History Main / DoomedByCanon

* ''VideoGame/Suikoden'' series:

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' prequel ''Recap/StartOfDarkness'', several characters try to kill the [[TheUndead lich]] Xykon, including one who is hinted at having disappeared off the face of the earth in the main comic. Given that Xykon is the BigBad of the main story, their attempts necessarily failed. It's also a foregone conclusion that Redcloak will not betray Xykon and will continue working for him, Xykon will become a lich, and the Monster in the Darkness will be recruited by Xykon.

* When Captain Christopher Pike was introduced in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' season 2, fans of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' knew he was destined to be crippled by delta radiation, eventually choosing to live an illusory life on Talos IV instead of remaining paralysed, as per [[Recap/StarTrekS1E12TheMenageriePartII "The Menagerie"]]. The Discovery writers decided to lean into this however by having [[spoiler:Pike be given a vision of his future fate and his foreknowledge of that fate playing a big part of his character development, both on Discovery and on the later spinoff series ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'']]

** When Captain Christopher Pike was introduced in ''Series/{{StarTrekDiscovery}}'' season 2, fans of ''Series/{{StarTrekTheOriginalSeries}}'' knew he was destined to be crippled by delta radiation, eventually choosing to live an illusory life on Talos IV instead of remaining paralysed, as per [[Recap/StarTrekS1E12TheMenageriePartII "The Menagerie"]]. The Discovery writers decided to lean into this however by having [[spoiler:Pike be given a vision of his future fate and his foreknowledge of that fate playing a big part of his character development, both on Discovery and on the later spinoff series ''Series/{{StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds}}'']]

A story or series of stories have established a core group of heroes, villains, and a supporting cast. In order to add more depth to one or more of these things, the creator(s) put(s) out fully-developed back stories and {{prequel}}s, or even {{interquel}}s. While such efforts may produce many great things, they also doom characters and plots to inevitable failure or success. Why? Because the first story or stories established ''de facto'' canonicity.

When it comes to prequels and back stories, most readers familiar with the original plot will already know what the outcome will be. They are not so much tempted to participate in the story to see how it ends, but how it gets there. And as the Ancient Greeks discovered, if the audience already knows the ending, there is a huge potential for DramaticIrony.

On the other side of the coin, though, the trope can induce some audience apathy towards the prequel, especially if the story is centered around a character who has been KilledOffForReal further down the timeline. Some would argue, that the prequel won't really matter much in such a case, since there already is a very definite ending to the character's story. If the character on the other hand had still been alive, the prequel could still have some potential to change things, either with a reference here or there or lingering effects on the CharacterDevelopment.

A subtrope of ForegoneConclusion and AnthropicPrinciple. Compare DeathByOriginStory. Related to YouCantThwartStageOne, which relates to prequel plots instead of characters. Contrast PlotArmor and SavedByCanon. Unrelated, despite similar-sounding names, to DoomedProtagonist. Different from DeathByAdaptation. One way to subvert this is through a full on AlternateTimeline, often as a result of a TemporalParadox.

* ''WesternAnimation/TarzanII'': Tarzan can't find out that he's a human, and has to come back with the gorilla band at the end.

** This also seems to apply to Giselle, who is Han's girlfriend in the prequels but nowhere to be found in Tokyo. [[spoiler:She dies in ''Fast & Furious 6''. tThis is eventually subverted as Giselle is revealed to be alive in ''Film/FastX'']].

** This also seems to apply to Giselle, who is Han's girlfriend in the prequels but nowhere to be found in Tokyo. [[spoiler:She dies in ''Fast & Furious 6''. Unlike Han, Gisele's death seems to be permanent.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': WordOfGod has stated that the [[WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie first movie]] is chronologically at the end of the series, and it depicts [=SpongeBob=] still not having his boating license, meaning that he'll never get it in the series proper. It also means that Squidward will never realize his dreams of becoming a famous artist/musician, since he's still working at the Krusty Krab in the film, and Plankton will not succeed in getting the Krabby Patty formula in the series itself due to the fact that [[TeamRocketWins he finally does so in the movie]].

** Being a tribute in the same Games as one of the canon victors, such as Orion [[note]]Enobaria's first district partner[[/note]], Charlotte [[note]]Blight's first district partner[[/note]] and Loomer [[note]]Cecelia's first district partner[[/note]] in fics set in the same universe as ''Fanfic/TheVictorsProject''. Since we already know who's going to win, it's not a question of if any of the other tributes are going to die, but when and how.
** Being a tribute from District 12 other than Lucy Gray Baird[[note]]victor of the Tenth Games[[/note]], Haymitch Abernathy[[note]]victor of the Fiftieth Games[[/note]] or Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark[[note]]joint victors of the Seventy-fourth Games[[/note]], such as Sage Blanken from ''Fanfic/TalesOfTheHungerGames''. It's clearly stated that Lucy Gray, Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta are the only victors District 12 produced, so any other tribute from that district is going to, at best, place second - if they even make it to the latter stages.
** For fanfics that were published before ''Literature/TheBalladOfSongbirdsAndSnakes'' (such as ''Fanfic/TheEndOfTheWorld'') or where the author has deliberately chosen to ignore the prequel (such as ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13888112/1/Bread-and-Circuses-The-Victors-Stories Bread And Circuses: The Victors' Stories]]''), being a District Twelve Victor other than Haymitch, Katniss, or Peeta. As Haymitch is the only surviving Victor as of the 74th Hunger Games, they will have to die prior to said Games.

** Being a twelve- or thirteen-year-old tribute, such as Willow from ''WebVideo/WeepingWillow'' or Catalina and Iry from ''Fanfic/TheHungerGamesPrequelCollection''. Finnick Odair is said to have been "one of the youngest victors", if not the youngest, when he won the Sixty-fifth Hunger Games at the age of fourteen. While this doesn't rule out the possibility that there were other fourteen-year-old victors, it means anyone who gets reaped below that age is not going to get out of the arena alive.
** Being a victor other than one of the seven [[note]]Enobaria, Beetee, Annie, Johanna, Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta[[/note]] who are still alive at the end of the second rebellion. Sixteen victors died prior to the announcement of the third Quarter Quell. Another eighteen perished in the arena. Most of the remaining forty-one victors were killed in the rebellion, targeted by the Capitol if they were thought to be allied with the rebels or by the rebels if they were thought to support the Capitol. Some fics subvert this [[LoopholeAbuse by claiming that additional victors were found following the initial meeting with President Coin]].

** Being a pair of tributes attempting to become joint victors in their Games, such as Dove and Cabel in ''Fanfic/TheHungerGamesPrequelCollection''. Canonically, the only time there were two victors was at the Seventy-fourth Games and that was after Katniss and Peeta forced the Capitol to choose between letting them both win and not having a victor at all. Therefore, if two tributes in any of the first seventy-three Games are counting on getting out of the arena together, there's no way they're going to succeed. At best, one of them might emerge as victor.

** The entire main cast of ''Film/RogueOne'', as well. These badass heroes of the Rebellion stole the plans to the Death Star and made the heroic victory in ''Film/ANewHope'' possible, so why aren't they around to celebrate Luke, Han, Leia and Chewie's victory? Because [[EverybodyDiesEnding not a single one of them made it off of Scarif]]. Same goes for Blue Squadron, which took part in the aerial assault on Scarif, and the original Red Five (Luke's callsign in ANH).

** ''Literature/DarthPlagueis'', while exploring the Sith Lord's life, was informed by the only things know about him from ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''; he was a Sith, he had an apprentice, Palpatine was likely his apprentice, and said apprentice murdered Plagueis in his sleep. Guess how the story ends.

** In the 2011 WhatIf story ''Anime/DragonBallEpisodeOfBardock'', Bardock gets retconned to survive Freeza's finishing blow and ends up transported into the past. However, since the setting -- Planet Plant -- is the prehistoric Planet Vegeta, it's quite apparent that those cute and lovable Plantians will eventually go extinct when the humanoid Tuffles and Saiyans populate the planet. ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse2'' reveals the time-warp was an accidental escape when Mira and Towa tried to capture him.

** The prequel to ''Dragon Ball'', ''Manga/JacoTheGalacticPatrolman'', reaches its climax when Jaco saves the people of East City. However, during the Saiyan Saga in ''Dragon Ball'', East City is destroyed by Nappa and all of its inhabitants are killed. It is also not revealed whether they are revived by the Dragon Balls or not. Also, when it's revealed that the alien pod heading to Earth contains Goku, it becomes obvious that he will fail in his mission to intercept it.

* Also, any attempt by Vorian Atreides to put an end to the Atreides-Harkonnon feud is doomed to fail, since they're still at it millennia later.

* In Creator/StephenieMeyer's ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' novella ''The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner'', Bree has to stay with the vampire army, fight the Cullens at the end, and die by the hands of the Volturi. Although it's arguable as to whether or not it counts as canonical, she also has to fall in love and lose said love interest, since [[WordOfGod Meyer]] said before the book was published that Bree "found and lost love".

* ''Manga/GetterRobo'': ''Shin Getter Robo'' is an {{Interquel}} that narrates the events between ''Getter Robo G'' and ''Getter Robo Go''. So readers know that Ryoma and Hayato will survive but Benkei will die, the [[HomeBase Saotome Lab]] will be destroyed and abandoned, Ryoma will quit and leave... and [[HumongousMecha Shin Getter Robo]] is [[EldritchAbomination terribly dangerous]].
* The ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'' Gaiden [=OAVs=] fall neatly under here. Instead of AnyoneCanDie, you get "that character there who doesn't appear in the main series will almost certainly die."
* ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'' is about the adventure of the first girl to be sucked into the Universe of the Four Gods, Takiko who becomes the Priestess of Genbu. Miaka reveals in ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' how Takiko summoned Genbu, but was killed in a murder-suicide by her father, because he couldn't bear to see the pain she was in, as Genbu devoured her. While ''Genbu Kaiden'' itself alters a few details and makes it first seem like Takiko will die from [[IncurableCoughOfDeath Tuberculosis]] before she can fully summon Genbu, it still retains the fact that [[ForegoneConclusion Takiko and her father do not survive the end of the story]].

* Several chapters of ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' depict Mikoto's attempt to stop the [[LevelGrinding Level 6 Shift Program]]. The reader already knows the program is only stopped by the grace of [[LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex Touma's intervention]], and that [[BreakTheCutie by the end]] Mikoto will be [[DespairEventHorizon driven so far]] as to be ready to give up her life to end the [[CloningBlues Sisters]] torment. This especially hits hard with the appearance of Misaka 9982, the Sister Mikoto originally meets and grows fond of during their time together. Readers of ''Index'' will also know that every clone before 10032 meets their end by Accelerator's hands, and sure enough 9982 dies, [[SacrificialLamb just as Mikoto shows up to the fight scene even]].
** Season 2 of Railgun also shows the horrificness of the project, and Mikoto's vain attempts to stop it. After seeing this, her rant to Touma in the Sister's arc of the first season of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' becomes much more powerful.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'': It's a safe assumption any character not Plot Armored by appearance in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' is as good as dead; this is especially certain with any Servant other than Saber or Gilgamesh. This makes Waver Velvet's [[AvertedTrope aversion]] [[ActionSurvivor so surprising]], as he seems the least likely to have come out of the War alive. [[spoiler:It turns out that Waver ''was'' Plot Armored by appearance in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''...[[MeaningfulRename he's just not called Waver Velvet anymore]].]]

* The prequel light novel to ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'', ''LightNovel/WashioSumiIsAHero'', features three Heroes: the titular Sumi Washio, Sonoko Nogi and Gin Minowa. Sumi and Sonoko both appear in the anime and have significant roles in the story. Gin, on the other hand, never appears in the series and is only referenced in passing by Sonoko, and not even by name. It doesn't take a lot on the part of the reader to work out that Gin's not going to make it to the end of the novel.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' goes the "everyone who wasn't in the original is likely to die" route. The only surprise was an inversion Waver Velvet survived.

* The fifth volume of ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' is centered around Kyousuke's past with the White Queen. The basic outline of this was already revealed in the very first volume - Kyousuke summoned the White Queen into the world, she fell in love with him, and later killed countless people. It's therefore clear from the start that everyone who isn't Kyousuke, the White Queen or Biondetta (another character known to survive) is going to die.

* We know in the Golden Age saga of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' that Guts, who starts off as a loyal mercenary soldier under Griffith, will eventually be betrayed by Griffith and gain the Mark of Sacrifice, leading him to become the merciless Black Swordsman. What that means, unfortunately, is that pretty much everyone else in the Band of the Hawk aside from Guts and Griffith is doomed to a bad fate. But what we ''don't'' know is that [[spoiler:while nearly all of the Hawks are branded like Guts and indeed die horribly when the Eclipse goes down and the demons come out of the woodwork for the feast, there are two other Hawks who ultimately survive -- Rickert, due to not being with the rest of the Hawks when the Eclipse went down; and Casca, who, despite being branded like the rest and being put through pure hell by Griffith himself upon him becoming a demon god, also survives, but was left behind with Rickert and the blacksmith Godot, and ultimately becomes the reason for Guts to lay aside his vendetta against Griffith for her sake]].

* We know in the Golden Age saga of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' that Guts, who starts off as a loyal mercenary soldier under Griffith, will eventually be betrayed by Griffith and gain the Mark of Sacrifice, leading him to become the merciless Black Swordsman. What that means, unfortunately, is that pretty much everyone else in the Band of the Hawk aside from Guts and Griffith is doomed to a bad fate. But what we ''don't'' know is that [[spoiler:while nearly all of the Hawks are branded like Guts and indeed die horribly when the demons gather for the feast, there are two other Hawks who ultimately survive -- Rickert, due to not being with the rest of the Hawks when the Eclipse went down; and Casca, who, despite being branded like the rest and being put through pure hell by Griffith himself upon him becoming a demon god, also survives, but was left behind with Rickert and the blacksmith Godot, and ultimately becomes the reason for Guts to lay aside his vendetta against Griffith for her sake]].

* We know in the Golden Age saga of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' that Guts, who starts off as a loyal mercenary soldier under Griffith, will eventually be betrayed by Griffith and gain the Mark of Sacrifice, leading him to become the merciless Black Swordsman. What that means, unfortunately, is that pretty much everyone else in the Band of the Hawk aside from Guts and Griffith is doomed to a bad fate. But what we ''don't'' know is that [[spoiler:while nearly all of the Hawks are branded like Guts and indeed die horribly when the demons come out of the woodwork for the feast, there are two Hawks who ultimately survive the whole thing -- Rickert, due to not being with the rest of the Hawks when the Eclipse went down; and Casca, who, despite being branded like the rest and being put through pure hell by Griffith himself upon him becoming a demon god, also survives, but was left behind with Rickert and the blacksmith Godo, and ultimately becomes the reason for Guts to lay aside his vendetta against Griffith for her sake]].

* ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'' is a prequel to ''Videogame/Cyberpunk2077'', taking place about a year before the events of that game. In the latter, an update allowed you to buy a drink named after the protagonist in The Afterlife (something that only happens to people that die and make a name for themselves). [[spoiler:A later update that added some crossover content establishes that David is indeed dead by the time of 2077, with the series showing that he was ultimately killed by [[TheDreaded Adam Smasher]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' has some leeway with this trope due to the fact that it is set between ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' in addition to the fact that a MoralEventHorizon occurs in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' (which is set after ''The Clone Wars''). Still...

*** Anakin also cannot come face to face with Grievous due to one throwaway line in ''ROTS'' indicating that their first encounter was in the film. There ''is'', however, an episode where both characters are exchanged in a PrisonerExchange, but Anakin is unconscious during the exchange.
--> "General Grievous...you're shorter than I expected."
** ''Something'' has to happen to take Ahsoka out of action so that she's nowhere to be seen as of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' and doesn't do anything of significance afterwards, although they have quite a bit of leeway in how that happens. At the end of season 5, we find out what happens to Ahsoka: She is framed for treason against the Republic and expelled from the Jedi Order, and though Anakin finds the real culprit, Ahsoka's faith is shaken enough that she quits. Triple Subverted in the series true finale: She ''was'' involved in the events of ''Revenge of the Sith'', just offscreen (a number of scenes are added showing her appearing or being addressed seconds after a scene in ROTS ended). She still survives, though SavedByCanon by prior-animated appearances in ''Rebels''.

* Likewise, ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' has to be consistent with the original film trilogy, so the protagonists can't overthrow the Empire, prevent the Death Star from being built, or defeat Vader or Palpatine. Even if they do defeat Vader, expect it to be temporary. It's also a safe bet that any Jedi associated with the nascent rebellion won't make it through the series alive, since this would raise the question of why they couldn't help out with Luke's training, though the pre-Disney canon held quite a few surviving Jedi, including at least one former member of the Jedi Council. WordOfGod has stated their intention to defy this trope, however. Though Kanan and Ezra are technically still under the knife (as is Ahsoka, once again), they have stated that they have not been obligated to kill anyone yet. However, a Jedi's "death" can take another meaning by having them fall to the Dark Side. [[spoiler:By the end, Kanan makes a HeroicSacrifice, but the writers took a kinder route with Ezra and made him disappear without a trace.]] As for the Death Star, some of the ''Ghost'' crew will at least be part of the efforts towards its destruction in ''Rogue One''.

*** Anakin also cannot come face to face with Grievous due to one throwaway line in ''ROTS'' indicating that their first encounter was in the film. There ''is'', however, an episode where both characters are exchanged in a PrisonerExchange.

* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'':

** In ''ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns'', ComicBook/TheSpectre informs the Pre-Crisis Supergirl -Kara Zor-El- that she has to return to her own timeline for the events of ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' to happen (namely, her HeroicSacrifice). Then-current Supergirl, Linda Danvers, tried to switch places with Kara, but it failed.
** ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'' subverted it right at the end. In ''Convergence: Adventures of Superman'', Silver Age Supergirl finds out -and accepts- that she is fated to fight the Anti-Monitor and die to save TheMultiverse. However, post-Flashpoint Superman -and [[ComicBook/LoisLane his]] [[Characters/SupermanJonathanSamuelKent family]]- and Parallax Hal Jordan join the battle and save her and Barry Allen's lives.

* A saying in the Hong Kong comic ''The Manhua/RavagesOfTime'' goes, "Those who are fated to die, will die. Those who are fated to live, will live." That is to say, every character is going to die at the time that they did in [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms the source material]], even if the circumstances vary quite widely, while at least two original characters were created/centered around specific story arcs and thus were doomed to go when that arc was up[[note]]Yuan Fang would not survive the Battle of Guandu, since he was created to make it more cooler/complex than the version in ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', while Xiao Meng -- who debuted as the real identity of the fictional Diaochan -- would not survive the final downfall of Lu Bu[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' is a prequel to the [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption original game]] that follows the gang that John Marston was in. As such, much of the cast will inevitably wind up dead by the very end, including [[spoiler:protagonist Arthur Morgan, who succumbs to tuberculosis by the end of the game.]] However, [[spoiler:some of the characters that didn't appear 1 but end up surviving past the end of 2 are implied to live decent lives away from the events of the original game.]]

* ''[[ComicBook/LesLegendaires Les Legendaires Origines]]'' being a prequel to the main series, this is to be expected; So, [[TheHero Danael]] had an [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Childhood friend secretly in love with him]] who never got any mention in the main series where he already is in a relationship with [[TheChick Jadina]]? Yep, she most likely won't make it until the end of the book. TheStarscream plans to overthrow the BigBad who we already know made it in the main series? Yeah, not gonna work. Even bigger case with the arcs that already got a mention in the main series (we all know very well Jadina will ''not'' marry [[RoyalBrat Halan]]).