Karma Houdini

A Karma Houdini is a villain who is never punished (or is insufficiently punished) for their evil actions. As such, when the story is over, this villain is not really defeated; the villain remains in position where they can continue their misdeeds, either towards the protagonists or a new target or, in the most extreme cases, is still as much of a threat as they were before, or even worse.

This also concerns corporations, species, organizations, or teams that are not disbanded at the very end of the story, thus they are still able to pose a threat even if some of their majors or agents were killed or imprisoned (e.g. Dead Tube).

A Karma Houdini happens when:

1. The villain is thwarted but not aptly punished in the resolution. This often happens when a villain is simply humiliated or harmed in a comical manner, but only faces a temporary punishment when they deserve worse, not enough to prevent them from striking again in the next episode, season or installment. Examples: Meredith Blake from The Parent Trap, Lulu from DC League of Super-Pets and Scarlett 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 was caused by a villain is more important than going after the villain themself. Sometimes this is done to set up a sequel, or at least leave the story open for one. Examples of this include Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget 2, Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Miss Power from WordGirl, Scarecrow from The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Underminer from Incredibles 2, J from Murder Drones, The Front Man from Squid Game, Joker from The LEGO Batman Movie, Tabaqui from Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and Julian Dillinger from Tron: Ares after his plans have been foiled the police have come to apprehend him for his heinous crimes, but he chose escape into the Dillinger Grid to avoid arrest, ends up assuming his new identity as Sark and plans on becoming it's ruler.
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, but this is not always the case. Examples: Honest John Worthington Foulfellow, Gideon, Stromboli and the Coachman in Disney's Pinocchio, Neil Hargrove from Stranger Things, Scratcher from Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, Sugimura from Persona 5, Lao Che and Kao Kan from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Bomb Voyage from The Incredibles, DJ from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, School Mystery No.6 in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, Ryuk from Death Note, Death from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Poppy's Killer from Married... With Children, Twist from Slugterra and Black Suit from Blue Archive.
4. The villain is forgiven at the last second, without being truly redeemed. These villains spend the story causing strife, but when the conflict is over, the protagonists do not bear them any ill will, and in some case welcome them into their group of friends. They do stop doing evil, but never apologize and do not display any intention to bettering themselves, and their misdeeds are swept under the rug. Examples: The Misfits in Jem and the Holograms, Wakamo Kosaka in Blue Archive, Lord Dominator from Wander Over Yonder, Isabela Keyes from Dead Rising, Cornelia li Britannia from Code Geass and Mothiva from Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. Other examples include Amhuluk, who submits to Godzilla, though it’s currently unknown whether not Amhuluk has truly redeemed.
5. The villain outright wins or has a very high chance of winning at the end of the story, defeating the hero (and/or other villains) 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 stories. Examples: The Kanker Sisters from Ed, Edd n Eddy, Gil Yepes in The Prodigies, Mai Mashiro in Dead Tube, the Lizard Leader and Blue from Fritz the Cat, Audrey II in the original ending of Little Shop of Horrors, Mary Shaw in Dead Silence, Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, the Singularity from MrSpherical, Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Gao Qiu in The Water Margin, Foxy Loxy from Chicken Little, Noah Cross from Chinatown, Rustal Elion in Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS, the Fruit Winders Gang in all of their comic strips, Bagul in Sinister, Scarlet Witch/The Red Queen in Marvel Zombies, the DCEU incarnation of the Joker from Suicide Squad, Stem in Upgrade, Oh Il-nam in Squid Game, The Smile Entity in Smile and Ai Magase in Babylon. However, this does not count for villains who succeed early on in the story, but then get their just desserts in the sequel/final installment. Examples include Emperor Palpatine crushing the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith but being obliterated in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Lord Voldemort conquering the Ministry of Magic and procuring the Elder Wand in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 but being destroyed and the Ministry falling into good hands in the sequel, Thanos slaughtering half of the universe's population in Avengers: Infinity War but being killed in Avengers: Endgame, Dodge winning against the Lockes in the first season of Locke & Key but losing to them in the second, and Alfrid Lickspittle successfully detaining Bard and enabling the unleashing of Smaug in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug but then dealing with Bard's escape, being put in his place and (extended cut only) dying in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and Alexis Hall presumably killing Freddy in The Nightmare Room.
6. The villain is too bog-standard in their villainy and is more of an unsympathetic jerk, a mischievous troublemaker or an incompetent villain wannabe than an extremely problematic evil figure and thus many don't see the need to punish them (in general, they punish themselves). These kinds of villains are usually from genres with little to no tension like sitcoms, children's cartoons or even racing films (if the protagonist wins) and thus are not really threats. Because of this, many heroes simply let the villain do what they want as long as they don't cause too much harm. Examples: Chick Hicks from Cars, Prince Achmed from Aladdin, Princess Morbucks from The Powerpuff Girls 2016 reboot, Jessica Gordon form The Epic Tales of Captain Underpats, Camp Bullies from Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, and Mrs. Hattie, Sensei O'Sullivan and Melora from the Despicable Me franchise.
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 and often given the chance to come back and cause further harm or continue their villainy somewhere else. Examples: Idi Amin from The Last King of Scotland, Doc Hopper from The Muppet Movie, Puffy Fluffy from Spongebob Squarepants, Tara Ribble, Edith Anthrope and Riles Rected form the Captain Underpants series, Mind Flayer from Stranger Things, Eris from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Dr. Wily from Mega Man, Mina Loveberry from Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Leland Gaunt from Needful Things, Agatha Trunchbull from Matilda, Valentina from Super Mario, Mark Beaks from DuckTales and Priscilla from Claymore (anime only).

However, in some cases, not all Karma Houdinis are meant to be hateable, taken seriously and/or always evil. Some can have reasonable motives for their actions or are genuinly nice people (e.g. Henry Stickmin and Hawk Moth). Some can even be remorseful, mischievous, anti-villains, or extremists (e.g. most Trevor Henderson villains, David 8, Honest John Worthington Foulfellow, Ada Wong and Gideon).

However, in the worst case scenario, some Karma Houdinis can be Pure Evil (e.g. Frieza, Art the Clown, Chucky, Anton Chigurh, Noah Cross, Pinocchio, Cipher, Nyarlathotep, Old Whateley, The Rake (2018), Rasmin Yelkov, Edwin Epps, Warren T. Rat, Lockdown, the Doctor, Daniel Barton, Mary Shaw, the Coachman, Freddy Krueger (remake), Two-Toed Tom, Olhydra, Evolt, Ai Magase, the Clown, Slender Man, the Water Street Butcher, Stem, Josh, the Nazi Officer, and General Marder). These types of Karma Houdinis (and very well being the most infamous examples of all), should they not get punished for their actions, will usually have the story, novel and/or series lead to a sad or bad ending in the story.

Important Notes[]

• By definition, a Karma Houdini is the strict opposite of a Scapegoat. Therefore, the two categories cannot overlap.
• Redeemed villains can never qualify as Karma Houdinis as they have faced redemption and have no reason to be punished, regardless of whether or not their redemption seems forced (e.g. Orochimaru and Spectra Phantom).
• Deceased and Presumed Deceased villains usually do not count as Karma Houdinis; the only way for a dead or presumed dead character to count is if the death/presumed death happens because of natural causes and not because someone killed them (e.g. Solomon Goode, Former Head Trancy, Sozin, Pharaoh Seti I, Donald Love, Warren T. Rat, Jon Gravelli, Vito Corleone, Oh Il-nam, Samson's Father, The Once-ler's Mother, Cruelius Sneezer, King Fritz, King Edward, Joseph Sugarman, Logan Roy, Ekrizdis, Aggie, Perseus, Gao Qiu, Nefretiri, King Barlowe and Captain Flint), if they are more likely to have survived and escaped rather than actually died (e.g. Rasmin Yelkov, Admiral Razorbeard, and Tord), or if their Karma Houdini is status dependent on version where they escape punishment in the ending of one version but are defeated in another (e.g. Napoleon, Director Kakuzawa and Audrey II).
  • Undead villains who were killed, but returned and continue to commit atrocities without punishment may also qualify in certain circumstances (e.g. Hatbox Ghost).
    • This also applies to villains who were slain but were completely brought back to life and escaped punishment as well. (e.g. Frieza, Chucky, Slade, and Evolt).
  • This also goes for Damned Souls as by there them being damned means that they are dead, even in the rare cases in which the damned villain is not dead the damnation is always sufficient enough punishment to be considered a damnation, to begin with.
• Regardless of how painless their imprisonment, Imprisoned villains do not count as they are unable to pose a real threat (outside their confinement). Of course, former inmates who successfully escape imprisonment can count (e.g. Azula, James Earl Cash, Randall Boggs, Feathers McGraw, Benjamin Krupp, Kenny Brian Meaner, and Dick Dastardly).
• Villains whose status is dependent upon player choice cannot qualify unless they do not receive punishment for their actions in any possible ending of the game (e.g. Richard Perkins).
• Villains who took their own lives CANNOT count even if they try to or managed to escape punishment (e.g. Andre and Cal, Samuel Norton, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, Junko Enoshima, Viktor Zakhaev, Decagrammaton, Connie DiMico, Jimmy, and Ragyō Kiryūin), they instead go under Suicidal or Cowards.
• Villains who were killed by another villain or a neutral character before they could be punished by the heroes CANNOT count even if they didn't get caught by a more powerful character that is a villain or neutral (e.g. Yashiro's Brother who was killed by Yashiro himself and Zam Wesell who was killed by Jango Fett to cover his tracks).
• Villains in cancelled media can count if the story prematurely ends without them being punished such as: Ralph Bakshi's Saruman due to the second half of The Lord of the Rings never being adapted in his continuity, Green Goblin from The Spectacular Spider-Man as he boarded a plane to Europe after tricking Spider-Man into thinking he died in the season 2 finale, hinting he could have returned in a third season, and Invictus from Final Space who was last seen escaping from its prison at the end of season three, upon which the show was cancelled by the network at what creator Olan Rogers insists was only half of the story.
• Villains who were defeated without getting killed or imprisoned doesn't always necessarily mean they are Karma Houdinis. If their humiliation is warranted enough because they lost to the heroes and are no longer perceived as a threat, then they do not count as Karma Houdinis (even if they are Pure Evil). (e.g. Ercole Visconti, Ripslinger, Mad Dog, Nicholas Capa, Thumper, Chloé Bourgeois, Courtney Gears, Odalia Blight, Gilbert Huph, Al McWhiggin and Clay Puppington).
  • Furthermore, if villains decide to spare the heroes, or other villains, out of pure honor and without harming them any further, they cannot fall under Karma Houdinis (and they don't necessarily fall under Redeemed either if the villains choose to not redeem themselves but still retain their nicer side). BUT, if they only spared them more out of pragmatic reasons, they can count as such.
• If a villain has or is yet to appear in an ongoing story arc (e.g. One, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Shin Hati, Baylan Skoll and Tyler Galpin), it is best to wait until said story arcs are over to add this category in because chances are they may get punished for their actions in the middle of them. In fact, they might even redeem themselves or become scapegoats. The only exceptions are if they have already died of natural causes and/or appear in a series with no overarching narrative.
• Real-life Wrestlers in the WWE universe can NEVER be Karma Houdinis; no matter how bad their actions are, they're purely scripted and therefore do not count as such for any reason.
• Villains by Proxy can fall under this category if villains never had any desire to be truly evil, but also do not wish to redeem themselves and instead escape with no given punishment.
• Whether these villains are truly affable or not, they can still fall under this category, no matter how truly nice they are or whether they feign their niceness to the heroes.