You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Difference between revisions

[[File:you-have-outlived-your-usefulness fma 3835.jpg|link=Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|frame]]

 

 

To [[Kick the Dog|show or remind the viewer how nasty]] the [[Big Bad]] or his [[Evil Minions]] are, a common trope is their habit of callously disposing of anyone who is no longer useful to their plans, whether it be an associate of an evil organization who has just concluded their useful function in the organization, or an outsider who the villain has coerced or tricked into carrying out part of their plan and is killed when the outsider has done what the villain has ordered.

'''Darkhell''': You should have listened the warrior Shaki... I have no allies. Just tools I throw out when they are useless. }}

 

* Backfires in ''[[Rango]]'' when {{spoiler|the mayor attempts to dispose of Rattlesnake Jake}}

* In ''[[Despicable Me]]'', a downplayed version occurs where Gru was originally going to leave the girls at an amusement park after {{spoiler|they unknowingly helped him steal the Shrink Ray from Vector. After enjoying the day with them, he decides to change his mind.}}

* In ''[[Superman II]]'', Lex Luthor aids the bad guys by giving them information on Superman. Being the epitome of people who are so powerful they wouldn't need his help, they threaten to kill him multiple times when he's outlived his usefulness, which Lex only manages to avert by revealing something new. Eventually, he manages to help them so many times that they finally reward him with what he wants - only, by this time, {{spoiler|he's proven to be such a [[Reliable Traitor]] that Superman turns it around into a [[Batman Gambit]]}}.

* The villains of ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'' are quite fond of this trope. They execute just about everyone they have contact with once they're through with them.

* In the 2nd [[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]] movie, {{spoiler|Irene Adler}} is quickly killed off because of this.

* In ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (film)|Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'', Ivan Ooze commands the brainwashed citizens of Angel Grove to return to the construction site he was freed from and leap off the tall cliff there after construction of his Ecto-Morphicon Titans is done. It's implied he did this to the last group of people to do the same when the machines were built. It's subverted, though, since the kids of Angel Grove are able to hold them back long enough for the Rangers to defeat Ooze and break the trance.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Harry Potter]] and the Deathly Hallows'': Voldemort kills {{spoiler|Snape }} because he believed that {{spoiler|Snape needed to die at his hand in order to gain control of the Elder Wand}}. Ironically, Voldemort failed to notice the slightly greater crime of {{spoiler|continually betraying him for the last eighteen years}}.

** He also kills Bertha Jorkins in the fourth book because she is of no use to him anymore.

* ''Not This August'' (1955) by C.M. Kornbluth is about a Soviet conquest of the United States in [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|1965]]. Before occupation troops arrive in a small town, two of the main character's friends proudly admit to him that they're Communists who were spies for the Soviet Union. Shortly after arriving, the Soviet troops take these two into a basement and execute them. Skilled subversives are not people the new regime wants to have in the area it rules.

 

* In the ''[[True Blood]]'' episode "Release Me", [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|Maryann]] has her servant {{spoiler|Daphne}} put to death with a ritual dagger after thanking her for her efforts and service.

* In ''[[Smallville]]'': {{spoiler|Jor-El's disposal of Kara}} after Clark discovers {{spoiler|she is not actually Kryptonian.}} Instead of the normal phrase, {{spoiler|he}} uses {{spoiler|"She served her purpose."}}

* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', Terminators typically dispose of human subordinates this way once their objectives are completed, usually to prevent them from talking about sensitive information. At one point, Cameron uses a man and his sister to find information on the Turk, on the promise that she would help them deal with [[The Mafiya]] goons out to kill him. However, once she has the information she abandons them to be killed, since they serve no further purpose to her, and she doesn't have anything else invested in their survival.

* {{spoiler|Ronnie's}} final fate in ''[[The Shield]]''.

{{quote|'''Belzen:''' This is ''exactly'' what you said we wouldn't do. Even if we succeed, is this really worth the lives and planes what it'd cost?

'''Cain:''' Mr. Belzen, are you refusing to carry out my orders?

* In ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' episode "Last Supper", a [[Mad Scientist]] is on the trail of an immortal woman he wants to experiment on. When his assistant manages to find her, the scientist stabs him in the chest.

* In Season 3 of ''[[Warehouse 13]]'', this trope is why even ''thinking'' of siding with [[Complete Monster|Walter Sykes]] is a very bad idea.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Theatre]] ==

* In ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]'', [[Man-Eating Plant|Au]][[Big Bad|dr]][[Complete Monster|ey II]] has no qualms about eating Seymor after his plans get enough momentum to go on without him.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** {{spoiler|Shepherd doesn't care much for Shadow Company either- after Soap and Price breach SC's command base, Shepherd blows the whole place up.}}

* In any game where you can [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|kill allies and recieve any upgrades they might have]] often prompts [[What the Hell, Player?|many players to basically use this trope themselves]]. Take, for example, the original ''[[Half Life]]''. Guards can help you out by being a second gun and shooting enemies...but once you come to an inevitable airduct where they can't follow, well...it's a shame to just leave that ammo behind...

* ''[[Alpha Protocol]]''. The main character is recruited by Alpha Protocol and sent to Saudi Arabia to recover missiles stolen from Halbech by a terrorist leader, and kill said terrorist leader. {{spoiler|It turns out that Halbech really ''sold'' those missiles to the terrorist, and have sent you in to kill him since he's outlived his usefulness... And once you've done so they try to do the same to you, since ''you've'' outlived your usefulness and [[He Knows Too Much|know too much]].}}

* In ''[[Rosenkreuzstilette]]'', {{spoiler|Iris destroys her own father with a Blitzstrahl attack from behind him after he is defeated by the player's character (Spiritia or Grolla, to be precise) because he wasn't useful in her plans anymore}}.

* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'' Lautrec does this to Anastacia of Astora, the Firelink Shrine Firekeeper, killing her and stealing her soul. Keep in mind she hasn't outlived her usefulness to you when he does this. Kingseeker Frampt says this of the remaining Lord Soul owners. You can also do this to almost every friendly NPC you meet.

 

* Most of the villans of ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' are of the manipulator kind and are really fond of this trope. {{spoiler|Kotomine}} tries pulling it on the protagonist and Saber in Fate after {{spoiler|he fails to tempt them with the Grail}} (fails because Lancer interferes), and {{spoiler|Rin}} in Unlimited Blade Works (fails because Lancer interferes) -- {{spoiler|followed by pulling it on Lancer himself by ordering him to kill himself (succeeds, but Lancer [[Taking You with Me|takes him down with him]])}}. In Heaven's Feel, {{spoiler|Zouken}} takes over the [[Big Bad]]-ship and ends up trying to pull this trope on {{spoiler|Sakura}} and fails.

 

== [[Web Comic]] ==

*** When he tells Xykon that {{spoiler|he killed Tsukiko for being [[The Starscream]]}}, Xykon's response is basically "been there, done that, didn't really need her" (combined with some face saving).

* ''[[Sequential Art (webcomic)|Sequential Art]]'':

* In an amusing moment of [[Genre Savvy]] ([[Genius Ditz|for him]]), Otacon from ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' uses Sniper Wolf as an intermediary to tell Liquid that he's finished modifying Metal Gear to fire nukes, stating that he suspects Liquid will adhere to this trope and kill him the moment he finds out. [[Foregone Conclusion|Obviously]], it doesn't happen.

* In ''[[Everyday Heroes]]'', Wrecking Paul is {{spoiler|a serial killer preying on women, as well as}} a thief. When faced with Mr. Mighty {{spoiler|instead of the female hero he was expecting}}, he [[Moral Event Horizon|turns on his accomplice]]. {{spoiler|Apparently he goes through a lot of them.}}

** {{spoiler|And she recently made good on it, though Syphile attacked ''her'' first rather than the other way around.}}

* Black Mage from ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' was always a fan of Chaos and made [[Card-Carrying Villain|no attempts to hide it]]. {{spoiler|Once Chaos himself shows up, he makes it clear that he intends to slaughter BM as well as everything else.}}

* In [[Mitadake Saga]], Keiichi {{spoiler|kills both Kazu and Yuki after they've finished all the testing of the Death Note and are unable to provide him with names respectively}}

* In ''[[The B-Movie Comic|The B Movie Comic]]'', The Dr. Claw-style unseen villain [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/index.php?cid=469 rewards] one of his mooks.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Douglas Hyland and Julian Hunter in ''[[Splinter Cell Extinction]]''. {{spoiler|The latter [[Unexplained Recovery|gets better]].}}

* [[Hercules (1997 film)||Hades]] does this in [[The Frollo Show]] to [[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt|Scanty and Kneesocks]] in the episode ''Frollo Misses His Mother''. This was after Frollo, Gaston, Lefou, and Hans Frollo escape Hell by using {{spoiler|Sonic's spring}}. They managed to escaped because {{spoiler|Hans makes a surprising appearance and covers them with his sperm}}. They apologize to Hades, only for him to respond by kicking them into the River Styx and punishes them by having them hear the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In the 1992 ''[[X-Men (animation)|X-Men]]'' cartoon, Zaladane says exactly this to Sauron in the episode "Savage Land, Strange Heart Part 2." It doesn't work out well for her.

* Chris McLean says this word-for-word Owen in the fourth season of [[Total Drama Island]], when the latter asks why he and the cast of the first three seasons aren't competing this time. Then Chris has him blown up.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Canadian Politics|Canadian Prime Minister]] Stephen Harper is legendary for this tactic.

* The end of a major war often sees allies outliving usefulness to each other because as the enemy becomes less and less of a factor their chief consideration is as rivals to each other for plunder. In [[World War 2]] the Western Allies were more then a bit off the mark in this and considering who [[Deal with the Devil|some of their Allies]] were that is mainly excused by the fact that the American people had something of a national John Wayne complex at the time, and disliked slimy international scheming. And also that both Americans and British had a sentimental admiration for Russia and a secret guilt complex over not suffering as much casualties. A bit irrational as Germans and Japanese were brave too, and more to the point, giving Stalin more territory would hardly help the Russian people and would mainly help Stalin. Who of course did the job of a head of state defending Russia and to give him credit, not badly, but one of those jobs is not to show sacrificial bravery in the trenches.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]

[[Category:This Index Is Useless]]

[[Category:Villains]]