History Main / VillainsDyingGrace

** In a WorthyOpponent example, Dordoni Alessandro Del Socacchio dies fending off his own compatriots to allow Ichigo and Nel a way out of an otherwise deadly situation, in return for them healing him after defeating him as well as for Ichigo not holding back in their fight.
** Tousen joined 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 he blows up.
** After getting beaten to a bloody pulp by [[TheBerserker the zombie-hollow hybrid]] Ichigo, Ulquiorra is fatally injured and his body dissolves into ashes. His last actions include saving Uryu Ishida from Ichigo's Cero and asking Orihime Inoue, the same girl he mentally tortured through the whole arc, if she's afraid of him or not; when she says that she isn't, he dies acknowledging the existence of the human heart and reaching out to her.
** Haschwalth having dominated his battle with Uryu dies when [[DevourTheDragon Yhwach steals all of his energy]]. As he lies dying, Haschwalth offers to take all of Uryu's wounds so Uryu can save his friends.

-->''"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 the rain. Time... to die."''

More often than not, when faced with imminent death a villain will regret nothing and decide that if they're going to die, [[VillainousBreakdown they'll go out swinging and ranting]], or worse, [[TakingYouWithMe try to take to the hero down with them in a last blaze of spiteful glory]]. However, this isn't always the case. On some occasions, a villain faced with a lifetime of evil flashing in front of their eyes as [[CollapsingLair their lair begins to implode around them]] will have a HeelRealization. Alternatively, they may feel that after being beaten in a fair fight by a WorthyOpponent they should let the superior one carry on in their stead.

** After getting beaten to a bloody pulp by [[TheBerserker the zombie-hollow hybrid]] Ichigo, Ulquiorra is fatally injured and his body dissolves into ashes. His last actions include saving Uryu Ishida from Ichigo's Cero and asking Orihime, the same girl he mentally tortured through the whole arc, if she's afraid of him or not; when she says that she isn't, he dies acknowledging the existence of the human heart and reaching out to her.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': In a WorthyOpponent example, Dordonii Alessandro Del Socacchio fends off his own compatriots to allow Ichigo a way out of an otherwise deadly situation, in return for not holding back in their fight.

** After getting beaten to a bloody pulp by [[TheBerserker the zombie-hollow hybrid]] Ichigo, Ulquiorra is fatally injured and his body dissolves into ashes. His last actions include asking Orihime, the same girl he mentally tortured through the whole arc, if she's afraid of him or not; when she says that she isn't, he dies acknowledging the existence of the human heart and reaching out to her.

%%* In an early episode of ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'', an enemy captain did an extreme form of this after losing a ship-to-ship duel.

* The ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'' games are loaded with this, since every villain you defeat save for the BigBad always seems to do a HeelFaceTurn right before they die.

* Sou Hiyori from ''VisualNovel/YourTurnToLie'' is a CompulsiveLiar who is assumed to have no qualms throwing anybody under the bus to save himself from death, and manipulates practically everyone around him (including a borderline suicidal little girl) to ensure his own safety. When the choice falls upon either sentencing him or said little girl though, he volunteers to die for her sake - and if his wish is granted, he spends his last moments activating an AI of the protagonist's late best friend so that she can come to terms with his death, right before peacefully succumbing to his wounds.

-->-- '''[[ComicBook/DoctorOctopus Dr. Octavius]]''', ''Film/SpiderMan2''

* In the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' series:
** In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', the students discover an AI named Alter Ego who helps them hack into the mastermind's computer systems and work to keep him secret from Monokuma. The third culprit, [[spoiler:Celestia Ludenberg]], steals Alter Ego and exploits him to orchestrate a double murder, but after being caught, said culprit reveals where they stashed him and takes the secret of said trump card to the grave.
** 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.]]

--> [[spoiler: "I am satisfied with my care."]]

* 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.]]

* 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... [[CrazyAwesome 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.

--> [[spoiler: [[FamousLastWords "I am satisfied with my care."]]]]

* Capricorn Shura in ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' has a HeelRealization while flying to outer space due to Shiryu's DangerousForbiddenTechnique, and after Shiryu faints he pulls out his armour, puts it on Shiryu and kicks him back to earth so that he survives while Shura dies upon reaching space, entrusting Athena's protection to Shiryu in his FamousLastWords.

* In ''Game/BravelyDefaultII'', Adam willingly goes down with his crashing airship after his defeat by the heroes and subsequent betrayal by his EnigmaticMinion, but not before saving the hero from being crushed by debris from the collapsing ship and giving him his "Hellblade" job. Notably, Adam is not in the least bit repentant even in his last moments; he's simply empowering the heroes to punish his former minion in his stead.

* In ''Film/SpiderMan2'', Peter is able to make Dr. Ock come to his senses and the kindly doctor-turned-monster decides to perform one last good act before he dies. Also counts as a minor example of RedemptionEqualsDeath.
-->[[FamousLastWords "I will not die a monster!"]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Shadow Weaver was one of the most [[HateSink reprehensible villains in the series]], regularly physically or mentally abusing others for power, especially [[AbusiveParent her wards Adora and Catra]]. In the series finale, however, Shadow Weaver decides to do one good thing in her life when she saves Catra from a monster controlled by Horde Prime. In her last moments she tells Catra [[SoProudOfYou that she is truly proud of her]] and that [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre she can be a far better person then Shadow Weaver herself]], before unleashing the full extent of her power in order to [[TakingYouWithMe destroy the monster and herself]] and saving the lives of her adoptive daughters.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'':
** For most of the series, Catra had continually doubled down on being a villain out of ambition, spite, anger, and jealousy towards Adora's perceived betrayal of her by joining the Rebellion, to the point of almost destroying reality just to one-up her. In the final season, Catra quickly learns her usual scheming and backstabbing won't work with Horde Prime and is challenged by Glimmer to do something good for once in her life. After some soul-searching, Catra decides to sacrifice herself by helping Glimmer escape, not wanting to risk Adora -- whose She-Ra powers are the key to a superweapon with the power to raze the universe -- falling into Horde Prime's hands. Catra fully expectes Adora to leave her for dead and Horde Prime to execute her for her betrayal, but Horde Prime subverts the trope by instead punishing Catra by forcibly linking her to his HiveMind, and Adora comes to rescue her anyway.
** Shadow Weaver was one of the most [[HateSink reprehensible villains in the series]], regularly physically or mentally abusing others for power, especially [[AbusiveParent her wards Adora and Catra]]. In the series finale, however, Shadow Weaver decides to do one good thing in her life when she saves Catra from a monster controlled by Horde Prime. In her last moments she tells Catra [[SoProudOfYou that she is truly proud of her]] and that [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre she can be a far better person then Shadow Weaver herself]], before unleashing the full extent of her power in order to [[TakingYouWithMe destroy the monster and herself]] and saving the lives of her adoptive daughters.

** For most of the series, Catra had continually doubled down on being a villain out of ambition, spite, anger, and jealousy towards Adora's perceived betrayal of her by joining the Rebellion, to the point of almost destroying reality just to one-up her. In the final season, Catra quickly learns her usual scheming and backstabbing won't work with Horde Prime and is challenged by Glimmer to do something good for once in her life. After some soul-searching, Catra decides to sacrifice herself by helping Glimmer escape, not wanting to risk Adora -- whose She-Ra powers are the key to a superweapon with the power to raze the universe -- falling into Horde Prime's hands. Catra fully expectes Adora to leave her for dead and Horde Prime to execute her for her betrayal, but Horde Prime instead decides to punish Catra by forcibly linking her to his HiveMind, and Adora comes to rescue her anyway.

* For most of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' Shadow Weaver has been one of the most [[HateSink reprehensible villains in the series]], regularly physically or mentally abusing others for power, especially [[AbusiveParent her wards Adora and Catra]]. In the series finale however Shadow Weaver decides to do one good thing in her life when she saves Catra from a monster controlled by Horde Prime. In her last moments she tells Catra [[SoProudOfYou that she is truly proud of her]] and that [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre she can be a far better person then Shadow Weaver herself]], before unleashing the full extent of her power in order to [[TakingYouWithMe destroy the monster and herself]] and saving the lives of her adoptive daughters.