Basic Trope: A villain performs an act of evil to prove they will follow through on a threat.
- Straight: Evulz threatens to bomb the state of Tropeland unless the government pays him a hefty ransom. To prove his intention to follow through, he bombs the city of Citopolis.
- Exaggerated: Evulz bombs an entire continent to prove Tropeland isn't too big a loss.
- Downplayed: Evulz shows he's built up the means to bomb Tropeland, but has yet to claim any lives.
- Justified:
- Evulz is an unknown player; he has to do something big enough to get attention.
- The governor of Tropeland is the kind of hard-core "tough guy" pompous blowhard who insists he does not negotiates with terrorists (and by that he means "anybody") fifteen times a day, twice that on Tuesdays, and a hundred times more come elections. A show of force is needed to make the people who are actually in charge tell him to cut it off: his constituents. The governor can either keep yakking his stance or lose his re-election chances with all of the blood he allowed to spill.
- Inverted:
- Evulz demands a high ransom. After getting paid, he bombs Citopolis anyway.
- Alice, a mother, fiercely stands up for students getting picked on in school. If she's so protective of kids she doesn't know, bullies will realize picking on Alice's kids is more trouble than it's worth.
- Evulz sends out an Ineffectual Death Threat that nobody takes seriously.
- Subverted:
- "And to prove I'm not bluffing...nah, I know you'll be smart enough to take my word on this."
- Evulz really is bluffing. The "smaller" strike was just there to make the bluff convincing.
- Double Subverted:
- "...but just to be safe..."
- However, Evulz did have a similarly effective back-up plan in case his bluff was called.
- Parodied: Evulz proves he isn't bluffing about a bigger threat by reusing his running gag attack.
- Zig Zagged: Evulz bombs one city at a time, increasing his demands until he's paid.
- Averted: Evulz threatens a bombing campaign, but offers a grace period before the first bomb is dropped.
- Enforced: With Evulz losing credibility as a threatening villain, he is given this scene to add urgency to the plot.
- Lampshaded: "And at this point, you may think I'm bluffing. I will show you how gravely you'd be mistaken."
- Invoked: Evulz, stating his demands through video call, decided to see how the conversation is going before following through with his bombing. When it's clear the negotiations aren't going his way, he gives the orders to bomb Citopolis.
- Exploited: In light of Citopolis getting bombed, the military launches a new recruitment campaign to retaliate.
- Defied:
- Evulz opts out of negotiations, believing a heist would yield the same results with lower risk.
- "Look, I know you're not bluffing. Just tell us your demands and we'll look into it."
- Discussed: "Evulz, if you don't mind, I don't think anything will come of this threat unless you do something to back it up."
- Conversed: "It takes someone truly callous to make innocent lives collateral to prove a point."
- Implied: On a typical Tuesday morning, Citopolis is bombed out of the blue by planes bearing Evulz' insignia. The panel on the nightly news then discuss the pros and cons of paying Evulz a lump sum.
- Deconstructed: In bombing Citopolis, Evulz signals to the government that he is beyond reason, and thus, he is forced to deal with the military when negotiations would have otherwise been considered.
- Reconstructed: Regardless of whether his demands are met, Evulz made his strike strategically, ensuring that even if Tropeland fought back, he would still have the upper hand in combat.
- Played For Laughs: Evulz proves he is serious about dropping the H-bomb by saying the F-bomb.
- Played For Drama:
- Evulz' strike provides urgency to the story, as he is no longer seen as an idle threat.
- Even after the heroes take care of Evulz, the town he struck down is still in humanitarian crisis.
- The Big Guy Clay was the only one who knew Evulz wasn't bluffing, and try as he might, he never got this info across to his team. Now that Citopolis has been nuked to kingdom come, Clay is simultaneously outraged at both Evulz for obviously turning Citopolis into an irradiated crater and his team for not listening to him.
- Played for Horror: With Evulz striking down Citopolis and politicians unwilling to pay the ransom, ordinary civilians live in fear that their hometown may be next.
To Prove I Am Not Bluffing, I'm going to send Cuthbert Liszt (you may know him as request) to cut this page.
