History Main / VillainBall

* ''OjamajoDoremi'': Incumbent [[AlphaBitch Tamaki]] and Masaharu are contesting the class election. This divides the class into two. Masaharu can't stand it, and decides to concede the election to Tamaki. In response she says, "How can a candidate back out? We need to have a righteous contest, right? I'd rather you do that." Her (main) reasoning comes across as even more idiotic: "My pride won't allow a win without a fight", rather than "No one will vote for someone who wants us to clean the room 3 times a day [[hottip:* :not when my policy is to clean once every 3 days]]". It's supposedly awesome that Tamaki's attempt to whitewash Masaharu in the election ends up backfiring, but then he announces his intention to have a neighborhood cleanup, and that has everyone freaking.

* In BattleTech. When the Draconis Combine were conquering the Federated Suns territory, they reach the planet Kentares, the New Coordinator ordered the killing of 90% of the planets population in an act of vengeance for assassinating his father the previous Coordinator. When [[CargoCult [=ComStar=]]] broadcast this to the rest of the Inner Sphere, this demoralized the Draconians, and enraged the Federated Suns to lead a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on the Combine, effectively retaking every world conquered by the Combine.

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': ClockKing (that has been DangerouslyGenreSavvy the whole episode) uses a TimeBomb with RaceAgainstTheClock to suck all the air on a GasChamber, when he could have used an instant TimeBomb to kill TheBatman immediately when he has been LuredIntoATrap, and next pulls BondVillainStupidity by doing a JustBetweenYouAndMe explaining Batman how to foil his DeathTrap. Justified because this is a highly emotional trope and ClockKing, being TheSociopath, doesn’t have experience with them, and he had a severe case of ComplexityAddiction even before his StartOfDarkness.

* [[HarryPotter Lord Voldemort]], amusingly enough, suffered from being more evil than needed and less evil than he could've been at the same time. If he'd just killed Lily Potter without offering her a chance to step aside or if he'd deigned to toss her aside when she refused, instead of killing her, he would've won. But in doing things that exact way he provided the conditions for her HeroicSacrifice, which eventually led to his doom.
** [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Dolores Umbridge]] also holds the Villain Ball. In the fifth book, her answer to everything is to pass a decree, this actually gives students and teachers more ways to rebel. She goes as far as to ban the Quibbler, which had an interview with Harry, and having any student caught reading it expelled. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain As Hermione points out to Harry, banning it is a sure way to ensure ''everyone'' reads it!]]

* ''GossipGirl'': Bart Bass is shocked that his evil plan to have a plane with his son Chuck explode failed. So he ends up in a roof-top argument that eventually ends with Bart falling off the roof. Instead of just faking an overdose of drugs, or just shooting him.

* ''Series/ICarly'': Missy in ''iReunite With Missy''. Missy tries to her old "best friend" position off Sam, by [[BitchInSheepsClothing treating her nicely around people, but indirectly attacking her in ways that force Sam away from Carly]]. Sam herself is unsure if Missy is trying to hurt her, or if she's jealous of Missy. The evil plot is ruined when Missy gives Sam a MotiveRant for no reason. This pushes Sam to ask Freddie for help. Carly has no clue until she [[RightBehindMe overhears]] [[EvilGloating Missy gloating]] about the cruise Freddie gave up to get rid of her.

* DickDasDespair GambittardlyStopsToCheat

[[folder:Common villain ball carriers]]

* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat

* In ''Film/DreamHouse'', [[spoiler: Jack Patterson]] clutches the villain ball during the climax. First, he [[spoiler: shoots his accomplice Boyce]] without making sure that [[spoiler:NotQuiteDead he was dead]]. Second, he ties up [[spoiler: Ann]] instead of killing [[spoiler: her]]. Not only does [[spoiler: Peter Ward rescue Ann, Boyce pours a flammable liquid onto Jack's escape path, resulting in Jack getting burned]].

* In the film adaptation of ''JamesAndTheGiantPeach'', James' aunts attempt to take him back by pretending to be kind guardians, but it doesn't take them long to drop the act and attempt to kill James with axes right in front of a large crowd, including at least one cop.

* In ''CallOfDutyBlackOps'', Mason is able to decode the location of the transmitter because Reznov included it in the broadcast itself. But he at least encoded it in a series of numbers... which he also brainwashed Mason to be able to understand. Without this clue, his plan would have succeeded wildly.

* In BattleTech. When the Draconis Combine were conquering the Federated Suns territory, they reach the planet Kentares, the New Coordinator ordered the killing of 90% of the planets population in an act of vengeance for an assassinating his father the previous Coordinator. When [[CargoCult [=ComStar=]]] broadcast this to the rest of the Inner Sphere, this demoralized the Draconians, and enraged the Federated Suns to lead a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on the Combine, effectively retaking every world conquered by the Combine.

* In BattleTech. When the Draconis Combine were conquering the Federated Suns territory, they reach the planet Kentares, the New Coordinator ordered the killing of 90% of the planets population in an act of vengeance for an assassinating his father the previous Coordinator. When ComStar broadcast this to the rest of the Inner Sphere, this demoralized the Draconians, and enraged the Federated Suns to lead a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on the Combine, effectively retaking every world conquered by the Combine.

* In ''TheRunningMan'', Killian convinces Richards to go on the show by offering to spare his rebel friends. When Richards agrees, Killian backstabs him and sends them into the arena anyway. However, without the rebels Ben Richards could never have found the hidden base and escaped the arena, and without Richards the rebels would have been immediately killed. All of them together were able to ultimately bring down the show and (it is implied) the entire government.

*** Lippe attacks Bond because Bond recognised his tattoo as linking him to the Tongs, a Chinese criminal syndicate. Bond was indeed investigating him (calling Moneypenny to relay his suspicions) so his cover really was blown, just to a lesser extent. Also remember that SPECTRE is about "Revenge" and Bond is marked for death by them for foiling their earlier schemes (in fact, the entire second movie was about their plan to murder him). So really, killing Bond wasn't all that unreasonable and Lippe probably wouldn't have been disciplined at all, let alone killed, had he succeeded in taking Bond out.
*** Lippe didn't know he was dealing with James Bond; he was simply protecting himself.

** And as IrregularWebcomic points out, Luke might very well have turned to the DarkSide in ''Return of the Jedi'' if the Emperor hadn't kept snapping him out of it.
*** Let's not forget how Palpatine [[ItWasHisSled died]] in the first place. He decides to kill Luke slowly while Vader is standing right behind him, knowing full well that Anakin never took too kindly to people hurting his family and was unwilling to kill his own son to begin with. Why would he let Palpatine do the deed? It also doesn't help that he had spent the past twenty minutes telling Luke to kill Vader since he was past his prime, making sure Vader knew he wasn't needed anymore. He might as well have asked Vader to kill him on the spot instead.
**** Perhaps it's not entirely [[JustifiedTrope justified]] but it's worth nothing that the Sith aren't supposed to care about their family or friends as anything but tools once they've given themselves over completely to the Dark Side. Given Vader hadn't seen his son until twenty years after he was born and had been trying to turn him to the Dark Side, it's not completely unreasonable for the Emperor to have expected him to stand by and do nothing, given the circumstances. Similarly, the Emperor didn't expect Vader to become offended about the Emperor's instructions to Luke - if anything the Emperor in Vader's place would, by his own admission, have been offended if Vader ''hadn't'' instructed Luke to kill him (again, way of the Sith and all that). So really what it comes down to is that the Emperor thought Vader was more of a true believer Sith than he turned out to be.
***** To be fair, Vader did openly ask Palpatine if they coud avoid killing Luke. He should have at least suspected something was up, especially since the Sith are inclined to stab each other in the back (literally, in many cases). Also, considering Palpatine had the ability to sense emotions, one would think he would take a look at Anakin's to make sure he wasn't having second thoughts.

*** To be fair, there's absolutely no way Aku could have known that [[spoiler: Jack's sword couldn't be used against him.]]

* [[NightmareBeforeChristmasOogiesRevenge In the game NBC Oogie's Revenge, if Oogie]] had not left Jack a trail of breadcrumbs to follow and skipped to cutting Halloween off from the Hinterlands and killing Santa he would have succeeded. Heck, if he didn't make his presence so well known to Jack he might have been able to lull him into a false sense of victory and captured him (he even already had a cell for him), making room for him as the Seven Holidays King in the absense of all the other leaders.

* In ''StarCraft'', Arcturus Mengsk decides to not send Kerrigan the requested dropship when the Zerg overrun Tarsonis for apparently no reason at all. She's been his most important lieutenant who had never shown any sign of not being completely loyal to him, and there seems to be no reason at all why saving her would have been impossible. The result of this is that Kerrigan gets captured alive and turned into a general and eventually supreme commander of the Zerg and Raynor deserting him, both becoming his most dangerous enemies. Up until that point, there has been no indication that he would have wanted [[UriahGambit to get rid of her]] or that she even contemplated turning against him. All it does is create two powerful armies that want to kill him.
** Justified by the [[StarcraftII sequel]] and the novel ''I, Mengsk''. It was revenge: [[spoiler:Kerrigan was the Ghost that assassinated Mengsk's family, so the moment [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness She Outlived Her Usefulness]] as a soldier, he left her for dead. However that justification gives the HeroBall to Kerrigan: she probably shouldn't have ever trusted the son of a man she decapitated]].

* ''[[Manga/DragonBall Dragon Ball Z]]'' had Cell ''intentionally'' hold the villain ball during his fight with Gohan. After cryptic words from Goku, [[BewareTheNiceOnes describing Gohan's hidden potential]], Cell goes through '''extreme''' measures to draw it out for the sake of having a challenge. This included creating clones of himself to [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown beat the living hell]] out of Gohan's TrueCompanions and finally killing [[FriendToAllLivingThings Android 16]] in front of him. Considering how much of a MartialPacifist Gohan had become now since his year-in-a-day in the [[PhantomZone Room of Spirit and Time]], this could be considered a Deconstruction of this trope because of everything Cell had to do to finally find Gohan's BerserkButton.

* Josef Stalin, to a much lesser degree. He had a doctor who told him to take some time off arrested and tortured. So when he had a massive and undignified stroke, nobody wanted to diagnose him. Even his fellow Politburo members were terrified of calling help in case he recovered and had them shot. His guards were also afraid to go in to help him or call a doctor. It doesn't help that he also had recently killed many supposedly for being in a "Doctor's Plot" against him. So, rather than survive to retire or even continue to lead, he died on the floor of his bedroom, soaked in his own urine. There are certain theories which say he was poisoned too, which is not surprising if true.