Basic Trope: The Hero (or Villain) has laid a trap of some kind. Now all he/she must do is wait for it to be triggered.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz's Mooks have set a net trap in the forest where Alice and Bob are exploring. They come back to him, asking for orders. "Now, we wait." is his only reply.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz's Mooks set a trap for Alice and Bob. The scene then cuts to a millennia later, where Evulz and said Mooks are still waiting.
- Downplayed: Just when Emperor Evulz issues the order to wait, the trap is sprung. The Mooks are rather grateful for the short wait.
- Justified: Emperor Evulz was not strong enough to confront Bob and Alice with brute force, so he has to out-trick them if he ever has a remote chance of ruling Troperia.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob charge into Emperor Evulz's base, with Attack! Attack! Attack! as their only strategy.
- Subverted: "And now... we could wait... but we can find those pesky Heroes ourselves. This trap is merely a backup plan."
- Double Subverted: After failing to find Alice and Bob, Emperor Evulz returns to the trap, waiting patiently.
- Parodied:
- Two milliseconds after Emperor Evulz announces that his Mooks will be waiting, they all get really upset, despite the fact that the trap is triggered at that exact same time.
- Evulz and his mooks died from old age to the point that only their skeletons remain. Long after they are dead does the trap finally catch Alice and Bob...'s children.
- Zig Zagged: Emperor Evulz announces that his Mooks will be waiting, but soon looks for the heroes himself. Finding no-one, he goes back to the trap he set. However, he cannot keep himself from 'reinforcing' part of his design from time to time, as he cannot stand passively waiting.
- Averted: The villain never sets a trap which requires him to wait.
- Enforced:
- "This episode isn't even half-way over, and we already have a climax set up? Quick! We need some way to stall for run-time!"
- The author wants to create suspense by having the characters wait.
- Lampshaded: "Now, we wait. I've always wanted to say that!"
- Invoked: "I feel like boring my Mooks to death because I'm evil. I'll set a trap that'll make them wait for an unbelievably long time! Ahahahahahahah!
- Exploited: Alice and Bob see through the trap and catch the waiting Emperor Evulz by surprise with an ambush.
- Defied: "None of my Mooks will ever waste any of their time twiddling their thumbs by some trap which would never significantly impact the Plot until the season finale anyway. I will resort to more... aggressive strategies instead.
- Discussed: "Are we just going to sit here and wait for Alice and Bob to come?"
- Conversed: "They're just waiting, aren't they? What a convenient time for the Ensemble Dark Horse to take the MacGuffin from Emperor Evulz's throne room without ending his arc!"
- Deconstructed: The waiting period causes Emperor Evulz's Mooks to go absolutely insane due to their constant craving for mischief. This causes him to get angry and fire them, leaving him without proper support.
- Reconstructed: This leads to Emperor Evulz hiring the far more competent Elite Mooks, who serve him very well in his battle against Alice and Bob.
- Played For Laughs: "So we're just waiting here. For hours, It's really boring. Zzzz..."
And now, we wait for the unabridged version...
