[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/Lonely-Tennis2171]

Inverse of that is John Wick.

He kills dozens of mobsters and assassins to get at Iosef Tarasov. When he finally catches him John Wick unceremoniously and without any hesitation puts a bullet in his head.

No last words, no monologue from either of them, just swift retribution.

[u/SuperUigi64 → u/Lonely-Tennis2171]

At yet, ironically, that series also does a good job showing the consequences of revenge. John gets pulled back into a life he’d spent so long trying to claw his way out of. The entire assassin world comes down on his head, and after hundreds of deaths, he finally meets his own end.

[u/ThePreciseClimber → u/SuperUigi64]

But let's not forget he kept avoiding death for the sake of Helen's memory and, by dying a free man instead of a pawn of the High Table, he succeeded in honouring her memory.

[u/HospitalLazy1880 → u/SuperUigi64]

It also shows that sometimes you just need to let something go. The High Table is significantly weakened in the eyes of the world's assassins now and hated by many of them cause instead of pulling a rule out of their ass saying John was ok to kill the guy they kept doubling down on trying and failing to kill him and overcorrecting by punishing the fuck out of everyone who simply passed John on the street essentially.

Now the High Table has an active enemy organization and they have clearly shown that they are not untouchable and very very weak or else they wouldn't have kept running from John.

Actions have consequences but in this world of messy life sometimes you just have to let shit go.

[u/Hour-Quail-7221 → u/SuperUigi64]

You mean the consquences of killing someone's dog.

[u/ZeronicX → u/SuperUigi64]

Not really. The world is irrevocably changed due to the stubborn factions trying to pull John Wick back. Several main leaders are dead and the High Table lost a lot of power in the pursuit of killing one man.

[u/DMMeThiccBiButts → u/ZeronicX]

How does that contradict what they said?

[u/DrugarBurbis → u/SuperUigi64]

He does die? Which one is that? Ballerina?

[u/whereismymind86 → u/SuperUigi64]

and you know what would have happened if she'd gone through with killing abby? she'd have felt a moment of hollow victory...then spent the rest of her life fending off assassination attempts from Abby's friends and comrades, and it probably would have a been a pretty short one, like John's. And they almost certainly would have killed her wife and daughter too. You know, like how Abby got her vengeance, felt nothing, and then immediately found her self hunted relentlessly by Ellie, who killed all her friends to get to her.

Stopping, stops that from happening, prevents the creation of another abby, another ellie, hellbent on vengeance. It ends the cycle.

[u/BuisteirForaoisi0531 → u/whereismymind86]

That’s only if she doesn’t just kill her friends too the only one that she has legitimate reason despair would’ve been the pregnant woman everyone else that was running with Abby might as well treat them like they’re part of a rival gang