History WhatMeasureIsAMook / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'': {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d where there is an argument between Robin and Will Scarlet after they have captured Guy of Gisbourne leading a group of homicidal Flemish mercenaries. Will Scarlet wants to kill them but Robin says that that would make them no better than the Guy of Gisbourne. Will replies 'Well what makes you think we '''are''' any better? What about all the men-at-arms we've killed?'

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'' the life of a mook doesn't seem to mean much to the fairytale heroes who have been seen to kill many of the Evil Queen's black knights and other minions. However, they were shown to be against killing the Big Bads such as Cora or Cruella or The Wicked Witch of the West as apparently: "Heroes don't kill". This is actually a huge plot point. when Snow White was forced to kill Cora, her heart was turned black (a sign of evil deeds) and when Emma killed Cruella, she too was suddenly being turned dark. Both these killings were in self defense but treated as acts of murder, while the death of the mooks are treated as if they never occured at all.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': {{Subverted|Trope}} in the series 4 finale. Merlin kills the five guards but leaves Agravaine alive for some reason. And then they talk, and it quickly becomes clear (although not to [[GenreBlind Agravaine]]) that Merlin intends to kill him too, and that his survival was just a fluke. Okay, he waits until Agravaine pulls a knife to actually do it, but he also waited for the FacelessGoons to rush him.

* ''Series/KnightRider'': Occurred at least once where a young child was playing with a beach ball in the garden of the kidnapper, and the mook in question was entertaining her. There was no real communication - just a few minutes of play and him passing the ball back to her, but given that this guy had been ''quite ready to seriously hurt someone'' in the other room and was portrayed as a bit of a silent {{Badass}}... yeah.

* ''Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot'': Critics of the failed 2011 pilot have called out the lead character for this. After beating up (and by onscreen evidence killing in a couple of cases) several SuperPoweredMooks, Wonder Woman proceeds to successfully deflect a standard human guard's bullets easily before throwing a pipe through his neck, killing him. Moments later, she encounters the BigBad and does little more than knock her out.

* Throughout the first two seasons of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', it's made clear that killing the Queen isn't the answer, and in fact if Snow White were to kill her, she'd become just as evil. Snow White and Charming regularly kill guards on-screen, however, and when Red Riding Hood [[spoiler: in her wolf form]] massacres several dozen soldiers, it's treated as fodder for jokes.

* ''Series/KnightRider'': Occurred at least once where a young child was playing with a beach ball in the garden of the kidnapper, and the mook in question was entertaining her. There was no real communication - just a few minutes of play and him passing the ball back to her, but given that this guy had been ''quite ready to seriously hurt someone'' in the other room and was portrayed as a bit of a Silent BadAss... yeah.

* Oliver Queen in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' always gives his high-profile targets a chance to "do the right thing" before announcing that they have "failed this city" and planting an arrow in their hearts. He extends no such niceties to their hired goons, dropping half a dozen in a typical episode (many more on occasion) with seemingly little regard for whether they live or die from their grievous arrow wounds.

* In ''[[Series/AgentsofSHIELD Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]]''no one raised any objections to a handful of guards just doing their jobs getting killed to get a drug they needed to [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality save one of their own team members]]. Which is especially jarring when Coulson is horrified enough just at the suggestion of killing [[spoiler: Victoria Hand]] that it makes him realize [[spoiler: Agent Garret]] is the evil mastermind.

* In [[Series/AgentsofSHIELD Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]] no one raised any objections to a handful of guards just doing their jobs getting killed to get a drug they needed to [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality save one of their own team members]]. Which is especially jarring when Coulson is horrified enough just at the suggestion of killing [[spoiler: Victoria Hand]] that it makes him realize [[spoiler: Agent Garret]] is the evil mastermind.

** Somewhat better-justified these days, since The Master is literally the only other surviving member of his race...

* ''HumanTarget'': The main character, Christopher Chance, seems to have no problem mowing down security guards in one episode where he breaks into a large corporation. Although the company was [[spoiler: selling weapons to terrorist organizations]], such dealings would probably be beyond the knowledge of normal security personnel.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': {{Subverted}} in the series 4 finale. Merlin kills the five guards but leaves Agravaine alive for some reason. And then they talk, and it quickly becomes clear (although not to [[GenreBlind Agravaine]]) that Merlin intends to kill him too, and that his survival was just a fluke. Okay, he waits until Agravaine pulls a knife to actually do it, but he also waited for the FacelessGoons to rush him.

* ''Series/RobinHood'': Mostly {{averted}} in the BBC series, where Robin, tired of war, deliberately avoids killing anyone, including {{Mook}}s (and the Sheriff is GenreSavvy enough to notice, so he doesn't take Robin's threats seriously). He breaks the rule several times, such as when he slaughters dozens of the Sheriff's men when he thinks that Marian is dead, or killing a few Arab assassins trying to kill King Richard.
* ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'': {{Lampshaded}} where there is an argument between Robin and Will Scarlet after they have captured Guy of Gisbourne leading a group of homicidal Flemish mercenaries. Will Scarlet wants to kill them but Robin says that that would make them no better than the Guy of Gisbourne. Will replies 'Well what makes you think we '''are''' any better? What about all the men-at-arms we've killed?'
* ''Series/{{Rome}}'': {{Played straight}}, {{lampshaded}}, and then becomes a JustifiedTrope. When Pompey flees to Egypt, he is captured and executed by a soldier loyal to Caesar. Caesar, who has no qualms killing Pompey's men, is livid that a nobleman would be killed by a commoner and ultimately executes the soldier and desecrates his body.

* ''Series/TheWire'': {{Inverted}}. Several mooks die throughout the series as the cops try to take down the gang lords. Most of them get a great deal of characterization and their deaths visibly haunt the cops throughout.
* ''Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot'': Critics of the failed 2011 pilot have called out the lead character for this. [[spoiler: After beating up (and by on-screen evidence killing in a couple of cases) several super-powered mooks, Wonder Woman proceeds to successfully deflect a standard-human guard's bullets easily before throwing a pipe through his neck, killing him. Moments later, she encounters the BigBad and does little more than knock her out.]]

* Series/{{Merlin}}: SubvertedTrope in the series 4 finale. Merlin kills the five guards but leaves Agravaine alive for some reason. And then they talk, and it quickly becomes clear (although not to [[GenreBlind Agravaine]]) that Merlin intends to kill him too, and that his survival was just a fluke. Okay, he waits until Agravaine pulls a knife to actually do it, but he also waited for the FacelessGoons to rush him.

* ''Series/RobinHood'': Mostly AvertedTrope in the BBC series, where Robin, tired of war, deliberately avoids killing anyone, including {{Mook}}s (and the Sheriff is GenreSavvy enough to notice, so he doesn't take Robin's threats seriously). He breaks the rule several times, such as when he slaughters dozens of the Sheriff's men when he thinks that Marian is dead, or killing a few Arab assassins trying to kill King Richard.
* ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'': Lampshaded where there is an argument between Robin and Will Scarlet after they have captured a Guy of Gisbourne leading group of homicidal Flemish mercenaries. Will Scarlet wants to kill them but Robin says that that would make them no better than the Guy of Gisbourne. Will replies 'Well what makes you think we '''are''' any better? What about all the men-at-arms we've killed?'
* ''Series/{{Rome}}'': Played straight, {{Lampshaded}}, and then becomes a JustifiedTrope. When Pompey flees to Egypt, he is captured and executed by a soldier loyal to Caesar. Caesar, who has no qualms killing Pompey's men, is livid that a nobleman would be killed by a commoner and ultimately executes the soldier and desecrates his body.

* ''Series/TheWire'': InvertedTrope. Several mooks die throughout the series as the cops try to take down the gang lords. Most of them get a great deal of characterization and their deaths visibly haunt the cops throughout.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In Season 5, Buffy kills several members of the [[ChurchMilitant Knights of Byzantium]] in the process of protecting her sister. But she can't bring herself to kill Glory, the hellgod who wants to sacrifice her sister, and eventually [[spoiler:[[PoisonousFriend Giles]] has to do it for her.]]
** Not... quite. It wasn't that she couldn't kill Glory, it's that she couldn't kill [[spoiler:''Ben'', whose body Glory was using and who Buffy would have to kill as well. Buffy wouldn't kill an innocent person, even if it meant leaving an immensely dangerous enemy alive... but Giles would]].

''[[after a {{beat}}, both Boyle and Diaz decide to shoot the Perp again]]''

--> "She's a hero, you see. She's not like us."
--> "Us?"

* Throughout the first season of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', it's made clear that killing the Queen isn't the answer, and in fact if Snow White were to kill her, she'd become just as evil. When Red Riding Hood [[spoiler: in her wolf form]] massacres several dozen soldiers, however, it's treated as fodder for jokes.

* ''RobinOfSherwood'': Lampshaded where there is an argument between Robin and Will Scarlet after they have captured a Guy of Gisbourne leading group of homicidal Flemish mercenaries. Will Scarlet wants to kill them but Robin says that that would make them no better than the Guy of Gisbourne. Will replies 'Well what makes you think we '''are''' any better? What about all the men-at-arms we've killed?'

* ''WalkerTexasRanger'': The title character will slaughter any mostly harmless Mook on the way to the horrifyingly evil BigBad, but when he gets there, he usually spares the villain and preaches a BrokenAesop.
* ''TheWire'': InvertedTrope. Several mooks die throughout the series as the cops try to take down the gang lords. Most of them get a great deal of characterization and their deaths visibly haunt the cops throughout.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Critics of the failed 2011 pilot have called out the lead character for this. [[spoiler: After beating up (and by on-screen evidence killing in a couple of cases) several super-powered mooks, Wonder Woman proceeds to successfully deflect a standard-human guard's bullets easily before throwing a pipe through his neck, killing him. Moments later, she encounters the BigBad and does little more than knock her out.]]

* ''Series/BurnNotice'': AvertedTrope: Michael wants to keep the body count as low as possible.

* In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', Caroline sees no problem in trading a hybrid's life for Elena's, even though he had broken Klaus' sire-bond and only wanted to get away from Klaus.
* In ''WalkerTexasRanger'', the title character will slaughter any mostly harmless Mook on the way to the horrifyingly evil BigBad, but when he gets there, he usually spares the villain and preaches a BrokenAesop.
* Inverted on ''TheWire''. Several mooks die throughout the series as the cops try to take down the gang lords. Most of them get a great deal of characterization and their deaths visibly haunt the cops throughout.
* Occurred at least once in ''Series/KnightRider'' where a young child was playing with a beach ball in the garden of the kidnapper, and the mook in question was entertaining her. There was no real communication - just a few minutes of play and him passing the ball back to her, but given that this guy had been ''quite ready to seriously hurt someone'' in the other room and was portrayed as a bit of a Silent BadAss... yeah.
* Lampshaded in ''RobinOfSherwood'' where there is an argument between Robin and Will Scarlet after they have captured a Guy of Gisbourne leading group of homicidal Flemish mercenaries. Will Scarlet wants to kill them but Robin says that that would make them no better than the Guy of Gisbourne. Will replies 'Well what makes you think we '''are''' any better? What about all the men-at-arms we've killed?'
* Pointed out in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' when Danko is talking with Nathan about how his plans have been ruined thanks to Nathan's interference. Nathan retorts that people could have died, and Danko counters that people ''had'' died, if one considered Danko's Mooks to be people.
** And then Danko causes heads to bang walls everywhere when he inexplicably feeds one of his men to Sylar to allow the latter to use the man's identity as cover.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' is almost bipolar with this trope (along with WhatMeasureIsANonHuman), not helped at all by the Doctor's personality varying wildly DependingOnTheWriter or [[TheNthDoctor the actor]]. The most obvious example is his repeated attempts to save the Master, despite easily (if reluctantly) killing anywhere from several dozen to several ''million'' nameless enemies in numerous other episodes.

* In ''Series/TheAvengers'', Steed and Mrs. Peel typically kill half a dozen or more mooks and henchmen without breaking a sweat (or a nail). They're quite indiscriminate, though: the BigBad usually gets killed just as unceremoniously.
* Averted in ''Series/BurnNotice'': Michael wants to keep the body count as low as possible.
* The main character of ''HumanTarget'', Christopher Chance, seems to have no problem mowing down security guards in one episode where he breaks into a large corporation. Although the company was [[spoiler: selling weapons to terrorist organizations]], such dealings would probably be beyond the knowledge of normal security personnel.

* Played straight, {{Lampshaded}}, and then Justified on ''Series/{{Rome}}''. When Pompey flees to Egypt, he is captured and executed by a soldier loyal to Caesar. Caesar, who has no qualms killing Pompey's men, is livid that a nobleman would be killed by a commoner and ultimately executes the soldier and desecrates his body.
** Historically this was generally what happened, although Ceasar's reasons for anger were less about who killed him, but that his usual process was to spare his military rivals and thereby gain popularity for his mercy. He was not a man driven by revenge but by what would get him the most control over a situation and cause the least disruption to the safe progress of his burgeoning empire (nee republic). The execution of Pompey gained him nothing militarily or politically, and he took out his disapproval on the over-zealous Egyptian authorities afterwards.
** Plus, it served Caesar's interests. He wanted to overthrow Egypt's leadership. What better excuse than righteous indignation about how terribly a Roman consul was treated? His enemy Pompey is eliminated, he gets credit for having ''intended'' to pardon him, and a dangerous province's leaders are replaced with a new set loyal to Caesar. Perfect.
* In Season 5 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Buffy kills several members of the [[ChurchMilitant Knights of Byzantium]] in the process of protecting her sister. But she can't bring herself to kill Glory, the hellgod who wants to sacrifice her sister, and eventually [[spoiler:[[PoisonousFriend Giles]] has to do it for her.]]
** Not... quite. It wasn't that she couldn't kill Glory, it's that she couldn't kill [[spoiler:''Ben'', whose body Glory was using and who Buffy would have to kill as well. Buffy wouldn't kill an innocent person, even if it meant leaving an immensely dangerous enemy alive... but Giles would]].
--> "She's a hero, you see. She's not like us."
--> "Us?"
* Pointed out in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' when Lily found out [[Franchise/StarWars Stormtroopers]] were not robots.
--> '''Lily:''' So when they blew up the Death Star, those were ''people'' on that thing?
* Critics of the failed 2011 pilot for Franchise/WonderWoman have called out the lead character for this. [[spoiler: After beating up (and by on-screen evidence killing in a couple of cases) several super-powered mooks, Wonder Woman proceeds to successfully deflect a standard-human guard's bullets easily before throwing a pipe through his neck, killing him. Moments later, she encounters the BigBad and does little more than knock her out.]]
* Mostly averted in the BBC ''Series/RobinHood'' series, where Robin, tired of war, deliberately avoids killing anyone, including {{Mook}}s (and the Sheriff is GenreSavvy enough to notice, so he doesn't take Robin's threats seriously). He breaks the rule several times, such as when he slaughters dozens of the Sheriff's men when he thinks that Marian is dead, or killing a few Arab assassins trying to kill King Richard.
* Subverted in the series 4 finale of {{Series/Merlin}}. Merlin kills the five guards but leaves Agravaine alive for some reason. And then they talk, and it quickly becomes clear (although not to [[GenreBlind Agravaine]]) that Merlin intends to kill him too, and that his survival was just a fluke. Okay, he waits until Agravaine pulls a knife to actually do it, but he also waited for the FacelessGoons to rush him.

* Played straight, {{Lampshaded}}, and then Justified on ''{{Rome}}''. When Pompey flees to Egypt, he is captured and executed by a soldier loyal to Caesar. Caesar, who has no qualms killing Pompey's men, is livid that a nobleman would be killed by a commoner and ultimately executes the soldier and desecrates his body.