You Have Outlived Your Usefulness / Anime & Manga

Warning: Often serves as a Death Trope, and frequently involves spoilers.

Times where villains aim to eliminate some no-longer necessary minions or other loose ends in Anime and Manga.

---

• After God: Ahu'az disposes of Yon the moment it becomes apparent Waka's eyes had an effect on her.
• In the anime adaptation of Ai no Kusabi, this overlaps with Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves. Iason has successfully used former Bison gang member Kirie to sell out and destroy the gang in a Batman Gambit. When Kirie shows up to collect his reward money, he's instead taken by an android posing as Iason. He's not killed, but his mind is altered and he's turned into an unthinking and obedient Pet.
• In Attack on Titan, this is the ultimate fate of all Warriors. When their Tenure is close to ending and their powers begin to wane, a successor is selected to eat them in order to inherit their powers. Should a Warrior act out or make mistakes, their superiors will consider whether to end their Tenure early. It's revealed that Reiner Braun narrowly avoided this fate after failing his mission. It took 4 years of exceptional military service on the front lines to get his superiors to allow him to finish his Tenure.
• Baccano!:
  • This is common with Szilard, who considers anybody to be disposable, including homunculi created from his own cells, to misfit gangsters given an incomplete immortality serum just to ensure that they are easy to dispose of — if you think that's a contradiction, you need to watch the show.
  • Huey also views the Lemeurs, including his own doting daughter, as this.
• Emperor Barodius, the third Big Bad from Bakugan, was a big fan of this as well as You Have Failed Me. If he didn't kill you, he'd brainwash you instead.
  • Mag Mel, the Big Bad after Barodius, outright told his Co-Dragons when he created them that the moment they were no longer of use to him, their lives would end. When Mistress Sellon actually does outlive her usefulness, he promptly kills her in an absolutely chilling way as she's pleading for him to spare her, then eats her energy to fuel himself. He then does the exact same thing to Anubias in the next episode.
  • Back in the first season, Masquerade also subjected his original Bakugan Partner Reaper to this after he got his hands on the significantly stronger Hydranoid. During a 2-on-1 brawl against Dan and Shun, Masquerade ends up putting both Reaper and Hydranoid on a gate card that only allows one Bakugan to survive, and then sends Reaper to the Doom Dimension. When Dan calls him out on it, Masquerade merely replies that Reaper's services are no longer needed.
• In Battle Girls: Time Paradox, Ieyasu acquires the Crimson Armor and goes mad with power. She declares she doesn't need her minions anymore and blasts them out of the building. Despite this, they remain loyal to her, and return to her service when she is defeated and the armor is destroyed.
• Bleach:
  • The Big Bad of the first half, Sosuke Aizen, does this to three characters (Momo Hinamori, Rukia Kuchiki, and Tier Harribel) at different times. And yet all three of them survived.
  • Likewise, the Big Bad of the Bount filler arc loved doing this, to the point where "you were just pawns" almost seems like his Character Catchphrase.
  • During the Lost Agent arc, the reader learns that Soul Society planned to do this to Ichigo, namely by using them as bait to lure out Kugo Ginjo and then kill both. However, after Ichigo defeated Aizen, they changed their minds, to the point that the entire Gotei 13 loaned some of their reiatsu to restore his powers just in time for Ichigo to defeat Kugo.
  • Furthermore, the Big Bad of the second half of the series, Yhwach, kills Luders Friegen after the latter finished his task.
  • One of the Sternritters, Robert Accutrone, panics on realizing their leader Yhwach has left them behind. That means they're no longer useful to him and are nothing more than fodder for his Auswählen, his energy absorption ability, which subsequently kills said subordinate and several others. Out of the targeted Ritters, only three (Liltotto, Giselle and Bazz-B) managed to dodge it and survive.
  • In the climax of the final arc, Yhwach suddenly decides he doesn't need any of his subordinates and performs another Auswählen to wipe them all out. That turned out to bite him in the ass, however, as not only did it save the Soul Reapers and Uryuu from dying at the hands of two of the most powerful Sternritters, but Haschwalth chooses in his dying moments to heal Uryuu's near-fatal wounds, which allows him to fuck up Yhwach at the critical moment Ichigo needs to finish him off.
• Alphard from Canaan simply decides to discard Liang Qi by deliberately leaving her behind in a building that is about to be bombed. Liang Qi survives the betrayal, but boy howdy does she ever lose it.
• In A Certain Magical Index, the organization GREMLIN tends to do this to its low-level members. GREMLIN considers anybody who isn't privy to the organization's true objectives to be expendable.
• In "Cheat Skill "Shisha Sosei" ga Kakusei Shite, Inishie no Maougun wo Fukkatsu Sasete Shimaimashita", the main character Licht pretty much gave his party members Nigh-Invulnerability with his special ability Resurrection. It was essentially Save Scumming. However, now that they’ve been Taught by Experience and no longer screw up and die during the quests, they see his ability as worthless. No longer wanting to share rewards, they tipped the king off to his ability and the king ordered his death.
• In Claymore, Priscilla tells Raki that he has outlived his usefulness to her and that she is hungry after seven years of not eating... and saves his life from the Destroyer's rods.
  • In general, this is also the Organization's attitude toward Claymores who have become too old, troublesome or know too many things.
• Code Geass has its Anti-Hero protagonist, Lelouch, do this with mind-controlled enemies. Somewhat justified by pragmatism. One of the occasions he doesn't really comes back to bite him in the ass on more than a few occasions.
  • Then, as a subversion, his "allies" do it to him when they are convinced that he's brainwashed them all. They get away with it, too... sort of.
  • At the beginning of R2 Lelouch is stripped of his memories by Charles and used in a plan to lure out C.C., so when the Britannian soldiers find C.C., they plan to kill Lelouch since he's fulfilled his purpose. Invoked early on by Charles when he declares Lelouch and Nunnally weak and has them sent as bargaining chips to Japan, which is subsequently invaded with them still there. Lelouch survives, but now he's really pissed. It's later revealed that Charles did this not to use them, but to hide them from his murderous and deceitful immortal brother, V.V.
• In Cross Ange, Big Bad Embryo does this a lot. When he buys the loyalty of his thralls through kind and selfless acts, he will shed no tears should he decide to leave them, and intends the destruction of everyone, including them. He even did this to Jill before the story began, and later ends up killing her in the penultimate episode despite her being his old girlfriend. He even leaves the Diamond Rose Knights on his own so he can try and catch Ange so he may force her to marry him; this results in Tanya and Irma both being brutally killed by the DRAGONs, and Salia and Chris to go completely bonkers when they realize they were just used by a man they thought cared for them.
• In Death Note, this is is the fate of almost everyone used by Light Yagami, even if they are close to him, so that he can safely cover his tracks after they had served their purpose. Also the fate of many pawns that served under The Mafia group of Mello, especially when they were trying to get the titular Artifact of Doom. Surprisingly, the last use of the trope in the story wasn't done by either of those two, but by Ryuk on Light himself because Light had been permanently stopped from killing and thus no longer held his interest — reminding us that, despite his personality as a lovable goof, Ryuk is still a Shinigami to the core.
• Digimon V-Tamer 01: Etemonkey, an Etemon, was Daemon's second in command, and a huge pain in the ass for Taichi and Zero. And then, within eight pages of Neo Saiba's debut, he Jogresses Devimon and Ogremon and kills him.
  • Digimon Adventure: Upon his rebirth, VenomMyotismon promptly devours Demidevimon, his sole remaining loyal minion. He also does this quite famously to Arukenimon in Digimon Adventure 02.
  • Digimon Tamers features a non-villainous example: Renamon strings along the Deva Vajramon (who has an interest in her) in order to get information regarding his master. Once she has the information, she basically tells him to get lost (and ends up destroying him after digivolving into Taomon).
• In .hack//SIGN: Morganna attacks Tsukasa after Tsukasa brings Subaru to the hidden area where Aura was held. This too used an alternate phrase, "I don't need you anymore."
• Dragon Ball:
  • In the first Dragon Ball Z arc, Vegeta kills his longtime partner Nappa because he was no longer useful since Goku had paralyzed him.
  • Invoked verbatim by Perfect Cell in the English dub of Kai, spoken about his Cell Games ring, of all things.
  • Demon King Piccolo back in Dragon Ball, in regards to Pilaf, Mai, and Shu after they set him free and helped him gather the Dragon Balls to restore his youth. He unceremoniously threw the hapless trio out of their airship.
  • Babidi's Establishing Character Moment is having Spopopvich and Yamu executed on the spot as soon as they give him Gohan's siphoned Ki. The Supreme Kai even states outright that Babidi always has his minions killed when he doesn't need them anymore. Amusingly enough, when Babidi finds out they brought him far more energy than he thought they did, he thinks he didn't give them enough credit and maybe he should have kept them around after all, though he just shrugs and thinks it's still no big deal. Later, Babidi lets Buu kill Dabura for similar reasons, and this ultimately contributes to Babidi's end when Buu turns on him- with no minions left to save him, Babidi is swiftly killed.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', Freeza kills all 1000 of his own Mooks with a single attack after they're defeated by the Z-Fighters. Dragon Ball Super changed this by instead having them get caught in the energy released when Freeza assumes his true form, but considering who we're talking about he'd probably label it a happy accident.
• In Excel♡Saga, Il Palazzo abandons Excel to die on a desert island, and throws Elgala out on the street once she reveals she knows Competent!Excel is an imposter. She then uses a corpse-like Hyatt's authorization to regain access to the base, a long while later.
• Brain from Fairy Tail pulled this on Cobra after the later's failure to defeat Natsu. This was bad for two reasons: One, Cobra was just about to kill a barely conscious Natsu, who would go on to defeat Brain or rather, his Superpowered Evil Side, Zero, and two, Cobra survived and after the Time Skip, would pay Brain back full-force in front of the other members of their group after they were released (through Cobra's own actions at that) from prison, with not a single one caring. Probably should have thought that one through better.
• As the trope image shows, the Homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist are prolific perpetrators of this trope, Greed being the exception.
  • In one of the translations, Lust actually says this line to-a-T to Cornello in the first volume of the manga... Right before she impales his head with her ultimate spear (See page image). In the 2003 anime, Gluttony eats Cornello instead, but the idea is the same.
  • Also, in the 2003 anime, Dante does this to anyone who she surfs into. Lyra learned this the hard way.
  • An example of the "more useful dead" variation: the gold-toothed alchemist was in charge of readying the five sacrifices needed for the Promised Day. When he fails to get Mustang to perform human transmutation and as such become the fifth and final sacrifice, Wrath and Pride swoop in, mortally wound the doc, and use him as the raw material in a transmutation that they force upon Mustang.
  • Father tries this on Hohenheim, Roy, Izumi, and the Elric brothers after they have fulfilled their role as his "sacrifices". Luckily, Hohenheim is able to protect them all with the power of his philosopher's stone.
  • The sheer extent that the Homunculi do this really can't be overstated: They regularly have scientists develop new methods of producing Philosophers Stones, then murder them all, and use them as the ingredients for said new stones. They slaughter all of Greed's henchmen when they side with Greed after he splits from them. Greed himself is destroyed and recreated without his memories for refusing to work for them. Kimblee is absorbed by Pride when the latter decides his only remaining use is as a power booster. Barry the Chopper does a Heel–Face Turn expressly because he understands that they're going to murder him once he's not useful anymore. Most notably, the military high command has been promised that when Father activates the nationwide transmutation circle for the mass human sacrifice, they'll be in the safe zone and become gods with him; when the time actually comes, Father doesn't even bother trying to inform them and simply begins the ritual, having always intended for them to die with everybody else.
• Nakago of Fushigi Yuugi does this to one of his fellow Seiryuu warriors after he receives the MacGuffin he was ordered to steal (although this is partly because the man's "human form" was killed, making him little more than a smart wolf).
• In Chapter 81 of Gunslinger Girl, Giacomo Dante has been captured and the Turin facility secured, then tanks roll in, PFC Aprea is arrested and the SWA is being told to surrender to the military. Turns out, the Prime Minister now seeks to pin the whole incident on the SWA and get them labelled an anti-government organization.
• In Gushing Over Magical Girls, Once Lord Enorme has served her purpose of having Utena and co.'s magical powers grow stronger, Venalita orders Sister Gigant to crush her former boss to death.
• Hakuron from Haou Airen does this several times. It's very, very bitterly lampshaded by Reilan right before he shoots her dead for setting up his current girlfriend Kurumi to be gangraped.
  Reilan: "Kurumi! Take a good look at him! This is the fate destined to those who aren't useful to Hakuron anymore!"
• Ino-Head Gargoyle: After Takeshi gets identified by the police and they raid his apartment, the leader of the Blue Rose gang says he'll have to pay for his mistake with his life. He shows up in Tokyo Bay the next day.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders: DIO decides that Enya had outlived her usefulness after she was defeated and sends Steely Dan to kill her to protect the secret of his Stand even though she hadn't disclose it even as she was dying.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: In a reverse take on this; Akira Otoishi, one of the several Stand Users struck by Keicho Nijimura's arrow, kills Keicho after considering he's made enough Stand Users for his desires and takes the arrow for his own amusements.
  • Golden Wind: Melone uses a random woman to create Baby Face's Junior, and he has no problem with letting it eat her after it's been born.
  • Stone Ocean: After Johngalli A. incapacitates Jotaro along with another person's Stand, Whitesnake, who had converted Jotaro's soul into a disc and took it out of him, swipes Johngalli A.'s gun and shoots him in the head, killing the only person in the world who knew his User's identity.
  • JoJolion: Poor Tom neglected to tell Jobin that he'd be in range of Ozon Baby's devastating abilities once he received the branch. He gets the same treatment when his allies shoot him and take the fake branch.
• Kill la Kill: Once her Evil Plan is entering its final stages, Ragyo Kiryuin "rewards" all the employees of her company by gathering them up at headquarters and feeding them all to Life Fiber COVERS, having decided their only remaining use is as Power-Up Food. Not long after, she does nearly the exact same thing to her Dragon Nui Harime as part of a last ditch effort to defeat the heroes and salvage the plan. Unlike the aforementioned employees, Nui is crazy and blindingly loyal enough to accept outliving her usefulness gladly, even doing the deed on Ragyo's behalf by chopping her own head off.
• Subverted in Macross Frontier. Various baddies attempt to do so a couple of times, but it always fails.
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Due, after killing Regius tells Zest that his "usefulness and (his) revenge are at an end". In an inversion of the typical result of this trope, Zest kills her.
• Mazinger Z: In Episode 31, three workers of the Photon Atomic Research Institute were kidnapped by The Dragon and hypnotized in piloting the latest batch of Mechanical Beasts Big Bad Dr. Hell had built (Megaron P1, P2, and P3). However one of the weapons of Megaron generated such a heat blast would surely kill whoever was sitting in the cockpit. Hell and Ashura knew the three men surely would die during the battle, but as long as they died after they would have fulfilled their purpose, they did not care.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, General Septem is tricked by Lady Une on behalf of OZ to give a live speech (aboard a plane fleeing the attack of the New Edwards Base) condemning peace with the space colonies and reaffirming Earth's resolve to the war. After ending the broadcast, Lady Une calmly and politely informs the General that his "services were no longer required," immediately before opening a hatch under his seat. Then shooting him in the head on his way down.
• In Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Ax-Crazy Fuala gets a pilot to help her in a plan against Uso's Gundam. After the plan succeeds, she shoots the pilot in the face. Ironically, the pilot was named Kill.
• This is standard procedure for Johan in Monster. Anyone who's come into contact with him for whatever reason tend to die shortly after their role has been played.
• In My-HiME, the Obsidian Lord does this with his First District followers, including the Omniscient Council of Vagueness, by having Nagi tell Shizuru where they are, and she kills them for Natsuki's sake.
• Naruto:
  • At the very start of the story, Mizuki manipulates Naruto into stealing the scroll of forbidden jutsu, then plans on disposing of Naruto once he's done. Thankfully, Naruto defeats Mizuki using the technique he learned.
  • Orochimaru does this to two members of the Sound Genin team, using them as living sacrifices required for the Edo Tensei technique. The third (and smartest) realized that Orochimaru saw them as Unwitting Pawns before this and decided he would try and throw a wrench into his plans as payback... but picked the wrong way to do it and got killed, with Kabuto commenting that he had outlived his usefulness long ago just like the others.
  • This trope comes back to haunt Orochimaru himself later as Sasuke absorbs him after having learned everything that he could.
  • Sasuke also does this later with Karin when Danzo uses her as a human shield.
  • Before the start of the Fourth Ninja World War, Tobi does this to Konan, in order to grab Nagato's Rinnegan.
  • During the Jubi revival arc, Madara has Black Zetsu take control of Obito's body in order to fully revive Madara. Obito escapes the first attempt but not the second.
  • Madara himself ends up becoming victim to this when Black Zetsu literally backstabs him and reveals that he's actually working for Kaguya Otsutsuki.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, despite having successfully held off the Ala Rubra till the ceremony to bring about The End of the World as We Know It was over, the Big Bad in a sneak attack shot both Nagi and Primum through the chest with a high piercing Death Ray. This wasn't due to Primum being a casualty in the way, because of the way the two were facing: Nagi's back turned to the direction of the on-coming attack. By the way that Nagi had Neck Lifted Primum, he likely watched the Black Cloaked villain as the beam was fired, smiling as it did.
  • And then he did the exact same thing with Fate and Negi, after Fate had decided to stop fighting Negi.
• The Ninja Gaiden OVA has the Man Behind the Man say this almost word for word when offing the scientist that he blackmailed into recreating the Evil Gods.
• Happens in Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan to both subordinates and Unwitting Pawns. In order:
  • Tamazuki kills Hari Onna unceremoniously in order to boost the power of the Mao's Hammer.
  • As soon as Hagoromo Gitsune succeeds in giving birth to Abe no Seimei again, Seimei himself throws her down to hell. Hagoromo returns in the final arc, understandably less than pleased with him, and proves instrumental in bringing about his death.
  • Despite orchestrating almost every major threat in the series up until that point, Sanmoto's Brain is betrayed by Enchou upon the latter seeing how useless he is.
• One Piece:
  • In the very first chapter, Higuma, having incurred the wrath of Shanks and his men by threatening to kill Shanks' young friend Luffy, escapes to sea with Luffy as a hostage. Confident that he's far enough away, he decides to throw Luffy overboard and let him drown, since he no longer needs Luffy and wants to make Luffy pay for angering him. Moments later, the Lord of the Coast eats Higuma.
  • Although no special line is used, this is the reason Captain Kuro tries to kill his entire crew, since he no longer needs them, and can't allow anyone who knows his true identity to live.
  • This also happened to Nico Robin when she was Miss All-Sunday, The Dragon for Baroque Works. Might be subverted, since she never intended to give her boss, Crocodile, the information he wanted anyway.
    • Not that Crocodile is a stranger to this trope himself. You're dead to him if you fail once, and if you're lucky you might get a second chance, but there's no way in hell a third's coming. Only Mr. 1 Daz Bonez is exempt from this, mostly because he's the only subordinate Crocodile actually likes.
  • The World Government does this to Gecko Moria, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea (powerful pirates that work for the government) after the Marineford War, due to both his poor performance in said war and his previous defeat at the hands of Luffy, deeming him too weak to be effective as a Warlord. He does manage to escape, however.
  • In the Dressrossa Arc, in the B Block matches of the tournament, the contestants from Prodence form an alliance with the others, then when their allies grow weak, start picking them off so that their king will be the one who advances onward. Unfortunately, for them, one of them, Blue Gilly, realizes what they're up to, and defeats Dagama when Dagama tries to literally and figuratively stab Blue Gilly in the back, saying "I can't fathom who would be stupid enough to trust a slimy toad like you in the first place!!!"
  • Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin has a tendency to cast aside the fathers of her many offspring once she gives birth to said children. The Straw Hats meet Pound, whom Big Mom abandoned before he could even properly meet his children, Chiffon and Lola.
  • Kaido works with Kurozumi Orochi to get control over Wano, a proper base, and a steady weapon supply. After getting everything he needs and deciding he's ready to declare war on the whole world, Kaido decides to make Wano the new base of his operations, re-christening it as "New Onigashima"; and when Orochi protests, he immediately and casually cleaves Orochi's head off. Orochi, however, survives -he only got one of his eight snake heads cleaved- and wants payback.
  • During the latest Reverie, the kings and queens of the World Government's member nations vote to abolish the Seven Warlords of the Sea, after which their frozen bounties are immediately reinstated and updated. The biggest reason this happens (besides the fact that at least two Warlords have abused their positions to bring entire countries to the brink of ruin in the past) is because Vegapunk and the Special Science Group under his command have developed a new weapon powerful enough to replace the Seven Warlords (no mean feat, considering how powerful the Seven Warlords are). Said weapon, the Seraphim, are the latest iteration of the Pacifista program: clones of the original Seven Warlords spliced with Lunarian DNA and augmented with cybernetics, laser beams and artificially replicated Devil Fruit powers. Vegapunk does not exaggerate when he calls them "the strongest form of humanity." Knowing the kind of pull they have on worldwide politics, the Five Elders likely only allowed the Seven Warlords to be abolished because their replacement is fully under their control.
• Pretty Cure: Bel from Doki Doki! PreCure pulls this on Leva and Gula in Episode 31 when they got weakened from their battle against Precure that he absorbs their dark energy, killing them off.
• Pokémon provides many non-lethal examples:
  • In Pokémon Adventures, Archie rewards his very loyal and very competent henchman, who successfully managed to steal the Blue Orb for him and is now inside a submarine, asking for a hand up, by sending the sub off after removing the device that equalized the pressure inside, effectively leaving the poor guy for dead. Apparently it would have been too much of an effort to pull him up. The henchman barely manages to make it to the surface but sadly, he goes in denial, refusing to believe that his boss abandoned him, and fights on to make sure no one stops Kyogre.
    • Cyrus is just as big an example, ignoring his loyal Admins to go into the world he intended to create.
  • In the anime, we have Paul. When a Pokémon of his doesn't perform up to his expectations, it is released back into the wild.
    • Not as extreme an example, but in Pokémon: The First Movie, Mewtwo has put the local Nurse Joy under mind control to act as a sort of greeter to the people he has lured onto New Island, and upon revealing himself and sending one of the guests who tried to attack him flying through the room, he tells Nurse Joy her usefulness has ended and lifts her from the mind control to face her fate with the rest of the humans. Granted, Mewtwo was more of an Affably Evil Pokemon than a Bad Boss, but this is still an example.
    • In a two-part episode, Team Rocket helps an Evil Chancellor depose a rightful king and take over the Kingdom. When the trio try to collect their reward from him, he tells them that he no longer needs them and blasts them away. They respond by pulling a brief Heel–Face Turn and secretly helping Ash and his friends restore the king.
• Genkishi from Reborn! (2004) had this happen to him seemingly just to show that people can actually die.
  • And Xanxus kept apparently doing this to all of his underlings whenever they lost matches with Tsuna's guardians, laughing about how they're trash... only for it to be revealed that not a single one of them actually did die.
• Rosario + Vampire: Gyokuro implies at one point that she'll do this to Akua, claiming she can't actually trust her because Akua is only her adoptive daughter. Ironically, she herself is subjected to this at the hands of the Masked Man, the real leader of Fairy Tale, who instead of saving her from being consumed by Alucard when he could easily have done so, stands back and watches her die.
• Sailor Moon:
  • In the Episode 13 of the original series, Queen Beryl gives Jadeite one last chance to defeat the guardians. After losing again, he attempts to reveal their identities only for Beryl to freeze him solid in a giant crystal.
  • Mistress 9 does this to Kaolinite in the third season, which also happens to be the only season in which the "You Have Failed Me" trope is not used. Considering how nasty Kaolinite had been to Mistress 9's host body, Hotaru, this was also motivated by revenge.
  • Sailor Iron Mouse is killed by Galaxia in Stars after one failure too many, by means of removing her bracelets.
• Zako Red in SD Gundam Force gets deactivated by Commander Sazabi as soon as he's finished helping the invasion of Neotopia commence. This is particularly stupid because, aside from Zako Red, Sazabi was more or less Surrounded by Idiots.
  • However, the show implies rather strongly that Zako Red is simply a drone operated by Sazabi to allow him to carry out his plans without revealing himself.
  • And it turns out the Zakos and their bumbling commanders are only a small iteration of the Dark Axis anyway, as shown by the Doga Commandos and the villains that appear in the second half of the series.
  • Later on, once the General, leader of the Dark Axis, develops the power to absorb gundams through a combination tractor beam/dimensional portal, Sazabi's superior Professor Gerbera decides there's no point in maintaining the alliance he had with Kibaomaru's forces.
• In Shakugan no Shana, Sorath steals Shana's Nietono no Shana, which he had always coveted, and callously throws away his Blutsauger, saying it is worthless to him now. This bites him in the ass when Shana picks up Blutsauger and continues the fight.
• In the first season of Slayers, Eris created a copy of Rezo after the real one died. She blames the original's death on Lina and her friends and tries to kill them by unlocking "Rezo's Legacy". Eris released the power of Zanifar, which is absorbed into Copy Rezo. No sooner after this, Copy Rezo kills Eris because she no longer serves a purpose for him.
• In Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry, when Ralph finds the other Emily aboard the Libertad and knows that the traitor is about to move against him, he throws a coup and kills the rest of Medlock's crew, only keeping her around until she too "serves her purpose".
• In Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale, Eiji joins up with Shigemura in the hopes of restoring the consciousness of the deceased Yuna, by stealing the memories of the SAO survivors (a process that might kill them all). After he gets beaten by Kirito, he tries to remind his employer that he promised to reunite him with Yuna, but Shigemura then says that, since Eiji spent the most time with Yuna, his memories are the most important ones and they'll be taken as well, much to his shock.
• Subverted in the final arc of The Twelve Kingdoms anime. Kouya has been manipulating Enki with a baby boy held in the mouth of his pet youma Rokuta, using the baby's life as ransom to take advantage of Enki's compassionate nature as a kirin. Once Enki agrees to remain a hostage, he reminds Kouya that he doesn't need the baby as leverage anymore. Rather than let Rokuta devour the child — which would be far more expected in context — Kouya releases the poor baby and tells a servant to make sure he is returned to his parents.
• Usagi-chan de Cue!!: The regular mooks realize that their bosses are perfectly willing to expend them in order to eradicate merged beings, and leave no loose ends to the genocide.
• Orikakan gets this from Niwe in Utawarerumono in the form of an arrow through the neck.
• Windaria The Big Bad quotes the trope name when speaking about Alan.
• Fuuma does this to Kusanagi in the X/1999 movie after the latter gets his arm dismembered by the protagonists. The result is a Rain of Blood. The manga and anime versions of Fuuma do similar things.
• The Ys II OVA has Darm off Dares in accordance with this trope. Even though Dares was actually winning.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, Bandit Keith does this with Zygor, Sid, and Bonz when Bonz loses in a duel.
  • And in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, after Seto Kaiba has done enough damage to Yami Yugi and afterwards attempts and fails to destroy his Pyramid of Light card with his Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, Anubis appears and ambushes him, grabbing him by the head, tossing him aside and knocking him unconscious before taking his place in the duel with Yami, while saying, "You have served me well, little worm. But You Have Outlived Your Usefulness!"
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Alexander has no qualms with sacrificing his servants' monsters and banishing them from the game. He tries to convince Yugi to do the same, but gets called out about it.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: The Three Emperors of Yliaster do this to Jeager and Team Catastrophe. They survive thanks to the heroes.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: The third-party villain Tron considers his own sons expendable, and after they lose their duels, uses their life forces to empower his own secret weapon.
• In Zatch Bell!, Gash's evil twin Zeon hires a demon named Baltro to kidnap Kiyomaro's father and lure Gash into a battle. When Baltro and his partner fail to burn Gash's book, Zeon promptly burns Baltro's, stating that all losers in battles must return to the demon world and that those are the rules.

---