Basic Trope: Problems in fiction are best solved through violence.
- Straight: President Alice of Tropeland sends Ambassador Bob to negotiate with General Evulz of the Evulz Empire. Negotiations fail, and war breaks out.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice doesn't bother with negotiations; she just declares war.
- Alice assassinates Evuls unprovoked and the world instantly becomes a Sugar Bowl.
- Wars are prevented by sacrificing 100 virgins a day to satiate the bloodthirst of the Death Deity.
- Downplayed: Bob goes to negotiate with Evulz. A brief fistfight breaks out, but is quickly resolved, when Evulz is cowed into submission, and agrees to take threats of war off table. Bob concludes that sometimes violence is necessary to prevent even greater violence.
- Justified: Evulz is an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight warmongering Pushy Gun-Toting Villain with a Hair-Trigger Temper and who wants Alice/Bob/everybody in Tropeland dead just for existing or because he was having a bad day, so negotiations won't be effective.
- Inverted:
- Alice never considers violence an option.
- Alice can't fight her way out of this one.
- Subverted: Evulz isn't known for negotiating, but he strikes an agreement with Bob.
- Double Subverted: The agreement is a ruse so Evulz can launch a surprise attack on Tropeland.
- Parodied: President Alice runs out of milk. She responds by declaring war on a neighbouring country .
- Zig-Zagged: It looks like Bob's negotiations with Evulz will fail, but Evulz suddenly agrees to Bob's proposal. After Bob returns home, however, Evulz launches a surprise attack on Tropeland. Alice, however, has prepared for this contingency, and Tropeland launches a successful counterattack in which Evulz is killed. His replacement then decides that reopening negotiations would be a good idea.
- Averted: The negotiations succeed. End of story.
- Lampshaded: "So much for negotiations. Looks like we're going to war after all."
- Invoked:
- Alice sends Bob to negotiate with Evulz, knowing that he'll fail so she can then declare war.
- Someone sabotages the negotiations so that war will break out.
- Exploited: Arms Dealer Charlie sees the war coming and gets his merchandise ready to sell.
- Defied: Bob and Evulz fail to negotiate. However, something comes up that prevents either side from declaring a war.
- Discussed: "Bob's gone to negotiate, but we'd better arm ourselves in case he fails."
- Conversed: "If this is a war movie, then don't have too much faith in Bob's chances."
- Deconstructed: War breaks out between Tropeland and the Evulz Empire. Many people are killed, and the land is devastated.
- Reconstructed: The war ends with Evulz' defeat and subsequent death, with the Evulz Empire crashing down along with it; with him gone, Tropeland can restore peace and rebuild the land.
Back to Violence Is the Only Option.
