History Main / OnlyICanKillHim

->''"I admit you're very skilled. But [[LampshadeHanging apparently]] [[ArchEnemy Cloud]] is the only one who can eliminate [[EnemyMine me]]."''

->''"I admit you're very skilled. But apparently [[ArchEnemy Cloud]] is the only one who can eliminate [[EnemyMine me]]."''

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': Fighting his way through an skirmish between the IAA, FIB and Merryweather, Michael finds himself pinned down by an attack helicopter from the mercenary group. His rescue comes in the form of none other than Trevor, who snipes the pilot, sending him down, followed by this exchange:

* A recurring element in ''MetalGear''. The Patriots have something to do with all the subsequent incidents.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'': The Boss would accept nothing less than to die at the hands of the greatest soldiers she knew. Turns out, that includes her best student John. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this trope was forced on her by her enemies in Langley; they goaded a psychopath into firing a ''nuke'' and the only way to prevent World War III was to ensure that the person who gave him that nuke would be executed by her own disciple.]]
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'': Raiden was selected from the list because he was the most appropriate person to take Solidus Snake out; Solidus raised Raiden as a child soldier, commanding a RedshirtArmy of children while Raiden was HIS prized warrior. [[spoiler:The real reason is that, of all the soldiers Solidus raised from kids, Raiden was the farthest away from Skull Face that a butcher could get.]]
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'': And when Ocelot was possessed by Liquid, Snake declares that he's the only one meant to kill him. [[spoiler:Or just Ocelot. As it turns out, the new Foxdie patch did that just fine.]]

* Justified in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender.'' Only the Avatar, The Master of the Four Elements, can stop Fire Lord ''and'' restore balance among the four {{Elemental Nation}}s. [[spoiler:Iroh]], who is the only one who can match the Fire Lord in battle, himself admits that if anyone else were to do it, it would be seen by history as senseless violence, or a power struggle.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': [[spoiler: Only Noel can kill Caius.]]
** [[spoiler: [[FinalBoss But others can help make him much weaker.]] ]]
** [[spoiler: [[MultipleEndings Or Serah and her monster alone.]] ]]
** [[spoiler: Except, Surprise!, Caius will use Noel's sword to [[MortonsFork kill himself anyway]] even if you decide to spare him, which either means that Noel's never-referred-to-as-special-in-any-way-at-any-point-in-the-plot sword is the ACTUAL only thing that can kill Caius, or else the writers simply [[PlotHole didn't think this through]].]]

** An example where it's ''someone else'' rather than the player character who must inflict the killing blow: When fighting Kudlak, non-controllable ally Mari must be the one to inflict the finishing blow, or else story events will be affected very negatively. For what it's worth, if Kaido is in the fight, his attacks will never bring Kudlak's HP below 1, leaving Mari free to [[CherryTapping poke him dead]].

** Beldr on Day 3 is immune to everything except devil's fuge (i.e. mistletoe), and [[PlayerCharacter you]] happen to be the only combatant with it when you fight him, which means no one else -- not your human allies, not your demons -- can damage him. This gives the boss battle with him the unique defeat condition of "player dies", unlike in other battles where the battle can continue as long as at least one team leader on your side is still in fighting condition, even if you personally bite it. [[spoiler:When you rematch him in the Day 7 BossRush, once again you're the only character who can damage him.]]

** Beldr on Day 3 is immune to everything except devil's fuge (i.e. mistletoe), and [[PlayerCharacter you]] happen to be the only combatant with it when you fight him, which means no one else -- not your human allies, not your demons -- can damage him. This gives the boss battle with him the unique defeat condition of "player dies", unlike in other games where the battle can continue as long as at least one team leader on your side is still in fighting condition. [[spoiler:When you rematch him in the Day 7 BossRush, once again you're the only character who can damage him.]]

->''"I admit you're very skilled. But it seems [[ArchEnemy Cloud]] is the only one who can eliminate [[EnemyMine me]]."''

* Subverted in ''Literature/HarryPotter''. At the end of the fifth book, Harry learns that Voldemort first attacked him because of a prophecy saying a rival would appear with the power to defeat Voldemort, and Harry fit the criteria. During the sixth, Dumbledore explains that if they both said "We're not playing," and walked away, the prophecy would be meaningless. Voldemort is too paranoid to ignore a possible threat, and has given Harry plenty of reasons to fight back. Further, the prophecy in question specifically says, "Neither can live while the other survives.", which doesn't exactly rule out someone ''else'' killing either Voldemort or Harry. However, Voldemort feels that he has something to prove by killing Harry personally, while Harry would rather have danger focused on himself rather than other people, so he feels compelled to be the one to challenge Voldemort to protect others.

->''"I must be the one to kill Harry Potter."''
-->-- '''Voldemort''', ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''

* Happens all the time in Manga/{{Bleach}}, but most strangely in the Captain Amagai FillerArc. [[spoiler:Ichigo has almost nothing to do with Amagai; he only meets him for the first time shortly before he fights and defeats him. And this is in a city filled with BadAss captains. The only possible reason he would have for being the one to kill him is because he can overcome Amagai's zanpakuto-suppressing ability. Despite the fact that Captain-Commander Yamamoto, who actually ''does'' have a history with Amagai and is the target of his misguided revenge plot, is more than capable of fighting with only his bare hands.]]

* In ''{{Starcraft}}'', only Zeratul is able to kill the Cerebrates in the original game's penultimate mission, if the kill is done by any other unit the Cerebrate regenerates. Due to a glitch with location triggers it's possible for another unit to kill the Cerebrate for good while Zeratul is directly nearby, but the intent is for him to do it. In the expansion the player repeats the process in some missions using generic Dark Templar in place of Zeratul to the same effect.
** In ''StarcraftII'', several future prophecies specify that Kerrigan is ''absolutely vital'' to opposing the BigBad. This leads several characters, who in the previous game swore to kill her or die trying, actually saving her life and helping her. [[spoiler:It turns out to be because Kerrigan is the only living being with sufficient native power to ascend into a new Xel'Naga, which is the only thing powerful enough to challenge the BigBad's might (given that he ''is'' a Xel'Naga). Plus, having her around means the BigBad can't just mind-control the entire Zerg Swarm into being his slaves... he still tries and partially succeeds, but now Kerrigan is fighting him for control every step of the way.]]

** Also averted by Season 5. Buffy might actually do the beating (with a shitton of help) but Giles does the killing.

* Storm Shadow in ''GIJoeRenegades'' needs to be the one to kill Snake Eyes in order to avenge [[spoiler: the death of his uncle, the Hard Master]] and save face with his clan. He's also the only member of Cobra with a chance of actually defeating him one-on-one.

* While not 'kill', it was revealed in the second episode of ''WebAnimation/MightyMagiswords'' that only Vambre can hurt Prohyas (it makes sense since they are siblings).

* Subverted once again in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990'', in which the main protagonists, the four turtles, attempt to defeat the BigBad Shredder, and one by one they fail utterly. Shredder can only be defeated by the intervention of the previously hermitic ObiWan of the turtles, Splinter.

** Subverted in ''Manga/RaveMaster'' with the BigBad Hardner. TheHero Haru Glory was able to defeat this foe ''only'' because Hardner had already fought and defeated one of Haru's friends in battle immediately before Haru arrived. [[spoiler: The two fights back-to-back wore down the regeneration abilities Hardner possessed which rendered him virtually immortal, leaving him vulnerable to take more damage than he could heal.]]
** Justified in ''Anime/ShootfighterTekken'' by the main hero's father having become a pacifist at this point, but since his son shows an unstoppable drive to face down the BigBad anyway, he tutors him specifically to do so. Lampshaded by other characters fighting other mooks, or being ambushed by them, but everyone in the entire series knowing and stating only the hero can take on Iron Kiba. In hospital scenes and conversations between trainers, it's acknowledged even further. Only Kiba does not seem to know, [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou as he is completely focused on the hero's father instead]] because of their battle in the past, and views the kid as being little more than a training exercise. Interestingly, he was nearly proven right, as the hero didn't take the fight seriously at first, and the first 60 seconds was essentially a cock-measuring contest of insults and posturing, each believing the other wasn't a serious challenge.
** Happens all the time in Manga/{{Bleach}}, but most strangely in the Captain Amagai FillerArc. [[spoiler:Ichigo has almost nothing to do with Amagai; he only meets him for the first time shortly before he fights and defeats him. And this is in a city filled with BadAss captains. The only possible reason he would have for being the one to kill him is because he can overcome Amagai's zanpakuto-suppressing ability. Despite the fact that Captain-Commander Yamamoto, who actually ''does'' have a history with Amagai and is the target of his misguided revenge plot, is more than capable of fighting with only his bare hands.]]
*** The Bount FillerArc is almost as bad; the villain Kariya has little interaction with Ichigo and instead establishes himself as a nemesis to TheLancer Uryu. But when Uryu fights him, he inexplicably overlooks a chance to strike a killing blow and the artifact temporarily restoring his powers breaks, leaving it to Ichigo to finish the battle.

* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'' spends quite a lot of time saying how Richard is destined to kill Darken Rahl with the Sword of Truth. It's the same in [[SwordOfTruth the book]], except there he's explicitly told that the magic of Orden means he ''can't'' use the sword to do it.
* Subverted in the LeftBehind books as [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]] demands that nobody can even defeat Satan and the Antichrist except for Jesus Christ. The Antichrist does get killed partway through the Tribulation, BecauseDestinySaysSo, but as he is resurrected by the indwelling of Satan for the remainder of the Tribulation, the Christians during that time will have to wait for Jesus to come again in order for the Antichrist to be sent to the Lake of Fire.

* Subverted a couple of times in ''Manga/DragonBall''. In the first case, General Red, the leader of the Red Ribbon Army, a criminal organization that's made an enemy of Goku, is killed off by [[spoiler:[[TheDragon his assistant]], General Black]]. In the second instance, Goku [[spoiler:dies during Cell's rampage, so his son Gohan ultimately kills Cell instead]].

* Subverted once again in the original ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' movie, in which the main protagonists, the four turtles, attempt to defeat the BigBad Shredder, and one by one they fail utterly. Shredder can only be defeated by the intervention of the previously hermitic ObiWan of the turtles, Splinter.