History Main / SelfDisposingVillain

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'', right after nearly falling to his death, BigBad Claude Frollo apparently thinks it's a good idea to ''not'' go to the balcony and to instead try to kill the heroes while precariously perched on top of a small gargoyle probably too thin to support a full grown-up man's weight, so [[DisneyVillainDeath he falls down with the gargoyle after it breaks]]. Although MaybeMagicMaybeMundane applies, as it's ambiguous whether the gargoyle broke because of Frollo's weight (and it coming to life was Frollo's hallucination or not), making his death self-disposing all the way through, or if a superior being (either God or the cathedral) made sure that the villain would get what he deserved.

* In one infamous example on ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyQuest'', General Fong, [[YouHaveFailedMe angered with one of his men]] for allowing the Quests to escape, [[BadBoss shoots him in a rage]]. Unfortunately, the mook's body then collapses onto a PlungerDetonator for a SeaMine Fong's boat [[HoistByHisOwnPetard was directly over]].

* 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 contiuously 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.

* [[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.

** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', the Red Skull accidentally teleports himself to Vormir when he tries to handle the Tesseract.

* In ''Videogame/Mother3'', Porky seals himself in the Absolutely Safe Capsule with no escape, yet he is now ageless and cannot die and must remain for eternity. FateWorseThanDeath indeed. Also a "[[TearJerker tragic]]" example with the Masked Man, whom the protagonist cannot even attack against, uses attacks that the Franklin Badge reflects to [[ICanNotSelfTerminate break]] [[DyingAsYourself Free]].

* In Marvel's original ''ComicBook/DakotaNorth'' solo series, the villainous Sheik Ibn Bheik is seeking a stolen sample of nerve gas, hidden inside a pen. After he's unconscious and presumed dead, one of his minions claims it. When the Sheik recovers, they scuffle over the pen, it breaks and the gas kills both of them.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** The original ComicBook/GreenGoblin (who was especially dangerous because he knew who Spidey was) getting impaled by his own glider in ASM #122. (He got better, later).
** The Jackal (Miles Warren) having a meltdown after being unmasked by Gwen Stacy's clone and ending up being killed (along with the Spider-Man clone) by his own bomb at the ending of the original Clone Saga in ASM #149. (It was not the last we saw of either).
** The burglar conveniently having a fatal heart attack in ASM #200 moments after Spider-Man took off his mask and showed him he was the nephew of the guy he murdered in ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15.
** Carrion (Professor Warren's clone), who also [[DeathBySecretIdentity inconveniently knew Spider-Man's secret]], killed by his own Spider-Amoeba in ''Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man'' #31.

* ComicBook/{{Batman}} is fond of these, especially in his earlier years. In fact, his very first villain burned himself alive! Another, more recent example is when Batman caught up to Joe Chill and told him who he was. DeathBySecretIdentity took hold and Chill went to beg for help from his cronies, telling them that Batman was after him due to having killed his parents. The other criminals were [[{{Understatement}} not pleased]] to hear that Chill was responsible for Batman's creation.
* The ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' villain Libra built a device that could transfer half the power of anything to the user. After successfully using it on the Justice League, he forgets his Evil Overlord List and uses it on the universe, but is unable to handle the power and dissipates across the cosmos. Darkseid eventually put him back together for ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** The Composite Superman, a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] enemy of Superman and Franchise/{{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]]''!)

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': There's a story written by Creator/DonRosa where the Beagle Boys are the main characters and decide to break into Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s money bin once again after stealing the building's original architectural plans. They carry out the scheme while the building is closed at night, but they all gradually end up trapping themselves in various situations with the remaining Beagle Boys deciding to come back for them once they've successfully carried out the heist. The comic ends with the Beagle Boys discovered by a mightily surprised Scrooge and Grandpa Beagle hearing the cops talk about this from his jail cell and muttering that his grandsons can't even beat an inanimate building.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* All of the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' films [[Film/Batman1989 since 1989]] used this trope extensively, at least [[WhatMeasureIsAMook regarding named villains]]. Batman and Robin (and later Batgirl) never, ''ever'' kill. Their opponents are beaten by falling to their deaths; either trying to escape (ComicBook/TheJoker) or trying to kill the heroes (Two Face, in two movies), killed by another villain (Schreck and The Penguin by Catwoman, Bane by a more heroic Catwoman) driven insane from overdosing on {{Phlebotinum}} (Riddler), and captured in {{Tailor Made Prison}}s (Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy). The only one who dies (mostly) by Batman's hand is the Two Face from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', but in that case, Batman was only trying to tackle him to stop him from killing a child and he fell as a result. Stretched a bit in ''Film/BatmanBegins'', where Batman refuses to deliver a killing blow to Ra's al Ghul but nonetheless leaves him to die as the derailed train on which they're riding crashes, the derailment having been caused by Jim Gordon under instruction from Batman.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Diamond and Pearl'', Cyrus, the season's antagonist, walks into a portal leading to a dimension he possessed Dialga and Palkia to create, despite the fact that the dimension was slowly vanishing due to Dialga and Palkia being released, thus killing himself. (Even if Dialga and Palkia directly destroyed the dimension sooner than it would have taken to disappear on its own)

->''(nervous laughter) "All the better! Cases are so much easier when the bad guy offs himself like that."''

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheSorcerersStone''

* A common theme in the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' films as it's more or less the lust for power that does the villain in while Indy wises up and leaves well enough alone. It has been pointed out in some movie reviews that in three out of the four films, Indy could have stayed home and let the villains destroy themselves with no negative repercussions (aside from initially rescuing his father and Marcus in the third film).

** Happens yet again in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'': the titular Dial is an artifact that allows for time travel, but only by finding specific rifts in the space-time. Nazi scientist Voller wanted to use it to go back to 1939 to usurp Adolf Hitler and ensure that Nazis win the war, but Archimedes programmed the Dial to send whoever uses it back to the Siege of Syracuse, and Voller ends up dying there.

* Happens ''twice'' to the same villain within one episode of ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero''. Raphtalia is about to kill the noble who enslaved and tortured her, but then she decides [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim If I Kill You, I Will Be Just Like You]] and spares him. Then the noble trips on his whip and falls out of the window behind him. Then it turns out that he survived that fall, and he releases a [[SealedEvilInACan monster that was sealed near his mansion]]. Then, said monster [[HoistByHisOwnPetard stomps on him]]. The audience gets the satisfaction of seeing that bastard dead, and Raphtalia gets to keep her moral high ground.

* 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 contiuously 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.

Compare DisneyVillainDeath, which oftentimes uses this trope to dispose of a villain for good while leaving the hero's hands clean. If you were looking for the trope about a literally self-disposing body, see NoBodyLeftBehind. Also contrast SelfPunishmentOverFailure, when the "punishment" is deliberately self-inflicted.

While the [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] have the decency to be [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman sufficiently inhuman]], [[FacelessMooks faceless]] and irredeemably evil that [[WhatMeasureIsAMook the heroes feel no guilt over slaying them]] (so polite!), ''human'' enemies are another story. How can Bob bring [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Cleo the Necromancess]] to justice when "stealing chunks of [[AnatomyOfTheSoul soul anatomy]] from innocent bystanders" is nowhere in ''Black's Law Dictionary''? And even if a high-ranking member of the police is a SecretKeeper who can [[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans get Cleo jailed for other charges]], [[CardboardPrison what prison could hold her?]] Then there are the villains who are remorseless, sociopathic killers. You know that nothing but death will prevent Saul the Fingerchopper from killing again, but IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim...

* 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 [[DeathyByFallingOver tripping over his own feet, killing himself]], to [[MassOhCrap the shock of the princess and his army]], the latter of which immediately surrenders.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-11-09 Nov. 9, 2009]] Schlock is trying to subdue some rioters who locked themselves in a storeroom on the ship, so he uses his plasma cannons to cut through the bulkhead. One of the rioters throws a hand grenade at the hole Schlock made, but it misses and bounces off the wall before Schlock can even enter. This lands back on them and explodes. Turns out they were carrying antimatter which also explodes, incinerating all of them. ''Schlock didn't have to do anything.'' He thinks they did it to themselves on purpose, as he tells his crew-mate Elf, "They committed suicide when they saw me coming."

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'': Despite Lightning losing the big race at the end of the movie in order to help [[HonorBeforeReason The King finish his last race]], [[JerkJock Chick Hicks]] already ruined his own racing career after his heinous actions during the race, which included causing King to get into a violent crash [[SoreLoser purely because he didn't want to lose to him again.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' this is The Joker's fate, who decides to stab Batman rather than allow him to administer the cure for his illness. As the Joker lies dying from his own stupidity, Batman points out the absurdity of this, causing the Joker to admit that it's actually sorta funny.

* Part of the plot of ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' involves this trope. When the universe was just the RomanceGame ''[[FictionalVideoGame Fortune Lover]]'', Catarina Claes' sense of entitlement and resentment over anyone who would break her control (such as [[PlayerCharacter Maria]]) not only alienated her from most characters but ultimately becomes her undoing, resulting in either her exile or death without Maria (i.e. the player) actually having to do anything to Catarina herself. In the story proper, however, Catarina wakes up to her PastLifeMemories of a {{Joshikousei}} of TheNewTens Japan who played ''Fortune Lover'' hours before her death...

* Manga/HappySugarLife: This is how VillainProtagonist Satou Matsuzaka meets her end. Her attempt to cover for Shouko's murder was perfect in execution, only for her to ruin it herself by going back for her missing wedding ring. This led to a series of events that ends with Satou jumping off the burning apartment's roof and dying when she shields Shio from the fall.