Too general a name?: He Had It Coming

Guess That Trope! Here's a hint - it's not about any character who deserved their death.

It's about when women who kill their husbands are treated as more sympathetic then men who kill their wives.

I haven't checked for misuse yet, but whether there's any or not, the wick count isn't so good. I'd like to rename this something that's a little less like a Stock Phrase.

Yes, this is too general...

Deadly Breakup?

Kill The Cheating Heart?

Murder The Other Triangle Leg? (Okay, I suppose not that.)

Quickie wickie check; noting that this trope explicitly calls for the action to be murder, and the motive to be cheating:

• If I Can't Have You…: Correct.

• Abusively Sexy: Correct (probably; it's a pothole)
• Archer: Wrong; Archer, if I can tell, is a Jerkass in many more ways than cheating, and he's still alive.
• Chicago: Correct
• Death by Adaptation: Wrong
• Dixie Chicks (namely "Goodbye, Earl"): Wrong; the killing, IIRC, was domestic violence related, not cheating.
• Double Standard: Correct, almost by definition
• Dragon Quest VIII: Wrong
• EmilieAutumn: Leaning towards wrong, since the incident doesn't seem to have anything to do with cheating, and there's no indication the victim was romantically involved with the person in question at all
• How I Became Yours Rise Of The Agni Army: Not enough info.
• Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger: Wrong
• LawAndOrderSVU: Wrong; motive is not cheating
• Muggle Cast: No info given
• Rome: Borderline. I think it's correct, especially since it was directly moved from the He Had It Coming page.
• SexualKarma: Wrong
• Sonata Arctica: Probably correct
• The Green Mile: Correct
• TheInternet: Wrong
• TouhouWindowsTwo: Correct
• Troy: Wrong (not cheating)
• Troy: Same as above, so wrong
• Video Games: Correct
• Waiting To Exhale: Wrong (no killing involved).

12/29 wrong.

edited 31st May '11 10:49:28 PM by Leaper

Yeah, the name makes perfect sense if you know the musical Chicago, which I'm assuming most people don't.

Vote rename.

I made a single proposition rename here. I think the name is not too bad given that the "he" part is included, but I think that the level of misuse that Leaper pointed out gives a compelling reason to rename the trope.

I agree with nrjxll about not wanting the new name to be a Stock Phrase. I feel like trope names that are named after a Stock Phrase, but do not actually just encompass that Stock Phrase tend to invite a lot of misuse*

edited 1st Jun '11 11:06:20 AM by LouieW

I'm a fan of Chicago, so I did get the name—but no one else would without seeing the musical or the movie. Especially because it's a stock phrase, similar to when Abandon Shipping was named Abandon Ship.

Does this trope extend to any instance where a female murderer is portrayed at all sympathetically, or specifically where the Double Standard in the work is obvious? Also, some of the examples don't seem to be portraying the murder as sympathetic—just that it happens.

Not a good title. Also, some of the murderesses in "Cell Block Tango" killed their husbands for reasons other than infidelity, so it's not particularly accurate even if you get the reference.

Holding on hooking the crowner until the threads been open just a little longer. Say 12 hours.

Bumping for 12 x many hours. :)

Given the support for a rename in the single proposition crowner, there is now an alternative titles one here. Feel free to add titles as you so choose.

Hmm... I think we need a name that alludes to the Double Standards aspect of the trope, but I can't think of any right now.

This discussion really had a bump coming.

Guys, none of the names proposed indicate anything about the "is treated more sympathetically than a man who kills his wife" part. If that's really part of the core concept the name needs to at least indicate it, not simply sound like "Woman kills her husband" (Death by Woman Scorned) or "one member (either gender) of a couple kills the other (either gender)" (the other two).

edited 12th Aug '11 4:37:53 PM by Madrugada

Bump.

We have a winner, but I agree with Madrugada it's not a good name.

What about a variant of the phrase "Justifiable Homicide"?

I see another problem with this besides the name. That is, that it's another one of those "comparative tropes", that is written more to look at how one work compares to another than about the actual device.

I'd really like to see it made more clear that this isn't an invitation to list the female in Work X becausew she's treated more sympathetically than the male in Work Y; that it's simply when a female murderer is often made sympathetic by treating her act as justified, not that it happens more often.

I thought that's what it was anyway.

Sympathetic Murdering Wife? I'm asking because I'll wait to put it on the crowner in case it doesn't fit.

edited 19th Oct '11 11:28:48 AM by DragonQuestZ

Does the comparative aspect even work, though? There are very few examples of both man-kills-cheating-woman and woman-kills-cheating-man in the exact same setting in order to be able to compare them. And killing a partner for cheating on you, with ANY gender combination, is a VERY common plot element which is otherwise not currently listed as a trope anywhere afaik.

I don't think the supposed gender disparity is really a key element of the trope at all. 'Sympathetic Murdering Wife' would require deleting almost the ENTIRE page of examples as they completely don't fit that!

The core of the trope is killing your romantic partner for cheating.

'Deadly Breakup' or 'Kill the Cheating Heart' would at least fit what's there.

Should this trope exist? It seems very specific, limited to a combination of:

• Wives/girlfriends
• Murder
• Cheating

edited 30th Dec '11 1:01:32 PM by MrMous

It seems like one of those tropes that is popular among murder mysteries, but that's not a genre I'm familiar with.

Death by Woman Scorned is a great-sounding name for a trope, but I have a horrible feeling we'd need to hire a full-time guard to point out to people that yes, this really is a different trope than Woman Scorned.

Suggestions on how to continue?

Calling crowner.

If the woman needs to be treated sympathetically, Death by Woman Scorned doesn't really get that across.

edited 3rd Feb '12 9:53:32 AM by MangaManiac

Agreed. Is the crowner an absolute decision or can we continue to discuss this?