History Main / EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes

* Played straight in ''Literature/HarryPotter:'' Voldemort ''was'' going to spare [[spoiler:Lily Evans-Potter]] when [[spoiler:Snape]] asked him to, but as soon as [[MamaBear she made it slightly difficult]] (he would have had to ''push her out of the way'' and all) he just decided to kill her too. As a result [[spoiler:Snape]] sacrifices everything to ensure Voldemort's downfall, and the best part is that Voldemort seems [[EvilCannotComprehendGood completely ignorant]] that he just gave one of his most promising lieutenants a perfect reason to want him dead.
** Also used with the Malfoy family in ''Half-Blood Prince'' and ''Deathly Hallows''-Voldemort punishes Lucius for his various screw-ups by letting Draco join the Death Eaters and putting him on what is essentially a suicide mission. Both Lucius and his wife Narcissa are obviously driven out of their minds with fear by this and Draco makes it pretty apparent by the end of the book that he is only going through with the mission to keep Voldemort from killing his parents. By the last book, it is pretty clear that none of the Malfoys want to serve Voldemort anymore and simply want to all get each other out alive. [[spoiler:This clears the way for Narcissa to actually ''lie to Voldemort's face'' about whether or not Harry is dead, ''just so that she and Lucius could find Draco again''. Voldemort is a confirmed expert of Legilimency; lying to him and getting away with it is VERY difficult... [[MamaBear and she still did it]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome and got away with it]].]].

* ''FanFic/ABrighterDark'': Somewhere near the the beginning, [[FireEmblemFates Corrin and company]] are tasked with capturing a fort, an attack that results in the death of almost everyone in the building. Nothing is really made of it, and only the commander is given any kind of characterization before his untimely demise. Then later one [[spoiler: we get to meet the father of one of the people stationed there, without even having any idea of ''which'' mook he's the father of, who says that the death of his son motivated him to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Nohr. [[WhatTheHellHero Ouch.]]]]

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' the heroes destroy the city's Earth-based Kandrona, and as a result, numerous Yeerks starve to death. One Controller, however, is furious at [[BigBad Visser Three]] for deeming a loved one too unimportant to save, and plots with [[YouKilledMyFather Ax]] to arrange his assassination.

* Played straight and very effectively in Creator/JamesFenimoreCooper's ''The Last of the Mohicans''. After a battle in which Hawkeye and his companions kill a number of nameless Hurons who for the most part are described without individual traits, the perspective switches to the Hurons and Magua eulogizes them in a speech to the other braves. The reader then learns that the dead have names and that they are and will be mourned by their friends and families, some of whom are also mentioned by name. Later on there is a scene which shows the deep emotional pain felt by the father of another Huron warrior. Because his son was executed for cowardice and disowned by the tribe, the father is forced to [[IHaveNoSon publicly deny he is his son and not to show sorrow over his death]], but his pain is so palpable that the tribal elders cannot help to feel pity for him.

* In a ''CaptainAmerica'' issue where ComicBook/{{Hydra}} was planning massive destruction across the US. Before launching the attack they had set up safe havens for family of members and had set up a department in charge of moving these people to safety. For an organization that kills its minions with impunity, they showed surprisingly good people skills on this one.

* One of the statistics that ''AlphaProtocol'' keeps track of is the number of orphans the player creates when he kills mooks, to the extent that where you are in the world affects how many orphans are created. In China it's only one orphan per man killed, for example.
* VideoGame/DeusEx lets you meet the parents of a Majestic 12 troop in a cafe. The mother begs you to spare him, while the father feels he deserves what's coming to him.
* In MapleStory, the Demon Slayer character rebelled against the Dark Mage for this reason.

--> ''' First Mook: ''' The Joker told me to kill my sister. Told him I didn't have one.
--> ''' Second Mook: ''' What'd he say?
--> ''' First Mook: ''' He still told me to kill my sister, so I did. Ran over the first bitch I saw. It didn't matter, Joker seemed to get a kick out of it.
* There is a form of this in VideoGame/MassEffect3. Background chatter between Alliance members, people on your side, has one private confessing that her deadbeat brother joined Cerberus, and she doesn't want to have to kill him. Since all the enemies the player fights in the game are to some extent mindlessly loyal and slavishly dedicated - you can find journal entries that the private's brother made before and after "integration" that prove it - none of them hesitate or switch sides, but people who aren't over the edge can. Rila, a woman falling under indoctrination who just tried to strangle her sister, gains control of herself for long enough to send her away so she can [[TakingYouWithMe take a lot of Banshees with her]].

* This shows up in one of the Tom Raney-drawn ''{{Stormwatch}}'' prequel comics. The Dragon is okay with nuking anyone -but- his family. Lord Helspon didn't care.

* One of the statistics that ''AlphaProtocol'' keeps track of is the number of orphans the player creates when he kills mooks, to the extent that where you are in the world affects [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything how many orphans are created]]. In China it's only one orphan per man killed, for example.

* In ''Series/{{Elementary}}'', the trope comes up in a phone message to one of Moriarty's mooks that Sherlock decodes too late: [[spoiler:"Moran you never told me you had a sister. She dies or you do. Your choice." He chooses the latter]].

* In ''Series/{{Elementary}}, the trope comes up in a phone message to one of Moriarty's mooks that Sherlock decodes too late: [[spoiler:"Moran you never told me you had a sister. She dies or you do. Your choice." He chooses the latter]].

* [[{{Joker}} A mini-series]] focusing on the Joker was told from the perspective of one of Joker's henchmen, a man named Frost. During the story he is revealed to have a whole normal family. This comes back to bite him later when the Joker rapes his wife and when questioned why states that it makes him and Frost even after Joker saved Frost's life during a heist.

* A few scenes from the first ''AustinPowers'' movie (which were cut from the American release, [[RegionalBonus but included in most international ones]]) are cutaways about the friends and loved ones of guards Austin kills being informed: one with friends at his bachelor party wondering why he's late, and the other his girlfriend and her son (who considers the guard a substitute father figure).

* In Film/DreDd, Judge Anderson gets an OhCrap moment when she realizes the woman who just risked her own life to help them is the wife of one of the mooks she recently gunned down.

* ''[[TheOmen Omen]] III: The Final Conflict''. The wife of Damien Thorne's right hand man had a baby at a time that the Christ Child is scheduled to be born. When Thorne orders the death of all the babies born during that time, the aide lies about when the baby was born so he won't have to kill him.[[spoiler: Not that it does him any good.]]
* A few scenes from the first AustinPowers movie (which were cut from the American release, [[RegionalBonus but included in most international ones]]) are cutaways about the friends and loved ones of guards Austin kills being informed: one with friends at his bachelor party wondering why he's late, and the other his girlfriend and her son (who considers the guard a substitute father figure).

* In Film/Dredd, Judge Anderson gets an OhCrap moment when she realizes the woman who just risked her own life to help them is the wife of one of the mooks she recently gunned down.

* Played straight and very effectively in Creator/JamesFenimoreCooper's ''The Last of the Mohicans''. After a battle in which Hawkeye and his companions kill a number of nameless Hurons who for the most part are described without individual traits, the perspective switches to the Hurons and Magua eulogizes them in a speech to the other braves. The reader then learns that the dead have names and that they are and will be mourned by their friends and families, some of whom are also mentioned by name. Later on there is a scene which shows the deep emotional pain felt by the father of another Huron warrior. Because his son was executed for cowardice and disowned by the tribe, the father is forced to [[IHaveNoSon publicly deny he is his son and not to show sorrow over his death]], but his pain is so palpable that the tribal elders cannot help to fell pity for him.

* Played straight and very effectively in JamesFenimoreCooper's ''The Last of the Mohicans''. After a battle in which Hawkeye and his companions kill a number of nameless Hurons who for the most part are described without individual traits, the perspective switches to the Hurons and Magua eulogizes them in a speech to the other braves. The reader then learns that the dead have names and that they are and will be mourned by their friends and families, some of whom are also mentioned by name. Later on there is a scene which shows the deep emotional pain felt by the father of another Huron warrior. Because his son was executed for cowardice and disowned by the tribe, the father is forced to [[IHaveNoSon publicly deny he is his son and not to show sorrow over his death]], but his pain is so palpable that the tribal elders cannot help to fell pity for him.

* One of the New Gods (Beautiful Dreamer) poses as a mook's mother in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''. When the rest of the New Gods (plus Superboy] appear, he actually moves to protect her and tells her to get to safety, until Dreamer drops the disguise.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' has a Kobra operative accidentally warn Batman about an upcoming heist when he warns his brother than his bank is going to be targeted by Kobra.

* Film/JamesBond tricks Hugo Drax into implying that Jaws' girlfriend will not be one of those be allowed to live according to his master plan in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' in order to get Jaws to do a HeelFaceTurn.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWingEndlessWaltz'', we are shown the background of the real Operation Meteor supposedly carried by the Gundam Pilots, [[spoiler:they were supposed to do a ColonyDrop on Earth, and then use the destruction and chaos to use the Gundams to conquer Earth.]] Naturally, the pilots and the supervisors didn't go along with this, except for [[spoiler:the ''real'']] Trowa Barton, who [[spoiler:got shot by a technician who had family on Earth. The current Trowa Barton is a another nameless technician who'd happened to be around, and then tasked by the supervisor to bring the Gundams to earth and carrying out a more specified task: making hell on OZ.]]

** You can't forget the distress in his parents' voices and the looks on their faces when they see what's happening to their son, as Good Cop's face is erased and Bad Cop is unable to get up for a moment or so as he feels for his lost face. Neither the horrified look on his face when Lord Business reveals that he's using his parents, Bad Cop barely able to move either his face or his body out of shock except to say, "Mummy, Daddy, what are you doing here?" in a childlike voice, who have yet to fathom the horror that GCBC has just about realised. The juxtaposition of sadistic pleasure on Lord Business' face and voice in the same frame just twists the knife in the gut even further.

* A few scenes from the first AustinPowers movie (which were cut from the American release, [[RegionalBonus but included in most international ones]]) are cutaways about the friends and loved ones of guards Austin kills being informed; one the friends at his bachelor party wondering why he's late, and the other his girlfriend and her son (who considers the guard a substitute father figure).

* Played straight in ''Literature/HarryPotter:'' Voldemort ''was'' going to spare [[spoiler:Lily Evans-Potter]] when [[spoiler:Snape]] asked him to, but as soon as [[MamaBear she made it slightly difficult]] (he would have had to ''push her out of the way'' and all) he just decided to kill her too. As a result [[spoiler:Snape]] sacrifices everything to ensure Voldemort's downfall, and the best part is that Voldemort seems [[EvilCannotComprehendGood completely ignorant]] that he just gave one of his most promising lieutenants perfect reason to want him dead.
** Also used with the Malfoy family in ''Half-Blood Prince'' and ''Deathly Hallows'' - Voldemort punishes Lucius for his various screw-ups by letting Draco join the Death Eaters and putting him on what is essentially a suicide mission. Both Lucius and his wife Narcissa are obviously driven out of their minds with fear by this and Draco makes it pretty apparent by the end of the book that he is only going through with the mission to keep Voldemort from killing his parents. By the last book, it is pretty clear that none of the Malfoys want to serve Voldemort anymore and simply want to all get each other out alive. [[spoiler:This clears the way for Narcissa to actually ''lie to Voldemort's face'' about whether or not Harry is dead, ''just so that she and Lucius could find Draco again''. Voldemort is a confirmed expert of Legilimency; lying to him and getting away with it is VERY difficult... [[MamaBear and she still did it]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome and got away with it]].]].

* ''Series/WonderWoman'': When a mook discovers that the villain is planning to use a laser to destroy [[spoiler: Phoenix, Arizona]], he yells that he has family there, and tries to stop him. [[spoiler: He fails, but his action gives Wonder Woman time to save the day. And to be fair, it wasn't clear that he knew the villain was planning to do anything criminal.]]