Most video and computer games have one thing in common: Players move through different levels, each progressively more difficult than the last. The biggest challenge comes at the final level, when you have to face the most powerful or evil entity. Stellar evolution is similar, with stars passing through different stages of stellar activity before they can move on to the next stage. There is one big difference—a game player can win the final level, but a star at the final stage of evolution always ceases to shine with the vigor that it had previously. In the end, stars more massive than red dwarfs eject vast quantities of gas and dust into interstellar space. In human terms, they die. In this chapter and in Chapter 14, we learn how the later stages of stellar evolution are significantly different for stars with different masses. Some of them stop evolving by relatively mild emissions of their outer layers, while others have spectacular finales.