The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
WackyMeetsPractical
Since: Oct, 2009
130.160.219.71
Since: Dec, 1969
26th Jan, 2011 03:08:28 PM
Yeah, probably a combination of those. The audience's (read: my) annoyance is probably just YMMV. Thanks a lot
Edited by 130.160.219.71
Is there a trope for those times when the Hero and the Villain are in a Duel to the Death, with the Hero in the lead. But instead of the Villain meeting his well-deserved end (he spent the first 90 minutes Kicking the Dog with ice-climbing boots and laughing), the Hero wins and the Villain... survives? Both combatants have been using perfectly lethal weaponry, with every intent to use them lethally. In fact, if the Hero hadn't made a very suspenseful comeback, he would have died. But somehow the Hero wins definitively, yet the Villain is allowed to crawl back from whence he came. The film ties up the conflict neatly, but does not have to address the moral implications of killing the Villain and tarnishing the Hero. The audience is left to uneasily examine how they would have failed to show the same mercy.