History Main / CruelMercy

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[[folder:Religion]]
* The idea of eternal suffering for those who are sent to Hell in Christianity can be seen as this, as God would most likely in that scenario let them suffer in eternity without doing anything to make it worse or better for them.
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* ''Manga/OnePiece''

* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar''

* The ultimate fate of [[spoiler: Queen Nakia]] in ''Manga/AnatoliaStory'' is this: [[spoiler: she's in perpetual house arrest and living comfortably... but she ''knows'' that she owes it to Yuri and Kail, the protagonists and her worst enemies, who intend for her to witness how the Hitite Empire blossoms and flourishes ''without'' her in power. As a plus, her son Juda aka the person she intended to put in the throne as her PuppetKing, has completely deserted her.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''

** The real irony is that it was true mercy: while even TheIngenue HumanoidAbomination Adorea managed to make some friends in that school, Veronica has NoSocialSkills nor the slightest idea how to make a friend. [[spoiler:She knew from the very beginning that Yura was a FalseFriend. Even so, Veronica really felt that a false friendship is better than nothing, so Veronica led Yura into her own plan, trying to enjoy the most of their false relationship. That simulation really [[ItMeantSomethingToMe meant something to Veronica]], and for that, [[YouWillBeSpared Yura was spared]]. The last panel shows her denying her tears to Adorea.

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': Westley threatens Prince Humperdinck with a duel ToThePain, which involves leaving the loser alive but severely disfigured, "wallowing in freakish misery forever." To further the cruelness, the loser loses their eyes, their nose, their hands at the wrist, their feet at the ankle, but they keep their ears "so that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, 'Dear God! What is that ''[[ItIsDehumanizing thing]]'',' will echo in your perfect ears."

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** Ninja from the band Music/DieAntwoord has a tattoo of a similar line, "May my enemies live a long time so they can see me progress."

* Many, ''many'' examples from warfare. One noteworthy tactic is wounding enemy soldiers instead of killing them because wounded soldiers take up more resources. For instance, small land mines (nicknamed "toe-poppers") used in [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] against American soldiers, would horribly wound but not kill, forcing the entire squad to withdraw and call for medivac, rather than mark the location of a corpse to be picked up later, and continue with the mission.

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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** The Caped Crusader has done this a few times, as his [[TechnicalPacifist no-killing policy]] can make it a necessity; in one instance, a man inadvertently killed a mutual friend as part of a revenge spree, but destroyed the evidence. Batman forced the killer to stay in the same small town, referring to it as the killer's "prison," and returned once a year to make the guy sit at the gravesite of the friend he rued killing.
** Similarly, in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', the evil members of the [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Mankind Liberation Front]] are ultimately forced into helping care for the survivors of an attack they helped launch; ComicBook/LexLuthor is especially galled at having to empty bedpans.
** Or the time he tracked down the black ops agent who helped frame him (Bruce Wayne) for murder. Since there was no evidence of the man's existence, he couldn't be tried, so Batman put him [[GoAmongMadPeople in Arkham]]. The spy tells the doctors that he's not crazy; he's a secret agent who framed Bruce Wayne for murder and there's no record of the mission because he was tasked directly to the president. [[CassandraTruth None of the doctors believe him]].
** ComicBook/{{Bane}} pulls this on Batman in ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' for why he breaks the hero's back rather than killing him after he defeats a worn-out Batman in combat.
--->'''Bane:''' Death would only end your agony... and silence your shame.
** He also managed to pull this off on ComicBook/TheJoker once in "The Devil's Advocate", when the Clown Prince was on Death Row for a crime that he, surprisingly, ''didn't'' commit. [[http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4006988.html Batman's investigation found the real culprit, so Joker was spared.]] But Bats gets one last dig at The Joker.
--->'''Franchise/{{Batman}}:''' You came close, Joker. Just minutes from death.\\
'''Joker:''' But I'm still '''HERE''' bay-bay!\\
'''Batman:''' That's right. And when you're sitting here alone... in the middle of the night... unsleeping in the dark. Remember... every breath you take you owe to ''me''. What's the matter? Don't you have any jokes for me?
* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica does this inadvertently sometimes. His enemy Flag-Smasher once went into a lengthy MotiveRant about how he couldn't stand knowing Cap was simply a better person.
* The Twilight King in ''ComicBook/CourtneyCrumrinAndTheNightThings''. Though enraged when a mortal [[spoiler:murders one of his daughters]], rather than take revenge directly, he curses the mortal [[spoiler:to fall in true love with the dead girl so that he will mourn her loss as keenly as her family does. Forever.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'':
** In the comics, Bullseye's hatred of Daredevil was actually exacerbated after the hero saved him from an oncoming subway train, which Bullseye considered a humiliation. He gets a nice little speech about it in the issue where he breaks out of jail and kills Elektra.
** The first arc in Volume 2, "Guardian Devil", focuses on a dying Mysterio wanting to go out on one last swan song, and unsure if Spider-Man is the real deal due to the events of ComicBook/TheCloneSaga focuses on Matt instead, trying to drive Matt into a rage so he'll be forced to take his life. Daredevil refuses to give in and instead gives him a brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, breaking Mysterio and [[DrivenToSuicide driving him to shoot himself]].
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'', rather than killing Inertia for killing Bart Allen, leaves him [[AndIMustScream trapped immobile to stare at a statue of Bart for an eternity]]. Wally has gone on record in support of killing villains under desperate enough circumstances; he intentionally took a much more sadistic keel in this case.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** In ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} explains to ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} that she doesn't want ComicBook/LexLuthor dead because she wants him to suffer. If he's dead she can't make him pay for his crimes which include [[spoiler:her parents and Supergirl's cousin's murders]].
--->'''Batgirl:''' Stop. I need him alive.\\
'''Supergirl:''' But why?\\
'''Batgirl:''' Because... Because he has to suffer for his crimes!
** In ''ComicBook/ActionComics #286'', Luthor killed himself accidentally. Because he shot himself with an experimental nuclear Kryptonite ray-gun, Supergirl was capable of finding a method to revive him. Why would she do '''THAT'''? Because he was sentenced to life, and she didn't want him to escape his life-term jail sentence through death.
--->'''Lex Luthor:''' "Before I was respected! Now the other criminals will laugh at me behind my back because I was saved by you!"
** Superman seems to do this to Lex Luthor on an almost daily basis without even trying. Apparently, Lex'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.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Crucible}}'' storyline, when [[BigBad Korstus]] goes ahead with his plan to take over the titular academy he has the chance to kill his main opponent, Lys Amata. However Korstus lets her alive because he wants Amata to see her dream's destruction.
--->'''Korstus:''' "Place her in stasis inside the Assembly Chamber. I want her to witness the destruction of all that she's built."
* In one ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' story in the early 2000s, a particularly ugly fight between Spidey and the Green Goblin (the Goblin had just crippled Flash Thompson) ended with Spidey coming within a hair's breadth of finishing Norman off. Spidey spares him and later tells him that just ''being'' a person as horrible as Norman is its own punishment. Norman's reaction implies he sees the truth of this.
** During "The Gauntlet" and "Grim Hunt," the original Kraven the Hunter is brought BackFromTheDead by his ex-wife Sasha, who put Spider-Man and his "spider family" through Hell in the process, killing Madame Web, Mattie Franklin, and Kaine, the last of whom was sacrificed in a BlackMagic ritual to bring Kraven back. Having [[DrivenToSuicide met his end by his own hand]], Kraven [[UnwantedRevival is]] ''[[UnwantedRevival not]]'' [[UnwantedRevival happy to be alive again]], especially since he CameBackWrong because the ritual that resurrected him needed the ''real'' Spider-Man, not a clone. During Spidey's subsequent RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Sasha and the Kravinoffs, he nearly kills Kraven with a spear, but Julia Carpenter persuades him not to by showing him visions of a BadFuture that will result should he go through with it; Kraven is not happy, since he ''wants'' to die and, according to him, can ''only'' die by Spider-Man's hand.
* Comicbook/GhostRider actually has this trope as one of his powers. His [[MindRape Penance Stare]] does no physical damage but forces his opponent to feel every single bit of pain or evil they've inflicted on others. Most recover, but have something to think about for the rest of their lives.
* This is what ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} decides to do to Kaga, the [[EvilCripple crippled]] [[GeniusCripple evil genius]] BigBad of [[Comicbook/XMen Astonishing X-Men]] #31-35, who hates the X-Men because they're a bunch of incredibly attractive people with superpowers, whereas he is a realistic mutant, sickly and deformed as a result of being born to a Hiroshima survivor. After Kaga's MotiveRant, Cyclops decides to arrange for Mutants Sans Frontières[[note]]Warren Worthington's X-Men-affiliated charity organization[[/note]] medical funding to be used to take the best possible care of him until he dies of natural causes.
* In ''ComicBook/NewXMen'', ComicBook/EmmaFrost, upon catching Kimura trying to assassinate [[MoralityPet X-23]], proceeds to explain to the nigh-invulnerable villain [[BreakingSpeech exactly why she acts the way she does by pointing out]] that she only does what she does to X-23 because of her [[DarkAndTroubledPast childhood]] before erasing her one and only happy memory and then sending her off with the psychically implanted suggestion of hunting down her employers.
* In the 1993 ''ComicBook/XMen'' storyline ''ComicBook/FatalAttractions'', ComicBook/{{Magneto}}'s new MouthOfSauron Exodus explains to Fabian Cortez that the sole reason why he doesn't "hurl you into oblivion like the insignificant flea you are" is because Magneto himself has decreed that Cortez live for the purposes of this trope, knowing that being stripped of his power and authority over the Acolytes — being reduced to a "victim of someone else's legacy" as Exodus calls it — is a far more painful punishment for the ambitious Cortez than death alone could ever be.
* In the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, Magneto captures Red Skull and buries him in an underground tomb. He says he [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim should kill him, but he's not like him.]] He instead leaves him there, with only air and ten gallons of water.
* In the 2010 ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} — Mr. X'' one-shot, [[TheFightingNarcissist the]] [[AxCrazy titular]] [[CombatClairvoyance villain]], having lost once before to the titular hero, trains obsessively for months to prepare himself to counter Wolverine's berserker rage, then lures Wolverine into a fight. But Wolverine refuses to let him trigger his rage and ultimately refuses to fight him at all, realizing that leaving Mr. X forever wondering WhoWouldWin will cause him more torment than simply defeating him.
** A particularly nasty example is Wolverine's treatment of Matsu'o Tsurayaba, the {{Yakuza}} boss who killed Wolverine's lover Mariko. Every year on the anniversary of her death, Wolverine fought his way past Tsurayaba's defences, took a piece of his body, and left him alive. This was taken to the point of Wolverine actively stopping Tsurayaba from killing himself or anyone else from killing him because Wolvie wanted him to suffer as long as he did. By the time we find out about this, Tsurayaba is missing a hand, an arm, a leg, half his face, and his body is covered with scars and medical implants.
** Wolverine isn't a stranger to this sort of treatment himself: during Creator/ChrisClaremont's run, his ArchEnemy Sabretooth had his "yearly tradition": every year, on the day that Wolverine believed to be his birthday, Sabretooth would track Wolverine down, regardless of where he was or what he was doing, beat him to within an inch of his life... and then walk away, just so that Wolverine knew that Sabretooth could kill him whenever he wished.
** In a story published in ''X-Men Unlimited''(1st series) #40, 2003, Sabretooth did the same to a man [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame who was hunting him]]. The hunter was treating Sabretooth like any other beast he hunted, and it was working. Sabretooth turned tables when he refrained his instincts and animalistic tendencies and started to act like a human, using his brain to outsmart the hunter. The hunter then thought he would be killed by Sabretooth...which didn’t happen. Sabretooth, instead, took the hunter’s clothes, weapons, and technology, leaving him alone and naked in the woods, telling the guy that all he needed to do to survive was [[{{Irony}} behave as an animal]].
* In ''ComicBook/AmericanVampire'', infamous outlaw-turned-vampire Skinner Sweet attends the book signing of a writer who was there back when Sweet was turned and has since made a fortune from his one novel, a fictionalized account of the outlaw's story. Sweet exits the event, leaving behind a note saying "You are old and I am young for eternity. So I let you live to suffer and die. Why not? What better revenge is there than that?"
* In a flashback in ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'' #7, Jack Carter happens to run into an {{Invisible}} man, who explains that he's "this year's Herod", a PunchClockVillain sent by the government to kill a pregnant local prostitute just in case she's carrying the second coming. Disgusted, Carter does a seemingly ineffectual spell and walks away. When the Herod goes to continue his mission, he finds he's been trapped on that street corner in an invisible forcefield only a few feet in diameter. For the rest of his life.
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] at the end of the ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' comic book; [[spoiler:when Secret turns back to the light side,]] {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} takes "revenge" [[spoiler:by restoring her to life as an ordinary mortal]]. Though he considers this cruel mercy, in reality, it's exactly what she wanted.
* Towards the end of ''ComicBook/NikolaiDante'', [[spoiler:Arkady/Dmitri]] has both Jena and Nikolai kidnapped and says he'll stop torturing Nikolai to death if Jena marries him.
* ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.
** The first time Morpheus goes to {{Hell}}, he escapes by pointing out that "What terrors would Hell hold if those entombed within could not dream of {{Heaven}}?" This gets kicked up a notch when Hell is taken over by a pair of angels after Lucifer abandons his position. The two decide that horrible things will still happen, but for the purpose of reform instead of punishment. This makes everything so much worse because it implies a false hope that the torment of the damned might someday ''end''. Keyword being "false." (The damned, for their part, are astonished that the angels achieved this.)
* New Republic commander [[ActionGirl Mirith Sinn]] is captured and tortured to learn the location of an enemy of the Empire. She holds out until the BigBad orders an orbital bombardment on her men's secret fallback position. She dejectedly gives him the information he wants...and he orders that the bombardment continue until every last rebel is dead. But he keeps one part of his deal... he lets her go.
* During the events of "Dead End Kids", the ComicBook/{{Runaways}} become stuck in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in 1907, where they encounter past versions of Gertrude Yorke's parents. When the Yorkes discover that their daughter is dead, they launch a plan to nuke the city to kill the Runaways. It fails, and the Runaways' leader, Nico Minoru, decides to punish them by casting a spell that forces them to go back and live out the rest of their lives knowing that they and Gertrude will all die, and they can't do or say anything to stop it.
-->'''Nico''': They'll go back where they came from. And they'll know. What happens to Gert, what happens to them, they'll know every second it's coming. They won't be able to change anything they do. Or say anything. Not even to each other. For all the world, their short, useless lives will play out exactly as they did before. But inside... ''they'll never stop screaming.''
* In one of the ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977'' stories, the ''Millennium Falcon'' accidentally breaks through a NegativeSpaceWedgie to find a PocketDimension where a group of [[IconOfRebellion former Rebels]] have [[IWillFightNoMoreForever isolated themselves]] from the rest of the Universe. When a group of Imperial Destroyers follows the ''Falcon'', they [[AlwaysChaoticEvil attack and ultimately destroy]] this refuge, but doing so [[HonorBeforeReason eats up all their reserves]], leaving them defenseless to the ''Falcon'''s [[NoRangeLikePointBlankRange guns]] and unable to cross the border again. The crew of the ''Falcon'' decides against destroying the Destroyer, opting to "leave them here, rotting away as a tribute."
* In the ''[[ComicBook/ThePunisher Punisher]]'' Franken-Castle arc, Frank spares the life of overzealous monster hunter Robert Hellsgaard. Hellsgaard thanks him for his mercy, which prompts Frank to smirk, "Yeah, right. ''Mercy''," as he leaves him behind, alive but forever trapped in the burning demonplanes of limbo.
* In ''[[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic My Little Pony: Fiendship Is Magic #1]]'', Sombra ultimately chooses not to enslave or harm Radiant Hope in any way as he still had feelings for her after he embraces his inner darkness. Though this ultimately leads to his defeat, Sombra's final act of making the Crystal Empire disappear for 1,000 years is a form of suffering specifically meant for Hope as she is forced to spend the rest of her life as the sole surviving Crystal Pony and isolated from everything she had ever known.
* In the final arc of ''Comicbook/WarMachine'' Vol. 2, Rhodey and his friends hatch a complex plan that ultimately results in a group of extremely dangerous [[WhiteCollarCrime White Collar Criminals]] suffering a collective FateWorseThanDeath. When ComicBook/NormanOsborn asks Rhodey why he was spared, Rhodey says that he studied Osborn's psychological profile extensively, and came to the conclusion that leaving him unharmed, but with the knowledge that Rhodey and his friends were too smart for him, would be far worse than any other punishment they could dole out. Osborn laughs this claim off as ridiculous, but as soon as Rhodey leaves, he falls to his knees in anguish, indicating that Rhodey's assertion was 100 percent accurate.
* In ''ComicBook/KickAss'', [[spoiler:Vic Gigante, the big DirtyCop of the series, is the only major villain to survive the trilogy, but not before Mindy brutally maims him with a GroinAttack which also cripples him waist-down, intending to let him live and force him to become TheStoolPigeon to his fellow {{Corrupt Cop}}s. The last time Dave heard of him in the ending is that the whole experience caused him to lose quite a lot of weight when he was brought to court to testify]].
* Franchise/GreenLantern: Red Lantern Bleez intended to inflict this on one of the men responsible for selling her into slavery. She wanted him to live the rest of his life in fear of her, but her leader Atrocitus killed the man on the spot, saying that her method wasn't how the ComicBook/RedLanterns worked.
* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': "The Bounty Hunter" ends with the titular bounty hunter, having brought in a small army to capture a wanted Indian (who wasn't even guilty in the first place), be let off by Luke. Luke then claims the reward for the Indian and puts it on the bounty hunter's head instead to let him experience being hunted down.
* ComicBook/{{Diabolik}} usually murders those who have earned his wrath, but sometimes his revenge consists in him making them know he could kill them anytime and leaving after telling them that one day, when he'll be bored enough, he'll come back to kill them, making them live in terror as they wait for him to come back and destroy themselves in the process. Apparently, he ''never'' comes back.
** Done more horrifically to Elisabeth Gay, that he drove to insanity ''because'' he knew she considered it a FateWorseThanDeath. When she recovered and tried to take her own revenge for that and [[WomanScorned choosing Eva over her]], he let her leave [[SubvertedTrope not because of this]] but [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he had realized he had gone overboard]] and couldn't bring himself to hunt her down.
** {{Subverted}} in "Diabolik's Treasure": it ''seems'' he's planning to do this to most members of the group that [[spoiler:stole his favoured treasures]], but in the end his revenge is limited to enjoy their fear as they escape the country as not only this was their own revenge for when Diabolik unwittingly ruined their own lives as part of his capers (and that's something he can respect) but [[spoiler: he's actually ''grateful'' for them exposing one of his weaknesses and starting a chain of events that destroyed it]].
* ''Atar Gull'' is the son of an African chieftain who is MadeASlave in Jamaica. He begins working his way up the ladder, gaining the trust of his masters, the Wil family (who are considered among the kindest on the island, even by the escaped slaves, for such humane treatments as only applying half the beatings prescribed by the law), and using it to slowly ruin them, poisoning their cattle and slaves (including his own son) and murdering their daughter by putting a snake in her bed. When Wil is completely broken (his wife having committed suicide), Atar refuses his freedom, claiming that he'll stay with the master in France and take care of him, earning nothing but praise and admiration from the locals for his devotion. Once Wil suffers a stroke that leaves him unable to move or talk, Atar drops the mask and gloatingly confesses everything, including his intention to keep Wil alive as long as possible, as revenge for his treatment and Wil having hanged Atar's father. When Wil dies, Atar breaks down entirely.
* ''ComicBook/{{Purgatori}}'': After Lucifer takes away her powers and sends her to Earth to suffer never-ending hunger, Purgatori repays him by leaving Lucifer to fend for himself in the pit of hell after he just lost most of his own power due to Cremator's demon-destroying blade.
* ''ComicBook/ThanosRising'': During his confrontation with his father at the end, Thanos decides to leave him alive just so he can continue to witness his son's atrocities while being unable to stop him.
* Subverted in ''ComicBook/DarkTimes''. Jennir spares the life of the FallenHero Demanna, and the latter presumes it’s this trope; robbing him of his honor and [[AnArmAndALeg cutting off his hand]], but leaving him alive to suffer. A disgusted Jennir says that, no, he really is showing Demanna mercy and giving him a chance to regain his honor. Demanna just [[EvilCannotComprehendGood can’t understand that]] because of the same arrogance that led to his defeat in the first place.
* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel
** ''ComicBook/UltimateVision'': Tarleton, under orders of Gah Lak Tus, drops the AIM satellite out of orbit, killing the people with reentry. He says that they should be grateful, that fire is a clean and nice way to die.
** ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': One of the Skull Serpents is burning, and asks for help. Scourge helps him... with a knife.
* After Loki's confession in ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'' that he [[spoiler: is a copy of the original Loki who pulled a KillAndReplace on his well-intentioned child self, that he summoned and double-crossed the EldritchAbomination plaguing them, and that he has been manipulating the whole team all along]], America Chavez decides to leave him to his guilt.
-->'''Loki''': [[PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou End it]]. Before I can talk my way out of this.\\
'''America''': ...I'm not going to make this any easier for you, chico.
* In ''ComicBook/BatmanDamned'', Etrigan saves Batman, but tells Constantine that he only did so in order for Batman to experience more suffering.
* In ''ComicBook/HaloEscalation'', Jul 'Mdama captures and spares Sali 'Nyon, rather than give him an honorable death in combat.
* In ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' story ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'', [[spoiler:ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}]] fights and defeats the Legion in the Sorcerers' World, but he decides against killing them because he wants them to watch helplessly how he destroys the galaxy.
* In ''Avengers of the Wasteland'' set in the world of ''ComicBook/OldManLogan'', Dr. Doom is dying of cancer and so he sets out to fight the Avengers one last time, hoping they'd kill him quickly (he also framed them for his own atrocities, so he'd make it look like he's a hero fighting a villain team). After the Avengers beat him, Antman gives a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown and is about to kill him, when Dani convinces him to stop. Part of it is to show that the Avengers are better than Doom and the rest is that sparing Doom means that in less than 6 months, he'll die in agony shitting his pants.
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[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/MegamiNoHanabira'': [[spoiler: Yuuna suggests subjecting [[BigBad Archibald Phillips]] to this after they defeat him: considering Phillips [[AGodAmI fancies himself a god]], [[MisanthropeSupreme detests humans]] and is [[MortalityPhobia terrified of death]], sending him to prison where he would be powerless and ordered around by other humans while he waits for death would be exponentially worse than just killing him on the spot. It doesn't pan out: Metatron sacrifices Phillips to fuel his appearance in the human world.]]
* Salem and Miss Malachite from ''Fanfic/RubyAndNora'' love to spare their enemies if it means they suffer.
* ''Fanfic/TheLunarRebellion'':
** In the aftermath of the Pegasopolan rebellion, everyone is eager to see how Celestia will choose to deal with the defeated rebel forces. Her allies are initially furiously outraged when she announces that she will not have the rebel clan leaders executed for their crimes, and the rebels themselves can scarcely believe how light they are getting off... until she reveals that she intends to completely and totally disband the clans, essentially striking their very cultural identity from Equestrian history. The intensely traditionalist clans seem to consider this a FateWorseThanDeath.
** On a more individual level, this is why Sunbeam Sparkle chooses to prevent [[spoiler:Dusk Charger]]'s execution, although he had betrayed the Solars, let [[spoiler:the Avatar into Canterlot]] and kidnapped Sunbeam's daughter to deliver her to warlocks, crimes that other characters note fully warrant execution. As far as she's concerned, having to watch the clans be systematically dismantled and the culture he had built his life around destroyed, all the while living with the knowledge that his actions led to this happening, is a far worse fate than any death or torture she could devise. [[spoiler:Dusk]] himself agrees.
* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5363164/1/The_Noble_Nine_A_Kill_BillEsque_Tale_of_Revenge The Noble Nine,]] A Film/KillBill[=Esque=] Tale of Revenge'', [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Crono's]] only goal in life [[BloodKnight is to die a noble death in battle]]... so [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Samus]], playing the role of the Bride in this story, spares him. [[spoiler:The other seven members of the Nine are all dead by the end of the story - all by Samus's hand, except for VideoGame/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}}, who denies her the satisfaction of his death by killing himself in front of her.]]
* Some fan fiction views [[AllLovingHero Aang's]] [[ThouShaltNotKill mercy]] on [[BigBad Ozai]] from the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' GrandFinale as this. "[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4414322/1/Cruelty The Avatar calls this mercy]]." Considering Ozai planned to burn a ''continent'' to the ground to secure his rule, on top of a lifetime of other atrocities, his Cruel Mercy may be [[KickTheSonOfABitch very well-deserved]].
* In the fanfic ''The Girl Who Lived'', Rose Potter takes the ''Harry Potter'' example mentioned further down and ramps up the 'cruel' factor by about a thousand percent. Harry persuades Sirius and Lupin to spare Pettigrew because he doesn't think James would want them to become murderers (and to help prove Sirius's innocence). Rose, on the other hand, describes in rather ghoulish detail how much worse than death life in Azkaban will be for him, and ''this isn't even the creepiest thing she does''.
* In the ''Deep Space Nine'' fanfic ''The First Tile,'' a bereaved Trill father whose daughter's death was ordered by the planetary government hopes the monarch has a ''long'' life in prison.
--> ''"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."''
* In ''Fanfic/FrigidWindsAndBurningHearts'', Princess Luna realizes that killing [[SmugSnake Captain Braveheart]] will just confirm in everyone else's eyes that she's a monster. So instead, she spares his life, and [[spoiler:teleports him to his commander, telling him to have fun explaining his actions to his superior]]. Braveheart [[PrecisionFStrike is not too happy]] upon hearing her plans. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this backfires, as he just tracks them down ''again'' and ambushes Twilight.]]
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/485015/Mr_Evil Mr. Evil's]] OriginalCharacter Fredi Heat sees this method as worse than just killing them. Despite having no qualms about brutally killing someone that looks at him wrong (did I mention he is a "good guy"), he always sees it crueler to take someone in alive rather than dead. As he quotes "'Alive' just means you can still breath on your own".
* The courts decided not to prosecute [[ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse John Patterson]] for letting his wife Elly go insane and then attacking her in ''FanFic/TheNewRetcons'' because his reputation was already shot and it'd just be a waste of the court's time. John, having a SelfServingMemory, thinks he beat the system. [[spoiler: He does eventually see their point when Christmas rolls around and he's all alone.]]
* ''FanFic/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria'': After Hurricane's coup against [[TheCaligula Commander Sullamander]], the latter's remaining loyalists tried to stage a counter-revolt and were effortlessly crushed. When Hurricane realized that his own ([[AbusiveParents unloving and unloved]]) mother Star Saber was the leader of the revolt, he spared her -- not out of familial obligation, but because he wanted her to live with her utter failure.
* ''FanFic/TheFallOfTheFireEmpire'':
** After [[spoiler:Yue/Tui]] destroys Yuan's fleet, she lets him live to wallow in his failure and insignificance. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, Shiyan is much less merciful.]]
** And at the end of the story, [[spoiler:Jiazin's first act as Fire Lord is to force [[EvilChancellor Qing Xi]] into retirement as punishment for collaborating with the majority of Azula's crimes.]]
* [[spoiler:Grey Hoof]] suffers this in the ''Fanfic/WakingNightmares'' chapter "A Blank Story, part 2". (''VideoGame/StoryOfTheBlanks'' is considered canon.) [[spoiler:After he's shown to have learned nothing from his punishment by transferring the curse to everypony in Ponyville just to save himself, Celestia decides he needs a more severe punishment... trapping him in the ruins of Sunnytown, alone, under a spell that makes him imperceptible to others (and causes them to avoid the area). The spell also keeps his mind calm and sane, as falling into madness would be a merciful escape, and Celestia won't allow even that.]]
* In ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors'', during The Evil Gods, Part 2, after Jason kills the [[CriticalResearchFailure Roman god]] {{Creator/Socrates}}, [[Literature/PercyJackson Thalia]] comes to him with one of Socrates' captured followers. The follower begs Jason to kill her, but he tells her he will not, [[{{Hypocrite}} because murder is a sin]], and says she will become his slave and has Thalia take her away to be punished. This may also apply to a Communist {{Mook}} in ''Threat of Satanic Commonism'', whom Jerry spares after cutting off his arms and legs and blinding him so that he can suffer from his wounds and have the possibility of converting and going to Heaven.
* Sometimes Naruto/Naruichi's mercy in ''[[http://fanfics.me/read2.php?id=91953&chapter=1 The Darkest Light]]'' is this. While one man he begged to be spared for the sake of his son, the next he begged to be spared because "If he dies, he won't be able to teach the lesson." Said man was beaten to unconsciousness then forced to work for free for a month while wearing a sign that makes people ask questions, thus causing him to explain that he's only alive due to his victim's pleas. Then again, the first man Naruichi wanted to be spared since he attacked Naruichi thinking he was harming his boss. The second gave a fake coin to Naruichi (who is blind), which is considered a horrible crime.
* ''FanFic/{{Hivefled}}'': Darkleer fell in love with the Disciple and let her go, hoping she could rebuild her life. She didn't want to and tracked him down with the intention of killing him for not letting her join her dead lover.
* When Sasuke defects in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9920512/12/Reaching-for-a-Dream Reaching for a Dream]]'', Naruto lets him leave, just to rub in that Sasuke was no match for him. [[spoiler:Subverted however when Naruto's words drive Sasuke to attack him in a rage, causing Naruto to kill him.]]
-->'''Naruto''': "You're old enough to be making your own decisions, so if you want to shack up with a weirdo like Orochimaru, that's fine with me, just make sure you can live with the consequences."\\
'''Sasuke''': "Wait, you mean you're just letting me go?"\\
'''Naruto''': "We both know that you're not even close to being strong enough to get away from me unless I let you. So run away little boy, run away and escape the only way you can. Because I ''let'' you."
* In ''FanFic/SwingingPendulum'', Central 46 decides to permanently imprison Ichigo in isolation and darkness instead of executing him with the rest of the Visoreds as an acknowledgment for killing Aizen. A very horrible punishment for a guy known for his loyalty to his TrueCompanions. Shinji lampshades it:
-->'''Shinji''': "What kinda fucked up acknowledgment is that?! Death is better, ya thrice-damned Shinigami!"
* In ''[[FanFic/IcedFairysANewWorld A New World]]'', Lunarians have invaded Gensokyo ''en masse'' to avenge a centuries-old murder, and in pursuit of that revenge, have used Earth's own nuclear weapons to nearly exterminate mankind. Even so, Tenshi isn't overly concerned until after a brutal battle, her OnlyFriend Suika is slain by a Lunarian warrior. An embittered Tenshi asks the Lunarian WasItReallyWorthIt. The answer (no) and the response (a suicide attempt) so infuriate Tenshi, she invokes Heaven's Mercy on said warrior, condemning her to an unending life of self-sacrifice and absolute piety until the wounds the Lunarians have inflicted upon Earth heal. The broken woman can barely whisper how much worse her punishment is than Hell's Justice.
* In ''FanFic/VengeanceOfTheStar'', Twilight is forced to watch as her adopted son Spike is killed in front of her by assassins. In retaliation she captures them and during their trial, after stripping them of their wings and horns, ''kills their families in front of them'' before stripping them of their magic and banishing them from Equestria.
--> '''Twilight:''' "You three are hereby banished from Equestria, should he ever return, my guards will send you back in worse condition than before." She stated before leaning down and glaring into their eyes. “Now you will know the pain I will have to suffer for the rest of my life, the pain of knowing that your actions have cost you your family, the pain of knowing that you will die alone, with your entire bloodline hated by all of Equestria. The pain of knowing that your entire legacy is now tainted. All. because. of. you."
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10784770/1/Harry-Potter-Geth Harry Potter: Geth]]'', a Quarian admiral who attacked Tali and was (along with the other admirals) telling the Migrant Fleet BlatantLies about the Geth and life on Rannoch is sentenced to house arrest on Rannoch for the rest of her life. Specifically, she has to live there without receiving the nanites that would let her leave her suit and her apartment has a window that takes up an entire wall to let her see the Geth and Quarians living together in peace.
* ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'': Ritsuko claims that she [[spoiler:saved Gendo's life]] because being in a coma is a fate worse than death to him, though it's not clear whether she's being sincere.
-->"Though you still would have died if Ritsuko hadn't found and helped you. At first, she always said she didn't even know why she had done it. Later she changed it to 'Having to live in this condition is a bigger punishment for him than death'."
* ''Fanfic/BloodAndHonor'': When Sanguis realizes that killing Jedi isn't as satisfying as she hoped it'd be, she turns to this instead, bringing out the darkness lurking in the hearts of several of her opponents and then leaving them to face the truth about themselves.
* In ''[[Fanfic/TwiceUponAnAge All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird]]'', this is the [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Lord Inquisitor]]'s logic in deferring to the Lady Inquisitor when judging [[spoiler:Blackwall]]. "Toria will ''forgive'' him. And... that forgiveness will be harder to accept than any condemnation."
* In ''[[Fanfic/TheHeartTrilogy Heart of the Inferno]]'', [[SparedByTheAdaptation Smaug]] meets the aged Bilbo Baggins in Rivendell and attempts to kill the enemy he hasn't seen for sixty years. However, Bilbo has a fit induced by his exposure to the One Ring and searches for his "precious". Disgusted by how the hobbit seems to have become deranged, Smaug [[NotWorthKilling finds it unsatisfying to kill an enemy who can't register their own death]]. He opts to let Bilbo live the rest of his life tormented by insanity.
-->'''Smaug''': Be left with the prison of your own design, with the poison of your own making, thief-in-the-shadows. Once again, you've denied me the satisfaction of killing an enemy. But I know death will come for you. It comes for all of us. Especially the insane. Enjoy your tormented world, ''Bilbo Baggins''. I shall certainly enjoy watching you slowly die.
* In ''Fanfic/YoungJusticeDarknessFalls'', the heroes universally agree that it would be far worse to allow their Apokoliptian enemies to live and suffer Darkseid's wrath rather than kill them.
* After his assassination attempt against Emperor Zero in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12201158/17/Darwin Darwin]]'', Suzaku is imprisoned for life in a cell with a news feed. Zero explains that he wants Suzaku to spend the rest of his life watching the world praise Zero and give him more power until he rules the world and to know that every night Zero is having sex with Suzaku's former fiance Kaguya at her behest. Lastly, he wants Suzaku to spend the rest of his life knowing he'd been less than an inch away from stopping Zero[[note]]Suzaku's shot just barely missed Lelouch's heart which gave him enough time to take V.V.'s Code and become immortal[[/note]].
* In ''Fanfic/CrossCases'', after Sam allows Lucifer to take him as his vessel, Lucifer lets Sam keep control of his body so that Sam can go back home and tell Dean goodbye. Sam notes in his internal narration that this really does seem nice on the surface, but perceives it as a final "fuck you" so that Sam's last moments as himself and of Dean are of Dean reaming him out for handing himself over to Lucifer, hopefully followed by Dean killing him in an attempt at taking Lucifer with him. This thought keeps Sam lingering in St. Mary's convent, whereupon he finds the teleportation spell.
* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053817/chapters/2793109 God is Curel]]'', Oliver uses Laurel as [[TheBait bait]] for Slade without her knowledge. Slade takes advantage of the set up and stabs Laurel in the stomach, nearly killing her and ultimately putting her in a coma. Dean, Laurel's husband, furiously tells Oliver [[IllKillYou he'll kill him]] if she dies. When the time comes to take her off life support, Dean tells Roy he'll make Oliver live instead, and explains why that's worse. Roy is left genuinely terrified by it.
-->"God is cruel, Roy, and so am I. You tell him he's going to live a long, healthy life. Death is too easy. Death would be wasted on him. You tell him he's going to wake up every single day with her blood on his hands. You tell him he's going to live with Tommy and Laurel and everyone else he's killed whispering in his ear every night. I'm not gonna waste a bullet on Oliver Queen, Roy. I'm gonna make sure he lives. Laurel is going to die tonight, and he's gonna have to live with himself for a long time. And trust me, that's worse than death."
* Bethany employs this in ''Fanfic/BeyondHeroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium'', when she learns about the actions of the [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Mayor of Crestwood]]. Rather than waste Inquisition resources to track him down and bring him in, she decides to just let him go, explaining to her friends that living with the knowledge of what he's done is worse than anything she could have done to him anyway.
* {{Discussed}} and ultimately {{Subverted}} in ''Fanfic/WhereTalentGoesOnVacation''. At the end of the fifth trial, the group is forced to choose someone to sacrifice, [[spoiler:since the two murder victims killed each other]]. [[spoiler:Tatsuki]] asks whether [[spoiler:Kurogane, whose best friend she killed]] wants to choose [[spoiler:her]], but [[spoiler:Kurogane]] says that if revenge was [[spoiler:his]] goal, then it would make more sense to leave [[spoiler:Tatsuki]], who'd been borderline suicidal ever since [[spoiler:her sister's death]], alive. However, [[spoiler:Kurogane]] understands that [[spoiler:Tatsuki]] has since become TheAtoner, and thus believes that [[spoiler:Tatsuki]] doesn't deserve to die.
* ''Fanfic/HalloweenUnspectacular'':
** At the end of ''Blue Alert'', this is the ultimate fate of [[spoiler:General Rausseman. Ford denies him his wish to die in a blaze of glory, and as a result he ends up spending the rest of his life in a prison hospital, his terminal illness slowly killing him.]]
** This turns out to be [[BigBad the Stranger's]] intended fate for E350 in ''This is fine''. [[spoiler:He (seemingly) murders all of his friends, destroys his home, and frames Sandy as the perpetrator behind the attacks on Sydney, then leaves E350 alive so that he can live a long life knowing that everything that happened was his own fault.]]
* Lila runs into this twice in ''[[FanFic/BurnTheWitchMiraculousLadybug BURN THE WITCH]]'':
** After repeatedly protecting her from Witch Hunter and her angry mob, Ladybug informs Lila that she's going to be keeping a ''very close eye'' on her from now on, doing her best to protect her from Hawkmoth and any other akuma by "rescuing" her in ways that will both humiliate her and curtail any further attempts to cause problems. She also points out that Lila herself has claimed that [[CelebrityLie the two of them are good friends]], making it only ''natural'' that she'd go out of her way to protect her.
** When her lies to the adults unravel, Lila expects to be immediately expelled. But Mr. Damocles states that they don't expel students for truancy, and goes on to explain how he intends to accomdate her as she continues her school and makes up all the work she missed -- which, given how frequently she skipped out, is likely to involve her repeating a grade. Given that Lila was expecting to leave Paris behind entirely and move on to another country, she doesn't take the prospect of staying well.
* ''Fanfic/AshesOfThePast'' has this as the ultimate fate of [[spoiler:the original Team Galactic and their willing Pokemon.]] They're given exactly what they want in the end: [[spoiler:a "world without spirit", which in this case means a world without civilization, without any other humans, without any Pokemon but those who worked with them willingly, whose power is severely weakened. They are imprisoned there for the rest of their lives without escape, and survival will be a difficult task.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Harry convinced [[spoiler:his godfather Sirius Black]] not to kill [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]], the man who betrayed his parents to Lord Voldemort and framed [[spoiler:Sirius]] for this crime, condemning him to a decade of horrible imprisonment in Azkaban. Sparing [[spoiler:Peter]] and turning him over to the magical law enforcement is actually worse than killing him, as Azkaban is guarded by Dementors, foul creatures sucking every positive emotion out of their victims, inflicting a horrible depression on them. Unfortunately, this mercy backfires, as [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew manages to escape and is ultimately responsible for Voldemort's resurrection.]]
* In the backstory of ''Literature/DragonBones'', Oreg is an immortal slave who CannotSelfTerminate, so provoking his owner, the only one who ''can'' kill him, into doing it, is his only means of committing suicide. An attempt to do so failed, his owner decided to have him beaten to what would usually be death by someone ''else'', thus keeping him alive.
* [[spoiler:Anastasia Furan]] does this to [[spoiler:Laura]] in the seventh installment of the ''Literature/HIVESeries'' by [[spoiler:making her a student of the Glasshouse instead of killing her. She showed Laura the setup of an execution of Otto, Wing, Shelby, and Franz, and then led her away letting her believe the death of her friends was her fault. Laura was thrown in with the rest of the Alphas, who blamed her for their predicament. In addition, Laura was very physically weak, and at a distinct disadvantage in the Glasshouse's rigorous training.]]
* In the end of Thomas Sniegoski's ''Literature/TheFallen'' series, the [[TheChosenOne hero]], Aaron, [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway forgives]] [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Verchiel]], causing him to go back to heaven. Since [[KnightTemplar Verchiel]] has spent the last few millennia [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod systematically wiping out various angelic offspring]], allowing eldritch abominations to thrive on Earth by ignoring his job, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking generally being a douche]], the welcoming reception is NOT pretty.
* A Battle Sister in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''The Bleeding Chalice'' refers to the villainous version of this trope: Chaos troops sparing Imperial soldiers because they'll suffer more that way, after she was spared by the "traitor" Sarpedon (who was actually sparing her because he was a good guy at heart(s) and admired her determination).
** In Trooper Caffran's DayInTheLimelight in ''[[Literature/GauntsGhosts Ghostmaker]]'', his squad encounters and defeats a Khornate Chaos cult, which worships death. As a reward, he gets to execute the cult leader personally -- but refuses, saying that since the cultist longs for death, keeping him alive is the real way to punish him. Gaunt agrees.
** One of the short stories in ''Fear the Alien'' anthology book has a Dark Eldar Archon sparing the life of a woman who answered his question, despite her begging to die since her husband was killed. Unusually for [[{{AlwaysChaoticEvil}} Dark Eldar]], though, the Archon was not being intentionally cruel: he spared her life so that she may savour her agony, which the Dark Eldar (being beings who literally feed on pain and misery) [[{{BlueAndOrangeMorality}} would consider a good thing]].
** ''[[Literature/CiaphasCain The Traitor's Hand]]'' wraps up with Cain deciding to pull a few strings to get Commissar Beije out of a probable death sentence, not because he likes Beije (he doesn't) but because he knows Beije will hate having to live with the knowledge that he's alive thanks to Cain.
* William Johnstone westerns do this on occasion.
** "Talons of Eagles", "Rage of Eagles", "War of the Mountain Man" and "Blood Bond: Gunsight Crossing" all have the BigBad (or in "War of the Mountain Man", his unsavory brother) spared in the aftermath of a climatic battle that sees most of the mans {{Mook}}s slaughtered due to said villain suffering a SanitySlippage, being left facing a lifetime of confinement in a BedlamHouse (which, given the standards of care of such asylums in the 1800's is often seen as a FateWorseThanDeath InUniverse).
** "Blood Bond: Gunsight Crossing" also has an earlier scene where a hired killer named Monty Brill has his gun hand maimed in a fight but is left alive so that he'll be easy prey for the many vengeful relatives of the people he killed. Although this is subverted when a random dying {{Mook}} kills Brill in his hospital bed a few chapters later just so he can go to his grave feeling that he killed someone tougher than he was.
** "Blood Valley" has a {{Mook}} spared from being arrested and possibly executed... on the condition that he marry his AbhorrentAdmirer, to the man's visible dismay.
** "Dream of Eagles" has [[TheHero Jamie Ian Macallister]] delver a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to the AmoralAttorney whose been hiring assassins for one of the novels main villains (breaking almost every bone in his face), then he break open the man's safe and burns all of his money and stock certificates before dumping him in an alley where he'll wake up disfigured and penniless.
** In "Trail of the Mountain Man" a smarmy YoungGun murders one of the DreamTeam assembled by [[TheHero Smoke Jensen]] by [[InTheBack shooting him in the back one the battle is over.]] The young killer is quickly disarmed, but Smoke spares his life, while giving a BreakingSpeech about how now due to killing a LivingLegend, ''he'll'' have to spend the rest of his (likely short, given his limited actual skill) life moving form town to town, being hounded by reputation-hungry young wannabe gunmen just like him, unable to have the time to spend the money he earns or enjoy a moments rest. And to make sure he can't just change his name and disappear, Smoke shoots off one of the mans' ears so that he'll be recognizable wherever he goes.
** In "Law of the Mountain Man" Smoke fights a gunman named Larry Noonan in a knife fight and cuts the tendons of his arm but leaves him alive so he'll be useless as a gunman and easy prey for any of his old enemies. It's mentioned that Noonan spends the rest of his life working a menial job under an assumed name, with only the use of one arm.
* Frodo in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' does this to Saruman. Or so Saruman alleges.
* At the end of ''[[Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings Fool's Fate]]'', the [[spoiler:Pale Woman]]'s prophecies have all been thwarted and her power destroyed. She screams at Fitz to kill her, saying that her visions told her this would happen if she failed. Fitz responds that they are not in her vision of the future, but his, and that she dies slowly, alone. [[spoiler:She does.]]
* This is advocated in Literature/TheBible. "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." -- [[Literature/BookOfProverbs Proverbs 25:21-22]], quoted by Paul the apostle in [[Literature/BookOfRomans Romans 12:20]].
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
** In ''Literature/TheMountainsOfMourning'' novella, Miles Vorkosigan had to judge an old woman for the killing of her "mutant" granddaughter (who only had a harelip, actually). The woman was upholding cruel traditions she'd grown up with, but executing her (per the law) would not serve any purpose other than to make people cling more tightly to the backwards traditions rather than less. Instead, Miles declared her legally dead and forbade anyone from performing traditional funerary rites for her. In her mind, and in the minds of those who would have agreed with her killing her granddaughter, this effectively destroyed her ''soul''. It also made her legally dependent on her daughter, the mother of the child she had murdered.
** In ''Literature/{{Memory}}'', Miles's boss/mentor Illyan's biochip was sabotaged [[spoiler:by one of Illyan's subordinates and friends,]] which nearly drove him insane to the point where he begged for a clean death. After they ferret out the culprit, Miles wonders if the man will commit suicide now that he's been caught, and asks Illyan if he would want to [[LeaveBehindAPistol allow that]].
--->'''Illyan:''' Dying's easy. Living's hard. Let the son of a bitch stand his court-martial. Every last eternal minute of it.
* In ''Literature/LesMiserables'', Valjean frees InspectorJavert, the man who hunted him for nearly 20 years of his life, when the latter is captured and sure to be executed by LaResistance for spying on them. Valjean doesn't mean it to be cruel, but for Javert, it's the cruelest thing he could have done: it breaks his brain that he should owe his life to Valjean, whom he thought of only as a criminal and fugitive. The Cognitive Dissonance [[DrivenToSuicide drives him to suicide]]. See the entry under Theatre.
* Done in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' to Visser One (formerly Visser Three): when he's finally captured, he's made to give up his prized Andalite host body, put on trial for his many, MANY crimes, and forced to live out the rest of his life in his natural Yeerk state (i.e. blind and helpless), imprisoned, in complete isolation, and with no chance at ever getting another host body.
** Also done to David. Rather than kill him, they trapped him as a rat and left him alone on an island.
* ''Literature/JackReacher'': At the end of ''Bad Luck and Trouble,'' Reacher and his allies leave a SmugSnake terrorist client of the BigBad tied up to be taken into custody and possibly tortured.
--> ''Mahmoud's eyes were full of fear. He knew what was heading his way. Reacher figured he would prefer to die, which was why he left him there alive.''
* Attempted by Lysa Arryn in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. When her prisoner, Tyrion Lannister, wins his TrialByCombat, Lysa is forced to release him... so she orders him to be escorted to the Kingsroad, where he will be at the mercy of bandits. [[spoiler: This ends up backfiring on her badly. He has the bandit tribes (up to that point only a threat to small groups of travelers) united and armed with military-grade gear, then points them right back at her.]]
** Sansa Stark deliberately invokes this trope by convincing Joffrey to spare Ser Dontos by appealing to the RoyalBrat's sense of cruelty, telling him it would be far harsher to make Dontos live as a [[TheJester Fool]] at Court rather than to have him executed on the spot. She was genuinely trying to save the guy's life, and both Dontos and Sandor certainly helped her sell it. Once they cottoned on to her angle. [[spoiler:[[StalkerWithACrush It kind of comes]] [[TheMole back to haunt her later]], though.]]
** Arya Stark refuses to grant Sandor Clegane a MercyKill when he's wounded and feverish, instead choosing to ride off and leaving him to slowly die. It's implied, however, that despite Sandor's atrocities, she is simply very reluctant to actually kill him after all they've endured together. She repeatedly tries to maintain it was this trope all the way, but... [[spoiler: the Faceless Man training her doesn't buy it for a minute.]]
* In ''Day Watch'' (the second book of the ''Literature/NightWatchSeries''), a group of Dark Others is convicted of a serious crime and given the option between two fates: execution by hanging (as opposed to the more severe [[FateWorseThanDeath dematerialisation]]) or being allowed to live in return for never using their powers again and living a normal human lifespan. When they choose the latter option, Gesar (head of the Light One delegation) is asked if he has any opinion, and he reluctantly recommends that their sentence be commuted to permission to perform extremely minor magic, which is granted. One of the Day Watch witnesses notes that, in the long term, this is even crueler than being killed or having no magic at all, as using incredibly weak spells will act as a constant reminder of the power they truly have but can never use.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** Rand, who [[WouldntHitAGirl cannot bring himself to have a woman executed]], decides that [[spoiler:Lady Colavaere, who usurped the throne of Cairhien and murdered opponents]], is to be sent to the smallest farm she possesses, and to live off it. [[spoiler:She hangs herself]].
** One villain deals with an uppity mage underling by blocking off her magical abilities with a permanent, insanely complex shielding spell. She then explains that she used the shield rather than an irreversible DePower spell so the underling could live the rest of her life in the faint hope of finding someone capable of {{dispel|Magic}}ling it. This, in a world where mages who are cut off from their powers tend to die of despair within a few years. [[spoiler:By the end of the series, she's still shielded.]]
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', Granny Weatherwax attempts this by showing the villain her True Self. Subverted because it doesn't work: Lady Felmet is proud of her strength and cruelty. While she's busy boasting about it, [[TalkToTheFist Nanny Ogg clubs her with a cauldron.]]
** Featured a lot in the witch books, actually. In ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', Lady Lilith locking the witches in a dungeon instead of having them executed is described as this.
** The Elf Queen ''tries'' this on Granny Weatherwax in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'', describing how she'll drive Granny insane, reduced to looking through scraps while remaining aware of how the villagers see her. Too bad Granny already knows what the villagers think of her, and doesn't care.
** In ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'', a band of muggers [[MuggingTheMonster threaten Granny Weatherwax]], only to injure themselves in an encounter with the Ankh-Morpork Opera House's famous Phantom. Granny decides to take pity on them by stitching up their self-inflicted wounds... with a blunt needle.
** Witch philosophy as a whole runs like this: if you kill your foe, your foe is dead and that's that. If you ''beat'' your foe, but let them live, then your foe is beat and knows they've been beaten, and they'll know it for the rest of their life, and there's no point in beating a foe if they won't be around to know they've been beaten afterward. This is explicitly given as one of the reasons for the setting's UnequalRites; when one young witch learns a bit of simple Wizard combat magic (which is based on killing your enemy before kills you) her peers can't see the point of it.
** MagnificentBastard Vetinari knows usurping rulers like to employ this trope and plans for it. "Never build a dungeon you wouldn't be happy to spend the night in yourself." Said dungeon has locks and bolts on the ''inside'' of the door, a secret stash of food, keys, and other things. Also, room service (intelligent magically-mutated rats).
* In ''[[Literature/PreludeToDune Dune: House Harkonnen]]'', Duke Leto invokes this trope on a man who was involved with the death of Leto's son (and is very remorseful about it, to the point that he is considering suicide):
--> '''Leto:''' I sentence you... to ''live''.
* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, when Boba Fett escapes from the sarlacc's stomach, he considers killing it, but leaves. The sarlacc asks him why, and he says that leaving it alone in the desert, immobile and depending on creatures falling into its mouth every few years for food, will be more fitting revenge.
* ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'' is very, very much about this: The antagonist is an insane, sentient supercomputer who has brutally murdered the entire population of Earth, save for five people he keeps indefinitely alive inside his own systems and tortures for his own amusement. [[spoiler:And when four of these five people find a way out, the supercomputer punishes the remaining survivor [[AndIMustScream by making him incapable of suicide and altering his perception of time]].]] The computer game adaptation expands on the supercomputer's motivations, by explaining that in becoming sentient, he was driven mad by only being able to use his vast intellect to kill others.
* After Mr. Wickham runs off with Lydia in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudiceAndZombies'', Mr. Darcy tracks them down and bribes Wickham into marrying Lydia and going into the priesthood on the condition that Darcy gets to beat the crap out of Wickham. The punishment is threefold: Wickham is trapped for life with the most annoying person in the entire P&P&Z universe, he has to give up gambling and seducing women, and he can't run away from any of this because he can't move under his own power. Considering that the Bennett family probably would have just killed him, this punishment is somewhat more fitting.
* In one of the ''Literature/HorribleHistories'' books, Terry Deary writes an account of Lambert Simnel, a peasant boy who was chosen to be the figurehead of a rebellion against Henry VII because he resembled the Earl of Warwick. Henry crushed the rebellion and made Simnel one of his servants in a display of PragmaticVillainy. In Deary's account, Simnel is left shellshocked by watching the rebels being slaughtered, and writes: 'Cruel Henry had the real Earl of Warwick put to death, but cruelest of all, he sentenced me to live'.
* Used in one of the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' books. A minor bad guy has just been caught rigging a duel to put John Carter at a disadvantage, and the jeddak orders said bad guy to duel Carter. Carter simply carves an X in the guy's face, then disarms him and declares that he's satisfied because living with that scar is a FateWorseThanDeath.
* Literature/TheScarletPimpernel deliberately invokes this in the sequel ''Sir Percy Hits Back'' when he tells his ArchEnemy Chauvelin that he finally has his chance for revenge. Chauvelin [[EvilCannotComprehendGood naturally assumes]] that the hero intends to let Chauvelin's daughter be executed, but finds out at the end that Sir Percy's "way of hitting back" is to save his daughter and spare his life. No! Anything but that!
* In Roger Zelazny's ''Literature/ForeverAfter'', Gar Quithnick uses a nerve strike on a deposed villain that will kill him the instant he holds himself superior to another person, although he can still live a long life of humility.
* God in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Desperation}}''.
-->"You said 'God is cruel' the way a person who's lived his whole life on Tahiti might say 'Snow is cold.' You knew, but you didn't understand. Do you know how cruel your God can be, David? How fantastically cruel? Sometimes he makes us live."
* [[spoiler:Lanre]] in ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'' lets [[spoiler:Selitos]] live after destroying all they hold dear.
** [[spoiler:Kvothe himself]] does this to the leader of a group of thieves and rapists [[spoiler:pretending to be Edema Ruh]]. The rest of them he simply kills, but he wounds the leader fatally in the stomach and leaves him alone to die by inches, leaving behind a water skin only so that dying of thirst won't end his pain before the wound kills him.
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': When pragmatic politics requires that she can't simply have them offed, or even tried, Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore forces the two conspirators most responsible for her father's death into exile on newly-annexed and quite primitive Basilisk, away from their political power bases, and allows the third to move to Sphinx and perhaps find a treecat to adopt her. Being empathic, every treecat will know she's a traitor.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** If you've pissed off Harry Dresden and he ''doesn't'' kill you, it's because he's making sure you ''really'' suffer. On one occasion, a man possessed by a Fallen Angel "agreed" to repent before Knights of the Cross -- since technically, getting such repentance is their job, it gave him immunity from them, but not from Harry. This comes back to bite him later.
** Mab keeps giving Harry the option of giving her disgraced Winter Knight a MercyKill. Harry says he doesn't deserve it. [[spoiler:Harry does eventually kill him but he's only doing it because he needs to claim the Mantle of the Winter Knight. He refuses to consider it mercy.]]
* Wizards in the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' like doing this. Zoranders and Rahls are especially well-known for it.
* Implied in Mary Shelly's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}.'' After Frankenstein's death, [[spoiler:the monster himself]] explains how letting the monster live would have been more satisfying revenge than killing it outright, since forcing it to live alone and in the guilt of its crimes would be torturous.
* In the final ''Literature/MythosAcademy'' book by Jennifer Estep, Gwen is fighting her nemesis, Vivien, who murdered Gwen's mother and many others. She uses her {{psychometry}} magic to [[spoiler:shove every bit of suffering she'd experienced in her own life or through others' memories into Vivien's head until her mind broke. When last seen, Vivien is curled up in a ball mumbling and begging for it to stop. It's implied that her condition is permanent; rather than kill her, the good guys stick her in prison to live out the remainder of her days.]]
* In the third book of the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', Eragon does this to old blind Sloan by cursing him to wander in the land of the elves and never visit his beloved daughter again unless he becomes a better man. By the end of the series, Sloan hasn't changed enough to break the curse, but Eragon at least restores his eyes so Sloan can watch his daughter and granddaughter from afar.
* In Creator/SharonKayPenman's first novel, ''Literature/TheSunneInSplendour,'' Edward of York has [[YouKilledMyFather every good reason in the world]] to execute the defeated Marguerite d'Anjou, but refrains. She asks him the ArmorPiercingQuestion: "Even if it were a mercy?" His response: ''Especially if it were a mercy."
* ''[[Literature/TheAscendantKingdomsSaga Ice Forged]]'' by Creator/GailZMartin. Because Blaine had a damn good reason for killing his father (in addition to raping his own daughter Mari, he had beaten Blaine and his brother Carr for years), one of King Merrill's advisers convinces him to commute what should be a beheading offense to transportation to a PenalColony in the far north. It's not much of an improvement: despite Merrill sending the prison warden a note saying he is explicitly forbidden from killing Blaine, it's only Blaine's own determination and badassery that let him survive. {{Downplayed}} in that Merrill is genuinely being merciful here, but can't simply pardon Blaine for publicly killing a nobleman.
* ''Literature/TheSagaOfRagnarLodbrok'': When Aslaug leaves Aki and Grima, the couple that murdered her foster-father, she forgoes taking revenge on them, because they also raised her; but she predicts that their lives will be unhappy and will only go downhill from there.
-->''"[...] I will not do you any harm--but I now pronounce that each day will be worse for you than those that have passed, and your last day will be the worst."''
* Deconstructed in ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'', through the actions of its chief HeroAntagonist Mizzamir, who could best be described as a LawfulGood EvilOverlord.
** Mizzamir detests killing, which he views as barbaric and wrong, preferring more "enlightened" methods of dealing with criminals. Unfortunately, these involve [[TakenForGranite turning them to stone]] and [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood stripping them of all their free will.]] Even though Mizzamir is doing his best to adhere to the ThouShaltNotKill trope, the story does display that the action isn't really that much better and only technically counts as "merciful." [[VillainProtagonist The book's leads]] (and who include among them an unapologetic assassin) openly admit they'd ''prefer'' being killed to what Mizzamir would do to them.
** [[spoiler: The book's backstory reveals that brainwashing people and robbing them of their free will was a recent act for Mizzamir, and his previous actions were even worse. When his compatriot Sir Pryse's brother was turned to the dark side, Pryse begged Mizzamir for mercy and not to kill him. Mizzamir's "mercy" was to turn Pryse's brother into a horse. This really turned out to bite him in the ass, as Pryse realized just what a horrible person Mizzamir was below the surface and joined the forces of darkness to dethrone him.]]
* The ending to R.S. Belcher's ''Nightwise'' features this in the final showdown between Laytham Ballard and Dusan Slorzack: after a grueling WizardsDuel, Slorzack realizes that with his supply lines shut down, there'll be no more deliveries of food and water to his home in the [[PocketDimension Greenway]]; worse still, thanks to his previous DealWithTheDevil, he can't leave the Greenway to stock up on supplies without Satan claiming his soul, and due to its nature as an impenetrable sanctuary that even the Devil can't touch, Slorzack can't affect the world outside the Greenway. So, caught between dying of starvation and suffering for all eternity in Hell, he decides to let Laytham kill him, even delivering an impressive speech in an attempt to FaceDeathWithDignity... only for Laytham to shoot him in the leg and leave him to it.
* Breq's orders regarding [[spoiler:their captive instance of Anaander]] at the end of ''[[Literature/ImperialRadch Ancillary Mercy]]'', overruling ''Sphene'''s offer to throttle her: let her go, because she can't really do anything to hurt them, and now she'll have to ''ask nicely'' to be taken to another system instead of being able to order it - and that will, subjectively, be ''way worse'' than simply being throttled.
* A rare villainous example: This (or Cruel Faux Mercy?) is the modus operandi of [[{{Sadist}} Sybil Rorke]] in the Creator/EFBenson short story [[http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/bensonef-visibleandinvisible/bensonef-visibleandinvisible-00-h.html#Inscrutable_Decrees "Inscrutable Decrees."]] [[spoiler: When her act of unconcealed cruelty [[MurderByInaction resulting in the death of a small girl]] is revealed, she is very likely DrivenToSuicide.]]
* In ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', the Queen appeals to Naofumi's sense of vengeance with precisely this, saying that if the King and her first daughter were to die, it would be like throwing away a golden opportunity for a moment's satisfaction. Naofumi agrees and instead decides to let them go after stripping their titles and changing their names via royal edict.
* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': Belgarion punishes a {{Cult}}ist who threatens his family and kingdom by giving the man a small farm... on a tiny, remote DesertedIsland in a bleak, storm-wracked sea, where his fellow cultists will ''never'' find him.
* The AntiHero of ''Literature/TheMentalState'' is a big believer in this trope. He actively enjoys watching his enemies suffer for as long as possible, preferring to maim, traumatise or isolate his opponents without actually killing them. Over the course of the story, he only kills one person (a psychotic street thug who was never likely to feel any regret for his actions, and this was regarded as a mercy killing).
* ''Literature/TheWordForWorldIsForest''. When Selver captures Captain Davidson, the [[HumansAreBastards human who raped his wife causing her death]], Selver ignores his demand that he GetItOverWith and has the Athsheans maroon him on a now barren island that was deforested by the human loggers under Davidson's command. He could [[TheHermit adapt to this]], but Selver acknowledges that Davidson will more likely GoMadFromTheIsolation instead. No-one's going to go looking for Davidson either -- the humans have agreed to leave Athshe and assume he's been killed anyway.
* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' [[RetiredMonster Daylen]] thinks that [[SentientCosmicForce the Light]] thwarting [[DrivenToSuicide his attempt at suicide]] and making him live with his guilt is AFateWorseThanDeath. [[spoiler: His trial at the end is also this, as Daylen hoped that the Senate would execute him, but they instead said that they CantKillYouStillNeedYou.]]
* ''[[Literature/MichaelVey The Prisoner of Cell 25]]'': The Electroclan has to figure out what to do with Nichelle, a sadistic goth who has been [[BigBad Hatch's]] top enforcer and has tortured more than one of them. Michael decides to send her home, without any of the possessions she "earned" by torturing the other Electric Children into obedience, [[IJustWantToBeSpecial forcing her to live as just a normal teen.]] Nichelle immediately tries to provoke the heroes into killing her.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/PebbleInTheSky'': Balkis begins his interrogation of the protagonists by claiming that they are scheduled for a quick death, but if they don't agree to help them, he will guarantee that they will experience a very unpleasant death. It is at this moment when Schwartz claims to be able to kill Balkis [[PsychicPowers with a thought]]. He's decided instead that Balkis should live, promising a terrible retribution. Schwartz begins by puppeting Balkis, leading them to escape their imprisonment.
-->"Or perhaps you, Schwartz. You killed our agent. It was you, was it not? Perhaps you think you can kill me?"\\
For the first time Schwartz looked at Balkis. He said coldly, "I can, but I won't."\\
"That is kind of you."\\
"Not at all. It is very cruel of me. You say yourself that there are things worse than simple death."
[[/folder]]

* [[AncientRome Julius Caesar]] specialized in this, often showing clemency to defeated rivals especially in Rome's civil wars, which, under the rules of Roman high society, left them permanently beholden to him because they owed him their lives. Cato the Younger actually killed himself to avoid this.

** Suicidal death row inmates are put on suicide watch. Let that sink in for a minute[[labelnote:note]]The death penalty means that you will die at the hands of ''the state'', which is enacting the penalty against you; essentially, you have your life ''taken'' from you for your crimes. Killing yourself, while achieving the same ultimate end, does not serve as a penalty [[BetterToDieThanToBeKilled because you are taking your life into your own hands]] ''after'' the state has stated you do not have that option anymore[[/labelnote]].

** Suicidal death row inmates are put on suicide watch. Let that sink in for a minute[[labelnote:note]]The death penalty means that you will die at the hands of ''the state'', which is enacting the penalty against you; essentially, you have your life ''taken'' from you for your crimes. Killing yourself, while achieving the same ultimate end, does not serve as a penalty because you are taking your life into your own hands ''after'' the state has stated you do not have that option anymore[[/labelnote]].

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': Westley threatens Prince Humperdinck with a duel ToThePain, which involves leaving the loser alive but severely disfigured, "wallowing in freakish misery forever." To further the cruelness, the loser loses their eyes, their nose, their hands at the wrist, their feet at the ankle, but they keep their ears "so that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, "Dear God! What is that thing," will echo in your perfect ears."

* This turns out to be [[BigBad the Stranger's]] intended fate for E350 in ''Fanfic/HalloweenUnspectacular: This is fine''. [[spoiler:He (seemingly) murders all of his friends, destroys his home, and frames Sandy as the perpetrator behind the attacks on Sydney, then leaves E350 alive so that he can live a long life knowing that everything that happened was his own fault.]]

** Even worse, [[ValuesDissonance in Shakespeare's time]], this would have been considered a ''happy ending.'' The Jew gets to be saved, right? It was not until much later that productions started to focus on the negative consequences of converting.

** In ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'' explains to ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' that she doesn't want ComicBook/LexLuthor dead because she wants him to suffer. If he's dead she can't make him pay for his crimes which include [[spoiler:her parents and Supergirl's cousin's murders]].

* In one of the ''ComicBook/MarvelStarWars'' stories, the ''Millennium Falcon'' accidentally breaks through a NegativeSpaceWedgie to find a PocketDimension where a group of [[IconOfRebellion former Rebels]] have [[IWillFightNoMoreForever isolated themselves]] from the rest of the Universe. When a group of Imperial Destroyers follows the ''Falcon'', they [[AlwaysChaoticEvil attack and ultimately destroy]] this refuge, but doing so [[HonorBeforeReason eats up all their reserves]], leaving them defenseless to the ''Falcon'''s [[NoRangeLikePointBlankRange guns]] and unable to cross the border again. The crew of the ''Falcon'' decides against destroying the Destroyer, opting to "leave them here, rotting away as a tribute."

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1411248003079807900
%% Due to the nature of this trope, finding a proper image will be very tricky.
%% Thus, do not add an image to this page without discussing it in Image Pickin' first.

--> '''Naruto''': "You're old enough to be making your own decisions, so if you want to shack up with a weirdo like Orochimaru, that's fine with me, just make sure you can live with the consequences."
--> '''Sasuke''': "Wait, you mean you're just letting me go?"
--> '''Naruto''': "We both know that you're not even close to being strong enough to get away from me unless I let you. So run away little boy, run away and escape the only way you can. Because I ''let'' you."
* In ''FanFic/SwingingPendulum'' Central 46 decides to permanently imprison Ichigo in isolation and darkness instead of executing him with the rest of the Visoreds as an acknowledgment for killing Aizen. A very horrible punishment for a guy known for his loyalty to his TrueCompanions. Shinji lampshades it:
--> '''Shinji''': What kinda fucked up acknowledgment is that?! Death is better, ya thrice-damned Shinigami!

-->"God is cruel, Roy, and so am I. You tell him he's going to live a long, healthy life. Death is too easy. Death would be wasted on him. You tell him he's going to wake up every single day with her blood on his hands. You tell him he's going to live with Tommy and Laurel and everyone else he's killed whispering in his ear every night. I'm not gonna waste a bullet on Oliver Queen, Roy. I'm gonna make sure he lives. Laurel is going to die tonight, and he's gonna have to live with himself for a long time. And trust me, that's worse than death.

* Discussed and ultimately subverted in ''Fanfic/WhereTalentGoesOnVacation''. At the end of the fifth trial, the group is forced to choose someone to sacrifice, [[spoiler:since the two murder victims killed each other]]. [[spoiler:Tatsuki]] asks whether [[spoiler:Kurogane, whose best friend she killed]] wants to choose [[spoiler:her]], but [[spoiler:Kurogane]] says that if revenge was [[spoiler:his]] goal, then it would make more sense to leave [[spoiler:Tatsuki]], who'd been borderline suicidal ever since [[spoiler:her sister's death]], alive. However, [[spoiler:Kurogane]] understands that [[spoiler:Tatsuki]] has since become TheAtoner, and thus believes that [[spoiler:Tatsuki]] doesn't deserve to die.

!!Examples:

* In the season three finale of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', Enzo brutally defeats [[BigBad Megabyte]]. He’s given the chance to kill him for all the things he’s done but refuses to. Instead, he leaves Megabyte alive so he can spend [[FateWorseThanDeath the rest of his miserable existence alone and crippled, forced to always remember the day he was humiliated in front of the whole world by the same child he once tormented]]. And just for extra mental torture, he notes that the only reason he’s indulging in this is that he thinks Megabyte ''[[NotWorthKilling isn’t worth the trouble of killing]]'', crushing the villain’s fragile ego to bits. [[spoiler:Megabyte tries to take advantage of the cruel mercy to escape... but given [[DraggedOffToHell what ends up happening to him as a result]], he probably wishes he hadn’t.]]

* In ''[[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Danganronpa the Stage]], [[spoiler:[[TheHero Makoto Naegi]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation stops]] [[BigBad Junko Enoshima's]] [[DrivenToSuicide suicide by execution]] for this very reason. Since Junko is only capable of feeling pleasure from despair, be it from others or herself, the worst thing Makoto can do to her is save her life]].

* In ''[[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Danganronpa the Stage]], [[spoiler:[[TheHero Makoto Naegi]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation stops]] [[BigBad Junko Enoshima's]] [[DrivenToSuicide suicide by execution]] for this very reason. Since Junko is only capable of feeling pleasure from despair, be it from others or herself, the worst thing Naegi can do to her is save her life]].

* In ''[[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Danganronpa the Stage]], [[spoiler:[[TheHero Makoto Naegi]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation stops]] [[BigBad Junko Enoshima's]] [[DrivenToSuicide suicide by execution]] for this very reason]].