Moments where a character warns an individual that if they kill the murderer, they will be just like him/her in Video Games.
- Baldur's Gate III pairs this with The Chain of Harm in Token Evil Teammate Astarion's personal quest, although it's less about killing his tormentor and rather how he's killed. Astarion's vampire master Cazador horrifically abused him and treated him as a slave, with Astarion seeking revenge as a result. In the second act, Astarion learns that Cazador plans to use him and his fellow vampire spawn in a Targeted Human Sacrifice to become more powerful in a Deal with the Devil, and plans to turn the tables on him. If the Player Character allows Astarion to go through with it and sacrifice Cazador and the other vampires, he immediately becomes Drunk on the Dark Side and becomes a power-hungry sadist no different than his master was. If talked out of it, he instead has a Heel–Face Turn after stabbing Cazador to death.
- Said by Green Lantern verbatim in Injustice: Gods Among Us when Batman comments on using a Kryptonite weapon to fight that dimension's Superman, who has completely gone off the deep end into villainy. However, Batman comments that it will just incapacitate him.
- In Splinter Cell: Conviction, the final boss gives you a choice to either kill him or spare him, either of which nets you an achievement. In the twist ending, if you spare him, Grim kills him instead, which is later revealed to be the canon ending.
- In Saints Row 2, the boss gives you this choice but the player kills him mid-sentence instead.
- The 360 game Ninety-Nine Nights has the two main characters in different play throughs in the same situation where they get a chance to kill the main villain. The noble Aspharr spares the goblin king and is bathed in holy light for his mercy. The vengeance driven Inphyy kills him and the holy powers she had been using the entire game reverse on her making her the new villain. The game also features the second corollary of this trope in that in the course of sparing this guy you killed thousands of his soldiers, his priests and various commanders (Not to mention kings of other races) with no such karmic backlash.
- Nintendo Wars:
- Advance Wars: Dual Strike features Von Bolt - an old man using technology to sucking the life force from the land in order to extend his own life - saying this to Jake in his Not So Different speech during the game's ending; if Jake shoots him, they'll both be guilty of the same thing: killing others to save themselves. The game then lets the player decide. If you say yes, Jake destroys the MacGuffin Von Bolt uses to drain the land's life force and dooms him to die of old age; if you refuse, Hawke shoots Von Bolt.
- Invoked in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Lin (good girl who frequently has Anti-Hero tendencies) is about to kill Greyfield/Sigismundo (evil megalomaniac who borders on A God Am I in his insanity), when he tries to pull off a speech like this trope, saying she'll be just like him if she kills him. However, unlike other examples, this isn't portrayed as a real moral dilemma so much as just Greyfield/Sigismundo's cowardly attempt to save his own life. Lin considers his argument, admits he's completely correct, then kills him anyway. His death is karmic in the sense that he had tried to make himself a prisoner of war so he wouldn't be shot, when he himself had murdered a prisoner of war against the wishes of Captain Brenner/O'Brian, causing the good guys to rebel against him in the first place.
- This was the whole plot behind Guile's ending in Street Fighter II. He wants to kill Bison to avenge his friend Charlie's death, then his daughter Amy and his wife Jane dissuade him. Note that Jane was more concerned about Guile killing Bison in cold blood than asking him to come back home, until Amy chimes in and says that they both want him to return. In the rewritten ending in Turbo HD Remix, Guile comes to this realization himself rather than necessitating his family's intervention; Jane and Amy only show up later, while Guile is at Charlie's grave, and they both beg him to return to them. Before that, Bison goaded the soldier to kill the dictator to fulfill the former's quest for revenge.
- BROK the InvestiGator: This is what will net the player either the Slumer, Canon, or Fall ending. After The Reveal and the climactic battle with the Big Bad, the Squealer Chief appears and wounds Graff, prompting Brok to beat the ever-loving shit out of him. The Squealer Chief will goad Brok into showing his true colors and killing him, despite all of Brok's allies protesting him not to do so. If you spent most of the game being selfless and helping all the side characters, Brok spares the Chief (begrudgingly so) and you'll get the Slumer or Canon ending (depending on your relationship status with Graff). However, if you spent the whole game abusing everyone, ignoring their pleas for help, or even indirectly getting some of the characters killed due to your recklessness, then Brok will break the Squealer Chief's neck. This will net you the Fall ending, where Graff becomes so horrified over what Brok did that they get into an argument which ends with Brok unintentionally beating Graff to death.
- Star Wars:
- The Force Unleashed light side ending. Galen Marek (formerly Starkiller) rescues the leaders of the newly founded Rebel Alliance, defeating both Darths Vader and Sidious in the process. He's stopped from finishing Palpatine off by his mentor, Jedi Master Kota, who tells him that doing so will cause him to fall to The Dark Side. Despite the fact that said Jedi is a leader of The Alliance whose very purpose is to KILL THE EMPEROR. They'll just get him next time when they're feeling less angry, I guess?
- The sequel has a better-justified example. The same Jedi as before prevents the player character from summarily executing Darth Vader, not on any flimsy Jedi grounds, but so the Rebel Alliance can make a political example of him and then execute him, thus distancing the Alliance from the Empire's rule of tyranny. The final scenes (and film canon) indicate this still wasn't a great idea, but it is a logical plan.
- Knights of the Old Republic for Juhani and Carth's quests. Xor is a disgusting slaver who cheerfully took part in the Cathar genocide, killed Juhani's father, and tried to buy Juhani herself as a Sex Slave. Saul Karath was Carth's former commanding officer who betrayed the Republic and carpet-bombed Carth's homeworld. After defeating them, you can encourage them to "finish the job," or invoke the trope.
- Subverted by Kreia/Darth Traya in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. She advises the Player Character against killing the Jedi Masters that exiled them but not on any moral grounds, explaining that it's more rewarding to make your enemy see your way of thinking rather than kill them outright. If a Dark Side player kills any of the Masters, she will say You Have Failed Me before turning on them near the end of the game for ruining their chance to show them the flaws in the Jedi Code and failing to learn from Nihilus and Sion's mistakes. Being The Chessmaster, she looks down on brute force and encourages the player to use subtlety and manipulation in their dealings with others.
- Subverted at the end of Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II after the final battle between Kyle Katarn and Jerec. Jerec taunts Kyle, "Strike me down and the power of the Dark Side will be yours! I'm sure you haven't forgotten, I was the one who murdered your father." Kyle replies that he hasn't forgotten, pulls Jerec's lightsaber into his hand, and then tosses it where Jerec can easily reach it. Jerec takes it up, screams, and makes a final desperate lunge, where Kyle easily cuts him down.
- The Force Unleashed light side ending. Galen Marek (formerly Starkiller) rescues the leaders of the newly founded Rebel Alliance, defeating both Darths Vader and Sidious in the process. He's stopped from finishing Palpatine off by his mentor, Jedi Master Kota, who tells him that doing so will cause him to fall to The Dark Side. Despite the fact that said Jedi is a leader of The Alliance whose very purpose is to KILL THE EMPEROR. They'll just get him next time when they're feeling less angry, I guess?
- Discussed in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, when Marta fatally cuts down a villain trying to kill Emil she starts to break down thinking she's just like they are. Emil reassures her with the distinction that the villain attacked out of rage while she did it to defend a loved one.
- Commander Shepard of Mass Effect can address this subject on several occasions:
- In Mass Effect, after helping resident Cowboy Cop Garrus Vakarian track down a Mad Doctor who'd previously escaped justice, Shepard can either encourage Garrus to just shoot him, or persuade him to arrest the doctor and bring him in to stand trial. If the player opts for the latter, he tries to attack, forcing them to gun him down. When Garrus points out the futility of trying to arrest him, when he just ended up dead anyway, Paragon Shepard reasons that while they can't always predict other people's actions, that doesn't mean they should stoop to the same level.
- In Mass Effect 2 s/he can use this again, twice, during Garrus' loyalty mission, first by preventing him from killing a Dirty Cop. Played with in this instance, as Garrus still decks him. ("I didn't shoot him.") Later, Paragon Shepard can interpose him/herself between Garrus' rifle and the man who betrayed his team to their deaths. If Shep keeps this up, it turns out the target is already near his breaking point from remorse and will turn himself in afterwards.
- Shepard says the same thing if he prevents Mordin from killing Maelon, and to Jack regarding Aresh (adding You Are Better Than You Think You Are in with the latter).
- In another instance, Shepard confronts a soldier at the end of a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Mad Scientists who used him as an unwilling test subject, and again has to choose between encouraging him to finish the job or persuading him to let the law handle it. In this case, Shepard has the third option of "let me kill him, because I can get away with it legally and you can't."
- In Mass Effect, after helping resident Cowboy Cop Garrus Vakarian track down a Mad Doctor who'd previously escaped justice, Shepard can either encourage Garrus to just shoot him, or persuade him to arrest the doctor and bring him in to stand trial. If the player opts for the latter, he tries to attack, forcing them to gun him down. When Garrus points out the futility of trying to arrest him, when he just ended up dead anyway, Paragon Shepard reasons that while they can't always predict other people's actions, that doesn't mean they should stoop to the same level.
- If you don't bring the seaplane parts back to Christine and Jade in Imprisoned, your character has one of these moments after killing Kyle, and lets himself die in the lab explosion.
- Warcraft:
- In Warcraft III, Uther the Lightbringer warns Arthas that "vengeance cannot be part of what we must do. If we allow our passions to turn to bloodlust, then we will become as vile as the Orcs". This is proved right as Arthas becomes obsessed with destroying Mal'ganis and upon defeating him with Frostmourne, becomes the commander of the Undead Scourge, who ironically replace the orcs as the antagonists of the series.
- In Tides of War, Jaina temporarily becomes racist and almost wipes out Orgrimmar. Kalec and Thrall point out that if she does this, she'll be no better than Arthas (in fact, given that Arthas was acting out of a misguided sense of compassion, she'd be worse.) Fortunately, it gets through to her, and she calms down to the point where she's still mad, but no longer racist.
- In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Darion Mograine suggests using the Scourge's own tactics against them to Tirion Fordring. Tirion (correctly) states that doing so would make them no better than the enemy they are facing. Darion scoffs at this and says something along the lines of "then you've lost already". Turns out that Tirion was right, in the end, though.
- A minor villain in Battle For Azeroth, Grozztok the Blackheart, tries to invoke this when you kill him, claiming that you are no better than he is for killing him. Given that he not only attacks you first but is trying to unleash an Eldritch Abomination upon the world, it's a fairly ridiculous claim.
- In Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, William tries to prevent Ray from killing an unarmed bad guy with this and the story of Jesus forgiving one of the murderers crucified alongside him. Ray's reaction? "The Lord forgave him... a cold-blooded murderer? Well, that's good to know." Then he shoots the baddie dead.
- Shin Megami Tensei:
- In Persona 3 when Ken tries to kill Shinjiro as revenge for Shinjiro accidentally killing Ken's mother. The response is along the lines of "If you kill me, you will be just like me", though he's more referring to the guilt Ken would feel from killing than the crime he would have committed. Of course, Shinjiro is still fully prepared to die. Not that it matters because Ken plans on killing himself after doing the deed as his finding his mother's killer was the only thing keeping him alive, which Shinjiro immediately protests when he finds out. However, Strega interferes and it goes downhill from there.
- Persona 5: The protagonist Ren and Ryuji initially bring this up as their reason for not Heel–Face Brainwashing the school's physically abusive PE teacher Suguru Kamoshida. If the process goes wrong, the teacher could die, which would make the heroes far worse than even a monster like Kamoshida. And then Kamoshida gleefully crosses the Moral Event Horizon, leaving Ren and Ryuji with much fewer qualms about dealing with him. This comes up again in the sequel Persona 5 Strikers when the team's Virtual Sidekick questions Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? regarding the new Starter Villain, with Ryuji responding that it'd make them no different than the bad guys.
- Also played straight in Devil Survivor with Keisuke when the party tells him that by letting Yama kill people considered "evil", he's just guilty as them.
- Used rather cleverly in Diablo: killing its human host doesn't affect Diablo at all, so the hero tries to imprison the Lord of Terror in his own body. It doesn't work, and by the end of the second game he literally becomes Diablo.
- Attempted by the preacher in GUN as he's pleading for his life, but subverted by Colton White in a Talk to the Fist moment.
- Used in Oni: at the end of the penultimate mission, Konoko is given the choice of killing or sparing Griffin, with this trope hinted at.
- In RosenkreuzStilette, after defeating Iris and reminding her afterwards that the reason she won was because everyone was cheering her on and the reason Iris lost was because couldn't believe in others nor love her fellow man, Tia tells her to give up. Since Tia is a good-natured girl, this possibly implies that Tia refuses to kill Iris because she doesn't want to be a murderer just like her. Deconstructed, however, as Iris doesn't get the clue and attempts to destroy the castle in which they're fighting. In the sequel, Iris concocts another mischief that involves kidnapping Tia and then mind-controlling her. Then, the trope is eventually subverted: Tia's best friend, Freudia, takes up the protagonist role to rescue Tia, and, when faced with the same situation with Tia, shows no mercy by freezing Iris for eternity and tossing her to some place unknown, subjecting her to a Fate Worse than Death, as she will be unable to do anything for eternity except stay put in the ice prison.
- Fallout: New Vegas:
- In the DLC "Honest Hearts", siding with Joshua Graham and his quest to destroy the White Legs tribe (the villains) will end with him about to execute Salt-Upon-Wounds, the war chief of the White Legs and a man who's committed countless atrocities. You can then stop him with this argument. Interestingly, after you've talked Joshua down, you can kill Salt-Upon-Wounds yourself.
- Going with Graham and then convincing him to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds' life is essentially the closest to the Golden Ending that you can get with the DLC (although being a Crapsack World there really aren't any true Golden Endings). The Sorrows lose their innocence, but at the same time they realize that they can be strong without being like the White Legs. At the same time, this ending is the only one in which Graham finds a measure of peace in his life for the first time since his days in the Legion. However, you can also request that Graham simply fight Salt-Upon-Wounds in a "fair" fight and at least let him die on his feet, which results in Graham's personal demons being at the least sated.
- Oddly, when you find Joshua Graham holding Salt-Upon-Wounds hostage, Joshua immediately executes two kneeling, unarmed White Leg prisoners before asking you what Salt-Upon-Wounds' fate should be. Neither your character nor Joshua brings this up during the discussion.
- During Rose Of Sharron Cassidy's (Cass) companion quest, you can invoke this after it is revealed that Alice McLafferty's of the Crimson Caravan and Gloria Van Graff have been working together to annihilate smaller caravan companies, like Cass's. After finding out about this, Cass will immediately decide to bring them to justice by means of the end of her shotgun, but you can convince her that it would be better to find evidence of their crimes and turn them into NCR authorities, which will take far longer to get results, but will could damage both parties more in the long run and allow the both of you to walk out with clean hands.
- In the DLC "Honest Hearts", siding with Joshua Graham and his quest to destroy the White Legs tribe (the villains) will end with him about to execute Salt-Upon-Wounds, the war chief of the White Legs and a man who's committed countless atrocities. You can then stop him with this argument. Interestingly, after you've talked Joshua down, you can kill Salt-Upon-Wounds yourself.
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 has Noel Kreiss, who is constantly struggling with this when it comes to the villain Caius Ballad, who wants Noel to kill him. "Noel, born at the end of days. You understand the true meaning of life. But know this: you will kill me, Noel."
- In the confrontation with Nobumasa in Yo-Jin-Bo, Nobumasa is quick to declare Ittosai as a killer Not So Different from himself. As a result, while all of the other guys end up killing Nobumasa in self-defense, Sayori urges Ittosai to refrain lest he prove Nobumasa right, and The Cavalry does the honors instead just in the nick of time to keep Nobumasa from skewering both of them.
- At the end of your first Neutral run in Undertale, you have the option to kill Flowey, who, aside from being the most vicious antagonist thus far, has told you at every encounter that "in this world, it's kill or be killed". Their last words if you do? "I knew you had it in you."
- At the end of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Lazarevic tries to goad Drake into finishing him off in order to prove they're not so different. Drake refuses... but only so he can let the Guardians of Shambhala tear Lazarevic limb from limb instead.
- In Ikemen Sengoku, Masamune's route has the modern-day main character struggle with the reality that she may have to kill to protect herself and the people she loves in the war-torn Sengoku period she accidentally time-traveled to. Even after she learns how to use a rifle for self-defense, she can't bring herself to shoot an enemy poisoner because she fears what she may become if she kills another human being — and it's implied later on in Masamune's route that if she had given up her idealistic convictions and learned how to pull the trigger, she could have gone down the same dark path as Kennyo, a once-gentle soul who became consumed by the same hatred and violence he detested.
- A variant can happen during Shadowrun Returns: Hong Kong. Gaichû's personal quest sees him try to kill his former squad of Red Samurai who have been hunting him from Japan ever since he became a ghoul. Should you succeed, Gaichû, still angry at the Red Samurai being so mired in Fantastic Racism that they refused to see how he could still be worthy of them, ghoul or no, attempts to ghoulify his former squad leader Ishida as a form of revenge. The Player Character can let this happen or point out that he's taking it too far for no benefit. In the latter case, Gaichû will realize he's being led by the same blind anger and superiority complex that made the Red Samurai hunt him in the first place, and instead severs his ties to the past by killing Ishida cleanly.
- Disney's Villains' Revenge: If you try to poison Queen Grimhilde by adding a poison apple to her ageing potion, the Blue Fairy will reprimand you, stating "If you use the poison on the queen, you're the one being wicked and mean. Just save Snow White and her seven friends. That is the way to the happy end. Remember, let your conscience be your guide."
- In Middle-earth: Shadow of War:
- Shelob repeatedly insists that Celebrimbor taking down Sauron will simply replace one overlord with another, and for this reason is very reluctant to return The New Ring to the protagonists.
- Celebrimbor himself scoffs at the idea on the basis that his ring is "pure", and thus wouldn't allow Sauron to control him like the Nazgul rings did to their wielders. However as the game goes on, his rallying speeches shift from deposing Sauron to Dominating him, proving that the prophetic spider was entirely correct.
- Talion eventually clues in on this and refuses to follow Celebrimbor's lead. Unfortunately that leaves him for dead and forces to pick up a Nazgul ring to try and keep the fight against the Dark Lord.
- In Eltariel's DLC, she is entirely aware of this threat, and while she wields the Ring's power of immortality, she refuses to brainwash any orc, instead earning their allegiance by helping them out.
