Characters
A character provides another with a prime opportunity to kill them, to demonstrate the absolute power of their position
Just to demonstrate a difference in control, to humiliate, or to test: An opportunity for a free kill is provided which the opponent can not afford to take. Often this comes back to bite them in the ass once tha balance of power has shifted.
GOT - Ramsey let's Reek shave him, who is too broken and afraid to make a move, even tho he has little left to lose.
TWD - Negan hands his bat Lucille to Rick and then turns his back on him. Days earlier, Negan used this bat to execute Ricks friends in front of him and he'd love to return the favour, but Negan is still holding a gun to the heads of everyone Rick knows.
Breaking Bad - Gus hands a kitchen knife aimed at his own heart to Walter. In this peaceful beginning to their business relationship, Walter is already very aware that he's dealing with a smart, dangerous and careful individual. He understands the gesture both as a sign of trust and peace, and as a power move and silent threat.
There’s a Colombian short story called Espuma y Nada Más. The barber is a rebel and the general walks in for a shave. The general tells him he is there to fight the rebels. The barber contemplates everything in his head. He could be the hero but then he talks himself out of it by saying the rebels have an ambush for later that night. After the shave the general tells the barber that his men had told him not go because the barber was a rebel. He tells the barber I’ll see you tonight
There's a scene in Django where Calvin tells a story about a slave his father owned named Old Ben. He said that every morning he'd hand Old Ben a straight razor and have him shave his face. Similar to the scene in GoT, Old Ben never once dared to take the opportunity to cut Candy Sr's throat
I loved that story because it's so telling of Candy's mindset.
Of course if he was in that position he wouldn't do anything, because he'd be tortured to death. He just thinks he's so above his slaves he can't even imagine being in their shoes. He's totally sure of his superiority.
Last time it was that the episode where he shows how to properly put a baby to bed (on her side, with the pillow propping her up) is the same episode he lets Jane die, the exact way he was trying to avoid with Holly
Last rewatch, I realized he was also the person that killed Jane. It was him shaking Jesse in an attempt to wake him up that led to Jane laying on her back. If he hadn't done that, she would have thrown up on the bed, and survived, but instead she choked on it and died
Young Justice: On behalf of the Light Luthor kidnaped Speedy and had him cryogenically frozen while his arm was taken to create a clone that would serve the Light. After being saved Speedy was left broken. 8 years had past, everyone he knew had moved on, his own clone was married with a kid, his mentor/father figure had given up and assumed he was dead, he had lost an arm.
Speedy decided there was nothing left in his life but revenge so he went to kill Luthor. Specifically by blowing up his arm with LexCorp tech. And Luthor gave him the perfect opportunity to do so before revealing that once he did, Luthor's security team would just kill Speedy. Luthor then asked him, "What do you really want son? Revenge or Satisfaction"
Speedy chose the latter and walked out with the most advanced cybernetic arm LexCorp had ever made.
(Slight variation of the trope) the joker is showing the audience his position/confidence by allowing Harvey dent to point a loaded gun at his head the day after he murdered his fiancée.
She's the protagonist's kidnapper. During their visit to the protagonist's family, who don't know he was being held against his will, she gives him an opportunity to kill her and be free. However, she also tells him to think about how it could affect his family.
She's his homeroom teacher with a flawless reputation. While he was away, she even came over to cook dinner for his family, building a relationship with them.
It's only been three days since he went missing, and she's already covered it up by claiming that he ran away.
He doesn't know where he was being held captive because she knocked him out before driving him home.
With hindsight, it's a good thing he didn't do anything because it's later revealed that she's extremely influential behind the scenes, with even the police on her payroll. Even in the off chance that his family believed him despite the lack of evidence, she probably would've just killed them, covered it up, and taken him back.
About 90% horny dark comedy and 10% psychological horror, with that 10% almost entirely coming from her. Also she isn't even a yandere, since she doesn't actually want his love or affection. She just wants to push him over the edge.
In fact, the first step of her plan was to become a teacher at his school and make him fall for her, just so she could crush those feelings.
That was the weakest Kenny has been during the series, and ichigo barely got a double ko with help from his Quincy powers lol. Kenny didn’t even try to use kendo too, which would have one shot ichigo through the power up
In Unforgiven, Little Bill Daggett allows W.W. Beauchamp to hand the imprisoned English Bob a loaded revolver to make a point during their debate about violence (and that English Bob was just a self-aggrandizing cowardly loser). Despite having the revolver in-hand and Bill's being holstered, all it takes is one glare from Bill for Bob to back down.
Trying to be as spoiler-free as possible, Amos Burton (right) comes back to his old stomping grounds in Baltimore. Erich (left) is kingpin of the crime scene there, having taken it over twenty-odd years ago with Amos' help, and doesn't much like the idea of his old partner in crime coming back after twenty-odd years, apparently to take him down. Amos assures him that he isn't here for that, but to settle affairs with some trivial matter that still needs Erich's personal touch.
Erich is disbelieving, but Amos - at every moment - demonstrates an extremely uncharacteristic non-threatening attitude. Erich finally 'believes' that Amos is here just for this small issue, and so turns to get a drink from his table, 'accidentally' leaving a gun on the table for Amos to pick up and use.
Amos gets up... and pushes the gun across the table, away from him. "You don't have to test me, Erich."
Erich finally, truly believes that Amos is here for said trivial matter. He gives his word that the affairs will be taken care of. And both Amos and Erich part amicably (considering).
Jacob Seed has the rookie held prisoner, and to demonstrate to them the power over both them and their squadmate Pratt, first has the rookie starved for days; so they immediately eat when a bowl of food is provided, and then has Pratt shave and wash him; a razor he could use to kill Jacob before anyone can stop him, but he does not.
Huh, case 2, I don't know if this other example works but uh Conquer (2003), with this scene
Liu Huaqiang and his gang intimidates another rising rival gang, led by Feng Biao, at gunpoint. At one point, Liu decides to let Feng hold one of the shotguns, aimed at Liu's own forehead, and decided to apparently give him a chance to pull the trigger, since Feng's gang didn't even bother to have any guns on them at the table meet-up.
After that is followed by some mild acts of humiliation, with Liu ordering Feng to call him master.
Most famously known as the basis of one of those animations involving a Chinese beaver model, specifically the beaver, playing Liu, with a fish and a deathly looking frog representing Feng
Also from the breaking bad universe, Jesse has an opportunity to kill Todd. However doing so would cause consequences of Brock also being killed to. Maybe he would have been able to quickly escape and get Brock to safety but he didn't want to chance it.
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u/OperationAdorable370 12h ago
There’s a Colombian short story called Espuma y Nada Más. The barber is a rebel and the general walks in for a shave. The general tells him he is there to fight the rebels. The barber contemplates everything in his head. He could be the hero but then he talks himself out of it by saying the rebels have an ambush for later that night. After the shave the general tells the barber that his men had told him not go because the barber was a rebel. He tells the barber I’ll see you tonight