As a Death Trope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.
- The Series (Season 7) Finale of Arby 'n' the Chief was intended to go off like this according to Jon Graham when Arbiter and Master Chief light a Gas Explosion in their apartment killing themselves after realizing there was nothing left for them in the World that didn't revolve around gaming. There are several articles on his blog stating that this was his intentions, but because of how morbid and bleak the show had become by that point, whether it can be viewed that way or not his way however is debatable.
- Some rare metahumans in Brennus are able to 'swan song', burning away their power (and their life) within a few minutes in order to flare their power to new heights.
- In Choose Your History, Wilhelm III, the last Kaiser of Germany, has the armies of Salvationist Russia rampaging through Berlin and pursuing him through his palace, and he himself is rapidly going mad. Fortunately, Wilhelm is Crazy-Prepared in addition to crazy, and retreats into a secret bunker beneath the palace... which is revealed to contain a freaking nuclear bomb that Wilhelm put there for exactly this eventuality. He detonates the nuke, destroying the city of Berlin and everything else for several miles, along with 1.5 million Salvationist soldiers, as one final act of defiance to Stalin. This marks the point at which the tide of the war starts turning against the Salvationists and in favor of the Allies.
- DEATH BATTLE!:
- Goku's first defeat against Superman has him obliterated in an Earth-Shattering Kaboom resulting from their Punch Parry. His third has him meet the same fate — this time with their simultaneous punches destroying the universe.
- Befitting both of their reputations, Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro obliterate each other with one final exchange of blows in the middle of a black hole. Their fight is then immortalized as a constellation of shining stars.
- At the end of the Sephiroth vs. Vergil episode, Vergil goes out like a champ. After being tricked by Sephiroth's illusions into giving Sephiroth enough time to prepare his Supernova attack (depicted as dragging his victims into an alternate dimension, similar to FFVII's Summons, at the exact point of time that the Sun of that dimension explodes and wipes out the solar system), Vergil has enough strength left to cut his way out of the dimension with Yamato while taking the full brunt of Supernova, which had already overtaxed his Healing Factor, leaving him horrifically burnt and at death's door. While Sephiroth finishes him off immediately afterward (via impaling him with his Masamune and slicing him in half at chest-level), there aren't many more impressive last acts than surviving an exploding sun to the face.
- One of note, however, would be Star Force Mega Man's final act during the Mega Man Battle Royale. A wounded Geo hacks the Mother Elf and possesses X. He then proceeds to combine their power to launch a Red Gaia Eraser at MegaMan.EXE, who uses Dark Aura in response. This last attack actually cracks the Dark Aura (which, bare in mind, had previously been established to be capable of surviving the destruction of the Cyberworld, an entire universe), forcing MegaMan.EXE to activate Hub Style in order to turn the tables, with Hub's retaliation vaporizing X and Geo in short order. He may have lost, but that is one hell of a feat for Geo to go out on. In the same fight is also the classic Mega Man, who, fresh out of weapon energy, wrecked almost beyond repair (courtesy of X impaling him with the Z-Saber) and is about to be dragged into a black hole to his death, still tries dragging X in with him, Terminator-style.
- Guts goes down swinging in his fight against Dimitri; his fingers mustering up his last embers of energy, he manages to shatter Areadbhar and almost land a killing blow upon Dimitri, only failing by finally bleeding out mid-swing, his body still standing tall in death. Dimitri is impressed enough by this display by his Worthy Opponent that he makes an oath to make sure Guts's soul will be at peace.
- Although Bill Cipher was able to destroy Discord on the physical and spiritual planes, the Spirit of Chaos was able to trick the one-eyed demon long enough to send him back into his own dimension; sacrificing himself to save Equestria and his friends. All Bill could do was reach back into the portal in vain as his plan to conquer Equestria has failed which leads him to destroy Discord's soul in a fit of rage. While Discord may have lost the fight, he ultimately won the war by stopping Bill from what he was trying to accomplish at the beginning. It's also likely his death won't stick for long either as the Spirit of Chaos, Discord will reform as long as chaos exists; meaning the only thing Bill got from this fight was a Meaningless Villain Victory.
- In A More Personal Union, Francis Drake caps his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Spanish with one of these. Having discovered the Spanish Armada being assembled to invade England, and having no way of getting warning to London in time, what does he do? He fills his ship to the brim with gunpowder and rams it into the heart of the Armada, the resulting explosion destroying most of the Spanish ships.
- In PBG Hardcore Minecraft #6, Jared tanks numerous attacks from the Wither as it chases him and him alone for nearly the entire fight, both sparing Dean, Jeff and Chad from taking much damage and giving them the space they need to fight back. He dies only five seconds before the Wither, shouting "Do it, my friends! I believe in you!"
- Red vs. Blue:
- General Doyle gets one in the Chorus Trilogy, destroying the city reactor, and as such taking out most of the mercenary army fighting his people.
- Epsilon at the end of season 13. With the Reds and Blues trapped in a room with Charon's forces about to breach the door, everyone gears up ready for a Last Stand. Right before the door is breached Epsilon leaves a message to his friends and others to several other people explaining that he is deconstructing himself so that the fragments he'll leave will be able to run all the enhancements in the Meta's old armor so that everyone will have a chance of surviving the fight. As he says good-bye he laments that he'll never know if his sacrifice really made a difference, but he just needs to have faith that it will be enough.Church: Ain't that a bitch.
- In The Ruins of an American Party System, when Huey Long is facing the end of his political career and jail time for corruption charges, he decides to go out on his own terms. First, he votes for the Civil Rights Act (partly because he's always personally wanted it but fought it for political reasons, partly as a final "fuck you" to his opponents both within and without his own party). Then he overdoses on morphine in his home before he can be formally charged with anything. And as an unexpected bonus, the shock of hearing about all of this causes Long's main idealogical rival Eugene Talmadge to drop dead of a heart attack.
- RWBY: Pyrrha always uses her Semblance in subtle ways; against Cinder, she goes all-out for the first and last time. She is a match for Cinder's fighting abilities, throwing the enormous gears of Ozpin's ruined Clock Tower office at Cinder, landing solid hits, and even pinning Cinder by the throat. Despite possessing the Fall Maiden's magic, Cinder can only defeat Pyrrha after Pyrrha's Aura runs out — a limitation Semblances suffer, but magic does not. It's strongly implied that, without the magic, Pyrrha would have won. Pyrrha was, after all, The Ace.
- One from the archives of the SCP Foundation: a D-class unit, sent in with a video feed to die for recon, apparently singlehandedly fought his way to and destroyed the source of SCP-1983
... despite being unarmed. - Ma Ti in Suburban Knights. After years of being the Butt-Monkey of Channel Awesome, he gives an epic rant at his poor treatment and viciously insults Malachite, having long stopped caring what happens to him. And then it turns out his ring can defeat Malachite, so he goes out in an epic Beam-O-War and saves the day.
- To Boldly Flee gives us the Heroic Sacrifice of The Nostalgia Critic, as he merges with the Plot Hole to save the universe. By punching the hole to boot!"Somebody has to merge with it. Somebody has to keep it safe.
