Death Seeker: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Bunji_3945.png|frame]]

 

At some point in the past, a character had a [[Moral Event Horizon|traumatic]] [[Despair Event Horizon|experience]], or found themselves dishonoured, or committed a crime they could not repay or lost everything worth living for. For [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|whatever reason]], instead of just [[Driven to Suicide|committing suicide]], they went off seeking battles to fight, hoping to find an [[Suicide by Cop|enemy who would kill them]], and achieve an [[Redemption Equals Death|honourable]], [[Heroic Sacrifice|heroic]] or otherwise acceptable death.

 

 

They found they were far too good at the "fighting" part. And for whatever [[Honor Before Reason|reason (usually honor)]], they don't hold back.

Consequently, they travel, seeking greater and greater enemies to fight, hoping to find a [[Worthy Opponent]] [[Strike Me Down|to finally kill them.]] Sometimes they'll fail to die so spectacularly and repeatedly that they acquire riches, renown, ranks or romance as a result of their exploits. This rarely, but sometimes, stops them.

 

 

If a villain is one of these, it's sometimes mixed with shades of [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] or [[Omnicidal Maniac]]: they want to die, and they don't care if they have to drag the rest of creation down with them to do it. The worst of them ''want'' to destroy everything else too.

{{deathtrope}}

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Kambei in ''[[Samurai 7]]'', who is actually disappointed that he has managed to survive ''yet again'' even while most of his his subordinates have once again died.

* In ''[[Corsair]]'', [[The Atoner|Canale]] is a former assassin who made a promise not to kill himself, but wishes to die because he thinks he brings misery and destruction wherever he goes. Early on he begs Ayace to do so, but Ayace refuses. Later Ayace makes a promise that if Canale brings destruction on Preveza he ''will'' kill him, so until then he should try living normally, which reassures Canale greatly.

* ''[[Madoka Magica]]'': {{spoiler|Sayaka}} does not react well to [[Awful Truth|finding out that]] {{spoiler|[[Soul Jar|her soul had been moved into]] her [[Transformation Trinket|Soul Gem]].}}

** Long before him, Nico Robin loses her last hope and purpose to life at the end of Arabasta arc. It needs two [[Unwanted Rescue|unwanted rescues]] until she is ready to admit in the middle of [[Rescue Arc|Enies Lobby arc]] that she has found her [[Worth Living For|reason to live]] and that she [[I Don't Want to Die|doesn't want to die.]]

* {{spoiler|Johan Liebert}} in ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' near the end.

* [[Black Butler|Grell]] when we first meet her.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** The anthology "Endless Nights" had a soldier whose life was empty, until he encountered [[Perky Goth|Death]] and actually helped her on a job by breaking down a magic gate so she could enter a castle and claim the inhabitants. Now, he enters battle with renewed vigor, in the hopes he will meet her again.

* Daredevil (not Matt Murdock) of ''[[Earth X]]'' is unkillable due to his regenerative powers. It's not clear how he became suicidal, but he becomes the center of a circus act in which the audience is invited to kill him if they can. Later he tries to get several [[Big Bad]]s to kill him, culminating in his multiplying into many versions of himself when he is ripped apart. Late in the series he apparently finally gets his wish, but only after all of humanity has joined him in [[Blessed with Suck|painful immortality]] (due to the death of Death).

{{quote|'''Cassandra''': <thinking> I will never take another life, not even hers... so I will pretend to go all out, and then I'll die. I don't have to do this, I can still use Batman's method, I can still be... mediocre for a lifetime... or perfect... for a year.

'''Shiva''': "Well?" }}

** [[Batman]] himself subconsciously slid into Death Seeker territory after [[Dead Sidekick|the death of Jason Todd/Robin II]], to the great worry of [[Team Mom|Alfred]] and Dick, and prompting Tim into becoming Robin, under the belief that 'Batman needs a Robin.'

** Similarly in ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'', while it's not explicitly stated Batman is constantly reflecting on the life-and-death situations he finds himself in and musing that "this would be a good way to die," the clear implication being that he's actively looking to go out in a suitable blaze of glory. {{spoiler|Ultimately subverted; although Batman appears to go out in a blaze of glory fighting Superman, it's revealed that he faked his own death, having discovered a new purpose to live over the course of the story.}}

** {{spoiler|So much so that when he was revived, the first thing he did was shed a tear over being alive.}}

{{quote|'''Cyborg Superman''' (attacking [[Green Lantern]]s): ''Lethal force has been authorized, Green Lanterns. Please, use it.''}}

*** {{spoiler|Except maybe not. It appears that he's expected to play a role in the "Reign Of Doomsday" arc that's coming up due to Doomsday's apparent interest in the original replacement Superman from [[The Death of Superman]]. Sucks to be Henshaw... again}}...

* Eilif the Lost was the last survivor of a Viking [[Lost Colony]] in Antarctica. Old and growing infirm, he tried to goad [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] into killing him. "I would have fought a god, my lord. What Viking could have asked for a more glorious death?"

* Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse from [[Scalped]] has an unconscious death wish. He constantly throws himself in dangerous gunfights with psychopaths and always alone. It's hinted that he suffers from ptsd {{spoiler|(child abuse, fighting in Kosovo and witnessing a massacre)}}, suicidal behaviour {{spoiler|(flashback to a young Dashiell cry and put a gun to his temple, second time he does the same thing when he could've prevented the murder of a young boy)}} and from deep seated anger {{spoiler|(his fists are bruised most of the time and we see him slamming his fists against his own truck)}}. When Dash is confronted by {{spoiler|his father}}, the conversation between them pretty much confirms all of this and more importantly his death wish.

* [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]], to a [[The Woobie|horribly painful degree]]. And, no, it didn't start during/after [[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]], either, though that certainly [[Up to Eleven|made it worse]]. It started when he was struck with [[Survivor Guilt|survivor's guilt]] over the [[My Greatest Failure|death of Yin Sen]]—that's right, it started with his ''origin story''—and [[Hurting Hero|just kind of]] [[It Got Worse|went downhill]] [[Drowning My Sorrows|at breakneck speed]] [[Trauma Conga Line|from there]]. Unfortunately, Marvel [[Darker and Edgier|isn't kind enough]] to just [[Mercy Kill|let him die]] at this point, whether by way of [[Driven to Suicide|suicide]] or [[Suicide by Cop|death by supervillain]]—though this may be [[Blatant Lies|justified]] by the fact that apparently, [[Running the Asylum|no one at Marvel]] has [[Did Not Do the Research|bothered to crack open a psychology textbook]] to figure out that [[The Mentally Disturbed|someone like Tony Stark]] should probably not still be alive of his own free will. Considering Tony's history of barely caring if he lives or dies, [[Be All My Sins Remembered|as well as his absolute self-loathing]], it's hard to believe that he's still breathing. Hell, if nothing else, it's a goddamned miracle that he hasn't [[Driven to Villainy|become an outright supervillain]], gone [[Murder Is the Best Solution|batshit crazy]], or [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|worse]]. Usually, when a character [[Despair Event Horizon|hits rock bottom]], the general procedure is to [[Redemption Equals Death|have them]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|go out]] [[Dying Moment of Awesome|in a blaze of glory]]. Instead, Marvel [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|handed him]] [[Kick Them While They Are Down|a shovel]].

* Thanos is a Death Seeker but not for the typical reasons. He wants to die because he is ''in love'' with the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of Death.

** Don't worry, if you read The End {{spoiler|Thanos winds up saving ALL REALITY which he originally tried to kill off HALF OF. By the end Thanos himself makes the statement, [[Redemption Equals Death|"I have been many things...]] [[Heel Face Turn|and now, healer."]] Death, in return for his sacrifice, finally gives him her love.}}

* Lady Shiva of [[The DCU]] is a Death Seeker like Cassandra Cain {{spoiler|her own daughter}} mentioned earlier. Shiva has always regretted that her sister was killed for the sake of her own potential as a martial artist and confessed to Cassandra that she misses her every day. As a result, Shiva is a mix of a [[Blood Knight]] and a Death Seeker. She continues to challenge and train gifted martial artists out of a need to validate her sister's death by proving that she is the strongest, but at the same time she secretly hopes to die at the hands of someone better due to her guilt.

* In one [[Star Wars]] story arc, the crooked ex-Senate Guard Venco Autem learns that he has a terminal illness, and so takes on suicidal jobs like assassinating corrupt Senators because he has nothing to live for. At the end of the comic, he places himself in a situation that he has little hope of escaping from in order to kill the Senator, and is indeed shot dead by his brother.

* In ''[[Action Comics]]'', Doomsday the monster that nearly killed [[Superman]] becomes this millions of years in the future. Filled with self-loathing, he has gone back in time to remove every last trace of himself from the past, present, and future. Since people on Earth know how to clone him, he figures he needs to get rid of Earth as well.

* In ''[[The Goon]]'' comics the immortally weary Buzzard agrees to go kill a monster terrorizing the countryside, hoping it will be able to kill him. When he arrives he learns that the ancient creature was doing this with the hope that they would fight back and kill it. They agree to fight it out and let fate decide which on of them...wins.

 

{{quote|{{spoiler|And as he stood upon the battle fields, she thought back to his oath: [[I Will Wait for You|to be reunited with his love upon a hill of swords.]] To be reunited with his lover. His lover was dead. [[Together in Death|And it was only through battle that he could finally join her again. When he too was dead]].}} }}

** Needless to say, after being {{spoiler|revived by Tiffania}}, he clearly states that at that moment, he really, REALLY, hated her.

* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3966181/1/The_Prince The Prince]'', a ''[[Death Note]]'' [[Yakuza]] [[Alternate Universe Fic|AU]] by Neverending Odyssey, Light sees [[Professional Killer|the deaths]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|he must deal out]] as a burden and truly looks forward to the day L will catch and execute him for it-however since he's not engaging the detective in pitched battle he isn't leaving any clues behind and Ryuk sees a very long lifespan ahead of him.

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' fanfic, ''[[Eri's Game]]'', has the titular character trying to become an activist just to die as she's responsible for Shiki's death. However, some mysterious force, {{spoiler|who is Shiki}}, keeps on foiling it. Luckily, her wish is granted in the end of week 1.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The WWI pilot in [[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy]] wants to go out in a blaze of glory like the rest of his deceased war buddies. {{spoiler|Seeing as he dies fighting a giant face made of sand while successfully escorting Rick and Johnathan to Hamunaptra, it's probably safe to say that he succeeded. His last words?}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|"Here I come, laddies!" and a huge laugh.}}}}

* Sir Lancelot in ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]''. He's more of a defeat seeker than a death seeker though, having traveled around looking for a King who was good enough to beat him and thereby win his fealty. He claims he was [[Cursed with Awesome]].

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* One of the characters in Peter David's black comedy fantasy novel ''[[Sir Apropos of Nothing]]'' was a Death Seeker whose reckless deeds resulted in him becoming the most highly respected knight in all the land. At that point he realised that he actually quite liked being alive, hung up his sword and retired behind a mantle of [[Obfuscating Stupidity|obfuscating senility]].

* Colbey, the main character of the ''[[The Last of the Renshai|Renshai]]'' novels, is a follower of the Norse gods, and must die in battle to reach Valhalla. (Dying while refusing to fight all-out doesn't count, and would get him damned to Hel.) He's in his ''eighties'' by the end of book 1, the oldest person his tribe has ever had, and the best swordsman in history. He's even given the title "Deathseeker" by some. {{spoiler|Eventually, it's discovered that he became "semi-mortal" in his sixties (meaning he can't grow any older) and eventually becomes a god. He still rejoices in a challenging fight centuries later, mind you...}}

* Brox (Broxigar [[First-Name Basis]]) of the [[War of the Ancients]] [[Warcraft]] novels trilogy fits this trope perfectly, after being the sole survivor of his squad. {{spoiler|He actually gets his wish in the end by performing a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}

* Eowyn in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', whose courageous ride to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields has also been described as a lovesick suicide attempt.

** Another example from ''Animorphs'' is [[Sixth Ranger Traitor|David]] by the end of his last book. Abandoned by Crayak, betrayed by his henchmen and still condemned to [[Fate Worse Than Death|live out the rest of his days as a rat]], he tearfully begs Rachel to end his misery.

* In ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]'', Galbatorix became one after the death of his first dragon, but then stopped after he got the idea that he might be able to convince the elders to give him another dragon. And once, that didn't work, [[Big Bad|well...]]

 

* In ''[[Angel]]'', the Groosalugg was so "hideous" that he sought monsters to destroy him. He failed to die so incredibly he got made his kingdom's champion.

** Faith is a Death Seeker when she appears in late first season, kidnapping Wesley and torturing him all to get Angel angry enough to kill her. Back in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', she had done a similar thing with Buffy, though then her motive was that, by killing her, [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him|Buffy would become like her]], which would be a sort of "post-death revenge" on Buffy by Faith.

{{quote|'''Loa:''' You risk your life, human, calling on the loa. Perhaps what you really seek is death. The pain in your heart begs for it.}}

** It's strongly hinted, as the series progressed, that Buffy herself had tendencies in this direction, particularly by Spike, who is [[Living Lie Detector|never wrong]] about these sorts of things. Season 6 made this characteristic much more explicit.

* When Mack "[[Fan Nickname|iMack]]" Hartford of ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' [[Tomato in the Mirror|realizes he's an android,]] he at first has a classic [[Heroic BSOD]], but comes out of it rather quickly... only to put himself in the line of fire more and more in an attempt to engineer a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. It ''starts'' with pushing a [[Humongous Mecha]] toward [[Explosive Overclocking|overload]] and goes from there.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'''s Dean is this in a nutshell. Notice how whenever he gets the choice to die or keep living, the choice is always ambiguous. After his Dad dies for him, he's too tired of this life and as the Crossroad Demon says in "Crossroad Blues", his first thought in the morning is "I can't do this anymore." It finally comes to a head in the Season Two finale when Sam dies and Dean sells his soul to get him back, for a whole bunch of messed up reasons. For the first half of Season Three, he doesn't seem to mind if he goes downstairs ahead of schedule but finally, ''finally'' in "Dream a Little Dream of Me" he realizes the obvious fact that he doesn't ''deserve'' eternity in hell. Except his martyrdom comes back in full-force in ''No Rest For The Wicked'' {{spoiler|and he still thinks he doesn't deserve to live in ''Lazurus Rising''}} so you can't help but still think his sole goal for himself is death.

** Marcus is explicitly described as a death seeker. He gets his wish.

** With at least six attempts at heroic sacrifice or suicide and the mother of all unaddressed guilt complexes, Delenn is an implicit embodiment of this trope.

** The sanguine manner in which he {{spoiler|meets his execution by firing squad}} seems to confirm this.

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. While not as actively suicidal as some of the other examples, his self-destructiveness is leading him towards an early death, his curiosity exceeds his regard for his own life, the issue of him not caring if he dies and not feeling like he deserves to live (or be happy) has come up several times and he even says he would rather be dead than deal with all the crap in his life anymore in the Season Four finale.

* Detective Inspector William "Jack" Frost in ''[[A Touch of Frost]]'' tried and failed to commit suicide by confronting an armed criminal. He got the George Cross for his troubles.

* Godric, a 2,000-year-old vampire from ''[[True Blood]]'', surrenders himself to a group of religious fanatics, hoping they will crucify and burn him, but he is saved by his vampire pals. After speechifying to the Fellowship of the Sun, he attracts a suicide bomber to his home that still fails to kill him. Later, he commits old fashioned vampire suicide by meeting the sun.

* Opie becomes this in the second season of ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' {{spoiler|after his wife Donna's death}}

* Logan Echolls of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' has something of a death wish, highlighted most obviously in 1x22 'Leave It To Beaver' and 3x20 'The Bitch Is Back.' But with his background, can you blame him?

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Klingons]], whose religion holds that to get into Sto-Vo-Kor (their equivalent of Heaven...or more accurately, Valhalla) one has to die in honorable combat. "Today is a good day to die" is basically the motto of the entire species. A Klingon warrior who lives to old age will tend to get more extreme about this. A specific example of this is shown late in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', with [[Old Master|Dahar Master]] Kor. During the Dominion War arc he desperately wants to be sent into combat so that he can have a chance to die honorably, but he's made so many enemies over the years that nobody is willing to let him join the war.

** Like the Vikings below, there ''are'' loopholes. For example, when Jadzia dies her Klingon husband, Worf, collects friends and goes into battle in her honor, which in Klingon religion can earn the deceased passage to Sto-Vo-Kor. (Paralleling the medieval Christian doctrine of substitution, wherein if you had committed more sin than you could do penance for in a lifetime, you could work it off by various more active things, like crusading or helping to build a church, which devolved into the outright-purchase papal indulgences Luther found so offensive. Or someone else could transfer ''their'' merit to you, which is why rich people endowed monasteries and where that 'pray for the souls of the dead' thing originates. [[And Now You Know]].)

* The Sontarans of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' are similarly eager to die in honorable combat, a trait [[Planet of Hats|brought forward particularly]] in the new series. This trope is played with in the episode "A Good Man Goes To War" when a Sontaran slowly dying of a painful wound quips that the experience is not quite as glorious as he anticipated. Of course, he's a nurse.

{{quote|'''Mrs. Pucci''': "Everyone's afraid to die, Mr. Chance... unless, of course, for some reason they think they deserve it."}}

* [[Doctor Who|The Ninth Doctor]] shows some signs of this. From Dalek: "You survived {{spoiler|the time war}}." "Not by choice."

** [[Doctor Who|The Tenth Doctor]] also practically personifies it. It's pretty much stated in ''Turn Left'' that he'd just let himself die if it weren't for Donna.

 

 

* The name comes from Death Seekers of the Lion Clan in [[Legend of the Five Rings]]''.

** The Damned of the Crab Clan are the 'diseased' variation. They are victims of the corruption they fight, and seek to do more damage to their enemy than they would giving into the Taint.

** The ''[[Gotrek and Felix]]'' novels, in particular, tell the story of Felix Jaeger, a young poet who finds himself honor bound to accompany a Slayer and record his heroic doom. Unfortunately for Felix, Gotrek Grunnisson just happens to be the worst Slayer in history, on account of him being the most [[Badass]] Dwarf, if not being, on the planet. He has killed everything from incarnations of rage and blood to dragons the length of football fields. Even if anything ''could'' kill Gotrek, Felix has no illusions about the fact that it would kill him soon after.

** The next step in a Troll Slayer's career is Demon Slayer, a Troll Slayer who ''couldn't find a big enough and mean enough troll''.

**** The fun thing about that class is that on paper, slayers are combat monsters. They evade [[Game Breaker]] status because anyone playing a slayer is expected to act like one; you are supposed to pick fights even when the odds aren't good, sleep deprivation, mental instability and rampant alcoholism is the best way to spend your downtime, and armour is for people without a death wish (i.e. anyone not you). Your impressive combat prowess is there to make the party want to hang out with you anyway.

**** Well, that, and your non-combat abilities are limited to 'resistance to getting drunk' and 'scare people'. Basically, the only thing a Slayer in ''WHFRP'' is good for outside a fight is to start one.

** 40k also gives use the [[Stripperiffic|Sisters Repentia]], Sisters of Battle who are in disgrace can take the oath of redemption, forsaking their armour and normal weapons in favour of rags and a really big chainsaw. They're not expected to survive, but those that do can rejoin the normal squads.

** Lone Wolves from the Space Wolves list. You are actually penalised if they survive to the end, and they have a pretty good statline making it a bit tricky to get them killed (especially since they're immune to the [[Chunky Salsa Rule]]). On the other hand, your opponent can see what a Lone Wolf can do, and will probably try and kill them for you so that they don't dismember half of his battle line.

*** Although in the fluff, death is not the only way to regain the lost honour of their packs. They deliberately seek out the largest opponents not only to seek an honorable death, but also to use it as an opportunity to regain the honor of his pack. Rarely this succeeds, but sometimes they do return victorious and the avenging of the pack fulfilled. These usually get initiated into their respective Wolf Guards. This manifests in an extra re-roll against some of the stronger units on the tabletop, encouraging players to target these units with the Lone Wolf.

** The Imperial Guard has the Penal Legions. Having committed some sin against the Emperor, they are deployed [[Zerg Rush|en masse]] with even less armor and weaker weapons than the standard Guardsman; they aren't really meant to survive, just to swamp the enemy with their numbers or to clear minefields for the [[Tank Goodness|tanks]].

* One of the example villains in the old edition of ''[[GURPS]]'' Supers was a disgraced sumo wrestler who couldn't commit seppuku due to his [[Nigh Invulnerability]]. Thus, he sought out other supers to goad them into killing him. His sympathetic backstory, and his history of tracking down and defeating violent supers, make him more of an [[Anti-Villain]].

** There's also a [[Point Build System|disadvantage]] called 'On The Edge', that basically allows you to play your character as a Death Seeker. It makes you passively suicidal. You won't off ''yourself'', but if you're, say, [[Curb Stomp Battle|facing down an entire biker gang while armed with a toothbrush]]...

* Chrononauts: Lost Identities features Isaac, a playable character who prevents various tragedies, including his own death at Columbine. One of his win conditions includes allowing the massacre to happen, so Isaac can let himself die.

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

* Posthumous Leonatus of [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Cymbeline]]'' becomes one in his regret over having had Imogen killed. He first strips himself of his armor and fights against the heavily-armed Roman soldiers. He successfully fends them off and rescues the king. He then dresses up as a Roman soldier and tries to get killed in battle, but is instead captured. He's scheduled for hanging, but the King spares him. Poor guy just can't catch a break...

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Evidently she's not the only one in the FFXIII world with this mindset, seeing as {{spoiler|Orphan, Barthandelus, and ''every other fal'Cie in existence'' also want to die.}} Even if it means destroying the world and '''''everyone else in it.'''''

*** It turns out that {{spoiler|the Fal'Cie}} want to {{spoiler|destroy Cocoon}}, because that many people dying at once would {{spoiler|bring back the world's god: The Maker, who is also the Fal'Cie's 'parent' who orphaned them when she left the world}}. That many people dying at once would {{spoiler|open the door to the Maker}}, and {{spoiler|Orphan is vital to the upkeep of Cocoon, so it's death would mean the death of Cocoon}}, and all the humans living there.

*** Justified since his curse of endless reincarnation/violent death is connected to Soul Edge and Soul Calibur.

*** That's one ending. The other is that he spends the rest of his final life writing a library full of his autobiography.

* Bunji in [[Gungrave]] Overdose asks for the player character to kill him, not without giving a really hard fight before, its more subtle when you choose Grave or Jujy but he tells Billy something along the lines of: "I only need one thing from you, Strenght. Quick finish me, rub me and my patetic regrets off of this world", he even Thanks Billy for his "requiem" in a [[Tear Jerker]] sequence after the fight with a slow "You are not bad..... Thank.....you".

* Urick from ''[[Drakengard]] 2'' got his butt royally kicked by Caim, but was so terrified of dying that he made a pact with a Reaper, rendering him all but unkillable. But he felt so bad about failing in his duties and letting his General get killed that finding a way to break his pact, and therefore die, is pretty much his sole reason for living. And despite the incredible [[Wangst]] potential of all this, he's actually a pretty [[Nice Guy]].

** {{spoiler|He eventually gets his wish when he runs into Caim again. Caim ''beats the pact out of him''.}}

* Albedo from ''[[Xenosaga]]''. Since his unique genetic makeup makes it literally impossible to die (as in, his head can be ripped off with no ill effects whatsoever), he gets very upset when he finds out that his two brothers don't have the same ability. This becomes the main driving force behind his actions throughout the first two games—he wants to [[Sealed Evil in a Can|unseal]] the [[Cosmic Horror]] because it's the only thing capable of killing him and ensuring that he and his brothers can be together forever.

* Tsugumi of ''[[Ever 17]]'' leaps into a dangerous situation to save the hero's life, not because she cares about his wellbeing, but because she's hoping it will kill her. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for her, her [[Healing Factor]] makes her more or less immortal.}}

* The new player character of ''[[Prototype 2]]'', Sgt. James Heller, hoped to die fighting the infection in Manhattan after losing his family while he was fighting overseas. After being infected with the Blacklight Virus which, if the trailer is anything to go by, will eventually turn him into a [[Nigh Invulnerable]] immortal monster that can ''never'' die, his new goal is to kill the one he blames for denying him the death he craves: Alex Mercer.

* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable]]: The Gears of Destiny'' has the Unbreakable Darkness, an [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Walking Wasteland]] who hates the fact that she can't stop herself from destroying everything and seeks death because of this. Unfortunately, in addition to the power to destroy several worlds in an instant, she's also too [[Nigh Invulnerable]] to receive the death she wants.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* {{color|green|D}}{{color|white|o}}{{color|green|c Scratch}} of ''[[Homestuck]]'' has accomplished his life's purpose, and as such, wants his life to end. He's a [[Physical God|First Guardian]]. You can see why he's having trouble dying.

** There's also Scratch's {{spoiler|adopted daughter, the Handmaid, aka Aradia Megido's ancestor}}. In her case, she's immortal thanks to {{spoiler|a curse Lord English put on her, and can only die once she's completed her tenure}}. Thanks to Scratch's [[Abusive Parents|conditioning]], she desperately wants to die.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* It's been implied that [[The Nostalgia Critic]] is this. Leaving the room that the bad movie is in vs. shooting yourself in the head... what would you pick?

* While [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s never said that she ''wants'' to die, it's pretty easy to infer from her growing alcoholism that she wouldn't really mind it.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

'''Grandpa''': That's the spirit, tubby! }}

** Played straight in the ''Coon and Friends Trilogy'', when Mysterion (aka {{spoiler|[[They Killed Kenny|Kenny]]}}) confronts [[Eldritch Abomination|Cthulhu]] both to save his friends and in the apparent hope of finally being [[Killed Off for Real]].

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* John Henry "Doc" Holliday, dentist turned infamous gunfighter and gambler of the old west, is a perfect real life example of this trope. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in his early twenties Doc Holliday went out west, hoping the drier climate would ease his ailment. However, his hot temper and belief that death by gun or knife was far better than by tuberculosis, led him to a life of adventure, taking part in many shoot outs including the famed OK corral and Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Ride. Despite this lifestyle, his extreme skill, and more-so his reputation of extreme speed, with a revolver kept him alive, he eventually died of his illness at age 36 in the bed of a sanitarium. His famous last words, upon looking at his bare feet in bed, were "Now, that's funny."

* According to contemporary records, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary was strongly implied to have become this towards the later years of his life, going so far as to practically mention this trope by name. Then again, after having to deal with the deaths of all those around him, including his brother (Maximilian; killed by firing squad in Mexico), wife (Elisabeth/Sissi; killed by an Italian anarchist), son/heir (Rudolf; the Meyerling Incident) and successor (Franz Ferdinand; assassinated in Sarajevo, sparking [[World War I]]) and watching his Empire slowly fall apart from war, [[Iron Woobie|one has to wonder]].

 

{{reflist}}