Sacrifice of a Hero

Sometimes, even heroes have to make sacrifices.

Reasons could range from a big fight that ends with the death of the hero, to the hero retiring after destroying or sealing away the ultimate Super Evil, to the hero simply being erased from existence.

This kind of sacrifice usually happens during the show's final episode.

Sometimes, a hero doesn't have to sacrifice themselves completely. They could just sacrifice a specific trait (or object) that was the main plot point of a show.

Because this overlaps with Satisfactory Conclusion, spoilers are ahead. It is recommended to watch the following examples before you read this page.

## Examples

* The page image is Pop's grave from Regular Show, who died saving the universe from Anti-Pops.
* In One-Punch Man, many Class C/B heroes save for Saitama either died or injured themselves trying to save a city from a sea monster. And at one point, a Class *S* hero got severe injuries trying to kill said monster.
* In My Hero Academia, All Might passed on his Quirk to Izuku, and as of the second season has fully retired from hero work.
* An inversion came in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) when its final episode "Turtles Forever" aired. It was Shredder (well, the 2003 Shredder) that got destroyed completely, not the 2003 Turtles. Even *1987 Shredder* found 2003 Shredder's plan so bad, he decided to remove the one threat to his constant fighting of the 1987 Turtles.
* Some Transformers series sometimes have finales that kill off several Autobots.
* The final two segments of Courage the Cowardly Dog (not counting "The Fog of Courage") has Courage sacrifice part of his "cowardliness" so that several problems could be set straight.
* In the original Ben 10 continuity, Ben Tennyson sacrificed *two* Omnitrixes... and always got another one by the end of the episode in which he loses his Omnitrix he had over the course of the series.
* The Powerpuff Girls (1998) had a couple of times where the girls lost their powers (but somehow did not break down into their original ingredient).
	+ Powerpuff Girls Z had the girls sacrifice the Chemical Z they had in them to hurl the worst villain of the anime into space, but it didn't really do much, considering the girls still had their powers.
* Puella Magi Madoka Magica ended with Madoka ascending to a higher plane of existence, thanks to her wish erasing all witches from the past, present, and future... everywhere.
* In the anime version of Death Note, Light Yagami sacrificed his status of "God of the New World" unwillingly, but died peacefully anyway.
* Samurai Jack: Ashi helped Jack kill Aku, which in turn erased her from existence.
* Gravity Falls ended its 40-episode run with Stan Pines sacrificing his memory to kill off Bill Cipher. Said sacrifice didn't last long, as he recovered it before Dipper and Mabel left Gravity Falls.
* Phineas and Ferb ended with Dr. Doofenshmirtz deciding to finally turn against one of his "Inators" to fix the flow of time. Otherwise subverted, considering every character appearing in the episode was alive and well at the end. But that doesn't explain why Phineas and Ferb fell into a different part of existence and were forgotten everywhere.
* Speaking of which, The Amazing World of Gumball technically averts this, but Darwin's early design was sent into "The Void" to make way for Darwin's current design.
* Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! almost ended this way... and then it was cancelled.
* In episode 24 of Kill la Kill, Senketsu maxed out his Life Fiber capacity and sacrificed himself to save Ryuko from burning in the atmosphere. And this was after Ryuko's final battle with Ragyo.
	+ In the same episode, Nui sacrificed herself and became a part of Raygo, with Nui being erased from existence altogether (but in a way different from Ashi's in that her past self still exists).
	+ In the OVA, Satsuki sacrificed (in other words, cut) most of her hair as "a farewell gift to our alma matter".
* In Ouran High School Host Club, Haruhi Fujioka sacrificed a nice time at the Ouran Fair in order to save the Host Club.
* In Codename: Kids Next Door's "G:KND" spin-off pitch, Nigel Uno (aka Numbuh One) sacrifices his earlier statement of the KND only battling evil adults (and keeping them and decommissioned teens out KND bases) in order to destroy *an entire planet*.
	+ Monty Uno was once recommissioned by his own son in order to stop Nigel's *grandfather* (who was recommissioned by Nigel's uncle Benedict). Eventually, both Monty and the main villain of "Operation: Z.E.R.O." were decommissioned, and the recommissioning module was revealed to be broken by Monty.
* *Can* happen in Jewelpet, but the pets always come back. Otherwise the toys based off the killed-off pets wouldn't sell anymore.
* Steven Universe has these, and if the affected character's a Crystal Gem... they regenerate.

TBA.