Playing With / Dirty Coward

Basic Trope: A character is cowardly to the point of being disgustingly harmful to others.

• Straight: Bob runs away from any danger facing him and has no loyalties whatsoever.
• Exaggerated:
  • Bob runs from everything, does nothing to justify his presence in the group silly enough to let him in, and happily betrays anyone in his way.
  • Bhaal is a powerful eldritch god who has had entire universes destroyed, caused untold and untellable suffering, all for the slightest reduction of any risk. Whenever the human heroes manage to fight their way to it, even though it could destroy them with a flick of its tentacles, it always turns tail.
• Downplayed:
  • Bob runs away from any danger facing him and always tells his teammates they should do the same. He would leave those who would still be willing to fight behind.
  • While cowardly, Bob is still loyal to the team, and generally stays with them when it counts, even in situations that he warned them about.
  • Bob runs away from danger and has no loyalties whatsoever, but he's honest about it and doesn't expect people to like him for it.
  • Bob runs away from danger and leaves his teammates behind, but he feels guilty for it.
  • Bob does not like danger, and tries to ensure he has as much of an advantage as possible when he has to get his hands dirty.
  • Bob is loyal to his True Companions and wants to protect them at all costs, but will throw everyone and everything else under the bus to save himself and them. He generally encourages them to be as ruthlessly self-protective as him, much to their horror.
  • Bob usually turns tail at the sign of danger at the expense of his companions but will fight on the frontlines if he really, really has to.
• Justified:
  • Bob is the weakest or least talented member of his group, and he knows it. As a result, he prefers to let the stronger members handle problems and stay on the sidelines.
  • Bob has had numerous bad experiences, to the point that he views bravery as practically suicidal and views his own cowardice as plain good sense. He considers himself a pragmatist, not a coward.
  • Bob is openly Greedy, and he's Genre Savvy enough to know that a Briefcase Full of Money is usually planned by multiple people as part of a gambit. Despite having enough standards to just turn down the briefcase, he knows that the villains have openly planned for/talked about collaborating with each other specifically to mess with his other teammates' greatest fears. Once he gets confronted by multiple villains at once, Bob abandons his fellow heroes specifically to avoid said villains quickly discovering his incredibly transparent greed-related vices, banking what little faith he has that Evulz and company will achieve a victory that's more forced upon them than truly successful.
• Inverted:
  • Bob is a Fearless Fool who attacks the enemy even when running away would actually be a better idea.
  • Bob's lack of fear leads him to do some pretty heinous things, as he does not care for the consequences of his actions.
  • Bob is a chronically fearful individual, but he will always stand up for others when the chips are down.
• Subverted:
  • Bob may seem like a Dirty Coward, but he's actually a Combat Pragmatist who only prefers to fight when he has the advantage. Bob may appear to be running away from a battle, but he's actually maneuvering around the battlefield so he can sneak up on the enemy and catch them by surprise.
  • It appeared that Bob sold out the heroes because he lost his nerve at the last minute, but it turns out he was planted by Emperor Evulz to spy on them.
  • Bob isn't fleeing because he is afraid of a threat, but because he needed the time to take care of a far greater threat.
  • Bob runs away from a threat, but has a stroke of conscience and returns.
  • Bob runs away from a threat, causing his companions to dismiss him as a chicken. However, the threat really is too much for them to handle, and the other heroes end up either following his lead or getting slaughtered.
• Double Subverted:
  • But he is too nervous to get around to being really dangerous.
  • Bob does become legitimately dangerous... but not in a good way, and there's certainly nothing brave or heroic about it. He simply attempts to slaughter anything or anyone he thinks might be a threat to himself or those he cares about (if he cares about anyone else) whenever he can take them by surprise.
  • Bob was too cowardly to do his duties as a mole, such as reaching out to Evulz behind the heroes' back, and he only sold out the heroes when he had a perfect chance.
  • The people he left behind while he was dealing with the greater threat tell him that it would have cost him nothing to take two seconds to help them with the lesser threat and priorities so skewed usually would be labeled cowardice.
  • The people he saved are grateful that he came back, but rightfully point out that he still ran away.
• Parodied: Bob leaps at his own shadow, is clearly shady, and is incurably untrustworthy, yet the group keeps him with them anyway.
• Zig Zagged:
  • Bob starts out as a shameless Dirty Coward, but either discovers or is told that he is capable of real courage and heroism. While Bob continues to be cautious and runs from anything he can't handle himself, he has become a more productive member of the team, is genuinely brave when the chips are down, and is treated with respect.
  • It's clear that Bob was thrown into a situation where he was way over his head, and his focus on self preservation is portrayed as justified. Whether or not he he threw innocent people under the bus to survive is not entirely clear, and the heroes find evidence pointing in both directions.
• Averted:
  • Bob isn't cowardly at all.
  • Bob's a Lovable Coward.
• Enforced:
  • "We need a cowardly, selfish character to backstab The Hero, the Big Bad, or both."
  • "We need a foil to the evil but brave Emperor Evulz."
  • The writer wants to make An Aesop where being fearful can be harmful to others.
  • "We need a foil to our heroic Lovable Coward."
• Lampshaded:
  • "This has got to be the umpteenth time Bob has abandoned me. Remind me why he is on the team again."
  • Alice asks the resident Social Expert of her team if it's true that you can't have courage without a heart. They invariably respond that there's some basis in reality for that, but for a given definition of 'heartless', you'd have to have zero loyalty to anyone but yourself, constantly push for loyalty from others by using myopic tricks to make them let their guard down...before abruptly stopping and realizing that they already have all that in the form of Bob.
• Invoked: "It's been fun being with you, but I value my life, so good-bye!"
• Exploited: Emperor Evulz tries to convince Bob to desert, knowing that he is the most cowardly member of the team.
• Defied:
  • Bob refuses to act like a coward.
  • Rebel Leader Middleheim makes clear to Bob that if he decides to run away right now, long after he had a chance to leave with no strings attached, and especially if he tries to toss the rest of his team to the wolves as a distraction, Middleheim will execute him. And whatever Bob decides to do to try to get rid of Middleheim as an obstacle as well, and no matter how far he runs away, Middleheim is sure to survive long enough to find Bob wherever he is hiding and rip his head off. Bob decides to stay put.
• Discussed: "Bob goes by himself, so he can't betray or abandon anyone to save his own life."
• Conversed: "Bob is so cowardly it disgusts me. I bet he'll betray the team eventually."
• Implied:
  • In a murder mystery series set in a Crapsack World, Bob, who inexplicably has been an insomniac for the last two weeks, is accused by Arthur of being the murderer of Alice, saying that being the one person not to associate with her was a means to an end because Bob was looking for an opportunity to surrender either just her or all of them to Reggie of Antwerp in hopes of mercy. Even though not everyone agrees that he was conveniently too focused on the "unfamiliar" Alice's business/the group's assessment of the actual murder for anyone to be able to notice his treachery, Bob gets on his knees and grovels, requesting that "if I tell you why us two were never close, will you please let me go and spare me from any harm?"
    • Alternatively, an etude that sounds very much like a Musical Spoiler, or at least like mild Foreshadowing, plays over Bob as he goes about his day, with the lyrics being about a decrepit, monstrous low-life looking out for himself and himself only.
  • Bob has lived up to the expectations of Bob Sr., visiting his grave every other day at the local cemetery to talk to him about how he still doesn't feel like he's accomplished the goals set in place set by his old man. He remembers that Senior always talked about how draft-dodgers are cowards. Since they live in a medically-advanced but war-crazy world where Bob could be cured of his sudden hypertension in order to fight, but continues not to, Bob starts to wonder if he's scared of the treatment, scared of fighting in the next war, or scared that he's going to eventually desert his fellow soldiers-turned-friends all over again, without the incident in question being fully confirmed one way or the other as him just being a Dirty Coward or him deserting for another reason.
• Deconstructed:
  • Bob's cowardice originates from his own insecurities, laziness, and lack of confidence in his own ability. He is more capable than he thinks he is, and he eventually takes a level in badass when convinced that he has been made braver or placed in a situation where he can't run. His sudden act of bravery caused the entire team to begin to rethink of how they should treat him.
  • Bob is a completely ordinary person that has been dragged into the quest. Of course he's not prepared to risk his life for others, or fight a villain as evil as Evulz. The heroes don't realize that, though, and brand him a coward, which makes him feel ashamed.
• Reconstructed: Bob is simply cowardly due to plain laziness and selfishness, not justifiable caution or a Freudian Excuse.
• Played For Laughs:
  • When Bob abandons not only his teammates but a bus full of orphans to Emperor Evulz, even the villain himself is shocked by his vileness.
  • Bob sets an orphanage on fire after seeing a spider on it.
• Played For Drama:
  • Bob was called out for his cowardice.
  • Evulz thanks Bob for letting his team down, and congratulates him for being a sniveling coward like he always is. Bob doesn't take the praise well.
  • Bob's cowardice gets someone on his team killed.

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Run shamelessly for your life back to Dirty Coward.

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