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{{quote|''"I do not wish to live a life with no tomorrow, for a life spent merely for the sake of living is no better than that of a filthy cur. There is only one thing I wish for: to meet that one chosen person in that one chosen battle, and to die remembering who I once was."''|'''Balalaika''', ''[[Black Lagoon (Anime)|Black Lagoon]]''.}}
 
At some point in the past, a character had a [[Moral Event Horizon|traumatic]] [[Despair Event Horizon|experience]], or found themselves dishonoured, or committed a crime they could not repay or lost everything worth living for. For [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|whatever reason]], instead of just [[Driven to Suicide|committing suicide]], they went off seeking battles to fight, hoping to find an [[Suicide Byby Cop|enemy who would kill them]], and achieve an [[Redemption Equals Death|honourable]], [[Heroic Sacrifice|heroic]] or otherwise acceptable death.
 
[[Blessed Withwith Suck|Only they]] ''[[Blessed Withwith Suck|suck]]'' [[Springtime for Hitler|at dying.]]
 
They found they were far too good at the "fighting" part. And for whatever [[Honor Before Reason|reason (usually honor)]], they don't hold back.
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== [[Anime]] ==
* Kambei in ''[[Samurai Seven7]]'', who is actually disappointed that he has managed to survive ''yet again'' even while most of his his subordinates have once again died.
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', {{spoiler|after the [[Big Bad]] is defeated, the Pharaoh's spirit within the Millennium Puzzle can go to the afterlife...}} but only once he's been defeated in a duel.
** An interesting variation with Kaiser Ryo/Zane in Season Three of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''. He's developed a fatal heart condition, so he's not actively looking to die as it's going to happen regardless. Instead he's trying to hold on long enough to find an opponent to give him a true challenge so he can go out fighting.
** Kiryu/Kalin in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5 Ds5D's]]'' in the Crash Town arc, overlaps with [[The Atoner]] as he wishes to die to be punished for his actions as a Dark Signer. Edited into a "[[Because Destiny Says So]]" attitude in the dub ([[Never Say "Die"]] is in effect too)--he still wants to be punished for what he did, but the focus in more on him accepting his fate to be punished when it happens rather than seeking it out.
* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', this is arguably, Younger Toguro's entire reason for getting Yusuke involved in the Dark Tournament.
** {{spoiler|And Sensui's entire reason for opening the tunnel to Makai, through a big old [[Batman Gambit]].}}
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** Seems like a case of him simply wanting to be with his wife. His original goal was deliberately to {{spoiler|find a way to become mortal so he can die with Trisha Elric, since no sane person wants to outlive his wife and sons}}.
* May have been Reccoa's true motivation for turning traitor in ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'', as having been a guerilla fighter for nine ''years'' had worn her resolve against tyranny down to nearly nothing.
* [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Depending on how you see him]], Alucard from ''[[Hellsing (Manga)|Hellsing]]'' is waiting for the time when he will be killed by an opponent he deems worthy.
** The Major is another possible example, as Schrodinger infers that the Major's desire to create as much warfare as possible is an elaborate suicide plan (with the rest of Millenium being drawn along with him by his charisma). Given that {{spoiler|he dies with a smile on his face when Integra kills him, it seems likely}}.
*** When Seras and Integra are storming the Major's airship, they notice that the Nazis they're killing actually seem pleased by their deaths, and the Major confirms that they want to die. Seras angrily asks why they don't just commit suicide, causing the Major to reply that it isn't enough to die; they have to die doing something ''meaningful'' to them.
* 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 (Manga)|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]].}}
{{quote| "Cause I wanna die. I want to die in the heat of battle. That's why I wanna get stronger. The stronger I get, the more battle will surround me. I want to be able to live and breathe the heat of battle."<br />
"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]].
* In ''[[Ga -Rei Zero|Ga-Rei -Zero-]]'', Yomi, fighting the emotion intensifying effects of the Sesshouseki, attempts to get Noriyuki to kill her since she has become a "taint of evil," as she puts it. However, he repeatedly refuses to, even as she becomes increasingly more sadistic in her attempts to provoke him to do so.
* In part 6 of ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'', {{spoiler|Weather Report, after recovering his memories. He dies shortly afterward in a not quite successful suicide attack on the [[Big Bad]].}}
* Shinji Ikari (and, to a lesser extent, {{spoiler|Asuka Langley Soryu}} from [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]] could fit this trope to a T, except by the little part that Shinji was fighting to seek his father's attention, and {{spoiler|Asuka was too much of a [[Stepford Smiler]] to give up}}. At the end, {{spoiler|only these two failed to die, presumably. Irony at its best.}}
** {{spoiler|Until episode 18, anyway. After killing and/or maiming his best friend, depending on whether we're going by the anime or the manga, we see him in episode 19, no longer greatly concerned with what his father or anyone else thinks of him. The [[Crazy Awesome]] of the moment--and it is, if you haven't seen it--is muted at the end of the series when we reflect and realize that when he went out to fight, "fangs out and hair on fire," he was almost certainly trying to die.}}
** {{spoiler|Rei. Explicitly says she "Is a thing that wishes to die"? Check. Deliberately takes suicide missions? Check. Gets herself killed ''twice?'' Check. Fails hard at ''staying'' dead? Hoo boy.}} In fact, {{spoiler|Rei}} explicitly stated in ep24 that {{spoiler|she}} hates Gendo for not letting {{spoiler|her}} die until {{spoiler|she}} had fulfilled the purpose he had set. [[Sarcasm Mode|Ladies and gentlemen, meet the protectors of mankind!]]
* Gauron from ''[[Full Metal Panic]]''. Somewhere along the line, he somehow latches onto the idea that he wants Sousuke to kill him (and if that doesn't work, killing Sousuke and raping his body works just fine as well). His suicidal and extreme sadomasochistic tendencies are somewhat explained in the novels, where it's revealed that he had lethal cancer that would kill him sooner or later. The only irony is, it seems the more he throws himself into danger and suicidal situations, the ''longer'' he lives.
* {{spoiler|The clone of [[Failure Knight|Zest]]}} in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S (Anime)StrikerS|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S]]'' was a "[[Clone Degeneration|Doomed to die an ignoble death]]" version, and [[Suicide Byby Cop|provoked Signum for a battle to the death]] after she made an assurance that {{spoiler|his}} charge was safe with her squad and that the villains had been caught. While {{spoiler|Agito}} hated her for it, she thanked her for giving {{spoiler|him his}} last honor as a fellow knight.
* Balalaika of ''[[Black Lagoon]]'', as seen in the quote above. {{spoiler|Roberta}} also has elements of this in the latest arc of the manga.
* {{spoiler|Deneve}} from [[Claymore]] was one of these {{spoiler|until Helen knocked some sense into her.}}
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* {{spoiler|Rau Le Creuset}} in [[Gundam Seed]] combines this with [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] and [[Omnicidal Maniac]] for a truly dangerous combination.
* Partially played straight with Guts from [[Berserk]]. While he isn't actively wishing for death, he throws himself into suicidal battles against creatures that greatly exceed the power of man with reckless abandon. It can be argued that he doesn't expect to actually beat the Apostles and Godhand, but is merely killing them off due to his unquenchable hatred until one of them finally manages to best him.
* In ''[[Corsair (Light Novel)|Corsair]]'', [[The Atoner|Canale]] is a former assassin who made a promise not to kill himself, but wishes to die because he thinks he brings misery and destruction wherever he goes. Early on he begs Ayace to do so, but Ayace refuses. Later Ayace makes a promise that if Canale brings destruction on Preveza he ''will'' kill him, so until then he should try living normally, which reassures Canale greatly.
* ''[[Madoka Magica]]'': {{spoiler|Sayaka}} does not react well to [[Awful Truth|finding out that]] {{spoiler|[[Soul Jar|her soul had been moved into]] her [[Transformation Trinket|Soul Gem]].}}
* {{spoiler|Jimbei}} from ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' makes it clear several times throughout the Marineford battle that he expected to die. {{spoiler|He survives, and remains an important character two in-universe years later. He appears to be fine with this outcome, though.}}
** Long before him, Nico Robin loses her last hope and purpose to life at the end of Arabasta arc. It needs two [[Unwanted Rescue|unwanted rescues]] until she is ready to admit in the middle of [[Rescue Arc|Enies Lobby arc]] that she has found her [[Worth Living For|reason to live]] and that she [[I Don't Want to Die|doesn't want to die.]]
* {{spoiler|Johan Liebert}} in ''[[Monster (Animemanga)|Monster]]'' near the end.
* [[Black Butler|Grell]] when we first meet her.
 
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** Specifically, Mr. Immortal's power is that shortly after death, he is resurrected.
* This describes Painkiller Jane to a T.
* Yorick of ''[[Y: theThe Last Man]]'' is like this for the first few volumes, thanks to Survivor Guilt after [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]. It turns out that this is also {{spoiler|Alter Tse'elon's motivation for ''everything'' she does in the series - she's trying to die in honorable combat ''with a man''.}}
* Arguably, {{spoiler|Morpheus}} from ''[[The Sandman]]''. If he indeed was (his methodology makes it somewhat uncertain how much was planned and how much was not), he certainly went about doing it [[Gambit Roulette|in an]] ''[[Gambit Roulette|extremely]]'' [[Gambit Roulette|roundabout way]].
** Another "Endless" story concerned a superheroine whose body automatically protected itself from any attack. Now she is weary of life; naturally, the story features [[The Grim Reaper|Death]].
** The anthology "Endless Nights" had a soldier whose life was empty, until he encountered [[Perky Goth|Death]] and actually helped her on a job by breaking down a magic gate so she could enter a castle and claim the inhabitants. Now, he enters battle with renewed vigor, in the hopes he will meet her again.
* 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 Withwith Suck|painful immortality]] (due to the death of Death).
* [[Batman (Comic Book)|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:
{{quote| '''Cassandra''': <thinking> I will never take another life, not even hers... so I will pretend to go all out, and then I'll die. I don't have to do this, I can still use Batman's method, I can still be... mediocre for a lifetime... or perfect... for a year.<br />
'''Shiva''': "Well?" }}
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* Eilif the Lost was the last survivor of a Viking [[Lost Colony]] in Antarctica. Old and growing infirm, he tried to goad [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] into killing him. "I would have fought a god, my lord. What Viking could have asked for a more glorious death?"
* [[Zbeng]]! has a character named Stav - an extremely depressed, pessimistic Goth girl, who constantly tries to commit suicide. She does seem good driving others to it, but herself, she is lucky enough to constantly win the lottery despite never buying tickets (she doesn't tend to collect the winnings).
* Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse from [[Scalped (Comic Book)|Scalped]] has an unconscious death wish. He constantly throws himself in dangerous gunfights with psychopaths and always alone. It's hinted that he suffers from ptsd {{spoiler|(child abuse, fighting in Kosovo and witnessing a massacre)}}, suicidal behaviour {{spoiler|(flashback to a young Dashiell cry and put a gun to his temple, second time he does the same thing when he could've prevented the murder of a young boy)}} and from deep seated anger {{spoiler|(his fists are bruised most of the time and we see him slamming his fists against his own truck)}}. When Dash is confronted by {{spoiler|his father}}, the conversation between them pretty much confirms all of this and more importantly his death wish.
* [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]], to a [[The Woobie|horribly painful degree]]. And, no, it didn't start during/after [[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]], either, though that certainly [[Up to Eleven|made it worse]]. It started when he was struck with [[Survivor Guilt|survivor's guilt]] over the [[My Greatest Failure|death of Yin Sen]] -- that's right, it started with his ''origin story'' -- and [[Hurting Hero|just kind of]] [[It Got Worse|went downhill]] [[Drowning My Sorrows|at breakneck speed]] [[Trauma Conga Line|from there]]. Unfortunately, Marvel [[Darker and Edgier|isn't kind enough]] to just [[Mercy Kill|let him die]] at this point, whether by way of [[Driven to Suicide|suicide]] or [[Suicide Byby Cop|death by supervillain]] -- though this may be [[Blatant Lies|justified]] by the fact that apparently, [[Running the Asylum|no one at Marvel]] has [[Did Not Do the Research|bothered to crack open a psychology textbook]] to figure out that [[The Mentally Disturbed|someone like Tony Stark]] should probably not still be alive of his own free will. Considering Tony's history of barely caring if he lives or dies, [[Be All My Sins Remembered|as well as his absolute self-loathing]], it's hard to believe that he's still breathing. Hell, if nothing else, it's a goddamned miracle that he hasn't [[Driven to Villainy|become an outright supervillain]], gone [[Murder Is the Best Solution|batshit crazy]], or [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|worse]]. Usually, when a character [[Despair Event Horizon|hits rock bottom]], the general procedure is to [[Redemption Equals Death|have them]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|go out]] [[Dying Moment of Awesome|in a blaze of glory]]. Instead, Marvel [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|handed him]] [[Kick Them While They Are Down|a shovel]].
** He ''did'' become a supervillain and died briefly. It was called "The Crossing" and he was replaced by a teenaged version of himself. [[Dork Age|No one liked it]]. [[Death Is Cheap|Adult Tony came back]] and it's been [[Retcon|Retconned]] that [[Not Himself|he wasn't himself]], Teen tony got written out, and it's more or less [[Fanon Discontinuity|ignored]] now.
* Kaine, the imperfect clone of [[Spider-Man]]. He's not the typical death seeker as he sometimes changes his mind or even runs from a fatal fight. In the grim hunt back stories it's revealed he's too much of a coward to commit suicide yet when he has a pre-cog vision about his own death at the hands of Kraven the Hunter he still challenges him.{{spoiler|He finally got what he wanted by duping the Kravinoff hunters into thinking he was [[Spider-Man]]. They sacrificed him to revive Kraven the hunter. Afterwards Kaine is resurrected with tarantula features, and is [[Spider Island|ultimately reborn possessing Spider-Man's enhanced powers from Avengers Disassembled]].}}
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* [[X-23]] is pretty much this. Unfortunately for [[Healing Factor|her]].
* In ''[[Action Comics]]'', Doomsday the monster that nearly killed [[Superman]] becomes this millions of years in the future. Filled with self-loathing, he has gone back in time to remove every last trace of himself from the past, present, and future. Since people on Earth know how to clone him, he figures he needs to get rid of Earth as well.
* In ''[[The Goon (Comic Book)|The Goon]]'' comics the immortally weary Buzzard agrees to go kill a monster terrorizing the countryside, hoping it will be able to kill him. When he arrives he learns that the ancient creature was doing this with the hope that they would fight back and kill it. They agree to fight it out and let fate decide which on of them...wins.
 
 
== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* For ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|The Legend of Zelda]]'', in Kasuto of Kataan's "[http://kasuto.net/fanfic.php?main=fanfic/eternity.html&top=fanfic/eternitymenu.html Eternity]", the villain is attempting to kill herself with a special spell {{spoiler|which would happen to kill several million bystanders}} after realizing that immortality is actually a curse since the world is boring after living for a really long time. She had already tried every other conventional method and failed.
** 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 Stay Nightnight]] and [[Zero no Tsukaima (Light Novel)|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:
{{quote| {{spoiler|And as he stood upon the battle fields, she thought back to his oath: [[I Will Wait for You|to be reunited with his love upon a hill of swords.]] To be reunited with his lover. His lover was dead. [[Together in Death|And it was only through battle that he could finally join her again. When he too was dead]].}} }}
** Needless to say, after being {{spoiler|revived by Tiffania}}, he clearly states that at that moment, he really, REALLY, hated her.
{{quote| '''Shirou, {{spoiler|after being revived by Tiffania}}''': "And in that moment, I had never hated anything as fiercely as I did her."}}
* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3966181/1/The_Prince The Prince]'', a ''[[Death Note (Manga)|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 (Video Game)|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 (Film)|The Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]''. The Baron doesn't mind death. In fact, he recommends it.
{{quote| '''Baron:''' And that was only one of the ''many'' occasions on which I met my death, an experience which I don't hesitate ''strongly'' to recommend!}}
* 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!"
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* John Ryder from ''[[The Hitcher]]''. {{spoiler|As the plot uncovers, he repeatedly asks Jim Halsey to kill him in cold blood (after their first encounter when Jim picked up Ryder as an unsuspecting hitchhiker). When Jim fails to do so, John proceeds to go on a path of carnage ... I don't want to give too much of the movie away ...}}
** Give it away? That is the entire movie. The remake, anyway.
* Following his son accidentally shooting himself with Jack's gun, Jack O'Neil undertakes what he figures is probably a suicide mission in ''[[Stargate (Filmfilm)|Stargate]]''.
* ''[[Dances Withwith Wolves]]''
* ''[[The Last Samurai]]''
* Riggs in ''[[Lethal Weapon (Film)|Lethal Weapon]]''
* Louis, in the film version of ''[[Interview Withwith the Vampire]]'', becomes this when his young wife dies in childbirth and the baby doesn't survive either. His willingness to die leaves him open to Lestat's machinations. Note that this is a complete change from the original novel, in which Louis was unmarried.
* Plot of ''[[Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (Film)|Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man]]'' is set in motion when Larry Talbot (the [[Wolf Man]]) is accidentally resurrected and sets out to find the way to keep himself dead permanently.
* Miles Tuck in ''[[Tuck Everlasting]]'', due to losing his wife and children. He's fought in pretty much every war he can find and regularly picks fights, trying ([[Who Wants to Live Forever?|unsuccessfully]]) to die.
* 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.
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{{quote| {{spoiler|"Here I come, laddies!" and a huge laugh.}}}}
* 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 (Filmfilm)|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 Withwith Awesome]].
* J.B. Books in [[The Shootist]]. The death that was coming for him, though, was far worse than the death he sought.
 
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* Felix, from the 1984 science fiction novel ''Armor'' by [[John Steakley]], {{spoiler|following the death of his wife}}. In his case, he's explicitly nigh-unkillable ([[Blessed Withwith Suck|not a good thing, in the circumstances]]) as a result of his personal background; at the end of the novel, a former acquaintance who's come to find him, on being informed that he was last seen {{spoiler|clinging to the ''outside'' of a badly damaged spacecraft with insufficient fuel to reach the next planet}}, merely nods and says that they'll keep looking until they find somebody who actually ''saw'' him die.
* The title character of Rudyard Kipling's "Love-o'-Women" (one of the army tales); he has both a tragic past and a disease that will kill him in slow and humiliating fashion, and yet, though he repeatedly throws himself into combat, he's left lamenting that "not a bullet would touch him".
* One of the characters in Peter David's black comedy fantasy novel ''[[Sir Apropos of Nothing]]'' was a Death Seeker whose reckless deeds resulted in him becoming the most highly respected knight in all the land. At that point he realised that he actually quite liked being alive, hung up his sword and retired behind a mantle of [[Obfuscating Stupidity|obfuscating senility]].
* Colbey, the main character of the ''[[The Last of the Renshai|Renshai]]'' novels, is a follower of the Norse gods, and must die in battle to reach Valhalla. (Dying while refusing to fight all-out doesn't count, and would get him damned to Hel.) He's in his ''eighties'' by the end of book 1, the oldest person his tribe has ever had, and the best swordsman in history. He's even given the title "Deathseeker" by some. {{spoiler|Eventually, it's discovered that he became "semi-mortal" in his sixties (meaning he can't grow any older) and eventually becomes a god. He still rejoices in a challenging fight centuries later, mind you...}}
* Himei starts out as this in ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'', before [[The Power of Friendship]] gives her something to live for. The premier example, however, is {{spoiler|Dark General Argon. Because of his nature as [[The Heartless]] he's unable to kill himself directly, so he instead ensures that the protagonist will unleash her [[Unstoppable Rage]] on him -- in some of the worst ways possible.}}
* Brox (Broxigar [[First-Name Basis]]) of the [[War of the Ancients]] [[War CraftWarcraft]] novels trilogy fits this trope perfectly, after being the sole survivor of his squad. {{spoiler|He actually gets his wish in the end by performing a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}
* Eowyn in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', whose courageous ride to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields has also been described as a lovesick suicide attempt.
** According to Aragorn, the very object of her unrequited love, her disappointment was just the final straw - personal frustrations and grief having already robbed her of much hope. And then of course there's the apparent hopelessness of the global situation - the entire army rides into battle shouting "DEATH!" after all.
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* Lieutenant Dan in the book (and movie) ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' was a Death Seeker because it was a family tradition to die in battle. Makes one wonder how they kept the family line going, since no offspring by him had been established.
** The movie establishes that a member of his family died in every American war. Presumably, he (and the ancestors who were killed in action) had plenty of brothers.
* A'lan Mandragoran (Lan) from ''[[The Wheel of Time (Literature)|The Wheel of Time]]'' series. Fortunately or unfortunately for him, depending on your perspective, getting married changes his outlook.
** Rand al'Thor could be seen as this. He intends to stay alive juuuust long enough to get to the [[Final Battle]], then die while winning it.
*** Also, any male among the [[Proud Warrior Race|Aiel]] that discovers they can channel, since men who channel eventually go insane, they go into [[Garden of Evil|the Blight]] and die fighting the minions of [[Satan|the Dark One]]
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts]] book this happens to some of the soldiers, particularly Gol Kolea.
** In ''Only In Death'', Ezrah ap Niht, believing {{spoiler|Gaunt is dead}}, believes himself intolerably dishonored by surviving. He sets out on ''bludtoll'', [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|to kill as many of the enemy as he can before his own death]]. {{spoiler|Fortunately, he finds Gaunt prisoner.}}
* Part of the initial premise of Timothy Findley's novel ''Pilgrim'' is that the main character is unable to die, no matter how many ostensibly successful suicide attempts he goes through.
* In Phyllis Ann Karr's [[King Arthur|Arthurian novel]] ''[[The Idylls of the Queen (Literature)|The Idylls of the Queen]]'', Mordred fits the role pretty well--he spends the majority of the novel expecting (and hoping) the narrator Kay will kill him ({{spoiler|His theory of the murder he and Kay are attempting to solve is that it was an attempt on his life by Kay and Guinevere}}) and pisses a couple people off hoping they'll murder him because of the prophecy that he'll bring Arthur's kingdom down. A better example in his backstory, right after a hermit gives him the prophecy and tells him who his father is, he rides on into the tourney he was headed to and nearly succeeds. Most people think those injuries addled his brains.
* The Tharks in [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' [[John Carter of Mars]] series: "the cause of the Thark's great and sudden love of life I could not fathom, for it is oftener that they seek death than life--these strange, cruel, loveless, unhappy people." It's pretty effective, since ''98 percent of them'' die in various violent ways.
* Albus Dumbledore of the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series shows this trope at some point in between ''Order of the Phoenix'' and ''The Half Blood Prince'', when he becomes {{spoiler|cursed to die by the ring containing the resurrection stone. To end the misery of dying slowly and to spare Draco Malfoy, Who he learned had been tasked by Voldemort to kill him, Dumbledore asks Snape to kill him in a [[Gambit Roulette|Overly Elaborate plot]] to also get Snape closer to Voldemort and to continue protecting Harry.}}
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* Francis Crawford of Lymond throughout Dorothy Dunnett's ''[[Lymond Chronicles]]''. He veers between attempts at [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and plain old [[Driven to Suicide]].
* There is a story by [[Robert Sheckley]] about a planet with humanoid aliens who believe that only violent death leads to heaven. Some deaths are dispensed by the priests, but many people (despite a strict taboo) arrange some accidents (like sawing a thorny tree so that it will fall upon you). They die smiling.
* In the sixth book of ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'', ''And Another Thing...'' {{spoiler|[[Who Wants to Live Forever?|Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged]]}} reveals that this is the motivation behind his constant insulting of others.
* In Ursula Vernon's ''[[Black Dogs (Literature)|Black Dogs]]'', the elven [[Broken Bird|Sinai]] blames herself for the capture, rape and death of her cousin, at the hands of the evil sorceror Vade. She accepts increasingly dangerous and suicidal missions from the elven nation, and her behavior is so well known that in the elves' native tongue she is known as The Dead Wolf.
* In the [[Andrew Vachss]] Burke book ''Terminal'', it is mentioned at the end that this was the first time Burke was not praying in some way for death.
* Charles, the vampire villain of Elaine Bergstrom's SHATTERED GLASS. Since her vampires, who belong to a naturally evolved nonhuman species, have such a strong self-preservation drive that they literally cannot commit suicide, Charles commits an escalating series of gory murders to induce his brother, Stephen, the "good" vampire of the novel, to kill him in a vampire version of [[Suicide Byby Cop]].
* [[William Butler Yeats]]' poem "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death" is about a [[Death Seeker]] [[World War I]] aviator.
* [[Umberto Eco]]'s novel ''[[Baudolino (Literature)|Baudolino]]'' features a group of warriors who all want to die in battle, because they believe that then they'll go to heaven. The main characters think that this will make them good fighters in an impending war, since they won't be afraid. They are wrong, because they don't even fight, just ask the enemy to kill them.
* In ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' the main character mentions having this attitude during World War I, probably from having to leave the woman he loved behind. His death wish was mistaken for courage and he was decorated.
* [[Dune|Jool Noret]] became this after he accidentally killed his father.
* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: [[CIA]] director Calvin Span is revealed to be this in ''Home Free''. He died of a heart attack as a result of him shovelling his driveway. He knew better than to do that, considering that he had heart surgery a few years ago. His co-conspirator Owen Orzell thinks that Calvin had a death wish. Considering that Calvin was in bed with [[Big Bad]] Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, had a gambling addiction that was going out-of-control, had to turn against Jellicoe to save his own hide when Jellicoe's bad guy status was revealed, had the deaths of CIA agents on his conscience because Jellicoe wanted [[Revenge]] for Calvin turning against him, and the president forced him to resign for failing to capture Jellicoe in one month, it's not much of a stretch for this guy to become a [[Death Seeker]].
* Prince Elfangor, from ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' seems to be a good example of this after he gets {{spoiler|pulled off Earth by the Ellimist.}} His first action was {{spoiler|ramming the Blade Ship with his little fighter in what should have been a suicide run only to survive, turn the tide of battle, and become a war hero whose example was held up as a golden standard.}} And at the end of his life, he really wasn't out of options - he could have morphed, or even used his ship's shredder to cut through the concrete surrounding the Time Matrix. And yet...
** Another example from ''Animorphs'' is [[Sixth Ranger Traitor|David]] by the end of his last book. Abandoned by Crayak, betrayed by his henchmen and still condemned to [[Fate Worse Than Death|live out the rest of his days as a rat]], he tearfully begs Rachel to end his misery.
* In ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]'', Galbatorix became one after the death of his first dragon, but then stopped after he got the idea that he might be able to convince the elders to give him another dragon. And once, that didn't work, [[Big Bad|well...]]
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'', the Groosalugg was so "hideous" that he sought monsters to destroy him. He failed to die so incredibly he got made his kingdom's champion.
** Faith is a Death Seeker when she appears in late first season, kidnapping Wesley and torturing him all to get Angel angry enough to kill her. Back in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', she had done a similar thing with Buffy, though then her motive was that, by killing her, [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him|Buffy would become like her]], which would be a sort of "post-death revenge" on Buffy by Faith.
** 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 (TV)|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:
{{quote| '''Loa:''' You risk your life, human, calling on the loa. Perhaps what you really seek is death. The pain in your heart begs for it.}}
** 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.
*** In the online comics Adam Monroe is suggested to have been one at some point, before he got his "Vengeful God" master plan together. During the 1700s he spent a great amount of time fighting battles looking for a worthy opponent as he'd grown bored killing humans. Yeah, the guys got issues.
* When Mack "[[Fan Nickname|iMack]]" Hartford of ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' [[Tomato in Thethe Mirror|realizes he's an android,]] he at first has a classic [[Heroic BSOD]], but comes out of it rather quickly... only to put himself in the line of fire more and more in an attempt to engineer a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. It ''starts'' with pushing a [[Humongous Mecha]] toward [[Explosive Overclocking|overload]] and goes from there.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'''s Dean is this in a nutshell. Notice how whenever he gets the choice to die or keep living, the choice is always ambiguous. After his Dad dies for him, he's too tired of this life and as the Crossroad Demon says in "Crossroad Blues", his first thought in the morning is "I can't do this anymore." It finally comes to a head in the Season Two finale when Sam dies and Dean sells his soul to get him back, for a whole bunch of messed up reasons. For the first half of Season Three, he doesn't seem to mind if he goes downstairs ahead of schedule but finally, ''finally'' in "Dream a Little Dream of Me" he realizes the obvious fact that he doesn't ''deserve'' eternity in hell. Except his martyrdom comes back in full-force in ''No Rest For The Wicked'' {{spoiler|and he still thinks he doesn't deserve to live in ''Lazurus Rising''}} so you can't help but still think his sole goal for himself is death.
** Dean's earliest brush with this is way back in the season one episode "Faith" when he learns that by seeking the help of a faith healer he has inadvertently caused the death of a young man. Later in the episode when a Reaper appears to kill him, he does not try to escape. Dean has managed to hit a new low as of mid-season seven, what with {{spoiler|losing everybody, even having to give up his car, with his brother nearly dyinig of madness}}. Basically, Sam is the only thing keeping Dean from being [[Driven to Suicide]], and that doesn't work so well when Dean can't trust his brother.
** While Dean is the most extreme version of this, nearly every character in the show has desperately wanted death at some point; Bobby wanted it in ''Dream a Little Dream Of Me'' {{spoiler|and while crippled}}, John probably wanted it most of Sam's life.
** In late Season One, Sam wanted to kill the demon that slayed his fiancee so badly that he wanted to die killing it. In the middle section of Season Two, he was way too keen on committing suicide before his destiny could change him, and after Dean went to hell, Sam tried to sacrifice himself for Dean and then nearly got himself killed when he couldn't. He went into the season four finale with no intention of coming back out, then in season five, he was ''actively'' suicidal, but Lucifer and the other angels wouldn't let him stay dead. Sam rounded the season out by {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|jumping into Hell]] and taking Lucifer with him}}. In season seven, he is finally over most of his self-hatred, {{spoiler|but plagued by PTSD hallucinations of his time in hell. The hallucination of Lucifer tries to convince him to commit suicide, and when the hallucination's killing him, Sam gives up}}. Somebody get some therapy-cakes for these Winchesters.
* As recently pointed out by her therapist, Meredith of ''[[GreysGrey's Anatomy]]'' may be a subconscious [[Death Seeker]].
* {{spoiler|Michael}} of ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' falls into this category during Season 4, but is unable to die because {{spoiler|the Island simply won't let him. He eventually succeeds in the Season Finale, when he manages to save the lives of the Oceanic 6.}}
* Sinclair on ''[[Babylon 5]]'' starts out this way. In each of the first five episodes, he deliberately claims the most dangerous tasks for himself. He starts to change this habit after Garibaldi calls him on it.
** Marcus is explicitly described as a death seeker. He gets his wish.
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* In the re-imagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' episode 1.03 "Bastille Day", Lee Adama suggests that {{spoiler|Tom Zarek}} is one of these.
** The sanguine manner in which he {{spoiler|meets his execution by firing squad}} seems to confirm this.
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. While not as actively suicidal as some of the other examples, his self-destructiveness is leading him towards an early death, his curiosity exceeds his regard for his own life, the issue of him not caring if he dies and not feeling like he deserves to live (or be happy) has come up several times and he even says he would rather be dead than deal with all the crap in his life anymore in the Season Four finale.
* [[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]: Little John, whose motto is "Today is a good day to die", as a result of guilt and grief over abandoning and losing his family. {{spoiler|In the season 2 finale, he finally declares that it is NOT a good day to die; it remains to be seen if this marks a turning point for his Deathseeking ways.}}
* In an episode of [[Dollhouse]], Echo is sent to protect a singer from a crazy stalker who's trying to kill her. It turns out that {{spoiler|the singer and the stalker have been in contact, and she sees being murdered in the middle of a show as both freedom from life and a way to become "immortal" in people's minds}}.
* Detective Inspector William "Jack" Frost in ''[[A Touch of Frost]]'' tried and failed to commit suicide by confronting an armed criminal. He got the George Cross for his troubles.
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* Opie becomes this in the second season of ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' {{spoiler|after his wife Donna's death}}
* Logan Echolls of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' has something of a death wish, highlighted most obviously in 1x22 'Leave It To Beaver' and 3x20 'The Bitch Is Back.' But with his background, can you blame him?
* There was an episode of ''[[M*A*S*H (TV)|M*A*S*H]]'' which included a Chinese-American soldier trying to get himself killed in battle because he identified both as a Chinese person and an American and thus hated himself for "being" the enemy one way or another.
* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' has the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Klingons]], whose religion holds that to get into Sto-Vo-Kor (their equivalent of Heaven...or more accurately, Valhalla) one has to die in honorable combat. "Today is a good day to die" is basically the motto of the entire species. A Klingon warrior who lives to old age will tend to get more extreme about this. A specific example of this is shown late in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', with [[Old Master|Dahar Master]] Kor. During the Dominion War arc he desperately wants to be sent into combat so that he can have a chance to die honorably, but he's made so many enemies over the years that nobody is willing to let him join the war.
** Like the Vikings below, there ''are'' loopholes. For example, when Jadzia dies her Klingon husband, Worf, collects friends and goes into battle in her honor, which in Klingon religion can earn the deceased passage to Sto-Vo-Kor. (Paralleling the medieval Christian doctrine of substitution, wherein if you had committed more sin than you could do penance for in a lifetime, you could work it off by various more active things, like crusading or helping to build a church, which devolved into the outright-purchase papal indulgences Luther found so offensive. Or someone else could transfer ''their'' merit to you, which is why rich people endowed monasteries and where that 'pray for the souls of the dead' thing originates. [[And Now You Know]].)
* 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.
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* [[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.
* ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]'' has a guy ironically wearing a [[Red Shirt|red shirt]] who is the criminal of the day. I don't remember the episode, but he thinks he killed his girlfriend, and wants to join her in death. The catch? Even in a gun store filled with armed people, all shooting at him and no one else, the man won't die. Even when he jumps off a building at the end, he's caught in a safety trampoline.
 
 
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** Evidently she's not the only one in the FFXIII world with this mindset, seeing as {{spoiler|Orphan, Barthandelus, and ''every other fal'Cie in existence'' also want to die.}} Even if it means destroying the world and '''''everyone else in it.'''''
*** It turns out that {{spoiler|the Fal'Cie}} want to {{spoiler|destroy Cocoon}}, because that many people dying at once would {{spoiler|bring back the world's god: The Maker, who is also the Fal'Cie's 'parent' who orphaned them when she left the world}}. That many people dying at once would {{spoiler|open the door to the Maker}}, and {{spoiler|Orphan is vital to the upkeep of Cocoon, so it's death would mean the death of Cocoon}}, and all the humans living there.
* Zasalamel from ''[[Soul Series|Soul Calibur III]]'' sought the evil blade Soul Edge to break his [[Blessed Withwith Suck|curse of immortality]] and die a peaceful death. Because really, [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]?
** Great plan. I want to die peacefully, the best bet is to enter a battle to the death-style tournament with a bunch of [[Ax Crazy]] nut-jobs, a handful of demons, and the pure manifestation of good and evil in the world...
*** Justified since his curse of endless reincarnation/violent death is connected to Soul Edge and Soul Calibur.
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** Also Akuma. He and Ryu fought once, and he spared Ryu's life because he saw that he was a person who, with training, could plausibly defeat him, which is what he wants.
** {{spoiler|In the comics from UDON, Gen gets his wish and Akuma kills him. This happens shortly before the events of ''Street Fighter II''.}}
* {{spoiler|Kratos}} from ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' is eventually revealed to be a [[Death Seeker]] and has singled out [[The Messiah|Lloyd]] as the one who'll finally kill him -- {{spoiler|which he'll have to do because Kratos' lifeforce keeps a seal on the [[Cosmic Keystone]]}}. Fails miserably, after Lloyd [[Take a Third Option|merely beats]] ''[[Take a Third Option|six]]'' [[Take a Third Option|shades of hell out of him]] during their final encounter, {{spoiler|undoing the seal}}, and then proceeds to chew out his [[Not Quite Dead]] opponent over being so incredibly ''stupid'' in trying to throw his life away.
** Similarly, {{spoiler|Zelos}} spends a good part of the game with a death wish, {{spoiler|his [[Handsome Lech]] personality for the most part [[Stepford Smiler|an act]]}}. Whether he succeeds or not is up to the player.
*** The sequel then gives us {{spoiler|Emil}}. Once he realizes that he is {{spoiler|The Summon Spirit Ratatosk, and responsible for the death of Aster}} he plans to atone by {{spoiler|faking possession by his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]}} and having the rest of the party kill him {{spoiler|so that he can become a core to seal the door to Niflheim}}.
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** In the Bloodmoon expansion of Morrowind, there is a Nord who has spent 500 years searching for Sovngarde, an homage to the real life Valhalla of Viking lore. The player can give him a book detailing how Nords may reach Sovngarde: by dying honorably in combat. Delighted, the man asks the player to kill him, but only in real combat (and he's [[Badass Grandpa|remarkably dangerous for a 500-year old man]]).
** Also prevalent in Skyrim. Most notable is the Old Orc, an Orc who is too old to become chief or take a wife but is still strong enough to fight. He would rather die a glorious death than become too old to hold his own in battle. Nords in general also fit this, as they believe that Sovngarde (the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of Valhalla) awaits all Nord warriors who die in battle, or at the hands of an enemy in general; being executed by a weapon counts, which appears to be why the preferred from of execution is beheading by axe.
* [[No Name Given|The Nameless One]] from ''[[Planescape Torment|Planescape: Torment]]''... Well, he's not exactly a ''straight'' example, mainly because he has [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|no idea]] ''why'' he simply [[Nigh Invulnerable|won't stay dead]] or what he was doing prior to [[Waking Up At the Morgue]], but his plot to find out these things {{spoiler|''do'' eventually lead to his [[Final Death]].}}
* Originally, {{spoiler|Atton}} in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' had a chance at [[Redemption Equals Death]] by the end of the game, but that sequence got axed.
** He's not the first pilot of the Ebon Hawk to have this streak. "I always figured I'd be dead once Saul was," anyone?
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** {{spoiler|He eventually gets his wish when he runs into Caim again. Caim ''beats the pact out of him''.}}
* {{spoiler|The Shadowlord}} in ''[[Nie R]]'' becomes this after {{spoiler|his Yonah commits suicide, claiming that she had no right to [[Grand Theft Me|inhabit the body of Replicant Yonah]], who she said was [[And I Must Scream|constantly crying out]] [[Nightmare Fuel|for her father/brother.]] The final portion of the boss fight consists of the Shadowlord spamming ranged attacks while mourning for his daughter.}}
* Albedo from ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]''. Since his unique genetic makeup makes it literally impossible to die (as in, his head can be ripped off with no ill effects whatsoever), he gets very upset when he finds out that his two brothers don't have the same ability. This becomes the main driving force behind his actions throughout the first two games--he wants to [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|unseal]] the [[Cosmic Horror]] because it's the only thing capable of killing him and ensuring that he and his brothers can be together forever.
* Tsugumi of ''[[Ever 17]]'' leaps into a dangerous situation to save the hero's life, not because she cares about his wellbeing, but because she's hoping it will kill her. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for her, her [[Healing Factor]] makes her more or less immortal.}}
* {{spoiler|Lehran}} from ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' was like this, but when he couldn't find any way to die, he resorted to [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|trying to bring a goddess's judgment on the entire continent, wiping out himself and everyone else.]] His last words are "I'm dying....at last."
** In ''Path of Radiance'' both Haar and Tauroneo, thoroughly dissapointed by the turns their lives have taken are like this befroe you recruit them. And then there's [[The Brute|General Bertram]], one of Daien's Four Riders. Drugged up on [[Psycho Serum]] and barely coherent, Bertram spends most of [[Snake Talk|rasping]] about how the other players are going going to "Perisssshhh," and "Me...kill..." Right up until you face him with Ike, that is, when his refrain becomes "Kill...me... ...KILL...M-ME..." Ike does his best to oblige.
** Harken from ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Blazing Sword]]'' is a [[Broken Ace]] who became this after {{spoiler|seeing his liege lord and his comrades get killed by the Black Fang}}. He throws himself at your party in order to get killed, though some characters can talk him out of it and he can eventually got better.
* Asakim Dowin in ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Z'' is apparently someone who has committed a heavy crime and is doomed with immortality as a punishment, thus he has wandered a lot of dimensions to get himself killed. This is his [[Freudian Excuse]] behind tormenting Setsuko, if the Sphere inside her awakens (through torment) and he destroys it, he's one step closer to death (the destruction of all Spheres will grant the power to kill him).
* The Mimics in ''[[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld]]: Cataclysm'' - they wake from deep freeze to find out that all their loved ones have perished. With nothing to live for, they gladly fly kamikaze ships into the enemy complete with choked oaths.
* In [[Neverwinter Nights 2]], it is heavily implied that Casavir is this. (He gets over it. Mostly.)
* The [[Bonus Boss]] from ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'', {{spoiler|Ballos}}. He's suffering from a seriously nasty case of [[Power Incontinence]] that destroys entire civilizations.
* One of the boss introduction speech of Spiral Pegasus has him asking ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'' and Zero a worthy fight since he is infected by the Maverick Virus.
* The ''[[Civilization]] IV'' mod ''Fall from Heaven II'' has a suicidal Lilith [[Captain Ersatz]] named Os-Gabella. Since she's immortal, she's founded an apocalyptic death cult in hopes that destroying the entire world will take her out, too.
* {{spoiler|Kai}} from ''[[Phantasy Star 0]]'' is a likely example of this trope. {{spoiler|On two different occasions, he throws himself into seriously unnecessary situations to get himself killed for the young hunters of the party. This is a result of the deep sense of guilt he feels for his failed expedition as a young hunter, killing countless young people as a result of his hubris. Once with the basilisk creatures before players reach the moon, and when he tries to convince the player to leave him after defeating Dark Force (or Dark "Falz"), despite how easily the party can save him.}}
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*** The Legion of the Dead, itself, is for the most part composed of people who, for whatever reason, are considered to have lives that are dishonorable to continue with. (The one exception known is a noble who, while not disgraced, was considered a trouble-maker, and joined for no known reason.) The Legionnaires are inducted into the Legion in an expensive funeral, they have gear specifically designed to poetically reflect that they are expected to die gloriously in battle (examples include boots that do not leave tracks that hint at direction, and shields designed to give hard to make out reflections of the wielder,) and all of them actively seek to die.
** {{spoiler|The [[Big Bad]]}} in ''Awakening'' also turns out to be a [[Death Seeker]]. {{spoiler|She cannot tolerate existence being cut off from the Old Gods' Call after being "freed" by the Architect. She hopes to end the silence and find the song again in death.}}
* [[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Thane Krios]], another [[Bio WareBioWare]] assassin, went into his last job not particularly caring what his target's guards would do to him afterwards; he was already terminally ill, estranged from his only child and could think of nothing else to do with himself. Then Shepard showed up and asked for his help on a [[Suicide Mission]].
* In ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'', Shepard can accuse James Vega of this after a reckless bit of [[Flying Car|Flying]] [[Car Fu]] in the first mission. As the game progresses, Shepard him/herself starts to show signs of this - no matter how you play, it clear s/he's getting increasingly burnt out and tired of being surrounded by death. {{spoiler|That's without mentioning the creepy dreams filled with the voices of dead characters.}}
** It's shown that Shepard isn't actively TRYING to die, but s/he would consider it a relief if s/he did.
* The Red Baron, {{spoiler|Sir Lemon}} from [[Shining Force]] is an immortal vampire who wants to die (at one point jumping off a cliff and simply leaving a hole in the ground). {{spoiler|He joins you near the end of the game in the hope that he will get killed in battle. It doesn't work - if he falls, he automatically revives after the battle.}}
* In [[Star Craft 2]], when you fight the Zerg-infested colonists, the very first one you meet asks you to kill him just before suicide rushing your base.
* The ([[Anticlimax Boss|fake]]) [[Final Boss]] in ''[[Bio ShockBioshock]] 2'' eats and breathes this, and runs entirely on [[Nightmare Fuel]] from his big reveal to his dying words.
* [[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep]]: {{spoiler|"I'm asking you, as a friend... Just put an end to me." Made even worse by the fact that it's the cute little boy saying it.}}
* Reckless Cop Dangerama in ''[[Zettai Hero Project]]'' fights entirely using [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|Dangerous Forbidden Techniques]] and taunts the Final Boss into hitting him with his most powerful attack. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by the game, saying that his tv shows often get cancelled because "He's a bad influence on the kids." {{spoiler|It's revealed the reason he's looking for a place to die, and tries to get hurt as much as possible is because he was unable to save the woman he loved, ending up sacrificing her in order to save a great number of people.}}
* The new player character of ''[[Prototype 2 (Video Game)|Prototype 2]]'', Sgt. James Heller, hoped to die fighting the infection in Manhattan after losing his family while he was fighting overseas. After being infected with the Blacklight Virus which, if the trailer is anything to go by, will eventually turn him into a [[Nigh Invulnerable]] immortal monster that can ''never'' die, his new goal is to kill the one he blames for denying him the death he craves: Alex Mercer.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable (Video Game)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable]]: The Gears of Destiny'' has the Unbreakable Darkness, an [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Walking Wasteland]] who hates the fact that she can't stop herself from destroying everything and seeks death because of this. Unfortunately, in addition to the power to destroy several worlds in an instant, she's also too [[Nigh Invulnerable]] to receive the death she wants.
 
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* After being exiled in human lands, Durkon of ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|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 (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' shortly after her creation:
{{quote| '''Nanase:''' How can you be afraid of them after leaping into and subsequently destroying a slime monster?<br />
'''Ellen:''' That was win-win. Either the goo would be destroyed or I would die a noble death. }}
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* Lexx is suicidal in ''[[Alien Dice]]'', but can't commit suicide because of the nanites in his blood, keeping him alive. He's too scared to try more extreme methods of suicide, so instead hopes he'll be killed in a battle. {{spoiler|this changes later in the series, when Lexx decides to live and spend the rest of his life with his [[True Companions|family and Chel.]]}}
* Jin of ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' has reached the point where she will even resort to suicide just so that she can die. The problem is that she is an indestructible clay golem and therefore can't die. [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/youreincharge/ It's not pretty.]
* {{color|green|D}}{{color|white|o}}{{color|green|c Scratch}} of ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' has accomplished his life's purpose, and as such, wants his life to end. He's a [[Physical God|First Guardian]]. You can see why he's having trouble dying.
** There's also Scratch's {{spoiler|adopted daughter, the Handmaid, aka Aradia Megido's ancestor}}. In her case, she's immortal thanks to {{spoiler|a curse Lord English put on her, and can only die once she's completed her tenure}}. Thanks to Scratch's [[Abusive Parents|conditioning]], she desperately wants to die.
 
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* Vesa Turunen of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' version two, while not starting out like this, eventually turned into one near the end of the game.
* Hank J. Wimbleton of ''[[Madness Combat (Web Animation)|Madness Combat]]'' is suggested to be like this, in that he once tries to reject an attempt to revive him.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU The Saga of Biorn] is about a decrepit old viking seeking a worthy death in honourable battle.
* It's been implied that [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] is this. Leaving the room that the bad movie is in vs. shooting yourself in the head... what would you pick?
* While [[The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Chick]]'s never said that she ''wants'' to die, it's pretty easy to infer from her growing alcoholism that she wouldn't really mind it.
 
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' featured a Norseman who was cursed with eternal life by the [[Big Bad]]. He set himself up behind an elaborate death course to weed out anyone who had no chance of ever defeating him, and waited for someone to bring him death. As in the Colbey example, he had to fight all-out to get the afterlife he desired... but Jack did manage to best him.
* Macbeth (yes, ''that'' [[Macbeth]]) of ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'', with a couple of twists: due to a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] ([[The Fair Folk|sort of]]), he and fellow antagonist [[Kill All Humans|Demona]] have been granted immortality and eternal youth until one kills the other, but once that happens, ''both'' will die. Since Macbeth is [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|tired of life]], and Demona wishes to continue living, they often come into conflict with each other, forcing the usually-homicidal Demona into an awkward fighting position.
* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Dinobot]] in ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' has a few traits of this. {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|Wish]][[Dying Moment of Awesome|granted.]]}}
** Confirmed by [[Word of God]].
* While they weren't exactly looking to ''die'', in the [[Popeye]] short "Hospitaliky", Popeye and Bluto compete with one another to get injured and have Olive Oyl nurse them to health, who in this short works at a hospital. Any one of the stunts they try to pull could easily have killed them, such as purposely crashing a motorcycle, laying down in the middle of a busy intersection, and laying down on train tracks, however they keep miraculously surviving unscathed, to their own annoyance.
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* In her memoir ''The Past is Myself'', Christabel Bielenberg recounts a chilling encounter with an SS officer who, in despair at the atrocities in which he had participated, was determined to die in battle as the war neared its end: "...He told me of how he had tried to be killed, but his comrades had fallen around him and each time, by some miracle, he had lived. The ones with the [[Fatal Family Photo|photographs in their wallets]], the frightened ones, and the ones with dreams of the future, they were the ones who got killed, he said. Only those who didn't care, got the Iron Crosses. Now he was going to the front, to his unit if he could reach it, otherwise anywhere, ''anywhere'', did I hear, where he would be allowed to die."
* Siegfried Sassoon, the poet, during the First World War. Along the way he picked up an MC, and the title of "best war poet to survive the war". Detailed in [[The Regeneration Trilogy]]. He had to choose between guilt over leaving his men on the battlefield and guilt over not continuing to protest against the war, and ended up going on patrol without a helmet after going back to the front. {{spoiler|But he lived.}}
* [http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tlahuicole.html Tlahuicole] was the chief of the Tlaxcalan tribe when the Aztecs decided to conquer them. He fought bravely by [[Dual-Wielding]] a set of hatchets that were supposedly too large for ordinary men to even lift, but the rest of his tribe didn't make it and he ended up being captured and brought before Montezuma. The Aztec leader offered him mercy after hearing how much of a facewrecker he was (the Aztecs kind of valued that sort of thing), but Tlahuicole believed that since he had disgraced himself by letting himself get captured, he should be sacrificed as punishment for his dishonor. Montezuma basically told him to chill out and had him serve as a war-chief in an ongoing struggle against another tribe. He completely slaughtered them, so Montezuma wanted to make him a full member of Aztec nobility. Tlahuicole felt that doing so would be a betrayal of his people, so he refused. Montezuma ordered him bound to the Stone of Combat, where he would basically act out the end of ''[[The One (Filmfilm)|The One]]'' by getting swarmed by Aztec warriors until he died (ordinarily the ritual was designed to let captured soldiers gain their freedom, but he didn't want to take that route). He killed seven of Montezuma's best Jaguar warriors and wounded over twenty more before finally falling, and an Aztec priest finally sacrificed him right as he was about to die anyway.
* [[I'm a Humanitarian|Jeffrey Dahmer]] frequently expressed his [[The Atoner|wish to die for his crimes]] while in prison. When he was attacked by another prisoner who attempted to slit his throat, he refused to press charges and requested to be returned to the general prison population. Only a few months later, he was beaten to death by another prisoner. Perhaps the only thing that kept him from committing suicide outright was that he was a born-again Christian.
* John Henry "Doc" Holliday, dentist turned infamous gunfighter and gambler of the old west, is a perfect real life example of this trope. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in his early twenties Doc Holliday went out west, hoping the drier climate would ease his ailment. However, his hot temper and belief that death by gun or knife was far better than by tuberculosis, led him to a life of adventure, taking part in many shoot outs including the famed OK corral and Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Ride. Despite this lifestyle, his extreme skill, and more-so his reputation of extreme speed, with a revolver kept him alive, he eventually died of his illness at age 36 in the bed of a sanitarium. His famous last words, upon looking at his bare feet in bed, were "Now, that's funny."
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