About: Kill Us Both   Sponge Permalink

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

Sometimes a Big Bad is bigger and badder than expected and the heroes are unable to take him down by conventional means. One of the heroes may get lucky and restrain the villain, either physically or by trapping the villain's malevolent spirit within their own body, but this presents a problem. At any second the villain may break free from the character's control and continue on in his or her rampage. This is especially problematic if the character restraining the villain is the strongest member of the heroes' team; if the best the strongest hero can do is mildly inconvenience the villain for a short time, then the rest of the heroes aren't going to stand much of a chance against the villain once they break free. Sometimes the hero who is doing the restraining will recognize this fact, and

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • Kill Us Both
rdfs:comment
  • Sometimes a Big Bad is bigger and badder than expected and the heroes are unable to take him down by conventional means. One of the heroes may get lucky and restrain the villain, either physically or by trapping the villain's malevolent spirit within their own body, but this presents a problem. At any second the villain may break free from the character's control and continue on in his or her rampage. This is especially problematic if the character restraining the villain is the strongest member of the heroes' team; if the best the strongest hero can do is mildly inconvenience the villain for a short time, then the rest of the heroes aren't going to stand much of a chance against the villain once they break free. Sometimes the hero who is doing the restraining will recognize this fact, and
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:all-the-tro...iPageUsesTemplate
dbkwik:allthetrope...iPageUsesTemplate
abstract
  • Sometimes a Big Bad is bigger and badder than expected and the heroes are unable to take him down by conventional means. One of the heroes may get lucky and restrain the villain, either physically or by trapping the villain's malevolent spirit within their own body, but this presents a problem. At any second the villain may break free from the character's control and continue on in his or her rampage. This is especially problematic if the character restraining the villain is the strongest member of the heroes' team; if the best the strongest hero can do is mildly inconvenience the villain for a short time, then the rest of the heroes aren't going to stand much of a chance against the villain once they break free. Sometimes the hero who is doing the restraining will recognize this fact, and from their mouth will issue forth the ominous phrase which heralds the sad solution to this problem: "Kill us both! Now!" Of course, the phrasing need not be exact, but the general idea remains the same for all examples. This particular brand of Heroic Sacrifice is probably the most poignant and heart-rending of all, since it requires at least one of the heroes to be the instrument of a friend or ally's death. More often than not, the heroes will shrink away from this solution, allowing the villain to escape. In cases like this, the hero who was doing the restraining will often berate the other heroes for not taking the opportunity to end things right then and there. The rest of the team usually won't sweat it, though -- as surely there has to be some other way of defeating the villain that doesn't involve sacrificing one of their own. (If not, expect a Downer Ending to ensue...) If the author is really aiming for a Downer Ending/Tear Jerker and the heroes do decide to pull the trigger, the villain may survive anyway despite the death of the sacrificing hero. This is the cruelest twist that this situation can result in. Note: this trope doesn't extend to villains who use Kill Us Both-like tactics against the good guys, since most villains aren't likely to have much internal conflict when it comes to sacrificing themselves -- or one of their own number -- along with the hero. 'Cuz villains be all heartless and fanatical like that. (Sympathetic villains may qualify for this trope if they do feel some conflict about hurting a member, particularly if there's been some healthy Minion Shipping occuring within their own little group.) A variation is commonly found in Spot the Imposter scenarios, where the Good character will use this to distinguish him/herself from his Evil Twin, who would never be so self-sacrificing. On the other hand, a Genre Savvy villain may use it knowing that that will convince the good characters allies that he is the good twin. Any villain who does this has become Dangerously Genre Savvy. Compare Kill Him Already, Sealed Evil in a Duel. Compare Trial by Friendly Fire where a heroic character reluctantly decides that We Have Reserves. Examples of Kill Us Both include:
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