No One Gets Left Behind: Difference between revisions
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When they must [[Bring News Back]], the characters who stay behind often do it to buy the others time to get away. Those who must go on may find it [[Dirty Business|hard to flee]] while [[More Hero Than Thou|others fight]], but generally their sense of duty is up to it.
In many ways this is [[Truth in Television]], although without the dramatic clichés. Many armed forces units, especially the U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Army Rangers, pride themselves on never abandoning a wounded or dead soldier. Others, like the SAS, make a rule to leave wounded men for [[The Medic
See also [[Honor Before Reason]], which this is usually a subtrope of.
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* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', people do extreme things to take their comrades off the field with them. Ling carries his wounded servant Ran Fan out of a battle, and has a fight while carrying her - allowing a pretty heinous villain to mock him relentlessly. Roy cauterizes (his own as well as) Havoc's wounds to help Havoc get safely out of the battle and to enable himself to go and rescue Al and Hawkeye.
** This is lampshaded later on, when Roy tells two of his men to leave him behind if he gets hurt. They instantly agree. Surprised by their response, tells them that the ''correct'' answer is for them to reply "Never! I'd follow you to the depths of hell!" One of the men responds, "Screw that. I've got a family!" While the other says it's stupid to "commit double suicide like that." Roy answers with a knowing smile.
* Averted like ''hell'' in every staircase sequence in ''[[Saint Seiya]]''
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', so much - Kurogane {{spoiler|''cuts off his own arm'' to keep Fai from being left behind in the closing world of Celes}}.
* This gets averted in the first ''[[Ranma ½]]'' movie, ''Big Trouble in Nekonron'', when Ranma's party [[Dwindling Party|fragments a little bit more]] in every miniboss encounter, as members will [[The Rest Shall Pass|stay behind to hold off their own tailor-made opponents]].
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* In ''[[Forrest Gump]]'', Gump earns the Medal of Honor for rescuing his fellow soldiers in Vietnam. At times, Lieutenant Dan wishes that he had lost his life instead of his lower legs.
** Ironically, the one soldier that Forrest failed to save the life of was the one he originally went back to help. He kept stumbling on other wounded comrades and brought every one of them back because he felt he "couldn't just leave them there, frightened and hurt."
* Used and [[Lampshade
** The villain version of this trope is used as well. A German sniper purposely shoots and incapacitates an American soldier, hoping that it will draw out other soldiers into the open in an attempt to help the downed man.
*** A [[Truth in Television]], this is a real sniper tactic.
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** When Domor is wounded and blinded in ''First & Only'', although his wounds will prove fatal without adequate medical attention, Gaunt tells him he's coming if he has to carry him himself.
** In ''Traitor General'', inability to bring Feygor with them because of his illness strikes all the Ghosts very bitterly.
** In ''His Last Command'', when Maggs is thrown [[Cool Gate|through a Chaos warp gate]], Mkoll cites this and jumps after him. Although the scene is both [[Evil Is Deathly Cold|bitterly cold]] and [[Alien Geometries|impossible]], and breaks down Maggs, he gets them both to another gate and
*** That's it? That's all you say about Mkoll's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|insane]] dive into a pocket warp dimension, full of thousand of gigantic, man-tank stalkers and multiple ARMIES of cultists and armor support, armed only with a plasma pistol and a knife? Hell, Mkoll even admits later that he lost count of how many he killed!
* In William King's ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novel ''[[Space Wolf]]'', when Ragnar and other Marines were sent to [[Bring News Back|bring news]] of a nest of Chaos Space Marines, one of them is wounded. Ragnar (who had just realized that he does not, and should not, want [[Revenge]] on the wounded man) orders the others on while he tends the wounded. When they are attacked again and he gains more injuries, Ragnar finally carries him to safety.
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* Subverted in [[Jack Campbell]]'s ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' where Captain Geary tries to make good on this only to realize that several of his ships are clearly not going to make the escape from the enemy until another ship (commanded by his grandnephew) performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
** However in the rest of the series they try their damnest to save any escape pods and liberate any POW camps. {{spoiler|This attitude leads to them saving an Syndic colony that was left to die. This leads to a Syndic CEO have a [[Heel Face Turn]] because her brother was on that colony and she helps the Fleet get home.}}
** In ''Invicible'', Geary orders Tulev to sweep the human wreckage from
* In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'' novel ''Iron Fist'', {{spoiler|Phanan}} is shot down over an Imperial-held planet. Face followed even though he was squadron leader at the time, telling the others to regroup without him. He found {{spoiler|Phanan}} badly wounded and tried to take him to the nearest settlement, but it was pretty obvious that they wouldn't make it. Face was about to call the Imperial forces out looking for them, because even though they'd be imprisoned by their enemies this would mean medical treatment, but {{spoiler|Phanan}} talked him out of it before dying. Then Face went back to his starfighter, destroyed his friend's body, and returned to the Wraiths guilt-ridden. Wraiths and Rogues in general try very hard to avoid their teammates [[Dying Alone]].
* In [[Andre Norton]] and A.C. Crispin's ''[[Witch World]]'' novel ''Gryphon's Eyrie'', Joisan stands over her fallen husband to keep him from [[Evil Is Deathly Cold|shadow creatures]], but when she, being pregnant, realizes that the creatures are after her baby, she is afraid that it will mean she must leave him.
* In [[Andre Norton]]'s [[Science Fiction]] novels, this trope is occasionally invoked as an ironclad rule of space travel:
* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth|Unfinished Talesof Numenor and Middleearth]]'' includes the story of how Theoden's son had died, just before Gandalf and company's meeting with Theoden in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. After he fell fighting orcs, his men fought to keep his body from them; having fought them off, they discovered he was still alive, but he lived only long enough to tell them to bury him there.
* In Nick Kyme's [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''[[Salamanders|Salamander]]'', after Tsu'gan's [[Pride]] ensured his captain's death, Tsu'gan refuses to let anyone near his body
{{quote|''maintaining a cordon of protection that no one could breach and live.''}}
** After the fight, a comrade reassures him that his battle-brother will
* Subverted in one of Mack Reynolds' ''Section G.'' [[In Space|spy stories]]. Section G's top operative, Ronny Bronston, takes a new agent on a training mission to an enemy planet. Ronny is wounded and tells the newbie to kill him so the enemy won't capture him. The rookie instead helps Ronny to their escape vehicle. The subversion comes because Ronny wasn't ''that'' badly wounded; it was an impromptu [[Secret Test]], and by not being ruthless enough to kill his comrade, the new guy ''failed'' and gets washed out of field agent training. Ronny's boss points out that the rookie was trying to save Ronny's life. Ronny replies flatly that saving his life wasn't the mission.
* In C.S. Goto's ''[[Blood Ravens]]'' trilogy, having discovered reason to believe {{spoiler|Rhamah}} was still alive, the Blood Ravens engage in a deeply risky maneuver in warp, as the only way to retrieve him.
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* Played straight with ''[[Tales of Destiny]]'', in a pretty memorable scene. After fighting Mary's brainwashed ex-husband, mooks can be heard getting closer; Stahn and co. have to run away, but Mary wants to stay with her semi-dead man. Rutee then tells Mary that that's out of question, because no one gets left behind... including her husband. Rutee then piggybacks him.
* Subverted in ''[[Fire Emblem]]''. During the last part of the prologue, Marth is told by his advisor that he has to sacrifice one of his soldiers as a decoy to allow him to escape. Marth insists that everyone sticks together, but if you decide not to send a unit to the southern fort, you'll soon be overrun by an army of Knights who are capable of killing any and all of your party members with one hit (two or three, in [[Crutch Character|Jeigan's]] case). Leaving a unit behind is the only way you can proceed to the end of the chapter, as the second gate won't open unless you do.
* Played straight in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'': while fleeing from Bevelle, the party is beset by Seymour. Kimahri urges them to run on ahead while he holds Seymour back, and they
* Depending on the player, ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''. With the [[Floating Continent]] crumbling away from beneath their feet, and Shadow holding Kefka back with the Three Statues, the party must make it to the airship and [[Timed Mission|escape before it's too late]]. Typically, [[Guide Dang It|one would jump onto the airship at the first opportunity]], but by waiting until the last possible second, Shadow will catch up and join the party.
** The game helpfully gives a countdown so the rest of the party knows when "the last possible second" is, and the options given when you reach the jump point not-so-subtly implies that you ought to wait for Shadow.
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* The Spartans last stand at Thermopylae concluded its last few moments with a handful of soldiers clustered round the body of their dead commander, Leonidus, before an arrow storm finally finished them off.
* The Battle of Mogadishu ([[Black Hawk Down]]) is a famous example. It is also a famous example of when this policy can result in a massive amount of casualties.
** Massive? More like worth it. It may sound macabre to most, but to a fighting man of the US Army Infantry knowing that not even your corpse will be left behind, but in fact fought for to be returned to your family is a serious morale booster. We do not leave anyone, not even our dead.<ref>
*** Heinlein's Starship Troopers emphasises this on more than one occassion - that for one to be truly committed to the society, they must also know that the society is committed to them. And that it's "poor arithmatic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature", finishing off with "when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price". Understand that this happens in most other professional militaries, for more than one reason.
*** There's also the thing about avoiding letting technology like miniguns, night vision equipment, communications gear and mission data fall into enemy hands at the crash sites... This might not be of ''primary''' concern, but it adds to the need to secure these sites as fast as possible.
* The 1953 American attempt to summit K2, the second highest mountain and arguably the most difficult in the world, was frustrated by weather and mountain sickness. The eight man team attempted to carry one of their number off the mountain, a nearly impossible feat at that altitude. Then a near disastrous accident left everybody shaken and/or injured. The team decided to camp to recover and consider their options leaving their injured companion, Art Gilkey, secured in his litter to the mountain face but when they came to fetch him he had been swept away, litter and all, by an avalanch he might well have deliberately called down upon himself in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save his comrades.
* Hideaki Akaiwa was at work on March
* Medal of Honor recipient Roy P. Benavidez rescued thirteen men from a ''battalion'' of North Vietnamese soldiers, including running over to a downed Huey helicopter and physically carrying the crew to another helicopter, and directing airstrikes while his eyes were ''blinded with the blood pouring into them.'' Did I mention he was only carrying a knife? He received thirty-seven wounds from bullets, bayonets and grenade blasts in the process, his guts were hanging out, and was placed in a body bag after the battle, and had the strength to spit in the doctor's face when declared a goner. '''He lived.''' Here is a condensed summary of the story: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lHkrqlT62o video], and here is the Medal of Honor [[wikipedia:Roy Benavidez#Medal of Honor citation|citation]].
* During the Winter War and Continuation War, the Finnish army made a point of this. Turns out it worked really well to scare your opponents. The Finns usually collected their dead during the night. Thus when morning came and the Russians surveyed the battlefield all they found were their own dead soldiers. Not knowing whether you actually killed any of your enemies plays merry hell on ther morale.
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