History Main / CruelMercy

** Considering Ozai intended to burn an entire ''continent'' to the ground to secure his rule, on top of pretty much a lifetime of other atrocities, hi CruelMercy may be [[KickTheSonOfABitch well-deserved]].

** Elle was stuck in the narrow-halled trailer with a poisonous snake, thrashing about in a literal and figurative blind panic--all in the middle of the desert. She was toast.

** She also "spares" Sophie...after chopping all of her limbs off, just so Sophie can deliver a message to Bill.

* The ending of ''Hard To Kill'' features [[StevenSeagal Steven Seagal's]] attempt at this trope. After roughing up the villain ''anyway'', he tells him "Death is far too merciful a fate for you. So what I'm going to do is put you in prison. A nice petite white boy like you in a federal penitentiary... now let me just put it this way, I don't think you'll be able to remain anal-retentive for very long."

Villains will also do this. If they are [[RevengeByProxy doing it for revenge]], their aim will be to make the hero feel the same suffering that they do. Some villains have issues - rather than wishing to hear SoProudOfYou, it's their arch-enemy's disapproval they start to crave. Other villains are trying to make the character break down - they [[BreakTheCutie subject them to a series of tortures]] and [[MakeYouWatch make them watch]] as they destroy what's precious to them to push them beyond the DespairEventHorizon, either because [[HeroicBSOD they'd like to see them cry]], or to [[StartOfDarkness bring them]] [[FaceHeelTurn over to]] TheDarkSide.

->Kirk: You were going to kill me, Khan! You're going to have to come here!
->Khan: I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on...hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me. As you left her. Marooned for all eternity, in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive!

There is no typical CruelMercy, each is tailored to the particular villain for maximum effect. However, there are a few repeating variations. Simply letting some villains live is itself cruel, especially if he believes MightMakesRight and AsskickingEqualsAuthority, and now that he isn't the strongest his self esteem is shot. Similarly, some villains suffer because GoodHurtsEvil and EvilCannotComprehendGood, so the hero's mercy is a kind of BrownNote. For others, the hero may force them into a mundane life where they suffer a daily HumiliationConga. And sometimes, if the villain is too dangerous to let free, he is trapped in an {{Oubliette}} along with the people he hates most in the world, or with a view of something he despises or upsets him...

-->"I want him to live a long life alone with his cowardice."
--->--'''Westley,''' ''ThePrincessBride''

-->'''[[TheDragon Travis]]''': All right, Blake, if you're man enough, kill me now.
-->'''Blake''': Our quarrel is with the Federation, not with you.
-->'''[[TheLancer Jenna]]''': Give me the gun, then.
-->'''Blake''': That would be mercy. Are you feeling particularly merciful?
--->--'''[[BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]''', "Gambit"

-->''"You've Got To Be Kind To Be Cruel"''
--->--'''Folk saying'''

* A ''GIJoe'' skit from ''RobotChicken'' has a new member joining the Joes. He has a doctorate and is extremely skilled with a sniper, but due to a small accident he is given a humiliating code name and not respected. He later joins Cobra and kills all but one of the Joe team with his aformentioned sniper rifle. What does he do when the last Joe yells to sky to kill him with his team? "No. No, you live with it."

* Possibly unintentional example: Obi-Wan Kenobi watches Anakin Skywalker burn alive next to a river of lave near the end of ''RevengeOfTheSith''. In spite of their impromptu fight-to-the-death wherein Anakin lost his limbs, Obi-Wan finds himself unable to kill his former friend, thus leaving him to burn in unbearable agony until he's rescued by the Emperor.
** The novelization explicitly lampshades this.
** One popular interpretation is that it's not so much this toward Anakin, but more IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim for Obi-Wan: to kill Anakin then would tempt Obi-Wan to the Dark Side.
*** Obi-Wan couldn't have imagined that Palpatine would save Anakin, else he would have acted to prevent his best friend from falling into the clutches of his greatest enemy. Obi-Wan left Anakin there to die in agony, rather than put him out of his misery. '''[[FridgeLogic or save Anakin himself]]''', as Palpatine immediately proved was possible. And this is supposed to be the Light Side action?

* ''[[{{ptitle3ox9crrdkerj}} Blake's Seven]]'': Blake calmly refuses to kill his nemesis Travis, now a crippled fugitive:
-->'''Jenna''': Give me the gun, then.
-->'''Blake''': That would be mercy. Are you feeling particularly merciful?

->"I want him to live a long life alone with his cowardice."
-->'''Westley,''' ''ThePrincessBride''

->''"You've Got To Be Kind To Be Cruel"''

-->'''Mal''': I bet. It would be humiliating, having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the art of a great man. * stab* Guess I'm just a good man. * stab* Well, I'm alright. * throws down his sword and walks away from his more-wounded-than-necessary opponent*

* In ''SamuraiChamploo'', a previous comrade of Mugen betrays him so that she will not be alone; something she's terrified of. He kills ''everyone'' in the old crew who betrayed him and then just ignores her; even when she asks him to kill her so she can be TogetherInDeath.

* Similar to Cap, {{Superman}} seems to do this to Lex Luthor on an almost daily basis without even trying. Apparently, Lexi's ego is so enormous that having a man more powerful than him, who uses his might out of genuine altruism and refuses to work for him is so [[EvilCannotComprehendGood incomprehensible]] that it galls him like nothing else ever could.

--> ''"I'm glad he will spend the rest of his life in a prison, eating meager food, surrounded by cold walls, performing the same kind of labor many Unjoined spend their entire working lives doing. I don't want him to get out. I want him to spend the rest of his life remembering what he did to our world, and when he dies, I hope that even the wind forsakes him. I say that as a father, in the name of every other parent who will, or * has* faced the same truth."''

*** Eh, she took off an arm, and threatened to take off the other, and then keep going if she didn't agree to the Bride's demands. So she might've made it out alive.

** And then does, as the page quote illustrates. Although without so many horrified bystanders.

* In the recent Burton adaptation of ''[[AliceInWonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', the White Queen, due to her vows not to harm any living creature, [[spoiler:condemns her sister to spend eternity wandering the borders of Underland chained to her right-hand man, the one person she loves. Being shunned wouldn't have been so unbearable, since she thought he loved her too... until he tried to kill her, and later begs to be killed to get away from her.]] The only response from the White Queen is a faint smirk and the reply "But I don't owe you a kindness.". BewareTheNiceOnes indeed...

** In fact, an earlier warning that he may be forced to kill the family is revealed to actually have been an offer of kindness in comparison (though what he had ''really'' been pushing for up to that point was to help the whole family find a planet they can live o peacefully without harming any intelligent creatures).

** Cultural differences resulted in CruelMercy to Worf's brother Kurn in the DS9 episode "Sons of Mogh". With their family dishonored in the eyes of the Empire, Kurn seeks Worf out to give him his honor back... by killing Kurn in a specific ritual. When Dax puts the pieces together (the identity of the Klingon that recently arrived; Worf's belligerence toward Quark over acquiring a specific type of Klingon incense), she arrives just after Worf has struck with the ritual blade, but is in time to have Kurn transported to the infirmary and save him. Denied the restoration of his honor (especially since Sisko threatened Worf not to try it again), Kurn suffers a FateWorseThanDeath for a Klingon, and slips into a deeper depression, turning suicidal... until Worf decides to provide him with a new identity, and have Kurn's memory wiped, so that he can start his life as a Klingon anew.

-->'''Mal''': I bet. It would be humiliating, having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the art of a great man. * stab* Guess I'm just a good man. * stab* Well, I'm alright. * throws down his sword and walks away from his more-wounded-than-necessary opponent*

** Even worse, in Shakespeare's time, [[ValuesDissonance this would have been considered a '''happy ending.''' I mean, the Jew gets to be saved, right?]] It was not until much later that productions started to focus on the negative consequences of converting.
** Worth noting that the contemporary parallel play, ''The Jew of Malta'', involves the eponymous Jew dying by being boiled in a pot of oil. * shrug* FateWorseThanDeath versus CruelAndUnusualDeath...

* In the darkest episode of ''Series/DungeonsAndDragons,'' the kids have finally had it with Venger constantly attacking them and preventing them from getting home. Against Dungeon Master's wishes, they attack Venger, and finally have him at their mercy. Hank could easily kill him, but finally spares him, saying verbatim that [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim "If I did, we'd be no better than you are."]] But Hank makes it very plain to Venger as they leave, "We've beaten you, and you know it."

* In ''SamuraiChamploo'', a previous comrade of Mugen betrays him so that she will not be alone; something she's terrified of. He kills ''everyone'' in the old crew who betrayed him and then just ignores her; even when she asks him to kill her so she can be TogetherInDeath.

* Similar to Cap, {{Superman}} seems to do this to Lex Luthor on an almost daily basis without even trying. Apparently, Lexi's ego is so enormous that having a man more powerful than him, who uses his might out of genuine altruism and refuses to work for him is so [[EvilCannotComprehendGood incomprehensible]] that it galls him like nothing else ever could.

--> ''"I'm glad he will spend the rest of his life in a prison, eating meager food, surrounded by cold walls, performing the same kind of labor many Unjoined spend their entire working lives doing. I don't want him to get out. I want him to spend the rest of his life remembering what he did to our world, and when he dies, I hope that even the wind forsakes him. I say that as a father, in the name of every other parent who will, or * has* faced the same truth."''

*** Eh, she took off an arm, and threatened to take off the other, and then keep going if she didn't agree to the Bride's demands. So she might've made it out alive.

** And then does, as the page quote illustrates. Although without so many horrified bystanders.

* In the recent Burton adaptation of ''[[AliceInWonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', the White Queen, due to her vows not to harm any living creature, [[spoiler:condemns her sister to spend eternity wandering the borders of Underland chained to her right-hand man, the one person she loves. Being shunned wouldn't have been so unbearable, since she thought he loved her too... until he tried to kill her, and later begs to be killed to get away from her.]] The only response from the White Queen is a faint smirk and the reply "But I don't owe you a kindness.". BewareTheNiceOnes indeed...

** In fact, an earlier warning that he may be forced to kill the family is revealed to actually have been an offer of kindness in comparison (though what he had ''really'' been pushing for up to that point was to help the whole family find a planet they can live o peacefully without harming any intelligent creatures).

** Cultural differences resulted in CruelMercy to Worf's brother Kurn in the DS9 episode "Sons of Mogh". With their family dishonored in the eyes of the Empire, Kurn seeks Worf out to give him his honor back... by killing Kurn in a specific ritual. When Dax puts the pieces together (the identity of the Klingon that recently arrived; Worf's belligerence toward Quark over acquiring a specific type of Klingon incense), she arrives just after Worf has struck with the ritual blade, but is in time to have Kurn transported to the infirmary and save him. Denied the restoration of his honor (especially since Sisko threatened Worf not to try it again), Kurn suffers a FateWorseThanDeath for a Klingon, and slips into a deeper depression, turning suicidal... until Worf decides to provide him with a new identity, and have Kurn's memory wiped, so that he can start his life as a Klingon anew.

-->'''Mal''': I bet. It would be humiliating, having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the art of a great man. * stab* Guess I'm just a good man. * stab* Well, I'm alright. * throws down his sword and walks away from his more-wounded-than-necessary opponent*

** Even worse, in Shakespeare's time, [[ValuesDissonance this would have been considered a '''happy ending.''' I mean, the Jew gets to be saved, right?]] It was not until much later that productions started to focus on the negative consequences of converting.
** Worth noting that the contemporary parallel play, ''The Jew of Malta'', involves the eponymous Jew dying by being boiled in a pot of oil. * shrug* FateWorseThanDeath versus CruelAndUnusualDeath...

* In the darkest episode of ''Series/DungeonsAndDragons,'' the kids have finally had it with Venger constantly attacking them and preventing them from getting home. Against Dungeon Master's wishes, they attack Venger, and finally have him at their mercy. Hank could easily kill him, but finally spares him, saying verbatim that [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim that would make them just as evil as he is.]] But Hank makes it very plain to Venger as they leave, "We've beaten you, and you know it."

* In the Deep Space Nine Fanfic, ''The First Tile,'' a bereaved father whose daughter's death was ordered by the planetary government hopes the monarch has a ''long'' life in prison.

* The final scrap in Batman Begins, Batman refuses to kill [[spoiler: Ra's al Ghul]], but he doesn't save him from the subway train that's about to crash.

->'''"You've Got To Be Kind To Be Cruel"'''