History Main / WhatIsOneMansLifeInComparison

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': The Fourth Hokage [[spoiler:discusses this with Kushina about]] sealing the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox into [[spoiler:their son]] Naruto, damning him to a childhood of loneliness and misery, in order to protect the village and country.

* At the end of ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain]]'', Kain is given the choice between sacrificing his own life to restore balance to the world, or using the power he has accumulated to "rule the world in its ruination" - and furthermore, he had been deliberately manipulated towards this end, by someone who expected him to make the 'selfless' choice. He refuses, and so the sequel ''Soul Reaver'' kicks off in the CrapsackWorld that results. As the MindScrew threads of the TimeyWimeyBall are slowly unravelled, and the true identity of TheManBehindTheMan is revealed, however, it turns out that Kain's decision was the ''better'' option for the world. If he DID sacrifice himself, it would only condemn the world to dance at the strings of an unknowable EldritchAbomination. After Kain learns this, he chose to appear as a villain, while carefully engineering the timestream, pushing it to the point where he could "make the coin land on the edge", creating a [[TakeAThirdOption Third Option]] for the dilemma.

** In SDR2's final trial, [[spoiler:the survivors have to decide whether to sacrifice themselves to keep Junko Enoshima trapped, or get out of the simulation but cause the world to end all over again.]]
** In NDRV3's 2nd trial, [[spoiler: Kirumi's motive boils down to this. What are the lives of 14 high school students, even talented ones, against the lives of every citizen of Japan?]]

-->Forge: For you, good is a rational act. It's rules, it's calculations, it's your choices plugged into a grand equation, added up, up into evils vanquished. Ideals upheld. ''Civilizations'' saved. How the worth of a few lives pales before such greater goods! What is three, two lives, one life weighed against the world? The world is nothing! ''Nothing''!! Why couldn't we see this, you and I?! We burn the present for the sake of a brighter future and act surprised when all it holds is ash! No, if our minds decide the sum of small evils is a ''greater good'', then it is our ''hearts'' that are rational.
-->Spender:''Please''. Did your ''heart'' tell you to ''scrape open the length of the ghost train?''. It seems to me a bit more calculation ''then'' would have prevented the mistake you're so desperate to make ''my'' responsibility. But I suppose you were too focused on the immediate good of... what, mangling a spirit? Escaping from me? You're selfish. You don't care about the future, you just want to feel good about your actions in the ''present''. Well that's not who ''I'' am. Mayview is my greater good. It's every person I love and have loved plus ten thousand more, and protecting its future is my purpose. Everything else is secondary. [...] I like to keep my hands clean, but if reality ''insists'', I won't let shortsighted morality trump ''practical solutions''.

->'''[[spoiler:Nibbler]]''': What is one life, when weighed against the entire universe?\\

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler: [[BigBad Kyubey]] has this mindset, which is pretty much a requirement when it's your job to harvest the despair of [[TragicMonster those that become]] [[EldritchAbomination Witches]] because of the deal that [[DealWithTheDevil you made with them]] in order to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild save the rest of the universe from entropy.]] In fact it can't think any other way: [[TheStoic it has no emotions]], and therefore [[TheSpock sees everything through logic and reason.]] [[TheNeedsOfTheMany Sacrificing one life for the good of many others]] is a ''[[StrawVulcan logical]]'' ([[MoralSociopathy if not always moral]]) thing to do, so naturally it views this as acceptable. Kyubey cannot even ''[[EvilCannotComprehendGood comprehend]]'' why humans value one life [[WeHaveReserves when there's six billion of them and growing]]: "Your population is nearly seven billion and four more of you are born every ten seconds, so why do you make such a big deal out of the loss of just one of you?"]]

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler: [[BigBad Kyubey]] has this mindset, which is pretty much a requirement when it's your job to harvest the despair of [[TragicMonster those that become]] [[EldritchAbomination Witches]] because of the deal that [[DealWithTheDevil you made with them]] in order to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild save the rest of the universe from entropy.]] In fact it can't think any other way: [[TheStoic it has no emotions]], and therefore [[TheSpock sees everything through logic and reason.]] [[TheNeedsOfTheMany Sacrificing one life for the good of many others]] is a ''[[StrawVulcan logical]]'' ([[MoralSociopathy if not always moral]]) thing to do, so naturally it views this as acceptable. Kyubey cannot even ''[[EvilCannotComprehendGood comprehend]]'' why humans value one life [[WeHaveReserves when there's six billion of them and growing.]]]]

* Used near the end of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', but with a twist: Avatar is perfectly fine with the idea of sacrificing [=him/herself=] to [[spoiler:kill the Fell Dragon Grima for good instead of temporarily sealing him]]. It's their best friend (or husband) Chrom who opposes this idea, and the Avatar quotes this trope to try convincing him that this is the right decision - though in the end, it's up to player to decide.[[spoiler:Though even if the player decides to sacrifice themselves, the ending cutscene shows that they survive through [[ThePowerOfLove the magic of friendship]] anyways.]]

* Used near the end of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', but with a twist: Avatar is perfectly fine with the idea of sacrificing [=him/herself=] to [[spoiler:kill the Fell Dragon Grima for good instead of temporarily sealing him]]. It's their best friend (or husband) Chrom who opposes this idea, and the Avatar quotes this trope to try convincing him that this is the right decision - though in the end, it's up to player to decide.

* ''The Tango Briefing'' by Adam Hall. British spy Literature/{{Quiller}} has to parachute in with a backpack nuke to destroy a crashed plane filled with canisters of nerve gas. But the detonator is smashed and there's no time to parachute in another one. Realising he's going to have to detonate the bomb manually, Quiller asks [[TheHandler Loman]] to spell out exactly what his HeroicSacrifice will achieve. Loman does so, and Quiller sardonically lampshades the trope in his thoughts. [[MyCountryRightOrWrong There's no question of him refusing however.]]

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler: Kyubey has this mindset, which is pretty much a requirement when it's your job to harvest the despair of those that become Witches in order to save the rest of the universe from entropy. In fact it can't think any other way: it has no emotions, and therefore sees everything through logic and reason. Sacrificing one life for the good of many others is a ''logical'' (if not always moral) thing to do, so naturally it views this as acceptable. Kyubey cannot even ''comprehend'' why humans value one life when there's six billion of them and growing.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Fire Emblem: Awakening]]'' puts this trope's words in [[spoiler:the Avatar's]] mouth near the end, to [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments powerful]] [[TearJerker effect]].

* In ''SoundHorizon'''s ''Moira'', fed up with the way Moira torments and manipulates people in life, Thanatos concocts a plan to confront and overthrow her - a plan which involves tormenting and manipulating a man all through his life. [[spoiler:The final two tracks of the album imply that not only did this plan fail, but that Thanatos has since been futilely attempting this plan [[HereWeGoAgain over and over again]] for gods knows how long.]]

* In ''Literature/EnchantressFromTheStars'', if a Federation agent is captured, and it stands to reason that he or she will cannot prevent divulging the information about TheFederation, the agent is supposed to commit suicide. Of course Elana, the main protagonist is only told this ''after'' she is captured during the action which she probably wouldn't undertake had she known this beforehand.
** And since her father doesn't quite trusts her to commit suicide he [[spoiler: secretly sends her fiance to either free ''or'' kill her, only stopping the plan at the last second. Double facepalm since earlier he explicitly declined giving her the ''order'' to die]]
*** Of course, Elana, after encountering the way TheEmpire treats its captives, actually finds the idea attractive.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "In The Pale Moonlight" [[RetiredMonster Garak]] kills a bunch of people for [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans the greater good]], and then, when [[TheCaptain The Sisko]] objects, gives this little speech:

* In ''SoundHorizon'''s ''Moira'', fed up with the way Moira torments and manipulates people in life, Thanatos concocts a plan to confront and overthrow her - A plan which involves tormenting and manipulating a man all through his life. [[spoiler:The final two tracks of the album imply that not only did this plan fail, but that Thanatos has since been futilely attempting this plan [[HereWeGoAgain over and over again]] for gods knows how long.]]

* In ''Film/StrangerThanFiction'', the protagonist is told that he should allow the writer to kill him off, as the contribution to the world's literature as a whole is more important than his own life. It's implied that he [[spoiler: ultimately decides to sacrifice himself, not to for literature's sake, but to save a little boy. This ends up prompting the writer to rethink her whole approach.]]

Compare AMillionIsAStatistic, TheNeedsOfTheMany, PoweredByAForsakenChild and WhatYouAreInTheDark

* Invoked twice in ''Film/FlashGordon'': first by Zarkoff and then by Flash himself, when faced with the prospect of having to sacrifice themselves to save the Earth. "It's not madness, it's a rational transaction: one life in exchange for millions."

* This is the ultimate purpose of The ''Film/CabinInTheWoods'', as it is necessary for a small group of people to be sacrificed in a highly ritualized way to prevent the apocalypse. Worse, it's revealed that there are multiple rituals happening all around the world, and only one actually needs to succeed to keep the world safe. It just so happens that all but the protagonists' had failed already, with zero casualties.

* In ''Babylon 5'' this is invoked to G'Kar by Ambassador Kosh (appearing as G'Kar's father, "Some must be sacrificed so that all may be saved." The encounter changes G'Kar from a revenge-driven Narn patriot into a self-sacrifical warrior. [[spoiler:However, G'Kar later realizes this isn't a statement about the future but explanation of not revealing the Shadows were helping the Centauri. This is because while there are millions of Narns dead now after the war, had the Shadows been outed during or before the side of Good was ready, billions of Narns would be dead.]]