History Main / FairPlayVillain

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': When the Drode, on behalf of his master Crayak, has trapped the Animorphs in a seemingly inescapable situation, he teasingly tells them that he ''did'' deliberately ensure they would have a possible way out, but whether or not they find it is their problem. (They do.) Played with in that Crayak did this not out of any sense of honor or fairness, but simply because it's a rule imposed on him by his CosmicChessGame with the [[BigGood Ellimist]]; he'd just as soon do away with it and kill all the heroes if it wouldn't lead to his and his foe's MutuallyAssuredDestruction.

** The ComicBook/Joker takes an almost perverse pleasure in seeing his plans be foiled by the Batman. This helps justify why he continues to give Batman a way out instead of just executing him when the opportunity arises.

** One of the games requires players to pair up, but with an uneven number of players, that meant there would be one odd player out. [[spoiler:That player ends up skipping the game, sparing them from being dying when they wouldn't be able to play.]]

* In ''Series/SquidGame'', the central tenet of the DeadlyGame is that everyone has the same chance at survival, even if the challenges demand sacrifices. Part of the contract is the players can forfeit any winnings and leave the game by majority vote. When the players all vote to leave in episode two, [[TheDragon the Front Man]] lets them leave no questions asked, just as he promised. While most of the players do come back, fourteen of them stay gone. While the Front Man tells the guards to keep an eye on those fourteen, there is no indication that he tries to drag them back or punish them in any way.

Examples in fiction are ''usually'' male, but this is not a 'male only' trope. Compare WhyDontYaJustShootHim, the logical question that this trope answers. May overlap with LetsFightLikeGentlemen, JustToyingWithThem, HuntingTheMostDangerousGame, HonorBeforeReason, and MercyLead. See also the SpiritedCompetitor and WorthyOpponent. Can be related to the SadisticChoice. Contrast the NoNonsenseNemesis, who goes for the kill in the most efficient method possible, honor be damned.

* Impostors in ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' should, by all means, be able to kill everyone in succession. Yet the absolute fastest they can kill is every 10 seconds and that's only if the lobby's host sets it that low. Because it wouldn't be fun if everyone died in the first minute of gameplay. [[note]]If you do have the misfortune to be in a game where the Impostor is killing everyone one after another, [[SarcasmMode congrats]]: You're playing with a hacker.[[/note]]

* The titular aliens from ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' are a ProudWarriorRaceGuy species who will occasionally and intentionally handicap themselves by removing their advanced plasma weaponry and camouflage when fighting technologically-outmatched races, particularly if they deem them [[WorthyOpponent worthy]]. That said, they're still [[SuperStrength incredibly strong]] and have dangerous wrist-blades, but it's a much more even fight than laser-death from afar.

** The main villain Kayaba Akihiko traps ten thousand players in a virtual reality video game, and promises to let them out when the defeat the 100th floor boss. The game is fairly balanced, and so on, which starts to show this, but the real point comes when [[spoiler: [[TheHero Kirito]] defeats the final boss (Kayaba, it turns out) on the 75th floor.]] Kayaba keeps his word and lets everyone out.

* In the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' fic ''FanFic/TheLegendOfSpyroANewDawn'', [[TragicVillain Deadlock]] makes sure that Spyro and Cynder have a fair chance of saving the dragon eggs she has captured to [[TargetedHumanSacrifice sacrifice]] because [[StartOfDarkness years ago]] she was denied that same chance and can't bring herself to force it on anyone else.
* In the ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' fic ''FanFic/PriceForPower'', [[BigBad Tenkai]] confronts the Flower Division with an entire army of demons, though the demons are only meant to ensure that they don't escape and he intends to fight them himself because, even though he wants to destroy Tokyo, he wants to give Sakura and co. a fair chance to stop him... [[CurbStompBattle only to shrug off all of their attacks and wipe the floor with every single one of them]].

* ''Manga/YuGiOh'': This is enforced on most of the {{Big Bad}}s by the rules of magic in the setting. The only way to properly transfer ownership of a Millenium item is to defeat its owner in a duel, so as much as they might wish they could just steal the Millenium Puzzle from Yugi, they'd just end up with a useless piece of jewelry for their trouble - and, as many lesser villains find out, someone who breaks the rules of a Shadow Game ends up having to endure a curse inflicted by a Penalty Game. On the other hand, this doesn't stop them from doing anything that's not explicitly forbidden - and Shadow Games don't consider using the powers of Millenium Items to be cheating, even if they create an extremely unfair situation, as with Dark Bakura's rigged dice, Pegasus's mind reading, or Dark Marik making the game extremely physically taxing and painful to play.

* [[AntiVillain Grimmjow]] toward Ichigo in Manga/{{Bleach}}. After [[spoiler: killing Loly and Menoly]] and saving Orihime, he drags her to where Ulquiorra's [[LeftForDead left Ichigo for dead]] and demands she heal him so they can have a proper battle. He even turns on Ulquiorra when the latter appears and demands to know why he's having Ichigo revived. In truth, Grimmjow [[spoiler: was doing it more for the sake of his own pride, rather than fair play. He wanted Ichigo at his best, before crushing him, to pay him back for scarring him.]]

* The games in ''Manga/AliceInBorderland'' vary wildly in how fair they are to the players. Many are very straight forward in what the gist of the game is, many others give the players the basics but deliberately leave unsaid various loopholes that can be exploited, and some are outright sadistic, such as the game taking place at the baseball stadium. The game is to survive and escape the baseball stadium after a massive geyser of water explodes from the center of the stadium. However, the game gave zero warning about the geyser and indeed most of the people involved are killed instantly, only the girl who was elsewhere due to needing to use the bathroom survived long enough to escape.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', the main villain Kayaba Akihiko traps ten thousand players in a virtual reality video game, and promises to let them out when the defeat the 100th floor boss. The game is fairly balanced, and so on, which starts to show this, but the real point comes when [[spoiler: [[TheHero Kirito]] defeats the final boss (Kayaba, it turns out) on the 75th floor.]] Kayaba keeps his word and lets everyone out.

* Played straight by Char Aznable in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'', when he [[spoiler: intentionally leaks the mysterious but powerful Psycoframe technology to Anaheim Electronics to give his lifelong rival, Amuro Ray, a fighting chance. Unfortunately for Char, the [[SuperPrototype ν Gundam]] is simply too much for him and his Sazabi to handle, and he gets quite literally beaten out of the mobile suit.]]

* Franchise/{{Batman}}

* [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Sometimes anti-heroine/sometimes villainess]] Comicbook/LadyShiva is a BloodKnight martial artist who is constantly seeking a WorthyOpponent [[DeathSeeker to defeat and kill her in hand-to-hand combat]]. During one battle against ComicBook/RichardDragon, Richard had technically defeated her and was ready to deliver a killing blow when one of Shiva's minions interrupted the fight to save her life. An angry Shiva killed the minion for interfering and restarted the fight with Richard. However, this time, she won.

* Luxord of the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series teleports Sora's allies away to fight him as a DuelBoss, making the battle a TimedMission where they have to attack each other to deplete a time gauge.

* In ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', everything is settled by a battle between trainers. Adult villains far older and stronger will concede the day to a small child once you knock out their Pokémon. And even if they do win, they wait for you to heal up at the Pokémon Center and let you try as many times as you need before you defeat them.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': During the various boss fights with Ganondorf, whenever he knocks Link down after an attack, he always waits for Link to get back up before continuing the fight.

* The host of the ''Trivia Murder Party'' games, from ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack 3'' & ''6'', is actually quite sporting about giving his victims a chance to survive. None of his survival minigames are unwinnable (although a few like the [[LuckBasedMission Loser Wheel]] are heavily skewed in favor of death), and he always adheres to his rules regarding how his victims survive or die, letting them put their survival in their hands. Even his forcing the players to repeatedly spin the Loser Wheel after Question 9 has rationale behind it, as the host is doing it more for the sake of speeding the game along rather than out of malice or spite. The only time he [[EvilIsPetty acts out of pettiness]] is if every player answers the questions correctly twice in a row (three times in a row for single player), as he gets annoyed and forces them to play a minigame to "teach them a lesson." Just hope that the minigame he doesn't pick is the Loser Wheel if you're in a Single Player game...

* In ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors,'' [[BigBad Zero]] has kidnapped all of the participants to play a DeadlyGame; but then plays the game ''completely fair'', giving them rules to trust in, even helping them through sticking points, and arranging that all of them get a clear opportunity to escape and live. It goes so far that a significant mystery in the game, and cause of confusion to the characters, is - ''why anyone would do that''. [[spoiler:It’s because Akane only wants to save her past self and doesn’t want anyone but [[AssholeVictim her four murderers]] to die]].

* The human culprit [[spoiler:Sayo "Yasu" Yasuda]] in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' challenges the family to solve the epitaph in order to stop their murders, and in the scenarios where someone does, they follow through. The witch culprit Beatrice is said to not play fair, but she does follow the same rule about the epitaph [[spoiler:and ensures that all of her magical murders are solvable without involving magic to give Battler a fair chance at denying her]].

Examples in fiction are ''usually'' male, but this is not a 'male only' trope. Compare WhyDontYaJustShootHim, the logical question that this trope answers. May overlap with LetsFightLikeGentlemen, JustToyingWithThem, HuntingTheMostDangerousGame, and MercyLead. See also the SpiritedCompetitor and WorthyOpponent. Can be related to the SadisticChoice. Contrast the NoNonsenseNemesis, who goes for the kill in the most efficient method possible, honor be damned.

* In ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', everything is settled by a battle between trainers. Adult villains far older and stronger will concede the day to a small child once you knock out their Pokemon.

* Monokuma from ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'', and by extension [[BiggerBad The Mastermind behind him]]. He sets rules for his DeadlyGame that he too is also bound by, purely through choice. While he ''does'' break his rules occasionally by framing students for crimes that they didn't commit, Monokuma is willing to submit to demands when called out on it. [[PragmaticVillainy Granted, this is not done out of a sense of honor]], but because [[spoiler:Junko Enoshima and Tsumugi don’t want to disappoint/piss off [[TrumanShowPlot the audience watching all of this carnage]] by blatantly screwing over the cast. This would ruin the point of the ImmoralRealityShow, which is to get the students to kill each other and give into their despair. And in [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair the second game]], since Junko is an AI, she physically cannot defy the laws of the [[LotusEaterMachine Neo World Program]]. Junko, Tsumugi, and Monokuma frequently point out that it creates better despair if people have hope first, and just killing all of them without hope would be boring]]. As such, Monokuma and the Mastermind are willing to play within the rules of the game, even if [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem they do stretch the interpretation of these rules to the breaking point]] quite often with liberal uses of YouDidntAsk and ExactWords.

* Monokuma from ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'', and by extension the mastermind behind him. He sets rules for his DeadlyGame that he too is also bound by, purely through choice [[spoiler:in the first game at least. While he ''does'' break his rules occasionally by framing [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Makoto]] and [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony Kaede]], he is willing to submit to demands when called on it]]. [[PragmaticVillainy Granted, this is not done out of a sense of honor]], but because [[spoiler:Junko and Tsumugi don’t want to disappoint/piss off [[TrumanShowPlot the audience]] by blatantly screwing over the cast]], as this would [[IncrediblyLamePun kill]] the point of the game [[spoiler:[[ImmoralRealityShow show]]]], which is to get the students to kill each other. And in [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair the second game]], [[spoiler:since Junko is an AI, she physically cannot defy the laws of the [[LotusEaterMachine Neo World Program]]]].

** The vital part of Jigsaw's games is that all his victims have a chance to prove their desire to live and free themselves from his traps. This usually involves self-mutilation and/or psychological torture.
** Subverted in ''Film/SawIII'': Amanda's traps are designed without any actual chance of escape, which Jigsaw acknowledges as proof that Amanda is too unstable to carry on his legacy.

* Monokuma from ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'', [[spoiler:and by extension the mastermind behind him]]. He sets rules for his DeadlyGame that he too is also bound by, purely through choice [[spoiler:in the first game at least. While he ''does'' break his rules occasionally by framing [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Makoto]] and [[VisualNovel/NewDanganRonpaV3 Kaede]], he is willing to submit to demands when called on it]]. [[PragmaticVillainy Granted, this is not done out of a sense of honor]], but because [[spoiler:Junko and Tsumugi don’t want to disappoint/piss off [[TrumanShowPlot the audience]] by blatantly screwing over the cast]], as this would [[IncrediblyLamePun kill]] the point of the game [[spoiler:[[ImmoralRealityShow show]]]], which is to get the students[[spoiler:/contestants]] to kill each other. And in [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair the second game]], [[spoiler:since Junko is an AI, she physically cannot defy the laws of the [[LotusEaterMachine Neo World Program]]]].

** In the same series, [[Disney/{{Hercules}} Hades]] mostly tries to defeat Hercules by sticking to the tournament format of the Coliseum and pitting him against powerful opponents. The second game shows he's grown tired of this though, and during his VillainousBreakdown decides he's had enough playing by the rules and promptly cheats.

* In [[Franchise/StarWars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy]], Jaden Korr is captured in one mission and given the chance to fight his/her way out, because the captor [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame wants the chance to hunt a Jedi.]] However once Jaden starts looking like they'll genuinely escape the captor throws the rules out of the window and goes all out.

* ''Videogame/TalesOfDestiny:'' Barbatos Goetia has a variant where he ''[[NoFairCheating enforces]]'' fair play. If you try using consumable items during a battle against him, he'll shout "NO ITEMS EVER!" and then performs a powerful, unavoidable attack (depending on what you used).

--> The Weeper: [[LetsGetDangerous That's not fair.]]