Appeal to Force/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A fallacy where a character "proves" they're correct by threatening another.

  • Straight: Bob constantly proves his point by bullying Alvin into agreeing with him.
  • Exaggerated: Anytime Alvin voices the slightest disagreement with Bob, Bob starts kicking his ass left and right.
  • Justified: The meek Alvin is easily intimidated, and the large, muscular Bob knows this.
  • Inverted: The man-mountain known as Bob is constantly swayed by Alvin's passionate, non-forceful arguments.
  • Subverted: Bob beats up Alvin, but the latter refuses to take the former's side.
  • Double Subverted: ...Until he gets beaten up again.
  • Parodied: Bob goes to the Congress to defend some noble cause, and he gives a passionate speech about the human condition to support his argument, but when that fail to touch the hearts of the legislators, he simply whips out a massive minigun out of hammerspace and starts killing everyone until there's one last man standing that totally agrees with him out of sheer terror.
  • Deconstructed:
    • Bob's constant harassment of Alvin leads him to Take a Level In Badass, bulking up and deciding to get revenge by beating Bob up and pushing him around. The tormentor is now the victim.
    • Alternatively, Alvin decides to take Bob's punishment in the name of standing behind his argument.
  • Reconstructed: However, Alvin only did this so Bob could experience firsthand what it felt like to be the victim of such bullying. Once Bob got a taste of his own medicine, he came around and apologized, rehabilitating his relationship with Alvin.
  • Zig Zagged: The effectiveness of Bob's method varies from person to person. Some end up complying thanks to the use of fear, some need some "sense beat into them" before they do, some particularly clever ones manage to stand (unharmed) in their point just using good rhetoric, and some manage to turn the tables into Bob by using their own brand of superior force.
  • Averted: Bob refuses to use force.
  • Enforced: The producer said: "What if we get that big guy to beat up the rebellious hero for disagreeing with him? Then the rebellious hero agrees with him just to get him to stop. Think of the drama!"
  • Lampshaded: Charlie said: "Isn't it interesting how everyone who Bob beats up ends up agreeing with him afterwards? I wonder why no one just tells him that it doesn't really win an argument." Shrugs, and continues.
  • Invoked: No one listens to Bob regularly, so he starts throwing his weight around.
  • Defied: "You know, I don't think that threatening people is the best way to get my point across."
  • Discussed:
    • Alvin and Charlie talk about the latest in Bob's bullying tactics.
    • Alternatively, Alvin said: "Oh crap, don't let Bob hear you say you don't like his favorite football team. The consequences will be dire."
  • Conversed: Someone watching A Show Within A Show said: "You see that guy on the right? The one who just said 'no, Bob, I don't agree with you' to that other guy? He's going to get his ass kicked and then he'll be asked again and he'll say 'yes, Bob, I totally agree with you'."
  • Played For Laughs: Alvin and Bob have massive knock-down drag-out fights to determine who's right about anything at all. "Alright, Alvin, you won. We'll get hot fudge on our sundaes instead of caramel."
  • Played For Drama: Bob's beliefs are racist or otherwise immoral, and he expects Alvin not merely to agree when asked, but also to act on them. Alvin does so because he's afraid of what Bob will do to him otherwise.

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