Line #32 Main/WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou


1	%% Image removed and content moved to page quote per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1549983009083055000
2	%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest an image.
3	%%
4
5	->''"Dark Dragon! [[TropeNamers With my dying breath...I summon you]]... Arise, Dark Dragon!"''
6	-->-- '''Darksol''', ''VideoGame/ShiningForce''
7
8	It's been a long, hard journey. Our heroes have fought through hordes of monsters and mooks. They've finally reached the enemy fortress, and it's time to take out the BigBad before he can release the SealedEvilInACan! But wait, what's this? As they strike him down, with his dying breath [[YouCantThwartStageOne he manages to finish the incantation!]] Watch out heroes, the Sealed Evil lives again!
9
10	This trope thrives in stories where the entire plot has revolved around reviving some ancient evil, and the summoner is at the very end of the journey. This summoner dies, but shouts the trope name (or something similar to it), and the Ancient Evil springs to life so the heroes can crush it forever. It's often used as a ticket to a great climactic FinalBoss, when a development team wants to avoid DragonTheirFeet; not much tension in dealing with the summoner ''after'' defeating its mighty summoned creature. This also avoids a very anticlimactic conclusion; how wimpy the ending would be if the heroes reached the end after hearing so much about the Sealed Evil, fought the summoner, and never fought the real villain!
11
12	This can often be a sub-trope of DyingCurse, and/or TakingYouWithMe.
13
14	!!As this is a {{Death Trope\|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
15	----
16	!!Examples:
17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
20	* In the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', right as King Piccolo is fatally punched through by Goku, he spits out an egg that would become the BigBad of the next (and, in the anime, final) arc: Majunior, better known as Piccolo.
21	* In the Doma arc of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', by the time they get to Dartz, he needs to sacrifice just one more strong soul in order to awaken the Great Leviathan. Originally his plan was to use the Pharaoh's soul, but after they defeat him, he offers his own soul up to do the job.
22	[[/folder]]
23	[[folder:Fan Works]]
24	* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBlhXKjSy6M Fallout vs. Skyrim]]'' has both games' protagonists beat the crap out of each other, the Dragonborn managing three LastWords before dying: the [[IKnowYourTrueName True Name]] of a dragon who owes him a favor.
25	-->'''Dragonborn:''' ''"Oh... dah viing."''
26	* Inverted in ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'': During "The Apokolips Agenda" story arc, the demon Trigon turns all heroes into stone. Before becoming fully petrified, though, Kid Eternity, whose power allows him to resurrect a deceased person briefly by saying their name, summons Jim Corrigan, who transforms into ComicBook/TheSpectre — ''Franchise/TheDCU'''s embodiment of God's wrath — and obliterates Trigon.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
30	* In ''Film/Hellboy2004'', [[spoiler:Rasputin summons the Ogdru Jahad this way]] — if it wasn't a case of [[spoiler:Ogdru Jahad simply being released by Rasputin's death]], in which case NiceJobBreakingItHero.
31	* Khan did this in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' before activating the Genesis device. It's not technically a summoning, but it follows pretty much the same form.
32	* In ''Film/KyuukyuuSentaiGoGoFiveVsGingaman'', [[BigBad Darkness King Gill]] drains people's blood to bring a borderline invincible {{Kaiju}} known as the Infernal Dark Beast/Dark Behemoth to life. When he is mortally struck by Matoi/[=GoRed=] and his plan is briefly stopped Gill stabs himself and throws his bloodied sword at the altar he was employing, using his own blood as the final sacrifice to complete the ritual and summon the Dark Beast exploding afterwards.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Literature]]
36	* A dwarf, betrayed, abandoned, and left to die does this in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' and writes a mine sign that will invoke [[spoiler:the Summoning Dark, a "quasidemonic '''thing''' of pure vengeance"]]. This is in fact stated to be the ''only'' way to summon it, it's not enough to simply draw the sign, you have to want it with your very last breath. Fortunately for [[spoiler:Sam Vimes, he harbors an even more powerful entity than the Summoning Dark whose job is to keep all of Sam's darker tendencies locked away]].
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
40	* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam's defeat of [[MonsterProgenitor Lilith]] turns out to be a ThanatosGambit on her part: her death breaks the final seal on Lucifer's [[ExtranormalPrison Cage]] and releases him into the world.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
44	* A strange sort of inversion in Exalted: when the ancient Exalted slew some of the CosmicHorror beings known as the Primordials, they invoked the Great Curse with their dying breaths.
45	* In the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' universe, and particularly in the RPG ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'', this is an omnipresent danger when trying to stop cults from summoning a demon. Especially when that cult is dedicated to [[WarGod Khorne]], where spilling the cultists' blood is equally pleasing and empowering to Khorne as them spilling yours. "Khorne does not care from whence the blood flows, only that it flows."
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Video Games]]
49	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII'': A straight example of this trope. The last two bosses are fought in succession, starting with the evil priest Hargon, and his patron deity of destruction, Malroth, summoned just after Hargon falls.
50	* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'': The final boss of the Nemesis quest chain involves your Nemesis falling into a volcano's caldera, invoking the name of the Demon Lord of Revenge right before they perish, and coming back [[OneWingedAngel in a demonically-empowered form]].
51	* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': The Lunatic Cultist summons the four Celestial Towers when defeated.
52	* ''VideoGame/ShiningForce 1'' revolves around the story of Darksol, an evil sorcerer, trying to revive Dark Dragon to take over the world. The heroes fight him in Dark Dragon's lair, and as he's about to die, Darksol shouts the trope namer and Dark Dragon is brought to life as the FinalBoss.
53	* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters '97''. The plot revolves around three young adults trying to revive Orochi of Japanese folklore since their leader was defeated in the last game (KOF '96). After you defeat the 3 characters, it is discovered that one of the characters is in fact the vessel that Orochi is being summoned through and with their final strength, the remaining two give their energy and their lives to the character so that he transforms. Thus the final boss battle begins.
54	* In ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' 2 for the NES, the resurrected Jaquio is defeated and killed before he can activate the altar and open the gateway to the World of Chaos. But then his blood drips on the altar anyway, activating it. Cue the [[EldritchAbomination Final Boss.]]
55	* In ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'', [[spoiler:in the final confrontation against Claudia Wolf, Claudia takes the fetus that Heather rejected... and eats it herself, killing her in the process, but summoning the demon god for the final battle]].
56	* In ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'', if following the Light Side, [[spoiler:Jaden has to fight against Tavion, the leader of the Disciples of Ragnos who are trying to resurrect the old Sith Lord. When she loses to Jaden, she leaps on top of the statue of Ragnos, thrusts in his reviving scepter, and then gives up her body so he can possess it and get revenge]].
57	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''
58	** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', at the end of a linked game, [[spoiler:you fight Koume and Kotake and defeat them before they can sacrifice Zelda to revive Ganon. Battered to the point of breaking and backed into a corner, they proceed to sacrifice ''themselves'' instead, and Ganon comes back [[CameBackWrong without his mind]]]].
59	** Something similar happens in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword''; the final confrontation with Ghirahim takes place as he's [[spoiler:performing a ritual to free [[GodOfEvil Demise]] from his imprisonment. Ghirahim continues his ritual during the battle and finishes it just before Link can deal the finishing blow]]. [[spoiler:In a twist on this trope, Ghirahim doesn't die as a direct result of his fight with Link, and in fact lives long enough to see Demise restored to his full glory. However, when Demise wakes up, his first course of action is to forcibly transform Ghirahim into his ''true'' form — an EvilCounterpart to the Master Sword. Ghirahim expresses no sentience after this happens, and the transformation seems to be [[PainfulTransformation quite painful]], but Ghirahim is so [[UndyingLoyalty egregiously loyal]] to Demise that he doesn't mind.]]
60	* [[spoiler:Barlowe]] does this to revive {{Dracula}} in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia]]''.
61	* At the conclusion of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', a dying Zemus vows to keep fighting. That vow causes his hatred to become the final boss, Zeromus.
62	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' has Nergal summon a dragon as he dies.
63	* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'': At the end of the first game, the party fights Saturos and Menardi. On defeat, [[FusionDance they fuse into a giant dragon]], but this ''still'' isn't enough to win.
64	* Dehuai of the original ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts1'' lets off one of these to summon the fury of the earth incarnate. The miserable old jerk was trying to complete his ritual for years, but when you finally finish him off, he realizes that he has nothing left to lose and sacrifices his own life-force to complete it. Made an AntiClimax when it turns out the ritual was too costly for even ''that'' to set it off... until [[BigBad Bacon]] shows up and decides to give it one last push. With what comes forth, you can see why the figurative engine stalled.
65	* ''Videogame/{{Skyblazer}}'': Sky successfully defeats Ashura and rescues the sorceress, but Ashura sacrifices the last of his strength to summon his master, Raglan, Lord of Darkness.
66	* While it doesn't deal with SealedEvilInACan, the ''Videogame/LeagueOfLegends'' teaser for Kalista, titled ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnT8jVCyh_E The Pledge]]'', depicts her being summoned in this manner.
67	* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryV'', Minos pulls this with the Dragon of Doom.
68	* In ''VideoGame/GrimDawn'', [[DealWithTheDevil Bloodsworn]] [[ReligionOfEvil Cultists]] of high caliber have a slight chance of summoning a Voidfiend or even an Hellion upon dying. The boss of Arc 3, Karroz, will summon the elder Chthonian Thal'nosh the Unraveler from his corpse when killed.
69	* In the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' tutorial level Exile's Reach, a tribe of ogres are stealing souls and life energy of their victims for a ritual to reanimate the corpse of a dragon to use as a tool of conquest. When the players fight the leader of the ogres in the end dungeon, the ogre will use his own soul as the final sacrifice to awaken the undead dragon and sic her on his killers.
70	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the Griffin's attack on Baelsar's Wall is revealed to be a large BatmanGambit [[spoiler:to have as many people who followed him as possible to die in grief and despair. Using the aether of their dying souls and their last pleas for salvation and vengeance, the Griffin kills himself while using the eyes of Nidhogg to complete his ritual and summon a primal of tremendous power. Papalymo is able to seal the primal for a time, but it would eventually free itself and serve as the final boss of the ''Stormblood'' expansion.]]
71	* ''VideoGame/ExitFate'': During the investigation of the Fading Memory ruins, Daniel and co. are constantly attacked by a summoner that calls forth monsters to deal with them, with the running theme they're all stronger palette swaps of previous bosses. At the very end, the summoner sacrifices himself to call one last creature that acts as the actual boss of the dungeon.
72	* ''VideoGame/GetInTheCarLoser'': The Cult Sargeant [[OneHitKO goes down in one hit]], only to resurrect the final boss by sacrificing his mangled body.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Web Original]]
76	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Blog/ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG'' regarding an EldritchAbomination that [[SpeakOfTheDevil responds to its name being spoken]]:
77	-->171. My character's dying words are not allowed to be "Hastur, Hastur, Hastur".
78	[[/folder]]

Context Main / WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou