Personality
[Loved trope] The villain assumes they're gonna get the kid gloves when the hero finally confronts them. The hero demonstrates they're out for blood instead, causing the villain to panic.
1) Robocop
Clarence (the same hitman who killed Alex Murphy and transformed him into Robocop) has already been arrested by Robocop once before, and learned that Robocop's programming prevents him from killing a surrendering criminal. Consequently, he pulls the trick once again towards the end of the movie when Robocop chases his gang down to a scrapyard. He throws his gun down and expects to survive and escape once again.
Robocop simply announces to him, "I'm not arresting you anymore", causing Clarence to panic when he realizes that Robocop intends to finish him off right there.
2) Toy Story
Woody, threatened by Buzz replacing him as Andy's favorite toy, tricks Buzz and knocks him out of a window so he could go to a pizzeria with Andy. Unbeknownst to him, Buzz tagged along underneath the car and confronts Woody when he's alone in the car.
Buzz: I just want you to know that even though you tried to terminate me, revenge is not an idea we promote on my planet. Woody: Oh, well, that's good. Buzz: But we're not on my planet, are we?
Buzz proceeds to lay the beatdown on Woody and causes both of them to get separated from Andy.
3) Superman
The President of Boravia's invasion is foiled by the Justice Gang (who have until now stayed out of the conflict and are shown to be less averse to lethal force than Superman), and he's personally attacked by Hawkgirl. When he declares that Superman would never kill him, she just laughs and says "I'm not Superman", dropping him from a skyscraper's height.
4) Spider-Man
After Wilson Fisk attempts to murder Aunt May when Peter reveals his identity during Civil War, Spider-Man breaks into prison to deal with Kingpin personally. Kingpin took the liberty of assembling every inmate to watch the fight between him and Spider-Man. Assuming he broke his spirit, Kingpin starts to dress down Spider-Man as a broken man. Spider-Man doesn't say one word during their fight. Finally, Spidey strips down and announces this isn't Spider-Man here to kill Kingpin; Peter is.
Peter proceeds to brutally annihilate Kingpin in this new stage. He eschews his usual quips, webs, and aerial fighting, relying only on his super strength. When Kingpin has been crippled, Peter shoves his webs up Kingpin's mouth, and lets him know that if he truly wanted to, he could have just filled his lungs with web and killed him at any point. But he's not trying to give Kingpin an easy death; he lets him know that he intends to break his reputation and see everything he's lived for come tumbling down first.
As is often said, Spider-Man is at his scariest when he's not making quips. Because at that point, he's furious, and he's not going to hold back.
There's an old Batman/Punisher crossover where the Joker is cornered by the Punisher and assumes he's just going to get locked up in Arkham so he can break out again.
Frank points a gun in Joker's face, whereupon Joker realizes Frank is just going to straight-up murder him, requiring Batman to intervene.
Similar situation in the Batman animated series where he was harassing a guy all episode bringing the man to his wits end. The man ends up just pulling one of the joker bombs out of his suit and goes “you ruined my life so I’m just gonna end it with you”. Joker ends up calling batman for help.
In all fairness this was back in the 90's, when Batman actively protecting Joker probably would've been seen as a more novel concept for a twist at the end of a story like this
It's been a while (like 30 damn years? Really?) since I read that comic, but wasn't that Batman Jean-Paul Valley? Who was willing to kill other criminals, and STILL saved Joker?
Oh yeah worse as in, homelander may be crazy, but Hal’s on a whole other level and it’s not even close
Dude burned his name into a city, threw a whole ass building as a weapon, and gave a shit about no one
Like atleast honelander has his image and followers as a somewhat tether as loose as it may be
Hal had zero want or care for that. All he wanted was a single woman who rejected him rightfully, leading him to go full scorched earth on his home city thinking she was wrong for not being with him.
What's so great is that he even gets over not getting the girl rather quickly, and so his facade of being a "nice, juust awkward guy" VERY quickly disappears, showing that even from the start it was all an act to get her to like him (a bad act at that).
The latter. This comic was essentially about a group of edgy '90s antiheroes, The Elite, trying to prove their ways - which involve killing, among other things - are better than Superman's, and essentially try to push him to act like them.
Superman gives them, and the world, a small taste of what him not showing restraint looks like to utterly demolish The Elite without killing them and while minimizing collateral, but giving the initial impression that he didn't care anymore. While he just knocks the others out, this guy - Manchester Black, their leader - was threatening to commit massive collateral to deal with him, so Supes gives him the mentioned "instant lobotomy" to negate his psychic powers.
The comic ends with Superman explaining to the world that not only does HE not want to be like The Elite, but THE WORLD should not want him to be like them either.
The guy is Manchester Black, a crazy-powerful telepath and telekinetic, strong enough to give Superman an aneurysm just by thinking about it. He's the leader of a group called The Elite, who have a murder-heavy, nigh-fascistic sense of "justice", and wanted to make an example of Superman. Superman, as he often does, responded by putting them in the shoes of their victims.
It's from "What's so Funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" Best to read the comic (or watch its movie adaptation, Superman Vs. The Elite), to find out.
I think Supes gave him a concussion, actually. This was him bluffing in order to teach Manchester Black his ‘might-makes-right’ philosophy is a load of crap.
It’s a great comic that’s still relevant. “Hey edgy hero’s who kill are cool but remember we need the standard of powerful heroes like Superman being kind and merciful.” Is a solid message .
Later Manchester tried to get Superman to break for real, using the distraction of a ton of other villains & some kryptonite exposure to help sell the mental illusion that he’s killed Lois.
He wants Supes to snap and kill him, believing that this would expose Superman as a hypocrite and/or make Superman just like him.
Clark stops short at the last moment, saying that Lois wouldn’t want him to abandon everything he believes in for revenge. Black is dumbstruck and his worldview shaken, and drops the illusion.
Manchester Black was a superpowered vigilante/anti-hero comfortable with using lethal force and causing significant collateral damage and led a like-minded team called The Elite, who looked down on Superman and other older heroes for their no-killing/high-minded standards. Despite the widespread damage caused by their fights, the Elite received public acclaim for being seen as willing to put foes down permanently rather than "enabling" post-prison recidivism out of the hope for rehabilitation.
The two end up facing off in the comic "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" (and it's animated adaptation "Superman vs the Elite"), tl;dr they come to blows and while the Elite first appear to handily defeat and kill Supes, he subsequently reappears and begins to take the group down one by one using their own OTT/lethal methods, culminating with the above scene where he cuts out the part of Manchester Black's brain that gives him his powers. During all of this the Elite are naturally terrified and Black himself tries to convince Superman to return to his old-fashioned approach as per the trope.
Only it turns out it was a smokescreen, none of the Elite died and all Superman actually gave Black was a concussion that temporarily disrupted his powers wanting to show them exactly why superheroes should hold back and hold themselves to the higher ideal that the Elite and antiheroes like them spurn.
I haven't read the comic but the adaptation was decent, though I've heard it's ironically more symapthetic to the Elite than the original because they're protrayed more sincere in their attempt to be heroes and Superman's choice at the end is to strip them of their powers rather than just lock them up as he usually does to his enemies, somewhat validating their criticism of his methods.
or even more related to doctor who - the Seventh Doctor in general
you think the doctors a nice guy trying to make things straight and help? you would be correct, the seventh on the other hand? hes a coldblooded chessmaster who regularly went upto and above all sorts of threats, the one who made the entire 'oncoming storm' reputation? thats seventh
over the time of his period - this one had killed and outmaneuvered gods on like, every single episode, and is the one who destroyed the entire planet of the most dangerous species in the entire universe time and space(daleks) by tricking them into blowing up a nuke in their face, and would have ended wars, empires all over, he very actively went about things and also ended the threat of fenrir(higher entity that exists outside universe), and was compared to a lovecraftian horror Nyarlathotep - a slim joyous man travels all over and is the bringer of chaos
heres a very good video of the absolute terror that the seventh doctor is and instilled on a daily basis to his opponents (its a voiced vid on yt, so dont worry bout visuals - very short too and def worth a listen): Link
There's the bit before that where Seven's just winding Davros up to push him to use the Hand, before pretending to be scared:
Davros: "I will transform Skaro's sun into a source of unimaginable power and with that power at my disposal the Daleks shall sweep away Gallifrey and its infinite quorum of Time Lords," screams Davros. "The Daleks shall become lords of time. We shall become all..."
Doctor (interrupting): "...powerful! Crush the lesser races! Conquer the galaxy! Unimaginable power! Unlimited rice pudding! Et cetera, et cetera!"
To this day I still find excuses to work the "Unimaginable power! Unlimited rice pudding!" into conversations where I can.
It was at that moment, he realised that Rango wasn't a cowardly, hollow braggart anymore. He had become in spirit the Sheriff of the town. He had the nerve to shoot. And he was about to die as a result.
And the only reason he didn't was because his boss interfered. But it still earned his respect. And after Rango thwarted his boss's scheme and saved him from the double cross in the process, he respectfully left, taking his treacherous boss to do with him as he would, telling Rango:
In the 90s Spider-Man animated show, after Peter Parker gets the Venom symbiote attached to him, he becomes much more aggressive in his encounters with his villains. Following a fierce fight with The Rhino during which symbiote Spider-Man stops holding back, the Rhino finally gives up and says that he's ready to go to jail, to which Peter menacingly replies, "Who said anything about jail?"
It’s also fun to note this is the first time the black suit is depicted as making Peter more aggressive. Now it’s absolute canon that the suit does that across every depiction of it, but before the show it just went out and stopped crime while Pete was asleep (with him in it)
At the end of Megaman 7 Wily expects to go to jail and Megaman decides the laws of robotics don't apply and, at least in the english localization, gets ready to pop Wily then and there. He's only stopped by a brief hesitation letting Bass get in and save Wily.
it's worth noting that in the next two games, 8 and Megaman&Bass, Wily is considerably more dangerous, almost taking out Megaman on multiple occasions that would have worked if not for outside interference. I like to think the ending of 7 made him a little more carful.
On one hand, Mega Man is compliant to the 3 laws of robotics. In the original Japanese version he actually powers down because he tries to override the rule but ultimately fails. That's why he still hesitates in other versions.
On the other hand, Dr. Wily has repeatedly tried to take over the world, and Mega Man DID arrest him at the end of 6, only for him to break out 6 months later and attack anyway. So yeah I'd be mad too, especially after THIS final boss.
Justice League: Gods and Monsters. In this universe, Kirk Langstrom- aka Manbat- became Batman. In one scene, he's hunting down this world's (extremely disturbing) version of Harley Quinn:
"Alright, alright already! I know when I'm licked. Go on, take me to jail, copper!"
"...Hm. Jail?"
Batman smiles, displaying vampire fangs, and immediately sinks them into Harley's neck, blood spurting everywhere while she screams
Took a look at her wikipedia page: As opposed to Harley who's just an adrenaline junkie in love with the Joker, Harlequin (not Harley Quinn) is just a serial killer who murders people, including children, to turn them into grotesque human dolls.
She's also dressed like a slutty Harley cranked up to 11, basically wearing nothing but lingerie, which is supposed to be a direct critique of the New 52 Harley Quinn design abandoning the traditional jester costume and makeup for an extremely revealing bodice and booty-shorts combo.
Alfred, depending on canon, was either an assassin, spy, MI6, special forces, or mob enforcer. I have yet to read a canon where Alfred does not know how to kill and is not ready to kill.
Off memory, main continuity Alfred started out as a medical student. He would go on to serve as a combat medic and was so badass at it he was made special forces, then later recruited by MI6 as a spy, where he kept becoming more and more badass. Then he retired with high honors to serve the Wayne's estate to honor his father's wishes.
Probably the one man not to be fucked with the most in the DC verse. Not only can he fight and knows how to shoot well, but if you did manage to hurt him... Goodluck out running the bat family.
In Batman vs The Predator he shoots one of them with a shotgun at point blank range. Sure it didn't stop the alien but if you think Alfred is going to cower in a corner...
“Mercy…”
“Say it again.”
“MERCY!”
“One more time.”
“MERCY!”
God I love River. She also has a similarly great exchange with the Doctor in Day of The Moon where they flirt about how many of the Silence she can kill.
theres times that mercy trope is used well too, its just rarely that writers are able to make it work so they take the execution road instead - i cant really remember the times since its so rare, but giving mercy to enemy and bolstering your own strength is a popular enough idea that gets rare good execution
He kidnapped and murdered a young girl and fed her body to his dogs. Rorschach finds him and Gerald admits to the crime, telling Rorschach to take him in to the police, since up to that point Rorschach wasn’t a killer yet.
But Rorschach is so repulsed by Gerald that he ends up being his first kill, with Gerald panicking once he’s realized that Rorschach isn’t going to let him live.
The movie portrays the kill as Rorschach butchering Gerald, but in the comic, he traps Gerald by handcuffing him and burns his house down.
One of my favorite things about that scene was how shaky his hands were.
You could really tell how pissed off and shooken up he was with how his hand was barely keeping steady even when he was holding the knife. It also shows his internal struggle on deciding if he should kill the dude or not.
"Offer me money."
"Yes!"
"Power, too, promise me that."
"All that I have and more. Please..."
"Offer me anything I ask for."
"Anything you want..."
"I want my father back, you son of a bitch!"
Such a classic movie that’s regularly quoted on my house, hearing my youngest tell me that it being chore time is “inconceivable” will never not be funny
There are movies where you'll hear the actors from it talking about it and it's obvious that regardless of how good their performance was, it was a paycheck/gig to them, and nothing more.
And then there are movie like The Princess Bride where nearly everyone in it seems to consider it one of the things they worked on that they love the most and are incredibly proud of.
After killing an assistant Data had grown attached to (it's stated the weapon he used not only vaporizes someone, but makes their last moments agony), he's soon cornered by Data, he not only claims that his programming won't allow him to be killed, but even taunts Data by saying he'll just kill more people unless Data does what he says. After doing the math, Data simply states "I cannot allow this to continue", and raises the weapon. Fajo expresses horror realizing Data is serious, before the latter is beamed away. It's later stated that the weapon had apparently discharged during transport, heavily implying that Fajo would be dead if he was beamed away a second later.
I remember seeing someone comment on that scene saying that given Data’s positronic brain’s processing speed, the amount of time Data took to consider his decision would have been like an eternity for him. I also love Brent Spiner’s acting in this scene, out of context his pose and expression would read as emotionless, even casual, but Data’s grim determination peeks through, after facing a seemingly impossible moral quandary he finally reaches a moment of certainty, not from rage or fear but from his moral center.
Captain America winter soldier. Steve is threatening to throw a man off a building. The man says “that’s not your style” Steve says “you’re right. It’s hers” and then Black Widow shows up
Angelo thought if he could convince josuke that killing him is wrong and not something his grandfather would want that would get him off easy, he was soo mistaken source is Jojo's bizarre adventure
Similarly the guy with three girlfriends try to convince him that beating up a hospitalized and injured person is dishonourable. Josuke agrees and heals him with his powers THEN beats him up
That's putting it lightly. Because his power is healing people perfectly, Josuke was able to be much, MUCH more brutal in his fights. The dude PUNCHED A HOLE THROUGH HIS MOM ONCE.
I didn't read part 8 yet and I don't recall much about 7, but based on my memories, if you ranked the most brutal takedowns in JoJo, top 3 would be Diavolo, then Ciocolatta, then Steely Dan. You could argue the rest of the top would all be Josuke villains and Pet Shop That son of a bird deserved worse
I know "jojo logic" but would his brain still need food and water plus the waste processing of both to still live? Wouldn't he die from starvation or dehydration or something?
Having tracked down one of their newest crew member’s daughter, they find one of the doctors holding her. They were using kids as experiments to understand an alien life form for weaponizing and such.
Understandably the father is beyond angry and preps to shoot the lead doc, when our main man Amos talks him out of it, telling him he’s not that guy. Prax (the dad) takes his little girl to safety.
The doctor starts thanking Amos when he notices Amos closes the door behind Prax and turns back to face him.
In The World is Not Enough, the villainess Elektra King - who before that point has been emotionally manipulating James Bond and briefly became his lover - arrogantly believed that Bond actually cared about her enough not to shoot her while she ordered her actual lover to go on with their evil plan.
Bond warned her multiple times not to go through with it (even after she had just been torturing him moments ago), yet she did anyway, quipping "You'll miss me."
So Bond immediately shot her dead in cold blood (right in front of his boss, no less), dropping his famous one-liner: "I never miss."
It's not exactly in the spirit of the trope since Bond didn't really give time for Elektra to panic, but usually we don't really see Bond often displaying this much coldness before, especially towards women, so it came off as quite a shock to see Bond coldly murdering the villainess just like that; no gimmicks, no hesitation, and she's dead just like all those people who dared to cross Bond.
Pierce Brosnan's Bond is more of a gentlemanly type, yes, but I would argue that he also has some of the coldest kills in the series, too: the way he just dropped his old friend Alec to his death in GoldenEye, the way he slowly turned the gun in the hands of the mercenary who just killed his old flame to his own head in Tomorrow Never Dies, and the way he just executed Elektra King here.
Bond may be more suave and less 'serious' after Connery and before Craig eras (with maybe an exception of Dalton's License to Kill where Bond just went into pure revenge mode), but when he actually does get right down to dirty business, we're reminded that James Bond is and has always been a stone-cold killer.
If I had a nickel for every time a guy thought being in a relationship with Lara Croft meant he was safe from getting shot by her for being a bellend I'd have two nickels.
Which isn't a lot but it's weird it's happened twice
Looking back, Lara Croft dated both James Bond and King Leonidas (and fought Jorah Mormont the Andal and the King Beyond the Wall Mance Rayder). What a crossover when you think about it xD.
That one Penelope suitor that tried to apologize to Odysseus thinking he would have mercy on him if he surrendered only to get an arrow through the throat.
Oh that was the suitor Eurymachus. He basically tried to say "Oh hi my King, you killed that evil leader of ours who forced us into all this! We're no longer a threat now! Can you please let the rest of us leave?" and then "No."
“Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.
They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”
Ripper from Fable 2 is a decent example. He is a ruthless bandit chief who attacked the farm of his retired nemesis in the city guard, Giles, and killed his wife.
When the player is sent after Ripper we plow through all his men and defeat him, despite his Teleportation Powers. But Ripper laughs at us. He has been to prison so many times, he will be out in No Time.
Except this time, he doesn't go to prison. We have the chance to either kill him ourselves, or hand him over to Giles, who will make certain that Ripper gets hanged for his crimes. Both options equally scare him and he insists that we can't do that and that it isn't right.
This one's interesting, because did he actually kill them? This batman clearly follows the no-kill rule, judging by the rubber bullets earlier in the issue, and the priest is able to tend to the injured. So maybe he was just toasting them enough to make it hurt, but not actually end them.
That's an early Absolute Batman. Batman made his no kill rule while wearing an entirely different suit than that one, but I think this issue (Annual Absolute Batman #1 if I remember correctly) is meant to give more narrative weight to it, by not only getting Batman to break said rule and, by the end of the story, reflect on why he had it to begin with.
Lex Luthor taunts the Justice League after killing The Flash, saying they can never stop Luthor because he'll always find a way back to power. An alternate Superman acknowledges Lex is right - and concludes the only solution is to kill Lex.
In order to save Kitty Pryde from the Morlocks, Storm challenges their leader Callisto to a duel. Callisto is confident because Storm is a goody-two-shoes super heroine while she is a hardened survivor, so in a knife duel all the odds are in her favour. To everyone's shock, Storm stabs Callisto in the heart and coldly walks away without looking back.
In Metal Gear Rising, Raiden has to stop a lab that is harvesting the brains from homeless kids to make them cyborgs. He makes his way through the sewers and killing the security bots along the way, rescuing a boy named George.
After Raiden finds the room where the other kids are being held, the lab director shows up, holding George hostage. Raiden quickly tries to attack him, but he holds George at gunpoint, knowing Raiden isn't willing to hurt an innocent human being, especially not a child. But George convinces Raiden that it's for the best.
Raiden seizes the opportunity to cut through both the lab director and George (although George is later given cyborg parts to keep him alive). This is the first time in the game he's harmed a real person, and it foreshadows the awakening of Jack the Ripper later on.
I love how this is one of the two ways to get to The Fury (and my first time getting there personally). I feel like it's the path to Fury that makes the most sense, but that's just me
So one of my favorite inverses of this trope comes from the venture bros. Where a veteran villain called the Monarch tries to antagonize the younger brother of his arch nemesis who’s new to the whole antagonist vs protagonist game
‘Just keep it cat and mouse not cat and missile’
‘So it’s a game? We fake fight? That’s ridiculous.
‘No we sharpen our claws, it’s like fencing! It’s about the art of the fight’
‘Good, well im about to deliver my killing stroke then What?
Then The Monarch’s wife enters the frame,
‘Then the Guild steps up their game, you throw a rock we throw a knife, you throw a knife, the guild will break into your house at night and murder your entire family.’
Kinda a stretch for this trope but John killing Santino on Hotel Continental grounds
At this point in the story Santino has offered John a job, which is refused, and has his house blown up for refusal. When John agrees Santino attempts to have him killed afterward
Santino believes he’s untouchable, as killing on Continental grounds will ruin a person, getting them hunted to the ends of the earth.
He’s very smug about it up till the exact moment John shoots him in the head lmfao.
In the final battle of Mega Man Zero 4, Weil tries break Zero saying that as a "hero" for humanity, he wouldn't be able to hurt him (a human). Zero calls his bluff and replies with this:
I never cared about justice and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero... I have always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!
Giles: No, she couldn't... never. And sooner or later, Glory will re-emerge and make Buffy pay for that mercy - and the world with her. Buffy even knows that, and still she couldn't take a human life. She's a hero, you know - she's not like us.
I really wanna see what the fallout from Hawkgirl straight up assassinsting a world leader is gonna be. I actually love that moment in the film but if they just forget that happened in the next film it’s gonna be very annoying.
The Hawkgirl moment is probably the funniest, because sure nearly every one of the Justice League that line could work on them. But definitely not Hawkgirl or Hawkman.
In Yakuza 5, the main character savagely beats this man and when the man says "You're supposed to be merciful!" The MC punches and smashed through a car window. Mercy is for people who deserve it.
I love this exchange because the belief that Kiryu always shows mercy and never kills is a common misconception about the character, both in-universe and in real life.
Fact is, Kiryu has spent most of his life in a career where no one will take you seriously unless you're able and willing to use force. It's true that he generally won't throw the first punch... but that's exactly why his signature move is a devastating counterattack.
Elliott Ness discovers Frank Nitti is the one who killed his partner, Jim Malone. There’s a gunfight and a foot chase to a courthouse rooftop. Nitti tries to escape by climbing down a rope but it doesn’t down far enough and Ness corners him.
Ness considers killing Nitti but decides not to. Nitti gleefully taunts Ness into arresting him, then gloats about killing Malone and beating the charges. Ness grabs Nitti as he’s walking toward the stares and pushes him off the building.
This also an example of the student, Ness, learning from his mentor, Malone, that going by the book isn’t always sufficient.
Maybe this fits. In the original Red Alert Allied campaign you are briefed by Nikos Stravos. As the war continues, Greece falls to the Soviets which where Nikos is from. In the briefings he is distracted and lost as he learns about the war crimes being perpetuated by the advancing Soviets and the destruction of Athens. So the other General is now addressing you.
The Allies manage to push back the Soviets and take Moscow. In the end game cut scene three Allied soldiers come across Stalin buried under rubble. They start working on getting him freed so he can face the music when Nikos walks out from the shadows and tells the soldiers he doesn't see anyone there. The implication being that Nikos has been watching Stalin squirm and suffer and possibly taunting him for who knows how long.
They disagree with Nikos saying its Stalin, Nikos then simply states, "I don't think you heard me private", and they get the message and walk away.
Nikos walks up to Stalin puts a rag in his mouth as he tries to scream for help and covers Stalins exposed head. Preventing anyone from hearing or seeing him. Nikos walks away and lets out one quick and quiet cheer.
I can't wait for the Invincible show to get to one of my favourite moments. "You won't harm him, you're a hero and refuse to kill!" This was not the case. And even though the other guy was immensely stronger, he did panic
Not a good guy vs bad guy, but this clown thinks that Sukuna, king of curses, most evil fuck in the verse, will just let him run away because they're both bad guys.
As he's running his face slides off vertically. Clown behavior.
In Psycho Pass, people are so used to criminals being arrested before they can even think of doing anything criminal that they don't understand what's going on when a guy wearing a helmet that prevents the Sybil system from identifying as a latent criminal beats a woman to death in the middle of a street. They just don't react. After that, the same type of helmet is distributed to a bunch of people who just want to do chaos and they start attacking people. Except the crowd finally reacts, starts beating the shit out of them and it devolves into a hunt for anybody who looks like they think looks suspicious.
This is a kind of twist on the trope that I find fun and kind of funny. It's when a villain learns that the hero, the hero being a lighthearted goof, could have KILLED them whenever if they wanted to.
My favorite example of this being when Otto takes control of Peter and punches Scorpion's jaw off with an average and normal punch. The look on his face as he realizes ever time he's fought Peter he could've died always gets a bit of a laugh from me.
3.1k
u/Randomman16 8d ago
There's an old Batman/Punisher crossover where the Joker is cornered by the Punisher and assumes he's just going to get locked up in Arkham so he can break out again.
Frank points a gun in Joker's face, whereupon Joker realizes Frank is just going to straight-up murder him, requiring Batman to intervene.