Dying Declaration of Love

aka: Dying Confession Of Love

V: I fell in love with you, Evey, like I no longer believed I could.
Evey: Then I don't want you to die!
V: That's the most beautiful thing you could have ever given me.

— V for Vendetta

Death seems imminent for a character. Her grief-stricken Love Interest who has been doing the Will They or Won't They? sidestep with her decides that he'd better come clean with his feelings for her or else he'll have to live with the thought of never having said it to her.

In other cases, it's the dying person who confesses her love. Apparently, looming death is the best time to make those tragically intense romantic declarations that you cannot spit out when your love is healthy and you are, too. If nothing else, it certainly confers a clear sense of urgency.

At least half of the time, Murphy's Law holds that this can turn into a Not-So-Final Confession. The dying person will make a miraculous recovery after the confession and try to back out of what they just said. (A Last-Second Word Swap may be required to keep the Will They or Won't They? situation alive.)

This has a 50:50 chance of being subverted nowadays, but is far from being a Discredited Trope. Common subversions include the confessed-to becoming irritated that it took a death threat for the confessor to finally overcome his Cannot Spit It Out problem, the dying person faking it, or helpfully pointing out that the death bed is not the most ideal place to say those words. In some cases, the person who's about to die (or otherwise lose any chance of being with his or her beloved) will consider doing this, but decide not to for certain reasons, such as not causing undue anguish to the person he or she is going to leave behind, making this an Aborted Declaration of Love. The inversion is the Dying Declaration of Hate.

A kinkier variation of this is the "we're going to die tomorrow, and I don't want to die a virgin" mindset.

For the most part, this trope involves characters in romantic relationships. However, platonic variants also occur, most commonly in the form of declarations of familial love to a dying character's friend, sibling, parent or child.

Formerly known as Going Down with the Ship, which has now been reappropriated for the traditional (and more literal) use of that phrase.

See also Now or Never Kiss, with which this trope has some overlap.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• In the original Akame ga Kill! manga, Mine survived the events of the manga and settled down with Tatsumi. In the anime, however, she suffers Death by Adaptation after her Imperial Arm, Pumpkin, is destroyed while killing Great General Budo. As she lays dying, Tatsumi tearfully chastises her for not making it to the day that the Revolution wins against the Empire. This is combined with a Last Kiss before dying in the arms of the man she loves.
  Tatsumi: Mine... don't die. Don't you dare die! You're gonna stand on the winning side, aren't you?!
  Mine: What are you saying...? I'm already on the winning side... (She leans up to kiss him on the lips, then separates.) ...I love you.
• Heartbreakingly Subverted by Judeau in Berserk. He tries to do this with Casca, but can't quite say it, and only manages a comment on how she's crying. His last thoughts are "That's it!? Those are my last words!?".
• In Code Geass, Shirley Fenette confesses her feelings to Lelouch as she's bleeding out through a fatal gunshot wound inflicted on her by Rolo. She lets him know that despite the knowledge that he (accidentally) killed her father and had memories erased of him (twice), she kept falling in love with him over and over again. She even says that in the event that -- and no matter how many times -- she is reborn, she will always fall in love with him again. She goes into a whole Final Speech about her love for Lulu, even as he desperately tries to will her into surviving via Geass. Tragically, he fails to save her, and her death catapults Lelouch over the Despair Event Horizon.
  Shirley: So is that OK, then, Lulu? And as I'm reborn... I'll fall in love with you... over and over. I'll keep... falling... in love... with... y... (She dies.)
• Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: A platonic example occurrs when Chiaki Nanami says that she loves all her friends as she’s bleeding to death. Could also be viewed as a subversion as it wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary to assume she was about to confess her love for Hajime Hinata on an initial viewing.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mitsuri spent her final moments confessing her feelings to the also dying Iguro, asking him to marry her in their next human life. Iguro feels the same way and reciprocates. Almost a century later, their reincarnations did get married and have five children.
• At the end of Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, Chikane declares her love to Himeko, after being mortally wounded by Himeko herself, which was all part of her plan... a plan that hits a bit of a snag when Himeko declares her love for Chikane. That pretty much triggers a string of events that ends in a subversion of this trope as Chikane returns to Himeko after being erased from existence.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Simon does not admit his feelings to Erza until he's three seconds from dying. Subverted in that he never actually confesses to her (he just thinks it, and all his friends knew, including Erza). He did try to tell her once eight years ago but was interrupted by an attack, since he decided to tell her while she was leading a slave rebellion to save Jellal and let his own feelings for her get the better of himself in the middle of the fight.
  • After beating Bloodman to protect her, Gajeel is killed when he is Taking You with Me turned into magic barrier particles by him in front of Levy. After he has Panther Lilly hold her back so that she won't die senselessly trying to save him, he admits his feelings for her and thanks her for teaching him how to love. What makes it even more heartbreaking is that he is bawling his eyes out as he admits that all he wanted was to have a family and a future with her; one of the last things he tells her is that, despite everything else that has happened to him, having that future stolen from him is the most terrifying thing he has faced. Then all that is subverted when Gajeel survives anyway and starts to freak out over the fact that he will have to face Levy again.
• Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu: Parodied in an episode where Ono is hit by Sousuke's Booby Trap and makes an Anguished Declaration of Love to Kaname over his cell phone as he's "dying" (he was plastered to a tree with some kind of adhesive). As Kaname starts crying and begging him to live, the boy asks if she'd still consider going out with him if he survives, whereupon Kaname snaps, "Not on your life!" and hangs up. "Argh! You're so mean!"
• Gundam:
  • Stella Loussier in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny gives one to Shinn Asuka before kicking it. She even manages to say "I love you", while she was never able to use first and second person like this before.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
    • An example where both parties are dying takes place in Episode 24, where Lichtendahl Tsery and Christina Sierra are caught in the explosion of the Ptolemaios. Just before a GN-X Mobile Suit shoots the Ptolemaios' bridge, Lichty shields Christina as the blast strikes home. After the blast, Lichty is immensely mangled and his cybernetic parts revealed. Christina realizes what Lichty did and realizes she was blind to not appreciate a guy like him. Lichty dies of his injuries first, but Christina has to lie to him that he indeed saved her, when in fact, she was stabbed in the back by a wayward shard of shrapnel. In her last moment, she begs her friend Feldt — and her fellows in Celestial Being — to change the world before the bridge explodes, vaporizing them both.
    • Patrick Colasour attempts to invoke the trope in the final battle. When a Gaga tries to crash into his superior and love interest Kati's ship, he promptly nails the bad guy in a You Shall Not Pass!... only for the next one to charge out of the smoke straight into him. He just smiles and says "I did really love you, Kati..." right before the Gaga explodes, provoking a Say My Name from her. Subverted in that not only the explosion didn't kill him (he's not called Colasour the Indestructible for nothing...), he later married her.
• An Hetalia: Axis Powers example comes in the dub, when England is dying after an incident involved a penjandrum and Scotland. America rushes to England's bedside and is clearly distressed. England manages to say, "America, I'm in lo-" before the Grim Reaper cuts him off. He recovers, but the shippers absolutely exploded.
• Katanagatari:
  • Episode 12 — the mortally wounded Togame asks Shichika if it's alright for her to have fallen in love with him for real, after also admitting that he was a pawn in her scheme and she meant to kill him at the journey's end.
  • And a completely platonic example, otherwise played straight — the last thing Togame's father told her before his execution was that he loved her very much.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Familial example in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's when Alicia in a dream sequence tells Fate how she wishes they could have been together in the real world as she Disappears into Light. In the movie version, she explicitly uses the words "I love you."
  • Technically, she doesn't die, but the effect is still the same as Ixpellia from StrikerS Sound Stage X tells Subaru that she loves her as she rests in Subaru's arms and falls into a deep sleep that would last for ten years... or a thousand. She wakes up less than a year later.
• Played heartbreakingly straight in Macross Frontier episode 20. During the surprise Vajra attack in Island 1, Klan gets fed up with Michel's reluctance and pours out all her frustration in a loud declaration of love, then races to the macronization chamber to revert to her giant Meltran form. When the Vajra infiltrate the room and threaten the chamber (which would dissolve and kill Klan), Michel defends her as best as he can, only to be impaled by one of the Vajra. He holds on for a few instants more, but when the hull is breached by an explosion, he barely has time to stutter "I too lov—" at Klan before being sucked out into the vacuum of space.
  • In the movie, Michel survives, instead the dying declaration of love is given to... Alto, who confesses to Sheryl, before the Vajra he's on folds into space and she falls in a coma. Word of God says he returns and she wakes up, though.
• Macross Delta:
  • Absolute Live has one between Hayate and Freyja, the latter who reaffirms her feelings for Hayate shortly before her death from crystallisation.
  • The lyrics of ALIVE ~Inori no Uta~ portray one being given from the perspective of the singer. Appropriately, Freyja is the one who sings it, and singing it ultimately kills her and leads to the above.
• MÄR, Episode 97. Snow admits she's in love with Ginta as she burns to death in his arms. In the end, she doesn't stay dead though, her soul merges with her Earth counterpart, Koyuki — essentially, the two halves become one person and get to be with Ginta at the very end.
• My-HiME sort of does this, with Mai trying to tell Tate her feelings for him while he's green-sparking and dying after Yatagarasu is killed. He comes back later, but is apparently able to put his feelings for Mai into more concrete terms.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Kaji drops one in his last message for Misato, which he delivers to her answering machine before heading out on a mission he believes he is not going to survive (turns out he is entirely right). He ends the message with "If I ever get to see you again, I'll say the words I wasn't able to say eight years ago." These words are, of course, strongly implied to be something along the lines of "I love you. Will you marry me?"
  • Misato brings the subtext between her and Shinji out in the open when she's fatally shot in the back. If it was Misato just desperately saying anything that came to mind to try and get an emotional reaction out of Shinji — who was slipping at least halfway into a Heroic BSoD at the time — while dying of blood loss and thus not thinking entirely clearly, or a sign of her feelings towards him were not entirely those of a surrogate mother or older sister towards her ward is a matter of opinion.
• Mireille, in the Grand Finale of Noir, to Kirika, who's about to fall into a volcanic vent with Big Bad Altena. Leads to a Take My Hand! moment.
• In Penguindrum Shouma's last words double as a Dying Declaration of Love for Ringo. "Thank you... and I love you...". (Notice that Shouma straight goes for the "Aishiteru", aka one of the strongest expressions of romantic love in the Japanese language.)
• In Phantom Dream, Roka declares her love for Mutsu before she dies. Despite the rough start to their partnership, she grew to love him and was upset that he was treated unfairly by Hira who was upset that Mutsu lived while Suigekka died.
• In RahXephon, Ayato is fighting a Dolem — but he doesn't realize that said monster is psychically/physically linked to Hiroko, the Tsundere girl who loves him and whom he swore to help and protect. As a result, the damage to the Dolem's body reverberates to Hiroko's body, injuring her as well. What's left to do? Hiroko quickly grabs a pen and her diary, doing her best to write "Ayato, I love you... goodbye!" as she painfully and horribly dies. When the Dolem is destroyed and Hiroko finally perishes, the audience see how the backlash activates the lights in the surrounding buildings, forming the words that spell her last message to him. Naturally, the one at the receiving end doesn't take it well.
• In Rave Master, when Haru and Elie finally confess their feelings for one another, Haru is about to die. He doesn't, of course. And while the viewers find that out in the next chapter, it's a whole year before he wakes up after supposedly being killed and gets reunited with Elie.
• In Saikano, Shuji's lifelong female friend Akemi, half-naked and mortally wounded after a bombing raid, confesses to Shuji that she has loved him for a long time just before she dies.
• A variation occurs in Sailor Moon. While Kunzite and Zoisite were already in a relationship, they never express their love verbally. As he lies dying in Kunzite's arms, Zoisite's last words are a tearful declaration of his affections.
  "You have no idea of how much I love you.... my beloved Kunzite..."
• In Sankarea, Chihiro is about to be eaten by Rea (not to mention the two of them are in a building that's about to burn down). Despite the fact that she's about to kill him, Chihiro tells Rea that he likes her a lot and doesn't mind that he's about to die. Of course, the Power of Love saves them both
• In Shin Mazinger Zero — a Mazinger Z spin-off — Sayaka tells Kouji she loves him as she is getting awfully murdered. It was especially heart-breaking because, unlike in the original anime, they had managed go past the Will They or Won't They? Can't Spit It Out Unresolved Sexual Tension Belligerent Sexual Tension by that point.
• In a rare example of this trope, in Sonic X, Tails is the one who says "I love you!" to Cosmo, when she is the one dying, not him.
  • In the Japanese original version however Cosmo confesses her love for him too while the spirit of the two speak just as the weapon impacts on her
• In Oshi no Ko, Ai's last words to Ruby and Aqua are "Ruby, Aqua, i love you. Ah, i'm so glad, those words were definitely not lies." Ai had lived her whole life without love and thus, didn't know if she really loved her own children. It's only a few seconds before her death that she understood that she really did love her children.
• Superior: During Copy's attack on their village, a man tells his childhood friend that he's always loved her before they run off in opposite directions (to increase the chances that one of them survive). He doesn't make it and she later shows up heartbroken at the king's castle.
• Tokyo Ravens: Twice, Hokuto and later Natsume confess their love to Harutora while they die. Poor guy.
• Joe from Tomorrow's Joe sorta does this to Youko, telling her to keep his boxing gloves. And then THAT scene comes almost immediately afterwards. (It should be noted that the original Japanese was much more subtle, but the Italian dub makes it a direct example as Joe straightforwardly tells Youko that the gloves area proof of his love for her).
• X/1999
  • Played straight in the manga, where Seishirou's last words to Subaru as he was dying in his arms are... actually they're never properly heard, but since the Sakurazukamoris are destined to be murdered by the person they love the most (and Seishirou had done this already to his mother Setsuka), one can take the obvious guess along with everyone else.
  • In the anime, Sorata dies in the arms of Arashi and his last words have him reaffirming his love for her and begging her to live on.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, Ai lies dying in Yusaku's arms while Yusaku cries over him and indirectly confesses his love, and Ai in turn tells Yusaku he loves him just before he dies.

Comic Books

• Anderson: Psi-Division: A rookie Judge with a crush on Cas proclaims his love for her as he performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
• The Avengers: Princess Ravonna tells Kang the Conqueror she loves him just as she leaps in the way of a laser beam a treacherous underling is aiming at him. She's kept in a state of Only Mostly Dead for a long time, and Kang spends a few years trying to revive her.
• Subverted in the Beyond miniseries. Spider-Man gets killed by Venom and dies proclaiming his love to Mary Jane... or so he thought. He's actually so delirious from his wounds that he mistook Medusa for his wife. Medusa got the sentiment though, and was so upset that she very nearly executed Venom. And further subverted in that it wasn't actually Spider-Man, and he wasn't actually dead.
• The Boys: The Frenchman finds a massive bomb with two seconds left on the timer. He immediately turns to The Female, and says simply: "Je t'aime. From the first."
• Happened in the Belgian comic Papyrus, more exactly the issue Tears of the Giant. Papyrus gets one from a Hitite princess whom he saved at the beginning, and who until then had been a massive Tsundere to him... before being kidnapped by some plotters who wanted her to spill out the secret of iron. When Papyrus found the girl, she was already dying after all the Cold-Blooded Torture, and only managed to tell him her love and thank him for being there for her before dying in his embrace. Papyrus, understandably, had an Heroic BSoD at this, and the issue finished with him carrying the girl's lifeless body away.
• In Young Love, which serves as an epilogue for Supergirl Volume 2, Dick Malverne confesses to the titular heroine that he loved her before dying from cancer.

Fan Works

• In Alabaster Orchestra, a mortally wounded Renji confesses to Rukia. Unfortunately, he's delirious and the person he's talking to is actually Bambietta Basterbine, who then finishes him off.
• Eyes on Me: In Cry For Help, Bitsy confesses her feelings to Helen in sign language before dying at the hospital from injuries sustained by being run over by an ambulance. Helen ends up realizing too late that she felt the same way.
• Fireside Tale: This is used platonically. Elsa's last words to her sister were "Anna... love you, Anna".
• In The Man with No Name, while escaping the enemy stronghold, Mal confesses to Inara while throwing in a kiss with it, which also serves to distract her long enough for him to pull a Heroic Sacrifice by running back and holding off the approaching mooks.
• The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fic Minister of Lies has Kira basically make one to herself when she is seriously wounded on a mission to the Gamma Quadrant, only to healed by the Prophets as she passes through the wormhole. She was initially torn between her current relationship with Shakaar Edon and her recent discovery that Odo was in love with her as well, but as the Prophets heal her, one appears to her in a vision as Odo and explains that this form was chosen because it was the last thought on her mind as she expired, assuring Kira that Odo is the one she truly loves.
• Rotting Camellias: Miku witnesses the former diva as she gives one of these in her last performance before dying.
• In the Naruto fanfiction Tale of the Kurai Kitsune, during the nine-years old Naruto's first Chuunin Exams in Iwa, an Iwa team targets his team to take out the Yellow Flash's son. Naruto's teammates Koji Inuzuka and Sakuya. Both of them gave their lives to keep Naruto alive, with Sakuya shoving Naruto out of the way of an Earth spike and taking it to her stomach as a result. She managed to tell him that she loved him in her last breaths. Naruto, having fallen for her himself, immediately began tearing through everything with the Nine Tail's chakra, and even triggered Minato's failsafe in the seal.
• In the Tamers Forever Series, Takato has always known that Rika would kill him if he told her he loved her, but he figures since he's dying anyway, he's got nothing to lose. A rare instance of this trope that actually works.
• Two Sides of a Coin: Eleya's Old Flame Jerrod Dalton tells her he's still in love with her as he dies of massive radiation poisoning.
• White Sheep (RWBY): Pyrrha's last words as she is about to be executed after losing a fight are a whispered "I love you, Jaune." This saves her life. Cinder was already conflicted about killing her because Jaune asked her not to hurt any of his friends, and realizing that Pyrrha was in love with him made it worse. She might have killed her anyway, but a bunch of Grimm overheard, meaning it would get back to Salem sooner rather than later, and she wouldn't be happy with Cinder for killing one of her son's potential paramours. Cinder knocks Pyrrha unconscious and takes her to Salem instead.
• A Wrinkle in Time (Naruto): In the previous timeline, Hinata reaffirmed her love to Naruto right before she died in his arms. Naruto (who, by that point, had fallen in love with her and returned her feelings) was so distraught over her death that he was nearly Driven to Suicide.
• In the Star Trek (2009) fanfic Written in the Stars, Fem!Kirk spends most of the story trying not to fall in love with Spock. But by the time of Star Trek Into Darkness, she has, but doesn't have the chance to tell him until she's dying in the reactor. What makes this confession different to most is that she connects with his mind and tells him by showing her the memories her counterpart showed her, of their Prime selves and the life they shared together in the original reality.

Films — Animation

• Almost towards the ending part of Alpha and Omega, a sad-looking Humphrey nuzzles the unconscious Kate to wake her up after the caribou stampede, confessing his true love to her, but to no avail. Because of Kate's Disney Death, the entire pack of wolves initiate a mournful howl until she successfully awakens.
• Beauty and the Beast: As Beast lies dying in Belle's arms in the climax, they profess their love for one another. It comes just in time to break the Prince's curse, and he's revived as his human self.
• Brave: Merida says it after her attempt to turn her mother Elinor back into a human doesn't work, and she thinks she is turned into a bear permanently. This is after they've had a strained relationship for most of the movie, and then slowly reconciling.
  Merida: I... I want you back, Mummy...
• In Elemental (2023), Wade reaffirms his love for Ember as he's slowly evaporating, telling her just how much he loves how her light reflects off the water. He gets better.
• A scene like this plays out in Interstella 5555, when Shep rescues the band and they later manage to break Stella free as well. Shep is mortally wounded during the chase and while Arpegius is taking care of him, Baryl and Octave bring Stella with them. Shep finally manages to meet the woman he loves, because before that they had never met in person, and now she's lost her memories as well. Shep confesses his love for her before he dies, and gives her and the rest of the band a MacGuffin, that will help them find a way to restore their memories.
• In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Melman confesses his love for Gloria as the plane is going down. Unfortunately, Gloria is fast asleep. They manage to survive, though.
• Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back: Dr. Jagu tells Dr. Poole he's always loved her when she's getting de-particle-ized and she confesses she's always loved him too.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Seconds before Peni's mech, SP//dr, shuts down due to extensive damage, it flashes "愛" on its screen. For those that do not know, that's the Japanese kanji for love.
• Tangled: After Flynn sacrifices himself to free Rapunzel from Gothel:
  Flynn: You were my new dream.
  Rapunzel: And you were mine.
• Tarzan has a familial example of this with Kerchak, who calls Tarzan his son with his dying words and asks him to take care of their family. Up to that point, Kerchak had refused to accept Tarzan as his son.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation: When the cast is being pursued on an Indiana Jones-style minecart ride with a chainsaw-wielding psychopath trying to kill them, and Babs and Buster both confess their feelings for one another.

Films — Live-Action

• Subversion in the film Almost Famous: When the plane hits a storm, the band members start making admissions to each other. William takes this opportunity to confess to Penny that he loves her, except she's not on the plane to hear it and she never finds out.
• In Avengers: Infinity War, Vision proclaims his love for Wanda before she uses her powers to shatter the Mind Stone in his forehead to keep it out of Thanos's hands, killing him in the process. However, Vision's Heroic Sacrifice turned out to be All for Nothing, as Thanos uses the Time Stone to bring him back to life, then brutally rips the Mind Stone out of his skull.
  • Subverted somewhat (and cruelly so) earlier in the film; Gamora, on the receiving end of an impending Heroic Sacrifice by Star-Lord to keep her out of Thanos' clutches, tells Star-Lord that she loves him more than anything. Star-Lord responds that he loves her, too, before he pulls the trigger. Instead of killing Gamora, Star-Lord's weapon harmlessly emits bubbles, thanks to Thanos' usage of the Reality Stone; this distracts Star-Lord and Gamora just long enough for Thanos to seize Gamora and teleport away with her.
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. When Superman calmly tells Lois, "I love you" in the middle of a battle, Lois instantly realises what this means and begs him not to make a Heroic Sacrifice. He doesn't listen.
• Played for Laughs in The Blues Brothers; two Illinois Nazis are falling to their deaths in a car, their eyes and mouths open in shock. One turns to the other and says "I've always loved you". The other Nazi simply looks at his lieutenant without changing his expression.
• In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Li Mu Bai only confesses his love for Shu Lien when he feels his death is near after getting hit with a poisoned dart. And the kiss the two share just before his death is heartbreaking.
• Subverted in Dogma, where protagonist Bethany agrees to have sex with Jay (one of the prophets meant to escort her to her destination) if the world is about to end to get him to work with her, but when the world IS about to end, she refuses anyway.
• Dust Devil: I love you, Wendy." Said by the Dust Devil just before getting his head blown off, after he'd tried to eviscerate her, roast her alive in her own car, summon a sandstorm to kill her, and before hijacking her body.
• From Max to Frey in Elysium.
  Max: I know why the hippopotamus did it.
• In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Leta Lestrange tells Newt and Theseus she loves them before she attacks Grindelwald to buy them time to escape.
• Far and Away:
  • After Joseph gets crushed by a horse and hits his head on a rock, Shannon rushes to his side. He can feel himself slipping away, so he ends up confessing his love to her.
    Joseph: I tried to prove myself to you, but I know nothing of books or alphabets or sun or moon or... All I know is Joseph loves Shannon. That's all that really matters to me.
  • After he dies, Shannon confesses that she loved him from the first time she saw him. He comes back to life and interrupts her with:
    Joseph: I often wondered about that.
• Played With in Galaxy Quest; a Time Bomb is about to reach zero, with Gwen and Jason seemingly having failed to disarm it. Jason moves to tell Gwen that he loves her - but just as he's getting the words out, it turns out that the bomb is defused, and he moves on without saying it, leaving Gwen very interested as to what his next words were going to be.
• The Hours: An bit of an odd case between two characters who were romatically involved a long time ago but have since moved on. Richard tells Clarissa that he loves her right before he jumps out of his apartment window to his death.
• I Shot Jesse James: An interesting variation happens here. As he dies in the street, Bob Ford proclaims his love to Jesse James, the man he killed ten years ago and thought of as his friend. The odd thing is that the Love Interest he's been chasing the whole movie is holding Bob in her arms, yet Bob doesn't make any final declarations of love towards her. This is one of many things that heightens the film's Ho Yay for many viewers.
• Independence Day toys with the "don't want to die a virgin" variant twice. In the first instance, after the alien ship appears over Los Angeles, teenaged Alicia Casse's then-boyfriend tries using "Do you want to die a virgin?" to persuade her to have sex with him, but is foiled by the arrival of her older brother. Later in the film, Alicia herself tells another boy that she doesn't want to die a virgin, to which he replies something to the effect of "We'll both die as virgins together." The latter scene, however, only made it into the Special Edition DVD version of the film.
• In all three films of The Matrix trilogy.
  • Inverted in the first The Matrix, in that Trinity knows Neo can't be dead because she loves him.
  • Subverted in The Matrix Reloaded, Trinity says "I'm sorry" before she dies (Neo later manages to revive her).
  • Played straight in The Matrix Revolutions, as Trinity is dying for real this time, she tells Neo that she regretted saying "I'm sorry" rather than "I love you" before she died the last time.
• Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End does this pre-emptively. Knowing this is the final battle and that he is probably going to die soon, he suddenly asks Elizabeth Swann to marry him right in the middle of the fight. She initially reacts as one would expect, but quickly calls on Barbossa to perform the rites, which he does while constantly being interrupted by undead fish men. Naturally, Will dies soon after they kiss.
  Will: Elizabeth...Will you marry me?
  Elizabeth: I don't think now's the best time!
  Will: Now may be the only time!
• Safer at Home: Going out in spite of a strongly-enforced curfew, Evan is shot by the police, who do not make any effort to provide him with any medical attention. He remains on the chat and notices Jen coming to. Upon realizing that Jen is indeed alive, and knowing he is dying, he tells her she is going to be a wonderful mother.
• In the movie Serenity, as the crew is besieged by the ravenous Reavers, Simon finally manages to get over his lack of confidence and focus on protecting River, and confesses his feelings to Kaylee. Kaylee's response? "Hell with this, I'm gonna live!" They both do and get together.
• A variation occurs in Star Trek (2009). While it's obviously not the first or only time he's said as much, George Kirk's last words before his Heroic Sacrifice are him telling his wife how much he loves her.
• Star Wars:
  • The Empire Strikes Back: As Han's about to be frozen in carbonite in order to test whether or not the process is survivable, Leia tells him that she loves him. The original script apparently had him simply reciprocating her feelings, but the actor insisted on a different line more in keeping with Solo's Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality (while still communicating that he felt the same way):
    Han Solo: I know...
  • And in Attack of the Clones, Padmé confesses her feelings to Anakin right before they're brought out to be executed.
    Anakin: I thought we swore to keep it secret, that it would destroy our lives.
    Padmé: I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway.
• V for Vendetta has one at the end where V dies in Evey's arms.
  V: For twenty years, I've sought this day. Nothing else existed until I saw you...and everything changed. I fell in love with you, Evey. Like I no longer believed I could.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Jessica confesses her love to Roger while both are tied together, awaiting to be offed by the Big Bad.
• In Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor confesses his love for Diana just before his suicide mission: hijacking a plane containing explosives and detonating them from a safe distance. Given the circumstances, it doubles as an Anguished Declaration of Love.

Literature

• Inverted in Ai no Kusabi with a Dying Demonstration Of Love. Iason has lost his legs and is left behind to Die Alone in an exploding building, which he he has calmly accepted. Riki now acknowledging his feelings for him decides to go back and snuggles up against Iason refusing to let him face death alone and have One Last Smoke. They Die Together.
• Alex Rider: A platonic version occurs in Eagle Strike when the dying Yassen Gregorovich tells Alex he knew his father:
  Yassen reached out weakly and took hold of Alex's arm. It was the first physical contact the two had ever had. "Your father... he did this." Yassen drew a finger along the scar on his neck, but his voice was failing him and he couldn't explain. "He saved my life. In a way, I loved him. I love you too, Alex. You are so very much like him. I'm glad that you're here with me now."
• All You Need Is Kill. Keiji tells Rita he loves her as she's dying... from injuries he inflicted.
• In the last Animorphs book, Rachel's last words are "I love you".
• In Battle Royale, Hiroki confesses his feelings to Kayoko as he dies from a gunshot wound. For extra tragedy points, she's the one who shot him, and feels an understandably crushing amount of guilt when she realizes, far too late, that he wasn't trying to kill her.
• In one of the The Belgariad books, Adara has been shot and believes herself to be dying. She confesses her unrequited love to Hettar, only to be told that she isn't dying after all. And that Hettar isn't going to let her pretend it didn't happen.
• In A Brother's Price the enigmatic Cira cries 'I love you Jerin!' as the boat they are on goes over the Inevitable Waterfall. She is in fact the Princess Halley and one of Jerin's wives, which she thinks he knows but he doesn't. They survive to face their feelings for each other, happily it works out.
• In The Curse of Chalion, before Cazaril sets out on a suicide mission, he relays last minute instructions to his love interest, who is ignorant of his plans. Impulsively, he kisses her before he leaves to die. Later lampshaded by Lady Betriz:
  "Must you believe you are about to die in order to bring yourself to kiss a lady?"
• Played with in The Factory Witches of Lowell — Hannah is sick with lung disease caused by the poor working conditions in the cotton mills and her health has taken a turn for the worse during the labor strike. Her best friend and strike organizer Judith asks Hannah to cast a spell that will stop their looms operating for the strikebreakers. Hannah prepares the spell even as she can barely stand or breathe, then admits her feelings for Judith while describing how they'll need to kiss in order to kickstart the magic. Turns out to be a Not-So-Final Confession, as Judith is able to save Hannah's life with an improvised medical spell.
  "I'm dying," she said, between coughs, "so I need you to kiss me quickly."
• The Homestuck Epilogues: John directs one of these at Terezi as he succumbs to the poison from Lord English's tooth. Worse is that he can't even finish spitting it out before he carks it.
• In Insurgent, Lynn admits her feelings for Marlene before dying.
• In Laughing Winds Laura, who has been emotionally closed off and distant for most of the story, finally opens up to Annika, resulting in this. For context the story takes place in a death camp and they are talking about when they meet again in the afterlife.
  Laura: I'd sing for you every day, sweet face. Lets fall in love, if I'm even capable of such a thing. I don't know anymore. Promise me you won't run off and marry some buffoon of a man. Promise I get first shot at you."
• One of the page quotes is from Éponine in Les Misérables, and are her final words after taking a bullet meant for her unrequited love Marius.
• Subverted in the 5th and last Percy Jackson and the Olympians novel (before the spin-offs), when dying Luke Castellan asks Annabeth if she ever loved him. Annabeth says "There was a time...When maybe, I- I thought, perhaps..." But then she back tracks and said he was like a brother to her and she cared about him, but she never loved him. Whether or not she is to be believed is questionable.
  • One cries for one's brother. While at first reading Annabeth's honesty seems cruel, it may in fact be exactly what Luke wants to hear — that he hasn't broken his "little sister's" heart.
• An interesting variation happens in The Sapphire Rose, when Sparhawk and former-friend-turned-villain Martel have dueled to the death. Martel has only a few minutes left, and requests to say goodbye to Sephrenia, who taught them both. His dying declaration is of a familial sort of love for her and Sparhawk.
  Martel: It's almost like a formal deathbed. I get to die in the presence of the only two people I ever really loved.
• The Unicorn Chronicles: In Dark Whispers (the original book 3), Belle and Finder are ambushed and Finder is badly wounded. his last words are to Belle, saying, "I always thought you were beautiful" before dying in her... well, not arms, as they are unicorns, but about as close as it gets.

Live-Action TV

• There's an unusual one in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 finale when Fitz, about to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save Simmons, tries to overcome her refusal to co-operate on the basis that he's her best friend by telling her that he's come to see her as more than that. This is unusual in that the wording is ambiguous because Fitz still can't quite spit it out, though Simmons gets the message easily enough, for once, responding by planting kisses all over Fitz's face. She still refuses to let him die, but he ends up in a coma in time for the season break.
• American Horror Story: Coven has a... less than traditional example in the final episode when Myrtle requests she be burnt at the stake. Again. "BALENCIAGAAA!"
• Arrow:
  • Played with in "The Climb" when Oliver Queen is leaving to have a Duel to the Death against Ra's al Ghul, leader of the League of Assassins and probably one of the deadliest men in the world. He chooses this moment to calmly make a love confession to Felicity Smoak, leaving her stunned.
  • In "Dark Waters", Felicity is trapped in a Gas Chamber and can be seen silently mouthing "I love you" to Oliver as he desperately tries to free her (fortunately, Laurel Lance breaks the glass with her Canary Cry). Downplayed, as they've long since had a Relationship Upgrade.
  • In Season Four, Earth-1 Laurel Lance's last words to her First Love Oliver Queen is to tell him that she's always loved him, and that he was the love of her life. This utterly shatters Oliver, as he had never stopped loving Laurel either.
• Babylon 5: With the ship powerless and about to be blown to smithereens, Lennier admits he loves Delenn. Naturally, in that moment they are saved. Delenn lets him save face by pretending she didn't hear him...which is kind, and appropriate for the Minbari, but makes him feel even worse.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In "The Gift", on the verge of the Scoobies' latest attempt to stop The End of the World as We Know It, Xander proposes to Anya. She calls him on it, saying he's only doing that because he knows they're all going to die and he won't have to follow through. He immediately responds that he's proposing because he knows that they aren't going to die and rather that they will succeed at saving the world again. He's half-right.
    • Then again, she's right in the end, as he ends up leaving her at the altar.
  • Also played straight in "Lover's Walk" when Xander and Willow are trapped by a villain who they believe will soon return to kill them, and have no hope of rescue. Their respective significant others then burst in with the heroic rescue, only to catch them making out.
  • Subverted however in "Chosen", when Buffy says this to Spike as he makes a Heroic Sacrifice.
    "No, you don't. But thanks for saying it."
  • A different take on this appears in "Go Fish" when Cordelia thinks Xander has been turned into a fish monster.
    Cordy: It's me, Cordelia? I know you can't answer me, but... God, this is all my fault. You joined the swim team to impress me. You were so courageous. And you looked really hot in those Speedos. (chuckles) And I want you to know that I still care about you, no matter what you look like. And... and we can still date. Or, or not. I mean... I understand if you wanna see other fish. I'll do everything I can to make your quality of life better. Whether that means little bath toys or whatever.
    Xander: (walking up behind her) Uh, Cordy? That's not me.
  • Sort of happens in "Becoming Part 2". Angel's soul is finally restored, but he still has to die to close a portal that will suck the world into hell. Buffy is completely shell shocked and overwhelmed at him being back, but then she realizes what she has to do. She kisses him, tells him she loves him, and then stabs him in the chest.
  • In the spin-off series Angel episode "Hero", season one regular character Doyle goes out in a literal ''and'' figurative blaze of glory disarming a Phlebotinum Bomb, but before this Heroic Sacrifice, steals a kiss (or as it turns out, Magic Kiss) from Cordelia, and with his dying words reveals his longing to be with her. Much later, in "Not Fade Away", Illyria shapeshifts into Fred's form to comfort a dying Wesley, and they confess their love and swear to be Together in Death. However the anger and grief Illyria experiences afterwards leaves the clear implication that Illyria was also expressing her own feelings.
• Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future: In the series finale, Jennifer Chase confesses her feelings to Jonathan Power, just before she dies in her last stand.
• Subverted/parodied in Caroline in the City: Doped up and about to enter surgery, Richard admits to Caroline that he loves her. Shocked, Caroline asks him if it's true; he says it is... then gives the same drugged-out confession to the nurse.
• Castle:
  • (Warning: major S3 season finale spoilers follow!) Beckett is shot during her eulogy at Montgomery's funeral. Castle pleads with her not to leave him, then finally says "I love you," just before she falls unconscious. Her Plot Armor will save her, but only time will tell how the rest of the trope plays out.
  • Beckett gets her turn in the fifth season episode "Still" when she accidentally steps on a pressure-plate that triggers a bomb. When there doesn't seem to be a way to defuse the bomb, she demands that everyone else leave to avoid the explosion. When Castle is about to leave, she tells him "Castle, I love you." Castle then returns with the detonator, not wanting Beckett to face death alone. They end up pulling off a Million to One Chance to save her.
• In Criminal Minds, Season 14, Episode 15, a gunman obsessed with Truth or Dare forces JJ to tell Reid that she's always loved him.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Doctor comes close to using this trope in "The Satan Pit" with Rose. Well, maybe.
    The Doctor: If I don't make it back, tell Rose... tell her... oh, she knows.
  • "Doomsday": Instead of impending death, it's Rose being trapped in an Alternate Universe with no chance of return. During their final communication, Rose confesses that she loves the Doctor, but the transmission ends before the Doctor can finish his reply. "Rose Tyler, I–"
    • "Journey's End" seems to imply he wanted to say he loved her as well when he got cut off.
  • "42": Captain McDonnell tells her possessed husband Korwin that she loves him, then embraces him as she blows the two of them out of an airlock.
• Similar scenario in Farscape with Crichton and Aeryn, except they skip the words and spontaneously start making out with each other. They both blame it on the heat of the moment afterwards.
  • Gilina at the end of "A Hidden Memory". Though in this case, it was clear that she was in love with Crichton. She merely reaffirmed her love and asked if things had been different, could he have loved her. To which he replies "Yes".
• Father Ted In "Flight Into Terror" one of the priests confesses his love for another one because, since the plane is going to crash he believes it's now or never. Of course the plane doesn't crash, leaving to a very awkward post credit gag.
• Mal and Inara to the letter, in the Firefly episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds". Saffron knocks Mal out with her sedative-laced lipstick, Inara finds Mal out cold and kisses him and begs him not to die before passing out herself. And of course, when they wake up, Mal misinterprets how Inara came to be knocked out, saying "I knew you let her kiss you."
• Subverted in Game of Thrones, a series that usually has fun discarding the dramatic for cold realism. In the finale of "The Long Night", Ser Jorah Mormont is dying in Daenerys' arms and he tries to go for this, but the man is gravely wounded and has been fighting for several hours to protect his charge, so all he can manage is a pained, murmured "I'm hurt" before he succumbs.
• Midsomer Murders: In "Schooled in Murder", Helen Caxton tells Jim she loves him right before they're both trampled to death.
• In season three finale of The Nanny. Maxwell's first confession of love to Fran was when they were on a plane that was about to crash. He takes the confession back after they get home safely. For much of season four, many characters, especially Niles, give him crap for taking back the confession.
• Parodied in the second-to-last episode of Seinfeld: The plane's going down, the series is ending, and Jerry and Elaine are about to reveal their true feelings for each other... when the plane levels off. They make a safe landing, the confessions go unsaid, and the series ends in a completely different manner.
• In Smallville
  • "Gemini": The Now or Never Kiss kind between Jimmy Olsen and Chloe Sullivan kind of speaks for itself.
  • Bizarro of all people does this to Lana as she kills him with blue kryptonite, making it all the more twisted and creepy.
  • In "Doomsday", Jimmy to Chloe as he dies in her arms. The culmination of an entire season's worth of Break the Cutie moments for Jimmy. Also this event left Chloe a Broken Bird for the much of the next season.
• Stargate Atlantis:
  • "38 Minutes": The stargate-sized ship gets stuck in the wormhole while returning to Atlantis. The episode title is the established amount of time before the gate shuts down and everybody in the ship dies. Sheppard is about to tell Weir something, but is interrupted by somebody in a "I have a plan" moment. At the end of the episode, Weir asks him what he was going to say. He claims it was "take care of each other," but Weir is obviously unconvinced.
  • In a later episode, "The Second Childhood", McKay confesses his love for Keller while losing his mind to Space Alzheimer's. Sadly, he doesn't remember this after he's cured.
    • Keller gives his words a Meaningful Echo in "Brain Storm" after he saves her from freezing to death.
  • When everyone thinks Rodney is about to die (or ascend) in "The Tao of Rodney":
    Weir: Rodney, you’re a good person. Know that we love you.
    McKay: You love me? Really? All of you?
    Sheppard: In the way a friend feels about another friend.
    McKay: You’re just saying that because I’m gonna die.
  • A variation occurs in "The Lost Tribe" when Daniel Jackson is about to die after two episodes of sniping with McKay. McKay starts to tell Daniel that he respects him, only to be interrupted by their rescue. When Daniel starts to show his appreciation at the end of the episode, McKay insists he was going to say something negative, causing Daniel to exclaim "You can only give compliments to the dying?!"
• Star Trek: Voyager.
  • B'Elanna Torres confesses her love for Tom Paris when they're both floating in space with their suits having just run out of oxygen. His response is semi-subversive: "You picked a great time to tell me." Moments later they're beamed to safety. in the next episode Tom offers her the chance to take back the confession, but she doesn't and they become an Official Couple.
  • And the holographic Doctor confesses his love for Seven of Nine (along with several other things, like the fact that he's compiled a list of Captain Janeway's worst command decisions) when he believes that his program is about to shut down permanently. Seconds later it's repaired, leaving a very embarrassed Doc.
  • A platonic version occurs in "Before and After". As Kes is dying of old age, the Doctor tells her "I wish I'd told you this before, but better late than never — you're the finest friend I've ever had." Kes then jumps back to an earlier moment in her timeline and mentions this incident. The Doctor is visibly embarrassed.
  • In "Projections", while dying in a Lotus-Eater Machine the Doctor admits he's always wanted to tell Kes how beautiful she is. As per usual, he's just woken up in the real world and so ends up saying it to the real Kes. Only she turns out to be a Dream Within a Dream, so the Doctor is spared the embarrassment after all.
  • In "The 37's" the crew come across long-lost aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan, who gets shot during the episode. Being unfamiliar with medical technology of the 24th Century, Fred assumes he's going to die and admits to Amelia that he loves her...only for the Doctor to tell him he'll be just fine.
• Supernatural might not show the declarer actively dying, but at the moment of their imminent demise, Castiel tearfully tells Dean that it was through him that he learned to love. When a shellshocked Dean asks him why that sounds like a goodbye, Castiel confirms that it is. "I love you. Goodbye, Dean" – and shoves him out of the way as the Shadow swallows both him and Death, trapping them in The Empty forever. (Although a line in the series finale implies that he somehow got out of the Empty later on.
  • The same character referred to in the above spoilered-out entry actually confessed their love to the same character in an earlier scene in season 12 when they were impaled, but their "I love you" was left ambiguous enough in that scene that it could have been interpreted as them meaning it in a platonic way to the other character and the rest of their Family of Choice, unlike in the above case where there's virtually no ambiguity that they mean "love" in a romantic sense and specifically for only one person.
• That '70s Show: According to Red Forman, this is one of three times it was okay for a man to tell another man he loved him. The other two were if they were drunk, or one of them was in big trouble and it was the only way out, which usually means he's drunk. Otherwise, it's just a given.
• Ianto in Day Four of the Torchwood miniseries Children of Earth finally says 'I love you' to Jack after their relationship of two seasons as he dies of an alien virus. Unfortunately, this death actually sticks.
  • Earlier, in season 2, Tosh tells Owen that she loves him before he dies (again). There's some discomfort when he doesn't quite die.
• Steve Newlin of True Blood declares his love for Jason Stackhouse as he burns to death in the sunlight, much to Jason's horror. He notably says it right in front of his ex-wife, too.
  "I love you... JASON STACKHOOOOOOOOUUUUSE!"

Music

• Evillious Chronicles: "The Lunacy of Duke Venomania" ends with the titular duke trying to confess his love for one of the women he has wronged while dying of a stab wound, but he dies before being able to say it out loud. An answer song from the woman's perspective, however, shows she understands it.
• Something About Us by Daft Punk is apparently a song that includes such a declaration. The video for the song is actually part of Interstella 5555, where this happens between two characters.
• The premise of As the Footsteps Die Out Forever by Streetlight Manifesto/Catch-22. The narrator sings about how his mother received a phone call while he was a child, her doctor warning her that she had only a few weeks to live. The narrator recounts how she kept encouraging him not to dwell on her death, and to go out and live for her. Brutally, however, he is an Unreliable Narrator and this is an averted trope, and she actually spends her final days virtually catatonic and avoiding her children. The narrator tells himself what he longs for her to have said, but doesn't believe it himself.

Tabletop Games

• Played straight in Doomtown with Corky Hendricks' last words.
• In Last Night on Earth, the GM can invoke this, if two characters are in the same room and he has the card, he can force them to skip a turn. Often leads to Sex Equals Death, as that makes it easy to surround them with zombies so they can't escape.

Theatre

• At the climax of Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrano (who's been writing Christian's love letters to Roxane for him, because Cyrano is equally in love with her) tells Christian that Roxane loves him in an attempt at Let Them Die Happy.
• In the third act of Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner, Siegfried - having been given an antidote to the potion that made him forget about his love for her - relieves his first kiss with Brünhild in his dying moments, after Hagen stabs him in the back. Later on Brünhild, who co-engineered Siegfried's death after he betrayed her while in his mindwiped state, makes a huge declaration of her love for Siegfried before she leaps into his funeral pyre and burns herself to death with him.
• The start of Jasper in Deadland has Agnes tell Jasper that she loves him, but Jasper can't bring himself to say it back until he escapes from Deadland and finds that Agnes hasn't returned to life yet.
• Éponine in Les Misérables confesses her love for Marius after she gets fatally shot. This being Les Mis, they have time to sing about it.

Video Games

• In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the last of Ezio's Repressed Memories of Cristina ends with Cristina dying during the Bonfires of the Vanities, stating that she always wished they had a second chance.
  Ezio: Cristina hold on... I'll get you to a doctor... you're going to be alright!
  Cristina: No Ezio, I don't think I am...
  Ezio: No! Don't go, stay with me...
  Cristina: But don't you know, Ezio? I have always been with you...
  Cristina: I wish we could have had... a second chance...
  Ezio: Requiescat in Pace... My love...
• In the third and fourth routes of Duel Savior Destiny Princess Crea is given a mortal wound, but before she dies, she confesses her love for Taiga before doing something heroic.
• The English dub of Final Fantasy X has Yuna do this to Tidus in the ending, shortly before he vanishes into pyreflies. In the original Japanese, she says "Thank you" (ありがとう, Arigatou. As you can see, it rhymes well with "I love you").
• Some Fire Emblem characters' death quotes do briefer versions of this, mainly in the Akaneia games (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem) where there's only one possible pairing for any given character if at all. It's also a recurring tendency for cases of lovestruck antagonists.
  • Prince Lyon from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is a notable example. After being defeated and freed from the Demon King's control, he confeses his love for Eirika
    Lyon: Eirika? You stopped me, didn't you? I'm glad.
    Eirika: Lyon? Lyon?
    Lyon: Listen, Eirika. I never had the courage to tell you, but I've always loved you.
    [Lyon dies]
  • And in the aforementioned Akaneia games, as Emperor Hardin dies in Marth's arms, he begs Marth to apologize to Princess Nyna in his (Hardin's) name for all the mess coming from his Brainwashed and Crazy-influenced Face–Heel Turn, and finishes saying that he never stopped loving her.
  • A slightly more indirect version of this occurs in Fire Emblem: Three Houses in the Silver Snow and Verdant Wing routes. Upon defeat, Edelgard asks Byleth, who she is heavily implied to have feelings for, to kill her. As Byleth readies his/her blade, Edelgard gets some final words in that are basically to this effect.
  Edelgard: I just wanted to walk with you.
• Averted in Mass Effect. If you're playing Commander Shepard as a male character and are following the Ashley romance subplot, you get this conversation immediately after the sex scene, but before you've decided whether this is a one-time 'impending-death-exception' thing or you will continue to pursue your relationship against all the various social and legal obstacles between you (You are her commanding officer, after all). All this as you're only a few minutes from dropping onto a hostile world against impossible odds to confront the boss villain:
  Ashley: Whatever happens down there, I just wanted to say... Wait. You know what? I'm not telling you! You want to hear this, you'll just have to come back to me.
  • Played straight in the Liara relationship storyline, where she thanks the Commander for everything after the sex scene.
  • In Mass Effect 3, the Extended Cut has Fem!Shep telling Garrus or Kaidan she loves him as she forces him to evacuate after being badly injured during Harbinger's attack. Unlike most examples, this can be averted, but there's a 4 out of 5 chance that those are the last words she ever says to him. MaleShep's version with Kaidan is identical, but with the added context of it being the only time they ever say "I love you" to each other.
  • A romanced Miranda will tell Shepard she loves him right before she dies (if she dies) in the Sanctuary mission.
• In one of the possible "false endings" of Odin Sphere, Mercedes confesses her feelings to Ingway with her last breath.
  • It's also inverted earlier, as Melvin's last words is to proclaim to Oswald that he always hated him and never felt any parental love for him at all.
• In Prey (2006), Tommy tells Jen he loves her after he is forced to kill her. Yes, to her dead body.
• Resident Evil 2: In Leon's "B" scenario, after getting thrown into a console, Ada tells Leon she fell in love with him and kisses him before succumbing to her injuries. Subverted as it turns out she's Not Quite Dead.
• In Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, a mutated Steve Burnside stops himself from killing Claire, and is mortally wounded in the process. As he reverts back to normal, he confesses his love for her before dying.
• In Sands of Destruction, Kyrie tells Morte he loves her before dying in her arms in the Valley of Dragons. Significantly, he had told her before how important she was to him, but they were interrupted before she responded, and here again she was too concerned with the fact that he was dying to tell him she'd just had a Love Epiphany; he dies without ever knowing her feelings. But then she moves heaven and earth to resurrect him, so he's got a pretty decent clue even if she never says the word "love" to his face.
• In Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, on one ending route, Toki confesses that she loves Nanashi right before he kills her.
• Sonic Lost World: Implied when Amy is caught in the planet's Life Drain, and her transmission to Sonic cuts out just as she's saying "I'm sorry I never got to say..." She gets better.
• Parodied in a cinematic of StarCraft. When two hicks are about to be killed by Zerg, one turns to his fellow and claims, "I love you, Sarge!" to which the other responds in utter bafflement.
• Super Robot Wars X: If Amari Aquamarine is the protagonist, then Celric Obsidian will say that he wanted her to love him upon his final defeat.
• Tales Series:
  • Near the finale of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Decus says this to Alice right before he dies. He had taken a sword to his back to protect her, and his final words are: "Alice...you always said that I digust you...but I...I love you." This then prompts Alice to go berserk and at last admit her feelings for Decus. She dies shortly after.
  • In Tales of the Abyss, everyone knows it except Luke so at the final moment before they leave, Tear confesses her love. Luke doesn't seem surprised in the slightest though so he may not be as dense as he seems.
• Warframe: Platonic version. When Margulis, the adoptive mother of the Zariman 10-0 survivors, was given the chance to recant her support of the children, she did this instead. The Orokin executed her shortly after.
  Margulis: My daughters, my sons... I want you to know... my last thoughts are of you.

Visual Novels

• In Fate/stay night:
  • In Fate's route, Saber admits she loves Shirou right at the end of the game. Then she fades back to her real world and falls asleep wondering if she can dream herself into Shirou's world again. She dies in her sleep.
  • An earlier example could be Shirou's first vocal declaration to Saber. He's been stabbed through the chest, and is about to go up against THE strongest fighter in the whole Grail War who just wiped the floor with Saber in one shot. Shirou must have known he was going to die but:
    Saber What are you doing?! It is impossible! Please stop! I do not need you to save me! Why... Why do you not understand that? No, if you die because of something like this, I—
    Shirou SHUT UP! ...Just... be quiet for a second... You can rely on others... rely on...
    Saber You're wrong. You're more important than me, your life is more important, so you should take care—
    Shirou I want you more than anything else! There's not one thing that can replace you. Sorry, I... I like you the most out of everything. So I'm not going to let a guy like him take you!
• In Higurashi: When They Cry, Keiichi Maebara has one in the Minagoroshi-hen arc of Higurashi Kai, confessing to Mion Sonozaki after being shot by Miyo Takano. In the anime, the confession is censored, with Keiichi unable to actually confess. Due to the world resets, the confession matters little in the end.

Webcomics

• Subverted in Angels 2200, as Hammer is unable to tell Kid about her feelings for her, largely because of their relationship as leader and subordinate. She is shown saying it when preparing to stay behind as part of a Heroic Sacrifice, but then it's revealed that it's merely what she wants to say and that she realizes that it is not the right time to do so, and she makes a face-saving line about "loving" Kid's hair. Potentially doubly subverted when it turns out that Hammer is, in fact, alive. We have yet to see where this goes in Angels 2.0.
• Anna Galactic: "I suppose this isn't the right time to mention I'm in love with you?" (Followed by a Now or Never Kiss.)
• In Doc Rat, Doc refuses to listen.
• In El Goonish Shive, Grace gives one to Tedd (who wasn't there but may have still heard it) just before she thinks she's about to die. She's saved by Nioi at the last second.
• Kid Radd plays the "We're going to die, so..." and stops right before the kiss (as it turns out they'll live after all). Naturally, they hang a lampshade on it.
  Kid Radd: Just this once, I wish the miraculous rescue had taken a little longer...
• Occured in a Nuzlocke Comics fan run: Bruce Wayne's Platinum Nuzlocke, to be precise. Being a Nuzlocke run, the receiver of the confession had just been Killed Off for Real, leading to the depressing question of...
  Grayson: How do I say "I love you" to a corpse?
• Phantomarine Vanna tells Pavel that she was glad that she died protecting him.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Played with in this strip: Haley, seriously injured after being temporarily eaten by a dragon, starts to confess her secret love. Then, the party's cleric zaps her with a healing spell. Since she is no longer dying, she turns it into a Last-Second Word Swap. (The actual confession comes much later, in a much different way.)
  • And then somewhat played straight, somewhat averted in this strip when Elan refuses to profess false love to Therkla to convince her to resurrect later. It goes a step further: in D&D, you can always choose to fail a saving throw.
• The spirit of this trope is captured in Strong Female Protagonist when Feral, on her way to the operating theater where she expects to spend the rest of her very long and pain filled life, tells Alison:
  "... I think I probably love you, and I wanted to say goodbye."

Western Animation

• Arcane: At the end of "The Monster You Created", Silco delivers one to Jinx, his surrogate daughter, even after she fatally shot him in the heat of the moment. This is made even worse by the fact that he was genuinely willing to renounce his lifelong dream for her sake.
  Silco: I never would have given you to them. Not for anything. Don't cry. You're perfect.
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Giant-Man delivers one to The Wasp after saving her from getting shot by a Kree sentry carrying a bomb that could wipe out all life on Earth. However, Giant-Man only gets as far as, "Jan, I love..." before fainting. He regains consciousness by the end of the episode, but becomes too shy to finish the declaration when Wasp asks him if he still has anything important to say.
• Beast Wars: Played straight. Tigatron and Air Razor, apparently about to die, vow that their sparks (souls) will always find each other, and take each other's hand. It gets taken a BIT too literally... Meet Tigerhawk, the result of those two sparks being captured by the Evil Aliens and fused together into an incredibly powerful Transformer sent back down to Earth to take out Megatron for messing up the timestream. And then die again.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: When Wheeler and Linka are trapped in a Gas Chamber, Linka starts telling Wheeler that even though she acts like she doesn't care about him... and succumbs to a coughing fit just as the others finally get the doors open. She tries to deny everything as soon as they're out the door, but Wheeler gets the message.
• Hey Arnold!: Helga, when she's mistakenly diagnosed herself with a fatal illness, decides to confess her love to Arnold. Phoebe interrupts her at the last minute, but Arnold still looks suspicious, so she tries to cover it up with her being delirious and out of her mind. Naturally, it works, and Helga and Arnold's relationship still manages to grow from it, with Helga admitting to Arnold despite her treatment of him that she finds him an 'OK' guy, with Arnold reciprocating even that by admitting he likes her in that way too.
• Kaeloo: In Episode 77 Mr. Cat gives one to Kaeloo when he thinks they're going to die. They survive, and Kaeloo, as usual, assumes that he wasn't serious about it.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Secret of My Excess", Spike and Rarity are falling to their apparent deaths when Spike attempts to reveal that he has a crush on her. She gently places her hoof to his mouth and smiles tearfully, hinting that she already knew. Then they are saved just in time.
• The Owl House: Eda provides a maternal example in both "Agony of a Witch" and "Young Blood, Old Souls", thanking Luz for being a part of her life as her curse is causing her to suffer a Death of Personality in the former and telling Luz that she loves her before she's taken away to be executed in the latter. She ultimately survives both times.
• ReBoot: In the second season, Bob and Dot find themselves cornered in an alley with a powerful virus. With what seems like no way out, Bob starts to confess to Dot, but she interrupts him and tells him that she knows. Of course, they end up saved at the last moment by another character.
  Bob: Dot, I... want to tell you....
  Dot: I know, Bob. I know.
• The Simpsons: In one episode, Smithers says "what the hell!" and kisses Mister Burns when everyone thinks the end of the world is coming. An embarrassed Smithers tries to play it off as professional affection, but Burns doesn't really buy it.
• Steven Universe: A platonic version occurs in "Gem Drill" with Steven saying this to Peridot when it looks like they're going to die trying to get to the Cluster.
  Peridot: (stunned) Wow, thanks.
• We Bare Bears: In "Vacation", when it looks like they're going to die in a plane crash, Nom Nom admits that he considers Grizzly his only real friend and that he loves him. He doesn't exactly deny it afterwards, either.

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