Basic Trope: A hero's loved one is killed by a villain due to the villain's belief that the heroes's loved ones are holding them back from unleashing their full potential.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz kills Alice, Bob's Love Interest, because he believes she is holding Bob back.
- Exaggerated: Evulz kills all of Bob's friends and family because he believes that all of them were holding Bob back.
- Downplayed:
- Evulz engineers a Third-Act Misunderstanding to estrange Bob from his friends.
- Evulz puts Alice on a bus to reduce her interference. Bob is still allowed to call Alice though.
- Justified:
- Bob was a former Mook of Evulz's who performed a Heel–Face Turn. Evulz is planning an extremely complex plan and Bob is necessary for a vital part of the plan. Since Alice actually was holding Bob back, her death is necessary for the plan to work.
- Evulz used to be friends with Bob and still remains on a Friendly Enemy basis with him; he hopes that Alice's death would prompt Bob to pull a Face–Heel Turn and join him.
- Bob worries about Alice (and Alice-related issues regarding his secret identity) to the point it has become Skewed Priorities. Evulz is upset that his foe does not has his mind completely in the game.
- Evulz is a Blood Knight who wants to defeat Bob when the latter is in his full potential, but the problem is that Bob is a Nice Guy. So Evulz decides to kill Alice to Teach Him Anger.
- Evulz losing his loved ones is what made him the man he is today. He figures that Bob could use a similar push too.
- In a case of Villain Has a Point, Alice really is holding Bob back from using his full power. Evulz hopes that by killing Alice, Bob can finally use his full power to put an end to Lord Darkness's Forever War.
- Alternately Alice is Evil All Along and she was deliberately holding Bob back so that he wouldn't try to kill Evulz due to either her being a mole working for him or being another Big Bad waiting in the wings. Either way, she has to die.
- Evulz's rival Lord Darkness is forcing Bob's cooperation by threatening Alice, and Evulz concludes that killing Alice is the best way to free Bob from the leverage.
- Alice is a Wet Blanket Wife nagging the life out of Bob. She is literally holding him back.
- Inverted:
- Bob, a Blood Knight whose hobby is fighting villains, kills the rest of Emperor Evulz's Five-Man Band because he believes they were holding Evulz back.
- Evulz believes that Bob's friends are the source of his strength, and thus decides they must die.
- Evulz believes that Bob's friends are holding him back and spares no effort to make sure that Bob stays as close as possible to his moron buddies.
- Alice's death made Bob more dangerous and vengeful, so Evulz brings Alice back to life so he will be less of a threat.
- Subverted: After Bob's Big "NO!", Evulz admits that he didn't really kill Alice; saying he did was a Secret Test of Character to test Bob's loyalty to his friends.
- Double Subverted: Of course, now that Evulz knows just how loyal Bob is to her, Alice has to die.
- Parodied: Evulz kills Alice, and Bob, so happy to finally be rid of that hateful woman, sends Evulz a thank you note and chocolates.
- Zig Zagged: Evulz decides to have Alice killed by getting her shot by a sniper. However, the sniper turns out to be Bob and as a result doesn't fire at the last moment. Evulz, seeing all this, knocks Bob out, takes the rifle, and attempts to fire it. The rifle misfires, so Evulz takes a pistol out and shoots at Alice. He misses, so Evulz takes out a knife, charges at Alice, and attempts to strike her with it. He misses, so Evulz activates a C4, stick it onto Alice, and gets out of the area before it explodes...it doesn't.
- Averted:
- Evulz doesn't even try to kill Alice.
- Although it's common practice for Evulz to do this, Bob doesn't have any friends, so it wasn't necessary.
- Enforced: Evulz is an Evil Mentor, and all of Bob's friends are good. They will not play nice.
- Lampshaded: "Bob, your arch enemy has an obsession with making you a super competent loner. If you don't deal with him, I'm putting our relationship on hiatus."
- Invoked: Bob has already performed a Face–Heel Turn, but Evulz can see he's still conflicted about his decision, so he arranges the assassination of Bob's former comrades to cut any ties he might have with his heroic past.
- Exploited: Bob and friends fake their deaths so that Evulz lowers his guard before an ambush.
- Defied: Evulz wants Bob to live up to his potential, but realizes targeting his friends won't win him over. So he just feeds Bob some Dark Side Donuts!
- Discussed: "Why is it all my enemies think I'll be stronger as a loner?"
- Conversed: "Poor Bob, he's going to find his girlfriend Stuffed in the Fridge soon isn't he?"
- Deconstructed:
- Because Bob loved Alice so much, he goes mad from her death at Evulz's hands, something which Evulz didn't intend.
- Alice really was holding Bob back. And now that she's gone? Bob has absolutely no qualms about brutally slaughtering the guy who killed her.
- Reconstructed: However, Bob's friend Charlie slaps him to bring him to his senses. Together, they decide to avenge Alice by killing Evulz.
- Implied: The film's opening credits sequence is a montage of Alice and Bob in the "past" being lovey-dovey and Bob being a boxer who insists on fighting like a gentleman even if he loses and Bob in the "current day" being a Curb-Stomp Battle-causing monster on the ring. It does not takes Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Alice will be dead or otherwise removed from Bob's life by the time the "Directed By" part arrives.
- Just as Bob is about to strike Evulz down, Alice tries to convince him to see the good in Evulz and give him a second chance. Evulz gives them a confused look while Lord Darkness is disgusted and pulls out his weapon.
- Played For Laughs:
- The thing "holding Bob back" is something dumb like his Golden Girls collection.
- Evulz wants Bob to stop holding back. He convinces Alice to stop having sex with Bob. Bob reacts like he had killed Alice and replaced her with a doppelganger.
- Bob stops holding back. He becomes a Comically Invincible Hero.
- Evulz kills Alice. Bob falls apart in a fashion that is seen as absurd In-Universe and out.
- Played For Drama:
- Evulz kills Alice. Bob stops holding back and tears apart everything Evulz was working on. The inevitable "this is what you wanted, aren't you proud?" question will follow.
- Evulz convinces Alice to divorce Bob. It's equally effective in "removing the thing holding Bob back", but the long-term effects regarding Bob trusting Alice again or wishing to love again are more complicated than if Alice had just died and the writers put Jean in Bob's path.
- Bob does not becomes stronger. He just plain falls apart.
- Played For Horror:
- Evulz gets rid of Alice as an obstacle for Bob to unleash his full power... and audiences will be turned off looking into fridges for a while.
- Evulz wanted Bob to unleash his full power. Bob instead becomes Drunk on the Dark Side and proves himself more vile than Evulz with an extremely brutal massacre.
- Bob's dark side Pob orchestrates a Split-Personality Takeover by convincing him that Alice is holding him back. Due to Bob's Heroic Willpower, Evulz makes the choice for him and kills Alice so that Bob will stop holding back and hopefully get rid of Lord Darkness for him. Instead Bob snaps, his dark side takes over, thanks Evulz for killing Alice before gutting him and Lord Darkness before the story ends with an "Everyone Dies" Ending that ends in Pob becoming a Rogue Protagonist in the sequel.
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