History KickTheDog / VideoGames

** Even worse was the fact that she just promised Nino that she would hug her, ''just once'', if she finished the mission. Worse still, she kills her foster father and reveals that she killed her entire family of mages when she was a baby, by using her as a human shield. Making her a combination of Adolf Hitler and Lord Voldemort.

** Hell Loghain even has several more KickTheDog moments which the player can all use to argue against him as the whole point of the landsmeet. Responisble for poisoning Arl Eamon? selling his own people as slaves? What's missing?

* ''{{Borderlands}}'': You're told to get an important macguffin from a bandit leader named Krom. You know nothing about him except for that. Problem is, he's the first major villain that doesn't wear a mask, so players might think he has some secret, sympathetic past. What's the very first thing he does when you see him? Shoot a cowering Claptrap in the face and push it off a cliff. He. Must. Die.

*** Or wanting to spare him since he manages to kill one of them when the player cant even damage them.

* There's also this gem from ''Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy'', specifically Kefka's treatment of Kuja after the latter is defeated/killed by Lightning:

** Number 2, [[spoiler:Bad Girl, states that she feels no remorse about killing anyone while slaughtering clones for fun]], Number 3, [[spoiler:Speed Buster, kills a major trainer in a rather messy manner]], and Number 7, [[spoiler: DestroyMan, cheats so consistently it's remarkable.]]

* Oh, sweet Jesus, I get to be the one who mentions this! In ''{{Overlord}}'', you have a tower, which, naturally, is your base of operations, housing an armory, a forge, even a private chamber for your mistress. It also features a jester, (a brown in a jester's outfit, kinda like a toned-down MonsterClown,) who will laud your various accomplishments, and whom you can kick in the head. It serves no purpose, has no effect on your corruption meter, and if you do it enough, the jester will cower in fear of your mighty boot, and later comment on how mean you are to jesters. But you are supposed to be an EvilOverlord, and the fact is, the game lets you do some pretty, ''ughh'', [[AntiHero heroic deeds]]. So you need to kick the jester, to prove to yourself that you're still evil.

** That bit-part bandit is nothing compared to Reaver's puppy-punting spree. Upon his introduction, [[spoiler:he kills a sculptor and an artist trying to capture his likeness, sends you off to get your soul drained by {CosmicHorror ancient demons} so he can stay eternally youthful, kills a character you've known since childhood, and then informs you cheerfully he's just betrayed you to the very person who...dammit, Lucien needs a new section.]]

** Peter Molyneux has said in interviews that this trope was one of the main purposes of the dog in Fable 2 - the dog is designed to make the player grow attached to him, so attacks against him become the player character's BerserkButton.

* In ''SuperRobotWars Original Generation 2'', Archibald Grims (a recurring enemy character for the first part of the game) merely comes off as a minor {{Jerkass}}. It's not until you've fought him a few times that you find out that he actually is a sociopath -- his solution to digging up a rumored lost-technology giant robot is to bomb the area, blasting away the sand covering the robot as well as the pesky civilians who were digging it up the hard way. A subordinate even tries to reason with him, and Archibald seems to consider for a moment.

* In the Japanese dub of ''MegaManLegends'' (Dubbed Rockman Dash in Japan), when you reach a scene where you have to get the dog Paprika away from Tron, players have the option of just merely kicking the dog, causing him to scamper away. In the english dub, however, players have the option of "telling" the dog to go away.
* In ''Planescape: Torment'', you get to experience flashbacks to previous incarnations of your character, the Nameless One. One is dubbed the "Practical" Incarnation. Pretty much everything he does is dog-kicking and MoralEventHorizon-crossing. And yet, it's implied that [[spoiler:something your original self, the Good Incarnation, did before he repented was so far beyond the MoralEventHorizon that the Practical Incarnation is a near saint in comparison.]]

* ''ResidentEvil: The Darkside Chronicles'' manages to turn Alexia Ashford into even more of a CompleteMonster than she was before by [[spoiler: having her murder Alfred -- apparently, simply for ''not waking her up from cryo sooner'']]... [[{{Understatement}} Quite a switch from the original]].

* It's the first thing you see the "protagonist" of ''Postal 2'' do after he gets out of his trailer on Monday morning. And then it gets better. It's just that kind of game.

** Some Leasath chair forcers from ''X: Skies of Deception'' rain bombs on a defenceless city [[ForTheEvulz just because they can spare the ordnance]]. The Hamlet special forces unit goes as far as to unleash a biochemical agent on Santa Elva in what may be a crossing of the MoralEventHorizon.

[[quoteright:239:[[OcarinaOfTime http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hurtakid_8006.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:239:Of course Ganondorf WouldHurtAChild. You had to ask?]]

* The OcarinaOfTime version of Ganondorf has so many of these moments that it is hard to pinpoint which is his MoralEventHorizon:
** [[spoiler:Killing the Deku Tree for refusing to hand over the spiritual stone of the forest.]]
** [[WouldHurtAChild And as pictured, he knocks Link to the ground with an energy blast, for refusing to tell him where the princess went.]]
** Causing the Hyrule Castle Town to [[spoiler:pretty much become a charred wasteland populated by the undead, which [[NoodleIncident leaves unstated how he did it]], but judging by other actions of his in the game one could reasonably assume he burned it to the ground.]]
** Attempting to [[spoiler:feed all the Gorons to a dragon in the fire temple]], as a "warning to those who would oppose" him.
** [[spoiler:Freezing nearly the entire Zora population under the ice.]]
** Letting Bongo Bongo loose to [[spoiler:cause a fire in Kakariko village]].

* In ''ManiacMansion'', you can put a hamster into a microwave, set it on and the rodent will explode in a bloody mess. You can even give the remains to the original owner...

[[caption-width-right:239:Of course he WouldHurtAChild. You had to ask?]]

* As if his "Sound the retreat!" at the Battle of Ostagar weren't enough, Loghain's real Kick The Dog event is having his daughter locked up and threatening to let Howe execute her. Of course, given that this is [[DragonAge Dragon]] [[CrapsackWorld Age]], a realm far on the cynical side of things, he can still join your team and become TheAtoner.

** This trope is done quite literally in PokemonBlackAndWhite with Team Plasma. Initially, Team Plasma's goals sound like they are actually reasonable. Players might originally find themselves intrigued by them. However, in the player's first direct encounter with Team Plasma's grunts, they are quite literally kicking a Munna, hinting that their intentions may not be all that genuine. It gets worse from there, with two grunts stealing a little kid's Pokémon and later Bianca getting her Munna stolen. [[spoiler:The ending is a long series of KickTheDog moments, from the grunts in N's Castle rubbing in how [[ManipulativeBastard Ghetsis]] has been manipulating the hearts of Unova's citizens to a scientist referencing how they're going to release all of the Pokémon stored in the PC boxes. Then, after you beat [[UnwittingPawn N]], Ghetsis hurls insult after insult at both him and you.]]

* ''{{Homefront}}'' starts with such a moment when before the game even starts proper you witness GKR troops kill a mother in front of her son, while she tells him not too look. This hardened individual got chills...

** Kratos' very first KickTheDog moment is also an EstablishingCharacterMoment: when a Hydra attacks the ship that Kratos is on, it chows down on the ship's captain who has a key that Kratos needs. After killing the Hydra in badass fashion, Kratos climbs inside it to retrieve the key. The ship captain thanks him profusely for coming back for him, only to be coldly told, "I didn't come back for you." And then Kratos rips the key off him and sends him down into the Hydra's gullet for no reason at all. Ladies and gentlemen, ''[[AntiHero our hero]]''.

* In the ''GodOfWar'' series, Kratos does this a ''lot'', VideoGameCrueltyPotential notwithstanding. You can even ''literally'' kick Cerberus pups -- and in the third game, you can even get an achievement trophy called "Obedience School" for doing this to 50 pups.

* ''AceCombat 4: Shattered Skies'' has a cutscene where the Erusean invaders set up an anti-air gun post on top of a hospital in the narrator's hometown. It also reinforces Yellow 13's AntiVillain status by having him be disgusted by this.

* BreathOfFireIII had a couple characters who are this fairly early in the game. [[DualBoss Balio and Sunder]] are brothers who were first seen [[HopelessBossFight killing off your party]] for stealing from a corrupt mayor. After Ryu survives he will soon approach these two again on the path to Wyndia, one of them will think you're a ghost. After running around a bit his brother will approach him and to prove to him that Ryu is a ghost he will proceed the stab Ryu in the back. Afterward Ryu will lie unconscious after a short dragon transformation and these two will capture Ryu and present him to the King of Wyndia. By the time the unveil Ryu, he will have already transformed back into his human form where these two brothers get the idea that kicking the cage several times will make Ryu transform back. After this fails both Ryu and the brothers are sent to a jail within the castle. Shortly after princess Nina will appear to free Ryu and was stopped when the brothers call for her to free her promising that they "will not hurt that kid again." After a short hesitation, Nina decides to free them and shortly afterward, the brothers proceed to kick her in the face and ran off with her for a ransom. After having to break out of the cell by ramming into it twice, you chase after the princess. Upon arriving to the scene where she is being held captive these two pricks decide to kick the princess yet again just because they are getting sick of Ryu. Keep in mind both Ryu and Nina are about 10 at this point in the game.

** This trope is done quite literally in PokemonBlackAndWhite with Team Plasma. Initially, Team Plasma's goals sound like they are actually reasonable. Players might originally find themselves intrigued by them. However, in the player's first direct encounter with Team Plasma's grunts, they are quite literally kicking a Munna, hinting that their intentions may not be all that genuine. It gets worse from there, with two grunts stealing a little kid's Pokémon and later Bianca getting her Munna stolen. [[spoiler:The ending is a long series of KickTheDog moments, from the grunts in N's Castle rubbing in how [[ManipulativeBastard Ghetsis]] has been manipulating the hearts of Unova's citizens to a scientist referencing how they're going to release all of the Pokémon stored in the PC boxes. Then, after you beat N, Ghetsis hurls insult after insult at both him and you.]]

** This trope is done quite literally in Pokemon Black / White with team plasma. Honestly, from the getgo team plasma's goals sound like they are actually relateable. Players might originally find themselves intrigued by them. The game designers probably realized this and thus in the first encounter with team plasma's grunts, they are quite literally kicking a small pokemon to demonstrate they are actually bad guys.

* BreathOfFireIII had a couple characters who are this fairly early in the game. Balio and Sunder are brothers who were first seen killing off your party for stealing from a corrupt mayor. After Ryu survives he will soon approach these two again on the path to Wyndia, one of them will think you're a ghost. After running around a bit his brother will approach him and to prove to him that Ryu is a ghost he will proceed the stab Ryu in the back. Afterward Ryu will lie unconscious after a short dragon transformation and these two will capture Ryu and present him to the King of Wyndia. By the time the unveil Ryu, he will have already transformed back into his human form where these two brothers get the idea that kicking the cage several times will make Ryu transform back. After this fails both Ryu and the brothers are sent to a jail within the castle. Shortly after princess Nina will appear to free Ryu and was stopped when the brothers call for her to free her promising that they "will not hurt that kid again." After a short hesitation, Nina decides to free them and shortly afterward, the brothers proceed to kick her in the face and ran off with her for a ransom. After having to break out of the cell by ramming into it twice, you chase after the princess. Upon arriving to the scene where she is being held captive these two pricks decide to kick the princess yet again just because they are getting sick of Ryu. Keep in mind both Ryu and Nina are about 10 at this point in the game.

* Mundus' YouHaveFailedMe moment on [[spoiler:Griffon]] in the first DevilMayCry before {{Agony Beam}}ing him to death was ''very'' much a dick move, even before what he does to Dante and Trish later on.

* LegoUniverse has a rather brutal example, upon the rather idiotic creation of the Maelstrom, the first thing the one Spiderling did was crush a puppy with it's leg. It gets repaired though, don't worry.

* ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'''s Megumi Kitanji has one [[EstablishingCharacterMoment the]] ''[[EstablishingCharacterMoment instant]]'' [[EstablishingCharacterMoment he introduces himself to the players]], [[spoiler:saying that Neku's entry fee is now Shiki, so instead of restoring her to life like the Reaper's Game promises, he instead sends her to a state of limbo, on pain of death if Neku loses]]. That in itself was a jerk move, but he later ''blantantly abuses the rules he's supposed to uphold'' when he [[spoiler:says that now ''every single player'' is now Neku's entry fee, so he puts ''all'' thier lives on the line, ''when Neku needs them to even play the Game without getting killed'']]. Is it any wonder he's listed in TWEWY's own entry as a ''JerkAss''?

* Mundus' YouHaveFailed me moment on [[spoiler:Griffon]] in the first DevilMayCry before {{Agony Beam}}ing him to death was ''very'' much a dick move, even before what he does to Dante and Trish later on.

* The tenth mission of ''AdvanceWarsDaysOfRuin'' sets three "civilian" units (in gameplay terms no different from regular ones) directly in front of the enemy. Two of these units can escape, but there is no way whatsoever to save the third. The game goes to these lengths to set up a dogkicking moment for the Beast, who proceeds to slaughter the doomed unit for fun. '''''With a War Tank'''''. (For reference, that's the strongest ground unit in the game. The target is an Infantry - the ''weakest'' ground unit in the game... ''before'' taking into account it's a civilian in story terms. Talk about swatting flies with a cannon.)