This is a list of tropes about any form of violent conflict or acts of physical harm that are (deliberately) inflicted by one living being against another.
This is the inverse of Peace Tropes. Also see Injury Tropes, Bloody Tropes, Breaking and Destruction Tropes. This index is often (though not always) related to Death Tropes, which has quite a bit of overlap.
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General tropes of violence
Categories:
- Domestic Abuse: Violence between family members.
- First Rule of the Yard
- Interplay of Sex and Violence
- Mohs Scale of Violence Hardness
- Red Is Violent: Due to red being the color of anger and blood.
- Slapstick: Cartoonishly comedic violence.
- Violence Detector
- Violence Is Disturbing
- Violence Is the Only Option
- Violence Really Is the Answer: Someone rejects pacifism or following a more peaceful resolution to a conflict.
Physical violence tropes
- Armor-Piercing Slap
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Hitting someone to gesture that they should stop talking.
- Big Ball of Violence: Two or more people get into a fight and end up appearing as a ball of smoke with fists and feet constantly poking out.
- Bitch Slap
- Boom, Headshot!: Shooting someone in the head.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The adaptation has more violence than the work it is derived from.
- Bully Brutality: The Bully inflicts extreme injuries on their victims.
- Chunky Salsa Rule: A video game goes for realism by having certain violent actions be as lethal as they would be in real life.
- Dope Slap: Hitting someone for saying or doing something stupid.
- Double Standard: Violence, Child on Adult
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: When children's media shows someone suffering unexpectedly gruesome injuries. Often combined with Family-Unfriendly Death.
- Food Slap
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!
- Glove Slap
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Painfully torturing someone to force them to reveal information.
- Kill on Sight
- Let Me at Him!
- The Love Slap of Epiphany
- Ludicrous Gibs
- Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication
- Mob War: A violent conflict between rival criminal groups, usually over control of territory or retaliation for previous violence.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown
- Police Brutality: When cops use unnecessary physical force against suspects or innocent people.
- Pre-Violence Laughter
- Rugby Is Slaughter
- Shoe Slap
- Tail Slap
- Takes Ten to Hold
- Would Harm a Senior: Character has no qualms with harming elderly people.
- Would Hit a Girl: A man has no problem with harming females.
- Would Hurt a Child: Character is perfectly fine with harming children.
Psychological violence tropes
- Dead Guy on Display
- Finger in the Mail: Mailing the dismembered pieces of someone you've kidnapped/killed to your victim's loved ones.
- Forced to Watch: Someone is forced to watch a violent act.
- Hannibal Lecture
- Insane Equals Violent: Being crazy automatically means you have no reservations towards harming or killing people.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure
- Make an Example of Them
- Scare 'em Straight: Scaring people out of misbehavior by convincing them that horrible things will happen to them if they stray from the straight and narrow.
- Severed Head Sports: After decapitating somebody, throw and kick their head around to add further insult to injury.
- Snuff Film: A recorded film of someone being murdered.
- murder.com: A video of someone getting killed is uploaded on the Internet.
Violent characters
- Ax-Crazy: Insane person who attacks everyone they see.
- The Baroness
- Blood Knight: A character who really enjoys fighting other people.
- The Caligula
- Colonel Kilgore
- Combat Sadomasochist
- Crazy Survivalist
- Cute and Psycho
- Dark Action Girl
- Dragon Lady
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon
- Garbage Wrestler
- Hair-Trigger Temper: A character who is ridiculously easy to get angry.
- Hostile Hitchhiker
- Jack the Ripoff
- Killer Rabbit: A cute creature that is still very violent and dangerous.
- Mad Bomber
- Monster Clown: An evil clown.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The villain wants to wipe out all life.
- Psycho Electro: A mentally unstable person with electric powers.
- Psycho for Hire
- Psychopathic Manchild: A villain or lunatic with childlike tendencies.
- Pyromaniac: Someone who loves to set stuff on fire.
- Sadist: A person who really enjoys hurting people.
- The Sociopath: An individual who has no empathy for other people and has no problem hurting or manipulating others as they see fit.
- Torture Technician
- Sociopathic Soldier: A soldier who has zero qualms over committing violent atrocities against enemy prisoners or innocent civilians.
- Uncanny Valley Girl
- Violently Protective Girlfriend
- Yandere
