A standard subversion of a Karma Houdini. This trope describes situations where a villain gets away with their crimes — but in another installment, they painfully discover when their luck runs out and the long-delayed punishment suddenly lands on them. A heroic guy may also suffer this trope when the consequences of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished catch up with him. Certain circumstances and actions can void the warranty, resulting in the vicious delayed retribution of Karma, related phenomena, and even their own mistakes: They feel sorry for their actions but fail to fix things. They suffer at the hands of someone who is a bigger bastard than they are. A Nice Guy character attempts to help them, but it ends very badly for them, while the nice guy themself emerges unscathed because of Idiot Houdini. A new member joins the heroes and unlike his teammates lacks the usual moral scruples of his peers and is willing to use harder, even lethal measures. The plot undergoes Cerebus Syndrome and villains lose their Joker Immunity. They push their luck too many times and karma finally decides to step in. They convince themselves that they will never be caught, resulting in them finally catching the Villain Ball, sometimes several times. They are revealed to have been even more despicable than previously thought. If one of these conditions is met, the Karma from their previous actions returns in full force and everyone turns on them. This usually provides a Catharsis Factor by pulling the rug out from under the former Houdini. In this case, the Smug Snake, Villain with Good Publicity, Invincible Villain, Complete Monster, etc. realizes they're at someone's mercy and the villain that fans Love to Hate (or is just a Hate Sink) is finally punished. Both the characters and the audience turn the untouchable evil into a Butt-Monkey. Of course, Karma may get vindictive and make even minor blemishes seriously punished while good deeds are belittled. The expiration of a Karma Houdini Warranty may occasionally turn the character into The Woobie or a Jerkass Woobie for the audience... but this isn't the case in-universe. The other characters (and the author) usually believe that the character is getting their just deserts, and show No Sympathy. They might try to use a Freudian Excuse to justify their actions but get shut down quickly. If it is the first condition that is met, then it may be a case of Redemption Equals Affliction. Super-Trope to Belated Child Discipline. Compare Adaptational Karma, where a character who got away with their actions in the original work is given their comeuppance in the adaptation. Contrast Offscreen Karma, in which the character's karmic retribution is explicitly mentioned to have happened but isn't shown, often because it would be too complicated to provide details for or because it's (supposedly) more satisfying that the retribution reduces the Karma Houdini to a mere In-Universe footnote. Warning: because this trope requires someone initially be a Karma Houdini, which is a spoiler, all spoilers will be unmarked. The Karma Houdini Warranty is now available in our Trope Co. catalogue!