As a Death Trope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.
Dying Moments of Awesome in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, Blueberry fought against four griffin soldiers and managed to defeat one of them, refusing to surrender, before being killed, as reported by Flare Star. Her team recovered Blueberry's body from the battlefield and brought it to the Canterlot Castle so they could give their honors.
- In Broken Bow, Armani willingly allowing his entire being to be erased to save the world from becoming a literal hell because a breach in the walls of reality that was anchored on his blood was going to bring in the most powerful forces of horror from every universe ever... Yeah, I'd say that qualifies.
- He just got knocked into Artemis Fowl's universe, and got back... eventually. He did have to steal the crown jewels to do it.
- Code Prime:
- During the Black Rebellion, Cliffjumper is mortally wounded by Luciano Bradley. However, he manages to take the bastard with him by using the last of his strength to drag his Knightmare onto a generator and pinning it there. He even makes sure that his grinning face is the last thing that Bradley ever sees.
- While helping Suzaku rescue Euphemia and Cornelia from Kamine Island, Dreadwing covers their escape by staying behind to rig the island's Energon deposits to explode and wipe out the Insecticon hive. However, he realizes that due to damage to his T-Cog by Airachnid, he can't escape to safety in time and still ensure that the bomb goes off; so, he decides to make a Last Stand, fighting off the Insecticons until the bomb detonates, wiping out the hive and severely wounding Airachnid in the process.
- In the first chapter of R2 - Revolution, General Johann Schwarzer stays behind to buy time for Princess Marrybell and the Glinda Knights to escape Area 24 as it's overrun by the Decepticons. And then, in a Shout-Out to Sir Penwood's death, he lines his command room with explosives and waits for the attacking Vehicons to break in, before detonating them and taking the whole fortress with him.
- During the Iacon Relic hunt, Bruticus overwhelms the Aerialbots and the Black Wyvern Unit and is about to escape with a stash of Red Energon. To stop him, Urabe attacks the Red Energon directly, destroying it and creating an explosion that kills him and damages Bruticus enough that the Combaticons have to flee.
- Tink fires a Mega-Hardon Launcher at Devastator during the fight over the Resonance Blaster to shut off the Combiner's Vortex Grinder and save the rest of his team, but the force of the blast sends Bonecrusher flying at his Knightmare, crushing him.
- Death Note Equestria has one that's sadly offscreen: When Mer tried to coerce the Apple family into becoming the Third Kira, Granny Smith refused to let her grandchildren become killers. As AJ puts it, she stared down a God of Death and said no. This got her killed, but it's still awesome nonetheless.
- The Fate/stay night and Highschool Dx D crossover A Demon Lord's Hero provides a villainous example with Kokabiel and an entire legion of Fallen Angels, who fell with him out of sheer loyalty, when Shirou pulls out Unlimited Blade Works. They meet it with eagerness, and they all die awesomely.
- In Divine Blood, Hild, weakened by the crash of Nidhog, still manages to destroy several demonic mecha stated as being weapons the equal of a fully powered category 1 demon along with several big name demons among the released criminals and rebels. Eventually, she obliterates an approximately two mile radius of Nifelheim. The rebels, stalk forward to confirm she died in that blast and are on the point of celebrating their victory when she manages enough energy to look at them all and say "Boo." before her life gives out. This is enough to trigger a stampede away from her in which some demons are implied to be at least injured in the press to flee. It is later stated that she took out half of the enemy forces this way.
- On top of this, she died on her feet, being an example of a "standing death". Expending so much energy and putting so much strain on herself that she went into rigor mortis in the last moments of life.
- Engie Main multiverse:
- Napaj-89 Ash Ketchum is shot by Lysandre, who saw no reason to Double Tap. He then gets back up and shoots a Aura Sphere the size of his torso at the Doomsday Device, destroying it and collapsing it into a rift which Lysandre is sucked through. Serena cradles his dying body as he convulses in pain and fades from existence.Ash: Should've double-tapped, bitchboy! Your plans end here!
- Napaj-89 Ash Ketchum is shot by Lysandre, who saw no reason to Double Tap. He then gets back up and shoots a Aura Sphere the size of his torso at the Doomsday Device, destroying it and collapsing it into a rift which Lysandre is sucked through. Serena cradles his dying body as he convulses in pain and fades from existence.
- The Equestrian Wind Mage: Despite being fatally burned by Onox, Shining Armor still manages to use his remaining strength to stab the bastard right through the heart, killing him.
- The God Empress of Ponykind: Commander Icewind, wounded and cut off, charges right into the heart of King Sombra's forces in order to buy time for Fell-Hoof to get word to their allies, killing many before he is overwhelmed. When Sombra tries to scavenge his armor to reverse-engineer it, the Self Destruct Rune activates, blowing up the entire Plaza.
- Dawn Sparkle duels Nightmare Moon in single combat during the Siege of Manehattan. She's just a normal pony versus a Mad God, and she manages to land a few hits before being cut down. Sadly this is all offscreen.
- In Harry Tano, Dumbledore gets one during the final battle. When his starfighter is severely damaged and he receives a mortal wound, Dumbledore uses the last of his life to shroud his fighter in a giant Patronus so that he can destroy the giant edifice being used to enslave the world.
- After dying, his spirit briefly visits Hogwarts to say goodbye.
- In the Code Geass/Mass Effect crossover The Illusive Emperor
, an escort cruiser tasked with weakening a dreadnought during the Skyllian Blitz manages to destroy it by activating it's ftl drive and ramming it at light speed. - The Mission Stays the Same gives one to the Eldar civilization that inhabited the Mass Effect universe many cycles ago; the Reapers felt that they were developing along lines that would threaten the cycle, so they sent a small fleet to harvest the Eldar (at that time in the middle of their industrial age). The fleet never returned, so a larger fleet was sent. The Eldar had managed to defeat the first fleet and advance their tech level considerably and their psychic powers allow them to No-Sell the Reapers' attempts at Indoctrination. The losses inflicted on the Reapers was such that Harbinger opted to exterminate the entire Eldar race, as harvesting them wouldn't be worth it. The Eldar gave the Reapers one last "Fuck you" before dying when they poured their psychic powers into the system's star, causing it to go nova and wipe out all trace of Eldar civilization and quite a few Reapers.
- According to a Hellsing/CthulhuTech crossover entitled Old Blood, Integra had a particularly awesome one, being killed at the age of eighty-six after forcing her way into the command centre of the Nazzadi during the initial siege via just telling them to bring her there and then killing the top three officers on the scene with a sword hidden in her cane. Her body was later cremated and half the ashes were mixed with nerve gas used in an attack that took out over ten thousand Nazzadi. As one commenter put it, "Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. She died as she lived. That is all that needs to be noted."
- When your name is Corporal Richard L. Jenkins and you're in a Mass Effect Fanfiction, you tend to die like a chump. But in Peptuck's Renegade, you get one of these. More specifically, he tears through seven geth, including a Destroyer before Saren's Buzzers slice him to bits.
- In The Secret Return of Alex Mack, Charlene "Pyre" McGee is infected by an out-of-control nanobot swarm. Pyre unleashes their true power, burning so hot they achieve nuclear fusion and dies in a multi-kiloton nuclear explosion while quoting The Iron Giant.
- Pyre is a nine-year-old precog. They knew what was going to happen.
- In Wandering Moon, Archmage Clover gets a great one. She singlehoofedly goes up against a giant Ursa Major and not only beats it soundly, but does so in her late 80s before finally dying of magical exhaustion.
- XCOM: Second Contact has Rookie Jenkins survive fighting the geth and husks without a scratch. He dies throwing Shepard out of the way of Sovereign's main gun.
- Downfall gives us this in the second battle of the Rukongaki. Renji, Rukia, and Kien are faceing off against Aaroniero, wearing Miyako Shiba's face. One by one they fall, wounded, until it's just Rukia and the abomination. Rukia is dying, bleeding out, covered in horrific burns and demoralized with guilt. How dose she go out? Driving a sword through his skull, and becomes the first Soul Reaper to kill an Espada in the course of the war.
- In The Bespectacled Mimiga Who Lost His Freaking Mind, Jack's death. First, he warns the Doctor about how society will eventually fall. Then, shortly before the actual island itself starts falling, Jack literally leaps right off the edge of the balcony. Most notably, as he plummets thousands of meters to his ridiculously painful death at terminal velocity, he brilliantly starts philosophizing about the meaning of his clearly already-ending life on the way down to Earth, resulting in the story's absolutely defining moment.Jack: If there's anything I've learned from all this, it's that life is the weirdest fucking thing on the planet. (pulls Chinese sweet-and-sour sauce packets out of his hat) It's like a good Chinese dinner, ya know?
King: What in the fuck are you talking about?
Jack: As I was smiling with delight underneath the covers of Chako's bed...well, of course, that was the sweet! (winks at audience)
Toroko: Ooo, I LOVE sweet things!
Jack: And as I fell to my fucking death and realized in that very moment that my entire adorable existence was actually nothing more than a miserable little pile of excuses to make a bunch of plush toys that for some odd reason never happened...well, that's the sour, I guess. Expanding even further upon that analogy, I have now come to the final and official conclusion that the meaning of life is, in fact, fourty- (SPLAT!!!) TWO...
- This appears to be the case with everyone in the cast in That Guy with the Glasses in Space.
- In Kara of Rokyn, the original Earth-Two Superman willingly trades his life for Supergirl’s, who almost died while battling the Anti-Monitor. And he has no regrets about it, to the point he smiles broadly while he is being taken away by Death.
- Takato from the Tamers Forever Series has an absolutely EPIC one. He takes on a hoard of Mega level digimon, even though his clothes are soaked in his own blood and he is almost paralyzed due to his brain cells slowly dying off.
- In Keep On Running, an author's note makes it clear that the end of chapter 3 is this for Moor Echo!Clara, who ends the chapter facing down a bunch of Yeti with a sword.
- Duncan gets one in Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns. When he and the DN get cornered in Ostagar, not only does he haul the protagonist off the fortress's ledge and shield him with his body from the fall, smashing his back (and ending up paralyzed and with bad internal injuries) in the process but, later, after said dwarven noble carries him away from the battle (and Duncan had been telling him to leave him behind), Duncan pushes him out of the way of a blight wolf's sneak attack and takes it himself. And he still survives enough to tell him that only Grey Wardens can kill Archdemons, although he doesn't manage to explain why and how it's done.
- Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Abridged makes Berserker's death even more awesome than in canon. After a violent battle, Gilgamesh traps him with the Enkidu chains and repeatedly kills him until he runs out of extra lives, with the chains preventing his corpse from dissipating since "they won't let him go even in death". Then Gilgamesh mortally wounds Illya. Berserker proceeds to wake up, break the chains (which it's supposed to be impossible, since they get stronger the more divine the opponent is, and Berserker is a demigod), and charge at Gilgamesh, who screams in fear and barely manages to stop him. Gil later admits that he almost died. It bears repeating: Berserker, despite already being dead, managed to break unbreakable chains and almost killed Gilgamesh in one single strike.
- In Harry Potter and the Altered World, most of the people who died in the bad future before Harry time traveled and altered the time stream immensely, among the best examples are Luna, who had her soul removed by a Dementor, saving several lives including Susan, and Neville, who died holding off purebloods to allow Harry to time travel. It is also said that this future was caused by purebloods taking Voldemort's canon death as this trope.
- In I See No Difference after Harry and Hermione leave Britain, Viktor Krum ends up at Voldemort's resurrection as a substitute victim. Severely wounded and bitten by Nagini, with no hope of escape, he casts Fiendfyre, in the full knowledge that he won't be conscious long enough to control it properly.
- A Thing of Vikings: Fritjof clan Jorgenson's last words are that he has a date with a Valkyrie... but with taking a hundred Anglo horsemen down with him, he has company.
- Queen of Shadows: During the Second Battle of Awaji, the Shadowkhan forces overrun the last remaining human fortress on the island. As they do, human commander General Murakami lures the Shadowkhan further into the fortress, where he then detonates a cache of gunpowder; the resulting explosion wipes out the fortress, killing Murakami and a large chunk of the Shadowkhan's army. Furthermore, this literal sacrifice empowers the magic being used by the human side's sorcerers, allowing them to channel the god Susano and conjure a storm as their fleet clashes with the Shadowkhan's.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Generosity in The Abundance. Faith is about to sacrfice himself to stop the Big Bad and save Equestria (and potentially all of reality) only for his sister Generosity (who up until a chapter ago had been a Well-Intentioned Extremist) to shove him aside and take his place. She proclaims that the Equestrians are beutiful, wonderful beings, and thus she is giving them a final gift: sacrificing her life for theirs. As Faith later states:Faith: Her spirit moves on... to join with the greatest heroes of Equestria'... and now, in their grand company... she shall feel no shame.
- Tydal's death in the The God Squad prequel How Do You Shoot a Gun with Hooves?. It is revealed that Tydal was there when the princesses sealed Discord away the first time and, realizing not all of them were getting out alive, stayed behind to buy Celestia and Luna time. Even as Discord uses his magic to brutally beat and injure him Tydal refuses to back down. When Discord taunts him about Celestia and Luna abandoning him Tydal throws it right back in his face.Tydal: "They ran alright. My students have many years ahead of them and they are now racing towards their destiny. I have seen it Discord... and this land will be brighter than the sun and more glorious than the moon. You watch them run, Discord... you watch them run!"
- Tydal is a rarity as he pulls this TWICE, getting a second moment in The God Squad itself during the "Tydal vs. Tirek" arc. Tydal realizes very quickly that he won't be able to defeat Tirek, as the villain has Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Twilight, and Discord's magic. Tydal lies to the entire cast except Sunset Shimmer and Chrysalis, claiming he will be just fine while revealing to the latter two that the upcoming fight will end with his death. He gives it his all and in the end uses the last of his strength steal Tirek's own magic, ensuring he can never take another pony's power. Unable to hold onto the magic, Tydal begins to go nuclear, with Tirek forced to toss him away. The last thing he sees is Twilight and her friends racing to defeat Tirek and he cries in relief that he didn't die in vain. After a Meaningful Echo to the last words he spoke upon defeating Discord he explodes, the story cutting to his family members all feeling his death and breaking down.
- During the battle, after having taken a savage beating, Tydal enters Bullet Time... and counts every child in Equestria. Every child that will die if he doesn't hold the line. This fuels his rage to unleash his finisher, Dark Maelstrom-Celestial Lightning.
- And just to complete the Tydal trilogy he nearly does this a third time in the Old Equestria arc, attacking a pack of timberwolves while near death after resurrecting in Old Equestria after his battle with Tirek. The battle is so fierce that for 2000 years the orphanage he was protecting from the timberwolves will never face another threat from the Everfree, as all the monsters spread the legend of Tydal, He Who Held The Line. Sunset casts a healing spell 1 second after his heart stops beating.
- The protagonist of I Did Not Want To Die sacrifices himself to save his comrades from pursuing enemy soldiers after he is mortally wounded. He manages to kill a good dozen opponents before he is finally taken down, and he still has one grenade left...
- On chapter 130 of Piercing The Heavens by Calm Wind, the oldest member of the Wonderbolts (Silver Lining) goes up against the leader of the Shadowbolts (Nightshade). He is still recovering from another beat-down, and is mainly distracting Nightshade so she doesn't kill the incapacitated remainder of the Wonderbolts she already beat down. As she gets off on causing others pain, he holds in his grunts of pain while taking hits and fighting back. Then he decides to turn the tables on her and tears her down, like she likes to do and has been trying to do to him. She even tries to seduce him by showing him what the crystal could do for him (making him young again), but he turns it down. Eventually she snaps and ends up shooting him through a wall. Then he gets some help from his dead mentor, allowing him to stand back up and continue fighting. Still continuing to destroy her motivations, he ends up going out with a smile.
- Pony POV Series:
- During the "Origins" arc, Mimic pulls a You Shall Not Pass! on Discord in order to give Celestia, Luna, and their allies time to escape. After triggering a Villainous Breakdown in him by explaining that the rainbow bridge between Ponyland and Earth has been destroyed (thus denying him the chance to torture humanity when he's done with the ponies), she proceeds to kick him in the face several thousand times at the speed of sound, which proves he's not as Nigh-Invulnerable as he appeared, as she manages to permanently knock out his tooth, which is what pisses him off enough to finally kill her. For bonus points, she was Celestia and Luna's mortal mother, so this was her going Mama Bear on his flank.
"Float one inch towards my daughters, I will kill you and seal your spirit in one of my horseshoes!"- The Dark World arc reveals that the Epilogue timeline version of Cadence went out with a bang. When Discord and his enforcers — the discorded Mane Six — launched a final assault on her, she bought time for her subjects to escape by taking them all on. And she wins — she actually manages to scare Discord off, and defeats all six of the corrupted ponies, even managing to purify Twilight in the process. Unfortunately, Discord chooses that moment to return and literally stab her in the back, before disintegrating her. Then to top that, her spirit returns five hundred years later and redeems Twilight.
- Surprisingly, Dark World Discord gets one. His last act before dying is to convince Twilight to perform the Memory Spell on him, allowing her to see his memories of the "Groundhog Day" Loop he's been trapped in. This ends up Out Gambitting Nightmare Paradox's plans and exposing them to the Elements of Harmony, which allows them to break free of her influence and fight her.
- In the early loops of Dark World, including the first, Apple Pie died in a Heroic Sacrifice, distracting Discord so Twilight's plan to reset time could work, managing to break his horn off before being brutally murdered by the enraged tyrant. Unfortunately, that Twilight was the one who became Nightmare Paradox, causing her to turn it into a Senseless Sacrifice.
- Another early Dark World loop, apparently involving Trixie becoming an Alicorn, had her, presumably before being killed, managing an attack on Nightmare Paradox's face, leaving a Wound That Will Not Heal on her face in the shape of Trixie's cutie mark, requiring Paradox to wear a White Mask of Doom from then on, regardless of how many loops it's been since then.
- The climax of the Shining Armor Arc has several: (all of which are undone by Cosmic Retcon at the end)
- Saharnoj Vaty, one of the unfortunate innocents forcibly transformed into one of Makarov's Alicorn Cyborg Co-Dragons, manages to fight off his control through her love for her sister, at least long enough to trigger the self-destruct for Makarov's Skyfall superweapon and allowing herself to be consumed in the blast, denying him two of his best assets.
- Dima gets mortally wounded saving Gilda's life. He then refuses medical treatment and lets himself die, since he knows Makarov wants a climatic Final Battle with him and Shining Armor (his chosen Arch Enemies), and by dying prematurely, he's screwing up Makarov's "script". This causes Makarov to become so enraged that he suffers temporary Glamour Failure.
- In the actual Final Battle, Gilda is mortally wounded by Makarov, but just before dying she uses the last of her strength to destroy his Iron Curtain, thus allowing the Wolf to defeat him (thus triggering the above Cosmic Retcon).
- In The Things We Leave Behind, Twilight Sparkle dies saving Ponyville from an Ursa Major, unleashed on the town by a vengeful Trixie. Specifically, she casts an age reversal spell to reduce it to an infant, using up so much of her magic in the process that she has to resort to drawing power from her Life Force to continue. She never stops until Ponyville is safe.
- Remember how Pain stated that if Jiraiya knew his secret from the start he probably would have won? Eroninja proves it. Jiraiya has more information on Pain (due to Konan pseudo-defecting) and figures out where the real Nagato is much faster. He destroys six of Pain's bodies and would have killed Nagato as well if not for Tobi warping himself and Nagato away. Even better his death activates a scroll he hid away earlier, releasing Itachi's Amaterasu that he'd sealed away years ago, burning down Pain's base in Ame.
- Might Gai in A Growing Affection. He and Kisame have kept "switching hands", until Kisame breaks out his six tails cloak (in this fic he is host of the Seven-Tails). After flashing back to explaining to Lee how it works, Gai opens the Gate of Death, and proceeds to curb stomp Kisame. Kisame starts to unleash the full power of the Seven-Tails, but Gai says he would like to let Kisame do that, but he doesn't have enough time left. So he kills Kisame mid transformation. Then Gai fades out too, but as he goes, he has visions of what his life could have been.
- In Naruto: Eleven, Maito Gai dies after opening his Inner Gates one last time to take on Kakuuzu, buying Kakashi enough time to build up his chakra and hit Kakuzu with a Kamui. Gai dies, impaled by tentacles through his chest and stomach, as the Kamui sucks Kakuzu in.
- As Kakashi put it, upon realizing what Gai had planned: "Yosh my eternal rival," Kakashi muttered, feeling the Mangekyou form once more and zero-in on its target. "Burn that youth brightly."
- In Naruto and the Last Vampiress, Naruto pulls something like this off, stabbing Shukaku's Tailed Beast Ball with the White Chakra Blade, saving Sasuke. Anko turned him into a Hanyou after this, but it was his human death.
- In Team 8, Itachi is forcing Kurenai to watch her greatest fear via Tsukiyomi: her students getting lynched for being associated with Naruto and the Kyuubi. She breaks free by forcing the situation into its logical outcome (Naruto going on a berserk rampage and killing everybody). The illusion is too much for Itachi to hold, meaning Kurenai broke free of the Mind Rape through sheer will (although it should be mentioned that this is not how Tsukuyomi works in canon). Unfortunately, Itachi immediately realizes what a threat she is if she can resist Tsukiyomi and promptly throws a kunai into her skull.
- The Second Try: Kaworu spends his final moments explaining to a depressed Shinji in great detail how he really did Set Right What Once Went Wrong, hinting that his daughter is still alive, and giving Shinji encouragement that he, his wife, and their friends would be able to save the world, while at the same time implying that he was behind the whole Peggy Sue part of the plot in the first place and did it just to help give Aki a normal life. Damn, way to be a hero, man.
- This Bites! manages to make Whitebeard's death even more awesome than it already was in canon. Aside from all the damage he took during the fighting at Marineford, he has one last duel with his old crewmate Shiki, then nearly takes Blackbeard's arm off while shutting him up. Then he uses his Last Words to both confirm the existence of One Piece and to give his treacherous former underling a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, before finally dying standing up while inches away from bashing Blackbeard's head into pulp.
- In the past of At The Food Court, Ash's father bought his coworkers just enough time to evacuate the power plant they worked in during a meltdown, but at the cost of his life. Unfortunately, the enemies he made back when he was a Team Rocket grunt tell everyone that he died by pissing on an electric fence. Fortunately, no one with a brain believes this. (Meaning that Jessie and James believe it without question.)
- In A New Order this is the fate of Shadow Warrior Tethys. After pushing the senshi farther than any enemy before (in a fic where Sailor Moon repeatedly one-shots youma) she calls up a huge mass of water that would have swamped the cruise ship they were on, had not Mercury and Moon teamed up to take her out with two brand-new spells. They both pass out almost immediately after, meaning the senshi would have been in trouble if she had survived that, too.
- And the Giant Awoke has a few examples:
- While the circumstances are rather horrifying, there's the Ironborn old man smirking and flipping the wights off before setting off his explosive belt, taking more than fifty wights at a time is made of this.
- Melisandre kills herself to complete a ritual which calls down a massive fireball from atop the Wall on the White Walkers' army. And while they extinguish the flames, the resulting avalanche crushes their forces.
- Jaime rips out the Night King's heart, but is severely wounded in the process and dies days later.
- In a more low key one, Mace Tyrell's response to an imminent death by dragonfire is to throw his sword into Drogon's face, causing him to be remembered with honor despite the side he fought on.
- A Different Weasel Makes A Difference seems to be a contest by the people of Westeros to see who can have the most epic death, and they all keep one-upping each other. For example:
- Mace Tyrell, after being magically poisoned by Euron Greyjoy, leads one last charge against Euron's forces, destroying almost all of the magical abominations under the mad ironborn's control. Euron end up having to kill Mace himself.
- Theon Greyjoy dies shooting at the feral dragon Dreadwing, after everyone else had run away. He doesn't kill the beast, but he breaks off a scale with his last shot, which enables Ygritte to kill Dreadwing later on.
- Tyrion dies shooting down one of the Night Queen's ice dragons. His death ends up being so epic that a religion forms around him.
- Samwell Tarly dies blowing the Horn of Winter, summoning an army of giants to fight the Others.
- Boros Blount, Bronn, Lyle Crakehall, and most of the Night's Watch sacrifice their lives covering the Northern Army's retreat from the Wall.
- Hother Umber sacrifices himself to power an ancient Umber ritual that destroys every Other and wight in Last Hearth.
- Shagga and Chella lead an attack on the Others in order to allow the Northmen and Valemen to retreat, and rack up a massive killcount despite the Mountain Clans having no dragonglass weapons. The Night Queen has to kill them herself after everything else she throws at them fails.
- Roose Bolton dies fighting the Night's Queen, and is the first person to actually injure her.
- Stannis Baratheon, Thoros of Myr, and an unidentified third knight die wielding Lightbringer against the Others in the final battle against them, despite knowing that the sword kills anyone who wields it except for Azor Ahai. More impressive, the death is usually near-instantaneous, but the three of them each manage to wield it for several minutes by sheer force of will, and combined are able to completely turn the tide of battle against the Others. The three are made saints by every religion in Westeros, and their grave becomes a holy site.
- An Empire of Ice and Fire:
- Theon stabs Euron, stopping him from killing Jon and giving Jon the opportunity to kill Euron, but in the meantime leaves himself open to Euron fatally wounding him.
- Randall Tarly has a Mutual Kill with a giant during the Battle of Highgarden, stabbing him through the heart just before he manages to smack Randall hard enough to rupture his organs and fatally wound him.
- Barristan Selmy and Thoros of Myr go down side-by-side, holding the line against Joffrey's forces by themselves in order to buy time for Jon's team to begin their plan to incite an uprising in King's Landing.
- Grenn and his squad get an even more awesome moment than in canon, as rather than holding Castle Black's tunnel against a single giant, they hold it against an entire swarm of wights (including a giant).
- During the White Walkers' attack on Castle Black, a nameless soldier, already seriously wounded, tackles a group of wights, managing to stab one in the heart with dragonglass even as he and the whole group tumble off the top of the Wall.
- During the Battle of Winterfell, Edd is mortally wounded by Grenn's wight while trying to ignite a trench full of wildfire. With the last of his strength, he grabs the wight and drags him into the trench with his torch, incinerating them both as the wildfire ignites.
- Benjen sacrifices himself by ripping out the dragonglass core keeping him alive in order for Bran to use it to fuel the spell that he uses to free Daenerys from the Night King's control.
- As the defenders retreat into Winterfell castle, Mag Mar covers them, single-handedly holding the line and managing to kill both a giant wight and the White Walker controlling it before being overwhelmed.
- Fatally stabbed by a wight as Winterfell's defenses are breached, Tormund still manages to fire a dragonglass cannon at a wight giant, and then uses the last of his energy to drop a torch into a chest of gunpowder, blowing up the wights who overrun him moments later.
- Bran allows himself to be run through by the Night King, as it gets him close enough to reach in and rip out the Night King's dragonglass core, rendering him vulnerable to Jon's attacks and stripping him of his Resurrective Immortality.
- Melisandre saves Dany from a White Walker's attack, getting impaled in her place. Then she triggers a magical Suicide Attack, incinerating the Walker and every wight for twenty feet.
- Purple Days:
- Joffrey gets a few as part of his "Groundhog Day" Loop. The standout for him is probably the Yi-Ti loop, where he and his men go out in a heroic Last Stand against the White Walkers, having slowed them down more than anything else had to that point (and this was before Joffrey learned how best to fight them). He gets another in the Blackworks loop, where despite being injured and on his last legs, he cuts down Drogon and much of Dany's court before finally being killed.
- Also in the Blackworks Loop, Sers Meryn Trant, Boros Blount, Preston Greenfield, and Barristan Selmy, Lyra Mormont and Lady all die fighting Stannis' numerically superior army. The Kingsguard in particular fight like demons to the end. Sansa considers, given that the Kingsguard were rather mediocre men before, that she and Joffrey must have truly inspired them.
- In Summer Crowns, Jon Connington manages to fight Ned and his forces to a stand still at the Battle of the Stones, and even after being killed by Ser Lyn manages to cost Ned enough time and and casualties to ensure Rhaegar will live to fight another day.
- Inkopolis Chaos: A villainous example but you have to admit. The way Obsidian just walks up to her own sabotaged missile without any fear at all, even though she knows she’s going to die and she lost the war, is pretty damn cool. She didn’t try to weasel her way out, nor did she cry, scream, curse or yell.
- In Part 1 of Clash of the Elements, even though Zeno Blaze is the last to die against Joe Dark, he goes out not only performing a Shut Up, Hannibal! to him, but summoning a large pillar of flame against him even though he knew it wouldn't harm him.
- Alex Whiter's Heroic Sacrifice against Chaos Alex.
- In the dōjinshi The Immortal who saw the End of the Universe, it's revealed that, despite Eirin's calculations, the ultimate fate of the universe isn't going to be the all matter tearing apart on a subatomic level due to the constant expansion of the universe nor all movement ceasing due to maximum entropy, but rather the universe shrinking under its own fate until it all comes together again, causing a new Big Bang and creating a new universe. Why is that? Because billions of years before the events of the story, Remilia Scarlet was killed by space debris on a trip to Mars, and before she died she decided to change the far future of the universe itself, just so that Sakuya could live. This is, by far, the most insane usage of Remi's vaguely defined "ability to manipulate fate" and it's also implied that her power is what caused the several incredibly Contrived Coincidences over the course of the story (which, mind you, takes place 4.6 billion years after her death).
- Klaus gets in the finale of The Jill Gilbert Saga, he takes a stand against the Balcoin Circle, who easy defeat him, but succeeds in distracting them long enough for Jill to kill one of them and save the world.
- In The Shape of the Nightmare to Come, the entire Ork species is wiped out in a truly titanic battle with the New Devourer. The last Ork Warboss, Wazdakka Gutsmek, leads a million trillion Orks in the largest Waaagh in history. Ork ships ram into New Devourer bioships, and trillions of boyz roaring in unison is enough to shudder the air and melt brass. They do all get wiped out though. Sorta.
- In Atonement, Glory Girl has a very Supergirl-esque death. In the fight with Anubis, the newest Endbringer and Zombie Apocalypse master, she flies straight into Anubis's body to get the last key to being able to hurt him, ignoring the terror aura around him by sheer bullheaded confidence in her ability to do it, coming out safely and enabling the heroes to finally drive Anubis off... only to be killed by Anubis's instant death beam as soon as he became vulnerable.
- Mauling Snarks:
- Crawler died taking a shot the Simurgh had aimed at Legend, after virtually nothing else the Endbringer did was able to stop him from trying to close to grappling range. He'd also already done significant damage to the Simurgh, and was instrumental in driving her off after his acid had adapted to her.
- Über goes down fighting Leviathan in Boston, piloting a Humongous Mecha, grappling with it, and finally detonating its reactor core in its face.
