History Main / PutOnABusToHell

So an actor's walked out of the show, leaving you and the other writers in a bit of a sticky spot. Or maybe one of your characters has, for whatever reason(s), become TheScrappy. You don't want to [[ActorLeavesCharacterDies kill their character off]], but you're still feeling pretty malicious, and just having them PutOnABus isn't nasty enough. The solution is to put them on a Bus to Hell: write them out in a way so mean-spirited that it's clear to all and sundry that you're doing it out of malice and spite.

So an actor's walked out of the show, leaving you and the other writers in a bit of a sticky spot. Or maybe one of your characters has (for whatever reason(s)) become TheScrappy. You don't want to [[ActorLeavesCharacterDies kill their character off]], but you're still feeling pretty malicious, and just having them PutOnABus isn't nasty enough. The solution is to put them on a Bus to Hell: write them out in a way so mean-spirited that it's clear to all and sundry that you're doing it out of malice and spite.

** ''ComicBook/TheAvengers:'' The graphic novel "Rage of Ultron", released 2015, has Hank Pym absorbed into Ultron, forced to keep his insane robo-son in check. This has proven to be a more permanent way of keeping Hank out of comics than ''actually'' killing him would be. As of 2023, various comics have gone back and forth on whether there even is any Hank anymore, or if it's just Ultron's insanity.

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers:'' The graphic novel "Rage of Ultron" has Hank Pym absorbed into Ultron, forced to keep his insane robo-son in check. This is a more permanent way of keeping Hank out of comics than ''actually'' killing him would be. As of 2022, various comics have gone back and forth on whether there even is any Hank anymore, or if it's just Ultron's insanity.

* [[ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew]] seemed safe as long as they were in ComicBookLimbo. Unfortunately, when they were brought back in the mid-2000s, their AnimalSuperheroes world had to become darker to reflect the DarkerAndEdgier mainstream DC Universe. As a result, Little Cheese is [[DroppedABridgeOnHim murdered]], and then comes the ''Captain Carrot And the Final Ark'' mini-series. Their world has become uninhabitable, so Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew, and the other anthropomorphic animal superheroes, arrange for an ark to take them to the Justa Lotta Animals' world, Earth C-Minus. However, because of a mishap, not only do they end up in the "main" DC Universe Earth but they are also turned into non-anthropomorphic animals who can't communicate with Franchise/{{Superman}} and the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}. The mini-series ends with them stuck this way, and the DC heroes not knowing why this ship appeared filled with animals. Fortunately, there's good news: [[spoiler:The Monitor Nix Uotan breaks down that bus to Hell by reverting the Zoo Crew into their original forms in time for the final battle of ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.]]

** ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': How did Marvel take Thor out of the picture when they decided that they wanted to [[AffirmativeActionLegacy replace him with Jane Foster]]? By having him [[TraumaCongaLine become unworthy and unable to lift his hammer, then lose his powers and his left arm]], ''then''' try to reclaim his hammer only to discover that there's someone else wielding it, having to relinquish his signature weapon and his name as a result.\\
There's also how Jane herself relinquishes the mantle; [[spoiler:she takes it up to stave off the effects of her cancer, but the kicker is that, every time she transforms, her body reverts to how it was before chemotherapy, to the point where Doctor Strange warns her that, if she "Thors out" once more, she will die. Still, she takes on one last mission in order to stop a rampaging Mangog by [[HurlItIntoTheSun hurling him into the Sun]] while chained to Mjolnir (since any other method of getting rid of him would just end up with him coming back). While Jane does die after Mjolnir gets vaporized, Odin and Thor travel to rescue her soul and bring her back from the gates of Valhalla (where she's just standing because she hesitated), and so she comes back to life, with her cancer in remission, and lets Thor be Thor again -- although, without Mjolnir, he makes do with a variety of enchanted hammers until the climax of ''ComicBook/WarOfTheRealms'' when he has Mjolnir reforged.]]
** ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is aged into a really old man so that Sam Wilson can take his place. And when the original is brought back, ''his whole history'' is changed via an in-universe retcon to make him a villain and a HYDRA agent all along. Even worse, it's eventually revealed that the HYDRA agent is the original Captain, and the non-HYDRA Cap we know and love had been created by a previous CosmicRetcon, making the new HYDRA Captain actually a return to his true self from the original timeline--or so HYDRA Cap thinks, as it turns out that HYDRA Cap himself was the Cosmic Retcon created by the Red Skull, and the non-HYDRA Cap is indeed the real Cap, who returns at the end of ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire''.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Mary Jane Watson once left for a short period of time to avoid her and Peter getting married. They did so with her returning the engagement ring he gave her and claiming that marriage just isn't her thing, doing so in a rather unsympathetic way.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Baldo}}'': Smiley is originally Baldo's {{tomboy}}ish next-door neighbor and later becomes his girlfriend. WordOfGod is that the relationship wasn't interesting to write, so the characters break up but decided to [[BetterAsFriends stay friends]]. A couple of months later, Smiley has some offscreen CharacterDerailment within the span of three days, culminating in an EvilMakeover into an AlphaBitch. Despite a claim from the author that she ''might'' return, Smiley disappeared from the comic after 2006.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' has [[TheScrappy Stuckey]] sent to prison. They also get rid of Detective Chester Lake by having him arrested for committing a vigilante murder.

** Michaels has since admitted that he was in on the job, and whenever he appears in Canada, he receives [[NeverLiveItDown "YOU SCREWED BRET!" chants]] from the Canadian fans. Referee Earl Hebner (now with Wrestling/{{TNA}}) and Vince also receive said chants. Then-writer Wrestling/VinceRusso claimed in his autobiography that he was responsible for the screwjob, but then again, this is Vince Russo we're talking about.[[note]]Another, much more likely truthful, version is that it was actually Jim Cornette that came up with the idea almost by accident, angrily but ''sarcastically'' yelling "Why don't we just double-cross him?" in a booking meeting a couple days before. Russo's only contribution was being in the room looking confused while the people that actually knew something about ''professional wrestling'' were discussing it.[[/note]]

* The ending to ''VideoGame/Portal2''. [[spoiler:Given that Wheatley [[FaceHeelTurn had become the villain]], he needed a punishment when he was finally defeated. However, killing him off or letting [=GLaDOS=] torture him forever would be too much, but a simple slap and detach from the mainframe was too little, hence the final version of the ending, where he is blasted off into space]].

* ''Franchise/TombRaider'': Between [[VideoGame/TombRaider2013 the 2013 reboot]] and [[VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider its sequel]], Sam doesn't return because [[spoiler:Himiko was partially successful in [[DemonicPossession possessing]] her, landing her in a psych ward.]]

* [[WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]] has an almost literal example at the end of WebAnimation/SMG4MovieItsGottaBePerfect, where [[spoiler:after Peach’s Castle is destroyed in order to get rid of the Eldritch Goop, it’s shown that Peach slept through it and is still inside the castle, which itself is inside a massive demonic entity.]]

* ''WebAnimation/PuffinForest'': Inverted [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] at the end of the Malikar storyline. [[BigBad Malikar]] is an immortal who is reborn every time he gets killed and is performing a ritual that would have destroyed the world. The players had spent the campaign searching for a weapon that can permanently kill him. The players confront him with the weapon and disrupt the ritual, but ended up just barely losing the final fight by a single dice roll. This results in the most of the player characters and Malikar getting randomly scattered into the various outer planes. Through sheer luck of the dice, all of the player characters end up in planes on the good side of the great wheel. When Ben rolls the dice to decide where Malikar ended up, he bursts out laughing because he was sent to [[spoiler:Mount Celestia, the plane of LawfulGood and equivalent of Heaven, where he is immediately arrested and imprisoned, removing him as a threat for a long time.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Due to Music/IsaacHayes having a falling-out with the show's staff (which later turned out to be a misunderstanding on the writers' part), "The Return of Chef" wrote Chef out of the show in the absolute ''cruelest'' way possible, first by having him get brainwashed into becoming a child molester, then [[spoiler:suffering a CruelAndUnusualDeath that resulted in him being converted into Darth Chef.]] Despite still being at large, the closest Chef's got to returning thus far was [[spoiler:Darth Chef]] appearing in the opening sequence and [[spoiler:Chef himself briefly being resurrected as a Nazi Zombie in ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'', seemingly [[CanonDiscontinuity ignoring Darth Chef altogether]].]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', John Jameson, a likable and heroic character, gets powers that make him a FlyingBrick and expresses interest in becoming a superhero ally of Spidey. Unfortunately, these powers [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity cause him to become increasingly aggressive and irrational]], which is helped along by Venom attacking him while pretending to be Spider-Man. Spider-Man ends up having to de-power John in order to stop him. When last seen in the show, John is in an asylum and is a broken wreck suffering from power withdrawal, shown to be every bit as crazy as Electro, the most mentally unstable character in the series. Ironically (and appropriately), Eddie Brock ends up with roughly the same fate as him after losing the Venom symbiote again, left as a ranting mess while being hauled off on a stretcher.

** Wrestler Wrestling/BretHart had a disagreement with Wrestling/{{WW|E}}F owner Wrestling/VinceMcMahon as to whether Hart should lose his final match before departing WWF for Wrestling/{{WCW}}, as is the norm in the industry. Moreover, Hart was the WWF champion at the time. Previous [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWF Women's Champion]] [[Wrestling/{{Madusa}} Alundra Blayze]] had left for WCW still holding the belt, and on her first appearance on WCW, she dropped it in a garbage can on live TV, nuking her career in the process. Vince [=McMahon=] had no desire to see a repeat of that with the WWF championship belt, and it was thus of utmost importance for Hart to lose the championship before leaving for WCW. Hart, however, was unwilling to lose in his native Canada and didn't want to give the belt to Michaels, whom he disliked. Hart also had a "reasonable creative control" clause in his contract, meaning he could veto angles he deemed detrimental to his character so long as doing so wouldn't completely derail an ongoing storyline. Hart and [=McMahon=] agreed on a disqualification ending for the match with Hart surrendering the title on the next night's RAW (an alternative to jobbing to Michaels on the PPV that would've kept the storylines intact, thus meeting Hart's contract clause)... but that's not what happened. When Michaels put Hart in a submission hold from which Hart was scripted to escape, [=McMahon=] ordered the bell rung and the match awarded to Hart's opponent Shawn Michaels as though Hart had surrendered, in order to make sure Hart lost the match and his WWF Championship before leaving. The effects of the Montreal Screwjob are still felt over today, and it also led to a RealLifeWritesThePlot situation, as [=McMahon=]'s {{Kayfabe}} character went from nice-guy announcer to scheming politician.
** Bret was perfectly willing to drop the belt to anyone (including Michaels) as long as it was not at the PPV in Canada, as he felt that doing so would destroy his character, plus his dislike for Michaels was (likely) very justified due to Michaels' (likely) actions during the time - which (likely) included drug abuse and unchecked power-tripping egomania[[note]]Shawn has since come clean (in both senses of the word - he's been sober since the early 2000s) about all of this and apologized to pretty much everyone for his actions, including Bret. On camera.[[/note]] - and that Bret was (likely) not going to repeat Blayze's actions. A combination of timing errors (like Bret being unable to get a hold of Eric Bischoff due to him being out on a hunting trip to clarify certain things that might have allowed him to work out a better solution) and the failings of all men involved (though many people will squarely point the finger at Michaels and [=McMahon=] rather then Bret, though he has his part of the blame to shoulder as well) did the rest.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Due to Music/IsaacHayes having a falling-out with the show's staff and leaving the series after "Trapped in the Closet" mocked scientology, "The Return of Chef" wrote Chef out of the show in the absolute ''cruelest'' way possible, first by having him get brainwashed into becoming a child molester, then [[spoiler:suffering a CruelAndUnusualDeath that resulted in him being converted into Darth Chef.]] Despite still being at large, the closest Chef's got to returning thus far was [[spoiler:Darth Chef]] appearing in the opening sequence and [[spoiler:Chef himself briefly being resurrected as a Nazi Zombie in ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'', seemingly [[CanonDiscontinuity ignoring Darth Chef altogether]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Due to the falling out between Music/IsaacHayes and the show's staff and Hayes' death two years later, Chef has yet to return to the show despite [[spoiler:still being at large following his conversion into Darth Chef.]] The closest he's got to returning was [[spoiler:Darth Chef]] appearing in the opening sequence and [[spoiler:briefly being resurrected as a Nazi Zombie in ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth''.]]

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', being intended as the GrandFinale of the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', gives a number of characters this fate (the ones that don't end up dead, at least), [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun stygming any chance at continuing the series]] without having to shift the focus to [[VideoGame/GothamKnights2022 Batman's allies]] or [[VideoGame/SuicideSquadKillTheJusticeLeague the wider DC Universe]]. [[spoiler:Riddler's stuck in prison with his robot factory destroyed and his bank account drained, robbing him of any resources he could use in the future. Scarecrow is reduced to a gibbering, catatonic wreck after being [[HoistByHisOwnPetard subjected to a concentrated injection of his own fear toxin.]] Freeze's sole reason for being a criminal is removed as Nora convinces him to stop trying to save her and let her live out her final days with him. Ra's Al-Ghul, depending on the player's actions, is slowly dying after the Lazarus Pits have finally dried up, and is last seen barely even able to speak and on life support at the police station. Batman himself is either dead or in hiding, but either way, both his and Bruce Wayne's reputations are irreparably destroyed and if he ever returns, it'll never be the same again.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[ComicallyMissingThePoint No! Not Neasden! Anywhere but there!]]]]

** Even before this, Talia Winters had her personality erased and turned evil in the span of one episode, following producer arguments over screentime with actress Andrea Thompson. A throwaway line in a later episode suggests she had been killed and dissected. Following this actor dispute, J. Michael Straczynski was keen to point out that ''every'' character had a possible replacement planned - only for emergencies, of course.

The most common form is for them to suffer rapid CharacterDerailment, often over the course of a single episode. Maybe they're too busy holding onto the IdiotBall to prevent a beloved character getting hurt, or perhaps they even [[MoralEventHorizon did something irredeemably awful themselves]]. Whatever the circumstances, by the end of the episode, they have no choice but to leave town forever to preserve what tattered shreds of dignity they have left and save their friends from the worthless wreck of a human they've become.

* [[ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew]] seemed safe as long as they were in ComicBookLimbo. Unfortunately, when they were brought back in the mid-2000s, their AnimalSuperheroes world had to become darker to reflect the DarkerAndEdgier mainstream DC Universe. As a result, Little Cheese is [[DroppedABridgeOnHim murdered]], and then comes the ''Captain Carrot And the Final Ark'' mini-series. Their world has become uninhabitable, so Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew, and the other anthropomorphic animal superheroes, arrange for an ark to take them to the Justa Lotta Animals' world, Earth C-Minus. However, because of a mishap, not only do they end up in the "main" DC Universe Earth, but they are also turned into non-anthropomorphic animals who can't communicate with Franchise/{{Superman}} and the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}. The mini-series ends with them stuck this way, and the DC heroes not knowing why this ship appeared filled with animals. Fortunately, there's good news: [[spoiler:The Monitor Nix Uotan breaks down that bus to Hell by reverting the Zoo Crew into their original forms in time for the final battle of ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.]]

There's also how Jane herself relinquishes the mantle; [[spoiler:she takes it up to stave off the effects of her cancer, but the kicker is that, every time she transforms, her body reverts to how it was before chemotherapy, to the point where Doctor Strange warns her that, if she "Thors out" once more, she will die. Still, she takes on one last mission in order to stop a rampaging Mangog by [[HurlItIntoTheSun hurling him into the Sun]] while chained to Mjolnir (since any other method of getting rid of him would just end up with him coming back). While Jane does die after Mjolnir gets vaporized, Odin and Thor travel to rescue her soul and bring her back from the gates of Valhalla (where she's just standing because she hesitated), and so she comes back to life, with her cancer in remission, and lets Thor be Thor again -- although, without Mjolnir, he makes due with a variety of enchanted hammers until the climax of ''ComicBook/WarOfTheRealms'' when he has Mjolnir reforged.]]

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Mary Jane Watson once left for a short period of time as to avoid her and Peter getting married. They did so with her returning the engagement ring he gave her and claiming that marriage just isn't her thing, doing so in a rather unsympathetic way.

* A very popular FandomSpecificPlot in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' stories is to have Mineta Minoru expelled by Aizawa at the Quirk Apprehension Test or for his [[LovableSexManiac perverted antics]]. This is especially common with Crossovers and Self-Inserts that put somebody new in Class 1-A, because the class has to stay the same size, and if somebody has to go, it might as well be Mineta. [[AmericansHateTingle Americans hate him]], after all.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Interestingly, Lorne has something akin to this happen, in a case of [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Bad]]. His growing discomfort with the gang's EnemyMine situation, and feeling out of place as the resident comic relief guy in an increasingly dark series, is cemented in the finale. He helps out with Angel's plan to take out the worst bad guys ever -- shooting resident AmoralAttorney[=/=]ArchEnemy Lindsey after they fight off a bunch of demon {{Mooks}}, but makes it quite clear that he's finished with their vigilante shtick, and that this is the last thing--and personal MoralEventHorizon--he's going to do with them. After that, he becomes the force that binds the universe together. He also gets an encore that flips the script, this time ''literally'' in hell. In the ''Angel'' comic series, he gets to be an almost angelic leader of a refuge district of the LA hellscape.
* Spanish sitcom ''Series/AquiNoHayQuienViva'' did this with the character of Paloma Cuesta, who fell into a coma at the end of the second season as the result of a dispute between actress Loles León and the production team. The character remained offscreen but was occasionally referenced, until the decision was finally made to briefly bring her back via a FakeShemp replacement in order to have her KilledOffForReal.

** Ivanova was hastily written out of the series after the actress, Claudia Christian, left under a cloud. This happened during tense re-negotiations with WB and threw the fifth ([[PostScriptSeason unplanned]]) season into utter chaos. Enter Creator/HarlanEllison, who handwaved Ivanova's departure with a TakeThat, saying she left for a better paying job.

* ''Series/HomeAndAway'' has Alex Poulos, who is ostracised by most of the town for the ''[[SarcasmMode heinous crime]]'' of dumping his current girlfriend for his ex, and leaves town in shame. In case viewers didn't get the message, he comes back a few years later, reveals the girl in question has left him, uses his unknowing sister to smuggle drugs, puts his nephew's life in danger by leaving drugs lying around and leaves town in even more shame.
* In ''Series/LandOfTheLost1974'', the first episode of the third season starts with Rick Marshall (played by a double and seen only from the back) falling through a time doorway back home, leaving his kids stranded. Spencer Milligan had a dispute concerning the fact that the cast members' likenesses were being used on merchandising and that they got no share of those royalties. The Kroffts elected to not renew his contract.

** Sabrina Lloyd supposedly didn't return for season four due to behind-the-scenes drama, and her character Wade's fate sure seems to confirm this: she gets taken by the villains to spend the rest of her life being '''used for breeding purposes.''' The way she's brought back is not much friendlier, being kept in a [[BrainInAJar jar with her brain exposed]] to control the same villains' new advanced dimension-hopping machine. She destroys the base in a HeroicSacrifice, but appears to Rembrandt once more afterward, so there's hope she survived... if you can call being trapped in the ruined Kromagg base in a mutilated, AndIMustScream condition "hopeful."

* It's common for a wrestler leaving a company to lose ([[{{Jobber}} "do the job"]]) in their last match there, in order to make their opponent look good. These are not examples of this trope, they're just the norm in the industry. What ''is'' an example is when it's known that a wrestler is planning on leaving for another company, and having them lose repeatedly in order to diminish their potential value. One particular notable example is Wrestling/TheUndertaker, being infamously [[InvincibleHero undefeatable]] at Wrestlemania (previously his winning streak had only been broken once in 25 years, by Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania XXX) for his entire career. While he's made the occasional cameo since then, his second-ever defeat at Wrestlemania XXXIII at the hands of Wrestling/RomanReigns seemingly marked the character's retirement, as The Undertaker left his trademark boots coat and hat in the ring for what seemed to be a "final exit". Ultimately subverted, as the character would return several more times, including winning twice at Wrestlemania 34 and 36 before officially retiring at Survivor Series 2020 on the 30th anniversary of the character's debut.

** Wrestler Wrestling/BretHart had a disagreement with Wrestling/{{WW|E}}F owner Wrestling/VinceMcMahon as to whether Hart should lose his final match before departing WWF for Wrestling/{{WCW}}, as is the norm in the industry. Moreover, Hart was the WWF champion at the time. Previous [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWF Women's Champion]] [[Wrestling/{{Madusa}} Alundra Blayze]] had left for WCW still holding the belt, and on her first appearance on WCW, she dropped the it in a garbage can on live TV, nuking her career in the process. Vince [=McMahon=] had no desire to see a repeat of that with the WWF championship belt, and it was thus of utmost importance for Hart to lose the championship before leaving for WCW. Hart, however, was unwilling to lose in his native Canada and didn't want to give the belt to Michaels, whom he disliked. Hart also had a "reasonable creative control" clause in his contract, meaning he could veto angles he deemed detrimental to his character so long as doing so wouldn't completely derail an ongoing storyline. Hart and [=McMahon=] agreed on a disqualification ending for the match with Hart surrendering the title on the next night's RAW (an alternative to jobbing to Michaels on the PPV that would've kept the storylines intact, thus meeting Hart's contract clause)... but that's not what happened. When Michaels put Hart in a submission hold from which Hart was scripted to escape, [=McMahon=] ordered the bell rung and the match awarded to Hart's opponent Shawn Michaels as though Hart had surrendered, in order to make sure Hart lost the match and his WWF Championship before leaving. The effects of the Montreal Screwjob are still felt over today, and it also led to a RealLifeWritesThePlot situation, as [=McMahon=]'s {{Kayfabe}} character went from nice-guy announcer to scheming politician.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', being intended as the GrandFinale of the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', gives a number of characters this fate (the ones that don't end up dead, at least), [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun stygming any chance at continuing the series]] without having to shift the focus to [[VideoGame/GothamKnights2022 Batman's allies]] or [[VideoGame/SuicideSquadKillTheJusticeLeague the wider DC Universe]]. [[spoiler:Riddler's stuck in prison with his robot factory destroyed and his bank account drained, robbing him of any resources he could use in the future. Scarecrow is reduced to a gibbering, catatonic wreck after being [[HoistByHisOwnPetard subjected to a concentrated injection of his own fear toxin.]] Freeze's sole reason for being a criminal is removed as Nora convinces him to stop trying to save her and let her live out her final days with him. Ra's Al-Ghul, depending on the player's actions, is slowly dying after the Lazarus Pits have finally dried up, and is last seen barely even able to speak and on life support at the police station. Batman himself is either dead or in hiding, but either way both his and Bruce Wayne's reputations are irreparably destroyed and if he ever returns, it'll never be the same again.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/StarControl Star Control 2]]'': The Androsynth suffer this just before the game starts, when their experiments in FTL technology attract the attention of an EldritchAbomination.

* ''WebAnimation/PuffinForest'': Inverted [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] at the end of the Malikar storyline. [[BigBad Malikar]] is an immortal who is reborn every time he gets killed and is performing a ritual that would have destroyed the world. The players had spent the campaign searching for a weapon that can permanently kill him. The players confront him with the weapon and disrupt the ritual, but ended up just barely losing the final fight by a single dice roll. This results in the most of the player characters and Malikar getting randomly scattered into the various outer planes. Through sheer luck of the dice, all of the player character end up in planes on the good side of the great wheel. When Ben rolls the dice to decide where Malikar ended up, he bursts out laughing because he was sent to [[spoiler:Mount Celestia, the plane of LawfulGood and equivalent of Heaven, where he is immediately arrested and imprisoned, removing him as a threat for a long time.]]

* ''Fanfic/DanganPinguino'': Nagito gets disillusioned with the conflict of Hope's Peak Academy versus Daft Capo, as it wasn't the "Hope vs. Despair" conflict he was hoping for. So he sells out his classmates to their enemies, believing this would make their eventual victory "more satisfying". When confronted, he admits what he did [[TheUnapologetic without an ounce of remorse or shame), resulting in his immediate expulsion. With no meaningful connections outside of Hope's Peak (and having completely severed any potential bonds he might have made with his peers), he disappears from the storyline.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VisualPun https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bus_hell_4413.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[ComicallyMissingThePoint No! Not Neasden! Anywhere but there!]]]]

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Mary Jane Watson once left for a short period of time as to avoid her and Peter getting married. They did so with her returning the engagement ring he gave her and claiming that marriage just isn't her thing, doing so in a rather unsympathetic way.
* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': The fate of Erix, the teenage pirate. The other three pirates form a well-balanced ComicTrio with a good joke template (after a failure, Pegleg says a Latin aphorism, Baba makes a pun on it and Redbeard yells at them both to shut up), leaving Erix with nothing to do. Since he isn't funny, his own dad is forced to sell him into slavery offscreen, and Erix is never heard from again.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Xavin poses as Karolina and offers herself up to the Majesdanians, who had demanded that Karolina return with them to answer for her parents' crimes. The odds that Xavin, a Skrull, might be spared if the Majesdanians ever discover the deception are not exactly favorable...
** In ''ComicBook/RunawaysRainbowRowell'', it's established early on that Klara was taken away by child services after the events of ''ComicBook/AvengersArena''. {{Subverted|Trope}} when it turns out that Klara is happy with her new foster parents, although it took some time for her to accept them because they were a gay couple. {{Iron|y}}ic, given how foster care has been portrayed as a FateWorseThanDeath in this franchise, and given that Klara is precisely the sort of kid who would ''not'' do well in the system...

* In ''Fanfic/DanganPinguino'', Nagito gets disillusioned with the conflict of Hope's Peak Academy against Daft Capo, seeing that it wasn't the "Hope Vs Despair" conflict he was looking for, and desserts his classmates. He then proceeds to remorselessly sell them out the same enemy they're up against with, feeling that their eventual victory would feel "more satisfying" if there were obstacles on the way. After getting confronted (and admitting it with zero remorse or shame), he is then logically expelled from the school and hasn't been seen again since. Because he didn't have any meaningful connections before attending Hope's Peak (and, thanks to his last stunt, ended up severing all of the potential ones with his peers), it's highly likely he doesn't do well by himself after that

* In ''Series/TheBlacklist,'' Samar had to be written out after her actress left, so the writers gave her a degenerative brain disease caused by her near-drowning at the end of season 5. After half a season of increasingly severe memory issues and aphasia, Mossad takes out a hit on her because they believe her condition has made her a liability, forcing her to go on the run and leave the rest of the task force behind—including Aram, whom she’d planned on marrying. Unlike many examples, Samar was not TheScrappy; she was a fairly well-liked character, and the decision to leave her alone, on the run, and disabled from brain damage baffled many viewers (especially because Liz had survived a year-long coma with seemingly no consequences not even a season prior.) Fan dissatisfaction with her ending likely contributed to the unpopularity of her replacement, Alina Park.

* ''Franchise/{{Degrassi}}''

** Nicky gets sent away to max, as did Sophia, but [[spoiler: both of them [[TheBusCameBack come back next season.]]]]
** In season 4, [[spoiler: Lolly]] got sent to psych.

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': Happens to Moira Rose InUniverse. After contract negotiations break down and her treacherous co-star Clifton Sparks pushes for her firing, Moira's ''Sunrise Bay'' character vomits a demon into a toilet and then drowns. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Then is shredded.]] When Moira is invited back for a reboot, her daughter Alexis does some sleuthing with the help of the {{Fandom}}, discovers Clifton's part in her mom's firing, and encourages her to demand what she is worth.

* ''[[VideoGame/StarControl Star Control 2]]'': The Androsynth suffer this just before the game starts, when their experiments in FTL technology attract the attention of an EldritchAbomination.
* ''VideoGame/CrashMindOverMutant'': While the other villains either run off or are shooed away by Aku Aku, Nina Cortex gets sent to Evil Public School against her will by her uncle Neo Cortex, out of retaliation on behalf of him being betrayed by her in the previous game.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', being intended as the GrandFinale of the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', gives a number of characters this fate (the ones that don't end up dead, at least), [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun styming any chance at continuing the series]] without having to shift the focus to [[VideoGame/GothamKnights2022 Batman's allies]] or [[VideoGame/SuicideSquadKillTheJusticeLeague the wider DC Universe]]. [[spoiler: Riddler's stuck in prison with his robot factory destroyed and his bank account drained, robbing him of any resources he could use in the future. Scarecrow is reduced to a gibbering, catatonic wreck after being [[HoistByHisOwnPetard subjected to a concentrated injection of his own fear toxin.]] Freeze's sole reason for being a criminal is removed as Nora convinces him to stop trying to save her and let her live out her final days with him. Ra's Al-Ghul, depending on the player's actions, is slowly dying after the Lazarus Pits have finally dried up, and is last seen barely even able to speak and on life support at the police station. Batman himself is either dead or in hiding, but either way both his and Bruce Wayne's reputations are irreparably destroyed and if he ever returns, it'll never be the same again.]]

* ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie''. Cyndi [[spoiler: is committed to a psychiatric hospital]] at the end of the "Missing Person" arc; her very last appearance shows [[spoiler: her parents driving into the hospital's front entrance as she asks where they're taking her]].

\\

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20041217#.VvHTP-KLTIV Moloch von Zinzer]] -- although his bus comes back four years later (or a couple of months later in comic-time), it doesn't change the fact that he was sent to the ''sentient'' [[MalevolentArchitecture Castle Heterodyne]] for being part of a plot that he had no idea existed. It's so bad that when he asks for help from the guy that roped him into the plot in the first place, he is given a ''[[CyanidePill poison pill]]'' that will kill him instantly because it's better than living in the Castle. Nonetheless, he [[ActionSurvivor manages without it]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', being intended as the GrandFinale of the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', gives a number of characters this fate (the ones that don't end up dead, at least), [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun styming any chance at continuing the series]] without having to shift the focus to [[VideoGame/GothamKnights Batman's allies]] or [[VideoGame/SuicideSquadKillTheJusticeLeague the wider DC Universe]]. [[spoiler: Riddler's stuck in prison with his robot factory destroyed and his bank account drained, robbing him of any resources he could use in the future. Scarecrow is reduced to a gibbering, catatonic wreck after being [[HoistByHisOwnPetard subjected to a concentrated injection of his own fear toxin.]] Freeze's sole reason for being a criminal is removed as Nora convinces him to stop trying to save her and let her live out her final days with him. Ra's Al-Ghul, depending on the player's actions, is slowly dying after the Lazarus Pits have finally dried up, and is last seen barely even able to speak and on life support at the police station. Batman himself is either dead or in hiding, but either way both his and Bruce Wayne's reputations are irreparably destroyed and if he ever returns, it'll never be the same again.]]

** Oz is written out by a StoryArc which ends with him acting amazingly stupid, breaking Willow's heart, and killing (a villain, but this is a show where ThouShaltNotKill). His encore episode later on is barely any kinder.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Mary Jane Watson once left for a short period of time as to avoid her and Peter getting married. They did so with her returning the engagement ring he gave her and claiming that marriage just isn't her thing, doing so in a rather unsympathetic way. The anti-marriage fans [[NeverLiveItDown still haven't]] [[FanDumb forgiven her]].

So an actor's walked out of the show, leaving you and the other writers in a bit of a sticky spot. Or maybe one of your characters has (for whatever reason(s)) become TheScrappy. You don't want to [[McLeaned kill their character off]], but you're still feeling pretty malicious, and just having them PutOnABus isn't nasty enough. The solution is to put them on a Bus to Hell: write them out in a way so mean-spirited that it's clear to all and sundry that you're doing it out of malice and spite.

This trope is for specifically non-fatal examples. If a character dies under these circumstances, then he has been McLeaned.

* Spanish sitcom ''Series/AquiNoHayQuienViva'' did this with the character of Paloma Cuesta, who fell into a coma at the end of the second season as the result of a dispute between actress Loles León and the production team. The character remained offscreen but was occasionally referenced, until [[McLeaned the decision]] was finally made to briefly bring her back via a FakeShemp replacement in order to have her KilledOffForReal.

** ''ComicBook/{{Thor}}'': How did Marvel take Thor out of the picture when they decided that they wanted to [[AffirmativeActionLegacy replace him with Jane Foster]]? By having him [[TraumaCongaLine become unworthy and unable to lift his hammer, then lose his powers and his left arm]], ''then''' try to reclaim his hammer only to discover that there's someone else wielding it, having to relinquish his signature weapon and his name as a result.\\

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', John Jameson, a likable and heroic character, gets powers that make him a FlyingBrick and expresses interest in becoming a superhero ally of Spidey. Unfortunately, these powers [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity cause him to become increasingly aggressive and irrational]], which is helped along by Venom attacking him while pretending to be Spider-Man. Spider-Man ends up having to de-power John in order to stop him. When last seen in the show, John is in an asylum and is a broken wreck suffering from power withdrawal, shown to be every bit as crazy as Electro, the most mentally unstable character in the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Daolon Wong, who tried to wield the greatest dark power to become the Chans' greatest enemy and spent a couple of seasons [[EvilIsNotAToy succumbing to his mistakes]], comes across an artifact that allows a person to revisit their past and planned to undo his defeats. Thanks to some interference from Jackie Chan, he and Daolon Wong wind up during the first time the Dark Hand's Enforcers visited Uncle's antique store, and Jackie tricks them by claiming Daolon Wong knows about the shield (with the rooster talisman), and they take him to Valmont for questioning. There is no indication that he ''ever'' escapes this fate.

* In ''Fanfic/DanganPinguino'', Nagito gets disillusioned with the conflict of Hope's Peak Academy against Daft Capo, seeing that it wasn't the "Hope Vs Despair" conflict he was looking for, and desserts his classmates. He then proceeds to sell them out the same enemy they're up against with, feeling that their eventual victory would feel "more satisfying" if there were obstacles on the way. He is then logically expelled from the school and hasn't been seen again since. Because he didn't have any meaningful connections before attending Hope's Peak (and, thanks to his last stunt, ended up severing ''all'' of the potential ones with his peers), it's highly likely he doesn't do well by himself after that.

* It's common for a wrestler leaving a company to lose ([[{{Jobber}} "do the job"]]) in their last match there, in order to make their opponent look good. These are not examples of this trope, they're just the norm in the industry. What ''is'' an example is when it's known that a wrestler is planning on leaving for another company, and having them lose repeatedly in order to diminish their potential value. One particular notable example is Wrestling/TheUndertaker, being infamously [[InvincibleHero undefeatable]] at Wrestlemania (previously his winning streak had only been broken once in 25 years, by Brock Lesnar) for his entire career. While he's made the occasional cameo since then, his second-ever defeat at Wrestlemania at the hands of Wrestling/RomanReigns officially marked the end of his career.

* ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' accomplishes this with a particularly vindictive BusCrash. After some controversy revolving around Creator/CharlieSheen that led to him leaving the show, the next season premiere not only kills off his character off-screen, but spends the entire episode effectively pissing on his grave, with events like a funeral attended by many of Charlie's ex-girlfriends who heckle the funeral, [[AshesToCrashes Alan spilling Charlie's ashes all over the floor]], and the heavy implication that Charlie's StalkerWithACrush Rose killed him [[KarmaHoudini and got away with it.]] [[spoiler: The series finale joins in on it too, revealing that Charlie was actually alive this whole time but was locked up in Rose's basement, only to kill him off again in the last few minutes of the series by dropping a piano on top of him after he escapes.]]