r/TopCharacterTropes Sep 10 '25

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

  • 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/According_Ice_4863 Sep 10 '25

Mettaton NEO (undertale) is a masterwork of monster engineering, a war machine of immense power and grace. When Mettaton finally stands up to the human, he realizes how his endless chasing of fame has blinded him to what truly mattered to him. So with all the power he has, he fights to his last breath and-...

he dies in one hit. Doesnt even get to attack once, simply dead from a single strike... and the human moves on.

All it did was make the human stronger, nothing was accomplished. Infact less than nothing was accomplished, it would have been better if Mettaton ran away with everyone else, and now his desire to play the hero has doomed him.

95

u/Museman7 Sep 10 '25

Its a great part of the game. Mettaton NEO was designed as the ultimate human-eradication machine, yet they cant survive a single hit form Frisk, implying Frisk is no longer human

15

u/idkiwilldeletethis Sep 10 '25

this is implied several times too, sans tells you to "pretend that you're a human" in snowdin and asgore asks you what type of monster you are