History YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness / Literature

** When the Freys tell Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully that they'll hang his nephew Edmure unless he surrenders Riverrun, the Blackfish wisely notes that they're planning on killing him anyway, so their threats are empty.

** Robb suspects that the Lannisters will have Sansa killed once she gives Tyrion a child who can inherit Winterfeell.

* The resident MagnificentBastard, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has a habit of doing this to catspaws such as [[spoiler:Ser Dontos and Lady Lysa]] that had either fulfilled their purpose or become too much of a liability to his plans.

** Let's not forget about [[spoiler: Lysa Arryn! He wedded and (re-)bedded her, and then promptly pushed her out of a ridiculously high window when she became hysterical and threatened/attempted to kill her own niece out of jealousy. She was useful as a stepping stone to power, poisoning her own husband on his orders and later marrying him and granting him a title far above his heriditary station. However, once he married, he had everything she could offer him and no longer needed her.]]

* In the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Warrior Class'', BigBad Pavel Kazakov threatens this some times and eventually goes through with it.

* ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': In book 1 (''Blue Moon Rising''), when the Demon Prince is done with [[spoiler: the Astrologer]], he [[BalefulPolymorph turns him into a low-grade demon]].

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** Kitai argues the inversion of this concept to Tavi in order to spare the life of [[spoiler:Fidelias, one of the greatest traitors to the Realm (and the aforementioned spy in the First Aleran)]] — not out of mercy, but because they could still be of help in the war against the Vord.

** Interestingly, protagonist Garion points out the pragmatic downsides to this when he tries to dissuade his new friend Zakath from relying on executions as a punishment - just because someone isn't useful anymore ''right now'' doesn't mean they won't be at some possible time later, and you can't exactly dig up people and un-execute them.

** In [[spoiler:Dontos']] case, Littlefinger points out that the man had fulfilled his purpose- [[spoiler:delivering Sansa to him]], and the only thing he could do now was betray him, since he would likely drink through the money Littlefinger offered him and then betray them to Cersei for the reward [[spoiler:on Sansa, who was thought to have killed Joffrey]].

** In ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', the [[PsychoForHire psycho killer]] assassin [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Teatime Mr. Teatime]] ''always'' does this, even to hostage and bribees, creeping out other guys who only "won't hesitate to kill anybody between them and some gold." He's described as being one of the rare ''literal'' examples of "someone who will kill you as soon as look at you".

** In ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', the [[PsychoForHire psycho killer]] assassin [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Teatime Mr. Teatime]] ''always'' does this, even to hostage and bribees, creeping out other guys who only "won't hesitate to kill anybody between them and some gold." He's described as being one of the rare ''literal'' examples of "someone who will kill you as soon as look at you".
** In ''Discworld/TheTruth'', a pair of villains plan to kill their Lord Vetinari look-alike once "his face no longer fits". Luckily, he is rescued in time.
** The villain in ''Discworld/MakingMoney'' also does this, thereby enabling Vetinari to [[RevealingCoverup deduce his plan]] from the string of bodies left behind.
** In ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' Lord Hong has Two Fire Herb killed after he's done with the Resistance. However, because Two Fire Herb had enough foresight to ask for a promise that Hong would neither write or say an order for his execution, Lord Hong makes an origami man. Without a head.
** In ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'', the [[TheEvilPrince Duke]] (a dab hand with poisons) catches the antidote-dosed King Olerve off-guard by simply hiring an assassin with a crossbow and a fast horse. Death assures the King's ghost that the assassin's horse isn't fast enough: [[AC: He allowed the Duke to provide him with a packed lunch]].

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has a decidedly dark heroic version. Some of the Shaido who capture and [[MadeASlave enslave]] Faile's group are [[LimaSyndrome sympathetic enough to help them escape]], which Faile's husband doesn't realize when he intercepts them mid-rescue. Rather than try to defuse the situation, Faile and her companions turn on the allied Shaido and help kill them all.

* In the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' prequel books, Marilena Carpathia, the mother of the future Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia, was killed off when Nicolae, still a child, was old enough to be cared for by his mentor Viv Ivins. His [[HasTwoMommies two biological fathers]], who were living together off payments from the corporation that funded the genetic project that brought forth Nicolae, were later killed off.

* The Easterlings suffer this fate in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''. Instead of the promised reward of the fertile lands of Beleriand, after betraying Maedhros at Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Easterlings instead are driven to wasteland of Hithlum where they are not to exit on pain of death penalty. ''Heavily'' overlaps with RewardedAsATraitorDeserves

* A rare semi-heroic version happens in ''Literature/TheMentalState''. The resident SocipathicHero, Zack State, convinces the rapists serving time in prison to dig a tunnel connecting the men's prison to the adjoining women's prison. He claims that he wants them to do this so that they can sneak over and take advantage of the residents there in response to their men-hating behaviour. [[spoiler:In actuality, he wants to create a covert means by which both genders can interact more freely and even find genuine romance. Once the tunnel is completed, he warns the women of the rapists' invasion in advance, resulting in the rapists getting ambushed by violent female offenders and having the crap beaten out of them. Even Zack himself calls them foolish for ever trusting him]].

** This was mentioned as a common habit of Isane Isard in the ''Literature/XWingSeries''. If one of her agents continually succeeds, he would eventually suffer from this trope. If her agents ''fail'', however, they will either face YouHaveFailedMe or be killed by the people they were acting against. This caused loyalty issues in those subordinates smart enough to figure this out.