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Cruel Mercy
- 227 statements
- 40 feature instances
- 543 referencing feature instances
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Some work towards crushing their opponents. Others, though, prefer to just step back and watch them live on. This is "Cruel Mercy" — sparing one's enemy (or, in some examples, even actively keeping them alive) as a punishment rather than a reward. Heroes rarely kill their enemies: they either practice Thou Shalt Not Kill or have a moral friend remind them "If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!" if they ever get too tempted. However, some heroes are creative. Much like a torturer using a Cool and Unusual Punishment, the hero does forgive the villain, or at least spare his life, but does so only to inflict suffering and/or enact some poetic justice. Villains will also do this. If they are doing it for revenge, their aim will be to make the hero feel what they've gone through. Some are mental — rather than wishing to hear So Proud of You, it's their arch-enemy's disapproval they start to crave. Other villains are trying to make the character break down — they subject them to a series of Mind Rapes and make them watch as they destroy what's precious to them, all in an attempt to push them beyond the Despair Event Horizon. Maybe they want to see the heroes cry, or bring them over to The Dark Side. Some villains delight in showing the hero to be Not So Stoic, or they wonder what will happen if they Teach Him Anger... or they just enjoy ignoring the hero's repeated pleas to Get It Over With. There is no typical Cruel Mercy; each is tailored to the person for maximum effect. However, there are a few repeating variations. Sometimes, one is just allowed to live, especially if he believes Might Makes Right and Asskicking Leads to Leadership, and now that he isn't the strongest, his self-esteem is non-existent. Similarly, some villains lose it because Good Hurts Evil and Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, so the hero's mercy is a kind of Brown Note. For others, the hero may force them into a mundane life where they go through a daily mental Humiliation Conga. Still, more might refuse to take a life themselves but won't deny others — especially those who have been wronged by the villain — their own chance. In some situations, the hero may decide that being left to live with the consequences of his actions is the most fitting punishment for the villain. And sometimes, if the villain is too dangerous to let free, he is trapped in a Tailor-Made Prison along with the people he hates most in the world, or with a view of something he despises or which upsets him... Usually, the villain or one of the hero's friends will ask "Why did you let me/him live?" Expect the hero to give a vivid description of how they believe they are being much crueler this way. Might also overlap with Not Worth Killing if the intended message is used to insult the value of the person being spared. See also Bait the Dog. Not to be confused with Villain's Dying Grace. Contrast Mercy Kill, which aims to do the exact opposite, Do with Him as You Will, where the hero only spares the villain to let others kill him, and Sparing the Final Mook, where the hero grants mercy to a usually harmless ordinary mook after defeating others. Contrast Go and Sin No More, where the villain is grateful for the hero's mercy. Inverse of Cruel to Be Kind, where the act is hurtful but will ultimately benefit the victim. If the Mercy is genuine and the Cruelty perceived, it's Don't You Dare Pity Me!. May be part of And I Must Scream or overlap with Fate Worse than Death. |
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| Cruel Mercy | isPartOf |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_13668e6e | type |
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Twig: Sanguine, the last of a unit of experimental assassins that were killed by the Lambsbridge Gang, decides to let two members of the gang live after he's determined that one is infected with an incurable plague, satisfied that they've suffered enough and his dead fellows would be content with that punishment. | |
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Done in a social way for humor in Eerie Cuties, to set up for its spin-off, Magick Chicks. After the Hellrune Coven has tried to use a gender-bending magical orb for a small plan that turned into a fiasco that left one boy stuck as a girl, they're called in front of the headmistress. Since they're also the "Queen Bees" of their school, they're told protocol would demand they be expelled. However, the headmistress believes that would let them off TOO easily. So she talked with the head of Artemis Academy to get them transferred over there as part of an exchange program, forcing them to start all over without any social benefits from their soon-to-be-former school. To a young girl who fought a lot of her high-school life to be popular, losing your status and being "socially dead" is worse than physical death. | |
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Minecraft Endventures: Wrecker left the Rebel Leader alive after killing his family during his first encounter with him to "let his sorrow consume him". | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_2407cefe | type |
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In the YouTube Poop "One more Final: I need you(Tube Poop)" After Zelda's death, Link tries to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff but ends up landing on Yoshi, injuring him and eventually killing him. Luigi heads to Link with a gun but ends up refusing to kill him despite his pleadings, preferring to let him live with the misery of Zelda's death. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_334120fc | type |
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Parodied in 8-Bit Theater when Black Mage desperately tries to convince Sarda to employ this trope. Played straight when Sarda agrees. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_35db946f | type |
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HFIL: Cell could reveal to Freeza's underlings that he was killed not by Goku, but Vegeta's son Trunks, but chooses not to because a) unlike Freeza he actually is trying to get out of HFIL, and b) not revealing it is much funnier cause it angers the hell out of Freeza more than revealing it ever would be. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_35e05f2a | type |
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RWBY: When Salem attempts to trick the God of Darkness and the God of Light into bringing a dead man back to life, the divine brothers punish her with immortality. Because she was unable to accept the death of her lover, they punish her with being unable to reunite with him in death; this results in her being completely immune to any form of death. Seeking vengeance, she raises an army against the gods; the God of Darkness wipes out the whole of humanity, asking her if she thought she could not be punished any further than she had already been. The two gods then abandon Remnant, leaving Salem to live alone on an empty world, unable to die. The gods eventually bring humanity back, but by this time, Salem has been driven mad and consumed with hatred, so she aims to wipe it out herself. When Maria was young, she lost her eyesight in battle against an assassin called Tock. Although Tock had been hired to kill her, she felt that she had met the terms of her contract by blinding Maria. She therefore admits that she's tempted to let Maria live, knowing that her eyesight is forever lost. Maria possessed silver eyes and had mastered the power that came with them. Tock was hired by an unknown client to kill Maria to put an end to the power of her silver eyes. However, blinding Maria achieved the same goal, which is why Tock toyed with allowing her to live. |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_40a374dc | type |
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Dennis Shephard, father of Matthew Shepard, invoked this during a statement in court to one of his son's murderers. | |
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The ancient Greek play Medea has this as the crux of the title character's plan; after being betrayed by Jason (who she sacrificed everything for), she kills their kids and his new girlfriend, specifically not doing anything to him because she wants him to live with the pain. Her Revenge by Proxy scheme is so impressive that even Hera, Jason's divine patron (who he also pissed off with his betrayal of Medea) can add nothing to it, so she just lets Medea's punishment stand. | |
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Garfield: Played for Laughs in the September 4, 1999 strip: | |
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In Planescape, the baernoloths (mysterious fiends believed to have created the yugoloth race) can heal any wound upon a creature that they have personally inflicted. Typically, they only do this to a captive victim while sadistically torturing it so that the victim won't die quickly. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_526f1b45 | comment |
And once again in Shakespeare's Cymbeline by Posthumous Leonatus to Iachimo who had just confessed to masterminding a plot which caused Posthumous to order his wife murdered. | |
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The Order of the Stick: When defeating Samantha and her father, Roy decides not to kill them, just leave them there. He argues that after disbanding the bandits, they won't be able to cause more trouble in the future. Then Belkar points out that it is this trope, leading to the trope-naming line of Your Approval Fills Me with Shame. Played for Laughs: After Redcloak delivers a scathing "Not So Different" Remark-themed "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the (currently trapped in a forcecage) paladin Miko, Xykon comments that he was just going to kill her, but now thinks it'd be crueler to let her live and think about what Redcloak said. Subverted in that she reacts to Redcloak's speech with a blasé, "Meh. As indignant speeches go, I've heard better." Also subverted in that it was Redcloak's plan from the beginning to let her escape so he can scry on her when she gets home, providing intelligence for the upcoming attack. Tarquin is dealt with in this way. Rather than slaying him in an epic showdown like Tarquin wants, Elan simply ditches his father in the middle of the desert, thereby giving their story an unsatisfying and anticlimactic end, something that the drama-obsessed, self-absorbed Tarquin finds utterly unacceptable. |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_5d2848bb | comment |
In a twisted form of charity, Brain from Sam & Fuzzy offers to let Fuzzy go after Fuzzy has inadvertently helped him find The Pit instead of killing him — but after deleting all his memories and causing him a Death of Personality. Given that Fuzzy has an extremely sore spot about his already existing Laser-Guided Amnesia and the fact that 'he' went through it once before as Eric and left Fuzzy severely traumatized, the 'offer' becomes this. | |
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In Exalted, it's a common habit among the Infernal Exalted. Indeed, there's a Kimbery charm that ensures this is the only kind of mercy you can show without spending willpower. | |
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The Nostalgia Critic: The Devil's daughter Evilina thinks that it would be crueler to leave the Critic alive to suffer the pain after reviewing Son of the Mask, despite him wanting to be killed. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_73383fee | comment |
In Danganronpa the Stage, Makoto Naegi stops Junko Enoshima's suicide by execution for this very reason. Since Junko is only capable of feeling pleasure from despair, be it from others or herself, the worst thing Makoto can do to her is save her life. | |
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Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_7f6eb95d | comment |
Yet another Shakespeare example: In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo murders Tybalt, a fellow aristocrat of Verona, and as Tybalt's aunt says, the punishment for this is death. But the Prince of Verona tempers the sentence to exile because Tybalt killed Mercutio (the Prince's cousin) and Romeo avenged his friend's death. When he hears this news, however, Romeo hears it as Cruel Mercy, declaring exile to be a Fate Worse than Death because it means separation from Juliet, and threatens to kill himself. Friar Lawrence proceeds to chew him out over all the Wangsting he's been doing. | |
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Su Lüxia of Cheating Men Must Die sometimes uses this tactic to get revenge on her host characters' cheating lovers. Her fiancé Su Youji and his new lover Wei Na are allowed to leave their families to start a new life together, with Su Lüxia knowing full well that the two Spoiled Brats won't be able to live comfortably without their financial safety nets and that their lack of common sense and the resulting poverty will lead to a bitterly unhappy marriage. She gives in to Bai Ting and Liang Qun, agreeing to divorce Liang Qun so the two can marry. However, by this point, Liang Qun has already seen Bai Ting's true colours and no longer wants to be with her, but Su Lüxia later manipulates events to force them to marry and see her revenge through. |
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In 1 Kings Chapter 2, after David dies, Solomon becomes king over Israel. Abiathar the priest is relieved of duty and forced to resign from the priesthood for participating in Adonijah's attempt to seize the throne. Instead of immediately executing Abiathar, Solomon allows him to retire to his fields in Anathoth in recognition of his service to King David. | |
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Done in Girl Genius. After Dr. Beetle dies, Baron Wulfenbach tells Dr. Merlot that for his part in the incident, he'll be put in charge of the city of Beetleburg...after Dr. Beetle has been given a hero's funeral with full honors, and the full details of Dr. Beetle's death, including the fact that Dr. Merlot's theatrics were the direct cause of it, have been released to a public that loved and respected Dr. Beetle. Also, Merlot's punishment for his first screw-up on the new job? Sent to join the repair teams in Castle Heterodyne. |
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In The Adventure Zone: Balance, the main ethos behind Wonderland. In order to maximize the amount of suffering they consume, Edward and Lydia keep participants alive. For example, Cam has been kept alive for several years now as a disembodied head. | |
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The Onion referenced this in their video "Supreme Court: Death Penalty Is 'Totally Badass'," with the dissenting Supreme Court justice arguing that life in prison is even more hardcore than execution. | |
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In Les Misérables, as in the novel, Valjean has the chance to kill Inspector Javert and instead lets him live. | |
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The Bible: When Cain murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy, God cursed Cain by having him wander forever. When Cain, ashamed of his sin, thought his punishment would result in someone killing him, God replied that the one who killed Cain would suffer a far worse punishment, as he wanted Cain to forever live with the guilt of his crime. And God even put a mark on his forehead to let everyone know not to touch him. In 1 Kings Chapter 2, after David dies, Solomon becomes king over Israel. Abiathar the priest is relieved of duty and forced to resign from the priesthood for participating in Adonijah's attempt to seize the throne. Instead of immediately executing Abiathar, Solomon allows him to retire to his fields in Anathoth in recognition of his service to King David. Shimei is restricted to a house in Jerusalem and is not allowed to cross the Brook Kidron under penalty of death. After three years, two of Shimei's servants run away to Gath, and Shimei goes to Gath to retrieve them. Afterward, Solomon has Shimei executed. Paul the Apostle's ministry starts off as this, as God having him suffer for the torment he had caused (albeit in ignorance) upon God's servants when he was still Saul the Pharisee. However, over time Paul realizes the grace and mercy he has been given and even rejoices in his suffering for the Gospel's sake. |
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Ink City: Trevor pulls this on Mew, with a twist of manipulation: originally, he was poised to take his revenge on another Mew who had just arrived. He waited until Mew publicly confessed before informing her he wasn't going to seek his pound of flesh; watching her live as an outcast would be far more satisfying. | |
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As many stories in the Ravenloft setting have proven, may the gods help you (hah, we're kidding, there are no gods here) if you try to cheat, con, steal from, or harm the Vistani. They are notorious for inflicting dark and horrible curses on anyone who does, and victims of such often wish they were never born. | |
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Walrusguy: In "One More Final: I Need You(tube Poop)", Link attempts jumping off a cliff after Zelda overdoses, but accidentally ends up landing on Yoshi and injuring him severely. After Yoshi's death, Luigi decides to take revenge by shooting Link but changes his mind when Link tells him to go ahead. | |
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Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_ae01886 | comment |
Looming Gaia: In "Red Orchid" the Freelance Good Guys find Orchid, who sexually assaulted Isaac and tried to feed him to an anthousai, pinned to a tree and being eaten by western greenworms, and decide to leave her there to suffer a long death instead of killing her. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_b88b182f | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_b88b182f | comment |
Zigzagged in The Dark Eye by the Trollzacker barbarians. Due to their religious belief that every suffering in life lessens the unavoidable suffering in the afterlife, their worst punishments involve banishment and painless forms of death. If on the other side, a captured fighter is regarded as a Worthy Opponent, he will be tortured to death in days-long rituals as a token of respect and mercy. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_bcadd7cb | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_bcadd7cb | comment |
Warhammer 40,000: The Dark Eldar, arguably the evilest faction in the game (an impressive feat given the setting), once rescued Craftworld Iyanden from Chaos. The Craftworld had resorted to taking souls from the Infinity Circuit to power Wraith Constructs, something Craftworld Eldar revile as necromancy. The Dark Eldar saved their Craftworld cousins just to ensure they would be forced to live with what they had done. Chaos Dreadnoughts, much like their Loyalist counterparts, are armored life-supporting Mini-Mecha equipped with heavy weapons that can keep a mortally-wounded Space Marine alive indefinitely. Unlike their Loyalist counterparts, they don't sleep during the centuries between battles, instead spending the time chained to a wall with their legs and weapons switched off. |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_bfd7c6e0 | comment |
At the end of Chapter 49 of Drowtales, Minka Dutan'vir sees former Kyorl'solenurn Holy Mother Valla'drielle, who earlier in the chapter had ordered the reclaimed tower of his people dropped and many of them killed, then tried to burn Minka himself at the stake as an example only to be interrupted by a peaceful protest led to by the intended Holy Mother of the clan, Anahid. He chases and corners her and begins to choke her, but remembers and echoes Anahid's words that forgiveness is true strength and lets Valla'drielle go. Valla'drielle simply spits Fantastic Racism at him and is left to live and fade away in ignominy as the Knight Templar attitude she embodies will soon be a thing of the past. | |
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In the Grand Finale to the New Eighth Doctor Adventures the Dalek Time Controller tells the Doctor he will be left on Earth and watch as it becomes a plague planet. Due to being a Time Lord, he will survive long enough to see humanity die out. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_d194deda | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_d194deda | comment |
Worth noting that the contemporary parallel play, The Jew of Malta, involves the eponymous Jew dying by being boiled in a pot of oil. *shrug* Fate Worse than Death versus Cruel and Unusual Death... | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_da500297 | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_da500297 | comment |
The Debbie and Carrie Show: Sandy Smith had Rev. Dave Owen arrested for disturbing the peace at her restaurant, the Tuscany Tavern, but then bailed him out of jail after only a few hours because she realized he had done it as a publicity stunt, and her freeing him would ruin his own credibility. Then she and several others proceeded to give him versions of "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Her ploy worked, because Rev. Owen was soon fired by his own church for his stunt and how it had backfired so badly. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_dacffea0 | comment |
Chakona Space: Allen Fesler's character, Neal Foster has pulled this off a few times. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_e5feb1e | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_e5feb1e | comment |
The final choice of the case "Farewell, My Turnabout" of the second Ace Attorney game offers you the chance to dish this out. After a nerve-wracking few days, in which Phoenix's assistant Maya has been held captive by Shelley de Killer, a Professional Killer who's threatened to kill her unless Phoenix gets his newest client a "not guilty" verdict, Phoenix discovered all too late that his client, Matt Engarde, was The Sociopath who really is guilty because he hired de Killer to kill his business rival. Prosecutor Franziska von Karma and Detective Gumshoe finally pull through with the evidence Phoenix needs at the last second, and Phoenix manages to let de Killer know (via a radio conversation) that Engarde betrayed him by filming the murder, intending to use that as blackmail. de Killer, who values the trust between himself and his clients above all else, releases Maya and vows to hunt Engarde to the ends of the earth. Engarde's ego immediately deflates, and he begins sweating bullets from the realization that a world-class assassin is now after his head. You're presented with the choice to switch your plea to guilty, which will convict Engarde and send him to prison right there. However, you can continue to have Phoenix plead not guilty for Engarde, which means Engarde will be marked for death the moment he steps foot out of the courtroom, with Phoenix rubbing it in Engarde's face that this "mercy" is anything but merciful. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_e75c6d45 | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_e75c6d45 | comment |
Thaco in Goblins destroyed Dellyn Goblinslayer's carefully-constructed legacy, leaving his elite guards dead, his prisoners escaped, and his reputation in Brassmoon ruined. When Dellyn finally faced Thaco and was defeated, he expected to be killed and earn a place in the legends of goblins as their racial nemesis until Thaco told him he was not worth the XP to kill. | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_f04b4111 | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_f04b4111 | comment |
Samus Aran uses this as a threat in Captain SNES: The Game Masta: "I will not permit you to die." | |
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| Cruel Mercy / int_f367511c | type |
Cruel Mercy | |
| Cruel Mercy / int_f367511c | comment |
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, there are a few cards that prevent your opponent's monsters from being destroyed by battle, such as Underworld Dragon Dragonecro and Serpent Suppression. However, this is not to help your opponent stand up better to you. The first one, while keeping the monster it battles alive, drains away its ATK points (and soul, in the manga), leaving only a 0 ATK point carcass instead, and even creates a token for its controller with the drained ATK as its Attack points. As for the second one, it is seen in Reptilliane decks, which focus on making the ATK of opponent monsters 0. Combined with this card, they can relentlessly keep attacking the weakened monsters, who, despite not being destroyed, are still inflicted with damage that their controller takes. Some Combos are even famous, such as using a card that prevents destruction by battle on an opponent monster and keeps attacking it with a monster with the ability to attack multiple times, such as the infamous Chimeratech Overdragon, Great Poseidon Beetle, and Number C107: Neo Galaxy-eyes Tachyon Dragon. | |
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