Trope is named after the scene in Old Yeller where the boy has to shoot the dog because it came down with rabies. (Necessary disclaimer: Never watched the film.)

Just one problem: The trope immediately defines itself as a character doing that action in proxy for someone else.

So does this mean that if The Hero is the one who has to Shoot the Dog himself, he's . . . technically not Shooting The Dog?

Wait, what?

Somebody explain this to me again....

edited 20th Oct '10 8:40:08 PM by Stratadrake

Fixed

So much for that. Incidentally, I always thought this was named after Of Mice And Men.

Is this done? I'd like to close the thread if it's no longer needed.

Yeah. Done ... with a bullet.

Well, unless someone wants to argue that the proxy part was an original and necessary part of the trope.

It wasn't. The examples do still need to be gone over, preferably by a couple of people, so that we can get the bad examples out — I cut a couple that were simply a literal "shoot the dog" scene, without the "doing something unsavory because it needed to be done" aspect and there are several more that sound like they're shoehorned-in examples of "characters doing something unsavory — but they had an excuse, honest!"

We've got a YKTTW about the proxy part, which was how this was discovered. So no worries there.

So this

• Kinos Journey. A young woman whose love was killed by a gunfighter travels the world with a male admirer, preaching nonviolence. Kino mentions that it's strange they've never run into trouble. It turns out the man is a highly-skilled gunfighter who is secretly killing anyone who would threaten her.

doesn't count anymore, right? It's sounding like Poisonous Friend instead.

edited 20th Oct '10 11:05:16 PM by Heart-mint

Right. Part of what makes it a Shoot the Dog is that it's done reluctantly, because it needs to be done. Not because it's easier that way, or more convenient, or more fun.