Category:Karma Houdini

"The madness unleashed on Cambodia by Pol Pot and his colleagues will never be forgotten, but so far, it has gone unpunished."

- A historian explaining about Pol Pot dying without answering for his actions.

NOTE: No matter how painless the death or imprisonment is, deceased and imprisoned villains automatically do not count as karma houdinis. The only way for a dead character to count is if it is of natural causes.

A "Karma Houdini" is a villain who is rarely or never adequately punished for their evil actions by the end of a story, thus escaping justice and "pulling a Houdini" (disappearing) from the way of karma. But no matter how often this happens their karma eventually gets to them and a noticeable thing is that their punishments are worse than almost anyone else's, this is because their karma has been building up to the limit. Most scapegoats have eventually become karma houdinis, because of how much they suffer eventually covers up their actions in the future. Generally such an occurrence falls under one of seven types:


 * 1) The villain is defeated, but simply is not aptly punished in the resolution. This often happens when a villain is simply humiliated or harmed in a comical manner when the audience's impression is that they deserve worse. This also includes those whose punishment/comeuppance are less severe than what they did. (Examples: Darkrai from the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series and Sugar from Total Drama.)
 * 2) The villain makes an escape at the story's climax. Probably the most common type. Often the villain escapes while the heroes are preoccupied with some other danger (usually that they created), sometimes because in most stories preventing whatever disaster is caused by a villain is more important than going after them. Sometimes this is done to set up a sequel, or at least leave the story open for one. (Examples: Dr. Wily in every Megaman game, Cobra Commander in several G.I. Joe installments, and Xur from The Last Starfighter).
 * 3) The villain simply exits the story after performing their action, and is not encountered by the hero again. This usually occurs with minor antagonists (as opposed to central ones), as the most common scenario for this type of Karma Houdini is that the protagonist simply escapes the villain, who is not seen again because they are not relevant to the rest of the story (Examples: Honest John Foulfellow and The Coachman in Disney's Pinocchio, Scratcher from Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, Bomb Voyage from The Incredibles and Jangles from Inside Out)
 * 4) The villain quits being evil and is redeemed/forgiven. These villains are initially evil, but still show sympathy even after having crossed a Moral Event Horizon, or at least way too easily for the amount of harm they've already caused. (Examples: Funnybot, The Grinch, Sour Kangaroo.)
 * 5) The villain outright wins at the end of the story, defeating the hero and succeeding in all their evil plans. For extremely obvious reasons, this is by far the least common type and can reasonably be expected to occur only in the very darkest of stories, and is in fact very common in modern horror films. (Examples: Audrey II in the most common ending of Little Shop of Horrors, Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, Noah Cross from Chinatown, Mr. Hands from The Mr. Bill Show, Chick Hicks from Cars, and Bagul in Sinister).
 * 6) The villain is more of a jerk and thus many don't see the need to punish the villain.  These kinds of villains are usually from sitcoms or children's cartoons, and thus are not really threats.  Because of this, many heroes simply let the villain do what they want.  (Examples: Swiper, Peggy Hill, and Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory)
 * 7) The villain is ousted and/or exiled but not brought to justice. These villains are driven out by the hero or some other force of good but is not aptly defeated. (Examples: Idi Amin, Doc Hopper and Abigail Williams)
 * 8) The villain has yet to actually be defeated and punished as their story is still being told. Another common form of a Karma Houdini, these characters stories are not yet finished and the plot needs to keep them active and undefeated until the ending.(Examples: Ramsay Bolton and Master Xehanort)

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