Basic trope: A character is killed for making snide remarks.
- Straight: One of Lord Evulz' minions makes a very dry remark about how their boss keeps failing, leading to Evulz to off their head.
- Exaggerated:
- Evulz tortures, then kills the minion with No Body Left Behind, and for good measure asks his minions if anyone else has something to say.
- As soon as Evulz' minion opens their mouth, he wastes no time killing them.
- Downplayed:
- Evulz simply hits his minion into keeping quiet, but doesn't kill them.
- (for a certain value of 'downplayed') Evulz rips the snarker's tongue out and/or stitches their mouth shut.
- Evulz turns around and screams a Big "SHUT UP!" to his minion in a fashion that extremely heavily implies "borderline unhinged murderer looking for a reason to cut loose."
- Justified:
- The minion has a story of being particularly nasty with their remarks, leading to Evulz' Rage Breaking Point.
- The minion failed Evulz and tried to shift fault into Evulz through snark.
- Inverted:
- Evulz makes a snide remark about their minion, leading to them biting back.
- Evulz is about to execute their minion for failing, but spares them when they make a snide remark either due to finding it amusing, realising what they said is correct, getting a good idea from what they said or a mixture of the reasons.
- Subverted:
- Evulz intentionally misses his mark just to scare the minion, probably because he still needs their service.
- Just as Evulz looks like he's about to kill the minion, he simply gives them a Death Glare and tells them to get out of his office.
- Double subverted: ...but later, Lord Evulz tells someone else to execute the minion for being a chatterbox.
- Parodied: Evulz uses a Voodoo Doll to toy with his minion before killing them.
- Zig-Zagged: The minions' demise depends on Evulz' current mood.
- Averted: Lord Evulz doesn't kill his minions (or at the very least, just tells them to stuff it).
- Enforced: The work's creator didn't like the character and wanted to kill them off, or just wanted to showcase how much of a monster Lord Evulz is.
- Lampshaded: "Keep your opinions about the boss to yourself, you don't want to know what will happens if you say too much."
- Invoked: Evulz tells his minions what they demise will be if they talk too much.
- Exploited:
- The killed minion was The Dragon, so another high-ranking minion uses this to take their place.
- The minion goads Evulz into attacking him, only to kill Evulz in self-defense.
- Defied: The minion knows Lord Evulz will kill them if they talk, so they go back to work.
- Discussed: "The last time one of us spoke their dry mind about how stupid Evulz' plans tend to be, we heard he was buried three days later."
- Conversed: "Push this person too far with your witty banter, you'll probably need a casket."
- Implied: Several of Lord Evulz's minions are bantering in the in the breakroom and one of them makes a joke about Lord Evulz. The next scene shows that minion missing and the breakroom is dead silent. It's not clear whether Evulz reassigned them, fired them or killed them but silence of his minions suggests he had the minion who joked about him killed.
- Deconstructed:
- Eventually, Evulz runs out of his best minions for killing them.
- Evulz' minions start to abandon him in fear speaking their mind, or worse, saying anything at all, will earn them his wrath.
- Reconstructed: Evulz decides only to kill those snarky minions who had a legitimately good reason for it.
- Played for laughs: Lord Evulz literally offs the minion's mouth, rendering them unable to talk and express their wit.
- Played for drama: Lord Evulz' minions react in horror to how cruel would Evulz react simply because of a snide remark.
- Played for horror: Evulz kills anybody who — in his own words — "gives him lip", but what he considers as "giving him lip" is way too broad in scope. Anything from genuine insults to using one vowel too many answering his questions ("blah-blah-blah; get to the fucking point!") leads to death (he also kills people who try to keep quiet), so nobody is safe.
Back to Offing the Mouth... and I'd watch my words if I was you.
