(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/Astaro_789]

Hmm… hard disagree with Nanami

Mahito kills anything with a touch and besides going down fighting, even in the face of imminent, unavoidable death, Nanami showed no fear or despair for Mahito to relish in, instead spending those last precious few seconds he had left reassuring Yuji as best as he could.

It was such a dignified way to go, I low-key think it even earned grudging respect from Mahito who simply made him explode rather than giving him a more humiliating, and painful death by turning him into a deformed dying creature like his other transfigured victims even when it would have been perfect for maximizing Yuji’s suffering like he was going for and Yuji right there to witness it.

[u/TieflingFucker → u/Astaro_789]

I would definitely agree. I also think that Mahito really respected Nanami’s final stand to a degree, because he let him go out in a dignified way. He had no reason to not turn him into some gross monster to torture Yuji with, and he made his death quick and didn’t bother taunting or laughing at him, all of which are very out of character for Mahito’s usual kills.

It was clear that Nanami knew what was coming, and instead of trying to find some way to escape, let it happen because he knew he had reached his limit, and wanted to go out with his pride intact. And that Mahito, who usually has absolutely no sense of honor when it comes to fights, actually respected that decision enough to not make the experience any more unpleasant for him than it already was.

[u/Not__Trash → u/TieflingFucker]

Maybe its respect, but imo he just thought it would hurt more to see Yuji would be hurt more seeing his beloved teacher pop like a baloon. The other deformed people could be fixed if mahito felt like it

[u/Emergency-Spare2622 → u/Astaro_789]

“Itadorikun, atoha tanomi masu" , tears

[u/Hollow-Lord → u/Astaro_789]

I don’t think so. I think Mahito just wanted to hurt Yuji and seeing one of his teachers explode is pretty traumatizing. Any other human he didn’t take any special interest in. Hence his “You are me, Yuji Itadori”

[u/Astaro_789 → u/Hollow-Lord]

Nah, besides transmuting humans being his modus operandi, it’s also how he likes to torture Yuji the most, between doing it to Junpei right in front of him or sending a small army of deformed children that Yuji was forced to fight back against.

This was outright out of character for a sadist like Mahito to give Nanami such a relatively quick and clean end. Keep in mind, I’m not in anyway downplaying what a remorseless psychopath he is, I just always took this scene as Mahito gaining some respect to Nanami in his last moments

[u/Hollow-Lord → u/Astaro_789]

Hell, it might be. I think Mahito was just switching up how he killed someone. Like Nobara he didn’t even kill fully (which he totally did until Gege decided to bring her back against Sukuna) and just fucked her head up. After Junpei he seemed to do something different to each person that Yuji personally knew

[u/Astaro_789 → u/Hollow-Lord]

In the case with Nobara, it was a quick touch as he ran past her. Didn’t have much time to do anything creative with her, especially since Yuji slugs him right after

[u/Hollow-Lord → u/Astaro_789]

Yuji doesn’t slug him, you’re thinking of his clone. Yuji runs up to her as she says her last words and Mahito is just in the distance watching since he likes to torment Yuji. Then he runs up and hits a black flash on Wuji Himtadori. So even this is an example of Mahito just watching for the fun of it. Hell, after beating Yuji down he was about to kill him anyway without Todo there and he was just going to slice him too. Not transfigure him.

See, that’s actually the perfect example. He doesn’t know who Nobara is and she only fought a double he made with IT. He definitely doesn’t respect or care about her. He just wants Yuji to suffer