Asshole Victim: Difference between revisions

update links
(update links)
Line 21:
A similar concept unites this trope to the [[Final Girl]]. She survives because she's the only one without sin or character flaws, She doesn't drink, do drugs, have sex outside of wedlock. She's nice and polite. Everyone else in the movie has such a flaw, making it okay for the monster to kill them.
 
For [[Kick the Dog|dog kickers]] who kick an asshole (not necessarily fatally), it's [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]. Can also be an invoked [[Take That, Scrappy!]] moment. See also [[Disposable Fiance]], which is similar in several respects. When the victim was as asshole for things they did in the process of trying to survive, it's [[Death By Pragmatism]].
 
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.
Line 53:
** A rare exception: in one case, two victims who were thought to be assholes turn out to be okay people.
* Almost all of the people sent to Hell by those seeking revenge in ''[[Hell Girl]]'' were getting what they deserved. Apparently.
* Taken [[Up to Eleven]] with the second victim in ''[[Bio -Meat: Nectar]]'', an old woman. When we first see her, she's mocking and ridiculing the lead character's mother for daring to not have a husband. (It's implied very shortly after that she was previously married and her husband died, or at least ran out on her) Next, we see her berating a neighbor for roof tiles falling into her yard during an earthquake—then further insulting them for daring to suggest they could '''clean up''' the tiles to make it up to her. Next, when she first sees a Bio Meat, she mistakes it for a pig, and calls Animal Control... and when they turn out to be taking too long, she decides to try to ''stab it to death with a broom handle for no reason''. She gets picked off shortly thereafter, but she's ''still'' not done being an asshole, as she had decided to attack it in front of a little girl, who gets so traumatized by witnessing what happens to the woman that all she can do when the Animal Control officers finally arrive is repeat the [[Madness Mantra]] "Little piggy dragged off the big lady..."
** ''[[Bio -Meat: Nectar]]'' even includes Name Tropers, listed in the credits as "Asshole Victims" in the fifth volume. This is a group of the main characters' fellow middle school students who are saved from being eaten when Bio Meats swarm the school by the quick thinking and leadership skills of one main character, and then given an avenue of escape and communication with the outside world by the inventiveness of another, though said escape route has to be used sparingly and carefully lest the Bio Meats use it to invade the safe room. Just as the last of the main characters leaves through the escape route to bring back help, the "Asshole Victims:"
*** Cut the only rope that allows them to enter and leave the safe room, for literally no other reason than to amuse themselves by watching the last of the main characters plummet loudly to the ground and alert the nearby Bio Meats to his presence.
*** Sneeringly (and loudly) voice disappointment when the last main character escapes being eaten due to a previously unnoticed weakness in the Bio Meats.
Line 118:
*** Todd and Janelle, John's foster parents, are portrayed as uncaring and unpleasant, respectively. When T-1000!Janelle speaks in a friendly manner to John Conner on the phone, he says "She's never this nice". The T-1000 kills both of them.
* All of Travis Bickle's victims in ''[[Taxi Driver]]''. Despite being something of a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|psychopath]], he is sympathetic compared to them.
* It's not a murder-mystery, but Steve in the remake of ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' more than qualifies. When he finally gets zombified and then shot in the head you're likely to cheer, same goes for CJ.
** To be fair, while CJ is a bit of a jerk at first he does start to lighten up towards the end, and unlike most of the other examples here, he gets to die in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] when he blows himself up to destroy a bunch of zombies so that everyone else can get away.
** All the bikers in the original ''[[Dawn of the Dead (film)|Dawn of the Dead]]''. Particularly that one guy who [[Too Dumb to Live|decides that it's a perfect time to check his blood pressure]].
Line 333:
* [[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.
** Some context: the officer in question is threatening lethal force to try and enforce a detainment order for immigration control, when no one in the scene has shown any weapons, made any threatening gestures or statements, or done anything except calmly insist that a) the internment order should not apply to their one friend as he is on a permanent resident visa and b) that they do not know where the other person the officer is looking for is. (They are admittedly lying, as Friday is just in the next room, but that's not justification for drawing down.) So the scene is framed not so much as a cold-blooded murder as Friday defending her friends from a technically legal (due to martial law being in effect) but ethically completely unjustified incident of police brutality.
** As the officer is alone and faced by three people who are despite their lack of physical violence so far still visibly in absolutely no mood to cooperate, at least one of whom could pick him up and throw him with one hand, he ''could'' have been responding to the implied threat by going for intimidation. Admittedly, that still makes him an idiot as a) it is a major violation of weapons safety rules to aim your weapon at someone for intimidation purposes and b) the fact that it was a very busy night and he did not want to take the time to wait for backup to arrive is not sufficient justification to avoid calling for backup.
*** Of the three people facing Lt. Dickey, Janet was a small woman with no combat training, Georges was a medical doctor with no combat training... and Ian was a very large, muscular veteran combat pilot with a black belt. That Dickey had his weapon aimed at ''Janet'' quite clearly indicates his motive as an attempt to illegally threaten and intimidate, because if he was actually in any fear for his life he'd have been covering Ian first.
* The ''[[In Death]]'' series by J.D. Robb does this at least once with J.D. Robb's usual subtlety (zero). A victim that starts out as a nasty, small-minded prima donna just gets worse with every single thing we find out. The victim would likely have been facing a life sentence if found out by the law before the murderer, and that's mainly because the relevant jurisdiction wouldn't have the death penalty available. It's a good book to read for anyone wondering why a court system might employ justifiable homicide as a separate claim from self-defense. (Though there was a halfway decent "defense of another" argument as well.)
Line 404:
** It's especially true in the episode Blackout, in which literally everyone in the [[Closed Circle]] scene hated the victim.
** And in the episode Justice, where the victim was a college BMOC: handsome, charming... and a serial date rapist. When the cops investigating your murder ''coach the person who killed you'' into claiming it was self-defense (when it really, really wasn't), you know you're an asshole.
* ''[[Homicide: Life Onon the Street]]'' once had them investigate two suicides caused by a particular nasty piece of work, who was going to reveal their extramarital affairs. This wasn't blackmail, as he was going to reveal regardless, and only giving them a few days warning, as his Moral Judgment. The SOB was killed by the photographer who he blackmailed into being his accomplice.
* ''[[Midsomer Murders]]'', about 75% of the time.
** Including one character, played by [[Retroactive Recognition|Orlando Bloom]], who was sleeping with at least three different women (one of whom was paying him for it) until he got pitchforked through the chest in the first five minutes. He was also a petty thief and a vandal with a serious [[Jerkass|attitude problem]].
Line 518:
** "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
{{quote|"[[Technical Pacifist|You just got your ass kicked trying to play-fight a pacifist]]
Plus [[Angrish|got called a Faggot by a Gay-Rights Activist]]
In broad daylight, hey guys
[[Passive-Aggressive Kombat|My place for a lesson in aggression in passiveness]] }}
 
Line 582:
** In what may be a subversion, it is commented both in-game and in the fandom that while Carla may have been an unpleasant person, neither she nor her unborn baby deserved getting sold to slavery.
** The town of [[Wretched Hive|Nipton]] also qualifies. The town was destroyed by [[Exclusively Evil|Caesar's Legion]], but [[The Spymaster|Vulpes Inculta]] describes it as a town of whores willing to sell each other out and didn't even bother to fight back. He's not lying. However, much like with Carla Boone, many characters feel that as bad as Nipton was, it did not deserve [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|what Caesar's Legion did to it]]
*** Also, Vulpes ''is'' lying. In several places in town you will find corpses of townfolk lying next to dropped weapons, and surrounded by the corpses of dead Legionnaires.
** Then there's Benny the guy who shot the courier and buried him/her. He dies either in two ways. One you hunt him down for Mr. House. Or he is captured by Caesar and you get to choose how to kill him.
** The Great Khans tribe qualifies as well. On the one hand, a rather severe foul-up on the NCR's part led to a massacre that saw the Khans getting absolutely devastated; years later they still haven't recovered. On the other hand, the Khans were openly hostile to the NCR long before the event in question, and not terribly nice even amongst each other. Their leader outright brags about how they laid ruin to defenseless NCR settlements, and a former Khan that later defected to the NCR will angrily comment that the group got exactly what was coming to them.
Line 626:
 
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[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]].
* ''[[Head Trip]]'' runs on these instead of fuel. Including the only constructive criticism [http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20060319.html certain] [http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20070806.html shows] may deserve: "[[Boom! Headshot!|BLAM!]]". Or, a [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|javelin]].