Tropescilloscope: Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?

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

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