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You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Difference between revisions
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It is often punctuated with words to the effect of "You have outlived your usefulness" or "you have served your purpose" before the murder.
This is often done as an excuse not to pay them, or to punish the minion for ''asking for a raise'', especially when done right before the critical mission. A particularly callous villain may also do this to an underling who has been defeated, combining this trope with [[You Have Failed Me...]]. May also happen to a villain who ''thought'' he was the [[Big Bad]], but forgot that [[Evil Is Not a Toy]]. More realistically, the victim in question [[He Knows Too Much|may be privy to information]] [[Have You Told Anyone Else?|that the villain doesn't want to get out]]—as the [[Pirates]] say: "Dead men tell no tales." Finally, [[The Sociopath|sociopathic villains]] are notorious for viewing people as little more than tools to be used and then discarded once they've served their purpose, with this trope being perhaps the ultimate form of this callous attitude.
If the [[Big Bad]] is also particularly annoyed by how his [[Evil Minions]] have functioned in their role, he may use [[The Blofeld Ploy]].
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A variant of this trope is common when a villain who has enlisted the help of the oblivious heroes reveals his true villainy, the comment usually following [[Just Between You and Me|his gloating of how they played right into his hands]]. Warning to any [[Genre Savvy]] villains out there: This version of the trope has a noticeably lower success rate, and trying it on [[The Hero]] is tantamount to suicide.
Compare [[You Have Failed Me...]] (when the executed underlings are killed because they ''didn't'' succeed), [[Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves]], and [[The Uriah Gambit]]. [[Shoot the Builder]] is a subtrope. Contrast [[Can't Kill You - Still Need You]]. See also [[Villainous Demotivator]] and [[Even Mooks Have Loved Ones]].
{{deathtrope}}
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[.hack//Sign|.hack Sign]]'': Morganna attacks Tsukasa after Tsukasa brings Subaru to the hidden area where Aura was held. This too used an alternate phrase, "I don't need you anymore."
* Mistress 9 does this to Kaolinite in the third season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', which also happens to be the only season in which the "[[You Have Failed Me...]]" trope is not used. Of course, considering how nasty Kaolinite had been to {{spoiler|Mistress 9's host body, Hotaru}}, this was also motivated by revenge.
* Although no special line is used, this is the reason Captain Kuro tries to kill his entire crew in ''[[One Piece]]'': he no longer needs them, and can't allow anyone who knows his [[Secret Identity|true identity]] to live.
** This also happened to Nico Robin when she was Miss All-Sunday, [[The Dragon]] for Baroque Works. Might be [[subverted]], since she never intended to give her boss, Crocodile, the information he wanted anyway.
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* In ''[[Zatch Bell]]'', Gash's evil twin Zeon hires a demon named Baltro to kidnap Kiyomaro's father and lure Gash into a battle. When Baltro and his partner fail to burn Gash's book, Zeon promptly burns Baltro's, stating that all losers in battles must return to the demon world and that those are the rules.
* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' uses this quite often, mainly with Babidi, Frieza, and even Vegeta.
** Vegeta even kills his longtime partner Nappa basically because of this, combining this with [[You Have Failed Me...]] after Nappa gets his ass kicked by Goku.
* The homunculi from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' are prolific perpetrators of this trope.
** In one of the translations, Lust actually says this line to-a-T to Cornello in the first volume of the manga... Right before she impales his head with her ultimate spear.
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** {{spoiler|Then, as a subversion, his "allies" do it to HIM. They get away with it too, sort of.}}
** At the beginning of R2 {{spoiler|Lelouch is stripped of his memories and used in a plan to lure out C.C., so when the Britannian soldiers find C.C., they plan to kill Lelouch since he's fulfilled his purpose}}.
* In ''[[
* This is common with [[Complete Monster|Szilard]] from ''[[Baccano!]]'', who considers anybody to be disposable including hommunculi created from his own cells, to misfit gangsters given an incomplete immortality serum JUST to ensure they are easy to dispose of- if you think that's a contradiction, you need to watch the show.
** [[French Jerk|Huey]] also views the Lemeurs, including his own doting daughter as this.
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* ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'': Upon his rebirth, Venom Myotismon promptly devours Demidevimon, his sole remaining loyal minion. He also does this quite famously to Arukenimon in [[Digimon Adventure 02]].
** This trope is actually pretty common for Digimon villains.
* Emperor Barodius, the third [[Big Bad]] from ''[[Bakugan]]'' was a big fan of this as well as [[You Have Failed Me...]]. If he didn't kill you, he'd brainwash you instead.
** Mag Mel, the [[Big Bad]] after Barodius, outright told his [[Co-Dragons]] when he created them that the moment they were no longer of use to him, their lives would end. {{spoiler|When Mistress Sellon actually does outlive her usefulness, he promptly kills her in an absolutely chilling way as she's pleading for him to spare her, then [[Devour the Dragon|eats her energy to fuel himself]]. He then does the exact same thing to Anubias in the next episode.}}
* Subverted in ''[[Macross Frontier]]''. Various baddies attempt to do so a couple of times, but [[Failure Is the Only Option|it always fails]].
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** On a related note, in the 1989 ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'', the Joker responds to his own failure by requesting a handgun from his most loyal psycho-henchman Bob, only to shoot Bob point-blank for no reason at all.
*** Well really, why didn't Bob tell him Batman had one of those... things?
* Subverted in pretty much the only clever moment in the ''[[Dungeons
** Though in the [[Syfy]] sequel it turned out he was cursed and became undead.
* In ''[[Angels & Demons]]'', [[The Dragon]] is ''retired with prejudice'' after having dealt with {{spoiler|or tried to kill, in the fourth case anyway}} the four cardinals. This is especially conspicuous after it was revealed his client institution was a long-term repeat customer.
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* The planet Despayre in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]], as depicted in the novel "Death Star", and before that, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSSNonaBw-8#t=2m45s the game "X-Wing"]. (scroll to 2:45)
* The {{spoiler|octospiders}} in <s>Gentry Lee</s> [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s sequels to ''[[Rendezvous With Rama]]'' are ''good'' guys who do this. To themselves, voluntarily.
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer
* In the [[George Orwell]] novel ''[[Animal Farm]]'', Old Major names this trope as one of the chief evils committed by man against animals, citing that "the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty," in addition to naming several examples of such—the big draft horse Boxer being sold to the knacker's to have his throat cut and his remains boiled down for the foxhounds the very day his great muscles lose their power, and the dogs being drowned in a pond when they become old and toothless. When Napoleon takes over the farm, when {{spoiler|he has Boxer sent to the knacker's after he is injured and no longer able to work}}, that is when the audience knows that he has become no better than Farmer Jones, who the animals overthrew early in the book.
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer
* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Warrior Class'', [[Big Bad]] Pavel Kazakov threatens this some times and eventually goes through with it.
** In ''Edge of Battle'' Comandante Veracruz tries to do this to {{spoiler|Zakharov, prompting an [[Enemy Mine]].}}
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* Zandramas, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[The Belgariad|The Malloreon]]'', does this approximately fifty times in five books. Had to catch a ship? Sink it as soon as you're off. Don't need an escort any more? Break their legs and leave them for the lions. While Zandramas had [[Complete Monster|a lot of bad habits]], this was the one she indulged in most often.
* ''[[In Death]]'': When there's a partnership of two bad guys, you can be reasonably sure one of them will kill the other and state this trope.
* This was mentioned as a common habit of Isane Isard in the ''[[X Wing Series]]''. If one of her agents continually succeeds, he would eventually suffer from You Have Outlived Your Usefulness. If her agents ''fail'', however, they will either face [[You Have Failed Me...]] or be killed by the people they were acting against. This caused loyalty issues in those subordinates smart enough to figure this out.
* In ''Blonde Genius'' by [[J. T. Edson]], cat burglar Gus Saunders is ejected from a plane without a parachute when after he has served [[The Syndicate]]'s purpose by robbing Bekinsop's Academy.
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'''Cain:''' Mr. Belzen, are you refusing to carry out my orders?
'''Belzen:''' Sir, I cannot in good conscience obey that.
'''Cain:''' Mr. Belzen, [[You Have Failed Me...|give me your sidearm]]...
'''Belzen:''' Sir?
'''Cain:''' ''I said'', give me your sidearm! '''NOW'''!!!
''(Belzen turns over his weapon, she immediately [[Complete Monster|shoots him in the head with it in front of the entire crew]])''
'''Fisk:''' Gods...!
'''Cain:''' Colonel Fisk... Colonel FISK! ''(Fisk steps up)'' [[You Are in Command Now|You are now my XO.]] }}
* In an episode of ''[[The Legend Of William Tell]]'', a summoned demon overhears two mooks discussing that the sorcerer will unsummon it when it has served its purpose. It's not happy about that. After the heroes have escaped, they discuss with the [[Big Good]] that they were lucky that the demon betrayed its master... at which point {{spoiler|the [[Big Good]] polymorphs into a Mook before their eyes for a second}}.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Regularly and gleefully used by the Dark Eldar and Chaos of ''[[Warhammer
* This is one way to use [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197869 Abyssal Persecutor] in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''. Bring him out super early, use him to beat your opponent senseless until his effect is the only thing keeping them alive, then kill Abyssal Persecutor yourself and win.
* ''[[Cardfight Vanguard]]'' has multiple clans that use this as part of their play style, to tie back to the card lore. The Tachikaze, Shadow Paladin, Great Nature and Gold Paladin clans all use the trope as a mechanic, but each clan does it at a different point in your turn, and in Tachikaze's case you can ''revive'' the units [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|just to kill them again.]]
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* {{spoiler|Commander Sith}} does this to {{spoiler|Yomiel}} towards the end of ''[[Ghost Trick]]''. {{spoiler|He didn't want Yomiel's services, just the Temsik Meteorite that gave him the ghost trick powers. Since he couldn't kill someone who was already dead, he simply removed the meteorite fragment from Yomiel's body and sunk the submarine, leaving Yomiel trapped at the bottom of the ocean with no way to escape by possessing another body or using the phone lines.}}
* Happens in ''[[Super Robot Wars]]: Original Generation Gaiden'', worded just this way by [[Super Robot Wars Reversal|Duminuss]]. And when you beat her, the ''real'' [[Big Bad]], Dark Brain, comes out, says the same thing, and offs ''her''.
* In ''[[
** Sarah herself gives this treatment to two entire ''armies'' in ''Starcraft: Brood War''.
** In Starcraft II, {{spoiler|a peek into a possible [[Bad Future]] shows the [[Eldritch Abomination|Dark]] [[Bigger Bad|Voice]] and his Hybrids pulling this on the Zerg, exterminating them as soon as he was done using them to annihilate the Terrans and Protoss.}}
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* At the end of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]],'' the eponymous mask does this to the Skull Kid, whom it had been using as a host for most of the game. {{spoiler|But he gets better at the end.}}
* In [[Metal Gear Solid]], Liquid Snake says this to Solid Snake word for word when Snake finally (unknownly) activates Metal Gear Rex. Then he tries to gas him.
** The Patriots do this in [[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]] with pretty much every single character, such as deactivating Richard Ames pacemaker nanomachines for him to act out FOXDIE (although the fact that his actions mentioned in In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth were mentioned, and resulted in the incident being exposed among others, may also qualify as a very subtle version of [[You Have Failed Me...]]), they engineered President Johnson's betrayal and later capture by Solidus for the S3 plan, and then had Ocelot execute him, and then had Ocelot attempt to execute Solidus, Fortune, Snake, and Raiden aboard Arsenal Gear with RAY.
** Coldman was implied to have intended to kill off the Peace Sentinels with the Peace Walker project's completion, especially if it succeeded, as soon as it was done. Zadornov himself nearly did this onto Big Boss, and in fact, had the MSF and FSLN not stormed the room and captured Zadornov, he pretty much would have done this.
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'': Following {{spoiler|Sora's [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}, the game's [[Big Bad]], {{spoiler|Ansem, appears out of nowhere and is about to pull this one on Kairi, but Riku holds him back long enough to let her escape with the others}}.
** Rather similarly, in ''Kingdom Hearts II'' it's DiZ who orders the 'disposal' of Namine after she completes her assigned task; an order he probably wouldn't give if she [[Moral Myopia|wasn't a Nobody]]. Sora's own usefulness to the Organization's [[Xanatos Gambit]] eventually expires as well, which goes about as well as you'd expect.
** In Birth By Sleep Aqua is in the same boat. Her role in the [[Xanatos Gambit]] is basically to just succeed at the Master exam while Terra doesn't to make him feel inferior and rush off half cocked. This happens in the first 10 minutes of the plot {{spoiler|and the rest of her story arc is basically the [[Big Bad]] sending her into danger and later sending his Dragon to personally finish her off. But she's made Master rank for a reason and refuses to die. Eventually she winds up screwing the whole Gambit just by being an extra person who wasn't expected to be around for the final stages}}.
* In ''[[Perfect Dark]]'', after the first two version of their plan, which attempted to take advantage of Trent Easton's political connections, fail, [[Blond Guys Are Evil|Mr. Blonde]] reveals his alien nature and dispatches Easton in a combination of [[You Have Failed Me...]] and this trope. When the last, least subtle plan is thwarted as well, the Skedar imprison their other ally, [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Cassandra DeVries]], for the same reasons.
* In ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'', Kalas {{spoiler|says to the Guardian Spirit (the player) "I don't need you any more!" and forcefully ejects the player out of the game, leaving the screen to fade to black.}}
* [[Big Bad|Imperator Ix]], during the events of ''[[Sonic Chronicles]]'', promptly blows Shade off Angel Island for questioning his motives after Sonic and his team rough him up. After he jacks the Master Emerald and sends Angel Island plummeting into Metropolis, Shade [[Heel Face Turn|allies with Sonic and company]] [[The Atoner|to abort his scheme]].
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*** 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]]'':
{{quote|'''[[
* 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.}}
* In ''[[Drowtales]]'', Quain'tana gives Syphile a warning that she has "[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=5043 outlived your purpose [raising Ariel] and my patience]" and effectively banishes her. The threat to kill her is not explicitly said (and considering [[Abusive Parents|the end result]] of her raising Ariel, it was more of a [[You Have Failed Me...]] anyway), but it's definitely there.
** {{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.}}
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* Played with in [[Stupid Mario Brothers]]. {{spoiler|After Shadow Mario fulfilled his usefulness to Mr. L, he died, but not at the hands of Mr. L...}}
* Douglas Hyland and Julian Hunter in ''[[Splinter Cell Extinction]]''. {{spoiler|The latter [[Unexplained Recovery|gets better]].}}
* [[Hercules (
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* In ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'', Bruce Wayne narrowly avoids this trope with Braniac thanks to [[Makes Sense in Context|Superman disguised as Batman]]. Bruno Mannheim didn't turn out so lucky with Darkseid.
* NOS-4-A2 in an episode of ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' makes it very clear that he's going to dispose of XL after he's no longer needed for his plan of conquering the galaxy. He even says these exact words to XL after he says he killed both Buzz Lightyear and XR. Unfortunately for NOS-4-A2, XL had a [[Heel Face Turn]] and was lying about killing the space rangers.
{{quote|'''NOS-4-A2:''' ''Excellent. You've served me well. But you have outlived your usefulness.''
'''Buzz Lightyear:''' ''For evil, maybe. But not for good!'' }}
* 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.
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