Taking The Bullet / Video Games

Taking the Bullet in video games.

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• If you've played an Escort Mission, chances are you've tried this at least once.
• Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War has Captain Bartlett draw a missile away from Nagase.
  • Done again in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War: PJ blocks a laser beam intended for Cipher in the final level. May or may not also count as a Heroic Sacrifice; whether or not he survived is actually a matter of debate among the fans.
• The Squire card in Armello functions as this: if you were to die with one equipped, they will die instead.
• In the modern day of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Rebecca throws herself in front of Shaun and takes a bullet that was meant to kill him. She survives, fortunately.
• Baldur's Gate:
  • If you romance Jaheira in Baldur's Gate II, a band of thugs will hold her hostage and demand your valuables during your travels. You have the option of offering to take her place as a hostage. If you do, the bandits shoot you instead, and boy does this piss off Jaheira. After your party demolishes the bandits (they aren't that tough) Jaheira will be absolutely furious with you for risking your life for her this way.
  • If your character is equipped with the Shield of Arrow Reflection, the shot will instead bounce back at the bandit, inflicting major damage on him. Jaheira still throws a fit.
• Just before the final battle of Batman: Arkham Asylum Batman takes a dart full of Titan meant for Commissioner Gordon.
• Bloodline Champions used to have this effect for the Guardian's Thrust ability when hitting an ally with it — part of the damage the ally would take while the effect lasted would be done to the Guardian, the amount of damage the Guardian taking from that effect also being reduced. Also was an example of Synchronization.
• In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, during the mission aboard the U.S.S. Obama, assuming Chloe Lynch is rescued by killing DeFalco and Farid survives his playable section, Farid saves Chloe from Salazar's betrayal in this manner.
• In Chrono Trigger, when Lavos awakens inside the Ocean Palace, it leads to a Hopeless Boss Fight. After the party falls, Lavos charges up a final attack to kill them, only for Crono to throw himself in the way, whereupon he is completely disintegrated.
• Helena's mother in Dead or Alive does this to save her daughter. Dead or Alive 2 has her pushing Helena out of the way while 4 has her run in front. Dimensions uses both.
• Devil May Cry: Late in the game, Trish pulls a Heel–Face Turn and shields Dante from Mundus's attack with her own body.
• Disgaea:
  • Subverted in Disgaea 2 when Adell takes an energy blast meant for Rozalin, fulfilling every aspect of the trope... Except for the fact that, in an incredible example of Cutscene Power to the Max (the blast-ee is a Hopeless Boss Fight), the blast doesn't so much as faze him.
  • Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice does this three times in total:
    • First when Gold Knuckle, a minor character, does it because he wants more time in the spotlight. He appears to die, but gets better...after about 10 seconds. Naturally, it gets a Lampshade Hanging courtesy of Almaz.
    • Second time this happens is with Geoffrey, who takes an actual bullet from Salvatore for Mao. Where this is taken dramatically, he gets better because he was actually prepared to take one wearing a Bulletproof Vest at the time.
    • The third time happens with Almaz, who takes a blunt of a trap made for Sapphire. This is again taken with drama until Almaz points out that he is perfectly fine. Unlike the other two examples, however, the trap was an poison needle inside a doll, and he started to suffer from the effects later.
  • Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten has Valvatorez pulling this off to defend Emizel from Desco's energy blast. Similar to Adell above, it doesn't faze him at all and then he proceeds to lecture Desco on how poor form that is for a final boss.
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the real Warden-Constable Blackwall died doing this for Thom Rainier, a man he had conscripted for the Grey Wardens and who would go on to assume his identity.
• In the Dragon Ball Z video game Burst Limit, the technique "Risking It All For A Friend" is one of the various Partner Skills. This can head into Narm territory when you see characters like Broly charge in to save your character, especially if it's Goku.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest IV: One of Torneko's random combat actions has him leap in front of a spell that would have hit the entire party, taking all the damage himself instead.
  • In Dragon Quest IX, the Warrior class can learn Whipping Boy which lets a warrior take blows meant for a teammate. And, better yet, the Paladin class is the master of this, with high defense plus the ability to deflect all attacks for all party members. Both classes make great meat shields for your magic users.
• Shows up in both campaigns of Eastern Exorcist.
  • In Lu Yun-chuan's storyline, the ending scene has Lu's Evil Former Friend, Zhang Huai-zhou, pretending to atone for his sins before pulling an I Surrender, Suckers by drawing his jian and suddenly trying to ambush Lu - who was saved when his hulijing companion, Xiaoyu, throws herself in the blade's path. Cue the Post-Final Boss, and after Lu had killed Zhang, the ending cutscene sees Xiaoyu succumbing to her injuries while being held by Lu.
  • The other storyline with Xiahou-xue does this in the beginning, after Xiahou-xue defeated the Snake Yaksha boss. The Yaksha tries to ambush Xiahou-xue with it's venom as a last-ditch attack, but Xiahou-xue's brother, Xiahou-qing, uses himself as a shield to absorb the venom meant for his sister. The rest of the game revolves around Xiahou-xue's attempt to Find the Cure! and revive her brother.
• One of the companions who can join you in a run of Enter the Gungeon is a Pig. On its first encounter, the game casts doubt on its motivations and trustworthiness. However, if you lose your last hitpoint while the Pig is with you, it'll jump into the crosshairs that appear over you as you're about to die, and take that shot in your place, fully restoring your health. From then on, in subsequent runs, it will be referred to as the Hero Pig, and the game will exalt it as a true hero.
• In Eternal Daughter, Hume dies doing this to save his half-sister, Mia.
• Near the end of Fable II, Your dog does this when the Big Bad captures and tries to kill you. The Big Bad then subverts things by shooting you anyway.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The series often gives Paladins and Knights the ability "Cover," which, when active, will make the character automatically receive any physical attack aimed at a weakened teammate. Especially if said attack would have killed the target. Even if the attack will kill the Paladin/Knight.
  • Those classes also typically have the "Counter Attack" ability, which lets them retaliate for free whenever they're hit. This, combined with Cover, makes these characters into excellent meat shields, taking the pressure off your weaker party members while also dealing extra damage.
  • In Final Fantasy III, Aria shoves Luneth before he can be hit by a poisoned arrow. She's hit herself, and an earthquake collapses the cavern they're in before any attempt can be made to save her. Everyone is knocked out and when the party wakes up, they're in a completely different town, the world has changed shape, and Aria is gone.
  • In Final Fantasy IV, as soon as he sees him, Tellah starts beating up a Spoony Bard named Edward. His daughter, Anna, ran away to be with Edward because she loved Edward. Sadly, when King Baron attacked, we find Anna played this trope straight (with arrows) at the cost of the person's life.
  • In Final Fantasy Tactics, Rafa's brother Malak intercepts a gunshot meant for her when she confronts the Grand Duke Barinten on the Riovanes rooftop. His death, followed by the Grand Duke being thrown to his death thus denying Rafa the chance to avenge her brother, pushes her over the Despair Event Horizon, which is the reason for her legendarily suicidal AI in the subsequent battle.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, Zidane has the Protect Girls ability, which, as the name implies, is a variant of Cover that only protects female characters.
  • Tidus takes one of The Emperor's Flare attacks for Yuna in Dissidia 012: Duodecim, despite him being on Chaos' side and not holding any memories of being with her on her pilgrimage in their original game. This prompts Jecht to transfer his own energy to Tidus in order to save his life, allowing the Emperor to abduct Jecht and use him in the following cycle.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV this is the fate of Haurchefant in the Heavensward expansion. In an attempt to stop Archbishop Thordan VII before his escapes, the Warrior of Light and Haurchefant chase after him. However, one of Thordan's Heavens Ward, transformed into a Primal Knight of the Round, attempts to snipe the Warrior with a lance of light. Haurchefant blocks the lance, but it proves to be too powerful and shatters the shield, piercing Haurchefant instead.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has two examples. First, Jarod's friend jumps in the way of the Black Knight's sword, prompting Micaiah to tell the Black Knight to let Jarod escape and bury his friend. Later, if this is not the first play-through, Micaiah has the option of jumping in front of the knife meant for King Pelleas — a rare case of Taking the Bullet for someone who actually wants the bullet.
  • There is also the skill Guard, which allows a character to protect a character that they have a support with if they are next to them, though it doesn't always work.
  • Fire Emblem Fates:
    • In the Prologue, right before the action properly kicks in, a cutscene shows how a hooded man steals the Avatar's sword Ganglari and uses it to attack him/her with explosive force. The Avatar's mother Queen Mikoto shields him/her with her own body, taking the hit and dying in the Avatar's arms, using her last words to ask him/her if they're unhurt and say she's glad when he/she says they aren't.
    • In the Birthright path, Prince Xander challenges the Avatar to a duel, where they are quickly overpowered by him. Moments before he can finish them off, however, Xander's half-sister Elise jumps in the way and takes the hit. She dies almost instantly in Xander's arms without regrets after some parting words. Needless to say, Xander doesn't take this well.
    • In the Revelation path, Cool Big Sis Scarlet ends up taking a fire attack from an Anankos-possessed Gunter to protect the Avatar. And like Elise in the Birthright example, Scarlet also ends up dead.
    • In one of the Revelation-exclusive supports, this is how Effie and Azama's support chain begins. Thankfully, it's not fatal: after she shields him from an attack, he is rather baffled by her self-sacrificial nature but uses his White Mage powers to return the favor. If the whole support chain is pursued, Azama tells Effie that he wants to protect her from now on, and proposes to her.
    • A flashback to the Avatar's kidnapping as a child shows that his/her adopted father Sumeragi took a volley of arrows to the body to protect him/her.
    • In both the Birthright and Conquest routes, Lilith takes a strike meant for the Avatar that kills her.
  • In Fire Emblem Engage, one of these happens in Chapter 21: Sombron attempts to strike down Veyle, but Alear takes the attack for her, costing them their life. This doubly crushes Veyle along with it being revealed to her at this moment that Alear was their lost sibling they spent most of the game searching for. Veyle temporarily revives them as a Corrupted in Chapter 22, but it's only at the end of said chapter that Alear truly gets better, reviving as the thirteenth Emblem, the Fire Emblem.
• Goose Goose Duck:
  • The Bodyguard Goose is assigned a specific player to protect. If the Bodyguard is close enough to that player when someone tries to kill them, they will die instead.
  • The Gravy Goose gives additional rewards either to their killer or to the Gravy Goose themselves if they survive the whole game, but can only be killed when alone. If a third player is in close proximity to the Gravy Goose when someone attempts to kill them, the third player will take the bullet and get killed instead.
• Guilty Gear Xrd does this for comedic effect if Faust uses his Stimulating Fists Of Annihilation on Dizzy. Instead of Dizzy herself getting kancho'd, Undine (one of the shapeshifting beings that makes up Dizzy's wings,) takes it instead, to Dizzy and Necro's shock.
• Hearthstone: While there aren't as many cards that allow for this, the Paladin Secret Noble Sacrifice summons a "Defender" that will intercept the next attack your opponent launches. The Defender will then immediately die, as it only has 1 health.
• In the Flash game ImmorTall you spend the entire game doing this as an alien trying to protect the family it befriended during a war. As you shield them from machine guns, tanks, and bombers, your movements become slower and slower, until you finally succumb to your wounds and die.
• In KanColle, any ship with at least 50% of their health can do this for attacks aimed at their fleet's flagship. Making a fragile or low-level ship the flagship can prevent them from being taken down to critical health (and gives them a 50% EXP boost). However, like everything else in this game, the chance of this protection kicking in is up to the Random Number God based on the fleet's formation: more compact formations like Double Line and Diamond are better than Line Ahead or Line Abreast. When this doesn't happen and your flagship is knocked down to critical health, you will be forced to return to base after the battle.
• In Kingdom Hearts II, a boulder is hurled towards King Mickey and Goofy pushes him out of the way, taking the full force of the giant rock. Feeling sad and full of angry vengeance, Sora, Donald, and the King run forward, battling through hordes of Heartless only to find that Goofy was only knocked out the whole time.^note Which is, of course, a given since Goofy is, you know, a cartoon character (created in the West for comedy productions).
  • A non-lethal example happens in a cutscene near the end of the Xemnas boss fight. Riku takes a blow to the side for Sora, and hands off his Keyblade for him to hand Xemnas a dual-wielded curb stomp battle for his trouble.
  • In Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Clu throws his disc at Sora in anger for setting Rinzler free from his reprogramming. Rinzler sees this and shoves Sora out of the way so he would take the full blow, saving Sora's life at the cost of his own.
• In the The King of Fighters 2000 game, the Psycho Soldiers ending has Bao jumping in the air and taking a huge blast from a Kill Sat to protect his teammates. Kensou retrieves the fatally wounded Bao and absorbs the remaining energy through a Kiss of Life, both recovering his lost powers and saving Bao from a fatal Superpower Meltdown.]
• Near the end of King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!, Cedric accidentally takes a magical bullet for Graham (at least in the PC CD-ROM adaptation; all other versions had him being accidentally Taken for Granite). And in King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride, the Troll King takes magical lightning for Rosella.
• In Klonoa Heroes, Janga attempts a venom-claw sneak attack on Guntz after the former falsely surrendered, but Klonoa notices and pushes Guntz out of the way, taking the blow for him.
• In the backstory to Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, the Ancient Conspiracy's attempt to assassinate its renegade member, Quova, was prevented when Kjellin Malfagon took the blow instead. It's generally agreed that Malfagon was a decent guy, but whether or not Quova deserved to be saved is definitely a contested matter.
• The Legend of Tian-ding has Chen Liang-Jiou, a boss enemy whom you assume to be a traitor, proven to be Good All Along when he purposely throws himself in the path of bullets fired by the main villain, Shimada, sacrificing himself to save you. Unfortunately, Shimada then sees fit to pull a Frame-Up on you for the murder.
• Most kill shots in League of Legends can be intercepted by another body, so this is an option, although one you only want to use if you're more expendable and you're sure your target wasn't going to dodge it anyway. A number of spells that aren't blocked outright also have their damage reduced for each target they pass through, so this can be used to mitigate the effect.
  • Of particular note is Caitlyn's Ace in the Hole attack, a long-range sniper shot that locks onto a target and never misses, but can be intercepted by a nearby teammate. Similar to this is Akshan’s Comeuppance, which works the same as Caitlyn’s.
  • Elise is also noted for being extremely difficult to killshot in spider form because of the spiderlings that follow her around. Other champs who have summonable companions, such as Naafiri and Malzahar, are also known for this.
  • Braum heavily invokes this trope with Stand Behind Me and Unbreakable, the former consisting of Braum jumping in front of an ally, giving them both a temporary bonus to armor and magic resist, and the latter having Braum raise his shield, destroying all projectiles that hit it while he nullifies the damage from the first attack and reducing damage from following ones, encouraging people who play him to be ready to protect allies with themself.
• When the party defeats Idura in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals, his spirit then attempts to cast them into a hellish otherworld—starting with Tia. Dekar takes her place and yanks Idura through as well, leading to an epic Tear Jerker—for the player and Tia.
• The Mass Effect 2 DLC "Stolen Memory" has a subversion in the backstory — one weapon, the M12 Locust, has a reputation as "the gun that killed two presidents" because an assassin took a shot at the American president with it, penetrating the stage's kinetic barriers, and the Chinese premier tried to tackle him out of the line of fire. He failed: the next burst of fire pierced and killed both men.
• The encounter with Conrad Verner in Mass Effect 3 has him dive in front of a gunshot to save Shepard from an assassin. Provided you finished a certain sidequest in the first game, said "gunshot" was instead a previously-met character sabotaging the assassin's gun. If not, then the Heroic Sacrifice gets played straight.
• Mass Effect: Andromeda: At the mid-point of Drack's loyalty mission, Vorn leaps in front of a gunman shooting at Drack. Who, we should note, is an old, armored krogan who's just been killing his way through many disposable henchmen, and probably would've been fine, and Vorn is a botanist. Drack promptly yells at Vorn for risking his life, which Drack considers far more valuable to the krogan than his own.
• Metal Gear:
  • In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake ends up pulling this in order to save Tatyana from Ocelot's bullet. It also had him knocking into Ocelot as well, causing his aim to awry, and resulted in Big Boss getting a muzzle flash burn on his right eye.
  • In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Jonathan ends up rushing to Big Boss, warning him of an attack from one of the paranoid soldiers (Gene had earlier driven his own men into a mass panic about being executed by an inside man by Gene for "betraying" him using his voice.), and ended up taking a bullet in the head and the chest for Big Boss. This action was more than enough to have Big Boss screaming in anguish.
• Miitopia:
  • Kind Miis, Miis with high enough Relationship Values for the Sacrifice assist, and Warrior Miis using the Proud Protector skill will all jump in front of enemy attacks, taking the damage for them and increasing friendship. If multiple Miis do this simultaneously, the damage will be divided among them — notably, this is the only way to survive the Fiend's 999 scythe; if all three party members take the hit, it'll be divided to 333, which is just barely survivable for a handful of jobs at high levels.
  • This trope is also used in the game's main story after defeating the Dark Lord. When the Dark Curse prepares to possess the protagonist Mii, the Great Sage takes the hit instead and gets possessed into the Darker Lord.
• In Mother 3 Flint winds up taking two extremely powerful psionic attacks for his son Lucas.
• Nobody Saves the World: Astrolabus took the killing blow meant for his brother Nostramagus/Nobody to prevent the Calamity from completing the ritual to break entirely free.
• Octopath Traveler:
  • Guided/Allured NPCs Ophilia and Primrose can bring into battle will occasionally absorb damage from a physical attack directed at them. Depending on how strong the NPC is, they can only absorb a limited amount before being forced to retreat.
  • Olberic's special ability is to automatically tank the physical hits directed at his allies when he defends.
• In Onmyōji (2016), equipping a shikigami with at least four Teikon (Cutting Soul) mitama gives them a 50% chance to do this when one of their teammates is attacked. However, the former does not take all of the damage, meaning the latter would still receive damage, but greatly reduced.
  • Kingyo-hime can summon a goldfish that functions the same way, with the added bonus of automatically shooting water missiles at a random enemy.
• Overwatch allows more agile tanks such as Winston and D.Va to do this, but the tiny and adorable Hammond piloting the spherical Wrecking Ball is practically designed for this. He has the highest mobility among tanks but also the largest hitbox, and has the passive ability to deal knockback just by moving into an opponent at-speed. As a result, Hammond players are encouraged to respond to troubled support heroes immediately, often by throwing themselves bodily into said trouble. This tactic is often called the "Get down Mr. President" by fans and players alike.
  • Subverted in the short "Alive". While trying to prevent Widowmaker from assassinating Mondatta, Tracer happens to line herself up in front of the bullet perfectly before using her recall to avoid the shot. The shot hits its intended target and Tracer beats herself up over it.
    Genji: Do not blame yourself for Mondatta's death. It was not your fault.
    Tracer: You don't understand Genji, I could have saved him. Maybe the world would have been better off if it had been me instead of him.
• Persona:
  • In Persona 4, party members with high-enough Social Link rankings will do this for you. This comes to play in the True Ending's final boss fight, where each party member knocks you out of the way to take Izanami's lethal attacks in your place. A very amusing version happens if Kanji is on your team. In true Kanji style, he leaps into the air, kicks you IN THE HEAD, and takes the blow for you. Fortunately, this doesn't cause you any damage even though you would think it should.
  • In Persona 3, Shinjiro takes a bullet meant for Ken as an apology for having caused his mother's death, and later, Junpei takes a bullet for Chidori. As a result, Shinjiro dies (unless you've maxed his Link in Portable), but Junpei survives when Chidori sacrifices herself to heal him. Persona 3 Portable will also have party members take a fatal hit for you, a la Persona 4's combat system.
  • Persona 5: At Rank 9 of their Level-Up at Intimacy 5 Confidant subplots, non-Protagonist party members gain the ability to tank one lethal hit for the Protagonist per battle.
  • In Persona 5 Strikers, all of your party members (except Joker) can do this for whoever you're playing as.
• In Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Alys does this for Chaz, taking the hit from Zio's Dark Wave and leading to what may be one of the saddest video game deaths of all.
• Prior to the events of Psychonauts 2, Helmut Fullbear threw himself in front of an attack from Maligula intended for his husband, Bob Zanotto.
• The game Puppetshow: Destiny Undone ends with Cricks, the insane Big Bad with a vendetta against the Puppetmaster, throwing a vial of acid at him with the intention of blinding him. However, the Puppetmaster's young daughter Felicia jumps in the way and takes the acid intended for her father.
• In Resident Evil 2, Leon S. Kennedy jumps in front of a bullet for Ada Wong when Annette Birkin tries to shoot her.
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure has this done on a couple of occasions. The most notable instance is done by Elisabeth to Marie.
• Sakura Wars:
  • In the original Sakura Wars, the girl with the most trust points at the end of the game jumps in the way to shield Ogami from Aya-me's attack. Seconds later, Aya-me herself ends up on the receiving end when she takes the sword slash meant for Ogami.
  • In Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die, Kazuma Shinguji, aka the Demon King, shields his daughter Sakura from Keigo Kyogoku's lethal blast meant for her.
• Completing the romance sidequest with Anera in Shadowlords requires taking a death effect attack for her. Though the Power of Love keeps you alive at 1hp instead of killing you.
• Skullgirls gives Parasoul (a princess and leader of the Black Egrets military squad) the ability to call in one of her soldiers, who makes a diving leap in front of her, blocking any projectiles. The rare on-demand bullet-taker (though the attack has a cooldown between uses).
• Sonic The Hedgehog:
  • Sonic and the Secret Rings: At the start of the game, Sonic takes the arrow of flame that Erazor Djinn fired at Shahra the Genie. As a result, Sonic ended up being cursed by the Flame of Judgment, which would slowly sap away his lifeforce until his death, unless Sonic brings the seven World Rings to Erazor. Much later, at the end of the game, when Sonic brings the rings, Erazor offers up Sonic's life in sacrifice to gain the power to control their power. However, just when Erazor was about to land the blade in Sonic, Shahra takes the strike, paying Sonic back for him taking the shot intended for her, at the cost of her own life.
  • In Sonic Colors, Tails pushes Sonic out the way of Eggman's mind control beam.
• At the very end of the Terran campaign in Starcraft II, protagonist Jim Raynor does this for his Tragic Monster Love Interest Sarah Kerrigan in one of the rare examples of Taking the Bullet where the one doing the shielding is not physically harmed. (In this case, grace of Raynor's Power Armor not being useless.)
• During Super Adventure Rockman, one of the cutscenes has Quick Man taking a Shadow Blade in the back to protect a vulnerable Rockman and being Killed Off for Real after his Heel–Face Turn. This is very much Played for Drama, complete with a somber burial scene afterwards.
• In the final chapter of Super Paper Mario, Nastasia takes an attack meant for Count Bleck. She gets better.
• Super Robot Wars:
  • Defensive support in the Super Robot Wars series, in which a character with the ability has the option of jumping in the way of an attack aimed at an adjacent ally, they took less damage overall, and used a shield if they had it. Russel Bergman from the Original Generation games has this as his specialty.
  • In Super Robot Wars Gaiden, this happened to Ricardo in an attempt to save Tytti from imminent death from her arch-nemesis. As a result, she became Allergic to Love.
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
  • Ness and Lucas are being attacked by Wario. Wario fires his trophy gun at Ness a few times, and Ness dodges all the shots easily. An irritated Wario then changes his target to Lucas. Lucas, being the cowardly little brat he is, doesn't even try to dodge, so Ness pushes Lucas out of the way, complete with slow motion camera panning, and is turned into a trophy in the process. It should be noted that in this world, being turned into a trophy is like death.
  • And Donkey Kong for Diddy Kong (in their case, Donkey Kong actually had to punch Diddy Kong out of the way).
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: One of the changes to Peach's moveset is that during her neutral special, Toad now willingly stands between her and the incoming attack. The same applies to Blue Toad, who is protecting Daisy the same way.
• Tales of Symphonia:
  • Kratos takes an energy blast in the back for Lloyd. It's also right after it's revealed he's Lloyd's father, so it makes a lot of sense. And a lot of ouch. Luckily it doesn't kill him.
  • In the backstory, Zelos Wilder's mother pulled this to protect him from an attack coming from the mother of his half-sister Seles, who wanted him dead so Seles would be The Chosen One instead. She still tells him that he shouldn't have been born.
• In Tales of the Abyss, Tear does this while jumping in front the petrified Luke and gets slashed in the arm instead.
• The patient of a Medic in Team Fortress 2 is expected to do this: that way, the Medic stays alive, hopefully continues to heal the patient if they live, and gains Ubercharge, which builds faster on injured team-mates. This is especially seen on Arena "sudden death" matches, where Medics are necessary to keep the team alive. Frequently, players may Invoke this by using explosives to damage themselves so their Medic can build Ubercharge faster.
• Tekken 2: during Kazuya's FMV at the end of Arcade Mode, Heihachi does this in order to protect his son from a certain death. Kazuya doesn't seem especially grateful, though, and uses his father as a Human Shield to run up and deal a knockout punch to the attacker.
• Tears to Tiara 2: Tarte takes Metronius' Wave-Motion Gun for Hamil. She survives through Divine Intervention from her mother.
• Touken Ranbu: Uchigatana who have undergone a Kiwame upgrade gain the ability to take projectiles for adjacent swords.
• Bumblebee takes a blast from Megatron that was meant for Optimus at the end of the first level of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Cue Optimus going to town on Megatron.
• In True Crime: Streets of LA, Rafferty took the bullet for Nick when Rocky was about to shoot him while he was cuffed to the chair.
• Undertale has the No Mercy Route, where Hot-Blooded Action Girl Undyne shoves Monster Kid out of the way of the player's attack, causing her to be split nearly in half by a fatal blow. However, she is such a Determinator that she stops fading into dust out of sheer willpower, and instead goes One-Winged Angel as the phenomenally badass Undyne the Undying. Cue punishing boss fight.
• Near the end of Vermillion Watch: In Blood, Phileas shields you from Varney's wolves and gets clawed as a result. (This sets up the events of the next game.)
• In episode 3 of The Walking Dead (Telltale), when Lily suspects Ben (if you saved Doug in Episode 1 instead of Carley) of being the one giving the bandits supplies and tries to shoot him, Doug jumps in the way and takes the bullet instead.
• Wild ARMs: Million Memories gives us a truly shocking example. Mother powers up a dark energy blast and fires it at Rudy. Siegfried, of all people, jumps in front of him and takes the blast instead. Given how these two are in the first game, Rudy's reaction is most likely the player's.
• The World Ends with You:
  • Beat really shows off his intellect in how he ended up in the Reaper's Game: He tried to shield his sister Rhyme with his body from an incoming car instead of shoving her out of the way. It worked as well as it sound like it would.
  • He also does it again later for Neku. A mind-controlled Shiki is attacking the pair; Beat sees no choice but to take her out. Neku turns to face him as he angrily says they'll do no such thing. He gets attacked by Shiki from behind for his trouble. Beat is quick to take the hit for him.
• World of Warcraft:
  • Warriors can learn an ability called Intervene which allows them to take a shot or melee attack for a party member, thereby preventing the Squishy Wizard or even squishier Priest from being... well, squished.
  • There's also a warrior protection talent Vigilance which allows the warrior to transfer threat generated by another character to his/herself and redirect the path of attacks from the enemy.
  • Paladins also have an ability named Hand of Sacrifice, which will redirect 30% of incoming damage from the target to the paladin, up to 100% of the paladin's hit points. Like Superman above, they have the ability to become (briefly) invulnerable...
  • Paladins also used to have an ability called Divine Intervention, which instantly killed the Paladin in return for giving its target full invulnerability for up to three minutes at the cost of immobilizing them. Mostly used when defeat is certain and everyone is going to die since they don't take durability damage by dying this way and the invulnerable player can then hearthstone out to avoid said damage as well.
  • In the end of the Gilneas storyline, Liam Greymane is killed by Sylvanas Windrunner when he takes a poisoned arrow intended for his father, King Genn Greymane.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed: Nikol tries to intercept a massive laser blast meant for Glimmer, only for Rex to parry the blow instead.

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