cheating theme
A character subverts rules in a non-criminal way to obtain an unfair advantage over others with whom they are acquainted.
Notes
The theme "criminal fraud" is to be preferred when the when the act is clearly criminal in context.
Examples
Johnny infuriated the Swede by cheating at the card game High Five "The Blue Hotel" (1977).
9 total · 2 major · 7 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| ahh1x01 | major | In the end, Duke was revealed to have been using marked cards at the poker table. The gangsters killed him because they thought he'd been cheating them all along. Earlier, another gambler, Alley, had also been shot for dealing from the bottom of the deck. |
| columbo1971e10x01 | major | The frat brothers Justin Rowe and Cooper Redman resorted to murder to avoid getting expelled for conspiring to cheat on Professor Rusk's final exam. |
| ahh1x10 | minor | Paul and Caroline's bridge opponents lightheartedly accused the pair of cheating. Judge Wilcox found their claim to be lacking evidence when requested to weigh in on the situation. |
| ahp7x01 | minor | Perry was caught in the act of pulling a folded sheet of crib notes out from his shoe in the middle of a biology test. |
| movie: Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) | minor | Danny was a reprobate cheater at games, board games or otherwise, according to his older brother Walter. |
| rh2012e1x06 | minor | Tobbe requested the use of Anita to translate his homework, but Inger turned him down. |
| tftc1989e4x08 | minor | The quack that dealt Billy a hand of poker dealt him five aces of spades to prove some sort of a point, presumably about cheating. He then convinced Billy to try a tonic meant to give him an edge in gunslinging. |
| tftc1989e5x09 | minor | Reggie charmed Stella into conspiring with him to purloin the questions for their Egyptology course midterm. |
| theamericanshortstory08 | minor | Johnnie infuriated a local townsman and the Swede by cheating at the card game High Five. |