This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Difference between revisions

* This occurs in almost every major battle (in the end anyway) in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', as well as in ''DBZ'' and ''DBGT''.

** Naturally, this is parodied in ''[[Dragonball Z Abridged]]'':

'''Piccolo''': ...like a hero. }}

* ''[[Samurai Deeper Kyo]]'' makes frequent use of this trope, to the point where the [[Dysfunctional Family|Shiseiten]], a group of [[Blood Knight|fighters]], has a rule where no member may intervene in another member's fights. (Almost no one else in the series helps another in a one-on-one fight, but, yeah.) This leads to a scene where Akira, the youngest member, has to stand by and watch as the man who raised him in the group, Bontenmaru, is toyed with by [[Enfante Terrible|Tokito]].

* During the Silver Age while battling an energy creature that could possess and animated matter the entire Justice League of America sits back in their cave lair while Superman watches and reports back to everyone what's going on, but otherwise they do nothing because 'well he hasn't used his signal device to call us in yet so we'll just sit and watch'.

* Subverted in [[Crisis Crossover|Blackest]] [[Blackest Night|Night]], wherein Guy Gardner is forced to face his personal demons, or else he dies. [[Heterosexual Life Partner|Kyle Rayner]] tries to help him, but [[Genius Loci|Mogo]] outright tells him this trope. Kyle's response?

 

== Fan Fic ==

* In [[Christian Humber Reloaded]], Vash stands aside as his Toa allies fight the Visoraks until they start losing, at which point he steps in and helps them by adding his energy to their combined attack, helping to finish off the enemmy.

* In [[Buttlord GT]], the secondary characters [[Lampshade Hanging|mock their tendency]] to [[Affectionate Parody|never assist in main-character fights:]]

 

== Film ==

** Also seen at the tail end of ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'', where even with Prime insisting that the war was over (which it was), Galvatron insists on a final showdown with him, and Prime agrees to face him one-on-one. (He still winds up cheating a bit with some help from the late [[Spirit Advisor|Vector Prime]].)

** Mocked in the ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' script reading "Bee in the City":

'''Optimus Prime''': Mmmm...no, we won't be doing that. }}

* In the movie ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', where Ridley enters a cave to search for the [[MacGuffin]] and the female Elf character prevents others from going too, because "he must do this himself". [[Hand Wave|An explanation is attempted]] with a magical force field that keeps the others from entering.

* In ''[[Dune]]'' Paul Atreides is dueling Feyd-Rautha and realizes that he could use a code word that was placed into Feyd-Rautha's subconscious to stun him for a second, thus saving his life. Paul {{spoiler|refuses to do so because This Is Something He's Got To Do Himself. Interestingly, when he says, "No, I won't do it" (meaning use the code word), that is enough to distract Feyd-Rautha so Paul can win}}.

* Referenced/parodied in ''[[Discworld]]'', specifically ''[[Discworld/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'':

'''Ginger:''' What, like... go to the toilet? }}

* In Bernard Cornwell's Saxon stories, Ragnar the Younger has one of these against his old enemy Kjartan. This trope name is actually invoked by one of the characters when the main character wants to intervene, saying basically, "Its his fight, and he will never forgive you if you interfere."

*** He had to [[A Worldwide Punomenon|split]].

* ''[[Firefly]]'' hilariously [[Defied Trope|defies]] this, in the episode where Mal was being held by Niska. At the end, a badly injured Mal and [[The Dragon]] (well, Niska's ''current'' Dragon) are wrestling on and around the railing over [[No OSHA Compliance|a precipitous drop into a shaft filled with machinery]]. Zoe, Jayne and Wash show up, but Zoe prevents their intervention:

'''Mal''': No, [[Combat Pragmatist|it's not]]!<br />

'''Zoe''': Oh. ''*They open fire*'' }}

** To be fair, maybe he was just [[Genre Savvy]] enough to realize that bringng [[Red Shirt|Starfleet Security]] personnel with him would just be signing their death warrants.

* Abed from [[Community]] gets dangerously genre savvy about it (as though Abed is ever any other way):

Abed: Yeah, okay, I will. (Beat.) IN HIS FACE!!! }}

 

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' sometimes has [[Mad Scientist|Sparks]] personally dealing with challenges and sometimes parodies this:

** [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080526 Klaus was reminded] about the basics:

** Parodied in [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110727 this] strip, where Tarvek offers Gil the chance to go hand-to-hand with a ''big'' [[Super Soldier|Jägermonster]] (after [[Berserk Button|knocking off his hat]]) alone:

'''Gil''': No! ''No!'' I'm only ''that'' stupid [[Love Makes You Dumb|in front of Agatha]]! <br />

'''Tarvek''': ''Drat''. }}

* When a few members of the [[Justice League]] end up in the Old West, Jonah Hex prevents them from getting between the local town's hero and the main bad guy, because, in Hex's words: "A man's gotta settle his own accounts".

* In ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' "Panther's Quest", Black Panther insists Wakandan tradition says he must defeat Man-Ape by himself. Captain America respects this, but when Man-Ape orders the Dora Milaje to take out the Panther, Cap intervenes.

 

== Real Life ==