Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Difference between revisions

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

 

There's a problem, and the heroes can't solve it or make it go away. It boils down to a situation that requires a decidedly [[Moral Dissonance|unheroic action]] to solve, whether it's hurting, [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|killing]], or something even less pleasant. The heroes can't very well do it and still be classic White Hats, but ''not'' doing anything would have grave consequences. Who can save the heroes now? Not the [[Big Damn Heroes]], but the '''villains'''! Hey, they're evil already, doing an evil act to save the day is no problem.

 

{{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.

** 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.