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Died Standing Up: Difference between revisions
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== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Ginga Densetsu Weed]]'', a large fighting dog who has been fatally injured refuses to fall down and die. He was about to fall, but three other dogs who showed up at the last moment stood around him and propped him up until his body froze solid in a standing position, guaranteeing it would stay that way without support. The series, and it's precursor, had a few examples of this.
* Several times in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'',
** {{spoiler|Raoh's}} corpse stays frozen, his fist gloriously clenched upwards, after he literally sends his soul to Heaven to bring Light and Hope to The World.
** As well, {{spoiler|Toki dies this way after Kenshiro's fight with Ryuga, through a combination of radiation poisoning and sacrificing himself so that Kenshiro will use the sorrow from his death to unlock the ability of [[Intangible Man|Muso Tensei]].}}
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* Happens in a ''[[Black Jack]]'' story. A young doctor who has lost his entire family to cancer and is now dying of it himself vows to treat one cancer patient before he dies. He completes the operation, but when the other doctors go to congratulate him, they find he has died on his feet. Weirder still, a post-mortem reveals that his heart had already stopped a few minutes into the operation. Just another example of determination overcoming the laws of biology.
* Diaz Ragu of ''[[Shadow Skill]]''.
* Tung Fu Rue in the ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' OAV dies after showing Terry his ultimate attack, still in his fighting stance.
* "unconscious" variation in the ''[[Street Fighter]] Alpha'' manga, ''Sakura Ganbaru!'' After a glorious two-on-one match against Cammy and Sakura, a defeated Zangief staggers on the edge of consciousness, but, having dedicated his skills and his body to proud Mother Russia, he ''cannot'' afford to let it fall, much less in view of his beloved comrades. So he wills himself back up, into his victory pose, and stays that way even after blacking out. Cammy, Sakura, and all spectators acknowledge his defeat, but they are awed by his devotion even more, making it a symbolic victory.
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* ''[[Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?]]'': Lex Luthor, controlled by Braniac's head on his cranium [[Fighting From the Inside|fights from inside]] when he begs a superpowered Lana Lang to kill him. It doesn't do his body much good: Braniac controls his corpse like a macabre puppet. The Braniac-cap himself exhibits this trait once rigor mortis sets in, detaching itself crawling "powered only by malice", swearing to kill Superman even as it dies.
* The ''[[Sandman]]'' story, "Facade", features Urania Blackwell, aka "Element Girl", who wants to die but can't. When she finally asks the sun god Ra to take away her "gift", her body is temporarily left as a standing, human-shaped figure of dust.
* In Larry Hama's recent ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' continuation, Duke comes to Snake-Eyes' Mountain cabin to warn them about Cobra's reappearance, only to find Scarlett under attack by Red Ninjas. After helping her out, they enter the burning cabin to find three ninjas just standing there on fire. Scarlett remarks that it must have been recent, as they don't realize they're dead yet.
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* Excluding'' Path of Radiance'' and ''Radiant Dawn'', every ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' uses this as the death animation.
* In ''[[Dawn of War]]'': some units, when killed, don't go into their "dead" animation, instead remaining standing. Especially annoying when you run into these and think you're about to be attacked.
** "[[Redshirt Army|...We die standing]]."
* In ''[[Soldier of Fortune]] II'', Mullins suddenly dies standing up [[Hostage Spirit Link|if an NPC is killed]] ([[What the Hell, Player?|or he disobeys orders on a certain mission]]).
* The Nue in ''[[Breath of Fire III]]''.
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** Also, in the anime this happens to Archer ([[Adaptation Expansion|you never see that scene in the Visual Novel]], so it's possible it happened offscreen there also). Very impressive as Berserker is perfectly capable of ripping apart buildings with the shockwave his [[Incredibly Lame Pun|insanely]] strong and fast attacks leave behind, and logically any single attack should have knocked Archer down, or at least backwards.
* Muneshige Tachibana, ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'''s resident [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw]] [[Anachronism Stew|wielding]] [[Samurai]], has a defeat animation where he drops his chainsaws and slouches over while standing. He isn't actually dead unless you are playing as a character who outright kills their opponent instead of defeating them.
** Takeda Shingen's animation had him put down his weapon and do a [[Badass Arm-Fold]], standing proud before he keels over a moment later.
** Several characters have defeat animations in which they attempt to get back on their feet only to fall over.
* Much like ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' above, ''[[City of Heroes]]'' will occasionally forget to animate the "[[Never Say "Die"|defeat]]" of enemies who are beaten too quickly. Given the amount of damage necessary--a [[One-Hit Kill]] on a completely unaware enemy--and the infrequency of the occurence, it can be [[Played for Laughs|comedic]] or epic.
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== Real Life ==
* [[wikipedia:Hillsborough disaster|The Hillsborough disaster]] saw the deaths of 96 fans of Liverpool Football Club in the stands of Hillsborough Stadium in 1989. Fans were packed so tightly into the stands that many people died standing up due to compressive asphyxia.
* According to apocryphal rumours, Branwell Brontë, brother of [[Anne Bronte|the]] [[Emily
* This is from a eulogy written almost two thousand years ago. "Amyntor, Philip's son...died holding his shield over a wounded friend." Wow.
* Rigor mortis is incredibly unlikely to cause these situations. Rigor mortis is caused by muscles not having the energy to come ''relax'', and while the person may die, their cells take quite a while to get the idea and use up all their energy stores. Muscles work by expending energy to separate two proteins which ''really'' want to associate and then cocking one like stretched spring. Then they reunite, the cocked protein pulls hard and the two proteins stick. The combined action of countless of these proteins causes the muscle to contract. When the cell is out of energy, the muscle locks up - it can't separate these proteins to continue the cycle and therefore can't move. Unless the body is propped up somehow, gravity wins. [[The Other Wiki]] has good discussions on [[wikipedia:Myosin|how this works]] and [[wikipedia:Rigor mortis|rigor mortis]]. The observant may notice a few links to some other post-death funny business; neither of these are anywhere near coordinated enough to keep someone standing. If a body could somehow just happen to be supported for many hours...well, maybe. Barring bizarre alien biology, handwaving this trope with rigor mortis is more likely to be an [[Ass Pull]] and is probably not better than letting it slide on [[Rule of Cool]].
* Because insects respire through openings in their sides rather than their heads, and their brains send out signals to ''stop'' reflexive limb movements rather than activate them, a decapitated insect can continue to walk, run, or even mate, possibly remaining mobile for ''days'' if the neck is plugged to prevent blood loss and dessication.
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