History Main / AntagonistInMourning

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE51TheManWhoKilledBatman The Man Who Killed Batman]]" no-name goon Sid "The Squid" accidentally convinces many people, himself included, that he has killed Batman. ComicBook/TheJoker is skeptical, but after holding up a jewelry store and just waiting there several hours to see if Batman will show up, Joker's skepticism and glee gradually vanish. In his usual bizarre way, Joker mourns the loss of his favorite and most entertaining adversary by holding a symbolic funeral for Batman inside the Joker's "birthplace", the Ace Chemical Plant, complete with delivering a eulogy on how [[CreateYourOwnVillain Batman made him the man he is today]], [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou and how he now will never be able to defeat him in a battle of wits]], and declaring that since he has been cheated out of killing Batman, he will just have to settle for killing Sid instead by having him "buried" in Batman's place; that is, locking him inside Batman's coffin as he has it dumped into a big vat of acid. His goons proceeds to grab Sid and throw him in the coffin, which is lowered in to the vat via conveyor belt as Harley plays "[[AmazingFreakingGrace Amazing Grace]]" on a kazoo. Meanwhile, the Joker watches in silence with sad expression on his face and he lets a SingleTear fall for his lost adversary as the coffin disappears into the acid. Batman, having survived the unintended explosion in the beginning of the episode, turns out to be watching from the shadows the whole time, waiting for his apparent demise to make a particularly troublesome crime boss careless. (He also rescues Sid.) The Joker of course bounces back afterward with a smile:
-->'''Joker:''' [[MoodWhiplash Well, that was fun. Who's for Chinese]]?
** To a lesser degree, Harvey Bullock in the same episode as well. He has frequently made it apparent about his dislike for Batman, seeing him as just as dangerous as the criminals he turns in, and is often ready to bring him in at the slightest suspicion that he's gone rogue, but even he was visibly upset by Batman's apparent demise.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E06TheAugments The Augments]]", Dr. Noonien Soong is upset when he thinks Archer is dead and furious at Malik, the Augment who supposedly killed him.

[[caption-width-right:280:''[-"Without Batman, crime has no punchline."-]'']]

* ''VideoGame/{{Wings}}'' portrays the Allied forces as having a "[[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]" reaction to the death of Manfred von Richtoffen. TruthInTelevision, as this really is how they reacted; see also the real-life section.

* In ''Literature/PathsOfDarkness'' of the ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' series, Entreri has his chance to duel Drizzt to find out which of them is the better fighter, but he only 'wins' because Kimmuriel casts a psionic shell around him that lets him punch a hole into Drizzt's chest. Immediately afterward he falls to his knees beside his opponent and laments that he didn't mean it to end like that. At the end of ''The Silent Blade'', we are told that he is sulking in his room, not knowing that Jarlaxle secretly saved Drizzt.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': In Part 1, Dio ambushes Jonathan on his honeymoon with the intention to claim his body after his hatred for him has twisted so far around it has become VillainRespect, believing no one else would be worthy. He mortally wounds Jonathan and latches onto him with his prehensile veins, but Jonathan uses the last of his strength to grab Dio's head and hold him close to keep him in place, and Dio can only beg his foe to let him go while promising him immortality... and then he realises that Jonathan has [[GoOutWithASmile gone out with a smile]] and is horrified that he has done so. Even though he does indeed behead Jonathan's body and attach his own head to it afterwards, he sounds like he's about to cry when he realises that Jonathan is actually dead. In Part 3, when he returns, he has some scenes alone where, after a hundred years, he is still mourning.

* ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}''. Music industry BigBad Winston Newquay is genuinely upset over the death of his long-time rival Isaac Twine, though that doesn't stop Newquay from carrying out his side of their bet to dance on the grave of the one who dies first.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Sisko has a deeply antagonistic relationship with Eddington, who betrayed the Federation. Sisko is utterly single-minded when hunting Eddington down. When Eddington and Sisko are in battle together, though, the wounded Eddington has to turn a gun on Sisko to convince him to leave him to die in battle. Sisko later acknowledges that Eddington was the most loyal man he knew.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "The Augments", Dr. Noonien Soong is upset when he thinks Archer is dead and furious at Malik, the Augment who supposedly killed him.
* In '' Series/{{LOST}}'' this is both Jack and Ben's reaction to Locke's death, both of Locke's chief rivals that hated him in life. Both were the only people to attend his visitation and funeral. It came to the point where Jack almost killed himself upon finding about Locke's death in remorse. In death, Locke earned more respect from Jack and Ben than he ever did when he was alive. However, while he never told Jack this, Ben was the one who killed him, even if he missed Locke in the end.

* This may not be for a protagonist per se, but on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', main antagonist Dr. Forrester mourns over his assistant TV's Frank with the song "Who Will I Kill?" after he's killed by poisoned food and taken to Second Banana Heaven by the angel Torgo.

** After all prior and current incarnations of the Doctor are taken out of time in "The Five Doctors", the man the Third Doctor called his "best enemy" is called in to rescue him by the Time Lords. The Master agrees to try to reverse the complete elimination of multiple forms of his mortal enemy from the universe in part because of this trope.
--->'''The Master:''' A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E5TheDaemons the Daemons]]", especially the novelization, the Master clearly regrets it when (he believes) the Doctor has been killed.
** When the Master dies ([[JokerImmunity again]]) during the Tenth Doctor's run, the Doctor builds him a funeral pyre and lights it.

* ''Series/{{Luke Cage|2016}}'': After Pop is killed by Tone during a botched hit on Chico, Cottonmouth is shown crying over a picture with him and Pop in it.
* In ''Series/{{Rome}}'' Julius Caesar is furious after Pompey, his opponent in a civil war, is killed by the Egyptians where he has taken refuge.

* Literature/ErHaHeTaDeBaiMaoShiZun Chu Wanning's death in the first timeline drives Taxian-jun into becoming mentally unstable, so much so that he preserves Chu Wanning's corpse in the Red Lotus Pavilion to visit and speak with. It also made Taxian-jun lose the will to live.

* After betraying Jesus to the Romans, Judas Iscariot was so wracked with guilt that he committed suicide.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE51TheManWhoKilledBatman The Man Who Killed Batman]]" no-name goon Sid "The Squid" accidentally convinces many people, himself included, that he has killed Batman. ComicBook/TheJoker is skeptical, but after holding up a jewelry store and just waiting there several hours to see if Batman will show up, Joker's skepticism and glee gradually vanish. In his usual bizarre way, Joker mourns the loss of his favorite and most entertaining adversary by holding a symbolic funeral for Batman inside the Joker's "birthplace", the Ace Chemical Plant, complete with delivering a eulogy on how [[CreateYourOwnVillain Batman made him the man he is today]], [[TheOnlyAllowedToDefeatYou and how he now will never be able to defeat him in a battle of wits]], and declaring that since he has been cheated out of killing Batman, he will just have to settle for killing Sid instead by having him "buried" in Batman's place; that is, locking him inside Batman's coffin as he has it dumped into a big vat of acid. His goons proceeds to grab Sid and throw him in the coffin, which is lowered in to the vat via conveyor belt as Harley plays "[[AmazingFreakingGrace Amazing Grace]]" on a kazoo. Meanwhile, the Joker watches in silence with sad expression on his face and he lets a SingleTear fall for his lost adversary as the coffin disappears into the acid. Batman, having survived the unintended explosion in the beginning of the episode, turns out to be watching from the shadows the whole time, waiting for his apparent demise to make a particularly troublesome crime boss careless. (He also rescues Sid.) The Joker of course bounces back afterward with a smile:

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE51TheManWhoKilledBatman The Man Who Killed Batman]]" no-name goon Sid "The Squid" accidentally convinces many people, himself included, that he has killed Batman. ComicBook/TheJoker is skeptical, but after holding up a jewelry store and just waiting there several hours to see if Batman will show up, Joker's skepticism and glee gradually vanish. In his usual bizarre way, Joker mourns the loss of his favorite and most entertaining adversary by holding a symbolic funeral for Batman inside the Joker's "birthplace", the Ace Chemical Plant, Harley playing "[[AmazingFreakingGrace Amazing Grace]]" on a kazoo, locking Sid in a coffin, and dropping it into a big vat of acid, after which he lets a SingleTear fall for his lost adversary. Batman, having survived the unintended explosion in the beginning of the episode, turns out to be watching from the shadows the whole time, waiting for his apparent demise to make a particularly troublesome crime boss careless. (He also rescues Sid.) The Joker of course bounces back afterward with a smile:

* [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-1638]] was made by an SCP creator as a way to honour a deceased Foundation agent who he considered a WorthyOpponent. The agent had tried on several occasions to petition against development of a certain forest near where she grew up but was unsuccessful. The SCP creator had dug up her remains and re-buried them there, then turned the whole forest into an SCP so that the Foundation would ''have'' to protect it, preventing any development from happening there.

* In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Envy flips from composed SmugSuper to PsychopathicManchild, throwing a full-on temper tantrum complete with ''punching a crater into the floor'' and being [[BerserkerTears near-tears]], when he finds out that [[BigBad his boss]] has already "killed" Hohenheim of Light. Not that he cared about or misses Hohenheim, he makes it clear that he feels robbed that he [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou didn't get to kill Hohenheim himself]]. As a consolation prize, he sets his sights on [[EvilIsPetty doing his utmost to torment and kill Hohenheim's sons Edward and Alphonse for the rest of the series]] to deny them a happy ending and get [[RevengeByProxy revenge on their father by proxy]].

* After Creator/SatoruIwata of Creator/{{Nintendo}} fame passed away in July 2015, representatives from [[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars Nintendo's competitors]] Creator/{{Sony}} and [[Creator/XboxGameStudios Microsoft]] paid [[https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/620412765849546752 their]] [[https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/620448674972196864 respects]] to him, showing just how far his influence reached within the gaming industry. It should be noted that the companies' top brass see their rivalry less antagonistically than fans do, with Phil Spencer in particular believing success doesn't have to be exclusive.

* ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' has Captain Hook doing this when he believes the titular character died from the [[YouGotMurder exploding gift]] he [[SomebodySetUsUpTheBomb gave him]].

* ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' has Captain Hook doing this when he believes the titular character died from the exploding gift he gave him.
-->'''Hook:''' And so passeth a WorthyOpponent.\\
'''Smee:''' Amen...

* OlderThanFeudalism, as it appears in Literature/TheBible in David's lament not just for his friend Jonathan but his antagonist Saul.

* OlderThanFeudalism: In ''Literature/TheBible'', [[TheChosenOne King David]] mourns for both [[VillainousBreakdown Saul]] and [[AntagonisticOffspring Absalom]], the former of whom tried to kill him before he became king and the latter who overthrew, exiled him and raped his wives in public. They ''were'' family, though (the former his father-in-law, the latter his son).

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': In Part 1, Dio ambushes Jonathan on his honeymoon with the intention to claim his body after his hatred for him has twisted so far around it has become VillainRespect, believing no one else would be worthy. He mortally wounds Jonathan and latches onto him with his prehensile veins, but Jonathan uses the last of his strength to grab Dio's head and hold him close to keep him in place, and Dio can only beg his foe to let him go while promising him immortality...and then he realises that Jonathan has [[GoOutWithASmile gone out with a smile]] and is horrified that he has done so. Even though he does indeed behead Jonathan's body and attach his own head to it afterwards, he sounds like he's about to cry when he realises that Jonathan is actually dead.

* In ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', most of the top-ranking officers in the Imperial Army, and Emperor Reinhard, mourn for Yang Wenli.

* In '' Series/{{LOST}}'' this is both Jack and Ben's reaction to Locke's death, both of Locke's chief rivals that hated Locke in life. Both were the only people to attend his visitation and funeral. It came to the point where Jack almost killed himself upon finding about Locke's death in remorse. In death, Locke earned more respect from Jack and Ben than he ever did when he was alive. However, while he never told Jack this, Ben was the one who killed him, even if he missed Locke in the end.

* In '' Series/{{LOST}}'' this is both Jack and Ben's reaction to Locke's death, both of Locke's chief rivals that hated Locke in life. Both were the only people to attend his visitation and funeral. It came to the point where Jack almost killed himself upon finding about Locke's death in remorse. In death, Locke earned more respect from Jack and Ben than he ever did when he was alive.

* In '' Series/{{LOST}}'' this is both Jack and Ben's reaction to Locke's death, both of their chief rivals that they hated in life. Both were the only people to attend his visitation and funeral. It came to the point where Jack almost killed himself upon finding about Locke's death in remorse. In death, Locke earned more respect from Jack and Ben than he ever did when he was alive.

* Both the beginnings of a HeelFaceTurn in the sixth season of ''Series/{{Lost}}''. Bonus funny points because none of the other characters were aware of that last bit beforehand. Cue some reactions of "wait, what?!?" Locke's primary antagonist Jack didn't take his death very well either and was the only person to attend his visitation. In death, Locke earned more respect from Jack and Ben than he ever did when he was alive.

* Though he's the AntiHero protagonist of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', this is very much Lelouch's reaction when [[spoiler: he's forced to [[MercyKill kill]] his half-sister Euphemia after accidentally turning her into the Massacre Princess]]. [[spoiler: She]] was genuinely an opponent of his and he just before accepted [[spoiler: her]] as a WorthyOpponent he was going to work alongside after admitting defeat to. [[spoiler: Then things went ''horribly'' wrong and Lelouch had to not only kill Euphie but use her as TheScapegoat and means to kick off his rebellion.]] He ends up [[ManlyTears crying]] before and after.
* In Part 1 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Dio ambushes Jonathan on his honeymoon with the intention to claim his body after his hatred for him has twisted so far around it has become VillainRespect, believing no one else would be worthy. He mortally wounds Jonathan and latches onto him with his prehensile veins, but Jonathan uses the last of his strength to grab Dio's head and hold him close to keep him in place, and Dio can only beg his foe to let him go while promising him immortality...and then he realises that Jonathan has [[GoOutWithASmile gone out with a smile]] and is horrified that he has done so. Even though he does indeed behead Jonathan's body and attach his own head to it afterwards, he sounds like he's about to cry when he realises that Jonathan is actually dead.

* Rorschach sees Moloch visit The Comedian's grave at the end of the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' chapter "Absent Friends".

->''"Edward Blake, The Comedian, born 1918, buried in the rain. Murdered. Is that what happens to us? No time for friends? Only our enemies leave roses."''
-->-- '''Rorschach''', ''Film/{{Watchmen}}''

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** In the comics, when Superman returned from his exile in space, Lex Luthor thought, "Strange. I must admit, I'm almost glad. Despite the strife... regardless of the inconveniences... a world without Superman can be pretty mundane, indeed." On the other hand, [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman when Superman was killed by Doomsday]], Lex's grief was [[DependingOnTheWriter entirely due to]] seeing himself as [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou The Only One Allowed To Defeat Him]].
** During the "Funeral for a Friend" arc which followed Superman's death, there was a one-panel shot of Toyman mourning the death and admiring Superman's kindness to children.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/CaptainAtom'' #50: Wade Eiling seemed genuinely sorrowful at Dr. Megala's death, but it soon turned out that he was just upset that Megala's death would trigger the failsafe that would reveal all the dirty secrets of the Captain Atom Project to the American public.

* In ''Batman: Going Sane'' by J.M. [=DeMatteis=], a series of issues of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', Batman supposedly died, and the Joker apparently became sane, got cosmetic surgery, and began calling himself [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Joseph Kerr]]. As soon as Batman recovered and appeared in public again, he reverted back to his villainous personality and left behind the job and girlfriend he had gotten in the meantime without a second thought.

* Done with historical figures in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.