Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,897
edits
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.EvilPlan 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.EvilPlan, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
No edit summary |
||
(18 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Ah, how shall I do it? Ooh, I know. I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, ahahaha... ''[[Memetic Mutation|I'LL SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!]]'' It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius, I say!'' ([[That Poor Plant|BAM]]) '' ...Or, [[Cutting the Knot|to save on postage]], I'll just poison him with'' this!"
|'''Yzma''', ''[[The Emperor's New Groove]]''}}
So you've got your [[Big Bad]] [[Evil Overlord]], looming over the world like a colossus. But he can't just [[Orcus
▲{{quote|''"Ah, how shall I do it? Ooh, I know. I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, ahahaha... ''[[Memetic Mutation|I'LL SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!]]'' It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius, I say!'' ([[That Poor Plant|BAM]]) '' ...Or, [[Cutting the Knot|to save on postage]], I'll just poison him with'' this!"|'''Yzma''', ''[[The Emperors New Groove (Disney)|The Emperors New Groove]]''}}
So they've got to have a [[Plan]]. An
▲So you've got your [[Big Bad]] [[Evil Overlord]], looming over the world like a colossus. But he can't just [[Orcus On His Throne|putz around on his throne]] or [[Kingpin in His Gym|hang out in his gym]] all day long, waiting for the [[Big Damn Heroes]] to show up and kick his butt. And while [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]] doesn't seem to do much but [[We Wait|sit around and wait]] while spouting off cryptic nonsense, they've got to have some sort of [[Hidden Agenda Villain|hidden agenda]] to hide or there isn't much of a point.
▲So they've got to have a [[Plan]]. An evil plan. [[The Villain Makes the Plot|Otherwise there's not much of a story, is there?]]
''If you are looking for [[Evil Plan (Webcomic)|Evil Plan the webcomic try here.]]''▼
Some popular examples of Evil Plans:
* ''[[Take Over the World]]'': [[That Guy With
** ''[[The Evils of Free Will]]'' is a popular means to this end: by robbing everyone of their free will, they will have no choice but to serve their rightful ruler!
* ''[[Earthshattering Kaboom|Destroy The World]]'': Why take over the world when you can blow it up? Like [[Take Over the World]], the scale of destruction also varies depending on the
* ''[[Kill All Humans|Kill All The Humans]]'': No one's going to miss [[Humans Are
* ''[[Omnicidal Maniac|Kill Everything]]'': Why stop with just the humans?
* ''[[The End of the World
* ''[[A God Am I|Gain]] '''[[A God Am I|UNLIMITED POWERRRRR!!!!]]''''': Don't just play God, BE God!
* ''[[Immortality|Live Forever]]'': Pursue the quest for eternal life, no matter what [[Powered
* ''[[MacGuffin|Grand Theft Macguffin]]'': Steal an ancient artifact with untold powers. Of course, this is usually done in the pursuit of one of the other Evil Plans.
* ''[[Sealed Evil in
* ''[[Revenge|Vengeance Is Mine!]]'': You know that guy that wronged you in the past? It doesn't matter how [[Disproportionate Retribution|petty]] or misplaced your grievance is, it's payback time! Time to kill the bastard, or make his life a living hell!
* ''[[Get Rich Quick Scheme|Get Rich Quick]]'': Or, if you're already rich, get richer. Any scheme is fair game in the pursuit of the profit margin, be it theft, blackmail, or auctioning the world off to hungry demons. Unfortunately, this lust for wealth [[Step Three: Profit|falls prey to poor planning]].
* ''[[Utopia Justifies the Means|Create A Perfect Society]]'': You know how people keep hurting themselves and each other? Make them stop, by whatever means are necessary. [[Well
* ''[[Poke the Poodle|Ignore A "Keep Off The Grass" Sign]]'': [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|...Wait, what?]]
Normally, these are accomplished with [[Stock Evil Overlord Tactics]]. Of course, most of the smaller-scope plans can usually be accomplished [[Mundane Solution|in a less grandiose fashion]].
Can involve a [[Xanatos Gambit]] but
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Naruto]]'': Each [[Big Bad]] had their own
** Orochimaru wanted to [[Mega Manning|learn every jutsu]] and [[Immortality Immorality|live forever,]] though he also tried to destroy Konoha and start a war [[For the Evulz]].
** Pain wanted [[Utopia Justifies the Means|a world without war.]]
** Tobi wants to eradicate [[The Evils of Free Will]].
** And Kabuto wants...[[Jerkass Woobie|someone to notice him.]] Via [[Power Parasite]] [[Mega Manning]] and [[War for Fun
* ''[[
** Emperor Pilaf wanted to [[Take Over the World]] for the usual reasons.
** Frieza wanted to become immortal. After Goku kicks his ass, his goal changes to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroying the world]] for revenge on him.
** Cell wanted to destroy the world ''and'' kill Goku because he was programmed to, but possibly [[For the Evulz]] as well.
** Etc.
* The villains of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' have their own plans but they all want to collect [[MacGuffin
* ''[[Inukami
* ''[[Bleach]]''{{'}}s [[Big Bad|Sousuke Aizen]] either wants to "[[A God Am I|fill the unbearable vacancy in heaven]]" or create a [[Worthy Opponent]] for himself. Either way, he steals the Hougyoku and plans to use it to create the Royal Key, as the first step toward attacking the Spirit King.
* ''[[
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' has a number of villains but the recurring one, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Vicious]], wants to take over the Red Dragon Syndicate and settle a long-time score with Spike Spiegel.
* ''[[
*
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Astro Boy (
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (
* ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Ultimate Spider Woman (Fanfic)|Ultimate Spider Woman]] 'Change With The Light' did this with Jack O'Lantern, Spider-Woman's [[Arch Enemy]] as well. Jack immediately minimizes most of the risk to himself by using [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Phillip Watson as his mind-controlled dupe and making it look like ''Phillip'' is the one pulling the strings. Jack is giving Phillip instructions on what to say and do, and makes sure to delete all his correspondence with Phillip so it can't be traced back to him. The plan works out just as he'd hoped -- the resulting [[Mob War]] decimates two of New York City's crime syndicates, allows him to begin implementing his [[Legion of Doom]] plan to set up a new supervillain crime organization, Phillip is blamed for the whole thing and Jack gets off scot-free, and he manages to give Spider-Woman a [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]] as the final delicious twist. ▼
▲* ''[[Ultimate
== Film ==
* Every ''[[James Bond (
** [[
** Kronsteen and Rosa Klebb in ''[[From Russia
** ''[[
** Emilio Largo's plan in ''[[
** Blofeld's plan in ''[[
** Blofeld's plan in ''[[
** Blofeld's plan in ''[[
** Kananga/Mr. Big from ''[[Live and Let Die (
** Scaramanga, ''[[The Man
** Stromberg from ''[[
** The plan of Hugo Drax of ''[[
** Kristatos in ''[[For Your Eyes Only (
** [[Renegade Russian]] General Orlov in ''[[
** Max Zorin's ultimate plan in ''[[A View to
** The evil plan of [[Big Bad
** Sanchez's scheme in ''[[
** Alec Trevelyan of ''[[
** Elliot Carver of ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** And while we're at it, ''[[
* Dr. Leopold from [[
* The Kagenos' true goal in ''[[
* ''[[Season of the Witch]]'': The villain {{spoiler|is a demon who seeks the only book with the knowledge of how to banish it back to Hell in order to destroy it}} and the entire movie is the heroes helping them find it.
** Also a case of [[Using You All Along]].
* Many, many Disney villains have these.
** ''[[Hercules (
** ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]''{{'}}s Evil Queen was more about vanity; "Then I'LL be fairest in the land!"
** ''[[Peter Pan (Disney film)|Peter Pan]]'' was Hook's revenge on the protagonist.
** ''[[The
* ''[[Austin Powers
▲* [[Austin Powers International Man of Mystery (Film)|Austin Powers International Man of Mystery]] parodies this trope. Dr.Evil explains various evil plans only for his [[Number Two]] to point that they already have happened. At last he throws up his hands and says, "Let's just do what we always do: hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage."
== Literature ==
Line 111 ⟶ 105:
* Dr. Impossible's [[Rotating Protagonist|half]] of ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'' revolves around escaping from jail, creating a(nother) new plan to [[Take Over the World]] and putting it into action.
* In [[Brandon Sanderson]]'s ''[[Mistborn]]'', we find out at the end of book 2 that {{spoiler|The entire plot of the first and second books were engineered by Ruin in order to get Vin to release him from the Well of Ascension.}} Also, the search for the Lord Rulers' {{spoiler|Atium stockpile}} which took up a good part of book three was {{spoiler|yet another gambit by Ruin}}. Although to be fair, {{spoiler|the Lord Ruler and the Terris prophets [[Gambit Pileup|had planned for this eventuality]]}}.
* No matter how minor the case in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', eventually it will turn out to have ''at least'' one of these behind it.
* ''[[
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'': What do you think [[Jeffrey Combs|Weyoun]] and all his Cardassian underlings talk about in all those staff meetings? Yamak sauce recipes?▼
▲== Live Action TV ==
* The [[Battlestar Galactica
▲* ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'': What do you think [[Jeffrey Combs|Weyoun]] and all his Cardassian underlings talk about in all those staff meetings? Yamak sauce recipes?
* ''[[
▲* The [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Cylons']] plan in (what else?) ''The Plan''.
▲* [[Sherlock (TV)|Sherlock]] Basically the entirety of episode 3: {{spoiler|Every case Sherlock has to solve ends up having been orchestrated by Moriarty, looking for a fun challenge. It's implied that he, as a consulting criminal, has been arranging a vast array of crimes all over the place.}}
** {{spoiler|Subverted in that the [[Kansas City Shuffle|whole thing was to distract Sherlock from the plans]]. Revealed that the plans were a [[McGuffin]], and double-subverted, when Moriarty tosses them away.}}
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. According to their [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|whiteboard list]] the Trio plan to; "[[Weather Control Machine|Control The Weather]], [[Shrink Ray|Miniaturize]] [[Goldfinger
▲== Theater ==
* [[The Tempest]] A rare heroic version; the entire play is Prospero's [[God Game]] to end his exile from Milan. 'heroic' because all he wants is to get his home back and teach his [[Evil Brother]] a lesson. No one gets hurt, not even the evil brother, and almost all of them go back to Milan as more or less friends.▼
== Theatre ==
▲* ''[[The Tempest]]
== Video Games ==
* Raphael from the ''[[Soul Series]]'' has some of the most ridiculously insane plans ever devised, [[Love Makes You Evil|all for his adopted daughter]]. In ''Soul Calibur 2'' he planned to destroy the country that he fled from by giving its nobles the Soul Edge on the basis that they would tear the country apart in a demonically-dueled civil war so that the world would..somehow.. be safer for his adopted daughter Amy. In ''Soul Calibur 3'', on discovering that he and Amy had been accidentally turned into [[Our Vampires Are Different|basically vampires]], he decided to turn the ''entire world into creatures like them so Amy wouldn't feel left out''. Amy may constitute a pretty drastic subversion of a [[Morality Pet]].
* ''[[Shining Force III]]'': The plot to abduct Emperor Domaric in the third game {{spoiler|is a rare villain-on-villain
* [[Tales
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' likewise has a series of [[Man Behind the Man]] whose plans drive the plot. From Emperor Doel's plan to usurb his homeland to Lloyd's manipulation of that war to collect [[MacGuffin|Macguffins]] to the final [[Big Bad]]'s [[A God Am I]] ambition.
* In the ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
== Web Original ==
* The less creative of us may use the [http://members.tripod.com/~mrpuzuzu/plan.html Evil Plan generator].
* ''[[Broken Saints]]'' has a whole big complicated scheme. The short version? {{spoiler|Lear Dunham wants to bring down the corrupt power systems of the world and end the suffering they cause. To do so, he plans to use various high-tech gadgetry to blast a [[Mind Rape|Mind Raping]] "God signal" across the entire planet. Major world leaders and military honchos implanted with a certain chip -- a chip they thought was supposed to protect them while the blast took care of their enemies -- would find that in actuality the chip ''enhances'' the signal, and all implanted with the chip will die horrific deaths, and surrounding un-chipped populations would be hit with massive psychic trauma. The rest of humanity would receive the signal but would not die; instead they would hear the ominous voices, see the giant [[Evil Eye|"eye of God"]] in the sky, and feel the signal-stimulated fear in their hearts, and submit themselves to the angry God. Those few whose brains are less prone to the signal's power would be drawn to Lear's [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]], where he would make them his apostles, helping him rebuild the world. Oh, and in order to broadcast the "emotion" element of the signal, he uses ''his own daughter'', an [[The Empath|empath]] born and bred to fulfill precisely this function}}.
* [[Doctor Steel]] is "a man with a plan and a mechanical band, who [[
* ''[[Red vs. Blue
* The Necromancer of the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' has one, but it still hasn't been revealed, because he's still at the Grand Theft [[MacGuffin]] stage of the plot.
** He still had a massive plan in play just in "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl" where he found out Ayla was having a birthday party in Boston. He spun it into a plan to: break his minions out of the inescapable superjail outside Boston; find out which of his other minions was [[The Mole]]; steal yet another [[MacGuffin]]; create a hostage situation to get yet another [[MacGuffin]]; take out the SWAT teams that would get sent to that hostage situation; get Fey under [[Mind Control]] or worse; and also kill a bunch of Ayla's friends, just to send a message to someone who had pissed him off. He pulled off most of it.
* Played for laughs with Cinder's [[Department of Redundancy Department|"Evil Plan of Evil"]] in ''[[RWBY Chibi]]''. Judging from what we can see written on her whiteboard, there's no small amount of [[Step Three: Profit]] involved.
== Web Comics ==
* Tons in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.
** [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Hereti]]
** Chilus: release a swarm of mind-eating insects to bring about "the end of the world through bugs" as prophecied.
** Dr. Steve: [[Brainwashed|brainwash]] his [[Wife Husbandry|adoptive daughter]] so she can "go on a date with a lesbian and then tell all." Okay, they can't all be winners.
== Western Animation ==
Line 160 ⟶ 149:
* Cobra Commander from ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' once wasted a huge amount of resources stealing equipment to build a giant laser... so he could carve his face in the moon. Destro was not impressed.
** Another attempt by Cobra Commander was to use a love potion to allow [[The Baroness]] to seduce a ship magnate, only to have a fight break out between Cobra and G.I. Joe over the chemical, only to have the potion stolen by a crab. At least this time Destro found the whole silly fiasco hilarious.
* Endlessly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] over and over again by the various [[Card
** In fact, while tutoring another villain, Shego explains how it's the single most important part of being a villain.
* The Robot Devil in an episode of ''[[Futurama]]'': "My ridiculously circuitous plan is one-quarter complete!"
* Parodied ([[Stealth Parody|we hope]]) in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', where Grodd's elaborate evil plan turns out to be "{{spoiler|transforming every man, woman and child on Earth...'''''[[Large Ham|INTO AN APE!!!]]'''''}}" This is appropriately lampshaded, and also [[Coup De Grace|face-shotted]].
* Parodied in ''[[The Tick (animation)|The Tick]]'', in which The Tick has just captured one of the serial robber Idea Men and demands to know "what's the big idea". The idea man explains that [[Captain Obvious|their plan was to steal a lot of money, so they'd get rich and wouldn't have to work any more]]. The Tick is genuinely shocked by this fiendish plan.
* Played every which way with ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]
* The villain in the first season of ''[[
* Virtually every episode of ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' is driven by a plan to [[Take Over the World]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Mystery Tropes]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:The Plan]]
Line 179 ⟶ 168:
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Plots]]
▲[[Category:Evil Plan]]
|