History PlayingWith / VillainProtagonist

* '''Subverted''':
** The story starts of with Emperor Evulz for the first half of the book, before suddenly switching viewpoint and main-characterhood to [[TheHero Bob Badass]] instead.

* '''Deconstructed''': Having Evulz in charge does in no way lessen his villainy, causing the whole story to turn into a serious case of BlackAndGreyMorality where the distant and ineffectual heroes have no connection to the audience and the only people given care and attention are unsympathetic and evil. All the events that would normally be OffscreenVillainy in a traditional story gets described in livid detail, showcasing just how horrible villains are in such stories and how many lives get lost while the heroes tarry and go through their personal flaws and demons.
* '''Reconstructed''': When the heroes finally turn up, they turn out to be good and nice people, even as Evulz's viewpoint tries (and fails) to paint them in an unflattering light. Evulz eventually gets defeated in a traditional fight in the climax, with the final chapters being him lamenting his position from inside his TailorMadePrison and swearing eternal vengeance as goodness and light falls across the liberated land once more.

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* '''Played For Drama''': Emperor Evulz is a true CompleteMonster and does some truly horrifying things. The story treats him with every bit of reverence as deserved and does not sugarcoat any of his horrible deeds.

* '''Straight''': Bob Badguy is the protagonist of the story "Bob [[TakeOverTheWorld Takes Over The World]]", which contains ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin (of course). He acts in every way like a traditional EvilOverlord BigBad, but is the main character who narrates the story.
* '''Exaggerated''': Bob is a complete CardCarryingVillain who mercilessly and repeatedly [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]] to [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] how he's the villain of the story.
* '''Justified''': [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis The story is Bob writing down his memoirs for posterity]]: Obviously he'll not be able to use anyone but himself as the viewpoint character.
* '''Inverted''': The HeroAntagonist.

** The story starts up with Bob Badguy for the first half of the book, before suddenly switching viewpoint and main-characterhood to [[TheHero Alice]] instead.
** Bob isn't really a Villain

** It eventually switches back to Bob for the final chapters, who remains the protagonist for the rest of the book. The parts narrated by Alice [[ShaggyDogStory turn out to be unimportant in the grand scale of the story's narrative]].
** Alice is example of BaitTheDog
** Bob is an UnreliableNarrator who really is a villain but has been trying to paint himself more sympathetically.
* '''Parodied''': Bob starts the story by beating up the narrator and taking his protagonist-hood by HostileShowTakeover. The entire rest of the story concerns Bob abusing his narrator privileges to turn the narrative into a bad case of HerCodeNameWasMarySue, while the heroes try to break free from the story and boot him out of the narrator seat.
* '''Deconstructed''': Having Bob in charge does in no way lessen his villainy, causing the whole story to turn into a serious case of BlackAndGreyMorality where the distant and ineffectual heroes have no connection to the audience and the only people given care and attention are unsympathetic and evil. All the events that would normally be OffscreenVillainy in a traditional story gets described in livid detail, showcasing just how horrible villains are in such stories and how many lives get lost while the heroes tarry and go through their personal flaws and demons.
* '''Reconstructed''': When the heroes finally turn up, they turn out to be good and nice people, even as Bob's viewpoint tries (and fails) to paint them in an unflattering light. Bob eventually gets defeated in a traditional BlackAndWhiteMorality tassle in the climax, with the final chapters being him lamenting his position from inside his TailorMadePrison and swearing eternal vengeance as goodness and light falls across the liberated land once more.
* '''Zig Zagged''': The story constantly switches viewpoint characters. Bob Badguy is only one of them, and is only the protagonist ever so often.
* '''Averted''': Bob the Blessed is TheHero. The story is a standard following of his [[TheHerosJourney hero's journey]] to take down BigBad Alice [=McMalice=].
* '''Enforced''': The writer wants to make a story where the main character is a bad guy and gets defeated at the end so we can see the rise and fall of a villain, [[EvilIsCool who everyone knows are way cooler than heroes anyway]].
* '''Lampshaded''': "Admire me?! You idiots! I'm the villain of this tale!"
* '''Invoked''': The land was taken over by the Forces of Goodness long ago; what with there being no more conflicts, the only way the story can have anything to do is if it follows up-and-coming wannabe EvilOverlord Bob on his path to upsetting the status quo.
* '''Defied''': Bob begins the story by ensuring us all that he is the hero, and this will not be one of those 'follow the villain stories'.
* '''Discussed''': Bob and Alice have a discussion over the traditional narrative roles of hero and villain, and note that so far Bob has been the one to go through the traditional hero's journey even though his goal is the malign one.
* '''Conversed''': Bob and Alice are watching a show where the villain is the main character, and have the above conversation.
* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob is an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist or a HeroicComedicSociopath with a 'villanous' goal, LaughablyEvil, or a HarmlessVillain whose 'evil plan' is villainous but completely harmless.
* '''Played For Drama''': Bob is a true EvilOverlord, and does some truly horrifying things. The story treats him with every bit of reverence as deserved and does not sugarcoat any of his horrible deeds.

* '''Subverted''': The story starts up with Bob Badguy for the first half of the book, before suddenly switching viewpoint and main-characterhood to [[TheHero Alice]] instead.

* '''Double Subverted''': It eventually switches back to Bob for the final chapters, who remains the protagonist for the rest of the book. The parts narrated by Alice [[ShaggyDogStory turn out to be unimportant in the grand scale of the story's narrative]].

* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob is an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist or a HeroicSociopath with a 'villanous' goal, LaughablyEvil, or a HarmlessVillain whose 'evil plan' is villainous but completely harmless.

* '''Reconstructed''': When the heroes finally turn up, they turn out to be good and nice people, even as Bob's viewpoint tries (and fails) to paint them in an unflattering light. Bob eventually gets defeated in a traditional BlackAndWhiteMorality tassle in the climax, with the final chapters being him lamenting his position from inside his {{Oubliette}} and swearing eternal vengeance as goodness and light falls across the liberated land once more.

* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob is an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist with a 'villanous' goal, LaughablyEvil, or a HarmlessVillain whose 'evil plan' is villainous but completely harmless.

* '''Played For Laughs''': UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist or HeroicSociopath

* '''Played For Laughs''': UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist

* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob Badguy is a HarmlessVillain or a SitcomArchNemesis. The story follows his mutually ContractualGenreBlindness [[GoKartingWithBowser relationship with Angelic Alice]], where he invents some new and ridiculous EvilPlan that mildly inconveniences people in the CityOfAdventure, and Alice catches him but lets him go. As the story begins, we become privy to his latest evil plan to find out what dry-cleaner Alice uses so he can [[PokeThePoodle sabotage their dry-cleaning machines and cause all of Alice's underwear to be stained in embarrassing colours]].

* Bob isn't really a Villain

* Alice is example of BaitTheDog

* '''Inverted''': HeroAntagonist
* '''Subverted''': The story starts up with Bob Badguy for the first half of the book, before suddenly switching viewpoint and main-characterhood to Alice instead.

* '''Parodied''': Bob starts the story by beating up the narrator and taking his protagonist-hood by HostileShowTakeover. The entire rest of the story concerns Bob trying to prevent the heroes from doing the same while abusing his narrator privileges to turn the narrative into a bad case of HerCodeNameWasMarySue.

* '''Inverted''': Angelic Alice, who is the HeroAntagonist and ArchEnemy of Bob Badguy and is never the viewpoint character.

* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob Badguy is a HarmlessVillain or a SitcomArchNemesis. The story follows his mutually ContractuallyGenreBlindness [[GoKartingWithBowser relationship with Angelic Alice]], where he invents some new and ridiculous EvilPlan that mildly inconveniences people in the CityOfAdventure, and Alice catches him but lets him go. As the story begins, we become privy to his latest evil plan to find out what dry-cleaner Alice uses so he can [[PokeThePoodle sabotage their dry-cleaning machines and cause all of Alice's underwear to be stained in embarrassing colours]].

* '''Played For Laughs''': Bob Badguy is a HarmlessVillain or a SitcomArchNemesis. The story follows his mutually ContractuallyGenreBlind [[GoKartingWithBowser relationship with Angelic Alice]], where he invents some new and ridiculus EvilPlan and Alice catches him but lets him go. As the story begins, we become privy to his latest evil plan to find out what dry-cleaner Alice uses so he can [[PokeThePoodle sabotage their dry-cleaning machines and cause all of Alice's underwear to be stained in embarrassing colours]].

* '''Deconstructed''': Having Bob in charge does in no way lessen his villainy, causing the whole story to turn into a serious case of BlackAndGreyMorality where the distant and ineffectual heroes have no connection to the audience and the only people given care and attention are unsympathetic and evil.

* '''Played For Drama''': Bob is a true EvilOverlord, and does some truly horrifying things. The story treats him with every bit of reverence

'''Basic Trope''': A character who may be a villain, but is the main character of the story.
* '''Straight''': Billy will do anything to do villainous such as kicking dogs, stealing people's items, and even take over the world.
** Couldn't that be for any villain?
* '''Exaggerated''': StupidEvil Billy is a rapistpeadophilecommunist who is only "sympathetic" because of the [[SympatheticPOV camera in his head]].
** Couldn't that be for any villain?
* '''Inverted''': HeroAntagonist
* '''Subverted''': Turns out Billy is just a villain, nothing more.
** Couldn't that be for any villain?
** The POV switches and shows Billy to be a pathetic b-class movie villain.
*** Couldn't that be for any villain?
* '''Averted''': Billy is a [[TheHero standard hero]].
* '''Deconstructed''': Billy may have taken over the world, but his followers want nothing to do with him. As a result, they either leave him or kill him.
** Couldn't that be for any villain?
* '''Played for Laughs''': Billy puts a kick me sign on a kid, hits him with a slingshot, and gives him a spicy ice cream.
** Couldn't that be for any villain?
* '''Played for Drama''': Billy kills the kid's mother as retribution.
** Couldn't that be for any villain?

Back to VillainProtagonist

** Couldn't that be for any villain?

** That's not a subversion

** But that doesn't adress problems with ''the villain is the main character.''
* '''Played for Laughs''': Billy puts a kick me sign on a kid, hits him with a slingshot, and gives him a spicy ice cream.

** That's... not UpToEleven.

* '''Played for Drama''': Billy kills the kid's mother as retribution.

** The POV switches and shows Billy to be a pathetic b-class movie villain.

* '''Deconstructed''': Billy may have taken over the world, but his followers want to do nothing with him. As a result, they either leave him or kill him.