How Dare You Spare My Life: Difference between revisions
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Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (work->trope, tropelist->examples, added trope workshop template) |
(Added reference to trope the description of references this kind of thing (though none of the examples there are obvious cross examples. Some might be but aren't explained enough).) |
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The hero has just fought his enemy--perhaps the [[Big Bad]], perhaps [[The Dragon]]--and defeated them without killing them. He may have disarmed them, or he may have a knife to their throat, or they may have been knocked out for the moment. Undoubtedly, lots of people in the audience are crying "[[Finish Him!]]! He's a [[Complete Monster]]!" |
The hero has just fought his enemy--perhaps the [[Big Bad]], perhaps [[The Dragon]]--and defeated them without killing them. He may have disarmed them, or he may have a knife to their throat, or they may have been knocked out for the moment. Undoubtedly, lots of people in the audience are crying "[[Finish Him!]]! He's a [[Complete Monster]]!" |
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[[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|Not so fast]]. Killing a helpless person would not be heroic. The hero will not stoop so low, or rather, the writer does not want to tarnish the hero's reputation by having him stoop so low. At the same time, however, the writer would kind of like to kill off the villain. So the villain, despite being defeated, launches a desperate attack on the hero. Perhaps the villain is outraged over their [[Arch Enemy]] extending them this kind of charity. Perhaps they genuinely think they can kill the hero while his guard is down. Or perhaps it's something altogether different. In any case, this attack will usually fail and give the hero an excuse to kill the no-longer-helpless villain in self-defense. Then the villain is dead, the hero's still on the moral high ground, and everybody's happy. |
[[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|Not so fast]]. Killing a helpless person would not be heroic. The hero will not stoop so low, or rather, the writer does not want to tarnish the hero's reputation by having him stoop so low. At the same time, however, the writer would kind of like to kill off the villain. So the villain, despite being defeated, launches a desperate attack on the hero. Perhaps the villain is outraged over their [[Arch Enemy]] extending them this kind of charity. Perhaps they genuinely think they can kill the hero while his guard is down. Or perhaps it's something altogether different. In any case, this attack will usually fail and give the hero an excuse to kill the no-longer-helpless villain in self-defense or [[Self-Disposing Villain|fail and kill themselves in the process]]. Then the villain is dead, the hero's still on the moral high ground, and everybody's happy. |
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