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Don't Make Me Destroy You
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"There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you. [pauses] Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."
Two characters conflict and one is more powerful/more advantageously positioned then the other. This powerful character wants to avoid a fight and so warns the other party against provoking a decsive clash because they will lose. This could be for any number of reasons:
For whatever reason, the powerful character is hoping not to have to fight. Can be used by heroes, anti-heroes, and villains.
Not to be confused with Why Did You Make Me Hit You? which is where the powerful character blames the victim for provoking a one-sided abuse. Compare You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry which covers most situations where a powerful character is trying to deter an attack.
Examples:
Anime
- In Bleach, Captain Kyoraku, one of the oldest captains, on two occasions,
- In the Soul Society arc he encounters a hopelessly inexperienced and outmatched Chad. He doesn't exactly beg for him not to attack, but makes an extensive attempt at parley, clearly for no reason other than the fact he didn't want to hurt him.
- During the Fake karakura Town arc, he (along with Stark) tries to make the point that a duel between such powerful men would be needlessly destructive (When pushed, he goes to the fucking wall). Jushiro Ukitake simultaneously has one of these moments with the fraccion, Lilynette.
- For a True Companion example, One Piece has Luffy saying this to Usopp before their fight.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, when Al makes Ed stop trying to beat Tucker to death, and Tucker continues to goad him on. Al tells him that if he doesn't shut up, HE'LL be the one beating Tucker. Al is made of nothing but steel like armor at this point, so if he starts beating you, it will hurt a lot more than if Ed gets a shot at you.
- In "Fullmetal vs. Flame" Col. Mustang has a flashback to Ishval, in a situation with a young soldier he caught off guard, but hesitates to kill. Both Mustang and the boy know that if the kid so much as raises his rifle, Mustang will kill him. The kid does anyway.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Gohan begs Cell to give up his plans and surrender peacefully, because Gohan knows that if he should enter his Unstoppable Rage mode, he'd utterly annihilate Cell, and he doesn't wish that on anyone, not even a monster like Cell. Cell, however, decides that he wants to see this fantastic power for himself. He gets his wish, and it does not end well for him.
- Not to mention how many chances his father, Goku, gave Frieza to not be destroyed.
- Holyland: Masaki says this to King in chapter 140. Obviously, the villain does not listen.
Comic Books
- In the Matt Fraction Defenders, the Silver Surfer begs a tiger-headed man to release him, saying "Don't make me do this." The attacker doesn't relent, and the Surfer renders him into atoms.
Film
- Star Wars:
- Run Leia Run (Star Wars spoof animation)
Darth Vader: Bring me my shuttle.
Stormtrooper: Sir, that line's been changed to "Alert the Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival."
Darth Vader: Don't make me destroy you.
- Spies Like Us. The two title spies are undergoing harsh training and ask to quit.
Colonel Rhumbus: Boys, it would be a shame to have to kill you now.
- Dragonheart:
Draco: I don't want to kill you; I never did! And I don't want you to kill me! [Bowen looks at Draco] How do we gain? If you win, you lose a trade. If I win, I wait around for the next sword slinger thirsting to carve a reputation out of my hide. And I'm tired of lurking in holes and skulking in darkness. I'm gonna let you up now, and if you insist, we can pursue this fracas to its final stupidity... or... you can listen to my alternative.
- Lilo & Stitch:
Jumba: Don't make me shoot you. You were expensive.
- During Kyuuzou's early duel scene in The Seven Samurai it's mentioned by a spectator that Kyuuzou asked his challenger not to duel him, because he would certainly be killed. Single Stroke Battle ensues and Kyuuzou is notably saddened by the outcome.
- Pay attention during the practice duel. Kyuuzou clearly landed a killing blow (if they weren't wielding bamboo shoots).
- In the Line of Fire - would-be assassin Mitch Leary is toying with Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan. He doesn't actually want to harm Frank, though, unless he actually gets in the way of his plan.
- In The Prince Of Egypt, right before the plague of the firstborn Moses is begging his brother Ramses not to let things continue, all while staring at Ramses's son. Ramses refuses, which upsets Moses. In the end, Ramses son dies.
- The second half of 2010's B-movie Half Moon consists largely of the werewolf, Jacob, cuffed to a chair, held at gunpoint by the prostitute, Rose. She's trying to convince him to give her the combination to his safe so she can take the money to appease her pimp, while he's trying to convince her to leave with the money he's already given her (he needs the rest to pay for anti-lycanthropy treatments) before he transforms and kills them.
Literature
- Geralt warns a Snow White Ex Py that this will happen when they fight. Though to be fair, his fighting style provides few non-lethal tools for dealing with dangerous opponents.
- Honor Harrington, during peace talks after decade-long wars:
"Speaking for myself, as an individual, and not for my Star Empire or my Queen, I implore you to accept Her Majesty's proposal. I've killed too many of your people over the last twenty T-years, and your people have killed too many of mine. Don't make me kill any more, Madame President. Please."
- Heroic examples occur several times during the X-Wing Series, when before or during a fight someone - usually Wedge Antilles - will announce his rank, his name, and his affiliation, and then offer the enemy the chance to either surrender or, sometimes, cease fighting and escape. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't he and his forces invariably annihilate the enemy forces, though not always without casualties.
Live-Action TV
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Riker, to his new girlfriend Yuta, who turned out to be a villain (the misguided type).
- From Battlestar Galactica, when Kara and Sam reunite after New Caprica:
Kara: [to Sam] I'm in a different place now. I... I, I don't know how else to explain it to you, but I got out of that cell and it's like someone painted the world in different colors. And I look at you and I want to tear your eyes out just for looking at me. I just want to hurt someone and it might as well be you. So you should probably go before that happens.
- From JAG, when Admiral Chegwidden, a former Navy SEAL, gets into a scrape with a Italian mafioso:
Admiral: Signor Amati, many people have tried to kill me one time or another. They're mostly dead. So there's a good chance that your brother-in-law will join them if he does come after me.... Does he have other sons?
Enrico Amati: Uno.
Admiral: When he comes, I'll regrettably kill him too. And after him?
Enrico Amati: My sister will expect me to uphold the honor of mi familia.
Admiral: Then I'll have to kill you. I don't want to have to do that.
Enrico Amati: [in Italian] You're either a very bold man, or crazy!
Admiral: [In Italian] Not crazy. Practical.
- Willow says this to Xander at the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6, when he stops her from destroying the world.
- The Tenth Doctor on Doctor Who. All the time. Other incarnations as well, but for Ten this was almost a catch phrase.
- In The Sarah Jane Adventures we see that this behavior tends to rub off on companions.
- The Eleventh Doctor gets in on this, too.
Eleven: You gave me hope and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God only knows what it will do to me. Basically, RUN!!!
and
Eleven: Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.
- Mal does this while dressed as a woman in Firefly:
- Babylon 5: Commonly heard from human commanders: "Surrender or be destroyed." Sheridan, being a goody two-shoes, instructs his crew to target the engines and weapons systems.
Sheridan: We're trying to disable them, not destroy them.
- In Supernatural, Lucifer begs Gabriel, his beloved younger brother, not to stand against him, and says this trope nearly word for word. Gabriel retorts that "No one makes us do anything", a criticism of Lucifer's tendency to blame others for his own actions, and attacks him. It doesn't work out well for Gabriel.
- Happens repeatedly when ''Merlin is cornered. He doesn't want to kill people with his magic (and he usually has to kill them to prevent his secret getting out) so he tries to warn them off in advance. Sadly, it never works.
Real Life
Video Games
- Subverted in Halo 2:
Sergeant Johnson: [while he is fighting the Covenant] I don't want to kill you, it's just that you're too ugly to let live!
- Used word-for-word by Artanis towards Aldaris in Starcraft: Brood Wars during the penultimate Protoss mission.
- Implied towards Shepard by Harbinger in Mass Effect 2.
Harbinger: If I must tear you apart Shepard, I will.
- If you ask the Orz what happened to the Androsynth in Star Control 2, they warn you that they will kill you if you insist on asking that, and thus ask you not to do so. Keep it up and they'll show that they aren't bluffing.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "The Lair of General Grievous":
Nahdar Vebb: [to Grievous] Don't make me destroy you!
- Part of Mojo Jojo's We Can Rule Together speech from The Powerpuff Girls Movie ("We are kindred spirits whose powers spring from the same source, so, girls, do not make me destroy you!"), resulting in a very painful Shut Up, Hannibal!.
- In The Simpsons, included in Homer's advice to Lisa:
Lisa: What do you say to a boy to let him know you're not interested?
Marge Simpson: Well, honey, I...
Homer: Let me handle this, Marge. I've heard them all: "I like you as a friend," "I think we should see other people," "I no speak English"...
Lisa: I get the idea.
Homer: "I'm married to the sea," "I don't want to kill you but I will"...
- Gaz on Invader Zim seems to imply this when she has a hard time understanding the stupidity and lameness of Dib.
Gaz: "That was your fate of the world work? Jumping in a puddle? ...You do realize I'm going to have to destroy you now."
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