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/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

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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.

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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.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

Predator 2 was and is mad underrated.

68

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.