More Hero Than Thou: Difference between revisions

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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 40000]] novel ''[[Space Wolf]]'', Sergeant Hengist sends Ragnar and some other young Marines to [[Bring News Back]] (of Chaos Space Marines) while Hengist and others [[You Shall Not Pass|hold them off]]. Ragnar wants to protest, and Hengist tells him that being a Space Marine is not easy, and sends him off. When one of the other Marines is injured during their escape, Ragnar sends the others on [[No One Gets Left Behind|while he tends the injured]] ~~-- over~~ their objections, succeeding when he threatens them, and they leave only with the comment that next time, it will be their turn to tend the wounded.

* In William King's [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''[[Space Wolf]]'', Sergeant Hengist sends Ragnar and some other young Marines to [[Bring News Back]] (of Chaos Space Marines) while Hengist and others [[You Shall Not Pass|hold them off]]. Ragnar wants to protest, and Hengist tells him that being a Space Marine is not easy, and sends him off. When one of the other Marines is injured during their escape, Ragnar sends the others on [[No One Gets Left Behind|while he tends the injured]]—over their objections, succeeding when he threatens them, and they leave only with the comment that next time, it will be their turn to tend the wounded.

* ''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 ~~her--but~~ she does tell her suitor ''why'' she refused. So the man asks for her. Rosemary agrees at once; the catch is that she ''didn't'' tell ''her'' suitor why she turned him down, and she's sure that he wouldn't want her if she went back to him, and so refuses to even try. So Ellen refuses to marry her suitor, even knowing that they are both going to be miserable. (It's a good thing that Rosemary's suitor's youngest daughter intervenes.)

** 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 her—but she does tell her suitor ''why'' she refused. So the man asks for her. Rosemary agrees at once; the catch is that she ''didn't'' tell ''her'' suitor why she turned him down, and she's sure that he wouldn't want her if she went back to him, and so refuses to even try. So Ellen refuses to marry her suitor, even knowing that they are both going to be miserable. (It's a good thing that Rosemary's suitor's youngest daughter intervenes.)

* 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]].

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* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''[[Blood Angels|Red Fury]]'', Dante tries to get the Chapter Masters off-planet when the mutants attack. One is offended at the thought they would run away from mutants, Dante says that they did not bring about the problem; Blood Angels did, and another says they will nevertheless help fight it, because the first was right, it could be construed as an insult. Dante says he is honored.

* 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 ~~him -- but~~ Sam's actions aren't More Hero Than Thou because he doesn't want to be the hero himself, just go along..

* 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 him—but Sam's actions aren't More Hero Than Thou because he doesn't want to be the hero himself, just go along..

* 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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** 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]]~~--who~~ can do the job just fine ~~himself--tells~~ him to stop trying to steal his thunder.

* 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]]—who can do the job just fine himself—tells him to stop trying to steal his thunder.

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* [[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 [[More Hero Than Thou]] conversation between the two about who will do what.

* 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 More Hero Than Thou conversation between the two about who will do what.

* ''[[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.