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Author: Generality

Apr 17th 2012 at 8:37:29 AM

There's another example from the ''{{Constantine}}'' film: at the end, Constantine kills ''himself'' so that the Devil will come up to claim him, and can thus be informed of Mammon's plan and prevent its completion.

Regarding the HarryPotter example:

The essence of HeroicSacrifice is that a hero dies to protect someone else. This is hard to do via suicide. You can take a bullet for someone else, but seldom can you help someone by shooting yourself. This, I think, is the critical distinction between the two tropes. Heroic Suicide is not, at least, immediately protective, but accomplishes a heroic goal through some other means.

Harry Potter manages to satisfy both definitions. What he does is walk up to Voldemort, expecting to be killed. In this way it counts as suicide. He does so knowing that it will weaken Voldemort and make him easier to kill. Thus it is heroic and qualifies for this trope. But there's another element in play. Harry was on a mission to destroy all of the Horcruxes. If he were devoted solely to that mission, he might have waited until he had devised a means to kill the last intentional Horcrux, the snake. As it was, he went to his supposed death knowing that his mission was incomplete, and he did so because Voldemort had threatened to kill all of his friends and loved ones in Hogwarts if he did not. As such, he acted to protect his friends, and so this qualifies as HeroicSacrifice as well.