Basic Trope: The villain unwittingly gives the hero an advantage.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz kidnaps and holds Bob's sister Alice for ransom. Turns out Alice was planning to kill her brother and join Evulz, but she can't very well do that now that she's in captivity, and this gives Bob the opportunity to figure out her plan. Now Bob realizes that his sister is a villain and Evulz's mistreatment of Alice means that there's no way she would help him even if he did let her.
- Exaggerated:
- Emperor Evulz turns on a light-switch. Doing so causes a chain reaction that eventually leads to a power outage. This cuts power to his base's energy barriers, allowing Bob (who was held prisoner) to escape and basically get free access to all of Evulz's base.
- At the beginning of the story, Evulz's plan was working without a hitch, but Evulz antagonized Bob and provoked him into questing to stop him, making Evulz himself responsible for all the problems he's experienced in the whole story.
- Downplayed: Evulz holds Alice for ransom. Alice was a Guile Hero who was trying to get close to Evulz to figure out his secrets, but she had no way to enter his base.
- Justified:
- Alice was able to hide her villainy from even her close friends and family. How was Evulz, who has no personal connection to Bob, supposed to know what she was up to?
- Evulz actually wants to help Bob so that Bob can defeat another villain who wants to destroy everything, unlike Evulz who only wishes to rule. However, since Bob is currently known as Public Enemy #1, Evulz openly helping him would be a PR disaster. So he kidnaps Alice, supposedly to cause Bob to capitulate but really because he knows her plan to kill Bob would doom the world to destruction at the hands of an Omnicidal Maniac.
- Inverted:
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
- Nice Job Breaking It, Villain; Emperor Evulz creates a monster capable of destruction but the monster possesses Emperor Evulz and becomes Belial Evulz and causes so much destruction that not even the most powerful heroes can defeat him.
- Subverted:
- Evulz at first seems like he's going to kidnap Alice, who's secretly plotting against Bob, but then changes his mind and kidnaps Bob's loyal sister, Carly.
- Alice being kidnapped is a distraction; while Bob tries to rescue her, Faye has seized Bob's base of operations. While Bob ends up realizing Alice's villainy, he doesn't have the advantage because he has no base.
- Double Subverted: However, Carly was unwittingly instrumental in Alice's plan to kill Bob. Her kidnapping throws the plot completely out of whack, and Bob's efforts to get Carly back eventually lead him to realize Alice's villainy.
- Parodied: Everything Evulz does gives Bob an advantage. He kidnaps Alice? Turns out she was a much more competent villain than he and was about to kill Bob before he intervened. Attack Bob's base? Turns out several other villains had captured it, and Bob is easily able to get it back after the Evulz-caused Enemy Civil War. Turn on a light switch? The power drain turns out to be just enough that his Doomsday Device doesn't get off the ground.
- Zig Zagged: Whether Evulz accidentally helps Bob Depends On The Writer.
- Averted: Evulz kidnaps Alice. She had no plans against her brother, but they weren't close and even after escaping she doesn't want to get involved in the conflict.
- Enforced: "Oh, shit... Evulz is gonna win at this rate, and it's too late to change it! Oh, I know! Let's have one of his actions accidentally help Bob!"
- Lampshaded:
- "Nice job helping Bob, Evulz!"
- "You know, I really thought that would end with you dying horribly and me not feeling like a complete idiot..."
- Invoked:
- Evulz wants to end his career as a villain, so he starts "accidentally" aiding Bob so that Bob can 'defeat' him and let him retire.
- Bob planned around how Evulz acts.
- Exploited: Evulz plans to kidnap Bob's sister Carly. Dan, The Starscream, realizes that while Carly is firmly on Bob's side, Bob's other sister Alice isn't and kidnapping her would actually help Bob. He uses his role as Evulz's advisor to nudge Evulz into kidnapping Alice instead, and using Bob to help depose Evulz.
- Defied: Evulz makes sure he knows everything about Alice before he goes ahead with his plan to kidnap her. When he realizes she's plotting against Bob, he instead offers to help her.
- Discussed: "Are you sure kidnapping Alice is a good idea?" "You know, now that you mention it, she does seem to have a history with Bob. Oh well, I'll go ahead with it anyway. Maybe I can convince her to join my side if she does hate Bob."
- Conversed: "Did Evulz just kidnap Alice? But... what about that plan to kill Bob she'd been prepping for the last season and a half?"
- Implied: Alice and Bob have a very rocky relationship. After Evulz kidnaps Alice, Bob suddenly starts succeeding more often, and doesn't seem all that inclined to help Alice.
- Deconstructed: Evulz becomes rather paranoid about how much he does that helps the heroes. Soon enough he goes on a rampage that ignores both his main objective and kills many people on all sides.
- Reconstructed:
- Before breaking down, Evulz starts to think, and realizes that the heroes do this for him as well. Soon enough he has an ever better plot that uses the heroes to his advantage.
- A more positive example, Evulz realized that Being Evil Sucks and helping people felt more rewarding than causing chaos wherever he goes, thus kickstarting his Redemption Quest.
- Played For Laughs: Evulz kills all of Bob's allies, and is about to finish him off when he steps on a twig. This somehow revives everyone, including Bob's long dead missing parents and pet dog.
- Played For Drama: Evulz actually stops the Doomsday Device he was trying to operate, making way for the hero to come and give him angst.
- Played For Horror: The act that Evulz does that "fixes" things is violent, bloody, traumatic and something Bob wishes to erase from his mind, such as Evulz kidnapping and torturing Bob's sister to death (which drives Bob to literally apocalyptic Unstoppable Rage).
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