History Main / DefeatEqualsExplosion

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': This happens a lot; [[KiManipulation Ki Attacks]] often obliterate targets they kill, but several times character explode after purely physical attacks. Even back in ''Dragon Ball'', Demon King Piccolo exploded after Goku [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice punched a hole through him]]. Lampshaded in ''WebVideo/DragonBallAbridged'' by Creator/TeamFourStar:
-->''[Vegeta hits the ground, large explosion. Later, he crawls out]''\\
'''Vegeta:''' ''[gasping for air]'' Why did I explode?

* This seems to be the case whenever a diary owner in ''WebVideo/MiraiNikkiTheAbridgedSeries'' dies.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'': Sauron explodes with the force of a tactical nuke after Isildur cuts the ring from his hand in the prologue of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'', flooring basically everyone across the battlefield with the shockwave. [[spoiler:And again in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]'' when the Ring is destroyed, only much bigger since it ends up taking out his giant ominous tower of Barad-dûr and [[LoadBearingBoss starts the very collapse]] of {{Mordor}} itself.]]

* ''VideoGame/BatBoy'': Normal enemies explode upon defeat, defeated bosses just fall down, and the FinalBoss undergoes a PostDefeatExplosionChain.

* ''VideoGame/EXTRAPOWERStarResistance'': Everything explodes upon defeat, either in a dramatic fireball or as an explosion of green viscera, usually based on how organic the enemy is. Extra satisfying when the screen is filled with minor foes who primarily exist to give the player full seconds of full screen explosions. The only exceptions are ghosts who whirl away and Valkyries or former Valkyries like Walhalla or Waldiora, who instead vanish into light or petals, or Rem who merely falls and weeps. The bosses make sure to give several layers of explosions before the final boom of their defeat.

* ''Website/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'': In the story ''[[https://thecrewofthecoppercoloredcupids.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/the-trial-of-a-dark-lord/ The Trial of a Dark Lord]]'', Lord Nefarious unexpectedly explodes when he is hit by a Cupid Arrow (which normally result in GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul, not any physical damage). Characters eventually realize that this was a YinYangBomb-type of reaction due to Nefarious's magic being rooted in hatred.

* In "Ayla and the Mad Scientist" in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Team Kimba goes through some '[[ComicBook/XMen Dark Phoenix]]' holographic simulations, a couple of which use [[PersonOfMassDestruction Tennyo]] as the Dark Phoenix character. Phase uses his powers to stop her, and Tennyo explodes. Since she has anti-matter in her blood when she exerts herself, this doesn't work out well. [[spoiler:In the simulation, it destroys the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.]]

* In ''Literature/TheBlackMagicianTrilogy'', magicians usually die that way: all energy left in their body seeks to leave it at once, destroying the body at minimum and up to a city block. Black magicians avert this in their killings, as they usually [[VampiricDraining drain their victims dry]].

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyBattle'': ''Monstrous Arcanum'': When a warpfire dragon dies, it explodes in a burst of destructive magical energy.

* ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'': Aside from [[ActionBomb Glyphid Exploders]] and [[BossInMookClothing Bulk Detonators]], the Volatile Guts modifier makes every enemy (except the smallest ones) explode on death.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': {{Player Character}}s who take the "Unstable" talent explode upon death, dealing AreaOfEffect damage equal to half their maximum HitPoints.

In the case of robots, this could be [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as the defeat could cause them to short circuit and the spark to ignite their fuel, but it is not limited to robots. It happens with characters who are not specifically stated to be robots, and in some cases are implied to be organic in some way or another. One would expect that this trope would be combined with ActionBomb more often to weaponize their imminent demise, but the two tropes rarely seem to go hand-in-hand (although not completely absent either). This might be because forcing the heroes to relocate the enemy someplace safer where environment and bystanders wouldn't be harmed would get old fast if it applied to all enemy deaths, thus killing the tension and drama at climax of combat.

* The core gimmick of ''TabletopGame/{{Beyblade}}: Burst'' is causing your opponent's Beyblade to [[DownplayedTrope fly apart]] when beaten.
* A good number of red creatures deal damage to other creatures or players when they die in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', implied to be from a last-ditch self destruct.

** And of course, there's the gas spore. A variety of floating ''fungus'' full of unstable gas that explodes if it receives so much as a scratch. It doesn't help that, unless looking closely, the gas spore can be easily confused with a beholder -- the kind of monster you pretty much attack on sight.
** From the ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' book ''Lost Ships'', Tinkerers are comical-looking spherical creatures with 6 eyes and 4 arms. They move around by expulsing gas, and if hit with a piercing weapon for too much damage, can explode violently from the gas they contain.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** Many units in the game have a chance of exploding after being destroyed, with some factions having the option to ''force'' the unit to explode so as to deal maximum damage to the enemy. In the current 9th edition, this entails inflicting [[UnblockableAttack mortal wounds]] on any nearby units - friend or foe - when the unit is slain. Units that can explode include most vehicles, but also some infantry units such as the Eversor Assassin (due to their biologically altered bodies making their blood acidic and combustible on death).

* In naval combat, getting a hit in the gunpowder magazine. ''HMS Hood'', ''HMS Invincible'', ''HMS Queen Mary'', ''HMS Indefatigable'', ''SMS Pommern'', etc. Battleships and heavy cruisers also had a nasty tendency to explode when they capsized, caused by the ship's shell magazines breaking loose while it was rolling over. One of the best-known examples would be the sinking of ''Yamato'', creating a [[http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/Q-JapBattleships-15-HT-Win12.jpg mushroom cloud]] four miles high.

* ''VideoGame/EternityTheLastUnicorn'', for the most baffling of reasons, have a ''zombie'' enemy (the ones in tin helmets) exploding when killed, while most other mooks simply fall and dies. Said enemy will emit a suspicious red glow around it when slain, blinking for several seconds, and you'll need to make a run for it or be hurt by the blast.

* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'': The Biomega {{Kaiju}} explode spectacularly when killed. In fact, this is actually the only way to ''know'' their dead; if they "die" but don't explode ''Franchise/PowerRangers''-style, they're not actually dead, just powering down to [[HealingFactor heal]]. This becomes a plot point later on when [[spoiler:[[TheMenInBlack Majestic-12]] try to take over protecting the world after forcing Tesladyne to shut down; due to their egotism, incompetence, and lack of knowledge about the supernatural, Majestic-12 assume the Biomegas to be dead whenever they stop moving after taking sufficient damage and just leave the bodies to rot. The Biomegas proceed to heal and reactivate, turning a string of easily-contained individual Kaiju attacks into a single massively destructive ''mass'' Kaiju attack.]]

* When Pamela deals the fatal blow to [[spoiler:Iris]] in ''VideoGame/{{Rosenkreuzstilette}} Freudenstachel'', she goes out with an explosion. Several enemies and bosses, especially fortress bosses, in the ''Rosenkreuzstilette'' series tend to suffer this fate upon defeat. Averted with the RKS members in story mode, since the protagonists aren't trying to seriously hurt their friends, the game immediately cuts to dialogue portraits when their health is depleted so they can talk things out.

* The Akumas in ''Manga/DGrayMan'' always explode regardless of what weapon the exorcists use. Do you shoot Akuma with oversized guns? They explode. Do you kick them with magic boots? They explode. Do you DropTheHammer? They explode. Do you [[OurVampiresAreDifferent suck all of the Akuma's blood out?]] They explode. Do you kick a bell at them like a soccer ball? They explode.

* In ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'', the only enemies that don't explode upon defeat are the zombies [[spoiler:and Asimov]]. While foot soldiers explode, their bodies remain intact (minus their damaged armor, firearms, and helmets). Boss death explosion effects are suitably flashier and have different visuals depending on the game. Even in ''ASG 3'', where Kirin doesn't actually kill bosses, their defeat animations still include bright explosions with the ATEMS knights' being preceded with PreExplosionGlow.

%%* All the enemies in the ''VideoGame/ActRaiser'' series.
%%* Makes sense for tanks and airplanes in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars''. But foot soldiers? Not so much.

* All the enemies in the ''VideoGame/ActRaiser'' series.
* Makes sense for tanks and airplanes in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars''. But foot soldiers? Not so much.

* Often the result of aerial combat. Airplanes being the FragileSpeedster machines, when hit to critical components, tend to explode easily. Explode, though, in this case usually means catch fire. Although a large enough hit in the right place can have a plane in several little pieces. The former happens less in modern air combat due to the weapons involved, and although explosions are more common because missiles, explosions that consume the whole plane are not, thanks to modern design.