As a Death Trope, Spoilers naturally abound. Be cautious.
Times where somebody decides they're More Expendable Than You in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In The Bridge, when Grand King Ghidorah assaults the Xilian homeworld, the Xilians devise a means to transform one of them into a kaiju to try and fight him off. The original plan by the empress, Controller 011, was for her to ascend as her duty to her people and because her genetic augments gave her a better chance of survival. Her bodyguard and husband however begged to differ, knocking her out and taking the transformation in her place to become Monster X.
- Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K: During the big Space Battle in Episode 39, Plo Koon attempts to take out the Imperial Ironclad Battleship by ramming his own starfighter into the Ironclad's massive underslung Wave-Motion Gun, which he acknowledges would certainly result in his own death. However, he gets intercepted by his own wingmen, who disable Plo's starfighter and tow him away to safety. Plo's Number Two Wolffe refuses to let him throw his life away, claiming he's too important to die. Plo's wingmen Warthog and Jag instead take his place and pilot their Y-Wing bomber into the Ironclad's fusion cannon, destroying the cannon and crippling the rest of the ship with their sacrifice.
- This is pulled off twice in a row in MGLN Crisis. Chrono plans on staying on board the Claudia to fire off the Arc-en-ciel one more time but Griffith punches him in the face. Then when he's getting an unconscious Chrono into the last escape pod, Lucino pushes Griffith in as well. It later turns out that she survived. Both cases were preceded by the words It Has Been an Honor.
- Limitless Potential: During the riot at the Maverick Hunters' HQ, the reploids who still abide by the Three Laws continue to take priority on protecting Chiyo's life over theirs, which makes her reconsider her previous opinion of them as being just machines. Also, Ai's reasoning for staying behind to hold off the enemies to allow Chiyo, Roll and Trinity to escape is that Trinity is a more advanced model than her.
- Mean Rabbit: When the League of Villains assaults the USJ, Izuku attempts to save his Sadist Teacher Aizawa from the Nomu. Aizawa painfully spits out "Why?", and Izuku responds that it's "You or me. Better a fuck-up than some pro, right?"
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In The Undesirables, this is essentially the reason why Starlight Glimmer joins the team Luna puts together as an alternative to using the Elements of Harmony — she feels that the Elements are too important to risk as a first response to every potential threat, but sees herself, due to her past actions, as less important and okay to risk before the Mane Six.
- Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison explores and deconstructs this mentality. Sasuke outright tells Sakura that civilian-born ninja like her are only worthwhile as Cannon Fodder, and she firmly believes that the majority of Konoha agrees with him, and that this is why she was assigned to Team Seven — to make this sort of sacrifice should it prove necessary. It doesn't help that Kakashi sits by silently and lets Sasuke's cruelty go unchallenged, leaving her convinced that their teacher feels the same way and won't lift a finger to help her.
- In Dead Last Blossom
, a team of Enemy Nin capture Sakuya to use him as bait against Naruto and Sasuke. Sakuya calmly tells his captors that his teammates don't consider him a friend and hate himnote , saying that they should just kill him know since Konoha will treat the Civilian-Born ninja as a security breach and too risky to be rescued. However, one of the enemy's earpieces was left in the fight, allowing Naruto and Sasuke to overhear. This leads Naruto to pick up the communicator and loudly proclaim that they will be coming to rescue Sakuya.
- This Bites!:
- Near the end of the Thriller Bark arc, Zoro is forced into a Sadistic Choice by Kuma to put his life on the line only for Luffy or Cross. Sanji steps up to offer his head for Cross, saying that while his dream is a bit lackluster compared to Luffy and Cross he has enough worth to take their place (though he ends up being knocked out by Nami, who takes his place instead). In the present, Luffy is furious that Sanji would give up his life so easily, only for Sanji to argue that he and the rest of the crew would willingly do the same in the defense of their captain.
- This gets played more seriously with Zoro and Nami. Both of them tell Kuma that Cross's dreams of freeing the world is more important than their own dreams, and both of them are willing to give up on their dreams to save their captain. Soundbite, who overheard everything, declares that this has to be a secret between himself, the two pirates, and Lassoo and Funkfreed, since if Luffy or Cross find out how Zoro and Nami were willing to sacrifice their dreams, the turmoil would tear the crew apart.
- In To the Stars, it is recognized in military policy that magical girls are more valuable to the war effort than entire platoons of ordinary troops, and so those troops are taught that it would be dishonourable for them to allow a teenagenote girl to die to save their skin. Medals are often given to soldiers who save magical girls, even if they had to disobey orders to do so.
- Distance Learning for Fun and Profit...: Taylor's importance is such that the President of the United States has given an explicit standing order that her safety takes absolute precedence over everyone else, including himself.
