Villainous Rescue/Playing With

Basic Trope: The villain save the heroes, without committing villainous action.

• Straight: Bob and co have defeated Mortix the Necromancer in his Gloom Citadel, which is collapsing without its master's magic power. Emperor Evulz and his flight of evil dragons appears to catch Bob and friends just as they started going freefall.
• Exaggerated: Bob and co have defeated Progenitor of Dark Ages in his extra-dimensional den, which is going to collapse into nothingness without its dweller. Emperor Evulz and his flight of evil dragons appears to bail Bob and friends out of the maw of the void.
• Justified: Evulz believes that he's the only one allowed to defeat Bob.
  • Evulz thinks that Bob and co will be useful to fight another villains in the future.
  • There's something Bob innately possess in his person, and Evulz can't let it be buried under the collapsing tower.
  • Evulz wants to gain Bob's goodwill in order to betray him later.
  • Evulz hates Mortix more than Bob and co.
• Inverted: See Big Damn Heroes.
  • Emperor Evulz is cornered by the other villains, and Bob saves him.
• Subverted: Emperor Evulz and his flight of evil dragons appear in the collapsing tower, and they immediately gang on Bob and co.
• Double Subverted: And then another villain, Queen Frederica, appears with her Global Airship to drag Bob and co out of the whole mess. Sure is a busy day here in Gloom Citadel.
• Parodied:

Bob: Why are you saving us?
Emperor Evulz: Because I've fallen in love with your daring in our previous meeting.
Bob: Nooooooooooooo---!!! *jumps off the dragon to his death*

• Zig Zagged: Sometimes the villains save Bob, sometimes it's Bob's allies. Sometimes the villains save him in a honorable way, the other day, not so much.
• Averted: Bob never needed saving.
• Enforced: "No allies of Bob can make it through Mortix' Mordor to save Bob in time, let's just make it Evulz this time."
• Lampshaded: "You're the last face I expect to show up here." "Hey, that's no way of speaking to your saviour!"
• Invoked: Bob knows that Evulz wants something innate to him, and have faith in the Evil Overlord coming to save him.
• Exploited: Bob detonates the necromantic energy of the crumbling tower, taking down himself, Evulz, and what remained of Mortix. The world is saved from all threats.
• Defied: Evulz simply stands there, watching and laughing as the crumbling tower buries Bob and co as well as Mortix. Two less threats for him in the world.
• Discussed: "Looks like this is it, guys...*chuckle* y'know, this is the one time Emperor Evulz and his dragons would've really come in han-...well, Speak of the Devil!"

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