Your "canonical" deaths in the middle of the game?

[DomaDoma]

Let's face it, the only reason your video game hero isn't dead in the middle of the story is that a video game, unlike real life, has save states. So, whether because of sheer probability or because it's a pretty good way to go out, what deaths in the middle of the game would you consider canon?

In Fallout: New Vegas, I'm able to go with both options at once. If I only get one life, my Courier either a) is killed by Legion assassins, fighting to her last breath with Boone at her side or b) sacrifices herself to end the threat of the zombie spores.

[Wraith]

The plot to the Baldur's Gate series is the same as the movie Highlander - There Can Be Only One!

As such, there are a number of fights against other Bhaalspawn that could conceivably be your canonical ending. The Protagonist isn't indicated to be in any way special compared to the rest of their half brothers & sisters until you begin the Throne of Bhaal expansion, some 300 hours into the series, so any fight where you die at the hands of another 'Spawn before then could be the real one, and its them who go on to claim the prize.

Also, any point in Mass Effect where Shepherd gets killed by a Reaper. There aren't too many of those fights, but one of the possible canonical endings is what happens if you fail (or refuse) to defeat the Reapers - the galactic cycle ends, and Liara appears as a VI talking to aliens in the next cycle.
Without Shepherd leading the charge, this is pretty much what happens regardless of where s/he dies.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

My girlfriend's first playthrough of Detroit: Become Human ended with every single playable character dead.

Anyhow, Witcher Geralt died to a ghoul sneaking up behind him. He always thought that his end would come in some ignominious ****hole, knee-deep in kak, to a monster nobody would pay him enough for.

[rooster707]

My first playthrough of Dark Souls would have almost definitely ended at Ornstein and Smough if I hadn’t been able to summon someone to help. (Which was harder than it sounds, since it was just last year.) So in that case, my Chosen Undead would have gone hollow just one room away from his goal, which actually fits really well with the tone and themes of the series.

[Eurus]

My attempt to do an evil run of Undertale ended with Undyne wrecking me so many times that I decided she earned this one, and resigned.

[Resileaf]

My attempt to do an evil run of Undertale ended with Undyne wrecking me so many times that I decided she earned this one, and resigned.

Undyne is filled with D E T E R M I N A T I O N

[Bastian Weaver]

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "consider canon".
Speaking of funny game deaths, my Hero in Quest for Glory V, defeater of demons, destroyer of darkness, bane of brigands, etc, etc, walked out of the Silmarian Bank, missed a step, fell down and broke his neck.

[Resileaf]

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "consider canon".

I assume that they mean "If you stop playing after you die, this is where you'd want it to happen".

[Kadesh]

Dynasty Warriors. Lu Bu.

[Arutema]

How does this account for games where the respawn or save mechanics are part of the plot? Because all of my numerous deaths in Axiom Verge are canon then.

[Rodin]

Magus never makes it back to the fight with Lavos. Frog kills him in a fit of rage after he insults Chron's death one too many times.

That scene is too poignant not to allow it to play out, and Magus never really earns the "ok, you're part of the team now" that comes if Frog keeps his cool.

[Spore]

In Skyrim, I feel the Dragonborn is supposed to be played as some sort of Nord barbarian (Light armor, weapon choice is your own, of course all shouts), so at least mine did. None of the fights were particularly difficult but somehow not the dragon threat themselves but rather the dragon priest Nahkriin did me in.

Powerful lightning spells, a dungeon layout that allows for many shots at my body, and with my defenses covering cold (Nord) and fire (against dragons), I was almost helpless against the dragon priest. Quite odd that Alduin's prime servants managed to be more threatening than the big bad himself (his level is fixed while Alduin scales with the hero so a low level Dragonborn makes Nahkriin almost impossible.

[Velaryon]

Well for me, Dark Souls 3 ends at the tutorial boss, because that's when I discovered that (to put it mildly) DS isn't my kind of game.

In Final Fantasy 7, for me Cait Sith dies the instant I'm no longer required to use him.

Dynasty Warriors. Lu Bu.

See also Samurai Warriors, Tadakatsu Honda.

[Spore]

Well for me, Dark Souls 3 ends at the tutorial boss, because that's when I discovered that (to put it mildly) DS isn't my kind of game.

Technically DS characters only die when you give up, but yea.

Dark Souls 1: Ornstein and Smough. Today they are extremely easy, but my first run? thank god for jolly cooperation. (though technically my character got lost in the catacombs/tomb of giants).
Dark Souls 2: Accidentally triggered the "hard mode" covenant. Learned that I did about a year later. So basically just a random Heide Knight.
Dark Souls 3: Sulyvahn if you count coop as "giving up on solo". Otherwise, my assassin was stopped by Aldrich. My knight however endured.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

My attempt to do an evil run of Undertale ended with Undyne wrecking me so many times that I decided she earned this one, and resigned.

Spoiler

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I'm not quite at that point, but yeah, I'm close.

What I love is the way that it frames you on the exact other side of what would normally be the heroic climax of a story: the hero, struck down as she lays herself in front of the blade to protect an innocent child, knit back together by the sinews of the will of the Earth itself, the last line of defense against a murderous dark force.

The build-up to the fight gave me chills.

[MCerberus]

Oh for a fun discussion about actual game canon that goes deeeeeep down the rabbit hole

Spoiler: Spec Ops: The Line

Show

Walker dies in the helicopter crash

For a more on-topic version I retired my first raiding character in Wow and decided he died during the events of the Wrath pre-launch.

Nathan Zachary crashed ignobly into a movie prop during a sky race that had ulterior motives. I hated those stunt levels.

[danzibr]

My girlfriend's first playthrough of Detroit: Become Human ended with every single playable character dead.

Anyhow, Witcher Geralt died to a ghoul sneaking up behind him. He always thought that his end would come in some ignominious ****hole, knee-deep in kak, to a monster nobody would pay him enough for.

I find it funny when Geralt falls off a ledge just a little too high and dies. Very not epic way to go.

[Psyren]

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "consider canon".

I assume that they mean "If you stop playing after you die, this is where you'd want it to happen".

Using that definition....

For ME2 it would obviously be snu-snu with Morinth

Kidding. Honestly, I don't like any fail state in a game. Unless my protagonist is about to do something really heinous, like say a Closed Fist run in Jade Empire, and even then I consider the entire playthrough to be non-canon in favor of my "good-aligned" one anyway.

Also, any point in Mass Effect where Shepherd gets killed by a Reaper. There aren't too many of those fights, but one of the possible canonical endings is what happens if you fail (or refuse) to defeat the Reapers - the galactic cycle ends, and Liara appears as a VI talking to aliens in the next cycle.
Without Shepherd leading the charge, this is pretty much what happens regardless of where s/he dies.

Not quite - if you don't complete/attach the Crucible, the next cycle doesn't win either. This is why, if you dither around on the Citadel and it gets destroyed, you don't get the cutscene - just CRITICAL MISSION FAILURE, THE CRUCIBLE WAS DESTROYED. Similarly it's why, if you don't stop the Arrival in ME2, it just ends with everyone getting Reaped because nobody had the 6 months to uncover the blueprints on Mars.

[Velaryon]

Technically DS characters only die when you give up, but yea.

Which means my post was correct, at least for me.

Seriously, screw those games.

[PopeLinus1]

Let's face it, the only reason your video game hero isn't dead in the middle of the story is that a video game, unlike real life, has save states. So, whether because of sheer probability or because it's a pretty good way to go out, what deaths in the middle of the game would you consider canon?

In Fallout: New Vegas, I'm able to go with both options at once. If I only get one life, my Courier either a) is killed by Legion assassins, fighting to her last breath with Boone at her side or b) sacrifices herself to end the threat of the zombie spores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8XLN1N0vtM

[Man_Over_Game]

Ugh, Lightning Returns.

Specifically: Lightning vs. Ereshkigal.

At the point of Lightning Returns, "God" has basically given up on humanity (who ended the world as they know it anyway), so he started making a new lifeform to take over in the new world should humanity not work out. The Ereshkigal is the prototype.

After spending the last 7 days of your world collecting pitiful souls for the new world that probably don't deserve a second chance, you go through the Omega dungeon, wiping out the existence of every single hostile species in the world, only to get stumped by Ereshkigal, a squidfaced monster who's your replacement.

Not only did your species end the world, not only did your species indulge in nothing but despair and hedonism in the doom of their own creation, not only did you (their Paragon) commit genocide against anything that could potentially pose a threat in an already dying world, but you were killed by the one creature that was designed to be better than humanity.

Yeah. You deserve that, Lightning. Only through 6 hours of repeating the boss fight, reloading saves, and cheating fate was I ever able to kill that thing, and you didn't deserve it.

[danzibr]

Ugh, Lightning Returns.

Specifically: Lightning vs. Ereshkigal.

At the point of Lightning Returns, "God" has basically given up on humanity (who ended the world as they know it anyway), so he started making a new lifeform to take over in the new world should humanity not work out. The Ereshkigal is the prototype.

After spending the last 7 days of your world collecting pitiful souls for the new world that probably don't deserve a second chance, you go through the Omega dungeon, wiping out the existence of every single hostile species in the world, only to get stumped by Ereshkigal, a squidfaced monster who's your replacement.

Not only did your species end the world, not only did your species indulge in nothing but despair and hedonism in the doom of their own creation, not only did you (their Paragon) commit genocide against anything that could potentially pose a threat in an already dying world, but you were killed by the one creature that was designed to be better than humanity.

Yeah. You deserve that, Lightning. Only through 6 hours of repeating the boss fight, reloading saves, and cheating fate was I ever able to kill that thing, and you didn't deserve it.

Whoaaaaa.

I remember beating that thing, but do *not* remember its backstory.

[Man_Over_Game]

Whoaaaaa.

I remember beating that thing, but do *not* remember its backstory.

That's how you get the "good" ending and why you kill God as the final boss. In the end, he realized that he didn't want humanity to start over and do the same thing all over again, so he changed his mind about passing souls on at the last second. If I remember correctly, passing the souls on required a sacrifice (which is Lightning's friend). Lightning said "Screw you" (mostly because of the whole 'sacrifice' thing), kills him, and takes his place. You don't find out that God had planned to not continue humanity until you do research into the Erishkigal and what it was.

[BeerMug Paladin]

I can add a few.

Mario Kart (any): Falling off the track at some point on Rainbow Road.

Minecraft: Growing overconfident enough to leave my personally constructed fortress farm and explore the Nether. Exploded by fireballs while distracted by something shiny.

Road Rash: Race 3, hit by metal chain going 80 mph the wrong way down the freeway. This was a revenge blow by the guy I hit twice with a length of pipe in the previous two races, who survived without a scratch and immediately began racing again.

Countless computer RPGs: The point when the character inventory management gets so cumbersome, the character realizes there has to be better things to do in any conceivable afterlife than in their normal life and so kills themselves.

Super Metroid: Samus was drained by the sole surviving parasitic life form whose species she had otherwise personally eradicated from the universe. Remaining timeline is incoherent hallucinations of a dying mind. (Originally, I was thinking that Other M fits in after this point in the timeline.. But now that I type it I'm thinking it's maybe before? I don't really remember right now and don't care enough to verify.)

Snake Rattle 'n Roll: Squashed by giant severed foot on the moon after licking it failed to achieve victory. I just had to mention that one.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Snake Rattle 'n Roll: Squashed by giant severed foot on the moon after licking it failed to achieve victory. I just had to mention that one.

This one is mine too. Since this was pre-Internet, I half-convinced myself that it was literally impossible to win as a single player, since as far as I could tell, the toe regenerated to full if I ever stopped hitting it continuously, and I simply couldn't keep up. I once kept hitting for what felt like three or four complete cycles with no effect whatsoever, before I finally made one misstep and got squashed.

I really should look up how it should've been done.

Grey Wolf

[AdmiralCheez]

One of my Skyrim characters (playing with survival mods) died of exposure thanks to the ungrateful and uncaring people of one of the villages. She was making her way back to town after eliminating a bandit camp, but night quickly fell and a blizzard kicked up. She had no firewood to start a campfire and exposure was quickly becoming a threat. She ran into the nearest village, limbs frozen and hypothermia settling in, but there were no fires amid the tiny clump of buildings, and everyone was asleep for the night. She had no choice but break into one of the homes and warm herself by their fire.

With trembling fingers, she picked the nearest lock and went in, to find the owner wide awake and angry at the supposed thief, who then chased her out. She begged to stand by the fire for just a moment to warm up, but he was having none of it. She was banished to the frozen outside where a guard drew his sword and chased her into the snowy woods until the village was no longer visible. Rejected and exiled, she tried to find another way to warm up, but it was too late. The cold was too much, and she collapsed, frozen to death on the side of the road, killed by the very people she had tried to help.

[MinimanMidget]

Advance Wars 1: The combined armies could not defeat Sturm.

Triplane Turmoil: No pilot ever successfully landed a plane. They knew going in that it was a one-way trip.

Morrowind: The Nerevarine ticked off Divath Fyr by killing one of the corprus victims, and so died of corprus himself.

Also the Undyne in Genocide death. She beat me fair and square.

[Spore]

If we are going somewhat meta by adding a narrative to a Magic the Gathering game.

Any time I meet a Red Planeswalker and he burns me face off.

Any time I meet a Blue/Black Planeswalker and he erases my mind, leaving me in some alley, thinking my name is Toby and I am just an unusually large and ugly goblin.

[Man_Over_Game]

If we are going somewhat meta by adding a narrative to a Magic the Gathering game.

Any time I meet a Red Planeswalker and he burns me face off.

Any time I meet a Blue/Black Planeswalker and he erases my mind, leaving me in some alley, thinking my name is Toby and I am just an unusually large and ugly goblin.

To be fair on the blue's side, that's exactly what happens when you run out of cards in your Library.

Your Hand represents your consciousness, your awareness, or battle-readiness. When that runs out, you're effectively panicking for solutions.
Your Library represents your sanity or endurance. The longer the game goes, the more you start to mentally lose it.

A Blue player's win condition is often causing the enemy player to run out of cards to draw, AKA rotting the enemy's mind. Alternatively, Red/Black cards that make you discard from your hand cause you to "panic".

You'll note that many cards that influence the deck have something to do with sanity. For example, Eldrazi are often added into a deck to counter a deck milling strategy, and narratively fits because you can't forget an Eldritch Horror, no matter how badly you want to, even if someone tries to wipe it from your mind. Laboratory Maniac makes you win once you've run out of cards, narratively winning the game once you've gone insane enough to go with his "master plan".

[BeerMug Paladin]

This one is mine too. Since this was pre-Internet, I half-convinced myself that it was literally impossible to win as a single player, since as far as I could tell, the toe regenerated to full if I ever stopped hitting it continuously, and I simply couldn't keep up. I once kept hitting for what felt like three or four complete cycles with no effect whatsoever, before I finally made one misstep and got squashed.

I really should look up how it should've been done.

Grey Wolf

I do recall being able to do it on my own a few times. I have no idea if the feat is difficult or not, but I don't actually recall it as a tough fight as much as the tons of jumping challenges and levels leading up to it were.

It's just given as my canonical death because it's the funniest way to die I could think of in any videogame.