"Good guys" committing perfidy (fake surrender) and it's treated as a clever heroic ploy instead of a war crime or something morally dubious

[u/AporiaParadox]

1. Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Anakin pretends to surrender to the enemy multiple times during the Clone Wars. And no, it's not used to indicate that Anakin is falling to the Dark Side, other characters like Obi-Wan do it too.
2. The Iliad. The Trojan Horse was a real dick move, a fake surrender compounded by a fake peace offering, followed by a massacre. I get that it was a different time, but still, most modern adaptations just treat it as a cool thing. One thing I'll give Nolan's The Odyssey credit for is that Odysseus recognizes that what his "clever plot" was wrong.

Perfidy is a serious war crime, because morality aside, in exchange for one victory, you're dooming all of your allies who might want to legitimately surrender in the future because now the enemy is just going to execute them, not to mention that now the enemy won't surrender to you and will just fight harder.

[u/Individual_Piccolo43]

I believe in at least the middle ages (and thus I'd expect it in ancient warfare too), the longer the siege, the more brutal the sack of the city

[u/the_Real_Romak → u/Individual_Piccolo43]

pretty much yeah. sieges were boooooooring for the attacker since all they did was sit around for potentially months jacking off and eating through their provisions, waiting for the defenders to just die already.

and when the sack finally happens, they got a lot of pent up frustration to let loose.

[u/Individual_Piccolo43 → u/the_Real_Romak]

Also, disease, unsuccessful assaults and enemy sallies killing your friends