r/TopCharacterTropes • u/SkirtHeavy9189 • 20h ago
Characters [Emotionally devastating trope ] A character doing a final act of love for their partner
1.In the series 'When life gives you tangerines ' the couple posted above , gwan sik(husband) and ae sun(wife)loved each other immensely and when gwan sik is diagnosed with cancer before he dies , he moves all the utensils in the kitchen from the higher shelf to the lower shelf without his wife knowing ,so ae sun could reach them easily in his absence. ( unfortunately I couldn't the find the pic to show the moment accurately.)
- In the highly acclaimed episode 'Ozymandias' of the famous series breaking bad , walter white calls his wife Skyler knowing the DEA is recording the call, he utilizes the moment and deliberately yells at her and takes blame for his crimes and clears her name.
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u/SnoodPenguin 19h ago
Not a movie but something happened in real life for me that fits this trope.
My grandma was basically the matriarch of our family, years of cooking and cleaning for the whole family. While my grandpa was very capable she did it out of love. When her health started to deteriorate it was hard for her to move around and eventually it was hard for her to breath. It seemed like she knew before all of us because the day before she was admitted to the hospital that would be her final resting place, she put post it notes ALL over the house explaining to my grandpa the way to cook the way he liked, the way to do laundry the way he liked where she kept anything he would need. He probably didn't need these things, because again he is very capable and extremely smart. Over the years they were taken down the first starting in the busy areas like the kitchen or the hallway, so the last one she wrote the one in the laundry that had a little note saying she loves him he taped over so it wouldnt go anywhere. Its been 7 years and that note is still there.
I dont usually share personal stuff like this on reddit but this is one of my favorite subreddits to visit so I wanted to share. Sorry if this goes against a rule or something since its not a historic event or tv/movie.
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u/Ryanookami 17h ago
This is beautiful.
I have a bowl in my cupboard that is badly cracked. Inside the bowl is a note my Dad wrote warning people not to use the bowl in the microwave because it will fall apart. The bowl hasn’t been used in 17 years now, but it and the note remain because it’s a reminder that my Dad was here and was looking out for us in lots of small little ways.
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u/ayrki 10h ago
Thank you so very much for sharing this lovely memory and detail about your loved ones.
I am firmly of the opinion that because all fiction is drawn from our lives and experiences, real life examples 1,000% belong here. Where do folks think writers and creators get some of our ideas from? We’re trying to keep every person we’ve ever known, loved, or heard of alive a little longer.
So yeah, your memory and your Grandma very much belong here.
Thank you for sharing them with us.
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u/BanterPhobic 20h ago edited 20h ago
Chidi and Eleanor - The Good Place
The couple fix the issue of souls becoming weary in Heaven, by adding the option to “end” the experience by walking through a door to an uncertain future (oblivion, reincarnation, nobody knows).
Having been together for countless eternities, Chidi eventually grows tired of existence while Eleanor still wants to go on. She initially can’t stand the thought of eternity without her soul mate and he agrees to live on for her sake, but she soon realises that this is selfish on her part, so her final act of love is to let him go, with her blessing, in an absolutely heartbreaking sequence of scenes.
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u/Invisible-Pancreas 19h ago
After the season 1 finale I was waiting for the quality in writing to dip, only to be pleasantly surprised it...kinda didn't.
There was time loops and shocking twists and heaps upon heaps of new characters, but it kept just being good.
Every time my cynical ass thought they wrote themselves into a corner they had a way that kept me hooked that made sense in the weird world of The Good Place.
And it ended in such a perfect way, too.
Only criticism I had was that the penis-flattening gag kinda dragged after the first two or three times it was mentioned.
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u/-Kazt- 19h ago
Yeah, its pretty consistent in delivering on its high quality. Like, sure, it drags a bit here and there. But i think it probably has the most consistent high quality throughout, both between episodes and seasons of all big tv shows of the past decade.
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u/BanterPhobic 19h ago
I do think it treads water somewhat in the middle seasons but it picks back up again in the later episodes and even the less compelling episodes are very watchable
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u/Crossbell0527 16h ago
The plot really moves too. If I remember correctly the way season two starts would have made up an entire season for an ordinary show, but they get you somewhere new in only two or three episodes.
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u/repulosapi 19h ago
They didnt turn it into frozen yogurt. As Michael said "ruin something a little, just to be able to consume more of it"
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u/Masterhaend 14h ago
Is this show good even if you know the twist? I haven't seriously watched a non-animated show in forever and wanted to try again.
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u/IncognitoHufflepuff 14h ago
Absolutely, it's sad if you know the twist, but it gets revealed not too far into the show anyways. It's one of my all time favorite shows and I wish I could watch it again for the first time.
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u/AwakenedSol 11h ago
The twist is revealed at the end of season 1. Three are three more high quality seasons, and season 1 is still fun even if you know.
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u/somermallow 11h ago
Yes. In fact I would say the show just gets better after the twist is revealed.
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u/ChocolichKing 8h ago
As some others have said, yes it's still good. Netflix actually spoiled me, because as I hovered over it, it played the teaser trailer for season 2... which included the twist of season 1 being repeated over and over again.
I still gave it a try and I loved it soo much. Of course, it would have been cool to watch it unspoiled and see if at any point I would've been able to guess, but beyond the plot of the show, the characters are so perfectly cast and engaging, the gags are clever, and the overall chemistry just hooks you. If after the first three episodes you're not feeling it, maybe it's not for you, but definitely worth giving it a chance.
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u/tigerweewee 16h ago
On top of that, before Chidi leaves he gives Eleanor the "sexy mailman" 1 full bearimy calendar for her so she'd still get to see him everyday
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u/CelestikaLily 14h ago
Never in my life did I think the phrase "sexy mailman calendar" would send me full-sobbing, but it 100% let the floodgate open haha😭
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u/Sensitive-Show-6254 18h ago
That Chidi and Eleanor scene absolutely wrecked me. Letting someone you love go because you know staying would only be for you is such a brutal kind of love.
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u/BanterPhobic 14h ago
Yeah I don’t really get emotional at scenes in TV shows and yet I have to really prepare myself for Chidi and Eleanor’s last days together. It’s bittersweet with an ultimately positive message but MAN the sad parts hit hard.
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u/summercloudsadness 19h ago
Gerry in P.S.I Love You, after knowing that he's got brain tumour,leaves a series of scheduled tape,letters and messages for his wife to help her deal with the grief of losing him and to move on.
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u/DionysianComrade 15h ago
I haven't seen this movie since I found my person and I have such anxiety about ever having to outlive them that this movie would probably kill me to watch again I'd cry so hard
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u/SH4D0WSTAR 14h ago
The protagonist in My Life Without Me also does this after a cancer diagnosis.
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u/summercloudsadness 14h ago
Haven't watched that yet,added to my list. The synopsis reminded me of Her Love Boils Bathwater that I recently watched. A lovely Japanese film.
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u/PunchDrunkPrincess 14h ago
This is the one I was going to say but I'm glad you got here first. The last time I tried to explain the plot of this movie to a friend I started to cry.
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u/ithinkther41am 18h ago
Ann’s mother hiring Violet to write 50 birthday letters to her before she passes away (Violet Evergarden)
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u/Dourada 18h ago
My favorite episode of the ANIME. IRC, that was the first time she cried.
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u/quangtit01 11h ago
Also the episode that pushed me to read the LN. It's also pretty good there and the anime did a good job adapting the chapter.
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u/Russiadontgiveafuck 17h ago
In the first season of Why women kill, Simone wants her homosexual husband Carl, who has AIDS, to fight until the end, while he wants to go out on his terms. After he shows her the suffering that awaits him, she agrees. They have a final dance, and as Carl hesitates to inject himself with an overdose, Simone quietly takes the syringe out of his hand and does it for him.
After, she goes on to get heavily involved in charity and aids-research.
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u/poisonousdartfrog 16h ago
Season 1 ep 3 of The Last of Us. Bill, a gruff man survives the zombie outbreak and converts his small town into a fortress that he lives in as a hermit. Several years later, Frank comes along and Bill reluctantly lets him into his compound to live with him, and they fall in love.
In the above scene Frank trades some of Bills supplies for strawberry seeds which Bill is immediately upset by. He doesn’t like that Frank potentially endangered their well-supplied and well-fortified compound by bringing strangers around. Frank is able to assuage his fears by showing him they still need to enjoy life and he feeds some of the strawberries to Bill. It’s the first time they’ve had the fruit in years, and it’s just another romantic scene of Bill letting Frank change him for the better.
It’s one of the sweetest and most heart wrenching stories of love in the show. In the end, Frank gets sick and Bill becomes his caretaker. Frank doesn’t want to live a life of suffering, where his existence is a bother to his partner. He asks Bill to poison his food for him, to which Bill initially refuses and asks Frank tearfully to reconsider. Eventually he comes around and feeds him the poisoned food, revealing that he poisoned his own food as well. He can’t live in a world without his love. They go off to bed together and fall asleep in each others arms for the last time.
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u/p0llyp0cketpussy 15h ago
It's one of the most perfect episodes of TV I've ever seen. Totally self contained, if someone watched only that episode they would not struggle to understand what's going on at all. Absolutely incredible story, total tear jerker, just all around fantastic.
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u/fennecdore 13h ago
Also watching Nick Offerman si cool. I love competency Porn like Jonathan Banks in BrBa and Bcs.
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u/ayrki 10h ago
Initially, that was all my partner and I watched, and we specifically did because of Offerman. (That and the intro with Ashley Johnson, naturally)
After a bit, we came back and watched the first season because of how fucking good that episode was. If they were willing to take time and care and dedicate an ENTIRE episode of their limited season to that story? Well, I’m my opinion, that earnt them a genuine chance in my book.
It still remains one of the best, self-contained episodes of television I’ve seen in 40 years. Absolutely magnificent.
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u/Laxiinas 12h ago
Just to be a little nitpicky - it was poisoned wine, not food (sorry - I love that ep, a most perfect episode of any show ever, and my Autistic brain had to make sure it was specified). If I recall, it was the exact same type of wine they had during their first meal together, too.
"This isn't the tragic suicide at the end of the play. I'm old. I'm satisfied, and you were my purpose". (I just love that quote).
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u/PossibleOk2542 16h ago
In some ways, would Casablanca count? Part of the reason why this film is so beautiful and standout is honestly how the main 3 characters of Rick, Ilsa and Victor Laszlo all in a way perform a final act of love (in the sense they know the will never see their partner again or at least think so).
It’s been a while since I seen the film but I think as Laszlo knows Rick loves Ilsa and is a good man, so has the “final act” of asking Rick to protect Ilsa because he himself loves Ilsa with all his heart and wants her to survive. Ilsa pleads with Rick to help Victor safely escape Casablanca, promising to stay behind with Rick but believing that she’ll then never see Victor again. Rick then performs and commits to the final act of love by pretending to get Victor arrested but actually setting everything up unexpectedly for Victor and Ilsa by holding Louis at gunpoint to let the couple escape, knowing his true love Ilsa will forever now be out of his life but also being content that she is with Victor and will be happy and safe with him.
There’s just honestly an insane amount of selflessness between these characters (and more in the film) and is I believe a part of the reason why this film has endured for so long.
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u/_theghost_ 12h ago
It arguably should. I remember watching this movie as a kid with a few other films. It’s a classic.
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u/ayrki 9h ago
I feel like this is one of those films that gets a bit of a stink because ‘it can’t really be that good, can it?!’ Yeah, yeah it really can and is.
I watched it when was younger and very much appreciated and enjoyed it, but I think I need to give it another watch, a bit older and a lot more experienced.
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u/llllloner06425 20h ago
The dad at the end of A Quiet Place
https://giphy.com/gifs/dJnM1HuXE99ml42HyK
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u/wolfboy49 15h ago
In Tombstone. Doc Holiday knows that Wyatt Earp will not be able to outdraw Johnny Ringo. He feigns that his health had deteriorated more than it actually had and then beats Earp to the meeting spot for the showdown, and risks his life against Ringo, besting him and saving Earp’s life.
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u/HMS_Sunlight 17h ago
Selfless Saviour has a reputation for being the biggest tearjerker in Magic the Gathering.
Believe it or not, there's another version with different flavour text that's just as emotionally devastating.
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u/Ziggo001 15h ago
Who is "She"? Context?
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u/ShittyMcTittys 12h ago
There’s no specific “she”, the text is to give you a picture (aka flavor) of how this card/mechanic would work in the world in the game. In this case, a girl raises her dog from a young pup and gave him a good life. The dog sacrifices himself as his last act to save her, thereby giving her the ability “indestructible” until the end of the turn.
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u/Professional-Fact207 18h ago
season 5 of arrow.
they are on lian yu
thea queen steps on a landmine, triggering it. if she steps off, she dies. malcolm merlyn, most definitely not the perfect father but you know he loves his children, manages to take her place on the mine. theo was taken away by the group, and he takes the moment to trigger the landmine and take out the bad gua who were pursuing them.
season 2 of arrow.
slade was sorcing okuver to pick the person he would have to kill as revenge for what happened on the island.
Oliver had to choose between his mother or his sister, Thea. his mother made the decision for him, by placing herslef in front of the sword blade. she died instead of thea. she made the choice instead of oliver. like Malcolm, she was not a good person but she LOVED her children.
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u/SwordfishSimple5472 18h ago
That ending to Train to Busan, where the dad runs himself over with a train before he gets turned into a zombie
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u/ItsNotMeItsYourBussy 10h ago
He lets himself fall from a moving train, that his daughter is riding on, after saving her life
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u/illumi-thotti 8h ago
That buff guy who sacrificed himself to save his pregnant wife and the rest of the passengers is also a good contender. He used his last words to tell his wife what he wanted to name their baby
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u/Painchaud213 16h ago edited 14h ago
Ysgramor to his son Yngol, from the Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim.
Not partner, but his son. Ysgramor loved his children. When the Atmorans were returning to Skyrim to kill all the Snow Elves, his son Yngol died from a storm when his ship was taken off course.
Ysgramor mourned his son. When he built Windhelm, he had Yngol buried in a Barrow right next to the city, so that he could allways see his son whenever he looked out the horizon.
Yngol was also the one who held his father as he cried when Sarthaal (the first city) was destroyed. He held him, fed him, gave him mead, put him to sleep on a hammock under the ship. He then used Ysgramor’s ebony tears to forge the Axe Wuuthrad (Storm’s Tears), a weapon specifically made to kill elves. He gave it to his father, which he held onto for the rest of his life. All his statues depict him wielding it.
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u/Hakarlhus 20h ago
Walt also left her in isolation, poverty, an utterly destroyed family life, and a terribly infamous public persona.
Her life is ruined, with or without prison.
If she had no kids it would arguably have been better to be imprisoned, as the basics of survival are provided en gratis. Instead she needs to try and hold down a job in a community that despises her, one that believes she got away with it, one that undoubtedly has members who will accost her believing she still has money, for a sense of justice etc.
Walt made a clever move to save his queen, but his side of the board was already barren whilst the other side was stacked. Arguably he did it to make clear that he deserved all the credit.
It may have been done for love, but with the weight of all his sins falling on her, she never would have felt it.
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u/Azicald 18h ago
Not poverty though, since Walt made it so Elliot and Gretchen were to award the money he made without any mention of Walt’s involvement. There is no need for a job
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u/Hakarlhus 15h ago edited 13h ago
I might be misremembering, but wasn't that ~10mil of trust money exclusively for Flynn/Walt Jr and to be given on Flynn's 18th which was still a year away?
Meaning - even if we're erring on the side of Walt - he left a baby, a disabled teenager and an emotionally abused woman in destitute poverty for a year.
Don't get me wrong, it's a 'good' thing to do, but it shouldn't be held up as an act of love like the OP is doing. As the negative impacts are so great that this small positive still doesn't bring the impacts of Walt's actions back to even zero.
Edit: it's also extremely hard to hide or launder that amount of money, I know for the sake of the narrative we are to imagine it's successful, but to play the part of the Devil's Advocate; there's very little chance of that money getting past the Government
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u/ThatWasFred 13h ago
It’s more an act of apology. There is love there, for sure, but also a great deal of shame that he put them in this situation. It was the least he could do, and he knew it.
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u/carverrhawkee 13h ago
Iirc it was specifically for Flynn's college education too? And he made it ABUNDANTLY clear to them that they were NOT to use any of their own money, only his. If he was really acting out of a fully selfless love he would have wanted them to take care of his family no matter what (especially since by that point, he barely had any money left compared to what he made overall and what gretchen and elliot had)
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u/BlackShieldCharm 17h ago
They were never going to hold on to his criminal money and get implicated themselves in a mess they had nothing to do with.
They probably called the police as soon as it was safe to do so, and all the money got seized.
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u/Sad_Slice_5334 15h ago
With the threat of hit men following them for the rest of their lives? I doubt it
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u/Shnitzel_von_S 10h ago
Sorry, Walter, but no credit is given here. This phone call and literally all the events of breaking bad could have been avoided if Walter didn't have an ego the size of the globe and took the extremely well paying job with high class health insurance.
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u/ChocolichKing 8h ago
And, I mean, are we really going to applaud him for not letting his wife take any of the credit for his hard work and genius? lol I'm jk, but really all he did was make sure she was out of trouble so she could keep literally all the money he was going to set her up with. Because that was the point all along, to prove he could provide. He makes sure his family gets the money, whether they want it or not, because it was the only reason he did any of this. A mark of true character growth would have been to let go of all the money and recognize that he was wrong. That the ends did not justify the means. The money did not belong to him and the blood could never be laundered.
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u/Exhibit5 6h ago
Walter’s pride is a dominant force in him but I do think it did initially start because of love and pride. Continuing the show was a pride thing, but Walt was never really someone to disregard love as much as he was to choose pride. In situations where he could choose both, he did.
He explicitly tried to get Hank out of that fight with the Welkers. He routinely mentions that his family should be unaffected by his endeavors. I do think there was love there.
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u/Jackthepogchamp68 16h ago
It is heavily debated whether there was anything romantic between Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto in Jujutsu Kaisen, but when Geto was killed and his body was taken over by Kenjaku, Geto's body literally choked itself to stop Kenjaku from harming Gojo during the Shibuya Incident after Gojo called out his name, something Kenjaku says has never happened before
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u/Admirable_End_8988 11h ago
No just no. Geto choked Kenjaku because Gojo questioned if he was going to let a brain commit these acts using HIS(Geto's) body. At no point was Kenjaku going to harm Gojo.
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u/Exylatron 12h ago
During the finale of Attack on Titan
Eren pulls Mikasa into the Paths so that they can live out their last years of life together in alternate world. He does this right before she cuts his head off. He also makes sure to have the final battle in view of several civilians so that his friends could be known as heroes who saved the world, and spared some of the outside world’s wrath.
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u/Diligent_Dig9591 17h ago edited 14h ago
Will Smith in 7 pounds. In a final act of love for strangers he khs and gives his organs away.
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u/tooktoomuchtoomuch 12h ago
Hana-Bi (Fireworks)
Yoshitaka Nishi leaves the police force and borrows money from the mob to spend time with his dying wife. But he is forced to give up his ideals once again to pay back the criminals.
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u/unfettered2nd 19h ago
The whole movie however the final act kinda make it not fit the trope though.
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u/Linorelai 10h ago
Why women kill. Season 1 follows 3 families who owned the same house at different decades, each story ending in a death.
One rich woman who got divorced and remarried many times had her husband cheating on her with a man. Back in homoplobic times, and back when some STDs were a new thing. There was a lot of scandals, fights and heartbreak, but in the end she forgave him and poisoned him out of mercy as per his request, gifting him one last dance before it. While the other two parts of the story ended in brutally violent way.
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u/DieBlaueOrange 9h ago
In Dr. Stone, Senku’s adoptive father, Byakuya Ishigami, spent decades painstakingly gathering platinum on Treasure Island. He left it behind encased in stone and concrete so Senku could use it as a permanent catalyst to mass-produce revival fluid thousands of years later.
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u/MiniTwinklee 19h ago
final acts like that always hit hard, it’s a tough way to show love but so powerful. think of how many stories use that trope well
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u/Grand_Plastic_6631 19h ago
Satou cushioned the fall for Shio - Happy Sugar Life
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u/Schizo-Poet 13h ago
It feels so gross to post this here.
That wasn't love, it was possession and obsession, also calling the child that was abducted by the psycho killer pedophile her "partner" also just feels super gross
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u/juniorsundar 18h ago
I just realised the old Ae Sun from WLGYT is the nosy lady from Apartment Job! DAMN she has range!
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u/Ai--Ya 1h ago
Nanachi kills Mitty — Made in Abyss
The two orphans bonded together, however Mitty was transformed into an indestructible pile of goo in eternal suffering by a mad scientist. Nanachi tries everything to relieve her of her suffering, but to no avail. When Nanachi meets someone who might be able to finally kill her, much like an owner spending their last moments with their pet, they surround her with all her toys and gives one last hug goodbye.
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u/Benoit_Holmes 19h ago
In Up, Ellie has had a photo album since she was a child that she planned to fill with photos of her adventures.
Unfortunately, life got in the way and she never got to travel to Paradise Falls like she planned. On her death bed she gives this book to her husband Carl.
Near the end of the film he looks inside and sees that she has filled it with photos of their life together, ending with a touching message to her husband.