History Main / MoreExpendableThanYou

* In CiaphasCain's first adventure, when his attempt to escape ran into a Tyranid horde, he explained that he had guessed it and scouted; when his commander said he could have sent someone else, Cain says that he's the most expendable officer in the company.

* ''SailorMoon'': In the first season, the Sailor Senshi all sacrifice themselves, protecting Sailor Moon and preventing her from rescuing them, just to get her to Queen Beryl. Done again in the final season, with all the Senshi giving up their star seeds (and thus dying) so that Sailor Moon can fight Galaxia.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Worf is about to sacrifice himself to delay a pursuing enemy. The aged and crafty [[OldMaster Dahar Master]] Kor knocks him out and takes his place piloting the damaged ship (Worf is a young warrior in his prime, with many battles left to fight in this war and others, Kor's mind is starting to slip and he has no more chances for a glorious death). His last words to the unconscious Worf is a promise that when he gets to [[WarriorHeaven Sto'vo'kor]], he will tell Worf's dead wife of his bravery.

'''[[GeniusBruiser Regal]]:''' I see. That's the sort of discussion that would likely anger [[TheMessiah Lloyd]].\\

* The entire party in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' pull off this trope, [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne one by one in succession]] against the MalevolentArchitecture of the (presumably) final dungeon, to make sure [[TheMessiah Lloyd]] makes it to the (presumably) final fight with the game's BigBad -- ignoring the fact that this pits him single-handedly against a boss that could take on four of you about two scenes ago and that his messianic credo means he gets bad self-esteem for failing to protect them in the process. Never fear, though, they were only {{Disney Death}}s, and they're all back by the time of the actual confrontation for a ClimacticBattleResurrection.

* In the ''AdventureTime'' episode "James", Finn, Jake, PB, and the titular James find themselves in a pit filled with radioactive candy zombies, and the only way out is if one of them performs a HeroicSacrifice and distracts the zombies. Finn volunteers, but PB knocks him unconscious and sends James out instead, later telling Finn she did it because she can just clone another James, but she can't clone another Finn.

His less focused-on (and thus implicitly more disposable) friend (possibly TheAtoner) will knock him out and go to do the dirty work himself. Cue the HeroicSacrifice, or more commonly, RedemptionEqualsDeath.

* GranTorino contains an excellent example. The protagonist locks the kid in his basement, then goes out to the gangsters' place and intentionally gets murdered in front of many witnesses, getting the gangsters put in jail. He was dying of cancer and did not want the kid to destroy his future by trying to get revenge on the gangsters.
* At the end of ''{{Armageddon}}'', Bruce Willis' character tricks Ben Affleck's, and averts the disaster at the cost of his life.

* ''AirForceOne'' plays this straight, inverts it and then subverts it. The Secret Service agents on board the plane perform {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s to get the President to safety but in the end it is the President who stays on board to fight the terrorists after the rest of his (expendable) staff are evacuated. It's played straight again at the end of the movie where the damaged plane is about to crash and the remaining military personnel on board insist that the President evacuate the plane before them. However, TheMole is not willing to die for the President and fights him for the last evacuation slot.

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* In ''{{Dragonball}} Z'', Vegeta knocks Goku, Trunks, and Goten out in succession before using his suicide attack against Buu.

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*** And the whole plot of ''A Kind of Tragic'' stems from a side effect of Nodwick's frequent resurrections: [[spoiler:The [[{{Highlander}} Immortals]] mistake him for one of them and [[OffWithHisHead his head rolls often]] throughout the book.]]

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* In ''HighlanderTheSeries'', Duncan [=MacLeod=] is challenged by someone he seems ready to lose to, so Methos calmly shoots him dead and sets off to kill the guy himself. Duncan resurrects just in time to intervene, much to Methos' frustration.

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* ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey: [[spoiler: Huntress]] chooses to challenge Lady Shiva to a death duel, arguing that [[spoiler: BlackCanary]] would be more sorely missed.

* In [[TheDeathGateCycle Serpent Mage]], when some women find out that they need to go alone in a submarine to an unknown destination to save their people, the boyfriend of one of them knocks her out and takes her place, managing not to get discovered until the ship has left. His reasoning was that he thought she would die and couldn't bear the thought of living without her. [[spoiler: Everyone who goes in the sub ends up surviving the trip (though not necessarily the whole story), the girl left behind kills herself, believing her beloved to be dead and their people doomed.]]

* A very sad occurs in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' when someone has to initiate a process that will separate Moya from another ship and save the lives of everyone aboard her. The catch is that the person who starts the process has to do so from the other ship which will be ripped apart. Both Crichton and Aeryn try to intervene, but Zhaan (who is already dying from having saved Aeryn's life earlier in the season) insists on doing it and is killed in the process.

* In yet another variation one Nadia story has Grandis volunteering to take her tank (and her two minions) out to clear a minefield that's pinned in the ''Nautilus'', mostly to show off to Nemo. Her ''boy's'' reaction? Sanson cold-cocks her and leaves her in the cabin while they go out on a near suicide mission. Fortunately Jean stows away on the tank, and he is NOT expendable, even in a Gainax show.

* This happens to Thalia Ng in ''The Prefect'' by Creator/AlastairReynolds. She's trapped with a bunch of civilians in an orbital habitat that's been taken over by rogue robots; she comes up with an escape scheme that begins by blowing up a bunch of structural supports, and then discovers that the timer on her explosives isn't long enough to make it away safely. The civilian she's been confiding in knocks her out, drags her away from the supports, and sets the explosives himself.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Worf is about to sacrifice himself to delay a pursuing enemy. The aged and crafty [[OldMaster Dahar Master]] Kor knocks him out, and promises that when he gets to Sto'vo'kor, he will tell Worf's dead wife Jadzia of his bravery.

* Practically spoofed in ''DannyPhantom'', when somebody has to wear the [[PoweredArmor Exo-suit]] to defeat the BigBad, but doing so might drain the wearer to death. Danny plans to knock everyone out to use it for himself, but that proves to be unnecessary as ''everybody'' else knocks each other out, each claiming that he'd do it.

* This happens to Thalia Ng in ''The Prefect'' by AlastairReynolds. She's trapped with a bunch of civilians in an orbital habitat that's been taken over by rogue robots; she comes up with an escape scheme that begins by blowing up a bunch of structural supports, and then discovers that the timer on her explosives isn't long enough to make it away safely. The civilian she's been confiding in knocks her out, drags her away from the supports, and sets the explosives himself.

* In the first ''MassEffect'', on Virmire, [[spoiler: Ashley will try to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this trope by telling Shepard to save Kaidan over her because he outranks her. It's up to Shepard whether to agree with her [[SubvertedTrope or not,]] though.]]

* GranTorino contains an excellent example. The guy locks the kid in his basement, then goes out to the gangsters' place and intentionally gets murdered in front of many witnesses, getting the gangsters put in jail.

** An inversion occurs in End of Time when [[spoiler:the Doctor, ie, the hero]], sacrifices himself for Wilf, a minor recurring character who happens to be pushing eighty. Wilf even begs him not to do it, basically citing this trope.

* In the ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' series 1 finale this happens twice, first with Merlin declaring that Arthur's life is worth a hundred of his own and then - when it becomes clear that the deal was for ''a'' life, not necessarily Merlin's, and his mother becomes dangerously ill - Gaius sacrifices himself in Merlin's place. [[DisneyDeath It doesn't last.]]
** Happens again in the fourth series primiere. They need to sacrifice someone to heal the veil between the worlds, and Arthur thinks it should be him. Merlin wants to take his place, since, as a servant, his life is more expendable. When the time comes to sacrifice someone, Merlin knocks Arthur out, and offers himself to the gatekeeper of the spirit world. [[spoiler: As they're talking, Lancelot sneaks behind him and walks through, providing the necessary sacrifice]].