History Main / WarCrimeSubvertsHeroism

A form of KickTheDog in war movies, where the heroes (or more often, someone else on the same side as the heroes) commit a war crime of some sort, most often the mistreatment of [[WouldNotShootACivilian enemy prisoners of war or civilians]]. Done to illustrate that most [[WarIsHell wars]] aren't instances of BlackAndWhiteMorality, as well as the mix of good and bad in most armies and how wartime can change a person's personality. Sometimes, these crimes will be reprisals for earlier ones against the heroes' side. May sometimes overlap with TokenEvilTeammate or SocipathicSoldier if the one performing the crime is on the "heroic side". Occasionally, these crimes are portrayed as [[JustifiedTrope justified]] for the principles of PayEvilUntoEvil or a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

A form of KickTheDog in war movies, where the heroes (or more often, someone else on the same side as the heroes) commit a war crime of some sort, most often the mistreatment of [[WouldNotShootACivilian enemy prisoners of war or civilians]]. Done to illustrate that most [[WarIsHell wars]] aren't instances of BlackAndWhiteMorality, as well as the mix of good and bad in most armies and how wartime can change a person's personality. Sometimes, these crimes will be reprisals for earlier ones against the heroes' side. May sometimes overlap with TokenEvilTeammate if the one performing the crime is on the "heroic side". Occasionally, these crimes are portrayed as [[JustifiedTrope justified]] for the principles of PayEvilUntoEvil or a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* ''ComicBook/ThreeHundred'' tries to play this as entirely justified and even admirable, which its iconic scene of the heroic and manly king of Sparta kicking an unarmed messenger down the well from ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness''.

* Just because the "good guys" from ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'' [[TheWomenAreSafeWithUs are not prone to rape]] like the "bad guys" do doesn't mean they are immune from this trope. Kyril's tendency to LeaveNoSurvivors, as well as how [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique torture is sometimes used for interrogation]], are prominent examples. On one hand, these instances are portrayals of PayEvilUntoEvil. On the other hand, there are people who [[WhatTheHellHero don't]] [[EveryoneHasStandards approve]] of such actions. Then again, UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar [[DeliberateValuesDissonance don't exist in the story's setting]].

* The ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series has shades of this, where there are several drastic and questionable actions the hero takes [[PayEvilUntoEvil (having a prisoner tortured,]] [[KickTheDog mowing down peace protesters,]] imposing total war). Sometimes averted, where it's [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality treated as if the hero doing this is ''completely right and just'' (the peace protesters)]], while in other places it's justified as the only option he has left (the total war). [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality It's ''always'' portrayed as totally right and just,]] the only distinguishing factor is how long they spend [[AuthorTract providing self-justifications]]. At one point Kahlan explained how torturing a captured soldier to death as slowly as possible was the right thing to do so he (who saw himself as a martyr) could understand how important life was.

* As part of his GenreDeconstruction of the ChivalricRomance, Cervantes has Literature/DonQuixote travel to Barcelona, a province of the [[TheEmpire Spanish Empire]] that is facing a CivilWar. Sancho, being the ButtMonkey, gets lost at night in a forest whose trees are filled with feet wearing shoes and stockings. Don Quixote [[CasualDangerDialogue calmly explains that]] [[CrushingThePopulace the authorities hang outlaws by twenties and thirties when they catch them]].

* In ''VideoGame/TitanFall'' it becomes this should you play as the LaResistance as the objective (should the IMC lose) is to shoot down an IMC Jumpship before all the losing players manage to board and leave. This doesn't change the outcome other than to make it clear that no IMC pilot will ever leave the battlefield unscathed.

* In ''Literature/TheLastHeraldMageTrilogy'', Herald-Mage Vanyel is ambushed, bespelled, assaulted, and nearly killed by minions of the series' BigBad. When a Healer coerced into saving his life discovers the 'block' keeping him helpless and pokes a hole in it, Van kills nearly everyone in a moment of insane rage, including the man who helped him.

* As part of his GenreDeconstruction of the ChivalricRomance, Cervantes has Literature/DonQuixote travel to Barcelona, a province of the [[TheEmpire Spanish Empire]] that is facing a CivilWar. Sancho, being the ButtMonkey, gets lost at night in a forest whose trees are filled with feet wearing shoes and stockings. Don Quixote [[CasualDangerDialog calmly explains that]] [[CrushingThePopulace the authorities hang outlaws by twenties and thirties when they catch them]].

* The Qin State in ''Manga/{{Kingdom}}'' may be "the good guys", but it doesn't stop some of their generals to go into extremes with captured cities, with varying degree of justification and methods of purging the civilians. The worst part is that it sometimes helps to win. Shin's ChronicHeroSyndrome nearly costed him his entire career and life by the hands of his own commanders, though it didn't stop his dream of becoming "the greatest general that won't use unnecessary violence". Other states are also not above demonstrating acts of genocide though.

* ''Film/BattleLosAngeles'' has a particularly disturbing scene where the Marines have grabbed one of the wounded alien invaders. The Marines had previously emptied entire magazines into individual invaders to little effect, so Staff Sergeant Nantz has his men hold the alien down while he and a local veterinarian rip, cut, and stab at the still-living alien's body in search of a vital point. Once they find a point to aim for, the Marines become a lot more effective at bringing down the invaders. Unusually, the movie doesn't present the scene in either a negative ''or'' positive light; the viewer is left to determine whether or not the act is justified or heinous. The aliens themselves have a take-no-prisoners policy, and dead civilians can be seen throughout, as it's stated the aliens shoot up everything living in sight which explains the Marine's actions towards said invaders.

* ''Film/TheSteelHelmet'' by Creator/SamuelFuller featured this trope ''in TheFifties''. Near the end [[spoiler:Zack shoots "red" the communist]]. This scene was so controversial that Fuller was invited to the Pentagon to explain himself. Fuller insisted that this scene was meant to be a realistic depiction of what soldiers do in wartime and that Zack was hardly an inspiring soldier, and that it was by no means an endorsement. Fuller, a former US Infantryman, also pointed out that this happened all the time during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and his own commanding officer testified in his defense. The Pentagon was not amused but they let it slide.

** Wardaddy treats German women as spoils of war and lets his men have their ways with them (not an Eastern Front mass rape situation, but still). He even tells Norman to have sex with Emma or else ''he'' will.

* ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'', set in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, has a Union officer subjecting Confederate [=POWs=] to brutal beatings, while others are forced to stand outside singing to cover up the noises. While it fits the film's WarIsHell theme, the camp commandant doesn't approve, or accept the notion that it's justified by Confederate cruelty to Union prisoners--too bad he himself is dying. Also, the officer responsible happens to be the main antagonist, who's irredeemably evil even for [[BlackAndGrayMorality a cast of not-very-nice people]].

** In one of the chronologically earliest stories, Colonel Hammer catches some flak from [[ArmchairMilitary rear-echelon types]] for dealing with an insurgency by having [[HumanShield family members]] of known insurgents ridding on Slammers' vehicles while moving through hostile territory; ambushes of Slammers armor columns dropped, and several attempted ambushes failed because, "somebody noticed their wife or kid on the lead vehicle." Also, gassing a village being used as a heavily fortified base by those insurgents, using gas rather than a nuke only because a gas attack could be done without drawing the attention of reporters. Hammer's actions are about par for the course in the setting.

* As part of his GenreDeconstruction of the ChivalricRomance, Cervantes has Literature/DonQuixote travel to Barcelona, a province of the [[TheEmpire Spanish Empire]] that is facing a CivilWar. Sancho, being the ButtMonkey, gets lost at night in a forest whose trees are filled with feet wearing shoes and stocking. Don Quixote [[CasualDangerDialog calmly explains that]] [[CrushingThePopulace the authorities hang outlaws by twenties and thirties when they catch them]].

He is shown to politely offer the Germans smokes and then the camera moves to another soldier who watches in horror as bursts from an SMG are heard. Speirs later gets amusement out of it by offering some [=GIs=] a cigarette in another episode, just before he's given command of E Company. Speirs' deadpan expression while the scared-shitless men take the offered cigarettes is a funny moment.\\\

** It's no surprise that this show has this in abundance. The earliest example was probably Season 1's "The Pointy End", which features Khal Drogo leading his khalasar in a brutal massacre of an innocent Lhazereen village. Though Drogo was always an AntiHero at best, the previous episode saw his vow to capture the Iron Throne for his son after Daenerys survives an assassination attempt from an agent of King Robert, which is definitely a reaonably heroic goal. Even Jorah comments that, even though it wasn't particularly honorable, the spoils reaped from such massacres would provide them the resources they needed to mount an invasion of Westeros.

* Done every so often in ''Series/{{MASH}}'', most notably in one episode where Col. Flagg interrogates a North Korean POW in Post-op by throttling the tube to a critical IV the man is hooked up to. This earns him a WhatTheHellHero (for very loose values of "hero") from Hawkeye.

* Should you play as the United States in ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', you will get hit in the face with this trope once the South African War rolls around. South Africa serves as this world's Vietnam analogue and it shows. Events describe short stories of American soldiers carrying out brutal atrocities against the civillians of South Africa with the kind of gory detail usually reserved for outright evil factions like Nazi Germany or Burgundy. All of this is done to hammer in the point that WarIsHell, and that Americans on the home front are [[HeWhoFightsMonsters questioning their role in the fight against the Nazis]].

* In the Russian war movie ''Zvezda'', a Soviet scout team captures a German soldier, interrogates him (with help of their [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth innocent, nerdy interpreter]] who earlier demonstrated his knowledge of German by quoting a poem) and then shoot him while he's crying, [[TearJerker "I'm not a Nazi! I'm a proletarian!"]] Then it gets [[WarIsHell a bit]] [[KillEmAll more brutal.]]

* Series/GameOfThrones

* The entire point of ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' is to subvert and deconstruct the usual “badass OneManArmy/squad who saves the day” narrative prevalent in first-person shooters by having the protagonist, Captain Martin Walker, commit increasingly morally dubious actions in his crusade to become a hero. This all comes to a head when he [[spoiler:uses white phosphorous to burn down an area with renegade troops, but also killing the innocent civilians in the process, an action that horrifies the rest of the squad]].

* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', being the WarIsHell Simulator that it is, takes you from one WCS to another like a nightmarish rollercoaster ride. Let's see: we've got mass execution sites, soldiers hung from lampposts, ravens picking at mutilated corpses, a foul-smelling pit filled with ''a few hundred'' bodies, and gratuitous White Phosphorus attacks. And that's all ''before'' Walker and his team arrive [[spoiler: and start adding to the list themselves.]]

* ''Film/{{The Foreigner|2017}}'' is not quite about a full-blown war, but unflinchingly portrays morality ranging from grey to black on all three sides: the protagonist, and the two sides he is caught in the middle of. The trope example comes in when government forces torture a terrorist off-screen, and then--after getting the information they need--summarily execute that terrorist ''on'' screen. [[WouldHitAGirl She is a woman, too.]]

* ''Film/BattleLosAngeles'' has a particularly disturbing scene where the Marines have grabbed one of the wounded alien invaders. The Marines had previously emptied entire magazines into individual invaders to little effect, so Staff Sergeant Nantz has his men hold the alien down while he and a local veterinarian rip, cut, and stab at the still-living alien's body in search of a vital point. Once they find a point to aim for, the Marines become a lot more effective at bringing down the invaders. Unusually, the movie doesn't present the scene in either a negative ''or'' positive light; the viewer is left to determine whether or not the act is justified or heinous. The aliens themselves have a take-no-prisoners policy, and dead civilians can be seen throughout, as it's stated the aliens shoot up everything living in sight.

* ''Film/{{Red Dawn|1984}}'' is almost nothing but war crimes on both sides. The Communists start executing unarmed civilians left and right the moment they parachute in, and their response to any Wolverine attack is to round up a group of random townspeople and execute them in public as a "message". A fairly large portion of the town is held in a gulag converted from a drive-in movie theater. The Wolverines are more than happy to bomb civilian buildings and torture, then execute, captured Russian soldiers [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry "Because we live here".]] In the final act of the film, [[EliteMooks the leader of the Spetznas unit]] brought in to hunt down the Wolverines admonishes the local commanding officers to stop summarily executing civilians because it shows that they, the Soviets, are desperate and don't know how to control the situation, [[AttackBackfire and further sows support for]] [[LaResistance the Wolverines.]]

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3'': The Ultranationalist forces have laid waste to New York City, including having killed hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians. More were also killed in the opening gas attack across numerous European cities, which are being blasted into rubble by the Ultranationalist war machine, and in the Prague level, a number of people, [[LaResistance resistance members]] or otherwise, are seen hung from makeshift gallows.
** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps''
*** In the middle of the "Project Nova" level, Kravchenko is seen executing surviving German prisoners with his pistol as they beg for mercy. As he reaches the last one, he runs out of ammo and uses his knife to kill him. [[spoiler: Later that mission, Kravchenko and Dragovich betray half of the Soviet squad by gassing them to death in order to test out Nova Six.]]
*** In the mission "The Defector" the entire civilian staff of the MACV compound is executed by the NVA for collaborating with American forces. Supplemental intel found in the level indicates that off-screen, hundreds of other civilians are similarly massacred for alleged "collaboration" after the NVA capture the city.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'':
** The Capitol air force blowing up the hospital in Eight. It turns into a strategic blunder, however, since [[spoiler:not only does the Capitol lose several precious bombers in the process, but the attack is televised and subsequently milked for all its worth, PR-wise, by District 13 media.]]
** Then used plenty on the rebel side in the FinalBattle for the Capitol, starting when Katniss kills a random civilian woman who stumbles on her squad as they infiltrate the Capitol-held territory, then dialed up in the final sequence with the rebels (including Gale and Katniss) firing indiscriminately into crowds of civilians, Gale murdering a wounded peacekeeper to take his rifle and finally [[spoiler:District 13 aircraft firebombing a courtyard packed with children, using bombs with delayed fuses to eliminate the rescue personnel.]]

* Should you play as the United States in ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', you will get hit in the face with this trope once the South African War rolls around. South Africa serves as this world's Vietnam analogue and it shows. Events describe short stories of American soldiers carrying out brutal atrocities against the civillians of South Africa with the kind of gory detail usually reserved for outright evil factions like Nazi Germany or Burgundy. All of this is done to hammer in the point that WarIsHell, and that Americans on the home front are severely demoralized in the fight against the Nazis.

* In ''Film/{{Mohawk}}'', Calvin sets fire to an American camp, killing 22 sleeping soldiers, as retaliation for American attacks against the Mohawk, despite the Mohawk being nominally neutral in the war. The Americans under Colonel Holt's command are worse: committing torture; murder of civilians, including priests; and killing a restrained prisoner of war.

* Prevalent in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', with both the [[GreyAndGrayMorality Republic and Separatists alike]] committing war crimes. The Ryloth arc features the Separatists spitefully bombarding civilian settlements when they begin losing the planet, and their military in general shows frighteningly little compunction about killing non-combatants. The Republic forces meanwhile resort to [[ShootTheDog downright ruthless tactics]] at times, such as [[ISurrenderSuckers feigning surrender to lure the enemy into ambushes]], '[[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique interrogating]]' prisoners of war in brutal ways, and [[CoupDeGrace casually executing already wounded opponents]]. The [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch sequel]] [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels series]] feature yet more examples (TheEmpire in particular is ''really'' bad about it), the most notable probably being Grand Admiral Thrawn trying to force the Rebel Alliance to surrender by carpet-bombing the capital city of Lothal.

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[[caption-width-right:350:And this is just the tip of the iceberg.]]

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1647363373085394100 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/Titanfall'' should you play as the LaResistance since one of the objectives should the opposing team lose is to shoot down an IMC Jumpship before all the losing players manage to leave. This doesn't change the outcome other than to make it clear that no IMC will ever leave the battlefield unscathed.

A form of KickTheDog in war movies, where the heroes (or more often, someone else on the same side as the heroes) commit a war crime of some sort, most often the mistreatment of [[WouldNotShootACivilian enemy prisoners of war or civilians]]. Done to illustrate that most [[WarIsHell wars]] aren't instances of BlackAndWhiteMorality, as well as the mix of good and bad in most armies and how wartime can change a person's personality. Sometimes, these crimes will be reprisals for earlier ones against the heroes' side. May sometimes overlap with TokenEvilTeammate if the one performing the crime is on the "heroic side" or TokenGoodTeammate if it's someone on the opposing side refusing to perform such a deed. Occasionally, these crimes are portrayed as [[JustifiedTrope justified]] for the principles of PayEvilUntoEvil or a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

A form of KickTheDog in war movies, where the heroes (or more often, someone else on the same side as the heroes) commit a war crime of some sort, most often the mistreatment of [[WouldNotShootACivilian enemy prisoners of war or civilians]]. Done to illustrate that most [[WarIsHell wars]] aren't instances of BlackAndWhiteMorality, as well as the mix of good and bad in most armies and how wartime can change a person's personality. Sometimes, these crimes will be reprisals for earlier ones against the heroes' side. May sometimes overlap with TokenEvilTeammate if the one performing the crime is on the "heroic side" or TokenGoodTeammate if it's someone on the opposing side refusing to perform such a deed. In a heroic portrayal, these crimes are justified for the principles of PayEvilUntoEvil or a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* ''Manga/Area88'':
** In the manga and OVA, Nguyen kills an enemy pilot who has ejected from his jet.
** In the manga, Rocky witnesses anti-government forces slaughter an entire Bedouin camp. When Shin and Mickey fly over the desert carnage afterwards, they're both horrified.
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
** In her introduction during [[spoiler:the battle of Fort Slava]], Gabi [[ISurrenderSuckers feigns to be a civilian surrendering]] to [[spoiler:the Mid-East Alliance forces holding the fort, only to use it as an opportunity to blow the armored train that was protecting it]]. It's shown that she volunteered for this despite the objections of Magath, their captain, and if she hadn't managed to pull it [[spoiler:Magath would've sent hundreds of Eldian troops to grind the defenses of the fort, resulting in massive casualties]].
** Eren does this when [[spoiler:he goes on a rampage on the Liberio's Internment Zone, his main targets were Willy Tybur and the Marleyan military top brass, but in the process, he kills possibly hundreds of civilians as collateral damage]].
** [[KnightTemplar Floche]] in the ensuing battle of [[spoiler:Liberio is seen deliberately bombing buildings that could be housing civilians, as revenge for the initial attack that breached Wall Maria and caused thousands of deaths]]. From there, he pretty much just jumps from one war crime to another for ''the rest of his time in the series'', with a preference for torture and protracted public executions.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
** The flashback to Lelouch, Suzaku, and the blind Nunnally fleeing through Japan's countryside as pre-teenagers involves them stumbling onto the scene of genocide in a village. This event scars Lelouch and Suzaku, leading the former to hate Britannia with a vengeance and the latter to be [[spoiler:horrified at what had happened, compounded with killing his father, leading him to blame himself for it all. Ironically, Lelouch and Suzaku would both precipitate a repeat of this, with Suzaku joining the Knights Of Round and conquering countries, and Lelouch accidentally causing a country-wide riot, and eventually leading his own massacre, AND ruling the world with a bloody iron fist. (The latter is part of a ThanatosGambit.)]]
** There's also Tamaki, who's usually just the PluckyComicRelief of the Black Knights, ordering some of the Ashford Academy students executed after he finds them sneaking around, trying to save Suzaku, who is trapped in the disabled Lancelot. No one actually gets a chance to carry out those orders, though, and the event's never mentioned again. Worse yet, those civilians were Lelouch's friends... Lelouch, who was Tamaki's superior. Though this is a very unusual situation, as Tamaki has no idea.
** The first episode has Clovis' purge of the Shinjuku ghetto. Cornelia replicates this in Saitama, far more effectively, in order to lure out Zero.
* Anime/DragonballZ lets the audience spend ''four'' agonziningly long and suspenseful chapters from Krillin and Gohan's perspective as they can only helplessly watch Frieza and his goons ''slowly'' threaten, torture and murder Namekian civilians, elders and even ''children'' so by the time Gohan erupts and rescues Dende from Dodoria's fist, you'll hate Frieza and his army as much as he and Krillin does.
* The entire ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' flashback to the Ishval Genocide Campaign is basically one long hideous war crime. Especially poignant was the death of [[TheChick Winry's]] parents, who had gone to the battlefields of Ishval for [[UsefulNotes/TheRedCross Red Cross]]-type volunteer duties, and were killed while at it. In both the manga and the ''Brotherhood'' series, this was done by [[spoiler:[[AntiVillain Scar]] during a FreakOut -- and had he not done it they would've been killed by Kimbley who then would've [[MakeitLookLikeAnAccident made it look like an accident]] on orders of their superiors, so the military wouldn't spend time and money protecting them]]; in the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003-anime]] where they were killed by [[spoiler:a '''very''' reluctant Roy Mustang on orders from his superiors because they ''healed Ishvalian civilians''. (And Roy is almost DrivenToSuicide out of guilt.)]] It's worth noting that Armstrong outright refuses to kill civilians. Kimblee kills them instead but keeps Armstrong from getting in trouble, respecting the strength of his convictions.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** This has been a part of the franchise starting with [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the original anime]], and Operation British, the TropeNamer for ColonyDrop, which consisted of Zeon forces nerve gassing a space station and deorbiting it in the hopes it would land on Federation HQ, instead landing on Australia and killing ''50% of the human race'' through the resultant ecological upheavals.
** In an early scene in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', the guerrilla fighters in Gibraltar whom ''Minerva'' assisted previously are shown executing the Earth Alliance officers they've taken prisoner. This can be interpreted as an early indication that the protagonist may not be fighting on the righteous side, after all...
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'':
*** A similar scene occurs in the Battle of Panama. After taking Panama base and destroying its mass driver, several ZAFT mobile suit pilots start shooting the surrendering Federation troopers. This was said to have been in response to the Battle of JOSH-A, where the Atlantic Federation brass activated a microwave device hidden underneath the base, wiping out most of the ZAFT forces as they broke through, as well as the remaining Federation defenders (Who were [[TheUriahGambit mostly from the Eurasian Federation, solidifying the Atlantic Federation's dominance of the Earth Alliance]]). It was a sign that the war was [[ItsPersonal turning personal]] (or [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar worse]]) for soldiers on both sides.
*** A much earlier example is arguably Yzak's destruction of a shuttle full of civilians during a battle with Kira. Even if Yzak's assumption that the shuttle contained fleeing soldiers was correct, shooting an unarmed shuttle is still a pretty heinous act. Yzak gets to see this from the other side later in the series. He was at the Battle of Panama mentioned above. It's also worth mentioning that Yzak was [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified]] when he found out. He was actually disappointed when the ZAFT government refused to put him on trial for war crimes.
** [[SociopathicHero Mikazuki Augus]] from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' has a habit of executing enemy prisoners of war. Justified in that he's a {{Private Military Contractor|s}} rather than a soldier, and most of the people he killed are either {{Asshole Victim}}s or those [[ItsPersonal he has a grudge against]].

* ''Manhua/MyWifeIsADemonQueen'' has the very early chapters showing HumansAreBastards by having "The Red Dragon" clan, under the human's Regent, attack Isabella Osa, the titular Demon Queen, at a truce signing ceremony, then hunt her down, with his troops raping and killing her royal guard (just off-panel), and even threatening to take the heads of two "human slaves" that they chanced upon, hoping to get paid 20 gold coins a piece for their heads, and lastly, "the human slaves" who happen to be the MC and the titular Demon Queen, having taken a human form after losing all her magic power, are ForcedToWatch the Regent's armies bringing the heads of all Isabella's soldiers hanging on lances in a grim parade (as shown via their shadows), with Isabella shaking in rage and terror.
* ''LightNovel/SheRetaliatedBecauseHerEntireFamilyWasWrongfullyExecuted'' has this as a central premise. The story is just one war-crime after another, both by the Sabluveir enemies through flashbacks and exposition, and the now undead Sabluveir's retaliation as they put their enemies through ''the exact'' experience they endured.

* Appears several times in ''ComicBook/NthManTheUltimateNinja'', often pushing the boundaries of UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode. These include the aftermath of a mass execution of civilians, children ''hacking to death'' a wounded soldier in reprisal for said execution, and a bombing run on a field hospital.
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW: Many scenes featuring Decepticons have them blasting humans left and right with glee.
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': Whirl proves that he's a HeroicComedicSociopath and a SociopathicHero, when he fights Nautilator, and pins him down, Nautilator surrenders and begs for his life, but Whirl is more interested in the fact that the con's voice sounds like Megatron. Whirl tries to make his voice sound like Optimus Prime's to make the confrontation more epic, but gives up, and just executes him.
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'' reveals why Impactor is now the ''former'' leader of the Wreckers. After defeating and capturing Squadron X, the [[EvilCounterpart Decepticon counterparts]] to the Wreckers, he was told that the world they fought on was in fact neutral territory and that the Wreckers had to release the Squadron or the Autobots would face diplomatic problems. Impactor's solution was to execute all of the restrained prisoners on the spot and convince most of the Wreckers to lie and cover for him, claiming the Squadron had attempted to escape. Only Springer had the conviction to testify against Impactor and reveal the unpleasant truth.
** The ''Transformers IDW'' run also features issue #8, "Scrapper," where the eponymous Decepticon engineer is pinned in a building by iron beams, including one that goes through his abdomen. Crippled and vulnerable, he offers to surrender to the humans--Spike Witwicky in particular--but in lieu of accepting the surrender of a disabled fighter unable to offer resistance, Spike executes Scrapper by using his own gun to blow his face off. The Decepticons recovered his body and were able to view his final moments, and Megatron is able to use this information to gain the upper moral hand against Optimus for once, showing it as proof that humans could not be trusted to accept the honors of war, not even Optimus' closest human friends. This revelation disturbs Optimus so much he has to dispatch Prowl to investigate if this is a ploy on Megatron's part--naturally, it's not, as Prowl finds out firsthand when the Decepticons make ''him'' into the rebuilt Devastator's head later.

* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
** One happens off-panel in the Nicaragua arc of ''Comicbook/FuryMyWarGoneBy'', led by ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' villain Barracuda during his military days. Fury is investigating Barracuda's activities, and finds the remains of a village destroyed by his Contra forces, with horribly mangled bodies everywhere, including [[spoiler:a corpse of a pregnant woman who had her stomach cut open and her baby stomped on]].
-->'''Fury:''' ''Jesus fucking Christ almighty''.
** ''Comicbook/ThePunisherBorn'' mini-series reveals that this happened ''all the time'' during Frank Castle's third and final tour in Vietnam. From Marines executing incapacitated enemy combatants, using overtly cruel attack methods, to one of the Marines actually having a bag full of ''human scalps'' that he keeps as "souvenirs". And that's not even getting into the part where they tried to gang-rape a female enemy (though Frank stops this before it can really get ugly and later kills the guy who came up with the idea).
** All of the above examples pale in comparison to what General Zakharov got up to in Afghanistan. In the ''Man of Stone'' arc, a British journalist calmly describes to Frank the sort of "tactics" that Zakharov would routinely employ against the Afghan fighters. [[spoiler:The most infamous of these was the way he decided to goad the local Afghan rebels out of hiding. He did this by gathering up the entire population of a local Afghan village and had them forcibly thrown off a cliff one by one, much to the horror of the Afghan fighters. But the crowning moment would have to be when an Afghan woman begs Zakharov that he spare her infant son. How does Zakharov respond to this woman's plea? By taking the infant into his hands, and '''''chucking the baby off a cliff''''']]. The scariest part is that we later learn that he did this to another ''six villages''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'' didn't have much, as the enemy (the Allies) was never seen, but compensated with showing plenty of the crimes the Germans did on ''their own soldiers''. It also had an SS Execution Squad trying (incompetently) to "exterminate" a Jewish prisoner, various strips featuring partisan corpses hanged to trees and lampposts, and a gas attack from the Allies.

* In ''Fanfic/BoysDoTankary'', during a flashback, some of Vincent's men [[MoralEventHorizon rape and murder some teenage POWs]]. Only Vincent's intervention saves the youngest, Nyra, and as a result, he and Nyra are locked in a room, given a month to kill each other. Vincent is ultimately forced to kill Nyra at her request, [[spoiler:or so he thought at the time]].
* ''Fanfic/ChasingDragons'':
** The nominally heroic Sunset Company sacks all of the cities they conquer, which is played for [[RapePillageAndBurn all the horror]] to be expected from medieval warfare.
** In-universe documents from the timeline's future specifically refer to the royalist forces' treatment of the rebelling Iron Islands (which varies between [[RapePillageAndBurn raping and pillaging]] and an outright [[ThePurge purge]] depending on who's giving the orders) as war crimes by modern standards.
* ''Fanfic/ContactAtKobol'': The nuking of Disney Valhalla and its aftermath are covered extensively for several chapters, and regularly referred back to in-universe. The author pulls no punches as to what a nuclear attack on a crowded theme park would be like.
* In ''Fanfic/FarceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', when the Wugo rally enough against the Shu invasion to pose a serious threat, Zhuge Liang traps thirty thousand of their soldiers in a valley and [[spoiler:burns them to death.]] One of the [[BlackComedy few things]] in the story that [[ShooOutTheClowns isn't played for laughs.]] The others, who didn't know what he was up to, are horrified, and even Zhuge Liang feels the need to make excuses.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': During one of Jaune's [[DreamingOfTimesGoneBy dreams of Nihilus's past]], he witnesses a moment from a battle that took place during the Mandalorian Wars. In this scene, a then-Jedi Nihilus [[LiteralDisarming cuts off both arms]] of a Mandalorian warrior he was fighting. After the Mandalorian warrior then drops to her knees in a mix of shock and pain, Nihilus [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown executes his helpless opponent]] on the battlefield despite her being ''hors de combat''.
* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'':
** A Norscan marauder goes berserk and starts butchering anything and anyone he meets, enemy, allied, and civilian, until Jon kills him.
** After capturing dark elves, the Ironborn ask if they can rape the women. The Wolf doesn't oppose it, only saying that if the person he plans to sell them to needs them to be virgins, he'll sell the rapist with the elf to make up the difference.

* In ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/90939/shell-shock Shell Shock]]'', this trope is chillingly partnered with SadisticChoice. A truckload of captured zebras are machinegunned in the middle of the road.
* In ''Fanfic/TiberiumWars'', a Brotherhood of Nod soldier attempts to rape a GDI prisoner of war. Though she fights back, he eventually overpowers her, but before he can actually get started, a [[WarriorMonk Black Hand officer]] smashes down the door, and a [[DestinationDefenestration firsthand experience]] [[PunctuatedPounding with Brotherhood field justice is observed]] - as [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil sexual assault on a prisoner of war is considered an offense punishable by immediate execution]] according to the Brotherhood codes of justice.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* In ''Animation/WaltzWithBashir'', the entire plot revolves around the protagonist's attempt to unlock his own memories of the Sabra and Shatila massacres, [[spoiler:and he succeeds at the very end of the film in which we are shown real footage from the event]]. Furthermore, most of the movie's war scenes are this, with Israeli soldiers repeatedly shown opening fire indiscriminately on everything that moves (at one point panicking and killing an entire family in a car), the Lebanese Phalangists mutilating enemy corpses at their "slaughterhouse", and quite a few other more minor violations of international laws.
[[/folder]]

* The Japanese Army and [[SecretPolice Kempeitai]] in ''Film/TheGreatRaid'' are shown committing numerous war crimes on both Filipino civilians and American [=POWs=] alike, ranging from torture to mass executions. The worst of these, however, is the Japanese high command issuing an order to liquidate POW camps of their prisoners in the event that the camp risks falling back into American hands.

* Several instances of this happen in ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'':

* In ''Film/{{Stalingrad|1993}}'', many of these scenes are depicted:
** A German soldier is seen abusing captured Russian prisoners of war.
** A temporary cease-fire to gather the wounded from the battlefield is broken by a suspicious German soldier.
** The unsympathetic German officer orders the soldiers to shoot some Russian civilians who have been taken prisoner, saying they were found trying to commit sabotage. The protagonists state to themselves that the sabotage allegation is nothing more than a pretense to shoot the prisoners because they're running out of food to feed them, and one of them is a child who they themselves took prisoner and befriended. They hesitate before finally being intimidated into doing it.
** After discovering a German officer's stronghold, the German soldiers find [[spoiler:Russian sniper Irina who has been tied to a bed and raped. The protagonists even suggest taking turns to "use" her before Lieutenant Von Witzland [[TheWomenAreSafeWithUs puts a stop to it.]]]]

* ''Film/ApocalypseNow'': Willard shoots the badly wounded only survivor of the accidental attack on the sampan, to avoid having to take her for medical attention ''and'' to make an example of the crew.

* An actual montage of this trope occurs early in the 2008 film ''Film/{{Defiance}}''. The Bielski brothers raid trucks and people's homes for supplies as well as for vengeance. They shoot the women with the Germans as well as any townspeople who might get in their way. And later, the entire camp of refugees beat to death a captured German soldier. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiance_(2008_film)#Critical_reception There has been some controversy on the film's portrayal of the Bielski partisans]], particularly in regard to their links to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_partisans#Controversies Soviet partisans]].

* Sergeant Meserve and his men in ''Film/CasualtiesOfWar'' kidnap, gang rape, and murder an innocent Vietnamese woman, aside from one soldier who reports them to command, which is the main plot of the entire story.

** Joker covers the story of a mass grave where 20 civilians executed by the North Vietnamese Army lie. Some of the victims were buried alive.

* You have to really look for it, but in ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', after the rebels win their battle against the government troops, they proceed to shoot their captives to death, [[LaserGuidedKarma thus mirroring an earlier moment of Vidal's soldiers doing exactly the same thing to surrendering partisans]].

** The film absolutely delights in demolishing the old-movie notions concerning the ‘rules’ of warfare. Almost any interaction between opposing groups results in this.

* In ''Film/BloodDiamond'', the RUF terrorists shoot anyone who's not on their side, and their leader hacks a man's hand off with a machete. Much of this actually happened in the Sierra Leone Civil War.

* ''Film/{{Overlord|2018}}'': Rensin is shot dead by German soldiers despite being unarmed (therefore, under the Geneva Convention, a [=POW=]). This may well have been because he was black. Later, one of the captured Germans is used by the Americans in an unwilling suicide attack on his own side.
* ''Film/SixUnderground'': Rochav has his air force gas the refugees and aid workers who were helping them at a makeshift hospital. This convinces One to bring him down, as he witnesses the massacre when he'd been there bringing them money.
* ''Film/EnemyAtTheGates'', the Germans capture a Russian soldier and force him to wear a German uniform and run telephone wire right in front of where they know a Russian sniper is taking people out.
%%* ''Film/{{Volhynia}}'' is this: TheMovie.
* The Luftwaffe is introduced in ''Film/{{Dunkirk}}'' deliberately sinking clearly marked hospital ships.

* ''Literature/FireAndBlood'': The CivilWar known as the "Dance of Dragons" between two rival factions of [[DragonRider House Targaryen]] over the Iron Throne truly gets started when King Aegon II's brother Aemond murders his nephew Lucerys in retaliation for Lucerys blinding him in one eye during a childhood fight, despite Lucerys being thirteen and unarmed. Aemond's own faction are [[EvenEvilHasStandards appalled by this]], since they'd still hoped they could negotiate a peaceful resolution to the SuccessionCrisis, whereas Lucery's murder ensures his mother Rhaenyra, head of their rival faction, will fight to the bitter end. Under the belief Aegon sanctioned Lucerys's murder, his [[LikeASonToMe stepfather Daemon]] sends assassins to kill one of Aegon's sons in retaliation.

* It comes up in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels from time to time.
** Fred Colon mentions beating prisoners of war mostly because you just saw an arrow go through your friend's face and you're looking for the first son of a bitch in the wrong uniform to make an example of.
** In ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', Sergeant Jackrum intentionally arranges things so that he can murder a POW (by having the shakiest and least-useful fighters guard the prisoner to give him the hope of making a break for it), although in this case, it's because he knows they don't have the luxury of keeping him as a prisoner in spite of the commanding officer's orders to do so.
* No ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' novel would be complete without at least one graphic description of what happens to civilians who get caught in the crossfire. In one story their employer chews out Colonel Hammer for nerve-gassing a village that was harboring insurgents-the Colonel responds that a nuke would have been noticed by the press.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Harry himself uses the Unforgivable torture-inflicting Cruciatus Curse to ambush a Death Eater -- and reminds us that for the curse to work, you have to ''genuinely want'' the target to suffer.
** Also he uses Imperio, another Unforgivable Curse, like a JediMindTrick in book seven.
* ''Literature/AHarvestOfWar'':
** The queen test-fires her lover's gift -- an arquebus -- on an initially live prisoner.
** The woman flogged to death with her whole back a giant open wound.

* In the final book of the ''Literature/Timeline191'' series, SociopathicSoldier Boris Lavochkin orders several massacres of civilians, including the murder of an entire village. So as well as an expy of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany in form of the CSA, Turtledove also provides an expy of war crimes committed by the Red Army.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Arya's scenes in Harrenhal before Tywin arrives.
** The hanged women Jaime and Brienne find in "Valar Morghulis."
** Locke's torture and abuse of Jaime and Brienne.
** The murders of Willem and Martyn Lannister in "Kissed By Fire."
** King Maegor Targaryen burning down the Sept of Remembrance with people still inside.
** The second half of the penultimate episode ''The Bells'' can be named "Obligatory War Crime Scene: The Episode" due to the number of such scenes, including indiscriminately burning civilians, raping civilians, attempting to rape civilians, and so on.

* ''Series/FallingSkies'':
** When the aliens order a mech to mow down a group of kids, as an example of what happens when the humans attempt to free one.
** Also done by the humans, when the doctor is about to try and vivisect a prisoner, but is stopped.

* In German war drama ''[[Series/UnsereMuetterUnsereVaeter Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter]]'', the Winter brothers' unit is seen shooting Russian [=POW=]s, pushing civilians at gunpoint onto a mined area to clear their path, and carrying out reprisal killings against innocent farmers for the actions of partisans (not that the [[EvilVersusEvil Russians]] are much better, during the little we see of them). And the crimes [[spoiler: Friedhelm]] commits at the behest of [=SS=]-Sturmbahnführer Hiemer are even worse.

* ''Series/TheLastShip'' does this every now and then:
** In the second season, [[spoiler:Dr. Rachel Scott murders Dr. Niels Sorenson by stripping him of the thing that makes him immune to the Red Flu.]]
** In the third-season finale, [[spoiler:Chandler murders Allison Shaw in cold blood.]]
* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'': Nilfgaard makes no distinction between civilians and soldiers, shown in the first episode where they sack Cintra and kill anyone whom they come across, and in the second episode where they raid a refugee camp, killing not just the soldiers in it but many of the civilians too.

* ''Series/AFrenchVillage'':
** Multiple times German troops and Milice are shown killing civilians in retaliation for Resistance attacks (or in one case, a resistance fighter along with his entire family).
** The French Resistance later also hang and shoot captured Germans or Milice without trial.
* {{Downplayed}} in the first series of ''Series/HoratioHornblower''. British midshipman Hornblower, who has successfully captured a French frigate, sails into an ongoing battle between the French and Royal Navies. He flies the French flag to make it past the enemy vessels, then blasts them with a surprise broadside... ''without'' having reeled in the French flag and flown the British flag prior. UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar, then as now, permit the deceptive use of an enemy flag on one's own vessel, but require said vessel to (literally) show its true colours prior to entering combat.

** The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E19InThePaleMoonlight In the Pale Moonlight]]" is framed by Sisko recording his log of how he tricked the Romulans into joining the war on their side, through an escalating list of unethical and illegal acts ultimately including the [[FalseFlagOperation false-flag assassination]] of a Romulan dignitary to frame the Dominion as aggressors.

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* Creator/MikeDuncan does not particularly revel in telling the grim details in his ''Podcast/TheHistoryOfRome'' Podcast nor in his ''Podcast/{{Revolutions}}'' Podcast, but he does recount most of them and certainly all of the ones he considers relevant. One of the reasons why he was stumped when asked about a good book about the History of Rome for kids, because -- in his words -- there is really no way to make "And then Augustus rounded up all his political opponents and had them beheaded" child-friendly.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': The EstablishingCharacterMoment for Clan Smoke Jaguar was during their invasion of the Draconis Combine when they captured Hohiro Kurita on the planet of Turtle Bay, as he was son of the Combine's head of the military, Theodore Kurita, and grandson of the Combine's leader, Takashi Kurita. Local members of the {{yakuza}} smuggled him out of the prison he was kept him and got him off world. In retaliation, the Smoke Jaguars used their warship to destroy the city of Edo [[OrbitalBombardment from orbit]]. From that point on, "massacre civilians" became their default answer to any sort of irritation. And it convinced the Inner Sphere to band together and destroy the entire clan several years later.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The EstablishingCharacterMoment for the [[DestructiveSaviour Marines Malevolent]] [[SpaceMarine Space Marine]] Chapter was during the Third War for Armageddon; when an Ork warband attacked the ''Emperor's Deliverance'' refugee camp, the Marines Malevolent waited until the Orks were completely inside the camp, before [[NoKillLikeOverkill shelling it with heavy artillery]]. The Orks were completely annihilated, and the Marines Malevolent consider their actions a resounding success, ignoring that they caused civilian casualties in the thousands. The Marines Malevolent, in-universe, have always had a laisse-faire attitude to collateral damage, believing the end justifies the means, but their actions on Armageddon [[EveryoneHasStandards appalled several other Space Marine Chapters]] they were fighting alongside, to the point of demanding the [[StateSec Inquistion]] reprimand the Marines Malevolent.
[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/SniperEliteV2'', several Red Army soldiers are shown remorselessly executing wounded German soldiers [[spoiler:following the capture of an intact V2 rocket launch facility.]]
** In ''VideoGame/SniperElite4'', the German forces under [[BigBad General Heinz Bohm's]] command are shown committing numerous massacres on entire town populations as well as ordering the execution of partisans and their sympathizers. Those who aren't executed immediately are captured and MadeASlave, specifically to help assemble the Ms 300 "Razor" missiles developed by [[TheEvilGenius Dr. Andreas Kessler]].

*** In the beginning of "Payback", [[spoiler: Bowman has his skull crushed by a pipe wielded by the Russian interrogator. Woods and Mason then are forced to play RussianRoulette with each other.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** In the opening of ''VideoGame/Fallout1'', an old T.V. shows a newsreel of America's annexation of Canada, with footage of an American soldier executing Canadian prisoners of war, then ''waving at the camera.'' The caption reads [[BlackComedy "Our dedicated boys keep the peace in newly annexed Canada."]]
** The Fallout Bible and in-game files and documents reveal that this happened nearly ''constantly'' in the lead-up to the Great War. After the annexation of Canada, Canadian citizens suspected of being freedom fighters were executed on sight, U.S military personnel that tried to desert as a response to the increasingly brutal government were used as test subjects by military scientists alongside Chinese-American civilians, and while very little information on the Chinese side of the war has been revealed, what does exist doesn't look much different.
** Fictitious depiction of war, but ''VideoGame/Fallout3'''s Operation Anchorage features an American soldier executing 4 Chinese prisoners. Killing the American before the shooting causes your allies to turn against you, and try to kill you and the prisoners. Turns into RefugeInAudacity when injured American soldiers come out of the hospital, in underwear, in an Alaskan winter, and attack you with grenades. However, to balance things out, when you storm General Jingwei's camp, you see him executing American prisoners with his lightning sword.
* Potentially present in ''VideoGame/SabresOfInfinity'' at the Antari Camp, where the player may massacre the civilians fleeing from the camp, trap them inside before burning it to the ground, or execute all the captured Antari after intimidating them into surrendering, [[WhatTheHellHero much to the disgust of their superiors.]]
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'':
** In one Terran mission of ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft|I}}: Brood War'', a civilian technician runs into a squad of UED marines who kill one of his colleagues to convince him to cooperate. When he does, they thank him... [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness then shoot him anyway]]. One of them even quips "Err... oops. Heh heh heh..."
** In the first mission ''VideoGame/StarCraftII:'' ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty Wings of Liberty]]'', the Terran Dominion are rounding up civilians for labor in a mining site, one of them tries to run, and a marine shoots him.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', if you pick the "Ruthless" reputation, you sent many of your men to certain death in order to defeat a criminal batarian base -- and then massacred the surrendering batarians. Said batarians were inferred to be [[AssholeVictim slavers and pirates]] though.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'':
** Ulfric Stormcloak (or the [[PlayerCharacter Dovahkiin]], on his order) executing General Tullius after he surrenders, or vice versa, though there's DeliberateValuesDissonance in play: this was somewhat less objectionable in medieval times.
** Sadly, almost every 'surrendering' enemy will [[RegeneratingHealth quickly regenerate health]] and [[DirtyCoward get back to fighting you]], so you have to choose between committing the war crime of killing a beaten opponent or just letting them get back up so that you can deal an uncontrollable deathblow. The exceptions are duelists, who start the fight by insulting you, and special [=NPC=]s. You also have to deal with the fact that your body absorbs the souls of dragons, permanently killing them, and dealing with keeping/discarding [[YourSoulIsMine black soul gems]], [[FateWorseThanDeath which should practically be considered more of a war crime than zombifying your enemies]].
** In Ulfric Stormcloak's backstory, he inflicted the entire city of Markarth with this: any Forsworn sympathisers, including women and children, were put to sword once he'd taken the city.
* Happens from time to time in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', such as early on in the Jade Forest, when Admiral Rogers orders her troops to open fire on Horde soldiers swimming away from their sinking ships and trying to surrender. On the other hand, some of the atrocities that the Forsaken and Garrosh commit are viewed with disgust by much of the rest of the Horde (in the former case, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Garrosh]]).

** Several events were added to the game to drive home the fact that Garrosh has gone beyond the pale. During the Darkspear Rebellion, the player sees trolls being caged, executed, and burned in piles while orcs laugh. Early in the Siege of Orgrimmar a cinematic shows the destruction of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, a holy place to the Pandaren, due to Garrosh's actions.
* Literally the very first discussion you hear on the Soviet side in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' is about the testing of nerve gas -- on both adults and children. This is followed by your ''actual'' mission: "Go at once to Torun, destroy everything and everyone. No prisoners, no survivors."
** In ''Red Alert 2'' the Soviets gun down civilians with no afterthought. In ''Yuri's Revenge'', Yuri's army rounds up mind-controlled civilians and sends them to grinder buildings to be [[HumanResources recycled as resources]].
** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'', the second [=GLA=] mission has them gunning down civilians to steal their U.N. relief goods, the final level has them launching bioweapons into populated cities.

* Not a war game but counts just the same: Ryder White of [[VideoGame/DeadIsland Dead Island]] does actually blow up a bridge and commit other acts for the military in a bid to stop the spread of the infection; despite dooming the survivors, and the BIDF and prison guards had apparently snapped and will shoot anyone on sight. The Australian military reacts to the incident by air bombing villages and KillEmAll, leading to John Morgan defying orders.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'': The Klingon Defense Force is full of this.
** The Klingon Empire provoked the Federation-Klingon War in the backstory when it tried to forcibly deport civilian populations from multiple planets, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_against_humanity which is considered a crime against humanity]] in RealLife. Starfleet was quickly deployed to block them.
** The Federation player character's captain is taken prisoner and then murdered by a Klingon in the tutorial.
** The KDF player character tortures a Starfleet captain to death, then blows up his already-disabled ship with his surviving crew still aboard. Not to mention all the things they get to do to [=POWs=] in duty officer assignments as VideoGameCrueltyPotential, like torture, experimenting with assassination techniques, and [[MadeASlave selling them into slavery]]. All of which is either glossed over or PlayedForLaughs as BlackComedy.
* In ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes 2'', the Soviet campaign plays out like a demented who's-who list of your standard war crimes. Shooting surrendering German soldiers is one thing that's commonly done, but this game goes the extra mile by having Soviet soldiers ''burning women and children to death in their farmhouses''. What's funnier, the German campaign takes no such liberties to depict German soldiers executing Russian civilians ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Invasion_of_the_Soviet_Union which is something they did very, very often]]), or indeed committing anything remotely resembling a war crime. Needless to say, the reception to the game among Russian gamers was a tad negative. The game's Russian publisher ceased distributing it, and then there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m4SCUaBHS8 this video]].
* ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' features a few, most notably during the ''Exodus'' mission, wherein Noble 6 tours a city under Covenant assault. A courtyard filled with dead civilians is the first thing he passes; later he finds Brutes manhandling other civilians and possibly mauling them (if the player isn't quick enough with their gun); and finally watching ships full of evacuees mercilessly shot down by patrolling Corvettes overhead.
** It's noted that Brutes are generally deployed specifically to create such a scene: their barbaric savagery and ImAHumanitarian tendencies are particularly effective in terrifying and terrorizing the enemy.
** The Covenant’s war against humanity is explicitly genocidal, so the Expanded Universe features numerous further examples. Master Chief at one point recalls a battle in which Jackals and Grunts herded populations of human civilians together for the sake of killing and eating them. Certain instances of human soldiers venting their response to such senseless cruelty have occurred as well.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Sudeki}}'', [[spoiler: renegade]] Aklorian soldiers were seen killing Haskilian civilians during their first appearance.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel IV'', the Curse of the Great Twilight drives people to be StupidEvil, which can cause this. One notable example was a group of soldiers forcing down an airship so they could identify key members of the government opposition party so that they could be summarily executed for disagreeing with the Chancellor's plans for a war of conquest of a neighboring country over a crime they didn't commit.
* The ''entire opening'' of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' is one of these, featuring a faction of enemy soldiers invading a hospital and ruthlessly gunning down everyone -- civilians, patients, doctors, it doesn't matter to them -- all to get to and kill Snake. Unlike previous enemy soldiers in the series who often end up being goofy, or silly, or funny, or PunchClockVillains, these guys [[CerebusSyndrome are not there to screw around]]: it's played out more like a SurvivalHorror game than the stealth genre the series is known for.
* One might not expect a 16-bit-era game to have one of these, but ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has a rather famous one. During the Siege of Doma, Kefka pours a bottle of poison into the river that serves as Doma's main water supply, resulting in the deaths of everyone inside Doma Castle - men, women, children, and ''Imperial prisoners of war'' alike.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'':
** During the Foi-Hellick rebellion in Avelpit the rebels target and blow up a medical cart, which the Aldish military treats as despicable. Their ideas of what's acceptable are twisted though given they regularly use child soldiers and have been having the rebellion's leaders and their families disemboweled in the streets.
** After the military is able to capture a cart full of Foi-Hellick rebels Lemuel slips into the cart and stares down "Damphir" who had killed his friend and flicked Duane after Lemuel told him he'd breath his ashes if he touched Duane again. Then Lemuel burned the entire cartful of heavily restrained prisoners alive.
[[/folder]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' that shows O.S.I battling the classic Sphinx organization, the forces of O.S.I are shown casually committing numerous war crimes, including mirroring some famous/infamous real-life ones. The deeds done range from [[SinkTheLifeboats killing pilots who have ejected from destroyed planes]] to shooting a helpless prisoner who has already surrendered, ([[http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/saigon-execution-murder-vietcong-saigon-1968/ paralleling an award-winning picture from the Vietnam War]]) or a soldier casually smoking while standing atop a naked group of Sphinx soldiers, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse ala the Abu Ghraib prison torture.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz59tFR2KMs Here's the clip in question.]]