Shoot Your Mate: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Every profession has occupational hazards. Butchers cut themselves, house painters fall off ladders, and operatives get asked to help kill their own people."''|''[[Burn Notice]]'', "Question and Answer"}}

This is a subtrope of [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten]]. It is often used as a stage in [[Bring Them Around]] -- once the character has done something, it's harder for him to leave.

 

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Ayashi no Ceres]]'', Aya Mikage's father is forced by her grandfather to shoot her to keep the family safe from the curse. He instead tries to shoot his own father, but the gun isn't loaded. {{spoiler|Both die anyway.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Naruto|Uchiha Itachi]]}}, leaving aside the whole parricide thing, negotiates some of these rather smoothly in his first real-time appearance. Specifically, he beats the crap out of and tortures several people who he ''would'' have killed if he'd had to, but would rather not, and one who he definitely wouldn't have. Doesn't kill anybody. And gets away with it, looking like a [[Magnificent Bastard]]. Not giving a damn covereth a multitude of mercies. {{spoiler|Of course, Madara already knows he's a [[Fake Defector]].}}

** It doesn't work out. {{spoiler|But at least his [[Died Standing Up|death scene]] is [[Creepy Cool Crosses|cool]]!}}

* {{spoiler|Rena Mizuhashi aka Kir}} from ''[[Detective Conan]]'' has such a lousy luck that she had to do this ''twice''. First, to {{spoiler|her ''father'' and partner in their [[The Mole|mole mission]] in the Black Organization, Ethan Hondou.}} And later, to {{spoiler|local [[Anti-Villain]] and fellow Mole Shuichi Akai.}}

* In ''[[Blue Streak]]'', Martin Lawrence's character, Miles Logan, is told to shoot his murderous ex-partner by a group of drug traffics, in order to prove he's not a cop. Since he hates the guy, Miles just says "no problem" and shoots him in the arm. When told that he was supposed to kill him, Miles replies "Well you didn't say kill him, you just 'shoot him'!". When told to kill instead, it's then that Miles can't seem to do it.

* The opening of ''[[In the Line of Fire]]'' uses this. [[Clint Eastwood]]'s character is ordered by a gang of counterfeiters to kill his young partner. Naturally, the gun is unloaded. Later his partner nervously says, "You knew the gun was unloaded, right? You could tell from the weight of the gun?" Eastwood responds, "Well, there may have been one bullet (in the chamber)."

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In one of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novels, members of the X-wing/commando group [[X Wing Series|Wraith Squadron]] are [[The Infiltration|disguised as pirates]], having a job interview with the [[Big Bad]], when he asks them to shoot another squadron member, who had infiltrated the ship without their knowledge. One of them does it, because she realizes he was [[Dead All Along|already dead]], despite the bad guys' attempts to cover it up.

** It's an interesting variation on the trope. The reader doesn't know and neither do the other Wraiths - Dia tells them that he was dead, and it's implied by the bad guy's dialogue, but the last time we'd seen the dead character alive he was about to be captured and had used his last shot to destroy a datapad with his ID. Plus, after explaining her reasoning Dia went into a [[Heroic BSOD]], crying that the girl she used to be never would have shot him. It's very ambiguous.

* In ''[[Warrior Cats|Warriors]]: The Darkest Hour'', {{spoiler|Stonefur, a half-Clan cat}} is told to kill {{spoiler|two half-Clan apprentices}} to prove his loyalty. {{spoiler|He refuses, sacrificing his life to save the apprentices.}}

** Later on, when {{spoiler|Ivypaw}} is acting as a spy for the Clans in the Dark Forest, the Dark Forest cats, suspicious of her loyalty, order her to "kill" {{spoiler|Flametail}}, a StarClan spirit that got lost and found his way to the Dark Forest. She attacks him, but is stopped by the cat's brother. Even though she didn't actually wipe out his spirit, this still secures the Dark Forest's trust in her.

* In the novel ''~Sharpe's Tiger~'', anti-hero protagonist Richard Sharpe and his ally William Lawford are sent by the British Army to infiltrate the rebel stronghold of [[wikipedia:Battle of Seringapatam|Serignapatham]] and rescue intelligence agent Colonel McCandless. To prove his loyalty to the Sultan of Tippo, Sharpe is given a loaded musket and told to kill McCandless. Naturally, the musket doesn't fire properly. Sharpe later tells Lawford that he knew the gunpowder used to prime the musket was bad, but its left ambiguous whether Sharpe knew about the bad powder before or after he fired the weapon.

** He knows; he tastes the powder before he fires. However, he makes it perfectly clear later, that if the powder had been good he would have shot McCandless anyways to keep his cover.

** Subverted later in the novel: when British scouts are seen outside the fortress walls, Sharpe and Lawford are given rifles and told to shoot the scouts. Sharpe tries in earnest to kill one of the scouts but his shot goes wide; Lawford tries to shoot wide of his target but ends up killing the soldier by mistake.

** Played extremely straight in ''Sharpe's Challenge'', the TV episode adapted in part from ''Sharpe's Tiger''. Sharpe and his Lancer, Sergeant Harper, are the Fake Defectors. Sharpe is ordered to kill Harper using a musket he just loaded, but at the last moment he realises (from the smell) that the powder is bad and the shot won't fire, so he goes along with it.

* In [[Ben Counter]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Galaxy in Flames'', when some {{spoiler|loyalist Space Marines survive Horus's treacherous attack, Horus sends in troops. He explains afterward that fighting their former [[Fire-Forged Friends|battle-brothers]] ensured their commitment.}}

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', this is actually carried through to its fatal conclusion. {{spoiler|Qhorin Halfhand and Jon Snow are being hunted by Wildlings, and Qhorin orders Jon to pretend to defect so he can get accepted by them, learn their plans, and report back to the Night's Watch. Before they'll accept Jon, they tell him to kill Qhorin. He does, and Qhorin's last words hint that he had known this would happen.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]''. Snape is commanded by a horde of Death Eaters to do what Draco Malfoy cannot bring himself to do: kill the helpless, wandless Dumbledore. Snape's response? {{spoiler|"[[One-Hit Kill|Avada Kedavra!"]] Of course, it later turns out that Dumbledore was terminally ill and [[The Chessmaster|arranged for Snape]] [[Thanatos Gambit|to kill him]] [[Magnificent Bastard|so that he could gain Voldemort's complete trust.]]}}

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Season 1: Jack on Nina (he pulls the trigger, but she's wearing a [[Bulletproof Vest]]). Although the fact that she's wearing one is unknown to both the audience and ''her''.

** Season 3: Jack on Chase (gun empty)

** Season 7: {{spoiler|Jack on Renee (shoots past her shoulder to give her a suitably bloody looking wound- then Jack and Tony are told to bury her... Fortunately, Bill Buchanan is near enough to rescue her)}}

* ''[[Miami Vice]]'' did this one effectively. Tubbs was deep undercover and ordered to kill Sonny to prove his loyalty, so he walks up to Sonny and, without a word or hesitation, shoots him point-blank. Awesome scene. (Naturally, Sonny was wearing a [[Bulletproof Vest]].)

** In another episode, Jack was captured by the bad guy of the week and tried to convince him that he's a [[Double Agent]] in SD-6. In the course of this, the bad guy captures Sydney (who also happens to be a SD-6 double agent), and tells Jack to prove he's a double by killing her. Jack and Sydney manage to work out a way to take down the bad guy and his henchmen.

** In still another episode, a situation similar to this was presented to Will as part of his CIA psychology test. It was essentially, if you were given a gun with one bullet and told to shoot your mother or your father, who would you shoot? Sydney tells him (paraphrasing) that the answer is to shoot yourself, as attacking the mother figure indicates you would first betray your friends/mentors and attacking the father figure indicates you would betray your country. We're never shown what answer Will selected.

* An episode of the 1950s TV show ''[[Tom Corbett Space Cadet]]'' had the leader of some [[Space Pirates]] pull the unloaded-gun trick on member of the Space Patrol who was contemplating a [[Face Heel Turn]]. He falls for it, but then he wasn't very bright in the first place.

* An episode of ''[[Sharpe]]'' has Sharpe being ordered by the enemy commander to shoot Harper while they're masquerading as turncoats. It's more a test of Sharpe's skill than loyalty though, since the commander wants to see if he knows that the powder is too damp to fire.

* Inverted beautifully in ''[[Leverage]]'', when {{spoiler|Nate is undercover with the mob, trying to manipulate a banker they're associated with into snitching on them. Just when he discovers that it's the banker who's running the orginization, and not the mobster, Eliot gets nabbed snooping around and gets hauled over to them. Nate makes it look like Eliot is an undercover cop who is dealing with mobster. Big boss orders Mobster to Shoot His Mate. Although Mobster has never seen Eliot before, he is hesitant because he doesn't want to be a cop killer, which is seen as a sign of guilt. Things are getting heated when Eliot is suddenly shot multiple times and killed. Everyone turns to see Sophie holding a smoking gun.}} So, basically, Nate avoids getting himself in a Shoot Your Mate situation by conning the [[Big Bad]] into thinking a random Minor Bad is the defector, and forcing HIM to Shoot His (supposed) Mate. Then Sophie shows up and Shoots Her Mate. Sort of. It makes sense, really.

** In this instance, Hiro [[Takes a Third Option]] by freezing time, teleporting to a prop store, stealing a fake, collapsable sword, and using that one on his sidekick. It resembles Hiro's real sword enough that the two villains fell for it

** In season 1, future Nathan tells future Suresh to kill the helpless present Hiro.

* In ''[[Sharpe]]'s Peril'', Sharpe is told he must shoot his [[Heterosexual Life Partner|long-time sidekick]] Harper in order to join the maharaja's army.

* In ''[[Caprica]]'', one of the [[Terrorist Without a Cause|Soldiers of the One]] recruits knows that his friend is going to be killed soon, so he specifically goes to his superiors and tells them he'll stay out of it. They give him a gun and tell him to shoot her himself. He, of course, turns it on them, and, of course, its empty. {{spoiler|Subverted in that its insinuated he went to his bosses ''knowing'' this would happen, so that he could set up an ambush and save the girl.}}

* ''[[Wild Boys (TV)|Wild Boys]]'': Jack attempts to infiltrate the Butler Gang only to find that Mick has been captured by them. Frank Butler thinks Jack might be there to free him, but Jack instead claims he followed Mick there in order to kill him. Butler gives Jack a gun with one bullet and tells him to shoot Mick. Jack does so, shooting Mick through the shoulder and Mick has enough nous to play dead.

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' does this from time to time; in the instance the page quote is referring to, Sam (posing as a [[Corrupt Cop]]) is being asked to help kill Michael (posing as a junkie snitch). {{spoiler|They manage to arrange for Michael to escape without it looking like Sam's fault.}}

* There's an old joke/urban legend told about the armed forces (doesn't matter which country, the agency names can be easily swapped out). A recruit is handed a gun and told that the final test is to go into a room and shoot whoever they find there. The first goes in, finds his wife or mother, and immediately turns around and leaves. Repeat with various branches of the military, until the Navy SEAL/SAS/FBI agent goes in, and comes out 5 minutes later. "Some idiot loaded the gun with blanks! I had to strangle them to death/beat them to death with the chair."

** Another variation is that several men from some organization (usually the FBI) are each told to kill their respective spouse. The first few men can't but the woman goes through the whole chair-beating thing.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* This scenario crops up in the climax of the next-gen version of ''[[Splinter Cell]]: Double Agent'', where undercover agent Sam is ordered to kill his boss, Irving Lambert, who has been captured by the terrorists. The gun you're given is loaded with 1 bullet, and you're given the choice of either shooting Lambert to maintain your cover, or turning the gun on the terrorist in the room who was left behind with orders to kill you if you hesitated. The canonical ending to the game is that he shoots his boss.

** A CG trailer revises the scene by showing a stoic Lambert looking down the barrel of Sam's gun and simply stating "Finish your mission".

* Used in the ''[[Sam and Max]]'' episode ''The Mole, The Mob and The Meatball''. Sam and Max pretend to have been hypnotised by the villain, but he's not convinced. As a test, he orders Sam to shoot Max. Sam has a gun of his own, {{spoiler|but he also has a harmless cap gun, which he uses to shoot Max.}}

* The final moral choice in ''[[Army of Two]]: The 40th Day'' is to either kill the [[Big Bad]] and activate his [[Dead Mans Switch]], or get him to disarm the bomb by showing him "true sacrifice" and having either Rios or Salem kill the other.

 

== Webcomics ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In ''[[Justice League]]'', exposed agent Hawkgirl was asked by fellow Thanagarian soldier Kragger to kill the captured Justice Leaguers. She took the pistol, but explained that killing the superheroes will only anger and ignite the Earth's population to retaliate. While her explanation is reasonable, it only strengthens his suspicion against her loyalty.

** The opposite occured as well a season earlier. Rattrap was pretending to have betrayed the Maximals for the Predacons, and Megatron demanded he shoot Dinobot as proof of his loyalty. He didn't.

* In ''[[Exo Squad]]'' the titular crew is captured by the Neosapiens (rebellious artficial super-humans) after an ostensible betrayal by a Neosapien crew member Marsella. The Neosapien leader Phaeton decides to pull the [[Shoot Your Mate]] on Marsella and orders him to kill his ex-comrades. Marsella receives an obligatory "How could you?! After all we went through together!" reprimand frim the humands, responds with a heartfelt and hateful speech about human oppression of his people...and naturally shoots the Neosapiens. However the second part of the trope is subverted as Phaeton turned out dumb enough to actually give him a loaded gun.

* In one episode of ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'', Charlie tried to [[Face Heel Turn]] and was asked to kill Itchy. [[Fridge Logic|Which is no biggie, since, y'know, AllDogsGoToHeaven.]]

* In an episode of ''[[Biker Mice From Mars]]'', Limburger tries to get Modo to join them by offering him a new fancy artificial arm. Modo pretends to go along with it to find out what Limburger's latest scheme is. Naturally, he is told to prove his loyalty by shooting Throttle and Vinnie as they drive by the tower. He does and Limburger is pleased. Of course, they were actually dummies with the bikes being operated by remote control.