Basic Trope: The hero rescues the villain.
- Straight: Amazing Girl rescues Emperor Evulz from falling down to his Disney Villain Death.
- Exaggerated: Amazing Girl rescues Emperor Evulz and makes a Heroic Sacrifice in the process.
- Downplayed: Bob saves Charlie, a known jerkass from getting hit by a car.
- Justified:
- Amazing Girl lives by the belief that killing criminals would cause her to lose her morality, which includes the inaction of saving them.
- Despite all the terrible things he has done, that doesn't change the fact that Evulz was a great friend of Amazing Girl before his Face–Heel Turn, and all the good he did prior to that is more important to her than his current villainy. Besides, allowing her former friend to die would deprive him of any chance for redemption he might still have.
- Amazing Girl has a moral obligation to save anyone's life, which also includes her enemies.
- Amazing Girl holds herself responsible (in whole or in part) for the situation Evulz is in.
- Evulz has the only cure to her sidekick's illness. If he dies, there's no way for Amazing Girl to get the cure.
- Amazing Girl is a Hero with Bad Publicity and she really can't afford the fallout if Evulz bites it on her watch.
- Evulz is some flavor of Anti-Villain, like a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, Driven to Villainy, or outright Forced into Evil.
- Amazing Girl wants Evulz to live so he can go to jail, where he will face justice for his actions. Evulz dying will prevent him from suffering the proper consequences.
- Inverted: Villainous Rescue - Evulz rescues Amazing Girl.
- Subverted:
- Amazing Girl tries to rescue Evulz, but that's actually what kills him.
- It seems like Amazing Girl is going to rescue Evulz, but then decides to drop him into his death.
- Double Subverted: It turns out that Evulz had fallen into a rubber floor.
- Amazing Girl gets a What the Hell, Hero? response from her friends, because that's something a true hero would never do. She ends up miraculously saving him.
- Parodied:
- Amazing Girl spends more time finding villains on the verge of death and saving them than actually helping innocent bystanders.
- Amazing Girl even saves Emperor Evulz from non-lethal, non-dangerous situations, such as Evulz being sent to prison after she defeats him.
- Evulz is Too Dumb to Live, forcing Amazing Girl to rescue him from ridiculous perils of his own making.Evulz: Amazing Girl, help! I tried to steal from the vending machine, and now my arm is stuck!
Amazing Girl: *sigh* I swear, if I weren't a superhero...
- Zig Zagged: Amazing Girl looks like she's going to save Evulz, but instead goes with a Murder by Inaction. When he survives that, she turns him in to the police, instead of leaving him there to die of his wounds.
- Averted: Amazing Girl doesn't save Evulz and lets him fall to his Karmic Death or at least have him severely injured.
- Enforced: "We need to show how much of a pure hero Amazing Girl is. Let's have him save one of her worst enemies."
- Lampshaded:
- "You saved me after everything I've done?"
- "Why the hell are you saving him!? Kill Him Already!!"
- Invoked: Amazing Girl knows there is still hope for Evulz, and waits for the golden moment to save him from being Hoist by His Own Petard
- Exploited:
- Emperor Evulz was surprised he was rescued, but decides to take this moment to become a Falsely Reformed Villain: both to spare his own life and to put himself in the best position to avenge this humiliation, with Amazing Girl's rescue being the perfect cover.
- Amazing Girl is willing to save the villain but won't do so unconditionally: she forces a Leonine Contract on Evulz in return for her help.
- Defied:
- "I'm not gonna save you! Your death awaits, you bastard!"
- Emperor Evulz realizes that Amazing Girl is trying to rescue him from falling down and purposefully lets go.
- Discussed: "A warrior so noble they would spare even their greatest foe? Such valor is rare in the world...for good reason."
- Conversed: "AG saves Evulz. Just when I thought they're gonna kill off that scum this season!"
- Deconstructed:
- Saving Evulz has turned out to be a mistake. Evulz becomes more cunning and ruthless in his pursuit to murder thousands, and Amazing Girl is called out by her allies for clinging to her morals in saving a sociopath.
- Nightfall Templar really gets sick of Amazing Girl, calling her a "moralizing moron" and proceeding to hunt down and butcher Evulz himself.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
- Reconstructed:
- Because Amazing Girl saved him, Evulz grudgingly becomes her Worthy Opponent.
- Rescuing Evulz shows that there is goodness in the world and sets Evulz on the path to redemption.
- Amazing Girl learns to tell the difference between when saving the villain is a good idea and when she should let them burn.
- Intended Audience Reaction: The way that Amazing Girl saves Emperor Evulz is treated as a Ship Tease moment.
Back to Save the Villain.
