Tropescilloscope: Sacrificial Lion

Significant character is killed to show that death really is a threat. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes What the Hell, Hero? Genre Savvy Red Eyes, Take Warning Hair-Trigger Temper Setting Update Leaning on the Fourth Wall Married to the Job I Need a Freaking Drink Only Known by Their Nickname Big Bad Adaptational Heroism Advertised Extra Spell My Name with an "S" Taking the Bullet Spared by the Adaptation Never Found the Body Genre Shift Annoying Younger Sibling Wham Shot Camp Gay Manchild Domestic Abuse Woman in White Grievous Bottley Harm Almost Kiss Australian Movies Training Montage Artistic License – Military 20 Minutes into the Future Meet Cute Jitter Cam Mythology Gag "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Sexy Discretion Shot Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane The Atoner Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Jump Scare Retcon The Power of Love Action Girl Karmic Death Protagonist Title Children Are Innocent Death by Irony Scenery Porn Pretty Little Headshots Sequel Escalation Man on Fire Overly Long Gag Rewatch Bonus Wretched Hive Fantastic Racism Television Movie Index Character Development Police are Useless Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Cool Guns Getting Crap Past the Radar Knight Templar Authority Equals Asskicking Distracted by the Sexy French Films Fanservice The Load Adaptation Dye-Job The Smart Guy Tempting Fate The '60s Celebrity Paradox A Minor Kidroduction All Girls Want Bad Boys Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Blood from the Mouth Not Quite Dead Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Badass in a Nice Suit Re-Cut Camera Abuse Get Out! Moment Killer Humiliation Conga Animal Motifs Tap on the Head Dissonant Serenity Dual Wielding Animated Credits Opening Overprotective Dad Your Head A-Splode From Bad to Worse Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Bolivian Army Ending Anguished Declaration of Love Improbable Aiming Skills Broken Bird Roaring Rampage of Revenge Arc Words Visual Pun Hero Antagonist Central Theme Black Comedy Establishing Character Moment Throwing Your Sword Always Works Comically Missing the Point Outrun the Fireball Decoy Protagonist Belligerent Sexual Tension Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene The Cavalry Lock and Load Montage Deus ex Machina Kill 'em All Aluminum Christmas Trees Amoral Attorney Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Bring My Brown Pants timeperiod Be Careful What You Wish For Thriller Spiteful Spit Blackmail Pragmatic Adaptation The Brute Blood Knight Only Sane Man Evil-Detecting Dog Adaptational Attractiveness Rich Bitch Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Heroic Sacrifice Really Gets Around Never Trust a Trailer Those Two Guys Faking the Dead Spiritual Successor Conspicuous CG Disappeared Dad Unreliable Narrator Author Avatar Reality Has No Subtitles Plucky Comic Relief Eyepatch of Power Grey and Gray Morality Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Superhero Reality Is Unrealistic Smoking Is Cool Reckless Gun Usage She Cleans Up Nicely Kubrick Stare Novelization Refuge in Audacity As Long as It Sounds Foreign Stock Footage Creepy Child Trailers Always Spoil Cloudcuckoolander All for Nothing Screw the Rules, I Have Money! As Himself Black Dude Dies First Posthumous Character Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Rape as Drama Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Artistic License – Physics The Cameo Twist Ending Fainting Police Brutality The Smurfette Principle Music Stories Mundane Made Awesome Combat Pragmatist Based on a True Story Sports Stories Author Appeal Freeze-Frame Bonus Dies Wide Open World of Ham Car Fu Christmas Movies Index My Greatest Failure Made of Iron Needs Wiki Magic Love Extreme Doormat Call-Back Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Leave the Camera Running The Lancer The Alleged Car Developing Doomed Characters Attempted Rape Historical In-Joke Beauty Is Never Tarnished Offscreen Teleportation Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Faux Affably Evil Gender Flip You Have Failed Me Chekhov's Gun Betty and Veronica Manipulative Bastard "The Reason You Suck" Speech In the Back Scary Black Man Credits Gag Adults Are Useless B-Movie Obstructive Bureaucrat Jerk Jock Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Mad Scientist Curse Cut Short The Mole Too Dumb to Live Horror Comedy Film Series Calling the Old Man Out He Who Fights Monsters Cool Car The Casanova Video Credits Mugging the Monster Badass Grandpa The Hero Daylight Horror Star-Crossed Lovers Pre-Mortem One-Liner No Ending Title Drop Straight Gay Bait-and-Switch Country Matters Suspiciously Specific Denial The Dog Bites Back Easily Forgiven Death by Sex Does This Remind You of Anything? Danny Peary Cult Movies List Last-Name Basis Wicked Cultured Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! The '70s Ungrateful Bastard Break the Haughty Early Installment Weirdness Hypocrite Here We Go Again! Dramatic Irony Fun with Acronyms Never My Fault Darkest Hour Killed Mid-Sentence Real Life Writes the Plot Hypocritical Humor Black Best Friend Large Ham Rule of Symbolism Hollywood Darkness The Lost Lenore Destination Defenestration Coming-of-Age Story Took a Level in Badass Hollywood Law Mr. Fanservice The Ghost In Medias Res Canadian Movies Determinator aka: The Determinator It's All About Me "Well Done, Son!" Guy Only in It for the Money More Dakka Dark and Troubled Past Villain Song Villain Ball As the Good Book Says... Punny Name Leitmotif Expy Card-Carrying Villain Chase Scene Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Redshirt Army Red Herring Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Dull Surprise The X of Y Big Applesauce Tagline Fantasy Films Romantic Comedy From Nobody to Nightmare Heel–Face Turn Does Not Like Shoes Toplessness from the Back No Name Given Russian Films Action Prologue Together in Death Early-Bird Cameo folderlabel Amusing Injuries Heel Realization Death by Adaptation Sealed Evil in a Can A Date with Rosie Palms Plot Hole The Stoic Riddle for the Ages All Just a Dream Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Fat Bastard Fan Disservice Film Noir Index Jerkass Has a Point Documentary No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Word of God Alas, Poor Villain Abhorrent Admirer Better to Die than Be Killed Broken Aesop Ironic Echo After the End Stealth Hi/Bye Butt-Monkey Rule of Funny Line-of-Sight Name Narrator Mooks Recycled IN SPACE! For the Evulz Disney Villain Death She's Got Legs Mr. Exposition Redemption Equals Death Missing Mom Evil vs. Evil An Axe to Grind Beard of Evil Dirty Cop The '90s Adapted Out Psychological Thriller Parental Neglect What You Are in the Dark Evil Brit Romantic False Lead Big Eater Shut Up, Hannibal! Dying Moment of Awesome Drives Like Crazy Actor Allusion Ax-Crazy Storming the Castle Show Within a Show Fatal Flaw The Musical Shower Scene Unresolved Sexual Tension Properly Paranoid Black and Gray Morality The Place Soft Glass Kill It with Fire Zombie Stories Antagonist Title Heroic BSoD Bullying a Dragon Playing Gertrude Knife Nut Same Language Dub Ambiguous Disorder Femme Fatale Bar Brawl Off-into-the-Distance Ending Funny Foreigner Heterosexual Life-Partners Shirtless Scene Crazy-Prepared Bad Boss Say My Name Dressing as the Enemy Very Loosely Based on a True Story Dumb Blonde Guile Hero Laughing Mad Hidden Depths Martial Arts Movie Alliterative Name Improvised Weapon Badass Bookworm Shown Their Work The Un-Reveal Evil Laugh It's Personal Even Evil Has Standards The Great Depression Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Self-Deprecation Big "NO!" Auto Erotica I Did What I Had to Do Karma Houdini True Companions Not What It Looks Like Alpha Bitch Scare Chord Bare Your Midriff Chekhov's Gunman Stalker with a Crush Soundtrack Dissonance Evil Plan The Bully Sacrificial Lion Mind Screw The End... Or Is It? Pet the Dog Book-Ends My God, What Have I Done? Off with His Head! Double Entendre Manly Tears Science Fiction Films Heroes Want Redheads The Starscream Exact Words Batman Gambit I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Psychopathic Manchild '80s Hair Ambiguously Gay Stuff Blowing Up Fish out of Water Chekhov's Skill Taking You with Me Funny Background Event Badass Normal Gratuitous English Cool Old Guy Horror Films Brainless Beauty Politically Incorrect Villain Only a Flesh Wound I'm a Humanitarian Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Maybe Ever After Demoted to Extra Cain and Abel Deal with the Devil Cool Shades Truth in Television Index of Film Westerns Rule of Three Daddy's Girl Arranged Marriage A Father to His Men Pimped-Out Dress Hong Kong Films The '50s Bavarian Fire Drill Sci-Fi Horror Not So Stoic Everyone Has Standards British Films Kids Are Cruel Becoming the Mask Flipping the Bird Male Frontal Nudity The Stinger Monumental Damage Rasputinian Death Awesome, but Impractical The Voiceless Shout-Out Wrong Genre Savvy Bond Villain Stupidity No Antagonist Adorkable Drugs Are Bad Kick the Dog Defrosting Ice Queen Groin Attack It Can Think Girl-on-Girl Is Hot What Happened to the Mouse? MacGuffin Film Noir Ghost Fiction Dark Action Girl Earn Your Happy Ending Cowboy Cop Male Gaze Woman Scorned Fourth Date Marriage Insistent Terminology Artistic License – Law Department of Redundancy Department Only One Name Not So Above It All Revenge Artistic License – Gun Safety Sassy Black Woman The Hero Dies Bittersweet Ending Due to the Dead Hope Spot Fate Worse than Death Red Right Hand Mistaken for Gay Historical Villain Upgrade Mercy Kill Epic Fail Corpsing I Have Your Wife Badass Boast Artistic License – History Agony of the Feet Kick the Son of a Bitch Chiaroscuro Love Triangle Air-Vent Passageway Mama Bear Silence Is Golden Dirty Coward Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Not Even Bothering with the Accent Final Girl Worthy Opponent Evil Sounds Deep Evil Counterpart Irony One-Word Title Berserk Button Breaking the Fourth Wall Historical Hero Upgrade Bilingual Bonus Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome "Shaggy Dog" Story Pay Evil unto Evil Italian Films Despair Event Horizon Stylistic Suck Adult Fear Affectionate Parody Race Lift Instant Death Bullet Morality Pet Light Is Not Good Captain Obvious Jerkass Honor Before Reason Costume Porn Drill Sergeant Nasty Time Skip Aside Glance Creator Cameo Tranquil Fury Disguised in Drag Not Using the "Z" Word Adaptation Name Change Beta Couple Lampshade Hanging Up to Eleven Determinator Room Full of Crazy A.I. Is a Crapshoot Gorn Double-Meaning Title The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite How We Got Here The Sociopath Boom, Headshot! Naïve Newcomer Parental Abandonment La Résistance Meaningful Background Event Sanity Slippage Ominous Latin Chanting Psycho for Hire Anyone Can Die Dramedy Half the Man He Used to Be Neck Snap Meaningful Name Diabolus ex Machina Action Survivor Fire-Forged Friends The Dragon Closed Circle He Knows Too Much Slashed Throat Wham Line Actually Pretty Funny N-Word Privileges Bottomless Magazines Sole Survivor Eye Scream The Remake Catch-Phrase Left the Background Music On Depraved Bisexual Arch-Enemy Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Love at First Sight Ripped from the Headlines Facial Horror Crucified Hero Shot Apocalypse How An Arm and a Leg Our Vampires Are Different In Name Only Extremely Short Timespan Mood Whiplash Beware the Nice Ones Our Zombies Are Different Adaptation Distillation O.O.C. Is Serious Business Catapult Nightmare Peek-a-Boo Corpse Suddenly SHOUTING! Bland-Name Product Rousing Speech Death of a Child Important Haircut Back from the Dead Implacable Man Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Crapsack World Anachronic Order Call-Forward Works Set in World War II No-Sell War Is Hell Dramatic Gun Cock Freudian Excuse Nothing Is Scarier Humans Are Bastards Cat Fight Exactly What It Says on the Tin Mighty Whitey Adaptational Villainy Dark Reprise Fake Shemp Eureka Moment Major Injury Underreaction Broken Pedestal Spanner in the Works Four-Temperament Ensemble Sir Swears-a-Lot Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Death Seeker Gainax Ending Bloodless Carnage Babies Ever After The Quiet One Vomit Indiscretion Shot The Oner The Chick Take a Third Option Match Cut Informed Ability Big Bad Duumvirate Ascended Extra Genre Throwback Skewed Priorities Dwindling Party Asshole Victim Let's Get Dangerous! The Bad Guy Wins Bond One-Liner One-Man Army Fingore I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Retirony Pretty in Mink Evil Is Hammy Cat Scare Cassandra Truth Curb-Stomp Battle Famous Last Words Eagleland Imagine Spot You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Hooker with a Heart of Gold Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Bloodier and Gorier Artistic License – Geography Noodle Incident Nice Hat Composite Character Cluster F-Bomb Motor Mouth Take That! Mystery and Detective Films Red Oni, Blue Oni Names to Run Away from Really Fast Ambiguous Ending No OSHA Compliance Offscreen Moment of Awesome Eiffel Tower Effect Those Wacky Nazis Big Damn Heroes Friend to All Children Race Against the Clock An Aesop Framing Device Fanservice Extra No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Deliberate Values Dissonance Bad "Bad Acting" All There in the Script Victoria's Secret Compartment Obviously Evil Paper-Thin Disguise The Dreaded Hero of Another Story Poor Communication Kills Villain Opening Scene Age Lift Market-Based Title Gold Digger Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Scenery Gorn Accidental Misnaming Improbable Weapon User Sinister Minister Undying Loyalty No Celebrities Were Harmed Vomit Discretion Shot Adaptational Badass Flashback Five-Man Band All Men Are Perverts Running Gag Insult Backfire Homage Yandere Men Are the Expendable Gender Happily Married Bound and Gagged Meaningful Echo Brother–Sister Incest Pragmatic Villainy Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Would Hit a Girl Drowning My Sorrows Parental Incest Dark Is Not Evil Guns Akimbo Black Comedy Rape Every Car Is a Pinto Epic Movie Henpecked Husband Hell Is That Noise Anti-Hero Super Strength Fatal Family Photo Villainous Breakdown Red Shirt May–December Romance Creative Closing Credits Slasher Movie Action Genre Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Demonic Possession Bunny-Ears Lawyer Dutch Angle Loophole Abuse Shipper on Deck Slasher Smile Cool Old Lady Unwitting Instigator of Doom Accidental Murder Big Brother Instinct Precision F-Strike The Faceless Vacation Films Did Not Get the Girl "Awesome McCool" Name Token Minority Abusive Parents Downer Ending Loads and Loads of Characters Gilligan Cut For Want of a Nail Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Bi the Way The Alcoholic Driven to Suicide Took a Level in Jerkass Wounded Gazelle Gambit A God Am I Totally Radical Face Death with Dignity Animal Title Index Stepford Smiler Insane Troll Logic Brick Joke Not So Different Shell-Shocked Veteran Biopic Unusually Uninteresting Sight Japanese Films Oh, Crap! Fiery Redhead Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Sadistic Choice The '80s Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Greater-Scope Villain Well-Intentioned Extremist Darker and Edgier Hoist by His Own Petard Pyrrhic Victory You Killed My Father And the Adventure Continues BFG There Is No Kill Like Overkill My Beloved Smother Expository Hairstyle Change Crazy Jealous Guy Intergenerational Friendship Foregone Conclusion Gone Horribly Right Corrupt Corporate Executive Real Life Didn't Think This Through Retired Badass NO INDOOR VOICE Vitriolic Best Buds Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Gory Discretion Shot Historical-Domain Character Once More, with Clarity! Naked People Are Funny Green-Eyed Monster Punch-Clock Villain The Stoner Military and Warfare Films Random Events Plot Evil Is Petty Would Hurt a Child Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Cruel and Unusual Death Handicapped Badass Chewing the Scenery Slap-Slap-Kiss Enemy Mine Anti-Villain Hate Sink Blatant Lies The Reveal Ass Shove Continuity Nod Defiant to the End Nice Guy The Ditz Your Cheating Heart Face–Heel Turn Non-Indicative Name And I Must Scream Malevolent Masked Men Covers Always Lie Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Stealth Pun Dirty Old Man Dogged Nice Guy Adaptation Expansion The Vamp Bowdlerise The Big Guy Anachronism Stew Rated M for Manly One Steve Limit Parental Substitute Deadpan Snarker Madness Mantra Public Domain Feature Films Deliberately Monochrome Foil Bloody Hilarious Immune to Bullets Badass Longcoat Big Fancy House Damsel in Distress Unusual Euphemism Deconstruction Big-Bad Ensemble Affably Evil German Films It Will Never Catch On Failed a Spot Check Reasonable Authority Figure Reality Ensues Cold-Blooded Torture Smug Snake As You Know Ship Tease Bald of Evil Made of Explodium Product Placement Idiot Ball Armor-Piercing Question Serial Killer Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Older Than They Look Sequel Hook Shoot the Shaggy Dog Silent Movie Unspoken Plan Guarantee And Starring Interrupted Suicide Foreshadowing Neck Lift Logo Joke Casting Gag The Film of the Book Rule of Cool Good Is Not Nice Vampire Fiction Make It Look Like an Accident Ms. Fanservice Death Glare Lighter and Softer Break the Cutie Eldritch Abomination Those Two Bad Guys The Mafia Even Evil Has Loved Ones Papa Wolf Bury Your Gays Obfuscating Stupidity Put on a Bus Dropped a Bridge on Him Contrived Coincidence Award-Bait Song Small Name, Big Ego Mexican Standoff Brutal Honesty Translation Convention Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Suspiciously Similar Substitute This Is Gonna Suck Disney Death The Chessmaster Artistic License – Biology Canon Foreigner Serious Business Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Frame-Up Whole Plot Reference The Ace Manic Pixie Dream Girl Have a Gay Old Time Captain Ersatz Jerk with a Heart of Gold Body Horror Villain Protagonist All There in the Manual Laser-Guided Karma Disproportionate Retribution Intrepid Reporter Empathic Environment Villain with Good Publicity