History YouHaveFailedMe / Literature

** In ''[[Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay Mockingjay, Part 2]]'', Antonius gets similar treatment after the rebels take District 2.

*** A ''heroic'' version shows up in the earlier novel ''Necropolis'', where an officer named Modile is in charge of coordinating communication between the various Imperial Guard regiments, but he shuts down the network when the plan of defense starts to fall apart, leading to the various regiments getting cut to pieces as they scream for orders before Corbec and a friendly CO of another regiment to creat an ad hoc comm network between them. Gaunt executes Modile for his cowardice and incompetence. Notable as the first time in the series we see Gaunt perform a summary execution.

* ''Literature/TheStand'' has a real doozy in the demise of Randall Flagg's henchman, the hapless Bobby Terry. Bobby rather overdoes the orders that he's given to capture "intact" the Judge, one of the good guys, ending up by accidentally blowing the top half of his head off. On a lonely road, in the middle of nowhere (and a driving rainstorm), a panicking Bobby suddenly hears footsteps approaching him, faster and faster, from behind... and turns to see Flagg charging at him with a huge, manic grin... "HEY, BOBBY TERRY, YOU SCREEEEEEWED IT UPPPPPP!!!"

*** A ''heroic'' version shows up in the earlier novel ''Necropolis'', where an officer named Modile is in charge of coordinating communication between the various Imperial Guard regiments, but he shuts down the network when the plan starts to fall apart. Gaunt executes Modile for his cowardice and incompetence. Notable as the first time in the series we see Gaunt perform a summary execution.

** The film adaptation of ''Film/GoingPostal'' has an inversion. A certain character is killed for doing his job ''too well''. The character is a clerk who has kept scrupulous books on all his boss' financial transactions... including the shady and outright illegal ones.
*** [[spoiler: Crispin Horsefly]] was killed for the same reason in the book, it just happened earlier in the sequence of events.

* ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'': Robespierre gives Chauvelin this ultimatum in ''The Elusive Pimpernel'', one of the sequels, where Chauvelin failed to capture the eponymous hero. Chauvelin keeps the Scarlet Pimpernel's SecretIdentity a secret even though he discovered it in the first book because he knows that knowledge is the only reason his superiors allow him to live despite his repeated failures.

* In Creator/CharlesStross' ''Literature/IronSunrise'', Portia Hoechst strangles a subordinate who bungled his assignment to abduct Wednesday Shadowmist as soon as she gets him back on the ship.

* Stephen King's ''Literature/TheStand'' has a real doozy in the demise of Randall Flagg's henchman, the hapless Bobby Terry. Bobby rather overdoes the orders that he's given to capture "intact" the Judge, one of the good guys, ending up by accidentally blowing the top half of his head off. On a lonely road, in the middle of nowhere (and a driving rainstorm), a panicking Bobby suddenly hears footsteps approaching him, faster and faster, from behind... and turns to see Flagg charging at him with a huge, manic grin... "HEY, BOBBY TERRY, YOU SCREEEEEEWED IT UPPPPPP!!!"

** This trope seems to be liked by villainous Imperials and former Imperials in general. In the Literature/XWingSeries, Zsinj, spying on the consoles of his bridge crew, sees that one of them is playing flight simulators instead of paying attention while on duty. He has been warned about this, but he wants to be a pilot so ''much''. Zsinj has his second-in-command whisk the crewman off in the dead of night telling him it's a secret pilot test, put him through the standard set of pilot qualification simulations, praise or chastise him as necessary, and then kill him. Later on he puts a pair of scientists in a ShootYourMate Or I Kill You Both. The trope, and the fact that they're cruel about it rather than simply just shooting them, serves as [[KickTheDog a good reminder]] that while Zsinj and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] are interesting, clever, and often funny characters, they are also the bad guys, and for good reason. On the other hand, Zsinj isn't punishing failure in terms of results, but failure in terms of ''duties'' -- the people in the previous examples were killed because they had not only shirked a duty of some kind, but tried to cover it up. If a failure is a result of circumstances beyond the control of a subordinate, Zsinj spares the subordinate. Further, he's willing to reward people who go beyond the call of duty even if the results fall short (as with Gatterweld, a lowly stormtrooper who nearly steals an entire Super Star Destroyer for him -- in the next book, he's an Ensign).
** The Queen of this trope is Ysanne Isard, also of the Literature/XWingSeries, whose murderous punishments for failure were known to go as far as Familicide. Isard's love affair with this trope is skewered in one of Allston's ''X-Wing'' novels, where another Imperial explains that anyone working for a [[BadBoss capricious psycho]] like Isard had nothing to look forward to except either death by the Rebels, or death by ''her''.

* OlderThanFeudalism: The bandit leader in ''Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves'' kills ''two'' of his men for volunteering to find Ali Baba's house and then messing up. (Then he wises up and does it himself.)

* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', TheCaligula Taur Urgas [[FlayingAlive has his guards flayed]] after they allow Silk to be rescued from his cell -- not due to incompetence, but because Relg used his ability to slide through rock to extricate him.
* Subverted by Gareth in ''Literature/{{Below}}'', after the highwaymen in his employ are duped by a subverted BaitAndSwitch in a wagon heist. The thieves' leader Harry is his [[TheDragon Dragon's]] best friend, so killing is off the table, and besides he hates waste. Instead he holds them responsible to pay back his cut, plus ''their'' cuts, plus extra for nice round numbers, then ''doubled'', and he facetiously praises Harry for "suggesting" the idea. They can only pay it off by going much farther afield and working through winters over the next several years.

** In ''{{Literature/Thud}}'', two trolls working for a mob boss threaten Vimes. When Vimes meets with their boss, Chrysoprase, he claims he hadn't told them to make threats, and indicates a box. The narration is quick to point out wouldn't fit an ''intact'' troll. And then to cement what happened, Chrysoprase asks Vimes if he could use a rockery at Ramkin Manor.
* Robespierre gives Chauvelin this ultimatum in ''The Elusive Pimpernel'', one of the sequels to ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'', where Chauvelin epically failed to capture the eponymous vigilante SuperHero. Chauvelin keeps the Scarlet Pimpernel's SecretIdentity a secret even though he discovered it in the first book because he knows that knowledge is the only reason his superiors allow him to live despite his repeated failures.