Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Difference between revisions

 

Compare [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]], [[Hoist by His Own Petard]], [[Two Rights Make a Wrong]] (those two when the villain's defeat is directly caused by self), [[Villain Ball]], [[Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work]], [[Poke the Poodle]], [[Phlebotinum Rebel]] (when the villain ''creates'' the hero).

 

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'s'' Team Rocket has had a few moments of this, such as when Delibird accidentally healed a critically wounded Pikachu.

* In ''[[Digimon]]'', BlackWarGreymon is nearly destroyed when he slams Angemon into a holy artifact, causing Angemon to evolve/Digivolve into the stronger Holy Angemon/MagnaAngemon and nearly suck him into his Gate Of Destiny. Vamdemon/Myotismon was strong enough to beat all seven of the Chosen Children/DigiDestined and could have done so, if he hadn't spent so much time searching for the eighth, and allowing her to find her Digimon. Devimon accidentally triggers the one Digimon that could beat him into evolving/Digivolving by threatening its partner's life.

** And when assigning a loyal assassin to {{spoiler|act as a safeguard against possibly rebellious people that you're using in some diabolical plot under the cover of being their sibling}}... Don't make their cover so good that even ''they'' forget that they aren't a {{spoiler|loyal, loving brother.}}

* In ''[[Space Pirate Mito]]'', Aoi wears a bracelet that he believes is a good luck charm and the audience is lead to believe is the key to a powerful weapon. He also starts having [[How Do I Shot Web?|random bursts of powerful energy]] when the bad guys attack. Near the end of the series, [[Big Bad|Ranban]] removes this bracelet and tells Aoi it was an enhancer that brought out his powers, making him helpless without it. Cue Aoi causing an explosion with [[I Am Not Left-Handed|power even greater than he used before]], and Mito telling Ranban that the enhancer was actually a [[Power Limiter|limiter]] to keep Aoi's powers in check.

** Admittedly, after the first few instances it becomes increasingly difficult to tell how much of what Sesshoumaru does with regards to Inuyasha is this trope and how much of it is actually [[I Was Just Passing Through]].

* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Shinobu]] [[Big Bad|Sensui]] {{spoiler|kills Yusuke}} toward the end of the [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Chapter Black]] saga, causing him to {{spoiler|come back from the dead as a [[Half-Human Hybrid|super-demon]] }} and kick ass on a nearly-cosmic level. Especially funny since it follows directly after a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]], when said hero insisted on fighting [[Magnificent Bastard|Sensui]] at his full, [[Knight Templar|Shinobu]] strength, so he could have a good fight, rather than wiping the floor with [[Split Personality|'I Do The Sick Work' Kazuya]] and saving the world.

* In episode 4 of [[Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!]], a thief breaks into the school where Hakone and Iono attend. He steals both the student council's funds, along with Iono's gift to Sento, Hakone's brother. Plug and Sento decide to help Iono out of her depression by trying to find the thief, but have no luck whatsoever. Arresta, a coworker/rival of Plug, meanwhile watches them a little bit, then decides that while its noble of him to help her out, she's got a job to do. She decides to continue her job of [[It Makes Sense in Context|zapping people]], and one of the people she zaps suddenly decides he's going to turn himself in. Although she's wondering what the heck she just did, she inadvertently caught the thief and helped recovered the stolen money and Iono's gift.

* In ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'', {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Mr Maverick]] pats [[Mega Manning|Kaede]] on the head when he meets her, unwittingly transferring his memory-altering power to her. This later allows her to restore the memories that Maverick had scrubbed from the heroes as part of his plot to frame Kaede's father for murder. Thanks, Mr. Villain!}}

 

== Comic Books ==

== Fan Works ==

* In the ''[[Deva Series]]'', the {{spoiler|Al Hantheans}} were an unknown factor. Only the Yagami Academy and the Circles were unambiguously aware of the threat they posed to Earth; other nations and parties might have considered trying for non-aggression or even collusion. Then they tried to kill off {{spoiler|Noriko and the Japanese Imperial family}}, hoping to take one of Earth's nations and one of Hayate's fighters out of the picture. However, the attempt did not completely succeed, and with their villainy exposed, the survivor gave a speech that will probably rally the nations of Earth into properly uniting against them. One of the higher-up villains even does some [[Lampshade Hanging]] on this.

* In the ''[[Pony POV Series]]'', Discord's [[Mind Rape]] of the Mane Cast before his downfall leads to the entire Mane Cast becoming better off than before hand, with such things happening as Applejack becoming a [[Living Lie Detector]] and Pinkie Pie becoming much more [[Crazy Awesome]] than normal by {{spoiler|performing a [[Split Personality Merge]] and healing herself of a serious mental condition}}, which wouldn't have happened if he ''hadn't'' done it. Not only that, but thanks to him {{spoiler|the Mane Cast gets ''two'' [[Sixth Ranger]]s and new Elements of Harmony, one of which he ''made himself''.}}

* ''[[Ponies Make War]]'': Near the latter end of the story, [[Big Bad|Titan]] captures Twilight Sparkle during an attack on the Loyalists' base and proceeds to torture her. But in the process of doing so, {{spoiler|he causes her [[Split Personality|split personalities]] to fuse back together and restore her full power}}. This proceeds to [[My Name Is Inigo Montoya|really]], ''[[Physical God|really]]'', [[Curb Stomp Battle|backfire on him]].

 

== Film ==

** Syndrome programmed the Omnidroid to adapt to any situation. Then he arrogantly stopped during his fight with it to boast to the bystanders, giving the robot the time to figure out it was being controlled by Syndrome's bracelet. It then removed it from him, and the heroes used it to destroy the robot.

** Before Syndrome, the Parr family was in a rut, trapped by monotony, dead-end jobs, and the memories of what once was. Even Bob and Helen's marriage was on the rocks. And for superheroes in general, public opinion was negative, and they had to live in hiding. After Syndrome, superheroes were allowed to operate openly once more, the public liked them again, and, most important of all, the Parrs were happy, proud, and very closely-knit, making them even ''better'' superheroes than they ever were as individuals.

** The panhandler was also able to buy a really neat watch. [[Humiliation Conga|It's a Rolex™!]]

* In ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'', the protagonist, Sing, is rewarded for his [[Heel Face Turn]]... by getting his face beaten into a pulp by The Beast. This however, clears up his chi flow, turning him into a true Kung Fu master, and he soundly defeats the Axe Gang and The Beast.

* In the ''[[Ghost Rider (film)|Ghost Rider]]'' movie, Ghost Rider is unable to use his [[Mind Rape|penance stare]] on Blackheart because Blackheart doesn't have a soul. Then Blackheart absorbs a thousand damned souls into himself. The Rider proceeds to render him catatonic.

* Scar has Simba utterly on the ropes in ''[[The Lion King]]'' and is about to knock him off the edge of a cliff, when he insists on making a [[Just Between You and Me|But Before You Die]] speech.... freeing Simba from the guilt he had been carrying around and giving him the heroic resolve needed to stop Scar. Doh!

** Later, when trying to bargain with Simba for his life, some hyenas are about to help him. Then he goes and ruins it by trying to scapegoat the hyenas, making them back away in anger. Not only does this mean that he has to fight Simba without any backup, but it also gets him torn to ribbons by a pack of justly angry hyenas.

** For that matter, Marty's original plan- pretending to have ''his'' way with Lorraine, only for George to [[Date Rape Averted|jump in and play Superman]] - was failing hard because Lorraine wanted to jump ''him''. Biff's intervention unwittingly set things back on course.

* In the live-action ''[[Popeye (film)|Popeye]]'' movie, the eponymous sailor-man hates spinach, so Bluto force feeds him an entire can, just to be mean. You can probably guess what happens next.

** Not to mention when Meg died, Hades offered to trade her soul in exchange for Herc's, if he could get her out of the fatal river Styx. Unfortunately, this was just the deed Herc needed to reclaim his godhood, thus allowing him to save Meg and send Hades flying into the river Styx. Major ouch.

*** Actually, none of this could've happened if Hades hadn't sent Meg to discover what Hercules weakness was, thus resulting in the two falling in love. The icing on the cake was that he released Meg from her [[Deal with the Devil]] with him, thus enabling her to help the good guys stop him.

* In the movie ''Ultraman Zearth'', Zearth is stricken with an overwhelming fear of dirt and germs. Benzene Seijin, in a bid to conquer Earth, decides this is the perfect way to beat him, and torments him with tar the entire film. However, he puts the final nail in his own coffin by forcing Zearth to cross a lake of tar to save his friends. This gives [[Took a Level in Badass|Zearth the motivation he needed to overcome his fears, kill Benzene's pet monster, and kick Benzene himself into orbit]].

** In the sequel, his wife, Lady Benzene, has Zearth's spirit crushed after her robotic copy, [[Evil Counterpart|Ultraman Shadow]] defeats him with ease, making him unwilling to transform. Then, she has to go call him out to try and stop her so she can destroy him. Her taunting causes Zearth to train, [[Took a Level in Badass|take another level in badass]], and overpower Shadow. Then, she goes and broadcasts the fight around the world to try to crush humanity's spirit, this backfires when Shadow finally has the upperhand, the people of Earth [[Say My Name|all chant Zearth's name]], giving him to strength to destroy Shadow once and for all.

** This is made explicit, when a Sith tries to turn Luke's son Ben to the [[Dark Side]], in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] (specifically [[Fate of the Jedi|Fate of the Jedi: Allies]]):

{{quote|*Ben catches the Sith by surprise with a round-house-kick*

* In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'', when Bruce Wayne goes to confront mob boss Carmine Falcone at his favorite hangout, Falcone gives him a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]. It's intended to break his will, but Bruce actually agrees with everything Falcone says about him. He immediately leaves the restaurant and embarks upon his journey to become [[Batman]].

* ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'': [[Engineered Public Confession|"I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die!!!"]]

* Yet another Pixar example: In ''[[Cars|Cars 2]]'', had {{spoiler|Miles Axlerod}} not spilled oil onto the carpet, Mater wouldn't have become a spy and foiled his evil plan!

* Lord Farquaad, the [[Big Bad]] of the first [[Shrek]] movie, did this on a ''series spanning level''. He sent Shrek to rescue Fiona, which messes up his own plan by {{spoiler|allowing Fiona to meet her true love that would break the curse and allow Donkey to meet Dragon, who would help Shrek and Donkey stop his wedding and eats Farquaad.}} In the second movie, Prince Charming's goal to rescue Fiona {{spoiler|and thus Fairy Godmother's intention to rule Far Far Away through him}} are foiled because Farquaad sent Shrek to rescue her already. Most importantly, it foiled Rumpelstitskin's attempt to get Fiona's parents to sign a [[Deal with the Devil]] with him, {{spoiler|letting him erase them from existence and conquer Far Far Away}} because Shrek rescued Fiona and rendered the deal pointless. Even further back, the only reason Shrek interfered ''at all'' in any of this was because Farquaad's deporting all the fairy tale creatures to his swamp ticked him off. Really Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!

== Literature ==

* This is [[Spenser]] and [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/michael-jecks/ Baldwin Furnshill's] chief method to solving crimes without evidence. Annoy people until they try to kill you, then find out who they worked for. Though Baldwin doesn't actually try to annoy people; usually the bad guy who falls into this trap hates him for his rank and title, or his loyalties and suspected beliefs, said series taking place in a particularly hectic time of English history. Spenser, on the other hand, is actively trying to invite this trope a lot of the time. A lot of his cases would have been a lot shorter (and unsolved) if the villains had been smart enough to just shut up and leave him alone.

* The ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' book ''Great Northern?'' has a textbook example of this. The protagonists, while sailing through the Hebrides, encounter what they're pretty sure is a rare bird, but have to leave before they can verify it, and accidentally let its existence—but not location—slip to an egg-collector, Mr. Jemmerling. Captain Flint, their designated adult supervision, is going to make them leave before they can go back, leaving Jemmerling free rein to find the birds. Instead, Jemmerling tries to convince and then bribe Captain Flint to tell him where the birds are, and succeeds only in convincing him that they're worth going back to find.

* In the [[Andrew Vachss]] Burke book ''Terminal'', one character describes how gangs putting out hits on suspected rats leads to cons ratting out for real.

* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[The Guns of the South]]'', Afrikaaners use [[Time Travel]] to [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right|help the Confederates win the]] [[American Civil War]], hoping to build a strong white supremacist nation that they can ally with in the future. Though their plans are impeded by Robert E. Lee, who wins the presidency of the Confederacy on a platform of gradual slave emancipation, there are still enough Pro-Slavery Confederate citizens and congressmen to defeat any sort of government action to actually end slavery, and there is even talk amongst some states of seceding from the Confederacy and starting their own nation (again) to preserve slavery indefinitely. However, the AWB then launches an assassination attempt against Lee on his inauguration day, which slaughters dozens of civilians and many ranking members of the government, which unites the entire country behind Lee and gives him the political clout to ram through his gradual emancipation bill.

** Moghedien's mission actually was to balefire Nynaeve while she was on the boat. The award for Nice Job Fixing It, Villain actually goes to Moridin, who decided to stroke Moghedien's [[Soul Jar]] at that moment, causing her to involuntarily convulse and nearly miss.

* In ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'', [[Evil Sorcerer]] Pryrates' attempt to pull a [[Faustian Rebellion]] on the freshly summoned [[Big Bad|Storm King]] at the climax of the story [[Evil Is Not a Toy|fails spectacularly]], as one might expect. However, his attack and subsequent [[Karmic Death]] have the side-effects of weakening the Storm King at a critical moment ''and'' freeing two of the heroes from paralysis, leading directly to the Storm King's defeat.

** More directly, later in the same book, the Big Bad "kills" Harry himself... only not only did he also destroy another of his own [[Soul Jar]]s in the process, [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time|his brazen act of vanity in an earlier book allows Harry to survive anyway]]. A two-for-one deal!

** And in general, his decree that no one was to kill Harry. Thus his minions' hands were basically tied when dealing with Harry, even though he and his friends would frequently run into those minions.

* The original [[Dracula (novel)|Count Dracula]] forced Mina Harker to drink his blood to form a [[Psychic Link]] between them that he could use for [[Mind Control]] and to spy on the rest of the heroes through her so he could see whatever they were planning against him next. Unfortunately for him, the link worked both ways, allowing Mina to warn the others when he was coming their way and figure out where he was hiding or heading during the climactic [[Stern Chase]]. He gives the heroes a ticket to his mind that he can't revoke even when he eventually tries to do so.

** Ironically, many later versions of this story have picked up the weird trope that Mina and Dracula had some kind of love between them; in the original Mina loathed the monster and was probably second only to van Helsing in importance in bringing about his downfall.

* A minor version in Lin Carter's ''The Quest of Kadji'': the [[Big Bad]] has captured one of the two young people who've independently sworn to destroy him, and taunts her that her sweetheart won't be able to act while she's his hostage. She gloomily says the boy is ''not'' in love with her. The villain can't resist sneering that, ''just like her'', young Kadji is under a "no-fooling-around-until-you've-killed-the-bad-guy" vow, which is the only reason [[UST|neither has made serious advances to the other]]. Yes, in an attempt to mock her, the villain has actually raised the girl's morale.

* In "Death Masks," book five of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', Harry Dresden is in a [[Duel to the Death]] with Paolo Ortega, Warlord of the Red Court of Vampires who has [[Hero-Killer|already killed half a dozen wizards]]. The duel is going solidly against Harry, and likely would have fairly resulted in his death in honest combat, but then Ortega attempted to threaten him into submission and ''allowing'' himself to be killed. [[And Your Little Dog, Too|Ortega did this by explaining that, should he (Ortega) die in the duel, his feudal retainers had been sworn to hunt down Harry and kill not just him, but also all his friends and loved ones]]. This statement, which went directly against their agreement to not seek retribution in the aftermath of the duel, gave Harry the rage and motivation to turn the tide of the duel against Ortega.

* Vicar Zahspahr Clyntahn's actions throughout the ''[[Safehold]]'' series tend to do as much as help the Empire of Charis as it does to hurt it. A specific example occurs in ''How Firm a Foundation.'' The island Empire of Charis needs an ally in the mainland, the Republic of Siddarmark would be perfect, but they're right next to the Temple Lands, which are content to leave them be, and even let them get away with ignoring a Church-imposed trade embargo against Charis, so long as they don't act outright against the Temple Lands. Cue Clyntahn going behind his fellow Church Leaders' backs creating riots in Siddarmark ''forcing'' them to go independent and opening the door for Charis and Siddarmark to ally at the earliest opportunity.

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Saruman ordering his Uruk-hai to take Merry and Pippin to Isengard, instead of Mordor as the Morgul orcs wanted, practically saved the entire quest. If Merry and Pippin were taken to Mordor there would have been no chance of rescue on the way, and Sauron would have soon found out that Frodo and Sam were heading straight for him with the Ring. They would have been intercepted and Sauron would have got the Ring. Instead, on the way to Isengard the Rohirrim unknowningly saved Merry and Pippin, and Sauron didn't find out about the 'destroy the Ring' quest until it was too late.

* In ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', Lady Catherine is so affronted by the idea of Mr. Darcy marrying Elizabeth Bennet that she confronts Elizabeth and tries to extract a promise from her not to accept Darcy's proposal; when Elizabeth refuses to promise any such thing, Lady Catherine has a similar confrontation with Mr. Darcy... which gives him reason to hope that he still has a chance with Elizabeth even though she rejected his previous proposal in very emphatic terms. Had Lady Catherine not seen fit to get involved, each of them could have gone on indefinitely believing that any chance they had with the other was long gone.

* One of [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s ''[[Berserker (Literature)|Berserker]]'' stories involved a pacifist trying to negotiate with a planet-sized [[Turned Against Their Masters|Artificial Intelligence battleship programmed to destroy all life everywhere]]. Pretending to be impressed by his arguments, it meanwhile takes a sample of his flesh and tailors a disease meant to wipe out humanity. Well, no; the sample was actually {{spoiler|of his '''cancer''', and at the end he finds the Berserker's engineered disease is '''curing''' him}}.

 

* At the end of ''[[Angel]]'''s "permanent midnight" mini-arc, Angelus, being [[Chaotic Evil]] and all, decides to double-cross the [[Lawful Evil]] villain who'd [[The Night That Never Ends|blotted out the Sun]] over Los Angeles. The Beast is [[Nigh Invulnerability|nigh unvulnerable]], until Angelus uses a bone dagger made from its body to kill it. Unfortunately, as foreshadowed by a mystical dream Angel had earlier, that undoes the spell and brings the Sun back. Hundreds of rampaging vampires die instantly, and Angelus is sent scrambling for the nearest safe shadow.

{{quote|'''Angelus''': Aw crap! You mean killing the Beast really ''does'' bring back the Sun? I thought that was Angel's retarded fantasy!}}

{{quote|'''Hamilton:''' Let me make this as clear as I can. You cannot defeat me. I am part of them, the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Their strength flows through my veins! My blood is filled with their ancient power!

'''Angel''': (grins and pops his fangs) Can you pick out the one word there you probably shouldn't have said? (drains Hamilton's blood, beats the crap out of him)}}

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' special "The End of Time", things look bleak when {{spoiler|the Doctor has just crashed through the skylight of the Naismiths' mansion and is badly hurt, and the Master has just copied himself onto every person on earth, then brought Rassilon and the Time Lords through the Time Lock and caused Gallifrey to come crashing down through the Earth's atmosphere. The Master is all ready to join the Time Lords on their [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|plan to bring about "THE END OF TIME ITSELF!!"]], but Rassilon, the Lord President of the Time Lords, tells the Master he's [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|outlived his usefulness]]. ''Not'' what you want to tell the Master, who isn't quite sane at the best of times and has just won the [[Superpower Lottery]]. Then Rassilon lets slip that ''he'' is responsible for [[Ear Worm|the drumbeat]] that the Master's heard all his life and that has [[Sanity Slippage|driven him steadily more crazy]]. The Master [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|tells the Doctor to "get out of the way"]] and uses his life force to electrocute Rassilon, protecting the Doctor from him until they all disappeared back to the Time War.}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''The Master''': YOU DID THIS TO ME. ALL MY LIFE! [[Continuity Nod|ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!]]}}}}

* ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' has Blair, who seems to create this and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] in other people (depending on whether she's the good guy at that point or one of the bad ones). Chuck gets her latest boyfriend's mother to come break them up? In one party Blair gets her approval. Chuck tries to seduce her only to be caught by said boyfriend? Blair finally gets laid by new boyfriend. Jenny tries to beat Blair and become Queen B? Within a few weeks, she's back and ''dangerous''. Vanessa tries to blackmail Blair? Humiliated by episode's end. Vanessa tries to break up her and Nate? They're closer than ever by episode's end. And most of this is just the first two seasons! She's still going - at the end of Season 4 Serena's attempt to hurt her actually leads to her relationship with the prince becoming public, her being approved by his mother, and finally her getting engaged to him. Lampshaded by Dan - "Only Chuck and Blair could go to war and end up happier than when they started." Also, his attempt to attack them that episode? Ended up with Chuck and Blair having fantastic sex on a piano. Let's face it, no one can hurt Blair without helping her.

* ''[[Dollhouse]]'': Alpha's entire goal in "Briar Rose" and "Omega" was to turn Echo into a composite like himself. Composite!Echo's first act was to hit Alpha with a pipe.

** Don't forget that the First also dug up the Scythe that allowed Buffy to execute this plan in an attempt to use it for itself, and then revealed the location of said Scythe by luring Buffy into an ambush where it was held (rather than, say, * any other location in Sunnydale* ). The First basically spent the last 5 episodes of the series juggling multiple [[Idiot Ball]]s in order to make its eventual defeat remotely plausible.

*** Chalk it up to Caleb being enough of a [[Card-Carrying Villain]] to lure Buffy into an ambush with "I have something of yours" so that he can get in extra [[Evil Gloating]] about this being true and her being unable to recover it.

{{quote|'''Caleb:''' ...Darn.}}

{{quote|'''Wesley''': Ah. By attempting to keep a valuable clue from us, the Mayor may have inadvertently led us right to it.

'''Buffy''': What page are you on, Wes? 'Cause we already got there. }}

* In the ''[[Lost]]'' Season Six Finale, it turns out that the Big Bad's {{spoiler|centuries-long}} [[Gambit Roulette]] {{spoiler|worked exactly as planned}} except {{spoiler|it also completely stripped him of all his powers and enabled Jack to beat him to death and toss him off a cliff.}} Also, his murder of {{spoiler|Sayid, Jin, and Sun gives the others the [[Heroic Resolve]] to kill him instead of simply leaving him on the island like they had planned, leading to the above success of his plan.}}

 

== Mythology/Folklore ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

 

*** Still not a patch on the Ebon Dragon's first classic mistake. Way back at the dawn of Creation, the Ebon Dragon decided that being the biggest asshole in the universe wasn't ''really'' fun unless you had some completely virtuous, honest, and honorable type to be an asshole ''to''. And so he created the Unconquered Sun, precisely so that he could enjoy himself forcing a being of nigh-perfect virtue to serve under him. Which means, of course, that the Ebon Dragon is not only responsible for screwing up the Yozis' chance to escape the banishment they were forced to suffer when they lost the Primordial War but is also bears the lion's share of responsibility for why the Primordial War happened in the first place.

** And, of course, the big one that sets the whole setting off. Creation has been in a precarious position for centuries, with the overworked Sidereals, the Lunars driven to the edge of the world, the heavily corrupt (or absent) gods, the almost equally corrupt Realm, the forces of the Underworld massing, and the Fair Folk being just barely kept in check. Into this comes the person controlling the Realm (and its big superweapon that keeps most of the other big enemies at bay) mysteriously disappearing, bringing it to the verge of a civil war that could tip Creation over the edge. And then... the Neverborn and the Yozis conspire to break open the Jade Prison, and use its captives to make their own Exalted. Half of those captives escape them. They become the Solar Exalted.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Castlevania: Lament of Innocence]]'' shows that [[Big Bad|Dracula]] was the instrument of his own demise, mostly due to his partnership with [[Dragon-in-Chief| Walter Bernhard]] (the most visible antagonist in the game):

** First, five years prior to the story, Walter (a vampire) kidnapped the daughter of a craftsman named Rinaldo, turning her into a vampire. Desiring revenge, Rinaldo crafted a whip that he believed could slay vampires, but could not finish it. Nonetheless, he tried to use it to gain revenge on Walter, but failed. Despite knowing that Rinaldo desired revenge, [[Bond Villain Stupidity| Walter let him live]], hoping his presence in the forest would lure would-be vampire hunters to him to satisfy his sadistic sense of fun.

** Third, Leon did indeed come to challenge him after meeting Rinaldo, but fared no better than the older man did. After toying with Leon, Walter returned Sara to him, who had already been bitten and infected with vampirism. Unknowingly, this act backfired heavily at him as Sara willingly sacrificed her tainted soul to Rinaldo's whip, giving it its full power and enabling Leon to defeat Walter. This was what Matthias had intended, and appeared to [[We Can Rule Together| offer the "gift" of undeath to his friend]]. However, Leon's response - now that he possessed the weapon the Belmont family would wield from that day on - sums up why this Trope applied:

{{quote|'''Leon:''' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome| This whip and my kinsmen will destroy you someday. From this day on, the Belmont Clan will hunt the night!]]}}

* {{spoiler|Wheatley}} in ''[[Portal 2]]'' - very briefly. He only actually creates one test chamber for you, and it merely consists of pressing a button to directly drop a weighted cube onto a button. According to him, it was supposed to be quite a challenge. Had he made the rest of them himself, it would have been easy making your way to his lair. Unfortunately, he ran out of original ideas and resorted to using [[GLaDOS]]'s old test chambers instead.

** Later in the game, when suffering from test withdrawal, he decides a good way to fix it is to {{spoiler|1=move the test chamber Chell and GLaDOS are in as close as possible to his lair.}}

* The villain in ''[[Max Payne 3]]'' is Victor Branco. One of the major facets of his plan involves getting his entire extended family killed by local extremist groups, which means he'll inherit direct control of his family's money from his late brother Rodrigo. As such, he needs a security guard who's good enough to protect his family from casual threats, but not good enough to protect them from Victor's conspirators. His solution is to hire Max Payne, a drunken slob with a history of violence. Unfortunately for Victor, Max is very bad at keeping people alive, but he's very, very good at making people pay for their crimes. If Victor had hired almost anyone else on the ''planet'' to be his fall guy, his entire plan would've worked out just fine.

* In ''[[BlazBlue]]:Continnum Shift'', [[Big Bad|Hazama]]/[[Complete Monster|Terumi]] sends his subordinate [[Little Bit Beastly|Ma]][[Genius Ditz|ko]][[Plucky Girl|to]] to [[Reassigned to Antarctica|the far-flung NOL branch in Ibukido]] to keep her away from feuding friends Noel and Tsubaki, furthering his plans to [[Mind Rape]] them both into serving him - the former as [[Omnicidal Maniac]] super-weapon Mu-12, and the latter as a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] [[Yandere]]. In the end, he ends up regretting this decision ''badly'', as [[Spanner in the Works|young Makoto ends up causing more damage to his plans than pretty much anyone else in the cast]] - and given everything she learned, she stands in a position to do so ''again''.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Freefall]]'': According to [[Word of God|the author on the Nice forum]], if Mr. Kornada hadn't interfered with Florence's [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2000/fc01960.htm scheduled meeting with Mr. Raibert], she would have been present to hear [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2100/fc02093.htm Mr. Raibert ordering the release of Gardener in the Dark to be delayed,] and thus have no need to take further action, while not knowing of [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2100/fc02094.htm Kornada's plan to violate the order] to have it released anyway.

* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' once [http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2004-04-15 did this] with [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod|mass infanticide]], of all Evil Plots. It's that sort of a comic.

 

== Web Original ==

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[The Simpsons Movie]]'', the villain traps Springfield in a nearly indestructible dome, then decides it isn't sturdy enough and tries to blow up the town by dropping a bomb in through a hole at the top of the dome. Homer gets back into Springfield through the hole and manages to throw the bomb through the hole to the other side of the dome. The dome absorbs the bomb's blast, but is destroyed as a result, freeing/saving Springfield.

* Happens a few times in ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]''. Notably [[Smart Ball|Jack had come up with a brilliant and for once successful plan]], convincing Omi that he was destined to turn evil and had to stay away from his teammates at all costs. This was going perfectly until his idiot henchmen blabbed the entire plan, snapping Omi out of his despair and allowing him to win the day.

** And the biggest example of this: in the very first episode, when Starscream is "just saying goodbye!" to the unconscious Autobots on Earth, '''he actually revives them.''' Remind me again why Megatron keeps him around?

** Probably the best example of Starscream's treachery helping the Autobots is in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. Megatron probably would have killed the Autobot repair crew and gotten his hands on the Allspark if Starscream hadn't put that explosive on his back

* Same with the original ''[[G.I. Joe|G.I.Joe cartoon]]''; a number of times the Joes are beaten, but Cobra Commander has to drive it in (often at the objections of Destro), somehow giving the Joes the chance to overcome their predicament. Strangely enough, Cobra's high-rankers prefer Serpentor to him because of this attitude, and yet Serpentor occasionally falls into this trope as well.

* In an odd twist, Nox, the [[Big Bad]] from ''[[Wakfu]]'', actually purposefully attempts to [[Invoked Trope]] this trope. He's a time mage who kills and drains people of their energy (the titular wakfu) in order to power an attempt to travel back in time to save his dead family. He is able to happily commit countless atrocities, draining entire nations over the years, because he believes that once he successfully travels back in time it will all be undone. {{spoiler|He even manages to kill [[The Hero]] and wipe out an entire race in the finale. Unfortunately, his plan fails, and the wakfu that it took him 200 years to collect is barely able to send him back 20 minutes.}}

* In ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Forced Kin", an alien force defeats the girls using every single idea Mojo Jojo had ever come up with. Jojo gets so upset at the alien stealing his ideas ("[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|You've. Ruined. My. DREAM!!!!!]]") that he goes primal and physically forces the alien leader to submit, driving away the attack and becoming the hero.

** Mojo Jojo is really a major victim of this trope. In fact, the most major thing is the fact that {{spoiler|he ended up [[Stable Time Loop|inspiring the Professor to make the Powerpuff Girls]], caused the [[Freak Lab Accident]] that created them, '''and''' gave them the drive to fight crime and making them accepted by the city, which was a crime infested rat hole beforehand}}, pretty much making everything good in the series his fault to begin with.

{{quote|'''Mojo Jojo''': [[Villainous BSOD|It was me...it was me...it was me...]]}}

{{quote|'''Mojo Jojo''': [[Big No|Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!]]

'''Narator''': Yes! }}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Optimus'''}}: "I'm ... armed?"

[[Oh Crap|(Vehicons freeze in panic)]] }}

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}