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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never [[Bolt of Divine Retribution|incinerated by bolts of lightning]]."''|'''Calvin''', about [[Jerk Jock|Moe]], ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]''}}
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Sometimes, even [[Laser-Guided Karma]] misses its target.
The [[Big Bad]] has [[Kick the Dog|kicked the hero's dog]], [[I Have Your Wife|abducted]] that [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]'s loving family only to [[Break the Cutie|torture them to death]], [[Moral Event Horizon|blew up the castle of King Elden the Good with him and his subjects in it]], [[Bad Boss|abused]] the most sympathetic of his [[The Woobie|Woobie]] minions, killed off the series' most popular [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], invented a [[Kill Sat]] that [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|uses babies as its primary fuel]], [[Eats Babies|ate little kids as a morning snack]] and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|jaywalked in front of a bus full of nuns]].
He's done just about every conceivable thing that would [[0% Approval Rating|make an audience boo, hiss and hate him with the burning fire of a thousand suns]]. So when the [[Laser-Guided Karma|Karmic Hammer falls]] and the time for his comeuppance finally arrives, the audience is going to sit back and bask in the satisfaction that can only come from watching a [[Complete Monster]] get what he so [[Humiliation Conga|richly deserves]], up to and including a [[Death by Irony|highly ironic]] and [[Karmic Death|gruesomely appropriate death]].
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* [[The Bad Guy Wins]] - He's achieved his goals and struck down all who could oppose him. It would feel cheap to [[Deus Ex Machina|resolve the situation with a random heart attack]] after that.
* [[Easily Forgiven|Redemption Is Cheap]] - It's all well and good for a villain to see the light and [[Heel Face Turn|change sides]], but once that switch is flipped it's all too easy to forget about all the mayhem he caused before that moment (especially if the [[A Million Is a Statistic|victims weren't named characters]]). Even if [[Redemption Equals Death]], one heroic act at the end may not be enough to make up for [[Kick the Dog|a long career of dog football]].
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]] - The story has left the villain behind, and other issues have taken over. Once the heroes have dealt with [[Omnicidal Maniac|Entropus the Destroyer of Worlds]], sometimes the story forgets that there's still an [[Evil Overlord]] ruling his kingdom with an iron fist. Or the storyline just focuses on other aspects, considering the villain's punishment no longer important.
* The setting is a [[Crapsack World]] and/or the victims were [[Asshole Victim
* [[Doomed by Canon]] / [[Death by Origin Story]]: Sometimes, the villain may kill a character this way. Usually when that happens, they only get a slap on the wrist or get away with it since it would violate canon.
* Horrible History - The story is based on [[Based on a True Story|a true story]], where the antagonists were never brought to justice. If the writers care at all about historical accuracy, the villain will be a Karma Houdini by default.
* [[Executive Meddling]] - In some very ''rare'' cases, the author/filmmaker ''does'' write an appropriately grim death scene for the villainous character, but [[Executive Meddling]] determines that it's too gruesome, hurts the flow of the narrative, makes the movie run on too long, and so forth.
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* Slipped the [[Sequel Hook]] - The writer may have left the villain alone so that he could return to cause more mayhem in a future sequel (and hopefully recieve his just desserts then). But sometimes the sequel [[Cut Short|never gets made]]...
** For a prequel or [[Interquel]], a villain is shown to be much more vile than they were in their original series, so the punishment they did receive in the end is not proportionate.
** The villain did receive punishment for their actions, but some time in the future another author or franchise resurrected (literally or figuratively) the character and retroactively made them a
* [[Author Existence Failure]], leading to an [[Orphaned Series]] - The story is left on a dangling hook before the villain gets his comeuppance.
* A couple [[Double Standard]] tropes that overlap with this.
* The Untouchable - The villain is simply too powerful for the heroes to handle. This tends to be the case in stories where the heroes are simply ordinary people thrown into a bad situation beyond their control; the best they can do is survive the story.
* An author grows [[Creator's Pet|too attached to a particular character]] and can't bring themselves to punish the character appropriately. Probably the most rage-inducing. The author may also expand the [[Happy Ending]] to all of the involved characters, even the villains.
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Compare [[Butt Monkey]], for which a character ends up having many disproportionately bad things happen to them throughout the story (and may also technically qualify for this trope, as hard as that sounds). The extreme counterpart of that trope, [[Cosmic Plaything]], can be considered this trope's polar [[Opposite Tropes]].
Contrast [[Laser-Guided Karma]] for instances where the villain's comeuppance is swift and immediate, and [[Karma Houdini Warranty]], for when a notorious Karma Houdini's luck finally runs out.
{{noreallife|Calling real-life people "evil" is an extremely bad idea.}}
{{Examples on subpages}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Heel Face Index]]▼
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Scrappy Index]]
[[Category:Karma]]
[[Category:Orphaned/Sandbox/Depressing Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Hentai Tropes]]
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