Sadistic Choice: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

The [[Big Bad]] has been engaging in kidnapping, and is willing to make a deal.

One or both of them will often [[More Expendable Than You|encourage the hero to choose to save the other.]]

 

 

 

Given it's such a hard choice, it's no wonder most good guys tend to [[Take a Third Option]]. It's practically unheard of for a hero to actually make this choice, and have it carried through before either the villain [[Villain Ball|breaks his promise]] or [[Big Damn Heroes|the cavalry manage a rescue]]. If the one offering the choice benefits regardless of what the chooser chooses, its a [[Xanatos Gambit]]. If the choices aren't necessarily forced, but something the character must eventually decide on, [[Morton's Fork]] has come into play.

 

Compare [["Friend or Idol?" Decision]], [[Hostage for McGuffin]], [[Scylla and Charybdis]], [[Take a Third Option]], [[I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure]]. A classic [[Moral Dilemma]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

** What makes it even worse? {{spoiler|The fact that Mrs. Liebert ''was'' able to make a decision between the two of them at all is part of what helped shape Johan's [[Complete Monster|personality.]]}}

** At the end of the series Johan presents Dr. Tenma a sadistic choice. {{spoiler|Either Tenma sacrifices his main value of [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] by shooting Johan or Johan kills a little boy. Thankfully a timely intervention from a [[Papa Wolf]] spares Tenma from having to make that choice.}}

* Has happened many times in ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': Often Baron Ashura held someone hostage and threatened to kill him or her if Kouji did not surrender, but there were different instances:

** In episode 17, [[Big Bad]] Dr. Hell crafted a Mechanical Beast could set earthquakes off. After using it to bring down several Japanese cities, [[The Dragon]] Baron Ashura threatened with obliterating Tokyo unless Dr. Hell was appointed director of Photonic Research Institute. If the heroes gave in, Dr. Hell would have full and unopposed access and control to the lodes the [[Unobtainium|Japanium]] was extracted from and plans to build his own [[Phlebotinum Battery|Photon Atomic engines]], and nobody would be able to stop him from [[Take Over the World|taking over the world]]. If they did not agree, Tokyo would become a giant hole in the ground.

* A variation in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'': Sousuke finds himself in what is obviously a crooked hostage situation, with the terrorists holding his classmate Chidori and his commander Tessa. When they ask him which of the women to release first, he mentally weighs the choices (Chidori gets priority as per SOP, but he was concerned that the clumsy Tessa would be unable to get to safety if things got rough) and ends up having them send Tessa. Of course, the whole thing went to pot regardless...

* In the fourth arc of ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', Kinzo Ushiromiya decides he's going to test which of his grandchildren is most worthy to become his successor as head of the family. The contents of the test, you ask? {{spoiler|"In order to gain two, sacrifice one." A) Your Life B) Your lover's life C) everyone else's lives. George and Jessica actually do make somewhat shocking (albeit convincing) choices with their own brand of justification...only to take the bad guy by surprise by [[Take a Third Option|deciding to sacrifice none of the above]] and ''[[Badass Normal|fighting]]'' ''[[Action Girl|back]]'' instead. But this being Umineko, of course, they die horribly anyway.}}

** In chapter 101 of the manga and the second series, {{spoiler|Roy Mustang was forced to choose between letting his [[Lancer]], Hawkeye, die in front of him (she had her throat slit open and was bleeding to death) or opening the Gate in order to complete the evil guys' plans. He doesn't cooperate, and not to menion Hawkeye herself disapproves of it. Luckily, she is saved anyway with a little bit of Xingese alchemy and chimera powers. Not so luckily, Pride then decides to dispense with the "Choice" part of the trope and forces Roy through the Gate anyway.}}

** Also in the manga and Brotherhood, the Homunculi give Dr Marcoh the choice of agreeing to help out the homunculi and being complicit in whatever horrible plans they have in store for Amestris, or resisting and watching the village where he worked as the town doctor get wiped off the map. The homunculi even try to stop him from [[Take a Third Option|taking a third option though killing himself,]] as suicide will only result in the destruction of said village. {{spoiler|Luckily, Scar shows up, which allows Marcoh to [[Take a Third Option|take a FOURTH option]], where Scar stages the murder of Marcoh and helps him escape.}}

** In the current filler arc, Kuchiki Byakuya is told to kill his beloved sister Rukia's Zanpakutou in human form. Since he's in the enemy base and surrounded, it seems like a sadistic choice {{spoiler|but it really isn't considering his personality. He kills her anyway.}}.

*** Especially not since {{spoiler|Byakuya and Senbonzakura are both [[The Mole]], and Sode No Shirayuki is brought back to life via [[Ass Pull|Soul Society's]] [[Deus Ex Machina|resident]] [[Mad Scientist]].}}

* Soichiro Yagami of ''[[Death Note]]'' is forced to decide between {{spoiler|allowing his daughter Sayu to be killed and giving the responsible organization a weapon of effortless mass murder.}}

** Later on, as {{spoiler|Mello}} continues to blackmail him, he's forced to choose between {{spoiler|the death of Sayu or revealing the identity of [[The Mole|the second L]], who happens to be his son Light}}. Matsuda gets him out of that one.

* In ''[[Da Capo II|D.C. II SS]]'' as part of the main plot, Otome Asakura turn into [[Heroic BSOD]] as she was forced to choose between saving everybody in the entire island {{spoiler|by withering up the tree that would cause her love, the main protagonist Yoshiyuki Sakurai, to vanish from existence, }}or sit back doing nothing and stay with her love till the end, {{spoiler|leaving the tree go rampant that could potentially cause [[The End of the World as We Know It|the end of the world]].}}

** At the breaking point {{spoiler|that after the creator of the tree Sakura Yoshino and Otomes' grandfather vanished in two ill-fated attempts to keep the tree under control, Yoshiyuki finally being told the tale of his origin. Totally aware of his fate if the tree withered, he convinced Otome that stopping the tree is the only option. There were no [[Take a Third Option|third option]], Otome wither up the tree. Eventually Yoshiyuki vanishs in an [[Tear Jerker|extremely tragic way]].}}

** Much later we find out this actually happened to {{spoiler|Nagato}} after Hanzo attacked his group out of paranoia: he had to kill {{spoiler|Yahiko}} or else Hanzo would kill {{spoiler|Konan}}. When {{spoiler|Nagato}} freezes up at the thought of hurting either of his friends, {{spoiler|Yahiko}} [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]]: he grabs the arm the chooser was holding a kunai in and stabs himself with it. {{spoiler|Nagato then became a [[Dark Messiah]]. Konan helped.}}

** Also, Sasuke by his post-Itachi-killing activities (joining Akatsuki, attacking the Raikage's brother, and attacking all the other Kage at the summit) made himself an enemy of the whole ninja world. Even Naruto's friends have decided to kill him, leaving Naruto stuck between breaking his word or pissing off the whole ninja world.

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Sango and her fiancé Miroku are caught in illusory traps set by [[Complete Monster|Naraku]] during the [[Final Battle]]. Miroku's [[Cursed with Awesome|Wind Tunnel in his hand]] is growing ever more unstable and could consume him at any moment (as in [[This Is Gonna Suck]]... [[Incredibly Lame Pun|literally]]). He decides that if he's going to be consumed, [[Taking You with Me|he's going to take "Naraku" with him]]. Meanwhile, Sango is faced with another "Naraku" that tells her what the monk is planning to do. Her only chance to save the man she loves is to [[No Ontological Inertia|kill Naraku so the curse will be lifted]] and his life will be spared before it's too late. The thing is, it's impossible to make the killing shot without also killing an unconscious [[Heartwarming Orphan|Rin]] [[Human Shield|in "Naraku's" arms]]. Tick-tock. (If she kills the girl, she'll be wracked with guilt and in all likelihood Rin’s guardian [[Papa Wolf|Sesshoumaru]] will kill her. If she doesn't kill the girl, her love will die. It's a win-win for Naraku.) The goal of this little exercise is to drive Sango and Miroku into [[Despair Event Horizon|hopeless despair]] so their negative emotions would further corrupt the [[Artifact of Doom|Shikon no Tama]]. {{spoiler|She decides to [[Shoot the Hostage|take the shot and sacrifice the little girl]], but [[Conveniently-Timed Attack From Behind|Kagome manages to unknowingly shatter the "Naraku" illusion with an arrow]] saving Rin [[Just in Time]]. Sesshoumaru arrives at that time and Sango [[The Atoner|takes full responsibility for her decision]] and says that [[Please Kill Me If It Satisfies You|he can kill her]]...after [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|Miroku is safe]]. [[Turn the Other Cheek|He doesn't]]... [[Character Development|and actually seems to ''forgive'' her]]. }}

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', [[Hot Amazon|Pirate Empress Boa Hancock]], believing all men to be bastards imposes such a choice on Luffy. Either she'd save the amazons she [[Taken for Granite|turned to stone]] or allow him to leave the island. Of course, for Luffy picking the life of someone he befriended just five minutes ago before his own isn't really a choice. {{spoiler|His lack of hesitation even caused her to have a [[Heel Face Turn]].}}

*** It ''is'' also pointed out that Arlong would be demanding money again anyway, so [[Thanatos Gambit|her action is actually smarter than it appears...]] Plus, Arlong and his crew demolished all of the seaworthy vessels on the island before attacking, which would have left Nami and Nojiko with no way to escape the island, making it only a matter of time before they got caught and pretty much assuredly killed. It was heavily implied(if not outright stated) that Bellemere had already realized this was the case.

** Another backstory of a Straw Hat, involved Franky's own adopted father Tom, given the choice of using his trial to pardon himself of the crime of building the Oro Jackson, the ship that would later come under the posession of the late Pirate King, Gold Roger and his pirate crew; or request that Cutty Flam (Franky) is pardoned for creating the ships that were used to attack Water 7, and frame him due to the scheming of [[Dirty Coward]] Spandam for the Pluton blueprints. Tom not only chose the latter to protect Cutty Flam, but earlier declared proudly that he, indeed, created the Oro Jackson, and is not the least bit ashamed of it. This doubled as a final lesson to teach Cutty Flam, as he previously denied having created the ships that attacked Water 7. Even the judge felt bad about sentencing Tom, and it was an incident that [[My Greatest Failure|Franky could never forgive himself for allowing to happen]], and nearly killed himself trying to stop the Puffing Tom ironically sending its creator, and Franky's father figure to the Judicial Island to be sentenced to death. Of course, this is what led him to become Franky in the first place...

* Shows up as a [[Secret Test of Character]] in [[Hunter X Hunter]]: who would you save, your wife or your mother, if you could only save one of them? The correct answer is {{spoiler|silence, as there is no right answer}}.

* A popular staple of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]''. For example, at the end of Stone Ocean, Pucci forces Jotaro to decide, in a split second, between killing Pucci to save the world and letting his daughter die, and saving his daughter but dooming the world. He tries to [[Take a Third Option]] and do both, but it doesn't work.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': When Yami Marik and the Pharaoh duel in the Battle City finals, the loser would lose their other half (Either Marik or Yugi, obviously.) Luckily, Pharaoh is able to {{spoiler|swap the two Marik's souls and get Yami Marik banished}}, so [[Take a Third Option|both of them are safe.]]

* in ''[[Rave Master]]'' when a super weapon is activated Musica has the choice of letting it fire and killing his companions or letting Reina, the evil general who only just became good, sacrifice herself to destroy it. The choice is no less obvious having read the build-up, but it's still treated like a very hard one for him.

* Averted and Subverted at the same time in ''[[Naruto]]''. {{spoiler|Minato, after making the [[Big Bad]] run with his tails between his legs for the moment, is faced with two choices: 1. Let Kushina seal the Kyuubi inside herself again and kill it even though it will just revive itself in the near future, anyway. Thus, saving Konoha and Minato, along with their baby in the short term. 2. Seal the Kyuubi inside their son, essentially offering their son up as a sacrificial lamb for a [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Bijuu, effectively making him the next Jinchuuriki]]}} {{spoiler|,saving Konoha and the rest of the world in the long term. Minato chose the latter.}}

* In the [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]] manga, Judai is forced to duel Sho, as Judai has failed every test since getting in, and Sho got a 0 on his last test. If Judai wins, Sho will be expelled and if Sho wins, Judai's deck, which he got from his friend and mentor Koyo Hibiki, will be confiscated. When Sho gets the upper hand, Judai considers losing, but decides to go for his victory instead, and it turns out that Sho did not actually get a 0 as his final grade (as Midori reports to Chronos while chastizing him for arranging it), so he does not get expelled. Later on, Midori gets one during her duel with {{spoiler|Reggie}}, who tells her that if she wins, {{spoiler|Reggie will fall into a coma and be unable to give her information on awakening her brother Koyo from his Shadow Game induced coma (and the same will happen to her if she loses). Then Judai arrives and Midori has to choose between awakening Koyo and saving Jaden from having to face Reggie in a shadow game, and chooses the latter. She fails, and learns that Reggie does not, in fact, know how to awaken Koyo, before also going into a coma}}.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* This trope is the entire reason superheroes have [[Secret Identity|secret identities]].

{{quote|'''Plutonian:''' ''[[Disproportionate Retribution|That's]]'' [[Irony|what]] it feels like!}}

* Pictured above: In a [[Superman]] comic from the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]], [[Lex Luthor]] does this to Supes, forcing him to pick between current girlfriend Lois Lane and [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] Lana Lang. Luckily our hero [[All Just a Dream|wakes up from the dream he's having]] and comments on how he's lucky that it was a dream and that he didn't have to actually make a decision.

* In [[Garth Ennis]]'s run, [[The Punisher]] puts [[Daredevil]] through the "choice between ideals" version. The Punisher is out to snipe a vicious mob figure; Daredevil attempts to stop him, insisting that the mob boss needs to be taken out legally, through the justice system. The Punisher manages to incapacitate Daredevil and bind him up with a gun with one bullet in his hands pointed at the Punisher's own head, such that the only way Daredevil could stop the Punisher's vigilante justice would be to violate his own ideals by fatally shooting Punisher himself. Daredevil {{spoiler|chooses to pull the trigger, at which point it is revealed that the setup was also a false dilemma: the gun had no firing pin.}}

* In the ''Joker's Asylum'' mini-series, the issue focusing on Two-Face has him setting up somebody else with a disfigured face in one of these. He can either shoot Batman (who saved him from dying in a fire) and save his wife from having acid spilled on her face, or save Batman. He tries to [[Take a Third Option]] by shooting Two-Face, {{spoiler|only to find out that the gun isn't loaded and the person who was supposedly Batman is just one of Two-Face's goons. Although the real Batman comes and rescues everybody, his marriage is ruined by the knowledge that he couldn't choose his wife over Batman.}} Damn.

** That issue also features something of a meta-example: {{spoiler|it asks the reader to take a coin and flip it. If the coin comes up heads, the man gets a happy ending where he reunites with his wife, who manages to forgive him, and they rebuild their lives. If it comes up tails, the man fails to do this, succumbs to despair and puts a bullet through his brain. The choice is, knowing you have a 50% chance of dooming this man if you flip the coin, do you flip the coin?}}

**** The "right thing" would be {{spoiler|flip a two-headed coin}}. Preferably {{spoiler|a silver-plated replica Harvey Dent dollar coin, unscarred version}}.

* Done to Spider-Man by Harry Osborn, although slightly subverted. Harry had kidnapped Aunt May, Flash Thompson, and Mary Jane, and told Spider-Man that one of them was rigged to a bomb, and the other two were completely safe, urging Peter to save the one most dear to him. {{spoiler|That was intended as a clue, as Peter would use the word "dear" to describe Aunt May, but never Flash.}}

* Done in ''Spider-Man: India'' as a nod the movie. The Goblin drops Aunt Maya and Meera Jain off opposite sides of a refinery tower. Spider-Man grabs Maya but doesn't have time to reach MJ luckily, [[Heel Face Turn|Doctor Octopus]] saves her.

* Another variation appeared in the ''Assault On New Olympus'' arc in ''[[The Incredible Hercules]]''. {{spoiler|Hephaestus}} traps Hercules and his teen partner Amadeus Cho in separate chambers, each with a [[Big Red Button]]. The only way for Herc to be free is if Cho pushes his button, which would remove the air from his chamber, killing him. Or Herc can push his button, saving Cho by sacrificing his life. Almost before Hephaestus explains the trap, {{spoiler|Herc and Cho push both their buttons simultaneously, shorting out the system and releasing them both. This scene also counts as a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]], showing that Herc and Cho would each sacrifice themselves for each other, no questions asked. And a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] because Hephaestus neglected to consider this option and expresses his anger with a succinct "Frickin Hercules".}}

** [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Then taking the bread and milk out of the fridge when and his goons eventually left.]]

*** Later, as the Red Wasp, she gets a belated revenge.

* In ''[[Astro City]]'', while [[Superman]] expy Samaritan is out on a date with feminist hero Winged Victory (herself an [[Expy]] of Wonder Woman,) he is trying to understand how her philosophy informs her superhero style. He asks her if, faced with a choice between a man and a woman who were in danger, she would always choose to save the woman. Her answer was "All other things being equal -- yes."

* One [[Spider-Man]] annual features the Scorpion doing this to J. Jonah Jameson. Holding Jameson's son John and his wife Marla hostage, the Scorpion demands that Jameson decide which one he kills, saying he'll let the other one live. A broken Jameson subverts this trope when he pleads with the Scorpion to kill ''him'' instead, saying that he was the one who turned the Scorpion into a monster. The Scorpion likes the idea, but the trope is [[Double Subverted]] when he decides to just kill the entire Jameson family. Fortunately, that's the exact moment when Spider-Man pulls a [[Big Damn Heroes]] rescue and interrupts the Scorpion so the Jamesons have time to escape.

* One ''[[Batman]]'' comic has Batman forced to make one of these by ''causality''. He ended up in an alternate universe where there were no heroes at all, not even Greek myths. In this world, Bruce Wayne's parents had yet to be killed, and he had to make a choice: save young Bruce's parents, or let them die and ensure this world had at least one hero in the form of its own Batman. {{spoiler|Batman chooses to save the alternate Bruce's parents... and then the trope is subverted: inspired by the memory of the vigilante who saved his family, the alternate Bruce Wayne studies, trains, and on reaching adulthood dons the cape and cowl himself.}}

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Sophie's Choice]]'', both film and novel. Upon arrival at Auschwitz, Sophie is told to choose which of her two children will go to the gas chamber immediately, and which will live for some time longer in the camp. Since the story is realistic, [[Take a Third Option]] doesn't come up. The movie was popular enough that the term "Sophie's Choice" is occasionally used to describe similar sadistic choices. This sort of thing did happen there, too, and even before it, as described in the nonfiction book ''Treblinka''. On leaving the ghetto, parents had to choose which road to send their children down, the left or the right. One of them led to another ghetto and hard labor; the other to the titular death camp. They were not told which was which. To make this even more awful, the first female and first Jewish Mayor of Pittsburgh, Sophie Masloff, spent money on trash cans with the words: "Sophie's Choice -- A Clean City" on them. Seriously.

* In ''[[Batman Forever]]'', The Riddler gives Batman a choice to save [[Sidekick|Robin]] or [[Hot Scientist|Chase Meridian]]. {{spoiler|He not only figures out it's a false choice and Riddler will kill both, [[Take a Third Option|he]] ''[[Take a Third Option|rescues]]'' [[Take a Third Option|both]]. He's the goddamn Batman.}}

** A similar scene happened in the comics. Robin was given the choice to save either Batman or a judge from Two-Face. It's subverted when {{spoiler|Robin chooses the judge, but forgets about Dent's obsession with the number two; there was a second trap in place and the judge was killed. Poor Robin never really had a chance.}}

*** Spiderman loves this trope. The [[Spider-Man: The Animated Series|90s animated series]] has Green Goblin do a similar trick with Felicia Hardy and her mother. Here though Spidey saves Felicia and lets Mrs. Hardy fall, assuming Goblin himself would save her instead because he needed her for his scheme. He's right and both live, although Goblin gets away with her..

* ''[[The Proposition]]'' is based entirely around this principle. In order to convince [[The Sheriff]] to spare the life of his [[Dead Little Sister|younger, mentally handicapped brother]], the protagonist must seek out and kill his older, violently insane brother. {{spoiler|He tries to [[Take a Third Option]] by getting his older brother to help rescue the younger one, but it doesn't work, and by the end, he's the only one left.}}

* Although no kidnapping was involved, the choice faced by Princess Leia in ''[[Star Wars]]'' of giving up the location of the Rebel base or watching her home planet of Alderaan be destroyed by the Death Star was a perfect example. Especially since, in a notorious [[Kick the Dog]] moment that kicked Grand Moff Tarkin across the [[Moral Event Horizon]], he ordered the planet destroyed anyway after Leia gave a false location in hopes of keeping the Rebellion alive. Tarkin's reasoning? "Dantooine is too remote to give an effective demonstration." Alderaan, on the other hand, was a core world.

** There's also Lando Calrissian's [[Deal with the Devil|deal with Darth Vader]] in ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''. Things in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|EU]] like the radio dramatization and an [[For Want of a Nail|Infinities comic]] that involves him refusing make his line about "I had no choice. They arrived before you did." much clearer. He was Baron Administrator of an entire ''city'' of people, and to save it and get [[The Empire]] to leave, he had to betray a friend. Of course, Vader never mentioned the torture, or that Boba Fett would get Solo, and he [[I Lied|lied]] about [[You Said You Would Let Them Go|leaving Solo's friends]] on Cloud City. At some point during this Lando protested strongly enough that his city was explicitly threatened, and eventually he tried to [[Take a Third Option]], which was... marginally successful. Things worked out well enough in the end.

* The end of ''[[The Box]]''. {{spoiler|James Marsden's character can either shoot and kill his wife, or let their son live the rest of his life deaf and blind.}}

** This {{spoiler|tends towards [[Heroic Sacrifice]] as well. The husband is too distraught to make a decision, so the wife insists that she die so their son can have a better life}}

* ''[[Funny Games]]'' is made of these, including making a wife decide if the [[Complete Monster|antagonists]] kill her husband quickly by gunshot, or slowly by knife.

* In [[The Pink Panther]] 2, the real [[Big Bad]] tries to escape by threatening to destroy the Pink Panther Diamond unless Clousteau lets her escape. Unlike most examples, however, he didn't need to [[Take a Third Option]], as {{spoiler|the "Pink Panther diamond" she was threatening to destroy, and thus had stolen earlier, was actually a decoy, something she didn't know.}}

* Herod, villain of [[The Quick and the Dead]], enjoys giving people a choice between killing someone they love, or dying at his hand.

* In [[Captain America: The First Avenger]], the HYDRA spy attempts to make Steve Rogers choose between going after him or saving a little boy he's held hostage. Before Steve can do anything, the spy tosses the kid into the water. {{spoiler|As it turns out, [[Subverted Trope|the kid's a good swimmer]], as he then encourages Steve to go get the spy.}}

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''Carpe Jugulum'', Granny Weatherwax faces a complicated birth that could either kill the mother or the child; she saves the mother because she is still young and will be able to have children in the future. There is some unrelated but great moral concerns given during her explanation.

** Mrs. Patternoster, the Slice midwife, posits that the choice should have been up to the husband/father; Granny retorts that he's done nothing to deserve being hurt so badly (reasoning that she is better able to bear the burden of a Sadistic Choice than he is). Meanwhile Death quietly takes the soul of the baby and makes a discreet exit.

* A perfect example is in ''Pawn in Frankincense'', the fourth book in Dorothy Dunnett's ''Lymond Chronicles''. Lymond is forced in a game of [[Human Chess]] to choose between two small children, one of whom is his own son and one who is the villain's son, without knowing which is which. He tries every possible [[Take a Third Option]] (bribery, self-sacrifice, escape) but {{spoiler|the writer doesn't cop out. Lymond chooses the one he believes to be his own son; fans still debate why and whether he was right}}.

* In ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', Count Olaf, disguised as Detective Dupin, allows the children to choose which one of them makes a 'lucky' escape.

** In the last book, {{spoiler|he offers to answer all of their questions about VFD, but only if they let him out of prison. They refuse.}}

* In ''Under the Yoke'', a character suffers flashbacks to a Draka brainwashing technique that was used on him: being given control of the switch that directed current into one of two electric chairs, he being sat in one and his father in the other, so that he could only save his own life by committing patricide.

* In [[Stephen King]]'s short story, ''Riding the Bullet'', the protagonist has to make a decision: either him, or his mother will die soon. {{spoiler|He saves himself and chooses his mother. She doesn't die, but he still knows that his choice was to let her die}}.

* ''The Devil's Alternative'' is a novel by Frederick Forsyth in which the president of the United States is forced to do this. This is the Devil's Alternative, sadistic choice.

* In the young adult Dark Future novel ''Smart Rats'', the teen protagonist must choose whether to silence his mentally-disturbed little sister, or leave her alive to prattle lies that could get his entire family tortured and executed by the secret police. {{spoiler|He takes her swimming, and "fails to hear" her struggling in the water.}}

** His master then explains to him that he will face this choice every time he is ordered to kill someone: either he kills them immediately, usually as painlessly as he likes, or the master will take this revenge. Thus completing the transformation of a fundamentally gentle man into a remorseless killer.

* In Mikhail Akhmanov's ''The Gates of the Galaxy'', the Mark Valdez is one of the twelve Arbiters of Justice, whose duties include mediating inter-species disputes. They are trusted as always making the moral and just choice, even if it's not in humanity's favor. Earth has been at war with the [[Lizard Folk|Dromi]] for over 50 years with millions dead on both sides. Humans get a chance to end the war in one fell swoop by taking out the Dromi homeworld. They use a [[Portal Network]] to get to the Dromi system without detection and proceed to depopulate one of their worlds before moving to the homeworld. However, the Dromi figure out what's going on and land all orbital hatcheries on the planet, hoping that the humans won't harm "children". While the fleet officers claim that the Dromi larvae are not children (they're non-sentient), Mark realizes he has no choice but to abort the mission, even if his own daughter has to join the fight. The epilogue states that the war goes on for another century.

* In ''[[The Roman Mysteries]]'' Nubia has to choice between freeing her brother and her freeing her friend from slavery.

* [[Time Scout]]: Here's your choice, assassin, you can stay here in downtime London where they'll lop your damaged hands off, or you can come home with us and receive the best of modern care and tell us all about your criminal bosses.

* ''Would You Rather: Over 200 Absolutely Absurd Dilemmas to Ponder'' by Justin Heimburg capitalizes on this trope.

 

* The concept is spoofed in an episode of ''[[Friends]]''. The topic of "if you had to give up either food or sex" comes up. Immediately Ross says he'd give up food. Phoebe counters with "sex or dinosaurs." Ross's face falls, and he says "it's like Sophie's Choice!"

** Joey, realizing choosing sex or food was hard, replied: "I want girls on bread!" A similar dialogue comes later:

* ''[[Angel]]'': In Season 5 Angel and {{spoiler|Spike}} were given the choice to either {{spoiler|save Fred or let many others die}}.

* ''[[Charmed]]'': Piper and Phoebe dealt with this when they had to either choose to save their sister Prue, or stop the bad guys. However, saving Prue would trigger the apocalypse, but Piper was adamant about saving Prue, then somehow saving the world after that. Only after seeing a vision of the future did Phoebe realize Prue had to be sacrificed to save everything else. Luckily, they [[Took a Third Option]] in the end.

*** This is because Early's goal is to ''control'' Simon, not to make him suffer. He is indifferent to suffering. He just wants this to go smoothly, and jam tomorrow works best for that kind of thing.

* In an episode of ''[[24]]'', a man is given a choice by a terrorist to either allow his son or wife to leave (he's holding them at gunpoint to force him to pick something up for him). After agonizing about it, he picks his son to be released. The terrorist then releases his wife instead, explaining that he only did that to learn who was ''more'' important as a hostage.

** Lx-3 does this in the Season 10 opening. Tying Lois Lane up in a field, he sets fire to the crops around her; he's already left a firebomb in the ''Daily Planet' building. He then confronts Clark, asking him whether he'll let his girlfriend die, or sacrifice thousands of people in the streets of Metropolis. Clark {{spoiler|saves them both}}.

* In ''[[Torchwood]]: Children of Earth'' {{spoiler|The alien 456 demands 10% of the earth's children or they'll kill everyone. Captain Jack Harkness does eventually figure out how to stop them, but has only moments to choose between sacrificing his own grandson (whilst his daughter, the child's mother, watches) or letting the 456 take 10% of Earth's children}}

** In a less obvious way Sheridan himself inadvertently gives this to Kosh: either he helps the Alliance to fight Shadows (and face an inevitable and lethal retribution for breaking the no-direct-confrontation agreement the two races had) or he would have to kill Sheridan, who firmly refused to take "No" for an answer (and was crucial to any victory over the Shadows). {{spoiler|He chose the former.}}

** ''[[Babylon 5]]'' loved this trope. It's revealed that the Minbari (or at least, some of them) knew of the Shadow invasion, and deliberately did not help the Narns when they were invaded by the Centauri with the help of the Shadows. But they held back because if they had moved to stop the Shadows, the Shadows would have started attacking openly sooner than they eventually did. As Delenn states in the episode "Ship of Tears", it was a choice between the lives of millions (on the Narn homeworld) and the lives of ''billions'' (on entire planets that could be destroyed by the Shadows, as they later proved capable of doing). {{spoiler|The Minbari choice bought enough time for the Alliance to find a weakness of the Shadows...but only just enough.}}

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'':

** ''Latent Image'': This trope turned [[Logic Bomb]] (though not literally) when The Doctor {{spoiler|is forced to choose between saving Kim's life or Jetal's life after an accident. They have the same chance of survival, but he doesn't have time to treat them both. He instinctively picks the one he knows best, something not covered by his programming, and suffers a nervous collapse.}}

* In an episode of ''[[Lois and Clark]]'', a mysterious couple kidnaps [[The Scrappy|Jimmy]] and Clark's adoptive parents. They then tie Jimmy to a bomb in an undisclosed location, while doing the same with Clark's parents in another location. The bombs are set to go off at the same time. They give Superman a choice of saving his friend or his parents, as he only has enough time to find and disarm one bomb. Sipes decides to [[Take a Third Option]] and uses a beam splitter to fry both bombs with his [[Eye Beam|laser vision]] from the sky. The kidnappers are not happy, as {{spoiler|they are actually [[Human Aliens|Kryptonians]] sent to test Kal-El's qualifications for leadership of their [[Lost Colony]]. Their goal was to force him to make a tough choice}}.

* In the opener of the ''[[NCIS]]'' episode "Requiem," Tony is presented with a difficult decision (although it wasn't forced on him by an enemy). Gibbs and the childhood best friend of his deceased daughter are in a car that goes off a dock. Tony dives in and pulls both of them out, but neither is breathing. He begins CPR on Gibbs, and then looks over at the young woman lying on the dock. He goes over to her, glances back to Gibbs, who still isn't breathing. Tony makes the agonizing decision to begin CPR on the girl, instead of continuing with Gibbs. It's a subtle moment, but an important one: it shows that Tony knows Gibbs well enough to know that Gibbs would not want to be saved at the cost of the young woman's life, and that [[Handsome Lech|the womanizing]], [[Obfuscating Stupidity|goofy]], [[Jerk Jock|often annoying]] NCIS agent is mature enough to make the hard choice. Fortunately for everyone involved, both Gibbs and the girl are saved.

* Several of the tasks on ''[[The Amazing Race]]'' have been picking the lesser of two evils. Perhaps the best example came during the China leg of Season 17, ''Both'' challenges were [[Luck-Based Mission|"Needle in a Haystack"]] challenges, and both of the particularly nasty variety. Teams had to pick either finding a boat with specific markings in the Marina or riding a tram and identifying the right signs, if you didn't get the right signs then you had to ride the Tram again and again. Note that at the time the racers got to the leg it was nighttime; with the former challenge, they had to hold their flashlights over the signs one by one and with the latter, they had to search for specific signs in a sea of neon.

* Not surprisingly, some Unsubs like to use this in ''[[Criminal Minds]]''. An episode had the Unsub lock three friends in an underground chamber to deprive them of food and water. They are told that one of them has to die for them to survive. Even worse, they had to kill the unlucky third friend themselves. With a hammer.

** Notably, Reid is forced into this twice in ''Revelations''. In one instance, he is shown four computer screens of complete strangers and is told to pick one to live and one to die (logically, he's picking one to live and three to die - Reid brings this up almost immediately, though not in so many words). If he doesn't choose, they all die. Reid eventually gives in and arbitrarily picks a victim to live and is [[Forced to Watch|left to watch]] the others be murdered. Later, [[Split Personality|Rafael]] tells Reid to choose one of his colleagues to die. If he doesn't choose, Rafael will shoot Reid. He uses this to his advantage in one of the cleverest maneuvers Reid has ever made, [[TV Genius|which is saying something]].

* In the second part of the second season of [[Twin Peaks]], Agent Cooper is forced to play a game of chess with Windom Earle. Whenever Cooper loses a piece, Earle commits another murder.

* Near the end of ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'', {{spoiler|the insanely massive Zangyack invasion fleet, something that the previous 34 [[Super Sentai]] teams could only delay for a few years by sacrificing their powers, returns to Earth. The Gokaiger can either face the fleet by themselves, a task which is the next thing to suicide, or use the Greatest Treasure in the Universe to [[Cosmic Retcon|retroactively wipe Zangyack from the face of existence]] -- at the cost of doing the same to every Super Sentai. They end up destroying the Treasure and resolving to face the impossible odds, because that's what Super Sentai members do.}}

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Awake (TV series)|Awake]]'', it is suggested to Michael that once he comes to realize which reality is true he will stop dreaming the other. Or, as he put it, once he decides who has died (his wife or his son), he'll never see him/her again.

* Parodied in ''[[Dilbert]]'': In one strip, [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|Phil the Prince of Insufficient Light]] comes up to Dilbert and sentences him to choose between the following two options: a highly paid yet utterly meaningless job whose results vanish before his eyes or a very low paid yet rewarding job that grants him the respect of his coworkers. Dilbert gleefully states that ''both'' options are better than what he has right now and even calls Wally over to "get in on this".

{{quote|'''Phil''': I hate the 90's.}}

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** And then when you arrive at Banshee, your ship crashes. The can breaks, the evil is unsealed, and the Sadistic Choice (or [[Heroic Sacrifice]]) is for naught.

*** Of course this losing a lot of impact if your group also plays Paranoia and frequently kill each other at the drop of a commie's hat.

* [[Chess]] is full of Sadistic Choices. Moves known as "forks" are when a piece threatens two (or more) enemy pieces at the same time. Sometimes the player can [[Take a Third Option]] by using one to defend the other, or use a third piece to defend them both. Most of the time though, they have to sacrifice the less valuable one.

** And then there's a zugzwang, a sadistic choice where ''every'' option will get you screwed. You can benefit from breaking a fork (if your opponent was expecting you to waffle, you can score a tempo advantage). You never benefit from a zugzwang.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', the villain Xaldin makes Beast (from [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's]] ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'') decide whether he wants to save Belle or the Magic Rose that can change him back. {{spoiler|Beast chooses Belle, but then [[Defied Trope|Belle sucker elbows Xaldin, saving both herself and the rose]].}}

** In ''358/2 Days,'' {{spoiler|Saix tells Axel he must choose which of his friends will survive - Roxas, or Xion.}} As one might expect, he does everything he can to [[Take a Third Option]]. {{spoiler|It backfires, and he ends up losing ''both'' instead. Ouch.}}

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', before the events of the game, Zant gives Zelda the choice of surrendering to him or killing her along with all of Hyrule. Zelda decides to surrender.

* In the PS2 game, ''[[Radiata Stories]]'' the major branching off point is whether or not the human hero joins the girl and the forces of non-humanity, or stays with humans. This results in two [[Multiple Endings]], one where humanity survives but the girl dies; or humanity is replaced by elves and other creatures but the guy gets to be with the girl.

* In the final episode of ''[[Desperate Housewives]]: [[Licensed Game|The Game]]'', {{spoiler|your mobster ex-boyfriend gives you a gun and orders you to shoot either your husband or your ''other'' ex-boyfriend (long story). Whether you shoot your husband, ex-boyfriend or just [[Take a Third Option|take the very obvious third option]] and shoot the gangster, the end result is the same - the gun wasn't loaded, he was just testing you. That's almost as sadistic as the bad writing [[Idiot Ball|enforced on you]] the entire game.}}

** Then, shortly before the endgame, you are asked to chose whether to {{spoiler|call the Systems Alliance ships into the battle in time to save the ''Destiny Ascension,'' the asari flagship which the Citadel Council is currently on board, or have the Alliance ships hold back and wait for the best opportunity to attack Sovereign}}. This one isn't quite as sadistic to the player, since {{spoiler|Sovereign gets defeated either way, making it mostly come down to how much the player likes or dislikes the Council}}. If you become a complete Renegade, you can decide to {{spoiler|sacrifice the Council, then ''[[Manipulative Bastard|explicitly state]]'' [[Manipulative Bastard|you wanted them dead]] ''[[Manipulative Bastard|specifically]]'' [[Manipulative Bastard|to get rid of them so humans could become the new Council]]}}. Even Captain Anderson expresses utter shock, though Ambassador Udina just fine and dandy with it. Utterly chilling.

**** [[Mass Effect 2]] reveals that {{spoiler|in addition to the Council, there were about 10'000 civilians aboard the Destiny Ascension, far more than the Alliance's casualties should you choose to save them. So, going by numbers alone, saving the Council is still the optimal choice, though that is still assuming that Sovereign gets defeated either way.}}

** In the Bring Down the Sky DLC, at the end the player must choose between {{spoiler|letting the terrorist mastermind behind the attempted [[Colony Drop]] go free to save the hostages, knowing that he will probably kill more innocents later, or letting the hostages get killed in order to stop him permanently.}} Once again, there's no [[Take a Third Option|third option]].

*** Boy howdy does it. There are at least two Sadistic Choices in the main mission string alone. {{spoiler|Both have [[Take a Third Option|third options]], but they each require you to have made ''very'' specific choices in [[Old Save Bonus|the past two games]]. For players without an import, the third option is not available and the other two options are indeed sadistic.}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' If you don't have the required paragon/renegade perecentage points, you will then have to choose one fighter or the other {{spoiler|And risk seeing your squad mate get sacrificed during the Suicide Mission}}. This happens with the Jack/Miranda & Legion/Tali arguments.

*** Further spoilers ahoy: {{spoiler|You still have the wand yourself. But on the evil path, you [[But Thou Must!|have to kill off the other sages]].}} When you {{spoiler|defeat the last one, if you choose to finish off said sage, you get the [[Bad Ending]] where Diva kills Issac. Even if you don't, you still will get a [[Downer Ending]].}}

* In the final case of ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice For All]]'', {{spoiler|after you learn that your client Matt Engarde was the one who ordered assassin Shelly de Killer to kill Juan Corrida, you are, towards the end of the final day of the case, forced to decide the verdict of the trial. Oh, and your sidekick Maya is being held hostage by de Killer, and the only way he will release her is if you get a Not Guilty verdict for Engarde. But if you do that, an innocent woman will almost assuredly be convicted in his place. The way to win is to [[Take a Third Option]] and convince de Killer to abandon his contract with Engarde, freeing Maya and letting you give Engarde his justly-deserved Guilty verdict. In the process, Engarde gets his own unpleasant choice- go free and get killed by de Killer, or plead guilty to murder.}}

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' gives you a choice of two paths at the end of the game: {{spoiler|You can either choose to participate in a mission with Dimitri, the Russian crook who screwed you over earlier in the game and who you've been trying to kill up to this point, or not participate in the mission and instead, to go and kill Dimitri. If you choose to kill Dimitri, the mob boss who set up the mission for the both of you will show up at Roman's wedding and kill Niko's love interest, Kate. If you choose to do the mission, Dimitri will show up at the wedding and kill Niko's cousin and best friend, Roman. Ironically, it was Kate who advised you to go kill Dimitri, while it was Roman who advised you to participate on the mission with him.}}

** The money one is useless, except for the achievement and seeing all the endings (at this point, one should have an amble supply of money). The best choice is "Love", as that is the middle one and more importantly, allows one to retain the dog which is useful for finishing the Archaeologist quest (which, if one is doing, should mean something as even if you know exactly where everything is, it is still time consuming). The sadistic choice is the one with the Shadow Court, where you have to choose to curse yourself or an innocent girl. While it has little effect on the game, it would be a rather difficult choice in real life (although, in real life, rapidly aging oneself when one is the only one who can save the world would be foolish).

** Don't forget when {{spoiler|you must sacrifice either yourself or a young woman you've never met to a fate of losing all of your youth and gaining glowing red eyes.}}

** ''Fable III'' gives you one in the first scene: After asking your [[Jerkass|older]] [[Complete Monster|brother]], King Logan, to spare the protesting peasants, he punishes you by {{spoiler|letting you choose whether he executes your childhood sweetheart or the leaders of the peasants}}. What's that? You want a [[Take a Third Option|third option?]] Sure. You can choose to do nothing, and Logan kills all of them.

* In the Heaven's Feel arc of ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', you have to choose between {{spoiler|stopping Tohsaka to save the one you love, Sakura, who will inevitably go on a killing rampage, or killing said love and upholding your borrowed ideal.}}

** Regrettably, choosing to kill her only leads to a bad end - right after getting told that what would happen next was probably enough for it's own route.

** ''[[Fire Emblem]] Radiant Dawn'' has a rather gripping one in near the end of Part 3. {{spoiler|Just as Micaiah is about to give the order to fire on the Apostle, Tibarn swoops in and hangs her [[Bodyguard Crush]] Sothe over a cliff and gives her an ultimatum: cease fire and retreat or Sothe dies. Micaiah can't retreat however, since it would effectively mean everybody in Daein would die due to the bloodpact. Unable to find a third option, Michiah is helpless as she watches Sothe get thrown over the cliff. Micaiah promptly has a [[My God, What Have I Done?]], until it is revealed to have been a bluff and she calls for a retreat.}}

* A slightly different spin on this occurs in ''[[Call of Duty]]: World at War'' during the Soviet campaign level ''Eviction''. After being ordered to kill wounded Germans crawling on the ground in the streets of Berlin, you and your squadmates stumble upon three unarmed German soldiers cornered in a subway entrance. Your Sergeant gives you the choice of gunning them down yourself or letting your vengeful Red Army comrades throw Molotovs at them.

* Rare example not offered to the story's hero: Torn in ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak II]]'' has to make basically a [["Friend or Idol?" Decision|Love Interest or Underground Movement Decision]]. He chooses Ashelin over the Underground, and as a result Praxis gets his hands on the Precursor Stone.

** To put this choice into perspective, Ashelin is Praxis's own daughter. So Yeah.

* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'': Kessler pulls this on Cole. Cole is given the choice to save six doctors, or save Trish, his girlfriend. The doctors are more relevant in context, because the setting is a city under quarantine due to disease, and the quarantine has been causing basic social services to fail while gang violence escalates to the point of insanity. {{spoiler|If Cole goes for the doctors, Trish dies. But there is a twist if you go for Trish instead; the choice is rigged and Trish will be a decoy, with the real Trish hidden with the doctors Cole has chosen not to save.}} Notable for two reasons: {{spoiler|First, the hero doesn't get to [[Take a Third Option]], and second, it's actually a subversion. Kessler isn't doing it because he's a sadist, he's doing it because his ultimate goal is to harden Cole against emotional trauma earlier in his life than he would be otherwise.}}

** It comes up again in the sequel: {{spoiler|In the end, you have the choice to either defeat the Beast and in the process kill all Conduits, including Cole, Nix, and Kuo... or side with the Beast to save the Conduits at the expense of Humanity, including your friend Zeke. And no, there's still no [[Take a Third Option|Third Option]] -- you either wipe out humanity to save yourself and those like you while turning your back on your human friends, or sacrifice yourself and some of your closest companions to save humanity. And yes, they ''are'' [[Killed Off for Real]], with the possible exception of Cole in the Good Ending.}}

* In ''[[Quest for Glory]] 5'', the hero will venture into Hades at one point. {{spoiler|At the end of the level, he'll be given the choice to resurrect someone implied to be closest to his heart: Katrina, the vampire who died for him, or Erana, whom he forged a spiritual bond with. Both women are in love with him and he can only bring one of them back to life}}.

** {{spoiler|You can choose to save neither, but that doesn't really count, does it?}}

** ''Silent Hill: Homecoming'' offers a different variation of the sadistic choice; at one point in time, you are given the option of {{spoiler|watching your mother die by being torn apart on a torture device, or shooting her yourself so she won't have to suffer}}. Neither choice is particularly pleasant.

* ''[[Ace Combat]] X: Skies of Deception'' offers you something of this in the endgame. You can either take down Alect Squadron first, which leads to the Fenrirs having annoying High Powered Microwave cannons, or you can attack the transport fleet first and deny the Fenrirs their HPMs, but gain Alect Squadron's piloting expertise. And you may also need to go through an [[Airstrike Impossible]] segment now or later. No third option here, folks.

** Oh, and {{spoiler|if you ''do'' [[Take a Third Option]], it's heavily implied in the epilogue that the boy isn't exactly back to normal.}} Yeah, its [[Crapsack World|that kind of game]].

*** Well, Wynne does mention in dialogue with Shale that {{spoiler|a mage cured this way will be forever changed by the experience.}}

*** Interestingly, the default option for the first game's ending in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' is actually the third option. You get to meet {{spoiler|King Alistair}} who grimly mentions that {{spoiler|Loghain is still alive}}.

** And then there's the end game. {{spoiler|You have three choices on how to kill the Archdemon: perform a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] which not only kills you but ''destroys your soul'', have one of your friends/comrades perform the soul-destroying [[Heroic Sacrifice]], or help your [[Sour Supporter]] give birth to what may be the equivalent of the [[Big Bad]].}}

** And then the expansion, ''Awakening'' ups the ante {{spoiler|by forcing you to choose between saving the city of Amaranthine from getting sacked by Darkspawn, or saving Vigil's Keep, where your soldiers and half your party are stationed, from an impending attack.}}

*** Or do a good enough job reinforcing your fortress and troops {{spoiler|and have Vigil's Keep survive without your help, while you save the city. It's more about being well prepared than taking getting a third option}}.

* In the 2005 version of ''The Bard's Tale'', you get a choice between saving the princess you've been trying to save, and killing her at her kidnapper's request (who insists she's a demon). {{spoiler|If you choose to kill her, she turns into a demon. If you choose to kill the wizard, you beat him and THEN she transforms into a demon, who keeps you as her right-hand man.}}

** {{spoiler|You also have a third option, to ignore both of them, go back to the bar you started at, and just get used to the undead horde that's been rising to conquer the world. They're not that bad.}}

* ''[[Yume Miru Kusuri]]'' presents you with three girls, you can only save one from their painful problems. Once selected, your character watches the other two their slow inevitable and painful descent to despair from their problems while you are merely buying extra time for your selected girl. She too can join the others in a bad ending if you made the wrong choices

* At one point in ''[[Advent Rising]]'', you are forced to choose to save either your brother or your fiancee. {{spoiler|The one you choose to save ends up dead later in the story, and the villains [[What the Hell, Hero?|guilt trip you for failing to save the other one]]}}.

* Many, many instances in ''[[The Witcher]]''. An early example has Geralt having to decide whether or not he should give a crate of supplies he just defended to a desperate band of travelers. {{spoiler|If he gives them the supplies, he later discovers that the "travelers" were actually terrorists, and the "supplies" were weapons they used to murder an innocent man. If, on the other hand, Geralt sees through the terrorists' lie and kills them, he later finds out that his actions caused the arrest of an innocent man.}} Either way, ''someone'' gets screwed over.

* In ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky]]'', the hero has to choose between joining their partner on the [[The Dark Side|dark side]] or leaving them at the mercy of the [[Big Bad]], who wouldn't want just ''one'' of them... {{spoiler|or not. It's [[All Just a Dream|all just a nightmare]].}}

** A ([[Your Mileage May Vary|possible]]) justification in the Epilogue: The Prince (rightly) states that {{spoiler|all that had been accomplished was putting the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] ''back'' in its can rather than actually destroying it, meaning that at some point in the future, this whole process would start all over again... except this time without the one thing that could stop it from winning: Elika. So reviving Elika (although an emotionally-driven decision) actually ''does'' have some logic to it. Let the world live on for another few hundred years before almost certainly being taken over by darkness and evil [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and people who kick puppies]], or take this ''one freak chance'' that has arisen due to circumstances that will likely ''never happen again'' to destroy the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] forever?}} In the long run, the Prince's decision is the smarter one. You know, if what you're going for is keeping the world safe from this particular evil for the rest of time.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has Kefka, of all people, invoking this on Edgar Figaro. He basically has his soldiers torch Figaro Castle and state that they'll stop torching his kingdom ''if'' he hands over Terra Branford. Of course, this backfires on Kefka when not only does Figaro escape with Locke and Terra, but he also orders his guards to have Figaro Castle tunnel underground.

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'', Hot Coldman, in a manner similar to [[The Joker]]'s "Social Experiment" from ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', managed to leak Peace Walker's false data to NORAD with the intention of forcing the military to choose between launching nukes, namely with the belief that humans don't possess the will to launch nukes, although he also hints that he truly doesn't care if they did launch in either case.

* There may be a trend here: like ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' and ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'', ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'' forces you to choose between the life of someone you care about, and the lives of many people you don't know. {{spoiler|And just like them, the character you care about exits the story either way (though for once, she has a chance of not exiting in a body bag.)}}

** In this, [[Take a Third Option|the third option]] for the Engineer would be to {{spoiler|alert their teammates that a [[Memetic Mutation|"SPAH'S SAPPIN' MAH SENTRY!"]] and let them do the gunning down while the Engy fixes his sentry.}}

** Similarly, any person who plays Medic will at some point come across a situation where two or more people run up to them while burning or bleeding to death with neither dispenser nor health kit in sight. Your healing beam can only focus on one patient at a time. Occasionally the victims will have enough health that a particularly fast and skilled Medic will be able to bounce just enough healing to each patient for all of them to survive, but this is rarely the case.

* None of the endings in [[Deus Ex]] are exactly happy but a better example occurs when JC is holed up with his injured brother. Government agents arrive and you can either go out through the door to fight them or slip out the window and leave Paul to his fate. The choice is more difficult if you have specialised your character for stealth.

** {{spoiler|You end up getting captured either way, so if you're aware of this, it's more a question of ability}}.

* In the last level of ''[[De Blob]] 2'', the [[Big Bad]] has placed bombs around his enslaved workers and only Blob can save them. He taunts you to either waste time saving a few and let him get away with brainwashing the rest of the planet, or go after him and leave those few to die. But there's enough time in the level that if you're any good at the game, you'll be able to do both.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Made fun of in [http://nedroid.com/2007/01/2315-badlythoughtout/ this] ''[[Nedroid]]'' comic.

* David Hopkins' ''[[Jack (webcomic)|Jack]]'', in the ''Suffer'' arc: Artie Sullivan discovers his boss, Doctor Thalmus, is molesting the children in his care. Artie threatens to turn him in ... then Thalmus points out that he is in fact currently working on the cure for the cancer which is killing Artie's wife. Worse, Thalmus threatens to turn himself in if Artie threatens him again, on the grounds that he'd get a lighter sentence;

{{quote|"You, on the other hand ... I'll tell them you were in on it. It won't stick, but it will keep you from your work and your wife for a good long time. She'll die wondering whether you were a part of it."}}

* In [[Khaos Komix]], a gang of students will cut Charlie's hair so she can "wear a wig like a real tranny," or they'll vaginally rape Tom. Of course, it's no choice at all; by the time the first four meet her, Charlie's made the most of short hair.

* There's a complicated example in [[The Fancy Adventures of Jack Cannon]]. {{spoiler|Craig has kidnapped Angel. If Jack interferes with the hackers again, Gavin will kill Jack's parents.}} There are two villains at work here, both a part of the same organization. Neither has spoken to Jack personally to suggest the sadistic choice. However, the first guy may have broken some rules, which may mean that there is no need to [[Take a Third Option]] or make a choice. Not that Jack knows any of that.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Independent [[YouTube]] film ''Caitlyn'' ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2cu0wBw5w4&fmt=18 Part 1] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIlbFfFiS88&fmt=18 Part 2]) forces a sadistic choice on a girl about 9 years old. She wakes up chained to a pole with some rather tight looking bonds, and finds a handwritten note right in front of her informing her that she is holding the key to the bonds in her hand. If she frees herself, her parents will die. If she drops the key, she will be a prisoner forever. {{spoiler|She drops the key. She wakes up in bed, but her parents are gone anyway. Talk about a [[Downer Ending]].}}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Also parodied in ''[[Family Guy]]''.

{{quote|'''Peter''': Okay Brian, here's a riddle. A woman has two children and a homicidal maniac makes her choose which one he will kill. Which one does she choose?

'''Peter''': Wrong! The ugly one! }}

** Another scene has Peter asked whether he would save Chris or Meg from a homicidal maniac. He says to ask Lois since he isn't good with tough decisions. The cutaway shows him at a video store, unable to choose between renting "Ernest Goes to the Beach" and "Ernest Doesn't Go To The Beach".

** In the three-part "The Ultimate [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Doom]]" episode of ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', Megatron plans to bring Cybertron into Earth's orbit in order to destroy Earth and harvest the energy. If the plan fails, however, Cybertron will be destroyed. Megatron forces Optimus Prime to choose which planet will be lost and, notably, he ''doesn't'' [[Take a Third Option]].

*** Well he sort of does. His plan is to bring Cybertron close for now to save it, and then safely put it back before the Earth is destroyed. Although it's not really a third option as much as thinking on the fly.

** Lampshaded ("Great. The old 'save your partner or lose the weapon gag'") and served with extra sadism in ''[[Transformers Armada|Armada]]''. The "partner" turned out to be [[The Mole]].

* Hilariously done in the ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' episode "Almost Got 'Im", where Harley Quinn attempts to engineer one of these for Batman, smugly telling him that he can either rescue Catwoman from the [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom]] she is strapped to and let Harley escape, or can let her die whilst subduing and arresting Harley. Unfortunately for her, she's neglected to consider the fact that she's telling Batman this [[Take a Third Option|whilst they're standing next to the conveyor belt's circuit breaker]].

* At the end of the first 5-part episode of ''[[Gargoyles]]'', after Demona turns against them, a misfired rocket launcher sends both her and the gargoyles' new friend Elisa over the edge. [[The Hero|Goliath]] can either save his mate (his former mate who, at the time, he still cared for) who had betrayed him, or the human they just met who nevertheless had been honorably on their side. He chooses Elisa; though howls afterwards at Demona's "death." (Later we find that it's a lot [[Immortality|harder to kill Demona than that.]])

** In the "Hero Time" episode of ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'', Ben meets his childhood hero [[Expy|Tony Stark...er, Captain Nemesis]] who becomes jealous when Ben starts taking all his fame, [[Face Heel Turn|goes crazy]] and kidnaps Julie and an actress everyone thought Ben was dating [[Sarcasm Mode|(who was clearly not the star of a series of movies based on]] ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''), and gives him the choice to save one or the other . Not to shock the hell out of you, but {{spoiler|Ben saves Julie, while Gwen & Kevin save the other hostage}}

* In the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "The Library", even fighting 'blind' Toph could have probably made it more trouble that it was worth for the sandbending bandits to make off with [[Team Pet|Appa]]... but she was the only thing keeping the library containing her [[True Companions]] from being dragged beneath the dunes.

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': "If you join me, if you swear to serve me, if you never speak to your friends again, I will allow them to live."

** A [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] not only for Slade, but for the Titans when {{spoiler|they figure out what's going on themselves.}}

* Discord of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' gives one to Rainbow Dash when she encounters him in the labyrinth where the Elements of Harmony are hidden. Discord shows RD that her home Cloudsdale is on the verge of collapse due to her prolonged absence in the labyrinth and thus presents her with the wings that he took from her to prevent her from finding the Elements of Harmony the easy way. Discord gives her the choice of either continuing to wander the labyrinth aimlessly and allowing Cloudsdale to collapse due to her negligence or throwing the search for the Elements and recovering her stolen wings to prevent Cloudsdale's destruction. {{spoiler|Rainbow Dash chooses to abandon the Elements and her friends in favor of saving Cloudsdale, thus allowing Discord to rule Equestria with an iron and chaotic fist.}}

** This is also played in an interesting twist; it doesn't matter what she chooses, any of the options will make her go against her Element of Loyalty, which is exactly what Discord wants. [[Xanatos Gambit|He wins either way.]]

** And he brainwashes her just to make sure she does what he wants, so there was never really any choice in the matter. He just presented the situation to her out of sheer sadism.

* On the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode ''The Beak,'' they have to choose between rescuing Isabella or a crowd of random spectators. {{spoiler|Fortunately, each brother can split up and go save them both.}}

 

== [[Real Life]] ==