Basic Trope: Deadly mercenaries all targeting one character.
- Straight: Bob is being targeted by Alice the Assassin, Captain Charles and DESTRUCTO-100 who wish to attack, capture or destroy him for their own personal gain.
- Exaggerated: Bob is being hunted down by Alice the Assassin, Captain Charles, DESTRUCTO-100, Emperor Evulz, Father Frederick, Grim Gregory etc.
- The entire population wants Bob dead.
- Downplayed: Bob is only being hunted by Alice the Assassin and Captain Charles.
- Justified: Bob has an incredibly high bounty on his head and anyone would be willing to do anything for it.
- Bob has committed a heinous act and has to suffer the consequences for it.
- Subverted:
- It seems like Alice the Assassin, Captain Charles and DESTRUCTO-100 want to kill Bob but they’re actually good guys who all wish to protect him.
- Alice the Assassin, Captain Charles and DESTRUCTO-100 look big and tough but are then easily taken down by Bob.
- Double Subverted: …Which was a lie.
- ...Until they start getting serious.
- And then Bob is murdered by Widow Willow, who appeared five scenes early willing to do anything to feed her children and was not part of this mess until Bob walked past her in the story's Sudden Downer Ending.
- Inverted:
- Bob is being protected by Alice the Angel, Courageous Charles and DEFENDER-100.
- Bob has been assigned to kill Alice, Charles, DEFENDER and any goon stupid enough to stand in his way.
- Parodied: All the mercenaries want Bob dead because he jaywalked in front of them.
- Averted: Nobody is targeting Bob.
- Defied:
- The mercenaries are all asked to target Bob, which they all refuse.
- The entire carnival of killers is murdered before they make a move against Bob.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: “Tons of mercenaries are trying to kill Bob? He must’ve done something REALLY bad for that to happen!”
- Discussed: “Bob! What on earth did you do to make all those people want to kill you?”
- Conversed: “Do you ever wonder what Bob did to make all those people chase after him?”
- Invoked: Villainous Valentino sends the mercenaries to eliminate Bob, so that Bob doesn’t get to him first.
- Exploited: Bob uses the fact that the mercenaries aren’t working together, allowing Bob to escape as they are too busy fighting each other.
- Played for Laughs: The mercenaries keep accidentally killing each other in gruesome (yet hilarious) ways, while Bob remains completely oblivious to them.
- Played for Drama: The mercenaries figure the easiest way to get to Bob is through his loved ones, and begin mercilessly killing them in gruesome (yet realistic) ways, leaving him psychologically scarred.
- Played for Horror: All the “people” coming after Bob are all psychotic killers, bloodthirsty demons and even an eldritch abomination.
- Implied: It is said that Bob used to be on the run by mercenaries, who and how many are left completely ambiguous.
- Deconstructed: The mercenaries leave a swath of destruction in their path while hunting for Bob... and the cops have them all rounded up and jailed within 24 hours, after identifying them by security camera footage and purchases of weapons, tools, and explosives.
- Reconstructed: ...except getting arrested was part of the plan. When Bob arrives at the police station to make a statement, the mercs break out, execute all the guards, and now have Bob precisely where they want him.
Now target The Carnival of Killers!
