History Main / VillainsDyingGrace

* In ''Film/BladeRunner'', AntiVillain Roy has AntiHero[=/=]VillainProtagonist Deckart in a literal cliffhanger but is dying himself. At the last moment, Roy saves Decker's life, and is rewarded with an ObiWanMoment, giving Decker this final speech before he goes:
-->''"I've... ''seen things'' you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-Beams, glitter in the dark by the TannhauserGate. All these moments will be lost... in time... like... tears, in rain. Time... to die."''

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': As the [[SentientCosmicForce embodiment of mana]], the Winged Lion cannot die, but it does suffer a DeathOfPersonality after losing the aberrant desires it developed over the millennia, and returns to being a natural force without form or ego. Nonetheless, whatever remains of its consciousness returns in the last chapter to guide Falin out of the AfterlifeAntechamber and back to life.

** In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', after getting two of his classmates killed in the previous chapter, [[spoiler:Kokichi Ouma]] ends up getting killed...but it turns out [[spoiler:he decided to die in a way that would result in a case that's impossible for Monokuma to know who died, thus ending the killing game and preventing [[ActionGirl Maki]] from becoming the blackened. This is heavily downplayed, though, since saving Maki was only due to him blackmailing Kaito to kill him instead, essentially dooming him instead of her.]]

** In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', after getting two of his classmates killed in the previous chapter, [[spoiler:Kokichi Ouma]] ends up getting killed...but it turns out [[spoiler:he decided to die in a way that would result in a case that's impossible for Monokuma to know who died, thus ending the killing game and preventing [[ActionGirl Maki]] from becoming the blackened. This is especially notable as he went out of his way to paint himself as evil throughout the game, but depending on which interpretation of his character you side with, it's possible to believe that he ''hated'' the game, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone and came to really regret orchestrating the deaths of Gonta and Miu]] and previously treating Maki with contempt for being a ProfessionalKiller.]]

* ''ComicBook/TexWiller'': In his final appearance Sumankan, a dispossessed Bornese prince and one of Tex' most fearsome enemies, planned to have Tex and his friends killed as soon as he had retaken his homeland of Kuamantung, as he knew that while they were both fighting the usurper they'd never give up trying to bring him back to the US to face justice for his crimes there. Then Sumankan was mortally wounded while killing the usurper, and since there's was no way he could be brought to the US he ordered his men to treat Tex and friends as allies and spent his last minutes talking with him about how his son Daniel will be a better man than him.

** Kanade Tōsen joined Sōsuke Aizen because he wanted to get revenge for the death of the woman he loved, even if it meant betraying his long time friends Komamura and Shuhei. After being beaten by both of them, they let him know that they forgive him, which seems to inspire some regret for the things he did. And then Aizen blows him up.

This is a [[DeathTropes Death Trope]], so naturally there are '''[[color:red: spoilers ahoy!]]'''

-->-- '''[[Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius Dr. Octavius]]''', ''Film/SpiderMan2''

* ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'': Near the end of TheMovie (''Arcadia Of My Youth''), the commander of the alien Illumidas forces occupying VichyEarth challenged Harlock to a one-on-one battleship duel as a show of respect, and invited him to [[SeeYouInHell share a drink in Hell together]] after losing before his ship exploded. Afterwards, Harlock chose to challenge the Illumidas fleet that had been sent to crush the rebellious humans. Fortunately, it turns out that the commander had somehow use the explosion of his battleship to create a NegativeSpaceWedgie around Harlock's ''Arcadia'' that [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy prevented the enemy from being able to target the pirate ship]]. Harlock takes the opportunity to decapitate the enemy leadership, leaving the fleet in confusion.

* ''Comicbook/{{Blacksad}}'': In "Somewhere Within The Shadows", after being fatally wounded by Blacksad, the lizard assassin tells him the name of his employer and Natalia's killer with his dying breath. As he admits, he always hated his boss anyway.
* Subverted in a Comicbook/DoctorStrange story, where Baron Mordo uses what he thinks will be his last act to send one of Strange's associates to safety. They all live, but she is somewhat smitten with him, which he manipulates to his own advantage for some time. It ends with a minor PetTheDog moment which reveals he's not ''entirely'' evil.
* The [[Characters/XMenHellfireClub Hellfire Club]], in their early days, was presented as more amoral than evil, and it showed in the death of one of their Inner Circle. In battle with the ultimate Sentinel Nimrod, alongside their enemies the [=X-men=], Harry Leland of the Hellfire Club is pushed too far, and the overweight gravity/mass manipulator suffers a massive heart attack. He manages to hang on to life long enough to use his own teammate, invulnerable mutant Sebastian Shaw, as a human Kinetic Kill Weapon against Nimrod with his literal final efforts.
-->'''Wolverine:''' Fat man had his faults -- but he made his exit with style.
** In One ComicBook/WhatIf tale, Hellfire Club leader Sebastain Shaw sees his PlayingBothSides dealings come back to bite him, and when found by Wolverine the dying villain provides him with a failsafe he created against the Sentinels.
* The [[Characters/XMenBrotherhoodOfMutants Brotherhood of Evil Mutants]] were close to assassinating anti-mutant Senator Robert Kelly until former Brotherhood member Pyro, dying of the Legacy Virus, stopped them. His actions forced Kelly to rethink his anti-mutant stance and probably prevented the disastrous age of Sentinels.

* Mimic, an occasional enemy of the original ComicBook/XMen, died after purposely absorbing too much of the Hulk's gamma radiation to both prevent the Hulk from further rampages and to "eliminate the menace the Mimic posed to the world." But then he was revived, rendering his sacrifice moot, and as if to make a parody of the original sacrifice, Marvel later had him heroically sacrifice himself again and, yes, get inexplicably brought back ''again''.

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* In ''Crime Story'', the BigBad spends his last moments helping Jackie Chan's character to safety before the building explodes.
* In ''Film/{{Dracula 2000}}'', the title character, as he dies, releases Mary from her vampirism. [[spoiler:Or does he?]]

* In ''Film/NationalTreasure2BookOfSecrets'' while the city is flooding, Mitch holds the flood gate open long enough for Ben to be pulled to safety.
* [[WellIntentionedExtremist Lieutenant]] [[VillainProtagonist Colonel]] [[{{Hypocrite}} Nicholson]] manages one in ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'' by default. As an English POW in a Japanese camp by Kwai River, Nicholson, having ultimately succeeding in breaking his captor's will, subsequently causes both he and his men to ''improve'' their enemy's situation by building the eponymous bridge across the river. After the Allies learn of the bridge's construction and successfully transports a former POW of said camp to that bridge to destroy it, Nicholson [[InvokedTrope naively]] [[FaceHeelTurn ensures the bridge's safety]] and [[WhatTheHellHero consequentially kills the man sent to destroy it]]. It is in this moment that Nicholson sees [[HeelRealization the fallacy in his endeavour]]. He decides to destroy the bridge himself [[spoiler: a moment before the shelling from an Allied mortar knocks him over and fatally wounds him.]] [[spoiler: [[DyingMomentOfAwesome He stands up (clearly dying), dusts off his hat, takes a few steps forward - wobbling, teetering all the way - and, as he can not take another step forward, falls on the detonator, successfully destroying the bridge]]]] before he dies.

* Creator/LarryNiven's Literature/KnownSpace:
** In "Literature/TheBorderlandOfSol", the villain saves the life of two of the three protagonists by increasing the air pressure in his breached asteroid habitat, before being [[KarmicDeath sucked into]] his miniature black hole, allowing the protagonists an extra bit of time for rescuers to find them.
** In "Literature/ARelicOfTheEmpire", explorer Dr. Richard Mann is trying to evade a murderous space pirate who calls himself Captain Kidd. Mann manages to blow up Kidd's ship. Before Kidd dies in the fire, he radios Mann and tells him a valuable secret: the location of the Puppeteer's homeworld, something all of Known Space has wanted to know. (A possible subversion: Kidd's final comments suggest that he expects Mann to [[SchmuckBait get himself into trouble]] if he tries to exploit the information.)
* In the Creator/StephenBaxter short story "More Than Time Or Distance", the dying villain calls the heroine a WorthyOpponent, and tells her where to find his ship so she can get home.
* In ''[[Literature/ThursdayNext First Among Sequels]]'' evil Thursday saves Thursday's life when her own life is doomed.

* In ''Fanfic/DanganronpaLastHurrah'', Jirou Katashi, after being convicted of murder and [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse told that his parents ignoring him doesn't justify his committing murder]], tells the group about how someone in the class besides Samuru, the Ultimate Executioner, has killed lots of people before, as well as where to find that person's name. [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out that Jirou survived his execution and is the mastermind, so it comes off as his attempt to cause another murder.]]
* In ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'', Sliscus uses his dying moments to request Taylor destroy his soul so Slaanesh cannot fashion into a weapon and warns Taylor that she should avoid fighting the Lelith, the Queen of Blades, at all costs. Somewhat subverted when it's later revealed he previously sent a message to Lelith gushing about how much fun she'd have fighting Taylor.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox'', Rat tells the heroes where to find Kristopherson just before he expires from electrocution. He also says that he never would have told them that if he hadn't been at death's door.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox'', Rat tells the heroes where to find Kris just before he expires from electrocution. He also says that he never would have told them that if he hadn't been at death's door.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Accelerator attempts to invoke this trope on himself when he's faced with the choice of saving a little girl by using his [[SuperpowerLottery vector-controlling ability]] to essentially hack her brain or allowing a bullet shot at his head to hit. He chooses the former... but survives anyway as he managed to finish his work and deflect the bullet just before it reached his brain. Then he doubles it up by saving Yoshikawa after the latter was shot in the aorta from point-blank range by keeping her blood flowing between the ends of the damaged section instead of having her bleed out in seconds, ''while he himself is unconscious and bleeding out from a combination of cracked skull and brain damage due to the previously mentioned headshot''. Result: everyone but the bad guy survives, [[SubvertedTrope including Accelerator]] as a HandicappedBadass AntiHero with the aforementioned little girl as his MoralityChain.

** In Season 2, Barry learns that [[spoiler:Eobard left a [[VideoWills|video will]] where he not only leaves S.T.A.R. Labs to Barry, but also confesses to Nora Allen's murder, thus allowing Barry's dad to be released from jail]].

* Implied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsF5EWOQN9Y "Kiss Me (Kill Me)"]] by [=JerryTerry=]. As the singer pleads with her companion to kill her to keep her BodyHorror infection from spreading to others, her last words before [[DrivenToMadness losing herself entirely]] were "I've opened up the path, you'll wake up from this scary dream and laugh", suggesting that her last act before being killed was opening up a method for her friend to escape after killing her. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, TheStinger implies that she survived her MercyKill and is still out there]].