Skip to the End/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A wedding ceremony is sped up or abbreviated in some fashion.

  • Straight: Emperor Evulz is forcing Princess Velvet to marry him, but the heroes are on their way to smash the wedding, so he orders the priest to hurry up.
  • Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz gets Princess Velvet to the altar and commands the priest to prounonce them "man and wife" right now, without even touching on the rest of the ceremony.
  • Justified: Emperor Evulz is not a very nice guy and wants to get the ceremony over with quickly so he can move on to the fun part.
  • Inverted: Princess Velvet stalls and drags out the ceremony as long as possible in order to give Kelvin as much time as possible to intervene.
    • Emperor Evulz, convinced that the heroes have been taken care of, stretches out the ceremony just to torture Velvet and make sure the marriage is "nice and binding".
  • Subverted: The priest refuses to alter the vows.
  • Double Subverted: Emperor Evulz threatens to kill the priest if he doesn't hurry up anyway.
    • Alternatively: Her procedes to say the vows really fast.
  • Parodied: Both parties are heroic, and just want to get to the good part.
  • Deconstructed: "Did you ever say, 'I do'?" "...I didn't. I didn't!"
  • Reconstructed: "As if that matters. I'm an Evil Overlord!"
  • Zig Zagged: Emperor Evulz is feeling cocky after leaving the heroes stranded in a Death Trap, so he has the priest take his time and make the ceremony nice and lavish and elegant. However, when he hears a commotion outside the church, he realizes Kelvin and the rest are on their way and orders the priest to hurry up. The priest, already leery of the wedding as it's clearly under duress, refuses to alter the vows; Emperor Evulz threatens to murder him if he doesn't comply. Shaken, the priest agrees -- but insists that, if he wants the marriage to stick, they'll have to rewrite their vows to something shorter. Emperor Evulz is still arguing with him about this sticking point when the heroes finally bust in.
  • Averted: The villain either a)doesn't rush the ceremony or b)doesn't bother with a ceremony at all.
  • Enforced: The writers want to rachet up the tension as the heroes prepare to smash the wedding, so they have Emperor Evulz try to speed up the ceremony.
  • Lampshaded: "You asked to speed up the vows. The heroes are coming, aren't they?"
  • Invoked: "We need him to speed this up. Let's make it look like someone's about to interrupt!"
  • Defied: See subverted.
  • Discussed: Evulz: Speed it up! Priest: It's alright, they're not coming.
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: When he realizes the heroes are coming, Emperor Evulz attempts to speed up the ceremony by reciting his vows at chipmunk speed. Unfortunately for him, the priest can't understand him and forces him to repeat himself several times, and Velvet takes a cue from him by reciting her lines very slowly.
  • Played For Drama: Emperor Evulz has his goons manhandle Velvet up to the altar, then keeps a tight hold on the Standard Female Grab Area while ordering the shaken priest to hurry up already. Velvet screams, struggles and bites, but Emperor Evulz ignores this, threatening the priest's life if they aren't quickly married.

Back to Skip to the End.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Skip_to_the_End/Playing_With?oldid=935953"