Line #20 PlayingWith/TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled


1	'''Basic Trope''': A character, despite their skills in dealing with a specific type of threat, is killed easily by the threat to demonstrate how serious the threat is.
2	* '''Straight''':
3	** [[OldMaster Bob]], a master warrior who has killed thousands of [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]], is killed by the big bad orc.
4	** Bob the veteran FBIAgent and expert SerialKiller profiler is slain by [[BigBad the Chesapeake Slayer]] at [[SacrificialLion the beginning of the story's climax]], making Bob's apprentice Clarice [[ItsPersonal swear to arrest the Slayer come Hell or high water]].
5	* '''Exaggerated''':
6	** Bob, who trained his whole life to kill the big bad orc, [[CurbStompBattle isn't even noticed by the big bad orc]].
7	** Bob gives a thirty-minute long speech on all the ways to kill an orc before immediately getting his head ripped off by the BigBad orc.
8	** Bob is a hundred-times-condecorated FBIAgent who literally WroteTheBook on criminal profiling Clarice read for her training and is the ArchEnemy of every SerialKiller arrested in America for the last fifty years. The Chesapeake Slayer [[SacrificialLamb kills Bob in the first five minutes of the story]].
9	* '''Downplayed''':
10	** Bob studied about different methods of killing. They would work on the big bad orc were it not for the fact that he got horribly wounded and only just managed to get away with his life.
11	** While Bob may have been "killed easily", he put [[LastStand a downright impressive effort]] compared to everybody else who just got mowed down like grass.
12	** The orcs hired an agile dark elf assassin to take down Bob. Technically not the orcs directly but still something a veteran should probably have encountered at least once.
13	** Bob and the Chesapeake Slayer [[MutualKill kill each other]]. The climax is the battle between their respective apprentices.
14	* '''Justified''':
15	** Bob is only human, and no amount of training could allow him to defeat the big bad orc.
16	** Bob's mentor gave Bob bad advice.
17	** No amount of expertise can protect Bob from random chance; the Orc archers kill him with a random arrow before the battle is even properly joined.
18	** Bob needs prep time, and the twists of the plot deny him that.
19	** Bob is betrayed by CommanderContrarian Jim and caught with his pants down.
20	** Our Orcs Are Different. Bob has a chance against garden variety ''Lord Of The Rings''-style orcs, but against the plot's experimental super-orcs that are essentially necromantic copies of the Incredible Hulk with adamantine-steel skin and fifteen brains for redundancy, well...
21	** The orc ''knows'' about Bob's reputation and intentionally singles him out as the biggest threat to kill first.
22	** The orc uses new tactics or abilities, and Bob simply DidntSeeThatComing.
23	** It's been decades since the last orc raid and [[OldSuperHero Grandpa Bob is way past his prime.]]
24	** Bob's skills are good for taking out a single threat. The threat, unfortunately, picked up an apprentice.
25	** Bob's skills are good for slaying orcs in single combat. Marching right into Mordor (as in "where the Orcs are [[ZergRush legion]]") is asking way too much of him.
26	* '''Inverted''': Bob, for the first time in his life fires a shotgun at an orc and kills it.
27	* '''Subverted''':
28	** Bob's death was simply a ploy to lure the orc into a false sense of victory.
29	** Bob easily kills the big bad orc, having followed his training, and makes a note he could have easily died if he'd slipped up even once.
30	* '''Double Subverted''':
31	** The guy who drew up the strategy that required Bob's sacrifice [[GeneralFailure is not the smartest tactician out there]] and it gets him fragged in the battle that follows.
32	** Bob knowing that orcs eat their victim, poisons himself to poison the orc, but the orc wasn't feeling very good and decides not to eat Bob.
33	* '''Parodied''':
34	** [[LargeHam Bob]], [[RedBaron the Slayer of Orcs]], wearing thick armor and bristling with weapons, enters the field and is shot down by an orc archer in five seconds, before he can finish his speech.
35	** Bob gets KilledMidSentence after rambling on about all of the ways that an orc could kill you quickly.
36	* '''Zig Zagged''': Bob's plan to take the orc with him fails when it turns out that really wasn't an orc.
37	* '''Averted''': Bob, a well trained orc killer never encounters an orc in battle, and doesn't die.
38	* '''Enforced''':
39	** "Let's kill Bob off to make sure that TheHero has to take on the BigBad alone."
40	** The writers are aiming for an "old heroes must make way for the next generation" narrative and are making it happen [[ThePlotReaper by any means necessary]].
41	** The writers need to demonstrate the villain of the tale is a major threat quickly, so they add Bob [[TheWorfEffect to make him a red-shirt kill]].
42	* '''Lampshaded''': "[[MentorOccupationalHazard Why do my mentors always die?]] If they are ''real'' experts, they shouldn't get killed this easily."
43	* '''Implied''': When Harry TheHero arrives in town and asks for directions to Bob's home in the hopes he can provide information on how to deal with the MonsterOfTheWeek, the townsfolk lead him to Bob's cemetery plot.
44	* '''Invoked''':
45	** Bob was brought up as a fighter to amuse the orc, who can normally easily take down any human.
46	** The Orcs know Bob is the real threat, so they make careful plans to assassinate him before he can be of use to the heroes.
47	* '''Exploited''': The orc, knowing that the heroes have the power to defeat him, demonstrates his power against orc-killing Bob to try and scare off the heroes.
48	* '''Defied''':
49	** Bob refuses to go into battle unless he is well guarded, well armed, and completely prepared.
50	** The Orcs decide not to face off against Bob because even if the BigBad insists that they will be able to curb-stomp him with ease and unleash immense terror amongst his allies, TheLancer decides it's best not to find out if Bob may still get lucky.
51	* '''Discussed''': "Let's go for Bob. He's the Orc Slayer. If we kill him, they'll surrender."
52	* '''Conversed''': "We'd better put an exta guard around Bob." "I agree, the orcs will want to kill the Orc Slayer first."
53	* '''Deconstructed''':
54	** While Bob was a skilled orc killer in his prime, he is aware that age is catching up with him and throws himself into battle against as many orcs as he can, hoping to die a fitting, honorable death.
55	** Bob's easy, foolish death is not the "ooh, we are dddooooommmmeeeeddd!" moment the BigBad wanted. Instead, it ridicules both Bob (it was a ''hell'' of an UndignifiedDeath) and the big bad (either because it's a ridiculous way to slay a man or [[ItsPersonal the inevitable promise to avenge Bob is fulfilled faster]]).
56	* '''Reconstructed''': If we train a hundred like Bob, one of them will probably succeed.
57	* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob dies [[DroppedABridgeOnHim so quickly]] and [[UndignifiedDeath in such an ignoble fashion]] that his capacity as a veteran monster slayer is an InformedAbility.
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61	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
62	%%
63	%%* '''Implied''': ???
64	%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???
65	%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

Context PlayingWith / TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled