abstract
| - A bad guy cruises along for a few episodes, or sometimes a few seasons, and isn't really taken seriously. Maybe a huge war is on and you know the good guys are going to win, because of Contractual Immortality. Suddenly a main character or a fan favorite brutally dies. This shows that this threat is Dead Serious. This can be done either to get the audience off on the "right" foot with a new villain, or to beef up a previously unimpressive one. It can also be used after a Face Heel Turn to spur the villain's former comrades into finally acting against him instead of trying to get him back on their side. Such moments also might be used for a Tonight Someone Dies rating stunt. This trope is basically The Worf Effect pushed to its logical conclusion, a subset of Anyone Can Die, and/or one of the effects of Knight of Cerebus. If the character who is killed has a name and a well-developed background, he's a Sacrificial Lion. If he has a name, but his background is fuzzy to non-existent, he's a Sacrificial Lamb. If the dead guy has no name and no background, he's just a Red Shirt. Compare Not-So-Harmless Villain, Stuffed Into the Fridge and Shoo Out the Clowns. Examples of Dead Serious include:
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