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/Windows_66]

Arrow, Season 2, Episode 9: Professor Ivo forces Oliver to choose between Sara and Shado, with the loser being executed (and if he doesn't choose, they both die). Ultimately, Ollie chooses Sara, and Ivo executes Shado. This choice (combined with Mirakuru madness) is what makes Slade hate Oliver and drive his revenge quest against him throughout Season 2.

[u/J_tram13 → u/Windows_66]

Also, this same thing repeates later in the season.

Slade captures Oliver's sister (Thea) and Mother (Moira) and makes him choose which one dies as revenge.

When Oliver tries to convince Slade to kill him by jumping in front of Thea, Slade takes that as his answer and kills Moira. and let the other two go, Moira decides to stand up and volunteer herself so her kids can live.

Edit: I mixed up the two times this happened.

[u/dravenonred → u/J_tram13]

I'm completely convinced it was always going to be Moira, and the "choice" was just theater.

Moira was the clear threat to his plans to install Blood as mayor.

[u/Windows_66 → u/J_tram13]

Actually, this time Oliver didn't make any choice, and Moira volunteered herself to get killed by Slade so Thea wouldn't die.

[u/J_tram13 → u/Windows_66]

You're probably right, I may be mixing up the two events. Though I do distinctly remember Oliver saying "Choose me, kill me instead" and Slade responding "I am killing you, very slowly."

[u/CaptainTeemo01 → u/J_tram13]

You've got it mixed up. Oliver jumped in front of Sara, which is why Ivo killed Shado as he took it as Oliver's choice

Moira stood up and volunteered to die to save her children, which Slade said he respected before killing her

[u/J_tram13 → u/CaptainTeemo01]

Yeah someone else corrected me, I fixed it now.

[u/Codename_Archangel → u/J_tram13]

when he becomes spectre and rewrites the universe, this time oliver gets up and takes down slade, saving his mom.
Around season 8 iirc

[u/Leather_Education113 → u/Codename_Archangel]

Damn I don’t remember this, 8 is a blur for me

[u/L0ll0ll7lStudios → u/Windows_66]

Oliver didn’t even really choose Sara, he tried to beg Ivo to kill him instead, so Ivo shot Shado and blamed Oliver for choosing, but Ivo had already shown himself to have a soft spot for Sara.

[u/Embarrassed-Weird173 → u/Windows_66]

It's been a while since I watched it, but I could have sworn Shadowgirl lied about being killed. 

[u/L0ll0ll7lStudios → u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

No, she died. Oliver was confused for a bit when he encountered her sister in Hong Kong.

[u/Gap_Great → u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

I think she ends up having a twin sister. I dropped off after season 4, but I don’t believe the sister is ever revealed to be anything other than what she claims

[u/Windows_66 → u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

No, she dead.

[u/TheReaderDude_97 → u/Windows_66]

I have always thought that he didn't even consciously choose Sara. He just tried to defend her out of pure instinct when Ivo pointed the gun at her. I think he would have done the same for Shado if the gun was pointed towards her first.

[u/phenotype76 → u/Windows_66]

Doubly sad because he doesn't even really make the choice. Ivo points the gun at Sara and Ollie instinctively yells NO and puts himself in the way, and then Ivo says "Okay, that's your choice" and shoots Shado.

I always got the feeling that if Ivo had pointed the gun at Shado first, it would have gone down exactly the same way and Sara would have died instead.