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Secret Test of Character (view source)

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* The title character of Sydney J. van Scyoc's ''Darkchild'' faces one of these when his new friend Kira's mother uses her powers to animate statues, attacking the kids with apparent lethal intent. The attacks are mainly at Kira, and Darkchild (Kira calls him that; he's a clone with the designation "Rauth-7," not an actual name) realizes he can probably escape if he abandons her. He instead goes to her defense. Mom, of course, stops attacking and says, "I told you, Kira, that I would need to know more about your new friend before I decided whether or not to let him stay with us. Now I know more. You may stay, Rauth-7."
 
== Live -Action TV ==
* This is how ''[[The A-Team]]'' frequently chooses their clients. It usually goes like this: Client has problem. Client tries to contact A-Team and doesn't seem to be having any luck. Client meets someone who offers them a chance to gain something in a rather unethical way. Client refuses. Person reveals himself to be Hannibal Smith in disguise, and agrees to take the case. Happened ''way'' more often in the earlier episodes. Somewhat toned down as time went by. Not that it wasn't done well, mind you.
* Carter goes through one of these in an early episode of ''[[ER]]''. While he was interviewed for the surgeon position he was told to tie a knot through a magnetized paperclip in the bottom of a metallic cup - apparently symbolizing sewing around a vein. Lifting the paper-clip from the bottom of the cup symbolized severing the vein. After a half-dozen failures, they ask him what he would have done if this were an actual operation. He answered that he would fix the damage and move on. They accept this and tell Carter that it is fact impossible to do what they asked him to do. However, they liked his answer and that he kept his cool during his "failures".
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* In the last episode of ''[[Total Recall 2070]]'', [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Farve]]'s creator simulates an attack by good guys over a communications failure to force Farve to choose between self-preservation and greater good. {{spoiler|Farve succeeds, but his creator ''it''self admits ''it'' would have failed.}}
* This is one interpretation of ''[[The Booth At the End]]''. People who decide not to follow through on morally reprehensible tasks tend to get what they wanted anyway.
 
== Music ==▼
* Collin Raye's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljgn15xcssg What if Jesus Comes Back Like That].▼
* Tommy Shane Steiner's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rEkvkjFJAA What if She's An Angel].▼
 
 
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* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' retroactivlly reveals that all of the imaginary friend characters are this trope. The negative aspects of their personalities are meant to help their children. Wilt's constant doormat, nice guy nature helped his child become a better sportsman. Eduardo's meek, scaredy cat personality helped his kid become more brave and start standing up for herself and others.
* In [[ThunderCats (2011 series)|the 2011 ''ThunderCats'' reboot]], after Lion-O {{spoiler|dies and the rest of the Thundercats are captured by Mumm-ra}}, he's saved by the [[McGuffin|spirit stone]] and is told that he has to undergo four trials to prove that he's worthy {{spoiler|of being brought back to life}}. {{spoiler|He fails the last one and is told that he cannot return to life, but that the stone can return his soul to his body until sunrise. After the sun rises, however, he will die and his soul will be stuck forever in limbo. Lion-O, of course, chooses to return to life temporarily in order to save the Thundercats. After he rescues the Thundercats and is prepared to die, Jaga appears and tells him that his willingness to sacrifice himself for his people ''was'' the last test and he's earned his life back permanently.}}
* In the ''[[Star Trek: Lower Decks]]'' episode "The Least Dangerous Game", Commander Ransom brings Mariner, Billups, and Rutherford to a planet called Dulain to fix one of the orbital lifts (or “giant space elevators”, as Mariner calls them) that the Dulainians used to board orbiting starships (Dulain has a [[Techno Babble| thermosphere of charged ions]] which prevents them from using transporters). Ransom tells Mariner to help him fix the actual lift, and tells Billups and Rutherford to go down to the surface to act as diplomats. This of course seems like an absurd idea (as Mariner points out), because both Billups and Rutherford are engineers, while Mariner specializes in diplomacy. To absolutely nobody's surprise, Billups and Rutherford manage to make the natives angry by committing a religious taboo, but despite MarinersMariner's pleas, Ransom insists the two can handle themselves, and that their intervention is not necessary. And again, to nobody's surprise, the situation with Billups and Rutherford gets worse, until they are under sentence of execution. Mariner [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right| finally decides to defy orders]] and skydive to the surface in order to help them, but just as she does, she gets a comlink call from Ransom. He apologizes and congratulates her, claiming he was testing her to see if she would defy in order to help them, a test that has now gone too far out of control, and tells her to meet him at the docking Bay so they can both go down to assist them. Mariner manages to get there before he notices she was gone (''barely'', nearly getting herself killed in the process), so while technically she failed this ill-conceived test, Ransom believes she passed it.
 
▲== Music ==
▲* Collin Raye's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljgn15xcssg What if Jesus Comes Back Like That].
▲* Tommy Shane Steiner's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rEkvkjFJAA What if She's An Angel].
 
== Real Life (allegedly) ==
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