Line #31 PlayingWith/JokerImmunity


1	'''Basic Trope''': The BigBad will never get KilledOffForReal.
2	* '''Straight''': The vicious [[BigBad Emperor Evulz]] is always defeated by the heroic Bob and his friends, but always returns to start another EvilPlan.
3	* '''Exaggerated''':
4	** Evulz spreads death and destruction wherever he goes but all the heroes can do [[SealedEvilInACan is put him back in his can.]]
5	** Evulz returns even after [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat falling into a volcano, which gets blown up]].
6	* '''Downplayed''': Evulz is laughably petty and is ignored because there's a MonsterOfTheWeek to take care of.
7	* '''Justified''':
8	** Although it is acknowledged that killing Evulz would not necessarily be a bad thing, the heroes are a [[invoked]]LawfulGood group and firm believers in the principle ThouShaltNotKill, preferring to have faith in the courts to mete out appropriate justice.
9	** Evulz does everything in his power to make sure he doesn't stay dead, whether it be cloning, altering his own body or simply using mystical forces to later resurrect himself.
10	** Evulz is {{immortal\|ity}}. Executing him is not an option, and there's no prison capable of permanently locking him up.
11	** The Great Gremlinious confines himself to pranks, thefts, vandalism, and the like: he doesn't commit crimes that would get him executed or resist arrest in a way that would get him killed, but he's so good at escaping pursuit and breaking out of prisons that he never gets locked up for long either.
12	** There is an external force or GreaterScopeVillain that keep bringing Evulz BackFromTheDead.
13	** [[TheHero Bob]] believes that [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim If He Kills Evulz, He Will Be Just Like Him]] while Evulz is a MagnificentBastard who always gets locked up in a CardboardPrison.
14	* '''Inverted''':
15	** Every villain that appears is a one-shot MonsterOfTheWeek.
16	** Alternatively, a person on the hero's side or the hero himself will never get KilledOffForReal.
17	* '''Subverted''':
18	** After a season of tormenting the heroes from afar, Evulz is abruptly killed off in the WhamEpisode season finale...
19	** Evulz seems to show up several times after seemingly lethal fates but it turns out he was a LegacyCharacter.
20	* '''Double Subverted''':
21	** ...but it's later revealed to have been a DisneyDeath fakeout.
22	** However his mask is the real Evulz - which means he never truly dies.
23	* '''Parodied''': Bob is [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating Evulz to within an inch of his life]], but then Evulz tells him [[NoFourthWall that if he is killed, the franchise will end and all of them will lose their source of income]].
24	* '''Zig Zagged''': This being Joker Immunity, it always is.
25	* '''Averted''': After being captured and escaping twice and just as the trope looks about to take hold, in his third showdown with the heroes Evulz is defeated and killed in a climactic manner, with an appropriate level of emphasis.
26	* '''Enforced''': "We can't kill Evulz! He's far too interesting a villain, if we killed him our ratings would plummet!"
27	* '''Lampshaded''':
28	-->'''Evulz''': "How am I not dead by now?"
29	** or
30	-->'''Evulz''': "It won't matter what you do to me. Arrest me, crucify me, I swear to you I'll be back. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Every. Single. Time.]]"
31	** or
32	--> '''Evulz''': "AsLongAsThereIsEvil I'll keep coming back!"
33	** or
34	--> '''Bob''': "Dude! [[WhyWontYouDie We’ve killed you, like, 5 times! Stay down!]]”
35	* '''Invoked''': Evulz strives to become literally [[VetinariJobSecurity too important to his society's function]] for any of the good guys to kill him without dire consequences.
36	** Evulz decides to link himself to a CosmicKeystone that will destroy the world if he dies - ensuring that he won't be killed.
37	* '''Exploited''': Evulz gains enough [[MediumAwareness Medium Awareness]] to know that he'll just come back from whatever Bob throws at him or throws him at, so he just tries whatever hairbrained scheme he comes up with, knowing he'll live through it.
38	* '''Defied''':
39	** After his fourth defeat, Evulz is carted back to his CardboardPrison and mocks Bob for [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim his refusal to kill him]] and pointing out they'll keep doing this forever, at which point [[AntiHero Alice]] shoots him in the back of the head.
40	** [[VillainousBreakdown Brought to his breaking point]] by numerous defeats, Evulz decides that enough is enough and engages in a LastVillainStand against the heroes.
41	* '''Discussed''': "You know, killing him would probably prevent a ''lot'' of collateral damage. Sometimes I wonder why we let him live."
42	* '''Conversed''': "You know, it's been years and this guy keeps coming back, after all the stuff that's happened." "I guess the show wouldn't be the same without the bad guy."
43	* '''Implied''': A one-shot story introduces the hero and Evulz, mentioning that they have fought many times. In the end of the story, Evulz is defeated and seemingly killed but the hero firmly believes he'll return, implying that this sort of thing is typical.
44	* '''Deconstructed''':
45	** Emperor Evulz coming back every time he is defeated leads to everything ranging from rage to despair to frustration on the part of those that stopped him the last time. The {{muggles}} also question the ability of the heroes to truly put him down.
46	** Evulz revels in his semi-immortality, [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin until he realises he can't WIN either]], and [[StatusQuoIsGod that he's therefore stuck in a stalemate:]] [[FateWorseThanDeath he will never die, but will never achieve his goals either.]]
47	* '''Reconstructed''':
48	** It is revealed that if Emperor Evulz is killed, [[EvilPowerVacuum a villain far more evil would take his place and everything would get much worse]]. The heroes are then celebrated for stopping Evulz's plans without killing him.
49	** Emperor Evulz, [[CardCarryingVillain as his hamtastic name suggests]], was only in it ForTheEvulz anyway: as far as he's concerned, being locked in [[SealedEvilInADuel a loop of eternal conflict with no finale]] is [[WarriorHeaven his equivalent to heaven]], [[BloodKnight so he's already won.]]
50	* '''Intended Audience Reaction''':
51	** The fact that Evulz' come back after being caught so many times is, in fact, one of the warning signs that he's working for or with somebody with a great deal of political power.
52	** Alternately, the reason he comes back from so many NoOneCouldHaveSurvivedThat events is eventually revealed to be that he's not actually entirely human.
53	* '''Played for Laughs''': Evulz is an IneffectualSympatheticVillain who never does any real damage and is treated by the heroes as little more than a nuisance. "Same time next week?"
54	* '''Played for Drama''': The heroes' inability or unwillingness to kill Evulz results in many deaths and a severe loss of morale.
55	* '''Played for Horror''': Evulz' constant rampages cause thousands of deaths, trying to arrest him only makes him escalate once [[CardboardPrison he escapes]], trying to kill him not only [[BackFromTheDead never truly works]] but only leads to more deaths as [[DeadMansSwitch measures he put in place for retaliation in case this happens]] activate and Evulz will get ''[[ColdBloodedTorture very]]'' personal with the killer the moment he comes back [[MakeAnExampleOfThem to teach everybody else a lesson]] and it's made constantly clear that, one way or another, he will outlive everybody else in the cast. [[HeroicBSOD Mental breakdowns]] occur as a result, more often sooner than later.
56	----
57	Back to JokerImmunity.

Context PlayingWith / JokerImmunity