Take Up My Sword/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A Hero is killed and someone else must take his place.

  • Straight: Jack dies saving his little sister Jill from murderers and Jill feels she must avenge him somehow.
  • Exaggerated: Jill takes up his word, his way of speaking, his mannerisms, starts wearing the same clothes, listen to the same music, and insists she be called Jack.
  • Justified: Jack is part of a line of heroes and Jill is the next one in line. Hence, Jill was always meant to take Jack's place after he died.
  • Inverted: Jack dies. Jill must therefore join the line of villains that killed him.
  • Subverted: Jack is killed by murderers. Jill feels no obligation to avenge him.
    • Jack dies, Jill takes up sword, then Jack comes Back From the Dead and takes the sword back.
  • Double Subverted: ...That is, until she's trained for a while. After training, she goes out to avenge him.
  • Parodied: Every hero in the line got their job by watching the previous one get killed.
    • Jack falls over in MacDonald's. Jill robs him of his sword and sets on for vengeance against the Evil Clown.
  • Deconstructed: Jill feels obligated to avenge Jack but has no training to back her up or natural skill with which to fight. She gets slaughtered as soon as she starts fighting.
  • Reconstructed: After getting her ass kicked enough times, she starts training and becomes badass enough to handle things on her own.
  • Zig Zagged: Jack is killed by murderers, but Jill feels no obligation to avenge him...until she's trained. But she was going to train anyway - his death wasn't a motivating factor in her desire for training.
  • Averted: Jack dies in an accident, and no one can be blamed. She mourns and lives on normally.
  • Enforced: "I've run out of ideas for Jack-centric episodes. Let's kill him off and allow a newer hero to take over."
  • Lampshaded: "No! Jack is dead! Now Jill must take up his sword."
  • Invoked: Jack is a Decoy Protagonist whose role as a protector to Jill hinders her as much as helps her. He knows that the only way for her to reach her full potential is for him to die.
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

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