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How to Kill a Character - TV Tropes

️Mon Aug 13 2012

How to Kill a Character »

Just For Fun

Need to have a character buy the farm? It's easy! Just:

Put them in red clothes: For throwaway characters and warriors and young girls a fatal choice of fashion.
Inflict them with Genre Blindness.
Or with too much Genre Savviness.
Get 'em laid.
...preferably by the main character.
Put them on "point".
Let them be completely happy for a minute.
Hire Tim Minear. Or Joss Whedon. Or both. (If German, Kai Meyer is recommended.)
Make them do something — anything — noble.
Make them more interesting than the lead.
Have a ratings slump.
Convince the actor to leave filming.
Make it very plain that the character can not die.
Announce that they are retiring from a life of public service in two weeks.
Let them goof up when they're working for the Big Bad.
Alternatively, let the Big Bad decide that they have outlived their usefulness.
Let them have a change of heart and switch sides to fight with the heroes.
Send them out of doors on a partly cloudy day, especially near sunrise or sunset.
Let them show a picture of their sweetheart (or their baby) to the rest of The Squad.
Flash forward to their deathbed, years later.
Cast a very old or infirm actor, and wait for them to die.
Give them critical information to deliver to the main characters.
Offer them some Schmuck Bait.
Have them chase the heroes across a Rope Bridge.
Get them a job at a Dangerous Workplace with No OSHA Compliance.
Let the hero come and visit their boss.
Assign them to operate the Explosive Instrumentation.
Protect them with lots of safety equipment.
Introduce them to the Bolivian army.
Throw a sixteenth birthday party for them.
Cue up a Really Dead Montage.
Relocate them to Tokyo...
... or to a town where nothing exciting ever happens.
Have them go out of their way to be mean to everyone.
Cast them as the villain in a Disney film.
Give them that secret potion, the one that turns you into a monster. Because What Measure Is a Non-Human?, really?
Let them fall below the Bishōnen Line.
Enlist them in the armed forces in a monster/disaster movie.
Draw them a bath, and to make sure it's fatal, make it candlelit).
Send them down a river.
Make them the Sacrificial Lamb used to establish a unique reputation for your show.
Chase them into the street without giving them time to Look Both Ways.
Have another character curse their existence.
Write when you're having a bad day.
Hire Ron Marz. (Though this is hit-or-miss. You might just end up with the hero's girlfriend stuffed in a refrigerator.)
Have them uncover the Masquerade or discover the hero's Secret Identity when the plot doesn't make it convenient for them to do so.
Make them a main character's double from an Alternate Universe.
Cast them as the main character's pilot or chauffer.
Make them a mentor who is more powerful than the hero.
Have them visit the hero's hometown after the hero refuses the Call.
Become a writer for the franchise, and write that character's death.
Become an executive for that franchise, and order that character killed off.
Make them reveal their homosexuality.
Sign them up for the sequel.
Assign them the job of mentoring a hero.
Put them "in the way" of your One True Pairing.
Stop selling their toy.
Hire Yoshiyuki Tomino.
- Alternatively, hire Gen Urobuchi.
Ask George R. R. Martin. He seems to know what he's doing.
Send them to a place that gets snow.
Hit them with everything from every direction.
Hire R.A. Salvatore. With Troy Denning and Karen Traviss on backing vocals.
Have them say "I'll be right back." Might not kill them, but it will make a liar out of them at least.
Have someone say words to the effect of "We couldn't do without him."
Have them be the hero's best friend.
Or even better, a love interest.
Make them be a Mook. Especially one without a name or wearing a mask.
Write them as a bland, cliched OC that the audience demands they be killed off as a pointless annoyance, then bring in a Mary-Sue Hunter.
- Make them a Mary Sue and then alert the PPC.
Have them kidnap someone's kids.
Have them betray the hero. They won't survive that, right?
Get them pregnant. (Sometimes works even if it's a man.)
Trip them.
Have them decline to participate in the Big Bad's evil scheme when he offers them the chance. Alternatively, choosing to play along can be fatal too.
If they're on the verge of death, have someone hold them in their arms.
Make them a pure girl. Especially a Delicate and Sickly one.
Destroy their hometown with a nuclear bomb.
Make them a Crazy Survivalist.
Cast them in an anti-war film.
Show how unbeatably badass they are, then have the new guy come in...
Have them delay a conversation with somebody until later.
Have a lawyer ban them from returning.
Give them a pointless cause to die.
Put them in Game of Thrones.
Make them cute and aim for a Newbery medal.
Cast them as the only black person in a group.
Give them a disability.
Give them a cough.
Diagnose them with anything, but especially cancer.
Make them a small pet, such as a goldfish or a hamster, in a black comedy or a children's cartoon.
In one way or another, kill them before they're even a character.
If they're semiconscious or unconscious, tell them to Please Wake Up.
Have the doctors do all they can, and then say so. Alternatively, have the doctor look serious or apologise for no apparent reason.
If someone asks if they're dead, make them unable to finish their sentence ("Is he...?").
Take them swimming at night.
Avoid giving them a personality.
Exploit the Video Game Cruelty Potential.
Hook them up to an electrocardiogram.
Eliminate them to the TLC. Sure, they'll survive, but it will keep them out of the show for a while…
Make them parents of the main character.
Have them look up at a large falling object directly above them.
Have them summon dark forces (demons, devils, eldritch abominations, etc.)
Have Sean Bean play them.
Rewrite the show to make it more dangerous / raise the target audience.
Have a flashback of them during a life or death situation.
Make them a Decoy Protagonist. Especially one without a name.
Make them a naked alien, exposing them to germs and water.
Have them walk on thin ice.
Roll the credits while the character is in a life-or-death situation.
Make them a news reporter in a life-threatening situation.
Take their powers away if said powers are literally keeping them alive.
Have them murder a dog, and John Wick WILL destroy them no matter how overpowered or unkillable they are.
When the character is in a life-or-death situation, have other characters talk and look worried. Even if the character has survived far worse beforehand, said situation will suddenly become dangerous.
Make them a Final Boss in the Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force timeline. Mr. King, the only Big Bad to be fought directly, is the only one who dies.
Make them so powerful that they have to be removed from the picture quickly to maintain conflict.
Declare that they died offscreen, then cut to a legal document that prevents them from ever returning.
Make them a grandparent, especially if it's an educational work.
Cast them as the hero in a Cormac McCarthy story.
Cast them as the Final Boss in a Stylish Action game.
If they're a secondary character, give them a sudden emotional scene.
Have them threaten Morty Smith, causing Rick Sanchez to end them.
If their entire existence is a Forever War against a single villain, don't let them make plans for a life outside of said villain. Then revoke said villain's Joker Immunity.
Cast them as one of the main girls in a Key/Visual Arts visual novel.
Make them The Big Guy.
Subject them to the De-Mat Gun (or another weapon or attack with similar capabilities), then have the fans pretend to not recognize, remember, or notice them.
If they're an Ancient Evil that was previously sealed away, destroy the means of sealing them, forcing the heroes of the present to destroy them for good.
Give them a good luck charm and/or religious medallion in a war movie, making their dead body identifiable by it.
Have them wear nail polish and/or non-powering rings that they can easily be identified by if there is a villain known for severing hands, feet, fingers and/or toes, making the character's death identifiable by the nail polish and/or ring.
Have them pick up a custom nickel-plated pistol which has "For [My Squad Leader's Name], Brothers in Arms" engraved on the side.
Cast them in a tank crew.
Have them pick up a handheld camera.
Casually mention that they will die.
Have them feel a bit sleepy for no apparent reason. Won't necessarily kill them, but there's a high chance.
Give them the chills.
Wound them in the stomach.
Grind their head to a pulp.
Blur their vision.
Give them a nosebleed.
Send them out in the rain.
If they were Eaten Alive, have the one who did it burp.
Put them on the phone. Especially a pay phone.
Have them fall to their knees (though that's not reliable; it could just lead to them resigning).
Give them too much knowledge.
Put them in a zipped-up bag.
Have a bell toll.
Have a vulture appear.
Make them friendly or cute.
If female, make her the tomboy in a Tomboy and Girly Girl situation.
Have them cheat death.
Make them a mentor.
Put them in a sequel.
If their car crashes, have their car horn honk.
Have them walk into a dark alley with no source of artificial lighting.
If they are in the process of being Eaten Alive, killed, or dragged to their doom, have them kick or flail their legs in the empty air.
Cast them in a series with the word "Kill" in the title.
Cast them as a remnant of a long-dead ancient world.
Hire Jun Maeda.
Leave their throat exposed when the opposition uses knives and/or swords.
Give them a normal gun when the opposition is Immune to Bullets.
Leave their head exposed when the opposition uses normal guns.
Have them threaten to make the heroes' lives so miserable that they'll beg for death to save them.
Make them a Glass Cannon.
Make them a Magical Girl resembling Madoka Kaname.
Make them a celebrity who hasn't accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Have an in-universe live-action show filmed with a chimpanzee, have a whole family crowd around said chimp, have the entire studio audience make eye contact, and have balloons fly into hot lights and pop.
Name them Ofelia, Titanic, Hindenburg, Ziggurat, Jericho, or Icarus.
Have them pound on a door while trying to run away from something.

...but really, Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?

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