This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Rewarded Like A Traitor Deserves: From YKTTW
Prfnoff: This trope had an odd pre-history. It first appeared on YKTTW one or two times, but wasn't launched. I created it under the current title, without putting it before YKTTW, but it was almost immediately destroyed by The Great Crash. After that, I sent it back to YKTTW, but it somehow slipped off again. So, this was launched from the third or fourth YKTTW, which was pathetic compared to the lost previous discussion. This time, though, I decided to write up a real description, and rewrote the two examples I had slightly. So, here it is now.
Medinoc: But I keep thinking it's redundant. Three examples, at least one of which (the Harkonnen one) already exists in You Have Outlived Your Usefulness...
Prfnoff: Wiki Magic has done its work. But this example doesn't belong, as Leia doesn't expect to be rewarded by the Empire by betraying the Rebellion under duress, and she's not punished for her treason until it's discovered that she lied:
- One of the few tropes to be subverted in the Star Wars saga. The Empire threatens to destroy Leia's homeworld of Alderaan if she does not tell them where the rebel base is, which she reluctantly does, at which point they promptly go ahead and destroy Alderaan anyway. They soon realize that the location she gave them was false — it was an old base on Dantooine that had long since been abandoned by the Rebellion — meaning that not only have they destroyed their only source of leverage, they've also ruined their own credibility.
Medinoc : I think this one is You Said You Would Let Them Go.
Haven: I'm pretty sure the Lost example I just added in actively counts as an aversion, maybe even a subversion; I remember thinking "Ben's totally gonna blow up that boat", but I guess they'd exhausted the Stuff Blowing Up budget on the dynamite in the hatch. Or they figured it wouldn't suit his character. Anyway, yeah.
Removed this:
- Akechi Mitsuhide betrayed and murdered Oda Nobunaga (who in real life was not actually a villainous dictator) for no other apparent reason than that Nobunaga made fun of his baldness. After committing the deed, he tried to escape on foot, but was caught by peasants and beaten to death.
- Other possibilities for Akechi's betrayal was due to Nobunaga's competitive nature, the 50-some odd year old Akechi was allegedly afraid of losing his land and being forced to fight for new territory. Additionally, I wouldn't call being hunted down (Leading to the Battle of Yamazaki) by the forces of more loyal Oda retainer Hashiba Hideyoshi "caught by peasants," though this probably did occur after Yamazaki and after Akechi was kicked out of the land of supposed Akechi ally Tsutsui Junkei.
because it sounds like a common case of justice catching up to a murderer, not a traitor doing something for a reward and getting punished instead.
Should there be a distinction made between a traitor who is discarded for purely practical reasons and one that is rejected because the villain (usually a villain) morally objects to treachery?
