History Main / SinisterSuffocation

* ''WebAnimation/{{Helluva Boss}}'': [[spoiler: In ”The Harvest Moon Festival”, after Moxxie stumbles upon [[HolyHandGrenade an angelic weapon]] in Millie’s family’s farmhand Striker’s room [[OhCrap and realizes]] that the latter is planning to assassinate [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Stolas]] (angelic weapons are the only weapons known to be able to kill demon royalty), [[AloneWithThePsycho Striker corners him]] and [[HeKnowsTooMuch prepares to silence him]] by first throwing him into a wall and then choking him out. The entire sequence is PlayedForHorror, and certain shots (like Moxxie’s legs futilely kicking underneath Striker, or the larger imp [[HandGagging covering his mouth to prevent him from screaming]]) left viewers particularly uncomfortable [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything as it started becoming reminiscent of a rape scene]] and it was made clear that [[{{Sadist}} Striker]] was ''enjoying'' the drawn-out suffering he was causing.[[note]]It should be noted that, since he had plenty of other ways of taking the smaller imp out, Striker likely wasn’t planning on killing Moxxie, just knocking him out and holding him hostage to get leverage over Blitzo, [[WeCanRuleTogether who Striker wanted to recruit to his side.]][[/note]]]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{Helluva Boss}}'': [[spoiler: In ”The Harvest Moon Festival”, after Moxxie stumbles upon [[HolyHandGrenade an angelic weapon]] in Millie’s family’s farmhand Striker’s room [[{{OhCrap}} and realizes]] that the latter is planning to assassinate [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Stolas]] (Angelic weapons are the only weapons known to be able to kill demon royalty), [[AloneWithThePsycho Striker corners him]] [[HeKnowsTooMuch and prepares to silence him]] by first throwing him into a wall and then choking him out. The entire sequence is PlayedForHorror, and certain shots (Like Moxxie’s legs futilely kicking underneath Striker, or the larger imp [[HandGagging covering his mouth to prevent him from screaming)]] left viewers particularly uncomfortable [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything as it started becoming reminiscent of a rape scene]] and it was made clear that [[{{Sadist}} Striker]] was ''enjoying'' the drawn-out suffering he was causing.[[note]]It should be noted that, since he had plenty of other ways of taking the smaller imp out, Striker likely wasn’t planning on killing Moxxie, just knocking him out and holding him hostage to get leverage over Blitzo, [[WeCanRuleTogether who Striker wanted to recruit to his side.]][[/note]]]]

'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' While [[TruthInTelevision this sort of thing can be common in real-life]], especially as a form of torture, we're not going to discuss that here for [[NoRealLife/MoralityTropes moral reasons]].

'''As this can often culminate in death, beware of spoilers.'''

* In ''Series/TheFall'', sadistic serial killer Paul Spector strangles his victims with his bare hands and is depicted as letting them breathe at least once, if not multiple times, as a form of torture before finally killing them. This is also an extension of EroticAsphyxiation for him, as he is mentioned as having done this (under the guise of CasualKink before it became clear to her he had far more violent intentions) to his ex-girlfriend.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ichigo decides to learn how to control his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inner Hollow]] with the help of the Visored, but without joining them. [[TinyTyrannicalGirl Hiyori]] then decides to fight him in order to measure him up, donning her Hollow Mask and repeatedly goading Ichigo into hollowfying, [[UnderestimatingBadassery expecting that she will be able to handle him alone]]. [[DontMakeMeDestroyYou He repeatedly refuses to do so]] even as Hiyori kicks his ass, but after he's knocked unconscious and [[TheBerserker hollowfies]], Ichigo slams Hiyori against the wall and strangles the Hollow out of her until the rest of the Visored pin him down, leaving a disturbed Hiyori to contemplate how [[DoNotTauntCthulhu she really should've listened to Ichigo]].

Overlaps with BuriedAlive, when the burial is intentional. Another common method is the VorpalPillow or being ThrownOutTheAirLock. This is one way to end up with BloodlessCarnage, as suffocation victims don't usually end up covered in gore. Can occasionally overlap with NeckLift or PsychicStrangle.

* In ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'', in order to break the links bounding her daughter Eleanor to Delta, she's smothered by her mother Sofia Lamb until Delta's heart stops beating.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'': After Sméagol and Déagol find the [[ArtifactOfDoom One Ring]] in a river, the former is immediately smitten by it and strangles his friend to death in order to claim the artifact for himself. This act marks the beginning of his descent into insanity.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': Zaheer used his airbending to suffocate Earth Queen Hou-Ting and bring anarchy to Ba Sing Se. This is the one of few times airbending is used to kill due to the Air Nomad preaching pacifism.

* ''Film/TheBatman2022'': [[spoiler:Falcone]] begins to strangle [[spoiler:Selina]] after being confronted. He starts out using a stick, and when that's shoved away, he just starts strangling her with his bare hands, and would've gotten the kill if Batman hadn't shown up. What sells this is [[spoiler:Falcone taunting her about how she brought it upon herself, just like her mother]].

* In ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo2011'', this is suggested to be one of the serial killer [[spoiler:Martin Vanger]]'s favorite techniques due to ageing and that the victims are usually younger and stronger than him. He knocks out [[spoiler:Mikael]] with gas and then tortures him by putting a bag over his head.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'': Davy Jones kills Ian Mercer by suffocating the man with his tentacles, all the while sporting a sinister grin on his face. This murder is meant to symbolize Jones' anguish and hatred after being forced to serve the East India Trading Company, and is uncharacteristically drawn-out and gruesome as a result.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''Film/StrangersOnATrain''. Bruno playfully asks two women what they would consider to be the best way to murder a person. He then dismisses all of their guesses and replies that strangulation is the only correct answer, as it leaves no bloodstains, produces no noises, and causes death in a relatively quick time frame.

* In ''Literature/TheGraceYear'', Tierney finds a set of female skeletal remains with a red hair ribbon wrapped around the neck, indicating that whoever killed her choked her with the ribbon. Later, she wakes up with ''her'' ribbon wrapped around her neck in a knot that becomes tighter the more she tries to removed. [[spoiler:At first, she thinks that this was done by one of the poachers trying to hunt down the girls, but later learns that it was Hans, [[IfICantHaveYou who killed the first girl and now wants ''her'' dead]].]]

* Played with in "[[Recap/ColdCaseS3E16OneNight One Night]]" in ''Series/ColdCase'', where a murderer's M.O. is to [[BuriedAlive bury adolescents alive]]. He claims that he doesn't want to cause pain, and that the idea is to give them a prolonged death to see them go through the stages of grief for their own life and to eventually accept death as inevitable.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Linda Lake is introduced as a snobbish, self-centered and overall thoroughly unpleasant gossip columnist. However, when she demonstrates her [[MakingASplash hydrokinetic abilities]] by luring her target to a fountain and holding him underwater until he dies, the audience grows aware that she is a [[TheSociopath manipulative and remorseless killer]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'': When the elk half of The Nowhere King is trying to reason with his human half of the mistake he made separating them into two different beings, his human half attempts to drown him in a nearby lake. Unfortunately due to them being linked, his human half cannot kill him or they both will die.

[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** ''ComicBook/ThePlagueOfTheAntibioticMan'': [[BigBad Amalak]]'s energy creature puts its hands around ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s throat and tries to choke her when they fight.
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'', Selena's shadow-clone attempts to kill Supergirl by putting its claws around her throat and squeezing.

* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'': Chloe goes through this ''twice'' in Act 1. The first time it happens, it's through a PsychicStrangle when Dr. Yung commands his Mirage Mewtwo to do this to shut her up. The second time this happens, it's in the form of a ChokeHold [[spoiler:by an Unown version of her father ''fused with her real father'' and under the commands of her bully turned maniacal Unown wielder.]]
** Paul London -- who is based off of his ''Wrestling/LuchaUnderground'' iteration and has inherited the White Rabbit's telekinesis -- does this to Grace and Simon, having been thoroughly tired of the teens not getting the hint to stop their ways. The only reason he isn't successful in killing them is due to Asher summoning [[spoiler:a shadow to imitate Gladion in a bid to see if there's still goodness in London's heart.]]

* ''Film/Elves2017'': When killing the TropaholicsAnonymous group late in the movie, the red-haired girl finishes off the last member by strangling him to death with some streamers.
* ''Film/GhostLab2021'': When [[spoiler:Dr. Gla's ghost]] is trying to kill [[spoiler:Dr. Wee]] in the morgue, the former gets on top of the latter and starts strangling him.

* ''Film/NutcrackerMassacre'':
** The Nutcracker kills James by strangling him to death with its bare hands.
** The Nutcracker kills Mousey by strangling her to death with Christmas tinsel with lights in it.

* The Heist of the Arasaka HQ that ends Act 1 of ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' goes straight to hell when Yorinobu Arasaka strangles his father Saburo to death and then puts the hotel on lockdown.

While this can just be done with ChokeHolds, the victims can also be drowned, smothered, [[HangingAround hanged]], or starved for air in any other way, such as locked in a room with a depleting oxygen supply. The villain will also typically have some evil fun doing it -- they wouldn't do it if they didn't get a kick out of watching their victim suffer. If they're ''particularly'' cruel, they'll draw it out even longer by giving their victim a few seconds of air in between the suffocating -- if they're planning to keep the victim alive, this makes for an effective form of torture. As a matter of fact, the real-life act of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding]] typically involves simulating the feeling of drowning. It's just a brutal thing to put someone through, and even if they're intending to leave their victim alive, it's all too easy to go too far and accidentally murder the poor guy.

While this can just be done with ChokeHolds, the victims can also be drowned, smothered, [[HangingAround hanged]], or starved for air in any other way, such as locked in a room with a depleting oxygen supply. The villain will also typically have some evil fun doing it -- they wouldn't do it if they didn't get a kick out of watching their victim suffer. If they're ''particularly'' cruel, they'll draw it out even longer by giving their victim a few seconds of air in between the suffocating -- if they're planning to keep the victim alive, this makes for an effective form of torture. As a matter of fact, the real-life act of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding water boarding]] typically involves simulating the feeling of drowning. It's just a brutal thing to put someone through, and even if they're intending to leave their victim alive, it's all too easy to go too far and accidentally murder the poor guy.

While this can just be done with ChokeHolds, the victims can also be drowned, smothered, [[HangingAround hanged]], or starved for air in any other way, such as locked in a room with a depleting oxygen supply. The villain will also typically have some evil fun doing it -- they wouldn't do it if they didn't get a kick out of watching their victim suffer. If they're ''particularly'' cruel, they'll draw it out even longer by giving their victim a few seconds of air in between the suffocating -- if they're planning to keep the victim alive, this makes for an effective form of torture. As a matter of fact, the real-life act of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_torture water torture]], or "waterlogging", typically involves simulating the feeling of drowning. It's just a brutal thing to put someone through, and even if they're intending to leave their victim alive, it's all too easy to go too far and accidentally murder the poor guy.

* ''Literature/{{Kane}}'': In "Lynortis Reprise", Sesi is tortured by being hanged with a rope around her wrists and around her neck, so that she either suffers the pain of dislocated shoulder joints or slowly suffocates.

Of course, villains who cross this line will be portrayed as particularly horrible. Even if they're just a schoolyard bully, putting their victim through this makes them more monstrous and crueler than just being the kid who steals your lunch money -- they're someone who'd be fine with [[BullyBrutality outright murdering their victim]]. Witnesses will be shocked and horrified, and it'll force the hero to work even harder to stop them. If the ''hero themself'' engages in this, even as an act of pragmatism, it'll mark them as a dark AntiHero at best and someone undergoing a FaceHeelTurn at worst.