I Will Only Slow You Down: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

You have a group of protagonists, one of whom has been injured or disabled. Either that person is literally slowing the group down, or [[Someone Has to Die]]. Naturally, the "damaged" party member volunteers to sacrifice themselves and/or be left behind: after all, being permanently injured is a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] and well..they'll just slow them down.

 

 

{{examples}}

* Done rather cruelly in ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]''. Birman, one of Weiss' handlers, is captured and subjected to [[Mutilation Interrogation]] by [[The Psycho Rangers|La Mort]]. The boys are ordered to kill her before she cracks and tells them everything she knows; when they protest, Manx reminds them that they're [[Hitman with a Heart|killers,]] not rescuers. When they find her alive, they decide to rescue her anyway, and she asks Aya for the gun he carries as a backup weapon, saying grimly that she's still got one finger to pull a trigger with. Aya gives it to her, [[Hope Spot|apparently thinking she wanted to help them escape]], but she explains the trope and shoots herself instead.

* {{spoiler|Main character Seiya}} attempts to pull this in [[Saint Seiya]] when he's under the effects of a poison-based techniques and Shun can't fight his own [[Evil Counterpart]] properly, since one of his chains is wrapped around {{spoiler|Seiya}}'s arm to keep him from falling off a cliff. {{spoiler|Seiya}} mentions this trope right before he uses his free hand to cut off the already-damaged chain and willingly throw himself off, which sends Shun into an [[Unstoppable Rage]] against his enemy. {{spoiler|Luckily, Seiya lives to tell. Barely, but he does.}}

** After he got paralyzed, Havoc tearfully begged [[Supporting Leader|Mustang]] to leave him, since he won't be much help for Mustang anymore in military. {{spoiler|Like above examples, he prove his worth by smuggling weapons for Mustang and his men when the Promised Day is coming.}}

 

* [[Played for Laughs]] in an issue of ''[[Planetary]]'', as the crew are racing to recover a man trying to escape from them while The Drummer is under the weather due to info overload:

{{quote|'''Elijah:''' He's getting away!

 

== Film ==

* ''[[The Guns of Navarone]]''. Major Franklin has a serious leg injury and can't keep up with the team, so he tries to commit suicide to avoid slowing them down.

* ''[[Terminator]] 2'': {{spoiler|Miles}} is mortally wounded, but stays behind to {{spoiler|trigger the detonator that will destroy his research}}.

 

== Literature ==

* Rockjaw Grang in the [[Redwall]] novel ''The Long Patrol'', after [[Taking the Bullet|being fatally wounded]]. He manages to kill over twenty [[Mooks]] before he finally dies.

* [[The Captain]] of the {{spoiler|HMS ''Madrigal''}}, in ''[[Honor Harrington|The Honor of the Queen]]'', says this to let the surviving Grayson ships leave them and escape.

* In Teresa Frohock's ''[[Miserere: An Autumn Tale|Miserere an Autumn Tale]]'', the elderly Matthew sends Lucian on alone because he is too old and would only slow him.

 

* Subverted in the first season two episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' in which Daniel is badly wounded. Thinking that this will likely kill him anyway, he tells Jack to take the others and go on without him while he plans to [[You Shall Not Pass|stay behind and cover their escape]]. However he ends up meeting no resistance and instead hauls himself to a Goa'uld sarcophagus to get healed.

* Anders in ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]''.

* In the HBO film ''Deadly Voyage'' (based on a true story), Kingsley Ofosu and his brother are trying to escape from the murderous crew of the ship they have stowed away on (who have already killed their seven companions). As they reach the deck, his injured brother, knowing that the two of them will never escape together, pushes Kingsley away from him and staggers off on his own. Sure enough, the crew quickly catches him and throws him overboard, but the separation and the distraction gives Kingsley the precious extra few minutes needed to escape.

 

* A variation in the Classic ''[[Traveller]]'' adventure ''Rescue on Galatea'' by FASA. During a rescue mission in enemy territory an [[NPC]] is wounded. The [[PC]]s hear a shot: when they arrive they find the [[NPC]] dead, killed by another [[NPC]] named Freeman. Freeman explains that he had to shoot the wounded [[NPC]] because he would have just slowed them down, or worse been forced to tell about the team's mission if captured.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Played straight and inverted in [[Left 4 Dead]], where a struggling Survivor may encourage the rest to go on to the next safe room without them. Justified because [[Death Is Cheap]] and they'll respawn in the safe room at the beginning of the next map. This is considered a valid tactic on the higher difficulties, since a dozen or more attempts may be needed to finish a campaign on Expert.

* Used along with the exact phrase "I will only slow you down" by the injured Grey Warden Keenan in [[Dragon Age]] Origins: Awakening.

* In ''[[Fable]] III'', when Walter and the Hero first arrive in Aurora, they encounter a creature known as the Crawler and Walter is left blind and injured. Knowing he's too weak to cross the desert in his current state, Walter tells the Hero to leave him behind, saying "I won't just slow you down, I'll get you killed." You're actually ''forced'' to leave him behind, but doing so at the first opportunity makes you an [[Karma Meter|evil asshole]].

* Hope, suddenly and briefly, in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Subverted in the episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' 'Das Bus', when the passengers of [[Drives Like Crazy|Otto's]] bus end up stranded on an island, a' la ''[[Lord of the Flies]]''. Bart, Lisa and Milhouse are being chased by the other kids, until Milhouse collapses from exhaustion:

{{quote|'''Milhouse:''' I can't go on... You two go ahead... and carry me with you!}}

* In the ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' episode "Omens Part Two", Jaga, wounded during the escape from their invaded castle, uses the line ''verbatim'' when telling Lion-O and the other Thundercats to leave him behind.

* In the Halloween episode of ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'', Timmy and his friends (which include his godparents as [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself|no one would recognize them as fairies with everyone in costume]]) visit the Buxaplenty Mansion to get candy. Instead they get dogs sic'd on them for not having nice costumes (that and the owner just a snotty jerkass) with Timmy tripping over his costume and telling his friends to go on without him. Without a beat they all yell "Okay" and leave him behind to which Timmy yells he was "being dramatic".

 

== Real Life ==

* [[wikipedia:Lawrence Oates#The return journey|Captain Lawrence Oates]] is most well known for committing suicide by Antarctic so the rest of his exploration party could live. He was suffering from a frostbitten foot and injuries he received during service in the Boer War. Unfortunately, [[It Got Worse|this didn't]] [[Kill'Em All|help save his comrades]]. His last words were written in Robert Scott's diary as:

{{quote|"[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|I'm just going out]]. [[Gallows Humor|I may be some time]]."}}

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