"We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. [...] Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human."
An end-of-story memorial service given by a support or surviving major character in memory of less fortunate characters. May serve as a handy explanation of what would otherwise be a Gainax Ending to wrap things up and tell you that no, the heroes are not "just hiding", or merely an emotive, tragic summation on the sorry affair.
See The Hero Dies and "Everybody Dies" Ending for what may lead to this kind of ending being needed. May be used to prevent a Gainax Ending. Bittersweet Endings are the most common to feature this. See also To Absent Friends, which is closely related.
Note that this is both an Ending Trope and a Death Trope, so expect major spoilers... especially since the appearance of this trope is an indication that the main character might have bought it.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Sword Art Online: The Mother's Rosario arc ends with players from across ALfheim Online paying respects to Yuuki in her final moments, followed by a funeral for them.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has one, held for Kamina.
- The Vampire Hunter D movie Bloodlust ends with Leila's funeral 60 years later.
Comic Books
- In All Fall Down, Grace delivers one of these for Sophie, with strong implications that the heroes and villains will eventually find closure and move on.
- Batman: The Seduction of the Gun ends with Tim and Bruce attending the service for one of the kids who was murdered at the school Tim infiltrated. It wasn't clear the character had died until then. While he had been shot, it was the girl who was shot in the head at nearly the same time whose death was established at the scene.
- The first Powers arc, "Who Killed Retro-Girl?", ended with thousands of people holding a candlelight vigil in memory of the murdered heroine.
- The final volume of The Sandman (1989), "The Wake", features one in which billions of beings from across the multiverse gather for the funeral of the protagonist, Dream.
- X-Wing Rogue Squadron ends like this, looking back both at the character who died in the last arc, and more briefly the many who came before her.
Fan Works
- Excluding the epilogue, Between Dreams and Memories ends with Schlatt and Wilbur's joint funeral.
- The epilogue of Concerning Us takes place at Janine's grave.
- The epilogue of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic Moments of Loss features a memorial service for Fluttershy.
- The first story arc of The Price of Flight ends with the funeral of the four Air Witches who died fighting The Fair Folk in the skies over Lancre and the Chalk. Ten years later, the second story arcnote begins with the annual Memorial Service for the dead of the Air Watch.
- Near the end of the Lilo & Stitch/Star Trek fanfic Starlight, Jameston holds one for the fallen dead of her crew.
Films — Live-Action
- The end credits of American Sniper include home movie footage of Chris Kyle's funeral procession as it drives down the highway, along with news footage of a funeral ceremony for Kyle performed at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Superman has two funerals happening at the same time. One with Amazing Freaking Grace, full military honors at the capital city, and a massive mourning at a new monument for him — the coffin is actually empty there. A smaller, more intimate funeral happens in Smallville, with his body in the coffin this time. He isn't quite dead and will return in Justice League.
- The last scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier takes place at Nick Fury's grave. Subverted in that Nick Fury is not dead.
- The Living Wake is all about organizing said memorial service, since the main character knows he's dying.
- In a bit of twist, Remember the Titans actually starts with a funeral, but it doesn't say or show who died. The end, however, returns to the funeral and reveals that it's for Gerry Bertier.
- Occurs in the ending of the classic submarine movie Run Silent, Run Deep, when Cmdr. Richardson is buried at sea.
- The Burial in Space of Spock at the end of Star Trek II. "Of all the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most ... human."
- Star Wars:
- Occurs at the end of The Phantom Menace for Qui-Gon Jinn.
- Part of the ending montage in Revenge of the Sith is the funeral procession for Padmé.
- The end of Return of the Jedi shows Luke as the only attendee of Darth Vader's funeral pyre.
- A Filipino movie called Utol ("Brother") ended with the main character attending his friend's funeral. Then he adopts a puppy on his way home. Awww.
Literature
- City of No End: The first book of the series ends with the funeral of Lord Kavin Norn.
- Isaac Asimov's Forward the Foundation: The epilogue contains a Encyclopedia Galactica entry for Hari Seldon, giving the official details about his death and burial.
- Humboldt's Gift: Ends with Humboldt being disinterred from a potter's field and reburied, after the scenario that he wrote with Charlie was turned into a lucrative movie.
- InCryptid: The final entry in the Jonathan and Frances short stories, "The Star of New Mexico", is about Frances Healy's funeral.
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh ends with Cleveland's funeral and Art reflecting on the summer past and how the various characters have dealt and are dealing with it.
- The Wild Boy: The resolution of the novel contains a memorial service for Ilox and Phlarx.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: "The Last Day" ends with Brittas' funeral after he is crushed to death by a falling water tank, although it is ultimately subverted when he comes back to life partway through it.
- Parodied by Canada's Worst Driver in its Season 7 finale, which gave a funeral to The Alleged Car.
- Season 1 of Combat Hospital ends with a memorial being interrupted by new wounded coming in and medical staff leaving to deal with it.
- Season 8 of Criminal Minds ends with Strauss's funeral and the memorial in Rossi's house.
- Doctor Who:
- The Doctor Who episode "The Family of Blood" ends with a memorial service attended by Timothy – a young boy for the majority of the two-parter, but now seen nearly a hundred years later, reflecting on World War I.
- At the end of the Fifth Doctor episode "Black Orchid", it is said, though not shown, that the Doctor and his Companions had stayed around to attend the funerals of George Cranleigh and the two men he killed.
- The end of the Seventh Doctor episode "Remembrance of the Daleks" shows the Doctor, Ace and other surviving characters at the door of a church for Mike Smith's funeral. While the others go in, the Doctor and Ace hang back, then leave.
- The Stargate SG-1 two-parter "Heroes" ends with the funeral for Dr. Frasier, where Samantha Carter reads a list of names belonging to people whom the departed has saved.
- Torchwood: Miracle Day ends with a funeral for Esther.
Music
- The song "The Festival of Death" in The Residents Album Eskimo.
Video Games
- In Dragon Age: Origins, if your Grey Warden sacrificed themselves to stop the Archdemon then you'll get to see their memorial service.
- In Final Fantasy X, Yuna delivers this at a memorial blitzball tournament, reminding everyone of the sacrifices made by certain characters to bring peace to Spira.
- Full Throttle ends with a memorial service held for Malcolm Corley, who is killed early in the story. The "biker priest" Father Torque reads the elegy.
- At the end of Halo 3, Earth's commander gives a memorial service in memory of those who died in the final battle, including Master Chief. Subverted in the fact that Master Chief isn't quite dead yet.
- Mass Effect:
- At the end of Mass Effect 2, if you lose squadmates on the Suicide Mission, you will see Shepard standing over a group of coffins, one for each teammate lost. Averted if you work your hardest to get everyone out alive.
- After the Crucible fires in Mass Effect 3, the surviving crew of the Normandy has one for Shepard and Anderson. Subverted if you choose to destroy the Reapers, where whoever puts their name on the memorial wall decides not to, hoping that Shepard might be alive.
Web Videos
- In Monster Island Buddies, "Gamera Returns" ends with Baragon's funeral after Cloverfield murders him.
- Pirates SMP: Scott's Day 132 (December 8th) livestream has an epilogue taking place a week after the main events of the livestream, where he makes a memorial for his late younger brother, Acho, who died in the climax of the stream, and adopts Acho's dog Dipper as per stars Last Request.
Western Animation
- The Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" was split into several sub-stories, with most of the major characters getting their own little vignette. Iroh's Tale ending with a heart-crushing song about a boy going off to war, while the old-general cried over his son's memorial. To make it even worse, it counts as an actual memorial to Mako, Iroh's original voice actor who had just passed away.
- The second episode of Galaxy Rangers ends with Eliza being put into stasis. It's not a funeral in the sense she's dead, but she might as well be. Complete with Rousing Speech by Commander Walsh, Perpetual Smiler Zozo openly weeping, and Eliza's husband making his Heroic Vow to restore her to life, no matter what it takes.
- South Park: The second-to-last scene from "The Return of Chef" takes place at Chef's memorial service.
