Kick the Dog/Video Games: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Alan Wake]]'': The first boss-like foe is revealed to have done this, except with an axe, and to a dog that loved and trusted him, in one of the Nightmare manuscript pages, proving the Darkness is really, really mean.

** In ''American Nightmare'', Alan's [[Evil Twin]] Mr. Scratch kicks a dog pretty much every time he appears on the TVs in the game. His very first appearance has him strangling a captive with his own tie. "I beat some information out of him earlier, but this part? [[For the Evulz|This is just for kicks.]]" Later recordings show him slitting the throat of one of Alan's fans and taking great pleasure in stalking Alan's wife.

{{quote| '''Sly:''' She doesn't want to marry you!<br />

'''Tsao:''' She's a woman, she doesn't know up from down. }}

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]] 7'', [[The Vamp]] Sonia sends her daughter Nino and teenage contract-killer Jaffar to kill the Prince of Bern for [[Big Bad|Lord Negal]]. She also gives Jaffar an order to kill ''Nino'', then [[Omniscient Morality License|justifies it]] [[Hannibal Lecture]] style by saying that the Prince's killer must be killed to avoid panic in Bern. Nino and Jaffar don't go through with it, and actually [[Defector From Decadence|defect to your side]] after a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] member runs her mouth about Sonia's plan in front of Nino.

** Even worse was the fact that she just promised Nino that she would hug her, ''just once'', if she finished the mission. Worse still, she kills her foster father and reveals that she killed her entire family of mages when she was a baby, by using her as a human shield. Wooooooooow, Sonia.

** Let's not forget that Ephidel, instead of kicking the dog, stabs an old man to death after the other questions him.

* In the John Woo game ''Stranglehold'', [[Big Bad]] Mr. James Wong is shown early on to be an utter bastard when he reveals during his meeting with Tequila that he intimidated his own daughter Billie into breaking up with the [[Cowboy Cop]] on pain of death eighteen years ago while she was still pregnant with their daughter Teko -- and ordering a [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]] on Tequila on top of it. Eighteen years later, after charging Tequila with the task of rescuing her and Teko from the Zakarovs and the Golden Kane, Wong decides to stick the knife in by {{spoiler|ordering Tequila's own partner Jerry to betray Tequila by murdering Billie after Tequila took out Damon Zakarov and trying to kill him as well, both to protect his syndicate (Damon had threatened to force Billie to reveal everyone on the payroll of her father's syndicate in order to keep Damon from killing Teko) and to deny Tequila the woman he loved forever in true rat bastard fashion}}.

** The sequel goes further and gives each of the Templar assassination targets a "Kick The Dog" video profile showing why each is a ''very bad person'' (with the tragic exception of Dante Moro). The sequel to that though eschews this, being seemingly content to have {{spoiler|Cesare Borgia kill a helpless Mario Auditore}}, with the subsequent sin of the Borgia regime and troops being guilt by association.

*** [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|Well, of course.]]

* In ''[[Destroy All Humans]] 2'', Crypto panders to the Black Ninjas by saying that the Furon god Arkvoodle (Or "Darkvoodle," as the ninjas put it) is so evil that he eats kittens for breakfast, and that he's hungry now and wonders if they have any kittens. The Black Ninjas are unimpressed, saying that they eat babies for breakfast.

* In ''The Bard's Tale'', if you decided to adopt the cute puppy that the Bard will show some actual affection for -- a Druid stops the group to allow their Griffith to stomp on the dog, breaking the poor thing's spine as it gave a pained cry. A literal [[Kick the Dog]] and [[Player Punch]] in one swoop.

* In ''[[Planescape Torment]]'', you get to experience flashbacks to previous incarnations of your character, the Nameless One. One is dubbed the "Practical" Incarnation. Pretty much everything he does is dog-kicking and [[Moral Event Horizon]]-crossing. And yet, it's implied that {{spoiler|something your original self, the Good Incarnation, did before he repented was so far beyond the [[Moral Event Horizon]] that the Practical Incarnation is a near saint in comparison.}}

* It's the first thing you see the "protagonist" of ''[[Postal]] 2'' do after he gets out of his trailer on Monday morning. And then it gets better. It's that kind of game.

** And earlier in the same game is the "Escort" mission, wherein Erusean fighters go after a pair of civilian airliners, which the player must defend.

** Some Leasath chair forcers from ''X: Skies of Deception'' rain bombs on a defenseless city [[For the Evulz|just because they can spare the ordnance]]. The Hamlet special forces unit goes as far as to unleash a biochemical agent on Santa Elva in what may be a crossing of the [[Moral Event Horizon]].

* ''[[Saints Row]] 2''. Boss, the character you play, does a ''lot'' of this.

* She doesn't kick an actual dog, but give one to her, and [[Kingdom Hearts|Larxene]] would probably kick it. She does this trope enough, you'd think it was her job (then again, it kind of is.....)

*** {{spoiler|Ghestis's insults even cross over into [[Moral Event Horizon]] for many; Ghetsis wasn't even a [[Tautological Templar]] like many of the Plasma Grunts, he was just a power-hungry jackass who invented this rhetoric in a bid to take advantage of people's better nature and take over the world as the only trainer left. He then proceeded to ''emotionally cripple his own son'' as a step in this plan and ''gloats'' about it to you while rubbing in N's face that he never actually cared about him and considered him a pathetic failure of a human being.}}

* [[Mass Effect]] is quite fond of this trope. Saren shoots keepers (which can't fight back) when {{spoiler|he attacks the Presidium}}. He also attacks a peaceful human colony then tries to utterly destroy it, just so he can use the Beacon. The sequel gives us Warden Kuril, who casually guns down the prisoners in his care and orders vicious beatings.

* In [[.hack|.hack//G.U.]], there's [[The Woobie|Atoli]] who spends most of the series as the game's resident dog being kicked by just about everyone in Haseo's rogues gallery. Even {{spoiler|[[Complete Monster|Sakaki]], who found her on a suicide website and convinced her to play The World rather than kill herself}}.

** Not just in-game, her real-life self also gets kicked by almost everyone, including ''her parents''.

* ''[[Resident Evil]]: The Darkside Chronicles'' manages to turn Alexia Ashford into even more of a [[Complete Monster]] than she was before by {{spoiler|having her murder Alfred -- apparently, simply for ''not waking her up from cryo sooner''}}... Quite a switch from the original.

* In the ''[[God of War (Video Game)|God of War]]'' series, Kratos does this a ''lot'', [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]] notwithstanding.

** You can even ''literally'' kick Cerberus pups -- and in the third game, you can even get an achievement trophy called "Obedience School" for doing this to 50 pups.

** And as assholish as Kratos can be, his enemies are even worse. Ares and Zeus, his primary nemeses in the series, do much to earn Kratos's (and the player's) hatred throughout the games. The other gods [[Jerkass Gods|are not much better]].