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"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
Not everyone in fiction goes out the same way. While some people may scream, or pray, or curse and rage, or act terrified, for some characters that sort of thing is just... out of character. So instead their death is an unusually calm moment, where they take their last few seconds and use them to reassure the people they're leaving behind or find one last moment of peace before they Go into the Light. Sometimes they just smile at their surviving companion, fire off one last one-liner at their killer, say that It Has Been an Honor, or admit that This Is Gonna Suck. Usually goes on into Peaceful In Death, if the body does not dissolve or otherwise be destroyed.
This usually pops up with The Obi-Wan ( naturally), the Zen Survivor, or any other character who has lived like they were Not Afraid to Die. May also happen with villains in a Dissonant Serenity situation. This may also be an indication that the character's death was not only planned, but in fact is a part of the larger picture of the story. Because of this, he will naturally Face Death with Dignity. May happen if the person is about to perform a Heroic Sacrifice or has already done it but death was not instant.
Named after a comment made on the X-Men 3: The Last Stand director's commentary track at the death of a major mentor figure, in reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star Wars.
Naturally, this being one of the Death Tropes, there are massive spoilers ahead.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Film
Literature
- The Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf looks at the other members of the Fellowship and tells them to "fly, you fools!" before letting go and falling with the Balrog.
- Dumbledore in Harry Potter is a Double Subversion. At first, it appears he's pleading with his killer to spare him. In the next book, it's revealed that his death had been planned by both of them for almost a year, and he was pleading for Snape to honor his word and actually do it.
- And then Harry himself repeats the feat in The Deathly Hallows when he finds out that the only way Voldemort can be beaten is if he is killed by Voldemort. After assuring that there are people who have the necessary information to kill Voldemort, he has a peaceful moment with the ghosts of his loved ones. He then confronts the Dark Lord accepting his fate and not even using his wand to defend himself. Of course, he gets better.
- In War and Peace, both of Pierre's mentors, Osip Bazdeev and Platon Karataev, die in this way. Osip, in his bed with Pierre by his side. Platon, shot by the French, having intentionally fallen behind in a POW forced march. Both scenes are described as them dying with a certain dignity.
- Tirandys in P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath spends his last wounded moments telling his protege and surrogate child Jame that she did right, before ending his own life with the Ivory Knife.
- Root in Artemis Fowl does this towards Holly. Not a surprise considering the father/daughter relationship between said person and Holly.
- The Dresden Files plays this off brilliantly with Shiro. It's one thing to take a killing blow, it's another thing to volunteer to be tortured to death, then still smile at the protagonist later on your death bed and offer some helpful words of advice.
- There are several of these moments in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Thrawn smiled. Lorana and Thrass took each others' hand. Atour Riten stayed behind on the Death Star to give the others clearance and sat surrounded by his books. Diric Wesseri held his wife's hand. Ton Phanan weakened and died very slowly, but he was still quietly Defiant to the End and wrote to his wingmate, telling him not to blame himself. In The New Rebellion, Luke didn't die, but he thought he would and acted in accordance to this trope, allowing himself to be killed rather than resorting to the Dark Side.
- Mr. Vandemar's final shrug before he lets go and is sucked through the door near the conclusion of Neverwhere is a prime villainous example.
- Watchmen has at least two examples. When the artist realizes there's a bomb on his ship and there's nothing he can do, he hugs his girlfriend and awaits the end. Likewise, the newspaper seller instinctively moves to shield the comic-reading kid as a massive explosion engulfs them both. In a book that features quite a bit of Humans Are Bastards, the second example above doubles as something of a Crowning Moment Of Heart Warming.
- In Star Trek: Destiny, both T'Lana (of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Relaunch) and Charivretha zh'Thane (from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Relaunch) die like this, peacefully accepting their fate when they're caught in the bombardment of Vulcan and Andor, respectively.
- Terry Brooks does this in The Wishsong of Shannara between Allanon and Brin, whose last act in this world is to ensure Brin can carry on without him and to pass on a blood inheritance to ensure one of her descendents can resurrect the druid power he's taking out of the world by dying.
Live Action TV
- Lexx's Zev and Lyekka both smile and reassure their friends before dying. The latter is resurrected, only to choke out another comforting goodbye one episode later.
"If you cry, you lose the memory of our love..."
- In Doctor Who, The Stolen Earth, Harriet Jones' doesn't go out with crying and cursing, but with her Catch Phrase, making her last scene not only a Crowning Moment of Awesome, but also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
Harriet Jones: "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."
Dalek: "Yes, we know who you are."
Harriet Jones: "Oh you know nothing of any human. And that will be your downfall.
- The 9th Doctor gives Rose a grateful smile to show he's finally made peace with his pain and personal demons before being engulfed in golden energy and regenerating into the 10th.
- The First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors also go out without a fuss, after reassuring their companions.
- In "Last of the Time Lords" The Master smiles at the Doctor as he calmly dies having refused to regenerate after being shot. Of course, his death is essentially a big "screw you" to the Doctor, and he apparently had plans in place for his resurrection.
- And Captain Jack Harkness in "The Doctor Dances". He sits there rather calmly even though a bomb is about to destroy the ship he's on. Of course he's rescued but there's no way he could have known that would happen.
- In Torchwood, when Owen Harper knows he's about to die, and this time he can't come back, he at first reacts with Do Not Go Gentle, and taking the "rage against the dying of the light" bit Up to Eleven. But he ends up this way. And then Tosh who is talking to him over a radio communicator convinces him to go out this way, and that's while she's also dying, and not long after, she also does her own version.
- TinMan: While he doesn't die immediately after doing it, the Mystic Man smiles serenely and clasps Cain on the back before charging out to make his Heroic Sacrifice, buying the heroes time to escape the Longcoats.
- For someone so full of energy and excitement throughout his life, Chris from Skins has an oddly peaceful, serene look on his face when he dies in S2.
- In Game of Thrones, Ser Rodrik takes a moment to smile at and Reassure Bran right before he's executed by Theon, and says that he'll be with Bran's father Ned Stark soon.
Music
Theater
Video Games
- Final Fantasy X: Just before his ascent to the Farplane, Auron simply faces the party and proclaims, "This is your world now" before he fades away, content that he can finally rest in peace.
- Tidus himself, about to fade away, just smiles at Yuna and dives off the airship.
- in Final Fantasy X-2: Lenne (and Yuna as she dreams of the same scenario happen to her and Tidus) smiles reassuringly to Shuyin right before they are both shot to death.
- In Xenogears, when Fei destroys Lahan, Alice calmly looks at herself as she is disintegrated. Also, Krelian calmly chooses to "become one with god" at the end which is equivalent to death, even after Fei pleads for him to come back to Earth and atone for his sins.
- Rufus' death scene in Final Fantasy VII was a Crowning Moment of Awesome just for this fact. It's not often that a death scene can be a CMOA for the one dying. Of course, in the movie sequel Advent Children it turns out it was only a Disney Death.
- Aerith's death in the same game when she dies in the Forgotten Capital.
- Metal Gear Solid: Raven, after being defeated, furthers the plot in a cutscene, and then calmly allows himself to be eaten alive by a flock of birds from which his name is derived
- Mass Effect has a small one around three quarters of the way through the game at the end of Virmire, where you have a choice of saving either Ashley or Kaiden, and the one you leave behind will die in a nuclear explosion. Both of them argue that the other should be saved, and the only thing the condemned one has to say is "I don't regret a thing."
- The Half-Life series: In Episode 2 Eli Vance calmly reassures his daughter and tells her to look away as he is slowly and inevitably dragged towards the alien lifeform that captured them all and impaled. A great ending.
- Halo: Reach has a few:
- Noble Six: Calmly accepts their duty to ensure the Pillar of Autumn escapes Reach, and watches silently as the starship lifts off. Then, without a second glance, moves to engage the entire Covenant assault force in the full knowledge that s/he will die in the process.
- Jorge: Stays behind to ensure the Long Night of Solace is destroyed, exchanging final words with Six and giving him/her his dog tags. "Tell 'em to make it count."
- Carter: Mortally wounded, covers Six and Emile as they head towards the Autumn, then takes out a Scarab in their way by slamming his Pelican into it.
- Bonus points for his last words: simply announcing over the radio "Carter out."
- Minor nod in World of Warcraft - when a priest has taken the talent Spirit of Redemption, the tooltip description states that the Priest has become "more powerful than you can imagine". Enhanced by the fact that Guardian Spirits in Warcraft have a similar blue-white translucence to Jedi Force-spirits.
- Xion in Kingdom Hearts - She dies in Roxas' arms, after telling him that it was her choice to go away now and that she belongs with Sora.
- At the end of Jak 3: Wastelander Damas lies crushed beneath a car. Jak tells him to hold still and wants to get help, but Damas merely tells him that it was a good fight and a good day to die. He goes on to say that he is very proud to have been by Jak's side at the end, asks him to fulfill his dying wish and then dies peacefully.
- At the end of Crisis Core, it's over for Zack and he knows it, but he's got just enough left to pass on his sword and give Cloud a pep talk before getting absorbed by the Lifestream
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
- Possible Truth in Television, in that Socrates is traditionally considered to have died in this way after being poisoned with hemlock. The issue is under contention since no one is exactly certain which "hemlock" it was. Enid Bloch's exhaustive essay ''Hemlock Poisoning and the Death of Socrates: Did Plato Tell the Truth?''
 suggests the plant was Conium maculatum, which does cause a creeping paralysis and death in the manner described: "Socrates died gently and peacefully, just as Plato said he did. For Plato not only told the truth, he did so with astounding medical accuracy."
- Reportedly Hannibal Barca, the great Carthaginian general, had a moment like this when the Roman legions who had been chasing him for years finally caught up for him, but rather than let them take him back to Rome he took poison instead. His last words were reportedly "Let us relieve the Romans from the anxiety they have so long experienced, since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man's death."
- Sam Kinison. The fact that he was blitzed out of his mind on several types of tranquilizers and cocaine might have had something to do with it.
- After surviving the wreck of a jet car, Richard Hammond said in a mutual interview with racing legend Sir Stirling Moss, who had survived a similar brain-damaging accident in 1962, that the sensation of being about to die was like getting to the end of a to-do list consisting of: 1) get in car, 2) drive car, 3) crash car, 4) die. "Oh, I've got to the 'die' bit." Moss said that in his case, when his steering sheared at 165+ mph and he found that he'd crossed his arms in front of him, something was wrong, and the only thing left on his mind was "Christ, what does it mean?"
- In true Chuck Yeager fashion, the black boxes of many planes recorded how many pilots would remain calm and collected even as they knew the plane was going down, in a truly dignified fashion.
- Physicist Richard Feynman's last words? "I'd hate to die twice; it's so boring."
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