Follow TV Tropes

Following

Playing With / Friendly Sniper

Go To

Basic Trope: A sniper who is friendly, outgoing and approachable.

  • Straight: Bob, a marksman, takes Alice out for a drink, picks up the tab and cheerfully assures her he's got everyone's back. In the rest of the series he acts as a Big Brother Mentor when not shooting people at long range.
  • Exaggerated: Bob is a hyperactive keet that functions as the little brother of the team.
  • Downplayed: Bob is quite amiable, particularly compared to other snipers that appear later in the series.
  • Justified: Bob was a nice guy before he started sniping, and just doesn't change when he realizes he is a crack shot. Who he is is not what he does, and he has his own methods of rationalizing it to himself.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted:
    • While Bob is quite approachable normally, he's terrifyingly cold on the battlefield, threatening to shoot Alice if she gets in the way of his kills.
    • Bob is an Faux Affably Evil contract killer.
    • Bob is said to be friendly. But when Alice meets him, he gives her the cold shoulder.
  • Double Subverted:
  • Parodied: Bob has Improbable Aiming Skills such that he can snipe one handed while drinking a beer.
  • Zig-Zagged: Bob is a friendly sniper, but he becomes cold-blooded each time he is about to pull the trigger.
  • Averted:
    • Bob is actually kind of awkward and nervous in most social situations.
    • Bob isn't a sniper.
    • Bob is The Ghost, and his disposition is never elaborated on.
    • Bob is a Jerkass.
  • Enforced: The writer is a veteran that knew plenty of friendly snipers and wants to subvert the Cold Sniper stereotype.
  • Lampshaded: "You would think a sniper would be a little calmer..."
  • Invoked: Bob was creeped out by the Cold Sniper who taught him how to shoot, and swears to never become as scary as that.
  • Exploited: Bob takes part in a hostage rescue by using his friendly personality to charm the bad guys off their guard.
  • Defied: Any sniper who cannot act as a Cold Sniper is rejected. They need snipers to remain calm, collected, and heavily detached.
  • Discussed: Recruit 1: "do you think there's a sniper attached to our platoon?" Recruit 2: "If there is, I hope he's one of the friendly ones."
  • Conversed: "Why does Hollywood think these snipers are always either ice cold sociopaths or gregarious beer-drinkers? There's a middle ground!"
  • Deconstructed:
    • Bob's cheerfulness is is down to the fact he's a complete psychopath who doesn't care one bit about taking a life (or perhaps it's because he just doesn't care about his targets.)
    • Alternately, it's a psychological coping mechanism that eventually breaks down after one too many targets, causing him to have a mental breakdown and be unfit for service.
  • Reconstructed:
    • Bob doesn't care about his targets because they're the enemy. After the war is over, he personally apologizes and makes amends to survivors of his attacks and their families, going as far as to allow grieving relatives to kill him if they wish. He's such a Nice Guy, none of them take him up on the offer. After all, he was only doing his job.
    • Alternately, he takes some time off and recovers, and returns, as cheerful as ever, because others need him to remain upbeat, and it's important for him not to lose his humanity.
  • Played For Laughs: "Hey! Alice! Did you see that headshot I pulled off today? Huh? Didya didya didya? That was, like, my best kill EVER! I think I saw his brain explode out the back of his skull!
  • Played For Drama: Bob's trying really hard not to show how much his job is getting to him, putting on a happy face even as he struggles to convince himself that he's not a cold-blooded murderer.

OK, that's the last of 'em. Let's grab a beer at Friendly Sniper.

Top