Basic Trope: A large army is easily defeated after a leader or object is destroyed.
- Straight:
- After Bob kills Emperor Evulz, the Evulz's entire robot army shuts off.
- Evulz rules his army through fear and fear alone. Once Evulz is dead, they're free to fight for good.
- Exaggerated: The robots disintegrate into dust once Evulz is defeated.
- Downplayed:
- After Evulz dies, the robots become weak and easy to deal with.
- After Evulz dies, his minions scatter and turn to banditry. They still need to be dealt with, but they're a fraction of the threat they once were.
- Justified:
- The robots are controlled by a controller Evulz holds. Without it, they can't do anything.
- The robots are all sentient, but are cowed into Evulz's service via fear and pain. The instant Evulz dies, they no longer have a reason to keep fighting the heroes and do whatever they want instead, enjoying the freedom.
- The minions are relying on Evulz, or just a leader in general. Without him, they're completely aimless, and ripe for recruitment.
- Inverted:
- A robot army is triggered to start fighting after Evulz dies.
- The robot army is triggered to start fighting when Evulz, the heir to The Empire, is born.
- Subverted: After Bob kills Evulz, the robots pause for a second...and keep fighting.
- Double Subverted: However, after a little while, they all shut off.
- Parodied: Evulz is defeated in Rock-Paper-Scissors, causing his robots to explode spontaneously.
- Zig-Zagged: After Evulz dies, some robots continue fighting, and other robots shut off.
- Averted: Evulz's robots all keep fighting after Evulz dies, and they have to be destroyed as well.
- Enforced: The producer doesn't want the battle to continue after Evulz dies because the audience will get bored.
- Lampshaded: "Phew. I was worried we would have to actually fight those robots!"
- Invoked: Evulz is a petty egoist, and he makes sure his robot army won't outlive him.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Evulz wants his empire to win even if he dies, so he designs his robots to continue functioning without a controller.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: The battle after Evulz dies is all offscreen, but it doesn't seem like the robots were still fighting.
- Deconstructed: Evulz and his robot army turned out to be keeping a more ruthless Evil Overlord-aspirant, Leon, in check as well. After Bob kills Evulz, Leon exploits the Evil Power Vacuum and takes over his dead rival's forces.
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