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{{trope}}{{Mechanics of Writing}}
{{quote|''Any story where you have good guys versus bad guys can only be as smart as the intelligence of your baddest guy.''|'''[[Bruce Willis]]''' on ''[[
Let's face it: A big part of why [[Evil Is Cool]] is because the villain ''is'' the plot of the story (it's about [[Conflict]], after all). Without them, we have a [[Cowboy Cop]] and his [[Plucky Comic Relief]] [[Sidekick]] running the beat and quietly hating each other since they never had [[Fire
The villain is the conflict; ergo, the intelligence of the villain directly corresponds to how unique/interesting/smart that conflict is. To use the page quote's example, the ''[[
Part of the reason why stories with a [[Strawman Political]] villain are so awful is that the author ''has'' to make them stupid. Also why a competently done [[Gambit Pileup]] tale can be very interesting, even when [[Guile Hero|not all the players]] are villains. A poorly done one, [[Viewers Are Geniuses|on the other hand...]]
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See also [[Evil Plan]] for the titular plot and see [[Magnificent Bastard]] and [[Diabolical Mastermind]] for the ones likely to concoct it. All of which invoke this trope. Also, [[The Chessmaster]], because [[Smart People Play Chess]].
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Naoki Urasawa]]'s villains are usually very smart, and generally the smartest person in that work.
** Then again, ''Monster'' possesses a plethora of interesting characters beyond just Johan. You get Tenma, Nina, Grimmer, Lunge, Eva, Roberto...the list goes on and on.
* Most of the ''[[Gundam]]'' series have had a [[Big Bad]] with an incredibly complex plan be behind whichever war the heroes are currently involved in. Notable examples include [[Magnificent Bastard]] [[Gundam Wing|Treize Khushranada]], who essentially conned the heroes and won, [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[Gundam Seed|Rau Le Creuset]] who [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulated]] more or less every politician in the series into trying to set off the apocalypse, [[Gundam Seed Destiny|Chairman Durandal]], a [[Dark Messiah]] who screws with everyone's heads in order to [[Take Over the World]], and [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Ribbons]] [[Smug Snake|Almark]] who ''does'' take over the world. In most cases, not only a military, but a coherent political and social response is needed to stop the [[Big Bad]]'s plan from succeeding (or at least persuade his henchmen to [[Heel Face Turn]]), and each series continues to try to outdo the previous one's in the scale of the villain's success, and the length of time it takes the heroes to figure out just what he or she is after.
* {{spoiler|If it weren't for Aizen's use of the Hogyoku}}, ''[[
* In most [[Shonen]] fighting series, the main villains are usually portrayed as being far more intelligent than the heroes. Not that this is hard, since those series often star an [[Idiot Hero]].
* In ''[[Pokémon (
* There would be no ''[[
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
==
* [[
* ''[[Watchmen (
* Part of the reason [[
Note that while crazy exceeding self-interest destroys Lex, it is [[Power Born of Madness|mother's milk]] to the Joker and his ability to be a serious example of this entry. Although L.L. being, y'know, relatively sane, he actually has goals in life...
* [[Batman]] is also popular because of his memorable [[Shadow Archetype]] [[Rogues Gallery]]. This trope especailly applies to his more intelligent enemies like [[Genius Bruiser|Bane,]] [[The Chessmaster|Hush,]] [[Trickster Archetype|the Riddler,]] [[Mad Scientist|Hugo Strange,]] and [[Ubermensch|Ra's al-Ghul]] to name a few.
** And [[The Joker]], of course - if not for him, Batman probably wouldn't be ''half'' as interesting to modern-day audiences.
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[
** In the first film, [[Wicked Cultured|Hans Gruber]] is a sly and sophisticated crook with a very clever plan, to the point that hostages are surprised to learn that he's "just a thief." The benefits of a classical education.
** The plan in ''Die Hard With A Vengeance'' was so good, the FBI questioned the writer as to how he got the information involved in the scheme, because they were worried it would actually work.
* One of the reasons ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' was so widely hailed as brilliant is that the Joker feels smart; his plans are very much plausible, if [[Gambit Roulette|relying a bit too much on luck]] (though that also fits the character). Arguably, the whole reason that the Joker is so incredibly difficult to defeat is the ''unpredictability'' in his plans. If his plans relied on logic or concrete goals or desires they would be relatively decipherable. Instead his genuine desire of merely causing as much chaos as possible and driving everyone including Batman to be as insane as he is generates pure unpredictability, which is difficult to beat. Why? Because it's unpredictable. Hard to break a pattern when there is no pattern. Thus setting up his constant defeats to Batman, and verifying this law to the fullest
It's also possible that the reason the Joker is so effective against Batman is because Batman's main source of [[Awesomeness By Analysis]] is very dependent on there being a detectable form of logic to break [[Batman Gambit|and exploit]].
** The Joker may be terrifying, but his plans are anything but plausible. How exactly did he kill the police commisioner and the judge?
** You forget, at that point in the movie the Joker had access to the mob's resources. The poison and car bomb were probably snuck in by cops on Maroni's payroll.
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* Big aversion in ''[[Fargo]]'', in which the criminals are dangerous precisely ''because'' they're incredibly dumb.
** Not an aversion per se; you don't watch ''Fargo'' because it's a smart [[The Caper|caper]] film, you watch it to be amused by ordinary people bumbling along.
* Why do think [[James Bond (
{{quote|
'''Bond''': "Correction- criminal brains."
'''No''': "The successful criminal brain is always superior. It has to be!" }}
* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' provides a subversion: The villain Hans Landa hijacks the heroes plan to assassinate Hitler, {{spoiler|which is what makes it work.}}
** {{spoiler|Hitler and the other Nazis were killed by [[La Résistance]], with the Basterds not doing much other than shooting them to death and blowing them up, which only stopped them being burned alive in a fiery inferno by [[Hoist
* Darth Sidious of ''[[Star Wars]]''. He is by far the most intelligent, and possibly the most powerful character throughout the films. Without him, there would be no Clone Wars, Darth Vader or evil Empire.
** "I am the plot."
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== Literature ==
* Once ''[[
* Anything involving [[Manipulative Bastard|Hannibal Lecter]] immediately falls into this trope.
* Not strictly a contextual example, but anyone who has read a novel by [[
* In all the ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'', Lord Foul is the reason there is a plot. In addition, his plans keep getting more sophisticated as the series goes on. He can't be beaten the same way twice since he learns from his mistakes.
* Mitth'raw'nuruodo (AKA Grand Admiral Thrawn) from the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]. Any [[Magnificent Bastard]] running an [[Evil Plan]] usually lends this to a story.
* Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Emperor Shaddam IV Corrino from ''[[Dune]]''. Also God Emperor Leto II of ''[[Dune]]'' -- "They will know my way for thousands of years."
* This appears as a form of [[Sequel Escalation]] in the ''[[Posleen War Series]]''. In the first two books the main commanders of the Posleen forces are of average or below average intelligence. In the next two books the [[Manipulative Bastard]] Tulo'Stenaloor becomes the new [[Big Bad]] and nearly streamrolls the humans with his brilliant tactics. In addition to his individual brilliance, Tulo'Stenaloor explicitly tries to recruit as many intelligent Posleen as possible to increase the pool of ideas he can draw from.
* Far and away the most popular character in Ed McBain's ''[[
* The Seanchan are said to be this in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series. At one point, one of the characters remarks to another that the reason the Seanchan army is called "The Ever-Victorious Army" is that the generals are trained specifically to be intelligent and learn from defeats- so while the army has lost battles, it has not yet lost a war.
* Voldemort is responsible, at least indirectly, for the main plot of each ''[[Harry Potter (
** ''[[
* The most definitive literary example is perhaps ''[[
** To be more specific, it's the presence and existence of the One Ring that moves the plot and allowed Sauron to still be a threat in the first place. {{spoiler|If not for the One Ring surviving the Last Alliance, Sauron would have died an age ago. And before Tolkien wrote the LOTR, the Second Age DID end with Sauron's Defeat until Tolkien decided to write the Hobbit and the Third Age by merging it with his original work.}}
* This is part of why ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' is a bit dull, with a heavily foreshadowed, predestined ending. Ayn Rand genuinely believed that her bad guys couldn't be too smart, because smart people would agree with her. Ergo, they never really seem like a threat to our heroes (only to the masses).
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' features a number of very intelligent villains, such as Mr. Morden.
* ''[[The Wire]]'' asserts the [[Truth in Television]] nature of this trope: "Stupid criminals make stupid cops." With one exception) all the truly smart villain characters who are killed or otherwise taken out -- {{spoiler|Stringer Bell, Proposition Joe, Omar and Brother Mouzone}}
* ''[[The Thick of It]]'' showed us that an [[Anti
* ''[[
* On ''[[
* ''[[
{{quote|
* Inverted in the original ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'' series. The villains are usually passive known qualities; it's the ingenious plans of the ''heroes'' that make the show interesting.
** [[Leverage]] is generally similar in this regard. Though, the heroes [[Villain Protagonist|are arguably not]].
* During an interview with a fansite, Latham Gaines from ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'' almost said this verbatim. Originally, his character Mesogog, was supposed to be more overstated and hammy (to counteract his
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
* Averted in ''[[
== Theater ==
* [[Magnificent Bastard|Iago]] from ''[[
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* Heavily, heavily averted in the ''[[Fallout]]'' series. The Enclave has had access to the best pre-End of the World tech out there and the last reliable source of oil, and still hasn't managed much in the way of technological advancement even after 200 years. The Big Bad is always incompetent, crazy, or just plain stupid, to the point where a sufficiently intelligent or charismatic Vault Dweller can actually cause the Big Bads of Fallout and Fallout 3 to give up their evil plans simply by pointing out the flaws. Several lesser enemies face the same fate.
** The Dragons of the Fallout Series are SOMETIMES more dangerous, but they're usually not exactly the brighest eggs in the bunch either. Though at least they usually have to be actually FOUGHT, though they're usually just Damage Sponges with heavy weaponry. Not exactly Dragon in Chief material, to be honest.
* One major complaint about ''[[
** A good analogy would be if the Emperor kicked Vader off a cliff early in episode VI, and the prequel trilogy was never made. Palpatine may be a bastard, but if we didn't get to see it, we'd be pretty pissed off. Same with {{spoiler|Fontaine, the mobster.}}
*** {{spoiler|It could be argued that Fontaine was a [[Magnificent Bastard]] in his own way, outplaying Ryan through cunning and a keener understanding of supply and demand than the uber-capitalist himself. The plot just falls down when everything is revealed in [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Ryan's quarters]], and there's nowhere to go but to turn Fontaine into just another boss fight.}}
* Most of ''[[
* Averted entertainingly in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]''. Technically the [[Big Bad]] of the game would be {{spoiler|The [[Smug Snake]] Camarilla Prince Lacroix, who tries to pull off an [[Evil Plan]] to acquire the [[MacGuffin|sarcophagus]] and actually gets pretty close. However even in the endings where he ''does'' succeed, he's revealed to be a mere [[Unwitting Pawn]]; instead of the rumored antediluvian he had planned to drain to [[Took a Level
** Played straight, however, with Ming Xiao, albeit on a smaller scale.
* ''[[
** Although Sephiroth can be quite diabolical in his own right, seeing as he {{spoiler|used the severed body parts of a god to pose as him for much the game, only revealing himself towards the end.}}
*** Not really a God so much as {{spoiler|his alien spirit parasite mother. Most of his ideas actually came from her cells, but he converted it into a more Humanoid Abomination style then an Eldritch Alien Plot.}}
* Without villains who want the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald around or ones who [[Unwilling Roboticisation|convert his friends into robots]], [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] would just be drifting around.
* The iPhone game ''[[Chaos Rings (
* No matter how smart Kenichi is in ''[[Sharin no Kuni]]'', no matter how well he plans, no matter how much he thinks he's in control of the situation, Houzuki is always one step ahead. And he's always critical about how long it took him to reach a resolution. Without Houzuki, there is no story.
* {{spoiler|Kreia}} pretty much makes ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
* {{spoiler|Sun Li the Glorious Tactian}}'s briliance also pretty much makes up the entirety of the story in ''[[Jade Empire]]''.
* Sarevok, Jon Irenicus, {{spoiler|Amelissan}}. What would the ''[[
* The convoluted and yet simple, dangerous, vast, and extremely good plot of ''[[Batman
* ''[[
* The ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' series would be nowhere without [[Big Bad]] Dr Cortex. He even makes the hero for crying out loud.
* ''[[
* ''[[Skyward Sword]]'': Ghirahim demonstrates this trope ''perfectly''. His black tornado spell that snatched Zelda started up the plot in the first place. He shows a [[Faux Affably Evil]] personality that is creepy, distinctive, and memorable. He creeped out Link, and no one else has been able to do that. He proves to be quite deadly in combat, especially because he can take your mighty sword and use it against you. {{spoiler|He turns out to be a sword spirit, or more specifically, the [[Evil Counterpart]] of the Master Sword Link uses. He turns back into the sword the [[Final Boss]] Demise uses against you}}. Unfortunately, Ghirahim demonstrated this trope so well that the [[Final Boss]], due to little screen time, came off his less interesting than {{spoiler|his own [[The Dragon|Dragon]] and sword}}!
* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' series initially averted this, making the villains' plots secondary to the protagonist's goal of capturing and training Pokemon. Then the villains got smarter and more ambitious/crazy, playing this trope straight.
* ''[[Portal (
== Webcomics ==
* Interestingly, [[Big Bad|Xykon]] of ''[[
** Elan's [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] father relies on the same idea in a different way, choosing to be the master of an evil empire until such time as a worthy hero deposes him. If he wins, he runs an empire for his entire life. If he loses, he runs an empire for his entire life ''and becomes a legend in the process''.
== Western Animation ==
* One of the reasons that ''[[
* This was the reason [[Warner Bros]] introduced the likes of Yosemite Sam. Although the antagonism between Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd remains one of the most iconic conflicts in the media, the fact is that Elmer isn't all that bright, and outwitting him is like beating a three-toed sloth in a knife fight. Sam came along because Bugs needed a foe who was smart enough that winning seemed like an accomplishment. Later, [[Chuck Jones]] felt that Sam himself was too much of a sucker, just louder than Elmer, and created Marvin The Martian, a softspoken alien whose actions are incredibly destructive and legitimately dangerous.
** A lot of ''[[
* David Xanatos in ''[[
* In ''[[
* One of the cited reasons that the writers gave for the fact that the Riddler appeared in ''[[Batman:
* A lot of [[Disney Animated Canon]] villains trigger the plots of their respective films, and the company's more popular films often have its more popular villains.
** ''[[
** ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'': Pretty much nothing would happen without Jafar. Aladdin would spend the rest of his life on the streets and the Genie would never leave the Cave of Wonders.
** ''[[
** ''[[Snow White and
** ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'': Mowgli is forced to move out the jungle in fear of Shere Khan coming after him.
** ''[[Hercules (
*** Behind the scenes, Hades is an especially interesting case of this trope. [[Word of God|The crew of the movie said]] that Hades was going to be dark, scary, and menacing, but James Woods took a [[Deadpan Snarker|different]] [[Large Ham|route]] than the other auditions and the original plan, and they loved it so much they rewrote the character and, by extension, the script.
** ''[[Disney/Princess And The Frog|Princess And The Frog]]'': If it weren't for Dr. Facilier turning Naveen into a frog, he wouldn't have tried to kiss Tiana, and turn her into a frog.
* ''[[The Dreamstone]]'' often falls into this, as the residents of [[Sugar Bowl|The Land Of Dreams]] were usually docile and innocent beings that rarely caused their own personal conflicts or problems, thus events were usually extremely laid back until the Urpneys caused problems by trying to steal the titular stone.
* ''[[
{{quote|
** Perry and Doof's B-plot is almost always "Agent P, Doofensmirtz is up to something. Go and stop him."
* ''[[Animaniacs]]'': [[Alliterative Name|Slappy]] [[Species Surname|Squirrell]] was about to receive an award and some of her enemies planted a bomb at the podium. She invoked the trope to say the villains deserved the award more than her so they'd be lured into their own trap.
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== Real Life ==
* In real life too, ''[[Villains Act, Heroes React]]''. Like the characters on a cop show, a real cop does not get to enjoy a challenge without criminals creating one. (Of course, it's always controversial and generally a bad habit to designate anyone a villain in real life, but we'll just assume here that most cops at least see themselves as the good guys.)
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villain Makes the Plot, The}}
[[Category:
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