History Main / BondVillainStupidity

** In the third novel, Peterson's henchman clubs Drummond and brings him, unconscious, to Peterson. When Peterson muses that Drummond needs to be killed, the henchman points out that they might as well do it there and then. Peterson, who by now has a highly personal grudge against Drummond, rejects the idea out of hand. Which gives Drummond time to escape, and inflict some nasty injuries on the henchman too.

** In the third novel, In the third book Peterson's henchman clubs Drummond and brings him, unconscious, to Peterson. When Peterson muses that Drummond needs to be killed, the henchman points out that they might as well do it there and then. Peterson, who by now has a highly personal grudge against Drummond, rejects the idea out of hand. Which gives Drummond time to escape, and inflict some nasty injuries on the henchman too.

* ''Literature/BulldogDrummond'' (1920): Toward the end of the novel, Drummond is captured by the BigBadDuumvirate. Peterson points out that he has a talent for getting out of hopeless situations, and is all for killing him on the spot, but Lakington refuses to give him a quick and simple death, and insists on keeping him alive until they have time to subject him to something painful and drawn-out. Which of course gives Drummond time to escape.

* Almost averted again in ''Film/LicenceToKill'' as the villain doesn't find out Bond's not on his side 'till very near the end, and when he does put Bond into his death trap he sticks around to watch until he's forced to leave because the place is on fire and about to explode, at which point he leaves his number two man in charge of finishing the job. Naturally, that goes poorly for him, but credit to Sanchez for getting so much closer to getting it right than most.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' provides a rare heroic example. In ''The Mountain and the Viper'' Oberyn Martell gains the advantage in his fight with Gregor Clegane and has the opportunity to finish him off, but instead delays while demanding his opponent confess to the rape and murder of Oberyn's sister. Unfortunately for him, he gets a little too close to the downed Gregor and gets pulled off his feet, at which point his foe gleefully delivers the desired confession, while simultaneously crushing Oberyn's head with his bare hands.

** The novels ''Literature/MenAtArms'' and ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' both explain that bad guys don't kill the good guys straight away because they want to gloat, and make sure the good guy ''knows'' he's been beaten. In the first book it serves to show Carrot as a Good Man because he straightforwardly kills the bad guy without explanation; in the second it gives Granny Weatherwax a NotSoDifferent moment, since she rather likes people she's defeated to know about it as well.

* OlderThanTelevision: In John Buchan's 1919 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI spy thriller ''Literature/MrStandfast'', the villain, having finally captured the hero Richard Hannay, explains his evil plans at great length. Buchan was arguably the first writer of modern spy thrillers.

* Unsurprisingly, this happens regularly in the ''Literature/JamesBond'' novels. Some ([[Literature/LiveAndLetDie Mr. Big]], who has actually put quite a bit of thought into it) are smarter about it than others ([[Literature/FromRussiaWithLove Red Grant]], where even Bond notices). However, the highlight has to be ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', when it's actually not Bond, but M who gets this treatment from [[spoiler:Russia's newest assassin, James Bond]].
** In ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove'', the Soviet [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] Kronsteen lays a complicated and near-perfect trap for Literature/JamesBond. Everything works as planned, all the pawns including Bond go through their predicted moves, and Bond gets exactly where the Soviets wanted him. But at the crucial moment [[spoiler:the assassin Red Donovan -- an Irishman who hates the English -- makes the fatal mistake of engaging in prolonged crowing, boasting and gloating instead of just going ahead with his assigned task of killing Bond. This allows Bond the chance to improvise a desperate last-moment plan which works, enabling him to kill Donovan and use the information which Donovan carelessly revealed in order to catch the senior Soviet operative Rosa Klebb]]. However it should be noted that the whole reason for the elaborate plot was to create a scandal around Bond's death that would embarrass British Intelligence - if they'd simply wanted him dead, they could have had him quietly eliminated any number of ways in Istanbul - making all but the final, spoilered, instance of Bond Villain Stupidity a necessary part of the plan.

* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder''. Wander realizes that the reason Lord Dominator keeps succumbing to Bond Villain Stupidity and letting the heroes escape is because [[spoiler: she's suffering from [[LonelyAtTheTop crippling loneliness]] and [[NoSocialSkills an inability to connect with others]]. She desperately seeks companionship but doesn't understand how to make it work, so she goes around bullying and dominating people as a supervillain, desperate to feel a connection. When her victims inevitably flee or fight back, [[ILetYouWin she lets them do so]] because that means she'll get to fight them more later]].

* ''ComicStrip/HsuAndChan'' lampshades this in an issue dedicated to parodying most James Bond movies. After the character in the James Bond role is captured easily due to [[RealityEnsues reality kicking in after a night of heavy drinking]], the character in the Dr. No role tries to prod the severely hung over hero into giving him a chance to brag about his plan.

** In the first movie, Dr. Evil has Austin and Vanessa Kensington on an "unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism" over a pit of mutant seabass. (He wanted sharks with [[SlowLaser Frickin' Laser Beams]] attached to their heads, but [[RealityEnsues his organization couldn't clear up the red tape]].) Right after that, Dr. Evil refuses to watch, just assuming that it's all going to go to plan. Scott lampshades the ridiculousness of it, saying that there's a gun in his room, and it would only take seconds to shoot them. Dr. Evil then remarks that Scott just doesn't get it.

* In ''FanFic/TintinAndAlphArtYvesRodier'', returning BigBad Rastapopoulos has several ways in which he could easily dispose of Tintin and Captain Haddock, before escaping. However, his sadistic need to give Tintin a slow, painful death for all the times his plans have been foiled ends up instead resulting in his ''own'' death, as he tries to hang them both, but the attempt goes horribly wrong and leads to him being thrown off a cliff.

* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' lampshades the utter absurdity. Unlike in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the source material]], Night Moon Mare doesn't want to gain anyone's respect or to plunge the world into eternal night. She just wants to kill everyone, yet she doesn't do it when she has the chance.
-->'''Night Moon Mare:''' I could kill you all now, but I'll run away!

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* Played hilariously straight in ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture''. In ''The Kindness Ray'' novel, the local villain uses the aforementioned ray (which have a side-effect to induce living thing growth) to create a giant monster, which he unleashed against the heroes. He never realized, that under the influence of the ''kindness'' ray, his monster would be absolutely unwilling to harm anyone.
* Lampshaded and justified in ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', when Taylor is teleported into a burning building, shot and left for dead while gunmen surround the building to make sure she doesn't get out. Afterwards, Taylor wonders why the villain responsible went to all that trouble when he could have just teleported her to a bomb and detonated it. Justified in that [[spoiler:when she asks Coil why he didn't do this, he admits that he tried to use a bomb repeatedly, and even teleporting her into a vat of acid, but the teleporter was built by Leet and went wrong whenever a bomb or acid was involved due to Leet's power actively sabotaging him, forcing Coil to keep changing the parameters of the scenario until he found a combination that wouldn't set off the inbuilt malfunction of the teleporter, and then Coil ran out of time due to the narrow window of opportunity and had to go with the burning building plan]].

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshade hung]] in an episode when Harmony captures Dawn in order to get Buffy to attempt to rescue and then capture Buffy. Harmony's minions point out that they could just kill Dawn because as long as Buffy believes Dawn to be alive then she'll come anyway, instead of waiting until Buffy arrives to kill Dawn. Harmony refuses "Because that's not the plan, duh!".

** Early on, Zorin decides to kill Bond by rolling his car into a lake, presumably to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], though, as Zorin does try to get it done while James is still unconscious and even stays at the lake long enough to make sure James couldn't have survived (James ''does'' survive by spotting that Zorin was watching and using the air from the tire to stay underwater until Zorin left).

* Occurs in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' when the party is trapped in force cages and a bounty hunter sneaks in to kill you. Even though he could overload the cages to kill you all effortlessly, ''which your teammate actually suggests'', he turns the cages off so he can try to defeat two Jedi and one scoundrel in a three-to-one hand-to-hand combat. Although the dialogue and voice-acting ''does'' seem to suggest that this was the bounty hunter's original plan, and Atton's goading bruises the guy's ego enough to change his plans. (Which is still pretty stupid.)

*** The Master would often have the opportunity but wouldn't take it. Of course, as he says, "A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears [[FoeYay thinking about]]." And he sometimes tries to pull a WeCanRuleTogether gambit.

* The Infernal TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} have Acts of Villainy which they commit in order to please their Yozi masters if they've managed to offend them somehow. Most of them have them act in line with this trope - picking a favoured arch-enemy as per Best Enemy Recognition (FoeYay optional), leaving the enemy to slow death instead of killing them quickly (Fiendish Deathtrap Compulsion), lecturing them about your plans (Infernal Genius Declaration), leaving clues or sending them straight to your enemy (Insane Death-Dealing Provocation) or just driving people insane for giggles (Kindly Lunatic's Blessing). And it's best to perform as much of them at once as possible.

* ''VideoGame/FarCry'':

* DoubleSubversion in the William Gillette play ''Theatre/SherlockHolmes'', where Moriarty's first plan is in fact to just shoot Holmes. He doesn't try it again, though; his next plan involves preparing a ShortCon as bait to lead Holmes into a DeathTrap (which he escapes in dramatic fashion). Justified, since Moriarty doesn't want a gunshot to be heard outside.

* The AnimatedAdaptation, called ''WesternAnimation/JamesBondJr'' if anything had this problem even worse because of being a kids cartoon. With sixty-five episodes and half a dozen novellas there's far too many examples to list in detail, but for instance "The Heart Break Caper" had the villains tie James Jr. and his friends to a support beam and leave them to be scalded to death with a blast of steam. As soon as they're alone, James Jr. starts cutting his way free with a miniature buzzsaw in his wristwatch.

* Parodied in the computer game ''VideoGame/EvilGenius''. The most formidable members of the Forces of Justice, called Super Agents and based on action movie protagonist archetypes, cannot be killed by normal means. When they run out of health, they simply fall unconscious for a few minutes. They can only be defeated by exploiting a [[AchillesHeel specific weakness]]. So until you figure out what their particular weakness is, your options are limited to locking them up and torturing them regularly to keep their stats down.

* Parodied in the computer game ''VideoGame/EvilGenius''. In the game, super agents cannot be killed by normal means. When they run out of health, they simply fall unconscious for a few minutes. They can only be defeated by exploiting a [[AchillesHeel specific weakness]]. So until you figure out what their particular weakness is, your options are limited to locking them up and torturing them regularly to keep their stats down.

* [[ItWasHisSled Famously defied]] by [[BigBad Ozymandias]] in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''.
--> '''Ozymandias:''' Dan, I'm not a Republic Serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? [[spoiler: [[WhamLine I did it]] [[YouAreTooLate thirty-five minutes ago.]]]]

* In ''Fanfic/TheVow'', Lord Shen has the perfect chance to kill Po and the Furious Five (who are all placed in cells and restrained by acupuncture restraints) by just throwing [[KnifeNut his knives]]. However, he instead excuses himself to spring the trap set for the invited nobility and leaves two wolves to kill the heroes. They're promptly rescued by [[NinjaMaid Jade]].

** In the 8-bit version of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2,'' Eggman actually ''rescues'' Sonic from falling to his death -- in order to try killing him his preferred way, in a [[ShoutOut Sarlacc pit]]. Justified in that, at this point, Sonic was supposed to have one of the Chaos Emeralds on his person, so letting him fall into a pit of lava would ''definitely'' put a bit of a wrinkle in Robotnik's plans. Said Sarlacc pit is also [[ThatOneBoss one of the hardest boss fights in the]] ''[[ThatOneBoss entire franchise]]''.

* Played straight, and not quite {{Narm}}, as it IS a kids show and [[ViewersAreMorons kids are stupid]], in almost every episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' or its follow-up ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingSpiez''. Instead of actually spying as their occupations imply, it is always the sequence: get tiny bit of info, get captured, [[BigBad villain]] explains evil plot, leaves before making sure they die, escape, foil.

* Crops up several times in ''Film/{{Spectre}}''. BigBad Oberhauser's [[EvilIsPetty petty desire]] to sadistically torment Bond and relish in his suffering instead of killing him on the spot [[spoiler:due to their CainAndAbel relationship]] ends up becoming his FatalFlaw in the movie.

** [[spoiler:[[EvilAllAlong C/Max Denbigh]]]] himself is guilty of this, as he had many chances to kill M so he [[spoiler:won't hinder his EvilPlan to seize control of the world's intelligence agencies and forward the collected intel to SPECTRE, but opts to go for BreakThemByTalking near the climax. He also fails to realize that M managed to do a sweep of his office and empty his gun before C gets there, being that M is a former field agent unlike C, who's more of a corrupt paper-shuffler and ObstructiveBureaucrat. He finally tries to kill M, but M manages to grab C's gun and send him down a DisneyVillainDeath]].