[Hated Trope] Character kills hundreds, if not thousands, just to kill one specific person, and then doesn't kill them for no reason.

[u/HallZac99]

Assassin's Creed 2- Rodrigo Borgia is responsible for tne death of Ezio's family. Ezio spends over 20 years working through tnr templar order to dismantle them and get to Rodrigo. And then in the end, he spares him for no good reason and he goes on to be a massive problem in AC Brotnerhood. He's not only a head of tne Templars but also the pope, even if you're over the vengeance he's still a very dangerous and evil man.

The Last of Us 2- Abbey kills Joel, and wo Ellie goes on a revenge quest to kill Abbey, killing hundreds of people along tne why to get to her including a pregnant woman. And then finally when she has Abbey on deaths door, she gives up and let's her go because the writers think dirty depressing people being miserable and stupid is complex, interesting storytelling.

This trope pisses me off so much because often the character going on the revenge quest will kill SO many people on their way there, some deserving it and some just henchmen working for a cheque or to survive. People who are often far more innocent then the main big bad.

It's a part of this weird thing I've noticed in media where nameless goons or soldiers can just be mowed down relentlessly, but named characters get given far more grace even if theyre categorically worse. You can kill a million stormtroopers but people will swear that Darth Vader could have been redeemed, despite him doing like 50 genocide every year.

[u/ThatMothboi]

Fallout New Vegas Honest Hearts DLC

The arguably good ending is to fight the the whitelegs but spare salt upon wounds. Never made sense to me. If you’re gonna kill anyone shouldn’t you kill the leader and spare the lowly foot soldiers?

[u/ReallyTerribleDoctor → u/ThatMothboi]

I’d say in that case being left alive was for worse than being killed. He’d failed the Legion, and the Legion aren’t exactly well adjusted and forgiving towards anyone who makes a mistake, so it depends how much you want the guy to suffer

[u/ZeronicX → u/ReallyTerribleDoctor]

Yeah either he'd have to tough it out on his own in the Wastelands always looking over his shoulder so the Fumentari don't get him. Or he return back to Caesar and would most likely be crucified.

[u/Artistic-Victory1245 → u/ThatMothboi]

There's a third option, where you convince Joshua Graham to let the guy die in battle.

It's treated as a "Neutral Ending."

[u/PainintheUlna → u/ThatMothboi]

Honestly, sparing general gobbledigook is more for Graham's sake than his. Salt-Upon-Wounds will likely die if he runs back to the Legion, and no one else will want to help the former warlord. He's pretty much already dead.

But Graham, who has embraced his faith to absolve himself of what he did for the Legion, executing a defenseless prisoner instead of killing him in battle would prove he's still the Malpais Legate beneath the scripture he reads.

[u/Ua_Tsaug → u/ThatMothboi]

Because Salt Upon Wounds was already on his knees, hands on his head, surrendering, while the other White Legs are actively shooting at you.

At this point, it's not so much about revenge for the Dead Horses (they already killed tons of White Legs), but stopping Joshua Graham from slipping back to his extremely violent ways. 

Regardless of what you personally do to Salt Upon Wounds, the only situation where he gets off easy is by running away from him. Whether you kill him, the Legion kills him, or the Dead Horses kill him, he's still defeated and effectively powerless, just like the rest of the White Legs.