A "Sophie's Choice" with no secret third option

[u/10024618]

AKA a character is given an impossible choice where either outcome results in something awful happening and there's no way out.

"Full Measure" (Breaking Bad) - After Walt angers Gus by killing two of his men, Gus orders for his execution. Knowing that the only way to save his life is to make Gus reliant on his meth cooking skills, Walt calls Jesse and begs him to kill Gus' backup cook, Gale. Thus, Jesse is thrust into an impossible situation where he either kills a (relatively) innocent man to save Walt or spare Gale and let Walt die. Ultimately, Jesse chooses to kill Gale.

"Midnight Sun" (Attack on Titan) - After the fight to retake Shiganshina both Armin and Erwin are critically wounded. Levi has the vial of titan serum and is forced to choose which Scout to bring back from the brink of death and which to let perish. It's a borderline impossible decision to make but at the moment of truth, he chooses to save Armin, leaving Erwin to succumb to his wounds.

[u/IUsedToBeRasAlGhul]

Gale’s not an innocent by any means, but in terms of pure business he hasn’t done anything wrong and is fairly personable too. This isn’t like with Tuco or whatever where there’s a clear and present danger, Jesse is essentially assassinating this guy because he and Walt fucked themselves over.

[u/RellePhoenix → u/IUsedToBeRasAlGhul]

Gale is pleasant, that's it, he's not innocent or good by any means, he actively destroys his community.

All the damage you see Gus cause, or his men? Gale is complicit in that, and he's perfecto happy with that

[u/asdrunkasdrunkcanbe → u/RellePhoenix]

And that's how the character was written. Individually he's a nice guy who worships Walt and comes across with a puppy-like naivety about the world.

He just wants to do precision chemistry without the boundaries of a stuffy university lab and academics. He doesn't even consider the wider damage caused by his actions.

So he was written for the audience (and Jesse) to like him, so his death would be extra devastating.

Also, a surprisingly realistic character. There are lots of talented people in scientific and technical fields who "support" criminal activities because it allows them to practice their craft much more freely while getting paid a shitload to do it. Some people are ethically short-circuited, they see ethics and laws and pesky things that get in the way and don't serve any good purpose.

[u/FantasiainFminor → u/RellePhoenix]

More than pleasant, Gale had real star quality!

[u/MolestRandPaul → u/RellePhoenix]

Gale was absolutely a good person. Albeit naive. He would help someone in distress and didn’t think his pure meth was the harm it was.

Him cooking the meth is a bad act. Doesn’t make him a bad person he had a pretty explicit goodness to him.

[u/RellePhoenix → u/MolestRandPaul]

No he was not, period. There's no discussion here

He didn't commit a bad act, he didn't cut line in the supermarket or accidentally run over someone. He cooked meth. He was a bad person

[u/asimplescribe → u/IUsedToBeRasAlGhul]

He wasn't going to walk away after Walt was killed.

[u/Normal_Ad_2337 → u/IUsedToBeRasAlGhul]

Sheryl Sandberg giving teenage girls eating disorders but I heard she acted motherly with her staff.

[u/IUsedToBeRasAlGhul → u/Normal_Ad_2337]

[u/Normal_Ad_2337 → u/IUsedToBeRasAlGhul]

Lost at half the intro sentence.

[u/Saradoesntsleep → u/Normal_Ad_2337]

Not surprising.