Holder of the Heel
Fiat justitia, pereat mundus
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2011
- Messages
- 8,850
- Location
- Alabama
- NNID
- Roarfang
- 3DS FC
- 1332-7720-7283
- Switch FC
- 6734-2078-8990
Heroic Sacrifices are best when two conditions are fulfilled.
A) There is a connection between the sacrificed and the one being taken down by the sacrifice. It can't be a character just cashing in on sacrificing themselves for extra last minute plot armor. The act of mutual destruction has to be intimate enough to justify their plot armor expending themselves together.
B) There ought to be meaning from not only the fall of the villain, but of the protagonist being gone as well. If the end result is not affected by their death then the reasoning for it really just comes down to the author trying to have a stronger emotional impact on the reader from the climax.
I agree on senseless sacrifice, the only gain from it can be to show the reader and other characters that a certain method, typically the assumed/standard method, no longer works, so their death amounts to a lesson and the beginning of a dilemma. However, that can be achieved without a Senseless Sacrifice. Someone can perhaps still die but I'd probably be more inclined for it to just be a fatal error rather than voluntarily offering up their life; otherwise, sacrifices have their meaning undermined when instead the author could be adding weight to making mistakes in the cast's situation.
