Suicide by Cop/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A depressed individual wants to end his/her own life by the hands of another individual.

  • Straight: Bob pulls his gun on Officer Alice, who shoots him with her own gun.
  • Exaggerated: Bob storms an army base, intending to be killed by the base guards.
  • Downplayed: Officer Alice shoots Bob after he pulls a gun on her, but the wounds gravely injure rather than kill him.
  • Justified: Bob wants his heirs to collect his life insurance. Or he's too cowardly to commit suicide himself. Or he (or his religion/moral code) sees suicide as wrong.
  • Inverted: Bob goads the police officer into killing innocent bystanders.
    • Bob shoots the police officer.
    • A depressed cop attempts suicide by gangster.
  • Subverted: Bob can't go through with this method of suicide either.
    • Or Officer Alice uses a taser or pepper spray instead.
  • Double Subverted: Officer Alice sees Bob draw his gun and shoots him before he can put it away.
  • Parodied: Bob tries to commit suicide by mall-cop. He only succeeds in getting banned from the mall.
  • Deconstructed: Officer Alice ends up traumatized when she realizes later that Bob's weapon was fake/unloaded and he needed help.
  • Reconstructed: Officer Alice realizes Bob's intention and escorts him to a hospital for help, where he gets better.
  • Averted: Bob commits suicide at his own hands.

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