Basic Trope: A character, usually a villain, commits suicide to spite others.
- Straight: Alex falls off of a cliff in front of Bob and the heroes just to rub his subsequent Karma Houdini status in their faces.
- Exaggerated: Alex deliberately pulls a Genghis Gambit that turns the entire world against him, then kills himself to spite everyone.
- Downplayed: Alex doesn't kill himself, but rather severely injures himself to spite Bob.
- Justified:
- Alex knows that Bob is seeking revenge against him, so what better way to deny him of any satisfaction of that than to kill himself right in front of him.
- Alex wants to frame Bob of murdering him.
- Alex's boss Jim is the kind of boss who provides only two options to their subordinates: die fighting Bob, or be slain by him for their inefficiency. At least with his suicide he will have some control over how he dies.
- Inverted: Heroic Sacrifice
- Subverted: Alex's body is discovered with a suicide note that lashes out against other people, only for it to later turn out that it was actually a murder and Alice, his killer, planted a fake note.
- Double Subverted: …only for it to turn out that that's what Alex wanted everyone to think and that he killed himself in such a way that it looks like Alice killed him.
- Parodied:
- Alex kills himself to spite the heroes. He ends up in hell where he is partying with Satan and other villains.
- Alex kills himself in the most bombastic fashion this way of a Disney animated musical sequence, complete with a Gallows Humor-laden song about how he is killing himself just so everybody else can suck it. It's something so absurd that nobody can believe he is wasting five minutes and countless millions of dollars setting up his suicide until he drops dead.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Alex's suicide isn't spiteful.
- Alex doesn't commit suicide.
- Enforced: "Since suicide is frowned upon in society, I'll have Alex kill himself to get away with his crimes, thus making him the ultimate villain in all fiction."
- Lampshaded: "That asshole! Mocking us with that smug grin even in death! I hope he burns in hell!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- "I'm not letting you take your own life, Alex. You will surrender and face the consequences of your actions!"
- Alex tries, but Bob beats him to the draw and shoots him. Knowing he beat Alex by a split second supplies Bob with plenty of additional satisfaction.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Bob reads Alex's suicide note which says, "Guess what? I killed myself! Goodbye forever, suckers!"
- Played For Laughs: Alex blows raspberries at the heroes and jumps off a cliff while giving them dual middle fingers all the way down. The heroes are frustrated...then Charlie says, "Who wants to go to lunch?", which they did so.
- Played For Drama: Charlie spends the whole film hunting down Alex in order to clear the name of his brother, who was framed by Alex. There is literally no other evidence available but Alex's testimony, and thus Alex's suicide ensures that Charlie's efforts have been all in vain.
- Played For Horror: Alex's suicide method is neither quick nor painless, traumatizing to people in and out of universe, and provides additional evidence of how much Alex valued his hatred of Charlie over himself.
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