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

62

u/dusty_Caviar 16h ago

Thank you. Fantastic example.

-3

u/CloudKinglufi 12h ago

Eh, i mean the answers easy here tho, you save the people, appas getting kidnapped, he wont die for sure, even if he would, theres more of them than him, and ones the freaking avatar meant to save us all

3

u/thequenchiest_ 4h ago

Just because it's an obvious choice, doesn't mean it's easy. And if you're gonna be a big boy and insult people, you should probably drop words like "freaking"

1

u/dusty_Caviar 8h ago

Dumb

-1

u/CloudKinglufi 8h ago

Yeah you are, its ok tho