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Someone Has to Die: Difference between revisions
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== Anime & Manga ==
* A variant of this trope happens in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', when the team in trapped in the ocean of despair with two minutes 'till they all get crushed to death. At first Yoko tries to volunteer for the suicidal mission to destroy the Death Spiral Machine that maintains the Ocean, but before she can get the words out, Kittan volunteers, and shares a [[Last Kiss]] with Yoko, before going on to do his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
* In ''[[Sonic X]]'': Cosmo does this during the big [[Wham! Episode|series finale]], requiring Tails to shoot the Sonic driver, [[Abnormal Ammo|which uses Sonic and Shadow as ammunition]], into her while she is attached to Dark Oak in her adult tree form, thereby weakening him to a point at which he could be destroyed. Whether or not this was considered or Spur of the Moment is debatable, but it is said that this was supposed to have been her [[Because Destiny Says So|destiny all along]]. Cosmo, however, chooses to die not simply to fulfil her purpose, but because she wants to save her friends.
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni|Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai]]'', in ''Matsuribayashi-hen''. The villain is holding the heroes at gunpoint with only one bullet, and asks them to choose who will take the bullet to save everyone else. Subverted when [[Everybody Lives]]. "This world doesn't need a loser. That is the answer Furude Rika reached at the end of her thousand year journey in search of a miracle."
* Penwood from ''[[Hellsing]]''. As England is being obliterated by Milennium, he comes to the resolution (even though a little persuasion helps) to stay behind and fight to the end with the rest of his colleagues, just to take out however many vampires they can. With him soon being the only living person in the Hellsing residence, he holds a detonator in his hand and looks at a gun Integra gave him so that he could commit suicide. Choosing the more heroic option, Penwood waits until the vampires burst through a barricaded door, whereupon he adamantly answers their leader back in the face of death, and, even after being shot ''thrice'', manages to detonate a huge stockpile of C4, taking the vampires and the entire Hellsing building with him.
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** In the last few stories before the five years jump, the Legion finds a mystic seal that must be opened by such a sacrifice. One of them Magnetic Lad, younger brother of Cosmic Boy volunteers and dies indeed. It did the trick, though.
* When Beast of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' discovered the cure to the Legacy Virus, for some reason the first person to take it would die, but then it would spread throughout the world via air. Colossus took it and died. Don't worry, he came back.
* An unusual villainous example: the alien Grandmaster once played a game (involving hero proxies fighting it out) with the incarnation of Death in order to bring his fellow Elder of the Universe, the Collector, back to life. Death didn't bother to inform him until the contest was over that the method involved required the Grandmaster to [[Balancing
** The whole deal was (or was later retconned into being anyway) part of a plan on The Grandmaster's part to ultimately {{spoiler|obtain true immortality for all of the Elders}}.
* The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'''s Phoenix storyline started out with Jean Grey volunteering to get the X-Men back to earth by piloting an unshielded space shuttle through a lethal solar flare. What happened at that point is [[Retcon|subject to debate]], but it's fair to say only a miracle kept her alive.
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* A particularly [[Tear Jerker|poignant]] part of ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' invokes this trope: the only surefire way to neutralize the poisonous miasma covering the world is to cause a "hyperresonance" so powerful that it would take the user's life and the lives of ''thousands of willing sacrifices.'' The thousands of sacrifices are supplied by eventually-[[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|all-too-willing replicas]], and [[Cloning Blues|Luke and Asch]] argue for a while over who should be the one to instigate the hyperresonance. It eventually ends with [[The Messiah|Luke]] trying to do so, but Asch needing to contribute a bit of his power anyway because Luke isn't strong enough on his own. Possibly for this reason, though it's never quite explained, both of them survive.
** On the other hand, Luke, and it's implied Asch as well, soon find out [[Player Punch|the phlebotinum in their bodies is dissipating, leading to their own eventual death-by-dissipation.]] Funnily enough, neither of them last long enough for said dissipation to kick in, as they both end up performing more standard [[Heroic Sacrifices]] by the time the credits roll. [[Mind Screw|And one of them comes back. Who knows which one?]]
* ''[[Fallout 3]]''. What would have otherwise been a [[Tear Jerker]] turns into a Crowning Moment of Stupid when you realize that you [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|probably still have your radiation-immune Super-Mutant]] in your party, who [[Fridge Logic|just did this same thing mere hours ago game time,]] but he opts out [[Because Destiny Says So]]. You can also have [[But Thou Must!|another ghoul or a robot]] with you, both of whom would presumably be immune to radiation. To top it off? [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Rad-X magically stops working the moment the final cutscene happens,]] and this came at the end of what was - up until that point, a ''damn good'' third act.
** Changed in the Broken Steel DLC to fix those complaints of the fridge logic.
*** You also survive in the DLC, when the Brotherhood pulls you out of there. The cutscene is unchanged, though, still showing how you died...before you open your eyes again.
* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'', that's the entire purpose of the Chosen. Also, at one point, [[Mauve Shirt|Botta]] and two [[Red Shirt|nameless]] [[La Résistance|Renegades]] trap themselves in a flooding room in order to stop the self-destruct sequence of an underwater Desian Base. Yuan doesn't seem surprised, hinting that at least someone was expecting this.
** And later on, all supporting characters left in the cast do this as a part of the sequence of false [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]] that reduces the party to Lloyd alone, while climbing the Tower of Salvation. Only in the cases of Raine and [[Bratty Half
* At the end of the ''Rise of the Zilart'' expansion for ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' Lion uses her body to stop a chain reaction that would destroy all of Vana'diel. After the end of the next expansion she got better.
* Hoo boy, ''[[Mass Effect]]''. Part of what makes the Virmire mission such a [[Wham! Episode]] is its implementation of this very trope. Basically, Shepard and his/her squad have to plant a nuke at a research facility in Virmire that's creating an army of [[The Virus|genophage]]-less krogans for Saren. Unfortunately you can't save your entire party (since either Ashley or Kaidan is with a salarian force creating a diversion while Shepard sets the nuke) and you only have time to rescue either Kaidan or Ashley.
** ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' turns this [[Up to Eleven]]. The entire galaxy is fighting against the Reapers, who are technologically superior and almost completely unstoppable (you can destroy them individually, but there's too many to kill them all). People will die. A ''lot'' of people will die. And you're going to regret every single one you didn't save, even if there was nothing you could do about it.
*** Brief note: {{spoiler|It's possible to finish the trilogy with everyone but Mordin, Legion, whichever human party member dies on Virmire, and Anderson alive amongst the core cast}}.
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[[Category:Heroic Sacrifices]]
[[Category:Someone Has To Die]]
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