Basic Trope: A character spares another character's life, usually a villain, only for him to suffer a Fate Worse than Death.
- Straight: Bob doesn't want to kill Emperor Evulz, so he decides to spare his life by letting him forever suffer for his life of evil.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob spares Emperor Evulz, only for him to suffer utter humiliation by those he's wronged.
- Bob spares Emperor Evulz, only to let him suffer eternal punishment in hell.
- Emperor Evulz taunts Bob that he doesn't have what it takes to kill him, and Bob completely agrees... And promptly gives Evulz Complete Immortality, walking away to leave Evulz unable to die... Forever.
- Bob spares Emperor Evulz, only to exact the karmic justice on Evulz's sister right in front of Evulz and then let Evulz suffer for the rest of his life.
- Downplayed: Bob spares Emperor Evulz only for him to deal with the consequences of his actions.
- Justified:
- Bob knows that Emperor Evulz wanted him to kill him or Evulz wanted to die so that he won't have to pay for what he's done.
- Bob is against the thought of killing someone, but only because that life itself can be a Fate Worse than Death. He allows Evulz to suffer to keep his hands morally clean.
- Bob is a police officer and he is not allowed to kill the criminals, so he sends Evulz to the jail in life sentence.
- Bob is more into delivering Cold-Blooded Torture on Evulz afterward, because a Revenge by Proxy is more amusing than simply killing Evulz.
- Pragmatic Villainy
- Inverted:
- Cruel to Be Kind.
- Bob decides to punish Emperor Evulz by letting him enjoy his success as a villain.
- Unishment
- Knowing how tormented Evulz would be living with his failure, Bob puts him out of his misery.
- Subverted:
- Bob leaves Evulz to suffer, but then shoots him in the gut after a while.
- Bob leaves Evulz alone, only to let Alice shoot him in the gut.
- Bob leaves Evulz alone, but comes back and gives him a pistol to commit suicide.
- Alice demands to know why Bob let Evulz live. Bob confesses he wanted to kill him but he was immortal so chucking him down a magma vent was the best he could do.
- Bob leaves Evulz alone to suffer, except Evulz doesn't suffer because he doesn't have a conscience but had managed to fool Bob into thinking he did and escapes.
- Bob leaves Evulz alone to suffer, because Evulz is mortally injured and he wants Evulz to die a slow and painful death.
- Evulz assumes Bob let him live so he could suffer more, but the truth is that Bob spared him for some other, more humane reason; Evulz just doesn't understand his motives.
- Bob spares Evulz because he knows he'll suffer... but he hopes that by suffering, Evulz will understand that Being Evil Sucks and change his ways.
- Double Subverted:
- Except that the bullet was designed not to kill, but to permanently inflict severe pain in his body for the rest of his life. Now Evulz who is unable to stand up wishes that he is able to die to end the suffering.
- Except that was revealed to be a lie.
- Parodied:
- Bob forgives Emperor Evulz by letting him date a very unattractive girl.
- Bob is a Technical Pacifist who keeps on inflicting isolation and imprisonment on the most petty of foes. Genocidal maniacs are appalled at the suffering he inflicts.
- Bob's only form of attack is informing people of how immoral they are and then refusing to kill them. His "victims" act as though they have been subjected to a Fate Worse than Death.
- Zig Zagged: Bob's mercy varies between good and evil Depending on the Writer.
- Averted:
- Bob gives Emperor Evulz a brutal Karmic Death.
- Bob spares Emperor Evulz' life only for him to atone for his crimes.
- Enforced: "We don't want Bob to kill Evulz because it would destroy his reputation as a hero, so how about having him spare Evulz' life to the point where Evulz wished that Bob did kill him?"
- Lampshaded:
- "Is this the kind of 'mercy' which involves punishment?"
- "If I kill you, that's the end of it. No, no, I think we'll keep you around until you understand just how direly you've sinned..."
- "If you think I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart, you are mistaken. It's quite the opposite, actually."
- Invoked:
- "Since killing Emperor Evulz is too easy for him, here's what I'm going to do..."
- Bob is pretty sure Evulz will mysterious survive his supposed death, and so decided to let him live out of pragmatism, Of course, he's not inclined to let his worst enemy enjoy life either...
- Implied:
- Bob defeats Evulz but his final fate is never explicitly shown but Bob states he will never hurt anyone again and he is paying for his crimes. Supernatural means later reveal Bob has a kill count of zero.
- Evulz thinks Bob will kill him but Bob lands him in jail without explaining why. Years later, Evulz confessed that he wishes that Bob had killed him.
- Exploited:
- Evulz proceeds to abuse Briar Patching as much as possible, and gets sealed away in terrible pain for his trouble. This is fine by him; One day, he'll be able to return again to plague the world, while Bob will be long dead and unable to stop him.
- Evulz wants to escape with his life, and attempts to trick Bob into sparing him using Reverse Psychology.
- Defied:
- "Having to leave Evulz alive isn't such a good idea. He might come up with another dangerous plan to take over the world."
- Evulz kills himself to avoid this, or to give Bob a huge middle finger.
- Boom, Headshot! "Call me unimaginative if you want, but I really can't see how this is supposed to be 'too good' for him."
- Discussed:Lance: "How could you spare his life after what he's done?"
Bob: "Don't worry. I've made sure that he wishes that I didn't." - Conversed: "Evulz's fate makes a viewer like me wish that I was dead than to be here in this world."
- Played For Laughs: Evulz has been suffering a Humiliation Conga, which culminates in Bob subjecting him to a Curb-Stomp Battle. Instead of finishing Evulz off, Bob decides to humiliate him again to further rub salt on the wound.
- Deconstructed:
- What Bob realizes that Evulz happens to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist who kills people not because he enjoys it, but because he believes that people suffer too much in life, much like himself in the past. It turns out that leaving Evulz to suffer instead of die was sadistic and has made Bob the real villain in this conflict.
- It turns out that Bob's "mercy" fails to prevent Evulz from causing more destruction to the world, and this only makes Evulz more ruthless and sadistic than he's ever been. Also, Evulz came back and subjected Bob to the very same thing as payback.
- Evulz calls Bob out for being needlessly cruel to a defeated foe.
- Bob cripples and beats Evulz down in the middle of the woods. Nobody can save him. Nobody can hear his cries for help. And nobody is going to help him from getting killed by either the elements or the most vicious mauling of a wild animal.
- Reconstructed:
- However, when Bob, defeated Evulz spare him again, it shows Evulz feeling the guilt in the jail, and the people finally realized why Bob tend to spare the villains and shove them in front of their guilt.
- But when Bob went after Evulz's sister, murdered her right in front of Evulz, subjected Evulz to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and then spared Evulz at the very last moment, Bob finally delivered a true suffering for Evulz and the latter is too broken to even commit atrocities.
- Bob points out that if Evulz was not a jackass that required a few teeth knocked off, he would not have been so cruel and he should still thank his lucky stars that Bob decided not to kill him.
- Bob only felt merciful enough to not kill Evulz himself. He did not felt merciful enough to save him from the other potential things finishing the job.
I'm letting you enter the main page so you can experience extreme suffering through this website.
