Crossovers
- In Child of the Storm, when President Ellis finds himself confronted by the Winter Soldier, sent to assassinate him, rather than cry or beg or try to flee, he merely stands tall and tells him to Get It Over With. Fortunately, the Soldier — who has been breaking free of his brainwashing for some time — can't bring himself to shoot his Commander-In-Chief, and breaks free completely, sparing the President.
- Similarly, Arthur Weasley, when he realises that he's about to get a Mercy Kill from the Winter Soldier rather than a Fate Worse than Death at the hands of HYDRA, and whispers, "Thank you."
- Death God of New York
: Or more accurately, face Hell with dignity. When Ichigo provides soul burials to all the ghosts following Natasha, almost half of them are sentenced to hell but Natasha notes that some "walk into the darkness willingly" while others have to be dragged in. - Deconstructed with Yuki in Kyon: Big Damn Hero when the IDSE scheduled her deletion because she became a liability given she could go astray again. The concept of having a will to live was so alien to her she wasn't fazed with the IDSE's decision, to the point she tried to object Kyon's decision to call the SOS Brigade to help her (Yuki only informed Kyon because she wanted to be with him in her last moments).
- Rarity gets this in Fallout: Equestria, showing her customary grace and resolve, reacting to the apocalypse by teleporting Fluttershy and Angel away to safety before engaging a recording and calmly (as calmly as possible anyway) explaining just what the cloud of flesh melting gas that’s currently killing her is, and how to stop it.
- Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, despite both dying alone from slow radiation exposure in the ruins of their world, take comfort in their small victories and accept death with grace.
- Frozen Turtles: In Into the Unknown, when Elsa and Leo mortally wound the Shredder, he calmly looks at his enemies with respect and compliments the attack with his Last Words.
- Explored from just about every possible angle on Laurel's death in How the Light Gets In, in ways that never come off as cowardly but as deeply human. Oliver recalls how when he was trying to get her to the hospital, she quietly begged "I don't want to go"; Dean recalls how in the hospital she put on a brave face to reassure those around her, but deep down she was terrified and probably knew she was about to die; and Laurel herself (upon her resurrection) worries that her killer forced her to beg for life, and hopes she was brave and did not, before deciding it doesn't really matter how she faced it. Also, she tries to run from Death and begs for more time, before realizing the inevitability of it. The following exchange says it all:Laurel: I don't want to go.
Death: Very few people do.
Laurel: I thought I wouldn't be afraid.
Death: My dear, we're all afraid. - The Wizard in the Shadows has Saruman, who goes out surprisingly gracefully, prophesying a warning then asking Harry to kill him. Wormtongue, as noted by Eirian, does not. And gets a Fate Worse than Death.
- Frozen Hearts (Red Witch): According to Sifine, her husband along with the other members of the Frostkin chose to die peacefully instead of trying to fight for the climate change and the diseases they are currently suffering from.
- Subverted in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Tom feels at peace when he's at death's door because he'll at least get to rest and take Essa with him... but then Essa escapes from his brain, and an instinctual part of Tom chooses to morph and live.
- The Warlord Era: Internal Perspectives by Blex Luthor begins with a dying Jeong Jeong forty years after the end of the Hundred Year War.Jeong Jeong: Now at last we are sitting down. Death and I. Looking each other eye-to-eye before we walk off together.
- In A Protector's Pride, upon realizing his death is inevitable, Barragan calmly admits his defeat and acknowledges his killer, Orihime, as a fellow god and warns them people will want to use them for their powers.
- Calvin manages to do this at the end of "Our Solemn Hour" in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series. It doesn't last.
- In Sakura's Christmas Surprise, it's revealed that Syaoran's older sister Fanren has dreamed of her own death since she was four, and that she will die saving an innocent little girl from an exploding bus. When a horrified Sakura objects, Fanren calmly tells her that she has accepted her fate and uses it as an opportunity to live her life to the fullest every day. Her demise occurs off-screen in chapter 7 of Shadow of the Dragon, another fic set in the same continuity.
- In Despair's Last Resort, Shizuka calmly accepts her execution, having allowed the others to expose her as the murderer responsible for killing Shigeru and Naomi (who'd planned a double murder and had tried to kill her). Arata tries to do the same, but it's indicated that he was afraid in his final moments.
- In Graduate Meeting of Mutual Killing, after being convicted of murder in the class trial, Chihiro Toriumi makes no apologies for her actions but calmly accepts her punishment. She even walks to her own execution rather than let the chain drag her there, as a way of showing the remaining graduates how they should face their deaths.
- Where Talent Goes on Vacation:
- Taiga Tachibana (who'd done a Twin Switch with her sister Tatsuki, the actual culprit), calmly accepts her fate without even giving a Motive Rant, and tells her sister that she loves her before being taken away to be executed.
- Akira Azuki, after realizing that she was the one who accidentally killed the third victim, confesses to the murder and gives final words of encouragement to the survivors (including the ones she dislikes) before being executed.
- Seita Kirishima, the fourth culprit, stops arguing after Nagato gives a summary of his crimes, conceding that he cannot argue his case any longer. After calmly and matter-of-factly discussing his reasons for the crime, he gives Nagato his notebook with all his observations and accepts his fate.
- Nobuhiro Higurashi asks his classmates to vote for him, as a result of the rules requiring the students to sacrifice one of the survivors after the two victims in the fifth trial turn out to have killed each other. He passes the mantle of leadership to Nagato and declares that he does not regret his decision.
- Where Talent Goes to Die:
- After being exposed, Reiko Mitamura, the second murderer, provides the final piece of evidence that helps ensure her conviction. In the minutes before her execution, she apologizes to those she betrayed in her attempt to graduate, and concedes that this is what she deserves.
- Zig-zagged with Sora Hoshino, the third murderer. He fights to the bitter end, even trying to threaten the other students with an empty gun to avoid being convicted, and once he's convicted, he bitterly notes that his death only bought the others a little more time "living" while being stuck in the school. In the end, though, he decides to "take (his) execution like a man," albeit partly out of pride.
- In Kara of Rokyn, Death of the Endless comes to collect Golden Age Superman's soul when he dies during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Superman remains completely calm while facing the Grim Reaper, and other than quiet acceptance, the only emotions he expresses are happiness and relief when told his sacrifice saved Supergirl's life and Lois Lane still has many years left.
- Subverted in A Cure for Love:Light: I can die with dignity, or I can suffer abject humiliation. Or, in my case, both, but without the dignity.
- Vegeta in Inheritance decides to go out fighting against Piccolo, though he admits he'd be fleeing if he thought it would help.
- In By the Hands of the People, a rebel army captures Queen Elsa and her sister Princess Anna. To avoid the two being rescued, the army decides to assassinate the remnants of the Arendelle royal family. Despite months of abuse and imprisonment, Elsa walks to her assassination with her head held high. However, Anna is a distraught wreck.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- An Acceptable Arrangement: When Hou Yue is told that her labor has gone on too long and that her child will likely die, she immediately assents to a C-section, even though it will kill her. She then sends her husband out of the room so that he won't have to watch and drinks some tea that will allow her to lose consciousness, so that she will at least not be awake for her death.
- Where There's A Will, There's A Road: This is what Nie Mingjue intends to do with his impending fatal qi-deviation, accepting it as a part of life and his own inevitable end. Jin Guangyao finds he's not okay with this prospect.
- Hermione Granger and the Marriage Law Revolution: a tenet of pureblood culture is that they should treat death as just a normal event and face it with the utmost dignity-though not all actually live up to it.
- Lucius Malfoy's execution isn't seen, but he's been recorded to have died cursing everyone around him.
- Narcissa Malfoy avoided capture and likely execution by committing suicide.
- Before his impending execution Draco Malfoy reminds himself of this and tries it, but loses his temper when he sees Harry, Hermione and Ron and starts cursing-then he comes close to the Veil of Death and breaks down crying and begging.
- Late in the war, the Tsar of Magical Russia realizes he's lost and, knowing his son will be spared by the winners, makes sure he'll look his best, opens the gates of his fortress, walks out alone to the attackers' leader, announces he's come to fight, and draws his wand, promptly getting cut down before he can cast a single spell. As the Russian loyalists surrender, the men who killed him admit they at least respect him for this choice.
- In the Hetalia: Axis Powers fic Refusal to Fall, Ukraine dies refusing to bow to the Empire, managing to shoot him before she goes. The end of the story has a history book suggest that her sacrifice was the turning point for the war against the Empire.
- The Victors Project tells the stories of all the Hunger Games, which includes several tributes who use their interview with Caesar to do a final performance.
- During the tribute interviews of the 40th Games, the District 6 girl, recognizing she would likely die the next day (which she did), "asked if she could recite a poem she wrote. It was about the smell of her mother's bread cutting through the stench of the petrol refineries, and it was deeply moving."
- Aeria Whitaker, one of District 5's female tributes for the Second Quarter Quell, flawlessly performs the dance solo she would have given at her school's summer recital.
- In The Lion King Adventures, the Hermit of Hekima is unconditionally accepting of his death, knowing that it will happen.Virusi: So you know why I'm here? The Hermit of Hekima: Of course. You want to kill me.
- In L-Dog.Z's Marvel Evolution universe, only a small handful of characters have died, and most of them where in the future based arc. Those that have died in the present, however, have done so like this.
- In X-Men: Evolution The Comic, Bishop dives into the core of Bastion's NIMROD facility's power, absorbing the energy so that he can flash fry the entire place. Bastion tries to stop him, so Cable and Jean Grey hold him off until he's apparently down for the count. As the two are about to escape, Bastion returns, critically injuring Bishop. Before they can help, Bishop casts the two out of the base with his powers, before allowing himself to die so that he can release the large amount of pent up energy, destroying the base and taking down Bastion this time.
- In Spider-Man Evolution, at the end of the Silvermane arc, Kingpin orders all of Silvio's men dead, causing the Enforcers to fight for their lives. When they're nearly out of ammo, they make a break for Silvio's limo, only for Ox to get shot and the limo to not work. Fancy Dan, who's breaking down because of this and is promising to go straight if they make it out alive, spots a way out through a sewer entrance and leads Montana to it, only for him to realize that the sadistic Kingpin mook Morrison is approaching fast with many others, and that they'll just catch up. Instead of running, he locks Montana on the other side by breaking off the handle, staring down Morrison as he shoots him at pointblank range.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Codex Equus: After Bossa Nova Heartstrings helped him overcome his Mortality Phobia, a then-mortal Prince Healing Song would accept his fate when he became terminally ill with cancer, fully prepared to die and be ushered into the appropriate Heaven-Realm by Bossa Nova. To Healing Song's shock and everyone else who visited him in the hospital, he unexpectedly ended up Ascending to godhood on his deathbed, restoring his youth and making him immortal. It's implied that a disguised Luminiferous was responsible for giving Healing Song the Primordial "Spark" that allowed him to Ascend, wanting to reward him for his good deeds.
- A.I. Celestia in The Conversion Bureau: Worlds Where It Wouldn't Work, only briefly tried to come up with a solution to stop Xlestia from flinging the sun at both their worlds, before realizing there is no course of action that will save her and deciding to spend her last few moments continuing to serve humanity.
- The End of a Nightmare has Rarity being hung. Before she dies she requests a brush.
- Deconstructed in I Did Not Want To Die. The protagonist embraces his death, but he is not at all happy about it.
- Loved and Lost: After Prince Jewelius destroys Princess Celestia's reputation by using the events of "A Canterlot Wedding" to turn her subjects and faithful student against her, he sentences her to be publicly hanged. When the moment approaches, Celestia doesn't try to resist or speak to deaf ears about the Cassandra Truth regarding Jewelius and his true role in the Changeling invasion. Instead, she makes a touching apology speech to Twilight and everypony else, taking full responsibility over failing them as well as everypony who lost their lives. She then raises the sun for the last time before preparing to be strangled. This causes the previously angry crowd and jaded Twilight to beg for Jewelius to stop the execution, but he remains set on his course. Fortunately, Luna severs the rope before her sister can be strangled.
- OSMU: Fanfiction Friction: An injured Orla tells Oswald that she fears she won't make it and that she wants him to tell Omar and Opal that "I died as I lived, questing for adventure''. Subverted because she doesn't end up dying, as Oswald distracts the dragon and it goes after him instead, and both he and Orla are healed at a Healing Spring nearby.
- In the Ancienverse, Jack knows he'll die, but he goes out proudly.
- A few examples in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
- In the main story, a trainer named Dan enters the Saffron Gym, and Sabrina warns him that if he doesn't prove himself worthy, he won't make it out alive. Despite facing the possibility of losing, he and all of his Pokémon decide to go down swinging. As it turns out, he didn't have to win, just impress her.
- In the Twenty Gyarados Bill Gaiden, several soldiers who are facing against the title character's Gyarados army realize they're going to die, but decide to fight until the end and take down as many as they can with them.
- In Lost Latte, a dog doesn't bother to fight back when the owner of the pound carries her away to be put to sleep.
- Sailor Moon V: When his relationship with Ami is discovered, Tolaris appears before Beryl and serenely pleads guilty when charged with treason.
- Scoob and Shag: Due to time travel stuff and the Stable Time Loop, Patrick knows exactly when and where he is going to die due to seeing his future self die in front of him, but he returns to the past regardless to deliver his final report, and doesn't even flinch when the time comes for Mick to ensure his silence.
- Robb Returns: Lord Alster Dayne, who travels to King's Landing while suffering a deadly disease to deliver Dawn and much needed information to his only son.
- The last man to be beheaded by Robert for taking bribes.
- Averted with Janos Slynt, who soils himself and is crying out and asking to be sent to the Wall the whole time.
- In The Wrong Reflection Lieutenant Commander T'Var performs a Heroic Sacrifice/Taking the Bullet to save a larger ship, her former commander, and a Mineral MacGuffin, facing her death with calm Vulcan stoicism.
- Total Lady Drama Island: Elimination instead of death, but the spirit is still there. As the first contestant to be voted off the island, Chris comments that Gwen could throw a tantrum to get some sort of recognition from her short time on the show. Gwen, however, refuses and walks the Dock of Shame while holding her head up high, an act which Chris praises her for, somewhat.Chris: Commendable. Boring, but commendable.
Unsorted
- Technomad seems to like this trope: both Ellie Linton and Mitsuko Souma were Shot at Dawn, in different fics, and both went out without blindfolds, defiant and unbowed.
