Morton's Forks in various Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Akko Kagari Universe: In Gospel of Aradia, the Magic Council sends Heartless after Akko in Shibuya. Either she doesn't defend herself and gets killed, or uses her magic to repel the assault... which would then get her expelled for "illegal use of magic".
- In Astronomy Domine
, after Dean Winchester and Castiel find themselves on Deep Space 9 over three centuries in the future as Dick Roman's last act against them, Dean has a violent breakdown when he learns that the only way to get back to his own time would burn out Castiel's grace, meaning that he can only get back to Sam if his last remaining friend kills himself to help Dean. - In Contact at Kobol, Admiral Helena Cain basically sets the stage for the war between the Twelve Colonies and the Tau'ri, by putting President Adar in this position. According to Cain's argument, under the Colonial legal system, Earth is the thirteenth colony, so its military forces are thus subject to Colonial authority, meaning that (Cain argues) the Tau'ri should have stood down when confronted by the Battlestars, and were therefore in open rebellion when they fired on Cain. Adar can’t rule that Earth isn't a colony without basically declaring the Colonial government invalid, but treating Earth as a colony naturally meets with dissatisfaction from the Tau'ri.
- Robb Stark in A Dovahkiin Spreads His Wings is put into a minor example of the trope. When the people of Winterfell begin to gossip about Catelyn's resentment of Jon Snow/Whitewolf, Robb is torn apart on the inside about which side he should take: should he embrace his role as The Dutiful Son and defend his mother, or should he embrace his Big Brother Instinct and become angry at his mother because she hates Jon?
- Exitium Eternal: Saren notes that the Exitium is either a hegemony of religious zealots bound together by a lie that they've been fighting demons for 50,000 years...or a government with incredible resources and a massive population that has been fighting literal demons from Hell for 50,000 years and still hasn't won.
- In An Extraordinary Journey, after the Colonials learn about Baltar's role in the sabotage of the Colonial defence network, they're forced to let him live in exile because they don't have any legitimate evidence to formally charge him.
- In Harry Potter and the Fairy Tome, things became tough for Dolores Umbridge when IF did some digging and published an expose on the witch's true past. When Umbridge confronted Dumbledore about this, the aged wizard said he would have the Ministry conduct a full investigation. This meant that either Umbridge admitted that the expose was true, getting removed from her post in disgrace for falsifying her recordnote , or all of her dirty laundry would be revealed, guaranteeing her a trip to Azkaban. She chose disgrace.
- In Imaginary Seas, Percy realizes that dismantling the Lostbelt as he is summoned to do will inevitably kill the countless people who lived in it, while not acting will inevitably kill the countless people who died when the Lostbelts were created. As someone who doesn't like killing people in general, this weighs heavily on him.
- Infinity Train: Blossomverse:
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Chloe was pressured to fight Ash — the Alola League Champion — by her classmates. If she agrees, she'll be crushed due to her inexperience with Pokémon. If she refuses, they'll continue hounding and harassing her about it. She ultimately says "Yes" in order to get them off her backs; not only does she lose badly, this sets into motion the chain of events that leads to her boarding the Infinity Train, which ultimately makes the lives of everybody involved significantly worse.
- Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily: Before Gladion can enact his plan to get the Apex see into their memory tapes — as the only way to escape it is to confront your past and get your numbers down — he tells One-One that this might be the last chance to stop the Apex as nothing (whether it be diplomacy or fights) will convince them to stop their antics.Gladion: They beat us, we’re good as dead. We beat them, they just think it’s more validation for their worldview. The strongest should be in charge...and the second we try to tell them they’re wrong, they’ll think it's a weakness or hypocrisy and try to replace us. So we fight and fight and fight and get nowhere. We need a better solution, something that makes them face the truth.
- Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Just as she's about to be thrown out a window, Chloe presents this to Dr. Yung. He built the Mirage System in order to impress Professor Oak and the others, but the problem is that anything from the Train cannot be brought back to the real world. Then there's the fact that the only way for Professor Oak to see it is if he ever gets at a low enough point that the Train picks him up and many other factors like if he ever gets to the car where the Mirage System is, or Oak managing to drop his number to 0 before he even meets Yung again. If Yung decides to ever get his number to 0? He's either arrested on the spot or forced into hiding. No matter what path Yung chooses, it's game over.
- The Last Son: Superman forces General Zod into one of these in the climax of Book 3. A Kryptonite missile is heading towards them, and Zod has run out of solar energy to escape flying. Superman orders Sentrius to open a Phantom Zone singularity near them in order to minimize the damage, while also giving Zod two choices: either he stays where he is to allow the missile to kill him, or he goes back to the Phantom Zone to survive. Either way, he's making sure Zod will never be able to hurt anyone ever again.
- Lost in Camelot:
- On a personal level, Morgana observes at one point that her relationships with Bo and Merlin will probably never be publicly accepted as things stand in Camelot. She openly speculates that even when Arthur becomes king, the best scenario she can picture is Arthur promoting Merlin to a level where Merlin can marry either Bo or Morgana and make the other his mistress, and she regrets how that option still wouldn't properly acknowledge Bo and Morgana's relationship with each other.
- Basically Dyson's thoughts on his decision to remain in Camelot; he isn't entirely comfortable swearing his allegiance to a new king after what happened last time, but he doesn't have any obvious alternatives. A talk with Bo also helps Dyson accept that trading his wolf to the Norn to save Stefan's life would have ultimately amounted to this, as the king would have likely just kept sending Stefan on more fatal missions until he actually died and/or Dyson ran out of things to trade to the Norn.
- A Man of Iron: Tony finds himself facing one in Chapter 26 following Robert's death and Ned's imprisonment: either march south and join Tywin's army, or go to King's Landing and swear loyalty to Joffrey, or side with Winterfell against the Lannisters. The Mountain/Iron Monger's arrival forces his hand.
- My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator: The situation with the Slayer is rather peculiar. The two options they have is to let him run free or try to detain him. On one hand, if they allow him to run free, he will easily kill off criminal groups and possibly the League of Villains without All Might having to do a thing. On the other hand, they would have to send All Might in for a round two (something they cannot do), call up Star and Stripe to deal with him, or have Miruko try to reason with him as they would need a total of 100 heroes at the least to capture him.
- The Night Unfurls: During Chapter 6 of the remastered version, Kyril and Olga briefly discuss this trope after he makes it clear that the mission to bring her south is of utmost priority. Olga bitterly asks how he would bother letting her choose to stay or leave, given that she's damned either way no matter the choice. To be frank, she does have a point: if she stays, she would be at the mercy of the Black Dogs; if she leaves, she would be at the mercy of Kyril instead, who has proven to be ten times as dangerous. Kyril replies that even if the choices are bad and worse, it's still her decision to make. It just happens that it is one that some find liberating, while some don't. Cue Come with Me If You Want to Live remark.
- At the climax of A Peaceful Afterlife, Kira gets under HOLY DIVER's skin by pointing out his Freudian Excuse is tied to one. One of HOLY DIVER's last tasks for Kira was to find the whereabouts of his mother. They're both in Hell, so only one of two conclusions can be correct: Either HOLY DIVER's mother is in Heaven, and he can never see her again, or she's in Hell, and she's not as pure and good as he thought. Kira implies it's the former though, since he never found her. But he did find out his father was there and bragged about his role in rearing HOLY DIVER, which Kira rubs in his face.
- In The Prayer Warriors, Thalia goes up to Jerry expressing a desire to repent. He kills her, reasoning that if she's telling the truth, she'll go to Heaven, meaning that her death is not a bad thing, and if she's lying, she deserves to die and go to Hell.
- Shadowchasers: Tournament of Shadows briefly mentions a Riddling Sphinx who cheated because the answer to her riddle was "Kill me." If her target couldn't answer, she'd kill them. If her target answered, she'd kill them, claiming they had given her permission.
- Son of the Seven Kingdoms: After the Oblivion Gate summoned by Mythic Dawn derails his assault on King's Landing enough that he loses the chance to win an outright victory, William settles for setting up a plan to cause enough strife among the Lannister-Tyrell alliance that they're virtually crippled — he pulls part of his forces back to Harrenhal while the rest march on the Reach, all while Robb's forces are still marching on Casterly Rock and Stannis remains threatening the city. As such, the Lannisters and Tyrells are left with too many equally important fronts to focus on.
- The Symbol of Peace and Justice:
- For Gohan, the Sports Festival serves as one. Since he's significantly stronger than his classmates, participating means he risks stealing the spotlight and drawing unwanted attention to himself while upsetting his peers. But if he refuses, it will send the wrong message, making it look like he doesn't respect them.
- After his battle with Mina, where he attempts to create a Curb Stomp Cushion, he realizes that the result wasn't much better than if he'd simply ended the fight quickly.
- Thousand Shinji: Shinji warned Asuka that if she listened to Rei, she was screwed... and if she ignored Rei, she was also screwed anyways.Shinji: (to Asuka) Ever since I converted her to Nurgle, Rei has shown great joy in causing things to break down. Ignore her or she will gain immense satisfaction from your annoyance.
Rei: (smiling) Ignore me and it will come back to bite you.
Shinji: Okay, I'll amend that. Listen to her at your own risk, but ignore her at your risk as well. - The Weaver Option:
- Taylor told Nostradamus Vandire he had two options after his arrest. He angrily refused the first option, execution after an open trial where he confessed to all his crimes and named his co-conspirators. She then revealed the second option which he had chosen: Brutal torture by the Inquisition until he confessed to all his crimes and named his co-conspirators before being sentenced to a Penal Legion.
- Lorgar has been forced into a difficult choice due to the death of Slaanesh and the rise of Malal as a potential Chaos God. If Lorgar launches a Black Crusade now to reverse the situation and seal Malal, he will do so against both the Imperium and the Throne of Oblivion and the price the Gods will demand of him is likely to be ruinous. At the same time, if he doesn't act, Malal will become a Chaos God which stands opposed to the rest of the pantheon. Not only will this undermine Chaos Undivided, the central dogma of the Word Bearer religion, it will also prevent any future Black Crusade as they must represent a combined force of all Chaos.
- Dark Apostle Oriax is locked in a room with a Skaven bomb and the only way to stop it from detonating is by perfectly reciting every word in a holo recording. Said recording the sermon of a pious Imperial priest. No matter how insincere Oriax may speak the words, his daemonic masters will punish him for saying them, meaning he'll either die to the bomb or suffer the torture of the Warp.
- Near the end of the first chapter of What the Cat Dragged In, Chloé bumps into a waiter, causing him to spill a tray full of red wine all over Blanche Bissete's white dress. Blanche storms off, and Adrien clearly realizes that if he doesn't go after her and calm her down, she will almost certainly be akumatized. Unfortunately, if he does so, the waiter's humiliation will almost certainly lead him to be akumatized. Adrien attempts to resolve it by sending someone after Blanche while he calms down the waiter, but nobody listens and Blanche gets akumatized.
- Wilted Flowers: After learning that Izuku is related to All For One, Aizawa subjects him to a furious interrogation. Izuku repeatedly insists that he didn't know, given how his father completely abandoned their family when he was four. When Aizawa finally seems to accept that Izuku is telling the truth, he smirks cruelly and declares that Izuku "went after a dangerous supervillain without having all the facts." Just to twist the knife, he calls him "Deku".
- Invoked in Lightning Only Strikes Once when Lexa observes that the Ice Nation forces who almost capture her and the others during their search for Clarke have a series of bad options once they realise that she is a Nightblood (Lexa not revealing that she is the Commander and claiming to just be one of the Nightbloods from Polis); the village will starve if they keep serving Diane Sydney’s Skaikru forces in the village Nia has given them, Diana's Skaikru faction will kill the Azgeda if they don’t provide the Skaikru with food, and Nia will kill them if they harm ‘Saska’ and she turns out to be Ontari, so the only scenario where the villagers live is the one where Lexa is telling the truth that she doesn’t serve Nia and her current captors choose to trust her.
- In The Hurricane, Laurel and Shado face this when they learn that Ra's plans to work with the Joker to infect most of the other rogues with "Joker Gas" that will turn them into duplicates of the Clown Prince of Crime so that Batman will be forced to turn to the League of Assassins for help. Obviously, neither of them agrees with this plan, but they have no way of contacting the police or Batman without getting arrested themselves, and may not even be believed anyway. After the Joker uses the gas on the League as well as the villains, with Shado basically sacrificing herself to get Laurel to safety, Laurel is forced to take a chance and contact the Bat-Family for help anyway.
- Basically the reason why the Colonial government doesn’t court-martial Adama for defying orders on a survey mission in Did I Make the Most of Loving You?; they claim that actually giving him a dishonourable discharge would attract attention given his relationship with Roslin, but Adama knows that it’s really because a court-martial would require them to publically announce what he did, which would mean disclosing an illegal government operation.
- In By the Horns, the Head of ROM faces one: either take a course that will kill tens of millions, making him responsible for the greatest atrocity since the Kentares Massacre, or refuse to do so and be replaced by somebody who would happily do the same. The outcome would be the same either way.
- In Swinging Pendulum, when Ichigo is running away from Kukaku who is trying to drag him to the Shiba compound for dinner, he runs into Kaien who hides him. When she leaves, Kaien tells Ichigo he can pay him back by... coming home to the compound for dinner.
- In A Monster's Nature, Chapter 44 ends with Xander, one of the Brightburn cult who has been revealed to be working with KC (a hacker trying to work against Brandon), realising that KC sent him into the cult with deliberately limited information and resources that wouldn't have been able to stop Brightburn if he realised who Xander really was. As Caitlin points out, he can't just go back to the cult after basically trying to abduct her, but Caitlin's points make Xander realise that he can't trust that going back to KC would be safe for him either.
- "El Camino a Casa" sees Ernesto being faced with a variation of this when he confronts Imelda after Hector’s death after she’s satisfied herself that Ernesto poisoned Hector but has no definite proof of that. Ernesto had intended to take Hector’s already-written songs for himself, but Imelda vowed that if he attempted to use any of Hector’s songs she would reveal her suspicions about his role in Hector’s death, which would at least hamper Ernesto’s reputation even if she couldn’t prove anything. Ernesto threatened to become so famous that it would basically be impossible for Imelda to convince anyone that he killed someone, but Imelda counters that if he becomes that famous he won’t need Hector’s songs anyway. Ultimately, Ernesto becomes famous enough that he has to accept he didn’t need Hector’s songs, but this leads to him dying of alcohol poisoning as he becomes consumed by his own grief and guilt.
- Danganronpa Class Switch: During Chapter 3's investigation, Monokuma explains how his "First Come, First Serve" rule works when it comes to multiple killings. He adds the caveat that if the first culprit is the second victim, then the blackened becomes the second killer instead. Kaede muses that this is a Sadistic Choice: either they let someone who killed an innocent get away unscathed, or somebody gets sentenced to death for taking down an Asshole Victim.
- This trope is Discussed (by name, no less) during Chapter 1 of Fractured Fates, as the first motive boils down to this: If a murder doesn't happen by midnight the day after the motive is announced, then Monokuma will randomly kill one student that same night, and will continue to randomly kill one student each night until a murder does happen. However, if someone does commit murder, then a classmate will still be dead and the surviving students will be put through a class trial where either the rest of the spotless or the blackened will be killed.
- Hope on a Distant Mountain: This was how the D-course simulator was meant to work: no matter what the player did, they would inevitably fall into one of these situations. Even if the player managed to avoid becoming a victim, a murderer, or falling into despair, there was no way of escaping; any attempt would inevitably end in the player's demise. At best, they might be able to fall into a 'holding pattern' where the player couldn't act against the Mastermind and the Mastermind couldn't act against them. Makoto managed to 'break' the game by doing something Tacitus never anticipated.
- In Old Wounds, Danny avoids going to his parents for help treating his injuries because he doesn't want to know how they'll react to the realization that they caused some of his scars. Either they'll be horrified at seeing their handiwork... or they won't care/recognize what they did.
- From Death Note: The Abridged Series (kpts4tv), there's Kira's survey: 'Do you think my hair is cute? "Yes" or "Hell yes! <3"'
- In Forty Seconds when Light tells a hapless ignorant crook: "Write your name [in the notebook]... or I'll kill you."
- In The Choices of Earth, when the Tenth Doctor is called in to assist in the confrontation with the 456, during the final confrontation he attempts to invoke this when he abducts the infant form of the SharKann prince Rtthed from a century in the past. As the Doctor explains to the SharKann, not only did Rtthed save his people from a brutal war, but he also drew up the treaty that allowed human adolescents to be traded as drugs on their homeworld, so killing him as an infant would end the current threat one way or the other, even if the Doctor obviously doesn’t want to mess with history in that manner.
- Blame It on the Brain: Lrrr informs the Momship that they have ten seconds to surrender and be destroyed — or else they will destroy them.
- Dumbledore finds himself in one of these situations in Brutal Harry trying to figure out how to handle Harry, (who is a very ruthless, powerful, and vindictive Bully Hunter whose abuse at the hands of the Dursleys is played up much more seriously here), with regards to what he knows about the prophecy and Voldemort. He's left with four options:
- Keep Harry at Hogwarts, observe from a distance, and hope that the new environment will help him adjust and acclimate... but this will place Harry within striking distance of other students and faculty, putting them at risk should they get on Harry's bad side.
- Same as above, but personally try to reason with Harry. However, Harry previously attempted to attack Dumbledore as retribution for placing him with the Dursleys, and even if that weren't the case, it would bring too much outside attention to the situation. (Besides, Dumbledore has too many responsibilities and not nearly enough space to juggle them with aiding Harry).
- Follow typical student procedure, and discuss Harry's issues with his family... which Dumbledore admits would be the most idiotic thing to do, as the Dursleys are the cause of Harry's problems. Sending Harry back to them would be repeating his mistakes with Tom Riddle, and we all know how well that turned out.
- Send Harry to St. Mungo's for professional help that could help him overcome his traumas, likely the best option...but Harry would be out of Dumbldore's protection, and there's no way that it could be kept a private matter and the public fallout would be devastating.
- Ultimately, it's McGonagall who gives a fifth option that he takes: he resigns as Headmaster to focus on his other duties, assigns her as Headmistress, and places Harry in her custody, as she's managed to establish a rapport with him, which in the long run, is the best choice.
- The Chosen Six;
- When the Six pull off their scheme on Draco and Pansy, the former point out that no matter what they do, they lose: either they cut off their deal with Skeeter or not only do their naked pictures end up being spread, their role in Skeeter's campaign against the Six would be revealed.
- While the Gryffindor team are preparing for the first Quidditch game of the Six's fifth year against Ravenclaw, they're all aware that Cho is currently the weak link due to her grief over Cedric. Nobody likes the idea of using that weakness against Cho, even if they all agree that they won't actively taunt her about it, and there are rumors that Cho will be dropped from the team if she loses this game, but the idea of deliberately losing to "help" Cho won't help matters either. On top of the above issues, Umbridge ultimately gets Harry, Fred, George and Angelina banned from the team for "bad sportsmanship" just to be petty and hurt Sirius by proxy.
- Dumbledore observes that Umbridge giving the Inquisitorial Squad the power to inflict physical violence on other students puts him in an unfortunate position as he will have to expel those students once Umbridge has been forced out of the school as they have proven themselves to be cruel people who none of the other students can forgive, but he is fully aware that these students will subsequently join Voldemort as the only one who would accept them.
- In Cruciamentum Eternus, Voldemort tells Lucius to torture Draco, with the implied Sadistic Choice being that if he doesn't Voldemort will do it. Lucius does it, but it turns out to have been no choice at all; Voldemort was going to kill Draco either way.
- Played Straight in The many Deaths of Harry Potter. After unknowingly encountering some Death Eaters, Vernon informs Harry about the dangers of the Magicals World (albeit calling it a cult). If he leaves the Dursleys, it's certain that he'll encounter more "Cultists"; But if he stays, Vernon tells him that other "Cultists" will still come for him. This proves to be true when Harry keeps dying no matter what he does.
- My Immortal:
- "Darth Valer" demands that Ebony "kill him or I shall kill him anyway."
- If you live in Tara Land, you can either try to be goffic, in which case you're a poser and you suck, or not, in which case you're a prep and you suck. It seems to be that you can become a "real goff" if you're suicidally depressed and/or have suffered horrible traumas, as Draco "used to want to commit suicide all the time", Vampire Potter has "gone through horrible problems", B'loody Mary is traumatised by the loss of her real parents, and Jenny and Diabolo's dad "raped them and stuff".
- In Poison Pen, "Professor Snape has taken points for breathing too loudly, asking questions, not asking questions and tardiness even with a note."
- In A Sad Story, Harry gets beaten by Uncle Vernon because he didn't answer Vernon's question quickly enough. He then tries to answer, at which point Vernon beats him again for speaking without permission.
- Invoked in The Home We Built Together when Stoick finds Toothless and learns that Hiccup has been training the Night Fury; he orders that Hiccup must kill the Night Fury in the arena the next day, or Hiccup will be exiled and Toothless killed anyway.
- A Thing of Vikings: Due to his beliefs that Hiccup is a schemer like him, Mac Bethad and his court are torn regarding accepting dragon labor; agree, and risk leaving themselves open to invasion by Berk, refuse, and risk leaving themselves open to invasion by someone who took the offer.
- We Must Be Killers:
- District 1 potential tributes who wash out of the Career Academy are enslaved and pimped out or made to work in the mines, but any who do well enough are sent into the Hunger Games and either die or live to become a Sex Slave. As a result, District 1 victors who wanted to lose the games but failed to find a plausible way to do so (which is almost all of them) tend to be depressed and caustic.
- In The End is the Beginning is the End, Ronan is deeply exasperated and concerned as he watches the victors defy and bait the Capitol throughout the Quell interviews, saying that Snow's vindictive pride won't let him show them any mercy now and the smart move would have been to play nice and hope he'd be magnamious (although he grudgingly acknowledges that Lyme and the others are right to snark that "You can't blame them for not holding their breath on that one.").
- The Greatest Generation: Whichever way Admiral Shimada chose, he would have been screwed since he didn't know that Yvonne is Enterprise. Stay and fight? His ship girls get overwhelmed by the vastly superior Abyssal numbers and die in a Senseless Sacrifice. Some of the civilians might - and that's a pretty big might - succeed in evacuating, but most would probably still get slaughtered by the Abyssals. The way to the home islands is left wide open. Retreat? His ship girls might survive, but the civilians would be done for. Either way, lots of people would die and someone would be calling for his political if not literal crucifixion.
- In Kill la Kill AU, this is mentioned in Room 002108, where it is brought up that, if the test results came back and if Ryuuko had not shown signs of improvement before then, she would either be dead, as the disease will have killed her, or, if her condition was cancer, the disease will have hit terminal, in both cases, it will have been too late.
- In Secret Sunshine, we have Ryuuko saying something akin to this in her narration of chapter 10, concerning a threat to a pregnant Satsuki. She says if Satsuki gave birth, then she could beat her up for calling and, if she hadn't, then she'll wait, regardless, Ryuuko'll beat the latter up."If that baby was already born, I could beat her ass for calling and, if that baby wasn't born, I'll wait."
- In The Devil and His Urchin, Chloe and Dan initially feel like they're faced with this when Trixie manifests wings inherited from her biological father Lucifer (Lucifer and Chloe had a one-night-stand while Chloe and Dan's relationship was in a rough place). Obviously, both initially panic when faced with evidence that Trixie is the daughter of the devil and what that might mean regarding his interest in her, but they also recognise that trying to sneak away isn't practical when their child has wings, and they are concerned that trying to ask for help will either lead to people dismissing them as insane or they will be faced with scientists trying to examine/dissect Trixie or priests trying to exorcise her. Chloe ultimately chooses to ask Lucifer for his help, reasoning that he's clearly willing to tolerate them at least considering that Chloe can think of other people who would have punched Dan by now considering how he and Lucifer have interacted so far.
- Civil War Hulk:
- After informing The Leader that her cousin ripped the Goblin in two, she demands that he give up a cell sample, or else she'll hand him over to the Hulk.
- The Hulk issues an ultimatum to the world: Surrender the Illuminati, or all Hell will break loose.
- BURN THE WITCH: Lila finds herself in this position thanks to Ladybug's Cruel Mercy. After saving her, Ladybug spells out how she intends to ensure Lila doesn't cause any more trouble by treating her as her very special friend, keeping a close eye on her. Since Lila previously claimed that Ladybug was her best friend, she can't call her out on this without admitting she lied about that, too...and given how many of her other lies were revealed, telling the truth likely wouldn't be believed, anyway.
- Dread String of Fate: Whenever Marinette attempts to get closer to Adrien or reveal her crush on him, the Red String of Fate wrapped around her neck inevitably prevents her from succeeding, often humiliating her in the process. Whenever she considers giving up, the string undercuts her efforts and punishes her for even considering it.
- Hero Chat:
- Chloé's mom starts yelling at Chloé when everyone thinks that she accepted an offer to work with Hawk Moth. When Chloé is able to point out that she wasn't and was in fact working against him the whole time, her mom then begins lambasting Chloé over how foolish she is for giving up on a chance for power.
- In the Hero Chat's version of "Truth", Anarka describes the situation that led to her not telling Jagged about Luka as this. While it wasn't the best move, the result of telling Jagged would have either led Jagged to give up his music career for his new family or try to make a balance that would have forced Luka into the spotlight for his entire life.
- Oh, You Don’t Have to Do That. (Communication) is set in a world where the whole class figures out early on that Lila is prone to telling Celebrity Lies. However, after dealing with Volpina, Marinette warns Adrien that this doesn't mean it will make it easy to convince their classmates that Lila's also a Manipulative Bitch. After all, her classmates all know that Marinette HATES liars, so if she attempts to warn them without having solid proof, they'll just assume that she's jumping to conclusions due to her bias. But if Ladybug informs them of how Lila was akumatized after being called out on her Blatant Lies, they'll assume it was just another case of Hawkmoth taking advantage of someone's negative feelings.
- Alya finds herself in this position twice over in The One to Make It Stay thanks to her unfortunate tendency to assume her first impressions are always right and that her instincts are always sound.
- Firstly, she dismisses Marinette's attempts to warn her about Lila's true nature as purely motivated by envy. When Rose and Juleka present her with undeniable evidence that Lila has, in fact, lied to them all, she feels as though she has to choose between Moving the Goalposts and claiming this doesn't prove Lila lied about anything else...or facing the idea that she was wrong. Which is a problem, since she already posted information Lila gave her on her Ladyblog, and issuing a retraction strikes her as a good way to lose the faith they've placed in her. Rejecting their evidence, meanwhile, leads into a Vicious Cycle where Alya can't bring herself to admit her mistake, as that means she's done even more damage to her relationships and reputation for no good reason at all.
- A similar situation develops when she posts a manipulatively edited video on the Ladyblog. When people express suspicion about the video, she feels that all of her options suck: if she admits the truth, she loses the faith her audience placed in her. If she doesn't acknowledge the criticism at all and lets it go unchecked, the commenters have more time to convince others that there's something weird about it. And her attempt to deal with the problem by deleting all the comments calling her out only riles them up further. This only gets worse once Alya fully recognizes that posting the edited video was a mistake, as she fears that posting any kind of a retraction now, after having tried to silence her critics, will just amplify the backlash.
- Someone to Watch Over Me: Marinette begins to date Adrien both as herself and as her heroic persona, encouraging him to choose whoever he loves the most - which, of course, means that she'll end up with him no matter what he chooses. Though, the extra contact and a few comments by Marinette-as-Ladybug makes him realize they are one and the same.
- Adrien faces one in this what-if scenario when asked point-blank to either confirm or deny whether Lila is a liar. If he admits the truth, then not only will Lila turn on him, the rest of the class will learn that he'd known she was tricking them all and chose to stay silent. But if he vouches for her, then Marinette will know that all his claims that they were "in this together" were Blatant Lies, plus everyone will remember this once Lila's eventually exposed and realize he lied in an effort to cover his own backside. Ultimately, he attempts to Take a Third Option by claiming he was just trying to protect Lila from Marinette without addressing the matter of her truthfulness; this backfires when Lila twists things around and convinces everyone that he'd lied to Marinette about her lying in order to manipulate the other girl.
- Apotheosis: All Might's fight with Izuku at Coruscant Stadium hinges on this:
- If Izuku wins, All Might faces depowerment, could be killed or arrested and imprisoned for assaulting a government official, leaving Izuku completely unopposed.
- If All Might wins, however, it will cost him the remainder of his strength, leaving Japan without its Symbol of Peace, along with making Izuku a martyr for the Quirkless and those with impractical Quirks. Additionally, it's implied that if he removes Izuku's infinity gauntlet, the device's continual existence will be the ultimate tantalizing prize for an uprising public and villains to either steal or attempt to replicate.
- Blessings of the Goddess (NSFW): After Mei defeats Momo in the tournament, Momo congratulates the former on the victory. When Mei states that Izuku developed and crafted a good part of the gear (which Momo had previously openly disbelieved), Momo calls her a cheater. Mei then points out the contradiction: either Mei won cleanly, or she cheated and Izuku is smart enough to develop the incredibly advanced technology she's used. Either way, Momo has to acknowledge she was wrong about something.
- Erased Potential: In the wake of the USJ incident, all of the students are required to attend mandatory counseling sessions. Shouto regards it as this: if he says too much, Endeavour will punish him for 'tarnishing the family name' and his precious image. If he doesn't say anything, however, the counselor won't clear him to return to school, and his father will punish him for that instead.
- From Muddy Waters: After Shinsou joins the Hero Course, Izuku is left with the choice of either letting him continue to be ostracized or revealing his own issues that caused him to react so negatively to Shinsou.
- Mean Rabbit: Aizawa comes down hard on Izuku, claiming that he's just teaching him how life is unfair and that he'll always face hatred and scorn for being Quirkless. If Izuku sticks it out at U.A., Aizawa will take it as proof that his methods worked; if he drops or transfers out, he'll insist it proves that Izuku never had the potential to become a Pro Hero. Izuku's current plan is to stick it out, graduate, then punch Aizawa in the face and tell him that he owes nothing to his cruelty.
- Think Before You Speak: Aizawa's primary justification for targeting Izuku and attempting to force him out of the Hero Course is that he sees the kid as a Martyr Without a Cause who will inevitably get himself killed if he goes Pro. In Words May Hurt, Endeavor learns about this and points out that if Izuku really is naturally inclined to risk his life to help others, then that's unlikely to change whether he's in the Hero Course or not...and that refusing to teach him might actually make Aizawa look worse.
- In Three Guys Go to a Bar(and then they Beat You With It), Bakugou, Tokoyami, and Shinsou are faced with one when Aizawa explains their assignment to them. The three of them have been chosen to play the villains in that semester's final exams, and have two months to brainstorm six different scenarios — one for each team of classmates they'll be facing off against. If they don't accept this massive responsibility, or the fact that they have been typecast as antagonists due to their Quirks, then they'll immediately be expelled for the high crime of making Aizawa's job harder.
- Waiting is worth it: Inko realizes that when others inevitably learn about Izuku's powers, they might figure out that he has a rare Source Quirk; alternatively, they might believe that his Quirk is the result of Toshinori's One-For-All mixing with her Telekinesis. Problem is that both put her son at risk of being kidnapped or enslaved.
- We're Not Friends Kacchan: Katsuki constantly insists that his Barbaric Bullying of Izuku is 'justified' because of how his former friend annoys him by getting in his way. Yet he's also deeply offended whenever Izuku tries avoiding him, accusing him of thinking Katsuki's not worth his time anymore. Regardless of what Izuku does, Katsuki willfully interprets it in the most offensive way possible and punishes him for it.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Aftermath of the Games: In Integration, Twilight discovers that Sunburst died many years ago, placing her in the precarious position of deciding whether or not to tell young Starlight the truth. Either she lets her continue thinking that Sunburst abandoned her, or she explains what really happened... which also entails admitting how she Ret Goned her adult self and explaining what Starlight did in the original timeline far sooner than she wants to.
- Chiaroscuro: The idea of the 'Friendship Rule' is Deconstructed this way. If you prioritize a mission over your teammates, then you're abandoning your friends and allies, potentially leaving them to die. But if you prioritize your teammates first, then other friends of yours who were depending upon the success of that mission are likely to suffer instead.
- Escape From The Hokage's Hat: Chouji asks his dad to tell him the real reason he wanted him to avoid Naruto. This puts Chouza in a tricky position, as he recognizes that there's no way to justify how Naruto was treated to his son, and if he attempts to avoid answering the question, Chouji will call him out on it. But if he admits the truth, both of them will be killed due to the Third's law.
- In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, Danzo employs this at the very end of a question-and-answer session he subjects Naruto to, ostensibly to determine Naruto's worthiness to take Konoha High School's end-of-term exams. Naruto is asked if he was one of the Kyuushingai during the 365 days of regional terror; if Naruto says yes, that will give Danzo, the school's principal, enough grounds to expel the boy since Naruto will have effectively confessed to being a criminal; but if Naruto says no, Danzo will be able to catch him in a lie by utilizing witness testimony previously gleaned from Tenten, who knows the truth about Naruto. Furthermore, according to the rules of the question-and-answer session, Naruto cannot opt to simply keep silent, or else he'll automatically lose 15 points from the session's point-scoring arrangement, and at that moment he needs to get that amount to achieve the total number of points he needs so as to be eligible to take his official school exams. Naruto answers in the affirmative, but manages to stay at the school anyway after he points out that, if he's expelled for being a former Kyuushingai despite not having broken any laws since his arrival in Konoha Town, Danzo will open himself to questions about why he's never expelled other students whose criminal actions were much more open and blatant, such as Suigetsu, Arashi and Aoi.
- reverse: Kakashi finds himself in a no-win position after Kurama absconds with Naruto. If he lets him escape, Konoha will be weakened by the loss of their jinchuriki, but Naruto will be raised by his loving uncle. If he brings them back home, however, Naruto will justifiably despise him and Konoha for ripping him away from the one person who gives a damn about him and dragging him back to a village that neglects and mistreats him.
- sunflower: While ripping Kakashi a new one, General Okami orders him to shut up... then accuses him of giving her "the silent treatment". When Kakashi points out that she told him to be quiet, she claims that he's attempting to blame his 'insubordination' on her. Suffice to say, Okami really doesn't like Kakashi.
- In Unchained (Umei no Mai), Tajima proposes that the Senju clan should move their compound away from the Uchiha's lands. This puts the clan in a terrible position:
- On one hand, moving will require them to negotiate with the Daimyo for the right to settle elsewhere. The Daimyo is likely to exploit this by forcing them to move closer to the capital city in order to keep them under his thumb. In addition, only the warriors and their families would be moving away, as the farmers living on their current lands aren't actually part of the Senju clan; they had their homes imposed upon and were forced to work for the Senju, with their sons being drafted to join them.
- On the other hand, they could refuse to move on the grounds that they've been living in their current position for several centuries. Problem is that their initial treaty with the Daimyo specifically stated that they were a nomadic clan made up of only warriors and their immediate dependents, with no permanent settlement. This means that declaring their current location to be where they've lived for generations would effectively be an admission of tax fraud, either putting the Senju into enormous debt or resulting in mass executions.
- Rise of the Minisukas: Asuka "politely" explains to Matarael that it has two options: letting Shinji go and dying quickly, or holding him hostage and dying slowly and painfully.Asuka: Alright you arachnid asshole, this can end in one of two ways, and in both of them, you die. So you wanna do this the easy way, or the hard way?
- This Bites!:
- Self-Inserted character Jeremiah Cross faces this in regards to his knowledge that the crew's navigator Nami is meant to fall prey to the prehistoric Kestia tick. He has two choices: either suffer Nami coming within an inch of death with the payoff of getting to meet and recruit their crew's doctor Chopper, which is much harder to face now that she's his friend, or save her from the Kestia at the cost of, in all likelihood, never meeting Chopper and, worse still, dooming Chopper's home of Drum Kingdom to Wapol's tyranny. In the end, he chooses the second option…only for a different prehistoric bacterium to infect him instead, setting the crew en route to Drum anyway.
- Cross faces this again when their encounter with Mr. 2 draws nearer. On the one hand, letting him go would mean a town burning down and a lot of trouble for everyone. On the other hand, if they got rid of him, the Straw Hats would never escape Hina at the end of the Alabasta arc nor, much later, would Luffy succeed in his jailbreak from Impel Down. Unlike the above, Cross has no difficulty making up his mind and taking the first option, though he still hates it.
- Cross turns this on a slaver during the Sabaody Revolution: he tells the slaver that either he gives up all of his belongings, slaves, and information, or he gets a lifetime supply of chocolate. When the slaver picks the last, Cross gives him a chocolate bar and tells him that another pirate will kill him if he doesn't pick the former option.
- It rears its head once more as they near their destination of Sabaody Archipelago. In spite of all the new crew additions, skills and weapons they've gained, Cross knows that the New World is sharply more difficult, and that even if they manage to fluke past Fishman Island, they'd most likely perish once they got to Punk Hazard. Knowing that Kuma is going to arrive to scatter the crew around the world to put them in the places fit for making them strong enough, he's left with the choice of holding his tongue until the last minute and facing Luffy's fury for hiding something this important or trying to brave the New World as they are and risk dying. Then when Cross learns Ace had still been captured and set to be executed, he's faced with a similar fork: attempt a rescue mission in a desperate last-ditch attempt to prevent Ace's death, which would most likely result in at least one fatality of their crew, or let Kuma separate them, leaving Luffy to tackle Impel Down and Marineford alone and risk fate being unchanged. In this case, Kuma forces the latter on them, explicitly telling Cross he doesn't have a choice in the matter.
- In a sidestory of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Brock finds himself in serious risk of losing his gym. He can't keep it closed for too long, even to mourn the deaths of his parents, but when he reopens it, his grief hampers his battle performance, landing him on a losing streak that puts him at risk of his gym getting shut down by the League. He doesn't break out of it until he finally moves on from his sorrows.
- Children of Remnant: After learning that the Claimed were tortured by Salem with the intention of becoming Child Soldiers, Qrow and Summer are left with the question of whether or not they should tell Winter. Summer argues that they should tell her because if she finds out that they kept the information from her, Winter will cut them out and fight them at every turn. Qrow then counters with the sad fact that if they tell her the truth, Winter will go ballistic and all form of peace will be completely obliterated.
- Ruby and Nora: In Cold, Jacques Schnee has turned Atlas under his command into a dictatorship and has anyone who opposes him lobotomized. After Winter is captured, Jacques asks her if she'll manage the Schnee Dust Company for him, with that being her fate if she says yes. Upon her saying no, he orders her to be lobotomized, implying she'll be put in that position anyway, only without free will.
- In Of Wolves and Dragons, Jon Snow's fire-breathing werewolf form (long story) destroys the Sept in Winterfell, killing all in it and almost Catelyn Stark. Since no one can't even come close to figuring out why this happened, the superstitious northerners come to believe that Jon's wolf-form was sent by the Old Gods to punish those who have turned against them. This causes a dilemma for Houses that claim ancestry from the First Men: if they accept the Whitewolf as a symbol of the Old Gods, then they will face direct conflict from their neighbors who worship the Seven, but if they call it blasphemy, then they might face the wrath of the Whitewolf itself.
- Late in Sonic X: Dark Chaos, Maledict eventually realizes that the entire conflict has become this. Either he ends the stalemate by destroying the Milky Way Galaxy himself with the Galaxy Crusher, or the Shroud are going to eat the entire galaxy and destroy it instead. He decides on the former, rationalizing it as a Mercy Kill compared to letting the Shroud get more powerful.
- Briefly discussed in The Finer Shades of Why when Anakin defeats Dooku in a duel and is then mockingly informed by Dooku that only he knows where the captive Obi-Wan Kenobi is, suggesting to Anakin that Obi-Wan will die if Dooku isn't released to find him. However, thanks to his own recent talks with his former master about his responsibilities and his brushes with the Dark Side, Anakin is able to weigh the options better; faced with the choice of hating himself for letting Dooku go to save Obi-Wan or hating himself for letting his master die, Anakin chooses the option where Obi-Wan won't hate him and takes Dooku captive, albeit with the goal of finding the lost Jedi by himself.
- In Missing and Presumed Dead, Luke Skywalker refuses to tell the Rebel High Command that he is Darth Vader's son, since he sees only two scenarios if he admits the truth: They will either fear him or he'll be called the "Defected Son of Darth Vader himself" and be made the poster boy of the Rebellion. He sees both options as equally unpleasant.
- In Her Love, Peridot feels she's in this situation when Lapis, who is dangerously in love with Steven, asks where he is. If Peridot lies, she is sure Lapis will hurt her, but if she tells the truth, she will hurt Steven's friends.
- Fallen Kingdom: Koops is stuck in one of these when Larry sends him after Mario's other partners. Either he fights his old friends, possibly killing them, or he doesn't fight — and his slave seal activates, killing him and his family. Thankfully, a third option arises when Vivian burns off his slave seal, letting him join the resistance.
- In Gensokyo 20XX, this is played with in two instances.
- To keep her safe, Yukari leaves Reimu behind but, as can be seen, the latter almost died of starvation and hypothermia, as lighting a fire to cook and keep warm with could have made smoke, which could have caused someone to take notice (and look into it).
- The second instance, is where Ran wanted to take her to hospital but acknowledges that she could die on the way, as she was going to die from starvation, along with the fact that they could be captured and possibly killed for being a youkai with a human, in which case it would lead to death for any of them, so the former decides to Take a Third Option, which places Reimu under a hibernation spell.
- A form of this happens in a branch-off, Foundling. Reimu, due to being human, doesn't really fit in with youkai and, because she was abandoned by humans (and because of her oracular powers), she wouldn't fit in too well with them either.
- Jim in Becoming the Mask (Trollhunters) starts out working for the bad guys, and does not seem all that bothered that becoming the new Trollhunter would give Bular an actual reason to kill him, joking to Strickler that Bular's Bad Boss tendencies probably would have gotten Jim killed anyway.
- In All Guardsmen Party, Aimy gains a skunk stripe after a grazing shot from an enemy weapon. She is absolutely pissed and during "Tyranid Acquisition Experts" she wanders around asking random people if her hair looks funny and then does "mean things" if they answer wrong. As the narrator notes there was no right answer.
- In ToyHammer, Emma, a past incarnation of the God Emperor, reveals that this is ultimately why the Horus Heresy was allowed to happen: all of the other possible futures would have been much worse for mankind, some much sooner than later.
- One More Trigger has a truly karmic example, when Tattletale calls Coil and tells him that she has the information she was sent to get, and that she needs to be extracted. He splits the timeline, with one version sending a pickup and the other refusing, figuring that whether she's betrayed him or not, he'll just keep whichever one works out better. But the call was actually just to ensure that he would be distracted by her, while the team hits his base. Furthermore, unbeknownst to Tattletale, the very fact that he split the timeline for her meant he was already doomed, since he had to drop his "safe" timeline to do it.
- In Trauma, Mildred faces this kind of dilemma for most of the fic after learning that she has become pregnant as a result of being raped over the summer holidays before her third year; she's obviously too young to raise a child herself even with help from her mother, but at the same time she's uncomfortable at the thought of giving her child up for adoption, as in either case she worries that the child will grow up with various issues from either being outright abandoned or poorly raised. The matter is 'settled' when Agatha Cackle's latest attack causes Mildred to suffer a miscarriage.
- In Risk It All, Ren is put in one of these after an assassin comes for his life. When the police question him, Ren is worried that spilling the beans would put his family in danger. On the other hand, keeping his silence would not necessarily stop Black Mask from coming after Ren again while impeding the police's efforts to stop Black Mask themselves. He ultimately chooses to keep his silence while planning to use his new superpowers to stop Black Mask personally.
