Word for not afraid to die

People also translate

Davian Thule: We will send you back to your craftworld in a tomb!
Farseer Taldeer: I have known my death for ten of your lifetimes, captain. Don’t think to scare me with it.

• One of Akagi‘s main personality traits is his utter fearlessness in the face of death. Given that his life philosophy is that Living Is More than Surviving, he’d rather die fully alive than survive (he does, however, concede that it’s mostly blind luck that allows him to risk death while fully alive instead of dying from factors beyond his control). This leads to its logical conclusion in Ten — The Blessed Way of the Nice Guy, when Akagi, faced with the prospect of living with Alzheimer’s, overdoses on morphine while his mind is still intact.
• Eren from Attack on Titan is this, contrary to what his allies think of him. When he fights, he has no time to let the prospect of death get in his way. He has every intention of walking out of each fight alive and frequently encourages this in others, especially in face of cowardice, apathy or doubt.

  Eren: «If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. If you don’t fight, you can’t win!»

• Bleach: According to Kenpachi Zaraki, every Soul Reaper captain except Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tousen. Yamamoto later affirms that it is part of the oath and duty of being a Gotei 13 captain to not be afraid to sacrifice one’s life for the greater good.
• Broken Blade‘s Girge seems to be somewhat between seeking death and unafraid of death. He did prove that he’s not afraid to die when he took the hero’s place to be executed. But he also seek for it actively by jumping here and there in the battlefield without care of his own safety.
• In A Certain Magical Index, Terra of the Left is unafraid of dying because he’s completely confident that he will go to Heaven, despite his incredibly depraved actions. As Terra’s dying, Acqua of the Back tells him he will obviously go to Hell for his sins, and Terra finally loses his smugness as he glares at Acqua before succumbing to his wounds.
• In Cowboy Bebop, one of Spike’s character traits is how blasé he is about the prospect of dying. He states several times that he’s already died and is just watching a bad dream until he’s ready to wake up and face the reality that he’s dead. Encountering Tongpu temporarily drives the cool away from him, but in all other instances (including in several episodes and The Movie that took place chronologically later) Spike never seems afraid of death. Depending on how you interpret the ending, the last minutes of the series shows the crowning example.
• Many characters from Dragon Ball counts (likely due to the fact Death Is Cheap and only got cheaper as things like restrictions on how many times one could be revived were lifted), but the most notable example would be Tenshinhan/Tien, who is willing to face enemies who killed countless people and are far beyond his league. At least, he’s able to slow them down (or not).
• Erza Scarlet in the earlier arcs of Fairy Tail was very much prepared to throw away her life for her comrades if it meant saving their lives, partially due to her own Dark and Troubled Past and how it left her scarred. This culminates in the Tower of Heaven arc, where said past comes to the forefront in the form of her childhood friend/love interest/now evil and insane brainwashed cult leader Jellal and she’s ready and expects she’s walking to her death to atone for her own sins. After having a vision of her own funeral and seeing how utterly miserable her friends would be, however, she learns not to throw her own life away so readily.
• In The Familiar of Zero, Louise and the other nobles constantly say they are willing to give their lives to defend their kingdom, and will go on a Suicide Mission if commanded to by royalty. Saito constantly calls them out on how stupid this is. During Saito’s Heroic Sacrifice in the season 2 finale (don’t worry, he gets better) he fights not to die, but to live and see Louise and the others again.
• Kurapika of Hunter � Hunter has no fear of death. He’s only worried that is his thirst for vengeance will fade before he can destroy the people that exterminated his clan. To this end he begins isolating himself from the world, including his True Companions. He’s slowly getting better.
• Kosame from Magical Girl Site is terminally ill and has at most six months to live. As a result, she’s careless about her well-being. She doesn’t mind that her Magical Girl powers are drawn from her life force.
• Junk Dog/Joe from Megalo Box isn’t afraid of becoming a Casualty in the Ring, and at the beginning of the show engages in self-destructive behaviour like playing a Game of Chicken alone, with a cliff, because he’s not feeling challenged in his boxing matches. The only time during the show he’s seen even barely worried is when he tries taking on a Power Fist enhanced boxer bare-handed, and even then he recovers once he recognizes his own fear.
• Ebisu in Noragami shows a lack of concern in any life-threatening event because he knows he will (and he has, several times) reincarnate afterwards. Subverted when he is fatally injured, he realizes he is afraid to die.
• One Piece:
  • This is a trademark of those with the «Will of D.» (those with the middle initial D.). Other characters are baffled as to why they all Go Out with a Smile (including Luffy when he was almost executed by Buggy). The most prevalent example would have to be the late Pirate King Gold Roger (real name Gol D. Roger), who smiled at his execution. A young Smoker witnessed this, and it drove him to chase after Luffy into the Grand Line after the aforementioned Buggy incident, noting the disturbing parallels between the two pirates and the realization of how dangerous Luffy was going to be.
  • Subverted, however, by Marshall D. Teach aka Blackbeard, who begs for his life as Whitebeard is about to smash his head open.
  • It becomes clear both during and after the Dressrosa arc that Trafalgar Law is more than willing to die if it means bringing down Doflamingo and avenging his father-figure Corazon. Fittingly, this is the arc that reveals his full name: Trafalgar D. Water Law.
  • Indeed, this is almost a prerequisite for a pirate who takes a chance with Devil Fruit; because you lose the ability to swim, it means you’ll risk drowning the until the end of your career (no matter how it happens).
• Milkit from Roll Over and Die is zigzagged example. Her view on death is connected to her Character Development and relationship with Flum. When she is first introduced, she didn�t particularly care if she lived or died. After meeting Flum, she started to value her own life more, and she has stated how she didn�t wish to die because she has something to live for. However, when Flum�s life is in danger after being captured by Satils, Milkit doesn�t hesitate to put her life in danger to save Flum. As far as she is concerned living without Flum is scarier than her own death.
• Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon is the «Soldier of Ruin and Birth», and holds the Power of Death, a double-edged sword that allows her to kill any enemy at the cost of her own life. She is also fiercely loyal to the titular character and her friends, and although she won’t use this power frivolously, she will not hesitate to try and unleash it against the Big Bad if she thinks she can end the conflict right then and there.
• On some level, most of the skateboarders of Sk8 the Infinity are like this, but special mention goes to Langa, who’s aware that the villain ADAM is willing to grievously harm him and is still willing (as well as actually able) to go toe-to-toe with him. And then, in a late episode…there’s Reki, who takes the trope to its ultimate conclusion, being unshaken even after ADAM legitimately attempts to kill him, and focusing on how fun skateboarding is.
• After the conclusion of Act 1, Thorfinn from Vinland Saga adopts this attitude and claims he has no fear of death because he has no reason to keep on living. On their first meeting, Snake decides to test Thorfinn’s conviction by trying to kill him, and the sheer Killing Intent behind it causes Thorfinn to reflexively counterattack and dodge. Snake then points out that no matter how much he says otherwise, Thorfinn’s body clearly wants him to live, causing Thorfinn to begin searching for something Worth Living For.

• In All Fall Down: With her last words, Siphon proves she is this.
• In one Chick Tract, a man encounters a burglar in his home and is disconcertingly delighted that he will be murdered, because he’s lived a good life and is assured a place in heaven, so he’s got everything to gain by getting there early.
• In Fantastic Four: Books of Doom, a young Victor von Doom is approached by a group of KGB agents who try to threaten him into working for the Soviet Union. His response?

  Victor: Threats only work against men who have things to live for.

• Artificial humans in Copperhead claim they have no emotions, fear included. The only thing that matters is cold logic and the objective.
• Ultimate Marvel
  • Ultimate Origins: Believing he was going to be killed by Wolverine, Fury admitted he hasn’t been afraid of being killed since he was 18 years old.
  • The Ultimates: Captain America jumped to an experimental hidrogen bomb, to make it blow up in the sky, before it could reach the United States. A soldier in the comlink asked «But what about you?». Cap dismissed the question, and the bomb blew up. Still, not even that killed him, because he’s THAT tough.

• In the Bleach/The Familiar of Zero crossover The Left Hand of the Death God, Tabitha’s dragon Sylphid reveals in an Inner Monologue that it is not afraid of death because death is a law of nature and is inevitable. Sylphid adds that while it may not fear death, it is not stupid enough to seek it out.
• In Nightmares Are Tragic, the fact that Luna is willing to die to defeat her possessing Nightshadow (because she will at least die free and save those she loves) is a major plot point: the Nightshadow cannot comprehend that she means to expose them both to the Rainbow of Harmony if this is what it takes to win.
• In The Boy with the Magic Notebook, Battery doesn’t care about Cauldron’s hold over her anymore after Assault was killed by the Slaughterhouse 9. Yet they actually planned for this to have her do something different then in the original story canon…
• In the Inuyasha Continuation Fic Beyond Tomorrow, Kikyo, while running from an explosion with Hanyuu, elects to jump off a cliff to escape it. Hanyuu rightfully questions her sanity and points out that they won’t survive the fall. Kikyo reflects to herself that if she was alone, it wouldn’t matter; having died twice , she doesn’t fear death anymore, but since Hanyuu’s there, she has no intention of killing her as well.
• The Bridge:
  • When Scootaloo comments on how Destroyah seems to fear nothing, she answers that death and danger are universal facts of life, so it is pointless to be afraid. She is capable of feeling fear though. Her titanic battle with Godzilla Senior in the past was the only time she ever feared for her own life. She also feared for Scootaloo’s life when her clone tried to eat her.
  • Xenilla starts visualizing and simulating the final battle using chess pieces. When the piece that represents his brother Godzilla Junior falls, he freaks out and resets the board, but when his own piece falls, he doesn’t react. Much later, when he goes through a Christmas Carol like dream he thinks he will be made to see his own grave in the future and tells the Spirit of Yet-to-Come that he is not afraid of his own death. The Spirit instead shows him Blade Dancer’s grave, and Xenilla goes berserk.
  • Grand King Ghidorah wants Monster X to transform into Kaizer Ghidorah permanently. Even though there is a great risk Kaizer would kill him, he doesn’t care, as if it comes to that, Kaizer will simply take his place as an ender of worlds.
• In the Naruto Sugar Plums the character Ume as a reincarnated self insert is not at all afraid of dying. This becomes a point of grief for the other characters though.
• Jones of Twelve Red Lines doesn’t fear death because she wasn’t supposed to exist in the world of One Piece, in addition to several nasty psychological issues. This causes some friction with her crew, because she’s one of the Straw Hats. And they want to see her thrive, especially her Captain and the characters that joined the crew because of her presence.
• In Fate/Parallel Fantasia, Kirei Kotomine notes that when Angra Mainyu is unleashed and releases its curse upon the world, he likely wouldn’t survive. He doesn’t care because seeing Angra Mainyu unleashed is his greatest dream. If he has to die for it, so be it.
• Discussed and Deconstructed in Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. In one of their discussions, Dumbledore tells Harry that while he doesn’t actively want to die, he will accept death when it finally comes from him and that he loaths dark lords like Voldemort for fearing death. Harry mercilessly rips into this attitude, pointing out that it is no different from being a Death Seeker since not wanting to live forever is literally synonymous with wanting to die at some point. You either wish you were immortal, openly or not, or you need to call a suicide prevention hotline. How effective/logical this argument is depends entirely on the reader’s own view of death. It’s worth noting that this is exactly the opposite of what J.K. Rowling has identified as the Central Theme of the series.
• Imaginary Seas: Despite Chiron’s pleas, Percy is resolute in his desire to confront Poseidon and potentially fight him to death with full knowledge that he will die in the attempt, as handling enough power to duel his father will inevitably kill him.
• In Child of the Storm, Peter Wisdom is mentioned as being «entirely indifferent to the prospect of dying» — one of the things that makes him terrifyingly dangerous.
• Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron:
  • Suzaku is this more than a Death Seeker like in canon — he isn’t throwing himself into suicidal situations anymore, but when it appears that he will be killed fighting Zarkon, he merely closes his eyes and attempts to Face Death with Dignity.
  • When Shin Hyūga Shaing is brought in to replace Nonette as a member of the Knights of the Round, Luciano Bradley tosses a knife at him which he effortlessly dodges. When Luciano explains that it was to test how much Shin valued his life, the Knight of Ten is left floored by Shin shooting it down by saying that he sees no value in his life.
• The Progenitor Chronicles: The MC tells Alex Wesker in Natalia Korda’s body that, unlike her, he doesn’t fear death — a rather armor-piercing comment, as Alex Wesker’s entire character arc in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is trying to cheat death by taking over someone else’s body.
• Fate DxD AU: Ritsuka Fujimaru isn’t afraid to die, which means he doesn’t hesitate to do stunts like jumping out of the sky to tackle an opponent. His Servants repeatedly confronted him about this and say his recklessness may get him killed, but he refuses to stop out of a need to prove he is useful.

• In Balto II: Wolf Quest, Nava claims that Niju does not fear death but change. Niju would rather face certain eventual death than leave his homeland.
• In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Zoom is completely unafraid of dying. As long as Flash suffers and dies in the end, he is content.
• This is the main theme of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: The problem that Puss initially has is that he doesn�t just not fear death, he doesn�t even care about it. Since he has nine lives, he�ll just bounce right back if something bad were to happen to him. At the beginning of the movie, he is on his last life, which makes him actually fear death and goes into retirement in order to extend his last life. Once he finds out about the wishing star, Puss goes out of retirement in order to use the wish to restore his lives. Meanwhile, a mysterious wolf hunts him down during his journey. When he finally reaches the star, it�s revealed that The Wolf is actually Death, and that the reason he was hunting down Puss is because of how he recklessly wasted his lives, and wanted to take his last life personally as punishment. During their final confrontation, Puss tells Death that he knows that he cannot defeat him, and that he�s a serious deal, but he does not fear him, and will keep fighting for his life until he cannot fight anymore. This is what encourages Death to put away his blades, and lets Puss live out the rest of his days until his time truly comes.

• In Avengers: Endgame, Thanos from 2014 sees his future self being decapitated by Thor when viewing Nebula’s memories of the future. The sight horrifies Gamora and Ebony Maw, but Thanos simply says it is «destiny fulfilling itself». Later when he and his forces are being turned to ash by Iron Man using the Infinity Stones, Thanos does not struggle against or show any signs of fear or anger towards it and simply seems disappointed that all of his plans and efforts were for nothing as he is disintegrated.
• The Batman (2022): Bruce Wayne directly says that he is not afraid to die. The only thing he fears is losing the people he loves like Alfred.
• The Dark Knight Trilogy:
  • The Joker in The Dark Knight doesn’t even seem to care about the prospect of his death. In fact, it’s almost what he’s hoping to happen. He would love nothing more than for Batman to kill him to prove that in the end, everyone is just as monstrous as he is.
  • In The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce isn’t afraid of dying either, and that is the reason he can’t escape the prison pit the first two times he tries. He eventually escapes by harnessing his fear of dying in the pit, helpless to save Gotham and climbs out without the safety rope, his fear spurring him to succeed.
• Deewaar: Vijay considers his own death to be an acceptable cost of successfully infiltrating Samant’s gang. He concocts a plan wherein Daavar’s man Darpan will tell Samant’s gang where Vijay will be, giving them a chance to kill him. He reasons that regardless of whether they succeed in killing him, they will trust the Fake Defector Darpan.
• In the original Game of Death, all of the guardians of the pagoda show no signs of fear when they face death.

  Hai Tien (Bruce Lee) Why continue? Just let me pass.

  Kareem Abdul Jabbar: You have forgotten, that I too am not afraid of death.

• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Mothra displays this attitude when she performs her Heroic Sacrifice, and Word of God confirms she has no fear of death because she’s aware her Born-Again Immortality will ensure she’s just reborn again from an egg each time she dies.
• Half Past Dead: Lester, an inmate due to be executed for the accidental deaths of five federal agents in a Train Job gone wrong, is depicted as being bothered more by the waiting than by his impending death. He feels that he deserves the death penalty for what he caused.
• Hangman’s Knot: After almost being lynched, Cass throws himself on top of a trapdoor to keep the Posse from coming through it, despite the risk of being shot. When Major Stewart points out how dangerous that was, Cass replies that when he had the rope around his neck, he gave himself up for dead, and he guesses he still isn’t over it. Later, he sneaks out of the station to attempt to scatter the posse’s horses, despite Stewart telling him it is too dangerous. He is spotted and gunned down by the posse.
• Subverted (maybe parodied) in If Looks Could Kill:

  Michael Corben:I am not afraid to die. I am not afraid to die. Who am I kidding?

• In Kingdom of Heaven the hospitaller is told he will certainly die if he goes with the army. He replies, «All death is certain» and rides away.
• In The Last Samurai, Katsumoto identifies Algren as not being afraid to die, but sometimes wishing for it. By the end of the movie, Algren has started to lose his death wish. Being good Samurai that they are, Katsumoto and his men are already like this.
• Parodied in Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Sir Robin’s minstrel claims that Robin isn’t afraid to die, but he very clearly is. Probably doesn’t help that the minstrel keeps going on about the horrible things that could happen.
• In Predators, at one point mass murdering Serial Killer Stans catches Scary Black Man Mombasa by surprise and holds a knife to Mombasa’s throat, demanding one of his guns. Mombasa calmly draws his pistol, puts it to Stans’ head, and says that he isn’t afraid to die, then asks if Stans can say the same. After a few seconds in a standoff, Stans backs down.
• In the Bollywood Film Ram Jaane, a remake of Angels with Dirty Faces, the eponymous character has a Heel Realization and sees that he�s become a bad example to all the urchins in his old neighborhood. He blabbers uncontrollably in fear in front of them, while being led to the gallows, till they all walk away in disgust. Once he is alone, Ram walks to the noose silently and upright, showing no fear.
• Subverted in Star Trek Into Darkness. During the climax, Admiral Marcus attempts to put on a big show about not being scared that Kirk is pointing a phaser in his face, but the second the far less controllable and much more ruthless Khan gets up, Marcus visibly freaks out and tries to make a run for it. Unfortunately for him, Khan is a lot faster. Cue head crush.
• Subverted in X-Men Origins: Wolverine when Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth comes to assassinate his ex-team member Bolt. This little exchange takes place:

  Bolt: I’m not afraid of you, Victor. I’m not afraid of dying.

  Creed: How do you know? You’ve never tried it before.

• Thoroughly subverted in the Animorphs franchise: Despite her inner Blood Knight tendencies and her reckless courage and all the savage battles she’s fought through, Rachel, the strongest and fiercest member of the team, is still afraid to die before charging boldly into her last battle. In an earlier book she muses on how those who don’t fear death are insane, and death is still portrayed as a Primal Fear to mostly everyone seen in the series, even the Yeerks, and one of the most basic traits all species shares.
• In the Cross-Time Engineer series by Leo Frankowski, the Mongol ambassador tries to intimidate the Poles by ordering some of his men to slit their own throats. Conrad Stargard responds by asking for another demonstration, then another, saying if the Mongols are stupid enough to kill themselves it’ll save the Poles the trouble of killing them on the battlefield.
• Achimas Welde, the Implacable Man Professional Killer from Death of Achilles, is afraid of being crippled but not of pain or death. Ironically, he is crippled by Fandorin in the end of the book… and so he chooses to bleed out and die instead of accepting Fandorin’s help.
• Henry Istelyn in The Bishop’s Heir, about to be hanged, drawn and quartered, his eyes «meeting the archbishop’s frigid glare with a serenity and even compassion which made Loris drop the contact first, to gesture brusquely to the guards.» The guards are also put off-balance when Istelyn stubs his toe on the scaffold steps and murmurs an apology.
• Parodied several times in Discworld.
  • In Interesting Times, Cohen the Barbarian meets a soldier who claims to be ready to die for his Emperor. Cohen kills him, and asks if anyone else is also willing. Afterward, Cohen’s newest addition to the Silver Horde, (a retired teacher) tells Cohen that claims like that are practically a formality or protocol in the Agatean Empire, and they’re not to be taken literally. Later on Coehn preemptively warns Imperial soldiers and bureaucrats not to say that they’re willing to die for their Emperor unless they really, really mean it.
  • One piece of advice General Tacticus gives in his memoirs is to welcome an enemy willing to die for his cause, as it means both of you have the same goal in mind.
• In Dante’s Paradiso, the sight of the fiery wheels of souls rejoicing and dancing across the Sun proves more beautiful than anything found in life on Earth. Death, all the unpleasantries of it aside, is nothing to fear for a man like Dante who has seen such wonders on the other side.

  »Whoever weeps because on earth we die

  that we may live on high, has never seen

  eternal showers that bring refreshment there.»

• In Dragon Bones, Oreg has lost all fear of death, after being a slave for hundreds of years. He tried to commit suicide by provoking one of his masters to kill him (the only way he can die), but failed.
• Galaxy of Fear has its protagonists gradually become much more stoic about facing death — they don’t like it and they strive to not be killed, they are afraid, but they aren’t particularly upset. In Ghost of the Jedi, after Tash’s brother and uncle appear to die, Tash debates with herself, and then decides to go after what ‘killed’ them anyway. She’s sure that they and her parents will be there, if she dies, and the thought causes some degree of Dissonant Serenity — which is a good state to be in if one is using The Force.
• In Harry Potter, characters who are willing to risk death are generally on the heroic side, while even the greatest ‘Dark’ wizard is terrified of the notion.
  • In the first book, Nicholas Flamel and his wife agree that the Philosopher’s Stone, a creation of both Flamel and his wife that can grant immortality, should be destroyed, as people like Voldemort will try to use the stone for evil purposes. It’s stated that while they both have enough elixir of life to get their affairs in order, they’ll both die soon afterward, but neither of them are all that broken up about it—they’re pushing around 665 at the time of the stone’s destruction, so to them, death would be (as Dumbledore puts it) «like going to bed after a very, very long day».
  • Dumbledore himself, who stated that death was not to be feared in the first book, demonstrated how it’s done at the end of the sixth, offering one of the people who’d betrayed and destroyed him a Last-Second Chance.
  • Oddly enough, Predecessor Villain Grindelwald willingly let Voldemort kill him and laughed in his face while telling him the trope title pretty much word for word. Granted the guy had been locked in a prison for over fifty years with nothing to do but wallow over his misdeeds (Dumbledore tells Harry that he believes he eventually came to regret what he�d done) and he was well into his 110s so death was probably a relief at that point.
  • This trope is also the ultimate difference between Harry and Voldemort. While Voldemort has used twisted magic to stave off death, Harry ultimately accepts that he’ll have to die in order to return Voldemort to mortality. This is why Harry is the true «Master of Death». He does not fear it: when his death (seemingly) comes, he does not try to escape it. Voldemort, however, cannot comprehend a Fate Worse than Death, which ultimately leads to his defeat.
• Mother of Learning: A certain amount of fearlessness is needed in order to successfully use the simulacrum spell — otherwise, the copies will realise that they’re inherently temporary, have an existential Freak Out, and possibly betray the original or do something stupid. Silverlake doesn’t use the spell, for this reason; she’s too self-interested, and any copy of her would readily backstab the original if it keeps the copy alive. Zorian’s copies aren’t afraid of dying for the original, but are fond of pranking and inconveniencing him.
• Musashi, being about Japanese swordsmen, has a lot of this. One warrior temple actually has challengers sign a disclaimer. Musashi himself, although not particularly afraid of death, doesn’t think too highly about samurai who brag about how much they don’t fear it. They can die their heroic deaths if they want, as far as he’s concerned, the only thing he’ll settle for is heroic victory.
• In Remnants, the Hetwans seem to have no individual wills outside of serving their god, Ka Anor. At several points in the series Hetwans are captured, threatened and then killed, but they never show emotion or give into interrogation.

  «My death is irrelevant. I serve Ka Anor.»

• Any number of soldiers and badasses from A Song of Ice and Fire ranging from the honorable to a fault Eddard Stark to amoral badass Jaime Lannister. By the end of A Dance with Dragons, Theon Greyjoy, someone who in earlier books was desperately afraid of dying, states that death holds no fear for him because it’s honestly better than what his life is now.
• In the Warrior Cats book Dawn, after Brambleclaw stops Crowpaw from needlessly risking his life, Crowpaw snarls that he’s not afraid of joining StarClan at that at least Feathertail would be waiting for him.
• In You Are Dead (Sign Here Please) the main character Nathan has a brain lesion that leaves him with no fear of death and no self-defence response whatsoever. This does him much more harm than good.
• In The Zombie Knight, servants for the obvious reasons and Colt, because he knows he protected his children from Geoffry, and because he managed to not get his soul eaten

• In the Angel episode «I’ve Got You Under My Skin» the Ethros demon tells Angel that he does not fear dying at Angel’s hands. The only thing he has ever feared is the horrible emptiness within his soulless former host.
• Babylon 5: Years before Commander Shepard, John Sheridan had «been there, done that».

  «I find it amazing that you think that threats still mean anything to me. ‘Do this or you’re a dead man.’ Death! Been there, done that^{Context — spoiler alert} .»

• Invoked in Burn Notice. In one episode, Michael is pretending to be a dirty security guard who’s going to help on a heist. The Villain of the Week is threatening to kill Michael if he doesn’t help; Michael goes along with this because that’s what he wants, as he intends to ensnare the villain in a trap. However, something happens that changes the situation, and Michael needs to have the heist called off. Michael, as the security guard, is pivotal to the heist, so he convinces the villain that the guilt he’s feeling has caused him to have a Heel�Faith Turn and that he is no longer afraid of dying. The ploy works; the villain realizes that you can’t threaten to kill someone if they’re not afraid of death, so he backs off.
• In The Comic Strip Presents: Oxford the gun-toting bad guy is confronted by a group of elderly professors who aren’t afraid to die because they’re all over 60.
• Doctor Who:
  • River Song, «The Doctor’s death doesn’t frighten me. Nor does my own. There’s a far worse day coming for me.»
  • Leela invokes this trope in «The Talons of Weng-Chiang» after Weng-Chiang (AKA Magnus Greel) captures her and tells her he plans to place her in his organic distillation chamber. Which steals its victim’s life-force, reducing him or her to a dried husk:

    «Kill me any way you want! Unlike you, I am not afraid to die!»

  • In the famous Cliffhanger of Part 3 of «The Caves of Androzani», Stotz threatens to kill the Doctor after he hijacks their spacecraft. The Doctor points out that it’s not much of a threat to someone who’s dying anyway (the Doctor having been poisoned earlier).
• Dr. Henry Morgan of Forever (2014) is immortal, having been killed the first time in 1814 by a flintlock pistol. Fellow immortal Adam has a theory that they can only be killed for good by the weapon that killed them the first time. When Adam reveals he has Henry’s flintlock, fully restored and used to fire a warning shot, Henry angrily asks Adam if that was his goal all along, to test a theory? When he defiantly asks Adam if he thinks Henry is afraid to die, Adam replies no, but Henry is afraid of his immortality being exposed.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Subverted when Varys offers Lord Stark a reasonable but dishonorable alternative to being executed that the noble Ned rejects with disdain, telling Varys to Get It Over With as he’s a soldier and has come to terms with dying a long time ago. Varys responds with an Armor-Piercing Question. «And what of your daughter’s life, my lord?» as Ned’s daughter is also being held prisoner.
  • By the time Tyrion reaches Daenerys, he expresses apathy at the threat of her executing him, basically considering anything left in his life an amusement at best.
  • The Unsullied are said to not fear death, in theory because the masters have taken their humanity. In practice, it’s because there are no masters in the grave.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Louis de Pointe du Lac is prone to depression, occasionally to the point where he sincerely wishes he was dead, although his Catholic upbringing presumably stops him short from actually committing suicide.
  • In the series premiere, Louis suffers from a nervous breakdown after the death of his brother Paul, and while confessing his sins to Father Matthias, it’s plain that he wants to follow Paul to the grave. Louis is wracked with guilt and shame over his numerous failures, and it’s important to note that this scene is Louis being the most honest with himself in all of Season 1. It’s because he’s so broken that he later accepts Lestat de Lioncourt’s offer to kill him as a human and be reborn as a vampire.

    Louis: I’m a drunk, Lord. I’m a liar. I am a thief, Lord. I profit off the miseries of other men, and I do it easy. Drugs, liquor, women. I-I-I-I lure them in and grab what they got, Lord. I take daughters with no homes and I-I put ’em out on the street, Lord, and I lie to myself, saying I-I’m giving them a roof and food and dollar bills in they pocket, but I look in the mirror, I know what I am — the big man in the big house, stuffing cotton in my ears so I can’t hear their cries. And Lord, I dragged my family into this mess with me. I shame my father. I f— I failed my brother. I lost my mother and sister, and rather than fix it like a man should, Lord, I run like a coward. I run to the bottle. I run to the grift. I run to bad beds. I-I laid down with a man. I laid down with the Devil. And he has roots in me, all his spindly roots in me, and I can’t think nothin’ anymore, but his voice and his words! Please, help me! I am weak! I wanna die!

  • In the second episode, Louis is so profoundly upset and disgusted at himself after he almost ate his nephew that he’s shedding Tears of Blood, and he encourages his lover Lestat to burn him alive and replace him with someone else.

    Louis: You should just throw me in the incinerator and make another [vampire companion].
  • According to Rashid in the fifth episode, Louis longs for death, so the memoir that Daniel Molloy will publish based on their second interview will mean that Louis will be slaughtered by other vampires. Louis doesn’t deny it.

    Rashid: Well, what do you think will happen to Mr. du Lac when you publish this book, when the other vampires of the world get their hands on it? […] They will make their way to Dubai. They will scale the sides of this building, force their way inside, and paint the walls with his blood. You are chronicling a suicide.
    Louis: Rashid is an opinionated young man. He lives to share these opinions, even when they are not solicited.

  • In the sixth episode, Louis is tempted to kill himself after Claudia catches a train to New York, although he ultimately doesn’t go through with it.

    Louis: I teased the sun that night in Jackson Square. Thought about the walking cane and pile of ash they’d find in the morning. But Paul had forever ruined Grace’s wedding night, and I would not do the same to Claudia on the anniversary of her escape. If I was to join Dante’s Wood of the Self-Murdered, it would be another night.

• Million Yen Women: The fact that the invitations to come live in Shin’s home outright told them they could die, yet they all showed up indicates that all the women follow that trope to an extent.
• In New Tricks Jack Halford admits to being one of these and explains it’s the reason he tackled two armed criminals and why he doesn’t want the commendation he’s been awarded for it.
• Subverted in the mini-series On Wings of Eagles. ‘Bull’ Simons has to assemble a team of EDS executives (all former military or Vietnam veterans) to spring two colleagues from an Iranian prison. However when one of the executives claims this trope Bull throws him off the team, refusing to go on a mission with someone so reckless.
• In the «Demon With A Glass Hand» episode of The Outer Limits (1963), the hero Trent captures an alien invader who he can kill just by pulling off his protective amulet. The alien whispers «I’m not afraid to die.», to which Trent responds «Then why are you whispering?»
• Robin Hood:
  • In «Sheriff Got Your Tongue», The Sheriff of Nottingham interrogates the peasants of Locksley village on the whereabouts of the newly-outlawed Robin Hood. Robin, having been captured by a band of outlaws looking to collect the bounty on his head, offers to surrender willingly to protect both the outlaws and the villagers, fully knowing the Sheriff will have him executed. As he expected, he is arrested, sentenced to death and dragged off to Nottingham to be hanged the next day. The Sheriff later taunts him as a coward for choosing to sacrifice himself rather than kill, to which Robin simply responds; «You think of me what you will. If I am to hang tomorrow, it makes no difference.» He later defends his actions to Marian as honorable having protected others from harm in the process.
  • In Sisterhood, after escaping from a trap set by the Sheriff which nearly cost him his life, he informs his fellow outlaws his death would not have deterred their mission to aid the poor, as if he had died, he’d have wished them to carry on in his stead.
  • In Get Carter, Robin faces off against another soldier returned from the Crusades seeking vengeance against Robin, believing Robin is responsible for his brother’s death. After a heated duel, Robin disarms himself and tells Carter to kill him if he truly believes it will bring him peace.
  • In Something Worth Fighting For Part 2, during the final battle against Nottingham Castle, Robin is struck with a poisoned blade which would result in his death before sundown. After destroying the castle and killing the Sheriff and Isabella, Robin prepares to accept his fate. He bids the remaining outlaws farewell, encouraging them to fight on without him before heading into the forest to meat the end in peace. As he weakens, he sees a vision of Marian coming to accompany him to the afterlife, embarking on ‘The Greatest Adventure of All’.
• Scrubs:
  • In «My Old Lady», Mrs. Tanner quietly refuses dialysis, explaining that she has enjoyed her life and is ready to die. Later, it is shown that J.D. is much more afraid of death than she is, and she ends up comforting him.
  • Another patient of J.D.’s, Elaine, contently imagined death as a Broadway musical. When she dies, J.D. ends up imagining it for her.
• Standard for heroes in the Stargate-verse. Everyone volunteers for every suicide mission, everyone is willing to put their life on the line when the occasion calls for it.
  • Deconstructed in a late Stargate SG-1 episode where Mala, the last member to do and survive the Heroic Sacrifice, opposes to Daniel using certain Ancient devise to assemble the McGuffin because it’s killing him. Michael points out that giving your life is easy compared to being the one who survives.
• Every single captain in the Star Trek franchise. Pick any of the shows and there are at least three episodes in which either Kirk or Janeway or Picard either engages self-destruct or tries to destroy the ship on something else in an effort (admittedly last-ditch) to stop the enemy of the week. The rest of the crews qualify too, as they never object to it. Given that Starfleet Academy include Face Your Fears as part of its admission tests and then puts cadets through the Kobayashi Maru to gauge their reactions to certain-death scenarios, this might be true of every Starfleet captain period.
  • When Captain Picard has been captured by the Borg Collective in «Best of Both Worlds», he says that humans would choose death rather than give up their freedom and individuality in the Borg Hive Mind. The Borg chillingly reply, «Death is irrelevant.» They then give Picard a Fate Worse than Death by assimilating him as Locutus of Borg.
  • Deconstructed with Kirk later on, as he’s terrified of getting old and becoming useless, and he would rather die than live out his days after retirement. The Nexus lets him fix every mistake he feels he’s made, and he Goes Out With A Smile after being told he’s made a difference.
• Supernatural has more than one Death Seeker in the main cast, so this occurs in various forms.
  • Played straight in «In My Time Of Dying» with John Winchester, who willingly sells his soul to save Dean.
  • Played with all of Season 3, when Dean has sold his soul and has one year to live. At first, he lives it up and hurts both Bobby and Sam with his blithe attitude and unwillingness to try and save himself. Eventually, he admits he doesn’t want to die and go to Hell, but he also seems resigned and shows little fear. Finally, the trope heartbreakingly subverted in «No Rest for The Wicked» when he puts on a brave face and tells Sam he must accept that Dean will die, but by by the time the hellhounds start pursuing him, he’s absolutely terrified and continues to be so as they tear him apart.
  • Sam becomes The Atoner in Season 5, willing to sacrifice himself to stop Lucifer. At the end of Season 8, he’s also completely at peace with dying and gets angry at Dean for the lengths he goes to bring him back.
  • True to an absurd degree in the Season 5 episode «Dark Side of the Moon» when angry hunters kill Sam and then are about to kill Dean, Dean shows no fear whatsoever because he knows very well that the host of Heaven will bring them back. He’s more angry at the hunters and promises revenge when he does come back.
  • Played straight with Castiel on a number of occasions. He is especially fearless when he stands up to an archangel at the end of Season 4, knowing he will die in the process.
  • Dean at the end of Season 11, offers to sacrifice himself to stop Amara and is at peace with the prospect of dying.
• In Tiger King, Joe Exotic declares that he’s not afraid of dying, pointing out that he’s gone into tiger cages.
• In the 1997 British mini-series Underworld, a hitman tries threatening a group of elderly residents with his gun. They just scoff at him, because they’re in a hospice and they’re dying anyway.

• One of the spoken word fragments on Pink Floyd‘s The Dark Side of the Moon (just as «The Great Gig In The Sky» starts) is Abbey Road doorman Gerry O’Driscoll admitting that he is not afraid to die.

  Gerry O’Driscoll: And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don’t mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There’s no reason for it � you’ve all got to go sometime.

• «Ain’t Afraid to Die» by Dir en grey. Lampshaded during the outro, when vocalist Kyo abruptly stops singing the final lines of the song, implying that he died before he could finish.
• Robbie Williams’ essay on self-loathing Come Undone contains the line «I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to.»
• Invoked by name in the lyrics of Got A Reason by Crashdiet.
• In Nick Cave’s song «The Mercy Seat,» the song is sung from the perspective of a criminal being executed by the electric chair. He repeatedly proclaims «I’m not afraid to die,» in the refrain of the song, until the very last line, «I’m afraid I told a lie.»
• «Dont Fear The Reaper» from Agents of Fortune makes this its basic message.

• The Bible is full of examples. Justified, since living again after death is a key teaching.
  • Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, about to be burnt for refusing to worship an idol, cheerfully inform the king that they believe their God will protect them, but even if He doesn’t, they still won’t worship the king’s gods.
  • Jesus, when being unjustly arrested, stops Peter from fighting back; provokes the Sanhedrin at the (illegal) trial by continuing to claim divinity, but otherwise doesn’t answer; shrugs at the Roman governor’s warning that he has power over Jesus’ life and death; forgives the soldiers who carry out the execution; and takes the time, while hanging on the cross, to reassure a fellow condemned that they will both be in paradise later that day.
  • Even villains get an example; Agag, the king of the Amalekites, after seeing his nation destroyed and looted, tells Samuel the prophet that «surely the bitterness of death is past.»
• The Book of Mormon has both heroic and villainous examples.
  • The people of Ammon, formerly violent thieves and murderers, are converted to the gospel and deeply repentant about their past behaviour. Fearing that they could relapse, they all swear an Actual Pacifist oath, and hold to it even when their unconverted brethren turn up and begin slaughtering them en masse. Ammon has to get specific instructions from God to even persuade them to run away.
  • Their sons, who learned the same fearlessness but never swore the oath of pacifism, sign up for the army instead and swear an oath to fight for freedom. Because they «did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives,» they are such fierce fighters that on at least one occasion they frighten a much larger force into surrendering.
  • A dark example comes near the end of the account, when Mormon reports that the Nephites fight as if they have no fear of death, not because of courage, but because they are so consumed with hatred and revenge. In the end, when they face being hopelessly massacred, it turns out that they are still afraid of death, they were just covering it up until now.

• Harriet from Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues doesn’t feel like she deserves to live after the death of her parents, which she blames herself for. While she doesn’t actively seek death, she’s also content to do nothing when it seems like her school is going to explode with her in it.

• George Carlin once cited this trope as a reason that applying the death penalty to drug dealers was doomed to failure.

  «Drug dealers aren’t afraid to die. They’re already killing each other on the streets, every day, by the hundreds! Drivebys, gang shootings, they’re not afraid to die. The death penalty doesn’t mean anything [as a deterrent] unless you use it on people that are afraid to die. Like the bankers who launder the drug money! Forget the dealers, you want to slow down the drug traffic, start executing some of these bankers! White, middle class Republican bankers. … I guarantee you one thing, you nail one white banker to a cross every week and you’ll see that drug traffic slow down pretty fucking quick. You won’t even be able to buy drugs in schools and prisons anymore!»

• It’s also a prerequisite in the Dark Sun campaign, seeing as Athas is a Death World where learning how to survive is far more important than learning to read. Water and food are scarce, the wildlife is deadly, humans are worse, and to top it off, [[there are fates worse than death here.
• Given the fact that Everything Is Trying to Kill You in Warhammer 40,000, not being afraid to die is a requirement for survival amongst all factions. Space Marines in particular have had the fear of death literally purged from their mind, but they do still feel abstract fears like failure.
  • The Death Specters chapter of Space Marines have a final test to become one of them. The hopeful is killed and must resurrect himself through sheer force of will. If he passes, he is accepted as a Space Marine.
  • Orks have no fear of death, as Orks are a synthetic species that didn’t exist when the C’Tan introduced fear of death into the primordial soup. In their own words «Orks is made for fightin’ an’ winnin'» and if they die in the course of that, it’s regrettable, but nothing else; they also don’t fear death because orks have their own form of Resurrective Immortality. Every ork believes that if they die gork (or mork) will swallow their souls and belch them back into another ork body, essentially even dying is considered a chance to have another go at winning.
  • The Eldar don’t fear death as long as they are able to keep their souls safe from Slaanesh. The Craftworld Eldar’s most desperate solution to dealing with Slaanesh once and for all actually requires all of them to die: they hope that their souls will form a death god capable of kicking Slaanesh’s rear.
    • Considering Slaanesh was made from them and eats Eldar souls and Eldar gods alike…perhaps an Eldar god made of Eldar souls is a potentially bad idea.
• In Warhammer, the Phoenix Guard are the personal bodyguards of the elven Phoenix King. As part of their initiation into this most elite unit, they are shown a vision of the circumstances of their death. In the tabletop, this grants them a +4 Ward save (the «Witness to Destiny» special rule) to represent their Plot Armor. In Total War: Warhammer, this manifests as having a whopping Leadership score of 90 (most elite units in other armies have around 70-ish) and they cause Fear as their Dissonant Serenity as they carve through enemy units with their halberds unnerves all but the most hardened or deranged of their foes.

• The Girl of the Golden West:

  Johnson: Oh, I don’t care what you do to me. I’m prepared for death. That’s nothing new. The man who travels my path faces death every day—for a drink of water or ten minutes’ sleep. You’ve got me, and I wouldn’t care… but for the Girl.

• The title character of Julius Caesar is not afraid of dying even in light of all the ominous omens taking place in Rome throughout the night, telling those who try to counsel him not to go to the Senate that death «will come when it will come.» But he is pretty bummed to find out that Brutus was among the conspirators against his life.

• Ulthane from Darksiders. At one point War points a gun in his direction. Unimpressed, Ulthane simply shoves his face right into the muzzle.

  Ulthane: Do I look like I’m afraid of death, Horseman?

• Dragon Age:
  • Wynne from Dragon Age: Origins has in fact already died, but was kept back by a benevolent Spirit of the Faith entering her body and using its own power to keep her alive. However the strain of this is weakening the Spirit, leading her to realize she can collapse and die at any moment. Nonetheless, she is perfectly fine with this because she has no regrets about the life she lived (except one, which you can help resolve in her personal sidequest), devoting her remaining time to aiding the Warden. This is brought to the point in the supplementary novel Asunder, where Wynne, without batting an eye, transfers the spirit that has kept her alive for eight years to the fallen Templar Evangeline, resurrecting her but dying herself.
  • This is also embodied by the Grey Wardens, whose organization is based on the principle that they are willing to sacrifice their lives to defeat the Darkspawn. Furthermore, after they undergo the Joining ritual, their members have about thirty years left to live until they suffer ghoulification, whereupon they embark on their Calling, intending to end their days in the Deep Roads by performing a Last Stand against the horde, taking down as many as possible before they’re finally slain.
• Fatal Frame II has Seijiro Makabe, a normal folklorist that visited Minakami village. He was imprisoned and learned that he was going to be the human sacrifice for the ritual to create a Kusabi. His spirit is seen multiple times, and ends up expressing genuine interest and joy to be allowed to experience this secretive ritual first-hand.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Yeul in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Which makes Caius’ centuries-long Xanatos Gambit to «save her» somewhat unnecessary — too bad he doesn’t realize it until the end. Also, Serah by the end: when Caius tries to unnerve her by saying she’ll die if she continues on her path, she says she doesn’t care anymore, and that if the future is saved, she’s not afraid to die.
  • Lunafreya from Final Fantasy XV expresses this sentiment in the prequel film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV when Nyx points out that she’s going to end up killing herself if she keeps pulling stunts like running headfirst into danger instead of away and jumping off airships.

    Lunafreya: Not all miracles are made by magic; I do not fear death. What I fear is doing nothing, and losing everything.

    • In the game, it is revealed that she is aware that she will die once she fulfills her calling to help Noctis. It is likely that her lack of fear of death is a result of having known about her death since she became the Oracle at 16, and having made peace with it by the time of the film.
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: Dys was given a Bio-Augmentation that turns off his sense of fear. Death is merely one item on the long list of things of which he isn’t scared nearly as much as other people are.
• Jak X: Combat Racing: Poisoned, receiving death threats and a bounty on his head, Jak states that he’s not bothered by any it and that he’s not afraid to die. Daxter on the other hand…

  Daxter: Whoa! Freeze frame! I’d like to go on record right here that I’m firmly and officially against dying. In any way.

• Jarvan IV from League of Legends exemplifies this, being the Crown Prince of Demacia, whose creed involve, aside of equally punishing everyone for any form of crimes, to always attack, never retreat or surrender. He boasts several quotes that shows complete fearlessness towards death, such as «We shall rest when we are dead!», «Ours is but to do and die!», «Today is a good day to die!», etc, and his skill kit shows this, emphasizing on charging onto the enemy and beating the crap out of them while also hindering their attempts to escape, but most notably his Ultimate, Cataclysm, where Jarvan creates an ‘impassable’ barrier and unless the enemy has an escape method, their escape route is blocked, and their option is just to fight, and either kill or be killed by Jarvan (and the former, he has no qualms about it). And for the record, most of the time, Jarvan doesn’t intend to get out of it, especially when said move is more often used at the middle of enemy ranks and probably attracting enemies to wail on his tough body while his allies pick off the distracted.
  • Subverted by some actual Jarvan play. There’s a play where Jarvan uses his Cataclysm on enemies under his own turret — only to Flash out of it and run away while they are stuck inside.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, because Rean has become the chosen one to become a sacrifice for the curse of Erebonia, he ends up accepting that he will have to die, something that his friends call him out on but ultimately concede as Rean’s essentially living his last moments with them. When the time comes to finally sacrifice his life to save the world and his friends, he takes it as he, Crow, and Millium (Crow’s life is tied to Rean’s and Millium’s mostly dead already and her soul is confined inside the Sword of Demise that Rean’s been using throughout Cold Steel IV) sacrifice their lives to destroy Ishmelga and the Great One for good.
• Mass Effect:
  • Commander Shepard often displays this in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Makes sense, since they’ve already done that, having been killed at the start of the second game.

    Garrus: The Collectors already killed you once and all it did was piss you off…

  • However, by Mass Effect 3 various dialogue options suggest that Commander Shepard has become a borderline Death Seeker, putting it in a grimmer light. While Shepard is not actively trying to kill themselves, they are emotionally exhausted and EDI mentions their armor records them as being under more stress in their normal resting state than during the Skyllian Blitz/Battle of Torfan/Thresher Maw attack, and it’s greatly implied that Shepard would consider death a relief at this point.
  • Mass Effect 3 also has Shepard’s new shuttle pilot, Steve Cortez. Like Shepard, he’s not actively trying to kill himself, but his husband’s death during the events of the previous game wiped out his self-preservation instinct. Steve’s survival depends on Shepard helping him get over this.
• Averted in Red Dead Redemption II. Arthur Morgan is not a man who scares easy: America’s deadliest predators don’t give him much pause, and he doesn’t worry about getting slashed or shot in a fight. But he knows full well he cannot do anything to save himself from a drawn-out, emasculating death by a lung infection (i.e., tuberculosis), and worse, he dreads what kind of judgment he might face because of the life he has led. He admits to Sister Calderon that he knows his doom is close and it’s the one time in the game he looks actually vulnerable.
• As Ninja, all the characters from Senran Kagura clearly state several times that they are ready to lay down their lives for their mission’s sake or to defeat an enemy.
• Supplementary information for Splatoon 2‘s Salmon Run mode says that the Salmonids, the Fish People the players fight, are not afraid of death. This is because Salmonid culture has them fighting while wielding cookware such as frying pans and barbecue grillers and whatnot, to make themselves look «tasty». It was also said that other sea creatures killing and eating Salmonids is their way of becoming one with the world and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic If your Outlander Player Character chooses to save Vette over Torian, the latter will remark this. It helps that he is a Mandalorian and expects to meet his end in battle.
• Total War has units that can be unbreakable and immune to losing morale, or a few abilities that can cause this to units, which therefore are either of this trope or are Death Seekers. This is quite a boon considering in most cases, units will rout from having their morale depleted before being entirely destroyed instead, though it’s not uncommon for these unbreakable units have that kind of morale to balance out how quickly they will die if put under duress anyway.
• In the Final Battle of Warcraft III, Malfurion Stormrage comes up with a plan to defeat Archimonde by blowing up the World Tree right in his face. When Tyrande points out that this will rob the Night Elves of their immortality, Malfurion replies that if fear of death is enough to make them hesitate then maybe they have lived long enough.
• Letho of Gulet, an assassin from The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings decides to meet Geralt knowing that he might not came alive from this encounter. If he survives, he pulls a potentially fatal Batman Gambit without batting an eye in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

• Shirou Emiya from Fate/stay night is also a man without the fear of death. In fact, he is literally unable to value his own life, with his main drive being his dream of becoming a Hero of Justice able to save everyone around him, regardless of what it will cost him.
• Shiki Tohno, the protagonist of Tsukihime, has very frail health and is perfectly at peace with the fact that any moment, his life can cease for no particular reason. It helps that he literally sees death everywhere (without his glasses) and has actually been killed before. Though he’s not dead either. It’s a little weird.

• In RWBY, Ruby Rose is described this way. She is a great warrior, but very naive and idealistic, not to mention inexperienced, so she is completely nonchalant about death.

• Ellen in El Goonish Shive was like this while she thought she was going to exist only until the end of the month.
• In The Mansion of E, Crud the Gnoll displays this attitude at one point.
• In The Order of the Stick, Paladins of the Sapphire Guard have had their ability to fear anything removed by the Southern Gods. This is sometimes a bit troublesome; for example, it took a lot of convincing for Hinjo to realize that no, the fight for Azure City had been definitively lost and retreating with his people was the smarter idea.
  • General Tarquin isn’t afraid of death, he’s actually expecting it. Being the Man Behind the Man ruler of three evil empires, Tarquin gets to live like a king, until some hero finally manages to defeat him, and then he becomes a legend. What he is scared of is a meaningless death and becoming a footnote in history.
• The Team Fortress 2 series’ most recent set of comics. At this point, no one is afraid of true death, as most of them have already died and been brought back. Summed up with this line from Sniper.

• In the Batman: The Animated Series episode «Day of the Samurai», evil ninja Kyodai Ken challenges Batman to a duel near a volcano. Eventually, the volcano erupts, and Batman suggests they postpone the match and get to safety. Kyodai roars, «It doesn’t matter! Ninja do not fear death!» Sure enough, when he is about to die, Kyodai stoically bows to Batman before he is engulfed in lava.
  • In «Joker’s Favor», Charlie Collins figures out that while the Joker isn’t afraid to die, he IS afraid of dying at the hands of a «miserable little nobody» like Charlie himself. Jokers only real dream is to go out in a blaze of glory fighting Batman, either being killed by him, or even better, the two killing eachother. Charlie manages to terrify The Joker into handing himself over to Batman and promising to leave Charlie and his family alone for good by threatening to kill both of them with suicide bombing.
• Philly Phil from Class of 3000 is a subtle example. He has zero reservations about launching himself into deep space, is fairly placid about the idea of having his brain boiled, and doesn’t hesitate to grab onto a single-seat biplane with nothing to secure himself beyond his bare hands.
• The Mayor of Gravity Falls is over a century old, and while he’s still in remarkably good health for a man of his age (he shows no sign of senility and, while he does need a wheelchair, doesn’t appear to be sick or in pain), he’s also aware his remaining time on Earth is limited and is quite alright with that. Upon mistaking a ghost for the Grim Reaper, while everyone else is terrified, he just nonchalantly says he’s been wondering when he’d show up.
• GIR the robot in Invader Zim is somewhere between this trope and a Death Seeker due to his, umm… questionable programming. While he doesn’t actively try to get himself destroyed, he’ll cheer in the face of impending doom and sometimes act disappointed at avoiding it.

  «Aww, I wanted to explode.»

• Max Steel has Psycho, as shown when he threatens to drop a canister with a deadly substance.

  Jefferson: You drop that and we all die!

  Psycho: And yet, I don’t seem to care. Must be why they call me PSYCHO!

• The Scotsman of Samurai Jack fears nothing… not evil Celtic spirits, not mind-controlling sirens, not Aku himself, to the point that in Season 5, he actually has the temerity to confront Aku in person and viciously lambaste him for his cowardice in regards to facing Jack, all while being a fat, wheelchair-bound geriatric. Aku kills him with his Eye Beams for this, but can’t even summon up the energy to do so properly because the Scotsman’s barbs hit home and depress Aku even further. The Scotsman comes Back from the Dead anyway about a minute later as a magic Celtic ghost. The only two things that can cause him distress are the thought of his wife or his best friend Jack in trouble.
• The Simpsons:
  • In «One Fish Two Fish Blowfish Blue Fish», Homer believes he has only 22 hours to live, but gets over fear of death quickly, and tries to make the most out of one day.
  • Played for Laughs in «Guess Who’s Coming To Criticize Dinner»; when Lisa tells Homer the poisoned eclair is going to kill him, he simply shrugs and says «I’ve had a good run.»
  • In the story Oh, the Places You’ll D’oh from «Treehouse of Horror XXIV», the Fat in the Hat (Homer) acts like this as he lays dying.
• Omega Supreme is characterized this way in Transformers: Animated. He is far more concerned about what his size and weapons might do to his allies than his own life.

  «I am programmed to protect and sacrifice if necessary.»

• Steven Universe: Blue Diamond sometimes visits Pink Diamond’s grave on Earth even though, as far as she knows, the Cluster could become active at any moment and wipe out the planet and everything on it, herself included.

I see you coming, but I won’t step back
We don’t take kindly, being under attack
I hear the fear in every word that you say
I love the danger, let the wolves come out to play
The crowd, they gather on the street, and they want blood
I’m not a hero but the fight is like a drug
You’ve only got 10 more paces to live
Enjoy your last moments, they’re my gift to give

And then the moment, it hit’s you
Adrenaline to the heart
Never let anyone beat you
Not about to start

[Chorus]

I’ll be the loaded gun
The only one
That I will ever need
And when my time is done
The battle’s won
Will you remember me?

We’ll write it cross the sky
Won’t look back and say goodbye
This is a battle cry-y-y
I’m not afraid to die

I count the final seconds, 3,2,1
My fingers twitch around the handle of the gun
I turn and shoot and as the smoke clears away
Your problem’s gone, I live to fight another day
My job is done so now I’ll ride out of town
I’m sorry honey, but I’ll just let you down
You’ll be addicted the moment you kiss me
But I only do love when it’s soaked in whiskey
And then the moment, it hit’s you
Adrenaline to the heart
Never let anyone beat you
Not about to start

[Chorus x 2]

I’m not afraid to die
I’m not afraid to die
This is a battle cry-y-y
I’m not afraid to die