Tropescilloscope: Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?

Villains never take the most direct approach to dealing with enemies. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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More Tropes Overly Long Gag What the Hell, Hero? Fatal Family Photo Guns Akimbo Green-Eyed Monster Fate Worse than Death Animated Credits Opening Would Hit a Girl The Cavalry Product Placement Cold-Blooded Torture Heroic BSoD Super Strength For the Evulz Slashed Throat Gratuitous English Kill It with Fire Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping In the Back Left the Background Music On Non-Indicative Name Eldritch Abomination Humiliation Conga Action Prologue As You Know Not So Above It All Ripped from the Headlines Big Bad Duumvirate Calling the Old Man Out Reckless Gun Usage Expy Parental Neglect Drowning My Sorrows Didn't Think This Through Military and Warfare Films Spanner in the Works Brother–Sister Incest Bullying a Dragon As Himself Unresolved Sexual Tension Token Minority Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Novelization Soft Glass Adorkable Interrupted Suicide Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Maybe Ever After Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Precision F-Strike Chekhov's Gun Credits Gag Butt-Monkey Have a Gay Old Time Does This Remind You of Anything? I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Better to Die than Be Killed The Ace Never Trust a Trailer Dumb Blonde Adaptation Dye-Job Ghost Fiction The Faceless Eye Scream Mad Scientist La Résistance The Stinger "Shaggy Dog" Story Black Comedy Gone Horribly Right Ambiguous Disorder Obfuscating Stupidity Naked People Are Funny The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Paper-Thin Disguise Mercy Kill Blood Knight The Sociopath The Brute Ambiguously Gay Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Lampshade Hanging Punch-Clock Villain Retcon The Ditz Soundtrack Dissonance Parental Abandonment Fainting Ascended Extra Protagonist Title Cat Fight Dissonant Serenity Heroes Want Redheads After the End Silence Is Golden Hidden Depths No Antagonist "The Reason You Suck" Speech Dual Wielding Tagline Bald of Evil Face Death with Dignity Ax-Crazy You Have Failed Me The Atoner Improbable Aiming Skills Crazy Jealous Guy Action Survivor Corrupt Corporate Executive Psychopathic Manchild Running Gag Yandere Alpha Bitch Heel Realization And I Must Scream Reasonable Authority Figure You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Broken Pedestal Room Full of Crazy Moment Killer Knight Templar Gender Flip Alliterative Name Pretty in Mink He Who Fights Monsters One-Word Title O.O.C. Is Serious Business Karma Houdini Insistent Terminology Married to the Job Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Fiery Redhead Defrosting Ice Queen As the Good Book Says... You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Fatal Flaw Apocalypse How The Remake The Mole Breaking the Fourth Wall Your Head A-Splode Works Set in World War II Mr. Fanservice Break the Haughty Author Appeal Bar Brawl Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Slasher Smile Men Are the Expendable Gender Mythology Gag Adaptation Distillation Disguised in Drag Four-Temperament Ensemble Foil Sinister Minister The Dog Bites Back How We Got Here An Arm and a Leg Sexy Discretion Shot Friend to All Children A.I. Is a Crapshoot Fat Bastard Off-into-the-Distance Ending Faking the Dead The '50s Stock Footage Say My Name Damsel in Distress Jerk Jock Pre-Mortem One-Liner Amusing Injuries Honor Before Reason Never Found the Body Russian Films The Cameo French Films Take a Third Option Kill 'em All Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Killed Mid-Sentence Badass Boast The Musical Punny Name Shut Up, Hannibal! Film Noir No-Sell Male Frontal Nudity Demonic Possession Superhero Captain Ersatz Back from the Dead Extreme Doormat Flipping the Bird Accidental Misnaming Properly Paranoid Anti-Hero The Alleged Car Plot Hole Exact Words Obviously Evil Thriller Anti-Villain Obstructive Bureaucrat Red Shirt Artistic License – History Those Wacky Nazis Dutch Angle Leitmotif Early Installment Weirdness Creator Cameo Manipulative Bastard Villain with Good Publicity Abusive Parents Scenery Gorn Decoy Protagonist Drugs Are Bad Fire-Forged Friends The Casanova Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? All Girls Want Bad Boys Reality Has No Subtitles My Beloved Smother Dull Surprise Big "NO!" Stealth Pun My Greatest Failure Mundane Made Awesome Cluster F-Bomb Curse Cut Short Asshole Victim Sadistic Choice Badass in a Nice Suit Contrived Coincidence Last-Name Basis Badass Grandpa Science Fiction Films Antagonist Title folderlabel The Lancer Trailers Always Spoil Ominous Latin Chanting Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Imagine Spot From Bad to Worse Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Jerkass Has a Point Death by Irony Heterosexual Life-Partners Knife Nut Curb-Stomp Battle Self-Deprecation Fantasy Films Only One Name Wounded Gazelle Gambit Shirtless Scene Idiot Ball Hero of Another Story Implacable Man Bound and Gagged Historical In-Joke Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Captain Obvious Lighter and Softer I'm a Humanitarian Drives Like Crazy Shown Their Work Accidental Murder Bad Boss Fake Shemp Framing Device Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Attempted Rape Closed Circle Wham Shot As Long as It Sounds Foreign The Load Hollywood Darkness B-Movie Revenge Adaptational Attractiveness Reality Ensues The Un-Reveal The '60s Japanese Films Stalker with a Crush Nice Guy Fun with Acronyms BFG All There in the Manual Only a Flesh Wound Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Training Montage Word of God Adults Are Useless The Stoner Affectionate Parody Not What It Looks Like Cool Shades Fanservice Nice Hat All Just a Dream Let's Get Dangerous! The Hero Catapult Nightmare Destination Defenestration Spiritual Successor Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Time Skip Whole Plot Reference Freudian Excuse Totally Radical An Axe to Grind Redshirt Army The Place Rich Bitch Does Not Like Shoes Red Right Hand Film Series Intrepid Reporter Villain Opening Scene Sequel Hook Nothing Is Scarier Conspicuous CG Rule of Three Arranged Marriage Refuge in Audacity Insult Backfire An Aesop Early-Bird Cameo Only Sane Man Took a Level in Jerkass Brick Joke Double Entendre The X of Y Visual Pun Made of Iron Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Made of Explodium The Mafia Annoying Younger Sibling Badass Bookworm Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Show Within a Show Off with His Head! Developing Doomed Characters The Voiceless Bait-and-Switch World of Ham Betty and Veronica Instant Death Bullet Police are Useless Crazy-Prepared Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Wrong Genre Savvy Peek-a-Boo Corpse Abhorrent Admirer Artistic License – Geography The Dreaded Call-Forward Historical-Domain Character Dirty Cop Sole Survivor Hooker with a Heart of Gold Anyone Can Die Loophole Abuse Pyrrhic Victory Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Narrator Badass Normal The Reveal Country Matters Daddy's Girl Defiant to the End Bitch in Sheep's Clothing All Men Are Perverts Frame-Up Face–Heel Turn Sassy Black Woman Alas, Poor Villain Reality Is Unrealistic You Killed My Father Cassandra Truth Bilingual Bonus Your Cheating Heart Not So Different Big Damn Heroes Black and Gray Morality Black Comedy Rape Adaptation Expansion Darker and Edgier Almost Kiss "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Toplessness from the Back Hollywood Law Foreshadowing A God Am I Leave the Camera Running Oh, Crap! I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Failed a Spot Check Unwitting Instigator of Doom Bare Your Midriff Posthumous Character Hell Is That Noise Not So Stoic Epic Fail Dark and Troubled Past The Chessmaster Everyone Has Standards Unreliable Narrator Market-Based Title Earn Your Happy Ending Rated M for Manly Arc Words Overprotective Dad Villain Protagonist Disappeared Dad 20 Minutes into the Future Meet Cute Scare Chord No Name Given From Nobody to Nightmare Groin Attack Air-Vent Passageway Rule of Funny Handicapped Badass Stuff Blowing Up Would Hurt a Child Naïve Newcomer Children Are Innocent Bury Your Gays Really Gets Around Immune to Bullets Irony A Date with Rosie Palms Australian Movies Beta Couple Ass Shove And Starring '80s Hair Meaningful Echo Ungrateful Bastard No Celebrities Were Harmed Bring My Brown Pants Distracted by the Sexy timeperiod He Knows Too Much Red Herring Car Fu Offscreen Moment of Awesome Final Girl Lock and Load Montage Vampire Fiction Cruel and Unusual Death Fan Disservice Crucified Hero Shot Politically Incorrect Villain Improbable Weapon User Victoria's Secret Compartment Despair Event Horizon Depraved Bisexual Mexican Standoff Cool Old Lady Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Faux Affably Evil Grievous Bottley Harm Adaptational Heroism Video Credits Chase Scene Unspoken Plan Guarantee Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Laughing Mad May–December Romance Tap on the Head Mood Whiplash Straight Gay A Father to His Men Horror Comedy Logo Joke Evil Sounds Deep Ironic Echo Covers Always Lie Zombie Stories Smoking Is Cool Random Events Plot The Bad Guy Wins All There in the Script Based on a True Story Red Oni, Blue Oni Evil Is Petty Too Dumb to Live Shower Scene A Minor Kidroduction Gold Digger Mr. Exposition Not Using the "Z" Word Our Vampires Are Different I Have Your Wife Batman Gambit For Want of a Nail Dirty Coward The '90s Pimped-Out Dress Big Bad Becoming the Mask Insane Troll Logic Kick the Dog Bunny-Ears Lawyer No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Twist Ending Motor Mouth The '80s I Need a Freaking Drink Psycho for Hire Pragmatic Villainy Villain Ball Deconstruction One-Man Army Television Movie Index Fingore Driven to Suicide Stealth Hi/Bye Film Noir Index Manic Pixie Dream Girl Arch-Enemy Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! My God, What Have I Done? Ambiguous Ending Hair-Trigger Temper Fish out of Water Manchild Parental Substitute Death by Sex Not Even Bothering with the Accent Dwindling Party Romantic False Lead Amoral Attorney The Vamp Chekhov's Skill Red Eyes, Take Warning Bolivian Army Ending Re-Cut Index of Film Westerns Casting Gag Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Grey and Gray Morality Scary Black Man Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Sealed Evil in a Can Evil Counterpart Wretched Hive Determinator aka: The Determinator Famous Last Words Gory Discretion Shot Fantastic Racism Domestic Abuse And the Adventure Continues Love at First Sight Setting Update Italian Films Camp Gay Historical Villain Upgrade Needs Wiki Magic Love Unusually Uninteresting Sight The Alcoholic Spiteful Spit Age Lift Deadpan Snarker Adaptational Badass Vacation Films Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Kids Are Cruel Man on Fire Jump Scare Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Freeze-Frame Bonus Suspiciously Specific Denial Recycled IN SPACE! Babies Ever After Historical Hero Upgrade Only in It for the Money Artistic License – Biology Beard of Evil Fourth Date Marriage Real Life Writes the Plot Stylistic Suck Pet the Dog Romantic Comedy Truth in Television Costume Porn Never My Fault Cain and Abel Taking the Bullet It's All About Me Berserk Button Creative Closing Credits Intergenerational Friendship I Did What I Had to Do Bottomless Magazines Mugging the Monster Artistic License – Law Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil The Stoic Adult Fear Well-Intentioned Extremist Silent Movie Noodle Incident Henpecked Husband This Is Gonna Suck Genre Shift Take That! Villain Song Love Triangle Auto Erotica The Dragon The Smart Guy Happily Married Music Stories Black Dude Dies First Card-Carrying Villain Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Chekhov's Gunman Guile Hero Up to Eleven Riddle for the Ages Deliberate Values Dissonance Good Is Not Nice Roaring Rampage of Revenge Big Fancy House Character Development Big Applesauce Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Cloudcuckoolander Wicked Cultured Dressing as the Enemy Cat Scare No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Martial Arts Movie Suspiciously Similar Substitute In Name Only Actually Pretty Funny In Medias Res Half the Man He Used to Be Artistic License – Gun Safety Together in Death Bad "Bad Acting" Broken Bird Gorn It's Personal Smug Snake "Awesome McCool" Name Sanity Slippage Public Domain Feature Films Not Quite Dead Papa Wolf Shout-Out Animal Title Index Dying Moment of Awesome Death Seeker Rule of Cool Death of a Child Rewatch Bonus Bland-Name Product Celebrity Paradox Creepy Child Canadian Movies It Can Think Manly Tears Put on a Bus Hope Spot Daylight Horror Kick the Son of a Bitch Chewing the Scenery Chiaroscuro Evil Brit Evil Laugh Woman Scorned Eiffel Tower Effect Action Girl Adapted Out Every Car Is a Pinto Animal Motifs Enemy Mine Affably Evil Big-Bad Ensemble Unusual Euphemism Black Best Friend Downer Ending Very Loosely Based on a True Story Bittersweet Ending Easily Forgiven Scenery Porn Redemption Equals Death The Great Depression Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Police Brutality Ms. Fanservice Retirony Bi the Way Beauty Is Never Tarnished Eagleland Informed Ability Hero Antagonist Meaningful Background Event Meaningful Name Outrun the Fireball Rape as Drama Aluminum Christmas Trees Psychological Thriller Flashback Actor Allusion Authority Equals Asskicking Kubrick Stare Spell My Name with an "S" Getting Crap Past the Radar Crapsack World Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Eyepatch of Power Bloody Hilarious Cool Old Guy Vomit Discretion Shot Deus ex Machina Belligerent Sexual Tension Armor-Piercing Question Diabolus ex Machina Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Shoot the Shaggy Dog Once More, with Clarity! Sequel Escalation Get Out! Blood from the Mouth Karmic Death Slap-Slap-Kiss She's Got Legs Hypocritical Humor Title Drop Big Eater Male Gaze Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Blatant Lies Boom, Headshot! Light Is Not Good The Smurfette Principle Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Make It Look Like an Accident Dropped a Bridge on Him Star-Crossed Lovers Cowboy Cop Neck Lift Mind Screw Evil Plan Undying Loyalty Mooks Christmas Movies Index Adaptational Villainy Documentary Playing Gertrude Blackmail Exactly What It Says on the Tin The Ghost N-Word Privileges Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Establishing Character Moment Body Horror Awesome, but Impractical Evil Is Hammy The Oner Facial Horror Older Than They Look Bowdlerise Artistic License – Military Important Haircut Shell-Shocked Veteran Rule of Symbolism Book-Ends Badass Longcoat Department of Redundancy Department All for Nothing Bloodier and Gorier No Ending MacGuffin Deliberately Monochrome Major Injury Underreaction Mistaken for Gay Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Catch-Phrase Here We Go Again! What You Are in the Dark Death by Adaptation Loads and Loads of Characters Line-of-Sight Name Race Against the Clock Dirty Old Man Combat Pragmatist Plucky Comic Relief It Will Never Catch On Woman in White Sir Swears-a-Lot More Dakka Extremely Short Timespan Madness Mantra NO INDOOR VOICE Hypocrite Mighty Whitey Only Known by Their Nickname Be Careful What You Wish For The Starscream Hate Sink Real Life Deal with the Devil Foregone Conclusion Funny Foreigner Expository Hairstyle Change Author Avatar Cool Car Laser-Guided Karma Evil-Detecting Dog Call-Back Demoted to Extra Five-Man Band Wham Line Suddenly SHOUTING! The Chick Adaptation Name Change Disney Villain Death Dies Wide Open Rousing Speech Jitter Cam Vomit Indiscretion Shot Monumental Damage Jerk with a Heart of Gold Sports Stories Dark Reprise Serial Killer Comically Missing the Point Heel–Face Turn The Big Guy Brutal Honesty Names to Run Away from Really Fast War Is Hell Dramatic Irony The Lost Lenore Death Glare Pragmatic Adaptation Heroic Sacrifice Improvised Weapon Genre Throwback Agony of the Feet No OSHA Compliance Slasher Movie Took a Level in Badass Break the Cutie Eureka Moment Jerkass Those Two Bad Guys Bond Villain Stupidity Broken Aesop The End... Or Is It? True Companions Drill Sergeant Nasty Artistic License – Physics German Films Small Name, Big Ego Anguished Declaration of Love Action Genre Hong Kong Films Brainless Beauty Even Evil Has Loved Ones Translation Convention Same Language Dub Funny Background Event Evil vs. Evil Genre Savvy Corpsing Fanservice Extra Epic Movie Empathic Environment Horror Films Poor Communication Kills The Hero Dies She Cleans Up Nicely Femme Fatale The Film of the Book Darkest Hour Tranquil Fury Bloodless Carnage Coming-of-Age Story Homage The Bully Dogged Nice Guy Morality Pet Villainous Breakdown Storming the Castle Due to the Dead Large Ham Even Evil Has Standards Those Two Guys Beware the Nice Ones Spared by the Adaptation Skewed Priorities Ship Tease Malevolent Masked Men Leaning on the Fourth Wall Greater-Scope Villain Camera Abuse Retired Badass "Well Done, Son!" Guy Anachronism Stew One Steve Limit Hoist by His Own Petard Offscreen Teleportation Mama Bear Worthy Opponent Stepford Smiler Disney Death The Power of Love Sacrificial Lion Tempting Fate The Quiet One Rasputinian Death There Is No Kill Like Overkill Neck Snap Aside Glance Advertised Extra Double-Meaning Title Biopic Vitriolic Best Buds Central Theme Anachronic Order Sci-Fi Horror Did Not Get the Girl Parental Incest Match Cut Dramedy Continuity Nod Disproportionate Retribution Gainax Ending Dark Is Not Evil Humans Are Bastards Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Gilligan Cut Big Brother Instinct Race Lift Missing Mom Throwing Your Sword Always Works Pretty Little Headshots Taking You with Me Composite Character Determinator Dramatic Gun Cock Serious Business Shipper on Deck What Happened to the Mouse? The '70s Bond One-Liner Canon Foreigner Bavarian Fire Drill Mystery and Detective Films Award-Bait Song Cool Guns Our Zombies Are Different Danny Peary Cult Movies List Dark Action Girl British Films Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Pay Evil unto Evil