Basic Trope: Characters want to kill a group of people, but don't want general population to catch on it's actually genocide.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz and General Drake want to get rid of a certain group. Consequently, they decide to call it an act of justice, downplay it with cleverly-worded euphemisms and play up the offended -card whenever someone attempts to mention it.
- Exaggerated:
- Evulz and Drake call the genocide the heroic act of justice, use loopholes by playing with words to escape accountability and accuse anyone trying to talk about it of slander. They also eliminate, neutralize, discredit, destroy, remove, silence or put down anyone, who aims to speak up and bring their deed to light for what it is.
- Evulz and Drake resort to Blatant Lies instead.
- Evulz and Drake insist that the members of the unwanted group are being punished for committing crimes, the "crime" is being alive which is punished by death.
- Downplayed: Evulz and Drake paint their actions as Necessary Evil.
- Justified:
- Evulz and Drake are self-righteous, self-important, sociopathic manipulators.
- Evulz and Drake did what they thought of as the best solution in the long run (regardless of whether or not any better solutions were actually available). Regardless, they still need to keep up their reputation, so anyone who threatens that is naturally someone to keep an eye on.
- Inverted: Evulz and Drake are actually working on something... good, but don't want to be seen as do-gooders so they present their actions as being evil, harmful, despicable and/or a dozen other adjectives indicative of general badness.
- Subverted: "Oh please. Genocide is for amateurs. This is OMNICIDE!!!"
- Double Subverted: "...but in the interest of publicity..."
- Parodied: Evulz and Drake are brutally murdering select citizens of Happyland right in front of their friends and family. No-one notices, and even those few that do notice people dropping like violently disembowelled flies right before their eyes are quite easily persuaded that they are in fact imagining things. Even as fresh splatterings of friend-and-family-jam stain their clothes amidst deafening screaming and the roar of buzzsaws.
- Zig Zagged:
- Evulz and Drake mention the genocide did happen, but instead blame somebody else or
- Averted:
- Evulz and Drake are forthright in telling everyone exactly what they are doing.
- Genocide is mentioned as such in the setting and people either grimly accept it or furiously start a riot.
- Enforced: Censorship means 'genocide' cannot actually be portrayed. Alluding to it, however, is fine.
- Lampshaded: "So, partner, what do you think would be the best word to call this act and still maintain our reputation?"
- Invoked: Bob brings up the act to see how evasive or defensive Evulz and Drake would get.
- Exploited: Bob is going to use this knowledge to trick Evulz and Drake into a position where they'll talk themselves to their downfall.
- Defied:
- Evulz and Drake decide that beating around the bush doesn't change anything and they've got nothing to gain by doing so.
- Aerith, one of the handful of people from the targeted group to survive the genocide, vows not to let this brutality go ignored. He very publicly kills Evulz and Drake before fleeing and seeking asylum in foreign lands.
- King Leon, ruler of a powerful neighboring realm, is appalled by the genocide and and declares a war of humanitarian intervention against Evulz. He wins the war, General Drake is ripped limb-from-limb by vengeful survivors, and King Leon has Evulz and everyone else involved with the Genocide forced to stand before a war crime tribunal. They are all found guilty and publicly executed. Memorials are built to the victims of the genocide, and even to this day it becomes an insult to compare someone to Evulz.
- Discussed:
- Conversed: ???
- Plotted A Good Waste: Evulz and Drake are disturbingly casual or business-like about their "pest control", highlighting their callous disregard for human life.
- Played for Drama: Realistic consequences of avoiding the mention of genocides are played up. Memorials are ruined, Evulz and Drake are considered heroes or remembered positively.
Back to euphemistic loopholing.
