# Heroic sacrifices: who's got the stuff? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613 "2016-07-10T23:51:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/81 "2016-07-12T14:30:13Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I was thinking of a related concept: what heroes sacrifice something **worse** than their own life? > > I don’t think Rick qualifies. He’s sacrificing having TWOO LUV in his life, not his entire life. But what if he’d actually sacrificed **her** , i.e., sent her to her death? > > But the “Sacrifice yourself” hero is such a common trope that villains have adjusted with a trope I’ll call “Shoot the Puppy,” in which they know the hero will give up her own life, but she’d never let the villain shoot the puppy (or the wife, or the kid, or the orphanage, or whatever). The villain wins by threatening not the hero, but whoever the hero loves. > > Are there any characters who sacrifice their loved ones in order to protect others? Do they come out as heroes? > > The best example I can think of is the Vonnegut story [All The King’s Horses](https://mrjpisco.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/all-the-kings-horses-story.pdf), in which the protagonist willingly sends his beloved son to his death in order to save his entire family. And even that barely counts, because if he hadn’t done so, his son would have died anyway. > > Consider also Leia, who only gives up the rebel base when her planet is threatened. If she’d refused to cooperate with I’ll Shoot the Puppy, she’d qualify, but I don’t know if she’d remain a hero. Leia gave up hte rebel base to save more lives, though. I doubt it was established how many persons were on either, but I can’t help but thin that the inhabitted, civilized planet had more. And her own survival was irrelevant; she had to know that Vader and what’s-his-name would execute her soon no matter what choice she made. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/82 "2016-07-12T14:41:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > He didn’t die. You don’t get the top two rankings unless you die. Rick never even got injured Wait, how do we count Tom Cruise’s character in EDGE OF TOMORROW? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/83 "2016-07-12T14:47:44Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Wait, how do we count Tom Cruise’s character in EDGE OF TOMORROW? The only Tom Cruise movie i ever intend to watch is the televised trial in which he is brought to account for his multiple crimes against logic, sense, and good teaste and after being found guilty is condemned to death, then given a repireve because there’s no need to send him back home to Hell, and so instead is exiled to the Gobi Desert. Unless there’s hot naked chicks in it. Are there hot naked chicks in it? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/84 "2016-07-12T15:00:26Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > The only Tom Cruise movie i ever intend to watch is the televised trial in which he is brought to account for his multiple crimes against logic, sense, and good teaste and after being found guilty is condemned to death, then given a repireve because there’s no need to send him back home to Hell, and so instead is exiled to the Gobi Desert. > > Unless there’s hot naked chicks in it. Are there hot naked chicks in it? You really ought to see Edge of Tomorrow – it’s a great sci-fi actioner. But more than that, you get to see Tom Cruise play a particularly douchey character that is killed in different violent ways, over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/85 "2016-07-12T15:02:01Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > You really ought to see Edge of Tomorrow – it’s a great sci-fi actioner. But more than that, you get to see Tom Cruise play a particularly douchey character that is killed in different violent ways, over and over again. So I’m assuming there’s no naked hot chicks. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/86 "2016-07-12T15:12:05Z")
No, but Elizabeth Shue has a nude scene in Cocktail. You could mash them up. “Edge of Martini” ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/87 "2016-07-12T15:13:00Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Did Gandalf know he would come back? I think he didn’t. He didn’t know he’d be given a new physical body and come back to Earth, but I think he knew he would still be an Angel/Minor Demigod after his temporary mortal shell was destroyed. So, not exactly facing total lack of existence, more like kicked off the job site and sent home with things unfinished. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/88 "2016-07-12T15:13:46Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Are there any characters who sacrifice their loved ones in order to protect others? Do they come out as heroes? John Constantine from the comic books - I haven’t seen the TV show - is constantly shown as being willing to toss any life pretty much into the fire to stop the forces of darkness. Some of them he cares for deeply. He’s the comic book king of collateral damage. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613/89 "2016-07-13T06:53:27Z")
I don’t know if anyone reads the Mercy Thompson books, but I’d give Mercy at least a solid 6. She constantly throws herself into dangerous situations to save others. She hasn’t actually died yet but in the 2nd to last book she was dying and would have if not for the intervention of Coyote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroic-sacrifices-whos-got-the-stuff/759613.md?page=4)