History Main / TheNeedsOfTheMany

* A recurring theme in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': [[spoiler:Kaede, Kirumi, and Miu]] all attempt murders at least partially out of a desire to prevent an even greater amount of deaths.

* This is a recurring theme in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', where the ArcWords appears to be "a hero must choose the people he saves". Shirou's personal conflict in each route involves him finding an answer to the conflict between his ideal of saving everyone and the reality of it being impossible.
** The actions of Counter Guardians fall under this. They are deployed by Alaya to prevent disasters that would threaten the continued survival of humanity by destroying everything involved in the danger. More often than not the danger is human in origin, so the Counter Guardian will destroy every human even tangentially connected to the threat. Alaya views destroying entire nations as an acceptable loss if it ensures humanity's survival.
** Choosing to obey or defy the trope is a key decision in the "Heaven's Feel" scenario. [[spoiler:Sakura]] has the potential to become a mindless monster that would kill hundreds, but can easily be stopped if killed before that happens, while she is in fact innocent of any crime. Playing the trope straight leads to a BadEnd where Shirou follows his father's path and becomes a miserable murderer, [[NecessarilyEvil killing innocents and even his friends]] to protect as many people as possible. Attempting to TakeAThirdOption and save everyone ([[spoiler:which results in hundreds of deaths]]) allows him to [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn a life with his loved ones]].

* ''VisualNovel/GalaxyAngel'': The final game of the first trilogy brings up this trope when the heroes are faced with the possibility of a new Chrono Quake, a catastrophe that caused the collapse of the civilization six centuries ago. Their ideal scenario is to try and defeat the Valfasq before they can detonate the Chrono Quake Bomb, but in the event of that happening, the only way to save the galaxy would be to use an Emblem Frame to create "[[PocketDimension Another Space]]" to redirect the bomb's energy, which would result in the Emblem Frame and its pilot getting dragged into it and unable to return. [[spoiler:In the end, as the Chrono Quake Bomb was connected to the Valfasq's emperor so it would activate if he dies, Tact decides to get into his Angel's Emblem Frame so they pilot it together, and save everyone. The trope is subverted when Noah and everyone else finally figure out a way to reach Another Space, and rescue Tact and his Angel after an unspecified amount of time]].

* One of the unlockable endings and Steam Achievement to ''VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen'' is named after this trope. [[spoiler: If you can summon a kraken to stave off an invasion you'll be faced with one of two options, spend years keeping it from causing massive death and destruction, leading your country to bankruptcy and future political instability.]] OR [[spoiler: Sacrifice your cousin whom you've been close with since childhood]] which unlocks this ending.

* Brought up in ''VisualNovel/YourTurnToDie'', where it forms the crux of a major decision. [[spoiler:Kanna Kizuchi, a suicidal child, advocates sacrificing herself in favor of Sou Hiyori, who has information on how to potentially escape the DeadlyGame and thus prevent any more deaths. The problem with her logic is that he, despite his dubious actions taken in the name of self-preservation, is content to lay down his own life for her. [[SadisticChoice You decide which one of them dies]].]]
* ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' revolves around a DeadlyGame where the participants are put through {{Sadistic Choice}}s. The most heavily advertised one sees Diana being given the choice of letting Phi burn to death in an incinerator, or shooting at Sigma with a gun that has a 1/3 chance of killing him. Both Sigma and Phi insist that she pick the option that puts themself in danger, with Sigma arguing that firing at him is the only option that could result in everyone surviving. However, the game also deconstructs this type of thinking, as Sigma's ColdEquation fails to [[spoiler:take Diana's mental state in mind, as shown in the timeline where Sigma dies. As it turns out, the guilt of shooting someone becomes too much for Diana and she promptly turns the gun on herself, showing that the "safer" option may have more unforeseen consequences that could end up killing "the many''.]]

* ''Literature/ShatterTheSky'': Naava agrees to help Maren with rescuing Sev as she owes her for being freed. She's not willing to if it's a choice between this and rescuing all the dragons, her children however, asking Maren if she would really expect that.

* The Trolley Problem is a thought experiment that forces the subject to choose [[SadisticChoice between actively sacrificing one for the many or allowing the many to die through inaction]]. The thought experiment involves a scenario where a runaway train is barreling down a track towards a group of five people who are immobilized, and a fork between the train and the group leads to another track on which is one immobilized person. The subject has to decide whether to toggle the switch that will move the train onto the other track and kill the person on it. The thought experiment is used in psychological studies to gauge the degree of utilitarian thinking in the test subject and how various variables such as age, sex, and degree of fatigue affects it. It also has several variations, such making the subject decide whether to personally murder by pushing someone into the path of the oncoming train, assuming that the person has the mass to stop it, to save a group of people ahead. This variation is intended to invoke more personal involvement, and experimentally fewer people are willing to take this option in this variation [[note]]Of course, many pointed out anyone corpulent enough to stop the train in its tracks ''probably'' couldn't be pushed off by just one person[[/note]]. Another popular variation puts the larger amount of people on the trolley itself, with the question being if the subject is willing to let the trolley crash or fall off a cliff to save one person on the other track, and many other variations include making the person on the diverted track. Other variations include making the person on the diverted track [[KillTheOnesYouLove a relative or loved one of the subject]], replacing the "sacrifice" with the subject's [[LifeOrLimbDecision arm or leg]], and even going so far as to have [[HeroicSacrifice the subject themselves]] be the one on the diverted track.

* ''Literature/{{Pendragon}}'': In the third novel, Bobby has to choose between [[spoiler: letting the Hindenburg burn, killing a few dozen people, or saving it and letting Germany win WWII]]. He almost makes the wrong choice, sending him into a temporary HeroicBSOD.

* Dr. Marcoh in ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'' is forced to work for the BigBad or they'll destroy the village he lives in. Envy mocks him afterwards over the fact they plan to wipe out the entire country so it would have been smarter for him to sacrifice the village.

* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' sees [[spoiler:Peter forced to decide if he should let scientists study the cure for the Devil's Breath, which would mean Aunt May would die, or give May the cure, which would doom many more to death. While in a moment of emotion, he nearly gives the cure to May, he ultimately chooses to let the cure be mass-produced and says his goodbyes to May.]]

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', Delenn admits to G'Kar that she more or less pulled this with regard to the Narn; she could have confirmed G'Kar's story about the Shadows and probably saved his world from invasion, but had she done so, the Shadow War would have started before the younger races were ready to fight it.

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E13TheConscienceOfTheKing The Conscience of the King]]", Kodos the Executioner was originally the governor of an Earth colony that had its food supply wiped out by a fungal outbreak. Facing mass starvation, Kodos decided that the only way they could survive until relief ships arrived was by killing half of the colony's population, massacring some 4,000 colonists in total. However, after carrying out the deed, [[ShootTheShaggyDog the relief ships reached the colony earlier than expected]]. Twenty years later, Kodos claims to Kirk that if that hadn't happened, he would've been hailed as a hero for saving the colony. Kirk -- a survivor of the massacre -- doesn't see it that way. Here, though, Kodos isn't reviled for the massacre per se -- the reason he is considered an incorrigible villain than just a commander who made the wrong call is that instead of selecting survivors by something like a lottery system, he used his own eugenic ideals to choose who deserves to live and who doesn't.
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever The City on the Edge of Forever]]", Kirk had to let Edith Keeler die to save his own timeline, because her peace efforts would have prevented the US from entering what would be World War II when they needed to, and cause Hitler and Nazism to conquer the world by developing the atomic bomb first. To save all those of their future, Kirk must stop Dr. [=McCoy=] from saving Edith from getting killed in a car accident. Kirk can't speak when Bones exclaims: "Jim! I could have saved her... do you know what you just did?" Spock can only reply: "He knows, Doctor. Soon you will, too. For what once was... now ''is'' again." In Creator/JamesBlish's transcript in "The Star Trek Reader", Spock also comes across as trying to help Kirk rectify this. "No, you acted. Because no woman was ever loved so much, Jim. Because no woman was ever offered the universe for love."

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise Yesterday's Enterprise]]", a temporal anomaly throws the USS ''Enterprise''-C from [[HeroicSacrifice its fateful battle]] at Narendra III to a BadFuture where the Klingon Empire and the Federation have been waging war for over 20 years, and this timeline's Picard tells ''Enterprise''-C Captain Rachel Garrett that Starfleet Command will likely surrender within 6 months.

*** Played with in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E15ThineOwnSelf Thine Own Self]]". Troi is applying to become a Commander. One of her exams is a scenario where the ship suffers a critical malfunction that will destroy it, and the repair teams cannot fix the damage without perishing. It's presented as an engineering problem, but it's actually a SecretTestOfCharacter. The solution is to order Geordi to do it anyway, knowing that he'll definitely die. Having passed the test after realizing this, Troi confesses she may not be cut out to be a Commander.
** A very dramatic version in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E19InThePaleMoonlight In the Pale Moonlight]]", when Sisko enlists Garak in coming up with a scheme to draw the Romulans into the Dominion War on the side of the Federation. Garak succeeds but has to assassinate a Romulan official in the process, along with the criminal who forged the recording they are using to fool the Romulans into thinking the Dominion was planning to attack them. When Sisko confronts him over this, Garak points out that they might have just secured a Federation victory in the war, saving not only the Federation, but the Klingons, and eventually the Romulans and the rest of the Alpha quadrant from Dominion domination -- "and all it cost was the life of one Romulan Senator, one criminal, and the [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone self-respect of one Starfleet officer]]. I don't know about you, [[NecessarilyEvil but I'd call that a bargain]]." At the end of the episode, Sisko admits to himself that it was [[IDidWhatIHadToDo a sacrifice worth making]] and that he'd do it again if he had to.
** Referenced (if not explicitly displayed) in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' finale "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E23Endgame Endgame]]"; although the crew has a chance to go home, Janeway is reluctant to take it as it would result in them sparing a Borg transwarp hub, one of the key tools the Borg use to assimilate other worlds. Janeway begins to reconsider the idea of getting home when she learns that Tuvok is suffering from a degenerative neurological condition that can only be cured in the Alpha Quadrant, but when she asks why he didn't support the plan for them to go home now, Tuvok quotes Spock to justify him putting his own needs second to the wider concerns.
** In the third season of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', the crew is tasked with saving Earth from being destroyed by the Xindi. By the end of the season, the ship has lost more than 20% of personnel while fighting the Xindi and other threats. After Corporal Hawkins is killed in action, Malcolm laments that they're getting too comfortable losing people. T'Pol tells him a certain Vulcan axiom and says that Hawkins (and, in effect, the other casualties) died honorably for putting the well-being of others first.

** In "[[Recap/TorchwoodS1E5SmallWorlds Small Worlds]]", Jack turns over a little girl to the [[TheFairFolk fairies]], knowing that they are willing to kill mercilessly and excessively if their Chosen One is taken or harmed and that he has no way of stopping them. [[DownerEnding The mother is distraught, and the team refuse to so much as look at Jack as they leave]].
** In ''Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth'', [[spoiler:Jack (under emotional stress) agrees to sacrifice his grandson to save the 10% of Earth's children who would be subject to a FateWorseThanDeath otherwise]]. This is especially jarring as the entire season leading up to that point had portrayed sacrificing a few to save the many as an unacceptable evil that the protagonists were willing to do anything to prevent.
* ''{{Series/Trotsky}}'': Trotsky justifies his brutality at one point this way, saying it was necessary to create a better world in the future for everyone.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'', [[spoiler:Miles learns that in order to prevent a RealityBreakingParadox he has to let his father die. The other Spider-Men [[BecauseDestinySaysSo desperately]] try to get him to embrace WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility while Miles says ScrewDestiny, and when he brings up [[MyGreatestFailure Uncle Ben]] Peter B. explains that without Uncle Ben's sacrifice all the good they've done across the multiverse never would've happened]].

** In "My Name is Oliver Queen", Felicity tries to get Roy to abandon his work on [[spoiler:an inoculant to the Alpha and Omega virus]] to save Oliver. Ray quite rightly refuses, pointing out that thousands will die if he stops. She insists ''again'' that he save Oliver instead, only for him to refuse again. [[spoiler:He then realizes that [[TakeAThirdOption he can work on the inoculant, and she can use his ATOM suit to save Oliver.]] [[InstantExpert Despite having no training in using his ATOM suit, Felicity somehow uses it perfectly]]; and [[PlotHole despite Ray explicitly saying he needed to use the suit to distribut the vaccine, he manages without it.]]]]

** On the other hand, Terry Pratchett noted that there's a flaw in this logic: "Shoot the dictator and prevent the war? But the dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot him and there'll be another one along in a minute. Shoot him too? Why not shoot everyone [[NonSequitur and invade Poland]]?"

* ''Literature/ShatterTheSky'': Naava agrees to help Maren with rescuing Sev as she ower her for being freed. She's not willing to if it's a choice between this and rescuing all the dragons, her children however, asking Maren if she would really expect that.

* Multicellular organisms, that are essentially large colonies of cells, have plenty of examples of this: from virus-infected cells that have become virus factories and mark their surfaces so the immune system will destroy them helping to stop the infection to specialized cells as red blood cells, that lack nuclei (in mammals) and are basically the equivalent of mindless oxygen carriers to white blood cells, that are the front line of the immune system and its equivalent of CannonFodder, with the bone marrow producing dozens of billions of them daily and having a very short life.