History Main / SparingThemTheDirtyWork

* ''Fanfic/TheLastSon'': When the heroes finally get General Zod depowered and cornered, they're at a crossroads about what to do with him, though most of them agree that he's too dangerous to be kept alive, and they can't keep him contained forever. Wolverine says he's willing to "jump on that grenade" if nobody else is, but their decision is rendered moot when Cadmus launches a Kryptonite-laced nuke at them, to kill both Superman and Zod in one fell swoop. [[TakeAThirdOption Superman orders Sentrius to open a Phantom Zone singularity near them in order to minimize the damage]], [[MortonsFork while also giving Zod two choices: either he stays where he is to allow the missile to kill him, or he goes back to the Phantom Zone to survive]].

** ''Literature/DeathMasks'': After Harry, Sanya, and Michael defeat the Quintus Cassius, he relinquishes his Blackened Denarius in a fake show remorse. This puts the Knights of the Cross at an impasse, as they are obliged by their oaths to let Cassius go, despite knowing that he will go right back to necromancy and devilish pacts. Harry, who is under no such oath, resolves the situation by sending the Knights away, then breaking Cassius' knees and elbows with a baseball bat, eliminating him as a threat without taking his life.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In ''The Warrior'', Michael Carpenter is sorely tempted to beat his daughter's abductor to death after disarming the man. Talking his friend down, Harry volunteers to kill the man himself if there's really no alternative: Harry's done questionable things himself before, but ''Michael'' is a Knight of the Cross who shouldn't lower himself to such an act.

* The second ''Theatre/TouMyu'' production ''Bakamatsu Tenrouden'' has the cast trying to undo the History Retrograde forces' attempts to change the timeline, one of which includes saving the Shinsengumi leader Isami Kondo from his execution in Itabashi. Problem is, Kondo's beloved sword-now-human Nagasone Kotetsu is on the main team, and Kondo ''himself'' requests that Nagasone be the one to execute him. Nagasone already has a lot on his plate right now, and killing his own master to preserve the timeline is definitely not going to help ease his mind. Before he can decapitate Kondo, however, his teammate and fellow Touken Danshi Hachisuka Kotetsu backhands him and does the execution himself. As Hachisuka had been needlessly antagonizing Nagasone the whole show, this gesture conveys that the former has finally started respecting the latter and that as a teammate he doesn't want Nagasone to quietly burden himself alone.

* In the ''Literature/GuardiansOfGaHoole'' book ''The Burning'', Soren fights against [[spoiler: his brother Kludd, who has become the leader of the evil group the Pure Ones]], but cannot bring himself to kill [[spoiler: his brother]]. Soren's friend Twilight ends up doing it for him.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', Dante insists that Nero stay out of the final fight so [[spoiler:he won't have to kill his father, Vergil. Nero says to hell with this and stops them both from killing each other with his newly awakened Devil Trigger.]]

This second character is usually a PsychoSupporter or PsychoSidekick to the first, who is often an AllLovingHero or is otherwise known as a morally upright individual with a [[ThouShaltNotKill code against murder]]. The second character brings it upon themselves to carry the revenge on behalf of the first so that the latter can keep their hands clean; meanwhile, the avenger believes that since their hands have been "tainted" anyway, adding more stain wouldn't make much of a difference.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': In one side mission investigating the deaths of a number of scientists, Shepard finds a former soldier (who was a member of their squad if they have the Sole Survivor background) who's been tracking down a scientist who kidnapped him and conducted brutal tests on him for years. The soldier wants to kill the last scientist responsible, but a Renegade option is to kill the scientist yourself on the grounds that Shepard's status as a Spectre makes them immune to prosecution whereas the soldier would go to prison for murder.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': In Thane's loyalty mission you must stop his son from following in his footsteps by also becoming an assassin. His target is an AssholeVictim; a candidate for office running on a xenophobic anti-human platform [[CorruptPolitician who takes bribes and shakes down human-run businesses for protection money]]. One Renegade solution to the mission is to kill the target yourself, so Thane's son can't and therefore won't start down the same path.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'', [[spoiler:Wallace destroyed the Taliver Bandits, the group that killed Lyn's parents, so that she wouldn't feel consumed by vengeance.]]

* Near the end of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', Vorona sees [[spoiler:Shizuo defeating his archenemy, Izaya,]] and interrupts their fight by stabbing the latter with a knife, then attempting to finish him with a gun before [[spoiler:Shizuo]] can deliver his final blow. When [[spoiler:Shizuo]] tells her not to become a murderer, Vorona shrugs off his concern since she's a trained assassin who has killed many people before. [[spoiler:She is, however, foiled by Simon, who threw a stun grenade at their midst, incapacitating her and allowing Izaya to escape the encounter.]]

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'', the first game to be released outside Japan, [[spoiler:Wallace destroyed the Taliver Bandits, the group that killed Lyn's parent so that she wouldn't feel consumed by vengeance.]]

* In ''Manga/MobPsycho100'', when the group is on the ropes against the leaders of the NebulousEvilOrganization Claw, KidHero and ReluctantWarrior Mob is on the verge of another SuperpowerMeltdown when his [[MorePoweredProtege muggle mentor]] Reigen calms him down by reassuring him that it's ok to run away. Mob then manages to TakeAThirdOption by subconsciously [[EmpoweredBadassNormal transferring the energy building up inside him to Reigen]], allowing him to give Claw a nonlethal NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on his behalf.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS2E4TotalRickall Total Rickall]]", after Pencilvester is revealed to be an alien imposter, Rick still can't bring himself to kill his friend, and so orders Morty to do it for him.