Basic Trope: Someone who has made a terrible mistake that caused the heroes' problem in the first place or worked for the villains realizes their mistake and sacrifices their life to redeem themselves.
- Straight: General Drake has done horrible things during his time serving Emperor Evulz, but comes to regret his actions and chooses to sacrifice himself to help the heroes stop his master.
- Exaggerated: Drake keeps seeking out the heroes and trying to get himself killed.
- Downplayed:
- Redemption Equals Affliction
- Drake permanently gives up his Immortality Immorality upon redeeming himself.
- Justified:
- The crimes were committed by The Corruption or a Superpowered Evil Side, and the only way to stop himself is to Kill Us Both. Or he's a Proud Warrior Race Guy who can't turn away from serving Evulz without losing his honor.
- After being redeemed, General Drake feels that he needs to answer for his crimes-giving up his life to stop the Big Bad would seem fitting.
- Inverted:
- Redemption Earns Life
- Death Equals Redemption
- Or the death of a Morality Chain causes a hero to succumb to evil.
- The Face–Heel Turn of a hero causes them to die almost immediately after.
- Subverted: Drake makes a suicidal charge at Emperor Evulz, sustaining only a wound in the process.
- Double Subverted: He dies from the wound after the heroes get him out of there.
- Parodied:
- Drake is unrepentantly evil, but he accidentally killed himself and happened to stop Evulz's plan... and is hailed as a hero.
- Drake has only committed laughably petty misdeeds, but he's so remorseful that he gets himself killed in order to atone for his sins.
- Zig Zagged: Many mooks have been killed immediately when they saw the light. But later, the Quirky Miniboss Squad switches sides and lives. Then Drake sees the light and dies.
- Averted:
- Drake makes a simple Heel–Face Turn and joins the final battle alongside the heroes, but survives it or he simply does not turn at all.
- Drakes tries to sacrifice himself, but the heroes stop him, stating that if he truly wants to atone, he'll do it by helping them defeat Evulz and surviving to make things right in the aftermath.
- Enforced:
- Executive Meddling demands that Drake pays for his crimes and the easiest way to do it is by killing him off.
- They want a Tear Jerker scene, so they combine Heel–Face Turn with Alas, Poor Villain.
- Lampshaded: "Drake sacrificed himself to save us. It was all he could do to atone for the things he'd done."
- Invoked: "Better I die for my crimes than you die needlessly."
- Exploited: Thanatos Gambit.
- Defied: Drake chooses to live with his crimes.
- Discussed: "Let me guess, you plan to kill your master and die in the process."
- Conversed: "Here comes Drake's Darth Vader moment."
- Implied: Drake mentions him going to the good side. About some time later, he's gone.
- Deconstructed:
- Drake's suicide charge was a Senseless Sacrifice. Alternately, he may have died with honor and taken out Evulz, but the heroes are going to have their hands full cleaning up after Drake's mistakes and feel obligated to do so because of his sacrifice.
- Drake may have desired atonement, but in performing the sacrifice, he ends up not achieving it in actuality. For one, his death mean he escapes the punishment that would follow his crimes, and for two, he never has to answer to the people he's wronged now that he's dead, meaning they won't get proper closure.
- Reconstructed: But considering Drake was only slightly less of a monster than Evulz, it's probably for the best that he died. His victims would be waiting with Torches and Pitchforks if he survived, anyway.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Drake turns out to be one of the most popular characters in the series and killing him off destroys any chance at developing his character further.
Back to Redemption Equals Death.
