Basic Trope: A Heroic Sacrifice made less tragic because the character sacrificing themself is dying anyway.
- Straight: Constance, Timothy, Tristan, Isabel, and Isaac find themselves in a situation in which one of them has to make a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Big Bad. They have trouble deciding which one until Constance reveals that she's dying of cancer anyway, so she volunteers and is chosen.
- Exaggerated:
- Everyone in the group has to make a Heroic Sacrifice. It turns out that everyone is dying of various terminal illnesses anyway.
- Not only is Constance conveniently dying anyway, the Exact Time to Failure is tomorrow.
- This happens every time someone has to die.
- Downplayed: Constance knows she has a 50% chance of developing Huntington's disease at some point in her life. She considers this risk enough reason to make the sacrifice.
- Justified:
- Constance never told her friends that she had cancer because she didn't want to show "weakness" and didn't want them to treat her differently because of it.
- Constance took multiple doses of lifetime radiation during their mission and first symptoms of permanent damage start to appear. Weeks of suffering before falling into a lethal coma is not something she's looking forward to.
- Constance was raised in a Martyrdom Culture and would rather go out in a Dying Moment of Awesome than slowly succumb to an illness.
- Inverted:
- Everyone but Constance has a terminal illness, but Constance makes the Heroic Sacrifice anyway.
- Constance believes she can live a long life and refuses to make a sacrifice.
- Someone in the group will get 10.000 dollars a year for the rest of their life. They choose Isabel, who's the youngest and healthiest.
- Only one member of the group can be granted immortality. They choose Constance to save her life.
- Only one member of the group can be granted immortality. They choose Isabel to prevent her from possibly dying (relatively) young.
- Subverted: Constance says she's dying of cancer, but it turned out she lied to prevent Survivor Guilt in her friends.
- Double Subverted: But she really had AIDS, which she was ashamed of and avoided telling anyone about.
- Parodied:
- A group of mischievous children are going to pull a prank that requires that at least one of them does something that greatly increases the chance of getting caught. They choose Manny, who's in trouble anyway.
- Constance sacrifices herself over a really minor problem, such as "no longer having the perfect eye colour".
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Nobody has a terminal illness. This makes the decision much harder.
- Nobody has to die.
- Everyone has to die anyway, so there's no discussion.
- Enforced: "How can we make this Bittersweet Ending less bitter without removing Constance's death?"
- Lampshaded: "I miss Constance. Knowing that she was dying anyway doesn't help much because I still lost potential time with her."
- Invoked: Timothy knows in advance that someone will have to die. He poisons Constance and gets the Big Bad framed for it. When someone has to die, he suggests Constance, who's fatally poisoned anyway.
- Exploited: The others know that Constance is dying of cancer, and keep her in the group for that reason.
- Defied:
- Constance doesn't tell them about her cancer because she feels that she isn't less worth only because she's dying anyway, and refuses to make the sacrifice.
- Tristan tells Constance that she isn't less worth because she's dying, and makes the sacrifice himself.
- Evulz realizes the heroes might pull this to stop him, so he murders Constance to make their decision harder.
- Discussed: "I never thought Constance would die, even if it was to stop the Big Bad. Maybe she had a problem she never told me about."
- Conversed: "If only every cause that will claim victims can take people that are dying anyway, like in this series."
- Deconstructed:
- The organization the heroes work for take note of the proceedings and make sure to check future members thoroughly for terminal illnesses. If such an illness is found, the bearer is essentially scheduled for a suicide mission.
- Constance still wants to live — having a terminal illness doesn't mean she's okay with dying. When her teammates expect her to make a Heroic Sacrifice, she calls them out for viewing her as expendable.
- Reconstructed:
- The heroes conspire with the medical professionals involved to falsify the mission report and portray Constance as a straightforward martyr.
- People thus marked can opt out of their suicide mission and choose to die at a later date out of harm's way.
- Played For Drama: It turns out the doctors tested the wrong vials and that Constance wasn't dying. However, it's too late now that she's dead. What makes it worse is the fact that the person who's actually dying is Tristan.
- Played For Laughs: The heroes get into a bitter, serious debate about who should make the sacrifice. Constance repeatedly tries to get their attention, to no avail. Eventually, Constance shouts at the top of her lungs, "Guys! I'm literally gonna die anyway!" Everyone then feels very stupid for not thinking of this.
- Implied: Constance was anxiously waiting on a diagnosis for an unknown illness before she sacrificed herself. Then, after her death, Timothy answers a serious-sounding call from her doctor.
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