Not What I Signed on For in Video Games.
- Played for laughs in Relius' gag reel in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND. This trope sums up Makoto's reaction to Jin dropping into NIISAN mode about Ragna — in her body, no less!Makoto!Ragna: Huh? Why's my body standing in front of me, talking about killing me? I didn't sign on for this, you guys!
- Devil May Cry 4: Shows up in the newly Heel Face Turned and shortly dead Credo's Motive Rant:"I served the dream of a world you spoke of, the Savior you preached of... But you used my sister, Kyrie, who has nothing to do with this, and that is beyond forgiveness."
- DmC: Devil May Cry: Upon The Reveal that Vergil's real plan was to overthrow Mundus so he could rule humanity himself. Dante states outright that he didn't help Vergil defeat Mundus just so Vergil could take his place.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition: Sera signed up for the Inquisition to help resolve the civil wars going on. She gets a very nasty surprise when Corypheus and his party show up to ruin everything, though she sticks by the Inquisition despite this.
- Fire Emblem: Awakening:
- Gaius is recruited as the result of this; he first appears as part of a group of soldiers on an assassination mission. Upon finding out what their real goal is (he had been brought in as a thief), he claims this trope, and can be bribed with candy to join your side.
- Similarly, Tharja, a Plegian Dark Mage, joins the protagonists after admitting that she doesn't really believe in her king Gangrel's cause.
- Fire Emblem Fates: Asugi, like Gaius, cuts ties with his employer over the terms of his job. He'd been willing to rob the mansion where his Paralogue takes place, but draws the line at killing the owner.
- Neither Mike Schmidt nor the previous security guard were informed of the homicidal animatronic animals they'd have (no chance) to fend off when they signed up to work Five Nights at Freddy's.Security Guard's Night 1 Message: Now, concerning your safety: the only real risk to you as the night watchman here, if any, is the fact that these characters... uhh, if they happen to see you after hours probably won't recognize you as a person. They'll-they'll most likely see you as a metal endo-skeleton without its costume on. Now, since that's against the rules at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, they'll probably try ta... forcefully stuff you inside a Freddy Fazbear suit. Umm, now that wouldn't be so bad if the suits themselves weren't filled with crossbeams, wires and animatronic devices, especially around the facial area, so you can imagine how having your head forced inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort... and death. Uhh... the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth that would pop out the front of the mask, heh... Yeah, they don't tell you these things when you sign up...
- Half-Life:
- After the Resonance Cascade in Half-Life, a special forces group of the United States Marine Corps (the Hazardous Environment Containment Unit) arrives to clean up the situation — not only by stopping the Xen invasion, but by "silencing" all Black Mesa personnel with lethal force in order to keep knowledge of the incident secret. While some of the soldiers are sociopathic and most carry out their orders without complaint, one Marine in "On a Rail" makes it clear killing civilians is not what he signed on for."I didn't sign on for this shit. Monsters sure, but civilians?... Who ordered this operation anyway?"
- There's more Marines in Half-Life: Opposing Force who are clearly not happy with what they've been ordered to do.
- After the Resonance Cascade in Half-Life, a special forces group of the United States Marine Corps (the Hazardous Environment Containment Unit) arrives to clean up the situation — not only by stopping the Xen invasion, but by "silencing" all Black Mesa personnel with lethal force in order to keep knowledge of the incident secret. While some of the soldiers are sociopathic and most carry out their orders without complaint, one Marine in "On a Rail" makes it clear killing civilians is not what he signed on for.
- In reference to the crazed Marines in the early games of Halo, Bungie put in one of these troopers in Halo: Reach who had been driven mad by the invading Covenant, gibbering that he had signed on to fight Insurrectionists, not aliens.
- Two of the people in the Paris stage of Hitman (2016) are working for Dalia Margolis, the head of an international spy ring called IAGO. Both of them regret it because it went too far:
- Helmut Kruger is a model and actor working for Dalia as a Honey Trap to romance secrets from women, but he is horrified when Dalia gives him cyanide to potentially (hint: explicitly) murder the woman he's sleeping with.
- Hailey is even more justified than Helmut as she is only working for Dalia because she's The Mole for Victoria St. Clare. Yes, she's a spy but she's a spy for a fashion magazine, and she's rightfully afraid for her life in case Dalia pulls You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on her. She will be murdered if you don't sabotage the laptop but if she survives she flees for her life with a bodyguard who's been hiding her secret.
- Regime!Flash in Injustice: Gods Among Us says this as he pulls a Heel–Face Turn after Regime!Superman crosses the Moral Event Horizon by killing Regime!Shazam for questioning him.This isn't what we signed up for. I let myself believe we were making things better. But we're not.
- Kingdom Hearts:
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Braig conspires with Master Xehanort to corrupt Terra in exchange for acquiring the means to use a Keyblade... which results in Braig getting a facial scar and losing his right eye to Terra. Afterwards, Braig furiously confronts Xehanort, stating that Xehanort had promised him he wouldn't get hurt and he "didn't sign up to be collateral damage." Xehanort simply draws his Keyblade and threatens him into backing down.
- Early in 3D, Neku and Shiki both make a deal with Young Xehanort to turn Sora and Riku, respectively, over to him in exchange for being able to leave the Reapers' Game and go home. However, both Neku and Shiki turn on him when Young Xehanort actually attacks them, as he apparently promised them beforehand that he wouldn't hurt Sora and Riku.
- The Legend of Tian-ding have this as the turning point for Colonel Matsumoto, who for most of the game is your rival. But when Matsumoto's superior and the game's true Big Bad, General Shimada, orders him to massacre a village full of innocent civilians, Matsumoto quickly pulls a Defector from Decadence by having the village evacuated before saving you from execution.
- This is Elle Cutleaf's reason for helping you against her Blackwold brethren early in the Combe segment of the Race of Man storyline in The Lord of the Rings Online. The Blackwolds were originally petty brigands until their leader Skunkwood made a deal with the forces of Angmar, a greater evil than Elle was willing to have any kind of part of. Among other things, they took several dogs that Elle had supplied them with and bred them with monstrous Wargs, which did not sit well with her at all.
- Metal Gear:
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker:
- Kazuhira Miller in worked with Cipher as a neutral business partner and have Big Boss rejoin the organization with the intention of expanding the Militaires Sans Frontieres. After it became apparent that Cipher was perfectly willing to ruin the Militaires Sans Frontieres should Big Boss refuse to rejoin by having one of their agents launch a nuclear weapon from their defense system at the East Coast of the United States and then frame Militaires Sans Frontieres, it is heavily implied that Miller quit working with Cipher.
- Huey says this, word for word, when he learned that Coldman was going to launch a live nuke from Peace Walker as the final part of its test.
- Otacon in Metal Gear Solid helped build Metal Gear REX without any idea that it was gonna be used for nuclear assaults.
- In Metal Gear Solid 2, President James Johnson defected from the Patriots to Solidus's Sons of Liberty group and hijack Arsenal Gear. However, whereas he himself wanted to use it as a bargaining chip to be put in the inner circle of the Patriots, Solidus himself desired to use it to actually destroy the Patriots. When Johnson discovered this, he was implied to have refused to cooperate any further, only for it to be too late.
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker:
- Late in Modern Warfare 3, Yuri explains that the reason he betrayed Makarov was because he went from a soldier to fanatical lunatic bent on conquering the world for Ultranationalist Russia, willing to use nuclear weapons and massacre civilians to get the insane, mutually-destructive war he wants.
- In Sonic Chronicles, Shade the Echidna loyally serves Imperator Ix in his efforts to free their clan from the Pocket Dimension they've been trapped in. When Ix mentions his intention to have them go on to conquer the outside world, Shade is horrified and promptly jumps ship in favor of the heroes, as she only ever wanted to get out.
- In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the Sorceress and her apprentice Bianca steal dragon eggs and take them to their Forgotten Worlds. Bianca does it because the magic in their worlds is disappearing without the presence of dragons to maintain it. When she discovers the Sorceress' real reason for wanting the eggs — to make an immortality potion from baby dragon wings — she promptly does a Heel–Face Turn and joins Spyro and his friends in trying to stop her.
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty:
- Tychus Findlay protests along these lines when Raynor reveals that they're going to Char to confront Kerrigan. He tries to convince Jim to just take the money and run. As Gabriel Tosh notes if you still have him there, Tychus is trying to avoid doing something he doesn't want to — that "something" later revealed to be that Tychus has been tasked with killing Kerrigan, despite the wishes of his friend. Tychus dies on Char, after attempting to shoot Kerrigan — a situation which may or may not have been a case of Suicide by Cop.
- Tychus also protests quite strongly to facing down an army-strength Tal'darim force on the Xel'naga worldship, backed up by "rip-fields" that tear apart anything that approaches them, with a snarl that he "didn't sign up for no suicide mission".
- Ultimate Spider-Man: Near the end of the game, Silver Sable is hired by Bolivar Trask to capture Spider-Man. When their fight on a bridge ends up endangering innocent lives, Sable helps Spidey save them. As she explains, she was hired to capture Spider-Man, not to kill innocent people. Spidey, being himself, takes the time to snark at her for it.
- In the Ork campaign of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution, Mister Nailbrain says it if attacked in close combat.
- In Wizard101, when the player is retrieving the pieces of the stone of Mazzaroth, the final piece is held by Vesna Shadowscar. Upon the player arriving she refuses to fight the player and tells the Shadow Weavers that fighting wizards was not part of the bargain. She'd heard of the player before. This may explain why she's one of only human besides the player that is still alive in Dragonspyre.
- In the history of World of Warcraft, Queen Azshara allied herself with Sargeras and the Burning Legion and worked to bring him to her world of Azeroth for more power and authority. In the end, the Legion's invasion failed, and the destruction caused by the War of the Ancients destroyed her capital city and sent her and those most loyal to her to the bottom of the ocean. In the Warbringers: Azshara short, she begins to panic and hear voices telling her it's her fault which she frantically denies and shows that "This was not the deal [she] made!"
