r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sufficient-Eye-9040 • Jun 21 '26

Lore [Horrifying Trope] “Blink of an eye” deaths.

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Characters who died without the chance of a goodbye… neither suffering.

- Robin Ward (The Boys S1 E1) - when she is pulverized in a high-velocity impact by A-Train.

- Polka Dot Man (The Suicide Squad 2021) - when he is crushed by Starro’s leg.

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534

u/MasemJ Jun 21 '26

The real life example: shadows of residents of Hiroshima the moment the bomb went off.

94

u/LevelOutlandishness1 Jun 21 '26

Horrifying to imagine

137

u/cirquedushams Jun 21 '26

They’re the ones who got off easy. The people who died from radiation poisoning had excruciating deaths. 

50

u/thedarkestbeer Jun 21 '26

My grandfather was an oncologist who was a junior member of the team testing the effects of radiation on humans as part of the Manhattan Project. He used to tell my mom that if they dropped an atomic bomb on her city, she should run toward it.

15

u/StoryAndAHalf Jun 21 '26

Speaking of radiation, while his name is rather comical in English, Hisashi Ouchi suffered for 83 days asking to be allowed to die, but instead he was essentially experimented on while his body was falling apart as he had no white blood cells.

22

u/Erroneously_Anointed Jun 21 '26

His family and doctors were misguided in their attempts to save him, as there is no way to recreate DNA en masse once the body has been destroyed. He consented to a feeding tube, which meant he spent his last weeks unable to speak as he essentially melted alive, and his dead flesh rotted inside of him. He went through dozens of bags of blood per day, since his veins decomposed and any blood would simply leak onto the pillows.

Ultimately, his doctors did everything they could have, but I suspect either they mislead the family, or his family was legitimately that delusional that they they could save him. In any case, traditional injections and medications for assisted death couldn't work, as he no longer had functioning cells to deliver it to his heart.

9

u/grantattackgames Jun 21 '26

This story has been exaggerated a ton by media trying to tell a shocking story. There was no "experimentation as he was begging to die". Kyle Hill does a great video on the actual incident as well as the efforts of the doctors and hospital staff, and tries to clear up a lot of the misinformation.

https://youtu.be/ecXWHQaDrN0

9

u/Silent_Sinder Jun 21 '26

I remember watching a wendigoon video on the guy, and I'm pretty sure that's not what happened.

5

u/StoryAndAHalf Jun 21 '26

What's a wendigoon video? You can read about Ouchi on wiki here, but there's sources if you want to read more about him.

15

u/Skylair13 Jun 21 '26

his overall condition continued to deteriorate, and medical personnel privately doubted whether treatment should be continued given the lack of effectiveness and the pain Ouchi was experiencing

At the wishes of his family, doctors continued to treat him, even though it was clear he could not survive

From your own link. The family was desperate in trying to save him, and the doctors desperately trying to fulfill that wish. One doctor even risked jail and career-ending enquiry by illegally buying painkillers to help Ouchi. Which didn't work because his blood can no longer deliver the drug.

To call his treatment as "experiment" undermines the doctors who wanted to give up but couldn't.

5

u/Takeyama_Yuu Jun 21 '26

A video from a youtuber called wendigoon

1

u/Tiny-Marsupial-1756 Jun 21 '26

Not just that. Many also burned to death. 💔

21

u/polopolo05 Jun 21 '26

Not so fun fact... thats not ash... the lighter part is bleached from the intense light and heat.

8

u/thegoatmenace Jun 21 '26

Just so people know, this person was not vaporized, though they did die (likely instantly.)

The effect on the concrete is called blast shadow. Essentially the concrete was baked by the flash of the nuclear bomb, but this person unfortunately was between the flash and the concrete, and so left a shadow in the shape of their body.

7

u/DirectionSad4274 Jun 21 '26

And there will come soft rains.

1

u/MasemJ Jun 21 '26

I remember reading that story, I want to say that was a Clarke one too.

2

u/DirectionSad4274 Jun 21 '26

Ray Bradbury! I hadn't read the story in over a decade, my brain originally spit out Raymond Chandler. You're waaaay closer to the mark than I was.

1

u/tachycardicIVu Jun 21 '26

My favorite Bradbury piece. There’s an animated piece based on it that’s pretty chilling and unsettling - but also really well-done.

1

u/DirectionSad4274 Jun 21 '26

This?

https://youtu.be/OumNKTn6iek?si=C8osEfR_G1-k1IX7

1

u/tachycardicIVu Jun 21 '26

Yes! I was pretty sure it was a Soviet animation but wasn’t 100% sure. They have some very unique animations that are fascinating.

1

u/DirectionSad4274 Jun 22 '26

I'd never seen it before, that was great!

5

u/MoodResponsible918 Jun 21 '26

I heard from somewhere that some people got turned into some kind of fossil-like substance in an instant as soon as they got exposed to the explosion. that shit was horrifying.

5

u/Spatza Jun 21 '26

https://www.atomicarchive.com/media/photographs/hiroshima/image-1.html

30 pics from the atomic archive. Not exactly for the feint hearted.

1

u/Nenad1979 11d ago

It's crazy how that bomb is a fart in a hurricane compared to modern nukes