Basic Trope: Villain who prefers to give heroes a chance.
- Straight: The Black Knight Dracone always keeps his word, never utilizes sneak attacks, always gives the heroes a chance to escape his death traps, and insists the heroes fight him like gentlemen.
- Exaggerated:
- Dracone's Code of Honour is so intense it almost stops him from fighting the heroes at all.
- Dracone's code of honour is so intense he can't even be evil. Hiro is still wondering how he's a villain.
- Dracone gives Hiro a tutorial on how to counter his attacks when he has Hiro at his mercy in order to make it a more even fight. Hiro is bewildered but agrees to the tutorials nonetheless.
- Dracone has Hiro dead to rights and stolen away the source of his power. When the Big Damn Heroes arrive, Dracone not only hands Hiro back the MacGuffin, but invites the entire party to battle him with everything they have.
- Downplayed:
- Dracone doesn't go out of his way to even the hero's chances but he doesn't bother to hinder them either, and never utilizes trickery.
- Dracone is impressed when the hero evades his sneak attacks, and then offers him an open duel.
- Noble Demon
- Justified:
- Dracone is a both a Noble Demon and a Blood Knight and wants nothing more than a fair, worthy fight.
- Dracone is a Hero Antagonist in a Good Versus Good conflict. If he wasn't on the other side, he'd be the protagonist.
- Dracone wants to prove that he's a better fighter than the heroes, and obviously can't do that if he just kills them in their sleep.
- Dracone controls his minions through respect for his honorable example: he's therefore a Slave to PR and cannot do anything too cruel without losing his following.
- Giving the enemy a chance actually helps Dracone in the long run, as he predicts what the hero is going to do with it.
- Dracone is the representative of Troperia in a diplomatic conflict, while he wants the issue to conclude in their favor, he knows that truly unscrupulous actions will lead to war with Wikaria and its allies.
- Inverted: Dracone is a Combat Pragmatist, Consummate Liar, and No-Nonsense Nemesis. Giving his enemy a chance would just be idiotic.
- Subverted: Dracone is mentioned as being an honourable opponent… and then suddenly stabs Hiro when the latter wasn’t looking.
- Double Subverted: Dracone apologises profusely as he thought Hiro was ready, and gives the latter one free shot as compensation
- Parodied: Dracone is an overly honourable man and Hiro is a Pragmatic Hero. Dracone is constantly outwitted by our hero's ruthless Combat Pragmatist nature, all while complaining that he’s the villain and that hero shouldn't cheat like that!
- Zig Zagged: Dracone considers Hiro a Worthy Opponent and thus is the paragon of honour and gentlemanly conduct when fighting him. Against anyone else, he'd happily gut them in their sleep without a second thought, and regularly does so.
- Averted: No villain is interested in fair play.
- Enforced: The executives think that the series (because it's supposed to be a Lighter and Softer superhero comedy with some Leaning on the Fourth Wall) needs to avoid Vile Villain, Saccharine Show, and thus vetoes anything that would cause the bad guy to be both Genre Savvy and this, such as making him a No-Nonsense Nemesis.
- Lampshaded:Hiro: Nice of him to keep his word about leting us go once if we escaped his death trap.
Ichgo: It would be nicer if he never put us in that death trap at all! - Invoked: Dracone’s sense of fair play is in fact Pragmatic Villainy: it encourages others to be similarly honourable towards him.
- Exploited: Hiro goads Dracone into fighting him alone, because 30-against-1 odds are clearly unfair.
- Defied: "What, you think I'm going to let you go after escaping my fiendish trap just because I said so? Ho-ho-no! You’re going back in there, and after that you're going straight to hell!"
- Discussed: "You'd think being a villain with honor a respect was a contradiction in terms..."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Dracone ends up repeatedly missing decisive chances to kill Hiro due to his honorable nature. His superior, Emperor Evulz, orders him to be executed.
- Reconstructed:
- Dracone retaliates. After countering all of Emperor Evulz's underhanded tricks, he shows the strength and skill he has developed through honorable combat, bests him in a direct fight, and claims the throne for himself.
- The heroes actually intervene to ensure Dracone survives because they prefer fighting him.
- Implied: Dracone isn't given too much characterization, but he seems to intentionally let the heroes go many times, and he seems to smart for it to be Bond Villain Stupidity or Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat.
Mw ha ha ha! I have ensnared you in my secret Death Trap! Now... leave and go back to Fair-Play Villain.
