Basic Trope: A villain tries to get the hero to bow before him.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz has won so he orders Bob to bow before him.
- Exaggerated:
- He then orders Alice, Charlie, and the others to bow.
- Evulz demands this after every conflict... even if he loses.
- Evulz forces Bob to kneel down before him and orders Bob to worship him as a god.
- Evulz telekinetically forces EVERYONE in any room he enters to kneel before him.
- Downplayed: The Affably Evil Emperor politely requests Bob to submit to him.
- Justified:
- Bob Ain't Too Proud to Beg
- In Evulz's culture, kneeling to the king is a requirement.
- Evulz has a god complex.
- Evulz is a God-Emperor and he wants everyone to worship him.
- Inverted:
- Stop Worshipping Me: Evulz tells his minions not to kneel to him, thinking it's demeaning both to the minions and himself.
- Bob has won so he orders Emperor Evulz to bow before him.
- Bob has won, so Evulz bows to him in acknowledgement.
- Emperor Evulz paralyzes Bob into a stand position, then kneels before Bob while giving Bob a Breaking Speech.
- Subverted: Bob's just bending to tie his shoes. He then stands up straight and spits at Evulz' face.
- Double Subverted: Bob then apologizes, saying he just had to do that, and then bows down and starts grovelling.
- Parodied:
- Emperor Evulz didn't want Bob to submit, he just wanted Bob to do a certain other thing while kneeling before him.
- The sum goal of all of Evulz's plots can be reduced to "Have random people kneel before me when I demand it."
- Emperor Evulz is unfamiliar with earth and ask Bob to grovel "in the manner befitting your people." Bob promptly moons him.
- Zig Zagged: Evulz demands Bob bow, but the latter manages to use it in a gambit to escape. Later, Evulz learns his lesson and just shoots at Bob...while still demanding many other victims to bow and later being forced to bow by Alice.
- Averted: Emperor Evulz just shoots Bob instead of giving Bob the chance to defeat him by having him submit.
- Enforced: "We need Evulz to brag about his victory somehow without doing something with an effect on the plot."
- Lampshaded:
- The spot where Bob is told to kneel has grooves in it from his predecessors
- "Need to feed your ego again, Evulz?"
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz forces Bob to kneel by other means than asking, like telekinetic manipulation.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz dropped his gun during the fight; Bob waits until he's ordered to kneel to grab it and shoot Evulz.
- Defied:
- Despite being threatened with certain death, Bob heroically refuses to bow before Emperor Evulz.
- Defeated, Bob is about to kneel before Evulz, but Evulz tells him to stand and hear his offer.
- Discussed: "Kneeling is generally reserved for kings and gods. Evulz has a legitimate claim to neither of those things, but he will still demand it of you.
- Conversed: "Demanding people to kneel is typically symptomatic of Evulz inferiority complex."
- Played For Drama: Evulz demands Bob to kneel every time they meet. After their final battle Bob is absolutely broken in both mind and body...and doesn't even have to be asked to kneel, as he bends down and silently begs for death.
Back to Kneel Before Zod
