Basic Trope: The villain has a British accent, even if he isn't actually British.
- Straight:
- Alice must stop the British Robert from taking over the world.
- Bob, The Brute of the evil Private Military Contractors, speaks in a broad Cockney accent.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice visits Britain, and everyone there is an Obviously Evil Racist Card-Carrying Social Darwinist. Even the British leaders are Evil Colonialists and Omnicidal Maniacs themselves who plot to rule the world and the universe with iron fist.
- Robert is a Complete Monster from Britain, with white hair and RP accent to boot.
- Downplayed:
- All British characters are stuffy.
- Most characters are evil, and a couple happen to be British.
- Most characters are British and the villain just has the poshest accent.
- There are some British characters who are on the side of good, some that are evil, and some that are neutral.
- A British/Irish/Scottish Anti-Villain and/or Anti-Hero.
- Robert is half-American and speaks with a transatlantic accent.
- Robert doesn’t actually speak with a British accent. Though he does speak with a similar one, like an Australian accent.
- Robert is a jerkass, but otherwise harmless.
- Justified:
- The series takes place im Britain, so it's natural that Robert is British - most characters are.
- Robert learned received pronunciation to improve his abilities as a public speaker.
- Alternatively the story takes place in a fictional universe, Robert's accent is a Translation Convention to indicate that he's an upper class arsehole.
- The Hero is rebelling against The British Empire, so it makes sense to portray the British villains as Evil Colonialists and Western Terrorists. Bonus points if the story is focusing on British colonial atrocities from history.
- The United Kingdom is a Crapsack Wretched Nation in the story, run by their regime who are Nazis By Any Other Name.
- The bloomin' chap learned English primarily through BBC
- Inverted: The heroic Brit Robert must assemble a crack team of SAS commandos to prevent American General Ripper Alice from starting a nuclear war.
- Subverted:
- Robert wasn't the villain at all. It turns out he was joking about the whole Bangers and Mash factory thing but Alice thought he was being serious. Another case of cross-Atlantic humour clash.
- Robert is actually an American who is ashamed of his heritage, and only pretends to be British.
- Robert later pulls a Heel-Face Turn.
- Double Subverted:
- He was planning to take over the world, however.
- Turns out Robert was born in Britain but was raised in America.
- Parodied:
- Robert is introduced drowning kittens in his teacup while snacking on crumpets with spread made from babies supplied by Human Traffickers. Nazi Hunter Alice must stop him from taking over America with the help of the SAS and turning it into the world's largest Bangers and Mash factory.
- Bobbie the cockney orphan is the only character without an American accent. He turns out to be The Man Behind the Man.
- The director is aware that there is more than one British accent - and chooses the absolute goofiest ones for all the villains.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice tries to stop Robert from taking over the world...wait, it turns out he's innocent. Hang on, it looks like the real Big Bad has an accent anyway...nope he just put it on to mock Alice's assumptions about Robert. Wait, Robert's The Man Behind the Man...or is he...?
- The evil British villains are working for an American. (For a more unusual twist, the Big Bad is, say, Belgian or Canadian.)
- Averted: The cast is made up entirely of Britons or has no one with a British accent in it.
- Enforced:
- It's a movie about either the American or the Irish Revolution, at the very least the villain will probably be British.
- Corollary: if an American movie is about a ragtag group of rebels against an Evil Empire the rebels will speak with an American accent and the baddies with a British accent.
- Lampshaded:
- "Good day chaps, did me accent give me away?"
- "We Britons have a long history of supervillainy! Shall I give you a history lesson?"
- Invoked: Robert enjoys being the Devil in Plain Sight and puts on a British Accent because of this trope.
- Exploited: Robert blackmails William the Upper-Class Twit into being his stooge in the hope that his enemies will assume that William's the Big Bad based on this trope and won't investigate further (and trace it back to him).
- Defied: Robert joins the heroes solely to disprove this trope.
- Discussed: "I have my eye on you, limey."
- Conversed: "Hmm, an Irishman an Englishman and an American. I wonder who the villain will be."
- Deconstructed: Britain is attacked by a group of deluded right wing fanatic Knight Templars who have concluded that Britons are Always Chaotic Evil Nazis By Any Other Name based on the stereotype. This escalates and leads to a war between Britain and America.
- Reconstructed: Robert uses this attack, to turn around and convince the international community to invade the USA, and turns out to be the Greater-Scope Villain.
- Played for Laughs: The evil British Robert is just about to conquer the world... and he attacks by Poking the Poodle and leaving the toilet seat up.
- Played For Drama: Robert is an ex-SAS Sociopathic Soldier and Human Trafficker who is going to cause a lot of mayhem and death. If there are any heroic British characters in the story, 50/50 chances are they are also SAS or otherwise connected to the organization and are horrified about the war crimes Robert has done.
- Played For Horror: Robert is not your garden-variety Serial Killer; he is a very disturbed Ripperologist with an inflated sense of pride regarding that monster being born in Britain.
Back to Evil Brit
