About: Hoist by His Own Petard   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

The villain's own weapon or malicious plan is the cause of his downfall and/or death. This could be something as big as a Mad Scientist who creates monsters and/or a Weapon of Mass Destruction getting killed by his own creation, or as small as prankster accidentally setting off his own trap. In media intended for young children, it is often a Death by Irony that releases the hero from the unpleasantness of actually killing their enemy; a more specific type of Self-Disposing Villain. If the Hero is not responsible for the death in any way, it can also be a Karmic Death.

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • Hoist by His Own Petard
rdfs:comment
  • The villain's own weapon or malicious plan is the cause of his downfall and/or death. This could be something as big as a Mad Scientist who creates monsters and/or a Weapon of Mass Destruction getting killed by his own creation, or as small as prankster accidentally setting off his own trap. In media intended for young children, it is often a Death by Irony that releases the hero from the unpleasantness of actually killing their enemy; a more specific type of Self-Disposing Villain. If the Hero is not responsible for the death in any way, it can also be a Karmic Death.
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:all-the-tro...iPageUsesTemplate
dbkwik:allthetrope...iPageUsesTemplate
abstract
  • The villain's own weapon or malicious plan is the cause of his downfall and/or death. This could be something as big as a Mad Scientist who creates monsters and/or a Weapon of Mass Destruction getting killed by his own creation, or as small as prankster accidentally setting off his own trap. In media intended for young children, it is often a Death by Irony that releases the hero from the unpleasantness of actually killing their enemy; a more specific type of Self-Disposing Villain. If the Hero is not responsible for the death in any way, it can also be a Karmic Death. A "petard" is an explosive device (basically a bucket full of gunpowder) intended to demolish gates and fortified walls; being too close to the detonating explosive could well toss the engineer into the air. Thus, this term literally means "Blown into the air by one's own bomb" and was first coined by Shakespeare in Hamlet. If an Eldritch Abomination, God of Evil or otherwise supernatural evil entity gets Punched Out by the same powers it gave, you have a Faustian Rebellion in action. If it's an Ancient Conspiracy, Government Conspiracy or other organisation whose Applied Phlebotinum is empowering the one who will bring them down, you have a Phlebotinum Rebel. If it's a Mook, long abused, who finally snaps and turns against him at the last moment, that's when The Dog Bites Back. If it's a Video Game boss whose attacks can be redirected back at them, it's Tactical Suicide Boss. Gone Horribly Right is a sub-trope where a Super Prototype works too well, destroying the person or persons who created it and/or threatening the world/galaxy/universe. Compare Nice Job Fixing It, Villain and Beat Them At Their Own Game (a video game variation on this). Examples of Hoist by His Own Petard include: * Advertising * Anime and Manga * Comic Books * Eastern Animation * Fairy Tales * Fan Fiction * Film * Literature * Live Action TV * Mythology and Religion * Professional Wrestling * Radio * Tabletop Games * Theatre * Toys * Video Games * Web Comics * Web Original * Western Animation * Real Life
Alternative Linked Data Views: ODE     Raw Data in: CXML | CSV | RDF ( N-Triples N3/Turtle JSON XML ) | OData ( Atom JSON ) | Microdata ( JSON HTML) | JSON-LD    About   
This material is Open Knowledge   W3C Semantic Web Technology [RDF Data] Valid XHTML + RDFa
OpenLink Virtuoso version 07.20.3217, on Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu), Standard Edition
Data on this page belongs to its respective rights holders.
Virtuoso Faceted Browser Copyright © 2009-2012 OpenLink Software