Basic Trope: Villain executes his minions for failing a task.
- Straight: Stellof Fladovski, an Evil Overlord, is informed that one of his Mooks has failed his task to capture a hero. Stellof kills that minion.
- Exaggerated:
- Stellof is informed that one of his Mooks has failed one of his tasks. Stellof becomes so enraged that he kills everyone in the briefing room.
- Stellof executes Mooks for failing even the most mundane tasks, like delivering a lukewarm cup of tea or missing a spot while dusting.
- Downplayed:
- Stellof removes the minion's Demon's Thorn as he wants it for someone more competent; incidentally, it was also the only thing keeping the mook alive.
- Stellof beats up a mook for failing him.
- Stellof punishes mooks who fail him by assigning them to various unpleasant work details, such as cleaning the cat's litterbox or mucking out latrines.
- Stellof punishes mooks who fail him by having them Reassigned to Antarctica.
- Stellof fires a mook who fails him.
- Stellof gives the mook another chance, but not before injecting them with a Psycho Serum that reduces them to a feral raving animal.
- Stellof pulls a Uriah Gambit and sends the mook out on a Suicide Mission, under the pretense that it will restore his honor should he succeed.
- Stellof kills the mook in a rage, but is immediately horrified over it and apologises to the other mooks for having to see him do that, assuring them it was a one-off.
- Stellof calls out the minion who failed him.
- Stellof doesn't kill the mook, but gives him a punishment so brutal it'll make him wish he were.
- Justified:
- The Mook was planing to betray Stellof and had intentionally screwed up.
- The Mook's screwup proved to be so astronomically costly, he deserved to get whacked.
- The Mook was upgraded with an artifact bound to them and Stellof wanted to give it to someone more competent.
- The Mook committed war crimes.
- The Mook has failed multiple times, and Stellof has given him multiple chances to redeem himself. When it's clear that the Mook simply doesn't have what it takes, Stellof finally kills him.
- While killing Mooks for their failure might lead to a loss of morale for Stellof's minions, Stellof notices that the Mook is The Neidermeyer and a General Failure. The morale of the Mook's own subordinates is already in the toilet because of their boss's incompetence, so Stellof kills him and appoints a more competent leader as his replacement... And There Was Much Rejoicing from the Mook's former subordinates.
- The Mook is Lethally Stupid or Too Dumb to Live. Killing the former means that they won't mess up other competent mooks. Killing the latter is just speeding up the inevitable.
- Stellof has a Hair-Trigger Temper and/or is Ax-Crazy.
- The Mook's failure has landed him in custody. Stellof kills him to keep him from talking to the police.
- The mooks are working for Stellof involuntary, firing them would be giving them what they want.
- Stellof is a Villain with Good Publicity, and the Mook's failure is putting his image at risk. Stellof kills him to set him up as a scapegoat for his crimes.
- The Mook in question refuses to admit that he failed or take any kind of responsibility for his failure. Stellof therefore decides that he'll never learn his lesson and eliminates him for being a lost cause.
- The mook was explicitly told "Do not do this" but did it anyway. Since he can't/won't follow orders, Stellof executes him for being a liability.
- The mook's screwup has doomed Stellof to a humiliating defeat and painful death.
- Stellof’s operation is top secret. Stellof can’t afford to risk letting the mook’s incompetence screw it up, but if he fires the mook, the mook may not keep his secrets.
- Inverted:
- Stellof is informed that one of his Mooks has failed one of his tasks. The Mook kills Stellof instead.
- The Mook has succeeded capturing the hero and gets promoted.
- The Mook has failed his task but it's a Career-Building Blunder: he's promoted because of it.
- Stellof realizes that the Mook's talents could be used more constructively elsewhere. He reassigns the Mook to another position in the organization, and the Mook turns out to be much better at this job.
- Stellof has lost the final showdown, but is alive. His mooks kill him because he lost.
- The Mook asks Stellof to kill him because he failed Stellof.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness
- The Mook brought the MacGuffin from the heroes back to Stellof but was killed in the process. As a reward for a job well done and in hopes of more from the Mook, Stellof brings him back to life.
- Stellof sent the Mook expecting him to fail, but the Mook succeeded.
- When Stellof is defeated by the heroes, the Mook kills him for wasting his hard work.
- Subverted:
- Stellof Fladovski, an Evil Overlord, is informed that one of his Mooks has failed his task to capture a hero. Stellof draws out a gun and points at Mook, saying "You promise me that you won't do that again".
- Stellof carries a gun full of blanks and gives all his Mooks squibs. He feels that pretending to shoot his Mooks has wonderful stress-removing properties.Stellof: Pffffffft... Ha! Ha ha ha! You should have seen your face when I pulled my gun! It's not even loaded! Haaa ha ha!
- Stellof initially looks like he's about to kill the Mook for failing him, but proceeds to kill one of the Mook's subordinates.
- Stellof is furious at the Mook's initial failures, and warns him that if he screws up just once more, he's a dead man. However, the Mook has learned from his mistakes and starts succeeding at his assignments, saving his own skin in the process.
- Stellof was planning for the mook to fail.
Mook: [grovelling and wailing piteously] Forgive me, milord. I-I'll do better next time, I swear...
Stellof: Silence, You Fool! Yes, you failed. But; you were never meant to succeed. I chose you because of your incompetence. Let's hope this little exercise motivates you to better yourself. Now, get out.- Stellof slams a button to send the Mook falling... but, as it turns out, the floor is soft and soon after Stellof himself descends into the room as well to discuss the failure peacefully.
- Stellof is angry at the Mook's failure, but isn't about to demoralize the rest of his minions by killing him. Instead of killing the Mook, Stellof humiliates him by demoting him within the organization, which costs him money, prestige and privileges. Stellof then appoints his most successful lower-ranking henchman to take the Mook's place, with the understanding that he'll suffer the same fate as the first Mook if he screws up.
- "You have failed me for the last time - you are fired!"
- Stellof actually set up the mook for failure and killed him, because the mook was really The Mole and Stellof did not want anyone to know there was one in the organization.
- Stellof angrily shouts "You have failed me!" at the mook- then tells him to take a day off, get some rest, and try harder tomorrow.
- Stellof decides that the mook's talents lie elsewhere, so he reassigns him to a position where he can be more useful.
- Stellof confronts the mook who failed him—and cites Hypercompetence on the part of The Hero rather than incompetence on the part of the mook as the most likely reason for the failure.
- Stellof is about to execute the mook, but when they accept responsibility for their actions, he decides to spare them.
- Stellof points his gun at the mook, but then says "You're lucky I still need you..."
- The Mook is afraid of this happening, but Stellof is reasonable enough to explain that his mistake was not harsh enough to merit execution and that future minor ones won't, either.
- Stellof threatens a minion with death if he screws up again. Then the heroes kill said minion, and Stellof doesn't have to do the honors.
- Double Subverted:
- Stellof is informed that one of his Mooks has failed his task to capture a hero. Stellof draws out a gun and points at Mook, saying "You promise me that you won't do that again," the Mook says "I promise" but Stellof still shoots him.
- Stellof initially looks like he's about to kill the Mook for failing him, but proceeds to kill one of the Mook's immediate subordinates. The subordinate Mook was the one actually to blame, however.
- But the mook's car blows up as soon as he turns the key.
- The mook initially accepts blame, but tries to pass it on to other parties. Stellof decides to kill them anyway.
- Stellof appears to spare the mook... before having his right-hand man kill the mook in his stead.
- The heroes are hyper-competent, but the Mook left behind a clue, no matter how insignificant or how absurdly and utterly contrived. The Mook is still to blame, somehow.
- Stellof still makes clear that any future mistakes, if they get to the level of "potential threat to the cause", will become "the end of the [Mook's] world".
- Parodied:
- Stellof goes to a restaurant where the waiter gives him the wrong order, so Stellof tells him "You have failed me" and kills him.
- Stellof gives all of his Mooks punchcards with ten spaces, each time they fail a mission a space is punched out, after ten failures they are executed.
- Combined with Exaggerated: Stellof introduces a new hiring policy where he just shoots potential employees first in order to save time.
- Zig Zagged: Stellof tells the mook he has failed and draw his gun. He tells the mook not to let it happen again, turns to the man who hires mooks and shoots him for hiring incompetent staff.
- Averted: Stellof's Mook has failed his task but Stellof just berates him without physical threats.
- Enforced: "We have to make sure everybody knows Stellof is evil, so let's have him be just as evil to his followers as he is to his opponents."
- Lampshaded:
- "That guy killed his own minion. If he keeps that up, he'll destroy his forces for us!"
- "I assume that he fails to complete the mission, he'll be testing the death ray." "Naturally."
- "Will one of you get something right for a change?! I'm running out of personel here!"
- Invoked: The Genre Savvy hero knows that he can't take out the Mook by himself, so he makes sure that the Mook at least fails to capture him so Stellof would kill the Mook.
- Exploited: A rebel joins them and fails deliberately. He has powerful explosives hidden on him. Killing him causes Stellof to die in the blast as well.
- Defied:
- The Mook, knowing that he has failed his task and what Stellof would do to him after that, abandons everything related to Stellof.
- When one of his advisers suggests "making an example" of the Mook, Stellof refuses, saying it's not a gentlemanly thing to do.
- Stellof is not overeager about executing his mooks, reserving it for the more egregious failures. Combined with the fact that he's actually pretty nice when his men are competent, this means his soldiers are highly motivated to succeed.
- Stellof refuses to kill the Mook because if he starts killing all his men for failures, he'll eventually run out.
- Discussed:
- "We can't go back without the MacGuffin! He'll go 'You have failed me for the last time!' and throw us in the shark tank!
- Two members of a rival organization discuss why the agent they sent to infiltrate Stellof's organization was killed, and note that Stellof has a tendency kill members of his organization whether they are loyal or not.
- Conversed: "Hey Stellof, I've been watching this show where this boss guy called Alkor kills off anyone who does anything wrong. You gotta wonder how he finds any new hires with that policy."
- Implied: Stellof orders the offending Mook into his office to explain his failure. The sound-proof door closes behind him. When it opens again, only Stellof comes out.
- Deconstructed:
- Same as Defied. Stellof becomes powerless since he has killed the best of his minions and others are turning against him and performing Heel Face Turns in fear of getting killed by him.
- The remainder of Stellof's (less competent) officers and minions begin covering up their mistakes and making false reports out of fear of suffering the same fate. This comes back to bite Stellof in the ass when he overestimates his position...
- Stellof ends up doing this perpetually, lowering morale and costing him potential recruits, since his minions are never given the chance to learn from their mistakes.
- Stellof winds up killing all of his subordinates.
- Stellof ends up getting himself executed by Marduk, who despised Stellof for callously wasting his supply of minions.
- In a moment of frustration and anger, Stellof kills one of his subordinates. Unfortunately, this particular minion had an very important skill that Stellof's plan was very dependent on (i.e. a getaway driver and/or computer hacker). Because of this, Stellof makes himself a sitting duck for the authorities, who easily surround, overpower, and arrest him.
- Reconstructed: Stellof only executes his minions for mistakes that were the result of gross incompetence, not of simple misfortune.
- Played For Laughs: Stellof has made an Instructional Film on how to tell if a Mook has made mistakes, and how they should kill them to set an example for the others.
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