Peaceful in Death

May I stand unshaken...

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

— George Santayana (often misattributed to Plato)

A dead character has a peaceful expression. Sometimes noble and dignified as well.

May follow Go Out with a Smile, Obi-Wan Moment, and Big Sleep, but may also have died in visible misery and pain, with Dies Wide Open. May be part of This Was His True Form, and result from Dying as Yourself.

The mundane (or Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane) equivalent of Died Happily Ever After... and it certainly can be Truth in Television. Not to be confused with Drop Dead Gorgeous, where the female body remains a sex object even when it's dead.

Real Life embalmers are paid good money to achieve this effect. The muscles in the face tend to constrict slightly during the embalming process, often resulting in the appearance of a faint smile on the corpse.

As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• After God: In his moment of sanity, Vollof regrets dismissing Orokapi and calling himself a god, and says his life has been nothing but pain. He then accepts "sleeping" inside Orokapi's mouth.
• In Berserk, the blacksmith Godo dies after finally succumbing to illness. He repairs Guts' equipment one last time before dying peacefully in his own home in the company of friends and family.
• Case Closed: Evoked in Billionaire Birthday Blues. Yone closed the deceased Reika's eyes to at least ease her pain. Girl may be a Rich Bitch but, a human being is still a human being.
• Code Geass has a few characters go out this way...
  • Euphemia li Britannia went out this way despite being inadvertently brainwashed into killing the very people she was trying to help. After being fatally shot by her half-brother Lelouch, she spends her last minutes alive with her Love Interest, Suzaku, and dies trying to tell him how happy she was with him.
  • Shirley Fenette, after being shot in the gut, gives Lelouch a Dying Declaration of Love and dies in his arms with a smile. Her happy tone never changes even as Lelouch tries to use Geass to will her into surviving.
  • Rolo Haliburton, despite being the one who murdered Shirley out of jealousy, also goes out peacefully when he proves that his love for Lelouch is more than an obsession, saving him from the traitorous Black Knights at the cost of his own life. Lelouch even let him die happy as he passed away from an ailing heart.
  • Finally, at the ending, Lelouch himself is this at the end since his death was part of his plan for world peace, and he went out of his way to make sure that it would work. A self-engineered Heroic Sacrifice after lots of planning, he met his death with resounding grace, and died happily, his goals accomplished to the letter.
• Light Yagami in the Death Note anime, contrasted with his unceremonious - and rather horrible - deaths in the manga and films.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Buccanneer, King Bradley, and Hohenheim all go out like this as the series finally comes to a close. All three are smiling and lying on the ground very calmly and serenely.
• Nuriko of Fushigi Yuugi dies smiling. Another Suzaku warrior even comments how peaceful and beautiful he looks in death.
• Most of the girls (and some of the handlers) end up dying this way in Gunslinger Girl, with Angelica's body and conditioning finally breaking down and spending her last moments with her previously emotionally distant handler, Henrietta accidentally fatally injuring Jose in a gunfight and finally accepting her fate with him as they commit mutual suicide, and Claes, Rico and Petrushka at the very least getting to live peacefully at the end of the manga until the end of their extremely short lifespans (or until they succumb to their leukemia in Petrushka's case.)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Phantom Blood: Jonathan Joestar is able to leave life peacefully after making sure that his bride Erina and the orphaned baby girl they rescued will survive. He dies hugging the (still alive) head of his friend/brother/mortal enemy Dio Brando. Like with most parts of Jonathan's life, Dio messes this up too by hijacking Jonathan's body and using it to wreck havoc in the future. Thankfully, Jonathan's sacrifice wasn't in vain, since Dio is ultimately wiped out for good by Jonathan's great-great-grandson.
  • Erina herself dies peacefully in her own bed of old age at the end of Battle Tendency, surrounded by her loved ones.
  • Much later, in Golden Wind, death happens incredibly often. More than half the named characters die, and whenever a hero bites it, it's always at the hands of the Boss's Stand, King Crimson. Among those murdered by the Boss are Leone Abbacchio, Narancia Ghirga, and Bruno Bucciarati. Abbacchio, looking as though he is sleeping, reunites with his long-deceased police partner in his mind before departing for the next life. As he had switched with Giorno as he was killed, Narancia's body was left uninjured, and was left in the flowers of his hometown. Bruno technically dies in the middle of the story, but sticks around for a little longer before his spirit says his last goodbyes and ascends to heaven. In short, each time a hero dies, we see them go in peace, which turns out to be darkly ironic when the Boss seemingly dies, but is then revealed to have to face a torment that will never end.
• Katanagatari: Togame after her Dying Declaration of Love.
• Grimmer in Monster, upon finally feeling emotion.
• Naruto:
  • Chiyo's brother Ebizo laments that she's not pretending to be dead, but notes how peaceful she looks.
  • For all the shit he's pulled, Madara Uchiha (the real one) ends up dying this way, where he is comforted by his childhood friend Hashirama, with Madara himself peacefully accepting his defeat and admitting that he was wrong.
  • When Neji is fatally wounded saving Naruto and Hinata's lives, he goes out with a smile on his face. He's satisfied with dying while saving the people he loved just as his own father did when he sacrificed himself to save his twin brother.
  • Obito is remarkably calm while he's slowly disintegrating after taking one of Kaguya's attacks to help the heroes.
• One Piece seems to say that anyone with the Will of D tend to go out like this. Look at Ace and his parents all smiling and at peace at their deaths.
  • Roger died happy knowing that he lived a life filled with no regrets and that he wouldn't be forgotten. Rouge died happy knowing that her son would live and have a relatively safe childhood. Ace died happy knowing that he was able to protect Luffy, and that, despite having the blood of a "demon" in his veins, he was truly, honestly loved.
• Babel from Saint Seiya, who aknowledged Saori as Athena before dying of the wounds Hyoga gave him and was holding on her hand as he passed on with a smile on his lips. It even gets lampshaded:
  "He died peacefully and while holding on a goddess' hand. How fortunate."
• Homura in the Grand Finale of Gensoumaden Saiyuki. Sanzo points this out to an upset Goku who wasn't quite getting Homura's intentions after Homura effectively forced Goku to kill him and only revealed his true plans while already dying from his wounds.
• Roy Focker dies peacefully in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, in the arms of Claudia, his true love, even after having three ragged holes put into him.
• Tomorrow's Joe: After dying, Joe seems to be peaceful, knowing that his final fight was the best of his career. That scene has inspired countless homage, from the tearjerkingly straight such as Kamina to the ones played for laughs such as Animate Tenchou.
• In Umineko: When They Cry, Maria is found this way in the fourth arc. Battler notes that the murderer apparently went out of their way to make her look that way, and it actually looks pretty squicky, since she's lying so peacefully in the lap of her mother, whose face was half-blown off, surrounded by adults whose faces were half-blown off.

Comic Books

• Circles: Douglas tells his friends that Paulie's death was very quiet for him.
• Hawk and Dove: Although we don't see his face, the first Dove is at peace in death, to the point of being one of the few dead characters that were immune to being raised as a zombie by the dark-emotion-powered Black Rings in Blackest Night. Considering he was an avatar of peace, this is appropriate.
• The Punisher MAX: Frank kills Bullseye while he's in a coma (right through his forehead target tattoo), which doesn't change his happy expression one bit. It only makes him that much creepier, considering how cheerful he always was when kidnapping families to have them executed so he could get into Frank's head (and succeeded). Bullseye even went into the coma peaceful and happy, as it was caused by the injuries and brain damage he gained during his final battle with Frank in Kingpin's tower, which he saw as his Magnum Opus. Frank didn't come out much better, having been broken both physically and mentally, because Bullseye had figured out the last thing Frank had told his wife right before she and their kids were murdered: "I'm leaving".

Fan Works

• Godzilla fanfiction Abraxas: Empty Fullness: Discussed. When Vivienne was a child, she was confronted with death for the first time when she attended the funeral of a friendly elderly neighbor. Her mother Susan commented to her that the neighbor in his coffin looked like he was sleeping, but Vivienne thought at the time that he looked more like a mannequin than anything else, and she broke down in tears during the car ride home. Ironically, decades later, Susan looks peaceful when she dies in Monster X's presence.
• Touhou Project fanfiction Gensokyo 20XX: We have Satori, when she passes away in her sleep, at having enjoyed herself during that day for the first time in a while after Koishi passed away. Earlier in the series, there's Eirin's suicide and she and passed away satisfied that she could die, with her death noted to be a "sweet release" and Sakuya's death of radiation sickness and it was noted that she looked as though she had fallen sleep, except she never woke up.
• Kill la Kill fanfictions:
  • From Fragile Thread, we have Mako's suicide.
  • Subverted in Kill la Kill AU, where, while she doesn't die, although she was mortally injured, this happens to Ryuuko after being hit by car. For once, in a long time, seemingly at peace, her last word before losing consciousness was "Sunshine", which, according to Mako, in Room 002108, is one of the things that make her happy.
  • Kiryuuin Chronicles: Rei seems to have finally been at peace, considering all that had happened. Satsuki also noted that death was what had freed her, thus making her death symbolically an example of I Die Free.
  • Satsuki's death of leukemia in Sunshine. It was also mentioned that she died smiling.
• In Why Am I Crying?, the Cutie Mark Crusaders take notice of how peaceful their deceased nemesis Diamond Tiara at her funeral, especially her smile, which is calm and genuine rather than malicious as usual, and they consider this the "true" Diamond.
• Cellar Secrets: Having died acknowledging how poorly she treated her daughters and having made amends with them on deathbed, Ragyou's death of terminal illness is peaceful. Despite being a bit antagonistic, it does come off as rather tragic.
  Satsuki (later musings): "She went to her grave, at peace with the fact that she wronged her daughters and she had no one but herself to blame."

Films — Animation

• Kung Fu Panda: Parodied. Shifu looks like he has died with a serene expression on his face and then he opens his eyes, saying that he's not dead ("You idiot"), he's at peace.

Films — Live-Action

• In American Beauty, the peaceful expression on Lester's face in his moment of death is not only the result of his growth through the entire film, it also pretty much encapsulates the theme (the spiritual joy of finding "beauty" in the seemingly banal or even supposedly ugly products of everyday life).
• The justification for the midpoint plot in Brainstorm; seeing the peaceful expression on a just-deceased colleague's face inspires Christopher Walken to find out why "Why do you have to die to let go?"
• Invoked in Jacob's Ladder, as a medic comments Jacob looks "kinda peaceful" after he dies.
• When the badass Vampire Lord David finally died in The Lost Boys he mysteriously lost his wicked stubble and looked about ten years younger - A Lost Boy if you will. A lot of people has said that the perfect ending of that movie would be a shot of a "Missing Child"-Poster from 1950 with Innocent David on it.
• The shooting script for Moulin Rouge! signifies Satine's death by stating "Satine's eyes are peaceful now." Her bereaved lover Christian is decidedly not peaceful, though.
• The Night Flier: The local sheriff tells Dees that Ellen's corpse (drained of all its blood by a vampire who brainwashed her) looked downright peaceful after she was murdered along with her husband, which creeped him and his deputies out to no end.
• Subverted in The Pit and the Pendulum when Vincent Price's character finds the remains of his wife, who he fears was buried alive. The corpse appears to be screaming in agony. It's all a Gaslighting scheme by his living wife and her lover to drive him mad. Unfortunately for them, it works.
• Revenge of the Sith: after her death, Padmé's body is dressed and arranged in such a way that it looks as though she's floating serenely in a river, surrounded by flowers.
• Parodied in Scary Movie 3: As two parents attend the funeral of their daughter: "My sweet sweet Brenda—-She looks so peaceful..." (cut to Brenda with her face frozen in an expression of utter terror and her hands sticking out like claws)
• In The Storm Riders, a martial artist uses magic to allow his dead girlfriend to rest peacefully.
• A Very Private Affair: Jill becomes a celebrity overnight and her life becomes hellish as she is hounded by obsessive fans and the media. In the end, she is walking across some tall roofs, trying to watch a play from afar, when a paparazzo's camera flash startles her and causes her to fall off. The film's last shot focuses on Jill very calmly falling to her death in slow-motion, seemingly glad at her fate.

Literature

• In All Quiet on the Western Front, when Paul is killed, his facial expression is described as "calm, as though almost glad the end had come."
• Anne of Green Gables:
  • In the first book, after Matthew dies, his expression is described as "a little kindly smile as if he but slept, dreaming pleasant dreams." The grieving Anne later reflects on "that awful peace on his brow."
  • In Anne of the Island, Ruby Gillis finally admits to Anne that she is dying and confesses it terrifies her: all she will lose in life, and she has not readied herself for Heaven. But after she dies that night, her face shows that Death brought a wisdom that years of experience might have earned her.
  • Captain Jim in Anne's House Of Dreams. His Life Book has just been published, which he's thrilled about, and he settles down for the night to read it. Anne and Gilbert find him dead the next morning^note He was in his late seventies, so his death was most likely age-related. He's stretched out on the sofa with a peaceful expression on his face, holding the book, which is opened to the last page. Earlier in the book, he had mentioned that he hoped to have a quick and easy death; it would seem that he got what he wanted.
• Deryni: Lady Vivienne de Jourdanet of the Camberian Council dies peacefully of old age in the arms of her eldest son the morning after Liam's investiture in King Kelson's Bride. Despite the wars, rebellions and persecutions, some Deryni manage to do that.
• Dracula, surprisingly enough for all those who first knew him through Pop-Cultural Osmosis.
• In Eragon, Brom gets encased in a diamond tomb after he dies. Eragon comments that he looks so peaceful.
• Played for horror in "The Fall of the House of Usher", where Madeleine's about-to-be-entombed corpse still wears a faint smile. It turns out to be a Faux Death.
• Fire & Blood: Aegon the Usurper's death from poisoning is so quick and so subtle that had it not been for the small trail of blood coming from his mouth, his Kingsguard (assuming they weren't in on the plot) might've thought he was just asleep.
• In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, a character freezes to death in a cell, and when they took him out, he was smiling. (The readers know that he had come to the conclusion that he had done the right thing.)
• Xan in The Girl Who Drank the Moon knows that she will die soon after Luna achieves her full magical potential as Luna involuntarily drains Xan's magic away. Having lived for hundreds of years and satisfied that her granddaughter will be able to survive, Xan dies peacefully in bed.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Remus and Tonks are described as "pale and still and peaceful-looking" in death.
• Little Women: After Beth dies, her face is described as "a face so full of painless peace that those who loved it best smiled through their tears, and thanked God that Beth was well at last."
• In Teresa Frohock's Miserere: An Autumn Tale, Rachael notes, on Catarina's death that the woman doesn't look peaceful.
• The Outsiders: Discussed. The kid who dies "Didn't look peaceful. He just looked dead."
• In Robert A. Heinlein's The Roads Must Roll, a man is murdered while trying to negotiate with the striking workers. The main character is struck by the nobility of his expression, seeing him dead.
• In Angie Sage's Physik, after Alice takes a bullet for Jenna.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Tywin Lannister appears to have a faint smile while lying in state, and his children note how inappropriate the expression seems on him.
• The Sword of Saint Ferdinand: When King Ferdinand dies, his expression is serene, happy and contented.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • In the appendices of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, it is said that Aragorn's face upon succumbing to death struck all who saw it as peaceful and noble. Likewise with Boromir. But subverted with those in the Dead Marches.
  • The Fall of Númenor: The early Númenoreans were given long lives and the option to lie down and pass away when they feel their time was done, and their faces reflected the peace of mind of someone who know their task is over and is looking over to the next life. As they become increasingly corrupted and greedy, though, the Númenoreans begin fearing death and clinging to life, wearing terrified and twisted expressions on their faces when they pass away.
• In James Swallow's Warhammer 40,000 novel Deus Sanguinius, when Rafen goes to pay his respects to his dead mentor (and engage in Talking to the Dead), he is struck by how peaceful he looks, unlike the contortion racking him, as he died Fighting from the Inside to warn Rafen.
• In While My Pretty One Sleeps, Myles recalls that even with her throat cut and blood all over her coat, his wife Renata looked as though she could be sleeping rather than dead; he wonders if the deputy commissioner shut her eyes out of respect, or if she closed her eyes in her final moments. At her funeral, Sal tried to comfort Myles by telling him to "Try to think of your pretty one as sleeping", to which Myles flatly replied "She's not sleeping. She's dead."
• Colt in The Zombie Knight, because Geoffry won't find his children. Not that he stays that way for long.

Live-Action TV

• Agatha Christie's Poirot:
  • In the adaptation of Curtain, after Barbara Franklin drinks the poisoned cup of coffee meant for her husband John, scene cuts to Barbara screaming in terrible, agonizing pain in her bedroom as the guests try in vain to help her. By morning, we next see her body lying in bed in an upright position with a peaceful expression on her face as though she were asleep, surrounded by flowers.
  • The same may go for Hercule Poirot himself: As soon as Captain Hastings leaves his room for the final time and goes downstairs, the Belgian detective suffers his final bout of angina, grabs the rosary next to the amyl nitrite he refuses to take, and prays to God for forgiveness in agonizing pain, all the while the piano piece plays in the background. When Hastings quickly returns to find Poirot dead, it is not until we see the action for the second time near the end of the final episode that we get to see his body, tangled up in his bedsheets, his legs curled up in a fetal position, his arms outstretched, his hand still clutching the rosary, his face half-buried under the covers; and yet he is relaxed in a peaceful position with his eyes closed in a Big Sleep, as though he is redeemed in the eyes of God.
• Doctor Who: Clara Oswald, after experiencing a rather horrific demise in "Face the Raven", finds peace afterward.
• Game of Thrones: Despite the horrific manner in which King Renly Baratheon is killed, his body looks remarkably at peace. The corpse is later dressed and positioned in a way to make him appear regal and dignified, and Margaery Tyrell (his widow) can't resist mentioning how handsome he was, with Littlefinger agreeing.
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In "The Masks", a dying Jason Foster has his family wear masks, grotesque caricatures of themselves and a deaths-head for himself. At midnight he dies and they all unmask, their faces assuming the forms of the masks, showing their inner selves. Having accomplished his goal, Mr. Foster's face is placid and serene.
  Dr. Samuel Thorne: This must be death. No horror, no fear. Nothing but peace.
• War and Peace (1972): The dead at Borodino, Russian and French, all have a calm expression.

Music

• Daniel Amos's "Shedding the Mortal Coil" (from ¡Alarma!) is sung from the perspective of a dying man who sees his old life as “out of date” and “unnecessary”. It's quite a chipper tune.

Music Videos

• The video for Slipknot's "Vermilion, Part 2" sees the insane woman from their "Vermilion" video lying peacefully in a field before floating through the air, revealing that she's dead, finally free from her miserable life.

Standup Comedy

• Anthrocon founder Uncle Kage once worked at a facility for storing human body parts for research, and one of those parts was a complete head (which he nicknamed 'Murray'). He noted that 'Murray' had "the most beautific smile on his face" and stated that however 'Murray' went, Kage wanted to go the same way.
• Played with by Canadian comic Ryan Belleville recounts the last time he saw his grandfather: The two of them were sitting on the porch at night, and Grandpa pointed upward and told Ryan that every star in the sky was the soul of a person who had passed away. As Ryan looked up, he saw a new star appear in the sky, and looked over to Grandpa, noting that his eyes were closed, his face had an expression of utmost peace... and his hands were locked around the neck of a dead hobo. Grandpa was sent to prison the next day.
  Ryan: Oh, that Grandpa. He always had to prove his crazy theories were true.

Theatre

• In Boris Godunov, Shuisky testifies to Boris that he saw the slain Dimitri this way in the church at Uglich.
• In the Japanese productions of Elisabeth, a weeping Elisabeth comments "Now in death, you have found peace," at the funeral of her son Rudolf. In Real Life, his sister Marie Valerie would also mention that the deceased Rudolf was no longer wearing his customary scornful expression, instead seemingly at peace.
• La Bohème: The consumptive seamstress Mimi dies in this manner after being given a muff to warm her hands in. Rodolfo even comments on how tranquilly she's "sleeping" before discovering the tragic truth and crying his eyes out.
• In Street Scene, Rose says of her mother: "She looks so quiet and natural. You'd think she was asleep."

Video Games

• In Asura's Wrath, Asura spends the near entirety of the game consumed by Unstoppable Rage. After defeating the Greater-Scope Villain, however, he finds himself at peace for the first time in a long time as the Mantra that powered his body vanishes and his life ebbs away.
  My wrath...is finally...gone.
• In Dark Souls II, the Forest of Fallen Giants contains several trees that used to be the corpses of giants slain in the war between the giants and Drangleic. Examining them will just say "Alas, nothing happened", until later in the game when you have a certain item that allows you to do something with them. However, there is one of these trees hidden away in a secluded area that the item will not work on. Examining it will instead say "A giant rests in peace". This tree also has a small chance of providing you with a useful item every time you get invaded.
• In Fire Emblem Engage, right before dying, Sombron is convinced to try and summon the Zero Emblem one last time. And after thousands of years of not being able to, Sombron manages to summon them even if only he can see them. The Fell Dragon then disappears, finally at peace.
• Haunting Ground: Daniella/The Maid screams when she is impaled, but then begins to smile as she dies, prompting Fiona to comment that she's smiling from ear to ear, and looks much more relaxed and peaceful (should you choose to examine her body).
• A rare example of this trope where the character does not permanently die is Sora of the Kingdom Hearts series. In Yen Sid's Tower, and back in his true form, he is shown to be at peace after being rendered comatose after his Heart is destroyed by Master Xehanort and his friends save him from becoming a clone near the end of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. Bonus points for spotting a faint smile, despite going out after a lengthy torture. The game manages to avoid a Downer Ending thanks to Riku repairing his Heart, allowing Sora to wake up.
  • Subverted, and Played for Laughs, in the manga adaptation for Kingdom Hearts II.
    Yuna: Chief. He looks so peaceful.
    Pete: I ain't dead!!
• Live A Live: In the Imperial China chapter, the Shifu dies after telling his surviving disciple that they will be the new shifu of the Earthen Heart martial arts and having avenged the deaths of his other students, happy that the likes of Ou Di Wan Lee will never wreak havoc again and that his martial arts is in safe hands.
• In Mass Effect, if you allow Corporal Toombs to go through with his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, he will kill himself once he's finished, and it's noted that he has a peaceful expression. On the other end of things, if you stop his rampage by killing him, his face will still be contorted with pain and grief in death.
• The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Hell, she was at peace with the idea that Snake would kill her for weeks and even comments that their fight together should be the best ten minutes of their lives.
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance sees its main bosses being peaceful in death, even after Raiden slices most of them into cybernetic sashimi, with most of them leaving parting words for him.
• In Octopath Traveler II, Ochette offers to sit with her final boss and give it some jerky after she defeats it, in an attempt to give it some peace as it's dying. This is because it's the possible Animal Companion she didn't choose at the start of her story, after being experimented on for ten years, and she could tell it was suffering rather than evil. It finally goes quiet as she does so, implying that she succeeded.
• The Pokémon Primeape has an extreme temper and will go apeshit at the drop of a hat. Its Pokédex entry in Pokémon Sun says that a Primeape can literally drop dead from anger but when it does it has a peaceful expression on its face.
• In one of the High Honor endings of Red Dead Redemption II as provided by the image, Arthur Morgan, having suffered from tuberculosis and from terrible wounds inflicted on him by Micah Bell, is left to die alone after successfully convincing Dutch van der Linde to abandon Micah and leave. Emerging triumphant from battle, Arthur, content that he has sacrificed himself to give John Marston and his family a better future, crawls over to the edge of a cliff and huddles up against a giant rock there to spend his final moments at dawn. Seconds later, however, his tuberculosis is taking a hold of him as he is being suffocated and struggling to breathe in agonizing pain. As his gasping is slowing down, he turns his head around to catch a glimpse of the sunrise for the final time before slowly letting out his last breath as his eyes gently close in a Big Sleep, dying with a peaceful expression on his face.

Webcomics

• In the final arc of Dominic Deegan, Quilt sacrifices himself to ensure the Infernomancer's death, avenging his fallen friend Bumper and doing his part to save the world. Quilt shuts his eyes and smiles as he disintegrates. Contrast with the Infernomancer, who dies screaming.
• In The Order of the Stick, Durkon is defeated by Malack. As the vampire drains his lifeblood, Durkon begs Malack to at least let his friends live. In deference to the friendship they shared in the short time they knew each other, Malack agrees. The lives of his friends assured, Durkon is able to die in peace. He sheds a tear, knowing that according to the Oracle's prophecy he will finally be able to go home. He dies with a smile on his face and X's in his eyes. Unfortunately, the High Priest of Hel that takes over Durkon's vampirized body does not share the same sentimentality that Malack did.

Western Animation

• BoJack Horseman: Averted, when Bojack's mother Beatrice finally died, it was a stroke that finished her off, and Bojack even mentions they had to have a closed-casket funeral in spite of her wishes, because the coroner couldn't fix the rictus grimace of agony frozen on her face. He describes it as a "pissed-off toy dinosaur" (and even mimics it for the horrified audience, complete with a Scare Chord).
• Discussed in The Simpsons episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish". Marge lets Homer sleep in on what he believes will be the last day of his life because he "looked so peaceful lying there". "There'll be plenty of time for that!" It's seemingly played straight when Marge finds him the next morning sitting in the living room recliner, having spent his last morning listening to the Bible on tape, but it turns out the poison never got into his system, and he thankfully survived, so he was just asleep.

Real Life

• Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria wrote of her brother, Crown Prince Rudolf, post-mortem, as being peaceful in death even after a Boom, Headshot! due to being Driven to Suicide.
  He was so handsome and lay there so peacefully, the white sheet pulled up to his chest and flowers strewn all around. The narrow bandage on his head did not disfigure him — his cheeks and ears were still rosy with the healthy glow of youth — the restless, often bitter, scornful expression that was often characteristic of him in life had given way to a peaceful smile — he never seemed so beautiful to me before — he seemed to be asleep and calm, happy.

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