Basic Trope: A villain's lair falls apart after they get defeated.
- Straight: When Hiro's party defeats Emperor Evulz, his castle starts collapsing.
- Exaggerated:
- Every time Hiro's party defeats a villain, their lair will collapse.
- Every building in Emperor Evulz' empire start to collapse after his defeat.
- Emperor Evulz makes sure that when he's defeated, the Earth will explode, if not the entire universe.
- Downplayed: When Emperor Evulz is defeated, some parts of his castle fall down, but not the entire castle.
- Justified:
- During the battle between Bob's party and Emperor Evulz, both sides have inadvertently caused damage the castle to the point it was about to collapse.
- Emperor Evulz is the castle, or has his life force connected to it in some way, meaning that when he's destroyed, so is the castle.
- Emperor Evulz rigged his castle with a Self-Destruct Mechanism as a way of Taking You with Me when the heroes defeat him.
- Inverted:
- Hiro's party defeats Emperor Evulz on the ruins of his castle, which magically repairs itself after he's defeated.
- Emperor Evulz attacks the Hero's party on their own castle, which is destroyed as a result.
- Subverted:
- Emperor Evulz's castle starts to collapse, but then magically repairs itself.
- Emperor Evulz's castle was originally the good king's castle, which he hijacked and turned into his own evil lair. When Hiro's party defeats him, the castle looks like it's collapsing, but it actually turns back into the king's castle.
- Double Subverted: ...But then the king's castle starts to collapse.
- Parodied: When Hiro's party defeats Emperor Evulz, Hiro looks at his wrist watch and tries to calculate the time it will take for it to collapse.
- Zig-Zagged: Emperor Evulz has installed a Self-Destruct Mechanism in his castle, but it only has a 50/50 chance to activate after he's defeated.
- Averted:
- Emperor Evulz's castle stays intact after his defeat.
- Hiro's party doesn't fight Emperor Evulz in his castle.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "Why is this castle collapsing? We attacked Emperor Evulz, not the castle itself!"
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz rigs the castle with explosives that will activate after his defeat, so he could avenge the heroes even after his death.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz notices that the castle is about to collapse, so in his dying moments, he uses his magical staff to make a boulder fall from the ceiling, trapping the heroes in his collapsing lair.
- Defied: Hiro notices that Emperor Evulz's castle is about to collapse and tries to use his magic powers to stop it from happening.
- Discussed: "Watch out! We've got to make sure that this castle isn't about to collapse when we defeat Emperor Evulz!"
- Conversed: "Usually when the heroes fight the villain, the villain's lair will suddenly start to collapse".
- Deconstructed: Emperor Evulz will gain nothing from having his castle collapse, even if it involves the heroes getting killed, as they've killed him already.
- Reconstructed: General Drake is outside of the castle, so he survives and becomes the new Emperor.
- Played for Drama:
- While Hiro's party escapes the collapsing castle, his four companions escape the castle, but Hiro is still trapped inside.
- Alternatively, all of the heroes are trapped inside the castle.
- Played for Horror: Hiro is trapped in the collapsing castle and dies when he's crushed by a boulder.
Back to Collapsing Lair.
