Villain Ball: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Rule one: good supervillains [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|never leave the heroes alive,]], dummy. Rule two: [[Time Bomb|countdown clocks]] are for hacks!"''|'''[[The Joker]]''', who has learned from his mistakes, in ''[[Batman the Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]''}}

Maybe their attempt at averting attention [[Revealing Coverup|has the opposite effect,]] or (often due to [[Pride]]) they insist on taking a loved one of the heroes [[Hostage for Macguffin|hostage in exchange for the MacGuffin]] and [[You Said You Would Let Them Go|busting the deal]], and [[ItsIt's Personal|make it personal for the hero]], perhaps they feel insecure without Bauer involved in their most sensitive operations or maybe they just can't help [[And Your Little Dog, Too|threatening the innocent puppy]] to show that they really are [[Designated Villain|the Villains]], no ''really!''

Inevitably, it's their own inherent [[Fatal Flaw|Fatal Flaws]]s that lead to [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard|their downfall]], possibly even an apropos [[Karmic Death]] or [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]].

Villains who are likely to carry the [['''Villain Ball]]''':

* [[Card -Carrying Villain]]

* [[Villain Ball Magnet]], receiving the [['''Villain Ball]]''' whether they want it or not

* [[And Your Little Dog, Too]]

* [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]]

* [[ItsIt's Personal]]

* [[Mistreatment -Induced Betrayal]]

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod]]

* [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]]

* [[Laser -Guided Karma]]

* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]

[[Sub -Trope]] of [[Evil Will Fail]]. See also [[Contractual Genre Blindness]], often a choice when [[Evil Is Stylish]]. For villains who pass the [['''Villain Ball]]''', see [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]. For those who pick it up and run with it, see [[Stupid Evil]]. Contrast [[Flaw Exploitation]], [[No -Nonsense Nemesis]] and [[Pragmatic Villainy]].

== Anime &and Manga ==

* Light in ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' does this a disproportionately high amount of times for someone who is also [[Genre Savvy]].

* Sasuke Uchiha during the Five Kages Arc in ''[[Naruto]]''. Instead of, you know, acting like a shinobi and keeping himself hidden, he decides to meet the investigating Samurai head on. And kills most of them brutally. When [[Badass|the Raikage]] and his bodyguards C and Darui arrive, he doesn't try to hide. Again, meeting ''three powerful ninjas head on'' alone. He gets soaked and electrocuted by Darui for his troubles. Any other ninja would start trying to cut their losses. Not Sasuke. He gets himself caught in C's blinding genjutsu, but even though he can see through it A and Darui nearly blitz him and Suigetsu and Jugo have to save him. Rise, rinse, repeat for the rest of the arc. The biggest ball he grabbed as when Karin was taken hostage by Danzo. Instead of going for a headshot...[[What an Idiot!|he decides to impale both of them with his Chidori Spear]], because having been taken hostage somehow translates in [[Insane Troll Logic|Sasuke-logic]] to having [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|outlived her usefulness]].

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': Given Yugi's Duel Monsters track record, [[Just Shoot Him|just shooting him]] sure would be an easier way of killing him than challenging him to a duel every time! They would also accomplish any other goals like destroying/ taking over the world much faster if they didn't let it all rest on a one-on-one duel with him, a tradition Saiou finally breaks in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX|GX]].''

** Naturally, ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: theThe Abridged Series (Web Video)|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'' has a field day with this issue.

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5 Ds5D's]]', all Jean has to do to defeat Yusei after a long and extensive duel is end his turn since Yusei has no cards left in his deck and would automatically lose once his turn began, however he gets caught up in the thrill of the duel and attacks Yusei who defends with a card in his hand and depletes Jean's life points.

* ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'': Incumbent [[Alpha Bitch|Tamaki]] and Masaharu are contesting the class election. This divides the class into two. Masaharu can't stand it, and decides to concede the election to Tamaki. In response she says, "How can a candidate back out? We need to have a righteous contest, right? I'd rather you do that." Her (main) reasoning comes across as even more idiotic: "My pride won't allow a win without a fight", rather than "No one will vote for someone who wants us to clean the room 3 times a day <ref>not when my policy is to clean once every 3 days</ref>". It's supposedly awesome that Tamaki's attempt to whitewash Masaharu in the election ends up backfiring, but then he announces his intention to have a neighborhood cleanup, and that has everyone freaking.

* ''[[Dragonball|Dragon Ball Z]]'' had Cell ''intentionally'' hold the villain ball during his fight with Gohan. After cryptic words from Goku, [[Beware the Nice Ones|describing Gohan's hidden potential]], Cell goes through '''extreme''' measures to draw it out for the sake of having a challenge. This included creating clones of himself to [[No -Holds -Barred Beatdown|beat the living hell]] out of Gohan's [[True Companions]] and finally killing [[Friend to All Living Things|Android 16]] in front of him. Considering how much of a [[Martial Pacifist]] Gohan had become now since his year-in-a-day in the [[Phantom Zone|Room of Spirit and Time]], this could be considered a Deconstruction of this trope because of everything Cell had to do to finally find Gohan's [[Berserk Button]].

* The antagonists of ''[[Ookami KakushiOokamikakushi]]'' have a tendency to incapacitate their victims in a manner that would guarantee death within minutes, then leave them alive long enough to warn someone else of their plans. {{spoiler|Ironically, it's what one, Sakaki, does to the other, Kasai.}} Aferwards, it is now {{spoiler|Sakaki's}} turn to carry the Villain Ball around like a child carries a lollipop. From the aforementioned leaving his victim alive long enough to warn someone of his plan, to leaving the control station unguarded right after doing what he came to do, to his sudden inability to shoot anyone while also gaining the ability to rant and rave and ''just stand there''...

* Byaku at the end of the ''[[Kekkaishi]]'' anime. {{spoiler|Yoshimori had willingly come to the Kokoboro and was demanding they bring him Kaguro. Byaku had never shown any particular loyalty to his lieutenants thus far, and had particular reason not to be attached to Kaguro. But instead of trying to make a deal with Yoshimori, he orders Shion to try to break Yoshimori's spirit and weaken his powers.}}

** In ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', everything would have worked out fine for Jafar if he'd simply tossed Aladdin a few coins and sent him on his way rather than double-crossing him after Aladdin retrieved the lamp.

*** In fairness to Jafar, given the sequence of events, he may've been unaware that Aladdin had found Carpet in the Cave of Wonders. Carpet was pinned under a rock before having a [[Big Damn Heroes]], so sending Aladdin falling to his death in a collapsing mystical cave isn't so crazy. (Plus, Jafar thought he had the lamp at the time.) Still, the [[Villain Ball]] is definitely in play when Jafar tries sending Aladdin "to the ends of the Earth." By that point, ''everyone'' had seen Carpet. Coupled with also knowing that Aladdin had escaped death ''twice'' already, Jafar really should've thought his actions out.

*** In the end Jafar was already the most powerful sorcerer on Earth, he was more than strong enough to defeat Aladdin. Instead he had to be the most powerful creature and wished to be a genie, [[Be Careful What You Wish For|with all that entails]].

** At the end of ''[[The Lion King]]'', when Simba, still blaming himself for his father's death, is dangling from the edge of a cliff, Scar can't resist doing some [[Evil Gloating]] and says "'''[[Just Between You and Me|I]]''' [[Just Between You and Me|killed Mufasa.]]" [[Unstoppable Rage|Big mistake.]]

* In ''[[True Lies]]'', [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s character is under the effect of truth serum and tells the men interrogating him exactly how he is going to escape and kill them. He succeeds. In the poor [[Mooks]]' defense, he really didn't give them a chance to do anything else. The second he finished explaining, he went right to it.

** [[Justified]], at least partially. Rambo never mentions that he's a returned Nam vet, so the sheriff literally doesn't know [[Badass|what he's dealing with]]. [[Perma -Stubble|Plus, Rambo doesn't exactly look like]] [[Good Hair, Evil Hair|an upstanding citizen.]] It may be more a case of [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] than anything else.

* In ''[[Dream House (Filmfilm)|Dream House]]'', {{spoiler|Jack Patterson}} clutches the villain ball during the climax. First, he {{spoiler|shoots his accomplice Boyce}} without making sure that {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead]] he was dead}}. Second, he ties up {{spoiler|Ann}} instead of killing {{spoiler|her}}. Not only does {{spoiler|Peter Ward rescue Ann, Boyce pours a flammable liquid onto Jack's escape path, resulting in Jack getting burned}}.

* It does not always happen to the [[Big Bad]]: In the [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] film ''[[Thunderball (Film)|Thunderball]]'' (1965), Count Lippe alias "sub-operator G", was handed the ball and attacked an unsuspecting off-duty Bond, tipping him off about what was happening in the fitness center. As a result, he was [[You Have Failed Me...|properly dealt with]] by his boss.

** In another Bond film, ''[[Octopussy (Film)|Octopussy]]'', Bond finds himself trapped in a [[Knife Outline]] by Grishka, the remaining half of a pair of knife-throwing twins, whose brother Mishka had been killed by Bond earlier. Grishka has one knife remaining, so what does he do? He tells Bond "[[And This Is For|And this is for my brother!]]", and charges towards Bond! Bond manages to take one of the knives out of the outline and throws it at Grishka, adding "And ''that's'' for 009!" .<ref> the Double-0 agent killed at the start of the movie</ref>.

***** To be fair, Vader did openly ask Palpatine if they coudcould avoid killing Luke. He should have at least suspected something was up, especially since the Sith are inclined to stab each other in the back (literally, in many cases). Also, considering Palpatine had the ability to sense emotions, one would think he would take a look at Anakin's to make sure he wasn't having second thoughts.

* The plot of each of ''[[The Transporter]]'' films basically doesn't kick-off until someone higher in the criminal food-chain than the [[Villain Protagonist|Protagonist]] grabs the [[Villain Ball]] and doesn't let go until they've done something [[Genre Blindness|horribly cliche'd]].

* In ''[[The Untouchables]]'', Mafia hitman Frank Nitti murders {{spoiler|Jimmy Malone}} by writing his apartment address [[Going Byby the Matchbook|on a matchbook]]. Unfortunately for him, he forgets to dispose of it after his hit. When he bumps into Eliot Ness, he offers the matchbook to light his cigarette with. Ness sees the address, and putting two and two together, chases Nitti and {{spoiler|pushes him off a roof [[Car Cushion|into a car]].}}

* In the film adaptation of ''[[James and Thethe Giant Peach]]'', James' aunts attempt to take him back by pretending to be kind guardians, but it doesn't take them long to drop the act and attempt to kill James with axes right in front of a large crowd, including at least one cop.

* ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'': Judge Doom had a perfect chance to stab incapacitated Eddie with his [[Sword Cane]], but he just had to go for the slower and more gruesome road roller option, which gave Eddie time to escape.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Tyrion Lannister tells {{spoiler|Tywin that if he uses a certain word, he will shoot him. Of course the word is uttered. Given Tywin's utter contempt for his son it is quite likely he used the word on purpose, never thinking Tyrion would actually shoot him especially while on the privy and is quite in character.}} In ''A Dance with Dragons'', {{spoiler|Janos Slynt insults Jon Snow, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, in front of the entire Night's Watch, and flat-out refuses to obey his orders. So Snow chops off his head. It's even more satisfying to the readers because Snow doesn't know how Slynt's betrayal contributed to his father's death. It's probably one of the most satisfying [[Karmic Death|Karmic Deaths]]s in the entire series.}}

* Lampshaded in ''[[Heirs of Alexandria|Much Fall of Blood]]''. The [[Evil Sorcerer]] plans to trap and sacrifice the heroes in a location where magic doesn't work. Of course, this means the [[Evil Sorcerer]] has no access to magic either, and the heroes are better in a physical melee.

* The leader of the [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|Psychlos]] from the ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' novel and film does a lot of things that make the viewer/reader shout, "[[What an Idiot!]]!" In an especially stupid move, the leader teaches the hero, Jonny "Goodboy" Tyler, [[Instant Expert|everything about Psychlos in a matter of seconds]], in an attempt to get him to assist their enslavement of Earth. Naturally, it comes back to bite him in the ass at the end in a ''big'' way.

* [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]], amusingly enough, suffered from being more evil than needed and less evil than he could've been at the same time. If he'd just killed Lily Potter without offering her a chance to step aside or if he'd deigned to toss her aside when she refused, instead of killing her, he would've won. But in doing things that exact way he provided the conditions for her [[Heroic Sacrifice]], which eventually led to his doom.

* In the ''[[Everworld]]'' series, Senna Wales was a [[Magnificent Bastard]] up until the series was to be cancelled. At this point in the story, she had become allies with a whole pantheon, killed or weakened several ''gods'', arranged the downfall of an entire nation, removed the one species that was a serious threat to her from Everworld, built a small army for her personal use, was ''still'' successfully blackmailing and manipulating the other main characters despite them wising up to what she was doing, outmaneuvered Merlin twice and laid a trap for him, become so powerful that [[No Man of Woman Born|no man could bring himself to lay a hand on her]], had plans laid down to build her position that went entire years in advance, and needed only one more object in order to complete her master plan and become the absolute, [[A God Am I|godlike]] [[Dimension Lord]] of Everworld. How can this [[Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness|high-threat]], [[Sliding Scale of Villain Threat|universe-threatening]] witch be defeated in a quick, cheap manner? Give her the [[Villain Ball]] of course!

* [[KAK. A. Applegate]] likes saddling her truly formidable villains with this: Senna is an [[Expy]] of ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]''{{'}}s [[Sixth Ranger Traitor|David]], who is also manhandled into carrying the [[Villain Ball]] to facilitate a quick defeat. At the point in the story he starts to carry it David has defeated four of the six Animorphs in a single night (almost killing two of them), acquired an Animorph for impersonation, made the team's resident [[Blood Knight]] ''afraid for her life'', and strongarmed the Animorphs into a position where they have no choice but to give him the [[Super Empowering|Morphing Cube]]. So how does the team effectively defeat David in the span of a few short chapters? Why, the [[Villain Ball]], dear boy.

* Lestat passes off the [[Villain Ball]] between books in ''[[The Vampire Chronicles]]''; he retcons into Yet Another Good Vampire when he takes on the mantle of narrator.

* In ''[[Jonathan Strange and& Mr. Norrell]]'', Jonathan's father Lawrence strange was a sure-handed holder. The narration mentions that he let petty maliciousness overcome his long term benefit, and suffered a [[Karmic Death]] when he opened a window on a cold night to further torment a fevered servant who had annoyed him - forgetting that he was much less healthy than the other man. He was found to have frozen to death during the night.

* Graham Coates in ''[[Anansi Boys (Literature)|Anansi Boys]]'' gleefully picks up the [[Villain Ball]] and runs with it starting in his own backstory. He's been embezzling money from his clients for years, and he fires most of his employees after a year or so, both to avoid having to pay too much in raises and to make sure that none of them have time to cotton on to what he's doing. This bites him in the ass when someone finds him out-he rearranges accounts to make it look like Fat Charlie, his most senior employee by a full year, was the one doing it, but the person he's trying to convince knows that it's been happening for much longer than Fat Charlie's two-year tenure. This ultimately leads to a murder, some attempted murders, and also slicing his own femoral artery with a poorly-chosen place to hold a knife. Of course, he may or may not have been possessed along the way.

* In the ''[[Dune]]'' [[Prequel]] trilogy ''[[Legends Of Dune]]'', [[The Dragon|Erasmus]] spreads dissent among the human slave population to win a bet with [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|Omnius]] that even the most loyal humans are inherently untrustworthy. While all of this would've probably resulted in an easily-crushed revolt, he then goes ahead and kills a helpless child right in front of his mother and ''thousands of riled slaves''. Cue the Butlerian Jihad - a century-long conflict that results in the destruction of all Synchronized Worlds. To top it off, he then raises a human child to be a human with the mind of a machine, who later betrays his "father" and joins the humans to found the Mentat school, giving humans living computers.

* In ''[[The Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'', Cruella de Vil owned more than 80 dalmatian puppies. ''Owned'', as in had legally bought and paid for. There were no police, human owners, or frantic canine parents looking for these puppies. One would think that would have been plenty to start her dalmatian fur farm. If not, she could have waited until there was another litter for sale and just bought more puppies. Instead, she kidnapped the Dearly puppies (paying far more to the dog thieves than she had for any litter), thereby bringing the police, human reward-seekers, and [[Papa Wolf|Pongo]] and [[Mama Bear|Missus]] down on her head, permanently putting a stop to her plans.

* Everything the Capitol does in [[The Hunger Games]] seems to be based on how evil it is than whether or not it would be beneficial. {{spoiler|Shooting an old man in a crowd just for singing a song, reducing District 12 into utter poverty to the point the protagonist wanted to rebel, rounding up a chunk of the victors of the games (people the public cherish and revere as heroes) into another game with the intent to kill, elminatingeliminating any good will between Katniss by brutally killing Cinna in front of her, eliminating the good will of pretty much any major character by brutally firebombing District 12 and killing civilians on TV.}} Combined with the Hunger Games itself, it makes you wonder how the nation lasted for 75 years without any form of outward rebellion {{spoiler|which the districts are too happy to do in the span of a few months.}}

** Aside from the central extravagance of the hunger games (and even that is in some ways an inspired form of repression in that it forces people to become complicit in it through starvation, quite stalinesqueStalinesque actually) the tactics the capital uses to repress the districts are actually a fairly realistic representation of the terror methods that [[Real Life]] regimes use, and just like in [[Real Life]] but unlike in most stories: They work, to a point. In 75 years of power the capital had almost certainly weathered minor uprisings that it had been able to quell through force, control of information, and playing disctrictsdistricts off against each other. What's tips the scale in the period of the plot is: {{spoiler|military support from district 13, inter-district organizational and information support from district 13 and rebels in the capital, and a unifying symbol for all the districts in the form of [[The Hero|Katniss]] and [[The Load|Peeta]] that had already been helpfully broadcast through the capital's own propaganda machine.}}

* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[World WarWorldwar]]'' series, {{spoiler|US President Earl Warren}} grabs it hard when he orders a nuclear misslemissile launched at the Race's colonization fleet, at literally no possible gain for himself (it only kills enough of the Race to seriously piss them off) and everything to lose if he's found out.

* [[The Dragon|Drake]] from ''[[Gone (novel)]]'' seems to be aware that hurting [[Dark Chick|Diana]] would be pushing a [[Berserk Button]] of the [[Big Bad]], [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|Caine]], and, while he openly hates her, he saves most of his taunting of her for when Caine isn't around, even though she often provokes him. But then in ''Hunger'', he {{spoiler|picks her up with his whip-hand and bashes her head open against a rock ''[[Disproportionate Retribution|because she yelled at him]]'', all in front of Caine.}} This does not go over well. Of course, he's not exactly mentally stable, so...

== Live -Action TV ==

* Ba'al, from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' should get a mention here. He can't seem to make up his mind if he wants to have the Villain Ball or not. Half the time he's charging around like an idiot coming up with ridiculously complex and stupid plans to DESTROY''destroy THEthe UNIVERSEuniverse'' or somesuch nonsense, and then the other half of the time he's acting as the CEO for a major company and fully intends to just live on earth peacefully. It then gets even more ridiculous when SG-1 force him to take action and the entire thing dissolves into a massive I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-is-happening with the end result revealing Baal actually really likes the Tau'ri and would probably quite happily be a fairly good ally, if we'd just stop shooting him. Then when the SGC realises this and attempts to join forces with Ba'al, he backstabs them. I've never seen a villain juggle the Villain Ball quite so obsessively as Baal does. Half the time I was thinking he was one of the best genre savvy villains I've ever seen, the other half of the time I was wondering who'd been hitting him with the idiot stick lately.

* Pick a ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' villain. Any ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' villain. Special mention must go to [[Evil Counterpart|the Master]] however, who even originally had a [[Beard of Evil]]!

* Every villain on ''[[Supernatural]]''. All of them. Except Crowley who, in his own words, is the only one to not "Underestimate those denim wrapped nightmares!" And is therefore the only one thus far still walking around unharmed.

* ''[[I CarlyiCarly]]'': Missy in ''iReunite With Missy''. Missy tries to her old "best friend" position off Sam, by treating her nicely around people, but indirectly attacking her in ways that force Sam away from Carly. Sam herself is unsure if Missy is trying to hurt her, or if she's jealous of Missy. The evil plot is ruined when Missy gives Sam a [[Motive Rant]] for no reason. This pushes Sam to ask Freddie for help. Carly has no clue until she [[Right Behind Me|overhears]] [[Evil Gloating|Missy gloating]] about the cruise Freddie gave up to get rid of her.

* The ''[[Captain Power and Thethe Soldiers of The Future (TV)|Captain Power and The Soldiers of Thethe Future]]'' episode "The Mirror in Darkness" has Dread using a fake Power to trick survivors into unwitting digitization. The first time we see him, it's convincing to ''us''. But the second time, we know the plot, and the real Power is waiting for him. The fake then suddenly yells his head off, and generally acts like a dick, before the real Power shows up.

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Peter Fleming]] (AKA Chess) hires a duo of assassins to kill [[The Cape (2010 TV series)|The Cape]]. They fail but find out his [[Secret Identity]]. When one of them meets with Fleming, he is about to give him a flash-drive with their research, when Fleming loses his temper and fires them. Being a professional, the assassin is no longer obligated to help Fleming, so he gives the flash-drive to the Cape. All Fleming had to do was wait 2two seconds, and he would've had the Cape by the balls.

* In ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210|90210]]'' Jeremy catches Annie breaking into his house to steal a necklace he bought after she had had to pawn it (the necklace is a key part of the contested inheritance Jeremy's grandmother left to Annie in her will and she needs it to prove she deserves the money). Rather than simply call the cops and have Annie arrested there and then (he hadn't broken any laws while she definitely had) Jeremy locks her in his bedroom and indulges in [[Evil Gloating]] about how he hated his grandmother allowing Annie to [[Engineered Public Confession|record him on her Blackberry and send the message to her lawyers.]]

* Very much summed up in ''[[Cracked.com]]''{{'}}s [http://www.cracked.com/article_16630_6-baffling-mistakes-every-movie-criminal-makes.html 6 Baffling Mistakes Every Movie Criminal Makes].

* The Wicked Witch of the West passes off the [[Villain Ball]] in ''[[Wicked (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]'' to The Wizard. Of course he's always been a Nazi! And Dorothy was his unwitting dupe! At least until HE gets to narrate and pass the Ball...

* It is ''[[Bionicle]]''{{'}}s [[Grand Finale]], and the [[Big Bad]] Makuta Teridax is standing right above Mata Nui, in the [[Humongous Mecha]] body that he stole from him. Mata Nui's weaker robot body is falling apart, malfunctioning, and barely has any power left. Makuta's body is, on the other hand, fully powered and quite capable of finishing off the only being who could ever hope to stand in his way. Even if he just stood there, Mata Nui would have fallen apart eventually. Instead, he of course has to make a show, so he uses his gravity power to fold the planet into itself, just to make sure Mata Nui would witness the end of his allies. {{spoiler|Seemingly having forgotten about those two moons orbiting at head-level, and that using this power requires him to lift up his arms, giving Mata Nui the opening he needed.}}

* In ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'', your party is forced to surrender party member (and [[MacGuffin Girl]]) Polka to [[Card -Carrying Villain]] Count Waltz. Waltz successfully convinces Polka that if she surrenders peacefully then no harm will come to the party or her, and he will call off his army. Polka (in turn) successfully convinces the rest of the party to allow her to go with Waltz and sacrifice her freedom for the greater good. Waltz's plan would have worked perfectly... if he ''hadn't'' decided to punctuate his victory by ''slapping Polka in clear view of everyone'', proving he was a lying prick and prompting Polka (and the rest of the party) to attack.

* Arthas in ''[[World of Warcraft|Wrath of the Lich King]]''. So hard. Any dumb thing that the evil guy can do just to prove his credentials, he does. Like telling the most important part of his army (who, by a strange coincidence, are one of about three parts of his army who have free will) that they were BAIT''bait'' for a guy who was supposed to mow them down in seconds, but didn't even show up for said fight until they already lost. Did we mention he laughed at them, too? Oh, and he delivered the weapon that can beat him to said guy in this ploy. OH''Oh'', and it turns out that after betraying and alienating his officer corps, he's having a tough time finding commanders. Whoops! ''And that's just one example.''

*** {{spoiler|And then subverted magnificently when it turns out this was a massive [[Xanatos Gambit]] on his part -- he actually wanted to find a group of heroes capable of standing up to him, at which point he could kill them and reanimate them as his [[Co -Dragons]] of a new, more powerful army (because, hey, they're undead. Just kill a few dozen people and you're on your way). He nearly won too, were it not for [[Heroic Willpower|unforeseeable circumstance]].}}

*** That was a [[Villain Ball]] in itself. At the same time we learn Arthas was building us up to be his champions, we also learn that if the Lich King dies, the mindless Scourge will be left uncontrolled and wipe out all life on Azeroth in a [[Zombie Apocalypse]]... Which means the Scourge, as it was, was already powerful enough to defeat the Alliance and the Horde. [[Complexity Addiction|Why Arthas felt he needed the heroes when he already possessed an unstoppable army is anyone's guess.]]

** I'm sorry, but nearly EVERY''every'' end raid boss that was based in some sort of lore apparently selected the ball crafting profession and specced "villain ball". Only a few bosses don't seem that out of place.

* The artifact Illidan stole in ''Frozen Throne'' although named "The Eye of Sargeras" was in fact a [[Villain Ball]] of titanic proportions. See for yourself: he wants to use the said ball to destroy the Frozen Throne - the seat of the Lich King and thus eliminate the Undead army that threatens the world. Unfortunately, the side effects of the ball's operation include severe earth tremors hence Illidan's brother Malfurion jumps to conclusion that Illidan is up to destroying the world and sets forth to stop him. Does Illidan bother to clarify the situation and explain his plan which would without doubt be backed by Malfurion? He does, but only AFTER''after'' Malfurion destroyes the Eye. That is a prime example of what happens when a [[Villain Ball]] collides with a [[Hero Ball]].

* In the game ''[[Nightmare Before Christmas Oogies Revenge|In the game NBC: Oogie's Revenge]]'', if Oogie]] had not left Jack a trail of breadcrumbs to follow and skipped to cutting Halloween off from the Hinterlands and killing Santa he would have succeeded. Heck, if he didn't make his presence so well known to Jack he might have been able to lull him into a false sense of victory and captured him (he even already had a cell for him), making room for him as the Seven Holidays King in the absenseabsence of all the other leaders.

* In ''[[Castlevania 64 (VideoNintendo Game64)|Castlevania 64]]'', Dracula spends most of the game disguised as a kid named Malus. This is not none to the player or the game's characters, though there is this bizarre moment where you come across Malus and suddenly appears evil, but you character ignores that the next time they see him, depending on the ending. In the bad ending, Dracula will actually [[Smart Ball|have a clever plan for a change]] and not reveal himself, though both endings give some that Malus is really him, his eyes [[Colour Color-Coded for Your Convenience|turn red]], and in Carrie's he gets her to promise to marry him, and mutters that now they have a binding contract. Either way, he had a good plan going. Stay disguised and kill the hero when he least suspects it in one, or in the other apparently using some curse to force her to one day marry you. In the good ending, however, he throws that out the window and just reveals himself and reveals in his supposed invincibility, forgetting that he's been defeated, oh I've lost count how many times in the past, leading to his temporary death ( Dracula [[Death Is Cheap|has more extra lives then you do]]).

* ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]] example'': Gilgamesh. If you just stopped playing around with the heroes and just [[Storm of Blades|Babylowned]] them to death then you wouldn't keep dying. This happens in both the Fate and the Unlimited Blade Works routes: in Fate, he {{spoiler|gives Shirou the time he needed to project Avalon by using a charge attack when he can [[Storm of Blades|bladespam]] anyone to death in an instant.}} In UBW, he insists on {{spoiler|dueling Shirou one-on-one sans armour while in Shirou's [[Field of Blades|Reality Marble]] rather than just equipingequipping his [[Nigh Invulnerable]] armour or using [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword|Ea]] right off the bat. This results in a very literal disarmament and being shoved into a space-time rift}}. Then again, if he didn't have the constant Pride [[Villain Ball]] he would be completely unstoppable.

** Not completely. He could still potentially be taken out by a particularly well-executed ambush. {{spoiler|Like the one Sakura pulls in Heaven's Feel.}} Though you could argue that not immediately going out and unleashing his full power at the very beginning of the war is already holding the [[Villain Ball]], since he could probably easily win in an hour or less if he were smart enough to try that.

*** Hell, he probably could have even beaten that situation if he had gotten lucky with what weapons appeared from the [[Storm of Blades|Babyl-spam]]. If he managed to shoot out [[Anti -Magic|Rule Breaker]] or [[Fate /Zero|Zero Lancer's]] anti-regeneration spear, then {{spoiler|Sakura}} would have been dead. Or he could have just kept shooting until one of his weapons overwhelmed her regen. [[Too Dumb to Live|But no, he stops, poses and gets eaten.]]

** It's grown to such a point that fans are starting to joke that one of Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasms in [[Hyperspace Arsenal|the Gate Of Babylon]] is either a [[Villain Ball]] or an [[Idiot Ball]]. That, or he has a hidden Passive Phantasm.

* In the more recent ''Sonic'' games, [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Eggman]] has (on numerous occasions) either unleashed or sought to unleash a creature of extreme power ([[Sonic Adventure (Video Game)|th]][[Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)|re]][[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 (Videovideo Gamegame)||e]] [[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|gods]] and [[Shadow the Hedgehog|one prototype of the ultimate lifeform]] for starters). For a while, his plans go great, and he usually is a step or two ahead of his nemesis, Sonic. However, just when his plans are at their highest, everything goes horribly wrong. The god reaches its highest potential, and then Eggman realizes that he made a huge mistake and ends up having to work with Sonic to get rid of his own mess. The villain ball part comes when you realize something: Given his past experiences, why in the hell would he continue this pattern just to be embarrassed and defeated? Also, he constantly blabs about his schemes to the ''one guy who always defeats him'', even going so far as to have a '''worldwide broadcast about his plan when Sonic and his gang didn't have an idea of it before then'''. The only thing you can't accuse Eggman of is not trying to kill Sonic with his godlike creatures, because that is just something he naturally fails at, but is in no control of whatsoever.

* Bowser, archfoe of [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]], just can't stop kidnapping Princess Peach, even when doing so is actually a hindrance to his plan. This is most blatant in [[Super Mario Galaxy]], where Bowser's plan is to steal all the power stars in space, then use them to power a huge machine at the center of the universe that will give him control of every galaxy there is. When the game opens, he seems to be pretty far into his plans, and Mario has no idea they're even happening. The only reason Mario finds out is because Bowser decides to kidnap Peach right in front of Mario, setting the plumber on his trail with just enough time to stop his schemes.

** Bowser also does this in ''[[Super Mario Bros 3 (Video Game)|Super Mario Bros 3]]'' where his plan is actually pretty clever: have his kids turn the seven kings of the Mushroom Worlds into animals, forcing Mario and Luigi to travel far and wide to help them. While they're distracted, Bowser kidnaps Peach. This one worked like a charm -- untilcharm—until Bowser sends Mario a taunting letter telling him exactly where to find the Princess.

* ''[[Deus Ex Human Revolution (Video Game)|Deus Ex: Human Revolution]]'': [["Wake -Up Call" Boss]] Barrett {{spoiler|tells you the ''exact address'' of his co-conspirators (right down to the specific apartment) for no reason before he attempts to kill the both of you. This was, in fact, Jensen's only lead to Shanghai to continue the plot, otherwise the villains' plan would have gone off without a hitch.}}

* {{spoiler|Matt Engarde}} in the final case of ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]: Justice For All'' would have been able to get away scot-free if he didn't betray the assassin he hires simply because he doesn't trust other people and believes that not even assassins are above blackmails. Said action allows the titular character to trap him into a [[MortonsMorton's Fork]] situation.

* In ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'', Arcturus Mengsk decides to not send Kerrigan the requested dropship when the Zerg overrun Tarsonis for apparently no reason at all. She's been his most important lieutenant who had never shown any sign of not being completely loyal to him, and there seems to be no reason at all why saving her would have been impossible. The result of this is that Kerrigan gets captured alive and turned into a general and eventually supreme commander of the Zerg and Raynor deserting him, both becoming his most dangerous enemies. Up until that point, there has been no indication that he would have wanted [[Uriah Gambit|to get rid of her]] or that she even contemplated turning against him. All it does is create two powerful armies that want to kill him.

** Justified by the [[StarcraftStarCraft II|sequel]] and the novel ''I, Mengsk''. It was revenge: {{spoiler|Kerrigan was the Ghost that assassinated Mengsk's family, so the moment [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|She Outlived Her Usefulness]] as a soldier, he left her for dead. However that justification gives the [[Hero Ball]] to Kerrigan: she probably shouldn't have ever trusted the son of a man she decapitated}}.

** Hereti Corps carries the [[Villain Ball]] less idiotically now that Dr. Schlock has taken over. But in that instance at least, Riff was 'one of her friends' who wanted ''kill her'', so if anything, they should've been alert to the possibility of attacks from him.

* In ''[[Bob and George]]'', Bob seemed like your perfectly reasonable villain, driven to extremes by the world he was forced into. Then he decided to go {{spoiler|kidnap the world's creator... who let himself be captured for the sake of a minor bet with the REAL [[Big Bad]].}} Bob never did get beat down, though... [["What Now?" Ending|or so it seems.]]

* ''[[Fans]]'': The Order of the Dragon first appear as a group of near omnipotent individuals with supernatural powers and represent the greatest threat AEGIS has encountered so far. Members include Robert, a cunning illusionist and conman, or Keith, Rikk's former nemesis. [http://www.faans.com/index.php?p=1957 Then there's this guy.]{{Dead link}} And you can rest assured that the others are no better. The fact that their plan involved literally KILLING the alphabet and eliminating all written forms of comunication doesn't help.

* In ''[[Justice League: Crisis Onon Two Earths]]'' {{spoiler|Batman strands Owlman on an Earth without any life, with a bomb about to explode in front of him. He is presented with the option to abort the countdown or get out of the dimension thanks to a spare portal device, but instead says "It doesn't matter" and waits for it to blow him up. In this case it's because of his belief that an infinite number of universes make all choice meaningless, because no matter what he does, the other him will make a different choice.}}

* The [[Evil Chancellor]] Long Feng in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. Had he simply directed them to the nearest general outside the city after explaining the whole "No talking about the war here" thing and sent them on their way, they would have been out of his hair right there and he'd still be [[The Man Behind the Man]]. But instead, {{spoiler|he tried to play Big Brother and threaten them about Appa, and thus made an enemy out of Aang, eventually leading to his arrest, then losing even the Dai Li to Azula in an attempt to break out and take over.}}

** In the episode "The Deserter", if Zhao hadn't gotten so angry at Aang's taunting, he wouldn't have burnt his entire fleet down to cinders. And then, he {{spoiler|kills the moon spirit}} in the season finale.]] If he HADN'T'hadn't'' done that, he wouldn't have {{spoiler|been killed by [[Fan Nickname|Koizilla]], and might have actually succeeded in conquering the Northern Water Tribe.}}

** Even normally [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] Azula isn't immune to this. {{spoiler|Though she manages to avoide holding the [[Villain Ball]] for the first two seasons, she finally ends up holding it in "[[Avatar: The Last Airbender/Recap/Book (Animation)3/15 The Boiling Rock/Recap/ Part 2|The Boiling Rock, Part 2]]," when she threatens to kill Zuko for starting a prison break. Fortunately, Mai and Ty Lee arrive just in time to [[Heel Face Turn|teach her]] that dissing your ally's boyfriend, especially if said boyfriend is ''your own brother'' for crying out loud, [[Even Evil Has Standards|is not a very good idea.]]}}

* In the [[Grand Finale]] of ''Transformers: [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', Megatron {{spoiler|decides to use the [[Wave Motion Gun|Fusion Cannon]] on the entirely helpless proto-humans [[Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid|when he should have attacked the Maximals first, who could actually do something to stop him]].}}. To make it even worse {{spoiler|all of the proto-humans [[Unexplained Recovery|survived somehow]] and he only succeeded in killing Quickstrike and Inferno, ''his own minions''.}}

** Then there is Señor Senior Senior, who literally read the book on how to carry the [[Villain Ball]], because he's obscenely rich and only commits villainous acts out of boredom. It's more fun for him to do it like a Bond villain.

{{quote| '''Brock Samson:''' Hey, no disrespect Jonas, but it isn't so easy. These guys like their system; it's what they do. You take that away, and you are dealing with a bunch of pissed off nutbags with rayguns and giant, I don't know, a giant octopus/tank with laser eyes.}}

* Slade in ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' would be a full-time [[Magnificent Bastard]] if he'd just learn not to give in to his sadistic impulses unnecessarily. As it is, this has gotten in the way of his plans by providing an out for one minion and turning another against him (which got him lava fried). Of course, this does mean that for a [[Smug Snake]], he's still very effective and [[Nightmare Fuel|creepy]], but he could be so much more...

* The [[Evil Sorcerer|Archmage]] of ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' grasps the [[Villain Ball]] ''hard'' due to his hatred of Goliath. He makes two big mistakes: he doesn't wait until sunrise when the gargoyles are all helpless before starting the attack, and he opts to torture Goliath for amusement rather than simply killing him instantly with his incredible power. This leads directly to his defeat and rather nasty death.

* ''[[Winx Club]]'': The 4K dub provides an example of a Dub-Induced Villain Ball in the S1 finale, which has Icy telling the other Trix, "Give me your share of the Dragonfire, I need it to take care of this uppity pixie (Bloom). Don't worry, you won't need more than your regular powers to take on those four poseurs (the other Winx)." She doesn't tell them this in the original, but the result is the same anyway. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IblifgQrN5Y Video.] Plus, [httphttps://wwwweb.toonzonearchive.netorg/web/20200408195748/https://animesuperhero.com/forums/showthreadinstall/index.php?p=1992843upgrade%2F a little bit of discussion concerning this]{{Dead link}}.

** The Trix's other two seasons each have a major non-Dub-Induced Villain Ball: S2 sees them burying the Winx and the Specialists' plane under snow and an icy deathtrap... and then simply leaving, so they're not there to shoot them down again when they escape. S3 has Icy de-powering Bloom in a one-on-one (the other fairies are away in a crystal labyrinth, while the other Trix are taking on the Specialists) and not [[Never Say "Die"|making her history]] immediately, allowing the other Winx to return in time to take the Trix out.

* In ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', Aku grabs the [[Villain Ball]] big-time in "Jack and the Zombies". While Jack is busy fighting off a horde of zombies, Aku manages to steal Jack's sword, which is the only thing in the world that can harm him. He then proceeds to do some [[Evil Gloating]], which is acceptable, given how Jack is absolutely powerless at this point. But then, he announces that he'll destroy the sword to become completely unstoppable ''after'' he kills Jack with it, to give him a [[Death Byby Irony|"fitting" death by the hands of his own sword]]. {{spoiler|Of course, after an epic but one-sided battle, an [[Ass Pull]] comes in at the last second to prevent Aku from succeeding, thereby allowing Jack to reclaim his sword, forcing Aku to retreat. Had Aku just destroyed the sword first, BEFORE''before'' going after Jack, he would've won.}}

* Dr. Doofenschirmtz from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' is one of the worst examples, as illustrated in the episode "Candace Gets Busted" where a building is blocking his view of the theater. He remarks that he could just move his chair, but decides to build a machine to zap the building out of the way.

** Not to mention that if they had curbed their ambitions and stopped right after the Munich Agreement, [[Adolf Hitler]] may have been more fondly remembered in Germany.

*** This is unlikely, since a major motivation for Germany's war of conquest was that Hitler's powerbase was built on a higher standard of living for common workers than in any other European nation at the time, and this in turn was entirely built on the wealth stolen from the minorities, not on any sound economic system. They needed to conquer more territories, enslave more "subhumans" and steal more resources to keep this up.

*** It wasn't so much "stealing from minorities" that kept the standard of living up for the normal German - there wasn't nearly enough money. They stole from minorities out of malice and out of racism - they could have made a lot more revenue by befriending the Jews (who owned a lot of shops and banks) and helping them grow the economy. It was re-armament (in 1935, the Army couldn't spend it's budget) and socialized work programs that drove employment up - except they borrowed like crazy to fund it. So they either had to cut or go to war. They went to war.

* Josef Stalin, to a much lesser degree. He had a doctor who told him to take some time off arrested and tortured. So when he had a massive and undignified stroke, nobody wanted to diagnose him. Even his fellow Politburo members were terrified of calling help in case he recovered and had them shot. His guards were also afraid to go in to help him or call a doctor. It doesn't help that he also had recently killed many supposedly for being in a "Doctor's Plot" against him. So, rather than survive to retire or even continue to lead, he died on the floor of his bedroom, soaked in his own urine. There are certain theories which say he was poisoned too, which is not surprising if true.

* The Ottoman Turkish Empire in the lead up to and during [[World War OneI]]. Fullstop.

[[Category:indexIndex]]

[[Category:TropeBall Index]]