Shoot the Dog: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

When a protagonist does [[Dirty Business|an ambiguously (a)moral act]] because current circumstances make it the most pragmatic and logical thing to do. If [[The Hero]] performs the job himself, he may even go so far as to hide it from the rest of the cast (possibly with [[Poor Communication Kills|serious repercussions later]]) due to the risk of [[Slave to PR|compromising his moral standards]], or they might say [[What the Hell, Hero?]] to which he might reply [[I Did What I Had to Do]]. Otherwise, he may delegate it to the [[Anti-Hero]] or [[The Lancer]], whose reputations won't be hurt as severely for the deed. May demonstrate [[What You Are in the Dark]].

{{quote|'''Olivier:''' However... you'll find I'm not as merciful as the "Hero of Ishbal"!}}

* In the finale of Episode 77 of ''[[Sonic X]]'', {{spoiler|Tails is forced to fire upon Cosmo, who has transformed into her adult form, and has bonded with the Metarex to form a weakpoint for Tails. Tails, having fallen in love with Cosmo, does with great sadness pull the trigger.}} The 4kids version of this is far less dramatic/sad, and actually makes {{spoiler|Tails}} look like a bit of a heartless prick.

* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', the Urameshi Team is stuck playing a video game come to life with a little boy named Amanuma. This means that ''everything'' in the game plays out exactly the same in real life. If Yusuke and the heroes lose, they can just start over until they win; if they win, the villain, Amanuma, dies. [[Aloof Big Brother|Kurama]], realizing that this is a trap and that Sensui intends for them to be stuck [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child|because they can't kill a kid]], beats him anyway. What's more, he ''tells'' Amanuma ''exactly'' how things will play out to mess with his head, so that he can win faster. Amanuma, being a child, freaks out and loses in an [[Alas, Poor Villain]] way. Fortunately, [[Death Is Cheap]] and Koenma has a [[Reset Button]] handy... which drains his power and prevents from stopping Sensui on his own, which was Sensui's [[Xanatos Gambit|REAL goal]] in setting the heroes against Amanuma.

** Incidentally, this little stunt [[This Is Unforgivable!|pisses]] [[Tranquil Fury|off]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|Kurama]] to the point enough so that when they confront the next of Sensui's super-powered henchmen, he simply takes a step forward and decapitates the guy in a blink. [[Fate Worse Than Death|And that's just the start]]...

* Rossiu's job in the second half of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', which is to do the [[Straw Vulcan|"most logical"]] thing, while the Hero does the [[Rule of Cool]] thing. In a short time he orders the execution of Simon to put down the riots (which doesn't work) and gives in to the Anti-Spiral's ultimatum, thereby trying to leave hundreds of thousands to die so he can save a tiny minority... except not, since the Anti-Spirals plan to kill ''everyone'' anyway.

* The main protagonists of ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' are formed into a team of assassins for the express purpose of shooting the dog whenever necessary, a point which his teammates make explicitly when Omi has a crisis of conscience.

* ''[[Kino's Journey]]''. A young woman whose love was killed by a gunfighter travels the world with a male admirer, preaching nonviolence. Kino mentions that {{spoiler|it's strange they've never run into trouble. It turns out the man is a [[The Gunslinger|highly-skilled gunfighter]] who is secretly killing anyone who would threaten her.}}

* In the [[Legend of Galactic Heroes]] Gaiden ''Disgrace'', sweet innocent old lady Johanna tells Kircheis he'll have to shoot her to stop her destroying critical evidence against her husband (guilty of causing the deaths of any number of people). Kircheis just can't bring himself to do it; luckily {{spoiler|(and tragically) Keyserling, who was in love with Johanna and previously orchestrated the coverup to protect her husband, arrives to do it for him}}. Kircheis later thinks that Reinhard would have fired had he been in the same situation, and that's why it's important for them to stick together. Perhaps a reversed example as it's the sidekick, Kircheis, who needs the main character, Reinhard, to shoot his dogs for him.

* ''Terminator: [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' finds a new dog to shoot in virtually every episode (as could be expected, given the [[Endofthe World As We Know It|consequences of failure]] and the presence of an emotionless android and a paranoid future soldier in the regular cast). For instance, in an early episode, the benign terminator Cameron prevents John from saving a suicidal girl, reasoning that he could draw attention to himself and risk getting exposed and drawing the attention of other terminators. The biggest example is Andy [[Meaningful Name|Good]], an innocent computer engineer who will one day invent SkyNet, who literally gets shot (though Sarah's pretty upset about it).

** In the episode "The Brothers of Nablus," Cameron guns down three thieves who stole from their house, simply because they knew where the Connors lived. {{spoiler|Sarah spares the last robber, who was hiding in the bathroom. Cromartie eventually comes along and susses the location of the Connor's house from him.}}

* There's an episode of ''[[Pie in the Sky]]'' where WPC Cambridge arrests an old police friend of Crabbe who's guilty of taking a bribe, to spare Crabbe from having to do so.

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'': In "Prime Factors" Voyager's crew come across a race of aliens who have the technology to get them home, but who refuse to help them. A faction within their society agrees to covertly give them the technology in exchange for Voyager's library (stories being used as currency). However the transaction is illegal and Janeway refuses on principle. Some of the more militant crewmembers decide otherwise, only to be busted by Security Chief Tuvok, who then proceeds to make the exchange himself.

* While you can easily be a [[Messianic Archetype]] in most of ''[[Dragon Age]]'', when it comes to the dwarven city of Orzammar, if you attempt to give it at least a somewhat happy ending in the epilogue, you will be forced to [[Shoot the Dog]] repeatedly because apparently, in dwarven society, [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]. Examples include: {{spoiler|A dwarven girl wishes to study in the Circle of Magi. Seems innocent enough, but helping her may eventually cause the Chantry to start an Exalted March against Orzammar for harboring apostates, so you'll have to shoot her dream down. The same situation will occur in the epilogue when you help an Andrastian priest with his simple request to build a local Chantry church, so you'll have to deny him all help as well. Finally, during the main quest, you'll be forced to work with the [[Magnificent Bastard]] Bhelen who killed his eldest brother Trian and let the Dwarf Noble PC take the blame, causing him to become exiled; rather than the [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] Lord Harrowmont. Because once made king, Harrowmont will fall ill, Orzammar will close itself off from the world and fall into political chaos. But if Bhelen becomes king, he becomes a benevolent dictator who abolishes many of the restrictive dwarven policies (like the Caste System) and opens up Orzammar to the world.}}

** {{spoiler|Actually, the Exalted March only starts if you help the Brother trying to spread the Chantry teachings; however, the epilogue is notoriously buggy, so you might get that ending anyway.}}

* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'', {{spoiler|Master Xehanort's plan to restart the Great Keyblade War, which would devastate and reshape the universe at large, hinges around Ven, one of Master Eraqus's students, and Vanitas. When Master Eraqus realises just how close Xehanort is to achieving his goal, he's willing to kill Ventus - except Xehanort sees this coming and arranges for Terra to catch him in the act.}}

* In ''[[Lusternia]]'', the [[Physical God|Vernal Gods]] use a child marked as food for [[Cosmic Horror|Muud]] as bait to capture him, and as a living seal to keep him [[Sealed Evil in a Can|permanently trapped]]. To ensure she never commits suicide, thus freeing him, they trap her in a [[Lotus Eater Machine]].