Big Bad/Playing With
< Big Bad
Basic Trope: The one causing the conflict.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz, who rules the Land of Shadows with an Iron Fist, causes chaos and misery for all when he decides to expand his territory. This forces the Five-Man Band to rise up and defeat him.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz is so powerful that there is no conceivable way he can be defeated.
- Downplayed: Evulz is The Heavy in a Big Bad Ensemble.
- Justified: Evulz is dangerously savvy in politics, and combined with his dark sorcery, he's able to get himself into a leadership position with ease.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- Emperor Evulz's actually a figurehead for the real big bad, King Bubba the First.
- Evulz is really a Well-Intentioned Extremist and is using his status to prepare the heroes for some great challenge in the future.
- Double Subverted: In reality, King Bubba the First is just an alias of the Emperor.
- Parodied: Emperor Evulz is a total dunce who whines like a little baby when a gambit or two of his goes south.
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz's evil is kept in check by the Omniscient Council of Vagueness; in fact, he's so impaired by them that he can't even Kick the Dog without their approval.
- Or, alternatively, Evulz is actually the setting's GOOD guy, and he's fighting for freedom against a totalitarian regime. The Five-Man Band may or may not be aware of this.
- Reconstructed:
- Evulz solves the problem by killing them all.
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness is the Big Bad; Evulz is only one member of an entire organization of Big Bads who coordinate their efforts and act as advisors towards each other to prevent Bond Villain Stupidity and other fallacies.
- Zig Zagged: Emperor Evulz turns out to be a lesser threat than some of the others around him. He gets into frequent Enemy Mine situations with the Five-Man Band, but by the end of the episode, it's back to business as usual.
- Averted:
- Emperor Evulz doesn't even last half the season.
- Or the show relies entirely on the Monster of the Week format.
- Enforced: "We need a source of conflict, and nothing says conflict like an evil overlord."
- Lampshaded: "Why can't the guys with armies, big fortresses, and infinite resources ever be on our side?
- Invoked: "I'll get those five warriors, or my name isn't Emperor Evulz! And I know just how to do it: raise an evil army, and use my massive funds to rise through the political ranks as well!"
- Exploited: The heroes find an antagonist with credible goals that seem more worthy than the Monster of the Week format that they relied on last season, so they convince him to lead them all in their place.
- Defied: Emperor Evulz is actually one of several Big Bads in the series, none of whom have much influence over the Myth Arc.
- Discussed: "I just know there's someone behind all this."
- Conversed: "There's always some evil boss guy controlling all the littler evil guys."
Back to Big Bad