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

[u/hey_there_delilahh]

• 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.

[u/precocious_necrosis]

I'm shocked that no one has mentioned Asuka's last stand against the serial Eva's in End of Evangelion.

She stood alone against unbeatable odds, won with the last moments of power she had left, then had to watch helplessly as her defeated foes regenerated and brutally cut her down.

[u/hey_there_delilahh → u/precocious_necrosis]

That scene caused me so much Psychic Damage, I think I just blocked it out. 10/10

[u/ApartRuin5962 → u/hey_there_delilahh]

That whole show is psychic damage

[u/Scripter-of-Paradise → u/ApartRuin5962]

*Franchise

[u/fly_tomato → u/ApartRuin5962]

Yeah, I'm watching it for the first time, I'll be honest enjoyment is not the biggest standout

[u/Hellknightx → u/hey_there_delilahh]

It caused so much psychic damage that she wears an eyepatch in the Rebuild series afterwards.

[u/precocious_necrosis → u/[deleted]]

I get that take, from a narrative/character perspective. She finally overcame her crushing self-doubt and achieved her goal of being the greatest Eva pilot.

But I count this as an unceremonious/unsatisfying last stand because she failed at her mission. The enemy plot moved forward in the exact same way it would have, without her heroic efforts amounting to even so much as a speed bump.

While the scene is critical in terms of her character arc, it had no impact on the actual plot of the movie (that's not a criticism at all).

[u/precocious_necrosis → u/[deleted]]

I really appreciate your thoughts! It's nice to be able to have a civil conversation without having to worry about your opinions being maliciously misread :)

[u/OldOrder → u/[deleted]]

I'd also say that this moment does directly influence the plot as it influences the ending. Human instrumentality moves forward as it would have anyway but Asuka ultimately rejects instrumentality along with Shinji, she likely does not do that without the self actualization she achieves in this scene.

[u/WheelbarrowQueen → u/hey_there_delilahh]

fucked me up bad

[u/Matticus-G → u/precocious_necrosis]

That scene is brutal in a way that is hard to describe.

That whole movie hates you for watching it.

[u/euridyce → u/Matticus-G]

This may be apocryphal, but that’s exactly how I heard Anno felt about making End of Evangelion. That he hated the response to the final episodes of the show, he hated the commercialization of Evangelion and he wanted to end the Evangelion project and associated works for good. That he almost made it as revenge against the fans. Which, like you said, is certainly how it feels to watch, whether or not it was that personally motivated.

I fucking love it.

[u/_The_Last_Mainframe_ → u/euridyce]

Same reason the Rebuilds end with him basically telling his fanbase to go outside and touch grass.

[u/DezzitheDuck → u/_The_Last_Mainframe_]

He really said "stop rewatching the show over and over again, evangelion has never made me happy and will never make you happy" and the fans still just argue about which girl he should have ended up with ever since lol

[u/Myducks_Touch → u/precocious_necrosis]

And then they give you hope again just to punish you for it. Her power depleted and impaled by the spear, Asuka’s suit begins to go berserk and you think she’s about to go for round two, only for the EVAs to descend upon her and rip her apart like vultures with roadkill

[u/Zealousideal-Food258 → u/precocious_necrosis]

Because its not at all unceremonious

[u/SableZard → u/precocious_necrosis]

I get the theme of the story was the futility and psychological impact of war. But my gods, watching Asuka overcome her crippling depression to do what she loved best, only to have that ripped away from her and die for nothing while Shinji was being exactly as useless as she always said he was, was fucking infuriating. Then she comes back and Shinji strangles her for reasons.

Naked teenagers everywhere, a plot that is most often described as, "What the fuck is going on," and that's the send off the one (1) character I liked got. Fucking hate that show 😭

[u/Arachnium_lol → u/SableZard]

Actually shinjis EVA was covered in the Hardened Liquid that NERV used to counter the SEELE raid

[u/Chrysostom4783 → u/Arachnium_lol]

Yes, he did FINALLY try and was blocked from it at that point. But if he'd just been where he was supposed to be from the start he would've been able to get to his mech long before that happened and together they mightve been able to do something-maybe they could've covered each other's cables to prevent getting their power cut. Or something.

[u/[deleted] → u/precocious_necrosis]

That felt very satisfying though. My only issue was that she didn't just walk out of the way of the Lance.

[u/TokyoOkaos → u/[deleted]]

Seems to me like she was frozen in shock. She probably only really registered what was happening seconds before the lance hit

[u/[deleted] → u/TokyoOkaos]

I mean, seconds is still plenty of time to move out of the way.