History Main / SuicideForOthersHappiness

* ''TheButterflyEffect'': [[spoiler:One of the endings has Evan Treborn go back in time to strangle himself with his own umbilical cord while still in the womb, resulting in a stillbirth. The people Evan cares about, for whose sake he does this, do in fact go on to lead better and happier lives.]]

* In ''{{Twilight}}'', Jacob threatens to do this, but Edward says it's just a ploy to get Bella to kiss him.

* ''{{CSI}}'': A guy makes it appear that he's been stabbed in the back so his family will get his insurance money. Unfortunately for them the CSI[=s=] are too good at their job.

* ''Sacred Sins'' by NoraRoberts: Joey is a troubled teenaged boy who is depressed, suicidal, and has dabbled in alcohol and the occult as attempts to cope with his depression, stemming from his mother's divorce from his alcoholic father and the fact that his father apparently doesn't want anything to do with him. His mother has remarried, the stepfather is basically the opposite of Joey's father, and the two of them have a baby. So on Thanksgiving night, after dinner, he sneaks out of the house, goes to a bridge, and jumps off it, convinced that his mother and stepfather will be happier without him and that they have the baby who can just replace him. He dies in a hospital, leaving his mother, stepfather, and the psychiatrist who tried to help him in tears.

* In ''KatekyoHitmanReborn'' Gokudera is implied [[HoYay to have a crush on Tsuna]] and was prepared to sacrifice himself for Tsuna's happiness during the battle with Belphegor but stops when Tsuna tells him he wouldn't be happy if he sacrificed himself.

* ''Literature/JudeTheObscure'': Jude's son and a CreepyChild "Little Father Time" commits suicide because the family is poor and he feels... Well, this was his suicide note: ''Done because we are too menny.'' [[spoiler: He killed his younger siblings as well, making it a case of murder/suicide for others' happiness, though he probably never believe that anybody could be happy.]]

* ''Sacred Sins'' by NoraRoberts: Joey is a troubled teenaged boy who is depressed, suicidal, and has dabbled in alcohol and the occult as attempts to cope with his depression, stemming from his mother's divorce from his alcoholic father and the fact that his father apparently doesn't want anything to do with him. His mother has remarried, the stepfather is basically the opposite of Joey's father, and the two of them have a baby. So on Thanksgiving night, after dinner, he sneaks out of the house, goes to a bridge, and jumps off it, convinced that his mother and stepfather will be happier without him and that they have the baby who can just replace him. He dies in a hospital, leaving his mother, stepfather, and the psychiatrist who tried to help him in tears.

For example, if we put our characters onboard the Nostromo in ''{{Alien}}'', and Bob attacks the alien, knowing he'll probably be killed but it will give Alice and Carl a chance to escape, that's HeroicSacrifice. If he then discovers the alien has been killed by a falling piece of equipment, but decides not to rejoin Alice and Carl because he knows Alice will be happier married to Carl than him, even though he knows the escape pod is his best hope at survival, it's this.

Compare ItsAWonderfulPlot, where (as a ShoutOut to ''ItsAWonderfulLife''), a character gets to see what would have happened if they had never existed. As such plots usually prove, this sort of thing rarely makes anyone nearly as happy as the person doing it thinks it will.

* ''DonnieDarko'': [[spoiler: Donnie allows himself to be killed by the falling plane turbine to allow the various people in his life to live/be happy.]]

* ''{{Looper}}'': [[spoiler: Younger Joe kills himself right before his future self kills Sara, which would have in turn caused her son, Cid, to become the evil Rainmaker in 30 years from then.]]

* ''TheButterflyEffect'': [[spoiler:One of the endings has Evan Treborn go back in time to strangle himself with his own umbilical cord while still in the womb, resulting in a stillbirth (and the fairly creepy implication that his mother's previous miscarriages were the result of something similar). The people Evan cares about, for whose sake he does this, do in fact go on to lead better and happier lives.]]

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* ''SinCity'': Poor John Hartigan. He went to incredibly great lengths to protect Nancy Callahan from the Roarks. He killed Roark Junior AKA That Yellow Bastard to save Nancy's life. Before that, he let himself be {{Blackmail}}ed by Senator Roark to protect Nancy and his family from the Senator's wrath. He sent Nancy away, promising to expose the Roarks and clear his name. However, once he was alone, he killed himself, believing Nancy will be safe from the Senator's wrath this way.

* The Kid Loki run of ''Journey into Mystery'' concludes with young Loki discovering he wasn't really an reincarnation of [[{{ComicBook/Loki}} the original Loki]], only an innocent ''clone'' of sorts, whom the original intended from the start to eventually erase from existence and take the body of, with his good name restored, in order to get back to backstabbing everyone of whose trust Kid Loki had re-earned. Kid Loki is horrified- but Loki had also manipulated him into creating a MacGuffin currently causing a multiverse-endangering civil war that will only exist as long as Kid Loki does. Kid Loki ultimately agrees to be erased from existence so that his family- particularly Hela and Thor- don't get dragged down in the war and are allowed to be happy.

* In ''{{Monster}}'' Johan's whole "perfect suicide" plot was an attempt to eradicate his own existence in order to make his sister Anna happy. As Anna puts it, this "suicide" was the "only expression of love" that Johan could convey.

* ''Loopers'': [[spoiler: Younger Joe kills himself right before his future self kills Sara, which would have in turn caused her son, Cid, to become the evil Rainmaker in 30 years from then.]]

* ''TheNightCircus'': [[spoiler: because The Challenge only ends when one of the competitors kills themselves, and The Challenge is an intimiate experience which inevitably results in the two competitors loving one another, both challengers go through a period where they contemplate suicide to relieve the other from continuing the game.]]

* ''{{Leverage}}'': A hockey player is pretty much doing this: not only does he pick fights with the opposing team for a bonus, ''his own manager'' pays the opposing players to fight him. By the time the Leverage team meets him he's one concussion away from death and he knows it, but he loves his son too much to pass up the extra money.

* In 'Manga/'{{Bleach}}'' Shishigawara is [[HoYay utterly devoted]] to Tsukishima and is willing to throw away his life for him. The implication being that he would do so if it would help Tsukishima in his plans and make him happier in the long run.

* In ''{{Bleach}}'' Shishigawara is [[HoYay utterly devoted]] to Tsukishima and is willing to throw away his life for him. The implication being that he would do so if it would help Tsukishima in his plans and make him happier in the long run.

* ''FairyTail'': After realizing the pain she caused Meredy, [[spoiler: Ultear]] tries to kill herself to atone. [[spoiler: Despite Meredy's anger, she forgives Ultear and prevents it]].

* ''SinCity'': Poor John Hartigan. He went to incredibly great lengths to protect Nancy Callahan from those vicious {{Complete Monster}}s calling themselves the Roarks. He killed Roark Junior AKA That Yellow Bastard to save Nancy's life. Before that, he let himself be {{Blackmail}}ed by Senator Roark to protect Nancy and his family from the Senator's wrath. He sent Nancy away, promising to expose the Roarks and clear his name. However, once he was alone, he killed himself, believing Nancy will be safe from the Senator's wrath this way.

* The alcoholic main character in ''AStarIsBorn'' [[spoiler: kills himself so his wife won't have to sacrifice her career to care for him.]]

* In the ''JamesBond'' film ''TheWorldIsNotEnough'', the BigBad (or possibly TheDragon, it's not made clear) is willing to die in order to further [[spoiler: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Electra]]'s]] plan to [[spoiler: irradiate all her competitors' oil by blowing up a nuclear submarine]]. The fact he's [[DisabilityImmunity slowly dying from a bullet wound to the head]] probably helps though.

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Compare ItsAWonderfulPlot, where (as a ShoutOut to ''ItsAWonderfulLife''), a character gets to see what would have happened if they had never existed.

* In ''CodeGeass'', something like this happens when [[spoiler: Lelouch plans a ZeroApprovalGambit, all so that the hate of the world will be focused on him and hopefully die with him, leaving his sister Nunnally a better world. As he dies, Nunnally tells him would rather have remained with him in exile.]]

* ''TheButterflyEffect'': [[spoiler:One of the endings has Evan Treborn go back in time to when he was ''literally'' in his mother's womb, and he strangles himself with his umbilical cord, resulting in a stillbirth. This trope was the reason he did this, and the people he cared about did go on to lead happy lives. Ignoring the fact that a fetus cannot strangle itself with its own umbilical cord, there is an implication that Evan's mother had three children before Evan who had his abilities and they did the exact same thing he did as a result of this trope! All in all, this has got to be the creepiest, darkest ending you can ever find in a film!]]

* ''SinCity'': Poor John Hartigan. He went to incredibly great lengths to protect Nancy Callahan from those vicious {{Complete Monster}}s calling themselves the Roarks. He killed Roark Junior AKA That Yellow Bastard to save Nancy's life. Before that, he let himself be {{Blackmail}}ed by Senator Roark to protect Nancy and his family from the Senator's wrath. He sent Nancy away, promising to expose the Roarks and clear his name. However, once he was alone, he killed himself, believing Nancy will be safe from the Senator's wrath this way. In other words, he did it because of this trope!

* ''SacredSins'' by NoraRoberts: Joey is a troubled teenaged boy who is depressed, suicidal, and has dabbled in alcohol and the occult as attempts to cope with his depression. It stems from the fact that his mother and alcoholic father divorced, and it seems that he blames himself. He loves his father, but his father apparently doesn't want anything to do with him. His mother has remarried, the stepfather is basically the opposite of Joey's father, and the two of them have a baby. Joey, unfortunately, does not feel that he deserves to be part of this family. So on Thanksgiving night, after dinner, he sneaks out of the house, goes to a bridge, and jumps off it. He did this fully believing that his mother and stepfather will be happier without him and that they have the baby who can just replace him! He dies in a hospital, leaving his mother, stepfather, and the psychiatrist who tried to help him, Tess Court, in tears. Considering that the trope is played straight, and realistic consequences occurred, one of them being that ''nobody'' was happy as a result of Joey killing himself, this example could qualify as a deconstruction of this trope!

* In a ''TomAndJerry'' short, a duckling thinks Tom is his mother, so Tom takes the opportunity to try and eat him. Eventually the duckling figures it out, and so decides that "if eating me will make my mama happy, then go ahead." It is then that Tom has a change of heart.

* ''{{Mother 3}}'': In the final boss fight, Claus, Lucas's brother, finally comes to his senses. Then he fires an attack that he knows will be deflected back at him and kill him. He apparently did it because he thought his family would be happier without him, and that he should be with his dead mother.

* In ''{{Monster}}'' Johan's whole "perfect suicide" plot was an attempt to eradicate his own existence in order to make his sisterAnna happy. As Anna puts it, this "suicide" was the "only expression of love" that Johan could convey.

* Edward from ''FullmetalAlchemist''.