Bad Guy Cliches

A list of time honoured cliches that bad guys use to get the jump on their enemies.
On
October 03, 2007
Come on people admit it. Cliches that the bad guys use to get the jump on their enemies it's a time honoured tradition in most cartoons. Jumping the good guys when they can't defend themselves, beating the good guys up, even destroying the good guys completely are all time honoured cliches that bad guys have used in order to get the jump on their enemies.

The following is a list of bad guy cliches that are some of my personal favourites.

1. The Beat Down.




Here we have Crasher who is clearly at a better height advantage than Small Foot. We know that the beat down comes on the coat tails of Crasher grabbing Small Foot's grappling hook and reeling her in like a fish on a fishing line.


Ahh yes here's one of my personal favourite bad guy cliches. There's nothing like a good old fashioned good guy beat down where however many badies are seen beating up the friendlies and leave them foredead.

2. The Ambush.



Buggyman, Crasher, and Flytrap are ready to ambush Small Foot, Scooter, and the kids. Only Leader-1, Turbo, and the power suits can save them now.


This time honoured bad guy cliche involves 3 or more bad guys beating up or shooting up fewer than 1 good guy and vice versa.


3. The Emotionally Manipulative Bad Guy aka The Emotional Screw Job.




Ever the good emotional manipulator Crasher boards the Guardian command center to retrieve the Master Renegade who only seconds ago shot and parylized Small Foot. She declared it to be "such a waste to leave without doing any further damage to the Guardians."


This was used a lot by Megatron against Optimus Prime in Transformers Cybertron. Make your enemy loose sight of what's most important to him by laying down a good emotional screw job.
However, the queen of all of the emotionally manipulative bad guys or should I say bad girls is Crasher whom almost always had an emotionally manipulative thing to say.



To quote Crasher from Fall Of Gobotron: "Very noble dear but they won't do it. Guardians are such goody goodies"


4. The Backshoot




The backshoot usually involves a bad guy actually using a weapon and shooting the good guy when his/her back is turned. In this particular case Leader-1 is an unknowing target of Cy-Kill's new weapons and ammo.


This cliche is quite self-explanatory but I'll explain it as best as I can. The bad guy gets the good guy while his/her back is turned.

5. The Frontshoot.



Here we see Crasher and Small Foot are engaged in a battle. Crasher intends to win this battle of the brawny vs the scrawny but only because the angle Small Foot is at makes it exceedingly difficult for this laser toting mama to defend herself.


It's pretty much the same deal as the backshoot bad guy cliche except they shoot the good guy from the front instead of from the back.

6. Pick On An Enemy Who's Easy Prey.



Scorp, Pincher, and Vamp see their prey dead ahead



Of course Guardians who knowingly put themselves in harm's way by travelling together in groups of four are usually better targets than Guardians who fly solo.


Yes most of the times in bad guy cliches you get a bad guy who almost always picks on someone who's smaller/weaker than he/she is.

7. The Squeeze and Lift



Enemy grasped and taken in three "Scooter! Are you alright?"?



two.... "I'll take Small Foot."



one, and there you have it; Cy-Kill's got Small Foot in less than 3 seconds! That's enough time for Small Foot to shout out "let go of me!" And people tell me that the likelihood of Leader-1 getting trounced upon happens very often but Small Foot getting trounced upon is a very common Renegade activity.



This is a very time honoured bad guy cliche in which any enemy no matter what his/her physical stature is squeezed by some part of their body, usually the shoulders, and lifted up off the ground with his/her legs dangling in the air.

8. The Physical Obliteration



Who would have thought that tearing apart Optimus Prime's head would cause a rift in the time/space continum?

Apparantly Megatron was the one who figured out this time honored bad guy cliche.



And it's almost always the good guy who bares the brunt of this cliche.


This is a cliche in which several bad guys in a group will physically obliterate an enemy without a known reason/cause for his/her desire to destroy the good guys in one go.

9. Destruction With A Massively Destructive Weapon





This time honored cliche involves using a massively destructive weapon, in this case equipping Rouge Star and the Renegade's Thrusters with weapons that can take the enemy down in one go.


Massively destructive weapons are used by bad guys primarily to gain the upper-hand against the good guys. The use of a massively destructive weapon may not destroy an enemy completely but it can cause irrefutable damage to the one who was almost destroyed.

10. Kidnappings.










After Leader-1 was brought down by the Master Renegade's weapon Cy-Kill imediately sends Crasher to kidnap him.


This is another self-explanitory bad guy cliche in which the bad guy kidnaps the good guy and disappears with him/her.

11. The Hostage Crisis: A strong bad guy vs a weaker foe.



Small Foot is parylized on the floor of the Guardian Command Centre, that's Matt Hunter unconsious in the foreground, while the Master Renegade holds a gun to her forehead right inbetween her eyes. The danger to Small Foot is very real: don't move or I'll kill her. What amazes me here is that Small Foot managed to stay so calm while the Master Renegade has his gun pointed at her.


This bad guy cliche involves taking a weaker foe hostage and making the good guys do whatever it is the bad guy wants them to do.

12. The Bad Guy Who Divulges His/Her Plans



Here's Cy-Kill in the middle of divulging his plans for the Guardian power suits to Scooter. "Who cares? Now you're cut off from the outside world and once we have the power suits you Guardians are through. Throw him into a detention cell Crasher."


Any bad guy who has plans to destroy his/her home planet and then the universe usually involves divulging some of the bad guy's plans. Bad guys are usually so stupid when divulging his/her plans that he/she doesn't even realize just how much of his/her plans that he/she is divulging until the good guys destroy any and all hopes of universal domination.


13. The Overused Catch Phrase



Megatron has a commonly used catch phrase that he overuses. When he orders his troops to attack you'd better believe that they'd better listen to him or else.



Cobra Commander's signature battle cry is a little bit overused. I don't think G.I. Joe really cares who's coming to attack them because in the end Cobra is the one who runs scared.


A time honored tradition of any bad guy is to recite an overused catch phrase. Whether it's Cobra Commander shouting "COBRA" or Megatron shouting "ATTACK" an overused catch phrase can be used so often that sooner or later the enemy doesn't really care who you are.

14. Raiding of the enemy's ship/base that's supposed to be empty.



See Scooter is trying to take on Cy-Kill, Scorp, and Crasher by himself after being warned by Small Foot that it's not a good idea. It's also not a good idea to mouth off to three someones who are bigger than you.



Obviously Crasher doesn't see Scooter as a very big threat




Untill Scooter lets a wild blast loose



leaving he and Small Foot unable to communicate with the outside world.

There's another cliche that speaks for itself. The bad guys will go into an enemy base/ship under the assumption that the enemy has actually abandoned the base. In this case it's caused Scooter to get a little bit careless and allowed Cy-Kill to grab Small Foot.

15. A Vicious Interrogation.




Cy-Kill tries a vicious approach to make Small Foot open the energy grid that's protecting their powersuits but she claims that she doesn't know how to open the energy grid.


When good guys are away the bad guys will play. Cy-Kill is intending to steal the Gaurdian's powersuits from underneath their noses but first he viciously interrogates Small Foot by bringing her nose to nose with him. This was designed to make the defenseless Guardian open the energy grid that's protecting the suits.

Coming up in my next article my five most favourite bad guy cliches as personally chosen by me. C-Ya later.
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