About: Genocide Backfire   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

A type of Villain Ball, and subtrope of Laser-Guided Karma. Here's the deal: you're the Evil Overlord. You're in charge and like it. But something's been nagging you. You're worried that one day you might lose your position by force. Furthermore, it looks like there's good reason, 'cause there's a prophecy involving someone from "Insert Name Here-istan" who's going to take you out. Screw that! You're the villain! You're keeping your position and no brat is going to take that from you. If it means killing every last Insert-Name-Here-istanian and putting their heads on a pike, so be it! Goddammit!

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  • Genocide Backfire
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  • A type of Villain Ball, and subtrope of Laser-Guided Karma. Here's the deal: you're the Evil Overlord. You're in charge and like it. But something's been nagging you. You're worried that one day you might lose your position by force. Furthermore, it looks like there's good reason, 'cause there's a prophecy involving someone from "Insert Name Here-istan" who's going to take you out. Screw that! You're the villain! You're keeping your position and no brat is going to take that from you. If it means killing every last Insert-Name-Here-istanian and putting their heads on a pike, so be it! Goddammit!
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abstract
  • A type of Villain Ball, and subtrope of Laser-Guided Karma. Here's the deal: you're the Evil Overlord. You're in charge and like it. But something's been nagging you. You're worried that one day you might lose your position by force. Furthermore, it looks like there's good reason, 'cause there's a prophecy involving someone from "Insert Name Here-istan" who's going to take you out. Screw that! You're the villain! You're keeping your position and no brat is going to take that from you. If it means killing every last Insert-Name-Here-istanian and putting their heads on a pike, so be it! 16-30 years later, you find yourself at the mercy of the last son of "Insert Name Here-istan", and he's kinda pissed that you skewered his family. Sometimes, you are in this situation because you committed this genocide since you set in motion a series of events where that infant is taken to a place where he is not only kept safe, but the natives there help him become a powerful warrior ready to take you on. Furthermore, if you are stupid enough to continue your villainy with grand schemes of bloody conquest, that hero will likely be spearheading an overwhelming army of friends determined to bring you to justice. Goddammit! This trope is when the bad guys (or the supposed good guys) commit a massive atrocity to achieve some goal, only to not completely succeed, and the resulting incompleteness comes back to bite them in the ass. It often involves a prophecy, and this is the villains' attempt to "Screw Destiny". For all the good it does them. This typically means murdering hundreds of people to kill a single child, who will inevitably escape -- see Nice Job Breaking It, Herod. Sometimes, the evil overlord might live out his life successfully, but his descendants pay the price. There are two main variants: 1. * The first is that a prophecy says that someone from the time/place will overthrow them. 2. * The second is that the victimized people pose a threat and this is a means to deal with said threat. A third, less common type involves the overlord's minions, being not that evil, decide that this is a Moral Event Horizon they will not cross and their boss is too evil to work for. Expect the survivor to benefit from What Measure Is a Non Unique, using his heritage and tragedy to fuel the coming Roaring Rampage of Revenge (or the even more tragic Cycle of Revenge). Sister Trope to Nice Job Breaking It, Herod, with which it can overlap when the motivation behind the Genocide is finding and killing particular individuals. It is sometimes called the "Dandelion of Doom" or "Dandelion effect," per the expression: "If you kick a dandelion, you spread its seeds." Just as this is an ineffective way to remove weeds from a lawn, it is an ineffective measure to remove potential threats to one's rule. Please, let's not involve Real Life in this. Examples of Genocide Backfire include:
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