I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''So, from now on, when-EVER Private Pyle fucks up, I will not punish him! I will punish all of YOU! And the way I see it ladies, YOU OWE ME FOR ONE JELLY DOUGHNUT!'' |'''[[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Gunnery Sergeant Hartman]],''' ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''}}

This trope is a signature tactic of a [[Bad Boss]]. It is also a form of [[Villainous Demotivator]]. Those who have their friends and loved ones under constant threat should they fail might be driven to greater efforts. However, in the long run this situation can hardly be good for morale or loyalty to the [[Big Bad]]. The target may, and [[And Your Little Dog, Too|likely will]], perform a [[Heel Face Turn]] should the opportunity present itself (and it will) in a desperate bid to save their family and themselves from their circumstances.

Can be [[Played for Laughs]] if the "friend" is someone the hero doesn't like.

{{examples}}

* In the Water 7 arc of ''[[One Piece]]'', the [[Secret Police|CP9]] make Robin help them in obtaining the blueprints of [[Lost Superweapon|Pluto]] in order to spare the lives of the rest of the [[True Companions|Straw Hat Pirates]].

** In Luffy's flashback arc, Sabo's father forces him to come home by threatening Ace and Luffy's lives, and tries to get him to deny his involvement with them in that same way, but ends up having to bribe the official.

* In the introductory arc of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', one of the teachers tells Kuwabara that if he doesn't stop fighting and get his grades up, one of his friends will have his work permit revoked. Then, after Kuwabara keeps his end of the deal, the teacher tries to deliberately misgrade his tests so that he won't have to honor his end (And gets caught by the principal).

== [[Fan Fiction]] ==

== [[Film]] ==

** In the sequel, he kills {{spoiler|Irene Adler}} and sends men to kill {{spoiler|Watson and Mary}}, even after Holmes personally tells him that {{spoiler|Watson will no longer be a part of his investigation}}. Of course, this ends up biting the bad guy in the end, as {{spoiler|Watson ends up stopping his assassin, which he wouldn't be doing if he was still on his honeymoon}}. It's also the same threat that ends up forcing Holmes to {{spoiler|grab Moriarty and jump into Reichenbach Falls}}.

* In the film ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'', the first part of the film is about the training of the new recruits in the US Marine Corps. One of them, nicknamed "Gomer Pyle," can't seem to improve in his training, so [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann]] stops punishing him and starts punishing everyone else. The other recruits take it out on him in the infamous "blanket party" scene, where they pin him to his bunk with a blanket and beat the crap out of him with bars of soap wrapped in towels. After this, Pyle starts to show improvement in his training, but also starts to {{spoiler|develop a [[Driven to Madness|psychotic breakdown]], ultimately culminating in the murder of Hartmann and [[Ate His Gun|his own suicide]]}}.

* In ''[[Under Siege]]'', the [[Big Bad]] is having his [[Mook|Mooks]] lead the crew of the captured battleship into the hold. On the way, one crewmember assaults one of the criminals. Not only is he shot for his trouble, the [[Big Bad]] immediately shoots the guy next to him, claiming this is the price to pay for disobedience.

* In "Time Limit" an officer has made propaganda for the North Koreans while a POW and is going to be court martialed. One officer wants to know why and finds {{spoiler|that after the one POW who betrayed the other men was strangled by the man who drew the short straw, the Korean commander called in the ranking POW and told him that he was going to do everything he was told or the other sixteen men would be taken out and shot right in front of him. He gave in.}}

* ''[[Altered Carbon]]'': {{spoiler|Kawahara}} threatens to lock Kovacs' girlfriend into a [[Fate Worse Than Death|mind-shattering virtual interrogation hell]] if he doesn't do as {{spoiler|she}} demands.

* This is a popular tactic of Lord Voldemort in the [[Harry Potter]] series.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* On [[Law and Order SVU]] to keep child slaves in line the mistakes of one would be punished on all of the others. This ensured the kids wouldn't run away when sent out to work or prostitute, because they were certain the others would be beaten or even killed if they ran.

* In a double example, the ''[[White Collar]]'' episode "Front Man" has Neal being coerced to perform a series of tasks for a gangster, who threatens to kill his hostage (a young girl) if he refuses. While doing the first task, he is told that if he doesn't get the required information from a female travel agent in a certain amount of time, a sniper will kill her (the travel agent). You can even see a red dot appear on her head and clothing occasionally, reminding Neal of his deadline.

* Minnie in [[Lark Rise to Candleford]] has a stepfather who uses this tactic to brutalise and subjugate his wife and her daughters.

* A non-villainous example occurred on ''[[The Mentalist]]'': the new boss, in an attempt to get Jane to at least think a bit more before he acted like a complete jerkass, informed him that if he screwed up, nothing would be done to him; ''Lisbon'' would be canned instead. For once Jane is rendered completely speechless.

* In ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' this becomes John Marston's primary motivator after his wife and son are kidnapped.

* In ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'', after exiling Talon of Lon Lon Ranch and taking the place over, Ingo the Stablehand threatens to treat badly the horses that Malon loves if she goes against him, which sets the stage for Link kicking his ass in a horse race on [[Cool Horse|Epona]], who he befriended as a kid [[Chekhov's Gun|earlier in the game]].

* Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski pull this in [[Grand Theft Auto|San Andreas]], threatening to make sure {{spoiler|Sweet}} dies if CJ doesn't do what they want him to do. Later {{spoiler|Toreno}} pulls this as well but is less malicious about it.

** Similarly, in the sequel, Maya gets kidnapped by {{spoiler|Shelly de Killer}} in order to force Phoenix to get Matt Engarde a "Not Guilty" verdict, when Engarde was really guilty. {{spoiler|Well, he didn't actually kill Juan Corrida, but he did create the circumstances leading to Corrida's death.}} The player may either get Engarde acquitted, in which case an innocent woman is found guilty and executed, or get Engarde declared guilty, in which case Maya is killed. The only way out is to [[Take a Third Option]] and {{spoiler|Get de Killer to betray Engarde.}}

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]: Wrath of the Lich King'' you find letters after killing mage-hunter captains of races on your faction (a human and a troll, respectively), reading the letters becomes a very poignant [[Player Punch]] when it says that they've been forced to work for the blue flight under threat of their family's death.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Tirac from the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' pilot threatened to kill Spike in order to make Scorpan obey him.