What Is One Man's Life in Comparison?: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Depending on the character, after being told this, he may or may not oblige.

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

== Comics ==

* ''[[Green Lantern]]'' Hal Jordan thought in the Corps' first war against Nekron when he entered the Death God's nether world to distract him enough to allow the Corps to drive back Krona's army while the Guardians to seal the inter-dimensional rift. At all this, Jordan's energy field is decaying rapidly as he sees himself being trapped in that other dimension and will die instantly once it fails. The one comfort Jordan thinks that it's his life for the trillions upon trillions of lives he helped save, a really flattering trade when you think about it. Fortunately, at that moment, the spirit of Jordan's predecessor, Abin Sur, helps his successor escape the rift.

* In an old ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider Man]]'' comic he ends up fighting over an antidote against the Inhumans. Spider-Man needs it to save the life of a man who saved him and MJ from being hit by a truck, the Inhumans need it to prevent a doomsday device from destroying the world. After they fight Spidey finally explains why needs it and Black Bolt flies to the hospital with rest of the antidote. In the end Gorgon tells Spider-Man that saving the entire world was important enough to risk the death of the man, since what is one life compared to all others. Spider-Mans reply is along the lines "If you have to ask, you will never know the answer."

 

== Film ==

* In the ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'', Megatron asks this of Optimus Prime when they are fighting over the knowledge implanted in Sam Witwicky's brain by a shard of the Allspark. Optimus knows better, though.

'''Optimus:''' You'll never stop at one. }}

* In ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'', the protagonist is told that he should allow the writer to kill him off, as the contribution to the world's literature as a whole is more important than his own life. It's implied that he {{spoiler|ultimately decides to sacrifice himself, not to for literature's sake, but to save a little boy. This ends up prompting the writer to rethink her whole approach.}}

* In the film ''[[Sunshine (film)|Sunshine]]'', a character comes close to mentioning this trope by name.

* Invoked twice in ''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'': first by Zarkoff and then by Flash himself, when faced with the prospect of having to sacrifice themselves to save the Earth. "It's not madness, it's a rational transaction: one life in exchange for millions."

 

== Literature ==

** The irony in this verse is [[Lampshaded]] in the next verse, which says that the High Priest was speaking in his role as a prophet at the time, even though he didn't realize the implications of what he was saying.

** However, there was no guarantee that the sacrifice would work, and all indications seemed to point towards it never working. Melisandre is such a fanatic however, that she often refuses to see the flaws or failures of her plans.

* In [[Enchantress From the Stars]], if a Federation agent is captured, and it stands to reason that he or she will cannot prevent divulging the information about [[The Federation]], the agent is supposed to commit suicide. Of course Elana, the main protagonist is only told this ''after'' she is captured during the action which she probably wouldn't undertake had she known this beforehand.

*** Of course, Elana, after encountering the way [[The Empire]] treats its captives, actually finds the idea attractive.

 

 

== Music ==

* In ''[[Sound Horizon]]'''s ''Moira'', fed up with the way Moira torments and manipulates people in life, Thanatos concocts a plan to confront and overthrow her - A plan which involves tormenting and manipulating a man all through his life. {{spoiler|The final two tracks of the album imply that not only did this plan fail, but that Thanatos has since been futilely attempting this plan [[Here We Go Again|over and over again]] for gods knows how long.}}

 

== Video Games ==

* At the end of ''[[Blood Omen]]: [[Legacy of Kain]]'', Kain is given the choice between sacrificing his own life to restore balance to the world, or using the power he has accumulated to "rule the world in its ruination" - and furthermore, he had been deliberately manipulated towards this end, by someone who expected him to make the 'selfless' choice. He refuses, and so the sequel ''Soul Reaver'' kicks off in the [[Crapsack World]] that results. As the [[Mind Screw]] threads of the [[Timey-Wimey Ball]] are slowly unravelled, and the true identity of [[The Man Behind the Man]] is revealed, however, it turns out that Kain's decision was the ''better'' option for the world. If he DID sacrifice himself, it would only condemn the world to dance at the strings of an unknowable [[Eldritch Abomination]]. After Kain learns this, he chose to appear as a [[Complete Monster]], while carefully engineering the timestream, pushing it to the point where he could "make the coin land on the edge", creating a [[Take a Third Option|Third Option]] for the dilemma.

 

== Web Comics ==

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Fry was originally frozen so he'd survive long enough to save the universe in the year 3000, but because {{spoiler|The Nibblonians}} were afraid he'd say "no", they never gave him a choice in the matter.

* In ''[[Justice League]]'', J'onn Jonzz, the [[Martian Manhunter]] really seemed to have taken to using this trope. When Doctor Fate attempted to reason with AMAZO, who had been walking all over the entire League, J'onn pulled this trope. And Fate's response?

** The next time was when [[New Gods|Mister Miracle]]'s friend Oberon was kidnapped by Granny Goodness and Miracle asked help from the League. J'onn refused because it would only help to put order into Apokolips, thus risking them turning their attention to Earth. Apparently he thought Flash wasn't looking at the big picture when he wanted to help. Flash thought the league was all about helping.

 

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Morality Tropes]]