Go Out with a Smile



"Anakin: Now go, my son. Leave me.

Luke: No, you're coming with me. I'll not leave you here, I've got to save you.

Anakin: You already have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister... you were right."

- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Death is rarely a cause for celebration, as it is a permanent goodbye to the world you love.

Sometimes, however, the pain of seeing you cry hurts the one who is about to depart more than imminent death itself, and in spite of agonizing pain or being crippled beyond saving, summons up all their courage to sincerely smile one last time for you (or alternatively laughing); a final gesture that beyond all doubt affirms their love for you. If the one smiling in question is a girl (especially if she is an Anime or Video Game character), her final smile will be the single most painfully cute thing you will ever see besides a box of kittens.

It makes a lasting impression as a pretty dignified way to go. Usually reserved for the finales of Tear Jerker stories or the climax of a Bittersweet Ending; Let Them Die Happy is when someone intentionally deceives someone so that they will do this. See also Final First Hug and Last Kiss. Sometimes crosses with Out With a Bang. Unless the body dissolves or is destroyed, usually results in Peaceful in Death.

The Mercy Kill may have the dying person evince some self-awareness to show this; similarly, this might be part of Dying As Yourself.

Compare Died Happily Ever After. When She Smiles is this trope without the death. Contrast Tearful Smile. Often paired with Pieta Plagiarism and Cradling Your Kill.

NOTICE: It is highly likely that simply reading through the examples will be a Tear Jerker for the reader. It is recommended that a box of tissues be handy. And it should go without saying that, being a death trope, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Anime and Manga
"Greedling: "That's ...I see, so we finally got him... *sigh* Bastard dies with that peaceful look on his face...pisses me off.""
 * The final episode of Ano-Hana has Meiko Honma aka "Menma" doing this during their final goodbyes. More exactly, she's already dead and a Cute Ghost Girl, but stuck around due to having Ghostly Goals and these only were fulfilled by said final episode.
 * In One Piece, anybody who has the "Will of the D." (as exposed by having D. as their middle initial) is guilty of this.
 * Gold Roger, shown in the flashback that starts every one of the first hundred episodes or so.
 * Ace's mother, Portgas D. Rouge, died giving birth while smiling and entrusting her child to Garp.
 * Jaguar D. Saul tells a young, terrified Nico Robin to smile and laugh no matter how grim things get, just before Aokiji freezes him solid; the last thing we see before the ice statue of him is shattered is his still-beaming face.
 * The image up top shows this one: In Lougetown, when Luffy himself is about to get his head chopped off (on the same platform where Roger was executed), he grins hugely as the sword's coming down and says "Sorry guys, but... I'm dead." Though Luffy doesn't actually get head-chopped, characters note the similarity between him and Roger.
 * During Ace's fight with Blackbeard, he gets close to death, but on his last attempt at overcoming Blackbeard, he smirks and calmly states his intents to make Whitebeard the Pirate King. While he didn't actually die, he showed the D.'s willingness to smile at death.
 * fit in naturally during his actual death, when he dies from his injuries from
 * An aversion will be Blackbeard when he sees himself in danger of death at the hands of Whitebeard, resulting in Whitebeard saying he doesn't carry the will of Roger.
 * Aside from the D. family, there is also the death of Belle-mere, and especially her last words to Nojiko and Nami.
 * Also noteworthy is Dr. Hiriluk, who toasted to his wonderful life before drinking a concoction that blew himself up. He also got a great speech about how he would never truly die as long as his dream was seen through.
 * Later on, in Brook's flashback, we see the final on-screen moments of Captain Yorki of the Rumbar Pirates. It was only briefly implied in the manga, but the anime version of that scene went for the gold. His crew soon follows suit, when they play their favorite song as they die, so that a recording of it could reach their beloved Team Pet.
 * Fisher Tiger died with a smile after being reassured that after he had freed the slaves from Mariejois and the legends of his adventures, he was a hero of the Fishman Island.
 * Also Queen Otohime after her oldest son Fukaboshi promises her that they will protect Shirahoshi and collect all the signatures that she had long fought for to get from her people so that her dream of co-existing peacefully with humans can be fulfilled.
 * Until the very end, the smile doesn't burn off the face of the Going Merry.
 * Most of the characters in Hellsing die smiling; this is explained by the thing that all vampires (and a werewolf), as immortal beings, held only one desire: to die.
 * gives his sanest, most sincere smile in the entire series.
 * dies this way as well,
 * It's not just them. Almost
 * The exceptions are Luke Valentine, Tublacain Alhabra, Rip Van Winkle, Zorin Blitz, Enrico Maxwell, and the Doctor.
 * from Martian Successor Nadesico is shot just as he's about to put stickers from his favorite cartoon on his Humongous Mecha to celebrate his victory from earlier in the episode... which in hindsight is really, heartbreakingly sad.
 * Key Visual Arts loves this stuff.
 * of AIR. Her final smile is so full of love and so darned adorable.
 * Similarly, 's farewell to in the Clannad movie and the Bad Ending route of the original visual novel, dying after giving birth, was a heartwarming smile of how glad she was to meet her daughter and to have met the love of her life.
 * It also occurs in the Kyo Ani adaptation, only subtler.
 * in Kanon, as well as, although the latter was Not Quite Dead after all.
 * , though only in the 2006 anime.
 * Izumi Kanata, Konata's mother in Lucky Star, is shown in the manga to bear an angelic smile when she passed on to the next world.
 * Goku from Dragon Ball Z faces death with a smile every time for the people he loves. Understandable, given he knows he'll just be resurrected later and he receives badass training in the Other World.
 * He probably got this from his father Bardock, who tried to kill Frieza to save the Saiyan race. He failed, and just as he was about to die, he saw a vision of his son fighting Frieza and avenging the deaths of their race.
 * What, nobody's mentioned Piccolo? Just thinking about him leaping in front of Nappa's blast to stop the only friend he's ever had, the son of his worst enemy, from dying... And yet he dies smiling, and crying for the first time in his life. If that isn't a tear jerker, I don't know what is.
 * In Inuyasha, a fatally wounded  at Sesshomaru as she dissolves into wind. Same goes to , firing her definitive death.
 * in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who smiles at the crying  and tries to comfort her before finishing her Heroic Sacrifice.
 * , smiling and telling her that their time together was enjoyable before passing away.
 * from the Trigun anime is seen smiling when he dies, both because he caused  (his killer) to experience "eternal pain and suffering" by
 * Both versions of  apparently do this, although he has the variation of taking battle damage and then expiring slowly. The anime version goes out kneeling in a church and thinking about his friends. The manga version is sitting on a sofa in a trashed orphanage while the kids he grew up with throw confetti out of an airship to show that they care, and he and Vash share a final drink. The smile doesn't help much with the frustration about his death, since in both cases it could have been avoided.
 * of Ninja Scroll smiled with warm happiness as
 * In the 40th Episode of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, There was not one dry eye, man or woman, at that Anime Screening in 2003.
 * In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, SNIFFFFF.
 * Although his face can't be seen because of his helmet, laughs during his Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Gundam Seed
 * Immediately following him, smiles serenely as
 * is the creepier version of this, dying with a smile after Kira impales him, due to his belief that the entire world will be following him. It's both chilling, and kind of sad at the same time, as you realize what a wreck the man's life truly was.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team did the same kind of thing with
 * In Gundam SEED C.E 73 Stargazer,
 * In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Schwarz Brudder and smile as Domon destroys the core of the Devil Gundam.
 * In Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn,
 * In Mobile Suit Gundam Age,  bears a heartbreaking smile as she died.
 * of Part I of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure goes out with a triple Tear Jerker:
 * from Part 6 smiles at Emporio before she faces off against Pucci one last time so Emporio can escape.
 * There's also in part 7.
 * 's death in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
 * Same for, though true to his values and personality, his dying smile is manly and powerful rather than sweet and cute. And hence, the phrase 'Manly tears were shed.'
 * In fact, almost every member of Team Dai-Gurren casualty goes out with either a smile or laughing in the face of utter destruction.
 * In Princess Tutu's first-season finale, a ghostly form of smiles and requests a couple to dance together for her one last time,  Ouch.
 * in Simoun.
 * Both versions of Chrono Crusade do this, but in separate ways. In the manga The scene is particularly haunting because  . Also, although it's not shown,   In the anime, they use this for their Tear Jerker ending:
 * In Code Geass, both, and   die with smiles on their faces.
 * Slightly subverted in the Grand Finale:.
 * Also mentioned (but not actually performed)  In the end, it wasn't.
 * Played with in Naruto, by Kakashi before being sliced up, only to reveal that it was just a log he substituted in place of himself.
 * The same thing happened when Naruto took out Itachi with a giant Rasengan, but he smiled because that wasn't Itachi, just a duplicate with a fraction of his power.
 * Played straight then with  death. As he smiles at Sasuke following their fight he says that there won't be a next time and collapses.
 * This is particularly effective because when it happened, viewers didn't have the context to understand it, and had to join Sasuke in WTFing and feeling that something, somewhere had Gone Horribly Wrong. Then a few chapters later it retroactively became a Tear Jerker.
 * Also, because he believes despite his death, Konoha will be fine as long as the villagers have the 'Will of Fire'.
 * died smiling. Kishimoto likes to have the good guys deaths softened in the knowledge they died at peace, bad guys don't get such a luxury.
 * being the exception laughing hard
 * He's still not dead. Only member of Akatsuki not resurrected as an Edo Tensei confetti zombie.
 * is also an exception, as he appeared to die then he really died sporting a psychopathic grin both times (especially the second).
 * There's a difference between smiling because you're at peace and smiling because you're psychotic.
 * In Sonic X the revolutionary Molly does this, smiling at Shadow through her windshield before piloting her ship directly into the metarex fleet. Also a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Cosmo also smiles literally throughout her entire death scene, as does Maria Robotnik.
 * of Haruhi Suzumiya, who despite her maintains a smile throughout most of her battle with Yuki and even keeps a smiling face as she is being dissolved by Yuki. That just makes her more frightening.
 * Actually, she doesn't really see the importance of death. In her Image Song, she even states that heartbeats are nothing more than trivial, wave-like patterns.
 * In Mai-HiME,  smile as they die as results of the HiME Carnival.
 * Done brutally in Alive the Final Evolution, when victims of the 'suicide virus' gleefully kill themselves, sometimes relenting long enough to do something important to them or encourage others to do the same. Those who are infected with the virus but have yet to succumb to it, and witness the suicides aren't sure whether to be terrified or be jealous.
 * in the finale of the first season of Magic Knight Rayearth.  even gets to thank the Knights for killing , which means.
 * In Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~, Sora dies smiling in the arms of her mother, after finally fulfilling her late father's request.
 * In Cowboy Bebop
 * Bang.
 * In Neon Genesis Evangelion,  pretty much does this. Whilst she actually dies alone, bleeding out on the floor until someone blows up the level she's on, she sends off the last person to see her alive by pushing him into an elevator, with her giving him a genuinely loving smile before the doors shut between them and she collapses to the floor.
 * Done with a different yet slightly more Badass approach in the manga. After.
 * went out much the same, but with an added.
 * If you want to get literal, GN Rei in End of Evangelion does this.
 * as well in the series. Just as is about to detonate, she hallucinates a smiling Gendo and tearfully smiles back before the kaboom.
 * Another EoE example is whose plan to commit a murder-suicide with Gendo goes up in smoke when Casper disobeys her. Gendo pulls a gun on her and tells her something we don't get to hear. Her response is a bitter smile and calling him a liar before he pulls the trigger.
 * Misty Honey from Cutey Honey does after delivering a cheering speech to the main heroine
 * Keisei in Shikabane Hime; if he didn't, he'd have turned into an undead monster.
 * Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro's, even after having a whole Crowning Moment of Awesome chapter, is fatally shot in the face by the series's latest Big Bad. Before he goes, he catches sight of the heroine, Yako, and smiles peacefully to her before the gun goes off.
 * Played with in the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime with . After committing Suicide By Cop, he smiles with a peaceful expression. However,.
 * In the manga, this happens near the end with.
 * plays this trope very well in the manga, admitting aloud that he's lead a long, pleasant life as he is dying. This is almost ironic, as this man is singlehandedly responsible for the genocide of an entire race of people, as well as the death of three main characters, the slaughter of a sleugh of supporting characters, and the horrific crippling of another. With all this blood on his hands, and without sounding the slightest bit evil or sadistic, he goes out genuinely happy for the fulfilling life he's had.
 * plays this trope very well in the manga, admitting aloud that he's lead a long, pleasant life as he is dying. This is almost ironic, as this man is singlehandedly responsible for the genocide of an entire race of people, as well as the death of three main characters, the slaughter of a sleugh of supporting characters, and the horrific crippling of another. With all this blood on his hands, and without sounding the slightest bit evil or sadistic, he goes out genuinely happy for the fulfilling life he's had.

"Spotting him at grave."
 * The manga's turns this trope Up to Eleven by laughing maniacally while being rendered down to a .
 * Later played again by . As he dissolves into air and sees.
 * Then we have, who fades into nothingness after Easily his Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Also in the manga,
 * Pinako outright says so.

": "Let's go home."
 * Lust also goes out with this way in the manga/Brotherhood.
 * In the Gungrave anime


 * * smiling through tears* "I know now...that we're a family...and always will be, forever, and ever.""


 * In Full Metal Panic... well, it's not so much touching, but  did die with a very happy smile on his face. It was actually genuine, though, and not very pretty. Apparently his happiness came from causing as much pain as he could to the one he loves.
 * In Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, this is both played straight and subverted. Played straight with
 * Yu-Gi-Oh: Following her Heroic Sacrifice, Kisara smiles as she is cradled in Seto's arms and reaches up to tenderly touch his face, just before falling limp.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds, loses the Duel of Darkness against
 * In Rukia's flashback in Bleach,
 * In his last moments,.
 * In Digimon,.
 * 's death in The Birth of Mewtwo
 * In Chapter 278 of Mahou Sensei Negima,
 * In Chapter 278 of Mahou Sensei Negima,


 * And then he revives for a moment and does it again.


 * did it too, after taking a hit meant for Ako Izumi.


 * In the final episode of Last Exile,.
 * In Toward the Terra, initially seems to have died with a look of numb, wide-eyed surprise, but actually manages to cling to life long enough to  before finally expiring with a Tender Tear and a peaceful smile.
 * Ikuya Asano in The Twelve Kingdoms. His childhood friend Youko visits his bier to confirm this after seeing a vision of it in her sword, having feared the smile was just her own wishful thinking. Youko is calmed by the sight, though Asano's smile is probably ironic- he spent the entire series trying to find a purpose to play in the plot, only to die before completing the one important task he was given.
 * One of the few instances of actual facial expression in Transformers Cybertron comes in the form of Vector Prime's final smile as he sacrifices himself to save his friends.
 * Subverted in Vandread, when The Stoic Meia performs her Heroic Sacrifice to save Ezra's baby daughter, she smiles (a very rare event!) as she throws herself out of an airlock into space. It turns out, however, that their escape pod has just been picked up by the ship, but she didn't know that.
 * Saiyuki: Kanan smiles as she kills herself in front of Gonou (Hakkai), she was trying to smile for his benefit presumably. Yaone would have done exactly the same thing if she'd gone through with it. Hakkai himself when he thinks he's going to be killed smiles, very creepily, as he pulls out his own eye
 * In Kekkaishi,  dies like this after realizing.
 * Kowarekake no Orgel: Flower goes out with a song.
 * A chilling version in Gunslinger Girl. Brainwashed cyborg
 * Ranma One Half: Before Akane's eyes close completely, signifying her death, she smiles at Ranma, then lets herself go. It's followed shortly by an Anguished Declaration Of Love from Ranma. Of course she wakes up 5 minutes later, but...
 * THE iDOLM@STER - Parodied by Ami when she has to leave for an interview and left her sister to take care of finding out who stole the pudding from the freezer.

Comic Books
"Parademon: ...tell me a joke, clown.
 * During the Sinestro Corps War storyline in Green Lantern, the Cyborg Superman wanted to die so that he could be with his dead wife. He does die and is happy, but then the Manhunters bring him back... and he cries.
 * Batman, after shooting Darkseid to poison him (which started the process of Darkseid's defeat) and just before being struck by the Omega Sanction in Final Crisis.
 * In most Elseworlds stories that involve The Joker dying, he does so with a smile. Of course, it's not like he had much choice.
 * The Joker's victims usually go out with a smile, as well... mainly due to how he kills them.
 * In Cable and Deadpool, this is how goes out.
 * Done heartbreakingly in Villains United:

Ragdoll: Dear, loyal demon, I'm afraid you've misjudged me. I don't know any j...wait. You're dying alone in the mud without ever having had a name or a home.

Parademon: HAHAHA! See? I told you you were funny..."


 * Made even sadder later when Ragdoll says Parademon was his best friend.

Fan Works
": Smile, Derpy... I don’t want... to see... to remember your face... being sad... when I will sleep... Please..... smile."
 * This is what happens to in I Have Heard the Voices Dying.
 * In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, Derpy's best friend,, kept smiling during her last moments. It's particularly heartwrenching when   asks Derpy to smile as well, but isn't satisfied at first.

Film - Animated

 * in The Princess and The Frog.
 * Surprisingly perhaps, the titular individual in The Iron Giant qualifies. Although it turns out he is able to reassemble himself.
 * Surprisingly not used in Batman Beyond Return of the Joker. Not only does The Joker not smile during his death but he even says "That's not funny. That's n-" before keeling over.
 * Probably because the Joker isn't necessarily fond of being the butt of a joke (his DCAU version especially not so).
 * In the censored version, Joker dies via electrocution, and it's mentioned that he did indeed have a smile on his face.
 * On the other hand he does laugh hysterically when the titular character of Batman Mask of the Phantasm prevents his escaping a massive explosion. He survives, of course, thanks to Joker Immunity, but at the moment it didn't seem like he had any means to get out alive.

Film - Live Action
"Empire Magazine: There can't be too many gentlemen of a heterosexual persuasion who, if asked how they'd want to die, wouldn't tick the box marked 'crushed to death between Famke Janssen's thighs'."
 * Goldeneye. When Bond finds the Canadian admiral, he's in rigor mortis with a gigantic grin thanks to Famke Janssen's Murderous Thighs.

"T-800: I know now why you cry. But it is something I can never do."
 * In Sin City, while Kevin is being cut up and fed, he's still smiling. That's not a tear jerker, though, that's just intensely fucking creepy.
 * The titular Big Bad of Kill Bill, in the final moments of his life, not only forgives his murderer (who had all the reason in the world to be pissed at him, and he admits it), but assures her that she is still the love of his life with a gentlemanly smile and by telling her she is a wonderful person. If that is not a man, I don't know what is.
 * Anakin Skywalker could barely move, so horribly did the Emperor's lightning burn through his heart in the final Star Wars episode. Yet he implores Luke to take off the mask that was his soul's coffin, so that he could look at his son and smile at him just once as a father before passing on ...sniff sniff...
 * In the novelisation of Revenge of the Sith, Ensemble Darkhorse Kit Fisto is said to have died at the hands of Darth Sidious with his trademark grin on his face.
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi gave Luke one last knowing smile before willingly becoming one with the Force. Via lightsaber.
 * The Terminator of Terminator 2 Judgement Day is a variation of this trope. Although he could not cry for the boy that he has come to love but must leave, his "thumb up" to encourage John to courageously go on living is no less touching than the above examples.

"Deckard: "I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life; anybody's life, my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die.""
 * Roy Batty in Blade Runner does his famous 'tears in the rain' monologue with a smile on his face before dying in front of Deckard -- a man he had just saved and who was, up to that moment, trying to kill him. As Deckard himself muses a second later:

"The Joker: As my plastic surgeon used to say, "if you've gotta go, go with a smile!""
 * Heartily recommended in Batman (1989), right before the final battle:


 * Not to mention the creepy grin frozen on the Joker's face when he shatters all his bones on the pavement of Gotham, with an unnervingly funny laugh from a Laughing-Bag found by Commissioner Gordon on his corpse.
 * In an early draft of the script,
 * Exposure to his Smilex nerve gas causes the victim to go into spasms of laughter, before dying minutes later with an extra large smile on their face. This only applies when the poison absorbed through tampered cosmetic chemicals. The people at the art museum and the parade died in agony.
 * "Let's put a smile on that face!"
 * That was unbelievably cruel.
 * The Joker laughs hysterically
 * William Wallace does this in Braveheart, in part because he sees the spirit of his dead wife among the crowd smiling at him as he is being brutally tortured to death.
 * To an extent this applies to Katsumoto from The Last Samurai. He is smiling just before sustaining his final wound, and dies reflecting upon the beauty of the cherry blossoms he is seeing. "Perfect. They are all perfect."
 * Not technically dying, but close enough: In The Lord of the Rings, as Frodo's getting on the boat to the Undying Lands, he turns and gives his friends who are staying behind one last smile.
 * Théoden manages a smile to Éowyn before he dies.
 * Xavier in X Men the Last Stand gives Wolverine one last smile before he gets disintegrated. This is made all the more emotional when keeping in mind that the last time the two really talked, they were arguing.
 * Done one more time in the movie by Jean. Coincidentally, Wolverine happens to be at this scene too. When Jean briefly stops her violent rampaging, she implores him to save her from her Phoenix side by destroying her. He responds with his admantium claws in her gut, and she goes out with a relieved smile.
 * In Ian McKellen's 1995 version of Richard III, the villainous King Richard falls into a gulf of flames with a huge grin, as I'm Sitting on Top of the World plays.
 * The Purifier in The Chronicles of Riddick cheerfully commits suicide by strolling into the lethal sunlight of Crematoria with a faint but noticeable smile on his face. Even Riddick was shocked.
 * In the 1962 movie version of Billy Budd, you get this for the villain, but it's definitely not the "sniff sniff" version. The SOB dies with a smile of victory, knowing the hero who pwn'd him is doomed. Add that said character is played by Robert Ryan. The guy was really creepy.
 * In the 2010 version of Clash of the Titans, this happens when Cynical Mentor Draco aids Perseus in his climactic battle with Medusa. He knowingly sacrifices himself to stall her by impaling her tail with a stalactite. As she turns her petrifying gaze towards him, he calmly tells the hero to tell all that "men did this," before smiling smugly as he is turned to stone. An enraged Medusa shatters his petrified form afterward.
 * In the 1973 The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe, government intelligence high-up Bernard Milan gets shot along with a bunch of operatives - when he finds out the title character everyone was shooting each other over was, he manages to laugh about it as he's dying.
 * Star Trek Generations: "It was... fun. Oh my..."
 * In The Fountain, Tom the space traveler finally achieves peace with death moments before the nearby star goes nova. He's smiling as he's vaporized.
 * Tron: When the dying Ram realizes that Flynn is a User, and there to help - thus validating the belief he was persecuted for by the MCP.
 * Played for laughs in Cannibal the Musical. One character is fatally shot while singing a song. Later, another character remarks how Peaceful in Death he looks. The camera cuts to a shot of the corpse with a giant, goofy grin.
 * In Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
 * In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Dobby goes out this way, happy to be with his friends.
 * In most of the film adaptations of Ivanhoe, Bois-Guilbert dies this way. Especially present in the 1952 version, where his last act is to wish Rebecca well.
 * In Battle Royale,
 * In Black Swan,
 * In Ghost Dog: The Way of The Samurai,.
 * In Field of Dreams, Dr. "Moonlight" Graham does this twice for Ray's benefit, along with saying a Catch Phrase. There is one twist:.
 * The title character in Cool Hand Luke.
 * Brad Pitt's naively quirky character in Burn After Reading has a big grin on his face when he surprises a man who promptly shoots him in the middle of his forehead.

Literature

 * In The Outsiders,
 * In Les Misérables Enjolras gives one of these to Grantaire before they are killed.
 * In Wilfred Owen's poem, "S.I.W." (stands for "self-inflicted wound") a soldier kills himself to escape an incomprehensible hell. His comrades bury the gun with him, and all they tell his mother is that he died smiling - which is true.
 * In The Dresden Files,  dies with a smile on his face, which is both something of Crowning Moment of Awesome, considering how he died, and a Tear Jerker because he was old, kind, and sacrificed himself for Harry. It is quite possible that Harry never entirely gets over it.
 * He is cited as a reason by Harry, with Sanya's support, to go out and kill the Denarians as fast as possible. When another of his friends,, is severely injured, Harry loses it. Spectacularly.
 * A variant: At the end of The Amber Spyglass, as Will is about to seal off the window between his and Lyra's world, sundering them forever (and as Will thinks "Being cheerful starts now"), they take one last look at each other, and Lyra smiles through her tears. They share their Last Kiss at this moment, and then, Will closes the window.
 * Data offers one of these to Riker, via shuttlecraft viewscreen, in the Star Trek TNG novelization, Ghost Ship moments before being snatched up by some huge, malevolent, ship devouring entity and having his "life essence" sucked out of him. There's a bitter tang to it, in that Data was trying to prove to himself he was actually alive enough to die in the first place, and Riker had just told Data that it didn't even matter and he had finally let go of his prejudices (which a couple of the writers like reminding us of) and now considered him to be "alive" instead of just a machine, literally moments earlier.
 * Peter Pan sort of fits into this trope: at one point, Peter has saved Tiger Lily but thinks he is going to drown. At first he is scared, but then he stands up, grins, and says "To die would be a very big adventure." However, the only person around to hear him is the reader.
 * Of course, he lives through this.
 * Sydney Carton from Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities: "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord?"
 * In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40000 Ultramarines novel Dead Sky Black Sun, Larana Utorian, dying and deranged by her suffering at the hands of the Chaos forces, nevertheless manages to collect her wits and smile at the dying, thus giving him the courage to.
 * In Dracula, every vampire that gets killed leaves a smiling corpse, with the implication that their vampiric nature was a curse they're glad to be free of. (Even Dracula himself, in the moment between his death and his body crumbling to dust.) Van Helsing stated that this was the main reason he was able to keep executing the helpless brides -- because he was saving their souls by doing so.


 * In Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape, the Count hangs a somewhat cynical lampshade on this by observing that nothing seems to make a vampire look more 'at peace' to breathing humans than the knowledge that he or she is finally safely dead.
 * Played straight in the last Harry Potter book when  is crushed in a bomb-like explosion laughing.
 * Not to mention, whose laughter "Had not quite died from his face" before falling through the veil.
 * Thrawn, after he is finally defeated and then stabbed by his bodyguard, smiles and tells Pellaeon "But... it was so artistically done." before his eyes go out.
 * in Stephen King's The Tommyknockers dies smiling, because, as he lays dying, he has a happy dream.
 * In Holes, Kathleen Barlow ("Kissin' Kate Barlow") is taken in for arrest, to be tortured for information. Before they can do anything to her, however, a Yellow Spotted Lizard bites her on the ankle, which causes a slow, painful death; and Kate dies laughing, as "there was nothing more they could do to her now", and the knowledge of the location of her loot would die with her.
 * in Percy Jackson and The Olympians.
 * in the final Animorphs book.
 * in Yoda: Dark Rendezvous.
 * in Artemis Fowl
 * In They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Gloria often tells her only friend, Robert that she wishes she were dead, and finally asks him to shoot her, because she doesn't have the courage to kill herself. He obliges, and at the beginning of the book, recalls her expression as she died: "She was relaxed and comfortable and she was smiling. It was the first time I had ever seen her smile."
 * In the short story "Call me Joe", when a man is dying (after dumping most of his mind into an artificial body, similar to the ending of the Avatar), the doctor remarks that he saw many people who didn't want to live, but this is the first one to smile until the last moment.
 * In a short story by Robert Sheckley, a planet has a civilization of Death Seekers, who believe that the only way to heaven is violent death, the more painful, the better (with every person having his own death, so wars are nonexistent). Naturally, whenever that is achieved (whether by real accident, through priests' decision, or by self arranged "accidents"), the trope is followed most literally, including with one guy who sawed a thorny bush until it fell on him (took him an hour to die).
 * "The Little Match Girl"
 * A Song of Ice and Fire has Tywin Lannister who almost never smiled in life practically grinning during his funeral. This is something of a subversion, because most of the characters are convinced that his mouth is twisting as a side effect of the corpse rotting, but Tywin's sister Genna seems to hope that it is this trope.
 * In Jurassic Park, Malcolm, after chapter upon chapter of getting angry at Hammond's ignorance and scientists in general, dies with a smile.

Live Action TV

 * Subverted in the Supernatural episode "No Rest For The Wicked". Dean might have smiled at his crying brother but it's one of those smiles that you do when you're trying to be brave, trying not to throw up from fear and trying not to cry yourself. And then he sees the Hellhound come to kill him, freaks and runs into another room with Sam and Ruby, and is torn apart in there a few minutes later while Sam watches helplessly.
 * In Smallville, right before Jonathan Kent succumbs to his heart attack, he attempts to smile one last time to his family and tell them "I love you." Oh geeze...
 * After a brutal fight with Clark, Titan realizes he has been fatally impaled by his own arm-spike. He smiles while stating "Good fight" and drops dead.
 * In the 3rd series finale for Doctor Who, the Master technically gets to do this as he dies, he taunts the Doctor for not being able to save him, thus meaning the Master finally wins over the Doctor.
 * The Ninth Doctor Gets one of these just as he starts regenerating, during a fond farewell to Rose. Number 10 reawakens from the regeneration still smiling and ready to resume the pair's trip to (the planet) Barcelona.
 * The Third Doctor uses his last moments to comfort Sarah Jane. "A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don't cry. While there's life, there's..."
 * Spike goes out like this in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as he burns up from a magical sunlight creating amulet.
 * His mother too in the flashback
 * In the second season finale of Torchwood,
 * In the Lost episode "Through the Looking Glass",
 * And in the finale.
 * In "This Place is Death",.
 * The first episode of Rome depicts Caesar's daughter Julia dying in childbirth with a disheveled and heartbroken Pompey at her side. She asks his forgiveness for having a stillborn baby, tells him to kiss her, and then dies giggling at his messy hair.
 * In Lexx, die with a smile and a laugh, respectively.
 * In Robin Hood Marian dies with a smile on her face as she finally marries Robin (despite the sword impaling her stomach).
 * In The Mentalist, Bosco not only smiles himself, but manages to make a tearful, distraught Lisbon who loves him (and they've just had an Anguished Declaration of Love), smile. Just the most heart-wrenching death.
 * Narrowly Averted Trope in Merlin after Lancelot is captured and about to be executed after securing Guinevere's escape from a warlord's keep. When he's threatened with a slow and painful death, he only gives a beautific smile and tells them that because Guinevere is safe, he dies happy. Only for the men to drag a recaptured Guinevere back into the arena. But then Prince Arthur saves them both anyway.
 * At the start of the fourth series Lancelot gets another chance to Go Out With a Smile, and manages it this time when he walks into the veil into the spirit world, thereby healing the rift between the worlds.
 * Beautifully done in Farscape. After absorbing a lethal amount of radiation the clone of John Crichton smiles at Aeryn Sun and delivers one of the most heartbreaking lines in the series. "Don't worry about me, I've never felt better."
 * Archie Kennedy in the sixth installment of the Horatio Hornblower mini-series, after saving Horatio's life and career. Albeit something of a tearful-looking smile (and largely there for Horatio's sake), but still one that could light up a room.
 * Kendrix from Lost Galaxy. She gave up her life to stop Psycho Pink's ever growing power, and to retrieve Cassie's morpher. She slashed the sword, and dies in the explosion. Her ghost appears before the Lost Galaxy and Space Rangers, telling them that she's okay, and that she'll always be there for them.
 * in Kamen Rider W. Large portions of the episode are devoted to the characters wanting to make sure he does so, rather than go out in pain.
 * in Warehouse 13 does this for

Music
"I'll face it with a grin
 * In Vocaloid Kagamine Len's Servant of Evil (and Meiko's Daughter of Vengeance),
 * The final saga in the seven planet wars/Unsheathed the sword and then he charged forward/His eyes flashed behind the cracked cockpit glass/He let out a laugh and then all she heard was a blast like*BOOM*
 * In the music video for "The Islander", an old ship captain turned lighthouse keeper commits suicide by tying an anchor to his legs and then pushing said anchor off a very high ledge (in the song itself, it's meant to be a ship out on the water). He's smiling just before being dragged to his death.
 * The end of the chorus of "Fences" by Paramore features the line: 'So smile/'Cause you'll go out in style.'
 * Queen, "The Show Must Go On".

I'm never giving in

On with the show!"

Video Games
"Shepard: "I'm sorry."
 * In Final Fantasy XII smiles as Gabranth kills her, because he's promised to take care of Larsa in her stead.
 * Considering he's a flaming skeleton, you better believe Xan of Dragon Fable did this...but then he got better.
 * In Fantasia - Requiem of the Abyss, Valen gives Shea one final smile as a Last Request before the latter dies.
 * Though it probably wasn't intentional (as Word of God states she was not making a Heroic Sacrifice) Aerith's final sweet smile before her death in Final Fantasy VII broke the hearts of thousands of gamers.
 * As did Zack's in the ending of Crisis Core, even though everyone already knew he was going to die.
 * Used cynically by Geese Howard at Terry or Andy's ending of Real Bout Fatal Fury. As he pushes himself out of either Bogard's grip, Geese Howard grins and laughs maniacally during the fall to his death, saddling Terry (if you play with him) with the guilt of having orphaned Geese's son Rock (much the same way he orphaned Terry and Andy).
 * In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Volke tells Ike his mother died smiling as she freed Greil from his berserker rage.
 * This is also how Rajaion dies.
 * Also used in The Blazing Sword. In the last chapter you have to fight the morphs of major bosses from earlier in the game. Their faces relax into relieved smiles as you kill them.
 * Iris in Mega Man X 4. Unfortunately, in the US version, this is also one of the most infamous Narm moments.
 * Well what do you know, that scene just got significantly better!
 * Several of the major assassination targets in Assassin's Creed deliver their final words with smiles at Altaïr, usually because they're convinced that even in death their plans are still going to be completed. Robert de Sable's smile is a bit crueler; he delivers it firm in the belief that Altaïr will be killed by his own master, al-Mualim, and that all of Altaïr's work will be for nothing now that he's delivered the Holy Land into his hands.
 * In Tales of Symphonia, when Colette is sacrificing herself as part of the World Regeneration, just before her soul would be sealed into her Cruxis Crystal, so her body could be used for Martel Yggdrasill's resurrection, she smiles and tells her beloved Lloyd how happy he made her then after a goodbye, her soul is lost. However, Colette doesn't actually die, and is restored to her normal, non-dog-kicking, non-Nightmare Fuel-eyed self not too long after this event.
 * In the OVA, the previous event eventually sends Lloyd into a Crowning Moment of Awesome, when he kills Remiel, the deceptuous Angel responsible for causing Colette's presumed death. While this occurs in the game, it is nowhere near as awesome.
 * In Valkyria Chronicles, Isara Gunther gets shot down, out of the blue, by an Imperial sniper. As she lies dying, she says that she failed to make her brother's dream- to fly- a reality. When Welkin says that she, in fact, has made it such, she dies with a smile.
 * Big Bad Dahau also does it at the end of Valkyria Chronicles III, the soul of his wife telling him that now he can rest. (Possibly just a hallucination.) Earlier on, also dies smiling in your arm after you send kill him in battle. On the other hand, Lydia dies laughing, saying that this war isn't entirely bad.
 * In Shadow Hearts, Alice hides the fact that she will soon die from a curse from Yuri and goes on cheerfully, dying in her sleep with a smile in the bad ending. In Covenant, when the attempt to resurrect her fails, she opens her eyes, smiles, and tells Yuri she loves him right before her body disintegrates.
 * Content cut from Knights of the Old Republic II gives Atton a Tear Jerker of an exit should he die fighting Darth Sion: "...hurts when I laugh... hurts..."
 * Sora from Kingdom Hearts smiled, before he stabbed himself with Xehanort's dark keyblade to free Kairi.
 * Axel also smiles before fading away into nothingness after his suicide attack on the Dusks in the sequel.
 * And in 358/2 Days,
 * from Haunting Ground smiles  Although there's no direct explanation given, fans speculate that either
 * in Persona 3 reaches up to dry tears and gives her a heartfelt smile before falling asleep for eternity.
 * As well as, who, Much more of a tear-jerker than it sounds like.
 * Made even worse in the PSP remake, where
 * In the final scenes of the game,.
 * from The World Ends With You appears to smile, before.
 * The Super Mario Bros series has and, from Super Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi, respectively, as each
 * Xenosaga plays it straight with as he finds peace in his final moments saying:
 * Cue the waterworks...
 * The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks has
 * In Dragon Age II
 * Just before being erased out of existence, Ash Crimson smiles one last time for his childhood friend Elizabeth.
 * Although he doesn't die, Sergeant Cyrus believes in this. As he knows that he will die one day in battle, regardless of his skill or experience, he's come to realize that death is not exactly the best thing to do. When Sergeant Thaddeus asks him, Cyrus merely tells him to save some of the victory feelings he gets when he has beaten a very tough opponent, so that when the end does come, you can remember the feeling you got when you won and not have bad things to consider.
 * In the True Ending of Blaz Blue Continuum Shift,.
 * After an epic battle with his pupil Asuras Wrath,.
 * In the finale of Golden Sun Dark Dawn, when King Volechek gives his life to end the Grave Eclipse, the player is treated to one final look at his character portrait, closing its eyes with a smile as the screen fades to white.
 * in Batman: Arkham City.
 * The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword has a twisted variation with.
 * Several people in Mass Effect go out like this: If you convince  to off himself,   and his face looks, if not smiling, then at least calm
 * Several of  do something like this if
 * In Mass Effect 3:
 * Several of  do something like this if
 * In Mass Effect 3:


 * "I'm not. Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.""


 * Also in Mass Effect 3:

Visual Novels

 * In Ribbon of Green, the Good ending has . Subverted as she is Dead All Along.
 * In Fate Stay Night, both the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works' scenarios endings. 's death in UBW is perhaps made more poignant by the fact that, but still smiles and reassures his ex-partner that he'll be fine.
 * in the anime storyline assured her as she was fading away that he was fine; so she could return to the throne happy.
 * While, Assassin is rather calm despite and is chatting fairly casually through the whole thing, probably not losing his smile because it is all the dignity he can still really spare here.
 * Even gets one in the Fate route; as he lies dying from, his last act is to smile, compliment  Saber on her beauty, and say that his interactions with her were 'truly fun'.
 * Tsukihime plays it straight in . It then completely subverts this when
 * Cruelly played with in one of the School Days bad endings. Kotonoha has an insane, lifeless smile on her lips when she throws herself off a building, after Makoto picks her love rival Sekai over her. They end up traumatised forever and split up after some time.

Web Comics

 * In The Order of the Stick, Lord Shojo dies smiling, when Miko Miyazaki Falls as a result of fatally wounding him and he tells her not everyone agreed with her analysis (referring to the gods).
 * He resisted resurrection in a later strip, indicating he was not too sorry to be dead.
 * Miko herself dies with a smile in strip 464, on being told that Windstriker, her horse (and only friend) will visit her in the afterlife even though she has failed to redeem herself.
 * Lord Kubota does also. Not that he realizes he's about to die.
 * I've got something in my eye...
 * in Cuanta Vida, after he.
 * Near the end of the Soul of Storms arc in Dominic Deegan, Klo Tark valiantly sacrifices himself by switching places with Dominic in the Elemecca. As the device's repair magics violently purges him, he gives Dominic one last smile.
 * Goodbye Chains has  do this.
 * In Dave Kelly's Living In Grey Town, one of the characters dies with a big grin on his face. He later admits that it unintentionally looked really creepy.
 * Homestuck:  grins while he's being strangled to death. It's incredibly creepy.
 * It's difficult to tell if it's because, or   or just that his facial muscles are tensing due to asphyxiation
 * It's probably all three.
 * Pauline from Our Little Adventure dies this way, probably because she knows she will be able to be with her husband and son who were murdered some time before.
 * from Girl Genius. Although she wasn't in love with him, Agatha did not take it well.

Web Original

 * In Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog,  dies with a slight smile on her face while attempting to reassure Billy that "Captain Hammer will save us."
 * "John Freeman had Gordon Freeman and saw eyes shut and the breath stopped but Gordon Freeman had smiles on face."
 * Survival of the Fittest has a few, the most recent (and gut-wrenching) being Eve Walker-Luther's death by Cold Blooded Torture at the hands of Sarah Atwell.
 * Craig Hoyle pulls one of these off as well, causing quite a bit of pain for his accidental killer, Nik Kronwall.
 * in The Kingdom AU Shadows Prove The Sunshine

Western Animation
"Darkseid: Heh. Loser."
 * In Justice League, Darkseid was left to die on an exploding asteroid after being beaten by Superman. Darkseid's only reaction to his impending death? Sneer and mock Superman's failure to kill him personally.


 * When Transformers Armada  does his death monologue with a sword through his chest, he's got a heartbreakingly peaceful smile on his face--the first he's had in the entire series.
 * Similar thing happens with  in Transformers Animated. Cue crying fangirls.
 * Cue crying everyone.
 * Also, Vector Prime after his Heroic Sacrifice, as mentioned earlier.
 * Oh yea, and then there's  from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! who sacrificed himself with the most adorable little smile so that
 * The last we see of  in Avatar: The Last Airbender is him smiling at the Gaang (mainly Katara) and assuring them that "I'll be fine."
 * In the American Dad episode "Rapture's Delight" takes a shot meant for  and also sets off a time bomb meant to destroy the lair of the Anti-Christ. While he is offered the chance of being raptured to Heaven  turns it down because the bomb will go off before  can perform the spell. After kissing Francine  is left alone with a cigar and a grin just as the bomb goes off, promptly killing him.
 * Samurai Jack, "Jack and the Lava Monster" - FREE.

Real Life

 * The grave of Robert Baden Powell (the founder of the scouting movement) has a dot in a circle engraved upon the gravestone. Any scout will recognize it as a symbol from a code normally used on trails to leave simple messages. The symbol means "I have completed my task and gone home".
 * Some versions of the John Henry story have him smiling right before dying from overwork after winning a race to see who can cover a length of track the fastest.
 * A most famous real life example is of Shemp Howard, one of the Three Stooges. He died in the back of a taxi cab while lighting up a cigar and telling a joke after coming home from the boxing match. Knowing Shemp's personality, He Would Have Wanted It That Way.
 * Admiral Horatio Nelson's last words were "thank God I have done my duty."
 * In 2011 in the Seattle area, a middle-aged (not old) hobby fisherman caught a 20-lb. salmon, the biggest fish of his life. He turned to a stranger, said happily, "This is the fish of my dreams," then fell into the river and died of a heart attack. They barbecued the salmon and ate it at his wake. Not such a bad way to go, yes?