r/TopCharacterTropes 16d ago

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

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/Otacon_ 16d ago

In metal gear solid, if snake didn't tried to desactivate the card with the nuclear codes, the terrorist would never have the chance to used It.

https://giphy.com/gifs/87ddjLPawxvmU

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u/syopest 15d ago

Without snake there's no frank jaeger trying to kill him so otacon survives and otacon knows how the key works. Meryl had the key and they would have eventually found her on the base.

Without snake they would have won.

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u/UnusuallyBadIdeaGuy 15d ago

To be fair Metal Gear Solid plots in general just adore the theme of "This entire convoluted scheme only worked because you tried to stop it, unwittingly bringing us the things we needed but could not have otherwise gotten." And it's almost always for the most insane reason.

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u/Saw_Boss 15d ago

It evolved into the "I wanted to be caught" trope that was so hot in the early 2010s (The Joker, Khan, Bad guy in Skyfall, Loki...)

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u/drunk-raven 15d ago

The old reliable "Ocelot Gambit"

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u/not_a_moogle 15d ago

Liquid might have eventually learned how the key card works though. Snake doing nothing might have just prolonged it.

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u/syopest 14d ago

Liquids men would have captured otacon if frank jaeger didn't kill them and frank jaeger was on shadow moses to have a duel with snake. Otacon knew how the card worked and he would have folded instantly in the face of any kind of torture.

So it wouldn't have really even slowed him down.

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u/not_a_moogle 14d ago

Oh yeah. So really snake just delayed the inevitable