Main Hoist By His Own Petard Discussion

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SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)

Mar 22nd 2021 at 7:34:42 AM •••

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Hoist By His Own Petard is getting misused., started by karstovich2 on Feb 9th 2011 at 3:02:30 AM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Richmountain112 Mysterious Puppy Since: Jun, 2020

Mysterious Puppy

Jul 24th 2020 at 6:43:10 PM •••

Is it Ok if I rename the trope to Xanatos Backfire? I think Xanatos Backfire sounds better than its current name.

2 Kirbies went to a Target and ate all the food. The very next day, the store went bankrupt. Looks like we’re eating Kirbies for dinner.

WenBinLi2020 Since: Mar, 2020

Jun 10th 2020 at 6:17:26 AM •••

Let's say a gunman mowing down school children with an automatic rifle winds up getting gunned down by police himself. Does this count as Hoist By His Own Petard?

Edited by WenBinLi2020 Hide / Show Replies

Richmountain112 Since: Jun, 2020

Jul 24th 2020 at 6:38:01 PM •••

Oops. wrong section.

Edited by Richmountain112 2 Kirbies went to a Target and ate all the food. The very next day, the store went bankrupt. Looks like we’re eating Kirbies for dinner.

MAI742 Since: Oct, 2009

Mar 24th 2017 at 1:37:18 PM •••

Edit: nevermind. How do you delete one of these, I wonder?

Edited by MAI742 Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. — Mark Twain

Blazer Since: Mar, 2012

Nov 6th 2016 at 4:19:08 AM •••

Okay, seriously, who keeps replacing Frieza's bifurcation with the guy getting his head snapped by a bear trap?

It's actually a very iconic scene and it fits this trope.

Dabor Since: Nov, 2011

Oct 24th 2015 at 12:40:34 PM •••

I have no idea what the image is of. It looks like a guy flying with an energy disc of some sort flying behind him, which then hits him.

Since I know what this trope is, I'm guessing he's holding or controlling the disc, but unless the actual reason it hits him is that his finger slipped, I have no idea what happened. Even then, the image only makes sense if the text explains it, in which case you may as well just read the trope.

I can't find an ideal image with a quick google search, but even just something like "guy pulls a lever and drops an anvil on his own head" would be more indicative of the trope.

Opcn Since: Dec, 1969

Oct 1st 2011 at 8:37:40 PM •••

It's "hoist with his own petard" a petard was a bomb and mechanical devices were sometimes used to fling them into the enemy fortifications. If the engineer got caught up in the ropes for hoisting the petard he was hoisted along with it. This trope needs to be renamed and moved, however that happens.

168.7.251.161 Since: Dec, 1969

May 12th 2010 at 2:00:33 PM •••

I am not sure that doing something risky and dying from it counts as hoist on your own petard - I think you have to intend harm/evil to someone else and have it happen to you instead. (See: the Curie and Bogdanov examples)

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Discussion Main / HoistByHisOwnPetard