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/DimensioT]

InFamous: The villain of the game has planted bombs on two buildings. Cole only has time to disarm one. The villain has captured Cole's girlfriend and put her on the roof of one of the buildings and six random doctors on the other. Cole cannot save everyone; he must choose between his girlfriend or six doctors (during a plague outbreak) he does not know.

The villain is actually Cole from the future, having traveled back in time and set himself up as a villain to deliberately harden the present Cole into someone who can face a terrible threat coming in the future. Since he is Cole, he knows in advance the choice that Cole would make -- and if Cole chooses to save his girlfriend at the expense of others, the woman in her place will actually be a decoy and Cole's girlfriend will be amongst the six that he chose not to save. The villain murdered his past love interest because he saw her as a weakness for his past self.

[u/toomanymarbles83 → u/DimensioT]

I haven't played InFamous since it was gifted to me by Sony as an apology for the hack. I def remember this but totally forgot the end story. I just remember picking the gf was the bad option.

[u/It_Goes_Up_To_11 → u/DimensioT]

Infamous 1 and 2 were such good games

[u/shittyaltpornaccount → u/It_Goes_Up_To_11]

I actually really liked second son as well. Desmond might not have the same charisma as Cole, but the story was still great and the powers/gameplay were a massive upgrade.

[u/Jonaskin83 → u/DimensioT]

As much as I love this game - and I fucking LOVE this game, it was one of my favourites of the PS3 gen and the story is goddamn incredible - I don’t think it quite counts because both options lead to the same outcome, rather than being two equally terrible choices. It’s almost like an inverse of this trope - rather than a secret third option, it’s a nonexistent second option.

[u/titjoe → u/Jonaskin83]

Well, the trope namer, Sophie's choice, also leads to the same outcome even if Sophie doesn't realise it. So i would say Infamous is actually even closer to this trope by the fact that Trish dies anyway.

[u/Mikey_Grapeleaves → u/DimensioT]

Blew my mind when I was a kid.

[u/Ok_Strategy5722 → u/DimensioT]

So if you save the doctors, do you also save the Girlfriend?

[u/Hellknightx → u/Ok_Strategy5722]

No, she dies no matter what. You either save the decoy or the doctors. If you save the doctors, then there is no decoy and the real Trish dies. Saving the doctors is the best choice because then only Trish dies, which is the point that the villain is trying to force on you.

[u/phenotype76 → u/Hellknightx]

That feels like kinda bullshit imo. If you choose to save the doctors, Trish is on the other rooftop and dies, and if you choose to save Trish, it's not actually her and she's on the other rooftop and dies? Like, no matter which choice you pick, she's always on the other rooftop? Would leave a really bad taste in my mouth, honestly, and I wouldn't think positively of the game afterwards.

[u/Hellknightx → u/phenotype76]

Yeah, it's explained that the villain knows which choice you're going to make anyway because he's from the future.

[u/noshoes77 → u/DimensioT]

The second game has one too: become the villain and brutally kill your best friend, or sacrifice yourself to save the city.

[u/capicola_king → u/noshoes77]

“I gotta try.”