History Main / BondVillainStupidity

* Subverted in the fifth ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' movie. [[BigBad Araya]] mercilessly [[spoiler:''destroys'' Tohko, but keeps her head alive on purpose -- she's created multiple exact duplicates of her own body and linked them to herself, so whenever she is "killed", her consciousness transfers to the next body]], making her ''depend'' on this trope. When [[TheDragon Alba]] fulfills the trope and [[spoiler:crushes her head]], she comes back ''with a vengeance([[EldritchAbomination -in-a-box]])''.
* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': After [[CurbStompBattle stomping]] Negi and his team, Fate decides they aren't completely worthless because they ''barely'' pulled off [[strike:a recovery]] not dying of the wounds he inflicted. Instead of, you know, killing them in the face like he's clearly capable of, he says 'Okay I'm bored just gonna blow the gate up now. By the way, you suck Negi. Go level grind moar. Later' [[spoiler:May be justified in that he intended to use Negi and seems oddly reluctant to actually kill people. Also definitely planning on using Asuna for something, but we don't know what yet]]. It eventually turns out that [[spoiler:he's capable of [[RealityWarper changing the reality of the magic world on a whim]], so his belief that they pose him no threat is at least partially justified]].

* This trope is such an essential element of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', with horrifically powerful beings fighting the player character with [[BulletHell slow moving, colourful bullets]] instead of wiping her from existence, that ZUN created intricate justifications for as part of the backstory to [[FantasyKitchenSink Gensoukyou]]. Not only would killing Reimu do [[CriticalExistenceFailure Very Bad Things]] to Gensoukyou (though the other main PlayerCharacter Marisa has no such protection), not only were the Spell Card rules implemented specifically to prevent that sort of destructive violence (though we don't know if there are any punishments for breaking them), but its denizens are mostly very old, very bored individuals that view fighting as an [[BloodKnight excellent hobby]], and killing their opponent would prevent future encounters.

* In Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/{{Sleepy Hollow|1999'}}', [[spoiler:Katrina's stepmother]] has Katrina unconscious, isolated, and is armed with a pistol. Also, everyone believes [[spoiler:the stepmother is dead]], so no one would come looking for her later. Rather than just shooting Katrina, she decides to spend a lot of time [[spoiler:summoning the Headless Horseman]] to do the job, giving Katrina plenty of time to wake up and run away (though granted [[spoiler:the stepmother]] is hardly concerned when Katrina escapes, probably as she figures she's dead soon anyway).

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'':

Bond Villain Stupidity is a form of ignorance commonly exhibited by villains. It occurs when a villain fails to kill the hero when he has him cornered, incapacitated, or otherwise defenseless, thus giving the hero a chance to escape and later come back to defeat the villain. This may occur as a result of WithinArmsReach -- where a character appears to be totally helpless in a fight but nevertheless manages to seize some advantage from something within arm's reach. Essentially, this is where having too much ambition backfires; they lose sight of the matter at hand [[SkewedPriorities and turn their attention on all the wrong things.]] It is so named because it occurs frequently in ''Film/JamesBond'' movies. A common form of Bond Villain Stupidity is to place the hero in an elaborate DeathTrap from which he can escape (slow dipping mechanisms over [[SharkPool pits of sharks, alligators]], [[AcidPool acid]], [[LavaPit lava]] or [[DrowningPit simply water]] are perennial favorites). If you ever asked [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim why the villains don't just shoot him]], ''then'' use their pets/lava to dispose of the body, congratulations! You are smarter than the average megalomaniac. Also common is the inability to resist a JustBetweenYouAndMe moment before putting the hero in said death trap. Several variants of this one made the EvilOverlordList.

** After a dinner goes wrong, Dr. No orders his guards to beat Bond up and imprison him. 007 naturally escapes. Arguably justified in that this was the first Bond film, so nobody knew how dangerous he could be.

Bond Villain Stupidity is a form of ignorance commonly exhibited by villains. It occurs when a villain fails to kill the hero when he has him cornered, incapacitated, or otherwise defenseless, thus giving the hero a chance to escape and later come back to defeat the villain. This may occur as a result of WithinArmsReach - where a character appears to be totally helpless in a fight but nevertheless manages to seize some advantage from something within arm's reach. Essentially, this is where having too much ambition backfires; they lose sight of the matter at hand [[SkewedPriorities and turn their attention on all the wrong things.]] It is so named because it occurs frequently in ''Film/JamesBond'' movies. A common form of Bond Villain Stupidity is to place the hero in an elaborate DeathTrap from which he can escape (slow dipping mechanisms over [[SharkPool pits of sharks, alligators]], [[AcidPool acid]], [[LavaPit lava]] or [[DrowningPit simply water]] are perennial favorites). If you ever asked [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim why the villains don't just shoot him]], ''then'' use their pets/lava to dispose of the body, congratulations! You are smarter than the average megalomaniac. Also common is the inability to resist a JustBetweenYouAndMe moment before putting the hero in said death trap. Several variants of this one made the EvilOverlordList.

* The villain considers killing the hero secondary to breaking his spirit via a [[BreakThemByTalking Breaking Lecture]], ForcedToWatch, etc.
** Or perhaps the villain just can't bear the idea of killing the hero without [[EvilGloating flaunting his victory in the hero's face first]], especially when ItsPersonal, such as GreenEyedMonster or RivalTurnedEvil.

** [[spoiler:[[EvilAllAlong C/Max Denbigh]]]] himself is guilty of this, as he had many chances to kill M so he [[spoiler:won't hinder his EvilPlan to seize control of the world's intelligence agencies and forward the collected intel to SPECTRE, but opts to go for BreakThemByTalking near the climax. He also failed to realize that M managed to do a sweep of his office and empty his gun before C gets there, being that M is a former field agent unlike C, who's more of a corrupt paper-shuffler and ObstructiveBureaucrat. He finally tries to kill M, but M manages to grab C's gun and send him down a DisneyVillainDeath]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** During the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', in his fight against Goku during the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, Tenshinhan, who was starting to feel overpowered by Goku's tremendous stamina and having several of his techniques outdone by Goku's very own, ingenuously decided that, if he could not knock Goku unconscious or push him out of the platform, he would simply destroy the entire platform; that way, Goku would lose by ring out because there would be no platform left to stand on. Tenshinhan, who possesses the ability to fly, did not have that problem. He managed to destroy the platform with his powerful Kikouhou, but instead of simply waiting for Goku, who had jumped very high to escape the blast, to hit the ground, he decided to fly close to him, accompanying Goku as he fell down, in order to gloat about his inevitable victory. That opened an opportunity for Goku to use one last attack that knocked Tenshinhan unconscious, and now both fighters were falling to the ground. Subverted because Tenshinhan, by a stroke of luck, actually won the fight, but he was likely in worse physical condition than Goku by the end of it.
*** In the manga he's a bit smarter; he intended to stay where he was and watch Goku fall, but Goku reacted quickly.

*** Before then, Frieza's elite, Zarbon, beats Vegeta senseless and drops him into a lake, but refuses to check for Vegeta's body and make sure he's actually dead, in part because he doesn't want to mess up his hair by doing so. Frieza furiously lambasts Zarbon for his idiocy, correctly surmising that Vegeta had found and hidden at least one Dragon Ball. Frieza furiously lambasts Zarbon for his idiocy, correctly surmising that Vegeta had found and hidden at least one Dragon Ball and Zarbon's actions may very well have cost them their chances at finding it.

* ''WebVideo/DiamondsCut'' is a Bond fan film, so its presence is guaranteed.
* In ''Machinima/ClearSkies 3'', [[spoiler:Ghost wastes time monologuing, which gives Charlie and Sol time to salvage a shell and use it to kill him]].

[[folder:Film — Animation]]
* Edgar in ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats''. Gee, leaving a bunch of cats out on the countryside to get rid of them, wonder if they'll find their way back! In RealLife, cats are known to be able to find their way back to their owners from extreme distances, but since Edgar was TooDumbToLive he probably did not know this. This should explain why he simply assumed the cats would outlive him after taking the old saying that cats have nine lives literally and multiplying nine by their expected lifespan, an assumption that got the plot moving in the first place.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'': Professor Ratigan has Basil in the ideal situation: bound in a DeathTrap, demoralized from being outwitted, and helpless. However, instead of staying to watch the death trap go off, Ratigan just leaves Basil to his fate. It's justified, since Ratigan wanted to stay and watch Basil get splatted beneath an anvil, but had to leave before he got the chance because Basil arrived fifteen minutes later than Ratigan expected.
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}''. The Duke of Weaseltown (IT'S WESELTON!) can't justify sending his men out to kill Elsa for witchcraft until after it looks like she did something to Anna, because, y'know, offing another country's queen is a big deal (ice powers notwithstanding). When the "rescue group" finds her, though, Hans, being the NiceGuy he is, tries to peacefully keep Elsa and the soldiers from killing each other. When he takes her prisoner later, even though everyone thinks that killing her will stop the eternal winter, he still promises to try to save her. [[spoiler:We then get a ''very'' nasty justification. He just saved Elsa to continue to uphold his facade of being a kind, gentle man. In reality, he intended to murder her from the start so he could marry Anna and be king. It was only a question of when he'd do it and, by waiting until he could frame Elsa for Anna's death, he could kill her, take the throne, and look heroic the entire time.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'':

* Throughout ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'' the Dazzlings have Canterlot High in the palm of their hands due to how smart they were, and ultimately manages to regain their lost power. Victory really is within their grasp but after they knocked down the Rainbooms during the final showdown, they suddenly stop and stand still floating above their foes instead of trying to finish them off while they are down, which gives the Rainbooms the opportunity to get back up and counterattack with the aid of Sunset Shimmer. By the time they do decide to attack it is already too late and the heroes' counterspell is cast, freeing everyone from their control and summoning their alicorn avatar to destroy their magic pendants.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* In Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/SleepyHollow1999'', [[spoiler:Katrina's stepmother]] has Katrina unconscious, isolated, and is armed with a pistol. Also, everyone believes [[spoiler:the stepmother is dead]], so no one would come looking for her later. Rather than just shooting Katrina, she decides to spend a lot of time [[spoiler:summoning the Headless Horseman]] to do the job, giving Katrina plenty of time to wake up and run away (though granted [[spoiler:the stepmother]] is hardly concerned when Katrina escapes, probably as she figures she's dead soon anyway).

* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', Comicbook/LexLuthor has Superman incapacitated by Kryptonite and unable to get out of his swimming pool. Then he leaves him, expecting him to die - even though he just learned that his girlfriend's mother lives in the town that one of his bombs is about to destroy. Somehow, he does not see her betrayal coming. He does this ''again'' in ''Film/SupermanReturns''. He seems to think he's done a better job by actually shanking Superman with a Kryptonite shard and throwing him into the sea believing this time he would be as good as dead, but it just gives Comicbook/{{Lois|Lane}} a chance to find and rescue him.

* Had Bane chosen to end Batman's life in their first confrontation in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', he and [[spoiler: Talia al Ghul]] would have succeeded in their plan to destroy Gotham City. Batman even asks Bane in prison when he first woke up: "Why don't you just kill me?" to which Bane replies, "You don't fear death. You welcome it. Your punishment must be more ''severe''." Later, [[spoiler:Talia]] monologues at length to Bruce about how much better revenge is when it's done slowly, giving the heroes enough time to [[spoiler:block her remote triggering of a nuclear bomb]]. Bruce lampshades this shortly after, responding, "maybe the slow knife was ''too slow''." Once [[spoiler:Talia]] leaves Bane, having [[TaughtByExperience learned his lesson]], he ignores her order to let him live and tries to kill him then and there; only Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'s BigDamnHeroes arrival saves him. The villains do have a justification of sorts, since [[spoiler:torturing Batman for revenge was actually their main objective -- they do want to destroy the city as well, but it's secondary to that]].
* Website/{{Cracked}} ran an [[https://www.cracked.com/blog/why-best-joker-was-worst-thing-superhereith his bare hands]]?
** At the start of ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', Comicbook/ScarletWitch gets the drop on Tony, but instead of just using her powers to kill him (or hell, even just bashing him over the head with a heavy object), she lets him go so that he can create Comicbook/{{Ultron}}, reasoning that the Avengers will eventually tear themselves apart over this. A deleted scene even has Comicbook/{{Quicksilver}} angrily chastise her for letting Tony go after the two of them had spent ''years'' trying to find a way to kill him for what he did to their family. Ultron himself is guilty of this at several points, most notably when he keeps Comicbook/BlackWidow alive just so he can monologue to her.
*** Although at one point Ultron lures Tony into thinking he's going to spiel about his grand plans before just ending the conversation and initiating the fight instead.

%% * In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', the humans exhibit this brand of stupidity. The whole point of the plot is how the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything White Man]]...oops, [[HumansAreWhite human race as such]]...is willing to kill women and children purely for greed ([[SarcasmMode completely unlike]] [[NobleSavage typical hunter-gatherer societies]]). But...{{Unobtainium}} is a rock. Rocks survive saturation bombing. If the humans are so evil, they would just bomb everything around the tree, then scoop up the slightly blackened ''rocks''. The Na'vi would never have a chance to try RockBeatsLaser, they'd be too busy burning and suffocating. A modern military only puts boots on the ground when it's trying to ''minimize'' civilian casualties (or at the very least, subdue a population it prefers ''not'' to simply kill wholesale). Except that Plan A was in fact to minimize civilian casualties to avoid bad PR, hence the eponymous Avatar program and its [[GoingNative unforeseen consequences]]. When that failed, the RDA just decides to destroy the Na'vi settlement on a thin justification and call it a day.

** Palpatine in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'';

* ''Film/TheAssignment2016'': Dr. Rachel Jane, instead of killing Frank (possibly after extended surgical torture) subjects him to an involuntary sex reassignment and leaves him alive that way, with ample ability to track her down. Later, when her {{mooks}} catch him, they also didn't search him at all it seems since they miss his hidden gun which he uses to shoot them after waking up.
* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' has an instance at the end of the second act which could possibly be intentional. [[spoiler:Vilos Cohaagen has just gotten everything he wanted: Kuato has been assassinated, and he has Dennis Quaid (actually Carl Hauser) and Melina under his thumb again, and he plans to reinsert Hauser's memories and personality in Quaid (with the bonus of Melina being brainwashed into his personal plaything). However, neither Quaid nor Melina are drugged for the memory overwrite, which allows them to fight back against a group of unprepared scientists with nary a guard set up to make sure something like this didn't happen, leading to their escape. What could make this intentional is that the entire situation, just like the entirety of the movie's second and third acts, may be part of Quaid's initial Ego Trip he purchased from Rekall, meaning Cohaagen's complacency here was "scripted" in-universe.]]
* In ''Film/Revenge2017'', Dimi has Jen dead to rights when her attempt to sneak up on him fails, but instead of just killing her then and there, he can't resist toying with her first, complete with lengthy EvilGloating. It gives Jen enough time to grab his hunting knife and perform some [[EyeScream impromptu eye surgery]] on him.
* ''Film/TheMummy1999'': After regaining his full power, Imhotep has the heroes completely surrounded by his mooks. He orders the mooks to kill the heroes anbd then... turns around and leaves. There was absolutely no reason why he wouldn't kill them himself or at least stayed for a few more minutes and made sure they were dead. Obviously the heroes immedadetly escape through a convinient manhole.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]

--->'''Ghirahim''': If only I'd put you in your place from the very beginning!

* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' lampshades the utter absurdity. Unlike in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the source material]], Night Moon Mare doesn't want to gain anyone's respect or to plunge the world into eternal night. She just wants to kill everyone, yet she doesn't do it when she has the chance.
-->'''Night Moon Mare:''' I could kill you all now, but I'll run away!

** In the episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]]'', Fugate, the Clock King, gets Batman in a DeathTrap. But he can't resist pulling a JustBetweenYouAndMe with a mocking taped message left behind that Batman manages to repurpose into the tools with which to escape. Had he left no message at all, it's likely the DeathTrap would have worked, as Batman was ready to try getting out with a cutting torch until Fugate's message informed him that he'd deliberately thought of that already and made sure there wasn't enough time.

* [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Ganon]] has both played this trope straight and subverted it more than once:

* Aku in ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', has acted in a StupidEvil manner a lot, so it stands to reason that his stupidest involves this trope, which[[spoiler: comes in the GrandFinale. He has Jack at his mercy and seems ready to kill him [[PublicExecution before the entire world via broadcast...]] only to waste time deciding what weapon to use. Jack's sword, the single instrument capable of killing Aku, is also still sitting in plain sight instead of being taken away or destroyed, meaning that even if Jack was killed, someone could still take it and finish the job for him]].

** Played straight in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E6And7TheEnemyBelow The Enemy Below]]" when [[spoiler:Aquaman's brother, Orm]] leaves Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} and his baby son pinned to a large piece of rock slowly sinking into lava rather than just killing them both outright.

--->'''Joker''': And they say ''I'm'' crazy.
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E17And18SecretSociety The Secret Society]]," where the members of the League are kept in stasis after being defeated by Grodd's LegionOfDoom. Clayface, [[GenreSavvy a former actor]], asks why they don't just kill the captive heroes right now, and compares the situation to the mistakes made by the villains in the spy films he used to appear in. Note that Clayface is asking this while staring at Comicbook/MartianManhunter. This is especially unusual because [[spoiler: Clayface and Martian Manhunter are both Shapeshifters and the villains froze the wrong shifter by mistake. This means that Martian Manhunter in this scene is asking why the bad guys don't kill his allies. It could be he already knew this, as Martian Manhunter is also a telepath and probably got the plan from Grodd's thoughts, and is only asking out loud because Clayface isn't a telepath and would ask this]]. This gets Grodd to unwittingly spill his plans to the heroes before the plan is set into motion.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Amon has Korra completely at his mercy with about two dozen of his [[EliteMooks chi-blockers]] restraining her and looks like he's about to take her bending away and...doesn't. However, he justifies it and only comes across as even smarter because of it. He needs support for his plan to succeed and this early in the game, taking her bending away would only turn her into a martyr banding everyone not already on his side against him.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''

** COBRA does this a lot, but one that stands out as ''especially'' stupid was the ChristmasEpisode. It started out like a good idea; Cobra Commander thought he'd attack the Joes' headquarters on Christmas Eve (worked for UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, right?) and it actually worked - he and his men took the whole team of Joes hostage. Then the Commander got a good idea, ''maybe''. He had his men handcuff the prisoners and lock them up in their own meat locker, suspended from the hooks by their cuffs, then decided to take the Joes' vehicles for a joyride and attack a nearby city, maybe get the Joes in trouble. Then, however, Cobra Commander's last attempt at EvilGloating ruins the plan royally. He tells his prisoners he's leaving them a "Christmas present" and ''puts the keys to their handcuffs on a hook by the door'' before he leaves to taunt them, confident they can't possibly reach it. Unbeknownst to him, Shipwreck has already partially freed himself, getting down from the hook (he leaps up and grabs hold of it when they hear the Commander coming) so when the villain leaves again, freeing himself and the other is a simple matter. Even worse, when the villains leave with the Joes' vehicles, they ''leave their own vehicles behind'' (and apparently leave the keys in the ignitions, for that matter). Did the villains think the Joes wouldn't shoot down their own crafts? Wild Bill ''did'' say he felt "like [he] shot his own horse" when he did, but he still did, and so did the others. (So all this botched plan accomplished was to prove that C.O.B.R.A. can't claim that the Joes have better equipment as an excuse for their failures...)

* ComicBook/LexLuthor (often regarded as one of the worst offenders) actually subverts this in one ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' episode. He manages to subdue all the heroes except Superman in inescapable deathtraps that actually seem genuinely inescapable. (Even Batman is close to giving up). Then he reveals to his accomplice that this was part of his deal with a group of aliens that live in the sun itself; he gets rid of them, and they turn the sun red, leaving Superman powerless. They do so, and Superman is led to a nasty surprise, and Lex uses his final deathtrap on him. Thing is, Luthor is ''not'' being stupid this time. When the aliens double-cross him - as he clearly feared they would - he deactivates ''all'' the death traps with a single button on his vehicle, unleashing the heroes to deal with them. (Unfortunately for Lex, he's not as CrazyPrepared as he'd like; they still find him and haul him to jail after doing so.)

* This is a signature trait of Black Heron in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', largely due to her borderline parodical status as a CardCarryingVillain:

** It’s not really her fault that she leaked Bradford’s true allegiance to the triplets since Bradford did not enact radio silence, and she was just doing her job trying to find him for extraction. Flying a helicopter with their organization’s logo on the side clear and visible so that Scrooge himself can see? Absolutely. What’s worse is that when Bradford expressed indignation at the screw-up, Heron sarcastically asked if he would’ve preferred she fly in an unmarked helicopter. Bradford, naturally, retorts with a big fat "YES!"

* Had Bane chosen to end Batman's life in their first confrontation in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', he and [[spoiler: Talia al Ghul]] would have succeeded in their plan to destroy Gotham City. Batman even asks Bane in prison when he first woke up: "Why don't you just kill me?" to which Bane replies, "You don't fear death. You welcome it. Your punishment must be more ''severe''." Later, [[spoiler:Talia]] monologues at length to Bruce about how much better revenge is when it's done slowly, giving the heroes enough time to [[spoiler:block her remote triggering of a nuclear bomb]]. Bruce lampshades this shortly after, responding, "maybe the slow knife was ''too slow''." Once [[spoiler:Talia]] leaves Bane, having [[TaughtByExperience learned his lesson]], he ignores her order to let him live and tries to kill him then and there; only Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'s BigDamnHeroes arrival saves him.

* During the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', in his fight against Goku during the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, Tenshinhan, who was starting to feel overpowered by Goku's tremendous stamina and having several of his techniques outdone by Goku's very own, ingenuously decided that, if he could not knock Goku unconscious or push him out of the platform, he would simply destroy the entire platform; that way, Goku would lose by ring out because there would be no platform left to stand on. Tenshinhan, who possesses the ability to fly, did not have that problem. He managed to destroy the platform with his powerful Kikouhou, but instead of simply waiting for Goku, who had jumped very high to escape the blast, to hit the ground, he decided to fly close to him, accompanying Goku as he fell down, in order to gloat about his inevitable victory. That opened an opportunity for Goku to use one last attack that knocked Tenshinhan unconscious, and now both fighters were falling to the ground. Subverted because Tenshinhan, by a stroke of luck, actually won the fight, but he was likely in worse physical condition than Goku by the end of it.
** In the manga he's a bit smarter; he intended to stay where he was and watch Goku fall, but Goku reacted quickly.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' has many examples of this:
** Frieza shows that he completely outclasses Goku and the rest of the heroes while only fighting at 50% power and that he could kill all of them in an instant, and yet he toys with them and lets the fight drag on... until Goku transforms, that is. Frieza himself even lampshades the fact that he should probably just take Goku out right now after the 20x Kaioken, but he still keeps screwing around anyway. He lampshades it again after Goku transforms, kicking himself for not just killing Goku when he had the chance; by the time he realizes this, however, he has no hope of victory.
** During the Cell Saga, Vegeta, after having trained for a year in the [[YearInsideHourOutside Room of Spirit and Time]], powers up to [[http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Saiyan_Second_Grade Super Saiyan Second Grade,]] and becomes much, much stronger than his opponent, Semi-Perfect Cell. Rather than finish him here, Vegeta lets Cell absorb Android 18 and upgrade to his Perfect form, lusting for a greater fight. Cue Perfect Cell completely [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomping]] Vegeta, and later Trunks. While Vegeta is on the good guys' side at this time, the effect is the same.
** Vegeta also indulged in this as a villain during the Saiyan Saga, when he decided to wait for three hours for Goku to return to Earth so he and Nappa could crush the hopes of Earth's warriors.
** Cell himself makes the exact same mistake. After ascending to his Perfect form, and defeating Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, and Android 16 in the process, he becomes the most powerful being on earth. Rather than kill everyone, he opts to give the Z-Fighters 10 days to prepare for a tournament. Those were probably the [[LegoGenetics Vegeta cells]] inside him, as Vegeta himself does this a few times as well, as mentioned above. Taken UpToEleven during his fight with Gohan, where, after discovering Gohan's hidden power, does everything he can to [[RageBreakingPoint piss Gohan off enough to unleash said power]] just because he wants a more challenging fight; keep in mind that he tricked Vegeta into doing the ''exact same thing'' in order to ascend to his Perfect form, and [[EvilGloating openly mocked Vegeta for being stupid enough to fall for it]].
** ''Insanely'' {{inverted|Trope}} with [[OmnicidalManiac Majin Buu.]] He has the Z-Fighters cornered, but Piccolo makes [[ShootTheDog a sick choice that will buy them more time]] -- suggesting to Buu that it would be more fun to kill the rest of the humans on Earth in the meantime (knowing that they can reverse the damage with the Dragonballs if they can power up enough to survive the fight), [[WhatTheHellHero prompting horrified reactions all around]]. Buu [[NiceJobBreakingItHero simply kills the remaining survivors with one attack]], then proceeds to thin the numbers of the Z-Fighters and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt blow up the world.]]
** ''Dragon Ball'' generally inverts this trope almost as much as it plays it straight. The Heroes are just as prone to holding back in their fights or letting the villains go, just to result in them coming back stronger later. The worst offender is probably Gohan, who, due to not possessing the same natural fighting instinct and impulse control of the Saiyans and willing martial artists, has a problem with holding back too much during his fights due to some emotional or subconscious drive and giving the villains too many openings.
** {{Averted|Trope}} with Future Trunks. After improving by going back in time, he is much more powerful when he faces Android 17 and 18 and Imperfect Cell. He wastes no time [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomping]] them, making sure that they are gone. Makes sense, since he grew up in misery, watching all of his loved ones die, and saw his world destroyed by the Androids. He just wants them finished as soon as possible.

* The villain may just be looking [[BloodKnight for a good fight]] and considers the hero a WorthyOpponent, opting to keep him around for [[INeedYouStronger future entertainment]]. In some cases, the [[AndThenWhat success of the scheme]] is actually a secondary goal to [[ItAmusedMe the fun of actually carrying it out]].

** A particularly ridiculous offender with [[KnightTemplar the Rooters]], seeing how [[spoiler:their whole goal focuses around killing Ben to begin with]]. They had [[spoiler:him as their prisoner, in human form and unconscious]] ''right in their first episode'', but Proctor Servantis decides to [[spoiler:let him go]] and stick with his ridiculously convoluted plan (which by the way [[spoiler:[[VillainForgotToLevelGrind was developed to kill Ben ''five years ago'', and Ben has become much more powerful since then]]]]) on the argument that "he is tougher than he looks".

* Allegedly, the Emperor Nero tried to kill his own mother firstly by rigging the ceiling above her bed to collapse on her as she slept (the idea never got past the planning stages), then settling on rigging her boat so that it would sink with her on it -- this worked, but Nero didn't count on his mother being able to swim. When he heard that she had survived, with two elaborate death traps having failed him, he decided to have the messenger arrested and framed as an assassin, then just sent his guards to stab her to death.

** Happens twice in the space of three minutes in the "Hunt for Greenback Jane" arc. First, [[ChainsawGood Sawyer]] chases Rock and Jane onto the roof of the burning dockyard, but instead of just cutting them up, she instead launches into a very long (and thanks to her speech synthesiser, very slow) speech about how she's going to enjoy it. Then an explosion triggered by the fire knocks the synthesiser out of her hands, and she suffers a FreakOut that takes her out of the game. While Lagoon Company are discussing what to do with Sawyer, another merc arrives on the opposite rooftop, unseen by them... and launches into a dramatic introduction that gets cut short when Revy shoots him. [[DragonLady Shenhua]] even lampshades afterwards what a stupid idea that was (though he at least had the forethought to wear a bulletproof vest).

* Happens twice in the space of three minutes in ''Anime/BlackLagoon'', after an army of assorted mercs have chased Rock and Jane onto the roof of the burning dockyard. First [[ChainsawGood Sawyer]] climbs up after them, but instead of just cutting them up, she instead launches into a very long (and thanks to her artificial voice box, very slow) speech about how she's going to do so. Then an explosion knocks the voice box out of her hands and she suffers a FreakOut that takes her out of the game. About thirty seconds later, another merc shows up on the opposite rooftop and... launches into a dramatic introduction that gets cut short when Revy shoots him. [[DragonLady Shenhua]] even lampshades that one afterwards (though he at least had the forethought to wear a bulletproof vest).

** In the first movie, Dr. Evil has Austin and Vanessa Kensington on an "unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism" over a pit of mutant seabass. (He wanted sharks with FrickinLaserBeams attached to their heads, but [[RealityEnsues his organization couldn't clear up the red tape]].) Right after that, Dr. Evil refuses to watch, just assuming that it's all going to go to plan. Scott lampshades the ridiculousness of it, saying that there's a gun in his room, and it would only take seconds to shoot them. Dr. Evil then remarks that Scott just doesn't get it.

* In ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd]] had Bond unconscious and they simply dumped him in an unfinished pipeline and left, [[SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere assuming he'd eventually die]]. Doubly stupid, as this was the ''second time'' the pair had been given an unconscious James Bond to dispose of; the first time they tried to burn him alive, which admittedly would have worked as he was only saved by other villains.

Objective logic and villain hang-ups aside, [[WatsonianVersusDoylist the Doylist reason for this trope]] is because [[DeathIsDramatic giving the hero an unceremonious, mundane death at the hands of the villain is very dissappointing for the audience]]; see DroppedABridgeOnHim.

** Justified in the case of [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVilain Kaguya]] [[PhysicalGod Ōtsutsuki]]]]. Being so powerful she never encountered a real challenge or situation where she wasn't free to do as she wished. Its not that she's intentionally passing up chances to end the fight so she can toy with her opponents(though she does consider them beneath her), but rather that she ''seriously'' doesn't know any better.

Bond Villain Stupidity is a form of ignorance commonly exhibited by villains. It occurs when a villain fails to kill the hero when he has him cornered, incapacitated, or otherwise defenseless, thus giving the hero a chance to escape and later come back to defeat the villain. Essentially, this is where having too much ambition backfires; they lose sight of the matter at hand [[SkewedPriorities and turn their attention on all the wrong things.]] It is so named because it occurs frequently in ''Film/JamesBond'' movies. A common form of Bond Villain Stupidity is to place the hero in an elaborate DeathTrap from which he can escape (slow dipping mechanisms over [[SharkPool pits of sharks, alligators]], [[AcidPool acid]], [[LavaPit lava]] or [[DrowningPit simply water]] are perennial favorites). If you ever asked [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim why the villains don't just shoot him]], ''then'' use their pets/lava to dispose of the body, congratulations! You are smarter than the average megalomaniac. Also common is the inability to resist a JustBetweenYouAndMe moment before putting the hero in said death trap. Several variants of this one made the EvilOverlordList.

Objective logic and villain hang-ups aside, [[WatsonianVersusDoylist the Doylist reason for this trope]] is because [[DeathIsDramatic giving the hero an unceremonious, mundane death at the hands of the villain tends to annoy the audience]]; see DroppedABridgeOnHim.

Bond Villain Stupidity is a form of ignorance commonly exhibited by villains. It occurs when a villain fails to kill the hero when he has him cornered, incapacitated, or otherwise defenseless, thus giving the hero a chance to escape and later come back to defeat the villain. Essentially, this is where having too much ambition backfires; they lose sight of the matter at hand [[SkewedPriorities and turn their attention on all the wrong things.]] It is so named because it occurs frequently in ''Film/JamesBond'' movies. A common form of Bond Villain Stupidity is to place the hero in an elaborate DeathTrap from which he can escape (slow dipping mechanisms over [[SharkPool pits of sharks, alligators]], [[AcidPool acid]], [[LavaPit lava]] or [[DrowningPit simply water]] are perennial favorites). If you ever asked [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim why the villains don't just shoot him]] then use their pets/lava to dispose of the body, then congratulations, you are smarter than the average megalomaniac. Also common is the inability to resist a JustBetweenYouAndMe moment before putting the hero in said death trap. Several variants of this one made the EvilOverlordList.

Objective logic and villain hang-ups aside, [[WatsonianVersusDoylist the Doylist reason for this trope]] is because [[DeathIsDramatic "mundane" kills seem to annoy audiences]]; see DroppedABridgeOnHim.

%%* ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'': "Tune in tomorrow, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel."

** Fiona Volpe successfully seduces Bond - not that that's especially difficult to do - and doesn't do a HighHeelFaceTurn, but then monologues about it and generally screws around until Bond escapes, killing her shortly thereafter. Helga Brandt makes almost the exact same mistake a film later, though she's instead killed by her superior for being a moron.

-->'''Scaramanga:''' [[DeadpanSnarker What do they teach at that school, ballet dancing]]?

* Justified in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''. [[RenegadeRussian General Orlov]] and Kamal Khan have snuck a nuclear warhead into an US Air Force base in West Germany and have set it to detonate. After Kamal and [[TheDragon Gobinda]] have left, they see Bond hurriedly driving to the base to try to prevent it from detonating. However, they let him him go since the German police are pursuing him, thus believing he'd fail to make it there in time.