"You Said You Would Let Them Go!" moments in Video Games.
- In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Jaree-Ra assures you that after you help him cause a ship to become wrecked that he'll make sure the crew is safe. Naturally when you arrive at the ship and discover that his marauders have instead butchered the crew it's really no surprise when his sister Deeja proceeds to turn on you when she offers you "your share" of the spoils.
- Fallout: New Vegas:
- You find a group of Great Khans holed up in Boulder City holding a few NCR soldiers hostage while a small NCR force is gunning for them. With some persuasion, you can convince them to release the hostages in return for being allowed to leave in peace. When you tell the NCR officer in place about the deal, he says that he just received orders to take the Khans out by force, even though they released the hostages. Fortunately, if you're still hoping for a peaceful resolution, you can appeal to his integrity and convince him to stand down anyway.
- In the backstory, Vault 11 had to decide who would be chosen as the Vault's Overseer and thus sacrificed for the good of the Vault. It was eventually decided to be chosen by vote but led to a tyranny of the masses with the largest voting blocs sending anyone they didn't like to die. Katherine Stone was forced to perform sexual favors for the Justice Bloc's men to save her husband... who sent him to die anyway. Katherine then decided to take justice into her own hands and killed as many Justice Bloc members as she could just to be called Overseer and enact her real plan Overseer Order 745: citizens are given numbers and become Overseer if the random number generator calls them. With no way to secure their power or even their chance to live the voting blocs erupted into violence, anger boiling over at the hands of abuses and fear of death. In the end, there were only 5 members still alive and then there was one.
- Jason Brody of Far Cry 3 finds that his friend Keith Ramsay is being held captive by Bambi "Buck" Hughes, an Australian Psycho for Hire. Buck offers to return his friend if Jason goes on a Fetch Quest for an ancient Chinese knife. Once Jason finally brings Buck his knife, he finds out that Buck is a Depraved Homosexual who was keeping Keith as a Sex Slave, and now he wants to add Jason to the collection.Buck: Yeah. Look, about that, mate, I am grateful, right? And, uh... well, I'd really like to show my appreciation, you know... [cups his groin] proper, like a man should.
Jason: You said we could leave, you fuck!
Buck: No, no, no, no. What I actually said was that Keith could leave with you, but you're not going anywhere. - Final Fantasy:
- Cecil from Final Fantasy IV gives away the Earth Crystal to Golbez at the Tower of Zot in exchange for Rosa's life. Golbez's response? "Rosa? Who's that?", plus it appears the woman would have been chopped in half by a guillotinenote anyway if the heroes didn't save her in the nick of time.
- In Final Fantasy X, Tidus and company crash Seymour forcibly marrying Yuna, who the party are guardians to, but when they arrive at the altar and Yuna prepares to Send him (i.e. banish him into the afterlife, as they had killed him once earlier), Seymour has the Bevelle army hold Yuna's guardians at gunpoint. Yuna reluctantly backs off and Seymour forces a kiss onto her to complete the marriage...only to tell his guards to kill Yuna's guardians anyway. Yuna escapes, and it's only thanks to Rikku throwing a flash grenade to distract the soliders that the she and her co-guardians get to escape.
- The Force Unleashed: When Darth Vader attacks the Rebel meeting, Galen Marek shouts, "You agreed to stay away". Vader's response? "I lied, as I have from the very beginning."
- Golden Sun:
- Played with in the first game when the party trades the plot coupon for a hostage, only to be tricked by crafty wording. (To be fair, the villain only said he wouldn't hurt the hostage, her release was never mentioned.)
- This actually happens twice, implying that Isaac really should have known better. And yet, despite managing to outsmart Isaac and co. twice using Exact Words, Saturos and Menardi get referred to as Dumb Muscle in The Lost Age.
- In Guild Wars: Eye of the North, the vanguard soldier Anton reveals that he provided information to the Charr in exchange for his village's safety. It went exactly the way you'd expect, with the bonus of his being caught and imprisoned for it. His quest line involves seeking out and eventually killing the Charr he made the deal with.
- One mission in Saints Row IV has you rescue Matt Miller from the simulation. During this mission, Zinyak gives you a choice between continuing the mission and surrendering. He promises to release the humans he's holding captive and let them leave, but you will be executed in return. If you take his offer, you get a closing credit sequence then a Mission Failure screen with the message "Zinyak was lying."
- In Sara is Missing, you will have this reaction if you share the "Red Room" curse to the people on Sara's phone and Irizu kills James. It's worth mentioning that the choice doesn't matter since James dies either way.
- StarCraft: In the Zerg campaign of the Brood Wars expansion, Sarah Kerrigan abducts the matriarch of the Dark Templars, and promises their prelate Zeratul that if he helps her in her conquest, she will allow the matriarch to go free (the highlighting is Sarah's and it's so pronounced that Zeratul should've probably suspected foul play right then). Once Zeratul fulfills their part of the bargain and demands the matriarch to be released, Kerrigan gleefully asks her if she wants to leave, only for the matriarch to declare her allegiance to the Zerg. Turns out she had enslaved the matriarch long before, and the entire abduction plot was just a ruse.
- Suikoden II: During Luca Blight's attack on Ryube Village, a poor villager begs the madman to let her go. He decides to humor her request and orders her to act like a pig for his amusement. She does so, and when she asks to be spared, Luca shouts, "Die, pig!" and cuts her down anyway.
- Subverted at the end of Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure. Montana Max tells Buster that he'll return Babs and the rest of his friends to him if he gives him the titular hidden treasure. Buster refuses to give it to him, thus starting the final battle with Monty's giant robot. After Buster defeats Monty and his robot, he tells him he promised to let Babs and his friends go. Monty reminds him he still owes him the treasure, and Buster still refuses to give it to him.
- Near the end of The Walking Dead: Season Three, the Big Bad has a gun to the head of two of your friends, and forces you to pick which one lives. However, she then kills the one you pick despite her allies' objections and her only response is "I can do whatever I want."
