Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

{{quote|'''John:''' No...no I can't.

 

 

Different from a [[Heel Face Turn]] because the villain isn't actually being heroic; the villain may be [[Pragmatic Villainy|entirely motivated out of self-interest]], such as [[Enemy Mine|fighting a common threat]] or because [[Eviler Than Thou|a competitor is challenging his place as nemesis]]. It's possible for it to even be a complete coincidence.

 

 

Also see [[Exit, Pursued by a Bear]], [[Designated Evil]], and [[Token Evil Teammate]] (the 'hero' inclined to play dirty pool in a team of good guys)

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', at the end of the Koryo arc, Syaoran talks Chunyan out of killing the ryanban, but he is conveniently taken care of by his own previously mind-controlled servant.

** A scene with the Obsidian Lord indicates that he was planning to invoke [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]] on them, but {{spoiler|Shizuru}} got to them first.

** In Mai's fight with Shiho, she's unable to go on the offensive, realizing that as both of them consider Yuuichi their most important person, either of their Childs being destroyed will result in his death (Shiho, being overcome with jealous rage, fails to realize this). Yuuichi, not wanting them to fight, orders Mai to destroy Shiho's Child ''while fully knowing that he'll kick it'', but she refuses. Then {{spoiler|a brainwashed Mikoto jumps in, having been conditioned to attack Mai's enemy, and destroys Shiho's child. Yuuichi thanks Mikoto for this before he passes away}}.

* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'': Vegeta's entire purpose, story-wise, for being on Namek is to kill every single minor villain so the heroes (or at least Goku) don't have to. Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, 4/5ths of the Ginyu Force (two while helpless!) and most of Freeza's mooks.

* This trope shows up several times in the second season of ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]: [[Stand Alone Complex]]'', though very rarely played straight.

** Of course, the person who killed them has been frequently acting in their names, manipulating, or outright impersonating them for a long time now (all the decisions relating to Rukia's sentence were carried out by {{spoiler|Aizen}} and his accomplices impersonating them), so it's hard to tell just how obstructive they ''really'' were...

*** Well, you have to keep up appearances unless you want people to notice that something is off, {{spoiler|like the 46 members of the central government being DEAD}}.

*** And despite that, they've apparently assembled a new Central 46 within half a year.

* In one episode of the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime, the heroes arrive at a festival dedicated to the Pokemon Wobbuffet, and several party-crashers come and start destroying things. The festival people explain that since Wobbuffet can't hurt the enemy except by reflecting attacks, in honor of that they will not attack the party crashers. Ash & co know the guys must be stopped, but are unwilling to break the rules of the festival. [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Team Rocket]], on the other hand, have no such qualms. [[Curb Stomp Battle|Ass kicking]] [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|ensues.]]

* This is so common in [[Magical Girl]] shows I'm not even going to list them but an example most western fans would be aware of is the big bads of [[Sailor Moon]] kill off most of their own subordinates who fail them which keep Sailor Moon and company from having to get their hands dirty. This is not the case of the [[Darker and Edgier]] manga however where they regularly kill their adversaries.

** This courtesy does not, of course, extend to the [[Big Bad]] themselves or often to their [[The Dragon|Dragon]]. As more often than not Sailor Moon will kill them ''personally''.

* Discussed, but subverted in ''[[Rave Master]]''. After defeating Hardner and learning about his sad past the heroes and their allies of the week are wondering what to do with him when Lucia comes out of nowhere and stabs him in the back, claiming they should be grateful that he solved the problem for them. Due to quick action, Hardner is instead saved and becomes the only ''[[Rave Master]]'' villain not to suffer from [[Redemption Equals Death]].

 

* Happens in ''[[Deadpool]]''. A man who had been abusing Wade's friend is cornered by him, but unfortunately, she had earlier made him promise not to kill him. He leaves. Cue Taskmaster, who happily proclaims that HE didn't promise her squat. Cue [[Gory Discretion Shot]].

* At the end of ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', [[Big Bad|Alexander Luthor]] has managed to escape the [[Final Battle]] and is planning to start over. Unfortunately, he forgot that he'd pissed off everyone's [[The Joker|favorite homicidal clown.]] Not content with the possibility that Luthor [[Not Quite Dead|might]] [[Gory Discretion Shot|return]], the writers have mister J [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|burn him with acid, electrocute him and shoot him in the head.]]

** On the fourth page, note that {{spoiler|The Shade}} is in fact flipping him off.

* In [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''Earth 2,'' the [[Justice League of America|Justice League]] are in a universe where the bad guys always win, and are losing to that universe's Brainiac. Their solution is to walk away, allowing the evil Ultraman to lobotomize Brainiac with his heat vision.

* ''[[Final Crisis]]'' also has Lex and Dr. Sivana coming to save the day from Libra when they hack into the Justifier helmets and kill Libra. Later, they helped the heroes build the Miracle Machine that fixes everything.

** To give an idea of how desperate this plan was, keep in mind that the last time Parallax possessed Hal, he ''destroyed the entire universe.'' (But this is comics, so they fixed it.)

* Warren White/The Great White Shark in the DC limited series/graphic novel ''[[Arkham Asylum: Living Hell]]''

* The remnants of The Black Glove that tried to utterly destroy Batman (and utterly failed) in ''[[Batman RIP]]'' could have caused problems in the future. It's probably for the best that {{spoiler|Joker as Oberon Sexton}} killed them all.

* ''[[Wayne Shelton]]'' exploits this trope: the [[Big Bad]] is killed by another villain. Shelton confesses that he hoped him to do this. And call this a bargain with his own conscience.

* Depending on if you see him as a hero, anti-hero or an anti-villain, most everything [[Hellblazer|John Constantine]] does could be seen as this: [[I Did What I Had to Do|he certainly does what needs to be done]] when Swampy and others he interacts with hesitate to.

 

* ''[[The Chronicles of Riddick]]'' saga is based on taking this trope and making a franchise out of it.

* The climax scene of ''[[Let the Right One In]]'' goes...this way, kind of. {{spoiler|As the kid's about to be drowned, the Eli shows up and saves the day. But since she's a vampire, he kills three people doing so.}}

** Later on, the Joker strands two ferries in the middle of a river, one filled with civilians and the other with convicts, with each one (supposedly) having the detonator to the ''other'' ferry and ordered to either blow up one by a certain time or the Joker will blow up both. While the civilian passengers are heavily considering blowing up the convicts, in the convict boat, the warden (who is holding the detonator) is approached by a [[Scary Black Man]] convict...

{{quote|'''Convict''': You don't want to die, but you don't know how to take a life. Give it to me; these men would kill you, and take it anyway. Give it to me. You can tell 'em I took it by force. Give it to me, and I'll do what you shoulda did ten minutes ago.''[The warden gives him the remote...[[Subverted Trope|and the convict throws it out the window]]]''}}

* Simba from ''[[The Lion King]]'' is too moral to give Scar the killing blow. However, the hyenas who Scar tried to blame for everything when things started looking bad...they have no such morals. And they haven't eaten in a while...

{{quote|'''Scar:''' Ah! My friends!

'''Ed''': [[Evil Laugh|Eh, heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh...]] }}

* Similarly in ''[[The Princess and the Frog]],'' {{spoiler|the Friends on the Other Side pull this off}} after Tiana {{spoiler|breaks Dr. Facilier's talisman, making it impossible for him to pay off his spiritual debt. They take him to the Other Side}}.

* [[Chris Pine]]'s character in ''Carriers'' where everyone is a [[Crazy Survivalist]] [[Shoot the Dog|shoots the dog]] many times in order to spare his more innocent brother from doing it himself. It rubs off on his brother though, who later finally gets his hands dirty by killing Pine when he is infected...A poetic end I suppose.

* Salim from [[Slumdog Millionaire]] spends most of the movie playing [[The Caretaker]] to Jamal, [[Shoot the Dog|shooting]] and [[Kick the Dog|kicking]] the dog alternately allowing them both to survive, but allowing Jamal to remain relatively untarnished.

* Both ''[[Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels]]'' and ''[[Snatch]]'' has the morally grey protagonists being rescued from a jam by the [[Big Bad]] by having some more villainous characters kill them instead. Though in the ''Lock, Stock'' example this was completely unintentional on the count of the [[Stupid Crooks]] who did the killing.

 

== Literature ==

* ''The Probability Broach'': It would be wrong to attack the Hamiltonians ''before'' they import a nuclear weapon, so they're killed off by a [[Chekhov's Gun|previously mentioned]] side effect of closing a broach when [[Portal Cut|something is halfway through it.]]

* [[The Culture]] novel ''Matter'' has a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] being released and in typical Banks fashion killing most of the main cast. While this is nearly all of the heroes, it also includes the [[Evil Chancellor]] who had usurped a throne and his minions. Thus, the Culture are able to set-up the surviving hero as the future prime minister, and unlike in other novels in the series, didn't actually have to act morally ambiguously and get rid of corrupt leaders themselves.

** “Stoneface” Vimes used more or less the same phrase, and executes the last king of ankh in person, without any form of trial. To be fair, [[Complete Monster|the king deserved it]], and some of the comments about the event indicate that he ''tried'' for a trial, but there wasn't anyone willing to be judge.

* In Bernard Cornwell's book ''Agincourt'', the main character, Nick Hook, has made a vow to a priest not to kill the murderous rapists who his family has been in a blood feud with for generations. {{spoiler|His arch-enemy, father-in-law, and prisoner (it's complicated) made no such promise.}}

** To be fair to Aly, she was trying to find a way out of killing the children, and considered binding them magically to oaths that they will not try to take the throne and exiling them together with the royal bodyguard as caretaker. Unfortunately, she mentioned to the trickster god that the children were in her way. The god got impatient with pacifist methods and persuaded the regents that they would be better off without the boys.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', this is how Tywin Lannister endeared himself to Robert Baratheon who had just secured the throne. Robert knew the old Targaryen line had to be extinguished for his throne to stay safe, but "he saw himself as a hero, and heroes do not kill children." Fortunately for Robert, Tywin (or rather his men) had no such delusions and happily murdered the two surviving Targaryen kids in the palace (committing a few ''other'' atrocities along the way).

* Wormtongue killing Saruman near the end of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

 

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]]'' episode "Wild At Heart": we don't kill werewolves, because they're human most of the time, but Oz's wolf side is amoral and thus free to kill Veruca.

** Buffy can't kill the Anointed One, partly because she's prophecied not to but mostly because he's a kid. Luckily, Spike does it for her.

* ''[[Farscape]]'': In the episode "Prayer", it's ambiguous whether or not John knew Scorpius was going to {{spoiler|kill the merged Chiana-Aeryn}} when he brought him along to the alternate universe, but it's [[Shoot the Dog|what had to be done]]. See page quote.

** In an earlier episode, Moya is in orbit around a planet with notoriously sexist laws, and accepts a visit from a mechanic- accompanied by an armed security guard. Things go well, up until Chiana discovers that the mechanic is actually a woman, rebelling against the government by doing a [[Sweet Polly Oliver]]; just when it looks like they're becoming friends, the security guard shows up and, infuriated that he's had a woman under his nose all this time, holds both of them at gunpoint. Given that there's almost nobody else aboard the ship at the time, it looks as though the two of them are going to die...right up until Scorpius calmly drifts past and snap the man's neck. All the more impactful because [[Affably Evil|Scorpius had been having a friendly chat with the guard before then]].

* In the third season of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', {{spoiler|a [[Brought Down to Normal|recently depowered]] Peter}} heads off with [[Anti-Magic|the Haitian]] to {{spoiler|kill his father and destroy [[Super Serum|the Formula]].}} However, once they get there they encounter problems {{spoiler|when Peter can't pull the trigger as Arthur makes his saving throw to turn Peter to his side.}} The obvious solution? {{spoiler|Sylar shows up, complete with recently stolen lie detection power, to ask Arthur if he's really a Petrelli. Naturally, Arthur lies, thus causing Sylar to allow the bullet he had grabbed in thin air to kill Arthur stone dead permanently.}}

** Not the straightest example. While {{spoiler|Sylar was the one who pushed the bullet into Arthur's skull, he was the one who stopped it in the first place. Had Sylar not been there, Peter would've been the one to kill Arthur, he just waited a while before he did it.}}

** Sylar actually lampshades the fact that he prevents Peter from becoming a murderer. So actually he wasn't here to do the job, just to keep Peter from having remorses.

** Ironically just after Cain proved that she wasn't ''completely'' insane yet, having in turn just refused to assassinate Adama.

* ''Da Ren Wu'' is a Chinese TV series based on a classic kung-fu novel set in medieval China. The heroes, as usual in wuxia literature, are staunch Confucianists: morally opposed to unwarranted violence and who don't approve of killing under any circumstances. At one point, Sisi, the main heroine, is tricked by some crooks who steal everything she owns and [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|give her to a Masqueraded School for whores]]. The boss and his cronies take great pleasure in tormenting defenseless girls, and kill those who don't respond well to the training. Three characters come to Sisi's rescue, one after another: 1) Yang Fan is the first. He can't find Sisi in the School (the boss locked her in a hidden room), so he leaves convinced he made a mistake. 2) Qin Ge, a famous kung-fu master, is the second. He can't find Sisi either. He suspects something, but can't prove anything. He leaves as well. 3) The hunchback is the third. {{spoiler|He's a major bad guy. He needs Sisi for some nefarious plan. He waits till night, gets into the School, finds Sisi and takes her with him. He pummels the cronies, and when the crossdressing boss tries to stop him: the hunchback pulls a Fist of the North Star on him. After leaving the School with Sisi, the hunchback tracks the crooks who had tricked her. He finds them, makes them give back the stolen stuff and beg for mercy on their knees...and then kills them nevertheless, just because!}} They say the author was very surprised when the hunchback's popularity with the audience skyrocketed after this story arc.

* This is one of the main ideas of [[Leverage]]. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys.

** When Nate goes for revenge on the two men behind {{spoiler|his father's murder}}, Elliot warns him that straight up murder carries a much higher moral cost than their usual method of destroying a bad guy's life. In the end, Nate plays the two against each other (getting each of them to point out why they should want the other dead) then leaves them to fight over a gun with a single bullet. {{spoiler|They ''both'' fall off the nearby cliff while fighting over the weapon.}}

 

== Video Games ==

** You also have Georgios Geld in a side chapter. A notorious war criminal who tortured and killed {{spoiler|Eleanor Varrot's lover}}, he is nonetheless released in an [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]] moment. Naturally, someone this much of a [[Complete Monster]] can't be allowed to get off scot-free, so he flees back to the Imperial headquarters... {{spoiler|only to be court marshalled and excecuted ''by his own side''!}} Also doubles as [[Even Evil Has Standards]].

* In ''[[Uncharted]]'' 2: Among Thieves, after defeating the [[Final Boss]] {{spoiler|Lazarevic}} in a blatant example of [[Get It Over With]], {{spoiler|Lazarevic dares the protagonist to shoot him and end it. True to character, Nathan is not the one that has to end it. The Guardians, originally mini-bosses, arrive to finish the job for you.}}

* It pisses off [[No More Heroes|Travis]], but {{spoiler|Henry}} kills the fifth ranked assassin in front of his face...and because of the rules of the fights, it counts as a rank up for Travis anyways.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Vriska from ''[[Homestuck]]'' attempts to take the fight to the [[Big Bad]], and even [[The Omniscient]] thinks she ''might'' win. The price would have been {{spoiler|leading the bad guy directly back to the [[Last Bastion]] and wiping out her race}}.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Morality Tropes]]