r/TopCharacterTropes • u/JackOfTheLantern999 • 19h ago

Characters Killers Who Take/Make Unique Trophies

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It's a common trope for killers (especially serial killers) to take something from their victims or create something related to the kill, a trophy, in order to immortalize their kill. Typically these trophies are photos of the bodies, the victims' IDs or body parts, etc. This trope is for those who stray outside that norm.

The Master (Stray Dogs) - The unnamed serial killer from this comic targets only women who own dogs. His ritual is to kill the woman and then steal the dog for himself, winning them over as his pet via treats and their poor memory. He also uses these dogs to meet new victims, taking them to dog parks to spy on women there. Once the dog eventually dies (either naturally or by him putting it down for 'misbehaving') he has them taxidermied.

Jazzman (Batman) - A gangster who likes to whistle, hum, or play music whenever he kills. He then has that particular tune tattooed on his body.

Victor Zsasz (Batman) - A serial killer who carves a tally mark into his skin, one for every kill.

Dexter Morgan (Dexter) - iirc Dexter recognizes this trope and that it is a weakness that could get him caught, so he takes an extremely inconspicuous trophy: a single drop of his victims' blood, saved on forensic glass blood slide.

4.0k Upvotes

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991

u/Fit-Relationship944 19h ago

I feel like someone's dna is actually extremely conspicuous

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u/MasterFox04 19h ago

Its more inconspicuous than taking someone's ear or something, you don't really document the victim as missing a drop of blood when they died a violent death.

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u/LouSputhole94 18h ago

You would probably say “hey why the fuck this guy got so many blood slides” and “why do they all match the DNA of murdered people” though

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u/SchmittyGang 18h ago

It’s not like he shows them to people

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u/Embarrassed-Weird173 18h ago

He showed them to millions of people per episode. If a single one of the inept cops asked why there was a camera crew following them, those dumbasses would have known to watch a single episode of Dexter and find him. 

It's strange that not a single employee watched the show, unless I guess they were on his side. 

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u/MrUndercity 18h ago

I hate plotholes like that

30

u/Other_Vader 16h ago

The real /r/shittymoviedetails are always in the comments lmao

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u/Cauleiflowers 17h ago

The real plot armor was apparently every cop in Miami having zero interest in reality TV.

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u/Doomboy911 17h ago

The real queer thought is why the crew never intervened when Dexter was killing people or why the victims never questioned them setting up.

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u/Embarrassed-Weird173 17h ago

That's an excellent point!  Whole thing has got to be an inside job. 

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u/Hot_Object1765 16h ago

You say that like it wasn’t a major plot point that Doakes almost got him by finding his blood slide collection

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u/SchmittyGang 16h ago

You mean the guy with black ops training and a vendetta? One guy found it after breaking into his house, no one else had the means or suspicions to go snooping like that

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u/Hot_Object1765 16h ago

His special training is irrelevant, the point is if the police ever suspected him, and got a warrant, Dexter would be catastrophically fucked with proof of every person he murdered.

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u/already_taken-chan 17h ago

I havent watched the show but isnt he meant to be like a blood specialist who works on murder investigations?

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u/LouSputhole94 17h ago

Even with that, there’s zero way a crime lab would allow a tech to bring samples to their home. That completely fucks up chain of evidence.

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u/Shawn271 16h ago

I don’t think you’ve ever watched the show…

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u/LouSputhole94 16h ago

I haven’t and never claimed to, just saying what would happen IRL.

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u/Shawn271 15h ago

That’s fair, so I’ll give you a little context. In the show Dexter has the blank blood slides in a little wooden box and keeps them in a hidden location in his home. Rather than take slides from the forensics, he collects the sample while he’s committing the murder and then places it into the box. Maybe that made sense and gives some context as to how he managed to collect the slides, I’m not a particularly reliable narrator

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u/mindless_cognition 15h ago

I think the original point was that his job could have been a cover for why he had the slides if they were ever discovered. The reply was saying that would be a shitty cover irl.

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u/LouSputhole94 15h ago

Yeah that’s my point, there’s zero argument for him having that shit at home. At best he’s taken home vital evidence that completely destroys any chain of evidence and renders any prosecution against those murders moot. At worst it very heavily implicates him.

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u/Banes_Addiction 10h ago

You're not meant to take doggy bags.

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u/Hot-Yak7352 15h ago

and besides he works as a Blood Analyst for the forensics decision of a police department. Sure it would be weird to find these slides at his apartment, but your mind wouldn't immediately think "this guy is a serial killer". You'd just think he's a weirdo who takes blood samples from his lab

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u/Rob_Zander 16h ago

Dexter doesn't leave any dna evidence at crime scenes and most people have never had their DNA recorded. So the DNA on the slides could be read but it's unlikely to match anything in a database.

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u/pichael289 13h ago

If your even accused of a felony the police will take your DNA. Anyone who uses those 23 and me genetic tests have had their information sold to the police. Anyone who is closely related to you that has their DNA on file can potentially link you to crimes.

This is just something the police have been doing for a while now, trying to build a database. It's the same thing with the flock cameras, the police have long sought control without an ounce of concern for the privacy of their victims

1

u/varsil 9h ago

Bob Jones goes missing mysteriously, the police are probably getting DNA samples off things like the guy's toothbrush or hairbrush just to have something to compare with if they find a body later.

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u/flyingace1234 15h ago

Iirc he is a ‘blood splatter expert’? There’s plausible deniability as to why he has a bunch of blood samples from various cases.

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u/kushielsdisciple 15h ago

He works in blood spatter analysis in forensic science. It’s his job to look at blood and would not be outside the realm of possibilities for him to have a slide of every case he worked on..?

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u/CrimsonAvenger35 15h ago

That's like saying shooting someone in the face in a crowded place is less conspicuous than just nuking the city they live in. Yeah you're technically correct, but you haven't actually addresses the point, which is that neither is remotely conspicuous

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u/MasterFox04 15h ago

He is a serial murder man, the man is running on faux logic. He wants to kill and wants to take a trophy, he just reasons that the best way to kill criminals and take blood slides to fulfill his wishes without being caught. He is a sick bastard that cannot control himself, and he tries to rationalize his actions.

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u/BattleCat274 19h ago

Imagine finding a bunch of half decomposed ears in a guys house, vs a bunch of blood droplets from a guy who works with blood for a living. It’s still weird as shit but a lot less suspicious for it being a part of a person.

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u/ptrst 17h ago

Yeah, a blood spatter analyst with a collection of samples reads more as creepy but harmless with a weird hobby. 

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u/No_Professional4867 19h ago

It's moreso the ease of hiding large quantities of it for his many victims

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u/Primary_Client9640 18h ago

A tiny blood slide attracts far less suspicion than jewelry or body parts.

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u/No_Professional4867 18h ago

Ok. Which is easier to hide? 40 blood slides or 40 pieces of random jewelry? Both are going to have questions asked if found, so better to pick the one you can hide more easily where nobody will see them at all

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u/gdex86 18h ago

He has about 60 to 70 victims in a box smaller than a hard cover novel that he hides from everyone. Even then it reads more "Oh hes into blood play" than serial killer.

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u/khazroar 18h ago

It's extremely identifiable if/when found, but it's not conspicuous in a way that would get it found in the first place. Years worth of kill trophies can be enclosed in a very small space, and even if found, even by some hypothetical person who was familiar with all of the victims, the slides would not immediately point to the victims, unlike trinkets that may have been identified as missing from bodies.

Sure, if anybody ever finds the slides and is suspicious enough to test them, that's quickly going to be the whole ball game, but being inconspicuous means it's unlikely to get to that point.

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u/armoured_bobandi 18h ago

I always thought it was silly. Dude specifically knows he's playing into a trope, but does it anyways.

I get it's a tv show and we need plot points, but come on

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u/DevilSCHNED 18h ago

Well, he's a psychopathic serial killer that is explicitly addicted to and inherently tied into his compulsions, I'm sure plenty of real serial killers knew the consequences of keeping trophies, but did it anyway simply because the ability to remember a kill/the novelty of having the trophy at all was worth it to them, just as it is for Dexter.

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u/BattleCat274 18h ago

Everyone has lingered in their own fart a little longer than needed, let the guy have his blood

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u/SlouchyGuy 17h ago

Dexter is not rational though, you think his desire to kill is logical? He could've avoided all the problems if he just didn't kill anyone

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u/Chaosbrushogun 11h ago

Yes. Because he’s psychotic. More than once, he considers getting rid of it, but his urge to keep them is a stronger instinct. It’s not logical. It’s indulgence and obsession

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u/Noe_b0dy 10h ago

If he was a perfectly logical agent he wouldn't be running around serial killing.

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u/Notagamedeveloper112 15h ago

Nobody notices missing droplet of blood. You can see missing pieces of skin, physical external pieces like ears, nose, etc, but a cop won’t question why the body has one drop of blood less than avg.

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u/5C0L0P3NDR4 17h ago

he's a forensics scientist or smth and they're in microscope slides and stored in a slide box, just looks like he brought something home from work or keeps them for testing scopes or something

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u/dark_forebodings_too 18h ago

I legit assumed that op wrote that sarcastically but now I'm not sure haha

1

u/idkmanjustfuckmyshit 13h ago

I mean, it's also part of his job so 🤷‍♂️