Basic Trope: A villain reported to be powerful, ruthless and exceedingly evil turns out to be disappointingly feeble.
- Straight: The hero breaks down the door to Baron von Ruthless' chambers, only to find him to be an frail, old man in a wheelchair.
- Exaggerated: Baron von Ruthless is bedridden and on life support, and looks like a skeleton that has been dipped in wax. There is a strong impression that even the slightest bit of exertion would cause him to keel over for good.
- Downplayed:
- Baron Von Ruthless has a leg cast.
- Baron Von Ruthless looks just like everyone else. No Cool Chair, no Spikes of Villainy, nothing.
- Justified: Despite his brilliant mental abilities, Baron von Ruthless has cancer.
- Inverted: Baron von Ruthless is infamous for his mental abilities rather than his combat skills, but manages to put up an impressive fight against the heroes.
- Subverted:
- Baron von Ruthless' infirmity was all an act and he attacks the hero.
- Baron von Ruthless may be stuck in a wheelchair, but it turns out he's still a powerful sorcerer. His Powers Do the Fighting, and it's an impressive fight.
- The vaguely human-shaped mass of steel plates and spikes from earlier, who our heroes "learned" was a body double upon encountering the feeble old man before them, really was Baron von Ruthless, and the old man is just there to get would-be assassins to drop their guard while the real Baron von Ruthless closes in.
- Baron von Ruthless turns out to have weaponized his wheelchair, and is still quite able in a fight.
- Baron von Ruthless I is feeble, but it's Baron von Ruthless III that is the threat. The hero should have been a bit more clear in his questioning.
- Double Subverted:
- Only to find out that this Baron von Ruthless was a robot. The real one has been dead for years.
- He's still a Squishy Wizard
- The "real" Baron von Ruthless was working off a script, and our heroes' initial assumptions about the old man were correct.
- Parodied: Baron von Ruthless has committed several heinous crimes and is wanted in several countries. It's revealed that Baron von Ruthless is actually a genius 10-year-old child working all of it from behind her computer.
- Zig Zagged: There is another Man Behind the Man for Baron von Ruthless. He's not the The Man Behind the Curtain, but the man behind him is. And so on.
- Averted: Baron von Ruthless lives up to the reputation.
- Enforced: The author wants to make a point about the "old men who send young men to die".
- Lampshaded: "You're Baron von Ruthless?"
- Invoked: The heroes deliberately attempt to find out if Baron von Ruthless really is an old man in a wheelchair.
- Exploited: The Heroes had brought themselves to their last legs fighting The Dragon and are saved by the fact that their opponent is actually harmless
- Defied: Baron von Ruthless is physically inform, but also a brilliant roboticist. He builds a suit of Powered Armor to aid in defeating the hero when he arrived.
- Discussed: "I can't believe this was the best the writers could come up with."
- Conversed: "Why do most of these old villains think no-one will find out how feeble they are?"
- Deconstructed: Baron von Ruthless' Start of Darkness is explored, and we find that it is becoming an old man in a wheelchair that made him evil in the first place.
- Reconstructed: He's still an old man in a wheelchair though, and falls easily.
- Played For Laughs: Baron Von Ruthless appears as a Tin Tyrant, but while he initially seems to be an average man underneath his armor, he points out that it's just the suit actor and it really isn't part of the story.
Back to The Man Behind the Curtain ...But never mind the man behind the curtain!
