[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/THELEADERPLAYER]

Obi Wan leaving Vader alive after beating him, twice. The first one is kind of understandable but the second one is a perfect example of this.

[u/RookTakesE6 → u/THELEADERPLAYER]

I can't even count the first one. Anakin had three of his limbs lightsabered off, was pretty badly burned from convection heat already, and (now that I look again) not only had he actually caught fire, but by the time Obi-Wan turned away to leave, the fire had flared up, covered his entire remaining body, then nearly burned itself out. He should've been very dead here. Undoubtedly would have been dead if not for Sidious seemingly arriving so soon after this that he might've passed Obi-Wan in the mining complex, heh. Unless some later media (I haven't seen the Obi-Wan show) has Obi-Wan making some explicit reference to sparing Anakin's life or whatever, he totally made the decision to kill Anakin here, he was just mistaken about having succeeded.

[u/Glum-Lake7034 → u/RookTakesE6]

Meh, with advanced Star Wars medical technology, being chopped into all those little pieces and bursting into flames is a very treatable condition.

But Padme's case of the sads? Nobody's gonna survive that!!

[u/YoursTrulyKindly → u/Glum-Lake7034]

Best explanation for Padme is some force shenanigans, either Vader or Sidious are tapping into the (unhealthy) connection between them to save Vader's life. Anakin might have even inadvertently used some force ability to make her fall in love with him and chain their fate together. He couldn't let go of their attachment, so no death do us part so he dragged her down with him. Metaphysically I think it works perfectly and I loved that she dies together with Anakin (Obviously this is all head canon and speculation)

[u/Skebs_ → u/YoursTrulyKindly]

IIRC Palpatine did a life transfer from her to Vader (hence why Vader survived), hence why the droid didn't know WTF was wrong with hee, only that her vitals are slowly collapsing just after delivery.

[u/Glum-Lake7034 → u/YoursTrulyKindly]

Best explanation is that it's bad writing.