History Main / RewardedAsATraitorDeserves

* ''{{Romance of the Three Kingdoms}}'' seems to averted this trope: good civil servants and military officers were lacking, after all. Several officers that would become practically synonymous with one of the Three Kingdoms started out fighting that kingdom (Zhange He, Zhang Liao, Taishi Ci, Gan Ning, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong to name a few) and none were thought any less honourable for having switched sides. They however, all changed allegiance after their lord was dead or surrendered and even then they did it openly. For backstabbers and people who actively betray their lords this trope is played dead straight.
** Lu Bu: See real life, below.
** Miao Ze: Betrayed a plot to assassinate Cao Cao in order to [[MurderTheHypotenuse marry a concubine of one of the conspirators]]. When Cao Cao learned his motivation, he had Miao and the woman executed.
--->'''Miao Ze:''' I desire no reward, only Chunxiang for a wife.\\
'''Cao Cao:''' For the sake of a woman, you destroyed your brother's entire family. A man so faithless does not deserve to live.
** Yang Song: An officer of Zhang Lu who received several bribes from multiple sides. When his lord surrendered to Wei, Zhang Lu and most of Zhang's surviving officers and officials were given positions in Cao Cao's administration. Yang Song was passed over, and when he went to Cao to complain, Cao had him executed.

* Another historical example is Lu Bu who begs for his life, but Liu Bei reminded Cao Cao that Lu Bu had already betrayed three people (including Liu Bei), killing the other two. In the novel they contrast this with Zhang Liao, who mocks Cao Cao and is prepared to die, until Guan Yu and Liu Bei beg Cao Cao to spare him. Since he's an honorable warrior, Cao Cao does and Zhang Liao becomes one of his greatest generals.
** Could you please give us some context on this one?

* In the ''{{Hellsing}}'' manga, the captain of a battleship turns it over to Millennium (turning the rest of the crew into ghouls in the process) in exchange for becoming a vampire. Rip Van Winkle arrives, congratulates him, informs him that his new orders are to "provide nutrients for the fish" and blows him away with her gun.

* In ''{{Warhammer 40000}}: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade'', during the Imperial Guard stronghold assault, the Guard's Fifth Company can be turned rogue and allied to the attackers' faction by killing their [[BadBoss Commissar]]. After the battle, if you were playing as the Space Marines, you see the Marines executing the Fifth Guard. They may have fought on the Marines' side, but helpful treason is still treason...
** The real irony here is that the surviving Guardsmen who did not side with the Space Marines were sent back to Segmentum Command, with honor for refusing to betray their regiment.
*** This is because at the ''best'' of times, the Imperium could be reliably classified as LawfulNeutral shading towards LawfulStupid.

The villain approaches one of the good guys, often having captured them first. The good guy is then offered a deal: if he will help the villain by [[BetrayalTropes betraying]] his comrades, he will be amply rewarded with money, a high-ranking position in the villain's organization, or something else that would be attractive. [[Laconic/RewardedAsATraitorDeserves He accepts the bargain, and keeps his end of it]].

* ''{{Superman}} 2''. Lex Luthor betrays the human race by allying with the Kryptonian super villains and leading them to Lois Lane so they can find Superman. After he does this [[BigBad General Zod]] orders [[TheDragon Non]] to murder him, and he's only saved by the arrival of Superman.

* ''DoctorWho'': Newly elected PM Harold Saxon begins his first cabinet meeting by calling his ministers traitors for abandoning their parties to support him once they saw the votes swinging his way. He ends it by [[BoardToDeath gassing them to death]].

* In ''Webcomic/[[{{Ptitle6n0n2muo}} Rusty and Co.]]'' Mimic and Rusty once were rewarded with "[[http://rustyandco.com/comic/level3/level-3-21/ nothing less than what they deserve]]".

** Let's clarify: Dr. Beetle, the much beloved ruler-of-unclear-position of Beetleburg (I'm not sure if he's supposed to be the mayor or a slightly more tyrannical sort of leader, but in general he's a popular one whatever you'd actually call him), dies as a result of Silas Merlot's unnecessarily dramatic actions. Merlot attempts to toady up to Baron Wulfenbach and formulate a plan to hide Dr. Beetle's death-whereupon the Baron commands that Dr. Beetle be given a funeral with highest honors, the exact details of his death hidden from the public, and, just to illustrate to Merlot how hard he's fucked up, Merlot is put in charge of Beetleburg and the University. Merlot, having never much liked our protagonist Agatha, expels her on the spot for sheer petty spite. Later, a team of Wulfenbach's cryptographers decode Dr. Beetle's encrypted notes, revealing Agatha's true identity to Merlot, who begins a frantic search for her, which fails (because she's already on Castle Wulfenbach). Merlot thinks that if Wulfenbach found out who Merlot let slip through his fingers, it would be curtains-so he destroys all evidence, from the labs and record halls to ''the cryptographers'', in a fire. Wulfenbach finds out about Merlot's attempts to hide his fuckuppery and ''that's'' when he sends him to Castle Heterodyne. What has two thumbs and hates traitors with a passion? Klaus Wulfenbach. How ya doin'.

** Could you please give us some cpontext on this one?

* According to TheBible, King David was fighting a civil war against King Saul's successor, Ish-Bosheth, and two opportunistic officers assassinated the enemy king and presented his head to David in anticipation of a reward. He executed the traitors, cut off their hands and feet, and hung their corpses up by the pool at Hebron as a warning to others. As for Ish-Bosheth, David ordered him buried with full honors.
** There's another level here, too. Would ''you'' like it if someone presented you with the head of your late best friend's kid brother?
** This is also in keeping with how he treated an Amalekite who came bringing his predecessor Saul's crown and armband, claiming to have done a mercy-killing on Saul himself. Although David presumably found out later (after executing him) that the man was lying, he cited his decision concerning this other man to Ish-Bosheth's murderers, pointing out that what they'd done was far worse.
* {{The Bible}} has two very brutal inversions. The first one: Balaam showed his loyalty to Yahweh even though his life was at risk and blessed the Israelites rather than cursing them as God told him to. He was massacred along with all of the other Midianites due to the blessing; if he had turned his back on God he wouldn't have died.
** He was killed for trying to have it both ways. He wouldn't betray God by pronouncing a curse where a blessing was required, but he still wanted the reward that the Midianites were offering to him. So he taught them how they could [[XanatosGambit turn the Israelites away from the commandments of God and bring His curse upon themselves,]] making him a pretty straight example of this trope.
* Second one: The prostitute Rahab gave aid and comfort to two Israelite spies, allowing them to bring back information that allowed them to annihilate Jericho. [[OmnicidalManiac Joshua]] spared her and her family, which has descendants to this day.
** This only begins to describe Rahab's reward. After the Battle of Jericho, Rahab married an Israelite soldier and ultimately became King David's great-great-grandmother, making her a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ!

* Done with a twist, in ''This Rough Magic'' by MercedesLackey. EricFlint and Dave Freer the Hungarians threaten a man's son in order to get him to give the location of some of the heroes. The man does this and finds his son has been killed like normal, but then the heroes help the man to escape with his life and tell him to go tell everyone about this, which helps the heroes defeat them in the end. More Heroes should be this smart.

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* In TheBible, King David is fighting a civil war against King Saul's successor, Ish-bosheth, and two opportunistic officers assassinate the enemy king and present his head to David in anticipation of a reward. David makes a big show of grieving for the man he "loved like a father." He executes the traitors and buries the king's body with full honors.
** There's another level here, too. Would ''you'' like it if someone presented you with the head of your late best friend's kid brother?
* {{The Bible}} has two very cruel inversions. The first one: Balaam shows loyalty to Yahweh even though his life was at risk and blesses the Israelites rather than curses them as God told him to. He's massacred along with all of the other Midianites due to the blessing; if he had turned his back on God he wouldn't have died.
** He was killed for trying to have it both ways. He wouldn't betray God by pronouncing a curse where a blessing was required, but he still wanted the reward that the Midianites were offering to him. So he taught them how they could [[XanatosGambit turn the Israelites away from the commandments of God and bring His curse upon themselves,]] making him a pretty straight example of this trope.
* Second one: The prostitute Rahab gives aid and comfort to two Israelite spies, allowing them to bring back information that lets them kill the death out of Jericho. [[OmnicidalManiac Joshua]] spared her and her family for selling out her family, which has descendants even to this day.
** That doesn't adequately describe Rahab's reward. After the Battle of Jericho, Rahab married an Israelite soldier and ultimately became King David's great-great-grandmother, making her a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ!
[[/folder]]

* Kings are historically cruel to the assassins of other kings, for the very selfish reason that they don't want to make regicide cool.
** After Pompey had lost the civil war against Julius Caesar, he fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated by the very people he thought would give him shelter. Julius Caesar made a big show of being outraged, and mourned his enemy like a friend. Dirty Egyptians are not supposed to murder Roman patricians, after all.
*** The main instigator of Pompey's death, [[EvilChancellor Pothinus]], was indeed incarcerated and executed at Caesar's orders. What he didn't get was that though presenting the head of the enemy on a plate was somewhat common and rewarded in the Middle East, [[ValuesDissonance it was unheard of, and so depised, among the Romans]].
** In Snorre's sagas of the old Norwegian kings, King Olav has beaten one of the last great pagan leaders, and said leader has gone into hiding. The King promises to place a ring around the neck of whoever brings him his enemy (likely so he can publicly baptize him, a stronger victory for the Christian king). The pagan leader's thrall, Kark, who has fled with him, hears of this and kills his master for teh reward... and Olav repays him by cutting his head off, indeed giving him a ring around his neck -- just bloody, instead of gold.

** He did it all the time -- proposed high positions in his army to the honourable opponents captured alive, but killing those who helped him by treason. The reasoning was presumably that no-one wants such people at their side after the victory. Also, his agenda (which is why Temujin was made a Khan) included the codification of customary law, and the traditions in question has a very dim view of those who betray their own tribe.

* Voters seem to feel this way in regards to party switchers. Senator Arlen Specter lost his primary after switching to a Democrat after over 30 years as a Republican Senator. In Alabama Representative Parker Griffith switched to a Republican barely a year after being elected as a Democrat, and was hammered in a huge defeat in the Republican primary.

->"A man who'd commit treason would surely betray me, too, one day."

* After having a lot of trouble with the Lusitanian rebel leader Viriathus in Hispania, the Romans decided to deal with him by bribing his own ambassadors to assassinate him. They promptly killed him in his sleep and returned for their reward. Quintus Servilius Caepio promptly informed them that "Rome does not pay traitors" and had the three of them executed.

* After having a lot of trouble with the Portuguese rebel leader Viriathus in Hispania, the Romans decided to deal with him by bribing his own ambassadors to assassinate him. They promptly killed him while he slept and returned for their reward. Quintus Servilius Caepio promptly informed them 'Rome does not pay traitors' and had the three of them executed.

* Megatron's first act upon [[spoiler:coming Back From the Not-Quite-Dead ([[IncrediblyLamePun Back From the Head?]])]] in the finale of the first season of ''TransformersAnimated'' is to give [[TheStarscream Starscream]] a reward of his own: an [[PhlebotinumOverload AllSpark key overload]] to the chest.

* Averted in ''{{Lost}}'': in the second season finale, Michael sells out his fellow lostaways to Ben in exchange for his son and a boat off the island. The boat pulls away, Ben's eyes follow it ominously, and he even mutters "Bon voyage"... and nothing happens. [[spoiler:Well, not right away.]]

* At one point in ''{{Fallout}} 3'', you're captured and interrogated by the BigBad. He demands the code to the purifier. If you actually give it to him, he shoots you. Game over.