Sadistic Choice: Difference between revisions

If the hero is a known expert in daring rescues, the villain will try to make sure he doesn't get any ideas by putting the two hostages in separate [[Death Trap]]s, then informing the hero he only has time to save one. This is usually the hero's cue to prove how wrong the villain is.

 

 

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.

** Subverted in that {{spoiler|it's not such a bad decision since Minato also plans to seal the rest of their chakras inside Naruto so that they can meet him again in the future. Minato's choice eventually paid off.}}

* 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]] ==

** Two happened so far in ''[[Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]''. In chapter 11, Rainbow Dash was forced to choose between betraying her friends and {{spoiler|joining Gilda}} or try to save Medley's life. She chose the {{spoiler|latter}}. Two chapters later, Lightning Bolt must choose between saving Cloud Kicker from being killed by griffins or stop another griffon from bombing the Eastern Sector of Stalliongrad. She (initially) chooses the {{spoiler|latter}}, but {{spoiler|thanks to Garuda team's [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment, she goes to help Cloud Kicker}}.

* In the short ''Homestuck'' fanfiction ''[http://archiveofourown.org/works/166912 Prize]'', an evil John casually asks Karkat whether he should kill Jade of Kanaya. Karkat refuses to choose, but evil!John keeps insisting that his friend has to.

* ''[[Inner Demons]]'': The recently [[Face Heel Turn]]ed Twilight Sparkle crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] with one of these. She captures Pinkie Pie, and when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy show up to save her, Twilight incapacitates Fluttershy as well. She then tells Rainbow Dash to either rape Pinkie, or else she'll kill Fluttershy. {{spoiler|Applejack shows up to save them... but only ''after'' Rainbow decides she has no choice and forces herself on Pinkie.}}

 

** 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.

* In ''[[The Punisher|Punisher: War Zone]]'', Jigsaw and his [[Ax Crazy]] brother Loony Bin Jim give the eponymous protagonist a literal Sadistic Choice in the form of a [[Shoot the Dog]] scenario: {{spoiler|if Frank chooses between killing either the Donatellis or Micro, the brothers release the ones who were spared, otherwise they just kill all three hostages. Although [[Heroic Sacrifice|Micro offers himself to Frank to spare the Donatellis]], the latter instead elects to [[Take a Third Option]]. He kills Loony Bin Jim instead, and Jigsaw retaliates by killing Micro. Although given Frank's last words to Micro ("You won't feel a thing, Micro") coupled with Micro's nod to Frank, it seems as if they both understood that no matter who Frank choose, all of the hostages would have been killed anyway; by eliminating Jim, it gave Frank a brief window of time to save the Donatellis. Of course, once they are out of harms way, he then [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|brutally]] makes sure that Jigsaw pays for Micro's death}}.

* 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}}

* 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]] ==

* ''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.

* Chauvelin is notorious for his merciless "either...or" ultimatums in ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (novel)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'' and its sequels. His first target is Marguerite Blakeney, who has to choose between helping Chauvelin arrest and execute the Scarlet Pimpernel (aka her husband) or letting him arrest and behead her brother. Thereafter, Chauvelin usually holds Marguerite as the hostage and gives the choice to [[It Was His Sled|Sir Percy Blakeney]]—for example, in ''The Elusive Pimpernel'', he threatens to kill the breadwinner in every family in Bologne if Sir Percy tries to rescue his wife.

* [[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 only people for whom it plays straight are Qeteb and Faraday. Katie has always known exactly what has to happen and why. DragonStar has long since realised that she's not a weapon; she's a ''sacrifice''... and saving her is pointless. It doesn't play straight for the astute reader who realises just before Katie dies that her final emotion (aside from stoic acceptance) is relief.

 

** 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.

* [[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 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.

** ''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]]}}.

** 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 ''[[RuneScape]]'', in the last quest in a series of quests, you (as the hero) must choose between two of your allies who the [[Big Bad]] has captured - [[Captain Obvious|the one you choose will live,]][[Department of Redundancy Department|and the other one will die.]] Naturally, both encourage you to save the other. Although, you don't see the one you choose to save after the quest.

* 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.

* Although this is put in a rather subtle way, in ''[[BlazBlue]]'' this occurs to {{spoiler|Litchi Faye-Ling. Hazama invites her to join the NOL because he has the cure for herself and Arakune. Her condition is worsening and if left be, she'll be at best a burden to Orient Town, at worst turn into the next Arakune and eat her former friends. Not to mention that if she just refused, there will be a big chance that Hazama will dispose the cure and her only lead for salvation lost. Basically it boils down to either "Go betray those who expect you to be a good person and join [[The Dark Side]]" or "Slowly wither and die, or if [[Sarcasm Mode|lucky]], turn into a monster that eats everyone who looks up to you." There's just no [[Take a Third Option|third option]] for her.}}

* Deconstructed in one part of ''[[South Park|South Park: The Stick of Truth]]'' where you have to choose whether to side with Cartman or Kyle. This is a Sadistic Choice because, as any fan of the cartoon can tell you, [[Morton's Fork| they're ''both'' complete jerks.]] It doesn't really matter either in the long run, because after fighting and defeating the one you don't choose to side with, both sides become allies against the actual villain.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

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

** [[The Dragon|Redcloak]] presents O-Chul, his paladin prisoner, with a Sadistic Choice in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0545.html strip 545]: tell him how [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Girard's Gate]] is protected, or Redcloak will throw a large group of hostages into an interdimensional rift to be [[Deader Than Dead|devoured]] by [[Eldritch Abomination|the Snarl]]. Subverted in that since O-Chul genuinely doesn't know the gate's protections, all O-Chul can do is make peace with what's about to happen...

* 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;

* 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?