History Main / OfferingAnotherInYourStead

Compare GotVolunteered and PushedAtTheMonster. Contrast TakeMeInstead.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Zigzagged by the villainous [[DemonOfHumanOrigin Slug Count]]. On the one hand, he eagerly offers Guts as a sacrifice, but it's explained to him that guts is already branded, so he's not offering them anything new. But {{Defied|Trope}} when this attempted HumanSacrifice goes awry, leaving him [[EatTheSummoner on the hook]] to be DraggedOffToHell, the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Godhand]] tell him that he can only save himself by offering up [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his daughter]]. Despite all the horrors he's committed, he can't bear to, so he's killed.

->'''Davy Jones''': I wonder, Sparrow. Can you live with this? Can you condemn an innocent man-- a ''friend''-- to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free?\\

'''Jack Sparrow''': Yep! I'm good with it. Shall we seal it in blood? I mean... ink?

* In [[https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-story&story=dr_yes_jolonah one]] ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' short story, a SerialKiller sentenced to eternal torture at the hands of an [[MadGod insane transapient]] is offered the chance to escape by sacrificing another. [[spoiler: It's a SecretTestOfCharacter by his captors; refusing would have earned him a [[MercyKill quick death]], but his gleeful acceptance makes his damnation irrevocable.]]

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* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': {{Defied|Trope}} by the villainous [[DemonOfHumanOrigin Slug Count]]. When his attempted HumanSacrifice goes awry, leaving him [[EatTheSummoner on the hook]] to be DraggedOffToHell, the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Godhand]] tell him that he can only save himself by offering up [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his daughter]]. Despite all the horrors he's committed, he can't bear to, so he's killed.

* In the climax of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', [[spoiler: Winston Smith is brought to the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Ministry of Love]] and tortured by [[FalseFriend O'Brien]] in order to make him totally loyal to Big Brother, ultimately resulting in a visit to Room101: here, Winston has a cage of rats strapped to his head and is left with only a wire mesh gate saving him from having his face gnawed off. Having reached the end of his psychological tether in the face of his worst fear, he's reduced to begging O'Brien to inflict the torture on his lover Julia instead - exactly what his torturers wanted all along. This act of betrayal is [[DespairEventHorizon the final stage]] in Winston's brainwashing, and from here on, [[DownerEnding he's been rendered down into a loyal pawn of the Party]].]]

* In the first season of ''Series/TheWitcher2019'', Yennefer is tasked with guarding a young queen, Kalis, and her infant daughter. They're attacked by a magical assassin who was hired by Kalis's husband, as he had grown tired of his wife [[WantedASonInstead failing to give him sons]]. After a lengthy chase, Yennefer abandons Kalis for [[UngratefulBastard insulting her]] one too many times and Kalis offers her baby daughter to the assassin in her place. [[spoiler:The assassin kills Kalis and Yennefer returns to try and save the baby, but narrowly fails]].

* Played with in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins:'' during the journey through the [[CreepyCave Dead Trenches]], the player encounters Hespith, a sickly dwarf woman captured by [[OurOrcsAreDifferent the Darkspawn]]. She mentions that she and another woman by the name of Laryn were being selected for ''[[FateWorseThanDeath something]]'' by their captors, and that she wished that Laryn would be taken instead of her; "wishing" caused it to actually happen - though it's not made clear if Hespith forced Laryn to take her place or if she just passively begged and deliriously blamed herself when it actually happened. [[spoiler: As it turns out, Laryn was being forced to eat the corpses of her friends and the vomit of the Darkspawn, a process that would eventually turn her into a [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Broodmother]]. For added horror, Hespith is already in the initial stages of her transformation by the time you run into her, so wishing for Laryn to go instead was AllForNothing.]]

* ''Videogame/SunlessSkies:'' This is how [[spoiler:The Amicable Vagabond]] AKA Old Tom manages to renege on his DealWithTheDevil with [[SealedEvilInACan whatever lies at the bottom of his eponymous Well]] every year. Rather than offering himself up after striking it rich, with the right ritual, he can just sacrifice someone else in his stead. [[spoiler:Even worse, he has to befriend them first to the point they can consider each other proper friends, or it doesn't count; he'll try to do it to you, but you can offer someone else in your stead or just sabotage the ritual so he gets swallowed by the Well like he should have been from the start]].

* ''Film/TrueLies'': When the SWAT team arrests Helen and Simon, the latter can be heard begging them to take Helen instead of him as a further demonstration of what a collossal {{Slimeball}} Simon is. By contrast, when Harry and Helen are placed in a similar situation when they are captured by terrorists, Harry tries to get them to release Helen by offering himself.

* ''Webcomic/WildeLife'': A woman who had [[YourSoulIsMine lost her soul to Sheol]] tries to [[https://www.wildelifecomic.com/comic/946 buy her freedom]] with Oscar's soul. Sheol doesn't consider the trade worthwhile, but threatens to eat Oscar anyway. Even Oscar [[EasilyForgiven doesn't blame her]] for being desperate enough to try anything to escape such a fate.

* ''Film/TrueLies'': When the SWAT team arrests Helen and Simon, the latter can be heard begging them to take Helen instead of him as a further demonstration of what a collossal {{Slimeball}} Simon is.

** In the first ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}'', Kirsty Cotton opens the Lament Configuration and finds herself facing Pinhead and his entourage. Knowing that her wicked uncle Frank has escaped them, she offers to bring them to Frank. Pinhead lets her go for the moment, promising that he ''may'' reconsider taking her as well. After she leads them to Frank, the Cenobites decide they want her too.

* ''Literature/TheBible'': In the Book of Judges, an unnamed Levite travels to persuade his estranged wife to come home. A gang of Benjamite men surround the house they're staying in and demand to rape the Levite. The Levite forces his wife outside instead, and the Benjamites spend a full night raping her to death. Then when the Levite finds her body, [[CrossesTheLineTwice he dismembers her and sends the pieces to the other tribes of Israel, demanding they wage war on the Benjamites]].

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The [[TheMole undercover]] cultist Jaichim Carridin is told that, for as long as he fails to kill TheChosenOne, [[AndYourLittleDogToo his family]] will die one at a time, [[YouHaveFailedMe saving him for last]]. The next time his masters contact him, he immediately starts blubbering that he has more relatives.

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->'''Davy Jones''': I wonder, Sparrow. Can you live with this? Can you condemn an innocent man-- a ''friend''-- to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free?
->[''a beat, as Jack seems to ponder this'']
->'''Jack Sparrow''': Yep! I'm good with it. Shall we seal it in blood? I mean... ink?
-->--''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest''

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* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'', Captain Jack Sparrow finds himself being hunted down by the Kraken to repay his debt to [[GhostPirate Davey Jones]]: a hundred years of servitude on ''The Flying Dutchman'' - though as the ''Dutchman'' already has a captain, the sentence will be commuted to eternity in [[{{Hell}} Davy Jones' Locker]]. After managing to arrange a meeting with his creditor, Jack is able to talk Jones into accepting a repayment of a hundred souls in his stead - to be gathered within the next three days. For good measure, Will Turner is offered and accepted as a down payment, allowing Jack to go free while Will is left to toil aboard the ''Dutchman'' for the next hundred years.

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* In the climax of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', [[spoiler: Winston Smith is brought to the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Ministry of Love]] and tortured by [[FalseFriend O'Brien]] in order to make him totally loyal to Big Brother, ultimately resulting in a visit to Room101: here, Winston has a cage of rats strapped to his head and is left with only a wire mesh gate saving him from having his face gnawed off. Having reached the end of his psychological tether in the face of his worst fear, he's reduced to begging O'Brien to inflict the torture on his lover Julia instead - exactly what his torturers wanted all along. This act of betrayal is [[DespairEventHorizon the final stage]] in Winston's brainwashing, and from here on, [[DownerEnding he's been rendered down into a loyal pawn of the Party]].]]

-->'''Tom''': Take my sister.
-->'''Ketchvar''': ''(confused)'' Take her for what?
-->'''Tom''': She's fatter than I am, so she's probably more delicious to eat. And she's a girl, so she can have your babies. And she gets A's in school, so if you want to dissect a human brain, hers would be much better than mine. That's her window, right there. She's alone, practicing her cello. Take her and put me back. I swear I won't tell anyone.

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Compare GotVolunteered, PushedAtTheMonster. Contrast TakeMeInstead.

Alas, not everyone can FaceDeathWithDignity. Faced with torture, death, or something even ''worse'', some people [[FaceDeathWithDespair buckle under the stress]] and begin begging for their lives, [all pride thrown to the wind; they will offer everything they have, everything they imagine their tormentor might want... and in some cases, even someone to suffer in their stead.

Used only by the most desperate or [[DirtyCoward depraved]] characters, this strategy features the victim offering up a scapegoat to be tortured, killed, or worse in their place. This can take two possible forms:

In the first case, the offer is made in extremis but never actually carried out - either due to the victim being totally insincere or the tormenter refusing to accept it - and the horror is that they were pushed far enough to even consider such a thing.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': By the events of "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E13FullMeasure Full Measure]], Walter and Jesse have managed to piss off their boss Gustavo Fring so badly that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he orders both of them to be killed]]. Though they can't find Jesse, his hitman ''do'' find Walter, who starts begging for his life and offers them Jesse's location in exchange for his safety. Given that Fring's original dispute was with Jesse, Mike allows Walter to call Jesse in order to lure him into the open. [[spoiler: It's all a ploy: Walt uses this opportunity to give a pre-planned order to Jesse, resulting in him assassinating Gale, the meth cook who was about to replace them. Without his substitute genius, [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou Gus will have no choice but to spare Walter and Jesse]].]]