Warning: As this is often a Death Trope, expect spoilers.
Those who remain Defiant to the End in Video Games.
- In AFK Arena, this trope was Khasos's plan in his backstory, but it didn't quite work out that way. Being a slave who knew his exceptionally-cruel master would have his head for accidentally losing his sheep, challenged him to a fight to the death so that he could die in combat like any self-respecting Mauler instead of being struck down while helpless. Nobody was more shocked than he himself was that he actually won due to his superior agility, his master arrogantly making a game out of it and not taking him seriously, and a single lucky blow to the neck.
- ANNO: Mutationem: Near the end, just as Ann manages to reunite with Ryan, she's blocked off by The Consortium's security and is ordered to stand down and come with them to cut off Amok's connection with her. If Ann decides not to trust them thinking they have other agendas, this ends up leading into disastrous consequences as Ryan argues and demands Ann should be let go. Despite G's warning that leaving Ann still tied to Amok will bring chaos, Ryan refuses to listens and impulsively attacks G, causing the security bots to shoot him in retaliation. As Ann is in shock over Ryan's death, Amok uses the opportunity to pry on Ann's anger to forcibly take over her body, immediately killing everybody in the room, and proceeds to annihilate the entire world.
- Assassin's Creed III: The second-to-last Templar to be assassinated, Hatham Kenway, stands by his group's vision even after Connor delivers the final blow.
- Asura's Wrath has a perfect demonstration of this trope with the final battle between Asura and Chakravartin. After Asura rejects Chakravartin's offer of godhood via punch to the face, it begins an epic, all-out showdown that spans all across the Event Horizon with Chakravartin throwing everything he's got at Asura and Asura showing he can tank everything Chakravartin's got and toss it right back. Eventually, after losing a Pummel Duel with Asura, Chakravartin goes One-Winged Angel and reduces Asura to his base form, but even then Asura just keeps on swinging as the fight eventually devolves into a brutal fistfight between the two as Chakravartin's power begins to weaken.note . But even as he starts taking heavy damage, Chakravartin goes down fighting to the end as Asura beats the shit out of him while laying out an epic "No More Holding Back" Speech.
- Baldur's Gate II: Jon Irenicus winds up being defiant even after the end: Once defeated by the player, banished to the Abyss, and stripped of his magic, we last see him defending himself from a horde of demons with his bare hands, and even taking a couple of them down before being overwhelmed by their numbers.
- Battle for Wesnoth: In the final scenario of The Rise of Wesnoth, Commander Aethyr is killed by Lich-Lord Jevyan as part of an Self-Sacrifice Scheme, and he still taunts and insults Jeyvan as the Lich Lord is slowly draining the life out of him.
- Borderlands 2 features this, most notably with Handsome Jack, the main antagonist of the series. Upon being beaten in the end, with his plans having crumbled, Handsome Jack doesn't beg or even throw his characteristically cocky insults or snappy jokes at the player; he instead delivers the most violent, hateful, profane, lengthy "Fuck you" speech of the entire game, with pure psychotic insanity laden in his voice and lava and flames splashing about the area, condemning the player and their friends for destroying his vision of order and for ensuring what he views as lawlessness and murder on the planet of Pandora. Whether you choose to kill him or allow your ally to do so, he doesn't beg and he doesn't even flinch.
- Deconstructed in Tales from the Borderlands: Jack tries to be defiant when he thinks he's about to die, making threats, but when it becomes clear that that's not working, he's reduced to pathetic, terrified begging and desperation, clearly showing that his earlier threats were completely toothless. And neither the threats nor the begging work.
- Taken completely literally in the Chzo Mythos; Trilby, and his stubborn will to live, is giving the Tall Man enough time to transport into reality. To avoid this? He makes himself die on the spot. To spite the Tall Man. Averted because he immediately comes back to life and the Tall Man only actually needed Trilby's blood.
- Darkest Dungeon: The Final Boss almost always requires you to sacrifice two heroes to it. Some will Face Death with Dignity, telling you to spare the others and accepting their doom calmly. Some will beg for survival. Some will actively demand that you pick them. The Bounty Hunter will just grunt because he's The Quiet One. And then, qualifying for this trope, there are the Crusader and the Hellion.
- If you fail to pay the Big Bad of Dead In Vinland tribute until the enmity meter reaches 100%, he'll invade your camp to slaughter everyone. Rebellious teenage daughter Kari reacts with her typical Hair-Trigger Temper, so he decides to kill her first in front of her parents. The last thing she does before he cuts off her head is spit in his eye. It's noted that he still has that eye closed after the axe comes down.
- Dragon Age: Origins:
- The Human Noble Warden's defiant response to Arl Howe mocking them for having killed their entire family and claiming there is nothing now that the Wardens are gone as well.Human Noble: You lie, Howe. To yourself most of all. I am a Grey Warden!
Arl Howe: There it is, right there. That damned look in the eye that marked every Cousland success that held me back! - Howe gets in on it too, after you defeat him. His defiance is far less sympathetic, however.Arl Howe: Maker spit on you. I deserved more.
- The Human Noble Warden's defiant response to Arl Howe mocking them for having killed their entire family and claiming there is nothing now that the Wardens are gone as well.
- Dragon Age II: The final boss of the Mark of the Assassin DLC is defeated and hanging from a cliff by one hand;Duke Prosper: You will all die screaming, I swear it!
Snarky!Hawke: I would have tried begging for mercy, but that's just me. *Turns and walks away* Thank you for the lovely party, I'll treasure the belt!
Duke Prosper: *Falls down, screaming*
Varric: And that's what you get for spending your last minute monologuing.
Snarky!Hawke: Looks like the Duke... has fallen from grace. - Evolve: You can do this as the hunter. Even as you lie bleeding out on the ground and the monster is preparing to finish you off, or just watching you die, you can fire your peashooter of a pistol at it until you die.
- The Lone Wanderer invokes this beautifully in Fallout 3. When captured by the Enclave, the Wanderer gets interrogated by Colonel Autumn, and you can defy him in three ways: you can play dumb, you can tell him in no uncertain terms to go fuck himself, or you can tell him a lie. The latter two are extremely satisfying (either from the insult or from hearing Autumn's resultant tirade), considering it's his fault that your father dies. Fortunately, they survive.
- Final Fantasy V: Galuf takes on Exdeath solo after the rest of the party falls, and doesn't let a pesky thing like running out of Hit Points stop him until Exdeath retreats, even if it costs him his life.
- Final Fantasy XII: Balthier's reaction to a sword to his throat?Balthier: Well, at least your sword is to the point.
- Balthier can also be heard snarking calmly when he's knocked out in combat:Balthier: Is that your best?
- Balthier can also be heard snarking calmly when he's knocked out in combat:
- In the Fire Emblem series:
- Lord Elbert in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. Even though he's dying from just having had his energy sucked out to summon a dragon by the Big Bad Nergal, he still manages to give Nergal a grievous wound before telling him he "will oppose him always". By the way, that wound? Takes a long time to heal. It's late game by the time Nergal's at his full strength again.
- Disc-One Final Boss Jarod is a villainous example in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned, and scapegoated for the entire disaster of the Daein occupation by his superiors, Jarod barricades his army inside Daein Keep, gives one last Rousing Speech, and uses catapults to destroy the capital city. When he's finally cornered, his last words are an I Regret Nothing speech and the verbal equivalent of spitting in Micaiah's face.
- In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, when Part II rolls around, Edelgard refuses to surrender under any circumstances. On the Azure Moon route, right before the penultimate battle, Dimitri has total military control of the entire continent and has her cornered in her capital city, and nearly all of her supporters are dead. Despite this, she still rejects his continuous attempts to end the war peacefully and fights to the last breath. On the Verdant Wind route, as Claude is breaking down her last defenders in her own throne room, he begs her to give up, but she refuses to quit.
- Near the end of Book II of Fire Emblem Heroes, Helbindi, one of Surtr's generals, realizes that Surtr burned down the slums where Helbindi used to live, killing Helbindi's sister and countless others. Helbindi then betrays Surtr by freeing Veronica and Ylgr, the two sacrifices Surtr intended to use for the Rite of Flames to secure his immortality. As the two girls flee, Surtr catches Helbindi, and asks him if he has any last words. Helbindi tells Surtr that, "What you got coming to you... you deserve it," before fighting with Surtr and being Killed Offscreen.
- Lilac from Freedom Planet is eventually captured, tortured, mutilated and left completely at the mercy of Lord Brevon, who planned on executing her shortly if not for a Big Damn Heroes moment that prevented it, and she still doesn't stop defiantly mouthing off to him. Brevon even muses that he could hack off all her limbs and she'd still try to bite him.
- God of War: Kratos.Kratos: A choice from the Gods is as useless as the Gods themselves.
Zeus: Even now as you draw your last breath, you continue to defy me!?- Extends to his cameo appearance in Mortal Kombat 9. He never grimaces or shows pain when being hit with X-Ray Attacks or Fatalities.
- Ironically, this was a direct mandate of Sony that Kratos not show any weakness or pain during said attacks. A case of Executive Meddling working in a good way.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Eddie Pulaski, one of the antagonists, is this after Carl causes him to crash and asks for any last words. Eddie's response? "Can I fuck your sister?"
- General Kaan from New Legends, the first major, plot-relevant boss battle. You defeat him in a fight, and as he succumbs to his injuries the following cutscene have him hurling his ax at you, successfully removing your left arm. Before he passes out with a Dying Smirk.
- Halo:
- Emile and player character Noble Six of Halo: Reach display this trope rather well. Emile takes it to Dying Moment of Awesome territory when a Covenant Elite impales him with its sword from behind. Without missing a beat, he spins around and stabs the Elite in the neck, taking it down with him. Six displays it early, when an Elite grabs him/her and pins him/her to a wall, Six punches him in the face. It comes to a head at the game's end when Six stays behind on Reach to help Keyes escape with the Cortana fragment. He/she takes on the swarming Covenant with a vast array of weapons, ending with an assault rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other, and then his/her bare hands, still punching and kicking at them as they deliver the killing blow.
- Sergeant Johnson in Halo 3. When he's captured by the Brutes, Truth tries to force him to activate the Halos, because only a human can do it. When he refuses, the Brutes attempt to force him to do it by physical force. He just punches their chieftain straight in its face and then insults it. Even when Truth himself attempts to force him to light the Halos, Johnson remains defiant and even insults Truth himself straight to his face while he's being manhandled by the Brutes from behind.
- Henry Stickmin Series: Reginald Copperbottom shows this on two occasions. In Jewel Baron, as Reginald gets sucked out of his broken escape pod, he curses Henry — who singlehandedly brought his clan to ruin for the sake of a priceless artifact - with his dying breath. And in Revenged, as he's pinned to his airship that is about to crash, he gets one last shot on Henry while declaring that they'll share this last ride together.
- After finding the masterminds behind the phone calls in Hotline Miami, the player is able to kill the two responsible if they want. Once they shoot one of them, the other simply flips the bird to the player.
- Lex Luthor in Injustice: Gods Among Us. Note that in the Injustice Universe, Lex is a good guy and a longtime friend of Superman, but also helping against his regime. He's about to kill him successfully until Shazam attacks and disables his armor, allowing Superman to injure him mortally.Superman: How could you? I brought peace to this world!
Lex Luthor: Your peace... is a joke. *dies* - In Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, during a holorecording showing the Exile's trial and banishment from the Jedi Order, they are ordered to relinquish their lightsaber. Without saying a word, the Exile tells them exactly where they can shove it by stabbing it into the centre stone of the Council Chamber, then turns and casually walks out. More than one Jedi Master appears uncertain whether they want to be irritated or impressed by this.
- The Last of Us Part II: Near the start of the game, a gang of WLF members lures the previous game's protagonist Joel into a trap and plans on brutally murdering him. As the ringleader invites the victim to guess his killer's identity, the victim tells the killer, "Why don't you say whatever speech you got rehearsed... and get this over with?"
- Mass Effect: Emily Wong. While an extremely minor character throughout the series proper, the night before Mass Effect 3 went live, she chronicled the first 12 or so hours of the Reaper invasion on the Alliance News Network Twitter page. After getting injured, losing all of her weapons, watching her coworkers and fellow survivors get slaughtered, and, above all else, finding out that her tweets might have allowed the Reapers to find ANN's followers, she decides that, since she's going out anyway, she might as well go out with style. So she takes a skycar and starts flying towards the nearest Reaper. Her final words really seal the deal.
- The Ardat-Yakshi Rila is already half-indoctrinated and barely able to stop herself from attacking her own sister when first awakened. She regains control of herself and, while her sister is dragged away screaming, draws the attention of the approaching Banshees. As one stares into her eyes, Rila seems to be speaking to the Reapers controlling it as she detonates the bomb.
- Jack, if you fail to evacuate the Grissom Academy in time in Mass Effect 3, will be captured by Cerberus, indoctrinated, and turned into a Phantom, essentially an empty shell of herself. In the endgame, you can find video logs of her final day, showing that she remained defiant in her usual vulgar way until the end.
- EDI vows to do this if they can't defeat the Reapers. "I would rather become nonfunctional than help them. I want you to know I will never be a part of the Reaper forces."
- Finally, Shepard himself in the "Refusal" ending.Shepard: I fight for freedom. Mine and everyone's. I fight for the right to choose our own fate. And if I die, I'll die knowing that I did everything I could to stop you. And I'll die free.
- Combined with Big Damn Heroes and Heroic Sacrifice by Zero in Mega Man X, because he's that cool: In the second Vile fight, Zero went ahead to fight Vile. When X follows, he finds that Zero lost and is locked in an electric cage. An Unwinnable fight ensues. When X gets hit with Vile's paralyzer again, Zero catches Vile monologuing and breaks out, latching on to Vile's Ride Armor. He purposely overloads himself to destroy the Ride Armor, but Vile survives. X is understandably pissed and breaks out of the paralyzer and refills his Hit Points, then proceeds to hand Vile his ass.
- Persona 3: Mitsuru Kirijo delivers this line to the Big Bad, who is an Eldritch Abomination that is set on bringing The End of the World as We Know It:We've come this far... I WILL NOT SUBMIT!!!
- Persona 5:
- Contrary to the first two bosses, Kaneshiro's shadow remains smug even after the Phantom Thieves succeed in forcing his change of heart; before fading away, he taunts them with the knowledge that someone else had access to the Metaverse and was using it to cause mental shutdowns for their own benefit, and refuses to tell them that person's identity.
Shadow Kaneshiro: (snicker) Don't even bother. You are nothing compared to them... Better be careful... A chance encounter with them could prove fatal...- In the Bad Ending, right up until he's shot in the head, the protagonist will simply glare at his assassin from The Conspiracy in the face, rather than give him the dignity of a response.
- The protagonist gets another one near the true ending of the game when the fake Igor orders his execution. Just as Caroline and Justine are about to kill him, Joker musters up enough willpower to transform into his Metaverse outfit and destroy the door on his jail cell. As if that wasn't badass enough, he's also able to withstand all their attacks.
- Persona 5 Tactica: Lady Marie and Lord Yoshiki both laugh triumphantly and viciously mock Toshiro even as they fade from existence upon defeat.
- Red Dead Redemption 2: If Arthur Morgan helps John Marston escape with low honor, Micah Bell will finish him off with his revolver. Arthur isn't fazed, calling him a fool and telling him they're not that different, before getting shot.
- Sakura Wars (2019):
- Though Sakura Amamiya ultimately doesn't die during Xiaolong Yang's Curb-Stomp Battle in Chapter 1, she tells him point-blank that she refuses to give up on her dreams to defend Tokyo.
- Towards the end of the game Hatsuho Shinonome dies willing to stop Yaksha from killing Seijuro Kamiyama and Sakura at all costs. However, Hatsuho ultimately gets revived along with the fallen heroines shortly after Kamiyama and Sakura return from the alternate dimension.
- Subverted or Double Subverted, depending on how ruthless you are in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. When you begin to crush a rival faction, they'll ask for a truce. If you ignore it and continue, they'll ask for a truce but also try to bribe you with cash or technologies. If you ignore that and it's certain they're going to be utterly destroyed, they'll throw themselves at your mercy and offer you an alliance and all their credits and tech as long as you spare them. If you refuse at this point, they will cut all communications with you and fight from the last ditch.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: Upon being told You Will Be Spared if he kneels before Valkorion, Darth Marr refuses, says the following, grabs a nearby force-pike, and is ultimately felled by Force Lightning."It is you who fears death, "Valkorion." note I do not. I will not kneel."
- Spider-Man (PS4): Even when being dangled off the side of a building by Doctor Octopus, Norman Osborn shows some Villainous Valour and insults his captor by saying that Norman was the driving force behind his and Otto's partnership and that Otto wouldn't be worth anything without him.
- In StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Kerrigan corners general Warfield, impaled on a beam and ordering his forces to retreat from the planet. He gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and orders her to let his wounded soldiers go. Kerrigan kills him when he asks what Raynor would think if he saw her now. As she is leaving, a soldier can be heard over Warfield's comlink saying that the Zerg are retreating, calling it a miracle.
- Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, an injured Optimus is dragged before Megatron, and this exchange occurs:Megatron: No one leaves without my permission!
Optimus: I wasn't asking.- Megatron himself counts later in the same scene. If you pause in between smashing him with Meroplex's gigantic fist, Megatron will continue to fire at the skyscraper-sized Autobot even though he clearly doesn't have a hope in hell of accomplishing anything.
- This is how Aelia meets her untimely end in Valkyrie Profile before you recruit her as an Einherjar.
- In Episode 2 of The Walking Dead: The Final Season, when Lilly has Clem dead-to-rights during the final battle, Clem has the option of angrily telling Lilly she'll see her in Hell and doesn't mind waiting.
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine:
- After you finally get to fight Warboss Grimskull of the invading Ork horde and beat/slash/shoot him into a pulp, Grimskull still doesn't give up, letting out a defiant "I ain't finished with you yet, Space Marine!" Unfortunately for him, Captain Titus has had enough of this Ork invasion and says, "But I am finished with you, Ork," and blows Grimskull's head off.
- The "Possession" series of logs shows Inquisitor Drogan's last stand against the demons. Drogan valiantly resisted interrogation, which is why the demon had to possess him to extract the information directly from his mind.
- Two from Wing Commander III:
- In the introduction, Prince Thrakhath says this of Jeanette "Angel" Devereaux after she spits in his face when gloating about the capture of her and her special forces operatives. The player doesn't see it until later in the game, but after spitting in his face he disembowels her with his claws, in what the Kilrathi consider an honorable death, unlike the disintegration of the other humans.
- In the losing path if captured after failing to destroy Kilrah, the player is given the option for Blair to either give up and meekly accept defeat or to tell Thrakhath "screw you". The former gets Blair disintegrated by guards behind him as not worthy of a "proper" Kilrathi death, while the latter earns him Angel's fate.
- In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the famous alchemist Kalkstein was captured by witch hunters in Novigrad as part of the anti-mage genocide conducted by King Radovid. When he was burned alive on a pyre, he cast a final spell that surrounded himself in fiery beasts that shot into the air and formed big letters in the sky. The message read: "Radovid sucks flaccid cock".
- World of Warcraft has quite a few examples, this being a world where a Last Stand is pretty common.
- Sir Zeliek is one of these. Even though he's technically a villain, it's not his choice. He went down fighting and though he was raised into undeath, he still refuses to give up the belief that righteousness will prevail. Tragically, this is what makes him such a valuable weapon to the very evil he fought so hard since through him the Lich King can control the force of the Holy Light.
- Every raid boss in the game uses this trope: the most powerful abilities are employed as the boss is getting low on health. However, magnificently subverted in the Lich King encounter, where Tirion shatters Frostmourne and the last 10% of the boss's health is the raid simply beating up the helpless boss.
- In Mists of Pandaria, you have Xin the Weaponmaster, who condescendingly terms you puny and your efforts as pitiful. Should you manage to defeat him, he spits blood in your face and snorts "You call that...a fight?"
- In one of the Legion pre-patch cinematics, Gul'dan has Varian Wrynn on his knees, already impaled on several demons' swords.Gul'dan: You will be remembered as the king who sacrificed his life for nothing.
Varian: (looks Gul'dan in the eye) For the Alliance. - In both companion stories for Battle for Azeroth (as the two follow the same plot), a young assassin attempts to kill Saurfang, only to be mortally wounded moments later by his target. Saurfang tries to comfort the youth in his last moments, but in a final expression of defiance, the youth refutes Saurfang's aid, using his last breath to spit on Saurfang's boots.
- Garrosh Hellscream was many things, but weak willed was not one of them. The Venthyr are able to stave off a drought they themselves are responsible for in part thanks to Garrosh's sheer force of will. At the end of the fight with his torturer, Dormazain, he is again ordered to submit:
Garrosh: I submit to no one! Not you, not the Jailer, and not that coward Thrall! FOR THE HOOORDE!! (leaps at Dormazain, causing an explosion that disintegrates both)
