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Defied Trope
Ira Kane: Snag it and put it in the bucket
Harry Block: Oh, no. I seen this movie; the Black Dude Dies First. You snag it.

Happens when a character knows that a trope is about to happen, either due to being Genre Savvy or because someone is trying to invoke it, and then actively attempts to avert it, subvert it, or invert it.

The character might succeed, or might fail. The point is that the character is attempting to avoid a straight run of the trope.

Compare Reality Ensues (which this may sometimes lead to).

Contrast Invoked Trope, Exploited Trope, Discussed Trope.

Not to be confused with a simple Averted Trope, that has no prompting from any characters.

Examples

    open/close all folders 

     Anime and Manga  
  • Contrasting the invoked Bodyguard Crush in Kaze no Stigma, Kazuma goes out of his way to keep Ayano at a distance and offend her as much as possible so she doesn't get attached to him either. It doesn't really work.
  • Johan Liebert from Monster defies the trope of being Obviously Evil, and on the surface, he seems like a really nice guy.
  • The second season of Princess Tutu is all about the characters defying the roles assigned to them by the writer of the story.
  • At the end of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann A God Am I is deliberately shot down by the potential god-figure himself, who in response to his potential use of power and leadership simply states that he is "just Simon the Digger." And if that trope had not been defied, the Bad Ending from the beginning of the show would have happened.
  • In the second Tiger & Bunny drama CD, Karina assures Barnaby that she has no intention of letting their animosity towards each other become Belligerent Sexual Tension. So far she's proven successful: not only is any attraction between them still absent, they're now competing with each other for Kotetsu's attention.
    Karina: You know those situations where people hate each other's guts at first, but then developing feeling for each other?
    Barnaby: Yeah?
    Karina: That's not going to happen. I'll rip down those Event Flags myself if I have to.
  • Judai of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX says he realizes it's pointless to give a Kirk Summation to Yubel.
    • Also, when Asuka is encouraged to become an Idol Singer, she actively refuses to become one.
  • Rei Kiriyama from 3-gatsu no Lion defies both attempts by his adopted sister Kyoko to manipulate him into losing his professional shogi matches on purpose.
  • Kagome Higurashi from Inu Yasha openly defies Unrequited Tragic Maiden and Love Makes You Evil. When she's told repeteadly by The Baby that her feelings for Inuyasha are completely onesided and she's selfish for even thinking he can love her back, that he'll never love her like he loved Kikyou and that she must pull a Face Heel Turn, she ultimately tells him that yes, she is jealous of Kikyou and she is aware that she'll always important to Inuyasha... but that said circumstances do NOT invalidate HER own feelings, and no one has right to tell her otherwise. And then she rejects the Baby's FHT offer.

     Comic Books  

    Fan Works 

    Film 

    Literature 
  • Done in It's Kind of a Funny Story, where the main character Craig refuses the possibility of heroin, because "If I were doing heroin, then I'd be a depressed teenager on heroin. I didn't need to be that cliché."
  • In Maskerade, once a series of murders begin happening at an opera house, the first thing they do is put extra guards on the giant chandelier, to keep it from being dropped on anybody.
  • The Screwtape Letters plays with, but ultimately defies the Deal with the Devil trope. Screwtape explains that it's fallen out of favor ever since Hell made the strategic switch from promoting Satanism to promoting atheism, which is seen as a safer bet.
  • The Warhammer 40000 novel Grey Knights notes that the Inquisition defies Never Found the Body in the case of Ghargatuloth; they sent the Grey Knight expedition down to Khorion IX instead of simply calling Exterminatus on it because they needed eyes on the ground to see him die.
  • The short story Another End Of The Empire by Tim Pratt features the Evil Overlord Mogrash who is told the following prophecy:
    "A child dwells in the village of Misery Chin, in the mountain provinces to the east. If allowed to grow to manhood, he will take over your empire, overthrow your ways and means, and send you from the halls of your palace forever."
  • In the Myst novel, Atrus comes across one of the infamous D'ni puzzle-locks and tries to decipher it in the standard Myst Only Smart People May Pass fashion. His father Gehn picks up a blunt instrument and smashes it open.
  • Cassandra Truth is defied in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Professor Kirke. When Peter and Susan tell him they think Lucy is lying about discovering a portal to Narnia in the old wardrobe, the professor suspects she's actually telling the truth (after all, he knows quite a lot about Narnia) and convinces them to trust her.

     Live Action TV  
  • Mixing this up a bit with Memetic Badass, there's an LJ icon with Spy Daddy from Alias that reads, "I am five steps ahead of you. I kill you in step four."
  • Buffy stabs Dracula again when he tries to resurrect, and then reminds him she's still there when he tries again.
  • Doctor Who, "Utopia":
    The Master: Now then, Doctor! Ooh! New voice! ... Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat where I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me — I don't think!
  • Hannah Montana: Miley is Genre Savvy enough to check for feet under the stalls before talking about her Secret Identity with Lilly in the ladies' room.
  • Firefly
    • After being defeated, The Dragon declares We Will Meet Again. Mal promptly kicks him into an engine intake.
    • When Mal fought Niska's new Dragon, Zoe tells the crew to stand back because This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself. Mal, who's very badly injured and exhausted (and even died during torture at one point), knowing how poor shape he's in and how much he's struggling, immediately yells that it really isn't, allowing the gang to open fire on his opponent, taking him down and saving Mal's life.
    • When Mal and Zoe are being held for questioning by local authorities, Jayne makes a bid for power, knowing the rest of the gang don't really have the ability to control him without Mal and Zoe there. However, prior to his take-over bid, he was ranting about leaving those idiots behind instead of rescuing them while Simon was patching up his injuries. Guessing that Jayne was serious about taking over, that no-one would be able to control him and that he wouldn't want to rescue Mal and Zoe, Simon pre-empts Jayne's Appeal to Force moment by secretly injecting him with a general anaesthetic instead of a painkiller. When Jayne attempts to take control of ship, he keels over unconscious instead. The rest of the crew (including Mal and Zoe when they learn what happened) are immensely relieved by Simon's foresight.
  • The X-Files: In the Myth Arc episode "Tunguska", Mulder travels to Russia and takes Russian American Alex Krycek with him, defying Language Barrier. Never mind that Krycek is his nemesis and Chew Toy (especially in this episode). He's a former FBI agent who collaborated with the shady secret government organization, but his language skills proved quite useful. He later ratted Mulder out since Krycek had connections to every shady organization on the show.

     Video Games  
  • Left 4 Dead has one of the guys who write the the saferoom graffiti proclaim that "WE ARE THE REAL MONSTERS". The guy underneath him says "No, that's the zombies".
  • Evil Dead: Hail To The King was a straight up Resident Evil clone with an Evil Dead look, including the puzzles (though, thankfully, most were much less obtuse and nonsensical than RE). However, in the latter part of the game, Ash, in a cutscene, reads the plaque on a door. After noting the overly complicated puzzle mechanism required to open it, and just shoots the door open with his boomstick in the game's Crowning Moment of Funny.
  • In Freedom Fighters, you can prevent soviet reinforcements from coming in by blowing up the bridges their armored transport cars cross, and blowing up the helipads supplying assault and transport helicopters.
  • Dragon Age II presents this in the guise of one of the final Take a Third Option choices. A player actively seeking to achieve some sort of compromise between two factions is rewarded with a rather large "boom".
  • In Portal 2, the Final Boss defies Boss Arena Idiocy by studying the recordings of how you defeated the previous boss and deliberately setting up the arena to avoid those same mistakes. The trope is then zig zagged by having the boss make a new set of glaringly obvious mistakes.
    Wheatley: "I took the liberty of watching the tapes of you killing her, and I am not going to make the same mistakes. Four-part plan is this: One, no portal surfaces. Two, start the neurotoxin immediately. Three, bomb-proof shields for me, leading directly into number four: bombs, for throwing at you. You know what, this plan is so good that I'm going to give you a sporting chance and turn off the neurotoxin. I'm joking, of course. Goodbye."
    • And taken further at the end: "PART FIVE! BOOBY TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!"
    • Unfortunately for Wheatley, he failed to defy the final Crowning Moment of Awesome trope: Chell opening a portal right under him, with the other side on the surface of the moon.
  • Belle defies a Sadistic Choice in Kingdom Hearts II. Xaldin kidnaps her and takes the rose that can lift Beast's curse, forcing Beast to choose which he'll give back. Although Beast chooses for Belle to be safe, she elbows Xaldin, saving herself and the rose.
  • Baldur's Gate II: Irenicus: "No, you'll warrant no villain's exposition from me."

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 

     Western Animation  

     Real Life  
  • The United Nations was created to prevent a third World War.

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Deadpan SnarkerAbridged Series TropesDiscussed Trope
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alternative title(s): Defied
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