jayroo79 wrote:
I'm sorry, but I don't understand the use.
What is a kick the dog moment? Does he do things like kick dogs?
to effectively quote what it means, ill reference TV tropes.
Quote:
Kicking the Dog is the fodder of anything resembling a modern-day Morality Play. A character performs an act so casual and immoral that you know that they are scum, incompatible with the moral rules of the series that they're in. This is the audience's cue that it's "okay" for the character to meet their end, whether they actually get their just desserts or not. While not all villains kick the dog, dog kicking is a sure sign that the writers want the audience to be wary of this character, even if he is nominally one of the good guys.
The key to this trope is that not only is the act evil, it's also pretty pointless to the actual plot. It establishes the character's morality, which is a useful endeavor, but the actual act itself is rarely important. It is the fact that it had no other point than to be evil, thus putting them on the bad side of the Rule Of Empathy.
It doesn't have to be a literal dog-kicking. It's any act or statement that shows the character's meanness or out-and-out evil, such as a boss demanding an employee come to work during Christmas when the employee's kid is in the hospital, or stealing from a blind beggar's coin dish, or a vicious No Holds Barred Beatdown on the hero or one of his Nakama or Protectorate. A Politically Incorrect Villain can kick the dog by showing gratuitous racism/sexism/homophobia/speciesism.
If an animal is used, however, a dog is usually the pet of choice, partly out of connotations of blind loyalty, partly from tradition. Arguably, however, substituting a cat can be even more shocking. After all, even bad guys like cats. So, the argument goes, if someone goes out of his way to harm one, they must really be a bastard.
Dog-kickings can be verbal as well, when a line of dialogue is used to shock the audience with its sheer repugnance. If it's uttered in the presence of the hero in an action series, he'll echo the audience's thoughts and tell the villain "You're Insane!"
This trope is common in horror-based Monster Of The Week shows, often to set up the as*hole Victim for the Twilight Zone Twist. Anthologies are especially prone to this, as they have to set up their villains really quickly, since they only have one episode to tell their story. This can be played up by having the very same kick of cruelty be the cause of their downfall. At the very least, it is designed to let you know who is going to lose at the end. The opposite of Karma Houdini.
In cartoons, someone who does this can be legally harassed by Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Warner Brothers and their Sister Dot, etc. The Screwy Squirrel, however, doesn't need one of these.
One possible origin of the trope name comes from Westerns, where three bandits would ride into the town, one would shoot the Sheriff, one would shoot the Deputy, and one, just to prove he is also evil, would Kick The Dog.
If a character's Kick The Dog moment is excessively horrible, cruel, or otherwise despicable enough to make an audience lose all sympathy for him, then he's crossed the Moral Event Horizon, if he's not on the other side of it already. If the Dog in question is someone the character cares about and discovers Being Evil Sucks, then they've Kicked The Wrong Dog and might be in time to avoid a Face Heel Turn. If the dog belonged to a minion, expect it to help cause a Mook Face Turn because Even Evil Has Loved Ones. On occassions, if karma works in the dog's favor, he'll manage to get a last laugh. On even rarer occassions, after being pushed around too many times, the dog may decide to plan against the Big Bad for his own ambitions, because Being Tortured Makes You Evil.
A more benign, and more comedic, form of this shows the immorality of the villain by having them cheat at Solitaire.
Compare with Cant Get Away With Nuthin, And Your Little Dog Too, Kick Them While They Are Down, The Dog Bites Back, Threw My Bike On The Roof. See "If you're So Evil Eat This Kitten" for when bad guys do a Kick The Dog test to make sure undercover heroes are really evil.
Contrast Pet The Dog (proving you're good) and Adopt The Dog (going from Neutral to Good).
Not to be confused with Shoot The Dog. (That's what you do when Old Yeller gets rabies.)
See Kick The Son Of A b***h for when it's less of a dog and more of a, well, you know.
09 Sep 2010, 2:57 am
