# No -- You'll Live. That will be your Punishment

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-youll-live-that-will-be-your-punishment/370023>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 24, 2006, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-youll-live-that-will-be-your-punishment/370023 "2006-08-24T12:06:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-youll-live-that-will-be-your-punishment/370023/21 "2006-08-24T22:07:52Z")

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Example: “The last to go will see the others go before her,” cackles Margaret Hamilton (as the WW of the W)

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**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-youll-live-that-will-be-your-punishment/370023/22 "2006-08-25T02:02:21Z")

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[QUOTE=CalMeacham]  
2.) The rest of the crew getting killed and zombified because of something some other idiot did seems more than a tad harsh, as well.  
[/QUOTE]

Well, there’s your problem, Cal. Here and in the Odysseus example, you care about the fate of the crew. They don’t matter, nobody matters but the protagonist. You can kill off a million nobodies to make a point, but if the protagonist gets a hangnail … that MATTERS!

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-youll-live-that-will-be-your-punishment/370023/23 "2006-08-25T03:21:11Z")

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[QUOTE=Frylock]  
Could we have some examples of movies where someone is told something equivalent to “Your punishment will be that you live”?

I know this happens, but can’t think of any examples off the bat.

-FrL-  
[/QUOTE]  
There was the animated version of _Spawn_. At one point Spawn fries this guy’s brain, leaving him a gibbering wreck. He tries to shoot himself with an empty pistol, then begs Spawn to kill him. Spawn replies : “_No_. I’m going to let you live . . . longer than you want to.”

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**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-youll-live-that-will-be-your-punishment/370023/24 "2006-08-25T18:13:17Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> “Go and tell your village that your deliverance is at hand,” says Death. Me, I’d sue Death for breach of promise.
> 
> And Prospero doesn’t seem to be suffering at all, until the axe falls on him. The net result of killing off everyone else is … nothing.

You’re forgetting the pseudo-medieval, pseudo-Christian backdrop of the film. The woman IS delivered: she gets to go to Heaven. Prospero IS punished: he goes to Hell. Pleasure and pain in this world are sideshows. It’s where you spend Eternity that matters.

Similarly, the Ancient Mariner’s shipmates all got to shuffle off this mortal coil, and go on to bigger and better things, while the Mariner is still stuck in this world doing penance.

{highjack} OK, the Black Death must be bubonic plague.  
The Red Death is…Smallpox? Scarlet Fever?  
The Yellow Death is…Typhoid? Cholera?

Does anyone know what the various colors represent?{/highjack}

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