What the Hell, Hero?/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
What the Hell, Hero?/Live-Action TV (view source)
Revision as of 14:13, 7 November 2023
, 6 months agoFixing parabombing, adding old example from TV Tropes
m (update links) |
(Fixing parabombing, adding old example from TV Tropes) |
||
| (6 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
*
** The titular [[Secret Agent Super Dragon]] is a good example:
{{quote|'''Joel:''' ''(Super Dragon reveals that he'd already photographed the cure for a harmful drug to the [[Big Bad|mastermind]], who's just taken [[Cyanide Pill|poison]])'' "What a ''jerk''. He just wanted to get the guy's goat right before he died."}}
Line 13:
** One of the series' clip shows is devoted entirely to this. A newly formed interplanetary coalition puts the Atlantis team on trial, with the clip show highlighting every single plot-relevant fuck-up they had made to that point. They manage to win by bribing of one of the judges (who admittedly was already being bribed by someone else). One ''is'' swayed by their arguments, and the third was going to vote against them no matter what they said or did.
* ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' hits this early in the first mid-season finale. Upon discovering {{spoiler|Rush's attempt to frame him for the murder of a subordinate}}, Young responds by {{spoiler|beating the hell out of him and leaving him for dead on a desolate planet.}} This action along with {{spoiler|Rush's eventual return}} further expands the rift between the military and civilian personnel including {{spoiler|a mutiny attempt}} shortly after.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'':
** The classic ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "In the Pale Moonlight" has Garak call out Sisko when the latter tries to express righteous outrage at the assassination Garak arranged, pointing out that Sisko had known at the start it would have come down to something like that when he had asked Garak to trick the Romulans into the war.
** Sisko has another of these moments in "For the Uniform", where he manages to capture the rogue officer Eddington by ''poisoning a planet'' (the people on it have time to evacuate). It's Eddington who calls him out here. Subverted in the same case in that Sisko's plan is to force Eddington to feel morally superior and surrender to prevent any more such attacks.
** Though in a bit of Solomonic wisdom, Eddington had {{spoiler|poisoned a Cardassian planet in a way not fatal to humans, so Sisko poisoned a Federation planet in a way not fatal to Cardassians. The sides swap planets so that Eddington's earlier attack doesn't cause balance of power issues}} so Sisko's really undoing previous damage and capturing the bad guy here.
** In "The Dogs of War," Odo calls out the entire Federation when he points out to Sisko that even though they all say they hate the methods used by Section 31, they don't mind standing by and reaping the benefits while {{spoiler|the virus engineered by Section 31 kills the Founders.}}
** Even Jean-Luc Picard is not safe from getting called out. In ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'', after the Borg have begun assimilating the ''Enterprise'', he goes into (as Lily Sloane mentions) a full Captain Ahab mode. When he orders his crew to stand and fight, hand-to-hand if necessary, Sloane finally lets him have it.
{{quote|'''Sloane:''' I am such an idiot. It's so simple. The Borg ''hurt'' you, and now you're going to ''hurt'' them back!
'''Picard:''' In my century, we don't succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility...
'''Sloane:''' ''[[Precision F-Strike|Bullshit]]''! I saw the look your face when you shot those Borg on the Holodeck. You were almost ''enjoying'' it. }}
{{quote|'''Picard:''' I asked you a question, Cadet.
'''Wesley:''' I... choose not to answer, sir.
'''Picard:''' You choose not to answer... and yet you've already given an answer to the inquiry... and that answer was a lie.
'''Wesley:''' I said the accident occurred after the loop, and it did.
'''Picard:''' But you neglected to mention the fact that following the loop your team executed a dangerous maneuver which was the direct cause of the crash. Yes, you told the truth... [[From a Certain Point of View|but only to a point]]. And a lie of omission is still a lie. Do you remember the day you first came aboard this ship? Your mother brought you to the bridge...
'''Wesley:''' Yes.
'''Picard:''' You even sat in my chair. It annoyed me at first... a presumptuous child playing on my ship. But I never forgot the way you knew every control and display before you ever set foot on the bridge. You acted like you belonged there.
'''Wesley:''' I remember.
'''Picard:''' Later, when I decided to make you an acting ensign, I was convinced you would be an outstanding officer. I've never questioned that conviction... until now. The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. Whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth. It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based. And if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform. Mister Crusher, I'll make this simple for you. Either you come forward and tell Admiral Brand what really took place... or I will.
'''Wesley:''' Captain...
'''Picard:''' Dismissed. }}
:* A variation of this occurs in the first part of "Descent". When Data admits he experienced pleasure when he killed a Borg to another Borg being held prisoner by the crew (one who displays a very unusual sense of individuality for a Borg) even though he knows such feelings are immoral, the Borg tells him he must then be an immoral person. {{spoiler|The guy is trying to mess with his head; in truth, Data's feelings are the result of an emotion chip being manipulated by his evil brother Lore.}}
:* One episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' had a [[Applied Phlebotinum|Transporter Accident]] fuse Tuvok and Neelix into a new character, Tuvix. The entire episode is spent building him up as being more of a person than an accident, culminating his being forcibly dragged to Sickbay by security to be split back into Tuvok and Neelix. Most of the cast seems to be in favor of this, standing by silently during the initial struggle in the bridge. It's the Doctor who calls Janeway out on it, noting that his programming prevents him from acting against the wishes of his patient. Janeway accepts this, then ''turns him off'' before performing the procedure herself. * Actually, she left him running while she did it. Which might even have been worse, if you think about it. Of course, not separating him would mean, essentially, accepting the death of Neelix and Tuvok both.
:*
▲** Morally and ethically, this is little different from the Doctor's later de-Borging of Seven of Nine, given that none of the individuals had willfully chosen to transform into new beings and were therefore returned to their original condition.
▲** At this point [[Fridge Logic]] is introduced: Tuvix's personality could have been stored as a hologram, the same way the Doctor operates every day (and the same way Data in TNG preserved the holographic Moriarity {{spoiler|that became self-aware during his Sherlock Holmes simulation}}). Tuvix could have eventually been restored as a hologram/implanted into a clone or android body/any number of methods we've seen across all Trek series, and nobody had to die. It didn't help that Tuvix was actually a more interesting character than most of the main cast at that point.
▲*** This wasn't possible in Tuvix's case. Take, for example, the Voyager episode "Lifesigns", where the crew rescues a Vidiian doctor and she has to be put into stasis because of her decaying body, but they need her knowledge as well, and make her a holographic body. The Doctor would have loved nothing better than to keep her around, but the connection would not have lasted for more than a few days. You just can't do that kind of [[Brain Uploading]] in the Trek verse at that point.
▲** Seven of Nine was not very happy when Janeway planned to fix the Doctor's guilt-induced nervous breakdown by giving him what basically amounted to a Holo-Lobotomy.
▲** In "Virtuoso", the Doctor goes on a rant, claiming that Janeway [[Fantastic Racism|doesn't see him as an equal and never has]]. She does have some valid arguments as to why she wants to refuse his request, but it's clear that he has a point as well.
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' had the crew in a desperate need of a warp core because of a Xindi attack. They met a friendly alien ship also in need of supplies, but they refused to trade them a warp coil. Captain Archer {{spoiler|had his crew forcibly raid the ship}}, trying to justify it by {{spoiler|the extreme needs they had}} and by {{spoiler|giving them supplies in return}}. The alien captain refused Archer's justification by saying {{spoiler|it was still a brutal mugging}}.
** Of course, there ''was'' a planet, and by extension, the future at stake. And they did a good job of showing his progression towards that point.
Line 85 ⟶ 84:
*** Even Jamie, probably one of the Doctor's most loyal companions, gives him a right telling off after being manipulated in ''The Evil of the Daleks''.
** The Doctor's companions have been calling him on stuff since the very first ''episode''. Remember Susan's freak out when he decides to keep Barbara and Ian prisoner?
** And Ian calls him on his refusal to help carry an injured
*** Considering Barbara (or even Susan) might actually have been in better physical condition than the 1st Doctor, Ian can sound more old-fashioned than reasonable to present-day ears. Much more in line with this trope is when the Doctor moves as if to BASH SAID INJURED MAN'S HEAD IN (because he wanted to escape to the TARDIS and thought they were wasting time), and Ian intercepts him asking what the hell he thought he was doing.
* In related-to-''[[Doctor Who]]'' news, Jack Harkness gets called hard for his actions towards the end of the ''Children of Earth'' serial of ''[[Torchwood]]''. The look on {{spoiler|Jack's daughter's face when she confronts him after he killed his grandchild to save the rest of Earth's kids}} is painful enough without words. Add to that {{spoiler|Gwen's angry and tearful denunciation of Jack's running away from what he has wrought on Earth}}, and it ends up a brutal assault on Jack's ''modus operandi''.
** Gwen's video recording in ''Children of Earth'' also has a bit of "What the Hell, Doctor?" - not because he'd done something wrong, but because there were a number of times when he didn't show up. Then she decided that [[
** Much earlier in Torchwood, Ianto got called out for keeping his Cyberman girlfriend in the basement. He also got two weeks suspension.
* In the ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|Law and Order SVU]]'' episode "Cold", Eliot thinks Fin has tipped off a suspect (who happens to be their colleague, Chester) to run, and dumps his phone records to check. A correct move for a cop, but an absolute dick move to do to a friend and co-worker (even Olivia thinks he should've just asked Fin). Elliot tries (half-heartedly) to apologize, but Fin's having none of it:
Line 109 ⟶ 108:
** Though in that latter case, [[Blue and Orange Morality|Cameron was just doing what her programming told her to do]], and she gets confused by Sarah's response.
*** And Cameron ends up being right in one situation in which she {{spoiler|kills a group of teenagers in a bowling alley in order to keep Sarah and John's secret safe. She hesitantly agrees to allow one of the boys to live, only for that boy to later reveal the secret to Cromartie (and get killed anyway)}}.
* On
** Another scene regarding Roslin arranging the kidnapping of Hera also provides an example of this trope: it is revealed that Adama was not consulted by Roslin about the kidnapping scheme, and believed along with Helo and Athena that Hera had died. Adama is epically
* Natalie does one of these on Nick in one of the first season [[Forever Knight]] episodes, when he was close to giving up on his humanity quest.
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' is ''made of this trope''. The climax of the Season 5 opener is Wilson deciding "enough is enough" and telling House he's cutting ties with him. Completely. Since House actually {{spoiler|stole prescription sheets from Wilson}}, this should have happened a season or two earlier. Back then, Wilson just settled for turning House in to Tritter (with eventual explanation), which caused its own problems.
Line 134 ⟶ 133:
** In the last episode of Season 5, it is revealed that {{spoiler|Jack wants to nuke the island so he can get Kate back. He gets called out on it by Sawyer of all people.}} [[What the Hell, Hero?]] indeed. Again sort of undermined when Sawyer changes tack and aids Jack, as does everyone else. Given how things ended up he will rightfully be pissed, but by changing his mind with everyone else and aiding him he has not much ground to stand on.
* In ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' episode ''Kerspslash'' Emerson Codd gets his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when he calls out Ned and Chuck for attempting to {{spoiler|ruin Lily and Vivian's comeback performance so they wouldn't tour in Europe}}.
* The ''[[
** In the season 8 episode "Preventative Medicine", Hawkeye performs an unnecessary appendectomy on a battle-happy colonel to put him out of commission who is scheming of how to an unauthorized (and potentially high-casualty) offensive in direct defiance of his orders. B.J. furiously protests this, calling it "mutilation" and a violation of every tenet they're supposed to live by as doctors. This is an interesting parallel/contrast to previous wingman Trapper, who was only too happy to help Hawkeye [[Recycled Script|do the same thing]] in the season 3 episode "White Gold".
** On a lesser scale, you'd be surprised on how many times Hawkeye gets called for his self-righteousness and sanctimony. These two flaws are commonly attributed to [[Seasonal Rot]] but for one, this is early seasons as well, and for two, [[Fridge Brilliance|it might have been deliberate]].
Line 177 ⟶ 176:
** In the season three episode "No Tomorrow" Ted is once again on the receiving end of one of these, this time from Marshall after drunken shenanigans with Barney the night before, involving but not limited to hitting on a married woman.
* [[Everybody Loves Raymond]]: In one episode, Ray discovers that Ally has been bullying a little girl at school, and informs Debra. Debra simply shrugs and brushes the matter away. When Ray presses the issue, Debra replies that she doesn't think it's anything to be upset about. Ray then asks Debra why she doesn't mind the fact that Ally is bullying other kids, and Debra expresses disinterest in the whole thing. When Ray complains about Debra's lack of concern about Ally bullying a little girl, [[Jerkass|Debra actually utters the line "So, you're upset that I've taught my daughter to be self-confident?!"]] When Ray is, quite justifiably, surprised and upset at Debra for saying this, Debra then calls him a wuss and begins making fun of ''him''......[[Draco in Leather Pants|while the studio audience cheers ecstatically for her.]] This bounces between [[What the Hell, Hero?]] and [[Moral Dissonance]], because although [[What the Hell, Hero?|the daughter is being recognized for the bitch she is]], [[Moral Dissonance|the mom isn't]].
* In an episode of ''[[Galactica 1980]]'', Dillon and Troy Dillon and Troy don't mind passing stolen money off to honest people, but draw the line at giving money to thieves. In this episode, they are approached by thugs in Central Park. One of them demands that Dillon and Troy give the thugs all of their money. They respond that they can't do that because the money they have is stolen and that this would implicate the thugs in grand larceny. The money actually is stolen, but the problem with this is that Dillon and Troy have been spending that stolen money freely prior to this point. They'd bought camping supplies, paid for meals, bought airline tickets, and paid for taxi rides and every one of these transactions were with honest, law-abiding citizens. What the hell, hero?
* Several in ''[[Highway to Heaven]]'', a series about a do-gooder angel (Johnathan Smith) and his mortal sidekick, Mark Gordon who travel from place to place to do (usually) good deeds:
** In one episode, Johnathan uses insider trading, including stealing the company's trash and hiring a disgruntled former employee for his insider information to start a series of deals so he can manipulate two companies' stock prices, gain control over the company's voting shares, and get rid of his enemies.
Line 185 ⟶ 184:
* Don't know if this counts as live action TV, but in ''Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'', J.T. gives Russell, the only Survivor villain to exceed Jonny Fairplay, the hidden immunity idol. Granted the Heroes thought the Villains had an all women alliance, but how did they know they could trust Russell after Samoa?
** None of them had seen Samoa. It was airing on TV the same time [[Hv V]] was filming, so they couldn't have known.
* From ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S1/E07 Introduction to Statistics|Introduction to Statistics]]", when Jeff finally snaps and tells his friends to get lost and leave him to seduce Slater,
{{quote|'''Britta:''' "Way to go!"
'''Abed:''' "I know I'm not Batman; you could try not being a [[Jerkass|jerk]]."<br />
Line 221 ⟶ 220:
** Apart from the fact that the protagonists aren't heroes at all and don't mind being called out.
{{tropesubpagefooter}}
| |||