History Main / DudleyDorightStopsToHelp

* In the second episode of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Suzaku abandons his pursuit of the terrorist commander (which, unbeknownst to him, is Lelouch) in order to save a mother and child that had fallen out of a damaged building. This allows Lelouch to proceed to Clovis' apartment, [[HypnoticEyes Geass]] him into stopping the conflict, [[spoiler:and then kill him]].

* Literature/HarryPotter, the boy with the "[[ChronicHeroSyndrome saving people thing]]", is of course prone to this.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', despite being on a RaceAgainstTheClock to take advantage of the eclipse over the Fire Nation, Katara holds up the gang to help a fishing town brought into desolation thanks to water pollution.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries:'' In one episode, Batman's on his way to Crime Alley to meet Leslie Thompkins for the annual meet-up over the site where the Waynes were killed. As he's driving, a tram suffering brake problems passes by, and naturally Batman has to stop that, much to his irritation.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'': Vilgax exploits this trope and Ben's ChronicHeroSyndrome in the episode "Secrets" by destroying a city to lure the hero there.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'': In "Inside Man", Ben chooses to save a rebelling SlaveMook over preventing the Dna-liens from getting away with an object they plan to use to destroy Earth. Kevin, Gwen, and even said Mook disapproved, the latter stating Earth is doomed and [[IAmAMonster he's stuck as this abomination]]. Luckily, Ben has a say in both matters.

* A good deal of the episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' involve Jack finding a way to [[FishOutOfTemporalWater travel back to his own time]], but passing it up to help a bystander. Indeed, [[ChronicHeroSyndrome Jack probably wouldn't be Jack]] without this trope. A particularly egregious example as [[spoiler: the GrandFinale confirms he would have [[{{RetGone}} retroactively prevented]] the danger in the first place if he'd just taken the opportunity to get back to the past.]]

* As the text at the head of the trope page shows, this is a near-constant issue for ComicBook/SpiderMan, and (of course) causes him no end of both professional and personal problems. Entirely justified, as the reason Spider-Man is in the superhero business in the first place is because of the time he ''didn't'' stop to help; the outcome of that choice [[WithGreatResponsibility haunts him to this day]], leaving him incapable of not trying to help when he can.

** In "[[Recap/ArthurS13E6WhenCarlMetGeorgeDWSwimsWithTheFishes D.W. Swims with the Fishes]]," D.W. goes back to help James during a swim race when his fin gets stuck on a lane marker. [[spoiler:This casts her the win to Emily, but she apparently considered helping James to be its own reward]].

* ''Manga/Kagurabachi'' Even though Chihiro's sole goal is to hunt down those who murdered his father and reclaim said father's swords. He puts that quest aside in order to protect Char. A little girl who is a target of criminal organizations [[spoiler: due to her healing factor.]]

* ''Manga/Kagurabachi'': Even though Chihiro's sole goal is to hunt down those who murdered his father and reclaim said father's swords. He puts that quest aside in order to protect Char. A little girl who is a target of criminal organizations [[spoiler: due to her healing factor.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'': In the final tiebreaker race, Lightning [=McQueen=] [[spoiler:gives up winning in order to help Strip Weathers, who had just suffered a serious crash]]. Lightning comes in last place but scores the sponsorship he wanted, while the racecar that caused the crash wins but gets booed and is known as a cheater.

* During a yacht race in the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames where Canadian sailor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lemieux Lawrence Lemieux]] was in second place and all but guaranteed to advance to the medal round, he noticed that the Singapore team had capsized, were injured, and in serious danger of drowning. Deciding that winning an Olympic medal was not worth letting people die, Lemieux turned back to save the Singapore team, which cost him the race. However, since the world saw this HeroicSacrifice, things worked out--the International Yacht Racing Union unanimously voted to officially award Lemieux with second place anyways. In the end, Lemieux was [[SweetAndSourGrapes awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal]], the ultimate prize and rarest of all Olympic medals, for exemplifying the spirit of the Olympic Games at its finest.

* ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'': PCs can take the Heroic hindrance during character creation, which rewards players with Bennies when they go out of their way to help people.

* In a Story printed after the 9/11 attacks, ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'', in a throw-away scene, encounters a clearly Muslim man being harassed by a group of teenagers, yelling epithets and making threats, while the Muslim man keeps protesting that he was born in the US and is a patriotic citizen. Cap drops down between them and gently pushes the man behind him. And then stares down these boys, without a single word, as so to tell them, and people who act like them, that Captain America is very, ''very'' disappointed in them. It was enough to disperse the gang. And then Cap escorted the man home.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/helping_someone_in_a_race.jpg Now helping someone out is better than winning!]]

* At the beginning of ''Fanfic/MarriageOfHeavenAndHell,'' Makoto finds [[LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD Aika Kiryuu]] critically injured in a forest and heals her, which ends up revealing his secret identity as an angel to the fallen angels who attacked her, which he himself does not even know. He is, shortly after, saved by Rias Gremory and, after he figures out his true identity, defeats and kills Kalawarner; one of the attacking fallen angels. Because of this, Raynare is then sent to hunt him down and assassinate him and she and the rest of the remaining fallen angels attempt to take over Kuoh Town.

* ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'': While running from the other Yellowjackets who intend to [[HumanSacrifice kill her]], [[spoiler:Natalie]] is accompanied by [[spoiler:Javi]], who [[DangerThinIce falls through the ice into the water below.]] [[Natalie]] stops to try to rescue [[spoiler:Javi]] even though this allows the others to catch up to her.

** In "D.W. Swims with the Fishes," D.W. goes back to help James during a swim race when his fin gets stuck on a lane marker. [[spoiler:This casts her the win to Emily, but she apparently considered helping James to be its own reward]].

Often leads to [[BeingGoodSucks detection by the people he's been evading all this time]], but not as often as you'd think. This trope is why a [[CharacterAlignment Good Aligned]] character will always blow his cover when infiltrating a WretchedHive. Depending on what the outcome is, it may result in a BigDamnHeroes moment. If done during a race, then he will [[HonorBeforeReason usually end up in Last Place]] as a result.

* This trope is the catalyst for the entire ''Fanfic/PeterParkerNeedsAHug'' series. Peter, immediately after ''No Way Home'' was wandering New York when he saw a random portal and heard someone calling for help on the other side. He goes through and ends up in Gotham, where he sees an old man being beaten by a thug. Peter gets between the two and keeps the thug at bay until Red Hood arrives, saving the man's life and earning the vigilante's respect.

* In the second episode of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Suzaku abandons his pursuit of the terrorist commander (which, unbeknownst to him, is Lelouch) in order to save a mother and child that had fallen out of a damaged building. This allows Lelouch to proceed to Clovis' apartment, [[HypnoticEyes Geass]] him into stopping the conflict, [[spoiler:and then kill him]].

* In ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', Iino runs against Shirogane during the latter's campaign for re-election as StudentCouncilPresident. In the debate with Iino, Shirogane is already at a massive advantage, and when Iino's turn to give a speech comes, she's frozen with stage fright due to the hostile crowd. This would have been the final nail in her coffin, but Shirogane [[CruelToBeKind gets on stage and insults her policies]]. Iino snaps out of her HeroicBSOD and debates with Shirogane, doing well enough that she almost wins the election. The more pragmatic Kaguya is rather annoyed with Shirogane, having hoped that Iino would have "self-destructed" without his intervention. However, [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan she also loves that part of him]] as evidenced by the hearts in her eyes.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse comic ''Nomad'', ex-mercenary Darca Nyl's son was killed by a Dark Jedi, and a dying Jedi handed over his lightsaber and told Darca to kill Lycan. Darca went in pursuit but found that almost everywhere he went, there were people who saw that lightsaber, thought he was a Jedi, and needed his help. [[BecomingTheMask And he gave it.]] Even at the cost of pursuit time, he gave himself. [[GoodFeelsGood And it was the first good thing he'd felt in a long time]]. Eventually he did catch up to Lycan and was able to kill him. Lycan told him that men were not driven by altruism. Darca swore to prove him wrong... [[ShaggyDogStory though a later-written comic shows us that Darca failed, bottled himself up in a hut, and became a hermit who obsessively carved statues of his dead wife and son]].

* ''ComicBook/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In "The Trouble With Bubbles" (DC issue #18), Bubbles misses her role with her sisters in a routine during a battle with a monster [[ItMakesSenseInContext lucha libre caterpillar]]. Why? She was protecting a butterfly from getting its wings wet from the water of a busted fire hydrant. Bubbles is dressed down for it which hurts her feelings so much that she runs away from home.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

* In ''Film/RoboCop3'', Robo veers off pursuing some insurgents to come to the aid of a squad of cops locked in a firefight with a gang of thugs.

* In ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'', Pee-wee is on the run after stealing his bicycle back from Warner Brothers Studio. He makes a grand escape, lands a big jump, and is in the clear. Until he sees a fire in a pet store. He even saves a handful of snakes before collapsing outside and being picked up by the police.

* Subverted in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' - during a chase with a HYDRA agent who assassinates Dr. Erskine and then runs away, Steve Rogers (after receiving the Super Soldier Serum) chases down the agent. The agent tries to distract him by throwing a child into the river, but the child, as it turns out, can swim, and tells Steve to continue going after the agent whilst the child saves himself.

* In ''Film/TheFugitive'', the hero is on the run but stops by hospitals several times in pursuit of [[ClearMyName Clearing His Name]], and on each occasion he feels compelled to help someone, even saving a child's life at one point.

* Jean Valjean from ''Literature/LesMiserables''. More often than not, his Moments involved throwing himself directly in InspectorJavert's path, rather than merely risking the same.

* In the Literature/HonorHarrington novel ''Honor Among Enemies'', the Havenite light cruiser ''Vaubon'' is in the Silesian Confederacy to raid Manticoran shipping when they stumble on the aftermath of a vicious pirate attack on a Manticoran vessel. Although the pirates are in effect assisting them in their mission, they are so repulsed and outraged by the barbarity they find that they launch a hunt for them, ultimately stumbling across another Manticoran freighter that's under attack, and coming in to the rescue even while being outnumbered by the raiders and breaking their orders by assisting an enemy vessel. They drive the raiders off but then discover they are facing Harrington herself in a Q-ship that massively outguns them and are forced to surrender. After they still assist her in tracking down the pirates, Harrington arranges for their release back to Haven. As repayment for their honorable behavior, she fakes a report that the Q-Ship was pretending to be a ship from a different star-nation (that the ''Vaubon'' would have been free to assist) so the ''Vaubon'''s crew can claim they weren't knowingly coming to the aid of a Manticoran ship.

* ''Series/DueSouth'': Creates what may be the ultimate example of this in which a uniformed mountie running through Chicago to rescue a character trapped in a safe filling with water (don't ask!) stops many times on the way to perform minor acts of politeness.
* In the '60s ''[[Series/Batman1966 Batman]]'', it's parodied and [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] where Batman and Robin are pursuing King Tut and find a woman tied by the villain in a way that will suffocate her. Batman proceeds to lecture Robin on why the hero must always stop to save the innocent while the woman is still suffering.
* Pointedly averted in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi''. The Inquisitors explain that it's so easy to hunt Jedi because Jedi can't help getting involved and helping people. This leads to stories, which leads the Inquisitors to them. The oft repeated phrase for this is "Jedi hunt themselves". Kenobi manages to live longer than most because even though it pains him, he avoids stepping in when he sees injustice.

* In The Just Assassins, Camus recounts a legend of Saint George, who on his way to meet God, sees a peasant with a broken cart in a ditch. Ultimately Saint George decides to help the humble peasant and in doing so misses his appointment with God.