Basic Trope: A character seeking revenge tells the victim why s/he is being targeted.
- Straight: Alice tells Bob, the man who broke her sister Eva's heart, a story about a man who spurned a former girlfriend into suicide and the girl's sister, who decided to get revenge.
- Exaggerated: Alice tells everyone who has ever wronged her, from the Big Bad to the bully who stole her cookie in first grade, what their crimes are before taking vengeance on them.
- Downplayed:
- Alice hints briefly to Bob why she's targeting him, but stops after he gets a blank look.
- Alice yells, "This is for Eva!" as she enacts her revenge.
- Justified: Alice wants Bob to know that this isn't a random attack.
- Inverted: Alice tells Bob, who broke her sister Eva's heart, a story about a man who spurned a former girlfriend into suicide and her sister, who somehow found it in herself to forgive him.
- Subverted: Alice tells Bob a story about a man who spurned a former girlfriend into suicide and the girl's sister, who decided to get revenge...but when asked she says it's just a story.
- Double Subverted: ...But then she says it reminds her of a story that happened to her.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Nobody in the story seeks revenge.
- Enforced: The author wants to avoid puzzling the reader with why this stranger is targeting someone.
- Lampshaded:Bob: So you're going to sit down and tell me what I did before you kill me.
- Invoked: Bob coaxes Alice into telling him why she's targeting him so he'll have time to escape.
- Exploited: Bob takes advantage of Alice telling him why she's targeting him to get out of his cuffs.
- Defied:Bob: So this is the part where you tell me what I did, right?Alice: Wrong. [gunshot]
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Charlie is untying Bob from a chair as Eva takes Alice away. He expresses relief that Alice didn't kill Bob immediately, and Bob answers that "storytime" had to come first.
I suppose you wonder why you're here. But then again, a busy troper like yourself wouldn't remember a crime against a common Playing With page, so I'll have to give you the story here...
