Basic Trope: A wounded enemy is finished off with a killing blow.
- Straight: Alice approaches a mortally-wounded Bob and dispatches him with a close-range shot to the head.
- Exaggerated: Bob's been the victim of "There Is No Kill Like Overkill", but Alice still goes over and tucks a live grenade in his pocket before casually strolling away.
- Downplayed: Alice takes Bob down with shots to the body and quickly follows up with a headshot just to be sure.
- Alice only kills wounded enemies instead of sending for a medic when they themselves request a Mercy Kill.
- Justified:
- Alice knows Bob is Made of Iron and isn't going to assume he's dead until she personally makes certain of it.
- Alice has ordered her mooks to Leave No Survivors, so they go over the battlefield making sure.
- It's more humane to end it quickly.
- Inverted: Alice sees Bob is quickly slipping away and orders The Medic to keep him alive. Either they're Friendly Enemies, or she just wants him to suffer longer...
- Subverted:
- Thwarted Coup de Grâce; Bob shoots Alice before she can kill him.
- Bob survives the attempted killing blow...
- Double Subverted:
- Taking You with Me; Alice just has time to return the favour before falling over and dying in Bob's arms.
- ... only to succumb to his wounds shortly after.
- Parodied: Alice and Bob are in a food fight. Bob goes down in a hail of bun-fire, and Alice walks over to stand over his groaning body, gives a Bond One-Liner (something about "just desserts", probably) and slaps a custard pie in his face.
- Zig Zagged: There's an Overly Long Gag of successive Thwarted Coup de Graces, with a *Click* Hello and a Pre-Mortem One-Liner from each one.
- Averted: No-one is killed at the mercy of an enemy. Either they're killed instantly, they escape, or they're captured and treated well.
- Enforced:
- Alice and Bob need to have a final conversation, but Bob would never talk if he was still able to fight.
- Death Is Dramatic, Bob can't just be shot dead in the middle of a battle.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: Alice has ordered that Bob be taken down non-lethally so she can gloat before killing him.
- Exploited: Bob knows Alice will want to finish him off personally, so plans a Thwarted Coup de Grâce.
- Defied: Alice checks on Bob, and orders him to be left to die slowly and painfully.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs:Alice: "Medic! Medic! Bob's dead! What do we do!?"
Medic: "Calm down. First thing we need to do is make sure he is dead..."
Alice: *BANG* "OK, now what?" - Deconstructed: Killing Bob this way gives him enough time to fight back and escape successfully.
- Reconstructed:
- Killing Bob this way gives him enough time go Oh, Crap! before being finished off.
- It's a risk, but considering what Bob has shrugged off, it's probably a good idea to double tap, just to be sure.
Back to Coup de Grâce
