There Is No Kill Like Overkill/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* The craziness of Jonathan Teatime in the ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'' is established with a recounting of him doing this during an assassination mission. He was supposed to kill an elderly noble, and rather than drugging the guy's dog as would be typical, he [[Kick the Dog|nails it to a wall]], kills two servants who were witnesses, and kills his victim so violently that his head is several feet from his body.

* This shows up a bit in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''.

** The best example of this is when, after a Duke of the Red Court of Vampires cheated in a duel against Harry, Ebenezar McCoy {{spoiler|pulls an out of use Russian Satellite down out of space onto the villain's mansion. He's also implied to have caused Krakatoa, the Madrid Earthquake, and several other major disasters.}}

* There is a collection of short stories set in the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' universe that's entitled "Planetkill".

* In ''[[The Magicians Nephew]]'', Jadis is described as having been Queen of a world that is ruined when the protagonists come upon it. The reason? Her sister wanted the throne. Instead of killing her and being done with it, Jadis finds and uses the Unspeakable Word, with the result that ''everyone'' but herself dies.

* One of the first times the [[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Royal Manticoran Navy]] effectively fields its new missile pod technology in a fleet action, combined with its new long-range missiles that allow the fleet to start firing missiles long before they get within "normal" combat range, results in the enemy fleet getting obliterated almost before they can get a shot off. The number of missiles number in the tens of thousands, so many that a significant percentage are killed by other missiles as warheads detonate and another large percentage don't hit anything at all as there's only an expanding cloud of vapour instead of a target. The Solarian Navy, who have not been paying attention to this advance, have a fleet similarly obliterated after a skirmish with the Manticorans, and the Haven fleet at the end of ''Misison of Honor'', {{spoiler|now allied with Manticore}}, are confident they will do the same to yet another Sollie fleet.

* Rand Al'Thor in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series has used this more than once. A scene in ''The Gathering Storm'' is particularly noteworthy: He has finally tracked down Graendal to her castle. She is a noted [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]], and Rand doubts that he can outwit her. So instead, he sends in a pawn, a minor nobleman who's stupid, power-hungry and easily manipulated, as a messenger. She uses [[Mind Control]] on the nobleman and sends him back to Rand, treating it as the start of an intricate game of backup plans and countermoves. It turns out that Rand [[I Know You Know I Know|was prepared for that]]; he detects signs of the [[Mind Control]], takes that as solid confirmation of Graendal's presence, pulls out his biggest [[Amplifier Artifact]], and ''drops a [[Fantastic Nuke|Magical Nuke]] on her'', erasing the entire castle and everyone in it from existence. {{spoiler|It didn't work as well as he hoped, but he still managed to get one Forsaken, albeit not the one he wanted, and at least one Black Ajah}}, so it fits this trope.

* In the ''[[Bolo]]'' novels, the 'Final War' against the Melconian Empire ended like this. The Terran Concordiat declared that every single planet in the Empire be completely cleansed of life. The Melconians made a similar declaration against the Concordiat at about the same time. Both succeeded. The war ended with both nations reduced to a few scattered remnants desperately searching for a planet that could still support life. Since the fragments of the Concordiat were slightly larger, they can arguably claim victory.

* ''[[Troy Rising (Literature)|Troy Rising]]'':