Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
117,000
edits
m (fix broken external links) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (replace franchise link with link to work) |
||
(28 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Alright, it's time to redeem myself. Through one final act of redemption [Stands between Gohan and a fairly slow Beam], I'll save Gohan an- wait a second, [[Fridge Logic|why didn't I just grab him?]] I can probably still do that now, actually. Yeah, that's it, I'll grab him, and '''throw''' him out of the wa-'''[[Killed Mid-Sentence|AAAARRRRRGH!]]'''''
|'''Piccolo''', ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]''}}
[[Heroic Sacrifice|We all know the trope]]. Everyone's caught in a life-or-death situation. One of the characters hedges their bets, steps forward so the others survive, and ends up on the "death" side of the equation. Pathos is obtained, tears are shed, etc., etc.
Except... well, did he/she really need to do that? Couldn't he have gotten out of the way of the death trap once it was smashed and about to explode? Couldn't she have just held out for a few seconds longer until help arrived? Couldn't he have just talked them all out of that? What can we say, it's
A
Often a case of [[Writer
'''If the sacrifice is stupid because it didn't accomplish what it was supposed to but was still the logical choice, that's [[Senseless Sacrifice]], ''not'' this trope.''' The two tropes can overlap when a
[[Counter Trope]] to [[Negate Your Own Sacrifice]]. Subtrope of [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Compare [[Shaggy Dog Story]]. [[No Real Life Examples, Please]].
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!]]'' starts with a [[Parodied Trope|parody]] of [[Heroic Sacrifice]], which ends up falling into this trope more than any other defined trope. It's a bit [[Zig Zagged Trope|zigzagged]] though. The main character pushes someone out of the way of a vehicle that was going to stop before it hit her. {{spoiler|After he pushed her out of the way, the vehicle stopped before hitting him, but he was so sure he was going to die, he got a heart attack and died.}}
* In the beginning of ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass R2]]'' Urabe impales his own Knightmare with his Katana to land a surprise attack on the Vincent which nobody can hit, blowing himself up. Not only does it only leave just a tiny scratch on the thing, but 10 seconds later, proves completely pointless. ''Especially' considering his ejection system wasn't even damaged.▼
* Played for laughs in Yang Young Soon, in which one escaped prisoner sits on the tracks to break the chain connecting him with friend. [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/71/14/dc/7114dc6ad551d05b030aa74384dd06f3.jpg]
* Moses death in ''[[Blood+ (Anime)|Blood Plus]]''. Heck, it barely even counts as a sacrifice. One wonders why he effectively committed suicide and left Lulu to fend for herself as the last of the Schiff.▼
▲* In the beginning of ''[[Code Geass
* In ''[[Appleseed (Manga)|Appleseed]]'', Kudoh manages to overturn a bad situation by kicking a villain's weapon and threatening the others with his own. The good guys grab their guns as well, point it at the baddies and quickly run out of the room. But Kudoh, for some reason, doesn't follow them. He stays there pointing his gun at the baddies, who outnumber him ten to one, and is shot to death as soon as the others are gone.▼
▲* Moses death in ''[[Blood+
** Tereus in ''Appleseed Ex Machina'' tries to have a [[Stupid Sacrifice]], but gets kicked out of it by other protagonists. ▼
▲* In ''[[
* ''[[Gantz (Manga)|Gantz]]''. An alien throws a highly corrosive acid at Katou. Instead of, say, pushing him out of the way, Kishimoto runs ''around'' him, blocks him with her body, and takes the blast.▼
▲** Tereus in ''Appleseed Ex Machina'' tries to have a
* [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]] [[Senseless Sacrifice|rarely work]] in ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]]''. The truly pointless sacrifice in the series, however, has got to be Piccolo's in ''[[Dragon Ball GT (Anime)|Dragon Ball GT]]'', in which he decides to die so that the Black Star Dragon Balls wouldn't be used ever again. Despite the fact that the series had already established that they could destroy the Dragon Balls, or hell, just outright kill the dragon.<br /><br />Piccolo wanted to share the Earth's destiny. However, [[Fridge Logic|that means he should've been revived along with the Earth]]. Thanks to the [[Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|sheer distance between the balls]], the fact that it's all but impossible to find one without ''very'' specialized equipment, and the fact that absolutely everybody crazy/powerful enough to want the things was dead, he could have just done ''nothing'' and still had the same effect.<br /><br />Never mind the fact that Dende had to recreate the regular dragon balls because Kami wasn't around anymore, which means that the black dragon balls shouldn't be active either.▼
▲* ''[[
* Lampshaded in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho (Manga)|Yu Yu Hakusho]]''. Yusuke tries to prevent Kurama from sacrificing his life to save his mother's life, saying it doesn't make logical sense because Kurama's mother would be condemned to a life of grief. So in turn, Yusuke offers up his life instead. Eventually they both live and the wish is granted anyway, but only then does the [[Fridge Logic]] kick in for Yusuke: if he'd done that, his ''own'' mother would've been condemned to a life of grief. He prevents this (in some translations and adaptations) by suggesting that the mirror take '''part''' of his life, so Kurama won't have to die and his mother will be saved. Then again, the act is reckless enough to impress the Forlorn Hope into not taking either of their lives.▼
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]s [[Senseless Sacrifice|rarely work]] in ''[[Dragon Ball]]''. The truly pointless sacrifice in the series, however, has got to be Piccolo's in ''[[Dragon Ball GT]]'', in which he decides to die so that the Black Star Dragon Balls wouldn't be used ever again. Despite the fact that the series had already established that they could destroy the Dragon Balls, or hell, just outright kill the dragon.
▲
:Never mind the fact that Dende had to recreate the regular dragon balls because Kami wasn't around anymore, which means that the black dragon balls shouldn't be active either.
▲* Lampshaded in ''[[
* Averted in ''[[Gall Force|Gall Force: Destruction]]'', where a Catty android is about to sacrifice her existence to get the team past a door only to have another character point out that there's more than one such door and they only have one Catty.
* In the 2003 ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* In ''[[
* ''[[Fist of the North Star (Manga)|Fist of the North Star]]'' is almost one very long string of these. Probably the most egregious example is [[The Lancer|Rei]], who after spouting some nonsense about his debt to Kenshiro, decides to attack [[Big Bad|Raoh]] despite ''knowing that he cannot possibly win'', since he had seen the Death Omen Star and Raoh had not, and despite the fact that Raoh wasn't ''doing'' anything other than hanging out and waiting for Kenshiro to show up. Raoh for his part even tries to warn him off until he realizes that Rei's Death Omen Star meant that [[You Can't Fight Fate|Raoh was probably meant to kill him]]. Ironically Raoh actually ends up ''saving'' Rei's life in a way, by interrupting his kamikaze final attack with a strike that will [[Your Days Are Numbered|slowly kill him over the course of three days]]. It does end up killing Rei eventually but he gets a lot more time to actually accomplish some things than if he had been allowed to go through with his plan to ineffectually blow himself up.▼
:This is made all the more tragic\hilarious when Crocodile decides to just fly off to an out of reach ledge and watch them die instead of letting them even ''attempt'' to futilely try to kill him. Crocodile has also flown in front of the villagers countless times before, so clearly this wasn't a well thought out plan.
* ''[[Ginga Nagareboshi Gin (Anime)|Ginga Nagareboshi Gin]]'' ''loves'' this trope. No one is happy unless they're about to die. There are at least three separate occasions of a character killing themselves (or trying to) in order to kill an enemy, without even trying to survive. If you have a spike pit, you can just toss the other guy in, fellas. No need to jump in with him.▼
▲* ''[[
* ''[[Blue Drop (Manga)|Blue Drop]]'' does this at the ending. It conveniently takes away any means of plot exposition and therefore ironically covers up a severe lack of justification for the situation in general. Creates a downer ending, except for Hagino who is, along with her entire race a firm believer of ''[[Warrior Heaven]]''.▼
▲* ''[[Ginga
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' has at least one example of a self-admitted stupid sacrifice: {{spoiler|Lockon Stratos (Neil)}} towards the end of season 1. He is very much aware he is stupid and selfish and should NOT do what he does but does it anyways, quite ready to die in the process. In season 2 {{spoiler|Patrick pulls a rather heroic one throwing himself in front of a suicide MS instead of shooting at it. But being the Immortal Colasour be probably knew he was going to make it.}}▼
▲* ''[[
* A non-fatal example from ''[[Zero no Tsukaima (Light Novel)|Zero no Tsukaima]]'' where Tabitha's mother realised that the glass of wine that had been handed to her daughter was poisoned with a poison that would make her insane, so she snatched it out of Tabitha's hands in the nick of time- and ''drank it!''▼
▲* ''[[
* Early on in ''[[Shinkon Gattai Godannar (Anime)|Shinkon Gattai Godannar]]'', [[Token Mini-Moe|Lou]]'s father stays behind in his robot to fight a [[Monster of the Week|Memesis Beast]] who invaded their space station. According to him, it's his duty to protect the crew, who were almost certainly all dead or evacuated by then, and the station itself, which ends up crashing to Earth later on in the episode anyway. This later on inspires Lou to start a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against all of the species, putting herself into constant danger as a result. Great parenting, dude.▼
▲* A non-fatal example from ''[[
* Nuriko, unfortunately, did this in ''[[Fushigi Yuugi (Manga)|Fushigi Yuugi]]''. After getting seriously injured in his fight with Ashitare, Nuriko decided to move the boulder that had fallen over the entrance to where the Shentso-Pao was. Doing so, however, worsened his injuries and caused him to die...right as all his friends, including one ''who has healing powers'', arrive to see what happened. Miaka even laments "If only he'd have waited for Mitsukake to get here!". It obviously wasn't intended to be an example, but it was, in that he ''could'' have waited for his friends to get there before moving the boulder.<br /><br />It's also stupid for another reason: the boulder ''wasn't'' blocking the entrance. When the boulder is actually shown, there's clearly enough room for someone to walk around it. When the Seishi get inside, there are skeletons of dead thieves who were killed {{spoiler|by Hikitsu and Tomite}} who presumably did exactly that!▼
▲* Early on in ''[[
* {{spoiler|Minato Namikaze}}, the Fourth Hokage does this in ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]''. {{spoiler|The Kyubi would have been stopped by Kushina}} even if he didn't give up his life. Hell, she even calls him out on it, and his excuse basically is {{spoiler|he would suck as a father compared to her as a mother}}. Naruto probably would have preferred {{spoiler|a single parent to none at all}}, though: Naruto punches him for it later on.▼
▲* Nuriko, unfortunately, did this in ''[[
:It's also stupid for another reason: the boulder ''wasn't'' blocking the entrance. When the boulder is actually shown, there's clearly enough room for someone to walk around it. When the Seishi get inside, there are skeletons of dead thieves who were killed {{spoiler|by Hikitsu and Tomite}} who presumably did exactly that!
▲* {{spoiler|Minato Namikaze}}, the Fourth Hokage does this in ''[[
*** The real reason is that the Nine-Tailed Fox would take a while to resurrect, and by then, the village would be without a tailed beast as a deterrent, making it easier to attack from its enemies, and of course the Nine-Tails may just be controlled again {{spoiler|by Tobi}}, or threaten the village again. The Fourth Hokage felt his idea was better, since the village would still have a jinchuriki and {{spoiler|he could one day grow up to fight Tobi}}.
** When Jiraiya sacrifices himself to take another look at the Pains. Couldn't he have just made a shadow clone or two to do the job? Or meditated about what he saw?
*** He also used the sacrifice to buy time for the toads to escape with said vital information, and he didn't really have a way out himself. So he was pretty much dead anyway, he just choose to go out fighting.
* The movie version of ''[[X
* Averted and lampshaded in ''[[
* A particularly tragic example in episode 19 of ''[[
** In a way, ''Hell Girl'' often embodies this trope.
* In ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[
* [[Ultimate Marvel|Ultimate Quicksilver]] is killed in the events leading up to ''[[Ultimatum]]'' when he jumps in the way of a shot meant to kill Magneto. Why he didn't just catch the dart, or knock it out of the air is anyone's guess. {{spoiler|Though [[Unexplained Recovery|he gets better]], somehow.}}
* Superman seems to lampshade this about his original battle with Doomsday commenting during the rematch that he spent too much effort going toe to toe with Doomsday when he could have tried using his maneuverability and ranged attacks to soften the beast up.
== Film ==
* In the prologue of ''[[Twister]]'', the man sacrificed himself trying to hold the cellar door shut to protect his family from the tornado, getting sucked into the storm when the doors gave way. But even after the twister forced the cellar open, his family remained unharmed. So was it really necessary?
* In ''[[Star Trek
:To add an extra layer of stupidity, this was the last TNG film and so the problem of Spiner being too old to play Data any more was not exactly germane. The series actually ''did'' address the issue of Data being ageless, while Spiner obviously wasn't. Data once [[Handwaved]] it by saying he developed a means to appear as if he was aging (making it apart of his quest to understand humanity). May not have been airtight, but most fans were likely not to nitpick this particular issue all things considered.
{{quote|
'''Geordi:''' What about the transporters in the shuttles?
'''Data:''' Shut up.
'''
'''Geordi:''' Why didn't we just send a bomb instead of Picard?
▲'''Data:''' Shut up.<br />
'''Data:''' Shut up.
'''Geordi:''' What about the transporters in the cargo bays? They're independent units, remember?
'''Data:''' What part of "shut the fuck up" do you not understand? This is my big heroic exit, asshole. Don't fuck it up. }}
* In ''[[Spider-Man (
** It's a curse inherited from his family. They are compelled to be impaled on their own Glider for reasons that are inconceivable except to [[Stan Lee]]. Hell, their chests might be magnetically attracted to their Gliders for all we know.
* In ''[[X
** In a deleted scene he asked her to, but she refused. However, why did he need anyone to begin with? If he was powerful enough to pick up the Golden Gate Bridge off its struts, and bring it to Alcatraz, couldn't he have just crushed the entire island and everyone on it with the bridge or at least form the metal of the bridge and cars into a swarm of lethal shrapnel and eviscerate all the guards?
** It was ''supposed'' to be a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] showing the strength of Mutant-kind as a "whole". Magneto fully expected to be able to stop the darts and guns being used... Except they were made out of [[Oh Crap|very not-magnetic plastic]]. He wasn't entirely unprepared for such an eventuality, however, notable due to his comment to the Juggernaut "allow [[Cannon Fodder|the pawns]] to move first".
* The same thing as the KGBeast example above happens in [[The Film of the Book]] of ''[[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal]]''. Hannibal Lecter, supergenius, who once got out of restraints using ''part of a ballpoint pen'', cuts off his own hand to escape from ''normal handcuffs''. As [[Roger Ebert]] put it, "I'm disappointed [[I'm a Humanitarian|he didn't take it with as a snack]]." ''[[MAD]]'' magazine also notes in their parody - through Clarice's comments - that he also could have also used the cleaver to cut the handcuff.
** Some people theorize he
** Of course, many fans forget something about Hannibal: genius he may be, he's also ''crazy''.
* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (
** Also Harry himself. Although he realises that he has little to no chances against the thief, be it Voldemort or Snape, he doesn't consider simply sending an owl to the absent Dumbledore until well into the "obstacle course". Neither does he heed McGonagall's assurances that the Stone was perfectly safe, which, big shock, it actually was.
* The 2007-version of ''[[I Am Legend]]'' has a particularly bad example of this, when the main character spontaneously decides to blow himself and all the vampires up while a perfectly fine escape route was available. Some times you can rewrite the script's ending at last minute without any ill effects. Other times, not so much.
** He could have pulled the pin, thrown the grenade, then ducked into the hole and closed the doors behind him? Why did he have to die in the explosion? Was he [[Driven to Suicide]] by the [[Executive Meddling]] that removed the entire reason the movie was ''called'' [[I Am Legend]]? Basically, yes. Once the original ending was nixed, they had to have some reason to [[Title Drop]]. The girl even explicitly stated that there was "room for him".
* In ''[[Hellboy (
** In the same movie, why didn't they just break the piece of the Crown that controlled the Golden Army earlier since that was all it took to stop it, and they apparently knew that?
** Or just, y'know, have his ''twin'' raise the whole "the army won't act if an alternate legitimate heir/commander makes a challenge" thing? The same link that killed the poor kitten would prevent him from dueling her and render the army useless.
*** Of course, Abe could have just '''not''' given him the piece in the first place, considering that the Prince's threat of killing his sister was about as empty as they come. Well, unless the Prince was suicidal enough to do it... But then he couldn't use the crown either...
* In ''[[Frozen (
* The whole point of Lars von Trier's heroines existence. And the major point of ''[[Eight Deadly Words]]'' on the part of the audience.
* In the big battle sequence of ''[[Avatar (
** She had been counting on the floating rocks to help her stay hidden. She underestimated the amount of [[More Dakka|sheer firepower]] that the gunship could bring to bear. Once her little ship was damaged, it was [[Game Over]].
*** While using the terrain to survive was part of her strategy, she was also presenting herself as the most dangerous target, being the only one with missiles. If she was just slipping in and out of cover, the gunship would have had time to take out other targets. She was, in essence, drawing its fire away from the Na'vi (read: Jake) so he could do his job.
* A mild and non-lethal case happens to Kevin's mom in ''[[
== Literature ==
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[
** Invoked in ''Traitor General''. When the hounds find their scent, Landerson sees that his fall had torn off his bandage, and tells Gaunt that it's his blood, and he will try to draw them off. Gaunt refuses to let him because they would still be chased "no matter how heroic and stupid you decide to be."
** Likewise invoked in ''Guns Of Tanith''. After being shot down while inserting the Larisel teams, Jagdea has to be rescued by the same teams from a Blood Pact patrol looking for downed pilots. She volunteers to stay behind and let the next patrol capture her (after a suitable fight). Mkvenner and Domor shoot this plan down on the grounds that a) the bad guys are very good at torture and b) the only way to make it vaguely plausible that Jagdea'd killed the patrol would be to leave the kind of weapons that would cause those wounds, and a 'downed pilot' toting a sniper rifle and the signature combat knife of a different regiment just raises more questions. Not to mention that they'd need those weapons themselves.
* In the final climax of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's ''[[Green-Sky Trilogy]]'', protagonist Raamo is about to throw a deadly ray-gun (encased in a heavy lead-lined urn) into a deep watery chasm. Does he simply throw it in? No, because he's telepathic and is picking up confusing thoughts/feelings from onlookers who think the weapon should be kept just in case (it's literally the only weapon on the planet). So he slips and falls in, the urn still in his hands, literally dying for the sins of his people. Obviously meant as a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], it came off as an [[Esoteric Happy Ending]] at
* ''[[Twilight (
** She only needed to save Edward once and she was the only one that could do it. However she did this when trying to save her mother because James told her he kidnapped her and she decided to go alone, when it was more logical to tell her powerful vampire family James's plans, and it was unnecessary either since James was using an old video with her mother on it.
*** Although one could argue that the sacrifice for the climax of New Moon was unnecessary as well. Given that Aro was old friends with Carlisle (Alice even says that Aro wouldn't immediately kill Edward because he wouldn't want to offend him), why not just have Carlisle pass along a message, telling Aro what's up and could he please keep Edward restrained until Bella could show up? Surely something could have been managed in the time it would have taken Edward to travel from South America to Italy.
** In ''Eclipse'', we are told the story of a werewolf chief who had to fight a vampire. The chief's wife stabbed herself, so the vampire would be distracted by her blood and the chief could kill it...except, she really could have done that just by cutting her hand, as Bella herself does at the climax of the book.
* Karen Traviss' ''[[
* Many readers have [[Fridge Logic|come up with ways]] to save the life of the stowaway girl who dies at the end of the short story ''[[The Cold Equations]]''. In fact, [
* In Alma Alexander's ''The Secrets of Jin-shei'', Nhia knows someone is trying to poison the Empress, and so when a servant appears with a goblet of wine, she's suspicious. Her solution? Taste it to find out. It never occurs to her to simply pour out the wine rather than drinking it herself to protect her friend. Given the [[Kill'Em All]] ending, it's clear the author just needed to get rid of her.
* A big part of the plot of ''[[Return From the Stars]]''. The protagonist, along with his colleagues, has dedicated years of his life ([[Time Dilation|and 127 years of Earth time]]) and risked his life for a deep-space research mission, which he considers to have been a worthy achievement. In contrast, the Earthlings in the meanwhile have decided that sending people on such missions is a staggeringly useless waste of human life and resources, and that space exploration in general was but one of the many blind alleys in human history. (Though it's mostly due to the fact that the [[Restraining Bolt|obligatory anti-aggression treatment]] and the permanent safety and convenience offered by future technology also renders everyone in the future incapable of taking risks, or even comprehending the idea of heroism.) This does not make the protagonist happy.
* A particularly sad case from the post-Apocalypse novel ''[[Malevil]]''. The castle awakens one morning to their wheat fields being devoured by twenty rag-wearing, half-dead refugees. The sight stuns Malevil's defenders, they know what ''must'' be done but the sight is so pitiful they can't bring themselves to open fire. Unfortunately, Momo, the group's [[Man Child]], flies into a desperate rage and tackles one of the wretches only to be stabbed with a pitchfork. His death forces his friends into action, but he didn't have to die to force his friends to [[Shoot the Dog]], their fingers were already on the trigger and working up the courage to squeeze it.
* Polish romanticism used to love this trope, but one of the most annoying examples comes from late XIX century novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, ''Fire in the Steppe'', where the protagonist blows himself up, so as not to let the enemy into the stronghold he defends. He does so after the stronghold has been given up by the Polish king as one of the armistice's conditions. The author expects full sympathy and admiration for this step on the part of readers.
Line 113 ⟶ 116:
* In one sci-fi novel, the crew of a relativistic starship needs lots of [[Antimatter]] to power the relativistic drive. They travel to a planet made out of anti-matter that just happens to pass through the Solar System. Half of them go down in a lander specially equipped with a shield designed to keep anti-matter from interacting with matter for about 10 minutes. They use the lander to grab a large chunk of rock and are on their way back to the ship, when they're surrounded by locals, primitive [[Human Aliens]]. They assume the lander to be some sort of god, surround it, and start praying to it. With the timer running out on the shield, the lander crew decides to let it run out rather than drive over the natives. Once the shield fails, the lander explodes, killing every native in the vicinity and nearly destroying the starship. ''Then'' one of the remaining crewmembers on the ship figures out an even easier way to get the fuel: grab a small asteroid that orbits the planet. So the sacrifice was senseless for two whole reasons.
* In [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''The Daleth Effect'', and Israeli scientist figures out the secret to [[Anti Gravity]]. Fearful of others using this knowledge for war, he flees his wartorn country to Denmark of all places, believing this peaceful country will protect the knowledge and use it for good. Mind you, this is in the middle of the [[Cold War]]. Why neither super-power tries anything earlier is a mystery. In the end, they build the first interplanetary cruise liner and launch it. While en route, the ship is attacked by two separate teams: one American, one Soviet, both seeking the device. [[The Captain]] gleefully reveals that the ship is equipped with bombs set to go off in the event of just such an attack to keep the secret. The bombs go off, killing most of the named characters, including the inventor, and hundreds of innocent passengers. The widow of the captain (who was partly responsible for the Americans sneaking onboard) then finds out that 4 countries (including US and USSR) have already figured out [[Anti Gravity]] but kept it a secret out of national security concerns. Furthermore, they have already filed for patents, while Denmark has never done that. [[Bittersweet Ending]] indeed (the "sweet" part comes from humans getting the means to go into space).
* In Nikolai Gudanets's ''Supreme Commander'' (which is loosely based on ''[[X-COM (Video Game)|X-COM]]''), the final mission of the international task force involves the raid of the aliens' base on Earth. A four-man squad enters the central area, where the [[Big Bad]] is swimming in his pool (he's a squid). Using his immense [[Psychic Powers]], he takes control over one of the soldiers, who primes and drops a grenade. Another team member (and a possible [[Love Interest]] of the protagonist) decides that the best course of action is to fall on top of the grenade instead of kicking it into the pool with the [[Big Bad]]. The water would contain most of the blast, and the [[Big Bad]] wouldn't have used the distraction to escape. Although, {{spoiler|he does get immediately eaten by a shark}}
:The worst part is that the soldiers ''knew'' the alien had some sort of mind powers, yet all they came up with was a detector that blinked whenever someone in the vicinity was not "himself". They also knew that the only living things on this base were aliens. So why not just throw a grenade or two before entering any room? Or just blow the base to hell from the outside. It wasn't alien-built, after all (a secret Nazi submarine pen in the far North).
== Live
* ''[[Star Trek
* ''[[
* Charlie's death in the third season finale of ''[[
:Of course, {{spoiler|Charlie was going to die anyway. What was he going to do? Hang around Desmond for the rest of his life so he could keep averting his death? Which wouldn't have worked out anyway since Desmond lost the ability to see into the future in the following season, meaning that Charlie would have died and he wouldn't have seen it coming anyway. At least this way he died believing he was saving Claire and Aaron.}} And in the end, this trope is subverted since {{spoiler|Claire would recover from her insanity and return home to reunite with Aaron at the end of the series, and Charlie would reunite with them in the afterlife and move on to spend eternity with them. Meaning that, eventually, it turned out his sacrifice was worth it.}}
** On the other hand, {{spoiler|Sayid's sacrifice was utterly stupid, since he could have just as well taken the bomb immediately instead of waiting for his turn to speak to Jack, and close a door behind it. He could have made time.}}
* The first episode of the ''[[Tek War]]'' series has the [[Robot Girl|robot girlfriend]] of the hero spy another robot approaching them, recognizes it as filled with explosives somehow, says some dramatic last words, then runs over a block away towards the killer robot so that she can throw herself at it and cause it to explode. This is done solely to give the hero something to be really mad about to power his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|revenge moment]] against the [[Big Bad]]. The distance between the hero and evil-bot presents hundreds of alternatives to her throwing her life away. It's not like they haven't been dodging deadly attacks for the whole of the episode so far.
* ''[[
** The Doctor made a
*** Even if the Doctor lacked the resources to release Wilf from the machine without setting it off, he had ample time after being dosed to go around and visit each of his former companions, time he could have easily used to visit one of the many, ''many'' civilizations capable of treating radiation poisoning, such as the Vinvocci he had just met.
*** In this case, though, the sacrifice was arguably [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that the Doctor is horrified by his own hubris, and realizes that he must die and regenerate in order to avoid becoming a menace to the universe.
** Astrid Peth's ridiculous self sacrifice in "Voyage of the Damned": she uses a forklift to shove the villain off a cliff, and then just keeps going. Granted, it was chiefly a plot device to make sure the Doctor was left alone again, and the writers do establish the brake line had been cut, but that forklift moved [[Austin Powers|so painfully slowly]] she had plenty of time to throw herself off.
*** Foon's is even less necessary, but at least there you can make a case that she didn't want to live without her husband. Still, given Bannakaffalatta's (legitimate) [[Heroic Sacrifice]], they [[Kill'Em All|began to pile up in that episode]].
** Adric in ''Earthshock''. He tries to pull a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], never realizing that the Earth had already been saved.
** Also, "[[Doctor Who
** The end of "[[Doctor Who
* ''[[
{{quote|
'''Bra'tac:''' Now, we die.
'''O'Neill:''' Well, ''that's'' a bad plan. Where's the glider bay? }}
* Subverted with Topher's sacrifice in the series finale of ''[[
* Kat's death in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* The death of the Senator in the ''[[
** The Senator was already bleeding internally without proper medical facilities to treat his injuries and his own daughter was one of the lives he was able to save with his sacrifice. Solving the leaking air problem also let them focus on the next immediate crisis of actually purifying the air to keep it breathable.
* Marian's death in ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' involves her throwing herself between Guy of Gisborne and King Richard in order to prevent the former from killing the latter. How does she do this? By loudly proclaiming her love for Robin Hood, which causes Guy to stab her to death. There are a dozen ways she could have stopped
* Deliberately invoked on the Canadian series of ''[[Todd and
* ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
* This trope is scrutinized in an episode of ''[[
{{quote|
'''Mal:''' Nope. But I reckon that every man what had a statue of himself was a som'bitch one way or another. It ain't about you, Jayne, it's about them, and what they needed.
'''Janye:''' ... don't make no sense. }}
* In one episode of ''[[
== Tabletop Games ==
* The [[Red Shirt]] in ''Star [[Munchkin (
== Theater ==
* ''[[
== Video Games ==
* Combat-oriented players are surprised by {{spoiler|Bastila's}} sacrifice on the ''Leviathan'' in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
** The sequel has this as an option in the battle against Darth Nihilus, halfway though you can kill a party member to make it easier. However they grossly underestimated the power of the player and party, even without paying much attention to optimization it can take under three minutes to defeat him. This generally results in lots of [[Narm]] when the other characters yell about how "he's too strong!" the first thirty seconds in, and the cutscene takes longer than the actual ''fight''. Of course you can stop the
* ''[[
* ''[[Dirge of Cerberus]]'' proves guilty of this on one occasion. When [[Implacable Man]] Azul is attacking the party, Shalua holds the hydraulic door open for Vincent and Shelke to escape through. This wouldn't be so bad... except that Shelke had literally just finished demonstrating her ability to paralyze Azul indefinitely with a barrier materia. Even disregarding this, there was no need whatsoever for Shalua to stay behind to hold the door open, considering that it had an adjacent button to open it. Was it really too much trouble to just push the button again and open the door a second time?
** Parodied in [http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Dirge%20of%20Cerberus/Update%2027/index.html this Let's Play]
* Gorath's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in ''[[Betrayal
* ''[[
** By the end of the game, you (or a teammate) are asked to step into a chamber to complete the project your father started to bring clean water to the wasteland. Thing is, the chamber is bathed in radiation. You can't send in the rad-resistant Super Mutant, the Ghoul who is ''healed'' by radiation, the robot that is completely unaffected by radiation, or a slave with an explosive collar around her neck that is completely subservient to your whim in every other way, and no reason is given in any case bar "no, fuck you." Your rad-resistant armor fails, your anti-rad meds do crap. You (or the likewise unprotected team mate)'' have'' to go in and die horribly of radiation poisoning
::And in an even worse implementation of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], the "fatal" rad poisoning doesn't do jack until you press the button and turn Project Purity on, at which point you instantly dissolve into goo. With enough Rad-X and RadAway, you could stay in the chamber ''indefinitely''. In story, Colonel Autumn even demonstrated earlier that it's possible to spend an extended time in that chamber without ill effects. Thankfully, the devs retconned the ending with the Broken Steel expansion: Not only can you survive the radiation, you have the option of sending in your radiation immune companion in instead.
** Lone Wanderer's dad's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] could also be this, as he lets out radiation into said chamber to keep the Encave from using it and buy his son/daughter and the rest of the science team time to escape, when, by that time, the Lone Wanderer may have enough skill, weapons, and decent armor that he could wipe out the Enclave so his dad wouldn't have to do it. ▼
::Even with the ''Broken Steel'' expansion, if you get someone else to go in your stead (who can survive the radiation), the cuscene that plays out still calls you a coward. Since when does being smart and non-suicidal signify cowardice? Likely, they just didn't feel like creating a whole new cutscene and bringing [[Ron Perlman]] back to record a new voice-over.
* In ''[[Age of Mythology (Video Game)|Age of Mythology]]'', Chiron offers to slow down the oncoming horde of bad guys, by standing under a precarious pile of stones and kicking them. Never mind that he could have easily, you know, kicked them over from the other side, or even gotten out of the way of the path blocking the rockslide. And for that matter, there wasn't even that many bad guys. They could have ''fought'' their way out!▼
▲** Lone Wanderer's dad's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] could also be this, as he lets out radiation into said chamber to keep the Encave from using it and buy his son/daughter and the rest of the science team time to escape, when, by that time, the Lone Wanderer may have enough skill, weapons, and decent armor that he could wipe out the Enclave so his dad wouldn't have to do it.
* In ''[[Fable II (Video Game)|Fable II]]'', the dog dies when he tries to attack Lucien, and unfortunately, Lucien was preparing to fire his weapon at the time. Sure, Lucien probably would have taken care of the dog later anyway, but the dog jumped into a bullet for no real reason. It didn't attack until then either, even though Lucien gave you a huge speech about how wrong you are. Of course, it's a ''dog''. [[Tear Jerker|He's only trying to protect his master.]]▼
▲* In ''[[
* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn]]'' has is a particularly sad case. King Pelleas has made a deal with the devil -- or in this case, the Begnion Senate. If he does not follow their orders, his subjects will start dropping like flies. Eventually he finds a solution - the signer must be killed to nullify the contract. Thus he asks the player to kill him (or the loyal general if the player refuses.) As it turns out, the country is still bound by the pact. You must kill a signer ''and'' destroy the contract to break the curse. And the other signer is someone you end up killing regardless of whether or not Pelleas is alive, which means the contract would have been broken either way. Pelleas essentially kills himself for nothing. Notable in that a [[New Game Plus]] allows you to ignore [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]] and talk him out of it instead, making him a playable character.▼
▲* In ''[[
* Do you know how [[The Ditz|Beat]] died in ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]''? When Rhyme was about to be hit by a car, he ''put himself in the way of the car''. Both of them died. Even [[Idiot Hero|he]] admits it was a stupid idea afterward.▼
▲* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius
** And later Rhyme does a similar thing, only substituting a [[The Heartless|Shark Noise]] instead of a car. Although [[Heroic Sacrifice|she succeeds in saving Beat]], Rhyme also dooms him, seeing as people who've formed a 'pact' can't survive for more than a few minutes if their partner gets erased. Although Beat survives, this leads to his [[Start of Darkness]]. In the end, {{spoiler|this actually comes around full circle. The fact that he'd made a [[Face Heel Turn]] allowed him to later make a [[Heel Face Turn]], screwing up the [[Big Bad]]'s plan to leave Neku without any allies the third week. Rhyme herself even comes back as a pin which is needed to defeat one of the final bosses, making her sacrifice worthwhile in more ways than one, but none of which she could have predicted.}} ▼
▲* Do you know how [[The Ditz|Beat]] died in ''[[
* Amidst all of the sacrifice in ''[[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV]]'', Palom and Porom [[Taken for Granite|turn themselves into statues]] to hold a pair of [[Advancing Wall of Doom|advancing walls of doom]] in place. In the party, however, was a mighty sage who probably could have brought the castle down around them if he had thought of doing so. This mostly served as a gimmick to remove the characters from the party, as the number would otherwise have exceeded the [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]]. ▼
▲** And later Rhyme does a similar thing, only substituting a [[The Heartless|Shark Noise]] instead of a car. Although [[Heroic Sacrifice|she succeeds in saving Beat]], Rhyme also dooms him, seeing as people who've formed a 'pact' can't survive for more than a few minutes if their partner gets erased. Although Beat survives, this leads to his [[Start of Darkness]]. In the end, {{spoiler|this actually comes around full circle. The fact that he'd made a [[Face Heel Turn]] allowed him to later make a [[Heel Face Turn]], screwing up the [[Big Bad]]'s plan to leave Neku without any allies the third week. Rhyme herself even comes back as a pin which is needed to defeat one of the final bosses, making her sacrifice worthwhile in more ways than one, but none of which she could have predicted.}}
▲* Amidst all of the sacrifice in ''[[
** There's also the fact that Porom usually knows Teleport by the time this occurs, and there was absolutely no given reason for this slightly more logical way to escape not to work.
** Speaking of Tellah, the pointlessness of his own sacrifice was part of the plot - if he'd waited for everyone to wear Golbez down ''before'' using his [[Combined Energy Attack]], his sacrifice might have done a bit more than knock the [[Big Bad]] back (though it did free Kain from his control {{spoiler|and might have also shaken Zemus' control of Golbez long enough for the latter to stop himself from killing his own brother.}} After all, anger makes you stupid and reckless.
** All of the game's fake-out deaths are like this. {{spoiler|Cid did not need to jump off the ship with a bomb - he's more than capable of building advanced remote controls, so it's hard to believe he didn't have a remote controlled detonator. Even assuming he didn't, jumping with the bomb would not alter its speed any. And going back a few minutes earlier, if all Yang did to stop the cannon was blow up the guns...why not just ''walk out of the room with everyone else and let Rydia set it on fire or use one of her summons?!'' There was no particular reason the sequence required him to stand in the room and die.}}
*** {{spoiler|To be fair, it seemed to me that what Yang did was stuff himself in the cannon itself, thereby messing up it's aim. They couldn't walk out of the room because the goblins screwed up the controls to lock the cannons in place... firing on the Dwarves. And in any case, Yang has the Brace ability, so he's one of the few who could probably survive an explosion like that.}}
* Corinne's sacrifice seems somewhat pointless in ''[[
** [[Gameplay and Story Integration|In Genis' case it refers more to the fact that after casting a spell, mages have to stand in casting position for a few seconds, added to the fact that mages have a much slower running speed than physical attackers like Lloyd.]]
* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', Asch runs into Luke performing the ritual to destroy the miasma, with the intent of giving his life instead, as he had intended before Luke decided to sacrifice himself. Both of them survive for the moment, but this seemed somewhat poorly thought out, since he'd been warned he would likely be consumed, too.
Line 185 ⟶ 192:
*** He thought that he was dying. The implication from the optional Contamination sidequest seemed to be that it was {{spoiler|''Luke'' that would be absorbed into the original, leaving nothing but his memories behind. He just didn't understand the technical explanation that he was given.}}
** To say nothing of {{spoiler|Asch's death scene. "Alright, we'll fight and the winner will go and beat Van while the loser stays and powers the fonic door mechanism long enough for he other guy to get out. Leave together? What do you think we are, a pair of some sort of city-disintegrating, two-people-across-a-continent-teleporting, fonic-tech rewriting plot devices, who happen to be holding the two halves of the world's most powerful amplifier of seventh fonons, or something? Don't be ridiculous."}}
* One chapter in ''[[Nintendo Wars
* Several of the people who were killed/seriously injured in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4
** Raiden, who, upon seeing that Snake is in danger of being crushed by a giant warship heading directly towards the pier he's laying on, decides to ''hold back the warship''. Instead of the alternative, ''picking up Snake and running as fast as he can away from the pier''. Raiden loses both arms for his trouble.
** Naomi, who commits suicide by destroying the nanomachines that were keeping her cancer in check. Aside from the fact that the explanation for this is wholly unsatisfactory (she never forgave herself for creating Vamp, but she wasn't even the one who ''made'' him, not to mention she'd finally helped stop him for good), but she left behind a newfound love interest and a girl who looked up to her. There was a spare seat for her in Metal Gear Rex, but she decides to stay behind and say her final words - to no one in particular. Good going.
Line 192 ⟶ 199:
*** Big Boss's whole point in letting himself die was that the legacy of the Patriot's, which he himself was a part of, needed to die. Presumably, he watched Snake try to off himself to see whether or not he could actually do it, but quietly convinced that he wouldn't be able to. He lets himself die because he ''wants'' to die, to finally end the corruption and control, the plots and machinations that stretched all the way back to the Virtuous Mission.
** Snake, walking down a corridor that is basically a giant microwave, sure it looks badass, but when you reach the room at the end of the corridor, Snake doesn't do anything. Otacon, by way of his robot, just uploads the virus and they get out of there.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Good job sticking a soulstone into your head,]] warrior from ''[[Diablo (
:It is now known that random warrior is actually the other son of the skeleton king and the older brother of the prince that Diablo took over for a body. Basically the entire game Diablo was whispering to the warrior to make him think that was the only way to seal him and prevent him from ever being released into the world again.
* ''[[Lost Planet]]'': Extreme Condition. Paraphrasing lightly:
{{quote|
'''Basil:''' No, I'd rather stay here for no discernible reason whatsoever and fight the vastly overpowering enemy forces until they shoot me to within an inch of my life, leaving me with just barely enough energy to activate the detonator for the explosives I've been planting around the place.
'''Wayne:''' Yeah, I won't even think about making you abandon such an obviously pointless and masochistic plan. See ya! }}
* At the end of ''[[X (
** Or, y'know, if it wasn't actually possible to remotely control any ship you own even while extra-vehicular. Sure, by all means send your ship to its destruction, but there's nothing in the rules that states you ''have'' to be in the damn thing, y'know.
* In ''[[
** Later on, Spider sacrifices both himself and the level boss to create a big enough explosion to blast the door open before the base self-destructed. Except that at that point in the game, the team have more than enough firepower between them to create more damage than just two reploids exploding. Or even blow open their own door through the walls.
*** {{spoiler|Maybe he, being in actuality the [[Big Bad]], just got sick of the charade?}}
* In the original ''[[
** As demonstrated earlier in the game, when X uses the Ride Armor, it fully protected the rider (X does not take damage until the armor is destroyed). In addition, when the armor explodes, it can damage the pilot. What Zero did was unleash a strong enough dose of firepower to the Ride Armor to destroy it instantly, thereby (hopefully) destroying Vile. It didn't destroy Vile, but it did give X the chance to do so. Not entirely senseless, as he presumably could've done that from a distance, but still kind of stupid.
* In ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'', Cielo conveniently forgot his [[Cutscene Power to
** Or Argilla going after Roland despite knowing what [[Heroic Sacrifice|the guy is buying them time]], it's strongly implied it's a [[Love Makes You Dumb|an emotionally-charged decision]].
* ''[[
** It also bears mentioning that {{spoiler|Alicia had done ''dramatic'' damage to the Marmotah simply with a basic attack. She had very nearly crippled it, and since Valkyir are [[Implacable Man|effectively invincible]], there was very little reason for her not to just hit it again. No suicide attack needed.}}
** Also {{spoiler|Faldio.}} It's especially jarring that the sacrifice is made to kill an enemy who's already been defeated, had his power source disconnected, and too weighed down by equipment he can't properly lift to be much of a threat anymore. {{spoiler|But, since the game is a strongly idealist war story, Faldio is both [[Designated Evil|a device to keep Welkin from having to do anything morally questionable]] and [[Death Equals Redemption|obligated to die]] to deliver the game's equally idealist Aesops.}}
* Saidra sacrifices herself in a mission of the original campaign in ''[[
** Subverted actually, as no matter when you end the cutscene, another group spawns ahead of the player group, and you really have to take off to get through the cave before they cover the other entrance. Saidra may have died after ten seconds, but it's actually ten seconds that you can't afford to waste.
* In ''[[The House of the Dead (
* In ''[[Silver]]'' the Hero and his grandfather are pursued by [[The Dragon|Fudge]] and are about to leave the room through a magical door Fudge cannot enter, when he catches up with them. Instead of, well, ''going through'' the door, the grandfather tells the Hero to run, engages in a hopeless fight with Fudge (he has to actually ''run away from the door'' to do that) and is promptly killed. Then it gets weird. Instead of obliging and bailing the Hero just stands and watches his grandfather getting killed. But after the cutscene ends, Fudge... just stands there and does nothing as well. You can even attack him (and get killed) or you can just go through the door.
* It is mainly caused by [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], but Tassadar's sacrifice in the end of ''[[
** Well, since Zerg Cerebrates and the Overmind are perfectly capable of regenerating if they are killed by normal means, a protoss using the powers of the void is required to kill one off for good. Still makes no sense for Tassadar to sacrifice himself, however. He could have just stabbed the Overmind with the technique of those Dark Templar.
** Justified visually in the ending FMV. The Overmind opens up a wormhole to escape, so any approach slower than a spaceship moving at ramming speed would've let it escape and rendered the heroes' effort null and void.
* Lampshaded in ''[[
* Orsino in ''[[
* In ''[[
* According to Ammon Jerro in ''[[
* Mira's backstory in ''[[Killer Instinct]]'' is a variant. Originally, she and her sister Maya were members of the Night Guard, an organization of [[Vampire Hunter]]s, until a botched attempt to slay group of vampires in the Siberian Mountains resulted in Mira sacrificing herself to save her sister from being crushed in an avalanche. Thing is, Mira wasn't dead, and was found, barely clinging to life, by the vampires, who converted her. Now a powerful vampire herself and a master of [[Blood Magic]], Mira has come to accept - possibly even enjoy - her undead condition, but now has come to regret saving Maya, who is now her sworn enemy.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Miko from ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* [[Played for Laughs]] in the Slurm factory episode of ''[[
** Another episode, "Lrrreconcilabe Ndndifferences", has Fry jump in the way of what he assumes to be a
* The TV special ''[[Garfield Specials
** Further subversion: Monkey states after climbing out of the volcano, "We've gotta fix those brakes." Apparently, the plan was to just push the car in, but they were driving the car up the volcano as fast as they could, and apparently, the brakes didn't work, so the car went over the edge.
* In the last episode of ''[[
* In the second episode of ''[[X-Men (
* Non-lethal example in the 2012 version of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''; {{spoiler|when the Kraag drop dozens of canisters of mutagen on New York, one is about to fall on April. Her father realizes this, and shields her, only to become doused with it himself and turned into a mutant bat-creature. At the time, this seems like a strait [[Heroic Sacrifice]], but many episodes later, it is revealed April herself is technically already a mutant; mutagen cannot mutate humans who are already mutated, so the canister he shielded her from would not have harmed her at all.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Heroic
[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]
[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]
[[Category:
|