Oh Crap/Playing With
< Oh Crap
Basic Trope: A character realises that they are in deep trouble.
- Straight: Seymour sees Bob coming towards him and widens his eyes in fright, stepping back in fear.
- Exaggerated: Seymour suffers from a Villainous BSOD.
- Downplayed: Seymour blinks and flinches for a split second, but is back to normal right after.
- Justified: Seymour was previously established to be overconfident and unable to handle a potential failure very well. And Bob is known not to be very merciful to his enemies.
- Inverted: Seymour becomes delighted before Bob beats him up and/or kills him, perhaps because Seymour thinks he deserves it or has been broken.
- Subverted: Seymour looks panicky, but then reveals that he was faking it. He then dispatches Bob in a cloud of dust.
- Seymour realizes he's about to die, and his eyes widen...then he breaks into a sad chuckle and stands resolute.
- Double Subverted: Bob comes out from the cloud of dust and Seymour's reaction is genuine this time.
- Parodied: Seymour becomes so frightened that he explodes before Bob gets to dish out punishment.
- Deconstructed: Bob is disturbed by how frightened Seymour seems to be and realizes that he is still human, even if he's a jerk.
- Seymour's surprise sets him off-guard and leads to his defeat.
- Reconstructed: Bob offers the frightened Seymour a second chance. Ideally, Seymour leaps at the chance and learns An Aesop.
- Zig Zagged: Seymour is repeatedly put into this position, but at some moments he/she weathers the worst punishment without so much as a whimper, yet at other times is frightened out of his wits.
- Averted: Seymour is never in an Oh Crap position, or doesn't react to the beatdown.
- Enforced: Executive Meddling and/or the authors: "Let's have Seymour swear when he realizes that Bob's about to beat him to a pulp - the audience will want to see the grin wiped off his face at some point."
- Played for Laughs: Seymour delivers his Oh Crap reaction in the most deadpan manner possible.
- Lampshaded: The Genre Savvy Seymour says; "I think this is the part when I say Oh Crap."
- Invoked: A Genre Savvy Character disables Seymour and invites Bob over to sort him out.
- Exploited: A Genre Savvy deputy to Seymour uses his reaction as a cue to beat it.
- Defied: Seymour is embarrassed by the thought of being put into an Oh Crap situation and rearranges matters to prevent himself from ever falling into danger at Bob's hands.
- Discussed: The deputy talks about Seymour's last Oh Crap moment and Seymour tells him to shut up.
- Conversed: "Look at Seymour's expression. He knows that he's in for a beatdown."
No wait, don't go back there! ... Oh Crap.