Basic Trope: The new antagonist is different from the old antagonist.
- Straight: After defeating Bob, a middle-aged male melée fighter, the heroes' next antagonist is Alice, a teenage female magic user.
- Exaggerated: Bob had an established power base that the heroes are trying to unseat, while Alice is an up and comer who is targeting the heroes. Bob had a large group of minions who he intimidated into line, while Alice has a small group of True Companions who care for and respect each other. Upon defeat Bob flies into a rage, while Alice accepts her's with quiet contemplation.
- Downplayed: Alice is different from Bob, but she also shares a lot of similarities with him in terms of past, personality, etc.
- Justified:
- Alice dislikes Bob and tried to be as different from him as possible in the past. It just so happens that they face the same group of heroes in the present.
- Alice is intentionally going with an approach different from Bob's because she saw his method fail, and believes the heroes won't see her coming.
- The heroes are soldiers of fortune. It doesn't matter what the problem is… if you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…
- Inverted:
- The heroes instead face Rob, another middle-aged male melee fighter.
- Bob remains the villain. Instead, it's the hero he goes up against who is totally different.
- Subverted: "Alice" winds up being another middle-aged male melee fighter in disguise.
- Double Subverted: But then the real Alice kills that guy, revealing herself to be the true villain of the arc, and she's still a teenage female magic user.
- Parodied:
- The secretary at the Legion of Doom in charge of sending out antagonists to fight the heroes picks from a list of archetypes to send out. "Oh, did Brawler Bob get defeated? Ok, Magician Alice, you're up next. Geez, beaten too? Okay, Sniper Sally, your turn."
- Alice is nothing like Bob...in extremely minor ways. She likes cats, he likes dogs, she likes blue, he likes pink, etc.
- Zig Zagged: Although Alice is different from Bob, the next antagonist Charlotte is very similar to Alice. But then she diverges into her own character. The next villain Dennis is very different from Charlotte, while the next villain Ella is very similar to Dennis.
- Averted: Alice isn't particularly similar to or different from Bob.
- Enforced:
- "It'll get boring if the heroes have to fight some old brawler all the time, so I'm going to create a different kind of villain to keep things interesting!"
- The sequel was made when the values behind the original's villain were becoming seen as antiquated, so a new type of villain was chosen that better fit the mores of the day.
- Lampshaded: "Alice's magic sure is tiring us out! Makes you miss Bob, huh?"
- Invoked: The Legion of Doom deliberately sends someone as different from Bob as possible to defeat the heroes, because if Bob's techniques didn't work against them, a drastically different set might.
- Exploited: Knowing that their next villain will be very different from the previous ones, the heroes are prepared for all possibilities of opponents.
- Defied: Although Alice wants the chance to fight the heroes, the Legion of Doom instead sends someone more like Bob.
- Discussed: "If this were a movie, we'll next face someone completely different from Bob. You know, to up the stakes."
- Conversed: "Sometimes in movies they have the next villain be totally different from the old villain." "Huh, that's pretty interesting."
- Implied: The hero recounts his fight with Bob, and then says that his next opponent was a different experience, but he doesn't elaborate on that.
- Deconstructed:
- The heroes are unprepared to fight the new threat that Alice presents because they're used to Bob, and suffer heavy losses as a result.
- Because she was deliberately chosen to fight the heroes because she's different from Bob, Alice struggles with succeeding where Bob failed. Eventually, she can't cope with the pressure, and this becomes her undoing.
- Reconstructed:
- The heroes adapt from their experience with Alice, becoming more prepared and accustomed to fighting a wider range of opponents.
- Alice eventually rediscovers the source of her power and takes pride in being different from Bob, fighting the heroes with renewed vigor.
- Untwisted: Bob's replacement villain Rob seems exactly like him, except for being an incompetent Big Bad Wannabe who is usurped by Alice.
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