Murder Is the Best Solution: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Crazy Mage 1:''' ''"We cannot trust anyone."''
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[[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|What will pretty much always subvert this trope is traveling back in time to kill Hitler.]]
In contrast with [[Violence Is the Only Option]], where other options aren't reasonable, when
Compare [[Stating the Simple Solution]] or [[Kill Him Already]], when someone else suggests murder as a ''more'' sensible alternative to, say, a [[Death Trap]]. If the target is sent on a suicide mission, or if his death is arranged to occur by the hand of a mutual enemy, it's [[The Uriah Gambit]]. May require [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much]] in order for the perpetrator to get away with it (though probably not for long.)
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* Used in ''[[World War Z]]''. The Ukranian army is trying to process a mass of refugees who are fleeing from a zombie swarm behind them into Kiev. Since it's impossible to examine everybody and sort out the infected in time, the commanders opt to drop nerve gas on the lot of them. The infected are the only ones who stand up afterward.
* Played straight in [[Spider Robinson]]'s ''Variable Star'', [[Posthumous Collaboration|based upon an outline by]] [[Robert Heinlein]]. {{spoiler|The hero protagonist, explicitly stated to be trained in avoiding combat, decides on a plan to stop the villain by getting his own friend killed to distract a (likely innocent) bodyguard long enough to kill her as well. This despite controlling the villain's FTL ship (the only remaining valuable asset of a man obsessed with greed), the man who knows how to build new ones and is the pilot, the ship itself, both of the man's daughters, and ''the only possible escape route for the villain,'' '''and''' being able to escape with all of the above simply by climbing on board the ship and taking off.}}
* In ''[[Bridge of Birds]]'', the first of Barry Hughart's novels of ancient China, Li Kao (a scholar with a "slight flaw in his character") decides that the easiest way to find the Great Root of Power in an Imperial household is to have a
* Milla of ''[[The Seventh Tower]]'' seems a little too eager to kill Tal during their first meeting.
* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', this is generally what the majority of the characters seem to think is the best solution to everything. Oddly enough, the fans tend to ''[[Misaimed Fandom|agree]]'' with them. Notable in that this is never played for laughs.
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** In ''[[Discworld/Making Money|Making Money]]'' Cosmo Lavish's habit of defaulting to this when someone has [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|Outlived Their Usefulness]] leads to a classic [[Revealing Coverup]] as Vetinari just follows the trail of bodies.
** Mostly averted by the tyrannical Patrician, Lord Vetinari, who despite his reputation is more than happy to offer condemned criminals a job rather than a death. Of course, if they turn down the job....
* The ''[[Alex Rider]]'' book series has [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] and [[Big Bad]] of the fourth book {{spoiler|Damian Cray}}, who, after petitioning and protesting against a laboratory testing its products on animals, came to realize that
* [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]] falls afoul of this trope in ''Deathly Hallows''. Despite knowing full well that the Elder Wand can be taken without killing its previous owner - in fact, he's met and interrogated two people who lost it and lived - he thinks the sensible solution is to kill his trusted lieutenant. [[Anvilicious|Because he's evil (seriously, by DH it was like Avada Kedavra was the only spell he knew any more).]]
** [[Completely Missing the Point|Well, technically he didn't use the Avada Kedavra curse to kill Snape. He used Nagini.]]
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=== Literature ===
* In ''[[The Belgariad]]'' and ''[[The Malloreon]]'', this trope is constantly [[Lampshaded]] and made fun of in the tendencies of a number of cultures to solve their problems with extreme violence. It gets to the point where certain characters among the [[True Companions]] have to be actively restrained from killing anyone who gets in their
** The Church Knights in ''The Elenium'' and ''The Tamuli'' frequently suggest "constructive Elenishism". This tends to involve swords, axes, crossbows and so forth.
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* Used in the first episode of ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'', when Joy tried to kill Earl to claim his lottery winnings, because he hadn't changed his will by then.
* One ''[[The Kids in The Hall]]'' sketch had an alien spy who was so nervous that he would continually blow his own cover and then order the destruction of the planet that he was on.
* ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'': After Frank offers Jenna the "psychopath test" above, she not only gets the answer right, but takes it as a piece of
* A humorous variant on the previously mentioned ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' example: Cameron discovers that James Ellison [[Berserk Button|lied to the Connors]] about {{spoiler|Cromartie's corpse.}} She immediately decides to kill him, at which point Sarah tells her she ''can't'' kill him. Cameron's response?
{{quote|'''Cameron:''' But he's the only one I ''want'' to kill.}}
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* The obligatory Bioware games' [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]].
** Lilarcor in ''[[Baldur's Gate]] 2''.
** In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', while on Noveria, Shepard gets entangled in a power struggle between [[Corrupt Corporate Executive
*** Renegade!Shepard gets a few of these too, such as the "I should just kill both you idiots" line during Chorban and Jahleed's dispute about the results of your scans of the Keepers in the first game.
** HK-47 in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' ("I would much rather this get bloody, master!"). And his suggestion for gaining prestige at the Sith Academy ("Suggestion: We could start by slaughtering the occupants of this building, Master. Would that be impressive?").
** In ''[[Dragon Age]]'' ''Origins'' this role is filled by Shale, whose stated solution to pretty much everything is 'crush it'. [[Token Evil Teammate|Sten and Morrigan]] also espouse the more violent or 'evil' solutions, usually losing you influence by being selfless unless you Persuade them otherwise, but their examples are less [[Played for Laughs]].
* In ''[[Nanashi no Game]]'', this plays a key role in ''why'' the [[The Most Dangerous Video Game|cursed RPG]] is cursed.
* In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', Princess Sapphire is usually the first person to offer up a solution to the current
* The ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' universe's backstory reveals that this was the conclusion that [[Master Computer]] GLaDOS came to literally [[AI Is a Crapshoot|picoseconds after being switched on]]. Prior to the events of the first game, she had already killed all the scientists in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center with a [[Deadly Gas|deadly neurotoxin]], and now amuses herelf by parading an endless stream of [[Human Popsicle]] test subjects through a [[Death Course]] of test chambers. Those who succeed... she murders anyway. [[For Science!]].
** And in the second game {{spoiler|she subverts it. Killing Chell is actually [[Determinator|pretty hard,]] so she ends up letting her go.}}
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* Hannelore of ''[[Questionable Content]]'', [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1576 as seen here]. Possibly due to having a [[Mad Scientist]] father and a Bond Villain mother.
{{quote|'''Hannelore:''' I MUST ELIMINATE ALL WITNESSES OF MY CRIME.}}
* Used by Dominic (in the earlier strips) and Kamahl (later on), the resident [[Heroic Sociopath
* [[Pibgorn]] Being trapped in a [[Film Noir]] scenario [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2009/06/17/ will do it to you.]
* In ''[[Exiern]]'' [http://www.exiern.com/?p=1255 Tiffany doesn't want to go to the dance] with an escort, but she can't not go, and doesn't want to look silly by not having one. The solution, some sort of compromise surely?
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