The Bad Guy Wins/Playing With
Basic Trope: Exactly What It Says on the Tin, plain and simple.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz actually managed to defeat Bob and Alice, Take Over the World, and escape his punishment.
- Exaggerated:
- To make matters worse, Emperor Evulz and his cronies overthrew the United Nations, tortured any and all minorities, and shaved the hair off of everyone's head.
- The villain wins so often that he's practically invincible.
- Justified: Knowing what genre the Emperor is in, he pulls off an Evil Plan appropriate to the genre (and then some).
- Alternatively, Evulz learned from the flaws of his previous plans, and steps up his game (at least for the episode).
- Or, Alice and Bob are Idiot Heroes-- it's really no wonder that Evulz managed to outsmart them.
- Alice and Bob are in a Cosmic Horror Story, or Slasher Film.
- Inverted: The Good Guys Always Win
- Subverted: Pyrrhic Villainy
- Emperor Evulz only comes dangerously close to winning.
- Emperor Evulz is actually an Anti-Villain who is fighting for a noble cause, but his reprehensible Utopia Justifies the Means actions are what set Alice and Bob against him. While they defeat Emperor Evulz, they then take up his cause and achieve it themselves. While Emperor Evulz's own efforts may have failed, his original goal is ultimately achieved, so in a sense he still wins.
- Double Subverted: Emperor Evulz eventually gets reimbursed...
- Parodied: Both the duo of Bob and Alice, Gary Stu and Mary Sue wannabes (respectively), fight against Evulz, Villain Sue wannabe. Said duo lost. Thankfully, They took it well. Their comrades, on the other hand, did not.
- Deconstructed: Emperor Evulz kills the heroes, conquers of the world, and is sitting pretty on his skull throne. And suddenly the thought crosses his mind: "what now?"
- Reconstructed: "Well, I could always build a new World Wonder so that people remember me when I am gone..."
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Pyrrhic Victory
- Enforced: "For once, make Bob and Alice lose. People these days usually get tired of having the heroes win every time."
- The villian is an Anti-Villain, Well-Intentioned Extremist or nice. The fans want to see him/her win.
- Lampshaded: "And just so we're clear, there isn't gonna be a Part 2 ..."
- Invoked: "Here's the part of the plan I haven't told you: I Win."
- Defied: "Remember the Golden Rule: The villain will never win if we keep believing."
- Discussed: "Bob, if we don't make it in time, Emperor Evulz will win!"
- Conversed: ???
- Back to The Bad Guy Wins