History Main / WhatMeasureIsAMook

* Here's a notable example where this happened as a result of a RedShirt dying. The first time SpiderMan villain Comicbook/{{Venom}} escaped from the Vault, he had to kill a guard to do so. (Even then, the guy's name was mentioned, as was the fact that he may have gotten the position by a rich relative who thought it was a high-paying easy job.) Much later, the guard's rich father and several of his friends sought revenge, forming a vigilante group called the Jury, equipped with high-powered armor based on the technology used to build the Guardsmen suits at the Vault. Unfortunately, they quickly turned into the KnightTemplar type, and even put SpiderMan on trial in a KangarooCourt, blaming him for creating Venom in the first place. [[spoiler:It was actually a ploy to guilt him into agreeing to help them get revenge against Venom; but when he realized they planned to ''murder'' Venom, Spidey came to his senses and beat them all ''senseless''.]]

When the hero confronts the BigBad, no matter his crimes, he will [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim spare him]], despite all logic being against it; however, when he kills a {{Mook}} who happens to be in his way, it's no big deal. In fact, an entire MookHorrorShow is just fine.

* In ''Fanfic/TheDaysofReckoningAreUponUs'', a recurring point brought up is that Steve and Natasha [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier dumping all of SHIELD's files on the internet]] led to a lot of agents and their families getting killed due to their identities being compromised. Likewise, Steve and his allies are ripped a new one over the cops they killed who were just trying to do their jobs and [[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar arrest a potential terrorist (Bucky).]]

* ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters Guardians'': During the Sack of Torus Filney, Will kills a Phobos soldier in self-defense, and then discovers that one of his comrades is his brother. Already in shock from having had to kill, she can only numbly protest mentally that mooks aren't supposed to have names or families, they're just supposed to be mooks.

[-[[caption-width-right:330:[[Film/StreetFighter For you, the day]] [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] [[Film/StreetFighter graced your level was the most important day of your life]]... [[ButForMeItWasTuesday but for me, it was an opening stage.]]]]-]

* Actively [[DefiedTrope defied]] at the end of ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'' volume 2, in which the heroine earns a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming by showing she ''does'' care about a mook's family when she [[spoiler: saves the mook's life.]] This doubles as a CrowningMomentOfAwesome because she does this [[spoiler: by looking into his head with the special powers of her suit, seeing that he is very close to having a deadly stroke, and convincing him to go to the hospital to get surgery all while he's standing guard over (under) her as she is ''tied up and hanging from the ceiling upside down.'']] Needless to say, he and his family are very grateful.

* One of the last few ''{{GI Joe}}'' comic books ("America's Elite") had a flashback to the early days of G.I. Joe and the evil Cobra. One of the undercover operatives was saying (paraphrased) "Yes, General Flagg, some of them are jerks but a lot of them are just confused people, they aren't really bad."

* Surprisingly reconstructed in IDW's ''G.I. Joe'' comics. Cobra troopers and operatives are frequently given hints of personality and backstory but rather than making the mooks look sympathetic or tragic, it just helps to reaffirm that they're bastards and deserve to get taken down. It's repeatedly pointed out that while the mooks may be people too, they're also a bunch of terrorists, thieves, and murderers willingly working for a major criminal organization. One issue gives the backstory of four random Cobra troopers, only one of whom comes off as even remotely sympathetic; the others are bluntly and honestly depicted as being either [[BloodKnight sociopaths who get off on violence]] or [[PsychoForHire ruthless murderers who will do anything for money]].

* ''[[Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters]]'': During the Sack of Torus Filney, Will kills a Phobos soldier in self-defense, and then discovers that one of his comrades is his brother. Already in shock from having had to kill, she can only numbly protest mentally that mooks aren't supposed to have names or families, they're just supposed to be mooks.

-->'''Alucard:''' Hey guys, how's your health plan? ''*SWAT team opens fire*'' Apparently it's great!
-->''*carnage and gore ensue as the cops finally retreat into the elevator*''
-->'''Integra:''' Walter, be honest with me: what are we looking at in terms of collateral?
-->'''Walter:''' Well...''*Alucard walks out of elevator filled with corpses*'' the ''[[SociopathicHero Alucard]]'' amount.

[[folder: Religion and Mythology]]
* In the [[Literature/BooksOfSamuel book of I Samuel]] from Literature/TheBible, David has no problem killing King Saul's soldiers in battle, but refuses to kill Saul himself, even when he gets the chance.
[[/folder]]

* Zigzagged in an early chapter of ''Fanfic/ShadowchasersTorment''. Dugan breaks into [[{{Yakuza}} Taka's]] penthouse and muscles through the mobster's bodyguards; he later sees that one of them seems to be hurt badly, and asks if he's okay. The guy claims he just has an ulcer, and when Dugan asks if having this sort of job is wise for someone with that problem, the guy brushes it aside and says he just does it part time. [[spoiler:Dugan smells a rat, and it turns out, he's right to be suspicious; the guy is actually spying on Taka for [[BigBad the Doomdreamers]].]]

** It's an unwritten convention because heads-of-state hesitate to set the precedent of executing others. Capturing them and subjecting them to the process of a global trial first lends legitimacy to the execution, plus spreads the responsibility for it around to other countries.

* In Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Batman won't kill the Joker even though his grinning adversary has recently murdered ''a studio full of people, on live TV''. Earlier on, however, he has no hesitation about using a gang member as a HumanShield, and then turning that gangster's machine-gun on his buddies. Sure, the gangsters were bad but WTF, Miller?

* Actively [[DefiedTrope defied]] at the end of ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'' volume 2, in which the heroine earns a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming by showing she ''does'' care about a mook's family.

* ''SonicTheHedgehog2SpecialEdition'' reveals that one of the {{powerup}}s from Oil Ocean Zone was sapient. His name was Failure Cresh, and he had a thorough backstory involving being born with a ten-ring monitor for a head, and a HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood resulting from this. When the player destroys the monitor, the video pauses for a moment of silence--but it's obvious that the player himself is completely oblivious to the fact that he just killed a person.

When the hero confronts the BigBad, no matter his crimes, he will [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim spare him]], despite all logic being against it; however, when he kills a {{Mook}} who happens to be in his way, it's no big deal.

Subtrope of ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Compare WhatMeasureIsANonSuper, WhatMeasureIsANonUnique, and WhatMeasureIsANonHuman AMillionIsAStatistic can be this when applied to mooks in large numbers. Contrast ImmortalLifeIsCheap. PayEvilUntoEvil normally goes hand-in-hand with all this mookocide, often with sneers about the way mooks ''will'' go around JustFollowingOrders. Sometimes [[HandWave justified(?)]] by the assumption that mooks are AlwaysChaoticEvil, though, as many examples show, entirely innocent GullibleLemmings are often gunned down, as well. Also, many works will attempt to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] this with MechaMooks, though depending where they lie on the SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence, the UnfortunateImplications may persist regardless. BreakoutMookCharacter may be a subversion. MookHorrorShow is a popular SubTrope. In many works, it is justified by coincidentally being in a life-or-death situation with a Mook with no other choice, but always having the luxury to spare the significant villains.

Subtrope of ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Compare WhatMeasureIsANonSuper, WhatMeasureIsANonUnique, and WhatMeasureIsANonHuman. AMillionIsAStatistic can be this when applied to mooks in large numbers. Contrast ImmortalLifeIsCheap. PayEvilUntoEvil normally goes hand-in-hand with all this mookocide, often with sneers about the way mooks ''will'' go around JustFollowingOrders. Sometimes [[HandWave justified(?)]] by the assumption that mooks are AlwaysChaoticEvil, though, as many examples show, entirely innocent GullibleLemmings are often gunned down, as well. Also, many works will attempt to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] this with MechaMooks, though depending where they lie on the SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence, the UnfortunateImplications may persist regardless. BreakoutMookCharacter may be a subversion. MookHorrorShow is a popular SubTrope. In many works, it is justified by coincidentally being in a life-or-death situation with a Mook with no other choice, but always having the luxury to spare the significant villains.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' displays this in spades. Shadowrunners are mercenaries hired as [[PlausibleDeniability deniable assets]] by various entities for shady or illegal purposes; most Runners are said to avoid assassination contracts and the NPCs who openly accept them are portrayed as [[PsychoForHire borderline psychopaths]], yet for an average kidnapping, the heaps of security guards, police officers, and so on who die during the shadowrun are brushed off as long as the Runners didn't go overboard with collateral damage.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' displays this in spades. For context, the players are Shadowrunners, essentially independent mercenaries/criminals for hire hired by various parties (Government, Corporations, Individuals, Organized Crime, etc...) as [[PlausibleDeniability deniable assets]] to do jobs the person doing the hiring cannot do themselves, or cannot afford to be tied with because of who you're running against or the sheer illegality of the job. Most of the books take the form of BBS / Forum discussions between NPC Shadowrunners. The game often brings up the concept of Wetwork (Assassination jobs) as something most runners shy away from. At the very least it's seen as something one does in extreme consequences, if ever. NPC Runners who openly do that kind of work (Like Kaine) are often portrayed as borderline psychopaths, only separated from serial killers in that they get paid and are more skilled. Respectable Shadowrunners will express their disgust at those who do this stuff... Yet the average shadowrun will result in plenty of dead security guards, bodyguards, and other such people even up to police officers. And those are never given a nod. Sure, ''good'' Shadowrunners limit casualties on a run, but that's only because good deniable assets leave as little trace as possible to begin with, not out of some desire to preserve life. The game treats the dozen murders the team might do on a run to extract (Read:Kidnap) a corporate suit as a non-issue. But were the same team going to kill said suit, this would be depicted as some sort of moral line having been crossed. And brushing those deaths away as "Self-defense" or "it's us or them" kind of loses credibility when as Shadowrunners, the players often are the ones kicking down the door to where these people are and attacking.

* In Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Batman won't kill the Joker even though his grinning adversary has recently murdered ''a studio full of people, on live TV''. Earlier on, however, he has no hesitation about using a gang member as a HumanShield, and then turning that gangster's machine-gun on his buddies. Sure, the gangsters were bad but WTF, Millar?

* Cruelly averted in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'''s rendition of ''Anime/TheWorldsStrongest'' with the Bio-Warriors. In this version, contrary to the evil mooks they were in their original movie, they were designed as friendly creatures supposed to help people, before Kochin turned them (probably against their will) into living weapons. [[AlasPoorVillain Their death is even a surprisingly solemn (and sad) moment.]]

--> '''Blub-Blub": [[ImColdSoCold "So dark... And cold..."]] ''[[{{Tearjerker}} (starts sobbing)]]''