History ForcedToWatch / Literature

* In ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' [[spoiler:Tact]]'s execution is delayed so he can watch as every one of his comrades, friends, and family members is executed before him. The fact that every one of them begs him to save them only makes it worse.
* ''Literature/PreludeToDune'': In ''Dune: House Harkonnen'', a teenaged Guerney Halleck is forced to watch as his sister, who has just spent a year as a SexSlave for Harkonnen soldiers, is brutally gang-raped before Rabban finally strangles her.

* ''Literature/TheAlgebraist'', by Creator/IainBanks. A GalacticConqueror wants the cooperation of an alien species, so he summons their ambassadors and proceeds to space hundreds of men, women, and children from the human colony he's just conquered, [[AndIMustScream immobilized yet fully conscious]]. Unfortunately, the aliens have BlueAndOrangeMorality so their response amounts to: "Yes, and what does this have to do with us?" So he then makes the mistake of threatening them directly -- the ambassadors instantly teleport away and activate their military, destroying most of the invading fleet.

* In ''Literature/TheBlackFleetCrisis'', the Republic's opponents try to force the Republic's hand by sending them a video of Chief of State Leia's husband Han being beaten nearly to death. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain It backfires]]: Leia shows the video to the Republic Senate, destroying any goodwill the Yevetha had earned and letting her make a case for the Republic to declare war.

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', the villains capture Ward and his younger brother, Tosten. They want information that Ward can give them, and torture Tosten, in the correct assumption that this will get Ward talking much faster than torturing Ward himself. When he hears his brother cry in pain, he talks. It is not clear whether he is really made to ''watch'' as the torture is not described in detail, only the inside of Ward's mind as he remembers several things from the past that are interesting for the villain. Magic may be involved.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles: Literature/SkinGame'':
** Nicodemus organizes a gambit around this [[spoiler:and the fact that Karrin is a ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend to Harry. He surrenders to her when she wields the Sword of Faith, but not before ordering the Genowska to kill Harry. The Genowska ''slowly'' starts crushing Harry's skull, while Karrin is helpless to stop it. In a rage, she strikes at Nicodemus with the Sword, breaking her word and unmaking the Sword.]] Nicodemus is a real bastard.
** He does it again, later in the same book. He has [[spoiler:Charity]] captured and intends to [[spoiler:burn down her house with her children inside]] before killing her.

* According to Creator/{{Herodotus}} one Median prince was actually forced to ''eat'' his son by his king. Later he supposedly ended up commanding a large part of the same monarch's army at a critical battle with UsefulNotes/CyrusTheGreat. Figure out what happened next.

--->"Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do."
** In ''Catching Fire'' Katniss is forced to watch [[spoiler:Cinna being severely beaten and dragged away to his implied execution.]]

* ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'' by Max Frei. In one of the sequels, the hero happened to witness things too overwhelmingly weird, even for a CosmicPlaything like him. He closes his eyes, but oops -- he's still forced to see it all. Eyelids do nothing.

* In ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'', an Inquisitor mentions casually to Vin that when he tortured [[spoiler:her brother]], he died before spilling the secret they were after. Thus, this time, he was going to use a different tactic: torturing her friend Sazed instead. (He doesn't get the chance.)

* Turned sideways in Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/TheProblemOfSusan'', where Susan is eaten first, but her (conscious) severed head is left behind so she can watch further horrors unfold regarding her siblings and [[BrainBleach what Aslan and the White Witch do.]] [[spoiler: Mercifully, ItWasAllADream.]]

* ''Literature/NightfallSeries'': Myra is forced to watch [[spoiler:Bastien’s torture, after Vladimir tells the Farm humans that she is the one responsible.]]
* In the climax of ''Literature/NighttimeIsMyTime'', the Owl intends to force Jean to watch him slowly suffocate [[spoiler:her daughter and Laura]]; he says Jean will die last and that he thinks it'll probably be a mercy by that point. [[spoiler:Luckily, Jean is able to distract him long enough for the police to get there]].

* The Creator/StephenKing short story "Quitters, Inc." (published in the collection ''Literature/NightShift'') about the ultimate anti-smoking program operated by TheMafia (adapted into a segment of the film ''Cat's Eye''). Their method? They put their clients under constant surveillance, and if they smoke, they torture their loved ones and force them to watch it.
* In ''[[Literature/PreludeToDune Dune: House Harkonnen]]'', a teenaged Guerney Halleck is forced to watch as his sister, who has just spent a year as a SexSlave for Harkonnen soldiers, is brutally gang-raped before Rabban finally strangles her.
* In ''[[Literature/ThePendragonAdventure The Quillan Games]]'', Bobby is forced to watch as [[spoiler:Mr. Pop]], Quillan's last hope, is [[spoiler:incinerated by BLOK, thus making Quillan the second territory lost to Saint Dane.]]

* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', also known as the ''Literature/CirqueDuFreak'' series, the second-to-last book gives us this between [[spoiler:Steve and Darren]]. "I dare you to do this." Different in that [[spoiler:Steve]] is essentially doing it ForTheEvulz at this point, and if [[spoiler:Darren]] also does it, it'd keep [[spoiler:Steve]] from actually realizing and becoming truly evil, and if [[spoiler:Darren]] doesn't, [[spoiler:Steve]]would go absolutely batshit crazy. [[spoiler:Ultimately it's Steve killing Darren's godson and son-of-best-friend Shancus, that is Steve's crossing the MoralEventHorizon and he dares Darren to do it as well. And Darren almost does kill the kid he's holding, Steve's son Darius. What keeps him from doing it? Steve telling his boy to tell Darren his mom's name. His mom's name? Annie Shan, Darren's sister. [[WhamEpisode Woah.]]]]
* ''The Schoolmouse'' by Creator/DickKingSmith: Since the headmistress of the school isn't aware that one of the local mice, Flora, has learned to read and therefore knows that the blue stuff left for the mice is poison. Flora survives and manages to convince her parents not to touch the poison, however, she is too late to do anything for her brother and is forced to listen to his horrible dying groans. She is plagued by the memory for a long while afterwards.
* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'':
** In ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', [[BigBad Morgoth]] captures Húrin and forces him to watch [[spoiler:his homeland overrun by the Easterlings and his son and daughter subjected to a terrible curse and eventually DrivenToSuicide.]] All through Morgoth's chosen lens, which hid all that was good and showed Húrin only bad things. However, Húrin never asked for mercy, for himself or for any of his kin.
** ''Literature/TheFallOfGondolin'': As Gondolin is being destroyed by Morgoth's army, Maeglin tries to drag Idril, the woman who turned him down, and her son Ëarendil to the battlements because he wants her to see how he throws her child off the wall and into the fire.
--->''Now then Meglin had Idril by the hair and sought to drag her to the battlements out of cruelty of heart, that she might see the fall of Eärendel to the flames''
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Tyrion reveals that he'd been forced to watch his beloved new wife Tysha gang-raped. And then forced to participate himself. When he was thirteen. And the whole thing was orchestrated by his ''[[AbusiveParents father]]''. (With his older brother Jaime also in it.)

** ''Literature/DarthBane: Path of Destruction'', Bane kills a man's two sons and forces him to watch. Justified in that Bane then used the father's anguish to fuel his dark side powers.
** In ''Literature/TheCourtshipOfPrincessLeia'', Gethzerion, one of the two {{big bad}}s, wants to convince Han Solo to surrender himself to her so she can exchange him for a way off the planet. She does this by gathering harmless prisoners in a room and ordering them all shot down, while [[MindRape using her Force powers so Han sees the whole scene through her eyes.]]

* In ''Literature/TheSwordOfTruth'' series it is mentioned that part of the Mord-Sith training involves them being forced to watch their mothers tortured to death. The protagonist is threatened in the first book that if he won't help the BigBad, he'll be forced to see his love tortured for a very long time (not killed -- the BigBad wanted an heir from her). In another book, knowing that Zedd and Adie won't give in to torture, the BigBad assures their cooperation by threatening to torture children in front of them instead. A few more examples are present throughout the series.

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Tigerstar, after taking control of [=ShadowClan=] and [=RiverClan=], organizes an attack on [=WindClan=]. Once the CurbStompBattle was over, he rounded up all the prisoners and forced them to watch as he brutally killed a young apprentice, as a "warning" as to what would happen if any of them tried to defy him again.

** ZigZagged in ''Literature/AVisionOfShadows''. [[BigBad Darktail]] initially forces [[TheMole Violetpaw]] to watch as [[spoiler:her friend Needletail is slowly drowned in the lake, as punishment for the former's attempt to slip poppyseed into his prey. Violetpaw pleads with him, and he relents, allowing Needletail to live, but only if she was willing to kill Violetpaw herself. Needletail feigns an attack, before attempting to protect Violetpaw against multiple rogues at once. She goes out in a HeroicSacrifice, while Violetpaw watches in horror. Violetpaw flees before Needletail actually dies, but it's made clear what happened.]]

* In the book ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', things play out differently from the film. The witch does this because she can't physically harm Dorothy thanks to the protective charms of the slippers and the North Witch's [[ProtectiveCharm protection spell]]. Didn't stop the WitchWithACapitalB from trying to get Dorothy's cooperation by torturing the Lion, threatening Toto, and leaving Nick (the Tin Man) and the Scarecrow as ruined heaps at the bottom of a nearby ravine. Baum had his moments...

* In ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'', such an event is what drives the protagonist. As a child, his rural village was attacked by a goblin horde and no Adventurers came to save them. His sister locked him in a storage area beneath the floorboards, saving him from the creatures at the cost of him having a front-row seat to the horrors she endured in her final hours. The experience broke him completely and drives him on his endless quest to exterminate goblins wherever he can find them.

* ''The Algebraist'', by Creator/IainBanks. A GalacticConqueror wants the cooperation of an alien species, so he summons their ambassadors and proceeds to space hundreds of men, women, and children from the human colony he's just conquered, [[AndIMustScream immobilized yet fully conscious]]. Unfortunately, the aliens have BlueAndOrangeMorality so their response amounts to: "Yes, and what does this have to do with us?" So he then makes the mistake of threatening them directly -- the ambassadors instantly teleport away and activate their military, destroying most of the invading fleet.

* Done unintentionally in ''The Schoolmouse'' by Creator/DickKingSmith since the headmistress of the school isn't aware that one of the local mice, Flora, has learned to read and therefore knows that the blue stuff left for the mice is poison. Flora survives and manages to convince her parents not to touch the poison, however, she is too late to do anything for her brother and is forced to listen to his horrible dying groans. She is plagued by the memory for a long while afterwards.
* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', [[BigBad Morgoth]] captures Húrin and forces him to watch [[spoiler:his homeland overrun by the Easterlings and his son and daughter subjected to a terrible curse and eventually DrivenToSuicide.]] All through Morgoth's chosen lens, which hid all that was good and showed Húrin only bad things. [[HeroicResolve Húrin never asked for mercy, for himself or for any of his kin.]]

* In ''[[Literature/AsianSaga Shogun]]'', the Japanese are surprised to learn that Blackthorne ''isn't'' vulnerable to personal humiliation, and even more surprised to learn that he '''is''' vulnerable to this trope. Abusing and mistreating him to the limit won't break him down, but if one of his companions is abused and tortured instead... i.e., Blackthorne's famous [[spoiler:attempt commit {{seppuku}}]] came from a group of samurai threatening to ''crucify everyone in the village he lived in''.

* This turns out to be behind the plot of ''Literature/TheCarpetMakers'' by Creator/AndreasEschbach: [[spoiler:the previous Emperor puts a defeated rival king on life support and forces him to watch how all life on his home planet gets killed off, to be replaced by carpets.]]
* In [[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]] [[spoiler:Peeta]] reveals that he was forced to watch the execution-by-torture of [[spoiler:Darius and Lavinia.]]
** The Hunger Games themselves are a nationwide version of this for the districts. Each one is made to watch, on television, as two of their adolescent citizens engage in a weeks-long fight to the death with 22 other kids, and only one survives. Katniss sums up their message herself:
-->"Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do."
** In "''Catching Fire''" Katniss is forced to watch [[spoiler:Cinna being severely beaten and dragged away to his implied execution.]]
** In ''Literature/TheBalladOfSongbirdsAndSnakes'', a prequel novel set in the time of the 10th Hunger Games, it's mentioned several times that most residents of the Districts don't watch the Hunger Games because they don't have televisions, and even most residents of the Capitol don't watch because they find them repulsive. Brainstorming ways to get more people to watch is one of the assignments of the students assigned to the new Mentor program and compulsory viewing is brought up as a possiblity.

* In ''Literature/TheBlackFleetCrisis'', the Republic's opponents try to force the Republic's hand by sending them a video of Chief of State Leia's husband Han being beaten nearly to death. It doesn't work, though.

* In the fifteenth [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]] book ''Literature/SkinGame'', Nicodemus organizes a gambit around this [[spoiler:and the fact that Karrin is a ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend to Harry. He surrenders to her when she wields the Sword of Faith, but not before ordering the Genowska to kill Harry. The Genowska ''slowly'' starts crushing Harry's skull, while Karrin is helpless to stop it. In a rage, she strikes at Nicodemus with the Sword, breaking her word and unmaking the Sword.]] Nicodemus is a real bastard.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Ron Weasley listens from his basement prison as [[spoiler:Hermione, his soon-to-be girlfriend]] is tortured by [[spoiler:Bellatrix]] above.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Bellatrix Lestrange, unable to torture Harry because he's carrying a delicate MacGuffin of the Death Eaters, tells her colleagues to torture his best friend's little sister and local CuteWitch Ginny Weasley in front of him instead. She later tortures Harry's good friend Neville Longbottom in front of Harry as well but is interrupted a moment before he gives in.

* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/CountToTheEschaton'', Larz mentions modifications so illegal that they kill your entire family out to cousins, and first, making you watch.

* In the Literature/RizzoliAndIsles novel ''The Apprentice'', the cops are investigating the murder of a wealthy doctor and the disappearance of his wife. When they find the husband's body tied to a chair propped up in the middle of the bedroom, the cops are horrified to realize that the killer forced the helpless man to watch as he raped and murdered his wife before slashing his throat.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse novel ''Literature/DarthBane: Path of Destruction'', Bane kills a man's two sons and forces him to watch. Justified in that Bane then used the father's anguish to fuel his dark side powers.

* In an indirect example, Captain Red Wegener from a Coast Guard ship investigating the rape and murder of a family aboard a ship in the Creator/TomClancy book ''Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger'' realizes that the suspects they have for the crime forced the owner of the ship to watch as they raped his wife and daughter before they killed him.

** ZigZagged in ''A Vision of Shadows''. [[BigBad Darktail]] initially forces [[TheMole Violetpaw]] to watch as [[spoiler:her friend Needletail is slowly drowned in the lake, as punishment for the former's attempt to slip poppyseed into his prey. Violetpaw pleads with him, and he relents, allowing Needletail to live, but only if she was willing to kill Violetpaw herself. Needletail feigns an attack, before attempting to protect Violetpaw against multiple rogues at once. She goes out in a HeroicSacrifice, while Violetpaw watches in horror. Violetpaw flees before Needletail actually dies, but it's made clear what happened.]]