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Author: Kiddo

Jul 18th 2012 at 8:07:16 AM

Waterlily: Main problem with that one is that it sounds like it can fit more easily into Disproportionate Retribution.

When I read this trope my interpretation of it was that the "Villainy" is poorly thought out in story, or doesn't actually make any sense. While For The Evulz tends to be assumed in most cases of normal fiction where this happens and this kind of thing is never delved into, the reason I brought up Apocalyptic Fiction is because it sticks out like a sore thumb when you're reading about the supposed representatives of real-life nations, This would also apply pretty well to characters who would gladly Kick the Dog a few times but also have well-established a complex personalities and nuances.

Probably the best laconic I could think would be "A character acts out-of-character just to provide a villain in the story".

Probably some other good examples would be in early comic books or early comic book adaptations. Like, say, Magneto doing -anything- anti-semetic or causing Holocaust imagery.
How many times did you see:

1) A bad-guy-team-up where logically the villains would hate each other. (Probably a whole load of old Golden-age Superhero cartoons would have this)
2) A villain focus unusually on a certain heroic character with no apparent personal connection or anything to gain, particularly strange in a world where there's a whole load of heroes and the characters might be countries or ranks apart.
3) A villain use a certain item or weapon they absolutely wouldn't/couldn't use based on their established personality or skills.
4) A villain does a certain horrible act that violates personality traits such as Pragmatic Villainy, Not What I Signed Up For, Even Evil Has Standards, or Rape Is A Special Kind of Evil.

When you think about it, this would kinda make Derailing Love Interests a subtrope, as that trope is basically inexplicible, out-of-character jerkassness done just to establish that a certain relationship is "wrong".