Line #74 Main/TheGunfighterWannabe


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7	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/an_american_tail_fievel_goes_west.jpg]]]]
8	[[caption-width-right:350:Most real gunfighters don't have corks in their guns.]]
9
10	->'''Hilario''': Very young, and very proud.\
11	'''Chris''': Well, the graveyards are full of boys who were very young, and very proud.
12	-->-- ''[[Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960 The Magnificent Seven]]''
13
14	This character has the IJustWantToBeSpecial attitude, but the kind of "special" he wants to be is a gunfighter. What distinguishes the Wannabe from the YoungGun is that the latter usually just needs some training/experience/maturity to get up to speed, whereas the Wannabe lacks the talent or temperament to succeed as TheGunslinger.
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16	He may have plinked cans in the backyard, and practiced his fancy draw in the mirror, but the Wannabe doesn't have the speed and accuracy he thinks he does. And he's going to challenge a real gunfighter just as soon as he gets up the nerve. This will not end well.
17
18	The Gunfighter Wannabe's storyline usually ends in one of three ways, with a couple of rarer variants:
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20	# The protagonist manages to set up a situation that shows the Wannabe that he's not ready for the gunfighter lifestyle, and the Wannabe gives up the idea...at least for now. This is suited for lighter-hearted stories, or ones on the idealistic end of the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Sliding Scale]].
21	# The Wannabe challenges a gunfighter and winds up dead or severely injured. Most [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]] stories are littered with these unfortunates in the backstory.
22	# By some fluke or a cheat, the Wannabe actually outshoots a gunfighter...and only then realizes that now, every Wannabe in the territory packing heat and looking to make a name for himself will be gunning for ''him.'' Welcome to hell, kid...
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24	A common variant of this is the NormalFishInATinyPond: sometimes the Wannabe ''is'' the fastest gun around, among the rather small group of people that he knows, and thinks he's really hot stuff, until a ''real'' gunfighter comes along.
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26	In a rarer scenario, The Gunfighter Wannabe challenges someone who he thinks is TheGunslinger but isn't. So the Wannabe ends up killing some {{Cowboy}} or CitySlicker, and is promptly branded an {{Outlaw}} -- but discovers that he lacks the ''cojones'' for banditry. This version of the storyline usually ends with the other bandits killing or abandoning him. Occasionally this results in a HeelFaceTurn, but since RedemptionEqualsDeath, it usually doesn't end well.
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28	Other variations include the Wannabe being a hanger-on in an Outlaw band, only to learn that this isn't what he wants -- usually when his supposed TrueCompanions abandon him (with a broken leg or something), and then the hero rescues him.
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30	For similar characters outside the {{Western}} genre, consult the general HeroicWannabe page. Note that this character usually does not [[BeeBeeGun wanna bee]].
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32	----
33	!!Examples:
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35	[[foldercontrol]]
36
37	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
38	* Many a mook in ''Anime/BlackLagoon'' falls under this trope, with fatal consequences for them. Most notable is [[TooDumbToLive Chaka]]. He's obsessed with how awesome [[RevolversAreJustBetter his revolver is]] and immediately tries talking tough to [[ActionGirl Revy]] as soon as he meets her. He doesn't get better, though she's not the one who ultimately ends him. [[spoiler:It's Ginji, who relieves him of both his gun and his hands before sending him into a pool to drown]].
39	* Played with in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', where a mook who thinks himself a master of the Hokuto Shinken tries to use his "Instant Kill" technique on Kenshiro, the principal badass and real master of the style in the series, and dies hilariously.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Comic Books]]
43	* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': Luke ends up helping a young man with atrocious aim (as in, even standing directly behind him is no guarantee of safety) look like a tough gunfighter. He ends up in a fight with an infamous bandit and kills him with a completely random ricochet, leading to other bandits avoiding the town based solely on his reputation.
44	* The Ultimate Nullifier in ''ComicBook/{{Vengeance}}'', a rookie hero dressed in an all-white version of Captain America's costume (sans mask because he's just too damn pretty) and wielding two PowerNullifier pistols that he spins frequently. In his mind, he ''is'' the modern heroic ideal.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
48	* Parodied in one ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon, where the defeated reads out outcome #3 nearly word-for-word. Except that this was a ''Ping Pong match.''
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
52	* Downplayed in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII''. Marty turns out to be a very good shot and eagerly accepts "Mad Dog" Tannen's challenge to a showdown. He already knows he doesn't have the stomach for killing, but seeing the photograph of Doc's headstone change from "Emmett Brown" into "Creator/ClintEastwood" (the psuedonym Marty has been using) gives him the reality check that he's as good as dead if he goes up against an experienced outlaw like Tannen in a duel. He ultimately decides to face Tannen on his own terms, with [[Film/AFistfulOfDollars a bright idea]] he got from the ''real'' Clint Eastwood.
53	* Jim AKA The Waco Kid, (a RetiredBadass from ''Film/BlazingSaddles'') recalls encountering a lot of these types back when he was the FastestGunInTheWest and how "it got so that every pissant prairie punk who thought he could shoot a gun would ride into town to try out The Waco Kid", including the one that sent him into his HeroicBSOD: a six year old kid with a revolver. ([[CrossesTheLineTwice Who promptly shot Jim in the ass]] [[SatireParodyPastiche when he threw down his guns and walked away]]).
54	* In ''Film/CurseOfTheUndead'', Tim Carter is a young hothead who straps on his guns to take revenge on the man he believes murdered his father. Unfortunately his mouth is faster than his draw.
55	* Brockie Drummond in ''Film/FortyGuns'' likes to think he is good with a gun, but his only successes come from shooting from ambush. In his first attempt to face down Griff in a showdown, he balks and lets Griff get close enough to [[PistolWhipping pistol whip]] him. In his second showdown with Griff, [[spoiler:Griff shoots him dead]].
56	* Dealing with Wannabes is a major theme of ''Film/TheGunfighter''. [[spoiler:It starts with scenario 2, then has scenario 1, and finishes with number 3.]]
57	* ''Film/IShotJesseJames'': A type 1 version appears here, taking shots at Robert Ford from a distance before giving up because he ran out of ammo. He admits that he only did it because he wants the reputation of killing the man who killed UsefulNotes/JesseJames, and Bob is understandably angry. [[PetTheDog He lets the boy go, however,]] but not before warning him to never do it again.
58	* In ''Film/TheIsland1980'', Justin obsessed with firearms and even emotionally blackmails his father into buying him one, despite the obvious discomfort that Maynard (who is a [[DadTheVeteran veteran]] of UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar) has with the idea of his son owning a gun. When forcibly recruited into the pirates, he sees this as opportunity to live out his gunslinger fantasies. He is actually an excellent shot, but starts to crack under pressure after he kills his first man.
59	* Kid Blue from ''Film/{{Looper}}'' is a small-time street thug who clearly watched too many westerns as a kid and now tries ([[IneffectualSympatheticVillain very ineptly]]) to act the part of the cool, Creator/ClintEastwood-esque gunslinger. He wields a fancy, old-fashioned revolver that he [[RecklessGunUsage twirls around like a 5-year-old messing with their dad's gun]] and has apparently shot himself in the foot by accident at least once.
60	* ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960'' has Chico, the young hotshot who realizes in the end he is cut out to be a farmer, not a gunfighter.
61	--> '''Hilario:''' He is very young and very proud.\
62	'''Chris''': The graveyards are full of boys who were very young and very proud.
63	* ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven2016'': Earl, a.k.a. '[[TheTropeKid the Two Gun Kid]]', is a gunfighter wannabe who challenges Faraday to a gunfight early in the film. Faraday [[EarAche shoots off his ear]] to teach him a lesson.
64	* Billy Valance in ''Film/MoreDeadThanAlive''. A trick shot artist in Ruffalo's traveling shooting show, Billy believes that he is great gunslinger, but has never been in a real gunfight. Cain keeps showing him up by demonstrating that things are different when the target can shoot back: such as slapping him in the face before he can draw his gun.
65	* Marston in ''Film/QuigleyDownUnder'' is a Big Fish in a Small Pond. He ''thinks'' he's a fast gun, on his cattle station in the Australian Outback, but at the time the movie starts he has never met an actual gunslinger. [[spoiler:Sure enough, he's not as fast as Quigley.]]
66	* Ron Howard's character in ''Film/TheShootist'' is type 1.
67	* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' has a dark example of Type 1 in the Schofield Kid. He's a jumped-up little hanger-on who brags about how he's killed five men with the gun he takes his namesake from (it's all but stated he gave himself the nickname). [[spoiler:He can't see or shoot for shit, and he has never killed anyone before. When he kills the cowboy Quick Mike [[CampingACrapper unarmed in the outhouse]], the boy later skips town, tearfully swearing to never pick up a gun again. In a scene that never made the final film, it is eventually revealed the Kid couldn't live with the shame and [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]].]]
68	* R.L. Davis in ''Film/ValdezIsComing''. He fancies himself as a big-time hired gun, and seems fairly accurate when shooting at a distance, but goes to pieces when he gets in a real gunfight with Valdez, and loses his nerve completely after he is wounded.
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71	[[folder:Literature]]
72	* ''Literature/AlongTheScenicRoute'' by Creator/HarlanEllison plays with variant 3, adding the extra Ellison sweetness of the dueling taking place between armed cars on the highways; all entirely government sanctioned, and unavoidable if you want to use the highways.
73	* The short story "The Conqueror" by Creator/RichardMatheson plays with this. [[spoiler: It starts as Type 3, only the kid is just plain ambushed by the friends of the men he killed and shot to pieces. And then we find out that he may just have been a PsychopathicManchild who was planning to kill his way across the plains as the baddest gunfighter ever.]]
74	* ''Literature/{{Sackett}}'' by Creator/LouisLAmour has one of the hanger-on type of gunfighter wannabe.
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76
77	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
78	* ''Series/DeadMansGun'': "The Bounty Hunter" presents an example who is older than most. Middle-aged shopkeeper Raymond Jakes is gripped with ennui and harbours fantasies of becoming a BountyHunter. When the Dead Man's Gun finds its way into his possession, he decides to make his fantasy a reality, over the objections of his wife.
79	* Played with on ''Series/{{Justified}}''. US Marshal Raylan Givens wears a cowboy hat and has a well deserved reputation as a gunslinger. A small time thug becomes fascinated with Raylan and starts imagining himself facing off against the marshal in duel. He practices his QuickDraw and even ropes in his partner into doing mock duels with him. The partner gets tired of this and decides that he would rather not split the money from their kidnapping scheme. As the wannabe is getting ready to face Raylan, [[spoiler: the partner shoots him dead. The partner than gets involved in a gunfight with Raylan who kills him]].
80	** Raylan meets several more through the course of the show, but they all end up being Type 2.
81	** Danny Crowe is actually a knife variant. He prides himself on his knife skills and is working up his courage to test the '21 foot rule' (supposedly if a gun fighter and a knife fighter are separated by less than 21 feet, the knife fighter can run in and kill the gun fighter before the later has time to draw and fire) against an experienced gunfighter. The first time he chickens out, the second time he is interrupted when a car hits him and the third time [[spoiler: he trips and stabs himself to death]].
82	* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': In the fifth episode, the Mando is roped into helping a wannabe bounty hunter who's trying to establish a reputation for himself by [[BullyingADragon taking on a deadly assassin that no other hunter will go near]]. [[spoiler:They succeed... only for the wannabe to learn about Mando's recent falling out with the Guild, deciding that he can turn him in and get an even ''better'' reputation boost. Unsurprisingly, he ends up dead for his troubles.]]
83	* An iconic example in Western television--the genre ''and'' the hemisphere--comes from ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''. In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E3MrDentonOnDoomsday Mr. Denton on Doomsday]]", the washed-up drunkard [[RetiredGunfighter Mr. Denton]] is challenged by a young gunslinger eager to make a name for himself. Thanks to a peddler of [[SnakeOilSalesman remedies and cures of all sorts]], the showdown [[KarmicTwistEnding doesn't play out quite as expected]].
84	* ''Series/{{Whiplash}}'': In "Episode in Bathurst", the son of the town banker starts idolizing the three American gunslingers who have taken over the town and becomes their henchman and tries to emulate them, although he is not very good with a gun. Cobb is able to show him that men who rely on guns are not truly brave.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Music]]
88	* "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" by Music/JohnnyCash.
89	* "Brownsville Girl" by Music/BobDylan uses ''Film/TheGunfighter'' as a central theme, with the narrator trying to figure out if he's TheGunslinger or The Gunfighter Wannabe after all he's been through.
90	* "The Devil's Right Hand" by Music/SteveEarle.
91	* The parody song ''The Ballad of Irving'' (the 142nd-fastest Gun in the West), by Frank Gallop (listen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD8EtvWW8nw here]]). Popularized by repeated airings on the Creator/DrDemento show.
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93
94	[[folder:Video Games]]
95	* In ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'', the training master for the Guns skill deliberately mutilated his hand after killing a Gunfighter Wannabe in a completely one-sided gunfight.
96	* Major Ocelot in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' is a pretty solid YoungGun, being a 20-year-old MAJOR in charge of his own unit who can [[ImprobableAimingSkills easily kill people with ricochet shots]]. Unfortunately when you put him up against [[AlwaysABiggerFish Naked Snake]] it shoves him violently into this trope by comparison, leaving him to be tossed about and take a motorcycle wheel to the face as if he wasn't a threat at all. Snake's [[StealthMentor Stealth Mentoring]] Ocelot a thing or two (such as not using a semi-automatic like a revolver when it jams) is what turns him into the MagnificentBastard he is in later games.
97	** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' a Diamond Dog is one of these, complete with a not-so-QuickDraw. Ocelot gives him a similar lecture about his stance as well as how the engravings of his guns offer no tactical advantage.
98	* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the player runs across a young hotshot wanting to sign up with the mercenaries assaulting Archangel. The player can choose to intervene and demonstrate that the kid is way out of his league, in which case you later receive an e-mail from him thanking you for saving his life. If the player ignores him, he winds up dead.
99	* You fight a number 1 in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' as part of a sidequest. It serves as a TakeThat against 50s-style movie cowboys. The character in question is a runaway actor from a cowboy movie who has become convinced that he has what it takes to become a real gunslinger. He changes his mind and returns to the set after John Marston shoots the gun out of his hand.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Western Animation]]
103	* ComicBook/JonahHex knocks out a Type 2 in the animated short ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseJonahHex''.
104	* The titular character of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' is a Type 3 who wanders into the town of Dirt, and in an attempt to fit in amongst the locals, he boasts coming from a place much worse than Dirt, even claiming that he once killed seven men with only a single bullet. While he has nothing to back him up by this point, this soon changes when he, by dumb luck, manages to kill [[TheDreaded the hawk besieging the town]]. By the end of the movie, he's fully become a proper sheriff and hero, even if he retains some KnowNothingKnowItAll aspects.
105	* [[JiveTurkey Da Samurai]] from ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' is, as his name suggests, a {{Samurai}} take on the archetype (type 1). A flamboyant braggart, he is [[NormalFishInATinyPond not a]] '''[[NormalFishInATinyPond terrible]]''' [[NormalFishInATinyPond fighter]] but thinks he's much hotter stuff than he really is due to never having met anyone able to outmatch him in the small community he lives in. When he meets Jack - who has [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower inhuman physical capacities as a result of his training]] and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu beats the tar out of an evil god on a daily basis]] - he insists on challenging him to a battle. Jack [[CurbStompBattle absolutely humiliates him]] with nothing but a bamboo stick, then saves his life when an army of robotic assassins attacks. [[spoiler:When Da Samurai [[TakingTheBullet proceeds to do the same for Jack]], the latter admits that he at least has the spirit of a samurai.]] In season 5, it turns out [[spoiler:he gave up on his aspirations and now works as a humble bartender.]]
106	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TheGunfighterWannabe