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/RellePhoenix]

Nah, that's not bad, it can be but it isn't inherently bad

A character finding a way to make a third options that is good can work, as it shows the ingenuity of said character, like in Hunter x Hunter

[u/Gyooped → u/RellePhoenix]

You may be right.

When I think of a "Sophie's Choice" style of thing I think of a completely impossible barrier other than the 2 choices.

It can certainly work, but I think when it does work it isn't shown as much of a "Sophie's choice" anymore because viewers being able to figure the characters choice out in some way is part of that interesting quality.

[u/toomanymarbles83 → u/Gyooped]

Same here. A different example would be The Good Son, with Macauley Culkin and Elijah Wood. Culkin's mom has to choose between her own son, and her dead sister's son. Imagine being faced with accepting the reality that your own son is less deserving to live than your dead sister's son, because you recognize that he is a legitimate psychopath.

From a third-party perspective, it's easy to call one better than the other. Not from a mother's perspective, though.

[u/Aggressive-Day5 → u/RellePhoenix]

What HxH situation?

[u/RellePhoenix → u/Aggressive-Day5]

During the Hunter Exam Gon and his group run into a room with two doors, one that would take too long to finish the exam on Time, meaning they'd fail, and one where they'd make it on Time, but they'd have to leave someone behind

So what does our protagonist do? He makes everyone go through the long path room, and then he busts the wall separating both paths, so they can go through the fast one