There seems to be a shift in adventure stories and the like that lean away from the typical kind, strong, charismatic knight/paladin archetype to favour more brutal rogue/assassin flavoured characters that laugh at the concept of fair play or mercy. Or maybe I’m just reading too much manwha idk. Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, the latter can be awesome in its own right, but I dont like how they often make the former look like bumbling fools in order to prop up their respective MCs. The good guy is a dumbass for sparing the life of his enemy. He’s a naive idiot for letting his opponent have a fair fight, even if they wouldn’t do the same to him. He’s an antiquated fool who cares more for his pride than the innocent if he’s morally against torture, terror, poison and other such tactics (This obviously has nothing to do with the historical codes of honour or the lack thereof, I’m only referring to the idealised fictional version here.)
“Mercy upon the ruthless is evil to the weak” is a sentiment you often see in regards to this, as if sparing the life of someone you’ve resoundingly beaten will 100% of the time lead them back to stealing/killing instead of them turning their life around after this sudden brush with death by the hand of a person who could’ve killed them but was good-willed enough to give them a second chance. Isnt this way cooler than the other cynical view? Not to mention that I am CERTAIN that the same people supporting this notion wouldnt be okay with cops executing surrendered criminals on the street, so why is it a problem if a Samurai or Knight doesnt do it?
John Mongol is here because GOT (great game btw, play it if you haven’t already, it’s old enough to read and write) does something similar to this. They make Shimura, who in universe is a highly accomplished and respected Warlord who has won unwinnable battles against “dishonourable” foes before (the Yarikawa rebellion), seem like a bullheaded dumbass who’d punch a wall 20 times and come to the conclusion that he needs to punch harder in order to overcome it instead of just climbing over. His in-game ideals about honour dont even apply to his own troops, how do you “look your opponent in the eye” as an archer trickshotting pissants from a mountain range over? Or using fire and hornets on your foes? Im assuming his bowmen acted like actual bowmen in his battles instead of doing the CQC bow strat Yuna does, so how does he explain that away? He’s deliberately made to look like a dullard in order for the audience to more readily agree with the brutal, cutthroat tactics Jin is adopting. The mongols won because they had an obscene number advantage and knew all of the tactics the Samurai employed, not because (fictional) Samurai tradition is inherently stupid.