History Main / ScyllaAndCharybdis

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'': Button, Jun'er's personal eunuch attendant, acts completely loyal to him while actually answering to his mother the queen. However, after Jun'er starts behaving more seriously and paying more attention to his surroundings he quickly notices his attendants divided loyalties. This puts Button in an extremely dangerous position because either the queen or prince could easily have him executed and he can't possibly satisfy both. [[spoiler:But Jun'er is a nice guy, so he just makes it clear he knows and then continues about solidifying his own position.]]

* In the final case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', Phoenix ends up in this situation when he's blackmailed by someone named "De Killer", who kidnapped [[IHaveYourWife his sidekick Maya]] and will only release her in exchange for getting a man named Matt Engarde declared Not Guilty of murder. [[spoiler: It turns out after the first trial day that Matt Engarde is in fact, guilty of hiring De Killer, who's a ProfessionalKiller, to assassinate the victim. And to make it even worse, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero because of Phoenix's own arguments in court]], an innocent woman is being tried as the lead suspect. So Phoenix ends up in a MortonsFork - get a murderer declared Not Guilty and send an innocent woman to prison (which Maya herself would be angry with Phoenix for) or have him found Guilty and get Maya killed.]] In the end, after Phoenix and Edgeworth (who learns about the kidnapping after the first trial) end up stalling the trial for as long as possible in an attempt to have the police locate Maya and De Killer, Phoenix finally manages to break free of this by [[spoiler: convincing De Killer that Matt Engarde betrayed him with Engarde's own attempts to set up blackmail against De Killer. This causes De Killer to release Maya and threaten to hunt Engarde down and kill him, leading to Engarde pleading guilty in an attempt to stay safe in prison.]]

The trope name refers to the two sea monsters of Myth/GreekMythology which trapped sailors between them, making it OlderThanFeudalism. Scylla was a ShapeShifterMashup that ate sailors, and Charybdis a whirlpool that swallowed ships. It has since been rationalized that the "monsters" were a real and dangerous shoal and a real but pretty weak whirlpool in the Strait of Messina, between the Italian mainland and Sicily (both long known to the Greeks and colonized by them by the 8th century B.C.--incidentally around the same time modern historians believe Creator/{{Homer}} lived).

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[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/TheOdyssey https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scylla_and_charybdis_bookpalace.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Pick your poison -- either face one of them or face the other.]]
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-->[[spoiler:''Ai: "Be quiet! This is how I atone!"'']]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

--> '''Naomi''': You do realize that if L or Kira were to find out they would kill you... If Light finds out he'll probably kill you. However he might keep you around as a pawn and use you to reach his ultimate goal of creating a cult civilization in which he's god. That means that if you don't find yourself drowning in a swimming pool you'll find yourself brainwashed and tortured and then thinking nothing at all... If L finds you that's a whole different story. L won't kill you but he will tie you to a chair and leave you there to rot for fifty days and then pretend to execute you only to leave you alive so that the government can perform nasty experiments on you. He probably won't give you a trial but instead will leave you in a mental institution or have you killed off by thugs. Then he'll steal your name and use it as yet another detective name and that will be the end of that.
--> '''Duck''': [[OnlySaneMan Why do you work for these people?]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/IWokeUpAsADungeonNowWhat'': The [[FinalSolution Velthian]] and [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil Khannite]] empires which flank the ruined Central Kingdom hate each other, both claim Central as their territory, and both value it only as a buffer against their rival. As such, if Central's king ever outright refuses any demand from one of the empires, that empire will have him killed. If he outright ''accepts'' any demand from one of the empires, the ''other'' empire will have him killed. And if either empire comes to suspect that he is rebuilding any part of Central's ruined economy or army, they will both immediately invade to crush Central before it gets strong enough to tip the balance between the two.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': The final trial is constructed by the BigBad to be like this. The heroes can either [[spoiler:leave the simulation as they are while damning the world to be overrun with [[GrandTheftMe Junko-infested corpses]], go back to reality where their minds and bodies have already been destroyed by Junko while losing all their memories of the battles they fought and relationships they formed inside the simulation, or they can [[LotusEaterMachine stay in the simulation]] and [[AndIMustScream trap the three members of the Future Foundation who came to rescue them inside as well with Junko (who hates the three of them with a passion) in control forever]]. By the end of it, the protagonist refuses to make a decision]].
* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor2010'': [[spoiler: Rabbit and Mother]] have to choose between a [[BolivianArmyEnding gunfight against a huge number of enemies]] or [[NoEscapeButDown leaping off a high cliff]]. [[spoiler: [[LeapOfFaith Bones]] [[BadassBoast heal.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': [[spoiler:Star's pursuit of monster equality hasn't been as simple as she wanted it. She discovered that she's part of a line of ancestors who were imposed by the High Commission to keep Eclipsa's monster-Mewman hybrid daughter from the throne. Now she's stuck with a very difficult decision. If she maintains her role as Princess then she betrays her ideals, if she allows Meteora to take the throne then she loses her identity as a princess, and Meteora is clearly completely insane and unfit to lead. Fortunately for her, Eclipsa doesn't care about the throne as much as she just wants her daughter back, and after Meteora is magically regressed back into a baby, she wants to [[RaiseHimRightThisTime give her daughter another chance at growing up]]]].

* ''Fanfic/IWokeUpAsADungeonNowWhat'': The [[FinalSolution Velthian]] and [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil Khannite]] empires which flank the ruined Central Kingdom hate each other, both claim Central as their territory, and both value it only as a buffer against their rival. As such, if Central's king ever outright refuses any demand from one of the empires, that empire will have him killed. If he outright ''accepts'' any demand from one of the empires, the ''other'' empire will have him killed. And if either empire comes to suspect that he is rebuilding any part of Central's ruined economy or army, they will both immediately invade to tip the balance between the two.

* ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'': Canale, a very young assassin, is planted in the court of Pisare to kill the attorney-general, Sesaam, in exchange for being set free. He falls in love with Sesaam and ends up with the options of either killing the man he loves or revealing that he is an assassin and be cast out or possibly killed by Sesaam, while knowing the assassins guild would just come after Sesaam again anyways and succeed next time. He decides to kill Sesaam and die with him as penance. This doesn't work out as planned.

* ''Literature/TheAsteriskWar'': The prize for being on the winning team at a [[TournamentArc Festa]] is for the [[MegaCorp IEFs]] to grant each team member any boon it is within their power to provide, which, [[OneNationUnderCopyright since they basically rule the world]], means almost anything that isn't a physical impossibility. Occasionally, however, a winning [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Genestella's]] wish puts them into a bind, particularly if it impinges on the IEFs' political power: if they refuse to grant a wish that might cause them problems, they put the legitimacy of their own regime at risk, so they normally try to negotiate a compromise with the champion.

* More literally, [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/exploring-internet-in-11-days-epic-online-odyssey/ here]], Soren Bowie of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' does a pastiche of the Internet as ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. Website/TVTropes acts as [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Charybdis]], and Website/YouTube as [[{{Troll}} Scylla]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': [[spoiler:Her pursuit of monster equality hasn't been as simple as she wanted it. She discovered that she's part of a line of ancestors who were imposed by the High Commission to keep Eclipsa's monster-Mewman hybrid daughter from the throne. She's now stuck with a very difficult decision. If she maintains her role as Princess then she betrays her ideals, if she allows Meteora to take the throne then she loses her identity as a princess, and Meteora is clearly completely insane and unfit to lead. Fortunately for her, Eclipsa doesn't care about the throne as much as she just wants her daughter back, and after Meteora is magically regressed back into a baby, she wants to [[RaiseHimRightThisTime give her daughter another chance at growing up]]]].

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': The prize for being on the winning team at a [[TournamentArc Festa]] is for the [[MegaCorp IEFs]] to grant each team member any boon it is within their power to provide, which, [[OneNationUnderCopyright since they basically rule the world]], means almost anything that isn't a physical impossibility. Occasionally, however, a winning [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Genestella's]] wish puts them into a bind, particularly if it impinges on the IEFs' political power: if they refuse to grant a wish that might cause them problems, they put the legitimacy of their own regime at risk, so they normally try to negotiate a compromise with the champion.

* More literally, [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/exploring-internet-in-11-days-epic-online-odyssey/ here]], Soren Bowie of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' does a pastiche of the Internet as ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. Wiki/TVTropes acts as [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Charybdis]], and Website/YouTube as [[{{Troll}} Scylla]].

%%* Music/TheRollingStones: "Rock and a Hard Place".

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In ''Literature/GhostStory'', [[TheFairFolk Lea]] strikes a deal with Dresden, and gets caught in the position of having to uphold the deal, which stated that he got answers to three questions. One of those questions was "Who killed me?" Unfortunately for Lea, she also had to uphold a promise to not tell Dresden who killed him. Presumably, this promise was given to Mab. She manages to balance these two conflicting promises by using ExactWords with a healthy dose of FromACertainPointOfView. [[spoiler:We eventually find out Harry had ''himself'' killed in a vain attempt to cheat Queen Mab out of having a wizard as her Winter Knight.]]

* More literally, [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/exploring-internet-in-11-days-epic-online-odyssey/ here]], Soren Bowie of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' does a pastiche of the Internet as ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. Wiki/TVTropes acts as [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Charybdis]], and Website/YouTube as [[{{Troll}} Scylla]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'': A recurring theme is Ash trying to balance her happiness against his [[GenderBender desire not to lose his/her masculinity]].

[[caption-width-right:350:Pick your poison- either face one of them or face the other.]]

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[[caption-width-right:350: Pick your poison- either face one of them or face the other.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': This is the crux of humanity's dilemma at the start of the comic -- they're on the periphery, and inevitably soon to be swept into, a major interstellar war between two starfaring civilizations, the Loroi and the Umiak. They know very little about these two powers, but do know that both severely outclass them in technology, numbers and military power, that neither is willing to recognize other nations' right to remain neutral, and that both are willing to forcefully subjugate or exterminate nations that get in their way. Without knowing much about how either operates, beyond being aware that the Umiak essentially enslave their subject peoples, they need to very quickly figure out which power would be less dangerous to join up with -- and to do it before one or the other finds them first and makes the choice for them.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'', Canale, a very young assassin, is planted in the court of Pisare to kill the attorney-general, Sesaam, in exchange for being set free. He falls in love with Sesaam and ends up with the options of either killing the man he loves or revealing that he is an assassin and be cast out or possibly killed by Sesaam, while knowing the assassins guild would just come after Sesaam again anyways and succeed next time. He decides to kill Sesaam and die with him as penance. This doesn't work out as planned.
* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' Button, Jun'er's personal eunuch attendant, acts completely loyal to him while actually answering to his mother the queen. However, after Jun'er starts behaving more seriously and paying more attention to his surroundings he quickly notices his attendants divided loyalties. This puts Button in an extremely dangerous position because either the queen or prince could easily have him executed and he can't possibly satisfy both. [[spoiler:But Jun'er is a nice guy, so he just makes it clear he knows and then continues about solidifying his own position.]]
* In ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'', William presents his brothers and subordinates with the choice to either betray their UndyingLoyalty to him, or let him die. ''None'' of them handle it well, and several different choices are made by various characters.
* In ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'', Ichigo is trapped in a battle with a monster and desperately trying to finish up so that she can go on a date. In the end, the battle escalates so far that she misses the concert and appears, hours late and in tears. Of course, her boyfriend was nice enough to wait all that time in the rain.

* In ''FanFic/AllYouNeedIsLove'' [[Manga/DeathNote Naomi relates how it SUCKS being stuck between L and Kira's warring egos]]; worrying what would happen to [[OriginalCharacter her son]] if they were to discover that [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow he knows what they know]]:

* Liara in the ''Franchise/MassEffect''/''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' FusionFic ''FanFic/ShepherdOfTheStars'' is faced with one of these, forced to chose between preserving an ancient [[AncientAstronauts Morrigi]] temple revealing the true fate of the Protheans or destroying it to save a ship full of innocent people from its now-active defenses. [[spoiler: She elects to save the ship, at the cost of the data and much of her scientific credibility.]]

* Used at the climax of ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'', where Daniel shuttles between a dinner with his boss and dinner with his family, changing in and out of his Mrs. Doubtfire makeup with each transition. Of course, on top of that, he's been drinking...
* ''Film/TwentysevenDresses'' has a bit of a variation, with the main character going to two weddings at once.

** PoliticallyActivePrincess Julis's second wish is to expand the power of Lieseltania's monarchy, in hopes of eventually ending its PuppetState status to the [=IEFs=]. In volume 12, the [=IEFs=] are mentioned to be negotiating with her and her brother King Jolbert on just how much leash to give him.
* One canto of ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' opens with the protagonist stuck in silence because he can't decide whether to ask how nuns forced to break their vows could justly be given a lower position in {{Heaven}} or to ask if those dead nuns really live on the Moon.
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles: Literature/GhostStory'', [[TheFairFolk Lea]] strikes a deal with Dresden, and gets caught in the position of having to uphold the deal, which stated that he got answers to three questions. One of those questions was "Who killed me?" Unfortunately for Lea, she also had to uphold a promise to not tell Dresden who killed him. Presumably, this promise was given to Mab. She manages to balance these two conflicting promises by using ExactWords with a healthy dose of FromACertainPointOfView. [[spoiler:We eventually find out Harry had ''himself'' killed in a vain attempt to cheat Queen Mab out of having a wizard as her Winter Knight.]]
* In Creator/RafaelSabatini's ''The Hounds of God'', Lady Margaret described herself as escaping Scylla, but being sucked into the whirlpool of Charybdis. This refers to her technically being rescued from being kidnapped, but only to be brought to trial for witchcraft. This slightly differs from the main trope, in that the Margaret is simply brought along for the ride rather than being allowed to choose.
* In Percy Jackson, the Sea of Monsters can only be entered by passing between them and [[EldritchLocation it doesn't matter where you try to enter from cuz they'll always appear in the way]].

* A very much life-and-death example in the 2008 version of ''Series/{{Survivors}}'' where a father attempts to keep his two kids inside their house, fearing any contact with the outside might land them with the virus (which they have not yet come into contact with). The daughter refuses to stay in this existence, though, and escapes, to be shut out by her dad. Eventually it boils down to a choice, posed by two of the main characters who take the daughter temporarily under their wing: either risk leaving the effective imprisonment in their own home and risk exposure to the virus, or stay inside and eventually starve to death when all the food runs out.

[[folder: Music]]
* Music/TheRollingStones' "Rock And A Hard Place".
* Mentioned in "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by Music/ThePolice.
[[/folder]]

* As mentioned above for Greek mythology, in ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', Odysseus has to choose between passing by Scylla and Charybdis. Both creatures live on opposite sides of a narrow ocean-pass, and he has to pass by one of them to continue. He chooses to pass by Scylla. Scylla snaps up six of his men, killing them, but passing by Charybdis would have caused the entire ship to be swallowed up, killing the entire crew.
** Later on, he is forced to pass by the two monsters ''again'', this time by himself in a raft (long story). This time, he passes by Charybdis. Alone, he's able to grasp onto a fig tree growing on an outcropping near the whirlpool, and is able to recover his raft after it's swallowed, and then expelled.
** In some versions of the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, the Argo passes through the strait as well, but rather than choose between one of the monsters, some nymphs, lead by Thetis, appear and carry the Argo out of the strait safely. It helps that the gods liked Jason much more than they did Odysseus.

* The final trial of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' was constructed by the BigBad to be like this. [[spoiler:The heroes can either leave the simulation as they are while damning the world to be overrun with [[GrandTheftMe Junko-infested corpses]], go back to reality where their minds and bodies have already been destroyed by Junko while losing all their memories of the battles they fought and relationships they formed inside the simulation, or they can [[LotusEaterMachine stay in the simulation]] and [[AndIMustScream trap the three members of the Future Foundation who came to rescue them inside as well with Junko (who hates the three of them with a passion) in control forever]]. By the end of it, the protagonist refuses to make a decision]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* A recurring theme in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' is Ash trying to balance her happiness against his [[GenderBender desire not to lose his/her masculinity]].
* ''Webcomic/TalesFromThePit'''s [[http://tumblr.com/xfd2sgah1t R&D Rule #8: You Can't Win.]] When Mark designs [[PowerEqualsRarity powerful rare cards that see tournament play]], he gets angry emails about how expensive it is to play in tournaments. When the rare and mythic cards are too weak to see tournament play, he gets angry emails complaining about {{Junk Rare}}s.

** Raymond found himself in the middle of conflicts between his violent and immature wife, Debra, and his family--especially his overbearing and guilt-mongering mother--on an almost episodic basis. He was pretty much in a situation where there was no way he could please one without royally pissing off the other due to the fact that [[NotSoDifferent they both wanted complete and exclusive control over Ray.]]

* In ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'', Ichigo is trapped in a battle with a monster and desperately trying to finish up so that she can go on a date. In the end, the battle escalates so far that she misses the concert and appears, hours late and in tears. Of course, her boyfriend was nice enough to wait all that time in the rain.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'': [[spoiler:In episode #42, seeing Playmaker continuously fail to perform Storm Access and even getting a forearm ripped off, Ai stepped in and transformed into a larger version of himself to prevent Playmaker from falling. Ai then proceeded to sacrifice a part of himself to repair Playmaker's arm and shield him from the flying debris. He really could have been erased. Even if he could have been erased either by Playmaker losing or being destroyed by the debris and had the slightest chance of surviving by saving Playmaker, he still saved Playmaker from certain death while risking his own life. Ai may have been willing to sacrifice himself because he wanted to make it up to Playmaker for lying about losing his memories.]]
-->[[spoiler:''Ai: "Be quiet! This is how I atone!"'']]

* ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' has Jack/Jakie have to decide to either star in a Broadway show on opening night or fill in for his dying Cantor father and sing Kol Nidre for the Yom Kippur Service. The producer warns him that if he misses the show, his career may be ruined, but he wants to be there for his family. He decides to fill in for his father and miss the show, and his father forgives him before dying.

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': The prize for being on the winning team at a [[TournamentArc Festa]] is for the [[MegaCorp IEFs]] to grant each team member any boon it is within their power to provide, which, [[OneNationUnderCopyright since they basically rule the world]], means almost anything that isn't a physical impossibility. Occasionally, however, a winning [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Genestella's]] wish puts them into a bind, particularly if it impinges on the IEFs' political power: if they refuse to grant a wish that might cause them problems, they put the legitimacy of their own regime at risk, so they normally try to negotiate a compromise with the champion.
** Madiath Mesa asked to become an executive at Galaxy, but they didn't want to make an exception in their intake procedures for him (which involve [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood Brainwashing for the Greater Shareholder Value]]). The solution was to make him an AuthorityInNameOnly, giving him the job of chief administrative officer of the Festas but no other official power in the company.
** Claudia Enfield wishes to interview her Orga Lux's creator Ladislav Bartošik, who was involved in a mysterious incident in the recent backstory and is spending life in prison at a BlackSite. Galaxy, the IEF that backs Seidoukan Academy, would suffer significant political harm if whatever happened became public knowledge. They first send PsychoForHire Gustave Malraux to try and drive her prospective Gryps Festa teammates away from her, [[spoiler:then escalate to sending Bujinsai Yabuki's {{ninja}} clan to assassinate her. When that fails, Galaxy agrees to let her meet Bartošik on condition of keeping anything she learns from him secret.]]
** PoliticallyActivePrincess Julis's second wish is to expand the power of Lieseltania's monarchy, in hopes of eventually ending its PuppetState status to the [=IEFs=]. In volume 12, the [=IEFs=] are mentioned to be negotiating with her and her brother King Jolbert on just how much leash to give him.

* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor2010'': [[spoiler: Rabbit and Mother]] have to choose between a [[BolivianArmyEnding gunfight against a huge number of enemies]] or [[NoEscapeButDown leaping off a high cliff]]. [[spoiler: [[LeapOfFaith Bones]] [[BadassBoast heal.]]]]

* The final trial of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' was constructed by the BigBad to be like this. [[spoiler:The heroes can either leave the simulation as they are while damning the world to be overrun with [[GrandTheftMe Junko-infested corpses]], go back to reality where their minds and bodies have already been destroyed by Junko while losing all their memories of the battles they fought and relationships they formed inside the simulation, or they can [[LotusEaterMachine stay in the simulation]] and [[AndIMustScream trap the three members of the Future Foundation who came to rescue them inside as well with Junko (who hates the three of them with a passion) in control forever]]. By the end of it, the protagonist refuses to make a decision]].

* The indie horror game ''1916 - Der unbekannte Krieg'' plays this straight. The protagonist, a lone German soldier, is stuck in a trench infested with carnivorous dinosaurs, and even if he does manage to escape, he'll be stranded in no man's land, completely exposed to the enemy.