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1'''Basic Trope''': A character (usually a villain) refuses to do something horrible or does good things not out of the goodness of their heart, but because it's detrimental (or useful) to their interests.
2* '''Straight''': The city of Cort surrenders to Emperor Evulz, and he orders that the inhabitants be spared and be allowed to keep its mayor so it would give other cities the incentive to surrender.
3* '''Exaggerated''':
4** Evulz ends up [[AntiVillain doing massive amounts of good accomplishing his goals]]. After all, his troops need good roads to travel efficiently and the trade funds them, good supply of medical care and giving it away [[VillainWithGoodPublicity gets him their loyalty and demonstrates a great deal of intelligence]]. [[NominalHero Only his questionable but]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo expedient actions]] make him qualify as a villain. Without those he'd be nearly saintly.
5** EvilVersusOblivion
6* '''Downplayed''':
7** Evulz makes it clear that he would prefer to [[BreakThemByTalking break his enemies by talking]] and then [[CruelMercy let them live their misery]] but if his enemies are serving as immediate obstacles to his goals and he needs to focus on other matters, then [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim he will kill them]].
8** Evulz is an open BloodKnight, but only spares the civilians because they wouldn't be a good fight anyways.
9** Evulz gives his perceived enemies quick deaths instead of wasting time torturing them, because it's a waste of his time and torture doesn't get good information anyways.
10** Evulz is a NobleDemon because it makes himself feel better.
11** Evulz is only pragmatic to a certain extent. He tells his troops not to shot innocent bystanders, but when he sees his hated nemesis Bob, he tries to gun him down despite putting civilians at risk.
12** JerkWithAHeartOfJerk
13* '''Justified''':
14** Evulz is an AntiVillain who is disgusted by more StupidEvil antics of other villains.
15** Evulz is a VillainWithGoodPublicity and [[SlaveToPR needs to keep it that way]].
16** Evulz is a pragmatist. His society is set up around doing the extreme that needs to be done, for which most view him as evil, but he's by no means going to do anything negative just for the hell of it.
17** Evulz can only do so much evil before the civilians will either revolt or get wiped out.
18** Evulz has a [[VisionaryVillain far greater goal]].
19** Evulz just wants to avoid accusations of being a {{Hypocrite}}, so he always outright admits that he doesn’t do bad things purely out of pragmatism rather than conscience.
20** Evulz knows that if he does [[KickTheDog any needless violence or cruelty]], then [[TheDogBitesBack many people that have been mistreated by him will join his enemies]], and the civilians will refuse to support him.
21* '''Inverted''':
22** Evulz [[StupidEvil destroys the city of Cort even after they surrendered]], which makes the other cities prepare themselves to defeat Evulz when he arrives.
23** Hiro is willing to ShootTheDog if it [[PragmaticHero benefits the greater good]].
24** TheHero refuses to do a good deed because it’s “not practical”.
25** NecessarilyEvil
26* '''Subverted''':
27** Evulz claims he's only sparing the people of Cort to make other communities surrender, [[NobleDemon but it's really because he isn't as evil as he claims]].
28** Evulz appears to be ready to spare the people of Cort, then slaughters them.
29* '''Double Subverted''':
30** Evulz really was doing it for pragmatic reasons, but eventually realized that playing the part of NobleDemon would give him more leverage and decided to pretend his "real" reasons were moral all along.
31** Evulz let Cort surrender only because Evulz knew they were [[ISurrenderSuckers feigning surrender]].
32** Evulz [[EvenEvilHasStandards really does want to spare those who have already surrendered]], but also thinks that any EvilOverlord [[OnlySaneMan with a brain would do so]].
33** Slaughtering the people of Cort was an idea of one of Evulz's StupidEvil subordinates, whom Evulz executes.
34* '''Parodied''': Evulz never actually does anything evil at all, and in fact donates regularly to charity and helps old ladies cross the street, but keeps up with the EvilGloating as he does so, gleefully pointing out to anyone who will listen how these acts of kindness ''totally'' further his evil goals.
35* '''Zig Zagged''':
36** It's hard to tell whether or not Evulz is acting out of pragmatism or [[NobleDemon genuine goodness]], with plenty of evidence for both.
37** Evulz is highly intelligent, but he has a [[HairTriggerTemper bad temper]] that [[KickTheDog drives him to acts of]] StupidEvil. As such, how pragmatic his plans are depends on how frustrated and overly sadistic he's feeling today.
38** Sometimes Evulz has a selfish motivation to do good deeds, and sometimes he [[NobleDemon doesn’t]].
39* '''Averted''':
40** Evulz does unspeakably malicious things ForTheEvulz.
41** Evulz is a StupidEvil CardCarryingVillain.
42** Alternatively: [[AntiVillain Evulz]] is [[EvenEvilHasStandards genuinely disgusted by some of the more heinous acts other villains have taken.]]
43* '''Enforced''': The fandom is infamous for tearing apart StupidEvil. The executives know their audience well, affecting the plot accordingly.
44* '''Lampshaded''': "Mr. Mayor, I may be a brutal conqueror, but I'm not a fool".
45* '''Invoked''': Evulz has studied the behaviors of other villains to see where they went wrong, and resolves not to make any of their mistakes.
46* '''Exploited''':
47** When the heroes point out Evulz [[CutLexLuthorACheck could make more money by going legitimate]], he does so, and ceases to be a threat to the heroes.
48** Evulz's [[TheGoodChancellor advisor]] appeals to his sense of practicality to restrain him from crossing the MoralEventHorizon.
49* '''Defied''': [[AxCrazy Evulz is a crazed, sadistic lunatic]] [[TheMadHatter who ''loves'' being a crazed, sadistic lunatic.]] When told that he could be pragmatic in sparing them, he acknowledges that he could be; he's just choosing not to be.
50* '''Discussed''': "One reason Evulz is so dangerous is because he doesn't do evil deeds when there's no point".
51* '''Conversed''': "''Finally'', a movie villain who acts rational!"
52* '''Deconstructed''':
53** Evulz is such a SlaveToPR, and the other villains mock him for it.
54** Evulz being so willing to spare people who aren't a threat to him makes him seen as a lesser threat than someone who will commit genocide.
55** Even after all of the pragmatic or even helpful things Evulz does, the people he conquers still hate his guts and treat him as a tyrannical evil overlord because he still did something pretty evil.
56** Because of his [[FalselyReformedVillain false reformation]], when Evulz [[HeelFaceTurn finally turns good for real]], [[ReformedButRejected nobody believes him and suspects it’s just another plot]].
57* '''Reconstructed''':
58** Evulz has shown that he's EvilerThanThou and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech verbally rips through]] the rest of them on how StupidEvil {{Card Carrying Villain}}y is, [[DoWrongRight proving that he's closer to his goals than anyone else]].
59** Not being StupidEvil means that he willingly follows the "unwritten rules" of the setting--rules that prevent anybody who considers himself "good" from applying ThisMeansWar and go full-on "Scorched Earth" on his organization. As such, every decision he's done follows a tenet of ultimate pragmatism: his assured continuous survival. And the fact that he continues to live on--maybe even becoming the SeriesMascot or an EnsembleDarkhorse--where every other villain buys the farm from the KnightTemplar hordes is all the gloating he needs.
60** Evulz' conquering is matched with an equal amount of legislation, bringing much-needed leadership and reform to conquered lands. Evulz is seen as a WellIntentionedExtremist at worst and TheGoodKing at best, even though all his leadership was merely in the interest of more power.
61* '''Played For Laughs''': Evulz is essentially a humanitarian, but the heroes considered him a criminal mastermind by shouting "[[YouMonster That monster,]] how dare he feed those starving orphans and build houses for the homeless!"
62* '''Played For Drama''': Because of how cunning Evulz is, and because he doesn't play the VillainBall, the heroes have a hard time facing him without ruining their own image as well.
63* '''Played For Horror''': There is some spooky juxtaposition between the "good" things Evulz does for the sake of pragmatism and the horrifying things he does for the sake of evil, and his apparently delusional belief that these things balance out his cosmic karma checkbook, thus showing that the most competent villain around is an unbalanced lunatic.
64* '''Implied''': Evulz is not as evil as he could be, but it is never explained why.
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66The only reason I'm creating a link back to PragmaticVillainy is that it serves my purposes.
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68%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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