Heroic Sacrifice/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

** Also, in the BSG DVD movie Razor, {{spoiler|Kendra, who shot some civilians under direct order of her commanding officer, [[General Ripper|Helena Cain]], and was troubled with guilt over it ever since. This trope was invoked extremely obviously - someone had to stay behind and manually trigger a nuke, she forced the team at gunpoint to let her be the one to do it, and after her death, she was awarded a frakking medal. Also, the Cylon ship she died to destroy ''told'' her, specifically, that it knew what she had done and she was absolved, right before the nuke went off.}}

* The Fifth Doctor at the end of "The Caves of Androzani", which is seen as one of the best ''[[Doctor Who]]'' stories. Both he and Peri (a [[Damsel Scrappy]] if there ever was one) were suffering from fatal poisoning, and the Doctor gives the antidote to her. He then collapsed, and willed on by his past companions, regenerated into a new body in the best such sequence in the series.

*** Brought back to life, yeah, but also [[Came Back Wrong]]. The event made him physically ''incapable of death'' {{spoiler|for a few billion years, at least}}. He has it tough after that.

** {{spoiler|Adric's}} death in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Earthshock". {{spoiler|Ultimately, he failed in his goal (and achieving it would have been impossible without a major paradox being created), but he was ''trying'' to be heroic.}}

** At the end of ''The Peacekeeper Wars'', Crichton arguably knew that both the universe and he might not make it if {{spoiler|he used wormhole weapons to stop the war. And he did it anyway. Granted, he came out fine, but he very well might not have.}}

* ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]'': In the series finale, Corporal Jennifer "Pilot" Chase sacrifices herself to manually activate the Power Base's self-destruct mechanism, taking [[The Dragon]] and its invading horde down with her.

** This isn't the only time Daniel's sacrificed himself by far. He [[Taking the Bullet|took a staff blast]] for Jack in the original film, pulled a [[You Shall Not Pass]] at the end of the first season (but managed to make it back), entered the virtual reality where he keeps getting "killed" to save Teal'c in ''Avatar'', got killed by RepliCarter after stopping the Replicators long enough for the rest of the team to kill them all, prepares to send himself to the Ori galaxy with the Sangraal in order to destroy the Ori (although his friends intervene and beam him off the ship before it goes through the supergate, leaving the Sangraal onboard to activate after it gets through), and so on. This guy really likes his heroic sacrifices.

** Gerak, who chose to [[Redemption Equals Death|heal the Prior plage from Earth]] despite having been made a Prior himself, also qualifies. Especially when you consider that his last words were, "If I do this, I will die. But I... will die... free!". "I die free!" was practically the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|rebel Jaffa's]] [[Catch Phrase]].

* In the pilot of ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' {{spoiler|the senator}} seals a damaged shuttle through which they were losing oxygen, though doing so means being trapped inside and asphyxiating. His daughter got to watch.

** {{spoiler|Of course he was going to die anyway from either internal bleeding or a heart condition, so he was just [[Take a Third Option|choosing a third option]]}}.

** Beyond those two big ones, Sam and Dean offer themselves up as [[Heroic Sacrifices]] on multiple other occasions. One example is Dean with the djinn in season 2. He sacrificed the ability to stay in his "dream world" - one where he doesn't have to "be a hero" and can have a normal life, including having his mother alive and his kid brother happy and not demon tainted - after realizing that in that world, all the people who the Winchesters have saved over the years are instead dead. The means for "returning" to the real world? He had to die. (Which could very easily tie this one back into [[Driven to Suicide]], but this is * Dean* we're talking about; the two often aren't exactly far from each other when it comes to his motivations!)

** Not to mention Sam's season 4 [[Heroic Sacrifice]] which is averted when his own attempt to sacrifice his soul to save Dean is ''rejected''. His resulting decision to [[Driven to Suicide|damn himself slowly]] by [[This Is Your Brain on Evil|using his powers]] ''seems'' like a noble act - until you get to the end and realize that Sam's efforts have been fueled by [[Psycho Serum|demon blood]] that intensifies pride in his own abilities and a sense of superiority to the point where he believes he is [[The Only One]] who can stop the Apocalypse. While Sam is genuine in his desire to help his brother and save the world (see When The Levee Breaks for his huge inner conflict), he goes about it [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight|in a]] [[I Did What I Had to Do|very]] [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|destructive]] [[Heroic RROD|(especially]] [[Suicide Mission|self-]][[The Dark Side|destructive)]] [[Death Equals Redemption|way]]. He can't know that {{spoiler|killing [[Apocalypse Maiden|Lilith]] starts the [[The End of the World as We Know It|Apocalypse]]; the angels hid that so he would [[Signs of the End Times|kickstart]] the Apocalypse by doing what he thought would prevent it.}} The goal is noble, even with the horrible outcome. It's part of the show's [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstruction]] of this trope that everything turns out so badly.