One of the most common scenes in storytelling is ‘The Sacrifice’. It isn’t even found solely in adventure stories. Someone may sacrifice their own happiness in a romance to help the person they love be with someone else. Giving up a treasured item to help someone like ‘The Gift of the Magi’. The essence of a sacrifice scene is that a character gives something up for the sake of others. Even if that character comes back more powerful before.
I love a good sacrifice scene, but it has to be really good. It requires a lot of set up and the right emotional hit to be memorable. I need to believe that the character would commit their final act on behalf of the others. So, it needs to be in character as well as have a purpose. There have been many tales where a character dies saving the others, but the reader saw an easy way for everyone to live. For example, scenes where a person stays behind to push a self-destruct button and you see later on that everything can be controlled from a secondary area. Once I realize that a character died in vain, I consider it a wasted scene. Also, I want the other characters to be affected and not continue on their way without shedding a tear.
One type of sacrifice that I find interesting is the accidental. I’m not even sure if you can count this as a sacrifice, but I don’t know what else to call it. A selfish character acts in a way that saves the others even though they never intended for it to happen. Best example here is Gollum at the end of Return of the King. He had no intention of doing what he did, but it happened. On this topic: is it wrong to mention spoilers of books or movies that are so old?
Anyway, what does everyone think of ‘The Sacrifice’ scene? Do you have preferences or is it a scene that you think should be retired?
Legends of Windemere 
At the risk of a spoiler, isn’t that what Fritz did?
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Maaaaaybe. I will not state yes or no, but it is an interesting part of the story.
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I agree on all points. But regarding the “wasted” sacrifice, I’m not so sure. I think it depends on the purpose of the sacrifice from the story perspective rather than the character perspective. If the purpose is to bring out a sense of irony or anger or extra poignancy from the readers, then it may be a plot device well used. Think of a war story such as Gallipoli.
Oh, and I’ve never thought about “accidental sacrifices.” They might be more like “unintentional” sacrifices. But now that I think of it, its not sacrifice at all, is it? By definition, I would think sacrifice would mean giving up something you cherish with intent. Gollum never “intended” to fall into the volcano. The fact that he did made the act important, but that was never on purpose. It was probably a mix of good luck and deus ex machina. Now, if a person lost something that they never intended causing positive consequences for someone else, and then conceded that it was probably for the best that they lost that thing–then probably it would fall into the criteria of “sacrifice.” What do you think?
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I’m wondering if I’m describing the ‘wasted sacrifice’ correctly. It’s difficult for me to explain the type that I’m thinking of. Maybe more that the sacrifice is seen as wasted because of something author does. For example, a person leaps out of a space station with a bomb because the control panel to jettison it is destroyed. Then a scene or two later, the surviving characters use the ‘damaged’ panel to jettison the bad guy into space. This is more continuity error and sloppy mistake.
I can see what you’re saying and unintentional would be a better word than accidental. Typically, a sacrifice is intentional. This is why I added the accidental because this is the deus ex machina plot push.
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Ah, I get it now. Yes, those things irk me and is probably bad writing. But to play devil’s advocate again, I can actually imagine very interesting scenes where that can be used successfully. For example, a character realizes too late that the jettison panel was actually not nonfunctional but decides to hide it from others.
Oh, and I just downloaded your first book on Kindle. So excited!
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Hope you enjoy the book.
That would definitely clear up the problem. I’ve mentioned in a few posts that such issues can be repaired if written into the story. Edits are a beautiful thing.
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The sacrifice scene is easily my best part of any book or movie. It somehow makes the character seem even more life-like.
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It’s a fun scene to watch. I’ll admit it’s a bit nerve-wracking to write.
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You do it perfectly, though!
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Yeah. Hopefully I did it well the next time it comes up.
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I’m sure you will.
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I like the sacrifice screen, yes it can become very boiler-plate and therefore predictable, but it does have its redeeming qualities. I don’t think it should be retired, but I do think one should try to put a bit of a spin on it to try to freshen it up instead of going for exactly what is expected.
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It might be a scene that never gets old as long as it’s done correctly. Think about how Gandalf did it, Obi-Wan did it, Dumbledor did it, etc. It isn’t always the same way, but it seems to always have an impact.
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I love a good sacrifice scene with the underlying message of atonement. I recently watched an episode of Angel where one of the MC’s hero sacrifices himself but it didn’t work for me. Its like 8 or 9 episodes into the series with a half developed character and some hasty add-ins about his past. I wasn’t feeling it.
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Was it Doyle? My wife is a big Angel fan and it was done because the actor died.
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I didn’t want to spoil it! Do you mean the guy who played him died? Or you lost interest because he died. OMG ! The Illyria episodes are some of the best — could be me Illyria is one of my favorite character’s ever!
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Sorry. It’s been out since the 90’s, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. The actor actually died.
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I just looked it up. I was going to revoke my criticism but he died two years (2002) before the show ended some two years after his on-screen death (Nov 30, 1999) so nope the writers meant it that way. I wonder if the episode has commentary………
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Probably. I go by what the fan says because I wasn’t into it. Maybe they wanted to bring him back to finish the arc or the character wasn’t working out for them. There was a character in the third season of Supernatural that didn’t pan out, so they did a death. Then again, it is Joss Whedon and he enjoys his shock deaths.
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I love Joss Whedon. Most of the time he is fantastic sometimes he makes me cringe.
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He’s great, but I do cringe a lot when I know he’s involved. I fear for the Avengers.
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I think sacrifice smacks of formula. In real life sacrifice is usually by accident, one of those momentary things that is a matter of confluence of events. Most heroes subscribe to the idea that they were really reacting to the circumstance.
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I think it’s a lot rarer in real life, but I do think it happens. To me a sacrifice is a reaction to the circumstances such as stepping between a person and a gunman. It’s a more spontaneous action than it appears in fiction, yet I believe it can occur in some situations. In fiction, it suits the more noble nature of protagonists.
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That’s one of my favorite scenes in Fellowship of the Ring. It’s gorgeous and I was glad to see Ian McKellan do it justice. In fact the whole reason for the journey was a sacrifice. None of them were certain they would live through the journey. I agree that a sacrifice scene has to be good, especially when you think about real-life sacrifices people make that are so powerful: saving a kid from drowning, yet drowning oneself; jumping on a terrorist on an airplane, knowing you’ll die yourself when the plane crashes (but not at its intended destination). These are real events that bring tears to my eyes even as I think of them, especially the last one, which happened during 9/11. A building on the guy’s alma mater was renamed in his honor because of his action..So a scene really needs to count emotionally. I think of Yinsen in the first Iron Man movie. What a wonderful scene!!!
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Now that you mention it, taking the Ring to Mordor does seem like a big suicide mission.
When in Florida, I read a lot of stories about people jumping into rivers to save others, but not making it out themselves. Even at a small scale with a child giving up a favorite toy to one who has nothing. Though, some people might call that charity instead of sacrifice. Maybe we have too big a scale on sacrifice, so we overlook smaller ones.
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