Scarpia Ultimatum: Difference between revisions
→Comic Books: Added to example
m (revise quote template spacing) |
(→Comic Books: Added to example) |
||
| (12 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 6:
''Or else he must not only die the death,''
''But thy unkindness shall his death draw out''
''To ling'ring sufferance.''
|'''Angelo''', ''[[Measure for Measure]]''}}
A villain has the hero in his clutches. The only person pleading for the hero is his wife/girlfriend. So the villain says, "I'll only release him if you have sex with me." And now the heroine has to choose whether her love for her husband's [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|well-being]] overrides her sexual loyalty. Typically, she (or sometimes even he) will agree to the ultimatum, but before the two of them do the deed, a [[Take a Third Option|Third Option]] will present itself, and the sacrifice won't be needed after all. Except if it is used as a premise for an erotic story.
Line 14 ⟶ 15:
When the wife/sweetheart/sister/daughter/etc. makes the offer, see [[Please, I Will Do Anything!]].
See also [[I Have You Now, My Pretty]] and [[I Have Your Wife]].
And yes, the trope name sounds like a [[Mad Lib Thriller Title|Robert Ludlum novel]].
{{noreallife|this is a [[:Category:Rape Tropes|rape trope]], and All The Tropes does not care to [[squick]] its readers. If you have evidence of this happening in Real Life, tell the police, not us.}}
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Mai-Otome]]'', {{spoiler|Tomoe does this to an imprisoned Shizuru by lying that Natsuki has also been captured and insinuating that she will help free both of them if Shizuru submits to her advances. However, Shizuru received a smuggled letter from Natsuki before going through with it, so she knew this was a lie and ended up using the event as an opportunity to steal Tomoe's key to her cell. Whether this was before or after the act was left ambiguous - we only see Tomoe passed out in the bed, dressed up as a baby, while an either topless or naked Shizuru is holding the key.}}
* The truth behind {{spoiler|Krauss and Natsuhi}}'s marriage in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', as {{spoiler|Krauss's father Kinzou forced Natsuhi into it as a reconciliation of her family's debts to him.}}
* Daisuke Torakura, the [[Asshole Victim]] from a ''[[Detective Conan]]'' case, got to marry the prettiest girl from a village near his [[Big Fancy House]] via this, threatening to ruin her father's business and throw the family into destitution.
* Happens in the manwha ''Masca'' in which the demon lord refuses to lift the spell that [[
* It's left out of the dub, of course, but in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'', Barbara makes this offer to Yusei as an alternative to slavery in the dyne mines. Yusei refuses. What makes this even more evil is the fact that Lotten - who is later revealed to be her lover - ''is standing right there'' and doesn't even mind! But given the type of scum he is, that's hardly surprising.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
Line 32 ⟶ 33:
* ''[[New Mutants]]'' has a surprisingly G-rated version given the participants - [[Magma Man|Amara]] (Magma) and ''Mephisto''. The specific terms are that he'll let them out of Hell in exchange for "one date, no strings".
== [[Fan
* Inverted in ''[[My Immortal]]'', when [[Harry Potter|Snape]] threatens to rape Draco if Ebony doesn't kill Vampire (a.k.a. Harry Potter). Of course, considering [[So Bad It's Good|how]] [[Narm|it's]] [[Nightmare Retardant|written...]]
* In ''[[All He Ever Wanted]]'', [[Axis Powers Hetalia|Prussia]] doesn't even wait to threaten his rival Austria's beautiful ex-wife Hungary with raping her if she doesn't help him. As the "good" [[Complete Monster]] he is in the fic, he just brings her into Austria's cell and forces him to watch as he brutally beats, rapes and tortures her "for Austria's sake".
* ''[[All You Need Is Love]]'' has a male on male example. When [[Death Note|Light/Kira]] goes to [[Enemy Mine|L and Naomi Misora for help on a pressing issue]] L wastes no time in giving this ultimatum:
{{quote|'''L''': If you're finally going to admit that you're Kira I'll have you know that so far your various futures entail your being my [[Sex Slave]], [[They Would Cut You Up|the government's sex slave]], [[Bedlam House|or locked up in some mental institution.]] Of the three I prefer your being my sex slave but the decision is yours. [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|Or Naomi-chan could shoot you]] [[V for Vendetta|behind the chemical shed, if that's preferable.]]}}
* In ''[[Lessons Learned on
== [[Film]] ==
Line 48 ⟶ 49:
* Done in ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'', though somewhat strangely. {{spoiler|Salim is pointing a gun at Jamal, threatening to kill him, and Latika agrees to sleep with Salim to preempt Jamal's further attempts to protect her. There was no spoken ultimatum, but all things considered, there might as well have been.}}
* ''[[Indecent Proposal]]'' serves up a variation of this. After a married couple blow their life savings in Vegas, a wealthy businessman offers them a million dollars if the wife will spend one night with him. The couple make a mutual decision to accept his offer.
** The same basic setup is played for laughs in ''[[Honeymoon in Vegas]]''.
** And parodied in ''[[Kingpin]]'', in which three guys are involved, one of whom is Amish.
** Also parodied in an episode of ''[[Mad About You]]'', when guest star Robert Redford (the businessman in the original movie) makes the same proposal to Jamie. Instead of angst and fear, though, they are ecstatic and happily accept.
* In the Romanian film ''[[4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days]]'', Otilia helps her friend Gabita terminate her pregnancy in Ceauşescu-era Romania, when abortion was strictly forbidden. The illegal abortionist they locate, Mr. Bebe, eventually makes it clear that he expects both women to have sex with him as part of his payment. (In partial defense, he had a point that if they were caught, his punishment would have been far more severe than theirs.)
* This happens in the remake of ''The Getaway'' with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, who play a couple (literal 'couple') of cat-burglars. The guy had been stuck in a Mexican jail (NOT nice) for a while, and suddenly got released. However, now a crooked cop wants him to pull [[One Last Job]], and the plot starts rolling... anyway, towards the end, the cop betrays them (of course) and in the process reveals that the female half of the couple actually slept with him in order to get her hubby out of prison. He's ''not'' happy, but it does work out in the end... which makes it a rare example where it actually went through - albeit 'offscreen.'
* In ''[[Cape Fear]]'', Max Cady confronts Bowden's wife Peggy on the houseboat and explains how he can legally get away with raping her by describing it as one of these if she reports it. For the record, [[Hollywood Law|he is incorrect]] and it ''does'' still count as rape.
{{quote|'''Cady:''' You proposition me. You instead of (daughter) Nancy. And I'll agree never to see you again, alright? Unless, of course, you want it. And that's how you give your consent.
'''Peggy:''' That's not consent, it's blackmail!
'''Cady:''' Reasons don't make any difference, you look that up. And as far as blackmail is concerned, you only ''think'' I'm going after Nancy. You're just playing it safe. And your husband, he's gonna appreciate your noble gesture, but he ain't never gonna forget it! So, all in all... I don't think you're gonna say too much about this, are you?
** {{spoiler|Of course this was never his real intent. Propositioning the wife was just a diversion so he could rape the daughter.}}
* In ''[[Back to The Future]]'' Part III, Mad Dog drops this one on Doc Brown and Clara; the point is for Clara to dance with Mad Dog to get him to leave Doc alone, but it's as close to lewd as one can get in a gingham dress. Shortly afterward he suggests she have sex with him to cover Doc's debt.
Line 63 ⟶ 64:
** In the original play, it's also a subversion but for a different reason: In her agreement to his terms, the wife reveals some cringeworthy details of her sex life with obscene manchild Mozart and Salieri is so offended/Squicked by her wording that he throws her out.
* Played for laughs in ''[[History of the World Part One]]'': "hump/death, hump/death"
* A version of this happens in the film ''[[
* ''[[The Claim]]'' employs the ''[[Indecent Proposal]]'' variation: a world-weary prospector offers a desperate pioneer a lucrative gold claim in exchange for the pioneer's wife and infant daughter (in this case sex with wifey is more implied than stated outright). He accepts, and goes on to build a prosperous mining town, but his past comes back to haunt him when said wife and now-grown daughter return looking for financial support after the prospector died.
* In the third ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', Elizabeth agrees to go with Sao Feng in order to save the crew of the Black Pearl, considering he had already been eying her in the opening Singapore sequence and later forced a kiss on her when she was on his ship.
** Of course at this point in time Sao Feng also happens to think she's the goddess Calypso, which means that he's either assuming that all goddesses love sex (not hard), or [[Idiot Ball|not assuming that she's going to destroy his ship the second Calypso is free.]]
* Used in the movie ''[[Blindness]]'', read the example in Literature below.
== [[Literature]] ==
Line 74 ⟶ 75:
* Approximately one-half inverted in the novel ''[[Outlander (novel)|Outlander]]'' (''Cross Stitch'' in the UK) - it's for a man, and the villain compelling it would much rather it be rape, as he's a sexual sadist.
* In [[The Hunger Games]], this is more or less how {{spoiler|Finnick began his career as a Capitol Casanova.}} Eventually, he decided that it would be less painful just to go with it and pretend that it was his idea.
* In one of the ''[[Anita Blake]]'' novels, the villain says he will stop torturing the two teenage hostages if Jason (the group's pet werewolf) has sex with his two female minions. Subverted in that Jason ''does'' agree, and seems to be enjoying
* Played with in [[Lois McMaster Bujold|Bujold's]] short story ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Labyrinth]]'', when 'Admiral' Miles Naismith is obliged to have sex with an eight foot tall (he is a [[Squishy Wizard|physically fragile]] four-foot-nine hunchback), fanged, clawed [[Super Soldier]] in the hopes of keeping her from killing... herself.
** ''Really'' subverted, since Miles has a thing for very tall women, and no problem with Taura's...uniqueness. They even have one last night together after reaching safety. In fact, Miles and Taura apparently got along so well after this that she was invited to his wedding and bonded with his mother.
Line 83 ⟶ 84:
* In the novel ''[[Blindness]]'' by José Saramago, a gang of blind inmates led by the only man with a gun takes over the quarantined abandoned asylum, threatening the other residents, and stealing and hoarding all the food supplies. Eventually they demand payment in valuables, and then in women. {{spoiler|The women volunteer to go, as a group, in order to save the lives of all the other people living there.}}
* In "L'Ingénu" by Voltaire, the title character is sent to prison without reason and his lover, Miss Saint Yves, decides to free him. {{spoiler|She pleads her case before a bishop who agrees in exchange for... well, you know. She does it, and gets her man back, but dies soon after without having told the truth}}.
* ''[[Ivanhoe]]'' features 2 examples of
* Although [[Dracula]] can put women in a trance before he bites them, the third time he bites (and metaphorically rapes) Mina, he leaves her completely aware and instead threatens to kill her unconscious husband lying next to her if she resists or screams for help. [[For the Evulz]]?
* In the backstory of the ''Tide Lords'' novels, Arkady was given a choice of this type by the Duke of Lebec to save her father from prison. Unfortunately, while the Duke kept his word, Arkady's father died of natural causes before the release order reached the prison. Unusually, there was explicitly no sex involved in this example. The Duke was gay in a violently homophobic culture, so he needed a wife to act as [[The Beard]].
* In the short story ''[http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/disaster-apocalypse/will-mcintosh/free-lunch Free Lunch]'' Phoebe and her mother are trying to survive in a postapocalyptic society. A restaurant employee coerces Phoebe into having sex with him in exchange for food, and she starts to offer sex as payment for food every time they meet someone. When her mother finds out, she berates Phoebe and is ashamed of her, even though the food Phoebe got this way was all that was keeping them alive.
* In ''[[The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier
== [[Live
* Female example: In ''The Way We Live Now'', the evil American woman pulls one of these on Paul. She will reveal the fact that he has previously slept with her to his fiancee if he doesn't give her one last night. And there is no Third Option. Then again, it's hard to feel sorry for him when all he needs is to decide to ''not'' trick a woman into marriage on false premises.
* On an episode of ''[[24]]'', Teri Bauer offers herself to a thug in order to prevent him from raping [[Damsel Scrappy|Kim]]. She then uses the opportunity to steal his cell phone and call for help.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** Yes it can:
** And
* On ''[[Farscape]]'', there is a variation where Aeryn tells Crais he can have anything he wants if he saves John from certain death. He immediately jumps to the obvious.
{{quote|''' Crais:''' Aeryn Sun - are you offering yourself?
'''Aeryn:''' You take what you want Crais and I won't stop you. }}
** Also averted in that, while Crais does eventually save John, he claims his living ship Talyn made the decision. Which he did not need to say, since as a ship Talyn could not communicate with anyone but Crais, and therefore Crais could have slept with Aeryn without anyone besides him (and Aeryn) being the wiser. Later he tried to begin a normal relationship with Aeryn.
* Parodied in the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131101084619/http://snltranscripts.jt.org/02/02jhangman.phtml The Hangman]". The condemned man's wife is a little too eager to screw the Hangman, but he wants the man's grandmother.
** Another ''SNL'' sketch (spoofing ''Indecent Proposal'', above) has [[Loveable Sex Maniac|Bill Clinton]] withholding aid for Russia unless he gets a night with Yeltsin's wife. The deal went through, but Congress reduced the package from billions of dollars to $50.
* In the ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' episode "Death is Now My Neighbour", one of the female characters agrees to sleep with an Oxford Don when he promises to give her husband the job of Master of the College if she does. Afterwards, he laughs at her and tells her that since her husband slept with his wife years ago, he never had any intention of letting him be Master.
Line 110 ⟶ 111:
* A version appears, and is then averted, in the third season of ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. Chuck's [[Evil Uncle|uncle Jack]] has taken Chuck's hotel and offers Blair that he will return it in exchange for a night with her. After she initially refuses he sends her a dress and a note saying: "''One last chance to save your man.''" The whole thing turns into an aversion of the trope, since {{spoiler|Blair does indeed go to Jack to have sex with him in return for Chuck getting his beloved hotel back... only to find out that Chuck was in on it the whole time and even bought the dress Jack sent her. Need I say that Chuck was single when the episode ended?}}
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'': In the episode "First Contact" (4x15), Riker is being held prisoner in an alien hospital. He was sent to the planet surgically altered to look like the native species, but they're getting close to discovering that he's not one of them. One of the female orderlies at the hospital offers to help him escape, but only if he'd sleep with her, as she's never slept with an alien before. It's never shown on screen whether he agrees to sleep with her, but she eventually helps him escape, leaving the audience to presume.
* In ''[[Hispania]]'', Nerea discovers her fiancé Paulo is going to be crucified, so she goes to ask Praetor Galba and tells him Paulo is her brother, asking him to free him. Galba decides to take the chance to finally have sex with her - which he hasn't been able to do due to several circumstances - but before he gets her naked, Nerea blurts out that his wife Claudia and general Marco are conspiring to kill him. Paulo gets sent to the jail again.
* In the ''[[Supernatural]]'' episode "The Monster at the End of This Book", Lilith offers to refrain from bringing forth the Apocalypse if Sam Winchester will have sex with her and let her kill him and his brother afterward. Sam takes the opportunity to try to kill her.
* In War and Remembrance, in a variation Nattalie offers herself as a last resort to a Nazi camp guard. The guard just laughs and points out that Nattalie is not even in a position to bargain with that-but that he just doesn't feel like it.
Line 117 ⟶ 118:
== Music ==
* [[Bob Dylan]]'s "Seven Curses," in which a judge offers to not hang a girl's father in return for sex. Then he hangs the father anyway.
* Judy Collins sings "Anathea," with much the same plot. (It likely derives from a Hungarian song and may share ancestry with [[Child Ballad]] 95 "The Maid Freed From the Gallows.")
* "Hangman, Hangman" by [[Great Big Sea]]; his brother brings money, his sister brings... herself (and "warms [the hangman's] soul"), but the hangman goes back on his word and executes the prisoner.
Line 127 ⟶ 128:
* Also used in ''[[Il Trovatore]]'', by Count Di Luna. Who wants female lead Leonora to marry him in exchange for the freedom of Gypsy troubadour Manrico (who is [[Luke, I Am Your Father|his long-lost brother]], but the count has no idea.) This being opera, it ends [[Tear Jerker|in tears]] and one huge [[Ironic Hell]].
* Toward the end of ''[[Hedda Gabler]]'', Judge Brack very ambiguously blackmails Hedda into this, which is odd, because she seemed attracted to him. She [[Driven to Suicide|shoots herself]], not because she doesn't want to sleep with him, but because she doesn't want to be ''forced'' to do anything.
* In Jean Racine's tragedy ''Britannicus'', Nero falls in love with Junie. He has absolute power over her and her lover, Britannicus. Nero tells Junie to break up with
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
Line 133 ⟶ 134:
* The WWE even pulled a lesbian version of this: [[The Vamp|Dawn Marie]] agreed to break off her "relationship" with Torrie Wilson's father, Al, if Torrie slept with her (hinting that ''Torrie'' was Dawn Marie's intended target all along). Torrie agrees. Dawn Marie marries Al, anyway.
== [[Radio]] ==
* Subverted in ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Sound]]'', where the husband tries to persuade his wife to sleep with the moustache-twirling villain so he won't be killed... she, of course, vehemently disagrees, as it will dishonour her, but at the same time makes no secret of the fact that after he's gone she'll think nothing of getting hitched to the villain.
Line 144 ⟶ 145:
* Oddly enough, used in a [[Visual Novel]]: ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. Gilgamesh offers to let Shirou live if Saber will agree to marry him... which is actually ''worse'' than being raped. She wouldn't care about being raped, but considers herself at least equal in position to Gilgamesh while he would view her as only slightly above property. Shirou lives anyway because Saber will disappear if he dies {{spoiler|unless Saber is bathed in the Holy Grail's ichor, which Gilgamesh notes absentmindedly may destroy her mind}}. Oh, and then later he does try to rape her.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Although he's not precisely a villain, Jasper apparently pulls this in [[The Zombie Hunters]]
▲* Although he's not precisely a villain, Jasper apparently pulls this in [[The Zombie Hunters]]--it's part of the deal Maureen makes to get him to keep searching for her friends, even after the 3-day cutoff after they disappear.
== [[Web Original]] ==
Line 158:
** In the episode in which Death comes for Peter, Lois mistakenly assumes he wants to use this trope.
=== Anime and Manga ===
* In ''[[Candy Candy]]'', {{spoiler|Neil Legan}} attempts to get Candy to marry him through this. {{spoiler|He fails.}}
* In ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' Shin agrees to spare Kenshiro if his fiance Yuria will love him. This is G-rated because although she does follow Shin, she never actually loves him, nor does Shin ever attempt to ''force'' Yuria to love him, hoping to make her willingly change her mind.
* In ''[[Hana no Ko Lunlun]]'', the beautiful Margot from the Germany arc is an [[Impoverished Patrician]], and a filthy rich [[Dirty Old Man]] tries to force her into marriage. Lunlun resolves it by challenging the old man to a Medieval-style duel and using her magical flower pin to transform herself into a [[Knight in Shining Armor]].
=== Comic Books ===
* This used to happen frequently in [[Silver Age]] [[Marvel Comics]], especially to Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman of the [[Fantastic Four]]. In their first encounter, Namor wrecked the FF, then offered to spare them if Sue would marry him and become Queen of Atlantis. She accepted, but Namor became enraged when he saw her reluctance, and stormed off. Variations on this also occurred with Kang the Conqueror and Mole Man (boy, Sue was a hot commodity on the supervillain marriage market!).
** Rehashed in the Ultimate Marvel version, where she kisses Namor in exchange for him not destroying them and the city.
* [[X-Men (Comic Book)|''X-Men'']]:
**
** Also happened to Angel when Callisto from the Morlocks group decided that she needed a future mate. The TV series used the same set-up but with Cyclops instead.
** [[Doctor Doom]] once offered to heal Kitty (who had been injured by the Marauders and was unable to turn her powers off, trapped in intangible form) his only condition being that Storm "date" him once. While nobody (including Storm) trusted him, he did live up to his side of the bargain. Possibly, his true motive was to prove himself superior to Reed Richards, who had already tried and failed to cure Kitty.
=== Film ===
* ''[[Beetlejuice]]''. And Beetlejuice makes it very clear that one implies the other (it is a [[Tim Burton]] film, after all).
* Rare male version: In ''[[The Matrix]]: Reloaded'', Persephone refuses to help the rebels unless Neo gives her a passionate kiss, as he would to Trinity. Trinity is not amused.
** She does this again in the ''Enter the Matrix'' videogame with the main character, whether you chose Ghost...[[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot|or Niobe]].
=== Literature ===
* In ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]],'' Violet is being forced to marry Olaf (in a play so no one will object to her being so young) because he has her sister Sunny and will kill her if she doesn't. Although Olaf is specifically marrying her for the money and doesn't seem to have sex in mind primarily, there are still several disturbing innuendos: Olaf utters the quite [[Squick
* ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'': Erik threatens to [[Love Makes You Evil|blow up the Opera House and everyone in it]] if Christine doesn't marry him. She tries to kill herself, and it's not until her fiancé Raoul is dying in Erik's [[Drowning Pit]] that she vows to be Erik's "living wife" if he spares Raoul. Unusually, it's Erik himself who introduces [[Take a Third Option|the third option]] by deciding [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]].
** However, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical and [[The Movie|movie version]], the phantom imposes the ultimatum himself.
* In [[C. S. Lewis]]' ''[[Chronicles of Narnia|The Horse And His Boy]]'', Prince Rabadash attempts to blackmail Queen Susan into marrying him by holding her brothers and retinue hostage. Fortunately, they get wind of the plan before it can be set in motion, and manage to escape.
* ''[[Holes]]'': The origin story for Kissin' Kate Barlow. The sheriff threatens to hang Sam, a black man, for kissing Miss Katherine Barlow. When Katherine protests, the sheriff says that if she'll kiss him, too, he'll only run Sam out of town. She refuses and tries to run away with Sam, but they're caught and in the process Sam is shot and killed. Afterwards, Katherine shoots the sheriff, then puts on bright red lipstick and kisses him. When she turns to outlawry, her calling card is kissing the men she kills.
=== Live
* Happens in [[iCarly]], where somebody steals Carly's internet domain. He would be content with just a kiss from her.
=== Theatre ===
* In [[the Musical]] version of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', he even has a wedding dress for the occasion, and the [[Death Trap]] scene is changed to him trapping Raoul in his Punjab lasso and threatening to hang him.
{{quote|"His life is now the prize that you must earn. So, do you end your days with me, or do you send him to his grave?"}}
=== Video Games ===
* Comes into play in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''. The party needs an airship and Setzer will only allow them to use his in exchange for Celes' hand in marriage. Celes manages to cheat her way out of the agreement and gets the airship anyway.
** Specifically, the style and audacity she uses to cheat him he finds so amusing that he pledges his life to their cause because the group's adventures are...well, crazy.
=== Western Animation ===
* In the [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] version of ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'', Gaston threatens to have Belle's father Maurice committed unless she marries him. She [[Take a Third Option|uses her magic mirror to prove the existence of the Beast]] and clear her father's name. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Unfortunately, this also gives Gaston the opportunity to rile the mob into a murderous frenzy at the sight of the Beast.]]
* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' Operation KASTLE, King Sandy coerces Numbuh 3 to marry him by threatening to dump a bunch of Rainbow Monkeys into a vat of hot nacho cheese.
Line 202 ⟶ 204:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:I Have Your Index]]▼
[[Category:Dirty Social Tricks]]
▲[[Category:I Have Your Index]]
[[Category:Plots]]
[[Category:
| |||