I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Difference between revisions

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If you are [[Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness|evil enough]], one way to turn someone to your side or motivate him to stay there is to threaten to hurt someone he cares about. This "friend" might indeed be the target's [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|best friend]] or a love interest; however, if the target is the kind who tries to protect everyone, almost anyone may serve as a hostage.

 

Compare [[Even Mooks Have Loved Ones]], where the Big Bad doesn't directly target his underlings' loved ones but merely shows callous disregard for them. If you actually punish his friend for his failure, that's a form of [[Revenge by Proxy]]. See also [[Blofeld Ploy]].

 

== [[Anime and Manga]] ==

* In the Water 7 arc of ''[[One Piece]]'', the [[Secret Police|CP9]] make Robin help them in obtaining the blueprints of [[Lost Superweapon|Pluto]] in order to spare the lives of the rest of the [[True Companions|Straw Hat Pirates]].

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[The Shamer Chronicles|The Shamer's Signet]]'', Dina is forced to use her Shamer powers on anyone her captor sees fit, for trivial things. If she refuses, he'll kill Tavis, the random kid who was with her when she was kidnapped.

* ''[[Altered Carbon]]'': {{spoiler|Kawahara}} threatens to lock Kovacs' girlfriend into a [[Fate Worse Than Death|mind-shattering virtual interrogation hell]] if he doesn't do as {{spoiler|she}} demands.

* This is how the kids control {{spoiler|Erek King}} in the last few ''[[Animorphs]]'' books. One of Jake's biggest [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moments.

* The children's book ''[[The Whipping Boy]]'' is based on the 15th century real-life practice of punishing a companion to a prince as the royal line was considered divine and only another from the royal line could do the punishing on pain of death. In real life, a whipping boy would be a lifelong companion to the prince so that their emotional bond would make the whipping a real punishment for the prince. In the book, the whipping boy was chosen to start a new life in the castle with the young prince, who was a [[Royal Pain]]. This trope is played with, however as {{spoiler|when the two are kidnapped, the whipping boy is more educated than the prince, so believing the prince to be the whipping boy, he is the one punished}}.

{{quote|'''Spike:''' And if at first you don't succeed ... I'll kill him, and you can try again.}}

* Combined with [[I Have Your Wife]], this is the reason the characters do most of what they do in [[Prison Break]].

* In a double example, the ''[[White Collar]]'' episode "Front Man" has Neal being coerced to perform a series of tasks for a gangster, who threatens to kill his hostage (a young girl) if he refuses. While doing the first task, he is told that if he doesn't get the required information from a female travel agent in a certain amount of time, a sniper will kill her (the travel agent). You can even see a red dot appear on her head and clothing occasionally, reminding Neal of his deadline.

* Toward the end of Season 7 of ''[[24]]'', {{spoiler|Tony Almeida}} and his men break into a Muslim illegal immigrant's apartment, take his brother hostage, and tell him to do as he says if he wants his brother to live.

* A non-villainous example occurred on ''[[The Mentalist]]'': the new boss, in an attempt to get Jane to at least think a bit more before he acted like a complete jerkass, informed him that if he screwed up, nothing would be done to him; ''Lisbon'' would be canned instead. For once Jane is rendered completely speechless.

* After [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Teal'c]] betrays his god Apophis in the pilot episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' to help humans, he finds out that his wife and son were exiled from their home (which was burned and branded with the symbol for "shol'va" - traitor). They are forced to live on the outskirts of the village as untouchables. When his son reaches the age of joining, Teal'c wife has to beg the priests to allow Rya'c to undergo the ritual. It took her to finally divorce Teal'c and marry a friend of his in order to wash away his "shame".

* In ''[[Metal Wolf Chaos]]'', people Richard find to be Metal Wolf sympathizers are killed along with their family members within four separations, their old classmates AND their friends and coworkers. Kevin Bacon is understandably concerned.

* In ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' this becomes John Marston's primary motivator after his wife and son are kidnapped.

* In ''[[Psychonauts]],'' [[Genius Ditz]] [[The Igor|Sheegor]] only works for [[Mad Scientist]] [[Depraved Dentist|Dr. Loboto]] because he has her beloved pet turtle Mr. Pokeylope and threatens to make him into soup. You have to rescue him as part of the game, after which Sheegor will convert to your side and {{spoiler|[[Not-So-Imaginary Friend|Mr. Pokeylope himself]]}} will come up with a plan to defeat Loboto.

** Similarly, in the sequel, Maya gets kidnapped by {{spoiler|Shelly de Killer}} in order to force Phoenix to get Matt Engarde a "Not Guilty" verdict, when Engarde was really guilty. {{spoiler|Well, he didn't actually kill Juan Corrida, but he did create the circumstances leading to Corrida's death.}} The player may either get Engarde acquitted, in which case an innocent woman is found guilty and executed, or get Engarde declared guilty, in which case Maya is killed. The only way out is to [[Take a Third Option]] and {{spoiler|Get de Killer to betray Engarde.}}

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]: Wrath of the Lich King'' you find letters after killing mage-hunter captains of races on your faction (a human and a troll, respectively), reading the letters becomes a very poignant [[Player Punch]] when it says that they've been forced to work for the blue flight under threat of their family's death.

[[Category:Violence Tropes]]

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]

[[Category:Index Failure]]