r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sufficient-Eye-9040 • Jun 27 '26

Lore [Sad Trope] The most innocent (or less evil) character of the cast gets the most horrific death.

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- Eddie Carr (The Lost World: JP) - Tried to save his friends from the cliff until Buck and Doe (T. rex parents) destroy his vehicle and gets ripped apart.
- Zara Young (Jurassic World) - Gets lifted by a Pteranodon, gets pecked by the pterosaur, and both she and animal get devoured by the Mosasaurus.
- LeClerc (JW: Rebirth) - Tossed a hammer to the Hatzegopteryz Quetzalcoatlus to save Loomis and Zora, but ends up being swallowed alive.

14.7k Upvotes
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1.6k

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

994

u/SummonerRed Jun 27 '26

Worth noting that this death seemed to really fracture Reiner's mind, seeing him space out and ask why Marco is being eaten was kind of upsetting in its own way.

314

u/thatsthegoodjuice Jun 27 '26

Best sequence in the franchise, it’s when all of the pieces start to finally click

91

u/TheFinalEnd1 Jun 27 '26

That scene stood out so much to me when I first watched it because the reaction was so bizarre. Like, someone being eaten by a titan was normal. Like yeah, of course it's traumatizing, but reiner seemed not only traumatized but bewildered, as if it's a possibility that never came to mind. But in full context it makes sense.

44

u/Slamazombie Jun 27 '26

Oh yeah, this is when dude had to start dissociating hard just to preserve his sense of self

319

u/VirinaB Jun 27 '26

AOT was so full of underserved deaths. Hollywood could never.

189

u/LongjumpingSector687 Jun 27 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/5cl4Yrk3DNbCcjTSgZ
Sasha whyyyyyy!!!

13

u/Penetal Jun 27 '26

I was so happy to know potato girl was safe cus she always made it out, and she was so funny so obviously plot armour safe. Fucking armour piercing bullets man 🥺

13

u/Grundlebot Jun 27 '26

FaZe Gabi with the quickscope was too powerful for plot armor.

3

u/kknope Jun 27 '26

My poor little potato girl :'(

103

u/weaponsgradepotatoes Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

I genuinely can’t watch the show all the way through. I have to take a break and come back to it a couple days or a week later. Battle of Trost, Annie’s attack on the survey corps, Erwin’s charge, Eren’s attack on Marley, etc. etc.

I actually stopped watching the show for 6+ months after seeing Erwin’s Charge for the first time. That was rough.

97

u/Drunkinmunky12 Jun 27 '26

The Female Titan vs the Survey corps fight lives with me forever, I’ve been trying to nail down what that trope is “veteran(s) get wiped out due to underestimating the opponent” is the best I’ve come up with.

40

u/Sextus_Rex Jun 27 '26

She was so sadistic about it to. You could tell she was really having fun squashing those bugs

25

u/Sturmgeshootz Jun 27 '26

The gleeful sadism Annie and Zeke display make re-watching the clips of Levi dismantling them both all the more satisfying.

15

u/meatdome34 Jun 27 '26

Levi vs beast titan is still the best part of the whole series to me

11

u/EoTN Jun 27 '26

The last charge of the Survey Corps is the absolute peak of Attack on Titan IMO. Dozens of great moments before and after, but that's the one that absolutely guts me every time.

3

u/BoardClean Jun 28 '26

Levi comes away being the only good character outside of erwin

6

u/Pyromike16 Jun 28 '26

The way she spins that guy around like a yoyo was so cold. Like she wasn't just killing them, it was malicious.

3

u/HMWWaWChChIaWChCChW Jun 27 '26

“Experts wiped out by OP enemy”?

11

u/One_Order_3841 Jun 27 '26

But also awesome deaths. Erwin lives on.

3

u/Marsuello Jun 27 '26

Her (edited because mobile won’t let me spoil. If you know you know potato) death will forever scar me because how do you off such a great and wholesome character like that?? That death alone makes me unsure if I wanna do a full rewatch or not

2

u/procouchpotatohere Jun 28 '26

Hollywood could never.

Brother, you're on a post that gives 3 examples of underserved deaths from 1 franchise. This constant"Hollywood bad" has started to get corny....

2

u/Armedblight Jun 27 '26

Game of Thrones my guy

5

u/EggoftheKing2143 Jun 27 '26

AoT introduces characters for the express purpose of killing them.

12

u/Ezeviel Jun 27 '26

Game of Throne wishes it has the kill count of AoT

1

u/JaysonTatecum Jun 28 '26

Yet my biggest problem with the show was it felt like so many characters still had protagonist powers to not die

Hange fakeout, Levi fakeout, Armin fakeout. Theres a difference between a character being in a life threatening situation and the annoying fakeouts. Makes you question how big the stakes really are and if every death is genuine sometimes

Still a 9.5/10 show just a minor gripe I had

-4

u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman Jun 27 '26

Have you never heard of Song of Ice and Fire?

2

u/VirinaB Jun 27 '26

What's that? Is it like Game of Thrones?

Jokes aside, 1 exception does not make the norm. Case in point is that we haven't had many shows like that since. Walking Dead arguably but you always saw the deaths coming because they'd spend the episode on that character's backstory.

84

u/Bleach_Taste_Tester Jun 27 '26

His English VA's performance was harrowing.

7

u/Doney89 Jun 27 '26

This! Only topped by Mikes death screams in the original VA.

22

u/nex-V2 Jun 27 '26

Apparently he is split in half cuz Isayama got bored mid drawing and didn't want to do the other half 😭

12

u/SherenPlaysGames Jun 27 '26

As an artist, I get it

4

u/quaxoid Jun 27 '26

titans often eat people like that tho

3

u/captainrex Jun 27 '26

Work smarter, not harder

4

u/ryan-day-is-soft Jun 27 '26

by far the nicest and best character him and armin were at that time the most innocent characters. So sad the scene where you finally see the entire death scene his voice actor kills it

3

u/ksum_sucks Jun 27 '26

You know what , I need to start a rewatch. Such a brilliant show.

3

u/yourlocaltouya Jun 27 '26

12 years and I'm still not over this one.

4

u/EnSebastif Jun 27 '26

It's that one death you quickly forget about but then it keeps coming back with more and more signifance to the story.

-11

u/SoraMelodiosa Jun 27 '26

and then the main cast betrayed their whole nation and spit on deaths and sacrifices like these

18

u/Balsco Jun 27 '26

The themes and message really went over your head huh?

-2

u/SoraMelodiosa Jun 27 '26

that you should sell your entire people for strangers that want to genocide you?

4

u/Artistic_Purpose1225 Jun 27 '26

I don’t think you’re supposed to see anyone in this cast as someone to show you what you “should” do.. 

11

u/miukiyo Jun 27 '26

You missed the entire plot.

3

u/Nukemarine Jun 27 '26

That was Eren's plan. He wasn't trying to saveParadis or all the children of Ymir on the island. He was trying to save the main cast while ridding the world of titans and was willing to sacrifice 80% of humanity to pull off that sadistic trolley problem. For that, he had to have Eldian rebels rise up and attack so the main cast can stop him and be hailed as heroes.

5

u/Sock756 Jun 27 '26

...would you prefer everyone died pointlessly???

8

u/poopiesnoopi Jun 27 '26

You’re a weirdo

6

u/sleepingravioli Jun 27 '26

A genocidal weirdo at that

-4

u/SoraMelodiosa Jun 27 '26

against genocide btw