Characters being forced to make sadistic decisions in Western Animation.
- Hilariously subverted in an old episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic turns up and impresses all the locals (who are sheep) with his speed, and Robotnik builds a massive race-course and challenges Sonic to a race, then convinces all the sheep (all of them) to bet all their money and then some on Sonic... and then kidnaps Tails, forcing this kind of choice (Sonic either throws the race, or Tails gets it). He then turns the completely broke sheep into his slaves, the scene shifts to an Egyptian style environment where the sheep are as slaves building pyramids... and then Sonic and Tails turn up and completely wreck Robotnik.
- Also subverted in an episode of Sonic Underground, aptly titled "Sonia's Choice". Who does she rescue from the Roboticizer — Sonic or Manic? She chooses to rescue both. Queen Aleena is on hand to rescue Manic in time anyway, so even if she did choose, it would have still ended well.
- In the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Library", even fighting 'blind' Toph could have probably made it more trouble than it was worth for the sandbending bandits to make off with Appa... but she was the only thing keeping the library containing her True Companions from being dragged beneath the dunes.Toph: I'm sorry, Appa.
- In The Legend of Korra episode "A New Spiritual Age", Korra is presented with an even more sadistic choice by Unalaq. Either she opens the Northern Spirit Portal, enabling Vaatu to escape from his prison when the Harmonic Convergence comes, or he'll kill Jinora by destroying her astral body. Korra is horrified, but chooses the first option.
- In the final episodes of Book 3, the Arc Villain Zaheer presents Korra with another sadistic choice after he and the rest of the Red Lotus take the new Air Nation hostage. Either she hands herself over to him, or he'll wipe out the Air Nation. She chooses the first answer, though neither party intends to play fair.
- In Book 4, Kuvira gives Korra the choice of leaving Zaofu peacefully or stay and possibly watch Zaofu and her friends fall.
- Parodied in Avez-vous déjà vu... ?: a villain kidnaps the hero's two girlfriends of the hero, ties each to a bomb in a different part of town, and goes to taunt the hero: Super-Twins, with the power of actually being two people, who save the girls with ridiculous ease. Bonus points for the villain wondering how can Super-Twins win all the time. Double bonus points for the villain being a pair of twins as well.
- In Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2, Merliah must choose whether to lose her legs and stop Eris or keep them and let Eris take over again.
- Hilariously done in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im", where Harley Quinn attempts to engineer one of these for Batman, smugly telling him that he can either rescue Catwoman from the Conveyor Belt o' Doom she is strapped to and let Harley escape, or can let her die whilst subduing and arresting Harley. Unfortunately for her, she's neglected to consider the fact that she's telling this to Batman whilst they're standing next to the conveyor belt's circuit breaker.Harley: ... heh-heh. Good call. Help.
- Beavis And Butthead: During "Massage", the boys are left with two choices. Either give a massage to a disgusting old man, or get arrested for stealing tools from a man earlier in the episode. They (very reluctantly) choose the old man.Beavis: Well, he does have boobs.
- Ben 10's enemies love putting him through this — Ghostfreak telling him to put down the gun or he'll kill Gwen, Vilgax demanding the Omnitrix or he'll kill her... In the Alien Force episode "Primus," Vilgax steals the Omnitrix, dangles the trio over the Codon Stream, and tells Ben that he'll have to show him how to work the Omnitrix to save his friends... and still die afterwards regardless. note
- In the "Hero Time" episode of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Captain Nemesis attempt this by kidnapping Julie and an actress everyone thought Ben was dating (who was clearly not the star of a series of movies based on Twilight), and gives him the choice to save one or the other. Ben saves Julie, but had Kevin and Gwen secretly come so they would save the other one.
- The Captain Planet show has the heroes make such choices, too.
- In "Deadly Ransom", when Captain Planet is taken prisoner, the Planeteers' one option is delivering the ransom (which is nuclear waste) and the other — letting Dr. Blight and Duke Nukem kill the Captain. They find a third solution.
- In "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1", Zarm makes Gaia choose between saving either herself or the Planeteers, whom he has just trapped in a polluted tornado. Being in Mama Bear mode, Gaia rescues "her" kids without a second thought. Unfortunately, when she checks on Ma-Ti, she stops paying attention to Zarm who uses this very moment to attack her.Zarm: Wrong choice, Gaia! Now you lose it all!
- Fat Cat pulls this in an episode of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, simply by threatening to drop two squirrel children as a way to coax the Rescue Rangers into handing over a statue. This might also count as an example of Would Hurt a Child, seeing as he has no problem with placing two children in danger.
- In the Code Lyoko episode "Ultimatum", XANA possesses the principal and abducts Odd and Yumi. The remaining Warriors have to choose to either hand over Aelita to XANA (which would result in her death and eventually the potential deaths/enslavement of the world) or allow XANA to "liquidate" Odd and Yumi. Ulrich's attempt at a third option (taking an EMP bomb Jérémie showed off at the beginning of the episode to disable XANA after locating where he's keeping Odd and Yumi) is derailed by the bomb shorting out his mobile phone so neither Jérémie nor Aelita know if he has succeeded in his rescue or just given XANA another hostage.
- Black Adam offers Captain Marvel one of these in DC Showcase: Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam. It turns out that, ultimate superhero boyscout or not, doing this to Captain Marvel is a BAD IDEA that did not end well for Adam.
- DuckTales (2017): In "From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22", Black Heron tells Mrs. Beakley to surrender the bounce formula or else she'll kill Webby. Beakley quickly complies in order to save her granddaughter.
- In Donkey Kong Country episode "Speed", Diddy and Dixie Kong end up on a mine cart without breaks that has a bomb that will explode if it does stop. (Sound familiar?) This means DK has to choose between saving his friends and sticking around to protect the Crystal Coconut. He finds a compromise; take the Coconut with him as he goes off to save his friends!
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: "If It Smells Like An Ed" has the Eds being accused of ruining Friendship Day and searching for the real culprit (sans the wedgie he gave Jimmy, Eddy is accused of throwing a hockey stick through the Heart of Friendship, Ed of stealing Sarah's paintbrush, and Edd of wiping off Plank's mouth). When they find Jonny Bound and Gagged during this time, the other kids assume they did it and refuse to believe them, leading up to the Eds taking refuge in a shed after following a trail of jujubes that they hoped would lead them to the culprit, where they find the Kanker Sisters waiting for them. The Eds are then left with the choice of being pounded by the kids or making out with the Kankers. They surrender to the kids and get bound to a fence and pelted with fruits and vegetables. Afterwards, it is revealed that the real perpetrator behind everything was Jimmy, wanting revenge for the wedgie Eddy gave him at the start of the episode, which was all the more simple, since the hockey stick that punctured the Heart of Friendship belonged to him. Jimmy had also made a deal with the Kankers during this timespan, so in short, it didn't matter what decision the trio made when they were cornered in the shed.
- Also parodied in Family Guy.Peter: Okay Brian, here's a riddle. A woman has two children and a homicidal maniac makes her choose which one he will kill. Which one does she choose?
Brian: That's not a riddle. That's just terrible!
Peter: Wrong! The ugly one!- Another scene has Peter asked whether he would save Chris or Meg from a homicidal maniac. He says to ask Lois since he isn't good with tough decisions. The cutaway shows him at a video store, unable to choose between renting Ernest Goes to the Beach and Ernest Doesn't Go to the Beach, just as the store's about to close for the day.
- Final Space: Episode 1, The Galaxy 1 ends up in an asteroid field orbiting a moon, with some asteroids damaging the ship, causing Gary and Mooncake to get sucked out into space. As the Asteroids approach them again, Gary is forced to chose between getting killed by the asteroids, or abandoning mooncake and try to make it back to the Galaxy 1 by using his own oxygen supply for propulsion (a move that will only have a chance at succeeding if he performs it alone). He ignores HUE's warnings and tries the oxygen while carrying Mooncake. It fails, but fortunately, Mooncake reveals his own powers, using an energy blast to destroy the asteroids and give Gary the extra momentum he needs.
- At the end of the first 5-part episode of Gargoyles, after Demona turns against them, a misfired rocket launcher sends both her and the gargoyles' new friend Elisa over the edge, Demona apparently unconscious and unable to glide to safety. Goliath can save either his mate (his former mate who, at the time, he still cared for) who had betrayed him, or the human they just met who nevertheless had been honorably on their side. He chooses Elisa; though howls afterwards at Demona's "death." (Later we find that it's a lot harder to kill Demona than that.)
- In He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), Evil-Lyn puts three hostages in death traps and warns He-Man that tampering with any of them will cause the other two to activate.Evil-Lyn: It looks like those gorgeous muscles are completely useless!
There is a flaw in her plan, but ironically, her taunt is what makes him see it; to access the third option, he has to leave and come back as Adam. - In He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021), Cringer is forced into a choice by R'Qazz. Either Cringer fights to the death against the Brainwashed and Crazy tigers of his tribe for R'Qazz's amusement, or he'll have the tigers kill Adam and Krass. Cringer is able to Take a Third Option when he discovers he can transform into Battle Cat without Adam invoking the power of Grayskull.
- Hot Streets had the agents going to a nursery rhyme world where Chubbie Webbers is forced to choose whether a little boy or a little girl will be killed via guillotine based on their singing. He chooses to kill the girl, whose ghost and other characters keep reminding him of what he did.
- Kim Possible plays this when Adrena Lynn makes Kim save both Ron and Brick in this manner. She manages to save them both with ease.
- The Miraculous Ladybug episode "Chat Blanc" features a Bad Future in which Gabriel/Hawk Moth discovers that Chat Noir is his son Adrien and crosses the Moral Event Horizon by revealing that Adrien's mother Emilie is alive but comatose, and forces him to choose between protecting the Miraculouses alongside the girl he loves and using them to revive his mother. The sheer distress caused by the revelations of his father's secret identity and his mother's situation, mixed with the conflicting feelings incited by this trope, leaves Adrien vulnerable to being turned into the titular villain. Even after the transformation, Chat Blanc is still so conflicted that he suffers Power Incontinence that ends up killing everyone in Paris except for himself, including his parents and Ladybug.
- Discord of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic gives one to Rainbow Dash when she encounters him in the labyrinth where the Elements of Harmony are hidden. Discord shows Rainbow Dash that her home Cloudsdale is on the verge of collapse due to her prolonged absence in the labyrinth and thus presents her with the wings that he took from her to prevent her from finding the Elements of Harmony the easy way. Discord gives her the choice of either continuing to wander the labyrinth aimlessly and allowing Cloudsdale to collapse due to her negligence or throwing the search for the Elements and recovering her stolen wings to prevent Cloudsdale's destruction. Rainbow Dash chooses to abandon the Elements and her friends in favor of saving Cloudsdale, thus allowing Discord to wreak chaos on Equestria. It doesn't matter what she chooses, as any of the options will make her go against her Element of Loyalty, which is exactly what Discord wants. He wins either way.
- Both played straight and subverted in Over the Garden Wall: First, The Beast forces one on The Woodsman: let young child Greg's life be consumed by the Edelwood tree so that he would have more oil for the lantern containing his daughter's soul, or lose his daughter's spirit forever. The Woodsman chooses the latter, fighting to save Greg instead. Later, The Beast gives a similar choice to Greg's older half-brother Wirt: take the Woodsman's place as lantern bearer and he'll place Greg's soul within it, otherwise Wirt can just watch his brother slowly die. Wirt completely rejects this by pointing out that both choices are stupid, before quickly piecing together that the lantern really contains The Beast's soul. The Beast is not pleased at this.
- On the Phineas and Ferb episode "The Beak", they have to choose between rescuing their friend Isabella or a crowd of random spectators from the villain of the week. Fortunately, each brother can split up and go save them both.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In the climax of "Not So Awesome Blossom", Mojo has captured Professor Utonium and has him Bound and Gagged on a small platform over a lava pit, with Buttercup and Bubbles on pads to even out the balance. If the two ever move from their pads, this will cause the Professor to fall into the lava; if Blossom tries to stop Mojo, he will activate a remote which will also make the Professor fall. And the only thing Blossom can do to protect the Professor is if she bows down to Mojo and swears allegiance with him. Blossom unsurprisingly decides to Take a Third Option and stomps on her walkway, making it extend underneath Mojo and send him flying; she then has Buttercup and Bubbles to save the Professor and Mojo simultaneously.
- In the Rick and Morty episode "Morty's Mind Blowers", one of the mind blowers shows an alien has captured the family and tells Beth she must choose which child to save. She immediately picks Summer. Even the alien that demanded she choose is surprised by how quickly she did so.
- The Season 1 finale of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sees the turtles captured by Baron Draxum and the Foot Clan. The scroll of Splinter's ancestors inform him he has two choices: either surrender the final piece of the Dark Armor to the Foot in exchange for their lives, or go into hiding with said piece, saving the world but leaving his sons to die. Splinter proceeds to shred the scroll and declare his intent to save both.
- Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?: In "One Minute Mysteries", The Flash has been hanging around with the gang, trying to speed up their mystery solving so he (as Barry Allen) can go back to eating with Shaggy and Scooby. The Trickster kidnaps Fred, Daphne and Velma and ties them to separate poles in a factory full of bomb-holding teddy bears, believing that even Flash can't get all of them out before the bombs go off. He can either let two of them die or save all three by unmasking before a group of TV cameras.
- One episode of the Secret Squirrel segment of 2 Stupid Dogs had a race car driver named Hot Rodney attempt to prevent Secret Squirrel from beating him in the race by having his mechanic kidnap Morocco Mole and have him tied up somewhere far from the racing track with a belt of dynamite strapped to him, forcing Secret to choose between rescuing his friend at the cost of losing the race or beating the race while letting his friend die. Secret manages to rescue Morocco, and while he loses the race in the end, he tricks Hot Rodney into wearing the dynamite belt that was strapped to Morocco in order to give the villain some last-minute comeuppance.
- The Simpsons parodies this in the "Rosebud" episode, with an example more trivial than most. Burns takes over all television networks available to Springfield, telling the whole town that he's not giving them back their television until someone steals Maggie's teddy bear and puts it on his desk. Cut to an angry mob outside the Simpson home stealing the teddy bear from her, only to return it out of regret once they see Maggie, visibly upset, trying to crawl over to take it back.
- In "Treehouse of Horror X", Lisa has been given a slot on a spaceship escaping a doomed Earth, but is informed she can only bring along one family member. Lisa instantly chooses Marge, leaving Homer and Bart behind to die.
- South Park
- Parodied in "Towelie" when Towelie has the choice of keeping the boys from falling into an acid tank or getting high. He chooses both by stretching over to get the joint.
- In "Safe Space" PC Principal forces Butters to manage Cartman's social media and filter out any negative comments and toxicity he finds or else he'll earn two weeks of detention at school, which would get him grounded by his Abusive Parents at home. The problem escalates out of control when PC Principal has Butters manage the social media of other celebrities (such as Steven Seagal and Demi Lovato) and causes Butters to go insane and run around the school naked when Reality threatens to kill him. Kyle tells Butters to just quit what he's doing and simply accept PC Principal's detention and his parents' grounding. Butters then tries to kill himself to avoid either fate.
- Spider-Man loves this trope. Spider-Man: The Animated Series has Green Goblin do a similar trick as in the movie with pre-Black Cat Felicia Hardy and her mother. Here though Spidey saves Felicia and lets Mrs. Hardy fall, assuming Goblin himself would save her instead because he needed her for his scheme. He's right and both live, although Goblin gets away with her.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "For Here or to Go", Plankton ends up winning a free Krabby Patty in a bun seed guessing contest, and Mr. Krabs is forced by the Bogus Business Bureau to either give Plankton the patty, otherwise they will shut down the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs instead decides to Take a Third Option and turns Plankton's motives against him by actually forcing him to eat the patty he won.
- In the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "Storm the Castle", Star is forced to choose between giving up her wand and letting Marco be slowly crushed to death. She chose the former, and it turns out Toffee didn't want Star's wand, he wanted her to destroy it.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Voyage of Temptation", the bad guy of the episode is about to escape when Obi-Wan and Duchess Satine corner him. However, as lampshaded by the villain, they're in a bit of a quandary: if Satine kills him, she'll save the day at the cost of her pacifist morals. If Obi-Wan kills him, he'll be lauded as a hero by everyone on the ship... well, almost everyone. Thankfully, Anakin is able to sort this out.
- Star Wars Rebels: In "Through Imperial Eyes", Agent Kallus gets Lieutenant Lyste off his back during a stressful situation by getting him to follow Governor Pryce under the implication she might be Fulcrum. In the end, the situation gets bad enough that Kallus, the actual Fulcrum, chooses to stay in case he can get more useful intel, but in order to do so he frames Lyste as being Fulcrum. The look on his face as Lyste is dragged away implies it wasn't a decision he particularly enjoyed making.
- Static Shock: In "Fallen Hero", Green Lantern is chasing Sinestro when Sinestro knocks over a billboard. Sinestro tells him to choose between catching him or stopping the billboard from falling on some people. Fortunately, Static and Gear show up and catch the billboard for him.
- A heroic example in Steven Universe. In the episode "That Will be All", Holly Blue Agate threatens to report the Crystal Gems to the Diamonds, who will shatter them for their rebellion. Pearl quickly shuts her up by remarking that if she did that, the Diamonds would not be pleased with the fact that Holly let their greatest enemies escape with Steven and Greg. Either Holly can report them and face the consequences, or she can keep her mouth shut to save her own skin.
- Teen Titans: "If you join me, if you swear to serve me, if you never speak to your friends again, I will allow them to live. But... if you disobey even the smallest request... I will annihilate them Robin, and I'll make you watch. So... do we have a deal?"
- Later in Part 2 Robin pulls the same trick on Slade, infecting himself with the same nanites, giving Slade the choice of letting him and his team live or losing a promising disciple. Slade ends up choosing the former.
- In the Transformers: Animated Pilot Movie, Starscream pulls one of these to show that the Decepticons in this series are no laughing matter: after giving the Autobots a sound beating, he shoots Bumblebee, critically wounding him (and he was actually aiming for Sari; Bumblebee took the hit), tosses him into a train car that holds the Mayor of Detroit, the human sidekick's father, and various other civilians, then flies it to the top of a building, giving the Autobots one megacycle
(about an hour) to surrender the All Spark to him before he kills the hostages and, to raise the stakes even more, attempts to take the All Spark the hard way, cutting a swath of destruction across the Earth until he finds it himself. And to complicate things further, none of these Autobots can fly... So the third option involves using the All Spark as bait while they attempt a rescue mission.- In the three-part "The Ultimate Doom" episode of The Transformers, Megatron plans to bring Cybertron into Earth's orbit in order to destroy Earth and harvest the energy. If the plan fails, however, Cybertron will be destroyed. Megatron forces Optimus Prime to choose which planet will be lost. Luckily, Prime thinks of a better solution.
- Lampshaded ("Great. The old 'save your partner or lose the weapon' gag") and served with extra sadism in Armada. The "partner" turned out to be The Mole.
- Transformers: Cybertron Starscream has gone on a Foe-Tossing Charge, being a Determinator in the extreme in the process, and beaten all of the Autobot army to seize the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys. Optimus Prime manages to knock them from his grasp (and knock out Screamer in the process). Starscream recovers to see the artifacts nearly back in Prime's hands... so he fires a missile at the human companions and the Recon Mini-Con team. Optimus has to change course to both shoot down the missile and block the blast, enabling Starscream to purloin the MacGuffins. One might briefly wonder why Jolt didn't warp them out of harm's way, but then one remembers that A. Jolt is panic-prone, and B. Creating dimension gates is a strain on him, and he'd already done it twice just a couple minutes before, the second time moving a rather large Autobot to safety.
- Winx Club has an episode in Season 3 where half the girls are sent into a maze to retrieve the water stars which will supposedly save the world from Valtor. However, inside the maze, the girls are tempted with an example of this trope: Tecna can obtain the magical item in exchange for giving up her emotions, abandoning her friends and boyfriend and not being able to feel any feelings at all again; Musa has the option of seeing her dead mother again and bringing her back to life; and Stella would have to give up her face. The effect is diminished when the Reset Button is hit after they all do the right thing and save the world, making the sacrifice half as meaningful.
