I Cannot Self-Terminate: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': Done in a weird way in the series finale. {{spoiler|Atem, in order to finally [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]], MUST be defeated in a duel by Yugi. He cannot just forfeit the duel; he must be defeated honorably by the person who he shares a body with. What results is [[Moment of Awesome|the most epic duel in the show's history]]}}.

* {{spoiler|Zeref}} from ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' seems to be counting on Natsu to come and kill him.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In X-23 #11, [[X-23]] asks [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire|Jubilee]] to kill her if she succumbs to the "trigger scent" to prevent her from killing innocent people. Predictably, Jubilee doesn't follow through and it leads to an [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]].

* Inverted in French comic ''[[Les Légendaires]]''. The [[Big Bad]] points out that he's a god. In this verse, only gods can kill gods, and other gods have deserted this planet. So, he states that the only hope for the heroes is that he would suicide. {{spoiler|The loophole was to kill him with a sword forged with his own blood (actually the blood of the guy he possess the body).}}

 

== Fan Works ==

* The 1990 comedy ''[[Short Time]]'' stars Dabney Coleman as a police officer who erroneously finds out he has a terminal illness. The problem is, his wife ([[Hey, It's That Guy!|Marge]] in [[Mom and Dad Save The World]]) only gets his pension pre-retirement if he is killed in the line of duty. Since suicide is also out of the question, he starts taking massive risks on the job in an effort to get a perp to kill him.

* Debatable in the case of ''[[The Hitcher]]'', in which serial killer Ryder keeps asking protagonist Jim to "stop me", and gives him several opportunities to kill him. Questionable as to whether Ryder is simply [[Death Seeker|looking to die]], as per this trope, or if he's specifically trying to [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|make Jim into a killer like himself]].

* An outtake from the first ''[[Alien]]'', cut because it broke the pace of the finale, shows that {{spoiler|some of the crew are still alive after being implanted, and they beg Ripley to kill them. She obliges.}}

* In ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]: [[The Movie|Nobunaga's Desire]]'', {{spoiler|Nobunaga is given three black Core Medals and sent out of control. He manages to hang onto himself long enough to beg Eiji to kill him before he goes out of control. Eiji ultimately defeats him, allowing him to die peacefully.}}

* In the 2011 film adaptation of ''The Whisperer In Darkness'' by [[H.P. Lovecraft]], Henry Akeley, who has been reduced to a [[Brain In a Jar]] by the Mi-Go, begs Professor Wilmarth to kill him after learning that his son has been killed by them. {{spoiler|In a subversion, Wilmarth cannot bring himself to do it.}}

 

== Literature ==

* In the short story ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'', the survivors of the apocalypse caused by [[Master Computer]] AM eventually realize that while they cannot kill themselves, they can kill each other. Unfortunately, this leaves one of them alive to suffer a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] at the hands of AM by being turned into [[And I Must Scream|a 'soft jelly thing']] that can't harm itself.

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novels, {{spoiler|Soric}} is [[Fate Worse Than Death|handed over to the Black Ships]]. Several books later, he communicates with Hark, who finds him, [[Manly Tears|cries]] (which all the deaths in all the books have not drawn from him), and at his request, kills him. (He makes it look like an execution at {{spoiler|Soric's}} request, to save himself.)

* In the [[Dresden Files]], Lloyd Slate to Harry once Mab begins torturing the former.

* At the end of [[The Draka|Under The Yoke]], the heroine is trapped in a nuclear bunker with her ally and a member of the Domination's secret police. As a member of [[La Résistance]], her duty is to detonate the bomb she is carrying, thus destroying the experimental nuclear device and setting [[The Empire|the Domination's]] nuclear arms race back several years. Regrettably, that will kill everyone in the bunker, and as a devout Catholic nun she cannot commit the mortal sin of suicide, nor can she allow her ally to commit it for her. [[Noble Demon|The secret policeman]] {{spoiler|solves the problem for her by remarking that there's no way he's getting out of there alive, and though he has contempt for her religion he respects her faith in it... so he kills her, thus detonating the explosive and in so doing, saving both her and her ally from the sin of suicide.}}

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In ''[[Community]]'', Abed is incapable of stopping himself from humiliating others, he has too give out "destruct codes" for himself.

* In the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode "Reckoner," a judge suffering from terminal cancer hires a [[Career Killers|hitman]] to carry out a series of [[Vigilante Execution]]s on people he considered [[Karma Houdini]]s (mostly for crimes against children), culminating in the man who killed the judge's wife while driving drunk. After the last criminal is killed, he admits to the BAU that there is still one more name on his hit list...and is promptly shot dead by the hitman.

 

== Music ==

* Ice Age's "Dead But Wide Awake" very clearly describes this

 

* In Roman mythology, a famous Sybil (please note, that's the title of a seer/oracle, and is not yet used as a name in Rome) from the nearby city of Cumae was turned into a cicada by Apollo when she refused to sleep with him. Cicada!Sybil was ostensibly kept in a cage in the temple of Apollo at Cumae, where people would continue to ask her questions; one day a young child asked what she wanted, and she replied that she wanted to die.

 

== Radio ==

"Kill me." }}

*** {{spoiler|She does.}}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Young Erasmus van Richten of ''[[Ravenloft]]'' invoked this trope, begging his father Rudolph to drive a stake through his heart before vampirism could extinguish his compassion and make him a killer. Justified in that, while Erasmus could theoretically have committed suicide by sunlight, he was only a kid and probably couldn't have endured the 10 rounds of agony then required under D&D rules.

 

* In [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Julius Caesar]]'', Brutus asks for one of men to hold his sword so he can run himself on it, as his Stoic philosophy forbids him from directly committing suicide.

** Either a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]] or [[Science Marches On]] however, since Stoic philosophy actually ''prescribes'' suicide as an honorable death (second only to death in battle) and that allowing someone to commit suicide rather than execute him was oft reserved for the [[Worthy Opponent]] as a way of letting him go out on his own terms. The offer was more often taken than rejected.

** Brutus does a similar thing after the Battle of Phillipi in the series ''[[Rome]]''. He dismisses his guards, takes off his armor and marches straight at the advancing enemy soldiers, sword in hand. At first the soldiers just block or dodge his attacks, but when he wounds one, they stab him to death.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', this trope is the driving force behind {{spoiler|Barthandelus and Orphan's plan to use Pulse l'Cie to destroy Cocoon. Since fal'Cie in general lack the free will to perform actions outside those predefined for them (hence the reason why l'Cie exist in the first place) and Cocoon fal'Cie cannot assign a Focus that would endanger Cocoon, they needed a Pulse fal'Cie, who could assign such a Focus without issue, to create l'Cie of its own to do the deed.}}

 

* ''[[Saya no Uta]]'', with {{spoiler|your former girlfriend}} whom Saya has... modified.

* ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' has {{spoiler|Saber Alter, corrupted and controlled by Dark Sakura,}} lose in a fight to Shirou. She calmly asks to be finished off, warning that she will likely heal in time to stop him should he not. If you choose to spare her, she does just that.

** {{spoiler|Sakura herself}} realizes that she needs to be stopped, but will only allow Shirou to do it.

 

* The [[Fan Nickname|so-called]] Suicide Fairies from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. Upon meeting Antimony, they almost immediately ask her squish them flat with a rock. As it turns out, dying is a test they must pass to [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|gain new bodies]] and enter the Court. Outright killing themselves (or each other, apparently) constitutes cheating.

* [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/07/21 This] [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/07/28 series] of ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/07/30 comics] utilizes the trope in a very efficient fashion. The Cardboard Tube Samurai must kill one of his oldest friends when he becomes possessed by an evil sword.

* ''[[Vexxarr]]'': [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=013111 ...and now] they cannot.

* This is why Pices of the webcomic ''[[Zodiac (webcomic)|Zodiac]]'' joined the team of superheroes. Having been gene-spliced with an alien [[Eldritch Abomination]], he wants to ensure that, should he lose control, there is a team of superheroes ready to take him down.

 

== Web Original ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Choosing Death]]

[[Category:Friendly Fire Index]]