Basic Trope: A character who heralds a work or series becoming darker.
- Straight: In a work that has previously been about the wacky hijinks of a small group of friends in a crazy world, Emperor Evulz kills the lovable Alice and curbstomps the heroes shortly after his entrance. From then on, the series becomes a dark drama as the heroes fight to avenge Alice.
- Exaggerated:
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show.
- Emperor Evulz is a Complete Monster.
- Evulz is a genocidal Shadow Dictator wearing a trenchcoat made out of the skin of his own soldiers. He's supposed to be a minor antagonist in a Preschool Show and ends up scarring the letter A for life.
- Downplayed:
- Emperor Evulz and his machinations were always in the background, often having to deal with Alice's pet platypus who died alongside her; he's just now taken center stage.
- Emperor Evulz is either a Magnificent Bastard or The Comically Serious, but nonetheless remains a serious threat to the heroes.
- Justified:
- Because of how peaceful the world was until then, the protagonists were unprepared to face serious threats, and as a result are completely frightened and devastated by the arrival of the unbelievably heinous and cruel Emperor Evulz. Before Evulz came along, the heroes only had to deal with minor problems that would only cause minor inconvenience if not solved. But now that Emperor Evulz is the antagonist, the heroes face problems as serious as genocide and corruption.
- Emperor Evulz is a trained assassin, which means his duty is killing heroes, it's even implied that Evulz was being raised specifically to do so.
- Emperor Evulz is a Necromancer, which means not only he can kill, he can doom the afterlife and turn the others into undead.
- Emperor Evulz is exceptionally cunning. His wisdom and insight poses a serious threat to the story's Idiot Hero.
- Emperor Evulz is an Eldritch Abomination.
- Emperor Evulz is a character from a far more serious franchise which happened to Crossover with a far more light-hearted one.
- Emperor Evulz is an Invincible Villain. Alice managing to make fun of him would technically count as a victory, so he makes sure it does not happens.
- Inverted:
- A Magical Girlfriend arrives to help make the work Lighter and Softer.
- Dr. Von Freakenstein, an unusually wacky villain, appears to take Emperor Evulz's place as the main antagonist.
- Plucky Comic Relief
- Laughably Evil
- Shoo Out the Clowns
- Harmless Villain
- Role-Inverted: Pierre "defeats" the villains in the most brutal way possible, something the other heroes weren't willing to do.
- Subverted:
- Emperor Evulz arrives and kills Alice. The heroes obliterate him with some Beyond Awesome skills and even resurrect Alice.
- Emperor Evulz attempts to off Alice. She responds with giant strawberry-shaped fireball. Back to the hijinks!
- Evulz's entire existence was All Just a Prank set up by David and Alice.
- Double Subverted:
- It turns out that Emperor Evulz was just the vanguard for a far greater threat.
- Evulz survives.
- Evulz turns out to be Real After All.
- Parodied:
- Emperor Evulz is completely nuts; the work grows darker, but only humor-wise.
- Evulz first act of on-screen villainy is to chase down Comedy's Anthropomorphic Personification and murder it in cold blood.
- The work goes from a Random Events Plot to a serious plot filled with (intentional) Wangst.
- Emperor Evulz is a Black Knight sent by an aardvark.
- Zig Zagged: Emperor Evulz varies from being a pathetic Big Bad Wannabe to an outright monster Depending on the Writer.
- Averted: Emperor Evulz is just another Harmless Villain.
- Enforced: Executive Meddling proposed that the show gets high ratings if it had Cerebus Syndrome. Now, if there was only a character who could pull this off...
- Lampshaded: "Whoa, Emperor Evulz is cold. This Is Gonna Suck."
- Invoked: A character who was once a Harmless Villain releases Emperor Evulz from his imprisonment to spite the main characters.
- Exploited: A Harmless Villain uses Emperor Evulz's appearance and major threat level to distract away from his petty crimes.
- Defied: Someone in the team (most likely The Big Guy Clay) was ready for someone like Emperor Evulz to arrive.
- Discussed: "Man, that Emperor Evulz is a major buzzkill."
- Conversed: "Once Emperor Evulz showed up and killed Alice mid-friendship speech, you could tell things are going to be different."
- Deconstructed: Because the world they live in hasn't seen anyone like Emperor Evulz before, they don't know how to react. Some panic, some Go Mad from the Revelation, and some become dark and edgy themselves during the long struggle against him.
- Reconstructed: Emperor Evulz's arrival is a taste of the reality of life outside the show's Sugar Bowl. The main characters understand this, know better than to panic, and end up leading the struggle against him.
Back to Knight of Cerebus. You know, the site was a lot more playful before that trope came around...
