Basic Trope: The Big Bad doesn't remember some horrible act he committed because it didn't matter to him as much as it did the heroes.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz wiped out Mysterious Waif Mana's Doomed Hometown. When the heroes confront him, he doesn't remember the atrocity.
- Exaggerated:
- Emperor Evulz forgets all the atrocities he commits, and doesn't understand why people hate him so much.
- Emperor Evulz has killed so many people and razed so many towns that they all start to blur together. Wiping entire nations off the map is just another day at the office for him.
- Evulz destroys Mana's hometown in the morning and forgets about it by lunch.
- Evulz' A Day in the Limelight episode is essentially a Whole-Plot Reference of The Hangover, replacing "raised hell in Las Vegas" with "killed thousands of people and burnt down their town".
- Evulz' various levels of Apocalypse How is just as natural as his breathing. He treats it as if it were another daily routine for him.
- A role-inversion-based example, all the villains of the first season team up due to their common enemy Hiro and try to get vengeance on him for different reasons (him crushing their crime empires, him finally catching one of them in the act, arresting them, defeating them, etc.) but when they finally confront him, all he does is give a confused stare and asks "who are all of you again?"
- Downplayed:
- Emperor Evulz rarely forgets things, one of which is what the hero is after him for.
- While Evulz doesn't remember or even care about whose lives he's ruined, he's still aware that he made countless enemies over the years.
- Evulz does remember the incident, it just took a minute for him to recollect.
- Evulz remembers wiping out Mana's hometown, but doesn't recall her father as standing out from the others who died trying to stop him.
- Justified:
- Emperor Evulz commits horrible acts daily, often to hundreds or thousands of people at a time. How's he supposed to remember all of them?
- Evulz doesn't remember Mana's hometown because he was in the grip of a massive psychotic break and there are many gaps in his memory regarding that day.
- Emperor Evulz has grown senile in his old age, and would be lucky if he remembered what he had for breakfast this morning.
- Evulz's memory was altered or erased at some point.
- Evulz wasn't even there himself; the whole thing was carried out by a subordinate on his orders as part of a set of generalized instructions.
- He's totally innocent, at least this one time, — someone else burned down the town and he was misblamed.
- Evulz's 'cruel' act had dominoed out of an act of ignorance.
- Drake is merely a Beleaguered Bureaucrat who unknowingly authorized the destruction of Mana's hometown, and wasn't even given the opportunity to know exactly what he'd allowed to happen.
- Inverted:
- Emperor Evulz remembers how he killed Mana's boyfriend. Mana doesn't.
- Emperor Evulz only remembers killing Mana's boyfriend, and no one else.
- Emperor Evulz pursues Mana to avenge the death of General Drake. When he finally catches up with her she tells him "I beat last-rate bad guys all the time, you can't expect me to remember all of them."
- Mana runs into the heroes and thanks them for saving her life and her village the last time they met. The heroes are dumbfounded, as they forgot all about it.
- Mana savvily waits until she's delivered the lethal blow to Evulz before informing the Almost Dead Guy that she killed him for wiping out her hometown, and quotes the trope, expecting him not to remember it. Turns out he was Necessarily Evil, and he remembers destroying her hometown vividly — doing it saved exponentially more lives for some reason. Perhaps it was even His Greatest Failure — if he'd been better at his job, he wouldn't have had to sacrifice those lives to save others.
- When Mana tells Evulz her boyfriend's name, Evulz suddenly starts a long rant. He keeps praising the man's bravery and affirms that he was a Worthy Opponent, how the victory over Mana's boyfriend is Evulz's greatest achievement, and how he feels his life is so empty without his rival. Mana is dumbfounded, for she never knew he was that great.
- Turns out he burned down her hometown because years ago she burnt down his hometown — which she doesn't remember.
- Mana, a Damsel in Distress, has been kidnapped and almost killed so many times by so many different people, that she's forgotten who Emperor Evulz is and all the times he tried to kidnap her.
- Emperor Evulz has a photographic memory and remembers every person he's ever killed perfectly.
- Mana remembers when she killed Evulz's top henchman and best friend. Emperor Evulz doesn't.
- Mana remembers how Jeffrey saved her life from an onslaught of hungry monsters. Jeffrey barely remembers the event and treats life saving as a morale-boosting activity.
- Former Emperor Evulz comes to Hiro's doorstep and speaks a vengeance-based Motive Rant on how the guy effectively ruined his life, his image, and his empire by thwarting his plans and comes to kill him as revenge for what the hero did to him, Hiro, on the other hand, barely remembers who the guy even is due to thwarting many other villains' schemes.
- Subverted:
- When confronted, Evulz doesn't remember wiping out Mana's hometown... until he recognizes the scar he put on her left cheek.
- It's later revealed that Evulz does remember — he was just messing with her.
- "I never said it happened on a Tuesday..."
- Evulz doesn't remember most of the places he razes, but Mana's hometown was special. After all, he grew up there too.
- Mana realizes that Evulz doesn't remember the incident because it really wasn't his doing; Mana was thinking of someone else all along.
- Mana doesn't even care if Evulz doesn't remember or know what he's talking about. She just wants him to know about it and that she is gonna make him pay the dearest price for it so he doesn't do something like that ever again.
- Double Subverted:
- Turns out he was remembering scarring someone else's left cheek while burning down their hometown.
- He remembers, but only vaguely, and still doesn't give a damn. He forgets about it later.
- "Well it sounds like something I'd normally do on one..."
- Emperor Evulz actually destroyed his and Mana's hometown more than once.
- Mana only thought it was Evulz because he actually was there, but now she knows he was just doing the bidding of someone else.
- Evulz is so confident in his prowess he doubts he'll remember defeating The Hero either.
- It's not so much where or when that Evulz has trouble remembering as it is how he destroyed that hometown.
- Parodied:
- Upon learning that Emperor Evulz doesn't remember the wrong he committed against Mana, Mana begins to explain in detail what the wrong was in an attempt to jog Evulz's memory. Evulz still doesn't remember.
- Evulz doesn't remember wiping out Mana's hometown, but he does remember something trivial that is vaguely connected to wiping out Mana's hometown, like he got a lot of blood on his shirt that day and wanted to wash it off, but his washing machine at home was busted, so he had to go to a drycleaner, but he left his credit card at home so he had to pay with cash and was five dollars short...
- Mana also recalls seeing and hearing him say how his shirt was a mess.
- Mana takes Evulz back to her hometown, which after years of rebuilding has finally got back on its feet, and encourages him to raze it again in an attempt to jog his memory.
- Emperor Evulz doesn't know why Mana showed up on his doorstep to kill him. Mana doesn't either, leaving each other confused why they're confronting each other like this.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Emperor Evulz wiped out Mana's homeland. When the heroes confront him, he recognizes them and starts bragging about how he destroyed it ... but then they realize he's not talking about Mana. Turns out he destroyed Alice and Bob's hometown, too — which they hadn't known about yet.
- Emperor Evulz comments that how he's wiped out many homelands, so Mana will have to be more specific, during the battle, he notices her weapon that she says belonged to her father, who was killed the day Evulz attacked. Things start to add up, and Evulz realizes she must be from the same homeland as him. There's just one problem about the weapon she says was her father's, because Evulz remembers building and using it himself up until that day. Come to think of it, Mana also resembles a woman he was romantically involved with, and knows she never married... You can see where this is going.
- Averted:
- Emperor Evulz knows exactly who Mana is and why she has a grudge against him.
- Emperor Evulz doesn't know who Mana is, but the instant she mentions the town, he puts two and two together.
- "Oh, I remember. I just don't care."
- Mana doesn't care if Evulz remembers her, and never mentions her hometown to him.
- Evulz has not yet had the chance to harm Mana or her loved ones. She's only there because someone else came to her for help.
- Never Heard That One Before
- Enforced: The editors of the story wanted to make Emperor Evulz even more horrible and evil than was originally planned to make the Anti-Hero Mana look more like a good guy. To compensate for the Emperor's escalation, the writer doesn't have him remember the now comparatively tiny crime of destroying Mana's hometown.
- Lampshaded:
- "My dear, you can't expect me to remember every pathetic little village I've wiped out in my time."
- "Yeah, I didn't think you would remember that in particular."
- "It was Thursday, you sick son of a bitch!" "Was it, now? Well, I'm sure you remember it better than I do."
- "Oh please, I made so many enemies, ruined so many lives, and killed countless loved ones. What makes you so special from the rest of them?"
- "You probably don't remember killing my father and burning my village. It's a funny thing, because I'm gonna drive this sword through your chest, walk away triumphant, and I'll soon hear a report about your death. Then, I'm gonna chuckle, shake my head.....and never think of you again."
- Invoked:
- Emperor Evulz pretends not to remember just to enrage the heroes, expecting their anger to blind them and lead to them making critical mistakes in the following fight.
- The Hero beats Evulz to the punchline with, "I know that you probably don't remember killing my father. But you'll remember this."
- The Hero beats Evulz to the punchline with, "I know that you probably don't remember killing my father. But I'll remember killing you."
- The Hero kills Evulz before beating him to the punchline with, "I know that you probably don't remember killing my father. But I'll remember having killed you."
- Exploited:
- The heroes take advantage of Evulz's terrible memory for atrocities so they can pose as a different victim of his, evading notice.
- Knowing that Evulz doesn't bother remembering to the atrocities he's committed, the heroes gathered allies to anyone whose lives were ruined by him into an army. It's only when the army grew big enough to be a threat to Evulz, that he realizes that he made many enemies, and they're out to get him.
- Defied:
- Before he escaped, Mana managed to gave Emperor Evulz a distinctive scar on his face precisely so that he wouldn't forget her or what he did to her.
- Fearing that someone will rise up and wanting revenge against him. Evulz keeps a running journal of his misdeeds.
- Evulz has a cell built, with the name of each town he razed carved into the walls. Once a week, he visits that cell, and has himself whipped while he chants their names.
- "Well, since you never bothered to remember or even care what you have done and how many lives you have ruined, so I won't bother telling you what you have done to me personally either. Now, EN GARDE, SON OF A BITCH!"
- Discussed: "Mana, this psycho commits at least two world-shattering atrocities every day before lunch. You really think that killing your father is going to stand out in his mind?" "It will once I beat him senseless." "Well, at least save some of him for the rest of us."
- Conversed: "I'm waiting for a scene where somebody calls Evulz on the phone and gets the message: 'Please leave your name, number, and relation to people I've killed, and I'll get back to you shortly.'"
- Implied: The hero doesn't say much, but he obviously holds a grudge against Evulz, one which Evulz is honestly surprised to learn of.
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz doesn't remember who Mana is until she reminds him in specific detail. Then, he asks her the names of all the members of his Legion of Doom that she's killed, and where they live, and if they have families. He then shows her a memorial he's built for the dead soldiers, a gigantic stack of letters he was writing to their families, and a platoon of the friends and surviving colleagues of the deceased, all of whom are quite eager to get their own revenge on Mana.
- Alternatively, Evulz's multiple acts of reckless Kick the Dog moments pile up throughout his career, causing the rise of one revenge-seeking hero after another. They team up to hunt down Evulz en masse and defeat him. Evulz doesn't know how to deal with this; he doesn't remember any of them.
- Emperor Evulz and Mana's allies call her out for focusing one on a single event rather than the sum total of his travesties.
- Deconstructed Inversion: Considering the fact that Evulz is killing everything Mana loves as revenge for something she did, the fact she cannot remember what she did and thus cannot look at her loved ones in the eye and reassure them that whatever happens, good or bad, as a result of said deed is worth it ticks them off.
- Reconstructed:
- Okay, so the heroes may have killed their fair share of Evulz's allies themselves just to get to him, but there's still a few problems with the survivors wanting their own revenge. For starters, Evulz's atrocities were what caused many of the heroes to take up arms in the first place, and they were only Killing in Self-Defense, so if anything, the deceased tried to kill them first. The survivors can't actually be good people themselves if they're willing to work for an Evil Overlord, and go as far to commit much worse things than them. They're also attempting to fight and/or kill people who are probably much stronger than them if they managed to make it this far. So if they and Evulz really want to go through with all of this, then now might as well be their chance.
- Evulz doesn't recognize the name of the town, but finds out where it is and unapologetically explains that it was part of a scorched-earth campaign to keep his enemies from sheltering there. Of course, a man with world domination on his to-do list can't fight a personal duel with every kid whose father he may have killed, but have you met The Dragon? You kids play nicely now.
- Evulz is the evil-overlord equivalent of Dumb Muscle: He doesn't need to remember atrocities because he's powerful enough to execute the army of traumatised survivors baying for his blood.
- Mana points out that the single event is connected to the rest of Evulz's actions. Sir Robert's whole adventure? That was caused by Evulz burning Mana's hometown down, which enraged Sir Robert's queen, who then sent him out to teach a lesson to Evulz. Diane being sent on this holy quest? Coincidentally, her monastery (which had been wrecked too, unbeknownst to Diane) was right next to Mana's hometown. Lance's plot to do the greatest heist? It was because Lance's boss was trying to make him rob Evulz out of revenge for what he did to Mana's hometown (which is actually pillaging one of the most priceless gems known to man). Except Claidheamh. Claidheamh's The Rival and also The Brute, and is only joining them because they beat him in a fight and is practically holding him captive (the reason why he was The Rival and The Brute was because they burnt his hometown down, and it was all because of a stupid prank. It's not like his hometown matters more than Mana's). It's part of her motivation to help those who could end up like her, or anyone else that's suffered from him. That's why she has her allies, so they can defeat him together instead of losing to him separately.
- Reconstructed Inversion: ...Of course, Mana and her loved ones believe that Evulz is no better than her for how far he's willing to make her suffer, suspecting that he may or may not have deserved whatever Mana did if he was already close to who he is now.
- Played for Laughs:
- "Oh yeah! It bothered me that the body count was one short. Well, time to fix that mistake."
- "Oh, it's all coming back to me, I went to Subway before that."
- "Still not ringing any bells ... Maybe you should talk to my secretary? She usually knows when I schedule my massacres."
- Evulz pulls out his diary. "Let's see ... March 4, March 4 ... ah, here it is! Now I remember! 'The smoke rising from the burning buildings looked particularly striking against the cloudless blue sky. As I rode into the sunset I spotted a solitary child glaring balefully from the rubble, doubtless plotting her eventual revenge.' Ah... Good times, good times."
- "Seriously? You don't remember?! [Holds up an issue of TIME Magazine showing Evulz attacking the village.] Not even one of these framed up on a wall somewhere?!! Everyone across the land thought that must've been a very big day for you and your men!!!"
- "...It was the one where we raised those cute monkeys and penguins." "Oh yeah! I meant to let those live."
- Played for Drama: Mana takes her revenge on Evulz, but her victory feels hollow to her, since Evulz didn't completely understand what he had done to deserve it.
- Mana finally meets Evulz long after a Heel Realization, where he's a broken mess of a man barely clinging to reality. His inability to remember one specific crime is played more as a sign of his massive guilt and mental degredation, not indifference or cruelty. For further drama, Mana refusing to let go of her hate when she sees how broken Evulz is and how hollow her vengeance would be because killing him now would be like beating on a dead horse only makes her look like a monster to everybody else.
- Played for Horror: The death of Mana's village was done in the third Evulz Strikes! film. Mana's Roaring Rampage of Revenge was done in the thirtieth film. The number of corpses that piled up in the meanwhile is not only forgettable by Evulz, but by the audience.
- Plotted a Good Waste: Emperor Evulz has a Photographic Memory and an all-too-fond recollection of his countless atrocities. The fact he can't remember Mana's village is Foreshadowing for Laser-Guided Amnesia, Tomato in the Mirror, Not Me This Time or some other plot twist.
For you, the day this stinger sent you back to the main page was the most important day of your life. But for it, it was Tuesday.
