Misused: A Plague On Both Your Houses

This trope has been used as "True Neutral" or "take a third option" by several people who evidently thought this trope meant that the speaker refuses to endorse either side of a conflict. Rename would be beneficial.

Hmmm... if we go for a rename, maybe "I Spit My Last Breath At Thee"?

Dying Curse

Misuse on the actual page or in wicks? Got any numbers?

Starting at the bottom and working my way up.

Range checked: L thru Z (38 wikilinks)

Misuse

• Penny Arcade: "Gabe tells Tycho, 'I wish I could hate you to death.' And then his nose starts bleeding."
• Preacher: "I don't care if she leaves me, curses my name for the rest of her life..."
• Characters.Quest For Glory (Taking You with Me?)
• Roleplay.Survival Of The Fittest: "My mother's dead, and so's my sister, just like yours is gonna be at the end of this god damn GAME!"
• The Long Kiss Goodnight: "You're going to die screaming... and I'm going to watch. Am I telling the truth?"
• Traveller: "The Sword Worlders think every Darian is an Insufferable Genius and Darians think Sword Worlders are a Barbarian Tribe. A cynic might say both are right."

Unsure:

• Left Behind: "According to T.M. Delanty, upon finding out that his brother Samuel was killed while escorting Hattie Durham, Bo Hansen got wasted in a bar, pulled out a gun, cursed Nicolae, God and the world, and killed himself."
• Mistborn: "'You don't know what I do for mankind. I was your God, even if you couldn't see it. By killing me, you have doomed yourselves....''"
• Series.Supernatural: "As she dies, Pamela tells the Winchester boys to curse Bobby for introducing her to them."
• The Imperium Of Man Comes To Gensokyo: " Bickerstaff's death scene starts with him ranting, raging, lecturing and cursing Arcturus, who killed him, before Arcturus breaks his neck, when it becomes Alas, Poor Villain."
• Theater (Natter)

Zero Context Example

• FireEmblemElibeBlazingSword.Laus
• Characters.Mirai Nikki
• Runescape
• Music.Sound Horizon

Correct and/or exempt

• (23 pages)

edited 29th Feb '12 8:32:00 PM by Stratadrake

Either way, the name needs to be changed. In real life, people say this when they condemn two opposing positions.

Agree. I also think Dying Curse works reasonably well.

Dying Curse is perfect for this trope.

I think the misuse is debatable for a rename. Most of those "unsures" are probably correct.

However, the suggested name Dying Curse is just so much better I'm in favour of it. It's very clear and concise. It's not a quotation or dialogue.

Dying Curse works fine as a rename.

Does anyone else think there are different tropes?

One of them is just "With his dying breath, a character vents his anger at his killers," like the Independence Day example, ""All right you alien assholes! In the words of my generation, up yours!" A subtrope of Famous Last Words.

The other is an actual curse by someone that's going to die soon, and it can be presented in a lot of different ways. One good example I can think of is the myth of the Wandering Jew. It doesn't have to be something the person shouts right before they die.

edited 1st Mar '12 2:40:47 PM by abk0100

I think this covers all actual curses, whether they have supernatural force or not, but not all angry last words.

So a lot of the examples need to go? (like Darth Vader's "I hate you!")

Berate You With My Dying Breath? Angry Last Words? Because the description explicitly includes "not actually a supernatural-type curse" cursing.

edited 1st Mar '12 3:09:09 PM by lebrel

I think there may be examples where it's not clear whether the Dying Curse is effective, or if it would've happen anyway. Or if it's a variation that could be interpeted as the curse, but also completely unrelated.

On reflection, it might be good to split "actually a curse" from "just venting".

I actually see 3 different things: "Angry Last Words," is one. Then "Curse as Last Words," which may or may not be a real curse. And then "Dying Curse," which doesn't actually have to be a person's last words, or even spoken at all.

We just need to figure out how to divide them. 3 tropes is probably overkill

edited 1st Mar '12 3:26:15 PM by abk0100

@13: That example should go anyway, since he doesn't die.

Dying Curse is way too general. I can probably just throw in twelve different non-relevant examples by name alone.

I'd like to see those twelve examples.

I see only two real divisions; actual curses, whether supernatural or not, and angry last words that are not curses (which should not be examples of this trope anyway). The "dying" part is pretty disctint from "because of dead," like some kind of death taboo.

Oh man, I'm just so freaking tired my mind is a jumble. I'll have to get back to you later. Wait, do the examples have to be canon from the works I pull them from?

I would think so. Are people citing fanfiction and fan speculation as examples?

Dying Declaration of Hate to match Dying Declaration of Love?

That's pretty good.

There is already a Dying Declaration Of Hate draft in YKTTW, although it isn't exactly this.