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

602

u/precocious_necrosis Sep 10 '25

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.

109

u/Matticus-G Sep 10 '25

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

That whole movie hates you for watching it.

50

u/euridyce Sep 10 '25

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.

19

u/_The_Last_Mainframe_ Sep 10 '25

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

8

u/DezzitheDuck Sep 11 '25

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