I Have Your Wife: Difference between revisions

Sometimes, a villain will do this as a plot to get a hero to betray his friends, only to have him [[Rewarded As a Traitor Deserves]].

 

 

Sometimes, of course, the intended target may feel that [[You Can Keep Her]], in which case the whole thing is moot by [[Threat Backfire]].

* Played with in ''[[Austin Powers]]''. When Austin is about to capture Dr. Evil, Alotta appears holding Vanessa at gunpoint, telling Austin to let him go. At this point Scott walks in, so Austin grabs and holds ''him'' at gunpoint in exchange for Vanessa. Dr. Evil is, of course, [[Parental Abandonment|completely indifferent]].

* In ''[[The Big Lebowski]]'' the (non-Dude) Jeffrey Lebowski's wife, Bunny, is "kidnapped" and held for one million dollars ransom.

* The initial premise of Schwarzenegger's ''[[Commando (Film)|Commando]]'' is that the baddies have kidnapped his daughter to force him into doing their bidding.

* In ''[[Capricorn One]]'', the astronauts are told the safety of their families is contingent on their willingness to cooperate with the fake moon landing.

{{quote| Savage: "Ah, there's no room in my life for love, Mona."<br />

Mona: "But why, Doc?"<br />

* This is why Wellington Yueh betrays the Atreides in ''[[Dune]]'', with a twist: the Harkonnens have Yueh's wife Wanna (of course), and they are torturing her. Constantly. Yueh's deal with the Baron is that the Baron will ''kill'' Wanna, putting an end to her miserable existence. {{spoiler|This is why Yueh also sacrifices his life to assassinate the Baron; the plan fails, but it's kind of sweet.}}

* In ''Fangs of K'aath 2: Guardians of Light'', the villain Tzu-Khan has the good Shah Raschid's wives kidnapped. With them in his clutches, he makes contact to the Raschid through a magic mirror about how he intends to have them horrifically [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortured]] and yet [[And I Must Scream|unable to die]] unless the Shah surrenders. However, the heroic wives break free just long enough to reveal the location of the villain's army and instruct their husband both to break his mirror to cut off contact for more threats, and "Kill the bastards!" Well aware of what his wives are sacrificing sending that message, Raschid wastes no time to honour those demands. Fortunately, a combination of cunning and [[The Power of Friendship]] allows the wives to not only individually escape, but to join the fight against the villain.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* [[Subverted]] in ''[[Baldurs Gate]] II: Shadows of Amn'': Bodhi will warn you against continuing to oppose her lest you lose everything dear to you, and kidnap your love interest character, if any -- but will offer no deal not to hurt them if you yield, presumably because she knows you have no choice but to follow her anyway and because she likes to be sadistic.

* In the most recent development of ''[[Blaz Blue]]'', {{spoiler|this eventually happens to Litchi Faye-Ling when the game's second [[Complete Monster]], Relius Clover, took hostage of her boyfriend-turned-freaky... thing Arakune and told her to join NOL, or she'll never get the cure which NOL has, or even see him alive again. This plays up Litchi's [[Love Martyr]] qualities and by the end of the series, she pulls a [[Face Heel Turn]] and hampers Ragna's quest to destroy NOL. It's not known how she'll end up since her [[Face Heel Turn]] shows at the [[Cliff Hanger]] ending.}}

 

== Real Life ==

** For the curious, Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu (founding the Han Dynasty in the process), and Liu's father didn't get the least bit boiled.

* Another historical example, this time from 12th century England, concerns King Stephen threatening to hang the small son of one John Marshal if he doesn't surrender his castle. John replies, rather crudely, that he still has the hammer and anvil to make even better sons. In justice to John, King Stephen was a marshmallow (sweet and soft) and everybody knew it. Little William Marshal was ''not'' hanged and grew up to be the most famous knight in England and France.

 

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