History ShootTheDog / Literature

* Among the many morally-grey choices characters make in ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' is, in [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/sting-26-6/ Chapter 26.6]], [[spoiler:Weaver]] shooting [[spoiler:Aster]] to prevent [[spoiler:Jack's Slaughterhouse Nine]] from doing their thing and [[spoiler:possibly causing the end of the world]]. What makes this example all the more depressing is [[spoiler: it turned out to be meaningless as it was something else entirely that will cause the end of the world]].
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** Snape [[spoiler:passing Dumbledore's message (via [[PensiveFlashback memories]]) that Harry must let Voldemort kill him. It's plausible that Dumbledore knew that Harry would survive, but Snape certainly didn't know.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': [[ItWasHisSled Dumbledore arranges]] for [[spoiler: [[SadistTeacher Snape]] to kill him]] in the 6th book for three reasons -- [[spoiler: to protect [[SurroundedByIdiots Snape's]] TheMole position with the Death Eaters, because he knew Voldemort had already ordered [[TheBully Draco Malfoy]] to kill him and he wanted to spare the boy the fate of being a murderer and to [[DePower depower]] the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Elder Wand]][[labelnote:note]] The Elder wand chooses as his new master the one who defeat his old master. Snape was following Dumbledore commands which doesn't count as a defeat, thus the wand cannot be reclaimed by anyone ever again.[[/labelnote]] to prevent it from falling in [[BigBad Voldemort]]'s hands. Although the act of Snape killing [[BunnyEarsLawyer Dumbledore]] is initially viewed by [[TheChosenOne Harry,]] the readers, and [[SadistTeacher Snape himself]] as a villainous act, [[EccentricMentor Dumbledore]] had previously asserted to [[TallDarkAndSnarky Snape]] that it would be treated as a [[MercyKill mercy killing]] and wouldn't carry the same moral repercussions that cold-blooded murder would -- because Snape knew that Dumbledore was already weakened and irreparably doomed to die from the curse on Gaunt's ring.]]

* In ''Literature/TheDeathCure'', after a rather painfully sad amount of buildup, Thomas is forced to [[spoiler:[[MercyKill shoot Newt]], his best friend, to save him from fully becoming a Crank]].

*** Making it [[UpToEleven even worse]], it is fully implied, if not out right stated, that TheMole, was, in fact, [[spoiler: a DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent whose true alignment was ''against'' the Red Court, and this was his plan all along!]]

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Changes'', [[spoiler: Harry does this brutally. A great ritual has built up enough magic to enable a sacrifice to destroy a bloodline; Harry and his family is the target for this, but the Red Court Vampires aren't being picky. And by the time they get there, the ritual HAS to go off, or the results won't be pretty. So what does Harry do? He prods his ex-lover and mother of his child to ask TheMole [[ArmorPiercingQuestion questions that lead to her going berserk]], murdering him, drinking his blood, and completing her [[BodyHorror change into a Red Court Vampire]]. The resulting distraction allows Harry to disable everyone else there, and [[MercyKill use the newest vampire of the Red Court]] as a sacrifice to target the spell.]]

*** Making it [[UpToEleven even worse]], it is fully implied, if not out right stated, that TheMole, was, in fact, [[spoiler: a DoubleAgent, and this was his plan all along!]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Belisarius}}'' series by David Drake and Eric Flint, the title character delegates the task of killing helpless prisoners to his bodyguard, Valentinian, because he can't bear to do it himself. Belisarius has been posing as a like-minded ally to the bad guys, and killing the prisoners is necessary to maintain his ruse.

* In ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', a lot of protagonist John Rumford's [[IDidWhatIHadToDo ruthless but necessary]] actions could arguably qualify as this, but the one he takes most seriously himself is the nuking of downtown Atlanta to stop the genocidal [[DirtyCommunists Commune]] and end the civil war in the New Confederacy. He still thinks it was necessary and would do it again, but when he meets the Nazis later, this forces him to accept that he is NotSoDifferent from them as he would wish to be.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': [[ItWasHisSled Dumbledore arranges]] for [[spoiler: [[SadistTeacher Snape]] to kill him]] in the 6th book for three reasons -- [[spoiler: to protect [[SurroundedByIdiots Snape's]] ReverseMole position with the Death Eaters, because he knew Voldemort had already ordered [[TheBully Draco Malfoy]] to kill him and he wanted to spare the boy the fate of being a murderer and to [[DePower depower]] the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Elder Wand]][[labelnote:note]] The Elder wand chooses as his new master the one who defeat his old master. Snape was following Dumbledore commands which doesn't count as a defeat, thus the wand cannot be reclaimed by anyone ever again.[[/labelnote]] to prevent it from falling in [[BigBad Voldemort]]'s hands. Although the act of Snape killing [[BunnyEarsLawyer Dumbledore]] is initially viewed by [[TheChosenOne Harry,]] the readers, and [[SadistTeacher Snape himself]] as a villainous act, [[EccentricMentor Dumbledore]] had previously asserted to [[TallDarkAndSnarky Snape]] that it would be treated as a [[MercyKill mercy killing]] and wouldn't carry the same moral repercussions that cold-blooded murder would -- because Snape knew that Dumbledore was already weakened and irreparably doomed to die from the curse on Gaunt's ring.]]

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant the Unbeliever'', Kevin Landwaster did this on a huge scale prior to the beginning of the series. When he saw that the Council of Lords was going to lose the war against Despite, he performed the Ritual of Desecration as a combination of this trope, SenselessSacrifice and TakingYouWithMe.