Dying Alone: Difference between revisions

[[File:diedalone_1774diedalone 1774.jpg|link=Fate/stay Stay Nightnight|rightframe|[[Lonely Atat the Top|Always alone]], [[Field of Blades|on the hill of swords]], [[Doomed Moral Victor|intoxicated with victory]]... [[Nietzsche Wannabe|thus, this life has no meaning]]...]]

{{quote|'''Inara:''': ''Mal, you don't have to die alone.''<br />

'''Mal:''': ''Everybody dies alone.''|''[[Firefly]]'', "Out of Gas"}}

It may factor in on the scale of the [[Heroic Sacrifice]], that you must die alone. Sending someone away, so that you die alone, is often a generous gesture, and those who leave may be deeply criticized. When [[What You Are in Thethe Dark]] faces you, the villain may taunt you with not only dying, but dying alone.

[[Lonely Atat the Top]] almost always carries the threat that the character will die alone. It is frequently suggested to the single and [[Mandatory Motherhood|childless]] that this may result from their actions.

Conversely, [[Stay Withwith Me Until I Die|characters may go to great efforts to ensure that a dying character is not alone]] to defy this trope, which is often explicitly invoked as the reason for staying. [[The Power of Friendship|Particularly]] [[True Companions]] -- a—a [[You Are Not Alone]] [[Heartwarming Moments (Sugar Wiki)|moment of particular poignancy]] -- but—but [[The Rival]], the [[Worthy Opponent]], the [[Friendly Enemy]] [[Cradling Their Kill|may all be willing to stay with the dying Hero]], and he would do the same for them. Indifferent people don't count, but even a stranger willing to respond to [[Please Don't Leave Me]] can help.

When a character is [[Dying Asas Yourself]], it may allow the others to prevent this.

When a character dies alone, [[Meaningful Funeral]], [[To Absent Friends]], and [[Famed in Story]] may ensue, to ironically point out that the character actually had friends, or underscore the value of his [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. On the other hand, [[Lonely Funeral|a funeral with no mourners]] [[Due to Thethe Dead|reinforces the loneliness]].

* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', what makes the death of {{spoiler|Saji's older sister, [[Hot Scoop]] Kinue Crossroads}} [[Tear Jerker|even sadder than it already is]] is that she bleeds to death completely alone in an alley, attempting to use a broken cellphone to call for help, weakly calling out to her loved ones with her dying breath.

** Also, {{spoiler|the first Lockon Stratos, Neil Dylandy}} died alone... [[In Space]]. [[Tear Jerker|;_; ]]

* In ''[[Houshin Engi]]'', this is probably the death Taikoubou {{spoiler|AKA Fukki}} would have gotten if {{spoiler|it weren't for Dakki}}. {{spoiler|Jyoka}}, being afraid of [[Dying Alone]], requests that Taikoubou accompany her, to which he agrees. After {{spoiler|she dies, he is left to crumble and die alone, away from all his companions and friends}}. Thankfully for him, {{spoiler|Dakki revives him}}.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|Hughes}} dies alone, but everyone except Ed, Al and Winry [[Due to Thethe Dead|manage]] to [[Meaningful Funeral|attend his funeral]].

** In the anime, this also happens to {{spoiler|Scar}}. He ends up taking a ''lot'' of people with him shortly after.

* In ''[[WolfsWolf's Rain|Wolf's Rain,]]'' Blue expresses her wish to be with Hige "at the very end," because she can't stand the thought of dying alone. {{spoiler|When that time comes, Hige goes to Blue, despite being badly wounded himself, and tells her not to worry because he isn't going anywhere. Blue dies happy, and Hige convinces Tsume to [[Mercy Kill|put him out of his misery]] soon after. [[Tear Jerker|One of the last images is the two of them lying side by side as the snow covers their bodies]].}}

** Distressingly done with {{spoiler|Kiba}}. Although he manages to drag himself over to [[Half -Human Hybrid|Cheza]] for one last embrace, {{spoiler|Cheza doesn't just die--she ''disintegrates into flower seeds''.}} Not only is Kiba completely broken from this, it's implied that he's {{spoiler|''the last living thing in the entire world'' before he falls through the ice and drowns.}} You can't get more alone than that.

* A flasback in ''[[XXX Holic×××HOLiC]]'' has Watanuki standing alone in the rain cradling a dead kitten and saying, "I'll die like this too. Alone." This moment was also when Doumeki [[Love At First Sight|first saw him]], which resulted in Doumeki deciding to protect him and stay by his side in order to ensure that this will never happen.

* {{spoiler|Liechtenstein}} from ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' is barely saved from this by {{spoiler|her brother Switzerland.}} after the war. [[Axis Powers Hetalia (Manga)/Tear Jerker|"I would've loved to be a nation... a little longer..."]]

* {{spoiler|Yagami Light}} from ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', after being {{spoiler|outwitted by Near}}, flees, mortally wounded, and finally succumbs to gunshots in an empty warehouse. As well as dying physically alone, he also dies alone emotionally; {{spoiler|abandoned by Ryuk, with his few remaining friends either turned against him just prior to his death, dead, or elsewhere.}}

* In ''[[Toward the Terra]]'', {{spoiler|[[The Hero|Jomy]] and [[Anti -Villain|Keith]]}} die together, but {{spoiler|Jomy}} dies first, prompting {{spoiler|Keith}} to invoke this trope with, "Even at the end, I'm alone."

* In ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'', after {{spoiler|spending most of the series being there for other people -- both friends, foes and bounties -- as they died, Spike}} dies alone, surrounded by non-friendly [[Mooks]]. {{spoiler|He died alone because he died ''last'', he made sure his [[Nemesis]] Vicious went first, making this a [[Taking You Withwith Me]] ending}}.

* As a child, Rangiku Matsumoto from ''[[Bleach]]'' was very close to dying alone due to starvation and implied orphanhood. A boy named Gin Ichimaru saved and befriended her. {{spoiler|They grew into either [[Cain and Abel]] or [[Star -Crossed Lovers]], depending on whether you ship Gin/Rangiku or not.}}

* In subverted in ''[[Zombie Loan]]'', in the [[Xu Fu]] arc {{spoiler|Touhou (Toho)}} nearly does so after carrying out his {{spoiler|hidden rebellion against Xufu }}, but in the end, Shito arrives and stays with him.

* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] in episode 9 of ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. {{spoiler|1=Not wanting Sayaka (now a witch) to die alone, Kyouko performs a [[Mercy Kill]]/[[Heroic Sacrifice]] and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|dies]] [[Tear Jerker|with]] [[Together in Death|her]].}}

* Subverted in ''[[Ai no Kusabi (Light Novel)|Ai no Kusabi]]''. {{spoiler|Iason has fallen victim to a trap: as a result he has lost his legs, is helplessly trapped in an exploding building, and now [[Face Death Withwith Dignity|calmly waits for his end]]. Then his lover Riki comes to join him so he ''[[Together in Death|doesn't die alone.]]''. And after [[One Last Smoke]] that doubles as an [[Indirect Kiss|indirect]] [[Last Kiss]], Iason and Riki go down together.}}

* Narrowly averted with {{spoiler|Shizuo}} from ''[[Durarara!!]]''. He is apparently shot twice by [[Jerkass|Horada]] and left to bleed to death, alone in an alley, but his {{spoiler|natural resistance to pain}} saves him from this.

== Comics[[Comic Books]] ==

* The first chapter of ''The OMAC Project''. With the rest of the heroes considering him worthless and his only friend in hospital {{spoiler|Ted Kord}} manages to figure out what is going on, but with no back up, he is subdued easily. The issue ends with him being shot in the head. In OMAC Project issue one, it is revealed his remains were destroyed so no one could know he was dead.

* Many deaths in ''[[Sin City]]'' reflect this but {{spoiler|John Hartigan}} has the most gut-wrenching as he has to commit suicide alone in the woods so "a young girl can live".

* In "The List: Punisher #1", Frank Castle, after being beaten and torn apart by Wolverine's son Daken at Osborn's request, does die alone. He has alienated his only friend, Henry. To make matters worse, this comes after he has {{spoiler|rekilled his family, whom the Hood had brought back to life}}. No one is there to cry for him {{spoiler|save Henry, who is there in time for him to see Daken decapitate Frank}}, though he does not know this at the time. This set-up provides the breaking of the Punisher and leads up to his coming to terms with his actions in "[[Franken Castle]]".

* The fate of Mr Sinister in ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'', giving the character a rare [[Tear Jerker]] moment. Despite having kicked the dog a LOT both in the [[Ao A]]AoA continuity and the normal Marvel comics, his final moments have him realising that there's no one left to even mourn him

* In ''[[Star Trek V: theThe Final Frontier]]'', Kirk says that he's always known that he'll die alone. Oddly enough, in ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' he dies when Picard is with him - so he wasn't alone.

** Because everyone present assumed Kirk was killed when he first encountered the Nexus Ribbon, for decades all Kirk's friends believed he ''had'' died alone--untilalone—until Picard found him alive in the Nexus.

* In ''[[Once Upon a Time Inin Thethe West]]'' {{spoiler|Cheyenne made an effort to return to Jill even asking her if he shouldn't stay, before leaving with Harmonica and collapsing just out of sight of everybody from a bullet he had caught a few hours ago, because he didn't want her to know.}}

* What drives [[Bridget Jones Diary|Bridget Jones]] to get out of her funk and do something is her fear that she will die alone and her corpse will be eaten by wild Alsatians.

{{quote| '''Doc Holliday:''' What did you ever want? <br />

'''Wyatt Earp:''' Just to live a normal life. <br />

'''Doc Holliday:''' There's no normal life, Wyatt, it's just life. Get on with it. <br />

'''Wyatt Earp:''' Don't know how.<br />

'''Doc Holliday:''' Sure you do. Say goodbye to me. Go grab that spirited actress and make her your own. Take that beauty from it, don't look back. Live every second. Live right on to the end. Live, Wyatt. Live for me. Wyatt, if you were ever my friend - if ya ever had even the slightest of feelin' for me, leave now. Leave now... Please. <br />

* {{spoiler|Michael Corleone}} by the end of ''[[The Godfather, (Film)|ThePart GodfatherIII]]'', Partin IIIcomplete and deliberat econtrast to {{spoiler|his father}}, who died {{spoiler|from a heart attack while playing with his grandson in his own tomato garden}}.''

* In John Barnes's ''[[One for Thethe Morning Glory]]'', the Duke remembers kneeling beside men he had just mortally wounded and holding their hands and assuring them in their last moments.

{{quote| ''"I mind nothing while I hold your hand. I shall mind nothing when I let it go, if they are rapid."<br />

* In ''[[Luke Skywalker and Thethe Shadows of Mindor]]'', the [[Big Bad]] has enslaved some bizarrely inhuman aliens and used their bodies to [[Slave Mooks|enslave]] and make puppets out of his Mook soldiers, lacing their brains so their minds are destroyed and they just try to berserker kill everything, screaming. Freeing the inhuman aliens triggers the deadman interlocks, killing the mooks. By going into the [[Big Bad]]'s mind Luke can and does free all of the aliens - and he feels all of the mooks in the Force. None of them had signed up for this, had gone along with it, had even cooperated - it had been done to them with callous disregard, and so Luke stays with all of them, thousands, to feel them die, so they won't be alone - because it's all he can do for them.

* ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Rebel Force]]'' has Ferus Olin left mortally wounded by Darth Vader. Leia comes across him and holds his hand as he dies - and he has a vision of a long-dead friend [[Star Wars Expanded Universe (Franchise)/Ho Yay|and partner]] coming to him, and it's not until Ferus sees Roan and feels him holding his hand that he is ready to go.

{{quote| "[[You Are Not Alone|Did you really think I would leave you here alone?]]" }}

** This seems like a subversion of the [[Dying Alone]] trope. Throughout the Dresden Files series, a wizard's death curse has been hyped as very, very dangerous. (That's partly just because it's such a [[Cast Fromfrom Hit Points|desperate measure]], but still.) In ''Dead Beat'', {{spoiler|Harry gets hit with one}}, and to make matters worse it's the sort of thing that plays into one of his ongoing insecurities throughout the series. Then, at the end, {{spoiler|his father's ghost}} informs him that it might mean nothing at all: that's just the nature of death. "It's a door. It's one person wide. When you go through, you do it alone." If ''every''one dies alone, then apparently it's just not that big a deal.

* In [[Ben Counter]]'s ''Galaxy In Flames'', Tarvitz hunts for his battle brothers, the Emperor's Children, in battle -- partlybattle—partly in hopes of getting the battle back together, but partly so that he will not die alone {{spoiler|but with battle brothers, in defiance of [[Unfriendly Fire|Horus's treachery]]. It succeeds; he reflects when he gathers with the last handful, whether Emperor's Children, Luna Wolves, or World-Eaters, that he knew their names now, men who had just been grime-streaked faces were now his [[Fire -Forged Friends|brothers]]}}.

* In Lee Lightner's [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Space Wolf]] novel ''Wolf's Honour'', Ragnar stays by the dying {{spoiler|Haegr}}, holding his hand.

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''False Gods'', when [[Dying Asas Yourself|the Chaos taint leaves the mortally wounded Temba]], his [[Manly Tears|tears]] convince Horus of his sincerity, and so Horus kneels by him and tries to comfort him (and cries himself after Temba's death).

{{quote| ''What killed me about it was that she had to go through it completely alone. I know what you're thinking, we all die alone. True. That last stage when you've slipped away, yeah, you're alone. But my wife had skin cancer. She spent six months dying slow. And I could have been there for that. I could have helped her with that. Not the death part, but the dying.''}}

* In [[CharlottesCharlotte's Web]], Charlotte is too weak, after making her egg sac, to make the trip from the Fair back to the farm. Wilbur takes her eggs back with him, helping to raise her children the next spring.

{{quote| ''Next day, as the Ferris wheel was taken apart and the race horses were being loaded into vans and the entertainers were packing up their belongings and driving away in their trailers, Charlotte died. The Fair Grounds were soon deserted. The sheds and buildings were empty and forlorn. The infield was littered with bottles and trash. Nobody, of all the hundreds of people that had visited the fair, knew that a grey spider had played the most important part of all. No one was with her when she died.''}}

* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Blood Angels (Literature)|Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Encarmine'', Rafen hurries to the dying Koris on hearing he is asking for him. When Turcio pulls back -- manyback—many Blood Angels fear that the Black Rage is contagious -- Rafencontagious—Rafen is disgusted.

** [[Irony|Ironically enough]], Koris had originally rejected Rafen for his failures at teamwork, and accepted him after Rafen had expressed his [[An Aesop|lesson]] as "He who fights alone dies alone, but those [[Fire -Forged Friends|who battle as brothers]] will live forever" -- but—but in the course of the duology, Rafen finds himself fighting {{spoiler|and nearly dying}} alone and isolated.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[The Long Watch]]'', Interplanetary Patrol Lieutenant John Dahlquist, after a superior attempts to recruit him into a coup attempt, [[Rebellious Rebel|instead]] makes a ''[[Heroic Sacrifice]]'' by barricading himself in the nuclear armory and manually disabling all the nuclear weapons, taking a fatal dose of radiation in the process. He dies alone, sitting by the door he barricaded. Radiation levels are so high that robots have to be used to recover his body for [[Due to Thethe Dead|a hero's funeral]].

{{quote| ''He was not alone; there were comrades with him—the boy with his finger in the dike, Colonel Bowie, too ill to move but insisting that he be carried across the line, the dying Captain of the Chesapeake still with deathless challenge on his lips, Rodger Young peering into the gloom.''}}

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Blood Pact'', Gaunt muses on why Ayatani Zweil is their chaplain; a big reason is his care for the dying and [[Due to Thethe Dead|the dead]].

* Inverted in ''[[Perfume (Literature)|Perfume]]'', where Madame Gaillard, who runs a boarding house collects money so she could die alone in her own home, instead of a public hospital. However, she doesn't die soon enough, in the French Revolution her money becomes worthless, and she dies in the way she was trying to avoid in her whole life.

* In Eoin Colfer's "[[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]]: The Lost Colony", Captain Holly Short dies alone, but is only dead briefly (Hey, the author is the first person to point out (Through Artemis) that time-related words are flexible in a time field). Soon though, Artemis finds a way to use the chaotic nature of the time distortion around them to fix it.

{{quote| ''''Living, shall forfeit fair reknown,<br />

And doubly dying, shall go down<br />

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,<br />

* In ''[[Star Trek: Mirror Universe]]: The Sorrows of Empire'', Mirror Spock and his wife, Marlena, have a conversation in which he promises her that they'll be together when they die, but notes that in ''the end'', everyone is alone when they die.

* In ''[[Simon R. Green|The God Killer]]'', a sorcerer sneaks away from his work to provide company to a dying deity, whose church became extinct many generations ago. He claims that even a god shouldn't be left to die alone. When the sorcerer is mortally wounded, the ephemeral god expends the last of its dwindling energy to join him, allowing both of them to avert this trope.

* According to [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]], this is what happened to Jesus at his death. Not only is he betrayed by one of his disciples, but the others -- whoothers—who truly respect him -- arehim—are unable to be with him as he enters his final hours. As he is praying in preparation for his eventual fate, the three disciples who he takes to wait with him fall asleep. Peter, one of his closest followers, denies he even knew Jesus in order to save his own skin. The whole atmosphere of alienation is a contrast to the traditional pictures of a triumphant messiah entering into glory. The worst of it? This abandonment by those nearest to him was a ''necessary'' part of his unglamorous death. No wonder even Jesus was apprehensive of what his end would entail.

* Pretty much the basis of the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S1 E8S27/E08 Fathers Day|Father's Day]]". Also a [[Tear Jerker]].

** The Dalek in "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S1 E6S27/E06 Dalek|Dalek]]" uses this as a ploy to gain Rose's sympathy: "My race is dead. I shall die alone."

** In ''[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S4 S30/E17 E18 The End of Time|The End of Time]]'', {{spoiler|although not a death in the [[The Nth Doctor|traditional]] sense, this is what happens to the Tenth Doctor, after he [[Heroic Sacrifice|absorbs lethal radiation]] and says a final goodbye to all his companions over the years without telling them of his fate. He then returns to the TARDIS and regenerates [[Tear Jerker|completely alone]].}}

** [[Alas, Poor Scrappy|Adric.]] On a crashing spaceship. Thinking he just ''failed to save the world.'' That is all.

** Ida Scott in "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S2 E9S28/E09 The Satan Pit|The Satan Pit]]" begs the Doctor to come back up even though that would just mean both of them running out of oxygen, because "I don't want to die on my own." {{spoiler|He saves her in the nick of time.}}

* ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' had a weird variation at the climax of the Chairman four-parter, where the villain arranges it so that in five minutes, Walker will have two choices: to chase him down, or stay and die with his wife. Naturally, Walker finds an alternative that involves delivering a beatdown ahead of schedule.

* Cally's first words in ''[[BlakesBlake's Seven (TV)7|Blakes Seven]]'' are "May you die alone, and silent."

* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Hiro fulfills his promise to Sylar to tell him all he knows of the future -- whichfuture—which is that Sylar will die alone. Which is true: it happened in season 1, the past from Hiro's standpoint, but the future from Sylar's at the time of the conversation.

* In ''[[Lost]]'', Jack tries to unite the survivors, who were starting to fight with each other, with a [[Rousing Speech]] that ends with the [[One -Liner Echo|oft-quoten]] line atop the page.

* In ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', Robin himself dies alone after bidding goodbye to his friends and wandering into Sherwood Forest by himself. He is apparently met by the spirit of Marian as he dies, but this could be a halluncination brought on by the poison in his system. Somewhat of a subversion considering Robin ''chooses'' to die alone, specifically telling the others "I have to do this alone."

* In the ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode Swan Song:

{{quote| '''Castiel''': I want you to understand that the only thing you're gonna see out there is [[Arch AngelArchangel Michael|Michael]] killing your brother.<br />

{{quote| ''But this is my deathbed''<br />

''I lie here alone''<br />

''And if I close my eyes tonight''<br />

{{quote| ''So very alone''<br />

''So far from home''<br />

''He has no home''<br />

* In "Adam's Song" by [[Blink -182]], the lyrics twice mention the words, "I never thought I'd die alone."

* [[Paul McCartney]] may be better known for his more upbeat tunes--"Silly Love Songs," "Got to Get You into My Life"--but—but let this track from [[The Beatles]]' album ''Revolver'' remind us that he was capable of some truly dark imagery (made all the more disturbing by a frantic string octet backing his vocals):

{{quote| ''Eleanor Rigby died in the church''<br />

''And was buried along with her name''<br />

''Nobody came''<br />

''Father [[Mc Kenzie]]McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands''<br />

''As he walked from her grave''<br />

''No one was saved''<br />

''All the lonely people, where do they all come from?''<br />

{{quote| ''Love yourself as you love no other''<br />

''Be no man's fool and be no man's brother''<br />

''We're all born to die alone y'know''<br />

{{quote| ''And in the end you'll pack up''<br />

''Fly down south''<br />

''Hide your head in the sand''<br />

''Just another sad old man''<br />

''All alone and dying of cancer''<br />

''...And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around''<br />

''So have a good drown as you go down all alone''<br />

* Timon of ''[[Timon of Athens (Theatre)|Timon of Athens]]'' starts the play surrounded by friends and servants. Over the course of the play, he casts off all his friends (to be fair, they started it) and becomes a hermit. He ends up not only dying alone, but composing his own epitaph. Ouch.

* Discussed in ''[[Wicked (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]''. At the beginning, the Ozians sing "Goodness knows, the wicked die alone!" [[Faking the Dead|Elphaba isn't dead though]], she's just gone from Oz.

* It is almost the entire point of ''[[Fragile Dreams]]'' is for the main character, Seto to subvert this trope and find someone else just to talk to, and he prevents several characters from falling to this fate {{spoiler|Like [[Ridiculously Human Robot|P.F, Crow]] and the Old Lady}} and then he finds the mysterious girl, Ren and this trope is unused! {{spoiler|until older possibly dead Seto mentions that something happened and shes not there, and he dies alone.}}

* It is all but spelled out in the ending sequence of ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' --as—as [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|Kefka's Tower]] [[Load -Bearing Boss|collapses]] from [[The Magic Goes Away|Magic vanishing from the world]], Shadow silently breaks off from the party to hide in a secluded niche, and face Death both as penance as well as defiance. He even [[Shoo the Dog|sends Interceptor away]] to spare him this fate.

* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss (Video Game)|Tales of the Abyss]]'', {{spoiler|that happens to Asch}}. Probably. The fandom is still mulling it over.

* Somewhat subverted in ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]'', where {{spoiler|Porky traps himself in the Absolutely Safe Chamber in a self-induced version of [[And I Must Scream]]. However Dr. Andronuts states that because he was at heart a lonely child who lived his life on the fact that everyone hates him, dying alone is perhaps the closest thing he can ever get to being happy at this point.}}

* It was thought that Maiev the Warden had died on Outland some point during or after ''[[War CraftWarcraft]]'' III: The Frozen Throne. A text from god-knows-where says that she died "alone on the red sand, unmourned, unsung, with none to remember her fall, her soul empty of all but rage". It was later retconned when she was brought back for the Burning Crusade expansion of World of Warcraft.

* {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|Kratos' ultimate fate]]}} in ''[[God of War (Video Gameseries)|God of War]] III''.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'', Zidane goes back into the Iifa Tree to prevent Kuja from suffering this fate, defying the trope.

* In ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', {{spoiler|Noble Six, Jorge, and Carter}} die alone, knowing that the average human may never know what happened.

* {{spoiler|Emil}} in ''[[Nie RNieR]]'' spends his last moments cowering in fear of his imminent death, wishing to see his friends just one more time.

** {{spoiler|The Masked King}} too, who bleeds to death surrounded by the bodies of his fallen warriors and thinking about meeting his deceased wife again.

* Played for laughs inside the [[DevelopersDeveloper's Room]] in ''[[Final Fantasy IV: the After Years (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV theThe After Years]]''. One of the Developers asks if you'd help and if you refuse several of them will attack you. [[Curb Stomp Battle|After defeating them]], one will say his mom always wanted him to die alone.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed Revelations (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'' reveal that this is the fate of {{spoiler|Altair, who seals himself and the Apple of Eden in the Masyaf library in order to protect the Apple. However before he does the deed he at least shares one final moment with his son Darim.}}

* E-102 Gamma in ''[[Sonic Adventure (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure]]'' after being mortally wounded by his "brother" E-101 Beta who he previously "rescued", the only one to witness his [[Heroic Sacrifice]] is the little bird that escaped from it. Subverted in the ''[[Sonic X (Anime)|Sonic X]]'' adaption where Amy puts two and two together about her bird Lily's parents just before finding him in time to watch him perish. She's pretty choked up about it.

* In [[Multiple Endings|the Normal Ending]] of the last route of ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'', {{spoiler|Emiya Shirou}} dies in the act of destroying {{spoiler|[[Dying Moment of Awesome|the Great Grail,]]}} ending the Holy Grail War for good. He dies ''just'' before the {{spoiler|Great Grail}} is obliterated; his body is only following the last instructions received from his [[Heroic RROD|dead brain]]. We even see his last thoughts as he slowly fades away, which are mostly about how he ''doesn't really want to go''.

** Berserker outright defies the trope in "Unlimited Blade Works" when {{spoiler|[[Normally I Would Be Dead Now|he stays alive long enough]] to [[Stay Withwith Me Until I Die|be there for Ilya as she dies]]. Once she's passed on, so does he.}}

* [[MAGISAMAG-ISA]] -- [http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119727 Eman Cruz ] seems to have accepted that dying alone is a FACT for him.

* ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]]'': [http://xkcd.com/625/ existential crisis, not technical insight]

* Dying alone is Barbecue Sauce's [https://web.archive.org/web/20120517162841/http://tallcomics.com/?id=10 greatest fear] in [[UnwindersUnwinder's Tall Comics]].

* {{spoiler|Diva'ratrika}} of ''[[Drow TalesDrowtales]]'' had this fate inflicted on her by {{spoiler|three of her daughters when they betrayed her in a coup}}, since they decided that [[Dying Alone]] was [[A Fate Worse Than Death]] as well as [[Dramatic Irony]] since she'd lived much of her life in self-imposed solitude. But even though she did technically die alone, {{spoiler|she cheated death by putting her aura in the body of her servant, Ragini, and now that she's back in control is a [[Spanner in Thethe Works]]}}.

* In ''[[FreemansFreeman's Mind]]'', our [[Heroic Mime]] given a voice estimates that this is his most probable fate (it's the series' page quote, summarizing his journey through ''[[Half Life]]'' quite well, from a cynical standpoint anyway).

* Referenced with [[Doug Walker]]'s three main characters; [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] gets inches away from it before he manages to claw his way out with a song, [[Ask That Guy With the Glasses (Web Video)|Ask That Guy With theThe Glasses]] has accepted he will because he's such a horrible person, and [[Bum Reviews (Web Video)|Chester A. Bum]] wants to forget the world and be by himself when he leaves. [[Sarcasm Mode|Y'know, funny!]]

* [[TedSmall BaxterName, Big Ego|Peggy Hill]] suggests that Cotton Hill should do this as part of her [[Calling the Old Man Out]] routine in ''[[King of the Hill]]''.

* In ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy: theThe Three Musketeers]]'', Pete leaves Mickey to this fate, rubbing it in that he's alone. This being [[Disney]], [[Happily Ever After|everything works out]].

* Revealed to be the fate of {{spoiler|Nox, the sympathetic [[Big Bad]]}} from ''[[Wakfu (Animation)|Wakfu]]''.

* ''[[Tangled (Disney)|Tangled]]'': {{spoiler|Defied when Rapunzel cradles Flynn/Eugene in her arms, even after he has killed Mother Gothel by cancelling out the magic powers of Rapunzel's hair; in spite of the tower being a lonely place, only Rapunzel is with him when he dies... and then is brought [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] with the power of her [[Swiss Army Tears|magic tear]].}}

* According to her legend, [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinta_and_Francisco_Marto:Jacinta and Francisco Marto#Illness_and_deathIllness and death|Blessed Jacinta Marto]] said she'd die completely alone more than once, during her time as an [[Ill Girl]] affected with Spanish Influenza. Her chaplain and treating doctor/nurses told her that they'd be there for her... but the kid spent her last hours pleading for Holy Communion and Last Rites, because the chaplain didn't take her seriously and said he'd come back in the morning. A couple of hours after he left, she was dead.

* To some, this may seem weird or even ludicrous, but the fate of space probes and rovers sent out into the abyss of space can be thought of as the ultimate example of this trope. The scientists and engineers who build them often spend years dreaming, planning, constructing, and testing them, then wait years as they hurtle through the void towards their destinations, then see them shine in glory as they add to the sum of human knowledge. But, inevitably, and often all-too-soon, wires corrode, performance declines, and batteries fade. Then the people who have spent years together with both their colleagues and their creations must say goodbye as an entire chapter of their life closes. And far away, so far away that even their death is known only to themselves for minutes or hours because light itself is too slow to bring the news to their creators, a small, hardworking machine-made of materials that have known a single world for 4.5 billion years only to be sped away on plumes of smoke and thunder-has died while crushed under acid-soaked oceans of air or while the screech of thin, frosty winds swept about it, or in the dim starlight that breaks the eternal darkness to which it has been consigned...forever.

* [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika |Laika.]] [[Tear Jerker|First animal to die in orbit.]]

* Why does this link to [https://web.archive.org/web/20131126090518/http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/popular_parks/eastern/nopiming_info.html Manitoba conservation and stewardship] exist here? Look up the phrase "Lone Grave." A miner not only drowned alone, but is also buried alone, in the middle of a provincial park.

[[Category:Tear Jerker Tropes]]