Murphy's Bullet: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Bullets are funny things. Sometimes a villain will shoot at the hero many, many times, but every time [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|he aims]], he misses. Yet, on the one time he [[Accidental Aiming Skills|doesn't aim]], the bullet [[Pinball Projectile|ricochets off the wall]] and hits the hero. Or one of the bullets that missed the hero hit someone close to him instead. With Murphy's Bullet, anything that ''can'' be hit, ''will'' be hit, even if it requires the bullet to go through walls and bounce off objects. [[Finagle's Law|As long]] [[Diabolus Ex Machina|as it causes]] [[True Art Is Angsty|the hero pain.]]

 

Related to [[Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics]]. Most often happens because the villain is trying for [[More Dakka]]. Compare [[Bullet Holes and Revelations]]. Contrast [[Exactly What I Aimed At]], where they ''seemed'' to miss but didn't.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* As the above quote shows, Tara Chace from the excellent comic series ''[[Queen and Country]]'' managed to avoid all the bullets...except for one ricochet, which hit her in the leg.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

 

* {{spoiler|1=Another Tara, Tara McClay}} from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', was killed by a random bullet that was fired in the air by {{spoiler|Warren}}. And this was immediately after {{spoiler|Willow had managed to make things right with Tara}}, making this a very clear-cut case of [[Diabolus Ex Machina|Diabolus]] in action. Although {{spoiler|Warren}} does manage to hit {{spoiler|Buffy}}, his target, as well.

** Murphy was particularly strong with this one, as the bullet is shown to have shattered the window, and there's no way, given {{spoiler|Warren}}'s height, {{spoiler|Tara}}'s height, and the height of the window from the ground, that a bullet could traveled that path, unless it was a Roger Rabbit bullet that took a sharp turn in midair somewhere.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Finagle's Law]]