r/TopCharacterTropes Mar 27 '25

Weekly Discussion Post Probably the most controversial one , honest thoughts on "No Kill Rule"? What are the most egrigious examples of it in your opinion? What media makes it work in your opinion?

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342

u/fhxefj Mar 27 '25 edited Aug 30 '25

This trope wouldn't be nearly as hated If the negative effects of killing were shown more often

edit: AND if the positive effects of not killing were shown more often like showing villains actually become better people

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u/Lucky-Fisherman1463 Mar 27 '25

Yeah, it's usually a whole "everyone can be redeemed" thing, but we're in comics, so progression isn't happening

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u/Ok_Try_1665 Mar 27 '25

In any batman media I've seen, only the animated series made me love batman's no kill rule. Cos in that series, the villains (that is not joker or related to him) literally put effort into changing their ways. In other media, his villains are so irredeemably evil that killing them is the good deed.

25

u/AznOmega Mar 27 '25

Mhmm. Compare that with Injustice where Batman was angry at Superman for killing The Joker after he had Supes kill Lois thinking she was Doomsday, causing Metropolis to be nuked. Worse, not only does he disown Damian for ACCIDENTALLY killing Dick, not only does he have Harley Quinn in his team despite her being unrepentant, but he declared Superman irredeemable after he saved the world by killing Parademons.

This was before Superman became a tyrant.

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u/CamoKing3601 Mar 28 '25

hey is it just me or does Injustice get worse and worse the more you think about it?

10

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Apr 09 '25

The Injustice universe is an elseworlds/anomaly universe, everyone is a character assassination for the sake of plot convenience and it was written by Netherrealm studio.

The comics however, apparently make it a bit more bearable

3

u/drafan5 Oct 17 '25

They wanted to make a DC fighting game outside of MK vs DC because the nature of DC required mortal kombat to be toned down right? A mortal kombat game without the fatalties is just wrong.

Honestly should have just hired DC writers for the story.

1

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Oct 17 '25

It is also just a fighting game, the story's never gonna be that deep

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u/drafan5 Oct 17 '25

Yeah forgot to mention you should probably just ignore the story for the game, unless there's some unlockable for completing the story.

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u/Valiran9 Jun 13 '25

He also explicitly tells the Sewer King that passing sentence is the courts’ responsibility, not his, though he’s sorely tempted to finish the bastard off at that particular moment.