Death Seeker: Difference between revisions

* In an episode of ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', a "Ghost Knight" roams the town, escaped from a story where he killed his lover (who was an enemy spy) and remained honorable to his country until the end of the war, after which he found no meaning to his life. Fakir believed that the reason he was having dreams about him was because he was the one the Knight had chosen to kill him in battle...{{spoiler|but it turns out he was carrying the heart shard of Pride, and the ''real'' reason Fakir was having dreams about him was because he was a descendant of Drosselmeyer.}}

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', {{spoiler|5th Espada Nnoitra. More specifically, he's constantly fighting against strong opponents so that he can experience that rush sensation in the final moments just before dying. Which he does indeed get to experience, courtesy of [[Blood Knight|Kenpachi]].}}

"I wanna be cut so that my breath is gone before my body hits the ground. That's the kind of death I wanna have." }}

** Rukia is also one until the end of the Soul Society arc. She thinks she deserves to die for killing her Hollow-possessed mentor before the story starts, and because of that doesn't resist her arrest or execution in any way. [[Big Damn Heroes|Ichigo disagrees]].

* Manji from ''[[Blade of the Immortal]]'' seems like a mix of death seeker and [[The Atoner]]. He needs atonement to finally die. He has to do it by {{spoiler|killing 1000 bad guys}}.

* {{spoiler|The [[Big Bad]] Black Mage Zeref}} in ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. He feels rejected by the world because of his [[Power Incontinence|uncontrollable power]] that [[Walking Wasteland|drains the life from everything around him]]. Realizing that he will always be alone because of this, he wants to die. For some reason he believes that Natsu is the only one who has a chance of killing him. When they meet in 209 and Natsu punches him, his only reaction (after being completely unharmed) is to feel regret.

* ''[[Immortal Rain]]'': Rain and Yuca BOTH, especially since {{spoiler|[[Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum|Yuca]] made Rain partically to have /him/ kill him.}}

* {{spoiler|Rau Le Creuset}} in [[Gundam Seed]] combines this with [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] and [[Omnicidal Maniac]] for a truly dangerous combination.

* 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).

* [[Batman|Batgirl III]]'s guilt over reducing a living, thinking creature to a large mass of inert meat with her bare hand at eight years old drove her to seek her own demise protecting others. It can be summed up when Lady Shiva demanded a duel to the death in a years time as payment for helping her regain the body-reading skills she lost when a telepath enabled her to speak:

'''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.'

* Hank Henshaw, aka the Cyborg superman has become one of these recently, tired of the tragedy in his life and his near invulnerability. It got to the point where he joined [[Green Lantern|the Sinestro Corps]] just because they agreed to kill him once their work was done. {{spoiler|He eventually did die, much to his delight. Unfortunately for him, his minions resurrected him at the first opportunity.}}

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

** {{spoiler|He finally got his wish after being separated from his latest body and defeated on the astral plane.}}

*** {{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}}...

** Being the author of this story, I'm flattered that I'm listed on this site. But to contribute, this story was a [[Shout-Out]] and [[Homage]] to X-Files season 6 episode 10 [http://in-the-x-i-believe.blogspot.com/2007/08/season-6-tithonus-6x09.html "Tithonus"].

* In [[The Hill of Swords]], a crossover between [[Fate/stay night]] and [[Zero no Tsukaima]], Shirou [[Up to Eleven|outperforms]] Saito's [[Last Stand]], {{spoiler|and ends up dying after having pretty much wiped out an army of 70,000 soldiers.}} He went into the battle for this reason:

** 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, ''[[Eris Game (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 Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]''. The Baron doesn't mind death. In fact, he recommends it.

* In the various ''Prophecy'' movies, fallen angel Gabriel's unwillingly-revived henchpeople fall into this category: when one them gets (re-)fatally shot by a protagonist, his last comment is a sincere "Thanks pal, you're a sport!"

* Arguably, Doc Holliday in ''[[Tombstone]].''

* Of the commanding officer's [[Survivor Guilt]]/[[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] variety, we have [[Pirates of the Caribbean|James Norrington]] in the beginning of Dead Man's Chest. He'd deliberately steered his ship into a hurricane while chasing Jack Sparrow, resulting in the loss of the ship and most of the crew, and his having to resign his commission. The next time we saw him, he was a grimy drunk who seemed to be pretty zealous about his bar fights.

* 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?}}

* The Joker from [[The Dark Knight Saga|The Dark Knight]]. There has been several occasions where he puts his life on the line for his cause.

* 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]].

** Angel himself has some [[Death Seeker]] tendencies, though more back on [[Buffy]]: He seems to be trying to get Buffy to kill him in ''Angel'', tries to get Spike to kill him in ''What's My Line, Part 2'', and is insistent on sacrificing his life in ''The Zeppo''. On ''[[Angel]]'', he was pretty much unfazed by hearing he was going to die in ''To Shanshu In LA''. Oh, and he made a suicide attempt in ''Amends,'' but that's not how the trope works.

** Last but not least, Wesley. Triggered by the prophecy that Angel would kill Connor and partly because Fred chose Gunn over him, he apparently wishes to die:

** 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.

* Arguably Claire from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''--there's more than a little suicidal element to the way she repeatedly attempts to kill herself in order to gauge the extent of her powers.

* 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.

* [[Human Target]]: people from [[The Atoner|Christopher Chance]]'s [[Career Killers|old life]] are ''constantly'' accusing him of being this, often using this exact phrase. Given his new line of work, they sort of have a point. His clients sometimes ask him the same question, too:

* [[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.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Several characters from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'':

** Fortune: A battlecry of "Kill me now!" hints at it.

** And of course, Grey Fox.

* After being exiled in human lands, Durkon of ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' was like this when Roy first met him. While no longer explicitly ''seeking'' death, he is currently looking forward to it, since the Oracle informed him that he would go home "posthumously." At that point he expected that he would die in human lands and never be returned to his family's ancestral tomb, so he sees this as better than nothing. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|he doesn't know the ''[[Doomed Hometown|other prophecy]]'' made about his homecoming...}}

* Ellen from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' shortly after her creation:

'''Ellen:''' That was win-win. Either the goo would be destroyed or I would die a noble death. }}

** A more apt example from the same webcomic would be {{spoiler|Abraham,}} who {{spoiler|created the diamond that made Ellen by separating Elliot from the V5 transformation, and is sworn to kill any creation of it.}}

** A later short played on the same gag, this time with Olive seeking someone suitably beaten up as a model for a sculpture. So the two start trying to get themselves beat up. Eventually, Popeye makes Bluto eat his Spinach, making him go into an involuntary fit of beating up Popeye; Bluto wins the fight but loses the chance to pose for Olive.

* [[Played for Laughs]] with Grandpa Marsh on ''[[South Park]]''

'''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]].