Basic Trope: A villain's death is painted as a solemn affair which arouses a moment of pity for them.
- Straight: Hiro's enemy, Evil Bob, dies in the final battle, which leads to tears from Hiro.
- Exaggerated: Evil Bob does many unforgivable, terrifying things to our heroes. Yet Hiro still cries like a baby when Evil Bob dies.
- Downplayed: Evil Bob dies, and Hiro gives him a moment of silence before continuing.
- Justified:
- Evil Bob was an Anti-Villain with a fleshed-out motivation for his actions.
- Evil Bob was pretty evil, but he wasn't completely evil and at least had some good moments. His death was physically and emotionally devastating for Hiro, because, under different circumstances, they could have been great friends.
- Evil Bob actually was Hiro's friend in the past. His death was physically and emotionally devastating for Hiro because he hoped until the very end that his friend could be redeemed.
- Evil Bob just got hit with the Heel–Face Door-Slam and becoming a Tragic Monster. It looked like he was turning away from evil, but his Bad Boss or a More Despicable Minion shot him first.
- Evil Bob did in fact turn away from evil, and even died saving Hiro's life.
- While Evil Bob was a villain, his death is so horrific, agonizing, and far beyond what his evil deeds justified that Hiro can't help but feel sorry for him.
- Villain Protagonist
- Hiro is an All-Loving Hero.
- Redemption Equals Death
- Inverted: Hiro dies in the final battle, and Evil Bob cries over his dead body.
- Subverted: Despite Evil Bob's tragic death scene, Hiro still can't bring himself to shed tears after all the horrible things he's done.
- Double Subverted: Something tragic is revealed about his past and Hiro breaks down after all.
- Parodied: Hiro mourns the death of Evil Bob, the ultimate jaywalker.
- Zig-Zagged: Evil Bob dies, and Hiro remains unemotional about it. However, he is later found crying in the privacy of his room. However, it turns out that he was merely mourning for his fallen comrades and not Evil Bob. However, when Evil Bob's tragic past is revealed, Hiro does genuinely break down.
- Averted:
- Evil Bob dies doing something dick-ish, and nobody mourns him.
- Evil Bob stays alive.
- Enforced: "Let's make Evil Bob's death sad, shall we?"
- Lampshaded: "Sheesh, you'd think the bad guys couldn't even bring us to tears... guess we're wrong."
- Invoked: "True, I might've been a horrible person, but you'll feel sorry for me once I'm dead."
- Exploited: Evil Bob, knowing he is about to die and seeing how sad it is making his killer, reveals to Hiro the Awful Truth which had driven him to villainy. The revelation drives the already depressed Hiro into despair, and Evil Bob dies content with having broken his enemy's will.
- Defied: "The bastard destroyed my life! No matter what Freudian Excuse he might have, I'm not going to mourn him!"
- Discussed: "When all of this is over and we kill Evil Bob... think you'll regret his death? You gotta admit, despite everything, you've known him longer than most of your friends... the ones he hasn't killed, granted..."
- Conversed: "This is the part in all those old sagas where the noble hero cries for his opponent's death, right?" "Yeah... I kinda feel like I understand why, too..."
- Implied: Hiro is seen depressed after Evil Bob's defeat, but the reason for that was unknown.
- Deconstructed: Evil Bob orchestrated his own death with the intention of garnering sympathy from Hiro and manipulating him into considering Evil Bob's intentions as justified. Hiro falls into a deep depression and starts to wonder if maybe Evil Bob really did have a point.
- Reconstructed: Hiro comes to understand that while Evil Bob had reasons for going to the lengths he did, they still didn't justify his actions. Hiro chooses to mourn the life that led Evil Bob into villainy and respect the man for being as strong as he was.
- Played for Laughs: Evil Bob is about to die, but can't until he thinks of something sufficiently tragic or sad to say.
- Played for Drama: Evil Bob dies tragically, causing the hero and, possibly, the audience to mourn.
Man! Alas, Poor Villain was such a lousy page! And prime troll and flame war bait, nonetheless! ...but now that it has ended, I kinda miss it. *sniff*
