Murder the Hypotenuse: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' plays it for laughs. Ayeka and Ryoko are involved constantly in this with each other, while their power levels makes it closer to Wile E. Coyote vs. Wile E. Coyote. {{spoiler|In Tenchi Universe Ryoko tries to convince Tenchi to abandon a kidnapped Ayeka to Kagato, possibly to invoke the trope, but when Tenchi chooses otherwise she decides to support him anyway.}}

* ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'': Ran's default reaction to anyone who gets within ten feet of Rei.

* In chapter 64 of ''[[Black Butler]]'' {{spoiler|Undertaker attempts to kill Sebastian because he is making Ciel "miserable". He doesn't get a chance to.}} It's also worth noting that Undertaker has a considerable amount of [[Ho Yay]] towards Ciel and tends to loose his personal space around him.

* In chapter 64 of ''[[Black Butler (manga)|Black Butler]]'' {{spoiler|Undertaker attempts to kill Sebastian because he is making Ciel "miserable". He doesn't get a chance to.}} It's also worth noting that Undertaker has a considerable amount of [[Ho Yay]] towards Ciel and tends to loose his personal space around him.

** In episode 17 of the first anime Sebastian has sex with a girl to get information and Grell is shown reacting jealously and writing down the woman's name in a [[Death Note]].

* ''[[D.N.Angel]]'': In episode 23 Kael to Elliot so that he can have Freedert for himself.

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* ''[[Orphan]]'': All of {{spoiler|Esther}}'s actions in this film have in mind the ultimate death of {{spoiler|Kate, Danny AND Maxine}} so that she can have {{spoiler|John}} all to herself.

* In ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'', Poison Ivy deactivates Mr. Freeze's [[Ill Girl]] wife Nora from her life support system and blames it on the heroes - and in the process, she's able to convince him to take revenge on all of humanity by freezing the world and leaving her and him as the ''only'' people alive. {{spoiler|Freeze learns, once his plan is undone, that the good guys actually saved his wife and that Ivy was the one who tried to kill her, prompting a [[Heel Face Turn]]}}. Clearly she is seriously into him.

* Gaston in ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]''. "BELLE IS MINE!!!"

* Gaston in ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and]] [[Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)|the Beast]]''. "BELLE IS MINE!!!"

* Caledon Hockely in ''[[Titanic]]'' comes to this conclusion when he finds out that his fiancée Rose loves Jack more than she loves him.

* David Allen Griffin from ''[[The Watcher (film)|The Watcher]]'' does this with all of Joel's love interests. He wants to make sure that Joel [[Foe Yay|only thinks about and chases after]] ''[[Foe Yay|him]]'', and any woman getting in the way is just [[Yandere|asking for death]].

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** Done again, of course, in the 2004 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. This time The Phantom [[Scarpia Ultimatum|threatens to strangle Raoul if Christine refuses to submit to him]].

* Attempted with extremely little forethought by Noah in ''[[The Village]]'' when he learns that Ivy and Lucius are engaged. Naturally, not being possessed of full mental faculties, he sort of overlooks the "make it look like an accident and, with Lucius out of the picture, win Ivy over" part, but he does the "stab Lucius over and over again" part quite well.

* ''[[Scarface]]'' has this with Tony Montana murdering Manny Ribera, believing that he slept with his sister, Gina. However, she has revealed that she and Manny are married.

* ''[[Scarface (1983 film)|Scarface]]'' has this with Tony Montana murdering Manny Ribera, believing that he slept with his sister, Gina. However, she has revealed that she and Manny are married.

* There is an interesting take on this trope in the opening scene in ''[[Saw]] 3D''. A woman has been involved with two men, neither of which know about the other. All three of them are put in a jigsaw trap where one of the three will die. The two men are forced to either kill the other man, or, together, kill the woman.

** The message that plays before the "game" begins even states that "one of the sides will drop out of this love triangle". {{spoiler|Ultimately this trope is averted since neither of the guys (hypotenuses) are killed, and instead the guys decide that the woman should die.}}

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** In the ''other'' TV show of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'', Arthur snaps and tries to kill Lancelot after he catches him passionately kissing Guinevere on the eve of their wedding. Only Gwen and Merlin's intervention saves Lancelot's life.

* {{spoiler|Penelope}} attempts to do this on ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]''. She {{spoiler|replaces a cheeseball that Sonny needs to fire from a cannon at her high school's homecoming with a cheese''bomb'', planning to have Sonny be killed so that Chad would be free to date Penelope instead. Chad refuses and survives Penelope's [[If I Can't Have You]] plot, getting to Wisconsin along with the So Random cast in time to save Sonny.}}

* In one episode of ''[[Bones]]'', a female suspect who had previously stalked the victim becomes amoured with Booth after he had briefly comforted her. Once she saw that Booth paid more attention to Bones (naturally, [[~~UST~~|of course]]), she brought a gun with the intent on killing Bones right there and then.

* In one episode of ''[[Bones]]'', a female suspect who had previously stalked the victim becomes amoured with Booth after he had briefly comforted her. Once she saw that Booth paid more attention to Bones (naturally, [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|of course]]), she brought a gun with the intent on killing Bones right there and then.

* One episode of ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|Flashpoint]]'' deals with a husband and wife who had tried unsuccessfully to have a baby multiple times. The wife mistakens her husband's frustrations and efforts to convince her to give up for cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend {{spoiler|She wasn't entirely wrong}} and promptly tried to kill the girlfriend.

* A twisted one in the episode "Seven Seconds" of [[Criminal Minds]] occurs, where the kidnapped girl was found to be molested by {{spoiler|her uncle}} and was kidnapped and almost killed by {{spoiler|her aunt}} to "protect" the family, though Prentiss implies that it was also to make up for {{spoiler|the fact her husband didn't want her as much compared to her niece.}}

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* In ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', Judge Turpin fancies Benjamin Barker's wife, and has him convicted of a crime he didn't commit and shipped off to Australia to get him out of the way. However, as in ''The Crooked Man'' example above, he escapes from prison and returns to get his revenge on the judge.

** Arguably, Mrs. Lovett, with Sweeney and {{spoiler|Lucy}}. {{spoiler|She doesn't really do anything to Lucy, but still she lies and claims she's dead, just so she can have Sweeney all to herself.}}

* Attempted in ''[[The Crucible]]''. [[Yandere|Abigail Williams]] is in love with John Proctor, and tries to get Proctor's wife Elizabeth hanged as a witch. Due to a bit of [[Deus Ex Machina]], {{spoiler|she not only fails (Elizabeth is pregnant and can't be executed), but she gets Proctor himself hanged instead as he chooses to take the heat.}} Oopsie.

* Attempted in ''[[The Crucible (theatre)|The Crucible]]''. [[Yandere|Abigail Williams]] is in love with John Proctor, and tries to get Proctor's wife Elizabeth hanged as a witch. Due to a bit of [[Deus Ex Machina]], {{spoiler|she not only fails (Elizabeth is pregnant and can't be executed), but she gets Proctor himself hanged instead as he chooses to take the heat.}} Oopsie.

* In ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]'', Seymour almost does this with Audrey's boyfriend Orin. He loses his nerve, but Orin dies immediately afterward through his abuse of his laughing gas and Seymor's inaction. Of course, this is less because he's dating Audrey and more because he's abusing her.

* In ''[[Little Shop of Horrors (theater)|Little Shop of Horrors]]'', Seymour almost does this with Audrey's boyfriend Orin. He loses his nerve, but Orin dies immediately afterward through his abuse of his laughing gas and Seymor's inaction. Of course, this is less because he's dating Audrey and more because he's abusing her.

** Arguably, Audrey II him/her/itself attempts this when it tries to off the original Audrey, depending on how you interpret the plant's relationship with Seymour.

** [[YMMV|Arguably]], Audrey II him/her/itself attempts this when it tries to off the original Audrey, depending on how you interpret the plant's relationship with Seymour.

* In a subversion, in [[Avenue Q]], after Princeton breaks up with Kate and later gets together with [[The Vamp]] [[Meaningful Name|Lucy the Slut]], {{spoiler|Kate angrily throws the lucky penny Princeton gave her off the Empire State Building, hitting Lucy, breaking her neck, and putting her into a coma.}} Oops.

{{quote|'''Princeton:''' {{spoiler|Can you believe it? some idiot dropped a penny off the Empire State Building.}}

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'''Homer:''' Yep, a machine! }}

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', where Vlad constantly tries to kill his "best friend" Jack in order to win his wife Maddie's heart. He also has a creepy, stalkerish relationship with Jack and Maddie's kid and main character Danny.

* Subverted in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'': Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl) and Mari (Vixen) are caught in a [[Love Triangle]] with [[Green Lantern]] John Stewart. He is currently with Mari, but he ''was'' with Shayera and everybody is aware that there are still [[~~UST~~|unresolved feelings]] between the two of them. When Hawkgirl and Vixen are on a mission together ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|with Vigilante]]) they are caught in a trap and hunted down by Thanagarians who want to execute Hawkgirl for war crimes. When Vixen is captured she immediately strikes a deal with the Thanagarians—spare her and she will deliver Hawkgirl to them. She even goes so far as to cite the [[Love Triangle]] as the reason she will betray her superior so quickly. However, she does not go through with it, nor did she ever plan to; once the Thanagarians let their guard down and bring her to their aircraft she hijacks the ship so she can get herself ''and'' Hawkgirl out of there safely. Later episodes play the trope for laughs as Shayera and Mari [[Character Development|begin to become close friends]], as Shayera comments that she is trying to learn proper Earth protocol for these situations and thusly can not just poison Mari's water like she would on Thanagar.

* Subverted in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'': Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl) and Mari (Vixen) are caught in a [[Love Triangle]] with [[Green Lantern]] John Stewart. He is currently with Mari, but he ''was'' with Shayera and everybody is aware that there are still [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|unresolved feelings]] between the two of them. When Hawkgirl and Vixen are on a mission together ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|with Vigilante]]) they are caught in a trap and hunted down by Thanagarians who want to execute Hawkgirl for war crimes. When Vixen is captured she immediately strikes a deal with the Thanagarians—spare her and she will deliver Hawkgirl to them. She even goes so far as to cite the [[Love Triangle]] as the reason she will betray her superior so quickly. However, she does not go through with it, nor did she ever plan to; once the Thanagarians let their guard down and bring her to their aircraft she hijacks the ship so she can get herself ''and'' Hawkgirl out of there safely. Later episodes play the trope for laughs as Shayera and Mari [[Character Development|begin to become close friends]], as Shayera comments that she is trying to learn proper Earth protocol for these situations and thusly can not just poison Mari's water like she would on Thanagar.

** The relationship eventually evolves into a quadrilateral by introducing Carter "Hawkman" Hall as a rival for Shayera's affection and the story wastes no time in getting to hypotenuse murdering: in Hawkman's second appearance, a physical manifestation of his dark side kidnaps John Stewart and orders Hawkman to kill him. Hawkman, [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|being a hero]], does not comply. In fact, the events of the episode cause him to stop pursuing Shayera romantically as he realizes that [[Because Destiny Says So|she and John Stewart are literally destined to end up together]], [[Screw Destiny|despite what John Stewart says]].

** In the episode "Metamorphosis", a [[squick]]y example occurs when an extremely [[Overprotective Dad]] (who loved his daughter maybe [[Parental Incest|a bit too much]]) didn't like his daughter's fiancee so he tried to kill him. When that failed, he pretended that the one who told him to do it was the fiancee's old friend Green Lantern, while showing him a photo of Green Lantern and his fiancee embracing. The fiancee then invoked this trope himself as he went after Green Lantern in a rage.