[[StarWars http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ozzel.jpg]]
[[caption-width:324:{{You are in command now}}, ''Admiral'' Piett.]]

->"''...for the last time!''"
-->-- '''Pretty much everybody on this page'''

->"''Anyway, you will find the the justice of Hell is purely realistic and concerned only with results. Bring us back food, or be food yourself.''"
-->-- '''Screwtape''', ''TheScrewtapeLetters''

The main bad guy - usually a DiabolicalMastermind - kills one of his henchmen who has failed to capture and/or kill the hero, as a reminder to all of his other underlings that he is a badass. Presumably, the other underlings immediately all fall into line instead of quietly updating their resumes and trying to find a less psychopathic overlord to work for. This is related to KarmicDeath, in that it means the hero doesn't have to dirty their hands.

Some bad guys will use TheBlofeldPloy to pull off the underling murder. Others will drop the offending [[EvilMinions underling]] through a TrapDoor in TheWarRoom into a SharkPool or other {{deathtrap}}.

The main bad guy almost never kills the second person who fails, as he begins to develop a healthy respect for his adversary. Some evil organizations may actually have an explicit policy of "You fail you die."

See also: BadBoss, ShootTheMessenger, YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and VillainousDemotivator. Contrast EvenEvilHasLovedOnes.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* Gendo Ikari's motivation to switch to Unit 01's Dummy Plug in ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''. [[spoiler:Of course, the main reason why Shinji ''refused'' to kill the Angel in that instance is because it was an EVA gone bad... with Toji Suzuhara trapped inside it.]]
* Mimi and Sheshe suffer this fate at the hands of ''both'' their bosses in ''MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch''. They got off lucky the first time, only turning back to their original forms; the second time, depending which version you're following, either their hearts are absorbed like Seira's, or they get eaten alive.
* Subverted ''twice'' in ''[[YesPrettyCure5 Yes! Pretty Cure 5]]'' by Bunbee. He drops Girinma down the TrapDoor, presumably never to be seen again... only for Girinma to climb back up five episodes later, ready to fail him again. [[spoiler:Much later, Bunbee finds himself on the other end of this trope, being dropped off of a building by [[TheDragon Kawarino]]. Bunbee turns out to have grabbed a [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou convenient ledge]]... and then remembered that, you know, [[WingedHumanoid he can fly]], thus the reason why he has appeared during the sequel.]]
* The QuirkyMinibossSquad in four of the five ''SailorMoon'' seasons all fall prey to this trope at the hands of each season's BigBad. There was ''at least'' one villain per saga doing so, from Queen Beryl killing Jadeite to Galaxia eventually winding up killing all but one of her minions, including [[spoiler: the "{{brainwashed}}" [[BuryYourGays Uranus and Neptune]]]]. Rubeus gives a specially cruel twist to it in regards to Kooan from the Ayakashi Sisters, [[spoiler: whom he gives an exploding MacGuffin and sends off to fight the Senshi to pretty much force her kill herself for him, since she loved him]].
** ''Sailor Stars'' is a particularly cruel instance of this trope. The BigBad (Sailor Galaxia) sends her four minions, the Anima-Mates to Earth to find "true star seeds" (basically, immortal souls) inside of the living beings of Earth that would impede her chances of taking over the galaxy, and killed most of them when they failed [[spoiler: (except Sailor Lead Crow, who was too ambitious for her own good and got eaten by a black hole)]]. At the end of the series, it turns out Galaxia knew that the Sailor Soldiers held the true star seeds the whole time, which makes it seem like she toyed around with the Anima-Mates for yuks and giggles.
*** Interestingly, the LiveActionTV version, PrettyGuardianSailorMoon; averts this by having Queen Beryl respond to a subordinate suggesting their rival be killed for failure "....why should I kill a loyal servant?"
* Subverted in ''{{Excel Saga}}'', in which {{Diabolical Mastermind}} Il Palazzo drops Excel down a miles-deep, alligator-filled pit almost ''[[OnceAnEpisode every episode]].'' It isn't always alligators; in fact, the first time they appear, Il Palazzo refers to them as a Christmas present ("I have provided you with a knife and all suitable supplies"). The next time we see Excel, she's discussing the proper way of killing an alligator and complaining about how tough it is to skin one.
** Played straight later in the series, [[spoiler:when he actually tries to kill her]].
* ''{{Mai-HiME}}'': [[spoiler:Father Joseph]] gets the "You're fired" speech from the higher-ups at Searrs for failing to eliminate the main characters in Episode 12. However, they don't actually kill him...they allow him to sit and watch as [[spoiler: Alyssa and Miyu]] enact their plan to take over Fuuka Academy. [[spoiler:He was eventually killed by Miyu after he shot little Alyssa at mission's end.]]
* During the Saiyan Saga of ''DragonBallZ'', Vegeta kills his partner Nappa after he gets his ass kicked by Goku, considering Nappa to be no use to him as a Saiyan warrior considering how Goku made an idiot out of him.
** Well, his back was also broken during the course of the fight... it was still a jerkass thing to do.
** Frieza also does this to his henchman Orlen when he failed to question the Namek that he killed so he blasted him with his eyebeams.
* [= MetalSeadramon =] from ''DigimonAdventure'' kills Scorpiomon after he fails to capture and incapacitate all 8 of the kids (Joe and Mimi escape).
* In ''PrincessTutu'', when [[spoiler:[[DarkMagicalGirl Princess Kraehe]]]] continually fails to bring [[spoiler:the Raven]] a heart as a sacrifice, he attempts to [[HeartTrauma eat]] ''[[HeartTrauma her]]'' [[HeartTrauma heart]] instead. She escapes, but barely. (Ironically, he then later seems to be surprised when [[spoiler:she betrays him and tries to save Mytho from the same fate]].)
* In ''FullMetalPanic!: [[OddlyNamedSequel The Second Raid]]'', a RunningGag sees AxCrazy PsychoForHire Gates do this to quite a lot of subordinates for any number of random reasons. It's mostly played for comedy, if only because of the utterly insane ways he does it: In one case, he shoots a man who gainsaid him in the head point blank and then argues with his corpse for a good thirty seconds before noticing he is dead, ''and then starts bemoaning the man's sudden and unexpected death and wonders how it happened''.
* Marik Ishtar of ''Yugioh'' tends to do this whenever one of his Rare Hunters loses. He controls their minds briefly and leaves them in a [[PutOnABusToHell seemingly permanent comatose state]] after delivering his messages.
* Averted in MazingerZ, where Dr. Hell certainly punished and berated his subordinates when they failed, but never killed them for their failures. Heck, [[spoiler: when Ashura died in battle, Dr. Hell was ''very'' pissed off at the heroes.]]
* The ''OnePiece'' conspiracy group Baroque Works held this as the penalty for any agents failing their assigned mission. While none of them liked it (except insofar as it got them promoted), most of the Officer Agents treated it merely as part of the job.
* Subverted in {{Naruto}}. After [[spoiler:Madara]] notices that [[spoiler:Sasuke]] failed to capture the [[spoiler:eight]]-tailed beast for Akatsuki, he intercepts him and reminds him that betrayal means death, but instead of killing him, has him [[spoiler:go to kill Danzo]] instead.
* Used in Nurihyon no Mago. Interestingly, this isn't used just to [[KickTheDog demonstrate]] that the BigBad is a dick. One of the protangonist's [[NobleDemon youkai allies]] [[GenreSavvy uses this to infer]] that the BigBad in question is extremely confident and has legitimate reason to be so.
* In episode 42 of [[TekkamanBlade Teknoman]], the Venomoid Warlord imprisons Blade's twin brother in a sort of organic prison pod for his repeated failures. It's only when his sole other Teknoman is slain that he is willing to release Saber/Evil.
* {{Katekyo Hitman Reborn}} has a bad guy group which actually has a ''stated policy'' of killing those who fail. They're the Varia, the Vongola crime family's elite assassination squad. One of the reasons they're so tough is their tradition of "erasing the weak," meaning those who fail in a mission are swiftly put to death by one of the others.
** They must go through a lot of recruitment drives.
* This is apparently the standard policy of TheSyndicate in ''DarkerThanBlack''. [[TheHandler Huang]] regularly reminds Hei of this whenever he gets insubordinate, but Hei, apparently aware of [[BullyingADragon the absurdity of the situation]] completely ignores him most of the time. [[spoiler:Huang was right, though; their bosses do try to wipe them out when they get too far out of line.]]
* In {{Bleach}}, after Renji is defeated by Ichigo in the Soul Society arc, Byakuya orders him imprisoned [[KickTheDog without having his life threatening injuries healed]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* The trope names comes from what is possibly the most famous instance: Darth Vader's "You have failed me for the last time" before choking Admiral Ozzel and promoting Captain Piett to replace him before the body hits the floor in ''[[StarWars The Empire Strikes Back]]''. True to form, Piett survives a number of failures, once Vader realizes the heroes may prove to be a bit of a challenge. It helps that he didn't take any foolish chances like Ozzel was punished for.
** He does it ''again'' to the hapless Captain Needa before the film's even halfway done, even when Needa had the foresight to apologize to Vader for losing track of the Millenium Falcon (There's a reason Vader says "Apology accepted, Captain Needa"). The turnover rate for Imperial officers must be ''appalling''.
*** And ultimately [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the end of the film, when the Falcon escapes to lightspeed. Piett visibly soils himself as Vader strides toward him, only to brush right past, apparently too depressed about losing his [[LukeIAmYourFather son]] to kill any more underlings today.
**** That, and because it wasn't Piett's fault. Exactly how callous Vader is about his suboordinates varies DependingOnTheWriter, but mostly he's said to go after underlings that he thinks are to blame. Usually. He also likes some of them more than others, Piett had been with him for a while, and according to {{StarWars/Allegiance}} he already distrusted Ozzel.
** It's even noted in one of the novels that the fastest way to promotion in the Empire was to get yourself assigned to Vader's flagship, the Executor. One could say that the commander of the vessel is an example of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin... A really BIG tin...
***[[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina''; an Imperial officer tells a local that he [[XanatosGambit engineered his own demotions]] because "the mortality rate [under Vader] is phenomenal."
*** The flip side of that coin is, as Pellaeon says, that this meant the crew of the ''Executor'' was entirely staffed by people who were either hypercompetent or very lucky, since they were the only ones who survived. Which meant that when it went down at Endor, the Empire lost more than a really big ship.
** Parodied in [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/comic.php?current=231&theme=5&dir=next this Irregular WebComic strip]], where Vader strangles an officer, and then admits he hadn't even done anything wrong.
** Parodied by ''RobotChicken'' where it is revealed that the Imperial officers just pretend to be strangled by Vader. They are then dragged out of the room where they put on a fake mustache and uniform and go back to work, with Vader none the wiser. They do this because he still has a lightsaber, and only ''thinks'' he can choke people.
** Parodied yet again in [[http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/51 this strip]] of ''{{Loserz}}''.
** And [[http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-09-05 again]] in ''{{Concerned}}: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman''.
** In ''SpaceBalls'' the hapless officer get a GroinAttack rather than a killing when he displeases Dark Helmet. For the rest of the movie, his subordinates cover themselves when reporting to him.
* Years before ''StarWars'', in the {{Hammer Horror}} ''Dracula Has Risen from the Grave'', {{Dracula}} (Christopher Lee) uses this line in a snarl to the hapless Zita (one of his pretty victims) before vampirising her to death and having her remains burnt in a baker's oven.
* Played straight in the first ''AustinPowers'' movie, when Dr. Evil dumps several underlings into a fiery pit for failing to kill Austin Powers. It is then parodied when he tries to do the same thing thirty years later...and the minion survives, and is very noisy. Dr. Evil gets someone to go down there and [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shoot him]], and that does the trick...eventually.
* In ''Desperado'', after Bucho's gang repeatedly fails to find and kill the Mariachi, Bucho demonstrates what they're ''supposed'' to do by saying "Look! I don't know him! He has a gun! That must be the guy!" and shooting one of his henchmen. "How hard is that?"
* In ''TheFifthElement'', Zorg apparently has all of his men (or all public phones) wired with explosives, and, in one scene, where a minion fails to impersonate the heroes, he types in the code to blow him up (with just barely contained rage) just as the heroes get away, not even knowing the mook had been there.
* The Rider in ''TheDarkIsRising'' ([[TheyJustDidntCare movie]]) ''actually said'' "You have failed me for the last time". You'd ''think'' it would be a DeadHorseTrope by now.
** Then again, it ''is'' an awesome indicator of villainy. Don't expect it to go away anytime soon!
* Nicely subverted in ''DieHard 2'', when the CardCarryingVillain puts the barrel of his gun to the {{Mooks}}' forehead and pulls the trigger. The gun doesn't fire, the Mook breathes a sigh of relief as the villain tells him that next time, the chamber won't be empty... and then happily goes back to work doing his evil Mook duties.
* In ''MortalKombat Annihilation'', Shao Kahn does this ''twice'' to his minions. The Outworld ninja Rain, who failed to sufficiently torture some Earth Warriors (specifically, by making them beg for their lives before destroying them) is knocked into a lava pit with a big whacking hammer. Jade, Kahn's [[TheMole mole]] in the ranks of the heroes, suffers an even more ignominious death after she too fails to destroy them -- she's fed to a monster carving in a wall, which lets out a great big burp after it's done with her.
* "Suicide, or be shot by someone else" was the option given to the losing Soviet general at the start of ''Enemy at the Gates''.
* [[ManosTheHandsOfFate "No. YoU haVe FAileD yoUrsElveS."]]
* [[{{Serenity}} "Would you be killed in your sleep like an ailing pet?"]]
* Slightly debugged for ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl'', when Captain Barbossa shoots one of his own crewman, Pintel, to see if they're all still cursed with immortality, and Pintel survives. The screenwriters Elliot and Rossio remarked in the DVD commentary that this was the only way a villain could repeatedly achieve You Have Failed Me moments without ever running out of henchmen.
* Non-lethal version shows up in ''Film/ShootEmUp''. After the first time Smith thwarts Hertz's men, Hertz is seen talking with one of them who was wounded in the buttocks. The guy says something to the effect of, "It won't happen again. I've got a piece of metal in my butt to remind me." At this point, Hertz pulls out his pistol, shoots him in the posterior once again, and quips, "And let that be a reminder never to fail me again," as the {{Mook}} collapses yelling "AAH! MY ASS!"
* In the film ''PeterPan'', Hook shoots two of his pirates for annoying him.
* In ''TheUntouchables'', Al Capone beats one of his goons to death with a [[BatterUp bat]].
** This is actually based on a real event. Capone hosted a dinner to let one of his henchmen, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Accardo Antonino "Joe Batters" Accardo]], kill two other henchmen with a baseball bat.
* Happens in ''{{Eragon}}'', where [[{{EvilSorcerer}} Durza]] executes the head [[{{Mook}} Urgal]] for failing to kill the title character then immediately promotes a random Urgal, whose look implies that he is not happy with the promotion.
* Happens twice in ''You Only Live Twice'', to Osato and Helga Brandt.
* Happens to several mooks in ''District B13''. [[spoiler: Eventually the mooks band together and kill the BigBad.]]
* Upon awakening in Transformers, Megatron reunites with Starscream who reveals to him that the Allspark, the very reason they are on Earth and the ultimate power source of Megatron's obsession, is in the possession of the Human soldiers who are attempting to keep it away from him. His response is quite a ticked off; ''You have failed me yet again Starscream. GET THEM!''
* In [[TimBurton Tim Burton's]] ''{{Batman}}'', The Joker immediately executes his top henchman after his master plan is foiled:
--->'''The Joker''': "My balloons. Those are my balloons. He stole my balloons! Why didn't anyone tell me he had one of those... things? Bob? Gun."
--->'''Bob the Henchman''': ''hands the Joker a gun, who promptly shoots him''
** Honestly, Joker does this ''all the time'', but it's less about failure and more about the fact that he's [[AxCrazy the Joker]].
* Drucker, the BigBad in ''The 6th Day'' does this to his henchman Wiley. A fairly justified version of this trope. Not only has Wiley been screwing up the most, but he also accidentally ''shot'' Drucker just before, which apparently was the last straw.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Subverted in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse novels [[TheThrawnTrilogy ''Heir to the Empire'' and ''The Last Command'']], where tactical genius villain Grand Admiral Thrawn makes a point of not indiscriminately killing subordinates. He instead has a TractorBeam operator (who was also a ContestWinnerCameo!) killed for not following procedure from his training - and for trying to pin the blame on his superior - and later actually [[HouseHiringHeuristic promotes]] a different TractorBeam operator who quickly came up with a creative solution to a sudden problem that was "no less impressive for its failure".
** The EvilOverlord version (in which the BigBad kills a random minion as a lesson) is subverted in the ''NewJediOrder'' series. Supreme Overlord Shimrra can be a really BadBoss, but he's clever enough to recognize when he's being played. Near the end, it looks as if he's about to execute High Prefect Jakan, who's been framed as a supporter of the heretics--then turns on the High Priestess who's framing him and ''is'' a heretic.
** This trope seems to be liked by villainous Imperials and former Imperials in general. In the 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 [[JustShootHim 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.
** Zsinj isn't actually all that bad about this. While he was unnecessarily cruel to the wannabe pilot, goofing off on duty can result in the deaths of everyone on the ship (He was a sensor operator. If a Republic fleet had jumped in while he was goofing off, they might not be spotted before the first shots hit the ship.) The Queen of this trope is Ysanne Isard, whose murderous punishments for failure were known to go as far as Familicide.
** When someone he's interrogating dies before giving up the information he needs, Kirtain Loor is summoned back to Imperial Center by Ysanne Isard, Empress in all but name. All along the way, even while [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome marveling at the view]], he's sweating and expecting her to kill him. She doesn't - not at that point in time - but she does make her displeasure at his poor thinking clear, and wants him to perform better.
** And of course, there's [[JediAcademyTrilogy Moff Leona Tavira]].
--->'''Corran''': "Tavira, when she doesn't hear that you succeeded, will see you as having failed. And you know her -- failure isn't an accident, it's a conspiracy."
* ''HarryPotter'': The fear of hearing Voldemort say this, no doubt quickly followed by "Crucio!" and "Avada Kedavra!", hangs over the head of every Death Eater.
** However, very few times we see him actually ''killing'' one of his minions for failing him. Lucius Malfoy, for example, fails him spectacularly a number of times; and his punishment is psychological and possibly [[FateWorseThanDeath worse than death]] in its way: his only child sent on a suicide mission.
** It is suggested in the sixth book that Voldemort would be more, uh... picky if he didn't have [[OddlySmallOrganization so few followers]].
* ''{{Animorphs}}''' BigBad, Visser Three, was famous for this, to the point where promotion for a Yeerk was a very dicey proposition, since every ladder rung you climb brings you slightly closer to Esplin 9466's stolen tail blade and hairtrigger temper. He does this so reliably that Marco's able to bluff his way out of a situation where three flunkies were expected by saying, "I think Visser Three killed them for doing something wrong".
* In DanAbnett's GauntsGhosts novel ''Traitor General'', Uexkull [[OffWithHisHead executes a commander]] as "an incompetent weakling" for failing to search for Gaunt and his men, and disables the second for not answering promptly enough -- and has the third-in-command [[ShootYourMate shoot him]].
* In JamesSwallow's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' BloodAngels novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', at the end, Garand receives a message from [[spoiler:Abaddon]]. He sends for his death-shroud before going.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Happened to more than one Weyoun clone in ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
** Played with in the series finale. [[spoiler:When the Cardassians revolt against the Dominion, the nameless changeling has all of the Cardassians in the Dominion military complex executed. Her right hand man, a Cardassian, protests that he has not turned on the Dominion even as he is dragged off to be executed. The changeling replies that she is making sure he never will.]]
* Subverted in the Tom Baker ''DoctorWho'' episode "The Pirate Planet". The villainous Captain hisses "When someone fails me, Mr. Fibuli, someone ''dies!''" -- then [[TheBlofeldPloy kills a random extra]] instead of the person who actually failed, because he's the Captain's right-hand man and is too useful to kill just out of pique. Of course, the [[http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html Evil Overlord List]] specifically says ''not'' to do this, but the Captain is just too awesome to care.
* [[DoubleSubversion Double-subverted]] in the ''StargateAtlantis'' episode "Irresponsible": Genii commander Kolya aims his gun at a disgraced mook, but does not shoot. The mook thanks him and Kolya lets him go, saying it's his last chance... Before angrily giving away his gun for repair.
** Played straight with Anubis and Ba'al in ''[[StargateSG1 Stargate SG-1]]'', he actually says exactly those lines. In this troper's opinion however, that doesn't make the moment any less awesome.
** Ra does this at one point in the ''{{Stargate}}'' movie.
* In [=SciFi's=] ''[[TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Tin Man]]'' miniseries, Azkadellia's actual reply to the general who let [[strike:Dorothy]] DG escape is a sympathetic "You did your best", but considering she immediately followed it up with a fatal LifeEnergy drain, the meaning's the same.
* ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'' season one example: One of the girls kidnapped by a sub-villain as part of a plan that's [[XanatosRoulette waaay too complicated to describe here]] gets away and is hit by a car, so only [[DamselScrappy Kimberly]] is taken instead. Said sub-villain says he killed the other girl, but his boss already knew that she'd been taken to a hospital. He takes a page ''straight'' from the Darth Vader book of villainy:
-->'''Sub-villain:''' [Stammers] Well, the thing is that... maybe she [[NotQuiteDead wasn't quite dead]].\\
'''Boss:''' Well, I'll tell ya. [...] You're either dead or you're not dead. There's no such thing as "sorta dead". Here, let me show you. [Shoots him on the spot, turns to other, more sympathetic underling] You've just been promoted. Congratulations.
* ''{{Wiseguy}}'': A Mafia boss is annoyed that an outside contract killer has messed up a hit. The killer replies that he emptied "an entire clip from an Uzi" into the victim. The boss retorts that the proper way is to shoot someone in the back of the head and stuff their body in a trunk...and then does exactly that to the hitman.
* ''StarTrekVoyager'': Lonzak barely manages to avoid this fate in the [[ShowWithinAShow Captain Proton holodeck program]].
-->''CHAOTICA'': Where's Proton?
-->''[[SurroundedByIdiots LONZAK]]'': He... err... escaped.
-->''CHAOTICA'': [[YouFool FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!]] You shall PAY for your incompetence! Seize him!
-->''[[KillerRobot SATAN'S ROBOT]]'' (clanking menacingly towards Lonzak): [[RoboSpeak SUR-REND-DER!]]
-->''LONZAK'': But Majesty, I have brought prisoners!
* Darken Rahl seems to be getting in the habit of this in ''LegendOfTheSeeker'', usually by feigning understanding, taking the other person's hand, then slicing them from the wrist to the elbow and letting them bleed out.
** He only did it once, in the pilot, to his general, who was supposed to kill the Seeker as the baby but failed. And the blood didn't go to waste - he used it immediately to send a message to his troops.
* "Offering their life in penance" was something The Master in ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' demanded, and used to the point of stupidity. One of the worst examples was when he told the Three to kill Buffy, and they almost did, easily overpowering her. Angel showed up and helped her run away, and instead of telling them to get out there and try again, he had them killed.
** Subverted when Spike showed up and after he failed and was told he should offer his life, killed his boss instead.
* ''{{Angel}}'' used this as well. Wolfram and Hart was notorious for it, though they rarely did it onscreen. There was also the vampire who killed one of his best minions to prove a point about them getting soft. Vampires seemed to get this treatment a lot in the Buffyverse, especially the less modern ones.
* Subverted/parodied in ''Power Rangers: RPM'': [[FemmeFatale minion Tenaya 7]], after returning from a seemingly failed mission and beginning to be condemned by her boss [[AIIsACrapshoot Venjix]], outright mockingly asks if he's going to say the titular trope line. Venjix is not pleased.
* On ''Get Smart'', Siegfried tells the henchman who have failed him, "It's time to put Plan B and Plan C into action." One of the mooks asks what "Plan C" is. Take a guess how Siegfried responds.
* Subverted in ''{{Farscape}}'': both [[MagnificentBastard Scorpius]] and [[CompleteMonster Grayza]] use non-lethal methods of punishment, though they are generally quite painful.
** Played straight in the episode "Losing Time": at the urging of project leader Drillic, Scorpius sends a test pilot on a flight into an unstable wormhole- only for the pilot to melt inside the cockpit. Scorpius promptly assigns Drillic the task of piloting the second test-flight.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Played straight and slightly subverted in the first ''Robin'' miniseries. The villain of the piece kills two of his {{Mook}}s with his bare hands for failing him, then promotes a DragonLady named Lynx to the position of head Mook. When she inevitably fails as well, he ponders over the dilemma of leaving her unpunished and [[WouldntHitAGirl having to kill a woman]]. He then hands her to his {{Dragon}} for a "not too dire, but memorable" punishment. Which to the Dragon, meant [[EyeScream putting out her eye]].
* This is also done in [[ThePunisher 'Welcome Back Frank']], Garth Ennis's opening {{Punisher}} mini-series. Ma Gnucci, after having her arms and legs torn off by a polar bear in the NY Zoo, berates her {{Mooks}} for failing to catch Castle and then orders one of them executed for asking her how she's feeling. The guy she orders to do it protests, so she orders him executed as well. She goes through about three underlings before she finds someone willing to shoot the previous executees.
* One of the better variations on this trope in recent years was the "Tangled Web of SpiderMan" issue(#4), [[http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/reviews/spiderman_tangled_web/004.html "Severance Package"]], in which the Kingpin deals with an underling who botches an illegal arms job.
* In early issues of ''[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', [[BadBoss Robotnik]] often did this to robots who messed up.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

* In a [[CrapsackWorld galaxy full of unpleasant people]], Abaddon the Despoiler of ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' doesn't so much take the cake as nuke the bakery from orbit. He is well known across the galaxy for having an insanely violent temper. A good indicator of this is that any underling would rather commit suicide than deliver him bad news. His wrath isn't reserved for people he meets personally either. Any ship that sufficiently screwed up in his presence during a naval battle would get a WaveMotionGun in the face. This is an ''actual rule'' for Abaddon in the ''BattlefleetGothic'' spin-off game - if one of your ships fails a (re-rolled) command test in his presence, his flagship will open fire on it... and if it's not in firing range, he will abandon that ship, preventing it from being able to use his rerolls for command tests for the rest of the game.
** Particularly ironic considering that he is also known as "Failbaddon" due to the fact that (quoted from GeneralFailure) he's launched ''thirteen'' Black Crusades from the Eye of Terror over a ''ten thousand year period'', with tens of thousands of genetically and daemonically-empowered [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]], countless billions of cultist troops, massive industrial support from daemonic Forge Worlds, and the unending hordes of the daemons of the Warp, while being backed by all four of the primary Chaos Gods, and every last one of them has failed.
*** (Although technically, many of the Black Crusades were victories for Chaos, since their objectives usually aren't something as vague as "destroy the Imperium". But I digress.)
*** He still failed to reach Holy Terra. Only Horus managed to do that (and mortally wound the emperor).
** Within the tabletop game, Imperial Guard squads with an attached Commissar do not fear failing a leadership test -- or rather, they ''do''. A ''lot''. Should the unit try to fall back, the Commissar will immediately execute the squad commander (the person in the squad with the highest leadership score) for failure to discipline his squad, making the squad regroup on the spot, or if there is no one with a leadership score that is superior to the rest of the squad - anyone. The side effect of this is that the squad commander's leadership will ''increase'' while both he and the commissar are alive, because the commander is more motivated to lead by wanting to stay alive.
*** This was played with in the third edition version of the rules, in which the player got to reroll the Leadership test, and if they failed, the rest of the troops would run anyway, taking care to ''kill the Commissar first''. In fact, the Catachan regiments, BadAss Rambo-esque jungle fighters that dislike the trappings of command structure; if they field a Commissar, before the game starts, there's a random chance that he suffers an 'accident' before the battle. The rule itself is called "Oops, sorry sir".
** In the ''DawnOfWar'' computer spinoff, the Commissar unit actually has the first and third phrases as one of his quotes for the "Execute Guardsman" command.
--->'''Commissar''': ''If you will not serve in combat, you will serve '''on the firing line!'''''
** Also in ''DawnOfWar'', if the Chaos stronghold is defeated in the ''Dark Crusade'' campaign, their leader Eliphas finds himself on the receiving end of this courtesy of a Daemon Prince who, perhaps wanting to be thorough, causes Eliphas to explode in a delightfully gory spray of blood.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Averted (amazingly enough) by Darth Malak in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', after a bounty hunter hired by Saul Karath fails to kill the heroes. "The penalty for failure is death, Admiral Karath... but the failure was Calo's, not yours. You may rise."
** On the other hand, Malak's apprentice Darth Bandon [[KickTheDog blasts away a random underling]] just for ''crossing his path''.
* You can do this on ''Game/EvilGenius'' with your minions to completely refill the loyalty, attention and endurance of everyone in the room.
* In ''PerfectDark'', after the first two version of their plan, which attempted to take advantage of Trent Easton's political connections, fail, [[BlondGuysAreEvil Mr. Blonde]] reveals his alien nature and dispatches Easton in a combination of this trope and YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness. When the last, least subtle plan is thwarted as well, the Skedar imprison their other ally [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Cassandra DeVries]] for the same reasons.
* Happens to [[spoiler:Drakuru]] in ''WorldOfWarcraft''. After being decieved and nearly defeated by the player, he summons the Arthas, The Lich King, and explains that you've been double-crossing them. Arthas' response--to say this, kill [[spoiler:Drakuru]], and spare the player.
** Ragnaros in Molten Core quite happily slays Majordomo Executus after he fails to stop the players reaching Ragnaros' lair. Not only that, but he also shouts "You have failed me, Executus!" before the encounter.
** Archimonde apparently has this as policy, as does most of the [[LegionsOfHell Burning Legion]]. Kil'jaeden stands out as being willing to give people a second chance.
* In the first ''MegaManStarForce'', Queen Ophiuca is killed by Gemini Spark shortly after her defeat. Gemini then sends an ominous warning to Megaman that the next lightning bolt will be for him.
* [[SkiesOfArcadia Admiral Alfonso]] attempts to save his own reputation by placing blame on his vice-captain and chucking the poor guy overboard (even if these were regular oceans, with water, all that armor would drown him) for this reason. Refreshingly, [[BigBad Galcian]] sees right through it thanks to Alfonso's own men filing a full - and ''accurate'' - report prior to the meeting.
* In the {{Zelda}} game Ocarina Of Time, the fake Ganondorf is punished by the real Ganondorf for pretty much exactly this reason.
* In ''TeamFortress2'', the price of being informed by the [[TheVoice Announcer]] that "You failed!" is having your weapons removed, your opponents getting guaranteed critical hits, and being pulled into third person to watch your character cower and flee with their hands in the air. It's not called "Humiliation" for nothing.
* ''{{Tenchu}}'' 2. Suzaku kills Yukihotaru after she loses to Rikimaru.
* [[DevilMayCry Devil May Cry ]] has this, minus three words, after [[spoiler: the final fight with Griffon]], where Mundus appears in the sky as an ominous three points of light, declares '''"[[spoiler: Griffon]], you have failed me. You are no longer worthy"''' And [[AgonyBeam Agony Beams]] [[spoiler: Griffon]] to death while it begs for mercy.
* In ''FinalFantasyV'', the BraggartBoss Gilgamesh gets banished into the Void by his boss Exdeath for being a one-man GoldfishPoopGang. This is actually an effective KickTheDog moment, because Gilgamesh is, while not sympathetic, ''really funny''.

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[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Parodied in ''[[EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'', where Kary kills her minions for no reason at all, thinking that it's [[ContractualGenreBlindness something villains just "do"]].
* Captain Kinesis is very efficient at this trope in [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Archive/index.php?date=070330 this Bob and George strip]].
* [[http://antiheroforhire.com/d/20071026.html This]] ''AntiheroForHire'' strip. To the Wizard's defense, he is genuinely insane and the BigBad [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corporation]] made him so.
* Parodied and lampshaded in [[http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=266 this strip]] of ''The B-Movie Comic'', titled "What henchmen are good for". See also the [[TheRant rant]] quotation titled "What henchman are good for" in the intro of this page, above.
* In ''{{Concerned}}'', Dr. Breen (in here made a CardCarryingVillain) tends to try and pull off a faux Force Chokehold when he's angry at someone, wishing for his minions to at least play along.
* Khrima, from ''{{Adventurers}}!'', [[MinionWithAnFInEvil doesn't normally do this]], but [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0057.html this particular minion really had it coming.]]
* Subverted in TheWotch. This villain prefers [[http://www.thewotch.com/index.php?epDate=2003-03-20 minions with initiative]].
* In ''SluggyFreelance'' Lord Horribus kills a couple of demons for not doing their part in the hunt for Torg. It's actually somewhat more understandable in this case, since it was less a case of the demons ''failing'' to capture Torg and more that they hadn't even been ''trying''.
* Slightly subverted at the end of the latest ''OrderOfTheStick'' story arc, where O-Chul cuts out Redcloak's eye and with help of Vaarsuvius manages to get rid of Xykon's phylactery. Enraged, Xykon forbids Redcloak from ever magically regenerating the lost eye, as a reminder of his failure.

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[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In ''SurvivalOfTheFittest'', after Monique St.Claire spent the duration of a fight at the small cottage hiding from the opponents and her group, Melina Frost killed her for cowardice and being useless.
-->"''That’s what happens when you become a hindrance, Renee. So keep yourself out of that horrid category.''"
* In ''[[DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'', Dr. Horrible is told that not only does he need to commit a murder to enter the Evil League of Evil, due to his previous failures Bad Horse will execute him if he screws this one up. It's put quite catchily, too:
--->'''Cowboys''': There will be blood/It might be yours/So go kill someone/Signed, Bad Horse!
* In ''StarHarborNights'', Webmistress explains she had to resort to this to cover when she accidetally killed a [[Mook]] she had meant to reward with a blissful injection, due to glitchy cybernetics.
* [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Führer Katrina]] of ''OpenBlue'', due to her perfectionsist nature, has a tendency to shoot officers who botch missions. And officers who smell like alcohol when she shows up for a surprise inspection.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Phaeton, the BigBad of ''{{Exosquad}}'' had a habit of summarily executing his generals whenever they really screwed up. But since he could easily [[CloningBlues clone them]], he could easily replace them... with themselves.
* In the second episode of the ''DoubleDragon'' cartoon, the Shadow Master kills two underlings (Abobo and Willy) for failing him by trapping them in the Shadow Mural. Particularly annoying, as he never does this to his goons later. Maybe he just realized that if he killed somebody for every failure he'd run out of men fast.
** The only other time he does such a thing is in the Season 2 episode "Shadow Conned", when Countdown revolts against the Shadow Master by freeing the Shadow Khan from his shield. He does so by trapping Countdown in the Khan's shield.
* An early ''{{Birdman}}'' villain in the employ of F.E.A.R., the Ringmaster, seems to be terrified of finding himself on the receiving end of this when he is captured. In "Murro the Marauder", a nameless [[{{Mooks}} mook]] gets the TrapDoor treatment after being thwarted by Birdman in his attempt to steal a secret formula.
* In ''TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma does something even worse than killing her lackey Kronk: she [[BerserkButton insults his spinach-puff recipe]].
* ''BatmanBeyond: Return of the Joker'': One of the Jokerz [[GenreBlindness mouths off to the Joker]] for not telling them his plan after they fail a heist...
-->'''Mook:''' *Finishing his rant* I want out!\\
'''The Joker:''' *Pulls a gun* If you insist...\\
'''Mook:''' Take... Take it easy, man -- I was just kidding!\\
*Joker pulls the trigger, the gun fires -- [[SubvertedTrope producing a 'BANG!' flag]]*\\
'''The Joker:''' So was I.\\
*Mook relaxes -- [[DoubleSubversion Joker pulls the trigger again, firing the flag into the mook and impaling him]]*\\
'''The Joker:''' Ooops... ''No I wasn't''.
* Phobos, the season one BigBad of ''{{WITCH}}'', punished his {{Mooks}} heavily for failure, to the point where by the end of the season, one of them [[spoiler:[[MookFaceTurn defected to the side of the heroes]] after they found him injured following a battle, knowing full well what Phobos did to those soldiers he discovered had been wounded]]. He even ''took a break from the FinalBattle'' to punish his right-hand GiantMook Cedric, transforming him from a giant snake monster into a tiny, pathetic one. This would later come back to bite Phobos in the ass in season two, after [[spoiler:he regains his power and gives Cedric one more shot. Cedric returns the favor by stealing all of Phobos' power by ''eating Phobos alive'' during the penultimate episode]].
* Prime Evil, the BigBad of ''{{Filmation}}'s Ghostbusters'', was quite fond of saying this to his ghostly minions, often exacting some kind of "humorous" punishment on them. (Example: Fangster, a werewolf ghost, gets inflicted with vampire fleas.)
* Black Mask from ''TheBatman'' killed his NumberOne and told a random Mook [[MookPromotion "You! You're my new Number One."]] The first just because he was pissed and he shot, the second questioned anti-gravity spray working and was made a test subject.
* In the movie of ''KimPossible'' Drakken used this to his employee Shego after she failed the mission. Subverted by the fact that Shego responded with ''Why are you all, "You have failed me for the last time!" Are you kidding me with that?'' and explained that this mission would be the one successful mission.
** In another episode, [=WorldWide=] Evil head Gemini tells one of his underlings: "You have failed me for the last time." The underlings response? "Um, I just started last Thursday, so I haven't actually failed you bef--" Gemini cuts him off with "Silence!" then sends him down a trapdoor anyway.
* Subverted in ''Cat City''. After each failure, Mr. Teufel, {{The Dragon}}, invites his semi-competent secretary "for a few words". The latter survives, but appears in ever-increasing number of bandages.
* [[{{BigBad}} Lord Nebula]] of ''Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys'' uses the phrase constantly to terrorize his toady Rhesus-2 (along with a few hard knocks). It's not an idle threat because his predecessor, Rhesus-1, was threatened constantly as well; he was eventually shot with a death ray and reduced to a ribcage in a pile of red goo.
* Robotnik does this to a Swatbot in the ''SatAMSonicTheHedgehog'' episode "Hooked On Sonics."

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[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Admiral [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng John Byng]] had failed England at the Battle of Minorca.
** "Sometimes it is necessary to execute one admiral to encourage the others." Since Voltaire said it, you may come across the phrase ''"pour encourager les autres"''.
** It can be argued that it actually ''worked'': the Seven Years War marked the rise of England as the major naval power in Europe, mostly due to the freshly 'motivated' attitude of the RN.
* To probably no one's surprise at all, Hitler pulled this one out of the cartoonishly evil playbook. As the remnants of the Sixth Army were dying at Stalingrad, with no hope of escape or rescue, he promoted their commander, General Paulus, to Field Marshal. Because no German Field Marshal had ever surrendered, it was obvious to everyone that this was a subtle order for Paulus to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] for his failure to win the battle. Subverting the trope, he didn't.
* Stalin executed many high-ranking officers who lost to significantly smaller number of Finnish soldiers during the Winter War. Since "failing Stalin (for the last time)" is not a charge that can be formally brought at a court martial, one general's official offense was losing twelve battlefield kitchens to the enemy.
** As field kitchens were crucial for winter warfare, this isn't quite as silly as it sounds.
** Of course Stalin had also executed many high-ranking officers ''before'' the war started, because he was pathologically afraid of them turning against him. Which was part of why the Russian military failed so miserably durring the Winter War, they had almost no veteran tactitions left.
* After [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Tao General Zhu Tao]] of the Tang Dynasty rushed into battle against two of his rivals and was soundly defeated, he executed two advisers who had advocated attacking immediately instead of allowing his soldiers to rest for a few days.
** Execution for failure was pretty much the standard in Ancient China. Part of why Cao Cao succeeded against Yuan Shao was that the latter kept executing capable generals for failures or for giving advice he didn't want to hear. Even Zhuge Liang (yeah, [[RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms that one]]) executed one of his most brilliant generals when said general failed a crucial battle. According to the book, at least, it was because the general failed to take important tactical advice into consideration and Zhuge Liang was reluctant to do it because he considered the other man to be like a son to him.
** Even earlier, a Han general was captured by the Mongols, and landed his family in hot water for ''not'' committing suicide. The furious emperor had his family executed and had the one guy (surnamed Sima, incidentally) who spoke up for him thrown in prison.
*[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army) Cowardly Roman soldiers]] were punished by being divided into groups of ten and drawing lots, whereupon the unfortunate soldier in each group would be beaten to death by his comrades.
**This practice is at the origin of the word "decimated" - kill one out of ten
* During the French Revolution, and more specifically during the Revolutionary Wars, generals who failed were executed. This is explained by the fact that i. only traitors could fail considering French "élan vital" couldn't be bet (according to the Convention) ii. most if not all generals were generals during the monarchy, and henceforth considered as traitors, except if they proved otherwise by actually winning.
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