History Main / SimpleSolutionWontWork

* ''Film/WarGames'': In the climactic scene, [[PasswordSlotMachin as the WOPR supercomputer is seeking the codes to launch all of America's nuclear arsenal at the Soviet Union]], General Beringer says "[[CutTheJuice Just unplug the goddamned thing!]]". He's then told by [=McKittrick=] that it wouldn't work since it would interpret a shutdown as [[DecapitationStrike the destruction of NORAD]], [[FailsafeFailure and thus would activate a "fail-deadly" override and instantly launch all the missiles]].

* ''Film/WarGames'': In the climactic scene, as the WOPR supercomputer is seeking the codes to launch all of America's nuclear arsenal at Russia, General Beringer roars out a "[[CutTheJuice somebody just cut the power to the goddamned thing!]]" He's then told by one of the technicians that it's not an option because the silos' network is hard-wired to answer to the shutdown of WOPR (which was assumed by the creators would only happen if NORAD was somehow destroyed) [[FailsafeFailure by activating a "fail-deadly" override and instantly launch all the missiles]].

Characters attempting the simple solution that they were told wouldn't work and [[SchmuckBait encountering complications in the process]] may result in ASimplePlan and ShortcutsMakeLongDelays ensuing.

-->'''Flash:''' Uh, [[TimeForPlanB what's Plan B?}]

* In ''Theatre/{{1776}}'', the proposal for independence that John Adams and Benjamin Franklin devise stalls in Congress. Franklin then pulls off an elaborate GladYouThoughtOfIt scheme on [[LargeHam Richard Henry Lee]] of Virginia to get ''him'' to make the proposal; Lee falls for it and rushes back to his colony to get the cause going. Adams points out that they could have simply asked Lee to help them, but Franklin explains that if they had, he'd have been doing them a favor and [[YouOweMe expected repayment in the future.]] By making Lee think it was his idea, they both advance their idea and avoid political entanglements.

See also RuleOfDrama, ConflictBall, WatsonianVsDoylist, SmokingGunControl, BellisariosMaxim, and MST3KMantra, where the real reason the simple solution can't be used is because otherwise there'd be no plot.

** It also turns out that magic as powerful as the Chinese Zodiac-based one within the Talismans cannot be destroyed, just transferred from one recipient to another, which means that Jackie's [[CuttingTheKnot attempt to]] [[NoMacGuffinNoWinner get rid of them]] in the second season [[HereWeGoAgain just leads to another worldwide scavenger hunt]], only this time for magically-empowered ''animals'' instead of talismans.

* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," California Superior Court Judge Catherine Lavinio is murdered in her home. She names the titular character-- financier, criminal mastermind, and EvilGenius Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck--as her killer during a 911 call, and the crime scene is littered with clues suggesting that he was indeed the culprit. So why not just arrest him and be done with it? Because Dale lives up to his nickname by [[FatBastard weighing over eight hundred pounds]]--he's too fat to fit through the doorframe of his apartment, let alone walk. To make matters worse, Dale possesses [[Fiction500 untold wealth]] that allows him to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney buy his way out of trouble]]; furthermore, he's infamous for having his personal army of lawyers drown San Francisco in [[FrivolousLawsuit Frivolous Lawsuits]] whenever the cops do try to bring him to court over his many illegal activities. Monk thus has to definitively prove that Dale committed the crime before a judge will sign off on a warrant for his arrest.

* ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertronTrilogy'':

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': On Virmire, you find the salarian STG team has constructed a small nuclear explosive to take out Saren's base. Ashley immediately suggests loading it onto the Normandy and dropping it on the base from the air, but the salarian commander shoots it down because the base is too well-defended by anti-aircraft batteries: it would be instantly shot down if they tried. Instead, Shepard's team and the salarians have to split into several squads and attack the base on foot so that they can shut down the air defenses before the Normandy can fly in with the nuke.

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'':
** ''Dark Crusade'':The two Imperial forces on the planet are officially at war with each other despite fighting for the same side because the Blood Ravens do not want their dirty secrets to fall into the Inquisition's hands, while the Imperial Guard is there to reclaim the totality of the planet. Both sides make it clear that they're JustFollowingOrders, and in the canon Space Marine victory, they make sure that the surviving Guardsmen are well treated rather than executed for treason.
** ''Soulstorm'': The ''three'' Imperial factions (Imperial Guard, Blood Ravens, and Sisters of Battle) are also at war with each other for much the same reasons as in Dark Crusade (the Sisters are also too fanatized to think anyone but themselves can properly clean up the system).

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': The Toughs accidentally cause a population boom when they break a galaxy-spanning teleporter (that functions by creating a copy of an individual at the destination) by not destroying the original and sending one individual to 950 million different locations, causing perfect doubles to appear around the galaxy. [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-09-01 One guy reunited with his wife/wives thinks he's found the perfect solution]], only for the women to preemptively shoot down anything that rhymes with "[[AThreesomeIsHot gleesome]]".

** After Rentarou secured 18 girlfriends, he goes to the shrine of the Love god that "granted" him the 100 soulmates boon. While the god is remorseful, he asks why Rentarou simply doesn't tell his soulmates that they need to be coupled with him for the sake of their life (as if they make [[LoveAtFirstSight eye contact]] but the girl truly rejects Rentarou for any reason, the bad karma from doing so will kill her). Rentarou responds that if he ''did'', he's basically be coercing all of his girlfriends into a relationship regardless of their wishes, and he'd rather be in a relationship where they want to stay with him naturally.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': In the episode "A Scandal in Belgravia", Irene Adler explains that her cell phone is full of embarrassing secrets of many clients (mostly diplomats and tycoons from all over the world, including the UK) and is rigged to self-destruct if anybody tries to tamper with it to hack out the information. When Mycroft Holmes points out a second later that it just makes it easier for him to destroy the phone and prevent those secrets from getting out into the open, Irene immediately counters by pointing out that there are also many secrets in there that would benefit British Intelligence if they were privy to it, as well as only copies of certain bits of data she was able to photograph (and destroyed) when she was with said clients (and they will be ''pissed'' if Mycroft doesn't get them back). Result: Sherlock Holmes is forced to play a psychological game of cat and mouse with Irene to make her give him the password to the cell phone, which takes the better part of a year.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': In the episode "Zero Hour", an alien plant that is being studied in the lab at Stargate Command starts to grow uncontrollably and is quickly taking over the bunker, apparently because it metabolizes light at a rapid pace. Jack O'Neill hears this and wordlessly turns off the light of his office (with the obvious implication he will order the base's lights to be turned off, thinking that with no lights there won't be any growth). The scientist explaining the situation immediately tells him that 1) the plant will continue to grow like crazy even with the lights off (only a little bit slower) and 2) attempting pest control in pitch-black darkness is just asking for people to bumble around, probably get themselves hurt, and achieve nothing. O'Neill turns the lights back on and tells the scientist to GetOut and fix this without having to bother him any further.

Often a rebuttal to StatingTheSimpleSolution, CuttingTheKnot, CutTheJuice, MurderIsTheBestSolution, JustEatGilligan or WhyDontYouJustShootHim, and is often stated in the work [[ViewersAreMorons to make sure even the dullest of viewers gets it.]] AdaptationExplanationExtrication may lead to this (the reason behind something not working may be explained in the original work but not the adaptation). {{Supertrope}} of NoPoliceOption, where the simple solution of "sit back and let the police investigation solve this" (or sometimes just plain "''call the police!''") falls under this trope.

See also RuleOfDrama, ConflictBall, WatsonianVsDoylist, SmokingGunControl, BellisariosMaxim and MST3KMantra, where the real reason the simple solution can't be used is because otherwise there'd be no plot.

** In chapter 34, Karane suggests that Hahari could use her authority as the school chairwoman to prevent the baseball club from being disbanded. Hahari refuses to give the club any special treatment, since she would have to do the same for all the other school's clubs in order to avoid playing favorites.

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': When Chou Koumei goes OneWingedAngel and turns into a giant plant, [[TheLancer Youzen]] first thinks about just [[KillItWithFire burning the roots]] to kill it, but realizes that Plant Chou Koumei can spreads seeds and grow faster than he burns, thus they need to destroy the whole thing in one blow to defeat him. Taikoubou does it by using [[LoyalAnimalCompanion Suupuushan]] new SuperMode to fly to the part of the atmosphere where the atmosphere is the coldest, and combining the power of said super mode and his newly upgraded [[BlowYouAway dashinben]] to summon a massive tornado to freeze all of it.

** ''Recap/AsterixAndTheBigFight'': Having failed to conquer the Gaul village, the Romans hatch the plan of having Cassius Ceramix (a Gaul chief [[LesCollaborateurs who has accepted Roman rule and adapted to be more Roman]]), [[ChallengingTheChief challenge their chief]] Vitalstatistix through the Gaul tradition of the Big Fight for rulership so he can have them surrender to Roman rule once he takes over. This creates problems for the Gauls as Vitalstistix must fight without using the magic potion (which they don't have anyway since Getafix is temporarily insane) and Ceramix is much stronger than he is. At one point in training Vitalstatistix notes he could just temporary abdicate in favour of [[SuperStrength Obelix]] who would easily win, only for Asterix to explain the rules of the Big Fight specifically forbid that trick. Vitalstatistix ends up running in circles around the ring to tire out Ceramix, then hits him with a MegatonPunch (without potion even) once he hears Getafix is back.
** ''Recap/AsterixAndTheLaurelWreath'': While in Rome to look for Caesar's laurel wreath, Asterix has to hold Obelix back when he wants to just go into the palace and beat up the guards until they find the wreath. What follows is a series of zany plots to get in the palace, none of which work.

*** In various comic book arcs (including "Hush"), it's explained that one reason he doesn't kill criminals (not even the Joker) is because the Gotham Police is willing to tolerate him as long as he doesn't (only the law is allowed to terminate the Joker, JokerImmunity through InsanityDefense notwithstanding), and if he ever does truly become a JudgeJuryAndExecutioner they will label him as another mad-dog costumed psycho and do their damnedest to get him. Batman, who treasures his friendship of James Gordon and prefers not to have to deal with yet another hassle in his war on crime, accepts this.
*** ''ComicBook/New52'': The Red Hood asks Batman, quite bluntly, [[JokerImmunity why he hasn't killed the Joker yet]] and ended the countless amounts of misery that he brings to Gotham every time he goes on a rampage. Batman points out that Gotham is such a CrapsackWorld that 1) killing the Joker wouldn't really reduce the amount of threats that are plotting from the shadows to hurt the citizens (a fact that he has evidence of with the Court of Owls, which [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains made itself known to Batman]] by cutting the Joker's face off) and 2) the possibility exists that if the Joker died he would resurrect anyway, or something even worse would appear to replace him (a fact that would manifest much later with the Batman Who Laughs). So for the DC Universe, it's damned if they do, damned if they don't.
** ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': This is a reason why Superman doesn't use his vast power to to effect change on a global scale: it's a dangerous slippery slope from well-intentioned enforced peace (i.e. "Stop those border skirmishes or I'll fly over and smash up both your armies") to WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer (e.g. "These racist skinheads are harassing this black family. I'll fly them ''into the sun''.") As various stories where Superman goes bad have shown, [[BewareTheSuperman he's right to be terrified.]]

** ''All New ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'': The arc ''The Tape'' revolves around Hawkeye's mission to retrieve a VHS tape owned by a criminal organization that has several SHIELD secrets. Why the heck does a videotape even exists, you wonder (and Hawkeye asks Captain America) when everybody and their dog would just upload it to a computer? Because in the post-ComicBook/CivilWar world, with Tony Stark's Extremis-given super-HollywoodHacking capabilities being well known, criminals have had to go extremely low-tech to maintain their secrets ([[RockBeatsLaser with some success, to boot]]).

* ''Film/AsTimeGoesBy1988'': When Ryder (TheHero, who has arrived to a small town following the instructions of a letter his mother left him after her death... which are [[spoiler:to meet her there]]) hears that Joe Bogart (a man he meets in said town) has a time machine, he does the inevitable question of going back in time to kill Hitler and we get an extremely blunt answer to why [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct having a Time Machine won't stop history from having things like the Holocaust happening anyway]] as a prelude to [[TimeyWimeyBall other events in the plot]] -- Bogart ruefully mentions that he already killed the leader of the Nazi Party during the Forties [[InSpiteOfANail only for history to put Adolf Hitler in his place]].

* ''Film/TheBookOfHenry'': When the Carpenter family notice that the little girl who lives next door is abused by her stepfather, they do try to contact Child Services first, but their complaints fall on deaf ears (the head of the local office is the brother of the stepfather and buys the man's excuses, contacting the Child Services office of another town only leads to the Carpenters being told that they are in a different jurisdiction, the stepfather is the chief of police so calling the cops is out, and Henry telling the principal of his school to file the complaint is only met with extreme reluctance by the principal). This leads to Henry deciding that MurderIsTheBestSolution and making his plan in a notebook (the titular book), which [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat has extensive notes explaining to his mother why it's the only option that will work, when she questions it as she's reading the book.]] [[spoiler:Notably, the "simple solution" technically does works, but only when the principal [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone finally gets over her reluctance]] and contacts Child Services [[NonProtagonistResolver completely independently of the Carpenters' actions]] at the climax.]]

* ''Film/EndOfDays'' provides us with an example of the "only works for the character suggesting it" variation in one of the film's sub-plots: as Jericho Cane tries to protect Christine York (the woman prophetized to help Satan create TheAntichrist, a thing she definitely does not wishes to do), he discovers that there is a rogue group of Vatican priests who have [[MurderIsTheBestSolution decided to kill York]] and prevent the event from happening. It's noted that it's sinful and only will prevent Satan from doing this for another millennia, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo but they don't care]]. [[spoiler:They are notably [[LaserGuidedKarma massacred by Satan]] when he comes calling while [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Father Novak]], who was protesting this, is just knocked out.]]

* ''Film/HomeSweetHomeAlone'': Max thinks aloud for a moment why he doesn't just calls the police to come deal with the thieves who are trying to break in: if the cops find out that he was abandoned by his parents (even if it was an accident), the cops [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome will surely arrest them for apparent child endangerment]] alongside the thieves (this is a pretty notable because in the other films in the series, the cops finding out the kid is all alone is only met with angry stares to the parents at worst).

*** Elrond subsequently says that the Ring must be destroyed. Gimli promptly takes a swing at it with his battleaxe--and is BlownAcrossTheRoom and [[WreckedWeapon his axe's blade shattered]].

* ''Film/{{Matilda}}'': After Matilda has endured half of her first day in school seeing the outrageous tortures that Agatha Trunchbull (the school's DeanBitterman and extreme SadistTeacher) unleashes on the children, she asks the other students of her classroom why the heck has nobody told their parents about Trunchbull's brutality and gotten them to call the police, and she's told back that none of their parents have believed them ''[[RefugeInAudacity because]]'' of how outrageous said tortures are (admittedly, probably telling someone about the school having an iron maiden (which Trunchbull affectionately calls "the Chokey") and how Trunchbull [[DisproportionateRetribution showed her rage at a girl having pigtails]] by grabbing her by said pigtails and using her as a HumanHammerThrow would be a tall tale in other circumstances). [[Literature/{{Matilda}} The book]] also makes mention that Trunchbull has managed to intimidate the parents who have believed their children into looking the other way. The result is that Matilda needs to fix things herself using her PsychicPowers.
* ''Film/MajorPayne'': After a while of the titular Major [[DrillSergeantNasty terrorizing the JROTC team]] of Madison Academy, they discuss how to get rid of him and one of the cadets says that they should just denounce Payne to the Academy's principal. This is shot down by Cadet Stone, who mentions that the pricipal is a complete idiot (a thing the audience was shown -- said principal cannot even recall the term for the ROTC, labeling it "[[BuffySpeak the thing of the little green men]]") and probably won't care to do anything about Payne's harshness, so the cadets decide to perform a lot of wacky antics to try to force Payne to leave, including [[LaxativePrank slipping him an industrial-strength laxative]] and even [[MistakenForPedophile trying to frame him as a pedophile]] ([[{{Fartillery}} neither of]] [[WakeUpFighting which work]]).

* ''Film/WarGames'': In the climactic scene, as the WOPR supercomputer is seeking the codes to launch all of America's nuclear arsenal at Russia, General Beringer roars out a "[[CutTheJuice somebody just cut the power to the goddamned thing!]]" He's then told by one of the technicians that it's not an option, because the silos' network is hard-wired to answer to the shutdown of WOPR (which was assumed by the creators would only happen if NORAD was somehow destroyed) [[FailsafeFailure by activating a "fail-deadly" override and instantly launch all the missiles]].

* ''The Adventures of Series/{{Wishbone}} #18: Gullifur's Travels'' (adapting ''Literature/GulliversTravels''): In a scene original to this version, Lemuel Gulliver suggests a simple solution that could end the war between Big-Endians and Little-Endians (those who prefer to break the big end of an egg and those who prefer to break the small end): TakeAThirdOption and crack the egg in the middle instead. Reldresal, principal secretary of Lilliput and friend of Gulliver, nervously tells him not to voice that idea where anyone else can hear him, because it would be considered a compromise -- and in Lilliput, compromisers are seen as disloyal and are put to death if caught.

* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': Watson's objections of "just arrest him" are often shot down by Holmes, who point out that the evidence they have is too tenuous, or that arresting the leader of a criminal conspiracy immediately would result in the smaller fry getting away.

** An {{invoked}} example. After a little while of trying to deal with Angel through the typical solution of sending assassins and demons to kill him (which [[AssassinOutclassin did not work]]), Wolfram & Hart lawyer Gavin Park points out to his coworkers that Angel [[UndeadTaxExemption does not has any legal documentation because he's a vampire]] and they could just toss the IRS at him to make his life hell. One scene (and several InUniverse hours) later, fellow (and cut-throat rival) WR&H lawyer Lilah Morgan arrives to Angel's office and hands him all necessary papers to prevent this from happening and no strings attached, purely to spite Park.

* ''{{Series/Kaamelott}}'': Elias the enchanter shows up to Kaamelott to warn that the Wolf Spirit is angry and demands a sacrifice, the easiest thing to do being to sacrifice the queen to it. He says this to Arthur (the queen's husband), Leodagan (her father) and Lancelot (who very much wants to be her lover) as if it was a perfectly rational thing to do.

* ''Myth/RobinHood'': In some versions of the story, it's sometimes asked why Robin doesn't simply put an arrow in the Sheriff of Nottingham's heart. In the versions where some of the Merry Men take it upon themselves to kill him while Robin is away, the answer is made tragically obvious: as long as the Merry Men merely robbed people, they were outlaws and the responsibility of the Sheriff to handle. But killing the Sheriff, a man appointed by the king himself, means they are now directly challenging the king's direct authority and are thus '''rebels'''. Sure enough, [[DownerEnding that's what results in the Merry Men being wiped out]], since there's a big difference between the Sheriff's hired goons and [[AlwaysABiggerFish the army of actual, trained soldiers that's sent to wipe them out]]. Even the support they traditionally enjoyed from peasants dries up, since the punishment for harboring traitors is much heavier than the one for harboring outlaws.

** ''Soulstorm'': The ''three'' Imperial factions (Imperial Guard, Blood Ravens and Sisters of Battle) are also at war with each other for much the same reasons as in Dark Crusade (the Sisters are also too fanatized to think anyone but themselves can properly clean up the system).

* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'': During the crossover with ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'', it's suggested to use the Anywhere Door to simply head to Eaustalica, the island of the [[AbusivePrecursors Astrals]] that is the goal of the PlayerCharacter's quest. They actually do attempt it, but the Door opens over a wide empty span of water instead, leading everyone to conclude they'll have to make their way there the hard way. [[note]] Naturally, having the driving quest of the game easily achieved during a crossover event would likely be unsatisfying. In-universe, the Astrals were so absurdly advanced they were able to create artificial lifeforms with control over natural forces like the weather, time and even death. Presumably foiling Doraemon's technology would've been child's play for them.[[/note]]

** In "[[WesternAnimation/AbraCatastrophe Abra Catastrophe]]" following Timmy losing the Fairy-versary Muffin, capable of granting any wish (even one's that defy the rules that bind Fairy God Parents) to whoever takes a bite out of it, at one point Cosmo asks why Timmy doesn't simply wish for the Muffin back. Timmy congratulates him on the great idea, only for Wanda to reveal they can't as the Muffin is so powerful that its beyond the point where their magic can effect it in any way. Turns out Cosmo knew this, he just wanted to know [[ExactWords why Timmy hadn't tried the obvious solution yet]].

** In "High Moltage" the Penguins want to leave the Zoo to catch the premiere of the new Commodore Danger movie, only to discover that the zoo has installed a new security system that shocks animals that try to leave. When several of their plans to escape fail, Kowalski points out that if worst comes to worst they could see the movie another day, only for Skipper to refuse, pointing out that the movie is so popular that unless they go today they'll almost certainly have everything spoiled, ruining the point of going.
* ''WesternAnimation/RandyCunninghamNinthGradeNinja'': In "Dawn of the Driscol" [[MadScientist Jerry Driscol]] attempts to complete his DoomsdayDevice following his accidental resurrection. In the final battle Viceroy desperately tries to find a way to shut it down before it destroys the world, Howards suggests simply [[CutTheJuice cutting the power]] only for Viceroy to reveal that its powered by an internal nuclear reactor meaning there is no way to do so.

** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': In Season 2 "[[Recap/TransformersAnimatedS2E13ABridgeTooClosePartII A Bridge Too Close, Part II]]", when Starscream and his clone army arrives at Megatron's mine headquarters and attacks him for his Space Bridge, Optimus Prime wants to help fight against them. Bumblebee asks why don't they let Starscream and his clones take down Megatron, Optimus points out they can't afford to have ''any'' Decepticons go through the Space Bridge to get to Cybertron.

* ''Film/HomeAlone'': In ''Home Sweet Home Alone'', the sixth film in the franchise, Max (the kid who is performing the HomeAloneAntics this time) thinks aloud for a moment why he doesn't just calls the police to come deal with the thieves who are trying to break in: if the cops find out that he was abandoned by his parents (even if it was an accident), the cops [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome will surely arrest them for apparent child endangerment]] alongside the thieves (this is a pretty notable because in the other films in the series, the cops finding out the kid is all alone is only met with angry stares to the parents at worst).

* ''ComicBook/{{Midnighter}}'': Midnighter went back in time under order of an affluent man to kill Hitler or else he'd ignite a bomb he put in Midnighter's chest. Upon seeing how broken Hitler was, he refused. Especially after he found out the real reason his client wanted Hitler dead was to allow his father, a Nazi official, to become a more effective ruler than Hitler, implying he would have replaced Hitler and would have been a worse tyrant than Hitler ever was if Hitler was killed.

* ''Manga/Overlord2012'': When Ainz participates in the Empire's gladiatorial arena, Emperor Jircniv hopes that Ainz (having demonstrated he can casually cast spells not even the best spellcaster in the Empire can hope to match) is a SquishyWizard. Unfortunately, after Ainz proves he's no less invincible in melee combat by handily winning without the use of magic, Jircniv accepts the inevitable and [[spoiler:declares the Empire a vassal state of Nazarick]]. This turns out to be the best decision he's taken in his life, as [[spoiler:Nazarick has no interest in telling him how to run the Empire, demands condemned prisoners instead of crushing tribute, and even bolsters his borders with their undead troops. Best of all, any unpopular decision he makes can now be handled by saying "[[JustFollowingOrders take it up with Nazarick]]" instead of surveillance and intrigue to remove dissidents.]]

* ''Anime/FullMetalPanic'': One of the major running gags in the franchise is how much people try to talk down Sousuke Sagara from applying simple solutions to whatever problems he encounters (with varying degrees of success and collateral damage) -- mostly because as a spy and former guerrilla who is a frankly bizarre CombatPragmatist, his "simple solutions" constantly involve trying to [[AxesAtSchool shoot/stab]]/[[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique torture]]/[[StuffBlowingUp blow up]] whatever gets in his way. Works mighty fine to protect his charge/girlfriend from assassins, but for dealing with a school bully... [[ComedicSociopathy yeah]].

---->''(to {{ComicBook/Daredevil}})'' "You want to stop me murdering criminals by taking me off the streets. That's stupid. Send me to prison and I'll just kill every criminal I meet.
---->"There's only one way to stop me. You know that. If you haven't got it in you to do it, stop wasting my time."

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Jim Rhodes suggests at one point that, if the grand plan of the Avengers to revive the people killed by Thanos' Snap involves time travel, why not just go back all the way to when Thanos was a baby and kill him? The other Avengers in the room tell him that it won't not work as he thinks it would, because [[OurTimeTravelIsDifferent their method of time travel involves going to alternate universes]] (which means that [[AlternatePersonalityPunishment they would just kill]] an AlternateSelf of Thanos)... after a couple of seconds of [[WouldntHurtAChild being grossed out at the idea of assassinating a baby]].

---->'''Elrond:''' ''(bemused)'' The Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Gloin, by any craft that we here possess.

-->'''Hondo:''' Hah! Come on, Greg.
-->'''Velasquez:''' Look, Hondo, ''you'' wrote the book, I just read it.

*** Best illustrated whenever Rachel takes charge: her aggressive style leads to a lot more damage done to the Yeerks, but nearly blowing their cover and once leading to Cassie being captured.
*** In another, she gets split into a brutal DumbMuscle fighter and a cowardly but calculating wimp. Only when charging and killing is no longer an option does Mean Rachel ask Nice Rachel for help... who proceeds to [[spoiler:threaten Visser Three with a particularly gruesome MutualKill]] if he doesn't let them both go.

--->'''Mr. Slant:''' Well, we can do without magic for a couple of years, can't we?
--->'''Ponder:''' [[WithAllDueRespect With respect]], we cannot. The seas will run dry. The sun will burn out and crash. The elephants and the turtle may cease to exist altogether.
--->'''Slant:''' That'll happen in just two years?
--->'''Ponder:''' Oh, no. That'll happen within a few minutes, sir. You see, magic isn't just coloured lights and balls. Magic holds the world together.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In the final season, in order to be of help when Team Angel takes over the Wolfram & Hart law firm, Gunn makes a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with a demon]] in exchange for superior law knowledge. The team discovers that he did this when [[FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome it turns out the knowledge only stays on for a short time]] and the demon wishes to make a new deal (which [[spoiler:Gunn eventually does secretly, which leads to [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom a chain of events that end in Fred's death]]]]). Angel's attempt to help is to march right up to the demon and cut his head off, which leads to the demon just regrowing his head and insisting on the deal.