History Main / SelfDisposingVillain

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'': [[spoiler:Tod, Copper and Amos can't do anything to seriously hurt him, and it takes him angrily smashing a log [[TooDumbToLive that he's standing on]] to send him falling to his death.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Discussed with a past Avatar, Kyoshi, and her defeat of Chin the Conqueror. When he tried to attack her hometown, she used her powers to split the earth and make her home an island, preventing his army from accessing it. When that happened, Chin, standing on the cliff edge, fell to his death. Aang argues that Chin's death was an accident and not really Kyoshi's fault, but Kyoshi replies that she doesn't really see the difference and takes responsibility for it regardless, and further states that if it had come to it, she ''would'' have killed Chin directly without hesitation anyway.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

** While part of the Zabi family in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' are taken out by our heroes, the rest are done in by their own hubris (and Char). Degwin Sodo Zabi is killed by his eldest son Ghiren, Ghiren is killed by his sister Kycillia and Kycillia is done in by Char.
** [[GeneralRipper Patrick Zala]] from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' shoots lowly subordinate Ray Yuki for trying to talk him out of firing [[KillSat GENESIS]] on Earth to wipe out all Natural life on Earth in a [[FantasticRacism prejudiced]] [[VillainousBreakdown fit of rage.]] Patrick's son [[TheLancer Athrun]] arrives to stop him... just in time to see Ray use the last of his breath to [[DyingMomentOfAwesome shoot Patrick]] InTheBack multiple times, resulting in Patrick's death.

** The Composite Superman, a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] enemy of Superman and ComicBook/{{Batman}}, [[SuperpowerLottery possessed all the powers]] of the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes and knowledge of the heroes' secret identities. He defeated them and demanded that they give up being heroes, and they actually considered it(!), but the powers then ''faded away'', leaving him without even the memories of ever having been a villain! (This actually happened ''[[FleetingDemographicRule twice]]''!)
** In ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor'', villain Mind-Bomber loses control of his own telekinetic blast and blows himself up; conveniently for ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, since he had just learned her secret identity.

** Carrion (Professor Warren's clone), who also [[DeathBySecretIdentity inconveniently knew Spider-Man's secret]], killed by his own Spider-Amoeba in ''ComicBook/TheSpectacularSpiderMan Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' #31.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** In ''Manga/DragonBallZ'', virtually all of Frieza's henchmen are offed by Vegeta except Bund and Vug (killed by Krillin and Gohan), a few mooks who are killed by three Nameks, Blueberry and Raspberry (who are killed by a giant crab), any who remain on Planet Frieza or travel with King Cold (killed by exploding building and Trunks, respectively), and some mooks who are killed by Frieza or Captain Ginyu, which also fits the trope.

* Parodied in ''Anime/{{Nichijou}}''. Dolph stages a rebellion of the Fey Kingdom in order to get the keys to a powerful ancient weapon. As he stalks up to the princess to force her to give him her key, however, he ends up [[DeathByFallingOver tripping over his own feet, killing himself]], to [[MassOhCrap the shock of the princess and his army]], the latter of which immediately surrenders.

* In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, fate conspires so that the heroes rarely kill their own big bads.

* In ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'' Terl is extremely self-disposing. The reason Jonnie can beat him multiple times is that Terl always tells him how to do so. And after Terl's planet explodes, the alien teleports in the fireball his planet became.

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', the giant war robot "Metal Face" serves as the ArchEnemy for Shulk and most of his party for much of the game's first act, having killed countless innocent people including Shulk's ChildhoodFriend Fiora. But later on, Metal Face is revealed to actually be a HumongousMecha piloted by [[HumansByAnyOtherName a fellow homs]] named Mumkhar. After Mumkhar's final defeat, Shulk finds himself unable to take his life (reasoning that [[ThouShaltNotKill killing a sentient being]] is wrong, even if they're [[AssholeVictim a traitorous, murderous sociopath]]) and actually [[GoThroughMe stands in the way]] of Dunban (Fiora's brother and Mumkhar's [[WeUsedToBeFriends former comrade]]) when the latter tries to kill him instead. Mumkhar takes this opportunity [[ISurrenderSuckers to fire a blast at the heroes,]] but he misses and hits a spire that falls down and impales him and pins him to a falling platform, killing him.
* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', an already struggling Mobius O and P find out the hard way that staying in Interlink for too long causes an Annihilation Event. Noah and Mio barely have enough time to break the cliff below them in order to get them far enough that the Ouroboros aren't caught in the blast. Mobius D and J meet the same fate when Joran has a HeelFaceTurn and overloads the the Interlink in order take both him and D out.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' Lord Raptor ends up accidentally killing himself in his character ending by absorbing too much of [[DarkMessiah Jedah's]] dark power, resulting in him blowing up.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** In the episode ''Sneak Peek'', Terry and Bruce figure out the VillainOfTheWeek, a reporter who can somehow eavesdrop on even the most secure locations without being detected, is using technology that allows him to pass through walls in order to do it. However, there's not really anything they can do about it, because he's not technically committed any actual crimes (that they knew of at the time...). Even when the reporter discovers that Terry is Batman (and Bruce ''was'' Batman) and says he's going to reveal it to the world, they can't really stop him. Fortunately for them, the device that allowed the reporter (which it turns out he stole and killed the creator of) to become intangible is unstable and turns him permanently and uncontrollable intangible, causing him to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath fall to the centre of the Earth]].

** In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', Surtur destroys himself in the process of destroying Asgard and the actual BigBad that the heroes [[AlwaysABiggerFish summoned him]] to destroy. That the heroes had evacuated Asgard beforehand, so his TakingYouWithMe attack doesn't actually take anyone with him other than said BigBad doesn't particularly seem to bother him.

* A Literature/HerculePoirot sketch on ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' had the detective calling the SummationGathering and eventually pointing out that the perpetrator is the woman who, over the course of the scene, has inexplicably [[EvilIsSexy got sexier]], [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking started smoking]] and started speaking in an "evil voice". Ultimately she shoots herself rather than go to jail. "It is better zis way: some courts, zey do not accept ze evil voice as evidence."

* The 95th issue of ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMystery'' had Thor fight a scientist named Professor Zaxton, who used an invention of his to create an EvilKnockoff of Thor. The story ends with Zaxton causing his own demise when he [[DisneyVillainDeath falls to his death trying to reach for his invention]], which destroys the machine in the process, but not without first creating [[MorallySuperiorCopy a benevolent clone of Zaxton]] who subsequently takes the deceased scientist's place.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'''s Dr. Drakken has done this to himself;

** In "Rappin' Drakken", he creates mind-control shampoo and tries to sell it in stores. Because of the ominous tagline ("Lather, Rinse, Obey") and the fact that the bottles have his face on, nobody buys the shampoo. Kim chuckles about Drakken's latest scheme being "Self-foiling" and the remainder of the episode is the mad scientist trying to shill his product on a TV song contest.

* In ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus'', when Zim teleports Earth into the path of the Irken mothership while inadvertently opening the titular wormhole, the Tall Ones are only interested in getting the Earth out of their way and completely ignore the Florpus, [[OnlySaneMan even as one of Irkins on the bridge continuously tries to warn them of the danger it presents]], but [[IgnoredExpert keeps getting blown off]]. This ends up resulting in the Irkin flagship flying straight into the Florpus, trapping the Irkin Armada in its void.

* In ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus'', when Zim teleports Earth into the path of the Irkin mothership while inadvertently opening the titular wormhole, the Tall Ones are only interested in getting the Earth out of their way and completely ignore the Florpus, [[OnlySaneMan even as one of Irkins on the bridge continuously tries to warn them of the danger it presents]], but [[IgnoredExpert keeps getting blown off]]. This ends up resulting in the Irkin flagship flying straight into the Florpus, trapping the Irkin Armada in its void.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', Lord Shen rejects Po’s offer of mercy and viciously attacks him, however his blades cut the ropes holding up his cannon, and it winds up falling on and crushing him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'' the final battle with Clayton sees him wrapped up in vines, and in a rage, he begins to hack himself loose with a machete, not noticing the vine wrapped snugly around his neck. When Clayton cuts the last vine holding him up, he falls through the trees until the vine runs out of slack, [[NeckSnap breaking his own neck]] and suffering a FamilyUnfriendlyDeath.