History CruelMercy / FanWorks

* Discussed and ultimately averted in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/48137452 Fodlan's God of War]]''. While Edelgard never wanted to kill Rhea, initially it was because she wanted to force Rhea to watch as she destroyed everything she had built. However, once she finds out about Rhea's DarkAndTroubledPast, she can't bring herself to feel any genuine animosity towards her anymore and wants to show her mercy for its own sake rather than to prove any kind of point. Unfortunately, Edelgard's attempt at offering an olive branch only serves to feed into Rhea's anger and paranoia.

-->I'm not the Princess... so I'm glad it torments you. Hell has to live with what you've done, after all. Now you do, too.”

-->"God is cruel, Roy, and so am I. You tell him he's going to live a long, healthy life. Death is too easy. Death would be wasted on him. You tell him he's going to wake up every single day with her blood on his hands. You tell him he's going to live with Tommy and Laurel and everyone else he's killed whispering in his ear every night. I'm not gonna waste a bullet on Oliver Queen, Roy. I'm gonna make sure he lives. Laurel is going to die tonight, and he's gonna have to live with himself for a long time. And trust me, that's worse than death."

* In ''FanFic/SwingingPendulum'', Central 46 decides to permanently imprison Ichigo in isolation and darkness instead of executing him with the rest of the Visoreds as an acknowledgment for killing Aizen. A very horrible punishment for a guy known for his loyalty to his TrueCompanions. Shinji lampshades it:
-->'''Shinji''': "What kinda fucked up acknowledgment is that?! Death is better, ya thrice-damned Shinigami!"

* In ''[[Fanfic/TwiceUponAnAge All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird]]'', this is the [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Lord Inquisitor]]'s logic in deferring to the Lady Inquisitor when judging [[spoiler:Blackwall]]. "Toria will ''forgive'' him. And... that forgiveness will be harder to accept than any condemnation."

-->[[FateWorseThanDeath "He shall view his worst memory on a constant loop and I also made it that he shall feel the pain of everyone else that suffers because of him..."]]

-->'''Twilight:''' "You three are hereby banished from Equestria, should he ever return, my guards will send you back in worse condition than before." She stated before leaning down and glaring into their eyes. “Now you will know the pain I will have to suffer for the rest of my life, the pain of knowing that your actions have cost you your family, the pain of knowing that you will die alone, with your entire bloodline hated by all of Equestria. The pain of knowing that your entire legacy is now tainted. All. because. of. you."

* When Sasuke defects in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9920512/12/Reaching-for-a-Dream Reaching for a Dream]]'', Naruto lets him leave, just to rub in that Sasuke was no match for him. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} however when Naruto's words drive Sasuke to attack him in a rage, causing Naruto to kill him.]]

* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/485015/Mr_Evil Mr. Evil's]] OriginalCharacter Fredi Heat sees this method as worse than just killing them. Despite having no qualms about brutally killing someone that looks at him wrong (did I mention he is a "good guy"), he always sees it crueler to take someone in alive rather than dead. As he quotes "'Alive' just means you can still breath on your own".

** Two of the {{Recursive Fanfiction}}s of this story (''Fanfic/KarmaOverbalance'' and '’Fanfic/KarmicBacklash'') revolve around deconstructing Marinette's plan and [[DidNotThinkThisThrough how little forethought she probably put into it]] by showing Lila [[ThreatBackfire exploiting the freedom Marinette gave her alongside her cruel mercy and using it to plot Marinette's downfall]]. '’Karmic Backlash'' even has people chew out Marinette over [[WhatWereYouThinking thinking it would be enough punishment for Rossi]].

* Discussed and ultimately averted in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/48137452 Fodlan's God of War]]''. While Edelgard never wanted to kill Rhea, initially it was because she wanted to force Rhea to watch as she destroyed everything she had built. However, once she finds out about Rhea’s DarkAndTroubledPast, she can’t bring herself to feel any genuine animosity towards her anymore and wants to show her mercy for its own sake rather than to prove any kind of point.

* ''Anime/CrossAngeTheKnightOfHilda'': Cornered by Dark and Embryo during the assault on Arzenal, Embryo announces that [[OriginalCharacter Rio]] has been a thorn in his side for too long but neither can he ignore that he owes Rio for rescuing Ange. In the end, he decides that since Rio doesn't appreciate his gift of the Light of Mana, he strips it from him so that Rio can spend the rest of his life powerless. [[spoiler:This actually backfires in the long run, as it turns out Aura had other plans]].

* In ''Fanfic/OneHelluvaBrokenDay,'' [[OmnicidalManiac SCP-682]] refuses to kill any of the humans in its facility after SCP-001 activates. It does this not out of a newfound camaraderie with the Foundation personnel, but because eating them would [[MercyKill spare them from]] [[FateWorseThanDeath becoming SCP-001-A]]. Unlike most examples, this isn't as satisfying for the "mercy"-giver, as now it's [[IronicHell surrounded by people it's still homicidally disgusted with]] and it can't escape itself because it isn't sure its AdaptiveAbility will protect it from The Broken Sun's light.

* ''Fanfic/WarningLetter:'' [[Manga/DeathNote Light]] ultimately decides against writing [[VideoGame/Persona5 Kamoshida's]] name in the Death Note on the grounds that, as a rapist with teen victims, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil he probably won't last long in prison anyway.]]

* Some fan fiction views [[AllLovingHero Aang's]] [[ThouShaltNotKill mercy]] on [[BigBad Ozai]] from the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' GrandFinale as this. "[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4414322/1/Cruelty The Avatar calls this mercy]]." Considering Ozai planned to burn a ''continent'' to the ground to secure his rule, on top of a lifetime of other atrocities, his Cruel Mercy may be [[PayEvilUntoEvil very well-deserved]].
* ''FanFic/TheFallOfTheFireEmpire'':

* ''FanFic/{{Hivefled}}'': Darkleer fell in love with the Disciple and let her go, hoping she could rebuild her life. She didn't want to and tracked him down with the intention of killing him for not letting her join her dead lover.

-->[[ExactWords "I never said how long the rest of your life was."]]

* Lila runs into this twice in ''[[FanFic/BurnTheWitchMiraculousLadybug BURN THE WITCH]]'':

* ''[[Fanfic/ApotheosisMHA Apotheosis]]'':

* ''[[Fanfic/NemesisMHA Nemesis]]'': Izuku has no intention of killing Katsuki; instead, he gets revenge upon him by [[CreateYourOwnVillain exposing their connection]] to the world, having established himself as the supervillain Mischief long before Katsuki even got his hero license. He then [[ToThePain spells out for Katsuki]] how he'll ''never'' be able to escape that link now... and since [[spoiler:heroes with nemeses are more popular than those without, no matter how high he climbs in the Pro Ranks, he'll never know whether he achieved that on his own merits or if Izuku helped him get there]].

* ''FanFic/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria'': After Hurricane's coup against [[TheCaligula Commander Sullamander]], the latter's remaining loyalists tried to stage a counter-revolt and were effortlessly crushed. When Hurricane realized that his own ([[AbusiveParents unloving and unloved]]) mother Star Saber was the leader of the revolt, he spared her -- not out of familial obligation, but because he wanted her to live with her utter failure.

* In ''FanFic/VengeanceOfTheStar'', Twilight is ForcedToWatch as her adopted son Spike is killed in front of her by assassins. In retaliation she captures them and during their trial, after stripping them of their wings and horns, ''kills their families in front of them'' before stripping them of their magic and banishing them from Equestria.

-->'''Naruto''': "You're old enough to be making your own decisions, so if you want to shack up with a weirdo like Orochimaru, that's fine with me, just make sure you can live with the consequences."\\
'''Sasuke''': "Wait, you mean you're just letting me go?"\\
'''Naruto''': "We both know that you're not even close to being strong enough to get away from me unless I let you. So run away little boy, run away and escape the only way you can. Because I ''let'' you."

* In the ''Deep Space Nine'' fanfic ''The First Tile,'' a bereaved Trill father whose daughter's death was ordered by the planetary government hopes the monarch has a ''long'' life in prison.
-->''"I'm glad he will spend the rest of his life in a prison, eating meager food, surrounded by cold walls, performing the same kind of labor many Unjoined spend their entire working lives doing. I don't want him to get out. I want him to spend the rest of his life remembering what he did to our world, and when he dies, I hope that even the wind forsakes him. I say that as a father, in the name of every other parent who will, or *has* faced the same truth."''

** And at the end of the story, [[spoiler:Jiazin's first act as Fire Lord is to force [[EvilChancellor Qing Xi]] into retirement as punishment for collaborating with the majority of Azula's crimes]].

* ''Fanfic/ThievesCanBeHeroes'' has Ann admit outright that she only spared Kamoshida's Shadow because she thought that having him beg for forgiveness after his heart was changed and his crimes exposed would be a more satisfying form of revenge.

* Some fan fiction views [[AllLovingHero Aang's]] [[ThouShaltNotKill mercy]] on [[BigBad Ozai]] from the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' GrandFinale as this. "[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4414322/1/Cruelty The Avatar calls this mercy]]." Considering Ozai planned to burn a ''continent'' to the ground to secure his rule, on top of a lifetime of other atrocities, his Cruel Mercy may be [[KickTheSonOfABitch very well-deserved]].

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': ZigZagged by [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonKingGhidorah Ghidorah's middle head (Ichi/Eldest Brother)]]. After eating Vivienne Graham in Antarctica, he ordered San (then Ghidorah's left head) to bring Vivienne BackFromTheDead as a human-Ghidorah ArtificialHybrid specifically because Ichi wanted to torment Viv; turning her into a mimicry of the monster she spent years at Outpost 32 fearing.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': ZigZagged by [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonTitansAndOtherCreatures Ghidorah's middle head (Ichi/Eldest Brother)]]. After eating Vivienne Graham in Antarctica, he ordered San (then Ghidorah's left head) to bring Vivienne BackFromTheDead transformed into a Ghidorah-like ArtificialHybrid, specifically as a way to torment her by turning her into a mimicry of the monster she fears and so Ichi/Eldest Brother could likely torment her further afterwards.

* ''WarningLetter:'' [[Manga/DeathNote Light]] ultimately decides against writing [[VideoGame/Persona5 Kamoshida's]] name in the Death Note on the grounds that, as a rapist with teen victims, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil he probably won't last long in prison anyway.]]

* The courts decided not to prosecute John Patterson for letting his wife Elly go insane and then attacking her in ''FanFic/TheNewRetcons'' because his reputation was already shot and it'd just be a waste of the court's time. John, having a SelfServingMemory, thinks he beat the system. [[spoiler:He does eventually see their point when Christmas rolls around and he's all alone.]]

* In canon, Harry persuades Sirius and Lupin to spare Pettigrew because he doesn't think James would want them to become murderers (and to help prove Sirius's innocence). Rose, ''The Girl Who Lived'', on the other hand, describes in rather ghoulish detail how much worse than death life in Azkaban will be for him, and ''this isn't even the creepiest thing she does''.

[[AC:''Franchise/DanganRonpa'']]
* ''Fanfic/AnotherSideSportingHopefuls'': True to his word, Monokuma is more than happy to spare [[spoiler:Fukawa]] from the execution of [[spoiler:Genocider Jill]]. He does so by [[spoiler:lobotomizing her and ripping out her nervous system, leaving her paralyzed and only able to communicate by moving her eyes in response to yes-no questions]].

* In the fanfic ''The Girl Who Lived'', Harry persuades Sirius and Lupin to spare Pettigrew because he doesn't think James would want them to become murderers (and to help prove Sirius's innocence). Rose, on the other hand, describes in rather ghoulish detail how much worse than death life in Azkaban will be for him, and ''this isn't even the creepiest thing she does''.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Snakepit}}'', Chang-Mu inflicts this fate upon the villagers who abandoned her