Tropescilloscope: Sacrificial Lion

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

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