# Do you free yourself from a death trap if escaping means killing the person you love most? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 30, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-free-yourself-from-a-death-trap-if-escaping-means-killing-the-person-you-love-most/813354 "2018-04-30T15:53:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-free-yourself-from-a-death-trap-if-escaping-means-killing-the-person-you-love-most/813354/21 "2018-05-03T05:34:21Z")
III) One of the key qualities in all of my significant others has been a shared value system. Furthermore, when essential values were found to be in conflict, the relationship was over not long after that discovery. A core, non-negotiable value that I share with my wife is a sense of social benevolence. We approach it from different angles – she believing there’s no such thing as ‘altruism’ and I believing that altruism doesn’t merely exist in spite of her lack of belief but that I actively and enthusiastically engage knowingly and willingly in altruistic acts – but we both hold that value in high esteem and close to our hearts. In short, she knows where I’m coming from; she knows my heart and mind. If she was awake and able to communicate, she would assure me she knows what must be done and encourage me to do it. If she was unconcious for whatever reason, I truly believe she would understand and be forgiving (if not encouraging). Like\*\* begbert2\*\* I would try to figure out a way to kill the villain and myself (and, unfortunately, my wife) at the same time. Ideally, that would be by cutting power to the suit while the jerk is in the stratosphere over the ocean. More likely, I’d have to concentrate on feeding the suit 4-hours worth of super-charge in half a picosecond, thereby making him explode and fizzle out like – well, like a lightning bolt. Yes, that will probably kill a handful of innocents, but it will also eliminate my captor/nemesis in a manner from which he won’t be able to return. –G! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-free-yourself-from-a-death-trap-if-escaping-means-killing-the-person-you-love-most/813354/22 "2018-05-03T07:21:11Z")
A. It’s what she would want. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-free-yourself-from-a-death-trap-if-escaping-means-killing-the-person-you-love-most/813354/23 "2018-05-03T08:22:47Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > How are you planning to kill yourself? Do you think the villain would have left you with any weapons? > > Anyway, I don’t know that I would give any credence to the villain’s promise to free your beloved after you have died and he has finished his rampage. Do I need to explain to you again how villainy works? Villainy, no. The hypothetical, yes. Which is why I asked. And one can be quite resourceful at killing oneself if sufficiently motivated. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-free-yourself-from-a-death-trap-if-escaping-means-killing-the-person-you-love-most/813354/24 "2018-05-03T18:13:16Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > My problem with your solution is that, since the villain is out of your site, you can’t know whether you are succeeding in killing him. If you are going to sacrifice your beloved, it seems to me that you yourself need to survive to make doing so worthwhile. That is, there seems no point in sacrificing your beloved’ S life unless you also know for certain that you have defeated the bad guy. Otherwise, you might as will pray that Bob ex gets back from his mission early and saves both your asses. You are being equally passive in both cases. The real problem with my solution is that, to be certain get the bastard, I’m going to turn the entire robot and everything within probably twenty feet of it into char and slag. And then the thing is going to topple over. For all my efforts there would be casualties. So yes, I get your point that I should just blast my way out, watch my loved one die in slow motion, and then methodically make my way to where the villain is and torture him until his heart explodes. And then, because I have a duty to protect civilization, live with the emotional agony of it until it hardens me into a true hero who, like BOB X, can shrug off murdered loved ones and keep punching. The problem with this though is that, despite being fairly useful, my Lightning Lad powers in no way guarantee that I’ll even be able to get out of my locked chamber in the robot’s belly, much less make my way to the cockpit in time to catch the villain before he gets away. I mean, yes, I could probably arc-weld my way through one bulkhead at a time, _possibly_ not igniting something explosive in the process, but that doesn’t sound particularly fast and there’s no way the villain didn’t plan for this eventuality. If I try plan A, he _will_ get away, and _will_ try it, or something else again - with even more casualties. Forget that. Overkill for the win! Okay, sure, maybe he’s actually remote-controlling the robot and will be well clear of the damage, but the hypothetical says repeatedly that this is powered armor - he’s inside it. So I’m going to fill the entire space inside the suit with 1.21 gigawatts of power and send the bastard back to the stone age. Painless deaths for everyone! (Except the people the charred husk falls on. Sorry folks!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-free-yourself-from-a-death-trap-if-escaping-means-killing-the-person-you-love-most/813354.md?page=1)