Get It Over With: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Inigo Montoya''': Kill me quickly.

 

You face certain death. Perhaps you're gravely wounded, perhaps you have [[The Cavalry|no reinforcements]], perhaps you [[Last Stand|face overwhelming force]]. Except that the killer is just standing there, waiting for his moment. Waiting for an [[Why Isn't It Attacking?|unreasonably long time.]]

Can be a form of [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]. In which case, it may give the hero an opening to reverse tables—partly because it's commonly the [[It's All About Me|most egoistical villains]] that inspire it. Compare [[Sword Over Head]]. Contrast [[You Will Be Spared]].

 

 

{{examples}}

{{quote|''If you're so tough get it over with. Stop wasting my time.''}}

* In ''[[Robotech]]'', Miriya, after Max knocks away her knife with a rock:

* In ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'', they are riding away {{spoiler|after a massively cocked-up holdup}}, and one of the wounded Bunch (who was shot in the face) pleads with Pike to "Please...just ki--" (Pike shoots him before he even ''says'' it.) Which cues the following exchange:

{{quote|'''Pike''': You boys want to move on or stay here and give him a... decent burial?

'''Lyle''': You crazy bastards! ''Both'' of ya! }}

* In ''[[Little Caesar]]'', when Rico attempts to force Joe to return:

 

== Literature ==

* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''[[The Star Beast]]''. Johnny's alien pet Lummox has been sentenced to death. Johnny helps Lummox escape, but they're hunted down and trapped. One of the pursuers approaches them.

{{quote|''Johnnie found that tears were streaming down his face and that he could not stop them. "Go ahead!" he cried, his voice misbehaving. "Get it over with! He never meant any harm! So kill him quickly . . don't play cat-and-mouse with him." He broke down and sobbed, covering his face with his hands.'' [snip]

''The officer looked distressed. "What are you talking about, son? We aren't here to hurt him. We have orders to bring him in without a scratch on him - even if we lost men in the process. Craziest orders I ever had to carry out."'' }}

* In [[Rick Riordan]]'s ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|The Last Olympian]]'', Percy interrupts a (divine!) quarrel to tell them that if they mean to kill him, they should get on with it.

* In Simon Spurrier's [[Night Lords]] novel ''Lord of the Night'', when the Inquisitor summons Mita—for execution or mind-wipe, she assumes—she tells him during the meeting to do it and get it over with.

** In the [[Backstory]], when the Night Haunter's assassin hesitated, he told her "Now do your job and be done with it."

** Another examples occurs in ''A Storm of Swords'':

{{quote|"Do you mean to make me beg, bitch? ''Do it!''"}}

{{quote|"Let the pain stop... let him kill us... end it, Dumbledore... death is nothing compared to this..."}}

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''First & Only'', Flense threatens to shoot Dorden, whom he is [[Hostage Situation|holding hostage]], if Gaunt mocks him. Dorden tells Gaunt to mock on, so he can be shot rather than listen to Flense's "garbage."

* Death isn't involved, but in ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy|Dark Force Rising]]'', after they meet with Senator Garm Bel Iblis, a man Lando Calrissian is suspicious of and Han Solo admires, Lando asks "You want to go ahead and and get it over with?" "Get what over with?" "Chewing me out for not bowing and scraping in front of your pal the Senator. Do it and get it over with, because we have to talk."

** In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters]]'' [[Anthology]], there's a story about how Boba Fett escaped the Sarlacc. The Sarlacc, as the story reveals, is more or less sentient, sort of having the mind of its first victim, and preserves its victims for millennia, getting it to tell them their life stories and forcing them to relive the memories of others while [[And I Must Scream|being kept immobile and dissolving]]; it keeps them even after death. Fett, hearing this, demands to know why it doesn't just kill these people, is told/shown an old joke. It's about a farmer with a meat animal that has one leg missing, that apparently can [[Amplified Animal Aptitude|sing and speak and take care of the farmer's children]]. Asked why it has a missing leg, the farmer says "A barve like that, you don't eat it all at once." Much later, after escaping and healing, Fett hovers in his ship with the weapons pointed at the Sarlacc, and it tells him ''You liberate me from the long Cycle''. But he doesn't shoot it, and when it wants to know why, he repeats that joke's punchline.

* In [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[The Great Divorce]]'', when an angel tells a damned soul that he can only be free of the lizard if he gives the angel permission to kill it, the soul argues the point for a time, then says the angel can—and to ''do'' it—before collapsing and whimpering "God help me"—without rescinding the permission.

** In his allegorical novel ''The Pilgrim's Regress'', John meets Death in a mountain pass on a stormy night. John realizes that it has been the fear of death that has motivated him his entire life. Death hammers home that he only has two choices:

{{quote|'''Dr. McCoy''': Well, either choke me or cut my throat. Make up your mind.

'''Khan''': English... I thought I'd dreamed hearing it. Where am I?

'''Dr. McCoy''': It would be most effective if you would cut the carotid artery, just under the left ear. }}

** He also said it right out in "The Empath", after having [[Percussive Prevention|chosen]] [[More Expendable Than You|himself]] for torture that had an 87% chance of killing him.

'''McCoy''': Get on with it. }}

* ''[[24]]''

{{quote|'''Jack Bauer''': ''I just want you to know, I didn't want you to feel like I had turned my back on you, that I turned my back on the family. I just had to go in my own way, to do things for myself, and I... was never good enough for you. I'm sorry. Anyway... I'm ready. What are you waiting for...? DO IT! DAMN YOU!''}}

** Renee Walker does it in Season 8 too.

{{quote|'''Lee Adama''': No. Unless... The clean slate. The fresh start. Maybe they are illusions like you said. But at a certain point, faith in ourselves, in our right to survive as a species, as a people, that's not a given, that's a choice. Well, I've made mine. And if you can't stomach that, then you had damn well better squeeze that trigger right now. Go on. What are you waiting for?}}

** Also {{spoiler|Saul Tigh}} about to be [[Thrown Out the Airlock]]: "[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|What are you waiting for, Apollo? Do it!]]"

* In the season 5 episode of ''[[Supernatural]]'', "Dark Side of the Moon," Dean is sitting in his hotel room at gunpoint as Roy and Walt argue over whether or not to kill him. He finally growls, "Go ahead, Roy, do it. But I'm gonna warn ya--when I come back, I'm gonna be pissed." This can be viewed as a variation on the trope because Dean knew Zachariah would just resurrect him anyway.

** In season 4, Dean is given an ultimatum - to hand another character over to die, or {{spoiler|go back to hell.}} He initially doesn't think they'll do it, but once convinced they will, still tells them to go ahead. They switch to threatening Sam instead, and he complies {{spoiler|exactly as Sam had planned.}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Saffron'''}}: Promise me you're gonna kill me soon.

'''Mal''': Oh, you already know I ain't gonna. }}

'''Avon''': You claim you can kill me. You'd better get on with it. Make me die. There's nothing else you can make me do. }}

* Subtle double subversion in the first season finale of ''[[Terriers]]''. After {{spoiler|Hank is framed for murder and hauled off to jail along with the actual murderers who almost certainly mean to do away with him as soon as they're alone}}, he starts yelling at them to get it over with and kill him right there in the police car. Doubly subverted in that {{spoiler|a) he's [[Death Seeker|partly]] doing it to get the cops to take him seriously and help him, and b) the cops were already secretly on his side and were planning to let him go anyway.}}

* An episode of ''[[Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman]]'' had the sheriff preparing to hang a man convicted of rape and murder. When the minister ask if he as any last words, the man simply snarls, "Get it done."

* In the first season episode of Angel "Eternity," actress Rebecca Lowell tries to persuade Angel to turn her into a vampiress so that she won't have to worry about aging; needless to say he refuses. In an effort to change his mind, she drugs him, thinking just to render him more pliable, not realizing that this will turn him evil instead. He stalks her through his office complex, toying with his prey, deliberately putting off the murder so as to enjoy her fear; she is clearly terrified, but finally gets fed up with this, stops running, and turns to face him, saying "Whatever you're going to do, do it." Of course, that's when Wesley and Cordelia show up to save the day, but it was a pretty awesome moment for Rebecca, and it did somewhat redeem her from her earlier behavior.

{{quote|'''Aeka''': ''(what she said)'' Get It Over With.

'''Aeka''': ''(what she meant)'' {{spoiler|Either you kill me right now, or ''I swear'', one of these days [[I'll Kill You!|I'm going to kill]] '''[[I'll Kill You!|you]]'''.}} }}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Stukov''': Lieutenant Duran}} ... I'm not surprised. We both know exactly what it is that you're here to terminate. Get on with it.}}

** Quickly followed by a [[Final Speech]], a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] {{spoiler|1=from DuGalle who was [[The Chessmaster|manipulated by Duran]] into ordering the execution}}, and a [[Race Against the Clock]], in quick succession.

 

 

* Planet Zebeth:

{{quote|'''Mother Brain''': ''Guess it's time for me to die then...''

* [[Bob and George]] [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/020629 where he's not believed]

** [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040215 where he's lying]

* [[Pibgorn]] [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2003/09/16/ For heaven's sake, murder me, don't torture me!]

** [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2008/11/28/ That was a plea for mercy]

[[Category:Combat Tropes]]

[[Category:Last Words]]

[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]