All The Tropes

Murder Is the Best Solution: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Murder Is the Best Solution (view source)

Revision as of 05:40, 8 April 2014

287 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (categories and general cleanup)
m (Mass update links)
Line 23:
* Millardo Peacecraft in ''[[Gundam Wing]]''.
* Char Aznable in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', and more so during ''Char's Counterattack''.
* Kira (Light Yagami), of ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]''. Admittedly, [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|it was the only hammer the man had]], but everything from mass murderers to interfering politicians were treated like nails.
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', the Black Knights' resident propagandist Diethard Reid and [[Hot Scientist]] Rakshata suggest assassinating Suzaku once they learn that he's the pilot of the Lancelot. Most of the other Knights, including Lelouch, disagree and outvote them. This does not stop Kallen from trying to stab him next time she is at school (luckily Lelouch was able to stop her).
** Kallen attempted to assassinate Suzaku only because Diethard lied to her that Zero wanted Suzaku dead. Needless to say, Zero had a word with Diethard after learning of this.
** And Rolo really liked this mindset, both when working for Villetta and after defecting to Lelouch.
* Asakura Ryoko of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' is convinced that killing Kyon is the best solution to find out more about Haruhi. The boss of both her and Yuki is a alien-entity who ''only'' wishes to observe ''passively''. The problem is, nothing "interesting" ever happens, so Asakura wants to force change. By killing Kyon, "change" is pretty much guaranteed. [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|But not in the good way.]]
* ''[[Elfen Lied]]''. Especially at the end, {{spoiler|when they go through with it without actually trying to think up any better plans.}}.
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Nini]]'''s Tatarigoroshi-hen:
** {{spoiler|Keiichi's plan to kill Satoko's uncle to protect her.}}
** This seems to be a recurring theme for the show, as {{spoiler|Rena kills Rina and Teppei in Tsumihoroboshi-hen to protect her dad from their scam}}, {{spoiler|Shion kills all the people she thought put Satoshi away (and tries to stab Keiichi, and no, she was never at the hospital) in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen}}, and the overall theme of the show itself, since {{spoiler|Takano wants Rika dead by her own hands so she can enact her plan to raze the village, before 'everybody goes crazy'}}. When you consider that {{spoiler|all of these people have Hinamizawa syndrome, a disease that causes people to go [[Ax Crazy]], [[It Makes Sense in Context|it makes more sense]].}}
** Shion also {{spoiler|''really'' wants to kill Teppei in ''Minagoroshi'', but is stopped by [[The Atoner|Keiichi]]. In a sound novel only arc, Shion, Rena ''and'' Keiichi team up to kill Teppei. It [[Hate Plague|doesn't go so well.]]}}
** The cast doesn't learn until Kai that [[Averted Trope|No, Murder IS NOT the best solution.]]
* Done on a massive scale in ''[[Gravion]]'''s backstory: {{spoiler|In a land dispute between two planets, the rulers of one side reject Sandman's plan to use his [[Super Robot]] to build a new habitable world (or fix their old one) out of hand, and go with Hugi's plans to send an army of Robeasts and [[Mecha -Mooks]] to exterminate the people of the other planet}}
* Yuno of ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'' subscribes to this trope. In her own words, "Everyone who comes between me and Yukki can just die!"
** {{spoiler|[[Break the Cutie|Unsurprisingly, Yukiteru now seems to think this way as well now]]}}
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Admiral Akainu's [[Establishing Character Moment]] is to kill a ship full of innocent people because there may be an archaeologist aboard. Technically correct, as the whole reason he and other Marines were there was to ensure a secret guarded for centuries didn't get out, or it could destabilize the world.
* ''[[Naruto]]'': Uchiha Sasuke seems to have started working under the idea that "murdering enough people will make all my problems disappear and my desires a reality" is a viable solution.
** To be fair, no less than three [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative bastards]] have spent years of his life drilling this trope into his head. He actually killed one (though he was [[Not Quite Dead]]) and devoted his life to killing the other two, though that said all three of them [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch|'''really''' had it coming]] {{spoiler|Itachi arguably didn't, but he intentionally made it ''look'' like he did. And since that was via murdering his whole family [[For the Greater Good]], even ''he'' thought he did.}} It also (with a couple of hiccups) took him years to develop this mindset despite all that, as he refused to kill anyone apart from his mass murdering older brother (and, of course, [[Complete Monster|Orochimaru]]). It took a bombshell about the "truth" of the death of his family and further manipulation from the most dangerous of those [[Manipulative Bastard|bastards]] to turn him out this way, and even then its still possible that he's really just [[Brainwashed and Crazy]].
* Recently, in ''[[Bleach]]'', Ichigo said without any evidence of second-guessing himself, "{{spoiler|Will they go back to normal}} if we kill Tsukishima?" He doesn't even bother trying to find out what the man's motive is. Ginjo reluctantly agrees, even though he doesn't have a clue what Tsukishima wants either {{spoiler|because he had [[Memory Gambit|Tsukishima cut him so he'd be able to get Ichigo to trust him]]}}. Ichigo's suggestion is especially shocking, because killing is something he'd previously hesitated to do with Shinigami, Arrancar, and even Hollows alike (even [[Magnificent Bastard|SOSUKE]] [[Villain Sue|AIZEN]] [[Complete Monster|HIMSELF]]). To be fair to him, what Tsukishima has done to him is... [[Mind Rape|rough]].
** {{spoiler|Byakuya's victory over Tsukishima DID return them back to normal.}}
Line 67:
* Nearly every Coen Brothers movie begins with people of limited intelligence having a plan that ends with someone dead. And then the fun begins.
* Works out well for everyone but the murderers in ''[[The Lady Killers]]''.
* ''[[Very Bad Things (Film)|Very Bad Things]]'' is "This Trope: The Movie".
 
 
== Literature ==
* The Queen of Hearts from ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Literature)|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''. As the solution of every problem, no matter how minor, she instructs "off with his head". This rarely ever actually happens, though.
* Used in ''[[World War Z]]''. The Ukranian army is trying to process a mass of refugees who are fleeing from a zombie swarm behind them into Kiev. Since it's impossible to examine everybody and sort out the infected in time, the commanders opt to drop nerve gas on the lot of them. The infected are the only ones who stand up afterward.
* Played straight in [[Spider Robinson]]'s ''Variable Star'', [[Posthumous Collaboration|based upon an outline by]] [[Robert Heinlein]]. {{spoiler|The hero protagonist, explicitly stated to be trained in avoiding combat, decides on a plan to stop the villain by getting his own friend killed to distract a (likely innocent) bodyguard long enough to kill her as well. This despite controlling the villain's FTL ship (the only remaining valuable asset of a man obsessed with greed), the man who knows how to build new ones and is the pilot, the ship itself, both of the man's daughters, and ''the only possible escape route for the villain,'' '''and''' being able to escape with all of the above simply by climbing on board the ship and taking off.}}
Line 79:
* The students in ''[[The Secret History]]'' opt to kill the one most likely to rat out their ''previous'' (accidental) murder.
* ''[[Discworld]]''
** This is the preferred way of solving problems of Mr. Teatime from ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'' by [[Terry Pratchett]]. Granted, he's an assassin, but even his boss recognizes the existence of a more subtle approach.
** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Making Money|Making Money]]'' Cosmo Lavish's habit of defaulting to this when someone has [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|Outlived Their Usefulness]] leads to a classic [[Revealing Coverup]] as Vetinari just follows the trail of bodies.
** Mostly averted by the tyrannical Patrician, Lord Vetinari, who despite his reputation is more than happy to offer condemned criminals a job rather than a death. Of course, if they turn down the job....
* The ''[[Alex Rider (Literature)|Alex Rider]]'' book series has [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] and [[Big Bad]] of the fourth book {{spoiler|Damian Cray}}, who, after petitioning and protesting against a laboratory testing its products on animals, came to realize that [[Murder Is the Best Solution]]. [[Ax Crazy|And]] [[Chaotic Evil|it]] [[Complete Monster|all]] [[Nuke'Em|went]] [[Apocalypse How|downhill.]]
* [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]] falls afoul of this trope in ''Deathly Hallows''. Despite knowing full well that the Elder Wand can be taken without killing its previous owner - in fact, he's met and interrogated two people who lost it and lived - he thinks the sensible solution is to kill his trusted lieutenant. [[Anvilicious|Because he's evil (seriously, by DH it was like Avada Kedavra was the only spell he knew any more).]]
** [[Completely Missing the Point|Well, technically he didn't use the Avada Kedavra curse to kill Snape. He used Nagini.]]
* ''[[In Death]]'': Hoo, boy. Since the main character is a Homicide detective, this trope comes up more often than not. For example, in ''Born In Death'', two people named Natalie and Bick apparently discovered something big, because the villain first attempted bribery and then murdered them. Eve and Roarke point out that whoever did this made a bad move, because there are ways to handle snoopers without getting the attention of the police by murdering them.
* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Played with. The book ''Sweet Revenge'' has Rosemary Hershey seriously think about murdering Isabelle Flanders, only to decide against it, because she has the deaths of three people preying on her mind, and she doesn't want to have more people on her mind. The book ''Lethal Justice'' has Arden Gillespie seriously consider murdering both her partner Roland Sullivan and the woman she framed Sara Whittler or Alexis Thorne, only for both her and Roland to get drugged, incapacitated, and arrested by Alexis before she can even attempt it.
* Elizabeth Bathory in ''[[Count and Countess (Literature)|Count and Countess]]''. She punishes all criminals, and even minor nuisances, in the exact same way.
* Corsus, general of the [[The Empire|Witchland]] in E. R. Eddison's ''[[The Worm Ouroboros (Literature)|The Worm Ouroboros]]'', will opt for murder in a tight spot: Thus, he poisons King Rezedor of Goblinland, stabs his second-in-command Gallandus for fear of mutiny, and, finally, {{spoiler|poisons the whole remaining elite of Witchland}} in an effort to save his skin. Each time, it backfires on him and leaves him off worse than before.
 
 
Line 104:
* In an episode of ''[[CSI: Miami]]'', {{spoiler|a groom-to-be is worried that the stripper he's been seeing will blackmail him and tells his best man to talk to her. The best man's response is to ''put a remote-controlled gun to the bottom of the groom's limo and shoot her.'' Sadly his [[Murder the Hypotenuse]] plot murdered the wrong hypotenuse...}}
** Really, most of any ''CSI'' franchise would qualify.
* A variation is or was apparently used (or so ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' claims) on psych tests in real life for those who want to work for certain parts of the US government:
{{quote| Given no other choice, would you kill:<br />
a) Your mother<br />
Line 114:
** Derek Reese is almost as bad. At one point, the family is dealing with a possible Skynet program based in the Los Angeles City Hall, and Derek advises that they [[Stuff Blowing Up|just blow it up.]]
*** Well why [[Nuke'Em|wait a few years?]]
* The Cigarette Smoking Man in ''[[The X -Files]]'' resorts to murder as his first option more often than not. Other members of the Syndicate occasionally chew him out for this tendency. In return he points out that they would prefer to sit around and do nothing.
* In ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'', there were several examples. Cole was forced to kill a landlord who knows Phoebe's secret and wanted to sell it for money. Phoebe hated him for that. But then, in a later season, Phoebe was held at gun point by Rick, a mortal, she hinted to Paige to cast a spell to make Rick look like a target of a bunch of demons. The demons killed him. Of course Paige could have orbed the gun but that was besides the point.
* In the TV film, ''[[Conspiracy]]'', the Wannsee Conference where the Final Solution phase of the Holocaust was devised has the Nazi discussing with coldblooded earnestness why killing the Third Reich's "undesirables" is the best means of dealing with them.
* In the S2 finale of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', Marian learns that the Sheriff is planning to kill King Richard. Her solution? Kill him first. Never mind that: a) up until this moment Marian has been the voice of reason; b) it has already been established that if the Sheriff dies, Prince John will destroy Nottingham; and c) the general theme of the show has been to rely on non-violent solutions to problems.
* ''[[Law and Order]]'' pretty much wouldn't exist without this trope. In any given episode, the killer could have just gotten a divorce, stolen money rather than speeding up the inheritance, reported the blackmail to the cops, or any number of other ways to resolve their grudge with the victim of the week.
* In an episode of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'', Sarah Jane has gone missing and another woman, Andrea, has taken her place. {{spoiler|Turns out she was childhood friends with Sarah Jane, up until her death.}} After a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] she {{spoiler|switches places with Sarah Jane and Sarah Jane instead dies. When Maria figures it out Andrea makes another deal that rewrites Maria out of history. Then she tried to do it to Maria's father.}}
* Although [[Hair-Trigger Temper|Fiona]] from ''[[Burn Notice]]'' often suggests that murder is the best solution, with her it is almost always played for laughs. (See the comedic examples below). [[Broken Pedestal]] Larry, on the other hand, plays this trope far more seriously and is perfectly willing to kill ''anyone'', usually for no more reason than because it's it's easier and quicker that way.
* One of the stories during an episode of ''[[Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?]]'' had an elderly couple who ran a diner murder homeless people that they periodically brought in so the couple could "relieve them" of their suffering.
* In ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' Damon's normal reaction to anyone (besides Stefan and Elena) causing a problem is to try and kill them. Unsurprisingly this creates a lot more problems than it solves, especially because of his habit of overlooking factors like whether he's actually capable of killing them, whether anyone besides him wants them dead, whether they are actually the source of the problem, or whether they have friends who'll come looking for revenge.
* This is the MO of a lot of the killers in ''[[Criminal Minds]]''.
* Seems to be the policy of Manny Horvitz from ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]''. It doesn't matter how much of a likable [[Alter Kocker]] he comes off as, you ''do not'' want to get him angry. The cold-blooded and ruthless Jimmy has to restrain him because, as Jimmy puts it "You can't kill everyone, Manny. [[Pragmatic Villainy|It's not good business]]."
* {{spoiler|Head!Amber}} in [[House (TV series)|House]] swings this way occasionally.
{{quote| '''House:''' How do we get him into the stress lab without Foreman's sign-off?<br />
'''{{spoiler|Amber:}}''' We could kill Foreman.<br />
Line 149:
* In ''[[Mitadake High]]'', players often come to this conclusion. The killer obviously has reached this conclusion long before the game started. Sometimes this is played straight, other times it's played for laughs.
* Subverted in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Path of Radiance''. Though in most of the game [[Violence Is the Only Option]], there are several chapters where not fighting certain enemies will earn you a reward. In one chapter in particular, the force comes upon a building of priests that is under the grip of the enemy, which forces them to fight you. You can kill the priests, but if you get through the chapter without killing a single one, you get one of the best staves in the game. =
* In ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'', because [[Friendly Fireproof|friendly fire is turned off]] the most effective way of determining if an apparent teammate is actually a spy in disguise is to use lethal force. Particularly effective is setting them on fire. Of course, since the game is a first-person shooter where all the characters are psychopaths, violence is always the answer for everything else too.
* In ''[[The Suffering]],'' Doctor Killjoy theorises that Torque's [[Super-Powered Evil Side|insanity form]] was born from a subconscious belief in this trope.
{{quote| '''Doctor Killjoy:''' Severe dementia is it? Or perhaps chronic melancholia? Or is it an uncontrollable urge to regress back to a form unseen in modern society, one that will allow you to set matters right in the most direct way possible? Yes, I think that's it. When all else fails, go for the easy way out, the obvious answer, the brute force solution!}}
Line 155:
* Yuri in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''. At least when it comes to bad guys, anyway.
* [[The Elder Scrolls]] series, starting from Morrowind onwards, allows the indiscriminate player to complete most quests that would otherwise require faction relations, persuade checks, or specialized skills like picking pockets by prying the [[McGuffin]] out of someone's cold, dead hands. Justified as it prevents the game from being [[Unwinnable By Mistake]] if you manage to kill or bug out a vital quest chain NPC, but in many cases creates a massive plot shortcut. In Morrowind specifically, killing Vivec right off the bat allows you to skip forward to the final part of the plot.
** Also fully observed in [[Fallout 3]]. Doing so in [[Fallout: New Vegas]], though, may eventually lock you out of all but one available ending.
 
== Web Comics ==
* Gort in ''[[Darken]]''; his preferred method is to [[Kill It Withwith Fire]].
* K'seliss in ''[[Goblins]]'' holds this general philosophy. Of course, every now and then [[Cutting the Knot|it works]].
 
 
== Web Original ==
* The [[SCP Foundation (Wiki)|SCP Foundation]] is an organization that takes absolutely ''no'' chances; silencing witnesses and regularly executing D-Class personnel is routine for them. Literally, in the case of D-class personnel: all non-vital D-class personnel are slaughtered en masse at the end of each month to prevent them living long enough to escape, then replacing them with more life-term prisoners to make up the numbers (assuming they last that long). Demotion of other personnel to D-class is not uncommon either, should they mess up enough.
 
 
Line 185:
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'': The whole conspiracy.
* A scene in ''[[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]] 2''. John Connor orders the Terminator to deal with two jerks, whereupon the T-800 sets out to kill them. Perfectly justified, [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|as this is exactly what the Terminator was made to do]].
{{quote| '''John:''' Jesus, you were gonna kill that guy!<br />
'''Terminator:''' Of course. I'm a Terminator.<br />
Line 207:
== Live-Action TV ==
* Fiona from ''[[Burn Notice]]'' often suggests shooting people as a solution to practically anything. Sometimes she suggests blowing stuff up instead.
* When [[Black AdderBlackadder]] found himself attracted to his manservant Bob (actually a woman in disguise) he went to see the Wise Woman who suggested three ways to solve the problem:
{{quote| 1) Kill Bob<br />
2) Kill Yourself<br />
Line 214:
* Used in the first episode of ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'', when Joy tried to kill Earl to claim his lottery winnings, because he hadn't changed his will by then.
* One ''[[The Kids in The Hall]]'' sketch had an alien spy who was so nervous that he would continually blow his own cover and then order the destruction of the planet that he was on.
* ''[[30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]'': After Frank offers Jenna the "psychopath test" above, she not only gets the answer right, but takes it as a piece of advice -- and poisons Kenneth. {{spoiler|She does meet the guy, but dumps him after finding out he's got a kid.}}
* A humorous variant on the previously mentioned ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' example: Cameron discovers that James Ellison [[Berserk Button|lied to the Connors]] about {{spoiler|Cromartie's corpse.}} She immediately decides to kill him, at which point Sarah tells her she ''can't'' kill him. Cameron's response?
{{quote| '''Cameron:''' But he's the only one I ''want'' to kill.}}
* Seems to work for Mal in ''[[Firefly]]''. Whenever there is an enemy threatening his crew and there seems to be no way out, he'll just shoot the guy, or kick him into the ship's engine. Also, while she was only a child at the time and it was just a game, cannibalism was River's first thought on how to survive being cut off from home in a war....
* ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' has an aborted attempt. Jeff looks longingly at some hedge clippers when Pierce learns of the secret trampoline, and starts to go for them when Troy stops him.
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Played for Laughs]] as a group control tactic in ''[[Pokémon|Poke]][[HPH.P. Lovecraft|thulhu]]''. It explicitly states that if you break the rules, the one who owns the game is permitted to kill you. (It cautions that this may be illegal, and urges you to ''never'' kill someone outside a gaming context).
* The Computer in ''[[Paranoia]]'' executes first. The Computer does not "ask questions", it "debriefs"...and executes after. If the players aren't as naturally homicidal as RPG players are expected to be, they're usually assigned troubleshooting duty, which is summed up as: "find trouble and shoot it."
 
Line 236:
== Video Games ==
* The obligatory Bioware games' [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]].
** Lilarcor in ''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate]] 2''.
** In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', while on Noveria, Shepard gets entangled in a power struggle between [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Corporate Executives]]. If Wrex is in the party, he suggests a quick way out of the whole mess: "Just eat them." He ''frequently'' suggests you just kill everyone in your way or chides you for not taking the murderous option.
*** Renegade!Shepard gets a few of these too, such as the "I should just kill both you idiots" line during Chorban and Jahleed's dispute about the results of your scans of the Keepers in the first game.
Line 242:
** In ''[[Dragon Age]]'' ''Origins'' this role is filled by Shale, whose stated solution to pretty much everything is 'crush it'. [[Token Evil Teammate|Sten and Morrigan]] also espouse the more violent or 'evil' solutions, usually losing you influence by being selfless unless you Persuade them otherwise, but their examples are less [[Played for Laughs]].
* In ''[[Nanashi no Game]]'', this plays a key role in ''why'' the [[The Most Dangerous Video Game|cursed RPG]] is cursed.
* In ''[[Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice]]'', Princess Sapphire is usually the first person to offer up a solution to the current dilemma -- the solution being to murder the obstacle, of course. Even the ''demons'' are a bit unsettled by this tendency.
* The ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'' universe's backstory reveals that this was the conclusion that [[Master Computer]] GLaDOS came to literally [[AI Is a Crapshoot|picoseconds after being switched on]]. Prior to the events of the first game, she had already killed all the scientists in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center with a [[Deadly Gas|deadly neurotoxin]], and now amuses herelf by parading an endless stream of [[Human Popsicle]] test subjects through a [[Death Course]] of test chambers. Those who succeed... she murders anyway. [[For Science!]].
** And in the second game {{spoiler|she subverts it. Killing Chell is actually [[Determinator|pretty hard,]] so she ends up letting her go.}}
* In the game [[Sacrifice]], this is played for laughs by the God of Death, Charnel.
Line 260:
== Web Original ==
* ''Technically'' speaking, the only thing that needs to be done to a Mary Sue in the ''[[Protectors of the Plot Continuum]]'' is removing her from the fiction she's contaminated. In practice, the Mary Sues are so irritating that Agents will not only default to killing, but find or invent particularly painful ways of killing. This is more for [[Rule of Funny]], though, and some of the less problematic Sues are simply recruited.
* In the outtakes for ''[[Kickassia]]'', after a bunch of different-and gorily detailed-ways of taking down and torturing [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] are suggested by Bennett the Sage, he eventually goes, "I say we kill him!" Laughter ensues.
** Vice President [[The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|Chick]] also tries to sneakily off the Critic every five minutes to gain control of the nation. [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|She could have just easily just chloroformed him while they were alone in the house together and got him out of the way then.]]
* [[Cracked]] article "[http://www.cracked.com/article_19499_6-attempts-at-damage-control-that-caused-way-bigger-problems.html 6 Attempts at Damage Control That Caused Way Bigger Problems]" opens with the line:
{{quote| Mistakes are an inevitable part of human nature, but there's a system for dealing with them the right way -- The Four A's: Assess the damage, Acknowledge your role, Apologize sincerely and Assassinate all accusers.}}
Line 274:
'''Thief:''' It's your standard solution to everything, so yes it was. }}
* Similarly, the 8BT-inspired ''[[Ansem Retort]]''. If Axel has a problem that needs solving, you can bet it will involve fire. Or spiked wheels. Or mind bullets. Or, on one occasion, organising a musical number, but that was kind of the exception.
* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]''. Lampshaded by Celia in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0537.html this] strip.
** Belkar Bitterleaf, who apparently works on the definition "Enemy combatant: anyone worth XP."
{{quote| '''Belkar:''' When in doubt, set something on fire!}}
Line 284:
* The Jägers from ''[[Girl Genius]]'' tend toword this solution. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031017 An example] being when their plan of action escalated until it became one of "''dose'' plans... hyu know -- de kind vere ve keel everybody dot notices dot ve's killin' people", and were dissuaded from it by realizing this would lead to them losing their [[Nice Hat|hats]]. It's quite likely that in the old days they would have stuck with it anyway.
** Not just the Jägers. Both [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100203 clanks and Sparks] default to killing things whenever confronted with too complicated a problem, regardless of whether there are better or easier solutions.
* ''[[Ctrl +Alt +Del]]'': [http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20030227 here] and [http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20030311 here]
* Used in a ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' strip with Porkfry, Gabe complains that he [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/09/05/ always wants to resort to murder]. Of course, Gabe himself is usually pretty quick to resort [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/11/11/ to] [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/3/26/ murder].
* A ''[[Darken]]'' guest comic has the immortal line: "Ah, murder. Is there any problem you can't solve?"
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'':
{{quote| Rule 6: "If violence wasn't your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it."}}
** Also, [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20080908.html "It doesn't run out of bullets."]
Line 300:
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' does this a lot. In one episode, Dr. Venture orders his bodyguard to kill people so he can create more Venturesteins. He refuses. In another episode, Brock goes to a pair of dwarfs to get them to hurt a kid who disrespected him, but they only seem interested in killing him (with a knife!). Brock earlier admitted that he usually kills people who disrespect him, but the kid was underage so he couldn't touch him. And when told to downsize his command staff, the Monarch executes his minions rather than transferring them.
* It is implied that this is what Coco says in an episode of ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' judging by Mac's reaction of then we'd go to jail. It even sounds like she says we could kill him if you listen closely.
* Spoofed on ''[[Futurama]]''. "Damn! Murder isn't working and that's all we're good at!"
** Also, this seems to be Leela's solution to everything when she decides to be more impulsive in ''Anthology Of Interest''.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/884036"