Shoot the Hostage: Difference between revisions

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== Card Games ==

** A Scorpion Clan did it too. Only, she convinced the hostage taker to let her GET into the position to shoot him, after having sex with him. When she got into the position, she pointed out she not only could have more kids, but was PREGNANT WITH THE HOSTAGE TAKER'S CHILD!... He committed seppeku.

 

** Another example, at the end of ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]''. Susan ends up with the [[Big Bad]] hiding behind her elderly grandfather. {{spoiler|She's armed with a poker from the fireplace. She hurls it through her grandfather and into Teatime.}} Makes more sense given her grandfather is [[The Grim Reaper|somewhat thin.]]

*** Though this was more because her Governess charges had imbued the poker with [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|the power to defeat monsters]] - Death, despite being...well, [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Death]]... is seen as not being a monster, while [[Psycho for Hire|Teatime]] is.

* Variant in one of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] books, in which maverick captain Mackenzie Calhoun takes [[Unwinnable Training Simulation|The Kobayashi Maru]] test, and his response to the no-win scenario in which your ship must face an unbeatable number of Klingon warships in order to rescue a civilian ship... is to destroy the civilian ship.

** This was likely inspired by a sequence in [[Star Trekker]], a parody manga briefly published in the early 90's by Antarctic Press until Paramount came down like a mountain on them. In that case, the resulting explosion crippled the nearby Klingon cruisers. The (Japanese) captain was ordering a followup strike to take advantage of the Klingons' momentary confusion when Admiral Kirk himself kills the simulation and walks in to dress down the captain. She, in turn, explains succinctly that as Klingons do not take prisoners and saving the vessel was a clear impossibility, priority had to be given to saving her own ship...which Kirk dismissed, but later we see that it was really more a matter of him not wanting anyone else to win the simulation.

** It's also mentioned that, in a world with stunners, this is a really good option - stun everyone (hostage and hostage taker alike) and sort them out once they're unconscious. It wasn't an option in the case above because the hostage taker had [[Power Armor]].

* [[Artemis Fowl]] {{spoiler|once had Butler shoot ''his own father'' in order to trick the Russian Mafiya. Of course, it wasn't a real bullet -- it was a fairy capsule designed to hold water rations, filled with his own blood. Unfortunately, the mafiya ended up throwing the man into the Arctic water anyways...}}

* In [[Heralds of Valdemar|Exile's Honor]], Alberich is training battle/bodyguards for then-Princess Selenay, and knows that she's more likely to be taken hostage than just killed. We don't get to ''see'' that session, but he fully intends to teach the guards to shoot Selenay in the leg if this happens, because it will slow down her captors. (Being an intelligent man, he plans to save that lesson for a time when Selenay is not present.)

* In [[The Han Solo Trilogy]] of the ''Star Wars'' EU, Han attracts the attention of local authorities on Coruscant when trying to access a bank account that had been flagged. He takes a bank manager hostage in order to escape. The Stormtroopers' response? Shoot the bank manager.

* In the first novel of [[The Dark Tower]] series, ''[[The Gunslinger]]'', Sheb uses Roland's lover, Allie as a shield and hostage. Roland kills her out of pure instinct; his trained hands react quicker than his mind. [[The Dog Shot First|Changed]] in the revised edition.

* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]: In the first book of the [[Legacy of the Force]] series, a terrorist is holding a room full of people hostage. He wears an explosive belt, and has strapped one of the hostages to himself to act as an [[Human Shield]]. [[God Mode Sue|Jacen Solo]] arrives to the scene and pretends to negotiate with the terrorist. He then turns to the unfortunate [[Human Shield]], gently asks what his name is, appears to try calming the frightened man... then he says "I'm sorry" and ''activates the explosives himself.'' When [[What the Hell, Hero?|called out for it]], Jacen just replies that [[I Did What I Had to Do|the only way he could save the other hostages and neutralize the terrorist was to let that single man die]].