Obi-Wan Moment

""If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.""

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Not everyone in fiction goes out the same way. While some people may scream, or pray, or curse and rage, or act terrified, for some characters that sort of thing is just... out of character. So instead their death is an unusually calm moment, where they take their last few seconds and use them to reassure the people they're leaving behind or find one last moment of peace before they Go Into the Light. Sometimes they just smile at their surviving companion, fire off one last one-liner at their killer, say that It Has Been an Honor, or admit that This Is Gonna Suck. Usually goes on into Peaceful in Death, if the body does not dissolve or otherwise be destroyed.

This usually pops up with The Obi-Wan (naturally), the Zen Survivor, or any other character who has lived like they were Not Afraid to Die. May also happen with villains in a Dissonant Serenity situation. This may also be an indication that the character's death was not only planned, but in fact is a part of the larger picture of the story. Because of this, he will naturally Face Death with Dignity. May happen if the person is about to perform a Heroic Sacrifice or has already done it but death was not instant.

Named after a comment made on the X Men the Last Stand director's commentary track at the death of a major mentor figure, in reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star Wars.

Anime and Manga
""For the first time, Sonic has asked me to do something for him... I won't give up! I won't let him down!""
 * In Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Roy Focker is mortally wounded by shrapnel. In supreme badass fashion Focker doesn't even see a medic, he just goes back to his quarters and plays some guitar before falling over dead.
 * If you look very closely in the final episode of Noir, briefly smiles up at  as she's, leading some to think that the finale of the series was actually planned as part of a massive Plan.
 * In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, right before dying, takes a moment to reassure Simon and.
 * decided not only to not force Simon into abusing Spiral Power to keep her alive but also to treasure her last moments with him rather than regretting the time they are not going to be able to spend together. Oh, they treasure them alright.
 * Also who stops a Spiral Power-neutralising trap using an attack up till that point exclusively used by Simon, and leaves by
 * from Cowboy Bebop after being fatally wounded goes out with a smile, a simple hand-gesture and a single word to the stunned onlookers: Maybe.
 * At the conclusion of the Final Battle in Macross Frontier's Grand Finale, the ascended Grace looks up the barrel of Alto's sniper cannon (previously Michel's) and smiles peacefully before being obliterated.
 * Angemon's "death" in Digimon Adventure, where he willingly sacrifices himself to eliminate Devimon, then smiles at Takeru and says, "I'll come back if you want me to," was pretty powerful for a kids show.
 * One Piece is a skilled user of this trope, with many characters who die preferring to Go Out with a Smile. The Pirate King Gold Roger kicked off the series by smiling (on the execution platform, no less) and telling the world that whoever wants his treasure can have it if they can find it. The highlight though was the death of Nami & Nojiko's mother, Bellemere. Willingly sacrificing herself for the continued safety of her daughters, a gun pointed at her head, her final words to them before death were "Nojiko! Nami! I love you!"
 * In the Trigun manga, Wolfwood sits and shares one last drink with Vash in the rubble outside the orphanage he grew up in and just saved from destruction. The last thing he sees before he dies is confetti thrown by the children as they fly to safety welcoming him home.
 * In a hopeless situation while trying to give her friends time to escape in one arc of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Rena stares down the Big Bad as she holds a gun on her, laughing at her plans until the end.
 * In Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Clair also gets a very serene Obi-Wan Moment. After she's slashed through by Will, she actually curtsies as she dissolves into the stage.
 * In Sonic X (and the video game Sonic Adventure 2 which the anime was based on) just before being ejected into space and blown up (not really) Sonic looks at his friends, says "hey, it's okay" before telling Tails to finish what he started. He's still smiling as he's blown out of the Space Station. Tails finishes what he started. Awesomely.


 * Done by Captain Falcon in the F-Zero anime, just before its most famous scene.
 * Nuriko in Fushigi Yuugi falls under this trope. He was smiling at the time he died.
 * Emperor Hotohori as well. He spoke to all his friends (who happened to be in another world altogether at the time), reassuring them and also asking his love interest,, to 'be happy'.
 * In the anime version (but not the manga) of Magic Knight Rayearth, after having defeated and released,  has a few moments to smile serenely, and think of Hikaru and Lantis as . Cue Hikaru's Unstoppable Rage.
 * A rather... special one happens in Mai-HiME. More exactly, when before she disappears.
 * Though the one above is the most extreme, the cause of most deaths in Mai-HiME allow many characters to know when its coming and take it peacefully. Two characters,, even bring about as it's the only way to save the world.
 * Sousuke's mother from Full Metal Panic!, as revealed from his nightmares and in his backstory. The plane he and she were on crashed in the middle of snowy mountains, and apparently all the rest of the passengers died. They were huddled together, and she protected him from the cold. During Kalinin's rescue mission, although they were able to take Sousuke out of the plane in time, the part of the plane Sousuke's mother was on crumbled, and she ended up falling to her death. She yells out to him, with a sad smile on her face, that he must live, never give up, and to fight. It certainly gives a bit of explanation as to why he's so bent on being Crazy Prepared and becoming the Crazy Survivalist he is today.
 * from The Second Raid. As Sousuke uses his Lambda driver to disintegrate, the guy calmly looks at a strand of his hair and says "Look's like I need a haircut", and is subsequently.
 * in Mahou Sensei Negima spends his last moments apologizing to the Kid Hero for not being able to fix his generations problems, and then telling his killer that it was fun, and his killer should really learn to enjoy this sort of thing.
 * He then temporarily solely to  for attempting to use his Super-Powered Evil Side, and to give some final advice, essentially having two consecutive Obi Wan Moments. And then he just can't stay away, since it seems he's back permanently thanks to Negi's bunch using the Master Key who brought everyone affected by the Keys back]].
 * Fullmetal Alchemist has . His reaction to the is to calmly state "Drat. Its begun. Ashes...to...Ashes..."
 * There was also, who smiles and salutes his men just before his death, saying that he'll "be leaving early for a place higher than the peaks of Briggs".
 * And
 * This is how Lelouch goes at the end of Code Geass, reassuring Suzaku that what they're doing is for the best and giving Nunnally one last smile. Of course, it's kind of strained by the fact that he's been stabbed through the chest and is (apparently rather painfully) bleeding out, but it's still generally what he was doing.
 * Jiriaya from Naruto. After a particularly grueling battle against (then) Akatsuki Leader Pain that involved Nagato bringing all six of them together to beat him (considering 1 of them can take on several Jonin Shinobi easily, needing all of them to kill someone speaks greatly for their skill/threat level), Jiriaya is impaled 5 times and dropped into the deep waters below. As he sinks, he grimly smiles and references a Japanese proverb accepting his death. Bonus points for the Stealth Pun of the proverb being about a frog, his animal symbol.
 * In Dragonball Z, Goku smiles as he bids his friends farewell saying, "Bye bye, minna" before teleporting a bloated Cell into Kaioh-sama's world. Goku, Kaioh-sama, Bubbles and Gregory die when Cell explodes.
 * Also, Android 16. Having been blown up by Cell previously, his severed head gives Gohan a final word of encouragement, telling him to fight Cell. He keeps on smiling even as Cell walks up to crush him with his foot.
 * Jean from Claymore goes out this way while
 * In Saint Seiya, Hades chapter, Virgo Shaka elaborates on the ephemeral nature of life, and how death is only another step, as he is assassinated by the three gold saints. Extra points for him staying in lotus position all the way through it, much in a Buddha-like manner. It is later revealed that accepting death was needed for one to freely wander in the realms of Hades.

Film
"Obi-Wan: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine""
 * In 'Terminator 2'  This is in stark contrast to the deaths of . In the same movie,
 * The Trope Namer, of course, is Obi-Wan Kenobi of the Star Wars films, and the brief second of eye contact he makes with Luke right before Darth Vader kills him in A New Hope.

"Stelios: It is an honor to die by your side. Leonidas: It is an honor to have lived by yours."
 * Liam Neeson got a variant of this trope as Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace, calmly meditating before his final, brief duel with . This is a case where he didn't necessarily show that he'd be dying, but likely considered the possibility.
 * During death in Batman Begins, he closes his eyes as the train's about to hit the tower and kill him. Looks like  likes this way of dying in films.
 * While fighting the Phoenix in X Men the Last Stand, briefly smiles at Wolverine before being disintegrated. And at the very end of the movie it turns out.
 * Roy Batty in Blade Runner, whose quiet resignation was a sharp contrast to Pris and Zhora's shrieking wrath.
 * Mr. Spock's Heroic Sacrifice death near the end of Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan. Given that Spock is a (half-)Vulcan, it's perfectly in character.
 * Nero of the 2009 Star Trek movie quietly faces his death, even as his ship is ripped apart around him as it sits halfway in a black hole. He was offered the opportunity to escape, but chose to go down with his ship.
 * Kill Bill had a similar contrast between Bill's muted acceptance and Elle's desperate outrage.
 * Jack Sparrow, left behind on a sinking ship with an angry kraken, simply smiles, draws his sword and lunges at it. "Hello Beastie."
 * The Last Starfighter so completely cripples the that it winds up on an unstoppable . When Lord Kril is asked "What do we do?", he straightens up, closes his monocle-thing, and calmly replies "We die."
 * In Cyborg 2, Jack Palance is the leader of the underground railroad helping to smuggle cyborgs out from under the control of the Pinwheel Corporation. At the end of the film, the Corrupt Corporate Executive captures him, brings him to his office, and gloats that he's just sent the self-destruct signal to blow up the cyborg heroine (Angelina Jolie!). Instead, it's Palance who starts ticking, and with a smirk he proclaims "looks like you kissed the wrong ass goodbye!" before blowing the Big Bad and his corporate headquarters sky-high.
 * In Clash of the Titans, Draco is mortally wounded during the fight with Medusa. Aware his time his short, he uses the last of his strength to stall and weaken her. Confident that Perseus could finish what they started, the normally stern Draco gives the hero a peaceful smile, reminding him to tell all that, "men did this." Medusa then turns him to stone and shatters his body.
 * At the end of Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths, the ultra-fatalistic Owlman realizes he's about to be blown up, smiles very slightly, and softly utters his Catch Phrase: "It doesn't matter."
 * ~300~


 * Tron: When Sark's forces come to arrest the old program Dumont, he stares them down and greets them as he would programs seeking contact with their Users, a major blasphemy in the totalitarian system.
 * Also, before performs his  Heroic Sacrifice, he instructs the onlooker not to worry.
 * Blade 2 gives the same moment to a villain after long, eventful battle with Blade: "It hurts. It hurts no more." - as he actually slides the knife deeper into his heart himself.
 * In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Li Mu Bai faces death in a rather obiwanesque fashion.
 * In the movie version of Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, . He has this funny look on his face, like, "Well, huh. How about that. Oh, well. Guess I'll see you later..."
 * Children of Men: "Pull my finger."
 * in Battle for Terra, after blowing up the tries to pull up in  fighter in order to Outrun the Fireball, then relents, closes his eyes, and peacefully lets the flames catch up to.
 * in Law Abiding Citizen, after realizing that has placed his own bomb next to him and locked him in the room, takes out a picture of  and looks at it in quiet acceptance, as he's engulfed by the flames.
 * Duck You Sucker had a rather interesting variation with.
 * At the end of Enemy at the Gates,  does this, when he realizes that   tricked him and has the drop on him.
 * Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda, who much like Obi Wan seems to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence rather than do anything so crude as to actually die; in this case, he fades into a cloud of cherry blossoms blown up by the wind.
 * Shen actually does this at the end of Kung Fu Panda 2, just as he is about to be crushed by his now-destroyed cannon.
 * Subverted at the end of Toy Story 3, where all of Andy's (remaining) toys all appear to do this as they are all about to be burned alive in, but then they are all rescued by the Aliens and their crane.
 * It wasn't used in the final film, but just before his death in 28 Weeks Later, Doyle winks to the kids.

Literature

 * The Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf looks at the other members of the Fellowship and tells them to "fly, you fools!" before letting go and falling with the Balrog.
 * in Harry Potter is a Double Subversion. At first, it appears he's pleading with his killer to spare him. In the next book, it's revealed that
 * And then repeats the feat in The Deathly Hallows when he finds out that the only way Voldemort can be beaten is if he is killed by Voldemort. After assuring that there are people who have the necessary information to kill Voldemort, he has a peaceful moment with the ghosts of his loved ones. He then confronts the Dark Lord accepting his fate and not even using his wand to defend himself.
 * In War and Peace, both of Pierre's mentors, Osip Bazdeev and Platon Karataev, die in this way. Osip, in his bed with Pierre by his side. Platon,, having intentionally fallen behind in a . Both scenes are described as them dying with a certain dignity.
 * Tirandys in P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath spends his last wounded moments telling his protege and surrogate child Jame that she did right, before ending his own life with the Ivory Knife.
 * in Artemis Fowl does this towards Holly. Not a surprise considering the relationship between said person and Holly.
 * The Dresden Files plays this off brilliantly with . It's one thing to take a killing blow, it's another thing to volunteer to be tortured to death, then still smile at the protagonist later on your death bed and offer some helpful words of advice.
 * There are several of these moments in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Thrawn smiled. Lorana and Thrass took each others' hand. Atour Riten stayed behind on the Death Star to give the others clearance and sat surrounded by his books. Diric Wesseri held his wife's hand. Ton Phanan weakened and died very slowly, but he was still quietly Defiant to the End and wrote to his wingmate, telling him not to blame himself. In The New Rebellion, Luke didn't die, but he thought he would and acted in accordance to this trope, allowing himself to be killed rather than resorting to the Dark Side.
 * Mr. Vandemar's final shrug before he near the conclusion of Neverwhere is a prime villainous example.
 * Watchmen has at least two examples. When and there's nothing he can do, he hugs his girlfriend and awaits the end. Likewise,   as a massive explosion engulfs them both. In a book that features quite a bit of Humans Are Bastards, the second example above doubles as something of a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
 * In Star Trek: Destiny, both T'Lana (of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Relaunch) and Charivretha zh'Thane (from the Star Trek Deep Space Nine Relaunch) die like this, peacefully accepting their fate when they're caught in the bombardment of Vulcan and Andor, respectively.
 * Terry Brooks does this in The Wishsong of Shannara between Allanon and Brin, whose last act in this world is to ensure Brin can carry on without him and to pass on a blood inheritance to ensure one of her descendents can resurrect the druid power he's taking out of the world by dying.

Live Action TV
""If you cry, you lose the memory of our love...""
 * Lexx's both smile and reassure their friends before dying. The latter is resurrected, only to choke out another comforting goodbye one episode later.


 * In Doctor Who, The Stolen Earth, doesn't go out with crying and cursing, but with, making her last scene not only a Crowning Moment of Awesome, but also a Crowning Moment of Funny.


 * gives Rose a grateful smile to show he's finally made peace with his pain and personal demons before being engulfed in golden energy and.
 * The First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors also go out without a fuss, after reassuring their companions.
 * In "Last of the Time Lords"  smiles at the Doctor as he calmly dies  . Of course, his death is essentially a big "screw you" to the Doctor, and he apparently had plans in place for his resurrection.
 * And Captain Jack Harkness in "The Doctor Dances". He sits there rather calmly even though a bomb is about to destroy the ship he's on. Of course he's rescued but there's no way he could have known that would happen.
 * In Torchwood, when knows he's about to die,, he at first reacts with Do Not Go Gentle, and taking the "rage against the dying of the light" bit Up to Eleven. But he ends up this way. And then   who is talking to him over a radio communicator convinces him to go out this way, and that's while she's also dying, and not long after, she also does her own version.
 * Tin Man: While he doesn't die  after doing it, the Mystic Man smiles serenely and clasps Cain on the back before charging out to make his Heroic Sacrifice, buying the heroes time to escape the Longcoats.
 * For someone so full of energy and excitement throughout his life,  from Skins has an oddly peaceful, serene look on his face when he dies in S2.
 * In Game of Thrones, takes a moment to smile at and Reassure Bran right before he's executed by, and says that he'll be with  soon.

Music
""Tell my wife I love her very much." "She knows!""
 * In Coheed and Cambria's song, "A Favor House Atlantic", Al the Killer goes out by telling the rest of his party to run while he holds the bad guys off with his sniper rifle. As they leave, he tells his love interest "Bye bye, beautiful, don't bother to write", and presumably dies.
 * This is the point of Megadeths A Tout Le Monde.
 * David Bowie's "Space Oddity":


 * Johann Sebastian Bach composed a cantata entitled "Come, Sweet Death". He also supposedly went out calmly surrounded by people he loved. Considering the guy invented half of the techniques used in modern music, it's understandable that he could die confident that his legacy would live on.

Theater

 * At the end of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, to cut his throat, even unbuttoning his collar in some productions.

Video Games

 * Final Fantasy X: Just before his simply faces the party and proclaims, "This is your world now" before he fades away, content that he can finally rest in peace.
 * himself, about to fade away, just smiles at
 * in Final Fantasy X-2: (and  as she dreams of the same scenario happen to her and Tidus) smiles reassuringly to  right before they are both shot to death.
 * In Xenogears, when destroys Lahan, Alice calmly looks at herself as she is disintegrated. Also, Krelian calmly chooses to "become one with god" at the end which is equivalent to death, even after Fei pleads for him to come back to Earth and atone for his sins.
 * Rufus' death scene in Final Fantasy VII was a Crowning Moment of Awesome just for this fact. It's not often that a death scene can be a CMOA for the one dying. Of course, in the movie sequel Advent Children it turns out
 * Aerith's death in the same game when she dies in the Forgotten Capital.
 * Metal Gear Solid:, after being defeated, furthers the plot in a cutscene, and then calmly allows himself to be
 * Mass Effect has a small one around three quarters of the way through the game at the end of . Both of them argue that the other should be saved, and the only thing the condemned one has to say is "I don't regret a thing."
 * Mass Effect 3: "I am the very model of a--" 
 * The Half Life series: In Episode 2  calmly reassures his daughter and tells her to look away as he is slowly and inevitably dragged towards the alien lifeform that captured them all and impaled. A great ending.
 * Halo: Reach has a few:
 * : Calmly accepts their duty to ensure . Then, without a second glance, moves to engage the entire Covenant assault force in the full knowledge that will die in the process.
 * : Stays behind to ensure, exchanging final words with Six and giving him/her dog tags. "Tell 'em to make it count."
 * : Mortally wounded, covers Six and Emile as they head, then takes out a Scarab in their way by slamming his Pelican into it.
 * Bonus points for last words: simply announcing over the radio " out."
 * Minor nod in World of Warcraft - when a priest has taken the talent Spirit of Redemption, the tooltip description states that the Priest has become "more powerful than you can imagine". Enhanced by the fact that Guardian Spirits in Warcraft have a similar blue-white translucence to Jedi Force-spirits.
 * Xion in Kingdom Hearts -
 * At the end of Jak 3  lies crushed beneath a car. Jak tells him to hold still and wants to get help, but   merely tells him that it was a good fight and a good day to die. He goes on to say that he is very proud to have been by Jak's side at the end, asks him to fulfill his dying wish and then dies peacefully.
 * At the end of Crisis Core, it's over for Zack and he knows it, but he's got just enough left to pass on his sword and give Cloud a pep talk before getting absorbed by the Lifestream

Web Comics
""Go ahead, and do what you do best. Do the only thing you know.""
 * , of all people, gets one of these in Drowtales doubling as a Crowning Moment of Awesome:


 * Eva, a secondary character in Our Little Adventure has an especially cynical one. Though she was expecting her soul to depart to her paladin goddess, the final part of her death was something not even she expected.

Western Animation
"Jaller: You were always different."
 * Jaller's death in Bionicle: Mask of Light as he takes a Rahkshi attack to save Takua, knowing that Takua is The Chosen One and destined to become the Toa of Light.

Real Life

 * Possible Truth in Television, in that Socrates is traditionally considered to have died in this way after being poisoned with hemlock. The issue is under contention since no one is exactly certain which "hemlock" it was. Enid Bloch's exhaustive essay Hemlock Poisoning and the Death of Socrates: Did Plato Tell the Truth? suggests the plant was Conium maculatum, which does cause a creeping paralysis and death in the manner described: "Socrates died gently and peacefully, just as Plato said he did. For Plato not only told the truth, he did so with astounding medical accuracy."
 * Reportedly Hannibal Barca, the great Carthaginian general, had a moment like this when the Roman legions who had been chasing him for years finally caught up for him, but rather than let them take him back to Rome he took poison instead. His last words were reportedly "Let us relieve the Romans from the anxiety they have so long experienced, since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man's death."
 * Sam Kinison. The fact that he was blitzed out of his mind on several types of tranquilizers and cocaine might have had something to do with it.
 * After surviving the wreck of a jet car, Richard Hammond said in a mutual interview with racing legend Sir Stirling Moss, who had survived a similar brain-damaging accident in 1962, that the sensation of being about to die was like getting to the end of a to-do list consisting of: 1) get in car, 2) drive car, 3) crash car, 4) die. "Oh, I've got to the 'die' bit." Moss said that in his case, when his steering sheared at 165+ mph and he found that he'd crossed his arms in front of him, something was wrong, and the only thing left on his mind was "Christ, what does it mean?"
 * In true Chuck Yeager fashion, the black boxes of many planes recorded how many pilots would remain calm and collected even as they knew the plane was going down, in a truly dignified fashion.
 * Physicist Richard Feynman's Last Words? "I'd hate to die twice; it's so boring."