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1[[quoteright:319:[[VideoGame/{{Bomberman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bomberman_arcade_story.png]]]]
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3->''"That's the problem with heroes, really. Their only purpose in life is to thwart others. They make no plans, develop no strategies. They react instead of act. Without villains, heroes would stagnate. Without heroes, villains would be running the world. Heroes have morals. Villains have work ethic."''
4-->-- '''Narration''' from ''[[Comicbook/TheLastAvengersStory The Last Avengers Story]]''
5
6An odd fact about the nature of [[SlidingScaleOfProactiveness initiative]] in fiction: If somebody has a [[ThePlan plan]] at the start of the story, that character is [[AmbitionIsEvil probably a villain]].
7
8There are several reasons why this trend exists:
9# A villain, in order to be threatening, [[EvilPlan must want something, and have some chance of getting it.]]
10# Most heroes are [[{{Protectorate}} protectors]] of some kind (cops, doctors, firefighters [in police procedurals and emergency dramas], or the parents of children who are being threatened by some [possibly supernatural] evil) and the villain's plans are a threat to the hero's {{Protectorate}}, thus making it impossible for them to be unusually proactive before the story starts.
11# If the villain doesn't do anything, the audience is entirely within its rights to think that this is a case of OrcusOnHisThrone, which is frequently felt to be a bad thing.
12# It's easier to write another story (and given that much fiction nowadays is in some form serialized) if the hero is not the one responsible for everything happening. Less important in one offs.
13# TheHeavy is in full play here, as well; and one of the few ways to make a smart villain appear effective is to have him be a [[TheChessmaster successful schemer]].
14# A sympathetic villain may be proactive for a good reason, even if their ways of going about it are less than heroic; for example, they may be trying to [[AlwaysABiggerFish stop something]] or [[GreaterScopeVillain someone much more dangerous than them]], or have uncovered a plot or prophecy which requires SavingTheWorld to stop, and believe that they would have the best chance of succeeding, devise their own counter-plan to stop the greater threat. The heroes are alerted to the antagonist and his or her forces when they put this plan into action, setting off a pair of duelling plot threads that will eventually come together.
15# If the hero is proactive about his situation, then the Status Quo will, in most situations, eventually change, which is frequently banned under StatusQuoIsGod.
16# If the hero actively opposes the villain before the latter has done anything evil, all the audience sees is a DesignatedHero harassing a DesignatedVillain for no reason. Less of a problem for running series where the villain earned his reputation in previous stories, though that can be seen as a belated heroic reaction to the villain's past actions. Alternatively, this dynamic may be more troubling, as it can be a symptom of SeasonalRot, where writers struggling for ideas may turn to simply having the hero pick on a long-suffering character who doesn't really deserve it as a means to drum up a conflict that might interest viewers.
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18The opposite of this, HeroesActVillainsHinder, comes from stories centering on the actions or emotions of the hero:
19* The VillainProtagonist, obviously because they are the ones with the EvilPlan but this can vary.
20** They may be against the HeroAntagonist which is this trope [[PerspectiveFlip from a different viewpoint]].
21** A BigBad who is EvilerThanThou may show up which means that both TheProtagonist and TheAntagonist can be proactive AND reactive. This can result in a GambitPileup towards the end of the story as both character's schemes come to a climactic, and sometimes catastrophic, resolution.
22* Variations on ToBeAMaster which require the hero to go beat up the other masters to claim the title. A variation in that the "villains" are not necessarily evil, and may simply be fellow competitors who want the same title the hero does (with TheRival as the chief antagonist).
23* Some forms of TheQuest, like "Hey, I found a treasure map!"
24* {{Comedy}}
25* SliceOfLife
26* {{Romance}}
27* RagsToRiches
28* GreatEscape (though it can also be considered a reaction to being imprisoned)
29* PerpetualPoverty
30* Any story set in a VillainWorld where TheBadGuyWins and the hero must reverse this outcome.
31* SnowballingThreat
32
33'''This trope is much too broad for examples. Try the subtropes instead.'''

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