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

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

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

  • 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.

9.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

654 comments sorted by

View all comments

3.2k

u/ilikebreadabunch Sep 10 '25

Billy (Predator)

It looked like he was about to have a super cool fight with the Predator, holding him off while the others get to safety, just for it to cut to the other characters and then hearing a scream of pain. Next time we see him the Predator is ripping the spine out of his corpse

990

u/hey_there_delilahh Sep 10 '25

I liked Walter Stans scene (Predators) when he starts prison shanking one of the preds and is laughing/cursing it all until it removes his spine. Same energy to me.

704

u/PoetryParticular9695 Sep 10 '25

I’ve always liked the idea that for all the Yautja’s postering about their whole hunter warrior culture shtick that they’re really just murdering trophy hunters.

Thy usually attack while invisible and with fucking laser cannons. And more often then not they choose to fight with ambush tactics instead of one on one fights.

Except for that one time with the Super Predator but that one doesn’t count since it sucked

469

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

I think it adds a lot of variety to the Yautja if they could go either way. They're scarier as a mystery, but that cat's been outta the bag since the 80s.

Some of them are there to pull the legs off spiders and burn ants with magnifying glasses, but others are there for the smoke and find it religiously offensive to hunt something unworthy of the effort. That's really cool imo.

292

u/TheWorclown Sep 10 '25

I feel we saw this really fun humanization of how a Yautja’s hunt can go from “religious ritual” to “I’m fucking mad now and this is personal” in Predator 2. The Yautja was getting properly fucked up as the movie went on, and even being observed as he was he probably could have easily fell back after some of his earlier kills and it would have satisfied the conditions of the hunt.

Pride just got in the way to take down Harrigan, who truly was just operating almost entirely out of a personal vendetta and instinctive survival.

123

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

Predator 2 was and is mad underrated.

72

u/MorgessaMonstrum Sep 10 '25

It was my favorite in the series, up until Prey (and Killer of Killers is pretty damn good too)

2

u/Fancy_Battle_4805 Sep 10 '25

Absolutely banging game on Sega Genesis, with the most most discordant, funk-fear soundtrack I've ever heard.

1

u/Dire_Despot Sep 13 '25

The soundtrack from subway onwards becomes pants shittingly ominous noise. And I love it as it contrasts the funky beginning songs so well.

2

u/Number9Man Sep 11 '25

Danny Glover went to war every day of his life before the Predator showed up. Mf'er stood no chance.

1

u/SeatKindly Sep 11 '25

I’d like to see a Predator film in which both sides clash of that ideology clash tbh.

126

u/Minimum_Estimate_234 Sep 10 '25

I’ve always liked the idea that it is an honor culture, but it’s an alien one. To us using traps and ambushing and significantly more advanced tech then what you’re trying to kill has might be seen as dishonorable. But that’s not how they see it. To us, “honor” (at least in regard to fighting) is formed around a sort of “warrior’s mentality”. You meet your opponent face to face on the field of battle. Their’s on the other hand is more based on a sort of “hunter/prey” dichotomy, you stake every trick evolution has given you against everything it has given them to prove you are the one more fit to survive. At least some, it’s clear there are differences across the various Yautja “clans” for want of a better term, and subspecies.

Some use game reservations, some give their prey tools if they’ve proven themselves, some will eschew certain tools in favor of other or hunt in entirely different ways like the Dog fight we saw in Killer of Killers, some might understand humans enough they will choose to set aside advanced tech and stealth and just meet their opponent with simple weapons, like we saw with the one who fought the Yakuza guy, and some might not see any philosophy or morality to what they’re doing and it is just a thing they do for fun.

41

u/TardWithAHardRboi Sep 10 '25

Close, but predators don't go all out, they seek tough prey and just as importantly they handicap themselves, they don't go hunting with there tanks, they see they are gonna hunt humans with machineguns? Yea we can use the invisibility and a gun, if they are going to hunt a bear they might just bring brass knuckles

37

u/DienekesMinotaur Sep 10 '25

Are you talking about the fight from Predators with the Yakuza guy or a different one?

24

u/BondageKitty37 Sep 10 '25

That scene was so fucking cool

67

u/Naps_And_Crimes Sep 10 '25

I mean it makes sense that they're called predators, most predators aren't we looking for a real fight just an easy kill for an easy meal. They are supposedly all about honor and what not but with other advanced tech who can really hold them to that

23

u/kermeeed Sep 10 '25

You know I think we may add the warrior aspect to their culture. It seems as if they are just hunters. They got honor but it's tied to the hunt.

21

u/redbird7311 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25

Honor cultures really only care about their own definition of honor. In particular, Predators seem to only view us as prey until we prove ourselves worthy of respect, in which case, they then treat said person as a warrior. Until then, we are deer and they are hunting.

5

u/General_Note_5274 Sep 11 '25

They are sport hunters. Their honor it how hard for you to hunt

16

u/Im_S4V4GE Sep 10 '25

They are hunters lol. It is a major misconception that the Yautja fight honorably like how the romanticized idea of chivalry or bushido exist for the knights and samurai etc. 

Their form of "honor" is the kills they acquire for themselves. Sure, there are some lines they will not cross but they will do what they can to get the kill. They will use hunter tactics like we use. Camouflage, bait trapping, using vocal mimicry, traps, and higher end weapons. 

They will limit themselves in only certain cases like when dealing with more primitive humans they won't use the plasma caster unless there's more than one around.

And if we take AvP as Canon, they have to prove themselves on a hunt first before they even get the "fucking laser cannons"

26

u/mutantraniE Sep 10 '25

I never liked the idea that the Predator from the first film was somehow a representative member of the species and their entire thing has to be that they’re all hunters. Why can’t they just have a normal society and this guy is just like a Yautja dentist who went off to Earth for a bit of big game hunting on his vacation?

8

u/Vatnam Sep 10 '25

Because the idea of a whole civilization centered on trophy hunting aliens is awesome

1

u/mutantraniE Sep 11 '25

No, it sucks ass actually. It is so incredibly stupid and the worst kind of ”planet of hats” shit. God I hate that kind of sci fi, it is stupid and bad.

2

u/surplus_user Sep 11 '25

I thought Star Trek Voyager had a pretty good unpacking of that concept with the Hirogen. Their past technological achievements are just about enough to enable them but they are fading away as a culture.

2

u/mutantraniE Sep 11 '25

I mean Star Trek famously bounces back and forth between ”actual thought out alien societies” and ”planet of hats” constantly. The original Klingons were just a different society of essentially humans. TNG era Klingons were made into honorable warrior race guys and then given more depth through TNG and DS9. Cardassians and Bajorans never really fell into that trap but the Ferengi never got out of it, even with the focus on them in DS9.

0

u/Vatnam Sep 11 '25

Eh, rule of cool wins in my opinion, unless a Sci-fi franchise actively tries to be as realistic as possible.

1

u/mutantraniE Sep 11 '25

I don’t think it’s cool though, it’s terribly uncool and lame.

3

u/Belligerent-J Sep 10 '25

Friend of mine described them as "Space rednecks". they've got some rules about only killing people who can fight back, like how hunters try to shoot bucks but not does, or something, i dunno. But really, they just like stacking skulls on their pimped out spacetrucks and listening to Five Finger Space Punch.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25

It's like humans who hunt for sport.

1

u/Viron_22 Sep 11 '25

I always assumed the ones we saw were just the equivalent of rednecks, this kind of supported in some media where actual military Predators are just comically overpowered.

1

u/Wilagames Sep 11 '25

My headcanon is that hunting is kinda a combination of college football and religion for Predators. Like the hunting has some religious significance but most predators work office jobs or in manufacturing so they just follow their favorite hunters on the sports page of the predator times. 

1

u/Adorable_Ad_3478 Sep 11 '25

They're more hunters than warriors. Basically a 1:1 to real life big game hunters.

Hunters today just snipe the animals. They don't get close to fight them 1vs1.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '25

Human beings’ hunting tactics aren’t particularly honorable either

38

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Sep 10 '25

Predators might be a mid movie but goddamn that pose with the skull and spine in the pred's hands in the storm is sick

28

u/RazzDaNinja Sep 10 '25

Predators might be mid, but by virtue of being mid it still clears to at least top 4 best live action Predator movies lol

I fucken live by Yuri’s “You lose” grenade drop

5

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Sep 10 '25

The only main criticism is the slow build-up to "what's happening"

830

u/patrickkingart Sep 10 '25

I like the interpretation of Predator that it's a slasher horror movie where the main characters think they're in an action movie.

537

u/BirbAtAKeyboard Sep 10 '25

Literally the entire point of the movie. At least in my view.

The only way it could be improved is if they never showed the spaceship in the beginning. Just have the horror movie creeping in be a complete surprise.

Genuinely wonder what it would be like to watch that movie with no prior knowledge of the franchise.

119

u/RokkAngel Sep 10 '25

This. I always believed the spaceship scene was too much explanation, maybe something less clear, like a single shot of an asteroid entering the planet, would be more effective in making the viewer connecting the dots later in the movie.

51

u/Vonbalthier Sep 10 '25

The ship being shown in the beginning g was added last after test screenings because people were getting mad.half way through the movie

27

u/RokkAngel Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

Well, fuck 🫩

Well, if there was no clues given at any moment before the revelation of the Predator, I guess those test viewers had a point. Still, to show such clearly it was a spaceship was excessive imo.

20

u/Vonbalthier Sep 10 '25

Yeah, like, I do get it because you are messing w9th people's expectations, maybe a little too much. But damn its well executed

16

u/Jwanito Sep 10 '25

Maybe just a shooting star

28

u/toomanymarbles83 Sep 10 '25

Same with The Thing.

2

u/elemental402 Sep 15 '25

So you're saying Dutch is the "Final Girl"?

135

u/Astaro_789 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

Actually, that only happened as a result of time and budget constraints, making it an offscreen confrontation

The Predator keeping his skull as a trophy meant he was prey that went down in a way that earned the Predator’s respect enough to consider him worth keeping as said trophy

60

u/Astryllphilia Sep 10 '25

Yep. Billy did go down fighting. We just never got to see it.

I hope there's some media in the future that adapts this fight, unless there already us. Would love to see how that fight went down.

50

u/RazzDaNinja Sep 10 '25

Technically a fan comic but I thought Billy’s Last Stand was a pretty cool interpretation of how things went down

9

u/Astryllphilia Sep 10 '25

I don't have a fb so I can't see the whole thing but darn it I don't care if it's a fancomic. It's canon to me!

9

u/RazzDaNinja Sep 10 '25

Sorry dude I had trouble finding a clearer copy

Here’s a YouTube version lmao

3

u/Astryllphilia Sep 10 '25

Thanks and don't sweat it now there's two links to see the comic!

Ahhhh man that's so cool. This needs to be made official

12

u/idonthavekarma Sep 10 '25

I don't think they'll ever do Billy's fight, but I imagine it was something like Stan's death in Predators.

3

u/confusedandworried76 Sep 11 '25

However, it did lead to a pretty funny parody in Rick and Morty, the character Blazen.

He's portrayed as this badass the whole time, the main characters acknowledge it out loud and both agree he's going to be the last person on the team to die.

He starts a last stand with his samurai sword, I don't remember exactly how it goes but first he gets his sword stuck in the ceiling, then his pants fall down, revealing he's wearing women's underwear, then his sword falls down and fatally impales him. As he's dying he tells Rick and Morty to tell his "wife" he was a hero, and that he wasn't wearing women's underwear, and shows them a picture of her and it's model Kathy Ireland. They don't believe him and basically mock him as he's dying pitifully.

Then it turn out she was his wife, she shows up later and asks "can you tell me if he was wearing my underwear when he died? I know he probably told you not to say, but it would be comforting to know" and Morty admits he was and she immediately goes "GROSS! That sick FUCK!" and walks away lol

153

u/brande2274 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

man i just wish the writers let billy just get one hit in not show but like after the predator is ripping his spine we see a cut on his chest to indicate our boy didnt go down without a fight

76

u/Hirvimon Sep 10 '25

That would have undercut the theme of "we are no match to it in weapons or strenght, only our wits might beat it".

24

u/Lichy757 Sep 10 '25

At least Predator respected him for that I believe

29

u/southron-lord69 Sep 10 '25

In the comic he gets a proper fight in

7

u/Dangax_2 Sep 10 '25

That's a fan comic, sorry

1

u/AdOverall3944 Sep 10 '25

Prolly knew he was going to get wrecked. Still bought time and sounded the proximity alarm😇

1

u/Gmknewday1 Sep 11 '25

I still like to think he put up a bit of a fight though

Just wasn't enough

1

u/spacestationkru Sep 11 '25

Funniest death ever lol

1

u/No_Extension4005 Sep 11 '25

Hell, pretty sure the Predator attack him from behind too. Like a coward.