Sic'em
After the hero has won a small but significant victory of some kind, the story cuts away to the Big Bad, typically in The War Room of the Supervillain Lair, punishing his previous underling then gazing into the Palantir and saying something like:
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"It seems this Kid Hero is more troublesome than I expected." |
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Expect them to fail the Big Bad again, cue another Sic'em scene.
Basically, it's a scene that tells the player/viewer that there's more to come, and that the Big Bad's still on top of the game.
Anime and Manga
- Zagato from Magic Knight Rayearth has a whole chamber to hold audience with his minions every time the Knights overcome the latest foe, just so he can point at one of them ominously and summon them into service. It first appeared immediately after the girls arrived on Cephiro, and the narrative takes the time to focus on each and every one of Zagato's subordinates (seen only in silhouette, hidden behind waterfalls) as they dispense with their thoughts on the new development... making the audience wonder why they didn't all go out at once, and easily thwart the Knights while they were still inexperienced, instead of facing them (and get beaten, naturally) one at a time.
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited, occasionally.
Film
- Darth Vader assembling bounty hunters in Star Wars.
- James Bond
- You Only Live Twice has it twice, oddly enough.
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Osato: [To Number 11, AKA Miss Brandt] Kill him! |
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- Live and Let Die has two:
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Kananga (calm): If he finds it, kill him. |
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Karl Stromberg: James Bond. And the woman is Major Amasova, a Russian agent. Let them get to shore... and then kill them. |
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Drax: Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him. |
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Elliot Carver: Mr Stamper, would you please kill those bastards! |
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Greene: I need help eliminating...a pest. |
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- "Find them and destroy them!"
- Parodied (what else?) in Top Secret: upon being informed of an escape, the Nazi commander who is thus informed does not say a word. Rather he looks down at the dossier he's been shown and uses a RUBBER STAMP to imprint 'Find Him And Kill Him' on it.
Video Games
- Paper Mario, between chapters
- In Baldur's Gate: Throne of Baal, Sendai sends minions when you invade her lair.
- Saddler dispatching Krauser in Resident Evil 4.
- In Final Fantasy IV, on learning Cecil is seeking to become a paladin, Golbez calls in Scarmiglione and dispatches him to stop Cecil's party. What makes this effective is that Scarmiglione and his zombie minions are resistant to Cecil's dark sword. What makes it not effective is that the same can't be said of the mages sent to
spy onaccompany Cecil to Mt. Ordeals.- The "sic 'em" scenes have their own Leitmotif, "Somewhere in the World".
- K. Rool in Donkey Kong 64.
- Most of the cutscenes in the old video game Karateka has the Big Bad doing this.
- Every time you collect a map piece in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, LeChuck is shown chastising Largo LaGrande for allowing Guybrush to find another map piece and commanding him to go and get him. Possibly subverted in that Largo never shows up. LeChuck never thinks to go get Guybrush himself, despite his ability to instantaneously teleport around the Caribbean.
Web Comics
- Subverted in The Order of the Stick. A shadowy guy in a throne room tells a minion "You know what must be done." She replies, "My blades shall be bathed in the blood of those responsible." Later, we see him replying with something like, "Actually, I want you to take them here for a lawful trial."
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender—Just when everything's going great for the Gaang in Season 3, Zuko hires an assassin to finish his job ("I want you to find him... and end him.")
- A similar scene (only with the Evil Overlord in shadow as usual and the new kid seen) is our first glimpse of Azula at the end of season one.