black Canary to join the JSA when she takes Johnny's body to Wonder Woman. The two ladies bring the male heroes to get revived by Paula von Gunther and then set about figuring out who could have killed their male peers.
• Batman: The deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne would lead their young son Bruce to take up the cowl and become the Batman.
• Dynamo5: The thing that starts off the series is Captain Dynamo/William Warner's death and his widow Maddie Warner discovering his black book of women that he cheated on her with. Realizing Tower City still needs a protector, she uses the book to locate five young people she believes could be his illegitimate children. Warner exposes them to the same radiation that Dynamo had been exposed to forty years earlier, unlocking their own latent superhuman abilities, with each one manifesting one of the five powers that their father possessed. Warner trains the five young people not only into a team but into a family as well.
• Green Lantern. As Abin Sur dies, he passes the ring to Hal Jordan, the first human Green Lantern. By exposing the crimes of fellow Lantern Sinestro, who goes on to form his own Lantern Corps and trigger the War of Light, Hal Jordan directly or indirectly causes the fulfillment of many of the rather apocalyptic prophecies in the Green Lanterns' resident ancient tome of prophecy.
• The conflict of JLApe: Gorilla Warfare! is triggered by Solovar's assassination.
• In the original Shang-Chi series, Master of Kung Fu, it's Shang-Chi's assassination of Dr. Petrie that triggers his Heel–Face Turn and reveals that his father is actually a villain. It's eventually revealed that Petrie was Actually a Doombot and it was all a Secret Test, but it defined Shang-Chi's origin for many years.
• Misfit City: Captain Denby. When he dies, his will dictates that the chest containing, among other things, a map leading to Black Mary's treasure be donated to the museum. And it's there that the girls open it up and find it.
• The death of Uatu the Watcher kickstarts the events of Original Sin.
• Spider-Man:
  • Peter Parker is set on his heroic path because of the death of his Uncle Ben.
  • The Death of Jean DeWolff in Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man which set off the Sin Eater arc, which in turn caused the origins of Venom.
  • The death of Joe Face just before the beginning of Kraven's Last Hunt - Spider-Man is shot after attending his wake.
  • The death of Aunt May (later reversed) was the catalyst of The Clone Saga, with Ben Reilly arriving in Manhattan to pay her respects and thus being drawn back into Peter's life.
• Supergirl story arc "Death & the Family": The murder of a woman at the Silver Banshee's hands kicks off the plot and leads to a new battle between Supergirl and the supernatural villain.
• The Ultimates:The death of the Scarlet Witch by a sudden and unexpected shot kickstarted the events of the third volume.
• Spirit Of Lust opens with Hard-Drinking Party Girl Lena unexpectedly dying one night after her friends all abandon her at a club. Stuck as a ghost, she decides to use her newfound ability to possess others to try and help her friends with their relationship problems.
• The aftermath of the Comedian's murder opens the first issue of Watchmen. The investigation of his death reunites the surviving costumed vigilantes and progresses the plot.

Fan Works

• #14 (MHA) begins after Izuku Midoriya dies of suicide, and focuses on the effects it has on Bakugou.
• Broken Souls begins with Harry and his team investigating the death of reporter Konrad Tschida, whose discoveries become the driving force of the rest of the story.
• Dear Sweetie Belle and its sequels are kicked off when Rarity's parents are suddenly killed, inducing her to write the titular letter. This turns out to have been invoked by Time Turner and Nevermore.
• The Desert Storm: Duke Adonai Kryze's assassination serves as the Inciting Incident for Sa Sarad and sparks civil war on Mandalore between Jango's faction and the Death Watch.
• Girls und Panzer: Hope Dies begins when Miho is murdered just before the finals.
• The Heiress starts with the aftermath of Robert Crawley's death after he suffered a burst ulcer, meaning Matthew Crawley becomes the next Earl of Grantham in the middle of World War I.
• Helluva Wizard ultimately begins with the death of an unnamed rival of Vernon Dursley, who drove the man to suicide because Vernon felt the man could win "Best Salesman". The unnamed salesman, wanting posthumous vengeance on the Dursley family, decides to hire the Immediate Murder Professionals to take care of them, leading the Imps to meet Harry Potter.
• Jimmy's Visit With Dr. Franklin: Johnny Osgood's death is the catalyst of the events that lead up to Jimmy attempting a mass shooting and getting counseling.
• In Last Rights, Senior Chief Security Officer Athezra Darrod dies from a shrapnel hit in the first scene, and the rest of the story deals with the disposition of his body: To wit, should the Kobali be allowed to turn him into one of them?
• Mass Effect: Human Revolution has Shepard, without whose death Adam would never have gotten involved in Saren's plot.
• As the title implies, The Murder of Lila Rossi revolves around Lila Rossi's murder. Problem is, she made a lot of enemies...
• In Necessary to Win, Mizuho's death was the catalyst behind Saki and Teru's parents separating, and Saki gets involved in tankery at Oarai in hopes of reuniting the family.
• The Planets begins with Roy turning up at Winry's house after Riza's death, missing an arm and needing automail ASAP. It's shown that Riza took a bullet for Roy during the war. Her sacrificing herself and dying in his arms traumatized Roy, which set in motion the plot and ultimately led to Roy losing his arm.
• In the Katawa Shoujo fanfic Reconciliation, the death in question is that of Hisao himself. After he dies of a heart attack, his wife Lilly calls their old friend Hanako, who has not seen either of them since Hanako's bad ending in canon, resulting in her flying out to Scotland.
• Rise of the Demonic Hero opens with Izuku being accidentally murdered by Katsuki during their first training exercise. He's then offered a chance to Come Back Strong by a demon, as Hell itself wants to make All For One suffer for his countless crimes.
• The main plot of The Seven Misfortunes of Lady Fortune kicks off when Gabriel Agreste dies of suicide.
• The Thomas & Friends fanfic Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure Bad Ending features an alternate ending of Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure where Sailor John successfully kills Thomas, the Fat Controller resigns out of guilt for his earlier treatment of Thomas, and Gordon being Driven to Suicide after a Trauma Conga Line which involved the resigning Fat Controller’s final act being to permanently ban him from ever taking the Express or any other passenger train again and condemning him to be a shunter and goods engine for the rest of his days, all while he was hated by the other engines. Thomas’s murder at Sailor John’s hands is what triggers the Point of Divergence from canon, and Gordon’s suicide plays a big role in Spencer deciding to atone for his past crimes and take over as one of the main express engines. Both of their deaths also play a massive role in Henry being (re)painted blue and also becoming a successor to Gordon as an express engine. Even today, their deaths cast a shadow over the remaining engines of the Island of Sodor.
• Three's A Crowd (Naruto) opens with Naruto being murdered by Akatsuki when he's only ten years old. Somehow, his consciousness ends up inside Sakura's head alongside Inner Sakura, forcing the three to navigate their bizarre situation while keeping it hidden.
• Ace Swift's death in Turnabout Storm. It ends up with Rainbow Dash being accused of it, which in turn leads up to Phoenix Wright being summoned to Equestria.
• Villain Song (Roving Otter): The story commences with Amaya dying one year after the sequel, forcing Anya into the role of queen and driving her to seek Magnifico for advice.
• In XCOM: From the Ashes of Temples, the plot kicks off with the Council Spokesperson being informed of the death of the XCOM Commander.
• In You Are My Sunshine, Mary's death in a car accident leads to her friends finding her letter revealing that her son Peter's father is Tony Stark. At her instruction, they reach out to him, and the plot kicks off when Tony decides to fly to Queens to meet his son.

Films — Animated

• 2's death in 9. The Big Bad Fabrication Machine absorbs his spirit near the start of the film, killing him and powering it up enough to start fighting against the other protagonists.
• The events of Anastasia are triggered by the Russian uprising which killed Anya's parents, brother, and sisters.
• Big Hero 6: Tadashi Hamada's death in a fire at the SFIT showcase hall sets his younger brother Hiro and their friends on the path to becoming superheroes.
• Another Pixar example is Leland Turbo from Cars 2.
• In a rather roundabout example, Coral's death in Finding Nemo. Her death happens some years before the actual story, but if hadn't it been for that, the plot wouldn't have happened, at least not the way it did.
• In Frozen (2013), the deaths of the king and queen of Arendelle force their daughter Elsa to become Queen at a young age, leading to her powers being accidentally outed at her coronation.
• In Frozen II, it's revealed that the events of the story were set in motion by the girls' grandfather murdering the Northuldran leader, which is now their responsibility to atone for.
• Metro Man's death at the hands of his arch-nemesis Mega Mind which he planned all along.
• NIMONA (2023): The story begins with the Queen’s assassination, set up so that would-be-knight Ballister ends up getting blamed, triggering his mission to clear his name and the titular character joining him.
• Frankie's death in Shark Tale, which helps Oscar create the Sharkslayer story and become a rich man.
• King Harold's death from illness at the beginning of Shrek the Third kickstarts the plot of the film.
• Ellie's death is what leads to the events of Up, although it happens some time before the plot starts. The real inciting incident is the ruling that their house will be demolished and Carl sent to a nursing home, but Ellie's memory drives him to start the plot.

Films — Live-Action

• The main plot of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore gets rolling after Alice's husband is killed in a car accident, forcing her to find a job to support her and her 12-year-old son.
• The events of Amsterdam are set into motion when General Meekins's daughter Liz (played by Taylor Swift of all people!) is pushed into traffic and killed by an oncoming car.
• The murder of her best friend that Julie Mott witnesses occurs at the start of Bad Boys (1995) and drives the rest of the plot.
• The events of Baghead (2023) are triggered by the death of Iris' estranged father Owen. After his death, she inherits The Queen's Head pub in Berlin and the Sealed Evil in a Can in the cellar.
• Beau Is Afraid revolves around the titular Beau Wassermann trying to get home to his mother's funeral after she is killed in a freak chandelier accident.
• Black Panther (2018) opens with T'Chaka trying to arrest his brother N'Jobu for crimes against Wakanda; but when he tries to shoot Zuri, T'Chaka is forced to kill him and leave his young nephew N'Jadaka behind to cope with his father's death. This leads to N'Jadaka's Start of Darkness and desire for revenge against the Wakandan Kingdom, eventually becoming the terrorist Erik Killmonger.
• Black Rat literally starts with Asuka's suicide, and that is the event that drives the entire plot.
• The Big Chill, the reunion of old college friends happens thanks to the suicide of one of their friends Alex.
• In Braveheart, the death of the hero's love interest kicks off a Scotland-wide rebellion after his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against an English oppressor.
• The Bronze: Coach P. kills herself offscreen early in the film, kickstarting the entire plot, as Maggie's left without a coach and then Hope gets a letter left by Coach P. actually her dad, it turns out promising her half a million if she'll finish the training.
• Aristride's murder sets off the events of Crooked House. The film opens with a newsreel announcing his death.
• Cruel and Unusual: Maylon, Edgar's wife, dying at his hand sets off the plot as he's condemned in the afterlife as a murderer for it, forced to relive the events.
• The plot of Death Walks on High Heels is kicked off when Nicole's father is murdered on the train to Switzerland.
• Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze. Before the movie starts, Doc Savage's father dies in a South American country. When Doc realizes that his father was murdered, he and his aides start an investigation that leads into the main plot.
• First Blood starts with Rambo visiting his friend Delmar Barry, only to find he had already died. Had Rambo known, he never would have come to the area and he never would have been harassed by the local police, which kicks off the movie.
• In First Knight, the death of Guinevere's father causes Malagant to attack her kingdom. She marries Arthur to secure an alliance.
• 1984's The Funeral needs someone to die so there can be a funeral. The film thus starts with an older man having a heart attack. The plot revolves around his family trying to figure out how to run a funeral.
• In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), the entire plot of the movie starts because of Andrew's death. Mark Russell divorces himself from his family and hates Godzilla for the death of his son. Emma continues her work with the ORCA to communicate with the Titans, seemingly moving on, but it's later revealed her sanity took a huge toll as she believed that releasing all the Titans would benefit Earth, even though millions of humans would die, leading her to willingly work with ecoterrorist Alan Jonah.
• The plot of Werner Herzog's Heart of Glass rests on the precedent death of the (never seen) foreman glassmaker Mühlbeck, the only one to knew the secret formula of the valuable ruby glass.
• Highlander starts with Connor killing Fasil, another Immortal, which draws the attention of the police and the Kurgan.
• I Know What You Did Last Summer: The plot goes through at least two possible Plot-Triggering Deaths. It finally turns out to be when Susan Willis was killed in a drunk driving accident by her fiance David Egen. Susan's father Ben murdered David, but on the way home, he was run over by a group of four teenagers. A year later, Ben (who was thought to be dead after first being run over then sunk in the bay) starts targeting the kids who ran him over.
• In I, Robot, Dr. Alfred Lanning uses his own death to set Detective Spooner on the trail of a conspiracy only he knew about.
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World opens with paroled tuna-factory robber Smiler Grogan crashing his car in the Mojave Desert. Before kicking the bucket, he tells the group of passing motorists who've come to his aid about $350,000 in cash "buried under a big W" in a state park near the Mexican border. Hilarity Ensues.
• James Bond:
  • Dr. No: British agent John Strangways is murdered along with his secretary, prompting 007 to investigate.
  • Live and Let Die: Three agents are murdered in connection with Dr. Kananga - Dawes at the United Nations, American-on-loan Hamilton outside a restaurant in New Orleans and Baines in San Monique.
  • Octopussy: 009 is murdered in East Berlin. MI6, suspecting Soviet involvement, calls in 007.
  • A View to a Kill: Bond finds a microchip on 003's corpse in Siberia.
  • The Living Daylights: An assassin kills 004 during a training exercise at Gibraltar.
  • The World Is Not Enough: Oil magnate Sir Robert King is killed in an explosion at MI6 HQ, prompting 007 to protect his daughter Elektra.
  • Spectre: Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld committed Patricide just because his own father favored an orphaned Bond over him. This not only served as the catalyst for the Cain and Abel relationship between him and Bond in later years, but indirectly shaped the events of Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre.
• The death of the eponymous JFK.
• The Kingdom started with a terrorist attack on an American housing compound in Saudi Arabia. It becomes personal because one of the victims is a friend of the team.
• Kingsman: The Secret Service:
  • The first scene after the title and opening credits features the death of a Kingsman agent codenamed Lancelot. His death sets off the two main plotlines: Eggsy is recruited to replace him, while Lancelot's colleague Harry Hart, who recruited Eggsy, is given the task of finishing Lancelot's mission.
  • Harry explains that World War I was the event that led to the forming of the Kingsmen; after a number of wealthy men lost their sons during the war, they decided to pool their resources to do some good in the world by forming a spy agency.
• A Knight's Tale starts with a squire taking the place of his dead master in a joust.
• Kull the Conqueror is kicked off because paranoid King Borna kills the rest of the royal family for fearing they're conspiring against him, and then dies himself after attacking the barbarian Kull. The rest of the film is the result of the Succession Crisis caused by Borna giving the throne to Kull out of spite.
• The Last Rites of Ransom Pride: Outlaw Ransom Pride is killed in a Mexican border town after an arms deal goes bad. His lover Juliette learns his body is being held by "The Bruja", a witch who runs the town's brothel. The Bruja informs Juliette that Ransom accidentally shot and killed her brother, a priest, and the only way to redeem Ransom's corpse is to give her Ransom's brother in exchange.
• In Last Train from Gun Hill, the rape and murder of Morgan's wife kicks off the events of the movie.
• The death of the hooker at Christmas in the opening scene turns out to be important in the first Lethal Weapon.
• Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent: When Alan witnesses the hit-and-run and sees his wife Becky dead, he uses the voodoo stick seeking revenge against the youngsters.
• The death of the British Prime Minister near the beginning of London Has Fallen brings various world leaders together for the funeral, and providing the terrorists with a massive target. It turns out, the Prime Minister was assassinated for this very purpose.
• The murder of John Reid's brother Dan in The Lone Ranger (2013). He was the one mediating peace between the Comanche and the US government. The Comanche are framed for attacks on settlements which gets them exterminated by the army. Latham Cole then builds a railroad through their land and takes possession of their huge silver lode.
• The death of Sam Spade's partner Miles in The Maltese Falcon.
• The killing of an embassy employee triggers an investigation that uncovers the Baron's plot in Missile X: The Neutron Bomb Incident.
• Monsieur Lazhar: The suicide of Martine the schoolteacher sets the story in motion, as Cool Teacher Monsieur Lazhar takes her position while the kids struggle to deal with her suicide.
• The murder of Phyllis' father—the industrialist Darius Brunner—and Casey waking with Darius' blood on his coat and no memory of how it got there is what kicks off the plot of Murder by Proxy.
• On the Waterfront begins with the murder of Joey Doyle.
• Prom Night (1980) begins with the death of a 10-year-old girl at the hands of her classmates, who vow to tell no one what happened. Six years later, on the night of the prom, a mysterious figure appears to take revenge on the now-grown teenagers for the girl's death.
• Road to Perdition begins with a funeral where the deceased's brother drunkenly rambles that the mob boss they both worked for killed him. This man later on is killed himself and his death is witnessed by Michael Jr.
• Mr. Kinney, being killed by ED-209, triggers the events of Robocop 1987. His death convinces The Old Man to not rely on ED-209 and instead authorizes the Robocop program.
• In Sapphire, the discovery of Sapphire Robbins' dead body on Hampstead Heath triggers an investigation that delves into the racist underbelly of 1950s London.
• Goldie's death at the beginning of 'The Hard Goodbye' segment of Sin City triggers Marv's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• In The Skeptic, the death of the protagonist's aunt is what drives the plot forward.
• Luther's murder in The Sting prompts his partner Hooker to take revenge on Lonnegan.
• In The Ten Commandments (1956), Memnet is made to swear not to reveal the true identity of Moses. She tells Nefretiri about it 30 years later and is murdered by her. It starts the chain reaction which leads to the Exodus.
• They Cloned Tyrone: The story is set in motion when Slick Charles witnesses Fontaine’s death outside his motel room… only for Fontaine to show up alive and well the next night.
• Thir13en Ghosts: Cyrus Kriticos is killed in the opening while he and his team were trying to capture a dangerous evil spirit. His mansion is left to his nephew in his will, which turns out to be a Ghost House. As it later turns out, Cyrus faked his death in order to lure his relatives there for a Human Sacrifice.
• In Thor: Ragnarok, it's Odin's death that frees the Big Bad Hela and it's her quest to conquer the nine realms that fuels Thor's efforts to return to Asgard.
• In True Grit, the murder of Mattie Ross's father by Tom Chaney sets in motion the revenge quest that drives the story.
• The death of Will's wife Claudia in Unforgiven colors his attitude for the rest of the film.
• Ichirō Yashida’s death at the beginning of The Wolverine is what triggers the plot. Except, it turns out, not really.
• Yamato happens because Makiko Uchida wishes to honour her adoptive father's Last Request.

Literature

• Aimee: The titular character's suicide is the reason why the main character is put on trial for murder and forced to leave her hometown. Her court-appointed psychiatrist suggests that she write a diary, which is the Framing Device for the book.
• Old Major's death triggers the plot of Animal Farm as both Snowball and Napoleon plan to make his dream of freeing the farm from human control a reality.
• Henry Archer's death in Atlanta Nights. Nearly all the characters in the book are in some way connected with him.
• Aunt Dimity's death starts the whole series.
• Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer begins with the death of Lady Serena's father, leading to her discovery that he has named her ex-boyfriend as her guardian.
• The children's picture book Captain Zap and the Evil Baron von Fishhead begins with two kids burying their dead goldfish in the garden, causing them both to accidentally discover magic pencils that literally brought everything they drew, including their title made-up comic book characters, to life.
• City Primeval's plot is kicked off by Clement Mansell's murder of corrupt judge Alvin Guy.
• This trope appears several times in the Deryni series:
  • In Deryni Rising, the death of King Brion Haldane in the first chapter begins the multi-volume saga of King Kelson Haldane's rule as well as the specific challenges of getting him safely crowned king.
  • In Camber of Culdi, the murder of a corrupt Deryni nobleman by anti-Deryni revolutionaries drives King Imre Festil to take hostages. If the murderers aren't found, the hostages will be executed. This starts a series of events that lead to Camber MacRorie's own rebellion against Imre and the restoration of the Haldane line to the throne of Gwynedd.
  • In The Bishop's Heir, the Mearan Pretender has been plotting to revolt against Gwynedd for years. However, the immediate trigger for her rebellion is the death of Bishop Carsten of Meara, because her plan involves making one of her supporters the new bishop.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses: By killing Andras in the first chapter, Feyre meets the qualification to break Tamlin's curse. He wastes no time in whisking her away to his court.
• Discworld:
  • In Thud!, the murder of Grag Hamcrusher leads Sam Vimes on a quest to discover the truth behind the battle of Koom Valley.
  • Deccon Ribobe at the start of Moving Pictures. In the first scene of the book he dies of old age, leaving no one to perform the rituals that keep the Holy Wood magic in check.
  • The death of King Verence at the start of Wyrd Sisters, which leads to Duke Felmet taking over the kingdom, and the witches rescuing the crown prince and finding themselves meddling in politics.
• Dragon Bones starts with the death of Ward's father, and Ward inheriting the title. As Ward has pretended to have brain damage from a beating his father gave him years ago, he is now considered unable to rule and has to convince everyone that he is actually quite intelligent and has only pretended to be more affected than he was in order to avoid more violence.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: In order to fulfill the requirements of summoning a villainous ghoul to take revenge, Mo Xuanyu had to scatter his soul (to the point of not being able to come back ever, as a ghost or reincarnated) and sacrificing his body to the protagonist Wei Wuxian who re-entered the world and got the plot rolling.
• The whole plot of Harry Potter kicks off the day after James and Lily Potter are murdered by Lord Voldemort, and Harry is taken to the Dursleys' home as per Dumbledore's orders. Years later, it's revealed that Lily's sacrifice to save her son invoked a very ancient magic, which gave Harry a powerful protection. This protection caused Voldemort's killing curse to rebound on him, destroying his physical body, and driving him to find a way to get it back for the next fourteen years. At the same time, Dumbledore works to try and prepare Harry, since he knows the boy is destined to fight (and hopefully defeat) Voldemort once he eventually returns to power.
• In Holes, the death of Sam the onion salesman in the 1880s sets off the events of the entire novel; if Sam hadn't died, his lover Kate Barlow wouldn't have become an outlaw who accumulated a large fortune of stolen riches and buried it in the dried-up lake of her old town. This led to Kate's rejected suitor Trout Walker spending the rest of his life trying to find the treasure, thus leading to the establishment of Camp Green Lake. It is even implied that Green Lake drying up was a Bolt of Divine Retribution after the town killed Sam for nothing more than kissing a white woman.
• I Know What You Did Last Summer's plot was kicked off when a young boy was run over by four teenagers during the night. A year later, these four receive reminders of the incident and some of them are attacked by a mysterious figure.
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: The main plot starts with the death of a Cabinet minister's Delicate and Sickly fiancee. Mr. Norrell makes his name as a magician by bringing her back with the help of the gentleman with the thistle-down hair... who asks for one or two concessions in exchange...
• Billy witnessing the death by strangulation of a child is what starts off the plot of Lethal White. Seeing the death and burial decades ago and finally telling Strike leads to the plans of several major characters' plans getting derailed. It's actually subverted - Billy saw a strangling and a burial, but the child did not die and actually grows up to be one of the murderers whose very plan was changed by Billy confessing to seeing the incident to Strike - the effect on the plot is the same, though.
• Shortly before the start of The Legend of Sun Knight, Sun's childhood friend Roland is tortured and killed for sport. He is then revived as a powerful undead creature known as a Death Knight. Sun, being the poster board for the church and the one in charge of stopping undead attacks on the city, goes to face him and is unintentionally set up as Roland's killer. The lengths he goes to in order to obtain evidence to prove his innocence and to expose the real murderer cause him to learn revival magic to bribe/threaten his fellow knights into secrecy, which causes another church to interfere in the next book. Had he not met the head of that church, he wouldn't have been called in to help in book 3, etc.
• The events of The Looking Glass War are driven by British agent Wilf Taylor's unexpected death in Finland, in the first chapter, and the loss of the film he was collecting for the Department.
• Nansō Satomi Hakkenden has two of these in succession: first the villainous Tamazusa lays a Dying Curse on Satomi Yoshizane which will have his daughter Fuse give birth to savage "dogs of desire". Then Fuse dies releasing eight crystal orbs containing the spirits of her unborn children (whom she has successfully unshackled from Tamazasua's evil), which are reborn in different families as the titular Eight Dog Warriors.
• Nicholas Nickleby starts with his father's death, forcing him to work for his miserly uncle.
• Jack Ketchum's Red opens with the senseless murder of an old man’s dog. The rest of the novel is about the old man seeking justice for it.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: The prologue to volume one depicts the torture and murder of an unidentified woman by seven mages who betrayed her (changed to a two-page spread in the back of volume 3 in the manga adaptation). After a ten-year Time Skip, her secret son, protagonist Oliver Horn, comes to Kimberley Magic Academy where her murderers are now instructors, planning with his relatives to take revenge on his mother's murderers and on the entire mage world for creating the underlying situation.
• Sense and Sensibility starts with the death of Mr. Dashwood, forcing his widow and daughters to move away from the family home and live in greatly reduced financial circumstances.
• A Song of Ice and Fire doesn't have a single inciting death, but it uses them for the initiation of individual plotlines:
  • In A Game of Thrones, Jon Arryn's death is what causes Eddard Stark (and by extension, the rest of his family) to become involved in the main plot.
  • The Iron Islands plot in A Feast for Crows is triggered by the death of Balon Greyjoy, which happens offscreen during the events of the previous book.
  • The deaths of Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark are what end up triggering the War of the Five Kings.
  • The pre-series executions of Brandon and Rickard Stark, Ned's father and brother, by King Aerys Targaryen, along with the apparent kidnapping of his sister Lyanna by Prince Rhaegar, are the immediate triggers for Robert's Rebellion. The uprising ends with the death of Mad King Aerys, which results in Robert becoming king and marrying Cersei and Viserys and Daenerys fleeing into exile. Fifteen years later, these events result in the plot of A Game of Thrones.
  • Robert's Rebellion also resulted in the death of Rhaegar, which made Cersei hate Robert throughout the duration of their marriage (as she loved Rhaegar). Seeking solace, Cersei deepened her incestuous relationship with Jaime and gave birth to their three children. This ended up sowing the seeds for three major catalysts for the War of the Five Kings: the Dark Secret about the children's legitimacy would be manipulated by Petyr Baelish to bring Ned into conflict with the Lannisters, Cersei's toxic marriage to Robert would result in the latter's death, and the first of those children, Joffrey, would order Ned's execution.
  • The death of Rhaegar's wife, Elia Martell, also ended up causing problems later on. The Martells became extremely vindictive against the Lannisters, as Tywin had implicitly ordered her death (he actually only wanted her children killed, but Gregor Clegane didn't listen). Oberyn volunteers to become Tyrion's champion against Clegane during his trial by combat because he wants to avenge his sister's death. While he dies, he ends up inflicting a mortal blow on Clegane. In A Feast for Crows, it is revealed that Doran Martell has been drafting a plan for years to aid the last of the Targaryens in their reconquest of Westeros, hoping to watch the Lannisters fall.
  • King Viserys I's death starts the Targaryen civil war known as The Dance of the Dragons in Archmaester Gyldayn's Histories.
  • The first book of Tales of Dunk and Egg, "The Hedge Knight", starts in similar fashion to A Knight's Tale above; Dunk's master Ser Arlan dies and Dunk decides to take his place in an upcoming tournament where he tangles with the Targaryen royal family.
• In the Star Trek novel Spock's World, the death of the Big Bad's mate caused the Big Bad to think that "once again [said character] did not have [their] desire" and set out for Misplaced Retribution on Spock.
• The destruction of Buenos Aires in Starship Troopers.
• Happens in Warrior Cats. In the first book, Into the Wild, Redtail and Oakheart, the deputies of ThunderClan and RiverClan respectively are killed in a very early battle. Fireheart, main character of the first arc, spends the next three books trying to prove that the celebrated ThunderClan warrior Tigerclaw actually murdered Redtail while uncovering Oakheart's dark secrets and connections to the other Clans.
• Without Remorse, an early Tom Clancy work and his only book that's not in the technothriller genre, kicks off the main plotline with the brutal murder of escaped Sex Slave and recovering drug addict Pamela Madden by her pimp. Her boyfriend John Kelly, a former Navy SEAL, decides to settle the score personally.
• Hector, of the Web Serial Novel The Zombie Knight, is an undead example of this trope. The story begins with him dying and meeting Garovel, which is how he starts involving himself in dangerous situations in order to save other people's lives.

Live-Action TV

• David Palmer and Michelle Dessler are killed at the start of 24 season 5.
• Andor: In the first episode, Cassian kills two corrupt corporate policemen. This forces him to try to get off-planet in a hurry and brings him to the attention of Luthen Rael and makes him have to accept Rael's offer in order to survive, leading to his recruitment by the Rebellion.
• In Agent Carter, the murder of Jane Scott in the first episode of Season Two kicks off the plot, with Peggy being sent to LA to investigate both the death and the bizarre circumstances the body was found in (fished out of a frozen lake... in the middle of a Californian summer).
• Alex Rider (2020): Two of them.
  • Michael Roscoe's murder. He dies leaving a message for Alan Blunt, that he's worried about his son. The ensuing investigation results in...
  • Ian Rider's murder, and the weak cover story Alex is given, causes Alex to investigate and attract Blunt's attention.
• Alias: Sydney tells her fiancé that she is a spy, leading to her boss having him killed. When her leave of absence gets a bit too long for her boss's comfort, he sends killers after her too. Then she finds out that she works for the bad guys, and that her semi-estranged dad is one of them. Then she earns the bad guys' trust so that she can become a double agent with the CIA. Then she finds out that her dad has been a double agent all along. Whew. On to episode two.
• Arrowverse
  • Arrow: Every single instance somehow stems from the first entry, Rebecca Merlyn, and caused a season's worth of problems. Seasons 1, 3, and 5 can be chained together, while Season 2 is only connected to Season 1. The only season that wasn't the result of a death, from either Oliver's five years away from home or previous seasons, was Season 4.
    • The death of Rebecca Merlyn twenty-one years before the start of the series is the very impetus for the entire show. If she hadn't died, then her husband Malcolm Merlyn wouldn't have gone insane in trying to avenge her death with the Undertaking and try to kill his best friend Robert in order to stop him from trying to prevent it, resulting in Oliver Queen being stranded on Lian Yu for five years and becoming the Arrow.
    • Shado's death on the island is what prompts the events of Season 2. Slade Wilson, who loved her, is driven insane by the Mirakuru, and Oliver's role in her death twists his mind and causes him to direct his rage at Oliver, his friends, his family, and ultimately Star(ling) City as a whole.
    • The death of Sara Lance causes the events of Season 3. Malcolm Merlyn brainwashes his daughter Thea into killing her, forcing Oliver to take the blame and in turn, pique Ra's al Ghul's interest. Sara was later revived at the beginning of Season 4.
    • Ra's al Ghul's death is the trigger for Season 5, as his daughter Talia al Ghul was so enraged by it that she trained Big Bad Prometheus to help her take revenge on Oliver.
  • The Flash (2014)
    • The murder of Nora Allen fourteen years prior to the start of the series drives most of the plot of Season 1, as her son Barry's main goal is to solve it so he can get his father Henry, who was wrongly convicted for her death, out of prison.
    • Henry Allen's own death towards the end of Season 2 breaks Barry enough to create the alternate timeline Flashpoint, the consequences of which drive most of the plot of Season 3.
    • Iris West's premature death at the end of Season 3, as foretold in the midseason finale, was a result of Flashpoint, and also serves to get the plot going. More specifically, it acts as the lynchpin for a Stable Time Loop that ensures the existence of Big Bad Savitar. When her death is prevented in the season finale, the loop breaks and Savitar only has a few hours left before the paradox catches up to him and he ceases to exist.
  • Legends of Tomorrow:
    • Rip initially gathers the Legends in order to prevent the deaths of his wife and son at the hands of Vandal Savage.
    • Eddie Thawne's death in the Season 1 finale of The Flash is the indirect cause of Season 2, as it turned his descendant Eobard Thawne into a time remnant and thus a target for the Black Flash, forcing him to create the Legion of Doom to search for the Spear of Destiny, or face certain non-existence.
• Babylon 5:
  • The Raiders, who for most of the first season of the show, were the only recurring antagonists, ended up getting wiped out in a matter of seconds, soon after pulling off their greatest heist, as part of The Reveal of what would be the show's primary villain for the next few seasons.
  • And for the first Season Finale of the show, the death of President Santiago kicks off the other major portion of the story for the next three seasons.
• Chuck begins with his ex-best friend and super spy Bryce getting killed, but not before sending him The Intersect.
• The pilot of CSI starts with an apparent suicide. This sets up the Paul Millander mystery arc which lasts one and a half seasons.
• Daredevil:
  • The plot of season 1 is kicked off when Karen Page gets framed by Wilson Fisk for murder, and Matt and Foggy seek to clear her name.
  • The plot of season 2 is kicked off by a massacre of Kitchen Irish members courtesy of Frank Castle.
• George dies at the start of Dead Like Me and the rest of the series is about how she must adjust to her new life as a grim reaper and how her family must deal with her death.
• Mary Alice's suicide in Desperate Housewives.
• Doctor Who
  • The show uses this in "The Impossible Astronaut", which kicks off the plot arc of Series 6. The character who dies is the Doctor himself, and apparently permanently. Subverted when it turns out he was Faking the Dead.
  • The main Series 7 arc is also launched when the confirmed new companion Clara is killed off in her second episode. Of course, it's not that she died but more that this was the second time the Doctor saw her die, making him realize there's something weird going on. Because, you know, the same person on two different planets and two different time periods died.
• Downton Abbey:
  • The major plot centers around Matthew becoming the heir to the title "Earl Grantham" (and the corresponding estate) after both people with a better claim to it go down on the Titanic, forcing some rushed (and frequently foolhardy) attempts by the present Earl and family to make sure his daughters are still provided for. The Titanic disaster also claimed the life of Charles Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Early in Series 3, the Railway is declared bankrupt because Hays' successors weren't as good as him, taking most of the Crawleys' money with it.
  • The death of Sybil's friend Tom Bellasis in season 2 motivates her to become a nurse.
  • Lavinia's father died in season 3 leaving his fortune to Matthew.
• James's dad dies of a heart attack in The End of the F***ing World season 2. This motivates him to seek Alyssa out again.
• In the first episode of Farscape, when Crichton travels through the wormhole into that strange new part of the universe, his craft accidentally collides with a Peacekeeper vessel at the other end, killing its pilot, who is soon identified as Peacekeeper Commander Bialar Crais' brother—which sets up Crais' vendetta against Crichton for the rest of the season.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Jon Arryn's death is what causes Eddard Stark and his family to become tangled in the game of thrones.
  • While it was Jon Arryn's death that started the events of the series and brought the Starks into the Game, it was Robert's that triggered the Succession Crisis which constitutes the bulk of the plot.
  • Jon Arryn's death may have set the process in motion, but it's Ned's execution that ultimately plunges Westeros into an all-out bloody war.
  • The majority of Season 4's King's Landing arc stems from the death of King Joffrey.
  • The war of season 7 is triggered by the deaths of Tommen Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell, and Cersei taking the throne by virtue of being Tommen's closest surviving relative.
• House of the Dragon:
  • The deaths of Queen Consort Aemma and her baby boy convince King Viserys to make their daughter Rhaenyra heir to the throne, which doesn't please a number of noble houses (Hightower above all) who prefer the Heir Club for Men and starts paving the way for a Succession Crisis.
  • Due to the above, the Hightowers play the Long Game and wait till Viserys dies to unleash The Coup to crown his son Aegon instead.
  • The death of Lucerys Velaryon due to the dragon Vhagar smashes any hope of peaceful resolution and kicks off the Dance of the Dragons Civil War.
• Ghosts (UK) begins with the death of Heather Button. Even though the series is about people who have died in the same house and become ghosts, she doesn't (in fact, to date she's the only person who's been shown to immediately Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence), but the series is set up by the resulting Unexpected Inheritance.
• In Glue, the murder of local teenager Cal Bray jumpstarts the plot.
• In the first season of Harrow, the discovery of Quinn's body in the river is the triggering event that starts Daniel Harrow's life unravelling.
• Heroes begins with Mohinder going to New York to investigate the death of his father.
• Jessica Jones: The main plot of season 1 is instigated by Kilgrave ordering Hope Schlottman to kill her parents in front of Jessica.
• Johnny Bago. Johnny Tenuti, just out of prison, is set up on a blind date by his cousin with mob connections. The date kills The Don's son, framing Johnny for the crime. Johnny goes on the lam.
• Kamen Rider Ghost kicks off with the death of Takeru Tenkuuji and is underscored by his and his friends' effort to find a way to bring him back to life before his time as a ghost runs out and he'll become Deader than Dead.
• Kamen Rider Ryuki: The newbie journalist Shinji Kido gets involved in the events of the Rider War while he investigates a string of mysterious disappearances and finds an odd deck of card in the flat of certain Koichi Sakakibara. While the circumstances indirectly confirm the man's death, it's never brought up in the plot again and it only serves to start it off.
• Kamen Rider Zero-One starts with Aruto Hiden's appointment as the new CEO of Hiden Intelligence after the death of his grandfather Korenosuke.
• In the first season of The Killing, Rosie Larsen's murder is what brings all of the characters into the plot.
• The Last of the Baskets: When the 12th Earl of Clogborough dies in "End of the Peer", Clifford gains his title and home and sets up the series.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • Finrod's death is what sets Galadriel neatly onto the path of revenge and spending centuries of seeking to undo the evil that killed him. As such, she refuses Valinor when Gil-galad decides is time for her to stop before it becomes a Tempting Fate, and finally finds the very evil she was searching for, setting up a Disaster Dominoes just like Gil-galad predicted.
  • King Tar-Palantir's death at the end of the first season frees the way to power for the power-hungry Pharazon and Numenor's path for self-destruction.
• Luke Cage: Everything in the plot unfolds due to a group of Harlem street thugs shooting up a gun deal between Cottonmouth and Domingo. Cottonmouth's efforts to recuperate his losses end up causing Luke Cage to start coming after him.
• Madam Secretary: The death of Secretary of State Vincent Marsh in a plane crash results in protagonist Elizabeth McCord being appointed as his replacement—she and President Dalton are old friends from the CIA. The subsequent death of their mutual friend George Peters two months later after he starts chasing a conspiracy theory that Marsh's death wasn't an accident draws her into the first season's primary Story Arc.
• A year before the start of Never Have I Ever, Devi's father dies of a heart attack during her orchestra concert. On top of this, she was also paralyzed during swim practice. The show follows her as she tries to heal from her trauma.
• Next of Kin begins when a man named Graham and his wife die in a car crash, leaving his Jerkass parents to raise the three children that he left behind.
• Nikita has two main ones. The pre-series assassination of Russian oligarch Nikolai Udinov and his household by Division drives Alex's story arc (she's secretly his daughter), while the murder of Nikita's fiance by Division (to keep her from having outside ties that could compromise her as an asset) drove her to escape the organization and start working to destroy it.
• Once Upon a Time: David's transformation into Prince Charming in "The Shepherd" began when his hitherto unknown twin James was killed in a duel.
• Orphan Black starts with Beth Childs' suicide, which draws witness Sarah Manning into the clone conspiracy.
• The Palace: King James is onscreen for a few seconds, doesn't even get a line, and dies before the opening titles. His unprepared twenty-something son Richard becomes King. Scheming ensues.
• September 11th caused Reese to become an assassin and Finch to build The Machine in Person of Interest.
• Powerpuff: Blossom accidentally killing Mojo is what sets the plot into motion.
• The Punisher: The whole plot of the show was kicked off as the result of Frank's execution of Ahmed Zubair on the orders of William Rawlins. Because he was mistaken as the mole who leaked the tape of the execution to Micro (instead of Gunner Henderson, the actual one doing the filming), Frank's whole family is killed on Rawlins' orders, which leads to the plot of Daredevil season 2.
• Pushing Daisies began with the death of Chuck and Ned resurrecting her.
• Queen Sugar: The death of Ernest Bordelon brings his three children together to run the family sugarcane farm.
• One of the first subplots in Rome was the death of Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife Julia. Pompey marrying someone who was not Caesar's relative was the first sign that they have become enemies.
• The death of drug baron Harvey Wratten on The Shadow Line, which triggers the two main plots of the show by providing a starting point for Jonah Gabriel's investigations and putting Joseph Bede in charge of Wratten's organisation.
• Single Father: Rita's death kicks off the series as her widower and children try to find a way to cope afterwards.
• Nate Sr.'s death at the beginning of Six Feet Under sets the plot in motion, causing Nate Jr. to end up staying with his family.
• Mary Winchester's death in Supernatural's pilot episode.
• Teen Wolf: The murder of Derek's sister Laura kicks off the first season since her body being found in the woods is the reason Scott and Stiles are wandering around out there at night, leading to Scott being bitten by the Alpha and becoming a werewolf.
• Played with in This Time With Alan Partridge. The regular male co-host of the titular show falls ill before the events of the series, leading to Alan Partridge filling his spot as a temporary co-host. However, while the illness that leads to his death serves the purpose of this trope in the series, he doesn't actually die (or at least isn't revealed to have died) until the second episode.
• Twin Peaks: "Who killed Laura Palmer?"
• The Umbrella Academy (2019) begins with Reginald Hargreeves's sons and daughter getting the news that he had recently passed away, prompting them to reunite for his funeral and discover that they have to prevent the apocalypse.
• Velvet: Rafael Marquez's suicide in the first episode sets the series' plot in motion.
• Veronica Mars had some seasons begin with the death(s) of important characters to stimulate the season-long story arc or A-plot.
• Viudas e hijos del Rock and Roll began with a flashback in 1992. Miranda had a romance with Diego in Villa Gesell, and everything was fine... until her best friend Sandra seduced Roby, Miranda's father. Miranda tried to see Diego again at the Buenos Aires obelisk, as planned, but he failed to meet her in time (and, trying to give mystery to their first date in Buenos Aires, they did not exchange addresses or phone numbers). She renounced everything related to Rock and Roll, swore to never interact again with the dreaded Sandra or Roby, and started a romance with Segundo, a delicate high-society boy. End of flashback. Now, in the present, Roby has died. Miranda is now the heir of Roby's rock radio, she has to work alongside Sandra (Roby's widow) on a daily basis, and Diego saw her at the funeral and finally located her after so many years.
• Wednesday:
  • Rowan's death at the hands of the Hyde at the end of the first episode kickstarts the main plot of the story. Because of this, Wednesday becomes aware of her part in a prophecy about the school's destruction and of the presence of a monster in the town. Her subsequent actions all come from having learned these two pieces of information.
  • The backstory that led to all the events taking place in season 1 was caused by Morticia killing Garrett Gates, her stalker, in self-defense. After this event and Gomez being acquitted afterwards, this led the Gates family into a massive downward spiral, resulting in the deaths of Garrett's parents and prompting his little sister to seek revenge.
• Weeds: The untimely death of her husband is what pushes Nancy to sell marijuana.
• Westworld:
  • The death of Arnold Weber, one of the co-founders of the titular park, convinced his partner Robert Ford that he is right that the hosts can achieve consciousness after years of seeing the abuse inflicted by the human employees and guests. This prompted him to create a new narrative that would start the Robot War by helping Dolores continue her path of consciousness.
  • Ford's death triggered the plot of Season 2 where the characters had to experience the host rebellion led by Dolores who is the one who killed Ford.
  • The death of Elsie in the hands of Charlotte led to the awakening of Bernard's consciousness, prompting him to create a host replica of Charlotte and put Dolores' pearl in it. As a result, Dolores-as-Charlotte kills the real Charlotte and poses as her until she kills the Delos extraction team and flees into the modern world with Bernard's pearl and four copies of herself. This also kickstarts the plot of Season 3 where she plans to destroy the A.I. system, Rehoboam.
• The Wire kicks off its initial investigation with D'Angelo skating over a murder charge.

Music

• Sabaton: "Sarajevo" acts as a prologue to The War to End All Wars, describing the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and how it lit the fuse to the powder keg that was Europe in 1914.

Myths & Religion

• The Bible: The Book of Exodus starts when the Egyptian Pharaoh orders the massacre of the Hebrews' firstborn which led to one of them being hidden away and found by Pharaoh's daughter.

Podcasts

• In In Strange Woods, the death of Jacob Wells is the catalyst for the events of the entire series.

Radio

• Old Harry's Game, which is set in Hell, starts with the two main human characters dying as the result of a car crash. Episode one, scene one, is Thomas's inner monologue as surgeons try, and fail, to save his life.

Roleplay

• The quest Warhammer Fantasy Divided Loyalties begins with the suspicious and later revealed to be heretical death of Stirland's Elector Count. The Player Character is a Journeywoman of the Grey Order of Magic who is thrust into the role of Spymaster in the ruling council of the new Elector Count.

Tabletop Games

• Clue: The players work to solve the murder of (depending on the version) Dr. Black or Mr. Boddy, who has already been killed before gameplay begins.

Theatre

• The so-called Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and the subsequent inquiry into it, is what sets the plot in motion.
• Chicago: Roxie Hart shoots her boyfriend, which is what lands her in prison and on trial for murder.
• Fly by Night: The first event that the narrator describes is the death of Cecily Smith.
• Hamilton indicates that the death of Alexander Hamilton's mother led to much of what happened to him as a young man.
• Older Than Steam: Hamlet begins with the king's death (though the dead man also appears as a ghost) at the hands of his brother Claudius, and Hamlet sets out to avenge him.
• Rabbit Hole follows a married couple struggling to cope with their grief over the death of their four-year-old son in a car accident eight months prior, and the impact his death had on them and their extended family.
• A Raisin in the Sun involves an inner-city black family's conflicts over how to spend a life insurance check following the death of the father.
• Another Shakespearean example: the murder of the Duke of Gloucester (before the start of the play) in Richard II. We never learn exactly who did the direct killing, but we do learn that King Richard himself was behind it, and his actions to prevent that fact being discovered set the rest of the play in motion.

Video Games

• The death of Gregory Edgeworth could easily be one of these in the Ace Attorney series. Basically, it was his death that kickstarted Miles' ambition to be a lawyer, which started Phoenix's. You could even go further back and say that it was Isaku Hyodo's death that led to Gregory's, and so on. Gregory's death was also the distant catalyst for Misty Fey's disappearance (which in turn had several repercussions on the Fey clan, such as Dahlia and Iris's father leaving, Mia's Promotion to Parent, Yanni Yogi's Obfuscating Stupidity, etc.). In fact, a lot of deaths in this series have kicked off new arcs and plots (Mia Fey, Magnifi Gramarye, etc.). This makes sense in a world where it's Always Murder.
• ANNO: Mutationem: At one unprecedented point in the past, the incident that drove C mad and engineered his obsession with obtaining an Artifact of Doom was the death of his fiancé, D, after she got sucked into a dimensional rift in a lab experiment Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Sayoko Robbins' murder at the beginning of Another Code sets her husband off to finish her invention and, later, her daughter to go and clean up their messes.
• Your guardian Gorion's death at the start of Baldur's Gate (the first game) kicks off the plot (as well as Bhaal's once more of the plot is uncovered...).
• Bayonetta 2 kicks off with Jeanne sacrificing her soul to save Bayonetta from an out-of-control demon, which causes Bayonetta to go find a way to Inferno to rescue her.
• North Vandernot in BeTrapped!. He left the bulk of his estate - including the Bloodstone - to his niece, May, who lived in New York.
• Call of Duty:
  • President Al-Fulani's execution in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a downplayed instance, as it only sparks the American side of the campaign, which is noticeably shorter and more self-contained than the British side and is over and done with before the halfway point. However, his death, combined with the deaths of 30,000 Marines in the ensuing events and the apathetic response from the rest of the world to those deaths, are what motivates the Big Bad of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops is more or less kicked off by Dimitri Petrenko's death late in 1945, which is the motivation for Viktor Reznov to plot his revenge for almost twenty years. Interestingly, the way he's able to put the scheme into motion is thanks in part to another one, the death of a body-double of Fidel Castro, which ultimately leads to Alex Mason being captured and sent to the same gulag as Reznov.
  • Will Irons dying is what sparked Jonathan Irons, CEO of Atlas Corporation, to become involved in the story of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (although given the fact that Irons is sitting at the helm of the world's largest standing military and dislikes government militaries even prior to the game, things may have happened with or without Will's death).
• In The Cat Lady, the Queen of Maggots' plan to exterminate the Parasites is only set into motion once Susan, the protagonist, takes her own life.
• Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars begins with Nod destroying the GDI satellite Philadelphia and killing GDI's leadership. Kane's Wrath revealed it was to make sure Redmund Boyle would become GDI's director and Nod's Unwitting Pawn.
• Cute Bite: The death of the Old Master results in the first protagonist, the Butler, regaining control and awakening the second protagonist of the Vampire Child.
• Dare to Dream: The shock of Tyler's father dying causes him to repress all negative emotions, which form into an evil personality unto itself inside Tyler's mind, which he has to confront before it can destroy him.
• Darkest Dungeon begins with the Heir of a disgraced noble house travelling to the estate of their recently-deceased Ancestor, who had unearthed horrors beneath their lands and sent a letter asking the Heir to deal with them shortly before committing suicide, having gone mad due to said horrors.
• Both of the first two games in the Detectives United series have one of these, as the Big Bad of each game has a Freudian Excuse for what he's doing. The wife and children of the first game's villain were murdered by criminals; the wife and son of the second game's villain were killed in a terrible car accident. In both cases, the Big Bad is a good man who has been driven to evil extremes to try to revive his family. Fortunately, in this universe, the rule of Stable Time Loop does not apply and the heroes are able to make it so that neither of these events ever happened, thereby averting the present-day tragedies that resulted.
• The deaths of Serph Sheffield and Heat O'Brien five years before Digital Devil Saga kicked off almost the entire plot. The creation of the Junkyard? That was the final straw that made O'Brien snap and try to kill Sheffield. The horrible state of the world in the sequel? Sera was communing with Bhrama when she saw O'Brien's death, which angered Bhrama to the point of destroying the world. The Demon Virus? Sheffield was killed because he turned into a demon and went berserk. As one of the first people to ever transform, the Karma Society extracted the virus from him (and Meganada). Heat's sudden betrayal of the party? The Karma Society showed him the circumstances of O'Brien's death.
• Dishonored has the assassination of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin kickstarting the events of the game, as it causes the protagonist Corvo Attano to be framed by Spymaster Hiram Burrows for her death (as well as the kidnapping of her daughter Emily) and must now go to great lengths to clear his name by rescuing Emily and deal with the ones truly responsible for the empress’ death.
• Double Homework has a dozen of them all at once. The high death toll in the Barbarossa incident cause the protagonist’s PTSD and his fall from grace in the media.
• Dragon Age:
  • Depending on which origin is chosen in Dragon Age: Origins, there may be at least one of these for the protagonist in their backstory. But for all of the origins (and Alistair), the deaths of King Cailan and the rest of the Fereldan Grey Wardens are the starting point of everything going to hell.
    • Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, the post-game expansion pack, starts with the darkspawn attacking and killing almost everyone in the Wardens' fortress of Vigil's Keep.
  • Malcolm Hawke's death sometime prior to the beginning of Dragon Age II leaves his widow and children in a very bad situation when their home in Ferelden is destroyed by darkspawn.
    • The DLC The Exiled Prince is kickstarted by the murders of Prince Sebastian Vael's entire immediate family; he only survived because he's a priest and was in a different part of the continent at the time.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition: Everyone (except the player) who attended the Divine's Conclave died prior to the beginning of the game.
• Echo Night begins with Richard learning that his father perished in a house fire. While searching for anything that might be salvaged from the ruins, he discovers a secret passageway to a room containing a strange painting, which drags him back onto the deck of the Orpheus and strands him there.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The main plot of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is kicked off some 4000 years prior to the time the game takes place with the death of Lord Indoril Nerevar. His death, the subsequent events of Dagoth Ur and the Tribunal using the Heart of Lorkhan to obtain divinity, and his prophesied Reincarnation are the driving force behind the game's plot.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion begins with Uriel Septim murdered along with all his direct heirs. This severs a pact with the Aedra to keep the mortal world from the Daedra and thus starts a Hell on Earth plot.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the civil war plotline is kicked off by the pre-game murder of High King Torygg at the hands of Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak.
    • The plot of the Dawnguard expansion is partly triggered by the annihilation of the Vigil of Stendarr, a Church Militant group dedicated to the god of mercy, by the Volkihar vampires.
• The Endless Empty starts with the death of a suicidal man. We then turn our attention to his mindscape, which is collapsing in on itself as death becomes imminent. The protagonists are various abstract concepts (such as the neuron that made the man shoot himself) that embark on a journey to either stop their realm from being destroyed or find out what happened to make the man this way.
• As the page quote shows the plot of Eternal Darkness is set off by the death of the main character's grandfather, which leads Alex to his house and to find the Tome Of Eternal Darkness which serves as a framing device for previous characters' struggles in the fight (who might also count as this trope, given they have a tendency to die or worse at the end of their chapters).
• Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the US) starts with the player character committing a murder while under a trance. You have to clear his name, and also play as the cops who are investigating the murder.
• Far Cry 4's plot is triggered after the death of Ajay's mother, who wishes to have her ashes scattered through Kyrat. However, he finds Kyrat in the midst of a civil war.
• Fatal Frame:
  • Fatal Frame III: Kaname Ototsuki's death. He snuck into the temple where his lover was lying, covered in the Holly tattoos, and woke her up. Kaname is killed in front of Reika's eyes, which causes the Holly to enter her eyes and not only force her to replay her lover's death in front of her eyes until she's appeased, but also released the Rift into the temple, killing hundreds, and pull people into the Manor of Sleep.
  • Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water: The Maidens of the Black Water were brutally killed, which was psychically and emotionally felt by Ouse. Their death and regret, along with her own desire to live with Kunihiko Asou instead of simply dying with him, caused her ritual to fail and doom Mt Hikami.
• Ghost Trick starts with an already dead Sissel discovering the powers of the dead he's been granted, looking forward to using them to solve the mystery of who he was. As he progresses, it is discovered that the entire chain of events that led to the current situation also started off with a pair of deaths. Namely, the Big Bad Yomiel's "death" caused by the Temsik meteorite ten years before, and the subsequent suicide of his fiancée, driving him to madness and a revenge plot.
• God of War:
  • God of War (PS4): Faye's death and the instructions she left behind as her dying wish are what set Kratos and Atreus on their adventure.
  • God of War Ragnarök: Baldur's death has triggered Ragnarok and sent Freya on her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• The plot of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas starts when CJ comes back to Los Santos after five years in Liberty City to attend his mother's funeral.
• In Hotel Dusk: Room 215, the death of Bradley's sister Mila sets him off on his plan to take down Nile, followed by his faked death at Kyle's hands to prompt Kyle to find him and unravel the mystery behind it all.
• While it isn't touched on that much, the events of inFAMOUS can ultimately be traced back to the deaths of Kessler's wife and children. After losing them, a grieving Kessler realized that he was ultimately responsible for their deaths due to his selfish actions, and proceeded to use his latest power of Time Travel to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and, well, the rest is history.
• The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker hinges on one of these. The player character is trying to solve Dekker's murder while simultaneously treating the psychological patients he left behind.
• The Joker's death at the hands of a grieving Superman early on in Injustice: Gods Among Us served as the catalyst for everything falling apart in the Injustice-verse. In the sequel, Doctor Fate lampshades on the fact that the Joker's scheme to cause Superman's Face–Heel Turn and Start of Darkness by tricking him into killing his wife Lois and nuking Metropolis worked so well that it caused the Lords of Order to slowly give up on humanity and back Brainiac's invasion of Earth in Injustice 2. Fate even warns of a greater catastrophe coming on the horizon - that the Lords will back should the infighting between Batman and Superman keep going.
• Jade Champion's death in Interstate '76 is what ultimately drags her brother Groove into the same life she lived as an auto-vigilante.
• Robert's death in The Last of Us has set off a chain of circumstances that leads to Joel meeting up with Ellie. If it wasn't for Robert selling the guns to the Fireflies (without Tess and Joel's permission), Joel would never have met Marlene, the Leader of the Fireflies. And if Joel had never met Marlene, he would never have had to escort Ellie to safety at her request. Even earlier, if Sarah hadn't died at the beginning, the game would probably just be about Joel and Sarah trying to survive everyday life, and Joel never would've met most of the rest of the cast.
• Legacy of Kain: The death of the Balance Guardian Ariel kicks off the saga.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past starts with the sorcerer Agahnim killing the King of Hyrule. But for Link, the plot really starts when he finds his uncle - his only living relative - on the brink of death, and is urged to Take Up My Sword. Unlike most examples, both of these deaths are undone by the end of the game.
  • Ganondorf killing the King of Hyrule is the true plot starter in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as it sends young Princess Zelda into hiding and young Link into his seven-year coma.
  • The death of the King of Twilight is eventually revealed to be the catalyst of the events of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
• Life Is Strange:
  • Played with in the first season. Chloe gets shot and killed in the first episode, but this is promptly undone by Max, whose rewind powers awaken upon witnessing her die. In rescuing Chloe, Max also gets caught up in her desperate search for her missing friend Rachel Amber for the remainder of the story.
  • Life Is Strange 2 begins with Sean's father Esteban getting shot by a trigger-happy cop, who then himself gets killed by the sudden awakening of Daniel's telekinesis. In a panic, Sean takes Daniel and runs away from the scene, beginning their long and arduous run for the Mexican border.
  • The plot of Life Is Strange: True Colors is set off by Alex's brother Gabe being killed by a rock slide caused by a mine blast that was supposedly called off. Suspecting foul play, Alex sets forth and investigates the suspicious circumstances of her brother's demise in hopes of uncovering the truth.
• Mamiya:
  • The first part of the game, Fall Down, begins with Natsume Souichirou's funeral. As his four friends continue with their lives without Natsume and are forced to deal with the grief caused by his passing, each of them meet the mysterious being Mamiya.
  • In the second part of the game, DownFall, the members of the pink house first meet after Mamiya dies and decide to live together because they're the only ones who can remember Mamiya. This turns out to have led to Mamiya's appearance in Fall Down.
• The story of Max Payne is set in motion when a group of crazed gunmen kill Max's wife and daughter. After learning the men were under the influence of the designer drug Valkyr, he transfers from the NYPD to the DEA to investigate the drug's origins.
• In Mother 3, the death of Hinawa is what basically shifts the course of Tazmily and its populace onto the road of becoming more dependent on technology and less on community bonds. She was basically the glue that helped the villagers remember the importance of said community and without her, it's very noticeable how her passing has a large effect on the town as a whole. It's also basically the catalyst for what the rest of her family members do to drive the plot going forward, that being Flint going crazy from grief and neglecting Lucas, Claus going off on his own to avenge his Mother then getting captured and robotized as the leader of Porky's army, and Lucas learning to cope with his mother's death and fight against the pigmasks that indirectly killed her to save his home.
• The Mystery of Grimstone Manor, a Halloween Episode mini-game from the creators of The Cabinets of Doctor Arcana, gets started by the death of the protagonist's mysterious Uncle Victor. He wanted to leave all his worldly possessions to his last living relative (the player), but they have to prove themselves first.
• Need for Speed: Carbon – Own the City begins with a crash during a high-stakes race that killed your brother Mick and left you with amnesia, and you spend the entire game racing against rival crews in search of the racer responsible for the crash. By the end of the game, you learn from Sara, Mick’s former girlfriend, that you were the one who instigated the crash because he was such a horrible person to the two of you, and she was trying to keep you from uncovering the truth.
• Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors plays with this. While not immediately obvious, through the game, you find out about a death of a girl 9 years prior to when the game takes place, and it later turns out that said girl's death is the reason behind Zero's plan. The girl is later revealed to be Akane, who is also Zero- she intends to use a mindlink between her and Junpei to send information she needs to survive to the past to prevent her death.
• Cave Johnson's death can be seen as this for the Portal franchise. His death sparked the creation of GLaDOS, which in turn caused the creation of Wheatley and the plot of Portal.
• The plot of Professor Layton and the Curious Village begins with the death of Baron Reinhold, whose widow asks the Professor to come and solve the curious riddle of his last will and testament. It just gets weirder from there.
• Project Moon games:
  • Lobotomy Corporation is kickstarted with one. When Carmen's research of the Seed of Light stagnated because she was unwilling to end her own life, a young boy known as Enoch volunteered to take her place. Carmen sacrificed him for nothing and was told horrible things by Lisa. She succumbed to a deep depression afterwards and attempted a Bathtub Suicide, causing a massive Disaster Domino that led to a series of mishaps, indirectly leading to the scenario below in Library of Ruina.
  • In Library of Ruina, a direct sequel to Lobotomy Corporation, the death of Angelica at the hands of the Pianist eventually causes her husband Roland to go on a rampage and infiltrate the Library and her brother Argalia to go insane and begin recruiting Distortions for the Reverberaiton Ensemble. While her death doesn't kick off the entirety of the plot, it does heavily shape the events of the last chapter of the game, where the Ensemble invades the Library and Roland finally turns against Angela.
• Potionomics begins with main protagonist Sylvia learning that her Uncle Oswald has passed away, leaving her his potion shop on the magical island of Rafta. When Sylvia goes to claim her inheritance, she learns that Oswald also left behind a massive debt, and she has to pay it off by running the store.
• The events of Queen at Arms are first started by the death of Sir Thomas Cordale, Marcus's adoptive father; she joins the army a year after he dies in order to find her older brother Nicholas, who is her only remaining family. However, the real plot-triggering deaths were those of the King and Queen of Orthera, many years earlier. As the player can likely deduce based on the game's title, they were Marcus's birth parents; she has repressed her memories of their murders, which she witnessed.
• A young woman by the name Heidi McCourt gets murdered in cold blood by Dutch van der Linde in the Blackwater ferry heist that happens right before the start of Red Dead Redemption II. Her murder leads the law to the boat and puts the gang on the run after stashing the take. Her death also sets off the events of the first game by proxy.
• Throughout the Shin Megami Tensei series, there has been an ongoing battle between Law and Chaos, with the latter usually represented by Lucifer in some capacity, and Law usually represented by YHVH. In Shin Megami Tensei V, Lucifer kills the God of Law (who may or may not be YHVH), and the cosmic balance begins to shift violently in the years since. The God of Law created a copy of Tokyo via the Shekinah Glory where all the humans reside, and a late-game issue that makes His death a pressing matter is that the Shekinah Glory is starting to break down without Him to sustain it, which will eventually erase Tokyo and everyone still in it. And then there's the all-out war between Law and Chaos going on around you, and eventually the gods themselves take over the fighting once that is resolved.
• Snatcher: Jean-Jack Gibson's death leads Gillian and Metal Gear to investigate what he was doing before his gruesome end. This leads right into Gillian resuming Gibson's investigation on where the Snatchers are being built in Neo Kobe City.
• Summertime Saga: The unsolved murder of Frank Cummings sets off the entire plot, as Main Character decides to uncover the mystery behind his father's death, as well as making up for his long absence at school and slipping grades that resulted from it.
• Anna Voralberg's death at the start of Syberia forces lawyer Kate Walker to seek out Anna's previously believed dead brother, Hans, to buy the family's toy company from him, thus setting off the events of the series.
• Tales of Berseria only happens because Velvet's Delicate and Sickly little brother Laphicet is killed as a Human Sacrifice by Artorius during the Advent, setting up for her quest for Revenge. It ultimately turns out the real Plot-Triggering Death is Celica Crowe dying in the Opening, aka Artorius Collbrande's wife back when he was "Arthur". Since she was pregnant at the time, her and Arthur's unborn son were used as the first Human Sacrifice to unlock part of the seal on Innominat. And then Melchior showed up and encouraged Artorius to take the first steps to his vision of "order" and "reason".
• In Tenchu 2, it is mentioned that the previous Lord Gohda has died and was succeeded by his son. This triggers a revolt and is the cause of the rest of the game.
• While many deaths occur in Umineko: When They Cry, it turns out that there was the death of one person in particular that was really responsible for setting the events of the series in motion: Beatrice Castiglioni, Kinzo's secret lover, who died from giving birth to their daughter, Beatrice II, who would then give birth to Beatrice the Golden Witch/Sayo Yasuda.
• Undertale is what it is mostly because the first Fallen Child died a long time ago. Their death (well, the side effects of their Thanatos Gambit) is the reason there's a standing order to kill all humans who enter the Underground and why Toriel (the child's adoptive mother and the former queen of the Underground) lives in the Ruins.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Gram's death leads the starting protagonists, his daughters, to need to fend for themselves, which eventually means them taking his role of climbing the titular rope to find food.
• Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense begins with the newly reformed Coyotes killing the Vigilante leader Convoy.
• In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the prologue ends with Geralt as the prime suspect in the king's assassination, kicking off a Clear My Name plot to find the real killer.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, the death of Fiora at the hands of the Mechon leader and apparent Big Bad Metal Face in the first moments of the game is what inspired Shulk and Reyn to go ahead and kick Mechon ass in order to avenge her. As time passes, everything starts getting much more complex than that- for one thing, Fiora comes back (in Mechon form), and Metal Face is nowhere near the Big Bad.
• A staple of the Yakuza series (in chronological order):
  • Yakuza 0: The murder of a debtor Kiryu had shaken down in an otherwise insignificant empty lot drags him into a brewing civil war within the Tojo Clan, with a massive real estate development and the future Chairmanship on the line.
  • Yakuza: Nishiki's murder of Sohei Dojima lands Kiryu in jail for ten years, and therefore unavailable to prevent Nishiki's Start of Darkness. Later, the murder of Chairman Sera is linked to the disappearance of 10 billion yen, sparking a civil war in the Tojo Clan with the Chairmanship on the line.
  • Yakuza 2: The assassination of Fifth Chairman Terada leaves the Tojo Clan leaderless and therefore vulnerable to attack from their rivals, the Omi Alliance, and it's up to Kiryu to provide some stability before a full on gang war begins.
  • Yakuza 3: The attempted assassination of Sixth Chairman Daigo Dojima (along with the theft of the deed to the orphanage Kiryu's been running) draws Kiryu out of retirement on Okinawa and up against a government conspiracy that threatens both the Tojo Clan and Kiryu's new family.
  • Yakuza 6: The son of a Chinese triad boss is murdered in Kamurocho, leading to a gang war between the triad and the Tojo Clan that Kiryu gets involved in because his adoptive niece/daughter, Haruka, unwittingly had a child with the triad boss' Spare to the Throne, and was put in a coma after an attempted hit on the infant.
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon: First, Masumi Arakawa's father was assassinated by Ryuhei Hoshino due to his wife stealing counterfeit bills from the Seiryu, leading Masumi to the yakuza for both survival and to start a quest for revenge. Decades later, Masumi is the patriarch of his own branch of the Tojo Clan, and has a disabled son, Masato. Second, when Masato gets into a fight with and kills Chikao Suzumori, a mook from a rival yakuza family, it leads to Masumi's protector, protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, taking the heat and going to jail. When Ichiban's released, his quest to uncover what's happened to the Arakawa family while he was away, such as why Masumi's now working for the Omi Alliance, drives most of the plot.

Web Comics

• Chesska's Death by Childbirth in Archipelago caused her husband to fall into deep depression, during which his financial affairs, already in a bad state, fell down completely. So, as he started to recover, he decided to join the navy and start earning something. At one point he stopped sending money home because his captain had the guy thrown overboard for his own sordid reasons. Then he got almost possessed by a demon and while he fought it off, Death of Personality followed, along with humanisation of said demon - which is how Raven became a person and Anthony Solair became Blitz. And The Protagonist discovers his mangled body on the beach on the very first pages.
• Cindy's suicide in the Abel's Story arc of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures plays with this, as most of the trouble for Abel started after he returned to their hometown for her funeral.
• In El Goonish Shive, everything to do with Pandora's situation and her relationship with her son Adrian extends from Blaike Raven's tragic death.
• Phantomarine: The assassination of Phaedra and her companions triggers the events that lead to the main plot.
• King Spatch of Sunk dies shortly before the start of Rice Boy, which sets the plot in motion: Spatch was the latest in a long line of Multiple-Choice Chosen tasked with fulfilling an ancient prophecy, but turned out to be a bad choice; his death puts The Chooser of the One on the hook for finding a new candidate (who turns out to be Rice Boy) and leads King Spatch II to try and eliminate both chooser and chosen to prevent any more "fakes" taking his family's glory.
• Sleepless Domain: From the beginning, it appears to be a Magical Girl Warrior story focusing on the five girls of Team Alchemical. The real plot is set in motion, however, when all but two of the girls are brutally killed in action during a routine patrol. Much of the story after that point revolves around the survivors as they try to move past the deaths of their friends — and eventually, find out just why this happened to them.

Web Original

• The Human Prince in Elfslayer Chronicles has a Plot Derailing Death. The plot the DM had planned was an escort mission to bring him home to his kingdom to stop the war between them and the Elven Kingdom. However, one of the players decided to instead murder him and frame his elvish lover, turning the plot into a murder mystery Xanatos Gambit on the part of that player.
• Dellarko Karinik's death in Help Not Wanted: Remixed Phallic Memories in HD, which the four protagonists try to solve while also finding themselves entangled in a conspiracy between two rival orc tribes.
• Meta Runner: The apparent deaths of two TASCorp alumni, scientist Dr. Sheridan and Meta Runner Lucinia Porter, led Lucinia’s fellow Meta Runner Masa to suspect her murder by their boss, Lucks, leading to a failed attempt to hack into his private server for evidence, leading to his decommissioning, and Masa in turn to form MD-5 with Lucinia’s sister, Sofia, to fight against his former employer. Meanwhile, main protagonist Tari is connected by unknown means to Project Blue, which was what Dr. Sheridan was working on before he and Lucinia were seemingly blown up, and has very brief and cryptic flashbacks to him and the accident when she wakes up. Later subverted, when the season 2 finale reveals that the both of them are alive; Dr. Sheridan survived the explosion and later ended up orchestrating Lucks’ murder, while Lucinia's physical body survived, but her mind ended up fragmented, with part of it merging with Sheridan’s AI, revealed to be Tari, giving it sentience and eventually ending up in an artificial body.
• In the backstory of RWBY, there was a great hero named Ozma whose tragic, untimely death from an incurable illness triggered the show's plot. After Salem's refusal to accept her lover's death gets her cursed by the gods and humanity temporarily destroyed, the gods give humanity one last chance for redemption by resurrecting Ozma to unite them in peace; if he fails, the gods will destroy the planet. Now Salem and Ozma are locked in a Forever War for the fate of humanity while the responsibility for saving the world has accidentally fallen to a group of teenagers led by Ruby Rose.

Western Animation

• The Boondocks had Granddad taking in Huey and Riley after the death of their parents, and using the inheritance to buy a nice house in an upper-class neighborhood so they'd have better influences surrounding them.
• Bojack Horseman: Sarah Lynn's death in season 3 is the catalyst for the events in season 6, namely Bojack's guilt and the investigation into his past that brings about his downfall.
• Invincible: The murder of The Guardians of the Globe in the first episode sets the plot in motion as various characters investigate the circumstances of the motive of the culprit.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Downplayed in that Emilie Agreste is in a coma rather than being dead, but her coma is the cause of the show's main events: Gabriel Agreste, aka Hawk Moth, is so consumed by his grief over losing his wife that he brainwashes people into supervillains in order to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculi so he can make a wish to bring her back.
• Rick and Morty: Rick's Dark and Troubled Past began when his original wife and daughter were killed by a renegade Rick. In his multiversal search for the killer, he finds that Rick Prime leaves virtually no trace of his whereabouts and decided to live in the former's home universe where the show began until he finds a new lead.
• The Simpsons two-parter "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" starts with the death of a class hamster at Springfield Elementary. While burying the deceased creature, Groundskeeper Willie digs into an oil well underneath the school building, creating the conflict that will lead to Burns being shot.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The death of Queen Comet Butterfly at the hands of Toffee serves as the catalyst for much of the present-day conflict in the series. The first half of the series is shaped by Toffee's quest for revenge after Moon blasted off his finger and the second half is shaped by Eclipsa's freedom from her Crystal Prison, and both of those events happened because of Comet's death.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Much like in the comics, the death of Splinter's owner Hamato Yoshi at the hands of the Shredder is the first in the long chain of events that led to Splinter and the turtles mutating and later coming into conflict with the Foot. During Season Five, the Ninja Tribunal even flat-out admit this is why they rejected Yoshi's request to help defeat the Utrom Shredder, as Yoshi had to die in order for Splinter and the turtles to exist so they could one day help bring about the final defeat of the Tengu Shredder. Judging by the regret and sympathy in Chikara's voice when telling this to Splinter, they didn't like the decision any more than he did, even if it was necessary.
• TRON: Uprising: The entire plot can be traced back to the death (or derezzment, in this case) of Bodhi, Beck's best friend, at the hands of one of Clu's soldiers, which inspired Beck to take on the mantle of Tron.

Real Life

• While it's almost certain that something would have caused it sooner or later, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is widely considered the first in a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I.
• Often seen in monarchies when the reigning sovereign dies, especially if the next person in line is underage or just barely of age. If the new ruler's reign is particularly noteworthy (good or bad), the death of the predecessor can be seen as this.
• The Scottish Wars of Independence mostly started because King Alexander fell off his horse and died, and had no living children. And again with his granddaughter, Margaret of Norway, was chosen to be his heir by the nobles of Scotland. She died on the voyage from Norway. It all went downhill from there.

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