Basic Trope: Instead of killing the defeated/captured hero, the villain cooks him/her a meal.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz's Mooks have successfully captured Alice and Bob. His first act is to bring them into his lair and cook them a meal.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz has beaten Alice and Bob within an inch of their lives during their last encounter. He then immediately calls for medical support, performs CPR on both of them until the doctors arrive, sees that their clothes are mended, and has their families informed that they will live. When they awaken, he makes sure that they get everything they want or need prior to their next encounter.
- Downplayed: Emperor Evulz locks them in his dungeon, but makes sure they're fed and reasonably kept.
- Justified:
- Emperor Evulz follows a strict moral code that demands he show a certain level of decency even to his enemies.
- Alternatively, he's trying to warm the heroes up to him with a warm meal.
- Evulz's Empire is negotiating with The Federation for Alice and Bob's release, so killing or abusing them wouldn't make sense.
- Evulz is an Anti-Villain in a setting which operates on White-and-Grey Morality, and Evulz has no intention of doing anything too reprehensible to achieve his understandable and quite humane goals.
- Emperor Evulz is Alice and Bobs' Big Bad Friend. He doesn't want them to suffer if he can help it; since they're of no threat, he has the luxury of treating them well.
- Evulz's plan is to use the dinner as a way to intimidate/coerce/influence the heroes. Their own code of ethics prevents them from just interrupting the meal with a punch to Evulz's face.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob have captured Emperor Evulz. They make sure he's well cared for.
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Evulz rudely takes a meal from Alice and Bob.
- Subverted:
- Emperor Evulz orders the food to be undetectably poisoned.
- Alice and Bob are lead through a dining room set with a feast. Emperor Evulz tells them that the meal is for himself and his Legion of Doom to celebrate their execution.
- All the pork and beef on display is pure, deliberate torture for Alice and Bob, as Evulz knows that they suffer from Red Meat Allergy.
- Double Subverted:
- But this doesn't work and the heroes end up with a delicious meal regardless.
- The meal is to celebrate the future execution... and Alice and Bob will be joining them at dinner time as the guests of honor.
- The main table is for his mooks, while Alice and Bob are seated at the vegan/poultry table
- Parodied: Emperor Evulz treats the dinner with his arch-nemeses with as much worry and care as an overprotective mother treats her daughter's wedding day while the Mooks stare in silent disbelief.
- Zig Zagged: Said villain poisoned both their meals, with the villain revealing that he was immune to poison after the hero eats the food, who also said that he was immune. Then the villain shoots him - but then it is revealed that the gun is empty. The villain mutters under his breath, and loads the gun, before shooting it again. It is then revealed that the villain somehow slipped a bulletproof vest onto the hero without him noticing. Or did he? The hero dies... but then the villain revives him, only to stab him with a sword as soon as he wakes up.
- Averted: Emperor Evulz just shoots (or tries to shoot) Alice and Bob the moment he has them at his mercy.
- Enforced:
- The audience are fans of old-school villainy, and would probably complain if Evulz was... y'know, more pragmatic.
- Evulz is an Anti-Villain who is a Rounded Character, and allowing an episode in his own home with the heroes shows his good side. This means the writers can show off tropes which develop his character, such as showing him as Wicked Cultured, as a Chivalrous Pervert and perhaps even a Papa Wolf, all while caring for the heroes and not attacked by them.
- Lampshaded: Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?
- Invoked:
- Exploited: "Hey, you can't just KILL us! You're the villain! You're supposed to treat us like guests until we find the way to blow up your secret base or something."
- Defied: "No, I'm just going to shoot you now."
- Discussed: "Inviting your enemies to dinner when you have them at your mercy? That makes SO much sense!"
- Conversed: "You ever wonder why the Super Villain seems to need to feed the heroes he captures?" "Personally, I think he just want to show off his leet cooking skillz."
- Deconstructed: Emperor Evulz, despite the name, isn't actually evil, but everyone thinks he is. Alice and Bob, being heroes, feel it's their duty to stop whatever evil plans he has. They arrive at his scary-looking fortress amidst the desolate wasteland expecting traps or maybe a Mook army, but instead the armored guards graciously escort them inside. Evulz greets them diplomatically and invites them to a meal. Alice and Bob are eventually forced to conclude that Emperor Evulz and his kingdom of darkness really aren't evil at all and leave, telling everyone what they learned about the dangers of racism.
- Reconstructed: ...Thereby giving Evulz the chance he needs to launch an attack once everybody started thinking he was Good All Along.
Now help yourself to a bun before returning to the Main Page.
