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* In ''[[Dream House (film)|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}}.
* Willy Bank and Terry Benedict in ''Ocean's Thirteen''. The former's outright betrayal of Reuben leading to Ocean and co. seeking justice is the impetus for the plot; knowing full well their reputation as capable of beating the odds. The latter in his insistence to betray them and get several diamonds.
* It does not always happen to the [[Big Bad]]: In the [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] 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.
** The novel version, at least, has Count Lippe trying to kill Bond because he (mistakenly) believed that Bond had penetrated his cover and was there to take ''him'' out. However, like the movie version, he fails and is "properly dealt with" for his failure. Ironically, Bond never figures out that Lippe was working for SPECTRE at all, although Felix Leiter eventually puts the pieces together.
*** 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.
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* [[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 [[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.
** 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.
* In the [[Dale Brown]] book ''Plan of Attack'', Russian president Gryzlov would have avoided death if he had not {{spoiler|used nukes against the ABF-taken Russian airbase}} and prompted an [[Even Evil Has Standards]] [[Redemption Equals Death]] moment. In ''Edge of Battle'' Comandante Veracruz would not have been stopped either if he did not {{spoiler|double-cross Zakharov and cause him to carry out [[Enemy Mine]]}}.
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** 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.
* [[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 absense of all the other leaders.
* 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 [[ColourColor-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.
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*** 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—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.
* Osmund Saddler's evil plan in ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' would have stood a much better chance of succeeding if he hadn't decided to [[Evil Gloating|monologue]] about it in front of Leon Kennedy and {{spoiler|inject him with the parasite}} while he was conscious. Then there's the fact that he keeps around a machine that can {{spoiler|kill the parasite without harming the host}}, without any previous experience at using it or the need of a password or other lock-out mechanism
* {{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 [[Morton'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}}.
 
 
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* 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.
* In the comic ''[http://ilikefish.comicgenesis.com/ Pearls of Mer]''. The more senior agent of the [[Evil Organization]] tells the new comer to sit back and watch Arra the mermaid until they get word from [[High Ups]]. So what does the guy do? He runs out, tries to kidnap her and ends up shooting her human boyfriend. Things did end well from her wrath.
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== Western Animation ==
* 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]]''. 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.}}
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*** The Nazi economic model has been described as a "conquest" or "looter" economy because of that. Its cartelization of businesses along with making them attain the government bureaucrats' approval for every step of production, coupled with price controls that severely disrupted things, made it ''extremely'' inefficient.
* 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.
 
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