Defiant To The End / Anime & Manga

Warning: As this is often a Death Trope, expect spoilers.

Those who remain Defiant to the End in Anime and Manga.

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• In Aldnoah.Zero, Count Saazbuum taunts Slaine for failing to land a killing blow after he shoots and severely wounds Princess Asselyum, though he's on his way to bleeding out. Seconds later, Inaho, held at gunpoint by Slaine, smiles as he tries to draw a gun and is shot.
• Mauve Shirt Tsuge of As the Gods Will II gets one when she refuses to take part in Sein Kami's final Kamiculum game (Rock Paper Scissors), putting her hands behind her back the whole time and telling him off as a divine entity. This is the first time any mortal in the second part has been so defiant to a god figure, and though Sein Kami kills her for it, she gets the last laugh as it temporarily wipes the smug out of him.
• Attack on Titan: While the majority of characters are anything but this when faced with a Titan the same can't be said for Eren who won't give up even when in a Titan's mouth about to be chomped.
  • A Red Shirt in the Survey Corps goes out stabbing a Titan in the face ranting about how Levi will kill it, which proceeds to happen moments later too.
  • Commander Erwin convinces the majority of the Survey Corps to pull this off against the Beast Titan to give Captain Levi an opening to cut the rock-throwing titan down as it proceeds to decimate them. He personally leads the charge to ensure that they will continue to follow him one final time. Despite the fact that Erwin goes down in the first barrage the Beast Titan throws at them, and the Corps following him are visibly terrified of their inevitable, impending demise, his plan works, and the Corps continue to charge the Beast Titan and give Levi the necessary opening to defeat the Beast Titan. Unfortunately, circumstances allow the Beast Titan to narrowly escape with his life.
• Black Lagoon: Deconstructed. After his Humiliation Conga and Revy denying him the satisfaction of dying in a gunfight by her hand, Chaka is easily outmatched by Ginji, gets his hands cut off, and gets pushed into a nearby swimming pool where all he can do is thrash around and scream impotent death threats as Ginji keeps pushing him underwater with his sheathed sword to drown him. Rather than coming off as brave and admirable, Chaka’s defiance makes his final moments undignified and pathetic.
• Bleach:
  • Ichigo Kurosaki continues to fight a hopeless battle against his nemesis Ulquiorra, refusing to ever put down his sword. Ulquiorra kills Ichigo to prove his point on humans; Ichigo gets better...ish.
  • Surprisingly, Loly does this too. When Yammy is about to kill her, Loly, knowing she's outclassed, says, "I said scumbag."
  • Nnoitra Gilga goes down swinging against Zaraki Kenpachi, fighting to the bitter end even when it's clear that Zaraki is winning. After being downed by a single full-power slash from Zaraki, Nnoitra gets up again and charges Zaraki one last time, resulting in him being cut down. Given that Nnoitra is a Death Seeker, it isn't surprising.
  • Even Aizen gets in on this. While his final defeat had him yelling and screaming This Cannot Be!, by the time he's about to be sentenced for his crimes, he just smiles smugly and suggests the Central 46 have no moral authority to judge him at all. The Central 46 are so intimidated by his calm they increase his sentence... to 20 millennia. It doesn't cow him at all.
• Played with in Code Geass when Kallen is in a Britannian prison, when the door to her cell is opened she goes into a "Do your worst" speech, only to learn that the person she is facing is an old friend of hers.
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
  • In the final battle, what remains of David's crew has just been on the receiving end of a Curbstomp Battle, courtesy of Adam Smasher. After tearing off the antigravity generators of David's Cyber-Skeleton, he offers to David the chance to become an Arasaka construct. David's response?
    David: Whatever, choom. Like I give a shit.
  • Rebecca, just before this, has a moment too. Upon seeing Adam Smasher barreling down upon her, she stands her ground and fires off her shotgun just before getting smashed but not before getting off some Profane Last Words:
    Rebecca: We're having a moment here! FUCK YOU!
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
  • Kyojuro was originally used as the absolute example of a what demon slayer committed to their creed of fighting demons and protecting humans is supposed to be about, Kyojuro's complete denial of Akaza's insistent request to become a demon just like him is given as a means to show Tanjiro, Inosuke and the audience that holding onto your humanity even when it means certain death is preferable if the alternative is to completely lose your moral compass and justify your deeds as a human devouring demon. Kyojuro dies with his morals untainted, and Akaza running from the sun lest it kills him even though he technically won the fight; Kyojuro's example is recalled several times later in the series, by the final arc other Hashira echoes his words to show how Kyojuro really was The Paragon of the series.
  • When Hantengu was a human, a magistrate saw through his lies and sentenced him to death for his crimes, among which were numerous murders. After Muzan made Hantengu a demon, Hantengu tracked down the magistrate and killed him. Despite being a defenseless old man facing a murderer who'd become even more dangerous as a demon, the magistrate defiantly declares that Hantengu would one day get his comeuppance.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The non-canon Dragon Ball Z TV special A Solitary Final Battle ~The Father of Z-Warrior Kakarot, who Challenged Freeza~ (Known as Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku in English) features Bardock, Goku's father who challenged Freeza in a futile attempt to change the fate of the Saiyans with him plowing through Frieza's forces and then trying to take on the tyrant and his planet-killing attack himself but ultimately fails and can only be comforted by a vision of his son defeating Frieza in the future. Dragon Ball Super: Broly canonized these events and even had Bardock's attack briefly stop Frieza's Supernova for a few seconds, even if he still failed in the end.
  • Frieza himself has this trait too, though it stems from his pride rather than his convictions. After Goku does defeat Frieza, Goku provides him with some energy, enough to withdraw, hoping for Frieza to atone for his actions. Frieza instead uses this energy to attack Goku one last time before Goku vaporizes him.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, when Zamasu is grabbed by Beerus and about to be disintegrated by him, he simply shoots a Death Glare to the God Of Destruction. Considering that most other villains aware of what Beerus is capable of (such as Frieza) would have suffered any form of Villainous Breakdown by that point, that's quite an achievement.
  • 18 pulled this twice against Semi-Perfect Cell. The first time she hit him with everything she got, actually moving the far stronger opponent and slowing him down long enough for Trunks to come to the rescue. The second time, blinded by the Tayoken that allowed Cell to escape Trunks and unable to sense ki, 18 opts to attack Cell with her fists and is still trying to hit him after being sucked in by his tail, only stopping after being completely absorbed.
• Fairy Tail: King of the Fire Dragons and Natsu's dad, Igneel gets his entire torso ripped away by Black Dragon of the Apocalypse Acnologia in a Single-Stroke Battle before being finished off by his Breath Weapon. Igneel makes sure his opponent never forgets about him by tearing off his entire left arm in that very same exchange, also landing the first permanent injury that Acnologia has ever received.
• Fist of the North Star: Raoh wants to find the identity of the last General of Nanto from an already mortally wounded Juuza. With his last breath, Juuza just jokes him.
• Anti-Villain example: Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist is given the choice to either rejoin "Father" or be boiled alive in molten gold for ironic purposes. Badass to the end, he opts for the latter and spends his final moments laughing at and taunting Father and the other homunculi.
  • At the very end when Father forces a rejoining, he purposefully inverts his ultimate shield to weaken Father. Father doesn't take to this well.
    • Greed isn't much more reverent in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): When Dante tries to re-seal him he instead opts to commit Suicide by Cop by forcing Ed to kill him rather than go back into stasis (giving Ed the necessary info on how to fight Homonculi in the process).
• A variant happens in Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid between Sousuke and Gauron. It's not a surprise that even though Sousuke is the one holding the gun, he's not the one who gets the last laugh.
  • Another example occurs in the Burning One Man Force novel, where a heavily wounded Sousuke holds an even more heavily wounded Kurama (ironically, an old associate of Gauron) at gunpoint, asking for vital information. Kurama is initially calmly defiant, then abruptly changes his mind, decides he doesn't care, and offers what little he knows to Sousuke.
    • Sousuke himself is pretty defiant when cornered, especially in the later novels, when he tends to be almost crushingly outgunned and outnumbered, and almost everyone tries to kill him including his father-figure and his girlfriend. He reaches his high-point during his speech towards Amalgam, broadcasted on an open channel during the final, semi-suicidal attack on Merida island.
• John from Ginga Densetsu Weed keeps fighting Hougen even though he's outnumbered and nearly beaten to a pulp by Hougen's soldiers. Before Hougen beats the crap out of him more, John says that he and the other soldiers of Ohu would never bow down to him.
  • Even Jerome's packmates were willing to be torn up by Kaibutsu to keep Ohu safe. They clung onto the arteries in a wound on his flank and keep daring him to tear them off of him.
• Jan Valentine in Hellsing. While most other villains in the manga series go out like bitches, he goes out like a psychotic badass: flipping Integra Hellsing the bird, and calling her a bitch, all while he's bleeding and burning to death.
• In Hetalia: Axis Powers, Germany fits this trope whenever he's captured and anticipating torture at the hands of the Allies. Italy...doesn't.
• Higurashi: When They Cry: Rika Furude, a normally perky little girl has been tasered and poisoned (with a syringe she'd brought herself, no less) by the local Ax-Crazy Yandere, Shion Sonozaki. Then, Shion proceeds to add insult to injury by listing the various ways she intends to torture Rika - when Rika suddenly grabs a huge knife and states (in perfect adult Japanese) that she will not be staying for said torture. Shion sneers and dares her to act, but instead of attempting an escape, Rika steadies the knife against the wall, and headbutts it sideways several times while Shion laughs hysterically.
  • Rena also faces her certain demise this way later in the series, going as far as taunting her killer's plans, beliefs, and aspiration to become a god - said killer puts a bullet in her very fast, suggesting that she really struck a nerve.
  • In the visual novel, instead of simply begging Takano to spare Satoko like she did in the anime, Shion taunts her to the point that Takano decides to kill Shion first. Rika points out that Shion deliberately acted this way for the sake of driving her attention away from Satoko and making her live longer, as Takano was initially going to kill the latter first or worse, send her to a lab for her unique brain to be horrifically experimented upon while conscious like it happened with Rika's mother.
• In Hunter × Hunter, Kurapika, having incapacitated Uvogin and disabled his strengthening aura, repeatedly interrogates Uvogin to tell him the locations and identities of the other Phantom Troupe members. Uvogin steadfastly refuses, replying to every demand with "Just kill me now." As a last resort, Kurapika places a curse on Uvogin that will pierce his heart, killing him, if he does not answer truthfully. True to this trope, Uvogin still refuses to confess and dies on the spot after telling Kurapika to go to hell.
• During Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable, Rohan, at the verge of being killed by Highway Star and being coerced to betray Josuke (who Rohan detests) if he wants to live, delivers his famous badass one-liner instead:
  Rohan: I refuse◊. One of my absolute favorite things to do is to say no to whoever thinks they are hot shit.
• Nanako Hasaba in Jujutsu Kaisen reacts this way to the death of her sister, Mimiko, choosing to use her last moments to attack their killer Ryomen Sukuna.
• Garma and Dozle Zabi in Mobile Suit Gundam. Garma attempts to crash his ship into the White Base while shouting "All glory to the nation of Zeon"; Dozle actually climbs out of the ruined Big Zam and fires a machinegun at Amuro and the Gundam until the Big Zam explodes, killing him.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Gael Chan faces down Full Frontal and the Neo Zeong in the Silver Bullet (a Doven Wolf from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ given a new paint job and a Gundam head) to give Banagher Links time to get to the Unicorn Gundam. Despite the power discrepancies, Gael refuses to back down and surrender even as Frontal makes short work of the Silver Bullet.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00 sees Nena Trinity, at the mercy of a vengeful Louise Halevy, right about to be gutted by the humongous fangs of Louise's Regnant while she is stranded in an old, outdated, wrecked Gundam. And all she can do is scream, "This isn't how I wanna die!" Louise calls her out for it, telling Nena that her parents — whom Nena killed — never even got the chance to ask for their lives, and shoves the Regnant's arm pointy fingers first into Nena and her damaged machine, quite literally tearing her in two. And Nena still screeches a final, bitter curse at Louise before she is incinerated in the explosion of her Throne Drei.
• Naruto: In this second panel, a dying Kakuzu just has to lampshade Darui's Captain Obvious statement.
• One Piece:
  • In his Dying Moment of Awesome, Mr. 2's final words to the Warden Magellan? "Satisfaction". Even more awesome? He actually won that fight and is shown to be alive two years later.
  • Trafalgar Law, in typical D fashion, laughs in the face of death. Doflamingo is about to shoot him to death but instead offers him the chance to die via the Op-Op Fruit's Dangerous Forbidden Technique that grants immortality, in exchange for a wish. Law still has it in him to troll him one last time by seemingly agreeing, only to demand that Doflamingo bring Corazon back to life and lick the asshole of every single citizen in Dressrosa. Then he taunts him with how he'll never get Caesar back or beat the Straw Hats, before giving him the finger as one final "screw you" to his Arch-Enemy.
  • And of course, there was Whitebeard's final screw you to the World Government, shouting that "One Piece does exist!" ensuring them far more of the headaches they'd had since Gold Roger's death years before.
  • During the Wano Arc, after being beaten bloody by Tobi Roppo member Ulti, Ulti demands that Nami admit Luffy will never become Pirate King. Even knowing that she's only one of Ulti's headbutts away from death, Nami refuses and declares through tears that Luffy will definitely become Pirate King.
• In Saiyuki, Sanzou is caught by a scorpion lady and is paralyzed by some sort of spell. Just barely able to talk, he manages to insult the woman enough that she starts beating him up... only for him to turn it around when it turns out the beating dispelled the magic and freed him.
• Samurai Champloo starts on a very interesting note: Mugen and Jin on the verge of being executed. When the local lord asks if they want to beg, Mugen invokes the trope by saying he'd prefer the blade to bowing down to him. Jin achieves it in fewer words by saying, "I agree with him." Most of the first episode details How We Got Here and then goes on to reveal they fight their way free instead.
• Date Masamune does this in the Sengoku Basara anime when Nobunaga is about to poke out his remaining eye.
• The Severing Crime Edge: While she is saved, Iwai demonstrates this to one of the many villains targeting her, not only enduring the physical and psychological torture her enemy subjects her to but looking her in the eye after all the torments with a look full of defiance, a look more hateful and insulting than any taunt to her domination-obsessed captor. She demonstrates rather well that even an eternal Damsel in Distress can have real steel in her.
• Nia in the last episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann responds to the Anti-Spiral's breaking speech with a taunt of her own: "No matter how deeply you probe my body, you will NEVER understand! He will come. Definitely..."

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