Villainy Discretion Shot: Difference between revisions

Compare and contrast with [[Bait the Dog]]; the only difference between this trope and that one is that we actually get to see the [[Kick the Dog]] moment, which causes us to reconsider our sympathy for the character.

== Anime and Manga ==

* In the first ''[[Batman (Film)|Batman]]'' movie, only minimal attention is actually paid to the ''dozens'' of people Joker has killed.

* A variant occurs in the Bogart/Bacall noir film, ''[[Key Largo]]''. Bacall's character, one of several people being held by the evil gangster in her own hotel, is being menaced by the gangster. He seems to actually notice for the first time how attractive she is, and so leans forward, bringing his lips to her ear... Cut to their silhouettes on the wall, his lips moving but with no words audible, background music rising--suddenly, she snaps, and slaps him across the face. We never know what was said, of course, but obviously it must've been horrible, and the viewer is basically free to set the perversion meter at just past their own tolerance level.

** Ambiguous ending?

* Justified in ''[[Layer Cake]]''; the protagonist is a cocaine dealer responsible for getting an awful lot of product out onto the streets; but he himself finds the end result of his work to be distasteful, and deliberately steers clear of cocaine users. A more sympathetic example than most, as he it's implied that because of this he's making plans to leave the business behind him.

* Karl Kroenen in ''[[Abe Kroenen]]'' is an assassin who worked for ''Hitler'' before he went to serve Rasputin and whose body count numbers in the dozens if not hundreds (and that doesn't even count people he's killed in battle). However, mentions of his brutalities are brushed off or nervously laughed at.

** In the original ''[[Hellboy (Comic Book)|Hellboy]]'', on the other hand, we get a very indiscreet look at his capabilities.

* In Disney's ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'', of all places, the comedic villain Megavolt is mentioned as having been sent to the electric chair twice. Granted, this is basically a joke about the villain's electrokinetic properties, but it also brings up the [[Unfortunate Implications]] that the most [[Harmless Villain]] on the show is either a multiple murderer, or a child rapist.

** In his origin story, the villain Bushroot actually ''kills two people'', and later their ''dead bodies'' are shown ''onscreen'' being examined by the cops (granted, he cocooned them in vines, but the resulting mass is still clearly man-shaped and clearly dead). He gets the same comedic treatment as the rest of the show's characters.

{{quote| '''Dr. Venture''': ''[talking about the orphan]'' It's not like I used the whole thing!}}

* In Disney's ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'', a lyric in the [[Villain Song]] goes "Worse than the widows and orphans you drowned!"

{{quote| '''Shan Yu:''' How many men does it take to deliver a message? <br />

'''Hun Archer:''' *draws bow* One. }}

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Discretion Shot]]

[[Category:Villainy Discretion Shot]]