I like to say that a lot of villains would probably beat our supposed heroes and walk away the victors if so many movies didn't require the villain to start talking about their motives or gloating about having captured our heroes during climactic moments. Why wouldn't you just take out your opposition right then instead of humoring them or massaging your ego? Haven't any of these people read Machiavelli's The Prince? (I doubt Machiavelli would appreciate all that senseless ego-stroking.)
People told us all about which villains should have known better after Redditor BigEditorial asked the online community,
"What villain could have won easily, but they f***ed it up?"
"He just shouldn't have had..."
"Syndrome from The Incredibles was actually a very intelligent villain. He just shouldn't have had a cape."
"Bane had broken..."
"Bane had broken Batman's back and could've easily killed him but let him live."
Why did he just walk away?
Oh, that's right, because the screenplay sucked. We're not even going to rant about what happened to Talia.
"He played himself."
"Scar. If you're so big and bad just kill the kid yourself, you already killed his dad, finish the job dude. He played himself."
Scar was so full of himself. He could have easily done it, but then again... hubris.
"Palpatine literally announced..."
"Palpatine literally announced he was back (to the entire galaxy) like 1 week before his fleet was ready to dominate them all. Why didn't he just wait 1 week? Nobody would have known he was even coming, they could never have stopped him."
You have to give those people adequate time to defend themselves, otherwise it won't be fair!
(Just kidding, the screenplay failed people there.)
"Without Vision..."
"Ultron really could have taken Vision's body. Twice he attempted the download and got over 50-60% in pretty quick time. There was no real need to disconnect himself just because the Avengers were in the area. Lock the door and finish it off.
Without Vision, they had no chance of winning."
"It's not until..."
"Sauron.
This is nothing against LOTR, this is an intentional character flaw, but the he couldn't even comprehend that someone might want to destroy the ring instead of using it. He was so sure that someone would try to weaponize the ring that Aragorn had only to show his face and Sauron goes "ah, he must have the ring!".
It's not until the very moment that the ring hits lava that he finally realizes how bad he f***** up, and he gets 30 seconds to think about how the last thousand years have all been an excruciating waste of time."
Poor Sauron.
He definitely got too big for his britches... erm... his robe?
"If he did that..."
"Voldemort. He decided to "hide" his Horcruxes in places that had significance to him. All he had to do was hide it at the bottom of the ocean, or bury it in some random forest, or put it in a volcano or something. If he did that, well then Harry and co would have had a tough time destroying them."
Yes, Voldemort, you were so easy to figure out in hindsight. Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you really should have just dumped those Horcruxes at the bottom of the ocean and never had to worry about anyone, let alone HARRY POTTER, figuring out their locations.
"One bullet..."
"Viggo Tarasov, the Russian from John Wick. Literally had him tied up dead to rights. One bullet to the brain would have ended the franchise at the first movie."
It's Hollywood, though. And what's Hollywood without unnecessary sequels?
"He literally just watched..."
"Count Dooku. He literally just watched as his master told Anakin to kill him, and didn't say anything. There were several long, long pauses!"
"He always managed..."
"Dick Dastardly in every episode of Wacky Races. He always managed to get out miles in front of all the other cars in order to lay his dastardly traps. But for some reason, he'd rather sit around and wait for everyone else to catch up in order to win by cheating, rather than just winning every single race as he would have done otherwise."
I think you all know what you need to do here: Demand that screenwriters do better. Honestly, they're just insulting our intelligence at this point.
Have some examples of your own? Feel free to tell us all about them in the comments below!
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.