Stupid Sacrifice: Difference between revisions

* Moses death in ''[[Blood+|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 ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]] [[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.<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.

** 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.

* Averted and lampshaded in ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. Gray tries to use a spell that would turn his entire body into ice to freeze an opponent, said ice being unable to melt under ordinary circumstances. However, Natsu punches him and talks him out of it, after which he realizes that said opponent knows of a method to thaw the nigh unmeltable ice.

* A particularly tragic example in episode 19 of ''[[Hell Girl]]''. {{spoiler|A girl marries into a wealthy doll-maker's family, who's grandmother treats her as nothing more than another doll, not allowing her to do chores, leave the house, or pretty much anything except just sit there and do absolutely nothing "like a doll." Not to mention that her grandmother is using her as a model for some kind of funeral doll, which apparently involves horribly mistreating her to get that perfect broken, dead-eyed look. When she finally sends her grandmother to hell (thus damning her own soul in the process,) she goes to her husband, promising to devote herself body and soul to her, only to find out he pretty much wants the exact same thing from her. She ended up sacrificing her soul for nothing.}}

* ''[[Batman]]'' villain the KGBeast, while trying to escape a pursuing Dark Knight, continually foiled his attempts to bind him with rope by cutting it with his axe. Then when his left arm is caught in the rope... he ''cuts off his hand'', even though it's been established that he ''could've just cut the rope''.

* [[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.}}

 

 

'''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 (film)|Spider-Man]] 3'' Harry jumps in front of the glider Venom is about to use to kill Peter, but given that he died facing Peter, he must have either spun in midair as he jumped, or ran past him between Venom and Peter to get impaled. Couldn't he have tried to ''grab'' the glider? Or just given Venom a shove? This is particularly bad when Peter breaks out of Venom's restraints a few seconds later, so if he'd tried fighting Venom instead of sacrificing himself he'd have had Peter helping him too.

* In ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand|X Men the Last Stand]]'', why did Magneto sacrifice his troops against soldiers he knew were armed with the serum, rather than have Phoenix just nuke the island from afar?

** 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?

** 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...

* 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 (film)|Avatar]]'', pilot Trudy Chacon has the Big Bad's massive gunship in perfect alignment to shoot it down -- from above and behind -- yet after a couple pot shots she maneuvers right into the front of the gunship, where all the big guns are, for no clear reason other than she wanted to die or something.

* 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, [[wikipedia:The Cold Equations#Reactions|author Don Saker wrote a solution story]] which incidentally [[Gender Flip|swapped the genders of the protagonists]]. It was published in ''[[Analog]]'' science fiction magazine over thirty years after the original story ran in that publication. It turned out that ''Analog'' editor [[John W. Campbell]] had insisted the story end with the death of the girl and had sent the story back three times because the author kept finding ways to save her.

* 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 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.

** The Doctor made a [[Stupid Sacrifice]] of his 10th life in "The End of Time". To summarize, Wilf is trapped in a man-sized box which will flood with radiation. The box will only unlock safely if the Doctor hits the unlock button in an identical box right next to it, letting Wilf out but exposing himself to the radiation instead. The box is too small for the TARDIS to fit, the sonic screwdriver is ruled out because it would set the whole thing off, and using the TARDIS to get help from someone else is ruled out because [[San Dimas Time]] rules apply in this setting. ([[Timey-Wimey Ball|Usually]].) Even so, the Doctor spends enough time angsting about it that he could probably have rigged up a crude method of hitting the button without being in the box.

*** 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.

** 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/NS/Recap/S4 E10 Midnight|Midnight]]". The hostess opens the airlock and then...just stands there for a few seconds with the creature before both being sucked out, rather than, you know, pushing the thing and getting the hell away.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' lampshades then averts this, thanks to the [[Genre Savvy]] O'Neill. After successfully destroying the shield system on an invading Goa'uld motherships, they ponder their next move. The following dialogue occurs:

{{quote|'''O'Neill:''' Now what?

'''O'Neill:''' Well, ''that's'' a bad plan. Where's the glider bay? }}

* Subverted with Topher's sacrifice in the series finale of ''[[Dollhouse]]''. It is quite obvious that Topher could simply set a timer on the pulse-bomb. It is just as obvious that he wants this to be his final act.

* The death of the Senator in the ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' pilot was rather senseless. Air is slowly leaking out a damaged porthole on a shuttle attached to the main ship and the control panel to close the door is in the shuttle. The Senator sacrifices himself to save the rest of the crew, but given an hour or two (which they had) any decent engineer could have built something to press the button remotely. A lever on a string for instance. Or a flying remote-controlled camera drone, available from a vending machine aboard the Destiny.

** 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.

* ''[[Fallout 3]]'':

** 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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]]'', 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!

* In ''[[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.]]

* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|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+]] allows you to ignore [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]] and talk him out of it instead, making him a playable character.

* Do you know how [[The Ditz|Beat]] died in ''[[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.

** 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.

[[Category:Stupid Sacrifice]]

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