Morton's Fork: Difference between revisions

== Comic Books ==

* There's a Chuck Dixon arc wherein Two-Face kidnaps Robin and forces him to choose between hanging Batman and District Attorney Meany. Robin attempts to [[Take a Third Option]] and reminds Two-Face of his schtick, Two-Face flips his coin, and Meany's number is up. The trapdoor drops, Meany starts to hang, and Robin, still thinking outside the box, throws a batarang to sever the rope—which causes Meany to drop into the water below, and drown. Two-Face then tries to kill Batman, with predictable results. Morton's Fork applies because not only was Two-Face clearly planning on killing both men no matter who Robin chose, but he also managed to plan for the third option.

* At one point in ''[[Ex Machina]]'', Mayor Hundred is on a talk-radio show and has been asked if he, in the eventuality that Osama bin Laden was captured and put on trial in the US, would support or oppose his execution. Answering yes goes against his own political statements as a firmly anti-death-penalty politician, but answering no makes him sound like he is sympathetic to bin Laden. [[Take a Third Option|He instead calls the interviewer a "motherfucker" and walks out]], pointing out to his staff that there is absolutely no correct answer to that question.

== Literature ==

* Probably the most famous example amongst modern literature is ''[[Catch-22]]''. There are several instances of this used during the story, the most notable being the reason for why pilots had to fly missions: pilots would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if they didn't, but if they were sane they had to fly them. If they flew them they were crazy and didn't have to; but if they didn't want to they were sane and had to. This example is so famous that this dilemma is frequently ''called'' a Catch-22 in common usage.

* In ''Chalice'' by Robin McKinley, one of the main characters is a former priest of fire and has to concentrate before touching anyone to avoid magically burning them. In order to manufacture a grievance against him, his feudal lord deliberately trips in front of him. If he catches his lord, he'll burn him, which is an insult; if he doesn't, he's letting him fall, which is also an insult.

* ''The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy'' by Robert Anton Wilson contains a somewhat fictionalized description of the British [[wikipedia:Double Cross System|Double Cross System]] during the Second World War, which puts it explicitly in these terms. It's described as feeding "Strange Loops" to German intelligence—that is, bits of information which if believed lead to one false conclusion, and if disbelieved lead to a different false conclusion. The prototypical Strange Loop is said to be, "Most of your agents are working for us, and are feeding you Strange Loops."

** This is only Morton's Fork due to [[Values Dissonance]]. To the reader, the outcome is equally bad either way (death). The Adeptus Astartes, however, are '''extremely''' honor-conscious; a fatal acquittal is a FAR better fate in their eyes than being seen as tainted.

*** Another side here is whether "Battle Brothers" manage to save his geneseed. Which they won't do if it's presumed severely tainted, of course.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** One issue of ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine has a list of [[Riddle of the Sphinx|riddles the gynosphinx might use]], with the usual deal that if the PCs fail to answer them correctly, they're lunch. One of them, to be issued when the sphinx's hunger overcomes her fairness, has the solution "Kill me".

** Paladins sooner or later tend to face the dilemma of "[[To Be Lawful or Good]]?" - which both is an in-character trouble and may mean fall from grace on the spot upon either choice.

* This is very common in [[Chess]] as a way of gaining advantage over one's opponent. For example, combination attacks such as forks and discovered attacks allow a player to threaten two pieces simultaneously with the idea that their opponent won't be able to protect both of them.

* There's a method of play in bridge called a Morton's Fork Coup, which gives the defender two options, both of which cost him a trick.

* Pretty much the only strategy possible in Tic Tac Toe beyond "hope your opponent is an idiot".

* The page quote is a reasonably accurate summary of act I of ''[[William Shakespeare|Pericles, Prince of Tyre]]''. The title character tries to [[Take a Third Option]] by stalling; this leads the king becoming suspicious of him and deciding to kill him anyway.

* ''Nathan the Wise'' is set in Jerusalem during a ceasefire in the course of the Crusades. In the interest of keeping that peace, Saladin and the Catholic Church have agreed on a law that makes both proselytizing and apostasy punishable by death. The local representative of the [[Corrupt Church]] asks the title character to answer which of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam is the true religion, knowing that because of those laws, Nathan will be put to death if he chooses any of the three. Nathan takes a third (technically fourth) option.

** Launcelot, who wants to get out of working for Shylock, reasons that his master is a devil...but still, if he runs away and breaks his contract, he'll commit a sin, and then he'll be working for the devil anyway. He finally makes up his mind to run away, since he figures that the ''real'' devil is the lesser of two evils.

** Later, Launcelot explains to Jessica that because the children suffer for the sins of the parents, she'll go to hell for being Shylock's daughter—the only way out is to turn out ''[[Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe|not]]'' [[Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe|to be his daughter]]. Jessica points out that, by that logic, she'd go to hell as punishment for her mother's unfaithfulness. Launcelot sums it up: "Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and mother; thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother; well, you are gone both ways."

* In ''[[Star Trek: Borg]]'', while on the Borg ship you are given two options: fight the Borg or try to access the computer. Either way gets you assimilated by the Borg.

* The most infamous quest in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', Tenpenny Tower, has no good resolution. If you side with the bigots inside the Tower, you go off and massacre the Ghouls (most of whom, aside from Roy Phillips himself, were actually pretty decent people). If you side with Roy Phillips and storm the Tower, all the Tenpenny residents get massacred (again, most of them other than Tenpenny and Burke were decent if snooty people). If you think you're clever and try to [[Take a Third Option]] by using diplomacy to convince both sides to live together inside the Tower peacefully, it initially ''seems'' like a happy ending, but after a couple weeks Phillips flips out and massacres all the humans anyway. Not to mention, the humans die even if you kill Phillips before he does so.

** The DLC ''Point Lookout'' also has this: When you have to choose whether to kill Desmond or Calvert, Calvert in both options will kill you ([[Anticlimax Boss|or try to do so]]).

* This happens frequently in ''[[Fable (video game)|Fable I]]''. For example, you are given the choice between sparing and killing the bandit leader Twinblade. If you spare him, he sends assassins after you shortly afterward. If you kill him, assassins come after you shortly after for revenge.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]] II: Sith Lords'':

** Your first visit to Nar Shadaa has you confronted with a beggar asking for money. Whether or not you give him anything, something horrible happens, ending with someone getting stabbed. The only difference is in who does the stabbing (the beggar if you didn't give him money) and in who is getting stabbed (the beggar if you ''did'' give him money). Kreia uses this as evidence for her [[Ayn Rand]]-esque personal philosophy.

* In ''[[Star Wars: The Old Republic|Star Wars the Old Republic]]'':

** Republic Trooper players get confronted with a classic halfway through the third chapter of their storyline - Havoc Squad respond to a distress call from {{spoiler|Sergeant Ava Jaxo, a decidedly feisty young Special Forces soldier who is a non-companion romance option for male characters on Coruscant.}} Summoning them to a hidden Imperial prison facility currently containing more than three hundred important Republic personnel. Storming the prison goes smoothly at first {{spoiler|but turns out to be a cunningly laid trap by Imperial General Rakton, who shows up with a fleet of destroyers and start shooting the station apart hard}}. The player is given the choice of A) {{spoiler|diverting power from the maintenance levels where Sergeant Jaxo is hiding to the shields, which will kill her but buy enough time for all three hundred and fourteen prisoners to make it to the escape ship}} or B) {{spoiler|rescuing Jaxo, who is begging for her life, but condemning half or more of the prisoners to die in the process and causing Jaxo to suffer from survivor's guilt and never forgive you}}.

* The morality choices in ''[[Army of Two]]: The 40th Day'' are infamous for being like this; picking the obviously "bad" choice has negative consequences, but the seemingly "good" choice usually also results in a similarly crappy outcome later on.

* None of the three endings to ''[[Singularity]]'' are "good", two are obvious bad endings while the third, seeming [[Golden Ending]] is also revealed to have negative consequences in a twist at the very end. More specifically, the endgame gives you the choice of either {{spoiler|killing [[The Obi-Wan]] Barisov and ruling the world alongside [[Evil Overlord]] Demichev, killing Demichev ''and'' Barisov, or killing Demichev then sacrificing yourself to restore history to its rightful course.}}

** If you kill Demichev and try to restore the original timeline by going to the past and stopping yourself from saving him in 1955, the world ''seems'' to return to normal and you're warped back to the beginning of the game, only this time your helicopter flies off into the sunset without incident instead of getting shot down by temporal distortion. {{spoiler|However, [[The Reveal]] shows that it is ''not'' the original timeline, but rather one where Barisov took over the world himself under Soviet principles (although, given what you know of Barisov and your teammate's reaction to his statue, it's suggested his rule is at least possibly benevolent).}}

* This is the entire point of fal'Cie Focuses from [[Final Fantasy XIII]]. Fail your Focus or give up on it? You get turned into a nightmarish shambling monster called a Ci'eth forever. Succeed in your Focus? You get turned into a pillar of crystal forever. You're screwed either way and that's the way the fal'Cie like it.

* If you try to skip Cosmo Canyon for the first time in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', you can either try to proceed on foot and discover that you need the buggy to cross the river, or try to proceed in the buggy and have it break down before you get to the river. Either way, you cannot progress past the river until you visit Cosmo Canyon.

* ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'''s entire story up until the last level. Every world location gives you a [[Sadistic Choice]] at some point. No matter what you do, the outcome is practically the same. Taipei? {{spoiler|You let Ronald Sung get assassinated, which destabilizes the region and worsens Chinese-Taiwanese relations, or you let the Chinese plan to incite nationalist riots happen, which kills hundreds of people, destabilizes the region, and worsens Chinese-Taiwanese relations.}} Rome? {{spoiler|Either you let the bomb explode, killing hundreds of people and tightening the EU's security policy, or you let Madison get killed, which renders her a martyr that, you guessed it, makes the EU tighten its security policy.}} Moscow? {{spoiler|Almost no matter what you do, it's clear that Halbech won't have much problem finding another mafiya boss to smuggle weapons for them... Unless you go with Surkov, which means the rise of a Russian equivalent to Halbech under his leadership instead.}}

* ''[[Portal 2]]'' sets one up in-story for the protagonist, Chell. After the plot twist midway through, she's confronted with the dilemma of putting the old [[Big Bad]] back in charge of the facility, who will likely kill her, or leaving the current one in charge, in which case the place will likely explode with her inside. Gameplay-wise, it's still a [[But Thou Must!]].

* ''[[Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels|Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels]]'' has two warp zones out of nine that actually send you ''back''. If you didn't want to go back, the only other way was to [[Bottomless Pits|jump into the pit]]. Of course, if you were playing for a high score, [[Subverted Trope|this would actually be beneficial]].

** In a Treehouse of Horror segment set during the Salem witch trials, Marge was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to being thrown off a cliff. If she died, it would be an "honorable Christian death". If she survived, it'd be taken as proof that she's a witch, in which case she would be executed. The whole thing fell apart when she turned out to be a witch after all, and used her powers to escape punishment ''and'' exact revenge. The townsfolk were completely unprepared for this, since the witch trials were apparently less about finding actual witches and more about setting innocent people up as scapegoats for every little thing that went wrong.

** When Homer goes to India and comes to believe himself a god, Lenny and Carl come to visit him and are met by a guard who offers them a choice between two doors, explaining that Homer Simpson is behind one and a Bengal tiger is behind the other. When it turns out that both doors have a tiger behind them, the guard explains "One of these tigers is named Homer Simpson."

*** The only possible alternative, probably, would be to bring both ties and keep changing in and out of them at equally timed intervals - and, when Mother complains that the tie keeps changing color, tell her it's the same tie and that she's going colorblind.

* And another classic joke referred to by ''[[Futurama]]'' where captured male explorers are required to choose death or Snoo-snoo. The first one chooses Snoo-snoo since anything is better than death, and is [whatever it actually is changes wildly depending on who's telling it]. The other chooses death and the verdict is announced. "Death!...by ''Snoo-snoo''!"

* Morton's fork is sometimes employed by [[Fan Dumb]] character bashers. For example, [http://www.journalfen.net/community/the_hms_stfu/510013.html this] HMS STFU entry for the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fandom features someone who bashes Hermione for being studious and Ron for not being studious.

* If one player manages to get three corners in [[Tic-tac-toe]] and has two open paths to win by the other player is left with simply choosing which place their opponent wins with. This is also a common victory scenario in Connect 4.

* In the United States, tax forms include a line for "illegal income." [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/295/are-you-required-to-report-illegal-income-on-your-tax-return If you don't report it you're evading taxes, if you do report it they turn you in]. This is mainly so that when [[Al Capone]] is arrested for tax evasion, he can't claim there [[Aint No Rule]]—clearly, there ''is'' a rule, it's right there on the tax form! (Of course... you could just [[Take a Third Option|not have illegal income]], or at least not be so blatant about your other crimes that it reaches that point.)

** One person took this to court, after being arrested for tax evasion for failing to declare his earnings as a bookmaker, he used the fifth amendment to claim they had no right to expect him to report them. The official ruling from that case was the IRS can require you to divulge how much you made from illegal enterprise, as long as they don't require you to specify what type of illegal activity you did.

* A good chunk of history points to those suspected of treason or heresy running into this problem. If you confessed, you were severely punished; if you ''didn't'' confess (innocent or not), you were tortured and put through all kinds of hell until you confessed, and then you were severely punished.

** Still true in any society that uses torture or abuse to get confessions. If you're accused of a crime (whether you're guilty or not) you can confess and be punished for the crime, or you can refuse to confess and they'll torture you until you do.