History Main / DeathIsTheOnlyOption

'''This is a DeathTrope, so be aware of spoilers.'''

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagicIXWritOfFate'' had a part late in the game where you had to enter a place that was like Hell, and you had to die to get there. (How to do that? Well, finding a group of monsters and letting them kill you worked, as did just jumping into a lake; there was one nasty spike-filled water pit that could do it fast. In other words, it didn't matter how.) Unfortunately, after you finished the quest there, you ended up in the mortal world again, and ''then'' you had to go to a city where gods lived (it was sort of like Valhalla, to make a comparison). That meant you had to die again to get ''there''. (Fortunately, once you got there, you could cast a spell called Llyod's Beacon to get there from the mortal world without having to die every time.) If the game wasn't [[ObviousBeta a shoddy rush job]] the concept may have actually been kind of cool.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' Askeladda is presented with 2 choices, both of which he hates, so he TakesAThirdOption that requires his death.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder:FanWorks]]

[[folder: Film - Animated ]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

* In ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'', Draco and Einon's lives are linked because Draco shared his heart with Einon in the beginning of the film. For Einon to die, Draco must die. Bowen refuses to slay his friend, even defying the oath he made to do anything Draco would ask of him (in this case, assisted suicide). He ultimately does the deed when he sees Einon BackFromTheDead as hateful as ever and realizes that the kingdom would never be free as long as Einon lived.
* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', after looking through 14 million different futures to find the one where the heroes win, Doctor Strange trades Tony Stark's life for the Time Stone and dies as a result. With his last words he claims that there was no other way. In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', it's also heavily implied by Strange that the one good future only comes to pass because of Tony's HeroicSacrifice in the final battle.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'': Adjunct Tavore Paran takes this trope to insane proportions, as she not only intends to die herself, if needed, to achieve her objectives -- [[spoiler:freeing the Crippled God and defeating the Forkrul Assail]] -- , but is prepared to take her entire army with her, as well as the armies of her allies. To take it further, almost everyone who deciphers her intentions agrees it's a regretful, but well-meaning thing to do, and hops on board.
* In the ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', Verin Mathwin is a member of the Brown Ajah, an order within the main magic-users of the series dedicated to scholarship and inquiry, dismissed by most of the others as a bunch of useless bookworms. [[spoiler: In actuality, she is a member of the the Black Ajah, a secret group dedicated to the {{God of Evil}}. However, she actually joined them to ''study them as an academic curiosity'', and in reality has been working as a mole in the organization for seventy years.]] Her magically-binding oaths state specifically she cannot act against [[spoiler: the Black Ajah]] 'until the hour of my death'. So she ingests poison that takes one hour to kill her, and uses that hour to [[spoiler: get the information out to completely take down the Black Ajah]].

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

** Dean does this when he realizes his bloodlust is out of control and that he's a danger to his family. However it just leads to a DeathActivatedSuperpower.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting has some adventures that require ''someone'' to die, although often you can foist this onto an npc. In addition, it has several evil beings and magic items which offer PowerAtAPrice, gradually entrapping a character until dying is the only way to escape.

[[folder: Toys ]]
* ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'': In the Chamber of Death, the only way to proceed was for one member of the Toa Inika team to sacrifice himself or herself. Matoro volunteered, but was revived immediately afterwards, as the purpose was a test of courage. [[spoiler:Because using the Mask of Life to restore Mata Nui's life would require the bearer's HeroicSacrifice, so Matoro's willingness was the final proof for the mask that he was indeed its destined user.]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

** Additionally, [[spoiler:The U.S. government realizes that the only way to absolve themselves of blame from the nuke that Volgin launched and prevent a war with Russia is to pin the incident on [[FinalBoss The Boss]] and have her get killed by her own student, [[TheHero Snake]]. The Boss accepts this plan despite it requiring her to die, because she values her country over herself.]]

* ''VideoGame/DeathGoesOn'' relies on knights dying over and over- by, say, being flung by a swinging axe onto a button- so the next one can progress a bit further.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'', towards the end of its run, began adding medals which when their special attack was used boosted strength. This could be either for a certain attribute such as speed or magic, or for Upright or Reversed, or for all attacks. The catch was that the strength boost would usually only last for one turn, after which point it would disappear. However, whether it was deliberately or due to a programming oversight, if the player character was killed and then revived, then it would return to the start of the turn, but with all of the strength boost that had already been built up still in effect. Since the player could be revived twice, they could use this to build up quite a bit of strength. Some of the later Proud quests deliberately used this by having enemies which could only be defeated by using this mechanic, having such high HP that if you hadn't built up enough strength using this method, there was just no way to defeat them.

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', Tahrust Inmee commits suicide to try and frame Maya for his death. This way, the crime his wife committed [[note]]albeit in self-defense, no one would have dared to risk their life to prove she didn't commit straight murder due to the local laws[[/note]] would not be discovered and she would be safe... at the expense of Maya's life. Phoenix notes how Tahrust could have just gotten in touch with him and asked him to defend his wife in court, so [[SubvertedTrope dying wasn't actually the only option]].

* At the end of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', the surviving cast members realize that the only way to stop the killing games is for everyone to refuse to vote, which will result in their executions and ensure that neither hope nor despair will win, so that the audience will lose interest. Everyone does so, including the Mastermind, resulting in the school being destroyed, but three of the remaining students manage to survive.

[[folder: Web Comics ]]
* Attempted in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0783.html #783]]: Gannji and Enor are being forced to duel with each other as part of a [[GladiatorGames gladiator tournament]]. Gannji decides there's no way out until there's a definite victor in the fight, so he tells Enor to kill him, cut off his tail and use it to resurrect him later on. [[SubvertedTrope However, Belkar provides them with another option]], allowing them to escape without killing each other.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** Averted due to the fact that Rick manages to find the broken collar and fix it, but it's implied that all 64 versions of him would [[AndIMustScream endlessly float through a void until they died. ]]

* In the finale of ''[[Webcomic/RoomiesItsWalkyJoyceAndWalky It's Walky!]]'', Walky has to die so he can enter purgatory and get nudged up into the brain of the Cheese, a God-like robot that's the only thing powerful enough to stop the Martian invasion. Similarly, Alan must kill himself by intangably entering the Cheese in order to get the Head Alien out of control.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Fantastic Easter Special", Jesus, who is imprisoned, asks Kyle to kill him in order for [[DeathActivatedSuperpower his powers to activate]]. Kyle, being Jewish, [[UnfortunateImplications is, naturally, very uncomfortable with this]].

* ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'': In the Chamber of Death, the only way to proceed was for one member of the Toa Inika team to sacrifice himself or herself. Matoro volunteered, but was revived immediately afterwards, as the purpose was a test of courage.

* A staple of {{Speed Run}}s is using death and respawning to quickly reach one's next destination. [[http://tasvideos.org/ TASVideos]] even lists on a given run's "Specifics" list if death was used as a shortcut.

* ''[[VideoGame/MightAndMagic Might & Magic 9]]'' had a part late in the game where you had to enter a place that was like Hell, and you had to die to get there. (How to do that? Well, finding a group of monsters and letting them kill you worked, as did just jumping into a lake; there was one nasty spike-filled water pit that could do it fast. In other words, it didn't matter how.) Unfortunately, after you finished the quest there, you ended up in the mortal world again, and ''then'' you had to go to a city where gods lived (it was sort of like Valhalla, to make a comparison). That meant you had to die again to get ''there''. (Fortunately, once you got there, you could cast a spell called Llyod's Beacon to get there from the mortal world without having to die every time.) If the game wasn't [[ObviousBeta a shoddy rush job]] the concept may have actually been kind of cool.
* Videogame/DeathGoesOn relies on knights dying over and over- by, say, being flung by a swinging axe onto a button- so the next one can progress a bit further.
* [[VideoGame/DarkSeedII "Oh, no! Not the Hall of Death again!]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFRZHkVlk30 The only way out of here is death!"]]

* The final ''VideoGame/BitTrip'' game ends with the player controlling Commander Video one last time [[spoiler:as you guide his soul to the afterlife. When the screen fades to white, the player can keep moving, but eventually they just have to put down their controller to allow the Commander to pass on and truly end the game.]]

May involve a DeathActivatedSuperpower and MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning. DeliberateInjuryGambit is a far less severe related trope. Depending on how far out the character sees this coming or how long they last after becoming terminal, may involve MilesToGoBeforeISleep. Not to be confused with MurderIsTheBestSolution. Compare SuicideForOthersHappiness. Compare FailureGambit.

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'': Upon their return to reality after spending a lifetime together in Limbo, Mal remains ''convinced'' that they are still dreaming and that [[DreamRealityCheck she and Cobb need to wake up by killing themselves]] since in dreams this is the only way out. She leaps out of a hotel window and plummets to her death. While she did intend to kill herself, [[AccidentalSucide she didn't think doing so would actually mean she'd be ''dead'' dead]] given the logic of dreams. [[spoiler:TheReveal that she was Cobb's ''first'' inception [[GoneHorriblyRight success story]], as he planted the idea that her world isn't real when she refused to leave Limbo, makes this also overlap with PsychicAssistedSuicide.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', Tahrust Inmee commits suicide to try and frame Maya for his death. This way, the crime his wife committed [[note]]albeit in self-defense, no one would have dared to risk their life to prove she didn't commit straight murder due to the local laws[[/note]] would not be discovered and she would be safe... at the expense of Maya's life. Phoenix notes how Tahrust could have just gotten in touch with him and asked him to defend her wife in court, so [[SubvertedTrope dying wasn't actually the only option]].

A SubTrope of DyingMomentOfAwesome and SuperTrope to SuicideNotAccident.

A SubTrope of DyingMomentOfAwesome.

* In ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga'', losing a life is the only way to reduce the game's DynamicDifficulty. In fact, doing so multiple times over the first five stages is necessary to keep the difficulty from reaching UnwinnableByMistake levels by Stage 6.

Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible is in full effect; getting all the way to dying or [[DeathIsCheap staying dead]] is not required, and 'victory' is highly variable.

* [[VideoGame/DarkSeed "Oh, no! Not the Hall of Death again!]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFRZHkVlk30 The only way out of here is death!"]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': Harry Potter realizes that he is a Horcrux and must die to defeat Voldemort. [[spoiler: But since Voldemort used some of Harry’s blood to reconstitute his own body in the fourth book, Harry is NotQuiteDead! [[SarcasmMode Nice job, Voldemort!]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': Harry Potter realizes that he is a Horcrux and must die to defeat Voldemort.

* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12086351/1/Kanashī-Wütend-Desolato Kanashī, Wütend, Desolato]]'', a WhatIf for ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]'': When the ostracising and ridicule Germany, Italy, and Japan experienced [[{{Polyamory}} because of their relationship]] became too much, what did Italy do? Did he break up with them? Did he seek to distance himself from them? Did he try to get them to hate and leave him? Nope. [[DrivenToSuicide He tried to commit suicide]]. [[BungledSuicide He only failed]] [[NighInvulnerability because it is nearly impossible to kill the countries' personifications]].

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' features this at the end of the Heaven's Feel route when Shirou and Ilya reach the Greater Grail. Each has the ability to stop the Grail, but doing so will definitely kill the one who does so.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' season 2 opener "A Rickle in Time", Rick, Morty, and Summer accidentally make various alternate timelines. They are given special collars that synch up the timelines together. In one of the 64 alternate timelines that Rick, Morty, and Summer have created, Morty loses his collar. They both fall into an infinite void, and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Rick sacrifices his collar to make sure Morty gets home safe. ]]

* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', [[spoiler:after looking through 14 million versions of future to find the one where the heroes win, Doctor Strange trades Tony Stark's life for the Time Stone and dies as a result. With his last words he claims that there was no other way]].