| abstract | - Very traditional line spoken as the hero has the villain in their power. It could be said by the hero, the former Distressed Damsel, or even the villain themselves if they're aware of the rules of the trope. The goal is to evoke a Not So Different moment. The most common situation involves the villain hanging over a cliff or building, and the hero deciding whether to drop them or lift them up. Usually, this is a difficult choice for the hero because the villain has proven to be a Complete Monster or done them great harm personally. Also common is the villain's attempt to pull the hero over the edge after they decide to let said villain live, resulting in the hero accidentally losing their grip, and the villain getting a Karmic Death that isn't the fault of the hero. For some reason, this form of heroic morality only counts for the head villains. The hero may have consciously wiped out scores of Evil Minions and Mooks to get to this point, some in deliberate ambushes. None of them count, probably because that was technically in self-defense, and to get in that Dramatic Pause that occurs during instances of this trope, the scene doesn't look much like self-defense. Normally the difference is that instead of an actual battle where the underlings have a chance of fighting back and possibly killing the hero, this would be cold blooded murder given the circumstances. See What Measure Is a Mook? for more on this. Oddly, very very few heroes answer this challenge with a simple "The difference between me and you is I'm going to kill someone guilty and you've been murdering people who were Innocent Bystander." (or "The difference between me and you is I'm not about to die.") Unless the story is trying to bust out the Idealism extreme of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism the Villain will most certainly not see the error of his ways after being Forgiveness, and by allowing him to live because you'll be as bad as him makes you kinda worse than him, as he'll make another world-wide incident where tens of thousands die. In most cases in which the situation plays out exactly like this that doesn't involve a Karmic Death also involves not bringing the villain to any other form of justice whatsoever. That is, unless the hero personally administers Cruel Mercy, which may in fact be worse than having simply killed them. Or cooler. Contrast with Kill Him Already. Compare with Save the Villain and Sword Over Head. Anti Heroes are exempt from all four. Compare/Contrast Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred. The Dog Bites Back and Disney Villain Death may be used to evade the consequences. A subtrope of He Who Fights Monsters. See If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him for when the stakes involved in this situation are notably lower. See also Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. A very common kind of Moral Dilemma. Examples of If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him include:
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