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"Friend or Idol?" Decision: Difference between revisions
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Whether villains know this and deliberately set up such situations to prevent their own capture (or to ensure that they can get the heroes later) is left as an exercise to the reader.
[[An Aesop]] with usually [[Anvilicious]] "My friends are more important to me than anything else" overtones almost always follows.
If employed too often, can start to try the audience's patience and make them wonder why they don't [[Just Eat Gilligan]]. They won't, of course. Who knew [[Being Good Sucks|being good could suck so much?]] (Conversely, under some circumstances, the very fact that the hero hesitates can make us suspicious about his moral instincts.)
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** During their fight in ''Budokai'', Evangeline makes Setsuna choose between "sword" and "happiness". Setsuna [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]], which Eva [[Sure, Let's Go with That|wasn't meaning to give]].
* Ahiru/Duck in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' is given this sort of dilema at the end of the series when she finds out that the pendant that allows her to be a girl is {{spoiler|Mytho's final missing heart shard}}, meaning that she has to choose between saving the boy she loves ({{spoiler|who, to make it worse, has decided he's in love with [[Dark Magical Girl|another girl]], who just pulled an [[Heroic Sacrifice]] for ''him''}}) and [[To Become Human|her ability to be human]]. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|The way this is resolved is one of the most touching moments in the series]].
* In ''[[Baccano!]]!'' it's revealed in the 1933/The Slash arc that, once she informally hooks up with {{spoiler|Claire Stanfield}}, Chane's greatest fear is that she'll be forced to choose between him and her [[Battle Butler|loyalty to her father]] should Huey ever order her to kill him (particularly since {{spoiler|Claire}} is proving to be a serious [[Spanner in the Works]] of his more recent plans). {{spoiler|Claire}}'s response is exactly what you think it might be:
{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Claire}}:''' "Feel free to try. I'll just dodge them ''and'' stay in love... Hey, that's even ''more'' like true love, [[Slap Slap Kiss|now that I think of it]]!"}}
* In the ''[[Record of Lodoss War]]'' [[OVA]] there is a great example of this trope starring the villains. When Black Knight Ashram is given the chance to take the Scepter of Domination before the good guys can or save the life of dark elf Pirotess he {{spoiler|actually picks saving her over the scepter. She dies anyway, unfortunately.}}
* In ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'', the Autobots enter a race to find SkidZ, in which Megatron and Sky-Byte also enter. Megatron manages to trap the other Autobots under a rock, forcing SkidZ to choose between winning and saving his friends. {{spoiler|He manages to get both.}}
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', during a chaotic fight, Mei Chan has to choose between going for the Philosopher's Stone, which she needs to complete her quest to save her clan, or stop {{spoiler|Hawkeye}} from bleeding to death, someone who she barely knows. She chooses the latter, only to see that {{spoiler|Wrath}} has seized the stone.
** One chapter later, Al faces a similar decision -- {{spoiler|reunite with his body}} or {{spoiler|leave it to join the fight against Father}}. When he {{spoiler|sees the bad shape his body's in}}, it's an easy choice.
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{{quote|''Either was within arm's length; for the fraction of a split second the chest teetered on the edge of the bridge, and Muriela clung by one arm, her face turned desperately toward Conan, her eyes dilated with the fear of death and her lips parted in a haunting cry of despair.
Conan did not hesitate, nor did he even glance toward the chest that held the wealth of an epoch.'' }}
* Kathi Peterson's ''Stone Traveler'' has Tag trapped in the past( 34 AD Meso America, to be exact), and his only way home is to use a blessed stone- which was stolen by the bad guys. when he is about to retrieve it, during a huge natural disaster explosion( storms, quakes,volcanoes, you name it) one of his friends, Rasha, falls through the ground. He only has time to save the stone or the girl( who isn't his love interest). He chooses to save her, meets Jesus, and gets a free ride home( turns out there was more than on magic stone.)
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* In ''[[The War at Home]]'', Larry should choose between Kenny or the poem he got from him which he claims it was made by himself which had gotten a reward.
* In the ''[[Angel]]'' episode "Hell Bound", Spike gives up his chance to become corporeal in order to save Fred.
* This is the basic premise of the series finale of [[Hannah Montana]], as Miley must choose between starring in a big-budget movie in Paris co-starring [[Tom Cruise]] and directed by [[Steven Spielberg]], and going to a [[California University]] with her BFF Lilly. She tries one last [[Zany Scheme]] of trying to convince Lilly she'd be too troublesome to room with her, getting into an argument with Lilly that nearly ends their long friendship. Miley then tries to convince Lilly to abandon college for a year to go join her in Paris,but a comment to Lilly from Oliver at the airport convinces Lilly to stay and tearfully and reluctantly let Miley go shoot her movie without her. After Miley stays in her hotel, lonely, guilty, and greatly missing Lilly. {{spoiler|Miley is next seen knocking on the door on Lilly's dorm, extending her hand, introducing herself as Lilly's "new neighbor", and telling her that there'll be millions of chances to make a movie or do a tour, but only one chance to go to college with her best friend. The two hug, and the episode ends.}} [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Awwwwwww.]]
* Seen in [[Lost in Oz]], with the heroes choosing to either save Ozma and Oz, or use a bottled tornado to return home without saving the land.
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* Employed in the first ''[[Overlord]]'' game where you face the dilemma of either rescuing teh last surviving females of the elven race, thus ensuring the race continues... or getting a dwarven king's stockpile of gold. Needless to say, with the game's overall theme you're encouraged to pursue the latter option.
* The ending of ''[[Dubloon]]''. You can either save the [[True Companions]] you formed throughout the game or the Chest you have been racing for the entire game.
* The ending of the adventure game ''Return to Mysterious Island 2'': {{spoiler|The player character discovers that her deactivation of the shield surrounding the island as part of her aborted escape attempt in the ending of the previous game has caused the island's ecosystem to start dying from foreign microorganisms. She then must choose between escaping and causing the entire island to die or reactivating the shield, saving the island but trapping her there for the rest of her life.}}
* [[Alpha Protocol]] likes these just a bit too much. At least thrice does your opponent put a contact (preferably a [[Romance Sidequest]] character) in one room, himself and/or your mission objective in the other room, and then announces this to the player.
* In ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'', you enter Mephisto's lair, where he has Nightcrawler and Phoenix held hostage and rescuing one or the other alters the game's end: {{spoiler|rescuing Nightcrawler means Phoenix dies, but she comes back as the Dark Phoenix, looking for revenge. Rescuing Phoenix has Mystique killing Professor X in revenge for Nightcrawler's death}}.
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* An episode of ''[[Taz-Mania]]'' had a dream sequence in which Taz, as a super hero, was forced to choose between rescuing his family or rescuing his comic book collection. He finally chooses his family and the time spent rescuing them leaves him unable to save the comics.
* On ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'', Eliza had to make a Sister or Idol Decision during a volcanic eruption. Debbie needed help freeing a trapped foot, but Eliza had been hoping to make off with a chest of gold coins for herself. Three guesses.
** Another instance occurs in [[The Movie]]. Eliza has to choose between saving her sister or keeping her powers. She ends up saving Debbie by revealing the fact that she can talk to animals, and ends up losing her abilities. {{spoiler|She gets them back in the end though}}.
* Used in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", where Bart has to choose between rescuing Milhouse and rescuing the copy of Radioactive Man #1 that has caused them so much trouble. Given a particularly fine comedic twist with Martin Prince calmly pointing out "If you hadn't tied me up, I could be saving the comic book right now..."
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Traffic Cam Caper", Candace saves Phineas from falling off a bridge at the expense of a disc that would let her finally accomplish her goal of busting her brothers.
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** So, wait, she chooses to doom her water deprived hometown, to save a single person? Sounds like a bad decision to me...
* The Halloween episode of ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' has Brain give up not only the world domination he's been magically granted, but the ''possibility of trying to take it over again in the future'' (a big deal to someone whose entire purpose in the world revolves around trying to [[Take Over the World]]) to save Pinky's soul from <s>Hell</s> Hades. {{spoiler|Fortunately for Brain, there's a problem with the original contract, and Pinky is let off the hook anyway.}}
* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]; Zuko has a choice between going after the Avatar, whose capture would restore his honour, or saving his uncle Iroh who has been imprisoned by the Earth Kingdom. After much agonizing, he choices Iroh.
* It wasn't something he had been ''looking'' for, per se, but in ''[[Freakazoid]]'', Cosgrove's girlfriend Mary Beth offers to share immortality with him, which, the secret being drinking the essence of a superhero, means Freakazoid will die. A chorus sings 'What will Cosgrove do?' as he ponders the decision, before he tells them to cut it out and turns Mary Beth down.
* ''[[Adventure Time]]'': Finn, Jake, and four Hot Dog Knights go into a labyrinth searching for wishes, the first two hoping to get [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|a psychic double-head war elephant]]. Jake stretches his body to have a lifeline back to the start and by the time they get a chance for a wish each two of the hot dogs had died and Jake was dying from overstretching himself. Finn was hoping to use his wish to bring Jake back to life while Jake wished for the elephant, but then the two hot dogs and Jake [[Wasteful Wishing|wished for a box, to blow up (he meant to get big but that didn't matter), and for a sandwich, respectively.]]<br />Faced with deciding whether to save his friend or get what they came for, Finn {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|wishes for the elephant]], by Jake's suggestion, [[Take a Third Option|then convinces the elephant to use ITS wish to revive everyone then fly out of there]] to the [[Jackass Genie|Labyrinth guardian's great frustration.]]}}
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