If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Bad Guys ask somebody they don't know well to perform an evil act, to prove that he's with them.

  • Straight: "You want to join us? You'll have to kill this enemy agent to prove your loyalty."
  • Exaggerated: "You want to join us? You'll have to molest and kill this small girl to prove your villainy."
  • Justified: The villain organization needs people really disposed to commit evil acts.
  • Inverted: "You want to join us? You'll have to untie this damsel from the railroad tracks to prove your heroism."
  • Subverted: It turns out that the gun didn't have any bullets in it, and the character realized that.
    • Or, it turns out this was a Secret Test of Character and anyone who actually goes through with it is too mentally unstable to be reliable...
  • Double Subverted: It turns out that the gun was loaded with blanks; but the second step is to hand the participant a live gun, just to see how the participant reacts to their mind being screwed with.
  • Parodied: "If you're so evil, eat this kitten!"
  • Deconstructed: "Well...all right." *BANG!*
  • Reconstructed: "You want to join us? Kill one of us, and take his place." "SURE!" *BANG!*
  • Zig Zagged: Bob is asked to prove is villainy, by petting a kitten. When he agrees he has a metal glove handed to him... only, it's just a grooming glove, and the cat enjoys it. But dies seconds later, because the glove is poisoned! The Big Evil comments "Since when do we poison grooming gloves?"
  • Averted: The character gets in without any tests of loyalty.
  • Enforced: Show writers think that the audience really need an highlight on who is the bad.
  • Lampshaded: "I'm a veteran, I served under dozens of Evil Lords. Luckily, I like the taste of kittens."
  • Invoked: "Go on, ask me to kill one of my former allies. I know just the person, too..."
  • Exploited: The Reverse Mole is asked to kill one of his 'former' teammates, and so kills the guy whose power is to come Back from the Dead.
  • Defied: "What, you think I'm going to get my own hand dirty? I'm a schemer, I don't kill directly."
    • The hero secretly frees every kitten in the Evil Lord mansion before being tested.
  • Discussed: "I expect you're suspicious of my sudden change of heart, aren't you? Gonna ask me to prove my evil?"
  • Conversed: "What is it about villains that they feel like they have to demonstrate their evilness in such an over-the-top way?"

If you're so evil, go back to If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten...YouMonster.

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