Heroic RROD/Playing With
Basic Trope: The hero pushes himself too hard and begins to suffer a physical breakdown.
- Straight: After a battle with General Doom, Alex is staggering, breathing heavily, and covered in sweat.
- Exaggerated: After his battle, Alex is covered in blood, can't even walk, and everyone can see it.
- Justified:
- Alex really pushed himself in that fight. He can't be at 100% all the time.
- Alex used something that was going to hurt him as well in that fight.
- Alex's culture considers this a mark of honor. He's just doing what he knows.
- Inverted: Getting hurt in battle just makes Alex better.
- Subverted: Alex is covered in blood after the fight, but cockily smiles and says it's General Doom's blood.
- Double Subverted: That was only said not to worry Rita. Once she leaves, he says the truth, it's really his blood.
- Parodied: Alex gets into a fight. He comes out with only one limb, an uncountable number of spiky things sticking out of him, and is covered in all manners of bodily fluids. Alex then notes he is glad he didn't use the full power of the attack while hopping back home, singing a jaunty tune.
- Deconstructed:
- Alex's willingness to endure these serious injuries reveals serious psychological undertones about him, making the other teammates nervous.
- Alex's injuries make the less combat oriented members of the team, like Greg feel like they are useless.
- Alex dies, and the rest of the team can't win against General Doom without him.
- Reconstructed:
- Seeing this part of Alex's psyche come to light, Rose helps him understand that there are those who care about him and hurt when he hurts. He learns to take better care of himself.
- When Greg's attempt to help Alex backfires badly, Alex gets hurt again, and he reveals that part of what lets him fight so effectively is because Greg can handle all of the planning.
- But the loss of their teammate proves to be motivating enough to keep fighting and eventually overcome General Doom anyway.
- Zig Zagged: The team can see how badly Alex is injured. He shrugs and says it's nothing, but it doesn't look like nothing. Greg attempts to step up his game, fails, and Alex charges in with a fury, getting hurt even worse. The team helps him understand to take care of himself, but then he meets someone who he loves fighting.
- Averted:
- We see no wounds on Alex during his battle.
- Alternatively, Alex doesn't get hurt.
- Enforced: "That was a tough battle for Alex, we gotta make sure the audience sees it."
- Lampshaded: "Wow, Alex, you didn't come out of that fight looking pretty."
- Invoked: General Doom knows Alex pushes himself whenever he's around, so he sets up the fight with Alex so he'll be too weak to handle a surprise attack later.
- Defied: Alex stops fighting before he's too injured.
- Discussed: "Look at his wounds, he really pushed him in that fight."
- Conversed:
I...don't know if...I can...make it back...to Heroic RROD...