Stating the Simple Solution: Difference between revisions

There is a problem. A [[Rule of Drama|dramatic]], [[Complexity Addiction|elaborate]], and dangerous (and sometimes, pretty darn cool) solution is proposed to solve it. Then some other jerk points out that a much simpler [[Mundane Solution]] exists.

 

 

See also [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?]] and [[Lampshade Hanging]]. If someone actually ''does'' the simple solution, [[Reality Ensues]].

{{examples}}

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* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', Shishio and Kenshin are having their climactic duel. Both of them are severely injured and weakened, and Shishio's 15 minute-time limit for fighting has elapsed. Yumi (Shishio's lover) and Houji (Shishio's right-hand man) are watching, and Houji has a rifle. Yumi asks Houji why he just doesn't shoot Kenshin... and Houji ''[[What an Idiot!|throws his gun away]]'', on the grounds of his belief that Lord Shishio will win. {{spoiler|He doesn't.}}

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' offers a non-fatal version: when Lelouch learns that his best friend is the pilot of the [[Humongous Mecha]] that's thwarted him at every turn, his partner C.C. asks why he doesn't just use his [[Compelling Voice|Geass]] to make said friend join [[La Résistance]]. She guesses that it's either pride, sentimentality, or distaste for robbing another person of their free will; Lelouch responds that it's all three.

* At the climax of the [[Non-Indicative First Episode]] (filming a movie) of ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', Nagato confronts Itsuki, who refuses to join forces with her. Nagato's shoulder-mounted ''cat'' suddenly starts ''talking'', asking why she doesn't just use ''mind control'' on the guy already, since judging by what she's shown so far it ought to be well within her powers. But that's not in the script, so after a scramble to ''shut him up'' Nagato has her final battle with Mikuru.

* Practically said verbatim in ''[[Gantz]]''. Some of the recruits have difficulty being willing to do what they're tasked with, and pay the price for it.

{{quote|'''Ling:''' Haven't you heard the saying, "if you want to shoot the leader, first aim for his horse"?!

'''Edward:''' If you want to shoot the leader, then you should just SHOOT HIM!!

* A variant appears in ''[[Bleach]]''. During the beginning of the Hueco Mundo arc, the [[Big Bad]] sends [[The Dragon|one of his minions, Ulquiorra]], to Earth to antagonize [[The Hero|Ichigo]] and test his [[Power Level]]. After slapping Ichigo around a bit and leaving him in the dust, Ulquiorra reports back to the [[Big Bad]] that Ichigo is [[Not Worth Killing]]. Another of the [[Big Bad]]'s minions, [[Blood Knight|Grimmjow]], gets annoyed and demands they just kill him anyway to be sure. Grimmjow eventually goes over his boss' head and hunts down Ichigo on his own, but the [[Big Bad]] reins him in before he can finish him off: Turns out the [[Big Bad]] had a secret plan in store for the hero.

 

* An early story of ''[[ROM Spaceknight]]'' reverses this trope: After Rom is captured alive by some Dire Wraith scientists, they try to use the hero as a test subject. The [[Big Bad]] who commands them will have none of this and orders Rom killed as he is way too dangerous to keep alive. He still escapes in time, though.

{{quote|'''Mr. Dreadspawn:''' Now you have the hero in your power at last. What do you do, Doctor Devastation?

'''Doctor Devastation:''' Uhh... Shoot him?

* In the Mickey Mouse comic ''Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot'', Mickey is frequently captured by a masked villain named The Phantom Blot. The Phantom Blot tries to dispose of him with various complicated death traps, which Mickey always manages to escape from. When the Phantom Blot is finally captured, Mickey asks him why the Phantom Blot didn't just kill him instead of using the death traps. The Phantom Blot than reveals he cannot stand to watch somebody die, and therefore used the death traps so he wouldn't be around when Mickey died.

* [[Cold Sniper|Deadshot's]] proposed solution to pretty much every [[Suicide Squad]] mission. Even when it [[Shoot the Hostage|isn't an assassination.]] The Wall usually relegates it to "plan B".

 

== Fan Works ==

* Spoofed in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'' video "Marik's Council of Doom": when Bakura suggests bypassing the whole "challenging Yugi to a children's card game" shtick and just killing him, Marik replies that wouldn't work since [[4Kids! Entertainment|4Kids]] would simply [[Macekre|censor it]]. The abridged series just does this a ''lot''.

{{quote|'''Joey:''' What do you people want from me?

'''Bandit Keith:''' Shut the hell up! }}

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* On ''[[Song of the South]]'', Br'er Bear points out that Br'er Fox's plans to catch Br'er Rabbit never work and suggests that they just "knock his head clean off."

{{quote|'''Yzma:''' I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless little flea. Then, I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself. And when it arrives (Evil Laugh), I'LL SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!...Or, [[Completely Missing the Point|to save on postage]], I could just poison him.}}

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* ''[[Austin Powers]]'': Scott Evil expresses his impatience with the means his father, [[Card-Carrying Villain|Dr. Evil]], uses to attempt to dispose of Austin Powers:

'''[[Contractual Genre Blindness|Dr. Evil]]:''' Scott, you just don't ''get it'', do ya? You ''don't''. }}

* Used in the film ''[[Puma Man]]''; the [[Big Bad]] uses [[Mind Control]] to make the hero jump to his death, instead of going with his [[Mooks]] more practical suggestion of just having one of them shoot him, to make it look like death from natural causes. In all fairness, he had no way of knowing that [[The Obi-Wan]] stopped the suicide and taught the hero how to enter a death-like trance in order to deceive the villains. Which would have all been great had it not been for the fact that Vadhino tells us at one point that thanks to the mask, Kobras has total control over the police. So... why did it have to look like an accident again?

* In ''[[Star Wars]]: Attack of the Clones'', Count Dooku [[Gladiator Games|puts the heroes into an arena, to be killed by large monsters]]. This, of course, doesn't work, and Viceroy Gunray demands their execution by shooting. Dooku actually ''listens'', but [[The Cavalry]] arrives before anything can be done about it.

* In ''[[Ip Man]]'', Colonel Sato crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] for {{spoiler|shooting Master Liu after his three-on-one fight goes awry}} and afterward keeps asking to Just Shoot the title hero, but keeps getting prevented from doing so by the more honourable General Miura.

{{quote|"Why don't he just shoot him?"

"We haven't had bullets since '57!" }}

** There's also the scene where Two-Face fails at immolating Batman, and decides to simply shoot him with a rather large gun. It would have worked if 1) Two-Face had not missed with the first shot and 2) Dick Grayson hadn't been there to rescue Batman from the resulting rubble.

{{quote|'''Two-Face:''' No more riddles, no more curtains one and two! Just plain curtains!}}

* In ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo (film)|The Count of Monte Cristo]]'', ever-practical Jacopo asks this question of Edmond Dantes in response to hearing his plan to slowly destroy his enemies:

{{quote|'''Jacopo:''' Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris -- bam, bam, bam, bam -- I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?}}

* ''[[XXX]]: State of the Union'' has Darius Stone knock out instead of kill Charlie, the woman who framed him for murder. His superior, Gibbons, says that he should have killed her. Later on, Stone is held at gunpoint by Charlie, only for Gibbons to shoot her. He reiterates, "I told you to kill that bitch."

* As with ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]'' movie, in ''[[Van Helsing]]'', we have the vampire bride Aleera who constantly taunts and plays around with Anna but never gets around to actually killing her. When she finally has her cornered, Anna is thrown a stake by Carl and instantly stakes Aleera on the spot. Telling her (as a [[Shout-Out]] to the above movie) "If you're going to kill someone, kill them! Don't stand there talking about it!"

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[Huckleberry Finn]]'', Tom denounces Huck's plan to {{spoiler|liberate Jim from captivity by unlocking the shed's door and escaping by night}} as too simple and lacking flair, substituting it with an incredibly dangerous and over the top one instead.

* Averted in the ''[[Fu Manchu]]'' novels, where no-one ever questions Fu Manchu's use of ridiculously exotic murder plots, probably because, except when targeting the heroes, they usually work.

* Proof that this always has been and always will be an essential part of the [[Superhero]] formula: In ''The Elusive Pimpernel'', one of Baroness Orczy's sequels to the [[Superhero]] [[Trope Codifier]] ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (novel)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'', while Chauvelin is practically orgasming over his overly-complicated plans to make the Scarlet Pimpernel suffer an intricate [[Fate Worse Than Death]], his assigned [[Number Two]] Collot d'Herbois suggests they just shoot him.

{{quote|"Collot d'Herbois, incredulous, half-contemptuous, did not altogether approve of these schemes, which seemed to him wild and uncanny; he liked the direct simplicity of a summary trial, of the guillotine, or of his own well stage-managed 'Noyades'. He did not feel that any ridicule or dishonour would necessarily paralyse a man in his efforts at intrigue, and would have liked to set Chauvelin's authority aside, to behead the woman upstairs and then to take his chance of capturing the man later on."}}

* In ''[[Inheritance Cycle|Eragon]]'', the titular character is told by [[The Obi-Wan|Brom]] that the reason why magic users don't do this is because the recipient of the attack always has just enough time to get in a similar attack before they croak; thus a kind of unwritten rule between magical duelists is that they have to bend the enemy's mind to their will before the finishing blow.

* In the ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''Blood Pact'', {{spoiler|Eyl finally has Gaunt and Mabbon at his mercy and starts gloating. Mabbon tells Eyl that he should have just fired. By failing to do so, Eyl gets knocked away by Gaunt, then has his head ventilated by Larkin.}}

** In the novel ''Summer Knight'', [[The Dragon]] notes that he had suggested just killing Harry several times during the course of the book (since this would have ruined the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Batman Gambit]], the [[Big Bad]] didn't listen). The trope is then inverted when the [[Big Bad]] immediately wants to kill Harry once [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|He Has Outlived His Usefulness]], but [[The Mole]] points out that just killing him would expose them to Harry's [[A Plague on Both Your Houses|Dying Curse]]. This leads to them leaving Harry to [[Quicksand Sucks|drown in magical quicksand]] and escape while he's busy drowning. {{spoiler|Which was [[The Mole]]'s plan all along, [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|as she was planning to betray]] the [[Big Bad]].}}

** This happens again in the climax of ''Dead Beat'', when the [[Big Bad]]'s advisor recommends he kill Harry. The [[Big Bad]] refuses, {{spoiler|because Harry's Death Curse would ruin the spell he's currently trying to control. As he learns to his misfortune scant minutes later, being knocked out from behind by a freed Harry has a just as bad an effect.}}

 

== Live-Action TV ==

'''Todd''': [[Deadpan Snarker|Naturally.]] }}

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''

* In the ''[[CSI]]'' episode "Unshockable", when discussing {{spoiler|how a victim was poisoned with Sarin when already knocked out}}, Sara asks:

{{quote|"Why didn't he just shoot him?"}}

* Subverted in ''[[Criminal Minds]]''. Being a show about profiling, if the killer chose a bizarre method of execution, there's probably a reason.

* [[Red Dwarf|"Or we could use the teleporter."]]

 

== Myths & Religion ==

* [[Norse Mythology]] tells that, when the gods had bound [[Big Badass Wolf|Fenrir]] so he would be unable to roam free, Loki apparently asked the other gods why they simply didn't kill it now that it was bound, knowing that a prophecy foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin. The gods were reluctant to do so because they didn't want to stain the holy place he was bound in with the wolf's blood (and letting it go first was certainly not an option).

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Used by [[The Hero|Guybrush]] in ''[[Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge]]: LeChuck's Revenge'' after LeChuck captures Guybrush, ties him and Wally up into an extremely elaborate torture device, and explains his plan to have both of them killed. When Guybrush asks why LeChuck didn't shoot him as soon as he came in, he responds: [[Medium Awareness|"Because we had an extra disk."]]

* In ''[[Fate/stay night]]'''s Heaven's Feel scenario, True Assassin points out to his master that the easy and pragmatic thing would probably be to have him kill Shirou and Rin, who're running around like headless chickens desperately trying to find a way to defeat the Shadow that's eating half the town. Said master, who is an utter sadist, replies that it's more fun to do nothing, watch them fail, and have the Shadow kill them.

** [[Evil Is Not a Toy|This comes back to bite Zouken in the ass]] when {{spoiler|the Shadow, [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|which is Sakura]], kills him and True Assassin.}}

* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in ''[[Metal Gear|Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' during the fight with Volgin. After the battle stops going his way, he looks up at Ocelot and orders him to shoot Snake. Ocelot replies with, "I'm afraid I can't do that." Then tells him, "Fight like a man, Volgin."

* In ''[[Commander Keen]] 4: Secret of the Oracle'', Lampshaded when Keen is surprised that the Gnostic Elders weren't killed instead of just kidnapped. The council page immediately handwaves this by telling him that the elders are immortal.

* ''[[Double Switch]]'': At the end of the game, Lyle has {{spoiler|Eddie}} at his mercy, and he asks everyone what should be done with the guy. Brutus says "Just nail him!" However, Lyle ends up activating a trap that sends {{spoiler|Eddie}} flying around a couple of times, and then through a [[Trap Door]], supposedly sending him back to the basement.

* ''[[Portal 2]]'': In the end, {{spoiler|1=GLaDOS states that she's been ignoring the simple solution of how to get rid of Chell: just let her go. ''Killing'' Chell is very difficult and causes GLaDOS no end of problems... so why not just give Chell what she wants and let her go? Everyone's happy that way.}}

* In a side conversation in ''[[Persona 2]] Innocent Sin'', the main characters discuss a few potential "simple solutions" to the current mess and decide they probably won't work; tracking down Joker by summoning him again won't work because he could simply choose not to appear, and trying to take advantage of the fact that rumors are coming true by starting a rumor that Joker is easy to defeat won't work because people wouldn't spread a rumor like that.

 

== Web Animation ==

* The second [[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad Email]] is someone asking Strong Bad that if he hates [[Rouge Angles of Satin|"Homsar"]] so much, why doesn't he just kill him? Strong Bad responds that he is utterly right and [[Anvil on Head|dumps a "Heavy Lourde"]] at a newly invented character called Homsar (who did not exist up to this point and had little to no relation to Strong Bad's actual nemesis "Homestar"). Homsar would later prove to be [[Not Quite Dead]] and became an ongoing [[Easter Egg]] and [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] of the series.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Happens a couple times in the webcomic ''[[MAG-ISA]]''.

* ''[[Darths and Droids]]'': [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0276.html This] strip and yes, a link to this page. May the Force preserve us, we're stuck in an infinite loop!:

{{quote|'''Boba Fett:''' ''(to Jango)'' Why couldn't you just shoot him?

* ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'': Both averted and lampshaded when Dr. Nefarious, embarrassed by his evil plan's failure, says he'd rather just shoot Shadehawk. Shadehawk is actually PROUD of him.

* [http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=526#comic This] ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' comic [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]].

** Of course, the reason Macgyver never does that in [[MacGyver|the show]] was because he [[Doesn't Like Guns]] and [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|doesn't want to kill anyone]].

* Inverted in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', in which the evil villain is talked into ''not'' just shooting the hero and instead using an overly complex and silly [[Death Trap]] as an interrogation method.

* Discussed in the "[[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|Ask Vector Prime a Question]]" section of the ''[[Insecticomics]]'' site; Vector Prime, a [[Physical God]], ''could'' have destroyed Megatron and save all of reality rather easily in ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]''... But he states that if he did, the villain's fangirls would kill him. Later, he claims that [[Executive Meddling]] prevented him from just saving the world in a single episode, lamenting the fact that he could have spent the rest of the series on a beach getting a foot massage from a supermodel.

* ''[[Bob and George]]'': [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/041022c "Why don't you just blast me?"]

* ''[[Awkward Zombie]]'': [[Professor Layton]] refuses to do anything unless [http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=091911 it's roundabout, elaborate and involves as many matchsticks as possible.]

 

== Web Original ==

* In the [[Fanfic]] ''[http://www.improfanfic.com/dhh/ Dark Heart High]'', a shojo-style parody of evil overlords that deliberately seeks out tropes to adopt and cherish, a class for aspiring supervillains is asked what they'd do when they had their nemesis at their mercy. After listening to the litany of death traps and tortures of her classmates' answers, protagonist Yuki fumbles for a moment, then shrugs and says, "I'd just shoot him." Her teacher is quite impressed.

* ''[[Cracked.com]]'' has a list of [http://www.cracked.com/article_16848_6-most-pointlessly-elaborate-movie-murder-plots.html The 6 Most Pointlessly Elaborate Movie Murder Plots]. After going through each plot the alternative they suggest is a much simpler plan that always ends with shooting their target in the face.

* In ''[[Darwin's Soldiers]]: Scrodinger's Prisoners'', Dr. Shelton and a soldier have to get through a room with an angry doctor. The soldier suggests this as an option {{spoiler|Turns out that's pretty much what they do.}}

* [[The Spoony Experiment]]:

** When Original!Spoony shows up intending to take back his show from Clone!Spoony:

** Clone!Spoony then reveals he's reviewing ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' prompting Original!Spoony to shoot himself and change back into a [[Blackest Night|Black Lantern]]. Yeah, it's complicated.

* Lampshaded in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXtGs6_CDrs&feature=feedf this video,] starring [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Gun Man.]]

 

== Western Animation ==

* A heroic example in ''[[Beast Wars]]'': After Optimus Primal {{spoiler|took the Spark of Optimus Prime into his body to thwart Megatron's assassination attempt}} Megatron came into the Ark with Inferno to finish the job. Despite {{spoiler|Prime's spark}} giving Primal the size, as well as the physical and ''fire'' power of a large Autobot, he hesitates to attack since he might alter history. Regardless, after Megatron and Optimus argue a bit, Rattrap gets fed up and asks:

{{quote|'''Rattrap:''' Oh for bootin' up cold!! Will ya just ''shoot'' 'im?}}

* ''[[The Zeta Project]]'', which is ''also'' part of the DCAU, actually went out of its way to explain why they didn't shoot Zeta. Apparently the writers were aware this trope was being over used, so the first episode of the series proper has Bennett explaining two things: firstly, he's a very expensive robot assassin they cannot afford to rebuild, and secondly, he's an assassin and too much violence could trigger violence in retaliation. The possibility of bystanders being hit by stray bullets is addressed later on, as is the general concept of civilian death and crossfire damage.

** And then they go ahead and build ''another'' assassin robot to capture or destroy Zeta, who immediately starts causing tons of destruction in public areas. So much for that explanation.

** Shego has often espoused her frustration with Drakken's [[Genre Blindness]] since the first season: After being ordered to tie Kim and Ron to lightning rods meant to eventually fry them by way of an oncoming electrical storm, Shego remarks: "I prefer the 'direct approach', but [[Harmless Villain|you know Drakken....]]"

* In several episodes of ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' (as well as in some early issues of the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Archie Sonic comic]]), Robotnik has Sonic at his mercy, and Sniveley asks why Robotnik doesn't just roboticize him. Snively also has a habit of questioning Robotnik's more elaborate plots.

* ''[[South Park]]'': Knowing Cartman's [[Instant AI, Just Add Water|trapper keeper]] will take over the world...

{{quote|'''Bill Cosby (robot):''' ''(drawing a gun)'' Well, that does it!

{{quote|'''Edd:''' We could just go to our house, Eddy...

'''Eddy:''' What? And ruin the plot? }}

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]