History Main / MurderIsTheBestSolution

* [[spoiler:Philip Wittebane/Emperor Belos]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' seems to operate under this principle. In "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", [[spoiler:he leaves Luz and Lilith to get eaten by a Slitherbeast so he can get the Collector's tablet, and when the two of them survive, he offers to give them information in exchange for them performing ''another'' sacrifice. He murdered his own brother for falling in love with a witch, cloned him ''dozens'' of times in an attempt to make a better version of him, then killed each of those clones once they stepped out of line. His ultimate plan for the Boiling Isles is to ''[[FinalSolution commit genocide]]'' using the Draining Spell, and once he realizes he can't convince Luz -- the only other human on the Isles -- to see things from his perspective, he tries to petrify her]].

** In an episode of ''Series/CSIMiami'', [[spoiler:a groom-to-be is worried that the stripper he's been seeing will blackmail him and tells his best man to talk to her. The best man's response is to ''put a remote-controlled gun to the bottom of the groom's limo and shoot her.'' Sadly, his MurderTheHypotenuse plot murders the wrong hypotenuse]].

** In "[[Recap/MonkS3E1MrMonkTakesManhattan Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan]]", [[spoiler:Steven Leight has killed his wife (we never really learn why[[note]]It's shown that Leight is sleeping with someone else, but the episode doesn't confirm this to be the motive.[[/note]]) and stolen her jewels to make it look like a mugging. Then, thanks to a coat-check mix-up, another man (a Latvian ambassador) accidentally walks away wearing Leight's coat, with the stolen jewels in the pocket. Leight chases the ambassador back to his hotel, but instead of simply asking for his coat back, he ''shoots down the ambassador and his three bodyguards''. Thanks to this [[SarcasmMode brilliant dose of planning, Leight is now likely going to be facing some international court on top of his wife's murder, so he is an extra level of screwed all because of a damn coat.]]

* Yor Forger from ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' often considers killing people to solve problems they present. As Yor is a HitmanWithAHeart who would NeverHurtAnInnocent, this mainly illustrates how much of a {{cloudcuckoolander}} she is.

* ''Manga/SPYxFamily'': Played for laughs with [[HitmanWithAHeart Yor]]. Terrorist cell has to be dealt with? Kill everyone. Need to steal documents of illegal dealings? Kill everyone guarding them. ''Don't want to be at a party anymore?'' Maybe I should kill all the guests? The subversion is that Yor is ''not'' an evil character and would NeverHurtAnInnocent, but given her profession as an assassin, it's still the first place her brain goes in every situation.

** In "[[Recap/MonkS3E1MrMonkTakesManhattan Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan]]", [[spoiler:Steven Leight has killed his wife (we never really learn why[[note]]It's shown that Leight is sleeping with someone else, but the episode doesn't confirm this to be the motive.[[/note]]) and stolen her jewels to make it look like a mugging. Then, thanks to a coat-check mix-up, another man (a Latvian ambassador) accidentally walks away wearing Leight's coat, with the stolen jewels in the pocket. Leight chases the ambassador back to his hotel, but instead of simply asking for his coat back, he ''shoots down the ambassador and his three bodyguards'']].

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': At the start of the film, the government and most of the public are advocating that the military take over Monarch and try to kill all the [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]], instead of following Monarch's arguments that the Titans are ecologically essential and that seeking coexistence with them is a better option. The world gets extra points for all the Fridge Horror that attempting to off the Titans indiscriminately would entail. The military seems to think the GodzillaThreshold has been crossed when Ghidorah and Rodan are released, but they have ''[[FromBadToWorse no idea]]''.

* ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' has this trope in the whole movie. Tommy is the kind of HairTriggerTemper maniac that would resort to this trope just because someone laughed at him, but his boss Jimmy Conway is the coldly malignant sort who will opt for this because it's his way of saving money (no need to split the take from a heist if everyone else is dead and Jimmy can keep it all) or to get rid of [[StupidCrooks a member of his crew who's drawing too much attention]], and no amount of loyalty, friendship, or past history will save you. In the first 10-15 seconds of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10hAZomrOlc this clip]], you can see the exact moment that he decides that he's had enough of his fellow thieves from the infamous Lufthansa heist engaging in SuspiciousSpending or demanding more money after the heist turned out to be far more lucrative than planned. A cold stare turns into the slightest of [[FascinatingEyebrow raised eyebrows]] and a [[PsychoSmirk momentary smirk]], and just like that the decision to kill around a dozen of his associates has been made. From that moment on all of them are dead, they just don't know it yet.

* A variation is or was apparently used (or so ''Series/{{Alias}}'' claims) on psych tests in real life for those who want to work for certain parts of the US government:

** It's meant to gauge the applicant's attitude towards authority. It ''is'' a valid test question, but only if a proctor is giving the questions and can gauge the reaction. The answer given would most likely be ignored in a written test, which it is implied the character who took the test did.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E20Villains Villains]]", Willow gets DrunkOnTheDarkSide after Warren shoots and kills Tara and automatically decides that Warren ''has'' to be killed despite Buffy's insistence that there are other ways. On top of it all, she's not the only one: both Xander and Dawn are so disgusted and furious with Warren that they declare that he's [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters just as bad as the vampires and demons that Buffy slays regularly]] and fully support Willow's intent to kill... until she actually goes through with it, anyway.
*** And when she gets a power boost and hears "the suffering of all mankind" in an attempt to bring her back to her senses (in a "YouAreNotAlone, people have to weather loved ones dying constantly" way)... nope, she decides [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery killing all of mankind to "end their pain" is the better course of action]].

** In "[[Recap/AngelS04E05Supersymmetry Supersymmetry]]", the minute Fred finds out that Oliver Seidel, her former physics professor, was the one responsible for banishing her to a hell dimension for five years, she goes full GirlWithPsychoWeapon and is out for blood. Gunn argues against Fred killing him, [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim believing that such a brutal act would ultimately destroy her]]. [[spoiler:In the end, Gunn does it himself, snapping Seidel's neck before dropping him into a portal to a hell dimension Fred had opened up as poetic justice. She doesn't take it well, and it's one of the big steps that make her ditch him for Wesley.]]
--->'''Angel:''' We're gonna get this guy.\\
'''Gunn:''' Count on it. He's gonna pay.\\
'''Fred:''' No. He's gonna die.
** In ''Angel'' season 4, after the Angel Investigations team is forced to unleash Angelus to defeat the Beast, Connor repeatedly supports just killing Angelus rather than re-ensouling him to the extent that, when Willow is called in from Sunnydale to [[GypsyCurse curse him again]], Connor tries to stake him before Willow can finish; fortunately, Faith steps in and physically fights him to buy Willow time.

* In ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', there were several examples. Cole was forced to kill a landlord who knows Phoebe's secret and wanted to sell it for money. Phoebe hated him for that. But then, in a later season, Phoebe was held at gunpoint by Rick, a mortal; she hinted to Paige to cast a spell to make Rick look like a target of a bunch of demons. The demons killed him. You could argue that lethal force against someone accosting you with a deadly weapon is a good bit more justified than using lethal force against a mere blackmailer, but Paige ''was'' perfectly capable of taking the guy out non-lethally...
* In the TV film, ''Film/Conspiracy2001'', the Wannsee Conference where the FinalSolution phase of the Holocaust was devised has the Nazis discussing with cold-blooded earnestness why killing the Third Reich's "undesirables" is the best means of dealing with them. At one point, sterilization is suggested as a practical alternative, [[PragmaticVillainy given the chronic shortage of manpower]]. The suggestion is bluntly overruled by Heydrich, who makes it clear that the decision has already been made by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Only one of the men has any genuine moral problems with the mass murder -- the rest are simply discussing ''how best to organize it''.

* In an episode of ''Series/CSIMiami'', [[spoiler:a groom-to-be is worried that the stripper he's been seeing will blackmail him and tells his best man to talk to her. The best man's response is to ''put a remote-controlled gun to the bottom of the groom's limo and shoot her.'' Sadly, his MurderTheHypotenuse plot murdered the wrong hypotenuse..]].
** Really, most of any ''CSI'' franchise would qualify. Even preventing someone from stepping on a cockroach (the doer was a FriendToBugs) merits an impulsive kill. Or catching a groom being a two-timer at his bachelor party (result: tie him down and dump him on a raft far away from the coast, with a good chance of him dying of thirst). An eleven-year-old kid being denied ''one'' cat from the local CrazyCatLady (who doesn't want to part with it, even after the kid points out she has a dozen and it's not as if the cat will be taken far away because they live on the same block) drives the kid to stab the woman to death in [[CreepyChild and be completely unapologetic about it.]] A funeral home's malfunctioning crematorium led to the home's owner swindling people who wanted to cremate their loved ones (which actually happened in RealLife) and kill the couple of people that thought something wasn't kosher (which didn't). A man who doesn't believe his father committed suicide decides to become a ThemeSerialKiller (the "theme" being replicate the father's suicide scene to a "t"). A man had a childhood accident regarding false advertisement of a toy leading to his friend dying -- so he decides, once he's grown and sees how the trauma has made him screwed up his family's life, to give the toy maker an ExplodingCigar capable of ''tearing his head clean off''. Some rich inventor guy in TheThirties doesn't like that a rival of his is going to outlive him so he spends his final days turning his lavish apartment into a death-trap-laden monstrosity worthy of a ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' entry and releases a rumor that he left some treasure behind in the hopes that the rival will eventually enter it and get skewered or boiled or drowned by one of the traps (the man never does -- the VictimOfTheWeek, in 2009, isn't so lucky). Some guy gets pissed off that some JerkAss keeps cheating him out of winning at Scrabble with deliberately bad moves [[ItAmusedMe for the lulz]] and he forces the man to literally swallow the pieces. A PapaWolf gets angry about his daughter's killer being let OffOnATechnicality and he decides to ruin the lawyer that did it, so he hires men to raid the man's yacht during his marriage party and steal his laptop with case files (hiring an additional goon aside from the thief to kill the lawyer's wife who had done absolutely nothing to him and wasn't even part of the other man's life at the moment the killer was set free was explicitly just for the sake of delivering a "how does it feels to lose what you love?" message). The list just goes on, accidental and not.

* On ''Series/{{Elementary}}'':

** The final season is a take on (and maybe TakeThat) to the below ''Person of Interest'' example through the character of tech mogul of Oden Reichenbach, who creates a data-mining application that provides him with information about potential murderers, and he decides to become a secret JudgeJuryAndExecutioner rather than, say, provide this information to the police. Sherlock even points out that [[InternetJerk people saying they are going to commit crimes in Facebook is more often than not them just venting or being jerks]] rather than, you know, planning murder ([[TruthInTelevision not that it hasn't happened]], but statistics are on Sherlock's side), but Reichenbach is [[KnightTemplar too crazy to care]].

* [[spoiler:Head!Amber]] in ''Series/{{House}}'' swings this way occasionally.

'''[[spoiler:Amber:]]''' We could kill Foreman.\\

'''[[spoiler:Amber:]]''' We could tell him his girlfriend dumped him.\\

'''[[spoiler:Amber:]]''' We could kill her.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'':
** Many of the killers have this mindset, but here's a stand-out example: In "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan", [[spoiler:Steven Leight has killed his wife (we never really learn why[[note]]It's shown that Leight is sleeping with someone else, but the episode doesn't confirm this to be the motive.[[/note]]) and stolen her jewels to make it look like a mugging. Then, thanks to a coat-check mix-up, another man (a Latvian ambassador) accidentally walks away wearing Leight's coat, with the stolen jewels in the pocket. Leight chases the ambassador back to his hotel, but instead of simply asking for his coat back, he ''shoots down the ambassador and his three bodyguards'']].
** [[spoiler:Monk [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge didn't like it]] ''[[ItsPersonal at all]]'' when he found out (on the GrandFinale) that his wife had been a victim of this trope, courtesy of a SleazyPolitician (it's "sleazy" instead of "corrupt" because the reason for the murder (covering up an affair she had with him when she was his student.) wasn't even ''that'' serious in hindsight). Of course, it does become more "corrupt" when it's revealed he murdered the midwife who had delivered Trudy's baby...]]
** In "Mr. Monk And The Airplane", [[spoiler:one of the murderers in a duo is impersonating her victim in a flight on the way to France where they hope to avoid extradition to the US in the event that they get tied to murder. During the flight, they meet one of the victim's acquaintances, who becomes confused when the murderer impersonating the victim is unable to speak French. They decide he is too suspicious of them, and tie up the loose end by poisoning his wine on the flight]].

** In "Donor", Dr. Peter Halstead, who has terminal cancer, is to be the first recipient of a full-body transplant. However, he has rare blood and tissue types which makes it difficult to find a compatible donor. Peter's colleague Dr. Renee Stuyvescent, who is madly in love with him, discovers that a man named Timothy Laird is compatible and murders him so that Peter can have his body. After Peter becomes close to Timothy's widow Deirdre, Renee plans to kill Deirdre to remove the threat that she poses to her warped idea of living happily ever after with Peter but she is less successful this time.
** In "Simon Says", Gideon Banks hits his boss Ron Hikida over the head with a fireplace poker, killing him instantly, when he tries to take the robot with his son Simon's memories away from him on the grounds that he was built using equipment stolen from Concorde Robotics and therefore belongs to the company.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/35981173/chapters/89696758 you turned out to be the best thing i never had]]'', this seems to be the case with Plagg, as Adrien has to tell him murder is off the table when dealing with another class that Lila had manipulated to bully her former classmates. Later, Tikki initially shuts down a plan from Plagg thinking this trope is in effect, [[SubvertedTrope only for Plagg to actually have a non-murder solution on hand]].

* Kira (Light Yagami), of ''Manga/DeathNote''. Admittedly, [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer it was the only hammer the man had]], but everything from mass murderers to interfering police officers were treated like nails.

* Turned [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to 11]] by [[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyModern Drax the Destroyer]] in the ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' ComicBook/SecretInvasion tie-in. Since the only surefire way to detect Skrulls is that [[ThisWasHisTrueForm they revert to their true form when killed]], his solution to the threat of Skrull infiltrators is to kill ''every single person in Knowhere''. Oh, and then resuscitate them all. And it works.

** Zigzagged in the second series. People [[ReSetButton constantly kill Mr. Boddy]] for petty reasons, such as because they can't take the time to talk through innocent misunderstandings, stomach a drawn-out but winnable lawsuit (in one story, Mrs. Peacock notes that "rather than fight John in court, it seemed easier to push him down the stairs") or use deception to keep him from finding something out, but often there are other characters in the same story who defy this.

** Jagganoth, the Demiurge of Wrath, lives and breathes this trope. As a former ChildSoldier and a ShellShockedVeteran, he is incapable of seeing non-violent solutions to problems. Everything, up to and including the CrapsackWorld state of the universe that's InherentInTheSystem due to the flaws in God's work, is a problem to be solved using Violence, [[OmnicidalManiac with predictable results for what his 'solutions' mean for everyone else]].

* ComicBook/TheQuestion decides that he must kill [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] to prevent an Armageddon-level war from breaking out between the WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague and the United States government, reasoning that the League's reputation could survive the actions of a crackpot like him, but would be crushed if Franchise/{{Superman}} were the one to kill Luthor (since the Superman of another timeline did so and the Question believes the same thing will happen here if he doesn't do it first). Unfortunately for him, Luthor had recently [[EmpoweredBadassNormal got super powers]].

* [[spoiler:Philip Wittebane/Emperor Belos]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' seems to operate under this principle. In "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", [[spoiler:he leaves Luz and Lilith to get eaten by a Slitherbeast so he can get the Collector's tablet, and when the two of them survive, he offers to give them information in exchange for them performing ''another'' sacrifice. He murdered his own brother for falling in love with a witch, cloned him ''dozens'' of times in an attempt to make a better version of him, then killed each of those clones once they stepped out of line. His ultimate plan for the Boiling Isles is to ''[[FinalSolution commit genocide]]'' using the Draining Spell, and once he realizes he can't convince Luz -- the only other human on the Isles -- to see things from his perspective, he tries to petrify her.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' does this a lot. In one episode, Dr. Venture orders Brock to kill people so he can create more Venturesteins. Brock refuses. In another episode, Brock goes to the Moppets to get them to hurt a kid who disrespected him, but they only seem interested in killing the kid (with a knife!). Brock earlier admitted that he usually kills people who disrespect him, but the kid was underage so he couldn't touch him. And when told to downsize his command staff, the Monarch executes his minions rather than transferring them. Another episode had Hank (who accidentally injected a hallucinogenic drug into himself) convinced that the only way to be with Brock's Russian ex-girlfriend is to kill his father.