History Main / DYINGCURSE

--->'''Tela Vasir''': "You want to judge me? Look in the mirror! Kidnapping kids for biotic death camps! Hell, your own unit on Akuze! And you're working with them! Don't you dare judge me! Don't you..."

* In the French series of historical novels ''TheAccursedKings'', [[TheKnightsTemplar Templar Grand Master]] Jacques de Molay curses the King of France, his minister of Justice and the Pope from his execution pyre. His words : [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "King Phillipe, Knight Guillaume, Pope Clement, by the end of the year I summon you to appear before the tribunal of God to receive your just chastisement! Cursed! Cursed! You will all be cursed to the thirteenth generation of your race!"]]

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', a Death Curse is an actual ability of wizards. When a wizard knows they're about to die, they'll use their last seconds to CastFromHitPoints in an attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe take down the enemy with them]]. One CombatPragmatist notes that the best way to avoid a Death Curse is to kill a wizard with a supersonic sniper rifle so that they wizard doesn't get a chance to react.

* In ''WatershipDown'', it's mentioned that Vervain of Efrafa has received many such curses from prisoners he executed, without being fazed or believing that they held any power. Then he faces [[WaifProphet Fiver]] and his expectations (and the trope) are [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] three times over: First, Fiver isn't cursing Vervain, but genuinely pitying him for his eventual death; second, this unnerves Vervain enough that he chickens out of finishing off Fiver; third, Fiver's prediction comes true, and Vervain dies mere days later.

* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', [[spoiler: Rickard Karstark's final words to Robb Stark before his execution]]:

* As part of its GothicHorror ClicheStorm style, the ''MagicTheGathering'' set ''Innistrad'' includes a new Enchantment subtype called "Curses". One of these, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227075 Curse of Death's Hold]], has flavor text that fits here:

* The ''{{Ravenloft}}'' setting for D&D 3.5 has rules for curses. Laying a curse with your last breath gives a huge bonus to your roll (being a woman or Vistani give bonuses too).
** ''{{Dragonlance}}'''s Lord Soth, who became one of Ravenloft's infamous Darklords, became a Death Knight due to just such a curse, leveled against him by his second wife Isolde as she and their son burned to death as their keep burned down. Specifically, she cursed him to live out the lifetimes of every person to whom he had caused death on the day of the Great Cataclysm, which he had set out to stop before being taken in by three elf-maids, who lied about Isolde's infidelity and told him that she had sent him on this quest to die in order to get rid of him.

* In ''{{The Chronicles of Amber}}'', a dying curse from one of the royals was something with a large amount of magical power.

* Subverted in ''StarWars: Episode III[[ColonCancer :]] RevengeOfTheSith'', but only in that Anakin doesn't die: as he burns alive, good arm and both legs just cut off, and as the flames crackle over his flesh, the newly-minted Darth Vader still manages to scream "'''I HATE YOU!'''" as a direct retort to Obi-Wan's line ''"You were my brother. I loved you. But I could not save you."''

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', The Corinthian is ''very'' careful not to kill Loki because of this trope, instead just choosing to mutilate him, noting that "the dying curse of a deity is a nasty thing".

** Harry himself is on the receiving end of one: [[DyingAlone DIE ALONE!]] That said, he did die alone and came back after a book when he was a ghost. No word if this will happen with his next death.
** Harry's mother Margaret Dresden pulled an impressive one against Lord Raith, King of the [[HornyDevils White Court]] of vampires, after he mortally wounded her with an entropy curse. Knowing that he'd just be replaced by another vampire if she managed to kill him, she instead used her Death Curse to take away his ability to feed, effectively rendering him powerless and crippling the entire White Court as Raith had to give up his expansionist agenda to conceal his new weakness from his numerous [[TheStarscream Starscreams]]. Raith managed to keep the curse's effect secret for nearly three decades, but after Harry found out about it, he exposed it to Raith's eldest daughter Lara, who promptly betrayed him and took control of the White Court for herself, keeping her father as a PuppetKing controlled through incest. {{Squick}}.

* In ''FullMetalAlchemist'' during the annihilation of Ishbal, Roy Mustang corners the injured leader of the Ishballans. Mustang asks if he has something to say and, surrounded by his destroyed city, the old man answers smiling: "I curse you." Then Mustang incinerates him.

* In ''Film/The Adventures of Tintin'', Red Rackham curses Sir Francis Haddock as he sinks with the blown-up ''Unicorn'' declaring, "We will meet again, Haddock! In another time! In another *life*!

* In ''{{Rome}}'', after the death of her son and the extinction of her political cause (partly due to Atia's machinations), Servilia goes to Atia's house with a knife and waits until Atia comes out. Then, with the full attention of everybody around, she curses Atia to have nothing but "bitterness and despair" for the rest of her life. To seal the deal, she then stabs herself. While Atia achieves the goal she's been aiming for the entire series, she finds it's LonelyAtTheTop.

* As she lays dying in Borderlands2, [[MissionControl Angel]] sums up her feelings towards Jack quite succinctly: "Dad, I have to tell you something... you're an asshole."

* In ''The Chronicles of Amber'', a dying curse from one of the royals was something with a large amount of magical power.

* Since Generation III of Pokemon, the move Grudge could count. When a Pokemon uses it and then feints from a direct enemy attack, Grudge drops the PP of the attacking move to zero.

* In the ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'' episode "The Coming of Shadows", the Centauri Emperor's efforts at reconciliation with the Narn are ruined by the machinations of Londo Mollari and Lord Refa. Just before the Emperor dies, he says a few last words to Londo. Londo falsely tells everyone else that the Emperor had endorsed the launching of a war against the Narns... but privately admits to Refa that the Emperor ''really'' said that Londo and Refa were both damned. About a year later, Refa is beaten to death by a mob of Narns... and, compared to Londo's eventual fate, he got off lightly.
* In an episode of {{Friends}} (The One With The Screamer), a guest star utters the phrase. He's the director of a play that got bad reviews, where his girlfriend and Joey starred.

* A legend is related in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' - people murdered the son of a {{Necromancer}} and challenged her [[{{Necromantic}} to raise him]]; instead she spent the remainder of her life warning them not to disrespect the dead, and cursed them before dying herself. Their descendents don't seem to take the legend seriously, but they treat the dead with great formality and, when [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies appear]], are quick to say that it's the curse responding to some offworlders poking about through graves.

* The phrase is often used to describe the effect of negative political advertising on potential voters.

->''Or I shall faint. [[TropeNamer A plague a' both your houses]]!''

* The trope namer is Mercutio's line in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', after he accidentally gets into the middle of the Montague-Capulet feud and is fatally wounded by Tybalt. He also makes an IncrediblyLamePun or two in the process.
** Note that despite being allies with the Montagues, [[JerkAss he blames BOTH families for the ancient feud that led to his death]], [[WhatAnIdiot even though no one asked him to get involved]] and Romeo tried to save him from Tybalt.
** There's another layer to the meaning as well. Many scholars interpret the "fighting" between Mercutio and Tybalt as being more a show of bravado than an actual fight; which Romeo breaks up because he sees this as part of the cause to the two families' feud. When he attempts to break up their play, he angers Tybalt, who had recognized him earlier from the Capulet party and been denied the chance to humiliate him. Tybalt attacks in response, either intentionally or unintentionally striking Mercutio instead of Romeo. Most scholars who back this interpretation cite the scene at the party and that Tybalt does not defend himself against Romeo, perhaps from shock, as evidence.
*** What Mercutio meant was that the two houses were stupid to have this feud. He realizes that if it weren't for the feud, he would be alive.

* In ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil,'' the dying [[TheDragon General Kheck]] uses his final breath to deliver a final insult, right in Jade's face--she's doomed to fail, she will be consumed by the EldritchAbomination who has been looking for her soul for ''centuries,'' and even if she ''does'' succeed, it will be meaningless because [[EverybodysDeadDave everyone she ever loved is already dead]]. She stares him down fearlessly, though -- not only because she's a PluckyGirl, but because she still has the two most steadfast members of her TrueCompanions with her, and for the rest, well, [[BackFromTheDead now death is a minor technicality]].

** Harry himself is on the receiving end of one: [[DyingAlone DIE ALONE!]]

* At the end of the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode "Alive", [[EvilSorceror Tala]], after a failed attempt to turn on Lex Luthor, is used as a LivingBattery to reassemble Brainiac, a process that ends up killing her. She invokes this trope in a different sense by tampering with the process and bringing back Darkseid instead.

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