Murder the Hypotenuse: Difference between revisions

When the fanfiction writers do this, it's [[Die for Our Ship]]. If the hypotenuse is a friend, it's [[Friend Versus Lover]]. If the character kills him/herself instead, it's [[Spurned Into Suicide]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* Debbie of ''Devil In The Flesh'' does this when she kills numerous people she thinks might try to prevent her from being in a possible relationship with her teacher, including her grandmother. She also kills her friend and tries to kill her teacher's wife as well.

** In ''Devil In The Flesh 2'' Debbie escapes from the mental institution she was sent off to in the first installment of the series. After the young co-ed dies in an unexpected accident, Debbie steals both the girl's identity and her car, and heads off to the college her victim was supposed to attend. There, Debbie quickly develops a psychotic crush on her dashing writing professor, Dr. Sam Decker, killing anyone she perceives as a threat to their relationship. However, Debbie's scheme starts to fall apart when her roommate begins unraveling Debbie's lies and discovers the truth about her past. Knowing that she is in danger of being exposed, Debbie makes plans to get rid of her roommate and her friends by any means necessary.

{{quote|''The Duke:'' Tell her that the show ''will'' end my way and she will come to me when the curtain falls... or I'll have the boy killed.

''Zidler:'' ...Killed?

** {{spoiler|[[Idiot Ball|Because a mother protecting her child is just preposterous.]]}}

* The major subplot of the novel ''[[Lois McMaster Bujold|A Civil Campaign]]'' featured Miles Vorkosigan [[Malicious Slander|being accused]] of doing exactly this during the events of the previous book ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Komarr]]'' (in order to free up the woman he was now attempting to court) by political opponents. The truth being part of an ultra-classified incident that couldn't even be revealed to some of the highest levels of government (if the bereaved hadn't been a direct witness, ''she'' wouldn't even have known), so things got rather... complicated.

* In ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', {{spoiler|Smerdyakov}} thinks this will be the natural result of baiting Dmitri with a [[Briefcase Full of Money]] in the lair of his romantic rival.

* In the Ben Bova novel ''Mercury'', the story starts with Mance Bracknell, lead engineer on a space elevator, married to Lara Tierney. Victor Molina, astro-biologist best friend of Mance, wants Lara. When the space elevator collapses, killing hundreds of millions of people and devastating many nations, {{spoiler|Victor falsely testifies in court that Mance was negligently responsible for the collapse, getting him put into forced labour for life. After an accident wipes out everyone on a spaceship but him, Mance takes on the identity of one of the crewmembers and (eventually) gets a job as manager of a colony on Mercury. He lures Victor (who is now happily married to Lara) to Mercury with some life-bearing rocks he's planted, with the goal of getting Victor publicly humiliated when his astro-biologist peers inevitably discover that the rocks aren't from Mercury (thus showing him as either a fraud or an idiot, either way ending his career). Mance seems to think this will get Lara back, but when he reveals his identity, plan, and Victor's false testimony, Lara rejects them both}}. Smart woman.

** Also invoked by {{spoiler|1=General Mc Arthur }} when he {{spoiler|sends his [[Number Two]] [[The Uriah Gambit|in a lethal mission]] because he was the lover of [[May–December Romance|his much younger]] wife, Leslie. Poor Leslie [[Death by Despair|died of depression]] few years later.}}

* [[Mistborn]] contains an ''unintentional'' example- or arguably two {{spoiler|Vin kills Elend's ex-fiancee, Shan Elariel, who was attempting to kill Elend at the time, and later Zane in a triangle where ''she's'' Alice}}. Actually, that particular romance advances via death ''four times''.

* Tinkerbell. Yes, ''[[Peter Pan|that]]'' [[Peter Pan|Tinkerbell.]] She did ''not'' by any means like Wendy, she even tried to ''kill her''. All because Peter paid more attention to her than Tink. Most adaptations keep the general clinginess but tone it down from "homicidal fury." This also occurs in the film adaptions.

* In ''[[Double Indemnity]]'', Phyllis collaborates with Walter to kill her estranged husband and try to [[Make It Look Like an Accident]] to get double indemnity on his insurance policy.

* 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.}}

* In ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'', Wataru and Mio are in love, but Mio is due to have a forced marriage to his brother Taiga. Wataru refuses to kill Taiga, so Mio attempts to do it herself by running him through with a sword at their wedding. {{spoiler|This proves fatal not for him, but her - he survives and she is killed by Bishop.}}

* In Orange Is The New Black Lorena puts a homemade bomb under Christopher's fiance's car.

 

 

== Music ==

* "Jenny Again", by Tunng. The titular Jenny is the equivalent of the example's Alice: the listener is put into the position of Bob, and the singer is in the position of Chris.

* "Bloody Valentine" by Good Charlotte.

* ''Here I Sit in Prison'' by Cowboy Mouth

* The point of view character for ''Ex-Lover's Lover'' by Voltaire dreams of doing this, but at the end admits he would never have the guts to go through with it.

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

{{quote|'''AI:''' Machine, eh?

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