Apologetic Attacker: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''The Man in Black:''' You seem a decent fellow, I hate to die.|''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]''}}

* Syaoran does this to Yukito in the ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' manga, apologizing right before punching him in the gut to knock him out so Sakura can use her magic to capture the Firey card.

* In ''[[Akira]]'', {{spoiler|Takashi}} hates using his [[Psychic Powers]], but against someone who just won't give him the chance to explain himself and keeps attacking him ( {{spoiler|Mozu, a local [[Extraordinarily Empowered Girl]]}}, he decides to do so... and after the apology, he unleashes a fatal psychic attack.

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', {{spoiler|Primera Espada Coyote Starrk apologies to Kyōraku while shooting him in the back with a Cero while the latter tries to attack Wonderweiss, stating the arrival of Wonderweiss means [[Big Bad|Aizen]] has lost patience.}}

*** Played in a darker and more sarcastic manner with {{spoiler|with someone who is possibly the leader of the Stern Ritter for the Vandenreich. After they start attacking, he says "Sorry, but we were ordered to kill everyone." }}

== Film - Animated ==

* A very creepy version occurs in ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', where the {{spoiler|badly-mutilated Other Father is strapped into the mechanical mantis and forced to attack Coraline, mournfully mumbling apologies as the mantis stalks her.}}

* The Operative in ''[[Serenity]]''. River is also very apologetic after she beats Simon up in order to get to the bridge.

* In 1940's ''[[The Mark Of Zorro]]'', [[Badass Preacher]] Fray Felipe apologizes as he knocks out the alcalde's soldiers with a club during the climactic melee.

* Subverted initially by the monk in ''[[Dragonheart]]'' as he's quoting humorous scripture while (non-fatally) shooting mooks with arrows, then plays it straight when he sees the [[Big Bad]], grunts out "Thou shalt not kill" while trying to fatally shoot him.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' when C-3PO's head gets knocked off and is fused to a battle droid's body, forcing him to open fire on the Jedi Knights, him frantically apologizing for every shot fired. (He never lands a single shot)

* Carlisle in the [[The Film of the Book|film version]] of ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''.

* In ''[[Cellular]]'' {{spoiler|Jessica}} apologises to one of the bad guys after {{spoiler|she kills him by cutting his brachial artery}}.

* Encouraged in the Rahmens parody educational series ''The Japanese Tradition'' episode about dating. If you are forced to fight, you should say "I'm sorry I have to do this" before dealing out justice.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Invasion of the Dinosaurs", Sergeant Benton attacks his superior (who's on the wrong side):

'''Sergeant Benton:''' ''(while repeatedly slamming the General against a desk)'' Yes, sir! Very sorry, sir! }}

** And then later, in the revived series 5 finale, {{spoiler|Auton!Rory apologizes desperately to Amy as he's forced to kill her.}}

** The Tenth Doctor also apologizes [[Catch Phrase|all the damn time]], and on several occasions "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," meant "I have run out of ideas for how to save you and your victims, so I'm going to kill you now." Obviously does not apply to beings such as Daleks.

** One of the Tenth Doctor's biggest [[Moment of Awesome|awesome moments]] involved playing this straight ''and'' inverting it, when he [[Out-Gambitted]] [[The Master]] and temporarily made himself ''canonically'' a [[God Mode Sue]] via the amplified thoughts of the human race.

'''The Doctor:''' "I ''forgive'' you." }}

* In ''[[Prison Break]]'', Scofield does this quite frequently whenever forced to harm good people (often bystanders) to stick to his plans. {{spoiler|Justified in that he only starts doing this after witnessing an inmate hang himself, supposedly because Scofield didn't save him from T-Bag.}}

* In Episode I of ''[[Xenosaga]]'', one of MOMO's battle end sayings is "I'm sorry, are you okay?" If they collapsed in a [[High-Pressure Blood|shower of blood]], they are pretty far from "okay."

** Chaos is a more extreme case of this. In certain cases during battle in the second episode, he'll quickly say sorry before attacking. In Episode I, however, he has a pre-battle and battle end quote in which he prays for the enemy's soul.

"May all your souls rest in peace..." }}

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has a few like this.

** Vaelastarsz - a Red Dragon enslaved by Black Dragon Nefarian.

** Sir Zeliek - a great Paladin turned into a marionette of the [[Big Bad|Lich King]], trapped inside his own body as the Lich King uses his own holy powers to commit atrocities.

* Most of the Splicers in ''[[Bioshock]]'' are pretty out of it, but the Pigskin occasionally realizes that you're not, in fact, his hated father. He apologizes, but keeps hunting you, because the Saturnine would do horrible things to him if he let you go.

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', the [[Robo Brain]] enemy sometimes acts like this.

* [[An Ice Person|Freudia Neuwahl]] and Liebea Palesch in ''[[Rosenkreuzstilette]]''. One can only predict the results when they go up against each other in the sequel.

'''Liebea''': "Forgive me, Miss Tia..." }}

* In the original ''[[Dead or Alive]]'', one of Kasumi's win quotes has her kneel down and apologize to her fallen foe, asking if he/she is alright.

** Also, surprisingly enough, Tsubaki knew that she could never defeat her even though she didn't hold back. Then again, in fact, she herself didn't even know that Hazama was only using her to hurt her deeply enough to awaken the true successor to the Azure from within her... which, of course, causes Noel to [[This Is Unforgivable!|fly into a rage and refuse to forgive him when she realizes it during her encounter with him]].

** Litchi also has this line in her winquote against Bang because she thought he was a pervert but didn't know that he was really trying to impress her.

** In general, Litchi also counts. As she is a doctor and a very benevolent one, she really wouldn't like to fight unless the situation is really severe. A lot of her win quotes had her apologizing to her enemies, and in the Arcade Mode, she was clearly sorry for having to force her way through by beating her colleague Tager.

* ''Artix Entertainment'' games have rare occurrences where the heroes fight against someone only to find out after beating them up that they weren't really as bad as the non-player characters who sicced them on them made them think and they apologize to them before deciding to show those non-player characters who's boss for setting them up and using them. A good example is during the cutscene after the hero defeats Lord Ovthedance where he/she apologizes to him for not realizing that the Great Godfather of Soul set him up and conned him/her into doing his dirty work.

'''Hero''': ...I said "I'm sorry". }}

* ''[[Bug!]]!'' has a Mook that turns around and ''[[Fartillery|farts]]'' at Bug's face! While apologizing with a rather crude "Sorry" or "Sorry, just ate".

* Errol of ''[[Seekers (webcomic)|Seekers]]'' profusely apologizes to the female Lizaar as he delivers a sound beating to her in a tournament.

* Cale in [[Looking for Group]] is convinced he has to kill an innocent child to save a kingdom. Up until this point, Cale has been bordering on [[Stupid Good]] and hates the thought of even ''harming'' a single innocent - but eventually [[Shoot the Dog|goes through with it anyway]].

** Aang and Sokka attacking Katara whilst under [[People Puppets|Hama's control]].

* The sequel series, ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' also uses it, when {{spoiler|Asami discovers her father is working for the Equalists}}.

* [[Samurai Jack]] apologized to a guy for knocking him out and stealing his clothes after Jack's own clothes were stolen.

* After Him turned everyone evil in one episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', they apologized after beating the snot out of everybody.

* Much like the example from ''The Matrix Reloaded'' above, Phoebus does one of these to Esmaeralda in Disney's adaptation of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''.

* [[Lampshaded]] and subverted in an episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'':

Member of Team Impossible: Not really, but that's what our lawyer told me to say. }}

* On ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', [[The Bully|Nelson]] apologizes as he is forced to attack Drederick Tatum who has been swabbed with "Poindextrose".

* In the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003'', Donatello got one of these while attempting to save a power plant worker from a cooling tower that he'd just rigged to [[Stuff Blowing Up|blow up]]. [[It Makes Sense in Context]]...

Don: For this. (Cue the use of his [[Simple Staff]]) }}

* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "The Return of Harmony, Part 2", Fluttershy is ordered to restrain a brainwashed Rainbow Dash, and proceeds to fly up to the sleeping Rainbow and... gently awaken her, then ask "I'm just wondering if it's okay if I hold you down against your will for a little bit." Twilight Sparkle's reaction is [[Face Palm|predictable]].