History Main / AMillionIsAStatistic

** The fandom hates Vriska for [[spoiler: crippling [[TheWoobie Tavros]]]] at least as much as they do [[spoiler: Jack Noir]] for killing absurd numbers of pawns.

* Often overlooked (since it [[AllThereInTheManual happens before the show]]) in MobileSuitGundam, Zeon kills the majority of people living in space in the beginning stages of the war. This was once calculated as being the second-highest body count of any faction in the franchise's history (only the mass ColonyDrop that preceded GundamX outdid it). Strangely, [[DracoInLeatherPants this hasn't hurt Zeon's popularity any]].

In other words, when some sort of {{tragedy}} befalls a character such as TheHero (or even the BigBad), the audience is expected to sympathize with him or perhaps even cry for him. However, the RedshirtArmy can be sacrificed with reckless abandon, and no one will so much as bat an eyelash. The death of a [[WhatMeasureIsANonUnique single plot-important character]] is a tragic and often pivotal point; the deaths of thousands of faceless {{Mook}}s, even if by [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]], are simply [[WhatMeasureIsAMook background noise]], so to speak.

Psychologically, proximity is more important than magnitude. Often ties into OffstageVillainy, since the larger atrocities can't be displayed onscreen in full magnitude. Writers who want to avert this effect must deploy such tricks as the EmpathyDollShot, TheDeadHaveNames, or personalizing some victims, to suggest the faces of the [[FacelessMooks faceless victims.]] Since MenAreTheExpendableGender, this sort of ADeathInTheLimelight is more often [[WouldntHitAGirl female]] or [[ChildrenAreInnocent children]] especially [[HeartwarmingOrphan orphans]] or, if male, [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown injured]].

** Subverted in the last [[{{Discontinuity}} official novel]], in which the Bene Gesserit realize that their GeneticMemory makes them inescapably aware of and responsible for each and every atrocity committed by the human race, however far removed it may be in time or space.

-> ''"A single death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."''

Psychologically, proximity is more important than magnitude. Often ties into OffstageVillainy, since the larger atrocities can't be displayed onscreen in full magnitude. Writers who want to avert this effect must deploy such tricks as the EmpathyDollShot, or personalizing some victims, to suggest the faces of the [[FacelessMooks faceless victims.]] Since MenAreTheExpendableGender, this sort of ADeathInTheLimelight is more often [[WouldntHitAGirl female]] or [[ChildrenAreInnocent children]] especially [[HeartwarmingOrphan orphans]] or, if male, [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown injured]].

* Both played straight and averted in ''{{Erfworld}}''. "Lord Hamster" wins a siege by [[spoiler:setting off the volcanic caldera under the city, wiping out almost everyone from ''both'' sides. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone He's pissed that he had to resort to that to survive]]. He's ''equally'' pissed that he had to sacrifice his loyal servant shortly beforehand.]]

* AustinPowers has related scenes (which were, for some reason, deleted from the American version) for two mook deaths (Mutated Sea Bass decapitation and the steamroller). Both show that the person who just died for your laughs had a life, friends, family, [[YouBastardall of which have been greviously affected by their death]].

* Deleted scenes (still present in most international cuts) in AustinPowers have related scenes for two mook deaths (Mutated Sea Bass decapitation and the steamroller). Both show that the person who just died for your laughs had a life, friends, family, all of which have been greviously affected by their death. The scenes were presumably removed for slowing down the pace of the movie, and for making you feel like crap for laughing at a guy who was too stupid to move out of the way of the steamroller.

* Deleted scenes in AustinPowers have related scenes for two mook deaths (Mutated Sea Bass decapitation and the steamroller). Both show that the person who just died for your laughs had a life, friends, family, all of which have been greviously affected by their death. The scenes were presumably removed for slowing down the pace of the movie, and for making you feel like crap for laughing at a guy who was too stupid to move out of the way of the steamroller.
** ''Deleted'' scenes? Those scenes were certainly in the version of the movie that I saw. Perhaps they were deleted to cater to American audiences/censors, but in the original British release (or, at least, the televised version of it) they were certainly in the film.

* Parodied in ''[[DrStrangelove Dr. Strangelove (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)]]''. George Scott assures the president that "it's not like we're not going to get our hair mussed" but if they act quickly with a decisive nuclear strike then there might be "ten...twenty million casualties. Tops!!" The president responds that he doesn't want to go down in history as the greatest mass murderer since Adolf Hitler. Scott respectfully chides him for "caring more about his image in the history books than his people."
* Averted in {{Cloverfield}}--the entire film's [[YourMileageMayVary emotional effectiveness]] comes from presenting the story from the [[FirstPersonCamera point of view]] of someone experiencing the event on the ground level, thereby putting faces on the masses.
* This was a problem in ''StarTrek: Generations''. Dr. Soran's plan to get into the Nexus involved blowing up a star, which would also destroy an inhabited pre-industrial planet. We had never heard of this planet before, knew nothing of its people, and never even saw its surface, so it may as well have been an uninhabited rock for all the audience cared.

* ''[[TwentyTwelve 2012]]'' has been criticized for this. Billions die, but who cares? It's Disaster Porn, and the only people who count are in a little plane.

-> ''"You kill 10 people, you go to Texas, they hit you with a brick, that's what they do. 20 people, you go to a hospital, they look through a small window at you forever. And over that, we can't deal with it, you know? Someone's killed 100,000 people, we're almost going, '[[RefugeInAudacity Well]] [[SadisticChoice done]]! You killed 100,000 people!? You must get up very early in the morning!'"''
--> '''EddieIzzard'''

*** It came up in an earlier book - one of the Thracken Sal-Solo Tries To Take Over The Galaxy ones - where he was trying to befriend an extreme pacifist who claimed to have known his mother. And by extreme, I mean ''extreme''. Along the lines of "Violence is never, ever justified, in any circumstances!" Turns out he does know exactly how many people died, and most of the galaxy doesn't condemn him for it, since they were Imperials on the ''Death Star'' right after Alderaan, and although a book of the same name shows us that a lot of them [[PunchClockVillain weren't exactly evil]], they weren't exactly innocent either - they were troops and support staff on a ''giant battle station'', after all. A lot of Imperials were uncomfortable about Alderaan - the official story started off saying that the Rebels had hijacked a mining tool, but absolutely no one believed that, so they put the blame on Grand Moff Tarkin going mad with power.

-> ''Killing the orc horde by drowning them all at once is heroic. Killing them by drowning them one at a time is an alignment check.'''

--> --'''[[AllQuietOnTheWesternFront Erich Maria Remarque]]'''; [[BeamMeUpScotty attributed to]] JosefStalin

--> --'''JosefStalin''' [[BeamMeUpScotty (attributed)]]
--> --'''[[AllQuietOnTheWesternFront Erich Maria Remarque]]''' (in reality)