| rdfs:comment | - Bond Villain Stupidity is a form of Genre Blindness commonly exhibited by villains. It occurs when a villain fails to kill the hero when he has him cornered, incapacitated, or otherwise defenseless, thus giving the hero a chance to escape and later come back to defeat the villain. It is so named because it occurs frequently in James Bond movies. A common form of Bond Villain Stupidity is to place the hero in an elaborate Death Trap from which he can escape (slow dipping mechanisms over pits of sharks, alligators, or lava are perennial favorites). If you ever asked why the villains don't just shoot him then use their resources to dispose of the body, then congratulations, you are smarter than the average megalomaniac. Also common is the inability to resist a Just Between You and Me moment b
|
| abstract | - Bond Villain Stupidity is a form of Genre Blindness commonly exhibited by villains. It occurs when a villain fails to kill the hero when he has him cornered, incapacitated, or otherwise defenseless, thus giving the hero a chance to escape and later come back to defeat the villain. It is so named because it occurs frequently in James Bond movies. A common form of Bond Villain Stupidity is to place the hero in an elaborate Death Trap from which he can escape (slow dipping mechanisms over pits of sharks, alligators, or lava are perennial favorites). If you ever asked why the villains don't just shoot him then use their resources to dispose of the body, then congratulations, you are smarter than the average megalomaniac. Also common is the inability to resist a Just Between You and Me moment before putting the hero in said death trap. Several variants of this one made the Evil Overlord List. Often includes Monologuing, accompanied by stock quotes such as:"You Have No Chance to Survive! I don't think we'll meet again... Goodbye!" If they actually expect the hero to die before their eyes, it's Prepare to Die. Objective logic aside, "mundane" kills do indeed seem to annoy audiences; see Dropped a Bridge on Him. This is so common that the Hypercompetent Sidekick pointing out the inherent flaws in this trope and suggesting a more pragmatic solution has become a trope on its own: Stating the Simple Solution. For more generalized villainous incompetence, see Villain Ball. For those villains that avert this trope, see Dangerously Genre Savvy. In all fairness however, in Real Life these deathtraps would likely have a reasonably high chance of succeeding, especially if The Hero were to fall into them again and again. Sooner or later, the Real Life James Bond would die. Horribly. Note that there are several legitimate reasons why the villain may opt to let the hero walk away:
* The villain wants the hero to join his side and would prefer not to kill him.
* The villain may just be looking for a good fight and considers the hero a Worthy Opponent, opting to keep him around for future entertainment. In some cases, the success of the scheme is actually a secondary goal to the fun of actually carrying it out.
* The villain considers killing the hero secondary to breaking his spirit via a Breaking Lecture, Forced to Watch, etc.
* Or perhaps the villain just can't bear the idea of killing the hero without flaunting his victory in the hero's face first, especially when It's Personal, such as Green-Eyed Monster or Rival Turned Evil.
* The villain is secretly manipulating the heroes into doing his bidding for him; perhaps he wants them to escape so that he can track them to their secret hideout, but it will only work if they think they've escaped on their own.
* The villain, which evil according to his own stature, is not evil enough to engage in cold-blooded murder. Examples of Bond Villain Stupidity include:
|
