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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 [[It'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 by 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]]''':
 
* [[Asshole Victim]]
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* [[The Starscream]]
* [[Villainous Harlequin]]
* [[Villain Ball Magnet]], receiving the [['''Villain Ball]]''' whether they want it or not
 
Related Plots:
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[[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]].
 
Also see and contrast [[The Villain Makes the Plot]].
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== Film -- Animation ==
* 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.]]
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*** Lippe attacks Bond because Bond recognised his tattoo as linking him to the Tongs, a Chinese criminal syndicate. Bond was indeed investigating him (calling Moneypenny to relay his suspicions) so his cover really was blown, just to a lesser extent. Also remember that SPECTRE is about "Revenge" and Bond is marked for death by them for foiling their earlier schemes (in fact, the entire second movie was about their plan to murder him). So really, killing Bond was'nt all that unreasonable.
*** Lippe didn't know he was dealing with James Bond; he was simply protecting himself.
** In another Bond 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>.
* The only reason Han Solo ''could'' [[The Dog Shot First|shoot first]] in ''[[Star Wars]]'' was because Greedo took the time to gloat instead of shooting when he had the chance.
** And as [[Irregular Webcomic]] points out, Luke might very well have turned to the [[Dark Side]] in ''Return of the Jedi'' if the Emperor hadn't kept snapping him out of it.
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***** To be fair, Vader did openly ask Palpatine if they coud 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.
** In the third movie, [[Big Bad|Palpatine]] almost got hit by one of the senate platforms during his battle with Yoda because he was busy ''[[Evil Laugh|laughing maniacally]]''.
* 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 by 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]].}}
** Nitti also can't leave well enough alone! {{spoiler|Ness pulls him up to the roof after considering shooting him when he's hanging by a rope but then Nitti starts gloating about killing Malone, saying that he "died screaming like a stuck up pig" which is what finally makes Ness throw him off the roof.}}
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== Literature ==
* 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.}}
* Alt-history novelist Robbie Taylor came up with a wonderful subversion of this idea: at the moment of defeat, the Antichrist ''accepts Jesus as his personal savior'' and therefore qualifies for admission to Heaven.
* 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!
* [[K. A. Applegate]] likes saddling her truly formidable villains with this: Senna is an [[Expy]] of ''[[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]]'' 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 [[AI 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.
** Omnius isn't much better. His attempts to finish off the ''[[Unusual Euphomism|hrethgir]]'' (free human) once and for all leaves him open to attack by determined humans, leaving him with one world out of hundreds in a matter of weeks.
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== Theater ==
* The Wicked Witch of the West passes off the [[Villain Ball]] in ''[[Wicked (theatre)|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...
 
 
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** Face it, with the kind of power Arthas can throw around, if he hadn't swallowed the Villain Ball there's no way in hell anyone would ever be able to even slow him down.
*** {{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.]]
** Deathwing was even worse in ''Cataclysm''. In the Dragon Soul raid, after Thrall shoots him with the titular object, Deathwing flies back to the Maelstrom and tries to cause another Cataclysm. He apparently could have done this at any time, yet inexplicably waited until his enemies had killed all of his lieutenants, united the other Dragon Aspects, retrieved one of the few weapons powerful enough to kill him, and attacked him with it a couple times to try. At least Arthas had the somewhat flimsy excuse of wanting to make the player characters his champions, with Deathwing the writers didn't even try to justify it.
** I'm sorry, but nearly 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 Malfurion destroyes the Eye. That is a prime example of what happens when a [[Villain Ball]] collides with a [[Hero Ball]].
** Not really. While Illidan can be blamed for not explaining what he was doing, the reason Malfurion was trying to stop him is because the Eye was tearing the world apart. Not much point in stopping the bad guy if you break the world in the process, huh?
** On the other hand Illidan was doing it for Kil'Jaeden had he succeded, we can quite imagine what he might have rewarded Illidan had he finished the deed.
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* In ''[[Castlevania (Nintendo 64)|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-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]]).
** In the good ending he does have a moment of cleverness after being defeated the first time. He reverts to his child form and tries to pretend to be an ordinary kid who was possessed. [[Idiot Ball|Right when your character reaches out to him]], Vincent the vampire hunter (who only survives in the good ending) [[Big Damn Heroes|saves you]] by exposing the ruse with holy water. Cue [[Final Boss]] fight.
* [[Fate/stay night]] 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 equiping his [[Nigh Invulnerable]] armour or using [[Infinity+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|th]][[Sonic Unleashed|re]][[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (video game)|e]] [[Sonic Adventure 2|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]]'' 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|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.}}
* Lampshaded by a Team Plasma grunt in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'', in N's Castle. He states that the reason why other villain teams (Rocket and Galactic being mentioned in particular) failed was because they made themselves and their plans public. Plasma on the other hand had been secretly building and preparing for their ultimate plan while masquerading as PETA-esque Pokemon liberators.
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== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Hereti Corp should have realized that, when they turned Aylee into a [[I'm a Humanitarian|man-eating]] monster bent on [[Take Over the World|world domination]], it was probably a bad idea to leave Riff, [[True Companions|one of her friends]] with a penchant for [[Save the World|Saving The World]], not only alive, but ''on their payroll''. That's got conflict of interests written all over it.
** 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.] 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.
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* The [[Evil Chancellor]] Long Feng in ''[[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 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 3/15 The Boiling Rock 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]]'', 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''.}}
* By being the [[Genre Blind]] [[Harmless Villain]] he is, Dr. Drakken from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is by no means immune to this trope. In one episode he created the awesome plan of disrupting the [[Mission Control|Kimmunicator]] so that he could pretend to be the [[Techno Wizard]] Wade in order [[MacGuffin Delivery Service|trick Kim into stealing]] the [[Phlebotinum]] from Professor Dementor. Twice. Which got Kim's suspicions up and let to his defeat. When he has [[The Dragon|Shego]], who is more than capable of stealing the [[Phlebotinum]] by herself...
** 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.
* The supervillains (or "antagonists" as they prefer) in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' that work for the [[Weird Trade Union|Guild of Calamitous Intent]] carry the ball as part of the Guild's strict regulations for "Controlled Costumed Aggression", in effect ''literal'' [[Contractual Genre Blindness]]. Low level troublemakers use tranq guns, whereas hand guns and the like are reserved for more threatening opponents. Likewise, "protagonists" need to carry the [[Idiot Ball]] because, to borrow a quote:
{{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 (animation)|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...
** He also has the problems of almost never considering possibilities outside of his master plans, and [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|underestimating the Titans' strengths]] when trying to manipulate them.
* The [[Evil Sorcerer|Archmage]] of ''[[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.
** In fact, [[Word of God]] explicitly notes this as his undoing- for all his power, at heart he's a walking (though effective) cliche and ''cannot'' escape genre conventions.
* ''[[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, [http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1992843 a little bit of discussion concerning this].
** 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 by 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 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.
** If the [[True Colors]] of Smile Away are a secret from parents, why would you show the victimized kids getting tortured beyond compare on a daytime TV show?
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[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:indexIndex]]
[[Category:Villain Ball]]
[[Category:Ball Index]]
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10,856

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