It Gets Easier: Difference between revisions

Murder, mayhem, and destruction are not things that the average person would readily consider, but if you listen to the average [[Face Heel Turn|fallen hero]], [[Anti-Hero|jaded soldier]] or [[Sociopathic Hero|brutal knight]], he'll tell you that it gets easier with time. After that first act of destruction, it becomes easier to stand doing it again, and eventually it becomes second nature. Heck, you may even [[The Dark Side Will Make You Forget|forget why you braced yourself to do it in the first place]].

 

 

Most stories about [[The Mafia]] have this plot line in it, mostly for the main character, who starts out unwilling to kill people, and eventually having no problem killing people when necessary.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Code Geass]]'':

** Lelouch fits this to a T. He discovers the results of his actions, [[Ignored Epiphany|goes crazy for a bit]], does ''even worse'' things, and, eventually, has to bluff through his own emotional pain to do the worst/best thing possible.

* Specifically referenced by Andrew Waltfeld in ''Mobile Suit [[Gundam Seed]]'', and implied to be the case with Mu La Flaga as well, in a deliberate aversion of [[It Never Gets Any Easier]]. Waltfeld tells Kira that the first time he had to kill in battle, it made him sick, but after a while he got used to it just as he'd been told he would. And the reason he brought it up was to suggest that WMDs are the same way.

* Subverted in ''[[Battle Royale]]'', where one of Mitsuko's flunkies forced into prostitutions tearfully laments that [[It Never Gets Any Easier|it ''never'' gets easier]], and it always hurts, even with her boyfriend, the only person she ever knew to care about her.

* In ''[[Simoun]]'', the Sibyllae are originally [[Insistent Terminology|very clear]] that they are priestesses, ''not'' soldiers. They are not "fighting," they are "inscribing Ri Maajon." They are not engaged in a "sortie," they are "offering prayers to Tempus Spatium." However, by the time we get halfway through the series, when their country has been at war on multiple fronts for several episodes, they are "on patrol" and "in battle." The newest Sibyllae are fine with that, since they only joined after the war had begun, but for the original members, it is something of a shock once it is pointed out how much things have changed since the beginning.

* 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]].}}

'''Batman''': I fail to see why you think I'd leave any. }}

* In ''[[Identity Crisis]]'', a JLA comic, Jean Loring, the Atom's ex-wife, attempts to put the Enlongated Man's wife, Sue Dibny, into fake danger so that all heroes, including her ex-husband, would [[Love Makes You Evil|come closer to their loved ones]]. After she accidentally kills her, she goes [[Freak-Out|completely nuts]] and has no problem with putting others in mortal danger. Through this, she indirectly causes two more deaths, and even more indirectly causes the death of Firestorm. ([[Alternate Character Interpretation|Alternately]], {{spoiler|Jean is lying about it being an accident; she clearly meant from the beginning to kill Sue (no one "just happens" to be carrying a flamethrower) and one or two other people to cover her tracks.}} Mind, Jean's still clearly nuts, and her first kill visibly shook her more than the ones she arranged later.)

* Much of ''Wanted'' concerns itself with exactly this trope. It loops around to death being quite bloody horrible once again.

* ''[[The Invisibles]]'' has King Mob, quipping about how after the fifth time, it doesn't feel like murder anymore.

* Shows up in [[Signature Style|a lot]] of [[Warren Ellis]]'s work.

 

 

== Film ==

{{quote| '''Dryden''': How did he die?<br />

'''Dryden''': Made you feel it, did he? Well, you needn't worry. [[Killed Mid-Sentence|The second is]]--''(gets shot by Bond)''<br />

'''Bond''': [[Bond One-Liner|Yes. Considerably.]] }}

== Literature ==

* Pick any [[Baen Books]] [[Military Science Fiction]] novel. Notably, ''The Disunited States of America'' by [[Harry Turtledove]], where a kid fakes being a soldier but ends up doing the job for real.

* 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''.

* Repeatedly referenced in Joe Abercrombie's ''[[The First Law]]'' trilogy. Logen Ninefingers is basically the living embodiment of this trope, which at least still disturbs him.

* [[Enforced Trope|Enforced]] in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, with the titular weapon. The Sword of Truth inflicts guilt on its wielder every time they kill a person. However, the first time a person kills, the sword inflicts significantly more, to acclimate itself to its new wielder. Not that this ever comes up after the first book, of course...

* [[World of Warcraft|The Last Guardian]] by Jeff Grubb has this line used by Medivh after he {{spoiler|attacks Khadgar and Garona}}.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* 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.

** In the episode "The Hard Part", Hiro describes his future self in terms of this trope:

{{quote| "Future Hiro killed so much, he forgot it should be hard."}}

'''The Doctor''': That's how the Master started. It's not like I'm an innocent. I've taken lives. And I got worse, I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. }}

* In a second-season episode of ''[[Fringe]]'', after Peter is forced to kill someone for the first time, Olivia recalls her first kill and how it took time for her to get over it. But judging by the rather high body count she's amassed, "It Gets Easier" clearly applies.

* The trope forms part of the rationale behind the "red test" seen in ''[[Chuck]]'' in which an operative must perform his or her first kill before being promoted to agent. Disturbingly, the kills are of the cold-blooded variety: assassinations and murders, rather than kills in the heat of battle. Sarah and Casey's high body count attest to the clear implication that it gets easier.

* In ''[[Bones]]'', Brennan is greatly disturbed when she kills for the first time, yet later asks to be given a gun during another case because she's killed before, and in "The Wannabe in the Weeds" she is comfortable enough with killing to shoot a woman in the throat with no remorse evident. (The woman in question HAD just shot Brennan's partner -- aiming for Brennan -- so hyper-rational Brennan may not have felt it necessary to express or even acknowledge any feelings of remorse).

{{quote| I can beat up the demons until the cows come home. And then I can beat up the cows. But I'm not sure I like what it's doing to me. (...) To slay, to kill. It means being hard on the inside.}}

* Invoked, of all places, in an episode of ''[[Cheers]]''. Woody, upset that he has told a lie, worries about the consequences.

 

== Tabletop RPGs ==

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Metal Gear]]'':

** Snake gives this speech to Meryl in the first ''[[Metal Gear]] Solid''.

** Snake's brother Liquid gives a more vitriolic version to Snake in the same game, accusing him of enjoying it. Inverted in ''Guns of the Patriots;'' if the player kills an exorbitant amount of enemy soldiers during any one chapter, Snake will have a flashback to the scene with Liquid, and he throws up. For Old Snake, killing gets harder, sort of; more precisely, he gets sick when he realises how easy it's gotten.

** One of the major plot points in "Guns of the Patriots" is the PMC's trying to [[Invoked Trope|invoke]] this trope by {{spoiler|using the Sons of the Patriots system to regulate soldiers' emotions.}} Everything is manipulated so that war literally feels like a video game to them. But when {{spoiler|SOP is hijacked,}} reality comes crashing down, and battle fatigue sets in. What's worse, SOP didn't actually get rid of the emotions: it bottled them up so that when the system was interfered with, they all came rushing to the surface at once. Watching the formerly calm soldiers writhe on the ground, bawling hysterically, is a very disturbing scene to watch.

* In the indie game ''Vacant Sky'', the main character Auria struggles to cope with the knowledge that she's just killed a human being after panicking and killing {{spoiler|the husband of their hostess}}. Though she shows remorse afterward, the subsequent journal entry combined with the fact that the event song is called "A Farewell to Innocence" implies that it only goes downhill from here.

* Jak mentions something to this effect to {{spoiler|Mizo}} at the end of ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak X]]''.

* In ''[[Shadow Complex]]'', protagonist Jason Fleming was trained from a young age by his father to have an easier time when he enlists in the Army...except, much to his father's chagrin, he never enlists, saying that he doesn't want to kill anyone. During the game, he puts the skills his father taught him to good use, as {{spoiler|terrorists kidnapping his girlfriend}} have given him a good reason to kill. Early into the game, he comments that a giant spider-mech is something he can "shoot without feeling guilty," although [[Moral Dissonance|the driver pops out of the hatch soon after and becomes Jason's next kill.]] Shortly after ''that,'' Jason comments, "Killing's getting easier, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... {{spoiler|it's a good thing}}."

 

== Web Comics ==

* 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.}}