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{{quote|''"Are we really going to stand here and argue over who makes the noble sacrifice?"''|''[[Voltron Force]]''}}
Who plays [[The Bait]]? Who says [[You Shall Not Pass]]? Who sends others to [[Bring News Back]] while he stays to make a [[Last Stand]] against the evil?
Except you have two [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] characters ready, willing, and able to take it on.
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Generally in a time-critical situation, so it has to be resolved, usually in one of three ways:
# The one in a position to give orders takes the role and sends the other away. [[The Men First|Common in military situations]], and the reason why the king can refuse to leave the city [[In Its Hour of Need]] but send away the crown prince.
# One may have a valid [[More Expendable Than You]] argument, or other reason (such as [[The Last Dance|being mortally wounded already]] and [[I Will Only Slow You Down]], or being the only one who could hold it alone, so the other could only die with him, not save him, or [[Only I Can Kill Him|the whole point of the expedition is to get the other one to do something only he can do]]) that the other has to concede means he really should be the one to stay.
# Force or stealth. One character can trick another into leaving, [[Percussive Prevention|or knock him out so he can't follow,]] or shut the door between them, or throw the other onto a moving vehicle he can't jump off, etc, or just do [[Taking the Bullet]] or saying [[I Am Spartacus]] or making the [[Sneaky Departure]] before the other can realize or stop him.
Not that [[Like You Would Really Do It|the audience is always in doubt]]. The [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality]] often dictates, as does [[Redemption Equals Death]]. This is one case where [[Dying Alone]] is, in fact, a consolation to the dying character.
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Definitely the duty of members of the [[Hero Secret Service]]. See also [[Who Will Bell the Cat?]].
{{examples}}▼
{{deathtrope}}
== Anime & Manga ==▼
▲{{examples}}
* ''[[One Piece]]'': After fighting and defeating both Oz and Gekko Moria, the Straw Hat Pirates are too worn out to defeat Bartholomew Kuma. All but Zoro have been knocked unconscious. Zoro offers his own life in exchange for the lives of everyone else. Kuma agrees to his request. Suddenly Sanji stands up and offers his life in place of Zoro's. Zoro proceeds to sucker punch Sanji in the side, knocking him unconscious and ending the argument.
* Used in ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' at the very end. As [[Colony Drop|Libra falls to Earth]], Heero goes to the main reactor to destroy it; unfortunately, he's out of weapons, his ammo and [[Laser Sword|beam saber energy]] depleted from his duel with Zechs and his [[BFG]] having been knocked away at the start of the fight. He's about to use the [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]] when Zechs [[Big Damn Heroes|appears out of nowhere]], stabs the reactor with Epyon's [[BFS]], and says "We'll meet again" as the explosion engulfs him. {{spoiler|And yes, he does come back.}}
==
* At least one issue of ''[[Iron Man]]'' where [[War Machine (Comic Book)|Rhodey]] knocks Tony out and wears the armor himself. Sort of subverted in that when Tony wakes up, he immediately goes out in a spare suit and arrives just in time to save Rhodey's massively outclassed butt.
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': Jean Grey used force to get Scott Summers to safety on the shuttle before flying it down in face of a solar flare.
* In ''[[The Mighty Thor]]'', Thor insisted on covering the escape from Hel, only to be cold-cocked by his former enemy Skurge, who then proceeded to declare [[You Shall Not Pass]] at the bridge of Gjallerbru in his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], and possibly one of the best [[Tear Jerker]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] moments for Simonson's entire run. He's also trapped in Hel for a year or three until Hela realizes his sacrifice has made him a soul she can't keep, and she sends him on to Valhalla. The final quote, made as on the left hand side of the page he's fighting, and on the right his picture slowly fades:
{{quote|
* In [[Justice Society of America]], the two Hourmen, father and son, fought over who would be allowed to return to the point in time from which the father had been plucked by the android Hourman, to ensure a [[Stable Time Loop]]. This lasts until the android Hourman has a bright idea: he puts both father and son on his [[Cool Ship|time-traveling ship]], and fills the point himself.
* [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] has one in the [[Silver Age]]: to destroy the Sun Eater, Superboy had to fly into the creature and detonate it. He was about to do when he was suckerpunched by [[Made of Iron|Ferro Lad]] and he made the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in Superboy's place.
* In the [[X Wing Series]] comic, [http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/1020778.html Zena and Jagged Antilles] have to detach a burning section of their refueling station before the fire can spread, which means their deaths. Jagged tries to get Zena to follow the others who were evacuated from this section, but she tells him someone needs to fight the flames while he activates the lancing charge.
{{quote|
'''Zena''': "I know that, Jagged. You didn't marry a stupid woman!" }}
* This how {{spoiler|Johnny Storm}} [[Comic Book Death|died]] in ''[[Fantastic Four]] #587'', beating {{spoiler|Ben Grimm}} to the punch after pretending to accept the latter's heartfelt reasoning for his own self-sacrifice proposal. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|After all, they've practically made it their life's work to one-up each other.]]
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== Literature ==
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''His Last Command'', Gaunt and Wilder know that someone will have to [[You Shall Not Pass|make a last stand]] to give the rest of the regiment a chance to escape. Gaunt lays it out and offers to do it. Wilder refuses, points out that Gaunt does not have a command position, and orders him to take the regiment to safety.
* In William King's [[Warhammer
* ''Red Seas Under Red Skies'': {{spoiler|Locke and Jean have both been poisoned, and there's only enough antidote for one. Each one wants the other to take the antidote. Jean threatens to physically force Locke to take it, but [[Magnificent Bastard]] Locke reveals that he's already slipped the antidote into Jean's drink.}}
* In [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', when invisible beings threaten to massacre them unless Lucy goes into a magician's tower to cast a spell, Lucy agrees to do it, and the boys argue with her that they want to defend her. Only when the fearless Reepicheep refuses to try dissuading her, observing that she is being brave and doing a heroic act, are they convinced to let her go.
* At the end of L. M. Montgomery's ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'', Anne gives up a scholarship so she can stay at Green Gables where Marilla needs her. She gives it up before she tells Marilla, so that Marilla can't argue with her.
** In ''Rainbow Valley'', Ellen refuses to release her sister Rosemary from [[The Promise]] when she wants to marry. Later, Ellen wants to marry, and she can't even bring herself to ask Rosemary to release
* Part of the legend of [[Ciaphas Cain]] is that he always seems to get into these situations (as the second volunteer). As far as he's concerned, he's only volunteering to find a way to escape, but...
* In Rick Riordan's ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|The Titan's Curse]]'', Percy has a hard time persuading Artemis {{spoiler|to let him hold up the sky instead of her}}. He wins for the "valid argument" reason: {{spoiler|She can fight Atlas, who will kill him if they don't change places.}} In fact, her reluctance is rather [[Honor Before Reason]].
* In Jim Butcher's [[Dresden Files]] novel ''Dead Beat'', Rawlins tells Harry that if he can get free, he should just go without him. Harry tells him
{{quote|
** In ''Grave Peril'', Michael tells Harry that he can ensure that Harry and Susan escape; since he's a Knight of the Cross, he's supposed to protect the innocent. Harry tells him that he's supposed to have his sword, too, and since it's Harry's fault that he doesn't, Harry will not escape that way.
** In ''Small Favor'', Michael and Harry argue about who gets to be the last one on the helicopter. Harry, having [[I Gave My Word|promised his daughter]] and having seen a Valkyrie eye him, wins. {{spoiler|Michael ends up shot and very nearly dead while dangling from the helicopter.}}
** It is worth noting that if Harry had gone first, {{spoiler|both would have died}}. According to Uriel in 'The Warrior'.
* In [[Ben Counter]]'s [[Warhammer
* In ''[[Outbound Flight]]'', the last surviving Jedi and the brother of the man who caused all this try to put Outbound Flight into a stable orbit over a planet, only to find that the drive is too damaged. It shuts down, and they see that Outbound Flight will crash. They and the Dreadnaught where the fifty-seven survivors went to were on opposite sides, and the only way that the other survivors could live through the crash would be if the side the two of them were on hit first.
{{quote|
'''Lorana''': "You can't handle the landing alone. But I could do that while you go."
'''Thrass''': And who would keep the remaining systems from self-destructing while you cleared a path through the pylons for me? No, Jedi Jinzler. It appears we will both be [[Heroic Sacrifice|giving our lives for your people.]]" }}
** And they do. And the survivors and their descendants [[The Greatest Story Never Told|never know what happened]].
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** A lesser version in ''The Half Blood Prince'', when Dumbledore and Harry are breaking into Voldemort's cave. A hidden door requires a sacrifice of blood, as deduced by Dumbledore; Harry offers to provide it in his place, but Dumbledore insists that Harry's blood is more valuable and takes the initiative to cut his own arm open with a knife (and promptly heal it back up again with magic).
*** Later, when they're leaving, it's Harry's turn to pull this, using the valid argument that he's already bleeding anyway.
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer
* In ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy|Ptolemy's Gate]]'', Bartimaeus and Nathaniel lie to Kitty, telling her that they will be able to escape alive when she can't, to persuade her to leave. {{spoiler|Then Nathaniel, at the very end, dismisses Bartimaeus against his will, so he alone has to die.}}
* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Fellowship of the Ring]]'', Boromir thinks this is his motivation for wanting to take the Ring away from Frodo (self-deception, since the Ring is clouding his mind). Frodo concludes he must go off alone, without telling the others, to forestall their willingness to come with him. Sam deduces this and threatens to prevent his leaving if he doesn't take
* In book two of ''[[The Hunger Games]]'', {{spoiler|Katniss and Peeta are each determined that the other will be the survivor of the Games. Both of them have arguments in their favor: Katniss realizes that Peeta's public speaking skills will be valuable in the coming revolution, whereas she herself is more useful as a martyr. On the other hand, Peeta tells Katniss that while she could live quite happily without him, he couldn't live without her; although they can't speak of the revolution openly, this seems to imply that he wouldn't bother joining it if she were dead.}}
* The trope is used several times in ''[[Animorphs]]'', with [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Ax]] and [[Blood Knight|Rachel]] being the two most likely to play the role of arguing about who gets to go on the suicide mission. It has happened enough that in the final book, when Jake sends Rachel on a mission that really will [[Killed Off for Real|kill her off for real]], he knows that he needs to [[Defied Trope|defy the trope]] by making sure that only Rachel knows about her [[Heroic Sacrifice]] ahead of time.
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* In the Chinese tale of the "righteous stepmother of Qin", her son and stepson were found near a murdered body. Both men confessed to the crime in an attempt to shield the other. (When the stepmother recommended the execution of her son, not her stepson, and explained that he was the junior, and she had the duty to look after her stepson, the king pardoned them both for her devotion to duty.)
* In Andy Hoare's [[White Scars]] novel ''Hunt for Voldorius'', Jhogai demands the right, [[Combat by Champion|as company champion, to face off against the Chaos champion Nullus]]. {{spoiler|He loses}}.
* In the [[Isaac Asimov]] collection ''[[I, Robot (literature)|I, Robot]]'', the story "Runaround" features Powell and Donovan arguing over who should risk their life to rescue a malfunctioning robot. Powell proposes a math contest: whoever can solve a difficult math problem gets to go. Of course, he has already solved it in his head before he proposes it, and immediately solves it and runs off before Donovan can stop him.
* In [[Adrian Tchaikovsky]]'s ''[[Shadows of the Apt|Dragonfly Falling]]'', Salma tries to tell Totho he can't sell himself to the Wasp to save him, but Totho informs him that he has already done so, and if Salma doesn't take the escape he did it for, Totho has done it in vain.
* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[
* In [[Jasper Fforde]]'s ''[[Thursday Next|Lost In A Good Book]]'', Thursday goes to kill herself to appease Aornis. Her father stops her and derails Aornis's plans despite her objections that it will kill him; among other things, he points out he's aged, and he will go without a decline this way.
** In ''Something Rotten'', Spike tries to [[Balancing Death's Books|take Thursday's place]] in {{spoiler|the underworld}}; they argue, and when he can't be moved, Thursday tells the crowd he's {{spoiler|alive}}. Then Cindy shows up and argues Thursday into letting her do it.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek: The
** Several more canon Trek examples, such as "Once More Unto The Breach" and "These Are the Voyages", and ''Nemesis''.
*** Also an unsuccessful attempt in "Obsession".
** The Trek novel ''The Return''.
** ''Voyager's'' Tom and B'Elanna do this once.
{{quote|
'''B'Elanna:''' You can't order me, we're the same rank.
'''Tom:''' I'm a bridge officer, and I have seniority.
'''B'Elanna:''' Three days! }}
* In ''[[Angel]]'', Doyle punches Angel in order to make the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] himself.
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** More of a case of [[More Expendable Than You]].
* Used in the ITV adaptation of ''[[Horatio Hornblower|Hornblower]]''. Rather than using the novel's elaborate set-up to ensure an/the eponymous duel is ''An Even Chance'', the TV version has Hornblower's second cold-cock him with a sea-lantern because he (the second) was shamed by 17 year old Hornblower's courage, and didn't believe that either of them stood a chance in a duel against Mr Midshipman Simpson.
* Both played straight and for comedy in ''Chinese Paladin 3'': at one point, the heroes have to enter the forbidden [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Demon Prison Pagoda]], which is forbidden to members of the [[Church Militant]]. Undeterred, the chief acolyte promptly asks his superiors to expel him from the order. They refuse, and [[The Hero]]
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==
* The end of ''[[Phantom Brave]]''. It's not who you'd think either.
* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'': the last third of the game has Luke and Asch arguing repeated about who is going to make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], actually two of them over the course of this part of the game, with each one wanting to make the sacrifice himself. {{spoiler|They both survive the first - neutralizing the miasma - but Asch dies in the second on Eldrant, though depending on how you interpret the ending he might be alive in some capacity after it's all over.}}
* [[Dynasty Warriors: Gundam]] has a minor example at the end of Char's/Amuro's Original plotline when Char takes away Amuro's chance to play the hero and goes down with the underground cave. (He gets better)
* After the final battle of ''[[Dragon Age]]: origins'', it's possible to {{spoiler|stop and argue with Alistair about who gets to [[Heroic Sacrifice|finish off the Archdemon]] (which, accidentally, results a [[Plotline Death]] of whoever does). In the unmodded game, if he's in a Romance with you the argument will always end with him running off to do it without giving you a chance to stop him}}.
* Played with in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''. Either Snake or Raiden have to get to GW's server room, through a hallway saturated with microwave radiation. The other will stay behind and hold off an endless army of [[Mooks]]. Both forks in the road point to "heroic death", but naturally there's a
* ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'': Nina goes through a personal quest to acquire an artifact that will allow her to become The Great Bird. Unfortunately the process is permanent and she's basically sacrificing her humanity and sentience for the good of the group, and the world. Her sister Mina has other ideas and steals the artifact so SHE can sacrifice herself instead.
* In ''[[Mega Man X]] 5'', in order to stop the [[Colony Drop]], one of the heroes has to maneuver a shuttle into crashing into it. Zero volunteered himself, as he stated that, whether or not he (Zero) survives the crash, the world is still in danger, and X is needed more than he is.
* At the end of [[
* After Arthas is killed in [[World of Warcraft]], {{spoiler|Tirion and Bolvar}} have a minor disagreement over who should be the next Lich King. The latter wins out.
* At the end of ''[[Baten Kaitos]] Origins'', {{spoiler|Sagi is grabbed by a machina as the party flees Tarazed's core. Milly realizes the control unit doesn't have enough power to override the machina and prepares to power it herself, which would kill her. Before she can do it, however, Guillo rushes past her and powers it up, sacrificing itself.}}
==
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'': [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/030613 "Let me be the hero for once."] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"Sorry, ma'am. I'm union."]]
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091111 Tarvek tells Gil that if push comes to shove, he has to cut Tarvek off and save Agatha.] When Agatha asks whether they were fighting, they instantly agree that they weren't -- so she won't learn.
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* In [[The Dreamland Chronicles]], [http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/page-749/ the dwarves want the party to run off and save themselves] rather than fight. They eventually do so, because the dwarf king is [[The Atoner]].
* [[Bob and George]]: [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000622 Run, Roll! Get Out of here!]
* [[Dominic Deegan]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20171012133856/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2004-04-05 Luna refuses to let them fight without her; Dominic thinks it's too dangerous.]
* [[Homestuck]]: Dave and Rose have a disagreement over who will be the one to take the Tumor to the Green Sun, which will kill them. {{spoiler|It winds up subverted: both Dave and Rose end up going, and they both turn out just fine, due to being on their Derse Quest Beds when the Tumor detonates.}}
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' takes this to ridiculous extremes with a scene which involves dozens of people knocking each other out in succession over who gets to go on a suicide mission.
* In the Warner Brothers short ''Dumb Patrol'', [[World War
{{quote|
* This is subverted in the first animated ''[[X-Men]]'' series' version of the Phoenix Saga. Jean Grey is apparently dead, but the Phoenix Force reveals that it can save her by transferring life energy from others to her. Jean's love interests Cyclops and Wolverine get into a brief argument about who will sacrifice himself for her sake. Both insist on doing it themselves. The Phoenix then explains that the life energy doesn't have to come from one person; it can take energy from a group of people (shortening their lifespans) to revive Jean. All of the [[X-Men]] hold hands and allow the Phoenix to do just that.
** But... can't Wolverine live pretty much forever anyway?
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Knight in Shining Tropes]]
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Goodness Tropes]]
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
▲[[Category:More Hero Than Thou]]
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