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| - They're not the Big Bad; they're too small time for that. Heck, they're not even Monster of the Week level. But they're not working for another villain, either, so they're not really a Mook. These are Villains whose duty is to show up for a single scene, maybe two if they're lucky, and cause some minor trouble before the heroes kick them into next week and move on to the real plot. Common varieties include Bank Robbers, Thuggish Bar Patrons, Muggers, and generally Stupid Crooks. Also known as the Lowly Criminal. See Random Encounters for the Video and Tabletop Games version of this trope.
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| abstract
| - They're not the Big Bad; they're too small time for that. Heck, they're not even Monster of the Week level. But they're not working for another villain, either, so they're not really a Mook. These are Villains whose duty is to show up for a single scene, maybe two if they're lucky, and cause some minor trouble before the heroes kick them into next week and move on to the real plot. Why bother including such a meaningless bad guy? It could be the story was running a little light on its action quotient and needed an excuse for some mindless violence. Maybe the writers wanted to show what the heroes' lives are like in-between more significant adversaries, or create an Establishing Character Moment for a hero we don't know very well yet. Maybe the episode was running a little short, and they had to fill up an extra five minutes with something. Or maybe, while the Bit Part Bad Guys themselves aren't important, something that happens during the fight with them is. The hero might meet the Temporary Love Interest by saving them from one of these villains, or maybe it's during one of these quick fights that the Superhero will discover something's wrong with their powers, or maybe, because the hero was busy taking this bad guy down, they weren't at home to stop someone from getting kidnapped or worse. Whatever the case may be, the Bit Part Bad Guy always gets the short end of the butt-kicking stick. They'll almost always be quite low on the Sliding Scale of Villain Threat and, compared to the rest of the story, on the silly side of the Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness. The best hope a Bit Part Bad Guy has is to make a strong enough impression during their brief appearance that audiences demand they be brought back again, possibly upgraded to Monster of the Week status. Only once in a scarlet moon can such a villain even dream of becoming Big Bad material, though. Common varieties include Bank Robbers, Thuggish Bar Patrons, Muggers, and generally Stupid Crooks. Also known as the Lowly Criminal. Sub-Trope of Bit Character; Super-Trope of Mugging the Monster. Will often be given Kick the Dog or Politically-Incorrect Villain traits, if only to justify their getting a comeuppance. Common in a Batman Cold Open, when said Cold Open doesn't feature a recurring villain; however, Bit Part Bad Guys can show up anywhere in the story, up to and including right before the climax. See Random Encounters for the Video and Tabletop Games version of this trope. Examples of Bit Part Badguys include:
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