Disappears into Light

"He'll be fading away into little sparks any second now...because surely, without his head, he is vanquished!"

— Rin Tohsaka, Fate/stay night fan comic by veloxiraptor

Alas! Bob has been fatally wounded. As he lies dying, motes of light begin to rise off his body, slowly at first, but increasing in speed. Just before he fully disappears, he makes one last optimistic comment, and his body bursts into a thousand tiny pinpricks of light. This saves his friends the inconvenience of burying him.

Sometimes happens to holy characters, or is used to show that they Ascended To A Higher Plane of Existence, or ghosts when they Go into the Light. It's also popular for sentient computer programs to go this way after being 'deleted.' Such deaths tend to be followed up with celestial faces looking down, having Died Happily Ever After.

Of course, motes aren't the only way it works. Swarms of insects, flower petals/leaves, and the like (often glowing) are also commonly used.

Related to Everything Fades and Fading Away. The major difference is that Everything Fades is used by video games so that the console no longer has to spend memory tracking an increasing number of fallen enemies, while this is understood as happening in the "real world" that the characters explicitly experience, and that Fading Away is both less showy and is explicitly the cause of death, rather than something happening as a side-effect of a character dying for some other reason.

For a less dramatic way of disposing of the dead, see No Body Left Behind. For the version of this trope that implies a much worse fate, see Technicolor Death. Not to be confused with Suicide by Sunlight, where vampires end their unlives by walking into the dawn.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• The climax of Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops has the Robot Girl, post Heel–Face Turn, sacrificing herself to prevent a Robot War from destroying Earth in the future while subjecting herself to a Ret-Gone, where she dissolves as light particles in Shizuka's arms while expressing her hopes to return in an alternate timeline and become friends with Shizuka again eventually. While at the present, the robot army nearly wipes out Doraemon and the rest of the gang, but Riruru's changing of the past causes the entire robot army to vanish into golden light particles as well. Riruru's sacrifice isn't in vain, however; the final scene sees an Alternate Self of Riruru from a timeline where the robot invasion never occured visiting Nobita.
• The Trope Namer is GaoGaiGar, in which the Humongous Mecha uses the Goldion Hammer to reduce the Monster of the Week into wisps of light with a cry of "HIKARI NI NARE!" The trope's name is just one of many possible translations. In kind of an odd subversion of the trope, however, the use of the Goldion Hammer is almost always non-lethal: the "Hammer Hell and Heaven" maneuver that starts the attack rips the core containing the human host of the monster (or the cockpit containing the pilot of the enemy mecha, as the first episode of FINAL showed) out of its body so that they can be returned to normal safely (or arrested or rather, shot in the face with a bazooka). It should be noted that the hammer strike itself (the part that does the disappearing) is most certainly lethal. If Guy doesn't care to remove you from the Robeast first, that's your ass.
• In Haruhi Suzumiya, Ryoko Asakura fades away like this when she is deleted by Yuki Nagato.
• My-HiME and My-Otome. The Festival shall occur, the maidens shall battle, and the rivers shall run green with sparkles. The exception is Erstin, who dies normally.
• Bleach: Happens to the Bounts when they die, Plus spirits when they're purified and sent to Soul Society, and Nozomi and Kagerosa in episode 341 of the Gotei 13 Invading Army anime season.
• Happened in Saint Seiya Hades Chapter OVA to Gemini Saga, Capricorn Shura and Aquarius Camus, as Hades claimed their bodies.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • The Ridiculously Human Programs seem to die in this way, as shown with The Wolkenritter's Disney Death and the first Reinforce's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Also happened to Alicia Testarossa in Fate's Book-of-Darkness-created Lotus-Eater Machine, fading away in Fate's arms while telling her she loved her and wished she could've been her sister in reality.
  • The trope image is from the Fighting Game Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny, where this happens to a briefly resurrected Linith.
• This happens to Sakuya Kumashiro in Tenchi in Tokyo.
• Digimon Adventure did this when Angemon and Devimon died. It's also used in Digimon Tamers, with the addition that Mons can absorb the motes to increase their power.
• Sailor Moon does this when people die in the later seasons (particularly heart breaking examples exist in Sailor Moon Stars). In the first season when people die they leave corpses behind — except Nephrite, whose death is probably the most heartwrenching moment of the first season.
• In Last Exile, Maestro Delphine's ring will cause you to explode into light when you take it from her finger.
• On Afro Samurai, After being fatally wounded by Kuma/Jinno, Ninja-Ninja does this. The only reason he does and no one else who dies does is because he's imaginary.
• In Hell Girl when Ai dies her body dissolves into sakura petals.
• Happens to the dying grunty in the VR World of .hack//SIGN.
• In Zatch Bell!, the demons whose books get burned get returned to the demon world in this manner. Moments of optimism vary depending on the manner in which they're sent off, and their personalities in general.
• In Transformers: Cybertron, Galvatron meets his end this way. Vector Prime's death was similar, but the manner in which it happened makes it a bit more believable. Vector Prime gave up his life energy reversing time. Galvatron, on the other hand, was impaled by Optimus Prime with Vector Prime's sword, which should have just left him plain ol' dead. It's inverted in Transformers: Armada when Optimus Prime is resurrected.
• Happens to Emperor Charles and Empress Marianne late in Code Geass. May be justified since the characters in question had been cheating death, and rather than outright dying, they were forcibly absorbed by the afterlife. Not to mention the whole thing actually takes place in a mystical realm.
• Everyone except Shou, Chronos, Judai and Johan in the third season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The dub apparently changed this to 'going to the stars' or something. It began getting really obvious that there'd be a reset button as soon as the entire cast was gone essentially.
• In The Vision of Escaflowne, Zaibach mecha usually melt and evaporate into blue flame after they've been destroyed. It's implied to be because of the liquid metal they use for their weaponry.
• An interesting variety occurs in Kurau Phantom Memory: after she gets hit by the Rynax, Kurau dissolves into a swirling tornado of light—which shortly after reassembles into Kurau, now merged with the Rynax.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, those people who are erased from existence by the Code Of The Lifemaker do this as they fade into nothingness.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004), Shadow Link goes out this way after pulling off his Heroic Sacrifice to stop Vaati.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Nia fades away like this just after completing the marriage ceremony.
  • Lordgenome when he dies again in the final battle. Being the channel between a Big Bang happening and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's spiral engine is lethal.
• (Manga Only) This happened to Eureka in Eureka Seven upon the Scab Coral's demise. Its a rather unfair ending for Renton...
• Naruto: It's discovered that the otherwise unstoppable ninjas resurrected by the Impure World jutsu are released and will permanently dissolve if their spirits are calmed. For example, Sai's brother is able to stop after finally seeing the book Sai made for him and Sasori is able to leave after A) Kankuro points out that the puppet master has become Madara and Kabuto's puppet and B) he sees that Kankuro has learned his killer puppet techniques, ensuring that his art will last forever, just like he always wanted. Sasori even gives Kankuro his mother and father puppets before dissolving (aww).
• Elemental Gelade: This is Viro's tragic fate just moments after her High-Heel–Face Turn and subsequent mortal injury.
• How Lucia dies in Rave Master, which actually makes he death ambiguous enough that he may have been sent to the original world instead.
• Happens to Alice in PandoraHearts, when Oz sends her away so she won't suffer anymore for his sake.
• In Popcorn Avatar the Asura disintegrate into burning embers when they are defeated. This is the assumed fate of the Deva as well if their avatars are defeated.
• HeartCatch Pretty Cure!:
  • Cologne goes out this way after pulling a Taking the Bullet to save Yuri/Cure Moonlight from Professor Sabaaku's attack, dying and disappearing in her arms.
  • In Episode 40, Sasorina goes out in the same manner, fading away in Kumojacky's arms after thanking him and Cobraja for being there for her. Eight episodes later, Dark Precure also dies in this manner in the arms of Professor Sabaaku (a.k.a. Yuri/Moonlight's father, brainwashed by the Big Bad), after being fatally wounded in her final clash with Cure Moonlight. Professor Tsukikage apologizes to the both of them and tells Dark to stand down, and calls her his second daughter. She calls him "father" and relaxes, releasing her anger as she fades away in his arms.
• Madoka in the finale of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, to complete her transformation into an Abstract Apotheosis.
• In Princess Tutu it is said that this will happen to the eponymous character if she confesses her love for Mytho. Princess Kraehe once took advantage of this by holding him hostage to force her to do so, but Tutu instead expresses her emotions through dance. Eventually subverted in the finale. Tutu does dissolve into light, but Duck is still alive - she just can't transform into a human anymore.
• In Sword Art Online, players shatter into multicolored sparkles when they die. The same happens when items are destroyed, which a few clever players use to fake their deaths when combined with a teleport crystal.
• Mekakucity Actors: Azami in Episode 10, after delivering a Despair Speech about how foolish she was to believe she could lead a normal life despite being an immortal being. She disappears into the Kagerou Daze right in front of her daughter, and by the time her husband reaches her, there is only a fading cloud of sparkling lights left.
• The anime version of Your Lie in April did it very beautifully and as in a tearjerking as possible. The fate of Kaori after finishing her long-awaited duet with Kousei in the final episode is to dissolve into Cherry Blossoms. It's unclear whether the Kaori that played alongside Kousei was indeed her spirit before going to the afterlife or just purely Kousei's imagination, but it makes him realize that her surgery has failed and she's dead for sure.
• Every Servant dies this way in Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works], due to being spiritual beings that can temporarily assume physical forms.
• This is how Koro-sensei dies in Assassination Classroom. His entire body turns into motes of light after Nagisa stabs him through his heart.
• It happened to Ginka in the final chapter of Kin no Kanojo, Gin no Kanojo manga due to her over-using her divine powers to summon the weather storm. In Disney Death fashion, She was revived 3 years later & reunited with her lover Yasuda by the goddess through her fragment.
• In Pokémon: The Series, this happens to Sir Aaron, his Lucario, the Alto Mare Latios, an alternate timeline version of Ash, the failed clones from New Island, Ash's Pikachu, a computer-generated Mew and Mewtwo, and several dozen Minior. Whew.
• At the end of the anime version of Nabari no Ou, Yoite just sort of...dissolves into sparkles of light and that's meant to represent his death. No bodies to clean up.

Comic Books

• The corpse of Reality Warping mutant Absolom Mercator disappeared from its casket and apparently turned into butterflies.

Fan Works

• In I Woke Up As a Dungeon, Now What?, this is what happens to the corpses of dungeon minions after they die.
• In Smurf Village Upturned, the sequel to The Smurfs That Canon Forgot, Papa Smurf's death reveals this is how Smurfs die.

Film — Animated

• At the end of Corpse Bride, Emily is able to move on from being betrayed, and to let Victor be with Victoria instead of trying to take him from her. She fades into blue butterflies, which fly away.
• Kadaj did this at the end of Advent Children. Loz and Yazoo were also beginning to do this before they were defeated.
• Kung Fu Panda:
  • Kung Fu Panda: Knowing his time is up, Master Oogway gives one last instruction to his protégé Master Shifu — to train the Dragon Warrior. Then he disappears in a shower of cherry petals.
  • Kung Fu Panda 3: The previous scene gets a Call-Back when Po meets Master Oogway in the Spirit World. Near the end of their conversation, cherry petals start to gather around Oogway, but he only floats away over to a nearby branch.
    Po: No! Oogway, don't go!
    Oogway: I'm not going anywhere. I live here, remember?

Film — Live-Action

• The Spiderwick Chronicles: At the end, Arthur Spiderwick disappears into a cloud of dandelion-seed fluff that's swept away by the wind as he's carried off to a fairy realm.
• The Golden Compass: Daemons in the movie disappear in a shower of sparks when the human they belong to is killed.
• TRON: All programs will light up or disappear into Tron Lines on the ground when they derez.
• The Dark Crystal: The eldest of the Mystics at the beginning of the movie passes on in this manner.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Thor: The Dark World: During Frigga's funeral her body turns into motes of light that disappear shortly after.
  • Thor: Ragnarok: The same happens to Odin upon his death. In the rendition of this scene in the film's credits, however, against the blazing sun it looks like he turns into ashes.
  • Thor: Love and Thunder sees Jane Foster, who gained the power of Thor thru Mjölnir, which unfortunately deteriorated her shield against cancer, disappeared into light despite being human because she gained the power of a god and fought in a battle not only against Gorr, but against said cancer.
• In Ultraman Gaia: The Battle In Hyperspace, this is how Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Dyna - brought from their fictional universes into our world - departs at the end of the movie. Lisa Nanase from the same movie bids her farewell to her new friends using this method as well, since with the wish-granting Artifact of Doom reset her existence is also wiped off.

Literature

• Goosebumps has "The Ghost Next Door" where Hannah with her family in the real world fade away from it to enter the spirit world/afterlife.

Live-Action TV

• Astrid in the Doctor Who special Voyage of the Damned, Idris in The Doctor's Wife, and it's also what Time Lord regeneration looks like.
• Forever: In the flashback of "Diamonds Are Forever," Henry is transferred from the asylum to Southwark prison, and his cellmate is a Catholic priest (in prison because he slept with the magistrate's wife). At first Henry is reticent, but after three months he finally opens up to the priest enough to tell him about his Resurrective Immortality, and the priest is certain it has a higher purpose. The priest latches on to his Resurrection Teleportation, declaring that Henry is never more than one death away from freedom. The ceiling is too low for a normal hanging to break Henry's neck cleanly, but the priest calculates that their combined weight should be enough for a quick, clean death. When they carry out his plan, we see a shadow on the cell wall of Henry's body swinging in the noose, then there is a flash of light which makes the priest raise a hand and squint, then the shadow is of the noose alone, Henry's body having vanished.
• Stargate SG-1: Daniel Jackson in the Season 5 episode "Meridian." Also, the entire population of Abydos in the Season 6 episode "Full Circle." These are also cases of Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
• Has happened to a few Power Rangers characters whose deaths needed to be censor friendly but more sensitively done than the usual Made of Explodium deaths that non-human characters tend to get. And in its source material Super Sentai. In a specific example, Basco ta Jolokia in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
• In Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, being 'vented' looks like this. It's taken from the effect seen in Kamen Rider Ryuki when someone or something dissolves in the mirror world. This effect is also used in Kamen Rider Double a few times (despite no mirror world thing. Fleeting Demographic Rule applies to special effects.)
  • In Kamen Rider Build, this is what happens to anyone who is knocked out of transformation (whether it be Smash/Kamen Rider/or pseudo-Kamen Rider) while infused with more Nebula Gas than their body can handle. Manually cancelling the transformation is still safe (which Grease and Rogue exploit by doing so before they're forced out) and Sento later gains a Super Mode that can avert this by neutralizing the Nebula Gas.
• In most any Toku show, any non-human character who doesn't explode goes out this way instead.
• Not really light, but the MythBusters obliterating that car with the rocket sled has a definite Hikari Ni Nare vibe to it. As Jamie so eloquently puts it during the sum-up of that scene:
  So our goal was to fuse metal and pancake the car. Did we achieve that? ... What car?
• Eureka has Stark, after plugging in an atomic clock to break a timeloop.
• In Babylon 5, this is the final fate of John Sheridan in "Sleeping in Light". Sheridan has run out of borrowed time and, after saying his goodbyes, returns to a historic site so he can die in peace... but instead, he's met by Lorien and given the opportunity to go beyond the rim with the rest of the First Ones.
  Well, look at that. The sun's coming up.
• In season 8 of Supernatural, after Bobby's soul is freed from Hell by Sam, he ascends to Heaven in a sparkling whorl of light—but only after the demon Crowley holds him back with dark clouds and the angel Naomi drives off Crowley and liberates Bobby's soul to finally ascend to Heaven.
• In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, monsters die this way; instead of turning to dust like the source material or exploding like most toku monsters, they violently disperse into wisps of light.
• Demon Beasts in Madan Senki Ryukendo die like this if they don't explode instead.

Pro Wrestling

• Yes, this has happened on a Pro Wrestling show once. The March 29, 2019 taping of Impact Wrestling had the departing Allie perform both a Heroic Sacrifice and a Redemption Equals Death to save Rosemary from one of Su Yung's attacks. She fades into light in Rosemary's arms shortly after returning to her original form. This was only her Impact persona being written off, as she was picked up by All Elite Wrestling.

Tabletop Games

• One way that Transcendence often manifests itself in Wraith: The Oblivion.

Video Games

• In Final Fantasy X and X-2, dead humans that receive the Sending ritual do this, as do defeated monsters (Unsent souls) and defeated Aeons and Tidus. The lights themselves even have a name — pyreflies.
  • Interestingly, Cactuars also do this, even though they're not fiends in the traditional sense, and chocobos which aren't fiends at all! However, you're not really supposed to kill the latter.
  • Oddly, the same effect is used in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.
• In Wild ARMs 3, Leehalt dies in this manner when Jet Enduro purges him.
  • In Wild ARMs 4, having been reduced to a ghost held together by a nanomachine cluster, Hauser dies in this manner after Jude convinces him to let go and finally rest in peace.
• Dark Samus dies like this at least twice during Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Of course, being blasted into specks of light is apparently only a momentary setback for her.
• The Kingdom Hearts series features this extensively, with characters fading away into motes of light, wisps of darkness. It's established that the characters who fade like this are not truly "dead", but instead have lost their heart in some form, and so their being dissipates, and it's possible to "recover" from this state if the right conditions are met.
• Devil May Cry 4: Credo disappears into particles of light after issuing his final words.
• Mother 3: This is what happens to each of the Magypsies (though we don't see what happens to the very last one).
• This is what happens when you kill security programs in Tron 2.0, albeit very quickly. When you kill viruses, they either explode or explode violently. Hint: don't stand near dying viruses.
• PAGUI have exorcised ghosts vanishing into light particles, either if they're defeated or put to rest. Your grandma, revealed to be a spirit herself, notably vanish into light in your arms.
• This happens to your character, after time's been fixed in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness.
  • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, this happens to Hydreigon when Kyurem destroys him by freezing and smashing him, but he manages to save the hero by guiding their friends to them as a light before disappearing (Temporarily, at least).
  • Every game in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series has this happen at least once
• Sydney and Hardin in Vagrant Story. On the other hand, anyone else unlucky enough to die within Lea Monde's walls tends to Disappear Into Darkness, their souls consumed and enslaved by the eldritch power of the city.
• Creatures 3 and Docking Station have the bodies of dead norns disappearing this way, but only after they've been dead awhile. After all, you might want to determine cause of death first.
• Replicas, including Ion in Tales of the Abyss. Nearly happens to Luke at one point, too, except for Asch's intervention. Justified in that they're entirely made from Seventh Fonons, rather than a normal human's mixture of fonons and matter (or something like that - the game makes an effort at describing the world's physics, but it's a little fuzzy in places), and so when they die those fonons dissipate.
• This happens to a lot of characters across all the .hack games. Usually this means that the player behind the character is now comatose. The few cases of dissolving that do not result in comas include Aura and Mia in the original games, and Haseo (twice!) in the GU games.
• Maxim and Selan at the end of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals.
• When the Servants from Fate/stay night are destroyed, they dissipate into a cloud of sparks. Only in extreme cases do they ever leave any physical residue behind. Their soul, now detached from any attachment to the world, are then caught by the Holy Grail and used for power, much like a waterwheel uses a river for motive force, as they burrow back to the Throne of Heroes that it originated from.
• Fate/Grand Order uses this as a visual plot point; namely, when certain enemy Servants don't do this post-battle, it's a quick indicator that you will be fighting them again.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Death (or temporary incapacitation, if using the Casual mode from later games) in battle tends to be represented in this in the gameplay, though the dying/injured units will generally get in a quote first.
  • In-story, Princess Azura dies like this at the end of Fire Emblem Fates's Birthright path. It's implied that the same happens to her in Conquest, but it takes place off-screen.
• This is what is set to happen to all of humanity in Rewrite if salvation takes place as in Shizuru's route.
• At the end of the bonus game in Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull, Captain Crown's crew reanimates their skeletons to attack their ghostly captain (it's OK, he murdered all of them), everything goes bright, and then the Master Detective regains consciousness in the swamp. The bonus game in Fate's Carnival wraps up with Madame Fate and her cat Isis, free at last, dissipating into a moonbeam.
• This happens to every boss (apart from Tenor, Soprano, Ferret and Qem) in Iron Twilight.
• The sparks in Level 18 and the Vizier's magic spells do this to the Prince in the SNES version of Prince of Persia. If killed by other means, his body fades away without the light effects.
• If you use the Ion Cannon at the end of the GDI campaign of Command & Conquer, the ending cutscenes shows Kane standing before the ion beam with his hands outstretched, as though embracing it, as the light envelops him.
  • Played with in that a) the light is what kills him rather than a consequence of his death and b) he didn't stay dead.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The old woman also known as Impa dies in this way at the end. Her role was fulfilled after the defeat of Demise, both in the past and in the present, and had lived for thousands of years already, justifying the trope.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has this happen with all the Sheikah Shrine Monks after they have given you their Spirit Orbs.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: During the post-credits scene, Mineru's soul departs to the afterlife like this, after realizing that the kingdom of Hyrule is in good hands and having witnessed Link's, Zelda's and the Sages' (Tulin, Yunobo, Riju and Sidon) vow to protect it. She tells them that she'll give the good news to Rauru and Sonnia as soon as she reunites with them.
• How all the Demi-gods that rely on mantra in Asura's Wrath die. Including Asura himself.
  Asura: My Wrath, is finally.........gone. Durga, I'll be home, soon.
• Inverted in Diablo III when Tyrael decides to make himself mortal. His head (previously a void hidden under a hood) materialises from bright motes as he does so.
• This happens to Lambda in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift after she performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Ragna from one last attack from Terumi. She's going out with a smile in the process.
• The Enderdragon's death animation in Minecraft. It's repeatedly skewered by beams of light and eventually it completely dissolves into nothingness.
• In Halo, Promethean power weapons (such as the Scattershot, Binary Rifle, and Incineration Cannon, all introduced in Halo 4) cause the targets that they kill to disintegrate into hardlight particles.
• Shepard in Mass Effect 3's Control ending.
• In Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey, this happens after the final battle with Zara.
• This happens to Aquila in Dragon Quest IX after he takes a a fatal attack from King Godwyn for the player.
• In Persona 3, this happens to Akinari at the conclusion of the Sun Arcana Social Link. His epilogue in FES, where you meet his mother, confirms that you were speaking to his spirit; he died from his terminal illness the day you maxed out his Social Link.
• Happens to Morgana in Persona 5. He gets better, though.
• In Sands of Destruction, Kyrie does when he dies. You later encounter him again as a glowing ball of light, which is apparently what the Destruct looks like when not in a human body. It's still very obviously Kyrie, though, refusing to obey the Crimson Sun's orders to go back and destroy the world and then flashing with excitement when Morte speaks to him.
• At the end of Ori and the Blind Forest, this happens to Kuro during her Heroic Sacrifice. In the sequel, Kwolok dies this way after being freed from the Foul Presence, while at the end, Ori himself merges with the light of Seir before reincarnating as the new Spirit Tree.
• Happens in Prey (2006) to enemies you kill after you acquire the power to leave your body. Justified in that it's implied to be what happens when you absorb the soul of a dead enemy.
• In Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, people who get infected with the Pattern eventually turn into "liquid light".
• At the end of the main story of The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie, the simulated version of Rean Schwarzer from the Elysium System disappears like this with a smile on his face.
• A rare few boss enemies in Hades do this upon being defeated, often depending on if they're allowed into the House of Hades or not. Theseus and the Minotaur, champions of Elysium, fade into shimmering blue and silver light as their souls recover elsewhere in Elysium, and two of the three Furies, Alecto and Tisiphone, dissolve into a flock of bats that fly off into tartarus. Of the other bosses, Megara and the final boss, Hades, collapse into a puddle of blood and are carried off by the river Styx, and the Hydra simply explodes into a shower of bone and flame.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Anything that dies (human or animal) releases large amounts of red ether motes; however, they also leave behind an ashen husk. It's not until an off-seer plays a song for them that they finish dissipating completely into golden motes. On the other hand, if Agnians or Kevesi reach the end of their tenth term, they will dissipate into golden motes with no need for an off-seer. While Moebius and City humans don't have the time limit, they also disappear completely when they die. In Future Redeemed, which takes place long before the main game, off-seeing hasn't been invented yet, so it's just taken as understood that Agnians and Kevesi always leave behind a husk.
• This happens to anyone who dies after undergoing the Necrolizer or Superior processes in Gungrave. They explode into a brilliant burst of drifting particles of light. Normally quite the spectacle, but it is specifically used for poignancy with the defeat and death of Bunji Kugashira, Brandon Heat's protege. Wishing to defeat Brandon (now Grave) to show he's superseded him as a Professional Killer, he accepts his defeat at Grave's hands with surprising grace and has One Last Smoke before quietly turning into flecks of light.
• This happens to Euden at the very end of Dragalia Lost. Since he is a part of Xenos’s heart, Euden must die as well if he is killed.
• The King of Sorrow in Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil disappears into particles of light as he dies in Klonoa's arms, but not before Klonoa promises him the world will not forget about sorrow.

Webcomics

• In El Goonish Shive, it's revealed that this is how Immortals "die", when Pandora breaks immortal law and is forced to reset during Sister 3.
• Second Empire: After a Heroic Sacrifice holding back hundreds of enemies, pleasantly insane Dalek warrior Grexzol awakens in a brightly-lit void to find his old platoon in its entirety had waited for the death of its last member to march into whatever afterlife awaits the Daleks. After a quick reprimand from his old officer, he's shunted into position, and the platoon marches into the light to the beat of his doddering chatter.

Web Original

• Subverted in Today I Die, where the Disappear signifies a return to life.

Western Animation

• In TMNT, this happens to one of the supporting characters in the end.
  • Partially Played for Laughs when Michelangelo accidentally inhales some of the floating particles and starts coughing.
• When Brushogun dies in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo this happens. Although this one can be justified in that magic was the only thing keeping him alive in the first place.
• When reality breaks in the Justice League episode built around a comic book dream, the heroes are all absorbed by light, presumably to death. They smile and salute in their final moments.
  • In Unlimited, this is what happens to Darkseid and Lex Luthor after both of them touch the Anti-Life Equation.
• In the fourth season of Winx Club Nabu's body did not disappear after he sacrificed himself, (although it did glow and float a few inches off the ground for some reason) but Aisha later uses her magic to turn his body into flowers.
• The Owl House:
  • In the first episode of the third season, When Hunter is on the verge of dying, Flapjack uses the last of its power to sacrifice itself to save him. Flapjack, as it sacrificed itself, disintegrated into tiny yellow orbs.
  • Later, in the Grand Finale, this happens to Luz when she shields the Collector from a large blast from Belos that would have killed the Collector.
• Bunny in The Powerpuff Girls, after defeating all the enemies, explodes into a massive beam of light, leaving nothing behind but a scrap of her dress.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's third season finale, this happens to Twilight when she temporarily Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence upon casting the spell. Afterwards, she Reappears From Light as an Alicorn.
• In Code Lyoko whenever a main character dies in the virtual world they fade into bits of computer data before reappearing in the real world.
• Star Trek: Prodigy reveals that this is what happens when members of the Vau N'Akat species die when the Diviner is killed defending his daughter Gwyndala.

Real Life

• This is the most likely fate for black holes, thanks to Hawking Radiation. To oversimplify what happens, the natural waves and anti-waves of quantum fields (often referred to as "virtual particles") usually cancel each other out, but a black hole prevents that from happening as normal. The fluctuations become more erratic, can't cancel out anymore, and emerge as photons, each one carrying a little mass-energy away from the black hole until it evaporates away. Light isn't escaping from it — the hole itself, and everything it has ever absorbed, is becoming light in the surrounding region, at first so gradually that it's unnoticeable (and currently cancelled out by the cosmic microwave background being still dense enough to refill what it loses), but speeding up over an unimaginable length of time until it erupts into a final explosion of pure light. Assuming that falling prey to a black hole is the eventual fate of all matter in the universe, then that would mean that this trope ultimately applies to literally everything in real life, even if indirectly.

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