Ira Kane: [pointing at one of the aliens] Snag it and put it in the bucket.
Harry Block: Uh-uh. I've seen this movie; the black dude dies first. You snag it.
Harry Block: Uh-uh. I've seen this movie; the black dude dies first. You snag it.
A Defied Trope happens when a character knows, In-Universe, that a trope is about to happen, either due to being Genre Savvy or because someone is trying to invoke it, and then actively attempts to avert it, subvert it, or invert it. They might succeed or they might fail. The point is that the character is attempting to avoid a straight run of the trope, in-universe.
Contrast Invoked Trope, Exploited Trope, Discussed Trope.
Not to be confused with a simple Subverted Trope, which is not prompted by any characters.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Contrasting the invoked Bodyguard Crush in Kaze no Stigma, Kazuma goes out of his way to keep Ayano at a distance and offend her as much as possible so she doesn't get attached to him either. It doesn't really work.
- The second season of Princess Tutu is all about the characters defying the roles assigned to them by the writer of the story.
- At the end of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, A God Am I is deliberately shot down by the potential god-figure himself, who in response to his potential use of power and leadership simply states that he is "just Simon the Digger." And if that trope had not been defied, the Bad Ending from the beginning of the show would have happened.
- In the second Tiger & Bunny drama CD, Karina assures Barnaby that she has no intention of letting their animosity towards each other become Belligerent Sexual Tension. So far she's proven successful: not only is any attraction between them still absent, they're now competing with each other for Kotetsu's attention.
Karina: You know those situations where people hate each other's guts at first, but then developing feeling for each other?Barnaby: Yeah?Karina: That's not going to happen. I'll rip down those Event Flags myself if I have to.
- Judai of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX says he realizes it's pointless to give a Kirk Summation to Yubel.
- Also, when Asuka is encouraged to become an Idol Singer, she actively refuses to become one.
- Rei Kiriyama from March Comes in Like a Lion defies both attempts by his adopted sister Kyoko to manipulate him into losing his professional shogi matches on purpose.
- Kagome Higurashi from Inuyasha openly defies Unrequited Tragic Maiden and Love Makes You Evil. When she's told repeatedly by The Baby that her feelings for Inuyasha are completely one-sided and she's selfish for even thinking he can love her back, that he'll never love her like he loved Kikyou and that she must pull a Face–Heel Turn, she ultimately tells him that yes, she is jealous of Kikyou and she is aware that Kikyou will always be important to Inuyasha... but that said circumstances do NOT invalidate HER own feelings, and no one has right to tell her otherwise. And then she rejects the Baby's FHT offer.
- In the Magic Knight Rayearth II anime, Ferio busts into Fuu's in-progress escape from Fahren's ship, being her Love Interest and all. When she starts casting a spell to assist as though she's half of a Battle Couple, Ferio stops her—he wants to do a Rescue Romance instead. He does live up to the Battle Couple trope a few episodes later, when they both fight monsters summoned by Debonair.
- In My Hero Academia, the League of Villains attempt to invoke the Rival Turned Evil trope with Bakugo, kidnapping him in order to turn him to their side. They have good reason for thinking this would work, as Bakugo initially seems to be a perfect candidate to corrupt, being a childhood friend-turned-bully of Midoriya, and having grown resentful of Midoriya's recent progress as a hero. Not to mention that Bakugo is seen as such a violent, ill-tempered Jerkass that even the other heroes have doubts that he will remain on their side. However, Bakugo ultimately refuses to join the League, and even accepts his classmates' help in his rescue despite his Inferiority Superiority Complex and Don't You Dare Pity Me! attitude.
- In the Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth manga, Gumshoe defies Treachery Cover Up, when it turns out that the murderer, Police Chief Chase Clink killed someone to prevent a secret that would seemingly do harm to the police department's credibility from coming to light, although unbeknownst to the killer, it actually would not have been relevant. Gumshoe says that even though he knows how people will react, the public needs to learn the truth.
- In one of The King of Fighters manga, Kyo Kusanagi defies Smooch of Victory when he stops his just-released-from-a-Death Trap girlfriend Yuki from kissing him, because he believes that it's his fault she was kidnapped and emotionally broken.
- Girls und Panzer:
- Kay defies Curb-Stomp Battle in the match between Saunders and Oarai. She chooses not to come at them with all their tanks despite outnumbering them two to one, because she believes it would be unfair, after hearing that one of her subordinates was eavesdropping on Oarai's radio transmissions without her knowledge or approval.
- In "Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu", Dreaming of a White Christmas gets defied; because Oarai and all other schools are on ships, they can go anywhere for the colder months. As such, they end up just off the coast of Australia, where it's warm enough to wear bikinis and swimwear, much to Saori's chagrin, as she thinks a white Christmas is more romantic.
- GaoGaiGar defies Destructive Savior early on by introducing the Dividing Driver as early as Episode 3. It creates a safe battlefield in any area by shifting the rest of the matter out of the way temporarily.
- Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun defies Fake Relationship in one issue. Mikoshiba explains to Sakura that he needs a fake girlfriend in order to ward off a suitor. Both of them are very familiar with romance stories, and thus independently realize that the flow of the conversation will lead to them fake-dating (either by Sakura offering or Mikoshiba asking), which neither of them want to do, so they both trail off...and get offended that the other didn't offer/ask. Mikoshiba winds up bringing Seo, who is more or less convincing.
- In a episode of Hozuki's Coolheadedness, King Enma try to set-up various romantic situations between Hozuki and Maki by creating Contrived Coincidences with the help of the gods. Hozuki successively defies each and every one of them. When he make it so that they so happen to run into each other while both in the human world, he keep his usual stricly professional attitude and stay focused on what he was doing. When she happen to feel dizzy from hunger and nearly collapse on him, before a bug appear to scare her so that she jump at him, he simply suggest that she get inside a café to rest. And when she is about to literally fall right into his arms from a stair, instead of catching her, he use one hand to deflect her fall so that she safely land sitting on the ground.
Comic Books
- Watchmen has Ozymandias deliver a typical Breaking Speech to the heroes 35 minutes after he'd already completed his Evil Plan. He's not a moron.
- He also had made sure he drew the heroes all the way down to Antarctica- his Evil Plan goes down in New York- even before doing that. There is Crazy-Prepared, and then there is this.
- Black Orchid begins with a villain defying Bond Villain Stupidity after catching the title character operating undercover in his organization: instead of monologuing about his plans or putting her in a death trap, he just shoots her in the head. (He doesn't know that she can regenerate.)
- At the end of volume 2 of Empowered the eponymous superheroine saves the life of a criminal who's holding her hostage, because he's still a human being with a wife and a daughter.
- In MAD, the Ventriloquist Priest defies What You Are in the Dark by using ventriloquism to make it seem as though the statues of saints are talking about the people who don't give money, scaring them into donating. Similarly, in "A Mad Look At," a priest videotapes the collection and the parishioners, sweating profusely, start giving more generously.
Fan Works
- Reconciliation seems to be headed towards Cuckold at first glance; Hanako, after her Bad Ending, has isolated herself from Lilly and Hisao out of guilt for eight years. During this time, Lilly and Hisao have gotten together, and Hanako still has feelings for Hisao. The twist that forces Hanako out of her self-imposed isolation, since she's unable to bring herself to even see either of them, however, is Lilly calling her to inform her of Hisao's death.
- In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, a rookie griffon soldier named Slip almost pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here, but he seems to know what happens to deserters in war stories, so he decides to keep fighting. Shortly after this sudden bout of courage, he's killed.
- There's a subversion of a defied trope in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series: both times Dr. Brainstorm refutes Enemy Mine, he ends up playing it straight.
- Despite being played straight before, Part 3 - Twilight of Turnabout Storm defies Acting for Two: The Judge refuses to talk to Doctor Whooves as he's afraid it might cause some sort of paradox if he does.
- One of the The Awkward Adventures of Meghan Whimblesby, after she falls into The Lord of the Rings, is when she bathes in a stream. In fear of Outdoor Bath Peeping, Meghan takes a quick bath. She is out, dressed, and walking away from the stream, when Legolas arrives. Meghan mentions her bath, Legolas apologizes, but Meghan laughs. "You didn't get a free show or anything, so we're good."
- Rachel of The Games of the Gods, who also fell into The Lord of the Rings, defies Sailor Earth. Rachel says no when Elrond tries to recruit Rachel into the Fellowship of the Ring. Rachel never becomes the Tenth Walker.
- In Boys Do Tankary, surprisingly enough, the Gary Stu main characters defy Curb-Stomp Battle by holding back when they could have almost instantly defeated Darjeeling's forces (who won against Miho in a practice game in canon), so that they could see what Miho and the others could do, and so that they wouldn't end up relying on the boys.
- Home with the Fairies presents another way to defy Outdoor Bath Peeping. The bandits want to watch as Maddie and the other prisoners bathe in a stream. They all refuse to bathe.
- Necessary to Win
- Kana defies "The Reason You Suck" Speech against Ceylon, the outgoing commander of St. Gloriana. Despite despising Ceylon, Kana simply tells Ceylon that since she'll be gone soon, she's not worth the speech, which has a similar effect.
- Hiroe defies You Have Failed Me, after losing to Black Forest.
Hiroe: I've never scapegoated any of my teammates for my losses; I'm not about to start with my sister.- Maho defies Always Save the Girl and Psycho Supporter. While she is determined to live up to her mother's expectations for being the Nishizumi heiress so that Miho will not have to, she also does not want to do anything that Miho would not approve of, feeling guilty when she unwittingly shoots an enemy tank that was on her way to rescue some of her teammates.
- Teru defies "Well Done, Son" Guy, saying that it's almost impossible to live your life solely for someone else's approval.
- In The Stalking Zuko Series, Suki defies Satellite Love Interest, worrying that the rest of the Gaang (to say nothing of the viewers) view her as nothing more than Sokka's girlfriend. This, combined with missing her Team Mom status among the Kyoshi Warriors, drives her to find her own role in the Gaang.
- RWBY: Reckoning had a meta case: the author stated at the very beginning of the story that they know how people responded to the related problems of any Self-Insert Fic, and that he would take steps to avoid going down that road.
- Ash's Butterfree in a sidestory of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines defies Murder the Hypotenuse, when he finds out that the Pink Butterfree found herself another mate. He has a moment alone with his "rival", where he could easily kill him and say that a Fearow did it, but ultimately can't bring himself to do it, and decides to let his mate be happy with him.
- Shadows over Meridian defies Won the War, Lost the Peace. Jade explains to Phobos and his followers that if they just overpower Elyon, the Rebellion and Guardians will rally the people against them, so they need to destroy the people's faith in Elyon to win the war.
- The Ultimate Evil defies Jade Chan's love of using Loophole Abuse to go Leeroy Jenkins in chapter 12. Valerie — who has carried Jade and Paco out of the temple the fight over the Pan'Ku Box is taking place — not only tells them to Wait Here, but makes sure to quickly phrase her order to make clear Jade and Paco can only stay where they are or move further away from the temple if the place they are in becomes unsafe. Jade spends a few seconds seconds sputtering (then groaning) in annoyance as she tries to find a loophole but can't find it.
Films — Animated
- Gaston from Beauty and the Beast defies Drowning My Sorrows. After having been rejected by Belle, he slumps in a chair in the tavern, when LeFou offers him "more beer". Gaston replies that "nothing helps", and chucks the glasses in the fireplace. No one abstains like Gaston!
- Isle of Dogs defies Worthless Treasure Twist: when two packs of dogs get ready to fight over a bag of garbage that may contain food, Rex calls a time-out and asks to check the contents of the bag to make sure it's worth it. After the bag is opened and Rex checks the contents and affirms that there's food inside, Chief says it's Worth It and starts the fight.
- In The Incredibles, superhero costume designer Edna Mode doesn't incorporate capes into the costumes she designs, and lists several Cape Snag incidents to explain why. This turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun with a villain. This has long been addressed in actual comics (for one, capes are easily detachable), and the real reason for "no capes" is that the animators didn't want to deal with cape physics and animation over the course of a film.
- In Frozen (2013), Olaf longs to one day experience summer, setting himself up for a Death by Irony. When Elsa stops the Endless Winter she created, she gives Olaf his own snow cloud so he wouldn't melt in the heat.
- At the end of Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph is about to make a Heroic Sacrifice to save Vanellope, but she drives her kart to catch him just after he set off Chekhov's Volcano, but before he would be killed by it.
Films — Live-Action
- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Dr Evil has captured Austin and wants to place him in "an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death" (Dr. Evil's words), and his son Scott wonders why they can't just shoot him. Despite Scott's best efforts, Dr Evil's Contractual Genre Blindness prevails, and Austin predictably escapes from the pool of mutated sea bass that he's suspended over.
- In Dick Tracy, the Blank offers Tracy an alliance to take out "Big Boy" Caprice (the fact that the Blank is actually Breathless Mahoney and she has a crush on Tracy being also a factor) because they both want him gone. Tracy's having none of it.
Dick Tracy: Is the enemy of my enemy my friend, or is the enemy of my enemy my enemy?
Pat Patton: Tracy, what'd you say?
Dick Tracy: The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Pat Patton: What'd he say?
Sam Catchem: He said the enemy of his enemy is his enemy.
Pat Patton: Oh. - In Django Unchained, as the last member of the Candieland organization still alive and (secretly) the architect of a serious chunk of the pain Django and his wife Broomhilda have suffered, Stephen the head slave tries to Face Death with Dignity. Django instead makes sure he will Face Death with Despair by blowing his kneecaps off and leaving him screaming in agony and shouting Ineffectual Death Threats for the couple of minutes it takes for the dynamite Django set in the Candieland manor to count down.
- In Dogma, Serendipity tries to goad Azrael into explaining his evil scheme to them, but he says, "Oh, no you don't: I've seen enough James Bond movies to know that you never reveal all the details of your plan, no matter how close you think you are to winning."
- In Galaxy Quest, Guy is, in essence, a Defied Trope in character form.
Guy: Did you ever watch the show?
- Guy receives a defiance of his own in the final act of the film: Because he was only a Red Shirt extra in the eponymous show, he spends the whole film believing that his only destiny is to die a horrible death and offers to do a Heroic Sacrifice strictly because he's the most expendable. Kwan instead talks him out of it, convinces him that his role is to be the Plucky Comic Relief, and uses the Protector's teleporter to Summon Bigger Fish on the bad guys.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- At the end of Iron Man, Tony mocks all the typical angst-riddled consequences he can expect to face because of his Secret Identity, only to declare that he's Iron Man at a press conference.
- During the Cold Open of Ant-Man, Tony's father Howard defies Create Your Own Villain and Resignations Not Accepted by flat-out refusing to detain Hank Pym after the latter quits SHIELD and takes his shrinking tech with him.
Howard: You really wanna find out what it's like when you can't see him coming? I've known Hank Pym for a long time, he's no security risk. Not unless we make him one.
- Prince Herbert from Monty Python and the Holy Grail tries repeatedly to break out into an "I Want" Song, but his attempts are constantly foiled (complete with Letting the Air out of the Band) by his father.
- The Scream films are supposedly loaded with this, yet most Horror Tropes in them are usually played straight or lampshaded.
- One genuine instance is when the second of the two killers is apparently dead at the end of the first film. Randy Meeks says this is the moment when the killer comes back to life for one last scare. The killer promptly does, but Sidney, without flinching, puts a bullet in his head: "Not in my movie." Sidney then goes on to defy Joker Immunity through the rest of the series by killing the "Ghostface" copy-cat-of-the-film as well, usually by Boom, Headshot!. Maybe the concept of the Ghostface will live on, especially with all of the media trying to profit from it, but the killers sure don't.
- Also used in the second film. A black man leaves town when the bodies start piling up, because he knows "how long brothers last in these movies". He lives.
- In Scream (2022), after several movies in which the Ghostface killers aimed to obtain Fame Through Infamy and got it (although they didn't lived to enjoy it), which then fed into keeping the "Stab" franchise going and inspire more Ghostfaces; Gale Weathers makes clear that she will do her absolute damnedest to prevent it from happening this time, beginning by writing a tell-all book about this film's spree which will focus only on the victims (including Dewey, Gale's ex-boyfriend) and won't so much as mention the Ghostfaces' name. Ironically, it didn't work: not only are the Ghostfaces of the next film family members of these Ghostfaces out to get revenge, their first casualties are a couple of copycat Ghostfaces who wanted to begin a spree of their own aiming to kill the survivors of this film and got in the way.
Gale Weathers: Let those fuckers die in anonymity. - In The Shawshank Redemption, Bogs and "The Sisters" are a gang at the prison who rape new inmates. It's made clear from the start that this is more about sadism and dominance than actual homosexual attraction, defying Depraved Homosexual.
Red: The Sisters have taken quite a likin' to you. Especially Bogs.
Andy Dufresne: I don't suppose it would help if I told them that I'm not homosexual.
Red: Neither are they. You have to be human first. They don't qualify. - In Unfaithfully Yours, Daphne asks her sister what fur she will be wearing to avoid Dresses the Same.
- In Scarface (1983), Tony is ordered to cross the Moral Event Horizon by killing a mother and her children along with an informant to save his own ass but instead he rants about how he doesn't need the guilt in his life and instead prevents the murder from happening, dooming himself in the process.
- Jason Flemyng pointed out in an interview for X-Men: First Class that he tried to avoid the cliché shot of the villain looking over the shoulder at their tail, as it always looks like the villain has just realised they had a tail for the first time.
- In the original Scary Movie, the black reporters defy Black Dude Dies First with this gem:
Black Reporter: Reporting live for Black TV. White folks are dead, we're getting the fuck out of here!
- In Evolution, Harry is asked to grab a small alien monster, and he refuses based on Black Dude Dies First. And he lives through the film.
- In All I Want for Christmas Hallie goes to see a Mall Santa, and she sees a car passing close by the sidewalk about to cause a Roadside Wave. She quickly steps back, keeping her winter coat and fur muff pristine, while the people in front get splashed with wet snow.
- In Blade Runner, Rick Deckard attempts to back out of his One Last Job, only for Bryant to give him a firm "No choice pal."
- Without Warning (1994) defies Apocalyptic Gag Order. When the government detects a wave of meteors en route to three of the world's biggest capitals (the work of aliens that are performing First Contact and got irate when mankind decided to defend itself) and decides to keep quiet while they prepare a strategy to intercept them, The Worm Guy who theorized it's first contact immediately calls it quits, declares what is going on to the reporters broadcasting live, and leaves to spend what he believes are his (and mankind's) final hours with his family (which turned out to be a very accurate prediction).
Literature
- Aeon 14: Tanis tries to get Sera to wear clothes after the latter had the Mark X FlowArmor integrated into her morphable artificial skin against her (Tanis's) objections. Sera, who can make her skin look like she is clothed, rejects these attempts, not wanting to wear actual clothes anymore as well as pointing out to Tanis that she encouraged her (Sera) to be herself.
- The plot of the book in Down And Out In Purgatory by Tim Powers revolves around a defiance of Vengeance Denied: after the man who murdered the protagonist's fiancee dies of natural causes before he can face justice, the protagonist pursues his quarry into the afterlife.
- In Forward the Foundation, Hari Sheldon proposes a method for the government to defy Fame Through Infamy when the newest headache to come out of the woodwork turns out to be game-seeking terrorists: refer to them in all files and news as "Moron Number [X]". The story later says that the measure was extremely successful.
- Done in It's Kind of a Funny Story, where the main character Craig refuses the possibility of heroin, because "If I were doing heroin, then I'd be a depressed teenager on heroin. I didn't need to be that cliché."
- In Maskerade, once a series of murders begin happening at an opera house, the first thing they do is put extra guards on the giant chandelier, to keep it from being dropped on anybody.
- Played for Drama in Carpe Jugulum: As the Old Count explains, the newest generation of vampire hunters has has completely tossed the old-school Hammer Horror-style rulebook of interaction that Counts, Hunters and the regular citizens of the region used to follow out the window and they do their absolute damnedest to ensure vampires can't escape their attacks and end up Deader than Dead. Which would be kind of good, except that this means the conflict will eventually devolve (if it hadn't already) to pure savagery.
- The Screwtape Letters plays with, but ultimately defies the Deal with the Devil trope. Screwtape explains that it's fallen out of favor ever since Hell made the strategic switch from promoting Satanism to promoting atheism, which is seen as a safer bet.
- The Warhammer 40,000 novel Grey Knights notes that the Inquisition defies Never Found the Body in the case of Ghargatuloth; they sent the Grey Knight expedition down to Khorion IX instead of simply calling Exterminatus on it because they needed eyes on the ground to see him die.
- The short story "Another End Of The Empire" by Tim Pratt features the Evil Overlord Mogrash who is told the following prophecy:
"A child dwells in the village of Misery Chin, in the mountain provinces to the east. If allowed to grow to manhood, he will take over your empire, overthrow your ways and means, and send you from the halls of your palace forever."
- Rather than raze the village to the ground as his ancestors would have done, which he realised would have only fulfilled the prophecy as the boy would inevitably escape the slaughter somehow and take his revenge, Mogrash tries to avert the prophecy by being nice, instituting reforms, and raising the boys who could be threats as his own sons. In the end the prophecy is fulfilled: One of the boys becomes his heir, his empire is changed irrevocably and he decides to leave his palace.
- In the Myst novel, Atrus comes across one of the infamous D'ni puzzle-locks and tries to decipher it in the standard Myst Only Smart People May Pass fashion. His father Gehn picks up a blunt instrument and smashes it open.
- Cassandra Truth is defied in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Professor Kirke. When Peter and Susan tell him they think Lucy is lying about discovering a portal to Narnia in the old wardrobe, the professor suspects she's actually telling the truth (after all, he knows quite a lot about Narnia) and convinces them to trust her.
- The premise of How to Survive a Horror Movie is that it's teaching you how to Defy Horror Tropes.
- Messenger defies Throwing Off the Disability. Matty offers to heal Kira's twisted leg, but she turns him down.
- Anansi Boys: Fat Charlie, when arrested on charges of embezzling money from his employer, goes off on a long rant about how his very kind (and pretty) interrogator is just playing Good Cop/Bad Cop with him. She sighs and explains that no, there is no bad cop waiting in the wings, and yes, the police are in fact pretty sure he's innocent.
Live-Action TV
- There's an LJ icon with "Spy Daddy" from Alias that reads, "I am five steps ahead of you. I kill you in step four."
- In the first episode of Season 5, Buffy stabs Dracula again when he tries to resurrect, and then reminds him she's still there when he tries again.
- Then in the last episode of Season 5, Giles tries to invoke The Needs of the Many in making the case that it may come to a point where killing Buffy's not-really-sister Dawn is the only way to save the world (failure of which would lead to Dawn's death regardless, as well as everyone else's). Buffy defies the trope, forcing its aversion, by threatening that she would kill anyone who attempted to kill Dawn.
- Much earlier, in Season 3, Faith expects Willow to try to appeal to her better nature and get her to pull a Heel–Face Turn, clearly intending to pull a Redemption Rejection. She's taken aback when Willow instead gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, telling her point-blank that it's too late for her and she's now nothing but "a big, selfish, worthless waste."
- Shortly after Angelus returns after Buffy and Angel have sex, Giles explains to Buffy the kind of monster Angelus is, who has no problem systematically killing everything their enemies love to terrorize them, even famously nailing an enemy's dog to their door. When Buffy and Angelus meet shortly after that, Buffy makes a point of mentioning that she doesn't even own any pets, so Angelus is better off skipping the "nail dead animals to her door" part of his campaign.
Buffy: Skip it. I don't even own any puppies, so skip it. - Community: Abed's short story in "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" is a truly bizarre example: he creates a Rational Fic in which the protagonists, a couple that are being stalked by an escaped Serial Killer, defy every single thing that would make them Slasher Film victims: they were already reluctant to have sex even before hearing about the escaped killer, they instantly call the police from their fully charged cell phones, the police promptly answers the call, and then they arm themselves and then go stand back-to-back in the most defensible part of the cabin to wait for the cops to arrive. The reason why this is a bizarre example is because it's a deconstruction of rationalist fiction — Abed got so focused in defying tropes for logic's sake that he didn't make the story entertaining to anybody but himself (notably, the protagonists never encounter any obstacles, like the killer the story takes a long time to set up).
- Daredevil (2015) defies We Have to Get the Bullet Out!. Matt brings up to Claire when asking for help in patching up Vladimir's bullet wound. Claire tells him this is what he should do if he wants to kill the guy.
- Doctor Who:
- "Utopia":
- "The Armageddon Factor": The Fourth Doctor has just assembled the Key to Time, granting him absolute power over all of creation. He launches into an "A God Am I" speech, but drops the act immediately and reassures Romana that he's perfectly fine and has no delusions of deity.
- Hannah Montana: Miley is Genre Savvy enough to check for feet under the stalls before talking about her Secret Identity with Lilly in the ladies' room.
- Firefly
- After being defeated, The Dragon declares We Will Meet Again. Mal promptly kicks him into an engine intake.
- When Mal and Wash are captured by Niska, Zoe goes to rescue them, but Niska is in the mood for a Sadistic Choice. Which is promptly short-circuited when Zoe, before Niska can even finish his offer, immediately chooses Wash.
- When Mal fought Niska's new Dragon, Zoe tells the crew to stand back because This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself. Mal, who's very badly injured and exhausted (and even died during torture at one point), knowing what poor shape he's in and how much he's struggling, immediately yells that it really isn't, allowing the gang to open fire on his opponent, taking him down and saving Mal's life.
- When Mal and Zoe are being held for questioning by local authorities, Jayne makes a bid for power, knowing the rest of the gang don't really have the ability to control him without Mal and Zoe there. However, prior to his take-over bid, he was ranting about leaving those idiots behind instead of rescuing them while Simon was patching up his injuries. Guessing that Jayne was serious about taking over, that no-one would be able to control him and that he wouldn't want to rescue Mal and Zoe, Simon pre-empts Jayne's Appeal to Force moment by secretly injecting him with a general anaesthetic instead of a painkiller. When Jayne attempts to take control of the ship, he keels over unconscious instead. The rest of the crew (including Mal and Zoe when they learn what happened) are immensely relieved by Simon's foresight.
- The X-Files: In the Myth Arc episode "Tunguska", Mulder travels to Russia and takes Russian American Alex Krycek with him, defying Language Barrier. Never mind that Krycek is his nemesis and Chew Toy (especially in this episode). He's a former FBI agent who collaborated with the shady secret government organization, but his language skills proved quite useful. He later ratted Mulder out since Krycek had connections to every shady organization on the show.
- The Vicar of Dibley: When David proposes to Geraldine she ultimately decides to turn him down, saying just because they're the Only Sane People in the village doesn't mean they should get married.
- In A Different World, Whitley loved wearing furs, and when some tried to turn it from Pretty in Mink to Fur and Loathing, she would just throw it back at them, pointing out that many of their complaints were invalid or hypocritical (although once in a while it didn't work).
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- On the season 1 finale, Big Bad cyborg John Garrett gets rebuilt and seems prepared for a season 2 comeback, when Phil Coulson promptly shoots him with a BFG.
- In season 3, when Andrew fears he's about to become Lash permanently, he surrenders himself to S.H.I.E.L.D., defying Never Got to Say Goodbye. Coulson joins in, urging May (who was, in turn, trying to defy a Hope Spot) to talk to him.
- After they have successfully captured Ward and he refuses to talk to anybody else but Skye, Coulson refuses because he knows Ward will try to Hannibal Lecture her and "fill her head with lies", and only agrees when Skye insists that she can deal with that herself. During the interrogation, every single time Ward tries to so much as say a syllable for anything that isn't an answer to her questions, Skye hits the "off" switch of the intercom and turns to walk away, forcing Ward to draw her attention again so he can continue to answer questions.
- Della Street from Perry Mason had refused a number of marriage proposals by Perry, being aware that Demoted to Satellite Love Interest will likely follow.
- Sex Education:
- Bigger Is Better in Bed is defied when Kyle (who bases his advice off of porn) tells Dex that his girlfriend isn't orgasming because he might have a small penis. Otis and Maeve set Dex straight, telling him that penis size isn't the most important factor in satisfying sex.
- Anwar (who is gay) defies the Tragic AIDS Story: he has seen too many movies where a gay character dies of AIDS, and thus never engages in unprotected sex. The nurse also clarifies that medications that will help HIV-positive people live normal lives now exist.
- Schmigadoon!: Genre Savvy theater fan Melissa is dumped in the wilderness. When the lighting turns purple and a similarly dressed dancer approaches her, she realizes it's a Dream Ballet and shuts it down.
Melissa: No no, we're not having a dream ballet. They're annoying and stupid and slow everything down. Nobody likes a dream ballet.
- In the second episode of Superstore, the black, wheelchair-bound Garrett knows that the company magazine likes playing up Inspirationally Disadvantaged on its covers, so when a reporter drops by to do a story about the store, he spends the day avoiding her photographer to avoid being played as such.
- Psych: Doing this is what got Mr. Yin (a Serial Killer with a penchant for choosing a detective and forcing him to go through overly-complicated Criminal Mind Games to hopefully prevent yet another death) caught. Shawn Spencer, after a while of getting dragged around by Yin's scheme, decided to quit and toss the cell phone Yin was using to deliver the clues into the ocean. It was a Batman Gambit to piss off Yin and force him (or rather her) to do something stupid. That "something stupid" ended up being her walking up to Shawn with a gun and angrily ranting that he ruined her game, while Shawn's friends hid nearby.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: The episode "The Measure of a Man" defies Do Well, But Not Perfect. Riker is ordered to be the prosecutor in a hearing to determine whether or not Data will be considered Just a Machine by the Federation and taken away to be disassembled for study, and when Riker obviously hesitates about doing that because Data is his friend, he is told that if he refuses or accepts but the judge suspects that he is doing a sub-par performance because of said friendship, she will immediately pass the sentence that Data is a non-sentient machine.
Theme Parks
- Walt Disney built Walt Disney World with the intent of avoiding the Gone Horribly Right scenario Disneyland fell victim to: his company purchased large tracts of cheap land in a quiet but economically viable part of Florida, keeping the project a secret to avoid a burst of land speculation. This was ultimately successful: they acquired enough space for four different theme parks, two water parks, and numerous other attractions.
Video Games
- In Baldur's Gate II, the player can ask Irenicus to explain his plans and motivations. He flatly replies, "No, you warrant no villain's exposition from me."
- Survivors in Dead Rising who run out of HP while holding a gun may shoot themself to avoid being Devoured by the Horde.
- The Final Boss fight of Devil May Cry 5 has Nero decide the Cain and Abel trope is not happening on his watch, and he forcibly intervenes in Dante and Vergil's Duel to the Death to stop them.
"Nero, having found his own reasons to fight, comes between his father and uncle. There will be no fratricide this day."
- Dragon Age II presents this in the guise of one of the final Take a Third Option choices. A player actively seeking to achieve some sort of compromise between two factions is rewarded with a rather large "boom".
- Evil Dead: Hail to the King was a straight-up Resident Evil clone with an Evil Dead look, including the puzzles (though, thankfully, most were much less obtuse and nonsensical than RE). However, in the latter part of the game, Ash, in a cutscene, reads the plaque on a door. After noting the overly complicated puzzle mechanism required to open it, and just shoots the door open with his boomstick.
- In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, there is a scene in which Ike is given a choice to either play Rousing Speech straight or defy it (it doesn't affect the game at all outside the scene). If you choose to defy it, Mist is annoyed by how boring it is, but Ike says he's perfectly happy being boring.
- In Freedom Fighters (2003), you can prevent soviet reinforcements from coming in by blowing up the bridges their armored transport cars cross, and blowing up the helipads supplying assault and transport helicopters.
- Belle defies a Sadistic Choice in Kingdom Hearts II. Xaldin kidnaps her and takes the rose that can lift Beast's curse, forcing Beast to choose which he'll give back. Although Beast chooses for Belle to be safe, she elbows Xaldin, saving herself and the rose.
- Left 4 Dead has one of the guys who write the saferoom graffiti proclaim that "WE ARE THE REAL MONSTERS". The guy underneath him says "No, that's the zombies".
- Link: The Faces of Evil and Motivational Kiss: "How about a kiss, for luck?" "You've got to be kidding me."
- In Portal 2, the Final Boss defies Boss-Arena Idiocy by studying the recordings of how you defeated the previous boss and deliberately setting up the arena to avoid those same mistakes. The trope is then zig zagged by having the boss make a new set of glaringly obvious mistakes.
Wheatley: "I took the liberty of watching the tapes of you killing her, and I am not going to make the same mistakes. Four-part plan is this: One, no portal surfaces. Two, start the neurotoxin immediately. Three, bomb-proof shields for me, leading directly into number four: bombs, for throwing at you. You know what, this plan is so good that I'm going to give you a sporting chance and turn off the neurotoxin. I'm joking, of course. Goodbye."
- And taken further at the end: "PART FIVE! BOOBY TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!"
- Unfortunately for Wheatley, he failed to defy the final trope: Chell opening a portal right under him, with the other side on the surface of the moon.
- According to its Flavor Text, the fourth Anti Corruption Initiative in Rebel Inc. reduces Corruption by "banning the printing of high denomination currency", which presumably works by making it harder to stuff a Briefcase Full of Money as a bribe, which is a practice that has actually picked up some pace in real life.
- Edge Master from the Soul Series defies the practice of naming weapons. His philosophy is that it is the soul that makes the warrior, not the weapon. A weapon is a tool, nothing more.
- King Bob-omb from Super Mario 64 defies and inverts Ring Out: he will not accept being thrown out of the arena as a defeat, and will instead accuse Mario of cheating, then leap back into the arena with all his health regained.
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown often defies the Take Cover! trope, especially on higher difficulty levels: explosives can destroy most cover. Bunch of aliens/troopers cluttered behind cover? Throw a grenade at them and have your buddies shoot them. Then, the MEC Trooper has an ability specifically designed to destroy cover.
Webcomics
- A rare example of a double-defiance: this
Irregular Webcomic! strip.
- The DM of DM of the Rings will not tolerate Off the Rails when he can help it. Only twice do the players pull it off.
- Least I Could Do does this with an old classic:
Rayne: I fell down some stairs.
Noel: No he didn't. I beat the shit out of him with a smile on my face. - The Order of the Stick:
- Dark lord Tarquin is so Genre Savvy that he hands out guidelines on defying tropes to his guards. They work.
- Cool Old Guy Julio Scoundrel defies Mentor Occupational Hazard.
Elan: Will I ever see you again?
Julio Scoundrél: Well, as an older mentor figure, the most likely scenario is that I'd return only to be randomly killed by an enemy of yours so that you can cradle my dying body while swearing revenge — so don't take it personally if I say I sincerely hope we never cross paths again.- Much later, Elan does end up seeing Julio again, when he desperately needs something that can blindside his very Genre Savvy father. Moreover, he convinces Julio to come specifically for the privilege of defying the trope in person.
- Elan the bard explicitly defies the Third-Act Misunderstanding — a staple of many a Rom Com — when reunited with Haley once more, previously having met a girl who had a crush on him before dying.
Elan: I'm torn, because on one hand, I want to share something important that happened to me while we were apart... But on the other hand, bardic tradition demands that I withhold it all so that at some later point, you can accidentally learn an incomplete version and jump to all of the wrong conclusions – later leading to entertaining dramatic conflict later in our relationship.
Haley: So...what are you going to do?
Elan: Tell you everything. How are we supposed to get a happy ending if we can't be honest? - Axe Cop advises the families of crime fighters to hide in the bushes outside their house with guns every night to avert And Your Little Dog, Too!.
- In Knights of Buena Vista, Adriana's Player Character is so Min-Maxed out that she can cause the apocalypse if certain conditions are met. The Game Master avoids those conditions by banning one of them from the campaign (specifically gummi worms).
Web Original
- The point of the Evil Overlord List.
- In Linkara's "Extreme Super Christmas Special #1" review, the ghosts from A Christmas Carol show up. Linkara flatly tells them that he does not want to make a Yet Another Christmas Carol nor does he need to (he already loves Christmas and comic books), and tells them to promptly GTFO.
- In 2021, the ghost of Marley (played by Viga) shows up to attempt this again, but Linkara is not having any of it and shoots her with his Magic Gun. Marley decides Screw This, I'm Outta Here and goes haunts Quinton Reviews, who reluctantly obliges despite already being visited.
- In the Nostalgia Critic's review of Babes in Toyland, the Ghost Of Christmas Future tries to do this with him, but the Critic defies it as well. The Ghost gets his revenge by making him review The Grinch next week.
- Duma Ragu: An In-Universe example with I Am Not Shazam. In MENTOLOS GYÓGYSZER (MINT MEDICINE) Simon points out DumaRagu is actually the title of the series and not his name.
- In Spoony's review of the Wing Commander movie, he takes one look at the cover (showing Matthew Lillard and Freddie Prinze Jr.) and shrieks in terror. He explains thusly: "You know that thing, you can't trust a book by its cover? Well fuck you! That's books, not movies!"
- Worm gives quite a few examples but notably invokes Carrie and then defies that route in the very first chapter.
- When Film Brain learns that M. Bison's plan amounts to an "evil property development scheme", he interrupts the OF COURSE! saying it doesn't deserve that joke.
- The Nostalgia Critic had attempted to defy (via aversion) that same Running Gag in one of his reviews (the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog). It didn't work; the Running Gag forced itself into the review despite the Critic's attempts to stop it.
- Part two of this video on Mr. Coat and Friends defied Previously on…, noting that it was on the internet, and we could just watch part one.
- The hentai flash site Zone Archive had apparently been pestered to make a something related to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. So they did...however not what you would expect. After bringing up a shot of Pinkie Pie in Naughty Tentacles, selecting pretty much any of the animation options causes this to happen. It speaks for itself.
- Rebecca Stone and Tacoma Narrows in Demo Reel refuse to be the Ms. Fanservice and Ethnic Scrappy in their Show Within a Show, and it only takes a couple of threats to quit and dope slaps before their wishes are more than respected.
- Movie Fights host, Andy Signore, is aware that he tends to say "This is tough" before making a call for the debate rounds, and would try not to say it whenever possible. He would sometimes lampshade this.
Andy: No, I will not say, "This is tough,"
- In TomSka's comedy sketch The Wish, Hedy tries to get a Genie to grant her infinite wishes, mainly through Loophole Abuse like wishing for a cloning machine (so she can get infinite wishes), but the Genie makes it abundantly clear she can only have a maximum of three wishes and will not let her work around it.
Western Animation
- In one Sonic Says segment of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails is about to slam his computer in frustration when Sonic restrains him before delivering An Aesop about learning how to use computers.
- At the end of an episode of Darkwing Duck, he's forced to work with Quackerjack, one of the regular villains, to stop a greater villain. When the greater villain is stopped, Quackerjack asks if this is where they show the greater villain love and kindness, and he vows to mend his evil ways. Neither Quackerjack, nor Darkwing think so. They just beat him down further.
- The Earthworm Jim episode "Hyper Psy-Crow" almost ends with a "Here We Go Again!" ending (actually called that) after a Reset Button of the episode's events. Jim won't stand for it, and just drops a cow on Psy-Crow before he can enact his scheme again.
- Asami Sato from The Legend of Korra defies Clingy Jealous Girl and Green-Eyed Monster, as she never clings to her boyfriend Mako to spite Korra, and when she finds out about the kiss incident between Korra and Mako, she mostly keeps her feelings to herself. Until it's time for her to confront Mako on it, and as she does so she makes a point of not hating Korra herself.
- She also defies Daddy's Little Villain. To the point that when her evil father Hiroshi offered her a shock glove, she took it...and used it on him.
- King of the Hill
- defies A Lesson Learned Too Well. In "Rich Hank, Poor Hank", Bobby mistakenly thinks that his father is rich when he overhears Hank telling Peggy about his $1,000 annual bonus from work but mistakenly gets the idea that Hank makes that much per day. At first, Bobby tries to get his father to spend his money, which backfires when Hank tries to teach Bobby the value of a dollar by showing how much money Bobby spent and suggests Bobby could make money by taking littered cans to the recycling center, but this only reinforces Bobby's misjudgment that Hank is being stingy. Bobby steals Hank's emergency credit card and goes to the mall. After Bobby is caught and he tells Hank he knows he's rich, Hank clarifies Bobby's earlier misconceptions — the $1,000 check was an annual bonus and the strongbox of oil receipts was a collection of receipts what Hank has spent on the truck, such as oil changes. They return all of the items which Bobby had purchased, save for a nonrefundable jet ski. Bobby, feeling bad for the trouble he caused and learning of his family's real income, works hard at his punishment and adopting Hank's attitude towards the value of a hard day's work and an honest dollar. At first, Hank is happy and proud of Bobby, but when they try to sell the jet ski to a rich father buying it for his spoiled son Eric, Hank becomes uncomfortable when he sees that Bobby is too eager to please Eric, who treats him like garbage. This prompts Hank to decide not to sell the jet ski to Eric's father. As Hank and Bobby ride the jet ski to test it, he tells Bobby they're not selling the jet ski, they will sell it in a year and carry it on his credit card until then. The episode ends with Hank and Bobby talking about a responsible way to use a credit card and Hank happy that Bobby learned his lesson about earnest work and not behaving like that spoiled brat.
- defies Ungrateful Bastard. After Dale offers to help John Redcorn get some of his tribe's land returned to him, he ends his affair with Nancy realizing that it would be an awful way to repay a man he considers to be a friend.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In "The Best Night Ever", the ponies are running away from the chaos they've caused at the Grand Galloping Gala and Rarity drops her glass slipper. Pinkie Pie lampshades the trope of The Girl Who Fits This Slipper and Rarity, who has no interest in meeting Prince Blueblood ever again, screams and crushes the slipper into shards.
- In "Just for Sidekicks", Spike, the pets of the Mane Six and the Cutie Mark Crusaders have to hide from the Mane Six when they step into their train car. Spike's Growling Gut threatens to expose them, setting up the trope of Laser-Guided Karma for Spike, but Angel defies it by retrieving his last gem which he uses to quiet his stomach.
- Occurs to a musical number in "Somepony to Watch Over Me," which comes to a screeching mid-word halt when Apple Bloom is reminded that her big sister is en route to her room.
Apple Bloom: We're gonna make my sister see
I don't need her watchin' over me...
Scootaloo: STOP! No time for a song! (Listens carefully to some hoofsteps approaching from outside Apple Bloom's door) Applejack's coming!
- South Park:
- Attempted, but failed in "Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow". Stan wants to just confess what they did to avoid the usual antics, and it doesn't work, instead turning into an I Am Spartacus moment.
- Done successfully in "Krazy Kripples". The main characters agree that they don't want to have any part in the episode's plot. They actually don't (letting secondary characters run the episode), and agree at the end that they're glad that they didn't get involved.
- In "Woodland Critter Christmas", Stan tries to defy a Gilligan Cut by arguing with the narrator. He fails.
- In "Pandemic" and "Pandemic 2: The Startling", Craig is dragged along on the boy's adventure, and gets stranded with them in Peru. They find ancient ruins depicting Craig in some kind of prophecy, but he says he doesn't care, and the boys spend the next several minutes in a montage walking with Craig as he just declares over and over that he wants nothing to do with it. Ultimately subverted when he again tries to walk away from the villain, and steps on a panel that causes him to shoot Eye Beams at it while he does nothing but comment in a deadpan tone.
- Raven from Teen Titans is aware of the Bad Powers, Bad People trope, and despite the fact that her powers come from her demon father, she does her best to be a good gal. Jinx eventually does the same.
- In the Ben 10: Ultimate Alien finale, Vilgax defies the Demoted to Dragon trope by faking submission to Diagon, taking advantage on him to get rid of the third member of the Big Bad Ensemble and then out-gambit his "master" by consuming him, thus remaining the final villain.
- In Recess, in the Season 2 episode "The Breakup" Theodore Jasper "T.J." Detweiler defies Friendship Favoritism. Ms. Grotke asks the class to write about their best friends. This causes problems for T.J., however: he can't choose a best friend. And while this strains his friendship with his friends and causes the gang to break up, he still can't choose a friend. In the end, T.J. writes a report about how all five of his friends are his bests friends, and how special they all are. This ends up reconciling the group.
- In Bob's Burgers episode "The Equestranauts", Bob Belcher defies All for Nothing. When Tina's favorite horse doll is stolen, Bob goes undercover at a convention as a fan of the show the doll is from to get it back. After being caught and almost given an embarrassing tattoo, while getting a small part of it on his rear, he gets the doll back. Tina decides she's too old to play with dolls and puts it away. Not pleased with her decision after everything he went through, Bob quietly, then shouting, orders Tina to continue playing with it, which she does. The same episode also defies Only Smart People May Pass when the man who stole the doll places it in his room's safe as a final act of defiance and says that the code is an incredibly obscure piece of trivia of the show (Bob had to study a lot of it to infiltrate the convention). Bob just calls hotel security and explains what happened, and they open the vault for him.
- The Loud House defies Birthday Party Goes Wrong. The kids (except Leni — because they think she'll spoil the surprise — and Lily) are making a surprise birthday party for their mother Rita. However, things don't work out: Lana uses toilet paper, gum, and brown balloons (which Lynn thinks look like poop) as decorations, Lynn's subs she provides are covered in Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce, Lola's cake is too sweet, Luan's jokes are all about Rita being old, Luna can't think of a song Rita would like, and Lisa has invited three men Rita doesn't like. However, this all happens before Rita gets home and when they realise things are going south, they get Leni over, who throws a successful party for Rita.
