Save the Villain: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"This is the bizarre thing about being a superhero -- you've even got to save the bad guys."''~~|'''Captain Planet''', ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]''}}~~

{{quote|''"This is the bizarre thing about being a superhero -- you've even got to save the bad guys."''

|'''Captain Planet''', ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]''}}

The hero and bad guy have had a [[Rooftop Confrontation|big fight on the top of a building]], which has resulted in the bad guy being knocked over the edge. He hangs there by his fingers, helplessly.

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See also [[Sword Over Head]], where the hero saves the villain by ''not'' doing anything.

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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Goku from ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'' does this, or at least tries to, constantly. Sometimes it works (like with [[Heel Face Turn|Vegeta]]), other times it doesn't, as [[Ungrateful Bastard|Frieza]] proved.

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** In {{spoiler|"The End of Time"}} this trope is invoked yet again, when the Doctor {{spoiler|repeatedly pleads with the [[Death Is Cheap|newly-returned Master]] to let him help with the Master's mental illness. For once, the Master seems to be on the verge of accepting the Doctor's offer, but subsequent events drive him to follow the other doomed Time Lords back into the Time War. Who knows what attitude he'll have the next time he's alive again.}}

** In "Flesh and Stone", {{spoiler|the Weeping Angels beg -- or ''demand'', even -- that the Doctor to do this for them by throwing himself into a crack in time to spare their lives. Unfortunately for the Angels, they hadn't actually given him much of a reason to do so; he refuses, they fall in and [[Ret-Gone|cease to have ever existed]].}}

** Zigzagged in "The Magician's Apprentice", where it was revealed that, as a child, [[Big Bad|~~Devros~~]] himself was saved from death via a mine field on a war torn planet by a mysterious man with a sonic screwdriver, who was, in fact, the Twelfth Doctor. While ~~Devros~~ had yet to reach his [[Start of Darkness]] (and technically not a "villain" at the time) the Doctor was well-aware he was rescuing a child who would become a genocidal monster as an adult. He had no choice - this was a "fixed point in time", and letting ~~Devros~~ perish would have damaged the timeline irrevocably.

** Zigzagged in "The Magician's Apprentice", where it was revealed that, as a child, [[Big Bad|Davros]] himself was saved from death via a mine field on a war torn planet by a mysterious man with a sonic screwdriver, who was, in fact, the Twelfth Doctor. While Davros had yet to reach his [[Start of Darkness]] (and technically not a "villain" at the time) the Doctor was well-aware he was rescuing a child who would become a genocidal monster as an adult. He had no choice - this was a "fixed point in time", and letting Davros perish would have damaged the timeline irrevocably.

* Subverted in the ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode "The Prodigal" {{spoiler|Michael teeters on the brink of falling off the top of Atlantis to his awful demise. Teyla not only doesn't pull him up, she actually kicks his hands to hasten his death. This is what happens when you mess with [[Mama Bear]].}}

** {{spoiler|And even the 'in the dark' portion doesn't work, since Sheppard is just offscreen.}}