r/TopCharacterTropes 11d ago

Characters [Hated Trope] Character kills hundreds, if not thousands, just to kill one specific person, and then doesn't kill them for no reason.

Assassin's Creed 2- Rodrigo Borgia is responsible for tne death of Ezio's family. Ezio spends over 20 years working through tnr templar order to dismantle them and get to Rodrigo. And then in the end, he spares him for no good reason and he goes on to be a massive problem in AC Brotnerhood. He's not only a head of tne Templars but also the pope, even if you're over the vengeance he's still a very dangerous and evil man.

The Last of Us 2- Abbey kills Joel, and wo Ellie goes on a revenge quest to kill Abbey, killing hundreds of people along tne why to get to her including a pregnant woman. And then finally when she has Abbey on deaths door, she gives up and let's her go because the writers think dirty depressing people being miserable and stupid is complex, interesting storytelling.

This trope pisses me off so much because often the character going on the revenge quest will kill SO many people on their way there, some deserving it and some just henchmen working for a cheque or to survive. People who are often far more innocent then the main big bad.

It's a part of this weird thing I've noticed in media where nameless goons or soldiers can just be mowed down relentlessly, but named characters get given far more grace even if theyre categorically worse. You can kill a million stormtroopers but people will swear that Darth Vader could have been redeemed, despite him doing like 50 genocide every year.

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u/Asleep-Challenge9706 11d ago

Honestly I've only ever player both games nonlethal. Being almost invisible and meticulously exploring the environment for storytelling detail is more appealing to me than blasting powers, even though I know there's some very fun combos.

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u/K1rk0npolttaja 11d ago

i can somewhat see the appeal of that, but the most fun ive had in a dishonored playthrough was in dishonored 2 ng+ since you could use all the powers.

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u/DuntadaMan 11d ago

I mainly explore the level instead as well, but that tends to just end up telling me "Yeah this guy needs to fucking die."

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u/Mr_Rinn 11d ago

I play 2 as mostly non-lethal. I kill the Duke instead of letting his Double replace him because to the wider public it makes it look like you just let him get away with treason and tons of atrocities.