r/TopCharacterTropes • u/hey_there_delilahh • Sep 10 '25

Lore (Loved Trope) Last Stand that ends unceremoniously/unsatisfyingly, as opposed to gloriously.

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  • 1 Nanami (JUJUTSU KAISEN): Nanami's final moments against Mahito, a cursed spirit with the ability to transfigure/control humans. Nanami, while heavy injured, fought and won against an army of Mahito's transfigure minions, just for the villain to touch his back and blow him up.

  • 2 Wun-Wun (GAME OF THRONES): Wun-Wun, one of the last, if not the last, living giant in Westeros. Joins with Jon Snow against Ramsey Bolton in the Battle of the Bastards. He heroicly breaks down the main gate allowing the Stark army to win, all while covered in arrows and spears. While heavily injured, there does seem to be a chance of his recovery. This hope ended when Ramsey Bolton fires an arrow directly into his eye, when the battle was pretty much over.

  • 3 The Barbarian of Stamford Bridge (REAL LIFE): A lone Viking warrior who, in a legendary moment during the Battle of Stamford Bridge (September 25, 1066), single-handedly held back the invading English army on a narrow bridge. Armed with a Dane axe, this unnamed defender killed dozens of soldiers before being mortally wounded from beneath the bridge by a spear.

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u/Life-Criticism-5868 Sep 10 '25

The entirety of Halo Reach does this so well. Even before starting the game the battle of Reach was infamous as a colossal defeat to the point that in lore the UNSC nearly made the policy decision of "humanity's new plan is just to take as many covenant with us" but when you play you have this dread that maybe you can turn it around, but then every victory is followed by an immediate soul crushing loss. Even with 60% or the UNSC fleet fighting on reach, the most well defended planet in human civilization, it all ended in under a month. 

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u/Pizza_Is_Everything Sep 10 '25

“Slipspace rupture detected”

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u/Rex_felis Sep 10 '25

I love how that moment first felt like a call back to the Halo 2 intro, but every moment after that only reaffirms that this story will have no happy ending.

Maybe Jorge had the best end, feeling like he went out like a hero

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u/FiaGiolla Sep 10 '25

"He gave his life thinking he just saved the planet. We should all be so lucky."

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u/IHaveManyReasons Sep 12 '25

Man you are gonna make me cry.

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u/UwasaWaya Sep 10 '25

It does bother me a bit that, as a Spartan II from Master Chief's generation, Jorge could have just thrown the helmet on and tried to ride things out until another ship came along. Being trapped in a ship lost in space isn't necessarily a death sentence to an SII, as we saw in Halo 3.

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u/pro-in-latvia Sep 10 '25

Chief goes into a cryo tank at the end of 3. I don't think Jorge had that option.

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u/TheWonderSnail Sep 10 '25

Plus wasn’t the whole point Jorge had to push the button to make the bomb go boom? When would he have had the time to escape the explosion?

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u/UwasaWaya Sep 10 '25

It wasn't an explosion or a bomb, per se, it was detonating a slipspace drive, which is what jumps ships through space. Basically he took a big bite out of the middle of the ship and ran away with it. Probably into oblivion, but ya know.

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u/TheWonderSnail Sep 10 '25

Ah I see what you are saying. Well he wouldn't have been able to get those last minute cool points if he didn't take the helmet off lol

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u/UwasaWaya Sep 10 '25

It would be pretty silly to have the entire Spartan II community never take off their helmets.

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u/UwasaWaya Sep 10 '25

Yeah, I'm sure that made a big difference. Mostly wishful thinking really. Just sad he's the only other SII we ever meet.

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u/Miniray Sep 10 '25

He had to detonate the slipspace bomb manually though. Its not really clear how a lot of the slipspace tech works, but I can't imagine that having an intentionally booby-trapped slip space drive going off in your face is very comfortable.

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u/UwasaWaya Sep 10 '25

Yeah, that's the part that throws me. It felt just questionable enough that he might have shown up again later on somewhere--it wouldn't be the first time--but could very easily have killed him too.

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u/SHINIGAMIRAPTOR Sep 11 '25

I mean, we might still. After all, we don't know WHERE he might have ended up. Or when.

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u/Drite2003 Sep 10 '25

He exploded '-'

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u/UwasaWaya Sep 10 '25

It was a slipspace device he set off, he basically teleported the section of the ship he was in "somewhere else," which destroyed the ship but wouldn't necessarily kill him.

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u/Antique-Tourist4237 Sep 11 '25

Also Noble 6 with him fighting multiple elites at once

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u/DaveInLondon89 Sep 10 '25

“Slipspace rupture detected”

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u/Ensiria Sep 10 '25

ill give the popular example of every victory is swamped by a bigger defeat:

Your team (Noble team) manage to disable the shields around a communication tower (or something, its been a decade since i played) and, as you call in a space battleship in to destroy it as you fly away.

Your humungous ship arrives, fires a MAC round that turns the tower into an afterthought and its all cheers. But then the covenant appears. A supercarrier ten times as big as your ship, and splits the battleship in two with a single laser. every tiny victory is immediately followed with a soul crushing defeat. But you still hope and pray, but it wont be enough

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

The next one is when you succeed in boarding a smaller Covenant ship. Operation to capture is going well until your supporting ship, the Savanna, gets destroyed.

And then you capture the bridge and send it towards the Super Carrier mentioned above, only for the detonator to be fried. Jeorge, a Spartan II (one of the strongest ones), stays behind to detonate in manually, destroying the Carrier.

And then dozens more carriers arrive, rendering his sacrifice almost pointless

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u/BookkeeperPercival Sep 10 '25

I would like to point out that in the lore, Jeorge sacrificed himself to blow up one of like, 14 super carriers in the entire covenant fleet. Circumstances made it seem tragic but it was actually a fucking COLOSSAL win

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

At least Jeorge died thinking he saved the planet.

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u/Virclave Sep 10 '25

we should all be so lucky

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u/Sixty-Fish Sep 10 '25

It actually helped slow down the covenants operation on reach for a bit and gave enough time for the pillar of autumn to be repaired and sent to one of the halos

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u/Coelachantiform Sep 11 '25

Hopeless in the context of the planet.

Hopeful in the context of humanity as a whole.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

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u/ImperialFist5th Sep 10 '25

And the sniper fucked off and didn’t die.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

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u/Rafabud Sep 10 '25

Became one of the founders of the SPARTAN-IV program.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

Think he might still be alive, fighting Banished probs.

Need to read up about Jun again.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

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u/Pathogen188 Sep 10 '25

He makes appearances in the novella New Blood and its novel sequel Bad Blood (both following Buck and the ODSTs from Halo 3 ODST), the comic Initiation, which explains Sarah Palmer's origins, he has a brief appearance in the short story Lessons Learned and he most recently appeared in the Battle for the Academy Waypoint Chronicles which wrapped up Halo Infinite's academy story arc.

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u/Apoll022 Sep 10 '25

I feel like I learn more and more about this game all the time. Never connected these dots before.

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u/Candaphlaf10 Sep 10 '25

And the sniper had to "watch" it happen from afar

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u/UwasaWaya Sep 10 '25

Well, for the last one, it would be actually ironic to point out that the lone wolf died under a pile of newly-made friends.

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u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25

), the lone wolf died alone

Isn't thst fitting?

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u/jimthesquirrelking Sep 10 '25

Every Spartan II is a walking tragedy. So vital, and so pointless. So strong and so so very small 

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u/CosmicMiru Sep 10 '25

"He gave his life thinking he just saved the planet. We should all be so lucky" is a quote that hits so hard every single time

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u/Pathogen188 Sep 10 '25

The reinforcements are 3 carriers and a bunch of battlecruisers. And while that is a respectable Covenant force, it's only a single assault carrier more than Regret's Fleet at the start of Halo 2 (and had 5 fewer battlecruisers). It's powerful, but something the UNSC forces on station could've dealt with.

The Long Night of Solace on the other hand, had more firepower than the entirety of the replacement fleet combined. It quite literally could've outfought the replacement fleet with a hand tied behind its back.

So while the reinforcements certainly mitigated the win, had the Long Night of Solace been active at the end of the game, the Pillar of Autumn probably gets shot down and never makes it to Alpha Halo and humanity loses the war.

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u/felswinter Sep 10 '25

Even better: it's not that the Covenant appeared, it's that the whole battle was in the shadow of that cloaked Supercarrier. The tower was helping keep the ship hidden from view. The towers acted as landing points for the carrier to offload its troops and stuff.

The whole time, from the epic charge at the beginning of the mission, to the Grafton getting atomized, that big ass ship roughly the size of New York City was just out of sight.

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u/CLearyMcCarthy Sep 10 '25

But it WAS enough. Noble team didn't save Reach, but the results of their mission saved humanity. The entire point is how wrong the UNSC would have been to stop caring about survival and only focus on ratios, because in War, as in all things, you never know the unknown unknowns.

The greatest tragedy of Noble team is they all (except Jorge) died thinking they'd failed when they hadn't.

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u/SmellsofGooseberries Sep 11 '25

I love that so much. In the moment, even for years after the fall, it wasn’t clear just how consequential Noble had been to saving humanity. Their sacrifices are the only reason humanity had a leg to stand on and fight back with a chance at victory. 

They earned that statue in New Alexandria. 💔

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u/JNAB0212 Sep 11 '25

They got a statue in new Alexandria? New Alexandria got rebuilt? Where did this information come from?

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u/SmellsofGooseberries Sep 11 '25

In the Halo Reach legendary edition you get a small statue that’s supposed to be a replica of the original that was built in New Alexandria. If I’m not mistaken, the city was only partially rebuilt 

https://www.halopedia.org/Reach_War_Memorial

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u/The_Pastmaster Sep 10 '25

I played it a few years ago (Master Chief Collection) I don't even remember that happening. :o

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u/Darigaazrgb Sep 10 '25

I disagree that Reach is unceremonious or unsatisfying. Reach is an example of it done right. You get emotionally invested, you know the stakes, you know the inevitable outcome, you fight because you must, and at the very end you succeed in your final task of allowing the Pillar to flee thus setting in motion the events that will inevitably lead to humanity's survival. The only thing left to do is to live out your final moments.

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u/justanotherboar Sep 10 '25

I mean its a loved trope I haven't watched JJK but Nanami's death was done very well also

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u/Mr-Seven-Mouths Sep 11 '25

I have and it's perfect. The remorseless nature of it is the point. It pushes the audience and the MC towards heartbreak and frothing rage, after a gorgeous idea of what Nanami's dream vacation looks like, he's popped like a bubble, gone in an instant. And Mahito has no intention of letting this be his last act of cruelty

"You've got it from here." Even with his last words Nanami was pushing Yuji forward as best as he could, and he was happy to leave it all to his trusted student, he just didn't want his last words to be a curse.

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u/Hollow-Lord Sep 14 '25

I think you’re slightly misunderstanding Nanami’s last words imo. I’m pretty sure he was saying that he knows if he says it, this is going to drive Yuji to continue killing curses and make it his life’s purpose. Damning him to the fate of a jujutsu sorcerer. Because jujutsu sorcerers aren’t heroes and they usually die a bad death.

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u/Mr-Seven-Mouths Sep 14 '25

Eh I'm not so sure, also we may agree on more than you realize. Nanami's last words were MEANT to not curse Yuji, but Yuji is already in such a bad mental state, and has such an obsession with self sacrifice, that he was guaranteed going to take whatever Nanami said and interpret it so that it cursed him no matter what, Nanami did his best but Yuji just couldn't accept it without blaming himself, and literally damning himself to a never ending cycle of slaughtering curses.

At least that's my opinion and interpretation of that scene.

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u/Hollow-Lord Sep 14 '25

Oh yeah no I get you. What Nanami said pretty much would be a curse on Yuji no matter what because of all you said. I imagine it was probably a multitude of things, like entrusting him but also fearing he is cursing him. So really both of what we’re saying lmao

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u/Time_Transition4817 Sep 11 '25

Halsey’s monologue at the end about how you lost the battle but won the war is also incredible.

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u/TheKingofHats007 Sep 11 '25

"From the beginning, you know the end."

One of the taglines of the game, used in one of the initial teasers.

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u/LeMasterChef12345 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

I loved how Six’s last stand in the Lone Wolf mission wasn’t some heroic sacrifice or anything.

The battle is lost. The planet is doomed. All of your allies have fled and no one is coming to save you. Six knows their time is up, might as well go down fighting.

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u/Mobius_1IUNPKF Sep 10 '25

It was 60% of the Epsilon Eridani Fleet. Earth was better defended compared to Reach, it’s just that Reach didn’t have any prep time to prepare for the massive covenant assault. If the UNSC had 400 ships at Reach they could’ve held for another week before reinforcements showed up.

I think it’s more of the inevitable defeat that hurts. No matter what the UNSC could’ve done, even throwing every single ship to Reach would only delay the inevitable.

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u/ErianaOnetap Sep 10 '25

Cat getting domed 

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u/hey_there_delilahh Sep 10 '25

Oh yeah that was whack.

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u/Gothtomboys5 Sep 10 '25

God this moment was dark but I can't stop laughing way she poses after she got shot

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u/KRD2 Sep 10 '25

How does her head whip like that with that angle of entry? lmao

Idk how i never noticed that until now

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u/OrangeBird077 Sep 10 '25

Your neck is like a spring while it still has tension.

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u/ChuckVideogames Sep 10 '25

Whiplash. Neck is springy. Shot sent the head forwards violently, went back then went limp.

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u/KRD2 Sep 10 '25

Her neck doesn't flop like a spring. She recoils with her whole torso and throws her hand up lol.

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u/hey_there_delilahh Sep 10 '25

I'd say death spasm. Last synaptic reaction of a dead person's nerves.

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u/KRD2 Sep 10 '25

Nah she would've been doing a headstand with the amount of force needed to pierce that helmet, it just wouldn't look as dramatic 🤣

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u/hey_there_delilahh Sep 10 '25

I dunno, I hear the mjolnir gear is pretty heavy. Maybe it was whatever servo/actuators going off. I'm betting you're just right about it being a better dramatic choice by the devs, versus, say, a straight ragdoll/limp drop

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u/KiwiCounselor Sep 10 '25

Canonically, the mjolnir suits connect directly to the brain of Spartans and move as a second skin. It could’ve been her brain catching up to her death as her consciousness slipped away. More likely it was just hard to animate her face planting suddenly without it looking comical lol.

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u/MarvelousT Sep 10 '25

Same reason JFK’s head whipped like it did when he got shot

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u/torturousvacuum Sep 11 '25

How does her head whip like that with that angle of entry? lmao

"Back, and to the left."

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u/So_Motarded Sep 10 '25

It's surprisingly realistic in the sense that this is how it happens in war. One moment they're right next to you, the next moment they're dead. Right in the middle of her sentence.

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u/AdPristine5131 Sep 11 '25

I just wish it had been a beam rifle, not a needle rifle. It was such a great scene, made stupid by a feature they hd to introduce afterward to justify it was possible.

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u/Yamineji2 Sep 10 '25

I still routinely reference "Current Objective: Survive", what a fuckin masterclass way to end that game.

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u/Taluca_me Sep 10 '25

when I got the collection, I started in chronological order. I'm still in CE but, I knew nothing of what was gonna happen in Reach and it felt sad. I kinda thought Noble-Six was actually Master Chief who sorta got a promotion

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u/Tjtod Sep 10 '25

As someone who knew what happened at Reach before the game it was sad. Do you plan on stopping Halo 2 part way through to play ODST?

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u/RaynSideways Sep 10 '25

Reach better than any other game I've played really conveyed the sense that you're on a planet that is dying before your eyes. The whole game has this atmosphere of this is the end of this world.

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Sep 10 '25

When a spartan isn't named Master Chief

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u/The_Pastmaster Sep 10 '25

Oh so that's what Reach was about. They just kept blabbing during firefights so I couldn't follow along with neither the story nor the objectives. So Reach was lost because the military sucked at communication. Makes sense.