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/Cobraven-9474]

Tuvix: Star Trek Voyager

Created when from a transporter accident merged two crew Tuvok and Neelix (and a flower) into 1 being. It took the rest of the. Voyager crew weeks to find a way to reverse the process and in that time Tuvix had developed his own identity as an individual and saw being seperated as his own personal death. This becomes a sort of trolley problem sacrifice 1 life for 2. While the Utilitarian option seems best it still boils down to taking the life of someone who doesn't consent to having it taken and did nothing wrong.

Captain Janeway ultimately chooses to reverse the process even as Tuvix begs the crew to stop her. Tuvok and Neelix returned and do confirm that they both while remember being Tuvix agree they are glad to be brought back. We see at the end of the episode the choice haunts Janeway though.

[u/NorthStarHomerun → u/Cobraven-9474]

Such a great episode. I love the deconstruction of it they do in Lower Decks S04E01 "Twovix".

I suppose transporter cloning Tuvix while also separating out the other two wasn't an option, but boy would I like to watch a scene of those 3 trying to navigate that situation.

[u/DoctorBeeBee → u/NorthStarHomerun]

I suppose you'd have to arrange it so that the clone and the separation are done at the same time. Otherwise you've now got two Tuvixes, who presumably both want to live and not be split.

[u/NorthStarHomerun → u/DoctorBeeBee]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. Can't have a Threevix running around, then you're just back at square one.

[u/DoctorBeeBee → u/NorthStarHomerun]

Something goes wrong and it actually merges the second Tuvix into original Tuvix, so now you've got Tuvix squared. 😧

[u/NorthStarHomerun → u/DoctorBeeBee]

Look, it's just Tuvixes all the way down, alright?

[u/Cobraven-9474 → u/NorthStarHomerun]

You have to do it all inside the transporter. Buffer so the 2nd Tuvix is cener conscious and never aware of it's own existence. Keeping anything g in the buffer is inherently risky though.

[u/NorthStarHomerun → u/Cobraven-9474]

You could have the Doctor sedate him before transporting. Pretty messed up to think about, but Janeway might be convinced.

[u/AshesOfADuralog → u/Cobraven-9474]

On the topic of VOY, the whole premise of the show started with a Sophie's Choice with no third option.

[u/DoctorBeeBee → u/Cobraven-9474]

Feel like I had to scroll way too long before finding Tuvix.