History SadisticChoice / WesternAnimation

-->'''Evil-Lyn:''' It looks like those gorgeous muscles are completely useless!

** ''TransformersCybertron'' Starscream has gone on a FoeTossingCharge, being a {{Determinator}} in the extreme in the process, and beaten all of the Autobot army to seize the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys. Optimus Prime manages to knock them from his grasp (and knock out Screamer in the process). Starscream recovers to see the artifacts nearly back in Prime's hands... so he fires a missile at the human companions and the Recon Mini-Con team. Optimus has to change course to both shoot down the missile and block the blast, enabling Starscream to purloin the {{MacGuffin}}s. One might briefly wonder why Jolt didn't warp them out of harm's way, but then one remembers that A. Jolt is panic-prone, and B. Creating dimension gates is a strain on him, and he'd already done it twice just a couple minutes before, the second time moving a rather large Autobot to safety.

** Lampshaded ("Great. The old 'save your partner or lose the weapon' gag") and served with extra sadism in ''[[TransformersArmada Armada]]''. The "partner" turned out to be TheMole.

** Also subverted in an episode of SonicUnderground, aptly titled "Sonia's Choice". Who does she rescue from the [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticizer]] - Sonic or Manic? [[spoiler:She chooses to rescue both. [[DeusExMachina Queen Aleena is on hand to rescue Manic in time anyway,]], so even if she did choose, it would have still ended well.]]

** Also subverted in an episode of SonicUnderground, aptly titled "Sonia's Choice". Who does she rescue from the [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticizer]] - Sonic or Manic? [[spoiler:She chooses both, and [[DeusExMachina Queen Aleena is on hand to rescue Manic in time]]]].

** Also in an episode of SonicUnderground, aptly titled "Sonia's Choice". Who does she rescue from the [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticizer]] - Sonic or Manic? [[spoiler:She chooses both, and [[DeusExMachina Queen Aleena is on hand to rescue Manic in time]]]].

** Used again in an episode of SonicUnderground, aptly titled "Sonia's Choice". Who does she rescue from the [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticizer]] - Sonic or Manic? [[spoiler:She chooses Sonic, and recruits some allies to save Manic: they fail, but fortunately [[DeusExMachina Queen Aleena is on hand to rescue her son in time]]]].

* Black Adam offers Captain Marvel one of these in ''DC Showcase: [[SupermanShazamTheReturnOfBlackAdam Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam]]''. It turns out that, ultimate superhero boyscout or not, doing this to Captain Marvel is [[BewareTheNiceOnes a BAD IDEA]] that [[CurbStompBattle did not end well for Adam]].

** Musa probably has the most sadistic, played straight version of this trope; she has the decision of seeing her '''Dead mother''' again and bringing her back to life, but if she decides to do so, she is in effect responsible for the apocalypse.
** Stella can save the world with the water stars...If she gives up her [[NightmareFuel FREAKING FACE.]]
*** [[spoiler: They all do the right thing and save the world...But, [[ResetButton they're back to normal next episode]], making the sacrifice half as meaningful. ]]

** Used again in an episode of SonicUnderground, aptly titled "Sonia's Choice". Who does she rescue from the [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticizer]] - Sonic or Manic? [[spoiler:she chooses Sonic. Fortunately, [[DeusExMachina Queen Aleena saves Manic]]]].

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' episode "A New Spiritual Age", Korra is presented with an even more sadistic choice by [[spoiler:Unalaq]]. Either she [[spoiler:opens the Northern Spirit Portal, enabling BiggerBad Vaatu to escape from his [[SealedEvilInACan prison]] when the Harmonic Convergence comes]], or he'll [[spoiler:''[[WouldHurtAChild kill]]'' Jinora by destroying her astral body.]] Korra is horrified, but chooses the second option.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' has an episode in season 3 where half the girls are sent into a maze to retrieve [[MagicalItem The water stars]] which will supposedly save the world from [[BigBad Valtor]]. However, inside the maze, the girls are tempted with an example of this trope.

* On the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode ''The Beak,'' they have to choose between ethier rescuing Isabella, their friend, or a crowd of random spectators, from a villain (It isn't Dr Doofemizmerz). (Fortunately, [[TakeAThirdOption each brother can split up and go save them both)]]

* On the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode ''The Beak,'' they have to choose between rescuing Isabella or a crowd of random spectators. [[spoiler: Fortunately, each brother can split up and go save them both.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' plays this when Adrena Lynn makes Kim save both Ron and Brick in this manner. She manages to save them both with ease.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' parodies this in the "Rosebud" episode, with an example more trivial than most. Burns takes over all television networks available to Springfield, telling the whole town that he's not giving them back their television until someone steals Maggie's teddy bear and puts it on his desk. [[spoiler:Cut to an angry mob outside the Simpson home stealing the teddy bear from her, only to [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming return it out of regret once they see Maggie, visibly upset, trying to crawl over to take it back]].]]
** In one of the annual Halloween episodes, Lisa has been given a slot on a spaceship escaping a doomed Earth, but is informed she can only bring along one family member. Lisa instantly chooses Marge, leaving Homer and Bart behind to die.
* Also parodied in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
--> '''Peter:''' Okay Brian, here's a riddle. A woman has two children and a homicidal maniac makes her choose which one he will kill. Which one does she choose?
--> '''Brian:''' That's not a riddle. That's just terrible!
--> '''Peter:''' Wrong! The ugly one!
** Another scene has Peter asked whether he would save Chris or Meg from a homicidal maniac. He says to ask Lois since he isn't good with tough decisions. The cutaway shows him at a video store, unable to choose between renting "Ernest Goes to the Beach" and "Ernest Doesn't Go To The Beach".
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' PilotMovie, Starscream pulls one of these to show that the Decepticons in this series are no laughing matter: after giving the Autobots a sound beating, he shoots Bumblebee, critically wounding him (and he was actually aiming for Sari; Bumblebee took the hit), tosses him into a train car that holds the Mayor of Detroit, the human sidekick's father, and various other civilians, then flies it to the top of a building, giving the Autobots one [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Units_of_time megacycle]] (about an hour) to surrender [[TheLifestream the All Spark]] to him before he kills the hostages and, to raise the stakes even more, attempts to take the All Spark the ''hard'' way, cutting a swath of destruction across the Earth until he finds it himself. And to complicate things ''further'', none of these Autobots can fly... So the [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] involves using the All Spark as bait while they attempt a rescue mission.
** In the three-part "The Ultimate [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doom]]" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', Megatron plans to bring Cybertron into Earth's orbit in order to destroy Earth and harvest the energy. If the plan fails, however, Cybertron will be destroyed. Megatron forces Optimus Prime to choose which planet will be lost. Luckily Prime thinks of a better solution
** Lampshaded ("Great. The old 'save your partner or lose the weapon gag'") and served with extra sadism in ''[[TransformersArmada Armada]]''. The "partner" turned out to be TheMole.
** ''TransformersCybertron'' Starscream has gone on a FoeTossingCharge, being a {{Determinator}} in the extreme in the process, and beaten all of the Autobot army to seize the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys. Optimus Prime manages to knock them from his grasp (and knock out Screamer in the process). Starscream recovers to see the artifacts nearly back in Prime's hands... so he fires a missile at the human companions and the Recon Mini-Con team. Optimus has to change course to both shoot down the missile and block the blast, enabling Starscream to purloin the {{MacGuffin}}s. One might briefly wonder why Jolt didn't warp them out of harm's way, but then one remembers that A. Jolt is panic-prone, and B. Creating dimension gates is a strain on him, and he'd already done it twice just a couple minutes before, the second time moving a rather large Autobot to safety.
* Hilariously subverted in an old episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. Sonic turns up and impresses all the locals (who are sheep) with his speed, and Robotnik builds a massive race-course and challenges Sonic to a race, then convinces all the sheep (all of them) to bet ''all their money and then some'' on Sonic... and then kidnaps Tails, forcing this kind of choice (Sonic either throws the race, or Tails gets it). He then turns the completely-broke sheep into his slaves, the scene shifts to an Egyptian style environment where the sheep are as slaves building pyramids... and then Sonic and Tails turn up and completely wreck Robotnik.

* Hilariously done in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Almost Got 'Im", where Harley Quinn attempts to engineer one of these for Batman, smugly telling him that he can either rescue Catwoman from the ConveyorBeltODoom she is strapped to and let Harley escape, or can let her die whilst subduing and arresting Harley. Unfortunately for her, she's neglected to consider the fact that she's telling Batman this [[TakeAThirdOption whilst they're standing next to]] [[CutTheJuice the conveyor belt's circuit breaker]].
-->'''Harley''': [[OhCrap ..heh heh. Good call]]. Help.
* At the end of the first 5-part episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', after Demona turns against them, a misfired rocket launcher sends both her and the gargoyles' new friend Elisa over the edge, Demona apparently unconscious and unable to glide to saftey. [[TheHero Goliath]] can either save his mate (his former mate who, at the time, he still cared for) who had betrayed him, or the human they just met who nevertheless had been honorably on their side. He chooses Elisa; though howls afterwards at Demona's "death." (Later we find that it's a lot [[{{Immortality}} harder to kill Demona than that.]])
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'s'' enemies love putting him through this -- Ghostfreak telling him to put down the gun or he'll kill Gwen, Vilgax demanding the Omnitrix or he'll kill her... In the ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' episode "Primus," Vilgax steals the Omnitrix, dangles the trio over the Codon Stream, and tells Ben that he'll have to show him how to work the Omnitrix to save his friends... ''and'' still die afterwards regardless. [[note]]Ben only gets out of the latter by TrickingTheShapeshifter, which a terrified Gwen didn't realize until the last minute.[[/note]]
** In the "Hero Time" episode of ''Ben10UltimateAlien'', [[FallenHero Captain Nemesis]] attempt this by kidnapping [[LoveInterest Julie]] and an actress everyone thought Ben was dating [[SarcasmMode (who was clearly not the star of a series of movies based on]] ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''), and gives him the choice to save one or the other . [[spoiler: Ben saves Julie, but was GenreSavvy enough to have Kevin and Gwen secretly come so they would save the other one.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'', Evil-Lyn is GenreSavvy to TakeAThirdOption, so she puts ''three'' hostages in death traps and warns He-Man that tampering with any of them will cause the other two to activate.
-->'''Evil-Lyn:''' It looks like those gorgeous muscles are completely useless!

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': "If you join me, if you swear to serve me, if you never speak to your friends again, I will allow them to live."
** A SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome not only for Slade, but for the Titans when [[spoiler:they figure out what's going on themselves.]]
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' when Towelie has the choice of keeping the boys from falling into an acid tank or getting high. He chooses [[TakeAThirdOption both]] by stretching over to get the joint.
* Fat Cat pulls this in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'', simply by threatening to drop two squirrel children as a way to coax the Rescue Rangers into handing over a statue. This might also count as an example of ''WouldHurtAChild'', seeing as he has no problem with placing two children in danger.

** If you watch closly, Dash never even gets the chance to choose; he does the Finger of Death like he does with Fluttershy. Whereas the other three ponies fell by their own, the two ex-pegasi were directly touched and thus directly brainwashed - in Dash's case, before she could even make the choice and was still torn.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' has a episode in season 3 where half the girls are sent into a maze to retreive [[MagicalItem The water stars]] which will supposedly save the world from [[BigBad Valtor]]. However, inside the maze, the girls are tempted with a example of this trope;
** Tecna is given two choices; she can obtain the magical item, BUT...If she chooses to do so, [[EmotionlessGirl she will have to give up her emotions]], abandoning her friends and boyfriend and not being able to feel any feelings at all again. Or, she could choose to leave, inevitably dooming every realm in the universe, leaving her responsible.
** Musa probably has the most sadistic, played straight version of this trope; she has the decision of seeing her '''Dead mother''' again and bringing her back to life, but if she decides to do so, she is in effect responsible for the apocalypse.
** Stella can save the world with the water stars...If she gives up her [[NightmareFuel FREAKING FACE.]]
*** [[spoiler: They all do the right thing and save the world...But, [[ResetButton they're back to normal next episode]], making the sacrifice half as meaningful. ]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAMermaidTale2'', Merliah must choose whether to lose her legs and stop Eris or keep them and let Eris take over again.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' episode "Ultimatum", XANA possesses the principal and abducts Odd and Yumi. The remaining Warriors have to chose to either hand over Aelita to XANA (which would result in her death and eventually the potential deaths/enslavement of the world) or allow XANA to [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord "liquidate"]] Odd and Yumi. Ulrich's attempt at [[TakeAThirdOption a third option]] (taking [[ChekhovsGun an EMP bomb Jérémie showed off at the beginning of the episode]] to disable XANA after locating where he's keeping Odd and Yumi) is derailed by the bomb [[NiceJobBreakingItHero shorting out his mobile phone]] so neither Jérémie nor Aelita know if he has succeeded in his rescue or just given XANA another hostage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' episode "Speed", Diddy and Dixie Kong end up on a mine cart without breaks that has a bomb that will explode if it does stop. (Sound familiar?) This means DK has to choose between saving his friends or sticking around to protect the Crystal Coconut. He finds a compromise; take the Coconut with him as he goes off to save his friends!

* Hilariously done in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Almost Got 'Im", where Harley Quinn attempts to engineer one of these for Batman, smugly telling him that he can either rescue Catwoman from the ConveyorBeltODoom she is strapped to and let Harley escape, or can let her die whilst subduing and arresting Harley. Unfortunately for her, she's neglected to consider the fact that she's telling Batman this [[TakeAThirdOption whilst they're standing next to the conveyor belt's circuit breaker]].

** In the final episodes of Book 3, the ArcVillain Zaheer presents Korra with another sadistic choice after [[spoiler:he and the rest of the Red Lotus take the new Air Nation hostage]]. Either [[spoiler:she hands herself over to him]], or he'll [[spoiler:wipe out the Air Nation]]. She chooses the first answer, though [[spoiler:neither party intends to play fair]].

* In the CodeLyoko episode "Ultimatum", XANA possed the principal and abducted Odd and Yumi. The remaining Warriors had to chose to either hand over Aelita to XANA (which would result in her death and eventually the potential deaths/enslavement of the world) or allow XANA to [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord "liquidate"]] Odd and Yumi. Ulrich's attempt at [[TakeAThirdOption a third option]] (taking [[ChekhovsGun an EMP bomb Jeremie showed off at the beginning of the episode]] to disable XANA after locating where he's keeping Odd and Yumi) was derailed by the bomb [[NiceJobBreakingItHero shorting out his mobile phone]] so neither Jeremie nor Aelita knew if he had succeeded in his rescue or just given XANA another hostage.

** In the ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfKorra'' "A New Spiritual Age", Korra is presented with an even more sadistic choice by [[spoiler:Unalaq]]. Either she [[spoiler:opens the Northern Spirit Portal, enabling BiggerBad Vaatu to escape from his [[SealedEvilInACan prison]] when the Harmonic Convergence comes]], or he'll [[spoiler:''[[WouldHurtAChild kill]]'' Jinora by destroying her astral body.]] Korra is horrified, but chooses the second option.

** In the three-part "The Ultimate [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doom]]" episode of ''TransformersGeneration1'', Megatron plans to bring Cybertron into Earth's orbit in order to destroy Earth and harvest the energy. If the plan fails, however, Cybertron will be destroyed. Megatron forces Optimus Prime to choose which planet will be lost. Luckily Prime thinks of a better solution

* In the CodeLyoko episode "Ultimatum", XANA possed the principal and abducted Odd and Yumi. The remaining Warriors had to chose to either hand over Aelita to XANA (which would result in her death and eventually the potential deaths/enslavement of the world) or allow XANA to [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord "liquidate"]] Odd and Yumi. Ulrich's attempt at [[TakeAThirdOption a third option]] (taking [[ChekovsGun an EMP bomb Jeremie showed off at the beginning of the episode]] to disable XANA after locating where he's keeping Odd and Yumi) was derailed by the bomb [[NiceJobBreakingItHero shorting out his mobile phone]] so neither Jeremie nor Aelita knew if he had succeeded in his rescue or just given XANA another hostage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAMermaidTale2'', Merliah must choose whether to lose her legs and stop Eris or keep them and let Eris take over again.

** In the ''LegendOfKorra'' "A New Spiritual Age", Korra is presented with an even more sadistic choice by [[spoiler:Unalaq]]. Either she [[spoiler:opens the Northern Spirit Portal, enabling BiggerBad Vaatu to escape from his [[SealedEvilInACan prison]] when the Harmonic Convergence comes]], or he'll [[spoiler:''[[WouldHurtAChild kill]]'' Jinora by destroying her astral body.]] Korra is horrified, but chooses the second option.

*** [[spoiler: They all do the right thing and save the world...But, [[ResetButton they're back to normal next episode]], making the sacrifice half as meaningful. ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{HeMan|and the Masters of the Universe}}'', Evil-Lyn is GenreSavvy to TakeAThirdOption, so she puts ''three'' hostages in death traps and warns He-Man that tampering with any of them will cause the other two to activate.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Library", even fighting 'blind' Toph could have probably made it more trouble that it was worth for the sandbending bandits to make off with [[TeamPet Appa]]... but she was the only thing keeping the library containing her TrueCompanions from being dragged beneath the dunes.