Uneasy lies the crown that no head wears.
"I am Doctor Edward Roivas. I am a clinical Psychologist. I am also dead. [...] Their attention turns to my grand-daughter. For she is the last of my line, and the last hope of humanity."
— Eternal Darkness, introduction (abridged)
Between the many ways death can be used in media, there's its use as a trigger for the start of the story itself. It could start a Roaring Rampage of Revenge from part of the protagonists and pull them into something even greater, maybe looking for the truth behind the death could make the protagonist know about something he wasn't supposed to know, the protagonist could suddenly see himself having to continue where the deceased left off, or the execution of a baddie may bring forth something even worse, etc.
In order for a death to be covered by this trope, it has to satisfy some conditions:
- The death has to either occur before the story begins or during the first moments of it.
- The death must either:
- Make the plot start moving (without needing to affect the protagonists directly at first), or
- Make the protagonists start taking some kind of action that later pulls them into the big plot (which must not be necessarily related to the death).
- In cases of TV series or long runners with clear continuity, the death must have affected the big picture of the series. For example, the deaths occurring on every episode of a murder mystery series do not count; but the death of a close one that made the protagonist take the decision to become a detective so he could investigate the mystery behind that murder does count. Deaths in these kind of works that trigger new mystery arcs also count.
- On some occasions, the death is self-triggered: if My Death Is Just the Beginning, then the protagonist obviously can't force the antagonist to stop... antagonizing.
Can sometimes overlap with Starts with a Suicide, Posthumous Character, Death by Origin Story, The Lost Lenore, I Let Gwen Stacy Die, Crusading Widow, Doomed Hometown (can be a greater scale of this trope), Starts with Their Funeral, Unexpected Inheritance, and the list goes on and on.
As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
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Examples:
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Comic Books
- All-Star Comics #38 starts with the murders of The Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Johnny Thunder, which paves the way for Black Canary to join the JSA when she takes Johnny's body to Wonder Woman. The two ladies bring the male heroes to get revived by Paula von Gunther and then set about figuring out who could have killed their male peers.
- Batman: The deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne would lead their young son Bruce to take up the cowl and become the Batman.
- Dynamo5: The thing that starts off the series is Captain Dynamo/William Warner's death and his widow Maddie Warner discovering his black book of women that he cheated on her with. Realizing Tower City still needs a protector, she uses the book to locate five young people she believes could be his illegitimate children. Warner exposes them to the same radiation that Dynamo had been exposed to forty years earlier, unlocking their own latent superhuman abilities, with each one manifesting one of the five powers that their father possessed. Warner trains the five young people not only into a team but into a family as well.
- Green Lantern: As Abin Sur dies, he passes the ring to Hal Jordan, the first human Green Lantern. By exposing the crimes of fellow Lantern Sinestro, who goes on to form his own Lantern Corps and trigger the War of Light, Hal Jordan directly or indirectly causes the fulfillment of many of the rather apocalyptic prophecies in the Green Lanterns' resident ancient tome of prophecy.
- The conflict of JLApe: Gorilla Warfare! is triggered by Solovar's assassination.
- The deaths of Kid Eternity and Fate kickstart JSA (1999).
- The Librarians: In Search Of...: The comic opens up with Oscar Orville claiming proof of supernatural phenomena, only for him to be stabbed to death.
- Shang-Chi: In the original series, Master of Kung Fu, it's Shang-Chi's assassination of Dr. Petrie that triggers his Heel–Face Turn and reveals that his father is actually a villain. It's eventually revealed that Petrie was Actually a Doombot and it was all a Secret Test, but it defined Shang-Chi's origin for many years.
- Misfit City: Captain Denby. When he dies, his will dictates that the chest containing, among other things, a map leading to Black Mary's treasure be donated to the museum. And it's there that the girls open it up and find it.
- The death of Uatu the Watcher kickstarts the events of Original Sin.
- Plain Jane and the Mermaid: Jane's parents die after being hit by a fish cart, which leads to her Jerkass cousin Colin inheriting her home and kicking her out in a week, which leads to her proposing to Peter so she can try and keep her home — and then following him under the sea when he's snatched away by a mermaid.
- The Secret Garden on 81st Street starts with the death of Mary Lennox's parents in an unstated accident, which result in her having to move across the country to New York City and in with her uncle Archie.
- Spider-Man:
- Peter Parker is set on his heroic path in Amazing Fantasy #15 because of the death of his Uncle Ben.
- The death of Jean DeWolff in the titular The Death of Jean DeWolff from Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, which set off the Sin Eater arc, which in turn caused the origins of Venom.
- The death of Joe Face just before the beginning of Kraven's Last Hunt - Spider-Man is shot after attending his wake.
- The death of Aunt May (later reversed) was the catalyst of The Clone Saga, with Ben Reilly arriving in Manhattan to pay her respects and thus being drawn back into Peter's life.
- Supergirl story arc "Death & the Family": The murder of a woman at the Silver Banshee's hands kicks off the plot and leads to a new battle between Supergirl and the supernatural villain.
- The Ultimates: The death of the Scarlet Witch by a sudden and unexpected shot kickstarted the events of the third volume.
- Spirit Of Lust opens with Hard-Drinking Party Girl Lena unexpectedly dying one night after her friends all abandon her at a club. Stuck as a ghost, she decides to use her newfound ability to possess others to try and help her friends with their relationship problems.
- The aftermath of the Comedian's murder opens the first issue of Watchmen. The investigation of his death reunites the surviving costumed vigilantes and progresses the plot.
Fan Works
- #14 (MHA) begins after Izuku Midoriya dies of suicide, and focuses on the effects it has on Bakugou.
- Alone In The World kicks off when Stannis Baratheon suddenly drowns aboard his ship on the way back to Dragonstone, leading his brother King Robert to elevate his friend Ned's bastard son Jon Snow Lord of Dragonstone. This sudden incident also accelerates their brother Renly's plans to replace Robert's wife Cersei with his lover's sister Margaery Tyrell, a scheme that gets derailed by Jon.
- The Blue Pendrive: The death of Enrique shortly after he successfully brings the pendrive to Gonzalo sends him into grief, and eventually, drives him to check the pendrive his friend brought.
- Broken Souls begins with Harry and his team investigating the death of reporter Konrad Tschida, whose discoveries become the driving force of the rest of the story.
- The Persona 3 fic Dark Hour, Wind Flower
has a double subversion. The subversion is that Mitsuru advices Shinjiro to talk to Ken about what exactly happened that led to Shinjiro's Stand killing Ken's mom by mistake, halting Ken's urge for revenge and preventing the events that led Shinjiro to save Ken at the cost of his life. However, the double subversion is that after SEES defeats the Arcane Fortune, Takaya confronts them and shoots Fuuka Yamagishi, depriving the team of their navigator and forcing them to deal with the death of a teammate.
- Dear Sweetie Belle and its sequels are kicked off when Rarity's parents are suddenly killed, inducing her to write the titular letter. This turns out to have been invoked by Time Turner and Nevermore.
- The Desert Storm: Duke Adonai Kryze's assassination serves as the Inciting Incident for Sa Sarad and sparks civil war on Mandalore between Jango's faction and the Death Watch.
- Duffy's Digital Circus: The deletion of Caine is what allows The Jester to replace him as the Circus's ringmaster and start torturing the other humans, thus kicking off the events of the series.
- Filling in the Empty Spots is a Wreck-It Ralph fanfic whose plot kicks off with Vanellope getting into a racing accident in an Internet racing game that she does not survive.
- Five Nights at Bloaty's: The entire reason Gaz is working at Bloaty's in the first place is because Professor Membrane died just before the story started, and so she and Dib need jobs to support themselves until they can legally inherit control of his company.
- Girls und Panzer: Hope Dies begins when Miho is murdered just before the finals.
- The Heiress starts with the aftermath of Robert Crawley's death after he suffered a burst ulcer, meaning Matthew Crawley becomes the next Earl of Grantham in the middle of World War I.
- Helluva Wizard ultimately begins with the death of an unnamed rival of Vernon Dursley, who drove the man to suicide because Vernon felt the man could win "Best Salesman". The unnamed salesman, wanting posthumous vengeance on the Dursley family, decides to hire the Immediate Murder Professionals to take care of them, leading the Imps to meet Harry Potter.
- The main Point of Divergence in Iris Hawthorne: Ace Attorney is Dahlia's murder of Phoenix Wright when he was in college. As a direct result of this, Iris is motivated to become a lawyer and Dahlia is arrested, setting the main plot into motion four years later.
- Jimmy's Visit With Dr. Franklin: Johnny Osgood's death is the catalyst of the events that lead up to Jimmy attempting a mass shooting and getting counseling.
- In Last Rights, Senior Chief Security Officer Athezra Darrod dies from a shrapnel hit in the first scene, and the rest of the story deals with the disposition of his body: To wit, should the Kobali be allowed to turn him into one of them?
- Manehattan's Lone Guardian: Omega's destruction is what causes the story to take place. Leviathan wouldn't be in Equestria if she hadn't been in his proximity when Zero destroyed him.
- Mass Effect: Human Revolution has Shepard, without whose death Adam would never have gotten involved in Saren's plot.
- As the title implies, The Murder of Lila Rossi revolves around Lila Rossi's murder. Problem is, she made a lot of enemies...
- In Necessary to Win, Mizuho's death was the catalyst behind Saki and Teru's parents separating, and Saki gets involved in tankery at Oarai in hopes of reuniting the family.
- The Inside Out fanfic Passed On begins with Riley losing her battle with a terminal disease at age 13. Her spirit wakes up a year later in the mind of her newborn sister Taylor, where she helps her emotions guide her through life.
- The Planets begins with Roy turning up at Winry's house after Riza's death, missing an arm and needing automail ASAP. It's shown that Riza took a bullet for Roy during the war. Her sacrificing herself and dying in his arms traumatized Roy, which set in motion the plot and ultimately led to Roy losing his arm.
- In the Katawa Shoujo fanfic Reconciliation, the death in question is that of Hisao himself. After he dies of a heart attack, his wife Lilly calls their old friend Hanako, who has not seen either of them since Hanako's bad ending in canon, resulting in her flying out to Scotland.
- Rise of the Demonic Hero opens with Izuku being accidentally murdered by Katsuki during their first training exercise. He's then offered a chance to Come Back Strong by a demon, as Hell itself wants to make All For One suffer for his countless crimes.
- The main plot of The Seven Misfortunes of Lady Fortune kicks off when Gabriel Agreste dies of suicide.
- The Thomas & Friends fanfic Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure Bad Ending features an alternate ending of Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure where Sailor John successfully kills Thomas, the Fat Controller resigns out of guilt for his earlier treatment of Thomas, and Gordon being Driven to Suicide after a Trauma Conga Line which involved the resigning Fat Controller’s final act being to permanently ban him from ever taking the Express or any other passenger train again and condemning him to be a shunter and goods engine for the rest of his days, all while he was hated by the other engines. Thomas’s murder at Sailor John’s hands is what triggers the Point of Divergence from canon, and Gordon’s suicide plays a big role in Spencer deciding to atone for his past crimes and take over as one of the main express engines. Both of their deaths also play a massive role in Henry being (re)painted blue and also becoming a successor to Gordon as an express engine. Even today, their deaths cast a shadow over the remaining engines of the Island of Sodor.
- Three's A Crowd (Naruto) opens with Naruto being murdered by Akatsuki when he's only ten years old. Somehow, his consciousness ends up inside Sakura's head alongside Inner Sakura, forcing the three to navigate their bizarre situation while keeping it hidden.
- Ace Swift's death in Turnabout Storm. It ends up with Rainbow Dash being accused of it, which in turn leads up to Phoenix Wright being summoned to Equestria.
- Villain Song (Roving Otter): The story commences with Amaya dying one year after the sequel, forcing Anya into the role of queen and driving her to seek Magnifico for advice.
- What If Snape Died? branches from canon when Severus Snape is killed by Remus Lupin during their years at Hogwarts while the latter is transformed into a werewolf.
- In XCOM: From the Ashes of Temples, the plot kicks off with the Council Spokesperson being informed of the death of the XCOM Commander.
- In You Are My Sunshine, Mary's death in a car accident leads to her friends finding her letter revealing that her son Peter's father is Tony Stark. At her instruction, they reach out to him, and the plot kicks off when Tony decides to fly to Queens to meet his son.
Films — Animated
- 2's death in 9. The Big Bad Fabrication Machine absorbs his spirit near the start of the film, killing him and powering it up enough to start fighting against the other protagonists.
- The events of Anastasia are triggered by the Russian uprising which killed Anya's parents, brother, and sisters.
- Big Hero 6: Tadashi Hamada's death in a fire at the SFIT showcase hall sets his younger brother Hiro and their friends on the path to becoming superheroes.
- Another Pixar example is Leland Turbo from Cars 2.
- Elio begins shortly after the death of the title character's parents, which plays a major part in his character arc.
- In a rather roundabout example, Coral's death in Finding Nemo. Her death happens some years before the actual story, but if hadn't it been for that, the plot wouldn't have happened, at least not the way it did.
- In Frozen (2013), the deaths of the king and queen of Arendelle force their daughter Elsa to become Queen, leading to her powers being accidentally outed at her coronation.
- In Frozen II, it's revealed that the events of the story were set in motion by the girls' grandfather murdering the Northuldran leader, which is now their responsibility to atone for.
- Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of GeGeGe: The 1956 storyline starts with the passing of influential Tokisada Ryuuga, and the rest of the family bickering about the inheritance. One of the family's ambitious men, Mizuki, goes to Nagura to attend the funeral and to speak to one of the successors, Katsunori.
- Metro Man's death at the hands of his arch-nemesis Megamind which Metro Man himself planned in order to retire.
- NIMONA (2023): The story begins with the Queen’s assassination, set up so that would-be-knight Ballister ends up getting blamed, triggering his mission to clear his name and the titular character joining him.
- Frankie's death in Shark Tale, which helps Oscar create the Sharkslayer story and become a rich man.
- King Harold's death from illness at the beginning of Shrek the Third kickstarts the plot of the film.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- The deaths of Vanessa and Richard Fisk, Kingpin's wife and son, are what spur the villain to commission the creation of the Super-Collider, just so he can find alternate versions of his family, even if it means risking his reality collapsing in on itself to do it.
- And just like in the comics, the murder of Peter Parker is what spurs Miles Morales to take the mask and web-shooters in his honor, along with the killswitch for the Super Collider.
- Ellie's death is what leads to the events of Up, although it happens some time before the plot starts. The real inciting incident is the ruling that their house will be demolished and Carl sent to a nursing home, but Ellie's memory drives him to start the plot.
Literature
- The African Queen: The story begins with the death of Rose's brother, which frees her to find her own path in life and inspires her to take revenge against the Germans.
- Aimee: The titular character's suicide is the reason why the main character is put on trial for murder and forced to leave her hometown. Her court-appointed psychiatrist suggests that she write a diary, which is the Framing Device for the book.
- Alex Rider: The plot of the entire series is kicked in motion by the sudden death of Alex Rider's uncle Ian at the very beginning of the first book Stormbreaker. Alex's discovery that Ian was murdered brings him to the attention of his uncle's employers at MI6, who recruit him to finish his uncle's last mission... as well as if any more come up.
- Old Major's death triggers the plot of Animal Farm as both Snowball and Napoleon plan to make his dream of freeing the farm from human control a reality.
- Henry Archer's death in Atlanta Nights. Nearly all the characters in the book are in some way connected with him.
- Aunt Dimity's death starts the whole series.
- Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer begins with the death of Lady Serena's father, leading to her discovery that he has named her ex-boyfriend as her guardian.
- The Book of Exodus starts when the Egyptian Pharaoh orders the massacre of the Hebrews' firstborn which led to one of them being hidden away and found by Pharaoh's daughter.
- The children's picture book Captain Zap and the Evil Baron von Fishhead begins with two kids burying their dead goldfish in the garden, causing them both to accidentally discover magic pencils that literally brought everything they drew, including their title made-up comic book characters, to life.
- City Primeval's plot is kicked off by Clement Mansell's murder of corrupt judge Alvin Guy.
- Combat Heroes: The story of Scarlet Sorcerer and Emerald Enchanter begins proper with Silvarion the Great sending a letter to their pupils to find the Power Crystal before being reportedly killed by Deathlord's forces.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses: By killing Andras in the first chapter, Feyre meets the qualification to break Tamlin's curse. He wastes no time in whisking her away to his court.
- Dame Frevisse: Lady Ermentrude Fenner's strange murder in The Novice's Tale is Sister Frevisse's first case as an amateur sleuth. She gets involved because she wants to clear the name of her friend Sister Thomasine who is the main suspect of the deed. After that, Frevisse finds she can't very well keep mysteries alone and keeps trying to solve them throughout the 17 books of the series.
- A Dark and Drowning Tide: Lorelei's mentor Ziegler is killed in the first few chapters of the story. While the expedition is ostensibly to find the Ursprung and fulfill the king's mission, Lorelei becomes much more focused on solving Ziegler's murder than she does in finding the Ursprung.
- This trope appears several times in the Deryni series:
- In Deryni Rising, the death of King Brion Haldane in the first chapter begins the multi-volume saga of King Kelson Haldane's rule as well as the specific challenges of getting him safely crowned king.
- In Camber of Culdi, the murder of a corrupt Deryni nobleman by anti-Deryni revolutionaries drives King Imre Festil to take hostages. If the murderers aren't found, the hostages will be executed. This starts a series of events that lead to Camber MacRorie's own rebellion against Imre and the restoration of the Haldane line to the throne of Gwynedd.
- In The Bishop's Heir, the Mearan Pretender has been plotting to revolt against Gwynedd for years. However, the immediate trigger for her rebellion is the death of Bishop Carsten of Meara, because her plan involves making one of her supporters the new bishop.
- Discworld does this fairly often, perhaps just to give Death his usual cameo:
- Equal Rites begins with a wizard dying just after passing his power onto a new magical eighth son. Except he messed up and gave it to a daughter, which is what kicks off the plot.
- The death of King Verence at the start of Wyrd Sisters, which leads to Duke Felmet taking over the kingdom, and the witches rescuing the crown prince and finding themselves meddling in politics.
- Deccon Ribobe at the start of Moving Pictures. In the first scene of the book, he dies of old age, leaving no one to perform the rituals that keep the Holy Wood magic in check.
- In Witches Abroad, a Fairy Godmother named Desiderata dies with her charge in trouble, so she arranges for Magrat (and definitely not Granny or Nanny!) to take up her job and fix things.
- In Thud!, the murder of Grag Hamcrusher leads Sam Vimes on a quest to discover the truth behind the battle of Koom Valley.
- Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: In order to fulfill the requirements of summoning a villainous ghoul to take revenge, Mo Xuanyu had to scatter his soul (to the point of not being able to come back ever, as a ghost or reincarnated) and sacrificing his body to the protagonist Wei Wuxian who re-entered the world and got the plot rolling.
- The whole plot of Harry Potter kicks off the day after James and Lily Potter are murdered by Lord Voldemort, and Harry is taken to the Dursleys' home as per Dumbledore's orders. Years later, it's revealed that Lily's sacrifice to save her son invoked a very ancient magic, which gave Harry a powerful protection. This protection caused Voldemort's killing curse to rebound on him, destroying his physical body, and driving him to find a way to get it back for the next fourteen years. At the same time, Dumbledore works to try and prepare Harry, since he knows the boy is destined to fight (and hopefully defeat) Voldemort once he eventually returns to power.
- Dellarko Karinik's death in Help Not Wanted: Remixed Phallic Memories in HD, which the four protagonists try to solve while also finding themselves entangled in a conspiracy between two rival orc tribes.
- The main character of High School D×D dies before the series even begins.
- In Holes, the death of Sam the onion salesman in the 1880s sets off the events of the entire novel; if Sam hadn't died, his lover Kate Barlow wouldn't have become an outlaw who accumulated a large fortune of stolen riches and buried it in the dried-up lake of her old town. This led to Kate's rejected suitor Trout Walker spending the rest of his life trying to find the treasure, thus leading to the establishment of Camp Green Lake. It is even implied that Green Lake drying up was a Bolt of Divine Retribution after the town killed Sam for nothing more than kissing a white woman.
- Hurog: The first book, Dragon Bones, starts with the death of Ward's father, and Ward inheriting the title. As Ward has pretended to have brain damage from a beating his father gave him years ago, he is now considered unable to rule and has to convince everyone that he is actually quite intelligent and has only pretended to be more affected than he was in order to avoid more violence.
- I Know What You Did Last Summer's plot was kicked off when a young boy was run over by four teenagers during the night. A year later, these four receive reminders of the incident and some of them are attacked by a mysterious figure.
- James and the Giant Peach is kicked off when James' parents are Eaten Alive by a rhinoceros, making him an orphan and forcing him to live with his abusive aunts Sponge and Spiker.
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: The main plot starts with the death of a Cabinet minister's Delicate and Sickly fiancee. Mr. Norrell makes his name as a magician by bringing her back with the help of the gentleman with the thistle-down hair... who asks for one or two concessions in exchange...
- The death of Suyuan from The Joy Luck Club leads to her daughter June to discover that her half-sisters are still in China.
- Shortly before the start of The Legend of Sun Knight, Sun's childhood friend Roland is tortured and killed for sport. He is then revived as a powerful undead creature known as a Death Knight. Sun, being the poster board for the church and the one in charge of stopping undead attacks on the city, goes to face him and is unintentionally set up as Roland's killer. The lengths he goes to in order to obtain evidence to prove his innocence and to expose the real murderer cause him to learn revival magic to bribe/threaten his fellow knights into secrecy, which causes another church to interfere in the next book. Had he not met the head of that church, he wouldn't have been called in to help in book 3, et cetera.
- Billy witnessing the death by strangulation of a child is what starts off the plot of Lethal White. Seeing the death and burial decades ago and finally telling Strike leads to the plans of several major characters' plans getting derailed. It's actually subverted — Billy saw a strangling and a burial, but the child did not die and actually grows up to be one of the murderers whose very plan was changed by Billy confessing to seeing the incident to Strike — the effect on the plot is the same, though.
- The events of The Looking Glass War are driven by British agent Wilf Taylor's unexpected death in Finland, in the first chapter, and the loss of the film he was collecting for the Department.
- Nansō Satomi Hakkenden has two of these in succession: first the villainous Tamazusa lays a Dying Curse on Satomi Yoshizane which will have his daughter Fuse give birth to savage "dogs of desire". Then Fuse dies releasing eight crystal orbs containing the spirits of her unborn children (whom she has successfully unshackled from Tamazasua's evil), which are reborn in different families as the titular Eight Dog Warriors.
- Nicholas Nickleby starts with his father's death, forcing him to work for his miserly uncle.
- No cruces el Bosque: The Inciting Incident is Samuel Skov's disappearance after venturing into the Forest, a place of forbidden entry due to magical creatures inhabiting it. As Samuel is presumed dead, his grief-stricken family quickly degrades into full dysfunctionality, leaving the middle brother, Gaspar, the most impacted. This prompts the youngster to go to the Forest in search of his older brother, the only one in the family to understand him. As it turns out, Gaspar is right — Samuel is still alive.
- Occultic;Nine: After an entire volume of showing what the characters are doing and how they connect, the story kickstarts with Gamon discovering Isayuki Hashigami's corpse in his lab, after which a voice from his radio orders him to find a key in Isayuki's fake tooth, then it cuts to a Cliffhanger.
- The Other Side of Truth (2000): The plot begins with Sade's mother being killed by assassins from the Nigerian government. However, this is implied to be accidental; they intended to target Sade's father for being an anti-government journalist who wrote for a newspaper exposing their crimes.
- Red (1995) opens with the senseless murder of an old man’s dog. The rest of the novel is about the old man seeking justice for it.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: The prologue to volume one depicts the torture and murder of an unidentified woman by seven mages who betrayed her (changed to a two-page spread in the back of volume 3 in the manga adaptation). After a ten-year Time Skip, her secret son, protagonist Oliver Horn, comes to Kimberly Magic Academy where her murderers are now instructors, planning with his relatives to take revenge on his mother's murderers and on the entire mage world for creating the underlying situation.
- The Rise of Kyoshi: Avatar Kuruk's death, at the age of thirty-five, an unusually young age for any Avatar, which sets everyone off on a mad scramble to find his reincarnation through the continent sized Earth Kingdom. Things get complicated when his friends wrongly identify the wrong kid.
- Sense and Sensibility starts with the death of Mr. Dashwood, forcing his widow and daughters to move away from the family home and live in greatly reduced financial circumstances.
- A Song of Ice and Fire doesn't have a single inciting death, but it uses them for the initiation of individual plotlines:
- In A Game of Thrones, Jon Arryn's death is what causes Eddard Stark (and by extension, the rest of his family) to become involved in the main plot.
- The Iron Islands plot in A Feast for Crows is triggered by the death of Balon Greyjoy, which happens offscreen during the events of the previous book.
- The deaths of Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark are what end up triggering the War of the Five Kings.
- The pre-series executions of Brandon and Rickard Stark, Ned's father and brother, by King Aerys Targaryen, along with the apparent kidnapping of his sister Lyanna by Prince Rhaegar, are the immediate triggers for Robert's Rebellion. The uprising ends with the death of Mad King Aerys, which results in Robert becoming king and marrying Cersei and Viserys and Daenerys fleeing into exile. Fifteen years later, these events result in the plot of A Game of Thrones.
- Robert's Rebellion also resulted in the death of Rhaegar, which made Cersei hate Robert throughout the duration of their marriage (as she loved Rhaegar). Seeking solace, Cersei deepened her incestuous relationship with Jaime and gave birth to their three children. This ended up sowing the seeds for three major catalysts for the War of the Five Kings: the Dark Secret about the children's legitimacy would be manipulated by Petyr Baelish to bring Ned into conflict with the Lannisters, Cersei's toxic marriage to Robert would result in the latter's death, and the first of those children, Joffrey, would order Ned's execution.
- The death of Rhaegar's wife, Elia Martell, also ended up causing problems later on. The Martells became extremely vindictive against the Lannisters, as Tywin had implicitly ordered her death (he actually only wanted her children killed, but Gregor Clegane didn't listen). Oberyn volunteers to become Tyrion's champion against Clegane during his trial by combat because he wants to avenge his sister's death. While he dies, he ends up inflicting a mortal blow on Clegane. In A Feast for Crows, it is revealed that Doran Martell has been drafting a plan for years to aid the last of the Targaryens in their reconquest of Westeros, hoping to watch the Lannisters fall.
- King Viserys I's death starts the Targaryen civil war known as The Dance of the Dragons in Archmaester Gyldayn's Histories.
- The first book of Tales of Dunk and Egg, "The Hedge Knight", starts in similar fashion to A Knight's Tale above; Dunk's master Ser Arlan dies and Dunk decides to take his place in an upcoming tournament where he tangles with the Targaryen royal family.
- In Spock's World, the death of the Big Bad's mate caused the Big Bad to think that "once again [said character] did not have [their] desire" and set out for Misplaced Retribution on Spock.
- The plot of The Springstorm Alpha is kicked off by the death of Matt's mom.
- The destruction of Buenos Aires in Starship Troopers.
- Throne of Glass: Sam's death led to the revenge kills that got Celaena caught, arrested, and sent to the salt mines that Dorian and Chaol find her in at the start.
- Tokyo Ravens: The death of Hakuto prompts Harutora to become an onmyoji to fulfill her wish.
- Under Heaven: Shen Tai's father died, which lead to him deciding to spend the mandatory two year morning period burying fallen soldiers at a battle field his father fought at. This leads to a foreign ruler's wife deciding to honor him with a lavash gift (200 Cool Horses, where people would be tempted to kill over just four). On his way back to the capitol, with an intention of possibly offering his gift to the Emperor, several people attempt to "persuade" him to transfer his gift to them (usually by just flatly demanding it), especially since it would be useful in a potential upcoming civil war. And Shen Tai finds out about the looming civil war before it starts because receiving the gift caused his mourning period to be cut short (through being appointed an army officer's position to handle certain details, which means he's now free of his obligation), which freed him up to travel back from one side of the country to the other (with both the capitol and his hometown being in the same general direction, so he would have been headed that way regardless) and hear current news from people on the way.
- Happens in Warrior Cats: The Original Series. In the first book, Into the Wild, Redtail and Oakheart, the deputies of ThunderClan and RiverClan respectively are killed in a very early battle. Fireheart, main character of the first arc, spends the next three books trying to prove that the celebrated ThunderClan warrior Tigerclaw actually murdered Redtail while uncovering Oakheart's dark secrets and connections to the other Clans.
- Without Remorse kicks off the main plotline with the brutal murder of escaped Sex Slave and recovering drug addict Pamela Madden by her pimp. Her boyfriend John Kelly, a former Navy SEAL, decides to settle the score personally.
- The Zombie Knight: Hector is an undead example of this trope. The story begins with him dying and meeting Garovel, which is how he starts involving himself in dangerous situations in order to save other people's lives.
Music
- Sabaton: "Sarajevo" acts as a prologue to The War to End All Wars, describing the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and how it lit the fuse to the powder keg that was Europe in 1914.
Podcasts
- In In Strange Woods, the death of Jacob Wells is the catalyst for the events of the entire series.
Radio
- Old Harry's Game, which is set in Hell, starts with the two main human characters dying as the result of a car crash. Episode one, scene one, is Thomas's inner monologue as surgeons try, and fail, to save his life.
Roleplay
- The quest Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties begins with the suspicious and later revealed to be heretical death of Stirland's Elector Count. The Player Character is a Journeywoman of the Grey Order of Magic who is thrust into the role of Spymaster in the ruling council of the new Elector Count.
Tabletop Games
- Clue: The players work to solve the murder of (depending on the version) Dr. Black or Mr. Boddy, who has already been killed before gameplay begins.
Theatre
- The so-called Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and the subsequent inquiry into it, is what sets the plot in motion.
- Chicago: Roxie Hart shoots her boyfriend, which is what lands her in prison and on trial for murder.
- Fly by Night: The first event that the narrator describes is the death of Cecily Smith.
- Gidion's Knot: The titular Gidion was a ten-year-old boy who shot himself in the head a few hours after he received a suspension from school by his fifth-grade teacher. The play itself takes place on the Monday after Gidion's suicide, when his grief-stricken mother shows up to a previously scheduled parent-teacher conference to try and find some reason as to why her son killed himself.
- Hamilton indicates that the death of Alexander Hamilton's mother led to much of what happened to him as a young man.
- Older Than Steam: Hamlet begins with the king's death (though the dead man also appears as a ghost) at the hands of his brother Claudius, and Hamlet sets out to avenge him.
- Henry VI Part 1 has two deaths in quick succession that set the Shakespearean Wars of the Roses tetralogy in motion. The first is that of Henry V, which places his infant son Henry VI on the throne of England, while the second is the death of Mortimer the Earl of March, who leaves behind a claim to the English throne that his nephew Richard, the Duke of York, and his family uses to challenge Henry.
- Rabbit Hole follows a married couple struggling to cope with their grief over the death of their four-year-old son in a car accident eight months prior, and the impact his death had on them and their extended family.
- A Raisin in the Sun involves an inner-city black family's conflicts over how to spend a life insurance check following the death of the father.
- Another Shakespearean example: the murder of the Duke of Gloucester (before the start of the play) in Richard II. We never learn exactly who did the direct killing, but we do learn that King Richard himself was behind it, and his actions to prevent that fact being discovered set the rest of the play in motion.
Web Comics
- Chesska's Death by Childbirth in Archipelago caused her husband to fall into deep depression, during which his financial affairs, already in a bad state, fell down completely. So, as he started to recover, he decided to join the navy and start earning something. At one point he stopped sending money home because his captain had the guy thrown overboard for his own sordid reasons. Then he got almost possessed by a demon and while he fought it off, Death of Personality followed, along with humanisation of said demon - which is how Raven became a person and Anthony Solair became Blitz. And The Protagonist discovers his mangled body on the beach on the very first pages.
- Cirque Royale: The event that led to the comic happening is King George dying and his estranged daughter Quinn becoming Queen of Clowny Island.
- Cindy's suicide in the Abel's Story arc of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures plays with this, as most of the trouble for Abel started after he returned to their hometown for her funeral.
- In El Goonish Shive, everything to do with Pandora's situation and her relationship with her son Adrian extends from Blaike Raven's tragic death.
- Phantomarine: The assassination of Phaedra and her companions triggers the events that lead to the main plot.
- King Spatch of Sunk dies shortly before the start of Rice Boy, which sets the plot in motion: Spatch was the latest in a long line of Multiple-Choice Chosen tasked with fulfilling an ancient prophecy, but turned out to be a bad choice; his death puts The Chooser of the One on the hook for finding a new candidate (who turns out to be Rice Boy) and leads King Spatch II to try and eliminate both chooser and chosen to prevent any more "fakes" taking his family's glory.
- Sleepless Domain: From the beginning, it appears to be a Magical Girl Warrior story focusing on the five girls of Team Alchemical. The real plot is set in motion, however, when all but two of the girls are killed in a monster attack during a routine patrol. Much of the story after that point revolves around the surviving girls as they try to move on from this traumatic event — and eventually, discover that it may not have been a simple accident.
Web Original
- The Human Prince in Elfslayer Chronicles has a Plot Derailing Death. The plot the DM had planned was an escort mission to bring him home to his kingdom to stop the war between them and the Elven Kingdom. However, one of the players decided to instead murder him and frame his elvish lover, turning the plot into a murder mystery Xanatos Gambit on the part of that player.
- Meta Runner: The apparent deaths of two TASCorp alumni, scientist Dr. Sheridan and Meta Runner Lucinia Porter, led Lucinia’s fellow Meta Runner Masa to suspect her murder by their boss, Lucks, leading to a failed attempt to hack into his private server for evidence, leading to his decommissioning, and Masa in turn to form MD-5 with Lucinia’s sister, Sofia, to fight against his former employer. Meanwhile, main protagonist Tari is connected by unknown means to Project Blue, which was what Dr. Sheridan was working on before he and Lucinia were seemingly blown up, and has very brief and cryptic flashbacks to him and the accident when she wakes up. Later subverted, when the season 2 finale reveals that the both of them are alive; Dr. Sheridan survived the explosion and later ended up orchestrating Lucks’ murder, while Lucinia's physical body survived, but her mind ended up fragmented, with part of it merging with Sheridan’s AI, revealed to be Tari, giving it sentience and eventually ending up in an artificial body.
- In the backstory of RWBY, there was a great hero named Ozma whose tragic, untimely death from an incurable illness triggered the show's plot. After Salem's refusal to accept her lover's death gets her cursed by the gods and humanity temporarily destroyed, the gods give humanity one last chance for redemption by resurrecting Ozma to unite them in peace; if he fails, the gods will destroy the planet. Now Salem and Ozma are locked in a Forever War for the fate of humanity while the responsibility for saving the world has accidentally fallen to a group of teenagers led by Ruby Rose.
Web Videos
- Exploring Lost Wads: The death of Michael's friend leads to him getting his hard drive. The basis of the channel is exploration of the drive and the anomaly within that infected Michael's computer.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: As detailed in the Flashback B-Plot of “Zuko Alone”, the death of Iroh’s son Lu Ten five years before the start of the series directly led to the Fire Nation royal family being where they are in the present. Iroh abandons the siege of Ba Sing Se out of grief and begins his spiritual journey, while back home Ozai exploits the loss of Iroh’s heir to usurp the throne for himself and become the Big Bad.
- The Boondocks had Granddad taking in Huey and Riley after the death of their parents, and using the inheritance to buy a nice house in an upper-class neighborhood so they'd have better influences surrounding them.
- BoJack Horseman: Sarah Lynn's death in season 3 is the catalyst for the events in season 6, namely Bojack's guilt and the investigation into his past that brings about his downfall.
- Fugget About It: When Mafia capo Jimmy Falcone has a meeting with the Don to spare his uncle's life, Jimmy somehow throws the Don through a 19-story window. The Don's death leads to Jimmy and his family relocating to Saskatchewan as part of Witness Protection, but not before Jimmy rats out his friends to save himself from being killed. A Cold Open in an early episode revealed that the Don had made a pedophilic comment about Jimmy’s teenage daughter, which caused Jimmy to kill him in a fit of rage.
- Hazbin Hotel: The ending of the first episode reveals that an angel has been killed by a demon, which Heaven uses as a reason to spend a day double-killing human souls in Hell every six months instead of the established pattern of once a year. This also confirms angels can be killed, inspiring other demons to investigate how it happened in order to fight back.
- Invincible: The murder of The Guardians of the Globe in the first episode sets the plot in motion as various characters investigate the circumstances of the motive of the culprit.
- Miraculous Ladybug: Downplayed in that Emilie Agreste is in a coma rather than being dead, but her coma is the cause of the show's main events: Gabriel Agreste, aka Hawk Moth, is so consumed by his grief over losing his wife that he brainwashes people into supervillains in order to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculi so he can make a wish to bring her back.
- Rick and Morty: Rick's Dark and Troubled Past began when his original wife and daughter were killed by a renegade Rick. In his multiversal search for the killer, he finds that Rick Prime leaves virtually no trace of his whereabouts and decided to live in the former's home universe where the show began until he finds a new lead.
- The Simpsons two-parter "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" starts with the death of a class hamster at Springfield Elementary. While burying the deceased creature, Groundskeeper Willie digs into an oil well underneath the school building, creating the conflict that will lead to Burns being shot.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The death of Queen Comet Butterfly at the hands of Toffee serves as the catalyst for much of the present-day conflict in the series. The first half of the series is shaped by Toffee's quest for revenge after Moon blasted off his finger and the second half is shaped by Eclipsa's freedom from her Crystal Prison, and both of those events happened because of Comet's death.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Much like in the comics, the death of Splinter's owner Hamato Yoshi at the hands of the Shredder is the first in the long chain of events that led to Splinter and the turtles mutating and later coming into conflict with the Foot. During Season 5, the Ninja Tribunal even flat-out admit this is why they rejected Yoshi's request to help defeat the Utrom Shredder, as Yoshi had to die in order for Splinter and the turtles to exist so they could one day help bring about the final defeat of the Tengu Shredder. Judging by the regret and sympathy in Chikara's voice when telling this to Splinter, they didn't like the decision any more than he did, even if it was necessary.
- TRON: Uprising: The entire plot can be traced back to the death (or derezzment, in this case) of Bodhi, Beck's best friend, at the hands of one of Clu's soldiers, which inspired Beck to take on the mantle of Tron.
Real Life
- While it's almost certain that something would have caused it sooner or later, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is widely considered the first in a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I.
- Often seen in monarchies when the reigning sovereign dies, especially if the next person in line is underage or just barely of age. If the new ruler's reign is particularly noteworthy (good or bad), the death of the predecessor can be seen as this.
- The Scottish Wars of Independence mostly started because King Alexander fell off his horse and died, and had no living children. And again with his granddaughter, Margaret of Norway, was chosen to be his heir by the nobles of Scotland. She died on the voyage from Norway. It all went downhill from there.