History Main / DoNotGoGentle

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', depending on what you did, [[spoiler:has Alistair wishing to do this by killing the [[BigBad Archdemon]] as his first and ''final'' act as King of Ferelden so he could be remembered as one of the good ones.]]

Either way, the character performs as their last act a deed of great significance to those around them, be it their family, friends, a community, even the entire world. The character basically wants to say that if they do die here and now, people ''will'' remember it. The character ''does not'' die quietly. For heroes, this usually involves righting or avenging some wrong, but can be just a matter of personal pride to make the enemy, or the world, feel their presence one last time. Villains can have their own version, usually in the form of throwing a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum out of pure spite or sheer hubris.

* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' marries up the second form of this trope with a drawn out version of a DyingMomentOfAwesome in the form of Rei's final chapters. Mortally wounded by Raoh's FingerPokeOfDoom, which has activated a pressure point which will drain all his blood from his body in three days, Rei chooses not to give up, and instead dedicates his final days (later extended by one more day thanks to Toki activating a pressure point which allows someone to live on for 24 hours) to tracking down Yuda so he can defeat him, in turn returning Mamiya's honour. With Kenshiro's help, Rei triumphs over Yuda, and only then does he finally die, only a few hours later.

** In the face of the overwhelming power of [[spoiler:Obito and the God-Tree and his ability to instantly consume all the chakra in the planet]], the entire shinobi army was morally broken, including Naruto. Then [[spoiler:a panel later Sasuke cut said tree with Susano's black flames and taunted Naruto, Obito and Madara's resolve, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech implying that they were cowards who couldn't face reality]] and that he will destroy said tree alone if he had to, which snapped Naruto out of his fear]]. This allowed the rest of the army to regain the will to fight and die to the bitter end [[spoiler:by watching Naruto and Hashirama's memories and sincere hope for humanity]].

** Kakine Teitoku tells Accelerator and Shizuri Mugino that their struggle is pointless, because they will go to Hell no matter what they do. Mugino says maybe that's true, but if it is, they might as well kick some ass before they go.

* Hijikata in ''VisualNovel/{{Hakuouki}}'' is aware that as early as the battle of Toba-Fushimi that the Shinsengumi are fighting a war that they cannot win. However he will not let despair show and demoralize the troops and [[DeterminedDefeatist throws himself whole-heartedly]] into making things work.

* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': In the sidestory Twenty Gyarados Bill Gaiden, during the climax several soldiers realize they won't survive against Bill's remaining Gyarados. Rather than trying to run away or cower in fear, they decide they'll [[TakingYouWithMe take down as many as they can]] to make things easier for their comrades.

* ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'': [[spoiler:During the climatic prison riot, Joseph]] Lynch is alone, armed with only a disassembled Hidden Blade and is boxed in a room with only one exit. He brings down several Abstergo security guards before he dies.

* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}''. The original Creator/DylanThomas poem (or at least parts of it) is recited several times as the plot involves saving mankind from slow extinction. However the trope is subverted (and the poem becomes an IronicEcho) midway through the film [[spoiler:when Professor Brandt makes a DeathbedConfession that he thought the people on Earth had no chance of survival; it was just a motivational lie so people would support the mission. Dr Mann also quotes the poem when he tries to murder Cooper. However the protagonists do manage to save humanity after all, so the quote is engraved on a memorial to their mission.]]

* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' series gives us the defeat of Alyksberg. With no chance to defend besieged city from the onrushing Dolahran Army, Siddarmarkians pull back, leaving behind the crippled and wounded, who proceed to ''blow up the [[UpToEleven entire city]]'', [[TakingYouWithMe taking]] at least a quarter of attackers with them.

-->''Nineteenth Platoon lasted seventeen minutes from the time the gate closed. They accounted for one hundred and eighty nine enemy casualties. [[WhatYouAreInTheDark No one witnessed their heroism.]]''

--> '''Rawne:''' Feth! '''Feth it all!''' It can't end like this! I wont allow it!

* In the same universe a century or two later we have [[Literature/CiaphasCain Ciaphas Cain]], THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, and also a self confessed DirtyCoward. When faced with seemingly inevitable death, he sets his chainsword on high determined to take out as many of his opponents as possible before the end.

** By the fourth book ''Captain's Fury'', the villainous High Lord Kalarus, an archmage in strength, is bedridden after suffering a devastating and crippling injury in the last book. He knows his war against the other Lords and First Lord Gaius Sextus will eventually lead to his defeat, so he crafts one final insane gambit to not go gently. He [[spoiler:purposefully angered the spirit of an ancient dormant volcano and bound it to his life. It cannot act on its anger until he dies or Kalarus releases it. His plan is release the spirit on the thousands of refugees who fled into his city from the tens of thousands of soldiers fighting on the enemy's side coming to lay siege, killing hundreds of thousands in his own personally created pyre. Only because Gaius Sextus got insight of the volcano without using magic and hiking several hundred miles on foot, did this plan fail because Gaius releases the volcano before his soldiers would be in range and be harmed, so only the refugees and people of the city were sacrificed]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]: In the first part's {{cliffhanger}}, when the Torchwood Hub comes under attack by a Dalek, Gwen decides she's going to go down shooting at it with an assault rifle, and persuades Ianto to do the same. However, they're saved from death by a time-lock security measure installed by a dead colleague of theirs.

* D'Argo from ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. The last time you ever see him, he has been fatally wounded and is holding back a group of super soldiers with two rapid fire energy weapons while telling them exactly who their daddy is. Chiana put it best later when she revealed the news to his son, Jothee:

* ''Series/GraceAndFrankie'': This is defied by Babe. Babe is an old friend of the titular characters that had cancer and has since recovered, however, as the cancer has come back, she decides to perform an euthanasia on herself after hosting the best party she ever hosted, with every friend she ever made. When Grace learns about this, she tries to tell Babe she needs to fight for her life, but Babe refuses this, saying one time on the treatment was enough, and she would rather go out happy than stay to grow tired and weak.

* In the last episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' the Asgard accept their demise as a species and rather than slowly fading out of existence they finally grant the Tauri the entirety of their knowledge and equip the human ships with the pinnacle of Asgard technology as their legacy. After that they self-destruct what remains of their once great people, timing the explosion to take out a few last Ori warships.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' Kilrogg Deadeye foresaw that he would be killed by the players in Hellfire Citadel but fought them to the bitter end anyway, seeming happy to meet his destined fate. In the same fate he grants players a vision of their death in a futile LastStand where Khadgar invokes this trope.

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', [[AFatherToHisMen Commander Gore]] begs you to please follow this, resist the temptation of power, and save the world, combined with DareToBeBadass. [[MultipleEndings Should you accept]], he thanks you, tells you ItHasBeenAnHonor and finally leaves to the greater beyond...

* In ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} 2'', Durandal is at one point cornered above a planet with his single corvette, and an entire Pfhor fleet bearing down on him. Even with the upgrades he's made to the ship, he knows he can't win. He fights regardless, and takes half the Pfhor fleet down with him.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': In the Seventh Singularity, Babylonia, it is revealed near the end that [[spoiler:Gilgamesh knew all along that fighting the Goddesses was futile, that Tiamat would be awakened and Uruk would be destroyed. His future sight told him so, in no uncertain terms. But when he told this to the citizens of Uruk, and asked whether they would just allow the inevitable to happen, or fight it with all their strength, they chose to fight. In the end, it turns out that Gilgamesh's vision did not account for the player's presence, and the player is able to tip the scales just enough for Tiamat to be defeated... though Gilgamesh and Uruk are still destroyed, and there are only 500 survivors of the once prosperous kingdom left. Gilgamesh still counts that as a win: 500 survivors is much better than the ZERO survivors he had foreseen.]]
** The last Singularity is pretty much the swan song of humanity; every star that is the Heroic Spirits arrives to lend a hand for their earnest wish to fight for humanity's survival. The BigBad Demon God King Goetia could not understand why humanity keeps on resisting his plot to [[spoiler:remake them into immortals... until the real Solomon strips him his everything. His HiveMind gain their separate will, several decide to make their stand with or against the Heroic Spirits until there's no one left. Now dubbed Human King Goetia, he got beaten within the inch of his remaining life, half of his body scattered to the wind, and in that moment he finally understands the meaning of human's mortality. Deciding that he would not just lying there waiting for his death, he chases after his destined nemesis the protagonist to spend his remaining life fighting till the end. The protagonist accepts, and a fistfight ensues]].

** It has an immediate effect on the person responsible for her [[spoiler:apparent]] death in the first place, who promptly runs out out into a landscape that she believes to be highly toxic [[WorthyOpponent after the girl]].
* There are a number of instances of this trope in ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', but one of the most spectacular ones is [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2069 SCP-2069]]: Aliens attack Earth and rapidly destroy most of the planet's cities and major infrastructure, bringing mankind to its knees, and then the SCP Foundation and Global Occult Coalition [[EnemyMine join forces]] into an organization called AEGIS, assume control of every remaining military asset in the world, and bring the fight to the aliens. They succeed in destroying nearly half the alien fleet with weaponized satellites while the other half was defending itself against [[MacrossMissileMassacre thousands of ICBMs]], then launched pretty much everything else at their grounded ships. When the aliens inevitably regain the upper hand through sheer technological and logistical advantage, AEGIS develops a weapon called a [[DoomsdayDevice Nova Bomb]], and, whatever it is, it's powerful enough to punch a hole from their reality into our own, probably taking the aliens with it.

* In the North Sea on April 8, 1940. In one corner, HMS ''Glowworm'', a 1500 ton destroyer armed with four 4.7 inch guns and 10 torpedoes. In the other, the 18,500 ton German heavy cruiser ''Admiral Hipper'' with eight 8-inch guns and twelve 4.1 inch guns. The ''Glowworm'' was a burning, near-totaled wreck but its final action was ramming the ''Admiral Hipper'', then blowing up and sinking. Although the Germans were able to continue their mission despite the damage, Lt. Commander Gordon Roope, [[DyingMomentOfAwesome captain of the destroyer, was awarded the first Victoria Cross of the war]]. Part of the reason was the recommendation of ''Kapitän zur See'' Helmuth Heye, captain of the ''Admiral Hipper'', sent through the Red Cross after the battle [[WorthyOpponent praising the bravery of Roope and his crew in a fight they had no chance of winning.]]
* In the North Atlantic on November 5th, 1940, the cargo ship SS ''Beaverford'' was part of Convoy HX-84 en route to Britain from Canada when it came under attack from the German pocket battleship ''Admiral Scheer''. The ''Scheer'' quickly sank the convoy's only escort, the HMS ''Jervis Bay'' and began to engage the merchant ships in the formation. 60 year-old Captain High Pettigrew initially turned to scatter into the night with the rest of the convoy, as ''Beaverford'' was relatively modern and was one of the few ships with enough speed to have a good chance at escaping. He then saw the German battleship attacking the cargo vessel ''Kenbane Head'' and ordered his ship to come about and engage enemy. The ''Beaverford'' lacked any form of armor and possessed only two small anti-submarine guns, but the ship managed to keep the ''Scheer'' tied down for almost ''five hours'' (its armed escort had only managed 22 minutes) by dodging in and out of smoke banks between salvos and using its speed to evade return fire. ''Beaverford'' was eventually sunk with all hands by accumulated battle damage and a torpedo hit, but the time it bought allowed most of the surviving ships to escape and reach safety in Britain.
** The HMS ''Jervis Bay'' itself counts as well, having been a converted Armed Merchant ship. Upon sighting the far-more well armed German ship, [[HeroicSacrifice The Jervis Bay charged headlong at it, firing everything they could, in hopes of distracting it from the more vulnerable convoy ships, and never stopping until they were sunk]]. This earned Captain Edward Fegen of the ''Jervis Bay'' a posthumous Victoria Cross. it should also be noted the Armed Merchantman actually lasted closer to an hour. Apparently Convoy HX-84 was just full of [[{{Determinator}} Determinators]].

Either way, the character performs as their last act a deed of great significance to those around them, be it their family, friends, a community, even the entire world. The character basically wants to say that if they do die here and now, people ''will'' remember it. The character ''does not'' die quietly. For heroes, this usually involves righting or avenging some wrong, but can be just a matter of personal pride to make the enemy, or the world, feel their presence one last time. Villains can have their own version, usually in the form of inflicting TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt out of pure spite or sheer hubris.

* ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'' subverts this with the execution of [[spoiler:Pekoyama]], who tries to go down swinging against an army of robots until [[spoiler:she accidentally injures and almost kills Kuzuryuu, her childhood friend/superior, who rushed in to try and save her, allowing the robot army to finish her off while she's having a "MyGodWhatHaveIDone" moment]].

** In ''Blood Omen'', both Moebius and Mortanius acknowledge that [[BecauseDestinySaysSo they are destined to die at Kain's hands]] and have [[YouCantFightFate accepted that]], but they both still refuse to make it easy for Kain, with neither going down without a fight.
** In ''Defiance'', in an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, Vorador is captured by Moebius and his mercenary army, but not without "a considerable price in blood."

** The HMS "Jervis Bay" itself counts as well, having been a converted Armed Merchant ship. Upon sighting the far-more well armed German ship, [[HeroicSacrifice The Jervis Bay charged headlong at it, firing everything they could, in hopes of distracting it from the more vulnerable convoy ships, and never stopping until they were sunk]]. This earned Captain Edward Fegen of the "Jervis Bay" a posthumous Victoria Cross. it should also be noted the Armed Merchantman actually lasted closer to an hour. Apparently Convoy HX-84 was just full of [[{{Determinator}} Determinators]].

* Buliwyf from ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior'' is poisoned and so fatally sick that he can hardly stand, but when the battle starts he's there with his sword and his dog because that's just how Vikings do it.

* In the ending of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', after John Marston is [[spoiler: betrayed by Director Ross, who sent a platoon of US]] soldiers to storm The Marston's ranch, John, knowing that they'll never stop hunting him, fights off a wave of soldiers to give his family a window to escape and ducks into the barn as the soldiers surround him, before walking out to meet more rifles pointing at him than he has bullets, ready to go out guns blazing.

* In the ending of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', after John Marston is [[spoiler: betrayed by Director Ross, who sent a platoon of US]] soldiers to storm The Marston's ranch, John, knowing that they'll never stop hunting him, fights off a wave of soldiers to give his family a window to escape and ducks into the barn as the soldiers surround him, before walking out to meet more rifles pointing at him than he bullets, ready to go out guns blazing.

* Hundreds of years before the events of ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', mankind fought a HopelessWar against the Faro Plague, a rogue swarm of {{Killer Robot}}s[[note]]ahem, ''[[InsistentTerminology peacekeepers]]''![[/note]] that fed on biomass to build more of themselves. [[spoiler:Knowing life on Earth was doomed no matter what, the smartest, most resourceful people on the planet poured everything they had into [[TitleDrop Project Zero Dawn]], the construction of a ridiculously powerful terraforming network that would restore life from the ashes of the Old World once the Plague ran its course. And the entire rest of mankind? They picked up a railgun and marched to the frontlines to buy Zero Dawn the time it needed to finish construction, dying by the billions for a slim hope of salvation from an enemy of their own making. It's slightly downplayed by the vast majority of humanity believing Zero Dawn to be a superweapon that would destroy the Faro Plague,]] but even misled as they were, they chose to die fighting instead of going gently.

** Out of Universe, the Noble 14. In April of 2010, Microsoft closed down the servers for Halo 2's multiplayer. 14 players simply, didn't log off. They continued playing until internet issues dropped them off, with the last player being booted by the servers themselves being turned off.

** Jack Harkness dies this way in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]], as he goes down fighting the Daleks. The Bad Wold entity brings him back to life and grants him immortality shortly afterwards, however.

-->'''Blackbeard:''' Be that the cold breath of fate I feel down my nape? But... I'll have one last fight, by God. [[KillEmAll KILL 'EM ALL!!!]]

** More than any other race in the galaxy, the turians breathe this trope. Despite obviously losing and with staggeringly one-sided casualties, they spend almost the entirety of the game (implied to be months), engaging the Reapers in an extended slugging match over their homeworld on relative terms that forces the Reapers to commit more to a single front, and with a krogan alliance, score the single largest victory in the war. Absolutely no other race that has their homeworld heavily targeted even comes close to putting up the level of resistance that the turians do.

** More than any other race in the galaxy, the turians breathe this trope. Despite obviously losing and with staggeringly one-sided casualties, they spend almost the entirety of the game (implied to be months), engaging the Reapers in an extended slugging match over their homeworld on relative terms that forces the Reapers to commit more to a single front, and with a krogan alliance, score the single largest victory in the war. Absolutely no other race that has their homeworld heavily targeted even comes close putting up the level of resistance that the turians do.

* Gavrilo Princip personally accepted the mission to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand because he was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to do something significant while he was still alive. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI He definitely did something significant.]]

* Gavrilo Princip personally accepted the mission to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand because he was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to do something significant while he was still alive. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI By all accounts, he succeeded at his goal.]]

* Subverted in ''VisualNovel/KoihimeMusou''. Kannu and Chouun are cut off from all reinforcements and facing an entire bandit gang in their own lair armed only with whatever they could take off their defeated enemies. They exchange true names as people facing death together and decide to go out fighting. [[spoiler:They not only live, they managed to wipe out the entire gang between them denying Kousonsan any chance of glory.]]

-->If I was to die, I was not going to go out in a gibbering heap of terror. If I was to die, it wouldn't happen because I was half crippled with fear and Sight trauma.\\

* ''Series/TheAmericans'': Gregory Thomas. Implicated in the disappearance and death of FBI agent Chris Amador, Gregory is being hunted by D.C. police. Gregory's capture would lead to the arrest of Philip and Elizabeth, so the Centre insists that he be exfiltrated to Moscow. Instead, he takes a handgun and opens fire on the first [[SuicideByCop cops]] he sees, killing several before being shot and killed himself.