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Trial by Friendly Fire: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|Note: "Maxim 5" in ''[[Big Book of War|The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries]]'' states "Close air support and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart." Should be, yes. But sometimes you need to call in an air strike on your own position, just to be sure.
|''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', Author's note.}}
You're the hero, and you've got a chance to take a shot at the villain. If you don't do it now, the chances are good the villain will get away, or the doomsday device will go off, or something equally nasty. One problem: your ally is in the blast zone.
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** The [[Dragon Ball Abridged|Abridged Series]] plays this straighter on Goku's part: Goku asks Piccolo to warn him before he fires so that he can get out of the way and leave Raditz to die alone, but Piccolo simply kills them both instead, and proceeds to kidnap Goku's son as part of a plot to take over the world.
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', {{spoiler|after Suzaku is immobilized but has caught Zero, the Britannian military orders him to keep them both there so they can bomb the area and kill them both together. This result is only avoided by Lelouch using his Geass to force Suzaku to save them.}} This is more due to apparent racism against Suzaku (an Honorary Britannian-A Japanese citizen that's in the Britannian military) as well as hatred of Zero, and Princess Euphemia herself tries to stop the bombing.
* Sometimes, ''[[Ranma
* This trope is turned on its head in ''[[Naruto]]'' by Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu. Hidan, a [[Combat Sadomasochist]] armed with a [[Sinister Scythe|triple-pronged scythe]] and voodoo-doll like powers attacks foes close up, his partner, Kakuzu, a master of [[Elemental Powers]] shoots at Hidan and his opponent locked in combat. What makes this exceptional is that Hidan is functionally immortal, so its really only dangerous to their opponents.
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* One of the Brosnan ''[[James Bond]]'' had a situation where he ends up shooting M to get at the guy behind. Turns out it was a simulation, with M receiving [[Only a Flesh Wound]] in the process.
* A "call in an air strike on your own base" occurs near the end of ''[[Platoon]]''. As North Vietnamese Army troops are overrunning a U.S. base, the commander orders a U.S. jet overhead to "expend all remaining" ordnance inside the base's perimeter. The ordnance turns out to include napalm, which incinerates almost everyone.
{{quote|
* The film ''Bat-21'' has Gene Hackman's character calling down an air strike on a massing of enemy troops, despite the Reconnaissance pilot's warning that it's too close. {{spoiler|though it's probably more inexperience than bravado.}}
* ''[[We Were Soldiers]]'' has this trope when the commander had to call in "Broken Arrow," massive emergency air support, to stop an enemy attack about to overrun their position. Unfortunately, one of the soldier calling in airstrikes has one that comes too close and some fellow soldiers are hit by the friendly fire. While the soldier is [[My God, What Have I Done?|obviously distraught]], the commander tells him [[You Did What You Had To|to not worry about that]] and keep going since the entire unit's survival is at stake.
* In ''[[Beneath Hill 60]]'', {{spoiler|Pte. Tiffin has been trapped in a collapsed mine shortly before the explosion is set to be detonated. Unable to dig him out in time, the team beg Woodward to delay firing until Tiffin has been freed. Woodward, knowing what the consequences would be after months of careful planning, sets off the explosives, killing Tiffin.}}
== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Discworld]]: In ''[[
* A variation occurs in ''[[Red Storm Rising]]''. As the NATO soldiers on Iceland are being overrun by Soviet troops, their [[The Cavalry|newly arrived air support]] is forced to strafe dangerously close to the good guys' position. It's so close, in fact, that [[The Hero]], Lt. Edwards, is nicked by shrapnel.
* In the [[Ciaphas Cain]] short story "The Beguiling," Cain calls down an artillery barrage on a finishing school he'd just left. {{spoiler|The students are actually Slaaneshi cultists who'd created a daemonhost.}}
** He mentions several of these incidents when serving with Colonel Mostrue, one of the few people suspecting he's the self-serving weasel he describes himself as, and who has very little problem with speedily authorizing an artillery barrage on Cain's position.
== [[Live
* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', the puppetmaster Eric Doyle was defeated by having Claire's mother shoot her. Lucky for them, Doyle didn't know Claire has a Healing Factor.
* I recall a particular episode of ''[[Chuck]]'' where a particularly inconvenient air strike led to a near miss [[Out of the Inferno]] situation and a lot of [[Stuff Blowing Up]].
* "The Best of Both Worlds" in ''[[Star Trek:
* A much less extreme example, but in the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode LDSK, Hotch does first verbally devastate and then physically kick the shit out of Reid in order to gain the trust of a sniper who's taken both of them hostage.
* A variant appears in the ''[[Battlestar Galactica
{{quote|
'''Tyrol:''' Wait, I got over a hundred people trapped behind frame 34, just need a minute to get them out!
'''Tigh:''' [[Morton's Fork|We don't seal it off now, we're gonna lose a lot more than a hundred men.]] Seal it off. Now!
'''Tyrol:''' THEY JUST NEED A MINUTE!
'''Tigh:''' '''WE DON'T HAVE A MINUTE!!!''' The fire reaches the hangar pods, it'll ignite the fuel lines and we'll lose the ship. Do it!
'''Tyrol:''' [[The Chains of Commanding|...All hands: seal off... all bulkheads 25-40... it's an order.]] }}
* The Doctor of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has occasionally found himself in this type of position. Most notably, it was revealed that in the Time War he locked all of the fighting in a inescapable loop, dooming everyone in it to eternally repeat the fighting. This included not only the Daleks and the Evil time-lords, but all his friends and family. In the {{spoiler|End of Time he was forced to repeat his choice.}}
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Soul Calibur]] III'' Maxi's ending has him telling Kilik to stab him to destroy the [[Evil Weapon|Soul Edge]] (and prevent him from falling under his influence). Whether he survives or not depends on a [[Quick Time Event]].
* ''[[Prototype (
** Alex even gets an ability later that lets him impersonate a grunt, point at anyone and shout "It's him !!". Every soldier around immediately unloads on the poor schmuck. Yup, even if it's just another grunt. Heck, even if it's their commanding officer. Better safe than hideously dismembered by an abomination unto the eyes of God.
* A common manoeuver in ''[[
* Also a stock-standard maneuver in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', where non-[[Summon Magic]] spells hit anyone caught in the blast zone regardless of allegiance. While sometimes you might want to get away from a targeted enemy to avoid damage to your adjacent units, you might also decide to weather the damage if it will take out the enemy. In fact, two favorite techniques among players are to target ''your own unit'' with a spell, then send it rushing into the thick of enemy forces, or just going ahead and blasting everyone in the battlefield with a Calculator. Protecting them with magic-absorbing equipment is optional.
* Played perfectly straight in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. Shortly after Grey Fox takes out MG's radome, Snake is put in this position, complete with Liquid's comment "Can you really shoot? You'll kill him too!" Needless too say, you can't pull the trigger(or whatever the equivlant is on missile launchers)
* A common maneuver in ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', aside of the page quote, has it covered in ''The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries'':
{{quote|'''Maxim 15''': Only you can prevent friendly fire.
'''Maxim 20''': If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win. }}
** Thus a few times it happened, and more often they had a few close brushes. Such as when "Mistress Ventura ensured that [[Interstellar Weapon|LOTA]] did not happen excessively".
== [[Web Original]] ==
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* There were several episodes in [[World War II]] of observers calling down fire on their own positions. Several died doing this which would make it a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
* In [[World War I|the First World War]] the British perfected the art of the creeping barrage, for keeping the Germans' heads down as the attack advanced. Shrapnel shells explode ''forward'', not outward, a bit like flying shotguns battering the ground in front of them; and the trick was to keep pace with the airbursts as the gunners shifted their aim, so they occurred right over your head and the ground in front of you was made
** Forgetting this is the reason why much is made of British troops being ordered to walk towards the German lines. It wasn't out of some stupid fanatical adherence to discipline; it's because the person mocking the British for this tactic has forgotten about or doesn't know about the wall of high explosive and steel (and later, sometimes several walls at once) being swept back and forth across the enemy lines in support of the attack. Get the fire roller right, and the men can walk to their goal in perfect safety - get it wrong, and not all the running in the world will save them.
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[[Category:Death Tropes]]
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