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{{trope}}
{{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:
{{quote|''"For all you aspiring villains, remember: When victory is just a push of a button away, you are required to complicate the matter in the most ridiculous way possible."''|'''Cracked.com''', ''The 5 Most Needlessly Evil Super Villain Strategies''.}}
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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]] that lead to [[Hoist
Villains who are likely to carry the [[Villain Ball]]:
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* [[Cruel Mercy]]
* [[The Dog Bites Back]]
* [[Hoist
* [[Humiliation Conga]]
* [[Karmic Death]]
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== Anime & Manga ==
* Light in ''[[
** He kills "L" out of spite for calling him a criminal, leading to L knowing exactly where he is
** He kills the FBI agent, unknown that the agent already came to believe that Light was innocent.
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** Orochimaru had a tendency to do things that were counterproductive towards his goals for no real reason other than that [[For the Evulz|he likes being a dick]]. The best example is probably when he killed the Kazekage... after the Kazekage had agreed to attack Konoha. So Orochimaru killed off a powerful ally, pretty much just because he could.
*** Same goes for Tobi when he released the Kyuubi upon the Leaf Village. Granted, he didn't expect the Fourth Hokage to seal away his control over the Kyuubi, then seal it inside the newborn Naruto.
* ''[[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]].''
** The series do what they can in terms of justifying it; most of the [[MacGuffin]] collections can ''only'' change hands in a duel and so forth. Then there was that time one of the "Player Killers" in the Duelist Kingdom arc decided to protest his defeat by Yugi... using a pair of ''flamethrowers''. It didn't work. Yami's Mind Crush on the other hand worked just fine.
*** This is how Saiou breaks the tradition. He pretends to be playing along with this, and then while the hero is bound in the fight, he sets off [[The Plan]]. Because all he needs to do is press a button, he can do it during the match. Judai/Jaden and his duel spirits can't leave the match. Of course, he started to break it when Juudai first challenged him to the duel and Saiou's reaction was, paraphrased, "No. I've got what I need. I don't need to duel you." The only reason he did duel Juudai was because Neos manifested to keep Saiou from getting the keys to the SORA satellite. *THEN* he used the duel in order to weaken Neos, which allowed him to steal the satellite keys and give them to his nearest brainwashed flunky, who could and did run off to get the satellite going while Juudai was tied up in the duel. Saiou (or more precisely, the Light of Ruin) didn't count on Kenzan and Mizuchi, Saiou's own sister, teaming up to put a halt to things.
** Naturally, ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
* ''[[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.
* ''[[
** Garlic Jr. holds one of these in the movie ''Dead Zone''. He obtains the Dragonballs and succesfully uses them to wish for immortality, allowing him to utterly dominate the heroes in combat since they can't kill him. Instead of just killing them like this, Garlic Jr. opens a portal to the [[Phantom Zone|Dead Zone]], hoping to suck the heroes in. Of course, the heroes instead knock ''him'' into the portal, trapping him forever. At least untill an anime [[Filler]] arc where he escapes... and makes ''the exact same mistake'' again.
* The antagonists of ''[[
* 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.}}
== 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]].
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* The sheriff in ''[[First Blood]]'' could have avoided a lot of death and bloodshed had he simply let the wandering Vietnam veteran get something to eat, but instead chose to throw his weight around and treat the guy like a criminal. Not a smart thing to do to John [[Rambo]]...
** [[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 (
* 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 (
** 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.
*** Lippe didn't know he was dealing with James Bond; he was simply protecting himself.
** In another Bond film, ''[[
* 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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** 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
** 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.}}
* In ''George of the Jungle 2'', Beatrice and Lyle's plan probably would have worked if they thought of hypnotizing Junior too.
* In ''[[Drillbit Taylor]]'', {{spoiler|Filkins finally got caught only because he attempted to murder the protagonists with a samurai sword right in front of the police.}}
* In the film adaptation of ''[[James and
** [[Police Are Useless|Though the cop really doesn't do much in response to this.]]
* ''[[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.
** [[The Reveal]] regarding Doom should tell you exactly why he went for the more [[Looney Tunes]]-esque manner of taking him out as opposed to the quick way.
* In ''[[Hancock]]'', every character who refers to the title superhero as an "asshole":
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* [[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!
* [[
* 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 ''[[
* 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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* 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, elminating 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 stalinesque 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 disctricts 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 ''[[Worldwar
* [[The Dragon|Drake]] from ''[[Gone]]'' seems to be aware that hurting [[Dark Chick|Diana]] would be pushing a [[Berserk Button]] of the [[Big Bad]], [[Stalker
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* Pick a ''[[Doctor Who]]'' villain. Any ''[[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.
* ''[[
* The ''[[Captain Power and
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Peter Fleming]] (AKA Chess) hires a duo of assassins to kill [[The Cape (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 2 seconds, and he would've had the Cape by the balls.
* Brennen of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' is generally quite [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], except that he can never quite figure out that leaving Michael unattended for any length of time is a bad idea.
** Larry however seemed to have learned from this, even lampshading in the new episode that he wasn't letting Michael out of his sight because he knew he would do something to sabotage his plan.
* 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.]]
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== Theater ==
* The Wicked Witch of the West passes off the [[Villain Ball]] in ''[[Wicked (
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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
** 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
** 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
** 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
* 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 ''[[
* ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
* 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 ''[[Starcraft]]'', 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 [[Starcraft 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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== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Justice League Crisis On 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 ''[[
** 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
* In the [[Grand Finale]] of ''Transformers: [[
* 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 (
** 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 ''[[
** 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
* 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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