It Gets Easier: Difference between revisions

* Fortis of Huckebein from ''[[Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force]]'' tells this to Tohma when he was trying to convince him to join their group of criminals since, as fellow infected, they are his best chance to survive. {{spoiler|Touma [[Heroic Sacrifice|disagrees]].}}

{{quote|'''Fortis:''' You may resist with the mindset that murder is a crime. However, you'll get used to it. We did too.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

== Fan Works ==

* In ''Seven Little Killers'', {{spoiler|Canada}} becomes a killer. He says that it's like smoking. You hate it at first, but grow to enjoy it. {{spoiler|It amounts to him asking America if he can just kill everyone, instead of all of their complicated plans}}

 

== Film ==

* Incorporated to disturbing effect in the [[Steven Spielberg]] film ''[[Munich]]''. It takes its toll on the characters, however.

* In the film adaptation of ''[[The Crucible]]'', the first hanging has the girls who had falsely accused them flinching and wincing while the rest of the villagers are cheering. But after the second and third and fourth hangings, they are cheering just as happily as the villagers.

 

== Literature ==

* In John Grisham's first novel ''A Time to Kill'', the guy who kills the two guys who raped his kid daughter thinks that it was harder to kill the first Viet Cong fighter.

* This is strongly implied to be the case for the murderer in the [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] novel ''Unnatural Death''.

{{Quote|"You must [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|be for once not brave, but cowardly]]. Small and mean, as you describe it. [[Nightmare Fuel|It will be difficult only once.]]"}}

 

* Reversed the first time Sam Beckett killed a man on ''[[Quantum Leap]]''. The man in question is a former French Resistance fighter who is said to have killed his own mother during the [[Second World War]]. After a scuffle, Sam backs away holding a bloodied knife as the man smiles up at him knowingly, whispers "The next time, it will be easier" and dies.

* Alas, poor John Crichton (of ''[[Farscape]]'') learned to kill in order to survive the Uncharted Territories. He also went pretty crazy, though whether it was the killing, the utter weirdness, the many, many aliens who decided to stick things in his brain and swirl it around a bit, or some combination thereof is anyone's guess.

{{quote|I've never told a lie before! Wait, that's a lie. It's getting easier! What's next, '''murder'''?}}

 

* The [[Karma Meter|Morality]] systems in ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' games are based on the notion that doing bad things to others gradually grows easier (although the specifics are different for each gameline).

* ''[[GURPS]]'' suggests, as an optional rule for "realism", representing this by starting the characters out with the Reluctant Killer disadvantage and then letting them buy it off..

 

* The title character of ''[[Macbeth]]'', as indicated by the page quote. Though in that case it's not so much killing as cold-blooded murder (he starts the play as a soldier).

* Parodied in ''[[The Mikado]]''. The "Lord High Executioner", Ko-Ko, charmed his way into the position, and since no one's been sentenced to death so far, he's essentially just a figurehead. However, when the time comes for him to make his first kill, Ko-Ko protests, "Why, I never even killed a blue-bottle!"

{{quote|...I'm not ready yet. I don't know how it's done. I'm going to take lessons. I mean to begin with a guinea pig, and work my way through the animal kingdom till I come to a Second Trombone.}}

 

== Video Games ==

* Surprisingly, [[Rabid Cop|Carter Blake]] from ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' pulls this trope to comfort Jayden if the player made him {{spoiler|shoot Nathaniel.}}

* ''[[Mega Man X]]'' was supposed to come across this trope after ''X5'', and had it not been the [[Executive Meddling]] causing the [[Continuity Snarl]], he would have become a [[Knight Templar]] villain in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]''.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[CRFH]]'', when Roger kills a number of Damascus's henchmen, and when Margaret kills {{spoiler|Mrs. Pepitone}}, they're completely dumbstruck, and may or may not have had ill-advised sex. This is the ''only'' time any of the henchmen are given a second thought, even by ''their own side''.

* In [http://iwd.fetchquest.com/archives.php?type=iwd&c=241 this strip] of ''In Wily's Defense'', Megaman refutes this after killing {{spoiler|Skull Man.}}

 

== Real Life ==

 

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[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]