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Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him
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alt title(s): Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him; Why Dont You Just Shoot Him; Just Shoot Him 
Who would ever want to do that?
A Stock Phrase used by Genre Savvy minions, Hypercompetent Sidekicks, the viewer, and extreme cases even The Hero, in response to the resident Diabolical Mastermind or Evil Overlord showcasing grade-A Bond Villain Stupidity and breaking out the evil monologue about how the hero now will die slowly and painfully in his overly complicated Death Trap, or get slowly destroyed in said overlord's long and complicated Xanatos Gambit, or being simply thrown in prison for all eternity. The exact words may differ, but as can be divined by the title, the stock phrase usually runs along the lines of just shooting the foe instead of letting him stay alive longer just for the sake of drama.
Praise is rarely given, with the villain usually exploding in a rage, allowing the audience to see their obsessiveness or outright insanity. If the minion is lucky they don't get tossed across the room, beaten to a pulp or tossed in the Shark Pool along with the hero. Rarely do overlords listen; after all if said overlord was Dangerously Genre Savvy enough to take advise like that, he'd likely just be trying to shoot the hero from the get-go. Common responses usually go along the lines of " It's personal" and that the hero " will suffer more this way". " Where's the fun in that?" is a common response as well. And, of course, a Card Carrying Villain who's a Slave To PR has to maintain his Contractual Genre Blindness. Minions just don't understand things like that.
Comparisons and variants: When heroes are doing this, it's Kill Him Already, if the hero objects to being kept hanging by the villain, it's Get It Over With.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- In Rurouni Kenshin: Shishio and Kenshin are having their climactic duel. Both of them are severely injured and weakened, and Shishio's 15 minute-time limit for fighting has elapsed. Yumi (Shishio's lover) and Houji (Shishio's right-hand man) are watching, and Houji has a rifle. Yumi asks Houji why he just doesn't shoot Kenshin... and Houji throws his gun away, on the grounds of his belief that Lord Shishio will win. He doesn't.
- Used in Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series. During an "evil council" of the series' villains, several of them ask why they must always play card games with Yugi instead of just killing him, to which Marik replies "Those *EFF!*tards would just censor it."
- The dub at least handwaved this. Marik acknowledged he could just take the Millenium Puzzle, but the ancient scriptures his family follows dictate he needs to win it in a duel to get its power.
- The abridged series just does this a lot, generally.
Joey: What do you people want from me? Bandit Keith: Your Star Chips, dweeb. I have a score to settle with Pegasus, so Zombie-Boy here is going to beat you in a card game! Joey: ... Why didn't you just take my star chips while I was unconscious? Bandit Keith: Shut the hell up!
- Code Geass offers a non-fatal version: when Lelouch learns that his best friend is the pilot of the Humongous Mecha that's thwarted him at every turn, his partner C.C. asks why he doesn't just use his Geass to make said friend join La Resistance. She guesses that it's either pride, sentimentality, or distaste for robbing another person of their free will; Lelouch responds that it's all three.
- At the climax of the Non Indicative First Episode (filming a movie) of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Nagato confronts Itsuki, who refuses to join forces with her. Nagato's shoulder-mounted cat suddenly starts talking, asking why she doesn't just use mind control on the guy already, since judging by what she's shown so far it ought to be well within her powers. But that's not in the script, so after a scramble to shut him up Nagato has her final battle with Mikuru.
- Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu features a variant of the trope — ("No, you can't just shoot him!") — when Sōsuke is challenged to a no-holds-barred martial arts battle and, after being warned by his opponent not to pull any punches, calmly shoots the guy with a rubber bullet. Once it's explained to him that using a gun isn't allowed, he repeats the performance with his next opponent by gassing him with a tear gas — and when it's further explained to him that he's supposed to be fighting solely hand-to-hand, he downs his third opponent via a Hey Catch with a grenade followed by several Groin Attacks, explaining afterwards that the pin was still in the grenade, and clearly never quite grasping the concept of a "fair fight" at all.
- Practically said verbatim in Gantz. Some of the recruits have difficulty being willing to do what they're tasked with, and pay the price for it.
Comics
- Super villains in general go through this. In a lot of cases it can be rationalized as the villain is so obsessed with bantering with the hero about their innate superiority over the heroes. Other cases could revolve around it being part of a larger plan.
- Surprisingly enough, some of the Batman comics from the Golden Age mention this, each with a justification for why the don't shoot Bats. Props to Bob Kane for recognizing this.
- In the DC Universe, the new Blue Beetle has a race of evil aliens called the Reach as villains, led by the Negotiator. The Negotiator's Dragon's first line is "Why don't we just kill him?" to which the Negotiator replies "No. Not without study."
- This is implicitly justified, BB has a piece of their tech that has turned sentient and now hates them.
- An early story of Rom Space Knight reverses this trope: After Rom is captured alive by some Dire Wraith scientists, they try to use the hero as a test subject. The Big Bad who commands them will have none of this and orders Rom killed as he is way to dangerous to keep alive. He still escapes in time, though.
- Inverted in Dick Tracy when Flattop had abducted Tracy and intended to kill him. His henchmen suggested that he allow them to simply slash Tracy's throat because it would be quieter while being just as effective. However, Flattop overrules them because he prefers to shoot his targets. That proves to be a big mistake when Flattop prepares to do that on a count of three, Tracy jumps the gun and lunges toward the killer to seize his gun and a wild battle ensues where Tracy is able to defeat all the crooks at once even as his comrades in the force are storming the hideout.
Fan Works
- Spoofed in the Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series video "Marik's Council of Doom": when Bakura suggests bypassing the whole "challenging Yugi to a children's card game" shtick and just killing him, Marik replies that wouldn't work since 4Kids would simply censor it.
Films — Animation
- On Song of the South, Br'er Bear points out that Br'er Fox's plans to catch Br'er Rabbit never work and suggests that they just "knock his head clean off".
Films — Live Action
- From the Trope Naming quote above: Scott Evil uses almost exactly these words to express his impatience with the means his father, Dr. Evil, uses to attempt to dispose of Austin Powers:
Dr. Evil: All right guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism. (guard starts dipping mechanism) Dr. Evil: Close the tank! Scott Evil: Wait, aren't you even going to watch them? They could get away! Dr. Evil: No no no, I'm going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying, I'm just gonna assume it all went to plan. What? Scott Evil: I have a gun, in my room, you give me five seconds, I'll get it, I'll come back down here, BOOM, I'll blow their brains out! Dr. Evil: Scott, you just don't get it, do ya? You don't.
- Used in the 1969 political parody Mr. Freedom. After meeting with the Russian secret agent Moujik Man and the Chinese agent Red China Man, he retreats while shouting insults at them and accidentally knocks himself out on a sign.
Red China Man: Perhaps we should put him out of his misery?
Moujik Man: We can't do that!
Red China Man: Why not?
Moujik Man: The most elementary rules of hospitality forbid it.
- Used in the film Puma Man; the Big Bad uses Mind Control to make the hero jump to his death, instead of going with his Mooks more practical suggestion of just having one of them shoot him, to make it look like death from natural causes. In all fairness, he had no way of knowing that The Obi Wan stopped the suicide and taught the hero how to enter a death-like trance in order to deceive the villains. Which would have all been great had it not been for the fact that Vadhino tells us at one point that thanks to the mask, Kobras has total control over the police. So... why did it have to look like an accident again?
- In Attack of the Clones Count Dooku puts the heroes into an arena, to be killed by large monsters. This, of course, doesn't work, and Viceroy Gunray demands their execution by shooting. Dooku actually listens, but the cavalry arrives before anything can be done about it.
- In Ip Man, Colonel Sato crosses the Moral Event Horizon for shooting Master Liu after his three-on-one fight goes awry and afterward keeps asking to Just Shoot the titular hero, but keeps getting prevented from doing so by the more honourable General Miura.
- Justified in Six String Samurai, where the USSR have occupied a post-nuclear America for decades.
"Why don't he just shoot him?"
"We haven't had bullets since '57!"
- Inverted on both sides of the ledger in the otherwise-forgettable movie Batman Forever. Riddler talks Two-Face out of just shooting him by essentially saying taking out a cultural hero will leave him with a guilt trip, so it's better to make him die after mental and physical suffering since no one mourns a pathetic shell of a man. Meanwhile, Batman talks Robin out of wanting to kill Two-Face by saying that it's very possible his anger won't go away by having Two-Face killed off. (Ironically, when Two-Face falls to his death, it's implied that Robin gets his revenge anyway.)
- In The Boys from Brazil, Josef Mengele insists that the Nazi conspirators should just kill nosy busybody investigator Ezra Lieberman. Mengele claims that no one would pay attention to Lieberman's "paltry shreds of evidence", to which his superior replies, "If he dies suddenly, they would."
- Later, Mengele fails to take his own advice, giving the hero a Motive Rant instead of a bullet. He doesn't die — Ezra is a Boring Failure Hero — but he winds up losing his only advantage in the climax.
- In The Count of Monte Cristo, ever-practical Jacopo asks this question of Edmond Dantes in response to hearing his plan to slowly destroy his enemies:
Jacopo: Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris — bam, bam, bam, bam — I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?
- Dantes declines, insisting that his enemies must suffer as he has suffered.
- In Disney's Return to Oz Mombi asks why the Nome King did not turn Dorothy and company into ornaments right away, and instead let them play a near impossible guessing game to get their missing companions back... The Nome King replies that it's more fun. The same excuse is used in the book Ozma of Oz, but in that case the only reason everyone was found in the guessing game was because Billina eavesdropped.
Close Films — Live Action
Literature
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, several of Voldemort's Death Eaters suggest to Voldemort that they should just kill Harry Potter on the spot instead of arming him with a wand and killing him in a mock duel. He doesn't listen (and gets a Deus Ex Machina that foils him for his troubles).
- Voldemort just wanted to prove that he was better than Harry. However, he was too stupid to avoid seeing that the death eather didn't care at all.
- In fact, Voldemort could simply kill Harry various times after he gets his body back, but he always takes too long, allowing Dumbledore and/or the Aurors to arrive, or saves for another occasion.
- Ironically, he eventually does go for the Just Shoot Him. He Got Better though.
- Initially he apparently went for it too. That is how Harry got his scar and Voldemort's problems began, which could possibly justify some of his reliance on more meticulous and planned-out (though just as unlucky) methods in the future.
Live Action TV
- On The X Files, when the Syndicate discusses killing Mulder to keep him from thwarting their plans. Several of the members argue against this, pointing out that such an action would just make Mulder a martyr and draw unecessary attention to Mulder's investigations into the X Files. By leaving him alive and not doing anything, they just make Mulder look like a paranoid Cloudcuckoolander who no one outside of UFO circles will take seriously.
- This became less convincing when Skinner was targeted by the Syndicate. Surely the murder of an Assistant Director of the FBI would attract adverse attention.
- Warren Mears, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, after once again having his plans thwarted, finally tries this, however it backfires when Buffy survives, and his parting shots cause arguably the shows most shocking case of Anyone Can Die, and leading to his very painful death by flaying.
- Justified in the Doctor Who episode "Planet of the Ood" when business owner Mr. Halpert declined to shoot the Doctor and Donna, saying that there will likely be a full investigation. If he did shoot them their bodies will likely be found it would create many problems for him legally in the future. By leaving them to the Ood, they die just like all the other people around and there's no trouble beyond what's already happened.
Mythology
- Norse Mythology tells that, when the gods had bound Fenrir so he would be unable to roam free, Loki apparently asked the other gods why they simply didn't kill it now that it was bound, knowing that a prophecy foretold that Fenrir would kill Odin. The gods were reluctant to do so because they didn't want to stain the holy place he was bound in with the wolf's blood (and letting it go first was certainly not an option). In other words, this trope is Older Than Dirt.
Video Games
- Used by Guybrush in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge after LeChuck captures Guybrush, ties him and Wally up into an extremely elaborate torture device, and explains his plan to have both of them killed. When Guybrush asks why LeChuck didn't shoot him as soon as he came in, he responds: "Because we had an extra disk."
- Oddly enough, Arcueid in Tsukihime asks Nero this - technically, she points out he's been messing around too much by making Shiki suffer, which just triggered his Nanaya side - after Nero decides he's going to have fun and slowly eat Shiki instead of killing him outright. After Shiki starts kicking his ass, he realizes maaaybe it would have been a better idea not to play with his food.
- In Fate Stay Night's Heaven's Feel scenario, True Assassin points out to his master that the easy and pragmatic thing would probably be to have him kill Shirou and Rin, who're running around like headless chickens desperately trying to find a way to defeat the Shadow that's eating half the town. Said master, who is an utter sadist, replies that it's more fun to do nothing, watch them fail, and have the Shadow kill them.
Web Comics
Web Original
- In the Fan Fic "Dark Heart High"
 , a shojo-style parody of evil overlords that deliberately seeks out tropes to adopt and cherish, a class for aspiring supervillains is asked what they'd do when they had their nemesis at their mercy. After listening to the litany of death traps and tortures of her classmates' answers, protagonist Yuki fumbles for a moment, then shrugs and says, "I'd just shoot him." Her teacher is quite impressed.
- Cracked has a list of The 6 Most Pointlessly Elaborate Movie Murder Plots. The alternative they recommend to each boils down to "shoot him".
Western Animation
- Batman: The Animated Series featured a comic-based episode where Joker, poring over a variety of odd tortures to inflict on Batman, flies into a rage after Harley Quinn matter-of-factly offers this question. Irony bites Harley in the ass after her own dramatic death trap nearly succeeds and Mr. J becomes angry at her for upstaging him. Even more ironically, the Joker then goes to shoot the restrained Batman anyway after he gets Harley out of the picture. By this point, of course, Batman has freed himself. The Joker is probably the canonical example of a Big Bad who will accept nothing less than a deathtrap ending for the hero, no matter how many times it's been tried and failed. Several years later, however, in an episode of Justice League (also part of the DCAU), the Joker advocates shooting Batman as soon as he's been restrained. It seems he has learnt his lesson (though Lex Luthor has not, and stops the Joker from pulling the trigger).
- Later, in Justice League, after the Injustice Gang captures Batman, Luthor wants to keep Batman imprisoned up so that he can interrogate him and learn the Justice League's weaknesses. Joker, who knows from experience that keeping Batman alive isn't going to end well, tells Luthor to Just Shoot Him. Luthor doesn't listen, and Bats go on to take the Injustice League apart from the inside.
- Ex-actor-turned-shapeshifter Clayface makes the suggestion to Gorilla Grodd in another episode of Justice League after capturing the heroes, specifically mentioning he's acted in enough movies to catch on that the heroes always think of a way out, and it would be better to just kill the subdued heroes immediately instead of trying to bring about a dramatic climax. Gorilla Grodd comments that he never liked those movies and convinces him to go along with the dramatic approach by offering him an important center-stage role in the executions. Of course, this is subverted by "Clayface" really being the shapeshifting hero J'onn J'onzz masquerading as the villain.
- Finally, again in Batman The Animated Series episode "the trial", Batman's rogues gallery put him through a Joker Jury scenario. Two-Face makes the off-hand comment that he suggested "a quick slug through the eyes" instead of going through all the theatrics, but lost the coin toss.
- A heroic example in Beast Wars: After Optimus Primal took the Spark of Optimus Prime into his body to thwart Megatron's assassination attempt Megatron came into the Ark with Quickstrike to finish the job. Despite Prime's spark giving Primal the size, as well as the physical and fire power of a large Autobot, he hesitates to attack. After Megatron and Optimus argue a bit, Rattrap gets fed up and asks:
Rattrap: Oh for bootin' up cold!! Will ya just shoot 'im?
- This example is justified. Primal had a good reason for not opening fire in the area, as he could unwillingly alter history. Although he does very briefly consider it;
Megatron: You wouldn't dare fire in here! It might upset history...
Optimus Primal: We have four million years to clean you off the walls Megatron. I might risk it!
- Kim Possible: Seņor Senior Jr. is the living embodiment of this trope. However, his boss (actually his father, Seņor Senior, Sr.) never becomes angry, only exasperated that his son "doesn't get it".
- Seņor Senior, Sr. is, of course, the ultimate Card Carrying Villain, who engages in villainous activity (and tropes) not for any sort of gain (he's already so ridiculously wealthy as to make that pointless) but out of boredom. When it was pointed out that his mansion resembled a supervillain's lair, Seņor Senior, Sr. decided it would be fun to become one. He doesn't care at all about whether his schemes are successful, just about whether they're carried out in the "proper" villainous mannter.
- Shego, when she's in Deadpan Snarker mode, has her moments, too. For example, in The Movie A Sitch in Time, when Drakken reveals his plot to go back in time and "crush Kim's spirit," preventing her from growing up to become a spy hero, Shego points out a much more permanent solution would be to just kill her past self.
- Shego has often espoused her frustration with Drakken's Genre Blindness since the first season: After being ordered to tie Kim and Ron to lightning rods meant to eventually fry them by way of an oncoming electrical storm, Shego remarks: "I prefer the 'direct approach', but you know Drakken...."
- In several episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM (as well as in some early issues of the Archie Sonic comic), Robotnik has Sonic at his mercy, and Sniveley asks why Robotnik doesn't just roboticize him. Snively also has a habit of questioning Robotnik's more elaborate plots.
- The Villain Episode of The Fairly Oddparents had Crocker becoming Norm's master. Finding they both hate Timmy, Norm grants Crocker's wishes with no catch... At first. However, throughout the shoe Crocker insists on using elaborate Wile E. Coyote like traps rather than easily teleporting him to Mars, as Norm keeps suggesting. It annoyes Norm to no end.
Real Life
- There is an old parable about philosophers discussing how many teeth are in a horse's mouth. One naive young man suggests finding an actual horse and counting the teeth, much to the outrage of his peers.
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