...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Dead Star Walking
- 450 statements
- 86 feature instances
- 205 referencing feature instances
| Dead Star Walking | type |
FeatureClass | |
| Dead Star Walking | label |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking | page |
DeadStarWalking | |
| Dead Star Walking | comment |
So, you're cast in a brand new series, and there's something about your character that just screams, "Hey, major character here." It could be that you're a name performer, or the character plays a central role or is just plain interesting. So why do you get guest star billing? Well, either your contract requires it, or the powers that be are out to kill you, if not in the premiere, then by the second episode. Or it could just be that they don't have enough to pay your name performer salary for more than a few appearances. Basically, a subversion of Contractual Immortality. This trope is occasionally used to effect (or affect) Anyone Can Die. In pilot episodes, it's also an early indicator of Sacrificial Lamb. It tends to be less surprising in television because it's generally assumed that Mel Gibson isn't going to be sticking around your family sitcom forever. A warning to budding directors: this trope can be slightly undermined by casting a Chronically Killed Actor, however A-List they may be... unless careful. See also Billing Displacement, Death by Cameo or (at times) Decoy Protagonist. Can overlap with Advertised Extra. Nothing to do with Star-Derailing Role but could have this effect. Nor is it to be confused with a star actually dying during filming. Also has nothing to do with the Death Star. As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware. |
|
| Dead Star Walking | fetched |
2023-07-28T12:44:45Z | |
| Dead Star Walking | parsed |
2023-07-28T12:44:46Z | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to HalloweenSpecial: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to HeroicSacrifice: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to Homage: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to KylieMinogue: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to MirrorUniverse: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to NaiveNewcomer: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to NamiTamaki: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to NiceGuy: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to SaintsRow4: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingComment |
Dropped link to TonightSomeoneDies: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Dead Star Walking | processingUnknown |
SaintsRow4 | |
| Dead Star Walking | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_11d34cb7 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_11d34cb7 | comment |
Prof. Heinz Schneider in El Cazador de la Bruja. And he is voiced by Shinichiro Miki, to boot. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_11d34cb7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_11d34cb7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| El Cazador de la Bruja | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_11d34cb7 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_12146ac8 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_12146ac8 | comment |
In the final season of Line of Duty, one suspect, Marcus Thurwell, initially appeared as a photo of James Nesbitt, and was not only killed in the following episode, but all we saw of this was bodycam footage of a corpse. Dead Star Never Even Walking. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_12146ac8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_12146ac8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Line of Duty | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_12146ac8 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1331990c | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1331990c | comment |
Mami Tomoe in Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a senior Magical Girl voiced by the fairly popular Kaori Mizuhashi and becomes the Cool Big Sis to the protagonist. But three episodes later, she falls victim to a Cruel and Unusual Death. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1331990c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1331990c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Puella Magi Madoka Magica | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_1331990c | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1370761 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1370761 | comment |
The Scream Queens TV series. Whilst being advertised as a series regular, Ariana Grande's character was killed off at the end of the pilot episode before we even knew her (real) name. Strangely, this is an unintentional example of the trope, as she was supposed to have a recurring role, but scheduling issues involving her singing career necessitated rewriting her part. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1370761 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1370761 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Scream Queens (2015) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_1370761 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_153f674f | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_153f674f | comment |
Though he wasn't a big star at the time, it's amusing to see Jimmy Smits playing Don Johnson's partner only to get blown up within the first few minutes of the pilot episode of Miami Vice. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_153f674f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_153f674f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Miami Vice | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_153f674f | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1663f757 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1663f757 | comment |
The Night Agent: Robert Patrick's character, FBI assistant director Jamie Hawkins, is clearly set up as a major character and probable antagonist. He doesn't make it out of the second episode alive. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1663f757 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1663f757 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Night Agent | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_1663f757 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_17024c6d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_17024c6d | comment |
The first season set the tone with Richard Walsh (played by noted character actor Michael O'Neill of The Pretender fame), who's the Administrative Director of CTU. He gets gunned down by terrorists at the end of the second episode to illustrate that Anyone Can Die, even major characters, and his death sets Jack on the path to the rest of the day's events. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_17024c6d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_17024c6d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Pretender | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_17024c6d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1d42b351 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1d42b351 | comment |
Epic (2013): Despite being heavily promoted in promotional material, Queen Tara (voiced by Beyoncé) dies partway through the movie and gives the MacGuffin to the female lead. A lesser example happens with Dagda, son of the Big Bad, who was also played up in promotional material but got killed earlier in the movie. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1d42b351 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_1d42b351 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Epic (2013) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_1d42b351 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_202462bc | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_202462bc | comment |
Callum Keith Rennie as Don Morgan in Alphas: the team's original government liaison, who is present in the pilot episode, Put on a Bus for the second, and then violently killed off in the third. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_202462bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_202462bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Alphas | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_202462bc | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2212773a | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2212773a | comment |
In Angel, Doyle was killed off after nine episodes, and if it weren't for his visions Angel wouldn't have such an easy time finding (and killing) the baddies. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2212773a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2212773a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Angel | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_2212773a | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_22532d78 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_22532d78 | comment |
In the first episode of the FX anthology series Fargo, Kieran Culkin is accidentally run over by Kirsten Dunst. He dies a little later in her garage. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_22532d78 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_22532d78 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Fargo | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_22532d78 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_228036df | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_228036df | comment |
Zero Zero Zero: Gabriel Byrne is the highest-profile actor on the show. He's the first person we see in the first episode, and he provides the narration. The episode teases the trope by introducing him as he rolls helplessly on the ground after being shot. It then flashes back to a How We Got Here to eventually reveal that he's wearing a Bulletproof Vest and survives the gunshot. But in the beginning of the very next episode, he keels over and dies of a heart attack from the stress of the ordeal. His storyline gets taken up by his children. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_228036df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_228036df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Zero Zero Zero | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_228036df | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2675c915 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2675c915 | comment |
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 2 starts with some big names added to the cast, including Lucy Lawless as an Action Girl ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now loyal to Coulson... who lasts exactly one episode, after months of promos billing her as a major character. More understatedly, B.J. Britt took Grant Ward's place on Coulson's team in the latter third of the first season, and was in promo shots for the second season, standing with the team and appearing to have been promoted to regular, which would have made sense. He's still billed as a guest star, though. Why? Because he dies in the mid-season finale. Midway through the second season, Edward James Olmos joins the cast as a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. official named Robert Gonzalez. Gonzalez actually does stick around for a few episodes, before being betrayed and murdered by Jiaying so that she can start a war with the humans. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_2675c915 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2675c915 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_2675c915 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2bb4ae0f | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2bb4ae0f | comment |
About 20 or so characters introduced in volume three of Heroes. In Season 4, the writers decided to bring back Charlie, a popular character from Season 1. Unfortunately, that same year Jayma Mays was cast in the new show Glee, so we knew her relationship with Hiro wasn't going to work. Had Hiro not forgotten about her for 3 years, he could have saved her. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_2bb4ae0f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2bb4ae0f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Heroes | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_2bb4ae0f | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2d316bc0 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2d316bc0 | comment |
Guest villain Kraang Subprime in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) is voiced by famous comedian Gilbert Gottfried, and he's killed off in his fight with Splinter. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2d316bc0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2d316bc0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_2d316bc0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2ea6ae26 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2ea6ae26 | comment |
Subverted in Star Trek: Picard: publicity and trailers suggested that Dahj, played by Isa Briones, a mysterious young woman who seeks Picard's protection against equally mysterious assassins, would play a major role in the show. Dahj is caught and murdered by her pursuers at the end of the first episode, but the focus of the show then shifts to her identical twin Soji, who is also played by Briones. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2ea6ae26 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2ea6ae26 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek: Picard | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_2ea6ae26 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2f28a53c | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2f28a53c | comment |
Ellery Queen: The most recognizable name in an episode's cast would often be the person playing the victim. A prominent example is George Burns in "The Adventure of Veronica's Veils". | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2f28a53c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2f28a53c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ellery Queen | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_2f28a53c | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2fee008d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2fee008d | comment |
Kamina in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is set as The Protagonist and is voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi, whose popularity soared with this role. Except that he was killed dramatically less than 10 episodes into the story. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2fee008d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_2fee008d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_2fee008d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_353b7af3 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_353b7af3 | comment |
Star Trek: Discovery managed the casting coup of getting Malaysian action icon Michelle Yeoh to play the ship's captain. Given Yeoh's level of fame, it was perhaps less surprising than intended when her character was killed off in the second episode. It also didn't help that the show's marketing had effectively spoiled this, gleefully stating the show would feature Star Trek's first African-American female lead, played by Sonequa Martin-Green. Then subverted later when Yeoh plays a major role in the final third of the season as Georgiou's Mirror Universe duplicate, who is still alive at the end and in the main universe, returning again in the second season. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_353b7af3 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_353b7af3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek: Discovery | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_353b7af3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3544ad11 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3544ad11 | comment |
House of Cards (US): Frank Underwood was killed off the show's final season, following actor Kevin Spacey's firing over sexual misconduct allegations. While his character's dead for Season 6, Frank Underwood's past deeds loom over the season. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3544ad11 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3544ad11 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| House of Cards (US) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_3544ad11 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3c6e7f9f | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3c6e7f9f | comment |
In Cross Ange, the characters of Megumi Hayashibara (Empress Sophia), Kōichi Yamadera (Emperor Jurai), Michiko Neya (Zola), and Minori Chihara (Miranda) all die within the first three episodes. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3c6e7f9f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3c6e7f9f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Cross Ange | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_3c6e7f9f | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3e8c09b9 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3e8c09b9 | comment |
Eren Jaeger in Attack on Titan subverts this. He's eaten by a Titan fairly early on but survives by turning into one and smashing his way out. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3e8c09b9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3e8c09b9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Attack on Titan (Manga) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_3e8c09b9 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3f13a30c | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3f13a30c | comment |
Like Spooks, FX Network's Thief had a 6-episode first season. Like Spooks, it bumped off a name performer by the 2nd episode: Linda "Terminator 1 and 2" Hamilton as the handler. Unlike Spooks, Hamilton was just the latest in a rather misogynistic streak. Including the handler, there were three surprising deaths in the first two eps — all women. Unlike Spooks, Thief was not renewed beyond its initial 6 ep run. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3f13a30c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_3f13a30c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Spooks | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_3f13a30c | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_400fe582 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_400fe582 | comment |
In Lands of Lore, Patrick Stewart portrays the voice of the king, who gets frozen after you manage to complete the first quest he gives you. His unfreezing becomes the player character's goal, which you manage to do just before it is time for the final battle against the villain. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_400fe582 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_400fe582 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Lands of Lore (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_400fe582 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_405243c7 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_405243c7 | comment |
The 100 was going to do this with Jasper Jordan, played by Devon Bostick. They set him up as a main character and had him speared in the chest at the end of the pilot- before deciding that they liked him too much and saving him. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_405243c7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_405243c7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The 100 | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_405243c7 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_43c2e491 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_43c2e491 | comment |
When Stargirl (2020) was still in pre-production, one of the show's highest profile casting announcements came when it was revealed that Joel Mchale would be playing Starman. Starman ends up getting killed off in the opening scene of the first episode, and the remainder of the series instead follows his teenage successor. Subverted in the final episode of season 1 when someone played by Mchale and claiming to be Starman suddenly appears trying to find Pat. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_43c2e491 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_43c2e491 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Stargirl (2020) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_43c2e491 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_43f52aa9 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_43f52aa9 | comment |
In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Patrick Stewart voices the Emperor Uriel Septim VII, who is assassinated by the end of the first tutorial mission. On the other hand, it's heavily Foreshadowed, as he starts talking about his impending death in the actual opening credits sequence and continues right up until it happens. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_43f52aa9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_43f52aa9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_43f52aa9 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_4522bcaf | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_4522bcaf | comment |
Poker Face: Adrien Brody features prominently in the advertising - only for his character, Sterling Jr., to commit suicide in the first episode. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_4522bcaf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_4522bcaf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Poker Face | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_4522bcaf | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_457b671e | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_457b671e | comment |
24 did this so often that it became a Running Gag. Long story short — if a character was introduced in a position of authority (or as a close friend to Jack Bauer), their chances of survival were extremely low: The first season set the tone with Richard Walsh (played by noted character actor Michael O'Neill of The Pretender fame), who's the Administrative Director of CTU. He gets gunned down by terrorists at the end of the second episode to illustrate that Anyone Can Die, even major characters, and his death sets Jack on the path to the rest of the day's events. Later on in the first season, Lou Diamond Phillips appears as the administrator of a black-ops prison that ends up being used to house Big Bad Victor Drazen. He gets barely an episode's worth of screentime (stretching across two episodes) before he's gunned down by Andre Drazen after they siege the prison. Crossing into Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome/Death by Cameo, season five opens with the deaths of former President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth) just minutes into the premiere, a huge shock to viewers watching at the time. 24: Redemption introduces Carl Benton, an old friend of Jack's (played by name actor Robert Carlyle), who is helping him teach at a school in Sangala. Less than an hour into the film, he ends up performing a Heroic Sacrifice to help Jack and the children at the school escape. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_457b671e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_457b671e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| 24 | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_457b671e | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a88435 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a88435 | comment |
In Final Fantasy XII we have the practically omnipresent Yuri Lowenthal voice the tutorial character, Reks. He doesn't last long. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a88435 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a88435 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Final Fantasy XII (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_49a88435 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a885c8 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a885c8 | comment |
In Final Fantasy XVI, veteran screen actor Ralph Ineson voices series mainstay Cidolfus "Cid" Telamon. Naturally, Cid suffers Mentor Occupational Hazard when the party attacks Drake's Head and Cid expends all of his life energy protecting Clive from Ultima. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a885c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49a885c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Final Fantasy XVI (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_49a885c8 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49ff762 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49ff762 | comment |
In Torchwood, Suzie Costello, played by Indira Varma, is the second-in-command of Torchwood Three... for most of "Everything Changes". Then she explains how she can't live without the job but is going to get fired when they find out she's been killing people for Resurrection Gauntlet test subjects and puts a bullet in her skull. She comes back, though, and is revealed to have had a goddamn amazing Gambit Roulette going which planned for her death and resurrection as a crucial stage, in "They Keep Killing Suzie". She was also featured heavily in the promotional material. Torchwood is an odd example in that its leading man and star gets killed several times a season. He doesn't stay dead for long, though. In Torchwood: Miracle Day, we get Dr. Juarez, who is killed off (as much as someone can die in Miracle Day, anyway) the very episode where she joins the Torchwood team. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_49ff762 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_49ff762 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Torchwood | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_49ff762 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5090b9e6 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5090b9e6 | comment |
Clive Barker's Jericho: The squad leader, Devin Ross, is suddenly killed off at the end of the first time period. However, while his body may be dead, his spirit escapes into the body of one of his squadmates, and he is then able to jump into the consciousness of each of them. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5090b9e6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5090b9e6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Clive Barker's Jericho (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_5090b9e6 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5824d241 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5824d241 | comment |
In the The Eminence in Shadow anime, this is inverted. The first episode follows a Decoy Protagonist, only for the main character to be killed off and sent to another world. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5824d241 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5824d241 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Eminence in Shadow | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_5824d241 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5c07d6ab | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5c07d6ab | comment |
Phillipe Loren in Saints Row: The Third who was billed as the Big Bad in all the advertisments only to be killed off in the first act of the game. Johnny Gat also qualifies in the third. However, Saints Row 4 retcons it by being kidnapped by aliens during his death scene instead |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_5c07d6ab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5c07d6ab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Saints Row: The Third (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_5c07d6ab | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5d354f8 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5d354f8 | comment |
The pilot episode of Red Dwarf was originally intended to be this, with everyone except the main character being top-billing stars, only to have them killed off in the first episode and left with "Craig who?". While this wasn't quite the effect during the original airing, after a decade this is somewhat applicable as many of the crew went on to have parts in works such as Alien and EastEnders! | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5d354f8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_5d354f8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Red Dwarf | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_5d354f8 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_605dd875 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_605dd875 | comment |
Stargate: In Stargate Atlantis, Robert Patrick plays Colonel Sumner in the pilot. He's supposed to be the head of the military unit attached to the Atlantis team and naturally is killed off before the end of the second episode. Fans expected the same trick to be pulled in the premiere of Stargate Universe with Lou Diamond Phillips, who didn't seem to have an appropriately large role for a name-actor. However, his character lived, and the one who actually died in the pilot was that guy who played Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore. Phillips's character does die in a later episode... only for another version of him to show up. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_605dd875 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_605dd875 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Stargate-verse (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_605dd875 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6272adf3 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6272adf3 | comment |
Detective Terry Crowley in The Shield seems to be set up as one of the main characters of the series in the pilot episode when he's assigned to the Strike Team as a mole with the intention of exposing their corrupt activities, and gets more than his fair share of screen time in the process... until the final minute of the episode, where Vic Mackey and Shane Vendrell kill him and frame an also-deceased drug dealer as the killer. Crowley's death isn't brushed aside, though, as it haunts the Strike Team for the rest of the series and the character himself appears in flashback episodes. To help keep Crowley's death as a surprise to the viewers, his actor was listed as a regular in the pilot episode's opening credits. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_6272adf3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6272adf3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Shield | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_6272adf3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_694b2794 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_694b2794 | comment |
Barrage is named after a character who only lasts 5 pages in the first chapter before he's unceremoniously killed. Subverted, as the reason he’s killed so fast is that he’s not the real Barrage. The actual one shows up later. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_694b2794 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_694b2794 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Barrage (Manga) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_694b2794 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6b49dd90 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6b49dd90 | comment |
Byung Hee was being set up as the main character in Shut Up Flower Boy Band. He was suddenly killed at the end of the second episode. The remainder of the show is about his best friend and his band coping with the loss. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6b49dd90 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6b49dd90 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Shut Up Flower Boy Band | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_6b49dd90 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6ee119bf | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6ee119bf | comment |
Ingo Fischer, one of the two top-billed stars in Alarm für Cobra 11 died in the second episode. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6ee119bf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_6ee119bf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Alarm für Cobra 11 | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_6ee119bf | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_73a9c933 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_73a9c933 | comment |
On The Walking Dead, Entertainment Weekly noted that "there is a long, sad history of Walking Dead actors being killed off soon after news gets out about them accepting a different acting role." The sixth season ended with a big cliffhanger where one of the main characters, unknown to the viewers, had his or her head smashed in with a baseball bat, and the identity of said character would not be revealed until the seventh season a few months later. AMC went to great lengths to prevent spoilers from leaking to the point of filming every character being killed so even the crew wouldn't know, even though the scene in question had appeared years earlier in the comics with Glenn as the victim. It was Hollywood trade publications that unintentionally spoiled Glenn's fate, as Steven Yeun had been announced to star in two films that would conflict with The Walking Dead's filming schedule, so even fans that hadn't read the comics could figure he wasn't working on the show anymore. The victim was revealed after a six-month wait to be Abraham, only for Glenn to die minutes later as punishment for Daryl's outburst. Thus making both Yeun and Michael Cudlitz an example of this trope. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_73a9c933 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_73a9c933 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| TheWalkingDead | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_73a9c933 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7545887f | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7545887f | comment |
The first season of Wayward Pines did this twice. Of the big name cast members, Juliette Lewis's character dies at the end of the second episode, and Terrence Howard's in the third. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7545887f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7545887f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Wayward Pines | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_7545887f | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7a380f3b | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7a380f3b | comment |
The General Hospital spinoff Night Shift had Pat Crawford Brown as a tapestry-sewing patient for the first 3 episodes, before having a Serial Killer off her via IV. Granted, Brown has rarely ever had a regular role on any TV show, but still... | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7a380f3b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7a380f3b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| General Hospital | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_7a380f3b | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7f87dafc | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7f87dafc | comment |
In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Singer Takanori Nishikawa aka "TM Revolution" voices two short-lived characters. In SEED, Miguel is a Face Enemy who actually survives his first battle with the protagonist. However, he is promptly killed in the very next battle. This was telegraphed by the fact that he wasn't in the OP, though. However, in the sequel, it's more played like a running gag, despite the depth of the character. According to urban legend, Nami Tamaki (who sang the last two opening themes of SEED and the first of Destiny) was offered a similar character, but turned down the offer. That character, Shiho Hannenfuss (ultimately voiced by Makiko Ohmoto, but only in the videogames since she was The Voiceless in the anime itself), became very popular, with many suggesting that Tamaki's passing on the role saved Shiho from suffering the same fate as TMR's characters. There's also a rumor that Nishikawa would've preferred to play a bigger role (especially in Destiny, where his character Heine Westenfluss became quite popular as well), but couldn't spare much time from his very tight touring and recording schedule, so he had to stick to this trope. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_7f87dafc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_7f87dafc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mobile Suit Gundam SEED | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_7f87dafc | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_85a5a3b9 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_85a5a3b9 | comment |
Ooh, popular character Cliffjumper is featured in his own Transformers: Prime commercial! And he's played by Dwayne Johnson as well! And he's been upgraded from a Bumblebee clone into an awesome horned muscle car! He puts up a good fight against a team of Decepticon troops, but he's eventually defeated, captured, and killed by Starscream. And brought back as a zombie berserker in the second episode. And sliced in half by Megatron, dropped into a mine shaft, and buried by a mountain-shattering explosion. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_85a5a3b9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_85a5a3b9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Transformers: Prime | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_85a5a3b9 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8c96b29e | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8c96b29e | comment |
Extreme example: Genesis Climber MOSPEADA leaves just one survivor in episode 1, bumping off everyone else. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8c96b29e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8c96b29e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Genesis Climber MOSPEADA | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_8c96b29e | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d7f29ec | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d7f29ec | comment |
In Season 4, the writers decided to bring back Charlie, a popular character from Season 1. Unfortunately, that same year Jayma Mays was cast in the new show Glee, so we knew her relationship with Hiro wasn't going to work. Had Hiro not forgotten about her for 3 years, he could have saved her. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d7f29ec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d7f29ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Glee | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_8d7f29ec | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d817ccb | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d817ccb | comment |
Almost happened on Lost. The original plan was to have a reasonably well-known movie actor, such as Michael Keaton, be cast as Jack. All the promotions, released information, cast photos, and interviews would indicate that Keaton (or whoever was cast as Jack) was a permanent part of the show and would be the main character throughout. Then, halfway through the pilot episode, he'd be killed by the monster, thus putting everyone on notice that Lost was a show where Anyone Can Die and where crazy stuff happens all the time. Kate (possibly played by Yunjin Kim) would then become the leader and the show's hero. The network vetoed the plan, believing the audience would feel manipulated and resentful. As a result, Matthew Fox was cast as Jack and the character of the pilot (played by Greg Grunberg) was created to die in Jack's place. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d817ccb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_8d817ccb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Lost | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_8d817ccb | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_91120398 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_91120398 | comment |
In Ga-Rei -Zero- the squad in the promotional posters and trailers, supposed to be the main characters of the series, after kicking some ass are surprisingly slaughtered at the end of the first episode. The true main characters first appear in episode 2. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_91120398 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_91120398 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ga-Rei -Zero- | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_91120398 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9431bab8 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9431bab8 | comment |
The pilot episode of Sleepy Hollow has three recognizable actors: Clancy Brown, Orlando Jones and John Cho. Two of them are dead by the end of the episode (one in the first five minutes). Subverted in that both of them reappear in the second episode: one shows up in a flashback and as a ghost and the other is resurrected by the Big Bad who killed him. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9431bab8 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9431bab8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Sleepy Hollow | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_9431bab8 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_957a7896 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_957a7896 | comment |
A Very Potter Musical cast the campus' biggest actor Tyler Brunsman in the role of Cedric Diggory. Cedric's role is fairly minor with the occasional joke and only one short solo in the opening number. Then near the end of act 1, he's killed by Voldemort, just like in the original story. After this, the scene continues, which includes the show's biggest musical number, all with him lying on the floor dead. Then in act 2, Brunsman appears in a second role as Cornelius Fudge. Very shortly after being introduced, Fudge also gets murdered by Voldemort, and then another long scene plays out with Brunsman once again relegated to playing a corpse while all the real action happens. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_957a7896 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_957a7896 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Very Potter Musical (Theatre) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_957a7896 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_959cfd6f | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_959cfd6f | comment |
Scream: TV Series: Much like how the films employed this trope (as noted on the Live-Action Films page), the first season did the same with Bella Thorne's character, killing her off in the pilot episode and having her death drive the plot. She actually sought out the role because of its iconic nature in the films. The second season, meanwhile, opens with Lele Pons appearing as the opening victim in Murderville, the terrible movie that had been based on the Lakewood massacre. It's subverted within the "real" world, however, where the Ghostface trying to kill Audrey turns out to be a harmless prankster, though not before Audrey stabs him in self-defense. The Halloween Special opened with season 2's killer Kieran getting killed off in prison, in a case of Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome. Scream: Resurrection, a reboot of the series, did a fake-out with Paris Jackson, whose character looks like she's being set up as the opening victim only to be left completely unharmed. Instead, it's the protagonist Deion's twin brother Marcus who gets killed. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_959cfd6f | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_959cfd6f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Scream: TV Series | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_959cfd6f | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_98b697e9 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_98b697e9 | comment |
Much like how the films employed this trope (as noted on the Live-Action Films page), the first season did the same with Bella Thorne's character, killing her off in the pilot episode and having her death drive the plot. She actually sought out the role because of its iconic nature in the films. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_98b697e9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_98b697e9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Scream | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_98b697e9 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9ebb8e6f | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9ebb8e6f | comment |
In the first issue of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's run on the Marvel comic book X-Force, a new X-Force team is introduced with most of the focus put on the sympathetic team leader. Almost all of the team gets brutally killed off in the same issue, including the aforementioned leader. This effects Any One Can Die for the remainder of the book's run and its follow-up X-Statix. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9ebb8e6f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_9ebb8e6f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| X-Force (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_9ebb8e6f | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a7469a75 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a7469a75 | comment |
In Kolchak: The Night Stalker Phil Silvers guest starred in an episode, and was set up as an ally of Kolchak who would assist him through his adventure. Instead, he gets killed off about 15 minutes in. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a7469a75 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a7469a75 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kolchak: The Night Stalker | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_a7469a75 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a86b7660 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a86b7660 | comment |
Benton Fraser's father (played by Gordon Pinsent) dies at the beginning of the pilot episode of Due South, although he continues to appear as a ghost for the rest of the series. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a86b7660 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_a86b7660 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Due South | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_a86b7660 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_add7e0bd | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_add7e0bd | comment |
Scream: Resurrection, a reboot of the series, did a fake-out with Paris Jackson, whose character looks like she's being set up as the opening victim only to be left completely unharmed. Instead, it's the protagonist Deion's twin brother Marcus who gets killed. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_add7e0bd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_add7e0bd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Scream: Resurrection | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_add7e0bd | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b30ae4db | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b30ae4db | comment |
Game of Thrones: Fans have caught on to several tells from the way HBO markets the show and other announcements. More often than not, the most publicized actor prior to each season ends up being killed off: HBO gleefully marketed Sean Bean as the "main character" of the first season. He gets his head chopped off in the penultimate episode. Bean was pretty famous for getting killed off in anything he was a star of (or co-star, or extra... okay ANYthing he was acting in) up to this point. So if it was a shock to anyone, it shouldn't have been. Prior to the fourth season, Jack Gleeson (Joffrey) was put front and center in the show's publicity campaign, giving the most interviews and featuring heavily in the trailers and commercials, only for his character to be poisoned in the second episode.note This was a side effect of the creators deciding to adapt A Storm of Swords (the third book) into two seasons, as Joffrey's death happens with only a quarter of the book to go. Prior to the sixth season, Natalie Dormer (Margaery) was put front and center in the marketing, giving far more interviews about the show than any of her co-stars, to the point of it being referred to as a "one-woman publicity tour", while Finn Jones, who played her brother, Loras, had recently been announced as the lead of Netflix's Iron Fist, indicating that his future filming schedule wouldn't have much time for Game of Thrones. Their characters were incinerated in the season finale. While Sean Bean's character being killed off is rather (in)famous, the very first Dead Star Walking in the series is actually Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen. He is billed as a main cast member, set up as a potential major player of the story as a pretender to the Iron Throne...and then gets killed in the sixth episode, three episodes before Ned Stark bites the dust. Jason Momoa of Stargate Atlantis fame, who didn't merit being in the opening credits in the first season despite playing a major character, gets killed off in the season finale. Played very straight with Ian McShane in the sixth season. McShane had stated his character would make a "one-shot" appearance, which, given the nature of the show, meant he would probably be dead by the end of his episode. HBO also announced that Rickon Stark would return in season six after being absent for two seasons, still being played by Art Parkinson. As the show had a habit of recasting children with older actors after a prolonged absence, fans guessed this meant Rickon wouldn't have much of a presence in the future of the show. He gets shot through the heart by Ramsay Bolton in the penultimate episode without having a single line of dialogue in the entire season. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_b30ae4db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b30ae4db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Game of Thrones | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_b30ae4db | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b3b15bc1 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b3b15bc1 | comment |
X-Men: The Animated Series mirrored Thunderbird's death on the modern team's second mission by including Morph, a character apparently introduced in the first episode just to be killed off immediately (he actually turns out to have survived in a later episode, whether that was intended in his "death" episode is debatable). The character was based on Changeling, the first X-Man to die in the comics. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b3b15bc1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b3b15bc1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| X-Men: The Animated Series | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_b3b15bc1 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b6cb9396 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b6cb9396 | comment |
For the first few seasons of Lost in Space, Doctor Smith (Jonathan Harris) got billed as a special guest star in the title credits. Word of God has it that he was supposed to escape the ship (or die) early on, but that never came about. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b6cb9396 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_b6cb9396 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Lost in Space | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_b6cb9396 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c095f21d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c095f21d | comment |
Amuria in Simoun. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c095f21d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c095f21d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Simoun | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_c095f21d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c0aa8ea9 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c0aa8ea9 | comment |
Fans expected the same trick to be pulled in the premiere of Stargate Universe with Lou Diamond Phillips, who didn't seem to have an appropriately large role for a name-actor. However, his character lived, and the one who actually died in the pilot was that guy who played Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore. Phillips's character does die in a later episode... only for another version of him to show up. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c0aa8ea9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c0aa8ea9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Stargate Universe | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_c0aa8ea9 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c176d27a | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c176d27a | comment |
Games in The Dark Pictures Anthology — where the whole point is that anyone can die or survive based on player choices — always feature a recognisable Inksuit Actor on the cover art and in one of the five leading roles. However, it's about a fifty-fifty chance whether they'll be incredibly hard to kill or follow this trope as one of the first characters who can bite the dust. So far, Shawn Ashmore fulfills this trope the best (the first of the 5 characters in Man of Medan that can die), followed by Ashley Tisdale (second in House of Ashes), Jessie Buckley (fourth in The Devil in Me), and finally Will Poulter, who is given so much plot armor in Little Hope that he is the final character that can die, which can't actually happen until the epilogue. |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_c176d27a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c176d27a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Dark Pictures Anthology (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_c176d27a | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who: The TV Movie actually brought back Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, just so he could be killed off to regenerate into Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor. Sir Derek Jacobi makes a memorable guest appearance as Professor Yana (a.k.a. The Master) in "Utopia". However, he is killed (and then regenerates into John Simm) before the episode ends. Kylie Minogue showing up as a guest star in the 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned". The Doctor wanted to bring her character Astrid along as a companion, but naturally, she was killed off at the end of the episode. Possibly the all-time weirdest version of this: Jenna Coleman, already announced as a forthcoming companion, appeared in the episode "Asylum of the Daleks" as a character called Oswin, and died at the end. Then she turned up a few episodes later, as another character called Clara, and died again. The following episode introduced the "proper" version of the character. This was a major plot point for the season. Believe it or not, it actually does make sense in context. Sharon D. Clarke was announced as a "returning character" in advance publicity for Series Eleven, sparking much speculation as to whether the BBC meant "recurring character" or if she'd actually be playing a new version of an existing character. She ended up playing Grace — the respective wife and grandmother of companions Graham and Ryan — and was electrocuted by an alien robot at the end of the first episode, "The Woman Who Fell to Earth". The earlier publicity led to much He's Just Hiding speculation, but she was in fact simply dead, and only appeared in two more episodes: once in Graham's imagination as part of a Dead Person Conversation, and another time as part of an illusion created by a Genius Loci. She makes one more appearance in the following season, this time as part of a nightmare Graham is having, and finally made a brief cameo as a ghost/vision/memory/something in Graham's and Ryan's farewell episode, the 2020 Christmas special "Revolution of the Daleks". |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_c43df4d8 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cba3559b | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cba3559b | comment |
Variation: In Survival of the Fittest, the character called Josh Goodman was built up in version three's pregame to be an unstoppable force, taking over the school within his first day thereby blackmailing the principal and raping her, causing her to commit suicide, and later nearly cripples a star football player. He was killed off in one of the main game's first posts, electrocuted in a pool of blood. The student who killed him became one of the top killers on the island. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cba3559b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cba3559b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Survival of the Fittest (Roleplay) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_cba3559b | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cccefdf1 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cccefdf1 | comment |
The narrator of the Christmas episode of Stroker and Hoop was voiced by none other than moderately famous character actor Eli Wallach. He also turns out to be a turkey about to be taken to the slaughter. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cccefdf1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cccefdf1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Stroker and Hoop | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_cccefdf1 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cd8905f6 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cd8905f6 | comment |
In the anime adaptation of Baccano!, Masakazu Morita's character gets his face blown off during the closing of the very episode he first shows up in. Subverted since said character is Claire Stanfield, who not only survives but becomes a major player in the plot later on. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cd8905f6 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cd8905f6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Baccano! | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_cd8905f6 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cfe18891 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cfe18891 | comment |
Hampnie Hambart in Sunday Without God. He dies at the end of the first arc after his wish for a happy death comes true. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cfe18891 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_cfe18891 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Sunday Without God | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_cfe18891 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d4fe0152 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d4fe0152 | comment |
Jon Seda's character on Oz, Dino Ortolani, was set up as the (or at least a) main character, only to be burned to death at the end of the 1st episode. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d4fe0152 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d4fe0152 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Oz | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_d4fe0152 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5cc6418 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5cc6418 | comment |
In the Largo Winch series, David Carradine plays Largo's father Nerio. Naturally, he gets killed five minutes into the opening. Carradine later returned for two episodes to play an evil impersonator. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5cc6418 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5cc6418 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Largo Winch (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_d5cc6418 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5d98e35 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5d98e35 | comment |
Parodied on Police Squad!: in each episode's Title Montage, a different celebrity Special Guest is killed off as they are being introduced. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5d98e35 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d5d98e35 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Police Squad! | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_d5d98e35 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d685912d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d685912d | comment |
The second season, meanwhile, opens with Lele Pons appearing as the opening victim in Murderville, the terrible movie that had been based on the Lakewood massacre. It's subverted within the "real" world, however, where the Ghostface trying to kill Audrey turns out to be a harmless prankster, though not before Audrey stabs him in self-defense. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d685912d | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d685912d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| LelePons | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_d685912d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d796465d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d796465d | comment |
The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers spends it’s first issue introducing the quirky new Wreckers team, who are either major league characters or promising newbies, as they prepare to go on an important mission. Then it starts killing them left and right. Most notably, Rotorstorm gets his head blown off almost as soon as the mission begins. The sequel repeats this, tricking the reader into thinking Stakeout will be a major character when he’s really killed off halfway in. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d796465d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_d796465d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_d796465d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_dc4363c5 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_dc4363c5 | comment |
Christopher Meloni joined True Blood in the second episode of the fifth season. He was added to the opening credits, only to be killed in the sixth episode. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_dc4363c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_dc4363c5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| True Blood | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_dc4363c5 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e293455a | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e293455a | comment |
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Joss Whedon wanted to do this for Eric Balfour as Jesse in the first episode, but was denied permission by the network. He ultimately got his wish in "Seeing Red", when after thirty-nine appearances as a guest star Amber Benson was finally promoted to the show's full credits - just in time for her character Tara to be shot dead. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e293455a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e293455a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_e293455a | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e4732abc | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e4732abc | comment |
In Stargate Atlantis, Robert Patrick plays Colonel Sumner in the pilot. He's supposed to be the head of the military unit attached to the Atlantis team and naturally is killed off before the end of the second episode. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e4732abc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e4732abc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Stargate Atlantis | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_e4732abc | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e64b0d38 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e64b0d38 | comment |
Kisaragi is one of the first named characters to appear in Elfen Lied and gets a proper introduction. Name bar? Check. Clumsy but cute? Check. Works for another main character? Yeppers. Determined to overcome her shyness and make people proud of her one day? Double check. Twenty pages/five minutes later, Lucy comes into the picture. Kisaragi has her head ripped off and her corpse used as a meat shield that gets shredded to pieces in a hail of bullets, only to be dumped in a corridor once everyone else is dead. This immediately sets the tone for the next 106 chapters. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e64b0d38 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e64b0d38 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Elfen Lied (Manga) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_e64b0d38 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8224f8c | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8224f8c | comment |
Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry kills the lead character's two love interests, best friends, enemy, most of the cast of the first episode... in the best example of Dead Star Walking, the series actually kills off Rie Tanaka's character twice. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8224f8c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8224f8c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_e8224f8c | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8ec518d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8ec518d | comment |
That SciFi Guy appears at the beginning of To Boldly Flee as one of the team members analyzing a mysterious signal coming from Jupiter. However, he is Killed Off for Real before the end of Part One when the enemy's Wave-Motion Gun vaporizes his house. Or is he? | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8ec518d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_e8ec518d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| That SciFi Guy (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_e8ec518d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ec6862b4 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ec6862b4 | comment |
On Watchmen (2019): Don Johnson's character is murdered at the end of the pilot episode, despite appearing prominently in the promos and in a great deal of the episode. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ec6862b4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ec6862b4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Watchmen (2019) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_ec6862b4 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ed33ec82 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ed33ec82 | comment |
Seki Ray Shiroe from Toward the Terra, played by Marina Inoue; it seems as though he might even become the protagonist's protege, and failing that, he begins to cultivate a relationship with the antihero as well - however, he is heartlessly (and, in the manga and original movie, a bit abruptly) snuffed out. (Savvy fans may predict this trope when they observe that Inoue is the only voice actor credited for Shiroe, indicating that he's not going to live long enough for his voice to change.) | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ed33ec82 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ed33ec82 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Toward the Terra (Manga) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_ed33ec82 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ef076a36 | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ef076a36 | comment |
An unusual variation: in the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager (Trek itself having numerous examples played straight), Jennifer Lien, cast regular for the first three seasons, is billed as a "special guest star." Her character violently evolved into an energy being and abruptly left the show in the second episode of that season, once her Suspiciously Similar Substitute was settled. She does come back for one episode, intent on revenge against the Voyager crew and Janeway in particular. She uses her powers, boosted by the Voyager's warp core, to travel back in time in order to destroy the ship before her past self begins to "evolve". |
|
| Dead Star Walking / int_ef076a36 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_ef076a36 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek: Voyager | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_ef076a36 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f565604d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f565604d | comment |
Not a death, per se, but the Hashiratani Deer in Eyeshield 21 are hyped up as one of the best, most experienced team in the league, especially their leader Onihei. Before the Devil Bats can play them, they get a crushing defeat at the hands of the Kyoshin Poseidons. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f565604d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f565604d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Eyeshield 21 (Manga) | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_f565604d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f89f466d | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f89f466d | comment |
In Torchwood: Miracle Day, we get Dr. Juarez, who is killed off (as much as someone can die in Miracle Day, anyway) the very episode where she joins the Torchwood team. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f89f466d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f89f466d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Torchwood: Miracle Day | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_f89f466d | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f929518c | type |
Dead Star Walking | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f929518c | comment |
Subverted in Succession, which seems to be setting up the death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox), who has just turned 80 and suffered a brain hemorrhage in the series premiere. Turns out he's far too stubborn to go out like that. | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f929518c | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Dead Star Walking / int_f929518c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Succession | hasFeature |
Dead Star Walking / int_f929518c |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.