History Main / OffStageVillainy

* ''ComicBook/JangoFettOpenSeasons'': When Jango Fett was forced to retreat, Tor Vizsla schemes to have him and his (Jango's) men for the murder of women and children, an action we never get to witness.

* Subverted in Creator/EliezerYudkowsky's [[http://yudkowsky.net/other/fiction/the-sword-of-good The Sword of Good]], in which the in-universe DesignatedVillain, [[GodhoodSeeker the Lord of Darkness]], [[spoiler:turns out to be trying to gain Unlimited Power so that he can fix the broken world and save the countless innocents who are suffering and dieing under the existing "balance" between "good and evil". Said Lord of Darkness actually asks TheHero to touch him with the titular Sword of Good, which ''kills'' anyone with bad intentions, in the final moments before he ascends]].

* What little [[MenaceDecay mischief]] ComicStrip/{{Dennis The Menace|US}} still gets up to anymore is almost entirely reduced to this. Most of the time we don't even get to learn ''what'' he did to land himself in the time-out chair.

* Subverted in Creator/EliezerYudkowsky's [[http://yudkowsky.net/other/fiction/the-sword-of-good The Sword of Good]], in which the in-universe DesignatedVillain, the [[AGodAmI Lord of Darkness]], [[spoiler:turns out to be trying to gain Unlimited Power so that he can fix the broken world and save the countless innocents who are suffering and dieing under the existing "balance" between "good and evil". Said Lord of Darkness actually asks TheHero to touch him with the titular Sword of Good, which ''kills'' anyone with bad intentions, in the final moments before he ascends]].

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' Dimitri's status as a villain depends on one's personal perspective, and the route, but the trope applies to him on his route, Azure Moon. While he is disturbingly obsessed with taking revenge on [[spoiler:Edelgard]], enjoys killing enemy soldiers and once threatens to torture a defeated enemy to death, his significant body count during the TimeSkip, which includes civilians and even [[WouldHurtAChild children]], is often mentioned, but never shown. Said route involves his redemption, so perhaps the writers didn't want to make him too unsympathetic.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' has this in spades in-story, concerning Evangeline. She has a 600 year long history of evil and bloodshed resulting a 6 million dollar bounty and essentially acting as the boogeyman of the magic world (eat your peas, or Evangeline will come and eat you). Despite all of this, she only does a few villainous things on-screen: sucking blood from students and attacking Negi. Other than that, she regularly helps out the heroes, going so far as to train them and let them use her magical resort for vacation. It's even hinted that her evil reputation is an exaggeration, and that she acted the part so that people would leave her alone. She still constantly tries to [[NobleDemon claim she's evil]], but everyone who actually knows her claims that [[AntiVillain she's not that bad]].

** ''The Quetong Missile Mystery'': General Fong's pollution of the swamp was said to have resulted in people dying from eating fish poisoned by the missile fuel. We only see him having one boat of two people blown up as well as making a standard kill the heroes moment when his missile plot is foiled.

** ''The Quetong Missile Mystery'': General Fong's pollution of the swamp was said to have resulted in people dying from eating fish poisoned by the missile fuel. We only see him having pne boat of two people blown up as well as making a standard kill the heroes moment when his missile plot is foiled.

* Dr. Merlot, BigBad of ''VideoGame/RWBYGrimmEclipse'', who creates mutated Grimm and sends them after the main characters, but is never seen in person.

* ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'' uses this very effectively. Basil mentions that Ratigan has been committing crimes for years, and Ratigan later names a few of them his VillainSong. Also in his VillainSong, his {{Mooks}} sing, "Even meaner? You mean it? Worse than the widows and orphans you drowned?"

This is not necessarily a bad thing. If handled well, it makes the BigBad more credible, showing off the depth of the villain's effort and planning. A good villain is that much more appreciable as a threat, and the audience picks up on it. Relying ''only'' on Offstage Villainy, however, while not showing the villain do all that much evil onscreen, will turn their "bad guy" status into an InformedAttribute.

* ''Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot'':
** In the failed pilot, the titular heroine is introduced brutally arresting a drug dealer, and later tortures him for information. Trouble is, we're only given her word that he's a drug dealer, and this Wonder Woman seems like exactly the kind of person who would go off half-cocked on the flimsiest evidence.
** There is also the BigBad who is supposedly guilty of human trafficking and using her victims for drug testing. There's a memorable scene where Wonder Woman calls a press conference and levies several accusations of criminal conduct and being evil, even pointing out that ''she has no evidence to back these claims up''. Evidently she either has no idea what slander is, or nobody can/will prosecute her. This is only one of her many acts of blatant criminal conduct on-screen. The heroine is essentially performing ''onstage villainy''. Any surprise this show never got off?

** Whilst Gregor "The Mountain that Rides" Clegane is one of the cruelest villains in the series, the reader only hears about the great majority of his deeds from other characters, rather than witnessing them directly (though there are often enough details included and enough reason to believe the various narrators to be reliable that it still gets the effect across, [[TropesAreNotBad showing that this trope is not inherently flawed]]).

* Any of the villains in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' are a lot more effective when not sharing screen-time with the heroes.