Suicide is generally considered a bad thing. Even when the person doing it feels he has no other choice, it's still deemed far from heroic. In contrast, Heroic Sacrifices are almost always regarded as noble, and those who perform them are held in high regard. Despite the similarities, these two things rarely overlap.

But sometimes they do.

This trope is about situations where suicide becomes heroic. Say a character discovers that he is a Person of Mass Destruction, a crucial part of an Evil Plan, or the Big Bad's Soul Jar. In such situations killing oneself may be the only way to save the day.

This is a specific sub-trope of Heroic Sacrifice. The difference is that in most Heroic Sacrifices dying is merely an unfortunate by-product of a heroic act. In a Heroic Suicide, dying is necessary to perform the heroic act. Or, to put it another way, a Heroic Sacrifice engages in heroic activity even though it can get them killed. A Heroic Suicide engages in heroic activity knowing that it will get them killed.

The clearest examples are when a character personally will become the threat that endangers others, and they have to kill themselves to prevent it. Any such situation definitely counts as a Heroic Suicide. Another scenario is if someone is giving a Suicidal Sadistic Choice, which may overlap with this if the suicide option leads to a better conclusion (such as, say, saving hostages). Otherwise, it might count, but be careful.

A good rule of thumb is that in most Heroic Suicides, the character's death is both necessary and sufficient to accomplishing their immediate goal. That is to say, they can't accomplish their goal without dying, but how they die doesn't matter much. To elaborate:

• Necessity: Ask yourself if there's even a theoretical possibility that the character could accomplish their goal without dying. If there is, it's probably a regular Heroic Sacrifice. For example, say you drink poison intended for someone else, trade places with a man on death row, or turn your spaceship into a guided missile. None of those qualify, because in each case your death is only a side-effect of what you are doing. The point is to prevent the other person from drinking the poison, buy time for the man to escape, or disable the enemy ship. You would still accomplish these goals even if you discovered you were miraculously immune to poison, received a last-minute pardon, or were beamed off your ship at the moment of impact. This trope only comes into play if the character has to die to accomplish their goal. Though that isn't to say their death will always be permanent.
• Sufficiency: Ask yourself how important the circumstances are under which the person dies. Do they accomplish their goal just by dying, or does it matter what they were doing when they died? For example, say you get yourself killed defusing a bomb. In that situation, it's stopping the bomb that makes your actions heroic, not the dying. You couldn't achieve the same goal just by, say, shooting yourself in the head. On the other hand, say you are the bomb. In that case, it doesn't matter how you die, as long as you do it quickly. Shooting yourself in the head is fine. So is getting poisoned, stabbed, or decapitated.

Compare Thanatos Gambit, My Death Is Just the Beginning, Seppuku, and Better to Die than Be Killed. See also I Cannot Self-Terminate, which can be a heroic suicide by proxy. Often overlaps with Cyanide Pill which could be considered a sub-trope (examples go there, not here).

Contrast Spiteful Suicide, the malicious counterpart of this trope that involves committing suicide solely to hurt or screw over another person, or even out of sheer pride, instead of doing so for a righteous cause.

No Real Life Examples, Please!

As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

Examples: