History HeroicSacrifice / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "[=SpongeBob SquarePants=] vs. the Big One", Jack Kahuna Laguna warns [=SpongeBob=], Patrick, and Squidward that the titular "[[MurderWater Big One]]" wave always demands a sacrifice of whoever rides it to stay alive. JKL himself eventually jumps into the Big One wave to save Mr. Krabs's [[CompanionCube cashier machine]] and becomes the sacrifice that the wave wants. Subverted when he shows up in the ending perfectly fine without explanation.

** [[spoiler:In the series finale "[[Recap/AmphibiaS3E31TheHardestThing The Hardest Thing]]", when it becomes clear that the power of each SuperMode girls individually isn't enough to stop [[TheBigBad The Core]] from throwing the moon at Amphibia out of spite, and that both Sasha and Marcy are getting tired due to not having developed the same stamina as Anne had, the latter decides to absorb and use the power of all the three stones at once to deliver one last blow. While she manages to destroy the moon and the Core with it for good, her body ends up disintegrated by the overwhelming power in the process. She would have stayed dead if not for the entity behind the creation of the stones "backing her up" by saving her soul and putting it in a new body at the last moment.]]

* Near the end of the fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', [[spoiler: Nabu decides to try to close the shadow abyss in order to save the Earth fairies. He succeeds, but uses up all of his energy and dies as a result.]]
** This is generally how [[EleventhHourSuperpower Enchantix]] is earned in the third season. To earn it, one must protect someone from their planet[[note]] Or in one case ''the entire universe'' [[/note]], usually at great risk to themselves. The one exception, Bloom did it through [[TheDeterminator sheer force of will]], and it turns out [[DeconstructedTrope it's incomplete]] because it wasn't gained through a sacrifice. This lasts until she revives her planet at the end of ''[[TheMovie The Secret of the Lost Kingdom]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E10NoSmallParts No Small Parts]]", [[spoiler:Lieutenant Shaxs ends up tearing off Rutherford's implant and tossing him into the shuttle they used to break into the Pakleds' ship when the psychopathic hologram Badgey decides to initiate the ship's self-destruct to try and kill Rutherford. Shaxs pushes the shuttle back out and stays behind, happily fighting other Pakleds as the entire ship goes up.]]

** In "Reunion", [[spoiler:Sasha falls off a crumbling Toad Tower only for Anne to grab her hand and the Plantars to grab Anne. Unfortunately, as the Plantars are trying to pull Anne and Sasha back to safety, Sasha sees that cracks are appearing where they're standing. Realizing she's been a terrible friend to Anne and unwilling to endanger her anymore, she lets go of Anne's hand, willing to fall to her own death to save her. Fortunately, Grime saves her at the last minute. Unfortunately, she's unconscious by then and Grime takes her with his army when he leaves.]]
** [[spoiler: In the series finale “The Hardest Thing”, when it becomes clear that the power of each SuperMode girls individually isn’t enough to stop [[TheBigBad The Core]] from throwing the moon on Amphibia out of spite, and that both Sasha and Marcy are getting tired due to not having developed the same stamina as Anne had, the latter decides to absorb and use the power of all the three stones at once to deliver one last blow. While she manages to destroy the moon and the Core with it for good, her body ends up disintegrated by the overwhelming power in the process. She would have stayed dead if not for the entity behind the creation of the stones “backed her up”, by saving her soul and putting it in a new body at the last moment]].

--->''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever!''

** In the Season 1 finale, [[spoiler: Princess Yue sacrifices herself to revive the Moon Spirit, which had been killed by Admiral Zhao. She then becomes the new Moon Spirit. Though in this case she had been living on borrowed time her entire life, as the Moon Spirit had shared some of its life energy to prevent her from being stillborn, and she simply gave it back.]]
** At the end of Season 2, [[spoiler: Iroh stays behind in the caverns fighting Zuko, Azula, and all of the Dai Li to buy time to allow Aang and Katara to escape to safety, even though he knew he couldn't escape himself.]]
** In Season 3, it’s revealed through flashbacks that [[spoiler: Katara's mother Kya lied about her daughter being a water bender, instead saying it was her. Her last words to Katara were "Everything will be all right." She was lying. However, she was expecting to be taken captive instead of killed, though it's no less admirable.]]

** A non-fatal example when [[spoiler:Lin allows Tenzin and his family to escape the Equalists by taking down the airships, only to be de-bent]].
** In the Book 3 finale, [[spoiler:Korra gives herself up in exchange for the release of the new air nation though the Red Lotus double-cross her. This leads to her being beaten, poisoned, and nearly killed. She does survive, but is heavily traumatized for the next 3 years]].
** In the penultimate episode, [[spoiler:Asami's dad sacrifices himself by staying behind in order to open a hole in Kuvira's giant robot, redeeming himself from working with the bad guy in Season 1]].
** In the finale, [[spoiler:Tarrlok blowing up the boat he and Amon are on]]. Doubles as [[spoiler:RedemptionEqualsDeath, possibly for both of the bloodbending brothers if one interprets Amon's SingleTear as a sign that he knew what Tarrlok was about to do and didn't try to stop him]].

* ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'' does this a few times. The first is when [[spoiler: Arthur Parks, a former super-villain named the Living Laser sacrifices himself to save Tony in ''Designed Only for Chaos'' [[RedemptionEqualsDeath after joining the hero's side.]]]]
** Later attempted in the season one finale when [[spoiler: Gene pushes Pepper out of the way of Fin Fang Foom's attack and is apparently killed. Ironically, his heroic sacrifice is what allowed him to acquire the fifth Makluan Ring and then betray the very friends he was helping]]
* Batman attempts this in the Season 2 GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. To prevent the Thanagarian's hyperspace bypass generator from destroying Earth, [[ColonyDrop he sets the Watchtower space station on a collision course with the generator]], then insists on staying in the Watchtower to ensure that it doesn't drift off-course. Once Superman learns what Batman is doing, and he flies in to pull Bats out just in time.
** In the episode ''Legends'', a few members of the Justice League get transported to a bizarre [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]][=/=][[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]-style alternate universe where various cornball heroes and villains battle over Seaboard City. After TheReveal [[spoiler:that the whole city, heroes/villains and all, was a LotusEaterMachine]], the Justice League attempts to fight the true villain, but they lose badly. They're saved by [[spoiler:the local heroes, the Justice Guild, who charge into battle despite knowing the villain's defeat would result in a DreamApocalypse that would take them along with it.]]
--->[[spoiler: "We sacrificed ourselves once to save this world. We can do it again."]]
** [[spoiler: The Flash]] from ''Justice League Unlimited'' in the episode ''Divided We Fall''. It's the league's DarkestHour, and the founding members are down. [[spoiler: The Flash built up energy by running circles around the planet and culminated with using the energy to defeat Luthor in an explosion. Because of this, he sort of phased out of reality. He got better very quickly.]]
** In ''Hereafter'', Toyman has created a device that seemingly obliterates any target. When he aims it at Wonder Woman and Batman, [[TakingTheBullet Superman throws himself in front of the blast and appears to be wiped from existence.]] [[spoiler:It turns out he was actually sent thousands of years into the future.]]
** In the SeriesFinale of ''Justice League Unlimited'', in order to stop Darkseid from destroying the Earth, [[spoiler: [[EvilVersusOblivion Lex Luthor of all people]] manages to breach the Source Wall and stop him from killing Superman by gifting him with the [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Anti-Life Equation]], which then [[AndIMustScream imprisoned them]] [[TakingYouWithMe both]] within the Wall. Although it was more out of revenge than altruism, as they're being engulfed by it, Darkseid remarks that it's beautiful while Luthor looks back at Metropolis for the final time and replies "Yes. Yes it is."]]

* ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts'': [[spoiler: Scarlemagne ends up crashing his CoolCar into Dr. Emilia to save Kipo. This ends up killing him, though not instantly.]]
* The SequelSeries to ''Avatar'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has a non-fatal example when [[spoiler: Lin allows Tenzin and his family to escape the Equalists by taking down the airships, only to be de-bent]].
** And the much-more fatal example in the finale with [[spoiler: Tarrlok blowing up the boat he and Amon are on]]. Doubles as [[spoiler: RedemptionEqualsDeath, possibly for both of the bloodbending brothers if one interprets Amon's SingleTear as a sign that he knew what Tarrlok was about to do and didn't try to stop him.]]
** The same episode also heavily implies that [[spoiler:Korra was contemplating suicide after losing access to three of her four elements so the world could have a proper Avatar again in another 20 years or so. Fortunatly, she doesn't go through with it and experience helps her finally make a spiritual connection with Aang, who restores her bending.]]
** In the Book 3 finale[[spoiler: Korra gives herself up in exchange for the release of the new air nation though the Red Lotus double-cross her. This leads to her being beaten, poisoned, and nearly killed. She does survive but is heavily traumatized for the next 3 years.]]
** In the penultimate episode, [[spoiler: Asami's dad sacrifices himself by staying behind in order to open a hole in Kuvira's giant robot, redeeming himself from working with the bad guy in Season 1.]]
* As in the comics example mentioned above, [[spoiler: Ferro Lad]] on ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' sacrifices himself to stop the Sun-Eater in the first SeasonFinale.

** In "The Crystal Empire, Part 1", Shining Armor [[YouShallNotPass stops to fight King Sombra]] to buy the Mane Six (including [[BigBrotherInstinct his sister]]) enough time to get to safety. Sombra doesn't kill him, but does seal Shining Armor's magic by planting dark crystals in his horn, leaving the normally powerful MagicKnight next to helpless for the remainder of the episode.
** In "The Cutie Map, Part 2", Party Favor admits to telling the Mane Six about his desire to have his cutie mark back, claiming that he was the ''only'' one to do so to protect his two co-conspirators and friends, Sugar Belle and Night Glider. As per usual for the show, he isn't killed, but is locked away to endure a soul-crushing process of re-education and brainwashing.
** In "The Cutie Remark Part 2", Twilight finds herself in a BadFuture where [[TheBadGuyWins Chrysalis won]] due to Starlight Glimmer's MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight revenge plot going out of even her own control thanks to the ButterFlyEffect. The alternate Zecora, the RebelLeader of LaResistance against Chrysalis, becomes aware of the fact she lives in a BadFuture and performs a YouShallNotPass on Queen Chrysalis (with implication Chrysalis would kill her) to give Twilight a chance to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Adding to this, she knew if Twilight succeeded [[RetGone she'd cease to exist]] and was completely okay with it if it meant the BadFuture never happened.

* ''WesterAnimation/FamilyGuy'':

* WesterAnimation/FamilyGuy

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'': [[spoiler:In the season two finale, Tech is caught on a falling cable car that is about to drag another car its coupled to with the rest of the Bad Batch onboard with it into the abyss. Recognizing he can't be saved, he enacts "Plan 99" (a call back to 99's death in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'') and severs the cable car coupling himself with a well placed blaster shot, causing him to fall to his death.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'': [[spoiler:In the season two finale, Tech is caught on a falling cable car that is about to drag another car its coupled to with the rest of the Bad Batch onboard with it into the abyss. Recognizing he can't be saved, he enacts "Plan 99" (a call back to 99's death in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'') and severs the railcar coupling himself with a well placed blaster shot, causing him to fall into the abyss below.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'': [[spoiler:In the season two finale, Tech is caught on a falling cable car that is about to drag another car its coupled to with the rest of the Bad Batch onboard with it into the abyss. Recognizing he can't be saved, he enacts "Plan 99" (a call back to 99's death in ''StarWarsTheCloneWars'') and severs the railcar coupling himself with a well placed blaster shot, causing him to fall into the abyss below.]]