Line #186 Main/PosthumousNarration


1	->''"To the worm who first gnawed on the cold flesh of my corpse, I dedicate with fond remembrance these Posthumous Memoirs."''
2	-->-- '''Brás Cubas''', ''[[Creator/MachadoDeAssis The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas]]''
3
4	Occasionally, in watching a show or film that features a narration in voice over, you find that the narration is ''not'' because the writers got too lazy to show what's happening, but because they want to present you with the odd phenomenon of a deceased character telling you the story. There's no explanation given for why or how this character can tell the story in question, or whom they're telling it to; we don't see them as a ghost, or as a character writing or speaking their last words. They're just a very talkative voice that happens to belong to [[PosthumousCharacter a character who doesn't survive the movie]]. It might result from NearDeathClairvoyance, [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes Life Flashing Before Your Eyes]], or even a DyingDream (which raises the possibility that they're [[AllJustADream also]] an UnreliableNarrator).
5
6	In some forms of media, this trope is well on its way to reaching the status of an UndeadHorseTrope - for example, a sizeable portion of [[CreepyPasta Creepypastas]] of the "Lost Episode" and Video Game categories tend to end in this way. After their character of choice murders the protagonist (usually a slightly veiled AuthorAvatar), the protagonist comments on and narrates their death for a few lines afterwards, which comes off as a bit uninspired considering the amount of stories which [[FollowTheLeader essentially end in the exact same way]].
7
8	See also DeadAllAlong, DeadToBeginWith, EpilogueLetter.
9
10	!!As this is a {{Death Trope\|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
11	----
12	!!Examples
13	[[foldercontrol]]
14
15	[[AC:Narrating the events leading up to their death]]
16
17	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
18	* ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies''. "September 21st, 1945... That was the night I died."
19	* At the beginning of ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'' one of the characters is monologuing, presumably having seen the events of the series already. The character is [[spoiler:Waku, who died in the second episode]].
20	* ''Anime/{{Danganronpa 3}} Side: Despair'' begins with Chisa Yukizome in a movie theater watching her death from the first episode of ''Side: Future'' and then telling the story of how her students at Hope's Peak Academy fell into despair.
21	* ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'' is narrated by Kirie Goshima, with the introduction describing it in the past tense. When we reach the end, it turns out she and many others are only ''[[AndIMustScream technically]]'' alive.
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Comic Books]]
25	* A few ''ComicBook/SinCity'' stories do this.
26	* Clémentine does this in ''ComicBook/BlueIsTheWarmestColor'' through her diary.
27	* In ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', The ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' narrates his last moments as he's beaten to death.
28	* The prologue to the first annual of ''Marvel Team-Up'' which focused on ComicBook/SpiderMan and the ComicBook/XMen is narrated by a doomed minor character recalling the circumstances up to his death. It plays with this by making it look like his death is referring to how [[ThatManIsDead the person he once was died]] like what happens with several other characters in the story after they are mutated, but later on it's shown he was in fact killed during the opening accident.
29	* The final issue of ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeIDW G.I. Joe: Origins]]'' revealed that Dr. Horvath had committed suicide by leaping to his death as he narrates the events that led to Michael Monk confronting him after his attempts at conditioning Monk to enact an insurrection towards Cobra.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Fan Works]]
33	* ''Fanfic/{{Daemorphing}}'' has the FramingDevice that all of the narrators are writing down the events in a journal, but there are several cases of characters narrating up to the points of their deaths, such as [[DeathByAdaptation Melissa]] in ''The Abyss''.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
37	* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/TheBreadwinner.'' Throughout the film, various characters make up a story about an [[NamelessNarrative unnamed]] boy on a quest to save his people from the wicked Elephant King. [[spoiler:Partway through, Parvana is [[GivenNameReveal prompted to name the boy]], and calls him Sulayman, after her deceased brother. Ultimately Sulayman wins not by fighting, but by telling the story of the real Sulayman's life and death]].
38	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', which takes place in the Land of the Dead. [[spoiler:Héctor recounts his last day alive when he realizes how similar it was to a scene from one of Ernesto's films.]]
39	* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''. The movie starts off with the main character falling to his death, and almost everything after that is his life flashing before his eyes. When the flashbacks catch up to the present, he seems completely willing to die.
40	-->'''Megamind:''' ''So, this is how it ends. Normally, I'd chalk this up to my last, glorious failure...[[spoiler:but not today!]]"
41	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' subverts this. Flynn Rider opens the movie by saying "This is the story of how I died." And while he ''did'' get killed in the movie's climax, it [[DisneyDeath didn't take]].
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
45	* The narrator of the film ''Film/AmericanBeauty'', who comes right out and tells us that we're going to see him die at some point.
46	* ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'' actually ''starts'' with Joe Gillis' (Creator/WilliamHolden) death; he tells us his story in {{Flashback}}.
47	* ''Film/InBruges'', possibly. It's intentionally not left very clear whether the main character lives or dies, last we see him his is in critical condition begging in narration to live, while everything goes black...
48	* ''Film/{{Casino}}'':
49	** Interesting variation. Nicky Santoro narrates much of the film - not aware that his character is going to get whacked - and the second his character ''does'', the narration gags violently and ends - leaving the audience wondering just who the hell he was talking to.
50	** Also subverted: [[spoiler:Ace Rothstein is shown dying in a car bomb at the start of the film, but it is later discovered that he escaped with his life.]]
51	* Brazilian movie ''Redentor'' opens with the protagonist lying among rubble as he narrates - though you don't know he's dead [[HowWeGotHere until the narrative eventually reaches that scene]]. Considering his ghost emerges from his body shortly later, it avoids the "no explanation given" part.
52	* Both Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson's characters from ''Film/TheBucketList''.
53	* Sid Hudgens from ''Film/LAConfidential''.
54	* Subverted in ''Film/{{Fallen}}''. Det. John Hobbes' (Denzel Washington) opening monologue, where he states that he's "going to tell you about a time [he] almost died", seems to point to [[spoiler:the battle between him and Azazel in the climax]], only to reveal the voiceover is [[spoiler:Azazel in the body of a cat [[TheBadGuyWins repeating the opening line]].]]
55	* Toorop states at the beginning of ''Film/BabylonAD'' that he's going to die, and we see it happen. Flashback to a week earlier. [[spoiler:Subverted as it turns out he's revived after being shot through the heart, and the other two protagonists are killed instead.]]
56	* Played with in ''Film/ReversalOfFortune''; Sunny Von Bulow isn't dead, but she's in a coma.
57	* ''Film/{{Looper}}''. The audience doesn't find out the trope is in play until the very end though.
58	* ''Film/{{DOA}}'' subverts it. In this 1950 noir, the hero dies from a slow poison, but not before he finds his murderer and tells the story to the police.
59	* ''Film/ShallowGrave'' is narrated by David, who is the only one of the three main characters to die in the film.
60	* ''Film/IrrationalMan'' is narrated by its two main characters, Abe and Jill, following the different points of view. Abe's narration continues up to the point where he intends to kill Jill; the attempt goes wrong, he dies instead, and his narration ceases.
61	* The opening of ''Film/MonsieurVerdoux'', overlooking the VillainProtagonist's grave, features narration.
62	* ''Film/{{Savages}}'': Subverted. The film is narrated by O, who states that just because she's the narrator doesn't mean she survives to the end. This seems to bear out in the final shootout when Ben, Chon, and O choose to overdose on morphine to die together after Ben is fatally wounded; O's narration even gives a CallBack to her original statement. However, the shootout turns out to be a FantasySequence, and O does survive.
63	* Downplayed and played with in ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'', in that the {{Biopic}} is introduced by its own dead subject, Creator/AndyKaufman (as played by Creator/JimCarrey), in a DeliberatelyMonochrome prologue. It's clearer in the screenplay, but this is eventually revealed to be part of a VideoWill he left behind for his CheerfulFuneral. ''But then'' the film proceeds to a one-year-later epilogue that suggests Andy actually managed to fake his death and has simply assumed his AlterEgoActing persona full time. ''And after that'' a closing CreditsGag has Andy leaning into the frame as himself as the film's title card comes up, which could be interpreted as a suggestion that ''everything'' is Andy's version of events [[WaxingLyrical from the great beyond]].
64	* At the end of ''Film/DeadMansLetters'', [[spoiler:it is revealed by one of Larsen's students that the professor died shortly after writing his letters, and that they are being read posthumously]].
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Literature]]
68	* ''Literature/HaloTheFlood'' (the official novelization of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'') features this, mainly as a way for the reader to get information about a battle [[UndeadAuthor that no one actually survived]].
69	* The whole ''point'', played for laughs, of Creator/ShelSilverstein's poem "True Story."
70	* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Bio of a Space Tyrant'' series, which is presented as being the title character's memoirs edited for publication by his daughter, the final chapter of the last book rather unexpectedly ends with his death, which he narrates in detail. This is followed by an afterword by the daughter, which is mostly a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue but also explains that he did write most of the memoir while he was alive, leaving it off just before he embarked on the journey on which he died, and that after she began editing the manuscript, she found the final chapter on her desk one morning, rather spookily written in her own handwriting...
71	* The Brazilian novel ''The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas'' (also known in English as ''Epitaph of a Small Winner'') by Creator/MachadoDeAssis, which the protagonist opens by dedicating his memoirs "to the first worm who eats my corpse", is a classic example. The novel begins with Brás narrating his funeral and death, as well as his journey to the Afterlife, before he focus on his life by starting with his birth and continuing from there. ([[FollowTheLeader In the trend]] set by ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudiceAndZombies'', it even received the version ''[[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies Undead Memoirs of Brás Cubas]]'')
72	* In ''Literature/TheBookOfSkulls'' by Creator/RobertSilverberg, two of the four narrators are dead by the end of the story, yet they still narrate the events leading up to their death, leaving the reader wondering who it is to whom they were actually talking.
73	* A Russian book ''We were executed in 1942'' is narrated from the point of Soviet soldiers [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin who were executed in 1942]].
74	* In Creator/NickPerumov's books, '''most''' of the narrating characters die later in the book.
75	* ''Everybody'' in Edgar Lee Masters' ''Literature/SpoonRiverAnthology'' is dead: each character speaks up from the grave. However, while the characters appear to have some awareness of what's happening immediately on or around their graves, they don't communicate with each other.
76	* ''Literature/TheArtOfRacingInTheRain'' is told by a dog who dies at the end.
77	* ''Literature/LambTheGospelAccordingToBiff'' is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a gospel]] [[DirectLineToTheAuthor written by Biff]] after being raised from the dead 2000 years later.
78	* The final ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' novel should be a [[DarkActionGirl Rachel]] book, and starts as one...until that suicide mission she started turns out to ''really be'' a suicide mission. After that the narration switches between the other Animorphs. Due to the AmbiguousEnding, this trope may also apply for [[spoiler:everyone but [[TheHeart Cassie]]]] as well.
79	** One of the {{Prequel}} books, ''The Andalite Chronicles,'' is technically supposed to be Elfangor downloading his memories ''as'' he's being killed, but still fits the spirit of this trope.
80	* ''Literature/AsILayDying'' is a bit of a NonIndicativeTitle (if taken literally), because Addie only narrates one chapter, which is placed after she's dead and her family is on their trek to bury her. However, it goes in this section because she discusses things that happened when she was alive, specifically a strong hint that [[spoiler:her [[ParentalFavoritism favorite child]] was the result of adultery]].
81	* Janet Philp's book ''Burke - Now and Then'' is written from the perspective of the [[DeadGuyOnDisplay skeleton of William Burke]] (of the real life murderous duo Burke and Hare) which hangs in the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh University. He retells the story of his and William Hare's 1828 killing spree, musing on the wrong decisions he made that led him to be executed and dissected.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
85	* Subverted in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' 2-part season finale "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts Army of Ghosts]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]": Rose Tyler begins each part saying "This is the story of how I died"... only it turns out she was merely trapped in a parallel universe while being declared dead in her own. However, since she is separated from the Doctor forever, this could have [[FauxSymbolism more than one meaning]]...
86	* Played straight in the final episode of ''Series/DoctorWhoConfidential'', in a section called "River Song's Story" -- River Song sums up the events of her life [[TimeyWimeyBall in the order she experiences them, as opposed to the order the viewers saw them]], up to and including her death. Justified in that her consciousness was subsequently saved in a computer, and it's that version of her narrating the story, post-[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]. We see her telling the end of the story at the end of that episode.
87	* Subverted in an episode of the sitcom ''Series/{{Wings}}''. An episode opens with Joe face down in a pool in a shot intentionally reminiscent of the opening of ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'', with a voiceover from Joe telling us that he's going to show us how he got there. At the end of the episode (Part I of a two-parter where Joe leaves Sandpiper Air and Brian, Lowell and Helen have to figure out how to track him down and convince him to come back) it's revealed that he was face down in the pool because he was setting a new breathholding record at a wild party.
88	* In the very first ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode, "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS1E1TheManWhoWasDeath The Man Who Was Death]]", the protagonist's final narration is heard immediately after his [[DeathByIrony death by electric chair]]. For extra irony, he is telling his imaginary audience that didn't he have his head shaved to prevent it from catching on fire during the execution because he's confident that the governor will grant him a reprieve. Meanwhile, his head is starting to smoulder.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Music]]
92	* The narrator in "Raw Deal" by Music/JudasPriest, a gay man describing the last moments of his life before being murdered by thugs in a bar.
93	* The narrator in Music/NeilYoung's "Powderfinger" is a young man trying to defend his home in an unnamed war. It's revealed at the end of the song that he's killed before he gets off a single shot.
94	* The cowboy narrator of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIHRgisdbeY El Paso]]" by Music/MartyRobbins. The ending is quite heartbreaking.
95	* The first verse of "Youth of the Nation" by Music/{{POD}} is told from the perspective of a student killed in a school shooting.
96	* Kylie Minogue's part of "where the Wild Roses Grow" describes the death of the titular Eliza Day in the first-person.
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Radio]]
100	* ''Radio/TheLivesOfHarryLime'': Every episode began with the narration:
101	-->"That was the shot that killed Harry Lime. He died in a sewer beneath Vienna, as those of you know who saw the movie ''Film/TheThirdMan''. Yes, that was the end of Harry Lime ... but it was not the beginning. Harry Lime had many lives ... and I can recount all of them. How do I know? Very simple. Because my name is Harry Lime."
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Video Games]]
105	* Uriel Septim in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. He even {{lampshades}} his own death.
106	* Subverted in the opening narration of ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir''. [[spoiler:Turns out he was NotQuiteDead.]]
107	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'': Vanille. [[spoiler:Note that she was in fact put into crystal stasis, which is considered equivalent to death by most people in-game. Doesn't stop her from making an (albeit brief) appearance in the sequel.]]
108	--> "The thirteen days after we awoke were the beginning... of the end."
109	* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', if the loading screen quotes count as narration. Doesn't matter if it's the main game or either of the ''Burial at Sea'' episodes.
110	* Get a GameOver in ''VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers'' and the game turns into this, with the diary closing with the words "And so, I died...".
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Webcomics]]
114	* ''Webcomic/SoreThumbs'' lampshades it in [[http://sorethumbs.keenspot.com/d/20050427.html one story arc]], which has a narrator who tells us up front that he's dead and talking to us from Heaven. [[spoiler:We never found out which character he was, and everybody who wasn't a main character wound up dead.]]
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Western Animation]]
118	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': : At the end of the two-parter episode "The Siege of Starro!", [[spoiler: Bwanna Beast controls the Star Conqueror to give the combined Metal Men the upper hand and save the world, but at the cost of himself being vaporized.]] The episode ends with the heroes attending his funeral.
119	-->'''[[spoiler:Bwanna Beast]]:'''[[spoiler: So being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be. But you know what, I'd it all over again, in a hummingbird's heartbeat.]]
120
121	* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': [[spoiler: X-9]] in the Tale of X-9 Film-noir episode.
122	* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Star Trek" (nothing to do with the Franchise/{{s\|tarTrek}}how, for once), which starts with a ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''-style shot of Steve lying facedown in a pool of cherry jello. Steve narrates how he became an accomplished children's book writer by writing a book making fun of Roger. He gets everything he wants, including a giant mansion and a pool of jello. There's also a movie that is going to be filmed based on his book. Then it turns out that the person in the pool was actually an actor who was supposed to be playing Steve in the movie accidentally killed by Roger (he wanted to kill Steve). The episode ends with Stan helping Steve dump the body in a lake. Steve admits this was "kind of a screw to the audience" and apologizes for it.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[AC:Narrating the events ''following'' their death]]
126
127	[[folder:Comic Books]]
128	* Simon, the SacrificialLamb in ''ComicBook/{{Gear}}'' gets a brief monologue after he dies. Interestingly, the comic shows far more of his personality here than it did when he was alive.
129	* Johnny Seaview provides a posthumous narration describing [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]] investigating his murder in the comic strip "The Deep Hereafter" in ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine''.
130	* ''ComicBook/LoriLovecraft: The Dark Lady'' is narrated by Sir Andrew Parke-Jones, who died a week before the story starts. He follows the occult misadventures after she arrives in Scotland to accept his invitation only to learn he is dead.
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
134	* In ''Film/TheGreyZone'', the girl who survived the gas chamber and was executed narrates the results of the Auschwitz uprising.
135	* ''Film/TheHumanComedy'' opens with Mr. Macaulay, patriarch of the Macaulay family, having been dead for two years. He appears as a floating head in the sky and introduces his hometown and the characters. He pops up throughout, giving more narration and making occasional unseen ghostly visits.
136	* Leo Köpernick narrates ''Film/SeeHowTheyRun'', even after he is killed off.
137	* In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', the ending monologue is given by [[spoiler:Spock]] after his death. Of course, what the audience doesn't know is that he's OnlyMostlyDead.
138	* Jimmy's brother rises from the ground to give an introductory monologue in ''Film/TwoHands''.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Literature]]
142	* In ''Literature/{{Galapagos}}'', the entire story is narrated a million years after the fact by the ghost of someone who died back in 1986.
143	* Susie Salmon in ''Literature/TheLovelyBones'', who also does a little narration before her death.
144	* In Creator/DouglasCoupland's ''Girlfriend In A Coma'', Jared - who died of cancer while still in his teens - is the narrator for most of the book, although Richard narrates most of the first part.
145	* Obi-Wan Kenobi's story in ''Literature/FromACertainPointOfView'' details his death and subsequent merging with the Force from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin his point of view]].
146	* Most of the events described in ''Literature/MyPosthumousAdventures'' happen after the main character and narrator, Anna, dies on the operating table after a fall from a balcony. [[spoiler:Subverted in the end, as it turns out it’s a clinical death followed by a coma]].
147	* Stewart O'Nan's ''The Night Country'', a horror novel about the aftereffects of a fatal car crash, is narrated by one of the teenage ghosts haunting the three still living protagonists. The dead teens as a group function as a kind of GreekChorus.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
151	* Mary-Alice Young, the narrator of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', died in the opening of the pilot episode.
152	** ''WebAnimation/TheStrangerhood'' explicitly parodied this:
153	--->'''Wade:''' But didn't you, like, die and stuff in the last episode?\
154	'''Nikki (voice-over):''' "It's called artistic licence, you loser!"
155	** ''Series/MadTV1995'' parodied this too.
156	--->'''Nikki (voice-over):''' "Shortly after that, I killed myself [...] and news of my death travelled fast."
157	[[/folder]]
158
159	[[folder:Music]]
160	* The song "Passage" by Music/ViennaTeng is told from the point of view of a young woman killed in a car accident as she describes moments from the lives of her loved ones as they move on.
161	* "Hurt" by Music/NineInchNails, arguably. The fact that only after the character's death can he see how wrong he was is utterly heartbreaking.
162	[[/folder]]
163
164	[[folder:Theatre]]
165	* Discussed in ''Theatre/MaryMary'', where this apparently occurs in one of the manuscripts Bob is editing for publication:
166	-->"It's told in the first person, and when the story opens we're coming back from a funeral. But only gradually do we come to realize that the narrator of the story is the dead man."
167	[[/folder]]
168
169	[[folder:Video Games]]
170	* [[spoiler:Martin Septim]] in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. Made even weirder by the fact that he [[spoiler:turned into a dragon.]]
171	* In the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' DLC Honest Hearts, Jed Masterson does the closing narration, even though he died at the very start of the tale.
172	** Since the ModularEpilogue slides are narrated by a character relevant to each slide, this can also happen with various major characters in the main game and all DLC. ''If'' they die, of course.
173	** ''Dead Money'' zigzags this; Elijah narrates the ending despite his mandatory death, while the companion characters will only take part in the narration if all of them survive.
174	* Defied in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'': The player controls the Prince during a flashback he narrates, and can of course cause a GameOver by getting him killed. But since the Prince is [[FramingDevice narrating in-universe]], not just to the audience, he brushes off the "death" as a misstatement.
175	-->''[[NarrativeBackpedaling No, wait, that's not right, I didn't die...]]''
176	* Some versions of ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark1992'' include a walkthrough written as it was a guide written by Derceto owner after his suicide.
177	* A variation in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'': Ambassador Spock was thrown into the past of an AlternateUniverse rather than killed, though anyone in the prime universe where the game is set would assume that he has been dead for many years and he certainly would have no knowledge of the goings-on of the game's universe after he left it. Nonetheless, the Ambassador provides substantial narration to explain events that occurred long after he vanished.
178	[[/folder]]
179
180	[[folder:Western Animation]]
181	* Stinkmeaner from ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' narrates several times throughout "Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy", even [[InteractiveNarrator interrupting Huey at one point]].
182	[[/folder]]
183
184	[[AC:Narrating the events both before and after their death]]
185
186	[[folder:Advertising]]
187	* A trio of anti-drug [=PSAs=] on the radio were narrated by habitual cocaine users. Two of them had died while the third was undergoing surgery to repair the damage to his septum.
188	** One of the two was a woman who had been abusing cocaine, but was trying to kick the habit. Unfortunately, it had already done so much damage to her system that it only took a dose of cough medicine to kill her.
189	** The other had been given cocaine at his bachelor party, only to die of an overdose.
190	[[/folder]]
191
192	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
193	* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', L does this in the opening to the second Re-Light Special: "L's Successors".
194	** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in the same special with Watari. He shows up during these segments, but he merely acts as an announcer/human title card. He does not talk about his own death or any other events of the film.
195	* In ''Anime/{{Windaria}}'', the story begins at Alan's funeral and is told by him after his soul has left his body.
196	* In the one-shot story ''Toki Doki'', the narrator is [[spoiler:Poppo, the protagonist of the story. It begins with his describing his girlfriend Takagi, who was born on the same year and attended the same school, and her death at the age of 21]], and much of the remainder is about Takagi's heart condition that causes her heart to stop functioning early into her life. It turns out that [[spoiler:Poppo has the same heart condition as her, but because he is a natural thrill-seeker, his heart will stop functioning even sooner than her, and he dies a few pages before the end, at the age of 17. He continues to narrate about Takagi's subsequent high school graduation and her singer-songwriter career in the four years in between.]]
197	[[/folder]]
198
199	[[folder:Comic Books]]
200	* Jackie in ''ComicBook/TheDarkness'', who [[UnexplainedRecovery gets better]]. [[spoiler:Twice.]]
201	[[/folder]]
202
203	[[folder:Fan Works]]
204	* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/109581/1/i-did-not-want-to-die/i-did-not-want-to-die I Did Not Want To Die]]
205	[[/folder]]
206
207	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
208	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', which takes place in the Land of the Dead. [[spoiler:Imelda explains to Miguel that she doesn't really hate music; she just forced it out of her life after her husband left her to make the task of raising Coco easier for her]].
209	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', Flynn Rider starts out narrating the film with "This is the story of how I died." [[spoiler:He did. But he got better.]]
210	** The [[Recap/TangledTheSeriesBeforeEverAfter made-for-TV sequel]]/pilot for ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'' has Eugene start the opening narration with "This is the story of how I died... and went to heaven!" in reference to how his new situation is so much more pleasant than his old life as [[spoiler:Flynn Rider]].
211	[[/folder]]
212
213	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
214	* In the beginning of ''Film/{{Apaches}}'', a boy named Danny playing outside with his friends narrates that his family is preparing a "dinner party". At the end, it's revealed that the "dinner party" is actually his funeral wake.
215	--> "I wish I was there...honest."
216	* Ed in one of the "Plot-Hole" featurettes on the ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' DVD. He gives voice-over narration about how he died and turned into a zombie, but he speaks articulately. He doesn't grunt incomprehensively like his zombie form does at the end of the actual movie.
217	* In ''Film/TheBucketList'', the opening and ending narration have Carter (Morgan Freeman) talking about the death of Edward (Jack Nicholson). [[spoiler:Carter dies a few months before Edward]].
218	* In ''Film/Legend2015'', Frances is the narrator of most of the movie. She even lampshades the fact that most viewers will think she survives her suicide attempt because she's narrating, but she doesn't.
219	* In the Russian film ''Zvezda (The Star)'', the captain who sent titular scout unit to their deaths narrates the result of their sacrifice at the end of the film. Then he mentions that he also died later in the war.
220	* The main character of ''Film/StruckByLightning'' dies in the first scene. The majority of the film is an extended flashback of his life.
221	[[/folder]]
222
223	[[folder:Literature]]
224	* Bibi Chen in ''Saving Fish From Drowning''. She mostly narrates the events after her death, but also flashbacks to her childhood and events some time before her death. She doesn't get around to narrating her own death until the very end of the book, because she herself has no idea how she died.
225	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' is always narrated from the first person, so in ''Ghost Story'' [[spoiler:which takes place after Harry's death in ''Changes'']], Harry Dresden narrates it while dead as a ghost. [[spoiler: He's revived.]]
226	* In a Poem Within A Book example, "The Legion's Pride", recited by a soldier in ''[[Literature/LordDarcy A Study In Sorcery]]'', is couched as a posthumous declaration by another [[AlternateHistory Anglo-French]] soldier, who'd died during a peacekeeping mission to avert conflict between rival German baronies.
227	* In an oddly justified example, the story of ''The Children's Hospital'' by Chris Adrian is told by "the recording angel," a being required to observe and record in exact detail TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and the life of a woman (our protagonist) who will play a key role in it, from her birth to her death. Said recording angel just happens to be what is left of the main protagonist's older brother, who committed suicide as a teenager, several years before the events of the book. In the midst of the story, he occasionally cuts back to a childhood memory of himself and the protagonist, although he never refers to the brother in the first person in these scenes.
228	* In J. California Cooper's ''Literature/{{Family}}'', Clora commits suicide in the first act, and her ghost sticks around to watch what happens to her children.
229	[[/folder]]
230
231	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
232	* The PilotEpisode of ''Series/DeadLikeMe'' has George narrating events in her life up to and including her own death, and continuing from there.
233	* The murder victims in every episode of ''Series/TheForgotten'' narrate their own identification and the efforts to find their killer.
234	* The ''[[{{Series/Millennium1996}} Millennium]]'' episode [[{{Recap/MillenniumE31JoseChungsDoomsdayDefense}} "Jose Chung's 'Doomsday Defense'"]] has the titular author, reprised by Creator/CharlesNelsonReilly from ''Series/TheXFiles'' ep [[{{Recap/TheXFilesS03E20JoseChungsFromOuterSpace}} "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'"]] narrate the life of [[{{ChurchOfHappyology}} Selfosophy]] guru Juggernaut Onan Goopta. He also narrates the episode's denouement after [[spoiler: getting bludgeoned by the "Nostrodamus Nutball" and [[DiedInYourArmsTonight dying in Frank Black's arms,]]]] likely an ending for his last book.
235	---> '''Jose Chung:''' Well, "all's well that ends well," though that's easier for [[{{Creator/WilliamShakespeare}} Shakespeare ]] [[{{Theatre/AllsWellThatEndsWell}} to say.]] He'll be around for another [[TitleDrop millennium.]] But what of our own millennium? [[MillenniumBug Will it all end well?]] No one, of course, can know. But that, of course, doesn't stop anyone else from guessing. And the nature of these predictions always revolve around the usual suspects: salvation, and/or self-satisfaction. With that in mind, I humbly add my own prophesy of what the dawn of the new millennium shall bring forth: one thousand years of the same old crap.
236	* ''Series/MoneyHeist'' is narrated at the beginning and end of episodes by Tokyo. She dies in the middle of the last season, but keeps narrating anyway.
237	* Augustus Hill in ''Series/{{Oz}}'' does his [[LemonyNarrator odd narrations]] throughout the series. [[spoiler:He's killed in the Season 5 finale, but continues to narrate events in Season 6.]] In addition, various dead inmates took their turn at narration in the last season.
238	* The Creator/InvestigationDiscovery series "Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets" uses this as its basic premise: each episode has the victim of a RealLife crime narrating the circumstances surrounding their murder.
239	* The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "[[Recap/TorchwoodS1E9RandomShoes Random Shoes]]" does exactly this, with the events after Eugene's death being narrated by Eugene as they are figured out in the present.
240	* The ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS6E15YouMurderer You, Murderer]]" opens with the protagonist dead in his car as a result of an accident, and he narrates the events leading up to his death. [[spoiler:Except he dies halfway through the flashback by receiving blunt force trauma from another character hitting him in the head with a statue instead and still continues to narrate the events leading up to the present as the ones who killed him attempt to hide his body.]]
241	[[/folder]]
242
243	[[folder:Music]]
244	* "Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" by the Music/BarenakedLadies. Just think about that title for a minute.
245	* "Long Black Veil", originally by Lefty Frizzell and later covered by Music/TheBand among others, has the singer telling how he came to be hanged, and why a woman secretly mourns for him.
246	* Music/WeirdAlYankovic:
247	** "Melanie" describes how his obsessive stalking of the eponymous woman finally led him to jump to his death from a sixteenth story window.
248	** "A Complicated Song" describes a day in the life of the narrator, which ends with his getting decapitated and remarking on [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction what a "major inconvenience" not having a head is.]]
249	** "Everything You Know Is Wrong": The narrator dies of an infection midway through the song and continues narrating what happened to him in the afterlife.
250	* The novelty song "The Thing" is about a man who gets stuck with a box containing unidentified contents for his entire life due to being turned away in disgust by everyone he shows the box to. The penultimate verse describes how he ended up dying after his years of being stuck with the box and being forced to take the box with him to Hell by St. Peter when he tried to get into Heaven, while the last verse has the protagonist warn the listener not to pick up and open any strange boxes they may find or else they'll suffer the same fate he did and never be able to get rid of the box.
251	* The male portions of Creator/SteveMartin's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lFMK3UIa74 Pretty Little One]] are from the perspective of a man whose ex-girlfriend shoots him when he attempts to murder her.
252	[[/folder]]
253
254	[[folder:Theatre]]
255	* In ''Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World'', Musa's roommate Abdallah died in a ferry accident during his pilgrimage to Mecca, and narrates during scene transitions.
256	* In ''Theatre/OnAClearDayYouCanSeeForever'', Daisy's recollections of her past life as Melinda Welles include a memory of her own funeral after the ''Trelawney'' sank with her aboard.
257	* In ''Theatre/LikeDyingThingsDo'' the audience finds out near the end of the show that the narrator, Adam, has actually committed suicide and was dead the whole time.
258	[[/folder]]
259
260	[[folder:Video Games]]
261	* In ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'', the rescued Empress of Time is the narrator and dies at the end of the tutorial section of the game, which doesn't prevent her from continuing the narration. Given her mystical nature as the incarnation of Time, it is at least partially justified. After the BigBad is defeated, she shows up in the form of the Sands of Time and leaves for another world. Given that she ''is'' the Sands, it makes sense that she was simply trapped inside the BigBad.
262	* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII's'' Joan of Arc campaign, the main narrator is a French nobleman. In the last mission, where he can be controlled as a hero unit, he states the possibility that he could die in the battle, and if he is killed, he says "It is here... that my tale shall end." After the player wins the mission, he continues narrating regardless of whether he survives or dies, and refers to Joan's being canonized as a saint, which happened in 1920, long after he died.
263	* May happen in ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'' [[spoiler: after Lucas dies]] if you make the wrong choice
264	** [[NonstandardGameOver "...and that's how my story ends"]]
265	* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' includes this line in the opening: "I am Dr. Edward Roivas. I am a clinical psychologist. I am also dead."
266	* In ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStormGenerations'', the narrator is Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, who died fairly early on in the series. He talks about his own funeral too.
267	* In ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'', Ambrosia narrates starting with a story from her parents, [[GenerationalSaga then continues after her child is born, up to her daughter's adulthood]] and her death, then talks about her afterlife. Apparently, she's [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall addressing the player]], not anyone in-game.
268	* In ''VideoGame/{{Jotun}}'' Thora tells of her life of glory as a Viking warrior, her ignoble death, and her triumph over the Jotun in Norse purgatory.
269	* The Ancestor in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' provides the player with battle commentary and exposition on the areas and bosses, despite having been DrivenToSuicide long before you arrived. This is possibly justified considering that [[spoiler:it's actually the [[BigBad Heart of Darkness]] using the ghost of your Ancestor as a puppet throughout the game. [[UnreliableNarrator Or]] [[MindScrew is it]]?]]
270	[[/folder]]
271
272	[[folder:Web Original]]
273	* The College Humor video "Every Teen Movie Ending" utilizes this trope. After the narrator explains what happened to his friends following graduation, he notes that he really misses them and that it's "too bad I drowned in a pool when I was eight."
274	[[/folder]]
275
276	[[folder:Western Animation]]
277	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Invoked rather viciously in "Butt Out", where Cartman takes part in an anti-smoking PSA saying that he died from secondhand smoke, and then the activists [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident try to kill him to make it look real]].
278	[[/folder]]
279

Context Main / PosthumousNarration