Mercy Kill: Difference between revisions

{{worktrope}}

Alice is mortally wounded and in such pain that she can't stand it anymore, and her loved ones can't bear to watch her scream. There may be a [[Body Horror]] that nobody can figure out how to destroy, and Alice has been taken over to the point where she cannot even ask for death. Or [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] has left her horribly maimed and screaming incoherently. Or perhaps she's about to succumb to [[The Virus]] or [[The Corruption]], and she wants to [[Dying Asas Yourself|Die As Herself]]. Or some other [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. It may be that she could survive, but they have no access to medical care; or that Alice, if she lived, would be reduced to a shell of her former self. At any rate, Alice is dying in agony, the villain is gloating and nothing else can be done. The only merciful thing to do is end her pain as quickly as possible... so Bob gives Alice a '''Mercy Kill'''.

An [[Instant Death Bullet]] is likely, and justified in this situation: the killer has no difficulty getting to a position and attacking in a manner that would cause quick death. There is usually a moment when [[Dying Asas Yourself|a glimmer of self-awareness]] allows Alice to show her gratitude through [[Go Out with a Smile|a tearful smile]] or the like -- howeverlike—however implausibly. This is usually easier when the shooter is [[Cradling Their Kill]].

Compare the combat-ending [[Coup De Grace]], the villainous [[Thwarted Coup De Grace]], and the assisted-suicide [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]]. A subtrope of [[Shoot the Dog]], whose [[Old Yeller|trope namer]] was a [['''Mercy Kill]]'''.

* In ''[[Fate /Zero]]'', following Emiya Kiritsugu's [[Exact Words]] contract with Kayneth Archibald, he personally is forbidden from killing Archibald, but the contract neglected to include his partner, Maiya. Following this, the semi-immune to bullets and [[Understatement|mildly surprised]] Archibald requires a mercy kill from Sabre.

* It's a sign she's all grown up when ''[[Witch Hunter Robin]]'' delivers a [[Mercy Kill]] to the witches being [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child|"processed"]] into [[Power Nullifier|Orbo]].

* In ''[[King of Thorn (Manga)|King of Thorn]]}}'', Ron decides to mercy kill the child Tim, believing there is no hope of rescue and that a quick death by bullet is better than being eaten by monsters or [[Taken for Granite|petrified]] by Medusa. [[Mama Bear|Katherine]] isn't ready to give up hope, however, and just barely manages to prevent him from shooting the boy. Tim, asleep, doesn't even realize what almost happened.

* [[Humongous Mecha]] example: In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory]]'', a Zeon soldier, disgusted at the sight of a Zaku painted white and used by the Federation, resolves to give it a "mercy killing".

* In the anime version of ''[[Linebarrels of Iron]]'', KATO-KIKAN member Nakajima Soubi, after his defeat at the hands of [[The Hero|Hayase Kouichi]], is revived by the real Big Bad and used as part of its invasion force of [[You Will Be Assimilated|hive-minded man-machines]]. In a final act of clarity, during the actual invasion of Earth, he asks his former teammates [[Dying Asas Yourself|to put him down while he retains the lest vestiges of his consciousness]]. They comply.

* This is one way to view Light's death in ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]''.

* At the end of ''[[Black Butler (Manga)|Black Butler]]'''s [[Circus of Fear]] arc, Ciel orders the destruction of the villain's lair, including all the surviving children whose minds have been broken.

** In one of the attempts for Homura to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], she's forced to shoot Madoka before she can turn into a witch. Earlier that same timeline, Mami does this to Kyouko after [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|realizing]] what's going to [[A Fate Worse Than Death|happen]] [[The Corruption|to them]]. She was going to do this to Madoka, Homura, [[Driven to Suicide|and herself]] . The only reason she doesn't succeed is that Madoka does it to her first.

* In the anime series spinoff of ''[[ArctheArc the Lad]]'', the hero Elk encounters his long lost childhood friend, changed into a barely sentient womb for the terrible monsters the bad guys are using as mooks. He strangles her to end her suffering.

* The truth behind Takiko Ohkuda aka Genbu no Miko's death in the original ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''. She was believed to be lethally ill but her dad knew she was being devoured from the inside by Genbu, so to ease her suffer Mr. Ohkuda [[Offing the Offspring|killed her]] [[Driven to Suicide|and then himself.]] Note that the Takiko-centered manga ''[[Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden]]'' is still{{when}} unfinished, so it ''might'' retcon this.

* Attempted in ''[[Rosario to+ Vampire]]'', where Tsukune became a ghoul. Thankfully, Moka was stopped before she could land the finisher.

* Occurs in ''[[Strikeforce: Morituri]]'' where the heroes find four people who were secretly subjected to the Morituri EffectProcess and were accidentally turned into super-powered deformed monsters. The "mutants" were euthanized at their request.

* Questionably occurs near the end of the ''[[The Punisher|Punisher]]'' comic ''Man of Stone''. Frank Castle comes across the paralyzed body of the Russian General [[Complete Monster|Zakharov]], who had been left to die in the blazing Afghanistan desert by a [[Smug Snake]]. Castle would have killed him regardless, but as Zakharov tells him to get on with it by saying the day was growing hotter, it arguably still fits this trope.

* [[Doctor Strange]] was forced to kill his own mentor, the Ancient One, to prevent [[Eldritch Abomination|Shuma-Gorath]] from using his mind as a conduit to enter their world. Said mentor was dying anyway, and after death he [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|became one with Eternity]], sticking around as a spirit adviser to Strange (who was understandably upset over [[Shoot the Dog|what he'd had to do]]).

* In ''[[The Sandman]]'', Morpheus' son Orpheus was torn apart by the Maenads and reduced to an [[Oracular Head]]. He begged his father to kill him, but Morpheus (who was a pretty cold-hearted jerk in the past, even more so than in the present) refused since he was offended that Orpheus had ignored his advice to let go of Eurydice. Two and a half thousand years later, Morpheus and Orpheus reconciled, and Morpheus finally gave Orpheus the death he wanted. This [[Mercy Kill]] dooms Morpheus, since killing his own son made him a viable target for the Furies. That, and he ''wanted'' to be punished for what he had done to Orpheus.

* In the first story arc from the anthology series ''Marvel Fanfare'', after being transformed into the Man-Spider Spider-Man begs Kazaar to kill to him [[Dying Asas Yourself|while he still has some of his mind left]]. Kazaar complies, but in the end it's averted as Karl Lykos absorbs the mutated energy from him and turns him back to normal.

* Classic example: ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'', when Chief Bromden smothers McMurphy with a pillow after the latter is lobotomized.

** In ''[[Serenity (Film)|Serenity]]'', Mal shoots a man he had pushed off his hover-jeep who then gets dragged away by [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil|Reavers]]. Later, someone tells him "That was a piece of mercy and no mistake."

** In the same film (minutes after the [[Mercy Kill]] described above), Jayne gets skewered in the leg by the Reavers, and is hanging off the back of the mule, prompting him to make Mal promise to shoot him if the Reavers take him. Mal quickly takes aim, prompting Jayne to shout, "Don't shoot me ''first''!" before Mal shoots through the rope tying him to the Reaver ship instead.

* This appears frequently in the ''[[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Alien]]'' franchise, often by victims of facehuggers, although in a deleted scene from the first movie Ripley finds her crewmates (who have all been attacked and either killed or dragged off by the titular alien) cocooned to the walls of its lair and the line is uttered as a request for euthanasia rather than to prevent the alien from reproducing.

* In ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'', when the Borg start assimilating crew members, it's Picard who takes it upon himself to vaporize, Tommy gun, or otherwise euthanize every affected crew member he can, because he knows what it's like. Of course, when he got turned, they certainly had to save him. Picard believed that the only reason it was possible for him to be rescued at all was because the Borg Collective deliberately left him some degree of autonomy, to act as an interlocutor, while he saw the redshirts as being unsavable.<ref>It has been shown in other canon Trek works (Voyager, mostly), that Borg drones will start to individuate again and regain their pre-assimilation identities if separated from the Collective for a length of time. Seven of Nine is the most prominent example, but Picard likely didn't know that at the time.</ref>. Lily does call him out on this...

{{quote| '''Picard''': There was no way to save him!<br />

* Averted in ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Revenge of the Sith]]'', when Obi-Wan leaves Anakin's mangled, triple-amputated, horrifically burnt body on [[Lethal Lava Land|Mustafar]]. Killing him would've been a mercy at that point, [[Doomed Byby Canon|though we know that, logically, that could never happen]]. The [[Novelization]] makes his thought process on why he doesn't do it explicit.

{{quote| He was not feeling merciful. He was feeling calm, and clear, and he knew that to climb down black beach might cost him more time than he had. Another Sith Lord approached....In the end, he was still Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he was still a Jedi, and he would not murder a helpless man. He would leave it to the will of the Force.}}

* [[Double Subversion]] in the first ''[[Resident Evil (Filmfilm)|Resident Evil]]'' movie. Rain gets infected by the zombie virus and tries to get the rest of the group to kill her before she turns, but they refuse and try to find a cure. Later on she becomes a zombie anyway and has to be killed.

* Hawkeye in ''[[The Last of the Mohicans (Film)|The Last of the Mohicans]]'' does one of these near the end.

* BJ does this to Tucker in the ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 (Filmfilm)|Dawn of the Dead 2004]]'' remake.

* An unusual modern film usage features at the climax of ''[[Quantum of Solace (Film)|Quantum of Solace]]'' when Bond prepares to shoot Camille, as they are trapped in a burning building and she is reliving her childhood trauma of being trapped in a burning house. Subverted when he finds a way of escaping their situation.

* Neil in ''[[Heat (Film)|Heat]]'' mercy kills one of his partners in crime after the guy has been tortured and is dying.

* ''[[PansPan's Labyrinth]]'': the army's [[The Medic|doctor]], who is supposed to heal a captured [[La Résistance|rebel]] for another [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture session]], kills him instead.

* In ''[[The Descent (Filmfilm)|The Descent]]'' Sarah finds Beth with an open wound in her throat (caused by an ice-pick) and ends her pain by smashing her head with a rock rather than leaving her to the Crawlers. She is understandably reluctant to kill her friend, but tearfully relents after Beth begs her to do it.

* Averted in ''[[Return of the Living Dead (Film)|Return of the Living Dead]]'', when two survivors are cornered in an attic. Knowing these zombies can't be killed by bullets, the male survivor covertly aims his pistol at the back of his teenage companion's head, rather than let her be eaten alive by her own undead boyfriend. Averted because the place gets nuked before he can pull the trigger.

{{quote| '''Soldier''': Don't shoot! Let them burn!}}

* In ''[[Saw|Saw III]]'', Amanda does this to Adam as shown in a flashback.

* The French film ''[[I've Loved You So Long]]'' is about a woman who was sent to prison for murdering her son. In the end it is revealed that he had terminal cancer, and he got so sick and in pain that she killed him out of mercy, after spending one last day with him doing everything he loved.

* In the ''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Film)|The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]'' remake Erin comes across a dying Andy in Leatherface's "workshop" she puts him out of his misery by stabbing him with a knife.

* Frank from ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' tries to brush off his murder of Eddie as a mercy killing. The [[Audience Participation|audience]] may feel free to call him on this.

* In ''[[Black Death (Filmfilm)|Black Death]]'', {{spoiler|Wolfstan}} gives one to {{spoiler|Griff when he reveals that he's got the plague}}. Characters also discuss the use of misericorde at the battlefield.

** And later, Lennie is shot in the head just like the dog by George, because George considers that the fate that would await him at the hands of the other farmhands would be worse, and also because Lenny was basically too dangerous for society. [[The Movie]] makes it seem less like a [[Mercy Kill]] and more like a I'm Fed Up With You kill.

* [[The Hunger Games]]: being a dark series at least once, but {{spoiler|Cato's}} death deserves special mention since it was after twenty hours of being ripped a part and was delivered by the main character. Did we mention she was there the entire time?

** Also in the ''[[Nightside]]'' series, Suzie Shooter invokes this trope for a woman who's in the process -- theprocess—the ''slow'' process -- ofprocess—of being eaten piece by piece by demons.

** ''[[DiscworldNight Watch (LiteratureDiscworld)/|Night Watch|]]'': 'Just in case, and without any feeling of guilt, Vimes removed his knife, and... gave what help he could]].''

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' novel ''Horus Rising'', when Space Marines are invading a church to put down insurgantsinsurgents, one dying man begs Lokun for a blessing because the otherworld will shun him without it. Having [[Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions]] Loken refuses, and when the man asks for help again, kills him, regarding it as mercy.

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Ultramarines (Literaturenovel)|Ultramarines]]'' novel ''Dead Sky Black Sun'', when Uriel and Pasanius want to rescue some captives, the renegade [[Space Marine]] Vaanes shows them the prisoners and explains that freeing them would be pointless and death a mercy. They do not actually kill them but leave them to certain death. On the other hand, this [[Foreshadowing|foreshadows]] Vaanes's willingness to [[No One Gets Left Behind|leave people behind]]. Later, Uriel looks at a Chaos fortress they destroyed and sees that all the victims of their experiments have been granted the Emperor's peace.

* In [[Diana Wynne Jones]]'s ''[[Hexwood]]'', Mordion has a very nasty example in his backstory--hebackstory—he's forced to kill his only remaining sibling, who's been horribly tortured, to spare her further pain. The torturer then informs Mordion then if he ever shows any reluctance in his job as assassin, the same thing will be done to his target; in a sense, everyone he kills from then on is a preemptive Mercy Killing.

* A variation occurs in various swashbuckling novels--Sirnovels—Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle (Creator)|Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''The Refugees'' for instance--theinstance—the hero and heroine find themselves facing a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] from which the heroine requests the hero to save her by shooting her (usually [[The Cavalry]] arrive just in time to prevent this). Usually takes place ''before'' the [[Fate Worse Than Death]] can occur and while the suicidee is still undamaged. Not [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]] as the emphasis is on dying by the hand of someone who loves you rather than being functionally unable to do it oneself.

* In ''[[Dragonriders of Pern|Dragonseye]]'' by [[Anne McCaffrey]], part of the preparation for the return of Threadfall is a medical conference on treating Thread injuries. Some of the medics get into a discussion on the ethics of giving "mercy" to a Thread-injured patient.

* In [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]]'s ''The Colour Out of Space'', a visitor to the blighted farm finds the ruined, half-disintegrated remains of Nahum's wife dying in the house. When he exits, nothing living is left behind him, and the narrative state that it would've been an atrocity to leave her alive.

* In [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)|JRRR. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', Fingon almost kills his cousin Maedhros, who is [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|being tortured and is out of reach]]; but at the last moment he is [[Divine Intervention|given a way]] to reach his cousin...who cannot be freed and again begs to be killed. Then Fingon [[Life or Limb Decision|has another idea.]]

* In ''White Wing'' by Gordon Kendall, the eponymous fighter squadron is pretty much all that's left of the human race after [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Earth is destroyed.]] The other species [[Fantastic Racism|don't like them much]], especially the "barbaric" custom where a badly wounded pilot requests "the Mercy of the Wing" - the other fighters form up and solemnly blast him and his ship to atoms. Public opinion does change a bit by the end of the book, when two facts have come to light: [[Humans Are Special|humans are immune]] to the enemy's [[Brainwash|Brainwashing]]ing, and Earth was actually destroyed not by alien invaders but ''by humanity'', in a [[Defensive Feint Trap]] that invoked the same principle of "Mercy" on a much larger scale.

* In ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Half-Blood Prince (novel)|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]'', Snape kills Dumbledore. Next book, it's revealed that Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him, revealing that moment in ''Half-blood Prince'' to be euthanasia instead of crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]].

* A recurring theme in ''[[The Gargoyle]]'': Francesco asks his brother to do this for him when he is dying of the plague that killed his wife, by shooting an arrow made from their wedding rings into his heart. Later, the 13th-century version of Marianne does this for her husband when he is being slowly tortured to death.

* In [[Peter F. Hamilton]]'s ''[[Commonwealth Saga (Literature)|Commonwealth Saga]]'', Bruce, the Starflyer Assassin, has a brief [[Dying Asas Yourself|moment of clarity]] where he asks Gore to [[Mercy Kill]] him.

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Bruce'''}}: Do it. Kill the alien.<br />

* In ''[[The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant|The Illearth War]]'' by Stephen R. Donaldson, one of the Ranyhyn (sapient horses) stumbles into an acid swamp and suffers horrific and incurable burns. The lead stallion of the group, after evidently obtaining its permission, beats its head in with his forehooves to kill it instantly.

* ShadowClan's [[The Medic|Medicine cats]] in ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'' are taught to feed deathberries to terminally ill or dying cats, to prevent prolonged suffering.

* A potential motive for one of the murders in ''[[Sad Cypress (Literature)|Sad Cypress]]''. The accused, Elinor Carlisle, is suspected of her aunt's murder. The strongest possible motive is said aunt's huge inheritance, but another is the [[Mercy Kill]]; the aunt was an invalid who just had a second stroke and couldn't stand the thought of being helpless.

* In ''Plague'', the fourth book of the ''[[Gone (novel)|Gone]]'' series, Sam does this to Hunter to save him the slow, agonizing death that would come with the bugs eating him from the inside out. Dekka wants Sam to do the same for her, but he figures out a way to save her.

* The title of Horace McCoy's ''They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' derives from the practice of shooting injured horses to put them out of their misery. After the novel's protagonist is arrested for shooting another character -- whocharacter—who'd been [[Driven to Suicide]], couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger, and [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|begged him to do it for her]] -- and—and the cops ask him why he did it, he recalls seeing his grandfather euthanize a horse in this manner as a boy, and utters the phrase.

* In ''[[Someone Else's War (Literature)|Someone Elses War]]'', [[Shrinking Violet|Ruth]] kills her baby daughter so she won't grow up to live [[Child Soldiers|the same life]] [[Sex Slave|her mother did]].

* In ''[[Firefly]]'', it is universally accepted that a quick death from a bullet or drug overdose is vastly preferable to what a Reaver would subject you to. It's also a common (but ''not'' universal) opinion that if you encounter someone who lived through a Reaver attack, they're likely better off dead rather than be allowed to [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|go mad from what they saw]].

** Also, in ''[[The MovieSerenity]]'', River begs Simon to kill her - partially because she [[Driven to Suicide|doesn't want the others to suffer because of her]], and [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|can't kill herself because she's chained to the floor]], but also partly because she [[Fate Worse Than Death|doesn't want to be sent back]] to [[School for Scheming|the Academy]].

* At the end of Season 4 of ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'', Connor is so broken and destroyed by everything that's happened to him that he's not really himself anymore. As part of their deal to recruit Angel, Wolfram and Hart offer him the chance to give Connor his life back - a deal that apparently can only be activated by killing him as he currently exists.

{{quote| '''Angel:''' I love you, Connor.<br />

'''Connor:''' So what are you going to do now?<br />

* In the first story of ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'', then-Major Sheppard does a [[Mercy Kill]] on his Colonel, who has just been fed on by a Wraith.

** It's brought up again during the siege that the new military head doesn't believe it was a [[Mercy Kill]] until he experiences the feeding for himself. Before he's carted off with the wounded he tells Sheppard 'I wish you had been there for me.'

** Happens again in ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]', when Col. Young puts Airman Riley out of his misery from being pinned under debris after a shuttle crash.

* In ''[[Lost]]'', Sawyer badly botches an attempted [[Mercy Kill]]: accidentally putting a bullet into the marshal's lung rather than his heart, leaving him to bleed slowly and painfully to death.

* The nature and purpose of the kill isn't apparent at first, but in the first episode of [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'']], Caprica Six's murder of a baby in the street could definitely be seen as a merciful death-the entire planet is about to get nuked to hell.

** A more conventional example would be in a later episode where Six mercy killed another Six. The second Six had previously been drowned in a septic tank; a horrible death to be sure, but then had the added disadvantage of being ressurectedresurrected with the memory of her terror, pain, and the look on her killers face. Cue months of horrendous psychological trauma, and finally, permanent death becomes available.

* In one of the Forth Season episodes of ''[[Black AdderBlackadder]]''. General Melchett reveals he's quite fond of Mercy killing.

{{quote| '''Gen. Melchett:''' Now George, you remember when I came down to visit you when you were a nipper, for your sixth birthday? You used to have a lovely little rabbit, beautiful little thing, do you remember?<br />

'''Lt. George:''' Flossie.<br />

'''Gen. Melchett:''' That's right, Flossie! Do you remember what happened to Flossie?<br />

'''Lt. George:''' You shot him.<br />

'''Gen. Melchett:''' That's right! It was the kindest thing to do after he'd been run over by that car.<br />

'''Lt. George:''' By ''your'' car, sir.<br />

'''Gen. Melchett:''' Yes, by my car. But that, too, was an act of mercy when you remember that that dog had been set on him.<br />

'''Lt. George:''' ''Your'' dog, sir.<br />

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. "Informed Consent" deals with an elderly patient who is slowly and painfully dying requesting the doctors to help him die. Chase argues that this is part of the job, House seems willing but needs to solve the puzzle. Once they diagnose him with a terminal illness, Cameron apparently does the [[Mercy Kill]] while the patient sleeps.

* Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard of ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'', off-screen, was forced to work for the CIA/MI-6 during the [[Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan]], patching up people who had been tortured. So they could be tortured again. Eventually, he puts one guy out of his misery.

* In one episode of ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'', a man suffocated the woman he loved who was being raped by a group of his drunken friends.

* Parodied in one episode of ''[[Mongrels]]'' where Nelson thinks he has rabies and asks Marion to kill him if he goes mad, unfortunately [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist|he still wants to kill him]] after it turns out he's not rabid

* In an episode of ''[[Third Watch]]'', Bobby is asked to help his retired teacher stop hurting.

* Played with on one episode of ''[[Reno 911!]]''. While out on patrol, two of the officers are asked by a distraught man to [[Mercy Kill]] his dying dog. So, one officer takes his gun and shoots it. While the man is thanking them, a woman comes out of the house and screams when she sees the dog. It turns out the dog was hers and the man was actually a neighbor who wanted the dog to stop howling at night.

* Parodied in ''[[M*A*S*H (TVtelevision)|MashM*A*S*H]]''. [[Cavalry Officer|Colonel Potter's]] jeep has been run over by an out of control tank and smashed to pieces. He walks up to it, pulls out his gun, and shoots it in the engine.

* Done several times in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' to zombies. Even though as a zombie the afflicted can't feel the pain or horror of their situation, the characters (especially Rick) often consider it a mercy kill to end their existence.

** Also done by Dr. Edwin Jenner in the finale of Season 1. He considers continued living to be pointless and doomed to end in terror and agony, and though he eventually allows the other survivors the choice of leaving and continuing to fight for survival, he also offers anyone who stays an instant and painless death when the CDC building explodes--andexplodes—and at least one of them accepts this option.

* The humans of ''[[Warhammer 40000 (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' refer to mercy kills as "The Emperor's Peace," and [[Space Marine]] [[Combat Medic|Apothecaries]] carry a special pistol for just this purpose.

* ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]'' has the Euthanatos, an entire [[Splat]] of mages (''player character'' mages, no less) who use this as their [[Planet of Hats|hat]].

* In ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'', [[Dark Is Not Evil|Amethyst wizards]] have a spell for [[Mercy Kill|Mercy Kills]]. It can be used on any enemy who has taken Critical Damage. This makes it very handy for dispatching that one beastman who has Tzeentch's own luck on the Critical Hit table and goes 3+ rounds without actually taking a [[Critical Hit]] that will kill him.

* In the ''[[Ravenloft (Tabletop Game)|Ravenloft]]'' setting for ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', where lycanthropy is even more virulent and dangerous than in most D&D settings, this is the standard and expected outcome if an attempt to cure the affliction fails. As such a failure generally indicates an afflicted person is coming to ''like'' their condition, it's as much mercy for everyone else as for them.

* One way of getting out of the tutorial in ''[[Project Zomboid]]'' is smootheringsmothering your injured wife with a pillow.

* In ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'', there is an optional scene where [[Player Character|Shepard]] can perform a [[Mercy Kill]] on salarian troops taken over by [[The Virus|Sovereign]]. There is also a section where you find a ship, empty with the crew apparently dead, aside from a man on life support, whose brain has been described as 'dead'. The crew wanted to put him off it, to which his biotic girlfriend Julia reacted to... violently. She will attack, and you may take him off the life support yourself. Your own squad members consider it the merciful thing to have done.

** If you let Gavin Archer keep David at the end of 2's Overlord DLC, ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'' reveals that he eventually "ended his suffering".

* ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]''. Headcrab zombies. The screams. For the love of God, just hurry up and throw that buzzsaw at them before they have to suffer another second...

** Likewise, the Stalkers, which [[Body Horror|barely look human anymore]], and [[Fate Worse Than Death|are forced into eternal slavery to the Combine (whom Stalkers are totally dependantdependent upon)]].

* At one point in ''[[Unreal (Video Game)|Unreal]]'' you encounter Nali who are being crucified by the Skaarj. While the game doesn't give you any means of saving them, there's a small consolation in that the game does let you perform a [[Mercy Kill]] on the poor guys.

* The [[Flashback Nightmare|flashback nightmares]] Shadow from ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'' suffers from reveal that he became [[The Stoic]] because his emotions caused him to chicken out of mercy killing a wounded friend.

* ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]] 2'' features Gil Alexander, who before the onset of insanity and [[Body Horror]] from massive doses of ADAM recorded messages instructing whomever would find them on how to kill him. His current horrendous and quite insane incarnation, Alex the Great, will beg for his life, leaving it [[Karma Meter|up to the player to decide how to deal with the situation]].

** Later on, Sinclair is turned into a Big Daddy against his will and is forced to obey Lamb's orders on impeding you from your objective by holding onto the necessary key, begging you to take him out while he's [[Dying Asas Yourself|still sane]] over the radio.

* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'': If you tell DeBeers that Everrett has no intention of treating his illness, he commands you to deactivate his life support.

* ''[[Far Cry|Far Cry 2]]'' allows you to put down a mortally wounded assisting character, if you let him/her get injured enough times. Or you just feel like it.

* In ''[[Duke Nukem]] 3D]]'', the babes the aliens have abducted and incorporated into some kind of alien personal holding cell (most likely complete with [[Naughty Tentacles]]) beg for Duke to kill them.

* In ''[[God of War (Video Gameseries)|God of War]] 2'', Kratos comes upon the Titan Prometheus, who as per Greek mythology is chained to a rock with an eagle ripping out his organs every day (which grow back every night, meaning [[Fate Worse Than Death|endless torment]]). Kratos mercy-kills him by dropping him into the Fire of Olympus, earning the Rage of the Titans power-up.

* The ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series features this as a device at least twice. In "[[Metal Gear Solid]]", Solid Snake kills Sniper Wolf after she is badly wounded in a battle with him. In "[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]", the player is forced to initiate the mercy kill of The Boss, making it a [[Player Punch]]. Both of these characters beg to be killed though the trope description precludes this, but many of the other examples here are similar.

* In Videogame/ ''[[Halo]]'', when the Master Chief finds Captain Keyes [[Body Horror|infected by the Flood]], he choseschooses to give him a dignified death by [[Megaton Punch|punching his face in]], which also allows him to get the implants out of Keyes' skull. In this case Keyes had already become assimilated, so killing him was basically the same as killing a human combat form at that point, and the Flood were going to use his knowledge to pilot a Covenant ship off of Halo and spread to other worlds.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'', when the Jedi Exile and Darth Sion have their final showdown, Sion (who is her [[Stalker Withwith a Crush]]) says that killing the Exile with his lightsaber is ''nothing'' compared to what Darth Traya is planning to do to her, so he'll put her out of her misery now to spare her from that.

* Mentioned in ''[[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld]]: Cataclysm''; certain large ships are immune to takeover by [[The Corruption]], taking severe damage instead. The manual tells us that this is achieved by dumping high-temperature plasma into the afflicted sections of the ship and then opening an airlock. Not a pure [[Mercy Kill]] in that it's necessary to save the rest of the crew, but the crewmemberscrew members about to be ripped apart by flesh-eating nanotech and [[Human Resources|used to make network cabling]] would undoubtedly see it that way.

* In ''[[Assassin's Creed II (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed II]]'''' Ezio does this to Jacopo de'Pazzi after Rodrigo Borgia and another Templar fatally wound him as part of [[You Have Failed Me...]]. He later also does this to Savonarola, to spare him burning to death.

* ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' - Played for [[Black Comedy]] in one of the Scout's domination lines directed at the Sniper.

{{quote| ''It was a mercy killing, ya live in a... camper van!''}}

* In ''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate]] 2: Shadows of Amn'' you do this to a fellow prisoner in Irenicus' dungeon/laboratory. The poor fellow is being kept alive in a special tank against his will and has died and been brought back countless times. He begs you to kill him by removing the energy cell that powers his life support, which is convenient for you since you need that cell to power a different device.

* In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', Boone tracks Carla and her kidnappers to a slave camp, where he realizes rescue would be impossible. Rather than subject her and their unborn child to a life of rape and beatings, he decides to shoot her.

* In ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'''s Heaven's Feel route, Shirou is [[Tear Jerker|forced to do this]] to [[Lady of War|Saber]] after she is hit by [[The Corruption]] and turned into [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Saber Alter]]. [[Player Punch|Especially bad]], as [[Jeanne D 'Archetype|Saber]] had been a symbol of purity throughout the game, and had been your primary love interest in the first route, as well as a possible love interest in the second route.

* Multiple times in ''[[LAL.A. Noire]]'', mostly at the end or in flashbacks at occur near the end. One flashback shows [[The Medic|Courtney Sheldon]] running up a hill to administer a fatal dose of morphine to an injured and screaming soldier. Another flashback reveals an accidental but nightmarish atrocity: a flamethrower soldier torched a cave full of women and children, thinking they were soldiers, and the US soldiers have to shoot each of them to put them out of their misery. Finally done by Jack Kelso for Ira Hogeboom, the aforementioned flamethrower soldier, when the latter can no longer live with what he's done.

* Skint asks for one at the end of ''[[The Reconstruction (Video Game)|The Reconstruction]]''. Dehl gives it to him.

* In ''[[Jade Empire]]'', the Water Dragon requests one of these from the Spirit Monk. The dragon's body is being kept alive so that her blood can be used to end the drought, while her divine power is being siphoned off by the emperor.

* [[Big Bad]] Kerghan in ''[[Arcanum]]'' has spent centuries studying the afterlife, concluded that all the suffering living beings must endure means that death is the preferable state of existence, and intends to enact this trope upon ''[[Omnicidal Maniac|all living things]]''.

* A githzerai woman in ''[[Planescape Torment|Planescape: Torment]]'' is violently ill and dying a slow death from the polluted air of the Lower Wards. Unable to even speak, she beseeches the Nameless One through gestures to end her life.

** A somewhat more comical mercy kill comes in the form of a zombie who has been animated to provide the local coffin maker with a permanent listener--thelistener—the coffin maker is rather annoying and will talk endlessly about anything and everything, and is so clueless that he doesn't even realize his best listener is a zombie. The zombie begs the Nameless One to undo the enchantment and return him to nothingness because he can't bear to listen to the man any longer.

* [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|Axenos]] from ''[[Wizard 101]]'' uses the more villainous version of this trope when he decides that to reward the player for releasing him by killing them first so they do not have to witness the horrors he'll bring upon the Spiral. Fortunately he's more bark than bite and no tougher than most boss battles.

* In ''[[Cuanta Vida (Webcomic)|Cuanta Vida]]'', BLU Medic does this to BLU Sniper after Sniper is [[Driven to Suicide]] after losing his lover and then his eyes.

* Parodied in a recent{{when}} ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'', [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20100801.html Alien Shout Out ahoy]

* Mr. Rovainen from ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]'' [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040324 does it] [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040326 preemptively].

* In ''[[Goblins (Webcomic)|Goblins]]'' a mysterious character (his identity is revealed later) snaps the owlbear's neck who is about to be tortured. It's also revealed that this was the actual meaning of Saves-A-Fox's [[Prophetic Name]]. In an attempt to [[Screw Destiny]], when she found the fox she was supposed to save, she killed it instead, and only later found out it was actually suffering from a terminal disease.

* Arguably, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0133.html this] strip of ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]''.

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)|Sluggy Freelance]]'': Explicitly stated by Riff that he is going to do this to Zoe.

* In ''[[The Zombie Hunters]]'', the [[Our Zombies Are Different|"Mercy" zombies]] perform arguably the creepiest [[Mercy Kill]] ever. They only approach sick, wounded or dying humans, and [[Super-Persistent Predator|follow them]], [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|protecting them]] from ''other'' more [[Superpowered Mooks|violent]] breeds, until they collapse. Mercies then deliver a single bite to a vital artery, and [[PietaPietà Plagiarism|hold]] [[Cradling Your Kill|the dying victim]], gently stroking their hair and cooing softly. They'll even remain with their victim for hours [[Viral Transformation|after they turn]]. [[All There in the Manual|Website materials]] state that some traumatized [[Action Survivor|survivors]] seek them out as a [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|form of suicide]], hence the name. These same supplementary materials recommend that human rescuers ''euthanize'' many survivors of [[The Berserker|Berserker]] zombies, who [[Ax Crazy|love to]] [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture]] and [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|beat]] their victims before biting them.

* In ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'', Black Mage mentions that he killed his own brother, who was blind. When questioned about it, he responds that it was only merciful, considering what BM had done to his eyes.

* In ''[[And Shine Heaven Now (Webcomic)|And Shine Heaven Now]]'', it's revealed that [[Hellsing|Walter and Alucard]] did this to [[Jeeves and Wooster (Literaturenovel)|Jeeves]] when he was mortally wounded in World War II, since he could not fall into the hands of the Nazis and Jeeves refused to be turned into a vampire. Officially, he's listed as MIA, presumed dead.

* ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' combines this with {{spoiler|[[Enemy Without]]. It doesn't work, however}} - Himei has come to believe that there's hope for her to have a life that ISN'T'isn't'' poor, nasty, brutish, and short after all, {{spoiler|and manages to muster the [[Heroic Resolve]] necessary to activate her [[Unstoppable Rage]] and kill her Yamiko.}}

* ''[[Troper Works/Warcraft Dressing|Warcraft Dressing]]'' is infamous for frequent mercy kills. The Lich King is a bad, bad man.

* [[Fate Worse Than Death|Many, many]] items contained by [[SCP Foundation (Wiki)|The Foundation]] can require this. [[It Got Worse|In some cases, you can't even do that]].

* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'', where a flashback shows grade school-age Homer and Chief Wiggum playing Cops and Robbers; Homer, the robber, is wounded, and begs Wiggum for a [[Mercy Kill]].

* In the first episode of ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]'', the latest Monarch henchman Speedy is caught in a chokehold by Brock Sampson as he is put into a temporary coma, since they can't get him to let go and that Speedy is suffering badly one of them performs a mercy kill on him by shooting him in the neck.

* Ruthlessly parodied in ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'', when Yakko, Wakko and Dot have lassoed a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|Jerry Lewis-style]] comedian into filming their movie ''[[Old Yeller|Old Screamer]]'', with the comedian playing the dog. When Yakko sadly explains that they have to put the dog out of his misery, Wakko seems sad for a moment, and then (Onceonce Wakko has been given a puppy to replace Old Screamer), to the comedian's horror, cheerfully pulls out a [[Hyperspace Mallet]] to do the job...

* In the episode "Trouble in Lumpy Space" of ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]'', there's a conversation where Finn thinks Jake (in the throes of the Lumps) is about to request this of Finn, should he go completely Lumpy. Yes. They actually got away with referencing this. It's never actually stated, and it turns out that Jake just wanted Finn to still be friends with a Lumpy Jake. "What did you think I was saying?"

[[Category:Tear Jerker Tropes]]

[[Category:Mercy KillScenes]]