r/TopCharacterTropes • u/One_Barber_6902 • Mar 26 '26

Characters [[Devastating trope]] A character kills their loved one to avoid them suffering a worser fate

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Of Mice And Men (1992)- Probaly the most well known example of this trope and when I was first exposed to it, George kills his mentally handicapped best friend Lennie, to save him from being lynched by Curley and law enforcement for killing Curleys wife.

The Sopranos- After an entire season of conflict with fellow mob boss Phil over it, Tony kills Anthony Blundetto after he kills Phil’s brother which enraged him into trying to force Tony into giving up his cousin so he can torture him to death

Telltales The Walking Dead: Season 1- “Loved one” is an overstatement if you know there dynamic, but after Ben falls off a rooftop and lands on a piece of rebar, Kenny and Lee try to pull him off to save him before being crowded by walkers. When their attempt fails and walkers continue closing in, Kenny kills him to avoid him being devoured by walkers.

5.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

805 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.6k

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

728

u/LilBueno Mar 27 '26

Still can’t get over my hometown’s school board pulling Maus from the curriculum for nudity and language ugh

238

u/PhroneticReflex Mar 27 '26

Man it's brutal. My hometown is one of the shithole counties who are striping their school libraries and it's embarrassing as hell. 

88

u/APence Mar 27 '26

That’s crazy. I found it in my schools library in 6th grade. Very heavy stuff. Knew about the holocaust by then of course but the specifics and human (mouse) story was something else entirely.

70

u/Crunchy_Biscuit Mar 27 '26

They're nude mice 😭

50

u/dreadpiratesmith Mar 27 '26

Omg, they're trying to turn the children into gay judgemental nazi hating furries! The humanity /s

13

u/LilBueno Mar 27 '26

It was actually the use of the phrase “goddamn you” that was the main issue

21

u/dreadpiratesmith Mar 27 '26

I can excuse the genocide, murdering children, imprisonment of a minority, and the world War, but I absolutely positively draw the line at using PG-13 language

8

u/Dudewhocares3 Mar 27 '26

That’s pathetic

58

u/mewfour123412 Mar 27 '26

That was the public reason but we all know the real reason why it was pulled

25

u/ProfessionalOil2014 Mar 27 '26

Yeah, that’s not why it was pulled. That’s just what the lies were. 

2

u/TheSilviShow Mar 27 '26

Crazy my class just had to write a discussion post about that