Tropescilloscope: Sacrificial Lion

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

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