It depends on a lot of factors, both in the specifics of the situation itself and to each and every person involved. Who will be affected if this person is kept alive, and who will be if they are killed? Are they even capable of spreading your genes down the line? Is there any hope of saving them, and to what degree? Is the evil child/sibling happy? Is it even technically that person anymore? Is there a demon inside them, or are they the demon? Does any part of the evil person know they are or have been taken control over by an evil force? Do they believe themselves good? Were they even liked in the first place? Do the family see it as the person's own fault, their faul, society's fault or that it happened inevitably and without the control, intent knowledge of any tangible being? In the end I think you as the author should see what fits. Each character would probably have a unique reaction, though, based on their interpretations of the causes and dangers of the situation and each of their specific relationships with the evil relative. Some examples of this or similar situations in existing fiction include Illidan/Malfurion/Tyrande (Warcraft), Arthas/Jaina/Uther/Terenas (Warcraft), Faramir/Denethor/Boromir (The Lord of the Rings), Niki/Jessica and her/their relationship with DL and Micah (Heroes), Diana and Meghan about Tom when he is made a member of the Marked (The 4400) and Thor/Loki/Odin/Frigga (Marvel Cinematic Universe (and the comics, and the Norse mythology)). Looking some of those up (and I'm sure you can think of your own examples too) will lead you conclude that the possibilities are many, and that not every good person is perfect and every bad person without some redeeming qualities.
I find it hard to imagine killing your child out of anger, disgust or sadness. The only way I could possibly see it would be for the immediate necessity of saving the world, and even then, I'm not sure. Jazzabel brings up a good point, though. I'd almost be more upset if my child were a pedophile than if he were a crazed world destroyer. I know that makes no sense, and I don't know that I can even logically defend that position.
...no, of course not!... aside from still loving him/her, despite how my child turned out, i'm an anti-violence activist and feel guilty when i even wash an errant ant down the drain... ...no... i'm not an idiot... nor a self-deluding optimist... ...i would strongly protest their being executed... and if i broke down, it certainly wouldn't be from horror--only from soul/heart/gut-wrenching sorrow... ...ditto all of the above... ...for the record, i have 7 children [+19 grandchildren at last count] and 3 sisters...
Many parents have turned in their children to the police when they discover that their child is a murderous maniac. It happens all the time. I suspect that most of the people who say they wouldn't do it is because they simply cannot truly visualise their own child as a psychopathic killer. Yet Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and even Jack the Ripper had parents. And suppose the child attempts to kill the parents like Lizzy Borden did. Should the parent stand idly and be axed to death? Or is the argument really that "MY child would never do that and I refuse to even consider the possibility?"
This is kind of what I was getting at in my first post. What if one child was attempting to kill your other child? I think there's at least a minute chance of there being some scenario that would put me in a position where I might feasibly kill them. It'd probably completely break me mentally for even being in that type of situation, though. For me there is no absolute answer, strongly swayed to one side, yes, but not with complete certainty. I'd much rather just lay down my own life instead but, depending again, that might solve nothing.
The OP specified that the child/sibling had become a monster whose mind has completely gone plus he or she has the power to kill large swathes of the population at will. I'm assuming the OP meant that appeals to logic or emotion, tranquiliser darts, etc. would not work. The choice is, do nothing, or kill. Any other answer is dodging the question.
They also did an episode where a murdered girl was actually sleeping with her stepbrother. Maybe soap opera's aren't the best place for real world examples of human behavior?
I believe the OP is looking for ideas for a fictional situation, not for an essay on human behaviour.
But now you are talking about a fantasy world, not just a hypothetical situation. That's like asking a parent if they'd kill their child if they were a wolf or a hyena. There's no answer to such a question, it's not that one cannot imagine themselves in a hypothetical situation, or that one doesn't know one's feelings toward one's child. Once you make nearly every single thing in the hypothetical scenario fantasy, how does any actual part of one's current self apply?
Or maybe an idea for a possible human reaction, since there is no such thing as completely predictable, specific human reaction.
You are right, that's why I stopped participating trying to answer the OP's questions. He seems so hostile.
I'm not hostile, sorry if I did give of them impression. But the best way to describe what I am trying to say is from that Death Note film. Its just someone accused me of saying he was wrong when I didn't, which annoyed me but I'm not angry at anyone, I think I'm being misunderstood and maybe I misunderstood someone. Your loved one becomes a power hungry maniacal man/woman. The loved one doesn't become a pedophile, rapist etc, the loved one comes across an alien or supernatural weapon, desires to use it for good at first but gradually becomes corrupted and enamored by its power. Because of this, said loved one becomes increasingly ruthless to prevent being discovered by the law and will continuously descend into evil. And yes, I'm looking for answers on a fictional situation. I thought I was quite clear with the Death Note film example, the entire film is on youtube. Again I apologize to anyone who was hurt.
Thank you, a good response. An answer I would of liked at the beginning. The character gradually becomes increasingly dangerous, anyone who gets in his/her way is in danger in the end. The character believes they are doing good and not at fault at all. The character is Human, just a normal person who went through life as pretty much like any other student, wasn't gifted nor a struggling student. The character is not possessed, its through the characters own fault and the weapon he/she finds. The character is in full control but fell in love with its power. There is no demon, the weapon is not evil, the character used it for good but quickly starts to use it for evil. Yes the character had friends, wasn't hated or loved.Hmm, nobody knows its the main character who is doing it, the character is suspected by the law a long with many others but apart from that, nobody knows, up until the end when he/she gets caught and finally admits it.
@MrPizzle Maybe I got the wrong impression, sorry. The fact is, you can't expect a solid answer for a question like that. You can ask, "what would you do if you were burning your omelette?", and get a pretty universal and sure answer. But human behavior, specially in extreme situation like the one you depicted, is extremely unpredictable and complicated. There are no good or bad, right or wrong answers for your question. You got some opinions, shuffle through them and come up with what your character would do. As simple as that.
Forgive and forget In my opinion, having the power to kill who you want would change anyone, playing with life itself, pick a name and they die. Anyone would go insane after a while no? But I think motives would vary between people, one might be racist and desire to wipe out an entire ethnic race, in the Death Note movie, he wanted to wipe out every criminal etc. I did some research on Death Note, the comic is radically different to the film, took me some time to find the correct scenes. But anyway: His goal here is honest, he wants to change the world And this is the result of having power: I would like the main character go down a similar route, but with different motives, setting etc. Just the same downfall for the main character. Good intentions but ultimately becomes the thing they hated, thinking they are in the right and their actions are justified while remaining completely oblivious to the evil they are committing. And my question was, family members, friends, loved ones etc would react to seeing someone you know and cared, become a monster. They are the same physical person, but their mind and personality radically different, before and after they find this weapon. I hope this is more clear, I'm just using a tally, the highest tally will be his/her fate.
I disagree. Perhaps someone with vigilante or psychopathic mentality would (and does, even in our world) get corrupted in this way, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people would find the idea of killing, regardless of who it was they were supposed to kill, impossible to cope with. On the other hands, there are numerous psychopaths throughout history who killed, and organised killing, of millions of people. They weren't insane at all. They simply had no remorse or capacity to empathise with their victims, so the outcome didn't bother them in the slightest. What bothered them was being stopped, caught, judged negatively etc. Those are simple egocentric concerns. However, there exists a prejudice in the majority of non-killers against the minority of killers, that they must be insane. A non-violent, empathic person can't imagine how someone 'sane' could ever do anything like that, so they cope better if they can explain it with 'madness'. Other times, they use rationalisation to believe the claims of the psychopath, that murder is needed 'for the greater good' and they allow him or her to proceed with his hellish plan. But having interviewed many killers, including serial and mass shooters, I can tell you that there's nothing 'insane' about vast majority of them. They are just extremely, narcissistic, cold, entitled and superb manipulators. I believe these two different mentalities would essentially remain the same regardless of the 'power' given to them, which is nicely referenced in the saying "don't let it fall into the wrong hands". I don't think that majority of people would even opt to kill their worst enemy (really kill, not fantasy, comic book 'kill' because there's a big difference between the two), let alone millions of people or what have you. Most humans have inborn aversion to murdering their own kind, there are very few exceptions, but majority would struggle with the decision, and some of them would murder to prevent worse crime, some wouldn't. Luckily, most people never have to face that decision so it's an abstract concept to most of us. So I am not quite sure what answers you are expecting. Member after memeber already told you what they would do, many have discussed their thought process behind it, and you still don't seem satisfied that you have your answer. What kind of answer do you actually seek in this post?
Killing is not as alien to our natures as one might think. We potentially ask it of our police officers and soldiers every day. Doing a search for news articles relating to "Police shoot unarmed man" will show just how easy they find it. @MrPizzle: Getting supposedly "normal" people to torture others was not difficult at all. Do a search for the "Milgram experiment". For the closest thing you will find to the thinking behind killing a child, do a search for "Honor Killings".
I just wondered, that's all. Would it make me a psychopath if I wiped out tyrants like Mugabe for example for such a weapon that only requires a name and face, I continue to do this for multiple days, despite my best intentions, I would be a psychopath?
It all depends. The human mind is capable of anything given the right circumstances. Strong bonds can sometimes break the chain. I would imagine that if you truly loved a family member, you would never let them hurt so many people.
