Basic Trope: Ruling by fear works less well than ruling with love.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz rules with an iron fist. He's surprised when Charlie, one of his high-ranking officers, Heel Face Turns to Bob's side.
- Exaggerated:
- Evulz throws Charlie in jail for leaving a speck of dirt on his weapons; Charlie escapes and joins Bob, who was waiting outside.
- Evulz, the resident Eldritch Abomination, tries to lord over the humans as if they're defenseless insects, humanity proves him wrong.
- Downplayed:
- Emperor Evulz is slightly surprised when Charlie defects, but not very.
- Emperor Evulz rules through fear. His minions are reluctant to fight for him, but they don't heel-face turn.
- Justified:
- Charlie realizes that even if he manages to survive under Evulz's rule, he'd still rather be happy on Bob's side.
- Charlie hates being controlled this way.
- Ruling by fear is prone to backfiring in the worst ways. If the leader ever gets in a vulnerable position, the people will inevitably turn against him at the soonest possible opportunity.
- Inverted:
- Evulz is actually the better ruler and his people are happier, even if they are afraid of what will happen if they ever step out of line.
- Evulz believes that Machiavelli was right.
- Evulz is extremely efficient at maintaining fear among the ranks of his crew, who are a bundle of the most inefficient, backstabbing jerks who have ever been labeled a "Ragtag Bunch of Misfits". If he was not there to crack a whip, nothing would ever be done.
- Subverted:
- Bob's forces look like they'll win the war when they're overwhelmed at the last moment by Evulz's reinforcements.
- It seems Charlie will heel-face turn to Bob's side, but he is too afraid of Evulz.
- Machiavelli's ghost appears and points out that Evulz is actually proving him right - his tyrannical rule is inspiring more hatred than fear, which Machiavelli advised rulers to avoid at all costs.
- Double Subverted:
- Evulz's reinforcements appear at the crest of the hill... only for Charlie to give the signal and charge Evulz's own troops.
- Fearing Evulz's oppression and not wishing to be captured, Bob's forces fight even harder at the sight of Evulz's reinforcements and manage to win the day.
- Parodied:
- Evulz yells at Charlie. As he leaves the throne room, he's stopped by a rebel recruiter who promises that Bob won't threaten his friends and family like Alice. And he'll give him cookies.
- Evulz's method of instilling terror into his underlings' hearts consist of wearing a spooky mask and jumping out behind them. Most of them don't last a week under command and he always wonders why they leave so soon.
- Zig-Zagged: At first, Evulz appears to be a loving ruler, but it soon turns out that he actually rules through fear. It's then revealed that he's doing this for the good of the people. It's later found out that many people have figured it out and love him anyway.
- Averted:
- It's unknown what kind of leaders Evulz and Bob are, as neither one of them is shown actually leading.
- Evulz and Bob are leaders of groups where the people have no choice but to follow them.
- Both Evulz and Bob are tyrants or well-loved, and neither is more nor less fair than the other.
- Evulz is too good at spreading fear for defiance to grow amongst his subjects. If Bob is not afraid, it's because he's literally an Outside-Context Problem, and even then he may end up having to fight alone.
- Enforced: Evulz is such an incredibly powerful and terrifying villain that the only realistic way for him to be defeated is internal subversion from a subordinate who's not afraid of him.
- Lampshaded: "Don't you know that you can't rule through fear? It never works out in the end."
- Invoked: Bob, an aspiring democratic leader, decides to find out what the people want to give them something to fight for rather than just to fight against.
- Exploited: Bob convinces Charlie to join his side because Evulz was so mean to Charlie.
- Defied:
- Evulz knows what would happen if he causes his people to fear him, so she makes sure to treat them fairly.
- Evulz, if he decides to rule by fear, makes extremely damned sure that it's a kind of fear that shall never be defied. He also puts in place steps to make sure that hatred does not festers anywhere, to foster the appearance of a "tough but fair" regime.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Well, Evulz might have the upper hand now, but did you see what he did to poor Charlie? He'll lose in the end."
- Played for Laughs: Evulz gives out Cool and Unusual Punishments to his people and one of them leads to his downfall.
- Played for Drama: Evulz loses the war and realizes how far he fell due to his ruthlessness.
- Played For Horror: The things Evulz does to enforce fear amongst his subjects work incredibly well, not to mention makes the audience faint.
- Implied: Evulz's leaership style is not given very much attention, but there is many a MookâFace Turn among his subordinates.
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