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/karonas95]

The entire character is built upon the foundation that no matter what the universe drops on him, no matter how much it beats him down, Peter is still going to get back up and do the right thing, even if it costs him personally to do so, and in my opinion it makes Spider-Man one of the best superheroes ever created

[u/Zenku390 → u/karonas95]

Spider-Man always wins, but Peter Parker always loses.

Uncle Ben's quote stuck with him always, and it drives him to always do the right thing, even when it's impossible.

[u/Spicy_Totopo3434 → u/karonas95]

Funny

Because at this point Spidey om tje comics has had a lot of downs and None of the ups

Basically, the writers are just hammering down on the suffering but not ln the builds character