Don't Sneak Up On Me Like That/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: An incident of friendly fire resulting from someone taking a friend by surprise.

  • Straight: Alice is sneaking around the house in the dark with a baseball bat, thinking there's a burglar in the house. It's really her boyfriend Bob, who walks up to her in silence and taps her on the shoulder. *THWACK*.
  • Exaggerated: Alice whirls around and beats Bob to a pulp in blind terror before she realises who it is.
  • Downplayed: She turns around, bat raised, but notices who's there and stops herself before angrily rebuking him for scaring her.
  • Justified: Bob had faked his death at the hands of a serial killer, and Alice is terrified that she's the next victim.
  • Inverted: Alice sees a shape facing away from her, and sneaks up behind it. She tells the intruder to turn around slowly, and jumps out of her skin when she recognises Bob.
  • Subverted: Alice just stops herself hitting Bob, and sighs in relief. Cue Bob's Psychotic Smirk as he sticks a knife in her chest.
  • Double Subverted: Alice just stops herself hitting Bob, and sighs in relief. Then she beats the shit out of him for giving her such a fright.
  • Parodied: Alice has been on guard all night, keeping herself awake with Klatchian Coffee. Every single stimulus makes her freak out and run screaming at it, baseball bat swinging.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice goes on a prolonged hunt through the dark house. She gets a Cat Scare, starts Walking Backwards straight towards a shadow in the corner, the shadow reaches out, and *POW*, she knocks out... Bob! That fool, why didn't he say something!? Oh, he was trying to be quiet because the killer is in there too - we can see him sneaking up on Alice as she tends to an unconscious Bob...
  • Averted: Bob sees Alice on the prowl and wisely decides to call out to her across the room.
  • Enforced: The writers need a believable reason for Alice to kill Bob, her one true love who's never done anything to hurt her.
  • Lampshaded: "Don't Sneak Up On Me Like That!"
  • Invoked: Bob knows that once Alice's Unstoppable Rage is in progress, the only thing that will snap her out of it is if she harms a friend, so he resolves to take the hit.
  • Exploited:
  • Defied: "Oh god, Alice is in Berserker Mode again. I'll go give her a Cooldown Hug." "Are you crazy? You'll get yourself killed!"
  • Discussed: [Alice feels a hand on her shoulder] "PleasebeBob, pleasebeBob, pleasebeBob..."
  • Conversed: "Oh, don't walk up behind her, you idiot!"

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