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Playing With: If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him

Basic Trope: After fighting his way to the final villain, the hero lets the villain go to avoid the guilt of killing him.

Straight: After Keith, the villain, killed several people, Bob, the hero, fights his way to Keith. When Bob has Keith at his mercy, he lets Keith go, after Alice, his girlfriend, begs Bob not to "sink to Keith's level".
Exaggerated: Keith has personally tortured, enslaved, and massacred millions of innocent people, and Bob lets him go after Keith merely says "I'm sorry, I can change."
Justified: Keith was being controlled by a dangerous entity, and if Keith is killed, the entity will merely possess Keith's killer instead.
- Keith killed his victims as an act of revenge against his victims, who also killed as another act of revenge. If Bob were to kill Keith, the Cycle of Revenge would continue, and Bob would be yet another link in the bloody chain.
- Bob and Keith are similar in many ways; the only thing that really seperates them is Bob's moral code.
Inverted: Alice urges Bob to Kill Him Already.
Subverted: Alice begs Bob not to sink to Keith's level...by torturing and killing him.
Double Subverted: Alice corrects herself: torturing or killing.
Parodied: Alice begs Bob not to sink to Keith's level as the camera pans across the hundreds of soldiers Steve slaughtered to reach Keith.
- "Well, shit. Can I at least break his legs?"
Deconstructed: Keith continues his reign of terror, and when Bob and Alice return home, instead of being welcomed as heroes, they are demonized, condemned, spat upon, called disgusting words, and later are tried and executed for dereliction of duty and extreme negligence.
Reconstructed: Keith is moved by Bob's gesture of mercy and reforms.
- Keith is taken down by a Karmic Death or Big Damn Villains instead, leaving Bob's hands clean.
- Keith is simply taken to prison (or fictional equivalent of thereof), where he spends the rest of his life, harmless to society.
Zig Zagged:
Alice: "Bob, don't kill him. Don't sink to his level! I don't think you can live with his blood on your hands!"
Bob: "Okay... hey! Wait a minute! I just butchered my way through 500 of his minions to get to him! What's one more life to me now?
Keith: "Bob, forgive me! I know nothing I say or do could give you your Dead Little Sister back, but I am truly, truly sorry."
Bob: "OK!" (turns to leave)
Keith: "Fool..." (Offhand Backhand) "* Hurk... bleagh* "
Bob: "Oopsie... Darned reflexes."(smug look)
Averted: Bob kills Keith without flinching.
Enforced: The show has a young audience, and the executives don't want to convey the message that killing solves problems.
Lampshaded: "Are you really comparing me to Keith after what he's done?"
Invoked: "What will make you any better then me if you kill me? We're Not so Different, when you think about it."
Defied: Bob gives a speech as to why he is justified in killing Keith before doing so.
- " I have to kill him, It's the only way to be sure he never does it again"
Discussed: "If you have a chance to kill Keith, would it be right?"
Conversed: "Wait, you're going to fight your way to Keith and then just let him go?"