Once Is Not Enough/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A defender fails to counterattack sufficiently to stop an aggressor.

  • Straight: General Drake is hounding Bob. Eventually Bob manages to knock Drake out, but Drake recovers and manages to catch Bob again.
  • Exaggerated: Bob barely dazes Drake with his counterattack before he tries to run. Drake shakes it off and continues his pursuit.
  • Justified: Bob's counter would have taken out a human. Unfortunately, Drake is anything but.
    • Bob is from a society that is highly litigious and Lawful Stupidity has made him afraid to hurt Drake sufficiently out of fear that he will get sued for battery.
    • Bob is not able to hurt Drake, but hitting him once will allow him to run away.
  • Inverted: Kick Them While They Are Down, No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, There Is No Kill Like Overkill
  • Subverted: Bob starts running away after knocking Drake out, then turns back to ventilate his brainpan.
  • Double Subverted: Except Bob missed and had no time to take another shot, so Drake still lives.
  • Deconstructed: Drake catches Bob and kills him.
  • Reconstructed: It turns out that Drake only got a dummy that lead him right into Bob's trap.
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: Bob decapitates Drake... then cuts off the rest of his limbs, shoots his heart multiple times, blows up his body, smothers his remains, and throws the ashes into some acid.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Defied: See Inverted.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: "You can always count on slasher victims to be Genre Blind about the killer's durability."
  • Played For Laughs: Drake is crushed by an anvil, (along with a whole lot of random events that just occur) and still manages to recover nicely in time for the next scene.
  • Played For Drama: Just before he blanks out, Drake mutters how he failed to keep his promise to his sister/lover/friend, thinking he's going to die.
    • Bob is relieved and thinks Drake is gone for good. He gets a nasty surprise when he shows up again, and means business.

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