r/TopCharacterTropes • u/AporiaParadox • Sep 11 '26

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

Gallery image

Gallery image

  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.

12.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

26

u/Ok-Dish4389 Sep 11 '26

Die hard? When he tapes the guns to his back.

6

u/NotSeveralBadgers Sep 11 '26

I swear I remember Frank Reynolds pulling this same stunt shot for shot on IASIP but I don't remember the context at all.

4

u/halfpipesaur Sep 11 '26

I remember Peralta doing this in Brooklyn 99

3

u/zdsatta Sep 11 '26

its the episode when the mcpoyles takes the gang hostage inside the bar and frank is rooting around the vents looking for the will he asked charlie to hide S3E04

4

u/MorgessaMonstrum Sep 12 '26

I feel like it doesn’t exactly count when it’s just some guy doing it, as opposed to a unit within an organization. Arguably dishonorable, but there’s no war here to war crime with, McClain is effectively a kidnapping victim fighting back.

2

u/Snoo_63003 Sep 12 '26

He also only used the taped pistol after Hans pretty much stated he was going to shoot anyway and pointed his own gun towards him.

3

u/a_wasted_wizard Sep 11 '26

I guess it technically qualifies but I always read that as a case where he fully expected Hans to not hold up his end of the deal and just being better at treachery. It's less "using an enemy's willingness to show mercy against him" and more "pretending to fall into a trap to turn the tables."