Bewildering Mercy is the term for any instance in a Tiradesverse film where a protagonist? chooses not to kill a villain, despite the fact that that villain has committed violent atrocities. What makes this trope particularly infuriating to the hosts is that generally, the protagonist? in question will nearly always have shown absolutely zero restraint on killing lesser bad guys all throughout the film. Most of the time, when this happens, the hosts will ask something to the effect of, "...and THIS is the one person you leave alive?!?!"
Examples in the Tiradesverse[]
- Battlefield Earth - Jonnie Tyler has Terl dead to rights and hands him his firearm back voluntarily.
- The Crow: Wicked Prayer - Sheriff Tanner actually stops his father from killing Lola Byrne, who had previously carved out his sister's eyes and violently murdered her, and bragged about it.
- Samurai Cop - Joe Marshall has, by the final battle with Yamashita, killed dozens of guys in the Katana Gang, but because his partner tells him not to, he doesn't kill Yamashita. This, in spite of the fact that Yamashita is the only person in this entire gang who actually did anything (which included killing a cop and his wife, and horrifically burning another cop).
- Jupiter Ascending - Jupiter refuses to give mercy to all of the megalomaniacs who try to kill her over the course of the movie despite all of them being pretty sociopathic.
- The Garbage Pail Kids - Dodger is rightfully beating the shit out of Juice, and just decides to stop because......reasons.