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| - It's our hero, the Egregious Trope-Man! With his amazing trope-related powers, he always saves the day! But oh no! Here comes the Legion of Evil: Dr von Trope, The Dog Kicker, The Chessmaster, Super Dickery, Mr. Macekre, and the Brotherhood of Bowdlerization, Sir Jerkass, and the villainous Mary Sue! Together they'll bring about The End of the World as We Know It... Wait, you mean all his villains have trope-related powers? What's up with that!? Where are all the bank robbers, Mutants, time travelers and magical alien robot monkeys? There are a number of reasons for this trope:
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| - It's our hero, the Egregious Trope-Man! With his amazing trope-related powers, he always saves the day! But oh no! Here comes the Legion of Evil: Dr von Trope, The Dog Kicker, The Chessmaster, Super Dickery, Mr. Macekre, and the Brotherhood of Bowdlerization, Sir Jerkass, and the villainous Mary Sue! Together they'll bring about The End of the World as We Know It... Wait, you mean all his villains have trope-related powers? What's up with that!? Where are all the bank robbers, Mutants, time travelers and magical alien robot monkeys? Yes, it seems that for the vast majority of heroes, many if not all of their opponents will share the same powers, backgrounds and personalities as our heroes. Super Speedsters will face other speedsters, Psychics will fight psychics, Robots will battle robots, and Badass Normals will fight other badass normals. Deeper than that, villains will often have similar motivations and personalities to the hero as well. A light-hearted, jokey hero will get lots of equally light-hearted villains to exchange insults with, while a dark, angsty hero will get a Rogues Gallery of emo villains to have dark, nihilistic discussions with mid-battle. A hero with an animal theme will end up being constantly annoyed by animal themed villains, while an Elemental hero will always find bad-guys with comparable elemental themes. Even when characters are known to live in a shared continuity such as the The DCU or Marvel Universe, villain types will rarely leak from one comic to another - Spider-Man rarely finds himself up against the Powered Armor villains Iron Man faces on a daily basis. Of course, a shared continuity makes this much easier to justify, too. Spider-Man isn't going against the powered armor villains because Iron Man has it handled, that's why. There are a number of reasons for this trope:
* If someone wants to read about giant robots or motorbike-riding badasses, that's probably the kind of thing that interests them, so more of the same is always welcome.
* It might be easier to work with Willing Suspension of Disbelief if the character doesn't have a hundred different sub-genres wedging in their own mythology. This is based on what Blake Snyder would call "the rule of Double Mumbo Jumbo," meaning that an audience will accept only one type of magic in a movie. For example, you can't have aliens and vampires in the same movie.
* It's difficult to write plausible stories for a character with more gimmicky powers. A Flying Brick is effective against a range of adversaries, while if your only power is psychically controlling cupcakes, you'll more likely than not find yourself facing a range of fearsome baking-related foes.
* If your hero is not all that powerful, putting them up against a galaxy-eating Eldritch Abomination is going to end in tears - "Galactus would kill Captain America." Mismatches like that are just asking for trouble.
* The reverse is also true as powerful heroes fighting guys below their weight class does not play well into drama: Superman versus purse snatchers is sort of humiliating for everyone involved.
* The Rogues Gallery Transplant frequently ties into this trope as a result. Sometimes, when a villain is created for a particular hero's Rogues Gallery, it eventually becomes clear that he's better suited for another hero. In story, this can be justified in a number of ways:
* There is only one basic type of enemy around, or only one type of superpowers exists in this universe (though subtypes are possible). This only holds for a stand-alone series - crossovers with other comics make this justification untenable.
* Devilman fought demons, simply because Demons were the only real threat.
* The Hero's job is to fight that type of enemy. Other enemies fall under other jurisdictions.
* The BRPD from Hellboy fights supernatural threats, because that is the BRPD's purpose.
* The Hero may be obligated to fight one type of enemy for some reason.
* Danny Phantom only fights ghosts, because it was partially his fault that ghosts were released in the first place.
* The Hero's power only works on a certain type of foe, or is somehow limited.
* Aquaman's powers are most effective underwater. Thus, his foes are aquatic.
* The Hero's powers attracts like-minded villians: Iron-man's Powered Armor appeals to the engineer in Power Armor-wearing villians; the Hulk's strength from radiation appeals to villians who want to use radiation to power themselves and their henchemen; the animal totem of spiderman calls forth the likes of genetic engineers that will themselves attempt other animals in themselves or in their allies, exceptions such as sandman, electro or hydroman are not far fetched as much as an element replaces an animal and becomes the focus of the wild side in them; Batman's insanity appeals to the insane and his gimmicks to those prone to them. The effects of this trope are generally more pronounced in adaptations, which usually only have time to showcase one or two villains. Hence, rather than get bogged down with dozens of different origin stories for all the different types of villain, the gallery will be streamlined and backstories tweaked so that less explanation is required to get the story going. This trope often overlaps with Plot Tailored to the Party, when a disproportionate number of villains appear who to have powers similar to those of a minor or useless hero in a Heroes Unlimited setting show up, just to give the hero something to do. Of course, pitting heroes against villains that generally outpower them can be a good way of spicing up an ongoing series. Crowning Moments of Awesome result when this is handled well, and the hero comes up with a creative way to beat the bad guy. In some series, particularly Long Runners that have been developed over many years or even decades, some members of the Rogues Gallery may not fit the theme. Batman, for instance, has gathered a respectable number of enemies who have actual super-powers, although the overall theme of his Rogues Gallery is that of the crazy Badass Normal whose crimes are based around some sort of specific theme. Finally, depending on the hero, his or her Rogues Gallery may have multiple themes. Not all of Spider-Man's enemies fit the Animal Motifs theme, but the ones that don't tend to be the results of science gone bad. Indeed, some spider-villains (Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, the Scorpion) fit both themes. This is pretty much destined to happen in well established and long running series, so most superhero comics fit this. Examples of Thematic Rogues Gallery include:
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