History Main / TrialByFriendlyFire

* The Skaven in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' are the only faction allowed to shoot into close combat, because they don't really care about their expendable Mooks. The rule is called either "Life is cheap" or [[JustForPun "Coratteral damage"]].

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': One of the reasons that all the surviving [[TheDreaded Dragonslayers]] are at least mildly insane is the number of times their CommunicationsOfficer, God's Messenger, had to call in artillery and/or air strikes on their own position.Supposedly, on at least one occasion, rather than 'danger-close', he called it as 'danger''-stupid'', lock my position and fire for effect!'.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': One of the reasons that all the surviving [[TheDreaded Dragonslayers]] are at least mildly insane is the number of times their CommunicationsOfficer, God's Messenger, had to call in artillery and/or air strikes on their own position.

See also ColdEquation, where saving a more important group unavoidably requires dooming a less important group, and GodzillaThreshold, where dire necessity drives the heroes to take extreme measures.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' has Kiritsugu shoot down a jumbo jet full of undead and Natalia, the woman he sees as a mother, rather than risk the undead spreading after it landed.

** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] when SpoonyBard Elan and his EvilTwin Nale are duelling. One of them ([[spoiler:Nale]]) tells Vaarsuvius, the team's wizard, to blast both of them, as it's the only way to be sure the evil twin gets hit. The other accuses him of only saying that to convince Vaarsuvius that he's the good twin.
*** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] when Vaarsuvius [[TakeAThirdOption Takes A Third Option]].

'''DEATH TROPE: Spoilers abound just by a series being listed here.'''

* The US military radio jargon for this is "danger close",[[note]] 600m for most stuff, but up to 2000m for MRLS rockets[[/note]] which is shorthand for, "we're ''inside'' the lethal radius of the ordnance we want you to drop but do it anyway because the shit is ''really'' hitting the fan, and [[GodzillaThreshold it's not like this could get any worse]], so bring the rain!"

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** Subverted during Goku and Piccolo's fight against Raditz - the only way to kill Raditz was for Piccolo to shoot him with his [[ArmorPiercingAttack Special Beam Cannon]] while Goku was holding onto Raditz from behind. Goku does indeed make the sacrifice willingly, but Piccolo wanted to kill him anyway, and only regrets that Goku can [[DeathIsCheap come back to life afterwards]].
*** ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' plays this straighter on Goku's part: Goku asks Piccolo to warn him before he fires so that he can get out of the way and leave Raditz to die alone, but Piccolo simply kills them both instead, and proceeds to kidnap Goku's son as part of a plot to take over the world.
** Goku exploits this trope in his fight against Cell. Cell has announced his intention to kill everyone on the planet one by one should he win, so when Goku starts charging up a KamehameHadouken at an angle that would destroy the Earth if actually fired, it gets Cell so taken aback by Goku's seeming willingness to go for the MercyKill of the planet and its population that he's caught completely off-guard when Goku teleports right next to him, KamehameHadouken ready to go at an angle that leaves no one aside from Cell in the beam. No. [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt Goku wouldn't blow up the planet]] - he just needs you to think he would.

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* In basically every war in that has involved tanks, one tactic to deal with hostile soldiers boarding and swarming friendly tanks is to fire machine guns and cannister shot at the friendly tank. If the friendly tank has enough armor, the bullets will bounce off the friendly tank while mincing the enemy infantry. This tactic is usually referred to as [[BlackComedy Delousing]]

* In basically every war in that has involved tanks, one tactic to deal with hostile soldiers boarding and swarming friendly tanks is to fire machine guns and cannister shot at the friendly tank. If the friendly tank has enough armor, the bullets will bounce off the friendly tank while mincing the enemy infantry.

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* The [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Apocalypse]] asset Fire On My Coordinates, available to the [[RedshirtArmy Imperial Guard]], allows them to drop an [[DeathFromAbove orbital strike]] [[HeroicSacrifice on a friendly unit]] who is being overrun.

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* In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', during one of the game's early levels, the US Rangers often have heavy support fire on the city even when many of the Rangers are inside. One of the rangers quips "Since when does General Shepherd care about danger close?" [[spoiler:Much later in the game, when it's revealed that General Shepherd is EvilAllAlong, Price and Soap, now on his most wanted list, are infiltrating one of his compounds. Once he knows this, he bombards the compound with explosives, prompting a MeaningfulEcho from Price]].

-->'''Q:''' Forgive my mentioning it, 007, but a perfect marksman isn't really supposed to shoot his own boss.

** Though in Gibbs' defense he only shoots her after he she her mouthing for her to shoot.

* At least one Wizard in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has centered the Fireball spell on themselves in order to save the rest of the party.

* A villanous example occurs in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. Thanos, being slowly ripped apart and tortured by Scarlet Witch in retaliation for what his alternate self did to [[ComicBook/TheVision her beloved]], calls in panic for a massive strike on her position. When informed by Corvus Glaive what the consequences will be for his own side, he tells him to do it anyway. It's a small price to pay considering what he intends to do if he survives and wins.

Sometimes the answer is "Oh, but I ''would''." While it's possible (and more common) for the hero to TakeAThirdOption, the hero actually going through (even accidentally) with it obviously has much more dramatic impact. An AntiHero will decide that saving the world is just too important to let collateral damage or personal concerns get in the way and tearfully pull the trigger. Sometimes there will be consent, explicit or inferred, on the part of the person in the firing line, that [[HeroicSacrifice getting the villain is more important than them surviving]]. Non-{{Anti Hero}}es put in this position might have sworn a mutual pact to take the villain down no matter what, up to and including a SuicidePact in dire circumstances, or the trapped character will give some sort of signal indicating to their comrade they're prepared to die for the cause. Or they may have some AppliedPhlebotinum or [[StockSuperpowers superpower]] stashed away that the villain (or even the hero) doesn't know about and may secure their survival.