Better to Die Than Be Killed: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Well, up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong;<br />

''<nowiki>{{'</nowiki>}}You'll never take me alive,' said he."''|'''[[Banjo Paterson|Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson]]''', "Waltzing Matilda"}}

{{quote|''"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,<br />

''And the women come out to cut up what remains,<br />

''Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,<br />

''An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."''|'''[[Rudyard Kipling]]'''}}

Here's the situation. You're all alone and you're faced with capture, imminent death, [[Made a Slave|enslavement]], [[Come to Gawk|public humiliation]] followed by (possibly [[Cruel and Unusual Death|grisly]]) execution, or [[Fate Worse Than Death|something even worse]]. You know what the monsters or bad guys will do to you if they get their hands on you, and you do not want that to be your fate, but [[You Have No Chance to Survive]] -- either—either there are too many of them, or you're out of bullets (or down to your [[One Bullet Left|final bullet]]). So what do you do?

** Also used by Black Organization member Calvados, who chose to kill himself rather than be captured. Then again, [[You Have Failed Me...|it was better than being executed by the Organization for his failure.]]

** Also earlier in the story, two nobles are given the option to commit suicide by poison rather than be officially executed. Both refuse, and ultimately have the poison forced down.

** It should be noted that "Maus" is a true story. It's a memoir of Vladek's WWII experience, compiled and illustrated by his living son, and I'm not sure whether this example belongs in the Real Life category or not.

* [[Wolverine]] offers this option to Mystique out in the desert at the end of the post-''Messiah [[Comple X]]'' comic ''Get Mystique''--either—either take the gun with one bullet he leaves next to her and put herself out of her misery, or slowly bleed out to death from getting stabbed in the side by his claws before she can reach medical help.

== Fan FicWorks ==

* In ''[[Tiberium Wars (Fanfic)|Tiberium Wars]]'', it is a common belief among Nod soldiers and officers that their prisoners of war will be tortured and raped by GDI troops - which leads to a Black Hand officer executing his own immobilized wounded to keep them from falling into enemy hands. GDI, meanwhile, views this as appalling and as a fanatical enemy denying them intelligence sources.

* In the ''[[G.I. Joe]] / [[Alien vs. Predator]]'' crossover fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6397285/1/Corazones_y_Cazadores Corazones y Cazadores]'', the Joe team thinks Beachhead has chosen this when he's attacked by a facehugger and grabs for his handgun.

** Subverted in ''[[Resident Evil]]: Apocalypse'', where the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] villain is cornered by zombies -- hezombies—he tries to shoot his way out, and when that fails, he puts his gun to his head...to find that it's empty. Cue ghastliness.

***** In ''Alien 3'', Ripley tells Dillon to kill her. He agrees, "quick and painless"... but then has his own [[Heroic Sacrifice]].

* Two examples show up in ''[[Film/Deep Rising|Deep Rising]]'':

* Happens in ''[[The Ring]]'' Zero. One of Sadako's last victims decides to shoot herself and fellow terrified victim before the [[Stringy -Haired Ghost Girl]] kills her in a much more vaguely horrifying way.

* ''[[Unknown (2011 film)|Unknown]]'': Herr Jürgen.

* In [[Sleepy Hollow (Film)|Sleepy Hollow]], Notary Hardenbrook hangs himself when he thinks the Horseman will be coming after him next. Hardenbrook had earlier expressed the belief that the Horseman took his victims' heads to take back to Hell.

* Subverted in the [[Evelyn Waugh]] novel ''[[Decline And Fall]]'' where one character, Grimes, who is an example of the [[Humphrey]] tells of "landing in the soup" (an [[Unusual Euphemism]] for being caught engaged in homosexual conduct) during [[World War OneI]] and being placed in a room and given a loaded revolver and some whiskey to settle his nerves, so that a court martial could be avoided and the official story would be that he [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much|died in combat]]. After debating this course of action, he decides he would rather live and is found roaring drunk when his fellow soldiers re-enter the room.

** In 1 Samuel 31, a wounded King Saul tried to get his armorbearer to kill him so he wouldn't fall into the hands of the Philistines, who he feared would "thrust me through, and abuse me." When the armorbearer refused, Saul killed himself.

{{quote| When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,<br />

And the women come out to cut up what remains,<br />

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains<br />

* In a [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]] novel, Praetor Tal'aura (the senator from ''[[Star Trek: Nemesis]]'') finds out that a member of an important Romulan family has been plotting behind her back. When captured, he requests to take poison in lieu of a public execution, knowing that the latter will bring great shame to his family. She denies the coward. Later on, she allows a political rival, who was attempting to incite a revolt against her, to drink poison, having respect for the man. Given that Romulans are, essentially, Romans [[In Space]], this makes sense.

* In [[Hunger Games]] during Mockingjay all characters in the rebel army are fitted with a "Nightlock" capsule and expected to kill themselves before they are captured and taken in for torture/questioning.

* The 'die rather than let the heroes find any information' variant occurs in the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' season 3 episode 'Elaan of Troyius'. A saboteur phasers himself to death rather than let Kirk and company find out exactly what he's done to the ship. He sabotaged the warp drive so it would blow up as soon as it was engaged.

** In the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' "I, Borg," the Borg seem genuinely surprised that Geordi and other humans would rather die than be assimilated. (Makes you wonder why they thought humans were fighting to the death to oppose them.)

* John Cavil's [[Gory Discretion Shot|blink-and-you'll-miss-it]] death in the ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined(2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' finale.

* Chloe in ''[[Harpers Island|Harper's Island]]'' chooses to throw herself in a river and die over being gutted by [[Ax Crazy|John Wakefield]].

* In the sixth season of ''[[Homicide: Life Onon the Street]]'', when Detective Kellerman's dirty shooting of drug lord Luther Mahoney is exposed, and he is given the option of resigning in disgrace but going free or staying on the force but potentially going to jail (and taking some of his friends with him), he asks his ex-partner Lewis for one last favor: to give him his service weapon and leave the room for a few minutes. Lewis refuses.

* In ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'', suicide is an acceptable end for disgraced officers of the Imperial Guard, as well as an acceptable option for individuals who are [[Touched by Vorlons|touched by the Warp]]. Considering what the Warp ''does'' to people touched by it, this is fully understandable.

* In ''[[BioshockBioShock (series)]]'', Andrew Ryan opts to commit an interesting form of suicide both to deny Atlas the pleasure of killing him and to humiliate you: turns out you've been [[Brainwashed]] this entire time, and he uses your code words to make you kill him, while he taunts you for being a "slave."

** In the Multiplayer, it is better to commit suicide then let the opponent kill you in team matches, as the match ends depending on how many kills the team got.

* At the end of ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]] Brood War'', Admiral DuGalle writes a message to his wife, Helena, about the failures of the UED in the Koprulu sector before he kills himself out of shame, because he ordered the execution of his best friend, unknowingly cooperated with the [[Big Bad]] to kill her enemy, practically handed said [[Big Bad]] her new army, then failed to kill the [[Big Bad]]. A lot to be ashamed of.

{{quote| '''Bill:''' We've been immune so far, but, well, if I start to turn, promise you'll shoot me.<br />

* In ''[[Wild ArmsARMs 5]]'', after Kartikeya is defeated by Greg, he opts to finish himself off by using his ARM to blow a giant hole in his gut so as to deny Greg the joy of revenge. Greg then declares that he no longer cares about his revenge anymore, leaving Kartikeya with a dumbfounded look on his face as he dies.

* Outside of storylines, sometimes suicide is not as bad for your (team's) score as losing to an enemy. For example, in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' Time battles, by default, a self-destruct takes a point off your score, but getting KOed takes a point off your score ''and'' awards one to whoever got the finishing blow. Either way, your damage is reset. In battles with only two fighters \ teams, it's particularly clear; if Fighter A KOs Fighter B 3 times, and fighter A self-destructs 5 times (resetting their damage each time), Fighter A will win. The way around this is to set the self-destruct penalty to 2 points instead of 1, although that makes accidental SDs more annoying. Unfortunately in most games like this there's rarely a way to ''not'' reset a player's damage when they self-destruct, so either suicides are exploitable, or punished too severely for innocent mistakes.

** Several human targets choose to kill themselves rather than face the alternative, mostly because the alternative is being held down and [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|intimately introduced to a facehugger]]. There is an achievement for catching them all, as if sadism alone wasn't incentive enough.

{{quote| '''Pyre Fierceshot:''' "The Vizier destroyed his own country rather than fight us. That...is a compliment."}}

* In [[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]], Vamp ended his life with his own hands before Otacon could.

{{quote| '''Announcer:''' "Reactor explosion timer destroyed. [[Expospeak Gag|Reactor Explosion Uncertainty Emergency Preemption Protocol]] activated. This facility will self-destruct in two minutes."}}

** [[Played for Laughs]] by the villain near the end, who offers you a chance to fall victim to some very obvious [[Death Trap|Death Traps]]s rather than a final showdown in the lair. They also have some rather amusing things to say if you in fact take the offer, and you are rewarded with an [[Violation of Common Sense|achievement]] for one of them.

{{quote| ''' {{spoiler|Wheatley:}}''' "Not so much a death trap as it is a... death option."}}

* One ''[[Cyanide and& Happiness]]'' comic has a prisoner about to be executed. He gets out of it by requesting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich due to his peanut allergies.

* Believe it or not, in the French [[MP 3MP3]] saga ''Les Aventuriers du Survivaure'', the Captain actually says "Better to die than to die!". Lampshaded would be an understatement: he can [[Never Live It Down]]. Actually, the [[Only Sane Man]] lampshades it just in time to prevent the captain from saying it ''again''.

{{quote| ''"God? You think I'm doing this for God? I don't even know if God exists, but if He does...ever since He can remember, people have died in His good name. Long before that September. Long before hijacking planes. He's lost the will, He can't decide. He doesn't know who's right or wrong, but there's one thing that He's sure of: This has been going on too long. I do this for my friends. And yes, I HAVE FRIENDS. Good people, who were thrust into this mortal conflict you demons have interfered with. I do this for them. And I will not betray my friends."''}}

* Subverted in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Night of the Living Homeless" -- When—When a scientist tries to kill himself before the homeless break down the door to his lab, he ends up non-fatally shooting himself in the head several times before finally hitting the mark.

* Being a radical/reactionary ideology and party that gained total control of an industrialized state, launched the Western half of a World War, then lost, the ''[[Nazi Germany|Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei]]'' provides us a number of examples. Most of the higher-level Nazis had a cyanide pill in their possession. If they saw capture as imminent, they would bite into their cheek and open the pill, thus killing themselves.

** Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda, the day after Hitler's suicide. Unfortunately, not before [[Would Hurt A Child|killing their children.]] ''All six of them.''

{{quote| "By the time you receive these lines, we three will have solved the problem in another way - in the way which you have continually attempted to dissuade us. ..."}}

* The Austrian author Egon Friedell jumped out of his window while the SA was arguing with his maid downstairs. Considering that he was a highly educated, outspoken Jew in Nazi Germany this probably saved him from a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].