Basic Trope: Characters express sorrow at lives wasted, particularly those of their enemies.
- Straight: Agent Zed shows pity for the henchmen in his path as he liquidates them.
- Exaggerated: Zed is sorrowful over swatting a fly inside the enemy's base.
- Downplayed: Zed feels some remorse for his enemies, but not too much.
- Justified: Zed only uses lethal force as a last resort, and abhors killing over anything as stupid as manical plans for world domination.
- Inverted: Zed figures his enemies cast their lots a long time ago, disposing of them with as much prejudice as he can manage with nary a regret afterward.
- Subverted: Zed feels bad about killing mooks, until he sees what their boss is up to.
- Parodied: Zed pauses to say an ave for every man he kills. His mission completement time is abysmal.
- Zig Zagged: Zed felt sorrowful at the kill count after his first mission, and attempts to keep it down, but after a few years of the same he just can't bring himself to care anymore. This changes only after he gets sloppy and shoots an unarmed, innocent janitor.
- Averted: Zed sees the job as the job. No more, no less.
- Enforced: The Agency fosters a rudimentary sense of empathy for enemies, since dehumanization tends to be bad practice if an agent ever goes rogue.
- Lampshaded: Zed wonders just where his feelings toward his enemies comes from before pulling the trigger.
- Invoked: Agent Zeno tries to curb Zed's tendencies toward ruthlessness by getting him to see things from the enemy's point of view.
- Exploited: Dr. Imperius employs people with sympathetic backgrounds in an attempt to maximize his chances against enemies like Agent Zed.
- Defied: Zed has no pity for his enemies, who have invariably proven themselves to be the scum of the earth.
- Discussed: Zed and his therapist have some interesting conversations.
- Conversed: Zed monologues to a captive (and terrified) mook about his conflicting feelings regarding his job.
- Implied: Zed hesitates before finishing off a wounded mook.
- Deconstructed: Agent Zane mocks Zed for his compassion, calling him an easy mark for any enemy with a sob story and relishing the day when they turn on him like the snakes they are.
- Reconstructed: Zed channels his empathy toward becoming a "field recruiter", flipping bad guys from enemy organizations and getting them to do good with their lives instead of dying at the hands of Agents like him.
"What a senseless way to go back to the trope." *puts on cowboy hat*
