Basic Trope: When fighting back against your aggressors is seen as a bad thing.
- Straight: Alex fights back against Bob, but he gets punished for it.
- Exaggerated:
- Alex fights back against Bob, who has been bullying other classmates while the school staff does nothing but watch. He is immediately expelled from school and is sent to juvenile jail.
- Bob has bullied Alex & other students for far too long. This causes Alex to beat up Bob to death. As a result, not only is Alex expelled from school, but he is immediately sentenced to death row & gets executed for murder.
- Bob gets beaten up by Alex for making his life a living hell. The very minute Bob starts crying, Alex feels lots of remorse & realizes he has become the one thing he hated. Getting in trouble with the school faculty is the least of his worries.
- Downplayed: While both students do get punished for fighting, Alex is only punished for a whole week while Bob is punished for one day even though Bob started the fight.
- Justified:
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!
- He Who Fights Monsters
- Bob was only using fisticuffs but Alex pulled a knife on him.
- Alex has Super-Strength, while Bob is an ordinary human. Alex fighting back against Bob would thus constitute an irresponsible use of his powers against someone significantly weaker than him.
- Inverted:
- Turn the Other Cheek
- Forgiving your aggressors is seen as a bad thing.
- Fighting back is highly encouraged.
- Alex fights back against Bob & is hailed as a hero by all of the students & teachers.
- Alex gives Bob a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and gets away with it, all because Bob threw the first punch.
- Subverted: Alex receives a punishment, but the principal takes him aside and makes it clear that this is only because badly-written school policy doesn't distinguish between aggressor and defender, and lets Alex know he'll get a slap-on-the-wrist punishment.
- Double Subverted: However, Alex is still officially and permanently marked as a troublemaker, and has a hard time shaking the reputation.
- Parodied: Alex merely raises his hands to block Bob's punches. Immediately several teachers swarm over to hold Alex down until the police arrive, while several others fawn over Bob to make sure his knuckles weren't hurt by Alex's face.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: There is no moral about fighting back or not fighting back.
- Enforced: The author is a children's writer who wants to write a story that discourages violence.
- Lampshaded: "He started it! Why am I being punished?"
- Invoked: The school's principal has a dislike for Alex and was fully aware he was being bullied by Bob. When he saw Alex fighting Bob back, he saw this as an opportunity to punish him while letting Bob off the hook.
- Exploited: Bob uses this trope to get Alex and the other victims in trouble all to boost his status as the top jock of the school.
- Defied:
- The school doesn't punish Alex for fighting back Bob.
- When Alex is punished for fighting back against Bob's bullying, Alex's father shows up and gives the principal an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech for tolerating bullies and punishing their victims. This causes the principal to pull a 180, expelling Bob and ending Alex's punishment.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Alex, a scrawny kid frequently seen with bruises and black eyes, is frequently suspended/expelled from "fighting".
- Deconstructed:
- Alex comes to the conclusion that there's simply no way to get justice from the school or other authorities. He'll have to get justice for himself. And if that means becoming the bully the idiotic school system keeps accusing him of being, then so be it.
- Upon witnessing the school system in action, bullies eventually turn the school into their own hellhole without fear of consequences. The remaining students leave the establishment or even end their lives to escape this nightmare. The horrible PR and decrease in student numbers forces the school to close down.
- Anyone who fights back against Bob is punished while Bob gets off scot-free. This encourages him to escalate his bullying to far worse levels.
- Since the principal punishes Alex for fighting back against Bob, Alex decides to shift his revenge towards the principal.
- Since the penalty for even blocking Bob's punches is the same as full out fighting back, Alex decides to simply go for broke and unleash a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Bob that lands him in the hospital.
- Alex refuses to defend himself against Bob out of fear or getting in trouble with the very inept teachers, and is summarily beaten to death.
- After Alex is punished for defending himself, his parents show up to deal with things.
- The (quite corrupt) teaching body is able to twist things so the students that leave and/or die are painted as Dirty Cowards or mentally disturbed and the bullying, if it cannot be completely denied, is painted as a minor link in the chain of events. Which leads to things not changing at all in the long term.
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