Out of Sight, Out of Mind

And now to defeat the villain once and for all, by tossing him carelessly in a random direction. Go, Millennium Frisbee!
—Tristan, Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series

So the heroes have finally defeated the villain and stripped him of the source of his power. All that is left is to make sure its power can never again be used for evil purposes. So obviously, at least to the heroes, the most effective means to accomplish this is by chucking the object off into the distance. ...Instead of just, ya'know, destroying it right then and there, keeping it with them or, if either proves hazardous, hiding it somewhere only the heroes could find it.

In many cases, especially within children's cartoons, the villain himself is disposed of this way. By doing this, the heroes ignore the glaring fact that the Made of Iron villain can and inevitably will just land somewhere, dust himself off, and try yet again another day. Might as well though, because if the show takes place in North America, the probably underage heroes aren't even allowed to kill their enemies, and if they somehow do, the foe will no doubt find some way to come back. As for jail, please, it won't hold him for five minutes.

All in all, the action deliberately leaves a wide open window for the villain to return, and thus, the status quo is maintained.

Not to be confused with Blind Idiot Translation.

Examples of Out of Sight, Out of Mind include:

Anime and Manga

  • As spoofed in its Gag Dub, Yu-Gi-Oh! has Honda/Tristan attempting to rid Bakura of his evil side by hurling his possessed Millennium Ring down into a nearby forest. Of course, the Millennium Ring is a Clingy MacGuffin, and it's back on Bakura's neck at the end of the very same episode. Since in the manga this nonsense didn't happen (Bakura doesn't try to take Mokuba's soulless body as his own and Honda doesn't go Bruce Lee on him and throw away the ring, they simply rescue the kid and take him to a safer place), fans are left asking themselves what the writers were smoking while conceiving this pointless filler scene.
  • Pokémon's famous "LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAIN!!" cry as Pikachu knocks Team Rocket into the sky, followed by A Twinkle in the Sky.
  • Luffy disposes of a number of villains this way in One Piece (especially in anime-only storylines). Subverted in that One Piece villains generally don't come back for revenge.
    • Justified with Kuma, a Shinchibukai who, among the many other applications of his powers, can send people flying to any location of Earth for three days. With just a touch of his hand. They are "out of sight", but he knows damn well where he's sending them, and is only doing so to further someone's interests.
  • In Ranma 1/2, the cast decide to help Pantyhose Taro get his name changed if he'll take Happosai (who named him) back with him to China, permanently. When he does, and takes Happosai away, everyone is ecstatic over the departure of the old pervert. But nevermind that Happosai refused to change Pantyhose Taro's name anyway, halfway across the Sea of Japan, but why exactly did Ranma et al think that he wouldn't come back on his own? (And he did.)


Comic Books

  • Done hilariously in one issue of Cable and Deadpool. The latter is fighting Sabertooth, and it's more or less a standstill, until Cable intervenes with his telekinetic powers, and launches Sabertooth off the artificial island. Deadpool asks where Cable sent him, and Cable replies with, "Um...that way." Cut to Sabertooth splashing down miles away in the middle of the ocean.


Film

  • Subverted at the end of Disney's Aladdin, where it (briefly) looks like the Genie is just throwing the Sealed Evil in a Can out into the desert—and then the Can itself gets Sealed away in the Cave of Wonders. Nevertheless, it's back by the sequel.
    • Played with in the Kingdom Hearts manga, where Genie winds up as if to throw the lamp, but instead buries it.


Literature

  • Discussed and Averted in The Fellowship of the Ring. One member of the council in Rivendell suggests chucking the Ring into the ocean (it'd be easier than taking it to Mount Doom). Elrond rules it out immediately because A) he apparently knows about plate tectonics (the line goes something like "the ocean may eventually become dry land") and B) it doesn't solve the problem of Sauron coming back.
  • Played dead straight in Dark Apprentice. The New Republic attempts to dispose of the Sun Crusher, a shuttle-sized supernova-causing weapon, by dropping it into a gas giant. (Some of the more cynical members of the government figured they could subvert the trope by pulling it back out themselves if necessary.) Guess what Kyp Durron does? He yanks it back out and blows up an Imperial solar system.


Live Action TV


Video Games

  • At the end of Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles 2, Naruto and crew decide that the best solution for getting rid of the Spirit Orbs is to chuck them into the ocean.


Western Animation

  • Villains, especially Dr. Drakken, in Kim Possible occasionally are defeated this way.
  • Almost as the icing on top of a Cliché Storm cake, the climax of the Made for TV Movie Ben 10: Secret of the Ominitrix has Ben using his newly acquired colossal alien form to callously toss Vilgax out into space pitcher-style.
  • In |Hercules: The Animated Series, the "grab, twirl, and toss" move became Herc's staple fighting style. What with the fact that Disney wouldn't let him actually use that sword he always carried around. Seriously, watch any episode.
  • Jenny of My Life as a Teenage Robot, used the move just as frequently, on both giant robot and organic monsters alike. Usually had them back for more by the later half of the episode.
  • Common episodes of Danny Phantom were resolved with Danny sucking the plot-relevant ghost into a thermos to be later sent through the Fenton Portal back into the Ghost Zone. All with the full knowledge that the portal did absolutely nothing to prevent the ghosts from returning. With this, Danny was easily able to work up a Rogues Gallery in no time.
  • He Man and The Masters of The Universe would often defeat his opponents by throwing them just off-screen.
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