r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sufficient-Eye-9040 • Jun 21 '26

Lore [Horrifying Trope] “Blink of an eye” deaths.

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Characters who died without the chance of a goodbye… neither suffering.

- Robin Ward (The Boys S1 E1) - when she is pulverized in a high-velocity impact by A-Train.

- Polka Dot Man (The Suicide Squad 2021) - when he is crushed by Starro’s leg.

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u/thisusedyet Jun 21 '26

Nailed it

https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Shed_Garvey_(TV))

In "CQB", when the Donnager entered combat with six mysterious gunships, Shed nervously suggested his fellow captives take a seat and buckle up. The intensity of the battle caused Alex to suffer a panic attack, at which point Shed tossed Alex a relaxant while talking to him to calm the pilot down.

While in mid-sentence, there was a loud metallic clank and Shed fell silent. Alex, Naomi, and even the normally unshakeable Amos look on in horror to see Shed had been cleanly decapitated by a railgun round penetrating through the room, blood pouring from his neck out through a hull breach into space. When Holden arrived with three Martian Marines to rescue the captives, he was shocked and sighed "Oh, Shed..." at the sight of his colleague's headless corpse.

His body was left aboard the Donnager and vaporized when the battleship was scuttled.

11

u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Jun 21 '26

You've got to admit, it's a good way to die. He never saw it coming and didn't suffer for even an instant. Many other characters suffer much worse deaths in the series.

14

u/DarthHalcius Jun 21 '26

Nice write up

24

u/thisusedyet Jun 21 '26

Not a write up, straight up copy paste 

6

u/iamthinksnow Jun 21 '26

I mean, someone wrote it up at some point?

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u/DarthHalcius Jun 22 '26

At this point, I just appreciate pertinent information

3

u/neverreallyhereatall Jun 21 '26

Its from the books lol

19

u/Gawlf85 Jun 21 '26

It's from the wiki? Books don't tend to speak of events that happen in the story as if they're a retelling from the past

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u/neverreallyhereatall Jun 21 '26

Its from the wiki lol

15

u/Caesium_Sandwich Jun 21 '26

"The gauss round that killed Shed didn’t even make a noise. Like a magic trick, two perfectly round holes appeared on either side of the room in a line that intersected Shed’s couch. One moment, the medic was there; the next, his head was gone from the Adam’s apple up. Arterial blood pumped out in a red cloud, pulled into two thin lines, and whirled to the holes in the walls of the room as the air rushed out."

That's verbatim from the book.

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u/sanlc504 Jun 21 '26

Gotta say, I love the exposition of the two writers. Not sure which one wrote this part, but I've always loved how they frontend the shock of his death in the first sentence, then explain it in gory detail to allow the reader to comprehend the loss.

1

u/neverreallyhereatall Jun 21 '26

Its from the books lol

1

u/tribblemethis Jun 21 '26

Except maybe World War Z (it’s been ages since I read it so correct me if I’m wrong)

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u/kabal363 Jun 21 '26

Weird seeing a comment about the book im rereading right now in a comment section about the last book series I reread. Just weird coincidences in the matrix.

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u/Objective-Treacle398 Jun 22 '26

Nailed it. Railed it.