Go Through Me

The compassionate soul may provide a stronger shield than steel or stone.

Buffy: If you want Tara, you'll have to go through all of us.
Spike: Except me.
Xander: Except Spike.
Spike: I don't care what happens.

— Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Family"

Sometimes a character (call her Alice) has something that needs protecting, and she doesn't have anything to protect it with but herself. So that's what she uses. She plants herself firmly between the threat and the target with arms protectively spread wide or defiantly clenched to her sides. If the villain(s) want to pass, they will have to go through Alice. (Actually saying something to this effect is optional.)

This trope is about interposing yourself between something you want to stop and something you want to keep it from — they have to go through you to get there. This can take a variety of forms and lead to a number of outcomes:

When this is done by a badass, you have I Am Your Opponent. This act may cause the enemy to reconsider the wisdom of the current course of action, lead to an epic showdown as they proceed to back up their challenge... or be a set-up for The Worf Effect as the villain proceeds to plow through the badass without breaking stride.

Another form is when Alice really has no way of stopping the enemy aside from being in the way. She may be braced to fight as best she can, even if that means sacrificing her own life. Perhaps she is hoping her display of Friendship or Love will faze the aggressor into reconsidering. She may be armed with nothing but her own defiance and protecting the other with sheer force of will. In other cases, Alice is important to the attacker for some reason — this makes the Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter and Living MacGuffin common participants in this trope. She may even just be stalling for time so The Cavalry will arrive.

Alice being in the way usually makes the attacker stop and consider their next course of action for at least a moment. If they don't care what happens to Alice, they may happily go through her anyway.

Occasionally, a whole group of characters will jump between the target and the attacker, and the attacker will either back off, intimidated by these numbers (if he's a Villain with Good Publicity, having underestimated the hero's popularity versus his own), or make an impressive Foe-Tossing Charge.

Unfortunately, what works for the hero can work for the villain too, and if the Big Bad has a Brainwashed victim or Face–Heel Turn-er around that the hero is unwilling to "go through," they can put an All-Loving Hero in a very tight spot. Don't try this on an Anti-Hero — you can't be sure they won't Shoot the Dog. In fact, don't try this on any hero with a gun, because they'll always find a way to slip a bullet past the victim's head and into yours.

A particularly powerful or numerous enemy in this situation leads to a You Shall Not Pass! situation.

This can also be Played for Laughs: Bob throws himself between Alice and his newest Precious, Precious Car, knowing that every time she borrows one of his cars, it comes back scorched, filled with bullet holes, and covered in alien guts… followed by Alice casually stepping around Bob, hotwiring the car, and driving off.

If this is said to (or by!) the Intangible Man, expect hilarity to ensue as he, she, or it is very likely to act as a Literal Genie. Also, in a rare horror situation, expect the recipient to literally tear the speaker in half and go through.

See also: Protest by Obstruction, Protected by a Child, Standing Between the Enemies, Taking the Bullet, I Am Spartacus, sometimes used as a sneakier way to protect the hero. Contrast Pietà Plagiarism, Crucified Hero Shot, Cower Power. Liable to Threat Backfire.

Here is a compilation with a lot of examples.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Early in the Pluto Arc of the Astro Boy manga, Pluto comes to Astro Boy's house to kill him. But Professor Ochamizu, Astro Boy's adopted father, intervenes and yells at the two-story-tall killer robot that if he wants to fight his son, he has to go through him first. He even headbutts Pluto's leg to make a point. Since Pluto is programmed to not harm humans, he flies off.
• Belle (2021): During the climax, Suzu physically shields Kei (whose virtual persona in U is the Dragon) and his younger brother, Tomo, from their abusive father. When he finally manages to pull her away, Suzu, now with a part of her face ripped off by him, stands before him with a Death Glare, refusing to move or flinch even while he continues to threaten her. It shocks him enough that he backs off.
• In Berserk, Jill (the village girl during the Fairy Arc) does this for Guts when Rosine attacks him. Normally, this would be completely unnecessary (this being Guts and all), but since Guts is poisoned, and Jill ends up being the only person Rosine cares about… it works.
• Bleach:
  • A character inversion: Orihime's introductory arc has her nearly getting killed by her Hollowfied brother, but Ichigo comes to the rescue. He then shouts "If you have to kill Inoue, then you're gonna have to kill me first!".
  • In the Soul Society arc, Rangiku does this when Gin Ichimaru is about to stab an unconscious Momo. After she dares him to fight her, he leaves without a word.
    Rangiku: Please, put away your sword, captain Ichimaru. If not... I will be your opponent!
• In Bokurano Chizu's older sister Ichiko did this, when her sister, having gone into a Yandere state after all the abuse she went through, was trying to kill the teacher who molested her and was to blame for her Break the Cutie session with an Humongous Mecha. For added drama, Ichiko actually lays the blame on herself and dares Chizu to kill her. Chizu stops and focuses on battling the enemy robot, and then she dies.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • During Touma's first fight against Accelerator, to stop the level six shift project and save the remaining 10000 or so Misaka clones after Touma was seemingly knocked out and close to dying, and the Misaka clones just used the windmills to destroy Accelerators compressed wind attack, Mikoto does this to protect said clone from Accelerator, knowing she'll likely die. While Accelerator stops to talk smack, Touma starts standing up again, to the surprise of both Accelerator and Mikoto.
  • A Certain Scientific Accelerator: Esther attempts this against the Scavenger girls, putting herself in this position in an attempt to stop them. It doesn't work however, and it's only because of Hasami and later Accelerator intervening that truly stops them.
• In Chrono Crusade (manga version), Aion attempts to attack Mary Magdalene to retrieve Pandaemonium's memories, but Chrono throws himself in the way. Aion, knowing well that demons have regenerative powers, simply stabs through him to get to his target.
  • History Repeats later in the manga, when Aion does the very same thing in an attempt to kill Rosette, who is also being possessed by Pandaemonium. Yet again he stabs through Chrono, but this time his attack is blocked by the watch, a symbol of Chrono and Rosette's relationship.
• In the second season of Code Geass, Urabe of the Four Holy Swords does this in order to let Lelouch/Zero and Kallen get away from the Britannian Super Prototype that's single-handedly holding all three off. Before this, Urabe was generally seen as That One Guy and the least distinct member of the Holy Swords; afterwards, the fandom gave him a posthumous promotion to badass.
• In Cowboy Bebop, Lin jumps between Vicious and Spike, preventing Spike from taking his shot. This exchange does not end well for anyone.
• In The Demon Girl Next Door, when Yuko is mistakenly convinced that Momo is coming to kill her mother, she stands in the way of the oncoming pink juggernaut and refuses to let Momo into her apartment despite knowing she can't really do anything to stop her. Although the clever bit of wordplay^note (Momo used the term 対峙 'confront' but Yuko interpreted it as 退治 'exterminate'; they are both pronounced "taiji") that leads up to this moment defuses the scene's tension, Yuko shows some true courage for the first time in the series, standing up to someone who had so far alternately just vexed and intimidated her.
  Yuko: I don't care if she keeps secrets, and no matter how illogical it may be, I want to protect my mom, Ryo, and this house that my father will someday come back to! Magical Girl, Momo Chiyoda! If you want to get into this house, then you're going to have to defeat me to do it!
• Used repeatedly throughout the Digimon series. Wizardmon does this for Gatomon in Digimon Adventure, Kari does this to help snap Andromon out of his Mind Control in Digimon Adventure 02, Tommy does this in Digimon Frontier, and Hiro chooses to be a human shield for all his friends against a seemingly unstoppable digimon in episode 13 of Digimon Ghost Game.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • Just before Nappa is about to deal the killing blow to little Gohan, Piccolo quickly intercepts the attack. With his arms spread wide, he ultimately sacrifices himself in order to protect the life of his young friend/pupil, and son of his former adversary, Goku.
  • A villainous example occurs in the Android Saga. When Android 19 is draining Goku's energy, Gero puts himself between the other Z-Fighters and tells them that they're going to just stand there and watch Goku die unless they can get past him, punctuating his statement by shooting Piccolo in the chest with his Eye Beams. Of course, he doesn't account for Vegeta's Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • During the Buu Saga, prior to Goku and Majin Vegeta's fight, the Supreme Kai steps in-between the two, stating that Goku will have to get around him if he truly believes this is the right decision. Goku shocks everyone present when he charges a Ki Blast and makes it clear he will blast him if he doesn't get out of the way, and ultimately, the Supreme Kai is forced to give in, realizing there's nothing he can do to stop them.
• Dragon Ball Super: When Merged Zamasu fires a blast in an effort to kill Future Trunks, Vegeta immediately jumps in front of his son to shield him from the attack.
• Subverted in Fairy Tail when an injured Erza throws herself in front of Natsu to try and stop Jellal from killing him, reminding him that he needs her alive as a sacrifice if he wants to revive Zeref with the R-System. Jellal admits she's right...but because he's already running through Sanity Slippage and a Villainous Breakdown, he decides he'll worry about grabbing another wizard with comparable power after he deals with the pests in front of him and fires it anyways. This causes Simon to jump in front of them to take the shot and dying from it, Erza breaking down in tears at the death of one of her closest childhood friends at the hands of another of said friends, and Natsu going into an Unstoppable Rage at the sight of Erza's despair and Jellal's mocking of Simon's sacrifice.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Alphonse defends a Heroic BSoD-ing Hawkeye from Lust by pulling a "Go through me". It doesn't work, because Lust has no qualms about killing a sacrificial candidate, and Al and Hawkeye are only saved by Mustang's Big Damn Hero/Kill It with Fire entrance.
  • Edward manages to play this trope straight for the villain and the kneeling victim behind him at the same time later: he jumps in front of Winry, who is pointing a gun at Scar, to prevent her from shooting him because he knows that if she shoots (and inevitably misses) Scar will have to kill her as an enemy. He then convinces Winry to not kill him and have revenge for her parents' deaths.
• In Gamaran, during the second round of the Tournament Arc, Gama tries to take on both Saizo and Muraku to allow their target, Naoyoshi, to run away safely in the more crowded part of the city. When he's half-paralyzed by Saizo's Fudo Kanashibari no Jutsu, Naoyoshi steps back and tries to challenge Saizo to a duel. It works because 1) now that Naoyoshi isn't going anywhere Muraku and Saizo do not longer need to adhere to the temporary Enemy Mine and 2) Muraku, predictably enough, stops Saizo from attacking Naoyoshi so that Gama can recover and counterattack.
• In GaoGaiGar FINAL, the reprogrammed Repli-mobile unit breaks their brainwashing to stand in front of the still-brainwashed Gai and the Goldion Hammer and King J-Der.
  • Earlier, Repli-GaoGaiGar is charging GaoFighGar with Hell and Heaven, and right before he connects... "ERASER HEAD XL!" Then the Repli-Jin tries again, and ChoRyuJin just stands there in front of Guy, soaking the attack with his Mirror Chest. Badass.
• Gundam:
  • Relena pulls this off to protect Heero at the start of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. She then pulls it again when Heero is in his Gundam and about to prance around during a ball.
    • Noin tries this to stop Zechs from returning to his base, and he debates killing her, but he instead opts to just fly around her instead.
  • Also seen in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, when Allelujah does this protect Marie/Soma from her Parental Substitute Sergei, saying he can shoot him if Sergei doesn't let Marie/Soma fight in the future. At the last second, she leaps in front of him to take the bullet that wasn't shot in the first place. This leads to a moment between Soma and Sergei, in which she decides to go with Allelujah but not before telling Sergei that she loves him as if he had been her father.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: A subversion shows up in the final battle when Luna tries to stop the fight between former-Lead Shinn and Athrun. Shinn, however, is so out of control by that point that he nearly does go through her, and would have killed her had Athrun not intervened.
• Happens at least four times in Higurashi: When They Cry. When Shion is about to hit Satoko with a chair, Rika and Rena step in and she's ultimately stopped by Satoshi. When Shion says she's going to kill Teppei, Keiichi steps in, saying that won't work and only bring more pain. When the whole gang tries to save Rika, Rena and Mion do this (although only in the anime). When the Yamainu are about to reach the gang inside the underground chamber, Shion steps in so they can all escape. When Miyo is about to kill Mion with her last bullet, Hanyuu stands in the way, insisting she's a more appropriate target.
• In the fourth episode of Imma Youjo, an assassin tries to kill Maya but is stopped by her servant Anne, who jumps between them. While he contemplates whether or not to kill Anne, as well, Count Pickingel sneaks around and backstabs him for a considerable amount of damage.
• In Izetta: The Last Witch the titular character Izetta was cornered by an angry mob and attempted to lynch her when she was a child because they accused her of causing a fire. Izetta's Childhood Friend Princess Finé stood between her and the angry mob. Even when he accidentally injured Finé, she stood her ground and protected Izetta, and she eventually forced the angry mob to stand down.
• In Kiddy Grade, when Éclair's becomes angry after the Aure military police gun down a wave of protesters, she dares the Nouvlesse to shoot her down along with the rest of them.
• In The King of Fighters: KYO manga, Kyo's girlfriend Yuki stands in between Kyo and Iori◊ to stop them from fighting in the school grounds. It doesn't really work since Iori grabs her, but then he releases her when Kyo says "You Wouldn't Hit a Girl who can't fight back!" This is followed by Athena also trying to stop them... but since she's an Action Girl she decides to use her Attack Reflector instead, which accidentally clashes with Iori's flames and pulls her into his memories for a short while, which causes her an Heroic BSoD — but at least it makes Iori stop and leave the place.
• Lakshu attempts to mix this and Talking Your Way Out in Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato, trying to convince Gai to not kill Shurato who is both his rival and his best friend. It doesn't work.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Played with in the movie adaptation of A's. Vita tries to do this to protect Hayate from Nanoha and Fate when she and the rest of the Wolkenritter run into them visiting Hayate. However, Nanoha and Fate weren't threatening Hayate and she scolds Vita for acting rudely to her guests.
  • Auris tries to protect her father from Zest in StrikerS, though Zest merely wanted answers and had no intention of fighting. Unfortunately, she was protecting him from the wrong direction, as a disguised Due sneaks up behind him while all of this is happening and impales him right through the chest.
• Kobayashi does this for Ilulu when she's attacked by Cremene in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Despite the rule that dragons are not supposed to harm people on Earth, Cremene just swats her aside. It does solidify Ilulu's Heel–Face Turn though, leading her to do the same thing for Kobayashi immediately after. It still doesn't make Cremene hesitate though. Instead, his thanking the gods for his good luck ends up summoning a very angry Tohru, who proceeds to beat him within an inch of his life for hurting Kobayashi.
• In the final battle of My-HiME, Yuuichi attempts to shield Mai as the Obsidian Lord advances on the two with a sword, but Mikoto then attacks him, shattering his pendant, separating him from Reito's body, and enabling Mai to destroy him and Miroku with Kagutsuchi.
• Naruto: Subverted when Hinata tries to protect Naruto from Pain, after finally confessing her love for him. After a brief fight where Hinata actually pushes Pain back◊, he stabs her and insinuates to Naruto that she's dead. Naruto instantly goes into an Unstoppable Rage and almost releases the Nine-Tails.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Homura and Luna pull this on a Negi consumed by his Superpowered Evil Side. Double points for Luna since she actually dispelled her Master of Disguise powers (revealing herself to everyone as Asuna's doppelganger, aside from Fate's group and the small group from Negi's class who knew beforehand) right before that.
  • Hilariously done in the Mahora festival arc, when Negi is possessed by World Tree's magic, and won't stop until he kisses Nodoka (which she requested). Asuna protects Nodoka and shouts: "If you want to kiss Honya-chan, you've gotta kiss me first!" Freudian Slip much, Asuna?
• One Piece:
  • Subverted as it nears the climax of the Enies Lobby Arc. Luffy, totally worn out from going into Gear Second twice and Gear Third once, is about to be finished by Rob Lucci. Fortunately, Usopp takes off his disguise as Sogeking and tells Luffy to either get back up or let himself take Lucci on; both he and Luffy know that he can't win. Luffy gets back up.
  • In the Paramount War Arc, Ace places himself between Admiral Akainu and Luffy. And doesn't use his Logia intangibility to dodge Akainu's magma fist. This was the first time a major non-flashback character ever died in One Piece.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • In the very first episode, Ash does this to defend Pikachu from a flock of rampaging Spearow, when the two just met and Pikachu hates his guts. This ultimately earns him Pikachu's respect, and Pikachu jumps into the air and launches a massive Thunder Attack that knocks out the entire flock in one shot.
  • Seen again later during a competition for fighting type Pokémon. The ring is sabotaged by Team Rocket with glue so that their rival (Anthony)'s Hitmonchan is stuck and unable to properly defend itself. The trainer's teen daughter Rebecca (who had just befriended Ash, Misty, and Brock) loses it, jumps into the ring, and places herself between Hitmonchan and its charging opponent, begging for Anthony's Pokémon not to be hurt. Her dad, in turn, jumps in front of her and ends up taking the hit.
• In Ranma ½, after being weakened by a moxibustion technique, Ranma is swarmed by a bevy of foes. He's saved at the last second when Ryouga pops in between them, blocking their attacks. He may be Ranma's sworn nemesis, but he will stand by his honour and protect the weak and helpless —to Ranma's endless irritation.
• Rosario + Vampire has Kurumu Kurono and the rest of the gang get in between Ghoul Tsukune and Inner Moka, saying that they won't let her kill him, despite his being beyond redemption. Kurumu is promptly rewarded for her efforts via a slash wound to the chest by the defended.
• Inverted in Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin has Shishio down and Yumi throws herself between them to protect Shishio. Shishio then literally goes through Yumi with his katana to get Kenshin. Yumi knew he'd do that and was counting on it; she wanted to for once be useful to him on the battlefield. He still held her in his arms as she died, before retaking the fight.
  • In the very reviled (and apparently canon-disowned) Seishouhen OAV, it's played completely straight by Kaoru, who throws herself on top of a wounded Kenshin during his fight with Enishi. Since Enishi literally can't bring himself to kill young women after the death of his sister Tomoe, it mostly works.
• Sailor Moon features an episode in which Sailor Moon launches her Moon Tiara Action attack against Nephrite, but her friend Naru intervened because she's in love with Nephrite, and so she was forced to stop it.
• In Samurai Champloo, blind assassin Sara has a bleeding Mugen on the ground and is about to run him through when Fuu flings herself on top of him. Accompanied by a "Don't do it!" wail.
• In the anime version of Sengoku Basara, when Hideyoshi was about to kill the unconscious Masamune, Masamune's remaining followers threw themselves over their lord's body in a last-ditch attempt to protect him and die with him. Only Hideyoshi's memory of Keiji shielding him to save his life prevented Hideyoshi from going through with the kill.
• By Episode 11 of Sk8 the Infinity, the main villain ADAM has an unhealthy obsession with the protagonist Langa but despises the protagonist Reki. When Reki finally pulls through a match against ADAM even after he graphically injures him, ADAM essentially goes to grievously harm or possibly even kill him, but Langa places his body right in front of Reki so as to protect him—even though ADAM showed that he was willing to hurt Langa before.
• In Soul Eater, Soul would normally be capable of taking the attack without damage (or not as much damage) but since he was harmed by Chrona and Ragnorak, Maka refuses to block with him in his weapon form causing him to switch to his human form and end up with his torso cloven open to block the next attack.
• In Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, Nene does this several times throwing herself in front of Hanako or Kou to protect them from certain individuals.
• Mocked in The Tower of Druaga, where the main character declares that if The Rival wants to fight him, he'll have to fight him first.
• Hwaryun from Tower of God attacked Rachel during the CrownGame, which immediately prompted Bam to go in between them. She just as quickly started beating him until his Defence Mechanism Superpower kicked in.
• During Vash's Heroic BSoD in the Trigun anime, a whole lynch mob is taking out its frustration and despair on him, especially now that he won't lift a finger to defend himself. In the end, Meryl puts herself between Vash and a gunman to stop the mob from killing Vash, ignoring all pleas from said gunman that he will kill her too if she comes any closer.
• In Episode 3 of Unlimited Fafnir, Yuu does this to protect Iris from getting killed by Mitsuki. She had good reason to kill Iris, as she would forcefully turn into a dragon if the White Leviathan attacking the school got close enough to her. Fortunately, Yuu manages to devise a plan to stop the dragon before it could get to Iris.
• Ushio and Tora:
  • Reiko does this for his father (who was a vengeful spirit at that time) in Episode 3, despite Ushio already having a charging momentum with the Beast Spear. Fortunately, the spear simply phases through his body and exorcises the father. As the humans were surprised at this, Tora explains that the spear is meant to harm and kill only the youkai.
  • Ushio does this for Tora in Episode 5 to stop him from being killed by Hyou.
• In The Vision of Escaflowne Merle puts herself, on foot and unarmed, between Van and the mecha of Eria and Neria, and stops them because she reminds them of themselves.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: In the Virtual World arc, Kaiba is just about to defeat his stepbrother Noa in a duel when Mokuba, who's been brainwashed by Noa, steps in front of Noa and declares this. Kaiba is unable to attack his little brother and cancels his turn, giving Noa a chance to catch up.
• In Zoids: Chaotic Century, Raven, in his new Geno Saurer, had Van dead to rights and was about to finish him with the Charged Particle Cannon, until Moonbay parked her Gustav between the Blade Liger and Geno Saurer. Surprisingly, this worked and the Gustav survived the hit from point-blank range, albeit barely, requiring a new section of armor for the remainder of the series.
  Moonbay: I may not have the weapons but I got armor as thick as your head...I DARE YOU TO TRY AND CUT THROUGH ME!

Comic Books

• Age of Apocalypse:
  • During a massive battle, Colossus sees that his little sister is in trouble and rushes to save her, with gusto. Iceman steps up and says something along the lines of "No can do pal, if you want to get out of here you'll have to go through m-"... and the next panel shows Colossus smashing Iceman into a million pieces. (Which is odd, given that Iceman is considerably more powerful than Colossus).
  • The trope got double-duty: Colossus was in full-on Roaring Rampage of Revenge mode at the time. The next one to pull the same trick was Kitty Pryde, his girlfriend, aka Shadowcat. She had the power to phase through any solid matter; he knew this and knew she would phase out. She knew he would never hurt her, and didn't phase. Unfortunately, Colossus was so blinded by rage... At least he instantly realized how crazed he had become and stopped dead in his tracks, and moments later the timeline was undone, but still.
• At one point in the Astro City "Dark Age" story arc, Royal Williams is trapped on a rooftop as the Blue Knight prepares to shoot him. Suddenly, his brother Charles appears, standing before Royal and insisting that the Knight will have to shoot him first if he wants to get Royal.
• Bone: Discussed only in the color edition of the "Dragonslayer" arc: when Gran'ma Ben tells Thorn that she as a Veni-Yan-Cari "can walk freely between the Waking World and the Dreaming World" and that the Agents of the Locust will be after her, Fone Bone barges in and tells Gran'ma Ben, "They'll have to go through me first!" but she tells him that they won't even notice him.
• Towards the end of the Marvel Civil War crossover, the duel between Iron Man and Captain America is interrupted by a bunch of civilians (including, but not limited to, a cop and a fireman) tackling them to stop the battle.
• In Legion of Super-Heroes story arc The Great Darkness Saga, Shadow Lass forms an energy shield around herself and Child Izaya to protect him from Darkseid. When Darkseid asks if she's serious, Shadow Lass points out she has nothing to lose.
• Kaeloo: One story has Stumpy trying to sell his lawnmower to Mr. Cat. When Kaeloo sees Stumpy with a lawnmower, she assumes that he's going to mow the lawn and worries that he'll kill all the plants, so she stands in front of them and declares that Stumpy will have to run her over with the lawnmower before he dares to touch any of the plants.
• Parodied in the Italian comic book Rat-Man:
  Ortolani (narrating a flashback, in which he's surrounded by thugs): I thought I was done for, but then... a shadow appeared.
  Rat-Man (in the flashback): If you want him... you'll have to go through me.
  Ortolani (back in the present): Marvellous. Just marvellous. (pauses) They put us in the same hospital room, so we quickly became friends.
• Superman Family:
  • In the Superman comic that introduces Bloodsport, the villain downs Superman with a Kryptonite bullet and closes in for the kill...only for Jimmy Olsen to stop him halfway and threaten Bloodsport with one of his own guns if he doesn't leave Supes alone. Bloodsport backs off.
  • In the Supergirl 2011 storyline Crucible, Maxima wants to bring Superboy back to Crucible Academy. Supergirl steps in her way and declares that Maxima will have to go through her◊.
    Maxima: "Now is not the time to discuss it. Comet is injured. My orders stand. The clone is coming with me, whether you like it or not. "
    Supergirl: "If you want him— You'll have to go through ME!"
• Vader's Quest: The people of Jazbina form a crowd to keep Vader from killing or capturing Luke once Vader’s men die, forcing him to retreat. Of course, it might not have worked if not for Vader’s fatherly concern for Luke.
  Syanya: You’ll fight a planet alone?
  After a short pause, Vader powers down his lightsaber, utters a threat, and walks off.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): In Judgment In Infinity, the Horseman of Death is about to kill off Wonder Girl and Starfire when a crowd of non-powered people step between him and both women.
  • In Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, Batman comes to Wonder Woman, looking to take a young woman under her protection to the police. When Bruce states he doesn't want to go through her, Diana informs him that he can't go through her.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) fanfiction, during the Yonaguni battle against the Many, Monster X actively tries to keep the Many away from the nearby town to keep the human inhabitants safe.
• In the Miraculous Ladybug fic An Act of Protection, Ladybug and Chat Noir are mobbed by reporters following an akuma battle, who cut them off from the exit despite the fact that they're pleading with them to let them through before their transformations run out. Ladybug is forced to push Chat into a closet when he starts to change back and stand guard for him, sacrificing her secret identity to protect his. After she changes back herself, she then to the reporters and says, "My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I am the superheroine Ladybug and if you want to open this door to find out the identity of Chat Noir, you’re going to have to go through me."
• In 'And Thus...' (A MHA / XC2 Crossover) Izumi tries to protect Pyra that way during the USJ incident when being confronted by Malos and Jin despite being hurt from trying to use One For All against them. Then Jin goes through her.
• Boy With a Scar: In Chapter 12, Luffy and Zoro curb-stomp the Black Cats before they even reach the Gecko Islands. When they get there the morning of the would-be invasion, Zoro one-shots Jango while Luffy defeats Kuro, all in front of Usopp and Kaya. Usopp is scared out of his mind, knowing that he's horribly outmatched, but with Kaya unable to flee, he stands his ground, defending Kaya with his life. It earns Luffy's respect and an invitation to join his crew long before he realizes that Usopp is Yasopp's son.
• Power Girl story A Force of Four provides several examples:
  • When Mars reveals himself, Queen Hippolyte stands between him and the remainder heroes. Wonder Woman tries to persuade her to stay behind her to no avail:
    Wonder Woman: Fury, Mother, get behind me.
    Hippolyta: Never. I stand between Mars and all others, no matter what the cost. I stand in the name of Aphrodite.
  • Mala "invites" Fury and Nuklon to step aside as he kills Power Girl. Both heroes declare that is not going to happen.
• HERZ: When a pack of loonies tries to shoot her niece Akiko, Rei stepped in the way and declared she will not allow that anybody threatens her.
• In The Black Cauldron fic Hope for the Heartless, the resurrected Horned King gets a chance to have revenge on the pig-keeper Taran whom he believes to be responsible for his death. However, after a sudden earthquake interrupts him, he's about to finish what he started before that. Avalina, his Morality Pet, rushes between the Horned King and Taran, begging with teary eyes the lich to stop. After struggling internally for a while, he concedes after remembering how Taran saved Avalina from certain death during the earthquake. Begrudgingly admitting that he owes the boy for that, the lich repays the debt by replacing Taran’s dislocated shoulder and leaves with Avalina.
• Last Child of Krypton: In chapter 11 of the original version Leliel is Mind Raping Asuka. Right when her mind is about to collapse, Shinji steps between them and says:
  Shinji:"If you want her, you have to go through me."
• Memoirs of a Master has a more abstract version of this with Master Oogway telling Song's mother that there is no way he will let his student be removed from his custody and subject to the torturous foot binding. To punctuate this, Oogway tells Song's mother that if her father has a problem with this, he's welcome to come and fight the Supreme Master of Kung Fu if he dares.
• In Mirai SMP, Cooper is standing in front of Travis protectively when Techno finds them hiding.
  Hiding in the corner of the area beside a tree stump are two boys - one behind it, and the other in a protective stance in front of him.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles: Naruto is angry at Kiba after learning that the latter accidentally grabbed Hinata's breast. Mina stands in front of Kiba and spreads her arms to prevent Naruto from harming her boyfriend. She then tells the Uzumaki she's willing to let him grope her breasts as a payback for what the Inuzuka did, much to the shock of everyone present.
• The Second Try: In an uncharacteristic display of protectiveness, Rei stands her ground against a JSSDF patrol to allow Aki to run and hide.
  Rei:(angrily) "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HARM HER!"
• In Star Trek: The Original Series fanfic Star Trek Something Wicked This Way Comes, Spock pulls this trope, creating a mental shield to protect Kirk from an alien capable of some pretty nasty Mind Rape. It works in that Kirk is safe, but Spock himself is nearly killed as the alien is powerful enough to break the Vulcan's mind.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic A Voice Among the Strangers, Rainbow Dash and Ebony both do this when Jessica is almost recaptured by the Flim Flam brothers. It wasn't necessary - the royal guards had already shown up - but it's especially moving since until this point Jessica didn't quite trust Rainbow Dash, who in turn didn't trust Ebony.
• A hero example in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World: Paul interposes himself between an annoying civilian and the end of the line they're standing on because Paul is pissed at the way the civilian treated a couple of Svenjaya ahead of him. Paul basically says, “You'll have to go through me to go through that door we're on line for, unless you apologize to the Svenjaya.” The guy isn't quite stupid enough to physically challenge Paul but tries to go around him. Paul takes the guy by the sleeve and applies enough pressure to the cloth to render it into dust. The civilian runs away.
• In the Twice Upon an Age series, if anything in Thedas wants to get to the Lady Inquisitor, it's going to have to go through either the Lord Inquisitor or Commander Cullen first. Or both.
• In Time Fixers: Nicktoons of the Future "Shadow of the Past", Dark Dan Phantom returns and is about to do something horrible to Danny. Before he can come close, Timmy, SpongeBob, and Tak break out of their restraints and stand between them. The latter telling him, "If you wanna kill Danny, you're gonna have to go through us!"
• Kara of Rokyn: During "Kara and the Dreamsmith", Dream of the Endless stands between Death and Kara and declares her sister will have to go through him. Both of them know Death can easily do so, but she doesn't want to, and she indeed relents.
  Dream: I said, the woman will not be taken. She is under my protection. To touch her, sister, you must touch me first.
• Golden Threads Tie Us: When Grima finally storms Ylisse and hurts Lucina, Severa steps between both combatants and shouts he'll have to go through her.
  "With the next blow, I will kill you." Grima chuckled. "The Gemstone and the Emblem. Now."
  "Never!" Lucina gritted out.
  "Still you resist me? Very well. Die, if you wish."
  Those words spurred Severa's body into action. She lifted her sword again and edged her way between Lucina and Grima. Her legs trembled, and she wasn't sure if she could stand for much longer. "You'll have to go through me!"
  "Severa, what are you - ?" Lucina asked, her voice hollow.
  "What stupidity is this?" Grima sounded annoyed.
  Severa stared down Grima. She was at death's door, or as close as it as she could get, but she felt surprisingly calm as she huffed. "Lucina, I'll stop her attacks...even if it kills me. Now run! While you've still got the chance!"
• Together centers on a recently resurrected Laurel telling her friends and family that she's Back from the Dead. Sara eventually shows up, saying that Gideon's sensors picked up a "time anomaly". Upon seeing Laurel, Sara states if her resurrection is the anomaly, anyone who wants to undo it (read:kill Laurel again) will have to go through her. Oliver and Thea silently nod, expressing the same sentiment.
• The Many Dates of Danny Fenton "Danny and Kim" provides an especially gut-wrenching example: Mr. Kaboom puts himself between Danny and a crazed, monstrous Yandere Katie, saying he deserves to get pummeled for letting Katie get so out of control. Thankfully, Katie is moved enough that she stops her rampage.
• Lost Reflections: Berry Punch tries this when she and her friends get attacked by the mercenaries. It doesn't go well.
• The Mountain and the Wolf: When the Wolf and Drogon start fighting, Jon puts himself between him and Daenerys, but the Wolf actually goes around to attack Drogon. Then Daenerys throws herself in front of Drogon, and it ends about as well as you'd expect when a normal human tries to block a Chaos warrior. Note that the Wolf wasn't actually trying to go through her, she just pulled a Senseless Sacrifice at the wrong time.
• In Evangelion/Street Fighter crossover Neon Genesis Evangelion Senshi No Michi, Gouken decides to go to Tokyo-3 and take his students back when he figures out Shinji and Asuka are being forced to get into war machines and fight giant monsters. Before he can properly give Gendo a piece of his mind, though, Rei steps between them. Gouken can take her, but she is good enough of a martial artist that he would need to use advanced techniques. Since he does not want to hurt her, Gouken reluctantly backs down.
• When Chihiro Fujisaki's true gender is exposed in Class 78th Watches the Future, Genocide Jill attempts to kill him since "he's an adorable boy". However, she finds her plan halted by not only Mondo Owada and Leon Kuwata, whom Chihiro had confided in earlier along with Makoto Naegi, but also Sakura Ogami and Aoi Asahina. This gets more heartwarming since after The Reveal, Chihiro was worried that his classmates would hate him, but this proves they still accept him, and even sympathize with his reason for crossdressing (an aversion of School Bullying Is Harmless left him with crippling inferiority of his physical strength).
• Han Solo does this in the Star Wars fic The Princess And the Pirate.. He’s just been badly beaten by the imperials who’ve captured him, Luke and Leia, and is mostly just trying to focus on not passing out. However, when the guards come and want Leia next, Han is on his feet, giving a Death Glare and saying he’ll kill them. Luke gets in on it, too.
• Blizzard does this in the The Legend of Spyro fic The Portal when he first meets Zobek who tells him that he intends to turn his girlfriend, Storm, into one of his followers.
• In the Star Wars Rebels fanfiction A Sword to Pass, when Tyr Vizsla makes his attention to kill Ezra, who is currently unconscious after being seriously injured, known, Sabine rises to challenge him. It backfires badly on her.

Films — Animation

• In 101 Dalmatians, Horace and Jasper corner the ninety-nine puppies in a room after Sergeant Tibs tried to help them escape. As the two men are approaching the puppies, Tibs has his arms stretched out as far as he can reach in front of the puppies in a desperate attempt to protect them from Horace and Jasper.
• Astro Boy: Tenma and Elefun tag-team this ultimatum while protecting Astro from the military. Of course, Stone was happy to have them both shot, but there was a small interruption.
  "I think Metro City can learn to get along without you."
• Played almost word-for-word with Sid in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, when the mother T. rex comes to reclaim her children. Enough said.
  "Listen! These are MY kids, and you have to go through me to get them!"
  • It backfires, however, as Mama T-Rex is obviously bigger and stronger than him.
• The Castle of Cagliostro: Princess Clarisse does this twice for Lupin, at different points during the film.
  • The first happens near the midpoint after Lupin's been shot and left critically wounded by Jordo. Not only does she prevent Lupin from falling to his death, she shields him with her own body and tells Cagliostro that if he intended to kill Lupin, he'd have to kill her too. Cagliostro responds by having Jordo open fire around them... with each shot narrowly missing by inches. Clarisse doesn't budge, despite fearing for both their lives.
  • At the film's climax, Cagliostro prepares to fire at Lupin as he hangs from a ledge of the castle's clock tower. Clarisse literally leaps to Lupin's rescue, by jumping from the tower and attempting to take Cagliostro with her; complete with a Big "NO!".
• Done in the climax of A Bug's Life when Flik's fake bird plan goes off the rails after catching fire mid-flight, exposing Flik as the brains behind the deception and prompting Hopper to beat the shit out of him, all while Flik points out that the grasshoppers are the weak ones for needing to extort food from the ants every year instead of feeding themselves. Just as Hopper's about to make the killing blow, Princess Atta rushes between them and gives Hopper a "Get out or else" warning before all the ants attack.
• At the beginning of the Hungarian animated cult film Cat City, cats break into a mouse bank with a tank. The clerk shouts: "No! Over my dead body!" The tank promptly shoots him.
• At the end of The Fox and the Hound, Amos insists on shooting Tod the fox despite the fact that he just rescued him and his hunting dog Copper from a bear (which furthermore happened in the middle of them hunting said fox). Copper places himself between them, however, causing Amos to give in.
• Kovu tells his mother she’ll never hurt Simba or Kiara while he’s there standing between her and them in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
• In Monsters vs. Aliens, this is said by B.O.B. Being a Blob Monster, however, the mook does go through him—literally!
• During the climax of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree, human Celestia does this in an effort to protect her sister and some of their students from the magic-crazy Gaea Everfree. Fortunately for all involved, this example is non-lethal; Gaea simply traps the group in the mess hall.
• Played seriously in the movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut when the kids of South Park all stand around Terrence and Phillip in order to stop Sheila Broflovski and the American military from executing them. Unfortunately they were too short.
• Pocahontas placing her head on John Smith's before her father Chief Powhatan tries to execute him.
  "If you kill him, you'll have to kill me, too!"
• At the climax of Wolfwalkers, Robyn puts herself in front of a crossbow wielded by her father to protect a caged wolf.

Films — Live-Action

• Barbarella: Barbarella bravely puts herself between Pygar and a mob of Sogoites tormenting him and about to kill him.
• Used in Batman Returns, with Max Shreck's son Chip stepping in to save him from the Penguin's Red Triangle gang. The gang are not impressed and pull weapons on him, prompting Chip to say "Dad, go! Save yourself!" Admittedly Max was never actually in any danger since Penguin wanted him alive, but Chip didn't know that.
• At the finale of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Doug attempts to invoke this trope to stop Leslie from getting to Taylor. Unfortunately, Leslie doesn't even break stride to smash his head against a wall and knock him out cold.
• In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, after Koba, a bonobo, goes to the dam the humans are trying to repair to get electric power under the supervivion of the apes, he angrily demands to speak to Caesar about how he saw the humans stockpiling guns and ammo from an old munitions' dump. He sees the teenaged Alexander, and tosses him onto the ground, Malcolm, his father, goes and tries to shield him, but as Koba closes in to beat them to death, Maurice, a much bigger and stronger orangutan, defiantly stands in front of Malcolm and Alexander, causing Koba to back down.
• A Day at the Races (1937) has the following exchange: You leave this room over my dead body! — Well, that's a pleasant way to travel.
• Enchanted also played this for laughs, when Robert grabbed a sword he had no idea how to use and got between Giselle and a Scaled Up Queen Narissa. Her response? "All right, I'm flexible." Cue Distressed Dude.
• Godzilla:
  • A double in Godzilla: Final Wars, in which Minya and a kid interpose themselves between Godzilla and the badass heroes, preserving the thin truce that just defeated the invading aliens.
  • In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), when Ghidorah bears down on an injured Godzilla, Mothra, already battered and injured themselves, puts themselves between them, climbing over Godzilla's back protectively. Even when Mothra barely has any energy to move, they were fully ready to sacrifice themselves to save the latter.
• In the climax of The Hangover Part III, Alan does this for Phil when Chow tries to kill the latter. Because Alan is the only member of The Wolfpack to be his friend, as well as the one who saved him from Marshall by letting him out of the trunk, Chow lets them live.
• In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Severus Snape puts himself between a werewolf and his three least favorite students. Don't call him a coward.
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Bilbo does this after tackling and killing an orc mook who was about to behead Thorin. Despite being utterly terrified, he stands between Azog and the semi-conscious Thorin, ready to give up his life to protect the latter.
• In Bruges: the hotel owner, a pregnant woman, stands between a hired killer and his target.
  • Of course, Harry, being the principled criminal he is, adamantly refuses to do anything to harm her.
• The Lord of the Rings
  • The Fellowship of the Ring did this in the scene on Weathertop, where the Ringwraiths casually fling aside the other hobbits trying to protect Frodo.
  • And don't forget The Return of the King, where the Nazgûl king moves in to finish Théoden and Éowyn steps in.
• Mad Max: Fury Road: During one chase sequence Splendid Angharad stops Immortan Joe from taking a shot at Imperator Furiosa by throwing herself between them. Since she's pregnant with Joe's child, and successful pregnancies are so rare, she knows Joe would never risk hitting her or the baby. Joe promptly lowers his weapon and lets them get ahead of him.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • A literal example in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Natasha describes how the Winter Soldier killed a person she was trying to protect by shooting the victim through her body. She even has a scar to prove it.
    Natasha: Bye-bye bikinis!
    Steve: I'm sure you'll look terrible in them now.
  • Played for Laughs in Captain America: Civil War during the airport battle.
    Giant-Man: You wanna get to them, you gotta go through me!
    Some scenes later, Vision literally flies through Giant-Man.
    Giant-Man: [freaking out] SOMETHING JUST FLEW IN ME!
  • A great inversion in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) when a Kyln prisoner threatens Peter, who just happens to be Rocket and Groot's bounty:
    Rocket Raccoon: This one here's our booty! Y'wanna get to him, you go through us! Or - more accurately - we go through you!
  • In Thor: Ragnarok, Valkerie has a brief moment of this when she first arrives to capture Thor, telling the Sakaarians they'll have to do this to claim him. Seeing as Thor is caught in a shock-net, the leader points out that they already have him. Valkyrie turns it into an inversion "Then I guess I'll have to go through you".
• Played for laughs at the climax of the first Men in Black movie. J makes the challenge to the Big Bad, who promptly swats him out of the way and continues as nothing happened.
• In the Final Battle in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Lane orders Ilsa dead and Ethan brought in alive. Ethan takes advantage of this to use himself as a Human Shield while he and Ilsa fire back.
• This is nearly played straight at the end of in Muppet Treasure Island when everyone is teaming up to protect Captain Smollett (Kermit).
  Jim Hawkins: Kill Captain Smollett, and you'll have to kill me.
  Gonzo: Kill Jim, and you'll have to kill me.
  Squire Trelawney (Fozzie): Kill Gonzo, and you'll have to kill me.
  Rizzo: Kill Squire Trelawney and Mr. Bimbo (Fozzie's Imaginary Friend), and you'll have to... um, negotiate strenuously.
• In Mortal Engines, Tom places himself between Hester and danger a couple of times. He's totally out of his depth so it doesn't actually work, especially against Shrike, but Hester seems to find the gesture endearing.
• At the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Will Turner does this to protect (Captain) Jack Sparrow. Then Elizabeth Swann does it to protect him. Probably because it didn't look like the people he was stopping were convinced.
• In Purgatory, the sheriff stands in front of the church doors, unarmed, to stop the outlaws throwing knives at it. When one of them aims for his throat, lightning strikes him dead.
• Reservoir Dogs:
  Mr. White: If you kill that man you die next, repeat, if you kill that man you die next.
• RoboCop 3 has the Big Bad going to round up civilians huddling for warmth inside a church, After Robocop demands McDaggett back off, Lewis agrees and declares "If you want to get in there, you gonna have to shoot through us." The Big Bad replies "I don't have a problem with that." and promptly kills her with a burst of machine-gun fire, before turning to fire a grenade into Robocop's chest who was standing back and to the left.
• Spider-Man Trilogy:
  • Done in the first Spider-Man: When the Green Goblin pulls the Sadistic Choice on Spider-Man, the crowd throws things at him, distracting him for long enough for Spider-Man to catch his breath. One shouts, "This is New York! You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"
  • Subverted in Spider-Man 2: A crowd on a subway car try to do the same thing to Doc Ock: he grins, says "Very well" and shoves them up against the subway walls.
• In Stargate, the action-y hero (Kurt Russell) almost shoots Big Bad Ra... but hesitates when a dozen young children surround their lord. Well, after all, the hero recently lost his son so you can understand the hesitation. Of course, at the end of the film, he cheerfully sends a bomb up to the ship, destroying Ra and the children. Would have been a pragmatic and necessary yet heart-rending decision — if anyone had bothered to remember the kids. (According to the DVD commentary, the entire point of Ra having children around him was so if someone tried to shoot him, they'd stop so they wouldn't hurt the children.)
• Subverted in Star Trek Into Darkness. Carol Marcus valiantly stands up to her father, Admiral Marcus, stating that if he wants to destroy the Enterprise, he'll have to kill her too. His solution? Immediately beam her off the Enterprise to his ship.
• In the climax of The Stoning of Soraya M. Zahra steps into the middle of the road, so the villagers cannot shoot at the journalist escaping in his car.
• Superman And The Mole Men had the Man of Steel saying this to a lynch mob wanting to harm the innocent Mole Men. Of course Superman has no problem getting the mob to back off.
• In Tower of London, Prince Richard attempts this at Mord while pleading for his brother to live. It doesn't work.
• The Way, Way Back: No words are exchanged, and the situation is far from life-and-death. But when Trent walks up to Duncan ready to chew him out post-climax, Owen intervenes and stares him down and sends him away. Bonus points for Owen (Sam Rockwell) being shorter than Trent (Steve Carell).
• The horror form occurs in Wishmaster, where a security guard says this to the Jackass Genie villain — who turns him into glass and smashes through him to get in. Made all the better because the Genie had been trying to get him to wish for something, to collect another soul and just get him out of the way, but the guy wouldn't give in. Finally, when the guard says "You want to get in here, you gotta go through me," the Genie gives up and starts to walk away, only for the guard to conclude "And that is something I'd love to see."

Literature

• In Banco, after Venezuelan dictator Jimenez flees the country, a hundred-man mob starts sacking all business favored by members of his government. The mob descends on Papillon and Rita's Caty-Bar since it was a popular nightspot and they're going to defend their home and business when four men come between the mob and the bar, arms outstretched. For twenty minutes they argue that Papillon is a friend to the people and not a puppet of the state until eventually, the mob turns away. Their rescuers were common laborers for the water company next door, who were often given small favors by the Caty-Bar's owners and were willing to risk their lives to repay the debt.
• The Calf of the November Cloud: Konyek has taken his father's cattle to a waterhole when he realizes that they are being stalked by a lion. Even though he is completely terrified, the young Masai steps between the approaching lion and his favorite calf to protect it. As the lion keeps approaching, Konyek restorts to run towards the giant feline, screaming and waving his stick in an attempt to scare it off. Fortunately, a hunter's arrival saves Konyek from becoming lion munch.
• Towards the end of Crown Duel, Meliara stands before a large group of mercenaries and tells them that she knows she can't fight forty of them, but she's going to stand there and do it anyway because she took an oath to protect the Hill Folk. This visibly freaks them out.
• Subverted in a way in Dune: After Chani dispatches a would-be challenger to her lover Paul/Muad'Dib, she says that fewer people will try to challenge him if they learn that they first have to go through (and suffer the possible disgrace of being killed by) his women.
• Invoked in the Forgotten Realms novel Elfshadow, although to protect the attacker and not the target. Near the end of the book, Danilo Thann tells his comrade Arilyn Moonblade that if she wants to kill her Evil Mentor she's going to have to kill him first. Arilyn grudgingly swears to take the man alive — so he can testify to his crimes, and incidentally clear Arilyn herself — and Danilo readily steps aside.
• In Halo: The Fall of Reach, the orbital drydock Cradle moves itself to shield the human fleet from the Covenant weapons. The Covenant manage to destroy it, but it took them a while, and Cradle's incredible sacrifice helped turn the tide at Sigma Octanus IV.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry's dad James says that he will hold Voldemort off while his wife takes Harry to safety, only to be killed seconds later by Voldemort. The fact that Voldemort fully intended to kill James anyway somewhat blunted the heroism of James’ sacrifice; James was dead the second Voldemort found him without a wand, he would have died no matter what he did.
  • Lily Potter does this as well in the same scene, refusing to stand aside and let Voldemort kill Harry. She's cut down quickly too. However, unlike James, Voldemort did give Lily the chance to step to the side and live because of Snape's request. She refused. This act of sacrifice triggered magical protection over Harry, so her choice was ultimately successful.
  • Done in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, when Ron tries to threaten Sirius Black, despite his broken leg making him unable to back up his threats. Fortunately, the one Ron was protecting wasn't the one Sirius wanted to kill.
    Ron: If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!
    Sirius: Lie down. You will damage that leg even more.
    Ron: Didn't you hear me? You'll have to kill all three of us!
  • Played with in a non-lethal fashion in the first book, where Neville tries to keep Harry and crew from sneaking out at night by threatening to fight them. Of course, Hermione apologizes before temporarily paralyzing him, but...
  • Crookshanks also tries to protect Black from Harry in Azkaban, by sitting on his chest.
  • Not my daughter, you bitch!
• The Heartstrikers: When Svena wants to kill Bob, Bob's brother Julius (who has saved Svena from both literal and metaphorical slavery, engineered an advantageous deal with her clan, and overall been nothing but helpful for her and her family) steps between them. Svena threatens to just blast through him, but everyone else steps in because they won't let her kill Julius. After she backs down, she tries to play up her "benevolence" for allowing Bob to live; Amelia scoffs that she couldn't have brought herself to kill Julius any more than any of the rest of them would have been able to. Svena doesn't even bother to deny it, she just says she would have gone around him.
• Heralds of Valdemar: In Bastion, Mags pulls one of these after the Sleepgiver archers turn Jakyr into a pincushion. He knows they're under orders to take him alive, so he and Dallen stand between Jakyr and the archers to provide cover until the rest of the group can pull Jakyr to safety.
• Quasimodo does this in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, protecting Esmeralda.
• In Death: When Chief Simpson threatens to demote Eve and Feeney to Traffic Detail in "Naked in Death", Whitney intervenes on their favor and says Simpson will have to go through him.
• In Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Wiene does this when Aiz is about to finish off Bell. When Aiz tells Weine to stop speaking and says her claws, wing, and forehead gem are a threat, Weine breaks her claws and rips off her wing. This completely breaks Aiz's resolve.
  Aiz: "I can no longer kill this Vouvire."
• Jaine Austen Mysteries: When Jaine is nearly attacked by Graham in Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge, she saves herself by putting his beloved stuffed rabbit — a former pet the killer valued very much — on her chest, preventing him from stabbing her.
• In The Last Unicorn, Prince Lir throws himself between the unicorn and the pursuing Red Bull. Tragically, the Bull is blind and doesn't even see him as it runs him down. The unicorn, on the other hand...
• Several characters do this in respect to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, especially Samwise Gamgee.
  • Still, the prime example is Éowyn standing up to the Witch King of Angmar when he's out to kill Théoden.
• In the climax of The Mister, Alessia shields Maxim from her abusive gangster ex Anatoli when he points a gun at Maxim. The effect is slightly diminished given that Alessia already knows she had removed the bullets from Anatoli's gun.
• In Neil Gaiman's book/miniseries Neverwhere:
  "If you're going to hurt her," (Richard) said, "you'll have to kill me first!"
  Mr. Vandemar seemed genuinely pleased by this. "Alright," he said. "Thanks."
• Nightside: In Just Another Judgement Day John Taylor does this in front of The Walking Man. The latter tries to "go through" and loses his powers for trying to kill defenseless and innocent (in this case) human.
• Only Ashes Remain: Diana says this ver batim as she steps in front of Adair when Nita tries to shoot him.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Used in A Clash of Kings, when Lannister Mooks attempt to capture Gendry. Earlier, Jon Snow gets ordered into this after he complains about the treatment of Samwell Tarly.
• In Matthew Reilly's Temple, William Race's bodyguard does this to protect him from his own commander, Colonel Nash. Nash was armed and he wasn't, so the results were predictable. At least he distracted Nash long enough for the Cavalry to arrive.
• Trapped on Draconica: This is how Daniar's duel with Taurok ends: Lydia placing herself in their midst and making them stop.
• Underground: Robyn puts herself in front of Andrew when The Morrigan's manager goes to punch him in the face. It doesn't stop him though, and she gets injured because of it.
• Warhammer 40,000: Near the end of the Horus Heresy, Horus has badly wounded the Emperor. Right before Horus strikes the final blow a single Imperial Army soldier stands in the way. Sure, he's killed in less than a second but it gives the Emperor the opening needed to win the day. Later fluff changed this to being a Space Marine.

Live-Action TV

• In The Adventures of Superman episode "Night of Terror", Jimmy Olsen puts himself between Lois Lane and a female innkeeper and a group of crooks.
• Occurred at least five times in Babylon 5. Delenn deliberately walked into a thrown knife intended for Sheridan, drove off an attacking enemy fleet to save his neck, and offered her life to a Vorlon inquisitor to save his. Later in the series, two Alliance ships implicitly said 'go through me' by placing themselves between the Alliance command ship and incoming Shadow missiles. Also used by Marcus:
  Neroon: My quarrel is with Delenn.
  Marcus: Then your quarrel is with me.
  • Delenn's must be seen to be believed.
• Lampshaded in Being Human, when Regus chooses to help the housemates protect Eve from a vampire hit squad. He's fully aware that as a scholar, he's got no fighting skills and will barely slow them down, but it's the thought that counts.
• Blue Bloods: Linda is attending a patient who's an important witness against a violent gang, and an orderly enters the hospital room with a gun. She refuses to leave her patient's side and tries to talk the orderly down. The orderly, terrified of the gang himself, fires anyway, killing the patient and wounding Linda.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Just about the whole cast (except Spike) in "Family" does this for Tara when her emotionally abusive family shows up. That said, when Tara's father tries to order her to leave Spike voluntarily steps in to prove that she isn't a demon by punching her in the face.
  • And only a few episodes previous in "Buffy vs. Dracula", a Brainwashed and Crazy Xander challenges Riley Finn with this if he wants to save Buffy from Dracula. Riley's response? *POW!* "Okey-dokey."
  • Regular-Xander had far more success against Angelus while Buffy was hospitalized in "Killed by Death", and again in "Grave", where he tells Dark Willow, "If you're going to destroy the world, then start with me. I've earned that."
  • Xander also does this with Jack O'Toole in the school basement with the bomb in "The Zeppo".
• Used in The City Hunter when Jin-pyo has kidnapped Corrupt Politician Lee Kung-wan with the intention of interrogating and then killing him. Yoon Sung blocks the road with his car and Jin-pyo...goes through it. Later in the series, the opposite happens: Jin-pyo stands in the road, and Yoon Sung is forced to stop.
• Cowboy Bebop (2021)
  • Played for Laughs in "Galileo Hustle". When The Dreaded Iron Mink demands they hand over his ex-wife, con artist Whitney, the latter says he'll have to go through her friends. Our heroes vigorously deny any friendship with her, and proceed to hand her over in handcuffs until Whitney blackmails them into letting her go.
  • However the following episode "Sad Clown A-Go-Go" plays it straight when a psychotic ex-Super-Soldier hitman turns up to kill Spike; his friends make it clear he'll have to go through them first. Spike strands them on the BeBop instead as This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself.
• Doctor Who:
  • The lost story "Farewell Great Macedon" (later adapted by Big Finish) has Barbara do this in an attempt to save Ian from execution by Alexander the Great. Susan follows her and, rather presumptuously, drags the Doctor in as well (who does agree after a moment).
  • "The Unquiet Dead":
    Gelth: We want this world and all its flesh!
    The Doctor: Not while I'm alive.
    Gelth: Then live no more!
  • "The Age of Steel": After the Cyber-Controller offers to convert the Doctor:
    The Doctor: You might as well kill me.
    Cyber-Controller: Then I take that option.
  • "The Satan Pit": "You'll have to kill me first!"
  • This also happens to the Doctor in "Midnight". When he tells the very frightened passengers that they'll have to get past him to throw the Monster of the Week out of the spacecraft, they turn on him, and even attempt throwing him out a little while later.
  • "Planet of the Dead": UNIT scientist Malcolm figures out how to close a wormhole threatening London, and plans to do so as soon as the Doctor (pursued by a Horde of Alien Locusts) makes it through. Captain Magambo orders him to close it immediately to prevent any of the voracious aliens from making it to Earth. Despite being held at gunpoint, Malcolm refuses to budge.
• In an episode of Flashpoint, a targeted man's wife stood between her husband and the shooter. At first, it looked like the shooter was going to back down (she had, up to that point, been very deliberately picking her targets and avoiding collateral damage), but she ends up deciding it's an acceptable sacrifice to kill the wife. Unfortunately for the shooter, the SRU team shot her first.
• The Hexer: Visenna, mother of Geralt, blocks the path to the young Geralt when he's to be taken away from her. The Old Witcher gently, if sternly, overpowers her, not wanting to spill any blood.
• Occurs in the Season 2 finale of BBC’s Robin Hood when King Richard has been badly wounded in the Holy Land. Guy of Gisborne is moving in with a drawn sword, presumably to deal a death blow, when Marian steps in his way, wrongly assuming that since he was in love with her he won’t kill her to get to the king.
• In the infamous homage scene at the end of the Frogger episode of Seinfeld, George tries holding off an oncoming truck as he tries getting the Frogger machine he just bought with his high score intact to the other side of the road (albeit signaling with a single palm). Needless to say, it doesn't work.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017), in The Penultimate Peril Part 1; when Olaf, armed with a harpoon gun, confronts the Baudelaires and Dewey at the fountain outside the hotel, all three Baudelaires line up in front of Dewey to protect him, knowing Olaf won't risk killing all three of them since he needs at least one of them alive to get their fortune.
• Stargate:
  • "Children of the Gods", the Stargate SG-1 pilot, all but directly reproduces the scene from Stargate the movie (above), with Amonet (currently possessing Daniel's wife) taking the place of the kids.
  • In a Stargate Atlantis episode Kolya threatens to kill McKay, and one by one Teyla, Ronon and Carson step in front of him, saying that they each want to be killed first.
  • McKay does it himself when Kolya is aiming a gun at Weir in "The Eye", in the first season. He downplays it uncharacteristically.]
• Star Trek: The Original Series:
  • In "The Man Trap", Spock tries to shield Kirk from the attack of a vampiric creature. The creature can't drain him thanks to Vulcan physiology, but that doesn't mean he is immune to more conventional attacks as he finds out in a moment.
  • A more successful attempt happens in "Court Martial". The paranoid bad guy has rigged the Enterprise to explode and thus destroy the Starfleet officials who he believes to be persecuting him. He's forced to give himself up when his daughter (who has beamed aboard unbeknownst to him) confronts him, explaining that he will have to kill her along with his so-called "enemies."
• Star Trek: Picard: In "Broken Pieces", when Raffi aims a phaser pistol at Soji, Picard stands in between them and declares, "Now you put that away or be prepared to use it on me." Not wanting to risk shooting at her former captain, Raffi then lowers her firearm.
• Supernatural. During a Battle in the Center of the Mind, Sam encounters a version of himself that remembers what it's like to be trapped in Hell. He uses this trope but doesn't attempt to fight Sam, instead trying to convince him that You Do Not Want To Know.
• True Blood has a hilarious literal example; when, in the fourth season, the main antagonist Marnie is confronted by Bill and Eric, Marnie's right hand Roy stands up and tells Eric to go through him first. Eric than literally goes through Roy, lunging forward and piercing into the man's chest, ripping out his heart.
• The Untamed:
  • Lan Wanji tries to prevent the Jin clan from razing the Burial Mountains to take Wei Wuxian's belongings. Unfortunately Jin Guangyao informed Lan Qiren and Lan Wanji is punished.
  • In the present time, after Wei Wuxian's true identity is discovered, Lan Wanji vehemently denies being manipulated by Wei Wuxian (even though Wei Wuxian asked him to) and draws his sword against everyone
• In Xena: Warrior Princess, Joxer valiantly (if hopelessly) stood between Callisto and Xena's wounded horse Argus, saying she would have to take him down to hurt Argus again. Fortunately for both Joxer and Argus, Callisto had previously pulled a "Freaky Friday" Flip on Xena, and Xena's soul was inside Callisto's body; she only wanted to approach Argus to administer to his wounds. Xena did acknowledge that she was impressed by Joxer's bravery.
  • At the zenith of "The Rift" arc, in which Xena and Gabrielle are completely at odds with each other, Ephiny steps in to prevent a crazed Xena from fatally attacking Gabrielle. Of course, since she's squaring off against Xena the fight is over before it's even begun.
• Discussed in The West Wing episode "A Proportional Response." The Syrian army shoots down a U.S. transport aircraft, killing 57 military health care workers and President Bartlet's personal physician. The furious Bartlet balks at his advisors' idea of a "proportional response"—targeting four sites in Syria—and demands an unproportional response instead, such as bombing Damascus's biggest airport. He declares that everyone in the world will know that America takes threats against its citizens seriously, but Leo rightfully accuses him of bearing a personal grudge:
  Leo: So, my friend, if you want to start using American military strength as the arm of the Lord, you can do that. We're the only superpower left. You can conquer the world, like Charlemagne! But you better be prepared to kill everyone. And you better start with me, because I will raise up an army against you and I will beat you!
• In Word of Honor, after Ye Baiyi discovers that Wen Kexing is the leader of the Ghost Valley and is intending to kill the latter, Zhou Zishu goes to meet Ye Baiyi first, hoping to resolve it peacefully. But when that doesn't work, he tells Ye Baiyi it would be over his dead body, despite knowing he is disadvantaged and Ye Baiyi is stronger than him. When Wen Kexing arrives and also is unable to defeat Ye Baiyi, an injured Zhou Zishu throws out his arm and flat out tells Ye Baiyi that he will have to kill them both to achieve his goal. Ye Baiyi does not go through with it.
• Young Sheldon: In "A Tornado, a 10-Hour Flight and a Darn Fine Ring", when George and Missy take cover from a nearby tornado, George ensures that he is covering her.

Tabletop Games

• The first Player's Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition invokes this trope in the quote for the fighter class, to help emphasize its more defined mechanical role as a defender in that edition. "You'll have to go through me first, dragon!" ^note  In fact, melee-only classes are often referred to as "The Meat Shield" in RPGs now as an in-joke. Crosses over with Human Shield as melee players will sometimes explicitly try to protect weaker party members while weaker party members will often explicitly try to hide behind melee party members. Can be justified if the melee character is tough enough.
• From the Iron Kingdoms, we have High Paladin Dartan Vilmon, who was ordered to Purge a town of "heretics" by the power-mad Heirarch Voyle. Vilmon turned on the Menite army and told them "You're going to have to get past me." Note that Vilmon is actually badass enough to win.
• Warhammer 40,000 has the touching story of Ollanius Pius, a random Imperial Guardsman who put himself between Horus and the wounded Emperor during their battle. To wit, Horus was a physical demi-god before the four Chaos Gods infused him with their powers, and Pius was just a normal human with an assault rifle. Pius stood absolutely no chance of stopping Horus or even hurting him, and he still had the guts to pull this off and stand before him. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Horus flayed Pius alive with a look. On the upside, this act caused the Emperor to finally realise that his favourite son was beyond saving, and gave the Emperor the resolve to defeat Horus. He is loved by fans for his courage and Dare to Be Badass value.
  • Ollanius Pius was at some points retconned into a Space Marine Terminator and a Custodian Guard. The loss of the universe's bravest Badass Normal was not taken well by its fans, though it turned out to be temporary if still very different past the original first glance at him otherwise.
  • The 6th Edition rulebook adds the "Look Out Sir!" rule, which allows attacks to be relocated from the Sergeant or Commanding Officer to one of the squad's Red Shirts (or from one Commanding Officer to another).
  • As in many other RPGs, it is advisable in Only War to have at least one player make a Storm Trooper or Ogryn and maximise survivability to deliberately draw fire away from the squishier squad members. Ogryns especially can have more wounds ^note Hit points than the rest of the squad put together and an incredible Toughness Bonus ^note damage reduction while Storm Troopers get to start with damn near the best armour in the game. Heavy Gunners, Sergeants, Commissars, and Priests can also fill the roll with decent resilience and close combat lenience. Many a player of an Operator, Medic, Ratling or marksman-built Weapon Spec will specifically indicate they're using the tougher squad members as cover.

Toys

• Takua does this between the Bohrok and the residents of Ga- and Po-Koro in BIONICLE. As it turns out, he shouldn't have bothered, as a surge of energy, released when the Bohrok queens were defeated, was about to shut down the Bohrok in a few moments.
  Takua: SHOO! ... Shoo?

Video Games

• At the climax of Abomi Nation, Ioti's teammates choose to shield her from Furcifume's ultimate attack. Ioti jumps into the line of fire anyway to save them.
• Agarest Senki: In the last chapter, after beating one of the (otherwise redeemable) villains, Murmina wants to take revenge on said villain for committing genocide against her people. However, the main hero stands between them and asks Murmina to go through him, if she wants her revenge. He knows she is not a bad person at heart, but wants to see if she is really as consumed by hatred and the thirst for vengeance as she claims. His bet pays off, as Murmina is incapable of exacting her revenge if that is the price.
• Bloody Wolf have one of the bosses, Big Sniper, saying this word-for-word as he tries blocking a bridge leading to the terrorist base you're about to cross. You oblige by grabbing your guns and blowing his brains out.
• Attempted in Borderlands 3, where in Aurelia's boss intro cutscene Sir Hammerlock declares this as he and his lover Wainwright are held at gunpoint. In response, Aurelia simply shoots them both and freezes them before turning her attention to you (though after the fight they turn out perfectly fine).
• BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: In the true ending, when the Sky Queen tries to reawaken Virtua at the expense of Catie's human memories, the rest of the party stands up to her in this way.
  Tyalie: If you want her, then you'll have to get past us. Again, and again, and again!
• Bug Fables: In the end of Chapter 6, General Ultimax, revealed to be brainwashed by Wasp King, forbids Team Snakemouth from going through the bridge even after he's defeated, even outright stating that they have to tear his body apart due to the brainwashment rendering him suicidally loyal. Thankfully, Leif easily comes up with an alternative that wouldn't require his death.
• In the villain story mode for Crash Nitro Kart, beating Nash in a race leads him to go into Sore Loser mode and angrily demand his key back from Cortex. Tiny immediately runs in front of Cortex baring his claws furiously.
  Cortex: *laughs* And sharks make such silly demands, too.
• Devil May Cry 5: Upon learning Vergil is his father and by extension Dante is his uncle, Nero vows not to lose any more family: he promptly makes good on his vow when he unlocks his Devil Trigger, plants himself between the two feuding brothers and knocks them both away from each other, demanding an end to their senseless sibling rivalry.
• In a Non-Standard Game Over for Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Flonne will attempt this to save Maderes from Etna. It doesn't end well.
• Dragon Age:
  • In Dragon Age II, when the Hawke family is fleeing Lothering, they meet Aveline and her Templar husband, Ser Wesley. Hawke's little sister Bethany is an apostate mage (which Hawke may or may not also be), and Wesley's vows to the Templar order require him to take her into custody. The second he starts moving toward Bethany, however, Hawke gets in the way — even if s/he is also a mage. The implication is silent but very obvious.
    • In the endgame, Cullen tells Meredith that she will have to go through him to get to Hawke after she turns on them. She is so crazy by this point that he will still do this even if Hawke sides with the Mages. If Carver joined the Templars, he will do this too.
    • Becomes even more significant if Hawke themself is a Mage and sided with the Mages, where even a loyal Templar like Cullen would rather stand with an apostate mage such as Hawke than follow Meredith anymore.
    • Hawke invokes this towards the Arishok during his attempt to seize Kirkwall, then potentially again when he attempts to take Isabela back to Par Vollen as a captive for stealing the Tome of Koslun. This leads to Hawke engaging in a Duel to the Death with the Arishok himself, with the fate of the city and potentially Isabela as the prize.
    • In the same scene, if she and Isabela is present, Aveline invokes this, too. Speaking of Aveline, one of her battle cries is literally "You go through me before anyone else!"
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition, it's eventually revealed that Varric has been doing this for Hawke since the second game. He blatantly lied to Cassandra about not knowing how to contact Hawke, since he wasn't convinced about Cassandra's motives in searching for them. It didn't help that she threatened him or would possibly kill him if he doesn't provide the answer she wants. He trusts the Inquisitor, though, so he breaks down and sends a letter to Hawke to ask for their help. When Cassandra calls him on it, he states it bluntly: "I was protecting my friend!"
• Final Fantasy X:
  • Invoked and Discussed during the cutscene where the party finally confronts Seymour; the rest of the party crowd around Yuna once it's clear they're a threat, prompting them to remark "The Code of the Guardian! To put the Summoner's life before one's own."
  • The Guard and Sentinel techniques on Auron's section of the Sphere Grid also invokes this; he will step in front of any other party member who is about to be attacked physically and take the hit instead until his next turn comes up.
• In Final Fantasy X-2, Lenne puts herself between Vegnagun (being used by Shuyin) and the world. We never find out if it would have convinced him to stop, given that the two are both gunned down seconds later.
• Not long into Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah Farron's hometown of New Bodhum is being attacked by a number of monsters and Serah isn't yet equipped to fight them. Noel Kreiss appears from the future, having been sent by Serah's sister Lightning and spots Serah being attacked.
  Noel: You want her? Then you're gonna have to go through me!
• Liberty Lad of Freedom Force gets to be a hero by way of a blood transfusion, which became necessary after attempting to do this for a hero who was about to get machine-gunned.
• In Kingdom Hearts, when the Ansem-possessed Riku is about to kill Sora and extract Kairi's heart from him, Sora hears her call and blocks Riku's dark keyblade with his own, shouting, "Forget it! There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!" Cue one of the toughest battles in the game thus far.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Larxene is preparing to kill Sora (who is exhausted and injured from a prior battle) when Naminé (who is largely defenseless) steps in between them and spreads her arms to protect him. Larxene knocks her out of the way, but her efforts inadvertently delay Larxene enough that Donald and Goofy arrive in time to rescue Sora.
• In King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride, Edgar does this when Malicia is about to attack Rosella.
• In the climax of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, King Dedede performs a Heroic Sacrifice to fight off an entire wave of Beast Pack soldiers after being freed from the Big Bad's mind control.
• Subverted in League of Legends. The champion Braum's skill set is based on this trope, encouraging his user to stand in between his ally and his enemy and soaking up damage for his ally. For example, he can just jump between his friend and enemy while yelling "Stand behind Braum!" and then put his massive shield in front blocking nearly everything, forcing the enemy to deal with Braum first. So how was this a subversion? Well, it just happens that Braum is huge (but kind), and is super strong and stout.
• Midna of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess does this for Princess Zelda, protecting her from Ganondorf. It doesn't work. He gets through, and it goes From Bad to Worse.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: In the backstory, Zelda moves to shield a nearly-dead Link from an incoming Guardian. It's this act of selflessness that finally awakens her divine powers, obliterating the entire troop of Guardians chasing them and saving both their lives.
• In Mass Effect 2, Thane met his wife Irika while attempting to assassinate a target. She spotted his targeting laser and jumped between Thane and the target. The instance was so jarring that Thane found himself jarred out of the mental state of a trained assassin he'd been in throughout his entire life, and found himself obsessed with finding out who she was. He even explains the exceptional circumstances of the situation to Shepard, explaining that while soldiers are trained to protect others, untrained civilians are not, and how remarkable it would be that someone would unthinkingly shield someone else that they don't even know.
  • In the original Mass Effect, during the final battle, several turian cruisers position themselves between Sovereign and the Citadel. Sovereign simply plows through them as though they weren't there.
  • Shepard invokes this in The Arrival DLC towards Harbinger, letting the Reapers know when they come, s/he will be waiting.
    Shepard: Maybe you're right, maybe we can't win this. But we'll fight you regardless. Just like we did with Sovereign. Just like I am doing now.
  • Admiral Anderson invokes this in the trailer for the Earth DLC.
  • Invoked by Shepard in Mass Effect 3, when Legion shows up on the Normandy and the Quarians express the desire to either shoot him or dismantle him for military intelligence.
    Shepard: Legion is my friend! More importantly, it's our only source of information on the Geth!
    Admiral Xen: But the scientific benefits—
    Shepard: Are off the table!
  • Done implicitly in Garrus' loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, in this case for the benefit of the shooter. Paragon Shepard stands in Garrus' shot while Garrus is attempting to assassinate Sidonis, giving Sidonis a chance to express remorse and let Shepard convince Garrus not to go through with the killing. If Garrus really wants his revenge as badly as he says, he'd have to shoot through his best friend to get it.
• In Rainbow Six Siege this is Montagne's explicit playstyle. He carries le roq, an enormous extending shield that allows him to fill entire doorways with an impenetrable wall of steel. This encourages him to place himself between enemies and his allies, to the point that he even gets points for Taking the Bullet for them with his shield.
• Several times in the Sonic the Hedgehog series:
  • In Sonic Adventure, at the end of Sonic's (or Tails') fight with Gamma, regardless of who wins, Amy intervenes to convince the victor to let the other one live.
  • In the Sonic Adventure backstory, Tikal tries to defend the Chaos Emeralds and the Chao from her father and his soldiers. It doesn't work; they just knock her aside. Chaos, however, proves more effective...
  • Amy does this again in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), to prevent Silver from killing Sonic. Since Amy had been the first person to socialize with Silver upon his arrival from the future, her intervention at this point effectively paralyzes Silver, and induces him to do some soul-searching.
• In Sakura's ending in Street Fighter Alpha 3, she stands in front of an injured (actually, Brainwashed and Crazy) Ryu to protect him, telling Bison "You'll have to kill me first!" Bison just knocks her aside. Bad idea: that was the last trigger needed to restore Ryu's sanity, and he tears Bison a new one to protect her.
• This happens a couple of times in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World where Emil stands between Richter killing Marta. Richter doesn't hurt Emil because Emil looks just like Richter's dead best friend.
• In Tales of the Abyss, there's a scene where the Big Bad is trying to stop the party, only to be stopped by a group of elderly men and women who block his path. Being the Magnificent Bastard he is, the Big Bad graciously tells the elderly people how much he respects their commitment to doing what they think is right. Then he proceeds to murder the lot of them.
• Heihachi in Kazuya's ending in Tekken 2. It backfires on Heihachi though, as Kazuya promptly uses Heihachi as a Human Shield.
• In Undertale, Monster Kid pulls this, but on whom depends on the type of run you're doing; If you're on a Pacifist Run, and you save them when they're hanging off of a cliff, despite Undyne being right there ready to kill you, they'll do it to Undyne to protect you. However, if you're on a Genocide Run, they'll do it to you in the same area to keep you from hurting anyone else.
• In The Walking Dead: Season Four, after AJ shoots Marlon, every other Ericson kid left standing turns on him and Clem immediately, demanding that they get out before things get ugly—except Violet. Spurned into action by the newfound knowledge that Marlon had secretly given her girlfriend and girlfriend's sister to a group of armed adults in exchange for everyone else's safety and told them that she had died, pulls out her cleaver, gets in between AJ and everyone else, and tells them, in no uncertain terms, to back the fuck up.
• In the expansion to XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Enemy Within) your prototype MEC^note (Mechanical Exoskeletal Cybersuit Troopers can acquire the skill One For All, which allows them to act as Hard Cover for their teammates, provided they don't move or fire (most of) their weapons during their turn.
  • Additionally, Support Troopers that volunteer for the MEC procedure gain the passive effect Distortion Field, adding +10 Defense to any allied troops within roughly four tiles of them.
• In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, when Ichiban is once again reunited with his former boss Masumi Arakawa, his companions Nanba and Adachi quickly gets between them and point out how the last time they met Arakawa shot Ichiban and left him for dead. The camera then pans out to show that all of his companions have formed a wall between the two. Arakawa assures them that he means no harm this time and later even congratulates Ichiban for finding a band of loyal comrades.

Web Animation

• In the seventh episode of Battle of the Breeds, Max is about to attack Lamp for taking the emerald, but GPS swims in between them quoting the phrase. Max throws a rock at GPS, shattering his air helmet and drowning him.
• In the Mystery Skulls Animated video "Ghost", Vivi puts herself between Arthur and the titular ghost when it catches up with them after a long chase. It works, because unknown to Vivi, the ghost is of her boyfriend, whose spirit hadn't been able to find rest after he was murdered.
• In the first episode of Super Mario Bros. Z, Mario has been knocked out by Bowser. He's about to finish Mario off by way of incineration, when Luigi, whom spent the battle unconscious and has just woken up, jumps into the way. Bowser simply laughs it off and gives him the chance to run away and save himself. But Luigi refuses to move, a defiant frown despite the fear in his eyes. Turns out Luigi saved Mario in more ways than one, as he stalled Bowser long enough for Shadow to teleport himself and Sonic, their capsule landing on the Koopa King.

Webcomics

• A textbook example of the intangibility problem occurs in this anti-HEROES strip. A ghost makes for a poor guard.
  Stupid incorporeal body.
• Dominic Deegan: Suyan is expected to kill Kiya for her thoughtcrime, and his friend Eltu is there to ensure that Suyan goes through with it. Suyan instead pulls a combination of this trope and a heroic Breaking Speech; convincing Eltu to let them both leave and report back to the Chief that they both were killed.
• In El Goonish Shive, Sarah tried to defend a helpless Elliot from Hedge, but was smart enough to go for help when Hedge gave her the opportunity.
• During Homestuck's "Make Her Pay" flash animation, Robo-Aradia starts absolutely beating the stuffing out of Vriska as revenge for a prior incident. Tavros—one of Aradia's friends and FLARPing partners from before the start of this Cycle of Revenge—jumps between her and Vriska's unconscious body. Aradia stops her assault and leaves. But by this point, Vriska is so beat up that she'll bleed to death without medical attention. She gets better. Much better.
• Played for comedy in Ménage à 3. In an attempt to keep DiDi from interfering in the date of their mutual roommate Gary, Zii references this trope almost by name as she bars a doorway. Zii is a rather petite Tank-Top Tomboy while busty blonde DiDi is tall, broad-shouldered, and extraordinarily strong by male standards; more than capable of lifting Zii bodily aside to a sheepish "... Oh. Oh, right."
• In Oceanfalls, Five pulls one of these for Aria, against Kotori.
• In The Order of the Stick, Elan tries to shield a heavily wounded Roy from Tarquin. Tarquin stabs Elan so hard that the sword passes right through Elan's body and into Roy. Tarquin, who absolutely does not want to kill Elan, notes that Elan is at full HP and thus at no risk of dying from a single stab.
  • Espoused by the Paladin O-Chul in a prequel comic: A lot of people are going to get hurt tomorrow. All we can do is stand in the way of that and say, "Not them. Me. If you need to hurt someone, hurt me." Given O-Chul's character concept is "everything right about Paladins" he means it.
• Schlock Mercenary: One happens early on, with predictable consequences, considering the webcomic. Granted, the guy who said it was on a tank, but you still don't say that to someone who regularly carries anti-matter grenades.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: When the giant arm breaches the train in Chapter 3, Emil and Lalli are the only unarmed people in the room. As Emil has only met Lalli recently and greatly under-estimates Lalli's understanding of the situation, his Big Brother Instinct pushes him to wrap himself around Lalli as much as he can to protect him from harm.
• After Ben is taken down by Donald in Weak Hero, Alex forces himself between the two and begs Donald not to hurt Ben any further. Donald scoffs at him and kicks him away, which causes the nearby woodwork to lose balance and Ben to hurt his arm protecting Alex from it.

Web Videos

• Caleb in Critical Role stands before Nott in an early episode and tells the judge that Nott has committed no crime, and that the judge won't harm her while he can stand between them.
• In the Noob webseries, this happens during a tournament with Sparadrap getting between Roxana's attack and Golgotha. The protector was one of the relatively weak characters having a Not So Weak moment.
• In There Will Be Brawl, Zelda attempts to protect Link from Ganondorf this way. He kills them both anyway.

Western Animation

• In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, after the Hulk saves New York City from Graviton, Iron Man gets between the Hulk and the Hulkbusters and insists that the Hulkbusters go through him. The rest of the Avengers-to-be follow suit.
• Batman Beyond has Terry use the line verbatim when he fights what he believes to be a ghost at the school. The target of the invisible villain's rage is none other than the school bully.
• Ben 10: Near the end of "The Krakken", Ripjaws pulls this off to prevent the titular monster from killing the Evil Poacher in revenge for him stealing its eggs. The Krakken backs off peacefully.
• Danny Phantom, "Kindred Spirits", Danny does this for Danielle when Vlad comes for her. After he uses up his power knocking Vlad back, Danielle returns the favor and protects him.
• In The Fairly OddParents! episode "Back to the Norm", when Norm shows up at Timmy's bedroom saying he wants revenge:
  Wanda: If you want Timmy, then you'll have to go through me!
  Cosmo: That goes double for me! If you want Timmy, you'll have to go through Wanda twice!
• Family Guy Presents: Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: "Over my burnt carcass."
• Final Space: In Chapter 7, Gary does this to protect Mooncake against Nightfall, correctly guessing that she doesn't want him to die again (she comes from an Alternate Timeline in which Gary died).
• Futurama: Lrrr and Ndnd step in front of a park ranger trying to poach Bigfoot. He then tried to shoot them with his tranquilizer rifle as well only for it bounce off their hard outer shells.
• In the Gravity Falls episode "The Land Before Swine", Grunkle Stan does this to a hungry pterosaur attacking Mabel's pet pig Waddles.
  Stan: You want this pig?! Then you're gonna have to go through me, you flying devil! Come and get me!
• Subverted in Jackie Chan Adventures where Jade puts herself between a Turned to Stone Jackie and the bad guys — only to nearly knock him over herself.
• On Jimmy Two-Shoes, when Jimmy wants to fly Lucius' Cool Plane, Lucius declares that he'll have to get past him. Which he does. Easily.
• In Justice League, General Hardcastle has a gun with a Kryptonite bullet, ready to take out Supergirl if she tries anything. Green Arrow steps in the way, saying that now, if he fires, he'll have wasted his bullet on a human, leaving him alone with a very angry Supergirl to deal with.
  • In the episode "Patriot Act," General Eiling, who hates all metahumans and the Justice League in particular, uses an experimental super-serum to become a super strong monster to attack Superman. Instead, he only finds a group of C-list Leaguers and starts beating them up instead. They valiantly try to defeat him, but all get thrashed. Just as Eiling is about to crush Shining Knight with a car, though, some ordinary citizens form a human shield around the fallen hero and tell Eiling to back off, tearing down his hypocrisy and correctly pointing out that he's become the very superpowered "enemy" he hates so much.
• My Adventures with Superman: Invoked by Lois during the climax of the season 1 finale ("Hearts of the Fathers") when she stands directly in her father's line of fire to prevent him from killing Superman. In a rare emotional moment, General Lane tearfully asks his daughter to stand aside and says he's trying to protect her. Lois replies that she doesn't want him to protect her and asks him to listen to her for once instead. She pointedly tells him that Superman isn't a threat and had just sacrificed himself to save their planet. Her words finally get through to him, causing her father to call off the attack order by telling his superiors it was a "false alarm".
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Fluttershy, upon seeing the Cutie Mark Crusaders threatened by a cockatrice, orders the girls behind her and makes it clear that she will be a statue before seeing the girls harmed. Fortunately, the cockatrice did not have as much willpower as it thought it did.
• In A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and Scooby invoke this when a science fair rival of Velma's tries to frame her of breaking into everyone's lockers at school and get her suspended.
  Shaggy: When you mess with Velma...
  Scooby: ... You mess with us!
• An episode of Recess sees Gus standing up to a bully who everyone else is afraid of. Even after being severely beaten, Gus refuses to back down. Finally, TJ places himself in front of Gus and says any further beating will be over his own prone body. He's quickly joined by their other friends and then the rest of the school kids en mass.
• The Simpsons:
  • Subverted in a Treehouse of Horror episode, in which a robot uses Homer as a human shield against a Mechanized Bart. The guy isn't even able to finish the sentence before both he and Homer are sliced in half. This is only fatal for the robot, as it is sliced down the middle of its entire body; Homer is "just" sliced in half and has his legs replaced with undersized robot ones.
  • In a rare dramatic moment during the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" Lisa runs in front of a group of officers (including Wiggum) as they are about to confront Homer (who is suspected of the attempted murder) shouting "STOP!!! DON'T SHOOT MY DAD!!!... he's innocent! He wouldn't hurt a fly!" Of course, Homer would have to take this particular moment to start strangling Mr. Burns... this is one of the instances where the helpless person's plea is completely successful.
• On South Park a scientist tells the military they will have to kill him first after he refuses to reprogram a conscious robot (Cartman). Butters arrives just as Cartman is about to reveal he isn't a robot, so he maintains the charade and the scientist is shot.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  SpongeBob: "Sandy, if you wanna get to that worm, you're gonna have to go through me!"

At which point Sandy lazily (and literally) passes through him, splitting his sponge body into two western bar saloon-like door halves.

• And as if the episode 'That's No Lady' wasn't already brimming with Ho Yay;

SpongeBob: Stop! You're gonna have to do something horrible to me before I let you run Patrick out of town!
Squidward and Mr. Krabs: PATRICK?!

• Steven Universe: In "Together Alone", Steven is hosting a party for all the Diamonds and their most high-ranking Gems to attend. Steven ends up fusing with Connie into Stevonnie, enraging his guests, who demand they separate. However, Ruby and Sapphire, who have also snuck into the ball, fuse together into Garnet and announce they'll have to go through her first. Pearl adds, "And me!" before running over to Amethyst and forming Opal with her. Then two random Jades step out of the crowd to fuse together and say "And me!", mentioned how she knew she couldn't be the only one...and is immediately poofed by Yellow Diamond. Along with Opal. And Garnet.
• In one episode of Xiaolin Showdown, Chinese gangster Pandabubba sends his goons to raid the Xiaolin Temple Shen Gong Wu vault. There, the goons find Raimundo, who enacts this trope. The thugs just shrug and say, "We're good with that."

Real Life

• Most versions of Pocahontas' rescue of John Smith, including Disney's, and Smith's own "record." Modern anthropology suggests that this was part of an Algonquian adoption ritual, which justifies it somewhat. Of course, there are other records that indicate that John Smith told stories about the Chief's beautiful daughter falling in love with him in several different places he visited...
• Cara Cunningham (formerly known Chris Crocker) famously declared in LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE that if anyone wants to make fun of Britney Spears they'd have to go through her. They did.
• The 'bag man', standing in front of a column of PLA tanks returning from their suppression of the Tian'anmen protests. Once he had a word with the crew, he left.
• Before assassins came to murder King James I of Scotland, they stole the iron bar that was meant to keep the room locked in case of emergency. One of his wife's ladies-in-waiting, Catherine Douglas, attempted to use her arm as a substitute. She failed and had her arm broken as a result.
• Intervention of the Sabine Women◊ by Jacques-Louis David (1799).
• Emperor Norton I Of the United States, from The Other Wiki: "During the 1860s and 1870s, there were a number of anti-Chinese demonstrations in the poorer districts of San Francisco. Ugly riots, some resulting in fatalities, broke out on several occasions. During one such incident, Norton allegedly positioned himself between the rioters and their Chinese targets, and with a bowed head started reciting the Lord's Prayer repeatedly until the rioters dispersed without incident."
• On 20th of May, 1795, during a protest against the French parliament, a man named Jean Feraud stood in front of the march and told them they would have to pass over his body before they would take another step, and was badly trampled as a result. He got up, dusted himself off, and when the march reached the President's seat, told the crowd they would have to kill him if they wanted to lay a finger on the president... which is exactly what they did, reportedly via Boom, Headshot!
• Chernushki village (Feb 22, 1943): Alexander Matveyevich Matrosov threw himself onto a German pillbox so that his unit could advance safely without the fear of being hit by suppression fire. He was posthumously awarded for his sacrifice the highest battle honor of his country: Hero of the Soviet Union.
• In 1752, a rather quarrelsome farmer in Hallingdal, Norway, was about to attack his younger half brother with an axe. The story goes that their mother positioned herself between them and said: "Are you going to chop your brother down?! You better take me first. I strove equally for both of you, and delivered you both on my knees!" This gave the younger brother time to escape, but the mother was violently manhandled afterwards. This farmer was charged and imprisoned for years.
• The American Rachel Corrie, who sat in front of an Israeli bulldozer about to destroy the home of a Palestinian. It ran over her twice and crushed her to death. Subsequent investigation showed that unfortunately, she was sitting in a place where the driver couldn't see her. It should also be noted, however, that she assumed said bulldozer was heading for the house, rather than any factual evidence it was next to be demolished (the bulldozer was uncovering a weapons smuggling tunnel at the time), making it somewhat of a Senseless Sacrifice.

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