History Main / IfIwantedYouDead

* ''Fanfic/HeroChat'': Chat Noir's Catacylsm acts on the basis of his intent. The effects on a person depends on how much he wants to hurt them, such as only damaging their ribs or a jolt of pain if he only wants to harm them. Adrien has no desire of actually harming, much less killing, another human being, though Luka points out that telling an Akuma their only alive since he didn't want them dead would be rather metal.

Not to be confused with IWishedYouWereDead. Compare BreakInThreat.

* After Valerie Payne is kidnapped by [[WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures Shendu]] in ''Fanfic/TheUltimateEvil'', this line is included.

-->'''Rex Atwater:''' My point is that Western civilization is cutting its own throat. Our enemies hit us as hard as they can, but we're supposed to strike back in a limited, perfectly accurate, fair way... and always apologize. Do you remember during the invasion of Iraq, when all of the Arab press was crying out ''they're deliberately targeting civilians''? And the White House responds with patient denials, instead of saying, ''Christ, if we were deliberately targeting civilians, [[KillEmAll do you think there'd be anybody left to bitch]]?''

--->'''The Doctor:''' All of you, stay very...still.
--->'''Karl:''' It's going to kill us!
--->'''The Doctor:''' It could have done that already.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', Po is left for dead, until the Soothsayer rescues him, and nurses him back to health. When Po wakes up, she tried to get him to eat some soup. Po refuses, and the Soothsayer quickly utilizes TheParalyzer, tosses the soup down his gullet, undoes her nerve strike, and tells him that if she had wanted him dead, she would have left him in the river.

* A variant appears in the novelization of ''Film/FantasticVoyage''. The mission experiences several misadventures, each of which could have been accident or sabotage. All but one of the specialists are eliminated as suspects because something went wrong in their respective areas of expertise that they could have sabotaged far more subtly and effectively.
** Another variant in "Literature/TheDyingNight", where a paper of an important invention is copied and destroyed after the scientist's death. The coworker is the first suspect, but Dr. Wendell Urth points out that with the scientist's secrecy, he could have simply walked out with the papers. He had no reason to believe the scientist talked with anyone else, and if he knew otherwise, no reason to suspect he was taken seriously.

* Another variant appears in Creator/IsaacAsimov's novelization of ''Film/FantasticVoyage''. The mission experiences several misadventures, each of which could have been accident or sabotage. All but one of the specialists are eliminated as suspects because something went wrong in their respective areas of expertise that they could have sabotaged far more subtly and effectively.

* In ''Stone of Tears'', second book of the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, Kahlan discovers that her [[UnstoppableRage Con Dar]] bloodrage from the previous book has left her with a HandCannon-esque magic attack that appears to blow through just about anything. Thinking this puts her on even ground with witchwoman Shota, she goes into her domain to have a chat, and boasts that with that power, she has nothing to fear from Shota's power. The witchwoman shrugs, and points out that, if Shota wanted her dead, the magic would've done absolutely nothing to stop her from poisoning the tea Kahlan had just drank, which quickly deflates Kahlan's notions of invincibility.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' during a diner with Sans in the pacifist route he will comment that if he hadn't promised Toriel to look out for any humans who left the ruins then "You would be dead where you stand". He plays it off as a joke immediately afterwards but [[spoiler:finally decides to break his promise in the Genocide route after you've already killed practically every other monster]].

* in VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}, the Player can have a random encounter with "[[ShoutOut Mel]]", a highwayman who tries to stick you up with a sawed-off shotgun ([[ItWorksBetterWithBullets which isn't even loaded]]). The Intelligence-tied response basically calls him out on it, stating that a real raider would have just killed and looted.

* Also inverted on ''Series/AllMyChildren''. Having been wrongly accused of murder, Janet Greene manages to get the victim's husband to admit that he doesn't believe that's she guilty: "We both know that if you really thought I had killed your wife, I wouldn't be standing here right now."

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E9TheVengeanceFactor The Vengeance Factor]]", a much smaller and technologically inferior ship repeatedly and ineffectually attacks the ''Enterprise''. Picard finally orders a limited attack to take down their shields and convince them to start talking. The other captain's first signal is an accusation that the ''Enterprise'' is there to destroy them; Picard makes the obvious rebuttal.

* In ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'', When Abe chews out [[SadistTeacher Minamino]] for punching him "as hard as he could" for being one minute late to class:
-->'''Minamino:''' If I had hit you as hard as I could, I would have decapitated you and your head would be rolling... 30 meters away...

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': After Bumblebee, at Brother Blood's orders, battles Cyborg, she tries to convince Cyborg she's TheMole: "If I was fighting for real, you'd be spare parts by now."

* In ''Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}}: Escape from L.A.'', Tom tries to explain to past-Rachel that if there were more morph-capable controllers (at that point in time) than just Visser Three, the Animorphs would know by now and already be screwed, in an attempt to prove that he's not a controller. She doesn't listen.

** The second-last book. Not only could Tom have fought them with his battle morph (jaguar), but he could've conceivably called in every Hork-Bajir-Controller on the planet and taken them down.

** The only nation ever to achieve missile lock on the [[RealLife/CoolPlane SR-71]] is the [[UsefulNotes/SwedesWithCoolPlanes Kingdom of Sweden]]. A Saab Viggen pilot (with the help of ground-based radar relaying data to his plane) managed to achieve missile lock on the world's fastest aircraft. The [[TheAce crew]] of the Blackbird in question sent him a congratulatory letter and framed-and-signed certificate in [[WorthyOpponent recognition]] of his achievement.

* In ''Series/{{The Punisher|2017}}'' David does a nonverbal version of this. After Frank keeps him captive and tied to a chair for some time David manages to stab him with a tranquilizer. When Frank wakes to find himself alive and unrestrained he's finally willing to believe what David has been telling him the whole time, that they have mutual enemies and he wants to team up to take them down.

* In the short-lived Australian cop show ''Skirts'', the boyfriend of a female police officer is receiving death threats. Her superior says that if they meant to kill him, they wouldn't warn him first. But they do try to kill him anyway.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa Rosa]]", when the title character asks Ryan, who's been following her, if he's a spy for either the police or the FBI, he points out that if he was, he wouldn't be so terrible at keeping himself hidden, and wouldn't be British. He also doubts that the 1950s FBI have black informants on their payroll anyway.

* ''Film/TheGodfather'' has Virgil Solozzo telling Tom, "Come on, get in the car. What are you worried about? If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already."

* In ''Fanfic/AmbienceAFleetSymphony'', Sanford reassures Damon that he needn't worry about the insubordinate Shiranui trying to slit his throat in his sleep, because she would have already done so if she had had the thought.

* In ''Fanfic/ThisBites'', Cross and Robin do this on behalf of Aokiji, stating that if he was there to kill them, he'd have sunk their ship from ''miles'' away.
* Invoked in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''/''Series/Lucifer2016'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13198941/1/Tripping-Down-the-Rabbit-Hole Tripping Down the Rabbit Hole]]"; when ''Supernatural'' Gabriel arrives in Lux after his confrontation with Apocalypse World Michael, he observes that it's clear this world's Lucifer isn't as bad as the one from his world for the simple reason that Lucifer's been on Earth for years and there's no Apocalypse.
* Invoked in ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMysticForce'' after the Rangers overreact to finding Harry in Rootcore on their first meeting and Harry tries to protest that he wasn't there to fight, although downplayed as it is established that he wouldn’t have been able to do much to the Rangers given their greater raw magical potential.
* ''Fanfic/TimeFixersNicktoonsOfTheFuture'': In "Shadow of the Past", Darry ends up in a bad neighborhood and is beaten up by some thugs until being saved by [[spoiler: Vlad Masters]] and taken into his home for treatment. Darry is reluctant to trust him until he explains, "If I wanted you dead, I would've left you outside."
* In ''Fanfic/InfinityCrisis'', the heroes of the Series/ArrowVerse convince the Avengers to trust them by having Barry, Wally and Kara demonstrate how easy it would be for them to take out the Avengers if they were actually enemies (Barry and Wally neatly disarm most of the Avengers and Kara lets Natasha shoot her in the face twice before forcing her to drop her gun).
* ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel'':
** When Fury asks how they can trust Superman after Zod’s actions, Superman points out that if he was Earth’s enemy he could have already destroyed the Helicarrier without anyone present (including five of the six original Avengers, with Thor currently isolated on Asgard) able to stop him.
** Later referenced in [[spoiler:the first confrontation with 'Black Sky', who is really a teenage Rachel Roth; as Superman observes, if the girl wanted to kill him, Matt and Jessica, she could do it easily, and yet she only attacked her captor and then presented herself to the three in a non-threatening manner]].
* In ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndThePrinceOfSlytherin'', Harry brazenly asks Lucius Malfoy, with whom he'd just allied, whether Malfoy had been responsible for several somewhat ostentatious attempts on his life over the past year. Offended, Lucius (who says he is "not a fan of the Grand Guignol") states that if he'd wanted Harry dead, he'd have just used the Imperius Curse on Harry's uncle Vernon and ordered him to murder Harry in his sleep and then burn the house down in a way that would make it look like an accident. Harry, a Slytherin, finds this answer acceptable.

* Opposing military aircraft use a variant during peacetime confrontations. One side attempts to obtain and hold radar lock on the other - whoever succeeds in holding lock "wins." (See the opening of ''Film/TopGun'', [[TheOneWhere the part where]] Maverick flips off the [=MiG=] pilot, for a fictional example.) Overly aggressive maneuvers of this type have resulted in mid-air collisions.

* ''Film/IAmMother''. When Woman refuses an injection from Mother, assuming she's the same as the {{Killer Robot}}s she's met before, Mother points out that all she has to do to kill Woman is leave the room and wait for her to die of infection and blood loss. [[spoiler:However Mother is implied to have [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killed Woman at the end of the movie]], so this was is merely a case of CantKillYouStillNeedYou.]]

* ''Film/IAmMother''. When Woman refuses an injection from Mother, assuming she's the same as the {{Killer Robot}}s she's met before, Mother points out that all she has to do to kill Woman is leave the room and wait for her to die of infection and blood loss. [[spoiler:However Mother is implied to have [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killed Woman as the end of the movie]], so this was is merely a case of CantKillYouStillNeedYou.]]