History Main / MauveShirt

** The trope is especially stripped to the wires in the episode "The Lepidopterists", by contrasting #21 and #24 with newcomer Henchman #1 when the Monarch sends the three of them on a mission together. Annoyed by the third wheel, #21 and #24 explain at length to #1 why he is "[[RedShirt the guy that doesn't come back]]": He is unknown (versus their own established popularity), he's generically competent (versus their own charming bungling), he's willing to take any risks at all for the mission (versus their own top priority of self-preservation), and he "can't see a cliché coming". #1 is last seen in [[CurbStompBattle single combat with Brock Samson]]; as the Monarch put it, "[[ForegoneConclusion I don't need to hear the rest.]]"

'''This is still a DeathTrope, so expect spoilers.'''

* ''Film/Dune2021'': Roger Yuan's Lieutenant Lanville is a semi-recurring Atreidies soldier with a few lines and a small role. With ''Film/DunePartTwo'' giving him a fight scene against Feyd-Rautha, revealing that Lanville's the [[CanonCharacterAllAlong nameless Atreidies Gladiator]] from the novel.

* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': The main bridge crew -– Detmer, Owosekun, Bryce, Rhys and Airiam –- were promoted to Mauve Shirt status in Season 2 after spending all of Season 1 with almost no focus on them. [[spoiler:Airiam]] was killed off in the episode that gave her ADayInTheLimelight.

** [[spoiler:Inoue is stuck around as one of Zero's nameless lieutenants for the majority of the first season before she meets her fiery death as her Burai got struck by a shot from enemy {{mook|s}}'s mech, causing it to explode. Her name is literally brought up by a shocked and grief-stricken Sugiyama right after her death.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', the ''Normandy'' crew are nameless and voiceless, save for Joker, Pressly, Chakwas and Adams. Come ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Pressly is killed in the Collector's attack and is referenced several times by Shepard and other characters. Meanwhile, several members of the ''Normandy'' SR-2's crew are given names and personalities: Ken, Gabby, Gardner, Hawthorne, Patel, Rolston, Goldstein, Hadley and Matthews (as well as Joker and Dr. Chakwas returning from the first game). Every one of them aside from Joker can die in the Suicide Mission, but if some survive you can wander the ''Normandy'' and listen to them mourning the loss of their friends. If everyone makes it through, they are happily joking around.

** Gabby and Ken can be pardoned and welcomed back to the crew in 3, in this case they [[spoiler: only die in one of the four endings alongside everyone else, while they survive in all the others]].

** [[CuteWitch Dawn]] was [[WordOfGod originally meant to be]] a bit player with only a couple of brief appearances. According to [[TheAnnotatedEdition the story’s notes]], she ascended to mauve shirt status when the author’s decision to make the Boney Island {{curse}} real [[note]] In canon, the curse is probably not real, although [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane that’s ambiguous]] [[/note]] provided a logical setup to give her a couple of big scenes and an expanded storyline. Dawn’s debut scene -- with Alejandro, ironically -- is the story’s first interns-only scene, and she gets her [[ADayInTheLimelight guest star episode]] two chapters later.

* Johnny, the character who survives all the way through the main ''Metal Gear Solid'' series by being that one incompetent guard that you just can't shoot. By ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4 4]]'', he's on your side.

** The trope is especially stripped to the wires in the episode "The Lepidopterists", by contrasting #21 and #24 with newcomer Henchman #1 when the Monarch sends the three of them on a mission together. Annoyed by the third wheel, #21 and #24 explain at length to #1 why he is "[[RedShirt the guy that doesn't come back]]": He is unknown (versus their own established popularity), he's generically competent (versus their own charming bungling), he's willing to take any risks at all for the mission (versus their own top priority of self-preservation), and he "can't see a cliché coming". #1 is last seen in [[CurbStompBattle single combat with Brock Samson]]; as the Monarch put it, "I don't need to hear the rest."

** #1's fate itself is later deconstructed too, as it turns out he wasn't killed by Brock and returns twice later, once as "Zero" to pit all of the other "incompetent sidekicks" against each other, and again as a member of The Revenge Society.
** They mocked another newcomer, who they called Texas, the same way at the start of one episode but both times they were kind of wrong and kind of right. [[spoiler: Scott Hall managed to survive the CurbStompBattle with Brock Sampson but became jaded and bitter with everyone's WhatMeasureIsAMook attitude, so he changes his name to Henchman #0 and becomes the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]] in the episode "Any Which Way But Zeus" where he manipulated an OldSuperhero into capturing a bunch of other red shirts and mauve shirts and forcing them into GladiatorGames eventually trying to confront Henchman #21 personally, unfortunately for him Henchman #21 had [[TookALevelInBadass taken a level in badass]] by then and [[TheDogBitesBack "Zeus" had freed all of the prisoners]]. After this he joins The {{Revenge}} Society where he drop the henchman from his name and repeatedly insists he's not a {{Mook|s}} anymore unfortunately to spite his claims he ends up being unceremoniously killed by Brock Sampson as 21 and 24 had originally predicted. As for "Texas" they were right and he was quickly killed by Brock Samson but is then revived as [[FrankensteinsMonster "Venturestein".]]]]

* Deconstructed and [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'' Two of the Monarch's {{Mooks}}, #21 and #24, become {{Red Herring Shirt}}s due to their continued survival and regular appearances. After scores of {{Red Shirt}}s have died around them, they start to get GenreSavvy and assume that they've got as much PlotArmor as the main characters. [[TemptingFate In the third season finale, however]], [[spoiler:#24 dies in an explosion, causing his scorched skull to land in 21's arms. His burning skull now carries his soul. #21 vows revenge and eventually becomes Monarch's #1 mook, but out of respect to his friend, he demands to keep his number as #21. [[CharacterDevelopment Much later down the line]], #21 survives the series long enough to pull a HeelFaceTurn, and subsequent FaceHeelTurn]].
** The trope is especially stripped to the wires in the episode "The Lepidopterists", by contrasting #21 and #24 with newcomer Henchman #1. The Monarch sends all three on a mission. Annoyed by the third wheel, #21 and #24 explain at length to #1 why he is "[[RedShirt the guy that doesn't come back]]": He is unknown (versus their own established popularity), he's generically competent (versus their own charming bungling), he's willing to take any risks at all for the mission (versus their own top priority of self-preservation), and he "can't see a cliché coming". #1 is last seen in [[CurbStompBattle single combat with Brock Samson]]; as the Monarch put it, "I don't need to hear the rest."

'''#24:''' You've just made your unavoidable death: more pathetic.

* A good example of this would be Bob, Agent of HYDRA an EnsembleDarkhorse from ComicBook/{{Cable}} and ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}, Deadpool quickly to an interest in him to spite the fact that (or because) he has no last name, a generic first name and looks like a typical {{Mook|s}}. This was brilliantly parodied in a later issue when a HYDRA agent Deadpool thought was Bob turned out to be a different agent called Bob Oppenheim who Deadpool promptly kills to cover his tracks.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', in regard to ThoseTwoGuys[[note]]The latter [[TemptingFate dies]] while the former goes on to become The Monarch's [[TheDragon Dragon]].[[/note]]

* Deconstructed and [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' Two of the Monarch's {{Mooks}}, #21 and #24, become {{Red Herring Shirt}}s due to their continued survival and regular appearances. After scores of {{Red Shirt}}s have died around them, they start to get GenreSavvy and assume that they've got as much PlotArmor as the main characters. [[TemptingFate In the third season finale, however]], [[spoiler:#24 dies in an explosion, causing his scorched skull to land in 21's arms. His burning skull now carries his soul. #21 vows revenge and eventually becomes Monarch's #1 mook, but out of respect to his friend, he demands to keep his number as #21. [[CharacterDevelopment Much later down the line]], #21 survives the series long enough to pull a HeelFaceTurn, and subsequent FaceHeelTurn]].

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', the ''Normandy'' crew are nameless and voiceless, save for Joker, Pressly, Chakwas and Adams. Come ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Pressly is killed in the Collector's attack and is referenced several times by Shepard and other characters. Meanwhile, several members of the ''Normandy'' SR-2's crew are given names and personalities: Ken, Gabby, Gardner, Hawthorne, Patel, Rolston, Goldstein, Hadley and Matthews (as well as Joker and Dr. Chakwas returning from the first game). Every one of them aside from Joker can die in the Suicide Mission, but if some survive you can wander the ''Normandy'' and listen to them mourning the loss of their friends.

* This is SOP in the books of Brandon Mull, which can come as a shock, considering that [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids they're children's books.]] [[WordOfGod His reasoning]] is much the same as David Weber's, i.e. the situations he writes are dangerous and scary, and realistically, not everyone would survive them. They tend to teeter the line between this and AnyoneCanDie.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', Hawk Raider Gaston is one of the few members of The Band of the Hawk outside of the main characters Griffith, Guts, and Casca and the other captains to have a name, a couple lines, and a little characterization to him. [[spoiler: He's also the last Hawk to be seen alive in the Eclipse.]]

* ''Film/SundownTheVampireInRetreat'': When the BigBad tries to wipe out all of the VegetarianVampires, most are killed in minutes, but aside form the main characters we also have some of the chemists working on the blood substitute, the pajama-wearing old man from the general store, TheBigGuy gas station attendant, a couple of recently turned YouKnowTooMuch campers, and half-a-dozen or so of the BigGood's bodyguards survive the initial sneak attack and spend the last twenty minutes or so of the film in a running gunfight with the army of evil vampires, with them making up a DwindlingParty, although a few of them ultimately survive.

** [[spoiler:Maes Hughes]] is also another possible example of this, due to the fact that as soon as he discovered that [[spoiler:the locations of high amounts of war and bloodshed form a transmutation circle on the Amestris map]], he was killed shortly thereafter. Also falls under this category because he always [[spoiler:shows off the pictures of his daughter.]]

Nobody in their right mind wants to be a RedShirt -- it's a death sentence even the most {{Genre Blind|ness}} can spot a mile away. It's been {{lampshade|Hanging}}d to {{dea|dHorseTrope}}th and [[UndeadHorseTrope back]], but it remains a very real trope with very real danger for the [[FacelessGoons nameless fictional people]] under its thrall. So, if you're saddled with this Red Death what can you do? Change the color of your shirt!

** Some people on the Giant's forums have attempted to make their own: [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0432.html That Guy with a Halberd]].

* ''Series/TwentyFour'':
** There have been quite a few characters who end up as this, largely due in part to the writer's need to kill them off to establish the AnyoneCanDie mentality, or to build up the next BigBad. The most notable examples include:

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** Has done this not once, but several times. Some of these characters are annoying and die ironic deaths; another trend involves a second in command villainous character who dies at the end of the season: