View source for Senseless Sacrifice

{{trope}}
{{quote|''"The history of the [[Space Marine|Astartes]] is filled with [[Last Stand|defiant last stands]] and [[Heroic Sacrifice|suicidal actions]], [[Honor Before Reason|most of which were probably unnecessary]]."''|''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''}}

There's something inherently heroic, [[Tragedy|tragic]], romantic, and ''triumphant'' about a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. It speaks of a love, idealism, commitment and the titanium plated ''sheer cojones'' of anyone capable of doing such. It's not surprising then that many consider even a [[Complete Monster]] can win [[Redemption Equals Death|redemption]] with a well played Heroic Sacrifice.

[[Yank the Dog's Chain|Pity it was all in vain.]]

A Senseless Sacrifice is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. It's a [[Downer Ending|downer]] counterpart to a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], because rather than kill the bad guy, fulfill the prophecy, or allow the other survivors to escape alive... it ''doesn't.'' The [[Big Bad]] survived the [[Self-Destructive Charge]], the prophecy actually meant [[The End of the World as We Know It]] would ''start'' with a selfless sacrifice, and the raft the survivors are on ''has no gas''.

This usually happens to anyone who isn't [[The Hero]] or [[The Messiah]] while attempting a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], especially before the [[Season Finale]], because 'only the hero can save the day'. It may serve as fuel for [[Heroic Resolve]] and/or an [[Unstoppable Rage]] later, [[Friendly Target|not that it helps the dead martyr]]. Typically, the [[Redshirt Army]] [[Dying Like Animals|charging like boars]] will have this happen to them, with the protagonists lamenting "[[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life]]".

If you ''really'' want to mess with the hero and audience, the villain will [[Batman Gambit|reveal]] that the martyr was tilting at windmills; it was all a plot of his designed to [[Flaw Exploitation|exploit]] his [[Martyr Without a Cause|martyr]] [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|complex.]]

For this trope to be subverted does not require that it have been a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. What needs to happen is that the previously "senseless" sacrifice was actually either a [[Batman Gambit]] on the martyr's part to create an exploitable weakness for the hero to use later, or doing so by sheer [[Spanner in the Works|dumb luck]].

Borderline cases occur when the sacrifice accomplished nothing except to reveal that doing something can't be done, and so [[The Hero]] chooses a different course that will result in his success (and possibly even survival).

Sometimes explicitly invoked to [[Rousing Speech|inspire]] [[Losing the Team Spirit|characters dispirited by the death]]: [[To Absent Friends|Remember Jack Sacrifice!]] If you do not do this, his [[Heroic Sacrifice]] will have been all in vain! (And sometimes the hope of ensuring it was not all in vain will inspire characters to make more and more Senseless Sacrifices, even a [[Stupid Sacrifice]] in hopes of redeeming the previous ones.)

'''If the character in question sacrificed himself to accomplish a goal, when he could have accomplished the same goal without dying, that's [[Stupid Sacrifice]], ''not'' this trope.''' The two tropes can overlap if a '''Senseless Sacrifice''' is not the most logical option, but it is fairly rare.

Though [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], this one is a [[Pet Peeve Trope]] for some.

Subtrope of [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Contrast with [[Stupid Sacrifice]]. See also [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]. [[Hope Spot]] is generally the moment between the sacrifice and the reveal.

Since such sacrifices often happen at the end of the story, '''Spoilers Abound here'''.

{{deathtrope}}

{{examples}}

== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'':
** [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|In the anime]], Dorochete and Law attempt to hold off Lust and Gluttony so that Greed can escape. Despite their valiant effort, they are struck down immediately and are subsequently eaten by Gluttony.
** [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|The manga]] double-subverts this with the death of Fu. After Wrath wounds him and he realizes that he cannot fight him for much longer, he rips off his shirt to reveal four explosives and lunges at Wrath to kill them both... but Wrath just slices the fuses off of the explosives with his sword, rendering them harmless and slicing open Fu's belly in the process. Buccaneer, who had already been fatally wounded, seizes the opportunity and stabs Wrath ''through'' Fu, taking advantage of the one blind spot in Wrath's otherwise perfect vision to seriously injure him.
* Batist in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' dramatically sets his M9 for a ten second self destruct to take down Gauron, makes a heroic speech, and immediately charges and tries to grapple him... only for Gauron to shoot his AS in half at the last second and teleport away, well outside the blast radius.
* {{spoiler|Kouki}} in ''[[Starship Operators]]''.
* Happens '''all''' the time in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'': Mutenroshi (Who later in the Saiyan arc openly admits that such losses are both senseless and tragic) and Chiaotzu against King Piccolo, Chiaotzu ''again'' and Tenshinhan against Nappa, and Vegeta against Majin Buu. Of course, [[Death Is Cheap|it's Dragonball]], so [[Unexplained Recovery|they all get better]], but still.
** Android 16 didn't, sadly. His plan to bear hug Cell and just blow the living daylights out of him {{spoiler|failed when it was revealed that his self-destruct mechanism was removed when Bulma reconstructed him.}} And by the look on Cell's eyes, it might, ''might'' have worked had he pulled it off.
*** [[Subverted]] into a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. When 16 was broken apart, he could still theoretically be repaired, but then he had Mr. Satan throw his head towards Gohan and Cell, and arranged for Cell to squash his head, to inspire Gohan to attain the next Super Saiyan level.
** Goku pulled one off against Cell too, by teleporting to King Kai's planet with him shortly after Cell decided to self-destruct.  {{spoiler|Cell's core survived, allowing him to regenerate, AND become EVEN stronger because of his [[Lego Genetics|Saiyan genes.]]}}
*** Which means that even if 16's original plan had worked, the outcome would've likely remained the same, except that 16 wouldn't have been around to inspire Gohan.
*** To be fair, Goku DID save Earth.
*** But if you count the movies, this also caused a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] by freeing a certain nasty space pirate.
* Averted in ''[[Gall Force]] 2'' where the latest Catty plans to get the team through a blast door by detonating her own internal power supply. At the last moment the leader of the team points out that there's another blast door beyond it. Fortunately, Luffy then shows up in a [[Big Damn Heroes|Big Damn]] [[Humongous Mecha]].
* Happens several times in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', most notably when Rei attempts a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] against [[Big Bad|Raoh]], only to have him counter it in a laughably easy way. Juza also tries to give his life to break Raoh's arm, only to have it completely fail. Raoh seems to enjoy evoking this trope.
* Miyuki/Rapier in ''[[Tekkaman Blade]]'' self-destructed to try to take out Sword, Lance, and Axe. It didn't work, although she ''did'' force them to retreat, so it's only a partial example.
* At the end of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]''—the ''anime'' adaptation--{{spoiler|Chrono and Rosette}} die peacefully from injuries they received in a {{spoiler|a fight with Aion}}. But they won the battle, so this is just a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], right? Wrong. {{spoiler|Aion [[Karma Houdini|comes back from the dead]], revived by [[As Long as There Is Evil|the hatred of humanity]], and then goes on to assassinate the Pope in the final scene of the series.}} The series is infamous for its [[Downer Ending]] among those who have seen it.
** {{spoiler|But he DID fail to take over the planet, and I thought that assassination actually failed?}}
*** He did fail, he was going after John Paul II, during the 80s, the old guy kept going until just a couple of years ago.
* The death of BlackWarGreymon towards the end of ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' partially counts as this; sure he managed to protect Cody's grandfather, but then he attempted to use his body to stop Myotismon from entering the Digital World again. Too bad that's exactly what happened a few episodes later.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. In the series, there's {{spoiler|Rei II}}'s death, although {{spoiler|"[[We Have Reserves|if she died, she could be replaced!]]" thanks to cloning}}. Aside from that, Senseless Sacrifice basically sums up the entire plot of ''End Of Evangelion'': {{spoiler|so many sacrifice so much to prevent Instrumentality, and it happens anyway. On the other hand, Gendo has made countless sacrifices to achieve Instrumentality, only for his son to reject it, and there's still the possibility the rest of humanity will as well, so maybe it's a Senseless Sacrifice all around.}}
** At least Rei destroyed an Angel and saved Shinji. That has to count for something.
** In the very first episode:
{{quote|'''General 1:''' We sacrificed a whole city for nothing...
'''General 3:''' Damned monster! }}
* {{spoiler|Vanessa's}} death in ''[[Madlax]]'' was probably intended by her as a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to protect Madlax. What she didn't know was that by that time, Madlax was already [[Nigh Invulnerable]], [[Immune to Bullets]], and so on, so she actually did ''more'' harm to her by dying (and sending her into [[Heroic BSOD|clinical depression]]) than she could have possibly prevented.
** Well, Madlax got out of her depression quick enough—by running off with the woman who killed {{spoiler|Vanessa}}. That's some [[Karma Houdini]] we're talking about here.
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]'', Henken uses the battleship ''Radish'' as a shield in an attempt to save Emma and the Gundam Mk-II from Yazan and his Hambrabi. Yazan kills him and later kills Emma.
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|Victory Gundam]]'' there are a few examples but the most egregious by far is  {{spoiler|[[Team Dad|Oliver Inoue's]],}} who manages to destroy a [[Mid-Season Upgrade|V2 Gundam]] to deal negligible damage to the enemy, leaving behind a pregnant wife.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'', season one. {{spoiler|Neil Dylandy, the original Lockon Stratos}}, combines this with essentially his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]. It was tough to swallow, but forgivable... until {{spoiler|Ali Al-Saachez}} returns in season two, with no preamble, and more sadistic than ever.
** Even if it didn't finish him off, it did take him out for the rest of the season, which in turn allowed the rest of Celestial Being to survive the final battle. On the other hand if {{spoiler|Lockon}} had saved himself he might have lived a few more days but with {{spoiler|Ali's}} help the UN forces would have exterminated Celestial Being and everyone would have died anyway.
** A second example comes in the form of {{spoiler|Lichtendal}} who dies trying to save {{spoiler|Christina when the Ptolemaios blows up}}. It's too bad {{spoiler|Christina's injuries are too severe and she ends up dying moments after anyways.}}
* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' has a huge [[Tear Jerker]] in the form of the death of {{spoiler|Nuriko}}. Rather than simply wait for Mitsukake, who could have cleared up his injuries with a touch, he decides to use the last of his strength to move a huge boulder, and dies of the strain. The reason it's a Senseless Sacrifice? ''The boulder isn't actually blocking the cave entrance it's in front of''. There's enough room to just ''walk around it''. There are even skeletons already ''inside'' the cave when the rest of the Seishi finally get in!
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' opens with a senseless sacrifice by the main character. It appears as though he saved a child from being run over, but the [[Grim Reaper]] later remarks that the car would have veered out of the way if not for the confusion of Yusuke jumping into the street to push the child out of the way.
** To add insult to injury, the child actually took more damage from being pushed onto the ground than he would have taken otherwise. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].
{{quote|'''Botan:''' "The kid would've survived without a scratch without your intervention, but thanks to your meddling, the kid gets scraped up, and you ''die.'' Haha, way to go, moron!"}}
:* Subverted however, in that while the sacrifice was useless in it's intended purpose, it ultimately allowed Yusuke to turn his life around (once he got it ''[[Back from the Dead|back]],'' of course).
* In the manga version of ''[[Elfen Lied]]'', doomed clumsy girl Kisaragi is informed by Kurama that she must be sacrificed in order to kill Lucy, who has taken her hostage. She agrees to this readily, owing to her deep feelings for her boss. Arguably, the anime, wherein Lucy simply kills her ASAP, leaving a dumb look on the poor girl's floating severed head, owns the shock value. But when Lucy is able to use her hostage's death to confuse things just enough to help ensure her escape, she does not hesitate to taunt the hell out of Kurama, stating 'Her Death Was Useless!'.
** Though Kisaragi's death ''does'' inspire Kurama not to try sacrifice anyone else to stop Lucy. This ends up saving Nana's life later.
* {{spoiler|Jim Crocodile Cook}} in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''. It's not ''entirely'' pointless, but it only reveals the strengths and weaknesses of {{spoiler|Haou, Judai's super powered evil side}} so that {{spoiler|O'Brien}} can make a proper heroic sacrifice.
* The death of {{spoiler|Norris Packard}} in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team]]''. He dies {{spoiler|destroying the Guntanks being escorted by the 08th Team, clearing an escape path for a ship full of wounded soldiers. Unfortunately, Ginias decides to punctuate his decent into madness by violating a temporary ceasefire, so the Federation retaliates by shooting down the ship with a sniper MS.}}
* A borderline case happens to {{spoiler|Ran}} in a ''[[Case Closed]]'' movie where her, Conan, the Shonen Tantei, and other kids are trapped in a virtual world in 19th century London. Any one who get mortally wounded in game are deleted and the only ones left are  {{spoiler|Conan, Ran, and a random rich kid}}. Ran has just been captured by the in game Big Bad and a showdown between him and Conan begins on top of a moving train that is going out of control.  {{spoiler|Ran, remembering Shin'ichi words, decides to save the two boys by jumping off the train into the abyss, deleting herself and taking the big bad with her. Unfortunately, she inadvertently caused ''Conan'' to fall into a [[Heroic BSOD]] and took away the only means to save them and beat the game (They needed her extra strength to take out the bolt connecting the cars so that the car they were on slows down while the rest ends in oblivion.) It takes a [[Deus Ex Machina]]/[[Chekhov's Gun]] to snap Conan out of it and save the day.}}
* In ''[[Transformers Armada]]'', towards the end, Starscream finally decides to defy Galvatron and actually almost mamnages to beat him in a fight despite Galvatron having the Star Saber. In the end, however, Starscream is impaled, but with his last breath, gives Unicron an almighty blast. End result? Sideways gets the Star Saber, and Starscream's final attack dissipates ling before reaching Unicron.
* In ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]],'' {{spoiler|both Blumehart and Patorichev}} die trying to protect {{spoiler|Yang Wen-Li}}. Despite their efforts, {{spoiler|Yang}} is shot and bleeds out before help arrives.
* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', legendary [[An Ice Person|ice mage]] Ur sacrifices her life (sort of) to seal the demon Deliora in unbreakable, unmeltable ice for eternity. Since Deliora was a rampaging beast of destruction, that seems awfully noble of her—until you recall that the ''reason'' she did this was to snap one of her two pupils out of his [[Revenge Before Reason]] obsession. It worked—only for the ''other'' pupil to head down a similarly destructive path after her sacrifice.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'' this is performed by the elite guards of Arabasta who drank the ''hero water'' (a drink that makes you incredible powerful at cost of killing you in 5 minutes) just to save the princess from the [[Big Bad]]. He just stood on the rooftop of palace and waited until they died, unwilling to fight against them just because they did it.
** A non-lethal, comical variant, where if Luffy fell into the water, Chopper, followed by Brook, would jump in to rescue him, forgetting that they are also Devil Fruit users and cannot swim either. Zoro or another crewmate usually saves them each time.
* In the second episode of ''[[Code Geass]] R2'', Urabe [[Self-Destruct Mechanism|self-destructs]] his [[Humongous Mecha|Knightmare Frame]] in order to defeat the seemingly-invincible opponent Knightmare (or, at the very least, to buy time for Zero and Kallen to get away from it). Unfortunately, Urabe had no way of knowing that his opponent possessed a power which lets him (subjectively) [[Time Stands Still|stop time]], allowing him to avoid the brunt of the explosion.
* [[Big Bad|Apocalymon]] from ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' ''tries'' to pull a [[Taking You with Me]] to destroy both worlds with him but the Digivices manage to contain the explosion, meaning the only thing he accomplished was killing himself.
* During the Eclipse in ''[[Berserk]]'', both {{spoiler|Pippin}} and {{spoiler|Judeau}} make [[Heroic Sacrifice]]s to save Casca from getting killed and eaten by the ravening demons after Griffith marks them and everyone else with the Brand of Sacrifice. While Casca does escape a [[Cruel and Unusual Death]] at the hands of the demons, she {{spoiler|ends up suffering an [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|equally]] [[Rape as Drama|horrific]] [[Cold-Blooded Torture|ordeal]] at the hands of the newly-incarnated Femto that ultimately results in her [[Go Mad from the Revelation|losing her mind]] (as well as having the child that she made with Guts prior to the Eclipse corrupted by Femto's rape)}} despite Guts' best efforts to save her.
* Almost happened in the first episode of ''[[Bleach]]'', where Ichigo tries to sacrifice himself to save his family from the Hollow. Rukia calls him an idiot, as the Hollow would have eaten everybody else after eating Ichigo.
** Later, Yamamoto pulls one of these by using his zanpakuto's flames to basically nuke the Fake Karakura Town with Aizen in it, sacrificing his life (and the lives of all his subordinates) in the process. However, Aizen predicted this, and gave Wonderweiss the ability to nullify Yamamoto's flames, making his attack pointless.

== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers]]'', Pyro decides to forgo his dreams of sacrificing his life for some epic cause to hold off some pursuing Decepticons.  {{spoiler|He doesn't even get in a shot before they tear him apart.}}
* There was an ''[[X-Men]]'' story somewhere, where a civilian scientist takes an energy blast meant for Bishop and dies, completely unaware of Bishop's [[Energy Absorption]] power. The action ''does'' help improve human/mutant relations, though.
* One issue of Marvel's ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' series had Scrap Iron fire a missile at a wrecked car with people inside. The Soft Master (who was trying to save the trapped people) intercepts the missile and gets blown up himself. Unfortunately, Scrap Iron has a second missile which he uses.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'', a group of Jedi lure Darth Vader into a trap and try to kill him, and he [[Curb Stomp Battle|effortlessly annihilates them]]. When it finally gets down to the last three Jedi, they manage to cripple him, but just as they are moving in for the kill a squad of [[Elite Mooks|501st clone soldiers]] arrives and rains fire down on them, killing one. Tsui Choi, one of the Jedi masters, selflessly lunges at the clones in order to buy the other Jedi time to escape...but Vader seizes him in midair with the Force, pinning him helplessly in the sights of the clones, and both Jedi die.
* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' has Fred Christ, a Transient (humans spliced with alien DNA) cult leader, who has been portrayed as a [[Corrupt Church|corrupt]] [[Jerkass]] throughout the series. During the finale, however, he and some of his followers choose to rush some of the [[President Evil]] supporting police, believing that their [[Heroic Sacrifice]] will be shown on the news. The cops point out that there are no cameras filming at the moment. After a moment's hesitation, Fred decides to charge anyway. Whether or not this qualifies as his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] or not is debatable.
* In ''[[The Secret History (comics)|The Secret History]],'' {{spoiler|Aker attempts to destroy [[Complete Monster]] William de Lecce but only succeeds in killing herself. She's the first Archon to die, so we don't know if she'll actually stay dead or not. Erlin certainly thinks she's dead.}}
* Crossing over into [[Stupid Good]] territory, in one ''[[Spider-Man]]'' story, Spidey's friend (more or less) Flash Thompson was working as an emergency paramedic when the hero and the [[Badass Abnormal]] crook Tombstone were duking it out, and when the cops started to arrive, Flash stood up to the villain to try to prevent him from using the ambulance as a getaway car. That's right, Tombstone didn't care about anyone who was injured, he just wanted the ''ambulance'', and Flash tried to stop him. Flash was ''very'' lucky Tombstone was in a hurry, but even so, the poor guy wound up in the hospital in traction for several weeks, and his girlfriend Felicia (the Black Cat) almost got herself ''killed'' going after Tombstone when she heard about it.
* The Sentinels were first invented ''way'' back in 1964 in ''[[X-Men| Uncanny X-Men #14]]'' by a man named Bolivar Trask, one of the first humans to believe mutants were a threat to humanity - at least, he did at first. A [[Heel Realization]] after reading Beast's mind and discovering the X-Men's heroic intentions led him to destroy the Sentinels' base, at the cost of his own life. Sadly, his death was for nothing, as his son would continue his research, and in the years that followed up to the present, the Sentinels would practically become symbolic for anti-mutant hate. Even worse, Trask was resurrected relatively recently by Bastion, who hoped to make him part of a new anti-mutant team, [[My God, What Have I Done?|and learned, to his horror]], that his creations had since caused the deaths of ''16 million mutants'', a revelation that drove him to suicide.

== Fan Works ==
* In the ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' fanfic ''[[Material Days]]'', {{spoiler|the appearance of the Materials, formed out of the remnants of the Book of Darkness}}, effectively shows that {{spoiler|Reinforce's}} [[Heroic Sacrifice]] accomplished nothing, greatly upsetting those closest to her.


== Film ==
* The film ''[[Gallipoli]]'' is based entirely around this trope.
** As is the entire theatre of battle, let alone [[World War I|the entire war]] this film is about. You could say the Senseless Sacrifice in the film is a microcosm of the whole.
* The jihadists in ''[[Four Lions]]'' dream of making a grant [[Heroic Sacrifice]] (from their point of view, at least), but each one of them ends up throwing his life way in an utterly pointless fashion.
* In the remake of ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'', a good portion of the survivors does this in the film's finale. The survivors want to make it to the docks to enter one of the survivors' ship, and to sail to his private island off the mainland, where the zombies can't possibly reach them. After the said sacrificing, they may find themselves on the boat, but as they dock on the private island, they are greeted by dozens of dozens of other zombies. Even if they managed to get back onto the boat (we don't actually find out; it's a [[Bolivian Army Ending]]), they would not have had enough fuel to go anywhere else.
* ''[[Defiance]]'' sees one of the non-combatant Jews rush a group of German soldiers with a live grenade, only to be shot a few yards into his charge and for his grenade to blow up by his body.
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: Dead Man's Chest'', Will bets his soul for the key to the titular chest in a game of Liar's Dice against Davy Jones. When it looks like Will is going to lose, Will's father makes an absurdly high bet so that Jones calls him out instead (at the same cost). Though noble, this turns out to have been a bad idea for two reasons. One, Will didn't care whether he won or lost, the main goal of the game was to trick Jones into revealing where he hid the key. Two, though this is never addressed in the film itself, observant viewers will notice that Jones had five fives and Will had three. Will had bet eight fives, which means that if Bootstrap hadn't intervened and Jones had called him out instead, Will would have won.
** OTOH, had he lost, Will would have been bound to Davy Jones's will, which could have buggered the plot anyway.


== Literature ==
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''His Last Command'', Feygor and a company go to blow up a [[Cool Gate|Chaos warp gate]]. Several of them die, and the gate isn't even harmed. {{spoiler|Wilder must ensure [[You Shall Not Pass]] while Gaunt gets most of the regiment away.}}
** In ''Only In Death'', Rawne orders his officers to tell the Ghosts that if they slip up, {{spoiler|Gaunt}}'s death will have been in vain.
** In ''Necropolis'', one of the Vervun infantry commanders grabs as many explosives as he can carry and charges towards a Chaos war machine. He makes most of the distance without the guns touching him, but is shot down -  {{spoiler|but when the war machine runs over his corpse, the [[Subverted Trope|explosives detonate and ruin it]]}}. Not to mention ''the entire book'', from the first tankers to the fighting in the Spike, given that  {{spoiler|Vervunhive is official disbanded at the end}} because of the massive casualties.
*** I think that falls under a different trope. The point of the battle was largely to deny Chaos the world. But on a more personal level, it was a chance for the Ghosts of Tanith to fight the battle Gaunt denied them when he fled Tanith. And it is arguably the only thing that allowed the Ghosts to survive as a unit since a large portion of the Vervunhivers they fought with would later join the Ghosts.
* Katniss volunteering for ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' to probably die in place of her sister Prim proves senseless because  {{spoiler|Prim dies in book three, as a direct result of the rebellion Katniss inadvertently kicked off. The same rebellion kills lots of other people, and ends up putting in place a government no better than the one they toppled, which Katniss then has to take down, leaving the whole situation up in the air.}} It's also arguable whether Katniss actually did {{spoiler|the rebellion}} any good as the mockingjay, since her participation was pretty limited.
* Played straight in ''[[Animorphs]]''. In a mission to capture the Pool Ship in order to use its communications systems, it's evident that a split faction, led by Tom, is planning to kill everyone involved and make their escape using the Blade Ship. Jake orders Rachel to infiltrate and disable the Blade ship, and though she knocks out the weapons systems before finally succumbing in a six-to-one fight. Unfortunately, Erek drains the Pool ship's weapons systems, so rather than having its engines knocked out, the Blade ship escapes anyways, though Tom is killed.
* Subverted in C. S. Lewis' ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]''. In ''The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'', Aslan [[Messianic Archetype|(Who else?)]] agreed to give up his own life to Jadis in order to save Edmund. Before killing Aslan, Jadis tells him that she's still going to kill Edmund (and everyone else in the rebel camp). Later, Aslan resurrects himself (invoking a loophole in the Deep Magic) and proceeds to [[Kung Fu Jesus|kick Jadis' butt]].
* Subverted in Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Mistborn]]''. {{spoiler|Kelsier}} challenges the Lord Ruler and is killed in what appears to be a Senseless Sacrifice. Later, it turns out that this was [[Batman Gambit|all part of the plan]], and his sacrifice is what finally inspires the people to rise in rebellion.
* In ''[[The Saga of Darren Shan]]'', {{spoiler|[[The Obi-Wan|Mr. Crepsley]] goes out with one of these when he tackles the [[Big Bad|Vampaneze Lord]] during a one-on-one fight, sending them both into a spike pit below.}} Of course, {{spoiler|the real Vampaneze Lord wasn't the guy he fought. It's ''Steve - the main character's childhood friend.''}}
* In [[Harry Harrison]]'s novel ''[[The Daleth Effect]]'', Denmark's space liner is invaded by US and USSR agents in an attempt to steal the piece of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] allowing the ship to fly. In response, the captain of the ship triumphantly tell both parties that all their efforts are in vain, as a fail-safe has been installed on board to prevent a takeover. The ship is destroyed seconds later. The captain's widow laments that all the crewmembers and passengers, including the inventor of the device, died in vain to protect a secret that was already made public days before. Even worse, since Denmark refused to patent the technology for fear of it being misused, they now have nothing.
** It's even worse for the widow (who is American and has never applied for Danish citizenship), since she's partly responsible for the Americans being able to board the ship. Earlier, she is approached by an American agent, asking her help in obtaining the plans of the [[Anti Gravity]] device, threatening to revoke her American passport if she won't help. She refuses, but later discovers that her husband is cheating on her with a stewardess. In a fit of rage, she steals the inventor's notebook and gives it to the agent. He reveals that it's just the plans for a portable fusion reactor, which they have no interest in stealing (they'll just buy the patent and avoid legal trouble). However, he uses the notebook to blackmail her into spying for them.
* Subverted example in ''[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (novel)|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]''. Dumbledore's expedition to retrieve a horcrux from Voldemort's trap-filled cave ends up getting him killed in the attack on Hogwarts, and it turns out the horcrux was already gone. Except it's later revealed he was already dying anyway, and it probably kept Harry from getting killed going in there alone, as well as providing a way for Snape to kill him.
** RAB is a straight example. Actually, he made the horcrux ''harder'' for Harry to find and destroy ({{spoiler|because he handed it to Kreacher hopping he would be able to destroy it}}). Can even be considered [[Stupid Sacrifice]] when you think what could have been if he told Dumbledore everything he knew instead.
* In ''[[Neverwhere]]''  {{spoiler|the Marquis de Carabas}} allows himself to be killed by the resident [[Those Two Bad Guys|Two Bad Guys]], Croup and Vandemar in order that he may learn something of the nature of their employer and purpose. As it happens, he has [[Soul Jar|his life hidden away]] somewhere else so that he can come back, so this is less a sacrifice than it might be; however, it is utterly unnecessary, as by the time he gets back to the other characters, they already know who the [[Big Bad]] is.
*  {{spoiler|Longtail}} in ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' gives his life in ''Fading Echoes'' to save.......... a half-eaten mouse. And it doesn't get saved.


== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]'', the ''Icarus'' space station is [[Colony Drop|dropped out of orbit]] and set on a course for Volcania. Lord Dread [[Kick the Dog|commands]] the [[Healing Factor|Biodread]], Soaron, to intercept, by telling him that the station will destroy "the Home of the Machines: ''your'' home." Soaron goes, knowing very well that he has absolutely no chance to stop the impact of millions of tons of flaming steel. He still flies into its path and screams his name in defiance before being destroyed.
** But Soaron always gets better courtesy of [[Good Thing You Can Heal|nanoregeneration]]. Of course, even the [[Master Computer]] [[Big Bad|Overmind]] admits it has no idea how long it would take for Soaron to regenerate from ''this''.
*** He would have come back for sure though as he was being set up for a [[Heel Face Turn]] in the next season if it had gotten made.
** Of course, for ''Charlie'' it makes sense: he clearly knows he's going to die and embraces it the entire episode.
* Inverted, in a way, the ''[[Torchwood]]'' miniseries ''Children of Earth''. {{spoiler|John Frobisher [[Offing the Offspring|kills his children]] in order to keep them from being [[Fate Worse Than Death|turned over to the 456]], then kills his wife and himself, presumably to spare both of them a life without their children}}. This was unnecessary not because he failed, but because {{spoiler|the 456 are defeated before they take the children}}, and he could have helped achieve this if he'd been willing to {{spoiler|work with Torchwood}}. Not a [[Stupid Sacrifice]] because his motivation makes sense. It seemed almost inevitable that even this would go terribly wrong, as not one good thing happens to him in the entire miniseries.
** Also, {{spoiler|Ianto's death}} seemed to pretty much come under this trope too.
* Subverted in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. For the first four seasons, we are led to believe that the conclusion of the Time War was a Senseless Sacrifice for the Time Lords; the Doctor sacrificed his own people to wipe out {{spoiler|the Daleks}}, but a handful of {{spoiler|Daleks}} survived. However, in ''The End of Time'', it turns out that {{spoiler|the Doctor's main target was the Time Lords themselves, who had been so corrupted by endless warfare that they were about to destroy the entire universe in pursuit of victory}}.
* Explicitly invoked for {{spoiler|Wesley}}'s death on ''[[Angel]]'':
{{quote|'''Vail''': How very touching his meaningless death was! But this fight was never for mortals.}}
** His sacrifice did, however, {{spoiler|make [[Physical God|Illyria]] very angry. Resulting in her [[Talk to the Fist|punching Vail's head off]]}}. So perhaps not so meaningless after all.
** Also, he had pretty explicitly stated before that he didn't much care to go on living after  {{spoiler|Fred}}'s death.
* ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]''; "The House that Jack Built" has Emma trapped in a computerized maze built with the intent to drive her insane, and meets a man inside it who has already fallen victim to such a fate. Eventually, he tries to use the "suicide booth" intended for her, hoping it will shut the program down. It doesn't work; the design is too [[Crazy Prepared]] and will not shut the program down unless ''she'' uses it.
* The ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "Abandon All Hope" includes a heartbreaking death for  {{spoiler|Ellen and Jo}} in order to make possible an attempt to  {{spoiler|kill Lucifer with the Colt. It fails.}}
** In another episode foreshadowing these events, Dean is sent to the future by Zachariah to meet his future self after turning down Michael. Future-Dean turns out to have become such a {{spoiler|hate-filled, heartless bastard, that he gets many of his present good friends killed just to get close to now Lucifer-inhabited-Sam with the Colt. Apparently he doesn't even get the chance to shoot the gun before he's killed, making Cas and the others' death completely pointless, even for the present-Dean, who doesn't understand that ''even if he got a shot, it still wouldn't do no good''. Then the Ellen/Jo thing happens.}}
** To be fair, {{spoiler|Ellen and Jo}} did assure Sam and Dean's escape from there. {{spoiler|On the other hand, if they did die (and they did a lot), they'd just be brought back.}}
*  {{spoiler|Rio}} in the penultimate episode of ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger|Gekiranger]]'' thrusts himself into the [[Big Bad]] and pretty much self destructs. Though it's revealed not two minutes later that the villain survived it.
* Happens at least twice in ''[[V (TV series)||V: The Final Conflict]]''.
** In the scene where Donovan arranges to trade himself for his son, the rebels are set up to ambush the visitors, but they don't. Instead, they let Donovan get taken by the aliens.
** In a scene where the rebels are sabotaging the water facility, one of the rebels is wounded. The rebel's girlfriend comes back for him and insists she will stay with him. Two (fit) mercenaries come back, too. They pick up the perfectly fit woman and haul her away, leaving the wounded man behind to be killed. If they'd grabbed the wounded man instead, they would have all made it out alive.
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has a few of these early on:
** In the finale of ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'', T.J. decides to activate the Rescue Megazord's self destruct in a last resort to destroy the enemy (granted the Megazord was horrendously damaged and they didn't have time to repair it on the battlefield). The monster survives, requiring the Rangers to switch to the Turbo Megazord... which also gets defeated. {{spoiler|They do eventually beat the monster, but later the Command Center is destroyed and they lose their powers.}}
*** A similar thing happened in the source series [[Gekisou Sentai Carranger]], in the exact same footage, the enemy survives VRV Robo's self-destruct, RV Robo gets badly damaged (but is later rebuilt) and the monster (who is the [[Big Bad]], [[Demoted to Extra]] in Power Rangers), only dies after being shrunk by stale [[Make My Monster Grow]] food (changed to a weapon sacrifice in ''Power Rangers'' since the Make My Monster Grow method was changed).
** In ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'' former [[Big Bad]] Astronema [[Heel Face Turn|turned traitor]] but is sent back to her old base in order to stop an asteroid from hitting Earth. It doesn't work. Overlaps with [[Stupid Sacrifice]] because the Rangers had [[Humongous Mecha|Megazords]] they could have used. (Granted, Astronema did volunteer and the Megazords they had weren't enough anyway, they needed one more)
* On ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', Marian prevents Guy of Gisborne from assassinating King Richard at the cost of her own life. However, if one knows their history, it's rather depressing to realize that Richard returns to England only to leave and then die soon after in Normandy.
* Al on ''[[FlashForward]]'' commits suicide because his flash forward has him receive news on the death of a woman. Afterwards, everyone takes to the fact that the flash forwards will not necessarily come true. In a later episode, the woman is hit by a car and dies anyway. Al was only receiving the news of her death and was not responsible for it.

== Music ==
* [[Bruno Mars]]' "Grenade" falls into this. The lyrics tell of a man who would [[Too Dumb to Live|give his life]] [[Dogged Nice Guy|for someone who]] [[Love Makes You Crazy|doesn't love]] [[All Love Is Unrequited|him back.]]
{{quote|''I would go through all this pain,
Take a bullet straight through my brain,
[[Stupid Sacrifice|Yes, I would die for you baby,]]
But you won't do the same.'' }}


== Tabletop Games ==
* Called a "phantom sacrifice" in ''[[Bridge]]''. A team bids a contract expecting to go down (the sacrifice) to lose less than they would defending the opponents' contract. Unfortunately, the opponents' contract doesn't make.


==  Theater ==
*  {{spoiler|Anatoly's return to the USSR}} at the end of ''[[Chess (theatre)|Chess]]''; he does it primarily so Florence  {{spoiler|can be reunited with her father}}, but afterwards Florence finds out that {{spoiler|her father is probably dead after all.}}
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5YW4qKOAVM Parodied], like every other WWII cliché, in the "Aftermyth of War" sketch from ''Beyond the Fringe''.
{{quote|'''Peter Cook:''' Perkins, I want you to lay down your life. We need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war.}}
* In the opera ''Il trovatore'', Leonora, desperate to do anything to save Manrico from execution, marries the Count di Luna and takes a poison that will allow her to live just long enough to break him out of dungeon. But Manrico is so shocked to discover his lover's infidelity that he refuses to make his escape. The Count watches Leonora die and has Manrico executed at once.
* One could easily argue that the end of Shakespeare's ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' has a potential double helping. Romeo, believing Juliet dead after her [[Fake Death]], offs himself with a poison. While it wouldn't have accomplished anything, Juliet's is more fitting to it. Not only did her "Fake sacrifice" Fail senselessly, it causes her to make a real one that accomplishes nothing at all. The only reason this counts is because her fake sacrifice is what forces her to make her real one, and [[Driven to Suicide|Senselessly End It All.]]


== Video Games ==
* Tellah from ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' using a [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]] to kill Golbez... who survives.
** This plays with the trope however, as while he fails to kill Golbez, he does weaken him enough to free your mind controlled ally Kain so he can join you again. {{spoiler|Oh wait, Kain is still under control, Golbez was just faking it. It was senseless after all}}.
*** Even worse since {{spoiler|Tellah is the ''only'' character in the game to sacrifice himself and ''actually stay dead''. Not only does everybody else who attempts a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] pull it off successfully, they're able to stay alive no matter how impossible that should be.}}
*** Not really sure it's that senseless, if he hadn't done that Golbez would have probably killed all the party right there. The second time the party encounters Golbez, it takes a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment from {{spoiler|Rydia}} for them to survive.
*** For that matter, everyone who "[[Unexplained Recovery|dies]]". The most jarring example would be  {{spoiler|Palom and Porom turning themselves to stone to prevent walls from crushing you; the door in front of you could have easily been broken with a simple fire spell.}} Another involves {{spoiler|Cid, who jumps off of an airship holding a nuclear weapon to seal the entrance to the underworld, when he could have just dropped it.}}
* The Shofixti in ''[[Star Control]] 2'' blew up their own sun in order to deal a crippling blow to the Ur-Quan invaders... which not only nearly wiped out their entire race, but caused the Ur-Quan (who sought to enslave all life other than their own) to lose their battle against the Kohr-Ah (who sought to ''destroy'' all life other than their own). [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].
* Every time the monster Sin rears its ugly head in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', a Summoner is sent on a quest for the Aeons in hopes of performing the Final Summoning that is said to be the only way to defeat Sin, a quest that invariably costs the Summoner his or her life. {{spoiler|But as it's revealed, the Final Summoning does nothing to stop Sin for good, as the Final Aeon that destroys Sin becomes the new Sin, making everybody's sacrifices pretty much meaningless}}. Not surprisingly, Yuna in ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' rails against the entire idea of sacrificing one's life afterwards because of this, opposing a plan in which {{spoiler|Nooj would shoot Baralai, who was under possession by Shujin, and then kill himself once Shujin re-entered his body}}.
** Subverted with regards to Cid: Every opportunity he has to suggest it, he suggests a suicide ramming run using the airship. Every time, he's shot down as there's far less suicidal means of success. Rikku even mocks him for it one time.
* Subverted in ''[[Metroid]] [[Metroid Fusion|Fusion]]''; in a cutscene,  {{spoiler|Samus pleads with the computer Adam to let her out to try to self-destruct the B.S.L. space station to destroy the X Parasites within (which would also destroy her, as apparently the ship's self-destruction would be immediate). Adam tells her that this would be pointless, as it would leave the X Parasites on the planet SR-388 (which the station was orbiting) alive and able to spread across the universe, while simultaneously destroying the universe's only hope to defeat the parasites, Samus herself. (He instead suggests setting the station to [[Colony Drop|collide with the planet]], [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroying both]] along with the X Parasites and allowing Samus to escape before the station impacts.)}}
* The engineer from ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' who cut off his limbs in an attempt to be unable to hurt anyone once he changed. Not only do you encounter a legless Necromorph that is apparently him, having died before finishing the task... but you later encounter necromorphs that hurt people just fine despite not having ''any'' of their original limbs, so even if he'd been entirely successful, it wouldn't have worked.
* {{spoiler|Lujei Piche}} of ''[[Grim Grimoire]]'' turns all the sacrifices and convoluted planning in ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' to weaken the [[Big Bad]] and exile him through a dimensional portal into this when she {{spoiler|sent Sulfur back to Ivoire as a [[Bonus Boss]].}} It just takes some [[Level Grinding]] to kill him [[Deader Than Dead]] then. Although in their defense, they did think he would continue to live [[As Long as There Is Evil]].
* ''[[RuneScape]]'' has a few sensless sacrifices. For an example, in one quest, {{spoiler|Turael, Duradel and a number of others try to attack a powerful Mahjarrat and most of them are toasted off.}}
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic 2006]]'s'' Silver quest ends with Blaze sacrificing herself to power the ritual to seal [[Cosmic Horror]] Iblis away. It works... except they are in the [[Time Travel|future]]. Back in the present, Iblis is still alive and well and begins its plans to become invincible, forcing Silver to travel back and defeat Iblis then. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Good job, Blaze.]]
* ''[[MS Saga]]'', a ''[[Gundam]]'' spinoff RPG, has {{spoiler|Gavanger}} make a Senseless Sacrifice fairly early in the game by trying to hold off the Psyco Gundam on his own while the rest of the party escapes. The "senseless" part comes in when you realize that even the best MS you have available at the time wouldn't have been much more than a speed bump to Psyco Gundam. The situation is deliberately [[Gundam]]-[[Troperiffic]], paying homage to the franchise's long and glorious history of similar sacrifices.
* ''[[Tsukihime]]'': Arcueid vs. Roa in her route. {{spoiler|Judging from the epilogues, it's clear she didn't expect to survive the battle considering how hard she had to fight off her bloodlust when she overdrew her power to use her Marble Phantasm for what is actually a rather minor effect.}} It motivates Shiki enough to give Roa a [[World of Cardboard Speech]], kill the hallway and then kill him. {{spoiler|She gets better, though, in the Good Ending. The True End she still gets better, but because she overexerted herself she can no longer control herself and decides to just sleep for the rest of eternity.}}
* Another [[Nasuverse]] example in ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia]]'' is the original life of {{spoiler|Avenger. He was a normal village boy who was [[What the Hell, Townspeople?|randomly designated by the villagers to bear all the evils of the world for them]]. [[Human Sacrifice|And then die for them]].}} Somewhat subverted, as the villages ''were'' quelled by the sacrifice, if only even as a [[Placebo Effect]].
* An odd example where this is part of the ''gameplay'' can be found in ''[[Pokémon]]''. The moves Selfdestruct and Explosion do a lot of damage but render the user unconscious. This can be useful if you have other teammates, but if you have no other battle-ready Pokémon left on your team, it's an instant loss. Despite this, wild Pokémon will still use them for no apparently in-universe reason by spite (the real reason being that [[AI Roulette|wild Pokémon have no AI and just choose attacks randomly]]).
** That last bit may be at least somewhat justified. You would have to design believable AI for hundreds upon hundreds of creatures, each with any number of potential movesets.
** Perhaps even worse is a recently added move, "Memento". It will sharply decrease the target's Attack and Special Attack stats, but the user of said move faints. If a wild Pokémon uses this, it ends the battle, but... stat decreases and increases reset immediately after a battle ends.
** A new move, Final Gambit, causes the user to faint and forces the opponent to take damage equal to the user's HP. It would already qualify for a Senseless Sacrifice by itself, but then you learn that Shedinjma, a literal [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]], can learn Final Gambit.
* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', a victim of a sadistic sort of [[Puppeteer Parasite]] manages to resist his master's command to kill [[Player Character|Commander Shepard]] long enough to take his own life instead in a cutscene. The problem? You just got done ([[Video Game Cruelty Potential|potentially]]) fighting a bunch of people with the same parasitic infection, and/or managing to use nonlethal takedowns and Frisbee-like gas grenades to harmlessly render them unconscious. But, because [[Cutscene Incompetence|this is a cutscene]], you can't. Where's a good [[Quick Time Event|Paragon Interrupt]] when you need it?
** In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', [[Reasonable Authority Figure|Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib's]] ship goes down over {{spoiler|Rannoch}}. When you get in contact with him to aid in a rescue, he insists that you rescue [[The Men First|his crew]] instead. {{spoiler|Not rescuing him makes it impossible to end the [[Robot War]] peacefully, potentially resulting in the extinction of the quarians}}.
** Also in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', if you choose the ''Destroy'' ending, {{spoiler|this makes Legion's sacrifice to give the Geth sapience, completely, utterly pointless.}}
* ''[[Call of Duty 4]]'' has this in the "Shock And Awe" mission when your chopper crew stops to rescue a downed chopper pilot (in addition to the troops they ''were already rescuing.'') The player shoots troops who have closed in on the chopper, drags the pilot out, carries her back to your chopper defenselessly...and then gets ''nuked''. This is a point of debate between "If we had just completed our mission, we would have saved many more lives", and "No one gets left behind." That being said, even if they hadn't gone back for the pilot they still may have died in the nuclear explosion.
* General Leo's attempt to kill Kefka in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' achieves nothing at all besides his own demise. It's particularly jarring because he did it while all the main heroes were lying in the ground, knocked out, and yet they all survived.
** Not such a huge waste - Kefka is called away by the Emperor immediately after killing Leo. He probably would have finished off the other heroes if Leo hadn't delayed him. Furthermore, Kefka obviously wants to kill Leo, with or without a fight. He even tells us the excuse he'll give the Emperor for doing it.
* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] and Lampshaded in ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]''; {{spoiler|Alicia attempts to use a suicide attack to destroy the Marmotah, but Welkin stops her with a [[Cooldown Hug]].}}
** But played straight with {{spoiler|Faldio. The whole point of his shooting Alicia (and thus ruining his career, and his life, and his relationship with his best friend) was to awaken her Valkyria powers so that she could save the entire Gallian military, which seems to work for the moment...but Alicia [[I Just Want to Be Normal|is too scared of her powers]] to try to save or lead them herself, and Selvaria blew up the entire army a few chapters later anyway.}}
** And again with {{spoiler|Faldio}} when he decides to [[Taking You with Me|take the already-soundly-defeated]] {{spoiler|[[Big Bad]]}} [[Taking You with Me|with him]], despite not being injured in the slightest.
*** That one was more  {{spoiler|[[Redemption Equals Death]]}}, however.
**** And played totally straight with {{spoiler|Selvaria. If she hadn't specifically requested that Squad 7 be the ones to escort the rest of her men away to spare them, they would have gotten burnt up like everybody else and Maximillian could have had Gallia in his pocket by dinnertime.}}
* In the characters ending, {{spoiler|Xianghua of}} ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' does this in the fourth game, senselessly holding on to {{spoiler|Kilik as he sacrifices himself to neutralize both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. He was going to die, with nothing that could have been done without another characters interference, and there was no reason beyond suicidal devotion for Xianghua to go as well.}} [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life]]...
* ''[[Mortal Kombat|Mortal Kombat: Deception]]'' starts out this way when a three-way showdown between  {{spoiler|Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi}} is interrupted by the resurrection of the game's [[Big Bad]] The Dragon King.  {{spoiler|Both villians try their hand to take it out with their own sorcery to no avail, then try it together; again, to no effect. In a brief [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], Raiden gets up, and all three enemies join forces to try to destroy the Dragon King...unsuccessfully. In a last-ditch effort, Raiden uses the aura of all three of them to send a powerful [[Heroic Sacrifice]] magic explosion that kills them and destroys everything...everything except for the Dragon King, who now holds the amulet the three were fighting over that could reawaken the King's [[Animate Dead|undead army]].}}
* One of the main plot points in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' revolves around this. To save the world of Sylvarant from rotting away and dying, the chosen of regeneration has to go beyond simply giving up his/her life, they give up aspects of their humanity one by one beforehand. They give up their sense of touch, taste and ability to speak before finally giving their lives. It later turns out to be pointless because {{spoiler|Sylverant exists parallel another world called Tethalla. The two worlds exist by vying for each others mana, essentially their lifeforce. The journey of regeneration reverses the flow from one world to the other, taken by the chosen one would prosper and one would decline... If the characters in the game did complete the journey of regeneration, it would only temporarily save their world, the cycle would continue. Ultimately, they manage to solve this by [[Save Both Worlds|saving both worlds]]}}.
* About halfway through ''[[God of War|God of War III]]'', Kratos' goals change from killing Zeus to opening Pandora's Box to find the one weapon that can destroy the Olympians. Unfortunately, the only way to open the box  {{spoiler|is to sacrifice Pandora, the [[Artificial Human]] girl that also doubles as the key. Despite Kratos' best efforts, she kills herself so Kratos can defeat Zeus. He opens the box...and it's empty. [[It Was with You All Along|The weapon, Hope, had been inside Kratos ever since he fought Ares in the first game.]] }}
** Inverted when it turns out that  {{spoiler|Hope wasn't any good at defeating Zeus because Kratos still didn't forgive himself over the death of his family. It takes the spirit of Pandora, during the moment Zeus is choking the life out of him, to get Kratos to forgive himself and gain the true power to kill Zeus.}}
* ''[[Halo: Reach]]''. {{spoiler|Jorge sacrifices himself to detonate a slipspace bomb, destroying a Covenant Supercarrier. He dies believing that he'd saved Reach. ''Moments'' after his death, the main Covenant armada arrives at Reach, and the planet falls anyway.}}
** That said {{spoiler|he did just destroy a ''supercarrier'' and every covenant soldier on board, he may not have saved Reach but he did do the enemy a lot of damage.}}
** The most senseless sacrifice in the Haloverse must be of the whole Forerunner species. When the [[The Virus|Flood]] came and consumed trillions of worlds and peoples, the Forerunners built the Halos and activated them to kill themselves and the Flood off. Their deaths would denied the Flood bodies to consume, but that failed hard, because they kept some of the Flood [[For Science!]]. 100,000 years later, the Flood samples get free and start consuming other species instead, making the Forerunners' sacrifice a complete failure. Even after the loose Flood get wiped out in the games, there remains 5 more Halos in the galaxy that presumably also contain Flood.
* In the comic version of ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'', Zoey's father is attacked by his ex-wife/Zoey's mother, who is a zombie/infected. He gets bitten and being [[Genre Savvy]], he assumes that he will start to turn and asks Zoey to shoot him in the head so that he won't become a zombie. 2 weeks later, Zoey is told by a military doctor that she and the other survivors are carriers of the virus that are making people zombies, which makes them immune from changing and the carrier gene is passed down from the father. Zoey goes into shock, realizing that sacrificing her father was completely pointless.
* In ''[[Metroid: Other M]]'', Adam went on to Sector Zero to destroy the supposedly unfreezeable Metroids and promptly activated the damage-activated self-destruct. It seemed like a good idea at the time... then you meet the Queen Metroid.
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' Snake thought that his strain of FOXDIE would kill entire populations indiscriminately if he didn't kill himself to prevent it from spreading, but Big Boss comes to tell him that a cure had been found that would prevent this from happening. The catch is that FOXDIE was going to kill randomly in a few months but at that time Big Boss himself was programmed on its hit list meaning that if Big Boss confronted Snake he would have to die. This could have been avoided if he had simply left a note there for Snake to find or contacted him via Codec radio, closure between father and son did not require the father to die.
** Except Big Boss ''wanted'' to die. It was symbolic: {{spoiler|with Big Boss and Zero dead, the Patriots are finally gone for good.}}
* In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' we have the incredibly sad tale of {{spoiler|Vault 11: after being locked inside the Vault, the residents are immediately informed that every so often, one of the residents must enter a chamber in the Vault to be killed otherwise the computer will kill ''everyone'' in the Vault. After a long and terrible history (including things like sexual blackmail, coercion and armed insurrection) the five remaining residents of the vault (of the original ''one thousand'') finally decide to end this and refuse to sacrifice anyone else...prompting the computer to congratulate them in being "fine examples of humanity" and unlock the Vault door (the Vault, like every other except for a few control Vaults, was a sick social experiment). Out of those five people, four committed suicide, with the fate of the remaining survivor unknown.}}
* In the world of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', it's well established that the Eldar are a thinly spread race, clinging to the barest semblance of galactic survival. They're known for instigating events that hurtle entire sub-sectors (groupings of a few to dozens of planets, each inhabited by billions of humans or more) to their doom in order to prolong the lives of a few hundred of their own. So, come ''[[Dawn of War]]'', its expansions and sequels, it can pretty well be summed up that any Eldar force you take down is committing this trope, especially if they're working on an end result that would probably work out better in the end if they would just think about the fact that the "primitive humans" might actually win. To whit: the Farseer's ''entire plan'' in Dawn Of War 2.
** With information gained from the Eldar campaign ''Retribution'', the plan does make a little more sense.  {{spoiler|The Eldar's objective in the sector is the retrieval a soulstones within a craftworld that crashed on Typhon aeons ago. The Eldar don't give a damn about saving the sector, simply stalling the Tyranids long enough for the recovery, and the [[Melee a Trois]] they start was a good way of doing this. Without a prophecy telling them so, the idea of the Blood Raven actually defeating the Hive Fleet was acceptably unrealistic.}}
* In ''[[Eternal Darkness]],'' most of the chapters apparently end with this. It seems like a bunch of [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] stories, even the [[Downer Ending|ending]]. That is until {{spoiler|the third playthough}}. {{spoiler|Mantorok the corpse god set up a 2000 year [[Xanatos Gambit]] to defeat the other 3 gods, but it had to be done in three [[Parallel Reality|parallel realities]]}}. So when the player {{spoiler|beats the game for the third time, it is revealed that with each god weakened in one timeline, it's rival can kill it, but because all 3 are weakened, they kill each other simultaneously}}!
* In the [[Telltale Games|Telltale ''Batman'']] game, the player is given a choice between saving Catwoman or preventing the accident that will scar Harvey Dent's face and cause him to become the villainous Two-Face. To Batman fans, the second choice seems tempting, as one might assume sacrificing Catwoman for this purpose will prevent Harvey from descending into madness and becoming the murderous criminal that has plagued Batman throughout hi entire career. Sadly, this assumption is wrong. Harvey ''still'' becomes a dangerous villain if this choice is made, just a far handsomer one. Clearly, the message is, he was rotten to begin with.

== Web Comics ==
* {{spoiler|Hilda}} in the webcomic ''[[Fans]]'', captured by an enemy order, telekinetically prevents her automaton double from shooting {{spoiler|Rikk}} by making it shoot itself instead. Her captor informs her that this was his plan all along, in order to {{spoiler|demoralize her organization}}.
** Earlier in ''[[Fans]]'', {{spoiler|Harry}} attempts a human bomb attack on {{spoiler|General Maximillianna}} with a [[Explosive Overclocking|handheld phaser on overload]], only to have the attempt fail because {{spoiler|she was warned by his [[Screaming Warrior|battle cry]] of "''sic semper tyranis!''"}}.
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' prequel book ''[[Start of Darkness]]'', {{spoiler|the original bearer of the Crimson Mantle tried to sacrifice himself to stop the crusading Paladins from destroying the goblin village. They easily killed him, then went on to slaughter the rest of the village}}.
** This trope is important to the end of the story as well. Redcloak's brother Righteye is determined to destroy Xykon at all costs, but Redcloak believes he will be necessary to helping the goblin race. Righteye flies off to attack Xykon (who is distracted while fighting a powerful Archmage) with a magic knife that will allow him to Sneak Attack the lich for Massive Damage. Redcloak chooses to {{spoiler|kill his own brother to protect Xykon...who then reveals that he knew about the knife all along and was immune to its effects. Redcloak murdered his sibling for nothing}}, and now Xykon knows that he will never betray him or it would make his loss ''even more'' pointless.
* ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'': It appears that a bust of [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001533 Captain Snoop has accidentally wandered in range] of a cannon controlled by a sniper rifle. Our hero, Problem Sleuth [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001534 leaps in front of the rifle] to prevent the bust from being shot. However, as is pointed out, [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001535 the sniper had no intention of firing at all, and jumping in front of the rifle and not the cannon itself would be totally pointless]. And then [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001536 his finger slips].
* Subverted in ''[[MS Paint Masterpieces]]'', where the minor character Compass Man fights a powerful robot assassin with a [[Healing Factor]]. After a short fight proving his inferiority in combat, he attempts a [[Taking You with Me|self-destructive blast]], which probably wouldn't have worked anyways. Luckily, Mega Man interrupts him before he can pull it off, so he gets bonus points for trying, ''and'' he gets to live.
* Played hard in ''[[Goblins]]'' due to Kore's cunning. Chief attempted to delay him so the others could escape, but the paladin, recognizing the plan, incapacitated Chief before slowly and methodically torturing the poor goblin, using the screams of agony to lure the others back.
** And once {{spoiler|they're lured back}}, we get another Senseless Sacrifice because {{spoiler|Chief dies from his wounds from the torture}}. Moral victory?
** A second example: {{spoiler|Dies-Horribly accepts a [[Deal with the Devil]], trading his soul to the demon who guards the Orb of bloodlight so that Duv can have the orb and no more of her slaves will need to suffer. Turns out, the Demon's promise relied on [[Exact Words]], and all he gets for his soul is a worthless ball of blue stone. At least he got his soul and life back after the demon realized that Die's arm had a soul of it's own, thus meaning it had breached their contract}}
* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' [[Backstory]]: Jin's [[Driven to Suicide|suicide]] did not derail the spell as she hoped it would. It did have a significant effect eventually, but much, much later than she wanted.
* Played for comedy in ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja|Dr. McNinja]]'' when the mayor of Cumberland makes a deal with a demon samurai ghost thing: his soul in exchange for the demon abandoning a plan to raise an undead army. Immediately after the demon leaves, a man runs up to the mayor asking if he'd seen it, then saying that he was of a bloodline that could stop the demon and that it would have been ludicrously easy for him to banish it for another hundred years.


== Web Original ==
* Almost happened in ''[[Sapphire]] Episode III''. Even after {{spoiler|Boris}} killed {{spoiler|Ivanka}} after promising Alec would be spared, {{spoiler|he proceeds to kill Alec as well. He is saved, however, when his friend Andrew pulls a little [[Deus Ex Machina]].}}
* Parodied in the web animation ''[[Ducktalez]] 3'' when Huey martyrs himself in an attempt to stop Vegeta, likely homaging Chiaotzu's death against Nappa in DBZ:
{{quote|'''Louie:''' I'll miss Huey.
'''Dewey:''' If only he hadn't blown himself up when I had a perfectly good rocket launcher right here! }}
* [[The Runaway Guys]] [[New Super Mario Bros. Wii|converge on a Star Coin over a gap.]]
{{quote|'''[[Proton Jon|Jon]]:''' Alright, who's sacrificing their life?
''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|(Josh walks off the edge and misses completely.)]]''
'''[[Josh Jepson|Josh]]:''' DAAAGGH!
''(Laughter)''
'''Jon:''' Okay, you can do it, Josh! }}

== Western Animation ==
* The page quote comes from ''[[Shadow Raiders]]'', a rather grim kids show. By episode 20 the Beast had already [[Planet Eater|eaten three inhabited planets]] ''on screen,'' two of them belonging to the protagonists! While the inhabitants of planet Fire managed to evacuate, the [[Evil Chancellor|not evil at all vizier]] crashed the planet into the Beast to no effect. Planet Jungle chose to sacrifice itself since it could not escape, and again did no visible damage.
** And then, in the [[Series Finale]], the Beast is [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleported away from Planet Rock]] at the last second by driving the Prison Planet into its maw and having its World Engine take them both to the far reaches of the galaxy. The last scene of the series, after all the triumphant cheering and congratulating, is of the Beast devouring another inhabited planet, with the heavy implication that it has assimilated the Prison Planet's teleportation technology.
** Let's not forget Planet Water, which the entire planet was turned into one massive cannon putting everything it had in one shot (which killed everyone on it), doesn't even dent the Beast.
* The death of Jet and implied deaths of Smellerbee and Longshot are this in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', they never found Appa in the HQ which was what Jet's sacrifice was meant to do, buy them time. Not to mention the Dai Li aren't taken down either.
* ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' has a rather big one, though caused by Fridge Logic. {{spoiler|Ray didn't really delay the shadows more than seconds, they were still around for the big confrontation, just not doing anything. Still effective, and awesome.}}
* In ''[[Gargoyles]]'', Macbeth had a Senseless Sacrifice in his flashbacks; after he was officially killed by Canmore and his son Luach took his crown, he realized that Luach's only hope of defeating Canmore was if Macbeth himself remained officially dead. The end result:
{{quote|'''Phoebe:''' Did your own death save your son Luach from Canmore?
'''Macbeth:''' No. }}

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]
[[Category:Heroic Sacrifice Tropes]]
[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]