History Main / IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night]]", Dukat tells Kira that her mother did not die when Kira was young, but [[spoiler:left to become Dukat's lover. It turned out that Kira Mura was one of a number of Bajoran women selected to "work" as [[TruthInTelevision comfort women]] in return for food and medical supplies for their families, who were already suffering under Cardassian occupation and whose lives [[ShameIfSomethingHappened looked likely to get worse]] as the war progressed.]]

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[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueAdventures https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rco001_1579396246_2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Now get in the kitchen and make us sandwiches!"]]

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* The first ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' book has [[BastardUnderstudy Na-Barron Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen]] [[KlingonPromotion attempt to assassinate]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily his uncle]] [[BigBad Baron Vladimir Harkonnen]] by implanting a poison needle in one of his {{Sex Slave}}s. The Barron discovers this and makes the connection immediately. Since he is not going to harm Feyd-Rautha directly (as he is grooming him to be the next Barron of House Harkonnen) he has Feyd-Rautha go and kill his own favorite {{Sex Slave}}s.
* In ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety and the Prisoner's Dilemma'', the members of the titular society are trapped by the BigBad, Mr. Curtain, in a prison cell. Kate Wetherall escapes through a window because she's the only one of them who can, but she gets caught. When she is brought back, Mr. Curtain brings out the shiny silver gloves that he uses to inflict pain by delivering a powerful electric shock and uses them on Reynie. When Kate complains that this isn't fair because Reynie wasn't the one who escaped, Mr. Curtain responds that he decides what is fair and warns that if anyone acts up again, the punishment will be extended to ''all four of them''.
* The premise of ''Cahills vs. Vespers'', the SequelSeries to ''Literature/The39Clues'', is that seven Cahills have been kidnapped, and Amy and Dan Cahill have to fulfill bizarre ransom requests to get them back. If they don't succeed, one of the Cahills will be killed.
* ''First Family'' by Creator/DavidBaldacci begins with a kidnapping where one of the kidnappers, Darryl, accidentally kills a young girl's mother, to the outrage of their TragicVillain boss, Darryl's father Sam. Due to their relationship, Sam can't bring himself to kill Darryl, but he feels that he has to kill ''someone'' over what happened, and so, despite his son's pleas, he shoots the man who accompanied Darryl on the kidnapping.
* ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'': True to totalitarian regimes, Offred is scared to join the resistance against the fundamentalist Gilead even though she hates her monitored life without freedom and would love to fight against it. She fears that if she is arrested, something bad might happen to her daughter (who she knows lives) or her husband (who might or might not be alive). It's also mentioned in the epilogue and historical notes: the scholars mention that the Gileadean regime was not above such drastic measures and actually used them to discourage adverse publicity in foreign countries from refugees.
-->''"More than one incautious refugee was known to receive a hand, ear, or foot, vacuum-packed express, hidden in, for instance, a tin of coffee."''
* ''Literature/SpaceGlass'': Marvelous says this to Bob after giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the Albatross.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''
** The [[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing]] series novel "Wedge's Gamble" reveals that not only was Captain Needa [[YouHaveFailedMe executed]] by Darth Vader for allowing the ''Milennium Falcon'' to escape, but that several of his family members disappeared as well in the following weeks. Needa's cousin Virar - who was in the Imperial Academy at the time - managed to survive the purge but was given a low priority dead-end assignment.
** Later, in the novel "The Bacta War" Imperial Intelligence [[BadBoss director]] Ysanne Isard targets the family members of freighter crewers who surrender to the Rouges, and when Sair Yonka and his star drestroyer defect to the Rogues begins killing the families of the crew members she could get her hands on. Horrorfyingly, she reveals this was not the first time she has killed families of Imperial soldiers when the soldiers defect or fail her.
* ''Literature/FireAndBlood'':
** With three enemy armies about to lay siege to King's Landing and depose him, King Aegon II tells Lord Corlys Velaryon, one of the few military commanders he has left, that if he and his son fail to defeat the incoming attackers, Aegon will have Corlys's granddaughter Baela (who Aegon had been keeping hostage) executed in retaliation. Unfortunately, Corlys responds to the threat by [[TakeAThirdOption joining a conspiracy of like-minded nobles]] who promptly assassinate Aegon and negotiate a truce with the enemy commanders.
** During the regency of Aegon III, he gets a DrillSergeantNasty (of the kind who much prefers making his charges suffer or die rather than bothering to teach them) who is faced with a problem when Aegon is mysteriously unenthusiastic about being forced to do stuff he doesn't want to do by such an unpleasant man, since he can't ''harm'' the king in any way. So instead, he harms the king's best friend Gaemon Palehair.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship Dinosaurs on a Spaceship]]", the bad guy doesn't even warn the Doctor--he just has his friend shot. The Doctor . . . [[BatmanGrabsAGun doesn't respond well.]]

* ''Series/{{Southland}}'': This happens in the episode "Derailed". Marta Ruiz, the matriarch of the Avenue drug gang, wants Janilla dead for agreeing to testify against her sons for a drive-by shooting. Marquece, Janilla's ex-boyfriend and a member of the Grape Street gang, after being taken into custody, reports to Marta that the police have her and that he doesn't know where she is. Marta reminds Marquece that the Grape Street gang owes Avenue money, and after Marquece promises to fill her in on Janilla's new location as soon as he finds out, Marta threatens to have Marquece's entire family killed if he screws up again.

%% * Combined with IHaveYourWife, this is the reason the characters do most of what they do in ''Series/PrisonBreak''.

* On one episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'', the case of the week involves a group of human traffickers who would collectively punish all of their child slaves if one of them broke a rule. This ensured the kids wouldn't run away when sent out to work or prostitute, because they were certain the others would be beaten or even killed if they ran. It also ensured that if one of them ''did'' try to step out of line, the others would rein that one in for fear of punishment; one boy ultimately killed his own sister when she tried to run, because he was afraid of what would happen to him and the other children if she got away. (When detectives point out that she might have been trying not just to get away, but also to get help for him and the others, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he's horrified]].)
* In a double example, the ''Series/WhiteCollar'' episode "Front Man" has Neal being coerced to perform a series of tasks for a gangster, who threatens to kill his hostage (a young girl) if he refuses. While doing the first task, he is told that if he doesn't get the required information from a female travel agent in a certain amount of time, a sniper will kill her (the travel agent). You can even see a red dot appear on her head and clothing occasionally, reminding Neal of his deadline.
* Toward the end of Season 7 of ''Series/TwentyFour'', [[spoiler:Tony Almeida]] and his men break into a Muslim illegal immigrant's apartment, take his brother hostage, and tell him to do as he says if he wants his brother to live.
* Minnie in ''Series/LarkRiseToCandleford'' has a stepfather who uses this tactic to brutalise and subjugate his wife and her daughters.
* After [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Teal'c]] betrays his god Apophis in the pilot episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' to help humans, he finds out that his wife and son were exiled from their home (which was burned and branded with the symbol for "shol'va" - traitor). They are forced to live on the outskirts of the village as untouchables. When his son reaches the age of joining, Teal'c wife has to beg the priests to allow Rya'c to undergo the ritual. It took her to finally divorce Teal'c and marry a friend of his in order to wash away his "shame".
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. In "The Cage", Captain Pike doesn't know Vina and doesn't especially like her, but he objects when she's punished for ''his'' lack of cooperation. This is all part of the Talosians' plan to make him breed with her, because it causes Pike to feel empathy for Vina over her unjust punishment.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In Miami Metro Police Department, Captain Matthews exploits Lieutenant (later Captain) [=LaGuerta=] who is the head of Homicide. Her close friend [[spoiler: and later lover, husband, and Amicably Divorced ex-husband]] Sergeant Batista is the one who suffers -- or is to suffer -- for her screw-ups.

* In season 5 of ''Series/TheExpanse'', whenever a Belter faction agrees to join Marco Inaros's Free Navy, he insists on a crew exchange, sending on of his own trusted crewmembers to serve on a ship in that faction, while a member of that faction serves on Inaros's flagship ''Pella''. The implication is that any betrayal or failure by that faction will result in the "hostage" paying for it. [[spoiler:That's exactly what happens with Serge when Drummer betrays Inaros and saves the ''Rocinante''.]]
* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': Captain Sawyer gets angry at Lt Hornblower because he informs him that he's shortening sails (perfectly according to the orders), but Sawyer believes he should have asked for permission. He decides that he will teach Hornblower a lesson by getting men from his division punished. The last man to get down from the mast gets flogged. This causes panic and a lethal accident, as one poor sailor falls down. Horatio, Archie, Styles and Matthews must scrub him off the deck, and Sawyer then orders them to toss him overboard [[DueToTheDead without a funeral]].
* ''Series/TheMentalist'': The new director of the CBI, Madeline Hightower, calls in Jane and Lisbon on her first day. She tells Jane that he's "golden," he can do whatever he wants with no repercussions. Then she tells Lisbon that if Jane does anything against CBI policy, Lisbon will be punished (since she's his supervisor). Jane doesn't take this well. She ''claims'' it's because Jane is more valuable, but given all of the factors involved as well as the fact that Hightower is later shown to be incredibly shrewd and cunning, it seems more than likely that she was intentionally invoking this trope, knowing that would be the only way she could keep Jane in line.
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': In "The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be" after Negan brutally murders [[spoiler: Abraham]] and then taunts his ex-girlfriend about it, Daryl attacks him in a rage. Negan responds by executing [[spoiler: Glenn]] too. Then he has Daryl taken back to his compound, threatening to torture and kill him if Rick doesn't comply with his demands.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', after exiling Talon of Lon Lon Ranch and taking the place over, Ingo the Stablehand threatens to treat badly the horses that Malon loves if she goes against him, which sets the stage for Link kicking his ass in a horse race on [[CoolHorse Epona]], whom he had befriended as a kid [[ChekhovsGun earlier in the game]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}},'' GeniusDitz [[TheIgor Sheegor]] only works for MadScientist [[DepravedDentist Dr. Loboto]] because he has her beloved pet turtle Mr. Pokeylope and threatens to make him into soup. You have to rescue him as part of the game, after which Sheegor will convert to your side and [[spoiler:[[NotSoImaginaryFriend Mr. Pokeylope himself]]]] will come up with a plan to defeat Loboto.
* Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski pull this in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', threatening to make sure [[spoiler: Sweet]] dies if CJ doesn't do what they want him to do. Later [[spoiler: Toreno]] pulls this as well but is less malicious about it, [[spoiler:and ultimately frees Sweet once CJ has done enough for him]].
* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** In Case 5 of the first game, the BigBad [[spoiler: Damon Gant]] forces the accused [[spoiler: Lana]] to work for him under the threat of [[spoiler: her little sister Ema]] getting prosecuted for a crime she thinks she's committed.
** In the second game, Maya gets kidnapped by [[spoiler: Shelly de Killer]] in order to force Phoenix to get Matt Engarde a "Not Guilty" verdict, [[spoiler: when Engarde was really guilty. Well, he didn't actually kill Juan Corrida personally, but he did hire De Killer to kill him. [[SadisticChoice Phoenix is forced to decide between getting Engarde acquitted, in which case an innocent young woman is found guilty and executed, or getting Engarde declared guilty, in which case Maya is killed.]]]] The only way out is to TakeAThirdOption and [[spoiler: get de Killer to betray Engarde.]]
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Wrath of the Lich King'', you find letters after killing mage-hunter captains of races on your faction (a human and a troll, respectively), reading the letters becomes a very poignant PlayerPunch when it says that they've been forced to work for the blue flight under threat of their family's death. The reason why Vol'jin is hesitant to openly defy Garrosh is because with the Darkspear Trolls so close to Orgrimmar, it would be easy for Garrosh to send in troops to exact retribution on them, and Vol'jin advises Baine, who has similar positions to him and who is similarly close, to also be mindful of what he says. [[spoiler:Vol'jin proves to be correct; he nearly gets killed by one of Garrosh's assassins while trying to prevent Garrosh from bringing back information on making sauroks, and Garrosh has the Echo Isles occupied]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}} Unlimited'', the game starts with Maxwell giving a man a rotten apple. As revenge, the man curses Maxwell's sister to [[TakenForGranite turn to stone]] unless Maxwell collects enough [[PlotCoupon Starites]].

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' this trope is used by [[spoiler: Saul Karath when the party is captured and subsequently tortured for information. Seeing that the [[Main/PlayerCharacter PC]] won't break, Saul switches to [[Main/LoveInterests Bastila for male characters and Carth for females]], and says you can end their suffering if you talk. You are given the option to talk, but doing so boosts your Dark Side points and is totally pointless since Saul says he already knew what you told him and promptly leaves the room with the torture machine still running on everyone]].
* In episode 2 of the {{DLC}} ''Burial at Sea'' for ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'', Atlas threatens to torture Sally slowly if Elizabeth fails to get him what he wants.

* In ''VideoGame/BlackCloset'', if you follow the clues to meet up with the [[spoiler: Red Mask Society]] but get cold feet about actually joining them, they mention it would be a ShameIfSomethingHappened to the girl you chose to be your Queen/partner at the Harvest Festival. If you don't carry out their assignment in time, your Queen is [[spoiler: poisoned and removed from the Council for the rest of the semester, forcing you to play with fewer characters.]]
* There was a ''very'' old PC version of Hangman, back in the Commodore 64 days, in which the person about to be hanged had been convicted of all sorts of horrible crimes, as well as [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ugliness]]. The judge, however, "being a lenient sort," was willing to commute the crimes down to just ugliness as long as the accused had at least one friend - which was the player. If the player succeeded in winning the game, the accused could go free; if not, they would, of course, be hanged.
* During the Hoshido/''Birthright'' and ''Revelation'' route in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', [[spoiler: Felicia's sister Flora is forced to fight the Avatar as refusing to do so will result in Garon destroying the Ice Tribe.]]
* ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': In the Alderaan storyline for the Sith Warrior, when dealing with a House Organa general who is willing to give you necessary info [[EnemyMine if you help her men in a battle]], you can instead start force choking her lieutenants until she starts talking. Eventually, she relents when one of them turns out to be her lover, afterwards you can either let them go or kill them all because they're still your enemies.
* During the final Two-Face mission in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', Two-Face states that every time a mook gets taken out by Batman, he's going to flip his coin: if it lands on tails, he'll execute the mook's family as punishment for failing to stop Batman. As you take out mooks, you can hear Two-Face calling out either "heads" or "tails". Presumably, however, it's subverted, as Batman arrests Two-Face just minutes later.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'': To be a border security agent, you must have a family: if they all die, you're fired. But don't worry, you'll be given a government-approved apartment! That you have to pay rent for. And you'd better do a good job, because your base pay isn't enough to pay rent, food ''and'' heat, so you'll need to work for those bonuses. ''You'' will be fine. Your ''family'' might die.
* The [[TheGeneralissimo Warlord]] from ''VideoGame/RebelInc'' can pass an initiative to assign responsibility for his soldiers' failing in battle to their families... This initiative greatly increases his soldiers' combat effectiveness by turning them into CorneredRattlesnake... At the cost of decreasing his Support.
* [[FauxAffablyEvil Bambi]] [[PsychoForHire "Buck"]] [[TheBogan Hughes]] is holding Jason Brody's friend Keith captive in ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' as a SexSlave, and if Jason botches up his FetchQuest to find a rare Chinese knife for Buck, Buck makes sure to hurt Keith instead.
-->'''Jason:'''I don't have your knife, all right?\\
'''Buck:''' [[LittleNo No]]... ''[[RapidFireNo no, no, no, no!]]'' Jason, that's ''not'' all right! It's just a little fucking knife that I asked you to get me, but you're too bloody incompetent- too ''fucking lazy'' to get it for me! ''[[LampshadeHanging Too busy playing games, aren't ya?!]]'' Well, fine. I'll just go [[DeadlyEuphemism play a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey]] with Keith.

* Tirac from the ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' pilot threatened to kill Spike in order to make Scorpan obey him.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Homer gets tricked into joining the army, and when questioning his sergeant, he forces everyone in his unit to do pushups while he eats donuts, and gets a foot massage from the sergeant.
-->'''Homer:''' I don't get it. How does punishing them teach ''me'' a lesson?
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRippingFriends'' are tank-like masochistic superheroes who ''crave'' torture, so Citrocet kidnaps and tortures their sidekick with weird punishments to get to them.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': Mongul forces his champion gladiator to keep fighting on the Warworld by threatening to blow up his home planet if he refuses. Mongul tries the same threat on Superman, only to be informed by him that's [[DeathByOriginStory he's too late]]. Mongul brushes it off, correctly guessing Superman would still be forced to fight if he threatened to blow up ''any'' inhabited world.

* A particularly brutal version happens to Yuri in ''Anime/AngelBeats''. When she was younger, some crooks broke into her house while her parents were away. They then took her 3 younger siblings, and told her that they would kill one of her siblings every 10 minutes if she didn't give them something valuable. She tries but fails, and the cops arrive 30 minutes later...

* In the introductory arc of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', one of the teachers tells Kuwabara that if he and his friends don't stop fighting and get their grades up, one of his friends will have his work permit revoked. Then, after Kuwabara keeps his end of the deal, the teacher tries to deliberately misgrade his tests so that he won't have to honor his end, and possibly to [[BatmanGambit force Kuwabara into hitting him and actually violating his end of the deal]]. He ultimately gets found out.

* The Surgeon in ''ComicBook/CleanRoom'' displays a [[BodyHorror man he rebuilt into an entirely new species]] and threatens to do the same to his target's spouse to secure a mole in Astrid's inner circle.

* ''Fanfic/ScarTissue'': [[spoiler:[[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong Dmitri]]]] warned [[spoiler:[[TheAtoner Gendo]]]] that if he failed his assignment, he would disembowel his children in front of him.
* In the VideoGame/{{Portal 2}} fanfic ''Fanfic/BlueSky'', [[spoiler:[=GLaDOS=] uses Atlas and P-Body to capture the entire population of the town Chell has settled in, threatening to kill them if Chell does not cooperate and do the testing.]]
* In ''Fanfic/RainbowFactory'', [[spoiler:Rainbow Dash]] orders for Orion to be sacrificed to the Pegasus Device first due to him trying to comfort Scootaloo in her DarkestHour.
-->'''[[spoiler:Rainbow Dash]]''' You can’t have happiness. You ''ruined'' me. Now I’ll ruin you. Workers! The brown one, there! Him first!
* In ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors'', Satan tells Literature/{{Percy Jackson|and the Olympians}} that [[YouHaveFailedMe if he fails to kill Jerry]], his best friend Grover will be used as a sacrifice, and Percy himself will suffer a FateWorseThanDeath.
* Haruka establishes a rule like this in ''Fanfic/LoveHinaLikeItCouldHaveBeen'': if one of the girls damages the Inn, while she'll have to pay for the bulk of it, all of them will have to chip in.
* The ''{{Series/Emergency}}'' fic [[http://www.womenwritersblock.net/Rona/ronaEmgcy23.htm "Hostages"]] has a variation with a group of criminals break into Station 51. John is cuffed to the squad, and the guys beat on him when things don't go their way, forcing the rest of the firemen to comply as best they can.

* In ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'', [[SmugSnake Kluge]] warned [[TheMole Nakajima]] that if he failed him, he’d get his girlfriend and her little sister killed.
* The Film/TheDarkKnight fic ''FanFic/MessedUp'' employs this. The Joker makes a rule that every time Rose argues or rebels, her friend Sparrow gets hurt. This is mainly used to break Rose, as she is very protective of those younger than her, which conflicts with her instinctual rebellious stance. Sparrow is not only younger than Rose, but suffers from anxiety disorder and is extremely shy.
* ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfRemnant'': Whenever Jaune's sisters did anything wrong (such as fighting with each other, or stalking their mother through the halls, or ''asking for food''), their mother would punish Jaune for it by locking him in "[[PunishmentBox the Hole]]" for days or weeks. This has resulted in two clear consequences: Jaune's sisters are heavily dependent on him, seeing him as their shield and protector even though they are far stronger than him, and Jaune has gotten it into his head that everyone else can get what they want so long as ''he'' is punished enough. [[spoiler:This results in him walking unarmed into a meeting with people who already tried to assassinate him once, because he thinks that once he's dead there will be world peace... not realizing that his death will drive his sisters insane and start a world war]].

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'': He kills [[spoiler:Irene Adler]] and sends men to kill [[spoiler:Watson and Mary]], even after Holmes personally tells him that [[spoiler:Watson will no longer be a part of his investigation]]. Of course, this ends up biting the bad guy in the end, as [[spoiler:Watson ends up stopping his assassin, which he wouldn't be doing if he was still on his honeymoon]]. It's also the same threat that ends up forcing Holmes to [[spoiler:grab Moriarty and jump into Reichenbach Falls]].
* In ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' Stryker forces [[spoiler:Kayla Silverfox]] to conspire with him this way by threatening to kill [[spoiler:her sister, Emma Frost]].

* In ''Film/UnderSiege'', the bad guy is having his {{Mook}}s lead the crew of the captured battleship into the hold. On the way, one crewmember assaults one of the criminals. Not only is he shot for his trouble, the BigBad immediately shoots the guy next to him, claiming this is the price to pay for disobedience.
* In ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'', the bad guy uses this tactic to coerce the two intelligence officers (who are having an affair) into giving up their passcodes to the Grazer 1 satellite. He threatens to stick a red-hot needle into the other one's eye, describing in graphic detail what it would do to the eye in question. [[spoiler:He kills them anyway after they give up the codes]].
* In ''Film/DieHard'', John [=McClane=] is messing up Hans Gruber's plans. John's wife's coworker (whom he met once) tries to get in Gruber's good graces by attempting to talk his "friend" [=McClane=] into giving himself up. [=McClane=], fully aware of what kind of a person Hans Gruber is, tries to get the guy to admit he's lying but to no avail. Gruber smiles, shoots the guy for his trouble, and then tells [=McClane=] that even if he was lying, he can start putting bullets into each and every hostage "until I find someone you care about".
* In ''Film/TimeLimit'' an officer has made propaganda for the North Koreans while a POW and is going to be court martialed. One officer wants to know why and finds [[spoiler: that after the one POW who betrayed the other men was strangled by the man who drew the short straw, the Korean commander called in the ranking POW and told him that he was going to do everything he was told or the other sixteen men would be taken out and shot right in front of him. He gave in.]]
* In ''Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII'', Rambo is captured by the Soviet "advisors" to the Communist Vietnam commanding officer. The advisor takes Rambo's knife and puts it into the charcoal fire heating his tea. When Rambo won't divulge the information requested, the advisor threatens to stick the now-glowing tip into the eye of the American POW with whom Rambo was captured.
* In ''Film/BiloxiBlues'', Sgt. Toomey routinely punishes Wykowski whenever Eugene fucks up. However, Wykowski is not Eugene's friend, but the biggest, most ill-tempered soldier in the platoon.
* In ''Film/CrimsonTide'', the USS Alabama's Captain, played by Gene Hackman, needs the Weapons officer, played by Viggo Mortensen, to open the safe where the missile firing trigger is kept. When Weps refuses, the Capt gives him 5 seconds to comply, threatening to shoot him. Then he realizes that if he does, he still won't have the combination. So, he threatens one of Weps men, who doesn't know the combo. Weps complies [[spoiler:but it gave the XO time to remove the firing key on the bridge.]]

* In ''Film/{{Wishmaster}}'', the Djinn resorts to threatening and torturing Alexandra's friends and loved ones (including her sister) to force her to aid his plan by making wishes. He even notes this tactic's persuasiveness.

* Happens to the BigBad Le Chiffre in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. After squandering his client's money on a bad investment, the terrorists whose money he lost attacked Le Chiffre and threatens to cut off his girlfriend's arm. The only reason why Le Chiffre's own arm isn't on the chopping block is because, as the terrorist points out, [[PragmaticVillainy he will need it to play poker and recoup his losses]]. Luckily for her, it was just a scare tactic--for now.
* In ''Film/DISCO2017'', Henrietta's plan is to kill Vince due to the enormous debt he does not intend to pay and make Lana pay them back through prostitution and pornographic films.
* In the climax of the mexican film ''Matando Cabos'', the big bad has the two protagonists tied down and he's trying to get them to confess where did they take his father (who they accidentaly kidnapped via a [[DisasterDominoes series of bizarre events that make most of the movie's plot]]). Unable to get any information out of them (because they have no idea they kidnapped his father), he threatens that any time one of them says something stupid, he's going to punch the other one.
* This is Keyser Soze’s entire strategy in ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''. He makes it clear to each member of the group that “owe” him that if they don’t cooperate he will kill anyone they care about. He also makes a big point that to get ahead you don’t need to have more people or bigger weapons, just the will to do what the other guy isn’t willing to do.

* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': After Thanos confronts Gamora with the fact that he knows [[spoiler: she found the Soul Stone and claimed she didn't]], he [[AbusiveParents painfully tortures Nebula]] until Gamora reveals its location: [[spoiler: Vormir]]. Later Thanos implies he'll do something even worse to Nebula if [[spoiler: the stone isn’t there.]]
* ''Film/TheGreyZone'': The Nazis resort to interrogating a female prisoner who smuggled in powder for the upcoming uprising of the Sonderkommandos by lining up all the other prisoners and shooting the women one by one unless she talks. The SS interrogator threatens to clean the entire block out and move on to the next one until she cooperates, [[spoiler:but she kills herself by running into the electrified fence when they prepare to shoot a teenage girl. Then her friend shoots herself with a guard's gun to do the same.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' duology, there is [[spoiler: a king]] who kills the lovers of his wife to punish her, as he cannot kill ''her''. He isn't jealous, it's a loveless marriage, he just wants to cause her pain. [[spoiler: His "lover" Garannon is actually someone he has been sexually abusing from childhood on, and who submits to this abuse because he fears for the safety of his family.]]
* In ''[[Literature/TheShamerChronicles The Shamer's Signet]]'', Dina is forced to use her Shamer powers on anyone her captor sees fit, for trivial things. If she refuses, he'll kill Tavis, the random kid who was with her when she was kidnapped.
* ''[[Literature/TakeshiKovacs Altered Carbon]]'': [[spoiler:Kawahara]] threatens to lock Kovacs' girlfriend into a [[FateWorseThanDeath mind-shattering virtual interrogation hell]] if he doesn't do as he's told.

* In Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax series, serious crimes in the Neanderthal world are punished by castration of the offender and all others who share at least half his genes (parents, siblings and children).
%% * This is how the kids control [[spoiler: Erek King]] in the last few ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books. One of Jake's biggest WhatTheHellHero moments.
%% ZCE
* The children's book ''Literature/TheWhippingBoy'' is based on the 15th century real-life practice of punishing a companion to a prince as the royal line was considered divine and only another from the royal line could do the punishing on pain of death. In real life, a whipping boy would be a lifelong companion to the prince so that their emotional bond would make the whipping a real punishment for the prince. In the book, the whipping boy was chosen to start a new life in the castle with the young prince, who was a RoyalBrat. This trope is played with, however as [[spoiler:when the two are kidnapped, the whipping boy is more educated than the prince, so believing the prince to be the whipping boy, he is the one punished]].
%% * Sergeant Grimshawe in Creator/KimNewman's AlternateHistory novella "Literature/TeddyBearsPicnic", being the setting's version of Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann, does this.
%% ZCE

* In ''The Dragon Revenant'' by Katharine Kerr, the head of slaves tells a tale of how when he was a boy, a slave in the house opposite killed his master. ''Every slave in the house'' was put to death, including mothers with babies-in-arms. That was one of the ways Bardekians controlled their large slave population.
* A common tactic of the People's Republic of Haven in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' books: commanders who lost battles could expect to be executed along with their families.
* In ''Literature/TheGreenMile'', this is how [[spoiler:Wild Bill Wharton]] kept the two little girls quiet while he kidnapped them - he told each that he'd kill the other if they screamed.
* In the Creator/StephenKing story "Quitters, Inc." the main character is shown a room with an electrocuted floor which will be used if he lapses back into smoking. But not on him. [[spoiler: On his wife. And maybe his kid, if necessary.]]
* ''[[Literature/TheColorOfDistance Through Alien Eyes]]'' has the kidnappers hit Juna until Moki subsides and stops trying to help her.

* [[DeconstructedTrope Completely backfires]] in ''Well Of Darkness'', where Prince Dagnarus is provided a whipping boy--but doesn't care about anyone but himself.

* In ''Film/BiloxiBlues'', Sgt. Toomey routinely punishes Wykowski whenever Eugene fucks up. SHowever, Wykowski is not Eugene's friend, but the biggest, most ill-tempered soldier in the platoon.

* ''Series/TheMentalist'': The new director of the CBI, Madeline Hightower, calls in Jane and Lisbon on her first day. She tells Jane that he's "golden," he can do whatever he wants with no repercussions. Then she tells Lisbon that if Jane does anything against CBI policy, Lisbon will be punished (since she's his supervisor). Jane doesn't take this well. She ''claims'' it's because Jane is more valuable, but it seems more than likely that she was intentionally setting up the scenario this way in order to keep Jane in line, knowing that would be the only thing that could.

* ''Series/TheMentalist'': The new director of the CBI, Madeline Hightower, calls in Jane and Lisbon on her first day. She tells Jane that he's "golden," he can do whatever he wants with no repercussions. Then she tells Lisbon that if Jane does anything against CBI policy, Lisbon will be punished (since she's his supervisor). Jane doesn't take this well. [[note]]She claims it's because Jane is more valuable, but it's entirely possible she knew full well that Jane would care more about Lisbon being punished than about anything she could do to him directly.[[/note]]

Compare EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes, where the Big Bad doesn't directly target his underlings' loved ones but merely shows callous disregard for them. If you actually punish his friend for his failure, that's a form of RevengeByProxy. See also BlofeldPloy. Compare and contrast with GuiltByAssociationGag when someone is punished along with a group despite not actually having anything to do with the crime. For group punishments see PhysicalFitnessPunishment.

-->-- '''Foundation and Empire'''

* ''Literature/FireAndBlood'': With three enemy armies about to lay siege to King's Landing and depose him, King Aegon II tells Lord Corlys Velaryon, one of the few military commanders he has left, that if he and his son fail to defeat the incoming attackers, Aegon will have Corlys's granddaughter Baela (who Aegon had been keeping hostage) executed in retaliation. Unfortunately, Corlys responds to the threat by [[TakeAThirdOption joining a conspiracy of like-minded nobles]] who promptly assassinate Aegon and negotiate a truce with the enemy commanders.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' Bellatrix casts the Cruciatus Curse on Neville to try and get Harry to hand over the prophecy while Neville yells at him not to give in. Luckily the Order shows up very quickly at that point.

** Meanwhile Caliborn gets Dirk to draw weird pornography for him by threatening to murder his own sister (who is a friend of Dirk's) -- though Dirk was [[QuickDrawDecision perfectly willing to do it anyway]]. He then reveals the "shitty twist" to his diabolical game: [[spoiler:he had already killed her]].

* Girem6 in ''Machinima/{{Smashtasm}}'' does this a lot to Grant and Gront, as noted in this exchange:

* Fanfiction writers '''love''' this one, usually these type of stories coming under Hurt/Comfort or Anguish categories.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night]]", Dukat tells Kira that her mother did not die when Kira was young, but [[spoiler:left to become Dukat's lover. It turned out that Kira Mura was one of a number of Bajoran women recruited to "work" as [[TruthInTelevision comfort women]] in return for food and medical supplies for their families, who were already suffering under Cardassian occupation and [[ShameIfSomethingHappened could be moved somewhere worse]] if the Cardassians weren't kept happy.]]

* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E15Paradise Paradise]]", Sisko and O'Brien become trapped on a planet with a human colony built by the crew of a ship that was rendered inoperable due to some sort of NegativeSpaceWedgie. The leader of the colony is an EvilLuddite who rebuffs any and all suggestions of trying to get their technology to work and, when she catches O'Brien trying to find a way back onto a runabout in orbit, orders Sisko to be placed in a [[PunishmentBox heat box]], reasoning that he was responsible as O'Brien's commanding officer.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship Dinosaurs on a Spaceship]]", the bad guy doesn't even warn the Doctor--he just has [[BerserkButton his friend shot.]] The Doctor . . . [[BatmanGrabsAGun doesn't respond well.]]

* Slade uses this tactic in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' to (temporarily and forcibly) [[FaceHeelTurn convert Robin over to his side.]] He infects the rest of the titans with nano bots and threatens to kill them if Robin doesn't become his apprentice and follow his every order. [[spoiler: Robin manages to TakeAThirdOption via injecting ''himself'' with nanobots, badly harming Slade's pride and forcing him to release everyone.]]

-->'''Jason:''' [[RantInducingSlight I don't have your knife, all right?]]\\

[[folder:Real Life]]
* This trope is used by most totalitarian regimes:
** The Nazis often threatened to kill not only those who tried to resist them, but also their entire families if they tried to defect. This included anyone found harboring Jews in their homes. Erwin Rommel killed himself specifically to avoid this fate after he was found to be complicit in the plot to kill Hitler.
** Successful escapes from Nazi death camps were punished by having ten randomly selected remaining prisoners executed, often locked away and starved to death. (i.e., Saint Maximilian Kolbe became a martyr for [[TakeMeInstead exchanging places with one of these prisoners]].)
** It's the reason that people in [[KangarooCourt show trials]] confess to imaginary crimes -- if they don't, their families will pay the price. The Soviet Union under UsefulNotes/JosephStalin and the "People's Court" of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, among others, were particularly notorious for it.
** A story making the rounds in the US intelligence community is about some Chinese exchange students in Soviet Russia, involved in a prank gone wrong. The boys were arrested, and interrogated by the KGB. The interrogation lasted for hours, and the KGB could get nothing. Finally, the Soviets contacted the Chinese Embassy for assistance. A Chinese agent walked into the room, said something to the students, and left. Afterward, the students confessed everything, received whatever punishment was due them, and were sent back to China. Later, the KGB agents wanted to know what the Chinese agent had said to get the students to cooperate. A Chinese translator translated as follows: [[spoiler: You will tell the Russians what they want to know. In exchange, you will be killed. If you do not tell the Russians what they want to know, you will still be killed. In addition, your villages will be massacred.]]
** North Korea reportedly has a series of "family camps" where the families of accused political dissidents are imprisoned for being related to the accused.
** People in Socialist Czechoslovakia were blackmailed to collaborate with the regime or at least pretend to support the Communist Party through their family, which meant mostly children. Will you not vote? Your child can kiss a good school or a university goodbye. Especially dissidents' children had to forget about studying or getting a decent job. But hey, considering that in the Eighties the intellectual elite was formed by dissidents, they got to hang out with the most intelligent people anyway.
** Border guards in Totalitarian regimes, particularly one that border far richer nations like North Korea and East Germany, are usually soldiers with families. The implicit threat to the guards is that if the guard jumps the border their families will be killed, imprisoned or otherwise punished in retribution.
* Many of the Latin American drug cartels would harm families or loved ones to those who reported their activities to the police, and even to their own members if they cheated their organization or started informing to the police.
* The original "decimation" -- killing one tenth (randomly selected) of a Roman military unit fits this trope well. What was even worse was that those randomly selected soldiers were killed by their own comrades! It was eventually stopped, however; the punishment ruined the unit for any further purpose.
* In ancient Rome, if a slave killed his or her master, all of that master's slaves would be executed. The idea being that anyone would be willing to risk their own life for freedom, but few would be willing to put the lives of dozens or even hundreds of other slaves at risk.
* When Frederick the Great as heir apparent attempted to flee Prussia with his friend and rumoured lover, Hans Hermann von Katte, he was made to watch from prison while Katte was beheaded.
* In ancient China, a person who committed a capital offense, such as treason, would not only have himself punished, but his family as well. The list of which family members get involved varies from dynasty to dynasty, as does the cutoff age below which children are exempt. The largest list involves the criminal himself, his parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, siblings-in-law and uncles and their spouses. In the single most extreme case, the offender's students and peers were added to the list. The purpose of this long list was to serve as a major deterrent to capital offenses, and encouraged family members to keep tabs on each other and make sure they didn't commit any crimes.
* The idea of the whipping boy is that misbehaving young princes cannot be physically disciplined by anyone but the king, due to the Divine Right of Kings, and it was impractical to constantly make requests of a reigning monarch to personally oversee his child's discipline, so a child of lesser status (usually still a noble of some level, but not outright royalty) would be disciplined in their place, with the hope that this would make the young prince feel guilty. Specifically, the child chosen for this would be a lifelong companion to the prince, and was often one of the only -- if not ''the'' only -- same-age friends the prince had access to, so this method was often an effective tool for teaching royal children that their actions do have consequences and that those consequences will hurt others. The fact that they were forced to watch as someone who had become a close friend get punished for his own actions tended to serve as a deterrent in short order.
* In Malaysia, penalties for drunk driving involve not only automatic jail time, but a provision that spouses of married drunk drivers also face incarceration.
* This technique is frequently used in sports and military training, although to a less severe punishment; if one member of the group fails whatever test the trainer imposes, such as running laps under the time limit, the whole group has to do it again. The idea, as in many other cases, is that the individual will go all-out so that their teammates aren't punished.
[[/folder]]