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[[File:beavercrush1.jpg|frame]]
This trope occurs when [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|a character
Sometimes the connection is less pointed, the writer trying to show how clever he is. Some are so [[Anvilicious|howlingly obvious]] that they challenge our [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]. [[James Bond|Bond]] films have done this so much that we'll accept almost anything.
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples|Examples that don't fit into any subtropes}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' the manga/Brotherhood version, each of the Homunculi dies in a manner thematically appropriate to the associated Deadly Sin:
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' the manga/Brotherhood version, each of the Homunculi dies in a manner thematically appropriate to the associated Deadly Sin:
** Lust is burned to death by a man whose [[Everyone Can See It|probable]] [[Bodyguard Crush|love interest]] she was about to kill.
** Greed Mk.I is boiled down for his most valuable part. However, he came back later.
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** Barry the Chopper, a bodiless soul bound to armor by a blood-seal, tracks down and supposedly kills his original body (now a mindless creature). Shortly after that Lust destroys the armor, leaving the piece of armor with the seal on it as the only part of him still alive. His real body then crawls over, picks the piece up, and scratches the seal off (which destroys his soul).
** [[No Name Given|The gold-toothed doctor]], who had apparently participated in all kinds of hideous alchemical human experimentation and had just gone to [[Kick the Dog|some pretty despicable lengths]] to force Roy to open the Gate, gets transmuted into a hideous blob of [[Body Horror]] by Pride, in the process of forcing Roy to open the Gate.
* ''[[
* Fisher Tiger from ''[[
* In ''[[
** Also, in the Pokemon anime, [[Big Bad]] Cyrus gets close to undoing the world and creating his own, Palkia and Dialga open a dimension to start but cease when the heroes break Cyrus' mind control. Cyrus refuses to believe his plans have failed and jumps into the pocket dimension just as it closes, and while it's possible he's creating his own universe seperate from the main one, it's far more likely the dimensional gate destroyed him when it shut.
* In [[Ghost in
* [[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* A ''Star Wars Tales'' comic is told entirely from the perspective of a career storm trooper who's about to board the ''[[A New Hope|Tantive IV]]''. As he thinks back on his life in the military and the things he's done, his ruminations are interspersed with the present as the Star Destroyer pulls the ship into its docking bay and they prepare to board. The man dreads being chosen to be sent in first, because the guy sent in first ''always''
== Comics ==▼
* In [[DC Comics]], this is the fate of Darkseid's mother, Queen Heggra. She didn't appreciate how her son was falling in love with a beautiful and understanding scientist, Suli, so she had the court poisoner, Desaad, poison her potential daughter-in-law. Darkseid returned the sentiment by having Desaad poison her, too. This parley would eventually come back to bite Desaad in the ass, too. When Darkseid accidentally freed his [[Always a Bigger Fish|father, Yuga Khan]] from the Source Wall, Desaad
▲* A Star Wars Tales comic is told entirely from the perspective of a career storm trooper who's about to board the ''[[A New Hope|Tantive IV]]''. As he thinks back on his life in the military and the things he's done, his ruminations are interspersed with the present as the Star Destroyer pulls the ship into its docking bay and they prepare to board. The man dreads being chosen to be sent in first, because the guy sent in first ''always'' dies--he's seen it dozens of times. [[Tempting Fate|Naturally, the sergeant chooses him.]] They set the charge on the door, and the storm trooper dryly remarks on its functionality, designed to blow the door inward and hopefully make the enemy flinch. And for once...it works. The rebels flinch, buying the man time to get into the hallway and start shooting. And right behind him, the sergeant that ordered him in first is shot in the face.
▲* In [[DC Comics]], this is the fate of Darkseid's mother, Queen Heggra. She didn't appreciate how her son was falling in love with a beautiful and understanding scientist, Suli, so she had the court poisoner, Desaad, poison her potential daughter-in-law. Darkseid returned the sentiment by having Desaad poison her, too. This parley would eventually come back to bite Desaad in the ass, too. When Darkseid accidentally freed his [[Always a Bigger Fish|father, Yuga Khan]] from the Source Wall, Desaad grovelled before him, telling him how his service to Darkseid "was a lie." Yuga Khan then reminded Desaad how he murdered his beloved wife, then [[Critical Existence Failure|promptly disintegrated]] the sniveling toad. He came back with help from Darkseid after Yuga Khan, ironically, got himself re-stuck in the Source Wall.
** Another DC Comics example, this time concerning a possible future demise for noted immortal villain [[Vandal Savage]]. In ''[[DC One Million]]'', after having lived up to the 853rd century, Savage goes back in time to the 20th-century and arrives in Montevideo, Uruguay just in time to get caught in a nuclear blast that devastates the city...an attack that is ordered by 20th-century Savage.
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Alien vs. Predator (
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* Used to surprisingly good effect in [[The Asylum]]'s version of ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]''. The factory owner who put bars on the inside of his windows to keep his illegal workers in? Can't get out when the monster comes to eat him.
* In ''[[
* Most of the victims in ''[[
* In ''[[
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the ''[[
* Count [[Dracula (
* In ''Eternity [[In Death]]'', the killer, who thinks he's a vampire, attacks Dallas. In the struggle, he's stabbed by a wooden stake.
* In ''[[
* ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* One of the nobles in ''[[
* In James Herbert's post-nuclear holocaust novel ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[
* In [[Tim Dorsey]]'s first novel, ''Florida Roadkill'', an assassin who is a member of a Satanic cult is preparing to sacrifice Serge and Coleman (By kneeling in the middle of the highway and praying in black clothing in the middle of the night) when he is run over by a bus full of devout Christians.
* Similar to the beaver in the picture, an ''Iguanodon'' dies in the 1912 novel ''[[The Lost World]]'' when it brings the tree where it was trying to feed on over itself.
* Glimmer from ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' finds it hilarious when a girl begs for her life... and no. She doesn’t grant her mercy. The agitated tracker jackers (Katniss destroyed their nest, but they seemingly didn’t realize that, and they seemingly assumed the Careers were responsible) end up showing her no mercy.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* In ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'', a character whose name is a reference to Bram Stoker is killed by a piece of wood through the heart by a supernatural monster.
** Also, a character is killed in a dynamite explosion while giving a lecture on the dangers of dynamite.
** And then there's the guy who complained about how the survivors couldn't even make a fire. Cue flaming arrow hitting him in the chest.
** And Locke is murdered by Ben, who had just talked him out of suicide.
* On ''[[
* There's a certain ironic beauty to how [[Ax Crazy|crazy]] [[Knight Templar|vampire hunter]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Gordon Walker]] on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is turned into a vampire himself, and subsequently killed by Sam... the same Sam that Gordon had been ruthlessly hunting for like a season.
** Half the Title Sequence Victims of the Week on Supernatural get killed in some ghoulishly ironic way, the camera inevitably lingering for a few gruesome seconds on the instrument of their demise before showing the title card.
* ''[[
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* [[
▲* [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]] [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel%2014:25-26&version=NIV describes] one of the rebellious sons of King David, Absalom, as a very handsome man with a magnificent mane of hair. His [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel%2018&version=NIV death] is therefore rather ironic.
** To clarify: Absalom instigated a revolution, and overthrew his father, King David. Eventually, David would regroup, and waged more battles in order to drive out Absalom. At the Battle of Ephraim Wood, Absalom got his magnificent mane caught in the low-hanging branches of an oak tree as his steed rode beneath, leaving him hanging there for days until Joab, David's chief minion, found and killed him.
* [[Greek Mythology]] is so rife with this trope, one could even say the Greeks lived in the "Irony Age." Case in point: Procrustes was an evil innkeeper who made all of his vict, er, "guests" sleep in an iron bed. If the guest was too short, he would stretch them to fit, too tall, and he lopped off whatever overlapped. When he took in the hero, Theseus, as his guest, Theseus killed him by putting him into his own bed. [[The Un-Reveal|No one knows if he was too short or too tall]], though, one version simply had Theseus chopping the jerk to bits.
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** To clarify (as much as one can, given the various interpretations of greek myths), the centaur attempted to kidnap Deianira, and Hercules came to the resuce and slew the centaur with an arrow coated in hydra-blood poison. As he lay dying, Nessus told Deianira to take some of his [the centuar's] blood, and if she ever feared that she was losing Hercules to another woman, use the blood as a love potion to keep Hercules faithful forever. Eventually, Dieanira became concerned that Hercules was straying in his devotion (whether or not he was depends on which writer you choose to believe) and spread the blood on his famous lion-skin cloak. Although Hercules was to strong for the potion/poison to kill outright, the pain did drive him to suicide (effectively), so this story actually contains heavy irony on multiple levels.
* To add insult to mortal injury, the primordial sea monster-goddess, Ceto, was slain when Perseus [[Taken for Granite|petrified her]] with the decapitated head of her own daughter, Medusa.
* Speaking of Perseus, the king, Polydectes, wooed his mother, Danae, hoping to marry, then ravish her. In order to get rid of Perseus, who knew of his foul intentions, Polydectes invited Perseus to a lavish banquet where all the guests had to bring a horse, as a gift. As Perseus had no horse to give, he, instead, was tasked with bringing back the head of Medusa, the only mortal Gorgon. Of course, Polydectes assumed that Perseus would either die trying, or live in exile as a failure. He did not anticipate that Perseus would receive divine assistance from Athena, and as a result, [[Gone Horribly Right|paid for it very dearly]].
== [[
* In ''The Insect Play'', the Chrysalis, after spending two whole acts promising to do great things when born, finally emerges in the epilogue as a Moth. She says she will explain the meaning of the whole world, then falls dead just like all the other moths did.
* In the play ''The Whipping Man'', the whipping man is beaten to death (Off screen) by a slave, using the first whip that the whipping man had used on that slave.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* The Abbot in the
▲== Video Games ==
▲* The Abbot in the 6th Chapter of ''[[Castlevania Lords of Shadow (Video Game)|Castlevania Lords of Shadow]]'' suffers this after losing the relic in his tower, which could have saved so many needlessly sacrificed lives in the village from the vampires. He curses Gabriel and Zobek to hell for taking it from him, only to find himself THE one going to hell! Also counts as a [[Karmic Death]].
** What's even more ironic about his last words is that Gabriel and Zobek ''do'' in fact go to hell, and Zobek was actually one of the bad guys who orchestrated the starting events of the game.
* Happens to ''both'' of the Combine Hunter-Choppers encountered in [[Half
* From the ''[[
** In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', you take Morinth the serial sex-murderer back to her apartment as a trap; shortly before you ([[Karma Meter|can choose to]]) kill her, and she thinks she'll get what she wants, she remarks about [[Smart People Play Chess|chess]]:
{{quote|
*** Of course, this can apply to the player, too. If you go in thinking you can out-Paragon/Renegade her without 100% in the appropriate track, things go...poorly.
** The [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] mission pack "Lair of the Shadow Broker" reveals that this is a favored trope for Garrus (during his Archangel days, at least). Examples:
{{quote|Har Urek (saboteur)
Suffocation (enviromental suit malfunction)
Gus Williams (weapons smuggler)
Headshot (smuggled weapon)
Thralog Mirki'it (red sand dealer)
Chemical overdose (red sand, direct contact with all four eyes)
Zel'Aenik nar Helash (viral specialist, serial killer)|Cough}}
** This can happen to Kai Leng in ''[[
{{quote|
* In ''[[
* Volgin, the [[Psycho Electro]] of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', gets killed by lightning. Naked Snake lampshades the irony of the situation.
* In ''[[
** And a few minutes later, you find Sho Minamimoto "crunched" and added to one of his ''own'' trash heaps.
* In ''[[
** What makes this even more ironic is that if you zoom in on the bust of Hippocrates, there's a little brass plaque underneath that says "DO NO HARM", the time-honored motto of the health profession.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Arcanum:
* If the player chooses to kill Sander Cohen in ''[[
* In one quest in ''[[The Elder Scrolls V
* This is how Deathwing meets his end in ''[[
* In ''[[Fallout
{{quote|
Shoot him with 12 Gauge coin shot (shotgun shells loaded with legion denari i.e. his own army's money). }}
** In the ''Dead Money'' expansion, you can seal Elijah permanently in the vault he desperately wanted to get into.
*
* ''[[Honkai Impact 3rd]]'': Otto Apocalypse, who disdained the Kaslana [[Heroic Lineage]] for its [[Heroic Sacrifice|self-sacrificing]] [[Martyrdom Culture]] and the [[Flaming Sword]] [[Ancestral Weapon]] Judgment of Shamash so often used for that, ended up dying by sacrificing himself for the one he'd spent centuries trying to save, using a replica of said weapon.
▲== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[
▲* In ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]: [[Start of Darkness]]'', Right-Eye the [[Red Oni, Blue Oni|rash, impulsive brother of analytical and carefully planning Redcloak]] is killed when he finally thinks something through carefully and formulates a well-thought out scheme... Only to have it ruined during the execution stage when his brother does something rash and impulsive. Redcloak [[Lampshades]] it.
** More recently, Tsukiko is killed by her own wights after Redcloak takes control of them.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' had Kevyn (who invented teraport) comment on this [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-06-04 immediately upon] "waking up to a bad teraport".
== [[Web Original]] ==
* This is the most common way of choosing an execution method in ''[[
* Season 3 of [[Penny Arcade Dungeons and Dragons Podcast
* In ''[[Splinter Cell Extinction]]'', Julian Hunter is ordered by director Ward to shoot Douglas Hyland (who didn't expect that) in episode 4. And then he's shot by Ward in episode 7. He didn't expect that.
* In a meta example in ''Vigor Mortis'', the chapter where {{spoiler|the character August dies was published on November 1st on Royal Road. The author swears that she didn't plan the timing}}.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
*
* Subverted in one episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
** Ned Flanders decides to watch the car race from the top of the stands to avoid flying debris (and the drivers' swearing). Their spot high up helped do Maude in.
* Alright, he didn't die (given he's a spirit, he probably ''can't'' die), but Discord from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
== [[Real Life]] ==
* The Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang, was obsessed with obtaining immortality through alchemical elixirs. In Chinese Alchemy, mercury was considered a potent ingredient, so one of his solutions was to always have a daily dose of mercury everyday. In the end he died of mercury poisoning when he tried a new formula of mercury pill. The irony of it was in his quest for immortality, he instead found a way to
** Even worse, his greatest friend and most trusted adviser told him that he shouldn't be taking the potion and that the apothecaries were killing him with it. A special
** Legend says that the Chinese inventor of gunpowder came up with the formula while also trying to fabricate an elixir of immortality... and promptly got a severe case of explosion to the face.
* According to legend, pirate Bartholomew Roberts's famous sobriety was a direct cause of his death. When the British Navy finally caught up to him, most of his crew was so hungover they couldn't stand up. As one of the few guys in any condition to move around and tend to the ship, Roberts presented a perfect target for the British guns...
* [[Sam Kinison]], who had spent all eight years of his career either advocating drug use or sarcastically telling people not to, drinking heavily, and other such things, died in a drunk driving accident. The irony is that the accident was a totally sober Kinison getting hit by a drunk driver while in a crosswalk.
* Proving that it doesn't discriminate against good, bad or neutral parties, [[Amy Winehouse]] died in fall 2011 of a drug overdose. Her most famous song is "Rehab", which is about her desires to avoid going there.
* ''[[
* Believe it or not, the situation depicted in the page image (beaver killed by tree it cut down falling on it) actually happens occasionally.
* Chrysippus was a Greek philosopher who belonged to the school of thought known as [[The Stoic|Stoicism]]. He died of laughter.
* [[Harry Houdini]] was known to take heavy blows to the gut with little to no effect if he prepared properly. A sucker punch to the gut was what killed him.
** Even worse, Houdini was a very healthy man who stayed very fit. The sucker punch (which came from a guy who didn't know that Houdini had to prepare) caused his appendix (he had appendicitis, but refused to have it treated for days) to burst and the toxins contained within spread throughout his body. He was so healthy when this occurred that it took him ''days'' to die, thus prolonging his suffering...
* [[Elvis Presley]], otherwise known as 'The King', died while taking a crap in a toilet... otherwise known as a 'Throne'.
* [[Rene Goscinny]] died from cardiac arrest during a cardiac stress test.
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* Basil Brown, an English health food advocate, died of liver damage caused by hypervitaminosis after drinking 10 gallons of carrot juice.
* Michael Anderson Godwin, sentenced to death by the electric chair but commuted to life in prison, was electrocuted while fixing a television while sitting on a metal toilet seat.
* [[Graham Chapman]] died on October 4, 1989. The same day, 20 years earlier, ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' was first broadcast.
* [[
* [[Joseph Stalin]] terrorized Russia for decades. One morning when he couldn't breathe and was in desperate need for medical help nobody dared to enter the room without his explicit permission...
* General John Sedgwick was very dismissive of the other troops' shooting skills. At one point during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (1863) he said: ''"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance"''. He was shot seconds later.
* Terry Kath from the rock group Chicago was toying with a gun when he said: ''"Don't worry, guys. It isn't even loaded. See?"'', before he accidentally shot himself.
* Myra Davis, stunt double for Janet Leigh in Hitchcock's film ''[[Psycho]]'', was raped and killed in her shower by a lunatic who wanted to re-enact the shower murder scene from the movie.
* Dancer Isadora Duncan always wore a scarf in public. One day, when she was driving, her scarf got entangled between the spokes of her car wheels and accidentally snapped her neck.
* Stunt man Bobby Leach, who had crossed great heights during his career, died in 1911 when he slipped over a banana peel and broke his leg. His leg caught gangreen and he passed away.
*
* Comedian [[Tommy Cooper]] died on stage during a live TV broadcast. While he suffered a heart attack the audience thought it was all part of the act and laughed as he drew his final breath.
* Playwright J.I. Rodale died while he was a guest on the [[Dick Cavett]] show. During the recordings Rodale ironically claimed he felt great and said: ''"I'm in such good health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way", "I’ve decided to live to be a hundred"'', and ''"I never felt better in my life!"'' He had also previously bragged, ''"I'm going to live to be 100, unless I'm run down by some sugar-crazed taxi driver."'' A few minutes later he suffered a heart attack and passed away. The show was never broadcast.
* Singer Felix Powell, best known for the song ''"Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag (And Smile, Smile, Smile)"'', later committed suicide.
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Maggiore Christine Maggiore], who was HIV-Positive, denied the fact AIDS was the result of such virus and got pregnant. Maggiore didn't take any anti-HIV medication during the pregnancy, [[Blatant Lies|claiming it wouldn't be passed down]]. Sadly, this led to the death of her daughter, Eliza Jane Scovill, who wasn't tested for AIDS. Years later, Maggiore would also later died of AIDS-related pneumonia.
* Donna Rosenthal's book ''[[The Israelis]]'' mentions an Israeli who fled Israel because of the terrorism (specifically Al-Aqsa Intifada). He was at his job on the 103rd floor on September 11, 2001.
* Child actor James Street, son of ''[[Madeline]]'' composer Andy Street and a voice actor for the 2003 ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'' series, died in a skateboarding accident in 2007. His character, Huckleberry Pie, was portrayed as a skateboarding enthusiast complete with a skate park in his tree fort home.
* Countless cases of [[COVID-19]] denialists have died from the very same disease they initially dismissed as a hoax, examples of whom can be found [https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/ here].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
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