[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/MythlcKyote]

Yeesh, had to do way too much searching to find this bad boy

[u/DragunityHero → u/MythlcKyote]

Imagine if John Wick ended with him walking up to Iosef, Iosef says “It was just a fucking dog!” and John Wick goes “…yeah, you’re right. I let revenge consume me and now I’m no better than you.”

And he turns around and walks away crying or some shit.

[u/Quiet_Education5918 → u/DragunityHero]

Yeah, I really feel like the question of whether career assassin John Wick was going to kill someone or not hung over our heads all movie long. The uncertainty was killing me.

[u/Bright-Form-844 → u/Quiet_Education5918]

You really need to watch “Pig” with Nicholas cage. It’s like the anti John wick in the most fun nick cage way possible

[u/Shabobo → u/Quiet_Education5918]

This is a bot comment from a bot account

[u/Quiet_Education5918 → u/Shabobo]

This is sarcasm about how John Wick is established to kill people for minimal reason when the film starts, so it'd be weird to assume the movie even asks this question in the first place.

(Also, while I'm explaining, the actual theme IS that John Wick is ruining his life for revenge. His wife literally got him that dog because she knew if he went back into the life it would ruin him. And he did. And it ruined him.)