Chronic Backstabbing Disorder / Anime & Manga

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• Zeke Yeager from Attack on Titan: betrayed his parents and all their La Résistance friends (which may or may not have been part of a masterplan), then betrayed his country by siding with Eren and the other people of Paradis Island... and then betrayed Paradis itself. The only group he hasn't betrayed is his followers, the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers.
• It's hard to find a single chapter in Bloody Cross without betrayal or shifting alliances of any kind. Everyone betrays everyone else at such a rate that trying to keep track of who's on what side at any given time is likely to give you a headache.
• Delphinium in the Blue Dragon anime fits this rather well. She betrayed Salinas for no particular reason, even though he succeeded in completing his objective, turned on General Logi after he revolted against Gran Kingdom, betrayed the White Guardians by leaking information to Logi, and wasn't loyal to him either. Not to mention that Deathroy, the source of half her power, and the only ally that she never demonstrates any outright disloyalty to, orders her to kill all the members of the Legion of Elite Species. Guess what she doesn't do to Noi, Rotarus, and Hildegard (literally HALF the members of the legion) after the final battle. Not only that but none of her reasons for doing any of this are ever revealed. Her true motives and loyalties, if she even has any, are left completely unknown at the end of the series. AND it gets so bad that the White Guardians even expect her to betray them when it comes to that, even formulating a plan assuming that it would happen, and using it to their advantage.
• Code Geass:
  • Suzaku Kururugi appears to be this. Bismarck Waldstein, the Knight of One, even lampshades the trope in a scalding speech by openly stating that he betrays everyone and everything, and they expected him to do that. However, unlike most cases, he's not actively aiming to be treacherous; he highly values loyalty, and tries his best to be loyal to whoever he's working with. Unfortunately, various childhood traumas led to Suzaku developing a bad case of Black-and-White Insanity, which gave way to a tendency to betray his allies in order to uphold his self-contradictory ideals.
  • There's also Diethard Reid, who first worked for the Britannian Empire, then became a Black Knight, and then joined Schneizel. He follows whoever he thinks will cause the most upheaval and destruction in the near future, and he wants to be right there to "document" it.
• Big Bad Vicious from Cowboy Bebop was willing to (and did) backstab and murder anyone for the purpose of rising to the top of The Syndicate.
• In Danganronpa 3, Chisa is on at least three mutually exclusive sides over the course of the story. To begin with, she was spying on the school Hope's Peak for Munakata. Then she became the mask and decided to prioritize protecting her students over everything else. Then she got brainwashed and betrayed both of these sides for Junko. ^note Given that the school faculty is antagonistic to its own students, it might well count as a fourth side that she betrayed. Then death cleansed her soul, and she went back to the side of good...though whose side of good is unclear.
• Death Note's very own Light Yagami qualifies. Over the course of the series, he betrays the trust of L, whom he considered, at least at one point, to be a friend (saying at one point, "Ryuuzaki is Light Yagami's friend, but L is Kira's enemy"). He also betrays his father and his co-workers, especially Matsuda, who genuinely looked up to him, by murdering or conspiring to murder them all. He betrays his fiancee Misa Amane by starting a relationship with Kiyomi Takada — besides, you know, considering murdering her as well. He continues on to betray this girlfriend as well, killing her when she outlives her usefulness to him. He ALSO betrays his devoted heir Teru Mikami at the Warehouse by denying that he knew him. Considering his betrayal of Naomi Misora's trust and his betrayal of his mother's and sister's trust (he considers killing them both at various points in the story), and the list only goes on. All in the name of a New World. Though in his defense, he did all he could to make the situation so that it would be impossible for him to kill his family.
• In Digimon Fusion, DarkKnightmon revels in this trope, backstabbing everyone he allies with, even his brother. Of course, his brother Bagramon, fully expected his betrayal. In fact, Bagramon was disappointed that when the time came, DarkKnightmon was not powerful enough to successfully defeat him.
• Seth of Dinosaur King. He first betrays the Alpha Gang at the end of the first season, leading them to pull an Enemy Mine with the D-Team in order to defeat him. Come Season 2, he's working with the resident villains, the Spectral Space Pirates, only to betray them too, whilst continuing to mess with the D-Team/Alpha Gang, betraying their trust after tricking them twice.
  Dr. Z: Why do we keep trusting Seth?!
• Dragon Ball Z: Vegeta is practically defined by his tendency to betray his own comrades throughout the series. In this order, he kills Nappa in cold blood for losing to Goku while Nappa is begging him for help, betrays the Frieza Force to take the Dragon Balls for himself, makes it clear to Namek that he will kill Gohan and Krillin once Frieza is out of the picture, abandons Goku to fight Captain Ginyu alone while hoping the two will kill each other, actively attacks Future Trunks in order to help Cell absorb Android 18 and ascend to his perfect form purely so he can get a better fight out of him, sells out the Z-Fighters and the entire world to Babidi solely so he can finally get the power to surpass Goku, and then turns on Babidi and refuses to follow any order that doesn't involve fighting Goku.
• In Fairy Tail, before her Heel–Face Turn and subsequent self-loathing, Ultear was never a part of a group she wasn't scheming around for her "bosses'" (and subsequently her own personal) agendas. She disguises herself as Zalty to aid Lyon in freeing the frozen demon Deliora, simply using the crisis to take the heat off her boss Jellal's plans. Then she pretends to be a blind devotee of Jellal, only to leave him for dead after his plans for the Tower of Heaven fall apart (and bonus points, he never once realized she was the one manipulating him as Zeref's "voice" from day one). Then she plots to betray Grimoire Heart (her actual boss), hoping to find Zeref and keep him all to herself and attempts to dupe Gray into killing Hades for her. Her Heel Realization ends up shooting her over to The Atoner side, starting by taking Merudy with her away from Grimoire Heart and freeing the now-unbrainwashed-but-amnesiac Jellal from his imprisonment.
• Gauron of Full Metal Panic!. Mainly For the Evulz. He switches sides countless times (many times without the side he was originally on even knowing), without much reason other than that another side is offering more possibilities for destruction and meeting Kashim.
• Golden Kamuy: Cold Sniper Ogata Hyanosuke has, at one point or another, participated in pretty much every major faction of the story, and betrays all of them eventually.
  • He is introduced as a member of the 7th Division who attacks Sugimoto, and seems to be as devoted to Lieutenant Tsurumi as all the others, but he is quickly revealed to be part of a gang of traitors within the Division and escapes when he is caught. This is furthered in a later chapter that reveals that he is actually a spy from the central sent to make sure that Tsurumi finds the gold, but doesn't keep it.
  • He then takes part in a gang war on opposing sides to the leader of another antagonist faction, Hijikata's group. Once the battle is done and he is in the possession of the skin, he ditches his side of the war and joins Hijikata's faction. A plan by Tsurumi forces this faction and Sugimoto's own to join together and he begrudgingly teams up with Sugimoto on their way to the Abashiri prison. He betrays both groups at once in Abashiri, killing Noppera-bou before he can give information about the gold and shooting Sugimoto, then joining Kiroranke in his plan to take Asirpa to Karafuto and then to Russia.
  • In Karafuto and now a member of Kiroranke's temporary faction, Ogata develops something of an interest in Asirpa due to her similarities to his deceased brother. His obsession with corrupting her and making her a killer like him ends up taking priority over Kiroranke's plan to get her to remember the code and even the gold itself when he takes her away from him and places her on a Mexican standoff trying to get her to kill him or else he would kill her. He's narrowly saved by Sugimoto who doesn't want Asirpa to have blood in her hands. He then runs away from them and goes back to Hijikata's group by pretending to not have been the one to kill Noppera-bou and is forced to flee when Sugimoto reunites with them and is capable of telling them the truth.
• Gundam has a lot of them in there such as:
  • Char Aznable of Mobile Suit Gundam shows all the symptoms. Bonus points in the first series for being rehired by the very government he betrayed and deserted; yet, Char states at the end of Zeta Gundam that he'll leave his ambitions of escorting mankind to space to the AEUG. In the years that follow, however, he gets tired of waiting around, culminating in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. He was forced into leaving AEUG, after faking his death after losing to Haman. He was never really comfortable in the AEUG anyway, and being presumed dead helped him get out of his obligations; it's not really treason so much as not renewing his contract for another term.
    • However, a PlayStation-era Zeta Gundam game offered a bit more elaboration in Quattro's storyline: Kamille's getting mind raped was the tipping point since he wanted to entrust the future to Kamille's generation.
  • Zechs Merquise aka Milliardo Peacecraft in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing leads a life of it. His life, in fact, very closely mirrors Char's, though the sequence is a bit different.
    • First abandons his family and country to join The Alliance, which destroyed it.
    • Betrays the Alliance in a coup to join Treize and OZ.
    • Leaves OZ after Treize is deposed and goes crazy for a while. (Including assuming a role as a "peace ambassador" that went around blowing things up for no good reason.)
    • Joins White Fang against OZ (now without Treize)
    • Leads White Fang against all of Earth (now with Treize)
    • Stops Earth's destruction and commits suicide...
    • ....only to return in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz to fight the Big Bad for the woman he loves and his (kidnapped) younger sister.
  • Paptimus Scirocco from Zeta gives Char and his various expies a run for their money. He swears his loyalty to Jamitov, Bosque, and Haman, only to betray them all in turn. He kills Jamitov directly and orders the deaths of Bosque and Jamaican via his followers. Through his double-dealing, he climbs the ladder from a nobody from Jupiter to the unquestioned master of the Titans.
  • Gundam 00 — Ribbons!. Alejandro Corner, Wang Liu Mei, and Regene Regetta are also not very trustworthy people. Their betrayals are often of each other.
  • After War Gundam X — The Frost Brothers betray from their initial debut up until the final episode, killing basically everyone who either employed them or worked for them.
• Sora in .hack//SIGN, who is very clearly not to be trusted. However, he's one of the strongest characters in The World and has a good ear for rumors. By the end, he's killed BT three times, switched to and from her side about as many times, worked with the Crimson Knights and finally ends up accidentally buying time for Tsukasa and Subaru to escape. He wasn't expecting to get caught, but eh, at least he tried at the end. He stops his backstabbing ways after he loses his memory and returns as Haseo.
• In Knight Hunters, Schwarz inevitably turn on every single one of their employers over the course of the multi-part series.
• Fujiko Mine in Lupin III betrays Lupin in every aspect of the Franchise. Some argue that she doesn't betray him in The Castle of Cagliostro because they weren't exactly on the same side there. In most stories, if it looks like the villain (and/or Inspector Zenigata) isn't going to keep their end of the deal, she'll betray them as well. Or if she can get a better deal with Lupin. Or if she can keep all of it. Pretty much expect her to betray at least one, possibly a dozen people. Despite this, Lupin continues to blindly trust her until the next betrayal. In one instance, he even comments that he is expecting her to betray him, but Lupin's weakness for Fujiko certainly does prevent him from becoming a boring Invincible Hero.
• From Macross/Robotech, there's Kvamzin/Khyron Kravshera, known by his own people as "Kamjin the Ally-Killer" ("Khyron the Backstabber" in Robotech). It's not a reference to his battle tactics: it is a reference to the fact that he'll murder his own men, and other people's men, to advance his own objectives or if they displease him in some way. It's only the fact that Britai and Laplamiz/Azonia have vastly superior firepower and numbers to Kamjin that prevents him from launching a full-on mutiny.
• Arba/Gyokuen Ren in Magi: Labyrinth of Magic led Solomon to his death, killed her husband and two oldest sons and then possibly murdered her second husband (who was involved with the murder of the first husband) so she could become the Empress of the Kou Empire.
• Martian Successor Nadesico:
  • Nergal as a whole and especially their chairperson Nagare Akatsuki have no trouble whatsoever constantly backstabbing The Government and their employees, only to come sidling back to either or both when things don't go their way. One suspect said "chairman may just be doing it for laughs".
  • By the same token, the leader of the Alien Invasion has no qualms about having his underlings covertly assassinated, or with starting a new faction and backstabbing everybody when his invasion plans don't work out.
• In the Mega Man Star Force anime, Gemini Spark suffers from this. Towards the end, he literally backstabs all his fellow FM-ians to recharge the Andromeda Key. In the end, Gemini Spark White even kills off Gemini Spark Black.
• Discussed and defied in Mission: Yozakura Family. Despite living in a world steeped in betrayal and intrigue, Tsukiyo notes that the legitimacy of the Spy Foundation as an institution is founded on tradition and trust. If a spy is Only in It for the Money, their clients will lose all trust in them. This is why Taiyo is the only one to pass that year's exam: he's the only one who went back to help Tsukiyo despite being given a clear shot to the spy license.
• Michio Yuki from Osamu Tezuka's manga, MW, has betrayed everyone over the course of the manga. He killed a man who happens to be his client at that time. Afterwards, he starts a relationship with Miho, his corrupt boss's daughter, only to have her killed. Later on, he betrays his own boss, whom he trusted with his life, when it turns out that he's part of the MW cover up. He betrays Sumiko, whom she keeps falls in love despite how evil he is, by starting a relationship and marrying Mr. Nakata's daughter, only to betray her later on when she is told by Detective Meguro of his evil actions. Prior to that, he betrayed Father Garai, the man whom he formed a homosexual relationship with, by sending him to a nightclub to take a picture of him with a customer. He did all that to achieve his goal: obtaining the MW, the same gas that loses his morality, and use it to end the world when he dies.
• Naruto:
  • Sasuke changes allegiances/betrays people so often and for so little reason that it's a wonder anyone trusts him anymore. In order, he betrayed the Leaf Village (along with a personal betrayal of both his teammates); Orochimaru; Itachi's beliefs; the Akatsuki; Jugo and Suigetsu; Karin; Sakura (again); White Zetsu; and, near the end of the series, the entire Shinobi world. Some of his betrayals are reasonable, but most go along the lines of "if I stay loyal, I don't get anything out of it". Tobi seems to have noticed this trend and beat him to the punch by promising to hand him over to Kabuto.
  • Kabuto is a chronic backstabber himself, having betrayed Konoha and the Akatsuki, although he subverted the trope with Orochimaru. Unsurprisingly, Tobi doesn't trust him. And with good reason, as Kabuto is planning on getting the powers of the Sage of Six Paths himself and is more concerned with making the Alliance and Tobi's forces destroy each other.
    • While Kabuto did remain completely loyal to Orochimaru, at one point Orochimaru was uncertain whether this was the case. He didn't mind, though. Instead, he just thought it'd be amusing to watch and see whether Kabuto betrayed him like he does everyone else. (Given Kabuto's history, this may have been the right way to handle the situation — Konoha (in the form of Danzo) betrayed him first.)
• Neon Genesis Evangelion has a few examples. End of Evangelion kicks off with Gendo and the SEELE committee simultaneously betraying each other and every single other faction in the series. On the other hand, Ryoji Kaji is simultaneously double-crossing SEELE, NERV, and the Japanese government all in a personal quest to figure out what the fuck is going on, and he turns out to be one of the more unambiguously heroic characters on the show. He doesn't get away with it, though.
• Yosuzume, the silent black-winged yokai from Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, joins and betrays three different yokai clans, including the clan she supposedly worked for when she betrayed the other two. The ending reveals that she was a shikigami under the orders of an evil onmyoji, the true mastermind behind her actions.
• One Piece:
  • During the Davy Back Fight arc, there is a scene where the Straw Hats are told not to trust one of their True Companions, Nico Robin, as every organization she has ever joined was destroyed before her departure. Unlike Usopp's "Chronic I-Must-Not-Travel-To-This-Island Disease," her disorder is presumed cured. When her backstory is revealed, we learn that she actually suffered from Chronic Getting-Backstabbed Disorder, since the age of 8 no less.
  • Blackbeard, on the other hand, plays this straight. He betrayed Whitebeard, killed one of his own crewmates, and later captured Ace to deliver him to the World Government so that he could join the Seven Warlords of the Sea. When the Warlords are later recalled to Marine Headquarters to defend it from Whitebeard's expected attack in retaliation for Ace's capture, Blackbeard then betrays them by heading for Impel Down instead in order to free some of the world's most notorious criminals and recruit them into his crew. His motivation for these betrayals, and indeed for everything he does, is to fulfill his dream of becoming the Pirate King.
  • Nami at the beginning of the series when she betrayed Luffy to Buggy, then she betrays Buggy himself to join up with Luffy again. Then just before Sanji joins the crew she steals their ship and their treasure for Arlong (though she had a good reason for that one and wasn't happy at all). Then she betrays Arlong and goes back to Luffy again. They even lampshade these betrayals in the sixth movie when Nami accuses Usopp of betraying her and he says that that's her thing...though that lampshading is not at all Played for Laughs.
• In Outlaw Star, Professor Gwen Khan has a bad habit of using people to achieve his ultimate goal and acquire the power of the Galactic Leyline and then ditching them once they've gotten him as far as they can. In the course of the series, he has ridden on the coattails of the Kei Pirates, Gene Starwind and his crew, and finally the McDougall brothers, always skipping off when they've done all they can for him (although Gene manages to pull a premature backstab on him first). He also manipulates the android Melfina, who he created himself, as a bargaining chip, but unlike most examples of this trope doesn't seem sinister for it, mainly because he seems mostly neutral.
• In PandoraHearts, Jack Vessalius makes friends and alliances all over the place. He ends up ruining and betraying all of them one way or another, as he's simply manipulating them.
• In Record of Grancrest War, Siluca is loyal to her Lord, Theo. But aside from that, she has no loyalty to either the Union or the Alliance and picks her "allies" (and thus Theo's — she's the one actually making decisions for him) based on whichever side her current target is not a part of. This comes back to bite her when the Union turns down one of her requests to defect to them, their leader noting that a backstabber like her can't be trusted and the other Union lords won't accept her.
• RG Veda:
  • Shashi — better known as Ashura's mother. After the Ashura clan grants her a god's lifespan as their priestess, she promptly swears off those lowly, miserable humans (that she used to be one of). Then, she seduces Lord Ashura so that she can rise in status as his wife. Still not satisfied, she gets pregnant with another, more ambitious god's child at the same time as Ashura's child (twin half-brothers), and betrays the entire Ashura clan (including her husband) to their deaths when Taishakuten (her other baby daddy) revolts to become the new Emperor.
  • And when Ashura was born, she tried to kill her as well, because a child of Lord Ashura was no longer advantageous to her. After three hundred years as the wife of the iron-fisted emperor of the gods, is she through digging for more power? No! She plans to supplant him with her son and rule through him. Oh, Shashi, you backstabbing little minx, you!
• In The Rising of the Shield Hero, Malty S. Melromarc habitually betrays everyone who trusts her, usually for personal gain but often simply for amusement. She begins by betraying Naofumi and by the end of the light novel had betrayed all of the Heroes, her sister, her mother, her father, her treasonous co-conspirators, her kingdom, and her first lover. At one point she tried pleading with an entire room of people for just one to speak in her defense, but none did because she had already betrayed every one of them.
  • Medea's mortal fragments, of which Malty in the webnovel was just one, all have this type of behavior for similar reasons.
• The most recurring trait among enemies in the Sailor Moon 90s Anime. It usually happens within the Quirky Miniboss Squad competing for their boss's attention, but sometimes it gets more complicated than that. Going from the least to the worst offenders, we have:
  • Shadow Galactica: While Galaxia is very trigger-happy with the You Have Outlived Your Usefulness business, the Sailor Animamates get along surprisingly well, with Aluminum Siren and Lead Crow actually being very good friends who help each other out, and not harming Iron Mouse, who just keeps to herself. It's really only Sailor Tin Nyanko who'll throw anyone and anything under the bus, such as murdering Lead Crow in cold blood to try and steal Usagi's Star Seed –- and it's a tragic example because she turns out to be Brainwashed and Crazy. Also noteworthy are Sailor Uranus and Neptune, who invoke this trope to join the organisation only to get the chance to use Galaxia's own weapons against her, but that betrayal was planned all along.
  • The OG Dark Kingdom also holds up together quite well, except for Zoisite, who's only loyal to his lover Kunzite and has no problem getting anyone else killed (most notably Nephrite) to steal their spotlight. Once Zoisite dies and a Brainwashed and Crazy Endymion joins, though, his and Kunzite's working relationship quickly spirals into all-out Enemy Civil War.
  • The Dead Moon Circus has an unusual corporate ladder version of this, with each underling being betrayed by their superiors: the Amazon Trio get betrayed by Zirconia and the Amazoness Quartet ^note having outlived their usefulness, Zirconia awakens the Quartet, who send a Lemure to kill the Trio, who get betrayed by Nehellenia and Zirconia^note The Quartet's dreams were the true source of the Dead Moon Circus' powers, and Nehellenia tries to syphon away all their energy to power up Zirconia, which would have killed the Quartet, who gets betrayed by Nehellenia herself^note Zirconia served Nehellenia with blind faithfulness; once Nehellenia is able to escape her mirror prison, she doesn't think twice before doing so even though it would result in Zirconia's painful disappearance. Things come full circle when the Amazoness Quartet pull a Heel–Face Turn and kickstart Nehellenia's downfall by stealing the Golden Crystal from her. Interestingly, though, the actual squads get along very well: the Amazon Trio are True Companions, the Amazoness Quartet just bickering sisters.
  • The Black Moon Clan's very own Wiseman ends up betraying and killing almost everybody else in the Family: he tricks Esmeraude into pulling a One-Winged Angel that gets her killed by the Senshi, straight-up murders Saphir when he learns too much, and then gets rid of Demande without much fuss. Previously, Rubeus had tricked each Ayakashi Sister into suicide missions against the Senshi (or each other), before being betrayed and left to die in his exploding spaceship by Esmeraude once his final plan backfired.
  • The Death Busters are by far the worst offenders of all. Not one of them is exempt from this. Not. one.
    • Kaolinite plans pulling a Starscream on Mistress 9, only to be quickly disposed of once the latter awakens and Kaolinite is no longer of use. Professor Tomoe doesn't beat an eyelash despite encouraging Kaolinite's crush on him for much of the season.
    • Mistress 9 herself is unceremoniously hit by a blast of energy from Pharaoh 90 when she's in the way of his trying to kill Sailor Moon, and barely survives it.
    • Professor Tomoe's very backstory is this: Germatoid promises to help him revive his daughter Hotaru, who got caught up in a freak lab accident, only to possess Tomoe and have Hotaru possessed by Mistress 9.
    • And then the poster girls of this trope, the Witches 5. Eudial is killed by Mimete so the latter can get her job; Mimete is disposed of by Tellu for trying to steal her job too. Both Tellu and Viluy are killed by their own creations when they lose control of them; Cyprine and Ptilol are tricked by the Senshi into annihilating each other. Sure, the Senshi did give a push here and there, but they might as well have sat down and let the Witches' Enemy Civil War spiral out of control.
• Sogyoku in Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion sees no issue with changing allegiance whenever it suits him – that is to say, whichever faction wants to Take Over the World and subjugate humanity that isn't losing. As a result, the Teoti from Shinkalion Z that he seems to have sided with for now are the fourth group he's aligned himself with… and counting…
• Slayers:
  • Xellos is a pretty good example of this trope, as his loyalties can (And will) change at the drop of a hat (except for Zelas Metallium, the mazoku lord he serves). In the books, the sheer awesomeness of this is turned up to eleven. Mazoku are bound, absolutely, to follow the orders of their superiors. He still manages to betray them. In the anime, it comes off as Xellos just having fun with humans by frustrating them.
  • Zelgadis also suffered from a minor case of CBD very early on in the series, although it was to a much lesser extent.
• In the series finale of Space☆Dandy, Bea is revealed to be a spy for the Jaicro empire, but turns traitor on them as well so he can hijack Dandy's power for himself.
• The Tower of Druaga: Neeba, the older half-brother to protagonist Jil, has a bad case of this. This guy betrayed Jil and his own adventuring party twice and also betrayed the party who took him in and trained him in his Magic Bowman class.
• Clone Syaoran in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- starts out as the main character, and then tries to kill Fai by eating his eye, and towards the last world he appeared to still serve for the Big Bad only for him to betray Fei Wang due to being enraged at Sakura's death.
• Thorkell the Tall from Vinland Saga is a big Blood Knight and hates Curb Stomp Battles. Therefore, if joining the 'losing' side makes a war last longer because the sides are now fairer, Thorkell (and his army) will switch sides. During the course of the manga, he has switched sides at least four times because of this, and people who hire or ally him should be aware they're only on the same side until he decides they're not. Interestingly Thorkell's moral code also prizes loyalty; he hates traitors and deserters, and when he switches sides he's completely open about it in advance.
• Seemingly every last Drule/Galveston commander subordinate to Teles/Hazar in Vehicle Voltron/Dairugger XV basically waits for him to go off the viewscreen, sighs/laughs, and orders the attack anyway, mocking his efforts for peace in the process. They all either die or 'barely get away in an escape pod', depending on the edit.

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