In various forms of media, main characters are killed off from time to time. This usually happens in the middle of a work, but not always.
Sometimes, to further the story along and make a lasting impact, a main character is killed at the very end. This leaves the consumer emotionally impacted for years to come.
Sub-Trope of Grand Finale. Not to be confused with Deadly Distant Finale. See also "Everybody Dies" Ending.
As this is a Death Trope and an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In the finale of Angel Beats!, the main characters are the only ones left in purgatory and hold a graduation ceremony to say goodbye to each other before they move on. Everyone is able to disappear except Otonashi, who remains trapped in the afterlife, alone. That is, however, if you decide to ignore the potential implication of reincarnation that The Stinger has...
- Assassination Classroom: The main objective of the series is for Class 3-E to kill Korosensei. Mostly because his unstable cells will blow up the planet. The class manage to find out that won't be the case, but circumstances have Korosensei trapped in a force field that will kill him regardless. After a final battle with Shiro, the scientist who was responsible for his powers, he requests the class Mercy Kill him rather than the military to which they reluctantly carry out after a tearful goodbye.
- Banana Fish: The show ends with Ash getting stabbed by Lao and bleeding to death in the library. And this is just after he decides to see Eiji go home to Japan.
- Code Geass: Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia dies in the hands of his best friend, Suzaku Kururugi, who is dressed as the former's alter-ego, Zero. Though the two actually planned this so that the world would finally be reunited as one against the tyrant.
- Cowboy Bebop: Spike and Vicious square off in a final battle and manage a Mutual Kill, through Spike does manage to kill him first. Spike later drops from his wounds.
- Death Note: The ending has Light outed as Kira and arrested (manga) or on the run and wounded (anime) with Ryuk writing Light's name into the titular notebook, resulting in him dying.
- At the climax of the final episode of F-Zero: GP Legend, Captain Falcon dies by destroying Black Shadow with an absolutely epic Falcon Punch after Passing the Torch to Ryu Suzaku.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean kills almost the entire main cast before resetting the universe, allowing for the next part, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run to serve as a Continuity Reboot.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: After a brutal Last Stand to buy his comrades a chance to escape, Mikazuki eventually dies from his injuries mixed with the backlash from having released all of Gundam Barbatos' limiters, but not before having successfully completed his mission.
- The first half of One Piece ends after the deaths of Portgas D. Ace and Whitebeard before the second half opens after a two-year Time Skip.
- The penultimate episode of Sonic X features Cosmo performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save the universe from the Metarex as she urges Tails to kill her to pull her plan off, despite Tails's tearful objections. Afterwards, Shadow performs his own Heroic Sacrifice to help everyone escape with Chaos Control, leaving his fate up in the air.
- Space Runaway Ideon: The show stands as perhaps one of the most infamous instances in anime with everyone, and we mean everyone, is dead by the end. The main character Cosmo just happens to be one of the last named characters to bite it.
Comic Books
- The Transformers: Unicron: As the Grand Finale of the 2005 IDW continuity, hordes of characters major and minor die in the Final Battle with Unicron, the Chaos Bringer, with some of the most notable being Optimus Prime himself who sacrifices himself to convince Unicron's creator to stand down and forgive so they can bring an end to Unicron; Starscream and Soundwave, who also sacrifice their lives to help other heroes enable the defeat of Unicron; and many supporting characters like Ironhide, the Mistress of Flame, most of the Dinobots, and Trypticon who all fall in this final war.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: In the final issues, which tie into Crisis on Infinite Earths, a whole slew of supporting characters are killed off including Lauren Haley and Antiope who had each crept their way into being part of the main ensemble over the years.
- In the run-up to Young Justice and Titans (1999) ending, Donna Troy and Omen from the Titans, and Slobo and Secret from Young Justice, were all killed; the former two were killed by Indigo and a rogue Superman robot, while Slobo and Secret were both killed by Darkseid (although, since Secret was already technically dead, she actually reverted to being Greta Hayes, the girl she was before her death.)
Fan Works
- Fooly Falls: The second story in the series, Fooly Falls 2: Ride on Shooting Star, ends with the death of Grunkle Stan, though he's able to return as a ghost.
Film — Live-Action
- The Dark Knight Trilogy ends with Batman sacrificing himself to save Gotham City from a nuclear bomb attack in the climax of The Dark Knight Rises. Subverted when it's revealed Bruce faked his death to retire with Selina Kyle.
- The finale of Firefly occurred in Serenity and culminated with Wash's death and funeral.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In the climax of Avengers: Endgame (which serves as the finale of the Infinity Saga), Tony Stark dies after using the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out Thanos and his army.
- Logan, an Alternate Timeline Distant Finale to the X-Men (Film Series), features the death of its titular character, with much emphasis given as to how this is his final chronological appearance in the series and the final time he would be played by Hugh Jackman. Subverted when Jackman came back for Deadpool & Wolverine, though as an Alternate Universe counterpart. Charles Xavier is a similar case, with this being Patrick Stewart's final time as the character before he was brought back as an alternate version of Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
- Star Wars does this at the end of each trilogy.
- Darth Vader dies after betraying Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi.
- Padme Amidala dies of childbirth at the climax of Revenge of the Sith.
- Each film in the sequel trilogy has a major member of the original trilogy's cast dying, with Kylo Ren killing Han Solo in The Force Awakens, Luke Skywalker becoming one with the Force in The Last Jedi, and Leia dying in The Rise of Skywalker.
Literature
- The final instalment of The Squire's Tales, The Legend of the King, kills off almost every named character, including series linchpin Terence.
- Warrior Cats:
- The Darkest Hour, the last book of the first arc, ended with the deaths of the main villain Tigerstar and several recurring characters: Darkstripe, Stonefur, Whitestorm, and Gorsepaw.
- Sunrise, the final book in the Power of Three arc, ends with Hollyleaf seemingly dying when a tunnel collapses on her.
- The Last Hope, the last book of the Omen of the Stars arc, involves the death of several major characters and supporting side characters, such as the original main character Firestar, Power of Three protagonist Hollyleaf (who returned only the book prior), the ThunderClan cats Ferncloud and Sorreltail, and the spirits of Spottedleaf, Tigerstar, Hawkfrost, and Brokenstar.
- The final Dawn of the Clans book, Path of Stars, ends with the death of the main character Gray Wing.
- Many named characters are killed in the finale of The Wheel of Time, which is unsurprising as the series has a huge cast, but among them is Egwene, who has been one of the main characters since the start.
Live-Action TV
- Angel (1999): Angel's team is split up to divide and conquer various members of their last onscreen antagonists from the Circle of the Black Thorn. Wesley loses his fight and is killed as a result. Lindsey, who was not a main character but been a presence in the show since the first season, is betrayed by Angel and murdered by Lorne when his guard is down as a result of Lindsey's indecisive approach to morality.
- The final season of Arrow builds up to the death of Green Arrow, which occurs TWICE during the Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019) crossover event. First to buy the residents of Earth-38 more time to escape, and the second to destroy the Anti-Monitor once and for all with the powers of The Spectre and create a new multiverse.
- The Battlestar Galactica (2003) series finale pulled no punches:
- Racetrack and Skulls die what a stray asteroid hits their raptor.
- Helo shoots Boomer dead in a Heel–Face Door-Slam.
- Tyrol beats Tory to death when he discovers she murdered his wife.
- Cavil commits suicide when his plans unravel.
- Anders flies Galactica into the sun.
- President Roslin's cancer kills her before she can settle on the new Earth.
- And Starbuck turns out to have been Dead All Along since the previous season, and vanishes.
- Barry: Both Barry and Noho Hank die in the final episode.
- Every series of Blackadder ends with this trope.
- The first series ends with the entire royal family being poisoned, including the main character.
- The last episode of the second series ends with a stinger in which the entire main cast is supposedly killed off by prince Ludwig the Indestructible.
- The third series ends with the death of the original prince regent and Blackadder himself taking his place.
- The fourth series ends with a famous Downer Ending in which the main characters are sent over the top into no man's land with the implication that they wouldn't have a chance to survive.
- Big Love: Bill was killed off via Dropped a Bridge on Him after the Time Skip in Season 5.
- The Boys (2019): The series finale features the long-awaited death of Homelander at the hands of Billy Butcher, who dies himself soon after. Oh Father, The Deep, and Terror are also dead by the end of the episode.
- Breaking Bad: The last episode ends with Walt dying from a bullet wound he took Taking the Bullet for Jesse after killing all the Neo-Nazis, although his imminent death was a Foregone Conclusion either way due to his advancing cancer.
- The fifth season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ends with Buffy sacrificing herself to protect Dawn, and it was almost the final episode of the series before it was renewed. The first episode of the following season features Buffy coming Back from the Dead. In the actual Grand Finale that occurs in Season 7, Anya is killed off during the final battle, along with several of the Potential slayers that had been around for the season's latter half. Spike also commits a Heroic Sacrifice. However, he is then revived in the first episode of Season 5 of the spin-off show Angel.
- The Call of Warr's final episode ended with a majority of the cast being dead, leaving only Gravesite, Glintz-Terry, and Ashes alive. In order, Killsen was killed by Prince, Durkin and Mabel died exorcizing the demon from Durkin's body while Prince fell on his own knife, and then Vid and Sarah both died in the climax. At the end, most of the deceased characters are shown spending time together, picnicking with Ghost Lady, while the survivors try and recover.
- In the last episode of Choujin Sentai Jetman, the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue seems to have shown that the heroes have done well for themselves three years after the Final Battle against the Big Bad, with two of them getting married. It ends up becoming bittersweet when one of the heroes, Gai, tries to protect a woman from a mugger, only to get a fatal stab wound for the trouble. Gai end up having one last meeting with his friends at the wedding, while hiding that he was now Secretly Dying.
- In the finale of Dark (2017), every single major character we've met over the course of the series gets RetGoned by the correction of the timelines. In the final scene we meet a bunch of new versions of the few characters whose existence wasn't the result of the multiple time loops in the show, and even they are different people.
- In Desperate Housewives, Mike Delfino gets shot by gangsters who wanted to assault Renee's boyfriend in Season 8.
- Dexter: The female lead, Debra, died in the Season 8 finale after getting shot but surviving long enough to be declared brain dead. The original ending was initially going to end with Dexter Morgan's death via lethal injection, too, but this ended up not happening. He is instead shot (though it's only done to spare him of such a fate) by his son Harrison in the finale of New Blood, the sequel miniseries... only for Original Sin to reveal he survived, although ending up in a coma.
- The Doom Patrol (2019) Grand Finale ''Done Patrol" ends with Rita Farr dying of old age due to it being too late for Immortus to restore her longevity and Cliff Steele fatally succumbing to Parkinson's in spite of his restored longevity after he visits his family during his grandson's first birthday.
- Farscape's finale miniseries had Jool be blown up by a Scarran attack, D'Argo is fatally wounded and makes a Last Stand so the others can escape, and Harvey auto-deletes himself after Einstein removes the wormhole knowledge from Crichton's head.
- Game of Thrones: Daenerys is killed by Jon in the series finale after she goes over the edge and wants to "liberate" the rest of the world by force.
- House of the Dragon: The first Season Finale sees the death of Lucerys Velaryon, kickstarting the Civil War of the Dance of the Dragons.
- In The Good Place, the humans finally have made it to the Good Place where they have newly implemented a door that will allow people to end their existences in order to give their afterlives meaning. Over the course of the episode, everyone in the main four, save Tahani, choses to exit through the door after spending eternity together.
- Subverted for the Series Finale of House of Anubis, the Made-for-TV Movie "Touchstone Of Ra". From the very beginning of the movie, Eddie told the audience they'd be dying. Then the climax came, and they made their Heroic Sacrifice...and survived. It turned out the only "death" was of the Osirian, not Eddie himself.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
- Sadoc Burrows dies in the first season finale.
- Isildur is also presumed to be dead after going missing.
- One Foot in the Grave is perhaps notable for being a rare example of a sitcom killing off its main character in its final episode, with Victor becoming the victim of a hit-and-run incident.
- In the final episode of Oz, Schillinger is stabbed to death by Beecher and Keller commits suicide. It's barely averted by Said and Glynn, who die only a few episodes beforehand.
- Power Rangers in Space ends the storyline that started in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers with Big Good Zordon telling Andros to destroy his containment tube that will unleash an energy wave to defeat the United Alliance of Evil once and for all.
- Person of Interest: As Season 5 draws to a close, it isn't a question of who will be killed off, but who won't. In the end, John Reese is the only main character who dies in the series finale. Barely averted with Root, who is killed three episodes before.
- The Sopranos: The series finale sees Phil assassinated by Walden via a Boom, Headshot! in front of his wife, and the Smash to Black in the very last scene heavily implies that the same happens to Tony at Holsten's Diner.
- The Strain (2014): The series had no fewer than four deaths in rapid succession. First, Quinlan and The Master (in Palmer's body) engaged in combat which ended with Quinlan mortally wounding The Master. In his dying throes, The Master then savagely beats Quinlan to death and tries to transfer his consciousness to Zach. Eph intervenes and becomes The Master's new host instead, effectively dying as a result. Zach then sets off the nuclear bomb which kills both him and The Master.
- Stranger Things culminates with Joyce Byers killing Vecna once and for all, followed by Eleven sacrificing herself to save the rest of the Party when the gateway to the Upside Down is permanently sealed. However, it's purposefully left ambiguous whether Eleven actually died or not.
- In the series finale of Supernatural, Dean dies after being impaled (for good this time). By the end of the episode, Sam has died of old age.
- The Walking Dead:
- Several season finales or mid-season finales feature dramatic character deaths:
- Season 2's penultimate episode ends with the death of Shane, the show's secondary character who had undergone a Face–Heel Turn. Season 3 ends with the death of Andrea, while the mid-season 4 finale culminates in the deaths of Hershel and The Governor, the Big Good and Big Bad of the show, respectively.
- Season 5's mid-season finale ends with the death of Beth after a half-season-long arc of trying to find her. The Season 6 mid-season finale ends with Alexandria's former mayor Deanna Monroe dying. Season 6 then plays with the trope since it features someone dying at the hands of Negan, but the identity of the victim isn't revealed until Season 7's premiere.
- Season 7 ends with the death of Sasha, while Season 9's penultimate episode ends with the murder of ten survivors from the communities at the hands of Alpha.
- Subverted for Season 10, as the originally slated season finale, "A Certain Doom", fell victim to real-life changing circumstances. Post-production was halted on the episode when the COVID-19 Pandemic began a few weeks prior to airing, and though it eventually resumed in a reduced state, it became clear that with the state of the world, Season 11 would not be able to be filmed on schedule. The decision was made to order an additional six episodes for Season 10 that would be smaller stories produced within pandemic filming restrictions, meaning the climactic death of Beta was no longer the season finale-defining death it had been before the pandemic started.
- Season 11's first two mid-season finales have the deaths of main antagonists Pope and Leah, while the Grand Finale of the series has the death of Rosita Espinosa as the main emotional cornerstone, with minor characters Luke and Jules also biting it.
- Several season finales or mid-season finales feature dramatic character deaths:
- White Collar: Subverted. Neal is carted off to the hospital in pretty bad shape, and a Time Skip suggests he died. However, Peter eventually figures out he survived. The show ends on Neal living in Paris, having just pulled off the greatest trick he'll ever commit.
Video Games
- Criminal Case: Starting from the second season and until Supernatural Investigations, a main character (i.e. a member of the police force the player character works for) ends up dying in the final case of the game, either as the last victim of the season (Frank, Charlie, Nebet) or performing a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Final Boss from executing their Evil Plan (Dupont, Rita). This is also Played With during the first season, as one of the main characters (Chief King) dies during the last case of the Disc-One Final Dungeon just before the existence of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is revealed.
- In Dig Dug, an integer overflow on level 256 causes a Pooka to start right where Taizo does, leaving the player with no choice but to die for the rest of the game.
- In Pac-Man, there is yet another integer overflow at level 256, but this one causes a Split Screen: the left side shows the maze as normal, but the right side has random letters, numbers, and dots. While playable, this level cannot be passed. The only way to finish the game is to kill off your remaining Pac-Men, again making 256 the final level.
- John Marston is killed by a firing squad in Red Dead Redemption. You play the epilogue as his son, Jack Marston, but you're not given any story missions (only one stranger mission) and you're allowed to just roam around and finish any business you had and 100% complete the game.
- The prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2 does the same thing: Arthur Morgan dies at the end (either gets killed or succumbs to his illness), while you play the epilogue as John Marston, the protagonist from the first game.
Web Animation
- Inanimate Insanity has a few of these:
- In "Journey Through Memory Lane (Part 2)", one of Taco's lemons hits Bow, sending her, MePhone5 and MePhone4 down the Crappy Cliff, resulting in an explosion that kills all three.
- "The Reality of the Situation" involves MePhoneX going on a rampage, having killed Pickle, O.J. and Nickel by the end.
- "Through No Choice Of Your Own" ends with EVERY contestant dying at the end after Me is unplugged, causing everything and everyone created by MePhone4 to be wiped.
- During "Objects in Mirror", MePad sacrifices himself and is stabbed in the heart by Steve Cobs, and everyone mourns him at the end. Knife also dies while everyone else resurrects, becoming a ghost. Cobs also dies by being blown up by Suitcase, though everybody is much happier about this death than the others.
- In the Season 13 finale of Red vs. Blue, which ended The Chorus Trilogy, Church is Killed Off for Real when he essentially destroys himself to power the Meta's armor so the Reds and Blues can survive their last stand against Charon Industries.
- The final few episodes of RWBY's third volume features the deaths of three major characters almost one after the other, that being Penny Polendina, Roman Torchwick, and Pyrrha Nikos. Penny got better in Volume 7, only to be killed off again in Volume 8 and this time permanently.
Webcomics
- Unsounded: The final chapter of Unsounded: The Zombie and the Brat saw the deaths of Mathis Quigley, Knock-Me-Down, Anadyne, Cutter, Karl Toma and Lady Ilganyag, the (barely) temporary death of Sette and the Uncertain Doom of Bastion and Darkest.
Web Video
- Critical Role: Vox Machina: Vax'ildan's bargain for his temporary resurrection comes due when the Big Bad is defeated in the penultimate episode. In the finale, he has enough time to enjoy the party's victory, then vanishes with a manifestation of the Raven Queen.
- Monster Island Buddies:
- Subverted in Season 4, which is set up as the final season, centering around Godzilla slowly dying after absorbing the energy of Fire Rodan. He ultimately dies at the end of the season, only for The Stinger to reveal the series wasn't over yet through a Sequel Hook.
- Played straight in the Series Fauxnale at the end of Season 8, which sees Gojira, Grand King Ghidorah, Destroyah, and Keizer Ghidorah be Killed Off for Real; minor supporting character Mechani-Kong also dies, only to return in Season 9. It's only barely averted with King Ghidorah, Kumonga, and Kamarucas, who die only a few episodes before the finale.
Western Animation
- Amphibia's Grand Finale "The Hardest Thing" features Anne Boonchuy dying after performing a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the Final Boss once and for all, only to be brought back to life by divine intervention.
- Beast Machines ends with Optimus Primal sacrificing himself to defeat Megatron once and for all by tossing them both into Cybertron's core, causing the planet to be reformatted into a techno-organic world in the process.
- Subverted in BoJack Horseman, where the penultimate episode was about BoJack's Dying Dream, but the final episode reveals that he survived.
- The first season finale of Hazbin Hotel features Sir Pentious getting Killed Off for Real by Adam before he can make a Heroic Sacrifice, though it’s subverted when later in the episode, Sir Pentious ascends to Heaven.
- The finale of The Owl House, "Watching and Dreaming" kills off Luz Noceda during the final battle, with her being granted a new form by the titans in order to stop the Big Bad in a similar manner to the Amphibia example above.
- Regular Show: Pops, being the ultimate good of the universe, has repeatedly been forced to battle with his brother, Anti-Pops, the ultimate evil. Each battle ended in a tie, which would reset the universe each and every time. To prevent the universe from being reset again, Pops performs a Heroic Sacrifice by launching his brother and himself into the sun.
- The Simpsons: Parodied in "Bart's Birthday", which lampoons the hype that surrounds the end of popular shows, where Conan O'Brien reveals that FOX has actually been trying to end The Simpsons for years and presents alternate endings to "Bart the Daredevil", "King-Size Homer" and "Little Big Mom" where Homer's Amusing Injuries ended up being fatal.
- The penultimate episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)'s fourth season, fittingly named “Requiem”, shows Master Splinter being murdered in cold blood by the Super Shredder, and the following episode begins with his funeral before the Turtles and their allies decide to avenge Splinter by defeating Shredder once and for all.
- The three-part Grand Finale of Transformers: Animated features the deaths of Prowl and Starscream, with Prowl sacrificing himself to reassemble the Allspark from pieces all around Detroit, including the shard that Starscream was using to stay alive.