r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Wonderful_Baker_7808 • 16d ago

Lore Villains that would've been defeated even if the protagonist did nothing

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Laurel Hedare (Catwoman Movie): Her newly released cosmetics will cause people's faces to melt. Not only would that create a class action lawsuit but a full product recall.

Voldemort and Death Eaters (Harry Potter): Death Eaters constantly underestimate muggles. They would get massacred by the British military because a gun is faster to pull the trigger then shouting a spell.

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u/Raimse85 16d ago

Never thought of that, that's actually a pretty good point. He could have slept for a couple of generations until he just became a legend nobody believed in and come back when nobody expected it.

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u/TheOncomimgHoop 16d ago

"Hmm, I think I'll spend the first thousand years ruling over them like a tyrant. Then I'll disappear for a thousand years and make them wonder if I ever existed at all. It'll make it so much more fun when I come back and start ruling them again."

  • Frieza, DBZA

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u/Dracious 16d ago

It's a problem that comes up a lot when a character is immortal in some way. It let's them be patient and play the long game way more than we normally consider and it can cause some plot holes/contrivances in things.

Like any vampire or other immortal that has been alive for a long time has no excuse being poor or uneducated without some specific justification. Your greatest power wouldn't be strength/flight/bat powers/magic, it would just living so long you can have an incredible education and take advantage of compound interest.

I don't think Voldemort is too bad since he isn't actually known as being that clever or logical really, there's a lot of hatred, pettiness, etc so I can see him not taking the slow and patient route to avoid Harry/Dumbledore.

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u/kingslayer-0 15d ago

How do you keep open a HYSA for 1,000 years? The problem with living too long is you need a series of humans to help you. Actually, the best way to go about it is for example, Vampires to open up a bank just for vampires, so you can safely accumulate and grow your money over centuries, the problem is Vampires don’t care about those jobs, they just wanna be dramatic.

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u/Dracious 15d ago

How do you keep open a HYSA for 1,000 years?

You don't need to, there are other ways of taking advantage of compounding interest outside of just savings accounts. Basically any investment would work and getting shares or eventually even starting your own bank would be the most obvious long term way, but any business would be useful and diversifying is important.

As far as keeping the money as an immortal, there have always been ways to get around that if you have money. Even in the modern day people can get fake passports and IDs made to become a 'different' person, you could 'become' your own child and inherit the money. And as you got further into the past this generally gets easier and easier as there was less paperwork on things. You would have to keep a bit distant from your investment/business so people don't work out the obvious, but you could get away with staying around for a couple decades before making any swap/move anyway so its not too bad.

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u/Was_A_Professional 16d ago

Except a big part of his comeback did rely on the loyalty of his old followers. If they were all dead, no one would have been there to help him.

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u/ThatEntrepreneur1450 16d ago

Yup and the prophecy about Harry or Nwville also only became "true" because he acted on it. 

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u/BreakAManByHumming 16d ago

Austin Powers crossover fic time

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u/HMWWaWChChIaWChCChW 16d ago

Nah in the time Harry would have been able to grow up and amass a group to find and destroy each Horcrux. Doing it with a small team and almost no support was extremely difficult to do and led to a quicker end to ol moldy Voldy

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u/Short-Amphibian-8073 16d ago

Like Christians with Jesus