Died in Ignorance

In his last moments, Gregory Edgeworth was still unconscious. He died, never knowing who had shot him. Later, he spoke through a medium, blaming Mr. Yogi. He was fooled! It was the perfect crime! Tsk tsk tsk... Who would have thought another man would have come to open that elevator door?

— Manfred von Karma, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Characters die all the time. They can be killed, sacrifice themselves for a greater cause, die of catastrophic injury, or simply die of natural causes. But no matter how these characters die, dying before The Reveal will almost always make it more tragic. This trope generally occurs when a character dies part-way through a story before any mysteries have been unravelled. After the climactic revelation of a fundamental truth the characters were not aware of before, both the characters and the audience may look back on the departed one and curse the fact they died without ever finding out the truth. If a sacrifice or other tragic end occurred, it will end up being Harsher in Hindsight, especially if it is realised the death never had to occur at all or the character died believing they were a monster. Even if the death was unpreventable, it nevertheless can evoke great sadness. The surviving characters' reactions to the death in this new context is given prominence, and can end up breaking everyone through their despair at the unfairness of it all. If such circumstances were set up and revealed by a villain, this can be their Moral Event Horizon.

It should be noted that this trope can occur with villain characters as well. In these cases, it is far less likely to be sad, as the real facts of the situation usually benefit our protagonists. A villain may die believing they have won when in actuality they haven't, or, in rare cases, the opposite. Additionally, for this trope to apply the death of the character must be related to the actual reveal; it is not enough for a character to die early on and then an unrelated reveal later. In other words, the fact the dead character never knew the truth must actually be meaningful in regard to their death.

It is almost exclusively Played for Drama, although sometimes it can be Played for Laughs if it is a completely ridiculous reveal. It can be subverted if the character does somehow find out the truth in the afterlife, or even comes back to life, but this can have the effect of negating the heartbreak experienced by the characters and audience since such reactions mainly come from how the deceased will never know the whole story.

A sub-trope of Dramatic Irony. Compare Poor Communication Kills, which this is a potential literal outcome of if they never figure it out. Can overlap with Let Them Die Happy, for when a dying character is told a lie to comfort them in death which invokes this trope. May turn a Heroic Sacrifice into a Senseless Sacrifice once significant information is revealed. If a team has held it together thus far since the death of their friend, this trope can result in them Losing the Team Spirit, at least temporarily. Can result in Afterlife Angst if such exists in the story's universe. May be used to initiate a Despair Event Horizon and/or Heroic BSoD. The character's dying belief may be a Tragic Dream. Someone to Remember Him By may be invoked if said character died without knowing their lover is pregnant.

Since this is a Death Trope, along with being heavily entwined with The Reveal, spoilers will be unmarked. Please be cautious while reading.

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MAJOR SPOILER WARNING. ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Attack on Titan: Erwin Smith, 13th Commander of the Survey Corps, badly desires to know what is outside of the wall and what caused humanity's downfall at the hands of the eponymous Titans. Otherwise an "I Did What I Had to Do"-style Pragmatic Hero, he eventually has a Heel Realization while sacrificing his troops in pursuit of that information and then makes a Heroic Sacrifice to pull them out without ever getting to know the truth. While the series has many Characters Dropping Like Flies before (and after) The Reveal, Smith is notable (and all the more tragic) as learning the truth was essentially his modus operandi.
• Death Note: In his final moments, Soichiro Yagami gets a look at his son's face with the Shinigami eyes. Seeing Light's lifespan above his name allows him to die believing for certain that his son is not Kira, even though at that point, Light had only temporarily ceded ownership of the notebook to someone else.
• Dragon Ball: Although Raditz is otherwise a spineless Dirty Coward, after he's fatally wounded by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, he dies with a smirk on his face, confident that his fellow Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa, will resurrect him with the Dragon Balls when they arrive on Earth. While Nappa expresses a passing interest in doing so, Vegeta overrules him immediately, and thus Raditz's soul remains damned to Hell forever.
• One Piece:
  • Ace dies believing he and Luffy's brother Sabo had died in their childhood, and that his death would leave Luffy all by himself. It's revealed later on that Sabo was alive but amnesiac. Sadly, it was only seeing the news of Ace being killed in Marineford that caused Sabo to regain his memories and eventually reunite with Luffy.
  • After failing to defeat Kaido in battle, Oden and Toki give their lives to ensure the survival of the Akazaya Nine, Toki using her time travel powers to fling them into the future, to lead an uprising to defeat Kaido and overthrow the shogun Orochi twenty years hence. The two died not knowing it only got to that point because one of the Akazaya Nine was a spy for Orochi, and Toki accidentally undermined her own prophecy by sending said spy into the future to continue sabotaging the heroes' efforts.
• Tokyo Ghoul: Ginshi Shirazu is mortally wounded creating an opening for Urie to kill their opponent. Though Urie and Saiko are by his side, Shirazu's so injured that he loses his ability to feel, see, or hear, so he has no idea his friends are beside him, trying to comfort him, causing him to believe he's dying alone.
• Transformers: Energon: Sixshot vows revenge on the murderer of his brother, Shockblast. Snowcat unwittingly claims the culprit was Optimus Prime (because "Who else?") when in reality it was Megatron via Unicron's power after Shockblast pulled a failed coup. Sixshot allies with the Decepticons to get back at Optimus, though his fanatical zeal and the usual Bad Boss tendencies of Megatron (now Galvatron) lead to the two clashing repeatedly anyway. Sixshot ultimately wounds and almost kills Galvatron to claim Optimus for himself, though Galvatron recovers superpowered, and kills Sixshot, who never figures out the truth.

Fan Works

• Frozen Wight: Arc Villain Adrian Dale was a former ice harvester who went mad after he outlived his daughter Emma thanks to her freezing to death when Elsa locked Arendelle in winter. This makes him deranged enough to try to kill Anna so that Elsa won't have any family left. By the end of his arc, Adrian ends up falling into a freezing lake after trying and failing to kill both sisters and ultimately decides to let himself drown instead of letting Elsa save him. After his death, Anna and Elsa find out why he went so mad, and towards the end of the story, find out that Emma's death wasn't Elsa's doing — it was Daniel the wight, a former lover of Adrian's wife, who made her sick by freezing her head (purely because he was furious that his old love had married and had a child with someone else, and Elsa's winter just jump-started her freezing to death. Adrian fell into insanity, tried to commit regicide, and actually did commit suicide, leaving his wife a widow, over something that wasn't even the fault of his queen, but of his wife's psychotic former boyfriend, and he never lived long enough to find this out!

Films — Animation

• Big Hero 6: Tadashi performs a Heroic Sacrifice when he decides to race back into the burning exhibition building to save Dr. Callaghan; the fire explodes just as he does. The Reveal that Dr. Callaghan had Hiro's micro-bots which sealed him from the fire (and is also the Big Bad) turns Tadashi's sacrifice into a senseless one, which absolutely shatters Hiro. This results in Hiro removing Baymax's medical personality, turning him into a killing machine.
• The Book of Life: Manolo is bitten and killed by a snake that was going to kill Maria; unbeknownst to him, the snake was set on him deliberately by Xibalba so he could win his bet on who would marry Maria. Since this movie has an afterlife, Manolo finds Xibalba and is essentially told the snake was set on him, which he obviously doesn't take well, thus making it his mission to find La Muerte and essentially tattle on Xibalba to her. Needless to say, when La Muerte finds out, she makes her anger at her husband clear.
• Coco: Both Hector and Imelda qualify. Hector died without knowing the true cause of death and that Ernesto betrayed him. Imelda lived the majority of her life believing Hector abandoned her and their daughter, thus leading to her hatred of music and setting the plot of the film in motion. Subverted later in the film as both Hector and Imelda in the afterlife discover the truth of what happened with help from Miguel, and they eventually reconcile.
• The Incredibles: Most of dead supers who fought the Omnidroids, except for Gaser Beam, likely never knew that they were being led to their deaths by a genocidal maniac who wanted to kill all supers, exploiting their desires to relive the Glory Days of when Superheroes were legal. On top of that, they all likely died in horrific ways considering the robots are programmed with malicious intent, as seen when V. 8 tried to literally pull Mr. Incredible apart and push him into lava.
• The Prince and the Pauper: The king passes away about halfway through the film without knowing that two important figures in his life are not who they seem:
  • Pete, the captain of the guard, is using the king's poor health and lack of awareness as an excuse to heavily tax the townspeople and keep it all for himself. Worse still, he's claiming that the king is the one who ordered these taxes, slandering the king's name.
  • Mickey, the Pauper, is posing as the Prince. The king imparts his dying wishes to a lookalike of his actual son.

Films — Live-Action

• Bicentennial Man: Andrew is literally on his deathbed watching television with his wife waiting to hear if the UN will grant him personhood. The audience sees the announcement that he is in fact declared a human being, but then we and his wife turn to see that he died somewhere during the statement. She and the nurse wonder if he heard it, but are hopeful that he did.
• Final Destination 3: Played straight by Carrie and intentionally inverted by Wendy. Kevin tells Wendy that he was going to propose to Carrie before her death in the rollercoaster accident. Wendy, on the other hand, knows that Carrie was planning to break up with Kevin, as she told her just before the accident. She keeps this from him.
• Ghost (1990): After his death, Sam learns that his killer, Willy Lopez, was hired by his best friend, Carl, to mug him.
• The Invisible Man (2020): Cecilia's abusive boyfriend Adrian uses an invisibility suit to turn Cecilia's sister Emily against her by sending her an insulting email from Cecilia's laptop. Cecilia discovers evidence proving the invisibility suit is real and is about to reveal this to Emily at a restaurant, but Adrian slashes Emily's throat with a knife before she can learn that Cecilia is innocent, and Cecilia is framed for her murder.
• Kid Detective (2020): The mayor committed suicide after his daughter, Gracie's, disappearance around twenty years ago. This robs him of discovering, in the present day, that Gracie is not dead but was kept as a Bunker Woman and, not only is she still alive, but she has a teenage daughter.
• Knives Out: Plays a significant role in the film. Harlan killed himself believing he was going to die in minutes from his nurse Marta accidentally giving him a lethal dose of morphine, having mistaken it for Toradol. Harlan had made Marta his sole heir to cut out his worthless family, and even an accidental death would be grounds for them to contest it. However, it is later revealed that Harlan's grandson Ransom (aware of the will) switched the morphine and Toradol and took the antidote, meaning Marta really would have given Harlan the lethal dose of morphine had she read the labels. However, the bottles dropped, and Marta, being an experienced nurse for Harlan, was able to subconsciously recognize the density of the correct medication without reading the label, only believing she had made a mistake reading the label after the fact. Unbeknownst to him, Harlan was not on the brink of death and would be alive and well had he not believed he was, rendering his death a Senseless Sacrifice.
• A Million Ways to Die in the West: Clinch dies before Albert can explain that the bullet he shot him with was a blank he filled with snake venom. He's quite disappointed.
• The Mist: Used for one of the harshest Downer Endings in recent memory. After escaping the supermarket where they've been hiding and running out of gas, the main characters decide to kill themselves rather than be eaten by monsters. David shoots the remaining survivors—including his eight-year-old son—and leaves his car to be taken...and is immediately met by a U.S. military convoy that's clearing the titular mist with flamethrowers. Turns out that the Army is winning against the otherworldly creatures and already working to restore peace—and David learns this literally seconds after he's killed everyone else in his car.
• Picnic at Hanging Rock: Sarah kills herself and never gets to know that her long-lost brother has been around her somewhere close for quite a while. If they had found each other, her life could have changed for the better.
• Silent Night (2021): Exaggerated in the closing minutes. Every single major character commits suicide before the poisonous gas rolls over and kills them excruciatingly. If they had only waited, they would've learned that it doesn't, and survived.
• At the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a defeated Khan decides to pull a Taking You with Me rather than surrender to Kirk. Khan succumbs to his injuries shortly before the Enterprise manages to warp to safety, and he thus dies believing that he won.
• Subverted in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, as Juliet wakes up and touches Romeo's face just as Romeo has consumed poison, believing Juliet to be dead. He visibly realises his mistake as he dies in her arms. Once Juliet in turn figures out what's just happened, she picks up Romeo's gun and shoots herself in the head.

Literature

• The Great Gatsby: Towards the end of the novel, it is left ambiguous whether Gatsby really believed that Daisy would call him, but he has some hope as he told the butler to let him know if anyone called. Nick believed he didn't, but he has proved himself to be an Unreliable Narrator throughout the novel, and therefore it is left up in the air.
• Kindred: Alice takes her own life, believing that Rufus has sold her remaining children. It's revealed that Rufus only sent the children to stay with relatives to temporarily scare and punish Alice, and meant to reveal the truth and bring them back eventually.
• In The Lord of the Rings, Denethor goes mad, tries to kill his son, and then commits suicide after he sees in his palantir that the enemy is about to receive reinforcements in the form of a large Umbar fleet about to arrive. Minutes after his death, the fleet arrives and reinforcements do land. Gondor reinforcements, led by Aragorn.
• Never Let Me Go: Ruth dies believing that Kathy and Tommy will be together through the deferrals, a rumored process that would allow clones who can prove they are really in love to live out a few years together before their organs are harvested. It is later found out by Kathy and Tommy that deferrals never existed at all, and was at most a Tragic Dream created by the clones. Kathy reflects on this and decides that it was best that Ruth died believing they could be happy together for a time.
• Of Mice and Men: Overlaps with Let Them Die Happy. After Lenny has run away following his Accidental Murder of Curley's wife, George runs ahead of the angry mob to find Lennie at the lake, the place where George told him to go if he got into trouble. George invokes this trope as he talks to Lennie about their dream of the farm, and he falsely reassures him that he is not in any trouble, and they can go get their farm right at that moment. George makes sure Lennie is staring at the lake and not at himself, so he can die with the hope of a future that will never come, rather than knowing his only friend is about to kill him.
• Shadows of the Empire: At one point midway through the story, Luke and Dash assist the Bothans with an assault on the Imperial freighter holding the plans to the second Death Star. During the battle, the freighter launches a missile attack on the Bothans which Dash tries to destroy, but misses, resulting in the "many Bothans died" line by Mon Mothma mentioned in Return of the Jedi and a brief Heroic BSoD by Dash. After Dash is seemingly killed by his ship getting hit by debris from Xizor's exploding skyhook in the final battle, Luke learns from Wedge in the aftermath that Dash didn't miss, and that the missile was in fact one of the Empire's new diamond-boron-armored ones and nothing Dash could have hit it with could've stopped it.
• The Trial: A rare example where The Reveal is never given to Josef K. or the reader. The first sentence immediately sets up that K. has been arrested, having no idea what crime he has committed or why he is on trial. In the beginning, he makes attempts to find out, as anyone would, but, in Kafka's style, settles with the absurd reality of it and attempts to find a defence, despite not knowing what is being defended. Overall, nothing is truly achieved and K. manages to lose his defence. The novel ends as absurdly as it began, with K. being taken away by two men in opera clothes and shot in the head. The last thought he has is his incredulity at being treated 'like a dog'. This is Kafka, after all.
• Warrior Cats:
  • Defied by Yellowfang. She tells Brokentail his true parentage, that she is his mother, as she kills him with deathberries, so he can die knowing he was the result of a forbidden affair. He refuses to believe her, however, although he likely found out its truth in the afterlife.
  • Half-Moon lived a long life, waiting for Jay's Wing to return to her, never knowing where he went or why, and died alone. Subverted in the afterlife, however, as she becomes aware that Jay's Wing is Jayfeather. Due to time travel shenanigans, it is unclear whether the Jay's Wing in the past was always controlled by Jayfeather, although it is likely considering it is said Jayfeather led them to the mountains and overall is responsible for the existence of the clans.

Live-Action TV

• Better Call Saul: Howard's is an especially tragic case. His life and image were actively and maliciously being destroyed by Saul and Kim for fun. He managed to deduce that they were doing this to him, and goes to their apartment to confront them. He is shot in the head by Lalo mid-sentence, without ever knowing what he was doing there or what Saul and Kim had gotten themselves into. Yet, despite everything they did to him, at the end Howard still tries to defuse the situation and protect Saul and Kim. An inversion also occurs: Howard dies knowing who ruined his life, but the façade is kept up by Saul and Kim even after his death, deciding to frame his death as a suicide. Due to them, everyone remembers him not as a great lawyer and friend, but as a drug addict and sex maniac. This is only broken by Kim much later when she tells Howard's estranged wife the truth of what happened.
• Dark (2017): Over the course of season 2, Egon begins to understand that Time Travel might exist and it's somehow connected to the caves. When he tries to alert the police, he's interrupted and accidentally killed by Claudia, before he could learn that he really had the right idea.
• Doctor Who: Played for Horror in "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances". The Empty Child of the title, Jamie, was killed in a World War II bombing raid before he could find out who his mother was. Because of that, what's left of him, empowered by alien Nanogenes, becomes obsessed with finding his "mummy", unwittingly spreading his affliction throughout London. Jamie's mother revealing herself becomes the key to bringing him back and stopping the infection, subverting the trope.
• Niles Caulder spends the first two seasons of Doom Patrol (2019) doing increasingly unethical things to try and prevent a fated battle between his young daughter Dorothy and the monstrous Candlemaker, who has vowed to battle her to determine the fate of all reality. Eventually, Niles' bad acts catch up with him and he dies just after Dorothy experiences her first period, triggering the start of the battle. Dorothy faces the Candlemaker alone... and wins, because she manages to out-think the Candlemaker and force him to surrender without violence. Niles destroyed the lives of multiple people to protect Dorothy because it never occurred to him that Dorothy might be able to protect herself.
• Game of Thrones: A lot of people die without discovering who Jon Snow's mother is when it could have substantially changed things for them; namely, that he wasn't Ned Stark's bastard son, but the legitimate son of Ned's sister Lyanna and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. (Lyanna also wasn't kidnapped by Rhaegar, but willingly eloped with him).
  • Maester Aemon died believing he and Daenerys were the last Targaryens, despairing that Daenerys believed herself to be without family and he couldn't reach her. Aemon never knew that Jon, with whom he had formed a close, grandfatherly relationship, was actually a Targaryen too.
  • Ned's wife Catelyn dies not knowing that her husband was never unfaithful to her and that her resentment for Jon was misplaced.
  • Jon's uncle Viserys Targaryen spent most of his life, right up until his death, banging on about being the "rightful king" of the Seven Kingdoms (despite being utterly unfit for the position). It becomes even more ironic when it turns out Viserys was never even the true Targaryen heir in the first place, as Jon was ahead of him in the line of succession.
  • Robert Baratheon died believing that the only good thing he ever had going for him was his betrothed Lyanna and that Rhaegar took her away from him. It turns out that Lyanna didn't even return his love and willingly ran off with Rhaegar. Robert also never knew his best friend had hidden Lyanna and Rhaegar's son from him, which was for the best given Robert vowed to wipe out all the Targaryens.
• Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger: Boccowaus dies without ever realizing that he was actually being manipulated by a god-like entity or finding out why his beloved pet Gege (who was possessed by said entity) suddenly betrayed him.
• The Missing (2014): In Season 2, Sophie's mother commits suicide in front of Baptiste because of her daughter's disappearance and her suspicion that her husband, Sophie's father, may be involved. This prevents her from finding out that he was not, her daughter was actually alive, and she has a young granddaughter.

Myths & Religion

• Classical Mythology: Before sending Theseus to Crete to try ending their country's annual tribute of sacrificial victims to the Minotaur, Aegeus made him promise that upon his return, Theseus would change his ship's black sails for white ones, so that he would know he had survived. Sadly, upon his return, Theseus, for differing reasons Depending on the Writer, forgot to change the colour of the sails, and Aegeus, seeing the black sails from afar, immediately assumed the worst and threw himself off a cliff and drowned, without learning that his son/stepson had come home alive after all.

Theatre

• Romeo and Juliet: Romeo commits suicide by ingesting poison believing that Juliet is dead, not knowing that Juliet was only Faking the Dead as part of a plan for the both of them to finally be together. When she uncovers this, she despairs with a lengthy monologue and kisses Romeo hoping some of the poison will still be on his lips with the ambition to be Together in Death. And when that doesn't work, she's Driven to Suicide by stabbing herself with Romeo's dagger instead.
• Just barely subverted towards the end of West Side Story, not soon enough to prevent the tragedy. Star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria plan to leave the city together. As Maria prepares to meet Tony at Doc's in order to put their plan in motion, she is detained by the police for questioning about her brother's death and thus sends Anita to tell Tony that she will be late. Unfortunately, Anita is intercepted by the Jets, who attempt to rape her in retaliation for the death of Riff, and she angrily declares that Maria isn't coming because Chino shot her dead. Despondent at the supposed loss of his love, Tony runs out and goads Chino into killing him... just before Maria shows up to hold him in her arms as he dies.

Video Games

• Halo: Reach: At the end of the campaign mission, "Long Night of Solace," Jorge-052 is forced to stay behind to manually detonate a makeshift bomb and destroy a Covenant Corvette-class ship from the inside and cripple the forces invading Reach. Thankfully he's not around to witness a massive Covenant fleet arriving via slipspace mere seconds later.
  Carter: He gave his life thinking he just saved the planet. We should all be so lucky.
• Jak 3: Damas, Jak's mentor figure, dies after asking Jak to find his long lost son, Mar. After Damas passes a symbol of his house to Jak that Jak previously owned, Jak realizes he is Mar and thus Damas's son. Tragically, Damas dies before Jak can tell him the truth, and Count Veger, the villain responsible for their separation, takes the opportunity to gloat.
  Veger: You were the son of the great warrior Damas. Oh... and he never knew... how delightful.
• Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: In the final murder case, the NDA's chief, Yakou Furio, sacrifices his life to kill Dr. Huesca out of revenge for the death of his wife. Unfortunately, it's later revealed that the one actually responsible for his wife's death was Yomi Hellsmile. As Yuma and Vivia lament near the end of the chapter, the real tragedy was that Furio died before he could ever learn that.
• Until Dawn: Jess, Matt, and Emily can all be killed before any of the characters are told about the presence of wendigo on the mountain; although each might have had a chance to see that what killed them was supernatural, they have no way of knowing what it is. Emily at least gets a good look at her attacker, but she still has no context for what it is.

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa:
  • In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, this happens to pretty much every student who dies regarding why they're in Hope's Peak Academy in the first place. Since all of their memories of their last two years in the academy were wiped, all the victims and killers, aside from Mukuro, never found out they were friends, never found out they locked themselves in the school voluntarily, never found out about the Tragedy, and far more.
  • Somehow, an even more heart-breaking example occurs in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. Kaede, the first Decoy Protagonist of the series, is executed in the first chapter, fully believing that she killed Rantaro and repeatedly calling herself a monster. She dies a Cruel and Unusual Death in the process (which lasted for 8 hours, if the clock behind her and Word of God are to be believed). It's not until near the end of the game that we find out that it was in fact Tsumugi who killed Rantaro, and Kaede's shot put missed him. It is one of the first very hard pills to swallow for both the player and Shuichi, who becomes the most determined he has ever been from this reveal, stopping at nothing to make Kaede's final wish, that they will end the game and be friends, come true.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has an interesting take on this due to the use of spirit channeling to engage in Interrogating the Dead. In an attempt to solve Gregory Edgeworth's murder, investigators consulted Misty Fey to channel Gregory's spirit to ask him who murdered him. Due to the fact that Gregory was unconscious when he was murdered, there was no way for him to actually know the one who murdered him was Manfred von Karma. Gregory ended up accusing courtroom bailiff Yanni Yogi, who Gregory ended up in a physical altercation prior to passing out with due to the latter having a panic attack from the Elevator Failure both of them were caught up in, because the only other plausible suspect was his eight-year-old son Miles.

Western Animation

• The Animals of Farthing Wood: In the second season, a senile Badger mistakes his friend Mole's son Mossy for Mole, who beknownst to him died the previous winter. Mossy pretends to be his father to keep Badger happy until Badger passes away peacefully still unaware of the truth.
• The Dragon Prince: King Harrow of Katolis dies in the third episode at the hand of elven assassins from Xadia sent in direct retaliation for his slaying of thier overlord the Arch-Dragon humans called Thunder and the smashing of his only egg by Harrow's companion the High Mage Viren, he was resigned to his own death for his sins and^note (presuming his step-son Callum's shouts failed to carry over the battle between his guards and the kill-team outside his chambers) comforted by his children being safe at the winter lodge outside of town. Problem A: Viren did not destroy the egg but smuggled it intact to a hidden chamber within Harrow's own castle as a potential source of arcane power. Problem B: His sons, their departure having been delayed by an argument, were chased into the aforementioned chamber by one of the assassins where the lot of them uncovered the still living egg. That assassin, having failed to get her squad leader to call off the mission, made common cause with the princes (ages 14 and 10) to get the egg back to Xadia in the hopes of ending the war and the three fled into the night inviting pursuit by all concerned minutes before Harrow's death.
• Futurama: The devastating fate of Fry's dog Seymour occurs because of this. Fry accidentally falls and activates a cryogenic chamber, where he is trapped for 1000 years until the beginning of the series. This Prequel episode explores his life from before then, notably his close bond with his Canine Companion Seymour. Seymour, and no one else for that matter, ever found out what happened to Fry. What really gets the tears going is the montage showing how Seymour waited for Fry to return, for years, as the world carries on, the pizza place is shut down, and Seymour grows frailer and frailer until finally he dies from old age. He never moved from his spot as he waited forever for his friend to return.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Gabriel/Hawk Moth dies to the Equivalent Exchange of his wish without learning that his son Adrien was one of the superheroes who opposed him. (He had previously learned this two different times, but both times this led to the destruction of the world, leading to time travel being used to undo the events that led to this discovery.)
• Solar Opposites: Tim attempts to kill Cherie at the end of season one before taking over the Wall. Unbeknownst to him, Cherie not only survives out in the backyard but gives birth to Tim's daughter, which serves as her core motivation going forward for bringing justice to the Wall. By the time Cherie finally makes it back to the Wall, Tim is dying of lead poisoning and deliriously thinks Cherie is just a ghost haunting him for his past misdeeds. He succumbs to the poisoning not even registering that Cherie survived and without being told he has a daughter at all.

Real Life

• A famous example from John Adams on his death bed. His last words were "Thomas Jefferson survives". Unbeknownst to him, Jefferson died on the exact same day as Adams, a few hours earlier than him.
• François Vatel was a 17th-century master of house for Prince Louis II, a French nobleman and relative of King Louis XIV. When the Prince hosted the King at an elaborate 2,000-person banquet, Vatel was in charge of organizing all the logistics and preparation for the food. The thing that finally broke him was a seafood delivery not arriving on the night of the banquet; he was so overcome with the stress and shame of it all that he ran himself through with his sword. His body was found by a servant... who was coming with news that the seafood had arrived.
• The first posthumous Jeff Buckley release was the now Covered Up "Yard of Blonde Girls", originally by the band Pendulum Floors. The song featured a verse for which the lyrics were co-written by Buckley's ex-girlfriend Inger Lorre, which she never told him were written about him.
• This can be many-a-fate for artists who went unrecognised in their life, only for their work to become famous after their deaths. Notable examples include:
  • Vincent van Gogh, who only ever sold one painting during his life, who died in a state of despair with his work unrecognised. Today, he is one of the most famous artists to have ever lived.
  • John Keats, whose work was passed off as childish and obscene by the general public, died at 25 from tuberculosis believing he had failed as a poet. So much so, the inscription on his grave reflects his thoughts: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water". His work grew in popularity after his death, and today he is widely regarded as a poetic genius.

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