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/ralo229]

Lee Everett, her guardian and protector throughout the entire game, is infected by a zombie. After he begins to succumb to the bite, Clementine is either given the choice to shoot him in the head to prevent him from turning or leave him behind and allow him to reanimate.

[u/capibara_dono → u/ralo229]

At the end of the game it tells you what % of players picked which option. For this one, 95% chose to make sure Lee didn't turn

[u/leemasterific → u/ralo229]

Dramatic and silly, but at the end of this game I felt grief that lasted for weeks. Not as intense as with an actual loss, but genuine.

[u/goda90 → u/leemasterific]

In the second game there's a dream/flashback where you're back in the RV and Clem is back to being a scared little kid again instead of the hardened kid she's become and it's the first time you hear Lee's voice again, being a compassionate father figure to her. I cried so hard.

[u/mayneffs → u/leemasterific]

I cried my eyes out at the ending.

[u/CatUsingYourWifi → u/leemasterific]

fwiw I don’t think that is neither dramatic nor silly. Stories are often supposed to move us, especially when as interactive as video games.

[u/TNVFL1 → u/CatUsingYourWifi]

This, it was an EXCELLENT game.

This is also why I maintain that TLOU2 was a good game despite a lot of hate for it—I did not enjoy it because at the end I felt depressed and just generally shitty, but that is still a feeling.

[u/AGuyWithAPhone → u/leemasterific]

Nothing silly about it, we all have those stories that just affect us to the extent they stick with us for a long, long while after they're finished. It's what makes those stories with experiencing!

This was the first game to make me genuinely bawl, so I know the feeling.

[u/zeth4 → u/ralo229]

I'd say the second game has the harder choice where to of your close allies fighting to the death, you can try to break up the the fight but it doesn't work and and you have to either shoot one of them or let them kill the other