Asshole Victim: Difference between revisions

You watch enough mystery shows or read enough mystery stories, and you notice a certain trend: Frequently, the homicide victim is an [[Jerkass|asshole]].

 

For example, the victim will have been someone who enjoyed crushing people for the fun of it, or who ripped off at least a dozen people, and possibly more, or who was a criminal himself, etc.

 

 

There are three possible reasons for having an Asshole Victim:

# In a mystery show, it [[Everyone Is a Suspect|maximizes the possible suspects]], as just about ''everyone'' involved would have a potential motive to kill this guy. Usually the line, "Well, I certainly ''hated'' X, but I didn't ''kill'' him" will be used repeatedly, and perhaps the extreme variation "Yeah, I ''wanted'' to kill X, but somebody beat me to it." In a few really extreme cases, suspects may even add "I'd kill X ''now'' if I could, but it's a moot point." In rare cases, a suspect admits that "[[I Wished You Were Dead|I wished X was dead]]" before the victim actually died, and now therefore feels [[Be Careful What You Wish For|indirectly responsible]] for it.

 

 

At a minimum, they will have [[Kick the Dog|kicked the dog]] and may be well beyond the [[Moral Event Horizon]], especially in [[Anvilicious|less subtle]] productions. [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]] is when the perpetrator gets away with it because the Asshole Victim deserved it.

In accordance with the "[[wikipedia:Just world hypothesis|Just-world hypothesis]]," people may perceive ''any'' victim as an '''Asshole Victim''' just to keep their belief that people get what they deserve intact.

 

Not to be confused with [[Ass Shove|people whose posteriors get violated.]]

 

{{deathtrope}}

{{examples|suf=s}}

* One of the early Got Milk? commercials ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnIjgw5A-iI this one]) starts with a business executive sadistically firing someone over his cell phone as he crosses the street. He's promptly hit by a truck and goes to "heaven" with all the cookies he could want, [[This Isn't Heaven|but all the milk cartons are empty.]] [[Hell|Guess where he is...]]

** [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=301#comic Here,] [[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal|apparently.]]

 

* Occurs often in ''[[Death Note]]'', although the victim is often only inferred to have been an asshole by virtue of having been in prison. In fact, that's part of the point - Light claims that he researches these people to make sure that they really 'deserve' to die before he offs them and that he spares the criminal if the person ''they'' committed the crime against was an asshole victim. How reliably he does this is questionable at best.

** It's worth noting that in Chapter 2, L mentions that his first suspected victim, Kurou Otoharada's crime was the least serious (not including Shibutaku, who L has no reason to know about, since he isn't aware that the Death Note can kill by means other than heart attacks). Keep in mind that Otoharada is the guy who was holding a group of pre-schoolers at gunpoint at the moment Light killed him.

** Gaara's dad, the Fourth Kazekage, who basically had his wife die so he could try to harness Shukaku then shunned and tried to (unsuccessfully, of course) kill his son Gaara. You know Orochimaru doesn't have any kindness in his heart, but it's not like you lament that he killed the Kazekage.

* Michio Yuki from ''[[MW]]'' has killed off the people who were part of the cover-up of the titular chemical warfare including {{spoiler|his boss at the bank he worked at}}.

 

* The Comedian in ''[[Watchmen (comics)]]'' is perhaps the ultimate Asshole Victim, although that had nothing to do with the (primary) motivation behind his murder. By the end, we feel some sympathy for him. But he's still an asshole.

** Moloch, too. Though he hadn't been an asshole in ''years''.

* Tommy Monaghan, the titular protagonist of [[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]], only takes contracts out on those he considers to be "bad" people.

* In the backstory of ''[[Kingdom Come]]'', [[Nineties Anti-Hero|Magog]] kills the Joker while he's in police custody. Of course, this is '''[[Complete Monster|The]] [[Monster Clown|Joker]]''' we're talking about here, and he was arrested because he went on a rampage in the ''Daily Planet'' offices and killed 75 people—including Lois Lane. When Superman protests, the public sides with Magog for this very reason.

 

* In the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' fanfic ''[[The Dilgar War]]'' has warmaster Len'char, whose actions and political meddling make Jha'dur (whose body count of innocent is so high she's called Deathwalker) make sympathetic, especially as Jha'dur [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|did what she did to save her people]] and just couldn't see a pacifistic solution while Len'char put such survival at serious risk. When Jha'dur finally crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]], her promise to not kill him ''no matter how much he begged for it'' is quite satisfying.

* Ace Swift in ''[[Turnabout Storm]]''. A pegasus athlete that had rumors about him saying that he reached his victories by less-than-honest methods, which turn out to be true. He blackmailed every opponent that had a chance of beating him into dropping out of the race so he could keep both his victory streak untouched and the money from the numerous bets on his favor.

 

* ''[[Terminator (franchise)|Terminator]]''

** In the first film, the Terminator's very first victim pulled a knife on him, swore at him, and generally made us [[Kick the Son of a Bitch|feel not too sorry for him]]. Two of the Terminator's later victims, Matt and Ginger, were arguably more sympathetic, but his [[Death by Sex|making an obscene phone call and her casual promiscuity]] against the backdrop of the movie's subtle condemnation of the [[Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair|proud and parasitic modern society]] that produced them suggests that they're [[Too Dumb to Live]].

** Apparently this trope was taken into consideration when doing that scene. Originally they had him apologize for his behavior before suffering his fate, but they decided to edit that out to keep him a strict asshole in the eyes of the audience. It worked, since when his scene came up, the audience ''cheered''.

** Like most of the movie, this is probably in reference to ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' and in particular the dynamic between Ben and Harry; like Harry, David ''is'' right about a lot of the things that they should be doing, but that doesn't stop him from being an asshole.

* Mr. Dietrichson in ''[[Double Indemnity]]'', for the sake of making Neff a [[Sympathetic Murderer]].

* In ''[[Scanners]] 2'', the main character kills a pair of store-robbing thugs who already killed two clerks and were either about to do the same to his girlfriend, or kidnap her/hold her hostage.

* The black comedy ''Drowning Mona''. Bette Milder played Mona, a woman so universally despised that when she was killed, no one cared about her death (beyond wondering who had finally done the deed) and only her son and husband showed up at her funeral (and even they weren't too broken up about it). This made the jobs of the investigators much more difficult, because practically '''''EVERYONE''''' in town had a reason for wanting to kill Mona, making everyone a suspect.

* The mission director in ''[[Gattaca]]'' was ... not universally liked, making the movie an example of reason number three.

* Discussed in ''[[Kill List]]''. Jay is very insistent that all the people on the titular list are bad people that deserve their deaths. But while we see ample evidence of this for the librarian, we have to take his word for it on the others, raising the possibility that it's just him trying to rationalise the killings.

* ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]''. Dr. Chilton, who was in charge of the facility where Hannibal Lecter was originally imprisoned. He sleazily hits on Clarice Starling and doesn't take it well when she declines him. Hannibal says that Chilton has harassed in the past and we have no reason to disbelieve him. He reveals the FBI's attempt to trick Hannibal into cooperating - not because he's offended by their dishonesty, but because he wants to cut his own deal and get publicity. At the end of the movie Lecter is seen trailing Chilton and it's made clear that he's going to kill him and eat him ("I'm having an old friend for dinner.").

** In general, most of the characters could qualify. It's hard to feel sorry for any of these people, since they are all assholes from start to finish, as evidenced by the [[Cluster F-Bomb|constant swearing]] throughout the whole movie.

 

* Toyed with in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[The Naked Sun]],'' where the murder victim qualifies under reasons two and three. . . because he was the perfect embodiment of the planet's social code ("a good Solarian"), that is, an anti-social a-hole. ''Everyone'' had a motive to murder the man who reminded them all of their imperfections.

* Another story by Asimov features a famous researcher die in a lab explosion, and foul play is suspected. The problem is, it turns out this "researcher" never did anything except stealing the ideas and results of others, so not only did everyone have a motive, ''everyone was openly discussing the best way to kill him''.

** Simeon Lee in ''Hercule Poirot's Christmas'' is an selfish old millionaire, who plays sadistic mind games with his family. Here, however, the murder was actually personal revenge.

** The sadistic Lord Edgware in ''Lord Edgware Dies''. However, as in ''Appointment with Death'', the murder was committed for selfish motives.

** Subversion in ''[[Five Little Pigs]]'': several characters sided with Caroline Crale when she was convicted of murdering her husband Amyas, a painter having an affair with his model. However, Poirot realises that Amyas was never going to leave Caroline and only kept Elsa around to finish the painting. Elsa killed him and framed Caroline when she learned that he had always intended to stay with his wife.

** Joyce Reynolds in ''Halloween Party'' manages to be a prepubescent version of this trope, being regarded by most of the adults and children around her as a lying [[Attention Whore]] and not incredibly well liked as a result. Of course, the fact that she's still a child means that it is ''not'' okay when someone bumps her off. Her brother Leopold is also one of these.

** In ''The Raven in the Foregate'', Father Ailnoth's death is mourned by nobody, after the residents and reader spend a few chapters being appalled by his cruelty. In the end it turns out that his death was not murder, but an accident which the sole witness considered to be divine judgment.

* In Kate Ross' second Julian Kestrel mystery, ''Whom the Gods Love'', the victim is gradually revealed to have been this.

** Played with in the case of Barty Crouch. He's introduced as a stuffy man who sacked his House Elf while ignoring her sobbing pleas and tossed his neglected son into Azkaban. He becomes less of an asshole when we realize that he had good damned reason to have his son locked up and the last time we see Crouch alive, he's insane, terrified, and trying his hardest to warn Dumbledore about the planned return of Voldemort.

*** He was also more sympathetic in the movie adaptation where we see his son as a depraved, all-grown-up lunatic before he locked him up rather than a scared, innocent young boy.

* Most of the murder victims we actually get any introduction to in ''Burning Water'', by [[Mercedes Lackey]].

** The gang of school bullies who make the fatal mistake of trying their usual shenanigans on Lavan, later known as "Lavan Firestorm" for very good reasons in ''Brightly Burning.''

** Of course, knowing Vetinari, that may well have been the intended method of assassination.

* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''[[Friday (novel)|Friday]]''. Lieutenant Dickey is described as someone who had repeatedly tried to sleep with Janet despite being repeatedly told no, as "slimy", and as having "a size-twelve ego in a size-four soul". About a minute later, the title character kills him as he's trying to arrest one of her friends at gunpoint.

* Ali, {{spoiler|actually Courtney}} in ''[[Pretty Little Liars]]'' is pretty conniving and bitchy to her friends, and ends up going missing and being found dead in her backyard.

* A number of the Dark Spirit's victims in ''[[A Snowball in Hell]]'' are just terrible people, such as Darren "The Daddy" McDade who is very racist and [[Hypocrite|ideologically bankrupt]], and a group of land mine manufacturing execs who are... well, land mine manufacturing execs. That doesn't mean that any of them deserve their [[Cold-Blooded Torture|ultimate fates]], of course.

* CC de Poitiers, the victim in Louise Penny's second Three Pines mystery ''A Fatal Grace'', is self-obsessed, emotionally and verbally abusive to her husband and daughter, and universally loathed (even by the man she's having an affair with). Possible motives are not hard to come by.

* The first to victims of arson in the second book of the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' are a brothel and the home of the resident [[Hanging Judge]], who manages to be far less sympathetic than the brothel by showing more concern for his clothes than any of his clients' legal papers, and by promptly acusing Michael of the fire, demanding he be hung on the spot no less.

* In the opening scene of ''[[Monster Hunter International]]'' Owen throws his werewolf boss out an office building's window. Said werewolf's body totals a ''double-parked'' car upon landing. The landing is described as hitting the car's center, so the damage would have been avoided or less severe if they parked legally.

 

* Every detective show has a variation of this exchange at least once or twice in its running: The detective asks, "Do you know of anyone you might've wanted X dead?" The other person snorts and replies, "Who ''didn't'' want X dead?" or "Half the city wanted X dead, and the other half didn't know him." or "People would've lined up for a chance to kill X."

* Probably happens on ''[[Bones]]'' with about the same 50/50 frequency as other crime shows. An example is a [[Parody]] of ''[[The Office]]'', where a hateful manager is dumped down an elevator. It turns out she had an aneurysm burst when one of the couple she busted for a forbidden affair—one of whom she was already blackmailing to sleep with her—threw a stapler at her head in frustration, and the two dumped her body in a panic.

** There are actually some exceptions scattered throughout the show's long run of some perfectly nice people getting killed, but one in particular stands out as a very deliberate subversion of this trope. It centers around this [[Smug Snake]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] where everything about him just seems to ''scream'' Asshole Victim... until we get to the halfway point and the murder victim is the exec's much nicer brother.

* Emmett Byrne is the major [[Jerkass]] in ''[[Chuck]]''. Yet, in the episode ''Chuck Versus the Pink Slip'' he manages to crank his own jerk-ass-ness [[Up to Eleven]], which makes the scene where he is murdered in cold blood all the more satisfying.

** Still another had a sleazy paparazzo (who had just [[Karma Houdini]]ed his way out of a Manslaughter charge) was shot to death outside of his favorite eatery. When the patrons realized who'd been shot... [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|they burst into applause.]]

** When a notorious drug lord is murdered, Detective Briscoe is less than enthusiastic about finding out who killed the guy. Especially when the prime suspect becomes the father of a boy the victim had led into a life of drugs, and later into death by overdose. But later, a priest comes forward and confesses to killing the drug lord... because God told him to.

* While he survived, let's not forget J.R. Ewing from ''[[Dallas]]''.

** Similarly, Lionel Luthor from ''[[Smallville]]''. Of course, when he ''did'' die, this trope was averted.

*** A clingy ex-wife who insisted on making life hell for her ex-husband and children. She tried to ''put a hit on herself'' to frame her ex-husband and when she couldn't do it, she ''tricked her own son'' into killing her for the same reason.

*** An egomaniac Paris Hilton-esque reality show star.

** The very first episode had a Serbian war criminal responsible for at least sixty-seven rapes being beaten, stabbed and having his penis severed by two vengeful women.

** In the episode ''Signature'', they find the latest victim of a serial killer, as well as a dead man right next to her. The episode changes gears quickly when they find out that their male victim is the serial killer.

** In the episode "Chameleon", the first act of the episode is devoted to chasing down a serial rapist and killer - who is then slain by a ''different'' serial killer, who ''[[Pay Evil Unto Evil|specifically targets these types of characters]]'' in order to elicit sympathy from the general public. She almost gets away with it, as it seems the jury is sympathetic, but the fact that she kills to get what she wants [[Hoist by His Own Petard|turns out to be her downfall]]...

** A tween rapist is forcing his victim into getting an abortion (and may have been been close to taking matters into his own hands) when he's killed by a meek boy with a crush on her.

** Christine Johnson, the person who took over the ARC, tried to arrest the entire main cast, and had [[Benevolent Boss|Lester]] forced out of the ARC, who is pushed into a Future Predator-full anomaly by Helen Cutter.

** Henry Merchant from 5x03, who tries to get Emily institutionalized just for the sake of his reputation, and then shoots her, and then threatens to shoot Matt if she doesn't come back with him to the 1860s where she'd probably hang for murders that she didn't commit.

** James was looking at it from a sailors pov. He knew how much power a tyranical captain had, and that having one could be a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].

* In the pilot of ''[[The Unusuals]]'', the late Detective Kowalski is revealed to have been a [[Corrupt Cop]], an adulterer, a blackmailer and an all-around [[Jerkass]] for the purpose of making [[Everyone Is a Suspect|everyone a suspect]]. However, his widow is shown to love him and genuinely mourn him.

* In the third season finale and fourth season premiere of ''[[The Mentalist]]'', Jane ended up killing the man believed to be Red John. Of course, it's later revealed that he wasn't actually Red John, but it ultimately didn't matter because the guy who was killed, as well as his wife, were a couple of kidnappers.

* ''[[Crownies]]'' has Ray Stone, an abusive husband who terrorized his wife Joanne and sister-in-law Heather-Marie, until he was beaten to death with a boltcutter. Erin's sympathies lie with Joanne Mervich, though she tries to avoid letting it get in the way of her job, even contributing to Rhys's closing arguments.

** Played with in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''. The narrator gives a [[Tonight Someone Dies]] monologue, and the scene immediately cuts to an old woman making a racist remark. He comments: "Okay, I'll just tell you right now. She's the one who dies." {{spoiler|Later turns out to not be a straight example, as it's not a murder, but an accident.}}

* In ''[[Downton Abbey]]'', there are: {{spoiler|Pamuk and Vera}}.

 

* "Goodbye, Earl" by the Dixie Chicks.

* "Janie's Got A Gun" by Aerosmith is about [[Rape as Drama|a teenage girl who shoots her father after being raped by him.]]

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s filk "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night." The Countess, a talentless would-be musician, dies in a locked tower to which her husband has the only other key. But she was such an unpleasant person that:

* "Terror Starts at Home" by Beneath the Sky is another example of this. A man rapes his own daughter and she responds by cutting his penis off. The music video shows it in graphic detail.

** "Testicular Manslaughter" by Cattle Decapitation and "Blunt Force Castration" by [[Cannibal Corpse]] are also about a rapist being castrated.

* Alt-Rapper Jesse Dangerously's song ''Outfox'd (When Pacifists Attack)'' is about one getting what's coming to him

 

* While many characters in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' [[Kill the Cutie|clearly don't deserve getting killed]], there are also many who are enough of a [[Jerkass]] to the point where it's hard to sympathize with them. Some of these border on [[Karmic Death]], such as Anthony Burbank (who was repeatedly stabbed [[Groin Attack|in the groin]] by the same cousin who he had bullied) and Philip Ward (beaten to death by [[Miles Gloriosus|Jimmy Brennan]], a character he had previously beaten up in a hockey game in [[Developing Doomed Characters|pre-game]]). A notable aversion, though, would be Monty Pondsworth of v4 pre-game. Although he was the most prominent [[Jerkass]] in pre-game, he did not make an appearance on the island, [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|much to the disappointment of many handlers]].

 

* In [[Classical Mythology]] its a reoccurring theme. Ouranos and Kronos lose any sympathy points when they are brutally overthrown due to their treatment of their kids. The Olympians often punished mortals for being complete assholes, but were not limited to this.

** Hercules was known for his rages involving lots of death. What sets him apart from some other Greek heroes is the victim usually had it coming by cheating Hercules or being a complete a-hole Herc usually accepted punishment when he was in the wrong.

* [[Norse Mythology]] is often very brutal with [[Grey and Gray Morality]]. The gods usually come off slightly better by the giants being massive assholes first.

 

* Karl Baumer in ''Margin for Error'' is a Nazi of the least likeable sort. When [[Adolf Hitler]] is making a speech, he turns up the volume on the radio so loud that nobody hears the gunshot that kills him.

* Pirelli in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', a [[Snake Oil Salesman]] who passes off "piss and ink" as a hair tonic, beats Toby, and [[Mugging the Monster|tries to blackmail Sweeney]]. Also, Beadle Bamford and eventually, Judge Turpin.

* The title character in ''[[Agamemnon]]'' tried to sacrifice his daughter. Aegisthus himself qualifies in ''[[The Libation Bearers]]''. Oh, and by the way? Aegisthus also murdered Agamemnon's [[Complete Monster]] of a father, Atreus.

 

* Subverted in ''[[Nobilis]]'': one example of play in the second edition rulebook involved an attack on the concept of Treachery that relied on [[Reality Warper|warping reality]] so that a nice person who had been murdered by her boyfriend [[Retcon|retroactively]] ''became'' an Asshole Victim. This would, apparently, have undermined Treachery by mixing in justice where it wasn't supposed to be, undermining reality. ([[Humanoid Abomination|Excrucians]] are [[Omnicidal Maniac|not nice people]])

 

* Every single target in ''[[Assassin's Creed]]''. They all get their [[Kick the Dog|very own moment]] before their assassinations that put them here.

** In ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'', at least one gets an [[Alas, Poor Villain]] moment: Dante Moro, the [[Hanlon's Razor|brain-damaged]] bodyguard of Marco Barbarigo. He tries to give Ezio some help with his last words (telling him where the Templars are next). Additionally, after his death you receive a letter from his former wife that he was tricked into annulling his marriage too, stating that [[Tear Jerker|she still loves him and hopes for the day that he'll recover and remember her]].

** And then the initiation ritual has you kill a barbarian with a hidden [[Blood Knight]] streak, a feisty and crass woman who has murdered people with her foul words and temper and a [[Complete Monster]] Khajit (Thief, murderer and rapist) who expects this to be his death. {{spoiler|With a broader definition of "asshole", you can also [[Take a Third Option|kill the Dark Brotherhood assassin who brought you there]].}}

** Nearly all of the people the Thieves Guild sends you after are this. Examples including an oppressive, penny pinching beekeeper, a slave driving meadery owner, an Argonian con artist, and {{spoiler|the man who betrayed and murdered the original guildmaster}}. Though in the case of the Con Artist, he just agrees to work with Guild and becomes a fence for you.

* ''[[Strange Journey]]'' gives us [[Evil Counterpart|Jack's Squad]]. [[Alliteration|Absurdly amoral assholes]] who happily jump into [[Mad Scientist]] [[Complete Monster]] territory, Jack's Squad is used to deconstruct the idea of [[Brainwashing for the Greater Good]]. Even as [[Holier Than Thou]] zombies, they're ''still'' idiot jerks.

* The comment under [[Tabletop Games]] for "dungeons" applies to numerous video games as well. For example, in [[The Elder Scrolls]] series, if you see a small cavern complex, you can rest assured that at least nine times in ten it will be full of Necromancers of Conjurers or the undead or other perfectly acceptable targets you may ruthlessly cut down without a single ding to the [[Karma Meter]]. You can then with no guilt grab everything in the place and haul it back to the nearest marketplace. The remaining one time in ten you will speak with the inhabitants. Half the time, you will put them all to the sword because someone told you to, then take their stuff and sell it.

 

* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games like this trope. At least one victim in each game was pretty explicitly Not A Nice Person—many of them are criminals themselves.

** In ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'' (the first game):

*** In the third case, the victim {{spoiler|was an infamously greedy sculptor apparently [[Only in It For the Money]], who forced his own son to kidnap the son of his former partner so that he could have an easier time betraying and blackmailing him, which... did not go as he had planned. The killer himself ''also'' became a victim in the case, albeit nonfatally.}}

*** Then, {{spoiler|in the final case, the victim (who had been met way back in the first case) turns out to have been ''much'' more assholish than had been initially suspected--he was in fact a former body double for the head of state who had arranged the man's assassination, taken his place, fabricated his own kidnapping to defraud the country of millions and killed or tried to kill anyone who could have exposed his real identity. By comparison the game's actual [[Big Bad]] comes off as downright sympathetic, who would probably have been seen as justified if he hadn't [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|jumped off the slippery slope]] while [[He Who Fights Monsters|fighting the monsters]] who had terrorized him for most of his life.}}

* Matou Shinji in [[Fate/stay night]], Heaven's Feel route. Considering that this is the [[Complete Monster]] who RAPED his SISTER for years, treats his Servant like a dog even when she remains unflinchingly loyal to him and tried to RAPE Rin when she was tied up and unable to resist, nobody is exactly shedding any tears for him when he kicks the bucket courtesy of a stab through the chest by the very sister he was again attempting to rape.

** And if you wanted his anime counterpart dead too, don't worry. That happens too.

* The victim in the [[Murder Mystery]] [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Jisei]]'' was working with her company to steal information from a rival corporation, but decided to doublecross her employer in favor of a third party that offered her more money.

* Rina Mamiya from ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' is this in one arc. She tries to kill Rena, so Rena kills her. Even if she was a [[Jerkass]] [[Gold Digger]], it's horrifying when Rena kills her in the manga. She's crying, begging, bleeding, in pain... In the anime, her death is very quick though.

** Onryu Sonozaki in the Cotton Drifting and Eye Opening chapters by Shion.

 

 

* ''[[Something*Positive]]'' has the completely evil Avagadro Pompey, who actually did die of natural causes, although nobody believes [[Jerkass|Kharisma]] when she said that, although she really was trying to kill him, all her murder attempts failed.

** And then you had Avagadro's former sex slave, Pepito. Once freed from Avagadro's clutches, he proved every bit the [[Jerkass]] Avagadro was. And then [[Cruel and Unusual Death|he was torn apart by rabid anime fangirls]].

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', occasionally. Such as [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/070119 these].

 

* ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'' has Doctors Gary and Larson killed by being covered in plants. Considering the fact that they bullied Bushroot, they really are assholes.

* Jokey Smurf, the resident [[Jerkass]] prankster, accidentally became this in ''[[The Smurfs]]'' episode "The Kaplowey Scroll" when he made Grouchy angry enough to [[The Scottish Trope|say the word "kaplowey"]] which made Jokey disappear. Fortunately, Papa Smurf reversed that.

* In ''[[Futurama]]'' when Bender is turned into a "werecar", his first victims are two vandals. It gets [[Subverted]] when after smashing up a car and talking about smashing faces; one of them mentions they're both going to church the next morning.

* He doesn't die, but Nelson Nash of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' is a pretty good example. In one episode, he gets attacked by a classmate with [[Psychic Powers]], leading to the following exchange between Bruce and Terry:

{{quote|'''Bruce''': ''"And is there anyone who held a grudge against this Nelson Nash kid?"''

'''Terry''': ''"Starts with me and goes around the block - twice."'' }}

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:The Jerk Index]]

[[Category:Mystery Tropes]]

[[Category:Victimhood Tropes]]

[[Category:Villain Ball]]