Expose the Villain, Get His Job/Playing With

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Basic Trope: The Hero or an ally thereof is given the villain's job after defeating them.

  • Straight: Bob catches Eve, his supervisor, leaking trade secrets. Their boss Alice fires Eve and promotes Bob to replace her.
  • Exaggerated: Bob, a random clerk in one of the company's franchise stores, goes over the accounts and discovers that Eve the Vice President is embezzling funds in order to pay an assassin to kill Alice. As a reward Alice gives Bob the position after firing Eve and having the cops haul her off.
  • Downplayed: Bob (a PI hired to investigate some leaks) is aided in taking down Eve by Claire and Dan (a member of the mid-management and one of his trusted underlings). Alice thanks Bob and pays him his fee, then promotes Dan to Eve's former position and gives Claire a pay rise.
  • Justified: Alice needs someone to fill the position, and she has someone before her who's just demonstrated that they were able to beat Eve at her own game.
  • Inverted: Alice is so furious at the betrayal she fires everyone and covers it all up.
  • Subverted: Alice says she knows just the person to replace Eve...her trusted PA Fred. She can't promote just anyone to head of security no matter how grateful she is, after all.
  • Double Subverted: Since the entirety of the security department sided or collaborated with Eve and was either arrested or fired, Fred hires Bob, Clair and Dan to management positions in the department (a step up from all their jobs).
  • Parodied: Rather than fire Eve, Alice subjects her to a Fate Worse Than Death by demoting her and then promoting the much abused Bob as her immediate superior.
  • Deconstructed: Despite his heroics, Bob isn't cut out for his job and almost immediately hands in his resignation.
  • Reconstructed: Alice encourages him to stay on; she knows he has the talent, all he has to do is learn the ropes.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice promotes some of the characters, but fires or ignores the rest.
  • Averted: Bob et al are just paid or given pay rises. Eve's job goes to someone else.
  • Enforced: The producers want Bob to be promoted quickly in order to get the series' premise (of Bob being head of security of a large company) up and running, so they use a method that establishes his Badass credentials as well as explains how he moved up the ranks so quickly.
  • Lampshaded: "Well, logically if you caught her doing a bad job, you must be good at it."
  • Invoked: Alice hires Eliza, an actress, to play the part of Eve and find a candidate for her job vacancy.
  • Defied: Alice carefully screens whoever she hires to make sure they won't betray her.
  • Discussed: "Hey, maybe if I found out my boss was up to something and ratted her out I'd get her job."
  • Conversed: "I bet she'll give Bob Eve's job, it solves two problems at once."
  • Exploited: Bob keeps a careful eye on his bosses in case he can catch them in the act and secure himself a promotion.
    • Or Alice makes sure her workforce is aware of this trope so they keep an eye on her managers for her.

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