Basic Trope: Bad guy gives a genuine compliment to a hero.
- Straight: Vampire Diablo congratulates Xandra for mastering swordsmanship and braving his Evil Tower of Ominousness without losing her life.
- Exaggerated:
- ...Diablo also comments on her posture, much improved since the time he killed her sister. She also remembered to coat herself in garlic stench since last time she forgot he killed her brother...
- Diablo gives her praise while simultaneously beating her to a pulp
- Diablo praises her while she’s beating him to a pulp.
- Downplayed: Diablo makes an offhand comment on Xandra's improvements but means no respect.
- Justified:
- Diablo respects Xandra's determination.
- Diablo is Affably Evil.
- Inverted:
- Xandra praises Diablo's mastery over the MacGuffin.
- Diablo insults Xandra since she’s actually worse off in swordfighting than when they first met.
- Subverted: Diablo says nothing apart from “You dare set foot in my domain?” and fights Xandra
- Double Subverted: During a mid-combat exposition scene he commends her swordsmanship.
- Parodied: Xandra enters Diablo's lair and he begins to congratulate her for reaching him in time, gives her a gold star, trophy, and has a ceremony already up for her.
- Zig-Zagged: Diablo says a lot of things about Xandra to her face, some positive and some negative.
- Averted: Diablo immediately attacks Xandra when they meet.
- Enforced: The episode needed a minute's worth of extra footage so they shoed in this trope
- Lampshaded: “I know I’m the last person you’d expect a compliment from, but...”
- Invoked: The author wanted to portray Diablo as a more pragmatic and intellectual villain, this trope was part of it.
- Exploited: Diablo is lulling Xandra into a false sense of security with offhand and polite comments.
- Defied: Xandra tells him to shut up.
- Discussed: During a brief respite before they fight, presumably to the death, the hero and villain talk for a while. As they then prepare for the fight, the villain remarks that he now has come to admire the hero, even if he must kill him.
- Conversed: “I love the less stereotypical villains, especially the ones that actually compliment the hero”
- Deconstructed:
- Xandra has never received praise in her life. She’s been abused by her “Friends” and family and only mourned their deaths because she never had the chance to have a good relationship with them. She finds herself growing attached to Diablo every time they meet because he’s the only person who cares enough to congratulate her. As a result she can’t bring herself to fight him and he still lives to plot evil on the world.
- Diablo's minions begin to dissent in their loyalty to Diablo because of his passive behavior toward his enemies.
- Reconstructed:
- She goes through the same revelation, but instead of growing to love Diablo she understands that he's still evil and needs to die.
- Diablo explains he does this in order to lull them into a false sense of security. His minions are loyal again and respect his intelligence.
- Played for Laughs: Xandra compliments him back, and the two get into a compliment war before someone reminds them they're supposed to be fighting.
- Played for Horror
- Alice compliments Bob on his body, observing that he must work out a lot. But since Alice is a necromancer, she then promises him that she will use his body as a well-preserved zombie to be her bodyguard, after she has killed him.
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