Quotes / Dying Moment of Awesome

Warning: As a Death Trope, all spoilers are unmarked

Anime & Manga

You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you just have to find it.

— Gold Roger, setting off the entire plot of One Piece at his execution

In my life, I have not a single regret!

— Raoh, Fist of the North Star

Comic Books

They sing no songs in Hel, nor do they celebrate heroes, for silent is that dismal realm and cheerless. But the story of the Gjallerbru and the god who defended it is whispered across the nine worlds. And when a new arrival asks about the one to whom even Hela bows her head, the answer is always the same: “He stood alone at Gjallerbru”... and that answer is enough.

— The Narrator, describing the death of Skurge the Executioner, The Mighty Thor

Fan Works

Nazi vampire: How valiant of you, Sir Penwood. Defending your post down to the last man.
Sir Penwood: Ah, but that's where I must rebuke you. Because where you see one man, I see four.
Nazi vampire: See four...?
(the Nazi notices the C-4 clustered in the room, and the detonator Penwood is holding)
Sir Penwood: When you get to Hell, tell 'em Penwood sent you. And then apologize on my behalf for the inconvenience.

— Hellsing Ultimate Abridged

Film — Live-Action

WITNESS ME!

— Any War Boy about to attempt one of these, Mad Max: Fury Road

There's only one way for a professional soldier to die. That's from the last bullet of the last battle of the last war.

— George S. Patton, Patton

You know, your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's and yours.

— Christopher Pike to James T. Kirk, Star Trek (2009)

Thanos: I am inevitable! (Snaps fingers. Nothing happens. He looks to find no stones on his gauntlet.)
Iron Man: (Reveals the stones set on a new gauntlet made from his armor) And I... am... Iron Man. (Snaps his own fingers.)

— Tony Stark using the Infinity Stones to kill Thanos and his army at the cost of his own life, Avengers: Endgame

Literature

In anger smites | the warder of earth,
Forth from their homes | must all men flee;
Nine paces fares | the son of Fjorgyn,
And, slain by the serpent, | fearless he sinks.

— Voluspa, stanza 56, describing Thor's defeat, and death by venom, of the serpent

I am Ganner. This threshold is mine. I claim it for my own. Bring on your thousands, one at a time or all in a rush. I don't give a damn. None shall pass.

— Ganner Rhysode, New Jedi Order

Alex: I miss her every minute of every day, but god damn, it was just so fuckin' right.
Naomi: Going hand to hand with a ship the combined strength of Earth, Mars, and the Transport Union couldn't beat and winning?
Alex: Yeah. If we've got to die, I guess that's a pretty good way to go.

—Tiamat's Wrath

Live-Action TV

You even know who Crispus Attucks was? A free black man. The first to die for what became America. He could've acted scared when those Brits showed up, blended in, in the crowd, but he stood up! He paid with his life... but he started something.

— Luke Cage

Tony: Definitely didn't picture my demise like this. I'd always figured going out like Cagney in White Heat — fiery explosion. Or Redford and Newman in Butch Cassidy — hail of bullets!
Gibbs: Or Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush.
Tony: How did he die?
Gibbs: Silently.

— NCIS

Now that's an exit.

— Marc Antony, Rome

My name is ASAC Schrader, and you can go fuck yourself.

— Hank Schrader, Breaking Bad

Music

Shot down in a blaze of glory
Take me now but know the truth
'Cause I'm going down in a blaze of glory

— Bon Jovi, "Blaze of Glory"

Climb to the top of the world
And as you stand tall you will see
That when you fall
You will fall from a height most men will never reach.

— The Protomen, "The Fall"

In the heart of the Holy See
In the home of Christianity
The seat of power is in danger
There's a foe of a thousand swords
They've been abandoned by their lords
Their fall from grace will pave their path to damnation
Then the Hundred and Eighty-Nine
In the service of Heaven
They're protecting the holy line
It was 1527
Gave their lives on the steps to Heaven
Thy will be done

—Sabaton, The Last Stand

Turn into a jet (LIKE A BOSS)
Bomb the Russians (LIKE A BOSS)
Crash into the sun (LIKE A BOSS)
Now I'm dead (LIKE A BOSS)

Tombstone: R.I.P. THE BOSS - "He was da best" - 1972-2009

—The Lonely Island, "Like A Boss"

Tabletop Games

Though great sacrifice, we have made sure that those who live near the Empty Quarter know, and I mean truly know that magic exists. Our elders regularly go to the populated edges of the Rub al-Khali and perform great works — sometimes at the cost of their lives — just to show the ignorant that it can be done. But their martyrdom has succeeded where your much-vaunted subtlety has failed: within those great expanses, we still have the power to make carpets fly, to command the raging sandstorm, and, as is our privilege, to command the fractious djinn.

— Mage: The Ascension — Lost Paths

If you must die today, make your death worthy of legend.

— Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, Magic: The Gathering

What is the terror of death?
That we die with our work incomplete.
What is the joy of life?
To die, knowing our task is done.

— Common Saying of the Adeptus Astartes, Warhammer 40,000

Video Games

Scattered in Hell, abandoned by their clergy and reinforcements, the Sentinels proved their worth in what would be their final war with the forces of all evil. Unrelenting power in the face of certain death, the Sentinels crushed hundreds of demons and skewered Titans. When their Atlans held no more fuel the Sentinels took to the ground and fought the swarms on land. All of Hell knew of the Betrayal, for it was without question the Maykrs and the Priests who had sowed the seeds of deceit long before the brave warriors passed through the gate. What Hell saw that day was the beating heart of the free people of Argent D'Nur; they did not flinch in the face of their own certain death. They died as they lived, with sword and shield in hand, Urdak too low a place to house such giants. Theirs would be the fate of warrior gods, remembered for all time.

— Codex: History of the Sentinels, Doom Eternal

Remember this always, son of the north: a Nord is judged not by the manner in which he lived, but the manner in which he died.

— A Dream of Sovngarde, The Elder Scrolls

The exhausted Barrier Trio struck one final Barrier Pose!
It was spectacular.

— Mother 3

Micah Bell: Oh, Black Lung, you ain't gonna reach that gun. You ain't. You've lost, my sick friend. You lost.

Arthur Morgan: In the end, Micah... despite my best efforts to the contrary... it turns out I've won... Goddamn you.

— Red Dead Redemption II

The Old Orc: My time has come. I am old. Too old to become chief. It would be wrong for me to take wives at this age. So I will die. Malacath has given me a vision of a glorious death. I am to wait here until it finds me. As you can see, it has not yet arrived.

The Dragonborn: Maybe I could give you the death you seek?

The Old Orc: Perhaps. Are you sure about this?

The Dragonborn: Yes, I am sure. I will give you a good death.

The Old Orc: Hm. We shall see.

—The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

"Came out of nowhere. An alien kraken, bigger than a Cyclops. Tore a hole clear through the reinforced hull. I barely got my breather in time. I told her. I said others would come. The rupture threw me clear of the habitat, and the monster turned and bore down on me. Just as its tentacles came within reach, Maida appeared out of nowhere. She had a seaglide in one hand, a jagged piece of scrap metal in the other. She meant to butcher that beast, or die trying. The last I saw her she had the metal lodged in its neck as the monster did its best to shake her, contorting off into the darkness. I'm certain she got her wish, one way or another."

—Paul Torgal, Subnautica

Liquid Snake: (Pinning Gray Fox to the wall with Metal Gear REX) In the Middle East, we don't hunt foxes, we hunt jackals! Instead of foxhounds, we use royal harriers! How strong is that exoskeleton of yours? Snake! Are you just going to sit by and watch him die!?
(Gray Fox shoots out REX's radar domes, blinding Liquid and forcing him to open REX's cockpit in order to see)
Gray Fox: A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!

—Metal Gear Solid

Web Comics

No! Wait, yes. This will be so ra-

— King Radical^note after being forcibly converted into a vampire and getting the Pope thrown at him., The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

Web Original

The Flash bursts into flames, which is pretty harsh, but don't pretend that isn't the most badass way to go out. When you get to heaven after dying by way of exploding from going too fast, you get a high-five from God.

— Cracked, "The 7 Stupidest Attempts to Reinvent Batman"

This is a man who knew he was dying and decided to make his own eulogy by levitating 2 meters off the ground and firing lightning into Jean-Claude Van Damme, just so that kids could watch. He was such a brilliant beacon of intensity that he made a wish for children when he was the one who was dying, and the result still brightens the world today.

— Cracked, "The 4 Best Moments in the Worst Movies Ever Made"

Get this: The Anti-Monitor, the biggest bad guy of them all, is ready to blow up all of reality. So what does Supergirl do? She punches him. And punches him, and punches, and punches and punches and just wails on the guy until one lucky blast from the Anti-Monitor kills her. But her death had meaning. It had soul. It showed a character dying to save lives. She wasn't just some victim or shock death. She forced the heavily-injured Anti-Monitor to retreat... Bottom line, if a character's going to die, they'd better go out swingin'!

— Linkara

Well, it just goes to show; life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. So if I die, I'M GONNA DIE LIKE A MAN!!!

— Macbeth, in Cliffs Notes' recap of the play

BEST. DEATH. EVAH!

— The Nostalgia Critic on Micky Rourke's death-by-tigers in Double Team.

The rise and fall of Tony Montana, and what a way to go out.

— James Rolfe describing the final shoot-out in Scarface (1983)

It was, just as Kinski had predicted, suicide. He should never have done it. It is widely held by those who knew him, and Kinski himself, that he never recovered from Woyzeck. But what was the ultimate result? If you are the viewer of this film, Kinski’s portrayal shocks your feelings out of the vault of intellectualizing or passive observing. He forces you to feel with him, to align yourself with your buried emotions. He outs your sensitivity. Is this not something Christ-like? It is, for my money. Kinski is the pure cure for the 21st-century disease — the numbness unto droning.

— Cintra Wilson on Klaus Kinski

Captain Falcon's Ghost: Hey guys ... I'm sorry. I guess this means our team has to drop out of the tournament now. But tell me the truth. What I did a moment ago ... It looked ... kinda cool, didn't it?

Marth: Yeah ... it was pretty cool. And downright crazy.

Captain Falcon's Ghost: ... Nice.

—Smash King

Western Animation

This is a cool way to die!

— Fry being carried off by a robot pterodactyl^note He lives, Futurama

Dinobot: Megatron...
Megatron: Hm, my ears are burning! Yeeessss! Why, Dinobot! What a delightful surprise! Let's see, where are we now? I have the Golden Disc, I have the power to change the future, and the only remaining obstacle in my path to unimaginable glory... is yourself. Exhausted. Damaged beyond recovery. Defeated.
Dinobot: Not... just yet!

— Beast Wars, "Code of Hero"

Gambit: The name's Gambit mon ami....(purple lines start forming all along the tri-sentinel as Gambit charges it up with his mutant ability) remember it. (massive explosion as Gambit blows up the tri-sentinel)

—X-Men '97, Remember It

Real Life

Once you decide that you're going to have the death of Spock, then how does that affect the other people? Why is it there? I got a lot of stick from a lot of people from the very beginning about the idea of killing Spock. Somebody said, "You can't kill him." And I said, "Sure you can; the only question is whether you do it well."

— Nicholas Meyer, Director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

There is one way to never see your country come to ruin, and that is to die in the last ditch.

— King William III of England, and the origin of the phrase "last-ditch"

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