Finale Title Drop

A subtrope of Title Drop, where the title of a work is used as the last line spoken or near its end. Often, the title drop will finally explain why the episode, book, etc. is called that way to begin with. You can probably find these mainly in thriller works, where it makes you sit up and think (and adds a bit of drama to the ending). It's also common in plays that were written during the Victorian era.

The Namesake could be this, when revealed in the final moments.

Compare to Theme Music Withholding. Not to be confused with Close on Title. When it's not dropped in-universe but rather as the title of the finale, it's a Title Drop Chapter.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• Attack on Titan: It's not the overall series finale, but there is a title drop during the conclusion of its initial Myth Arc (which involves solving the Ontological Mystery of the origin of the Titans and the Three Walls) where its revealed that the series title (Shingeki no Kyojin^note lit. Attacking Titan(s), since Japanese doesn't differentiate between singular and plural forms. This, along with the Double-Meaning Title, was Lost in Translation in English, which translated the Titan's name as just "Attack Titan".) is the name of Eren Yeager's primary Titan form.
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts: The final episodes for both seasons of the anime adaptation are titled: "Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu," though an exclamation mark was added for the second season.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The final version of the Gurren Lagann mecha that they used in the finale against the Anti Spirals is called exactly as the title (meaning "Heaven Piercing Gurren Lagann").
• The Japanese name of the final episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! was "Tobe!" ("Fly!" in English) followed by the title of the show Hoshi no Kirby ("Kirby of the Stars").
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: A franchise-wide example in the final Rebuild of Evangelion film, in which Shinji's decision to use the Impact his father caused to Ret-Gone the Evangelions, Angels, Second Impact and everything related is labeled "Neon Genesis".
• The final episode's title for Darker than Black is "Does the Reaper Dream of Darkness Darker than Black?".
• The final episode of Overtake! is also named "Overtake!". Oddly for a series that usually goes with Close on Title, though, the title card is shown midway through.
• The very last words of Shangri-La.
• The final episode's title and last spoken word for Welcome to the NHK, aside from the first episode.
• Good Luck! Ninomiya-kun's anime adaptation ends with the show's title as the final spoken line by Hosaka as he overlooks another normal, chaotic morning with the many women surrounding Shungo Ninomiya.
• Re:CREATORS turns out to be the name of the novel Meteora writes in the last episode about all the things the Creations experienced.
• Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is revealed to be the name of the book Yamada reads to his children in the Distant Finale.

Fan Works

• Kiss It Better: In the final line of the fic, Vegeta says the title phrase as a way of teasing Goku.
• Last Child of Krypton: Asuka calls Shinji this in the epilogue, or being more specific how he will soon no longer be.
• Never Been Bothered's final line is "And not once, ever, did I care. It's never bothered me." This refers to the protagonist not caring that Anna and Elsa are sisters.
• The sixth and final Chapter of Where Talent Goes to Die shares the title of the fanfic.
• My Name Is Molly ends with Molly giving her ID and confirming her identity with "My name is Molly".
• The final line in Final Toll is "The final bell tolled."
• The Petriculture Cycle: The last chapter of Avocation is "Avocation", named such because the story is of someone trying to find a job, a.k.a an avocation, and they have succeeded at the end.
• Eyes on Me: One of the final lines in Do It For Him is "We are a family now, and we need to pull ourselves together and do it for him."
• In the closing scene of The Sun Will Come Up And The Seasons Will Change, Lianna asks Mary to read the short story she had published in an anthology as an award for winning a short story contest out loud to the guests at the former’s birthday party. After agreeing, Mary introduces her story to the In-Universe audience by first stating the title: The Sun Will Come Up And The Seasons Will Change.

Film - Animated

• The Great Mouse Detective. Dawson's closing lines.
  Dawson: From that time on, Basil and I were a close team, and over the years we had many cases together. But I shall always look back on that first with the most fondness: My introduction to Basil of Baker Street: The great mouse detective.
• The last line of Big Hero 6 is Hiro asking "Who are we?", then the scene cuts to a title card showing "Big Hero 6".

Film - Live Action

• Back to the Future Part III: In the last four lines of the trilogy (the other two being Doc telling Marty and Jennifer to stand back and telling his sons to buckle up as he fires up the time-traveling steam train):
  Marty: Hey Doc! Where you goin' now? Back to the future?
  Doc Brown: Nope. Already been there!
• The Dark Knight. Commissioner Gordon's final monologue about Batman.
  Gordon: Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So, we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.
• In the final moments of Countess Dracula Elizabeth Bathroy, bricked up in the room she'll spend the rest of her life in, hears the whisperings outside as they call her Countess Dracula - an allusion to Dracula which hadn't occurred at any point earlier in the film.
• The final line of Chinatown:
  Walsh: Forget it, Jake... it's Chinatown.
• The ending of Fantastic Four (2015) mixes this trope with Close on Title when the main characters are discussing what name they should give to their team:
  Reed Richards: We've come a long way since the garage.
  The Thing: Gotta say, it's fantastic.
  Reed Richards: Say that again...
  The Thing: It's fantastic.
  Reed Richards: Yes, it is. Guys, I got it. Ready?
  Johnny Storm: Yeah...
  FANT4STIC
• The titular address of 10 Cloverfield Lane is the street on which Howard lives. We learn this when Michelle knocks over the house's mailbox as she flees Howard's bunker after destroying the alien craft.
• In While You Were Sleeping, the title is quoted by the main character:
  Lucy: Peter once asked me when I fell in love with Jack. And I told him, "It was while you were sleeping."
• The final line from the film adaptation of The Land That Time Forgot:
  Tyler: However, we are determined to move ever northward, ever forward, toward the greater mysteries that lie ahead, of this land that time forgot.
• The last line of The Last of the Mohicans concludes with the title.
  Chingachgook: Bid them patience and ask death for speed; for they are all there but one - I, Chingachgook - Last of the Mohicans.
• The closing narration of Spider-Man ends with the title:
  Peter Parker: This is my gift. My curse. Who am I? I'm Spider Man.
• Iron Man ends with Tony Stark admitting:
  Tony Stark: Truth is... I am Iron Man.
• I, Frankenstein has a closing monologue ending with the title:
  Adam: I, defender of the demon hoard. I, my father's son. I, Frankenstein.
• The essay read at the end of The Breakfast Club is signed "Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club"
• Subverted in the final scene of Mystery Men the team is being interviewed by a group of reporters, wanting to know their team name.
  Becky Beaner: Well, whatever you call them, Champion City will forever owe a debt of gratitude to these mystery men.
  The Sphinx: Wait! Wait, that's it! We are... the Super Squad! [awkward silence]
  The Bowler: No, no, alliteration in these situations is corny.
• The ending of the movie Lion has Saroo returning to India, introducing his adoptive mother Sue to his biological mother Kamla. There, he learns that he had been pronouncing his own name wrong his whole life; it is actually Sheru, meaning "lion."

Literature

• The Heroes of Olympus. Hera/Juno does it while speaking with Jason about his destiny in the last chapter of The Lost Hero, the first book of the series.
• The last five words of the novel The Silence of the Lambs are "the silence of the lambs," in reference to an intense conversation Clarice had earlier on with Lecter about witnessing lambs being slaughtered as a child.
• The Last Night in Twisted River, by John Irving, ends with the narrator considering how "his father must have felt, in the throes and dire circumstances of his last night in Twisted River."
• "... I stood there, shaky on my feet, rocking from the vibrations of their roars, proud as a peacock, listening numbly as they chanted my name and cheered for me — me... Darren Shan... The Vampire Prince!" (what's under the spoiler is the title of the installment in the series that the quote comes from).
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: The original novella, and most endings to the game, end the narrator transformed into a featureless blob incapable of harming themself, communicating, or even doing anything but silently bemoaning their fate.
  I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within. Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance. Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last. AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet ... AM has won, simply ... he has taken his revenge ... I have no mouth. And I must scream.
• The Avi book Sometimes I Think I Hear My Name uses itself as the last line spoken.
• The title of All Quiet on the Western Front appears on the last page. It's the official report of combat status on the day the narrator dies.
• Happens in the short novel/novella They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, where the title is used in the last chapter as an explanation for why the main character shot his depressed girlfriend who couldn't kill herself; he had to put her out of her misery. (Don't worry, not a spoiler, it's the first thing in the book.)
• The Crying of Lot 49 plays with this. The title is the final line of text, and deliberately makes absolutely no sense until then. It turns out that the 49th lot (property) at an auction is maybe relevant to the mystery, and Oedipa is waiting for that lot to be cried (sold). The book ends just before the crying starts, because Thomas Pynchon likes doing that sort of thing, so we never find out what happens.
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: After explaining how wonderful and utopian Omelas is the essay ends with the revelation of the city's dark secret, that all that is possible because of the torment of one innocent child, and that every citizen of Omelas has that secret revealed to them at maturity and they're given a choice: To accept this price and stay, or leave the city and never return. The final paragraph following the ones who walk away from Omelas.
• Till We Have Faces. The explanation for the title only comes near the end of the final chapter:
  I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
• Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken has this as the last paragraph of the original final chapter (not counting the four extra chapters added to the paperback edition):
  And as the plane turned and banked its wings, a stream of light pierced the window, bathing my face in the orange glow of the sun setting over the American continent. And I thought to myself, "You know, Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot."
• Isaac Asimov:
  • "The Bicentennial Man": The phrase "bicentennial man" shows up near the end, in a heartfelt recognition of Andrew's very human life.
    With mankind watching, the World President said, "Fifty years ago, you were declared The Sesquicentennial Robot, Andrew." After a pause, and in a more solemn tone, he continued, "Today we declare you The Bicentennial Man, Mr. Martin."
  • "Does a Bee Care?": The last line of the story compares a Starfish Alien to a bee, and humanity to a flower.
    Does a bee care what has happened to a flower when the bee has done and gone its way?
  • "The Feeling of Power": The story ends with Programmer Shuman declaring to himself that knowing graphitics gave him a wonderful feeling of power.
    And it was amazing the feeling of power that gave him.
  • Foundation Series:
    • "The Merchant Princes": At the end of the story, Mayor Mallow casually mentions the original title ("The Big and the Little") when explaining the Proxy War between Foundation and the Empire, with Korell as the Empire's proxy. The Foundation thinks and is "little", while the Empire thinks and was "big" (still the largest Galactic Superpower, but much smaller than it was).
    • "The General (Foundation)": When this story was revised for publication in Foundation and Empire, the original title "Dead Hand" was reused for chapter 3, "The Dead Hand". The last line of Chapter 3 is General Riose summarizing the conflict; "a dead hand against a living will".
  • It's Such a Beautiful Day: The story occurs in a future where everyone uses a Door to teleport from place-to-place. It ends with the psychiatrist deciding to walk home, so that they can enjoy the beautiful weather.
    So he said in a soft voice, as his hand fell away from the board and his feet turned away from the Door, "You know, it's such a beautiful day that I think I'll walk."
  • The last word of "Liar!" is... exactly that. Dr Calvin uses it as an invective against the robot for trying to drive her crazy.
  • "Not Final!": This story is about Prosser, a scientist working on creating force fields capable of holding an atmosphere against the vacuum of space. He declares that it is scientifically impossible, and repeats "That's final!" several times. This story subverts the trope by having an epilogue where another character has managed to do exactly that, showing how wrong Prosser is, and making the title a response to Prosser's claim.
• George's Secret Key to the Universe:
  • The title of the talk George gives at the end is My Secret Key To The Universe.
  • In George and the Ship of Time, the sixth and final book in the series, "ship of time" is dropped by Annie in the last paragraph. Downplayed as it was dropped earlier in the book as well and it is not the full title.
• Meg Langslow Mysteries: The last line of Toucan Keep a Secret uses the title as the punchline of a joke.
• Vainqueur The Dragon: The second chapter, "V&V", the name of the guild that's formed at the chapter's end, named for the two principal characters, Victor and Vainqueur.

Live-Action TV

• The last spoken words in the the TV series Happy Days 11-season run.
  Howard Cunningham: Here's to happy days.
• Heartbreakingly delivered by Marisa in the final episode of Aquí no hay quien viva:
  Marisa: Vámonos, que aquí ya no hay quien viva.^TranslationLet's go, nobody can live here anymore.
• The first half of Season 3 of Odd Squad ended with the Big O, Opal, Oswald, Orla, Omar, and Olizabeth shouting “For Odd Squad!” in unison. Downplayed due to it not being the series finale.
  • The Season 1 finale also had Olive, Otto, Ms. O, Oscar and the other Precinct 13579 agents shout "For Odd Squad!" just before heading into battle against the various creatures invading their Headquarters. Like with the aforementioned example, it's downplayed since it's not the series finale.
• Orphan Black is revealed to be the title of Helena's memoir in the series finale.
• Private Practice has this in the final episode in the form of Violet's book title.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Close to the end of the last episode...
  Q: It's time to put an end to your trek through the stars.

Music

• "74", by Itoki Hana and Toby Fox: Despite its title, this song's Arc Number is actually 73. 73 months the princess has been locked in her tower, 73 floors filled with traps and monsters, 73 heroes who've tried and failed to save her. The number 74 comes up exactly once, ending the song after she's revealed why they all failed — it's her tower, they're her traps and monsters, and she doesn't actually want to be rescued. "The door swings open and my / Breath of fire fills the / Seventy-four."
• "No End" by Sandy Denny - But the painter he just smiled / said 'I'll see you in a while' / This one has No End
• "Up The Junction" by Squeeze - And so it's my assumption / that I'm really up the junction
• "Virginia Plain" by Roxy Music - What's her name? / Virginia Plain
• Mercury Falling by Sting combines this with Book Ends, in that the first and last words on the album are "Mercury falling."
• The title track to Opeth's Blackwater Park, which is the last song on the album:
  "The sun sets forever over Blackwater Park."
• BTS' Wings has its Album Title Drop given repeatedly in English at the end of "Interlude: Wings", the last track on the standard edition of the album.
  "Spread spread spread my wings
  Spread spread spread my wings
  Wings are made to fly fly fly
  Fly fly fly
  If my wings could fly"

Theatre

• In The Importance of Being Earnest, the title drop is the final line of the play. Lady Bracknell reproaches Jack, who has just become engaged to the woman he loves, for displaying signs of levity, and he assures her that he now understands as never before "the vital importance of being earnest".
  Jack Worthing: On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.
• "You're a good man, Charlie Brown." Not only the first song, but the last line of the play (spoken by Lucy, of all people).
• Königskinder: The opera ends with a chorus of children singing "Königskinder! Königskinder!" repeatedly.

Video Games

• Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War: The final mission of the game is simply named The Unsung War as your team, Razgriz Squadron, attempt to destroy the SOLG (Strategic Orbital Linear Gun) as it hurdles towards the capital of Osea carrying a nuclear weapon.
• Battle for Wesnoth:
  • The title of Secrets of the Ancient campaign refers to how lich-lords in the past could live forever which have became forbidden knowledge. By the end of the campaign, the protagonist has figured it out and wrote it in a journal so others can learn it. The epilogue of the campaign is the final pages of said journal and it has this to say:
    "Tath, in particular, is home to many wizards. It is enough for one of them to be eager to learn the secrets of the ancients."
  • The Rise of Wesnoth ends with the narrator saying that the story that has been told and will be remembered is called "the Rise of Wesnoth".
• Touhou Project: The final spellcards of Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith and Touhou Hisouten ~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody share their names with the English half of their game's title. Similarly, Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires' final card includes the Japanese portion of the title in its name. Double Spoiler ~ Touhou Bunkachou just has a regular Title Drop in the last bit of dialogue.
• OFF has this as the last text before the credits in the normal ending:
  The switch is now on OFF
• Sonic the Hedgehog gets in two title drops during the final, minute-long cutscene of Sonic Heroes, one of which is the very last line of dialogue in the game. The subtitles even render them in all upper case to make them even more obvious.
  Neo Metal Sonic: It's no use... but why can't I defeat you?
  Sonic: Because... we're Sonic Heroes!
  [later]
  Sonic: Alright! Our next adventure awaits us, so there's no time to waste! Yeah! We're Sonic Heroes!
• The Eternal Senia series:
  • Eternal Senia: The name of Ending 1 is "Eternal Senia".
  • Eternal Senia: Hydrangea After The Rain: Dropped both exactly, and by implication:
    • The subtitle, "Hydragea After The Rain", is the title of the last chapter, before the epilogue, seen in the "The Story So Far menu".
    • In the final chapter before the epilogue, when Magaleta compares Senia to such hydrageas:
    You are just like the star in the night sky, the hydrangea that blooms in the rainy spring...
    
    Dainty, fragile
    
    I want to shield you from every terrible thing in this world
    
    But you're so strong.
    
    You blossom splendidly, even after storms and tempests,
    
    just like the hydrangea.
• Dark Souls III: The phrase "dark soul" comes up multiple times in The Ringed City, the last DLC, which is intended as the Grand Finale of the series. Lapp, a.k.a Patches even says "A fine dark soul to you" during your last encounter with him, as though he's telling the player goodbye, and the item you get for beating the final boss is called "The Dark Soul of Man".
• The Logomancer: At the very end of the Golden Ending, Ardus states that the working title of his new novel is "The Logomancer". Given that his new novel is a Plot Parallel to the game itself, this is fitting.
• The sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan has an epic Title Scream as the two cheer squads reconcile their differences and cheer hard enough to reignite the dying sun:
  Leaders: OSU!
  Other members: TATAKAE!
  Everyone they helped: OUENDAAAAN!!
• Darkest Dungeon II: While the first game drops a Title Drop in the introductary cutscene, the second game has one in the last cutscene after destroying the Body of Work and saving the world, complete with Wayne June deepening his tone to that of the Ancestor:
  We slip and stumble, we fail and we falter. And yet, in each of us, a hopeful light, holding fast against the hellish shadows that gather between our good intentions. And in each of us, the limitless emptiness... of a Darkest Dungeon.
• The epilogue of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is titled "RAIN CODE".

Visual Novels

• The final chapter of Rose Guns Days has the series' title with the Final Season's cover splashing on the screen (the "chapter change" animation also has several page flips instead of one normally). Just before it appears, Rose also declares "the final chapter of these days of roses and guns", which is the closest thing to a Title Drop the dialogues can have.

Webcomics

• Dinosaur Comics: Conversed in #2009, where T-rex and his friends invent new last lines for famous novels that would be examples of this trope.
  T-rex: In the end, I guess we really had crossed... The Bridges of Madison County.
• Better Days: In the end, the last spoken words are a title drop:
  Fisk: With all I've been through, the future can only hold better days.
• Leftover Soup ends with Jamie offering to teach cooking to his new friend.
  Jamie: I think I've got some leftovers at home [...]. Let's go see what we can turn them into.

Western Animation

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force titled one episode "Last Last One Forever and Ever", and one of the last lines of that episode is Carl commenting that Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad truly were an Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The creators believed this would be the show's final episode, but then the series was renewed. The hilarious part is that even so late into the show's run, the title still makes just as little sense as it always has.
  • The second to last episode of the final season had Master Shake shouting the series's current title as he's devoured by clams.
  Shake: AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE FOREVER!
• The final episode of WordGirl had the narrator’s last lines of “Join us next time for another amazing, colossal adventure of... WordGirl!”

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