Basic Trope: A powerful and tyrannical empire is governed by an aging ruler.
- Straight: Big Bad Emperor Evulz is crippled and bent with age by the time the heroes find him.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz is on life support and can barely even communicate, let alone in a coherent and comprehensible manner, while his forces are about to cover the world in darkness.
- Downplayed:
- Emperor Evulz is not that old, but he is beginning to feel his age and is pretty much retiring from any fighting.
- Emperor Evulz' mind is still very sharp, but his body is not, relegating him to being a Non-Action Big Bad.
- Justified: Emperor Evulz is only human and just like any other, he grows old and frail with age.
- Subverted:
- Despite his outward appearance, Emperor Evulz is in fact a mighty sorcerer...
- Puppet Emperor Evulz is an Unwitting Pawn of his council, who are the ones truly in charge.
- Double Subverted:
- ...but after many long years spent abusing his magical power, he's lost both his powers and his health.
- So they think, as he plays them for fools.
- Inverted:
- The Big Good is individually a One-Man Army ... But his kingdom is very frail without him.
- Evulz has gotten Stronger with Age and has the physique of a healthy young man in his senior years.
- Parodied:
- The Emperor is a Scatterbrained Senior who pisses and soils himself while plotting evil.
- The Emperor is actually a young man who looks old due to his hard living.
- Zig-Zagged: Emperor Evulz is a powerful sorcerer who carved out his empire using his powers, but as he grew old, so did his power diminish. He is still fairly dangerous individually and nobody dares cross him, but he is far less powerful than he used to be.
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz' generals begin conspiring against him, believing that he has grown too weak with age. As such, he is living on borrowed time.
- Evulz arranged to be the only leader his empire could have, not accounting for the possibility that his faculties could deteriorate with age.
- Reconstructed: Thanks to his Cult of Personality he founded, no one would dream of harming or challenging their glorious leader even in his moment of weakness.
- Averted: Evulz is just a regular old man who's lived his whole life in The Empire.
- Lampshaded:Bob: So, we meet at last ... Emperor Evulz?Evulz: Yes, that is I.Alice: I thought you'd be more personally active than this.Evulz: It gets hard once you're 108 years old.
- Defied:
- Evulz stays active even after he consolidates his power so he ages well.
- Given that Asskicking Leads to Leadership is law of the land, General Drake overthrows him so he can be a ruler as effective in the throne room as on the battlefield.
- Invoked:
- Evulz smokes and drinks heavily in between bouts of conquering, which ages him prematurely.
- As an ambitious young man, Evulz made a Deal with the Devil to get his empire: He would have it Cast from Lifespan. The devil aged him until he was nearly at the upper end of his life expectancy.
- Exploited: Evulz' advisors, knowing he could keel over at any moment, make joint and/or sole arrangements to fill the upcoming Evil Power Vacuum in a way favourable to them.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: One servant leads another past a line of weak-looking old men, then says, "One of those fellows was the Emperor himself."
- Played for Laughs: Evulz has a sense of humour about his reduced capabilities and is often the first to make jokes about how time hasn't been that kind to him.
- Played for Drama: Clay, The Big Guy, gets very upset that he could end the whole war if he could just get his hands on the frail Evulz.Clay: Oh God, I could've ended all of this if I just had to beat Evulz to a pulp!? Why wasn't I informed of this?...
- Played for Horror: Evulz is so frail because of his necrophilia.
Look on our Strong Empire, Shriveled Emperor, and despair!
