I Die Free: Difference between revisions

== Anime and Manga ==

* Subverted in ''[[Felarya]]''. The [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|giant]] [[Cute Monster Girl|naga]] Crisis ''almost'' eats the slave girl Lea, but spares her. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|They soon become close friends]]. Lea's reaction to Crisis lifting her up to her mouth?

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', a pirate attempts to commit suicide by biting his tongue as an alternative to being sold as a slave.

* Kagura in ''[[Inuyasha]]'' is eventually freed from the sway of Naraku but he mortally wounded her before he let her go. After reuniting with Sesshomaru, she understands she's going to die anyway and welcomes death as her own liberation.

* The ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[Discworld/Going Postal|Going Postal]]'' has an odd example of this trope. A [[Golem]] who has been active for so long that it counts as 'alive enough' is destroyed and its spirit finds its way to the place between life and afterlife. [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] tells it that by moving on it will reach the afterlife, but the Golem is content to simply sit down in the boundary and stay there. Death asks it why, since there is nothing to do here. The golem simply replies that makes it perfect. With there being nothing there, there are no orders, no commands, no imperatives, and nothing to do. In other words, a state of perfect freedom.

** A huge theme of ''Going Postal'' is the true nature of freedom. Vetinari has very specific views on this subject, believing that true freedom is more horrible than can be comprehended, because to be truly free you must be without attachments of any kind, without fear, inhibitions, conscience, repercussions, and any of those things that keep us from doing terrible things. He much prefers reminding people that they are free... to take the consequences if they so choose. Which is what was offered to Moist von Lipwig, when he subverted this trope by dying and finding himself quite free to either take the postmaster's job, or step into a pit of spikes. {{spoiler|It's ambiguous, but implied by Vetinari, that Reacher Gilt took this trope to the logical conclusion when Vetinari offered him the a similar deal and intentionally stepped into the pit.}}

* In ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', Mrs. Dubose is determined to break her morphine addiction before she dies, despite adding withdrawal symptoms to her chronic pain.

"As the mountain air," said Atticus. "...—I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew." }}

* One of the stories in ''Exiled: Clan of the Claw'' ends this way, after the [[Catfolk|Mrem]] slave drinks poisoned wine in order to convince his [[Our Dragons Are Different|Liskash]] master to drink it as well.

'''Mrem''': I die free. I die for my people. You just die. }}

== Live-Action TV ==

* The Jaffa of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' often say this after renouncing their [[Puppeteer Parasite|"gods"]].

** [[Catch Phrase|Indeed]], Teal'c says this enough that it's basically his alternate catchphrase.

*** It happens with great drama often enough that Teal'c might as well be the [[Trope Namer]]. That's his ''exact'' words.

** Played with in an early episode, where Teal'c says this for himself and his Master, Bra'tac, as their fighter drifts powerless in Earth orbit after stopping a Goa'uld invasion. O'Neill (in another fighter) chimes in with "Or not," as a Shuttle shows up to rescue them.

** Arguably the best non-Teal'c example is Gerak - having previously [[Face Heel Turn|become a Prior]], he agrees to cure [[The Plague|the disease]] that the [[Big Bad|Ori]] have unleashed on Earth, knowing full well that if he does, the Ori will kill him:

** It's practically the official motto of the Jaffa rebellion.

* Mentioned a few times in ''[[Roots]]''.

* ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]'', after his men take their first losses in fighting.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''Castrovalva'', when the denizens of Castrovalva (a time/space trap created by the Master to destroy the Doctor) rebel against the Master, destroying the trap and themselves: "You made us, man of evil, but we are free!"

== Music ==

* In 19th-century Irish song "The Minstrel Boy", the Minstrel boy's own fate, after he loses in his fight to free Ireland, is left uncertain. [[Tear Jerker|However, he takes his beloved harp, and tears its strings out, silencing it forever.]]

They shall never sound in slavery!" }}

* In the [[Filk]] song "Some Kind of Hero", spacer Molly is proud to have died free of the drug addiction which had grounded her.

You just tell 'em she finally died clean!" }}

* It's most of the purpose in [[The Protomen]]'s musical verse. Die free, or live under tyranny.

== Web Comics ==

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[DM of the Rings]]'' when Boromir's player, tired of the [[Dungeon Master]]'s incessant [[Railroading]], chooses to not roll a new character and instead get a chance to bow out of the campaign gracefully.

'''Boromir:''' Of my own free will! }}