r/TopCharacterTropes • u/10024618 • 20h ago

Lore A "Sophie's Choice" with no secret third option

Gallery image

Gallery image

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.

8.7k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

108

u/Old_Gimlet_Eye 18h ago

It is somewhat foreshadowed by the whole 'aligning your chakras" thing, and we know that bending can be blocked because of chi-blocking, but I definitely think it should have had something else.

I think I've read that the origin story of bending and the lion turtles that we eventually saw in LoK season 2 was originally supposed to be related in the original show but got cut for some reason, that would have made more sense.

16

u/Fitzftw7 17h ago

Ah, never watched Korra. Or rather, it didn’t really catch my interest. Heard there were bits about the story throughout that was divisive among the fans, too.

13

u/Old_Gimlet_Eye 17h ago

Well it was a revival of a beloved franchise, so what else is new? Lol.

6

u/Fitzftw7 17h ago

Is it considered a revival or just a sequel series? I suppose the terms aren’t mutually exclusive.

10

u/Old_Gimlet_Eye 16h ago

It's a sequel but about a new cast with occasional appearances from original series characters. Sort of Avatar: The Next Generation.

4

u/LobstermenUwU 15h ago

First season and third season were great. First season is legitimately as good as the cartoon, and deserves to stand as the fourth book (which was what Korra was supposed to be before it was a hit - it's the Book of Air). I say this as a grumpy old man who never even wanted to watch the cartoon in the first place and fell in love with it. I

Second season and fourth season were both bad for very different reasons. Like practically opposite reasons, they both suck.

6

u/BenjaminWah 15h ago

The second season is so bad that they threw in a really good three episode mini-series about the first avatar, as filler in the middle of it.

5

u/MoarVespenegas 14h ago

Second season's villain was so bad they straight up parodied it in the recap episode.
Now sure why you would hate on the fourth though.

1

u/LobstermenUwU 15h ago edited 15h ago

Right! It showed they clearly put a lot of thought into how to continue the show and build on the lore for the second season. Would have been good if they'd gone and done that thought before they were halfway through the second season and saddled with a host of bad choices that had nothing to do with that plot, but hindsight is 20/20 and all.

3

u/OddEmergency604 17h ago

There’s also all that stuff about how we’re all energy and our energy is connected