Thwarted Coup de Grâce

Crystal: Well, Haley, looks like this is it. I expected more screaming, but this'll do. Game over, you lose.
Belkar: [tackling Crystal] Last minute field goal!! We're headed to overtime!
Bozzok: Damn it! See, THIS is why you don't take your time killing the heroes!

— The Order of the Stick

Oh, no! The villain has beaten the hero in a fight! Our hero is down on the ground, battered, bloodied and helpless. The villain triumphantly raises his weapon, delivers his gloating one-liner. This is it, our hero is done for! The Big Bad gleefully readies the Coup de Grâce...

... and dies.

There are three general ways that this happens. Either the hero pulls some last-minute trick out of his sleeve and delivers the killing blow to the villain, one of the other Big Damn Heroes leaps in from Behind the Black to finish off the baddie himself, or the villain was Already Dead.

If the good guy has the bad guy at his mercy, then a Sword over Head is the usual result. In that case, the hero will either stop himself or go through with it. The distinction between the two is that the good guy almost always gets to make the choice himself and live with the result. Occasionally, somebody else will kill the bad guy, either while the hero is thinking it over or just after the hero decided he couldn't do it. This will often happen eventually if the game makes use of a Coup de Grâce Cutscene. May be the result of a successful Diagonal Cut. Compare Ominous Adversarial Amusement.

Types of Thwarted Coup de Grâce:

• Bait-and-Switch Gunshot
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement
• Sword over Head
• Third Party Stops Attack

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Berserk, after completing a series of horrific and unimaginable deeds to his former friends Guts and Casca, Griffith, now Femto, leaves our Star-Crossed Lovers unconscious and dying on the ground of hell and is about to let the Apostles finish them off. Luckily for these two, the Skull Knight breaks through the Vortex and saves them just in the nick of time.
• Naruto:
  • At the climax of a heated battle between Sasuke and Itachi, Itachi has Sasuke cornered and is about to take Sasuke's eyes (and the Psychic Powers they impart) for his own. Itachi touches Sasuke on the bridge of his forehead... and then keels over, dead. Sasuke later finds out that Itachi was suffering from a terminal illness the whole time and was actually implanting his eyes' powers onto Sasuke just before his death.
  • Much earlier, during the final arc of Part I, Kimimaro was ready to finish off the defenseless Gaara and Lee, and then his terminal illness struck him down, when he was literally inches from fatally impaling Gaara with his bone drill.
• In PandoraHearts Retrace LXXVIII, Oz is at Oswald/Glen's mercy, and the latter has just raised his sword to strike when he's shot in the hand by Gilbert. Of course, since he's Nigh-Invulnerable, Glen didn't die, but Gil's "betrayal" of him was still heartwarming.
• Inverted and mixed with Mercy Kill in Claymore. Theresa, who was in battle with Priscilla, manages to get Priscilla on her knees. Undergoing a Super-Power Meltdown, Priscilla begs Theresa to kill her before she can turn into a monster, to which Theresa agrees. However, before she can kill her, Priscilla grabs her sword and slices Theresa's hands off and then decapitates her.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Mustang, who has just incinerated Envy back down to his parasitic state in a vengeful rage, has the now slug-like homunculus under the sole of his boot and is ready to kill him, until Riza Hawkeye shows up with a gun to his head, threatening to kill him per their promise. Scar and Ed soon join them, with Ed springing Envy away from Mustang, who he pointedly asks if this is what he wanted to be when he were to become Fuhrer. Mustang finally calms down, and after Envy fails at breaking them by mocking them for their failures, he breaks down in tears and commits suicide.
• Sakura Wars: The Movie:
  • When Ratchet tries to kill the panicking Douglas-Stewart guard at the Imperial Theater, Sakura stops her just in time.
  • At the end of the film, Brent attempts to kill Sakura, only for Ogami in his F2 Kobu to fire his cannon at him.
• The first episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's ends with Nanoha about to have her head caved in by Vita's hammer, only for Fate to teleport in at the last second with Yuuno and block it.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: During the final battle with DIO, Jotaro fakes his death to lure him into a trap. DIO, however, is Genre Savvy enough to know it's a setup, and prepares to decapitate Jotaro just to make sure... at which point Polnareff lauches an ambush from overhead.

Comic Books

• Raptors: When Aznar tries to strike down Camilla, Drago blocks his sword at the last second.
• Batwoman (Rebirth): Played with in a non-fatal example. Knife has a mounted position on Batwoman and is about to stab her when Kate manages to light the torch of the Desert Rose, the signal for all the island's warlords to assemble there. Knife then decides that Kate isn't worth the "mercy" of a death by blade, and begins strangling her. Cue the arrival of the warlords, which convinces Knife to flee.
• In Legion of Super-Heroes storyline The Great Darkness Saga, Darkseid is about to crush Supergirl's head when he is stopped by the remainder Legionnaires.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: When the Saturnians finally use their telepathy offensively and take down Steve Trevor and Etta Candy the two heroes are about to be destroyed by a death ray they can't even see even though they know their opponents are there somewhere and have beaten them. Di wreaks the weapon at the last minute, since she can No-Sell the Saturnians' telepathy.

Fan Works

• Fairy Dance Of Death: Kibaou is about to deliver a killing blow to Klein when his monologue is cut short (literally) by a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• In The Good Hunter, Kuroferuru arrives just in time to intercept Cyril's strike that was meant to execute Druella after the fight between the latter two.
• Hellsister Trilogy: At the climax of The Apokolips Agenda, Darkseid has curbstomped Supergirl and is about to deliver the killing blow when his son Orion suddenly shows up from behind and blasts Darkseid into atoms.
• Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger:
  • In "Fear", right as the terentatek has overpowered Pyrrha and is about to impale her with its Absurdly Sharp Claws, Ruby swoops in on her Semblance and pushes Pyrrha out of the way.
  • The penultimate chapter "Sorry" features an inversion of how this trope typically goes with the main heroine having the Big Bad at her mercy only to have victory snatched away at the last second. Following a grueling battle, Pyrrha has Darth Nihilus on his knees before her and tries to deal a killing blow by stabbing him through the heart. However, just as she thrusts her blade forward, Nihilus uses his telekinesis to adjust her sword's angle, causing Pyrrha to miss and only graze his shoulder. She doesn't get much time to react as Nihilus immediately takes advantage of this and drives his sword through her stomach, killing her.
• In the climax of Loved and Lost, Jewelius tries to decapitate his subdued aunt Celestia with a sword after his army is turned to stone by the Elements of Harmony. Fortunately, the sword is magically blasted away by his cousin Cadance.
• In Neon Metathesis Evangelion , Plug Dummy-controlled EVA-01 is beating down on Bardiel-controlled EVA-03, clasping its hands over its head, ready to deliver a hammer strike that would kill the angel, the EVA and probably also Touji inside the EVA... when it suddenly stops. Rei, acting in unison with the 'her inside EVA-00', is using her powers as Lilith's soulbearer on the one Lilithian EVA unit.
• Weight of the World: When Ironwood is about to shoot America in the head, Penny 2.0 attacks him and throws him down a mineshaft. Penny then takes America and escapes with him.

Films — Animation

• During the climax of Brave, when Bear!Elinor is tied down and Fergus is about to deal her a finishing blow, an arrow from Merida blasts the sword out of his hand.
• In Frozen, just as Hans is about to deliver the coup de grace on Elsa, Anna (who gives up the chance to save herself in favor of her sister) swoops in and takes the blow; fortunately, since she becomes frozen solid at that very instant, the sword gets shattered instead of her and Hans gets knocked unconscious in the process.
• Happens to Frollo at the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a result of him saying "And he shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!" while trying to kill the heroes. The gargoyle he’s standing on gives way and sends him to his end. Bonus points for falling to the flames he started to kill one of the protagonists.
• In Kubo and the Two Strings, Beetle interrupts both Sisters trying to finish off Monkey, first at the boat and again later at Hanzo's homestead.
• Used in the climax of The Secret of NIMH when Justin has thrown out his sword and is giving a speech, Jenner sneaks up behind waiting to make the strike; by the time Justin notices, Jenner has him, but suddenly Jenner gets stabbed in the back... by a Mook he just stabbed.
• In Toy Story 2, Woody and the Prospector fight overt the former not wanting to go with the latter to be put on display in a toy museum. As the Prospector raises his pickaxe to tear Woody to pieces, he gets distracted by blinding camera flashes from Buzz and company.

Films — Live-Action

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:
  • Lurtz, the head Uruk-Hai, has shot Boromir full of holes and is ready to deliver the killing shot when Aragorn leaps in and kills Lurtz. This gives Boromir enough time to deliver his dying speech.
  • Aragorn is knocked flat by an Uruk getting impaled on (thereby trapping) his sword; Gimli and Legolas arrive before the rest of the orcs can take advantage of the situation. Then Boromir himself pulls a Big Damn Heroes when a group of Uruks charge at Merry and Pippin; one has his axe raised to do Pippin in when Boromir arrives from offscreen to deflect the blow.
• The climax of the Battle of Cowpens at the end of The Patriot (2000) has Colonel Tavington ready to deliver the killing strike to Benjamin Martin. Martin ducks under the sword and impales Tavington on his bayonet.
• Star Wars:
  • In Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Dooku brings down Obi-Wan, but before he can deliver the final blow, a previously electrocuted Anakin gets better and jumps across the room to block it.
  • Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has Mace Windu having just beaten Chancellor Palpatine in a lightsaber duel. Anakin charges in and tells Windu not to finish Palpatine as Palpatine is begging for his life. Just as Windu is about to Kill Him Already!, Anakin hacks Windu's hand off and Palpatine breaks out the Force Lightning.
  • Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: Palpatine uses Force Lightning again, this time on Luke, and Vader stops him. Unusual in that it doesn't involve any weapons.
• In Gladiator, Emperor Commodus has ordered General Maximus to be executed. The soldier orders him to kneel so he can stab him. Maximus (with his hands tied) head-butts the soldier, takes his sword, and then kills every other soldier who was guarding him. Maximus is badass.
• Serenity (2005) does this twice with Mal's confrontations with the Operative. The first time, Mal is surely beaten, and the Operative is about to finish him off with his sword when Inara's flashbomb goes off and stuns him. The second time, the Operative is about to kill Mal after having paralyzed him by grabbing a specific nerve cluster. Mal had that nerve cluster removed by shrapnel in the Unification War, and right as the Operative strikes, he twists out of the way and dislocates his shoulders.
• In Highlander, Connor MacLeod's first death is nearly his final as the Kurgan prepares to deliver the beheading shot, only to be tackled away by Connor's kinsmen.
  • Not to mention The Kurgan gets distracted in their final Sword Fight when he's about to take MacLeod's head because of the intervention of Connor's Love Interest.
• Standard issue in The Last Samurai, where Nathan takes advantage from the samurai opening himself up. However, Nathan was already wounded and fell unconscious after making the kill.
• In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the Sheriff beats Robin with his father's sword and has Robin backed against the wall. The Sheriff turns to Marian, says, "Get ready", only to have Robin pull Marian's dagger out of his boot and stab the Sheriff.
• In the final duel of Rob Roy, Archibald Cunningham has Rob at his mercy and pauses to remind him that no quarter would be asked nor given. Rob grabs onto Archie's blade, preventing the dainty fop from delivering the killing blow, and hacks him nearly in two.
• Happens in Transformers: Dark of the Moon TWICE within 10 MINUTES of each other. First with Bumblebee, then with Optimus.
• In Thunderball, Largo has James Bond at gunpoint and is about to shoot him when he is killed by a harpoon fired by his mistress Domino, who he had tortured earlier.
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol: Agent Carter defeats Moreau and has to be stopped by Ethan and Brandt from killing her since they want her for questioning. She later ends up kicking the assassin out a window to her death anyway when Moreau tries to kill Benji when he's momentarily distracted.
• In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the climactic battle nears the end as Davey Jones has Bootstrap Bill dead to rights. Right as he's about to finish Bill, his son William (whose mortal wound inflicted by Davey For the Evulz was the instigator for attacking Davey) stabs Davey's heart (with some assistance from Jack Sparrow), thwarting the finisher.
• Doctor Strange (2016): When Strange crawls helplessly on the floor of the New York sanctum, a mook walks up behind him to perform a Coup de Grâce, but Strange's cape disables him just in time.
• John Wick: Chapter 4: The Marquis steps forward to finish off the gutshot John at the end of the duel (after having cowardly insisted on having a proxy fight in his stead before this point), only to discover at the last moment that John's pistol is still loaded. Cue the Pretty Little Headshots.

Literature

• Gods and Warriors: As the rebels engage in the final battle with the Crows in Warrior Bronze, Pharax injures Akastos, the returned High Chieftain of Mycenae, and attempts to deliver the deathblow to the latter. However, Akastos prevents this by thrusting his sword right through his enemy's groin.
• Benjamin Mayhew thwarts one for Honor Harrington in The Honor of the Queen.
• In The Hunger Games, during the "feast" at the Cornucopia, Clove gets Katniss pinned down with a knife to her throat. She takes the time to gloat, and is promptly killed by Thresh for saying that she killed Rue.
• The Reynard Cycle: At the end of The Baron of Maleperduys, Drauglir has Reynard down on the ground and is about to finish him off when Rukenaw and Martin barrel into him. Drauglir is unharmed, but he gets distracted enough that Reynard manages to regain his feet and stab him right between the eyes.
• This happens in A Storm of Swords, during the duel between Oberyn Martell and Gregor Clegane. Martell spends the entire fight using Hit-and-Run Tactics to wear Clegane down. Finally, he delivers what seems to be the final blow by impaling Clegane with a spear. Unfortunately, Martell is obsessed with hearing Clegane confess to the rape and murder of his sister (and the sister's children), so he gets too close while trying to force a confession, allowing Gregor to grab him, pull him down, and then beat him to death. Doing the Sword over Head routine on a guy who is both the World's Strongest and Most Psychotic Man is a very bad idea. And yet despite this Oberyn still manages to get his revenge since his spear was coated in a deadly poison that leaves Clegane in unimaginable agony for days until he finally succumbs to his injuries.
• In Twig, the Duke of Francis has routed the forces of the rebel Reverend Mauer, defeated his I Surrender, Suckers gambit by having his infiltrators defuse the explosives that Mauer had planned to use in a Taking You with Me, and is about to cut his head off, only to discover in the most painful way possible that the rebel forces have developed working rapid fire sniper rifles.
• In Warrior Cats: The Last Hope, Ivypool is trapped by Hawkfrost and would have died if it weren't for Hollyleaf with a Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind. Hollyleaf gets a throat wound, however, and she dies while saving her.

Live-Action TV

• In the Buffy season 2 finale, Angelus has seemingly defeated Buffy in a sword fight. He goes to finish her off and she catches the blade between her hands.
• Heroes does this, though sometimes with a role reversal. Two good examples come from near the end of Season 2: HRG/Noah has Bob, the head of the Company at gunpoint, and pauses to remark about how if he just pulls the trigger it will all be over. Then, later, Victoria has Adam/Kensei at the end of a shotgun. Knowing he can regenerate, she says, "I knew it would take blowing your head off. Better late than never." Neither was successful, largely because they ran their mouths when they should've been pulling the trigger.
  "What am I thinking now, Parkman?"
• In Stargate SG-1 this happens in the episode "The Warrior" when Teal'c kills Kytano/Imhotep
• In an episode of Babylon 5, Londo's old friend, who is accused of treason without proof, challenges him to a duel for supposedly conspiring against him. At the end, he has Londo on his knees, raises his sword for the final blow, and hesitates a split second, which is all Londo needs to stab his opponent in the gut. After the fight, Londo reveals to Vir that his friend threw the fight, as he was always better, in order to allow his family to escape disgrace. By rules of the combat, the victor assumes responsibility for his opponent's family. As such, they are now Londo's family, so the accusation of treason won't harm them.
• In Game of Thrones, the duel between Oberyn Martell and Gregor Clegane a.k.a. The Mountain. Oberyn dominates the big man for most of the fight, making it apparent that this will be a Curb-Stomp Battle. However, in his attempt to get Gregor to confess to the murder of his niece and nephew and the rape and murder of his sister, he delays the finishing strike so long that his opponent manages to recover long enough to trip him and deliver a finishing strike of his own. (By which we mean "grasp Oberyn's skull like a bowling ball, confess just for the sake of rubbing salt into the wound, then crush his head like a grape.") To rub salt into the wound, Gregor does succumb to his injuries and the poison, but is "saved" as an undead servant. Oberyn is just dead.

Video Games

• Dynasty Warriors 4 has the Invasion of Jing, where Shu players can recruit Wei Yan and Huang Zhong. Huang Zhong is defeated by Guan Yu, but is so impressed he plans to leave his incompetent and tyrannical commander Han Xuan and join Shu. Han Xuan finds out, but before he can strike down Huang Zhong personally, Wei Yan cuts down him from behind with little more than a dismissive "Scum..." as Han Xuan falls over dead.
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Middle-earth: Shadow of War allow Talion to deflect the Coup de Grâce when his health is emptied. There are a couple of limitations, though; he can only do this a few times each fight before he is automatically slain, the timing gets tighter each time, and he can't pull this on orcs with the No Mercy trait. Shadow of War also has Forthog Orc-Slayer, a Mysterious Protector who will occasionally pull a Big Damn Heroes on your behalf if you are about to die.
• Super Metroid has Mother Brain fire a rainbow beam which stuns Samus. When she prepares the second blast, the baby Metroid flies in to protect Samus. It gets itself vaporized in the process, but not before transmitting some of Mother Brain's energy to Samus... who is very, very angry at Mother Brain for hurting the baby Metroid. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.

Web Animation

• Twice in RWBY's Volume 3 climax:
  • Roman Torchwick is killed this way by a Grimm. So much for "lie, steal, cheat, and survive", eh?
  • Ruby attempts this on Cinder, but arrives just in time to see Pyrrha murdered in cold blood.

Web Comics

• Happens twice in this Order of the Stick episode.
• In Tower of God, Hwaryun attacked Rachel, which led to Bam jumping in between them to catch the strike. With Bam being beaten bloody to the ground, she gets ready for the final blow, but Bam's Defense Mechanism Superpower activates, slicing her right through the face.
• During the second Time Skip of White Dark Life, Nikolai Velenova finally regains Leila Belnades' trust (and reawakens her latent affection for him) by pulling one of these, interrupting Bowser Jr.'s No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in spectacular fashion to save Leila's life. (Granted, he doesn't make it in time to prevent Leila from being beaten to the point of unconsciousness, but he makes up for this by bringing Leila to his dorm room (to hide her from follow-up attacks), performing first aid on her, and ultimately calling in her cousin Anastasia to fix her up when his own efforts prove insufficient to treat her injuries.)

Western Animation

• Batman: The Animated Series: Batman loves this trope. The Riddler hates it. Batman once used this to save the Riddler's former lab partner that was suspected of sabotaging a brain enhancing disk.

Real Life

• The Miracle at the Meadowlands saw the New York Giants leading the Philadelphia Eagles 17-12 in a November 1978 American Football game. The Giants had possession of the ball with less than thirty seconds left, the Eagles had no timeouts, and the telecast was already rolling credits. All the Giants had to do was kneel down. Instead, they tried to run a handoff at the insistence of Giants offensive coordinator Bob Gibson. The handoff was fumbled, and Eagles cornerback Herman Edwards returned the loose ball for a touchdown, giving the Eagles a 19-17 win. Gibson was promptly fired and never called another play in any level of football again. As a result, this led to the development of the victory formation — now when the quarterback takes a knee, two running backs will flank him immediately behind him and a third will sit five or seven yards back as a safety. It also legitimized taking a knee when a team was assured they would win.
• In one spectacular MMA bout, fighter Pete Sell landed a powerful, devastating body shot to opponent Scott Smith's liver. As Smith doubled over in agony, Sell rushed in to finish the job with his hands down, giving Smith the opportunity to deliver one last knockout punch. Smith won the fight, right before keeling over for medical attention.
• An MMA bout in 2004 saw future boxing world lightweight champion Nate Campbell badly hurt his opponent Robbie Peden with a body shot, doubling Peden over and causing him to stagger around the ring. Peden was able to defend just well enough for the next 30 seconds or so to evade or block Campbell's attempts to finish him, and recovered enough to finally punch back. Campbell, in his arrogance and certainty of victory, stood in front of Peden with no defense at all and dared Peden to hit him again. Peden did, and Campbell fell over backwards like a tree going down. Link.
• A January 4, 2007 NHL game saw the Dallas Stars with a 5-4 lead over the Edmonton Oilers in the last 16 seconds of regulation. The Oilers had pulled their goalie for the extra skater but a turnover near their own blue line allowed Stars center Patrik Stefan to get the puck and close in on the empty net to seal the game...until the puck hit a patch of chipped ice not three feet from the goal, causing it to skip over Stefan's stick and taking him past the empty net where he slipped and fell. This allowed the Oilers to recover the puck and send it down the ice to Ales Hemsky who managed to slip it behind Stars goalie Marty Turco to tie the game with 2.7 seconds left.
• June 12, 2009, New York Mets visiting the crosstown rival Yankees. Bottom of the 9th, two outs, Mets are up 8-7 but the Yankess have runners on first and second with Alex Rodriguez at the plate. A-Rod hits a high pop-up on a 3-1 pitch, however, and slams his bat down in disgust before starting to trot to first in futility as everyone in the park can see Mets second baseman Luis Castillo settle under the falling ball to make the final out...until he suddenly shifts at the last moment, the ball popping in and out of his glove before it drops to the ground. Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira, who had been running since bat contact because it was two outs, both score before Castillo can recover the ball and throw it home, and the Yankees win 9-8.

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