Bond Villain Stupidity: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Often includes [[Monologuing]], accompanied by stock quotes such as: "[[You Have No Chance to Survive]]! I ''don't'' think we'll meet again... Goodbye!"

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Dragon Ball|Dragon Ball Z]]'' has many examples of this:

** Frieza shows that he completely outclasses Goku and the rest of the heroes while only fighting at 50% power and that he could kill all of them in an instant, and yet he toys with them and lets the fight drag on... until Goku transforms, that is.

** Cell himself makes the exact same mistake. After ascending to his Perfect form, and defeating Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, and Android 16 in the process, he becomes the most powerful being on earth. Rather than kill everyone he opts to give the Z-Fighters 10 days to prepare for a tournament.

** Those were probably the [[Lego Genetics|Vegeta cells]] inside him, as Vegeta himself does this a few times as well, as mentioned above.

* After knocking about most of the cast with ease, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Tsukihime|Shingetsutan Tsukihime]]'' inexplicably declares "[[We Will Meet Again]]" and [[Villain Exit Stage Left|falls backwards]] off a bridge while [[Evil Laugh|laughing madly]]. This isn't the only instance, but it is by far the most entertaining.

** The [[Big Bad]] does this during the game as well. He goes off on a long winded display and speech that not only allows the hero to think but also [[Berserk Mode|pisses the hell out of him]] which allows him to retaliate. To be fair, the [[Big Bad]] had a lot of reasons to think he completely had the upper hand and much of what he said is important to the background of the plot.

NTom64: Because it's a family film. }}

* In the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga and Brotherhood series, {{spoiler|Lust stabs Mustang and Havoc and leaves them to bleed to death on the floor and doesn't actually watch them die. Cue her surprise when Mustang comes back to kill her, having cauterized his own wound with fire.}}

** Notably when Orochimaru had the Third cornered with a kunai and instead of just SLICING HIS HEAD OFF like any smart person decided to {{spoiler|do a huge elaborate drama in which he summon's the Third Hokage's own teachers to kill him, resulting in Orochimaru losing the use of his arms.}}

** Sadistically [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] by Hidan: he savors killing so much, he toys with poor Asuma to the very end, who really does get [[Killed Off for Real]]- and then [[Double Subverted]] when Shikamaru plots a masterful revenge, [[And I Must Scream|blowing him to pieces and burying him alive.]]

* ''[[Hentai]]'', The villains usually lose because they are dedicated to rape the heroine, instead of just killing her.

 

* In the ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' series, one villain, Hammerhead, tries to avoid this trope by pulling out a gun and shooting a troublemaker; unfortunately said troublemaker manages to catch the bullet unharmed, much to Hammerhead's surprise.

* Lampshaded and cleverly justified in the classic Disney comic story "[[Mickey Mouse]] Outwits the Phantom Blot." In the story, the villainous Blot puts Mickey in death traps time and time again, but Mickey always escapes. It turns out that The Blot does this because, despite being evil, he can't stand to actually see anyone get hurt, let alone die. So he constructs elaborate traps to kill Mickey for him, then always leaves because he can't bear to watch.

** That is until ''[[Epic Mickey|now]]''.

* Averted so hard in ''[[Black Orchid]]'' half the tropes on that page are related to that single moment.

* The Yellow Bastard in ''[[Sin City]]'' was fine leaving Hartigan hanging by his neck and didn't stick around long to make sure he couldn't escape, which he did. To his credit, people typically die when they are hanged.

* In ''[[Dracula vs. King Arthur]]'', Dracula has Arthur captured and brought to Dracula where he could've easily killed him and took over the kingdom. But rather then doing the sensible thing to clinch victory, he instead decides to "break his will" and just have Arthur throw into the ocean after his subjects and he feed on him. As you can imagine not only does this not happen, but Arthur recovers, gains some new weapons from the Lady of the Lake and regroups his remaining forces for a final battle which ended in Dracula's defeat. Yeah, [[Sarcasm Mode|nice one, lord of the darkness.]]

* ''[[The Phantom]]'' wouldn't have lasted for one generation, let alone [[Legacy Immortality|the twenty-one he's currently at]], without practically ''every'' enemy he's ever met falling for this trope. Of course, Phantoms do get occasionally killed in the line of duty, but it's usually in open combat and not because someone's clever enough to [[Just Shoot Him]] when they have him captured.

 

* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|(Brox)}} asks [[The Dragon]] {{spoiler|(Grunnel)}} why he wouldn't let {{spoiler|her}} kill George and Ringo, who were both useless to them. {{spoiler|Grunnel}} responds with a number of reasons, including that it's funnier to have them powerless and unable to stop the proceedings. (Also, he does genuinely like them.) Later, after it becomes clear that the two have managed to get useful stuff done despite having their magic neutralized, {{spoiler|Grunnel}} apologizes to {{spoiler|Brox}} for being wrong. The latter isn't terribly upset, though, as {{spoiler|she}} believes that they still can't bull their way through dozens of wizards to get into the warehouse.

 

=== [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] films ===

* From the [[Trope Namer]] series.

** Similiarly averted by ''[[Goldfinger]]'', who keeps Bond alive because if he dies, then the [[Secret Intelligence Service|Secret Service]] will just send in [[Hero of Another Story|some guy called 008]]. Goldfinger instead tricks Bond's superiors into thinking that the situation is well in hand.

*** Also justified in the same film - Goldfinger originally was going to have Bond sliced in half by a laser. The inversion is that this was going to work; Bond had to talk his way out of it, and was literally seconds away from losing his manhood when Goldfinger agreed.

*** In the Statue yard, they were trying to frame Bond and Natalya for the theft of the helicopter. If a post-explosion examination of the bodies revealed that they had been shot beforehand, it would have raised suspicion.

** In ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'' [[Those Two Bad Guys|Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd]] had Bond unconscious and they simply dumped him in an unfinished pipeline and left, [[Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere|assuming he'd eventually die]].

* Subverted in the 1997 movie version of ''[[Le Bossu]]''. After a long sword fight, the hero gets cornered by some soldiers and the [[Psycho for Hire]]. From what we have seen earlier, it will be difficult, but possible for him to escape. At this moment, the villain, exasperated by the long fight, steps up to the Psycho For Hire, draws his gun, asks why they can't do it "quick, modern and effective" and shoots the hero, who only survives because of his [[Character Shield]]s.

* In the film ''[[Sherlock Holmes]] and the Secret Weapon'', Professor Moriarty originally intends to kill Holmes off quickly, but Holmes goads him into coming up with something "more creative," giving an example himself of the sort of death trap he would use if he had Moriarty at his mercy. Moriarty decides to prove his superior intelligence and creativity by... using the exact idea that Holmes just came up with! He does at least stick around to watch the death trap in action, and prepares to shoot Holmes when he decides it's taking too long; but he waits a bit longer than he should have, and Watson rescues Holmes [[Just in Time]].

* Annoyingly present in ''[[Terminator Salvation]]'', when after luring John Connor into the heart of its main base, Skynet sends a single unarmed T-800 to dispatch our hero. Yeah. In a base probably full of hundreds of killer robots with guns, Skynet decides to send ONE unarmed unit to kill the hero. And it doesn't bother to send more armed killer robots after the fight drags out, with Connor getting backed up by Cyborg Marcus.

** Skynet doesn't even seem concerned when the fight spills into the T-800 assembly line, where countless Terminator power cores (I.E. easily set off miniature nuclear devices) lay for the humans to jury rig into a bomb that will destroy the entire base if they manage to defeat that lone T-800 you sent to kill them.

* After John's cover is blown in ''Stone Cold'', the bad guys put him into a chopper (which is vital part of their [[Evil Plan]]) where they plan to strap him with explosives and then drop him on unsuspecting cops below. Of course, he gets loose, some other guy gets blown to bits mid-air instead and the chopper crashes.

 

* Unsurprisingly, this happens regularly in the ''[[James Bond (novel)|James Bond]]'' novels. Some ([[Live and Let Die (novel)|Mr. Big]], who has actually put quite a bit of thought into it) are smarter about it than others ([[From Russia with Love|Red Grant]], where even Bond notices). However, the highlight has to be ''[[The Man with the Golden Gun]]'', when it's actually not Bond, but M who gets this treatment from {{spoiler|Russia's newest assassin, James Bond}}.

** In ''[[From Russia with Love]]'', the Soviet [[Chessmaster]] Kronsteen lays a complicated and near-perfect trap for [[James Bond]]. Everything works as planned, all the pawns including Bond go through their predicted moves, and Bond gets exactly where the Soviets wanted him. But at the crucial moment {{spoiler|the assasin Red Donovan - an Irishman who hates the English - makes the fatal mistake of engaging in prolonged crowing, boasting and gloating instead of just going ahead with his assinged task of killing Bond. This allows Bond the chance to improvise a desperate last-moment plan which works, enabling him to kill Donovan and use the information which Donovan carelessly revealed in order to catch the senior Soviet operative Rosa Klebb}}.

{{quote|'''Iceclaw:''' If Tigerstar can harm cats like he can and walk in their dreams, why doesn't he just do it to Firestar, take revenge, and get it over with?

'''Vicky:''' Because Tigerstar wants a long-drawn out kind of vengeance, involving as many cats as possible, so that Firestar truly suffers. ... }}

* Uncharacteristically occurs with [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Grand Admiral Thrawn]], usually one of the more [[Genre Savvy]] people in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]. He has just betrayed Mara Jade by tricking her into revealing Talon Karrde's location, leading to his arrest by Imperials who will torture him if he doesn't hand over important intel, and then smugly mouths off to her face about it. Mara predictably goes [[Berserk Button|berserk]] and attempts to attack Thrawn, at first physically then through the Force. Both of these fail, leaving Thrawn with the question of what to do with a still visibly enraged and always emotionally unstable Jade. Instead of killing her, he allows her to live, and lets her out of his sight aboard his ship before letting her go. Jade then predictably hacks into the computer network of Thrawn's ship, uses it to find Luke Skywalker, and saves him. The next one-and-a-half books can be accurately described as Jade [[Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal|sticking it to Thrawn]] which eventually leads to his plans collapsing and his death.

* ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]'' had a very... ''[[Invoked Trope|unique]]'' case. Realizing that he is a mad genius billionaire with access to world-ending technology and a strong desire to actually use it, the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|sets up a geas that makes the tropes of a Bond movie reality. He plans to make it so that the only person who stands a chance of thwarting his plan is a solitary British secret agent... and if one of those manages to get through, then he'll shut off the geas so that said agent is nothing more than a solitary man hundreds of miles away from any back-up who can easily be killed}}. Small problem: {{spoiler|despite all his precautions, the [[Big Bad]] completely fails to realize by the end that the geas he thought he ended is still operating, even when he's got the hero and his fellow agent bound up and prefers to monologue at them rather than just kill them}}.

** At one point she ''is'' about to kill him, realizing that he's no longer necessary to her plans, and in the middle of sharpening her knife when Edmund (currently tied to a tree) is rescued.

* Most if not all of the villains in the ''Twilight'' series fall victim to this. Probably the most egregious are the Volturi. In ''New Moon'', the only reason they don't want to kill Bella is because she looks like she'll make for an interesting vampire. Instead of just biting her then and there and holding her captive to brainwash her into being a member of their guard (which ''Breaking Dawn'' says is what they want from her), they decide to let her go back to Forks, and according to Edward will probably forget about her for thirty years or so, giving the Cullens plenty of time to turn her on their own terms, or hide her. In ''Breaking Dawn'', their goal was apparently to use Renesmee as an excuse to kill the Cullens/force some of them to join the guard. Instead of quickly going to Forks and doing the job, they spend a full month heading over (thus giving Alice a chance to see it and warn the family) and bring a ton of witnesses, which means they have to put on a show of being fair and let the Cullens go. The witnesses aren't even necessary, since [[Word of God]] says that the vampires generally accept the rule of the Volturi as right.

 

* In the ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' episode "cold station 12": "Five minutes after we leave, every stasis field in this station will shut down, releasing hundreds of pathogens. I wonder which one will kill you first".

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshade hung]] in a ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode when Harmony captures Dawn in order to get Buffy to attempt to rescue and then capture Buffy. When Harmony's minions point out that they could just kill Dawn because as long as Buffy believes Dawn to be alive then she'll come anyway, instead of waiting until Buffy arrives to kill Dawn. Harmony refuses "Because that's not the plan, duh!".

** Averted by the Master:

{{quote|"Anyway. Why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me, I ''don't'' think!"}}

* In the ''[[Smallville]]'' episode "Arrival", two evil Kryptonians confront Clark Kent. They open a portal to the [[Phantom Zone]] and shove Clark into it. At the last second, Clark grabs a piece of rebar and tries desperately to hold on as the portal sucks him in. Instead of doing something like cutting the bar with their heat vision, the villains just smirk and start walking away, only for Clark to [[Flash Step]] up to them, and [[Hoist by His Own Petard|shove them into the portal]].

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' villains aren't renowned for their intelligence, but were most guilty of Bond Villain stupidity during [[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]], where a constant stream of new villainous overlords continued to defeat the Power Rangers then walk away, only to complain later about not being able to defeat the Rangers. By about the 20th time this happened in a 32 episode show, it was very hard to keep caring.

* A few [[24]] fans weren't too attached to the [[Affably Evil]] Jonas Hodges in season 7, because of this trope. At one point in the season, Jones Hodges manages to frame Jack Bauer for the death of a man he tortured by tasering, but could've just as easily killed Jack Bauer in the process. A bit of context: the incapacitated man was lying in the hospital bed recovering from the aforementioned torture when Jack Bauer sneaked back into the room (Bauer wasn't allowed to see him, but had to [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|interrogate him...again]]). When this happened, Jonas Hodges deployed knockout gas into the room to knock them out for a few brief minutes, which he then sends some men to kill the tortured man, and then leave. This makes the more [[Genre Savvy]] fans think, "why didn't he kill Jack while he had the upper hand?" (Answer: because that would be bad for ratings) To be fair, many other villains kept Jack alive far longer than he should be, but those moments were done more realistically to suspend disbelief.

* Patrick Jane from ''[[The Mentalist]]'' has been saved by this trope quite a few times. Often involves [[Holding the Floor]] till [[The Cavalry|Lisbon]] arrives.

 

* This is the Unique Limitation of the Criminal Mastermind archetype from the ''[[Feng Shui]]'' supplement ''Seed of the New Flesh'', appropriately titled "Slave to the Cheese." Not only are you 100% unable to [[Mundane Solution|just shoot]] any named cop or Buro characters you capture or non-lethally defeat, but [[Complexity Addiction|you must do everything in your power to prevent anyone else from doing so]], preferring to toy with your prey by putting them in elaborate death-traps or offering them some desperate ([[Let's Fight Like Gentlemen|but psychotically "fair"]]) gamble with which to win their lives and freedom. Not only that, but you absolutely cannot resist the urge to engage in a [[Just Between You and Me]] speech, telling them your plans in order to rub it in.

* The trapmaster in ''Super [[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]]''. He plays a trap card at you when you start fighting him. If he defeats you, however, his Bad Stuff is that "he leaves you in one of his traps and strolls off laughing. [[Lampshade Hanging|The idiot. No effect]]."

* The Infernal [[Exalted]] have Acts of Villainy, specific behaviors installed by their [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Yozi]] masters to allow them to bleed off [[Hate Plague|Torment]] accrued via defiance. As [[God of Evil|the Ebon Dragon]] took a hand in these, they're both a) [[Card-Carrying Villain|obviously dickish behaviors]] and b) designed to screw someone over, be it the target or the Infernal. One of them, Infernal Genius Declaration, is basically this trope, granting the Infernal mental relief if they brag about their plans to their hated foe, especially when they're on the ropes.

 

* [[Double Subverted]] in the William Gillette play ''[[Sherlock Holmes (theatre)|Sherlock Holmes]]'', where Moriarty's first plan is in fact to just shoot Holmes. He doesn't try it again, though; his next plan involves preparing a [[Short Con]] as bait to lead Holmes into a [[Death Trap]] (which he escapes in dramatic fashion). Justified, since Moriarty doesn't want a gunshot to be heard outside.

 

* Sephiroth of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has this badly. He could, at any given moment in the original game, completely obliterate the party with ease. However, he instead prefers to mock and taunt the heroes, stringing them along with plans to manipulate them later. As is expected with the trope, this came to haunt him later—when Sephiroth kills Aeris, she's already managed to summon Holy, which ultimately stops Meteor's impact. Had Sephiroth just killed Aeris when he had the chance, Holy wouldn't have been summoned, instead he waited for Cloud to catch up to her so he could kill Aeris in front of his eyes to torment him.

** Justified to some degree in that Seph wasn't intending to kill Cloud and (most of) his group, it was all part of his [[Xanatos Gambit]] to get him to deliver the Black Materia to {{spoiler|his real body in the Northern Crater, which he then used to summon Meteor}}.

* Mostly averted in the very beginning of ''[[Skyrim]]''. The Imperial Legion captured the rebel leader Ulfric Stormcloak and instead of taking him back to the capital and staging an elaborate trial, they immediately take him and the other captives to the next garrison where they are led to the chopping block right after getting of the cart. But even that turned out to be too much of a delay, as a dragon attacks and the prisoners escape in the chaos after just one of them had been beheaded.

** The extent to which the Imperial Legion are villains is fairly debatable as well. A more straight example would be the various mad scientist-cum-mages who feel the need to have you fight a pet monster of theirs rather than kill you outright, or even Alduin, who, rather than kill you outright when he meets you at dragon burial mounds, resurrects a lesser dragon and lets it do the work. Predictably, it always fails.

 

* [[Lampshade]]d and [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] in [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=040217 this] ''[[Bob and George]]'' strip. {{spoiler|Don't worry, he got better.}}

* Averted in the vampire vs. zombie webcomic ''Last Blood'', during the final battle, the vampires are captured by zombies who chain them up with the intent to torture them. However, for the past 20 pages, there have been allusions to the idea that the leader of the vampires, Addison Payne, has a brilliant scheme to defeat the zombies at some point, even once captured. So instead of letting him live and risking utter victory just for the sake of torture, the lead zombie simply stakes him through the heart, no suggestion necessary. Despite this stroke of brilliance, he still winds up losing it all when he decides to keep one of the human women as his presumed concubine, and goes to embrace her, at which point she promptly stakes him in the heart, killing him and turning his zombies loose.

'''Torg:''' If you were a ''real'' villain, [[Just Between You and Me|you'd tell me your master plan before killing me]]. }}

 

** Averted and lampshaded in the episode "Best In Show".

{{quote|'''Kim Possible:''' "Um... Aren't you going to leave now?"

'''Kim Possible:''' "Okay, but I feel I must warn you, you're really breaking a super-villain tradition here." }}

* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'' - in the [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] parody "Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion", Jimmy and Jet are left in an elaborate death trap... and, of course, manage to escape.

* Played straight then subverted in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', where Homer's new employer, a megalomaniac, tries to kill Mr. Bont with such a deathtrap, and, of course, Bont escapes, only to be promptly tackled by Homer. Wising up, the guards just shoot him.

** To be fair to Homer, he did think that Bont was a loafer.

** In a scene made for the episode where gambling became legal but only shown in a special, a Bond-like character asked the villain to describe the plan but the villain said he wouldn't fall for that again.

* ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers]]'' has Pete doing this to Mickey. This is notable in that he averts this with Goofy and [[Donald Duck]], who he flat out attempts to kill.

* In ''[[The Perils of Penelope Pitstop]]'', the villain Hooded Claw constantly tries to murder the eponymous heroine(ish). The entire episodes are devised of the heroes foiling his extremely elaborate and overly complex homicide attempts.

* In the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' episode "X", [[Mad Scientist|Professor Chang]]'s [[Mooks|minions]] actually defeat [[Superhero]] team leader Robin. But, not only do they not kill him, they don't even bother taking him prisoner! Instead they just pass on a message that Chang has kidnapped the rest of the Teen Titans and will kill them if Robin interferes Chang's plans. They might as well have been ''daring'' Robin to [[Big Damn Heroes|swoop in and save the day at the last minute]].

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in the first season finale of ''[[Generator Rex]]''. When [[Big Bad|Van Kleiss]] gives the order {{spoiler|for [[The Dragon|Biowolf]] to dispose of a [[Brought Down to Normal|depowered]] Rex to be disposed of, Rex}} asks him if he'd rather lock him a cage or tie him to a slab and use a slow moving laser on him, {{spoiler|Biowolf simply says "No", and tosses him out the window of [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier|the Keep]]}}. Interestingly enough, this is played straight later in the episode by the {{spoiler|[[Big Good|Big]] [[Designated Hero|"Good"]]}} of all people, who {{spoiler|chooses not to turn his electromagnet defense system high enough to tear the nanites out of Biowolf's body, but simply to immobilize him for a good old fashioned beat down.}}

* [[Lampshaded]] with Dr. Gene Splicer in the ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' episode "Hare Raising Night".

* Played straight in an episode of ''[[Justice League]]'' when {{spoiler|Aquaman's brother, Orm}} leaves Aquaman and his baby son pinned to a large piece of rock slowly sinking into lava rather than just killing them both outright. However, the escape becomes Aquaman's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] so its not so bad.

* In a similar example to the above Sherlock Holmes example, ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' has [[Big Bad|Ratigan]] set up an ''incredibly'' elaborate deathtrap for Basil and Dawson instead of just killing them outright. However, the movie does at least give reasons for why he made it so elaborate (he couldn't decide on just one killing method) and why he left rather than stay to watch their deaths (Basil arrived at Ratigan's hideout later than expected, forcing him to leave early to carry out his [[Evil Plan]]). Ultimately [[Justified]] in that Ratigan probably didn't expect {{spoiler|that Dawson would taunt the defeated Basil into creating a plan that set off the trap early and started a chain reaction that freed them rather than killed them.}}

* ''[[Futurama]]'' pulls this with the Slurm Queen during the 'Fry and the Slurm Factory' episode.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Villain Ball]]

[[Category:No One Respects the Spanish Inquisition]]

[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]