A Glass in the Hand: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Seen It a Million Times|We've all seen this before]]. Perchance the character [[Does Not Know His Own Strength]]. Maybe he's entering a [[Heroic BSOD]]. Perhaps her [[Berserk Button]] has just been pushed. Whatever the reason, one thing is certain: that glass in their hand doesn't stand a chance.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Light, acting as L, "advises" Near to escape from a situation Light himself created to trap him. While smirking. Near crushes the toy in his hand at Light's brazenness in barely even trying to hide his satisfaction.

* Non-glass example in ''[[Bleach]]''. When three of Barragan's Fraccion are defeated, he crushes one of the baubles on the sides of his makeshift throne, showing that he is quite pissed.

* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', Makato Shishio crushes a ''katana'' with one hand, a momento returned to him by his AWOL [[Dragon]], symbolic of his relentless belief in [[Social Darwinism]]. The animated adaptation goes further and shows whatever remaining fragments in his hand afterwards was held so tightly that it ''vaporized''.

 

* A [[Treacherous Advisor]] type [http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5615/blz12.jpg does this] in the ''[[X-wing Rogue Squadron|X Wing Series]]'' after two Rogues refuse to turn on one of their own.

* In ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', Rorschach makes another person do this as an interrogation method, crushing the glass in his hand to cause tremendous pain.

* ''[[New Mutants]] #12'' starts with Ricardo Duarte (aka heroic mutant Sunspot) getting into an argument with his father in the latter's office (the elder Duarte had been associating with the Hellfire Club, which had tried to have the New Mutants killed) the argument ends with Ricardo assuming his powered-up form and storming out, leading to his father crushing the coffee cup in his hand. Of course, [[Reality Ensues]] and he realizes he now has to call the custodian to clean up the spilled coffee.

 

* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality]]'', Snape gets so angry during Harry's sorting that he crushes a ''silver goblet'' into a lump.

* Paul in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' does this twice, once with a trash can lid and once with a stone cup. The first time, he is annoyed at John; the second time is inadvertent, and he douses himself with tea.

 

* ''[[The Incredibles]]'': Bob/Mr. Incredible is almost out the door to save a mugging victim when his boss threatens to fire him if he leaves. He lets go of the now crumpled doorknob.

* In ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'', the Horned King shatters the goblet in his hand when Taran refuses to show him how Hen Wen predicts the future.

* ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'': Angry at Danny crashing her premiere, Darla squeezes a doll so hard the head pops out.

* Sutler in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' shatters a glass of warm milk as he sees a comedy sketch mocking his inability to stop V on television.

** [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Including a line mocking his fondness for warm milk, no less.]]

* In ''[[Army of Darkness]]'', Ash crushes a pewter mug with his new gauntlet-hand.

{{quote|"[[Catch Phrase|Groovy]]!"}}

 

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''

** In one book, Dean crushes the glass in his hand after Harry kisses Ginny.

* In ''[[Lord Peter Wimsey|Five Red Herrings]]'', Peter is talking to a witness/suspect while playing with a tube of paint. When the witness innocently says something important to the case, Peter accidentally bursts the tube.

* A mild variant of this—the narrator crumpling a photograph in his hand when startled by a noise, then reflexively stuffing it in his pocket—sets up [[The Reveal]] in Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model".

* In the [[Liaden Universe]] book ''Conflict of Honors'', Shan does this when he thinks {{spoiler|Priscilla}} might be dead.

 

* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' has the Cat say of Rimmer: "You can tell he's tense by the way he scrunches up cups and throws them in the bin, and I'm not talking Styrofoam, I'm talking enamel." Of course, he is a [[Hard Light]] hologram.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''

* Phil from ''[[Modern Family]]'' is tasered while holding a mint-condition baseball card. He continues to seize, crushing it more and more while going through a descending list of collectible quality levels from "mint condition" to "trash".

 

* In ''[[Streets of Rage]] 3'', if you get the ending as a result of you fighting Shiva as the final boss, you see Mr. X staring at a monitor showing him defeated with the heroes standing triumphantly over him. He promptly crushes the glass of wine in his left hand.

* ''[[Castlevania]]''

*** Same in ''[[Dawn of Sorrow]]'', when you fight Soma in Julius Mode.

** Elsewhere, in ''[[Portrait of Ruin]]'', Brauner gets angry enough before his boss fight that he presses his cane into the ground until it snaps.

* In ''[[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle]]'', Travis breaks an (empty) glass as he tells Sylvia that he wants revenge on the people who killed Bishop.

* ''[[Street Fighter]]''{{'}}s Vega will take his aggression out on his mask in ''Alpha 3'' if he fails to KO his opponent'' by round end.

 

* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations''

** Diego Armando does it to his cup of coffee at the end of the fourth case of ,{{context|reason=Fourth case of what? Beer?}} after {{spoiler|the defendant commits suicide before he can testify against his girlfriend}}. This instance also leaves out the [[Soft Glass]] (soft ceramic?) effect, as his hand bleeds profusely after breaking the mug.

** In the first game, when you break through {{spoiler|Dee Vaquez's}} alibis, {{spoiler|she crushes her pipette between her fingers.}}

 

* Happened on ''[[Boy Meets Boy]]''. Mik being stronger than he thinks plus distraction = broken glass.

* ''[[Walkyverse]]'': A frustrated Galasso demands something to crush. [[Jerkass|Mike]] gives him a glass. We never see the results, but it probably wasn't pretty, given the frantic cry for paper towels and a first aid kit in the very next panel.

{{quote|'''[[Alt Text]]:''' Hey, what did that orange ever do to you?!}}

 

* Whenever something needs juicing, squeezing or mashing on ''[[Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time]]'', it stands a fair chance of getting crushed to death in one hand.

 

* Spoofed in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', where Mr. Burns in incapable of crushing a paper cup without Smither's aid.

* Used in an episode of ''[[Code Lyoko]]''. Yumi is in the middle of threatening Sissi when her cup (made of plastic or something otherwise hard to break, but not glass) shatters. Yumi's hand is mildly cut (but no blood) and Sissi wisely backs down. Somewhat subverted in that Yumi ''wasn't'' actually responsible for breaking the cup; XANA has been testing sonic vibrations to eventually knock down the school. Yumi is as surprised as Sissi when the cup breaking occurs.

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'': SpongeBob does this in "Can You Spare a Dime", when he starts getting sick of Squidward's demands and laziness. Being a cartoon sponge, the broken glass is never touched on after it happens.

 

* During the making of [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]]' epic "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", band member Steve Hackett was reportedly so tense that he succeeded in this, severing a tendon in his thumb in the process.

* One of the challenges in designing prosthetic hands and grippers is avoiding this trope. It's funny when your manipulator's force feedback sensors fail and you squish a glass. It would be less funny if you were shaking someone's hand at the time.