History Main / ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode, "Excaliferb". Carl's attempt to introduce [[SelfInsert Carl the paladin]] is actually attempting to hide the fact that the book ends with a very long, dry arms treatise.

* ''Manhua/BloodlineTheLastRoyalVampire'':
** Lilo I got a full taste of this during the ''Daybreak Fantasy'' prequel and the years after that. For the Darkins, violence is pretty much a necessity for dealing with the [[ChurchMilitant Holy Land]], who kills innocent humans just for being friends with them. Ren learned this the hard way as well when he confronts Order Nun O-Three over attempting they kill his ghost sister despite her doing absolutely nothing wrong. Her response was simply impaling him with her scythe, forcing Lilo to save him, and training him appropriately so that he could take down her persecutors.

** Averted in World War Hulk: X-men where, after three issues of Hulk pounding on the entire X-family, Mercury, a member of the New X-men junior squad, shows Hulk the graves of all the mutants killed just in the short time Hulk was off planet. In the end, Hulk accepts her plea to leave them alone, concluding that Xavier is in his own, personal hell already.

* ''Film/MarsAttacks'' parodied this [[RuleOfThree three times]]. Bonus points for translation machines saying "We come in peace!"

** During a meeting to discuss peace with the French government... yeah, you guessed it.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' and ''Film/RamboIV'' both use this as their main point in dealing with a world full of bad people.
** During the climax of the latter, Michael (who had previously been a complete pacifist) picks up a rock and uses it to bash in the head of a Burmese soldier.

* To say that this trope generally applies in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' world [[{{Understatement}} is a bit like saying that the sun is hot]] -- it's technically correct, but it fails to convey the sheer magnitude of the situation.

* Appears in {{Toku}}, but special mention goes to ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'', where any attempts to solve the conflict the protagonists have with each other must happen through a fight. Overlaps with ConflictBall.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar ended slavery at the price of the bloodiest conflict in American history. The moderate wing of the Republican party (of which UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln was a leader) was willing to compromise with the South. It opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories but was content to allow already existing slavery to remain with offers of compensation and graduated emancipation. The South refused even this moderate position (hated by the radical abolitionists) and went in open revolt upon Lincoln's election and eventually dug its own grave. John Brown, abolitonist insurgent, who killed slaveowners noted at the trial after his disastrous Harper's Ferry raid:
--> ''I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.''
* This was the central point of Lincoln's famous Second Inaugural Address, which cast the war as inevitable given the irreconcilable conflict between abolitionists and the Slave Power, and suggested it as having been divine judgment and retribution on the nation for the evil of slavery.
* The view of the Reconstruction era since TheSixties, under historian Eric Foner, is that the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan became a threat because the American government was slow to meet and battle them. They pointed out that the Klan died a quick death when President UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant sent the army to clamp down and protect the newly enfranchised African-Americans. The 1876 Presidential election led to the Republicans backing out and pulling its forces out of the South as a compromise to get their side in the White House, which immediately led to Jim Crow, electioneering violence, and the rise of lynchings in the South.
* British Prime Minister UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain's determined effort to make "Peace for our time" through diplomatic means, even after it became increasingly obvious that the Nazis weren't going to uphold any previous agreement if it became convenient to ignore it. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII It didn't work,]] although his efforts did at least stall open war for long enough that Britain wasn't hopelessly unprepared. Chamberlain was backed by the French PM Édouard Daladier and both of them assumed that Hitler could be negotiated with, that he cared about Germany and its people and wanted what was in their best interests, and that he could relate to everyone's desire to avoid another World War. Hitler was in fact deceitful and manipulative and really did believe WarIsGlorious.
* Because of its illegal nature, those involved in BlackMarket transactions, drug trafficking and other illicit operations have no other recourse to settle disputes other than the use of violence.
[[/folder]]

Contrast ToWinWithoutFighting, TalkingTheMonsterToDeath, and SheatheYourSword, and compare SedgwickSpeech, RPGsEqualCombat. A character forced into this trope may be a ReluctantWarrior. Not to be confused with MurderIsTheBestSolution, where violence is the first resort, without considering other options.

-->-- '''UsefulNotes/MalcolmX'''

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/MegasXLR https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/savetheworldbutton.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:That button with the smiley [[UnscrupulousHero seems pretty convincing]].]]

** Lilo I got a full taste of this during the ''Daybreak Fantasy'' prequel and the years after that. For the Darkins, violence is pretty much a necessity for dealing with the [[ChurchMilitant Holy Land]], who kills innocent humans just for being friends with them. Ren learned this the hard way as well when she confronts Order Nun O-Three over attempting they kill his ghost sister despite doing absolutely nothing wrong. Her response was simply impaling him with her scythe, forcing Lilo to save him, and training him appropriately so that he could take down her persecutors.