Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You

"Your Highness, if you believe me to be your enemy, command me, and I will gladly take my life."

— Nathan Algren, The Last Samurai

Alice did something terrible to Bob. Whether it was a mistake, an act that she had no way to prevent or something she did before a Heel–Face Turn, she regrets it now. Very much.

So she meets Bob, confesses her guilt, and offers up her life. This can take one of two flavors:

1. Alice believes she deserves death, and it seems appropriate to her that Bob should be the one to kill her.
2. Alice believes she deserves punishment, and it seems appropriate to her to let Bob decide what the punishment should be, up to and including death.

Similar but distinct from several tropes, as follows. If Alice wants to live so she can work for the good, she's The Atoner. If she trusts Bob not to kill her but nonetheless sets up a situation that would allow her to do so, it's Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand. If she indeed wants to die but would rather die fighting, she's a Death Seeker; if she's incapable of killing herself and wants someone she trusts to do it, it's I Cannot Self-Terminate. If she is a villain trying to invoke If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!, it's Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!, and if she doesn't believe Bob will be able to do it, it's You Wouldn't Shoot Me.

It's rare for this to actually result in Alice's death. Heroic characters will be just too forgiving or pacifistic, while less upstanding characters are likely to respond with "You're Not Worth Killing" or "You deserve a long life alone with your guilt". The exception is when Bob considers it a Mercy Kill to take Alice's life, which is more likely when Bob has Death Seeker tendencies himself.

Also compare Redemption Equals Death. A nonlethal variant combines Hit Me, Dammit! (for the character inviting the attack) and My Fist Forgives You (for the attacker).

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In the final episode of Aldnoah.Zero, Slaine becomes extremely repentant for his actions during the war and, after Inaho captures him at gunpoint, Slaine taps his forehead, inviting him to kill him. Inaho refuses, having been told by Asseylum to "save" Slaine, and the VERS pilot is thus taken into custody.
• In Attack on Titan, this happens several times throughout the story. Each time, the person offered the chance shows mercy.
  • After his disastrous first mission, Levi attacked Erwin in a rage over the deaths of his friends. Erwin offers his life, and ultimately convinced Levi to continue following him.
  • Uri Reiss offered his life to Kenny as apology for the persecution of his clan, earning the other man's Undying Loyalty in the process.
  • After learning the truth of what happened the night Wall Maria fell, Eren asks Historia to kill him under the mistaken belief that doing so will save humanity. Instead, she yells at him to live.
  • During their reunion after 4 years apart, Death Seeker Reiner is overwhelmed with guilt and begs Eren to take his revenge by killing him.
• In Battle Royale (novel and manga), after Yoshimi learns that Yoji intends to kill her, Yoshimi gives up and tells Yoji that he can shoot her. Instead, Yoji is overcome by emotion and does not shoot her, throwing away the gun in regret.
  • And then Mitsuko picks up the gun and shoots both of them.
• Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach deals with this a lot. Her guilt over killing her mentor, Kaien Shiba, prompts her to be a Death Seeker for much of the opening story (it's later specifically stated to be the reason she completely lost her powers in the beginning instead of only half). Throughout the entire story, because of her remorse, she's willing to allow herself to be killed by the Correction Forces, Ganju Shiba, and Kaien Shiba himself, after Demonic Possession.
• In Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, Yuuko was sacrificed by her paranoid and superstitious village to stop a plague they believed was caused by a sadistic mountain god, with Yuuko's own sister, Yukariko, chosen to act as the mountain god's priestess. When the plague continued, it quickly became clear that this was an entirely Senseless Sacrifice and Yukariko realised with horror what she'd done. So when Yuuko comes back as a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl and tries to strangle her, Yukariko's overjoyed, begging her to go through with it.
• Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist gives this chance to Winry Rockbell when she finds out he killed her parents, even though they had saved his life. He killed them in a confused rage after his brother died and attached his arm to Scar, so it was kind of an accident, but he tells her she would be justified in killing him.
• Gundam:
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Lockon finds out that his teammate Setsuna was part of the group of terrorists that planted a bomb that killed Lockon's parents and sister - this was done while Setsuna was a brainwashed Child Soldier. Lockon pulls his gun on Setsuna, who just stands there, because he's kind of a Death Seeker out of guilt for his past actions. Eventually, Lockon pulls himself together and doesn't shoot him.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
    • Heero Yuy felt so guilty for causing the death of Marshal Noventa that he went up to both Noventa's wife (offscreen) and granddaughter Sylvia (onscreen) and asked each of them to kill him. Neither did so, obviously, and Sylvia even called him a coward for that.
    • Similarly, towards the end of the series Lady Une (post merging of her "Lady" and "Saint" selves) handed Relena Darlian-Peacecraft a gun and asked her to kill her as punishment for having murdered Relena's adoptive father. What happened? Relena refuses to do it, and Une is brought to tears.
• InuYasha: After Naraku eggs Sango into trying to kill Rin to save Miroku's life, Sango gives her life to Sesshoumaru for her crime. Sesshoumaru may have been angry with her but just seems to forgive her, especially after she gives Rin her gas mask as an apology.
• Monster has the main antagonist Johan invoke this towards Dr. Tenma in an attempt to make him become just like him.
• Kurt Godel in Negima! Magister Negi Magi says this to Negi when he reveals that the Megalomesembrian senate (who he's apart of) was responsible for the destruction of Negi's Doomed Hometown (though there's no evidence that Godel himself was involved).
• Ritsuko Akagi from Neon Genesis Evangelion begs her friend Misato Katsuragi to kill her after revealing to her and Shinji the tank with the Rei clones, then destroying it and said clones. Misato refuses to do so, and Ritsuko is left a sobbing wreck on the floor..
• Mireille Bouquet in Noir promises to kill her partner Kirika Yuumura after they discover the truth behind their connection. When they do, however, she cannot do it, despite a tearful Kirika begging for her to because said connection actually involved Kirika's murder of Mireille's family. And when Kirika was no older than six, even!.
• One Piece inverts this slightly as "I will kill my self if it pleases you". There is a character named Baby 5 who is an Extreme Doormat that will obey any commands given to her as she believes she is needed; and in a fight against an opponent she fell in love with he jokingly asks her to kill herself to save him some time and effort in having to fight her — thinking she wouldn't actually do it. Baby 5 then turns her hand in to a gun and attempts to shoot herself; she is stopped by her opponent before she can shoot herself.
  • Played straight when Jimbei begs forgiveness from Nami for the suffering that she endured under Arlong, a friend and subordinate of his when he was one of the Seven Warlords, and even offers up his life. Nami instead tells him that her grief was with Arlong alone (which was not only settled long ago but she's since moved past) and that she bears no enmity towards him or Fishmen. This very act of forgiveness ends up moving Jimbei to tears.
• Ashura in RG Veda holds a lot of self-blame for being the cause of the Yasha clan's genocide so he says this to Rasetsu, Yasha's lost brother, who returned to demand an explaination. Not wanting Yasha to be hurt for something he believes he himself is to blame, he asks Rasetsu to kill him instead of Yasha.
• In the end of Vinland Saga's first arc, Askeladd offers Thorfinn the chance to kill him after he is already mortally wounded. Thorfinn is so upset and confused by having his idealized 'vengeance' denied to him — and realizing he has no idea if he actually wants to kill him or not — that he can do nothing but scream variants of How Dare You Die on Me! to Askeladd as he bleeds out.

Comic Books

• Street Fighter: In Street Fighter Unlimited, Dan finally tracks down Sagat, the man who killed his father during the previous Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li mini-series. Unfortunately for Dan, Sagat has turned away from evil in the aftermath of Street Fighter II, and is trying to find peace. He offers to let Dan kill him, but Dan angrily storms off while saying that the only thing he wants is his father back.
• X-Men: Toward the end of Uncanny X-Men #150, when Magneto thought he had killed Kitty Pryde, prompting his Heel Realization, he surrendered to Storm:
  Storm: If you have a deity, butcher, pray to it!
  Magneto: As a boy I believed. As a boy I turned my back on God forever. Kill me if you wish, Windrider. I will not stop you.
• Young Avengers: In vol. 2, Loki confesses what he did at the end of Journey into Mystery (Gillen) and that he's been manipulating the whole team and causing their problems all along, then makes an anguished plea to America Chavez: "End it. Before I can talk my way out of this."

Fan Works

• A Darker Path: When Accord feels displeased that Citrine has overreached in her discussion with Atropos, he orders her to go back, apologise, and offer to let Atropos kill her.
  Accord: It's quite possible that she will spare your life. In either case, I will respect her decision.
• Danganronpa: Paradise Lost: The final chapter has Monaca offer to let Momiji kill her so the former can atone for her previous atrocities. Momiji, unable to fathom that Monaca would be repentant enough to do so, promptly enters a Villainous BSoD.
• Doing It Right This Time: Upon meeting Asuka again and learning she knew of his little self-pleasure moment viewing her comatose body, Shinji immediately offers to kill himself as penance for it. Asuka talks him out of it.
• In the Firefly fanfic Forward, River confronts Colonel Dannet, her former combat instructor at the Academy. He is so deeply distraught at what he and the Academy did to her and the other children there that he is willing to let her kill him in revenge. She is instead confused as to why she doesn't want to kill him, and forgives him when she realizes that it is because he thinks of her as a human and not a weapon.
• Lost Boys Saga: Ventus in "Broken Heroes" invokes this his first stinkin' moment. Although Riku refuses his plead to kill him, even though Ventus destroyed his home when Vanitas took over, Sora has a much different perspective. So Ven becomes an Atoner, and is implied to be a Death Seeker. He gets that wish, and gets murdered by Saïx after being around for 18 chapters.
• New Tamaran: Before their final battle, Blackfire realizes what a monster she is and delivers this reasoning to Starfire.
• In The Prayer Warriors, one of Socrates' followers asks this of Jason after she is captured. He says that he will not kill her because doing so would be a sin (and this is immediately after he killed Socrates), and decides to keep her alive as his slave.
• Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness: As part of his Dark and Troubled Past, Dark was forced by his summoner/former master to kill numerous snow women. When he meets Mizore's mother in Act II after saving her from execution at the hands of Fairy Tale, he promptly offers up his life to her in penance, but since he saved them, Tsurara lets him live, instead thanking him for his aid.
• In Gensokyo 20XXV, we have this Reimu, who, after enough of Baka's complaining, challenges him to kill her, that she has little else to lose. This along with the rest of speech had effect of shutting him up for awhile.
  Reimu: If you blame me for your misery, then, fine, end it, end it where it is! Do it! You have nothing left to lose from putting an end to a little girl.
  • Later on, we also have this with Yukari, a Broken Bird, says this in response to Chen's question over her decisions.
  Yukari:[...] If you're angry at me, fine, be angry, call me a bitch while your at it, however, I can only hope you'd forgive me for the choices I've made. If you can't, then end my life, act as you see fit, if you think it'll satisfy you.
• Played with in As Is the Sea Marvelous by blackkat. When Tobirama mortally wounds Izuna, Hashirama despairs that Madara will never accept peace. Tobirama offers his life to Madara, invoking this trope and claiming he regrets killing Izuna. He actually regrets that Izuna's death dashed Hashirama's dream, and is willing to die to restore it.
• In the KanColle fic Eternity Inazuma seeks out Ferocious Mako, an abyssified steel ship of Miyuki, so that it would kill her for ramming it back in 1934 and leave everyone else alone, or so she believes. In this fic's rules, if the ship was not present and active during World War 2, its Ship Girl could not be summoned.
• In Ambience: A Fleet Symphony, Damon makes this offer to several ship girls who refuse to obey him.
• In Sugar Plums the protagonists Ume asks this of a character who tries to kill her because her actions in the ninja academy caused his life to spiral into a living hell. She does so because at this point she's so sick of the attempts on her life done through proxy that she's actually more accepting since he at least tried to do so himself. He doesn't do it, and she knows during the conversation he wouldn't have but she was completely serious when she gave him the offer that she wouldn't have stopped him.
• In Son of the Sannin, when Naruto finally confronts the real Nagato face to face and after listening to his story, Nagato ouright tells Naruto that he's earned the right to end his life right then and there, in revenge for everything he's done to Konoha. Naruto however replies that killing him won't bring back the people he's killed, and would only perpetuate the Cycle of Revenge.

Films — Live-Action

• Braveheart: William is willing to take the blame for his act of rebellion getting his wife killed by the English. He kneels in front of her father offering his life in exchange if her father wishes. The father raises a clenched fist then opens it and places it on William's head rather than strike him.
• The protagonist of the Heroic Bloodshed film, A Killer's Blues, is a Hitman with a Heart who killed a target in front of said target's four-year-old daughter, some 12 years ago, and has been raising her as a foster daughter ever since, even keeping the newspaper clippings of the murder. Inevitably, the now-teenaged daughter discovers the truth, and managed to steal her adoptive father's pistol and point it at him, at which point he tells her "I'm sorry I've caused you so much suffering, but you may pull the trigger if it makes you happy." The adoptive daughter instead shifts the pistol to her temple… ^note  don't worry, the gun misfired and she didn't die, but ends up fainting
• Serenity: After her battle programming is activated at the Maidenhead bar, River suggests to her brother that he should kill her rather than risk her hurting the crew. His response is to insist she never, ever think like that.
• In the Serbian movie The Trap (Original: Klopka), the protagonist killed a man for money. The remorse sends him back to the dead man's wife. He hands her the gun he used for the killing and asks her to shoot him which she denies. Minutes later the wife's brother in law takes the offer and kills the protagonist.
• Discussed by Budd and Bill in Kill Bill, with Budd largely embracing this trope (at least as far as giving The Bride a one-on-one chance to take said revenge), and Bill refusing to take responsibility:
  Bill: ...[Y]ou've got to get over being mad at me and start becoming afraid of Beatrix, because she is coming, and she's coming to kill you. And unless you accept my assistance, I have no doubt she will succeed.
  Budd: [stares hard at Bill] I don't dodge guilt, and I don't jew out of paying my comeuppance.
  Bill: Can't we just forget the past?
  Budd: That woman deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die. [considers] But then again, so does she. So I guess we'll just see... won't we?
  • After killing Vernita Green, The Bride is horrified to realise that Vernita's young daughter saw the whole thing. She apologizes to Nikki and tells her that if when she grows up she still feels "raw" about what happened the Bride will understand if Nikki decides to come find her.
• Polar: When Camille reveals at the end that she's the girl whose family Vizla accidentally murdered and the beneficiary of his "charity fund", he urges her to pull the trigger when she has him at gunpoint. She fires the gun in the air instead, and asks Vizla to help her track down the men who ordered her family's murder.
• Punisher: War Zone. When Frank Castle shoots a Mafiosi who turns out to be an undercover federal agent, he brings the widow a duffel bag of money in compensation, but reacts calmly when she draws a gun on him instead, even advising her to aim at his heart and squeeze the trigger. She only stops because her child walks in on them, though she doesn't make another attempt to kill Castle, only refusing to accept his money.
• Thunderheart: When Bill discovers that Ryan was one of the gang responsible for the murder of his family, he wants to kill him. Ryan tells him that they need to deal with Walcott and his gang first but, if they are both still alive after that, he will willingly allow Bill to kill him.
• At the beginning of UHF, George's antics result in him and his roommate, Bob, getting fired from their job at Big Edna's Burger World. George apologizes to Bob, and hands him a crowbar and tells him to bash in his skull. Bob says, "You know I couldn't do that. You still owe me five bucks."

Literature

• In Ascendance of a Bookworm Lutz is the first to catch on that "Myne" is not the little girl whose body she unwittingly took over and angrily tells her to get out of a body that isn't hers. She casually agrees, much to his surprise, only to make it clear that this means dying and that the original Myne was already gone when she woke up in her body. A flustered Lutz ends up realizing that there's no real point to upsetting the status quo, but tells her she she should inform her family.
• A Dearth of Choice: When the dungeon first encounters Katrina, she's so downtrodden and depressed that she offers to let herself be killed by his monsters just so that her life will achieve something.
• In Robin Jarvis' Deptford Mice trilogy, Piccadilly has sworn to kill Morgan because of the suffering he has caused him. They eventually meet and have a duel. Soon Morgan - who can't stand being The Dragon to Jupiter any longer - stops fighting and tells his opponent to go ahead and kill him. This brings Piccadilly to his senses, as he realises that to do so would make him no better than the rat. After he refuses, Morgan grabs the knife from him and stabs himself.
• In "The Descendants" Vorpal: Gyre and Gimble, the final perpetrator of Operation Jabberwocky tells Vorpal this.
• In The Diamond Chariot, the head of a ninja clan offers Fandorin a chance to kill him to take revenge for his friends whom the ninjas slaughtered earlier. He doesn't technically have to atone for this, of course (since he is a ninja, after all), but he needs Fandorin's trust.
• In Caleb Williams, Caleb tells Falkland he can "Do with me any thing you will. Kill me if you please..."
• In the last chapter of The Neverending Story when Bastian puts down AURYN in front of Atreyu (though he isn't actually offering his life; "only" his sanity).
• According to White Fang, this is what it means for a dog to let a human hold it.
• In The Silver Chair, it's recounted that when King Caspian's son Rilian first disappeared, Caspian's friend Drinian felt personally responsible, because he'd never stopped Rilian from visiting the Lady of the Green Kirtle who eventually turned out to be a witch and enchanted and abducted him. He went straight to Caspian and confessed this, and when Caspian picked up an axe as if to kill him, he made no attempt to resist. Caspian changed his mind, dropping the axe and hugging Drinian as he said, "I have lost my Queen, and my son. Shall I lose my friend as well?"
• In The Wheel of Time, Aviendha does a type 2 to make up for sleeping with Elayne's boyfriend before Elayne could. Elayne decides Aviendha needs no punishment, and reveals to Aviendha that she'd been considering sharing Rand with other girls anyway.
• In Dead Beat, Harry Dresden has to shoot the Corpsetaker, who has just switched bodies with Warden Luccio. Morgan doesn't see or understand what just happened, so he thinks Harry has murdered Luccio. He goes into a berserker rage, and Harry realizes he can't defeat Morgan, so he drops his defenses and readies his death curse for the book's Big Bad, instead of fighting back. Luckily, someone intervenes at that point.
• Redwall: In The Bellmaker, Captain Slipp stabs Mother Mellus in the heart and flees with some precious items despite the Redwallers having shown them nothing but kindness. His second Blaggut snaps and strangles Slipp himself, returning to the Abbey to give back the loot Slipp had stolen. He's ready to be killed by the Redwallers (and almost is), but cooler heads prevail. Blaggut turns down their offer to live at Redwall despite having been genuinely happy there, but apparently lives not far off and is welcome to return.
• The Locked Tomb: Gideon the Ninth: Harrow, enraged that Gideon feels sorry for her even after everything Harrow's done to Gideon over the years, furiously begs Gideon to strike her down, yelling that she deserves to die by Gideon's hand. To her mortification, Gideon hugs her instead.
• In Shadow of the Conqueror, Daylen eventually says this to Ahrek, hoping that the latter will finally be the one to kill him, releasing him from his long quest to make amends to the world.
• In Differently Morphous upon meeting a human, a pair of Fluidics try negotiating with him by suggesting out of nowhere, "Would you settle for killing one of us?" He of course kills none.
• Artegall from The Faerie Queene is so lovestruck by Britomart that he bows before her mid-battle and says she can kill him if she pleases.
• Terra Ignota: After the Masonic Empire's most sacred vaults are breached, exposing top-level state secrets to the world, Emperor Cornel MASON declares that the perpetrator, once captured, is to be executed by his own hands. When the perpetrator turns out to be Xiaoliu Guildbreaker, one of his closest advisors (who did it in a misguided attempt to calm global tensions), they accept death as their just punishment and, as MASON strangles them, visibly fights their own survival instinct so as not to resist it. This final display of loyalty actually leads MASON to spare their life.

Live-Action TV

• Downplayed in The Dick Van Dyke Show episode "Punch Thy Neighbor"; Rob's neighbor/friend Jerry has spent most of the episode making fun of his work, despite Rob's protests. He's just realized that this kind of joking isn't funny and that he accidentally caused most of what went wrong recently. Jerry asks Rob to punch him in the arm as catharsis for both of them. Rob insists that he can't and doesn't want to, until Jerry slips in another zinger.
• In an episode of Stargate SG-1 Teal'C meets the son of a man he killed prior to his Heel–Face Turn. He is willing to be put on trial and executed for this murder to atone for his old crimes.
• An episode of Farscape reveals that Aeryn was part of a firing squad that killed the original Pilot for Moya, a revelation which amongst other things causes the current Pilot to shut down the ship and then detach himself from it (an action that will both kill him and cause life support to malfunction, killing everyone else). Aeryn offers herself up to Pilot in exchange for not killing himself or the others; Pilot reveals that the reason why he detached himself was less about her and more about his own resurfaced guilt for agreeing to replace the previous Pilot, which arguably made her execution possible in the first place. Pilot and Aeryn then stroke each other's cheeks, showing that they have bonded again.
• Ana Lucia on Lost offers this to Sayid after she accidentally kills Shannon. Sayid decides that she's Not Worth Killing.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Subverted by D'Hoffryn in "Selfless". After becoming a vengeance demon again, Anya grants a girl's wish to kill a houseful of men and then regrets it (Humanity Is Infectious caught up to her, presumably). D'Hoffryn says he will reverse the wish but it will cost the life of a vengeance demon. Anya bows her head, completely willing to give her life... and D'Hoffryn summons up Anya's friend and fellow demon Halfrek and kills her instead. "Never go for the kill when you can go for the pain," indeed.
  • On discovering he's a Manchurian Agent of the First Evil, Spike urges Buffy to stake him. She refuses, recognising the First's manipulations and Spike's genuine desire for redemption.
• Played straight on Angel, when Buffy and Faith meet up while the latter is attempting a Heel–Face Turn.
  Buffy: If you apologize to me, I will beat you to death.
  Faith: [quietly] Go ahead.
• The climax of their rivalry battle in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, Geki is unable to bring himself to kill his brother Burai. Burai, on the other hand, is more than willing to kill Geki, but instead Geki tells him to go ahead and kill him if it means it'll get rid of Burai's utter hatred to him. In the end, Burai can't bring himself to do it too, and then apologizes tearfully.
• Once Upon a Time: At the end of "Welcome to Storybrooke", a broken Snow turns up on Regina's doorstep and begs Regina to kill her for what she did to Cora. Regina has a better idea.
  • In "Quite a Common Fairy" Regina herself does this. She rips out her own heart and gives it to Tinker Bell, but warns her that getting revenge leads to darkness.
  • The old prisoner in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland incites Jafar to kill him but the latter refuses because he wants to keep him until he calls him "son".
  Sultan: He is as much my captive as I am his.
• In the Doctor Who episode The Face of Evil, after Xoanon is healed of its insanity, it makes this offer to the humans via the Doctor, who offers them a switch that could erase Xoanon's databanks.
• Person of Interest. The Machine, having developed far beyond the original intentions of its creator Harold Finch, worries it/she might have gone too far and sends a message to him. "If you think I have lost my way, maybe I should die". Despite Harold's concern that A.I. Is a Crapshoot, he refuses to allow this.
• The protagonists of Breaking Bad wind up doing this in the series finale. After rescuing Jesse by killing most of his captors (except for the one Jesse strangled himself), Walter gives Jesse a gun and offers himself up. Jesse first forces Walter to admit that he wants to die, then declines to do it when he realizes that Walter's already been shot.
• Arrow. After discovering that her father Malcolm Merlyn brainwashed her to kill Sara Lance, Thea releases Sara's ex-lover Nyssa, a member of the League of Assassins, from her confinement, confesses to the act and even gives her a sword. Nyssa refuses to believe Thea at first, but even when she does decides that as Malcolm has already been captured and is facing torture and execution, Thea's death would be meaningless. Later when Malcolm is rescued from the League and is recovering from his torture at Thea's place, she contemplates killing him herself. Malcolm encourages her. "Do it like I taught you—one strike to the neck, it'll be over quickly." Rather than a sign of remorse, Thea regards this as a sign they're both as damaged as each other.

Roleplay

• Wade Wilson of Survival of the Fittest tells Edward Sullivan to shoot him. Edward, seeking vengeance against Wade for killing a girl he had a crush on, is all too happy to oblige.

Theatre

• In William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Coriolanus is banished from Rome, and the first thing he does is march right into the stronghold of his Arch-Enemy Aufidius and insist that he either a) kill him, or b) allow him to lead Aufidius's army against Rome.
  Coriolanus: I also am
  Longer to live most weary, and present
  My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;
  Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
  Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
  Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
  And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
  It be to do thee service.

Video Games

• Batman: Arkham Knight: In the Season of Infamy DLC, Mr. Freeze's wife, Nora, is kidnapped by the Arkham Knight's militia, who tell Freeze that they'll give her back in exchange for Batman. When Batman finds out, he tells Freeze to go ahead and shoot him if he trusts them; within seconds, Freeze gives in and begs Batman to find Nora.
• Once Shiala is saved from the Thorian in Mass Effect, Shepard has the option of executing her, even though Shiala gives them help critical to their mission, and expresses a genuine desire to help the unfortunate colony they're on. If you choose to do so, Shiala will stoically accept your decision, kneel down, and look away as Shepard puts two gunshots in her head.
  Shiala: If this is the fate you feel I deserve, then I will not resist.
• Oerba Dia Vanille in Final Fantasy XIII when Sazh discovers that it is Vanille's fault that his son, Dajh, became a l'Cie in the first place and was taken by the Sanctum; and Vanille tells Sazh to shoot her because she deserves to die. Sazh feels pretty bad about aiming his gun at her, though. To the point where he almost shoots himself instead.
  • A more subtle version may have happened with Snow and Hope. Hope did just try to kill him, and Snow did hand him the knife used while carrying him on his back.
• God of War (PS4): Deconstructed. Freya thinks that her life will satisfy Baldur (whose life was ruined by her "blessing" of invulnerability), but Kratos never gives him the option and snaps Baldur's neck. As he notes in his journal in the next game, Baldur had made it clear that this wasn't about Freya; while he wanted to kill her first, his insanity meant he'd just return to hunting down Kratos and Atreus. Nothing Freya or Kratos could do would save Baldur's life, because he would never be satisfied and would keep trying to kill them until either they or he were dead, and if he killed them he'd just move on to others until someone finally killed him in self-defense. Kratos pre-empted the whole thing by putting Baldur down instead. Not that Freya sees it this way, of course.
• Knights of the Old Republic: In the Light Side ending, Bastila asks the PC to kill her as punishment for her Face–Heel Turn. It's up to the player whether to do it, or try to convince her that she can redeem herself.
  • An almost identical scene occurred with Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights.
• Suikoden:
  • Snowe Vingerhut of Suikoden IV offers this to his former friend turned adversary Lazlo several times. The first few times, he's angry about his defeat and defiant; while Lazlo can instead offer to let him join the resistance movement, he rejects that. Only after he's been fully broken and realized that his good intentions didn't make him the good guy that he's fully willing to submit to Lazlo's judgment... and, potentially, to his forgiveness.
  • In Suikoden V, Nakula is searching for the Nether Gate agent who assassinated his father. Upon finding the most likely culprit (who freely admits that they don't even remember if they're the one who took out this particular target or not), they've become a Stepford Smiler Death Seeker and offer this to him. (Nakula decides to hold off on determining whether or not he'll take that offer until after the Godwins are dealt with.)
• Meryl from Metal Gear Solid tells Solid Snake to shoot her, should she ever slow him down. Snake replies that he doesn't like to waste bullets.
• In Octopath Traveler II, Rai Mei begs Hikari to kill her after her boss fight in his fourth chapter. This is partly because Clan Mei was responsible for Hikari's mother's death, since Mugen pressured Jin Mei into hiring some bandits to kill both Kura and Hikari. However, it's also because Rai Mei fears that Mugen will wipe out Clan Mei for her failure, and she thinks that her death will reduce the likelihood of that happening.
• Persona 3: Shinjiro (who is slowly dying anyway) offers to let Ken kill him in order to avenge his Accidental Murder of Ken's mother, though he does so with a warning. Ken, who has cornered Shinjiro with the intention of killing him, completely loses his nerve and can't go through with it. But then Strega shows up...
• Magus of Chrono Trigger lets the party have a rematch to the death if they feel like punishing him for his misdeeds despite knowing he is but a Well-Intentioned Extremist and is not to blame for unleashing Lavos and indirectly causing Crono's death. As he has been defeated once already, it's abundantly clear he doesn't expect to win. If you do spare him, he offers to atone for what he DID commit (such as the Mystic War in 600 AD) by becoming a Sixth Ranger in your group.
• Near the end of Dragon Age II, party member Anders, a Well-Intentioned Extremist, has just blown up the Chantry with innocent clergy inside (and possibly tricked Player Character Hawke into helping). He surrenders to Hawke without a fight and says "If I pay with my life, then I pay." You are given the choice of killing him as he asks, kicking him out of the party, or keeping him around, though he will be surprised if you spare his life and fellow party member Sebastian, who was a Chantry brother, will leave in a rage.
• In Sengoku Basara 3, when Mitsunari discovers that his Number Two Yoshitsugu betrayed their ally Motochika, he claims that he's also at fault for remaining ignorant and asks Motochika to take revenge on him. Motochika refuses, telling Mitsunari that he should live on and repent.
• In Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, Inquisitor Barnham offers Phoenix a chance to run him through after Maya is accidentally cast into the fire. Phoenix doesn't take him up on it, but the offer makes him even angrier at Barnham and the Witch Hunts.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening: When Lucina remembers that the Avatar is the one who will kill her father Chrom in the Bad Future, she promptly tries to kill them to stop it from happening even when she's not exactly happy about that; the player has a choice whether or not to accept Lucina's judgment, but either way, Lucina is stopped by Chrom himself, who asserts that he trusts the Avatar completely.
    • Alternatively, if the Male Avatar is Lucina's husband, or if the Female Avatar is her mother, whether or not they accept, they refuse to fight back and reassure Lucina that they love her no matter what; in response, Lucina breaks down and can't bring herself to go through with it.
  • Fire Emblem Fates:
    • In Chapter 5, Azura does this to the Avatar after their Traumatic Superpower Awakening, as part of an elaborate attempt to bring them back to their senses.
    Azura: Kill me if you want, but... do it as yourself.
    • Oboro and Beruka's supports in the Revelation path are about this trope. Beruka's adoptive father and mentor is the one who murdered Oboro's parents, but Beruka has already killed him. So once she finds out, she tells Oboro to kill her... but Oboro realises that she's just stretching the Cycle of Revenge, and refuses to do so.
  • Exaggerated in Fire Emblem: Three Houses with Constance, whose mood changes from haughty and exuberent to morbid and self-deprecating when in the daylight. When Edelgard remarks that it's unusual to hear Constance be so moody, she offers her life to atone for the sin of acting different from how she usually is.
    "If I have displeased you, please take my life as a small gesture of atonement."
• In Bloodborne: When Gehrman decided the only way to end the hunt is to kill you, you can submit your life and tell him to kill you, or outright refuse his offer, causing him to attack. Killing you in the dream will cause you to wake up in reality, while killing Gherman will free him from the dream at the cost of you having to take his place.
• Heart of the Swarm: When Kerrigan shows up to rescue Raynor, she's been reverted to Queen of Blades form (when last he'd seen her, she'd been deinfested). When he calls her out on it, she takes his gun hand and holds it to her head, flinching when he fires... into the wall behind her. He comes around after he sees that she's willing to let Valerian evacuate as many civilians as he can before the Swarm attacks.
• In Hotline Miami, this is how Richter, the man who was forced to kill Jacket's girlfriend, responds when Jacket comes for him. The player is free to spare him or kill him, and befitting the game's themes of futility, it doesn't really matter which they choose. Canonically, he was spared.
• When Lloyd in Front Mission meets Maury and learns how her hometown was burned down during the war, he tells her that he was involved in the Larcus Incident that triggered the conflict and that she's free to kill him if she wishes. Maury decides that killing Lloyd herself would be beneath her, but signs up as a member of his unit in the hopes that when he dies, she'll be there to see it.
• Super Robot Wars X: When the Misurugi sisters reunite in the IF ending, Sylvia offers her head for her everything from her betrayal to sentenced execution. Ange declines after seeing that she’s already grown up; she instead offers a hand to her sister to rebuild the nation while establishing Cafe Ange on one of its shores.
• Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown: Dr. Schroeder expects Ionela A. Shilage, Mihaly's eldest granddaughter, to kill him for all the chaos he's caused by creating drones through her grandfather's flight data. She instead decides to spare him and have him work together to put a stop to the drone production...but not before he tells her that he has already uploaded his data on two new highly advanced drones, and it was too late to stop it.
• Played for Laughs in Fallout: New Vegas in regards to Yes Man, the AI responsible for planning the events that led to your character being shot in the head in the beginning of the game. Since he's programmed to be a submissive bootlicker, he tells you that you're free to try and kill him but since he's an AI he'll simply upload himself to another Securitron and thus apologizes for the fact that you'll never truly get vengeance.
• Tales of Arise: Dohalim says this twice. The first time is to Kisara after her brother Migal sacrifices himself to reveal that hundreds of thousands of Dahnans were killed behind Dohalim’s back. The second time is to his friend Fahria, whose fiancé, Tarnigen, he accidentally killed during the Crown Contest to become lord. Overcome by guilt because of these mistakes, Dohalim spends most of the game believing he deserves to die.
• Occurs a couple of times in Xenoblade Chronicles 3:
  • The first time, after the Ouroboros had liberated Colony 4 from its Flame Clock, Jeremy confronted Mio and Sena about the friends he had lost fighting against Agnian forces (though they themselves were not actually part of the specific Agnian colony in question). Mio offered her life for his satisfaction, but he relented after seeing from the marking on her neck that she only had a few months left to live anyway.
  • Later, when the Ouroboros were pursued by Colony Lambda, Commander Isurd goes on a rant about how he had recreated the circumstances by which Taion had originally been forced to escape and leave Nimue behind to die, as an act of revenge against him. Taion offered his life to Isurd as compensation, though this didn't take as the Isurd before them was revealed to have been one of Consul J's mudpuppets.

Visual Novels

• In Ace Attorney Investigations 2, the assassin Sirhan Dogen offers his own blade to John Marsh (who is thirteen) giving him permission to kill him as revenge for assassinating John's father, but John refuses. He doesn't particularly care that If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!, but he loves his adoptive mother and new friends and doesn't want to cause them any pain. Dogen respectfully accepts John's refusal and says that he "says some interesting things."
• In Kiss of Revenge, Issei Sezaki realizes partway through his route that the protagonist is targeting him over the death of her mother twelve years before, and invites her to his apartment in order to give her the opportunity to kill him.
• At one point in Marco & the Galaxy Dragon, Haqua invites Gargouille to kill her as Revenge by Proxy against her father, Astaroth, for exterminating Gargouille’s people. Gargouille nearly accepts that offer before Marco talks them both out of it.
• In Piofiore: Fated Memories -Episodio 1926-, Henri Lambert tells the heroine she can kill him if she wants to because it is his fault that people close to them were targeted by the villain who has an unhealthy obsession with Henri. This is quickly rejected by the heroine, who is very hurt that Henri would say something so cruel about himself.
• At the conclusion of Zero Time Dilemma, the mastermind, Zero II / Delta, has managed to flawlessly pull off his plan of...ensuring the birth of himself and his twin sister, and giving the players the knowledge necessary to avert a nuclear war. Several of the players aren't exactly satisfied with the actions Zero took in order to achieve his goals (in particular, releasing the Radical-6 virus which killed six billion people in another timeline, setting up the events of Virtue's Last Reward); however, Delta points out that he can't be arrested for any of his actions, since they happened in alternate timelines (in this timeline, all he did was briefly imprison the players, flip a coin and release them unharmed) and all the evidence of any deathtraps he had set up has already been disposed of. As a sort of compromise, he tosses Carlos a gun and declares this the final Decision Game: Carlos can either shoot Delta or allow him to walk away, depending on whether he believes Delta's actions were justified. The game ends before we see what he decides.

Webcomics

• When Vriska is bleeding to death on her Quest Bed in Homestuck, she asks Tavros, who she had previously abused, to kill her so that she can ascend to the God Tiers quickly and painlessly. Tavros can't bring himself to do it, leading to a scene of pure Nightmare Fuel.

  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DO IT YO8 COW8RD KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8

  • In an arguably even more disturbing scene, it's heavily implied that Equius consciously allowed Gamzee to strangle him to death purely because, due to the trolls' caste system, he believed it was the latter's inherent right to do so.
• Kill Six Billion Demons: Mammon asks this of anyone who can get through the obstacles to reach his lair, figuring that anyone brave or foolish enough to make the trek inside must have a bone to pick with him anyway. He does it to Allison when he notes she has her sword drawn.
  Mammon: Oh! Ah. Hmmm. You thought to slay me? Well, go on then, give it your best. I'm just too damn big for that sort of thing now. Many have tried, certainly. Go on. I deserve it, I know. My brothers...

Web Original

• In Twig, Sylvester, who has been responsible for the foiling of several of Reverend Mauer's schemes, offers his own life in exchange for Mauer guaranteeing the safety of his fellow Lambs, reasoning that while he personally is not of much use, Mauer will at least be motivated to try if Sy publicly offers a deal sealed with his own blood. Instead, Mauer opts to recruit Sy, recognizing that like himself Sylvester is undergoing a loss of faith in his creators and is a great potential asset.

Western Animation

• Arcane: Vander tells Silco he's ready to die at his hands if it means sparing the Lanes going to war, still regretful over trying to murder him years ago.
• Terra from Teen Titans commands Beast Boy to "destroy" her after realizing what she's done.
  • When Robin was unwillingly made Slade's apprentice behind his friends' backs, Starfire ends a standoff between her and Robin like this. She states she doesn't want to live in a world where Robin is truly evil and offers no resistance if Robin really wants to kill her.
• In the first Bugs Bunny cartoon A Wild Hare, Bugs does this with Elmer but only as the set-up for one his faux death scenes.
• In the Thunder Cats 2011 episode "The Pit", this is how Lion-O gains Pumyra's trust after she was Made a Slave. Except not really, when its revealed that she was Evil All Along and only joined up with the heroes as The Mole.
• In an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog, when a Wish-granting Tree makes Eustace incredibly jealous of it serving Muriel and Courage, he unintentionally wishes that it would make Muriel understand, only for Muriel to become incredibly sick. When Courage temporarily leaves the tree alone, Eustace has it all to himself with the intention of cutting it down. The tree then comes to life to question Eustace's desire for attention, but Eustace still cuts it down. Fortunately despite that the tree is gone, it manages to make the cure for Muriel to get better, while Eustace contracts her sickness as well.
• In Futurama, Leela's mutant parents are willing to let her kill them by suggesting that they actually killed her 'alien' parents, rather than admit her true heritage and leave her burdened with the knowledge that she's a mutant and cannot live a normal life on the surface, before Fry shows up to explain the situation.
• In Family Guy when Brian owes Stewie some money over a badly placed bet, Stewie beats the crap out of him until he pays him back (going so far as to shoot Brian in both of his legs and setting him on fire). Needless to say, he's healed up, Brian is still pissed. Stewie offers to let Brian have one hit at him. Brian agrees on the condition that Stewie will not see it coming. He ends up going mad over the mere anticipation. At the very end of the episode, Brian gets his payback by shoving Stewie in front of a moving bus.

Real Life

• Some Death Row inmates experience religious conversion and believe that if they face their execution in a manful and repentant manner, it would be sufficient atonement to wipe clean their sins. Connecticut death row inmate Michael Bruce Ross is one example of these inmates.
• St. Francis of Assisi undertook a voyage to Muslim Egypt and Syria in hopes of converting the local rulers ... or at least of dying for the Faith. In the end he was unable to accomplish either goal, and returned to Italy unharmed. As G. K. Chesterton amusedly observed, men simply liked Francis too much to martyr him, whatever he tried.

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