Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work

"John: No...no I can't.

Scorpius: (sigh) I can. (grabs pistol in John's hand, and fires)"

- Farscape, "Prayer"

There's a problem, and the heroes can't solve it or make it go away. It boils down to a situation that requires a decidedly unheroic action to solve, whether it's hurting, killing, or something even less pleasant. The heroes can't very well do it and still be classic White Hats, but not doing anything would have grave consequences. Who can save the heroes now? Not the Big Damn Heroes, but the villains! Hey, they're evil already, doing an evil act to save the day is no problem.

Different from a Heel Face Turn because the villain isn't actually being heroic; the villain may be entirely motivated out of self-interest, such as fighting a common threat or because a competitor is challenging his place as nemesis. It's possible for it to even be a complete coincidence.

Contrast Villainous Rescue, where a villain pulls a Big Damn Heroes without committing any villainous acts in the process. If the villain saves the day by accident through doing something villainous, that's Nice Job Fixing It, Villain.

Also see Exit, Pursued by a Bear, Designated Evil, and Token Evil Teammate (the 'hero' inclined to play dirty pool in a team of good guys)

Anime and Manga

 * In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, at the end of the Koryo arc, Syaoran talks Chunyan out of killing the ryanban, but he is conveniently taken care of by his own previously mind-controlled servant.
 * One wonders what the The Omniscient Council of Vagueness group of old ladies who rule Japan (First Division) would have done to the cast of Mai-HiME had after the cast kills their god. It's doubtful that they were
 * A scene with the Obsidian Lord indicates that he was planning to invoke You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on them, but got to them first.
 * In Mai's fight with Shiho, she's unable to go on the offensive, realizing that as both of them consider Yuuichi their most important person, either of their Childs being destroyed will result in his death (Shiho, being overcome with jealous rage, fails to realize this). Yuuichi, not wanting them to fight, orders Mai to destroy Shiho's Child while fully knowing that he'll kick it, but she refuses. Then.
 * In the 2003 anime version of Fullmetal Alchemist, the brothers need to create the Philosopher Stone. Problem: By episode 40,
 * Dragonball Z: Vegeta's entire purpose, story-wise, for being on Namek is to kill every single minor villain so the heroes (or at least Goku) don't have to. Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, 4/5ths of the Ginyu Force (two while helpless!) and most of Freeza's mooks.
 * This trope shows up several times in the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, though very rarely played straight.
 * In Bleach, the Central 46 are Obstructive Bureaucrats of the worst kind. Good thing
 * Of course, the person who killed them has been frequently acting in their names, manipulating, or outright impersonating them for a long time now (all the decisions relating to Rukia's sentence were carried out by and his accomplices impersonating them), so it's hard to tell just how obstructive they really were...
 * Well, you have to keep up appearances unless you want people to notice that something is off,.
 * And despite that, they've apparently assembled a new Central 46 within half a year.
 * In one episode of the Pokémon anime, the heroes arrive at a festival dedicated to the Pokemon Wobbuffet, and several party-crashers come and start destroying things. The festival people explain that since Wobbuffet can't hurt the enemy except by reflecting attacks, in honor of that they will not attack the party crashers. Ash & co know the guys must be stopped, but are unwilling to break the rules of the festival. Team Rocket, on the other hand, have no such qualms. Ass kicking ensues.
 * At the very end of Pluto,
 * Similar to the Mai-HiME example, in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, disposes of the TSAB High Council, which was responsible for , preventing any such mistakes in the future.
 * This is so common in Magical Girl shows I'm not even going to list them but an example most western fans would be aware of is the big bads of Sailor Moon kill off most of their own subordinates who fail them which keep Sailor Moon and company from having to get their hands dirty. This is not the case of the Darker and Edgier manga however where they regularly kill their adversaries.
 * This courtesy does not, of course, extend to the Big Bad themselves or often to their Dragon. As more often than not Sailor Moon will kill them personally.
 * In Fairy Tail, after the eponymous guild is satisfied with just letting Grimoire Heart, the worst villains they faced so far who are clearly still evil, off with a scolding due to, Grimoire Heart leaves. As they lament their failure, Zeref, who they spent the entire series trying to get their hands on, approaches them. When they attempt to instigate their plan, he brushes them off, lets them know why he hates their guts, and makes their leader the third person in the start of the series to be killed.
 * He also got the second kill of the series, though that was an Accidental Murder.
 * In Naruto, Sasuke played this role in killing, as there was no way for the good guys to get rid of him without a huge political mess . His action enables without any complications such as a power struggle.
 * from Saint Seiya invoke the trope when They even say that it's the best,  ; in their words,    obviously refuses to take this explanation and says they just went in full puppykicking mode.
 * Discussed, but subverted in Rave Master. After defeating Hardner and learning about his sad past the heroes and their allies of the week are wondering what to do with him when Lucia comes out of nowhere and stabs him in the back, claiming they should be grateful that he solved the problem for them. Due to quick action, Hardner is instead saved and becomes the only Rave Master villain not to suffer from Redemption Equals Death.

Comics
""Now who's stupid?""
 * Happens in Deadpool. A man who had been abusing Wade's friend is cornered by him, but unfortunately, she had earlier made him promise not to kill him. He leaves. Cue Taskmaster, who happily proclaims that HE didn't promise her squat. Cue Gory Discretion Shot.
 * At the end of Infinite Crisis, Alexander Luthor has managed to escape the Final Battle and is planning to start over. Unfortunately, he forgot that he'd pissed off everyone's favorite homicidal clown. Not content with the possibility that Luthor might return, the writers have mister J burn him with acid, electrocute him and shoot him in the head.


 * During The Sinestro Corps War, after the Green Lanterns' attempt to
 * James Robinson's Starman series had a great example. Starman and the golden age Green Lantern are confronting Mad Bomber Dr. Pip and his giant exploding suicide exoskeleton when their powers short out due to a Crisis Crossover that they aren't aware of. But then all this happens.
 * On the fourth page, note that  is in fact flipping him off.
 * In Grant Morrison's Earth 2, the Justice League are in a universe where the bad guys always win, and are losing to that universe's Brainiac. Their solution is to walk away, allowing the evil Ultraman to lobotomize Brainiac with his heat vision.
 * The former page image comes from the Superman Y 2 K storyline. With Superman incapacitated and the city of Metropolis in chaos due to the apocalyptic Brainiac 13 computer virus, who is ruthless enough to step forth and protect the citizenry by any means necessary? Freakin' Lex Luthor, that's who.
 * Final Crisis also has Lex and Dr. Sivana coming to save the day from Libra when they hack into the Justifier helmets and kill Libra. Later, they helped the heroes build the Miracle Machine that fixes everything.
 * To give an idea of how desperate this plan was, keep in mind that the last time Parallax possessed Hal, he destroyed the entire universe. (But this is comics, so they fixed it.)
 * Earlier in Blackest Night, a plan is concocted to kill the Black Lantern Anti-Monitor by having Dove encapsulated in a bullet composed Lantern energy and have Bedovian, a sniper who'd terrorized the Green Lantern Corps during the Sinestro Corps War aim it at the Anti-Monitor's head as Red Lanterns distract him.
 * Seems more like an Enemy Mine situation. Black Lanterns are a Omnicidal Maniac corpse, the Sinestro and Red corps are not interested in THE END. OF REALITY. ITSELF!
 * Warren White/The Great White Shark in the DC limited series/graphic novel Arkham Asylum Living Hell
 * The remnants of The Black Glove that tried to utterly destroy Batman (and utterly failed) in Batman RIP could have caused problems in the future. It's probably for the best that  killed them all.
 * Averted in the American Sonic The Hedgehog comic. During the "Enerjak Reborn" arc, the Freedom Fighters are forced to fight Knuckles, who's been transformed into Enerjak and gone mad with power. Just when it starts to look like they might have to kill him, in comes Dr. Eggman, who captures Knuckles and intends to drain his life force to power his city. The aversion comes when Knuckles effortlessly breaks free and proceeds to level Eggman's whole city.
 * In the Hulk tie-in to Fear Itself, MODOK and cybernetic villainess Zero/One teamed up to defend Manhattan from Skadi's forces
 * Wayne Shelton exploits this trope: the Big Bad is killed by another villain. Shelton confesses that he hoped him to do this. And call this a bargain with his own conscience.
 * Depending on if you see him as a hero, anti-hero or an anti-villain, most everything John Constantine does could be seen as this: he certainly does what needs to be done when Swampy and others he interacts with hesitate to.
 * In an early Thunderbolts story (#14), the Thunderbolts have to kill an alien leader in order to get out of the dimension they're stuck in. Even though he understands the necessity of it, Abe (MACH-I) can't bring himself to, and Moonstone has to instead.

Films
"The Joker: I don't want Mr. Reese spoiling everything, but why should I have all the fun? Let's give someone else a chance. If Coleman Reese isn't dead in sixty minutes then I blow up a hospital."
 * The Chronicles of Riddick saga is based on taking this trope and making a franchise out of it.
 * The climax scene of Let the Right One In goes...this way, kind of.
 * In Red Sun, the villains are about to kill the heroes, only to be interrupted by an attack by murderous Comanches.
 * The Joker did this in his own twisted way in The Dark Knight, when a Wayne Enterprises accountant discovered Bruce's big secret and was about to reveal it to the world on live television. But leave it to the Joker to take something that would have been a favor to Batman, and to twist it to his own ends:

"Convict: You don't want to die, but you don't know how to take a life. Give it to me; these men would kill you, and take it anyway. Give it to me. You can tell 'em I took it by force. Give it to me, and I'll do what you shoulda did ten minutes ago.[The warden gives him the remote...and the convict throws it out the window]"
 * Later on, the Joker strands two ferries in the middle of a river, one filled with civilians and the other with convicts, with each one (supposedly) having the detonator to the other ferry and ordered to either blow up one by a certain time or the Joker will blow up both. While the civilian passengers are heavily considering blowing up the convicts, in the convict boat, the warden (who is holding the detonator) is approached by a Scary Black Man convict...

"Scar: Ah! My friends!
 * In the first X-Men 1 film, the Mutant Registration Act is defeated due to the Brotherhood killing the Act's main supporter and Mystique replacing him.
 * Simba from The Lion King is too moral to give Scar the killing blow. However, the hyenas who Scar tried to blame for everything when things started looking bad...they have no such morals. And they haven't eaten in a while...

Shenzi: "Friends?" I thought he said we were the enemy.

Banzai: Yeah, that's what I heard.

Shenzi and Banzai: Ed?

Ed: Eh, heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh..."


 * Similarly in The Princess and the Frog, after Tiana.
 * Chris Pine's character in Carriers where everyone is a Crazy Survivalist shoots the dog many times in order to spare his more innocent brother from doing it himself. It rubs off on his brother though, who later finally gets his hands dirty by killing Pine when he is infected...A poetic end I suppose.
 * Salim from Slumdog Millionaire spends most of the movie playing The Caretaker to Jamal, shooting and kicking the dog alternately allowing them both to survive, but allowing Jamal to remain relatively untarnished.
 * In Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans, the title character is being pursued by gangsters who want him to pay $50,000 for roughing up the son of a local real estate mogul. Rather than paying, he lures them to a place where he's meeting a drug kingpin that he's in business with. When the gangsters try to steal the kingpin's product in payment for what the protagonist owes, the kingpin and his men kill them all.
 * Both Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch has the morally grey protagonists being rescued from a jam by the Big Bad by having some more villainous characters kill them instead. Though in the Lock, Stock example this was completely unintentional on the count of the Stupid Crooks who did the killing.

Literature

 * The Probability Broach: It would be wrong to attack the Hamiltonians before they import a nuclear weapon, so they're killed off by a previously mentioned side effect of closing a broach when something is halfway through it.
 * The Culture novel Matter has a Sealed Evil in a Can being released and in typical Banks fashion killing most of the main cast. While this is nearly all of the heroes, it also includes the Evil Chancellor who had usurped a throne and his minions. Thus, the Culture are able to set-up the surviving hero as the future prime minister, and unlike in other novels in the series, didn't actually have to act morally ambiguously and get rid of corrupt leaders themselves.
 * In Night Watch, Vimes frees prisoners from the Cable Street watch house. In the process, he has to subdue a torturer, who he leaves tied to a chair and forgets about until someone reminds him. Since he gets reminded after he started burning the place down, he has to run back in, all the while trying to decide whether to kill the mook, cut him free, or cut just enough rope that he can maybe escape before he burns to death. Luckily, Captain Swing shows up and kills the mook before Vimes has to make his choice.
 * Vetinari: In his own words “history needs its butchers as well as its shepherds” or, in plainer language “MagnificentBastards do the dirty work.” note Swig also used the phrase.
 * “Stoneface” Vimes used more or less the same phrase, and executes the last king of ankh in person, without any form of trial. To be fair, the king deserved it, and some of the comments about the event indicate that he tried for a trial, but there wasn't anyone willing to be judge.
 * In Bernard Cornwell's book Agincourt, the main character, Nick Hook, has made a vow to a priest not to kill the murderous rapists who his family has been in a blood feud with for generations.
 * In Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce, the main character Aly's (god-ordered) objective is to put one of two sisters on the throne of a country undergoing a revolution. Among the people they will be usurping are the five-year-old king and the girls' own three-year-old half-brother, whom Aly has personally cared for. Aly has one or two brief scenes in which she feels bad that she'll probably have to kill them both off. Luckily for her, the king's sister and her husband -- the boy king's regents and the last adults standing of the original royal family, and now thoroughly paranoid about being undermined -- take care of that for her.
 * To be fair to Aly, she was trying to find a way out of killing the children, and considered binding them magically to oaths that they will not try to take the throne and exiling them together with the royal bodyguard as caretaker. Unfortunately, she mentioned to the trickster god that the children were in her way. The god got impatient with pacifist methods and persuaded the regents that they would be better off without the boys.
 * In A Song of Ice and Fire, this is how Tywin Lannister endeared himself to Robert Baratheon who had just secured the throne. Robert knew the old Targaryen line had to be extinguished for his throne to stay safe, but "he saw himself as a hero, and heroes do not kill children." Fortunately for Robert, Tywin (or rather his men) had no such delusions and happily murdered the two surviving Targaryen kids in the palace (committing a few other atrocities along the way).
 * To a degree Tywin's son Jaime also gets this treatment, since he killed Aerys, the Targaryen king, for Robert and company. In Jaime's case though any relief and/or gratitude is tempered by the perception that he has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, since he was part of an elite group of bodyguards who are supposed to be willing to die in order to protect the Royal House.
 * In the Dale Brown novel Executive Intent, the Chinese assault on and takeover of Mogadishu is likened to this by one character, noting how China had solved the problem most of the world probably secretly wanted to deal with but could not bring themselves to handle.
 * Wormtongue killing Saruman near the end of The Lord of the Rings.

Live Action TV

 * Buffy episode "Wild At Heart": we don't kill werewolves, because they're human most of the time, but Oz's wolf side is amoral and thus free to kill Veruca.
 * Buffy can't kill the Anointed One, partly because she's prophecied not to but mostly because he's a kid. Luckily, Spike does it for her.
 * Buffy is dying after being shot by Big Bad wannabe Warren. Willow appears, heals her, and takes the bullet, which she uses to torture Warren with and become the new Big Bad.
 * Dexter, end of season two.
 * Farscape: In the episode "Prayer", it's ambiguous whether or not John knew Scorpius was going to when he brought him along to the alternate universe, but it's what had to be done. See page quote.
 * In an earlier episode, Moya is in orbit around a planet with notoriously sexist laws, and accepts a visit from a mechanic- accompanied by an armed security guard. Things go well, up until Chiana discovers that the mechanic is actually a woman, rebelling against the government by doing a Sweet Polly Oliver; just when it looks like they're becoming friends, the security guard shows up and, infuriated that he's had a woman under his nose all this time, holds both of them at gunpoint. Given that there's almost nobody else aboard the ship at the time, it looks as though the two of them are going to die...right up until Scorpius calmly drifts past and snap the man's neck. All the more impactful because Scorpius had been having a friendly chat with the guard before then.
 * In an episode of a The Flash live-action series where a baddie had discovered his Secret Identity and blackmailed him (with even a Theyd Cut You Up threat). He ended up killed by other baddies, with a Car Starter Bomb.
 * This has happened tons of times in Smallville. Clark has to face people with dangerous superpowers, and while he can beat them readily enough, he can't very well run a super-jail or convince them to lead an honest life because, well, Kryptonite gives most people a god complex, and most krypto-freaks aren't stable/good to begin with. Having Clark kill or permanently disable them is far too squicky for a proto-Superman to do, so the preferred solution is to have them depowered or hoist by their own petard. The other solutions that pertain to this trope are to have them be killed by evil infighting among themselves, or having Lionel (and later Lex) deal with them.
 * In the third season of Heroes, heads off with the Haitian to   However, once they get there they encounter problems   The obvious solution?
 * Not the straightest example. While
 * Sylar actually lampshades the fact that he prevents Peter from becoming a murderer. So actually he wasn't here to do the job, just to keep Peter from having remorses.
 * Battlestar Galactica: it's obvious midway through "Pegasus" that Admiral Cain is a dangerous psychopath who needs to be dealt with. Adama is too moral to go through with an assassination. Fortunately,.
 * Ironically just after Cain proved that she wasn't completely insane yet, having in turn just refused to assassinate Adama.
 * Da Ren Wu is a Chinese TV series based on a classic kung-fu novel set in medieval China. The heroes, as usual in wuxia literature, are staunch Confucianists: morally opposed to unwarranted violence and who don't approve of killing under any circumstances. At one point, Sisi, the main heroine, is tricked by some crooks who steal everything she owns and give her to a Masqueraded School for whores. The boss and his cronies take great pleasure in tormenting defenseless girls, and kill those who don't respond well to the training. Three characters come to Sisi's rescue, one after another: 1) Yang Fan is the first. He can't find Sisi in the School (the boss locked her in a hidden room), so he leaves convinced he made a mistake. 2) Qin Ge, a famous kung-fu master, is the second. He can't find Sisi either. He suspects something, but can't prove anything. He leaves as well. 3) The hunchback is the third. They say the author was very surprised when the hunchback's popularity with the audience skyrocketed after this story arc.
 * In an episode of Taxi, Elaine visits a trendy hair stylist(played by Ted Danson) and comes away with an atrocious hairdo. She, Alex and Louie pay the stylist a visit to demand an apology and he rebuffs them. Elaine considers dumping a bowlful of hair dye on the stylist's head but decides not to, declaring "I'm better than you." Before they leave, Louie(in a combination Crowning Moment of Awesome/Funny) casually dumps the hair dye over the stylist and says, "She might be better than you, (Beat)...but I ain't!"
 * In the Doctor Who special The Five Doctors, the Master has been captured by the Cybermen and is initially being forced to do their bidding.
 * Twenty-six years later, in "The End of Time," this same Master (well, different actor/regeneration) forces back behind the
 * Brutally subverted in "The Pandorica Opens."
 * Torchwood: The trope gets played with. Captain Jack Harkness fills the role of the trope, despite not actually being villainous. Torture, murder, kidnapping, or any other action that would normally fall under this trope and require a villain to perform it gets performed by Captain Jack at the protest of the other characters.
 * This is one of the main ideas of Leverage. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys.
 * When Nate goes for revenge on the two men behind, Elliot warns him that straight up murder carries a much higher moral cost than their usual method of destroying a bad guy's life. In the end, Nate plays the two against each other (getting each of them to point out why they should want the other dead) then leaves them to fight over a gun with a single bullet.

Video Games

 * In Advance Wars Dual Strike, the Big Bad is defeated and at the player's mercy. But the machine he hooked himself up to is still draining the planet, and he needs to be killed. Von Bolt taunts Jake, asking if he can really shoot a defenseless old man. The player is offered a choice of whether to shoot him or not, and if you don't,  The odd thing about this is that
 * Reaver's job in Fable III is to do this. He stands in court to argue in favour of the evil option when making decisions as king. While these options are generally quite despicable and having an orphanage would be a fine and dandy in the long run, you could really do with the 1.25 million you'd make from opening a brothel right now to.
 * He also does this in the previous game. If the player does not kill Lucien in the middle of his Motive Rant, Reaver will take the chance to shoot him.
 * In Iji, if you're taking the pacifist path,  This was actually added in, since earlier versions meant a completely innocent run was impossible.
 * In Fate/stay night, Ilya, saving Shirou from having to do it; . combined also kill off  in the same route, who would probably have caused some moral quandaries since he's essentially defenseless on his own at that point even though his very existence is an abomination.
 * In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Dark Samus kills after you defeat them. Samus probably couldn't bring herself to Shoot the Dog, making Dark Samus quite convenient in a twisted, twisted way.
 * And it may also double as You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
 * A borderline example between this and Villainous Rescue occurs in Super Robot Wars 3. Anavel Gato's claim to fame in his show of origin is launching a stolen nuke at a peace conference. He reenacts this scene in the game, but this time the "peace conference" is between two villainous factions. What makes this a borderline example is the fact that the heroes congratulate him on this and gladly accept his Heel Face Turn application, suggesting that they may have done the same thing if they had a nuke lying around.
 * One of the most legendary events in the first Super Robot Wars Alpha game involves Alberto the Shockwave fighting the Third Angel to a standstill because no one else is there to stop it. For those wondering where Shinji is, he has yet to deploy.
 * In Drakengard 2, it transpires that one of the pact knights that keeps the Goddess Seal intact is, and must be killed to break the seal. Despite wanting to destroy the seal, Nowe can't bring himself to do it. Fortunately, Caim happens to be in the area and is more than happy to oblige, even it means having to go through Nowe to do it. Especially if he has to go through Nowe to do it, really...
 * Done in Baten Kaitos Origins, frequently. Most notably in the Lava Caves; after the umbra knocks Sagi's party out with Mountainmaker, Valara shows up in her Humongous Mecha and blasts it to pieces with a Wave Motion Gun. Earlier in the game, another umbra saves the party from Valara's Humongous Mecha as well, but gets blasted apart by her mecha.
 * Valkyria Chronicles has most of its non-romance plot starting with this trope. Selvaria's going to crush the militia! What do we do?
 * You also have Georgios Geld in a side chapter. A notorious war criminal who tortured and killed, he is nonetheless released in an If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him moment. Naturally, someone this much of a Complete Monster can't be allowed to get off scot-free, so he flees back to the Imperial headquarters...   Also doubles as Even Evil Has Standards.
 * In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, after defeating the Final Boss  in a blatant example of Get It Over With,
 * In Assassin's Creed Revelations, Ezio promises Suleiman that he will spare the Templar Leader, if he can.
 * It pisses off Travis, but kills the fifth ranked assassin in front of his face...and because of the rules of the fights, it counts as a rank up for Travis anyways.

Web Comics

 * Adventurers's Argent: While that may not have been necessary, if you know the backstory it's hard to blame him.
 * Vriska from Homestuck attempts to take the fight to the Big Bad, and even The Omniscient thinks she might win. The price would have been.

Western Animation

 * Doomsday's first appearance in Justice League Unlimited. In the comics, he killed Supes (He got better). However, Supes' evil universe counterpart, Justice Lord Superman, used his eye lasers to lobotomize Doomsday not five minutes into the fight (he got better too, and was mighty pissed, but that's another story).
 * In the Aladdin animated series, Aladdin threatens to turn a magic-eating monster loose on Mozenrath, who taunts him by pointing out that he's not ruthless enough to do that. "You're right...I'm not that ruthless." Then Aladdin points at Iago. "But he is!" And Iago proves it.
 * Big Damn Anti-Hero?
 * In Kong, Ramone De La Porta is the main villain and constantly causes trouble for Jason, Kong, and the gang when he is trying to unlock powers of the Primal Stones, while often making threats and trying to kill Kong, yet they often save him whenever he is in danger (and he only returns the favor once, just so they're even). In the final episode,
 * In The Batman, Wrath and Scorn have figured out Batman and Robin's identity. Even though they are arrested, Batman really can't do anything to keep them from revealing this to everyone.
 * Tom Slick once raced against a cheater who, after being defeated, was told by Marigold he'd get his commeupance. He said good guys like Tom Slick don't get even. Then he got his commeupance from another racer wronged by his cheating.