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Aquaman: If I had discovered Black Manta was a part of something like this...
Flash: Right? How can we ensure any kind of justice if criminals are being given a hall pass?
~ A conversation between the Justice League regarding how their enemies can escape punishment by being enlisted into the Suicide Squad.
That's right, I committed the crime, but I'm not the one who gets punished... because I'm a winner.
~ Mai Mashiro

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 and Joker from The LEGO Batman Movie.
  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 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 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, 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, and Mothiva from Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling.
  5. The villain outright wins or has a very high chance of winning at the end of the story, defeating the hero (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, Mai Mashiro in Dead Tube, Shao Kahn in the Original Timeline, Audrey II in the most common ending of Little Shop of Horrors, Mary Shaw in Dead Silence, Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street 2010, Gao Qiu in The Water Margin, Foxy Loxy from Chicken Little, Noah Cross from Chinatown, Invictus from Final Space, Rustal Elion in Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS, the Fruit Winders Gang in all of their comic strips, Bagul in Sinister, the incarnation of the Joker from Suicide Squad and Stem in the ending of Upgrade. However, this does not count when they do 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 entire 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 dealing with Bard's escape, being put in his place and realizing he has no power in Dale in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Alexis Hall presumably killed Freddy in The Nightmare Room.
  6. The villain is more of a jerk and thus many don't see the need to punish them (in general, they punish themselves). These kinds of villains are usually from 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 and Mrs. Hattie from Despicable Me.
  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. Examples: Idi Amin from The Last King of Scotland, Doc Hopper from The Muppet Movie, Puffy Fluffy from Spongebob Squarepants, Mind Flayer from Stranger Things, Dr. Wily from Mega Man, Mina Loveberry from Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Miss Gribben from Cracks, Leland Gaunt from Needful Things, Agatha Trunchbull from Matilda, Valentina from Super Mario and Mark Beaks from DuckTales.

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 if their redemption seems forced. However, they might count if they were redeemed even after they crossed the moral event horizon.
  • 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, Oh Il-nam, The Once-ler's Mother, King Fritz, King Edward, 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 and Tord), or if their Karma Houdini is status dependent on version where they escape punishment in one ending but are defeated in another (e.g. Napoleon, Audrey II and The Coachman)
    • 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, 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 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, Viktor Zakhaev, Decagrammaton and Ragyō Kiryūin), they instead go under Suicidal or Cowards.
  • Villains who are 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).
  • Villains who lose their memories/get their personalities rewritten may count as Karma Houdinis if they don't receive any comeuppance for their actions (e.g Raiden the Moon King and Pride).
  • 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 and 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.
  • 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).
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • If a villain has or is yet to appear in an ongoing story arc (e.g. Front Man, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Shin Hati, Baylan Skoll), you must 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. The only exceptions are if they redeem themselves, become scapegoats, and/or appear in a series with no overarching narrative.

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