Unclear Description: Boom Headshot

Having gotten nowhere in Trope Talk, I bring it here.

Looking at Boom, Headshot!, even on its own page, it's frequently used as "this work features a character killed by a headshot." I wanted to fix the examples and description, but then I actually read the description. I have no idea what the trope here is. Is it "law enforcement, military, and similarly trained professionals use head shots where their training should tell them otherwise"? That's my best guess, but I have no clue whether that's right, or if there are other aspects to it, or if there's a trope there at all.

Help?

Opened. Might want to link to the Trope Talk thread in question, by the way.

Not seeing how "person is shot in head" is a trope.

The description gives several justifications, but as-is it seems like a "trope clump" (a combination of various thing with something in common, some of these things tropes and others chairs).

The trope itself is a video game mechanics trope about shots to the head doing extra damage or otherwise having a benefit over shooting enemies somewhere else. The on-page examples start with video games, divided by genre, then move to "non video game examples". That's fine in and of itself, but there's very definitely misuse for a much more general "shooting people in the head" trope.

I'd say there's definitely room for a headshot index, if not an actual supertrope. Off the top of my head (no pun intended), there's Boom, Headshot!, Pretty Little Headshots, Pink Mist, 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain, Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain, and the theoretical "going for headshots when tactics and training mean they should be firing for center mass, instead" trope mentioned above.

Thinking about it, there is probably room for a generic Head Shot supertrope — headshots are generally thought to be more lethal than other gunshot wounds (which isn't necessarily true, but people still believe it and fiction portrays it that way), and shooting people in the head is often used as a sign of an especially skilled and/or ruthless shooter.

edited 22nd Oct '14 9:27:00 AM by NativeJovian

Completely agree with everything you said. This trope here is for shooters like say in Destiny where a shot anywhere does 96 damage each with my automatic rifle but headshots do 212 damage each bullet and a sniper rifle goes from 500 damage to over 4000 with a head shot.

Maybe a rename? Head Shot Critical might work.

edited 22nd Oct '14 12:44:58 PM by Memers

I see a generic headshot trope being the new dumping ground for "a character gets shot in the head" examples.

And? That's not necessarily a bad thing. The work's creator presumably decided to have that character get shot specifically in the head for a reason — either to illustrate that yes, that character is really truly 100% for-reals dead, or to show that the shooter is more skilled than your average Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy graduate. Both of those feed into the idea that headshots are more difficult to achieve, but more deadly when you do, which would be the thrust of a headshot supertrope.

So you're saying that a headshot death, with no other explanation or context (many many current examples) is a trope and tropeable?

Not all headshots are a trope in some form. That worries me in regards to a general supertrope.

"The work's creator presumably decided to have that character get shot specifically in the head for a reason"

Can't assume that. A character might get shot in the head because, well, that is a part of the body where people get shot sometimes.

So thirty characters charge a machine gun. One falls over with a wound to his chest. One gets hit in the leg. Another in the arm. One in the groin. One in the neck. One in the head.

How does that fit into some headshot supertrope?

Or guy gets shot 86 times one of which is in the head.

Should that be shoehorned in?

Not every time someone gets shot in the head is a trope. Sometimes they just needed to be shot somewhere.

edited 23rd Oct '14 6:08:00 AM by shimaspawn

Conversely, a the hero rushes bunch of mooks firing SMGs and gets hit multiple places, one of which is the the head, and none of that takes him down. Then he gets shot in the head by the mooks back up sniper and gets KOed. There is a trope here, it's just defined way to broadly.

You mostly see this trope with weapons designed around accuracy. Sniper rifles rely on this trope to keep up with other guns and revolvers/pistols sometimes depend on this trope too. You rarely, if every see this trope being applied to SMGs and other guns that fall under the rule of More Dakka. As a general rule, if the weapon favors accuracy, it'll probably qualify for this trope. If the weapon favors rate-of-fire, it's almost never this trope.

edited 23rd Oct '14 8:40:18 AM by ObsidianFire

Oh Lord, people. No, I'm not suggesting that every single instance of any character getting shot in the head under any circumstance no matter what is a trope. What I'm suggesting is that there's an element that all the other headshot tropes share — that shooting someone in the head is considered more difficult but more consistently lethal than shooting for center mass — which is tropeable in an of itself, making it a valid supertrope. Call it Precision Headshot or Deadly Headshot or Deadly Precise Headshot or something instead of just Head Shot, maybe. If we make such a supertrope, it would naturally become the repository for many headshot examples that don't fit into the existing subtropes. That's fine, because that's what supertropes are for. There would still be instances of people getting shot in the head that wouldn't be examples of the trope — such as the ones brought up here — but there would also be a lot that did fit the supertrope, because it's fairly broad. And that's okay too, because No Trope Is Too Common.

I think the reason we thought you were suggesting that is that that's the status quo use right now: headshots under any circumstance and any context — because that's what I was expressing concern about in the post you replied to: that a headshot supertrope would be used as a dumping ground for the same ZC Es and such that Boom, Headshot! is being used for now.

Ok so to get this active again I will make a proposition, split this.

Headshot Critical: The videogame trope, where shooting someone in the head causes more damage than any other place. Subtrope of Attack Its Weak Point and possibly Instant Death Bullet Aim Assist and Arbitrary Gun Power.

Rifle Head Shot: Works use this as proof that the shooter is a good shot. Does not have to be a full sniper rifle, just at range. Differs from real life though as someone who has actually been trained should be aiming for the chest, a headshot is a miss. Note: it can be used in videogame cutscenes for the same effect.

The other headshot tropes such as Double Tap, Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain, Chunky Salsa Rule, and Pretty Little Headshots ect already exist.

edited 27th Oct '14 7:58:00 AM by Memers

Sounds good, mostly. The No Scope yolo swag bit was gibberish. Most of the time the rifle headshot uses a scope and I have no idea what what yolo swag bit was.

That split proposal seems good to me, too.

Its a Call Of Duty thing, kids who think they are badass because they can abuse mechanics and headshot guys with a sniper rifle and no scope over a distance then post youtube videos of it.

I only said that because they think they are hotstuff for headshots and such. Deleted it.

edited 27th Oct '14 7:59:07 AM by Memers

I'd call the video game trope Headshot Critical Hit or something, as just Headshot Critical is a bit confusing. For the "skilled shooters go for headshots" trope, I'd call it Precision Headshot or Headshots Are Precise or something like that. I also think we need a trope for "headshots are considered deadlier than other gunshots", as getting shot in the head is sometimes used to portray "this guy is very definitely 100% dead, don't even worry about first aid". Something like Deadly Headshot or Instant Death Headshot, maybe?

And if we're not going to do a headshot supertrope, then we should definitely do an index, given how many headshot tropes this thread has turned up.

I am OK with turning this page into an index.

An index is a very good idea.

Agreed.

Do we need a crowner?

Another for the index idea.

Several examples right now are headshot fired from regular pistols. If they don't go into Rifle Headshot, where do they go?