Once Is Not Enough/Playing With

Basic Trope: A defender fails to counterattack sufficiently to stop an aggressor.

• Straight: General Drake is hounding Bob. Eventually Bob manages to knock Drake out, but Drake recovers and manages to catch Bob again.
• Exaggerated: Bob barely dazes Drake with his counterattack before he tries to run. Drake shakes it off and continues his pursuit.
• Justified: Bob's counter would have taken out a human. Unfortunately, Drake is anything but.
  • Bob is from a society that is highly litigious and Lawful Stupidity has made him afraid to hurt Drake sufficiently out of fear that he will get sued for battery.
  • Bob is not able to hurt Drake, but hitting him once will allow him to run away.
• Inverted: Kick Them While They Are Down, No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, There Is No Kill Like Overkill
  • Also Extreme Melee Revenge, in which the pursuer is beaten to a pulp like the main page says.
• Subverted: Bob starts running away after knocking Drake out, then turns back to ventilate his brainpan.
• Double Subverted: Except Bob missed and had no time to take another shot, so Drake still lives.
• Deconstructed: Drake catches Bob and kills him.
• Reconstructed: It turns out that Drake only got a dummy that lead him right into Bob's trap.
• Zig Zagged: ???
• Averted: Bob decapitates Drake... then cuts off the rest of his limbs, shoots his heart multiple times, blows up his body, smothers his remains, and throws the ashes into some acid.
• Enforced: ???
• Lampshaded: ???
• Defied: See Inverted.
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: "You can always count on slasher victims to be Genre Blind about the killer's durability."
• Played For Laughs: Drake is crushed by an anvil, (along with a whole lot of random events that just occur) and still manages to recover nicely in time for the next scene.
• Played For Drama: Just before he blanks out, Drake mutters how he failed to keep his promise to his sister/lover/friend, thinking he's going to die.
  • Bob is relieved and thinks Drake is gone for good. He gets a nasty surprise when he shows up again, and means business.

---

Don't let up on Once Is Not Enough! It'll be back if you don't do a thorough job!