Inverse Dialogue Death Rule

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The Inverse Dialogue Death Rule requires that the more important a character is, the longer his or her death will take. While Mooks and other cannon fodder tend to die from a single Instant Death Bullet that would be Only a Flesh Wound for a more important character, the deaths of characters who have had significant amounts of dialogue (or at least screen time) usually last much longer.

Applies most strongly to short-term villains, especially of the Monster of the Week and Evil Minions varieties, but can also apply to heroes, who often manage at least some pithy Last Words, if not a full blown Final Speech. Of course if a writer is in the mood to surprise you, you may wind up with a character Killed Mid-Sentence.

As a Death Trope, Spoilers ahead may be unmarked. Beware.

Examples of Inverse Dialogue Death Rule include:

Anime and Manga

• Hellsing has this a few times. After Pip Bernadette gets stabbed through the chest by Zorin Blitz's thrown scythe, he has enough time to deliver a final rousing speech to fledgling vampire Seras Victoria, give her a first and last kiss, and a final request that she drink his blood to become a true vampire. She does, resulting in a Crowning Moment of Awesome, and Pip eventually recovering as an added bonus. Then again at the end, after Seras shoots the Major, he also has time for a Robotic Reveal and a final speech.
• In Naruto, the death or near-death of a major character can take the better part of an episode, and sometimes even spill over to the next. Then there's the funeral...
• Bleach. Holy cow. Mooks usually get taken out with a sword slash and are forgotten, higher-level subordinate villains may get a few minutes to die... but EVERY SINGLE major villain is apparently contractually entitled to a half-to-whole-episode flashback immediately before death. Major heroes have occasionally been cut down surprisingly quickly, but to my knowledge none have ACTUALLY died.

Film

• Battle Royale II is infuriating for this - all the major characters get long drawn out deaths, with the huge hordes of enemies at the end of the film all stopping their attacking to let characters like Shiori Kitano spend five full minutes making peace with the world.
• Subverted in Brick - Dode is a very important character. He gets the shit punched out of him and then is promptly shot in the face before he can get a word in edgewise.
• Both played straight and inverted in Serenity. One major character, Book, and one throwaway character, Mr. Universe, get drawn-out deaths with the standard speech. On the other hand, Wash's death is instantaneous.
• In Return of the King, Boromir not only takes forever to be killed (arrow after arrow, and overcranked as well), but he takes quite a while to die, complete with a speech to Aragorn—and that after waiting patiently through Aragorn's big duel with the chief Uruk-Hai.

Literature

• The Iliad: Although scores of heroes die during the epic's pages, most of them die without so much as a word before eating dust. However, the most pivotal death in the book, Patroclus' killing by Hector, has a long final speech by the victim, in which Patroclus warns Hector of his impeding death.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (frequent): Major and semi-major villains usually take several seconds to 'dust'. For instance, in The Harvest, Luke has time to fall from the stage to the floor before dusting, but run-of-the-mill vamps most often dust before the stake is removed. This may be loosely based on the vampire's power, given that The Master was reduced to a skeleton but never dust.
  • Also applies to the good guys. Jenny, Joyce, Tara, and Anya all died quick deaths. On the other hand, when Buffy sacrificed herself at the end of Season Five, she takes about a minute to die - and from her expression, it was an agonizing minute.
  • Could also be considered a subversion because all those characters were very important, yet all (save Buffy) died almost instantly.
  • Hilariously mocked in The Movie, when The Dragon (Peewee Herman) spends the entire rest of the movie in his death throes? Clear past the closing credits.
• Subverted in NCIS with Kate's Death
  • Certainly helps that she got sniped straight in the center of her forehead

Tabletop Games

• Since Talking Is a Free Action, many player characters - the most important characters in the game - get Final Speeches if they die no matter what game is being played. However, if the entire player-character party dies at once, usually nobody gets last words.

Video Games

• In Assassin's Creed, the major assassination targets are capable of giving entire soliloquies, followed up by an explanation of important plot points, after you've stabbed them in the throat.
  • Considering that they are set in the foggy not-quite-reality, and apparently take no time at all in the game's world, it's implied that there is some kind of telepathy, or memory alteration going on.
  • The sequel averts it, with the victims saying no more than a sentence or two before expiring. One even lampshades this trope's use in the first game by having the victim say "What, were you expecting a speech?"
• Eternal Sonata has Claves, who has a dying monologue that drags on forever.
• Drakan. The guy who dies at the beginning performs an infodump that lasts forever... while gasping and struggling the whole way, as though on his last breath.
• Metal Gear Solid's Big Boss. His dying monologue in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots lasts at least a good five minutes (after a good ten-minute exposition, no less). Many other bosses in the series are guilty of the trope, but his takes the cake.