Murder the Hypotenuse/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Someone tries to kill a romantic rival to get them out of the way.

  • Straight: Helga poisons Irene's drink so she can have Jim all to herself.
  • Exaggerated: Helga blows up Irene's apartment building just because Jim mentioned that a dress looked nice on Irene.
  • Justified: In Helga's culture, the concept of Klingon Promotion applies to love interests too.
    • Irene kills Helga, but only in self-defence after Helga tries to kill Irene.
  • Inverted: Helga wants wants Irene and Jim to be happy together without her, maybe even to the point of removing herself from the love triangle by tragic means.
  • Subverted: Helga tries to kill Irene, but her attempt is completely incompetent.
  • Double Subverted: ...because she's planning to win Jim's love with a Wounded Gazelle Gambit when Irene retaliates.
  • Parodied: Helga is all sweetness and smiles when Jim is looking, but keeps lunging for Irene with a knife the instant Jim turns his back.
    • Alternatively, Helga still lunges at Irene when Jim is looking, but she's lunging at her with a rubber inflatable sword that squeaks every time it hits. Because of this, Irene and Jim think that Helga is just kidding around and have a laugh about it.
  • Deconstructed: Helga succeeds in eliminating Irene and winning Jim's heart, but the strain and guilt soon cause her to have a breakdown, preventing her from getting any pleasure out of her prize.
    • Alternately, when Jim discovers what Helga did to Irene, he is horrified and immediately breaks up with/calls the cops on her.
  • Reconstructed:
  • Zig Zagged: Helga poisons Irene's drink, but then has second thoughts and tries to get the drink back, causing hilarity to ensue as they play Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo. They are interrupted when Jim enters the room and takes a sip from the drink himself, which is Played for Drama. It turns out, though, that you need to drink more than a sip for the poison to be noticeable, and Jim starts asking why Helga looked so upset. Helga, overreacting and failing to think of an excuse, drinks the whole thing herself while declaring "You'll never take me alive!"
  • Averted: Helga resolves to win Jim's heart by fair means.
  • Enforced: The writers want Helga out of the story, and having her get arrested for derailing herself seems the quickest way.
  • Lampshaded: "Did you see the look on Helga's face? I bet Irene is checking her drinks pretty damn carefully these days."
  • Invoked: Helga is encouraged to kill Irene by someone else who wants her dead.
  • Exploited: Helga tries to kill Irene, but Irene knew it was going to happen; so, she sets a trap in order to expose her true face to everyone else, including Jim.
  • Defied: Helga deliberately avoids Jim and Irene so that she won't be tempted to do something she'd regret.
  • Discussed: "She should have been your first suspect. The jealous lover is one of the oldest ones in the book, aside from the Butler, of course."
  • Conversed: "The writers of this show seem to think that a woman can't be in love without it turning her into a murderer."

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