Villain Exit Stage Left: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Daredevil]]'' #17, the Masked Marauder slips away from view long enough to beat up a security guard and steal his uniform, escaping capture to menace New York another day.

* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons|The Simpsons Comic]]'': Bart and Lisa have just survived a run-in with Sideshow Bob, Kang and Kodos. Bob sees a helicopter with a rope-ladder hanging from it and assumes his henchmen have prepared his escape. He gives the standard "We shall meet again" speech and flees - only to realise something:

'''Wiggum''': Looks like our new "hands-off" approach to fighting crime is working. }}

* Quite often, the characters in ''[[The A-Team]]'' are content at shooting at their enemies' feet until they run away, only forcing the surrender of the main boss. The opposite is also noted with the army.

* Invoked in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'':

* In ''[[Community]]'' after Mr. Rad accidentally confesses onstage to killing the previous glee club he gets away by shouting "[[Look a Distraction|Look! Kings of Leon!]]" and running off...stage left. No one tries to chase him, although to be fair, none of them are exactly law enforcement.

* In ''[[Danger 5]]'', [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] escapes from Danger 5's [[A-Team Firing]] via [[Super Window Jump]] ([[Stock Footage|the same window every time]]) [[Once an Episode]].

* Present in most ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' titles, especially when Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is the main (and only) boss. Every time you defeat him, he'd come back again in a bigger and sometimes-more-dangerous mecha to menace Sonic again and again.

** As is Captain Whisker ([[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|robot pirate]] from ''[[Sonic Rush Series]] Adventure'' for those not in-the-know). As the cut scenes are just character art and text on a background, they didn't have to explain ''how'' this was possible, and so the phrase "he got away again!" and variants thereof were used too many times for me to bother counting. This is also repeatedly [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]]:

Blaze: ''Those guys just will not sit still!'' }}

* Archer vs Caster in ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]: Unlimited Blade Works''. To be fair, Shirou [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls him on it]], and Archer has at least three reasons for not killing her when he could, though one is obviously sarcastic reasoning.

** Averted by Shredder in The 2K3 series, but played straight by Agent Bishop.

* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode ''The Chase'' had a three-way fight between Aang, Zuko, and Azula that was joined by the rest of the main cast, minus Mai and Ty Lee. Everyone corners Azula, until she shoots Iroh, the rest of them attack her, she causes an explosion, and presumably runs off somewhere. In the [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?]] episode, we have:

'''Actor!Zuko''': Where?<br />

''(everyone turns around. Actress!Azula opens a door and walks offstage.)''<br />

* Strangely enough, it was the one-shot ''Birdman'' villains who escaped capture on a semi-regular basis, sometimes by endangering others, sometimes... just by leaving the scene really fast and letting Birdman hover there declaring to [[Non-Human Sidekick|Avenger]] that they would meet again. In the end, only one escapee villain (Vulturo) was actually defeated and arrested in a second encounter.

** This made it all the more satisfying in "The Incredible Magnatroid" when Birdman decides there's enough time left in the episode to actually prevent Metallo from escaping in a helicopter with the following immortal line:

* Happened often in ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars]]''. In many given episodes, the Maximals would manage to often push the Predacon forces back, but would rarely follow through with a full scale attack against them, often because they themselves had sustained heavy damage as well and as such would allow Megatron and his forces to flee back to their base. This is somewhat justified insofar that Maximals are supposed to be peaceful as a rule, and Optimus as a rule wants to protect his crew and return to Cybertron rather than engage in all out warfare.

* Happens in every series in ''[[Transformers]]''. Typically the reason for the Decepticons getting away in the old series was that they could fly and the Autobots couldn't, even though they could in the pilot episode. A spin on it was done in ''Transformers Armada'', where the Decepticons got away by teleporting; the episodes that revolved around getting a Minicon always had them teleporting away, regardless of whether they got it or not. This led some to some moments where they would leave even if they had the overall advantage. Although this wasn't the only Transformers series that did it, it did it the most frequently.

* [[Big Bad|Slade]] does this in the first season finale of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', after his mask gets knocked off and he's decided he's had enough. He ''does'', however, trigger his lair's self-destruct so that the Titans won't be able to follow him. The season four finale has a variation, as Slade is actually [[Enemy Mine|not really a villain at that point]] and gets flung away by [[Satan|Trigon]] from the final battle, not to be seen again. Later on, though, Robin expresses his belief that Slade survived and returned to his villainous ways.

* At the end of [[The Movie]] of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', Joker is apparently so used to this trope through the years tangling with Batman that when Terry destroys his [[Kill Sat]] control and sends the ensuing [[Death From Above]] heading right towards the Joker's hideout, his only response is:

* In one particular episode of ''Bravestar'', the hero literally threw the villain away. He threw him about a mile, into a swamp. What makes it particularly egregious was that this was an anvilicious episode about vigilantism. Right after throwing the villain away, Bravestar turns to the strawman vigilante (who has been hunting Villain all episode) and says something like "See, justice prevails!". The really, really sad part is, the vigilante agrees, and promises to mend his wicked ways.