And Your Little Dog, Too!

When the villain threatens or targets an innocent for the sole purpose of showing how evil he is, and that innocent just happens to be something the hero cares a lot about — which justifies the hero kicking butt over it. A hero, for the most part, is not supposed to care what happens to themselves. However, once the villain has threatened that one thing that the hero must protect, they will commit to opposing the villain. Whether it's a typical Friendly Target like the Love Interest, the hero's hometown, or the hero's family, once the villain has found a hero's "weak point", nothing less than his complete destruction will get him to leave the hero's world alone — even when attacking this "weak point" consistently brings the hero down on his head with more than the usual enthusiasm. Sometimes there's a particular reason for this obsession, such as Blackmail, vengeance or some other Offer The Hero Can't Refuse, but for the most part, it's a plot device used by the writer to get the hero involved. Beware. If the hero attempts Refusal of the Call despite this, they will be punished because The Call Knows Where [They] Live. Typically crosses over with Your Little Dismissive Diminutive and I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure. Targeted to Hurt the Hero is a more general case where the targeting is not just done to be petty. Compare Kick the Dog, for a more proactive villain; and Bad People Abuse Animals, for when it's LITERALLY a dog. Compare and contrast Revenge by Proxy (where the villain is doing this sort of thing for the sake of retaliation). See Even Mooks Have Loved Ones for when it's done to a minion. When used to top off some other unspeakably evil acts, some (arguably heartless) people may view this as a case of Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking.