Glorious Death

"This is not the end of Launchpad McQuack! It will be by plane crash, or not at all!"

— Launchpad McQuack, DuckTales (2017), "The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!"

When a person has an ideal way to meet their maker and will either seek out to make it happen or avoid other forms of death.

Most examples want to go out in a way that reflects how they lived. The Proud Warrior Race Guy who lived by the sword will want to die by the sword of a Worthy Opponent, the Classical Hunter would want to die by the one animal he couldn't kill, the Sex God would want to go Out with a Bang, The Paragon would rather make a Heroic Sacrifice than retire and the Big Bad would love nothing more than to have his reign of terror end at the hands of their Arch-Nemesis.

When that person dies the way they wanted to, expect someone else to walk up and say "it's how they would have wanted to go." Because after all, to die as intended means one dies without regrets.

A Sub-Trope of Death Seeker. Compare Suicide by Cop, where a person would rather be killed by someone else than die from natural causes, Better to Die than Be Killed, where the opposite is the case, and Thanatos Gambit, where dying at a specific time and place is all part of the plan. When given the option in person, it's How Would You Like to Die? For the opposite trope, see Undignified Death. See also Dying Moment of Awesome, where characters don't care about the specifics so long as it kicks ass, and Martyrdom Culture, where an entire culture is about dying for it. Many warriors look forward to an Honorable Warrior's Death. Not to be confused with Glory Seeker.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• KonoSuba: The arch-devil Vanir has his perfect death all planned out, which he lays out in detail to Kazuma Satou. He intends to create a magnificent dungeon filled with deadly traps and terrible monsters, then lie in wait at the very bottom for adventurers powerful enough to make their way to him. Anyone who can do so would presumably be enough to slay him in combat, which is what he desires. However, he fully intends to last long enough for the victorious adventurers to open the fancy treasure chest he was guarding, which they will then discover is completely empty. Since he thrives on negative emotions, the outrage and disappointment would be the finest meal for him before he returns to the underworld.

Comic Books

• Batman: The Joker's greatest ambition in most if not all of his incarnations (as well as one of the reasons his sheer determination always allows him to survive the most unthinkable situations) is that he wants to die at the hands of Batman so that Batman's Jumping Off the Slippery Slope will be a triumph and a lasting legacy even from six feet under.

Franchises

• Transformers:
  • The various iterations of Bludgeon throughout the franchise generally share the same desire to die in battle at the hands of a Worthy Opponent. In the UK The Transformers (Marvel) comics, he was once defeated by the Autobots but taken alive on the advice of a former Decepticon as a form of Cruel Mercy. Similarly, in Transformers Regeneration One Bludgeon is defeated by Rodimus Prime, and left badly wounded. He begs Rodimus to end him, but Rodimus refuses, well aware that Bludgeon seeks a "glorious" death, and instead has him healed and imprisoned. Worse, he is killed off-screen by the Anti-Matrix.
  • The Transformers: In the 3rd season episode "Call of the Primitives", the various animal-mode Transformers (including the Dinobots, Predacons, and animal-type cassettes) are fleeing from the energy-draining monster Tornedon. While initially trying to escape in order to regroup, the Predacons realise evasion is impossible and so decide they don't want to die being struck from behind while running away. They combine into Predaking to challenge Tornedon, and quickly drained of all energy.
  • Transformers: The Movie: When Kup and Hot Rod are captured by the Quintessons, they're forced to watch Arblus, the Last of His Kind from the destroyed planet Lithone, get dumped into a pit to be devoured by the Sharkticons. As they listen to his dying screams, a grim Kup tells Hot Rod that's not the way he'd want to go. This inspires the pair to fight the Sharkticons when it's their turn to be dumped into the pit, and they manage to hold out until the Dinobots arrive and proceed to massacre the Sharkticons.
  • Also from the UK Transformers comics, in the story...er... "Kup's Story" Kup once suffered such a severe bout of Heroic BSoD that he was given a ship and simply allowed to drift through space waiting to die. In his state of fugue, he encountered Hot Rod and seeing the younger Autobot's determination to save his comrade Blurr reminded Kup that simply sitting and waiting for permanent deactivation to come for him just wasn't how he wanted to go. He'd either fall in battle or after the war was won, and those were the only scenarios that counted.
  • In the Dreamwave Productions continuity, the Decepticons explicitly consider death in battle to be preferable. In the Transformers Legends anthology, potential Decepticon recruits Grabber and Sting engaged in a fight to the death during a recruitment drive, and when the outmatched Sting pulled a Taking You with Me by throwing himself into Grabber so they both fell to their deaths it was considered a worthy way to go.
  • In The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers, Pyro has his perfect death all planned out: he would heroically sacrifice his life in battle while his idol Optimus Prime watches, and his heroism would resonate with Optimus to the point he'd recognise Pyro as a kindred spirit. So strong is this desire that when he learns that one of the team would have to sacrifice their life force to unlock the door to their objective, he demands one of the others give up their lives instead. Human ally Verity Carlo, who has met Optimus Prime, is disgusted he would dare to claim to admire and want to emulate Optimus while demanding someone else die in his place. Pyro eventually sacrifices himself attempting a You Shall Not Pass!, being literally pulled to pieces by a mob of Decepticons.
  • Part of the reason the Autobot Targetmaster Pointblank is so morose is that he dearly wants to spend his twilight years in peaceful retirement, but fully understands he's trapped in a Forever War and so more likely to find up flaming wreckage on a battlefield than just peacefully pass away.
  • The Decepticon Pretender Finback suffered wounds while fighting on a water planet, leaving him with a wasting disease that is only kept in check by his Pretender shell. He's described as no longer feeling death due to always risking permanent deactivation by leaving his shell, and so his desired final death is him surrounded by Autobot corpses.

Films — Animation

• The Last Unicorn: Mommy Fortuna is frequently warned that the harpy Celeaneo will kill her, or as the Unicorn puts it, "Your death sits in that cage, old woman, and she hears you." Mommy Fortuna, however, is already well aware. "Oh, she'll kill me one day or another. But she will remember forever that I held her. So there's my immortality, eh?" Later, when Mommy Fortuna is killed, Schmendrick regrets how it happened, but the Unicorn points out that it was the death that Mommy Fortuna wanted. "She chose her death long ago. It was the fate she wanted."

Films — Live-Action

• Big Fish: Zig-Zagged.
  • Edward Bloom often tells the story of how a witch showed him his death as a child, though he's never told anyone the specifics. According to his stories, this has given him the confidence to live his life to the fullest since he already knows how he's going out. As he lies in a hospital dying, he asks his son Will to tell him the story of how he dies, as he foresaw it. While Will has hated his dad's tendency to tell tall tales in the past, he tells Edward a story of how he helps Edward dramatically break out of the hospital. They drive to a river in his father's old car where every character from the tall tales he told Will is there to cheer him on. Will takes him into the river, where he greets his wife one last time before Will drops him into the river and he "returns to what you always were: a really big fish". Ed dies immediately after Will finishes the story. Through Magical Realism, it's left unclear whether this is the death he envisioned or he's just trying to find an understanding with his son, but while the real Edward dies in his hospital bed, through the story he gets to die on his own terms.
  • Edward's real funeral also ends up being a downplayed version of this imagined scenario, with multiple characters Will always thought his father made up showing up to celebrate his life.
• Forrest Gump: Lt. Dan Taylor is from a long line of military heroes and aspires to be the next in his line to be killed in battle. He even screams at Forrest NOT to rescue him after being severely injured when their platoon is ambushed, so he can die with his men. Later he berates Forrest for cheating him out of his destiny. But eventually, he's glad Forrest DID save him.
  Forrest: [narrating] Somebody from his family had fought and died in every. Single. American war.
• Amphiaraus from Hercules (2014) received a prophecy that he would die when a flaming spear runs him through, a fate that he seems to find to be an ideal way to go. When it almost happens and Hercules saves him, he's visibly put off.
• Thor: Love and Thunder: Played for Laughs. Thor finds Lady Sif fading away on the battlefield after losing an arm battling Gorr the God Butcher. She initially tells him not to save her so she can die a warrior's death and go to Valhalla. However, Thor points out one can only go to Valhalla if they die in battle — since the battle was already over, she would not go to Valhalla if she died now. She has an Oh, Crap! moment before agreeing to let Thor save her.

Literature

• Arc of a Scythe: Scythe Anastasia prefers this method of gleaning, giving those selected to die one month to get their affairs in order and choose a method. Many prefer to die quietly and painlessly from poison, but there are a few that choose to die in more spectacular ways, like one man deciding he wants to be hunted with a crossbow or an actor being killed on-stage in his character's death scene.
• Fire & Blood: When Lord Rogar Baratheon is ill and believes himself to be dying, he asks his monarch, the young King Jaehaerys Targaryen, for permission to go fight and die gloriously against the outlaw known as the Second Vulture King. Although Rogar gets to fight the outlaws, he doesn't get to die in battle because he kills the Vulture King easily, the man being old and weak. Instead, he dies half a year later in his bed, surrounded by his family.
• The Raven Tower: The Raven's Lease rules a nation with the direct blessing of the Raven, enjoying power, privilege, and immortality, in exchange for sacrificing themself to the Raven at the end of their tenure. When the current Lease disappears, his heir is infuriated by the accusation that he might have run away instead of honouring their God.
• "The Victim From Space" by Robert Sheckley is centered around a planet where violent, and preferably prolonged death is considered a way to heaven and worthy of respect. Some locals attempt to earn one legally by pleasing the priests, others are praying for it, and a good number simply arrange properly painful accidents for themselves — like being crushed by a thorny tree.
• Swordspoint: A recurring theme is the way each swordsman wants to die in battle with another swordsman, proving that they are a true swordsman. Applethorpe manages to die by St. Vier's sword, and he is happy with that.
• Warbreaker: The Returned are worshipped as gods, but are constantly petitioned for the one true miracle they can grant — sacrificing their life to heal another. Lightsong has refused for years, instinctively knowing it's not the right time, and finally Goes Out With A Smile in the climax to heal Susebron so that Susebron can pull a Big Damn Heroes.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: Parodied. In "The Launch Acceleration", after Howard's initial space flight is cancelled, he secretly celebrates:
  Howard: Yes! Thank you! Oh! Oh ... I'm not gonna die in space! I'm gonna die the way God intended: In my late 50s with a heart full of pastrami.
• In Brooklyn Nine-Nine it's Played for Laughs. When Charles' stew blows up Terry heavily scolds him for being reckless, revealing he had no intention of dying this way.
  Terry: I'm not going out in a stew-making accident! Terry's gonna die saving the president, or Terry's never gonna die!
• Scrubs: In "My Philosophy", J.D.'s patient Elaine is on a heart transplant waiting list. When J.D. asks her what she thinks death will be like, she hopes it would be flashy and elegant like a Broadway musical finale. When she dies from heart failure at the end of the episode, J.D. imagines her ideal musical ending for her.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • In "Blood Oath" the three TOS era Klingons Kor, Kang, and Koloth band together along with Jadzia Dax to fulfill a Blood Oath the three Klingons and Curzon Dax had sworn to find and kill the Albino after he killed the children of the three Klingons. Attacking the Albino's compound, they manage to kill the Albino's forces and then the Albino himself, with both Kang and Koloth falling in battle.
  • Then in "Once More Unto The Breach" the Klingon fleet is being pursued by the Jem'Hadar. Worf prepares to do a Last Stand so that the rest of the fleet can escape, but ancient warrior Kor, whose glory days are far behind him (earlier on, he even forgot what ship he was in) knocks him out and takes his place. This sacrifice allows the Proud Warrior Race Guy to die in battle, saving the rest of the fleet.

Myths & Religion

• In Norse Mythology, it's stated that the most honorable method of death is through combat. Those who die in battle will find themselves in the Warrior Heaven of Valhalla and become a part of Odin's army, while those who die otherwise (sickness, old age, freak accidents) will find themselves in Hel. This led to the practice of old warriors who were on their deathbeds to be handed a sword before someone stabbed them with a spear, with this being counted as a "battle".

Tabletop Games

• Forgotten Realms: One of the greatest feats of Elven High Magic is to enchant a mythal, a permanent large-scale Place of Power. The spellcaster can (irrevocably) give their life for a substantial power boost to the mythal, a death that's seen as a fitting capstone to an elder archmage's career. It helps that most such archmages have already met their gods and visited the afterlife.
  In elf society, sacrificing one's life to create a mighty work of the Art ranks among the most highly honored ways to leave the world.
• Warhammer Fantasy: While warriors of many races, specially Orcs and Chaos worshippers will die happily if they achieve this, it´s a crucial matter for Dwarf Slayers, being the only way they have left to restore their honor. The most skilled of them can spend decades or even centuries going from battle to battle and hunting the strongest monsters in search of an enemy powerful enough to finally give them an end fit for a song.

Theatre

• Hamilton: Alexander early in the play aspires to rise above his station in battle and die a martyr, which is why, when the Revolutionary War comes, he turns down multiple desk positions before Washington approaches him. Washington disabuses him of this notion:
  Washington: [spoken] It's alright, you wanna fight, you've got a hunger
  I was just like you when I was younger
  Head full of fantasies of dying like a martyr?
  Alexander: Yes!
  Washington: Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder.

Video Games

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: A series of side quests centers on the Lost Drengir of Ragnar Loðbrók, a group of Retired Badasses who fought in the Great Heathen Army. They all coped poorly with retirement, however (whether due to Rich Boredom, Guilt Complexes, fear of Badass Decay, or simply because Victory Is Boring), and jump at the opportunity to Duel to the Death so they can rejoin their fallen leader in Valhalla. Fortunately for them, player character Eivor is happy to oblige them.
• This is how many mercs in Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 hope to go out, becoming a legend in the Afterlife and having a drink named after them.
• Dota 2: Huskar wishes to die in a Heroic Sacrifice so he can find his place among the gods. Unfortunately for him, Dazzle saved his life in a way that also rendered him immortal, making him unable to accomplish this goal.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
  • One of the random events the player character can run into while exploring outside is an old orc. Sometimes he is surrounded by beast corpses and he'll explain that he's seeking a good death because dying in battle is better than dying of old age. You can offer to grant his wish and he'll fight you to the death.
  • The Dragonborn DLC adds The Ebony Warrior, a Redguard warrior who seeks entrance into the otherwise Nord-exclusive Warrior Heaven of Sovngarde by dying in combat with the Dragonborn.
• In Final Fantasy XIV, the Dotharl clan of Xaela are fixated on fighting and dying in glorious combat as they believe that they reincarnate only by dying when their soul burns brightest. As a result, they're the most vicious Blood Knights on a steppe full of Proud Warrior Race Guys who regularly attack and slaughter other tribes. This is also deconstructed, as this fixation on dying gloriously has left the Dotharl with a dwindling population and many, many enemies.
• Lord Shimure from Ghost of Tsushima is a Deconstructed Character Archetype of the Honor Before Reason aspects of Bushido, with the more cunning Mongol Invaders managing to outthink and out-strategize him at every turn because of his strict adherence to etiquette when it comes to conflict. At the end of the game, his nephew Jin manages to beat him in conflict and begs that he strike him down and give him a warrior's death, both because it's what all samurai aspire to and because if he doesn't, he will be forced to hunt him down and kill him. It's up to the player whether or not Jin grants his request.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick:
  • Dwarves place great cultural emphasis on dying with honour because Hel claims the souls of the dishonored dead. Death in battle and Heroic Sacrifice are classic ways to go, but death by booze also counts, if only to respect the tenacity of dwarf livers.
  • Tarquin plans to live and die like an Evil Overlord out of legend: live in luxury and dictatorial privilege, then fall in climactic battle against The Hero and gain Immortality Through Memory. After meeting his long-lost son Elan, he decides Elan will be the one to defeat him in the end.

Western Animation

• DuckTales (2017): Being the archetypical Captain Crash, in "The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!" Launchpad McQuack proclaims that he will die by plane crash "or not at all" when he thinks he's dying of "ice fever", a fictional condition that a Con Man made up to sell him gratuitous winter wear.
• Futurama: In "A Pharaoh to Remember", it's revealed that Bender's preferred cause of death is "being crushed by a runaway semi driven by The Incredible Hulk," which Fry uses as Bender's own cause of death during his mock-funeral.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: After Scanlan saves himself from falling off a cliff, he comments, "Yeah, when I die, it'll be the way the gods intended: choked to death by a disgruntled p­imp."
• Rick and Morty: In "Edge of Tomorty: Rick, Die, Rickpeat", Morty touches a Death Crystal, which shows him the multiple possibilities in which he will die in the near future. Morty sees himself dying next to an aged Jessica, who is comforting him in his final moments, and starts letting the crystal guide his actions to make sure that fate ends up playing out. This results in him turning down the option to go skinny-dipping with Jessica right there in the moment. After he finally learns to let go of such an ideal death and gets rid of the crystal, he later overhears that Jessica wants to become a nurse to specifically provide comfort for hospice patients in their final moments, and only give as much emotional connection as reading their name off the list.

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