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

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  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.

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u/Deep90 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26

There is one scene where an umbaran has his mask broken and seems to be begging for his life, but is shot in the head execution style (by rex?).

You're right though. They did capture Luco, but his capture seems more intentional as a way free Dozen since the sepertists didn't greenlight the exchange. Rhy Cesca made an exception solely because she was Lucos lover.Perhaps other Umbarans were also captured, but I haven't seen anything to go off of.

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u/Various-Storm991 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 12 '26

It Was Actually Fives Who Did That, Though There Is a Scene Where Rex Double-Taps a Umbaran That Felt Out Of his Vehicle After One Of the Clones Destroys the Glass With a Rocket Launcher.

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u/OHFTP Sep 12 '26

We also learn in Zero Company from Luco that if the helmet breaks while they are amped up on the stim/gas they start to asphyxiate. So maybe that's what going on and ita a mercy kill. Seems like a stretch, though.

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u/Deep90 Sep 12 '26

Wait really? I don't remember him saying that.

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u/OHFTP Sep 12 '26

I think it was a walk by conversation between him and one of my non-named operators. Don't remember which personality.

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u/NanolathingStuff Sep 12 '26

Unrelated, but i've always found funny that Umbarans needed masks to survive on their own planet but clones could breath just fine

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u/Deep90 Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26

In Zero Company, it's actually explained that the masks contain a combat stimulant, not air.

I think a tabletop game or something also does the same.