If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him - Television Tropes & Idioms

Damn it Luke, your parents would not be proud. Wasn't your father happy when you showed him that you weren't going to make his mistakes?

"Robo captain, do you not realise that by destroying the human race because of their destructive tendencies, we too have become like, well it's ironic, because we..."
"Silence! Destroy him!"

—Flight of the Conchords, "The Humans are Dead"

If you take a life, do you know what you give?

Odds are you won't like what it is

—Chris Cornell, "You Know My Name" (opening theme to Casino Royale)

Very traditional line spoken as the hero has the villain in their power. It could be said by the hero, the former Distressed Damsel, or even the villain themselves if they're aware of the rules of the trope. The goal is to evoke a Not So Different moment.

The most common situation involves the villain hanging over a cliff or building, and the hero deciding whether to drop them or lift them up. Usually, this is a difficult choice for the hero because the villain has proven to be a Complete Monster or done them great harm personally. Also common is the villain's attempt to pull the hero over the edge after they decide to let said villain live, resulting in the hero accidentally losing their grip, and the villain getting a Karmic Death that isn't the fault of the hero.

Note, for some reason, this form of heroic morality only counts for the head villains. The hero may have consciously wiped out scores of Evil Minions and Mooks to get to this point, some in deliberate ambushes. None of them count, probably because that was technically in self-defense, and to get in that Dramatic Pause that occurs during instances of this trope, the scene doesn't look much like self-defense. See What Measure Is A Mook for more on this.

Note also that so very very few heroes answer this challenge with a simple 'The difference between me and you is I'm going to kill someone guilty and you've been murdering people who were innocent.' And this makes the trope a Broken Aesop. Unless the story is trying to bust out the Idealism extreme of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism the Villain will most certainly not see the error of his ways after being forgiven, and by allowing him to live because you'll be as bad as him makes you kinda worse than him, as he'll make another world-wide incident where tens of thousands die.

Note that in most cases in which the situation plays out exactly like this that doesn't involve a Karmic Death also involves not bringing the villain to any other form of justice whatsoever. That is, unless the hero personally administers Cruel Mercy, which may in fact be worse than having simply killed them. Or cooler.

Contrast with Kill Him Already. Compare with Save The Villain and Sword Over Head. Anti Heroes are exempt from all four.

The Dog Bites Back and Disney Villain Death may be used to evade the consequences.

See If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him for when the stakes involved in this situation are notably lower.

Examples

Anime and Manga

In Death Note, Ryuk tells Light that if he kills all bad people, then he himself will be the only bad person left. Light deflects this entirely, because his perspective is godawful.
- Light is a GOD! He cannot be bothered by your trivial and narrow-minded views on good and evil!
Suzaku in Code Geass comes within an inch of using drugs to interrogate Kallen. He only stops because his final words to her, "You will follow my orders," is the same thing (or so he rationalizes) as what Lelouch does with Geass. Also, but this may or may not count, V.V. tells Lelouch that he's becoming more and more like the Emperor, who he's out to destroy in the first place.
Saji Crossroad's justification for not pulling the trigger on Setsuna F Seiei in Gundam 00, although it remains to be seen how long he can hold on to his convictions.
- Likewise, in conjunction with Marina's song, Setsuna's unstated justification for not killing Ali. The latter doesn't fight again until the penultimate episode.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, several characters attempt to keep Roy from killing Envy. At least Riza has no qualms about executing him and offers to shoot Envy herself, but they all agree on the detail that subjecting him to horrible torture first is taking it a step too far.
- In the first anime, Ed Elric spends every fight with Scar telling him that the slaughter of alchemists and Amestrian troops isn't the answer, and that he must be brought to justice for those crimes as well as killing Tucker's daughter. Each time, Scar shows Ed more and more horrible deeds he's avenging, which Ed always brushes aside. Eventually, upon confronting Scar in Lior when Scar's about to secretly evacuate the city of civilians, lure in the Amestrian army, and kill all of them to make the Philosopher's Stone, Scar pounds into Ed that Lior was purposely sabotaged by Amestris, Amstrian troops have been brutalizing the city, alchemists are killing civilians in the streets right now, and the girl Ed thought he saved in his previous visit (standing right in front of him, unable to even speak due to mental trauma) was raped and used as a tool to create even more violence, and that all of it was partly Ed's fault. Ed still refuses to condone what Scar is doing, but when Scar orders him to get out of Dodge with the refugees, Ed shuts up and meekly complies.
In the second season finale of Rozen Maiden, Jun utters the line when Shinku was about to kill Barasuishou. Bad move. She uses the chance to defeat Shinku.
In Naruto, after Sasuke pretty much KO's Naruto he refuses to kill him like his brother wanted him to to gain the most powerful Sharingan because he doesn't want to be like his brother.
- The irony about that is that later he did kill his brother, who in truth wasn't what he thought he was, and actually did what he did to prevent a civil war under Konoha's orders. After learning this, he later resolves to destroy Konoha in revenge for his brother's life, becoming the type of person he thought his brother was.
  - Except that he doesn't. He only says he's going to destroy Konoha, but in actual fact he only goes after the one responsible, Danzo. In essence Sasuke's logic is the same as Itachi's for threatening to reveal the secrets of the village, which would have made them completely vulnerable and in all likelihood lead to Konoha's destruction, if they killed Sasuke. The only difference being that they didn't kill Sasuke (though not because they didn't try, as Sai proves) so Itachi never had to carry it out.
The titular character in Ginga Densetsu Weed. So much, especially during the final episode in which Weed has the chance to finally avenge his fallen comrades by killing Hougen once and for all. His father intervenes and is about to kill him when Weed pushes him out of the way, claiming that his father would be no better than Hougen if he'd killed him. There's quite a few examples in this series, suffice to say.
In the Full Metal Panic novels, this is pretty much what Tessa tells Sousuke during the Behemoth arc, when he decides that shooting Takuma would be an effective action to take. "It would be the most logical and secure route, but we can't go about it that way," she said as though trying to convince herself. "If we were to kill him, we would be no better than them. Our organization would lose all meaning." Sousuke is slightly skeptical about this (seeing how Kalinin, his adoptive father whom he was always taking orders from, undoubtedly would have done what he was about to do), but nevertheless follows orders, seeing how he doesn't really care either way. Of course, later on, the fact that she let Takuma live lead to a huge amount of destruction...

Comics

Batman seems to find himself in this predicament fairly often. Seen recently in the Crisis Crossover Infinite Crisis, when he very nearly blows the head off of Lex Luthor's Alternate Universe doppelganger and (of course) relents. 15 years ago, he nearly did the same to Nineties Anti Hero the Reaper, and this happens maybe half the times he goes up against the Joker.
- Subverted at the end of the climactic fight with Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins. The showdown aboard an out-of-control train ends with Ra's beaten and at Batman's mercy. He wonders aloud if Batman has "finally learned to do what is necessary." Bats responds perfectly: "I won't kill you...but I don't have to save you," as he bails out and leaves Ra's to his fate.
  - However, it was upheld a couple of times in The Dark Knight, most notably in the scene where The Joker dares, nay demands, Batman to run him over with his Batcycle, and the ferry sequence — "I'm gonna do what you shoulda done ten minutes ago." But then again, this trope is a significant part of the conflict between Batman and The Joker in The Dark Knight. The Joker actually wants Batman to kill him, specifically to fulfill this trope.
  - In the audioplay of Batman: Knightfall, Dick Grayson (Nightwing), and Tim Drake (Robin), come upon Bruce Wayne just as he has apparently killed the Mook who was attacking him. An outraged Nightwing declares: "killing this creep doesn't make you as bad as the slime we used to fight, it makes you worse." Of course, it turns out Bruce had used a move that makes the victim appear to be dead for a little while..
- In general, this is the basis for Batman's "no killing" philosophy, fearing that if he starts killing the bad guys, he's gonna become just like them.
Subverted in Birds of Prey #73, when Vixen thanks Huntress for "not giving in" and executing evil cult-leader Sovereign Brusaw, to which Huntress replies "Don't thank me....The truth is, my crossbow jammed."
Played straight at the end of Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood, when the Question begs Huntress not to kill Santo Casamento; she does it anyway.
Kremlin references the trope in Ex Machina Special #2 and states how he thinks such is an out of date, fairy tale ideal.
Averted/Played with in AtomicRobo when A now elderly Skorzeny informs him that he was the one that killed Nikola Tesla, Robos creator, during WWII, and he did it to steal the mans inventions to use against Robo, who was at the time serving in the US Army. Robo picks up a gun, aims... and then puts the gun away, informs the Nazi that he knows he's dying of cancer, and that he won't be dying like a soldier, instead dying alone, in a hospital bed, in agony.
Superman's long lived in fear of sliding down this slippery slope, and, in the Silver Age Alternate Continuity story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow", it comes to pass when Superman, in order to save himself, his remaining friends, the world and possibly the entire universe, is forced to deliberately kill the villainous Mr. Mxyzptlk. While everyone else tries to convince him that his decision was clearly justified, he refuses to take the risk, cites this very reasoning as a condemnation of his actions, and so carries out a promise that if he should ever take a life, it would be the end of Superman. As it turns out, he fulfills his promise by stripping himself of his powers and living the rest of his life as an anonymous human, which actually gives him a happy ending after all.
Spider-Man does it oftenly. For example: he uses that argument while arguing with Clint Barton and rest of New Avengers that thinks about killing Norman Osborn, and not so long ago stopped Harry Osborn from killing his old man by saying, that if he'll do it, he will become exactly that kind of man his father always wathet him to be.

Film

The Emperor tries to get Luke to try to kill him in order to corrupt him at the climax of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi; it is not clear whether he was confident that Luke wouldn't actually be able to do so, or was genuinely prepared to die to ensure that the Empire would be in good (that is, evil) hands. (The Expanded Universe comic Dark Empire introduced a third explanation by claiming that he had a near-endless supply of cloned bodies ready for him to transfer his soul into if he were killed. Supposedly the only reason this didn't work is because the Death Star's destruction forced him to travel much further to find a body he could possess, or something like that.)
- I guess he kept them downstairs, inside the Death Star ...
  - Possibly. It is indicated that most of the time he had plenty of warning when he was going to die—it was from his bodies rotting, not his being actively killed by someone, so he would go to where they were stored and switch at that time. Since "Everything is unfolding as I have foreseen", if there was any muddying about whether or not he lived he probably would have kept some clones nearby...which would have themselves gone up when the Death Star blew.
  - Palps appearing just after being killed would definitely have been a hit to Luke's morale. He could have been activating a clone right as the Death Star blew up! Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles had excellent timing.
  - Actually, can't we just discount this whole clone/soul thing as being really stupid?
  - Yes. Yes, we can.
- The obvious explanation is that the Emperor only wanted to provoke Luke into trying to kill him to force him into battle with Vader, so that Luke would kill Vader, fall to the dark side and become Palpatine's new apprentice. This is actually exactly what happened (except for the "kill Vader, fall to the dark side and become Palpatine's new apprentice" part).
  - The Emperor could also have been aiming for an Obi Wan Moment kind of death. Turning Luke to The Dark Side and becoming a Force ghost would've been a brilliant move.
  - Ooooh, Evil Force ghost!
  - The Sith are incapable of becoming Force Ghosts in their evil states. Anikin only becomes a ghost because he was redeemed. Furthermore another EU book reveals that as Palpatine never intended to die, he wasn't given a place of honor at the sacred resting place of the Sith in the afterlife. He either meant to provoke a battle between Luke and Vader, with either killed meaning he had an apprentice and one less worry (especially if Luke was killed as the resistance would have crumbled despite an apparent victory), or he intended to come back with a clone body (as he does anyway) and still rule over the Empire as father and son take up the Sith mantle. However, wouldn't that violate the Rule of Two (factoring in two of his various apprentices have played fast and loose with that rule)? A true master of the Xanatos Gambit as all possible outcomes were still good to him.
  - Going by the Expanded Universe, the Sith had a number of ways of surviving death, even if they couldn't do the Jedi force ghost thing invented by Qui-Gon. Marka Ragnos, for example, appeared millennia after his death as a kind of force ghost that could possess people. The leader of the True Sith apparently was simply immortal. Accepting all the rest of it, it's almost more plausible that Palpatine had come up with at least some way to cheat death as well than that he hadn't.
- In Star Wars, the trope is actually justified (though only for Force users) due to the unique nature of The Force. The Dark Side is highly addictive, and killing in anger, no matter how much the target may deserve to die, is one of the most extreme Dark Side actions a Force user can take. On the other hand, if a Jedi is completely calm, unswayed by anger or fear, they can kill without risk of falling to the Dark Side. Presumably the Emperor thought Luke wasn't strong enough to be capable of killing him without tapping into the Dark Side, otherwise his taunt would've been meaningless.
  - This raises another problem: what happens to completely sociopathic Jedi who kill innocents routinely without emotion?
  - I... have no idea. Though sociopathy and the like is more said to mean you just don't care about other people and opposed to having no emotions... so let's assume sociopaths within Star Wars will still enjoy the killing, which will make them go down into the Dark Side.
  - Sociopaths wouldn't be very good with the Force, considering you have to feel, not think, to use it. The Dark Side is raaaaaaaaaaaaaaage. The Force is life, feeling, warmth, emotion, candy bears, etcetera.
  - There was an Expanded Universe novel where a rather wimpy Jedi encountered two Mandalorians, one of them a perpetually detached sociopath with a beloved evil pet and the other an angry psycho; the psycho was supposed to be more sympathetic, though both of them were on her side. In the narration, she does feel surprise because the sociopath's detachment is what Jedi are supposed to feel.
- The second explanation can be justified, too; in another Expanded Universe book, it's revealed that the Emperor owns a cloak made with Green Rocks spun into it.
- The same comics series that gave us clones of Palpatine also showed us Luke, overwhelmed, deciding that he could switch sides and serve the reborn Emperor, learning more about the Force and getting into position to take down the Emperor, all while secretly staying a good guy. ...He failed. Interestingly, Palps gave him his father's position - as his apprentice and as the Empire's Supreme Commander - and clothes a lot like Vader's◊, though without the life support or the helmet. Luke was even redeemed by his sister following him. And before falling he even survived a battle over Coruscant and landed a gigantic ship with few casualties! Just like him indeed - though honestly, Luke fell as soon as he realized that Palpatine was too strong for him, no Xanatos Gambit needed.
- In issue 8 of the comic series Star Wars: Legacy, Moff Calixte upon being threatened by Emperor Roan Fel, remarks "Striking down an unarmed person in anger? Isn't that what the Sith do? And you abhor the Sith ... your Majesty." Fel lets her live.
- Also brought up in the Expanded Universe novel The Bacta War, by Michael A. Stackpole. Fliry Vorru, a criminal mastermind who had been picked up off a prison planet in order to cause a disturbance, surrenders to a pair of revolutionaries, and then proceeds to taunt them with all the suffering he's caused, and the knowledge that he'll be able to blackmail his way to freedom. The more vicious of the pair, Elscol, shoots Vorru, only to find out that the other, Iella, had set her blaster to stun. Iella explains: "He expected you to burn him down. It would've been his victory, because you would have killed a man who had surrendered, making you no better than he is." They then arrange to drop him off on the same prison planet that he'd been picked up off of before he gets a chance to blackmail anyone.
Very conspicuously subverted in the 2004 Punisher film. Frank Castle's roommate and love interest, as he's about to storm the Big Bad's Hideout, "So you kill them all. Then what? What makes you any different from them?" He responds "They have something to lose."
- Also subverted in the comic books (naturally). One occasion had Daredevil pleading with Frank not to kill the criminal in his sights, uttering more-or-less this phrase. Frank's reply? "Don't be naive" [BANG!]
Played straight in the gag-worthy ending to Knight Rider 2000.
Played straight, then subverted in Rush Hour 2. Lee has Ricky Tan, the Big Bad at gunpoint, when Ricky starts taunting him, and Lee's partner Carter tells him, "He's trying to trick you, don't go too far." That is until Ricky says Lee's father was "pathetic," at which point Carter changes his tune to "Shoot his ass!"
Rather bafflingly employed in the finale of Road House: Patrick Swayze is unable to kill the evil crime lord, despite having killed his henchmen in hilariously violent ways (ripping out throats, crushing to death with stuffed bears, etc.) just moments earlier. Then the townsfolk that the crime lord had previously bullied show up and blast him with a shot gun anyway. ... Hooray?
Played similarly straight and similarly confusingly in the finale of the film Prince Caspian. Caspian decides at the last moment not to kill Miraz, even though he's fully prepared to hack-and-slash his way through Miraz's army a few moments later, had no trouble chopping up bad guys at the castle a few nights before, and could probably fill a book with unassailable reasons that necessitate Miraz's death.
- He doesn't kill Miraz because it's an arranged duel, where particular rules apply, rather than pitched battle where combat pragmatism is much more in effect. This is one of the things that is much, much clearer in the book than the film.
- Also in the book, Peter is the one who duels Miraz, and backs off when Miraz stumbles onto the ground. Miraz isn't given a chance to get up however, because his own goons take the chance to backstab him then.
  - Both of which would completely apply, if we were talking about why Peter didn't kill Miraz. We are not. Caspian, as Narnia's soon-to-be king, is responsible both for seeing that threats to the kingdom are dealt with, and for averting outright war where possible. Given that the fight was meant to be "to the death," then Caspian not only had good reason to kill him, but is arguably duty-bound to do so on the (very slim) hope that ending the duel with a Narnian victory will avert a battle they are poorly prepared for, strategically. In fact, the way the film sets this up, Peter is verging on shirking his duty with the hand-off because he already is a Narnian king. The scene in the book most definitely handles all of this better.
Played dead straight in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, by Logan's squeeze Kayla, in regards him killing off Sabretooth and/or Stryker. Two men, who have been rounding up mutants like cattle, are effectively above the law, and will most likely continue to hunt Logan down as long as he lives. All of which could be solved by a little extra stabbing...
Darkman ends with the hero dangling the villain off a building. The villain goads Darkman into killing him and then explains why Darkman won't let him fall, asserting that he could never live with himself. Needless to say, down he goes. "I'm learning to live with a lot of things," mumbles Darkman.
Done mind-bogglingly badly in The Cave Dwellers. As Ator is about to kill the villain, his old mentor declares that to kill him would be murder, and that "It would make us no better than the barbarians!" (Tom Servo points out, "We are barbarians!") Ator drops his sword, turns around... and is only saved from a Back Stab by how his Asian sidekick nails the villain with a throwing knife.
- In a better movie, one might have suspected Ator did that deliberately, just so that the villain could be killed in a manner the mentor couldn't object to.
Subverted in Train. When the head of the organ harvesters who've killed most of the protagonists is at the mercy of the Final Girl, she tries this.
Dr. Velislava: You do this, you are exactly like us.
Alex: Maybe I am. [proceeds to beat Velislava up and then burn her to death]

Literature

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry stops Sirius Black and Remus Lupin from killing Peter Pettigrew, who had betrayed Harry's parents' whereabouts to Voldemort, because he was sure his father wouldn't have wanted his old friends to become murderers, even in revenge for his own death.
- However, thanks to this everything went apeshit from Book Three. Voldemort comes back in the fourth book thanks to Peter, Sirius Black dies in the Fifth Book thanks to Voldemort's resurrection, Dumbledore dies the wrong way (he was supposed to give the Elder Wand to Snape) in the Sixth Book and an all out war explodes in the Seventh thanks to Dumbledore's depart. He does make a final act of redemption in the Seventh book, but it would be better if Sirius just had offed him.
  - So the moral of book three is "Cowards are irredeemably evil, so go ahead and kill them in case they cause more trouble?
  - Pretty sure it's that idealism falls on its ass every now and then, sometimes catastrophically.
  - Of course, Dumbledore notes at the end that wizards can have life debts-and owning the life of one of Lord Voldemort's closest servants has its advantages. The payoff isn't handled very well(I think there's a trope that fits here... has something with everyone's power being relevant), but it is still there.
A variation is used in book two of The Bartimaeus Trilogy: True Neutral (or so he claims) djinni Bartimaeus persuades Kitty to save Nathaniel by hinting that, 'If you let him die, you'll be just like me.'
Used in the book Komarr in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois Mc Master Bujold. Komarran terrorists are about to activate their new weapon, which they think will lead to a bloodless coup, but which will actually blow up the space station it's positioned on, in revenge for the Barrayan massacre of Komarran hostages. When the army closes in, they threaten to murder their hostages, Ekaterin Vorsoisson and Aunt Vorthys, if Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan doesn't order the army to back off. Miles tells them, "Please observe that you have now gone as far as you can without turning yourselves into a perfect replica of the enemy you set out to oppose." The terrorists surrender, but partially because Ekaterin had already destroyed their device.
The Discworld novel Jingo implies that Sam Vimes believes something like this. He's all right with killing someone by accident, but a pre-meditated killing leaves him deeply troubled. In the next City Watch book, Night Watch the Gargoyles parallel is even more explicit, as he's now shown to be perfectly willing to kill other people intentionally when he's in the middle of a pitched battle.
- Although that's implied that it's because it's a War not just a fight.
- In The Fifth Elephant, he had no choice but to kill Wolfgang but refused to deliver any of the Bond One Liners that came into his head because he feared becoming the Complete Monster that Wolfgang was.
The Bandakarians in the Sword Of Truth book Naked Empire believe something akin to this in relation to all killing. Including that in battle.
Subverted in Shadow of the Giant, when Bean grabs Volescu, a man who tried to redesign the human race by replacing them with people like Bean: super-smart but doomed to die by age twenty or so, and also is directly responsible for Bean being like that, by the throat and threatens to kill him:
Petra: "Please don't kill him, Bean. Please."
Bean: "Remind me why."
Petra: "Because we're good people."
Volescu: *laughs* "You live by murder. How many people have you both killed? And if we add in all the Buggers you slaughtered out in space..."
Petra: "Ok, go ahead and kill him."

They end up not killing him in the end, if for no other reason than he has information they need.

The Doctor did have a point, What Measure Is A Non Human. Bean was the one that gave the order that set off the MD device taking out the Bugger Homeworld, He and Ender share the guilt for the largest mass murder in history. As far as Volescu is concerned, he's small time compared to the 'heroes'.

Live Action TV

The Pretender episode "Hazards", when Sydney confronts the Nazi scientist who experimented on him when he was a boy: only a one-shot villain, but the "just like him" question is explicitly raised.
Subverted: In an episode of Stargate SG-1, Daniel Jackson and Captain Samantha Carter come across a vat of young Goa’uld symbiotes, Daniel is about to shoot it when Captain Carter says that if he does he will be as bad as the Goa’uld. They begin to walk away but then Daniel suddenly turns and fires at the vat anyway, killing the symbiotes.
- This editor found it rather an odd comment from Carter, it having been long established by this point the the Goa’uld are born irredeemably evil.
  - You probably didn't watch the episode in order. This happens in the episode "Bloodlines", in season 1. While it's been mentioned by this point that all Goa'uld possess the knowledge of all those that came before them, it's several seasons before the mention that this causes them to all be born evil (having the memories of countless sociopaths and genocidal maniacs in them).
Faith pulls this on Buffy The Vampire Slayer to break a Mexican Standoff where she and Buffy both have knives to the other's throat. Unique in that Faith seems to somewhat want Buffy to kill her and thus become like her, as some form of revenge. Yeah, Faith had issues...
- In Issue #8 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Buffy finally says what we all think of when this trope is done poorly.
Willow: You know what I mean. It's not like we can just stake these grunts in the heart, right? Not killing humans is what separates us from the bad guys.
Buffy: No, not being bad is what separates us from the bad guys.
Although never actually spoken, it is heavily implied (and even nearly subverted) during the scene at the Huntsman's treehouse in The Tenth Kingdom, when Wolf is about to kill him with the magic axe and Virginia stops him.
Virginia: "No! We can't kill him."
Wolf: "Of course we can, he'd kill us!"
Virginia: "That's not the point, he's helpless!"
Wolf: "Exactly why we should kill him now!"
Virginia: "Wolf, no!"
Wolf: "Awwww, he's gonna come after us!"
Virginia: "I don't care, we're not killing him."
Wolf: "You're gonna regret this moment."
- And of course, he's right.
When this came up at the end of the movie Cave Dwellers on Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel (impersonating the film's hero) pointed out how foolish it was: "Then why the heck did I hang-glide in here, anyway?" (Don't ask about the hang-glider.)
A variation on this occurs in Doctor Who, when the Doctor yells at a Dalek, telling it to die, and it replies "You would make a good Dalek."
- A rare case where this reaction is arguably justified, seeing how the Doctor is responsible for the (near) genocide of both the Daleks and his own race.
  - At least it means he knows what he's talking about when he gives this speech to other people.
  - This Troper always got the impression that the Time Lords at least were a Heroic Sacrifice.
A variation (and eventual subversion) occurs in the Babylon Five episode "Deathwalker" when the title character flaunts her miracle cure to Commander Sinclair, a miracle cure that requires the death of another living being to manufacture. "The billions who live forever will be a monument to my work, and the billions who are murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us." The subversion comes when the deal is made to research her cure anyway... only to have the Vorlon ambassador destroy her ship, claiming the younger races were not ready for immortality.
- Bit of a Wall Banger when you realize it's a chemical treatment and after some years they'd have to figure out how to synthesis it, or at least learn to make it from cloned tissue.
Subverted and yet played straight in an episode of Fast Lane. Billie has the criminal who ruined her life at gunpoint when one of her male partners arrives and yells, "Don't do it! Not like this! (Dramatic pause) Use my gun! It has a larger calibur so it will be more satisfying." Her other parther has a similar do-it-this-way comment (which I can't remember), but they're both using reverse psychology to convince her not to kill the criminal. Maybe. Well, she doesn't, anyway.
This is part of the philosophy of the Ancients in Stargate SG-1. They believe in the free will of every being and even though they have the power to eliminate every threat in the galaxy, they still don't do it. This, however is taken to such an extreme that one can only declare them guilty.
- What's worse is the Ancients won't even defend themselves from other Ascended beaings... Anyone else think they should have used the galaxy wide bomb that kills Ascended beings on the Milky Way along with the Ori?
- Where have we heard this one before?
- And it's important to remember that the entire population of Abydos was ascended at that point. Also, if they had used it, Morgan Le Fay wouldn't have been able to stop Adria in The Ark of Truth.
A non-killing example: In an episode of the sitcom Taxi, an arrogant hairdresser (played by Ted Danson of Cheers, of all people) gives Elaine a truly horrific new hairdo. She, Alex and Louie go back to confront the man, who is utterly unrepentant. An enraged Elaine is about to dump a large bowl of some noxious liquid over the man's head, when Alex gives the standard "no better than him!" speech. Elaine agrees and storms out. Louie then gleefully states: "She may be better than you, but I'm not!" BLOOP.
Played bizarrely straight (and by a character who should have known better) in Criminal Minds; an episode of the second season ends with one of the agents pondering, apropos of almost nothing, how much difference there REALLY is between the offenders that they hunt, and the agents themselves. In this corner, an antisocial, sociopathic recidivist murderer who was abused by his parents for fifteen years and slaughters innocent women purely for the sexual thrill that it gives him. In the opposite side, an agent with ten or fifteen years of experience in fieldwork with the FBI who is willing to fire their weapon ONLY in cause of self-defense or the preservation of another life (and even then, only with utmost angst over the decision afterward), and who has dedicated their professional life to the incarceration of those who would commit such heinous crimes. Yeah, that's a real slippery slope right there.
- Also from Criminal Minds: In an episode of season three, a man takes it upon himself to rescue his kidnapped daughter, but is interrupted from killing him by Agent Reid, who tells the man that if he kills the kidnapper, he'll introduce a cycle of violence into his own life. As he pleads with the father, asking him when the violence will stop, the man whispers, "Tomorrow," and shoots the kidnapper in the head.
Mac Gyver, being a Technical Pacifist, was rather fond of pulling this gem out whenever his sidekick-of-the-week had the villain at their mercy. Perhaps most brokenly, it's the reason that a Holocaust survivor refrains from shooting the Nazi who is most of the way to succeeding in her plan to infiltrate all aspects of the US Government with neo-Nazis. Apparently, killing one person who has the resources and intent to commit genocide and is most of the way to enacting that plan and has already orchestrated numerous murders is morally exactly the same as being a Nazi.
Harry tries this on the werewolf leader in the second book of The Dresden Files, Fool Moon, but she simply points out that there will be one important difference: the villain will be dead.
Hilariously played with in Firefly, where Mal wins a sword fight and is encouraged to kill his opponent who is beaten and lying on the ground. He's told it's a matter of honor, but Mal responds, "Mercy is the mark of a great man." Then stabs him.
- "Guess I'm just a good man." Stab "Well, I'm all right..."

Other Media

Parodied in this Picnicface video.

Real Life

Commonly invoked in response to US Anti-Terror practices, usually along the lines of either A. our "enhanced interrogation" methods makes us just as bad as the people we're fighting, or B. that our offensives are only going to create more anti-US sentiment.

Video Games

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.
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 Mac Guffin 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.
- In Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Lin (good guy 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. He basically says that she'll be just like him if she kills him. Lin considers this, 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 the Street Fighter 2 game. He wants to kill Bison to avenge his friend Charlie's death, then his daughter Amy and his wife Jane disuade him. Note that the wife was more concerned about Guile killing Bison in cold blood than asking him to come back home, until the daughter chimes in.
Subverted at the end of the game Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight 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.
A very much Wall Banger moment in Star Wars The Force Unleashed light side ending. Galen Marek (formerly Starkiller) rescues the leader of the newly founded Rebel Alliance, defeating both Darth Vader and Palpatine in the process. He's stopped from finishing Palpatine off by a Jedi 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 rebel alliance and who's very purpose is to KILL THE EMPEROR.
- Let's not forget, the Jedi were more about killing the Sith in the right way than just wiping them out.
  - In other words, either stupidly or by Mind Rape?
  - Without feeling an ounce of hate or anger or they'll probably replace said sith, eventually. I felt this had more to do with the fact that he was still plenty strong and just faking weakness.
  - Wouldn't be the first time.
  - Obi-Wan looked pretty angry when he bisected Darth Maul in Episode 1. They were trying to kill him anyway, but it looked like his motive shifted from "He's a Sith" to "I must viciously avenge my master."
Towards the end of the Karda Nui arc in Bionicle, a shadow corrupted Takanuva enters a near-Unstoppable Rage and almost kills a few Makuta in revenge for what they did to him. He is stopped when Kopaka pulls a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man and cites the Toa's Thou Shall Not Kill code when he tells that he'd just be giving into that darkness inside if he did it.
Commander Shepard of Mass Effect can address this subject on at least two different occasions:
- 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, Paragon Shepard uses Gargoyles explanation, adding that while they can't always predict other people's actions, that doesn't mean they should stoop to the same level.
- 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."
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.
In Warcraft 3, Uther the Lightbringer warns Arthas that "vengeance can not 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.
- Let's all ignore that Paladins have a talent named vengeance in World of Warcraft.
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 the murders crucified alongside him. Ray's reaction? "The Lord forgave him... a cold-blooded murderer? Well, that's good to know." *shoots the baddie dead*

Webcomics

Subverted in the Webcomic It's Walky!: in the final battle, Head Alien tries to pull this on Sal, who kills him anyway.
Parodied in the Sluggy Freelance story arc "That Which Redeems." When demons invade the Dimension of Lame and start eating and killing people for fun, most people still feel that killing demons would make them no better than demons. Unfortunately, when Torg tries to organize a human resistance, he discovers most Dimension of Lame residents think stubbing demons' toes or throwing pies also makes them as bad as demons. Torg ignores their protests and cuts demons into little bits anyway.
Inverted in GastroPhobia, where the protagonist Phobia is nearly killed by a deer-turned-monster attempting to avenge his mother (who Phobia killed six years ago). But upon seeing that Phobia is herself a mother, the deer can't bring himself to kill her.
Played straight in Shadowgirls when Paul stops Lin from killing mad doctor, even if he has more resons to see him dead as anyone else, becauseas as a police office he would have to arrest a killer.
Invoked in Everyday Heroes when Mr. Mighty stops Jane from killing her former boss, who just murdered her best friend.

Tabletop Games

Lucius the Eternal from Warhammer 40000 literally embodies this trope. As in, if you kill him, you will turn into him. Right down to the clothes, which will only have one difference: your soul, nailed to the surface with all the others who have killed him in past.
- The only possible way to avoid this horrific fate is to kill him without feeling any kind of pride at having done so...or possibly to take an extremely fast-acting poison as soon as you kill him. Unfortunately most of his victims don't know this.
- The same literalist variant was true of Thanatos in Piers Anthony's On A Pale Horse: occupants of the role of Death get the job by killing their predecessors. Not much of an issue morally, as it's self-defense by definition.

Western Animation

Spoken by Elisa to Goliath in the premiere of Gargoyles, as Goliath held the villain David Xanatos over the edge of his own building (although she compares the act to something the other main villain, Demona, would do). Partially subverted when Hudson seems to back her up, asking if that's really what he wants, but sounds genuinely ambivalent about it.
- The show elaborates in another episode, saying killing someone in the heat of battle was all right, but attacking with the direct intent to kill was wrong.
  - Unfortunately, since in battle you are attacking with the direct intent to kill, this is something of a Broken Aesop.
  - Not necessarily: in battle, you're attacking with the intent to force the other party to submit. That doesn't always mean that they'll have to die, they just have to submit. For instance, animals that keep attacking until the other is dead, ignoring all signals of surrender, are considered to be highly abnormal and dangerous.
Subverted in an episode of Mighty Max. Norman is facing down a rival barbarian who killed his family. The bad guy uses this line because it's the last card in his deck. Norman smiles and says "I can live with that", then knocks him off a cliff.
The Lion King plays this trope straight, as Scar surrenders to Simba and begs for his life. However, it turns out he's merely playing for time, and his truce-breaking leads directly to his Karmic Death... twice. (Just to make sure Simba doesn't get his paws dirty.)
Used in the Dungeons And Dragons episode "The Dragon's Graveyard", where Hank refuses to finish Venger on the grounds that if he did, "We'd be no better than you are."
Subverted in Batman The Animated Series. When Catwoman is about do drop the villain into a vat of acid, Batgirl calls out "If you drop him you'll be just like him." Catwoman replys, "Grow up" and lets go.